The Journey of a Lifetime! — Carter Conlon

The Journey of a Lifetime: Exodus 3 and God’s Call

I want to speak to you this morning, a message called the journey of a lifetime from the book of Exodus chapter three, Exodus chapter three, the journey of a lifetime. Now, father, I thank you, God, with all my heart.

I thank you for the presence of your Holy Spirit. I thank you, God, for your word, which is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. I thank you, Lord, for your willingness, God, to come to us in spite of our condition.

Your willingness, Lord, to give us freedom, your willingness to give us a new song, your willingness, Lord, to take us when all we've known is failure and to change us and call us your own. I thank you, God, for the anointing of your spirit, Lord, that overrides the frailty of my human body and mind and gives me that which you want to speak to every heart.

I ask you to bless every person in this house, God. Bless those that are strangely weeping today and don't quite know why they feel this way. Bless them with an understanding. God bless all of us with the courage to desire to go forward in you for the fullness of what you have for our lives.

God, we thank you. I praise you with all my heart for it. Bless those in North Jersey that are listening today, those that are online with us as part of this church family or just curious people. Bless them all, oh God.

I thank you for it. Thank you for hearing and answering this prayer in Jesus' name. The journey of a lifetime, Exodus chapter three, beginning at verse seven. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

So I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from a land to a good land and large to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.

In other words, I'm bringing my people out from where they are to the place that they belong, a place that somebody else is occupying. But I'm going to take those occupiers out and I'm going to bring my people into this place that belongs to them.

Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. And I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.

Glorifying God Through His People

Now you and I know that the one true purpose of the people of God in these passages was to allow God through them to bring glory to his own name as the one who creates and sustains all things. He created the heavens by the word of his mouth.

All things the Bible tells us consist by him. Nothing was made without him. The speaking of Jesus Christ actually in John chapter one, and he had a people in the earth that he called them to himself for the express purpose of bringing glory to his name that the world may know.

Did you understand today? That's the purpose of your life. Your purpose of your life and my life is to let God be God. It's not difficult. Just open our hearts and let God be God inside of us. Take us from where we are to where we need to be so that he by his power will glorify his own name through my life.

The only thing he requires of me is faith and cooperation, that I will believe his promises and start putting one foot in front of the other. When he says, get out of somewhere, I am willing to get out.

When he says, get into somewhere, I'm willing to get in. I go where he calls me. I become what he desires to make me, and I want to tell you, it is an awesome life to live for God. It's a wonderful, wonderful life.

Abraham’s Call and the Promise of Blessing

They were the descendants, these people of a man called Abraham, a man that God gave an incredible promise to him. Not only, and it didn't just apply to Abraham, it applied to all of Abraham's descendants.

Paul the Apostle, of course, in the New Testament says, by faith, we are the descendants of Abraham. We are grafted in to this promise that God made to this one man. Let me just read it to you in Genesis chapter 12.

The Lord said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. That's where the walk with God begins for all of us. Leave where you should leave.

Doesn't mean you abandon your family, but if you're living in a place that is inferior to what God has called your life to be, he says, get up and get out of that place. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Now, ultimately, the promise is fulfilled through Jesus Christ and his church.

The lineage of Christ was going to come through Abraham and through the descendants of Abraham, ultimately come to Jesus Christ, the son of God, you and me, so we are, in a sense, the end game of that promise that was made to Abraham.

The earth is supposed to be blessed through us, as the people of God. We have a divine purpose in this world, and pray with all your heart that none of us should come short of what God has for us. Psalm 23, verse 5, David the psalmist says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

God’s Provision in the Face of Opposition

Now, everything of hell is going to come against you to stop you from becoming that which God has called you to be. From people will speak words to try to discourage you, situations will arise to get you to believe that you can't go forward, enemies will come to torment you.

We do fight against powers and principalities, spiritual things in high places that hate the testimony of God and the testimony of his people. You will come into opposition. It's not going to be an easy walk, but it is a walk that God promises.

