We Must Find Our Strength

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. You don't know what to do. The pressure is just everywhere, and you feel like the psalmist will cry down and say, God, help me, for godly men are nowhere to be found anymore.

What are we going to do? We're glad you've joined us for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. As believers in Jesus Christ, we can find incredible strength. But there are times when we don't see it, we don't feel it, we don't recognize it. But the strength of God is here. His strength has been known, and his strength continues to be known. Let's join Carter now as he takes us to Hebrews chapter 10 with his message titled, We Must Find Our Strength Again. Now, Hebrews chapter 10, if you can turn there, and Psalm 77. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning at verse 19. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh. In other words, the writer of Hebrews is saying that God, through his son, Jesus Christ, when Christ died, on the cross, he made a way into the very presence of God. For up to that time, remember that to experience a face-to-face encounter with God meant certain death. But he abolished that when he died in our place and made a way for us to come to the throne of God.

I thank God for that with all my heart. Verse 21 says, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching.

Let me read that last verse again. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more as you see the day approaching. As you and I see this hour of evil, this canopy of darkness that wants to envelop the whole world today, as we see this day of Christ's return approaching, as in our hearts we begin to understand, soon and very soon we are going to see the king.

We know that the enemy will come in like a flood to destroy, to deceive, to swallow, because he hates humanity for one specific reason, that we are made in the very image of God, and we are the one thing in this universe that God's focused. The Bible says we're the apple of his eye. That means the pupil of his eye is focused on you. You are the source of his affection. You are his beloved. You are his lord. You are his crown. Everything in the heart of God is about you.

You have to understand that. That's what the cross is all about. And because the devil hates God, he hates what God loves and sets out to wound the heart of God by destroying that which is the most precious to him. And as we see this conflict deepening in our society and around the world today, we are exhorted to gather together to pray. We are exhorted to come together for fellowship.

We are exhorted to assemble together simply to worship God and to thank God for who he is and for what he has done and will continue to do for us. We are encouraged to encourage one another and telling each other even more that God will be faithful. God will keep you. God will help you. God is working in my life.

God will work in your life. More so even as we see the day approaching. There's an incredible strength to be found in just being here together today. You know, though for some, you're not yet fully understand what God has placed all around you. You know, you feel like maybe you're just one weak person in a sanctuary of 1600 other weak people. In measure, that's true. But there's also a great strength here.

Although, in many times, we don't fully see it. We come into the house of God and we've been praying. This has been our prayer like David in Psalm 64. Here my cry, oh God, attend to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth, I will cry to you. In other words, I'm near the end. God of my strength, I feel like everything is caving in around me. I feel like society itself is imploding.

I don't see a future. And David says, when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. And that's why many are here today. It's why you've come in online. Your prayer is, God, lead me to that rock.

That place where I can see again, my purpose on the earth, where I can see where strength is found, where I can have eyes of faith and understanding. Help me, Lord. It's so easy now to get overwhelmed, isn't it? It happens to even those among us who are naturally enthusiastic and strong. It can happen because of unforeseen circumstances or sudden failure or repeated failure. It can happen because we find ourselves just fighting against hell. Like Paul the Apostle said, I got fears inside and I got fightings without. It seems like there's no rest no matter where I look. Even as the Psalmist David once said, I looked at my right hand and to my left and refuge failed me. And it seemed like there was nothing that could satisfy my soul everywhere I looked around.

Sometimes it's just the eventual wearing down of our resolve by the continual pressure that surrounds us every day. Where you have to work. The neighborhood you live in. Just having to drive in in this insane traffic every day. Into New York City and drive home.

Many people are just spending, or on the subway, you're just spending like probably three, four hours a day just commuting. Just trying to go to work. Then you got to go into this place where there's this pressure put on you. Especially as a believer in Christ. You're not even allowed an opinion. Your job is in jeopardy. If you have an opinion, you're not even allowed it anymore. And you don't know what to do.

The pressure is just everywhere. And you feel like the Psalmist who cried out saying, God help me. For godly men are nowhere to be found anymore.

What are we going to do? It seems like the enemy has come in and set fire to everything that was holy. Everything that I valued.

Everything that I've learned is good. It seems like it's all on fire. And at one time there was such beauty around me the Psalmist says. But now they're coming in with axes and hammers and they're literally breaking apart. Our society, everything around that was right for thousands of years and suddenly it's all just changing almost overnight. And on top of that people are fighting in their own marriages. There's struggles in the home with family, with children, struggles at work, struggles with finances, trying to pay the bills. And on top of that you have just this barrage of bad news every day.

Going on the internet, picking up a newspaper. They say is nobody happy anymore? Are there any good people left in the world? Every once in a while it seems like one of our news outlets just squeaks in.

You've got to go to page 14 to find it mind you. But they're squeaking a story about somebody who did something good. It's just bad news constantly. And it can happen to the godliest of people.

