Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. Be glad and rejoice and shout for joy. That's how you shout for joy in the midst of a flood. I don't know what's coming down the road in our generation that we're now living in.
I have a feeling it's not going to be easy. You have the opportunity to be able to shout for joy even though there's a flood of waters all around you. Thank you for joining us today for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
Friend, it's no secret we're in a moral and spiritual crisis in America. But as followers of Jesus Christ, we have been lifted out of the kingdom of darkness and brought into the glorious kingdom of light. Here's Carter with today's message.
I want to talk to you just briefly. Actually, I'm going to read a psalm, Psalm 32. If you have a Bible at home, if you have it on your phone, I'm going to be reading from the New King James Version so you can look that up on your phone maybe. And I'm going to comment as I go through this psalm.
This is what the Lord put on my heart to do. And if I were to give it a title, I would call it learning to shout in the midst of a flood. Learning to shout, not shout for fear, but shout for joy, shout for confidence in the midst of a flood. And surely we are living in a season where all hell wants to break out on this earth in our societies, our countries, our cultures, in our lives. There's a swirl. It's almost like there's a swirl of information, mostly false, an opinion going around, around, around.
Everybody has an opinion about everything. But there still is a voice that is more powerful than all these voices put together. There still is a voice that calls to safety. The voice of God calls to forgiveness. The voice of God calls to something solid. And ultimately the voice of God calls to a place of confidence that produces a song of joy in us. Remember David, the psalmist said, I was sinking in a horrid place. And the Lord reached down and he pulled me up and he put my feet on a solid rock and he put a new song in my mouth. And many shall see it and fear and turn to the Lord. And so God gives that song when you and I are willing to do things his way and to respond to his call, his wooing to us, there is such a comfort in God that can only be found in him. So Father, as I comment on this scripture, this passage of scripture, Lord, you promised that if we believed on you, that out of our inward parts would flow a river of living water. God give living water. I think of the people that are listening that are at home discouraged, depressed, have struggles in their minds, struggles in their bodies, struggles with their finances. They've got trials of every conceivable sort going on in their lives.
And some in California, they're watching this, not sure whether or not the fires around them are going to touch the borders of their own house. So God, I'm asking you Jesus Christ for living water. I don't come to you because I'm strong. I don't come to you because I've got it all together.
I don't lean on any ministry experience. Lord, I lean on you as much as I ever have in my lifetime. God only you can produce living water. All we can produce is thoughts and arguments, but you have the power to give living water. And the entrance of your word gives life, gives light, gives strength, gives hope, gives direction. So Father, I ask in Jesus' name, God deliver me from my own thoughts and let me speak on your behalf. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen.
David the King wrote this, a man who had an unusual revelation of the presence, the person, the power, the purpose of God. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Do you want to be blessed?
Turn to God and let him forgive your sin. You want to be blessed? Blessed means living in divine favor, kept by a power that's not seen yet it's known by the one who partakes of it. You see, you can go through the same trial, the same struggle, the same flood as everybody else around you. But if you know that your sin is forgiven, if you know that heaven is your eternal home when you die, if you know that there's no mark against you when you stand one day in the presence of God, you will be received in God's presence forever. If you know that there's a comfort of God put into the human heart that can't be produced by any amount of exuberance, it can't be produced by any amount of human effort, it's a blessing that comes from God himself, a blessing of eternal inward peace. Oh, thank God for the peace of Christ that passes understanding. I don't know about you, but I have peace in my heart. I'm not governed by the news.
I'm not governed by a bad phone call or a bad report. I'm governed by the word of God. And the peace that passes all understanding, thank God, I don't know.
It found a lodging place in 1978 in my heart and over the years it has continued to grow. And I don't know, I'm just not afraid of any news that comes my way because I have a peace. I know in whose hand I have placed my life. And the apostle Paul said, he's able to keep everything I've given to him until the day he deposits me at the throne of God forever and ever and ever. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man, blessed is the woman who has turned to God for the forgiveness that he willfully and willingly offers us in Jesus Christ.
We have received it and we're now in right relationship with God. We are grafted into the family of God for eternity. This world could fall apart if it wants to, but because I'm not staying here. Even if you put me in the ground, I'm not staying here.
Hear me, I'm not staying here. So if I die before you, don't stand on my grave. You might get hurt one day because I'm not staying here. The trumpet of the Lord is going to sound and the dead in Christ are going to be raised first. And then we who are alive and remain. So if you're alive and remain, you're staying on my grave, you're going to get hurt because I'm coming out of that thing. So remember, stand beside my grave if I go first.
Don't stand on it. I'm going home to be with God forever. Blessed is the man whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. In other words, blessed is the person who is forgiven and on the road to changing from image to image and glory to glory by the Spirit of God.
Blessed is the man. Listen, we don't have it all together when we first come to Christ and don't let anybody tell you you should. You don't have to have it all together. You just have to be honest with God. We don't need to play games in God's presence. He knows what we are even before we do. He knows who we are.
