Come Holy Spirit, We Need You

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. The cry of my heart in this generation is, come Holy Spirit, we need you. Our nation is dying around us now, and we need you, Lord. We're not going to be able to make a difference without you. We need an empowerment of God's Holy Spirit and the willingness to be ridiculed by a lost world one more time.

So be it. Welcome to A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. Jesus revealed to His disciples that one day soon He must leave them. But He promised He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them forever. Since that time, every believer in Jesus Christ is given that same peace, courage, comfort, and guidance through the Holy Spirit. Let's join Carter right now as he takes us to Acts chapter 2 with his message titled, Come Holy Spirit, We Need You.

Acts chapter 2, that's where we're going to begin. I've entitled this sharing in God's Word, Come Holy Spirit, We Need You. It's the title of an old hymn, a song. Well, not an old one, but it was written not too long back. It's a song that we sung in church when I was a young believer in Christ.

I remember and sang it for many years. Just, Come Holy Spirit, we need you. We need your wisdom. We need your power.

We can't do this without you. Acts chapter 2, when the day of Pentecost was one had fully come, they were all with one accord and in one place. And is that not us today? We're all in this one accord as they were in that room, that there was a calling on their lives as the people of God of their generation. They were called to be witnesses of the resurrection of Christ, but they all knew they couldn't do it without the power of God, just as you and I do. If we're honest, if we're going to be reasonable, if we're going to be honest, if we're going to be honest, if we're going to be reasonable, we can't do this without God's power. We are promised a river of living water in Christ. We're promised this ability, abilities that are beyond us. We're promised giftings that can only come from God, words of wisdom, words of faith, words of knowledge, things that God alone can do through each of our lives.

We're promised these things for the sole purpose of bringing glory to the name of Jesus and reaching lost men and women and children in our generation. So here we are one more time. The church began in this room and I feel in my heart that we're ending up in this room in our generation. We're back in the upper room as it is one more time, recognizing that we need him. We can't do this without, he didn't send them straight from the cross.

He could have. Go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. He said, go and wait and tarry in this place until I come to you, until I give you my presence and my power, not just a concept of God, but the actual third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit of the living God. He says, I'm going to come take up my residence inside of you. I'm going to lift you out of your weakness and into the strength of God. We're going to walk together.

May I put it this way? And I'm going to do through you what only I can do. You can't do this, but I will do it through you. I will give you abilities you don't naturally have.

I'll give you giftings that are not your own. I'll take you places that you can't go and I'll make you into what you could never be. If you will yield to me, if you will yield for my purposes for your life, I will do through you what only I can do. And when they were in this one accord and in this one place, the one accord is that we want to live for God. We're all in one place. We can't live for God without God.

It's really that simple. Remember the besetting sin that Satan sowed into humanity in the Garden of Eden is that you can be as God is without God. Remember that, right? So fast forward from the Garden of Eden. Humankind gave it its best try under the law and through the Old Testament to be godly without God. And it just ended up in this hypocritical religious system that actually hated God and crucified his son when he came. So now here we are again. And the people finally came to their senses and said, we can't be godly without God.

So here we are in one accord and in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as if a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire and sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues. Now the other tongues were known languages in their day.

There was nobody there just babbling into the wind. They were actually speaking languages that other people of other cultures knew. It would be like you and I being filled with the Holy Spirit and you speak Arabic and you speak Italian, you start speaking French.

Technically what happened? They were speaking known languages. And in these languages, which they had never learned, they were speaking of the marvelous in the Greek, it says the megaliths of God, the marvelous works of God, these wonderful and anticipated outworkings of the inward presence of Christ now in each of their lives.

And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled saying one to another, look, are not all these who speak Galileans? How is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born?

How are they doing this? Where did this power to speak to us about the wonderful works of God come from? Then it goes on to list all of the languages. Verse 11 says, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God. So they were all amazed and perplexed saying one to another, whatever could this mean? Others mocking said they are full of new wine. So there'll always be mockers. When God is doing something that only God can do, there will always be unregenerate people who mock it. So don't expect that suddenly you're going to be empowered by the Spirit of God and everybody's going to love you and say how wonderful you now are.

