Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. These people are set apart to bring praise to God in the earth. I can't fathom that a religion can develop where nobody can hear the voice of God. You know, this is a question that each one of us should be asking ourselves now. God, am I hearing your voice?
Can I be moved from where I am to where you want me to be? Welcome to A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon and a message this week titled, Every Once in a While God Finds Someone Like You. In Ezekiel chapter 22, the prophet Ezekiel shows the exiled Jewish people why God's judgment must come upon them. Their leaders have wandered from their God-directed responsibilities and committed sinful acts. God looked for just one righteous person who could change this direction, but he could not find one.
Let's join Carter now. In Ezekiel chapter 22, it's a season of tremendous declension among the people of God. You remember, God called a man called Abraham out of where he was into a new place and gave him a promise that I'm going to bless you, I'm going to increase you. That would be a supernatural increase coming not just to Abraham, but through him, a lineage that would be supernaturally increased. From that would come a nation, and from that nation would come a church, and from that church, the whole world was going to be blessed. Abraham, could you imagine if he had been thrown back by the largeness of what God was speaking and said, no, not me, maybe somebody else?
I mean, God was speaking a promise to him so preposterous that nobody but God himself could fulfill it. And now through Abraham came the lineage that eventually became the lineage of Christ. And on the way to that lineage, God brought a people that were the descendants of Abraham into the place of promise in the earth. Their purpose in that place of promise was to be a people through whom God could bring his own name to glory by answering prayer, realistically, and giving them abilities that could only come from God.
And actually, it did start that way. Remember the queen of Sheba came into Solomon's temple, and she was so taken aback. She had servants, she had cupbearers, she had all these things because she was a queen, but she had nothing like what was found in the kingdom of God. There was an order there. There were abilities being given that she recognized because she was a leader.
She recognized the abilities that she saw as something other than this world has got to offer. And so the nation of Israel was a nation set apart to bring glory to God, not just the Savior into the world, but the nation itself was to bring glory to God in the earth. But along the way, in this portion of Scripture, they lost their purpose, and they forgot who they were. I think in America today, we lost our purpose as well. We forgot the founding 400 years ago. We forgot about the people that came here looking for freedom.
We forgot about the ability of the society, even though it's not been perfect. The society here in America was always open to be reasoned with by God Himself, and we could be turned from what became wicked ways back to the ways of God. And so here we stand today, very much like we're going to read from Ezekiel chapter 22, and in the same situation they found themselves in. Verse 23, Ezekiel 22, And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation. In other words, God Himself had a controversy now with this nation, and they had an opportunity for cleansing, and they had an opportunity for the blessing of God, but they had turned it down, and they were now in a place where they were at odds with the one who had brought them into being in the first place. Listen to the spiritual condition now of God's own people, God's own nation, and the conspiracy of her prophets. God calls the prophetic ministry an actual conspiracy, in a sense, against Him. The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They've devoured people. They've taken treasure and precious things, and they've made many widows in her midst. Instead of the prophetic ministry turning the people back to the worship of the true God, they were obsessed with obtaining things for themselves, and they had made many of the people lose their relationship with the living God. Her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things. They've not distinguished between the holy and the unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they've hidden their eyes from my Sabbath so that I am profaned among them.
Thank God, thank God, thank God for a pastor who stands in this pulpit and uncompromisingly is bringing this church age and all the influence that's been given to this church back to a biblical worldview again. Her princes, that means the political leaders in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey to shed blood to destroy people and to get dishonest gain. That means the people who are leading the nation are not in it for the people's sake anymore. They're in it for their own sake, and many of them are taking money in places where they shouldn't. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortars, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, thus says the Lord when he's not spoken. So all around this corrupt political process as it is, is a religion that is in a sense endorsing it and saying, yes, you're in the Lord's favor and what you're doing is right. The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy, and they wrongfully oppress the stranger.
And you just think of these recent scenes where people are breaking into stores en masse and just loading up backpacks and stealing stuff from everywhere, no longer a consequence to these things. And he says, therefore, I poured out my indignation on them. I've consumed them in the fire of my wrath. Now, what God was looking for, he says, I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it, but I found no one.
I found this incredulous. These people are steeped in religion. The whole center of their social life is supposed to be the synagogue or the temple, and yet seemingly no one could hear God's voice or respond to the longing of his heart. All kinds of religious activity, yet the Lord is walking through the midst of it all and say, what about you, ma'am?
