The Responsibility of Little Strength — Carter Conlon

The Responsibility of Little Strength in Philadelphia

I wanna speak to you this morning from Revelation chapter three about the responsibility of little strength, the responsibility of little strength. And Father, I just thank you, God, with all my heart for the anointing of your spirit.

I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, that you are drawing us into something of yourself, Lord, that we'll do nothing but gladden our hearts, brighten the testimony of your life within us and make a difference in this darkened world.

I ask you, Lord God, to give me the touch of heaven that I need to speak this morning and give all of us here in this sanctuary the touch of heaven that we need to hear it. Lord, it's about you, it's about your kingdom now.

We find ourselves in a difficult place, but oh God, nothing is impossible to you. You can overturn anything that you need to overturn to bring us to where we need to be as a church, as a society, as a church age.

And so we appeal to you, Lord God, in Jesus' name to touch the words of my lips today and give it life, give it life, Lord, to touch hearts of people in many places and help us, Lord, to rise up out of the ashes of our own weakness and to find the strength that you are willing to give us in this last moment of time.

God, I thank you for it with all my heart, in Jesus' name, amen. Revelation chapter three, beginning at verse seven, the responsibility of little strength. How many have only a little bit of strength here this morning?

Thank you. How many are too weak to raise your hand? Okay. See that hand over there. See, God's touched you already. Revelation chapter three, beginning at verse seven. And to the angel, or that means the messenger or the pastor of the church in Philadelphia, write, these things says he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who opens and no one shuts and shuts, and no one opens.

I know your works. See, I've set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength, have kept my word and have not denied my name. Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not, but lie.

Indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you. Because you've kept my commandment to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which will come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth.

Behold, I'm coming quickly. Hold fast what you have that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new name.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Now today in this message I'm about to share with you, I'm speaking only in the context of the Christian versus the anti-Christian battle that is being waged for the future and the very soul of this nation.

The Spiritual Battle Behind the Nation's Crisis

I wanna make it very clear, the battle for this nation is not between Republican and Democrat or Libertarian, that is not the battle. Yes, all of those things have a measure of giving hope or taking it away for the future, but there's a much deeper battle going on.

And I pray God give you the eyes to see it. It's not about, the battle that we're fighting cannot be solved, it's a battle that's in the hearts of the people, it's a battle that the scripture says that our fight is not against people, it's not against flesh and blood, but it's against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places.

You have to believe that there are demonic powers set against this nation to destroy it, to divide it, to destroy the people, to take down the testimony. The battle that we're really waging is for the very future and the very soul of this nation.

This is my concern. And as believers in Jesus Christ, I hope it's yours also. This is my concern. You see folks, what's the point if everything goes my way or everything goes your way and most of the nation ends up in hell?

I'm not satisfied with that. I'm not satisfied with just fighting for my own comfort and getting my own viewpoint, but everyone around me perishing. I'm concerned for the future. I'm talking about the spiritual future and the very soul of the people of this country.

Now there are some people who feel today that we've been granted a temporary reprieve from this onslaught of godlessness. But I want to remind you that the battle is not only far from being over, in my opinion, it's just begun.

We're just starting the real fight. We've just gotten through this horrible situation of political battle and the division that's so evident now in our nation. But the real fight for the souls of the people is only starting now.

Israel's Testimony and the Continuing Battle

In 1 Kings chapter 20 and verse 22, the king of Israel had just defeated 33 kings that had come against the testimony of God at that time. Now the testimony of God was weak, don't misunderstand me. But nevertheless, Israel was called of God because of the promise made to Abraham to be a witness of the reality, the power, the generosity, the justice of God in the earth.

Everything about God was to be revealed through a people. And all through history, you read your Bible, it's not even debatable. There's a power of hell that comes against that to swallow up, to diminish, to destroy, to vilify this testimony of God that he is determined to make his own name known through a people called his own.

In this season, of course, it was the nation of Israel. When the nation of Israel rejected Christ, now God's promises to Israel have not failed, he will come. He is going to bless that nation in a phenomenally powerful way, perhaps even very, very shortly.

