Mm. The most profound words Potentially In the entire New Testament. were spoken by the mouth of Jesus Christ. About himself. And he said these words.
He said, for God.
So love the world. God So loved. The world. Yeah. Um Thank you for joining us today for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
Jesus said, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. but to save the world through Him. He that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds might be discovered. Whether or not they originate from God, He comes to the light. Let's join Carter now with his message titled, The Light of Love.
Mm-hmm. I wanted to talk about how God is faithful to prayer. Oh my, my. How I have seen that now over the years and Just Just talking to him. and bringing to him the desires of our heart And sometimes We're talking to him about things that seem to be impossible.
Only to find they become possible in God. I don't know how else to say it. Suddenly, we're through a door that it seemed like it was a cement wall six feet thick, and suddenly there's a door, and we walk through it and say, On the other side, we look back and say, God, I never could have accomplished this. It could not have happened. This change couldn't have come into my character.
I couldn't have been given this ability apart from you, and the sudden awareness that this is a miraculous kingdom. A phenomenal relationship with the living God who created us with the breath of His mouth and is able, as He says, to change us. By the Spirit of God. Into the very image. Of Christ, in a sense, the character of Christ becomes our character, the victory of Christ becomes our victory.
So his second brother and friend shared that how The impossibility of a life That is just bent in a certain direction, can't get out of that Lifestyle and pattern in a moment of time, picking this Bible up and saying, God, if this is true. Then show me. and a sudden light coming, a sudden dawning. Of the light of God. That's what happened in my life in 1978.
After reading the Gospel of John, I pulled over on the side of the road and I prayed. Jesus, if this is true, if you are the Son of God, if you went to a cross and you died for my sin, if you are the only way into eternal life, If your promise of a new Character, a new heart, a new life, and a new mind is true. Then I want this, and I ask you to make it real to me and come into my heart.
Now I didn't have this immediate revelation. But the next morning, I've shared with you many times, many of you, that I got up and I put, I remember the moment my feet touched the floor, and I don't know how I knew, but I knew I was a different man. I knew God had heard my cry. And something sovereign had happened in my life. A change had come, which is only God.
He had taken up His residence inside my physical body, which is what He says He will do through the Holy Spirit when I have trusted Jesus Christ for my salvation. The willingness to just be real with God. The willingness to not put on religious airs, but just say it the way it is. God is not offended by our struggles. Let me give you a word of encouragement, my brother.
As you get older, it gets easier to be a peacemaker. Yeah. All right. I used to be Fit. The other day I said to my wife, I took my arm, I was a short-sleeve shirt, and I shook it.
I said, look at that. I said, jello on a stick. The only thing that keeps my muscles from falling on the ground is they're hanging onto the bone. And so I either have to make peace or die. I don't have any other option anymore.
Gets easier as you get older. The most profound words Potentially In the entire New Testament. were spoken by the mouth of Jesus Christ. about himself. And he said these words.
He said, for God.
So love the world. God So loved. The world. That means you and me. That means you and me in our fallen condition.
That means you and me in nightclubs, you and me with violent thoughts in our hearts, you and me in prison, you and me in places where we shouldn't be doing things we shouldn't do. God so loved. You And me. The world. That He sent or gave His only begotten Son.
That whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In other words, the perishing is not simply dying and going into the grave, which we all have to do, but it's an eternal separation from God. That's the perishing. Sin. Separates from God not just for time but forever.
Sin can't dwell. That means wrong living, wrong thinking, wrongdoing according to the Word of God cannot dwell in the presence of a holy God.
Now or at any other time. In eternity. But God was not willing to lose you, and God was not willing to lose me. And because He loved us, He sent His son The Bible tells us in the Gospel of John at the beginning: he was in the beginning with God, he was with God. And he was God.
