Touching the Tears of Failure

That's Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. Satan can't speak the truth. He is a liar and he's the father of all lies. If you really were a failure, Satan would be telling you that you're an outstanding success. If you were a failure, he couldn't tell you because he can't speak the truth. That's Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City.

We're glad you've joined us for a call to the nation. For many people, they come to the point in life where they feel their life did not amount to what they thought it was going to be, what they hoped it would eventually be. That was how Jacob felt toward the end of his life, but Carter believes that Jacob saw something so profound. Jacob believed he was not of this world, that the plan of God was over his entire life all along.

Here's Carter with today's message. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 21, touching the tears of failure. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning upon the top of his staff.

Let me read that one more time to you. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning upon the top of his staff. Now Jacob was the third in the lineage of Abraham, and Abraham was the man to whom God gave this promise in Genesis. He called him out from among his own people, and he gave him a promise that is so utterly profound that it had to be simply believed because there is nothing of Abraham's natural thinking could ever bring this about to pass. In Genesis 12, two and three, he told him, I'll make of you a great nation and I will bless you. And I will make your name great and you shall be a blessing. And in you shall all the families in part of verse three, in all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Can you imagine getting a promise like this? One man just singled out by God. And now Jacob is the grandson. This was his grandfather, Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob.

He'd be fully familiar with this. And as a young man, even though he wasn't in the direct lineage, he wanted this promise to be fulfilled through his life. And he was willing, of course, if you know the story, to go to great lengths to get this promise. He wanted this blessing to flow through him.

And if you are an honest Christian here, then obviously you want this blessing of God's life to be in great measure flowing through your life as well. Now, nearing the end of his days, Jacob had by his initially, at least his own initiative, he had gained access to this blessing. And then finally he had an intimate encounter with God.

And he truly did receive the blessing. And you can see him coming back into the promised land after a long, long journey where God was dealing with some issues of his own character coming into this place of promise, being told by God himself that he was going to be blessed, knowing that the blessing that was spoken to Abraham was now on him. And you can see him now near the end of his days, he's coming from the land of promise into Egypt with an entourage of 66 people, Genesis 46, 26 said from his own loins, he's coming into Egypt in some of this lineage. It's not much I mean, can you imagine being Jacob, you've you've traveled all these years, you've been the inheritor as it is of this blessing and nearing the end of your days, all you have are 66 people as it is supposed to bless the whole world. And all that's come from your own life for your own loins, as it says are 66 people, and some of whom had been a great disappointment to him.

You think for a moment when at the end of his days, when he's calls his sons in several years down the road, and he he tells them, I want to tell you about your future and what the Lord has for you. His first born Reuben was the son of his strength as it is this is this is the man the son through whom the blessing should have gone through but Reuben was an unstable lustful man. And Jacob had to tell him you're not going to excel because of these issues in your character and what you did. You're in the lineage as it is, but you're not going to excel and then the next two sons Simeon and Levi, they wouldn't carry any of his honor with them because they had been angry and self willed men. And they had taken things in their own hands and they exacted vengeance and caused great suffering and even reproach to his own name because of their anger and their their self will.

When Jacob came into Egypt, he met Pharaoh and Pharaoh asked him, he said, How old are you? And in Genesis 47 nine, he says, I'm the days of my pilgrimage have been 130 years. And he said, they've been few and evil have been the days of the years of my life.

That's an amazing thing to say, for the men through whom the blessing of God is coming to literally supposedly bless the families of all the earth. And the word evil in the original text means my days have been of inferior quality. They have not been what I thought they were going to be they somehow missed the mark of what I felt God had planted in my heart of what I thought my life should be. My life has been less in other words than I perhaps once hoped it would have been how many can you don't have to raise your hand, obviously. But there are people here today that maybe have been a Christian for a certain amount of time or maybe you're not a Christian, but you have this common thought in your heart, my life has not amounted to what I thought it was going to be what I had hoped. And when I first came to God, I saw so many things that I should be accomplishing. And I came to the understanding that my life was to be a blessing. And people throughout the world were to be blessed through my life. But look at what I've become.

