City Lepers

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. You are the plan of God.

You are the light of the world. You have the message that can bring people out of captivity and darkness into the life and light of Jesus Christ. The willingness to say, God, I am just an empty vessel, but if you can use me, I invite you to use my life for your glory. Welcome to this week's edition of A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. Today, Carter takes us to 2 Kings Chapter 7, the story of four men with leprosy who were used by God in a unique way.

You see this same pattern throughout the Bible. It's not by might, it's not by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. God uses the extraordinary to accomplish His will.

Now let's join Carter with a message titled City Lepers. Now for many, many years, a lot of people, they sit in the house of God and don't really understand that there's a calling on your life that is much bigger than just being a part in the sense of somebody else's ministry. That you have a calling. You have a unique calling given to you by God.

As a matter of fact, it was given to you before you were even formed in your mother's womb. The Lord knew you. And He called you to a specific thing that only can be achieved through you.

It's a unique calling to you. And the calling of God comes with an enablement of God's Holy Spirit. In other words, what it means is that God takes us beyond our natural ability. He takes us into places that we can't naturally go and He gives us giftings we don't naturally have. And we become a supernatural being.

That's what the scripture tells us. If anyone is in Christ, they become a what? A new creation. Behold, the old things are passed away.

All things are become new. Paul the Apostle said as we behold this incredible victory of Christ, as we begin to ponder these things, as we look into the Word of God, we are changed from image to image and glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now what that means is as we behold the promises of God, the things that He has destined for our lives to be, God sovereignly begins to change us from the inside out. He gives us giftings that we didn't have. He gives us desires of the heart maybe that weren't there before. Courage that wasn't part of our natural character and takes us into a place where He alone is glorified. When we get to the end of the journey, we say, God, only you could have done this. I came to Christ at 24 years of age and it's been an amazing journey. It's been an absolutely miraculous journey. It's taken me throughout most of the world and God has given me over the years abilities to do things that I didn't naturally have the ability to do. All for His glory. And when you get to the end, the one desire of your heart is, oh God, I wish I could do more.

Let the glory of the latter house be greater than the former and let the wine be sweeter at the end of the wedding feast than at the beginning. Oh Jesus, Jesus, somehow give me an ability to convey to people that what you did in my life and you've done for others, you can do for them. You see, you are now sitting, many of you are sitting where I sat. I was 24 years of age and I remember I was sitting in church for the first time. I wasn't a church kid. I wasn't raised in the church. And I remember I was a police officer and I'm sitting in church.

I'm 24. I've come to Christ and I begin to hear these words, with God, all things are possible. And I remember sitting on the edge of my seat one day, I said, could that be true? Is it possible that God can do more through my life than I can even ask or think? Is it possible He can take me places that only He can?

Can He do something through me that would bring His own name to glory? I remember at the age of 26, I was visiting a church. I was two years saved now. It was a Pentecostal church and the pastor gave an impassioned message on the topic of yielding your all for the purposes of God, which I'm going to actually give to you today at the end of this message. And at the end of the message, everybody stood up, about 700 people or so, about roughly the size of the crowd that's here in the lower sanctuary today.

And everybody stood up. I'm the only guy there that's not raised in the church. Everyone else has got nice clothes.

They got a big Bible. They look good, at least on the outside. I got jeans in the jean jacket, most likely.

I haven't shaved for a couple of days. I'm a cop. My whole world is crime and blood and guts. I don't live where these people live.

My experience is not the same. But I remember he gave an altar call to give your all to Jesus, to give your future to God for the purposes of God. And to my surprise, nobody moved.

I'm the guy in the back. I felt like Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six. You know, in Isaiah six, he's the only guy that's needed redemption there. Everything around the throne of God is in absolute perfection. Everything moves in unison with God and they all really look good.

You know, there's a thing with six wings flying around. There's cherubim, there's seraphim. Then, of course, there's God. And then there's Isaiah.

He's the only guy there that feels totally undone. And then suddenly he starts hearing the voice of God. When the mercy of God has touched his life, as it has touched yours, he starts to hear, she starts to hear the voice of God.

Who will ascend and who will go for us? I feel in my heart that there was a silence in heaven for a season. As Isaiah is standing there incredulously wondering, why doesn't anybody here want to go? I mean, surely if this thing was six wings appeared in the sanctuary, we would listen to it. I mean, if I was Isaiah, I'd say, send that thing. I mean, they'll listen to him. But nobody speaks, nobody moves.

And suddenly Isaiah, I don't see him jumping up and down. He's just like you feel today. He's just kind of unworthy, but he raises his hand and says, well, if nobody will go, you're mine.