Even a people with a history of victory. I'm not even in a place of even discussing making any kind of a difference for your kingdom. I'm just on fumes. And I've come into the house of God and I'm just looking for some segment of some portion of strength just to get me through this life as I find it. You know the one thing I can tell you to encourage you is you're not alone.

You're not the only one going through this. People all over the world are going through this now. Christians, some are losing their lives. For the cause of Christ, as we are gathered here to discuss these things, others are having to pay for it with blood. We've not resisted to that yet. But we know in our hearts that this is a difficult moment and say, God, you got to have to give me strength that I don't naturally have now.

You're going to have to help me because I recognize I can't get through this on my own. I'm not even anywhere near thinking about doing something great for the kingdom of God. I just want to survive. I just want to get over the finish line. I just want to make it into eternity and not lose my testimony. Listen to what the psalmist says in Psalm 77. You want to pray but you raise your hand and say, oh God, God, where am I going to find the strength for another day? Where am I going to find the love that I need for these people that hate me? Where am I going to find the resources I need to feed my family?

Where am I going to find hope and help for my marriage, my home? I remembered God in verse three and was troubled. I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed. In other words, the spirit of this age, the psalmist was saying of his time started to get a hold of me. And I started speaking what the people on the radio speak or on the internet speak.

And I started speaking as they speak. I lost those sweet words of faith that used to be part of my life. And my spirit started to get overwhelmed. That's why it's so important, folks, at some point in your life, you have to make a choice and decide to go with God.

You have to make a choice. And as the Apostle Paul tells us, you have to think on things that are lovely, that are virtuous, that are of good report. You have to spend time in the Word of God. You have to find fellowship in the family of God with people of faith, not people who just live to pull the spiritual plug on your bathtub. You have to find friendship among those who are risk takers, may I say, for the kingdom of God and are willing to believe the Word of God and will sharpen you and exhort you.

It's so important to have friends in your life now that are people of faith. The psalmist says in verse four, you hold my eyelids open. That's quite an accusation against God, really. In other words, God, you put your fingers in my eyes and you won't let me sleep.

I'm so troubled I cannot speak. I've considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night. I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search. In other words, the psalmist is saying, I'm thinking about what the report that I've heard in the scriptures of who you are and what you've done. And there was a time, Lord, when that occupied my thoughts and it made me sing when I went to bed. There was a time when faith was so deep in my heart that it was a song that couldn't be taken away from me. Now I find instead of singing, I'm complaining. Instead of sleeping, as the scripture says, I can't because I'm so troubled.

I'm thinking about these things in my heart and I'm making a diligent search. In other words, I don't want to live in this place. I don't want to be like this because I know in my heart, walking with God is supposed to be different than this. But somehow I've fallen in this hole. That's why David the psalmist says, lead me to the rock. Lead me to a place of standing that's higher than where I am. I'm in a place where I feel like I'm sinking. Get me out and put me in a solid place, a higher place than where I am.

Help me to see again, God, who you are in Christ and who I am in you and what purpose of my life is on the earth and where my strength can be found. And he says in verse seven, will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more? Anybody here ever felt like that? God, are you just going to walk away from me?

That's what he's saying. Has his mercy ceased forever? Has his promise failed forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Have you ever been in a place where you're just saying, you don't even have a prayer anymore. You only got to scream when you open your mouth. God, I remember praying like that one time. I just opened my mouth and just was a groan.

Nothing else would come out. It's like, God, where are you? Where are your promises?

Where's my song? Why am I going through this as your child? Have I sinned against you? Are you angry with me? Have you written me off? I know I failed.

I know I struggled. But I was told that you will never leave me or forsake me. But yet, God, I don't see you.

I don't feel you anywhere near me. And then I said in verse 10, this is my anguish. Or the King James original says, this is my infirmity.

But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. In other words, this is my problem. It's not God's. And the psalmist finally comes to that point of saying, the problem is not with God.

The problem is with me. I have allowed my thinking to grow dark and dull. I have allowed my circumstances to begin to dictate to my heart. I have put away the Word of God from my thinking every day.

That is a lamp from my feet and a light from my path. I've allowed all the things that are around me, surrounding me, to occupy my mind and my heart and my thoughts. I've begun to complain and now my spirit is overwhelmed. The psalmist says, this is my problem.

You see, that's the beginning of getting free is when we don't blame God and we don't question God. God is faithful. He can't be anything other than what He is. He said, I will never leave you or forsake you. Now, that has to be true because He's not a man who can lie. He will not leave you. He will not forsake you. He told you.

He told me. All things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. There are classrooms that God will take you and I through that we don't understand. We don't want to sign up for it. We don't want to be there.

We don't even want the diploma at the end of it. But somewhere along the line we said, God, use my life. God, help me. God, change.

We threw it out so flippantly. Help me. Change me. Use me. Mold me.

Make me. We sang the songs. Oh, it's so sweet.

Wasn't it to sing it in church? And the Lord looks down and says, okay. I mean, I'm going to have to put you on a wheel. I'm going to have to just take that clay and just schmuck it down from every side.

