The Incredible Power of Unity

That's Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. As believers in Jesus Christ, we choose the path of unity one with another because it's the way God says we should live.

And we know that it's the pathway to both receiving and releasing the power of God. That's Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City with a preview of a message titled, The Incredible Power of Unity. We're glad you're with us today on a call to the nation. In the book of Revelation, the apostle John saw a future worship service filled with a multitude of people that no one could number, all nations, all tribes, all peoples and tongues brought there in unity by God.

Here's Carter to tell us more about this celebratory event. I want to share some thoughts on faith and prayer. You wouldn't mind just praying with me at this moment. Father, thank you, God, for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the strength and the power that only comes from your hand. Thank you, Lord, for one more time taking this frail vessel and letting your grace and your word be spoken through me. God Almighty, may I always do justice to your word and never violence to it. I pray, God, that you would empower me to speak on your behalf, that you would speak through me, Lord, that you would unlock prisons and give sight and strength and hope and heart and do things, Lord, among your people and those that are listening that can only be done by the Spirit of God. Father, thank you that you've not brought us into a kingdom that has to go forward by human effort. We move by faith in your victory. Help us to lay hold of that again. Help us to desire, Lord, to do things your way and to live the way that you want us to live.

We thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to build on a theme that Pastor Tim Delina, our senior pastor at Times Square Church, spoke on last Sunday morning about this incredible reconciliation that is achievable through Jesus Christ and will culminate one day at the throne of God in this most incredible and explosive worship service where people of all cultures and races and backgrounds are gathered together, completely reconciled in the sight of Almighty God. Not just reconciled there, but the expression of that reconciliation is finally realized at the throne of God because they made the choice to be reconciled on this side of eternity by the power of God. They chose to believe that God could bring together what men would try to divide.

And the Lord in his strength took down the walls, took down all of the bitternesses, the unforgiveness, everything that gets a hold of the human heart that causes division among races, among cultures, among clans, among friends are against one another even because of the difficulties we're experiencing and maybe some personal things they have gone through as well. But I want to bring you into the future. The Apostle John, the book of Revelation, which is the last book of the New Testament Bible, and he saw in the future a worship service that hasn't happened yet.

Isn't that amazing? It's going to happen, but he saw it in advance. God gave him the vision of it and in Revelation chapter 7 verse 9, he said, after these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number.

So let's stop right there. He saw a literal sea of people before him. These are a lot of people. No one can number them.

I mean, think about this for a moment. There's nobody there capable of actually counting the numbers of people who are now gathered at the throne of God. These people are from all nations, all tribes, all peoples, and tongues and languages. So they're from all over the world as we prayed. There's people from Warsaw, Poland there. There's people from Nairobi, Kenya there. There's people from the Congo there.

There's people from France there. There's people from all over the world of all tribes, people's tongues standing before the throne of God and before the Lamb who is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who died for our sins. They're clothed with white robes and they have palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. In other words, we didn't save ourselves. They know that when they get there. Say, God, this salvation that we have now, we now understand the fullness of it. We've experienced it on earth, but now we stand at the throne of God and we recognize what you did on the cross. We recognize that we couldn't save ourselves. No amount of human effort could have broken down the walls between us. No amount of human effort could have ever brought all kindreds, tribes, tongues, and peoples of the world together in one place.

Only you could have done that. So the salvation we experienced belongs to you, oh God. That's what they're crying out, who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb.

It's really a simple worship service. It's a type of people in church today who could say, God, I didn't get to where I am through my own strength. I didn't become the person that I am becoming through my own strength. I have believed in your victory and I've believed in your promises and you have taken me from where I used to be and you have brought me to where I am today and you're leading me to what you're going to make me into tomorrow because this salvation belongs to you. It's yours and it was your choice by grace to give it to me, to give it to us. And you broke down that wall of partition that was between you and I when you died on that cross, Lord Jesus Christ, you forgave my sin and I found myself in a place where I was back in relationship with God and automatically, once I'm in relationship with God, I am now by the power of God inside of my life able to reconcile with every one of my brothers and sisters of every race and every culture and every tribe and every language in every country, in every place. We become one body in Christ. These middle walls of partition are suddenly broken down and there is a love that comes into our heart one for another that's supernatural.

