Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. We don't fully appreciate Christ going to the cross. We don't even fathom what that meant. We don't fully understand the sacrifice. Yes, we're the children of our Heavenly Father, but we don't understand, we don't even appreciate it.
But even when we don't appreciate it, He keeps saving up for us. And when we call out, He still answers. His love never fails. Thank God, thank God, thank God. Thank you for taking time to join us this week for a call to the nation with Carter Conlon.
Today, Carter has titled his message, The Faithfulness of My Father's Hand. He'll take us to Proverbs 8 to show us a small picture from the Bible showing the amazing fellowship between God the Father and God the Son. This takes place before the world was created. and shows the tremendous love and bond between them. Let's join Carter now with this important message.
It came to my mind last week when I was praying about speaking here. that I have never honored my father.
Now I have spoken about my father. And I've tried to be kind in my speech about him. But I've never honored him. And honoring your father and your mother is a commandment of the Lord. It's not a suggestion.
It's a commandment. And there's nothing in the Bible that says if you think he or she in your mother's case is worthy of it. God doesn't put an asterisk. He said, I want you to honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with a promise. That's Ephesians 6.
Verses two and three. And the promise is that it may be well with you. and that you may live long on the earth. But it's just something I need to do and I started thinking about it Yeah. I did as a lot of people do.
I took my father for granted. I was of the generation in the 1960s and 70s that were all into doing our own thing. Anyone who's my age remembers that. Rebellious against all authority and kind of casting off the values of our parents as if they weren't worth following. and not ever understanding or appreciating.
what those who have come before us have done for us. My father was not a believer until the end of his life. Thank God he came to Christ as Savior. in the last days of his life, the last moments of his life actually. But We've all had fathers.
Some fathers have been faithful, and others not so much.
Some have been present, others have been absent.
Some have been kind and others not so kind. But for many, hopefully, we've been able to see some of the characteristics. Of God the Father. I know it's difficult. You know, I've had a lot of people, especially in New York, over the years, say, I have no trouble with the Holy Spirit, I have no trouble with Jesus the Savior, but I have a real hard time with the Father.
I can't picture God as a Father. And that's because there's an unresolved issue in the heart. I think it's a good thing to just make the choice to honor your Father, as the Scripture says. No conditions, no terms, no conditions to say, God, this was not a suggestion, it was a commandment. And it was a commandment that came with a promise.
So, God, I'm going to speak about my Father. From this day forward, in an honoring way. And as a matter of fact, when I made that choice, the Lord showed me some things. About Himself, that He actually taught me through my Father, that I really was never aware of. And so I want to talk about the faithfulness of my Father's hand from the Gospel of John chapter 10.
Now though my father wasn't saved until his final days on the earth, Yet I learned something about God from the kind of man that he was. First and foremost, he lived for a cause higher than preserving himself. It had been his dream since he was a young man to go to university. He was very, very, very bright when it came to science and math, and I'm sure he wanted to. Further is college education, get a degree perhaps in engineering or architecture.
But in the first year of his university in Canada, War broke out in Europe. And it came to his attention that there was a madman with an army that was taking nations and peoples captive and really doing serious harm. to some people, especially the Jewish people. in that particular time. And he Made a choice to leave university.
He wasn't drafted, he volunteered. He was 19 years old when he volunteered to go into the military. He subsequently was stationed with the Air Force and was. put on an Air Force base in London, England. He flew in a Lancaster bomber.
And he flew about three dozen runs over enemy territory. He was shot down, shot, crash-landed twice, survived both times. And he was part of about 28 squads that were stationed at this particular base in England. When the war was over, there was only eight squads left. Squad was about eight to nine men, and at the end of the war, there was only eight of 28 squads left.
All of the rest were shot down or taken prisoner. In the war. You think of what it cost my father to give me a hope and to give me a future. And it causes me to think about God. We so likely say the verse, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not die.
perish, but have everlasting life. But we often very lightly think about what it must have cost God the Father. to send his son to this Why am I? to redeem a creation, a humanity created in the image of God who had rebelled against God, fully well knowing the personal cost. I don't think we can fathom the cost of what it meant for God the Father to pour his wrath out on his son.
