Scotland 2009 - Evangelistic Rally - Part 3 — Carter Conlon

Good evening. We give you a warm welcome to Greenock Town Hall and we pray that God is going to bless you tonight. We pray the power of the Holy Spirit is going to fall on this place and that each of us is going to have an encounter with the Living God.

Hallelujah. You excited about being here. Praise God so am I it's hard to believe isn't it excited of being here. It's wonderful to see you. We give you a very warm welcome in every part of the building and we pray you will know God's touch and his blessing.

And his power as we meet together to worship together. Tonight, let me remind you of a few up-and-coming events tonight at 10 o 'clock. We have our youth service if you are young. Okay, you judge if you are young you can come along at 10 o 'clock to our special youth event and join with our young people.

As they worship and praise and magnify God if you know any young people send them along tonight tomorrow. We have a couple of seminars. We've got the ladies seminar here at 10. We've got the businessmen seminar as well at 10.

It's not in here. Don't know where it is. We'll find out for you and tomorrow night in the Port Glasgow Town Hall we continue with Port Glasgow Town Hall on Saturday and Sunday evening where we will continue.

Unfortunately without our brothers and sisters from America everybody say. Because the local team are going to take over where this wonderful team have finished off. Amen. I've been asked to introduce pastor Carter Conlon to you tonight.

Wow never happens for me pardon can't hear you stop heckling. This is Greenock praise God. He asked me if we could do something Scottish tonight. So as you leave tonight, everybody will receive a deep-fried Mars bar, which you will really normally kidding, but No deep but no deep-fried Mars bars as a Scottish treat it's just too much for the cholesterol to cope with.

But we are going to do something Scottish now. Out there somewhere we've got a fantastic number of Visitors with us from America, but we've got a tremendous amount of people locally supporting the event and What we are going to do is we are going to do something to bless the Times Square Church team.

Because we're going to sing them a traditional Scottish hymn. So I googled What can we do for a traditional Scottish hymn and could I find one? No. But praise God during the time and just after the time of the Covenanters.

In the 16th century. When they needed to worship God, what did they do? They went back to the word this Country at one time was known as the land of the Bible and they went back to the Bible and they took the Psalms.

And they paraphrased them and they made some wonderful hymns. I To the hills will lift mine eyes. From whence doth come my need my help it cometh from the Lord whom heaven and earth hath made. But we're not singing that one tonight.

Because the local team we're going to treat them by singing probably the best-known hymn in Scotland and that's the Lord's my shepherd now. I want you to sing this as a Celebration. I thank you to the team for coming across here.

So I want all the local people wherever you are. I want you to stand up right now. The words are going to appear behind me and we're going to start singing the Lord's my shepherd now. I know many of you knew no harmonies and melodies and everything else and I want you to sing it with all your might and All your gusto.

Testimonies of God’s Grace in the Midst of Suffering

Throughout my childhood, I've known the Lord since I was six years old, but I've known great suffering and a lot of Dysfunction and a lot of just really sometimes hell on earth. My dad was a severe alcoholic and many times in our home It was never a place where you wanted to be.

There was a lot of death and destruction. I've watched my mom try to commit suicide I've seen it my dad hold a gun to his head and just saying it's not worth it and there's no reason to live. But since the age of six, I'm now 26 years old and I've always known God.

I've always known the grace of God and I can honestly say that he's always Walked with me and talked with me and he's kept me despite all the things that I faced as a child day in and day out. And I remember at the age of 16 when the first time I could look at my father and say that I loved him.

My dad came home from really just a Drinking binge and he came to our house and my mother had just had it and we were actually packed in the car my younger sister and I and all of our Belongings and we were leaving and we were gone and my dad as we were actually literally pulling out in the driveway.

He comes to the house and he pleads with us he gets down on his knees and just cries out in agony and just Asking for forgiveness and I remember looking at my dad and was just for the first time. I had compassion On him and I had a love that I had never known because we're so long.

I blamed him for my discomfort and I blamed him for the pain that I had experienced and I Realized for the first time in my life that he needed God too and he didn't want to be doing the very things that he was doing or the pain that he had caused my family and I Learned in that moment to have hope and something greater than the situation.

