Eating the Food of the Land

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. You're not what you think you are. You are what God says you are. That's why we have to learn to defeat an old way of thinking.

There's nothing you have to do but just simply believe that you are what He says you are. Thank you for joining us today for A Call to the Nation and Carter Conlon's message on how we need a new way of thinking. God has a specific plan for each of us, but sadly people choose to go their own way.

They choose security, safety, and personal ease. Carter wants all of us to understand we are called to a higher cause than living to preserve ourselves. Let's join Carter now. In 1857, a young man who was a minister in training, his name was Jeremiah Lanphier, a businessman really. He was learning to preach the gospel and was given charge of evangelism of reaching a certain community in Manhattan, in New York City.

And he simply printed up a poster and he put it on some polls around about the area where he was. And on the poster it simply said, if you are as concerned about the future of this city and this country as I am, join with me to pray. And from that humble beginning, I believe the first meeting there was only about six people showed up to the first meeting, but from that beginning a prayer meeting began that swept the country and the estimates range up to two million people were swept into the kingdom of God. Prayer hit churches everywhere. People whose hearts were hardened to the things of God suddenly came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. They would gather in churches. There was public confession of sin. People confessed to all kinds of things that were in their lives that they needed to get right with God from. And it was a great and glorious spiritual awakening.

Here's what I'm doing. I'm putting a poster up saying, if you care about this country and you're concerned about the future as I am, would you join me on October the 6th, Tuesday night, worldwide prayer meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. We'll be bringing this prayer meeting from Plymouth, Massachusetts. In the house that sits on the foundation of the very first house in America where the half of those who landed in 1620 on the shores of Plymouth, Massachusetts who survived prayed. They prayed on that very spot and God made a covenant with them. They had no strength. They had no plan.

They had no go forward strategy and they were surrounded by enemies. But God gave them favor. And from that simple covenant that he made with them 400 years ago, a nation was born.

Arguably one of the greatest nations that's ever been on the face of the earth. God's favor has been on this nation. But it's been 400 years and as many cultures have done before us, we've dealt loosely with this incredible blessing that God gave us.

So we're going to go back to the place where the nation began, one month before the election in November. And we're going to ask God's forgiveness for what we did with the freedom that he gave to us. And people from not just in Plymouth, but people all over the country are going to be streamed in and we're going to be praying for the mercy of God.

Not just confessing our sin, but praying for the mercy of God for our children, for our homes, for our families, for our schools, for our society, for racial reconciliation. We're going to be praying for all of these things. And I'm asking you to join with us if you really care about the future of this nation. Folks, we may not get another chance after this. You have to understand how serious this moment is in our country right now. I don't know what the future holds, but I do know this one thing. If there's no intervention of God, if God's people don't humble themselves, the future is going to be very, very dark for this nation and perhaps a lot of other places throughout the world as well.

This is a serious moment. And pray with us. Pray with us. That's all we're asking you to do. Now, it's so important for us now as the Church of Jesus Christ in this time that we're living in, we've got to have the courage at least to say, God, has our thinking been wrong? And this is something that we need to embrace.

Are you trying to get a hold of us to do something we might not have considered yet? I want to talk to you about learning to become the mighty warrior, the mighty man, the mighty woman of God that you actually are. The things that you're struggling with in many cases, not every case, but the things that you're struggling with is because you're living in a place other than where God would have you to live. And you're doing things other than what God has called you to do. Therefore, you find yourself embracing thoughts.

You're embracing thoughts that are getting to be strongholds in your life. So you spend your whole week trying to get out of one thing and out of another thing and out of another thing, when in reality, God is trying to get you not just out of these things, but he's trying to bring you in to something that he has for your life. Philippians chapter two in the New Testament, we're talking about a new way of thinking. So I'm going to start here in Philippians chapter two, and then I'm going to go to Joshua chapter five. Now in Philippians chapter two, if I started verse three, Paul is going to be speaking in context. All right, so that means he's making a statement and then he's going to bring it into an example that furthers his statement. So I want us to follow this. In verse three, he says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. In other words, okay, all that we do is the people of God. Don't let it be because you want to shine.

