God We Need You — Carter Conlon

And how good it feels. Doesn't it feel good when you see brethren dwelling together in unity? You know, there's so much disunity in this generation. There's so many people that are angry and violent and there's proponents of division and hatred and unforgiveness.

But how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And that's what I want to share on today. And after I do share, we're gonna go to communion tonight so that you have an opportunity to get some bread and some juice in your house and then you can partake of communion with us.

The Call to Unity in a Divided Generation

I'm gonna speak from Psalm 133 today. So if you have a Bible or similar device, if you could be kind enough to turn to that. So Father, I just want to thank you. I want to thank you, God, with all my heart tonight, Lord, for the touch of heaven.

God, that you put on your word, the leading, the drawing that we are all feeling in our heart, that you are bringing us to something bigger than any of us can fully understand. We recognize that we live in a generation that is being literally swallowed by darkness and there is no standard, there is no resisting it, there's no standing against it apart from the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

And God, the testimony you've established in the earth is in your house and among your people. So Lord, would you give us the wisdom, my God? Would you give us the strength and the grace that we need at this time to recognize the magnitude of the battle and the greatness of our God?

Give me, oh God, this day the ability, Lord, to speak for you and on your behalf. And Father, I thank you, God, for your word that always is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Would you help us not to resist truth?

Would you help us, my God, to be yielded to your purposes on the earth? Would you give us the great grace that all of us are going to need in this generation? And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Now before I begin today, I just wanna read a few prayer requests.

We Need Every Struggling Person in the Body of Christ

The title of my sharing today is We Need You. It's really simple, we need you. And I'm speaking now to people all over the world that are with us this evening. From Atlantic City, New Jersey, pray that God would free me from homosexuality.

I'm really trapped and I can't break hold of it. Pray that I would be born again. Jesus, save me. Whoever you are, we want you to know tonight that we need you. Adelpha from New York, my husband is threatening to leave due to a misunderstanding.

He has changed. I'm trusting God to heal us. Adelpha, we need you and we need your husband in the body of Christ. From Gutenberg, please pray for my daughter to overcome her depression and eating disorder.

She has been purging, has lost so much weight and will not accept help. From Illinois, I ran back into porn and lust. Please pray for me, I'm so tired of it. I need deliverance. We need you in Illinois, in the body of Christ.

John from Tom's River, please pray for my marriage, for God to be glorified in restoring what the enemy is trying to destroy. From Finland, please pray that God would have mercy on me. I feel I've gone astray in my walk.

I need forgiveness and deliverance from God. Renew a right spirit within me. We need you in Finland, in the body of Christ. From Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas, I'm sinking back into my old ways. My marriage is broken.

I've lost my children to the world and I feel lost, confused and shattered. Please pray for me. We need you in Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas. In the US, I'm so lonely in a house full of strife and anger. Please pray.

Another one says, please pray for me, I'm so lonely and my life seems just hopeless. From Stouffville, Ontario, Canada, praying for complete healing of my physical disability. I've lived with cerebral palsy my entire life.

37 years, I would like to receive God's healing. From Sydney, Australia, my husband has heaps of unforgiveness, anger, bitterness towards me. I keep forgiving, but it never stops. Married for 45 years, I plead Jesus' blood.

We need protection and help. And lastly, from Sweden, please pray for my oldest daughter who went through with an abortion. The child would have been born now. She was a believer at a young age. I am in grief.

And we're praying for you too as a parent, but also for your daughter because Jesus loves her and she is much needed in this end time that we're now living in, in the body of Christ and for the testimony of God.

Psalm 133: Unity, Anointing, and Blessing

Psalm 133 says, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down to the edge of his garments.

It's like the dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. How good and how pleasant it is. Now when I speak of unity, I just wanna make a clarifying statement.

I'm not talking about ecumenism. Ecumenism is about unity at the expense of truth. I'm not talking about that kind of unity in the body of Christ. I'm talking about the unity that is based on salvation by faith through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross 2 ,000 years ago.

That group of people, that group of believers have trusted Jesus Christ for their salvation in spite of the name that's on the church door. They've trusted in him and him alone for their salvation. He has redeemed them by his blood and the Holy Spirit of God now indwells their physical body.