David says, you prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. I've had a picture in my mind for years of David at this banquet table, and he's got biscuits and he's got fish, and his enemies are there with the sword, and all they can do is, David says, pass the bread, please, would you mind giving me that loaf of bread?

The table that God has prepared is in the midst, and they are powerless to strike him because his confidence is in God. And then David says, and you anoint my head with oil. In other words, you give me not only a touch of heaven, but an understanding of what my life is about, an understanding of why I exist in the earth.

There's nothing worse than just aimlessly traveling through the world, trying to figure out what is life, what is the meaning of life, what is this all about? Isn't it wonderful just to know what our purpose in life really is?

And then David says, and my cup runs over. In other words, you bring such blessing into my life that it flows out of me freely to others. I can't contain it. I can't keep it inside. There's such a newness of life that you've given to me that it becomes as natural as breathing just to tell others what you have done and are doing for me.

It Is Never Too Late to Begin Walking With God

And verse four of Genesis 12 says, Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him and Lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. That was his hometown. In other words, it's never too late to start walking with God.

It's never too late. Don't buy the lie. Don't buy the lie that you're too old, that your day has somehow passed. I tell you in the spirit, you can do more in five minutes than people in the flesh can do in 50 years.

Praise be to God. You may have, you may have a trail of, of, of wounding and hurt behind you, but I tell you, you turn to God, sir, you turn to God, ma 'am, and God will give you a voice in your own home, among your own family, among your own friends.

He will transform your life and give you a spiritual authority and you shall be a blessing. Everywhere you go, you will be a blessing. That's the promise of God to those who get up and take this journey with God.

Egypt as a Picture of Spiritual Captivity

Now in spite of this incredible promise, the descendants of Abraham in our opening text, they ended up in another place and in another spiritual condition, which was quite inferior to what they had been promised that they would be.

You know, a lot of them, I suppose, were quite content to live this way and in this place, even though they knew that they were living far beneath their promised inheritance. And you see what had happened is in a time of hardship, Egypt, which really represents in the Old Testament, the world and all the world has to offer, opened its arms wide and said, come to us and we will give you comfort.

We will feed you. We will put you in the finest of the land. And even God's people from time to time make a mistake when the society opens its arms. That happened in America maybe a generation or two ago, I don't know how long back, but the society kind of opened its arms.

Remember when it was fashionable to be a Christian? Everybody was born again, whether they were or not, everybody was. Born again, athletes, born again, politicians, born again, this, born again, that.

It was fashionable. The world, the society opened its arms and said, come, let us comfort you. Let us comfort you. And in that comfort, they found themselves in a place where that which offered them comfort now was dominating their very existence.

The Bible calls it taskmasters. You know, Paul warned the Corinthian church about certain behaviors in 1 Corinthians 6. And he said, don't be deceived. He said, you know, and he started listing all these behaviors.

Most of them are moral or ethical behaviors that people were getting involved in. And he said, if you continue in these practices, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now we quite often preach that with a futuristic tense, as if it's only about heaven.

But don't forget, Jesus himself said, the kingdom of God is within you. You will not inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, there was something bought for your life on the cross when Jesus died that is for you.

There's something that God wants to do inside of you. It's that kingdom of God that's described as righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. It's the newness of life that God says, I will plant within your heart, within your life and make you not only blessed, but a blessing to everyone around you.

But if you continue in these practices, thievery, lying, immorality, all these other things, contention, drunkenness, strife, if you continue in these things, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. In other words, what offered you comfort will become your taskmaster.

Sin’s Comfort Becomes Its Master

And many people here know what I'm talking about. You turned to something for comfort once in your life, didn't you? And maybe some here have done that today. And it did comfort you, that little sip of whiskey, that little dance club that you just kind of, well, I'm just so tired of being alone, I'm just going to go out and I'll be a witness in the club.