Don't let it be because you're just simply looking for something that's going to make yourself only more comfortable or give you a reputation maybe among people. But in loneliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Can you imagine if we just embraced that one verse of scripture in this generation, the rioting in our cities would stop almost immediately.

There certainly would be no Christian people involved in it. I can almost guarantee that if we esteemed every other person better than ourselves. Verse four, he says, let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

So now we're still in the same context of what he's saying. Don't do anything just for your own glory or for your own need. Esteem others better than yourself.

Don't just be looking only for your own comfort, your own safety, your own security, anything that brings something to you. But look to the needs of others. Then he goes into verse five and says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Getting rid of an old way of thinking and embracing a new way of thinking. Let this mind be in you. Let this be our prayer. My God, give me this mind.

I don't know about you, but it is mine. I said, God, you have to take me out of living in a place of self concern and self consumption and focus on self and everything else that just goes with living in that realm that's so deficient. For the kingdom of God, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who being in the form of God did not consider robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. Taking on the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Let this mind be in you.

Therefore, God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name. And I believe in this generation as the church of Jesus Christ, we need to start seeing again humanity before us. We need to start seeing the struggles of others. We need to start seeing that there might be a pathway and a plan of God for each of our lives that's a lot bigger than what we thought we had for ourselves. To find that plan, it involves being separated from the thinking of this world.

It involves a whole new mind. It means that we have to embrace something of God that caused the son of God to leave where he was and come to this world, walk among us suffering in a sense our infirmities, going to a cross and paying the price for our sin. We need to learn again to be obedient even if it takes us to a place of suffering. You know, there's not much of that has been preached in the last maybe 20 years or so.

I'm sure there's places it has been, but it's almost a gospel that's not heard anymore. We've crafted another mind, may I put it that way, gravitated to a portion of the scripture, but we pushed the other portion out of our thinking. And we're now living at a time where if we're going to make a difference as the church of Jesus Christ, the mind of Christ has to be given to us again. The ways of Christ have to become ours, otherwise we're just an irrelevant argument in the wind.

That's all we are. We're going to be pushed to the sideline and the voices that are loud, louder than ours, are going to be the ones that dominate the moment as is already happening in our culture. God has brought us into a place of reckoning.

He's brought his whole church into a place where he's trying to speak to us again and talk to us about something that we're supposed to be, something we are, and a place where he is willing, if we're willing to go with him, he's willing to take us there. Now in Joshua chapter 5, there was a whole new generation of people that had been raised in the wilderness. Their forefathers had made the error of coming out of Egypt and choosing not to go into the place of promise that God had for them. And really their choice was based on self-preservation. They went in and they looked at the size of the giants, they looked at the fortifications of cities that God told them will belong to them, and they drew the conclusion, and really it's based on fear. They drew the conclusion that they're too much for us, they're too big for us, they're too strong for us, and realistically every man, every woman is standing there saying, if I do this, I'm going to suffer. I might even die.

My freedom might be taken away. I don't know what was in their mind, but here at least in the wilderness, at least they had provision, they had manna. In the wilderness they were at least alive and they probably wrongfully assumed that it's probably better to live here than to try to go in and fulfill the calling of God that's on our lives. And sad to say, generation to generation there are always Christian people who make that choice and they live in a spiritual wilderness. It's not a place of victory and it's not a place of total defeat, it's just a place of nothing. Their life has no meaning, it has no influence, it conquers nothing for God, it doesn't operate in the supernatural, it's really relegated to the realm of just arguing doctrine and scripture. There's no supernatural power with them. Remember the apostle Paul said, your faith is not to stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

But there's not too many people who can say that anymore. Their whole faith is in the wisdom of their crafting their arguments against the arguments of those that live outside the kingdom of God. Now, in Joshua chapter 5, this new generation which we are, are being called of God to go into a place that those who came before them chose not to go. It's a place of having to fight, it's a place of having to obey, it's a place of having to do something greater in a sense than just crafting out their own safety and their own security. And ultimately, if you can hear it, they were actually fighting for you and fighting for me.

Had they not gone in, you just imagine the consequences there would have been. This is a phenomenal thing when you begin to think about it. They were crafting, in a sense, the pathway that would ultimately lead to Christ being born in that promised land, going to the cross, dying on the cross. Then of course, after he died, he became our promised land. As the believers in Christ in the New Testament, he is the promised land. It is all about Jesus Christ. Our life, our hope, our mind, our wisdom, our victory, our future, our strength, everything is in him. Every promise of God is not in a physical land anymore.

