Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. You and I are going to cry out, God, I thought you said you were going to use my life And all you're doing is hammering me and heating me. Oh, Jesus, help me. Help me, the enemy has got a hold in my life, the enemy is destroying me. And the Lord says, no, I told you that I was going to use your life for my glory.
But I'm not going to use you until you're ready. Thank you for joining us for this weekly program, A Call to the Nation, with Carter Conlon. Today, Carter's message looks at Psalm 89. Here we find David praising God for his steadfast love and faithfulness. But as the psalm continues, the mood seems to change.
David begins seeing things through his natural eyes, and he begins to believe that all the promises God has given him have been taken away. Then David questions why God is not hearing him, not answering his questions. Why the silence? Let's join Carter now to find out more with a message titled Staying Strong When God is Silent. Psalm eighty-nine, please.
Psalm eighty-nine. I want to speak about staying strong. When God is silent. And everybody has those seasons. If you haven't had one yet, hang on, you're going to have one.
Listen to the words of the psalmist beginning at verse 35 of Psalm 89. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever. and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon.
And as a faithful witness in heaven, say la.
Now these are the words, the psalmist is recounting the words from the mouth of God. God says, By my very character, I swear to David. that I'm going to do something through him. There's going to be a ruling and a reigning. such as this world has never seen.
It will be established and it will become a faithful witness. Verse 38, but thou hast cast off and abhorred, and thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant. Thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. The house broken down all his hedges.
Thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin. All that pass by the way spoil him. He is a reproach to his neighbors. Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries. Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, and hast not made him to stand in the battle. Thou hast made his glory to cease and cast his throne down to the ground. The days of his youth. Hast thou shortened? Thou hast covered him with shame.
How long, Lord? Will thou hide thyself forever? Shall thy wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is. Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Lord, where are thy former loving-kindnesses? which thou swearest unto David in thy truth. The psalmist is talking about a physical thing that he has viewed with his eyes.
God has given this incredible promise and He remembers the beginning days. of the reign of David, of King David. And the words that were spoken. at that time, which David probably rehearsed before the people. for they seem to have a knowledge of these words that were given to him.
But now he's looking with his natural eyes, and it seems like every promise that was ever given to David has been taken away. And there are seasons and Times in the lives of every one of us who believe in Jesus Christ. Where it seems like all the promises that God has ever given us. are dissipated. We were so filled with faith.
We so believed that moment that God spoke and said things like, I'm going to bring your family home to me. I'm going to deliver you. I'm going to give you freedom. I'm going to use your life for my glory. And we were so filled with faith and so filled with hope.
And now we look as the psalmist is looking And listen to what he says. In verses 35 to 37, he says, I remember when you first spoke your promises to me. how it seemed to be the joy of my heart. And it was the strength of my every day. Says You spoke to David words that cannot lie.
And you told him that there was going to be an enduring rain come through his life. And it would be established as the heavens have been established. It would not be changed.
Now, of course, the psalmist has no idea, he couldn't know. Ways of God. He couldn't know that it was through the lineage of David that Jesus Christ was going to be born, and through Christ, the church of Jesus Christ was going to be born. He couldn't have known. That we would Be on this earth for a season of time as a witness to the mercy of God, established as the heavens are established.
Then we would be drawn away from the earth where we would rule and reign with Christ for all of eternity.
So these words are absolute truth. But you see the problem is that Humankind, you and I, we have a tendency to see just with what our natural eyes see. We have a tendency, as he looked around him and he saw, in a sense, the decay that was happening to natural Israel. At this time, Verse 38, he says, Now I feel my confidence. At once where I felt I was raining, now I'm barely surviving.
But you've cast off and abhorred. You've been wroth with your anointed. You've made void the covenant of your servant. You've profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. You've broken down all his hedges.
And the psalmist is saying, I thought I was going to rain. I thought we were a raining people. But now look at what's happening to us. Verse 40 says, My sense of confidence and protection is gone. My strength and hope for tomorrow is in shambles.
You've broken down all his hedges and you brought his strongholds to ruin. Oh God, I was so filled with faith when you first spoke to me. I remember coming to an altar in the church and I unopened this word and it was so alive, it was like God breathing into me. And speaking to me about my future and what was going to happen through my life. And now.
