Breaking the Spirit of Sodom

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. When Jesus would cast a demon out of somebody, generally they'd go down on the floor and writhe and growl and make all kinds of noise before they got free. Notice in these schools there's a lot of people on the ground making a lot of noise right now. It's almost like the devil is saying, I have this place. You're not going to take it from me.

This is mine. Oh, boy, I got news for the powers of darkness where I got news. Thank you for joining us today for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. In Genesis chapter 19, the Bible tells the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. These two cities were so wicked and evil that God had to completely destroy them. And in this week's message, Carter will teach how our world is heading down that same path. Here's Carter now with Breaking the Spirit of Sodom.

Now when I speak about Sodom, I'm talking about the power of deception that comes upon a people when they become disconnected from the one true and the living God. I don't think anybody can argue anymore that America is disconnected in this generation. We've lost touch with God. We have forgotten why we were established as a nation. We've driven the name of Jesus Christ that allowed this group of people in 400 years to prosper in an unprecedented way in history. And having received the blessings of God, now we want to push the name of Jesus Christ out of every facet in our society, and even mock those who hold to his name at this time.

Yes, the power of deception has come upon the nation. That's what I'm talking about when I speak about the spirit of Sodom. Now when we think of Sodom, we think of an increasingly lawless, violent, and confused society. That's what Paul the apostle says is going to happen in the last days. Perilous times will come, he says in 2 Timothy chapter 3. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.

Folks, reading this is like reading the news right now. Unloving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of God, and having a form of godliness. In other words, covering this whole rebellious heart up with a form of self-induced religion.

May I call it that? A religion that has no power, it has no validity, it has no basis in truth. We're living in a generation now where this whole concept of your truth and my truth, it's an absurd concept. There is no your truth and my truth, there's only truth. This is truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except for me. There's no your truth and my truth, there's only truth. Folks, I'm telling you this is such an absurd generation, such a lawless time that we're now living in. I think of a moment where the streets were no longer safe. When the angels came into Sodom and they met Lot in the gate, Lot said to them, he was sitting in the gate of Sodom and when Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face towards the ground.

Genesis 19. And he said, here now my lords, please turn into your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet that you may rise early and go on your way. And they said, no, but we will spend the night in the open square. Much like two angels arriving and saying, no, we'll spend the night in time square.

I don't know about you, but I would be inclined to say, well, I don't recommend that. That might not be a healthy place for you to be after a certain time of night. But he insisted strongly so they turned into him and entered his house. He made them a feast and baked for them bread and they ate and such like. It was a moment where the streets were no longer safe. When I think of Sodom, I think of a place where those who could and should have made a difference were seriously diminished in number and power. I think of a moment in history where the voice of the church has lost its influence and Lot was a man who was there. He and his wife and two daughters technically speaking were the only righteous ones left in Sodom. As a matter of fact, Abraham succeeded in getting it down to 10 when he interceded with the pre-incurnate Jesus Christ for Sodom to spare it. And the Lord said, I won't destroy it for 10, but there weren't 10 righteous left in the city.

It was just a minimal voice. And I think in America today, I know there are good churches like this one, I thank God, but for the number of people that we are as the people of God, our voices should be dominant in the culture. We should not be driven into silence.

We should not be players. Listen, folks, it's probably one third of one percent of this country right now that are driving the whole agenda all around us. And yet we are more and mightier as they were in Egypt and are unaware of it anymore. We are more and mightier than these voices of godlessness that are pushing this whole agenda on the country. But our voices should be making a difference, but we've been diminished in number and power in this generation. I don't know about you, but I'm not satisfied with that.

I'm not satisfied to be a person who knows the truth, and yet the truth that I know is not having the effect in this generation that I believe it should have. When I think of Sodom, I think of a place where lawless mobs were free to roam the streets and live out their lusts. Genesis 19, 4, it says, Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, and all the people from every quarter surrounded the house. Can you just imagine? There's no safety anymore.

There were no laws per se. You've got this mob driven by its own perverse lust that are going through the city looking for some new sexual escapade. In this case, looking to have sexual relations with two men, as they saw it, who were brand new in the society and just come into town. And these mobs are everywhere. I don't know about you, but I'm stunned because I've been here for 30 years now. And just this morning, just to be walking in from the parking garage and see that souvenir shops have been taking over by marijuana stores.

