The Snare of the Satisfied — Carter Conlon

This message is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, P .O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771, or calling 903 -963 -8626.

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The Holy Spirit’s Warning to Seekers of God

I'm going to share something with you that is very real and very dear to me. It's something that the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me personally, and I'm going to convey it to you in that light. It's not something that I feel necessarily that is specifically tailored for this evening.

I think it's something the Holy Spirit's been speaking to me, and I'm going to bring it to you. And we'll trust that the Holy Spirit will speak to this church as a body and will speak to all of us individually, because something is coming your way.

I guarantee it. If you are a genuine seeker of God, something is coming your way that is so unexpected, it's almost an unseen enemy, but it will come the way of the seeker of God. We've been admonished all day today.

I was surprised when Pastor David spoke this morning how much in line I feel what the Holy Ghost gave him is with what I'm about to share tonight and also Teresa this afternoon. We don't confer with one another.

We may ask before the service, what are you speaking on? But we don't confer while we're preparing, lest we influence one another's messages. But the Holy Spirit is speaking, and he's been speaking something to me, and I'm going to be sharing it with you, and I believe that God's going to bless us tonight.

The blessing, as Pastor David said, if there is an anointing, it's going to make a difference in people's lives. And the blessing may not be evident even this evening, but it will be evident in the future.

You will understand this in a moment. Now, Father, I thank you so much that I can stand here dependent on you. And I thank you, Lord, that I am dependent on you. I thank you, Jesus, that I know I'm nothing and will never be anything.

All I have and everything I am comes from your hand. It's all come from you. And so tonight I bring it back to you, and I say thank you. And I ask you for an anointing of the Holy Spirit one more time.

God, that you would ignite and illuminate your word and make it real and desirable to the hearts of the hearers. I ask for great grace to step out of the way of this message, that you may come, Jesus, and that your voice might be heard.

I ask that I might be removed from it in entirety, that I might disappear, that you might appear. I thank you, Lord, this is about your kingdom, and it's about your name, your honor, your glory, and your people.

You have a people here that you love, a bride that you love so dearly that you shed your blood for her. And I'm asking, O God, that somehow, someway, you would teach us through these words tonight and guide us and lead us into a future that you have prepared for us as a people.

And, Father, I thank you for this from the very depths of my heart. In Jesus' mighty name. Psalm 40, I'm going to begin reading at verse 11. This is Psalm of David. Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord, and let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

For innumerable evils have compassed me about, and mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up. There are more than the hairs of my head, and therefore my heart faileth me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be driven backwards and put to shame that wish me evil.

Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, Aha. Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee. And let such as love thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified.

But I am poor and needy, and yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrying, O my God. Now, both the Hendrickson commentary and the Reiss chronological Bible place this psalm as having been written after David had been established in tremendous victory.

This was not a psalm of David's youth. It was rather more a song towards the middle of his older years. It's more than likely closer to the end than the beginning of the testimony that God had set about to establish through his life.

David’s Victories and God’s Establishing Work

I want to take a moment tonight and go back to 2 Samuel chapter 5, if you will, with me. I want to take a very, very quick look at some things that had been established by God in the life of David. And as we look back in 2 Samuel, beginning at chapter 5, we're going to see some incredible things that come into the heart of every child of God who's a seeker of Jesus Christ.

If you are a seeker of truth, what David experienced, God said to David, this will also be the blessing of your seed. Now, you have to understand, of course, through the lineage of David came Jesus Christ.

So, in effect, you can say we are the seed that God spoke about. The seed always refers to that life, that which was an eternal purpose, as it were, of God. Now, if you were to take it literally, you'd say the promise wasn't fulfilled, because obviously there were seeds that David had that rose in rebellion and were murders and etc. that this is not the actual fulfillment of that promise.

But every seeker of God, there is something coming your way so powerful, so wonderful. In chapter 5, I'm just going to pan through the scriptures. We see David, in verse 3, anointed king over all Israel.

Not by his own might or power, but by the grace of Almighty God. The best that David could do was seek God and hide, literally. And Saul, with more power, more influence, a greater army, simply couldn't find him.

And it's such an incredible type of the new believer, as it is. We come into the kingdom of God, and we don't have any power against our enemies. The best that we can do is duck down and let God begin to fight for us.

And many who have come to Christ, you remember those days, and you know that the only reason that you and I have any victory, it's because of Christ's provision and protection for us. The Bible says he was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 40 years.

