My Last Message

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. I do thank God for the role that the Lord gave me to play in the development and ongoing journey of this Church.

But I honestly believe the best days are just ahead. We're so very glad you've joined us for this special message from Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. Today, Carter will speak on the last words of Joshua, spoken at the end of his ministry. Carter has given this week's message the title, My Last Message.

Let's join Carter now on today's A Call to the Nation program. I want to speak to you today from the last words of Joshua at the end of his ministry, and he had something to say to the people of God. Before I even say this, I just want to give such special thanks to my wife, Pastor Theresa Conlon.

And I, Pastor Tim told me recently, you've married so far above your station in life, and I have to agree with you Pastor Tim. God, that's been one of the blessings that God brought into my life. He gave me perhaps the most remarkable woman I could have ever hoped for in my lifetime to be my life partner. And my heart is just brimming with gratitude for all that God has done and all that he's enabled her to do and will continue to do so in the future.

Thank you so much, Jesus, for what you've done for us as a couple and for the lovely wife that you gave to me. Chapter 13 of Joshua says, Now Joshua was old and advanced in years. And the Lord said to him, You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land to be possessed. In other words, Joshua, you've served me well, the Lord said, and you've taken the people out of the wilderness and you brought them through the Jordan. They've seen the miraculous conquering power of Almighty God. They've seen the miracles and they've gone into the land and you've led them and you've led them honorably.

Joshua had led them honorably because there were incredible numbers of victories that had been won. But the Lord said to Joshua, Your time now, your time of leading the people has come to an end. And we always have to be open to that voice of God. We always have to be willing when God wants to speak and say, You brought the people this far and now your season of leading the people in this capacity has come to an end. Now it doesn't mean we've come to an end. God, in my case, may give me something else to do that's going to glorify his name, maybe possibly even in a deeper way.

I don't know, but it doesn't matter. The Lord spoke to Joshua and said, There's much land yet to be conquered. And you are not the one that is called to lead the people into this final push as it is into conquering the promised land.

Of course, keep in mind now, the promised land for the believers in Christ for Times Square Church and those that are listening is Christ. The promised land is the fullness of your inheritance. Now it's one thing to be in the land. It's one thing to have crossed over from death to life, which the people had done. But there's still remain much yet to be claimed.

And this is my word to you today. There's very much that remains to be claimed yet in many of your lives. You're born again by the Spirit of God. You've made the decision for Christ. But you're not living yet in the fullness of what God has for you.

There's more that he has. We are called to be lights that shine in the darkness. We are called to be signs as it is from God that are wondered at. As God once said to Abraham, your seed are gonna be so blessed that the whole world is gonna be blessed through them.

We are called to have something that can only come from God. And of course, not only in the Old Testament, but in the New, on the day of Pentecost, when the people came out of that upper room, it was a textbook example of the fulfillment of this promise that there's much more yet to be conquered. Now these people had just came out of this upper room. They're born again. They have, they've been filled with the Spirit.

But when you study this in the original languages, they were speaking about an anticipated outworking of the inward life of Christ that was in them. In other words, I am here. I'm outside of the upper room. The Holy Spirit is on me. I'm in the land of promise. But here is what God is going to do through my life. And you see, this is, this is what happens to you and I when we get into the Word of God. God gives us a vision of the future. He's, the Holy Spirit starts speaking about things to come. Remember Jesus said he will take what is mine and show it to you and he will show you things to come. So we start seeing those things in the Word of God that are part of our inheritance. As I said earlier, it's one thing to know our captivity is taken captive, but it's another thing to receive the gifts that God has for each of us. You are called with a holy calling. You are called with a unique calling, each of you.

There are no exceptions to this. You are called into something that will require the gifting of God to take you there. You can't go there in your own strength.

