Carter Conlin from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. Folks, if we don't deal with the mountain, you're just going to be dealing with fig trees the rest of your life. You'll be running all the time to things that you think are going to make you happy. It just leaves you empty because there's something inside that is not satisfied by the presence of God.
Thank you for joining us today for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlin. One morning as Jesus and his disciples were leaving Bethany, they saw a fig tree in the distance. Jesus wanted to find out if the tree had any fruit. As they got closer, they saw the tree had nothing but leaves on it. So Jesus said to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again.
Later they passed by the tree again, and they discovered the fig tree was withered from the roots. Jesus responded saying, have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in their heart, but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. In today's message, Carter will explain how if we forget those things behind us and reach for the things before us, that's when the power to speak to the mountain becomes ours. Let's join Carter now from Mark chapter 11 with his message titled, Your Mountain Will Move. If there is a mountain in your life, hold firm because I know God's going to touch your heart in a powerful way. If you know anybody, anybody who's got a mountain in their life that they think is never going to get out of their way, something that's never going to change, something unresolvable, contact them right now. Listen to this message, and you're going to hear about a modern day mountain moving miracle that only God could have done and God is doing.
We're hearing about that in this generation. I firmly believe, I believe in my heart that we're going to witness a great outpouring of the Spirit of God in this last season that we're now living in. I believe in my heart that we're going to start to see miracles. There's going to be deliverance, there's going to be healing, there's going to be miraculous touches of God because God is moving in a powerful way, touching people's lives. The very ministry that Jesus said he came to do is unfolding right before our eyes one more time.
When he stood in that pulpit and he said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because that means for this reason, God the Father has given me the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel to the poor. That was the very first thing he said, to talk to people that have no resource, no power, no ability to get out of where they are right now and to set free those that are captive, to heal those whose hearts have been wounded as they see beyond repair, to give sight to those who don't feel that they have a way forward. They're blind spiritually. They don't see a way out. They don't see a reason for life.
They don't see anything good in the future. He said, I came to give you sight. I came to set the captive free. And the Bible says he closed the book and he sat down and everybody's eyes were fixed on him. In other words, like, is this possible that what this man just said to us is actually going to happen? And then when he was sitting in his seat, he said, this day, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. So I'm saying to you today, this day, this scripture is fulfilled. This day, your mountain is going to move. This day, God is going to do something that only God can do in your life. And your testimony will be all about him. And if you're not shouting, you're dead.
That's all I can say. At the end of this, you're dead. You will have to send for the mortician here in the sanctuary, come pick you up and take you out and put you in a dry place somewhere.
Your mountain will move. Mark chapter 11 and beginning at verse 20. Now, Father, as I read your word, Jesus Christ, I ask you, we ask you one more time that you would stretch out your hand and begin to heal. That you would do miracles in people's homes. I lift up people who are sitting in a room, in a half lit room tonight in a place of despair, not seeing a reason to live, not seeing a way forward, not understanding how things can change. I'm asking you, Jesus Christ, to come into that room with light, with illumination, with power, with victory, with hope, with a future, granting them the ability to see the greatness of the victory that you won for them on the cross and helping them to understand that this day, the mountain in their life can be moved. Father, thank you, God, that you will give us the ability to share clearly and reverently to every heart so that your name, Jesus Christ, might be lifted up and your purposes accomplished. We thank you for it in Jesus' precious name.
Your mountain will move. Mark chapter 11 and beginning at verse 20. In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. Now, Jesus had been going up into Jerusalem and on the way to Jerusalem where he was preparing to go to the cross to win the victory that you and I have today. He approached a tree that appeared. It was a deceptive tree.
It gave the appearance of offering something of satisfaction. But when he got closer to it, to see that the tree was only a deceptive tree, he cursed it and said nobody be deceived by you anymore. And it lost its power to deceive. Now, that was a foreshadowing of something that was about to happen on the cross in the very near future.
The next day, they're coming back. They passed the tree again. And Peter, remembering, said to him in verse 21, Rabbi or teacher, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered away. So Jesus answered and said to them, have faith in God.