Send me, I'll go. And that's what happened to me that day in that service. I was sitting in the back and nobody moved. And so I get out of my seat, part under conviction and part feeling bad for the preacher.

He'd really preached his heart out and nobody responded. And I thought, well, I mean, somebody's got to do this thing. And it was only me and a guy in a green suit on the other side, two people of 700 that came forward.

One, I was on this side, he was on that side. And I'll never forget it as long as I live. I said, God almighty, I got on my knees and I was not a weeper. I got on my knees and I started to cry. Just a weeping came over me and I said, Lord, I have nothing to give you.

Nothing. If you want a bad, if you need a bad temper, I got that. I got that down pretty good. You need a selfish man, that's me. You need a lousy husband and father, I got that down pretty good too as well. And God almighty, I just got so many problems in my life.

I'm just trying to get over my own stuff. And yet I hear you calling me. And I remember the prayer I prayed. I said, Lord, the kid in the Bible, at least he had a loaves and fish and you took it and you multiplied it and you used it for your glory. But I have nothing. Nothing. And then I said, God, if you can use nothing, here am I.

Send me. I've been all over the world. I've preached to crowds of a half a million people in attendance in Africa. I've been in the houses of presidents and kings and governments and I've just been everywhere.

Not qualified to be anywhere that I've been ever. You see, that's the Lord that makes us more than we are. Let me start here today. First Corinthians chapter one and beginning at verse 26. First Corinthians chapter one, beginning at verse 26. Paul says, for you see your calling brethren, not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Therefore there are a few, I suppose, that are naturally wise, naturally mighty or naturally noble, but not many. But God has chosen the foolish things of this 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 the base things, that means things at the bottom of the world and things which are despised. You know, you might hate yourself today. You might look in the mirror and say, I just hate what I look at. I hate who I am. I hate the way I think. I hate the way I live.

I hate the way I speak. But you see, God doesn't hate you. God didn't make a mistake when he created you. God has not written you off because you write yourself off. But things which are despised God has chosen and things which are not. In other words, things which are nothing.

Men and women that look at themselves and say, God, I don't have anything to give you. But even in that condition, the Bible tells us that God has chosen us to bring to nothing the things that are. In other words, God has chosen us in our nothingness to bring things who stand in themselves thinking they're something to nothing.

He's going to do something so powerful in the sense in the man or woman who knows that they're nothing that the whole of this world that thinks there's something is going to have to acknowledge that there is a God. And the purpose is that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are you and Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written here, glory is let him glory in the Lord. So in other words, Christ is our wisdom. He becomes our thought life. Christ is our right standing in the sight of a holy God. Christ is our power to change as I shared with you from image to image and glory to glory. And ultimately Christ is our whole story. He's the one who saved us. He's the one who's called us.

He's the one who's given us these incredible giftings of God. And so the point being, have you considered your calling? You know, we have a tendency in the church to live by the world's resume as it is. We think that if we have six certificates on the wall, or we have the accolades of 100 people, then suddenly we're usable in the kingdom of God.

But that's not the case. God does not see the way we see. You know, if you were God, you wouldn't use you, would you?

Would you? You know, I thought there's an old saying, I forget who it was to set it aside, never join any club that would have somebody like me as a member. You know, and we look and we look at ourselves and say, God, you can't use me. But you see, we're living in a generation now where our cities are under siege. Our homes are under siege. Our families are under siege.

Our entire society is now under siege. There's a psychological survey that was published just a little while ago. And in this particular publication, which is a secular publication, they said, in America today, 100 million people go to bed suffering from depression now at night, almost a third of the population.

You take New York City, for example, if there's 8 million people in the city, it's well over 2 million people, almost 3 million people that are going to bed now every night suffering from depression, because they don't see a future. They don't see it tomorrow. They don't see hope for tomorrow. Mothers don't know how they're going to feed their children. People are concerned about the incivility in society, the divisions that are erupting on almost every corner.

It's a very, very difficult moment in society that you and I are now living in. Would it surprise you to know that you are plan A for this generation? Would it surprise you to know that there is no plan B?

There's no secondary plan. You are the plan of God. You are the plan of God. You are the light of the world.

You are the city that's set upon a hill. You are the church of the living God. You are the church of Jesus Christ in the world. You have the oil of His life and His light within you. You have the words of eternal life. You have the message that can bring people out of captivity and darkness into the life and light of Jesus Christ. It's through you that God wants to heal the bruised in heart, to have the treasure of heaven open to those that know that they're poor and have no resources. It's through you that God wants to give sight to the blind and open the prison doors and set the prisoner free. Not in your strength, but in your weakness. Not in your everything, but in your nothingness, in the willingness to say, God, I am just an empty vessel, but if you can use me, I invite you to use my life for your glory. I will go into your word. I will read your promises to me, and I will trust that by the power of your indwelling Holy Spirit, that I will become the man or woman that you have destined me to be. I trust God that you will give me the giftings I need to do what I'm called to do when I get to where I'm called to go.

