Your Hidden Word From God — Carter Conlon

With us tonight, we're gonna have communion after I share a little bit from the word of God tonight. So if you have the time to get some juice and some crackers in your kitchen and bring them to where you are so that you can join us and be part of that, be very, very much appreciated.

Now I have a word tonight for people that are in impossible places. And it's gonna be based on the word that Pastor Tim Delina spoke on Sunday morning. And I thank God with all my heart that I'm getting stirred by Pastor Tim's preaching.

I hope you are too as well. It was a phenomenal message on Sunday morning of what do you do when you find yourself in an impossible place and how does God get involved in that? Now, so for tonight, I wanna just, I wanna pray and then I wanna read some prayer requests that have come in throughout this week.

And then I have a word specifically for everyone who's in these prayer requests or other people who are in similar situations. So Father, I wanna thank you with all of my heart tonight that you are a God who is not only faithful, but you surprise us.

And you do things, Lord, when we least expect it, when we don't feel worthy, when we feel like we are unusable, unlovely. God Almighty, you come down at the time when we least expect that you would. And as you spoke to Gideon, as you called Moses, as you've done throughout history, you call us when we feel too old, too weak, too young, unlovely, unloved.

God, and you call us to do something that will bring honor and glory to your name and even change history. So thank you, Lord God, that we are in that place again of needing you. We're in the place, Lord, I pray, God, where we can actually hear you again in the way that we need to.

Your church is so bruised and battered and beat up in so many places, God, that I believe that we are the candidates for the miraculous now, for you to be God and to touch our lives and use our lives in such a way that no one would touch the glory.

Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for just bringing us to a place as a nation and individually where we recognize that without you, we have no future. Without you, we have no strength. Without you, Lord God, there's nothing ahead that would bring glory to your name or release and redemption to people who are crying out for freedom.

And so God, thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you've done and what you will do. And I do pray tonight that as we go to the communion table, that we will be reminded of the fact that you are God.

We'll be reminded of the fact that you do things in ways that we don't understand. Your ways are not our ways and your thoughts are not our thoughts. I'm so thankful for that, Lord. I am so thankful for who you are and for the way you do things.

And we give you praise and glory in Jesus' name. If I were to give this word a title tonight, I would call it your hidden word from God. Your hidden word. God's given you a word. It's hidden. Sometimes it's hidden from the people of God themselves or sometimes somebody has received it and actually hidden it within their heart.

Prayer Requests and Hope for Impossible Situations

I wanna just read to you a few prayer requests before we go to the word of God. From Somerset, Texas, Sarah says, "'Pray for my 19-year-old daughter. "'She used to love God, but now she says she doesn't.

"'Believe the Bible and she's bisexual. "'I can't bear to see her go to hell.'". Well, Sarah, we're gonna believe with you. You don't have to see her go there. We do serve a mighty God. And I thank God he's able to reach your daughter no matter where she is or what her lifestyle has become.

It might be beyond your hand to reach her now, but it's not beyond the hand of God. And you watch what God's about to do for you. From the Bronx, pray for peace in my home. My chest feels heavy and I'm tired of crying.

I feel so alone. From Florida, I'm depressed. I'm suffering panic attacks and neuropathy. Also have shoulder and knee pain. Where I live, the cases of COVID are rising. Please, Lord, help slow down the virus.

From Spokane, Washington, Kevin says, I'm a quadriplegic looking for housing. Kevin, God was gonna be faithful to you. God sees you, he knows your need, and just let him surprise you. Watch what he's going to do.

Yolanda from San Antonio, Texas says, please pray for my son. Glenn has been delivered from drug addiction. I do pray he finds Jesus. He would like to help others. From the US, please pray we started out for Christ and raised seven children for him, but we've lost our way.

Jesus, please help. We need miracles on many fronts. Michelle from New York says, God, please mend my broken heart. Lift this deep depression, the sense of hopelessness and loneliness. I don't have any more strength, and I'm crying out for help.

From New Zealand, my marriage is under attack. We need healing and salvation for John. He's talking about divorce. He's speaking hurtful and damaging words, and the children also need us. Ask God to make a way for us.

From Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Sharon says, please will you pray for a financial miracle for me? I haven't had an income for seven months now, and when I apply for a job, I only get rejections. Jacqueline from St. Eve in the UK.

My son, Chanza, is a prisoner of alcoholism. He's asked the Lord to help him. He said the Lord hasn't heard his born-again prayer. He needs a miracle. Stephen from Kenilworth, New Jersey. I'm a Christian that has had heavy depression for the last six and a half years.

Please pray for this lifting. I want to give up, but I know he is able to heal. We know it too, Stephen, and we're standing with you tonight. We're believing God with you and for you. And lastly, Sonia from Queens, New York says, my daughter, 23-year-old Celeste, texted me saying that she's going to kill herself.

We don't know where she is. I can't reach her. Please pray. So Father, tonight we just reach out for Celeste, Lord. We don't know where she is either, God, but you do. And Lord, as you once came into a room and you met the pastor of this campus church in a hopeless condition, we ask you tonight, Lord, to reach down and touch Celeste right where she is.

Open her mind, open her heart to the future that you have for her. Speak to her, God. Give her a word tonight that she would know could only come from heaven. Deliver her from this demonic assault on her mind that has convinced her that life is not worth living.

God, we ask you to assuage the heart of this precious mother who's probably not slept for nights knowing this and knowing her daughter's out there thinking of suicide. Oh Jesus, oh Jesus, it is time for you to act.

It's time for you to lift your hand of power out of your abysmal God and do the work that you said you came to do. We implore you, Father, in Jesus' name and for the sake of Jesus, God, send your Holy Spirit into every one of these situations and set people free and open their prison doors and give them sight to see a way forward and in their poverty, have the treasure of Christ open to them.

Oh Lord Jesus Christ, we call out to you tonight unashamedly, we need you, we need you, we need you. You yourself said to your own people, you shall not see me again till you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

So Lord, we say to you, we bless you, we love you, we need you, we need your ways, we need your power, we need your glory again, we need your healing, we need your direction, we need your sight, we need your freedom.

We need you, Lord Jesus Christ, we need you. You are welcome here. You are welcome, oh God, in each situation and we invite you to do the miraculous tonight and we thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen.

Hiding God's Word in the Heart

I wanna talk to you tonight about your hidden word from God. Psalm 119 verses 10 and 11. Here's what the psalmist says. With my whole heart, I have sought you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments.

Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. This is a phenomenal statement from this particular psalmist and I've loved that one verse of scripture for many, many years where he says, your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Now, our concept of sinning against God is lying and stealing and committing adultery and those things are sins against God. But the connotation here goes a little bit deeper than that. When he says that I might not sin against you, he's not just talking about condemnation or uncleanness.

He's not talking about just that. When you look at the original definition of the word that is used there, that I might not, I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. It also implies living a life that is off the target.

That's an incredible thing, isn't it? In other words, it's like an arrow that's shot from the hand of God in a sense. The arrow decides just to veer to the left or veer to the right and actually misses the target for its life.

It also speaks of getting lost or coming up short of the goal or a serious breakdown in a personal relationship. So that now changes, that now expands the meaning of this particular verse of scripture.

Your word I've hidden in my heart that I might not end up off target, that I might not get lost, that I might not end up short of the goal that you have for my life or that there might not be a serious breakdown in our personal relationship, the relationship, God, that you have with me that you freely gave to me when your son, Jesus Christ, became Lord and Savior of my life.

Lord, you have a purpose. You see, as well as doing something bad, it also carries the connotation with it of neglecting to do something good. James 4, verse 17 in the New Testament says, therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

So it takes the definition a little bit, a little bit, makes it a little bigger than just doing some bad thing that we know is bad. How about the concept of knowing what to do and yet not moving towards that where the word of God is leading us?

Faith in God's Promises

Now, I don't share this to condemn anyone, but I wanna remind you of something tonight that God considers his promises to you to do a very serious thing. It's not a light thing with God. You know, the scripture says in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11 in verse six, let me just read it to you.