He didn't say, look at what I have done. He actually turned it to them and said, you, in a sense, have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. So now Jesus is the one who cursed the fig tree. But now he's inviting his disciples to join him in taking authority over something much bigger, much more established, much heavier, much more permanent than just a fig tree. And therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you received them and you will have them.
That's a phenomenal promise. Could you imagine if people really believe that today? Prayer meetings would be the most packed meeting in the house of God. And say, God, if that's true, whatever things I ask when I pray that I will receive them, then I'm going to start to pray and I'm going to believe you. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him that your father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgive your trespasses. Now this makes it very interesting because he ties this kind of faith into forgiveness. Without forgiveness, this kind of faith will not be known. It will not be realized.
It will not be actualized. Now, when Jesus Christ cursed the fig tree on the way to Jerusalem, it was a sovereign act. It was something that he alone did. And it's a type of the cross. When Jesus went to the cross, he took your captivity captive, the Bible says, and gave gifts to you and to me. He took authority over that which formerly had the power to deceive us. Now many of us were deceived by different things. You can be deceived by substance. You can be deceived by relationships. You can be deceived by false self-image. There's all kinds of things that can deceive us. And the fig tree in one respect represented that.
And when he went to the cross, he destroyed the power of deception, individual deceptions, okay? Things that we went to, we gravitated to, and we thought this is going to make me happy only to get close and find out it's a lie. It's offering an illusion of satisfaction. It's telling me it's going to fulfill me. But when I get close, there's nothing there.
It leaves me empty. And many of us, if not all of us in this room and online, we've all fallen for some of this along the way, along the journey. We've all fallen for fig trees, things that we were, we were on our way to Jerusalem as it is. It was a place of prayer.
We're on our way there, but we got distracted by something that looked like it was a good thing. And it looked like it would satisfy the need that we felt at that particular moment only to find out it's a deception. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he took authority. He destroyed the power of deception to deceive any longer. He destroyed the power of drugs, for example, or alcohol or relationships, whatever it is, to tell you that you're going to find satisfaction there. He destroyed the power of the fig tree in your life.
But I find it very interesting that he left the bigger battle to be fought in partnership with us. He didn't say to Peter, well, now I'm going to curse the mountain. Okay, watch this, Peter.
You thought the fig tree was something. Now watch what I'm going to do to the mountain. And he very well could have done it. He very well could have said, mountain, be removed and cast into the sea.
And it would have been right. He was almighty God. He could have done whatever he wanted to, but he invited the disciples into what was a larger battle, into a partnership. And actually he says, whatever you say, if I say to you that whoever says to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea and believe, doesn't doubt in his heart, but believes those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Now here's what I see the mountain to be. The mountain is the fuel source that allows these deceptive fig trees to prosper in our lives. The mountain is something deeper in us.
We can spend a lot of our time getting over this and getting over drugs and getting over alcohol and getting over lust and getting over all of this other stuff in our lives. And those are the fig trees in our lives. But the mountain is something of weightiness or something of essence in our character that actually allows these fig trees to deceive us or to grow.
Does that make sense to you? And so he says, now I want you to take authority over the mountain. I want you to speak to this. I want you to speak to the mountains that are in your life that are allowing these deceptions to prosper. You see, for example, if you're an alcoholic, alcohol is really, it might become a problem, but it wasn't your initial problem.
Your initial problem was whatever drove you to drinking to make you think that drinking was going to make you happy. It's something in your character. It's the mountain inside of you. And I'm saying this repetitiously because I want you to really get this. It's something of your character that you can't change.
That's what makes it a mountain. It's some unmet need. It's some ill formation.
May I put it this way? It's something that grew. It's something that got planted.
It's something that you and I can't move by any amount of human effort. We just are what we are and we can't change it. And so we're constantly fighting against the fig trees that are deceiving us because we're looking in every which direction to find satisfaction. And so we're falling for all of these things around us. When you look at the prayer requests on this prayer meeting, many, many, many, many of the people who are submitting prayer requests or people who are submitting requests for family members or loved ones, they've fallen for fig trees.
