A New Song for a New Time — Carter Conlon

Good morning, Times Square Church. What a pleasure it is to be with you again this morning. I want to thank Pastor Tim Delina, our senior pastor, for the invitation to share with you today. And I just want to congratulate him and all of the staff here at Times Square Church for the absolute wonderful job that you're doing in getting the gospel out to the far reaches of this world through the internet.

The Lord spoke to me several years ago that this was going to be the future of the church. And for those who would learn how to navigate the internet and reach out and cast the internet on the right side of the boat, that there would be an incredible harvest brought into God's kingdom for his glory.

A New Song for a New Season

Today I want to speak to you about something that's very dear to my heart, about this season that we're now living in. And I've given it a title, and it's simply called A New Song for a New Season. If you have a Bible handy or a device where you could turn to it, go to Psalm 40.

It's a Psalm of King David. And I want you to read along with me verses one to eight, and then I'm going to comment on it for just a few minutes. So Father, I want to thank you today. I want to thank you, Lord God, for your word, which indeed is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path.

I thank you, Lord, that you tell us that the entrance of your words gives light. So God, cause your word to give light to our hearts, to our minds in places, Lord, where there might be confusion or even indecision about the future.

Give us, Lord God, the confidence that we need to go into the future with a heart that's just filled with gratitude and with joy for what you are about to do to bring glory to your own name. We thank you, Lord, that it's your church that you've chosen to be the vehicle through which you offer hope and freedom and forgiveness and deliverance to the masses of people who face an eternity in the not-too-distant future.

God, help us to do justice to your word today. Help me, Lord, to speak it, and help those that are listening online to be able to receive it. And I thank you for it in Jesus' name. Now, Psalm 40, beginning at verse one.

David, the future king, says, "'I waited patiently for the Lord, "'and he inclined to me and heard my cry. "'And he brought me up out of a horrible pit, "'out of the miry clay.'". In other words, David is saying, I was down in a place that was dark.

I didn't know how to get out of it myself. And even worse, there was a sinking feeling going on inside of that place that he found himself in. But he said, "'He brought me up out of a horrible pit, "'out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock "'and established my steps.

"'And he's put a new song in my mouth. "'Praise to our God. "'Many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord.'". So David is saying, God lifted me out of this place, lifted me out of this pit that I found myself in, this place where I felt like my hope, in a sense, was sinking in my heart.

And he brought me out and he put my feet in such a large and firm and wonderful place that it actually came with a song. It wasn't just a song you could hear. As a matter of fact, David says, it's a song you could see.

It's a song of praise that is deeper than just words. It's deeper than just the lyrics to a verse that we might sing. It's a song that emanates from the whole being of somebody who is fully given to the ways of God.

"'Blessed is the man,' he says in verse four, "'who makes the Lord his trust, "'and does not respect the proud, "'nor such as turn aside to lies.'". David is saying that there are all kinds of voices.

There are voices that are raised against the ways of God. The proud, of course, will put their own objectives and own thoughts above the thoughts of God. But David says, "'Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.'".

In other words, God can speak to this man. God can lift this man or this woman out of this place and bring them into that place of stability with this new song. "'Nor such as turn aside to lies.'". Those who look maybe for an easier way forward than the way of God.

Those that look for more comforting voices, whether or not they're speaking biblical truth. David said, if we turn from these things, there's a blessing of God that comes into our lives. Now, verse five, it gets even better.

He says, "'Many, O Lord my God, "'are your wonderful works which you have done.'". You think about in the past, all the things that God has done throughout the world, throughout history, but also in Times Square Church itself.

God's done many, many wonderful things in the past. We're really, really thankful for those things. "'And your thoughts towards us "'cannot be recounted to you in order. "'If I would declare and speak of them, "'they are more than can be numbered.'".

Now, David is saying something that, some would say this is an exaggeration, but actually it's not, it's actually accurate. David is saying, God, you're thinking things about each of us, you're thinking things about our future, the plans that you have for each one of us, but remember, the plans of God go beyond this world and beyond this physical life we live.

They go all the way into eternity, through eternity, so there's really no end to the thoughts of God towards us and the things that we're going to do, even in heaven, in unison with him. And then he goes on in verse six, he says, "'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire.

"'My ears have you opened.'". You don't want me just doing perfunctory religious works. You don't want me just performing the same old rituals, the same old sacrifices, as wonderful as any of those things may have been in the past.

It's not your will for me to live there anymore, but you have opened my ears, burnt offering, and sin offering you did not require. Then I said, behold, I come. In the scroll of your book, it is written of me.

So David said, you opened my ears, I heard something from you, and I moved towards the sound of your voice. It is written of me in your book, I delight to do your will, oh my God, and your law is within my heart.

Here's how God took David out of this place of confusion and fear and difficulty. He opened his heart to the voice of God. He didn't try to figure it out himself. He didn't form a league with the proud who resist the ways of God.

They always have, they always will. He didn't gravitate to lies about the past, the present, or the future. But he said, God, speak to me. It was really that clear. I want to hear your voice. Don't let me just come to you to have my own agenda verified.

It's your voice that I now want to hear. And we're living in a situation like that today in our generation. God is calling us as his people into something that he has conceived for us to do. He has a path before each of us.

It's a path of strength. It's a path of stability. It's a path that carries a brand new song with it, a song of confidence in God. And tell me, this generation surely needs to see that song again, because a lot of people are losing confidence.

David's Pit and the Disruption of His Expectations

What an opportunity, as the Apostle Peter says, to be ready to give an answer for those who will ask us in the coming days for a reason for the hope that is in us. Now, in this particular psalm, David is speaking of a particular time in his spiritual journey when he was stuck.

And we all get there. We get stuck in our ways. We get stuck in a certain place. We don't see a way forward. We don't know how we're gonna get out. And I want you to picture with me where he was. Now, it's imagery that he's speaking about, but in this place, he describes it as a pit.

In other words, it's just walls all before you. You don't know how you're gonna get out of where you are. It's too high to climb. You can't dig down and get out of it. And beneath his feet, there's this quicksand, and he's sinking deeper and deeper into despair.

And when you look at the difficulty that this society today is facing, a lot of people are actually feeling that way. As a matter of fact, you might be feeling that way, too, as well, listening to this message this morning.

You know, we get stuck when things don't go the way we thought that they would, or they could, or they should. You know, we all have this tendency to form a picture in our mind. This is what my life is gonna look like.

I've come to Christ. The promises of God are now mine, and we push aside what we consider like any negativity to the side, and we gravitate to the positive. That's just human nature. And I'm sure David did that, didn't he?

I mean, Samuel comes in. What if Samuel walked into your house and poured a horn of oil on your head and said, thus saith the Lord, you're anointed to be the next king of Israel. I mean, so, in his mind, he must have thought at some point, it just doesn't get any better than that.

The Spirit of God came upon him. He was able to go into a battle that seasoned soldiers couldn't even fight, and defeated a magnanimous enemy, may I call it that, a magnificent enemy, that stood up against the armies of Israel.

And he had a worship ability that, when he played before King Saul, that even the devils themselves would be driven away from the mind of Saul and the life of Saul. But suddenly, everything takes a negative turn.

Suddenly, he's being pursued by a king that he was loyal to. Suddenly, he finds himself in the wilderness. He finds himself, ultimately, in a cave with about 400 discontented, distressed, and in debt men gravitating to him.

He's surrounded by an army that, in the natural, vastly outnumbers him. And in his mind, maybe, he just was stuck because things didn't go. And there's people here listening this morning that things haven't gone the way you thought they should go.

You found your niche, as it is, and suddenly, everything is upended, and you find yourself in total upheaval, and you can find yourself in that place that David described at the beginning of this psalm.

We can get stuck when we don't think that God can do any better in the future than he's done in the past. That's problematic, I think, for all of us. You remember the disciples were taken by Jesus up to the Mount of Transfiguration, and it doesn't get any better, right, than that.

Suddenly, the Son of God is glorified. The radiance of God inside of this physical body is suddenly comes to the outside. He's transfigured before them. Moses is there. Elijah is there. I mean, it just doesn't get any better.

And so, Peter and the others, the immediate response is let's build something. Let's camp here. Let's stay here. It just doesn't get any better than this. And we can find ourselves in a place like that where we found something of God that answered our heart's cry.

We found a church that answered our heart's cry. We found worship that answered our heart's cry. We found an experience in God that answered our heart's cry. And the tendency is to wanna camp there, to wanna build there, to want to stay there.

The Welsh Revival and the Danger of Living in the Past

You know, I had the privilege, in 2004, I traveled to Wales, and I was speaking in Cardiff, Wales, and some of the areas around there. And I had an opportunity to visit the church where the Welsh Revival in 1904 actually started.

And the Welsh Revival, of course, spread Pentecost throughout a good part of the world and was responsible for a great ingathering into the kingdom of God and a resurgence of fervor in the Christian church.

And I found it so ironic because in that chapel, it's called Moriah Chapel, there's a little group of people, and they still meet and they still pray and they mourn and they grieve and they wait for God to do in that building what He did at that point.

It was 100 years ago. I think of all the people that have been part of that little group and maybe have joined that group over the years and have waited for God to come back and do something He did in a building 100 years ago.

And, you know, I think of all the people that maybe gathered there and grieved the loss of a past experience and all that they missed. Now, I mean, there's a lot of things that they potentially even missed.

They missed the Billy Graham years when more people were preached to in the world than in the history of any other preacher in all time. They missed David Wilkerson maybe starting up Teen Challenge and the multiples of millions of people coming to Christ throughout the world.

They missed so many things. They missed Nikki Cruz coming to Christ and having traveled the world and preached to 30 million people. You see, the point is we can get so stuck on the past that we lose sight of the future.

We lose sight of the fact that God is thinking things about us and about the church. He has a plan for the future that's bigger than our thoughts. He's always on the move. You think of Philip in the book of Acts.

He's leading an actual revival in Samaria, an amazing revival. Devils are fleeing, people are coming to Christ, people are getting filled with the Holy Spirit, bodies are being healed. Suddenly, God speaks to Philip and He leaves that and He goes out into the wilderness for the sake of one soul because God had a new plan and a new thought for His life.

And I'm thinking of all the people that are living in the wilderness today and I hope you and I are grateful that God is giving us the opportunity to go into homes throughout the world now through the internet to reach people that will not be reached if we camp on a past experience and just live to see that God do something that He did gloriously years before but is probably not going to do again.

Fear of the Future and Israel at the Promised Land

We get stuck when the future looks fearful and the present, though it might be dry, is at least safer than what we perceive lies before us. And you think of the children of Israel standing at the border of this incredible promise, having been taken out of captivity, led through the wilderness, brought to the border, literally, of a promise.

But it looked fearful to go in. I know a lot of people were thinking, at least here we're safe. Maybe it's a little dry, but the manna's still here and we have provision and in this place that God's wanting to lead us to, there are giants that seem to be bigger than we are.

And fear is one of the biggest giants of all. And so they made the choice and they lived in a wilderness experience. They lived in a place where maybe all they could talk about was that which God did throughout history.

And they were stuck in that situation. But God did something for David that gave him a new level of worship. And it produced in him a reverence and trust in God that transmitted itself to others. As I said in the beginning, he took me out of the miry clay and out of this horrible pit, out of this place where I was stuck.

He set my feet upon a rock and he established my steps. In other words, he didn't call me out just to stand in one place. No, but he laid out a pathway before me. He said, this is where I'm taking you.

This is what I want you to do. This is how my name is gonna be glorified. Because remember, it wasn't in David's future just to be pursued by an insane king and his army. It was in David's future to be the king of Israel.

And not only to be the king of Israel, but in his loins, in his actual physical loins was the DNA of the man Jesus Christ that was gonna be born into this world and redeem this world through his lineage.

The point being, the plan of God is so much bigger than you and I can understand. The only way we can ever begin to lay hold of it is we allow God to lift us up. We say as David did, my ears you have opened and you put in my heart a delight to do your will.

Even when it looks to be fearful, even when I don't understand it, even when you're leading me into an unfamiliar place, God, I delight to do your will because you are thinking something about me that I've not considered yet to do.

In verse four he says, blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Blessed is the man. In other words, the word in the New Testament at least is Markarios.

I don't know what it is right here in the Hebrew, but it means indwelt by God and fully satisfied. When I have chosen to make God my trust, there's an indwelling of God that comes into your life or my life and the promise of God is that I will be fully satisfied.

It's I'm not following what I think that my life should be, I'm following what God is calling me to do. Acknowledging as you and I both need to do that the thoughts of God are higher than our thoughts and his ways are higher than our ways.

A New Calling and God's Purpose for the Future

I thank God for my own life, for example, I'm 67 years of age now and God's given me a new calling. Yes, I'm here at Times Square Church to undergird and to help Pastor Tim Delina and to give advice as he requests it and to be sure and to make sure that Times Square Church goes forward and our new senior pastor is successful.

And I really thank God for that. But in addition to that, he has placed on my heart a passion and a vision to reach people through the internet who don't feel that God loves them or their lives could ever amount to anything in his kingdom and to somehow convince you who are stuck in a pit or you're sinking in despair that that's not God's plan for your life.

That if you will open your heart and open your ears to him, he will lift you out of that place, he will set you on a solid footing and he will show you a path before your life, a path that will be empowered by his spirit and a path through which he will be glorified and people who are suffering and struggling in sin will be set free.

There ought to be no other plan or pathway or nothing else that we desire as people of God for our futures. So I feel like David, I feel like, now I've not been in a pit and I've not been in despair, but I feel like David, I understand what it means to be brought out of this place, to stand upon a solid rock and to suddenly see a pathway open before you.

This is what I have ordained for your life. And what a privilege it is for me to come into your home today and to tell you that God loves you and to tell you that God can lift you and to tell you that Jesus Christ died to save you, died to give you freedom, died to give you an eternal life and an abundant life here on this side of eternity.

What a privilege it is for me to tell you it is a blessed thing to hear the voice of God and to walk with God. And I can say like David, he's put in my heart a new song, not just a song that I sing, but it's a song that my whole body sings.

It's a song that emanates through your eyes, it comes through the touch of your hands, it comes through the intonation of your voice. The whole general being of who you are is suddenly becomes a choir in the sight of people who are looking for hope, they're looking for help.

David said, many will see it and fear and trust in the Lord, many will see it. And really what happens is they say, God must be real. I'm hoping that's happening to you today, that you see the blessedness of hearing the voice of God, letting him set his pathway before us.

And then you're looking and saying, God, wherever that kind of song comes from, I wanna sing it. I'm tired of singing the song that I'm singing down in this pit or this sinking place. I wanna sing the song of victory, the song of vision.

I'm tired of my song being dictated to me by what I hear on the news or what politicians are saying or what liars and proud people are speaking. I'm just sick of this stuff. I want the song that only comes from God.

Following Jesus' Voice in Faith and Obedience

Well, if you do, then you have to open your heart to him in the place that you are in right now. Let him lift you out of any place of despair you happen to be in and let him set his pathway before you that he has for your life.

You know, I'm finding it interesting that there are two places in scripture where Jesus tells the disciples to throw out the net for a catch. It's interesting when you look at it. The first time is in Luke chapter five, verses three to five where he asks Peter and the others to just push out the boat because there's a big crowd on the shore so he can speak to the people.

So he does. And after he speaks, he says, now let out your nets for a draft. That's what it says in the King James Bible for a catch. In other words, let out your nets for a catch. And as soon as he says it, there's a resistance in a sense from Peter.

Peter says, well, we fished all night and we've caught nothing. Then he says, but nevertheless, at your word, we will let down the net. So there's actually a resistance to obeying God. And when we first come to Christ, there is always a resistance to hearing his voice.

It's hard to get out of old patterns of doing things. It's hard to escape beyond our own reasonings. And this is where they were at that time. They were half listening to the voice of God and half listening to their own reasoning.

That's what it's like for new believers or for those who are yet to be believers. We half hear his calling and half of us tells us, well, I would like to do it his way, but I've done it all night and I'm a fisherman.

I know how this is done. We haven't caught anything. So why would listening to him make any difference? And some of you are right there this morning. You hear his voice tugging at your heart, but your own reasoning comes now to fight against the voice of God and give you all the reasons why you shouldn't do this thing, why you shouldn't trust him, why you shouldn't believe in Christ for your salvation, why the plan of God might be wonderful for other people, but maybe not for you.

So they did. They threw down the net and suddenly there's this huge draft of fish and you find Peter, of course, that famous scripture where he drops down to his knees and says, depart from me, I'm a sinful man.

In essence, it's a type in a sense of a conversion moment where we begin to see that, hey, God's word is true. God is faithful. He does give us a new heart. He does give us a new mind. He does give us a new spirit.

And we bow down and we're suddenly aware of our sin. We are keenly aware of how we have lived apart from God and God's purpose and God's plan and God's salvation in our lives. So that's more or less a conversion moment.

It's a nevertheless. It's a trust, comma, sort of. Now, in John chapter 21, I call it a post-conversion throwing of the net. Now, they are fishing in John chapter 21. They fished all night. They've caught nothing again.

And Jesus calls to them now from the shore. And he says, have you caught anything? They said, no. He said, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you shall find. In other words, the post-conversion voice of the Son of God says, do it my way.

It's strange, isn't it, that they'd fished all night and it never occurred to them to cast the net on the other side of the boat? You know, and that's what we're like. We do things over and over repetitively and we get convinced in our mind, is this the only way that things can work?

This is the way the church has to be. This is the way worship has to be. This is the way preaching has to be. And we can't move out of that. But for those who are converted, for those who've had an opportunity to walk with the Son of God as these disciples had, he now tells them, cast the net on the other side of the boat.

Casting the Internet Net for a Harvest

Son of God spoke to my heart years ago that the future of the church was going to be on the internet. He actually spoke to me, to my heart, and said to me that there was going to be a season of turmoil coming into the nation, and possibly a season where the churches couldn't meet again.

I'd shared it with many of our staff here for at least two years. And when that season came, what the Lord spoke to my heart is we have to learn to cast the net, the internet, may I call it that, on the right side of the boat.

There's going to be an incredible harvest if we are willing to do it God's way. That is really the key. Are we going to stay stuck because we don't like the way things are going? Are we going to stay stuck because we think the past or the present is better than the future?

Are we going to stay stuck because the future looks fearful and at least in the present or past we found a sense of security? Or are we actually willing to do it God's way, to cast the internet on the right side of the boat, believing that there's going to be this amazing end time harvest if we will just do it God's way?

He says, my thoughts, many, O Lord my God, are your wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts towards us cannot be recounted to you in order. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

You are thinking something about this moment in history. God, would you help us? Would you help us to think the thoughts with you that you are thinking? You are thinking something about Times Square Church for the future.

I believe, honestly, the greatest days for this particular church body are just ahead of us. I believe God's going to do something that we've never seen before in a way we've never seen it. I believe that God has brought in exactly what is necessary to get it done.

You know, when they brought in this big harvest, they had to call for their partners to help them. And I thank God for all of the partners that have come into Times Square Church and are helping us move forward to what I believe is going to be perhaps one of the greatest harvests of souls that we will ever see in our own lifetime.

From Religious Routine to Delight in God's Will

And David says again in verse six, sacrifice an offering you did not desire. You can just see the repetitiveness in the temple. People are coming in every day, all day. They're coming in early morning, they're going out late at night, they're bringing in their lambs and their goats and their wheat and their barley and everything else and they're offering sacrifices before God.

And it became kind of repetitive. It offered a measure, of course, of security to the people of God of that time. But David comes, David gets this incredible vision. He says it's not sacrifice an offering that you require.

You've opened my ears to something new, something wonderful. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require. Then I said, behold, I come. In the scroll of your book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, oh my God.

In your book it is written of me. I delight to do your will. I guess my question to you this morning is it in God's book of you that you delight to do the will of God? Are you willing to be taken to a new place?

Times Square Church, I'm going to speak to you also as a congregation. Are you willing to embrace where God is leading? Are you willing to, I'm going. I'm going with all my might. I'm going with all my heart.

I'm going with a new song. I'm going with joy. I'm going with expectancy. I feel like Caleb, give me the mountain with the giants. Give me that place where there's strongholds that try to tell the people of God that there are captives there that are never gonna be set free.

I feel that calling of God in my life. I delight to do your will. That is the new song for a new season. That's the new song. We're not dragging a cart of old regrets and an anchor behind us, I'll go but begrudgingly.

No, we're embracing the will of God for the future. We're embracing the will of God for this church, for the testimony of this body. We're embracing our new senior pastor and all of the leadership that are here in Times Square Church and we're saying, God, I delight to do your will.

I'm going with you. Wherever you're going, I'm going with you. And I'm gonna believe that my life is gonna make a difference. And you will put a new song in my heart. A song, the scripture says, that many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord.

The Parable of the Talents and Faithful Stewardship

You know, I wanna conclude with just a thought before we pray. In Matthew chapter 25, there's a story of the talents, the giftings of God that were given to people and Jesus shared this parable. At the end of the age, they're all called together and the question is, what did you do with what I gave you to bring about my work in the world?

And there were people that came that they received two talents and they gained two and somebody received five and they gained another five and then there was somebody who came and they were given this opportunity, in a sense, to represent Christ in the world and did absolutely nothing with it.

You might just say they got stuck. They got stuck as David was stuck at the beginning of the song. They got stuck in a pit. They got stuck in quicksand. They just couldn't take what God had given them and used it for his glory.

And that particular person, the scripture says, the talent was taken from him and the Lord said, give it to the man who has 10. I used to think that was unfair when I was a young Christian. I said, well, why don't you give the one to the guy who only has two or to the one who has five?

And then one day the Lord just spoke to me and says, no, the one who has 10 is somebody who delights to do the will of God. Somebody who's just saying, God, just give me one more opportunity to glorify you.

It's the guy in the back who's jumping up and down with his hand raising, here, give it to me, God. Give it to me, I'll use it for your glory. I'll use it for your kingdom. It's the type of a person that says, God, give me one more chance to glorify you while I still live on this earth.

Give me one more chance to reach one more soul. Give me one more opportunity to go into one more home. Give me one more key to open one more prison door. Give me one more vial of oil to see the anointing of your Holy Spirit come on somebody's life.

Oh, God, just give me your word that I may bring it to somebody who is just desperate for truth in this hour. And this is where we are today. I believe there's giftings of God that are available. I believe there's blessings, there are thoughts, there are things that we, how could David ever know that the Messiah was gonna come through his DNA?

He couldn't have known that. I mean, I think he had an inkling of it, but he couldn't have fully known it. Imagine if he'd stayed in the pit. Imagine if he'd succumbed to despair, if he had started listening to the proud who resist God or those who lie about God, about his purposes, about the future.

Imagine if he hadn't turned away from those voices. All that would be missing throughout history, I dare not even think about it because you and I both know it was going to be through his lineage that the Savior was going to come into the world.

There's so much more than we can understand when you and I begin to move with God, when we begin to say, Lord, your word has found a lodging place in my ears and in my heart, and I delight to do your will.

You know, I have a personal prayer. I want to be that, I want to be that guy trying to take one more mountain, trying to take one more battle. Even in the final, final stages of my life, I want to be still out there fighting.

And in this despairing society that we're now living in, there's despair is rampant all over the world now. Isn't it wonderful to have a people with a new song for a new season? A people that have a song so deep, so rich, so powerful that people can see it, and they start knowing that God is real, and they start trusting in God themselves.

Repentance, Faith, and Receiving Christ

And so here's my challenge to you today. You don't get this song by sitting in a pit. You don't get this song by sinking in quicksand any longer. You get this song by opening your heart to the voice of God.

And if you can open your heart to the voice of God today, his promise is that he will lift you out of where you are, he will set you on a solid place, and he'll set a path before you. Not a path of your own reasoning, but a path that he has determined for your life in the future.

You have to firstly admit that you're a sinner. Admit your condition. Don't make excuses for it. Don't try to call it holy. Don't sit in some place and mourn over the past. Admit your condition. Admit that you need a savior.

You can't get out of this place on your own. And then believe that God so loved you that he sent his son to die on a cross 2 ,000 years ago to pay the penalty for your sin. If you could see it, if you could see the beating that the son of God took, and fully understand that he took it willingly for love, because he loved you.