I Know Who You Are. Do You Know Who You will Be?

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. I know who you are. Do you know who you will be? You seem to be keenly aware of who you are.

You're depressed, you're addicted, your family is disheveled, you're struggling in your mind. Whatever the situation is, you're fighting a besetting sin, you feel worthless. You say, I know who you are just by reading the prayer quest that you send in. This seems to be, in some cases, it's an all-consuming battle that's going on in your life.

It's affecting everything that you are and everything that's around you. And my question to you is, do you know who you will be? Now let me explain this as we begin to read John chapter 1, beginning at verse 40.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we found the Messiah, which is translated to Christ. Now this is incredible.

I don't know if there's any other thing in the world that would actually compare to it. We found the Messiah. This was the promise for the people of God of that season. This is what they lived for.

This was their all-in-all. It's like somebody ran into the sanctuary and said, Jesus has returned. He's in the parking lot. It would be that profound.

Come out and see him. And so he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, he said, you are Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated a stone.

And so my point is real simple. When we first encounter Jesus, we are something. But if we have an honest face to face encounter with the son of God, the promise is that we shall be something else. You can't have an encounter with Jesus and stay the same way you are. There is a change that happens inside the heart.

Now let's continue on. Verse 45. Now Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Verse 46. And Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him and said to him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Now Nathanael obviously knew he was essentially at his core an honest man. And he's talking to the son of God now says, how do you know me? And Jesus answered and said, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

I don't understand the fullness of that particular statement. Something was in the heart of Nathanael when he was under the fig tree, as it was that led him to an understanding that only the son of God could have known that I was there and what I was thinking. Perhaps he felt all alone, like some of you are feeling that have written in your prayer quest and you're lonely. Maybe Nathanael just felt alone and he was all by himself.

I don't know. But the point is that even though he might have been alone in that place in his life, Jesus saw him. And I want you to note those that are online and you feel alone in your room and your car and your home and your heart and your life. Jesus sees you there. You're not hidden from him. And he looks at you lovingly and he looks at you longingly.

He's always wanted fellowship with you. Verse 49 says, Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. We always like to think that Peter was the first one who got that revelation.

It was actually Nathanael. You remember when after all the seasons of traveling and seeing the dead raised and walking on water, he finally said to his disciples, who do you say that I am? And Peter said, you're the Christ. You're the son of the living God.

And we always say, wow. Even Jesus said only the father could have revealed that to you. But Nathanael had that revelation way before Peter and right in the beginning that he was the son of God and the king of Israel. Why did he have that revelation?

He had it because he had an honest heart. And if you and I are willing to approach the son of God with an honest heart, something happens to us. There's an ice of anointing that is given to us and we begin to see, first of all, who it is that we are talking to.

And Jesus answered and said to him in verse 50, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Do you believe you will see greater things than these? And he said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. In other words, you will begin to understand the power that has been given to me, the access to the throne of God, the power of heaven that is in my hands. And you will begin to understand that I am the son of God.

I'm able to do anything that I say I can do and I can do in you and through you anything that you will open your heart and let me do. There's a vision, there's a revelation that's given to people who don't approach God with a deceitful heart, a duplicitous heart. The reason that so many sit and languish in the church throughout the ages is because many people come to Christ with terms and conditions or maybe a feigned dedication. How can I put it that?

Like I'm all in, but only, you know, in reality, it's only to this point and no farther. And God knows it because there's a guile, in a sense. The original King James says, an Israelite in whom there is no guile.

In other words, no crookedness. You're not saying one thing and meaning another. You're actually, Nathaniel, you're an honest man. And because you're an honest man, I can speak to you and you will, in your heart, give an honest assessment of the words that I speak before you actually go into the battle and begin to walk with me. And you will understand what I'm saying.

You'll understand where it is I'm leading you to go. And you will also see the power, the exceeding greatness of the power that is available to those who walk with me with an honest heart and a truthful heart. Now, in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17, one of my favorite verses in all of the Bible says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. If Christ has come to you, if you and I are willing to come to Christ with an honest heart, this incredible promise. This is the promise that actually won me to Christ in the first place over 40 years ago, when the person who was sharing Christ with me told me this verse, that if you open your heart to Jesus Christ, if you honestly receive him as your Lord and Savior, you will become a new creation. The old things that have had power in your life, the old things that have governed your future, the old things that, as we prayed for, the old habits, the old things that you can't put away will suddenly lose their power, lose their hold, and all things inside of you will become new. You'll be, in effect, born again. You'll be given a new life. You'll have a new future. The promise that was revealed to the prophets in the Old Testament is that God said, I'll give you a new heart, a new mind, and a new spirit. You'll be born again. The old things in your life will pass away, and all things will become new. And I remember thinking in my heart when that was first shared with me at the age of 24, God, is it possible? Because I seemingly can't escape the boundaries that are all around me, the boundaries that were placed around me by other people, the boundaries that I perceive about my own life and what it will or won't amount to, the things that I feel I can do, the things that I feel I can't do, the things that are really defining my present and paving away a very confusing way for my future. Is it possible that I can actually become a new creation? And I remember meditating on this and thinking about it.

