A Prayer Meeting Outside of Sodom

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. I choose to believe God no matter what my eyes see, no matter what my Ears here, God is faithful. He can't be anything other than what he is. and every promise he's ever made to me, he's going to fulfill. That's Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City with a preview of a message titled A Prayer Meeting Outside of Sodom.

We're glad you're with us today on a call to the nation. America today has been understandably compared with the immorality of Sodom and Gomorrah. In those days, God looked for even one believer to pray. He's asking his people to be that kind of prayer warrior today. Here's Carter with today's message.

It's been a long, long time. Journey that Abraham had taken to get to this place called Mamre. It had been almost 25 years since the Lord first called him to leave his home and leave his homeland, leave his place of familiarity, to travel to a place. Where God said, I'm going to make you a blessing.

So powerfully that all the families of the earth are going to be blessed through you. Genesis 12:1 says, Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family. And from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

Now, everyone who's here today who's a believer in Christ, you have already also experienced this same calling. When God called you, He called you to something bigger than what you had known. He called you to something larger than where you had lived. He called you and I to leave behind that which we had become familiar with. to go to a place That can only be achieved in God with which we were not familiar and in which we can't obtain in our own strength.

And he said to him in verse 2, I'll make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Now, we know from the New Testament that Abraham, in a sense, was the father of faith. He believed God. The Bible says it was accounted to him for righteousness. In other words, he was brought in to a right relationship with God because he believed his words that he spoke to him. And God gave him a promise that through him, Was going to come a blessing that was going to bless the whole known world.

Now, he could have no way of knowing how that's going to be fulfilled. And neither can you know what God has destined for your life. Although the Bible says he's determined to take you to an end that he's always desired for you.

Now, we don't always understand the journey on the way there. Abraham made mistakes. on the way. The scripture tells us after getting this incredible promise, The first thing that happens in his life is a famine. Comes over the area where he was living, and he has to head down into Egypt for a season.

And it speaks to me, it's a picture of the new believer in Christ. We're given this incredible promise that God says, I'm going to be a blessing to you. I'm going to make you bigger than you are. I'm going to do in you more than you can do for yourself. And I'm going to bless people through you.

And we're so excited, right, in the beginning? We start reading: if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things in his life pass away, behold, all things are become new. And we're so excited. We read these promises and we recognize the Spirit of God now lives inside these earthen vessels and He's going to transform us by His presence inside of us.

And the next thing you know, there's a famine. And he heads down into Egypt, and it speaks about every new believer is going to have to fight this drawing of the world to draw you back into its way of provision, its way of doing things. It's hard to make the break. You know that, I know that. It's hard to make that complete break from everything that we had become familiar with, things that once offered us comfort.

And the world does offer sustenance and it does offer comfort, albeit the comfort it offers is so far short of that which only God can give that it's not even worth the comparison. Then there came a point after Abraham was in Egypt. He ran into a lot of trouble, but God delivered him. Abraham Chapter 13 left Egypt and he began to pray. He had prayed once before, but he says in verse 4 that.

He began to call on the name of the Lord. finally realize, oh God, if I'm going to become anything, it's going to be you that does it. And then the scripture says Abraham moved his tent and went and dwelt. by the terban trees of Mamre.

So that's where we started. One day when he was in that place, the Lord told him, Go outside. Chapter 15, verse 5, he said, Look towards the heaven and count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be.

Now what he was looking at was you and I. The church of Jesus Christ. Remember, Christ Himself said, You are what? You're the light. of this world.

You are, as the stars said in the heavens, for light. For the ability for people to navigate this world and find the place where God has destined them to go. You are the city set upon a hill. that cannot be hidden. Thank God for that.

He could have no way of knowing what he was looking at, but he was looking at The faithfulness of God. In the next little season, the Lord. makes a covenant with Abraham, but Abraham couldn't have understood that covenant. And the covenant, if you take time to read it in Genesis, from where we started in chapter 18, to if you go back to where we just left off. You'll see that God himself came down and made a covenant to fulfill this.

Through Abraham. All Abraham had to do was chase the birds away. That was his whole job. Keep away those vultures that would try to come down. And devour this promise that I'm making to you.

And you and I have to do that too. We've got to chase the birds off of our heads. That come down and try to say, Oh, you really trust in God? You really believe in God? You really believe that God will do this for you?

