What Will It Take for God to Use My Life Again? — Carter Conlon

God bless you this morning Times Square Church Trust that the Lord's spoken to you already at this time and before I speak this morning I'd like to take a moment to recognize Catherine Logan the former president of Mount Zion is with us school of ministry.

She's now started a ministry called her New England and to believe in God for a revival in that part of the country. And so we stand with her in that and we thank the Lord for that. Mount Zion is now called some an international school of ministry and Greg Thomas, and I will be there this week Wednesday night and Thursday night conducting Revival services which are becoming a tradition there at the school.

I was just there last week and The students are so alive in Christ. I said to my wife I think they should be ministering to me as opposed to me coming out to minister to them. Nevertheless Lord will take us in our weakness and I trust it would be a blessing to that fine school that's been built on a fine foundation with young people from all over the world that Are finding their calling in Christ and I thank God for that.

These services are open to the public. So if you'd like to attend you're more than welcome to do that. Just go to summit PA dot or G and you'll find Directions how to get out there Wednesday night seven o 'clock.

Thursday night seven o 'clock. So if you'd like to attend you're more than welcome to do that. Praise God. For those who heard the announcement on TSC connect. We appreciate it very much if you would register with us and Let us know who you are and where you are so that for the express purpose if I might put it very simply that we Might get in touch with you when necessary and you might get in touch with us when necessary.

We've had people sometimes in the hospital three four weeks before we found out about it and we'd like to be able to Communicate with each other and especially in the season of emergency should that arise or when the church is closed like it was Season back because of snowstorms and such like the odd hurricane that passes through New York City and you will I Think deeply appreciate that if you'll make the effort to register we'd also been toying with the idea of creating something called grace book.

Where you can get in touch with each other? Communicate with each other those that have been part of the church. So we'll we'll see how that works in the days ahead now. I'm not going to mention the football game again this week.

Because when I mentioned it last week, they canceled it until this Sunday, sir. So I'm not going to mention it because it'll just drag out forever. Suffice to say we'll be here tonight at 6 o 'clock and Believing for great victory in people's lives who've come in to find salvation through Jesus Christ.

The Possibility of Restoration Through Faith

Psalm 126 please if you will. And Ezra chapter 1 now the book of Ezra if you find once you find Psalms go backwards four books Towards the beginning and you'll find the book of Ezra Chapter 1 and my message title is what will it take for God to use my life again?

What will it take for God to use? My life Again now father. I thank you Lord for Your anointing. I thank you Jesus with all my heart that You don't call us in our strength. You call us in our weakness.

Your word bears witness to this Mr. Lord, we come to you with nothing but a heart that wants to love you and serve you. We don't come with great records of success. We don't come to anything. We can point to as if that is righteous Lord we come with hearts that want to believe you father.

I pray God you touch me today And quicken me That I can clearly convey your thoughts to those that are gathered today to hear them and Let your kingdom come and your will be done in us Lord Gladden our hearts and we thank you for it in Jesus name.

What will it take for God to use my life again? Now when I when I say again The message is twofold. It's for people who are here today that God did use your life at one time and You feel that for whatever reason some measure of the hope the vision the encouragement the life that you had has somehow slipped through your fingers and You don't know if you can ever regain it.

Is it possible that God can ever rekindle me? Can he can he give me back what I lost whether you it just whether you just it slipped through your fingers or whether you lost Through action or lack of action and it's also applies to Somebody who's new to the Lord and you're reading the scriptures and you become part of this marvelous family of God.

And you look back in the scriptures and you say this incredible history 120 people coming out of an upper room of prayer filled to the brim with faith and the power of God going into a hostile environment and Changing as it is the whole known world of their time and You and I look at it because we're part of the same family.

These people were Adopted into the family of Christ just like we are and we look at it and say Oh God. Is there any chance that you will use us again like this? Does this power of God have to be always relegated to history?

Are we are we consigned to always reading about some great revival somewhere through somebody else in some other place. What will it take Lord? To use us again and this had to be the cry of the people of God of this season, we're about to read about and in many cases many came to the conclusion that If anything's ever going to happen it's going to be God and if he does initiate it help me God Almighty.