You see, they had always been coexistent together. There never was a beginning, they always existed. Time didn't exist for God, the three persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so to be. separated even for a moment.
To have to pour his wrath out upon his son. We sometimes say it so lightly: God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. We quote it like it's a poem by Shakespeare. and maybe don't fully understand the cost. But I understand it even better today because of the cost.
of my father. of leaving the dream of his life. To go and fight for a cause higher than preserving himself. And he instilled that into me. The times that he talked to me about Carter, life is not just about living for yourself.
And we actually teach it at our Bible school now. True Christianity, the purest expression of the Christian faith, is found in living not for ourselves, but for the benefit of others. Yielding our lives for the sake of somebody else, somebody else who's in a prison, somebody else who's blinded, somebody else who's wounded in heart, somebody else who has no future, they have no hope. If somebody doesn't fight for them. If somebody doesn't stand up and pray for them, if somebody doesn't go to them with a word from God.
We can't do everything. Obviously, my father couldn't defeat the German army on his own, but he could do something, and that's got to be the attitude of heart. In the house of God and among those who are called by the name, of Jesus Christ. In the book of Proverbs, Chapter 8, now it's about wisdom solely, this particular chapter. It's not really about Christ.
Some believe it is, but I personally don't. I think it's really about wisdom. That dwelt with God from the From before even time began. But in this passage of scripture in Proverbs 8, we get a picture of what the fellowship. Between God the Father and God the Son must have been like.
before time began, before the world was created.
So, I want to look at Proverbs 8 just for a moment from verse 22 to verse 30 as a type. It's only a picture. It's not necessarily about Christ himself, but it's a picture. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills I was brought forth. While yet he had not made the earth or the fields or the primal dust of the world, when he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit.
So that the waters would not transgress his command. When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him as a master craftsman, and I was daily his delight. Rejoicing always. Before him. Think of what it cost the Father.
I don't know if I can fathom it. I try. But I know I'm never going to say lightly John 3:16 again, I think, for the rest of my life. For God so loved the world, thinking of my father and thinking of He giving up his dream. It was his dream.
to be an engineer. It was his dream to be an architect. To build things. It was his dream to invent and design, but he gave it all up because. Of a People In other parts of the world, it didn't necessarily affect him, but he was of that generation that considered it reasonable to live for a higher cause than preserving ourselves.
And in my heart, as I think back on my father, I say, God, would you give me that strength of character? In my life, that I would consider it reasonable to live my life for the sake of others. I consider it reasonable to be given for somebody that if nobody helps them, they're going to be overrun. by grief, sorrow, and darkness and evil. There's an enemy.
who seeks to steal and kill and destroy. But you've given me words of life, and you've given me the ability to do something about it. And even my prayers, if I can't go there, my prayers can fly into enemy territory and drop as many bombs as need to be dropped on the devil himself. When the war was over, My father came back. And the opportunity for education was now gone.
The opportunity for university had passed. There was no money. Everyone come back and there was it was very hard. The wages were very, very small. Economies were trying to rebuild And he took a humble job.
in a mine, in a copper mine, upon returning. And he knew he had given up his dream. But his dream began to shift and he began to save for my future, his firstborn son. Everything he did, he started putting money away, little bits here, little bits there. And he didn't make a lot of money in what he did, but he started putting money away so that I could have the future that he lost.
in fighting for somebody else. And speaking of Jesus Christ. It tells us in Philippians. Chapter 2. Verses three to eight.
Let nothing be done. Through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others. better than himself. Let each of you not only look out for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.
He took on the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearances of man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death. Even the death of the cross. My father began to save for my education.
So that his dream, in a sense, that he had lost in fighting for others, could be fulfilled through his son. But unfortunately, I didn't appreciate it. My generation was stupid. I'll tell you straight out. Everybody was doing their own thing, and it was fashionable to cast off the values of your parents and launch out.
experience the world and a whole bunch of other stuff. And my father. Even though he knew, I didn't appreciate what he had done. You know, he would maybe try. It was hard for these men to talk about the war because they had seen things that people should never have to see in their lifetime.
And it was hard for him, but when he would talk about the fact that he went off and he fought. Over Germany and places like that. I would just brush it off. Yeah, sure, that was great. I didn't appreciate the fact that he was saving up for me.
