A Place Higher Than Sorrow

Thank you so much for joining us for Carter Conlon's 2024 Thanksgiving special, A Place Higher Than Sorrow. Let's join Carter in studio now.

This is Carter Conlon. I want to welcome you today to our Thanksgiving Day special. And the title might seem a little bit unusual for Thanksgiving, but it is about Thanksgiving. I want to speak about a place higher than sorrow. So many people living in sorrow today, so many people living in a place without any visual light or any hope for the future. And I'm hoping that what I'm about to share today can help show you an open door. Remember Jesus said to the Church of Philadelphia, you have only a little bit of strength and you've kept the testimony of my name and you've kept my word as best as you can. I set before you an open door. And the promise of going through that door was stability, was strength that can only be provided by the presence of God.

This is what I'm hoping today for you and believing God for, that you'll be shown a way out of a place of despair and brought into a place of strength. Recently, a friend called me, a friend pretty close to my age, and he called me and he said, Carter, I've had an amazing, amazing couple of days. And I said, oh, tell me about it. He said, well, I made a decision one day that I'm going to be thankful.

He said, I have a natural tendency to focus on things that are not right in my life or family or employment or whatever the situation is. He said, I just decided one day to go outside. And I said, God, help me to be thankful. So he said, I went outside and I started looking at the sky. I started looking at trees. I looked at birds.

I looked at the grass. And then I started thinking about the beauty of God's creation. I started thinking about the wonderful things that have happened and I believe will happen in my family, in my marriage, my own life, the ministry God's given to me. And he said, before I knew it, I was openly weeping. Something came into my heart. It wasn't a sorrow. He said it was a joy that came with tears at how good God has been to me and my family and how good God will be in the future. And he said, I've made this decision to be thankful as best as I know how for the rest of my life.

And I was really sparked by that conversation and started thinking, how thankful am I for the things around me? You know, our natural tendency of all of us is to be focused on the here and now or the immediate future. Now, sometimes neither one are pleasant and the prognosis for change isn't good. I'm thinking of people today that maybe things in your family, they don't look like they're going to improve in the immediate future. And your employment is in jeopardy.

You don't like where you're living or you want a place to live. Maybe the prognosis of your physical body health-wise is not a good prognosis. And the list just goes on and on and on. And our natural tendency is to focus on these things. And we don't have a natural disposition to be thankful until we actually get through what we consider to be our whole future.

But that's not true. Psalm 77, verse 3, in part, the psalmist says, I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed. You know, when we begin to complain about things around us, when we begin to focus on all the negativity, and surely there's a lot to focus on right now, then we can easily get overwhelmed. As a matter of fact, you can actually get to the point where you despair of life.

You don't see a future, you don't see a hope, you don't see anything ahead of us. Now Paul, the apostle in Philippians chapter 4 and verses 6 to 9, actually I might start a little sooner than that, a little earlier than that, but Paul shows us that we can train our thoughts. And in training our thoughts, we can cut the root of complaining and we can actually be part of lifting this cloud of heaviness that wants to settle on so many people's minds and hearts and spirits in this time that we're now living in.

So let's start way back at verse 6 of Philippians chapter 4. Paul says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Now you and I, we can't pray with thanksgiving until we believe that God is good, until we believe that the things that He has for us, the future He has is a good future, until we fully understand perhaps the incredible depth of our redemption, what it has purchased for us, not just in time, because time can be difficult. I mean, I'm talking about the time where we are today to the point where our natural physical bodies expire.

It's not just about time, but we're eternal beings. And on the cross, Jesus Christ purchased for you and for I something just so incredibly eternal that we can begin to pray even though our natural circumstance might not be good. We can still begin to pray with thanksgiving.

Now let me show you how we can do that. The promise in verse 7 is the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. In other words, God says there's a peace for you, there's an inner peace for you, which passes understanding.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the way you're feeling, the way you're thinking, with what's going on in your life. There's an incredible peace that's available to you that only God can give. Now He gives us the key, the clue as to how to do this. Verse 8, He says, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.

That's an incredible thought. Paul is saying, I'm going to show you how to cut the root of complaining. I'm going to show you how to lift the cloud of heaviness. Train your mind to think on things that are noble, that are just, are pure, are lovely.

There's a good report, it's got virtue and there's something in it that's praiseworthy. Start thinking about these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do and the God of peace will be with you. It's so important that you and I begin to get our thoughts in line.

