Carter Conlin from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. Stand still, take no action of your own. You don't have to protect yourself, and you don't have to find your own safety. God says, "You stand still, stand in confidence. I will fight for you.
The battle is not yours. The battle belongs to the Lord. It is my battle.
So stand still." We're glad you've joined us for a call to the nation with Carter Conlin. When the foundations around us seem to be crumbling, fear can tell us to retreat, find a safe place, and simply wait out the storm. But God has called His people to something greater. In today's message, Carter Comlan reminds us that we can stand still in confidence that the battle belongs to the Lord, while moving forward in the purpose and plan He has given us. Let's join Carter now with his message titled "Stand Still, Go Forward." Thank you, everybody here in the house.
You may be seated, and those that are joining us online. God be with you. Thank you for being with us in this prayer meeting. And we are truly believing that God's going to do a miracle in your life, not just right now, but in the days ahead too, as well. We'd love to hear from you because here at at our Bible school, all the students are gone for the summer, and so what an opportunity for you to text into us or give us a a video, a small video from your your cell phone camera.
What what God's been doing in your life? How He's been answering prayers that you have been praying. To the Lord, we'd really appreciate that, and you can send that in to info at summitpa.org. Info at summitpa.org. Let us know how God is answering prayer in your life.
We would love to hear from you over the course of the summer. We'll play that on the screen. Everybody can have an opportunity just to see who's on the other side of this camera, because I know you're out there, and really do thank God for you. I have an unusual message tonight, and at the end of this message, we're going to have communion together. And so, if you had some bread and some juice at home, and you can avail yourself of that, and then partake with us as we celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross over 2,000 years ago, in paying the price for your sin and for mine, that we might know that we're forgiven by God, that we have a purpose on the earth, and a promise of eternal life in heaven with God when this life is over.
This message tonight is called "Stand Still, Go Forward." It's an unusual title. Stand still, go forward. Psalm 11 is where I want to start this evening. Father, I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ. We are truly at a crisis point in history, when godlessness seems to be abounding on every street corner.
Lord, in the halls of government, in other places, Lord, there are numerous voices being raised up that are against truth as we know it. Against morality, against just clear definitions, God of what is right and what is wrong, Lord Jesus Christ, you've always had a plan throughout history, and that plan has involved the poor, the marginalized, the nobodies, the nothings of this world. You give us your Holy Spirit, you raise us up, God, and you cause our lives to make a difference. I pray tonight, Lord, that through the sharing of this word, that you will bring people who are listening to this. Through the corridors of fear and into this place, God, where their lives will make a difference.
Let faith abound where fear is trying to get access to people's hearts and minds, and Lord, do a work that only You can do. Empower me to speak this, Lord. Illuminate Your Word; let it find a lodging place in every mind and in every heart. And God, as You tell us, Your Word never comes back to You void. Thank You, Lord, that wherever Your Word finds a lodging place, miracles begin to happen, and we thank You for it and we praise You in Jesus' name.
Amen. Psalm eleven. I want to start there. It's a psalm of David.
Now, keep in mind, David is a man that is slated to be a king in his generation. He is. His life is going to be used by God to change the future. And there are people listening tonight. Maybe you're here in the house, and maybe you're listening online.
And I'm going to tell you something boldly. Your life. Your life is. Destined by God to make a difference in the future, in your family, in your community, in your neighborhood, and and some even far beyond that.
Now. We look at the people in Scripture, and we have a tendency to almost deify these people, and we forget that the people that God has used throughout history were ordinary people like you and I, with ordinary fears, ordinary struggles, questions, doubts, unbelief, sometimes fears about the future. And this is David, who was destined to be a king in Psalm 11. He says, "He begins by saying, 'In the Lord I put my trust.' How can you say to my soul?" Now he's speaking to himself, now to his own heart. How can you say to my soul, 'Flee as a bird to your mountain,' for look, the wicked bend their bow; they make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart.
If the foundations are destroyed. What can the righteous do?
Now David is living at least a portion of his life at a time when there is a leadership in the nation under Saul that is really cast off the seeking of God, and all kinds of alternate thinking are beginning to prosper. David has a deeply embedded love for God at the center core of his being, but there are things beginning to happen in his life. The promises that God once gave him don't seem to be materializing at this particular point in his life, and there's a thought inside. Of his heart, flee! Find a refuge.
Find a safe place. Anybody here ever gone through that? Have you ever thought that in your heart? Oh God, I wish I could just find an oasis somewhere where I could kind of ride out the rest of this life. I'm sick of the conversation.
I'm sick of the media. I'm tired of the cursing in this society. I'm tired of the confusion. I'm tired of evil being called good and good being called evil. There's something in me that just wants to find a place of refuge.
We're all like that. David was like that. You know, he was not destined for this. He was destined to sit on a throne. He was destined to be a catalyst that was going to change, not only just the future of his nation, but it was going to change our future too as well.