And I'm nearing midlife or I'm getting past midlife or whatever, wherever you are today. And you can identify with Jacob and said, my life is not produced what I thought it was going to. I've somehow failed in this journey. I'm ending with so little seemingly to be seen by the natural eye of a life that was supposed to bless the world, ending up in famine, and at the mercy of a foreign country. Can you imagine that what must have the thoughts that would be going through this man's mind, heading out as it is leaving, as he thought the land of promise and going into a foreign country. And this great blessing that's supposed to be flowing through his life, he is now the mercy of a foreign government as it is, he has to go into Egypt to eat. And he's supposed to be the man through whom the world is going to be blessed. Yet Hebrews 11 21 tells us that at the very end of his days and the end of his natural strength, he worshiped. Folks, we have to ask ourselves a question, what was the basis of this worship?

I know for sure it wasn't just an empty song, or form a ritual. A lot of people finish out that way in the Christian church. It's just an empty song, coming into the house of the Lord and singing the songs of Zion, but being 100 miles in heart away from the words that are coming out of their lips. Life has been such a disappointment, perhaps even God in some measure to them, seemingly has been a disappointed to them. But I want to suggest to you that his worship was real. The Bible would not pen the word worship if it wasn't worship. He didn't just lean on his staff and give lip service to God, he had to have seen something and I want to suggest to you that he saw something so profound.

Hebrews 11 13 said they these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embrace them and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Now here's what I feel. I feel that Jacob saw something so profound that he could say, My God, I'm not of this world.

In other words, I'm not subject to its limitations. I'm not governed by its sorrows. In spite of my failings and frailties, the plan of God has been going forward through my life absolutely unhindered all along. I believe he saw it because when he called his sons in now keep in mind, in Genesis 49, I want you to go there with me just for a moment. We see at the end of his days, Jacob calls in his sons. But it must have been a difficult moment for him to be calling in your own sons have been raised and are supposed to be the inheritors of this blessing. And yet there's such a deficiency in the firstborn that are all around him. And he called his sons together and he he had to say to Reuben, You're my firstborn verse three, my might in the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power, but you're unstable as water.

You will not excel because you went up to your father's bed and you defiled it. He went up to my couch and then he turns to the next two sons. He says, Simeon and Levi, our brethren instruments of cruelty and their habitations. Oh, my soul, come not thou into their secret under their assembly. My honor be not thou united for in their anger. They slew a man and in their self will they dig down a wall curse be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel.

I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. And then all of a sudden, is it possible that his eyes were open? I don't know at what point his eyes were opened. But he looks upon this next son. And he says, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, the hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, that father's children shall bow down before the Judah is a lion's well, from the prey, my son, thou art gone up, he stooped down, he crutched as a lion, and as an old lion who shall rouse him up, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh, that's the Messiah come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be binding his fall into the vine and his acids cold under the choice vine. He washed his garments and wine and his clothes and the blood of grapes. His eyes shall be red with wine. That means his eyes shall be as dark as wine, and his teeth as white as milk. Praise be to God.

I see Jacob looking and he's saying, God Almighty, with all of my trouble, and all of my years, and all of my frailties and all of my failings and all of the deficiency that's all around me. I finally see that you have had a plan. And this plan has been flowing through me. It's been flowing through my lineage has been flowing through my loins.

It is absolutely unhindered. This plan is not stopped by my frailties. God has determined to do something that through my life, he is going to bless this world. And this plan has not stopped because I've failed him. It's not stopped because I've failed him in my thinking. It's not stopped because I've failed him in some of my direction.

It's not stopped because I've even doubted him in my journey. I'm not of this world. You see, folks, if you are of the world, you are you are under its limitations. If your mind is in agreement with the thinking of this world, then you finish life of failure.

You finish life saying it should have been more than it became because all that there is for those who are of this world is what is in this world. But Jacob saw something he saw it in Judah. I don't know at what point he saw. I'm sure it must have been a surprise.

I'm sure when he finally he first saw it. He said, My God, I'm not of this world. This world has no hold on me. This world has no hold on my future. There's no hold on my family.