Only God could put it there. Jesus Christ himself said, it's by this all men will know that you are my disciples. In other words, that you belong to me. All men will know, what is the sign? That you have love one for another.

This love is not something the world can produce. It's not just a mutual tolerance. It goes way beyond that. You'll see that in just a moment when we get in to other parts in the New Testament. Now in this worship service in the future, suddenly all the angels, all the angels, now we have a number of people that no one can number.

It's an absolute ocean of people. May I put it that way? Now all of a sudden, all the angels, I don't know how many that is, but I suspect it's quite a lot, stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, amen, amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God. God forever and ever. You know, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament said, this love that God has for humankind created in his image is a mystery that the angels desire to look into.

This is the way I read it. Maybe it's just my mind, but in heaven there's this perfection. They see the glory of God and they look at this incredible, despicable really fallen condition of humankind and they wonder why is the focus in the heart of God towards men and women created in his image. And they too suddenly will one day understand this salvation, understand this grace and understand this mercy. And suddenly from their innermost being, they begin to shout, oh God, the blessing that you gave, these unmerited favor that you gave to your own fallen creation, men and women created in your image and glory and all wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. You know, the one thing about this worship service that really strikes me is nobody is asking for anything.

Everything has been completed. Everyone is just giving thanks. Everyone is making this incredible declaration of how good, how wonderful, how kind, how wise, how merciful, how incredible God is. Oh, I'm looking forward to being there. And if you know Jesus Christ as your savior and are willing to walk in the truth as it shines on your path, you'll be there too as well. You and I will be there and we'll be in this multitude at the throne of God that are just worshiping him in a way that maybe we can only touch the edges of it here in this side of eternity.

This is the most racially and culturally inclusive place that ever will be. Every tongue, every tribe, every culture, every language, every country, every place. Nothing is left to be done and all we can do is thank Jesus for all he has done for us. And it is true that unity both brings this about and is the result of this apprehended power of God. The power of God, may I put it this way, is manifested through unity. That's why the devil fights so hard to break us apart.

That's why there's every power of hell that exists would try to divide every language and every tongue and every race and every culture, even inside of the house of God. For the devil himself knows that there's no power when disunity is at the core of humankind or he's able to separate those created in the image of God from the way and the life of God. When there's a disunity there, even you know it yourself. When children don't honor their parents, there's disunity and there's a breakup in the home.

When husbands don't honor their wives and wives don't honor their husbands or respect their husbands, then there's an automatic disunity and what's supposed to give strength to everyone around it suddenly becomes a conduit, may I put it that way, of weakness. In the Old Testament, in the book of Psalms, Psalm 133, speaking about unity, David the king said, behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Now you and I, if you're looking at the news, you see how unpleasant and not good it is when brethren refuse or won't dwell together in unity. But when we choose unity, and I've often said it over the years as I've stood in pulpits in many places, that unity is a choice, it's not a feeling.

It becomes a feeling, I guess, eventually, but initially it's a choice. We choose to be unified because God said we should and because it's the right thing to do. As believers in Jesus Christ, we choose the path of unity one with another because it's the way God says we should live. And we know that it's the pathway to both receiving and releasing the power of God. David said it's like the precious oil upon the head running down to the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down to the edge of his garments. There's an anointing that comes with unity.

There's a power that's released in unity. There's something of God that isn't found anywhere else. It's not found exclusively in doctrine. It's not found in how wonderful our worship might be, even if it is wonderful.

It's not found in the eloquence of the preacher. It's found in the unity of the people, that we've made the choice. We've come to the cross together and we say, God, as you chose to love me, when I hated you, you chose to love me and you opened my heart to your love, so now I make a choice to love my brother, my sister.

