Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. In our generation we have lost sight of the purpose of God, but sometimes it takes just one blind man to bring us back into the place where God has always longed for us to be. The question the Lord's put on my heart for you is who wants to see again?
We're glad you're with us today for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. There once was a blind man in Jericho who cried out to Jesus to help him. The cry of one man brought the Son of God to a standstill in the midst of noise and confusion in a place where a great miracle happened when the walls of Jericho fell down. Jesus heard that single voice of one man sitting on the side of the road and asked the beggar a very important question.
Let's join Carter for more now with his message titled, I Want to See. Luke chapter 18, please, if you'll go there in your Bibles. Luke chapter 18, beginning at verse 35. Then it happened as he was coming near Jericho, that is Jesus, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging, and hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant. And so they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet. But he cried out all the more, Son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he had come near, he asked him, saying, what do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. Then Jesus said to him, receive your sight. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. Now, this is an interesting passage of Scripture because you and I know that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
The Bible says that we may understand the ways of God. And you'll find with Christ there's never a happenstance. Nothing just simply happens because he happens to be somewhere.
His entire life on this earth, especially the three years, of course, of public ministry, was an illustration of something in the heart of God that he wants us to see if we have the eyes to see it. He's passing through Jericho. Now Jericho is the place where years before he was born as a baby in Bethlehem, he had various appearances in human form. The Son of God did in the Old Testament on this earth.
And one of them was by Jericho. Now you know that the people of God were being brought out of bondage. They were held in captivity in Egypt. Under Moses' hand, they were brought out.
They spent years in the wilderness. And finally, another generation is coming into this place of promise. Listen to what the Bible says in Joshua chapter 5. Let me read it to you. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, No, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army, which is Christ, said to Joshua, Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel.
None went out and none came in. In other words, there's a stronghold in this place of promise. Anybody, bear witness, anybody struggling with that now. We live in the place of promise. We live in the place of victory. We live in the place of salvation. We live in a place of incredible promise. Jesus Christ is the promised land for the New Testament believer. That's what all these stories were leading to.
That's who he is in your life. And the Lord said, chapter 6 in verse 2, See, I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor. See, in other words, Joshua, see, now when Joshua looks with his natural eyes, he sees a city that's still all shut up, preparing for battle, walls that are so thick, they can't be penetrated by human effort. As a matter of fact, one historian said they're so thick that you could actually drive a chariot on the top of them. There are people living on those walls. There are apartments in those walls where people live. And before the victory, before the victory, Christ says to Joshua, see.
Amazing, isn't it? Well, he's looking at a city that's intact. He's looking at a place where all the defenses are still there. He's looking at a stronghold really in the promised land. But he's asking Joshua to see with spiritual eyes, to see something that normal men or natural men and women don't see. You have to be walking with God to see these things.
He says to him, see, I've given Jericho into your hand, its king and its mighty men of valor. Now you and I know the children of Israel walked into that place of promise and with strict confidence in the word of God, they were given instructions that looked to be foolish in the natural. Walk around the city for six days, blowing trumpets and being quiet. Don't say anything. Just blow the trumpets, walk around the city every day and do nothing and say nothing. That's a miracle in itself for the people of God. I'll tell you right now for six days to say nothing. On the seventh day, go around seven times.
And when I tell you after the seventh time, which is the perfection of God, the number seven, I want you to shout. And as the people shouted, the walls of the city fell down flat. Historians say they fell inward, which is technically impossible. That can't happen in a circle.
You can't cause walls to fall inward in a circle, but they say they did. And the people went up and conquered this stronghold that was in their place of promise. God's intent was clearly revealed that he was going to give his own people victories that could only be won through their faith and his power. It's not by human effort, not by human reasoning. Thank God for those things.
Thank God that we have the ability to do certain things. But the victory that God wants to give is a victory of faith. It's a victory that comes by the power of God. It does not come by human intellect.
