Many of God's People Are Coming Home — Carter Conlon

Good morning Times Square Church. What I'd like you to remember today that three o 'clock service is that is the final service in our Season of prayer and fasting. We've spent 21 days as a church seeking God and This afternoon will be led primarily by youth and young adult ministry.

Be awesome To see you here to support them. This evening at six o 'clock is Our evangelistic service, and I don't know if you're in the habit of attending that but we're seeing an incredible harvest coming to Christ.

Right now there just seems to be an open heaven. Thank God and you remember in the New Testament when the boat was full they called to their partners to help them and We're calling to you. You are the partners in this ministry.

There would be very few unsaved people here If you didn't bring them to the house of the Lord. And this is an a rare and unique opportunity to bring your friends to the house of God this evening to be able to hear testimonies of lives that are transformed and To hear about the gospel the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Church Must Prioritize the House of God

Ultimately, it's it really boils down to what we consider of great value in this world. Thank God I know there's a football game this evening. But let me tell you something about this. I pray a day comes I really do.

When as long as they insist on playing this game on Sunday the stadium be empty and the houses of God to be full. Then don't see any reason why it can't be played on Saturday. And it should never be the church that suffers a loss over something like this.

It should be the event that suffers the loss never the house of God, and I know in my heart. It's a grief To hear of churches in this country that are bringing the people in today to use the screens in the sanctuary to display a football game and Cover up that bankruptcy with a farce of a prayer meeting in the intermission and to me.

It's a grief to my heart. It must be a grief to the heart of God at some point somebody has to address this. This is idolatry when you bring this into the house of the Lord. And for those that are concerned about the outcome I Want to remind you that it was the Giants in the Old Testament that kept people out of the promised land.

So think about that praise God. Second Chronicles chapter 32. Message on my heart today many of God's people are coming home. Many of God's people are coming home. Father I thank you God with all my heart you put this on my heart this week.

You spoke it to me personally. And now you brought it here to deliver it to your people. Give me grace. I Asked Lord above everything Jesus Christ that your name be glorified. Your heart be satisfied Lord.

I ask for an empowerment of the Holy Spirit. To see this clearly and to convey it clearly. And Lord God, thank you for your people today. Thank you Lord Jesus Christ. For a house that is full for no other reason than but you.

Give us hearts to love you. To walk with you. Oh God and help us to make a difference in this last hour of time. I Thank you with all my heart in Jesus mighty name. 2nd Chronicles chapter 32 beginning at verse 24.

Hezekiah’s Healing and the Danger of Spiritual Pride

We're going to read a portion of scripture about Hezekiah. Considered up to this time one of the greatest and most faithful kings in The southern kingdom of Israel the man who sought after God had a history with God Marvelously helped by God very much like you and I have been and as the church has been since the day of Christ.

Chapter 32 verse 24 in those days Hezekiah was sick to the death and He prayed unto the Lord and he spake to him and he gave him a sign that would be God gave him a sign. But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up and therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart. Both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. So that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah and these are Phenomenal verses and the Bible tells us that everything that happened in the Old Testament is Is a pattern to us.

It's a type and Sometimes it encourages us. Sometimes it warns us. Gives us an understanding of why things can repeat themselves in History even in church and biblical history and how we can avoid the pitfalls that those before us have fallen into now.

Hezekiah was Was sick and dying and He was told to pack up his things and get his house in order. He was going to die. But the Bible tells us that he turned his face to the wall and with tears and with fasting and with repentance he sought God and The Lord heard him and stopped the prophet Isaiah right in his tracks as he was leaving in the sense this inner court of the king and sent him back with a word from the Lord and This word was that God has heard you.

He's heard you cry and he's seen what you have asked him for and he's added to your life 15 more years and then he gave him a Powerful sign. And of course this powerful sign we'll talk about it just in a moment.

And then the scripture tells us that For all that was done to him. There was something was expected but he didn't give back to God in a sense in the measure that God had given to him and because of it it brought a weakness into his house.