It's stunning. You're looking at a society that people are just free to go down the street half-stoned and think somehow this is, oh wow, this is great. This freedom is just awesome. Not realizing this is bondage. Not realizing this is taking away my mind.

Not realizing. Just wandering the streets, free to live out lust, free to engage in whatever activity. This is all in the name of freedom, but it's not freedom. It's bondage. It's captivity. It's darkness. The wages of sin is still death. Sin still pays what it's always paid. And the enemy is roaming our streets, seducing generations, setting up these places that just deepen the stupor that's come upon this society.

When I think of Sodom, I think of a place where there were no longer consequences for things that were once considered crimes. I don't know about you, but I read the news and I see people walking out of stores with shopping baskets full of goods, and the security people are told, oh, don't stop them. And if they do get stopped in the street, they get a parking ticket, basically, and told, ah, don't do that again. Be nice now. Don't go back in and steal another shopping cart full of goods. Genesis 19 five said, they called a lot and said to him, where are the men who came into you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally. Bring them out so that we can rape them.

Bring them out. And it's almost unfathomable. Don't ever get fooled into thinking that men and women without God are inherently righteous. We are not. Without God, there's no limit to the depth of depravity that can come upon any society. I thank God for the restraining hand of the Holy Spirit. I thank God for new birth. I thank God for new life. I thank God for a new mind. I thank God for a new heart. I thank God for a new spirit. I thank God for new power. I thank God for new purpose. I thank God that I know the truth of Jesus Christ. Oh, hallelujah. A few years ago, somebody was kind enough to come up with a picture of what I used to be before I came to Christ. You know, there's always people more than happy to do that.

It doesn't matter how long ago. And they said, oh, look what I found, this picture of you. And they gave me this picture and I looked at it and they only thought it was a pre-conversion picture of me. And I looked at that man and I thought, oh God, thank you, he's dead. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, that that man died and a new man was born. Thank you, Lord.

I was stunned at how dark those eyes were. And I know the thoughts that used to be in that mind. Oh God, thank you for your mercy. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ. You asked me how I know he lives.

He lives within my heart. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. When we look at the depth of the depravity in this particular society, we ask ourselves a legitimate question. Could such a moment in history be changed? Could judgment be delayed and could mercy be extended? And the answer to that question is yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. God is merciful. His mercy endures forever. God can show mercy to any generation, anytime, anywhere, any place. I've seen it throughout my life.

I've seen it overseas. I've seen it in cultures and countries where if you knew what was going on, you'd say mercy is certainly not deserved here, but I've seen the mercy of God. You better be thankful yourself for the mercy of God. Oh, hallelujah. Listen, you didn't find Jesus. He was never lost. He revealed himself.

You were lost. Jesus was never lost. He revealed himself to you.

He revealed himself to you because he's a God of mercy. Hallelujah. His mercy endures forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever.

Oh, hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God, for your mercy. Thank you, Lord, for an eternity in heaven.

Thank you, God, for a reason to live while we're on this earth. Jesus said these words in Matthew 11, verse 23. He was speaking to his hometown. If he had a hometown, he did have a hometown where he grew up, and it was called Capernaum, and he spoke to the people of Capernaum, and he said, you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven.

Obviously, they were a somewhat prosperous town at that time. You will be brought down to Hades, or hell, because if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. I was stunned when I first read that because you think of Sodom and you think of, oh, God, thank you for sending the fire down. It wasn't his will to judge.

Never is. There's no pleasure in the heart of God in having to judge any society, but he makes this incredible statement. If the miracles done in you would have been done there, it would have been spared. Now, we're talking generations later. Sodom still would have been a city spared by the mercy of God.

Now, we don't necessarily think of it that way. If the miracles done in Capernaum, I started to research those miracles. It was a place where dead people came back to life.