The Bible says that everything that exists was created by him. And then he became flesh for only one reason. He became a man for one reason, because he loved us, and he went to a cross. And he allowed himself to be beaten, whipped, spit on, his beard ripped out of his face, mocked. By those people Including you and I, that he had created in his own image for the express and only purpose.
that we might be forgiven. that an innocent man might take the place. and pay the price for all the wrong things that you and I have done. God did not send His Son into the world, Jesus said, to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that does truth He said, comes to the light.
that his deeds might be discovered. Whether or not They originate from God. He comes to the light. As you heard, he doesn't hide, he doesn't try to push his way into the kingdom of God, he doesn't try to become something he's not, he simply comes to the light. It's like when you and I take a journey on an airplane or try to get into some public facility, you have to go through.
Now in modern airports you have to go through a body scanner which shows Everything that is on your person that is not allowed to make the journey. And he who does truth comes to this light. God has an x-ray machine, but the x-ray machine is love. The whole light is love. The whole motivation is love.
And whoever wants to belong to God. comes to this light of God. And doesn't try to dig down in his pockets and take off his belt and his shoes and put things in a plastic bin like we have to do in an airport because our hands are not deep enough. To go to the depths of our character because there are things in us that we can't get out. It's absolutely impossible.
So, all we can do is step in the light as we are. It's a private moment. God never puts us to shame. It's a personal moment. We step in the light and it can be uncomfortable.
When I first got saved and I started reading the Bible, it's God Almighty, how am I ever going to change? Houses, an incredibly selfish man. And I remember I was making my marriage a difficult thing in the first years, and I remember reading the book of Ephesians, said, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church. I remember saying out loud, oh, right. That's my first time.
That's easy for you to say, God, as Christ loves the church. How in the world am I going to do that? And I remember it was an honest question, it was an honest stepping into the light, it was an honest admission. I'm not like this, I don't do this, and I don't know how to do this. And the Lord answered it in an unusual way.
He just said, let me show you how much I love you. And in the knowledge of that love, Then Start to love your wife. I'm going to show you, and I'm going to teach you, and I'm going to guide you, but you have to be willing to come to the light. You have to be willing to read this book and let it lead you. And Bring these things as it is into the light.
And let God Take out of you and take out of me everything in us that doesn't belong there. It can't make, he says, he looks at us and says, no, that's unforgiveness. That can't make the journey. And this anger can't make the journey, and this can't make the journey. And he says, Now let me take it from you.
Don't have to empty your pockets, I'll take it from you. Step into the light, and I'll take it from you. But not only will I take it from you, I will replace it with things that you can't even dream. of having. But then he said, He who does evil comes to the light.
or hates the light. and neither comes to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. He likes the way he is. He doesn't really want to change. He'd like to go to heaven, but he'd like to keep his deeds.
Sort of like the man who goes to the airport and dumps all his junk in the plastic tray and knows he's going to pick it up again on the other side of the x-ray machine. A lot of people are like that in church. You dump all your junk in the lobby. You know, you're foul mouth. And suddenly you're kind and loving, even though you hate half of New York City.
And you put it in a plastic bin out in the lobby, knowing that you can come in here and do the God thing, but you're going to pick it all up in the lobby on the way out before you go home. Coming to the light, but not hating your deeds. Not still. married as it is to a fallen nature and not willing. to have the change.
That's why the very basis of the gospel has always been this word repent. That means turn. Have a change of mind. Walk away. In the strength of God, from what you don't need, trust Jesus Christ for your salvation.
Open your heart and realize you can't save yourself. Trust Him to come in and be your Lord and Savior. Then, in the strength of God, literally walk away. Walk away from what you don't need. In the strength and in the power of God, And open your heart and hands to embrace What God will give you.
Ah, what a journey this has been. It's been nothing but miraculous. For me personally. I am a completely different man. than when I was 30 years ago.
If I had not come to Christ, I'd be worse than I was 30 years ago. But what a difference it has been. I didn't care about anybody. I was a cop, I was as hard as stone. Folks, I'd go to an accident scene and draw chalk lines around dead bodies on the pavement and go eat my lunch.