But the fact is, it never stopped him from saving. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He knew. He knew at a certain point.
It must have broken his heart. But he kept storing for me and he kept saving. I think at the times that we don't appreciate what God did for us. We don't fully appreciate Christ going to the cross. We don't even fathom what that meant.
We don't fully understand the sacrifice. Yes, we're the children of our Heavenly Father, but we don't understand. We don't even appreciate it. But even when we don't appreciate it, He keeps saving up for us and He keeps storing up for us. And when we call out, he still answers.
His love never fails. Thank God, thank God, thank God. My father's word was his bond. What he said. He didn't need to say twice.
There was a good side to that and there was a bad side to that. If he said to me, you say another word, I'm going to slap your mouth. You'd knew if I said another word. And you could do that back then, by the way. Matter of fact, your neighbors could do it too as well.
If they heard you swearing on the street corner, they grab you by the ear and bring you home to your father for real. For real. And most of us turned out semi-normal in spite of what we consider abuse today. 2 Corinthians 1.20 says, the promises of God In him that is in Christ are yes, and in him, amen, to the glory. of God Through us.
God's word is his bond. I learned that through my father. I never doubted what my father said. And my father was also punctual to a fault. He had a theme, better never than late.
If he asked me to be home at five and I walked in the door one minute after, he'd say, where were you? He was punctual to a fault. You didn't need a watch with my father. If he said, I'm going to pick you up at 2 o'clock, he'd be there at 2 o'clock. Right on the dot.
I don't know how he did it. But he did it. Punctual literally to a fault. And you think about. We talked so glibly about God.
He said, He won't come when we want him to think he should, but he comes right on time. He's never late. He's never late. He has a plan for every one of our lives. And when we call out to him, he may not come when we want it, but he'll be there right on time.
Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes. I've learned that about God through my Father. And I'm thankful to heaven. that I did. I had a very, very tender moment.
with my father because Probably in my teen years, there began to be a separation. It wasn't his fault, it was mine. And our relationship was very strained for quite a long season. But he got cancer. I prayed for him for 26 years, and God, in his mercy, gave him a, it's mercy, folks, that gave him a.
A long and a painful cancer. You see, If it wasn't for mercy, he could have just had a heart attack and died and he'd be in hell today. But God broke down that oak tree. Because he loved him. And there was something good in that man.
That man stood for good. I never heard my father tell a lie. I never heard him embellish a story. That's the gospel truth, not even one time. I never saw him turn his head and look at a pretty woman going by.
There was something of God in that man's character. Yes, he wasn't a Christian, but he's still created in the image of God. And there was a value system in that man that did something in my life.
Some of the characteristics that are in my life, not all of them, but some of them that are in my life, I learned from my father. I learned by watching his life. I learned by seeing how he acted. I learned what was good. and what was not good.
And in the last season of his life, We became close. As a matter of fact, at one point, he was one of the few that he would even let touch him. And I remember going to see him one day and sitting down with him. And he had cancer, and because he had cancer, he had a colostomy on his side where your excrement goes into a bag on his side. attached to his uh colon.
or his intestines. And So what happened was he wouldn't deal with it. World War II guys were all stubborn. I'll tell you straight out. I knew a lot of them because of my dad.
They were all the same. Thank God they were stubborn. That's what sent them into battle in the first place and kept them there. But he wouldn't deal with it.
So I flew. My mother called me and I flew to Canada and I went and I got him out of bed and I made him sit in front of the toilet and I said, Dad, you've got to deal with this. You can't just ignore this thing. It's not going to go away. The nurse only comes in every third day and this thing's going to explode.
You can't just leave it like this. And they had told... They had told us, if you have to deal with this thing, you have to wear a mask with strawberry spray in it, and you have to wear rubber gloves, because it was cancer, and the smell was beyond anything you'd want to ever smell. And I'm sitting there with him in front of the toilet, and I didn't put on a mask, and I put no gloves on, and I took it off. And I cleaned it.
And I got his excrement all over my hands. He saw that. He was watching me do this. He's watching me clean it. He's seeing my hands filled with his excrement.