Without faith, it is impossible to please him. Now, it's the writer of Hebrews, which is God. Of course, we understand that. He talks about the world's being framed by the word of God. He talks about Abel offering to God a more excellent sacrifice.

He talks about Enoch being taken away from this earth without seeing death. He's talking about these incredible things that have happened throughout history. Then interjects between Enoch and then Noah, he interjects this one verse and says without faith, it is impossible to please him, which means that we can go to church.

That's a good thing. We can read our Bibles. That's a great thing. We can pray for an hour a day. That's a wonderful thing. There's so many good things we can do, but without faith, it is impossible to please him.

For he who comes to God must believe that he is. In other words, God exists. God is concerned about us. God has a divine plan for every life and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. In other words, if you and I have an honest walk with God, if we are in the word of God and we start to see the promises of God to us, if we don't believe them, it's very difficult for us to please God.

That's according to what the scripture says. I know we're fully received with God through Jesus Christ, but I wanna live a life that is pleasing to God on this earth. I know that you do too as well. I'm sure of that, but it requires faith because God takes his promises to us as a very serious thing.

It's not a light thing. Every life born into the kingdom of God has a hidden promise and purpose, every life. Your life does, my life does. Things that only God knows. The day you opened your heart and Jesus Christ came into your life and the Holy Spirit became your comforter and your guide, in that day, a divine plan was put into motion for your life.

And it didn't mean that God was gonna take you where you are strong and use your strength for his glory. He was most likely gonna take you where you're least qualified. And he himself was gonna become the source of your strength.

He was going to do what you and I can't do for ourselves. He was going to take us where we could never go. He was going to make us into what we could never hope to be and give us what we could never possess.

He was going to put words in our mouths. He was going to give us a new heart, the scripture says, a new mind and a new spirit. He was gonna take us from death to life and he was going to raise us up in his power as a living testimony of the reality that he is God, that he is willing to save and he does have a divine plan for every life.

You see, so you're not just a happenstance. You're not just a victim sitting on the sidelines of some divine game that's going on in the universe. You're not just a pylon in somebody else's game. You have a divine purpose in your life that God gave to you.

Jeremiah's Hidden Promise in a Time of Siege

And he begins to whisper that purpose into your heart. In the very early days of your salvation, he whispers that purpose into your heart. And the problem we face as human beings in our humanness is that because if it's outside of the realm of what we see as possible through our strength or experience or influence or whatever it is we have or don't have, we sometimes gravitate or receive those things as we think from God that we are capable of doing.

But we push away those things that we feel we could never accomplish, we could never do. Jeremiah chapter 32, we heard about it on Sunday morning where the prophet Jeremiah was told, he was given a word.

Jeremiah always says the word of the Lord came to me. The word of the Lord came to me. The word of the Lord came to me. And God told him to buy land in an area of a city that was under siege. It was about, and he already knew that.

Jeremiah already knew. He was already prophesying. He was already encouraging people to surrender. He knew that Babylon was going to conquer the promised land as it was at that time for a season, going to take all of the people of God into captivity.

But in the midst of all of this, in the midst of what would look to be a siege. Now I'm talking to people tonight who are under siege. You're writing in and I read a lot of your prayer requests. You're being bombarded from every side.

It looks hopeless. Your chest is heavy from crying. You're tired of being depressed. You feel like you have no way forward. You don't know what you're gonna do with life. You don't know what's gonna happen to your family.

Your marriage is falling apart. You're a city that's under siege and it looks like you're going to be destroyed. And in the midst of it all, the word of the Lord comes to you. As the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and he says, I want you, I'm gonna speak a word to you.

And I want you to take that word and I want you to put it in an earthen vessel. And I want you to bury it for a season. For a season it will look dark, but the word that I give you will come to pass. Absolutely amazing.

We are the earthen vessel now. We bear the treasure of this incredible life of Christ in earthen vessels. That's what the apostle Paul says. Now God says, I'm giving you a word. Now it may take a season for it to come to pass.

You understand? It doesn't mean because God gives you a word that he's duty bound to fulfill it tomorrow. It may take a season. It may take a few years. It may take some experience. You may have to go through some of the things that some of the people of God throughout history have had to go through.