I didn't care about anybody. It didn't even bother me.
Some cops say, well, they have to go home and drink because it bothers them. It didn't even bother me.
That's hardness. That's a coldness. That's an interior thing that says, listen, I've just endured enough and I'm not going to endure anymore. I don't expect anything good out there and I'm not going to be thrown for a loop if it isn't good. But suddenly when I come to Christ Somehow I started caring.
How do you explain that? Where did that come from? Suddenly, I find myself reaching out. To people that I had nothing in common with. Suddenly, I find myself in meetings.
I remember one night in a halfway house with a whole bunch of guys that had just come out of maximum security prison. We're all standing there arm in arm, singing, Bind us together, Lord, bind us together. How could that ever happen but in God? How could it happen? Where does it come from?
The willingness to just, when I came to Jesus, I said to my wife: if this is real, I want the whole thing, and if it's not real, I don't want any part of it. But I want the whole thing. And the Lord said, good, because I want the whole thing that you have, and I'm going to take it from you if you'll release it and let it go, and I'll give you what I am. I'll give you a new heart, I'll give you a new mind, I'll give you a new spirit, I'll give you a new ability. Give you the power to walk away from things that have gripped you and things that have become part of your character that you can never change.
No matter how many resolutions you make, you'll never change them. I'll change you. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. I feel like the hymn writer. I wish I had a thousand lives to live for God.
to talk about him on this side of eternity, of what he has done. How good he has been, how faithful he is to every promise. How awesome this life has been. Has it been without struggles? Absolutely not.
But I tell you Christ has been with me. He's been faithful to me. He's been faithful to my family. He's been faithful to my children. He's been faithful.
And Jesus Christ We'll be faithful to you. He'll open your prison doors. He'll heal your wounded hearts. He'll change you.
Sovereignly. You and I just get into this book and we look at the promises of God. We can't make them happen. That's why they're promises. If we could make them happen, they wouldn't be promises, they'd be commandments.
The promises. We just look and say, God, I want that. And the Lord says, I want to give it to you. And then suddenly, Step by step, line by line, this new life of Christ begins to unfold from within us. And we become, as the Bible says, new creations in Christ Jesus.
How are you going to deny? That this precious brother who pushes the pulpit out every Sunday is a new creation in Christ Jesus. Who would dare to deny that? How is it possible after all these years of living a certain way? Getting out of jail just to go out in the parking lot and hit a guard over the head and steal his car.
How is it possible to end up in a church pushing the pulpit out on Sunday? I'll tell you, it's not possible apart from Jesus Christ. It's evidence that this is real. This is not some religious pipe dream we're talking to you about. It's not some new New Year's resolution that you have to go and try to figure this out yourself.
This is life. It's eternal life. It's the love of God. It's the promise of God. It's the redemption of God.
It's the new life of God. As a matter of fact, it's all God and none of us. God so loved. The world. that he gave his only begotten son.
I want you to think of the cross. I want you to think of the beating. the nails, the scars, the mockery. This was the Son of God. This was the man who could calm the wind.
And the seas with the word of his mouth. This is the one who could call Lazarus out of the grave. This was the one who could give sight to the blind. This was the one who could tell a man, go home, your daughter's healed. This was a man who had incredible power.
He could take a little boy's bag lunch and feed 10,000 people with it. Yet because he loved you. He let fallen men take him. and beat him. To the point where historians And Isaiah said he was not recognizable almost as a human being.
He was so beaten, the Son of God. God so loved you. He didn't want to lose you. And you and I deserved Eternal punishment for the things that we have done. And for what we let ourselves become, but God so loved you, God so loved me, that He took my punishment on Himself.
What does He require of me? He requires that I acknowledge that I'm a sinner. That means I've violated the laws of God. I don't live right. I have nothing in me that could get me into eternity.
On my own Merit. He requires that I open my heart and say, Jesus, If you did that for me, the least I can do is live for you. Requires me to open my heart and say, Lord Jesus. You died for me. You are the Son of God.