I trust God that you will open the doors before me that need to be opened so that your name can be brought to reputation and people around me can be set free. You really are God's plan A for this generation, this generation of liars, this generation of incivility, this generation of moral confusion where everything seems to be turned upside down, and the cities now, our cities are under siege. We have entire towns now in America that have been declared emergency zones. People are so addicted to opiates. Grandmas and grandpas are unconscious in their cars, and it's just unbelievable what's going on in this society. We are quickly degenerating into absolute decadence and confusion. There is no plan B.

You are plan A. Now go with me to 2 Kings chapter 7, and I'm going to show you a story that is a type of where we live today and what God's calling is on each of our lives. The city was surrounded, 2 Kings chapter 7.

An enemy army had come in. They had surrounded the city where the people of God of that time were and their military strategy was to starve the people to death or starve them until they would surrender. Now it says in verse 3 of 2 Kings chapter 7, there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate, and they said to one another, why do we sit here till we die? If we say we will enter the city, the famine is in the city and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians.

If they keep us alive, we shall live and if they kill us, we shall only die. So here is God's choice to bring deliverance to the city. He didn't raise an army. It wasn't a military general with a tin hat and a sword and a chariot and a horse.

It was four lepers. You know, the ways of God are not our ways. I love that fact that his thoughts are not our thoughts.

His ways are not our thoughts. And you'll see it all throughout scripture. When you grow in Greece and you study the scriptures, you will find that God waits until there's no possibility we can do this in our own strength, to do something through us. He waits until the womb is barren and then brings forth a voice, a prophet into the nation. He waits until Moses is too old and then when he's too old, then he calls him to deliver three million people out of bondage. He sends David in when he's too young.

He sends Esther to the king when she feels unloved and unwanted. You see it all the way through the scriptures. The pattern is the same. It's not by might. It's not by power. It's by my spirit, says the Lord.

Hallelujah. It's not by my ability. It's not by my intellect or your intellect.

It's not by my diplomas or lack thereof. It's by the spirit of Almighty God. And most often he waits until we know that it could never be done. You know, a strong man goes a long way until before he figures this out. And actually, the weak man is at an advantage because when the strong man is trying to figure everything out theologically, the weak man is saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And he's just crawling through the crowd to touch the hem of his garment. Oh, I love it. I love the ways of God. And so here are four people at the city gate.

Now, I want you to think of it as a type, maybe, of you and I here today. They have this condition called leprosy. Now, leprosy produces a numbness. They can burn themselves and not even feel the heat.

In their hands, their tendons begin to restrict. And in the case of a leper, it becomes hard to receive things, if you're a leper. It's hard for you today to believe that God actually wants to use your life. You're finding it hard to receive this. I'm sharing with you something from the Word of God. I'm sharing with you a living experience, but there are people here today that are finding it hard to receive it. God, this can't be me.

It can't be for me. And you want to reach out, but you find your hands are kind of curved as a leper's hands. It's very difficult to embrace or to receive things. A leper lives in isolation, feels alone, feels like a standout in a crowd. A leper hides. A leper is living with continual shame. There's people here today that you wonder, could God ever use me after the things that I have done or the things that have been done to me, or the things that I'm involved in now, or the way that I think.

I mean, you can't mean me, Pastor, because God obviously knows what I do behind the scenes. And this is the way the lepers would have felt at the gate. It was a condition where you would not think that God could ever, ever consider using you. And in chapter seven, beginning at verse five, it says, they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians.

And when they came to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise, no one was there. They just simply decided to get up and go into the camp of the enemy. This is the decision you have to make today. If you're going to be used of God, you've got to make this choice. Say, I'm not going to run from my enemies any longer. I'm not going to run from the fear in my life. I'm not going to run from the addictions. I'm not going to run from the self-loathing. I'm not going to run from my feeling of lostness or whatever it is that wants to grip your life. I'm going into the camp of my enemies. I'm not going to flee any longer. I'm not staying where I am because if I stay here, I just know I'm going to amount to nothing.

That's what they said. We're just going to die if we stay here. So we're getting up and we're going into the camp of our enemies, which is what they did, which is what I did at the age of 26. I used to suffer from terrible, terrible panic attacks years ago. These attacks came into my life because a lot of pressure was put on me as a young person. When I was about 15 years of age, I just imploded inside. I didn't feel I could live up to others' expectations of me.

I couldn't live up to my own expectations either. So I started having panic attacks. If you don't know what that is, it's the closest thing to hell that I've ever experienced on this earth. It feels like somebody's pouring a bucket of sand on your head. Your heart starts pounding out of your chest. You're having a meltdown like a computer, but it's in a human body. You feel like there's no hope. You feel like your future's taken away.

You're overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness and you feel like you're going to die. I suffered these things for nine years, and twice it put me in the hospital. One time, the nurse in the hospital put the blood pressure device on my arm, and my blood pressure was so high, she dropped it on the floor, ran out to get a doctor, fearing that I was going to have a heart attack or a stroke right on the table. I was 19 years old at the time. So I know what fear can do to a person's life. I went through college literally underwater. I had to take so many Valium. I hardly remember it.

I went through college in a bubble and only went to college because of the pressure of other people that was on me to achieve. So I understand what fear is all about. Then at the age of 24, I came to Christ, and I was reading my Bible, and I remember reading this one verse, and I only remembered half of the verse. If God be for us, who can be against us? Now, the verse is longer, but you don't need a whole... You know, David didn't need a gravel truck to bring down Goliath.

He only needed one pebble. So you don't need all of this stuff. You just need to believe what you know. So I knew half a verse.

If God be for us, who can be against us? So I was up in my room at night and going to bed, and I felt one of these attacks about midnight coming on my life. I went downstairs into my living room, and I said, I'm not living. I'm not taking pills anymore, and I'm not drinking whiskey any longer either.

I'm not going to do that. I'm a Christian now. So I said, I went into the living room, and this is what I said. I said, Satan, you can only kill me if God allows you to. And if you do kill me tonight, I'm going to heaven. So I win.

Either way it's a win-win for me. I said, so you throw at me everything you've got, but I throw back at you what I now have. And I said these words, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I stand against you.

That was it. I resist you, actually. I said, I resist you. And as I said those words, a heat, not a fuzzy, warm feeling. An actual heat hit my feet, went through my calves, through my legs, through the center core of my body, through my chest, through my head, and out the top of my head. And in one minute I was set free from nine years of hell in that room.

Nine years. Now when these lepers got up and headed into the camp of the Syrians, chapter 7, verse 6 says, the Lord caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses and the noise of a great army. So they said to one another, look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us. Therefore they rose and fled at twilight, left the camp intact, their tents, the horses, the donkeys, and they fled for their lives. See, I didn't realize that what had happened to me in that farmhouse living room that night was way beyond just setting me free from fear. There was another, there was a shutter sent through hell one more time because somebody had gotten up again and went into the camp of the enemy. Somebody had rediscovered the power of God. There was another vessel that God could begin to use that was willing to say, I'm not staying here any longer. I'm not living like this anymore.

I'm not going to live a mediocre life because I have the God of the universe now resident within this earthly body. And when I prayed, just like when these lepers got up and they headed into the camp of the enemy, the scripture tells us that God caused them to sound like an approaching army. It's only four sets of lepers feet heading into the camp of the enemy. And suddenly they, they hear chariots.

They hear horse. You see, this is a spiritual war that we're fighting. We don't fight against flesh and blood. Our war is against powers, principalities, high things that exalt themselves above the knowledge of God. But in the Bible, we are told we have power to bring down these things.

We have power to stand against those thoughts that stand against the ways of God. And so they went in these lepers and they came to the outskirts of the camp and they went into one tent and they found horses and they found donkeys and they found tents and they found food and drink and silver and gold and clothing. And then of course the first inclination was to hide it and keep it to themselves. Can you imagine the four lepers and say, did you see them run? Look, I mean, just they left a trail of clothing.

They're in such a panic and it's just us. They knew they were nothing, but God had used them to drive away an entire army. You're talking probably in the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people surrounding the city. And the Lord had used four lepers to drive them away. And so what did they do? They came back to the city, the city that had caused them pain, the city that had left them outside the gate, the city that, that was not really a pleasant place.

But they came back to the city and they shouted over the wall and said, Hey, the power of your enemies has been broken. And you know what you need? Folks, you're hungry. You need food. You need sustenance. You need clothing.

You need covering. We found it all. You are the city lepers.

Do you know that? You're the city lepers that have come back and shout over the wall and say, Hey, I found it. I found it.

I found it. I knew them. Just keep it real simple because people are hungry. They're hurting. You're depressed. They're lonely. And they need you.

You are plan A. You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Times 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.