Prepare The Way of The Lord

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. So John comes to the people and he tells the people, prepare a way, prepare a way for God to do a work in you that only God can do. So the question is, well, how, how do we prepare the way for God?

We're so glad you've joined us for a call to the nation with Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. In Mark chapter one, we read what Isaiah the prophet had written. I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way. That messenger was John the Baptist who announced to the people after me comes one more powerful than I.

He was, of course, pointing the way to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. Let's join Carter now with his message titled, Prepare the Way of the Lord. I have a specific word for some people and I've just taken some highlights of some prayer requests on the tablet that we carry as you are sending them in from all over the world. And I want to speak to you and I want to speak also to everybody who's in a similar condition from the U.S. My dad has always resented to me and to this day he's an old man who doesn't love me. Please pray for God's love to reach my life for forgiveness and healing and compassion.

From Miami, Florida, God bless me with financial miracles. Remove all this lust and replace it with grace. Replace it with peace. Take me to better things.

Amen. From Angola, I ask for help in prayer for my professional sentimental and spiritual and financial life. God, free me from the spell and curse.

And I don't know what the spell and curse is in Angola, but I do know that Christ set you free. If you turn to him, he'll set you free. From Fort Lee, my heart is hurting. I lost my mom a few months ago and I feel betrayed by my husband. My kids are sad too. Jesus, please heal me, my children and our marriage. From Moosonee, Canada, I can't take this anymore.

I'm tired. Am I believing wrong? I hate this spirit of fear. I need deliverance and I need healing in my body. Jessica, we're going to believe God for you as well. From Salem, Indiana, Joshua says I'm in a storm of supernatural proportions.

My life is utterly shattered. Father, I call out to you. From Florida, please pray for a fresh baptism of God's Holy Spirit. I need deliverance from pornography and having to control everything. From Anchorage, Alaska, Eva says please pray for me.

I'm drinking almost every day except when I'm working. From Sweden, Lord help me. I can't go on being with a man who doesn't love me and has dating apps on his phone. So much is wrong, but I'm weak. And from Knott's, from Monica and Knott's in the United Kingdom, please pray for a new love in our marriage and for the complete healing of our marriage.

I give all to you Jesus and I thank you and praise you for your will alone. And this is, what I've just read to you is symptomatic of so many people who are, they're waiting for their miracle. And that's what I want to talk to you about. Everybody who's, you've just been waiting and you're almost like the people of Israel were many years ago when there was, between the Old Testament and the New Testament, there was a 400 year period of silence where seemingly God was not speaking to the people.

And many people, that's what you feel like. Say God, it's been so long. I've been waiting for you.

Where are you? Would you be surprised if I told you that we are on the edge of experiencing a supernatural visitation of God one more time in our generation? I speak that prophetically. I know it in my heart. We are at a moment where Christ is coming and there's, there was a voice that God raised up. It was a message. Now in our generation, it's not going to be, in the generation of Jesus, it was one man, one voice.

His name was John the Baptist. In our generation is going to be many voices raised, many men and women who are locked in with God. And they're starting to hear, we're all hearing the same thing.

I was talking to pastor Tim Delena today. He's hearing it as well. We are hearing the same thing. Kevin Jessup, a guest speaker we had here in chapel today at our Bible school, he's hearing the same thing. We're on the edge of a visitation of God. And before God does something, he sends voices in to call the people, to call the people's attention to the fact that he's coming. He's coming to do things that only God can do. I'm not, I'm not, this is not wishful thinking on my part, my friend, that I'm talking to wherever you are in your home, your living room, whatever group, whatever country, this is not wishful thinking. Christ is returning to this world soon.

And before he returns, he in his mercy is going to gather everyone who can still hear his voice. Everyone who's still at the side of the road crying, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Everyone who's looking for a reason for life. Everyone who's sick and tired of being sick and tired. Everyone who's in a storm and they don't know how to get out. Everyone who's just crying and they're saying, God, where are you?

It seems like 400 years have been crying out to you and you're not answering my prayer. Then suddenly the word of God comes to a man. Luke chapter three and verse two, it says, while Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests, the word of God. Now there's a priesthood, but they don't have a word, you know, and that can happen in any generation. There's just people up and they're just, they're reading things and they're, they're quoting things that are true.

