The Open Hand of God — 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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Faith in God's Simple Truths

I want to share something very simple tonight. And I'm trusting that even in its simplicity it will be profound. Because sometimes it's the simplest truth that can unlock mysteries and bring us into a place of faith.

I'd like you to pray with me tonight. Father, I thank you, God, for your presence. Oh, God Almighty, thank you. Lord, you have so visited us. You've so been with us. You're speaking to us. We are hearing from heaven.

And we are so deeply grateful. You're giving us the ability to even will to do what you ask us to do. And then you give us the power to become what you ask us to be. It's all about you, Jesus. Everything is found in you.

Oh, God, you're speaking to us. And help us now not to stop short of the high calling that you've placed on our lives. I speak of everyone individually, as well as the church. Help us, God, to hear. And when we hear, to obey.

And to obey by faith. Believing that what you have spoken into our lives you're well able to do. God, we want to count in this last hour of time for your kingdom's sake and for your name's sake. We don't want to live out the last days just trying to survive.

We want to declare we have survived. There's a life so far beyond anything this world could ever know. God, I thank you from the very depths of my heart that you will enable me to speak this. You put it on my heart.

I know it's from you. And I ask you to speak it simply through me to those that you've gathered to hear your word tonight. And I thank you for it in Jesus' mighty name. Psalm 145, please, of the Old Testament.

The Open Hand of God in Psalm 145

The open hand of God. Psalm 145. One verse of scripture. The psalmist speaks this by revelation. He says, God, you open your hand and you satisfy the desire. That means the deepest, innermost longings.

Actually, the word in Hebrew for desire means those things that the human heart desires that only God can do. And the psalmist says, Lord, you open your hand and you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

That means everyone who's in this house tonight. God has already stretched open his hand to you. To satisfy the deepest desires that you will ever have. Desires that are so deep you don't even know they're there.

Some desires have been placed behind a wall of impossibility. In a sense, there are things that we long for that only God could do. But as we heard this afternoon at 3 o 'clock, we look in the mirror and we see our own frailties and failings.

And we relegate them as it is to the realm of the impossible. It's a desire, but it could never happen. But the Bible brings to us a truth from the one whose mouth created the universe. Remember in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, he says,.

By faith we understand that the worlds were not framed by things that are. They were framed by the word of God. Out of nothing, God created something. And God says, I open my hand, not just to the universe, but I open my hand to my creation.

Obviously, Jesus Christ is God's open hand to our generation. God's hand of love, God's hand of mercy and deliverance and forgiveness. Power, everything we'll ever need is found in Jesus Christ. And Christ is God's open hand.

Saying, whosoever will, let him come to me. You'll find rest for your soul. You'll find the abundant life that you've longed for. You'll find that in the power of God, you'll be taken, carried as it is by God.

As I've preached here so many times, because it's one of the greatest revelations that God has ever birthed in my own heart. That I will carry you from image to image. That means from one place to a new place.

From what you were to what you will be. From weakness to strength, from confusion to knowledge. From inability to ability. From inusability to great usability in the kingdom of God. I'll carry you from image to image and glory to glory by the spirit of God.

By the open hand of God. Paul the apostle said in Romans chapter 1, he makes a declaration. He says that everything around us plainly declares the goodness of God. It's everywhere in creation for those who care to observe it.

Actually Paul takes it another step and he makes an inference that that's why every man will stand without excuse one day before the throne of God. Because the very heavens declare the glory of God. Nature itself, everything around us shows us the life of God is in it.

I'm talking apart from that part which is tainted by the sin of fallen humanity around it. But you can see the hand of God in everything. There's a plain declaration. It's as if a pen from heaven wrote throughout nature.

And so this is what God is like. This is what God does. This is how God cares for those things which are his. And Paul said one day everyone will stand before God because his character is plainly declared throughout all of his creation.

And that's how everyone will stand one day before God without excuse. There's such a declaration in the universe, in nature itself, that it doesn't matter if you live in China or India, if you're Hindu or Muslim.

There's such a declaration of God that the honest heart that finally says, God, who are you? Show me. Christ will come. If he has to come himself, he will come and show himself. Any honest heart seeking him will find him.

Any honest heart in any place, he will open his hand and satisfy the deepest desire. Paul says the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.

Nature Declares the Glory of God

About several months ago, in the winter time, my wife and I went away for a few days to a place that we go to in Canada. We were both very tired and very thankful for the opportunity to take a week away.

And the home that we go to is beside the ocean. Magnificent. I love water. I have an absolute feeling of rest that comes into my soul when I'm near water. And this particular, I think it was a February day, it was very windy.