That is the true church of Jesus Christ. The true church of Jesus Christ is a body from all different locations and all different places, different denominations, different names on the door and yet the body of Christ has different distinctives.

By distinctives, I mean it's certain practices that each of us incorporate and we believe these to be true. We may be right or we may be wrong. We may have a complete truth on our hands that we practice or maybe our truth needs to be modified just a little bit.

When I speak of distinctives, I speak of things that are not consequential to eternal life and to salvation and we are allowed to have those distinctives. You believe the rapture of the church is going to happen before the tribulation begins, you're more than welcome to your view.

If you believe it's going to happen mid-tribulation, then God be with you. You believe it's going to happen at the end of the tribulation, as I always say, you can have my truck and please feed my dog because I will no longer be here.

But you're free to believe. Some believe there is going to be no rapture of the Christian church at all and you see, these are distinctives. These are things that we hold to. There's other churches and places where they believe the communion has to be in a shared cup that you pass from.

If it's going to be genuine, it has to be in a cup passed from hand to hand. Others believe it has to be crackers. Some believe it has to be bread that melts in your mouth. Others believe it has to be hard, crusty bread.

It doesn't matter. These are just distinctives. You understand what I'm saying. But what brings us together as one body is that we have the same spirit. The spirit of God is upon us. And we don't always, like the Pharisees in the scriptures, they didn't like all the people that Jesus hung around with but wisdom is justified of its children.

And it is a pleasant thing when brethren dwell together in unity. In this time of incredible division in the world that we are experiencing today, we just see this little video of all these people singing the same song and it makes you feel good.

Now some people don't like the names of the churches and it doesn't make them feel good and that's just the reality of what causes disunity in the true body of Jesus Christ. But the reality is it brings a good feeling in the heart because there's so much division in the world today.

And what an opportunity we have as the body of Jesus Christ to come back together again at the foot of the cross in spirit and in truth with a heart of sincerity to want to live for God and to want to love one another as Christ commands us to love one another.

He says in the word of God, in this place it's like there's an anointing there, like the anointing on Aaron that ran down to the edge of his garments. This anointing that separates us from the world. This anointing that Jesus said will tell or show all men that we are the disciples of Christ.

This presence of God that is inexplicable apart from the spirit of God that gladdens the heart. It stirs men and women. I remember in Times Square Church in New York City, pre-COVID days people would walk into the church and see people from 104 different nations and nationalities and cultures and races coming into the house of God and worshiping together with one voice.

I remember people who were unsaved breaking down in the sanctuary and say, surely God must be in this place because they had seen this incredible power that God is willing to unleash in a sense when he finds the people who are willing to walk together in unity.

Psalmist goes on to say, King David, it's like this dew that descends upon the mountains in the morning, this dew that satisfies the thirst of a thirsty humanity. And in this place of unity, this is an incredibly powerful statement.

God commands the blessing of life evermore. That's a phenomenal thing. You know, there's nothing worse than a disunified church. I don't know if any of you have ever had this experience, but when you walk into a church where there's no unity, there really is no presence of God.

And sometimes it's actually a dreadful feeling when you walk in the door. You don't feel the presence of God. There's just something in the water that's making it foul, may I put it that way, when there's disunity in the body of Christ.

But when we walk into a place where we've just become mature enough to recognize that none of us have it all together, we'd all like to think that we have the corner on the truth, but we don't. I've often said that the throne of God, the first thousand years, we're all gonna be slapping our foreheads for a thousand years saying, oh, wow, I had that wrong, and I had that wrong, and I thought that was right.

Because like Isaiah, Isaiah was in ministry. Isaiah was a young prophet in training. In the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah is drawn into the presence of God. And when he sees God, he's undone. When he sees God, he says, woe is me, I'm undone.

My lips are unclean, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Now, keep in mind, he's talking about the people of God, of that, and he's talking about those people that are set apart in the earth to bring glory and honor to God.

Their divine purpose in the earth is to bring God's name to glory. But having seen God, he now recognizes how far they had gotten from who God actually is, and how mediocre the description of God, or maybe the representation of him in the earth had actually become.

