If It Be Thou, Bid Me Come — Carter Conlon

Praise God. I'm going to begin to preach a series this morning called Finishing the Race. Now it is my personal viewpoint, so you take that how you will, that we are potentially the last group of people on this earth as we know it that are going to be handed the baton in this race.

It's been 2 ,000 years of people who have known Christ, have run this race, and they're coming around the corner and we're being handed that the baton for the last leg of the race. It's been a long time coming.

In some measure I suppose some are kind of enamored with the crowd, others are just enjoying the sunshine of the day, and the Lord is going to help us to understand how we have to run this to finish the race.

Running the Race With Determination and Truth

First Corinthians 924, just let me read it to you. Paul said, Do you not know that they which run in a race run all, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain. Now Paul is saying that you've got to run this race with determination.

And then to Timothy, he says in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5, he said, If a man also strives for masteries, yet he's not crowned, except he strive lawfully. In other words, you can't just run with determination, you have to run this race truthfully.

Truth has to be at the core of who we are. Truth has to be the banner. Truth is in a sense the baton that is handed to us, and it is what we're taking with others across this finish line of time as we know it today.

Matthew chapter 14 please if you will. This will be the first in the series of messages on finishing the race. And the title of this one is, If it be thou bid me come. If it be thou bid me come. Now Lord Jesus Christ, I thank you for strength.

I thank you Lord for your presence. I thank you that you always come and you confirm your word. Thank you Lord that you're taking us all on the journey. You'll give me the strength to speak it this morning and all of us the strength to hear it.

Put these truths deep in our heart. Help us not Lord to cast away our strength. God Almighty, I pray one more time for a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit in New York City. Lord Jesus Christ, you are welcome.

Holy Spirit, you are welcome. Not only in this church, but in this city. We welcome you. We stand at the gate and we welcome you to the city. We ask you, O God, to help us run our portion of this race in a manner that will truly bring honor to your name.

Thank you for this day. Thank you for this word. In Jesus' name. Matthew chapter 14, beginning at verse 22, If it be thou bid me come. And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away.

And when he had sent the multitudes away he went up into a mountain apart to pray and when the evening was come he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea tossed with waves for the wind was contrary.

And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were troubled saying it is his spirit and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them saying be of good cheer it is I be not afraid.

And Peter answered him and said Lord if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried saying Lord save me.

And immediately Jesus hand Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt. You know beloved there's there's great depth in the Word of God.

The Depth and Authority of Scripture

There's incredible depth in this book. Places where just like with Daniel mysteries are solved, the future is unfolded, doubts are overcome, strength is given, and the direction of our lives are is unfolded.

Many many great truths lay deep within the pages. Places that the casual seeker will never go to and never find. You can't dwell lightly with this book and ever become a man or woman of God with any authority any power any weight in this or any other generation.

You cannot deal casually with this Word and get away with it. Remember the Lord himself said God be not deceived. He said God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows that is exactly what he's going to reap.

You sow a light casual journey as it is through the Word of God you will you will you'll reap a very light and a very casual and a life with no weight no substance no ability to see truth and in tragedy no ability to see Christ in the storm no ability to walk where ordinary men can't walk.

Paul said in Romans 11 33 oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways are past finding out. Psalm 104 verses 1 and 3 the psalmist says bless the Lord of my soul O Lord my God thou art very great thou art clothed with honor and majesty and verse 3 says who lays the beams of his chambers in the waters.

In other words you exist in the depth where casual carnal or natural men cannot go. You live in a place that the casual seeker will never find you will never understand you. The casual seeker of God is like a man in a rowboat rowing in the vicinity of where the Titanic went down in 1912 and has remained and had remained a mystery for many years.

The theological focus of the casual seeker is I think that the treasure is somewhere in this area. I believe that it may look like this today. I imagine that it still speaks thus and thus to us today and this is what believers preachers churches that live on the surface of the scripture are like.

They're like people in a rowboat rowing as it is on the surface of the pages of scripture unable to see the depth unable to know the treasure that is down there unable to really truly learn from the lessons that it teaches the warnings that it gives that the history that it's willing to speak into the heart the strength that it's willing to impart to those who take the time to seek God.

The truth lies deep beneath this type of person and speaks in a manner that he cannot hear. It was in the year 1985 that the Ballard expedition at great expense and personal effort discovered the resting place of the Titanic one of the great luxury liners of the modern world of that time.

Really it was a symbol of the pride of the Industrial Revolution that was beginning and the pride of man thinking in a sense he could chart his own course out race even death itself and get to the destination before him.

