Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. You've got this constant bleeding going on in your life. Your strength. Hope and peace, and the thought of a future is bleeding out of your life. This bleed that says you have no future.
There's no hope for your life, you have no strength, you have nothing. But when you trust in God, it produces in you this ability to stop the bleed. We're so glad you're with us for this week's edition of A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. Carter begins his message with a very familiar yet remarkable verse in the Bible. Proverbs 3:5, and he'll explore the deeper meaning of the words found here.
Health to your navel and marrow to your bones. Taken from verse 8. Let's join Carter now. as he explains how all this ties in with his message. Titled Jesus, Stop the Bleeding.
Jesus stopped the bleeding. Proverbs chapter 3, beginning at verse 5. Five, very familiar. Passage of scripture for many who have known Christ for An amount of time. Trust in the Lord.
With all Your heart. Say all. Not part of your heart.
Some of your heart, or 80% of your heart, or 90% or 75%. Trust in the Lord. With all your heart. and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways.
Acknowledge him. and he shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh.
And strength your bones. The original King James, probably the words are closer to the original meaning, which means it'll be health. To your navel and marrow to your bones. I'll talk to you about that. in just a little bit of time.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. I I think of There's Early followers of God. Who were brought out Of a place of captivity in Egypt after so many years. And they were brought out by the power of God. We were brought into God's kingdom by his power and by his mercy.
It's not because of our goodness, it's because of his cross, it's because he reached out to us. And offered us eternal life, and we reached back into the hand of God. And there was a divine connection that was made. And God Himself pulled us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. I don't know about you, but I'm just so thankful for that.
I'm so thankful, and God, may I never cease to be thankful. And even increasingly more so as the days grow. Uh closer to his coming. God reached out. And he pulled them out of darkness and then he led them through.
A short wilderness time, a short time of readjustment, may I put it that way. It's not always easy coming out of what we became comfortable with or what we were familiar with. You see what happened with ten of these leaders that came out. Of this place of captivity as they went in. To what was supposed to be the place of promise.
But they didn't trust with all of their heart. They trusted with some of their heart, obviously, to get to the point where they had gotten to, but not with all of their heart to get to the place where God wanted to take them. God wanted to give them a place of promise and freedom and provision and reputation. A place with a new song that can't be written by the human heart, only by the Spirit of God. But they leaned on their own understanding.
You understand? They trusted him, but only to a point. Then they leaned on their own understanding. And when you and I begin to lean on our own understanding, we come up with all the reasons why what God told us he's going to do can't happen. And that's exactly what happened to them.
They went in and they calculated and they looked at their weaponry or lack thereof and they looked at the size of the opposition in comparison to their size. And they looked at the numbers in comparison to their numbers and the fortification in comparison to their resources. And they came back with what I've always felt was a very reasoned report. We can't do it. We're not strong enough.
We're not big enough. But God called it an evil report. They trusted in God. But then they leaned on their own understanding, and their own understanding caused them and many around them to die in a wilderness place. Because it's only by the power of God that we will ever know the fullness of what God has destined each one of our lives.
To be. In all your ways acknowledge him. And he will direct your path, acknowledging him. is acknowledging his presence. Acknowledging his promises, acknowledging his His heart.
Acknowledging that he has chosen to bring his own name to reputation through my life and through your life. In spite of how weak we might be, it's not about us. It never was about us, it's about him. The testimony is not about me. It's not about I did this and I did that.
And if I start doing that, then I'm leaning on my own strength and my own understanding. No, it's I was taken by God. As Paul the Apostle said, we were enabled by God to do what we did. We had the sense of death in ourselves, but we trusted in God who raises the dead. And who has been faithful to us and will always be faithful to us.
In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. Don't be wise. in your own eyes. Don't set your knowledge above the knowledge of God. I know there are people.
And you're already coming up with reasons why this can't apply to you. What this man who's standing in this pulpit is saying, and you're listening to online, on your computer, on your phone, whatever it is on your laptop, you're already formulating reasons why this can't apply to you. May I give you some good advice? Just stop right where you are, stop doing that. Stop being wise in your own eyes.