You see we can't look at our Circumstances to find hope and reasoning. We have to look up and we have to look to God and we have to believe in Him and him alone because our situations and life and death and pain are never gonna bring us comfort.

They're never gonna make sense life happens things happen. Pain is a very natural part of life. But God is bigger and God is stronger and there is a hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ. And so I just want to encourage you today that if you feel hopeless and you walk in day in and day out in your life.

That there is hope in Christ. You just look up and there is a God who loves you and a God who will keep you and I have known great healing. In my life I have seen my mother come from Wanting to commit suicide to making great leaps and is becoming a woman of God and she longs for the things of God.

My dad is is now celebrating a year of sobriety and I praise God that he is where he is. But I must tell you things are not perfect. All is is not completely perfect. But God is faithful and I believe and I even believe for each one of you here that little by little Step by step God is going to change you and he will restore your family.

He will give you life and he will keep you. You cry out to him and you just know that he's walking with you. And he will be everything that you need.

Brad Geis’s Redemption from Addiction

Wow, what a what an honor it is to be asked to share my testimony with all of you. My name is Brad Geis. I Came to New York City when I was 23 years old right out of college I came to New York to be a photographer and I came to New York to seek fame and fortune and I got it.

I got it really fast. It was like unbelievable my first week that I had a photo studio. I had three national ad campaigns and it didn't stop. It was unbelievable. People started talking about me in the ad community.

I had articles written about me in photo magazines and photo journals and Everybody wanted to work with me because I was like the new kid on the block and I started making money Like crazy for a 23 year old kid from California.

I didn't know what to do with all this money and and I wanted to go out and have a social life and I started going out at night and I started clubbing with with actors and socialites and models and I had this dream life and I One night I tried cocaine and at first I just loved it.

Just gave me energy and I gave me a even more ability to go out later at night. And then one night I remember I was in this penthouse apartment and I forget where but it was a this beautiful mega multi-million dollar penthouse apartment Overlooking Manhattan and there were all these people that were well-dressed socialites standing over a stove cooking up cocaine Making freebase and crack out of it and that night I tried and I smoked crack for the first time and My life became a living hell.

I was instantly addicted and It my life plummeted almost as fast as it got went up to the top. It couldn't it can fall just as fast down people started like talking about me as though I was Sharing that I was a drug addict and I started spending so much of my money like like several thousand dollars a week I had a habit of and I I I went away to drug rehab and I came back out and I relapsed immediately and I went from being Smoking in a penthouse apartment to going to crack houses my life Went to the bottom, I don't know if you know what a crack house is, but you don't want to go there.

I Did things I am not very proud of. I got beat up in in back alleys I was held up in gunpoint of my other addicts trying to steal them the crack. I had just bought I Have stole things I have lied. I have done things as I said that I'm embarrassed even admit to God about.

Um, then my parents and family wrote a letter to me and They said that they were disowning me as a child a son and They said they expected me to die as a drug addict and when I read those words, I I Believed them because I expected myself to die as a drug addict.

You see I had no more hope I Was doing drugs five six days in a row without getting any sleep I was doing to show it tell you what a drug addict is. I would like do things like I would see the freckles on my arms and my legs and think they were live Bugs underneath my skin and I take a razor blade and I try and cut all the freckles off of me because I thought they Were bugs eating me.

I did things that were so crazy. I was losing my mind and In the last couple weeks of my addiction I had a photo shoot and My addiction had gotten very strange at that point because I would in my photo studio Which was a big place three thousand square feet and I had tall ceilings and I had a bedroom in the corner.

When I'd get high in my bedroom, I'd see on this one wall where there's Spackle there was kind of unfinished wall. I would like be getting high and I'd see satanic symbols and I swore I heard demonic voices talking to me and I just shrug it off and I had a photo shoot one day and I needed I hired models for it and I needed a hair and makeup artist and the hair and makeup artist I usually hired was not available and I hired a makeup artist that was actually going to Times Square Church and She had been told coming into my studio not to share about Jesus.