Some people are going to mock you. They said basically they're all drunk. I mean, that explains what they're doing. But Peter, standing up with the 11, raised his voice and said to the men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words.

For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. I love the original King James where he says, this is that which was spoken. Would you agree with me we need another this is that moment in history where we can say this is that? He's actually pointing at people.

That would be phenomenal for you and I to be able to stand before our work colleagues or wherever it is that we have to go and say this is that. You're looking at that which God promised. This is that.

That's what he was saying. This is God doing what God said he was going to do in the last days. It shall come to pass in the last days. Now, the last days began on the day of Pentecost. And as you read through this, it's going to culminate in a sense with the return of Christ. So we have been in the last days since the day of Pentecost and we are in the last days and quite possibly in the last of the last of the last days in our generation.

We're certainly closer to the last day than they were 2000 years ago. It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my men servants and my maid servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above, signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord, which is the return of Jesus Christ. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now the question on my heart is knowing this is God's pattern, knowing this is the way that God works, what hinders us from calling out again for what we obviously need in our time.

What hinders us? Why would we draw back from this? For what conceivable reason would we talk ourselves out of the power of God that is promised to each of our lives in the last days, the last days which we are now living in, which we have been living in since the day that Peter stood up and spoke these words and then let it into the day when the sun will be dark and the moon will turn into blood. There'll be blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The awesome day of the coming of the Lord will follow these things. And he says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So for what reasons would we not call out for what we need?

I want to talk about three things then share a bit of my story. Number one is the fear that God will not answer us. You know, some people's faith is hanging by such a thread. I actually remember somebody saying that one time, if I ask God for this and he doesn't give it to me, how can I trust him then for anything else? And it's like, I found this little thimble of faith and I'm hanging on to it and I don't want to ask for anything bigger because if he doesn't do it in my life, then how can I know he's real? I'm going to lose my confidence in him. And so I would rather live here with this little piece of faith that I have than trust him for something bigger, lest he should not answer me.

And the core, the root cause of that is fear. Jesus said in Luke chapter 11 verses 9 to 13, so I say to you ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be open to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?

Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? And then he says these words, if you then being evil, that is in contrast to God, realistically, we're so other than God is. And so he just describes us as we are. He said, if you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? If we ask him for the right reason, if we seek him for the right reason, if we knock on heaven's door for the right reason, if we're looking for the power of God so that we can bring glory to the name of God in the earth, if we're seeking him as we teach here in our Bible school for the sake of others around us, that they too because of Christ in us can begin to know that there really is a God. He really does change people's lives.

He really does do the things. He stood in the temple in the days when he was reading the scripture and said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And then he gave all the reasons to preach to the poor, to set free the oppressed, to open prison doors, to give sight to the blind, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, to tell people this is the time, this is the season where you can be changed, you can be transformed, you can be free. If we are seeking the same Spirit of God for the same ministry, for the same reason, how much more, he says, will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? I want to challenge you not to be afraid to ask.

Don't be afraid. If you ask for the right reason, the Apostle James says, if you ask not just to consume it upon yourself, but for the reason that God wants to give it, you will receive what God promises to give you. And of course, Jesus himself said the words, if you know how to give gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

The second reason why we're hesitant to call out is in Hebrews chapter 11, speaking of Moses. And number one is it's indecision about leaving where we are for what God has for us. You know, a lot of people, they want to go to a service somewhere, they want to be touched by the presence of God.

They want to experience the presence of God's Holy Spirit, but they don't want to move from where they are. In other words, I want the blessing here. I want it now. I want it my way. I want it for my thing. I want it to make me happy.

I want it to, it's really a lot of just self-consumption. But when God's Holy Spirit comes upon you, suddenly, here's what happened to Moses. It says by faith in chapter 11 of Hebrews verse 24, by faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. So there's an immediate change of family, may I put it that way, immediate leaving of old associations. There's an immediate sense of I'm going with God no matter what that costs me, whether my family go or whether they stay, whether they love me or they don't, whether they think it's a great path or they think I'm a lunatic, I'm going with God.