There's no deceit is necessary. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in the spirit there is no deceit. Blessed is the man. Blessed is the woman who comes into the presence of God and doesn't pretend to be something that he or she is not. We just are real in the presence of God.
That's what I love. I think about our Bible school. Times Square Church is Bible school because you can be real here. You don't have to put on the show. There's no fakery required.
As a matter of fact, fakery is looked down upon. Reality is where we are and people get free here and people get transformed because they don't have to put on the show or be deceitful in the presence of God. And they learn what it means to be blessed. Now here's where it gets interesting. David says, when I kept silent, my bones grew old. When I refused to agree with God, when God was drawing me but I would not agree, when God was trying to speak to me about an issue of character, when God was trying to draw me towards his forgiveness but I was still looking for some vestige of good within myself. You ever been there? I've been there. But the Lord's trying to tell you something but you're not willing to hear it because you still think that that little part of your life is a good thing.
It's not as flawed as maybe the Holy Spirit is trying to reveal. And so when I kept silent, when I drew back, when I refused to agree with God, my bones got old. I don't know about you, but I've got some old bones going on over the years in this body. I know what it's like to groan in the presence of God. I know what it's like to go down the street in New York one day and I just yelled out, what are you trying to tell me? And I felt the Lord say, I'm glad you finally asked me. It's been a long haul and you've pushed hard to retain a semblance of something you thought your life was when it isn't. Through my groaning all the day long, for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality or my strength or my vigor or that which I thought was virtuous was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity of not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. You see, it's the mercy of God. It's the goodness of God. Romans chapter two and verse four said, the goodness of God, the second part of that verse says the goodness of God leads you to repentance. It's the goodness of God that will draw you, the goodness of God that will draw me. And when we're not willing to come into agreement with God, his hand will come heavy upon us and it will come heavy upon us because he loves us. Not because he's angry with us, not because he's fed up, it's because he loves you and he loves me. Some people are listening and you have some kind of a knowledge of God, maybe even walked with him at one time in your life, but now the hand of God is heavy upon you and everything within you seems to be turning into corruption.
You see, it's not turning there. You're just becoming aware of what it really is without the forgiveness of God, without the cleansing of the son of God's blood when he died on the cross 2,000 years ago. But when we acknowledge, when we just come into agreement with God and we say, God, this is what I am.
This is who I am. There's no need to be fake. There's no deceit necessary.
You forgive me. It's an immediate forgiveness. It's an immediate putting away of that which hindered us. We thought it was going to help us on a journey, but it's not helping us.
It's actually hindering us. And then he says in verse six, for this cause, everyone who's godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Everyone who has a drawing towards God.
Like you're listening to me online and maybe you're drug addicted, maybe you're an alcoholic, maybe you're in the middle of a divorce, maybe you're selfish to the core of your being, whatever is going on in your particular life. But if you have a propensity to God, if you have an inward ability to hear the calling of God, David said, when God can still be found, this is how you will ultimately pray. Ultimately, you will acknowledge that God's goodness is drawing you to himself so that you can be forgiven. And in a season where you can still find him or he can still be found, this is how you will pray. You know, there are people maybe listening online and said, well, I started joining this prayer meeting six months ago. And since I started praying with you on Wednesday night, everything just seems to be getting worse. And that might be the case until the final surrender comes into your heart. Finally, you say, as Paul said, I'm convinced that within me dwells no good thing. Lord, I would like to make an exchange. It's like going to a department store. This thing doesn't fit.
I would like to exchange it for one that does. And that's what we're offered on the cross. We're offered to bring this body of death, as Paul calls it, this body that is entrenched with sin, this body that is hell-bent on its own destruction. We have the right to come to the cross and exchange it for a new creation that God promises he will make us into through Jesus Christ. We have the right to exchange our failures for his strength, our confusion for his clear thinking, our cowardice for his love, our fearfulness for his courage.
We can trade in, in a sense, that which we shouldn't be trying to hold on to the whole time anyway. And God says, because I love you, I will let my hand come heavy upon you. I will turn that which you think is virtuous into the drought of summer. I will get you to the point where you will cry out in desperation to me, God save me. You'll come to an understanding you can't save yourself.
Listen to me. You can't save yourself. You can't save yourself through good deeds. You can't save yourself through trying to change your mind on things.
You can't save yourself through any amount of human effort. You can't bring anything into the presence of God that will save you because you can't. That's why God came to you through his son, Jesus Christ, 2000 years ago. And Jesus Christ took the punishment for the wrong things that you have done and the frailties of your character and the sin that's in your nature. He took it upon himself on a cross and pronounced it to be dead so that you could live. And if you will open your heart, you can live, you can have new life, you can have strength. It is a season where God can still be found. There is a day coming where he can't be.
There's a day coming where it'll be too late. I got a phone call today. I was recently at an event and I met a young man, a basketball player in his early 30s, a tall, very fine looking young man, came over, shook my hand. Apparently we talked for a little while, although I don't remember it. Apparently I talked with him for a little while and he died last week.