It's, it's right. They're reading from the scriptures, but they don't have a living word from God. They're not hearing from God. But the word of God came to a man called John, the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.

Matter of fact, he wasn't, he wasn't in anywhere special. He was in the middle of nowhere, but God started speaking to this man and he went into all the region around about Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill brought low.

The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth and all flesh shall see the salvation of the Lord. So God almighty, God almighty, God almighty anoint these words. God almighty send your power into every home, every bedroom, every couch, every living room, every park bench, every car, every place where somebody is listening. God, send your power. God, let your word, your word is alive. Your word created the universe.

Your word has power. Send your word, Lord, send your word. As you did through John and John, you use this man to get the attention of a generation that are, became used to not hearing from God. Father God, in Jesus' name. Healed, Lord, we ask you to heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, give sight to the blind, heal bruised and wounded hearts, open prison doors. Let the poor have the treasure of God preached to them.

Lord, do what only you can do. Jesus, son of God, have a harvest in this generation that will sow sow glad in your heart. Oh God, we didn't go to a cross. You did because you loved us. You said so.

We know that we believe it. You stood in the temple and you said, this is why the father sent me to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to give sight to the blind, to open prison doors and that the poor might have the treasure of heaven open to them. So God, we just pray and speak in accordance with your will. Let your kingdom come and let your will be done.

God, I promise you one thing. We will give you the glory. My God, we know what we are without you, but we know that because of you, we are sons and daughters of your kingdom. And we give you praise and glory in Jesus' name. So John comes to the people and he tells the people, prepare a way, prepare a way for God to do a work in you that only God can do.

So the question is, well, how do we prepare the way for God? Christ was just about to be revealed. You know, it was under the ministry of John, when people came into the waters of baptism, as soon as they were baptized, it was then that Jesus said, behold, the lamb of God.

When they actually responded to this word, their eyes were opened and they saw God's son, the atoning sacrifice for their sin, the hope for the future, their freedom, their healing, that longing desire that they'd had for years and years and years, that cry that was in so many hearts of the people. Now, the first thing out of John's mouth, when he's telling the people to prepare a way for the Lord, he told them to repent. And I'm going to tell you that, repent. Repent means change. Repent means, here's an example of repentance. You're an alcoholic, but you'd be satisfied with getting away with just five or six drinks a day if you could kind of control your behavior and you're calling out to God, but you don't really want to repent. You just want to kind of have less consequence from your sin. That's not repentance. Repentance means I don't want my lips stained by alcohol anymore.

I want the living water of God coming from my inward parts. That's the promise of God for my life. So I'm going to put this part of my life away. I'm going to repent of being selfish in my marriage.

I'm going to repent of the dating app, this lady said on my husband's phone. I'm going to repent of the pornography I've been looking at at work. I'm going to repent of the gossip and slander that's in my tongue or the hatred that's in my heart or the unforgiveness I've held towards family members. I'm going to repent, which means I'm going to stop living my way and I'm going to start living the way that God says I should live. This is how the way he comes to set us free, but we have to want to be free. He comes to change us, but we have to want to change. You can't sit there and make peace with your sin and ask God to come into your life.

It doesn't work that way. Sin separates from God and the wages of sin according to the Bible is death. It's always been death. It still is death. It will forever be death. The only way out of the wages of sin is through Jesus Christ. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Repent. When I got saved and I started reading my Bible, the first thing that started happening to me as I started seeing my my character in the light of what God says my character should be. It's like going to a doctor and you look good on the outside till you stand in front of an x-ray machine. And then when you stand in front of the x-ray machine you see the broken bones and the the tumors or whatever is in your body.

The things that shouldn't be there. That's what the word of God does. For example, to somebody that's listening to me, the word of God says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. So start there, sir, if you've got trouble in your marriage. Let the x-ray machine of God touch your heart, touch your selfishness, touch your lust, and you ask yourself, am I loving my wife as Christ loved the church? Am I given for my wife?