Press it. And I'm going to have to put my hands to it and I'm going to have to remold it. And you're going to be, you're going to look like this for a while as you go around on the wheel. And you're going to say, where are you?

What's happening? This is not my viewpoint of Christian life. In most of the classrooms I've been in throughout my life, I've not understood what God was doing until I was way past it. And then I look back and say, oh, now I understand what that was about. Now I understand what he was doing.

This is my infirmity. You see, that's why Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We have that power in prayer to cast down these arguments from the devil himself that hates us because we are made in the image of God. And tries to accuse the faithfulness of God by pointing out our flaws and our failures and our struggles and our trials and everything that's around us. And trying to tell us if God was with you, as he did with Christ in the wilderness, if God's with you, why are you hungry?

If God's with you, why are you in this place if you are the son of God? And the devil will be there and he will accuse constantly Christ and his church. The psalmist then turns in verse 11, he says, I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of all. I will remember. I will not allow myself just to dwell on the present. I will remember what God did for me. You must once in a while, like David did when he found himself in a hard place, you must sit down and encourage yourself in the Lord.

You must remember where God brought you from. You must think about. Yeah, life is tough.

I get that. Life is tough for all of us. But you think about where you would be without Christ today. Think about what your life would look like.

Some of you would not be here. You'd already be dead and in hell if it wasn't for Jesus Christ. I will meditate on your work. In other words, I'm going to let the promises of God come back and take their rightful place in my heart. God is not going to forsake me. Every tongue that rises against me in judgment, I can condemn. I can tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. I can go to the throne of God.

I can go there boldly. I can find grace to help in my time of need. God will not reject me.

God will not forsake me. Your way, O God. In verse 13, he says in Psalm 77, your way is in the sanctuary.

Your way. Today as I sit in your presence, I know what I feel. That what I feel is who you are and it is what you do. He says, who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does wonders. You have declared your strength among the people.

You have. There's incredible strength here today. God's strength is here. God has declared his strength. The psalmist says you have with your arm redeemed your people.

The sons of Jacob and Joseph. You have. That's why we're not to neglect the assembling of ourselves or to stop encouraging each other because the strength of God is here. His strength has been made known. His strength is being made known. The devil would have us believe that we're all struggling and there's no victory for anybody.

This whole thing is a losing kingdom. Just like he did to the people of Israel and Egypt trying to put over them taskmasters and trying to convince them that they were less than they really were and trying to convince them that God was not with them anymore. But I remind you the devil is a liar. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Praise God. I know there are people here that you're grasping for strength and you're wondering if God is still with us. You're wondering if he's walked away because we've so sinned away our day of grace as a nation and as a society. But I tell you when we gather together to fellowship, when we start to worship God, there's something of God's strength in fellowship that you're not going to find anywhere else. There's a reminder in the church of Jesus Christ when we gather together to corporately worship God. There's a reminder of who he is and what he has done among us.

But how many are in this room? You see, by the grace of God, I am still alive. By the grace of God, he has kept me. I'm going to ask you to praise God for that.

Bless the Lord. Look, look around you. Look around you. Look around you. How many people in this sanctuary today were delivered from committing suicide? I want you to stand.

You were delivered from committing suicide. Look, look around you folks. Look around you. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you, Lord. Stay standing. Stay standing. How many people were delivered from addiction, drugs or alcohol or addictions of the mind?

How many were set free from addiction? Look around you. Look around you folks. Look around you. Thank you.

You may be seated. You see, the point is God is working. God is working with power. God is working with grace. Don't let the devil tell you that God has withdrawn his mercy.

Don't let him tell you that his promises have failed. That's why we come together. That's why the writer of Hebrews says we need to exhort one another to love and good works and even the more. We need to just have kind words and say, my brother, my sister, don't give up. God is still for you. God is not against you. Now I want you to think about how the psalmist started in Psalm 77.

Let's look at how he finishes now. He talks about God, you have redeemed your people with a strong hand, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. And he goes into verse 16, he says, the waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you and they were afraid.

The depths also trembled. In other words, there was when you have determined to set your people free, even nature trembles. There's nothing, nothing, there's nothing impossible that can stand in the way of God's people when God decides to bring us to a place of freedom. Nothing, there's no prison door can hold you, no wound in the past can continue to drag your face down into the dust. There is nothing can stop you from becoming what God has determined you to be.

Nothing. The clouds poured out water, the sky sent out a sound, your arrows also flashed about. David talked about this in Psalm 18 when he says, I was surrounded by enemies and I cried out to God. And then he describes this incredible upheaval in nature all around him. God showing him every way that he was able to see it, how much he was willing to fight for him. The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind, the lightnings lit up the world, the earth trembled and shook. Your way was in the sea, your path in the great waters and your footsteps were not known.

God Almighty, if we could fully see what he has done to set us free, if we could fully understand how he is engaged in keeping us, he's not going to let you go, he's not going to let you go, he's not going to let you go. 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.