What about you, sir? Would you stand? Would you stand and begin to intercede and push back the powers of darkness that want to swallow this whole society? And would you turn the other way and approach my throne and hold back the hand of retribution that was right at the door from the hand of God?
I sought for a man who would make up a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. I can't fathom that. These people are set apart to bring praise to God in the earth. I can't fathom that a religion can develop where nobody can hear the voice of God. They're hearing the voice of the teachers.
I don't even know the reasons why. Why can nobody hear the voice of God? You know, this is a question that each one of us should be asking ourselves now. God, am I hearing your voice? Can you speak to me? Can I be moved from where I am to where you want me to be? Can your thoughts become my thoughts and your ways my ways?
Can you lead me to where I need to go? Could you take me out of where I am, or am I so consumed with my own thoughts? What is the reasoning why nobody in this nation could hear the voice of God?
And that's an incredible indictment. Unless we think that couldn't happen to us, it happened to the people of God of that time. Now, maybe sin had such a hold at that time that nobody really wanted to hear his voice. Maybe they instinctively knew that he'd be calling them away from sin, and they had become so comfortable in the mixture. Maybe nobody wanted to escape the mixture. Maybe they liked the thought of going to heaven, but they also liked the thought of getting close enough to hell to have a good time and not be burned.
Who knows? But for whatever reason, they couldn't or didn't want to hear his voice. Maybe the false religion of the day had really convinced the people that they were hearing the voices of God. And yet, the false religion was leading them astray. The Lord himself called it a conspiracy, called it something that is profaning his name. And yet, these people are standing in pulpits and speaking, saying that their voice is the voice of God through them. Those are possibilities, but I feel that most likely the need was so great and the opposition was so fierce that those who could hear the voice of God felt too powerless or too small to make a difference.
That's, I think, most likely the reason. That's what happens to us today. That's why God can speak to us about the need, and we look around. We say, God, I don't know that I could ever make a difference. I don't have anything to give.
I'm so small. You remember when the angel, the messenger of the Lord appeared to Gideon, and he calls him a mighty man of resource or valor. It means resources. Gideon says, are you kidding?
Who are you kidding? I'm just trying to squeak out a living in my father's backyard. And my father's house is the smallest house in all of his tribe. I'm the smallest person in the smallest house. And you're talking to the smallest person in the smallest house of the smallest tribe of the smallest town in all of Israel.
Are you sure you have the right address? Did you get mixed up in the heavenlies along the way? Did you get mixed up in the heavenlies along your way here? But here you are talking to me. You see, that's what happens when God comes to us and says, I have something I want you to do, and I'm giving you the resources to do it.
You're a mighty man or woman of resource. Now, in John chapter 6, here's a situation. It's a scene where there was a great need that became evident, and the voice of us clearly heard.
John chapter 6 verse 5 that says, then Jesus lifted up his eyes and saw a great multitude coming towards him. Think about it now, the multitudes of people that are hurting, the multitudes of people that are confused, they're lost, they don't see a future. In our major colleges today, one of the reasons the door is opening to some of our major universities now is because they're dealing with depression on an unprecedented scale. Young people don't see a way forward.
They don't see a way forward. There's a great multitude coming, and there's a great need. They were coming towards him, towards Jesus.
In other words, they're at least willing to consider him. And he said to Philip, where will we get bread that these may eat? Where will we get the supply, in other words, that is necessary to meet the need that is being presented before us? But this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. So now, these that were closest to him, they've been walking with him for a season, he's going to put them to the test. That's what God's doing for you and I today. He's going to put you to the test.
And so, where will we get what we need to feed this multitude? Now, Philip does what we all do. He starts to check his pockets. He starts to look into his own resources.
Then he checks the pockets of other people around him. Pulls, maybe, I don't know, a fiver out of his pocket, and says, I got five bucks. How much you got, Peter? How much have you got, Andrew? How much have you got, Simon?
And he starts looking around. He says, we've got 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little. This is exactly what we do. We check our own resources. We see the need is almost astronomical in our society. Then we look in our own pockets. We look at our own resumes. We look in the mirror in the morning and we, and at night, and we make a conclusion that we have too little to meet the need that is presented before us.
This is, I just can't do it. Now, it was a test. And many of us often fail this test. But in verse six, it says, he himself knew what he was about to do. He knew what he was going to do, but he knew it before he asked the question. Now, we know that the power of God operates through faith.