But if you bury that word, it means you embrace that word and you lodge that word in this earthen vessel. Now you become a fulfillment of the scripture that says your word I have hidden in my heart. Why?

That I might not miss the mark. As we said earlier, that I might not end up getting lost or come up short of the goal that you have for my life or have a serious breakdown in our personal relationship.

It will come to pass. Seek him now. Ask him to speak into your situation. Open the word of God and God will speak to you because this word is alive. This is not just dead letter in a book. This is breathed onto these pages by the breath of God and this word lives to every soul, every heart, every person, every generation.

God said to Jeremiah again, chapter 32, verse 27. Again, Jeremiah says that the word of the Lord came to me. And God said to him, behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?

Is there anything? Remember, he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he, what? Is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. That means with an honest heart. It doesn't mean you're a mountain, a pillar of faith.

It just means you have a mustard seed of faith in the faithfulness of God. You care about the honor of his name. Just like David, when he came into the camp of Israel, the whole army of Israel couldn't fight this big mouth Goliath at that time.

And it was just a young shepherd boy that came in and said, is there not a cause? He was very concerned about the honor of God. He was very concerned about the mockery of God and the mockery of God's people.

And in that seed of faith and trust in God and that word, you know, you remember in the scriptures, as he went down the valley to face that giant, God, the spirit of God came on him. He began to prophesy, not just to Goliath, but to the whole Philistine army, that they were gonna be destroyed that day.

And there was gonna be an incredible rout. The spirit of the Lord came on him because God had planted a word in his heart and he believed it. And because he believed it, he didn't miss the mark. He didn't come short of what God had for him or for the people of God around him.

The Holy Spirit Announces Things to Come

Oh, thank God for that. Now, let me conclude with this thought in John chapter 16. Jesus talking about the Holy Spirit in verse 13 says, however, when he, the spirit of truth has come. You see, your situation will try to tell you that it has the last word, but it doesn't have the last word over you.

There would be all kinds of people in Jeremiah's day saying, it's hopeless. We're gonna be conquered. We're gonna be assimilated into a foreign culture. We're going to lose our heritage. We're gonna lose our land.

We're gonna lose our purpose in the earth. And Jeremiah would be the one to say, no, I have a word from God. The spirit of truth has come. And he has shown me that we're going to come back here one day in the future and houses and vineyards and cities and are going to be built again.

There's going to be joy in our streets one more time. God, you see the spirit of truth. However, when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. He will guide you. He will lead you into that which he has for your life and for your situation.

He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. He will tell you things to come. I remember, I was thinking about this as I was preparing to speak here tonight and I've just a flood of memories of the past when I, after I came to Christ and he started speaking to me about things to come.

Now I had the option to reject it. I had the option to push it away. I remember one time we'd just come from dinner at a restaurant and I was waiting for Pastor Teresa and I remember I was looking out the window and I saw an airplane go by and I wasn't thinking anything and this sudden whisper of God came into my heart and he said, Carter, you're going to travel all over the world and you're going to tell people about who I am and what I have done for you and what I'm able to do for them.

And I remember I just took that word and it wasn't a personal ambition. Trust me, I'd never preached a sermon. I didn't really even like being in crowds at that time in my life. But I took that word and I put it in my heart and I remember saying, I will go, God, but it would have to be you.

And if it is you speaking to me, I will go and I will do the things that you've asked me to do. And I thought of the seasons where Pastor Teresa and I came into early ministry when we would just pray and God would speak a word into our hearts and as he spoke the word, we would believe it and we would move with him towards the fulfillment of it.

And I can honestly tell you, he has never failed me one time, never once. That's why I know that even going to Plymouth is going to have a profound effect on the future of this country. I know it in my heart, he's never failed me.

I remember going into a little town called Riceville. We were looking for a church building and we were praying because we were being thrown out of every building in town. They didn't want to, it was very staunchly religious.

They didn't want a Christian testimony in their midst. And I remember there was this abandoned church that had been abandoned for about 30 years and the local children had smashed all the windows out.

And I remember crawling in the back window of this building and I stood on the platform and the Holy Spirit came on me and said, they're going to come from a hundred mile radius to this church and there won't be room to seat the people.

