Your Last Hope Is Your Best Hope — Carter Conlon

I think everybody here this evening is aware that we're fighting for something in this meeting. You can feel it in your spirit. As a matter of fact, it's not something, we're fighting for someone. And the Lord's been speaking to me this evening throughout this whole time of worship tonight about a young person at home.

A Young Person at the End of Hope

And you're on your last hope. And you've been going to a cabinet or a drawer and on the right side of that cabinet or drawer is a bottle of pills. And every voice of hell is telling you to take those pills and just end it all.

And we're gonna fight for you tonight. I'm gonna speak shortly and I'm gonna speak simply to you tonight. And you will know that it's God speaking to you directly because he singled you out. You're just a young person.

And you've been succumbing to these voices in your mind telling you that your life is not worth living. Well, your life is worth living because the Holy Spirit, the third person of God, has burdened a whole prayer meeting tonight and probably thousands around the world that are watching this to pray just for you, just for you, that you will not do this thing that's in your heart to do.

You've succumbed to a lie that your life is not worth living. You're not even sure why you're listening to this prayer meeting. You don't even know how you got here or why you're listening. It is your last hope.

Communion and the Victory of Jesus Christ

But I wanna talk to you tonight about why your last hope is your best hope. God's about to do something in your life. At the end of the service tonight, we're gonna have communion together. Now, communion is bread and juice, any kind of bread, any kind of juice, where we celebrate the victory of the Son of God for you.

And for everyone who will turn to God through Jesus Christ, he paid the price for everything that separates you, not just from God for eternity, but everything that separates you from the life that God wants to give you while you live on this earth.

We're going to celebrate you tonight after this message. Then you're gonna go to that drawer or that cabinet. You're gonna take those pills and you're gonna flush them down the toilet. You understand.

You're gonna flush the devil down the toilet with them and say goodbye. You have no place in my life anymore. I'm not letting you destroy my life. I'm not letting you take away from me a reason to live.

I'm not letting you take away my future and my hope. Because tonight somebody is speaking to you about the fact that when you arrive at your last hope, it's your best hope. So Father, tonight, in Jesus' name, God Almighty, I ask you for an empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, to go far beyond this sanctuary and to go into rooms and hearts and homes and places where people are listening to this. And I ask you tonight to destroy the works of darkness. Destroy the voice of the enemy.

God, destroy the works of hell. Destroy God, that which is sent to destroy men and women and young people created in the image of God. We stand against you, Satan, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We take absolute authority over you through the shed blood of the Son of God. And in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we break your power over people's minds, homes, hearts, bodies and lives.

Healing, Freedom, and Authority Over Darkness

God, release healing tonight. Healing in the mind, healing in the heart, healing in the spirit. My God, healing in the body. As these words are spoken, Lord Jesus Christ, let healing begin to abound through the internet in all the corners of the world where people are listening and will be listening in the days ahead.

Let healing begin to flow. And we thank you for it tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. Your last hope is your best hope. Psalm 27, verses 12 to 14. Now, keep in mind, this is written by a man who was destined to be a king.

He was destined to rule and reign. And the Bible tells us that as, when we turn to God through Jesus Christ, that our eternal destiny, that's where we will live for eternity, is to rule and reign with Jesus Christ.

So in effect, you, as David was, are destined to rule and reign with Christ. You have an eternal purpose, not just a purpose on the earth, but you have an eternal purpose awaiting you in heaven. But even as David had these things come against his mind, it's not foreign to people that God has a plan for to also come under this barrage of evil thought that tries to convince them that their lives are not worth anything or not worth living, or to try to tell them they'll never be free when that is not the truth.

David says in Psalm 27, verse 12, do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence. David cries out, God, I have so many things that have risen against me, and they're saying things about me, and they're whispering things, they're breathing things out of their mouths, thoughts of violence to do me harm and to take away my future and my hope.

And they're saying things about me into my heart and mind, which I know can't be true. I would have lost heart, David says, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

The only hope, David says, I've got left, is that I will live to see the goodness of God while I still live. And I know that there are some people here tonight that that's your last hope now. Everything else seems to be against you, but your last hope is that God himself can't be against me.

And perhaps he's the one that can do some good in and through my life while I still live. And then he finishes with these words, wait on the Lord and be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart.

