Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. This earth can't triumph over God, and if God through the Holy Spirit is inside of me, then I can't be triumphed over. I can be shaken, but I can't be triumphed over. Praise be to God. In Psalm 23, David writes, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows. David had to attend the table by faith. This was written long before it actually happened. On the other hand, in John chapter 13, the apostles were able to experience the table by sight.
They were physically there. Let's join Carter now as he explains more in his message titled, The Table and the Cross. Psalm 23, please, if you'll turn there, in the Old Testament. I'm going to speak a message entitled The Table and the Cross. Now, everybody that I know, myself included, loves the concept of this table of God's fellowship and provision. This table that David spoke about, that God prepares for you and for me, even though we might be facing, as David did, horrific opposition from every side, as Paul the Apostle said, fighting from without and fears from within. But in the midst of all of it, God prepares the table. And David said, At that table, my head is anointed with oil. There's an anointing given to my life. My thoughts are brought into proper order.
That's why the anointing touches the head first. I believe that because in Ezekiel, when the Holy Spirit comes upon a people, the very first thing that God promises, I'm going to give you a new mind, a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit. And when we are separated as it is under God, God brings our thoughts into order. And we begin to walk in fellowship with God in a way that God has prescribed that fellowship to be.
And my cup runs over. When we're in right relationship with God, you and I will have everything we need to get through this life. The water, it speaks about this, this incredible provision of God's life will just be, will overflow in us.
We'll not be able to contain it. We'll be compelled virtually to be an extension of the hands of God and the love of God in our generation. We see this table as a place of anointing and empowerment.
And at this table, we're given incredible strength that's not available to those who live outside of intimate fellowship with God. If you are here today and you are playing church, you're robbing yourself because playing church is never going to get you through what you and I are going to have to face in our generation. The Bible speaks very expressly, very clearly about the time that we're living in today. It's going to be a time when only the Spirit of God is going to be able to take you through and take me through all the boasting.
All of the images of what we think we are going to come crashing to the earth. Everything that can be shaken is going to be shaken. That only that which cannot be shaken might remain. And the only thing I know that cannot be shaken is Jesus Christ himself. The only one in me that cannot be shaken is the power of the Holy Spirit. It's only God that will give you and I the power to be and to do everything that God has called us to be in our generation. You and I quite often reason and we say if I can just get to this table that David speaks about everything will be alright. We say that I will fulfill everything that I think my life should accomplish because God is now with me. If I can just get to the table, if I can just spend a little bit of time there, that all the war will go on all around me, but I will somehow be sheltered from it all. Thousand will fall on this side 10,000 on this side.
Now those are great, great promises. Thank God, but you got to understand that doesn't happen at the table that happens in the war that happens in the battle that happens on the field. These things happen but we begin to think sometimes if I if I just memorize enough scripture as good as that is and I'm I certainly advocate that we should memorize all the scripture we can that everything that I think my life should accomplish will happen because God's now with me. But we forget the Lord said in Isaiah chapter 55 verses eight and nine.
My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your way says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth's or my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Now David attended this table by faith. David didn't have the understanding that you and I have today didn't have the full picture. And he had to attend to this table that he spoke about in Psalm 23 by faith, but the disciples of Jesus in John chapter 13 attended it by sight. David had a fellowship of faith, but they had a fellowship of sight. Now there's a measure of faith obviously in it, but they had God at the table.
They had a physical form of God, the Son of God, Jesus Christ was sitting at this table. You know, you want you to picture with me for a moment, John the disciple in John chapter 13. You don't have to turn there in verse 23. The Bible says it at this at this table, the Last Supper, he leaned on the chest of Jesus, and John is finding the rest he'd always longed for. And perhaps he's thinking in his heart, I'll always be the closest to him he is, he has let me in, where nobody else is at this moment, and I'm never going to leave this place. I'm going to be safe here.
It's going to be always comfortable here. And the table does represent that the table represents a place of comfort, a place of intimacy with God, a place where we can virtually hear his heart beating. We start to understand why he came to the earth and where this journey is beginning to lead him and those that belong to him. Peter's at this table and Peter at this time is feeling very anointed and very strong. After all, as far as he'd been told, he now had the keys to heaven in his possession. Matthew 1619, Jesus said, I'll give him to the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever thou shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So Peter's got this promise and as far he doesn't see the keys, but he believes he has them. And it causes him to make boasts as it is of things that he's unable to perform in his own strength. It causes him to say, Lord, though everybody else denies you, I will not. I'm prepared to lay my life down for you.