It brought a weakness into the nation and And brought them in a sense of into a place of disfavor for a season. Now he had been sick unto death. And I want you to think about this just for a moment just as you and I were.

Romans 6 23 tells us the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Through Jesus Christ our Lord there was a day when you and I were sick unto death. We had an encroaching disease in us in our minds in our heart in our spirit that we could not escape.

Could not get away from it. It was over. There was a season where the Word of God in a sense even condemned us. If we were able to hear God's Word God's Word would have come and told us pack up your house.

Get ready. It's all over for you. But you turned and I turned you. I don't know if you remember the day when you cried out to God. I remember the day when you realized that you were sick inside and There was no hope of getting out of this sickness.

And so you cried out to God and in his mercy. He sent you a word. You the crime might have been a longing it might have been a groan an inner an inner. I remember I would walk the streets as a young police officer when I was walking the beat and there was this inner groan suddenly came into me a groan for God, but I didn't know how to meet him or how to encounter him, but he answered that inner cry and Sent a word in my case right to the door of my house.

And I don't know how the word came to you, but the word came to you and then he told you I'm going to give you life. I'm going to extend your days as it is. I'm going to give you hope in the future. Now if you go back to 2nd Kings put a marker in 2nd Chronicles and just go back a few books in your Bible to the book of 2nd Kings chapter 20.

God Turns Back the Clock Through Resurrection Life

And we're going to take up this story as it's recorded in this portion of Scripture. Beginning at 2nd Kings chapter 20 beginning at verse 8 now in verse 5 I remind you says. Or verse 4 before Isaiah was gone out into the middle court the word of the Lord came to him said turn again.

Tell Hezekiah the captain of my people. Thus saith the Lord the God of David your father. I've seen your prayer. I've heard your prayer and I've seen your tears and I will heal you. And on the third day you'll go up into the house of the Lord.

Now the third day Is a type to me personally of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This it was the third day that Christ was raised from the dead By the Spirit of Almighty God and in the book of Romans It tells us clearly that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies.

It has a typology in it this context of the third day going up into the house the third day as you and I have Come here today Living in the resurrected life of Christ not having our own testimony. But the testimony that God has given us.

It's not about us. It's about him. It's not our effort that brings us here with a gladness in our heart. It's the redemption that he bought for us 2 ,000 years ago on the cross. We haven't come in here in our own strength.

We've come in here in the strength of God the Holy Spirit Living inside of us and making every promise that God has ever made to us a living reality. We've come in here with a song. It's not our own song.

It's the song of God. David said he took me out of the clay and set my feet upon a rock and put a new song in my mouth a Song that can be not just heard it can be seen. There's something about it's a song that encompasses the whole person and the whole body.

Verse 8 tells us Hezekiah said to Isaiah. What would be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day? And Isaiah said this sign you will have of the Lord.

That the Lord will do the thing that he has spoken. Shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go back ten degrees and Hezekiah answered? It's a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees nay, but let the shadow return backwards ten degrees.

And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord and he brought the shadow ten degrees backwards. By the witch it had gone down in the dial of Ahab's now. This is incredible. Another realistically what happened is God turned back time.

It's as if it it's. It's seven minutes after 11 right now and the Lord Said to show you what I'm about to do for you. I'm going to take it back to 10 o 'clock. And it will be 10 o 'clock around you know respect the time zones.

But it will be 10 o 'clock around the whole world and you'll be the only one that knows That when I touched you it was 10 after 11. But I took the clock back to 10 o 'clock and that was the sign God literally turned back the hands of time.

It's an amazing thing when you and I begin to consider it what you know, we're just starting to get a glimpse as it is of what the universe might look like with these telescopes and Crafts, we've got out there taking pictures.

But folks realistically everything had to stop and go in reverse for this to happen. You can't just turn back one thing it's it's everything is interconnected. God turned back the hands of time when Jesus stood in the temple and Luke 418 He said the Lord's Spirit is upon me to preach to the poor to heal the brokenhearted.