And suddenly it's over now. Whatever decisions he made here, I don't know if he's a believer or not, whatever decisions he made on this side of eternity have now followed him into the presence of God. It's so important, folks, if you can still hear his voice. As it says in the scriptures, if you can hear him today, don't harden your heart. It's his love that is drawing you. Surely, he says, in a flood of great waters, they shall not come near him. The person who turns to Christ when trial and difficulty and tribulation and contrary opinion or condemnation tries to come towards you, God says, I will not let it touch you.
Isn't that amazing? I will put my hands around you in effect. And yes, it will flow all around you, but it won't touch you. It won't take you away. I will not leave you. I will not forsake you. I will be a friend to you that sticks closer than your brother. I will always be there for you.
Nothing will be able to take you down. You are my hiding place, David says. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. When is the last time you heard the Holy Spirit or the Son of God singing around you? When's the last time young people on this campus, you walked down the roads of this campus and could actually hear God singing over you?
But the scripture says he does. He sings songs of deliverance. I'd like to know what that sounds like. I will.
Those are great songs. Maybe some of you should start writing them down in your spare time when you begin to hear the words. And he says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. Verse eight, I will guide you with my eye. In other words, I can see the path ahead of you.
You can't, but I can. And I will guide you. I will guide you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, or else they will not come near you. Many sorrows will be to the wicked.
In other words, don't be stubborn. God says, I love you. I've loved you with an everlasting love.
I sent my son. I died on a cross for you. I took your beating upon myself. I took the weight of your sin. I don't the weight of your sin. I don't know what else could be done to prove the depth of my love towards you.
Don't be stubborn. God says, when I call you to myself. Many sorrows will be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord mercy will surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. Hallelujah. Be glad and rejoice and shout for joy.
That's how you shout for joy in the midst of a flood. I don't know what's coming down the road in our generation that we're now living in. I have a feeling it's not going to be easy. The Bible tells us clearly there's going to be wars, rumors of wars, famines, pestilences. There's going to be disruptions on every conceivable level. This world is now in its birth pangs, awaiting now the coming of Jesus Christ. There is going to be launched a worldwide rebellion against the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And in our time, we have the opportunity now to turn to God with all of our heart. We have the opportunity to be forgiven. You have the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. You have the opportunity to be able to shout for joy, even though there's a flood of waters all around you. You have the opportunity to say, I will trust in God. Though the mountains fall into the midst of the sea, though the seas overflow their borders, my heart is fixed.
I believe what He has said to me, and I'm going to trust Him because He will never fail me and He will never forsake me. My friend, my sister, my brother, there is a song that God puts in your heart that is a shout. It's not a cry. It's a shout.
It's a shout that can't be produced by anything other than a heart that is gripped by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. Praise be to God. So those that are listening online, maybe it's time for you to open your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and invite Him into your life to be Lord and Savior. Admit that you can't save yourself and just believe that God sent His Son to die on the cross in your place and confess Him as your Lord and Savior. And if you'll do this, the Bible declares plainly you will be saved. He will receive you. He will forgive you.
And everything that you've heard about will become yours. He will guide you. He will heal you. He will keep you.
He will give you a song and give you the ability to hear His song that He sings over you. So I'm going to ask you to pray this prayer with me and make it yours. And if you do, I promise you, if you make it your own prayer that heaven will be your home, not only today, but the day you die, you will be eternally in the presence in the presence of God.
And you don't have to be afraid of the things of this world any longer. Let's pray it together for the sake of those that will be praying with us online. Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for loving me. I thank you for coming to get me and for dying for my sins.
I open my heart to you. I invite you into my life to be my Lord, and my Savior, and my God. Jesus Christ, I receive your offer of forgiveness.
Please forgive me for all the wrong things that I have done. Give me the courage to follow you as you begin to lead my life. And thank you for the assurance that when I die, heaven will be my eternal home. I have decided to follow Jesus. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.
Now before we leave you today, here's Carter with his song, When I don't understand the way that you lead. And my fear tries to say, no one cares. It's then that you whisper with heaven's sweet love, and tell me forever you're there. And tell me forever you're there.
Off through trials and testings, my heart would believe. I've lost touch with mercy. Why would God receive such a flawed sinking vessel to have for His own, to share in His glory and come to His throne? When I don't understand the way that you lead, and my fear tries to say, no one cares. It's then that you whisper with heaven's sweet love, and tell me forever you're there.
And tell me forever you're there. It's His blood that has saved me and called me to peace. By His Spirit, I'm quickened, and I'm given relief. From weakness to glory, by His life within, I'm free from dominion and power of sin. So lead me, dear Jesus, to where I, I can't go. Give strength I've never had, so that others might know.
You call not the righteous, but the weak for your own, to pass through the veil and inherit a crown. And when I don't understand the way that you lead, and my fear tries to say, no one cares. It's then that you whisper with heaven's sweet love, and tell me forever you're there. And tell me forever you're there. And tell me forever you're there. Join us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