Jesus Stops for Blind Bartimaeus

In Mark chapter 10, in the Gospel of Mark, we have a story of Jesus on a journey. Beginning at verse 46, it says, they came to Jericho, and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.

So this is Mark chapter 10, beginning at verse 46. And when he heard it, it was Jesus of Nazareth. He began to cry out and say, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Then many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out all the more, son of David, have mercy on me.

So Jesus stood still and commended him to be called, and then they called the blind man, saying to him, be of good cheer, rise up, he's calling you. Now, this poor guy, they were just all telling him to be quiet.

Now, when Jesus stops the whole parade and calls his name, they change their tune. And throwing aside his garments, he rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said to him, what do you want me to do for you?

The blind man said to him, Rabboni, that I might receive my sight. Then Jesus said to him, go your way, your faith has made you well, and immediately received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

So I want you to just journey with me, just for a moment, with Jesus. You're in the crowd, we're walking out of Jericho, and obviously he's heading to another destination. Everyone is walking with him, and they're all walking with him for a specific purpose.

Everybody has a reason for walking with Jesus. You have, if you're walking with him tonight, you have a reason for walking with him as well as anybody else around you. And suddenly, this man starts to cry out from the side of the road who, in their opinion, has nothing to offer to their objectives.

Isn't it sad when we get like that as the body of Christ? We have Jesus, you see? And the core statement that they're making when they're telling this man to be quiet is we have Jesus with you, you see?

We're going with Jesus to a destination. Some think that he's gonna overthrow the Romans. Some think that he's gonna forever give them free bread. Others, I've seen the healing, and they're just very enamored with the healing.

Others have heard the stories, and they wanna see more. They wanna see more miracles. There's others maybe feel that they're gonna be raised up by him to positions of prominence and power, or they're gonna be given knowledge that they've not had before.

Everyone has a reason to walk with him. But this poor blind man on the side of the road, you see, he's not adding to the agenda. In their opinion, he's just taking away from the agenda. And they don't understand the value of this one person, the value of this person that they feel has nothing.

In other words, they're saying, we have Jesus, we don't need you. And you look at it today, and you say, how wrongheaded that was for that crowd. We look at this crowd as a bad example. They're so far from the heart of God, aren't they?

I mean, this poor guy's crying out. Jesus has come to set him free. He's come to deliver him. He's come to go to a cross. They're all walking with Jesus. They've all got this agenda. But they're looking at this incredibly hurt man on the side of the road, and in their heart, they're saying, we don't need you.

Every Member Is Necessary

And we look at that, and we look at this example of scripture, and we say, there's an example of a wrongheaded people. They're so far off in their thinking. But do we do the same thing with other members, true members of the true body?

And I'm talking about the true body of Jesus Christ. And you find the true body in every denomination. Because your denomination is called Pentecostal, it doesn't mean everybody in it is saved. You can be Baptist, not every Baptist is saved.

There's people in the Baptist church that live like devils. People in Pentecostal churches that live like devils. They've never really, they have a form of religion, but they're not in relationship with God.

And there's people in other places that we, maybe, would not necessarily want to frequent ourselves, but they have cried out, and they've found them a savior, and the Holy Spirit has come upon them, and they've found themselves forgiven.

But we pass them by on our journey, and we say exactly what this crowd said to the blind man. We don't need you. We don't need you. The Pentecostals say to the Baptists, we don't need you. The Baptists say to the Charismatics, we don't need you.

I'm telling you, we make the mistake of thinking that other people have nothing to add to our agenda. But if our agenda is truly to honor God in the earth, if our agenda is to usher in, as it is, the presence of God through a body of people that will bring men and women out of darkness and into the freedom of Christ, I need the members of the body.

I need everyone who's called by the name of Jesus Christ. And you are allowed your distinctives. You want to bob your head when you pray? Go ahead. You want to pray like you're having an asthma attack?

It doesn't bother me. You want to be quiet? Be quiet. You want to march the aisles? March in the aisles. What I really care about is that you know Jesus. And that makes you my brother, that makes you my sister.

If you have crossed that bloodline into redemption by faith in that shed blood of Jesus Christ two years ago, you are my brother and you are my sister. And I'm more than willing to hang out with you no matter what the Pharisees say in this or any other generation.

Praise be to God. I don't ever want to get to the place like the Apostle Paul warned about, where the eye cannot say to the hand, he said, I have no need of you, nor yet, let me read it to you. Now, he says, there's one body but many members.

And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty.

The Testimony of the Weak and Broken

Instead of passing by, we stop tonight and call out to you and for you because we need you. Everyone whose prayer request I read tonight and those that I was not able to get to, you're struggling, you're in a trial, you're in a place of difficulty.

You're on the side of the road and you feel that this whole parade called the Church of Jesus Christ is somehow passing you by. My word to you this evening is we need you. Christ is calling for you. Yes, the whole crowd may miss you.

The whole crowd may think you've got nothing to add to the Church of Jesus Christ because of your addictions and your afflictions, your struggles, your past, your present. Everybody may just pass you by and maybe you can't tithe, maybe you don't have the talent as you see it to offer the body of Christ.

But let me tell you what you do have. You have the opportunity for Jesus Christ to do a miracle in your life because your miracle is needed. The testimony of your miracle is needed in the body of Christ.

As Pastor Tim Delina shared on Sunday morning, last Sunday, you might have only a little wee lunch, a few loaves and a couple of fishes, but God wants to take what you have and multiply it and use your life to feed thousands and thousands of people.

Just the testimony of what he is able to do in you and through you, we need you. We need your testimony. We need you to rise up from where you are. This particular man, when Christ called him and said, what do you want me to do for you?

The scripture says he cast aside his garment and he came to Jesus. He put off the old. He was tired of living the way he was living. He was tired of begging on the side of the road and he recognized that Jesus was passing by and I hope with all my heart tonight that you recognize that Jesus is passing by your house.

He's passing by your living room. You might be on a park bench listening to this on your telephone, but he's passing by you and your cell phone right now. He's passing by your broken marriage. He's passing by your wounded house, your broken family, your wayward children.

He's passing by and calling for you. Oh yes, there's a lot of people may forget that you even exist, but not the son of God, he came for you and he needs you and that means we need you in the body of Christ as well.

There's a place for you in the body of Christ. We need you. We need your testimony. We need your song in the house of God. Whatever it is you have, whether it's a lot or whether it's little or whether it's nothing, bring it to God and watch what God will do in and through your life and watch the testimony that he will establish through you.

We need each other in the body of Christ and we need you in the body of Christ. You who are reaching out, you who are calling from the side of the road, you will be a blessing to each of us and to the testimony of Christ and the story of your miracle will bring glory to God.

Repentance and the Call to Rise

So here's what your part is. When you hear him calling your name, I'm thankful that the crowd stopped and didn't keep walking at this moment, which gave him an opportunity to get up and actually join those that were walking with Jesus.

I'm thankful for the moments where the church has the courage to stop and say maybe we've missed something along the way. Maybe we've not been as pure in our following of Jesus Christ as we'd like to think that we are.

Maybe we've actually missed the very mission of God. Maybe we've lost the heart of God in the house of God. Maybe we've given preferential seating to those who tithe more to the work of God. Maybe we're giving into titles and positions in the house of God and we forgot that God himself said I stand at the right hand of the poor.

If you're looking for me, that's where you're gonna find me. Suddenly the whole crowd stops. Now what is your part in all of this? If assuming that we're just more or less stopping tonight for you. We're not singing at the moment, we're not moving forward at the moment, we've just stopped and now God is calling you.

Jesus Christ is speaking to you. When we've stopped and suddenly by the spirit of God we've taken notice of you. In your situation, in your mess, in your pain. This man had been blind his whole life. He was unable to see a way forward.

He didn't see a purpose as many tonight could say I don't see a reason to live. I don't see God's hand in my family. I don't see the provision I needed. I just don't see. And Jesus said to the man what can I do for you?

And he simply said I want to see. I want to see a reason for life. As we sang earlier this evening, I want to see my name written down in God's book of eternal life. And the scripture says he got up and he threw aside his garment.

Now you have to understand he's a blind man. The odds of it being there when he was able to even find his way back are probably not very good. It maybe was the only thing that had given him comfort. And your garment might be your drugs.

Might be your addiction. Might be pornography. It might be selfishness that's destroying your home and your marriage. There's a lot of things that garment means. But he got up and he says I'm throwing this off.

That's what repentance means. Repentance means I'm putting off the old way of living. I'm putting off the old comforts. I'm putting away all of these things that once gave me comfort in the sense of well-being as much as it could.

And I'm now coming to Jesus because he's called me and he needs me. You are very needed by the son of God. I want that to go very, very deep into your heart tonight. You're very needed. You need to get up from where you are and put off that old way of living and come to him.

Faith in Christ and a New Life

And he simply said to this man, go your way. Your faith has made you whole. In other words, there's a journey now set before you. You now have the eyes or will be given the eyes to see it. And your faith, he doesn't say just has given you sight which is great, but it's also made him well.

There's a huge difference. It was a deeper healing than just his eyes. He had a reason to live. You know, the crowd that was passing by, the scripture doesn't record that any of them got a miracle in all of their pushing of Jesus to their agenda, but he got the miracle.

This poor guy on the side of the road. And so tonight, would you let God do a miracle in your life? I'm serious. Would you let him heal you? Would you let him open your prison door? Would you let him give sight to your eyes that don't see a way forward for your life?

Would you let him give you faith so that your heart might be healed of the wounds that keep driving you to do things you shouldn't be doing or living a way you shouldn't live? Or maybe in marriage, you're just abusing others in a way you shouldn't be verbally or physically as we saw in so many prayer requests tonight.

Would you have the courage to let God just touch you? Admit your condition. For this man, it wasn't hard. He was blind and he knew it and everybody else knew it. A lot of people know about you. They know about the way you live.

They know your family does for sure. If you've hidden it in the workplace, at least your family knows. So there's nothing to hide. You simply get up and you say, I'm done with this old way of living. Jesus is calling me and I want to see.

I want to be well. Believe that he came to die for you on a cross and pay the price for your sin so that you don't have to be separated from God anymore. And just confess him. What more could this man do?

It says he immediately received his sight and followed Jesus. I can just imagine everyone else that we're all telling him to be quiet, they don't have much to say now and he's the guy in the crowd going, Jesus gave me my sight back.

Jesus touched my life. Jesus gave me a miracle. All he did was tell him to be quiet. And so they're just more or less a bad example but he gets the miracle, you see? The point is, we need you. We need you in the body of Christ.

We need your miracle. We need your story. We've grown a little weary and we need fresh life in the church of Jesus Christ. So I'm gonna lead you in a prayer and everyone here in this sanctuary is gonna pray along with me so that you can know tonight that you belong to God, not just for now but forever.

Just pray these words with me. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you tonight for hearing my cry. Thank you for loving me even if nobody else does. Thank you for stopping for me and coming to my house tonight. I hear you and so I'm getting up by the power of God and in the mercy of God and I'm coming to you.

I want to put away my old life, my old comforts and my old way of doing things and I want the new life. I want to see the new life that you promised to give me and so tonight I invite you into my life to be my Lord and my Savior.

I give you the rest of my life. Let me see now the purpose of my life and let my life glorify you. Jesus Christ, you are now Lord of my life. I will follow you for the rest of my days. Now if you prayed that and you really meant that, I'm gonna ask you to take a step of faith and just text the word decided to 51 ,000.

Decided to 51 ,000. And somebody at Times Square Church will send a video to you or get in touch with you if that's what you desire and help you get started in this new walk with God. Oh, thank God for those that are coming through to eternal life in Christ tonight.

I want you to know that we need you because Jesus needs you. We love you because Jesus loves you and we see your value and we see your worth because Jesus sees the value and the worth of your life. Come join us.

How sweet it is, how wonderful it is, how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity. Welcome to the family of God. We're gonna go to communion together in just a few moments here. The band's gonna sing in one praise song.

Join us in this and then we'll go to communion table and we're gonna celebrate this incredible victory that God has given us through his son, Jesus Christ. God bless you.