Flee from this and say, God. If what is being spoken is applying to my life, God, if you're standing me before a window of opportunity, that if I will go through this door you're setting before me. that I can have a new, a full, and abundant life. God Help me to not reason myself out of this victory. Give me the grace.
That I need to go through this door and into this place of abundance. that you have set before me. God help me. Not to set my own wisdom as I see it. Above your word.
My own thoughts above your thoughts, my own strength above your strength, or my lack thereof. Above the strength that you promised to me. Fear the Lord, and he says, and depart from evil. It will be health. To your flesh or to your navel.
I actually looked it up. It can be either way. But I like the original translation. I think sometimes the newer translations have a tendency to want to change the words into something that we. can more easily relate to.
But actually it's better in the original. It'll be healthier navel. And Marrow to your bones. In other words, When you and I were in our mother's womb, okay? We were connected to our mother.
Through an umbilical cord, which was attached to what is now your navel, okay, you understand? And We were being formed in our mother's womb. Not by might, not by our own power, our own resource, but we were being fed by another life source. You understand? Every day we're being given nutrition because somebody else was, in a sense, eating and providing for our benefit, we were growing.
Just as through Christ we begin to grow in the grace and knowledge of God through Jesus Christ, because we were attached to that cord that came from our mother in her womb, we grew. We grew into the person that we became. We started out really small. And we just started growing, and then suddenly we're forming limbs, and eyes appear, and the heart starts to beat, and the blood starts to flow. It's not because we could even form.
Formed the intent to eat, it's because somebody else was feeding us at that point, because we were attached. To accord. And through our mother, we We were being fed. And this is exactly what God is saying to us, That was your natural birth. But now Being born again by the Spirit of God.
You need to be attached to God. It will be held to your navel. Trust in God. And not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge him, let him begin to direct your paths.
Don't be wise. in your own sight. And be attached as it is. To God by through His Word, through the power of the Holy Spirit. God begins to feed us.
And just as we were formed in our mother's womb, New things begin to form. We're given a new heart. We're given a new mind. We're given a new spirit. We're given new abilities.
We're given a new future. We're given a new song. We're given new words to speak. Born again by the Spirit of God, just as much as we needed to be attached to our mother.
Now we need to be attached to our Savior. In all your ways acknowledge him. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Don't trust in yourself. Don't lean on your own understanding, but trust in God with all your heart.
Be attached to him and trust that every promise he has made to you, he's going to fulfill. Everything he said he's going to do, he's going to do. in your life. It will be health to your navel. and marrow to your bones.
I looked up, I said. What is the significance of marrow? When this trusting in God, the writer of Proverbs likens it to marrow in our bones.
Now, marrow. Produces three things. Number one, Marrow produces red blood cells to carry oxygen. to the various parts of our body. The red blood cells give us energy.
It allows the body to recuperate. It allows the body to heal. Give strength to the body. If you don't believe that, stop breathing right now and just see, and then we'll time you and see how long you last at this point. Stop breathing.
The red blood cells are carrying the oxygen that your lungs. Are breathing into various parts of your body. That's why athletes, for example, they'll go out and they'll run their. The shift as it is out on the field or on the ice, in case of ice hockey, and then they'll come back in and they can hardly breathe. But as they breathe, the red blood cells are carrying oxygen back and they're recuperating, and in two or three minutes, they're ready to go back out.
And do the same thing all over again. Paul says This trusting in God is the source of my strength. Paul says, Philippians 4:13, I can do all things. Through Christ. Who strengthens me?
I can do all things because I trust him. I believe him. I believe that what he says my life is going to be, it will be. Where he says I will go, I will go. What he says he will do, he will do.
This these red blood cells Our trusting in God brings wisdom into our life. Psalm 119, 130. The psalmist says, The entrance of thy words. gives light. He gives understanding to the simple.
Trusting in God brings confidence into the human heart. Where Paul says in the book of Romans. CHAPTER eight He says these words. beginning at verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, that means difficulty?
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is written, for your sake, we're killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded. That was the key of Paul's strength.
