Carter Conlin from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. You and I are still God's Plan A in this generation. We're not Plan B, C, D, E, or F. We are still God's Plan A. God says, "I I have and I will." We're glad you've joined us for a call to the nation with Carter Conlin.
We are living in a time when darkness is increasing and truth is being challenged, but God has not called His people to retreat or remain silent. In today's message, Carter Conlin reminds us that the church is still God's plan for this generation. As we hold firmly to His Word and refuse to turn to the right or to the left, God will give us the Courage and strength to stand, and His light will shine through us. Let's join Carter now with his message titled "When You Come to the Crossroads, Take the Crossroad." I'm so thankful for Pastor Tim, and I know you are too as well. I'm I'm thankful for the clarion call that is going out from this pulpit, and it's going all over the world.
By God's grace, we're going to continue to lift up our pastor and pray for him. And for the burden, you have no idea. I do. Many of you don't have any idea the weight that this pulpit puts on a man. It's it's a phenomenal weight.
I used to say years ago when I came through the Lincoln Tunnel, when I lived in New Jersey, I would pick up my baby grand piano when I came through and put it on my back for the whole time I was here. There's just a weight you cannot describe. But God has given this. This church had a prophetic word over it that was given to David Wilkerson in 1987 when it was first initiated by the Holy Spirit. That this church was going to be a lighthouse.
This pulpit would be a lighthouse, and the darker it got, the farther the beam was going to go around the world. And we look at the screen and all of our services, and we see that prophetic word that the Holy Spirit gave to David Wilkerson is now being fulfilled right before our eyes. And the darker it gets, the more people are going to start coming in. And I don't know what it is that's going to happen in our country or maybe in this city that's going to bring an influx, and maybe worldwide, but it's going to bring an influx of people in in uncounted numbers. Just before I turned the pulpit over, when Pastor Tim first came in 2020, I.
Had a word from the Lord, and I passed it on to Pastor Tim. And the word was from John 21, where the the disciples had been fishing all night and they caught nothing. And Jesus said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat." And what the Holy Spirit spoke to me is, "Cast the internet on the right side of the boat." And the scripture says that you know intimates that he sent the fish into the net, and Pastor Tim for six years has been casting the internet on the right side of this church, and it's gone all over the world.
Now God is going to send the people in; they're going to come.
Now I don't know what the catalyst will be. That causes that. Who knows? I mean, we're living on the edge of instability in this world in a never increasing measure. We don't know what some of these foreign nations are going to do.
We don't know what kind of calamity we're going to wake up to in the morning, if if at all. But I do know that God promises He will have a people. And I do know that He will give His people strength if we want to have the strength that God is willing to give us. We have to desire the strength. It doesn't just fall on us without any initiative on our part.
We we have to love the Word of God. We have to want the things of God. We have to go in the direction of God. And if we promise to do that, He will give us the strength. Thank God.
Thank God for the promises of God. Thank God. I'll be 73 on Wednesday, and I feel a new lease on life. I honestly do. I just a new passion, a passion for Him, a passion first for Jesus Christ, and for His Word, and then for His work and His calling, and whatever it is, and then for this generation, a generation that has largely been robbed of truth.
A generation that maybe doesn't yet fully know how God longs to give His power to those who turn to Him, but I believe that we will as we open our hearts to it. It's an amazing thing, as Jesus once said to the churches in Revelation, "He was ears to hear; let him hear, or let her hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches." He wasn't speaking to the church to to harm her; he was speaking to the church to strengthen her. And to take her into the future, with assurance in her step, and an an influence that can cause good to happen around us. Each one of us have a sphere of influence. Whether it's in our own families, it's in it can go from there to the hallway of our apartment buildings.
It can go into the workplace or wherever it is we travel. We've all been given a sphere of influence, and every last one of us is a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now we're a preacher because we are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we have the power of the Spirit of God resident within our earthen vessels. And He has equipped our mouths to speak truth. He's given us new eyes to see. He's given us new hands to be able to reach out in the in the name of Christ. And He's given us a heart to believe that all things are still possible with God.
That He can take us from wherever we are. And make us into whatever He's destined us to be. That's the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank God for for yesterday, but that's gone. And thank God for today.