You have the lawful right to my life. I open my heart to you and I invite you in to be my Lord and Savior. And then it requires of me that I start to walk with him. And let him bring that newness of life into me that he promises. To give me.
It's really that. Simple. But he who does truth, it says, comes to the light. You heard it, and now the time has come to make a choice. It's a choice.
Nobody will ever impose Eternal life on you. It's a choice you make. Can you imagine getting to the throne of God one day? And you remember being here And you did not choose life. You had a chance.
for an eternity with God and you turned it down. How this moment would come back. You have an opportunity. to be forgiven, an opportunity. To prove God.
I'm not going to try to prove them to you. Prove them yourself. Proving yourself. I prayed if it's real, if you are real. Come.
That was my prayer. That's over 30 years ago. I've been over most of the world now telling people about Jesus Christ. If you're real, come. And he did.
Proven. Open your heart. And receive it. is your Lord and Savior. I want to ask.
Who is there here? who doesn't know Christ as their Savior. But you'd be willing this evening to say Pastor, I've come to the place of having to make a decision. And I am deciding to live for Christ.
Now I don't fully get the journey. But I know it's real. There's a witness in my heart that this is right. I'm making a decision. to live for Jesus, would you just raise your hand wherever you are?
God bless you, everywhere. And would you? Those who raise their hands, would you join this man and just stand up? Stand up. Those who raise your hand, stand up.
Hallelujah. What a journey. you are about to undertake. What an incredible journey this is going to be.
Now, in a moment, we're all going to stand, and I'm going to invite those who have received Christ to come forward and meet me at the front of this auditorium. And if you should have stood up, you come here too. If you brought a friend with you and your friend is nervous, then turn to your friend and say, Look, if you want to go, I'll go with you. The important thing is you make that decision for Jesus Christ. Let's stand as we begin to worship.
Those who are coming to Christ, just come. Just come and meet me, please, if you will, at the front of this auditorium. We're going to pray a prayer together. Thank you, Lord. Come from the balcony.
The annex. Just come. Just come. Unashamedly. Come.
An awesome thing to know that When I get to the throne of God one day, you're going to be there. How we will remember this day and we will rejoice and dance and shout and sing. And you and I will be so happy that with all of our mess, we came. Because we were called just as we are and He saw us and loved us and took us. saved us and changed us.
Thank God. Never too late. Never too early. Always right on time. Hallelujah.
I'm going to pray a prayer with you and I'm going to ask you just to make it your own. It's a prayer where you just open your heart. There's no formula to this, so no specific or special words. I'm just helping you to open your heart and say, Jesus, come into my life and be my Savior. and forgive my sins.
Mm-hmm. and help me. not to pick up my junk in the lobby at the end of the service today. But to leave it here. You'll have to fight, and there'll be good days and bad days that happen to all of us, but you will change.
Little by little, step by step, you will know, like you know, like you know, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He is alive. You will know it. Nobody will have to tell you. You will know it. Let's pray this prayer together, please, if you would.
Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for loving me. I'm sorry for my sin. I don't want to live in disobedience to God anymore. I want this new life. this eternal life that God promises me through Jesus Christ.
I make a willful choice to turn away from what is wrong and turn towards what is right. Jesus, Son of God, thank you. for dying for me because you loved me. Thank you. for taking my place.
on that cross and paying the price. for the wrong that I have done. I open my life and I open my heart. And I invite you. to be Lord and Savior of my life.
From this day forward, by the grace of God, I will be a follower of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, for forgiving me and changing me and taking my life and making it something that will bring praise to you in the earth. I look forward with anticipation to the kind of a person that you will make me to be. I will give you all the praise and all the glory for all the good things that you will do in my life. I will follow you.
I love you and I believe in you. Thank you, Father, for this salvation. My name is written in heaven. I am a child of God because you said that I'm forgiven, I'm saved, and I will be changed. I believe it in Jesus' name.
Thank God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. 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.