But it's through you and I as the church of Jesus Christ that this testimony of God is to be made known in the earth. And this king had an enemy come against him that in the natural had no power to defeat it.

But because there was still a testimony of God, still a spark of God's life alive in that city, still voices speaking for God that could still be heard, still a king though, even though he was moving away, obviously from God, still had a marginal ability to hear and to move towards what God was speaking.

And he won an incredible victory against odds that were just so deeply against him. But a prophet of God, right after that victory, came to the king of Israel and he told him, he said, prepare yourself.

I'll read it to you. He said, the prophet came to the king of Israel and said to him, go strengthen yourself and take note and see what you do. For in the spring of the year, the king of Syria will come up against you.

In other words, the battle is not over. Don't celebrate yet. The battle has only really begun. The king of Israel had a word from the Lord similar to our opening text today. When Jesus Christ speaks to this church called Philadelphia and he says, I know your works and see, I've set before you an open door and no one can shut it for you have a little strength.

You've kept my word and you've not denied my name. And if you can hear it today, I believe that the church, the testimony of Christ in America today has a little strength, just a little strength. We're not anywhere near as strong and powerful as many would like us to believe that we are.

Our voices are largely marginalized and we have perhaps rightly so in our generation been cast out as salt to be trodden under the feet of men. The conviction of sin is no longer in the house of God. The focus of much of the preaching in America in the last two decades turned to the gratification of self and turned away from the actual work of the cross of Jesus Christ.

And we have been left as a city in a field. We've been left as a besieged people. As the scripture says elsewhere on the top of a hill, we only have a little bit of strength. And I believe the beginning of a spiritual awakening is the humility to finally admit our condition and stop boasting of what we are not.

We have only a little bit of strength. But Jesus said to this church, I have set before you an open door that no one can close. I have set before you a place, I'm inviting you into a place where the impossible becomes possible.

I'm inviting you into a place where you will win a battle which you could never win in your own strength. It's a battle for the souls of the people. It's a battle for the future of a society. I'm inviting you through this door.

Holding Fast and Overcoming Fear

In verse 11, he says, hold fast what you have that no one takes your crown. And whoever overcomes, I'll make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go out no more. In other words, don't despair because of this moment.

Don't despair because of the darkness that's invaded our schools and our colleges and seems to be at every facet of our society. Don't despair because evil is on parade calling itself good. Hold fast the truth that you have that God himself has planted within your heart.

He overcomes me and you have to overcome your own sense of littleness. You have to overcome your own sense of hopelessness and you have to find within yourself the strength to just get up and go through the door that God has set before us.

That's all he's asking of us. He's not asking us to come up with another committee. He's not asking us to craft some strategy to win our cities. He's not asking us to get together and pick it and demonstrate as a church for righteousness.

No, he says, I'm asking you to get up in the smallness of your strength because I have set before you an open door that no man can shut. If you overcome your fear, if you overcome the doubt and unbelief, that's what has always been the one thing that can triumph over the testimony of Christ.

Think of the people of God, all the miracles they saw coming out of Egypt, all the testimony of God's faithfulness. They saw his power. They saw that the heavens and everything on the earth are subject to him.

And yet when they came to that final border of going in to claim that place of promise where they would be an everlasting testimony of who he is on the earth, they cowered when they saw the giants. They cowered at their own littleness.

They forgot who God was. And the psalmist says they limited the Holy One of Israel. It was a greater sin than the golden calf. It was a greater sin than the murmuring and complaining that had gone on in their midst.

They limited the Holy One of Israel. They said, he's brought me this far and he can bring me no farther. That scripture would have been just as applicable to them as it is today. Behold, I set before you an open door.

If you can find the strength, I'll bring you into a place where the strength of your testimony will remain. I will defeat your enemies. I will grant you that place of glorifying my name, not just in time, but forever.

And the text implies that though our strength is small, yet you and I are invited to arise and pass through into a place of victory, which has already been prepared for us. We don't have to fight for it.

The fight has already been won. We have to enter into it by faith. We enter it by faith, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. If you can hear it this morning, we have a great opportunity before us as the church of Jesus Christ.

