Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty in God. They are fashioned by God.
They have been predetermined by God to give us strength that is not our own in victory that we can't get in any amount of our own ingenuity or strength. That's Carter Conlon with an introduction to today's message on A Call to the Nation. In 1 Samuel 17, we read about the astonishing story of David and Goliath. Every morning, this almost ten-foot giant would step out from his Philistine army to taunt the Israelites saying, you shall be our servants and you shall serve us. But something gets into the heart of a young shepherd boy named David to turn disaster into victory. This same something is needed right now to get into the hearts of this generation. Let's join Carter with his message titled When Freedom Fights Back.
I want to share a message with you called When Freedom Fights Back. John chapter 8 and 2 verses 31 and 32. The scripture says, Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. If you will allow the word of God to correct your thinking, if you will allow the word of God to come and find a deep lodging place in every heart.
The word abide, it has a connotation of this is now my life. This is where I want to live. I want to live in the word of God. I want to be the person that God calls me to be.
I want to think the way that God says I should think. I want a new mind. I want a new heart. I want a new spirit. I want a new character. I want a new future. I want new power.
I want a new song. I want a new testimony. I want everything that God says he has for me in his word.
I don't want to be sold short. I don't want to live in defeat when I'm promised victory because he said, I would know the truth and the truth will make me free. Now the connotation of no is in the context of an intimate relationship as in with a husband and a wife. This union where the two become one, you shall know it's not head knowledge. It's a heart knowledge. It's a heart embracing of what the head knows as we read the word of God. You shall know, you shall embrace. The two of you shall become intertwined and shall become one as a husband does with his wife and a wife with her husband. And the truth that you begin to embrace will make you free.
It doesn't mean you'll be free in a day, folks. And a lot of people get discouraged when that doesn't happen. It's like coming home and your mom, for example, or your wife or whoever it is in the house has got something in a bowl and they're stirring it up and somebody says, well, what's mom doing? And the person says, well, mom is making a cake. And then you say, well, why is the cake not made yet? It's not made because she's making the cake. There's a procedure involved in this. It doesn't fall into the box and you have a cake. There's things that have to be added. There's heat that's got to be put to it. It's got to be put in a proper container.
There's so many things that have to be done while the ingredients are there, but the ingredients have to be made into the final product. And it's very much like that in the truth. When we know the truth, the truth will make you free. The truth will lead you into freedom. The truth will change your character. The truth, there'll be some stirring and there'll be some heat.
There'll be some things added that need to be added to your character, some things taken away that don't belong there anymore. But you shall embrace, you shall embrace the truth of God and the truth shall make you free. So this is the promise of God to his people. Jesus said, the devil comes, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.
That's his mission on the earth, to steal your freedom, to kill your joy and to destroy you, to destroy your family, to destroy, ultimately destroy you for eternity. But I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly. And so this is the promise of God. The promise of God is freedom from the penalty and power of sin and the entrance by faith through the shed blood of Jesus Christ into this newness of life that is promised by God. Now you won't really, some people do, but others don't know how much the devil really hates you until you set out on this quest to become the person that God desires you to be.
You'll find yourself violently opposed. And that's been the history of the people of God all throughout the ages. From the Garden of Eden to Egypt to the times and seasons where the enemies of God's own people that he set apart in the Old Testament and the promised land would constantly come to their borders, constantly surround their cities, constantly try to take away their freedom.
That's the battle that you and I will fight. We have an enemy that wants to take away our freedom, wants to take away our song, wants to take away our effectiveness because ultimately our enemy hates God and does not want his image to be ever portrayed or be made known through those that are created in his image on the earth. He wants to mar that image. He wants to hide that image.
He wants to oppress that image. I think about in the Old Testament in the book of 1 Samuel when the nation of Israel one more time found that the Philistine army, let's say the Philistines represent that which is outside the kingdom of God that is always attempting because don't forget this is a spiritual war we fight in this world, not a physical war. We don't fight against flesh and blood. We fight against powers and principalities and forces of spiritual wickedness as the scripture says in high places. So one more time the Philistine army gathers on this one side of this large valley and this giant comes out every morning and he says these words, this is his taunt, you shall be our servants and you shall serve us. In other words, you are not as powerful as we are. Now he's challenging the armies of Israel to look at the size of their enemies, to look at the equipment their enemies have in comparison to what they naturally don't have.
And there's a taunt. You're going to serve us because you can't defeat us. And if you can defeat us, send somebody out. He says, Goliath says send somebody out and I'll fight with him. And if he beats me, we will serve you. But if we win, if I win, you will serve us. And so that's the taunt.
Now God, one more time comes into the picture. And as the scripture tells us so clearly in the book of first Corinthians, it doesn't come in with the mighty or the noble. It doesn't come in with an army. It's not a military general in a chariot with thousands of soldiers behind them.
It's a young boy bringing cheese and other things to his and cakes to his brothers who are in the army of Israel at the time. David doesn't know that he's the plan of God at this particular time to bring freedom in a sense that freedom is going to fight back. Freedom is going to fight back against the taunting of the enemy at this time. And one more time, God is going to bring somebody who has no ability in the natural to win this battle, just like you and just like me, just like everybody that I read about on this tablet.
And I could read hundreds of them that are in similar situations. We all recognize that the battle is too great for us. We don't have the natural strength to defeat our enemies. We can't get out of the prisons of despair on our own.
We can't bring healing into marriages that are falling apart because there's too much bad water under the bridge. And every morning, every morning the devil gets up and says, you will serve me. You will serve me.
You are not as strong as I am. But David comes into the camp and something gets into the heart of this young man which needs to get into the hearts of God's people in this generation. In 1 Samuel chapter 17, it tells us that he heard one morning the taunts of this giant. And suddenly out of his mouth, he says, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? In other words, David was going to be what God used to fight back against those things that would try to take away freedom because in his heart, the honor of God was at stake.
I want to say that again. The honor of God was at stake. I pray that prayer consistently now for myself. I pray it for you. I pray it for others.
I say, God, I prayed it. Don't forget, Lord. Your honor is at stake here. Your honor because you were the one who died.
You were the one who said it is finished. You are the one who defeated the power of the devil. You are the one who promised your people new, abundant and eternal life. You are the God of all power. You are the one who sits at the right hand of all authority. You are the one who said that you are the head, we are the church and you are that indwelling power of God that fills all in all. You are the one who said that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess one day that Jesus Christ is Lord. And so God, I want to remind you, as David said, the honor of God is at stake here. Why doesn't anybody realize that? This is what David was saying.
And his brothers were getting offended by him, telling him, who do you think you are? Go back home with those few sheep you have in the wilderness. You're not trained to fight this kind of a war. We have been trained, but you're not trained.
And David would say, then why is nobody fighting? Why are you sitting back? Why are you cowering? Why are you letting the enemies take away your freedom? You've been promised freedom. You've been promised new life. You've been promised abundant life. So why are you letting this giant taunt you and causing you to draw back and taking away your freedom?
Is there not a cause? Is the honor of God not at stake? I want you to pray that when you pray. I want you to pray it when you pray, when you're going through a struggle and a battle and say, God, I want to remind you, your honor is at stake here because your word says this. You promised me this.
This is written clearly in your word. So your honor is at stake here. I can't get out. I can't get out in my own strength, but you promised that you would come and get me. You promised that when I cried out, you would hear me. You hurt the blind man on the side of the road. You touched the leper when there was no other way he could be healed.
Your honor is at stake. And David said, is there not a cause? They told him to go home. He said, why should I go home?
What have I done that has offended you? Is there not a cause? There's got to be something that gets into the heart of all of us that says, God, there's a cause here. The cause is much bigger than I can even understand. But the one thing I do know is I can't let this loudmouth giant dominate my life. And I can't let it dominate the lives of my family and my friends and the armies of Israel.
I need to do something about this. The second thing is that freedom fights back with the weaponry that is provided by God. You know, I love the scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
Let me just read it to you. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 23 to 27. We preach Christ crucified to the Jews' stumbling block and to the Greeks' foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. Goliath was so offended as David runs down into the valley and he's just a boy, probably 13, 14 years old.
He's skinny. He's got a shepherd staff in his hand. And Goliath says, what am I, a dog? You've come to chase me with a stick?
He says, come on over here. He says, in other words, I'm going to tear you to pieces and I'm going to feed you to the birds and the beasts of the field. And the weaponry of God sometimes looks foolish. I mean, Goliath was huge and he was armed from head to toe and he was a seasoned soldier. And the scripture says the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam. Some say that was about nine feet long, just his spear alone.
You couldn't even get close to this guy, let alone fight him. And David had to pray and say, Lord, what would you have me do and where's my weaponry? And the Lord says, go down to the brook and pick up five pebbles out of the brook. You know, pebbles against swords.
I mean, in the natural, it's ridiculous. You can just see if David had been a carnal young man, he would have been down to the brook and say, what a stupid battle plan this is. Five pebbles against a nine foot giant with a nine foot spear, who's a trained warrior.
This is your battle plan? You see, this is why we have got to know again the word of God to come back into, we've got to be realigned to understand that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty in God. They are fashioned by God. They have been predetermined by God to give us strength that is not our own and victory that we can't get in any amount of our own ingenuity or strength. Those pebbles were fashioned in a stream, perhaps for thousands of years with water flowing over. Maybe they started out jagged or much bigger.
I don't know. But by the time David picked them up, they were just right for the job that was ahead of him. You know, we have been given weaponry by God. Behold, he said, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
The weaponry that we have has been formed for thousands and thousands of years by the hand of God, for the purposes of God, for the seasons we find ourselves living in, for the enemies that come against us. I give you power. I give you the authority to tread on serpents and scorpions. Now, serpents are things that are sent to poison our minds, to poison our bodies. They're words that are spoken over our lives, wounds that have been inflicted upon us, substances that we allow to gain control of our bodies and our minds and our futures.
And scorpions are known for their infliction of pain, things that maybe we think are incurable, places of pain in our lives and that the enemy uses in his argument daily against us. But God says, I give you authority. I give you power.
We either believe that or we don't. It's time for the church to rise up again. It's time for the weak to become strong in their God.
It's time to go down to the brook and get five stones one more time. It's time to let the ridiculous weaponry of God, may I put it that way, come back into the four one more time. We spent too many decades arguing scripture, spent too many decades trying to entertain people or trying to convince ourselves or trying to strengthen ourselves to win our battles and win our fights only to find out that we are now in a place where only God can get us out of where we are and into where we need to go. Have faith in God, Jesus said, for truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but believes that the things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, when you pray, whatever you ask for believing, you shall receive it.
It's amazing. I think it's time to go back and pick these stones up again. I think it's time to go back and throw these stones into the minds of everything of darkness that believes that it can keep the people of God in bondage any longer. And lastly, I want to say that freedom fights back with faith, with praise and with vision of a victorious God honoring future. Faith belongs to those who know we are more than conquerors who Christ loves us. Faith, I often say it's like a team going into a game and the score is already on the board before the game even starts and we win.
Before we even go into play, we win. Faith has that kind of vision. Faith walks, David, it says, ran into the valley to face the giant. He ran into what would be certain death if he did not have a spiritual mind, if he did not have a vision of the future, if his heart was not filled with praise. Now listen to the final words that David spoke before Goliath met his maker in 1 Samuel 17, verses 45 and onward. Suddenly the spirit of God comes upon him and he says to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. You come to me with everything this world can produce and everything hell can put into this devil's hand to come against my life and to come against the freedom that's been promised me of God. But I'm coming to you. I don't have a sword.
I don't have a javelin. I don't have military training, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. In his name, I come against you. The battle is not mine. David was saying the battle belongs to God. He sent me here with my five little stones in my bag, my stick in my hand and David was probably all of about maybe 110 pounds coming against this giant.
In a natural, it looked ridiculous, but a marvelous victory was about to be won. I think it's time to rediscover who we are in the body of Jesus Christ. I really do with all my heart. It's time for the wheat to rise up. It's time for the nobodies and nothing to get back into the battle again.
It's time to pick up our weaponry and stand up against every enemy that tries to take away our future and our freedom. He says, this day, now he's prophesying now, the spirit of God has come upon him. He says, this day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you and I will take your head from you.
He's prophesying now everything that's about to happen. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Now you have to understand he's speaking on God's behalf in the first person at this point. It's not David is not giving the armies of the Philistines to the carcass, to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth. It's God now speaking through David.
When he says this day, I will give. It's not David doing it. It's God doing it. And David is now walking in unison with God. He's speaking what God is speaking.
He has a vision of the presence and power of God that's now in his life. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands. And so it was when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, took out a stone and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead. Some people say that was as deep as anything ever had gotten into that man's head in his whole life.
So that the stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the earth. It's time. It's time for freedom to fight back again. It's time for the weak, the nobodies, the nothings. It's time for you sitting at home tonight.
You've never believed that your life can amount to anything, but in God it can amount to so much more than you ever even believed it was possible. It's time now. We don't have a dozen tomorrows maybe. The time is now. You see, if David had not arisen to the battle at this particular time, I don't know if the armies of Israel had even a day or two left before they would be completely swallowed by this power of darkness that was before them. But you see, God had a plan and I don't want to offend you, but you are the plan of God. You are. You are the new David's. You are the new Esther's. You are the new Deborah's. You are the new Mordecai's. You are the new battle plan of God for this last generation.
By God's grace, you will rise up. David ran to the victory, towards the victory that God had promised him. And my question is, you know, you're going to run one of two ways, right? You're going to run towards it or you're going to run from it all of your life. I would rather run towards it, wouldn't you? I'd rather run into the middle of the battle. I think it's better to die in the battle than to live as a coward.
And he saw the victory before the battle even began and you can have that. I'm talking to people sitting at home. I'm talking to people of, I've read your prayer quest. You don't see a reason to live and you're afraid of the past and you're afraid of the future.
I want to tell you something that you need to know. The devil is afraid of you because he knows what happens when one person rises up. One person who says, I've had enough of this. I'm going with God. Where he leads me, I'm going to follow. And whatever battle he sets before me, I'm going to believe that he's going to win it for the honor of his name. For the honor of his name is at stake when a man or woman of faith rises up. Do yourself a favor and admit you can't save yourself.
Stop trying to get out of your situation on your own. Just admit that you need a savior. You know, something happened on that cross that was so powerful. If you could have been standing there, the earth turned dark, the ground shook, graves opened.
The veil of the temple was torn from the top to the bottom. Soldiers began to be afraid and terrified because God had come to get you. God had destroyed the power of your enemies.
He had erased the penalty and the separation that comes into every person's life because of sin. And all you have to do is believe that Jesus Christ died for you. Invite him into your life as David was a type of. Just invite him to be the Lord of your life and say, God, this man said that if I would abide in your word and your words abide in me, then I would know a truth that would set me free. And so, Lord Jesus, I'm inviting you to come into my life and I am confessing you right now as my Lord and my savior.
I'm going to ask you to pray this simple prayer with me and we're all going to pray it here together. Lord Jesus Christ, I'm tired of running. I'm tired of living in fear.
I'm weary of my enemies taunting me. And I invite you into my life to be my savior, the one who saves me from the penalty and power of sin. I want you to be the God of my life. I want you to govern my life. I want you to lead my life. And I ask you to use me to make a difference so that others may know they too can be free.
Help me never to back up. By grace to always go forward. I am a child of God. I am free from my sin.
And Jesus Christ is my savior. 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.
