It’s Time for Another Ridiculous Battle Plan

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. You are the ridiculous battle plan of God, and so am I. You are the one that God wants to use. You who is addicted. You who have trouble in your home and your family. You who are just like everybody else that God has ever used throughout history.

Thank you for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. We'll learn from Carter today that if you feel like you're the worst person in your neighborhood or your family, if you feel like you're despised, if you feel rejected and unloved by God, if you feel like nothing, then you are God's ridiculous battle plan in this generation. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, and join Carter now. I personally believe that this world is launching its final assault against the Lordship of Jesus Christ. You can read about that all through the Scriptures. There's some particular chapters like Matthew chapter 24, for example, that deal exclusively almost with this moment. Paul the Apostle talks about it, and Timothy and the book of the Thessalonians as well.

So you can take time and you can study that. But we see this rising of lawlessness in our generation. We're beginning to realize that there is no hope for peace.

There's no hope for reconciliation. There's no hope for justice, true justice, according to the Word of God, godliness in our homes and families and our children, apart from a divine, sovereign move of God in this world. And as I have seen the news and studied the Word of God, I've come to a conclusion, and it's the title of my sharing, that it's time for another ridiculous battle plan.

There's no other conclusion I can come to. And you'll understand what I'm talking about in just a moment as we look in the Scriptures. And I want to start in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 18.

We're going to start there and we're going to go through almost right to the middle of the chapter. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Now let me put it in context. That means that Jesus Christ died to pay the price for our sin so that we might be forgiven when we place our trust in him for our salvation. That means to be saved.

To be taken out from under the penalty of eternal separation from God and brought into relationship with God because we have trusted that Christ took our place on that cross. Now there's something of the power of God. There's a power obviously in God to forgive our sin.

We all understand that. But there's another power. There's a deeper power. There's something that God has done for us through the cross. When he was raised from the dead, the Bible tells us in the New Testament, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, the promise to you and I is that the one who raised Christ from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies. So he will bring us out of a place of death. He will bring us out of a place of weakness or confusion or listlessness or just living lives that really don't amount to anything or bring any glory to God. By the Spirit of God, the promise of the cross is that we will be lifted out of this place of weakness and darkness and brought into life and light as Pastor Patrick shared tonight. An abundance of God will become ours.

The strength of God will become ours. And through each of our lives, God will do something that he's determined to do, things oft times that you and I have not even thought he's able to do. I had no idea what God was going to do through my life the day that I gave my heart to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

It was just so far out of my thinking I couldn't have even conceived of it in my mind. But yet God in his mercy started leading me out of the places I used to live and the ways I used to think into something brand new that he had for my life, a new place that he was going to take me, an influence that he was going to exert through my life to bring other people to him, the saving knowledge of who he is. So this is the message of the cross.

It's redemption and living the redemptive life as it is. For it is written, verse 19, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. In other words, I will do something that natural man can't reason.

It makes no sense to the natural man, the natural mind. That means the mind apart from God. I will do something that will bring the wisdom of this world to nothing.

I will go beyond what this world is able to achieve. I'll go beyond those who get to high places because of their influence or their degrees or their accessibility to power and promise as this world offers it to them. Verse 20 says, where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For the Jews request a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks. In other words, to those who live by their own intellect and influence foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. There is an ability that God gives to those who belong to him and a wisdom that through the Holy Spirit and the word of God that is imparted into our minds as we trust in God that this world doesn't know anything about. This world can't give it.

And thank God this world can't take it away either. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And so as I read this, as I remember the first years I began to read this many, many years ago, I was thinking the foolishness of God. How could anybody even consider saying that God has any foolishness?

Now Paul is using it rhetorically in a sense. If you accuse God of being foolish, Paul is saying his foolishness is wiser than all of your wisdom put together. If you accuse God of being weak, his weakness is stronger than anything that you can produce in this world because of the cross of Jesus Christ and the people of God. All throughout redemptive history, God has chosen the weak things of this world and he has enacted battle plans that to the natural mind, remember it's this foolishness of God is wiser than men. To the natural mind, the plans of God don't make any sense. The battle plans of God are absolutely ridiculous.

You and I both know the examples. For example in the book of Exodus, the people of God are in captivity to a much more naturally powerful nation. They are being given tasks to do, they're discouraged, they're depressed just like we have a lot of prayer requests that people who are down and feel defeated and their children, it gets to the point where their children, their sons are being thrown into the river to drown.

Can it not be said that in our generation that our children are being thrown into a river of confusion, whether it's gender confusion or doctrinal confusion or our doubt about the reality of God, their minds are being, as I speak, their minds are being indoctrinated with ideas that are so far away from the ways of God that it's actually scary. And it got to the point where the people of God of this generation began to cry out to God. They didn't know what else to do.

They didn't have the resource to be set free from the suppression, the suppressive culture in a sense that had encircled them and was imposing its will upon them and harming their children. And so all they knew to do was to cry out to God. And when they cried out to God, God initiated a battle plan, a battle plan to get his people out of captivity from under the influence and control of one of, if not the most powerful army on the earth at this time. And so God initiates a battle plan.

Now in the world, if we were going to try to set millions literally of people free, we would be hiring foreign armies. We would start military training. We would have camps. We'd be building chariots. We'd be finding horses.

We'd be hammering swords. But God's battle plan is to go into a desert, in the backside of the desert as a matter of fact. And he found an 80 year old man there, a man who stuttered might I add, lost his ability to speak. This man had no weaponry. He had no chariot. He had no access to power.

All he had was a stutter. He had a history of failure as far as he could see. And he was given a battle plan.

I want you to go and stand before the most powerful leader on the earth of your time with a stick in your hand and a one line sermon. That's all he was given to do. And the man was so weak he needed his brother to deliver the sermon. And he stood before Pharaoh and it was just let my people go that they may sacrifice unto me in the wilderness. That's all he had to do.

That's your commission. I firmly believe that the only reason that Pharaoh didn't kill Moses and Aaron when they appeared in his court is because it was so humorous. You see, to the natural man, the power of God is foolishness. To the natural man. So here's this old man. He's 80.

He's got a stick. He's got no resource, no power, no access to anything. No army behind him. And he's so weak he can't deliver the one line sermon.

His 83 year old brother has to do the talking for him. And I think that Pharaoh just looked and was just so humorous. That's the only reason he didn't kill him right on the spot. And then of course at a certain point it became a contest of power. And Pharaoh at this point was a matter of pride. It was a matter of whose power was greater, his or these men who claimed to be speaking for the living God.

You know it was God's plan to set his people free through this duo of weakness as it was. And the first thing when God came to Moses, the first thing out of his mouth is who am I that I could go and deliver your people out of captivity? Who am I? And that's the way you and I are. That's the way you are.

As I'm speaking these words, is it possible that God is speaking a little spark of faith into your heart about something maybe he wants to do in and through your life that you haven't considered yet? But the very first thing out of many of us is who am I? Who am I that you would ever consider using my life? I can't do it. I don't have any skill. I don't have any ability.

There's nothing I can do. The book of Judges, there was an enemy army that came in every year. 135,000 of them. And they literally scooped up all the produce of the land. Everything that God's people were trying to build or procure for themselves.

This enemy army would come in and just steal it all. And the people of God felt so hopeless and so helpless. And yet a messenger of God appears to a young man called Gideon and calls him a mighty man of resource.

His first thing out of his mouth is how can I save Israel? Don't you understand that my family is the weakest in all of the tribes and I am the weakest and least in my father's house. I think you've got the wrong address but God says no. You see, this is your resource. I have sent you.

I've sent you. And if I send you to do something, you will accomplish it, not in your strength or your wisdom, but in the strength and wisdom that I give to you, it will be done. The book of Esther, there was a law written that the people of God were to be oppressed and then after that annihilated and all of their, everything they had gained in their life was to be taken away from them.

They were filled with fear. And when the word of God came to this young girl who had been placed strategically in the king's court, the first thing out of her mouth is I have not been called before the king for some time. And it's like the person tonight that says, well, I don't think I can make a difference because I haven't really been in any kind of communication with the Lord for quite a while now. And I don't feel lovely.

I don't feel like he wants me. That was her initial response. And you go into the New Testament, the book of Acts, you have 120 people in an upper room and these people have all failed. They have no strategy. They have nothing they could offer the kingdom of God. And the questions that would be in each of their mouths would be who are we and what chance do we have to overcome all that is now against us?

There's a dominant culture called Rome will consider themselves superior to the ways of the people of God. They've conquered almost all of the whole known world. Their soldiers are everywhere. They have the upper hand. We don't even have weapons. And all of us, we've all failed.

They all knew that. Our boasts of love and loyalty to God, our proximity to him and our leaning on his heart and every other display of affection or statements we made about how loyal we're going to be is all fallen through our fingers, all fallen into the sand. So who are we and what are we that you would even consider using our lives and what chance do we have to overcome all that is now against us?

You see, it was time for another foolish battle plan, another ridiculous battle plan. That's the only way I can describe it because can you just imagine the battle plans that God has used throughout the years? And that's why in verse 25, it says, for the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

See, God could do it all himself in just a moment of time. The beauty of the scripture is that he chooses to use you and me. And he uses us not when we're strong, quite often he uses us when we're weak. When we feel like our ministry moment like Moses has passed us by, when we feel like Gideon, like our houses, we're just so small and we've just accomplished so little and we don't have a heritage and we've got no influence or authority, whatever could come through our lives.

When we feel unlovely like Esther, uncalled for, unwanted, like we had access once but we don't have access to the throne of God anymore. Or as in the book of Acts, we feel like we failed him. He trusted us.

We told him we loved him. When the time came to stand, we cowered, we hid, we ran and now all we can do and all we know how to do is pray. The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. In verse 26 now, Paul goes on. Now he's bringing his whole thought to a culmination, to a conclusion, to a decision that has to be made.

In verse 26 he says, for you see your calling brethren. Now here's my point. You are the ridiculous battle plan of God and so am I. You are God's ridiculous battle plan in the year 2021. You are the one that God wants to use. You. You who is addicted. You who is despairing. You who are fighting discouragement and panic attacks. You who have trouble in your home and your family.

You who are just like everybody else that God has ever used throughout history. You see your calling, Paul says. You see your calling and that's my question to you. Do you see your calling? Do you understand it's not many mighty. You see your calling brethren. Not many wise according to the flesh. Not many mighty.

Not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world. That's the foolishness of God.

The reality that God has designed and designed to work through me. To glorify his own name on the earth. To work through you. Not in our strength but in our weakness. In the book of Hebrews he tells his own people, he says, the invitation to his throne to commune with him is not when we are strong but when we are weak. When we need mercy. When we need grace.

When we need God to do something that only God can do. Not many wise. Not many mighty.

Not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And base things of the world. And the things which are despised has God chosen.

And the things which are not. Or it means nothing to bring to nothing the things that are. So if you are foolish. If you are weak. If you feel like you're the worst person in your neighborhood or your family. If you feel despised. If you feel even rejected and unloved by God.

If you feel like you are nothing. Then you are God's battle plan in this generation. Praise be to God.

You are God's ridiculous battle plan. You are the next Moses, Aaron, Gideon, Esther, Book of Acts Christians in the upper room. Oh praise be to God. Oh praise be to God. Praise be to God. You know it's sad because for years, especially in the western world, we forgot this.

Somehow we left it off. And we started trusting in the wise. And we started trusting in the naturally strong. The naturally noble. The naturally mighty.

Those that had 16 degrees on their office wall. We started trusting in the strategists. Those who said yes we know how to do this. We have the strength to do this.

We have the power to do this. And here we are today in the same situation that the people of God in the Old Testament right up to Acts chapter 2 found themselves in. Here we are one more time because flesh has gloried in the presence of God.

And so we find the victory that was ours or should have been ours now going back and farther and farther and farther back into captivity. And one more time, one more time, I hear the heart of God. I hear the voice of God calling. I hear Him calling those of us who feel like we're sealed behind a door in a tomb and have no life and have no strength. I feel Him calling the nobodies and nothings of society one more time for one great and last glorious visitation of God in the earth. One last time.

One last time when the men and women who are going to stand and say listen you got to hear me. I was nothing and Christ became everything to me. I was blind but now I see. I couldn't walk but now I'm running. I had no resource but now I'm finding there's a river of life starting to come from my inward parts.

I couldn't put two words together now I can't stop speaking. It's the man or woman who stands and says I didn't love anybody. I didn't even love myself.

I felt unlovely. Now the love of God is flowing through my heart to people everywhere. And I want you to know this simple message. What Jesus Christ did for me He can do for you. He opened my prison door. He gave sight to my blinded eyes. He healed my wounded heart. He restored my broken home. And this is who He is. This is what He does.

This is what He's able to do for you. And people will say to you well who are you? I'm nothing.

I'm nobody. I was among the weakest of the weak of this world. I felt weak and despised and unlovely and unwanted but suddenly I heard a voice calling me. In my bedroom, in my living room, in my car, on the bench where I was listening to a prayer meeting on my cell phone I heard the voice of God calling me. Praise be to God. And I began to realize that I was God's end time battle plan.

To bring people out of darkness and captivity into the marvelous light and life of Jesus Christ. Verse 29 Paul says that no flesh should glory in His presence. Hallelujah.

The prophet Isaiah talked about the last days and he said I hear from the earth in the midst of the fires songs of glory to the righteous one. Glory to Him. Not to me. Not to my abilities. Not to my denomination.

Not to my church. But glory to Him. Glory to Him who called me out of darkness in a marvelous light. Glory to Him who called me out of the grave and gave me life. Glory to Him who raised me up out of nothing and gave me a voice that is His to make a difference in my generation. Paul says but of Him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that as it is written, He who glories, let Him glory in the Lord. Paul is basically saying it is through Christ that we're given everything we need to do what He's called us to do. As he said to Moses, go, this is your strength I've sent you. To Gideon, go, this is your strength I've sent you.

To Esther, you were raised for a moment such as this. And to the people in the book of Acts he said just go and wait and pray until I come and I will give you what you need to do what I've called you to do. Praise be to God. 120 failures became God's ridiculous battle plan in the New Testament. They stood out in the public square without weaponry, without a strategy, without a plan. They had nothing written out on paper but they had in their heart the presence of God. They had in their lives the power of God. They were speaking about Him not about themselves. They were speaking about the things He was going to do and the things He was already doing in each of their lives.

Not about anything that they had strategized. It was all about Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. And thousands that day saw it.

Thousands just melted into the dust. Their religion failed them at that very moment because they saw God doing in the people that which only God can do. And yes they suffered for it. Many of them suffered for it.

But they brought the gospel to you and to me and to this whole known world because they were God's ridiculous battle plan for the moment. And so you don't need to be mighty. You don't need to be noble. You don't need a natural wisdom. You don't have to be strong. You don't even have to feel loved.

You can feel despised. But God has chosen you. And so the question is do you see your calling brethren?

Do you see it? You see God speaks by His word and then by His Spirit He brings His word to life in your heart. If you don't let the Holy Spirit touch you then the words I speak or you read are just learning.

And Paul warns in the New Testament about people who are always just learning but never brought to where that truth is supposed to take them. You have to just pray Oh Holy Spirit of the living God make the things that I've heard from your word make them real in me. And I am nothing and I'm nobody. But God if you want to use me you can have me. If you want to send me where I could never go I'm yours. If you want to give me what I could never possess here I am. I open my heart to you. I open my life to you. Lord God take me and use me for your glory.

I remember getting on my knees at the altar and I said God I don't have anything to give you. I have a bad temper if you need that. I'm a lousy husband. I'm not a good father.

I came to him empty broken wounded ashamed I said but if you can use it here it is. And God enacted another one of his ridiculous battle plans through my life. And so I know what I'm talking about.

I'm not bringing to you some pie in the sky theology that you can't attain to. I know where you are. I know how you feel. I know what fear feels like. I know what struggles are like.

I know the whole deal with it. But I also know what God can do. And I'm going to ask you to give your life to Jesus Christ. Not just for the forgiveness of your sins but that you can be a person through whom God does the miraculous again in our generation. 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.