And if you try, you will fail. You need the presence of God in your life to reach the fullness and to accomplish what God has called you to do and what God has called you to be. Now Joshua chapter 23 and verse four. Now, so from the time that the Lord spoke to Joshua in the beginning, chapter 13, I believe it was right through to this chapter 23, he has been dividing the land as it is, as an inheritance. And he was telling each tribe and the people, this is where you will go.

This is what you will become. Now only God can do that. Joshua in a sense is a Jesus type.

May I say that? And only he can tell you what your inheritance is, where your strength will be, what your dwelling place on the earth will look like, how glorious that will be and what it will accomplish for that divine purpose of being a blessing, remember, to all the families in the earth. That's the ultimate calling of the church of Jesus Christ. In chapter 23 verse four, he says, see, I have divided to you by law these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes from Jordan with all the nations that I've cut off as far as the great sea westward. And the Lord your God will expel them before you and drive them out of your sight.

So you shall possess their land as the Lord your God promised you. You don't have to figure out how you're going to become everything that God's called you to be. God, if you have faith in your heart, the promises of God will drive out these things that have entrenched themselves in the center of your promise. Fear that might be at the center core of your heart, a sense of self loathing maybe that you don't even like who you are, and you don't feel you'll amount to anything.

Unbelief that wants to destroy you and convince you that your life will never reach the fullness of what God called you to be. The Lord says God will expel them before you as you just make the choice and I make the choice to just go forward, believing him, he will expel these enemies from before you. He will, you don't have to do it. You don't have to take a course on how to get over the fear of failure.

You don't have to take a course on how to do certain things. God will expel them. God will push them out of the place that they occupy that belongs to you now because you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. Therefore, verse six, he says, be very courageous. This was the word that had been spoken to Joshua even before he led the people out of the wilderness and into the promised land. Don't be afraid.

Don't be dismayed. In other words, fear, fear comes when you see your enemies that you have to face the things of your own heart, your own life, your own heritage. Dismay comes when you start to assume that your enemies are stronger than you are and you forget that God is with you. Joshua had learned this.

Joshua learned over the course of his life that whatever God asks you to do will be done where he leads you, you will get there. No matter what opposes you, no matter what kind of storm tries to convince you you're going to drown, you will get to the other side of where God is calling you in Christ Jesus. God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight.

I love that. Out of your sight. I mean, they'll be so far behind you, you can't see them anymore. They can't even go boo from the sides of your, from the corner of your eye.

They're not there anymore. The former fears, the former struggles, the former limitations are just so far gone behind you, you can't even see them anymore. And you shall possess their land as the Lord God promised you. So here's my word to you today. You will, if you go forward, if you will follow the leading of Pastor Tim Delina, who's coming into this church, if you will follow the word of God, and what the Spirit of God speaks to you, you will become everything that God promised you to be. Every one of us will count for the glory of God. There will be ministries that will be born that will be mind boggling. It could only be God.

There'll be evangelists, pastors, teachers, leaders, church planters, civic leaders, godly people in the school system that will be given wisdom and boldness that's beyond our natural ability. It can only come from God. Therefore be very courageous to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it, from the right hand to the, or to the left. In our case, it's the word of God to us today, to you today.

The word that, that you already know, and the word that will come in the future, be very courageous. Don't turn away from it. Don't say, this can't happen to me.

Don't say this is too far ahead or too impossible or the giants are too big or the chariots are made of iron. Don't fall into that trap. Don't turn to the left hand. Don't turn to the right hand. Look the devil straight in the eye and say, get out of my way.

You are occupying the place that is mine and believe God and watch what God will begin to do in your life. And lest you go among these nations who remain among you, verse seven, you shall not make mention of the name of their gods nor cause anyone to swear by them. You shall not serve them nor bow down to them. In other words, don't let your, the thinking of this world become your thinking. Don't embrace it.

As I said earlier, you know, in the world, you get to the top of the ladder and you kick anybody down who tries to get anywhere close. That's the way they do it in the world, but not in the kingdom of God. Don't serve the gods of this world. Don't let your thinking be wrapped by the things that people are saying who live outside the kingdom of God. Get your direction, get your guidance, get your strength from the word of God. You shall hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done this day. For the Lord has driven out from before you great and strong nations. But as for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day.