I'm prepared to go all the way as it is with you. Folks, you and I need to be very careful of boasting because everything in us that is not yet conformed to the image of Christ will fail. Everything that we have embraced that is not truth will falter. And Peter had a measure of truth, but his truth was deficient. It wasn't fully formed at God yet. And John perhaps thought, I'll never leave this place.
It's always going to be like this for the rest of my life. And Peter thought, yeah, I've got strength, but he, that he didn't have. Now, when Jesus began to speak clearly of the terrible trials that were just ahead, I want you to imagine in this place, the shock that would have hit the minds and hearts of those that are enjoying this moment of intimate fellowship. What do you mean betrayal? What do you mean given into the hands of sinners? What are you talking about that you're going to be mocked and put to death and seemingly triumphed over the incredible shock? Aren't you God? Aren't you the one who's able to, according to, as we understand the scriptures, didn't you form heaven and the earth by the words of your mouth? Aren't you able to speak a word? We've seen it in the dead rise.
Aren't you able to calm the seas? We've watched this and all of a sudden you're talking about trial and accusation and beating and scourging and crucifixion. You're talking about a dark night ahead and the shock that must have hit that table. And it's, it's a shock.
It's going to be a shock to this generation folks who are not ready for the days we're about to face. So many have been at the table. So many have been in fellowship. The fellowship is not complete. The understanding is not full yet. You see, it's at the table where the image of ourselves working with and for God often is very different from what really lies before us.
It's the product of our fallen nature. You remember when Satan came to Adam and Eve, he said, no, listen, if you partake of what God says you shouldn't touch, you'll have the knowledge of good and evil. You'll know what is right.
You'll know what is wrong. You'll know what paths are good, what paths you'll have a knowledge apart from what God has spoken to you. And this fallen nature can cause us to in our minds, create an image of ourselves at the table, but it might not be an image that conforms to truth. We might feel that we are something that we're not yet. We might make boasts that we're not able to fulfill. We might make promises we'll never keep.
We might feel a security that's going to be shaken to the very core of our being in the days ahead. Just like the Tower of Babel, man's imagination of what he will do and what he can do must go before he can become one in heart truly with God. Men were building this tower in the Old Testament and God came down and said, listen, we've got to destroy this because if we allow it to continue, there'll be no restraint in man's imagination of what he thinks he's capable of doing. And that's what the fallen nature produces. The fallen nature produces a wrong image. The fallen nature goes in the wrong direction.
The fallen nature just runs away with its own imagination and it's not necessarily based on truth. So God says, I've got to bring it down before that which is everlasting can can come to the fore. I've got to bring down that which is carnal before that which is spiritual might be manifested. I have to destroy what is old before what is new can be brought in.
That's why if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, all things are passed away. They have to pass away. They have to go.
They have to be carried out. They have to be thrown into the river as it is. As happened so many times in the Old Testament when people move to a false sense of worship, these things had to be literally ground to powder and thrown in the river. How many times do we see that in the Old Testament before the true worship of God can begin to happen in the temple again? Ezekiel chapter fourteen over seven tells us that a man who sets up an idol in his heart, even an image of himself separates himself from God. Folks, it's so important that I begin to realize and you begin to realize that all we have comes from Christ. All we are comes from Christ. The only journey that will survive from here to the time we die or Christ comes and takes us home is the journey he is prescribed for us. The only strength that will endure is the strength of God inside of us. There's nothing I can bring to God that's going to make this journey. There's nothing of myself. There's no boast I can make. We are all cowards at nature, folks, all of us.
You're a coward and I'm a coward. And the sooner we can admit it, the better off we're going to be. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God.
When hardship faces the church, some under the cover of doing what is right in their own minds will abandon the journey to preserve themselves. Think about John 13 verse 27 when Jesus dipped the bread in the juice and offers it to Judas. Now this is an offering of the fellowship of his suffering. And Judas looks at this and says, Listen, I didn't come to the table for this. I have an agenda.