Hearing and Receiving the Living Word

If we have the wisdom to understand the moment that we are living in. The scripture says in John, he came unto his own, but his own received him not. It was just too far out of the thinking. The things that he was speaking, it just didn't concur with their viewpoint of God and religion and all that it had become in that generation.

When the living God started speaking, they couldn't receive him in their hearts. There is a responsibility for you and I that comes with little strength. Because the natural question is, well, what then do I do?

I can barely survive as a Christian now. I can't even lift my voice in the workplace. I'm so afraid of being vilified and I'm so ashamed of being mocked. I'm a coward and I know it. And now God's asking me to go through this open door.

I only have a little strength. What will he require of me? And where will I find the strength? And what will happen in my life if I listen to his calling? Now, in order to understand this, we've got to go back in history a little bit.

God's Power Revealed Through Human Weakness

In the book of Exodus, God waited, and he always does. Check it out, study it. Always waits until we have no hope. He waited till Lazarus was dead before he raised him up. Could have spoken the word from where he was, said, be healed, just like he did on another occasion.

He said, just go home, your servant is healed. Could have done it for Lazarus, but he didn't. He waited till he died. And he said, this was for the glory of God. You see, if we didn't know we were weak, we would so touch the glory.

Look what we and God did. And he has to wait till the we is gone. And it's only God. And tell our testimonies, look what God did. He called Moses at one time in his own strength. He knew what the calling of God was on his life.

He knew he was called to bring deliverance to his own people and to, in a sense, reestablish the testimony of God in the earth that had been taken captive by a foreign power. But he set out to do it in his own strength, with his own strategies, and he ended up defeated.

Instead of bringing 3 million people into freedom, he buried one Egyptian. That was the only thing he could accomplish. And so he was driven into the wilderness for 40 years. And in the wilderness, he became aware of his failure.

He lost his power of speech. He was a powerful orator, Stephen says, when he was in Pharaoh's court. By the time God called him, he stuttered. He had lost his power of speech. God called him when he had nothing to offer.

God called him when he no longer had a sword in his hand. He no longer had anything but a staff, a stick, and trust in God. God called him at his lowest moment. And he said, I'm sending you now because I've heard the cry of the people.

I've heard the cry, and I'm sending you to bring them out and that the glory of God and the testimony of God be reestablished in the earth again. And so Moses headed out to go, and he took his family with him.

In Exodus chapter four and verse 24, here's an incredibly interesting verse of scripture. It says, it came to pass on the way. Now he's going in his weakness. He's doing what God's calling him to do. But it says, it came to pass on the way at the encampment that the Lord met him and sought to kill him.

It's an incredible thing. Now God does not have to seek to kill anybody. He can kill anybody he wants to. It's not like God was hiding behind a rock looking to pounce on Moses as he went by. When you read that, it says he sought to kill him.

In other words, there was something in his life that was so going to cause failure on this mission that it would be better had he died than progress on this journey. And you look and say, well, what could be so serious?

What could, he had gotten up in his weakness and he had decided to obey God. He had decided to go through this open door that the Lord set before him. So what's in his life that could cause God to even consider taking him out on the way this journey?

And here it was, it wasn't a difficult thing. And I think that most agree when you read the commentaries, most agree that bringing an uncircumcised son on this journey to set a nation free represented the fact that he had neither yet become fully identified with the people of God, and nor yet was he fully engaged in the calling of God that was on his life.

It was something as simple as that. His own son had not been set apart. It was within his power to do it, but he had neglected to do it. He was bringing something of himself and of his lineage and his house into this battle, and yet that son was not yet set apart for God.

Identifying With the Body and Purpose of Christ

You see, here's my question to you today. Do you fully identify with the people of God? Do you fully identify that you are part of a body that Christ has placed on the earth for a divine purpose? Coming to church this morning here at Times Square Church or online, are you part of something bigger than yourself?

That's my question to you today. Do you identify yourself still as an individual or do you identify yourself as part of something that God is doing on the earth, a testimony that he's raising up called the Church of Jesus Christ?