I'm not subject to its limitations and to its sorrows. Hebrews chapter 11. And verse 15. He says, Truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have had returned, if their thinking was the same. If you and I think the same as this world thinks, then we will go right back into that place of despair, that everyone without God will ultimately end up. Praise be to God, we end our lives full of regret, we end our lives, just with questions about what ifs and the if onlys and if only it had been failing to see that we're not of this world. We're not bound by this world.

We're not limited as this world is limited. Now, Jacob had left a place of famine to come in to the continued will and provision of God. Keep in mind, he was in the Promised Land, but famine came there, he had to leave the Promised Land, come to where God's provision was and where God's will was, although to the natural eye, it must have seemed to be exactly the opposite.

Wouldn't seem that way to you. It would have seemed as if the place of promise had failed, and natural events were leading him and his family into a foreign place. It would have seemed to the natural mind as if he's moving into Plan B as it is for his life.

And somehow, Plan A had slipped through his fingers. What I'm trying to say this day is that the events surrounding your life are not what your natural mind wants you to think they are. In the last book of the Bible, we find the Apostle John. John at the end of his days, he's old, he's isolated, and he's cold. And he's just a man like Jacob, no doubt, having some regrets about things that could or should have been done differently or better. He's exiled to an island called Patmos for the testimony of God. And in these places now, Patmos was apparently a very foreboding prison environment.

Most who went there probably never survived it. And John is in his latter years, and you can see the enemy right right there. Is this where following Christ leads to?

Is this the type of future it holds? John, you failed. John, you were supposed to look after the mother of Jesus, and you didn't do a good job of it, John. And somehow you've displeased the Lord. And somehow, you've ended up in this place. And all around him now are voices of despair. Can you just picture yourself in that prison where people knew they're not going to survive?

People are absolutely despairing of the future. Revelation 1911. Here's what John saw. He saw a place where God is dwelling with men. He saw the faithfulness of God, sending a city from heaven, where you and I will dwell for all of eternity. But he saw something else. He saw Jesus wiping away tears. Verse four, he said, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. Now, he's not only wiping away tears from those who had suffered, but from those who have having seen his glory, felt that their lives had been a failure.

I saw something when I was preparing this message. And it caused me to jump out of my seat at my desk last night and pace up and down my apartment and cry for joy. I see Jesus at this particular moment that john saw people seeing the glory people getting there and they feel like they've been a failure. That's the crying. That's the sorrow. That's the pain God my life didn't amount to what I felt it should be. I looked in your word I saw your glory and I seem to fall so short of that glory. And I see people falling on their knees, perhaps on their faces, and Jesus coming to them and say no, you don't understand in spite of your frailties. My life was still flowing through you. Just like with Jacob. Every time you ran into an impasse like water coming down hill as it is.

It's like water flowing from a divine place. You put an obstruction before it and we'll just find another route. You put another obstruction and we'll just go another way. He said when Ruben failed, it perhaps the river went to Simeon and Levi when they failed, it went to Judah.

Praise be to God. If you finally see this, he said, No, I wasn't stopped by your frailties. What the plan I had to flow through you wasn't stopped because you struggled wasn't stopped because you were weak in some area. You had a sincere heart. And whenever you felt like it was all over, I would just moved around and went to another place. I just continued through your life because it's not about you. It's about the power of an endless life flowing in and through your life.

I see Jesus coming to these at the throne. I think john saw it in Revelation, with a towel in his hand, touching the eyes of those that are weeping, say, Listen, I was proud of you. You struggled, but you never gave up. You never quit. I was not ashamed of you. I was bragging about you to my father and to the angels in heaven.

I looked down and I wasn't hindered by your frailty because in your heart you wanted me and I flow through your life. Praise be to God, he's going to dry all tears, all sorrows going to be gone. There'll be no more pain. Don't let the devil condemn you. Don't let your own heart condemn you.

Don't be driven into a place of despair because of hardship and trial as if somehow you failed God. His plan is still going forward. If you are an honest Christian, if you have an honest heart for God, his plan is still going forward full speed.

Nothing has stopped with the plan of God. When you get to heaven, you'll finally see it as he says, No, this is where I was flowing through you. You thought it ended here, but I moved around. This is where I started to flow.