You're not a witness, you're just a Christian in a place you shouldn't be in. That's all you are. And everybody knows it. You know it, and everybody around you knows it. A little bit of sexual play. What can it hurt?

A little snort, a little sniff, a little peek, a little bit of spiritual sleep. Solomon said in Proverbs 6, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, and so shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man.

And many people know that today. You've settled in somewhere that you know in your heart is far, far short of what you're called to be. And you're doing things that you know you shouldn't be doing. And they offered you comfort, but now they're your master.

Now they're dictating to you the terms of your day. What time you get up, what time you go to bed, how you live. And you come to the church looking for respite. But remember, Paul the Apostle said, the wages of sin is death.

The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Hebrew children, these descendants of Abraham, suddenly found themselves in a place where that society is throwing their firstborn, their newborn sons into the river to drown them.

Crying Out for Deliverance

Where are we today in our colleges? Where are we in our universities? What are they doing to our children in the public school system? This generation is trying to throw our children into the river to drown them in confusion because the devil himself fears the anointing of God, fears the blessing of God and hates the people of God.

But God in his mercy would not leave his own people in captivity and neither will he leave you in any kind of captive barrenness when you cry out to him. That was the key. He could have delivered them.

They were there for 400 years. He could have delivered them at any point in that 400 years. But what did God do? He waited till they cried. And the bottom line is they wanted out. He'll deliver you when you want out.

I'm sure many of them were just hoping they could go to their whatever kind of services they observed maybe on the Shabbat and they were just looking for a peace of mind. They're looking for that good feeling.

They want to be able to sing, oh, what he's done for me. And they want to clap their hands. They want to shout Halle, Halle, Hallelujah. But they have no intention of walking away from their practice.

And so it becomes a roller coaster of trying to get that good feeling and then plunge back down and let the taskmasters direct my life and come back and try to get the good feeling. But you know what happens after a time?

The roller coaster doesn't go quite as high every Sunday because God will not be mocked and he will not let you stay there. He will not let you as the body of Christ stay in a place you shouldn't be. So he will allow the bondage to increase.

He will allow the darkness to get deeper until we as the body of Christ cry out again, God, set me free. God, I want out. I want the life. And they had to know about the promise of Abraham that had to be passed down.

It was verbally passed down somewhat maybe in writing. I don't know, but they had to know. Didn't you tell our forefather Abraham that we would be blessed? Didn't you say that we would become a blessing in the earth and the whole world would start to know who you are to us?

But look at us. We're being driven by taskmasters and the only thing we're building is monuments to insane people in leadership. But finally, God heard what he wanted to hear, a cry, a cry. When you read it in Psalm 107, what happens when a prayer becomes a cry?

What God's response is when finally somebody just says, look, I'm not looking for to be pacified in this place that I'm living. I'm looking to get out. I'm looking to get away from this practice, out of this relationship.

I'm looking for the refining of my character. I'm looking for that which God has called me to do and God's called me to be. I'm looking for the freedom that is supposed to be mine in Jesus Christ. I'm tired of living here and living like this.

Believing God’s Word and Bowing in Worship

And then a day came when a messenger shows up and says, I've been sent by God to lead you into freedom. I mean, in the natural, it's just an 80 year old man and his older brother with a stick and a one line sermon.

And the guy who told him he sent to deliver them can't even, needs his brother to share the one line sermon. He can't even speak it himself. But in Exodus chapter four, in verse 31, the scripture says, so the people believed when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and he looked on their affliction and they bowed their heads in worship.

You see, that's the key. That's the key. It's as feeble as it might look, as impossible as it might seem. As far off as it might be, as long as the bondage has been there. But God brings a word like you're hearing this morning.

And on your part, if you can just bring yourself to do what they did and bow your head and believe God. Say, God, I don't know how you're going to give me the strength to get out of here. I don't know how you're going to give me the power to change this captivity in my life.