And that's the truth. There are many here today. You were in a stronghold and God has driven out from before you things that were too strong for you. I'm talking to people today who used to be addicted. You were substance addicted or you were addicted to something, to a thought pattern or a thought process or something that got a hold of you and you knew you couldn't get out on your own strength.

You may even have been addicted to a sense of self-loathing, whatever it was or a hopelessness for the future, a shame and regret for your past. But God drove those things out from before you, bought you with his blood on the cross where Jesus died for you 2,000 years ago and no one has been able to stand against you to this day. The devil couldn't come and take that back from you.

The Lord Jesus Christ drove it away from your life. Not one man of you, he says in verse 10, shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God is he who fights for you as he has promised you. Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves that you love the Lord your God.

Here's the point. God says, nothing has stood before you to this point and been able to keep you away from me and nothing will stand before you in the future to keep you from becoming everything that I've called you to be. Look to me, look to the author and the finisher of your salvation, the author and finisher of your faith. Look to the one who conquered death, rose from the grave on the third day and promised that by his spirit that raised Christ from the dead, you shall also be quickened in your mortal body, brought from death and into life, brought from a place of weakness into the power of God, brought from a place of not even being able to get up in the morning or see a future to suddenly seeing something that only the spirit of God could give to you, not just for your sake, but for the sake of others, that you might be the fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham and through Christ Jesus become a blessing to people all around you in the world to which might I add, there's no limitation to that.

You can start by being a blessing in your marriage or your home or to your own children or to your friends or associates. And there's no limitation to where God will take that. There's no limitation to what God can do. He can use your life to bless countless numbers of lives that you've not even considered that he would in the future. So my final word to you is don't turn back and don't think you've arrived and don't think you're as far as you can go. You're going to be under the leadership of a man now that's going to take you into the next probably 15 year period in your life as a believer in Christ and he's a good man and he has a word from God and he's a man of faith and he's lived righteously and God has kept him and he has a good mind and a sound mind.

He's got a devotional life and a prayer life and if you follow and the promises of God start opening up to you and there's nothing in your heart that says I can't achieve this, you will come into a fullness of God. And listen to me, you're going to need it now. We're in a season of storms now. We're most likely entering into a season of sorrows in this world and people are going to be drowning in hopelessness and they need your voice at this time. They need you to be standing in the power of God. They need you and I to be standing in the fullness of our inheritance in Jesus Christ.

This is not a time to play church. This is a time to be alive by the Spirit of God. This is a time to be speaking, God speaking through us to this perishing world all around us.

It's a time to be saying to people, follow me as I follow Christ and leading others into not just their salvation, as wonderful as that is, but the giftings of God and the victory of God and the power of God and the future that only God can give. Paul the Apostle says in the book of Philippians chapter 2 and verse 12, he says, Therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now in the context of what I'm speaking today, Paul is not talking about do good work so that you can be saved.

That's not what he's speaking about. He's saying there is a pathway that your salvation brings to you and for you that you have to determine in your heart that you're going to find that pathway and you're going to walk on that pathway with this constant sense of awe that only God could be doing this. As we take this salvation and we look in the word of God and we say, Lord, these things belong to me so I'm going to go forward with this sense of reverence and awe and trembling in my heart and I'm going to believe that every promise that you make in your word is for me. Don't sit down and become idle. Don't be content just to sit in church and sing some songs on Sunday. This is a seven day a week, 365 day a year walk and you should always be growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

You should always be able to look back from season to season and say, thank God I'm not the fullness of what I should be but I'm not what I was a month ago or a year ago, whatever the situation is. He goes on and says, for it is God who works in you both the will and to do of his good pleasure. It's God. It's God that's putting the thoughts of what you could be. Just like Joshua defined these places of inheritance. He's putting before you the thoughts of what your life could be, of what the fullness of your salvation offers you.