It does not come by our reasonings or the best of our efforts. Sometimes, as a people, we forget our own history and we forget about the power of God. I want you now to fast forward from this moment where the pre-incarnate Christ appears to Joshua. The people walk in obedience. It's their first step into the promised land. That place that God says I'm going to take you to. It's their first step. They obey by faith and the miraculous happens and they conquer an unconquerable city in the natural.
Let's put it that way. Now, fast forward years later, the same Christ comes walking into Jericho again. The same Jesus. The same captain of the Lord's army. The same one who holds all power in his hand. The same one whose word has the ability to raise the dead, calm the sea, stop the wind.
The same one who was in the beginning with God and the Bible says by all things through him were created and nothing was created that he was not involved in. And he sustains all things by the word of his power. So here he comes near Jericho.
It's not that many years later. The physical Christ is now passing by that first place. That first place of victory. That place that the people of Israel knew about. They knew their history. They knew what God had done.
They knew who God had been. Now, it's such an oxymoron in a sense because all you see now, instead of people standing there shouting for victory, you see one blind man sitting by the road begging. Now, what had begun as a shout of victory had degenerated into a pitiful plea of bondage. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And the crowd that maybe thinks that we've moved beyond miracles and mercy, as this man began to call out, says those who went before him warned him that he should be quiet. But he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me. You see, it's a crowd that maybe thinks in that time that we've moved beyond miracles and mercy.
Sound familiar? We've moved beyond just calling out to God. We're more sophisticated than that now. We've moved beyond just simple obedience and maybe the willingness to look foolish in the sight of fallen men and just march around the city and blow our trumpets and believe God that when we shout, the walls are going to fall. Oh no, that's too simplistic for this complicated, educated, smart church of that generation and perhaps ours too as well. No, we've moved beyond miracles and mercy to sophistication and strategy. You see, crying out for miracles and mercy is old fashioned. We're way beyond that now. That's why we have no prayer meetings in America anymore.
That's why you can barely, hardly find a place where anybody's crying out to God because you see, we're so smart now. We've got it all figured out. We have all the strategies.
We have all the self-help books. We have all the support groups you'll ever need in the body of Christ. The one thing we don't have is faith and power for the miraculous anymore in the kingdom of God.
No, no, no, no. Today we have strategies, plans, and we have such meaningful and compassionate discussions. And Jesus, the crowd would say, can take our new visions where each of us has to where they need to go. So be quiet, they said to the man who's simply there crying out for a miracle. The man who's got a stronghold in his life. The man who lives in darkness. The man who can't see a way forward. The man who doesn't know how he's ever going to get out of the situation that he's in.
The man who's in a place where he finds that the selflessness of even the professed people of God has gotten so deep that nobody sees him. He doesn't see them but they don't see him anymore either other than as a nuisance to their entire religious agenda. Be quiet, they would say.
We've got the plan now. And the prayerless churches in our generation are a testimony as to how far we've gotten from God in this society. Look at our nation. Look at what's going on in our government. Look at what's going on in our schools. Look at the wicked moral agenda that's literally sweeping like a tsunami over our nation. And I want to tell you one, there's one thing responsible for it. It's not our lack of knowledge or tapes or reading or study. It's the prayer meeting and calling out to the mercy of God.
That's where we have to be again. It requires a humility. Remember, the scripture says, if my people are called by my name, will what?
Humble themselves and pray and seek my face. This man was not in a position of authority. He was not a mover and shaker. He couldn't move with the crowd. They were too fast for him.
The only thing in his heart was a cry. God, I want to see. I want to see a way forward. I want to see my daughter go down the aisle and get married. I want to see my family at the table giving glory to God. I want to see my prison door open and set me free.
I want to see a way out of this addiction, this bondage, this stronghold that's in my life. And I don't care anymore who knows. I don't care who hears because I've heard, I've heard that the one who's passing by can do miracles. I have no doubt that somewhere along the line, somebody had to have told this man about Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God. They probably would have told him, you know, there was a man who stood up one day in a synagogue and he opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and he said these words, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind.
