Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. It's time, Lord, for you to act. It's time for you to do what only you can do because we're living in a generation that have literally spit in the face of Jesus one more time.
We're living in a society that we're given freedom to worship and have took that freedom and have tried to push God out of every facet of our society, have paraded evil as if it's good and talked about good as if it's evil. Lord, you've got to do what only you can do. We're so glad you've joined us for the weekly program A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. Carter wants you to know it's not by might, it's not by power, it's by the Spirit of God that we become everything that God has called us to be. In essence, you and I are the show and tell of this generation because this current generation is not the generation that will read the Bible.
You might be the only Bible they're going to read. Let's join Carter now with his message, It's Time for the Lord to Act. Psalm 119, beginning at verse 121. The psalmist says, I've done justice and righteousness. Do not leave me to my oppressors. In other words, he's saying I've done as best as I know how to do, but I'm now facing an opposition which threatens to overwhelm me. I've tried, God.
I've tried to walk with you. I've tried to understand and comprehend and live in your truth, but God, I'm finding an oppression all around me. It's oppressive thought in society. It's oppression in the workplace. It's oppression in my mind coming after me at night. It's voices saying, who do you think you are?
What makes you think your life is going to ever make a difference? How do you even have the thought that you're going to make it to the finish line when you're so utterly weak as you are? He says, I've done the best I know how to do. Oh, God, please don't give me over to this opposition which threatens to overwhelm me. Be surety, he says in verse 122, for your servant for good and do not let the proud oppress me. Now surety is when you're taking a loan for a car or a house, for example, and there's some doubt that you're going to have enough resource to pay the loan off, you get what's called a guarantor.
It's a person, it's a friend that co-signs the loan, and when that person signs as a guarantor or under surety, they're saying, if my friend gets to the point where they no longer have the resource to finish the contract, I will take over. Hallelujah. And the psalmist knew this, and he says, God, be surety for me. For good.
In other words, co-sign my life. When my strength runs out, when I've made promises I can't keep, when I don't know how to go forward, when I find the opposition against me is too strong and I run out of gas, Lord, take over and begin to do what I can't do and be the supply in my life that I don't have. The next verse, he says, my eyes fail from seeking your salvation and your righteous word. He says, I've been searching for strength in you, which I've not yet fully discovered.
I read about it, but I've not discovered the strength that you promised to those who belong to you. But God, I feel like the light in me is fading. Have you ever felt that way?
You ever been in a place that everyone else is getting victory? What's wrong with me? Do I have the wrong end of the stick in this thing or something? No, everybody's the same as you. They're just not honest about it at times. Everybody's struggling. Everybody feels discouraged.
Everybody feels like their life is amounting to zero. Their testimony is so utterly deficient. And he says, my eyes are failing, God. There is a power of salvation that's available, but God, I'm searching for it and I've not been able to find it. Deal with me or your servant according to your mercy and teach me your truth, your statutes. In other words, God, don't deal with me according as I deserve, but let it be mercy because the one thing I see in the scripture is mercy and teach me the right way to go. I am your servant.
Give me understanding that I may know your testimonies. And then he finishes with this verse. It's time for you to act, O Lord, for they've regarded your law as void. It's time, Lord, for you to act. It's time for you to do what only you can do because we're living in a generation that have literally spit in the face of Jesus one more time, just as they did in the days of the cross where we're living in a society that we're given freedom to worship and have took that freedom and have tried to push God out of every facet of our society, have paraded evil as if it's good and talked about good as if it's good and talked about good as if it's evil. God Almighty, we're living in a day that an argument is not going to win the day.
It's not going to win the day. Lord, you've got to do what only you can do. Now, he could do it in the cosmos if he chooses to. He could send a 7.5 earthquake this afternoon if he wants to, to get our attention.
He can do that. But you see, the way God works is through people, through his church. So the psalmist is saying, God, it's time for you to do something beyond me. Now, he has no idea as he's writing his lament that God's already answering his prayer because how many countless hundreds of millions of people have read this psalm over the years and have been encouraged by its words? Even before you finish your prayer, the answer from God is already on its way. He's already doing something in your life, even when you don't see it. So the point being is God has chosen to manifest his glory through us, people, ordinary, failing, struggling.