Hallelujah. It was a place where perhaps people could have walked through Sodom and said, I once was dead, now I live. I once was blind, now I see. I once was in the grave, God brought me out. If the dead had come back to life in Sodom, it would have still existed to this day. In Capernaum, people were healed. In Capernaum, people were cleansed of incurable diseases. I think of how we were cleansed from the incurable disease of sin by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

We were cleansed from thoughts and attitudes and behaviors that had governed our lives that we could not get free from in our own strength. If those kind of miracles had been in Sodom, it would have been spared. Now, they had to be visible miracles, not hidden miracles, but visible miracles. In Capernaum, demonic powers were defeated. If that kind of a miracle had been in Sodom where people could say, I was under the influence of darkness, but by the grace of God, that influence was broken over my life.

Those chains had to let go of my hands. Those prison doors had to open and I was given freedom and I was given life and I was given a new future. It was in Capernaum that people were called to follow the Savior. Ordinary people like you and I, there were fishermen and tax collectors, just rank and file. He didn't go to Jerusalem Bible College to get his followers. He went to the shores where sons were fishing with their fathers, God Almighty. It was in Capernaum that supernatural provision was made known. I love the fact that Jesus said to Peter, go down to the sea and catch a fish. When you open its mouth, there'll be a coin there and pay your taxes and mine.

There'll be a miracle if people started paying their taxes in New York City the way they should. But when you begin to walk with God, supernatural provision starts coming into your life. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah.

You're supernaturally enabled. There's words of wisdom. There's giftings of the Spirit.

When we follow him, the giftings of God start coming into our lives to give us what we need when we get there to be a testimony of his provision. In all of these, if there had been a visible testimony of the miraculous power of God in Sodom, it would have been spared. You see, if ever there was a time for the redeemed to say so, it's now. If ever there was a time to take your candle out from under your bed and out from under the bushel and set it on a hill where it can be seen, it's now. If ever there was a time for you and I to declare that we are followers of Jesus Christ and allow God to make us into what we need to be to make that testimony a reality, it's now.

If there had been a testimony of the miraculous in Sodom, it could have been spared. I say it's time for the church to rise up in this generation. I say that with all my heart. Not just the preachers, you understand, not just the worship leaders, not just the choirs, but you. It's time for you to rise up. It's time for me to rise up. Time for the candlestick of God's presence in our lives to be put on a hill where it can be seen. It's time for the redeemed of the Lord to say so.

It's time for us, if we've fallen short, just say so. Because the beauty of our savior is that there's always a start over point. No matter how much of a mess you've even made of your Christian testimony, there's a start over point.

Thank God for his mercy. As in Elijah's day, if there was someone who could touch God's heart in prayer, if there was someone who cared more for God's glory than for his own safety. You see, when Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel after three and a half years of drought, don't forget the people are inclined to maybe blame him for this moment. Not realizing that what he had prayed for was to bring them back to the living God. And there's a somewhat of a vilification of the church of Jesus Christ starting in our generation.

You understand, we're becoming the haters as those who live in darkness are beginning to see us. But Elijah was more concerned for the glory of God, for the heart of God. He knew something of the heart of God.

It's not God's will that any should perish, but all should come to the knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ. And knowing the heart of God, he went to the top of that mountain and put his light in a visible place and really staked his own future, his own freedom, his own safety on God coming down and doing what he felt God was going to do. His heart contained the passion of God for the lost. And he was a man through whom the miracle power of God could be made known again.

He went to the top of that mountain, rebuilt the altar, which had fallen down. The scripture says he put the wood in order. In other words, it's a type of you and I understanding what the cross is all about. It's not just so we can sit at the foot of the cross and gamble for garments. That the cross is about being willing to be given for the sake of others that they may come to know Christ as savior and Lord. Romans 12 one, the apostle Paul says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It's only reasonable.

It's not extraordinary. It's only reasonable for you and I to present ourselves in a sense and say, Lord, here am I, send me, use my life for your glory, God. I'm not much, but you're everything. I don't possess anything, but in you I have everything. God, I haven't been faithful, but you're faithful.

I've been a coward, but you're not a coward. You went all the way and if you will infuse me with your life and you will infuse me with your strength, I believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I believe that God with all my heart, I believe Lord that I can start to speak with authority. I believe that my testimony can start to have an effect on people around me that are living in darkness. When Jesus would cast a demon out of somebody, generally they'd go down on the floor and writhe and growl and make all kinds of noise before they got free.