It was after 73 years of being lost to human sight it was again seen at a depth of about somewhere between 12 ,400 and 13 ,000 feet down. One of the accounts of those who discovered the Titanic reads this way it says following much cheering and clapping reverential silence came over the crew of the ship it was called the Knorr K-N-O-R-R that was the discovery ship.

In other words cheering and clapping that after 73 years of searching and the numbers of expeditions the numbers of passing over the same vicinity that suddenly the the pool cleared as it is and I don't know if any of you have ever seen the documentary I think National Geographic has it.

It's certainly worth it when that first camera finally hits and focuses on the bow of that great ship that was once the pride of the Western world and suddenly there was cheering and clapping followed by a strange and an eerie silence and Job says it this way let me just read it to you from chapter 42.

Then Job answered the Lord and said I know that you can do everything and that no thought can be withholding from thee who is he that hides counsel without knowledge. Therefore I've uttered things that I didn't understand and things too wonderful for me which I knew not here I beseech thee and I will speak and I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me.

I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you wherefore I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. And Job was saying God I've had so many theories about why circumstances come into the world and come into life.

And he and his three friends the three principal friends and the young man had basically been sitting there with almost endless discussion about spiritual things with very little depth or knowledge. There was a whole realm going on that none of them knew anything about.

And Job said Oh God Oh God forgive me. I've spoken things that I didn't understand. They were too deep for me and I could not know them. But God now I'm going to ask questions of you and you're going to give me the answers because I have seen you with my own eye.

And I abhor myself he said I I abhor my own reasonings. I abhor how I presented you even to these men in my own suffering. I did not present you clearly. I didn't understand the depth of who you are the depth of the battle that's been going on all around me.

And this is a type of really what happened on this particular discovery ship where suddenly those who were there can testify that it's if they could hear suddenly the voices of the past. There was there was a hauntingness about it and the one captain said I don't know if I'll ever get over it.

All these years of searching to finally find this incredible lesson this treasure almost three miles down in the bottom of the ocean and he was describing something that God has been trying to speak to this generation for almost a hundred years.

It was the haunting cry of pride he said we could hear them we could hear the cries in the ocean. Suddenly it's as if it was there and we were reliving it. The haunting cry of those who feel that they can chart their own course through this life and somehow get to a successful destination only to find out that they've been deceived by the error of their own heart.

And sometimes the assistance of theological reasoning that falls far short of the glory of God. The pleas of the perishing those who had only perhaps minutes somewhere perhaps from 5 to 15 to 20 minutes in freezing cold water pleading for mercy.

And also the courage of those who gave their all for others. There are stories on the Titanic of of men who simply gave their place to somebody else and they they reasoned among themselves that they many of these men were prepared.

The character of God was already in them. Folks you don't develop character in crisis in crisis will show what your character really is. There were those who went to church but they were just sniveling cowards and they would push widows and orphans aside to procure safety for themselves.

And there is also a story of a man who was in the water with a life jacket swimming from person to person lifting their heads and saying do you know the Savior. Those who gave their all in the last moments of that time as they knew it.

And suddenly these things all come to the surface. As we begin to study the Word of God we begin to realize that those who have run before us they have heard these things. There have been those who have had the courage to give their all for the purpose of Jesus Christ while much of what we profess today is simply rose around the surface talking about the weather courses on how to keep dry on a rainy day courses on improving your rowing technique theories speculations about God but having so missed his heart.

And we live in such a generation beloved. We live in a generation of light touching of the Word of God a light esteeming and understanding of what has gone on in the kingdom of God and yet in his mercy the Lord is about to put the baton of truth in our hands.

And God forbid that we should run this race without truth or without determination. God forbid that you and I should not be prepared to give our all as the Lord calls us to give our all for not just our own sakes but for the sake of the perishing around us.

At the bottom of the ocean the ship lay in two pieces and it was a testimony to the ultimate destruction of humanity as it defies God and charts its own course and destination. I believe this was a prophetic moment this ship.

There have been other ships that have sunk through history. But this one has haunted the Western world. Folks there's something about this disaster. I believe the hand of God was in it warning this Western world warning this society this present generation in the last hundred years that you cannot in the ingenuity of man.

You cannot become your own God. You cannot solve your own problems. You cannot get out of your own dilemmas. You cannot make it to the other side in your own strength. You simply cannot be God. There is only one God and he does not share his glory with another.

This ship also speaks to me personally of the broken body of Jesus Christ. It speaks to me about the humility of God. It speaks to me about the Last Supper when Jesus Christ took the bread and broke it.

It was about himself. It was about the brokenness of God. It was about the willingness of God to come down into the world. God in a human body walk among us and make a way for us that we might be made right again and reconciled for time and for eternity.