Chapter 5, verse 7, tells us that David took the stronghold of Zion, the same as the city of David. David captured Jerusalem, as it is, which was considered to be an unconquerable city. But God showed David, through his provision, through the wisdom, the power that God gives to those that are his, that there's nothing that can't be conquered.

That is a type of Christ in our lives. There's no enemy that cannot be defeated. There's no power of hell that can stand against you when Christ is at the center of your heart and the center of your life.

You are destined, really, for victory, and we all are. If you have an honest pursuit of truth, you are going to grow from image to image and glory to glory. You are going to go from victory to victory.

It is a principle firmly established in God. There is an incredible victory for those that know him. He conquered what became the capital, as it is, of the heart of God. I'll put it in a spiritual sense.

And, of course, we know that Jerusalem is the very center of what will one day be the thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth. And David went on, verse 10 says, and grew great, and the Lord was with him.

He was increasing in strength. He was increasing in might. So those that are just beginning in your walk with God, please don't be discouraged because you've had a few setbacks. Don't be discouraged because if you are a seeker of truth, five years from today, you're going to be dumbfounded at what you have become because of the presence of Christ in your life.

You're going to look back, and it's going to be almost inconceivable that you were that person that you remember five years back. The change is going to be so pronounced. The victories will be so marked.

They're not just going to be marginal victories where you can say, well, I fought and came out with a bunch of wounds, but I seem to have survived. No, it's going to be decisive. The Lord is going to deal a death blow to your enemies, and there will be absolute decisive victories in your life, and you will begin to increase in strength.

Then, verse 11 tells us that another king came and sent messengers and built David a house. Incredible. God begins to establish you. You might have been a wanderer, as it is through society, looking for happiness and a reason for life.

And finally, you came to God, and now you find God establishing you. And he uses other people to do it, to help to bless you, to help to give you strength, to help plant you down deep and give you, as it is a house, a sense of permanence, a sense of belonging, a sense of reason for existing, a hope and a future.

And God gave that to David. And then verse 12 says that David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel. And then in verse 13, it says,. And there were yet sons and daughters born unto David.

God began to give him a heritage, and that's what he will do. Some of you have come into the house of God orphans. Some don't even know who their mothers and fathers were. Or if you did have family, your family is long gone, and you've come in.

But God says, No, you trust in me. I'm going to give you now a heritage. You're going to have a there's going to be a future. And it may not be a physical lineage, but you'll have a spiritual lineage.

I will do things in your life and you will beget children as it is into the kingdom of God. You will have spiritual sons and daughters. And it would be incredible. Like Pastor David has got spiritual sons and daughters now all over the world.

They consider him their father, not just their spiritual father, but actually they literally say, This is my father. Because they see their encounter with Christ that came through his life as the beginning of their life.

And this is a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful heritage that God gives to a genuine man or woman of God. That he will give you spiritual sons and daughters from your life, from the influence of your life.

Also going on in verse 5, it tells us the Philistines now, the enemies of God, came up against David. And God gave David wisdom. It says he inquired of the Lord in verse 19. We're still in chapter 5. And God told him, Go up and fight against your enemies and I will doubtless deliver them into your hand.

And David came and the Bible says he smote them there. And just as if a breach of water, like a dam broke. He said, I came upon them and it was like it was a host behind me. A power that was not my own and the army that was with me.

And we conquered them as if they were paper dolls as it is. They had no power. We came against them in the power of God and destroyed them. And the Bible says they burnt all of their images. That's the Philistines gods in verse 21.

And David and his men burnt them all there. And verse 22 says the Philistines came up yet again. And it's as if God said to David, let's have a little bit of fun together. I'm not trying to be like with the scriptures.

But let's just do it a different way this time. I want you just to wait at a specific point. And when you see the tops of the mulberry trees begin to sway back and forth as if the wind is going through them.

He says, then you go up against them and we'll do it together, David. We will beat them. And you'll begin to understand that there's a delight in the heart of God to fight for his children and to fight with his children.

A delight in David's heart to wait upon God. Can you imagine those that are not yet mature in the things of God? And they're given the instruction, just just wait on the hillside until you see the tops of the trees moving and then go.

We have the victory. It's as if David had the Bible does say the secret of the Lord is revealed to them who fear him. It's an amazing thing. God says, I'm going to show you how I fight. I'm going to show you how I do battle.

And David is knowing these marvelous, marvelous victories. Chapter six, verse 12, tells us that David brought the ark of God, which always represented the power, the promises of God, the provision of God.