Everything seems to be crumbling around me. I don't see the fulfillment of this promise that you made to me. All I see is that my protection seems to be gone, and the few things that I began to be able to build are crumbling underneath my feet. Verse 41, he says, All that pass by spoil him, and he's a reproach to his neighbors. I'm supposed to be a fragrance of Christ.
I'm supposed to be a testimony of victory. Yet I can barely lift up my head in public. I go into the grocery store. And I know I should be able to speak to the clerk, but I bow my head in shame. Because I'm experiencing so little victory in my own life.
God, where are your promises that you once spoke to me? And why? Why does it seem like everything is falling beneath my feet. Have I committed some kind of a A sin that I'm not aware of. in your sight that has caused you to withdraw your hand from me.
Verse 42 to 45. He says, I'm losing the victory and I feel ashamed. You've set up the right hand of his adversaries, you've made his enemies to rejoice. You've turned the edge of his sword and you've not made him to stand in battle. And you've made his glory.
to cease and you've cast his throne down To the ground. Lord, the things I had the victory over seem to be coming back with a fury against me. I used to laugh at my enemies, and now my enemies are starting to laugh at me. I felt strong in battle, but now you've... It's like my sword has gotten dull.
And I don't know how to yield it anymore, to wield it. I had a measure of the strength of God in my life. That could not be denied. But it seems to be like sand just falling through my fingers. And it's as if you've cast it all down to the ground.
Verse 46, he says, how long, Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is. Have you made all men for nothing, or in vain?
What man is he that lives and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Lord, where are your former loving kindnesses which you swore to David in your truth? In other words, he says, God, how long will you hide from me? Time is short.
Where are your promises to me? Where are they? You know, the psalmist is dealing With a very, very real situation. He's looking at the actual physical decay. of Israel.
And seeing the was supposed to be established as a praise of God in the earth, seemingly overthrown. by powers of evil in that season that he's in. And his is a very real situation. Ours is often only a perceived ruin. It's something we begin to entertain in our minds.
It isn't true, it isn't real. We perceive it to be so. And in this season, in these times when we go through these things, it's important that you and I learn to stay strong when we feel that God's voice has become silent.
Now, if his voice is silent, there are reasons for it, and I'm only going to touch on three of them. There are many reasons, but these are the three that God spoke to my heart. For example, There's an appointed time for what he has spoken to be fulfilled. as in the life of Joseph. God has already spoken to you.
And there's no need for him to repeat himself. Thank God the book of Genesis doesn't say, and God said, let there be light. I said, let there be light. God doesn't have to repeat himself. And there are workings in the heavens that we don't understand.
God's ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. If you and I had been there, And the darkness. If we had lived in that darkness, there was an ever-present darkness until the voice of God came. Just like you and I lived in darkness, darkness was our abode, darkness was our eternity, until God's voice through His Son Jesus Christ came to you and said, let there be light. And when you believed in Christ and the cross, of Jesus Christ cleanse you from all sin.
Light came into your soul. You became aware that God speaks. And it's if you and I had been there, On that first day when he said, Let there be light, we would be dancing and rejoicing. From six in the morning till six in the evening. There'd be no end to the rejoicing.
Then suddenly, It starts to get dark and we would panic. Oh no, I knew it wouldn't last. I knew the light was going to go away. I knew that somehow There's something maybe we've done. Maybe it's the way we praised or didn't praise.
Maybe we weren't in the word enough. Maybe there's something we should have been, some hedge we should have been trimming, and we forgot to do it. And suddenly the light is going down, and then we spend the next twelve hours in sorrow. Until the light comes up again. And we realize that when God said, let there be light, He didn't mean that there wouldn't be night.
He didn't mean that there wouldn't be seasons where we don't see or don't understand. It didn't mean that we'd be able to see with our natural eyes everything that is going on in the heavenly realm. All around us. You and I must resist the temptation to make something happen to prove to yourself and others that God is with you. Resist the temptation to try to make happen what God has spoken.
He's going to do through your life. I've been there, folks. I got the dozen t-shirts at this place. I've tried to make things happen that God spoke into my life, only to realize you can't make anything happen. Only God can make it happen.
All we can do is hear His voice and hold to what He has spoken to us. If God said he's going to bring your family home, he's going to bring your family home, that's the end of it. That's the end of it. The rest is up to him. On my part and on your part, is to believe him.