They've fallen for something, wrong relationships, wrong thinking, wrong practice, something they're putting in their bodies to make them think they're going to be happy. They've fallen for fig trees. But the fig trees are not the problem. Because if all we do is focus on fig trees, master, look at the fig tree you cursed has withered away.
And if that's your only testimony, I used to do this, now I don't do it anymore. But you've never dealt with the mountain. You've never dealt with what let this tree grow in the first place.
Where is it drawing its nutrition from? What is it in my life that allows this to grow in my sight and deceive me into thinking that if I just approach it, I'm going to be happy? Jesus said, I will curse the power of the fig tree, but I want you to curse the mountain. I want you to to speak to the mountain. I want you to speak to that thing in your life that just is there and has no right to be there. That thing that is allowing these deceptions to grow. Because folks, if we don't deal with the mountain, you're just going to be dealing with fig trees the rest of your life. It'll be one fig tree, another fig tree, the next fig tree. You'll be running all the time to things that you think are going to make you happy. It can be anything from alcohol to sports to relationships, whatever. You just think it's going to make you happy and it just leaves you empty at the end because there's something inside that is not satisfied by the presence of God.
Here's the real point. To realize this fig tree over the mountains, he says, we have to let go of the past and embrace the future that God promises us. Many people can't go into the future because they won't let go of the past. That's why he ties this kind of faith into forgiveness.
It's amazing. You'd say, well, did these verses ever, like he's talking fig trees and mountains and suddenly forgive. Isn't that another thing for another time? No, he ties it in to mountain moving faith. Therefore, now he's saying, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea and doesn't doubt, but believes, you'll have what he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever you ask for when you pray, believe you receive it and you will have it.
And, and in other words, in addition to these thoughts or in conclusion, whenever you pray, you stand praying. If you have anything against anyone, forgive him that your father in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. If you do not forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgive your trespasses. And David, the Psalmist, for example, said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
I can pray all I want. And really I see it, it's something simple that Jesus is saying, if you want a future, let go of the past. Let go, don't hang on to the past. Let go of the past. Let go of whatever you thought was going to make you happy or whatever made you unhappy or whoever was used to do that. Let it go.
Let it go. As the apostle Paul says in Philippians 3, 13, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. Paul, there was the formula.
There was, there was the pathway. Paul says, I've not achieved. I'm not fully there yet to where I need to go. But one thing I'm going to do, he says, I'm going to leave behind what needs to be left behind. If God says, let it go, I'm going to let it go.
And I'm going to press forward to this high calling of God in Christ Jesus. You see, that's when the mountain moves. You see, when you and I, you see, when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they come out of bondage and darkness, but they didn't go into the place of life and promise because the mountains were still there. They talked about mountains. There were mountains. There were giants there.
And they just said, we can't do it because the mountains are there and the giants are there. The problem is they were willing to come out, but they were not willing to go in. And so many people are like that today in the body of Christ. They're willing to come out, what used to hold them captive, but they're not willing to go in to what God has for them in the future. And these people all died in the dry place. And a lot of people are attending very, very dry churches today where it's boring.
There's no life. There's no anticipation of God's presence. In order to convince the people that God is there, there has to be light and smoke and all kinds of activity, just like the prophets of Baal on the top of Mount Carmel. They had to do all kinds of things to try to convince the people that their God was with them. No, you have to want what God wants for your life.
It's really that simple. And when you do, you can speak to the mountain now and the mountain will move and be cast into the midst of the sea. I promise you, oh God, I promise you, this is true. I've seen this in my own life. I didn't want to live my Christian life speaking to fig trees.
All the rest of my days, I wanted to be free from the mountains. The things that stood before me that were there to say, you can't go any farther. This is in your way. You can't climb this.
You can't go around this. This is too big for you. But Jesus said, I can speak to it. I can speak to it. I don't know what your mountain is. It could be loneliness. I don't know what it is. It could be a wound so deep you think you'll never be healed.
It could be just a lousy self-image. I don't know what the mountain is, but I do know that Jesus said you can speak to it. Why would we not do that? For what heavenly reason would we stand back with such a promise? Speak to the mountain, whatever that is. And if you don't know what it is, ask God. Maybe you're just unstable.