It's it's wonderful to be alive today. But I'm looking forward to what God's going to do tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and the day after, as as the Psalm says, "Morning by morning, new mercies I see. Morning by morning." I don't want to wake up in the morning and be thinking about yesterday. I want to wake up and think about tomorrow, what it is that God wants to do, and where He wants to lead, and how His name can be glorified.
Now we're living in a perilous time. There's no doubt about the hour that we're living in is is indeed, as the Scripture tells us, it's a perilous hour. I I know that. And history repeats itself. The ways of man don't change.
The circumstances change, and the the ages change. But the ways of man don't change. And you'll see when Jesus Christ walked the earth as a man, he first faced may I call it just inquiry. You know, people coming up and asking questions out of some genuine curiosity. Then the inquiry inquiry turned to scorn.
Then it turned to accusation. Then it turned to trial and ultimately turned to violence, and that's the natural progression of of sin in the world. And sin hates the presence of God. Sin hates the light and the life of God through His Son Jesus Christ. And we're living in a day that is starting to turn towards thoughts of achieving its objectives through violence, if necessary.
There are some people all purporting the godless are purporting if we can't get it any other way, this is the way we're going to get it. We're going to get our objectives, and we're going to build our golden statue. And the people of this generation will bow down and they will worship it. And when they hear the music, as Nebuchadnezzar once said, "You either bow down or you burn, or we throw you into a place where it's going to get very, very hot for you." There were so many children of God. In that kingdom at that time, I leaned over to Pastor Tim during the worship and I said, "We don't know the names of the tens of thousands that bent their knee to the gods of that age." And they said, "Well, God, you know, you understand, you understand in my heart that I really don't mean it, but I'm just not interested in in going through the fiery furnace." So they bent their knee.
But we do know the names of three Hebrew boys who didn't. Who didn't bend their knee, and it was because of them that Nebuchadnezzar saw the fourth man in the fire. I am not convinced they saw the fourth man, but I am convinced because of Scripture that Nebuchadnezzar saw the fourth man. And when you and I are willing to face whatever we have to face in the days ahead, and we stand for what we know to be true in spite of the consequences, the people outside of us they look and they see a strength. In us that could only come from God, they they understand that there is a fourth man in our fire.
There's somebody else with us walking. We're not doing this alone because they know that they could not stand where we are standing. When Jesus Christ was taken into captivity and put on trial and then ultimately crucified, there was different types of people at that time.
Now there was a group of people that the Scripture says they they went to the they went to the crucifixion of Christ, but they stood afar off. In other words, I kind of believe I I'm part of this, but I don't necessarily want to be associated with this at this time. It's not a popular time. The society has risen up. The violence against God is is in the fore, and so I'm here, but I'm kind of standing in the shadows.
I don't want to get too close to the cross. Then there were people like Peter, who was discipled for three years, the purest school of ministry you could ever attend, in your lifetime. Words right from the mouth of the Son of God, and yet the Scripture tells us that when Christ was put on trial and being mocked, he he stood and warmed himself by a fire, but just close, but far enough away. It's it's the type of person who comes to church and he's. I really don't want to get into the fray.
I really don't want to be associated with this man who's being mocked at this time. But I'll I'll come to church and kind of warm myself by the fire. But I don't really want to get too close. And then of course there's the, the next time that Peter was confronted, he changed his conversation and began to curse and swear. And just a lot of people that try to hide who they are by entering into the conversations of others, and there's there's so much uncivil conversation going on right now, isn't there?
It's everywhere. It's in the marketplace, in the workplace. It's it's in family gatherings. It's everywhere. Just such awful speech, and.
Peter disguised his speech to kind of fit in with the people where he was, as opposed to standing out as a disciple of Jesus Christ. But God, in His mercy, is going to give us the strength. I'm going to I'm going to tell you a prayer at the end of this message that you can pray, and if you pray it from from a sincere heart, you can virtually guarantee that God's going to give you the strength you need to get through the days ahead, and not just get through, make a difference. I don't know about you. I don't.
I don't want to just get through. I want to make a difference. I want to be a catalyst for good. I want to go into the colleges if the Lord keeps opening the doors, and I I want to stand for Christ and say what needs to be said. I'm on the radio across the country in three hundred or four hundred stations, whatever it is right now.
I'm not going to draw back. I want to say what needs to be said at this time to turn people back to God and back to prayer. And I honestly don't care about the threats that are out there. I'm too old to. I'm too old to threaten now.
I don't really care anymore. I'm going the full distance with God, and let it be what it's going to be. But all I ask, all I ask, I ask two things: Jesus Christ, would you be glorified through my life? And God, would you bring people out of darkness and into light? Would you bring them out of hell and into heaven?
Would you bring them out of sin and into forgiveness? God, would you work a work that can only be done by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in this generation?
So it's a choice we have to make. I'm making that choice. I made it in my heart. I'm not retiring. I'm not going to be quiet.
I'm not going to go away. I'm going to speak the gospel of Jesus Christ to this generation. And I refuse to sanitize what I say. I'm going to say what needs to be said. When the Holy Spirit moves upon my heart, that's the word I want to speak.
Let it fall where it may. I'm not bending to the Nebuchadnezzars of this generation. The threats to say, well, you either agree with us and you bend your knee and worship here, or it's going to get hot for you.
Well, let it get hot. I really don't care. I really don't care anymore. I'm going to stand. For the gospel of Jesus Christ, I've been threatened before, so I get this.
I was called into my boss's office when I was a police officer, and he was spitting mad. He was so red; he looked like a tomato on the other side of the desk, and he was he was infuriated at me. He said, "This is not an evangelical association." We're our police department, and you're not to be out there talking to people in the community about Jesus Christ. Do you understand? I looked at him and I said, "You need God in your life." He got doubly mad.
He said, "What makes you say that?" I said, "Because the Bible says in the Book of Proverbs." A man with no control over his spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. And I said, "You have no control, sir, over your spirit." I said, "You're like a city that's walls are broken." You never guess what happened. He he he stopped and he started sharing his struggles. Ended up going to church with his wife. Thank God for that.
That's all I can say. Thank God. When you come to the crossroad, take the crossroad. I want you to picture a cross in your mind. You know, it's got a vertical pole, and then you got this crosspiece, which was called the the stipes, I believe, and it's in the shape of a T.
You and I start at the bottom of the cross when we come to Christ, and we're working our way straight up to the throne of God. Where our whole passion is to live for Christ and to have His Word abiding within us, and to have our lives used for His purpose and for His glory, and eventually, when we get to the top of that road, to have Him look us in the eye and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful in a few things. Behold, I'll make you ruler over many things." Enter into the joy of the Lord.
Now, when you get about two thirds of the way up that cross, you can. There's a choice you have to make. You can go left or you can go right. You can take a deviation, and we're going to talk about that as we read the scriptures today. Proverbs chapter four.
Father, I thank you, God, for the touch of your Holy Spirit. I thank you for the strength. God of your word, I thank you, Lord, for the the wholesomeness of this congregation, Lord. I I I actually can hear the wholesomeness in the worship. Not everybody is completely free, but everybody wants to be free, and your people want to live for you.
They want to serve you. They want to make a difference.
So, God, I'm asking, Lord, that you would just you say in your word that you build us as your people, line upon line, precept upon precept, a little here and a little there.
So, God, would you would you just continue to build what you're doing in each one of our lives? Don't let us turn away from it, God. Help us, Lord Jesus Christ, to embrace the truth that we hear, to walk in it, and ultimately to make a difference for Your kingdom's sake and for Your glory. And we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. Praise God.
Now, this is from the book of Proverbs, and an interesting sidebar when we read this is, I believe that God was speaking to Solomon. When he was given these words, but he didn't—he didn't obey what he was writing. Even though it was the inspired word of Scripture, Solomon ended up, in my opinion, a reprobate. At the end of his life, he was—he was the wisest man that ever lived, but he wasn't smart. And he was writing down things that could have saved him, and he wouldn't listen.
So I'm praying today, God, would you help me to listen to what I'm about to read. May it not just be just just more words that I read that don't apply, but oh God, would you cause these words to etch themselves on my heart? Isn't that your promise that you would come one day and you would write your laws on our heart?
So God, write this on my heart as I read it today. Hear, my son, verse ten, and receive my sayings. And the years of your life will be many. What a wonderful promise, isn't it? Hear the word of God.
Receive the things I say to you. God promises length of life. God promises a productive life. I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you in right paths.
When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, and when you run, you will not stumble. Take firm hold of instruction. Do not let her go. Keep her, for she is your life. Take firm hold of the word of God.
Not just a casual thing, not just a looseness, not just the things I like, but the entire Word of God. Take hold of it and say, God, this is my life. Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it. Do not travel on it.
Turn away from it and pass on. For they do not sleep unless they have done evil. And their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall, for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the just is like the shining sun; that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.
My son, give attention to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left. Remove your foot from evil.
I want to read to you an article from the Full Life Study Bible that's a commentary on the days that. Paul, the apostle, warned about the last days that we're now. I'm convinced living in. Both Jesus and Paul paint a dismal picture, morally, spiritually, and doctrinally, as the present age closes. Paul, in particular, stresses that the churches will be invaded by godless elements in the last days.
This falling away within the church will have two dimensions. Theological apostasy is the departure from and rejection of a part or all of the original teachings of Christ and the apostles. False leaders will offer salvation and cheap grace, while ignoring Christ's demand for repentance, separation from immorality, and loyalty to God and His standards. False hope that centers on human activity and goals of self-interest will become popular. Moral apostasy is the severing of one's saving relationship with Christ and returning to sin and immorality.
Some leaders may proclaim right doctrine yet abandon God's moral law and standards of righteousness, and thereby corrupt the truth and loose deception. Many churches will tolerate almost anything for the sake of numbers, money, success, and honor. The gospel of the cross, with its call to suffer, to radically renounce sin, and to sacrifice for God's kingdom and to deny oneself, will become unpopular. Both church history and the predicted falling away at the end time warn believers not to be naive about widespread corruption of the gospel. At some point in church history, rebellion against God and His word will reach astounding.
Proportions. The day of the Lord will brings God's wrath on those who reject His truth. Make no mistake about it. We are now entering, or perhaps we are even well into, the days that are described here and spoken about in Scripture. Verse sixteen of Proverbs chapter four tell us that the wicked are now.
Relentlessly pursuing everything contrary to truth and godliness, they do not sleep unless they have done evil, and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone to fall. They're fed on the that which the Bible declares to be evil, and they see violence as a legitimate way of achieving their ends. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. It is always the pattern. Of godlessness, as they crucified Christ.
Don't think there'd be any civility in our generation. There's there's a whole contingency of the godless. If they cannot get their way, in one way they'll get it another way, even if they have to resort to violence. And it's it's not something unusual to hear people that are even ascribing to violence as a legitimate way of achieving. Their new and euphoric society, as they see it, needs to be.
They live in darkness, according to verse nineteen. The way of the wicked is like darkness, and they do not know what makes them stumble, and they're unaware of the depths of sorrow into which their path is leading them.
So, it's in this context that God says in verse thirteen, "He," it's a plea. To the last day's church, take firm hold of instruction. Do not let her go. Keep her, for she is your life. We're not called to cherry pick truth.
You understand. Take firm hold of what God says, even what you're hearing today. That these are not good days. Yes, they are because Christ is still in in the business of saving us and holding us in the palm of the hand of God the Father. But the days are dark and the days are difficult.
And there's a rebellion against truth that's happening. It's almost worldwide now. And we live. We're living on the edge of of things changing in one hour. The prophet Isaiah said, "In one hour, everything can change." We saw that on nine eleven.
I was here. I was pastoring here when that happened. God warned us. He forewarned us about three months before that a crisis was coming to the city. We canceled everything: canceled a missions conference, a women's conference, all of our guest speakers, and we began to meet and pray.
And the Holy Spirit said, "Teach the people to come to the throne of grace to find help in time of need." And so we began to do that, and we began to talk about a crisis coming to the city—a major crisis where people would be fleeing and running in the streets. And we began to teach the people, "You need to be ready." And we had people leave the church at that time. I don't know how many. It's more than a hundred or two—that's for sure. Who just they said, "Look, we we we came here to be blessed.
We didn't come here to to hear that there's going to be a crisis in the city." Well, well, who ever thought that God forewarning of a coming crisis is not blessing you? That is the ultimate blessing when when when God speaks and says, "I want to give you strength." You've been listening to Carter Conlin from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk with Christ, log on to tsc dot nyc. That's tsc dot nyc. And be sure to be with us next week for a call to the nation with Carter Conlin.