I think of the weight of glory that rests upon that divine moment that anyone trying to approach it in his own strength would be crushed at the depth that the Titanic rests today. The weight if you tried to go down there in your own strength without adequate covering the weight of it is equal to a vehicle a full-sized automobile pricing on every square inch of your body.

That's the way no man no woman nobody in their own strength can approach this. It's just like you and I. We cannot approach the holy things of God in our own strength. We cannot fulfill the mandate of God in our own strength.

We can't deal casually with the things of God in our own strength. 2nd Chronicles 513 talking about Solomon's temple it says it came to pass as the trumpeters and singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord.

When they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music they praised the Lord saying for he is good and for his mercy endures forever. For then the house of the Lord was filled with the cloud even the house of the Lord so that the priest could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud.

For the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. There's a weight where God is. There's a weight of glory. There's it. There's a weight that causes that which is unlike him to bend its knee in his presence.

There's a weight of God that brings us into the realization folks that we will never fulfill this course in our own strength. But when they began to sing when the realization hits that we have nothing to add to the kingdom of God that all we can bring to him is a heart that says.

I would sure love to see the depths. I would love to walk in these steps. I would love to have you flow through me Lord Jesus Christ. I would love to be a person of weight in my generation not a light person.

I don't want to be like lot who who who actually discovered the truth near the time of destruction and went to his family and nobody would listen to him because he was a light man he had no weight in his character.

He'd never cultivated any kind of a deep or intimate relationship with God. So his own family it says they looked upon him and they laughed and they thought it was just simply a joke. But he knew he'd had a visitation of God but nobody would listen.

I don't want to be a light man in my generation. I don't. I don't want to have a voice that you can't listen to. This morning the priest could not stand to minister by reason of the glory of the Lord.

And they were singing a song he is good in his mercy and doers forever. Now somehow those who are in this house understood a truth that we are ambassadors in the earth of the goodness and mercy of God to all men in spite of the fact that we don't deserve it we haven't earned it.

We could never get there in our own strength. He remains good and his mercy endures forever. And the awareness of that. I'm not called to present myself. I'm called to walk with Christ and let him present himself through me because he is good in his forever.

When they began to sing that song with an understanding of who they were supposed to be in the earth the glory of the Lord came down. The weight of God. The Word of God calls us to weigh the majesty of the cross.

The Weight of the Cross and the Call to Sacrifice

To weigh the majesty of the cross. To not deal lightly with what happened on Calvary 2 ,000 years ago as if we get the gold star for being able to repeat the story. We're not to treat it lightly. We're not to deal with it casually but to say Lord.

Would you. Would you take me to the depths of what that means. Would you. Would you draw me down to the depths of what it means for me personally. What is it requiring of me. What. What is the cross calling me to.

Didn't you say in your word that I was to take up my cross daily and follow you as well. The Word of God calls us to weigh this majesty of the cross and in Christ to follow him to the depths of his commitment and love for a fallen world.

That's what the cross speaks to my heart to to be willing to be willing to make the determination now before the crisis hits that I'm not going to abandon people to save my own skin. I'm not going to abandon the cross.

I'm not going to be a light person in a rowboat in a sense rowing away from the crisis to save myself. And there were light people. There were people on that particular ship that literally rowed away from the disaster to save themselves.

Cowards they had they had been on the boat and perhaps they had made boasts of some of them were crew members. Perhaps they'd made boasts of their knowledge of the sea and their fearlessness of waves and winds.

And perhaps they were sitting on the deck and making boasts of past exploits and storms. They'd come through only to find themselves at the helm cowards running. One story particularly touches me of a of a woman who just literally shamed the crew in her boat said here we are.

We've got. I forget how many they had. Maybe just six or eight people in the boat that could have held many more than that she said. We must go back. We must go back. We have to go back. And folks there's a time if if we refuse to yet we have to live with the conscience of the fact that we we drop the baton in the moment that it came to us to show courage for the cause of Jesus Christ.

She finally shamed the crewman in the boat. They turned it around they went back. And they only in the mid in the dark they were only able to pull one person out of the water. One man they saved him and they didn't know it was they.

They pulled him in the bottom of the boat. They helped him to get warm. And when the Sun came up in the morning she realized and they all realized that she had gone back and pulled her own husband out of the water.

Oh you don't know what it will mean if you and I have the courage if you and I have the courage to just form the intent in our heart to say I'm not going to run no matter what happens no matter how difficult it gets.

I'm not in this world for my own comfort. Yes we live in comfort today. Many of us I know that I'm talking about a season that is coming. There's something coming our way folks. It's not it's not debatable in my heart anymore.