And if you're my wife and if you're not, repent. That means turn. It means I was walking this way and now I'm going to turn and I'm going to walk this. It's a willful choice that I make in my life not to live in sin or not to live with an attitude of heart that God says I shouldn't have. Now Ephesians chapter 4 verses 21 to 24 says this, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man, the old nature, which grows corrupt according to deceitful lust. In other words, without Christ you are continuously being deceived and you're actually getting darker and you're more you're getting more entrenched in behavior that alienates you from who you're supposed to be in God. And Paul says, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.

So Paul is saying get into the word of God and put away this old nature. My God, if I could get in your living room I'd shake you right now. I'm talking to somebody.

I know I'm talking to somebody. I just I feel like I grabbed you by the collar right now and say what are you waiting for? Why do you sit in this poverty when you are offered this treasure of life? When you're offered the freedom from sin? When you're offered healing in your home?

When you're offered a way in the future? What are you doing sitting there still compromising with this stuff? Listen, you know what repentance looks like?

Go to the cupboard, pour that whiskey down the drain, flush those drugs down the toilet, throw that laptop in the garbage if you can't get rid of the pornography in your life. Repent, that means change because you're being offered life. John said make a straight path into your heart for God to come. Don't make it a crooked place.

Don't make it a place where you're ducking and weaving and hiding behind curtains and trying to see how how close can I stay to hell and how how close can I get to God at the same time? Repent, make a straight path. That was the word that John brought to the people.

How does it happen though? Now in Luke chapter 3 verse 5 here it is. He says in verse 4 he says the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make his path straight. Now verse 5 is all God.

This is where the beauty of it comes in. This is what God does. He says every valley will be filled. Every low place in your life that you think you're never every hole you're in that you think you're never going to get out of God's going to fill it and God's going to give you the power to get out. Every mountain shall be brought low.

Everything that's too big, everything that stands in your way, every place where you feel like you can't climb it the devil put it there you can't get over it you can't get through it you can't get around it. God says you leave that mountain to me. You make a straight path into your heart and I'll look after your mountains. I'll take those mountains out of your life and I will give you the power to cast them into the midst of the sea. The crooked places shall be made straight.

This is what God will do. If we have made a straight path all these crooked places and may I just say it straight out we are crooked without God. We deviate. We craft crooked reasonings. We're like snakes. We're like this in our logic. Always reasoning, always conniving, always figuring out how we can do it. How can we get away with it?