I want you to follow me in this thread. He always works through faith, through vessels, through people like Abraham and many others throughout history. Just like Abraham, he was old. He didn't know where he was going, but he heard the voice of God and he got up and went. And because of it, of course, we are here today.
I want you to think that through for a moment. One man obeys God and it just, it goes boom and sends a blessing over the whole world, just as God said he was going to do. God operates through faith.
In Mark 9 23, there was a distressed father that came to Jesus Christ because his child was being thrown into the fire and into the, into the waters. And he said, if you can do something, please help us. And Jesus said, if you can believe all things are possible to him who believes. If you can believe all things are possible, not just some things or marginal things or little things, but if you can believe all things are possible. That means all the things that God has destined for your life are possible. If you can believe all the things that God wants to do through you and through me are possible.
If we can bring ourselves to a place of faith. And I love the father's response. He says, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. In other words, I believe as far as I can and God, you're going to have to take me the rest of the way. It was an honest prayer.
Thank God. And Jesus answered that it was sufficient. His faith was sufficient to bring freedom into his child. In Matthew chapter 13, verses 53 to 58, the scripture tells us that though the voice of Jesus Christ was clearly heard in his own town, calls it his own country in the New King James Bible, that he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
Oh God, I don't want to be counted in with that number. I don't know about you. Now the scripture says he tested his disciples. These are the people that are in the best Bible school there ever has been in the history of the world. They've got the voice of the God who created the universe by his word, speaking to them every day. They can ask him any questions they want to ask. And after all they've seen and all the miracles and knowing who he is, he finally just asks them a question, what are we going to do? How are we going to feed them? To test them, to say, have you left the natural yet?
Are you moving now into the supernatural yet? Are you willing to believe that I can use your life or I can do more than you can even think or imagine? But he knows what he's going to do. Philip says 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may have a little. Then one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, there's a lad here.
Well, he said, there's five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many? There's a lad here, and he's come forward out of the crowd. Remember Jesus operates through faith. He's the one who said, unless you become converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. You'll never understand how the kingdom of heaven works unless you become like a child. I'd see this little boy.
I don't know the scenario. I want to talk to this kid when I get to heaven. Probably a man now, but I want to talk to him anyway. But he's on his way either home or he's on his way to school with his lunch, but he doesn't have very much. He's got five little loaves of bread and two small, not just fish, but small fish, almost like sardines probably. And Andrew's looking at that and saying, but what is that? But it's the faith of a child. Jesus knew what he was going to do.
It's a child that says, here, here, this should do it. I'll give you what I have. He doesn't know how the crowd's going to be fed, but he says, well, I have a little bit to contribute. Isn't that the way you feel today? We have a little bit to contribute. The need is great, but we do have something. We do have the word of God. We do have the Holy Spirit. We do have a heart that's burdened for the lost.
We are sitting in a good place. So all, all the disciples are hearing this question, but the only one who responds, everyone else says, no, it can't be Don. The only one who responds is a little boy with a lunch because Jesus knew what he was going to do. Now, when he brought his lunch, he would have heard Andrew say, but what, what is that among so many?
There's always that voice that says, who do you think you are to think that God is interested in what you have? Amazing. Imagine when that boy went home, mom, dad, you'll never guess what I did today. I fed 10,000 people with my lunch that you sent. Me and this guy called Jesus. I brought my lunch to him at the mom.
Dad, you're not going to believe this. I mean, he took my little bag of lunch and he lifted it up and prayed and then suddenly bang, there's just baskets of fish everywhere and bread and 10,000 people were fed and they had leftovers. So I'm getting to the leftover stage in my life now, you know, so I'm going to be, one day soon I'll be gone, I'll be home, but I'm hoping that there's going to be leftovers, that God's done something in my life and there's going to be something left over even after I'm gone. Praise be to God.
Isn't that amazing? That's what he does when we surrender to him. First Corinthians chapter one and verse 26, Paul the apostle says, for you see your calling brethren. Do you see your calling? Your calling. Not somebody else's. Your calling.
Your calling. Not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty and not many noble are called. There are some wise, there are some mighty, and there are some noble, but not many of those skill sets are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame things which are mightier. That means things that stand in their own strength or boast of themselves. And the base things, the things at the bottom of the world and things which are despised, God has chosen.