I don't know. Whatever the mountain is, call it by its right name. Ask God what its name is and just say, God, just what is this thing that allows these fig trees to continuously grow in my life? It allows me to be drawn away from one deception to another, always looking for happiness apart from where you say it is. No, I want what you have for me.
I want the life you have for me. And when we do what Paul said to do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are before, that's when the power to speak to the mountain becomes yours. There's power in prayer. Jesus Christ does not just say empty words. He didn't say, well, look, I got to fill all these words and fill these chapters so I got to say something. No, what he said is truth. What he said is absolute. What he said, it can't be contravened.
It was spoken through the lips of the one who created the universe by the word of his mouth. He cannot lie. And if he said, I can speak to the mountain, then I can speak to the mountain. If you are in a place where you don't believe that God can do a miracle in your life, then you're missing the whole point of what this whole season we're now living in is all about. It's more in the heart of God to do a miracle for you than it is in your heart to experience a miracle. I want you to know that.
I think you're going to shout inside. I think some of you are going to stand on your feet and you're going to begin to speak to the mountains in your life and believe that they're going to be removed and cast into the midst of the sea. How could you doubt the grace of God? He himself said, I didn't come just to give you eternal life. And that would be good enough if that's all it was, but I came to give you an abundant life while you live on it, which means a reason to live.
I mean, it's a life that has resources, a life that has something that's given by God to be able to be given to others, a joy and a peace that passes understanding. You know, you'll look at your pictures in a few years and you won't recognize those people anymore. You know, the old people, the old things do pass away and all things become new.
It's true. And you become the person that God designed you to be right in the beginning. Now sin and deviation tried to make you into something else, but God wouldn't let you go because he's always loved you. He always knew you.
As a matter of fact, in the Bible, he told one of the great prophets, he said, I knew you even before you were formed in your mother's womb. It's amazing. And loved you. And he said, we sing that song and there's no mountain he won't climb. There's no valley. It's true.
It's absolutely true. When everybody else gives up on you, God is still there. You know, the whole court system could be condemning you to prison the rest of your life. Every friend can be writing you off.
Your family can say you're worthless and you're never going anywhere. And when all the crowd clears and you're left alone, there's one still standing. And he says, I created you. I love you with an everlasting love.
He said through the prophet Isaiah, a nursing mother could tentatively forget her child, but I could never forget you. He said, I've engraved you on the palms of my hands. I love that verse. You engrave with iron. I tattooed you there. May I put it that way?
On the palms of my hands. When those nails went through his hands, your name was on those nails. He says, I will never forget you. And others may abandon you, but God says, I won't. Listen, just admit you can't save yourself and give up trying to change on your own.
You're not going to be able to do it. Human effort has its limits, but the love of God has no limits. And just believe that God so loved you that he gave his only begotten son who came to this world to get you because you couldn't get to him any other way. So he had to come to you. And he went to a cross and he was beaten and spit on and rejected and whipped and hated and mocked and died in your place to take the penalty for everything that you've ever done upon himself. What more could he do? Tell me how much more could he have shown his love for you?
How much more could he have displayed his dedication to bringing you back to himself again? And just confess him as your Lord and savior. I love the fact that when Jesus was on the cross, there's a thief beside him and he didn't have time to get baptized. He didn't have time to do any good works. He never even went to new believers class, you know.
He didn't go to Bible school either. He just said, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus looked at him and said, today you will be with me in paradise.
Just remember me. That's the depth of God's love. So pray this simple prayer with me.
Pray this in your heart. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for loving me. Thank you for coming to get me when I couldn't get back to you. I give you my life. I invite you into my heart to be my Lord and my savior.
I don't understand everything yet, but I'll know more in the coming days. I ask you to lead me, guide me, teach me, help me. And I will speak to the mountains in my life and I will command them in your name to get out of my way and be cast into the sea because I'm going where you're calling me.
Thank you for saving me from this day forward. Jesus, I belong to you. Amen and amen. You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk in Christ, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. And be sure to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