I know what that feels like for quite a few years. I was in a very difficult relationship with my own family because of Christ and coming to Christ. Verse 25, it says, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, not just a new family, but a new path. If anyone is in Christ, it becomes what?

A new creation. That's a new family and a new pathway. A lot of people don't want to consider the new pathway that God has. They want their pathway.

They have their plan. They have their 10-year plan all laid out and they say, now I just need God to help me fulfill this. But that's not the way it works in the kingdom of God. When he comes, he leads. He doesn't come to bless our path. He comes to lead us onto his path, his will, wherever he would have us to go, what he would have us to do.

Verse 26 is, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. So he was adopted into a new family. He was led into a new path. He was given a new identification, no longer the son of Pharaoh's daughter and all that came with it. But now he was really just a shepherd, called of God to lead people out of captivity and into freedom. And he was given a new place to dwell. Certainly a lot less pleasant than the palace, wouldn't you agree?

A lot less, no accolades, no army, no political influence, no nothing. As a matter of fact, the pathway of God took him into a wilderness for 40 years. And after the wilderness experience, the pathway of God took him into a very hard ministry. It was never easy for Moses. It was a hard ministry.

It was a heartbreaking ministry, actually, at times, when he had to endure the failings of the people all around him who failed to understand who God is and how God works. But the last reason we're loath, in a sense, to ask for what we need is pride. It's really that simple. We want to be well thought of. We want to be well spoken of.

None of us want to have people say that you're all drunk, or you're a fool, or you're stupid. Don't you find it ironic that we care more about what people are going to hell for eternity think of us than what God says about us? We're suddenly very, very concerned about being rejected in the marketplace and by our co-workers and by people who are outside the kingdom of God. And so we try to kind of modify our behavior. We modify what we say.

We modify how we do it. Just trying to, because we just have this general need to fit in in a fallen society. But if Christ is calling, if Christ is giving us his Holy Spirit, we're not going to fit in that society. If the reproaches of Christ will fall upon us, as they would treat Christ, they will also treat you.

They will also treat me. But there's this inherent pride in all of us. And it says that Moses, he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in all of Egypt. And there's a point where we have to die to pride. There's a point where God says, I'll give you what you ask for, but the door is low. You go through on your knees. You don't go through standing erect going through that door.

You'll just hit your forehead on the door jen. It's only in a place of humility you're going to find this. Another cop, his name was Bob. He came to me at work and he said, Carter, I got permission from the church to go to the regional jail on, I forget what night it was. It was a weeknight in uniform to share Christ with the prisoners. And I said, Bob, I said, there was a riot there last month. There had been a riot. I said, if they riot again and we're in there in uniform, I said, you know, we're as good as dead.

He said, yeah, I know that. Are you coming or not? And I remember thinking, oh God, you didn't have to take me up on this so soon on my vow when I hit the wheel.

I'm going to serve you if it kills me. And so we headed out that night. We're going to the regional detention center it's called. And on the way there, he said to me, Carter, he said, I got a buddy. He said, he said, next, it's outlaws motorcycle gang. They call them Hell's Angels here in the United States.

They're all affiliated with one another. And he says, it's his one year spiritual birthday. And I just want to drop by and say happy birthday to him. I said, Bob, that is not possible. These guys, he can't be saved.

There's no way this guy can be saved. I said, you know, the initiation rights to get into these gangs and you know what they have to do. I said, you can't tell me that I don't believe it. And he said to me, well, come see, come see for yourself. So on the way to the jail, we stopped at this halfway house and this halfway house was heavy duty. These guys in this halfway house were heavy duty guys. They had done big time crime and they'd gotten out of jail and they're being re-instituted into society, you know, drawn back gradually because a lot of them had done a lot of time, but they all had found Christ in prison.

This is the amazing thing about it. So there's about, I don't know, 18 or 20 guys in this and they're real heavy duty guys, you know, and I knew even of some of them. And I remember walking in there in uniform and the director of the house says, hey, we're about to have a testimony service and a worship time.