I have a mission I feel I need to accomplish. The Bible says he was a zealot. So he had he had formed some very deep opinions of who God should be and how he fits into that plan. He probably saw himself ruling and wealthy and numerous such things. So when suffering comes and when when God starts speaking about days of hardship and trial and he reaches across the table to him, what a moment of intimacy that is going to torment that man in hell forever. Can you imagine that image in his mind in hell where there's a darkness so thick that can be felt where is gnashing his teeth day and night where there's there's a hopelessness is ever increasing, no way ever out.
And he he has this image of Jesus reaching across the table saying, I'm offering you a chance to walk with me. I didn't come to just give everyone an instant kingdom and to make everybody rich overnight and that everybody rule and reign instantaneously. No, there's a path that has to be walked before that. There's there's a time of trial. There are seasons. Yes, there are some Christians throughout history of just kind of popped into the kingdom and waved their hand, had a great old time and went to heaven.
Thank God for them. But that's not the general path that everyone has to follow. And it's certainly not the path that God has laid before us in this generation. So Judas takes this, but he has no intention of ever sharing any of the sufferings of Christ.
Forget this talk about a cross. And so he heads out and says, Well, if you won't make me rich, I'll make myself rich in your name and goes into the temple where other false and fraudulent religion reigns and trades the savior for 30 pieces of silver. Acts chapter 27. The shipment were deeming it when Paul was in the storm that they were coming near to some country. And the Bible tells us that Paul had the word from God and Paul said, No, listen, the ship is going down. But if you will listen to the words of my mouth that God's given me, you will all be safe.
You'll make it to shore. Not didn't mean they'd be saved. What it meant is that they would be physically spared and given an opportunity, I believe, to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. But there were certain people on that ship that took it upon themselves to pretend like they were doing something that was to the benefit of everyone. And they were making their way to get into the lifeboats. And really, realistically, they said, Well, we're going to throw some anchors up the front of the ship.
We got four out the back, but we're still swinging from side to side. So we're going to throw some out the front of the ship and we're going to try to help stabilize the situation. But realistically, they were planning on getting in the boats and saving their own skin. And Paul said, No, if these don't abide, then you can't be saved. If you don't abide in the reality of Jesus Christ, I'm warning you today, if you don't abide in the truth of the scripture, if you don't abide in the power of God, you're not going to make it. And I say it with a loving heart, but I say it to you as a shepherd. I say it to us from a heart that cares more that you make it to the other side than you like me today.
I care about you making it. We're going to go into a very, very rough journey, folks. And you have got to abide in Christ and Christ has got to abide in you.
He's got to become everything to you. And you can't abandon the ship in the midst of the storm. You've got to stay with the plan of God. You've got to stay with the Word of God. Paul said to those that were on the ship, he said, take some meat now, folks, that's the Word of God for us today. Take some meat. You can't live on problem out of the scriptures. You can't just live on every verse that makes your heart happy.
You got to take some meat. There is suffering. There are seasons of trial and suffering in the Christian life.
There are times when you and I have to go through the valley of the shadow of death. Take some meat, folks, get into the Bible, read everything through this Bible plan that was presented to you today. Read it, embrace it. And don't don't spit out the hard parts.
Read the whole thing. Take in some meat. Paul said, you're going to need strength for this journey, just as you and I are going to need strength. And other people are responding to the initial fears of their situation can't find the strength to make what they know to be right choices. The Bible tells us that the disciples agreed with Peter when Peter said, I'm going all the way. The disciples said, Yeah, cut us in.
We're all going now. The Lord had just told them, you're all going to flee. Now they can either agree with God or agree with Peter. And they chose to agree with Peter. And they said, No, we're all going to stay with you.
And he said, No, you're all going to you're all going to run. And but they had this initial bravado in their hearts. But the fear that came into their hearts and their situation, they couldn't find the strength to do what they knew to be right. And they all fled. And it must have seemed like the scenario in the Old Testament in Second Kings chapter 25, when the armies of Babylon came in and destroyed Jerusalem, broke apart all of the holy vessels into pieces, the lavers, the invasions, all of the pillars and all of the gold, all of these things that had been brought in and designed by the Holy Spirit. And all of a sudden, Babylon comes in, smashes them to pieces, and starts carrying them out. Can you imagine how the the people must have felt as they watched all their former victories, their hopes, their promises that they'd made to God, their visions of themselves standing with the plan of God to its completion, all captivated and carried out, all gone to Babylon, as if this world had the last say because Babylon represents a system, a world system that lives in rebellion to God.