It's now in the person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Now, in chapter 5 and verse 2, before they went in, it said at that time in verse 2 of chapter 5 in Joshua, the Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives for yourself and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time. So Joshua made flint knives for himself and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them. All the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way when they'd come out of Egypt. For all the people who came out had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. You know, when we choose not to go in and conquer as Christ has called us to conquer, then everything that we raise up after us won't be separated.

As we chose not to be separated, those who are raised up after us will also not be fully separated for the purposes of God. For the children of Israel, verse 6, walked 40 years in the wilderness to all the people who were men of war. You see, they didn't know what they were. Now the Bible calls them men of war, but that's not what they called themselves. They called themselves grasshoppers.

Do you remember that? We were grasshoppers in their sight. But no, God called them men of war. That's why I'm speaking to you the way I am. You're not what you think you are. You are what God says you are.

That's why we have to learn to defeat an old way of thinking. And if you don't learn to defeat it, you will be laying on your mat the rest of your life waiting for the waters to move so you can be healed. When Christ is standing beside you now saying, will you be made whole?

There's nothing you have to do but just simply believe that you are what he says you are. And in believing that, you simply get up, roll up your mat and begin to walk and become a living miracle for the kingdom of God. You begin to pull down powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places just by the fact that you are letting God call you and cause you to walk where he's called you to walk.

Then suddenly there's a great victory. All the people who were men of war, verse six, who came out of Egypt were consumed because they did not obey the voice of the Lord. In other words, God had a plan for each of them, but they chose security and safety and personal ease. They weren't really as concerned about the honor of God as they should have been. And the Lord swore that he would not show them the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Then Joshua circumcised their sons whom he raised up in their place for they were uncircumcised. It's a type like, for example, of a generation raised up in the present church age, they're really not separated under the things of God. They have a partial God thinking, but they also have a partial thinking that's of this world. They're not separated under God. Their thinking is not separated.

Their lives are not separated. They know the scripture that says, as the father has sent me, so now I send you. They know it, but they're not willing to follow it. They don't want to do it. And in great measure, there's a portion of that part of their forefathers that said that we don't want to suffer for the cause of inheriting this land.

We don't want to run the risk of losing our lives or freedom or whatever it is. And so they drew back and they would have had to craft their own religion in the wilderness. And there's nothing worse than a dry church. I don't know if you feel, but that's what happens when people do not walk with God. The church becomes a very, very, very dry place. A place that nobody really wants to go to. They don't want to go to hell, so they feel they have to go to church on Sunday. Not that they really want to be there. Don't really want to hear the words that come from God if there's anything from God, even in the pulpit anymore. They live in a dry, dry place. And I don't know about you, but I don't want to live there.

And I don't think you do either. And I'm going to try, because the Holy Spirit sent me to get through to you, that you're not called to be where you are. And your whole life focus is not to be focused on the struggle that you're presently having. Remember that this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Let every man look on the things of others or think about the struggles of others and not just on his own struggles and trials. Now it says, so it was when they had finished circumcising all the people, they stayed in their places in the camp until they were healed. Then the Lord said to Joshua, this day, I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.

Therefore, the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. So they were about to experience marvelous victory. I mean, the first victory after this separating unto God is that we're going to go to Jericho. And you know the story of how they just, they didn't even have to do anything. Just march around. Don't say a word.

Just seven days, just march around. And when I tell you to shout, you shout, and God says, I'm going to give you the victory. And he gave them a marvelous, marvelous victory over a place that was fortified. It was entrenched. It declared that it had the dominance over the promised land, which it didn't, of course. God gave it to his own people. Now in order for this generation to submit to this covenant, circumcision was a covenant.

It was a new generation coming to God and saying, our forefathers may have chosen security and safety over the glory and the honor of God, but we're going to walk with you, Lord. We choose. And the Lord's saying, in order to do this, you have to come to a full recognition of the failures of the past. You have to reckon with it.