We begin to win this battle of the mind. Remember Paul said to Timothy, God's not given us a spirit of fear, but power and of love and of a sound mind, an understanding that we have an eternity ahead of us with God, an understanding that we are safe and secure in the hand of God as Jesus Christ once told us. There is nothing of this world that can take you or I out of the hand of God. No matter what our circumstance, Paul says elsewhere in the book of Romans, no matter what comes against me, I'm paraphrasing it now, but whether it's a mountain, whether it's a valley, whether it's a hill, whether it's a principality or a power or things present or things to come, I am loved by God through Christ Jesus and nothing in this world that has the power to separate me from this incredible love which belongs to me through Jesus Christ. It is so important to train our thoughts.

I'm getting older. I'm 70 years of age now and I'm starting to suffer little things here and there in my body and it would be so easy to start focusing on these and let these things just gravitate into my mind and become the thoughts of my day, I make a conscious choice not to live there. I make a choice to live on the side of victory because the Scripture tells us that we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ who loved us. And the only way I know to be more than a conqueror is that I'm already on the victory side even before the battle begins. Now Paul wrote to the Thessalonians church and these were people who were undergoing a time of intense hostility towards the gospel of Jesus Christ and there was active persecution against those who followed Christ. As a matter of fact, Paul the Apostle was only able to be there several months and then he had to flee because of the intensity of the hostility towards the people of God, towards the testimony of Christ. Now Paul writes to these precious saints that were still there and who had a tendency perhaps to be afraid because of this new persecution that they hadn't been familiar with and he gives them these words in 1 Thessalonians 4 beginning at verse 16. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. So Paul doesn't say to the Thessalonians, well, vengeance is mine says the Lord, although that is true, that God will one day vanquish the people that are standing against you and you'll be free and you'll be able to worship and all that.

He doesn't do any of this. He just takes them into a place deep into the future when Jesus Christ is going to come and call all of his people from this earth where we're going to be gathered together with him in the clouds and forever we're going to be there with God. And he says to the Thessalonian believers, comfort each other with these words. In other words, focus on an eternal reality that is soon to come, not your present circumstances. You see, that's what drags so many people down because our present circumstance might be very, very unpleasant. We might be undergoing persecution in the workplace. We might be in a place of maybe you're the only one in your family that knows Christ as Savior in your every family gathering, the hostility of those outside God's kingdom is directed in your direction.

Maybe you're being lied about in the workplace and such things like that. Instead of saying it will be better tomorrow or the week after, Paul says no, let me take you right into a day to come when the trumpet of the Lord is going to sound, an archangel is going to shout, and you're going to rise in the air and you're going to be with Christ forever. Be comforted by focusing on a reality that's soon to come. See, everything here is temporary. I think it's important for you to understand your pain today, your suffering, your sorrow, the difficulty that you're experiencing in life and limb and family is all temporary. All these things will eventually pass away. But you are an eternal being. The eternity ahead of you is forever. It's a long, long, long, long time to be with Christ. And no matter what you have to experience this day, there is a place coming that's higher than the sorrow that's troubling your heart right now. It's an eternal reality.

This is the way we can begin to give thanks, this Thanksgiving Day, without our circumstances even changing. Maybe they won't change. I'm not going to lie to you today and tell you all will be well and everything will be better. Well, for some, you have a cancer diagnosis and it's stage four.

It's not going to get well and it's not going to get better. I mean, I still believe God can do miracles, but for many who are listening, it's not going to be your portion. No, you may have lost a loved one.

You may have lost a child and your pain is always going to be there. But there is a day coming when you're going to be lifted from this earth and all the troubles and trials that come with being in this world and you are going to be with Christ forever. Paul says, comfort each other with these words, not just temporary respite, not just temporary band-aids on a hatchet wound as it is, but let's look at the deeper truth. Let's look at a place that is eternal. Let's look at a place that all of us are going to eventually, that's an eternal reality. That's part of Paul's admonition to the Thessalonians.

Just dealing with this eternal reality, dealing with the things that are pure and of virtue, are praiseworthy, are worth thinking about. Now, Jesus himself told his own disciples, in John chapter 14, verses 1 to 3, he said, let not your heart be troubled. In other words, they were at a place where it looked like they were going to suffer loss, almost an incalculable loss. They had finally found their Savior.