Because Christ, of course, was in his lineage. How do you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain"? Look, the wicked are bending their bow, and they're making ready the arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. And if the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do, if we're looking and we're just seeing everything that we we hold dear, everything that has made us the people that we are today, and we're we're just watching the erosion of all of it? The question comes into my heart and yours.
What can my life do? How can I make a difference? How could God possibly use my life? Wouldn't it be better just to find a refuge somewhere to flee into some place where I can just live my life in peace? I think David is speaking directly to the fear that's wanting to rise and reign in his own heart, just like the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians chapter seven and verse five.
He talks about being in Macedonia. He says, "Our bodies had no rest; we were troubled on every side, outside were conflicts, and inside were fears." David also says in Psalm thirty-one verses twelve and thirteen, "I'm forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I'm like a broken vessel. I hear the slander of many. Fear is on every side, while they take counsel together against me and they scheme to take away my life.
In other words, they think that my life is of no consequence against their plans. They mock me." And they scheme to take away my influence. We're living in a generation like that today, folks, where darkness is mocking the Church of Jesus Christ, as if our voice doesn't matter, our religion doesn't matter, our our pursuits don't matter, our love of truth doesn't matter, and they're just kind of not looking at the Church of Jesus Christ as much of a threat to their agenda that they're planning for this day. As David says, "Look" in verse two of Psalm eleven. The wicked are bending their bow, make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart.
David is saying to God, "God, look, their plan is already in motion. And if our foundations are destroyed or being destroyed, what difference can my life make? Those of us who love God." Those of us who still embrace truth, those of us who still believe this is the word of God, this is the book that holds the key to not only eternal life but abundant life and purposeful life here on the earth. If the foundations of all of this are being eroded from underneath us, what can we who love God still do?
Well, I want to talk about three things that we can do. Firstly, if I'm indeed righteous, as God declares me to be in Christ. Then, as much as I know, I must walk in the newness of life that is promised me through Jesus Christ. What I can do is what the church did in the Book of Acts, chapter two. I can bring Jesus Christ in my life into the marketplace, in my speech, in my conduct, in the way I conduct my life, in the things I talk about, and with an empowerment of God's Holy Spirit within my life, I can bring Jesus Christ.
Visibly, into the marketplace. There was a whole plethora of ideas, of course, going by this upper room. But when the early church stepped out into that marketplace, the presence of Christ went with them. And as they began to speak, as they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, it stopped people in their tracks. There's all kinds of evil speech going on today.
People can't even talk without cursing anymore. I find it so disheartening to to hear our political leaders using profanity as they speak, as if that's some kind of an example to our children and our young people that are being raised up in this generation. Oh God, help us again. God help us as God's people to go into the marketplace speaking right. Speaking truth, speaking with power, speaking about what God has done, what God is doing, and what God is able to do.
Speaking as empowered by the Holy Spirit of God—that's what the righteous can do. Not to draw back and to hide on some mountaintop, not to stay cloistered in some secret of safe upper room, but to go out into the marketplace and let our speech be a contrast to the evil speech of this generation. And believing that where that needs to go, God will take it there. And I remind you, this early church, when they stepped out of the upper room, they changed the whole known world. Just a hundred and twenty ordinary people, empowered by.
The spirit of God stepped out of that place of prayer, and they began to speak as God gave them utterance. And when they did, thousands began to bend their knee. Oh God, do it again in this generation. Oh God, take us into the marketplace and let our speech make a difference. Thank you, Lord God, that I know that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He does not change, and what He did then, He will do again in our time. Taking ordinary people, fishermen and bakers and carpenters and whatever else they were, and empowering them with His Holy Spirit and sending them out, and no matter what kind of resistance this world had erected against the truth of God, it gave way. When the Spirit of God was animating a an ordinary people who stepped out and decided not to hide, you see, David was fighting that thought. There is an inward part that wants me to flee to my own mountain, to find my own refuge, to hide as Gideon once did in my own backyard, and try to squeak out a living, and try to find some form of happiness. But God says, No, that's not what your life is called to be.
That's not what I'm speaking to you about. Those who are sitting at home tonight, and you're in your living room, and you're you're fighting depression and everything else that hell has brought against you. God has a plan for your life. He's going to change you, save you, empower you, and send you into the public sphere to make a difference in people's lives all around you. Isaiah chapter 59.
The prophet Isaiah says it this way, in verses nineteen to twenty-one.
So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. And when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression. And Jacob says, "The Lord." As for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with them: My Spirit, who is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, says the Lord, from this time and for evermore. Determine in your heart.
I'm going to be part of the standard that God promises to raise up against the flood of evil in my generation. I don't know how He's going to do it, and I don't have to know how He's going to do it. But I do know this one thing: God is going to raise up a standard because there are still people crying out to Him. There are still young people who want to know what truth is. There are still children who need to know the tender touch of God.
And I believe that, in spite of the evil that's all around us, trying to confuse a generation on every conceivable level, there is still a standard that God promises to raise up against this flood of evil. Not only going into the marketplace, but saying, "God, make my life a difference. Do something in me that will push back this flood of darkness that wants to swallow a whole generation." And now, the lastly, Exodus chapter fourteen, as the people were coming out of captivity and going into their purpose, in verse thirteen, Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today." For the Egyptians who you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses, "Why do you cry to me?
Tell the children of Israel to go forward." I like that. It's the same time frame. They're being told stand still, go forward. I mean, it seems like an odd command. But here's what God is saying: Stand still, take no action of your own.
You don't have to protect yourself, and you don't have to find your own safety. God says, "You stand still. Stand in confidence. I will fight for you. The battle is not yours.
The battle belongs to the Lord. It is my battle.
So stand still." Don't move. Don't be impulsive. Don't take things into your own hands. Don't formulate your own plan. Remember, David says, "My soul says, flee as a bird to the mount to your mountain." Don't do this.
Your life is destined for something much bigger than these things. And then, after telling the people to stand still, he says, "Now go forward." Go forward with a strong confidence that the plan of God to defeat evil will never fail, and you have a part in it. Go forward in the plan of God. Stand still to your own plans, and see the power of God. Then go forward in the plan of God.
Go forward into the sea of impossibility. Go forward into the places that only God can take you. Go forward into that place where you can pass through, but your enemies pursuing you are going to drown. Stand still, and go forward at the same time, by the grace of Almighty God. This is what the righteous can do, even though the wicked are bending their bow.
And they're making ready the arrow on the string to shoot secretly at the upright in heart. And we're we're at a time now where it's going to become even potentially as it is in Canada right now. It's going to become illegal to preach some portions of the Bible. And there there's there's a speech against the Church of Jesus Christ that somehow we have become the haters because we stand for truth. And David says, "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" But you see, David didn't flee to the mountain.
David walked with God and ended up on the throne. And David was given power by God to make a difference in his generation, which I believe we will as well. And for those that are listening online, it begins by opening your heart to the offer that God gives you—a forgiveness of your sin. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, what you've done is not deeper, it's not farther than the mercy of God can go to. He will find you, and has found you tonight or tomorrow in your situation, and is willing to forgive you if you can admit that you are a sinner and you need a Savior.
If you can believe that God sent His Son to a cross to pay the price for your sin, so that you can have eternal life, and if you are willing to confess Him as Lord and Savior. You will be saved, the Scripture says, and not only will you be saved, but you will find the purpose that God has for your life while you live on this side of eternity. God's Holy Spirit will come upon your life, and your life will make a difference in your family, in your home, in your community, among your friends. And there's no limit to what God can do through a surrendered life. There's no limit to what God can do.
So stand still. Don't try to figure it all out. In your own mind, and then go forward to the invitation that God has given you to be saved through Jesus Christ, and to find the purpose for your life on this side of eternity. As the worship team comes, we're just going to pray a prayer together, and after we do, we're going to have communion together here in this sanctuary, and also with you that are online with us tonight, and we're going to rejoice in the goodness of our God. And the purpose that God has for your future, I'm going to ask everybody here to pray with me for the sake of those that are online.
We're going to pray this prayer to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior. Say these words with me, Lord Jesus. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for giving your life for me. For paying the price for the wrong things that I have done.
So that I might be brought back into relationship with God. Tonight, I open my heart to you, Jesus, and I invite you into my life to be my Lord and my Savior. I give you my heart. I give you my future, and I thank you, Lord, that you are forgiving my sin. And setting a path before me, where my life will make a difference in my family, among my friends, and in my community.
Thank you, Lord, for giving me the grace to go forward in Your plan for my life. Tonight, I believe that You have forgiven me. And heaven will be my home, but till that day, my life will make a difference on this earth, and I thank you for it. In Jesus' name, Amen, and Amen. Praise God.
We're going to just have one more song, and then we're going to go to the communion table together tonight.
So, if you can get some bread and some juice, and we will shortly. Celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ for you. God bless. Tears so sweet to trust in Jesus, and to take Him at His word. Just to rest upon His promise, and to know, thus says the Lord.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him more and more. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, all for grace to trust Him more. I am so glad I learned to trust Him, precious Jesus Savior and Friend, and I know that Thou art with me, will be with me till the end. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him more and more. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus.
All for grace to trust Him more, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him more and more, Jesus, Jesus, praise. Jesus, Jesus, all for grace to trust Him more. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I prove Him more and more. Jesus, Jesus. Father, I pray.
For those that are listening, you've been listening to Carter Conlin from Times Square Church in New. 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.