How can we do this? How can we deviate around the truth of God and God says no I'm going to make all the crooked places straight. A straight path and the rough ways will be made smooth. Hallelujah. There'll be a clear he says I'll be the voice behind you that says this is the pathway walking it so we repent then we believe that God will give us the victory and verse 6 is the capstone and John said and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Where do you think they're going to see it? In you all flesh it means your house it means your family means your friends means your neighbors they'll see in you what God alone is able to do. All flesh will see the salvation of God that's that's I think where we're going as a society in this last hour of time that everybody's going to be given an opportunity to see who God is and what God can do through who through me through you through people whose lives have been transformed because why they've made a straight path for God to come into their life they've confessed him they've repented to their sin they've allowed God to come in they have believed that he is able to transform their lives and they have a confession only God could have done this for me who but God could have changed my life the way my life has been changed praise be to God I was not you know I wasn't as interested in theology when I before I got saved as how this thing works I think everybody's got a stick in New York City or you know everybody's got a gimmick everybody's got an idea but when when this police officer came to me and started telling me about Christ my question was show me how it works and as a matter of fact he did I remember the man looked at me said I used to be a womanizer and a drunk and a gambler and I looked at this guy and he was as straight as an arrow he was a career man he was sharp he was clear and he's clean and even more than that he loved me he cared for me I could blow smoke in his face I could drink beer in front of him I could make fun of him and he kept coming to my house because he cared for my soul and it wasn't his theology that won me to Christ it was him it was the reality of Jesus in his life all flesh shall see without him I don't know if I would be saved today I needed a flesh and blood example of the reality of God because everyone has an opinion about everything especially God I needed an example does this thing work in people's lives he told me if anyone is in Christ he's a new creation all the old things are passed away behold all things are be become new and he was to me a living example that man was everything other than what he said he used to be he had repented of his sin he had repented of womanizing and gambling and drinking he had repented of that he had opened his heart to God made a straight path the Lord had transformed his life and he was confessing that transformation before me and because of it I saw the salvation of God hallelujah hallelujah you know as a cop you're trained to observe and I knew at a certain point this is true and it provoked me then to read the gospel of John and when I read the gospel of John I prayed and I said Jesus if this is true show it to me and he did you see I was making now a straight path for him to come into my life and start to speak to me I wasn't trying to corrupt it I wasn't trying to carve it into something that I thought would be palatable to me I was just saying God show me he showed me the cross not only the cross but without ever hearing a sermon on it he showed me that I wasn't coming to him just to dump my bad feelings about myself but to actually repent of my sin and give the rights to the rest of my life over to God nobody ever told me that I read it I saw it and when I turned to God in 1978 on the side of the road it was the beginning of a brand new life and I've been over most of the world I guess by this point and hopefully many people have had the chance to see the salvation of God hey don't make this thing complicated you know you don't have to know any Hebrew words to experience this just Jesus that's all you just have to just believe just repent may I challenge the people so many people online you know I mean we've got prayer requests like my boyfriend has eyes for other women I mean I remember seeing that two weeks in a row well what are you doing with him dump the guy dump him you this guy's just gonna break your heart he's gonna commit adultery on you get out of there let him treat you like a rag doll you get out of there you're you're coming into a prayer meeting and asking for prayer but you know what to do ask God what is it in you that gets you into these relationships in the first place and the Bible says repent and then believe that he's going to come and he's going to make your your valleys is going to lift you up and bring your mountains down and make your crooked ways straight and you're going to have a testimony maybe even he will see it who knows you don't know what God will do maybe it'll be something the one that turns his heart to the truth of Christ who knows God almighty father in Jesus name in Jesus name lord in Jesus name father I ask you for people to finally make the decision that need to to finally just get sin sick and just get up and say I'm going with God I'm going with God and whatever that means in my life I am going to repent of my sin putting away my drugs my wicked tongue my love of pleasure everything else that I know is wrong I'm just by the hatred my heart for somebody I'm just going to put it all away and I'm going to trust you Lord that as I make a straight path into my heart that you will give me freedom in victory and you'll change me and I could become another person another man another woman whatever your case is another mother another father another brother another sister God I could be a a person different than what sin is making making me into and Lord I will confess you I will I will speak of you as my God and I do long for people around me to know that you are real you're real and so what I'm going to get up and I'm going to walk on the water I heard it today I'm going to walk on the water towards you as the song said earlier I'm coming home I I it seems like a long way but I'm just I'm coming home I'm coming home please please come home please please I know how discouraged you are and I know how down you feel but don't you know how much God loves you you feel a longing in his heart for you he died for you it wasn't just an empty display on his part he died for you because he loves you and that you had no way out but through him paying the price for your sin so why won't you just come home why would you sit there any longer he has a not only an eternity for you but a full meaningful life on this side of eternity like a reason to live and and you'll experience the supernatural of God you will become another person I'm telling you straight out the man I was at 24 died literally died and another man was born the bible calls it being born again by the spirit of God that man died he doesn't exist anymore and a new man was born because God came because I opened my heart and so I'm going to ask you to do that pray with me right now and make these words this is not a formula we don't it's it's not it's not my prayer that's going to save you it's it's you making it your thought I'm just helping you and guiding you so say these words Lord Jesus Christ I don't want to live like this anymore I'm not the person that you you're calling me to be I'm tired of my sin and I want to change I'm willing to be the person that you want me to be you died on a cross you were nailed there you were beaten you were rejected and you did it for me so that I wouldn't be rejected so I could come home I open my heart to you and I invite you to come into my life and be my Lord and my savior I believe that you have a new purpose for my life that you have a new purpose for my life you won't fail me and that people will see you in my life I believe that you'll bring healing into my mind my body my family my marriage my marriage my children my friends oh Jesus I believe I believe The message today has been brought to you by Carter Conlon from Times Square Church for more information log on to tsc.nyc that's tsc.nyc Plan to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon