Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. He gives us that initial honeymoon period so we can learn to love God and learn that he loves us and learn to trust him because there will be a valley of the shadow of death in every life. There will be enemies that you're going to have to face. We have a middle story. Thank you for joining us today for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon. This week Carter takes us to Psalm 23. We find King David expressing his deepest feelings to God as he journeys on the pathway to ruling and reigning. That's similar to our Christian walk of life.
We start out all excited to know more about the Lord and wanting to serve him. But as life moves forward, trials and struggles come. The middle of our story seems to have come to a conclusion, but it's not the end. It's only the beginning.
Let's join Carter now. The message title that I have is the middle of your story is not the end of your story. The middle of your story is not the end. And some of you are at the beginning, but I want to speak particularly to those that are in the middle of their story right now. You're wondering what is going on in my life.
This is not what I thought it was going to be, but this is what it has become. To be forewarned is to be foretold, the saying goes. And if you can ingest this, if you can embrace this, the Christian life does have difficulties.
You will be opposed. You might not even be aware there's a devil until you become a child of God. We're living in a society where it's turning quickly to open season on believers in Jesus Christ, where it's almost going to be legal to hate Christians.
I hate to say that, but our society is very, very quickly turning against those who are followers of Jesus Christ. But the middle of your story, no matter what you have to go through, is not the end of your story. Psalm 23, the psalm of King David, the wonderful shepherd who was anointed to be king. The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you're with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.
My cup runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Now, David had a mental perspective of God. And it came most likely from his own formative years when he was young. He was given the care of a portion of his father's sheep. The scripture doesn't tell us how many, but there were sheep that were under his charge. And he had such a wholehearted embracing of that calling, such a compassion and care for those sheep that were put under his charge that he began to see God this way. And it gave him comfort to think the Lord was his shepherd because he had been a good shepherd. He said, I shall not want. And I can just see David looking after his little flock every day and looking to their needs, looking to their, is one of them limping?
Is there another one that seems to be shoved aside when they come to the feeding trough and not able to eat? And he's watching and he's looking and he recognizes that God's viewpoint of his own people is exactly the same as his was of these physical sheep. God is looking at us. We are the thought in his heart. The scripture is the apple of his eye. He's watching you today.
He watches you throughout the day caring and concerning. And if we will let God, he will give us what we need to make it through the journey so that we'll not be lacking for strength, we'll not lack for provision, we'll not lack for a sense of well-being if we will turn and let him become our shepherd. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, David said, and I thank God. When I first got saved, I started reading the word of God. And I'm thankful there are 66 books that we're not just stuck on one page like for years and years and years. I'm thankful that every day I can turn and as the scripture says, morning by morning, I see new mercy.
I see a new thought from God. And I remember the tears. I would read God's word with tears in those early years as a new believer in Jesus Christ. And I felt that God's word was like a water and it was washing away the years of wrong thinking. It was washing away the old voices from without and from within that tried to govern and dominate my life and crush me and the failures in my past. And I remember the tears as I was reading truth and I knew this was truth and it was so wonderful to be in the word of God. David said he leads me beside the still waters. I remember being brought by the Holy Spirit into a place of peace.
Oh, thank God. As the apostle Paul said, there's a peace that passes understanding in Christ. There's a peace that I can't explain, a sense of well-being that does oftentimes nothing to do with my environment or my surroundings. It's just as the songs, it is well with my soul.
It is well inside. No matter what we're facing, no matter what's in the news, there's a sense of well-being. He restores my soul. Oh, thank God for the restoration of Christ.
Thank God, thank God, thank God. We make mistakes and there are bumps and weaves that get into our character, but the mercy of God brings restoration into every area. He restores our marriages, he restores our relationships, he restores our abilities to love and to reach out and to speak and everything. He just restores us. And then the last part of verse 3 said he leads me in paths of righteousness for his namesake.
He actually ties the honor and the reputation of his own name in the keeping of you and I. Amazing, amazing. God says, my honor is at stake here in the keeping of this girl, of this young person who's put their trust in me. I will lead them, I will lead you, God says, if you will follow me. I will lead you in a right path, in the way you should go. It says in the New Testament, don't be as the horse or mule who must be held with a bit and bridle.
Don't be stubborn. Let me lead you in that place of wholesomeness. Let me lead you in that place where I want you to be.
And it's an amazing thing, those early years, aren't they? When you're just in love with Jesus. You come to church and it's just all peaches and cream and worship and it's just like, I remember as a cop, I got saved and I thought, finally in a place with honest people. Finally in a place with people who don't tell lies. You know, I was so disappointed the first time I ran into a crook in the church of Jesus Christ. Sadly, it wasn't somebody in the pew either.
And I remember going home one time and I laid on my floor in the living room and I was so heartbroken. God, I expect to find this on the street. That's what I do for a living.
These are the people I deal with 99.9% of my time. And I thought that I could come to church and it would be a refuge from this. Only to find the same spirit sometimes manages to creep in and sometimes in very public places and prominent places. And I laid on the floor and I was so discouraged. And then suddenly I felt the hand of God just wash over me.
I can't explain it. I just felt this warmth wash over me. And he spoke to my heart and he said, Carter, I'm not a hypocrite and I'm not a crook. I went all the way for you. And the life you're living, you're living for me. So just serve me. Get up off your face on the floor and serve me because you only stand before me. You don't stand before these people one day. You stand before me.
And I'm the only one that can say, well done. Good and faithful servant. David starts out and it's like that as new believers. I'm talking to the new believers now or the young and the Lord. You start out and you start realizing, God, this is what I've been looking for in all of my endeavors and going to school or not going to school or trying to get it.
I've been trying to scratch this inner itch that I could never scratch. But finally I found a relationship with you and God, you're leading me into that place of abundance. You're giving me peace in my mind and in my heart.
You're leading me on a path which I know is a good path. And that's the way David felt and that's the way many new believers feel. But you see, there's a verse four and a verse five in Psalm 23. In verse four, David suddenly finds himself walking through the valley of the shadow of death, walking through a place that without the provision of God, he's saying in his heart, I'm not going to make it here. He was haunted by a jealous man who was jealous of the anointing on his life and haunted in the mountains by an insane king called Saul and knew his life was hanging by a thread. He didn't know anymore who he could trust. There were betrayers around and every time somebody came to the cave, there had to be something and David says, God, can I trust this person? My life is hanging by a thread and if Saul finds out where I am, my life is going to be over. He was walking through the valley of the shadow of death. There are seasons, there are times that come into every Christian life where we're going to be out of strength.
We don't know how to go forward. I've been there a few times. I know what this looks like. I know what it's all about. I know what it's like to be exhausted. I know what it's like to suffer from a breakdown. I know what it's like to feel like God himself has not been faithful to his promises to me.
That wasn't true, but that's what I felt like at the time. Your thinking can get jaded when you're starting through this middle years of your story. And just when you think it couldn't get worse, this valley of the shadow of death, he finds himself in verse five in the presence of his enemies, surrounded by enemies, sitting at a table all around him.
He doesn't know he can trust anymore. You're going to get there. If you're not there yet, you're going to get there at some point.
You'll trust somebody and they'll turn on you. Somebody you bared your heart to or you trusted in prayer or as David once said, if it was an enemy, he said, I could have borne it, but it was you. You were my acquaintance. You were my guide. We walked into the house of God together in company. I could have borne it if it was an enemy, but it wasn't an enemy.
It was somebody. I thought I could trust you. I thought I could trust everybody in the kingdom of God. Peter, the apostle, says in first Peter chapter four, verse 12 to 14, he said, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you.
Don't think it's strange that you're going to. Jesus himself said in John 16 33, in this world, you're going to have tribulation. In this world, but be of good cheer, I have overcome this world. In other words, I have overcome this world's power to overpower you.
Do you understand? You're going to have trouble. You're going to face flood. You're going to face fire. You're going to face betrayal. You're going to face struggles in your own life. You're going to come to places where you don't think you have any strength to go forward. You're going to want to throw in the towel.
You're going to want to call it quits. It's coming your way if it hasn't been there yet, but I have overcome the world, Jesus says. I've overcome its power to overcome you. You will not be taken down by these things. Every tongue that rises against you, you have the power to condemn it because I have given you a righteousness that is mine. I gave it to you and nobody can take it from you. You are sealed, he said in my father's hand, and no one can take you out of the hand of my father. You are safe. You are sound.
You are secure, even though you have to go through trial. You will go through flood. The days ahead of us are going to be tough. I'm not going to sit here or stand here and try to tell you it's going to be a smooth sailing.
It's not. It's going to be difficult for all of us, but Jesus Christ already lives inside of us. He already has overcome the power of this world to overpower the church of Jesus Christ. He said, you are the church, my church, and I have built this church upon a rock, and the gates of hell will not prevail against him. You will not be overcome.
So don't think it's a strange thing when trials come your way and difficulty comes. I remember my son, my oldest son, got badly burned in a fire. I was serving God. I was serving God with all my heart.
I was just moving into the ministry, and suddenly I'm in the hospital with my son having survived a fire, but it was debatable as to whether or not he'd ever be able to use his hand again or whether or not there had been any scarring that had gone on any other parts of his body. I remember the fire. I remember losing everything twice. Twice we lost our home, folks. We lost one to fire and one to flood. I said to Pastor Theresa, the only thing left is an earthquake. When I looked at her, I said, oh, I wish I wouldn't have said that.
I wish I wouldn't have said that. Don't think it's strange, but I can tell you through all of these things, God has been our strength. He's been our provision. He's been our help. He's been our protector.
He's been there before it started. He was there when it was all over, and we stand by the grace of Almighty God. I find no fault in him.
I can honestly tell you that. I find no fault in the faithfulness of God, and everything that we've been enabled to go through has been for a purpose. That's what the word of God says. All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. That means all things, not just some things, not just the things I like, not just the things that are sweet, but all things work together for good, working something into us. Even if all the things that we've gone through were just for the reason of standing here today, it's worth it.
Standing here and saying you will make it. You will not be overthrown. No matter what comes your way, you will not be taken down because you have somebody inside of you that's greater than anything that this world will ever send against you.
Don't think it's strange concerning the fire and trial which is to try you as if some strange thing has happened to you. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 8 to 10. For we do not want you to be ignorant brethren of our trouble which came to us in Asia. We were burdened beyond measure above strength so that we despaired even of life. We had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us and whom we trust that he will still deliver us. This is the Apostle Paul. This is the man that God sovereignly met and set him apart to write much of the doctrine we have today in the New Testament in our Bibles.
You'd think he might give him a pass in a sense, you know, make his life maybe a little bit more easy because of what he was commissioned to do. But yet Paul by his own hand says, I don't want you to be unaware brothers of our trouble which came to us in Asia. And they were preaching the gospel there. We were burdened beyond measure. In other words, there was so much put upon us we couldn't bear its weight.
It took away our strength and it came to the point where we were despaired of even living. This is the Apostle Paul. This is the one that wrote much of our New Testament. Now everyone has a middle story. Now many of you are in your middle story.
Now you've started in your middle story, the middle of your story. You've come out of the romance period. It's just like a wedding. We're going to have a wonderful wedding tomorrow and the bride and groom, they're just so in love with each other. They don't see any flaws in each other, don't see any faults.
Give it some time. It starts with socks on the bathroom floor. That's where it starts.
And you know just the habits and things that people do and there's going to need to be a growth period there. David was anointed to reign but he had a middle story as well. We have a middle story. He gives us that initial honeymoon period so we can learn to love God and learn that he loves us and learn to trust him because there will be a valley of the shadow of death in every life. There will be enemies that you're going to have to face and learn to sit at the table and let them use their swords to butter your bread.
That's all they're going to be able to do. Now listen to David. He's anointed to reign but I want to just take a couple of excerpts from his middle story starting in Psalm 18. David says these words, verse four, the pangs of death surround it. Now keep in mind this is the sweet psalmist.
This is the sweet shepherd. This is the coming king of Israel just as you and I are slated to rule and reign with Christ. David was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be a king in Israel in the same way you have been anointed, I have been anointed. When we receive Christ the Spirit of God came upon us and the Bible promises that we will rule and reign with Christ. So just like David was, you're anointed. And just like David did, you're going to have a middle journey of your story. Let's put it that way. In Psalm 18, verse four, he says the pangs of death surrounded me and floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
All you got to do is read the news and godliness is abounding in our generation. It's on steroids. It's like a snowball rolling down a hill getting bigger and bigger and bigger all the time. The sars of Sheol or hell surrounded me. The snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried to my God and he heard my voice from his temple and my cry came before him even to his ears.
I don't know what his cry was but I think it's very similar to what mine's been over the years. Jesus help me. Sometimes that's all you got left to pray.
Sometimes I can't even get that out. My prayer is like, ah. That's a prayer. I don't know it's a prayer.
You might not think it is but he has the ability to interpret that and to draw it out. When we just don't have any words anymore to pray, everything seems to be against us and around us. But that wasn't the end of his story. David didn't finish his journey surrounded by the things of hell and in distress and afraid of ungodliness. In Psalm 18 verse 36 he says, you've enlarged my path under me so that my feet did not slip. In other words, you led me.
Remember David said he leads me in passive righteousness for his name's sake. You made a way for me when there was no way. When I couldn't figure out how I was going to go, how am I going to go back to that job one more time, back to that neighborhood, back to that apartment, back to that city, back to that dark dank room that I have to call home every night.
How am I going to go back there? But David said, you enlarged my path under me. You gave me a bigger vision than just where I'm going to.
You showed me something beyond this. I pursued my enemies and overtaken them. In other words, every voice that's saying you're not going to amount to anything, you're finished, you're done, you're doomed, you're damned. I pursued them and overtook them and I didn't turn back again until they were destroyed. I've wounded them so that they could not rise. They've fallen under my feet for you've armed me with strength for the battle. You've subdued under me those who rose up against me.
You've given me also the neck to my enemies so that I destroyed those who hated me. You see it wasn't the end of his story and it's not the end of your story. You might come to the end of your strength but I love to say this and I've said it many times in this church, the end of me is the beginning of God.
Thank God when I've come to the end. Psalm 22, David said these words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He was feeling overwhelmed. Why are you so far from helping me? Have you ever prayed prayers like that?
If you haven't, give it a bit of time. Why are you so distant from the words of my groaning? God, I cry in the daytime but you do not hear in the night season I'm not silent. In other words, I'm doing my part. Where are you? I'm praying. Didn't you say whatever I prayed believing I would receive so here I am. I'm praying.
Why am I not receiving? I'm not silent in the night season but you are holy and thrown in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were delivered.
They trusted in you and were not ashamed. So David's basically saying, why are you not doing for me what you've done for others? You ever come to church and everybody around you has got a testimony of victory and you're not living there? You're just struggling to breathe. You're underwater. You've got a straw and you're underwater and you're breathing through a straw. It's your last hope. You're gasping for air and everyone around is oh praise God, I got a new car. Praise God, I was blessed with a new job and you're going blah blah blah you know and you're underwater with your straw trying to breathe. I've been there.
I know what that feels like but that wasn't the end of his story, was it now? Verse 22 he says, you who fear the Lord praise him. All you descendants of Jacob glorify him and fear him all you offspring of Israel for he is not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted nor has he hidden his face from him but when he cried to him he heard.
In Psalm 31 David was battling his own failings and the criticism of others that are only so happy when we're struggling to point out our struggles to us. Psalm 31 verse 9, have mercy on me, I'm in trouble. My eyes waste away with grief, my soul and my body. My life is spent with grief, my years with sighing, my strength fails because of my iniquity. All my bones waste away. I'm a reproach among my enemies but especially among my neighbors. I'm repulsive to my acquaintances and those who see me outside flee from me. I'm forgotten like a dead man out of mind. I'm like a broken vessel.
I hear the slander of many and fear is on every side. Does that sound like a king to you? It is, it does actually because it's the pathway to ruling and reigning. That's the whole point that the Lord's given me to make today. It's not an easy journey that you're about to undertake but it is eternal. It is with God, hallelujah, and you will succeed at the end. You'll not be overcome. We rule and reign as David did with Christ forever.
That is your portion. Until that day you will have a middle journey and then eventually you get through it. You say, God, this whole walk has been grace. It's all mercy. You get to the end and you just love Him more than you ever have before and you come right back to the beginning, the Lord's my shepherd I shall not want. Oh God, thank you.