And secondly, have you fully embraced his purpose for your life? Have you fully embraced it? When you came into the church today and you're hearing a message like this and you feel like Moses must have felt and you say, God, I'm willing to go, but I'm so weak.

I'm not a good speaker and I don't have courage and I don't love the way I should. But in your heart, you're saying, okay, I'm gonna go. But the question I'm asking you today, is there something in your life, is there something still there that if you try to bring this thing with you into the work of God, it's just going to cause shame, not only to you, but to the kingdom of God.

Is there something that needs to be cut off? Is there something that needs to be put away? You know what that is, I can't tell you. Is there something, are you a purveyor of hate in this society? Are you fostering division?

Is your speech clean? Are you a loyal employee? Are you stealing in the workplace? Do you pay your taxes? I'm serious. Are your relationships holy? What do you do on Friday night? What uncircumcised thing are you trying to bring in with you to the work of God?

Saying, I will get up in my weakness and I will go. And what could be so serious that God says, best you stay where you are, then head in to do the work of God with this thing. Still alive and still intact.

And have you embraced his purpose for your life? You know, a lot of people have not embraced the body of Christ, you just consider it church, but don't fully understand what the church is on the earth.

This is the testimony of God. You are part of what God has left on the earth, ordained to be a testimony of who he is to this generation. Paul spoke to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, and he was admonishing the church because there was selfishness had gotten into that fellowship and people were just coming to worship but really self-consumed, not even concerned about the person on their left or on their right, how they're doing, do they have enough to eat?

Are they encouraged? And Paul says, for this reason, in 1 Corinthians 11 30, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep because you have failed to discern the Lord's body. In other words, you have failed to understand what it means to be part of the church of Jesus Christ.

This is an awesome calling to be part of the body of Christ. This is my life, this is your life. This is my hope, it's my heart, it's my future. It's everything I am, it's eternal, it's forever. In Joshua chapter five, Joshua, after the day of Moses was bringing the people of God in to claim their full inheritance and to become that testimony that God was calling them to be in the earth.

But yet again, a whole generation raised up in the wilderness were uncircumcised. That means they're not identified as the people of God. And so before they could go into the promised land, before Jericho could fall, before the Amalekites and all the others could be defeated, before the full inheritance that God had for his people could be won, there had to be a reckoning with God.

And there was a circumcision had to happen on all those who were born in the wilderness. And the reproach of Egypt had to be taken away. And Joshua chapter five, verse nine, he says, this day I've rolled away the reproach of Egypt.

Now what is the reproach of Egypt? It's the reproach of a people who can't hear the voice of God or yield to his purposes. If you think about the story in Exodus, that's the one hallmark, I guess, of Egypt is no matter how much God spoke, they wouldn't hear it.

They couldn't hear it. And that's the reproach of a people who are, in a sense, intermixed with society and can't hear the voice of God. And ultimately won't hear the voice of God, will not yield to his purpose for their life.

And also the reproach of Egypt was the reproach of a people who used the testimony of God only for their own gain. Egypt corralled the people of God and made them build treasure cities. And so they took that testimony and they just used it for themselves, for their own glory, for their own gain.

That's the reproach of Egypt. And if we're going to know the victory that God is wanting to give us in this generation, that reproach has got to be rolled away one more time from you and I as the church of Jesus Christ.

The Church as a Witness Against False Religion

I've set before you an open door. In verses eight and nine of Revelation three, he says, indeed, in verse nine, he says, I'll make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they're Jews and are not, but lie.

I will make them come and worship before your feet to know that I have loved you. The Lord's saying to us today, I'll do something so powerful in your life and through your life that false religion will lose its hold on the people and they will come and worship where you are.

Just like in the days of Elijah, false religion, false reasonings, false concepts of God will lose their hold through you and I as a weak people who are simply willing to go through the open door that God sets before us.

I'll make you a pillar in the temple of my God. I'll give you strength that you will be unmovable. And he says, I will write on you the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God.

And I will write on him my new name, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. I will write on you, God says, the name of hope. I'll write on you the name of a future. And I'll write on you the name of victory that was won on the cross of Calvary in the midst of a hopeless, crooked, dark, deceived generation.