I make a choice to love people that maybe culturally I have nothing in common with, but I do now because we're at the cross together and one day we're going to be at the throne together and one day we're going to be shouting out, oh God, salvation belongs to you. One day we're going to be worshiping with the angels and created beings in heaven. And God, none of us want to be there having lived a deficient walk with you when so much was available to us. We don't want to live on the outer edges or outside of what a relationship with you and your church should be like. There's an anointing.

And not just on the head, but it comes right down to the bottom of the garments. In other words, everywhere we go, everything we do, everything we touch, including our own homes, our own marriages. You know, you wonder sometimes, is there turmoil in the home because we've refused to reconcile with one another in the church. You can't be in unity in one place and disunity in the other.

It just doesn't work that way. It's like the dew of Herman. It's descending upon the mountains of Zion. It's there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

There is a, there's a watering. There's a, unity brings about a presence of God that allows people around it to grow. There's a blessing of life that is commanded. Now, if you're wondering if there's an illustration of this, of course, the most classic of all illustrations is the upper room in Acts chapter two, where people, 120 different people just decided to get together. The Bible says they were in one accord and in one place.

There had to be a forgiveness there. Peter the fisherman was there. For example, in Matthew, the tax collector was there. Matthew would have been considered a betrayer of the Jewish culture.

Somebody who kind of shifted off into the Gentile world and started extorting and taxing his Jewish brothers for the sake of building an empire that's outside of the kingdom of God. I mean, it doesn't get any worse than that. There would have been a livid hatred between these two men where they could have gotten violent even. But yet in Christ, we see that these men are in that room and they're in one accord and they're in one place. They had chosen, they'd made a choice to walk together in unity. Each had seen his own folly, I'm sure. Peter had seen his and Matthew had seen his. And I think there might've been something in the hearts of these men that said, God, if you've forgiven me, Peter, of course, you know, cursed with an oath and denied that he ever knew Christ.

Matthew would have realized how much he'd betrayed his own culture by the things that he had done and the allegiances he'd made with an invading power really is what Rome was. And so every man knowing the plague of his own heart, may I put it that way, would say, God, you chose to forgive me, so how can I bear a grievance against somebody else? That's a question I think that many people in the house of God need to ask themselves right now in the light of what's going on in our culture all around us.

Having forgiven me so great a debt, Lord, do I really have the right to hold a grievance against my brother or sister in Christ? Are we not commanded to love one another as you have loved us? And are we willing to live outside of the power of God and just be relegated to just a religious argument? That's all we become.

There's really no power in us. But in that place of unity and being in one accord, the scripture says, suddenly there came the sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Suddenly God says, I have found a people through whom my power can be made known to this generation because they've made the choice to be together in one accord and in one place. What a great opportunity God has given the church in this generation. I want you to think it through, my brother and my sister. These people were no different than we are.

They just made choices that maybe we haven't fully made yet. They said, we're going to forgive. We're going to walk together in unity.

We're going to get together. We're going to begin to pray and we're going to trust God for the manifestation of his power because the salvation is his. The kingdom belongs to him. The way forward is his way forward. We don't have the right to dictate to God.

He's given us the pathway that we're called to walk in. And when God finds a people like that, which he needs to find again in this generation, you understand that and so do I. This generation is falling apart. This generation is fragmenting at the seams. What we're seeing is Matthew chapter 24 when the Bible says nation shall rise against nation.

The word in the Greek is ethnos. It means ethnic culture will rise against ethnic culture. It will be the sign of the last days. The only real unity, the only true unity, the only unity that can transcend or get through this gauntlet of division and anger is that which is found in Christ in his church. We have this incredible opportunity given to us now to be the body of Christ and to be an example to the world of what God is able to do. We need another baptism of the Holy Spirit. We do.

We do. The whole church world needs this. I need it.

You need it. We need it corporately. We need it together. We need these walls to come down.

We need the grievances to melt into the earth as it is. We need to become one in Christ again. We need to actually have a foretaste of what it's going to be like when we end up at the throne of God one day with multitudes that are too great to even number of all kindreds, tongues, tribes and nations. There appeared to them divided tongues as a fire and sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues. That means other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. So here's something that I love. The moment they are together in unity, the Holy Spirit comes upon them and the very first fruit of God's presence is the ability to speak to people of other languages and cultures in a manner that you couldn't before.

It's truly amazing. Now think this through with me just for a moment. In the Old Testament, there was a season where men and women decided they were going to try to be God in their own strength. They were going to rise above one another. They were going to try to in a sense dictate to God and get to be godly by themselves.

So they built a tower. As they were building the tower, the scripture says God came down and confounded their languages and we have the beginning of like a confusion where one culture can't speak to another culture. We have an instant division came into the world when man tried to be God in his own strength. But on the day of Pentecost, men and women ceased to try to be God in their own strength.

They came back to God. And the very first result of that is the ability now to communicate with each other once again. You see, we can't have a civil discussion in our generation without the Spirit of God.

I don't believe it's possible. I think the divisions are now getting to be too deep. The anger is profound. We might be able to put a Band-Aid on the wound for a little while, but the real healing can only come through the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God can only come through the church of Jesus Christ. So we have a mandate from God to get together in one accord and in one place again and begin to pray.

It's that critical to the hour we're now living in. 120 people stepped out of the upper room gripped by God with an ability to speak to people of other cultures in a way they'd never learned. Isn't it amazing? Over the years, I've been in Africa and different countries in Africa speaking to people who had war with one another, who had committed genocide. Realistically, it was God gave me the ability to speak to them. And we saw healing. We saw reconciliation. We saw miracles happen in these places.

Not that I took a five-year course on how to communicate with people of other parts of the world and other cultures and languages. No, it was just God. It was the Holy Spirit gives you the ability. Remember one time after the war in Kosovo, I was speaking to a group of Muslim soldiers in a village and watched the tears start to come on their faces. Where did the power come from to technically speak their language?

May I put it that way? Yes, I was using a translator, but I was still able to speak to them and to reach their heart by the power of God's Holy Spirit. This is what the world needs today. A church that is able to transcend its own experience, its own cultural limitations, and has a love and compassion in her heart for other people of other places. A church that is willing to let the Holy Spirit make them benevolent one to another. That was another hallmark of being in one accord in one place. There's immediate benevolence one to another. It didn't have to be worked up. It was given by God into the human heart.

Oh yes, when we stand at the throne of God one day, trust me, there'd be no frauds there. When we stand at the throne of God, we say, Lord, it was your salvation. I didn't try to dictate to you how this should be done. I let you wash away my sin and I let you wash away my old thoughts. And God, I let you become the new source of the life that you were willing to give into my heart. And through me, the reconciliation that you desired to have with all men, I began to be an ambassador of it.

This is the cry of my heart. Oh God, would you help us in the body of Christ not to be divided anymore? Would you give us, Lord, the power one more time to be a living example of the victory of the cross?

Would you make us into your body on this earth? Would you make us ambassadors of reconciliation, not arguers bringing up all grievances, oh God? Lord, would you help us to lead others to a reconciliation that we ourselves are willing to embrace?

Lord, thank you. Thank you for another baptism of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for another Pentecost in our generation. You promised that the glory of the latter house would be greater than the former.

And you showed us in the scriptures that the wine at the end of the banquet feast is better than at the beginning. So Lord, we're asking for another Pentecost in our generation. We recognize our weakness. We recognize, Lord, that we're not yet what we should be. But Lord, we're going to put away things that need to be put away and move forward to this mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I pray, Lord, that we would be able to say to every brother, every sister of every race and tongue and tribe and color and creed, would you help us, Lord, not to try to hold on to anything of the past that would bring division into your church and diminish the testimony of your cross. And let's believe that the Lord is going to give us this great grace that we need in this generation. God bless you. Now let's close with Carter as he sings In the Quiet Times. Sometimes a world of haste Seems to set my pace Rushing forward like a wave To empty shores Till a rising tide Like a silent cry Lifts my heart where rest in God Is found once more In the quiet times, in the quiet times Oh, your spirit takes my mind To heaven's shore Like a river in its stillness I am swept by perfect peace Forevermore Forevermore Thank you for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. You can count on a powerful message each week on A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.