And then I went into the Gospel of John and I read the Gospel of John for myself and I prayed this prayer. I said, Jesus, if this is true, if I can be forgiven and if I can have a new future, if I can be made into a different person, I don't like the person I'm becoming. I don't like the way I treat others. I don't like the amount that I'm drinking. I don't like the thoughts in my mind. I have a sense that I'm going on a downward trajectory and it's just going to get worse in the future. And I seem to be powerless to change and powerless to stop. I'm being dragged into this darkness and I can't stop myself from going there.

Jesus, could it be true that I could have a new life? And I read the Gospel of John as an unsaved man and I said, show me, just show me. But I saw something when I read the Gospel of John that this life is contingent on one condition, that when I come to Christ as my Savior, I don't play games with him. I give him my whole heart as much as I'm able. I give him my whole life and I receive his word as truth and the guide for my life from this day forward.

I saw something that nobody ever taught me. I read it in the word of God that not only if I turn to him, not only would he wash away my my sin, not only would he guarantee me an eternity in heaven, but his blood had purchased me and my life was no longer my own. I now belong to the Son of God and he had the right to my future. You see, before my future can change, I have to give the rights to my future to the Son of God.

That's what it was about Nathaniel. He was an honest man and I had an honest assessment in a sense of myself and came to an honest conclusion about what was required to experience the fullness, in a sense, of the salvation that God was setting before me. I read in the book of John that not only would he come to give me eternal life, but he would give me an abundant life. He would give me a reason to live on the earth. He would take me out of the mediocrity of my present trajectory and give me something that could not only satisfy my heart, but would bring glory to his name as well and bring others out of darkness and into the same freedom that I know. I knew my life would never be the same again. If I yield it to the Son of God, my life would never be the same again. And I remember stopping on the side of the road, May 12, 1978, and here was my prayer. Oh Jesus, if what this man has told me is the truth, now this is in the context of having read the Gospel of John and having an understanding of what is required. If it's true that I can be forgiven and have a new life, then I open my heart and I invite you into my life to be my Lord and my Savior. And that was it.

That was my prayer. Didn't feel a thing. A lot of people talk about the fuzzies they get or whatever it is when they pray at that moment in their journey with finding God. But I didn't feel a thing, nothing. I just put my car in drive and I went to work.

I worked my shift and I went home and I went to bed, not feeling any different. But the next morning, as God lives, the next morning, I woke up and when my feet touched the floor, I knew I was a different man. Something had happened inside of my life.

If any man is in Christ, may I put it this way, if Christ is in any man or woman, that person becomes a new creation. The old things in their life are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. The old path will try to hang on for a little while. The old path will try to convince you that it's still alive. But it's not. It has passed away.

It's dead. It no longer has the right to your future. And all things are become new.

So how do we experience these old things and these new things? You know, sometimes we want it immediately, as Peter did initially, at least he tried to do it in his own strength. He tried to follow God in his own strength. And we do that, don't we? I did it.

Some of you online, you're doing it right now. And others in the sanctuary, you tried that. And some go a long distance, but eventually we all fail because this kingdom, you can't walk in this kingdom by natural human strength or wisdom. It's not by might, it's not by power, but it's by my Spirit, says the Lord. In 1 Samuel chapter 10, I'm just going to read it to you, verses 5 to 7. Now Samuel, Saul had just been anointed king. He's going to be the king over Israel. And Samuel the prophet, speaking for God, gives him a word about what will give him the strength to become the man that he's called to be. Now, we all know Saul didn't quite walk this out the way he should have.

But he was given every opportunity to do this. This was the beginning of his ministry as it was. Verse 5 of 1 Samuel chapter 10, he says, After that you shall come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is.

And it will happen when you've come to the city. You will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with a stringed instrument, a tambourine, a flute, and a harp before them, and they will be prophesying. Well, that's in a sense what happened to those that are listening online. You come into this prayer meeting and you've got a guy with a guitar, a stringed instrument. You've got somebody else with a keyboard. You've got somebody with a drum set.

And they're playing and they're singing. And now I'm prophesying to you about what God will do in your life if you will yield your life to him. So you're actually experiencing the same thing that Saul did. Then the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you. Hallelujah. You talk about why we say stay and pray. Why we say open your heart to God. Give up trying to win this battle in your own strength. Give up trying to get out of this prison. Let God open the door and let you out. Give up trying to be strong in your own strength.

Give up trying to formulate the plans of your own life and stretch your hands out and yield your life to the Son of God who can't and never will fail you. Then he said the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you. This is why we are believing that through these connect and fellowship groups there's going to be a spiritual awakening in this generation. At least we will do our part.

We're not the only players in town. There's other churches, other places, other people praying. God's going to bring it all together in one. And I see in my spirit homes igniting all over the world. I see the fire of God burning not in big buildings, no longer in mega churches, but the fire of God burning in homes. Men and women coming alive in God.

The young and the old, the rich, the poor prophesying. That means speaking in unison with God. Speaking the things that God is speaking. Given an understanding like Nathaniel of the work and the word and the will and the ways of God.