You have to deal with it. The scripture in Second Chronicles says, if my people called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways. And the scripture says, it tells us there has to be a reckoning with our failures. We're living in a generation where our cities are on fire, folks.

Do you understand? Our families are breaking down. Addiction is becoming rampant. Our whole society in America today is dissolving right before our eyes. And God help us as a church, if all we can do is boast about how great we've been and all the wonderful things that we've done. Let's deal honestly with our failures. If we had truly lived for God the way we should have, there would be a thirst in this society for the supernatural, just as there was on the day of Pentecost.

There's no getting around this truth. We've not been what we boasted about being. Many of God's people have lived in the wilderness out of Egypt, but not into the place you promise. Out of, out of from under the penalty of sin, but not becoming what God wanted them to be, not doing what God called us to do, not conquering the things God called us to conquer. We've had no passion for prayer because in many cases people were just content to dwell in this dry place and not have really a burden, not have the mind of Christ.

This mind that caused him to come down from the throne where he was equal with God, his father and condescend, as the scripture says, self-worth to men of low estate and walk among us and become a servant and become obedient to the death of the cross. There has to be a reckoning with the failures of the past. Otherwise we won't go in. Otherwise we'll justify who we are. We'll, we'll look to blame somebody for the mess that the nation is in. When the mess, the blame realistically for the mess lands on the pulpits in America and the people of God. There, there really is no escaping this. If we really were what we were called to be, the nation would be in the prayer meeting.

They wouldn't be burning our cities at present. And then the issue of circumcision. Now there are three elements of circumcision really. There's, there's, there's exposure and shame. There's pain and there's separation.

There has to be an admission. There has to be an admission in my heart and your heart. I'm not everything I should be. And God is obviously calling me to more. So God, would you give me the grace to take the next step? Would you give me the grace to step out of the crowd? Would you give me the grace to go farther than others say is far enough? Would you give me the grace to lose my freedom if necessary that others may gain theirs? Would you give me the grace to suffer so that the sufferings of others may cease? Would you give me the mind of Christ? Would you help me God to, to go forward and become what I should? Would you, would you help me to get, get off this bed of self-pity?

If you're looking for volunteers, let me be the first to step forward. Let me be the first to say, God, I am willing to identify with Christ. I'm willing to suffer the shame of rejection that this generation will give to those who belong to God if necessary. And yes, there's pain. There's a certain pain that comes with separation. There's the breaking of old relationships. There's the putting away of, of old habits and suffer the pain of putting away old practices, old relationships, old ways of doing things and become separate unto God and an, and an embracing of that separation and embracing and say, I'm going to be identified as a follower of Jesus Christ from this day forward. No more mumbling in the restaurant, wiping my brow, making it look like I'm praying. No more hiding in the closet.

Yes, and it's going to cost you. Tell you straight out in this generation, you can't have a biblical opinion and even have safety on your job anymore. You know that.

I know that. But there has to be a willingness for you and I and anyone else that God is calling to stand up and be separated for the purposes of God. If we're ever going to know the power of God again, being manifested through our lives, then the scripture tells us in verse 11, it says, they ate the produce of the land on the day after Passover and unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year.

This is to me amazing. They, they stepped forward. They submitted to the covenant of circumcision. They declared themselves to be the people of God.

They decided they were going to go in and fight and they didn't quite know what that was going to mean. They didn't know if some of them would lose their lives over it. But they said, we're going to go in because we're called to God to a higher cause than just living to preserve ourselves. Remember, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. We are called to a higher cause than living to preserve ourselves. I'm going to say it again.

We are called to a higher cause than living to preserve ourselves. They're not spoon fed anymore. They're opening the Bible and the word is coming to life.

It's jumping off the pages. You remember at the manna, they had to go out every day and get it. But when they crossed into this place, the land began to produce for them because they chose to walk with God. Say, Lord, I'm stepping out. If all of humanity in America is all the churches lined up in a single line and you're looking for volunteers, God, I'm going to be the first to step forward. Now I'm not going to step forward having it all together. I'm not going to step forward in any kind of personal perfection. I'm going to step forward just because you're calling me.

And though I consider myself weak, you tell me I'm mighty. And so Lord, I'm going to let your power and your life flow through my life for the sake of others because I want the mind of Christ to be my mind. You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Time 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.