And here comes Babylon and just seemingly carries it all out and takes it away. But there's a season she God said, No, my church can never be kept in captivity. It cannot be triumphed over.
The keys really are given into the hands of those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing of the earth that can take away the testimony of God, because God himself is the testimony. This earth can't triumph over God. And if God through the Holy Spirit is inside of me, then I can't be triumphed over I can be shaken, but I can't be triumphed over.
Praise be to God. And after a season of discipline, which God's people have needed from time and again throughout history after a season where God says, I tried to get through you wouldn't listen. And so I had to allow all your strength to be drained away.
Everything you thought was your security was broken to pieces and carried out and taken seemingly into a foreign place. And that's where many are going to find themselves in the coming days, seemingly triumphed over all the promises smashed to pieces, everything gone. I'm talking about not God's promises to you, but your promises to God, all smashed to pieces, everything carried out.
But all of a sudden, a decree God had said before the captivity even started, he spoke through Isaiah, I'm going to have a servant, he's going to rise up, his name is Cyrus, and Cyrus is going to issue a decree. And through that decree, my people are going to be able to go back home and out of the ruins of what they thought they were, and of a religion they thought they had, they're going to rebuild the temple and the glory of that temple is going to be greater than the glory of the former. Praise be to God.
Praise be to God. You can see the 50,000 that went out under Ezra, that first March back getting there. And many of the people when they looked at the rubble, and they looked at the ruin, and they looked at the fallen promises, they looked at all the mess that they had made, there would be so many who would be in their hearts saying this looks nothing like what I remember. The prophet hey guy speaks about he says when the people came back and there were people there who had remembered the temple as they saw it in its former glory. And they were looking at the building of this second temple.
And they said this is this is pitiful. You see, folks, when your image of yourself dies, when what you thought you were going to be dies. And when God calls you back to begin to build now, according to the way God has designed it to be built, you start building something and say you can be tempted to say this looks nothing like what I thought my life was supposed to be. I thought I was going to be a brilliant evangelist. I thought I thought I was going to travel the world. I thought I was gonna lay hands on the sick and everybody's going to recover. I thought I was going to prophesy and people are going to bend their knee by the thousands. And here I am rebuilding I can barely get beyond the rubble of what I thought I was. And folks, I see a day coming, when much of what the church in America has been building is going to come to rubble, there'd be almost nothing left of it.
It's just going to dissolve, it's going to be carried out, and the people are going to realize they're poor. But my hope and your hope today is that God calls the poor of this world who are rich in faith. God calls the nobodies and the nothings of society, things that are not to bring to not things that are, praise be to God, I want to be the first one there to say, Lord, I'm nothing, I have nothing. Lord, all I will ever have is got to come from your hand. And the Lord says, now I've set a path before you.
And it may not be anywhere near as glamorous as you thought it was going to be. But on that path, I'm going to walk with you the supernatural life of God is going to be in you. And you're going to live and walk through this life as a wonderment to many, you're going to build a temple and this temple is going to be greater. Now, folks, they would have looked at this temple and thought this is impossible.
They would have looked in the scriptures and said, there was gold in this other temple and there were leavers there were basins and the glory had come down and they would look in the Old Testament scriptures say this is impossible. We're just building with rubbish. And the Lord says, No, you're not building with rubbish.
You're building it now the way I want it to be built. And this latter temple is going to have a greater glory because God himself and a human body is going to come into it. This is the temple that they rebuilt that Jesus Christ came into. Praise be to God. He doesn't come into the a religious system that is far from his heart.
He doesn't come in and have it the proud. He doesn't come into places where we have fallen to the thinking that we have in ourselves the resources to bring him to a lost world we don't we don't all we have is an empty shell of a temple and a cry in our heart that says God Almighty, manifest your glory one more time in this temple. Come into this human body. Come into it in the fullness of your glory and glorify your name God Almighty glorify your name in this temple. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. The glory of the latter temple.
God said to the prophet a guy would be greater than the former. And we are the last temple of the Holy Ghost. We are the latter temple folks.
This is the last dwelling place of God on the earth. You and me praise God. So I hold to the promise. I hold to it with everything that's in my heart that the glory of this latter temple will be greater than the former. If you feel like a failure today, thank God. That's all I can say. Thank God. 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. And be sure to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-02-01 23:16:21 / 2024-02-01 23:26:22 / 10