And he brought it up from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David, which is Jerusalem, with gladness. And through David's life, I can see God's heart being made glad. It is it is everything that God wanted to to have a people and to dwell in the midst of a people.

And through this one surrendered vessel, all these things are beginning to happen now. And you see God's heart literally coming into the center of the city, which is going to be the capital of his people on Earth.

And David is dancing because he's he's so one in heart with God. He so understands the heart of God. And God so loves this man that even in the future generations, he would stay the hand of judgment even when it was deserved for David's sake.

And later on, God comes to David again, verse 16, and gives him a promise and says, your house and your kingdom will be established forever before you and thy throne shall be established forever. He makes him an incredible promise.

He speaks to him about the future. And he says, David, I'm going to establish your house and it's going to be established forever. I'm going to put such a presence of my life upon your lineage that there's going to be life spring.

Of course, we know today he's talking about the church that was going to come in a sense from the lineage of David. He could have no way of really fully comprehending this. But the magnitude of the promise, the magnitude of the promise that he gives to us and says, I'm going to give you eternal life.

I'm going to cause you to rule and reign with me. There's going to be no end to my kingdom and you're going to be with me and you're going to sit with me at the right hand of authority and power and you're going to rule and reign.

The promise that we have is no less than the promise that God gave to David. I hope you understand that tonight. Then David, verse 18, the scripture says, went in and sat before God and said, who am I, Lord?

And what is my house that you have brought me here? I feel like this all the time. I don't know if you feel like that sometimes. God, who am I and what is my house that you have brought me where you brought me and you've done what you've done for me and you have blessed me the way you've blessed me and you've changed me the way you've changed me.

God, who am I? Who am I? And why did you even notice me? Why did you even bother to reach down and touch me? And where do I find a place in your heart that you would even take time to do this in my life?

And David cries this out to the Lord and he says, and yet this was a small thing in your sight, O Lord, verse 19, but you've spoken also of my house for a great time to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?

Incredible, David says. Not only are you speaking about me and what you've done for me, but you're speaking about my house. You're saying you're giving me a new lineage. You are. You are going to do something that can't be done by the hand of man.

Oh, God, you're going to bless my sons and my daughters. And there's going to be a presence of your life in my house forever. Incredible. A brand new lineage is going to start. And that's your promise tonight.

I don't care where you've come from. What's your educational back? You could come from the mafia tonight. You could come from a household of thieves. It doesn't matter. You come to Christ and Christ says, I'm going to give you a new house.

There's going to be a new generation. History is going to record that the chain was broken the day you received Christ as your Savior and a new house started. A brand new house, a brand new lineage, brand new sons and daughters and grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Should the Lord carry that are going to live for God and have the presence and power of God in their lives. And I'm going to do it because I found a faithful man or I found a faithful woman who wants me in truth.

I'm going to do it for you. This is the promise of God. Incredible. Verse 25. David says, Now, Lord God, the word that you've spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his house, establish it forever and do as you have said.

And let your name be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel. Let the house of thy servant David be established before thee. For thou, O Lord of hosts, thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel has revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house.

Therefore, has thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee? And then it goes on. Chapter eight tells us David had more military success. Chapter nine shows us David being kind to Mephibosheth, who was the son of Saul, who actually became his sworn enemy.

You see David now moving into what we heard at three o 'clock today, moving into forgiveness, moving into kindness, not not repaying evil for evil, but taking really what was not even allowed in that generation, taking a lame man and putting him at his own table and feeding him.

An absolute type of Christ. And David begins to do these things. We see him moving deeper and deeper into the heart of God, taking Mephibosheth into his house. And at his table was was a partial fulfillment, as it is in the promise that there'd be life in his loins and life in his house, because it was the Christ life that was now being displayed in him and through him, taking him where a natural man can never go.

Chapter 10, we see again Israel coming up against the Ammonites and the Syrians and defeating them. It seemed like there was no end. If we go from Second Samuel, chapter five to chapter 10, we see David at rest.

We see him crowned by God. We see him living in the promises of God. We see him possessing of a promise of a supernaturally established house. We see him conquering, forgiving and defeating. This was the testimony of David.

Psalm 40 and the Transformation of the Seeker

Chapter Psalm 40. Again, David speaks about these days. Let me read it to you. These days he talks about at the beginning of Psalm 40. He's now talking about the beginning of his days and his walk with God.

I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet on a rock and established my goings. He's put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God.

And many shall see it in fear and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that makes the Lord his trust and respects, not the proud nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord, my God, are they wonderful works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to usward.