You really believe that God will make you a blessing? Our job is to chase the birds away. Chase them all away. Say, no, I choose to believe God no matter what my eyes see, no matter what my Ears here, God is faithful. He can't be anything other than what He is.

and every promise he's ever made to me. He's going to fulfill.

Now, it brings us to where we open today, this place called Memray. And so, in the midst of being there, 25 years after the promise was initially made to him, he's kind of made peace. Where he is, and he's just dealing with the heat of the day, and suddenly. The Son of God appears to him.

Now, everyone who studies this, you can do it yourself, go to any concordance. It is generally understood that this was Christ himself, a pre-incarnate appearing of Jesus Christ with two angels walking with him. And suddenly, the Lord appears, and he knows it's the Lord because of the way he addresses him. And the Bible tells us the Lord speaks back to him again, as only the Lord could. And he lifted up his eyes, and three men were standing by him.

When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground. And he said, My Lord. If I've now found favor in your sight, do not pass. Me bye. Praise be to God.

I don't know how many are saying that. Even this day, so God, you suddenly feel His presence again. It's been a long haul since. He first promised to make you into a blessing. You feel in your heart that you've been everything but a blessing.

You're struggling like everyone else is in society. You're struggling to rise above the crowd and to be a testimony of the reality of God in your life. And the sudden thing comes into your heart and said, oh my God, if I've found favor. in your sight. Don't pass me by.

Have mercy on me. You find yourself like the blind man on the side of the road, the son of David. Have mercy on me. I'm part of your family. But I can't see my way forward.

I don't feel like my life is a blessing. You said it was supposed to be a blessing, but I don't feel my life. is a blessing. And then suddenly the Lord starts to speak to Abraham.

Now, this is 25 years later. God waits. His timetable is not our timetable. I remember one time I was... I was a young pastor and a young Christian, actually, and God started speaking to me about.

Living to see a spiritual awakening. I didn't even know what it was when he started to speak to me about it, that I would live to see a significant turning to God in a time of hardship. I couldn't understand it other than he had spoken it to me, and I was just so excited about it and full of youth and full of strength and ready to go out and try to make it happen. And I was talking in the kitchen of our old farmhouse one day, and I remember Pastor Teresa turned to me and pointed at me. And she said, God will never give the mantle of revival to a man until he no longer wants it.

Isn't it amazing? Until we've come to a place where we've exhausted our own ambitions, we've exhausted our own strength. We're just dealing with the heat of the day. The promise seems to be many, many years ago. It's not been fulfilled.

And we've actually made peace in measure, at least, that I may never live to see what God spoke to my heart. It may have just happened, even though I may never have lived to see it happen. I don't know what was in Abraham's heart at this point, but when he felt the Lord passing by, He said, if I've found favor. If after all these years, and he had nothing to point to, there was no litany of great faithfulness in his life, he'd made some terrible mistakes along the way. He'd let his wife be taken captive in a foreign king's court.

He had married a person he shouldn't have. He had a child that God never. ordained him to have and he had really made a mess. of the promise in many regards, but he felt the Lord passing by again. And he says, Oh God, if I found favor in your sight, Please don't pass me by.

And suddenly the Lord sits down and he tries to serve God. And God, the Son of God, just patiently waits for him to get through all of his stuff he feels he needs to do. And when he gets through it all, the Lord speaks and says, I will return to you according to the time of life. That's chapter 18 of Genesis, verse 10. And behold, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son.

Now Abraham and Sarah, verse 11, were old and well advanced in age. and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself. saying, after I've grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also? And the LORD said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh?

Saying, Shall I surely bear a child since I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Now the word hard here is the same word In Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6, describing the Lord, it says, His name shall be called wonderful. That's the exact same words. In other words, you could translate this clearly as anything too wonderful for the Lord. At the appointed time, I would return to you according to the time of life and Sarah. shall have a son.

Phenomenal. Phenomenal. God waits. until we can't do something. And then he does it.

It says, The men arose, that's Christ and the two angels arose, and Abraham arose with them. And they began to walk towards Sodom.

Now Sodom is a city. that's about to be judged. Perversion Homosexual perversion. had arisen in that city to the point where the report of it had reached heaven. And Christ himself had come down with two messengers and said, We're going to go.

We're sending the messengers into the city to see if it is as bad. as the report is. They went into that city. It's a city that's about to burn, folks. You understand?