He knows how bad it smells. Then I took him, I cleansed it, I put it back on, I put him back in bed. And I said, Dad, I want to tell you one more time what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ. And For the first time ever, he listened to me. I said, it's going to take me three minutes, and I want you to listen to me.
And he just, okay. And he listened for the very first time. I told him what you have to do to be born again.
So I came back to New York City and I was only back here a short season. And I told Pastor David Wilkerson, I have a real burden. to go back home. To see my father. And Pastor David said to me, this is your window.
This is your window. Into his soul, he said, go and go now. I got on the plane immediately and I flew there. And I went to my mother's house and I was going to shower up and get ready and go and visit him in the evening. And my brother, who hadn't talked to me in years.
He called and he said, I'm at the hospital. Are you coming? I thought that's very odd because he doesn't really talk to me. or hadn't at that point. And I remember saying, this has to be the hand of God.
So I just left the house and I went to the hospital. My dad's sitting inside the room on a chair. And I walked in, just a regular chair. He was still able to get out of bed and sit down. And I looked at him, and I didn't even say hello.
I just said, have you been praying? He said, I've been praying all night. I said, You ready to pray with me now? He said, If you'd like that, I'd really like to do that. Praise God.
I let him listen, listen. I led him in a sinner's prayer from Genesis to Revelation. I'm telling you straight out: I'm a sinner. I'm lost. I can't save myself.
I need a Savior. And then I helped him back into bed, and the next hour was the sweetest hour I had ever spent with my father on this earth. We talked about forgiveness, we talked about Christ, we talked about the cross, we talked about heaven. And the last thing he said to me, and I didn't know this. But he was going to slide into a coma shortly after I left and he never came out.
He died not too long after. But the thing is, the last thing he said to me, I said, Dad, it's going to be so awesome when I get to heaven. And you are there at the gate to greet me. He looked at me, he said. Carter, I'll be there.
I'll be there. God the Father sacrificed for me. He took a lower place than he was worthy of. He made promises and commitment to me. Even though we Many times throughout the years, I've not returned it in like kind.
As David the Psalmist once said, God, if you marked iniquity, Which one of us would stand? And yet all was not in vain. In my life. The investment that God has made in my life through my Father. has brought a dividend back into the kingdom of God.
And I am forever grateful to God my Father, and I am forever grateful to my Father, Charles Conlon. On this shirt. Even though he didn't know Christ, he lived as a godly man before me. and made a difference in my life. and put some aspects of God into my character.
He told me one time, he said, Carter, many times, he said, Carter, if your word is worth nothing, you are worth nothing. He said, a man is only as good as his word. And if you say something and you don't follow through, you've lost your value. You've lost your worth. If you say you're going to do something, you do it.
If you say you're going to do something a certain way, you do it a certain way. My father was such a man, if he told you that he would paint your fence for $100, And he miscalculated and it cost him $130 for the materials. He would paint your fence for $100. Because he was a man of his word. And what he said was his bond.
And that was part of his generation. He wasn't the only one, there were others like that. But I never valued it. Do you understand what I'm saying? I do now.
It's like a revelation. I don't even know how. to fully articulate it. But God, thank you for the father you gave me. And forgive me, God.
Forgive me, God, for not honoring him. I know I'll get a chance again in heaven, but I wish to. Heaven that I had a chance on the earth. I wish I had a chance to sit with my father and just look him in the eye and say, Thank you for being the man that you are and were. Thank you for what you did, how you lived your life, how you loved my mother.
How you were faithful to your family. How you took a lower place so that you could afford to send us to a higher place. How you sacrificed for us. You worked so hard every day. You were as punctual as the Tower of Big Ben in London.
You could be counted on when you said you would do something, you did it. And I would look him in the eye and say, Father, would you forgive me for not honoring you? The way I should have. I didn't honor you in my speech. I didn't honor you in my thoughts.
I didn't esteem the man you were as I should have. And I'm truly ashamed of that. And I'm so thankful that God has brought that to my attention. And He spoke about something I never anticipated He would. You have not honored your father, you've spoken of your father.
And you've made efforts not to dishonor him, but you have never honored your father. Surrender your life into the hand of God. Surrender your future into the hands of God. Let God take it. Seal it.
Multiply it. Let your life be used for his glory. You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk in Christ, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc.
And be sure to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