And I remember the day when I stood there, our farthest away congregant came from a hundred miles every Sunday morning. People came from generally at anywhere from 10 to 30 mile radius. And I remember having to sit people outside to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The numbers of people that came to Christ. And God also gave me another promise. He told me one day I would revisit that church and there would be crowds so thick coming there that they would be outside as far as I could see in the schoolyard through the window.

That hasn't happened yet. But that was another whisper that God put into my heart. Someday, somewhere. See, I'm under no obligation to make it happen, but I am obliged to believe it if God's speaking it.

Believing the Hidden Word Through Delayed Fulfillment

Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you, that I might not miss the mark of my life, that I might not fall short of how you could glorify yourself through my life. Thy word I've taken, I've hidden it in this clay jar.

And even though for a season it looks like nothing has happened, that for a season it might look like the enemy is even winning the battle, I choose to believe you above all things, O God. When the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth.

He will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will tell you things to come. So my question tonight is what is God telling you about your future? I know what Babylon's trying to tell you.

I know what your fearful family and neighbors are trying to tell you, but that's not the question tonight. What is God telling you? Have you even asked him what your future is? Have you dared to believe the whispers of God into your heart?

Because he really is there. The Holy Spirit really is alive inside your earthen vessel. He really does speak to you and I as the body of Jesus Christ. Have you even dared to ask? And has he told you yet about things to come?

Verse 14 says, he will glorify me, for he will take of what is mine and declare it to you. In other words, he will take the victory that I won for you. He will take your captivity captive and give giftings unto you and he will declare it to you.

Verse 15, he says, all things that the father has are mine, therefore I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you. Now, three times Jesus repeats the same thing in three verses. He will tell you things to come.

Next verse, he will declare it to you. Next verse, he will declare it to you. He will declare it to you. Not might or should or maybe just the select or the elect will hear the voice of God. No, you. He will declare it to you.

If you are a child of God, if the Holy Spirit is in your life, God will declare to you things to come. You think about the day of Pentecost, for example, when they come out of the upper room, the scripture says they were speaking the megalios of God.

In the Greek, that's what they say. What it really means is they were speaking about the anticipated outcome of the inward, the new inward life of Christ within them. In other words, they were talking about things to come.

They were prophesying. They were talking about who God is, what God is able to do and what God is going to do. The religious crowd took a look at this and they said, wow, whatever kind of a relationship they have with God, all of our pomp and our garments and our circumstance and our smoke and our mirror show in the temple is not giving us this kind of a living relationship with a living God.

I say it's time that we take that hidden word of God and bury it deep inside of our hearts. That hidden word of God, that whisper that nobody but you knows it. Some of the things that God spoke to me as a young Christian were so preposterous, I dare not tell anybody about it, but I kept it in my heart and I'll tell you, God has fulfilled every word of it.

It's absolutely amazing. One summer, for example, I went and I was sitting, I have a bench I like to sit on when I do my Bible reading in the morning and prayer time and it's right on the edge of the ocean and there's a huge, huge bay there and I was sitting in my seat and I was just praying in the morning and I looked out and the water, the sun was coming up and the water was calm and it was glistening.

It was like, there's hundreds of thousands of these little glistenings on the water and the Lord out of nowhere just spoke to me and said, you will very shortly be standing before an audience as big as this bay that you see.

It was only just a short time later, I was standing in Jos, Nigeria before a crowd of, estimated crowd of almost a half of a million people and it looked as big as the bay I had been looking at that morning.

See, these are the whispers of God. We can either embrace it, we can plant it in our heart. You see, tonight there's maybe a whisper to you, Sonya, about your daughter, Celeste. Will you let God speak to you about her future?

Will you let God be your guide? Will you take that? Will you put that in an earthen vessel? And even though, even though for a season it looks dark, the promise of God has preeminence over everything that this world could ever throw at you.

If God says it will happen, it will happen. And he will speak to you because that's what Jesus said he will do. And as I said earlier, he takes very seriously his promises to you and to me. Those are not, they're not just little candy things he throws out and we may or may not embrace them.