They had walked with him for three years. They knew this was the Messiah, and then suddenly he's telling them, I'm leaving, and where I'm going, you can't follow me now. And they're perplexed, and they're troubled, and there's fear in their hearts. And even though we know Christ is our Savior, yet it doesn't mean there's an absence of trouble sometimes that wants to grip our hearts because of the uncertainty of the future.

But he said to his own disciples, in John chapter 14, verse 1, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Let not your heart be troubled. I don't know what kind of a house you have today or even if you have one. I don't know what kind of a job or even if you have one.

I don't know what kind of a family you have or even if you have one. But I do know this for sure. There is construction going on right now in the heavens, and there is a mansion being prepared with your name on the door. You will have an eternal family there. It is a place that is so beyond our natural understanding, and it's real. It is real. It is more real than the sorrow and the trouble that you're going through right now. Those things are temporary, but what Jesus is speaking about is real.

That means it never, ever comes to an end. Now John, the beloved disciple, he saw this. He was in prison, exiled to a horrid island because of his faith in Jesus Christ. And all around him was cold stone and impossibility and anguish and probably anger and sorrow and ill-treatment and all the rest of it. And he could have gotten to the place of saying, is this the reward you give to those that love you? You remember at the Last Supper, I had my head on your chest, Jesus, and I told you I loved you, and you told me you loved me.

And here I am in prison in my 80s. Is this the reward? But you see, that's not what John was looking at. In Revelation chapter 21, he says, Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. So John's saying, this present environment is not my eternity. Something else is coming in the future. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Now listen to this.

This is coming your way. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Every tear that's in your eye, even as you're listening to this, will soon be gone. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.

There will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.

It is done, he said. I am the alpha, the omega, the beginning, the end, and I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. So if you're thirsty for hope today, if you're thirsty for a place where you can start giving thanks for the things that God is promising will be in your future, if you're thirsty for strength to get through the sorrow and the heartache and the hardship that you have to face today, I want to challenge you with all my heart to start giving God thanks for the things that were purchased for you on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago. I want you to thank God this day for the love of God that is so rich, so powerful, so strong that it can never be taken away from you. I want you to give thanks that the things that are coming for eternity for you are a higher reality than the pain that might be your portion both today and tomorrow. My brother, my sister, something so marvelous is coming that I can give thanks, and you can give thanks because everything here is going to pass away, but the things that God has prepared for you and for me are not going to pass away. Several years ago, I made a CD called Day by Day, and in it, I did a song called, it's an old-time hymn, it's called When We See Christ, and it talks about how all the pain, all the sorrow, all the struggle of our lives the day we see him is all going to pass away. We'll be so thankful that we did not give up our hope and we chose to believe and we chose to trust. That's my prayer for you today.

I want to conclude this program with this song. Close your eyes and open your heart. Let God minister to you because it will be worth it all the day we see Christ. I love you so, so much. God loves you so, so much.

Stay strong. We are going to soon be home. Happy, happy Thanksgiving. piano plays softly Off time, the day seems long Our trials hard to bear We're tempted to complain To murmur and despair But Christ will soon appear To catch his bride away All tears forever over In God's eternal day It will be worth it all When we see Jesus Life's trials will seem so small When we see Christ One glimpse of his dear face All sorrow will erase So bravely round the race Till we see Christ Sometimes the sky looks dark With not a ray of light We're tossed and driven on No human help inside But there is one in heaven Who knows our deepest care Let Jesus solve your problem Just go to him in prayer It will be worth it all When we see Jesus Life's trials will seem so small When we see Christ One glimpse of his dear face All sorrow will erase So bravely round the race Till we see Christ piano plays softly piano plays softly Life's day will soon be o'er All storms forever past We'll cross the great divide To glory we're safe at last We'll share the joys of heaven A harp behold the crown The tempter we'll be banished And we'll lay our burdens down It will be worth it all When we see Jesus Life's trials will seem so small When we see Christ One glimpse of his dear face All sorrow will erase So bravely round the race Till we see Christ It will be worth it all Yes, it will, yes, it will When we see Jesus Oh, your life's trials They'll seem so small Oh, the first time you look at his face, hallelujah Just one glimpse of his dear face All your sorrow will erase So bravely round the race Till we see Christ . . . You have been listening to Carter Conlon's 2024 Thanksgiving Special, A Place Higher Than Sorrow. For more specials like this one, visit www.carterconlon.com. God bless. . .