Because she had ruined her career almost by by over Telling everybody about the Lord and Lo and behold she was running straight into a divine appointment with me. And it was all she could do To wait to the end of the day to come up to me and say no Brad.

I'd like to tell you about God and I'd like to invite you to church. You have to understand that I had lost all hope I had given up. I Did not think that there was anything left for me. And as soon as she mentioned God It was like God Wow There is hope for me.

God can heal me. God can do this. And so I said, okay Maria Let's exchange phone numbers and I promptly lost her phone number, but Maria would call me every single night and She would pray for me and we made appointment that next Sunday that she would come I said Maria you have to come and pick me up and take me to church because I knew I couldn't get there on my own and I Tried everything to stay sober for her to come and get me and I couldn't.

That night that day I got high and when she rang my doorbell I was shaking and and scared and crying. I was in the fetal position in the corner of my loft and I was so much an addict the drug had me as a slave and When she stopped ringing the doorbell, I just thought it was all over for me.

But she didn't give up. She kept calling me the next Sunday we made the same appointment the same thing happened again. That night I Was all alone and I'm telling you I Thought that was it. You see I couldn't even get to God my last hope was God and I couldn't get to him and That night I passed out the next morning.

I had a photo shoot. It was a Monday. I had another photo shoot and I was all I could do was to get through the day and Chase my assistants out of the photo studio and and I went into my bedroom to count how much money I had to see how many drugs I could go by and I heard the demonic voices and I looked up at the wall, and I was like Seeing the satanic symbols and I started to cry I started to tremble and I and I did something that I Even surprised myself.

I just cried out with all my heart to God and I said God God Please tell me you're real. I've always believed in you God if you're real right now Prove it to me. Show me where Maria's phone number is.

I lost it God help me find it and In the next second. I had this piece come over me and I felt God lead me to stand up Walk into my photo studio area go to a box in the corner. I opened up the box and there was my phone book with Maria's phone number in it.

I was standing there and I was like God you just answered me in the next second The Holy Spirit came down on me. God came down on me and it was the most warmest most wonderful feeling I've ever had in my entire life and I had my eyes closed and I want to say that he I heard him say open up your eyes and just always believe in me and I I want to tell you that the room was bright with light and It lasted about 30 seconds or so and I was standing there when it ended and I thought I'd gone insane Actually to tell you the truth I've been seeing satanic symbols in my bedroom and now God had visited me out here I grabbed Maria's phone number went to my my phone and and I Called Maria and she wasn't home and I was sitting there just scared to death because now there's a spiritual battle happening right there in front of me and I looked across my studio space and There I had done it sounds like I'm on a sidetrack now, but I had done a campaign for I Had done this charity campaign photo campaign for an organization in the United States and it had been used all over the United States on anti-racism and it had come out in God's perfect timing at a point when when There was race riots actually in the United States and I'm staring at this The organization had given me this billboard.

I had actually put it up on my wall so I'm looking at this 8 foot by 30 foot billboard on my wall and The Lord spoke to my heart and said Brad I used you to execute my will on anti-racism and I was I looked at those that billboard and I remembered I had framed pictures from that photo shoot and I got this idea that I wanted to grab those two frame pictures and Go back into my bedroom where I was seeing the satanic symbols.

So I got to my feet and I went to my tool chest and this was only a minute after the Holy Spirit had come down and I fell to my knees and I said God I'm a drug addict. I Can't stop doing drugs. I have no more.

Hope I have no more willpower. I Need you God I got to my feet I got to the tool chest I Reached in pulled a hammer out Pulled out two nails and the nails fell perfectly pointed to the inside part of my palm and It just made me think of Jesus on the cross and in the next second the Holy Spirit touched me again And I heard him Loud and clear as he said Brad You don't have to say no to drugs anymore I'll say no for you.

I died for your sins that was um April 29th 1991 now I I had to Confront a lot of people and asked forgiveness. I it was in major debt I had a lot of things that I had to deal with came out of my drug addiction, but God has been incredibly faithful and Also, the next day was a Tuesday I made it to Times Square Church and ran up to the altar call.