Notice in these schools there's a lot of people on the ground making a lot of noise right now. It's almost like the devil is saying, I have this place. You're not going to take it from me.

This is mine. Oh boy, I got news for the powers of darkness. I got news. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. We're going in there. We're going in there with the power of God. We're going in there with the touch of heaven. We're going in there with the testimony of the living Christ. We went to Cornell. The Christian young people from about five or four universities came together and they scoured the campus and started inviting random students just to come. They didn't know how many were going to come that night, but 400 showed up.

I was there and I had been invited to speak evangelistically and our worship team from Summit was there with us. The Lord in my chair, he said, just put your message away and just tell them your story. Tell them about your life.

Tell them what I've done. Let me speak through you. People are just looking for reality. They're looking for truth.

They're looking for something they can attach their lives to. When I got up and just shared my story that night, 200 of those students, Ivy League students came forward, literally melted in the presence of God. Once they were laying on the floor, people were crying. I didn't tell them to cry. They just started crying. Then they started confessing sin.

I don't think I even mentioned the word sin. I talked about getting free in my own life from things that afflicted and plagued me. Then all of a sudden these confessions spontaneously started.

What I love about this generation is there are no holds barred. They'll say it. They'll say it publicly and it's like, woo. They were telling me there are sins that make you blush. I was just like, okay, all right.

I'm glad you want to be free of that. They said it to me. It didn't matter who was around them. Then the joy broke out and the dancing started and the worship. It was absolutely amazing. They were telling me, the leaders were telling me that one of the students that was really touched of God that night became a believer in Christ, has been running all over the campus in Cornell saying, the next time they come, you have to come. Best concert I've ever been to in my entire life. He didn't know what to call it.

He's never been in church. I had one kid come up to me at the end. He said, I came in here and agnostic. What do I do now? I had no idea where to go from here.

Just absolutely amazing. There's such hunger if we will just speak. There's such hunger if we will just allow God to take our lives as a testimony of His glory, not just all of our successes, but our failures too as well.

Because if we present perfection to this generation, they can't aspire to it. But if we are willing to say, look, I've got my faults too. I've got my struggles. I've had my trials along the way. I've walked out in a gravel road and shaken my fist at God, accused Him of being unfaithful to me. I know what it's like to fail. I know what it's like to fall short, but I know the mercy of God, the grace of God, the goodness of God, the power of God, the glory of God.

Then suddenly there's 200 students say, well, I can relate to that. If that's what God looks like, I want Jesus Christ in my life as my Lord and savior. And so suddenly after going back to Yale now just a few weeks ago, now we're going to be heading out to at least five or six Ivy League colleges in this coming year. And you're going to be part of that. If God could find somebody who could pray down the presence of God, not only on Himself, but also on the addicted, the proud, the perverse, the confused, and the lawless. The prayer in my heart is God visit us again. Grant to us Lord a spiritual awakening again in our generation. Make yourself aware.

Make yourself known. Reveal yourself Lord to this generation. God, they live in such darkness. They have embraced such lies.

They're being fed such incredible perversion from young ages now all the way up. Lord, you have to do this because we're crying out to you now. Lord God send us.

If God can find a people whose lives would testify to His power, then I do believe Elijah stood back, he rebuilt the altar, he set the wooden order, he placed his sacrifice on it, which is a type of us and Christ of course. And he said, Lord, I've done this at your word. I've done what you asked me to do. And I guess that's where we come in now to say, God, whatever you ask me to do, I'll do that. If it costs me even my freedom, my safety, I'll do it.

I'll seek you. Obviously God had been speaking to this man. He didn't just randomly do that on his own. He was moving in unison with the Holy Spirit. And this is what you and I have to learn to do again, to move with the Holy Spirit.

We don't need formula. We don't just need singing. We don't need just all the stuff that we've generated in the Church of Jesus Christ. We need the presence of the Holy Spirit. We need hearts that are obedient to God. We need lives that are willing to line up with whatever God's will is for each of our lives. I don't know what your hill is, but I know you have one somewhere. A place maybe that you've been afraid to go, a hill that you've been afraid to kind of plant your banner in. Yours might be different than mine, but we all are given a place. We're called to be a public testimony, not a private one. We're called to let our light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.