And it was snowing a little bit. And the ocean is right outside the window. And I came downstairs to have my devotions in the morning. It's just one of those times when you're so tired that you're reading, but it doesn't seem like you're reading anything.

The words on the page are not really speaking because you're just mentally weary. And I sat there with my Bible on my lap and I looked out the window and it was an incredibly windy day. And there's quite large waves rolling out on the ocean.

The snow is beating down. The sea is this foreboding type of a gray. The tide is moving out. And the tide is so powerful in that part of the world that it's actually very dangerous for people who are not familiar with it, to even go out in a boat and to definitely never go swimming.

And the tide is pulling out. Some icebergs had come in off the ocean. I don't know when they were there when I arrived there. But the tide is so powerful that it's moving these masses of ice out to the ocean again.

If there were a ship that were without power, the tide would move it very rapidly back out into the ocean again. And there's this incredible mass of power that is taking everything in its path. I saw the tide.

I see icebergs being moved. I see this in masses of water. It's incredible the amounts of water from high tide to low tide. There's probably something like a four to five foot difference in the level of the water in some places.

Incredible power. And I'm looking out the window at this. And I felt in my spirit that God said, I want to show you something. This is a devotional time. But even nature declares the glory of God. And I looked out and the window I was looking through was crisscrossed with these white squares that are in between the panes of glass.

And I'm looking out the window as I'm looking out onto the ocean. Right in the middle of all this incredible power that is drawing everything in its wake under the ocean is a little wee brown duck. And the Holy Spirit said to me, behold the duck.

Look at the duck. And I began to look out the window and this little duck is moving in the other direction. He's going up and over the waves. And he's I've watched him because I don't know how far it was.

I'm looking through this square. And from my vantage point, the square is probably 50 yards or so of distance. And this little duck, this ferocious storm with all of these waves and all of the wind and the power of the tide and icebergs going by and all of that was against it.

This little duck is going in the opposite direction to all this power. And he is floating on top of the waves. He weighs about two and a half pounds. He's got little webbed feet. And he's moving in the opposite direction.

And I watched him through that square until he had passed about that 50 yard distance. And the Lord said to me, clearly, do you know what you've just seen? And I'm looking at it. He says, now what you've seen is something that I have designed.

You know why the duck can do that? He can do it because I designed him to do it. And whatsoever I designed to do something will accomplish that purpose for which I have designed it for. And God said to me, you can do anything I've called you to do.

You can be anything I've called you to be. You can go anywhere I've called you to go. It's amazing how limited we become because of our intelligence. Imagine if the duck was as intelligent as we are and took a look at the massive ocean, the freezing water that would probably kill us in three minutes flat if we fell into it.

The incredible power of the wind and tide. And the duck looked at himself and said, I'm only two and a half pounds. I only have two little feet. And what do I have in comparison to this incredible force that comes against me?

Overcoming Sin and Walking in God's Calling

You see, when Jesus rose from the dead, beloved, he broke the power of sin and death and hell and weakness. He broke the power. The whole world can go the other way, but you don't have to go that way.

God designed you for something. When you came to Christ, a gifting was given you for the body. Everyone here who's a genuine Christian, you have a gift. God put something in you. And it doesn't matter who's going the other way.

It doesn't matter what force because of your lack of education, your pastor, what other people have spoken into your life. It doesn't matter. God designed you to do something. And by the grace and power of God, you will do it.

Now, Christ himself said to look at nature to see the hand of God. Matthew 6, 26, he said, Behold, the fowls of the air, they don't sow, they don't reap and neither gather into barns. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

Are you not much better than they? Jesus himself said, Just look at nature. Look at the birds around you. God cares for them. God feeds them. I was walking to church this week and I saw a lady out on 51st crumbling bread and throwing it all over the sidewalk for the pigeons.

And I thought, you know, she feels like she has motivated herself to do a good deed. But I venture to differ with that. I believe there's something higher than her that's motivated her to go out in that street and feed the birds.

Because Jesus himself said, My father in heaven feeds them, looks after them, cares for them. It's an amazing thing when you begin to see it. And are you not much better than they? Yes, we have human hands that open and satisfy.

But God says, My hand is much larger than any other hand you'll ever find. And my hand opens to you to satisfy every desire that's in your heart. Psalm 145 again, verse 1. David says it this way. He says, I will extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever.

Declaring God's Works to Every Generation

Every day will I bless thee and I will praise thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. And his greatness is unsearchable. And one generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts.

One generation to another. This has been the pattern of God for his church. The pattern of God is to so work in my life that as my generation passes, I will declare it to another. And another generation by faith will begin to understand who God is and lay hold of his power.