To deliver the captives to give back sight to the blind and to set free those that have been bruised now technically speaking. What Jesus said is that it when you come to me, I'm gonna turn back the clock and Things that you can't escape in your own strength things that could never happen.

Dreams as it is that you lost can be recaptured again. Things that were part of your heart that are that are forever and Irretrievably gone because of the depth of the bruising in you the depth of the captivity that the blindness of your eyes.

He said I'm I've come to turn the clock back. Folks if you don't know that yet, you don't know Christ yet He truly turns back the clock and things that that are lost come back again. It's it's as if we're born again.

Exactly. That's what we are for example, Sarah. Was Abraham's wife was past the time or lost the dream of having a child? And that child represented her everything that she once dreamed her life would be and it was gone it was past it was over.

The season of bearing children was gone. It had left her but yet God in his power turned back the clock and Gave her the power to conceive in a similar way Hannah was given the power of life in a barren womb at the appropriate time and At the appropriate time she brought this new life back to the house of God to be used for his purposes.

She brought it back to God. God in a sense turned back the clock her season it seemed of having a child was gone and Her prayer was so anguished that all she could do was move her lips. She could hardly make a sound.

But God heard her and she left the house of the Lord with a gladness in her heart and the sorrow was no more there. The scripture says she conceived and that new life that was given to her. She brought it eventually which was Samuel the Prophet back to the house of God when he was roughly somewhere between two and four years of age and Gave him to the prop the priest Eli to be used for the purposes of God.

Think of the loss to the kingdom of God and the advancement of the goodness of God to the nation had she not done this. Think of the loss had she gone home and saying well God gave me this child. Why should I give it this child back?

Isn't this a gift of God is this child not for me? Is this not something that's supposed to bless my house and make me happy? And in her own heart she could have formed a religion in a sense of justified the keeping of this life for her own purposes, but nevertheless, she brought it back to the house of God and It was it at a cost to her.

There would have been sorrow in her heart for this. But you see Hezekiah's momentary failure. It tells us in Chapter 32 2nd Chronicles verse 25 that his heart was lifted up. His sense of death had been commuted and he was given time To bring glory to God in the earth.

His disease had been healed his health had been restored. Now you you would think that in gratitude He would have gone to the house of the Lord and let his life be a testimony after all he only had 15 years left.

You would you would think that. This would be his focus. This would be his life. It would be his purpose that my life would be a testimony within and without of the mercy the miraculous intervention. And the plans of God to all who would turn to him in the earth.

You and I would think this was this would be What you would do what I would do if I had 15 years left My life and I knew it. What would I do with it? How would I live it? But the scripture tells us in our opening text.

He rendered not back to God For the benefit that had been done to him. Now I want to show you exactly how this looked again in 2nd Kings chapter 20 tells us. At now the in verse 11 the dial of the Sun has just been turned back.

Time has been turned back. He's given a miracle at that time. Talks about the son of the king of Babylon sent letters and A present to Hezekiah for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. So the word of this got out now now Babylon In the scriptures represents a world system that lives alienated from God that tries to conquer in its own power and Devise its own strategy and its own strength and you'll see this all the way through.

There's a Babylon a physical one that captivated one time the people of God. There's a mystery Babylon in the book of Revelation and Babylon is always used as this type of a world that literally Tries to be God without God Tries to conquer without true power and tries to reason without where the power of reasoning that God gives and so It's let's look at it as a type of somebody who comes to this house or comes to your house.

Hezekiah’s Treasures and the Captivity of Worldly Values

And he heard this report that Hezekiah had been sick to death and God Had healed him and so he comes to Hezekiah. Now you and I would think That the testimony would be about the life and the victory that God is willing to give but look what Hezekiah does.

It says Hezekiah hearkened to them verse 13 and showed them all the house of his precious things. Now these are the things that he considered Precious the silver the gold and the spices and the precious ointment.

That'd be the anointing and all the house of his armor. All that was found in his treasures. And there was nothing in his house nor all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet to King Hezekiah and said to him What said these men and from where did they come from?

And Hezekiah said they come from a far country even from Babylon and he said what have they what have they seen in your house. And Hezekiah answered and said all the things that are in my house have they seen.

There's nothing among my treasures that I've not showed them. My treasures. God gave this man life. God turned back the hands of time. God gave him healing and. And here comes somebody of the world in a sense into a close encounter with this this man of God and To inquire about this healing and what does he show him?

Silver and gold and Armor and spices and anointing oil. That's what he shows him and you know We're living in it in it in a generation where where people are looking for truth. And what have they found in the house of God?

What has been our theological focus in this generation? When people come into the house of the Lord, it's it's it's like God doing this. This wondrous thing in my life or in yours and somebody comes to visit my house.

And what do I show him my two-car garage if I had one? Show him that my degree on the wall show him the recent promotion. I got on the job. Do I take in my closet and show him my suits? And all of these might be true and they all might be things that came from the hand of God.

But folks that's not what the Christian life is about. It's the testimony of God. It's it's it's you and I. Yes, we're thankful for provision that God brings into our lives, but that's not the story. That's not what people are coming to the house of God for and Isaiah said to Hezekiah in verse 16 Hear the word of the Lord.

Behold the days come that all that is in your house and That what your fathers have laid up in store unto this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left says the Lord and thy sons that shall issue from thee which you will beget.

They will take them away and they'll become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. And here's what Isaiah said because of this focus in your house because of this focus that can be Problematic as it wasn't Hezekiah's day as well as in our day.

Babylon is going to come in this world system is going to come in and take you over. The thinking of the world is going to become your thinking and you're going to become Captivated by this and they're going to take all of your sons and they're going to render them powerless to reproduce.

That's exactly what it says and now we have a church age with youngsters Standing in pulpits and they are powerless to reproduce the character of Christ In the image of God and the people because their minds are stayed on the wrong things.

They're not focused on the testimony. They're focused on the things that come because of the blessing of God and they forgot what the real value of a living Relationship with God is all about. It's not about what I possess because that can be gone in a moment of time.

But the life I have in Christ cannot be taken away from me. Failure to do this kept himself and the people over Whom the Lord had given him influence and witness temporarily out of the favor of God. And this has been the reason for the decay of our time.

God's people have taken this miraculous new life that Jesus offers and Use their time to pursue the desire of their own hearts. That's exactly what's happened in our generation. But Hezekiah the scripture says humbled himself for the pride of his heart.

The Prodigal Son Comes Home to the Father

He humbled himself. Oh Would be to God we would have the grace in this generation to walk humbly again before a holy God to not walk so stiff-necked and arrogant and Try to literally cram down the throat of the Son of God our view Of what the Christian life in the Christian Church and the Christian testimony should should look like.

Bringing upon the house of God this incredible weakness that's come into our generation. Rendering our sons and daughters powerless. To bring others into the kingdom of God. Hezekiah humbled himself the scripture tells us for the pride that was in his heart.

Just as the prodigal son in Luke 15 That was his son who took his father's inheritance that he'd given him and just went far away from his father with it. He realized one day he was spending his time and his resources in the wrong place.

I See today many coming home. I See it in my spirit. I see it in my heart. I See people coming back to the true purpose of Christ For you and I for his church on this earth. There are many many prodigals many who have taken this this incredible wealth of what God has done and they've gone far away from the heart Of God with it.

They're out in a field, but it's the wrong field and they're associated with Wisdom and knowledge, but it's the wrong wisdom and it's the wrong knowledge and it's the wrong practice. It simply leads to powerlessness.

And one day this son just came to himself and said what am I doing here? I? Wasted my resources. I was given such potential in the future. I was born into this house of wealth and Purpose and I took it and I squandered it.

And he suddenly came to himself and I. I'm speaking prophetically to you, but I see something in my heart. I see people rising up all over in this country as poverty begins to hit us on an Unprecedented level.

I see it all over the world where prodigal sons and daughters have taken the inheritance. Like hezekiah, they've focused on the wrong thing. I see them coming home again. Coming back to the true purpose of Christ for you and I on the earth.

I am called to glorify him. Because he has done something in me that cannot be done by the hands of man. He turned back the clock. Gave me a new mind. Gave me a new heart. Gave me a new spirit gave me new life.

Gave me new direction. Gave me the power to go back and get that which was lost. Not just to regather it, but it's better than it was in the beginning. Brought back into my heart the things that I once delighted in as a child but were lost through life and through experience the visions and hopes that I had for life and he brought it back and Put new thoughts in my heart and new thoughts in my mind.

Turn back the hands of time. As it is it's the miracle of God. Folks there's no other testimony. God forbid that somebody come to this house and all we can do is point at the gold and the silver. Point at the program.

Point at the way we've learned to do things. Point at our armor. Pointed our conferences pointed our guest speakers. God forbid that we should ever do this in this house. We need to point to Jesus. There's no other name.

He had nothing to offer his father. He lost Everything all he had to offer his father was the life That his father had given him. Came back in a sense. He wasted his resources. He Spent it in the wrong place and he's coming back down the road.

And he's empty and he's bruised and he's disappointed in himself. He's disappointed in his direction. He has no plan now. He has is nothing in the bank. He's got no gold to point to he's got no silver.

He has none of these things. He's got his armors long been sold off at a pawn shop somewhere. Everything is gone. It's all all he's got is his life. Only to find out that that's all his father ever wanted.

He comes back now without plans. He comes back without resources. He comes back with no resume. He comes back with nothing not able to say I've honored you father anywhere because he hadn't honored his father.

He comes back with a broken heart. He comes back saying whatever you ask me to do. That's what I'll do and Without resistance. He now finds his father covering him empowering him and inviting him on a journey.

He finds himself in the midst of an incredible celebration in his father's house and Realizes that the joy and purpose for his life Was always there. It was everything in the will of his father that's where his purpose was it was in obeying and doing the will of his father and Now this young boy leaves the house and you can be sure That his story is not about his travels is not about his former inheritances.

I got to tell you about my father. I got to tell you I came down the road and I was a mess and I wasted my life. I wasted my inheritance. I threw away the name that my father had given me and when I came down and I had nothing left to give him.

He ran to me and he fell on my neck and he kissed me. Folks the church is coming home. The church is coming home all over the Western world. I can see sons and daughters getting up and coming down the road.

Empty and bankrupt not realizing yet. That's exactly where we need to be for the glory of God to be revealed in us once again Jesus. Everything is hard Had ever longed for. Listen to. I want to just read this to you want to read to you what this what King David for the psalmist at 116 said.

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me? I'll take the cup of salvation and Call upon the name of the Lord. This is number one. I will Acknowledge that everything I have has been given to me for a reason.

It's not for my reason. It's for the reason of God. It didn't come through my efforts and it can't be accumulated and pointed to. It's something God does. I'll take that cup of salvation the psalmist says in 116 verse 13 and I'll call upon the name of the Lord and I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence Of all his people those things that I once said in my heart I would do.

Oh God member Hezekiah if you will just touch me. How I will live for you. How I will serve you. How I will honor you in the earth how I will speak of it everywhere I go. I can actually hear his prayer and So God touches him and does the miraculous and all he points to is the silver and gold of the armor Mrs.

The whole point because his heart is lifted up and doesn't understand that the life that he has he has it by grace. It's the goodness of God folks that we're not in hell this morning. It's the goodness of God that we have a voice to speak to other people.

It's the goodness of God that we have a song to sing. It's all about Jesus. Everything is in Jesus. Then he says this incredible verse. Verse 15. He says precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.

Not that death is not not the day we breathe our last that's precious I suppose if we've found in Christ, but no the death is when we come to an end of our own reasonings and our own interpretations in our own directions in our own walking by our own sight and according to our own plans and we finally die to it all and Come home to God and say Lord, whatever you would have me to do.

That's what I will do. That's what the prodigal son said, whatever. Whatever your plan is for me, whatever you have for my feet wherever you want me to go and testify. That's what I will do. He says Oh Lord.

Truly I am thy servant. I am thy servant and the son of thine handmaiden and you've loosed my bonds. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the name of the Lord. And again, he says I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

In other words, I will Obey you. I will honor you. I will do what you ask me to do. Whatever that is Hezekiah the scripture tells us Humbled himself for the pride of his heart both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah and I've said repeatedly in this house.

We have a window. We have an opportunity as a church age to turn back to God. Yes. Judgment is coming and has to come it's it's irrevocable. It's in the scriptures and we know these days are coming on the whole world.

That's not avoidable. That's coming but it was averted for a season in the days of Hezekiah in the days of the people who Humble themselves and begin to walk God's way and big into Acknowledges the scripture says that my ways have not been the ways of God and my thoughts have not been the thoughts of God.

Now this is not condemnation. This is victory when you and I realize what God is willing to do when we realize the volumes of people He's willing to bring into the house of God if we will choose to walk humbly before him.

What was it that you told God before he saved you or Maybe after what what I remember the promises I made in a sense now I know we're not to make promises to God, but these are Issues of the heart that we speak to him in our longing and then he responds and I remember telling him I'll serve you all the days of my life.

I remember saying I'll serve you if it kills me and There comes back a time when the silver and the gold is increased. And they we have a history with armor on the wall of things that we've accomplished in the past and there's an anointing on our lives and the sweetness of Christ.

He showed them the perfumes and the ointments the sweetness of Christ follows us and we have a story of some sort. But if we're not careful we start pointing to the wrong thing and We forget that we're all sinners saved.

By the grace of Almighty God. I Want to finish this course in victory. I'm finding myself very much like hezekiah and 58 that puts me at 73. If God gives me 15 more years, and so I might be very well in the position that this man was in 15 more years and I want to ask you the question today.

Finishing the Race With Christ as the Testimony

How do you want to finish this race? What do you want your testimony to be about the things that God gave you? Or do you want people coming to you for the rest of your day saying I? Heard you were sick.

I heard that God healed you. Can you tell me about that? God forbid we should point to the gold and the silver. That's not the issue those are blessings, and I acknowledge those blessings, but that's not the issue.

I want to finish this course honoring Christ and Seeing sons and daughters brought into his kingdom who are are not powerless to reproduce who have something of God in them that They can stand and speak the things of God and see people born into the kingdom of God.

Father I thank you Jesus. I Don't know how else to say this. But Lord give us the grace to finish, right. Give us the grace to not lose heart. Give us the grace to turn. Give us the grace to do what is right in your sight.

Give us the grace to honor you. Give us the grace to recognize what you've done and to speak about it to other people. Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you touch this church in a very profound way today.

And give us the grace to finish this race in an honorable way. Father I ask it in Jesus name. Now the title my message as many of God's people are coming home. That may be you today. Maybe as you've heard this word, the Lord has just shown you something in your life.

Or even if you just have the desire to respond and go deeper In the calling and grace that God has placed upon you. Going to open this altar. We're going to worship for 10 or 15 minutes and in the annex if you'd stand between the screens if you will and the same in Roxbury and summit and anywhere else where you're watching today and let's just come and Remember the psalmist said I will I will I will pay my vows now we're not we're not supposed to vow unto the Lord under the New Testament, but I Will give you God what I once said I would if you touched my life.

I'm not going to draw back. I'm not going to take the child like Hannah did. I'm keep it at home. I'm gonna bring what I have back to the kingdom of God for the glory and for the use of God. That would be my altar call today and You and I have to trust the Lord for the strength to do this, right?

But he will give you the strength and if this is in your heart as we stand. Please just join us at the front of the sanctuary and we'll pray together if you're backslidden come home to God. Just come home.

If you've made a mess of your testimony. Just just make your way here. If you want to just simply go deeper in God. Come let's stand together. Please in the balcony go to either exit and Let's pray together.