If he said he's going to use your life, he's going to use your life, but not on your timetable, on his timetable. Remember, Joseph is given this incredible promise that he's going to reign and he's going to be a man through whom great provision is going to be given. But God doesn't tell him the whole story. He doesn't tell them there's going to be betrayal. and a pit, and a potifer, and a prison along the way.
Joseph doesn't see the whole journey. And sometimes I'm really thankful that God doesn't show us the whole journey. Because I don't know if we take it when we're young. Said, I'm going to use your life. Oh, I'm going to use your life for my glory.
And we just, we're only one week in the Lord, and God begins to speak. I'm going to use your life. I'm going to anoint you. But what we don't fully realize is that if He's going to use you as a weapon for His glory, a sword is not formed in a hammock, it is formed on an anvil. There is going to be heat.
There is going to be hammering. There is going to be bending. There's going to be reshaping. It's going to take time. And you and I are going to cry out, God, I thought you said you were going to use my life.
And all you're doing is hammering me and heating me. Oh, Jesus, help me. Help me. The enemy has got a hold in my life, the enemy is destroying me. And the Lord says, no, I told you that I was going to use your life for my glory.
But I'm not going to use you till you're ready. Folks, you don't give a child a chainsaw. They'll hurt himself with it. There's got to be growth, there's got to be wisdom, there's got to be skill, there's got to be instruction, there's got to be training, there's got to be sweat, there's got to be trial. You have to go through a season where you're the guy with the wheelbarrow taking the cutwood down and putting it on a pile before you get to use the chainsaw.
I'm giving away my background as a Canadian and The prophet Abacuk chapter 2 verse 3 says, For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it. because it will surely come. It will not tarry. If God has spoken something into your heart, Assuming you're an honest believer in Jesus Christ, yes, you have frailties and failings like we all have.
But every time God speaks, you get back up. You let his blood continuously cleanse you from all sin. You do want to glorify him in the earth. The things he have spoken to you will come to pass. Because that's the testimony of the people of God.
I believed, and God did something that could only be done by His hand and by His voice. The writer of Hebrews chapter 10 verses 35 to 37. It says, cast not, therefore, away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward For you have needed patience. that after you have done the will of God you might receive the promise. For yet a little while.
And he that shall come will come. and will not tarry. God has an appointed time to answer you. And usually, it's been my experience, is when you and I cannot answer it on our own. When we've tried everything, we know we've pulled every lever, we've written every card.
We've done everything we know to do and it's hopeless. It's suddenly at that point that God Appears and does what only he can do. that the testimony might be of Him and not of ourselves.
Sometimes The voice of God is silenced because the answer is coming. Although it meets a form of resistance which neither you nor I can understand. There are some battles in the heavenlies. that we don't fully comprehend. For example, Daniel sought the Lord.
Daniel set himself to seek God. An angel came to him in response, and in Daniel chapter 10, verses 12 and 13. Here's what the angel said to him. Fear not, Daniel. For from the first day you set your heart to understand.
and to chasten yourself before your God. Your words were heard. And I have come. For your words. Day one.
A messenger was dispatched to answer the questions that were in the heart of Daniel.
Now listen to verse 13. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me. One in twenty days. But lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.
Sometimes it's just a mystery. I don't understand this, and neither do you. And we're best Not to try to figure these things out.
Sometimes, The voice of God is hindered. Because there's a battle going on that we don't know anything about. Other times The hindrance is inside of ourselves. Because we have let other voices enter our hearts. that are put there to resist the voice of God.
It's so important. My brother, my sister, that you and I be careful what we are listening to. and who we are listening to. Hang around with people of faith. You've got to listen to the news once in a while.
I understand that. But don't let it get into your spirit. Because you can end up with a war going on inside of you. Against the voice of God. God may be trying to speak, but all of the resistance in Daniel's day it was an exterior resistance to the answer of God.
But in our day it can be an interior resistance because we have access to so many voices.
So many things can occupy our thoughts and occupy our time. It's so important. That's why Paul says in Philippians chapter 4. Verses 8 and 9, he says, Whatsoever things are true. Whatsoever things are honest.