They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, there are more than can be numbered. David says you have determined in your heart to do miraculous things for those who love you.

And David says, I understand them now. I know them. You've opened my mind to them. And they're more than I can even declare. And then he goes on. He says, sacrifice an offering you don't desire. You've opened my ears.

Mine ears is open. And David says, I've been taken beyond even the people of the Old Testament generation who just simply felt that if we obey the law, God will bless us. And David says, no, you've opened my ears to something.

It's far beyond just that. It's far beyond just doing six hundred and something commands a day. Oh, God, no, it's beyond that. You've opened my ears and you've shown me that you don't want burnt offering and sin offering.

This is not what you required. And he says, then I said, Lo, I come. He got this knowledge from the scriptures. Verse seven, he says, In the volume of the book it is written of me. David says, I found myself.

I found something in the scriptures that you showed me supernaturally. It is not about obeying and doing all of this as important as that might be. But it's the man who delights to do your will. He said, I come in the volume of the book.

It is written to me. Verse eight, he says, I delight to do that. I will. Oh, my God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. And David is brought. To an absolute place of victory, an absolute place that if you have a heart for God, you are without doubt going to go there.

I can honestly say everything I have read through Second Samuel, I have experienced. God has been faithful to me. It's not a promise just for a few. It's for everybody. It's for you. And if you are a lover of truth, you will go there.

Everything David experienced, you will experience. You will have a testimony. And David goes on and says, I have preached this in the great congregation. I have not held back. I have not hid your righteousness in my heart.

I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great congregation. David said, you did it in my life. I saw your faithfulness. I understood what type of a person you bless.

And I preached it to the congregation. I didn't withhold a thing. I made declarations. God, you took me out of a pit. You put a song in my mouth. You gave me power when I had none. You kept me when nobody else could keep me.

You gave me strength when there was no other power to have strength around me. You caused my enemies to stumble and fall. They came against me from every way, but they could never find me. They could never overpower me.

You gave me the ability to conquer impossible places. You caused me to walk in the very center of your heart. And I saw the ark. I saw your heart. And I sensed your joy when the ark came into Jerusalem.

And you built me a house. And then you made me promises. You said you would establish my house forever. Oh, hallelujah. Deuteronomy chapter 6, if you'll go there with me. God knew the heart of man. And in Deuteronomy chapter 6 through Moses, he gave a warning to the children of Israel.

The Warning Against Forgetting God in Prosperity

He gave a warning. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 10. He says, And it shall be when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he swore unto thy fathers. To Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

And to give thee great and goodly cities which thou buildest not. In other words, to come and establish you with incredible power and wonderful provision. And to give you things that you didn't have the power to build.

And your houses will be full of good things which thou filts not. And wells dig which you did not dig. And vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant. And when you have eaten and are full. Then beware, lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt and from the house of bondage.

And the word in Hebrew for forget, it means to put something in the wrong place. Beware, lest you misplace the Lord. That's really what God was telling Moses to tell the people. Beware that you don't begin to put God in the wrong place.

This is not a struggle of the beginning. Those who are beginning in God, this is a snare of dissatisfied. Those that are full. You see, when we first come to God, we are like babies, all of us. We come in, oh God, I'm mentally tormented.

We are struggling with all the effects of sin. And everything that sin has done in our lives. That I'm afraid of the future and I don't have any money to pay my bills. And we just cry out to God and we are in effect needs driven in the house of the Lord.

And God is so gracious. He's done this time and again from the time he first had a people unto himself. He responds to our cry and he meets our need. And he supernaturally changes us. And as we continue to pursue truth, he makes us what we are not.

He takes us where we can't go. He gives us what we never possessed. And then we come to the point where we are not needs driven anymore. And this is the place where many, many fall back. They fall into the snare of dissatisfied.

Beware, Moses said, when you're full, that you don't misplace God. God could never bless Israel without Israel turning away from him. It's such a tragedy. Even through all the period of the judges, every time he would bless Israel, they'd cry out, he'd bless them, and then they would turn from him and begin to worship the gods of the nation and begin to...

It is the snare of those that are satisfied. Now, 2 Samuel chapter 11, if you'll go there with me. 2 Samuel 11. Now, we went from 5 to 10 and talked about all these marvelous victories and all the wonderful things that God did for David.

David’s Fall into Spiritual Laziness

And 2 Samuel chapter 11. Now, one researcher, at least anyway, put this chapter where David was in his 50s. Somewhere between 50 and perhaps 58 years of age. That he sinned with Bathsheba. This was not a sin of his youth.

Chapter 11, verse 1 says, It came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem.

And it came to pass that in the evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.

You see, David put God in the wrong place. He must place God in the time of his prosperity. The time of the zenith of his victory. The time when kings should still be fighting battles. He began to say, well, it's time for somebody else to fight.

I've done my dues. I'm tired now. I've paid the price. Well, anyways, I've got the promise of God anyway. My house is established and there's going to be all this blessing in my house. And all my enemies still can't seem to conquer me.

And I'm tired. I'm tired. It's time to let some of the other, maybe the younger people, go out and start do the fighting now. And the Bible says that he stayed home and at evening time he got up from off his bed.

Now, can you imagine what the rest of his life might have been written like? Now, you know what happened. He sinned. He committed adultery with Bathsheba. He murdered her husband, Uriah, who was one of his mighty men.

He went on and lied. And because of it, all kinds of trouble came into his house. Absalom, his son, rose up against him. You see, that's when Psalm 40 was written. It was at the time of Absalom's revolt.

He was driven out of Jerusalem. And all these things that came into his house, all the trouble, the rapes, everything that went on in his house because of this one sin that got a hold of him. Now, it's not just the sin with Bathsheba.

That was a symptom of another sickness. There was something else. The Bible says at evening time he got up off his bed. Can you just imagine how the rest of his life might have been written if the Scripture had said at evening time he got up off his knees?

It would have changed history as we know it. At evening time, he got up off his knees and looked over the edge of his house and said, what am I doing here? I need to be off in the battle with Joab and the rest of the army.

The Bible might have said that he went down and commanded his charioteers to saddle up the horses and chariots and headed off into the battle. No, he didn't get off of his knees. He got off of his bed.

He began to slumber, he began to sleep at the very zenith of the battle that was before him. You see, spiritual laziness is most often the affliction of those who are victorious. Spiritual laziness, I'll say that again, is most often the affliction of the victorious.

It's the snare of the satisfied. It's the church that's no longer needs driven. It's the people that don't feel the need anymore to come to prayer because they feel that all their needs have been met.

Well, I don't have to go to prayer, what's the point? I'm doing fine. There's such a laziness in that, beloved. It's a condition of the spirit that can come on those who have gotten so used to the victory that they no longer see their need.

There's a secret self-satisfaction, a diminishing prayer life, an inward thought that says, Lord, thank you that I'm not as other men are. Remember, Jesus spoke about two men went to a prayer meeting.

One stood up and said those very words. Oh, Lord, I thank you that I'm not as other men are. Christ decried his prayer as a prayer of a Pharisee, a man who goes down to his house unjustified. You see, it's a false prayer.

The Bible declares that you and I are in league with the worst of society without God in our lives. Without the Holy Spirit, we are murderers, liars, adulterers, thieves. If God took his Holy Spirit off of us tonight, there'd be unspeakable evil committed by those that are gathered in this house tonight.

I guarantee you that it would happen. Those things, that feeling that comes into your heart when somebody speaks to you the wrong way or cuts you off when you're driving, you would perform that. It wouldn't be just a feeling that's restrained by the power of God.

It would become a performance in your life. There is a day coming on the world when God is going to lift the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit. And unspeakable evil is going to break out throughout the whole world.

Only the Spirit of God keeps us from becoming like other men are because we are like other men are. We are. We possess within ourselves the capability of every evil known to man. And only God's grace keeps us.

Only God's grace keeps us. Second Corinthians 13 .5. Paul says, do you not know your own selves, except that Christ is in you, you'd be reprobates. Paul says, don't you understand? If the Spirit of God is not on you, you are reprobate, which means you failed the test.

Actually, in other translations, but an included definition means that you possess an abominable mind. If the Spirit of God is not in you, you have an abominable mind. Incredible. Now, did David ever think?

I think of David in the cave fleeing from Saul. And the Bible tells us that a contingency of distressed, in debt and disaffected as it is men came and they gathered around him. And because of his influence, because of his relationship with God, they became mighty men.

They went out and they slew lions and they guarded, they took fields and they some could take a spear. And one of them took a sword out of a giant's hand and slew him with his own sword. They went out so inspired by this man's relationship with God.

And Uriah was one of them. Uriah is listed as one of the mighty men of David. In that cave, when David is writing the sweet Psalms of trust and provision and protection. Do you think for one moment that David ever thought that he would be murdering this man that was next to him?