Wait, I say on the Lord. In other words, don't be hasty. Don't fall prey to the lie. Don't do something that you will regret for eternity, but wait on God. Let courage come into your heart. And the promises that he will strengthen you, David says, wait, I say on the Lord.

Sometimes your last hope is still your best hope. In Acts chapter 27, there were people that took a journey, and as they began to take this journey, God sent his word to them and said, don't take this journey.

Because if you go on this path, even though it may look good to you at the moment, it's going to lead in the loss of everything around you that you trust in, and it might even lead to the loss of life.

Nevertheless, the Bible says the people chose not to believe the word of God, and they headed out to do things their own way. And how that happens to so many people in this and every other generation, even though God's word tells us there are certain behaviors that will result in certain consequences, yet somehow we think that we can avoid those consequences by still charting our own course and taking our own journey.

And they ended up in a storm, and the storm was so fierce that everything they trusted in was starting to fall apart around them. And the scripture says they did everything they could to hold it together.

They even, this boat they were traveling in, they even put ropes around it and twisted them to try to keep it from falling apart. Maybe that's the way you feel tonight. You've done everything you know how to do to keep it all together, but everything around you seems to be falling apart, and these voices now are starting to say there is no hope, there is no future, because the scripture says when all hope that they would be saved was finally gone, then suddenly the man who spoke for God at the beginning of the journey now appears again, and he has another word for them.

God's Word in the Storm

And that's the beauty of Jesus Christ, that he'll warn you before you take the journey. And if you don't listen and take the journey, and it ends up in a real mess and everything is falling apart, then when you finally come to the place where there is no hope, he comes to you again and says, I told you not to take it, and you got yourself into this storm, into this mess, but now I'm sending a word to you to tell you how to get out.

You see, your last hope is your best hope. And the apostle Paul stood on the deck of a sinking ship with a whole bunch of people that had lost hope, and he told them, be of good cheer, I've heard from God, and this is where we're going in the future.

And you see, the word of God comes to us sometimes when everything else is gone, when everything else has failed thank God, when everything else is gone, Jesus Christ is still there, he is still willing to speak, he still loves you, he's still compassionate, he's watched you take the journey, he saw the drugs going into your body, he saw you getting into relationships you shouldn't get into, he saw you watching things you shouldn't watch, going to places you shouldn't go, he was whispering, he was warning, you wouldn't listen.

Now everything is falling apart. And now your last hope has become your best hope, because if you will listen to his voice now, he told you not to go in the beginning, but now he's going to tell you how to get out, hallelujah.

You see, there's still a purpose, there's still a plan, there's still something God wants to do in and through your life that you haven't known yet. In the book of 2 Kings in the Old Testament, chapter seven, there were four men standing or sitting, I don't know what they were doing, the Bible says they were lepers, they were diseased, they're outside the city gate, there's a famine because they're surrounded by an enemy army.

Inside the city, people are starving to death. They have no food, there's no reason to go back in the city, they said, because we're going to starve with everybody else there, and if we stay here, we're going to die, so they made a decision, not really understanding that decision was the will of God.

It was their last hope, they said, we're going to get up and we're going to go into the camp of our enemies. You see, the last hope that you might have is to get up and face those things that you have feared most of your life.

The things that you thought were going to be destructive, but actually is the pathway of God to bring provision not only to you, but to other people in your family, to other people that are your friends, to other people in the places you live, and so they got up and they headed into the camp of the enemy, and God made them sound like an approaching army.

You know, when you get up and choose to face your fears, you know, you may feel shaky and insignificant and I can't do any, but you're just getting up and you're going into the camp of that which has caused you and perhaps others fear for many, many days, and when they did this, their last hope became their best hope, not just for them, but for many others, and I'm telling you tonight, when you get up and face that which you fear, all of hell begins to shake.

The scripture says that God made their footsteps, it was only, there was only four sets of feet, but he made four sets of feet sound like a thunderous army, too numerous to even count, heading down the mountainside, coming into this camp, and what they heard struck such fear in their hearts, you're talking thousands of soldiers here, that they actually left everything.

They left their food, their horses, their clothes, their gold, their weapons, and ran into the desert to save their own lives from four people who got up and decided to face their fears, hallelujah. Oh, I tell you, when you get up and decide to face that which you have always been afraid of, you watch what God will do in your house, you watch what God will do in your family, watch what God will do for your friends, and suddenly you're going to find a provision for people who have been starving and without a hope and without a future.

Facing Fear and Finding Provision

In the book of 2 Kings chapter four, there was a woman who had lost all hope for her family, she had almost nothing left, only a little wee bit of oil. You know, sometimes even those of us who know God, you can get to the point where you feel like I've got even nothing, I've got so little of God left in me, I don't even have enough for my family, I don't have enough for anybody around me.

And so suddenly the word of God comes through a servant of God, and he shows her the way out, she's at the end of everything, it's her last hope. This prophet Elisha comes into her house and it probably was the last moment because she didn't see a future, her sons were about to be taken into captivity, she had no provision for her family.

And he gives her what must have looked like a strange word, he said, take the little bit of oil that you have and start pouring it out into empty vessels. Start with the empty vessels in your own house, and then go to your neighbors and get empty vessels there and start pouring in.

You see, your last hope is your best hope. Start pouring out what you have into others and watch what God will begin to do in your house. Instead of wringing your hands, we heard it tonight, he sets a table before you in the presence of your enemies.

Take the little bit you have and just start pouring out into the neighbor who has nothing. Pour out into the kids in your neighborhood who have nothing, pour out into, you have at least a little bit, start pouring out.

And when she began to pour out, the scripture was fulfilled. Remember, Jesus stood the last day of the feast and he said, if you're still thirsty, come to me and drink. And he who believes on me, out of his inward parts will flow a literal river of living water.

Start pouring out into the lives of those who have nothing. Instead of wringing your hands and looking at what you don't have and listening to the voices of condemnation that are accusing you constantly of being nobody and nothing and no good with no future and no hope.

Face that lie, face that fear. Walk into these places where people are empty. You have only a little bit, but give them what you have. Maybe you only know a little bit of scripture, but give them what you have.

And as you begin to pour out into them, you'll find the supply that God promises starts to turn inside of you. And the supply begins to provide for your family. And the supply pushes away the enemy that wanted to break up your home.

Praise be to God. You see, folks, I'm telling you, your last hope is most often your best hope. And you ask me the question tonight, you say, well, what if I've come to the place where I've lost all hope?

Waiting on God When Hope Is Lost

David said, false witnesses are risen against me and they're breathing out violence, these voices, against me. I would have lost heart, except for the fact that I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

David was saying, I waited on God. I waited on the God who says he will not fail us, he will not forsake us. I waited on the God whose name is faithful. I waited on the God who died to forgive my sin and give me life eternally and abundantly on this side of eternity.

I waited on God. I didn't rush him. In John chapter 11, a situation arose where hope was lost. All hope seemed to be gone. And when Jesus finally shows up, there's a lady called Mary who's sitting still in the house.

She's lost all hope. She's lost hope for the future. Everything around her seems to be gone. But I want to tell you that Jesus can bring anything back to life that you thought was dead. Jesus can resurrect anything that you thought was beyond hope.

All he has to do is speak. He has the power of life in his speech, in his word. He was victorious over every voice that will ever tell you that you have no reason to live. And he can bring life back into your situation.

Jesus’ Mission to Heal and Liberate

One of the more famous scriptures in all of the Bible is found in Luke chapter four, when Jesus went into the temple at the beginning of his ministry, the beginning of the public part of his ministry.

And he stood in a pulpit like I'm standing in tonight. And the scripture says, all the people in that congregation were listening to him. And he said these words, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

In other words, he has sent me to show where the strength and resources of God are to those that don't have any strength in themselves. He sent me to reveal the treasure of God's strength that's available to those who've come to the end of their own.

He sent me to heal the brokenhearted. I don't know what happened to you. I don't know what brought you to the place that you're in today. I don't know what words were spoken over you. I don't know what voices got into your inner part of your life.

But I do know this, that Jesus came to heal your broken heart. Keep it simple. Came to make, you'll always have the memory, but the memory will lose its pains. That's where the healing is. It's not that you'll forget the words, the words will be there, but they don't have the power anymore to do in you what they used to do when Jesus comes into your life.

He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives. In other words, to declare to you that you can be set free. There's no prison door that can hold you anymore. I've come to give you freedom. I've come to give you life and give it to you more abundantly.

And the recovery of the sight to the blind. In other words, if you don't see a way forward, if you can't see a future, God says, let me give it to you. Let my eyes start looking through yours and I'll show you a future.

I'll show you something you've never seen for your life before. You never understood the purpose for which I created you. And to set at liberty those who are oppressed, those who are living under this barrage of hellish voices, trying to destroy you, destroy your mind, destroy the very fabric of who you are.

He said, I came to set you free from that oppression. Came to give you victory. I came to give you a new mind. I came to give you a new heart. I came to give you a new spirit. And to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

In other words, there's a season where God is reaching out so that all these things that he had spoken in that pulpit that day could be fulfilled. It says, then he closed the book and he gave it back to the attendant and sat down.

And all the eyes of those in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them, today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. You don't have to wait till tomorrow or next week or next month or next year.

Today’s Invitation to Freedom and Salvation

Today. Today. Today, you can be free. Today, you can be healed. Today, your last hope has become your best hope. Today, God will send a word to show you how to find a pathway into the future. Today, God will give you the power to be poured out for others when you thought you had nothing left.

Today, God will give you the power to face your deepest fears and shake hell itself as one more weak person gets up and says, I'm going into the camp of the enemy. And God will do through me what God said he would do.

Today, he can raise back to life that which you thought in your own heart could never live again. He can raise it back to life and he will prove to you that he is God. I'm going to lead you in a prayer right now.

Right now. And I know I'm talking to somebody. And after we're done, I want you to text your testimony in or send your testimony into summitpa .org. Summitpa, as in Pennsylvania, .org. I want to hear your testimony and I want to get in touch with you because I know I'm talking to somebody tonight.

I know you're going to flush those pills down the toilet. I know the power of the devil over your life is going. You're just a young person. You have a great future in God. And the devil is not going to succeed in stealing you out of God's kingdom.

Praise be to God. I want you just in faith to pray this simple prayer with me and the people here are going to repeat it just for your sake tonight. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for coming to get me. Thank you for loving me.

Thank you for dying for me so that I could live. You let all those evil voices come against you so that my mind could be free. You went into the grave and you were raised again on the third day so that I could live with you by the same power that raised you from the dead.

Jesus, I believe you're the son of God. I believe you died for me and paid the price for the wrong I've done. I believe I have a purpose and a future. I have a reason to live. And tonight I open my heart to you.

I open my life to you. I open my future to you. I invite you to come into my life and be my Lord, my savior and my God. From this day forward, I am a new person. I have a new future. I have the living God.

God was invited me to sit at his table. I have a purpose in life and I have a hope of heaven when my life has come to its end. I am now a follower of Jesus Christ, my Lord, my savior and my God. Tonight, I want you as an act of faith tonight to text the word decided to 51 ,000.

Decided, it's your first act of faith. It's your first step out of hurt. It's your first step towards freedom. It's your first step towards the life that God has for you. I want you to know tonight that you are deeply loved by God and you're deeply loved by us here too as well.

I do hope that sometime you'll come and visit us here. We would love to dance with you in the house. We'd love to rejoice with you. We'd love to hear your story. Please do come. Make the effort to come and visit us.

But make sure you tell us your story at summitpa .org and I'll make a point of sharing it with the congregation in the future. Hallelujah. We're gonna sing one song then we're gonna come to the Lord's table and celebrate communion together tonight.

Get some bread, get some juice. And for that young person tonight I'm talking to you, when you run downstairs, your mother and father did not call me and tell me about you, okay? God told me about you.

And so when they tell you they haven't called or texted, they're telling you the truth. The Holy Spirit sees you. The Holy Spirit of God sees you tonight and is reaching his hand out through the internet right to you, right into your room, right where you are.

You have a reason to live. You have a reason to live. You have a reason to live now. You have a future, you have a hope. Oh God, thank you. God, thank you for those who have come through to salvation tonight because of Jesus Christ.

Lord, we're about to go to the communion table and celebrate your victory. This is your victory. This is all about you, Jesus. We wanna thank you tonight. We give you praise in your precious name. I'll be back in just a minute.