The Church as a Foretaste of Every Nation Worshiping God

What a pleasure it's been to be here with you in Greenock Scotland again and to Experience that that hymn was so special tonight. Thank you so very very much. Praise God for that. I felt as if when you sang that tonight we were being taken back in time.

There's a kind of a strange feeling it's as if I could hear other voices singing these same songs from many many years back and they The wonderful thing is that you you were not singing it with dullness as can happen in the church.

But you were singing it with a profound feeling in the heart, which I think is that is the tenure of this goddess church. It always has been. I praise God for that that sound that song that was heard in the sanctuary tonight.

I'm just so thankful tonight. I see all of the choir I dressed up in their finest and a lot of the folks in the choir tonight are dressed with the Clothing from their native countries. I don't know how many nations are represented in this choir tonight.

But I'd be safe to say 40 without me say 40. That's 40 different nations singing together with one voice. Praise God for that. I want to thank Greg Thomas wherever he's gone to I'll be gone the back. But I want I do want to thank him publicly because he's got more energy than any man I've ever known my entire life and great great creative ability to put all this together.

Please give him just give him your appreciation. All of the band all the orchestra and everybody that's come here. What a pleasure. It's been to fellowship with you tonight and this week. I mean to and to be here again tonight just a fellowship.

This is only a foretaste of heaven. It's a it's a slight little foretaste when every nation every tongue every kindred every tribe. We're going to be gathered together round about the throne of God. And if you have any reservation to worship tonight, you will not have any reservation there.

I guarantee you the reservation and all of the trappings of this life are going to be gone. All of the garb that we pick up is going to be discarded. We're going to be completely of one mind and one heart before the throne of God.

The Need for Dependence on the Holy Spirit

What a what a Marvelous time that will be. Tonight the Lord's put a message on my heart. That is I'm hoping and believing will People clap for you, by the way, Greg when you were gone they give it. So that you know.

You can get your picture taken with Greg after the service tonight. Five cents a great deal in Scotland. You'll be really appreciate. Why should I turn from sin Father. I thank you Lord for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

God we don't come here with a program. We don't come with strength of our own. We come here with a total complete dependence on the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And God our only right to stand and to sing and to proclaim anything is because you have come to us in mercy.

You have redeemed us out of every nation tribe and tongue and kindred. You've called us your own. Then you've commissioned us to stand as witnesses of the fact that you are alive from the dead. And so I come in obedience to you tonight Lord to do this, but God I would never dare do it in my own strength.

I don't possess the strength to do this. It has to be you. You have to override the frailties of this body the naturalness of this mind and you have to gift me Oh God that I can cause the people's hearts or to want to hear.

I'm asking you Holy Spirit to go ahead of me and father. Encompass me and move upon our hearts tonight. Oh God in this simple message. Give us the grace to understand these things in Jesus name. I'm going to read to you from the book of 1st Corinthians chapter 6.

Sin, Its Consequences, and the Need for Repentance

Why should I turn from sin now lest anybody thinks that you are going to escape tonight? This is a message for the church as well as for those who don't know Christ yet as Lord and Savior. Why should I turn from sin?

Paul says in 1st Corinthians chapter 6 beginning at verse 9. Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind.

Nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God and Such were some of you. But you are washed you are sanctified. You are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

Why should I turn from sin. Now let me first define sin according to what I read in the scriptures sin is a willful decision to embrace a practice or a way of living which God says is wrong and It's to reject both the pathway and the power that's clearly set before you in Christ to do that which God says is right.

It's a willful decision. There's nobody living in sin who has a lawful right before a holy God to say there's no way out of this. For God has made a way out of it. We get into sin and sinful situations because we make the choice to live in sin.

It's a free will choice to sin against God. Sin was infused into the human race when our first parents Adam and Eve. They consciously decided to defy what God had spoken and instead pursued what they thought would bring them happiness and fulfillment.

And that's what sin is. When we know what truth is. But we make a conscious decision to become our own God to chart our own course determine our own destiny to become the arbitrators as it is of what is right and what is wrong and We begin to justify wrong and sometimes even go to the extent of condemning, right?