In other words, those who can't see a way out, they can't see a way in, they can't see a way forward, they simply can't see. I've been sent to give them back their sight and to set free those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And then he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all them in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. And I can see somebody stopping by the side of the road one day because this man knew who it was passing by. So he had to have some knowledge and say, you're not going to believe it. But a man stood up in the synagogue and he declared himself to be the one sent of God, the Messiah. He said he could set free the oppressed, said he could heal those that have been wounded in heart and he could give sight to those who are blind. Those who just don't see, they can't see a way forward.
There's no way out of their darkness. There's no way out of the imprisonment that the walls of Jericho would have been around this man, not outside of his life. And yet, and he said something profound. He said today, this day, not tomorrow, not when you get to heaven. Today, this scripture is fulfilled. So today, and not only that, this man is healing everybody that comes to him. And it is rumored of him that he could stop the waves and stop the wind and he could feed a crowd of thousands with just a few loaves and fishes. Seems to be nothing this man can't do. And so here's this man by Jericho, where it all began, where the people of God first came into the promised land.
Here's this poor blind man by the side of the road. And he hears a crowd, a commotion going by. And everybody is trying to steer Jesus into their direction of what they think the future should be.
There's all kinds of people there. Oh, there are certain in the crowd that say, well, he's the one with the power to overthrow the Roman government. Another one could say, he's the one with the power to feed us.
We're getting free food for the rest of our days. Another one could say, he's the one with the power to calm every storm somebody else is looking for just to get close maybe to the temple treasury. Who knows why they're all there, but everybody's moving and everybody's thinking that they're corralling Jesus and leaning in enough to kind of move him in their direction. And everything's going fine until this man on the side of the road starts calling out. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
Be quiet. Can't you see this is the Messiah? We understand what he must do. We understand his plan. We understand where this whole parade needs to go. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.
You know, it's interesting. His journey is not stopped by any of the religious parade that's going on around him. It's the cry of one man that brings the son of God to a standstill. The cry of one man brings about a miracle. The cry of one man is about to change the tenure of this entire moment. The cry of one heart.
It says I've just had enough of living in darkness and I hear that the one who can change my life is passing by. Praise be to God. I challenge you with all my heart. There are times in your life where you sense the nearness of God. You can't really explain it. You're sitting there in your struggle, your trial, whatever it is, and it could be in your living room. It could be on the subway and suddenly you just feel that he's near. When you feel the nearness of God, don't hesitate to call out to him.
Don't sit there in your pride. Don't ask the master of the universe for a new cup so your begging can take on another dimension. Don't ask him just for a new garment when you can't see. There are things that we can ask God for, but this man knew what his struggle was. God Almighty, I want to see way out of my pain. I want to see.
Jesus called him and said, what do you want me to do for you? He said I want to receive my sight. I want to see a way out of this pain. This pain that's been so much a part of my life. The pain of rejection. The pain of knowing that my future is limited. I can't learn because I can't see.
They wouldn't have had braille back then. I can't see. I can't learn. There's no hope of getting out of this box that's all around me. I want to see a way forward and I've heard that you came to give sight back to those that are blind. I want to see a way out of my poverty. I want to see a way in to the provision of God. Isn't that what the promised land is supposed to be? Isn't that what you promised Joshua and the people that were with him?
Didn't you say it was a land filled with milk and honey, a land of provision, a land of glory, a land of God's goodness. And I want to see a way out of my prison. I'm tired, oh God, of being in this prison. I'm tired of being boxed in by the darkness that's around me.
I'm tired of a society that looks upon me as a nuisance and not a viable contribution to its future. I've had it and I don't care who's telling me to be quiet. I'm not going to be quiet anymore.
I'm going to call out until I get free. There's never been a spiritual awakening in the history of the Christian church without a cry. When a spiritual awakening comes, suddenly pride dies and a cry comes into the heart. And men and women everywhere say, I just want to get right with God. I don't care who knows. I don't care what it costs.