It's about to burn, and it did burn. The judgment of God came down on it. The flashpoint of God's judgment. Was when men and boys of that city knew that two angels had come into town. They were staying in Lot's house, and they surrounded the house.

and began to beat on the door so that they could have sexual relations with the two strangers. The Lord said, as they're heading towards Sodom, The Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing? Since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I've known him. In order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord.

To do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. Here's the point: God says, I'm not going to hide from Abraham. What I'm about to do because he's determined to do right. He's determined to believe me. He's determined to follow me.

He's determined to instruct his house in the ways of God. And when you and I make that determination, one of the things that starts to happen is God starts to open our understanding of the times that we're now living in. We are not called, the Apostle Peter says, we are not people who live in darkness, that the day that we're living in should overtake us as a thief. We are people of the light. And as such, God can speak to our hearts, not just the sweet promises, as wonderful as they are in the Word of God, but He can speak to our hearts about those things that He's determined to do that are coming on this world.

For a reason that we've not maybe yet fully Understood.

So now The Lord said, verse 20, chapter 18, verse 20, the Lord said, because the outcry. Against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now. And see whether they've done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to me. And if not, I will know. Then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom.

So now. It's just Abraham and the pre-incarnate Jesus standing there.

Sodom is probably at least the area of it are visible from where they're standing. Abraham's just been told judgment is coming.

Now Abraham is standing face to face with God. And it's a type of prayer. You and I have incredible power with God in prayer. He's not a perfect man. You see, there's great hope in these scriptures.

It's not that he's lived a flawless life. He's made mistakes along the way. He's doubted God. He's tried to help God. He's gone down into Egypt.

He's done a lot of things, but yet God is still with him, and he's standing face to face with Christ, the pre-incarnate Christ. Outside of a society, a city that's about to come under the judgment of God.

Now Abraham came near, chapter 18, verse 23, and said, Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city, would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked.

So that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from you. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Here's a man, he's having a face-to-face, honest encounter with Christ. The Word of God.

Who was there in the beginning? All things were created by him. And the Son of God is not offended by his prayer. I loved the reality of that. He's not offended when we're honest with him.

Even if we'd only see through a glass darkly, as the scripture says, in comparison to Christ, we have no sight at all. But yet, Jesus is not offended by this man's prayer. He's not offended when we pray honestly. When we stand before him, shall you not do right? He says, Oh God, shall you not do right?

The inference, of course, is that how is it possible for the God of all the earth not to do right?

So the Lord said, if I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. Then Abraham answered and said, Indeed now. I, who am but dust and ashes, have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. He knows who he's talking to. Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous.

Would you destroy all the city for the lack of five? And so he said, if I find there 45, I'll not destroy it. And he spoke to him yet again and said, suppose there should be forty found there. And so he said, I will not do it for the sake of forty. That he said, Let not the Lord be angry and I will speak.

Suppose 30 should be found there.

So he said, I will not do it for the sake of 30. And he said, indeed now I've taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 should be found there.

So he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of 20. Then he said, Let not the Lord be angry, and I'll speak but once more. Suppose Ten. Should be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.

So the Lord went his way. As soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. That means he went back to. to the tent where he was. in this place called Mamre.

Now this interaction There's two things I want to talk about in this interaction. The first is Why did he stop at 10? He knew his nephew Lot was there. Lot's wife, and we know from the testimony of Scripture, there were four righteous in the city because the angels took four out. They were iffy righteous, but they were righteous.

You talk about an imputed righteousness. I mean But they were declared. The Bible declares in the Epistle of Peter: the Lord delivered righteous law.

So the scripture declares him to be righteous, so there's no debating that. He had an imputed righteousness given him of God. Abraham Was six short? of a victory. And there's no indication that the Lord said, that's enough now.

Stop, don't ask for any more. He could have gone down to five. He could have gone down to four. And you see, Sometimes We stop in our prayers just short of the victory. Just short, we we we feel that Our assessment of the situation has been reasonable.

And he got him down from From total destruction to 50 to 10. And walked away saying, okay, wow. What a prayer meeting that was. And he was six souls short of a victory. I want you to really think about that just for a moment.

There's nothing in the scripture says he couldn't have said perhaps there's five And let me speak once more. Perhaps there's four. And you see... If he had just came kept going in his prayer. History would have recorded perhaps something different.