There's something coming our way and you and I have to have to be prepared for it. There's going to be a fear in this society. They're going to be a fear perhaps in our own city. And we have to be prepared not to run but to be here and be given no matter the personal cost.

Psalm 102 verse 19 and 20 it says. For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven. Did the Lord behold the earth to hear the groaning of the prisoner and to loose those that are appointed to death.

He looked down. He looked down from an incalculable height. He looked down into the depths of our despair. And he saw our need and he heard our groaning. And he came down to the earth. And he was given.

And because he was given you and I have the hope we have today. We can sing the way we sing. We can clap our hands. I know there's a lot of heartache going on here today and a lot of difficulty. But we still can't lift our hands.

We still can't give God glory because he came down to us. And as his church he has handed us the baton of that testimony as my father has sent me Jesus said even so now I send you. And so the choice that you and I have is we can live on the surface of an ocean.

On the surface we can we can read our five to ten verses every day. Never go any deeper than memorizing a few scriptures. Never never letting it search us never crying out like Job and saying God. I'm gonna ask the questions and I expect you to give me an answer.

I want to know the depths of this book and I want to know how it applies to my life. We can live on the surface of this book. I say it with a broken heart but that's where much of today's Christianity has lived with all of our theories and all of our steps to everything.

We simply lived on the surface of an ocean. What we can do is Jonah did in the midst of the storm and just say throw me God into the midst of these depths of struggle. Throw me into the depths of the power of God and his purpose for my life.

He was cast as it is into the depths of the storm that was going on in his generation. And you and I know the great good that came from his life. They were in a storm. Jesus seemed to be apart from them.

It is a type I suppose you could look at it that way if Christ is sending back into heaven again the church being sent to the to cross over to the other side. And it's the fourth watch now perhaps it means the last the last perhaps hours of darkness before the coming of the morning.

And they were toiling and rowing. And there was a storm and Jesus came walking to them on the water. And the disciples are all in the boat and they they see Christ. He has the power over what threatens them.

He has an ability to walk in the midst of the storm that they don't have. And Peter looks out and he says Lord if it is you bid me come to thee on the water. And he said come. When he began to walk on the water the scripture says he became afraid and he began to sink.

And there's a there's people here this morning they say pastor I'm afraid to go deep in the Bible. I'm afraid of what God will ask of me. Can't I just live on the surface and still get to heaven. I suppose so.

But why would you be afraid of the depths of Christ. I'm afraid that he's going to call me to Africa. Everybody's always afraid they're going to get called to Africa. Have you ever noticed that. I'm afraid he's going to ask me to do something I can't do.

I'm afraid if I go into the depth so so why can't I just stay on the surface. Why can't I just buy books that tell me how I can use this to make myself a better person to have an easier life a better testimony nicer family.

Why can't I stay on the surface. Why do I have to go into the depths. And Jesus is standing on the water and Peter is looking. And I think there are people today that are that are looking and saying God.

I realize what it could mean for me if I step out. If I ask you to actually take me to the depths of what your plan is for my life. It may mean a lot of change for me. It may mean different things. It may mean that I'm led into the impossible.

And Peter stepped out and as he began to walk on the water of course he started to sink. And he cried out. He said Lord save me. And immediately the scripture says Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him.

And what it speaks to me is that the call of God will never take you. And I where the hand of God cannot sustain us never never take us. Where God's hand will not sustain us. And he said to him oh he said thou of little faith.

Why did you doubt. Why did you doubt that I could keep you. Why or where did this come from. If I've called you I will keep you what I've asked you to do. You will be able to do. You will. You'll be given supernatural power to do things that are not available to the casual seeker of God.

There were 11 other people in that boat and only one got out. And I don't know if that's the norm. I don't know if that's the standard. But every once in a while in history somebody gets up and gets out.

Somebody says Lord if you're calling me I'm gonna go if it's you. And and it was a clear voice. It's not a it's not a supposition. It's not some mystical thing. It was actually the voice of Jesus calling.

And he knew it was the voice of Jesus calling. All the tremendous good that comes from believers who are willing to go into the depths of this book and not run from it and let God give us the power to become everything that this book calls us to be and to do what it calls us to do.

And I don't know what it is for you. It's not always the mission field. I don't know what it is but God knows you were born for a purpose my friend. There's there is there is a destiny that God put on your life.

The moment you breathe your first breath wherever it was it was at a home in a hospital. Right. Wherever you were born. There was a purpose for your life. And the Lord drew you to himself. And you're here today.