I am persuaded. I am persuaded. That neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am persuaded. Paul did not set his own judgment above the words of God that had been given to him.
He believed God with all of his heart, and because of it, he had strength. an obvious wisdom, and he had a confidence. in the saving and the keeping power of God. The marrow that's inside of our bones produces white blood cells that fight off. Infection.
Thank God for that. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful. that I have the ability at least up to this point anyway, to fight off infection in my life. In 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down Arguments Casting down Arguments. Be not wise. In your own eyes. But trust in the Lord.
In all your ways acknowledge him. Casting down Arguments. God Give me the power. To cast down these diseases of unbelief that want to get a hold of my heart. These things that want to get into my system, they want to get into my mind, these arguments that try to say I'm not worthy, these arguments that try to say my opposition is too strong for me to ever know victory.
God God, God, you say if I trust you with all my heart and I don't lean on my own understanding. That it's as if the marrow, the spiritual marrow in my bones will produce in me. The power to cast down these things that want to erode my confidence in you. and take away that place of promise in my life. And every casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God is not just the Opposing view of the enemy, but it's also the things that want to rise in my own heart.
And tell me, well, this is not for you. You're not going to make it. You're not going to be free. You're not ever going to know the fullness of God. God says, No, if you trust in me, I will give you the power to cast down these arguments.
And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's what white blood cells do, they take these. Illnesses that want to get a hold of our body, these foreign invasions in our body, and they take them captive into the obedience. of what God says our life should be. God says the health should that should belong to us.
And being ready to punish all disobedience when you're Obedience is fulfilled. And the last thing that marrow does for the body is it produces a coagulant. Which Stops bleeding. When we get wounded, for example. And we start to bleed.
It's it's like You've got this This constant bleeding going on in your life, your strength. Hope and peace and strength, and the thought of a future is bleeding. Out of your life. But When you trust in God, it produces in you this ability to stop the bleed. This bleed that says you have no future.
There's no hope for your life. You have no strength. You have nothing. that you can lay your life down on. And all of these things begin with the trust.
In God, with all of your heart. That's where it all begins. You know Jesus said, unless you have the faith of a child, you can't see the kingdom of God. The word see means to intellectually understand. In other words, you can't understand the way God works unless you have the faith of a child.
The problem is we get older. And we get a little bit of wisdom. In comparison to God, we probably are it's like a flea talking to a computer. That's even bigger than that distance between us and God. But we get a little bit of wisdom.
And we start using that wisdom in a way that saps us of life and strength. It takes away the promises of God. We start reasoning why The promises of God can't be mine. or they can't belong to me. My little granddaughter, she's about eight years old now.
Yeah. She called me one day. She found out that. Pastor Therese and I had bought a few acres of land not far from here at the school and She called me in with that little girl voice that only little girls can produce. And she said, Papa, and as soon as you hear it that way, Papa, you know that there's a question coming.
There's an ask coming at the end of this. And she said, Papa, and I said, Yes. She said, Are you going to buy me a pony? I would smash your piggy bank to buy her a pony. Do you understand?
We lived on a farm at one time, a sheep farm, and and Kate said to me, Dad, can I have a pony? And I said, But you're too small. I'll tell you what, I'll get you I don't want you to get hurt, so I'll get you a pony when you're nine years old. She said, okay. But before she was nine, our house burned down.
The farmhouse burnt right to the ground. We lost everything. We had to move from there and we bought a little house in a neighborhood, just a regular neighborhood with other houses around us.
So it was about three weeks before her ninth birthday. And she, I was talking her in one night, and she said to me, Dad, are you going to get me my pony? And I said, well, Kate, I said, we don't live on a farm anymore. I said, the house burnt down. We had to move.
We live in a neighborhood. We just have a regular lot like everybody else. And she looked at me, she said, If you don't keep your promises to me, how do I know that God keeps his promises to me? About five days later, a truck rolls back into our driveway, a ramp comes down, a little pony comes walking off the back, and I tied it to the clothesline in the backyard until I figured out what to do with it. But the point is, if you know how to give good gifts to your children.