And he will do mighty works in them and through them. And then they will declare his power to another generation that shall come. One generation, David says, shall declare your works to another and declare your mighty acts.

You remember the psalm of the aged man? In the Psalms, he said, Oh, God, don't let me pass through into eternity until I have shown your power to a generation that is to come. I believe that's the cry of every righteous man and woman of God, especially in their senior years.

Oh, God, don't let me pass through until your power has been declared to my life, until I have declared to this generation what you have done in me and what you've done through me. The mighty acts of God.

If I had the time tonight, I could tell you a hundred things, perhaps a thousand. We might be stretching it a bit, but I can tell you a hundred things for sure that God has done in my life. Mighty acts of God, things that could not come but from the hand of God.

And the Bible says, I will declare it to the next generation. I'm 50 years old soon, and I guess my time has started to start declaring it to the next generation. But I will declare it. I want to declare it.

I want to stand on the highest mountain. I want to declare it in every country that God would send me. I want to declare it in every place, to every people, of every persuasion, of every status or state in life, every amount of ability or disability.

I want to share it with everyone who lives, that there is no limitation with God. He can take you wherever you are and make you what you are not. And take you where you can't go and give you what you could never possess.

Ten Ways God Has Been Faithful

I'll share with you quickly ten things that God has done for me. First and foremost, He took me out of a dung heap, out of the miry clay, as the Scripture says, and gave me a new song. He broke the chains of sin in my life and gave me freedom.

Hallelujah. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. If you are a new Christian or somebody that's contemplating coming to Christ, you don't have to live under the power of sin anymore. Sin has no dominion over you.

That means it has no right to rule your life anymore. Old habits have to pass. They have to die. Old bondages will go away. Old attitudes will change by the Spirit of God. The devil has no power over you anymore.

Your flesh has no power. Oh yes, it will war against you, but it is a defeated foe. Christ rose from the grave. The power that rose Christ from the grave now resides within your life. Hallelujah. The Bible says the same Spirit that quickened Christ and raised Him from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies.

Death has no more dominion over you. You don't have to be in bondage to the beggarly ways of human flesh in this world. You don't have to live there anymore. God has put within you the power to go another way.

God has put within you the power to be another person. Hallelujah. He directed my steps even when I was confused. There were days in the early years when I came to Christ when I didn't understand His working.

There was even a time when I thought God Himself had betrayed my trust. I was confused, but in my heart I loved Him. In my heart I wanted Him. And He directed my steps. He is so faithful to those that are His.

He doesn't cast us down. The devil always tries to convince you that somehow you've really done wrong this time and God's going to turn away from you, but the devil is an absolute liar. He is a liar. The Bible says he's the father of lies.

And when he speaks a lie, he just speaks of what he is. He doesn't know how to speak the truth. But even in confusion, God has been good to me. God has kept me. God has ordered my steps. He declared me righteous through Christ even when theologically I didn't understand the full implications of that like I do today.

But He declared me righteous and ordered my steps. And I thank God for it with all of my heart. It gives me the courage to stand here and tell you God will be gracious to you. If you have a heart and you want Him, irrespective of where you live or what you're going through, God will be gracious to you because He's been gracious to me.

He provided all my needs even while He was leading my heart to trust Him. I didn't trust Him overnight. It's not easy. You grow up with a certain mindset. But the Lord began to teach me how to trust Him in little things.

And even while my trust was of yet imperfect in that sense, back in those days, He still continued to provide for my needs as He was leading my heart to trust Him. I could give you circumstance after circumstance of how faithful God has been to me.

He opened His hand and satisfied my need. Oh, yes, He never let me go very far. Ironically, He never let me put money in the bank when I was a young Christian. I tried so hard. Every time I got money in the bank, my car broke down.

And the repair on my car would be virtually every penny I had in the bank. And then I would save again and then finally feel so content because now I had some money in the bank and my car would break down again.

And I don't know how many times this happened until it finally dawned on me. God, if I just stopped putting money in the bank, my car would stop breaking down. And that's exactly what began to happen.

He taught me how to tithe to give one-tenth of my income to the work of God. I remember the first time I heard it, I almost had a heart attack in church. The very first thing that happens is out comes the calculator and the paycheck.

One-tenth. Where am I going to find that kind of money to give to the work of God? And I was a deacon at this time when this came to me. Oh, folks, that shows you how backslidden the church is. But He taught me how to give and taught me how to trust Him and taught me to be open-handed as He is to me.

And it is said, and it's true, you can't outgive God. You can't. If it's the Holy Spirit that's prompting you, if you just simply obey Him, you can't outgive Him. He restored my marriage. He made my wife a crown to my life and a fruitful vine on the sides of my house.

I thank God for that with all of my heart. I shared with you years ago that our marriage was in deep difficulty when I came to Christ, when both of us really came at the same time. But God restored. Only God can give back what is gone.

I don't think restored is a proper word. Restored is not the right word because that means bringing it back to what it was. No, He didn't take it to where it was. He brought it far beyond what it ever could have been.

He restored. And the Bible says that a virtuous wife is a crown to her husband. And I have a wife today who's a crown to my life. And I remember reading in the scriptures years ago that spoke about a wife whose virtuous woman is a fruitful vine on the sides of her husband's home.

And I thank God for that with all my heart for what He has done in our marriage and what He has done for my wife. He delivered my children from numerous perilous situations. From a fire one time that burned our house to the ground.

And a lady who had been staying with us just got this incredible burden to go home from this single adults meeting she was attending. Ten minutes before the entire house exploded into flames, saving the life of my daughter and her own two children that were there at that time.

My two sons were... A lady called and asked if they could stay overnight. And normally this never happened. And they did. And God spared their lives. My both sons have been in car wrecks that should have killed them.

One son, a car overrolled after a hockey game and caught fire. And only by the grace of God did he get out and was able to pull his friend out of the car. The people who saw the car roll said they don't even know how anybody got out of that alive.

It was 30 seconds from the time it landed to the time it literally exploded. And there was nothing left of the car. But by God's grace, he walked away. I think of my other son coming to visit just a year and a half ago and losing control near Montreal and hitting at quite a speed a pole in the middle of the highway, literally wrapping the car around it and walking away from that.

I could tell you story after story. The devil has tried very hard to kill my children over the years. But he's not even been able to touch them or scratch them. I thank God for it with all my heart. I think of my daughter, Katie.

There is an angel in heaven that's going to get an all-expense-paid vacation to somewhere in the universe when she finally makes it home to heaven. The stuff that she has been saved from drowning. She almost drowned one time when she was a child.

And by the grace of God, a lady who was sitting there happened to notice and was able to pull her out from under the water. She was attacked by a donkey when she was a child, which could have been fatal.

But by God's grace again, there was a little boy that came and attacked the donkey. He started kicking it and punching it. And literally, she was saved from death. She's had two near-fatal asthma attacks.

And was in the house when our house was broken into, hiding in the closet with our absolutely terrified dog that was supposed to be our protector. I can go on and on about how faithful God has been to me.

God has been faithful to me. God has been faithful to my sons and my daughter. And he is sovereignly leading them to himself now. Sovereignly showing himself. Sovereignly touching their hearts and lives.

And I thank God for it with all of my heart. He has kept my own life in the midst of illness. I have on two occasions been extremely ill to the point of at times despairing of health totally. But God has kept me.

And out of these times of illness has produced something of his own nature and his own character. He opened his hand and satisfied my desire, even when I didn't understand that he was doing what he did for allowing it for my own good.

He saved my father after 22 years of believing God. Saved him. Led me to his hospital room in another country. In the last conscious hour of his life, brought me into that room to lead him to a saving decision for Jesus Christ that he had resisted all of his life that I had known him as a Christian.

To watch his knee bend was like watching an oak fall in the midst of a forest. One of the most incredible experiences of my entire life is to lead that man to Jesus Christ and to know it was a genuine conversion.

A genuine bending of the heart and knees. God has filled my heart with faith to believe him for much more. The more we let him do, the more it fills our heart to believe him for more. It's like the writer of Hebrews said, What more can I say?

Time would fail me to talk of the other. I haven't even talked about Nigeria. I haven't even talked about the Philippines. I haven't even talked about being called out of fear and delivered and brought into the ministry.

I haven't talked about any of these things. But my heart is filled to believe him for more. My heart is filled to believe him for countries. My heart is filled to believe him for the worst of the worst situations.

My heart is filled to make a declaration to wherever and whoever that nothing is impossible with God. God can do anything. And lastly, he has spoken to my heart like he did to David about generations to come even after I am gone.

God has clearly spoken to my heart about my house, about my home, about children that I may never or grandchildren or great-grandchildren I may never know. But he has spoken to my heart that should he tarry, there is going to be a lineage of godliness, a lineage of Christ-likeness, a lineage of ministry come into my house and into my family.

God has spoken it into my heart. I've not invented it out of something. I heard it from him. I heard his voice. And I believe it with all my heart. David says, Psalm 145, verse 5, I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and thy wondrous works, and men shall speak of the mighty of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness.

They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.

All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. David says, I will speak of what God has done for me. I will make a declaration. I will talk about it to generations to come, and I will tell them that his power endures throughout all generations.

In other words, there is no diminishing of God's power. There's no diminishing of God's power. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is no diminishing of his power. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Don't live your life talking about yesterday. Get a hold of God for today. Get a hold of God for tomorrow. Let God begin to do mighty works in your life and through your life. David says in verse 14, the Lord upholds all that fall and raises those that be bowed down.

Now, he'd know this through personal experience. He had fallen, sometimes perhaps more dramatically, issues that we know about in his life, and other times maybe areas where he himself was the only one, besides God, that had the knowledge.

But in spite of the failure, he had come to a place of understanding that God upholds those that fall and raises those that be bowed down. This is a principle with God. Some here tonight, you may feel like you're never going to get up again.

You're in the midst of the worst storm and trouble of your entire life. You see, if you didn't have a storm, you would never know that God can raise you. If you didn't have a trial, you wouldn't have a testimony.

You'd have a theology, but you'd have no testimony. You'd have no declaration. You'd open your Bible to your children and grandchildren, and all you could do is just read it, but it would mean nothing to you.

You'd have no testimony. You're going to have trials. You're going to go through the fire. If you live and breathe, if you're human, you're going to have trial. Trouble is going to come your way. If you're not in it now, just hang on, it's not far away.

Trouble is coming your way. But in the midst of it is a faithful God who opens his hand, and every prison door has to open. Every need will be met. Every desire, every issue of the heart and life will be met by him.

He upholds those that fall and raises those that are bowed down. Verse 15, he says, The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season. David says God never fails to provide that which is needed.

Never fails! Never fails! I'm, I don't know, maybe 25 or so years a Christian now, and I've got a ways to go, but I can tell you so far, he never fails. He has never failed me. He will never fail me. How could he fail me?

He's not a man, he cannot lie. Even when I don't understand him, he still hasn't failed me. God will not fail me. He never fails. He provides that which is needed. Not necessarily that which we want, but that which is needed he gives us.

Thanks be to God. I remember when I started pastoring. We had bought a church for a dollar. We were knowing such incredible success. And we had a Christian school. Everything is going my way. Everything.

Everything. Everything. I felt, I felt just ready to take the country for God. And this seasoned man of God came for the dedication service of the church. And he had a personal word for me. And he says, there's a day coming when you're going to think that you can't go on.

Now, that was so foreign to where I was living at the time. You almost feel like rebuking the devil when you hear somebody. He said, but I will tell you that when it comes, God will give you the strength that you need for every day and only for a day.

That was his word to me. He will only give you the strength for a day. And at the end of that day, you lift up your voice again. And God said, I'll give you strength for tomorrow. And he said, it will become one day at a time.

And out of this, you will mature. Out of this, you will learn something of God that you will never learn any other way. Well, beloved, the day came. And then the next day and the next for six months, that day came.

And I remember standing. I've shared this with this church before, years ago. But I remember standing one Sunday in church. I was so weak. I was so exhausted. Most of it is just from my own foolishness.

Just never knowing when to stop. And driving this body at full speed all the time. And carrying the weight of everything. Worrying about everything. Carrying it all on my shoulders. Until finally one day I broke down.

And I'm standing in front of the church and I said, God, I can't go on. I can't do this. I can't preach another sermon. And I don't. I'm not the type of person who does this. I don't look for voices. But I tell you, as surely as I stand here, somebody spoke to me.

A voice whispered right in my ear. An audible voice. It said, I've come to help you. I looked. It so startled me that I looked and nobody was there. Nobody was beside me. But I felt an infusion of God's strength come into my life.

Got up into the pulpit and I think preached one of the finest messages that God had given me in a long time. He never fails. He provides that which is needed. Even if he has to send an angel to do it, he will do it.

He will always provide that which is needed. And I can stand and make a declaration. I had a friend say one time, it's been mountaintop all the way for me since I came to Christ. I've been on top of the mountain and the mountain's been on top of me.

But it's been mountaintop all the way. Verse 19, verse 18. The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him. To all that call upon him in truth. And the word truth in the Hebrew means to those who have made a stable commitment to him.

You see, we heard about that this morning. The Lord is close to those who have made a stable commitment. That means the people who have said, I'm going with you and I'm going in truth. And the promise is, he's always near.

He's always near because I'm not looking for God to justify my thinking. I'm looking for the mind of God. I'm calling out to him and he's got access to my heart. He can speak to me. I might be going through the worst struggle of my life and I'm focused on the struggle.

And he wants to talk about my attitude towards a person. But you see, if I'm calling to him in truth, that means I want the truth. I want to know the truth. I want to walk in the truth. And he will always be with me.