You will have another countenance. You will have another name written on you. You will have a source of inward strength that doesn't come from anything in this world, it only comes from God. And just as the church began on the day of Pentecost, in the smallness of your strength, you will burst out into the marketplace one more time and false religion will bend its knee before you.

And you will give glory to God in your weakness. And you will travel from place to place in your weakness and the glory of God will follow you. And that which would seek to destroy men and women around you will have to bend its knee and to acknowledge that Jesus Christ has loved you.

Praise be to God. And so today, we're given the choice. Do we stay in smallness? Do we stay swallowed up with what this world has told us that we are and who we are? Or do we get up and go through the open door?

Faith for Families, Freedom, and Victory

In our weakness, in our struggles, in our trials, but with faith in our heart, to believe God for victory in every area of our lives. To believe God that he will give us the power to take away what needs to be taken away.

Every attitude of heart, every pain that keeps grinding our faces in the dust, every mistake we made in the past that still allows the devil access to try to condemn us. To get up in our weakness and go through that door into a victory that only God can fully make known in the human heart.

To go through that door to believe God for my family, to believe him for my wife or husband, whatever the case is, my children, my grandchildren, my nephews, my nieces, my aunts, my uncles, my brothers, my sisters.

To believe God as Moses did, that in my weakness, I'm going to get my family and I'm making no deal with the devil. If he tries to tell me you can go, but they don't go with you, I'm gonna stand there and say in prayer, no deal Satan, no deal, they all go with me.

I'm going and they all go. Not in my strength, but in the strength of my God. Not with my plans, but in the plan of my God. Not in my victory, but in the victory of my Christ who died and told me that I have power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt me.

I'm believing God for the power to identify with the body of Christ. That it's not about me, it's about us as the body of Christ. It's about Christ who is the center. He is the shout of the king. He is the victorious one in the midst of his body.

Thank God we're going to go together. We're going to do this together. We're going to get up and walk through the door together. I'm believing God for the ability to find the full purpose that Jesus has ordained for my life.

Though I have only a little strength, I'm getting up and I'm going through the door. That is the cry of my heart for you. That we, the body of Christ in this generation, will get up and we will go through the door for victory, for family, for community, for country, for the body of Christ, for the purpose of my life.

I'm getting up, Almighty God. I'm getting up and I'm going through the door. And whatever that means is what it means. Whatever it costs is what it costs. Wherever it leads is where you choose it to lead.

But I'm not sitting here and letting a generation die in their sin. I'm going through the door. I have only a little strength. As best as I know, I've kept his word and I've not denied his name. And God has made an incredible promise to you and to me and to us as a church.

Responding to the Open Door

Times Square Church, let's go through the door together. Let's all get up and go through the door. Let's do it. Let's do it now. If the Lord has spoken to your heart, it's a decision. You know, a lot of people don't respond to messages that they hear because they don't feel they can do it.

But here's all you have to do. Just get up. And let's say, let's imagine today at the end of every aisle where we have an usher, sides, front, and in the annex, and North Jersey, and in your own home, that there's a certain place where God has set a door open.

And he said, I've opened it, no one can close it. I've promised this, no one can take it away from you. I'm the one who makes you more than you are and gives you more than you can possess. I'm the one who takes you where you could never go.

That my name would be glorified again in the earth. And so where the ushers are standing right now, that's the door, it's only symbolic, but it's a type of what God is asking of us today. And the response of my heart, Lord, I'm going.

And let it be when you hit the end of the audience as it is here, and you pass beyond the audience, you say, this is the door and I'm going through. I'm going through. I'm going to identify with the body of Christ.

I'm going to bring my family with me. I'm gonna put away anything that offends the power of my God and the nature of my God. By the strength of God, I'm going to do these things. By God's strength, I'm going to do it.

I'm gonna believe God for it. And I'm taking my family. I don't care if your family is scattered all over the world right now, you can take them. God knows where they are. You begin to pray and watch what God is going to do.

This is a moment, a divine moment today, and I think you already know it in your heart. It's not just a message. This is something the Lord is speaking to you and speaking to me, something he wants to do.