Whatsoever things are just, Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are lovely. whatsoever things are of good report. If there be any virtue. If there be any praise, think on these things.
Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. And the God of peace. shall be with you. It's so important that we focus on what is of God. that we remember the promises of God.
Because the third reason That sometimes the voice of the Lord can be silent, is that God is using His silence to get your attention. I have had that happen. I was here in New York City and I was going through a bout with tremendous sickness. for several years and finally one day I was down on 8th and I was just walking down 8th and I finally got to the point of saying, what are you trying to tell me, God? What are you trying to speak to me?
And it's at that point that I began to hear the voice of God. speaking into my situation. About how faithful he is, about what he was about to do again in the future, about why he was allowing certain things into my life for his reasons. and for his purposes. And it's amazing when he uses silence to get our attention because we're too active, we're thinking too much, we're going forward a little too fast.
And suddenly he just draws back. It's as if he folds his arms and says, Well, I'll just wait until he or she runs out of gas. Until you're finally exasperated. And instead of going into the prayer closet to tell God what He should be doing, we finally go into the prayer closet and say, Lord, speak to me, what do you want? to tell me.
Why have you been allowing this into my life? There's got to be a purpose for it. Please, Lord, speak to me. I can't outrun this. I cannot fight this, I cannot fox this, I cannot distance this.
Lord, I thank you for your silence. Have you ever thanked him for his silence? Have you ever thanked him? Have you ever had a child that won't listen to you? They just won't listen, so you just stop speaking.
You know there's no point to it at this moment in time, and you just let them go their way and do what they want to do, knowing it's going to lead to a dead end. And maybe at some point in the future they might be willing to listen to you. You see, that was the case of David in 1 Samuel. Chapter 30. King David.
The David whom all these promises that we opened with in Psalm 89. We're given to. David was given the promise that There was going to be a lineage established through him that would not be taken away. That his life was going to produce a royalty. May I call it that?
A royalty that would be as established as the witness of the stars in heaven. that God was going to do these things through his life. And he had a clear word. And he had clear moments in his life when the Holy Spirit would come upon him. and give him strength and wisdom that he knew was not his own.
He started out strong. He started out defeating a lion, and a bear, and a giant. He started out leading an army, going into the enemy camp. And as the scripture says, slaying tens of thousands. It seemed like there was no end to what God was going to do through his life.
Until the moment of silence came. Until God seemingly is not speaking the way He used to. And at this moment in his life, he lost confidence in God. He lost confidence in God's former words to him. And he moved into walking.
In his own reasoning. He moved into trying to guide his own life by his own wisdom and resolve his own problems by his own strength. and bring about what he thought should be. By all of the natural means that were available to him, including those that were traveling with him. And all he did was bring himself and others into incredible sorrow.
Into a sense of loss. into a sense of God. I have made such a mess of everything. Because there was a season of silence, and because in that moment of silence I've failed to trust you. I forgot.
that you're not a man who can lie. I forgot. that your original promises to me, you don't have to repeat them every day. You only have to speak once. Because you're a God of absolute truth.
And you don't speak idly and you don't speak without a reason. What you say you're going to do is what you're going to do, and nothing is going to alter that. You see, here's my point. Stay strong. When God seems to be silent, for the victory is still yours.
It's not been taken away from you. No matter what your eyes see. There's a little Sunday school song that they used to sing in church years ago: All is well. All is well no matter what my eyes may see. No matter what my ears may hear, all is well, all is well, for God shall fight for me.
All is well. All is well. The Lord sent meeting, I believe in my heart to tell you that all is well. All is well. You're not cut off from the life of God.
No, sir. You belong to Jesus Christ. No, ma'am, you belong to Jesus Christ. His victory is still your victory. Your future is the future He has prescribed for your life.
You've not lost it because of a few mistakes along the way. No, no, no, that's not the way God operates. You turn to him as David did, you turn with all your heart. And now, listen to the end of the story when David writes this psalm at the dedication of his house. After all, Of the trial, the difficulty, the season of darkness, the confusing times.
which all of us have to go through from time to time, is finally over. David writes this psalm, I will extol thee, O God. You have lifted me up. And you've not made my foes to rejoice over me. Oh, thank God.
Yeah. The message today has been brought to you by Carter Conlon from Times Square Church. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. Plan to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