Give me the grace to respond. Help me not to sit back in unbelief. When a moment a window opens when God begins to speak something that to our natural ears is impossible. It can only happen if God makes it happen now someone.

Psalm 126 and the Promise of Reaping

26 When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion. We were like them that dream. In other words, it was such a profound moment. It didn't really seem like it could be happening. We were it was a dream.

When God did it not when we decided not when we came up with a formula, but when God turned our captivity. When God issued a decree telling us we could go home. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing.

And then they said among the heathen the Lord has done great things for them. The psalmist is saying all we could do was laugh and sing. All we could do is clap our hands and rejoice and listen to others.

Who don't know our God talk about the great things that he was doing for us? The Lord has done great things for us wherever we are glad. Turn again our captivity. Oh Lord as the streams in the south. They that so in tears shall reap in joy.

He that goes forth and weeps bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing Bringing his sheaves. Well, that means the fruit of his faith. Now this is this is most likely written about the captivity that the Nation of Israel came into under firstly the Dominion of Babylon a conquering Empire that conquered the whole known world of their time and Subsequently Babylon was conquered by another kingdom called Medo-Persia.

And the psalmist There's a recollection whether it's personal or it's historical that we we we went forth we lost our place of glory we we were we were the guardians as it is of the glory of God in the earth the literal presence of God and we let it slip through our fingers and we were taken into captivity and We we went into this foreign place with tears but we had in our hearts a promise or Promises of God that's going forth and weeping but bearing precious seed.

And it was 70 years those who know the history of captivity Under the Dominion of Babylon and subsequently Medo-Persia. But the psalmist says whoever goes forth weeping bearing that precious seed that promise of God Will doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing the fruit of that promise with him doubtless the psalmist a doubtless God cannot fail.

He will not fail and I'm telling you folks. He will have a testimony in the earth. He will have it. Years of thinking that all was lost. This is what this is where these people were. Seventy years we're talking about another generation now.

All they have is the history they would have a measure of folklore and verbal transmission of stories and some of the scriptures and. But the stories I'm sure of Solomon's glory this the story the stories of God coming down so powerfully.

The people could not stand to minister the stories of strangers coming in and sovereignly God answering their prayer. Of even foreign dignitaries coming because there was such order such glory their Knees bent and bowed before the presence of God.

But it was lost and they would have known as we know because of history Repeating itself over and over again that generations before us have known what we call revival. That means just realignment with God.

I mean, it's just simply coming back in to right relationship with God living pulses and moving and have our being having our being in him and. Now they've been in captivity for so long that so many would think that everything was lost.

Former blessings and callings are forfeited. Some would be the opinion that it was irretrievably lost scattered never more to be. Don't you ever buy the idea don't ever buy the idea that we are living in a post-christian society.

In order for any society to be post-christian there has to be no more Christ. As long as God lives he can bring bones to life he can raise the dead he can do anything he wants to do. No, we're living in a society that is failing to recognize Christ, but that does not make it post-christian.

Ezra 1 and God’s Sovereign Decree

Now suddenly in Ezra chapter 1 Suddenly God moves upon the heart of the king. The king's name he was the king of the Medo-Persian Empire that conquered Babylon. His name was Cyrus. I don't have the time to go there.

But Isaiah the Prophet had named him a hundred and sixty years before he came on the scene. God had told Isaiah that his people were going to go into captivity and a man was going to rise and God called my servant and called him Cyrus and Said in the scriptures that he was going to issue a decree and let the people go back home to build again what they had lost.

Amazing when you begin to think of it how much God is in control of everything. Nothing escapes him. Nothing is happening by chance. There's not a nation on the face of the earth that yes people think that we're sovereignly moving apart from God.

But that's really not the case. Remember when they prayed in Acts chapter 4 and they said that there's the kings of the earth have risen up and they're standing against the Lord and against his Christ but all they can do is what God has preordained them to do.

They can't operate outside the boundaries of what God has allowed them to do. Now the thought. Can you just imagine you're been in captivity for so long then suddenly? Riders on horseback because that's how they got the word out come into your village your town wherever you and they they unfold us a scroll.

And there's a decree from the king of a heathen empire. And folks these folks are not given to benevolence. You have to understand if you know the history. These are conquering nations. They're violent and vicious they don't even hesitate to kill what threatens them or disagrees with that and Suddenly this the scroll is unrolled there's one thing if it's the Word of God and Thank God for that.

But here's a scroll of a heathen King and it says the Lord has instructed me thus saith Cyrus king of Persia verse 2. The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he's charged me to build a house Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Who is there among you of all his people is if is God be with him? Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah and build the house of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is at Jerusalem. I Mean, can you imagine?

You imagine how incredulous that would be. That suddenly this this king issues a decree now. The thought would come to the people just the way the thought comes to you and I. Well, what where do we start?

What do we have to work with now when we left if I if I recall the story correctly the place was ransacked temple was destroyed the holy things were taken and It's been 70 years and they've been scattered among the known world as it is.

How do we do this, how do we go back and build a temple That glorifies God we don't have anything in our hands to do it with. Wasn't the temple plundered. Weren't the sanctified things taken. Haven't they passed through the hands of countless heathen soldiers.

Imagine when they may come in by the hundreds of thousands and ransacked the temple all the vessels in the temple. For example, every man would be taking no doubt a souvenir for himself they had gone through the 70 years of captivity they've gone through two kingdoms through empires through countless numbers of filthy pairs of hands.

They had been Belshazzar one of the descendants of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had Partied with them and gotten drunk with the vessels out of the temple and The thought would be in most everybody's heart haven't they been melted down by now and made into something else.

I mean Babylon had no use for Golden vessels that were used for ritual cleansing and or the knives that were used to carve the sacrifice. They had no desire for these things most likely. People would be thinking they probably melted down by now and made into idols and earrings and such like for the people.

You imagine their surprise that after all these years God presents that they get up to move forward and God presents them with all these things that he had once sanctified and he presents them to a new generation who are ready to go home a Generation like you and I who are determined that God one more time be glorified in the earth.

I Am determined folks, and I hope you are as well. Look at read with me now verse 7 Ezra 1 also Cyrus the king Brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord Which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem and had put them in the house of his gods even those did Cyrus king of Persia bring forth by the hand of Midradath the treasurer and Numbered them unto Shezbazar be the first governor the prince of Judah of the returning exiles.

And this is the number of them 30 charges of gold a thousand charges of silver nine and twenty knives 30 basins of gold silver basins of a second sort 410 and other vessels a thousand. All the vessels of gold and silver were five thousand and four hundred.

All these did Shezbazar bring up with them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon into Jerusalem. Amazing. Suddenly all these things that were once sanctified once used once part of The visitation of the glory of God that have seemingly been taken and captivated Dispersed In the natural they shouldn't be around anymore.

They should be long gone but suddenly the king issues a decree and 5 ,400 of these vessels 5 ,400 Vessels of gold and silver are put back into the hands of a people who are determined That the temple be built and the name of God be glorified in the earth again.

God Keeps What Is Committed to Him

My point is simply this nothing is ever lost once you put it into the hand of God. Nothing is lost. Nothing is gone. Paul said in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 12. I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed to him against that day.

I know him Paul said and I have. I don't know exactly what Paul gave to God. But I want to suggest he gave him a heart of faith. I Want to suggest that he believed that each of God's promises to him would be fulfilled in their season.

No matter his condition no matter what he had to go through no matter Whether he was whether he was on top of the world or the world was on top of him. Paul said to the church in 2nd Corinthians 1 8. That he had Despaired because of opposition he said I don't want you to be ignorant brethren of the trouble that came to us in Asia.

That we despaired of life. No, he believed that the promises of God would be fulfilled though. He might even despair because of the opposition. Or be overwhelmed by a sense of his own weakness. Paul said we had no way of getting out and we had a sense of death in ourselves.

In other words, we we knew there was no strength in us to do what we were called to do. We had to reckon ourselves dead. The only way this was going to happen is if this resurrection of life of Christ became ours and carried us and Paul made mistakes along the way which he would later regret.

He split in anger from a good friend called Barnabas because he had wrongly judged a young man. He'd rashly and wrongly judged him because Mark had failed in his sight. And Paul would live to regret this.

I know this. Because many of us have done the same and we understand he despaired. He felt overwhelmed. He made mistakes along the way yet God Paul knew would be faithful to every promise that he'd made him and he would give him what he needed to finish his journey in victory.

Paul knew it something came into his heart. Though I'd be overwhelmed. Though the mountains begin to shake though the seas roar. I'm not going to be moved by these things though my own frailty threatened to overwhelm me.

It's not about me anyway. It's about the faithfulness of God. Everything I've given to him. I gave him my life. I gave him my heart. I gave him my future. I gave him as much as I had and as much as I knew.

I gave him the sigh that came from my heart. I know my own promises are worthless, but I give him this sigh if that's all I could produce that. Oh God I want to finish this race and I want to do it righteously.

And I want to do it in a manner that brings glory to your name. And yes, I have to walk through the valley of my own frailty. I Have to walk through my own struggles. I have to walk through and deal with my own failings, but I'm telling you God Never loses anything that he has promised me.

I Might think I've forfeited. I might think it's scattered. I might think it's lost. I might think it's gone. Job a suffering man had this incredible Revelation he seemed to have lost everything everything his family slid through his hands and his his material gain and even his relationship with God Was hanging by a thread at this moment.

He didn't understand what was going on even felt that God was against him. Even his friends and his family his own wife thought it was all over for him and his wife suggested he curse God and die but Job Was given an incredible revelation of God and in chapter 19 verse 26 He says though after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh.

I will see God. Incredible thought now think it through with me if you will. I'm gonna die one day. You're gonna die. I'm gonna go into the grave and I don't know if you know. If there's a doctor in the house, you could help me with this.

But the human body rots from the inside out. I don't know if you're aware of that not the outside in we already have mechanisms that work in us and once the body dies it begins to devour itself from the inside out and May I just say this you and I will all be eaten by worms one day.

Not a very nice thought is it when you And just go on an imaginary journey with me. Some of these worms make it to the top of the grave and They're eaten by birds. Now they've been sustained by me my body and they've eaten my body and they get to the top of the grave and birds eat them.

The birds take off in The sky and a hunter somewhere suits a few of them. Brings them home cooks them in the oven. What do you think birds eat? Worms, what do you think worms eat? And they they put them out on the table and Then they say, you know, have you ever heard about pastor Carter used to be in New York City.

Wonder what he's doing now and so the point is Your your body one day you could drown at sea and be eaten by fish and end up in a sushi store up in Japan somewhere and Dispersed throughout, you know, there's a law of physics that matter cannot be created nor destroyed.

And one day The trumpet of God is going to sound. Now listen to me every piece of you Every part of you Everywhere you are in this world is going to come back together again. Because God doesn't lose anything.

We put into his hands. I don't know if you get the revelation of this, but I've got it. He doesn't lose anything job said even though I die and worms eat my body in My flesh. I am going to stand and see God With I'm gonna worship him with my voice.

I'm gonna see him with my eyes and then I'm gonna lift my hands before a holy God. I Will rise again and I will glorify his name. Oh. Don't laugh at me my enemy when I follow one of the prophets. Don't laugh at me because it's not over.

Until God says it is. I suppose the secondary moral of the story is be careful what you eat in Acts chapter 16. There was a man who was given the charge of you had a job and he was given the charge of watching over some people.

But the scripture tells us he fell asleep and when he fell asleep something sovereign happened that he wasn't aware of and the Paul and Silas were in the midst of this prison and as they worshiped God.

Everyone's chains came off and every every prison door open and they Had the liberty to walk away but they didn't and That's an amazing thing in itself. You know, we we have rightly fallen asleep in some areas of our lives.

We have rightly forfeited in a sense our responsibility that God gave us you have and I have and our generation has and Rightly so these things Simply speaking could have just gotten up and left us never to return but sovereignly.

Sovereignly God has kept everything that he has laid up in store for us exactly where it's supposed to be. The man in his heart felt like he had failed he felt like his life was had amounted to Nothing at that point a Despair overcame him such as is threatening to overcome any of us as we walk with God has threatened to overcome Paul threatened to overcome the people of Israel who had spent years in captivity and The scripture says he took out a knife and he was going to slay himself.

He'd lost hope he'd lost heart and It can happen even to people who once walked with God. Coming to the point of thinking that life is no longer worth living. I was given something to do and I lost it.

Through my neglect through my wrong action and slipped through my fingers and it's all over and the devil is. You can be sure over this man's shoulder saying thrust it through your heart. Give it up like Job curse God and die you failed God.

God is angry at you just ended now and Folks that sad to say people have succumbed to that argument. From time to time even through the course of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ. But suddenly in the midst of the darkness a voice comes perhaps like mine is coming to you today.

It's the voice of God through the Apostle Paul and he cries out to this man. Don't hurt yourself. We're all still here. Do yourself no harm you have not lost the calling of God you've not lost the gifts of God.

You've not lost what God has ordained for your life. It's all still there. Everything you need to do the work Christ call you to do is still at hand. You may not see it. You may not fully understand it.

But he has not taken it from you and he's not taking it from me because of our struggle and our frailties. Because it's never been about us from the beginning. It's been about him. The message is not about us.

It's about the one who died to give us eternal life and abundant life here while we live on the earth. Your part and mine in our generation is just get up and join the endless procession of those who've made the choice to get up and Build a life that truly glorifies God in the earth.

That's my choice and that's your choice. And folks I don't know if you're hearing what I'm hearing, but I I feel an open window in our generation. You may or may not agree with me. But you have the right to get up.

Christ is alive Christ. Jesus has a church in the earth. I don't see anywhere in the Bible where it says it's over. I Don't read that you can't show it to me. I don't find it. I know there are seasons of judgment that come upon societies.

I'm aware of that, but Israel was under also the chastisement of God. But a season came a time came when every man every woman every child Even if it was just historically could get back up and go back and build a testimony that glorified God in the earth.

And the good news is that everything that you need and I need is still there. His eye is not dim. His arm is not short. His voice has not grown weak. Jesus Christ the same yesterday. Today and forever nothing changes as you and I get up and make the determination in our heart.

To let this temple become a testimony that glorifies Christ in the earth. All the things that you need that you thought were lost will become yours again. Go back to Psalm 126 with me then said they Among the heathen verse 2 The Lord has done great things for them imagined as the Medo-Persian people are Standing there and there all the others intermingled that have been conquered by this empire and they're watching 50 ,000 at that time.

That's what it was essentially 50 ,000 who made the first journey. They're heading out of captivity. They're going home to build a testimony for God in the earth and They they've just they've just watched their government as it is Not given to being generous.

They've watched them load they see this procession of mules go by and they're so loaded down with gold you know how heavy gold is and There's this procession of mules heading out and If some of the lids are still off that as the Sun hits it it's gleaming in the sunlight vessels of gold and silver and those things that were used to sanctify the people and to to bring a up in reputation the name of God in the earth as they go by and.

And how incredulous it would be. It would be almost like if our present-day government just said all of a sudden there's no more taxes for anybody. It would be or how about no more taxes for the church.

Everybody else can pay taxes. It would be it would be that I'm trying to draw an illustration you can relate to it would be that incredulous that Suddenly here are these people going home to rebuild in this this storehouse of wealth given by an Empire that's that's generally just reaches out and conquers.

It's going by and it says then said the heathen the Lord has done great things for them. I Think that you and I are living at a time when those that are without God need to say that about us again. Those in our families who don't know God those in our neighborhoods in our workplaces.

They need to be able to look at your life and mine and say my goodness. Look what God has done for her or him. Look at the look at the peace that they have in this storm look at the Kind words when everyone else is lashing out and trying to blame and filled with anger.

Just listen to the kind speech Coming from them only God could have done this. Look at what. Look at the resource that suddenly in this life That we thought was as bankrupt as we are and the psalmist says turn again our captivity.

Oh Lord as the streams in the south Don't let us be Stopped up as it is by dryness or circumstance. But let this life begin to flow and let it begin to go everywhere that we go and let it be obvious That there's been an abundance of rain.

And they that so in tears shall reap in joy they Who have spent a long season weeping? They've they've walked away or walked into something of powerlessness, but in their heart they've had this promise.

Even though it's a distant echo. It's something of the past, but there was a promise given of God that he was going to use your life in a profound way. But yet it seems so far away so lost and so gone and the psalmist says Oh God I have lived to see this and I'm asking you Lord that I may live to see it again.

That we as your people Have gone into a season of weeping, but we have not lost your promise the things that you spoke to us that we've ingrained in our heart and God you say in your word that if this is me if this is my case I will doubtless come again with rejoicing and I will bring the fruit of that trust with me.

Think about the people coming home and all these vessels all these Instruments that were set apart to glorify God are still with them doubtless come home with rejoicing this is the promise of God to you and to me today if we will have the courage to get up and Just say Lord Jesus.

Everything you've destined my life to be. Everything you once whispered to my heart everything God. That's come to me from the pages of this book. Whether I've lost it through sleep Or carelessness or action Lord if you're telling me today that it's still mine.

And all you require of me this is that I get up and start heading back To rebuild this testimony of your glory in my time. Then God count me in. I'm gonna get in the back of that procession Lord and I'm gonna walk with those because you did rebuild the temple and it was greater than the former and Jesus came to it in the New Testament.

You did everything you said you were going to do. Turn my captivity. If that's my altar call today, it's so simple God Almighty. Whatever I have embraced whatever thinking got into me. Whatever non-reality I have settled for as reality I put it away and If you are telling me that I can go home and build a temple That will be greater than the former.

If you're telling me that my future will be greater than anything of my past. Then I'm going to get up and I'm going to go and I'm going to believe that every gift of the Holy Spirit. Every promise in the Word of God everything you've ever told me you're going to do you will do it in my life Lord, it's not because I'm not coming because I'm strong and I'm not coming because I've done it, right?

I'm coming because I believe what you're speaking to my heart. I believe That if you and I can hear this You're going to come to this house. Or you're going to go out in the street of New York City and all you can do is laugh and clap your hands.

Because you know that what's happening in your life has nothing to do with you you know that all you did was get up in your poverty and He suddenly just everything came your way. Everything just was given to you.

It was decreed it came from sources. You never believed it was going to come from the heathen around about you take a look at your life and say I Don't. I don't necessarily agree with what you do or believe but I sure see something in you That I know I don't have.

Then said they among the heathen the Lord has done great things for us. Father, thank you Lord for This word today. Thank you God for the strength to deliver it. My god, give us the heart to believe this.

Oh Jesus Lord we can't settle with talking about the past. We can't settle living in captivity in the present your promises have not changed. Lord, give us the courage to get up and Go forward. Give us the courage father.

The Call to Rise and Rebuild

I want to just remind you As we prepare to come to the shoulder today that the jailer in Paul's time. He got up Went home and led his whole house to Christ. We're going to take a moment to worship as we do and If God is calling you if the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart And he's saying listen, I want to use you.

I want to use you to glorify the name of Christ in the earth on your part. Just get up. Just get up and move. Towards the voice of God move towards what I'm promising you. Just move in that direction.

The Lord says I will provide what you need. I will supply you with the strength and the provision to live a life that brings glory to Jesus Christ. Let's stand together, please in the annex if you would Stand between the screens in Roxbury as well and summit this morning and also here in the main sanctuary.

Just make your way. This is not a call for the strong necessarily. It's for the person who knows they need the grace of God. Hallelujah, just come as we worship, please. You know the title of this message is what will it take for God to use my life again?

Faith in God’s Strength and Plan

Faith faith. You look away from what you think and look to what God says and believe him. That's the only prayer that should come from your lips this morning at this altar Lord I believe I Believe you Almighty God.

I I believe your word to me Lord, I believe that Every Footstep you predestined my life to walk. I will walk it. Not it in my strength, but in yours not according to my plans, but your plan. I Believe it Lord.

I believe it with all my heart and Father in this we can rejoice in this Lord. We can begin to clap our hands. We can begin to sing. Because it's not about us Lord. It's all about you Jesus. The testimony is about you.