You see, the whole integrity of his name and his character is tied in with us and our believing him. That's the way to please him. I simply believe him. I don't doubt him. I know that his ways are not mine and his thoughts are not mine.

I know that his thoughts are higher than mine, as high as the heavens are above the earth. And I thank God with all my heart. Oh God, speak to me. That is my prayer now. God, speak to me. Guide me. Lead me.

Don't let me lean on my own understanding. You promised me in the book of Proverbs that if I would acknowledge you, that you would direct my paths. Lord Jesus Christ, let your name be glorified through my life.

That needs to be the prayer of everyone tonight. We have a promise that the people who know their God in our day will be strong and do exploits. It's not that we will do them. God will do them through us.

Yes, we're the vessel that he will use, but he is the source of our strength. And it's based on his word that you and I will become everything that God has destined us to be. My prayer today for you is, oh Lord, open the ground of my heart to your promise for my life.

And let me not consider anything too hard for you. Father, in Jesus' name, as we come to the communion table tonight, I am reminded again that you loved us so much. You so wanted a living relationship with your creation.

You so came to get us and to bring us home that you would suffer an unspeakable beating and rejection and that you would shed your blood to the last drop so that we might become partakers of not just an eternal life with you, but an abundant life as you promised here on this side of eternity.

I ask you, Lord Jesus Christ, to speak to those who are in physical pain tonight. Speak to those who are suffering mental anguish. Speak to those who are biting their nails over a lost loved one. Speak, my God, to every husband, to every wife who's lost hope for the greatest institution on the earth, apart from your church, marriage.

Speak to us, God, about our future. Tell us about the things that you wanna do through each of our lives. Help us to put the clutter out of our minds so that we can hear your voice. And when we do, give us the courage, as you gave to Jeremiah, to invest in your word.

Hallelujah, hallelujah. To not try to save the little that we have for ourselves, but to invest in the future. God, help us to put our confidence in you. Help us, Lord, to put everything we have into that precious promise that you give for each life and to do what we have to do to possess it.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that everything you promise is true. And I feel sometimes that's the reason you sent me to New York, to tell that to your people, as simply as I can, that you are God and you are faithful.

And everything you promise, if we will listen, you will perform it. Lord Jesus Christ, bring home our children, bring home our families, restore our homes. My God, do things, Lord, that only you can do in this generation.

And we will give you the glory and the honor and the praise, and we will not be silent any longer. And we will not cower in the weeds, God, when you are calling us to step out and be a victorious army in this generation.

We ask you, Lord, to do the miraculous again and push back the darkness of this present time. Let your church have to be reckoned with. God Almighty, let it be said, even among your enemies, God has come into the camp, hallelujah, hallelujah.

We ask you to send a trembling through hell one more time, one more time throughout history, let the demons tremble. My God, my God, my God, my God, get a hold of your church, get a hold of your people.

Help us, Lord, as Jeremiah did, and pull our resources out and invest in your promise. Hallelujah, glory to God. Glory, glory, glory to the name of Jesus. We praise you and we bless you, O God, with all of our heart in Jesus' name, amen and amen.

Communion and Confidence in Christ's Finished Work

If you could get the bread and the juice that you've gotten from your kitchen, and we're gonna come to the Lord's table and partake of it together. And let the communion table tonight just be a reminder that this is how much God loves you.

This is how much God wants to give to you. You know, the scripture says, Paul, the apostle, wrote and said, if God didn't withhold his son from you, how shall he not with him or through him give you all things?

In other words, Paul's just saying, reason it out. If he didn't withhold his son, why would he withhold from you? Why would he not give you the victory that was won for you through his love on the cross?

Sometimes we've just got to bring it back to basics. Keep it real simple and say, God loves me. God has a plan for me, and God won't let my enemies triumph over me. As a matter of fact, God will use me to triumph over my enemies.

God will use me to triumph over other people's enemies. God will take me in my weakness and display his strength and in my foolishness and display his wisdom. And in my nothingness, he will become everything through my life.

Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah. I've received to the Lord that which I delivered to you. The Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread when he'd given thanks. He said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you.