Do you want to join us? And Bob says, hey, do you want to stay here instead of going to the jail? I said, sure, Bob, I'll stay just because it was safer to stay there than it was to go to the jail. So they started to worship and it was just amazing the worship in that place, the presence of God came down. Guys had tears coming down their faces and they were just so grateful for what Jesus had done for them. And when they began to testify, it was just amazing.

I mean, the stories of where they had come from and what Christ had done for them. And then finally the director turns to me and he said, would you like to share your testimony? And I just got up and said, I'm so grateful to be here tonight.

I said, I really don't have anything to say. And I sat back down. So when the meeting was over, these guys all gathered around me because it was kind of a curious thing to have a cop in uniform with a gun on him in this place. And they said to me, have you been filled with the Holy Spirit since you were saved?

And they said, but God not just will bring you to salvation through Christ, but he will give you a secondary power as it is of the Holy Spirit so you can live as a witness for him. And suddenly I found myself actually arguing against them. But in the back of my mind, I got this little voice saying, what are you talking about? You have no victory.

You know you can't witness to anybody. You remember punching the steering wheel. You know you're on this journey. So finally, one of the guys said, would you like us to pray for you? I remember thinking, and it was arrogant on my part, I was thinking, well, these guys need this. I mean, they need this.

I mean, they're all coming out of jail or going back in society. I'm a cop. I'm an upstanding, fine citizen. I've got the word of God. I don't need this.

And then this other voice is saying, oh, are you kidding? You know they're farther down the road than you are. They got more victory in their lives than you have in yours. Does this mean that I have to now be associated with these people? I mean, think it through, because I was concerned about what's the chief going to say. But I experienced everything I told you, the fear and decision and pride.

So finally, I said, okay, pray for me. I really believe it's pride in the human heart and says, I don't want to look like a fool. I don't want to be associated with people that are maybe considered on the lower scale of society. We don't want to be known as a friend of the poor.

We don't want to hang out with people that can't further our agenda. We don't want to be called foolish by people who are lost in this world. And so we back off and we just say, God, just give me your spirit, but let it be a very private thing. When the giving of God's Holy Spirit is a very public thing, it launches us into a ministry, which is God's ministry. It's God's intended purpose for our lives. Pray, God, fill me with your Holy Spirit. Give me your Holy Spirit for your reasons. Take me into the place, Lord, that you want me to go for the purpose that you have for my life. And we're living in a generation now where I think we've got to die to the fear, the indecision and the pride and say, God, I need your Holy Spirit. And I don't care if it lays me out on the floor.

I don't care if all my friends around me are people I'd never ever hang out with. Remember, they were given in the upper room the ability to speak to people of other cultures, other viewpoints, other languages, other places. I can honestly say God took me out of the box and I've been all over the world and I've actually lived to speak, to see these things. I've preached in Hindu Muslim prisons. I've been in places where only God could take you, given words that only God could give me. The Bible says He's not a respecter of persons.

It's not a selective gift He gives just to a few. Peter said, this is that, your sons and daughters, your young men, the old, the young, everyone, everyone who calls out in the name of the Lord will find Christ and know the power of God. The cry of my heart in this generation is, come Holy Spirit, we need you. We've tried to do church without you for years and years and years and years. We've done all these works in your name and many of them are good and I thank God for a lot of them, but ultimately our church, our nation is dying around us now and we need you Lord. We're not going to be able to make a difference without you.

It's, what we've done in the past is not going to work in the future. We need an empowerment of God's Holy Spirit and the willingness to be ridiculed by a lost world one more time. So be it, so be it, esteeming the reproach of Christ, a greater treasure than all the treasures of Egypt. That's where we have to go. The very place that Moses went, you and I have to go again and say, God, I don't care what people say about me. Let them laugh, let them call me a holy roller, let them call me a drunk at three in the afternoon.

I don't really care anymore. I want your Holy Spirit and I want your spirit for the purpose of reaching men, women and children for the cause of salvation in Jesus Christ. That's what it's all about. That's what I want my life to be. That's where I want to go. And I want to be able to say to the people that I speak to, that God is no respecter of persons and what he did for me, he will do for you. All you have to do is get up and ask and seek and knock and you let him do the rest in your life. you