But Oh God, I believe it's better to go with the weakness that you set before me than to live in this place where I'm living now. And they bowed their head and they worshiped. And the scripture tells us when they believed their eyes became open to the power of God to deliver them.

When you start believing, the next thing you know, you're going to see God move heaven and earth to get you out of where you are and get you in to where you need to be. He plagued their enemies. He could darken.

He's the, he's the one who created the heavens and the earth. He can darken the sun. He can bring life. He can command death. He can do whatever he wants. They can bring frogs out of a river. He can do whatever he wants to do to set you free.

And suddenly just bowing. That was all they did. They bowed their heads and believe that's all they could come up with. They were so beaten down. They were so weary. They were so oppressed. They were so tired.

All they could do is just bow their heads and worship and believe the message that had come to them. And when they did, Paul says in Ephesians one 18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling.

What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. When you believe, suddenly you see his power.

It's revealed. He starts, everything around you starts shaking. All the mockers, all the devils of hell, everything that's tried to destroy your life. Suddenly you just become aware that the hand of God has come on you and God's leading you somewhere that you couldn't go in your own strength.

God’s Guidance Through the Wilderness

And it gets progressively better. In Exodus chapter 13, the scripture tells us that God began to lead them clearly. There was no more any confusion for them. Pillar of a cloud by the day and a pillar of fire by night.

Every man, every woman saw the hand of God before them. When you'd make that choice to live for God, when you say, I'm making the break from things I shouldn't be involved in and places I shouldn't go and relationships I shouldn't be in and everything else like it, suddenly you begin to hear that voice saying, this is the way walk in it.

God begins to speak to your heart. I can't explain it to you. I've known it throughout my life. It's just a strong, it's not an audible voice. It's a strong impression of the heart. Go here. Don't go there.

Do this. Trust me. Believe me. And there's a sudden and clear leading day and night, 24 hours a day. They're being led by the hand of God. And there is no doubt about who it is that's leading them. Exodus chapter 14, their enemies tried to recapture them and they learned that their enemies as they moved forward, had no power to recapture them.

Hallelujah to the lamb of God. When you make the choice to move forward, your old enemies, oh, they can shout from a hundred yards back, but they can't catch because God is not only leading you. He's got his hand behind you as well.

He's defending you from the leading you from the front and defending you from the back. That's how much God loves you. In Exodus chapter 15, after they'd gone through the river, the sea of impossibility, they learned how to worship.

Worship After Deliverance

I guess like we worship this morning. You know, some of you sang the songs, but you're not really involved in the worship. Like it's a nice song and it makes you happy and you clap your hands, but you're still on the wrong side of the river.

But once you get through, you don't need music to sing that song. Once you get through, you don't need a choir. You don't need anybody telling you what to do. You don't just worship in church on Sunday morning.

You worship at home. When you get up in the morning, oh God, thank you. You worship at night. You worship on the subway. You worship everywhere you are because your whole being has known and begun to understand the victory of God.

God, you took me out of where I couldn't get out of and you brought me into what I couldn't get into. And when my enemies came and said, we're going to recapture you, it's just far. There's no power in this.

It's a stupid plan you're following. God Almighty, you drowned them. You drowned them in the sea. You drowned them in the pages of your word. And I learned that I'm free in Christ. I'm free. As we sing Tuesday night, no more shackles, no more chains, no more bondage.

I'm free. I'm free to live for God. I'm free to love God. I'm free to know the blessing of God. I'm free to worship God the way I was born to, the way I was destined to. He's put a new song in sight of my heart.

David said, many will see it. Didn't say they'll hear it. He said, many will see it and fear and trust in the Lord. The song that God gives to us is deeper than words. It's something of his spirit inside of us that affects our entire countenance, not just our words, but our whole being.

And many see it and they begin to realize that there is a God, which of course was the promise to Abraham and his descendants that your life, I will bless you to the point where you'll become a blessing to the whole world, that you just let Christ be Christ inside of you.

Daily Bread and God’s Provision

Now, in Exodus 16, it gets even better. It just keeps getting progressively better. In Exodus 16, they were given food from heaven. Praise be to God. Every morning, as much as each person needed to find strength to face their day, didn't Jesus say that that would give us this day our daily bread.

Every morning they got up and there was this special food from heaven on the ground. And God told them, don't try to gather too much. Just gather what you need for the day, for you and your family. You don't have to read the whole Bible every morning, folks.

Open it up and you read it, read a verse, a chapter, meditate on something. Just this day that your thoughts be formed in God and suddenly this book opens. So you see, when you're living in a way that is not right, the Bible calls it in sin.

This book actually opposes you. If you're trying to justify a wrong way of living, the book is closed. It's just a historical text. But when you get up and walk with God, suddenly it opens. Suddenly it's just there.

You're reaching in. It's like your hand is going inside of a book. If that's possible and you're pulling out strength, not just for yourself, but for your family. There's a provision for everyone around you.

The young lady that's going to speak today at one o 'clock, I mean, she might tell you a little bit of her story. But I remember one day she came to me in the office and I don't think she'd mind me telling this.

And there was a lot of trouble in her home, a lot of trouble with her family, her brothers and sister and her parents. And she said, I really feel like I got to go back to St. Louis and I got to try to get them.

I said, no, you stay right here. The anchor holds the ship. The ship does not hold the anchor. I said, you stay here and you watch what God will do. Well, she did. Her brother and sister are both graduates of our Bible School Summit International School of Ministry.

Her dad gave his life to the Lord. He had been in prison for many years. He gave his life to the Lord. He was living for God, as best as I know, and God just undertook for that family. And this is a young lady that's going to be teaching about the fruit of the Spirit today at one o 'clock.

The Journey Requires Faith and Surrender

And the Lord's taking her to a whole other place that you can't really go there apart from faith. You can't really understand who God is unless you're willing to take the journey that God has prescribed for your life.

You see, the point of my message this morning or the message God's given me is really simple. If you've been crying out in secret, God has heard you. You know, you may not be crying out in a prayer meeting here, but you have been crying out at home.

You've been on your bed all by yourself. And oh, God, you've been moaning in the street. Oh, Jesus, help me. And he's heard your cry. He brought you here today, even if even if you don't even quite know even why you're here.

He brought you and he's speaking to your heart and he wants to set you free and take you on an incredible journey. An incredible journey. Not just a journey that you're always running from your former enemies.

I'm talking about an incredible journey. I'm talking about a journey that comes with a song and a vision that comes with understanding a journey that that creates newness of life that can only come from God.

I'm talking about a journey that gives you an endurance to go through even the deepest trial and the hottest fire in the deepest river and valley. I'm talking about something that when you get to the end of your days, you're going to be looking back to your family and others say, follow me as I follow Christ.

Follow me. I found the way to life. I found what it means to be a blessing. I found the true blessing of God. They bowed their heads and worshiped. They had no army. They had no weapons. They weren't allowed.

They weren't even allowed to sharpen their own instruments. They they had no strategy. They had no strength. They had no power. They had nothing. They had a word from God, which looked so small, kind of looked like a pebble in the forehead of a giant.

Looks so small, always does look so small, doesn't it? God's plan to redeem the world started as a seed in the womb. Always looks so small and went to a baby in a manger. And I'm sure there's a lot of people had a hard time say that that's the God who created the universe.

Like this kid who needs his diapers changed is a God who created the universe. It always looks foolish to the natural man, but contained in it is the power of God. I want to be a blessing. I want to be a blessing.

I want to be able. Now, there's a lot inside of me that fights against it. There's there's the struggle of every person that's here saying, oh, God, can I just smell the roses for a little while? No, Lord, you're asking me to go farther than I have already gone, and I don't have any strength left to go another foot.

But they bowed their heads and they worshiped and it began the journey of a lifetime. That's all that God requires of you. If you think there's seven steps or 16 things you got to do, bow your head. There's only one thing and worship and say, God, I believe you.

I believe you, Lord. I believe you. In spite of the reports around me, in spite of my own heart, I believe you, Lord. I believe you have a plan for me. I believe you're going to get me out of where I shouldn't be.

I believe you're going to help me to find fulfillment in being a blessing. In my generation that I don't have to go to the dance clubs anymore. Not I don't go to the dance club. Even when I was unsaved, dancing was not a gift that God gave me, praise God.

An Altar Call to Begin the Journey

Couldn't you do that today? Could you bow your head and worship? Now, listen, I'm not asking for a physical thing right now. Could you bow your head and God, as weak as I feel, I believe you. I believe you, Lord.

I believe you'll give me the strength to get out and you'll give me the leading to get in so that my life can be a blessing. So I can get out of what has become my taskmaster. You know, your taskmaster can be fear, depression, discouragement, a wrong way of thinking.

If only I could be there, I would be so happy. All these things can become taskmasters. But God in his mercy has a plan for your life. If you will embrace it, you watch what he will do. Prepare for the journey of a lifetime.

I'm going to give an altar call this morning, and it's just for those who have been crying out in secret and saying, Lord, God, you've read my mail. You know where I live. You've heard me. You sent me a word.

And so I'm just going to believe you. I have to. I have to believe you that you're going to give me victory in my situation. And if that's the cry of your heart, I want to open this front of this auditorium up to you.

And between the screens in the annex, as well as in North Jersey and for those that are at home listening, just stand up in your bedroom, your living room, wherever it is that you're watching. Just just just stand up and say, God, I bow my head and I worship.

I believe that you have a deeper purpose for my life than where I find myself today. And so I'm going to go forward to it. And I'm not going to be turned back on this purpose you have for my life. We're going to worship for about five or 10 minutes.

And as we stand, if the Lord is drawing you, the Lord speaking to you, and you strangely don't fully even understand it all, but say, God, I just I feel in my heart this is for me. I feel you're calling me to something deeper than where I am.

I'm going to ask you to get out of your seat and just join these that are already coming. God bless you, man. God bless you. I look forward to seeing what God's going to do in your life. Let's stand together, please, in the balcony.

Go to either exit in the main sanctuary. Just slip out of where you are. We'll pray together in just a moment. See, this is the reason why we want to be the church. This is I'm not willing to abandon a generation to darkness.

I'm not willing to let the parasites, the Canaanites, the Hittites and all the rest of the it's live in the place that belongs to us and to our children. Not willing to give up a generation to darkness when we are the light, Christ said of this world.

Living as Signposts for the Next Generation

All I got to do is hold one of these in my arms and I realize why I fight and why why we take this journey and what it's really all about. May God give us the grace to understand there's such power in a life that is lived for God.

Let that be the cry of your heart. God, I'm going to live my life for you. So my prayer for this precious children here today and for all of us is that that we would that our homes would be sanctuaries that our.

Our lives would be signposts for our children, not stumbling blocks, signposts that that we would live for God. That doesn't mean we're perfect. Their children are not looking for perfection from us. They're looking for reality.

Show me that God is real, you know, that we can humble ourselves when we make mistakes and we can say, I'm sorry when we've done something wrong. And they'll see us grow in grace and they form a right conclusion that God is real.

Oh, there's so much to be gained by you and I living for God now. Father, we just thank you, Lord, for these little ones, God, and we we dedicate them to you today. Lord, these precious, precious children that you've given to us individually as moms and dads, but also as the church body, as brothers and sisters in Christ.

I pray, God, that you help us to embrace these little ones and to live in a way that they can find you at a young age. God, give us victory. Lord, give us victory beyond our wildest dreams. When the people got up and went out, they took their children with them.