And seeing the incredible power that's available to walk in this newness of life that we are called to in Christ Jesus. The spirit of the Lord will come upon you and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. That's exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost. The spirit of the Lord came upon one hundred and twenty failures that had gathered in an upper room. And when they came out of the upper room and went into the marketplace, what were they doing? The spirit of the Lord had come upon them and they were speaking in unison with God about the wonderful works that God had done, is doing and is preparing to do. They were simply walking and speaking in unison with God.

And they had this incredible vision like Nathaniel of the power of God and the ability of God to do things that can't be done by ordinary men and women with any amount of ordinary strength or natural wisdom. And let it be, he says in verse seven, when these signs come to you that you do as occasion demands for God is with you. And when you have begun to prophesy, when you are in agreement with God, when you are believing that you are what God says you are, when you are believing that you're going where God says you're going, when you're believing that you have the power to do what God says you will do, when all of these things come into your life, then as God leads you, go through that door because God is now with you.

The old things have passed away and all things have become new. I know what you are, but do you know what you will be? Praise be to God, you will not be as you are when you open your heart to Jesus Christ. You will be turned into another man, another woman, young or old, it doesn't matter.

And you will become the person that God intended you to be right from the womb. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Glory, glory, glory, glory to the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. So Jesus encounters you or you encounter him and he says, I know who you are.

This is who you are, but this is who you will be. Praise be to God. And the Holy Spirit will show you. He'll guide you line by line, brick by brick, step by step as you get into the word of God. And by the power of God's Holy Spirit, you begin to believe that every promise in this book now belongs to you. Suddenly, everything that was impossible becomes possible.

Every place it was impassable. Now, just as the Red Sea parted for the children of God, now God makes a way for you to go and do what you could never hope to do in any amount of your own natural strength. Oh, bless God.

Bless God. All that is required is that you and I approach him with an honest heart. Finally give up trying to do it in our own strength and say, Jesus, you are the son of God and you are the king of my life. You have the rights to my future. I give you my future. I'm not going to use you to try to build up my plan for my life. But I yield my plan and now I embrace whatever it is that you have for my life.

We don't fully understand what that is. But as we walk out in faith with an honest heart, a new creation in Christ Jesus, God is the one who makes it happen in each one of our lives. In John chapter 3, there was a religious leader named Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night, probably because he was embarrassed to be seen with him in the daytime. But he said, Rabbi, we know that your teachers come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. And Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, this is John 3, 3 now, unless one is born again, cannot see the kingdom of God. You know, the word see really implies he can't perceive it. He's outside of it until he's born again. Now this man is teaching the people about God, but he himself is outside of where the power of God really is and the purpose of God is. He can't see it. It has the implication of entering into the kingdom of heaven for eternity, but it also has a now implication.

When you look at the context of the word, it means intellectually perceived. Unless you're born again, you can't intellectually perceive the kingdom of God. You don't know how the kingdom of God works. Nathaniel was told by Christ, you're going to see something about the kingdom of God because you have an honest heart.

You're going to see something that you can't see if your heart is not honest. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered and said, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

Then he goes on to say, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound, but you can't tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. He's telling Nicodemus, you're being carried by your natural reasoning, by natural religion, by natural study. But when you're born of the spirit, you're going to be carried by the presence of God.

And you're going to be carried into places you never thought you were going to go and you're going to become a person you never thought you could ever be. You have to be born again by the spirit of God. You've had a natural birth, he said to Nicodemus, and you've got a whole wagon load of religion, but that won't get you into heaven and it won't get you into the place where you begin to understand the power of God's kingdom and the change and purpose that comes into a life that is given to him. You must be born again.

You see, it implies, in a sense, a humility. It implies an admission that religion can't save me. Self-effort can't save me. I can change all of my exterior garments.

He probably looked really nice on the outside. That can't save me. I can know the Hebrew meanings of half the words of the Bible. That can't save me. I have to come to Christ admitting that I can't save myself, admitting that I need a savior, admitting without guile, without deceit, that there's no way into the kingdom of heaven, both here on the earth and into eternity, until I bend my knee before the Son of God and recognize him as my Lord and my savior. Until I believe that God so loves me that he sent his only begotten Son to die on a cross that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Until I believe that he came to do what I can't do for myself and I begin, as Nathanael did, to confess him as my Lord and as my savior. When I do that, my heart, being open to the Son of God, the Spirit of God comes, the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of God, and takes up his residence inside my earthen body, and I become a new creation. Washed clean of all of the sin and all the restrictions that it brought into my life, all the death that was being born inside of me is suddenly washed away. It loses its power and I become a new creation in Christ Jesus, born again by the Spirit of God, no longer bound by the things of this world, no longer constrained by old habits, old thoughts, old words, old deeds. But just as a newborn baby coming into this world for the first time, being born again by the Spirit of God means just starting anew and starting afresh, being the person that God always wanted me to be. I'm telling you, you will be a new creation. I'm speaking to you about your future now, about what will happen in your life.

God will take you so much farther than you ever believed you could. Thank you for joining us this week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. You can count on a powerful message each week on A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.