I don't get it sometimes. If I was God, I wouldn't choose me to glory. Can you imagine? You know, Pastor Tim, we get up and we talk about the fatherhood of God, the glory.
We don't have a clue what we're talking about. Can you imagine when we finally one day stand at the throne of God and go, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, just like Isaiah did. He said, I preached about you, but now I've seen you.
And I realized my speech has been corrupt. God, I didn't know one one-thousandth of what your glory looks like. And I was trying to describe you, having never fully seen you or understood you, but yet God in his mercy sends us out to talk about who he is.
Infinite God, always existed, created the universe by the word of his mouth. God, Almighty God, sends you and me out to talk about him. You talk about mercy. If there's any other evidence ever needed of mercy, I don't think it has to be beyond that.
Look in the mirror when you get home saying, Almighty God, you are so good and so merciful, so kind, so utterly humble that you would allow me to talk about you to other people and to be the vessel through whom you choose to glorify your name. And so the psalmist is saying, God, I've tried. We've tried. But all we are is a struggling argument. It's time for you, Lord, now to take over.
It's time for you to do in me or in us what we cannot do with any amount of human strength. The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians in chapter 2 verses 1 to 5, he says, I, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. In other words, I didn't come trying to impress you with a human argument.
Let's put it that way. I didn't come letting you be drawn to who I am or the natural wisdom and strength that Paul actually had. Paul was a born leader. You know that from even before he got saved, he could lead people.
He had achieved a great notoriety even in the religious circle of his day. But as he's standing there before the people, he says, I didn't come to you with excellence of speech or wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. In other words, I don't want to present anything to you but the power and mercy of God and His willingness to take any vessel that turns to Him. It's not our strength. It's not our knowledge.
It's not our abilities. It's the Spirit of God in us that makes the difference, that makes us into what God's calling us to be, takes us where we need to go, and gives us what we need to possess when we get there. You know, the preceding verses, for example, he said to the same people, he said, you see your calling, brethren. Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called.
That means some are, but not many. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame things which are mighty, and base things, that means things at the bottom of the world, and things which are despised God has chosen, and things which are nothing to bring to nothing things that are that no flesh should glory in His presence. The scale of usability in the Kingdom of God starts at foolish and ends with at nothing. If you're somewhere between foolish and nothing, you are God's choice to represent Him in this generation. Praise be to God. That's amazing when you see it.
Not many mighty, not many noble. So Paul now is saying, when I came to you, I didn't give you a counter presentation to that. Now, Paul obviously was brilliant. He had a brilliant theological mind.
I mean, he wrote things that the Apostle Peter said are hard to be understood. He was drawn by the Spirit of God into the third heaven. Anybody else? Oh, no, I'm not going to ask. I was going to say, could anybody else ever been there? I know that hands would be raised, so I'm not going to say it. You thought you were in the third heaven. Okay, you weren't.
I'll tell you that straight out. When I came to you, I didn't come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling. And Paul was not naturally weak or fearful or trembling. I feel the trembling in Paul was, God, please don't let anything of me present itself. I don't want to stand before the people and have them walk away saying, look at Paul. Isn't Paul wonderful? Isn't Paul such a... I want them to see you, Jesus.
I don't want them to see me. He said, in my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. I wanted you to see my weakness, Paul said, so that you could see through me the power of God.
I wanted you to understand something. It's not by might. It's not by power, human might or human power. It's by the Spirit of God that we become everything that God has called us to be. 1 Thessalonians 1 5, Paul says, our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power. In essence, you and I are the show and tell of this generation. This generation are not going to read the Bible. You are the Bible they're going to read. You are the living testimony of God. We have a new testament or a new testimony or a new covenant of God here, but they're not going to read it.
Most don't even care and a lot don't have the attention span to even read far enough to comprehend it, but they're going to look at you and they're going to look at me. If we will allow the Spirit of God to do a work in us, they will walk away saying, only God could have changed that person like that. That's what I did at Cornell. I got up and told my story. That's all I did. I told my story.
I've probably told it hundreds of times. Then I gave an altar call and the young people melted because finally somebody told them how this works. What can your life look like? What does forgiveness from sin, what does that feel like? What does walking in the power of God look like?
You are the only Bible that this generation is going to read. Listen to the words of the aged psalmist in Psalm 71 verses 16 to 18. He says, I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention of your righteousness of yours only. I'll not boast in myself. As a matter of fact, as Paul said, I'll talk of my weaknesses so that your strength might be made manifest. It's not going to be about me, Lord.
It's going to be about you. I will only speak about your righteousness, yours only. Oh God, he says, you've taught me from my youth and to this day I declare your wondrous works. Now also when I'm old and gray headed, oh God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come. Until I've shown in the original King James, God, don't take your hand off me.
This is my prayer now at 70 years of age. I said, God, don't take your hand off me until I've shown the next generation your power. Not just talked about it, but shown them your power. A demonstration in a sense through a surrendered life of who God is and giving the glory to God, as Paul said, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. It's amazing that one instructor said, you're the first speaker that has not cerebrally spoken to these students that I've ever seen in this chapel. Everybody comes in and they always present some new scientific evidence about the existence of God to a young group of people who have never encountered any kind of a living Christ.
They've never seen what that looks like. I will declare it to this next generation. In other words, I'll make it known. Actually, one of the definitions means to celebrate God or celebrate the strength of God with praise. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. What a wonderful thing it is to stand before any generation and say, this is real, folks.
The power of God is real. I shared this morning, I said, look, I've had an amazing journey. I've been all good parts of the world. I've spoken in places that I never could have gone to without the anointing of God's Holy Spirit or the call of God. It's been an amazing journey.
Either that or I'm in a coma and none of you exist. So I mean, either way, it's been an amazing journey either way. But it's time again for God to show his power through you and through me, to this generation. It's time again for God to show his power through us to our families. It's time again for God to show his power, even to those who oppose us. Listen, we're living in an age now where this concept of your truth and my truth has begun to be accepted virtually throughout all of society. Well, that's your truth, but my truth says this, but there is a truth above all truth. And the evidence is in the transformation of our lives by the inward dwelling of God's Holy Spirit. So I shared, I was speaking to some pastors.
I said, enough talk. It's time for God to work. It's time for the Lord to do now through us what only God can do. And what does he require of me?
Do I need a degree? Yes, I should study the scriptures and I should show myself approved. As Paul said to Timothy, I should rightly divide the word of God so I won't be triumphed in front of my enemies.
Yes, I need to do that. God needs vessels through whom he can visibly show his power, visibly show his strength. And we don't need a diploma to do that. It's nice to have one. We don't need it. We need an open heart.
Listen to me on this. We need an open heart. We need an Isaiah chapter six moment. If nobody else is speaking, there's somebody in the back of the room says, well, I'll go.
If nobody else will, I'll go. And that young man headed down to a very rebellious generation and God gave him a literally panoramic view of the whole plan of salvation right through to the cross and beyond the cross into the kingdom of God. Amazing what God gave that young man. But before he gave it to him, he had to acknowledge his unworthiness. He had to acknowledge his corruption. He had to acknowledge, I don't even belong here, but then he had to acknowledge the mercy of God. God could have sent any one of those angelic beings and the people probably would have stopped and listened.
If something was six wings appeared here, I'd probably be inclined to listen to it for a moment. But Isaiah is the only one in the whole scene that was corrupt in his own sight, but he's also the only one that volunteered to go. And today we still talk about him. Today we still read his words.
Today, his words are still used even at Christmas time to point to the place of the birth of the son of God. Amazing what God will do through a surrendered heart. We don't need any other credential other than we have experienced the mercy of God and there's a willingness in our hearts to go where God calls us to go and let him make us into what he wants us to be and give us what we need to possess. So you ask me how?
Well, how's that going to happen in my life? Luke 11, I'm going to start at verse five. Jesus told them, which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say, friend lend me three loaves for a friend of mine has come to be on his journey and I have nothing to set before him. Now, Jesus is always teaching a principle. In this scenario, somebody comes at the midnight hour to a man's door, like people are going to come in from all around the world into this sanctuary, as well as every one of us in our daily lives, the same thing's going to happen.
One on a larger scale, the other on a smaller scale. But as the days get darker, this is midnight now, this is the darkest part of the night. Somebody comes knocking on this man's door, he's hungry, just as these young people in our Ivy League schools are hungry.