I don't care where I have to go. I want to be right with God. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.
Have mercy. And suddenly the Lord of the universe, the God of all creation, the God who can orchestrate a billion conversations all at one time stops and says, bring that man to me. Bring that woman to me. Bring that young person to me. Bring that older person to me. And face to face, he says to him, what do you want me to do for you?
You see, it was obvious what needed to be done. But sometimes we need to find ourselves in agreement with God or our own condition. The man could have asked for a new coat and I suppose that's what he would have gotten or a new cup and maybe he would have gotten that or maybe I got a sore on my foot. I'd appreciate if you'd pray for my healing. But Jesus wants us to acknowledge our condition, what it is that we need unashamedly. And he said to him, I want to receive my sight. And then Jesus said to him, receive your sight. Your faith has made you well. And immediately, I want you to look at the word immediately. He received his sight immediately. There's an immediacy when God touches your life.
I suffered panic attacks for nine years. And when I called out in my weakness immediately, I was set free from nine years of hell and brought into the power of God. There's an immediacy in God. When you call out with a sincere heart, when you call out with an honest heart, something of the heavens unlocks and something of this earth has to give way.
That's exactly what happened when Joshua and the people of God came into the promised land and faced this stronghold called Jericho. The power of God was released and the power of this world lost its hold. The miraculous began to happen. Immediately he received his sight and followed him glorifying God.
Praise be to God. I'm doing that today by telling you what Jesus Christ did in my life 40 years ago and what he continues to do in this hour. I promise you that if you will call out to God, he will do something in your life you can't do for yourself. He will do a miracle in your life.
You call out and he says, what can I do for you? You say, there's an impress in my mind because I got involved in something I shouldn't be involved in and it worked its way into my character and now it's a stronghold and I don't see the way out, but I want to be free. There's others here today. You could say I was wounded.
I was bruised. I was abused and I don't know how I'm ever going to be whole, but I know that you have the power to release me. I want to be free. There's others that could say I'm addicted. I'm afflicted.
I live with this horror and addiction even of a self loathing that's in my life and I don't know how to get out, but I know God almighty that you have the power to set me free and to make me a new creation. That's the promise you made to me. If I was in you and you were in me, that I would become a new creation and the old things in my life would pass away and behold, all things would become new. So God almighty, I want to see, I want to see no less than that. I want to see. I want to see who you created me to be. I want to see the ministry that you've given to me to fulfill. I want to see your God. I want to see my purpose on the earth. I want to see your power at work in my life. I want to see the giftings of the Holy Spirit abounding through my life.
Again, I want to see myself in your house, glorifying you for the rest of my days. And the scripture says all the people when they saw it gave praise to God. Remember the Lord said to Joshua, I want you to see, I'm about to give you this victory.
And it's amazing. All of the people when they saw what the blind man saw before the people who could see saw it, he saw the Son of God and they saw the power of God again because they had lost sight of it. It's so easy to lose sight of the power of God and the mercy of God and the purpose of God and why we are the people of God. And I want to suggest to you that in our generation we have lost sight of the purpose of God. But sometimes it takes just one blind man to bring us back into the place where God has always longed for us to be.
And when they saw it. And so today the question the Lord's put on my heart for you is who wants to see again? And who wants to be a testimony that will be used of God to bring others back to simple faith? All the way through the scriptures. All the self-willed and all the overly self-intelligent. They don't really accomplish that much for the kingdom of God.
It's always the leper, the lame, the prostitute, the blind, the maim, the imprisoned. The person with the testimony. Imagine this man is praising God in a way that nobody else is in that crowd. It says he followed him from that day forward praising him and probably for the rest of his life.
People would say why do you praise him the way you do? Well you see I once was blind but now I see. Who wants to see? I'm not going to be quiet. I'm going to call out even though the religious crowd have got their agenda and they don't want me shouting out in their midst. But I don't care anymore. I want to be free.