This is the life I touch. Remember the person at the grocery store? You remember the one across the hall? You remember that little kid on the street that you used to give a smile and give a sandwich when you had an extra one?

You remember these things? Well, look at what happened. Look at the glory of God that came. Look at how the whole world was blessed through your life as the church of Jesus Christ. Look at the blessing of God that flowed through you. Don't let the devil stop you. Don't let his lies put you in a prison of despair. Don't finish out with an unfinished testimony saying my days have just been few and evil. Yes, you and I may have to go through hardship.

Yes, hardship and struggle may be already part of your life and it may be even a greater part in the future. But praise be to God when everything else is bypassed. There's still a Judah in your life. There's still an avenue where the Messiah flows in divine life and anointing and the plan of God goes forward unstopped and unchecked and unchallenged and unhindered. Glory be to God. Glory be to God. Then john said, and he said to me in first six of chapter 21 it is done.

I'm alpha no mega the beginning and the end and I'll give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. John says I saw the thirsty drinking freely from an inexhaustible supply of life in Jesus Christ. I saw the thirsty drinking folks.

I saw it. I saw the change last night of this kind of fear broken. I saw this sadness of heart destroyed by the anointing of God.

I saw people getting up out of prisons and walking to that fountain and one more time drinking of the supplier and this inexhaustible supply of life in Jesus Christ, drinking of hope, drinking of courage, drinking of the faithfulness of God, drinking of the promises of God, drinking of the fact that God's plan through my life is not stopped because I've struggled. It's not stopped because I've not understood even the direction of my own feet. It's not stopped because seemingly I think I should be here and I've ended up over here.

God Almighty give us understanding. Folks, you can't go into the coming days with sorrow in your heart. You've got to get up out of this prison. You've got to come to the fountain. You've got to drink of this faithfulness of God, the supply of Christ, this joy of the Lord that comes into every heart that finally says, God, it's not about me. It's about your life inside of my life.

It's about you flowing through me. Praise be to God. Hallelujah to the lamb of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Let Jesus Christ touch the tears now. I know there'll be a day in heaven when we get there and there be sorrow in some people's hearts and pain. And finally we will know even as we are known, we will see things. Now we have to receive it by faith. But if we're mindful of the country that we've come out of, and I'm talking about a state of life before we became Christians, we might go back there. Hardship sometimes can drive people back into despair unless we are drinking at this fountain, unless we choose to believe that God will be faithful.

The words he said will be true. And in spite of our struggle, we say, God, I'm going to worship you based on every promise you've ever given me. I'm not going to worship you based on my circumstance. And when you chose to worship, that's when heaven opens. That's when you begin to see that's where everything starts coming into focus and you start realizing it never was about you. It never was about me.

It was about a river of life flowing through us in spite of our failures, in spite of our struggles. I'm talking now to the honest Christian. I'm talking to the honest heart.

I'm talking to the person who does want to live for God. You begin to see and God will wipe away all tears. And God will take away sorrow and there will be no more pain. You don't have to live in the regrets of your past. You don't have to be bound by the struggles of your present. You don't have to finish your course with the if onlys and what ifs. And what if it had been different? You can finish this course with a shout of glory in your heart, saying I have within me, a life that cannot be stopped.

It cannot be hindered. I've wanted God, and he chose to put his life in this frail vessel. All my struggles and fears, he knew it, all of my inconsistencies, all of my trials and all of my limitations, he knew it all. But yet he still chose to put living water inside of me. And living water can bypass these things.

Living water will get through all of these things and give drink to the thirsty. If you believe this, you can step out of prisons of despair today. You can step out of these places of doubt and unbelief.

You can step out of living in regret and with a heavy heart. Folks, this should be a day of great joy. This should be a time of exaltation and shouting.

It should be a it should be a season where you say God, thank you. This is not about me. It's about you. Well, I'm going to give an older call then for those that say this is me. This is a tailor made message for me.

I consider myself a Class A failure. I thought I was in Plan B. Even if the promised land looks like a desert, even it looks like to be it's the wrong country. I'm still in the plan of God. And in spite of my frailties, God's life in Christ is still flowing through me. Praise be to God.

That's why Jacob could lean on his staff at the end of his days and worship. Praise God. 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.