Perhaps. Similar to when Jonah went to Nineveh in a city, extremely wicked city. Called Nineveh, turned from the king down to the lowest in the land, put on sackcloth and ashes and turned, and a whole generation was spared because one man went into the city. And this brings me to point two. We know that Jesus Christ is omniscient.

We teach that, which means he knows everything. He already knows how many righteous are in the city.

So, why is he playing this game with Abraham, or is he playing a game with Abraham? Is he perhaps looking for something that Abraham was not fully aware of? Or maybe when we read it, we're not aware of. I mean, right away, when Abraham said, Will you destroy it for 50 righteous? He could have just said, There's not 50 righteous in the city.

There's not 40, there's not 30, there's not even 10. Why did he allow Abraham to continue to pray? Was he really looking for something? And it is my opinion. That he was looking for something because Abraham is a type of the church.

Don't forget, it was the church that was going to come through Abraham and be the blessing. We are the blessing. that was promised By God through Abraham. Through Abraham came the patriarchs of Israel. Through the patriarchs came the Savior.

Through the Savior came the church. Through the church came you and I. We are the blessing that was promised by God. To Abraham. Here's what I feel in my heart that Jesus Christ was looking for.

And Abraham fell short in his prayer. It was this one prayer. God, Spare the city and I'll go. I really believe. in my heart that that's what the Lord was after.

You see, what he did is he got it down to 10. Then it says, the Lord walked away and Abraham returned to his place. And a lot of our prayer meetings are like that. We come to prayer meetings and we pray and we get it down to what we think is a reasonable level. According to our understanding, then we go home, in a sense, and the Lord goes back to the work that He's doing.

And we think the victory has been won, but we stopped, not six short, one short of the victory. One. Me. Me, that's what the Lord's always been looking for. It's the Isaiah moment when we see our own unworthiness at the altar of God and we understand how far we fall short of the glory of God, but it's then we're touched by the mercy we hear.

Remember, suddenly Isaiah is hearing the voice of God when He says, Who will go for us and who shall we send? Isaiah is so familiar with his own weakness, and he knows he's been touched by mercy. And because he's been touched by mercy, he knows that God is willing to be merciful. And he takes that mercy with him into that present society. And when he hears the voice of God saying, Who will go?

Here am I.

So send me. I can talk to them about mercy. I can talk to them about judgment, but I can talk to them about mercy, and my message will be balanced. Their behavior deserves judgment, but God is willing to be merciful and has proven it on the cross. Thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God. Abraham, having come to this place of personal bankruptcy, may I call it that, now knows the mercy of God. This same scenario repeats itself all the way through the Bible. The prodigal son coming home in the Gospels, one of the gospels, he understands the mercy of God, but only through his own bankruptcy and his own failure. And when you and I have come to the point where we recognize That we stand by mercy, we stand by grace, all of us.

All of us. All of us. The psalmist David said at the best: Lord, if you dealt with us according to what we deserve, who would stand among us? You've been merciful to me. Would you give me a chance?

Would you give me a chance to extend that mercy? to this people. In spite of their behaviors, in spite of what they do or don't do, or live or don't live. Lest they come under judgment, Lord, would you send me? And it's a type of the Christian who just says, I'm going to start speaking.

By the grace of God. I'm going to start speaking. And I'm going to speak about mercy. A kindness. the goodness of God.

His willingness to forgive. There are standards of righteousness, but I'm not going to go with a pointed finger and a closed fist. I'm going to go with an open hand. and represent the one whose hands have scars in them. And I'm going to tell this generation there's mercy for you.

If you choose to want it, God is willing to be merciful. He is a judge, and one day he will judge, and one day cities in this world are going to burn. The scripture tells us that. All the things should be on fire, Peter says. The heavens will even melt with a fervent heat.

But till that day comes I'm not just gonna go home. I want to go where the people are. and start to speak to them. And that is the cry of my heart. Praise God, and I I trust And believe that it's the cry of the heart of this church.

It's good to come to prayer. Thank God so many of you do. Thank God you pray. Thank God you fill this house. on Tuesday night.

I bless God for it. But it's not enough just to come and pray and then go home. We have to go into the city. Here am I.

Son of a The message today has been brought to you by Carter Conlon, pastor of Times Square Church. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. Uh Plan to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.