And he acknowledges, I don't have what is needed for him at this time, but I know that you do. My cupboard is empty, but your cupboard, God is full. And so he comes at midnight and he says, I need three loaves. And I used to be curious about that because three loaves, I mean, how many loaves of bread can you eat at midnight? It must've been a big guy that showed up at the door to need three loaves of bread to fill him up.
No, I think it's a type. It's a type of you and I knocking on heaven's door at this midnight hour that we're now living in and saying, God, I need three things. I need the compassion of God the Father. I need the compassion, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten. I need that compassion to be able to be given for this generation.
I need the courage and conviction of the son of God that in spite of the depth of the battle, he went to the cross, despised the shame and is now set down at the right hand of God. I need that in my life, God. And I need the power of your Holy Spirit. I need compassion, conviction, courage, and power.
So God, it's midnight. People are coming to me now, or they will be coming very shortly. And I don't have what I need to set before them.
I don't have a life that can feed them at the moment. I have some truth, but I don't have the life that bears witness. So God, I'm knocking on your door and I'm saying, you've got to give me what I need to face this generation. And he will answer from within and say, don't trouble me.
The door is now shut and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you. I say to you, that's the words of Jesus, though he will not rise and give him because he's his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many loaves as it is as he needs.
Isn't that amazing? Because of his persistence. I'm not going away until you give me what you have for me.
I'm not going away. You know, God's going to do something because you've chosen to pray. This is the type right in this story of the persistence of going to God saying, I'm not satisfied with an empty cupboard when it's midnight and there are people that are starving to death. God, I need what you have for me. Didn't you say when you rose from the dead, you took captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.
I need the gifts that you said you have for me. Didn't you say, whatever I ask believing, if I pray according to your will, I shall receive. So God, I'm not going away because you said that. You said that.
You didn't make that up. And you didn't put a little star and saying, except for except for Carter Connell, except for Tim Delena, except for Frank Johnson, whatever your name is here today, there's no exception clause. Whoever asks believing shall receive. Whoever asks, that means you and you and you and you, whoever asks believing shall receive whatever you need to do everything God's called you to be and to be everything God's called you to be. So I say to you, ask and it will be given you.
Don't make it complicated. Ask. You don't have to ask in King James English.
You don't have to say 1500 father gods when you pray. Do you understand what I'm saying? Just ask and just be honest. Go to your room and say, God, I'm starving and I have nothing to give to anybody else. I'm weak. And yet you promised that through me, your strength is going to be made known to this generation. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you for everyone who asks receives. Everyone, everyone, everyone.
There are no exceptions here. Everyone, everyone who says, God, I need what you have for me. I need strength beyond my own. My resources are insufficient.
I can't make the journey because my resources are too mediocre. I can't do it. I don't have the strength. I don't have the willpower.
I don't have the conviction. I'm such a lousy witness. God, I need the strength that only you can give me.
Everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds and to him who knocks, it will be open. Oh God, I don't know about you, but I'm asking and I'm seeking and I'm knocking right now. And I've been around a long time and I've done a lot of things, but that's in the past.
Thank God for the past, but it's gone. I'm going into the future. I'm going to be standing in places I've never been before. And I need what God has. If a son asks for bread, he said, well, any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, that isn't in comparison to God, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
How much more? Deol Moody was preaching one time and it was, I don't know the details, but you could probably research it and find it, but he was preaching about a lighthouse that was on a shore here in the United States and it was on a particular coast. And there was a man who was in charge of lighting the lower lights, it's called. The lighthouse would call the people to a safe harbor in a storm, but the lower lights would show the way in the channel to the safe harbor. And one night the keeper of the lower lights, he looked out, the stars were out, it was a calm night, and it was a big hassle to light all these lights on both sides of this channel.
And he thought, well, this is going to be a nice night tonight. So he just didn't light them and he went home. And that night in the middle of the night, a huge, huge storm came up and a ship in the middle of the storm saw the lighthouse and headed towards the lighthouse, but the lower lights weren't lit. And trying to make the harbor, the ship crashed into the rocks and all, I think it was 100 and something sailors drowned. Because of one man's neglect, he neglected to light the lower lights.
And realistically, the beam that goes from this lighthouse is going to draw a lot of people into a safe harbor, but the lower lights have to be burning as well. And that's you and that's me. We have to be alive in God. We're not here just watching a show. We are here for God to demonstrate His mercy and compassion through each of our lives.