How much more? How much more will your Heavenly Father? Give good things, one translation says, or one gospel says, but another one says, How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Give the ability for divine life. Give the power source, in a sense, as we talked about, the umbilical cord to become the person that.
God destined us to be, just as we became, when we were attached to our mother's cord, we became the person that we were destined to be in the womb. And we took on the characteristics, of course, of our parents. But I'm telling you, when we're born again. We take on the characteristics of the one who has brought him to himself. Who's given us life?
And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become connected to God. And we become a new creation in Christ Jesus. You can go through the open door that Jesus made for you on the cross 2,000 years ago when he died on that cross and was buried and resurrected the third day, as the scripture tells us. The scripture says he took all of your captivity captive and gave gifts to you. That's a phenomenal thought.
He took your captivity captive and gave you abilities that you don't naturally have within yourself. You become connected to God, and when you become connected to God, these abilities become a reality in your life. You say, well, how do I do that? Stop. Leaning on your own understanding.
Go through the door that God has made for you through His Son, Jesus Christ. Acknowledge that He died in your place. On a cross 2,000 years ago, and paid the price for all the wrong things that you have done that have separated you from God. Not just in time, but for eternity. But once you open your door to God's offer for forgiveness through his Son, God Brings you back into relationship with himself.
You are connected to him now, and everything that he destined your life to be, you will become. That's the person you will be. When you were in your mother's womb, you became the person you are, not by human effort. But you were genetically, in a sense, designed to become the person that you became. In the same way, when you become connected to God through Jesus Christ, you become now the person that God says you're going to be.
For the future. He promises giftings. He promises a new future. He promises a new mind, a new heart. And a new spirit.
And it starts by just saying, God, I believe. Don't make it complicated. It isn't complicated. I believe, Lord. I bless your door.
God, I believe. I'm going to put away my reasonings as to why this can't happen in my life. Or, why this is for somebody else, but not for me. Or as a testimony we heard where somebody said, I had sinned so much, I had gone so dark, I'd gone so far. I never thought that I could even come back to God or that God would even want me.
only to find out he'd been waiting there the whole time. I believe You can say that Jesus will strengthen me. I believe that. The shedding Of his blood, will bring the bleeding inside of me to an end. I will be free.
of this this continual bleed of strength and vision and hope In my life. Because you But out for me. You took the punishment I deserve. You took it all upon yourself. And you promised healing for me.
When I would turn to you. And I'm asking you in Jesus' name. Go through that door. Trust in the Lord. With all your heart.
Don't lean. on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him. Acknowledge his love. Acknowledge his sacrifice on the cross.
Acknowledge his promises to you. And he says he We'll direct your path. You're going to walk through a door into a new life. A new future. A new heart, a new hope.
Everything around you will become new. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Don't try to figure this out. Don't reason yourself out of this blessing. that God offers you through his Son.
But depart from evil. In other words, you're saying, God, I'm going to turn away from the way I've been living. And I'm going to turn to you. And trust you for the strength to become the person. that you desire that I should be.
And it will become health. To you. and strength to your bones. That's the promise of God. God, you have asked us to trust you.
and not to lean on our own reasonings. To acknowledge your mercy, your grace, your cross, your promise. of new and eternal life. Help us to turn away, God, from our own. Thoughts.
that we want to set before our eyes. Reasons why this could never be for us. Help us to go through the open door. into life that you promised through Jesus Christ. And you say it will be health to us.
and strength. Oh, Father, in Jesus' name. I pray, God, that you would give people. The ability now to make a decision for you. I want you to pray the simple prayer with me.
And do it right now. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Just say these words after me, Jesus. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for wanting me.
Thank you for coming to get me. For dying on a cross. They pay the price. for all the wrong that I've done. I open my heart to you.
And I acknowledge you. as my Lord and my Savior. Take my life. Cleanse me. Forgive me.
Use me for your glory. I give my heart to you. All of my heart. I trust you. For the rest of my life.
to make me into the person. that you designed me to be. And I believe. That at the end of my life Heaven will be my home. In Jesus' name.
Amen and amen. Thank you for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. You can count on a powerful message each week on A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