Didn't the Prophet Isaiah say that and we're living in that type of an hour. Especially in the United States of America today when evil is being called good and good is being called evil. Abominable practices according to the scriptures are being called acceptable social and normal and There's a pointing of the finger now to everything that represents God and truth as being somehow abhorrent somehow.

Against the goodness of social order in the social agenda in our society and America is quickly turning from God. I pray that in our country as well as in Scotland that we don't make that tragic mistake of thinking that we can chart another Course and somehow ever prosper in that course.

The wages of sin according to the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 6 in verse 23 is death. Sin still pays. The same wage as it always had. Death comes to everything. Death touches everything. Death to your mind.

Death to your spirit. Death to your heart. Death to your ambitions. Death to your home. Death to your family. Death to everything you touch. Death to everything you speak. The wages of sin is death. It is the fruit of death it is it is the payment for Rebellion against a holy God and separation from all that God intended your life to be.

Did you know that tonight that God is a marvelous plan for everybody here a marvelous plan? It's a plan that should be making your life a wonderment and a praise in the earth. We're not called to be ordinary as Christians.

We're called to be extraordinary not in ourselves. But by the power of God carried through situations like you heard about tonight this young lady that testified. Carried through situations by God that should crush an ordinary child.

That should take away all hope and bring an everlasting despondency and unforgiveness and bitterness in the heart that affects every Relationship now and in those in the days to come but yet in the power of Christ upon a six-year-old child.

We heard it tonight. This young lady is now evolving into everything that God has intended her life to be. Because of a choice to do what is right and to shun what is wrong. In the book of Genesis in Just six short chapters.

I'm just gonna go through it very very quickly. Just a few verses. We're gonna see what sin does. It only took six chapters in Genesis from the time that sin entered into the human race. To the point where man's thoughts became continually only evil in Genesis chapter 6 and the Lord destroyed The earth except for Noah and his family.

Genesis 3 7 Tells us that sin takes away a sense of being of well-being and acceptance with God. Adam and Eve it says the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they showed fig leaves together and Made themselves aprons.

The moment you sin a sense of well-being is lost. The first time a young person enters into casual sex outside of marriage. There's something that comes into the spirit. There's something That comes to even those who are never had any religious training that they begin to realize that something is not right.

I've lost something. Something of virtue something that was created right has been made wrong. There's that inner sense. There's a there's a separation from God that sense of well-being is gone. Chapter 3 verse 10 tells us that sin brings shame in hiding.

They told Adam said to God when I heard your voice in the garden I was afraid because I was naked and I went and hid myself. We become afraid of people we become afraid of the dark. We become afraid of life.

We become afraid of circumstance situation and ultimately afraid of God. Afraid of ever coming into the presence of a holy God because we feel so dirty so ashamed and so unworthy. Sin brings sorrow a deep feeling of unsatisfaction no matter how much effort.

We put into finding something of lattice lasting satisfaction from the ground beneath our feet. Listen to what God Said to Adam and Eve Said unto the woman. He said I'll greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception and in sorrow thou shall bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy Husband he shall have the rule over thee.

Unto Adam he said because you've hearkened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree Which I commanded you saying you shall not eat of it cursed is the ground for your sake in sorrow. You will eat of it all the days of your life.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shall eat of the herb of the field in the sweat of your Face. You will eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it. You were taken dust you are and out and dust unto dust you shall return.

Saying bring sin brings sorrow and This deep sense of unsatisfaction no matter how much we try to work no matter how we sweat. That's what God was telling Adam. Go out. Go to every field you can find in this world and work hard and sweat as much as you can.

But it still will not bring forth to you what I gave you in my presence what you once had you will never get it back. Try everything try success try business try influence try fame try money try try drugs try alcohol try anything you want.

Achieve anything that man can achieve. Circle the globe 50 times and looking for and in the sweat of your brow. It still will produce thorns and thistles. I mean things that will be pain in your sides.

They will never satisfy. Scratch the ground all you want. Adam as Adam is leaving that garden is a flaming sword as it is is put in The Garden of Eden guarding the tree of life. He can't come back to it.

He's lost it and man now's is relegated to circling this grove and circling and circling and circling and scratching the earth and building castles and trying to find Something and some substance in the earth to satisfy but the Lord said work all you want.