The only thing I can say is I'm in. I'm in by the grace of God. I'll go through the door. And Father, I thank you for the men and women that you brought here today online and in this sanctuary, Lord. I thank you, God, for the courage that you will give to all of us, Lord, to seize this moment that you have presented to us.

You've promised us an incredible victory, God, that can't come by human effort. It only comes in human weakness. But you've asked us to get up and start the journey, just like Moses did, just like Joshua did, and the people, we just get up and we start the journey, believing for miracles again in our time.

We ask you, Lord, to have mercy on New York City. Have mercy on this city, God. Have mercy, Lord. Have mercy. God, have mercy on New York State. Have mercy on this country. Have mercy, Lord. Jesus Christ, we appeal to you for mercy.

God, we ask you to just make us the people that we are supposed to be. We thank you for it, in Jesus' name. If you'd like to respond today, the Lord's speaking to your heart, we're gonna stand in just a moment in the balcony.

I'd ask you to make your way to any of the exits, make your way down, and same in the main sanctuary. We're gonna meet here at this altar, and we're gonna pray. That's what we're going to do. And after we pray, we're gonna dedicate our children to the Lord this morning.

Strength Made Perfect Through Failure

So let's stand together, and if God's speaking to your heart, just come. I thank God with all my heart that the Lord doesn't call us in strength but in weakness. He doesn't call us in success but in failure.

Think it through, reason it through in the scriptures. Every time he wanted to do a miracle, he sought for a barren womb when he wanted a voice. He sought for somebody who could not bear a child to raise up a voice like John the Baptist and other times like it in scripture.

Moses just got up and headed out, and that's what you're doing today, just getting up and heading out. But God provided the power. He had to have the courage to speak, but God provided the power. He didn't give him much to speak, just the fact that you cannot keep the testimony of God captivated anymore.

More. The Lord has sent me to release those that are in prison and heal the brokenhearted, give sight to the blind, healing to the wounded, to tell everyone that this is the day you can be free. This is the acceptable year of the Lord.

Father, I thank you with all my heart, God, for these men and women and their hearts who have responded to you, Lord, and it's never been with the mighty, Lord, the noble, that you have one more time confounded the powers of darkness in any generation.

And so, Lord, we just lift up our nothingness to you and our weakness, and we thank you, Lord, that you can multiply it and bring your own name to glory. That's just who you are. That's what you do. And so, Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters that we would not turn back.

We would not go back through the open door the other way. We would keep going forward, believing that you're going to use us to make a difference and to glorify your name in our generation. We ask you, Father, that, God, you do something so powerful in us that false religion would lose its hold on the people as it did in Elijah's day.

We ask you to do something so powerful that evil would be broken. The people would turn and say, the Lord, he is God. The Lord, he is God. We lift up our young people in our streets, Lord, in our cities that are just so disillusioned at life itself, just feeling so hopeless.

We lift them up. Lord, they're looking for you. They just don't understand that you are the one that will meet the need of their heart and bring about the change that they long for. So, God, have mercy.

God, have mercy on us, Lord. Have mercy on the city. Have mercy on our nation. Have mercy, Lord Jesus Christ. We yield our bodies to this purpose that your mercy might be made known. Your grace and your glory might be revealed one more time.

And for this, Lord, we are forever thankful. Now, I ask God that you would begin to do miraculously through all the lives that are here, that you would just give my brothers and sisters the eyes to see when you do open doors and what you are doing.

Lord God Almighty, give them a weight in their speech, Lord, that when they speak just the softest word, it would fall, God, with an incredible weight on the hearts of the hearers. I ask, Lord, that you put something in their prayers that they simply know that hell can't resist them any longer.

The devil has no power to keep captive what they're praying that God would give freedom. Lord, thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, for raising us up. Lord, we give you praise and glory for raising us up at this last hour of time as your church, your bride, your beloved, Lord.

Who is this who comes out of the wilderness leaning upon her beloved? Lord, I thank you, God, for your mercy towards us and through us to others. And I bless you and praise you for it in Jesus' mighty name.