The Lame Take the Prey

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. Admit that you can't walk. Admit that you can't see. Admit that you can't change. Admit that you can't work your way into heaven.

You can't save yourself. No, it's the lame who take the prayer. Don't you just love it? We fight with a present comfort for today's battles. It also gives comfort for tomorrow and a third comfort for eternity. We fight many battles on this earth. We fight mental battles, battles in our family, battles in our lives.

We fight on every conceivable level. But as children of God, he promises us he will be with us every step of the way. And through Christ, your life becomes eternal. You'll be with him forever in a mansion he built and he will be with you.

just for you. Today, Carter will ask you, would you like to know this place that the Bible describes can be yours for eternity? Let's join Carter now for his message titled, The Lame Take the Pray. I want to share with you a message from my heart that I feel the Lord impressed on it called, The Lame Take the Pray, Isaiah chapter 33. If you have your Bible or any similar device that you can follow along, I'll be reading from the new King James version of the Bible so you can get that quite easily on on your cell phone or whatever you have.

Isaiah chapter 33, I'm going to begin at verse 20. And so, Father, I thank you, God Almighty, for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. I thank you, Lord, for the people who are with us, and I pray, my God, with all my heart, for the ability, Lord, to go into people's living rooms, or sit beside them on a park bench, or to join them in the passenger seat of their car. Wherever people are listening, I pray, God, that you would send your word right into that situation, into that room, into that whatever place your people are, or those who desire to be your people are. Lord Jesus Christ, you promised that your word would set free the oppressed, would give sight to the blind, would heal those whose hearts have been wounded beyond repair, that would set the captive free. So, Lord, we just simply stand on your promise. We stand on the reality of the revelation of what you said the ministry that your Father had given to you was. Thank you, Lord, that the poor, those who have no resource, will have the treasure of the victory of Christ opened up to them. God, may people's lives never be the same again.

This is an end time moment, and you are raising up an end time army. Would you give us the ears to hear, and give us the hearts to believe. Oh, God, as we sang, cause these bones to live, cause them to live, and we ask it together in Jesus' name.

Amen. Isaiah chapter 33, beginning at verse 20. Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem a quiet home, a tabernacle that will not be taken down.

Not one of its stakes will ever be removed, nor will any of its cords be broken. But there the majestic Lord will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will sail. No majestic ships pass by, for the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king.

He will save us. Your tackle is loosed. They could not strengthen their mast. They could not spread this sail. Then the prey of a great plunder is divided.

The lame take the prey, and the inhabitant will not say, I am sick. The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity. Now we look at this passage of scripture, and we wonder, just looking at it, God is this about Israel alone?

Or is there a possibility that there's something deeper in this that maybe we don't see with just a casual reading? And when you look at this, when you look at people who have studied this, or look at some of the the comments on it, they generally agree with the comment that I'm going to read to you from the Full Life Study Bible. And here's what the commentator says, this is probably a prophecy concerning God's future kingdom on earth. Therefore the reigning king will be the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And so how does this apply now to the time in which it was written?

The nation of Israel were in grave danger of being attacked and overwhelmed by an enemy army. When we look at the passage of scripture, we see three things in it. Number one, the word of God gives present comfort for today's battles. And I thank God for that with all my heart. I thank God that when, that every passage of scripture, everything written down in this book is to me, it's into my heart. And God promises to give me comfort from my present battle of today. But when you look at it, you also see a comfort for tomorrow too as well.

And a third comfort for forever. Isaiah chapter 33 and verse 20, he says, look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feast. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home. In other words, look upon the promises of God. And as you begin to meditate in the Word of God and look upon his promises, you'll not only see just the lines before you, but you will begin to see something that is eternal. You will find in the Word of God a secure place, a tabernacle that will not be taken down.

Not one of its stakes will ever be removed, nor will any of its cords be broken. Jesus Christ himself said in the New Testament, in the Gospel of John chapter 14, in my Father's house are many mansions. And if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may be also. When you look in the Word of God, God says, I am going to bring you to a place of stability. I'm going to bring you to a place that cannot be moved. I'm going to make you part of a kingdom that cannot be triumphed over. To the Apostle Peter, even before Peter had had his grave situation where he denied even knowing Jesus Christ, he told him, he said, thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. In other words, you have recognized me, Peter, to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Promised One.

That which is going to be permanent for all of eternity. And even though hell will come against you, hell will not triumph over you. And so when we look into the Word of God, we seek comfort for today's battle. And who is not in a battle today? We fight mental battles. We fight battles in our family. We fight battles in our lives. We fight battles as one prayer request said, I don't see a meaning to my life.

I don't see any purpose to my future. We fight on every conceivable level. And God says, no, I'm going to be with you today. I want you to look beyond your battle because your life is eternal now. You've come to me. You've trusted me for your salvation.

So now your life is eternal. And I am preparing an eternal place for you that cannot be triumphed over. And the security I'm going to give you today will carry you through the struggles that you will face tomorrow.

Struggles that you're not even aware of. You haven't even seen them yet, but they're coming your way. And ultimately, you will dwell with me where I am forever. As Jesus said, I have gone to prepare a place for you. In my Father's house are many mansions.

Have you ever stopped to just even think about that? If you think you've got nothing on this earth, maybe you don't like your apartment, maybe you're not too crazy about your house, or whatever it is, whatever place, or you're living in your car, whatever your situation is. The wonderful news is that if you give your heart to Jesus Christ, he has prepared a mansion for you. And the way I see it, there's nothing on earth that can compare. The Taj Mahal can't compare to what God has prepared for you. There have been some beautiful, magnificent buildings built in the kingdoms of this world, but nothing, absolutely nothing, can compare with what awaits you in your eternal home in heaven with God. Now, a place of permanence, it's a place of joy, it's a place of eternal provision and security. In verse 23 now, an incredible statement is made, because we might ask the question, who dwells there? Who's going to get to go into such a place? To whom is given this incredible security of God? Who's given the assurance in their heart that God's promises will keep me today, and will keep me tomorrow, and will keep me forever? Well, the prophet Isaiah actually answers the question in Isaiah chapter 33 and verse 23, right at the end, he says, the lame take the prey.

Now isn't that amazing? The lame, the people who are the nobodies and the nothings, the people who know that they can't get into heaven based on their own merit, the people who know that my life is not going to amount to anything that would ever in my own sight at least be pleasing to God. Listen to what Jesus said, he said, those who are well have no need of physician, but those who are sick, I didn't come to call the righteous, but I came to call sinners to repentance. The lame, and as I read the gospels, I just love it. All of the theologians are standing there and they're kind of scratching their scratchy beards, you know, saying, how's it possible a prophet could come from from Nazareth? And while they're doing this, while everybody is debating theologically with the Son of God, it's the leper that's pressing through the crowd. It's the blind man calling out on the side of the road. It's the woman who needs healing in her body that's pressing through the people as he sits at the table of a pharisee.