But it will never satisfy you. You will never you'll you'll die. If you become a rich man, you'll die worried about who's going to inherit your money. It will never satisfy you never. Sin brings separation for time and eternity from what God and intended your life to be.

Says therefore the Lord God send him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed at the eat East of the Garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.

And these folks are our parents. They're your parents and they're my parents driven from the presence of God because of sin. Now all of a sudden in the next chapter we see the fruit of sin beginning to be manifested not only in Adam and Eve but in their family.

Sin’s Spread Through Envy, Violence, and Indifference

Sin brings envy and murder. Genesis chapter 4 verse 5 says unto Cain and his offering. He had not respect and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell and the Lord said unto Cain Why are you wroth and why is your countenance fallen if you do?

Well, shall you not be accepted if you do not. Well sin lies at the door he said unto thee shall be his desire and thou shall rule over him and Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to fat pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his Brother and slew him.

Sin brings envy and murder. That's why envy and murder is in the land today. It's because of sin. It's not because of all the nice trappings. We want to call it. It's not because of social meltdown. It's not because of the disintegration of the family.

There are yes, these are all byproducts, but go farther go farther go back. Go deeper. It's because of sin. It's because of rebellion against a holy God in the ways of God. Sin brings lies and indifference.

The Lord said to Cain where is Abel your brother? And he said I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? I often wonder sometimes. Is that why Cain's sacrifice was rejected? Is it was it possibly because he knew that in this man's heart?

He really didn't care about his brother. You ever go to church sometime and is it possible you're feeling like your your praises are are not going anywhere. That you're offering a sacrifice of praise and God is not accepting it.

Is it possible? Is it possible because that sacrifice is incomplete is it possible that sin lies at the door. Is it possible that that we can't legitimately come into the presence of God and say you are mine Christ and I am yours.

I have your heart you have my heart and the Lord says well, where's your brother then? Well, how do I know am I my brother's keeper? Where are the children in your streets that are committing suicide?

Why then why they're not in your fellowship? Where are they? You know the Bible says in the New Testament if any man says I love God and hates his brother. He's a liar and the truth is not in him. Now if you go back if you go into the original text of the Greek New Testament The word hate also has in it the connotation of indifference.

Now put that in the scripture if any man says I love God as an indifferent towards his brother. The love of God is not in him. Where is your brother? How do we say that we are worshiping God and we are children of God and have the heart of God and don't care if People around us go to hell that's not possible.

Now, I don't live with the gloominess. I I'm a happy Christian. Actually, I don't live with the gloominess in my heart. But I live with a constant awareness that people around me are going to perish one day and be cast away Everlastingly from the presence of a holy God into torment for all of eternity.

I'm aware that Christ died for them. I'm aware that the Christ in me loves them with a past it love. I'm aware that the God in me can make a difference. I'm aware. They don't have to go to hell as long as God is alive in me.

I'm aware of it. And when I come into the sanctuary, yes, I thank God for what he's done. Yes, I thank God for his presence. I thank God for the church. I thank God for my family, but I thank God for what he's going to do in the future.

I thank God that kids in New York City are not going to hell on my watch. We have 800 young people now coming out on Friday night and God's glory is touching them. That will soon turn into 8 ,000. By the grace of Almighty God Sin turns life into death and brings into your life and mind that which should never have been.

He says to Cain now your curse from the earth. Which has opened her mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand and when you till the ground that shall not henceforth yield to The earth strength and a future a fugitive and a vagabond.

Shalt thou be in the earth. You know why so many Christians wander around looking for God all over the world. I Often wonder is is that what you spoke to Cain? You'll be a vagabond and a fugitive. You'll never ever understand What this life is all about.

Is it simply because there's a refusal? To recognize that we have a brother in need. That so many people are just seem to be on this incredible treadmill of looking for some new touch from God. But ignoring where that life is supposed to bring us undealt with sin.

Genesis chapter 6 now. We're only in six chapters in the Old Testament and mankind has already come to a place where God can't take it any longer. In Genesis 6 5 it says. God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth.