A Promise of Extraordinary Life — Carter Conlon

The Promise of an Extraordinary Life

I want to speak to you this morning about a promise of extraordinary life. John chapter nine, please, if you go there with me. John chapter nine, a promise of extraordinary life. Now Father, I thank you, God, with all my heart.

Lord, that you don't change. You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. I thank you, Lord, God, that when you come and touch a heart, that person is never the same again. Something of your life comes inside of us and takes us from where we were destined to be to where you have called us to be.

I pray for great weight on your word today, great weight of faith and eyes to see that this is not just an isolated promise for a select few, but this is a promise for whosoever will. I pray, God, that you give men and women today who are listening in this sanctuary and online the courage to say, I'm going with Christ.

I'm going with what he has for my life. I'm going with the fullness that God has destined for me. I pray, God, that there be nothing of evil that would be allowed to prosper against this word in anyone's heart.

I ask you, Lord, in the power of the Holy Spirit to give it free course into the very center of everyone's heart, the center of their mind, the center of the thought life. I command every prison door to open in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You cannot hold captive those that Christ is calling into his abundant life and eternal life. You cannot, you are bound in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank you for freedom. God Almighty, an incredible freedom in the sanctuary today to sing and dance and clap for those who have come and feel so down, so lost, so lonely, looking just for little scraps of comfort.

I pray, God, that you surprise everyone today. Surprise, Lord. Those who didn't expect much to happen in their life, surprise them by the power of the Holy Spirit. Vanquish hell and let the victory of the cross come to the forefront in every life, every heart.

I ask you today, Lord, to call evangelists, call preachers, call teachers. Call those who will stand up in the marketplace in all facets of life and give them a voice for you, Lord. Giftings of the Holy Spirit, power that could only come from God.

Father, I thank you for this with all my heart. And I praise you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. John chapter nine, beginning at verse one. Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work.

As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. And when he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva. And he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

And he said to him, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated scent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. Therefore, the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, is not this he who sat and begged?

Some said, this is he. Others said, he is like him. He said, I am he. Therefore, they said to him, how were your eyes opened? He answered and said, a man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed and I received sight. Now, how would you like a testimony in the not too distant future where people who once knew you say exactly as they did in verses eight and nine? Your neighbors and your friends come and say, well, is this not he who sat and begged?

Is this not the person who was confined to a certain place in life, had certain restrictions, limitations? We never expected him or her to become any more than they were. How did this happen? Would you like a testimony where you got to the point where people would have to say, well, it's like him, kind of looks like him, but it's not the person I once knew.

Looks like her, sort of, but there's light in the eye, confidence in the voice, purpose in the step. Would you like a testimony that people are so perplexed at what happened to you that you would have to say, no, it really is me.

It really is me. Is there a way that I can be brought out of the ordinary and what is expected from my life into the extraordinary and unexpected? Something that you and I know that only God can do. Now, chapter nine, verse one, it says, now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth.

As Jesus passed by, he saw somebody who was limited physically, limited socially, saw a person that everybody had the opinion. There's only so much that this person could ever achieve. There's only so many places you could ever go.

There's only so far you could ever rise in ability, intelligence. Your future's limited because you see from birth, this is the way you've always been. And society has a way of doing that. Society has a way of saying, well, this is the family you were born into.

This is the class you were born into. This is the situation you were born into. This is how your life has been lived. And so we really don't expect anything of you other than to be, even coming to the house of God just to beg, looking for little crumbs of hope, a little bit of a future.

They never really expected much from this man until Jesus passed by. Maybe he didn't expect much of himself either. But he didn't expect much of his future. Many, many people in the house of God, they live behind a prison door.

They live in places of wounding. They live behind eyes that are veiled and don't see what they could become in Christ, what God is more than willing to do in their lives and come to church and say, but God, you know, I've been blind from birth.

You know, I'm disadvantaged from the womb. You know, I didn't come into this world through a mover and shaker family. My parents didn't have money to send me to school. And even if they did, I couldn't study anyway.

This is the way I've always been. So can't you just give me a crumb of peace? You know, if that's all you want, that's all you're gonna get. But I wanna tell you this morning, God has so much more for your life, so much more.

Powerless Religion and the Blame for Suffering

Now the religion of the day was powerless. And it could only hide its powerlessness by assigning blame to the suffering. In other words, well, it's their own fault. There's nothing we can do or there's nothing we need to do.

The disciples said, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind? And you know, powerlessness has its scripture as well. Doesn't it say in Exodus chapter 20 in verse five, I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and saying to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

You know, powerless religion also has its scriptural text. It refers to, to tell people that this is your lot in life and you just have to learn to live with it. This is the way things are always going to be.

So why don't you come and why don't you just join the circle and we'll all blame our mothers and fathers for the rest of our lives. We'll go around the circle and we'll talk about how rotten it was, our upbringing, how we didn't have this and didn't have that or this person abandoned us or that one failed us.

And so we'll just live our life, begging in the house of God for little scraps of comfort. And scraps do come from human comfort. I'm not marginalizing that it's possible to get some comfort from the counsel of men.

But Paul, the apostle said, your faith is not the rest in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. That's where your faith is to rest. You see, humanity was under a curse when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden.

The curse of sin came into the human race and sin brought with it all of its expressions and all of its limitations and all of its breakdown, all of its heartache and all of its captivity and its besetting conditions that we seem powerless to get out of.

But what they failed to see, these disciples that were walking with Jesus, that standing among them was God himself in the form of his son, who came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

Jesus came to destroy both the power and the penalty of sin which had fallen on the whole human race because of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. And yes, in the Old Testament, there were laws, there was things stated by God, but it was only, Paul says, to prove to us the hopelessness of changing our condition in human strength.

It could not be done. It required human effort. It required a river of blood that flowed from the Old Testament temple for those who wanted to try to sincerely change and walk with God. You see, failure has its scripture.

But in the New Testament, we have a savior. In the New Testament, we have the son of God who went to a cross and he made an open display of the powers of darkness. He made an open display. In other words, he spread out their weaponry after his victory and said all of these things that once dominated your mind, your heart, your life, your future, your past, all of these things were destroyed at the cross and just as Jesus has been raised from the dead, so by the spirit of God, those who trust in him for their salvation are raised out of the power of darkness and brought into newness of life.

That's what the scripture says. Jesus said these words in Luke four, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. In other words, there is a treasure available to you that has nothing to do with your parentage or your lineage or your investment strategies or lack thereof or your hustling on the street or inability to do it.

There is a treasure available to you that came to you from the cross. He sent me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken heart, to tell you that there's no wound of your past that has the right to hold you in blindness any longer, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

And then he closed the book and gave it to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

Truly amazing. Today is the day of your freedom. Today is the day of a new life. Today is the day when prison doors can't hold you anymore. Today is the day when former blindnesses cannot stop you from seeing the purpose of God for your life anymore.

Today is the day when weakness gives into strength, confusion gives into clear thinking. Today is the day when powerlessness is enveloped in the power of God. Today is the day when the old song is taken away and a new song is given to you, a song of praise unto God that many will begin to see it and fear and trust in the Lord.

Today is the day when we throw off the shackles of powerless religion. Today is the day when we get up and walk towards God. Today is the day when our life becomes something that only God could make it.

They asked him, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Jesus said, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. Now, he was not implying that either this man or his parents were sinless, but he was pointing to the fact that he had come to reclaim that which had been lost and to do it with irrefutable chain-breaking power.

In other words, you no longer have to live where you are. You don't have to be what you presently are. You don't have to follow what others have said you will be any longer. Jesus said, I'm about to lift you up and take you to another place by the glory and power of God.

From Panic Attacks to Freedom in Christ

That is the heritage. Many of you know my story in this church. When I was 15 years of age, I started to suffer with panic attacks. A lot of pressure was put on my life when I was younger, and I put a lot of pressure on myself.

I don't need to go into all the details. But I was pushed towards being something that I felt that I didn't have the ability, the strength to be. And so when I was 15 years old, I began, fear got a hold of my life.

It was subliminally said that if you don't achieve this goal that's set before you, then you're a loser. You failed. And I didn't feel I had the strength. I didn't feel I had the wisdom, the ability, or even the desire to go there.

But yet not going there meant my life was over. It was a failure. And so fear got a hold of me. And I began to panic when I was 15. I would suffer panic attacks. And I've described them to you as the closest thing to hell on earth that you will ever experience.

You feel like you're going to die. Your heart starts beating out of your chest. It feels like somebody's pouring a bucket of sand on your head. And a sense of doom and hopelessness starts surrounding you.

For nine years, I suffered with these attacks. I fought against it with valium. I fought against it with whiskey. I fought against it by being a physical fitness nut. I'd run miles at night. I'd work out two, three hours a day sometimes to keep my body in a state of exhaustion, to overcome the fear that was trying to get a hold of my heart and dominate and destroy my life.

Came to the point that when I would go into a classroom, I would be so afraid of being singled out by the professor in that classroom and asked a question. I studied undergraduate law and I remember being in classes where there's only 20 or 30 students living in fear that the professor would ask me a question and the focus of the room would turn to me.

And if that should happen, I would have two options, have a panic attack or run out of the room. I was in a prison I couldn't get out of. I was trapped. My way forward, there was only so far I could go.

And I know what this blind man felt like. And then I found Christ or he found me as my Lord and Savior at the age of 24. And I began to read my Bible. And you see the difference is that I believed what I read.

I said, this is God's word. This is the word of the one who created the universe. This is the word of God. And if this is not true, then all hope is lost. And so I choose to believe this, every word of it.

And I was reading a scripture one day with the Apostle Paul. I didn't even know the whole verse, I only knew half of it. But the half I remembered became a power that transformed my life. Where Paul said, if God before us, who could be against us?

I read it, I believed it. I remember going home at night. My wife and I had a farm by this point. I was a new babe in Christ. I loved God with all my heart. Went to bed at night and I was laying down in bed and I felt one of these panic attacks coming on my life.

Now in the past, up to this point, I would go down in the kitchen, fill my face with Valium and take a straight glass of whiskey because it was that hard. And that's the only way I knew how to escape it.

But I made a choice that night. I went downstairs into my living room and said, I am a believer in Christ now. And so therefore, no more whiskey, no more Valium. Those things are out of my life. I went into my living room and I stood there.

It was about midnight. I stood in my living room. I remember it like it was yesterday. And here's the words I said. I said, Satan, you can only kill me if God allows you to. And if he allows you to, I'm going to heaven tonight.

So I win either way, I win. So I said, you throw at me now everything you've got. But I throw back at you what I now have. In the name of Jesus Christ, the son of God, I resist you. And standing in my living room, I felt a heat hit me in my feet.

Went up through my legs, through the center core of my body and out the top of my head. I don't know how long it lasted. I'm assuming a minute or two. I don't really know. It's like I was just lost in the presence of God.

That was 38 years ago. I've traveled all over the world. I've been locked in prisons with sex offenders and people serving life terms. I've preached in front of crowds of 500 ,000 people, the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

I've been in Hindu Muslim areas, preaching to people who've never heard the gospel in their entire life. Totally absent of fear in my heart. Filled with the faith of God, thanking God for what he alone has been able to do.

I know exactly what this blind man on the side of the road felt. I know what it's like to live like this. I know what it's like to be in a place of hopelessness. But I also know what God can do. In verse six, it says, when he, that's Jesus, had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.

Christ’s Tender Touch and the Call to Be Sent

And to me personally, this is one of the most tender, touching moments in the New Testament because it's only my interpretation of this, but it's something I feel that I see in my own heart. God made Adam, Genesis 2, seven, out of the dust of the ground.

God loved Adam with a love that you and I can't understand. And when Adam and Eve sinned, he lost, not just Adam and Eve at that moment, but he lost the whole of their children, which you and I are. We're all descendants of Adam and Eve.

And I believe that it's Jesus went down to the ground, spit on the ground, made clay. I don't know how he made Adam in the first place. I wonder if he spit on the ground the first time he made Adam and made clay.

Just says he formed him from the dust of the ground. Doesn't tell us how he did it. But he spit on the ground, picked it up, made a clay with it and put it on Adam's eyes. And here's what I see. Adam, I love you.

I made you. I have loved you with an everlasting love and I can change you and I can heal you if you will let me touch you. I can give you sight. I can bring you back to what was lost. I haven't come to condemn you.

I've come to reclaim you. I've come to call you home to me. I've come to make you a testimony in the earth to the other descendants of Adam of who I am and what I'm able to do and how I can open any prison door and how I can break the chains of all limitation and how I can take those who are weak and foolish and the nothings and nobodies of this world and I can touch them with my Holy Spirit.

And I can raise you up and make you a testimony of who I am. He said to him, now go wash your eyes in the pool of Siloam which is translated scent. So he went and washed and came back seeing. John 17, 18, Jesus said as he was praying to his father and he said, Father, as you sent me into the world, I've also sent them into the world.

And there are many today in the body of Christ who don't see because they have lost the focus of being sent. They've lost the understanding of why the touch of God comes on a person's life. Go to the pool of scent.

I'm sending you. Go there and wash your eyes there. If you can't see a way out of your dilemma, go to the pool of scent. The Laodicean Church in Revelation, the last church in Revelation chapter three, a people who their eyes had fallen on garments and position and power and gold.

And because of these things, they felt that they were fulfilled even in Christ. But Jesus said to that particular people group at that time, you're wretched and blind and naked. He said, I challenge you.

Anoint your eyes with eye salve that you might see. They lost the focus of why the church is in the world. They lost the understanding of why the church is left in the world. And they started looking to themselves, their own security, their own betterment, their own happiness.

And they lost the understanding that the son of God came, that mankind might be saved and left us here as a testimony of his love and his changing power for those who are willing to turn to him. All the neighbors and those who had previously seen that he was blind said, is not this he who sat and begged?

And some said, well, this is him. Others said, well, he's like him. And he had to tell them, I am he. They said, how were your eyes opened? He answered and said, a man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, go to the pool of Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed and I received sight. Few years back, I got an unusual phone call. I went to a Catholic school from the time I was in grade three to the finishing high school. It was the same school all the way through.

And that school never had a reunion in its history, ever. I don't know how many years it's been there, but it's been a lot of years and a lot of years before I started going there and a lot of years after.

And they decided to have a reunion. They've only ever had one in the history of the school. It was gonna be big. They rented a hockey arena to hold the crowd and to have the dinner and everything else.

I got a call from this guy, Bob, that I knew years ago when I was about 16 or 17 years old. He said, Carter, do you remember me? I said, is this Bob? I said, yeah, I do remember you. He said, well, we're having a reunion for the Catholic high school and grade school.

He said, I'd like to invite you to be our keynote speaker. And I said, well, Bob, I'm a Protestant minister now and this is a Catholic school reunion. You have to understand, you know, there's gonna be, you know, all the things are gonna be going on there like they typically do there.

And he said, I know that. He said, but I've been listening to you online. I kind of like what you have to say and so I went and my old friends almost died. I remember going up to the platform and there was a guy there that I knew from high school.

Now they knew me as a guy who cut class, played cards and drank a lot. They knew me, that's how they knew me. And so I've been introduced as the keynote speaker of the night, Pastor Carter Conniff from New York City.

You could like, you could feel the thud that hit the room. And as I'm going up to the stage, there's this guy, Billy, that I knew from years ago. And I said, hey, Billy, pray for me tonight. He goes, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, pray for you.

I remember after speaking, walking through the crowd, some people were crying, others were saying, man, oh man, I'd never heard anything like that in my life. And another guy that I knew from school, all through high school, he's walking around with a beer in his hand and he kept saying, you, a preacher.

And then he would curse and then he would apologize. And he just kept doing it over and over again. I can't believe it, you a preacher. How did that happen? And you could feel the buzz going through the crowd.

Number one, how did it happen? Number two, how did you end up speaking at this thing? You see, when I got up to speak that night, I just said this, and I'll say it very, very quickly. I said, when all of us left school, we all leave with a desire in our heart to find something of value in life, something that satisfies the heart, something that satisfies the soul.

And I said, there's people here tonight that after all these years, you've come back to this place and you didn't find what you were looking for and sorrow has been your lot in life. And I said, we weep with you.

And I said, there's others who've come back and you feel like you've found everything that life has to offer and we rejoice with you. And I said, but there's a third group of people that you're here tonight, you've traveled, you've worked, you've raised families, you've done things, but there's still an emptiness inside of you.

And you're here tonight and you say, I've never found the real meaning of life. And I talked about my journey. I talked about being touched by the power of God. I talked about the transformative power of Christ.

I talked about the fact that I'm here tonight because he loves you and he sent me to tell you that. You see, healing and being sent go together. If you want a testimony of extraordinary life, he won't deny you, but he will tell you like he told this blind man, go to the pool of scent and wash your eyes there.

You see, I've got a pathway before you that's uniquely designed for you. And it will always be a pathway that is about people. And it will always be a pathway that exhibits that tender touch of God's hand on somebody's eyes, telling them there is a way forward.

There is a hope for your future. You can regather what you've lost. It will always involve never a pointing finger because that's what powerless religion does, but it will always involve a tender touch from the hand of the one who so loved the world.

He gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If you want to be healed, if you want to be free, if you want to see, if you want a future, you have to be willing to be sent.

Even James, the apostle said, if we pray only to consume it upon ourselves, we will not receive the answer of our prayer. If the beggar had said, I want you to touch me so I can see the people putting money into my cup, it's conceivable that he would have lived the rest of his life on the side of the road blind.

We are sent. And it's so important in this generation that you and I are now living in that we realize we are sent. We are not called to be a quiet testimony. We are not called to be silent. We are called to be that extended hand of God.

And you'd be surprised when there's tenderness behind your voice, ears are open, and people are willing to listen. Even scoffers lose their scorning for a second when they hear this great truth about who God is and what he's able to do and what he has done for you.

See, that's the testimony. If you're willing to be sent, then I believe the full touch of God's power can be your portion even today, if you're willing. In my life, it started back in the early, early years when I first came to Christ.

I felt I had less than nothing. I was afraid of crowds, had a bad temper. I had a horrid self-image. I felt like I had nothing to offer. And yet I remember in the service, God strangely moving on my heart, that he was calling me to something deeper and it was outside of myself.

I remember this thought was in my mind. I think there's only about two of us went forward in the service. I remember thinking in my heart, I've got less than the boy with the loaves and fishes. And so I went to the altar and I got down on my knees and I said, I have nothing.

I have nothing that I consider of any value to your kingdom. But if you can use it, I give it to you. And I ask you somehow just to take my life and use it for your glory. And so I know what this is all about.

Some changes were quick like deliverance from fear and others were slower. But I tell you, before God Almighty, old things did pass away and all things did become new by God's grace and God's grace alone.

And he delivered me from falling into theological error. I had a friend one time who got cancer, went into the hospital and had to put a sign on the door for no Christians, can you imagine that? Because people were walking into his room and going, there must be sin in your life or you wouldn't be sick.

We just read about that. Christ did not come to condemn, came to save. If you are willing to be sent, you can't live your life glorying in somebody else's testimony. Can't live your life just going home and talking about things in the past or what God's doing in somebody else.

This is a whosoever will kingdom folks. The hungry heart gets the victory. The willing soul gets the power of God. The person who says, I don't know what you can do with me, but open the door, I'll go through it.

Whatever you ask of my life, I won't hold back as much as I know of. If it's your voice, I'll follow you. And I will trust you for the power to do what you're calling me to do. He doesn't take you from that place to speaking to 500 ,000, there's a long journey.

It started with just a 12, 15, 20, 21, 30, 35. Walking through those doors, walking out of those prisons, walking away from the bruised heart. So I know what I'm talking about this morning. I'm not bringing to you some pie in the sky theology that's unattainable by all that are here.

I've walked through these doors. I've walked away from the bruising of heart. I've walked out of prisons that should have held me the rest of my life. I know what God can do. I know what God can do. I know what God can do.

A Sent People Who Carry a Testimony

It all hinges on the pool of Siloam, the willingness to be sent. And if that's in your heart today, and you can say, Lord Jesus Christ, I'm tired of coming to church and begging. You said that you came to preach the good news to the poor.

You said that prison doors couldn't hold me. You said that no wound to the past can continue to bruise my heart. You said that no limitation can blind me to the future that you have prescribed for my life.

And so I'm gonna challenge you to do today what I did years ago. Stand your fear to the face and say, devil, you can only kill me if God allows you. And if he does, I'm going to heaven. But I'm not letting you bark at me and keep me in a cage any longer.

I'm not letting you tell me that my past is dictating my future. I'm not giving into the voices that said, this is what you are, this is what you will always be. No, sir. I serve a God who raises people from the dead.

And I don't care what my present limitation is. It is not going to dictate my future. God is able to come upon me with power. He's able to give me vision and he's going to give me a message for this generation.

The message is simple. What God has done for me, God will do for you if you will trust him. My prayer for you has been this day that you'd be given a testimony that your friends, your neighbors, people that know you or knew you would be stunned.

There'd be a discussion among them. Looks like him, looks like her. Doesn't act like he used to. Doesn't think like she used to. Doesn't do what he used, doesn't do what she used to. Her speech is different, his speech has changed.

That you will create a discussion among people that once knew you. And the discussion leads to the point, how is this possible? And they came. Remember, Peter said, be ready to give an answer for the reason, for the hope that is in you.

They came and said, how did this happen to you? It's easy. The son of God touched me and told me to go to the pool of Siloam. He sent me to you as a living testimony of who he is and what he did on the cross 2 ,000 years ago.

My brother, my sister, it's time for you and I to be extraordinary now. It's time for us to be lifted out of the strategies, the philosophies, the theories, the voices of man and brought back into the power of God.

That is the testimony that will touch this generation. We're going to stand in a moment and if that's the cry of your heart, send me Lord. Touch my life and send me. Set me free and send me. Give me vision, send me.

Heal my wounded heart and send me. Lift me out of all the curse of limitation that was placed around me and send me. God, send me. If that's the cry of your heart, you will be coming to an altar like I did 37 years ago now.

I was about a year saved. Say, Lord, I don't know what the future holds, but if you hold it, I'm going with you. Send me. It's been, I've often felt like I've lived a dream. Everything that God has asked me to do or done has been outside of my skillset.

It's been an amazing journey. But it can't be just for a few. It'd be so tragic if that's what it became. I feel like a runner in a race and I'm coming around the bend on the third turn. And there you are in the sidelines and I'm urging you, run, run.