In other words, those things that nobody aspires to be and the things which are nothing to bring to nothing the things that are. So the scale of what God uses in his kingdom are foolish to nothing. So if you're anywhere between those two points, you qualify to be used mightily of God in his kingdom.
It's really that simple. You are the choice of God. There is no plan B or C or D or E or F. You're the choice of God. No great preacher in this last day that God's going to raise up and win the nation back to God. You are the choice of God. You are the light of the world.
You are a city set upon a hill that cannot be hidden. You are the believers in the upper room one more time in prayer saying, God, we need your Holy Spirit. And if you will give us your Holy Spirit, we will make a difference in our generation.
You are the generation that needs to stand in the marketplace one more time, empowered by the spirit of God, speaking to people in languages they understand about the wonderful works of God. The powerful things that God is able to do. The fact that he does take the weak. He does take the foolish.
He does take the nothing. The nobodies of society gives us the power of his Holy Spirit, enables us to hear his voice, and gives us the power to speak it out to others. The cry comes to Moses. The voice of God comes to Moses when he's past his prime and he feels like a failure.
Like I was given a chance to do something, but my temper got the best of me and I blew it and I'm too old now. The voice of God comes to David when he's too young and he's not been trained in military ways like the soldiers around him. The voice of God comes to Gideon when there's 135,000 Midianites coming in and just pillaging the land annually. It comes to Gideon when he feels so insignificant that he feels like he's the bottom of everything. He's the least of the least. And yet God calls him a mighty man of resources.
The Lord comes to Isaiah, comes to Hannah, comes to Mary, comes to people all throughout biblical history, and I'm so glad that the Lord does not change. You still are. You still are plan A in the kingdom of God. You're not plan B. When you go home today, look in the mirror in your bathroom. Look in the mirror and say, I'm still plan A in the kingdom of God. Lord, here am I.
Send me. Whatever you would have for my life, wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to do, whoever you would have me to speak to, whatever giftings I'm going to need to do the work I'm called to do when I get there, God, I open my heart to you and I ask you to use my life for your glory. It's no deeper than that.
It never has been. I'm like the little boy with the lunch bag. Here, Jesus, what I have is yours. Use it as you see fit to feed the hunger in 10,000 people. Here's my lunch. That's what I want to leave with you today.
That's all you need to be. You hold it up to God. The rest is up to God.
It's not up to you or me. He knows what doors to open before you. He knows what to give you to speak when you get there. He knows what He has destined for your life to be. There was a divine plan for you the moment you turned to Christ as your Savior.
There was a plan of God that is waiting to be initiated in your life. The problem that you and I face is getting out of the littleness of our thinking, getting away from searching our own pockets and resources for what we're going to need to do the work and the needs that's before us, from stopping for looking to others around us to say, well, maybe you can help. Maybe you can help and just say, God, what would you have me to do with the little that I have in my hands? I have a little bit of education. I have a little bit of courage. I have a little bit of love in my heart. I have a little bit of faithfulness, a little bit of integrity, God.
But it's not what I think would be necessary to me to need so big. But God, I believe that if I give it to you, you can multiply it. That's how it works. He multiplies what you have, and He does it supernaturally for His glory. And when you get to the end, you say, only God could have done this. Only God could have done this.
Only God. And now the choice is yours. You are the answer of God to the hunger of this generation.
You are plan A. And so the question is now, will you bring to God what you have and give it to Him? You don't have to go out here and start preaching on the corner. You just go where God leads you, and you give what He gives you to give, and you say what He tells you to say when you get there.
Keep it real simple, and you watch what God will do. So don't tell me you're too old. Don't tell me you're too young. Don't tell me you're too small.
Don't tell me you're too poor, because it's not about you. This is about Jesus Christ. It's about the presence of God in your life. And I want to give you an opportunity to do what I did 43 years ago, an opportunity just to get out of your seat and say, well, I don't have anything. Maybe you got a little more than I had, but God, whatever I have, I give it to you.
I'm asking you to multiply what I have in my life and in my heart and use it to feed the hunger in this generation. Watch what God will do. Watch the giftings of God that will begin to abound, the leadings of God in your heart. You'll feel drawn to speak to people that you weren't drawn to speak to before. You'll have a sudden urge. You'll see somebody sick to just put your hands on their shoulders and pray for their healing. God will begin to do things through you that only God can do. You're only the vessel.
You're just putting your little bit into the hands of God, and God is taking it all and doing something marvelous. 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.