He's putting it before you both the will to go in and then to accomplish everything that he's called you to be and that he has determined to do through your life. Do all things without complaining and disputing. In other words, don't talk yourself out of your inheritance. Remember the children of Israel, that's exactly what they did. They saw it all.

They saw the milk and the honey. They saw the bough of grapes and they just saw everything and they said it's exactly as God has said but the giants you see are too big for us and we look like grasshoppers in their sight and they talk themselves out of their inheritance. Don't do that. Don't talk yourself out of your inheritance.

Be careful of your speech. Be careful that you don't let unbelief get a hold of your lips and you start confessing your own defeat because ultimately what you begin to believe, that's the pathway that you're going to follow. That you may become blameless and harmless. Children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. Holding fast the word of life so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Paul is saying keeping this word that I have given you so that when the day when Christ returns and gathers us home and we stand one day at his throne, I may not be left with the feeling that I've run in vain or labored in vain. I think there would be no more of a tragic feeling for a pastor than to get to heaven and realized that the people that he led didn't embrace the fullness of what God had for them. That in great measure his speech fell to the ground.

Even though it may have been sent of God, the people didn't embrace it. But I am persuaded Times Square Church of better things for you. I have watched you. And the one thing I love about not only New Yorkers but particularly New Yorkers and those that are online is that you are fighters.

You are. You have to fight to survive on the street. I know that.

I get that. But I want you to challenge that nature into something that's going to bring glory to God and in his kingdom. Fight for your inheritance. Fight for your families. Fight for the truth. Fight for the lost. Fight for those who fight against their own salvation.

Become everything that God's called you to be for their sakes. It's not just about you and me. It's about them.

It's about others. We're already secure. We're already in the Lamb's Book of Life in that book that God has written in heaven with our names in it. We are already destined for the throne of God.

Heaven is already our home. So now we stay not for our sakes but the sake of others that we might become the fullness of what God has us to be so that we can shine as lights in this crooked and dark generation. This is my final word to you as your senior pastor. I've had the privilege of leading you as senior pastor for 19 years and 7 years as an associate pastor. I've walked with many of you through your trials, your struggles, through your successes and through your failures. And if there's been one message on my heart, it's always been get up and keep walking because I know what the grace of God is. I have been a great recipient of great grace. He's kept me. He's carried me.

He's led me. So don't get down if you struggle. Get up and keep walking with God and fight for your full inheritance. You fight through faith.

You say, God, I believe. You open the door and I'll walk through it. You put it in my hand and I'll use it for your glory.

You put it in my heart and I will follow where you lead me. And you watch what God will do. For Times Square Church, I honestly believe the best days are just ahead of us. The promise of scripture is the glory of the latter temple will be greater than the former.

And the wine at the end of the banquet will be better and sweeter than at the beginning. I do thank God. I do thank God for Pastor David Wilkerson in the early years of Times Square Church. I do thank God for the role that the Lord gave me to play in the development and ongoing journey of this church.

But I honestly believe the best days are just ahead. In my mind, I and in my heart, I see an absolute explosion of salvation coming into the church. I see a church that's going to reach this generation in the way that they need to be reached. I see young men and women heading out to do the will of God who are not even saved yet.

I see some things in the future that God allows me to see from time to time to know in my heart that the best is yet to come. Pastor Tim, I just so look forward to walking this journey with you. I so look forward to you and I being able to show the church world and our generation what a transition in churches should look like. I so look forward to serving one another. But I do recognize that you will be the leader. You will be the pastor of Times Square Church and all the rest of us will be servants to the vision that God plants in your heart. And I couldn't be more confident or happy to be under the leadership of a better man. This is going to be an amazing few years of my life. I don't know how long. I'm 66 now. I don't know how long I've got, but whatever I do have, it's going to be a pleasure to walk it with you.

The best is indeed yet to come. 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.