And now he says my son my daughter I have something more for you than what you've known. I have something deeper for you. I have something more profound more powerful. I have understanding that I want to give you.

But you have to be willing to go beneath the surface of the book. You have to have a willingness to go deep into the pages of Scripture. And at the bottom there's an incredible treasure. There's a treasure of learning.

There's a treasure of knowledge. Your ears will hear things that ordinary men don't hear. Your eyes will learn what ordinary men don't learn. It will be amazing what you begin to see as you go into the depths of this book.

And you won't come out with fear. You'll come out with faith. Praise God. I can't tell you what that is in your life. I don't know what it is. I could tell you what God was doing in my life. I couldn't tell you that he's.

He's stirring my heart about this very thing that I'm preaching to you because he knows the future in this city. I don't but I can't tell you as much as I know is your willingness. This might be the end of my journey.

But I pray God that I can run across that finish line with you. And we can have that baton of truth in our hand. And we will not vacate our time our season when we are called not to be cowards but to stand and run this race with determination and to run it truthfully in our generation.

I do see a time when people are going to be running for fear in the streets again and you and I are called. There has to be a testimony in the city now I know it will not be possible for everybody. I understand that.

But there will be some of us here and we have to be prepared settle the issue in your heart now go deep you you will not get depth. That's why in Matthew I believe it's 25 we talked about at the coming of Christ.

There are there are wise people and there are foolish people. The foolish didn't take any oil. There's no there's no depth. There's no light. There's nothing of substance there that can give light in the dark in time.

Preparing Before the Crisis Comes

Get into the book folks get into this Bible read it prayerfully and let it read you and stop and meditate on verses and say Lord is is this a word to me. Is this what you would have me to do and to move on.

I pray with an open Bible many times. I just I'll stop and I'll meditate and go back and read it again and read it again and read it again and read it again until it becomes part of me until it's lodged in my spirit until it becomes part of my thinking.

There's incredible depth there's incredible strength in the Word of God. When the children of Israel were called by Moses to prepare for the Passover when they were about to be released from Egypt and on that journey to the place of promise they were called to get inside of their homes to get a lamb to begin to eat that lamb and they were to eat all of the lamb and they were to eat the bitter with the sweet they were consumed because that was a type of Christ and our generation we're called to eat everything.

The things we like and the things we don't like the things that make us comfortable and the things that make us cringe. And folks I'm telling you I feel in my heart we're going to run this race. I just do.

I feel I'm not talking to a church full of cowards. We're going to run this race folks. We're going to do it right. We're going to do it God's way. We're going to finish it God's way. We're going to go out of this world untriumphed over and unashamed.

Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. Praise the Lord. If it be thou bid me come. Those are phenomenal words. We we know that Peter had a streak of cowardice in him because even later in the New Testament he had a fear of the Jews that would cause him to do things that he would later have to be reproved for there was a measure in him as there is in all of us but the Spirit of God because he was a man of truth ultimately who would make these steps came upon him and carried him through to the end.

I mean could you imagine if he had stepped out of the boat and Jesus had reached out his hand said well done. It's a great first few steps. Now you're going to be crucified upside down. You know that don't you.

He had no idea where that was going to take him those first few steps and you don't know and I don't know where those first few steps are going to take us. But I can say this if Christ is calling I want to go if it be thou bid me come.

Every time I get an invitation somewhere I don't go very many places to speak and I don't care if it's 50 ,000 or five people. It doesn't. The numbers don't matter to me anymore. But every time I get an invitation I put my hand out on my desk and I say if it be thou bid me come Lord.

I don't want to be anywhere. You don't want me to be. And I want to be everywhere you want me to be. If it be thou bid me come if it be thou O God if it be thou. And folks that's where it all begins. That's where it all starts and it has to start today.

It's sometimes tomorrow is too late. You train for a race and you have to train now you have to. You can't just pick up a baton out of the crowd and run in the Olympics. It doesn't work that way. You have to train for the race.

You have to have a determination to run the race. You have to run it like you're the only one that's going to get the prize. And you have to run it lawfully according to the Word of God. Praise be to God.

The Altar Call to Follow God's Leading

I want to give an altar call this morning. And it's very simple Lord if it be thou bid me come. If you are calling me Lord now he can be calling you out of something or he can be calling you into something.

But I know that we're never standing still as the Church of Jesus Christ. If it be thou let me not be afraid of the depths of this book. Let me not be afraid of its pages. I'm coming Lord to dwell in the depth of the pages of this book.

I'm not going to live on the surface any longer. Folks there's no life there anyway. There's no strength. There's no power there. And it won't get you through the crisis of life that all have to face eventually.