Be Sure, Be Very Very Sure

Carter Conlin from the historic Times Square Church in New York City.

Somebody needs you out there.

Somebody is fighting to get through and needs you.

Somebody is going to live because you make the choice to cross their river and go into their fight. We're glad you've joined us for a call to the nation with Carter Conlin. After 40 years in the wilderness, two tribes of Israel found a comfortable place to settle on the east side of the Jordan. But before they could rest, Moses reminded them that their brothers and sisters still had battles to fight. In today's message, Carter Conland challenges us to look beyond our own comfort and recognize that God has called His church to cross the river and fight for the sake of others.

Let's join Carter now with his message titled "Be Sure, Be Very, Very Sure." The Lord is now leading us into a specific place. That's what this message is all about. It has an unusual title. It's "Be Sure, Be Very, Very Sure," and I believe that God's doing the same thing now that He was doing at the time. When the nation of Israel first went into the Promised Land, now keep in mind when they went into the Promised Land, it's after forty years of being in the wilderness.

Four hundred years of captivity followed by forty years in the wilderness because of an evil report. That was brought to them by ten spies sent in by Moses, who said, "No, we can't do it. There are giants there. There are walled cities. We don't have the weaponry.

We just can't do it." And because of it, an entire generation, literally, except for the children, died in the wilderness. And so, in the part of the story I'm going to start in today, it's at the end of that forty-year period. You know, where they were in the wilderness, that they're about now to go into the promised land. We are in the in this story, even though Moses is involved in the dialogue, we're about three to four months from Moses' death and Joshua taking the people of Israel into the promised land. Father, I thank you, Lord, that you are going to give me the ability to convey the thought you put in my heart.

We we are indeed living in the last days, and I ask you, God, that as the last days' church, we would truly bring honor and glory to your name by simply obeying you and doing what you've asked us to do. By being the people you've called us to be, deliver us, Lord, from self-will. Deliver us, God, from trying to do things our own way. Deliver us, God, from marginalizing our callings, ah, from minimizing your word. Give us an obedient heart, Lord.

Each one of us today, even what we hear today, give us an obedient heart. For it's in your heart to bless us as your people. It's in your heart to lead us into places where your name is brought to glory because of what you do through our lives, and it's always involving human need. Always, always, always, without fail, it involves your people reaching out to somebody else. Who has no helper if we don't go?

So give us the grace not to succumb to just the desire for comfort, or just whatever the case is in each one of our lives. Give us the grace, my God. Give me the ability to speak this. And Lord, I'm asking again that you would stretch out your hand in this sanctuary and through the internet and do miracles. Let absolute, absolute, undebatable miracles happen.

Prison doors opening, blinded eyes seeing, deafened ears hearing. God Almighty, the prisoners being set free. Lord, the poor having the treasure of heaven open to them. Everything you said you came to do, we simply ask you to do that. We don't have to beg you to do what you came to do.

We agree with you. We ask for the glory of your name that you would do something so far beyond us that all we can do is stand back and lift our hands and say, God. Only, only you could have done this, and we thank you for it in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. Be sure, be very, very sure. Numbers chapter thirty-two, beginning at verse twenty.

Then Moses said to them, "Now, this is two tribes we're talking about, two tribes that basically said, 'You know, we've been forty years in the wilderness, Moses.'" Of course, they're in a desert the whole time, and they finally have conquered. It's I call it the East Side of Jordan. They're not over the Jordan yet, into what was designated to be the Promised Land. But two of the tribes they they finally landed on a place where there was grass. Can you imagine?

It's like living in New York and finally going to Pennsylvania one day. And there's just suddenly grass, and they've got cattle, and they want to, they want to, they want to plant things, they want to grow things, they want to raise their families, and I don't blame them. It's been forty years in the desert, forty years of attending funerals, literally every day. Until a whole generation had died off, and suddenly they—they just don't want to fight anymore. I get it.

I get it. You get it. I get it. We all understand that. You know, some of you have come to Christ and you say, "God, can I?

I know you have a call in my life. Can we can we just put that on hold for? Can we put the call on hold for a little while? I just want to enjoy life. I just want to.

I want to build something here. I want to. I want to smell the flowers. I get that. God gets that." But God speaking to these people and saying, "No, there's more for you than this.

I have a journey for you, and the journey I have for you involves other people. I came and I died for all of humanity, for whosoever will. And the Scripture says in Romans, they can't hear without a preacher." And they, there will be no preacher that goes to them unless they are sent. And the Holy Spirit is moving on us as His church in this last hour to go into places that we've not gone before, and and to embrace a calling that we may not have fully embraced. Moses said to them, "If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war." And all your armed men cross over Jordan before the Lord until He's driven out His enemies from before Him, and the land is subdued before the Lord.

Then afterward, you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel. And this land shall be your possession before the Lord. In other words, okay, you you've asked for permission to stay on the this side of the Jordan. The East Side, in a sense, the West Side is supposed to be where the the Promised Land is. But you you found what you want.

But if if you will go over and fight with your brothers and sisters until they have obtained their inheritance, if you will live beyond just living for yourself, as we teach in our Bible school at Summit International School of Ministry, if you will live for the benefit of others. If you will give yourself for them, so that they can conquer what needs to be conquered and have their inheritance, then you can come back and enjoy this place. But if you do not do so, then take note: you've sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. Be sure.

Now, when we when we talked about that verse, be sure your sin will find you out. We generally over the years the the connotation is that somebody has a hidden sin. You know, whether you've stolen something from the workplace, you've been in an illicit relationship you shouldn't be in, etc., etc., and it's hidden. And when that verse is quoted, we we we somehow think that you know what it means is there's going to be an exposure one day. That that very well might be the case for some, but that's not the context of this.

You see, this sin wasn't hidden. If the people didn't go with their brothers and sisters across into the promised land to conquer the giants and the armies that were occupying that, it would be a known thing. It would not be a hidden thing.

So so. Being a known thing, what does it mean? Your sin will find you out. Here's the way I see it. This kind of a sin, this the sin of selfishness, self focus, the sin of of knowing what to do and not doing it.

It can be hidden by activity. It can be hidden by even coming to church on a regular basis. It can be hidden by a lot of things, but ultimately, it will find its way out in your character. As a man thinks in his heart, the scripture says, "That's what he is." You can hide it. You can hide it for years, but eventually, it's going to come out.

Galatians six seven says, "Don't be deceived." Paul said, "Whatever a man sows." That's what he's going to reap. It does whatever seed you put in the ground. If you plant corn, you're not going to grow watermelons. You understand? Whatever whatever you sow, you're going to reap.

Matthew seven two. Jesus said, "Whatever measure you use, it will be measured back to you in the measure you give out to others now, and the measure you are yielded for the sake of others." There's a day coming where you're going to need somebody to come to you. Trust me. It's going to happen. You're just going to be, as the saying goes, you're going to be down lower than a snake's belly and a wagon rot.

That's what they say down in the south. You're going to be as low as you can go, and you can say, "God send somebody to me." But the question now is, where were you when somebody was calling that out? When somebody in New York City was saying, "God send somebody to help me," and and you didn't go, you you stayed on the east side of Jordan, may I call it that, and you said, "I'm I'm not interested in going over there." I've I've I've lived in a dry place, and I just I just want to enjoy life.

Now, now God doesn't resent that. Don't don't misunderstand that. The point is, the calling is is farther than that. It's higher on your life and on my life. I shared this morning, like I'm I'm 73 this month, and I could easily retire.

So we should sing "Staying Alive" for a little while right now, like. I mean, I could I could easily retire, and I could live on on what's been done in the past. And I, I told Pastor Teresa, I tell her every summer, you know, we we we vacationed beside the ocean, and I tell her, you know, I could manage your life from here. I know how to work a laptop now. I could I could book all your appointments and speaking engagements, and both of us would be very very happy.

I would be here by the water, and you could travel and preach the gospel. But whatever we choose to embrace, that's what we will become. If we neglect to do what we're called to do, you see, I'm not called to retire. I think my own son, one of my own sons, said it the best to me. He said, "Dad, how could you even think about retiring?" He says, "You finally know something." He said, "Why did the people who finally get it right retire, and then leave it for the ones who don't really are not fully formed in God yet to go out and and preach the gospel?

And they're they're all sometimes a little bit off track. You see, in this case, God was saying to His people, these two tribes, if if if you." If you neglect to do what you know to do, your sin will find you out. You you cannot we cannot selectively choose what we want in the Word of God and ignore the rest without a consequence. You you cannot be in a wrong relationship with somebody and somehow think there will be no consequence. The wages of sin is still death.

The wages still the same. Nothing has changed. You can't. There's no exception for you because you're lonely. Do you understand?

There's no exception. Wages of sin is still death. You you. Are in a relationship with somebody you shouldn't be in, or you're in a relationship with somebody that's that's not a believer in Jesus Christ, thinking it's oh that's going to change one day. Not necessarily so, and it gets a whole lot worse sometimes because people know what the Word of God says, but they choose to be unequally yoked with a non-believer.

Years ago. I was asked if I could go and try to help a missionary, a famous missionary. A missionary whose name is a household name in his own denomination. A missionary who went overseas and for almost three decades worked in a war-torn country. A missionary who was the person who actually took the president out of that nation at a certain time when the nation fell.

A missionary who was drawn back when the war was over and given the presidential medal and certificates and accolades and all kinds of things. Came home from the mission field and. Wouldn't come out of his basement. He had a finished basement, mind you, in his home, but he he kind of hunkered down there and wouldn't come out. Wouldn't go to churches and speak.

He had so much to say. Wouldn't just wouldn't do anything. And I was asked if I could go to try to help him, so I went to see him. And ironically, he was the age that I am right now. He was seventy two years old, and I went to see him.

And started talking to him about you know why why won't you go to church? And only to find out that he had had a wounding, a church wounding that happened in his life almost forty years before, and he had refused to forgive the church, the people that were involved, and so he covered up all of this. He knew what to do and wouldn't do it, and he covered it all up with activity. And he ended up with certificates on his wall, and and medals and accolades, and in his basement, ranting and raving and fussing and spinning and angry, at the thought of forgiving somebody or some people who had hurt him forty years before. Be sure, your sin will find you out.

The bitterness that had been in him for forty years—that he tried to cover up with all this missionary work—finally found him out. It came to the surface, and it it ruined his inheritance. It ruined what should have been wonderful years. Should have been the ability to go into churches and and and talk about the faithfulness of God and what he had seen in the life on the mission field. And he couldn't because he was so full of bitterness that he actually, in my opinion, hated the Church of Jesus Christ.

But yet went to the mission field. I asked him. I said, "Why did you go to the mission field?" He said, "I went there to get away from the church." Were you called to the mission field? I asked him. He says, "I really don't know if I was or wasn't.

I just needed to get away." So you end up with certificates and medals and accolades and ceremonies, and locked in your basement when it's all over. He knew to forgive. Isn't it ironic that you're representing a kingdom of forgiveness? You're representing the one who went to a cross so that we could be forgiven. The one who said, "Father, forgive them; they don't know what they do." And yet, you won't forgive.

It's the ultimate irony, isn't it? If we represent the kingdom of God, isn't forgiveness our message? Aren't we supposed to be messengers of forgiveness? You know, Jesus himself said there was a man who owed a terrific debt, and he went to the master that he owed it to, and he said, "Forgive me, and over time I'll try to pay back everything I owe." It says the master was moved with compassion and forgave him his debt. But the same man went out and took somebody that owed him just a significant, a little amount of money compared to what he he once owed, and he said he took him by the throat and said, "Pay me what you owe me." When the master found out, he was irate and threw him into prison and delivered him to the tormentors.

That's what the scripture says. This missionary was tormented. He was delivered to the tormentors. I, I, I have no joy in sharing this story. It was tragic.

It was sad. I remember leaving there with such a heaviness in my heart, saying, "God, how can a man serve you all these years and end up so tormented?" End up such a mess at the end of his days, and and such a horrible testimony to his family, the ones around him. He had kids and grandkids, and but what an awful testimony! Grandpa, the former missionary, won't come out of the basement and just rants and raves against the Church of Jesus Christ. Self-focus is the opposite of taking up one's cross and following Christ.

It is.

Now we have a tendency to be focused on ourselves when we first. I get that. I, I was, you are, or were. We come to Christ, and it's all about me, my freedom, my my this, my mind, my my addictions, my everything, mine. Which is great.

It's like we're we're we're children in the Lord, aren't we? We're we're babes in Christ, as as the Scripture says we are. Like you, if you ever get a chance to hang around a toddler, that's all they talk about. Me, that's mine. It's mine.

It's mine. Mine, mine, me, my, my, my, my, my, me, my, my, my. I'm hungry. I'm hungry. I'm.

It's never about anybody else. Ever one time about somebody else. It's mine. That's my ball. That's my cartoon.

That's my coloring book. That's my car. That's my rattle. That's my stick. It doesn't matter what it is.

It's mine. Now that's cute. Until you get to be 28 years old, it's not cute anymore. The father would say, "What's wrong with my stupid son?" I mean, it's just not cute. When you get to be older, if let's say you're in the family business, you're expected to become a little more mature.

You're expected to look out beyond yourself. Into the into the business, in a sense, of the corporation that you're part of, or your family business, you're expected to be to get out of yourself and get into what the family is all about. But what about the kingdom of God? At some point, aren't we expected to kind of escape ourselves and become involved in what the kingdom of God is and why we are here on the earth as a church, the Church of Jesus Christ? The Scripture says, for example, "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." But how can they hear without a preacher?

And how can they preach except they be sent? And if I, I'm not allowed to add a verse to Scripture, but I can add a thought. And how shall they be sent unless they're willing to be sent by God Himself? Unless they're willing to actually leave their comfort zone, go across the Jordan, and go into that place and fight for somebody else, it's no longer about me. It's now about you.

It's no longer about me. It's about the kids in this generation that are being lied to in their schools and being confused on every conceivable level. It's about the families that are being broken to pieces. It's about the people who are addicted and depressed and suicidal in society. At some point, it has to be not about me, but about them.

In Luke chapter 15, there was a son, father's son, and he, one day, I don't know, he just maybe thought, I just, I want, I want to, I want to smell the grass on the other side of the, the valley, and he just went to his father. Jesus said, and he asked for his inheritance. It's like when we are the sons and daughters of God, and we say, "I want the I want the freedom, I want the forgiveness, I want the I want the giftings of the Holy Spirit, I want the good feeling that I get, knowing that my sins are forgiven." The Scripture says, "His father gave it to him, but he took it and he went into a faraway place from the heart of his father, and he spent." All he had on riotous living, and in the original text, riotous living means self-focus. Spent it on himself, on his own indulgence. He he he stayed on the wrong side.

He wasn't fighting for anybody. He just was just looking for comfort. And and please don't misunderstand me. I get that. Some some some of us have been so unhappy for so long that when you finally do get saved, you just want to enjoy life a bit.

I get that without taking up a cross, your cross yet at least anyway. And God understands it. There is a point of healing, a point of learning, a point of just growing in grace. But there is a point of maturity as well, where we understand if anyone would be my disciple, let him deny himself or herself and take up his cross and follow me. Jesus said, "Where I am, there will my disciple be also." This young man, he he went into the the land of self focus.

Everybody is self focused there. It's all about me, myself, and I. And maybe even went to a church that was like that. Everything is about you. Be your best, you.

Row a better boat. Have a nicer personality. Get that big promotion on the job. Maybe the gospel he's listening to is all just about himself, just reinforcing his error, as I see it. But you see, in the land of selfishness, it gets it gets hungry.

You can get hungry there. There's, you see, in the in the Christian life, because we're meant for so much more. When we focus only on ourselves, we start to starve, and that's what happened with this young man. He got so hungry that he even wanted to eat pigs' food. He was starving, and he started trying to reach out in the land of focus on yourself.

And he's looking for somebody to give him something, but everybody is just as selfish as him, and nobody will give him anything there. And so one day, scripture says he comes to himself and says, "I don't fully get my father's house, but it's better than here." I'm starving here in my father's house. There's there's nourishment, and there's plenty of it, and so he gets up and heads home. You see, his sin found him out. That's what happened.

His sin of neglecting to do what he was called to do found him out. It found him out because he became, as a as a as a son of his father, he was starving. You understand? You might be here today, and you might be a child of God, but maybe you're spiritually starving inside, and you've come here today saying, "God, what is wrong with me?" Why am I so unfulfilled? Why am I?

Why am I? Why am I spiritually starving all the time? Why am? Why am I just always just struggling not to eat pigs' food? What is it with this walk that I have?

Is it? Is it? Does it just not work for me? And he got up and he just said, "I'm. I'm just.

I'm. I don't fully get my father's house, but I. I know there's. There's something there for me." And he got up and he started heading home down the road. He didn't quite know what to expect.

I think I know that I've failed. I think I know that I've not been the son that I'm called to be. I I think I know I've not been about my father's business, and and is he going to reject me? And he gets up and he's so far away, but as he's coming towards the house, how shocked he must have been to see this old gray-haired father come running down the road towards him. And he's not sure: is he going to reject me?

Is he going to put out his hand and say, "No, no, no, father, for you, you, you, you could have represented." In my house, but you went off into the land of self-focus, and you indulged everything on yourself. You deserve everything you got. He didn't know what to expect, and how shocked he must have been when his old father put his arms around him and embraced him and kissed him on the neck and hugged him like he'd never been hugged before. Be very, very sure of this one thing: if you head up towards God. If you've not been and you're aware you've not been what you ought to be, if you have neglected truth in some matter, know this: when you head towards God, be very sure He will get to you before you get to Him.

Be very, very sure that He loves you. You've been listening to Carter Conlin from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk with 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 Conlin.