The Last Day Image of Christ (Video) — Carter Conlon

God bless you those that have made the effort to come out here and be part of this service today at the Summit Campus Church and for those that are joining with us online today. There's a a deep abiding sense of God's presence in the sanctuary here today.

The Last-Day Image of Christ

And I found throughout my life that whenever the Lord is about to speak about something Dear to his heart close to his heart. He will always confirm his word before it's spoken. I'd like you to turn in your Bibles, please to.

Matthew chapter 5 and Ezekiel chapter 2. Matthew chapter 5 and Ezekiel chapter 2. I want to speak this morning about the last day image of Christ the last day image of Christ. Father I thank you God with all my heart.

I thank you for your presence here in this sanctuary. I thank you Lord for Speaking to us in profound way. Week after week Lord, you're preparing us to be your bride in this final hour of time before you return.

Thank you for the men and women and young persons that you've gathered together. Here today as your church as your beloved bride and Lord, we invite you to speak to us. We're not afraid of your presence.

We're not afraid of your word. We want you to challenge our hearts. We want you to speak to us about our own futures. Give us the grace Lord to receive you. I ask you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit my God.

I recognize that without your anointing. We're just a noise. That's all we are Lord with thoughts about you, but no real living relationship with you. And so God I'm asking you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit to be able to speak this word and anoint our ears.

Every one of us to be able to hear it. Help us my God to understand the day that we're living in and how you are calling us. To play a vibrant role God in this last-day testimony of who you are and God we thank you for it.

And we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Matthew chapter 5 we're going to begin there at verse 14 to 16. It starts with these words. You. I Just want to stop there for just a moment and just meditate on that not somebody else not pastor so-and-so not such-and-such a ministry, but you are the light of the world.

A City that is set on a hill. Cannot be hidden if our hearts are set on. Honoring the Christ who went to a cross for our sin then the testimony of his life Inside of us cannot be hidden from this generation.

If our hearts are set upon the victory that was won for us. The giftings that God said he gave to us when he rose from the dead and took captivity captive if we are fully set on That hill to say Lord.

I want my life to glorify you in this generation then the promise in a sense or the end result of that kind of a heart is that. The light that's in us cannot be hidden from this generation. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket.

But on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house. It our light the light of Christ in us is to be visible. It's to be displayed. It's to be public. It's to be in a place not a hidden place, but it's to be in a place where we're all can see it now.

We recognize that some are not going to appreciate in this generation the light of Christ in us as much as they didn't appreciate him. They're not going to appreciate you or me as we stand and fight for their eternal soul even though they fight against their own salvation in Verse 16.

He says let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and Glorify your father which is in heaven let this presence of God within your life. So shine in this generation the people who live in darkness.

It won't be so much that they hear what we have to say because I'm going to talk about that a little bit this morning. I think we're in a generation where people are not going to listen Necessarily to the words of God any longer, but they're going to see this inner presence of Christ in each of our lives.

Doing through us what only God can do and it will bring glory to God. I mean even the even the Perhaps the most jaded sinner will look and say and look at the true church of Jesus Christ and say only God.

It has to be something other than Than what this world produces that is doing what I see in the life of this particular person. Now throughout history. It's been proven that people can become so hardened in their direction and their thinking that even words from God Cannot turn them.

It's a sad reality, but I do believe that in our society and in the Western world today. Particularly in this country. We have come to the place where people are no longer able to receive truth. Truth doesn't matter anymore truth is as something subjective truth is there is a new concept in America today.

It's called my truth if I think this is the way it should be it doesn't matter. What truth is. I have my truth and therefore my truth becomes truth and that is that is that is exactly what happened in?

The Garden of Eden, that's what the devil sowed in in fallen Humanity said you can be a determiner of what truth is of what is good and what is evil and that's exactly where we live. Today, that's the moment that our society is now living in the in the days of the Prophet Ezekiel.

Ezekiel’s Prophetic Sign to a Rebellious Society

That's why I wanted to go to Ezekiel if you'll turn in out in Ezekiel chapter 2 Ezekiel. We we see a pattern in the kingdom of God when when a crisis moment like ours arrives as they have throughout history.

The response of God quite often is to draw somebody into his presence that becomes a not only a voice but an expression to their generation of who he is and Maybe you're feeling that this morning. Maybe you are one of those persons that God is drawing into his presence now.

Let me tell you if that is happening. You are starting to feel undone. You've become aware of your frailty. You become aware of your failings. This is always the pattern throughout Scripture. It's the Isaiah 6 moment when God calls Isaiah into his presence in a crisis time of judgment in the nation.

Jeremiah's moment. Daniel's moment. John on the Isle of Patmos. Paul on the Damascus Road when you're if you truly are being lifted into the presence of God. You become completely aware of your otherness you become aware of the lies that come from your lips and the thoughts that flow through your mind.

You become aware of of the boastings in your life you become aware of Issues of character in a sense that maybe you weren't aware of before but suddenly because you're being drawn Into the presence of God say I want to make that point today for those that are sitting here and you're feeling Undone you're saying what could I possibly do to make a difference in this generation?

Well, then if that's the way you feel you're feeling exactly the way Isaiah did in his day when he's drawn into the presence of God he saw the holiness of God and in seeing the holiness of God. He became aware of his otherness from God and and his words were Woe is me.

I'm undone. I dwell. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the people amongst the people of unclean lips now. He's speaking of the most religious culture on the face of the earth at that time the nation of Israel.

He recognized that if God dealt with us in the manner that we deserve none of us can stand and I do believe That if God is going to use any of us in a significant way In the future, we have to go actually through that pathway.

We have to. To come into proximity with God means that we become aware. So don't let the devil condemn you. God already knew what you and I were when he saved us and he's already covered us. He's already declared us to be righteous.

But if he's going to use us lest we should be lifted up in pride He will draw us into his presence and show us what we really are without him. So that when he does what only God can do he gets all the glory.

We get none of it. We take none of it. We don't reach out and try to touch it. We don't say look what Jesus and I have done. Our testimony is really just he is the light of the world. He has chosen to shine his life through me at this time.

And I am a recipient of great grace and that becomes our message to the fallen masses around us in Ezekiel's day. The Lord drew Ezekiel into his presence because the society of Ezekiel's time now Ezekiel Israel was going into captivity.

Babylon had already commended the captivity had already begun. There was a certain group of people who were already taken into captivity. Ezekiel was among them. But they did not believe that the judgment they were now experiencing was going to become more severe than it was.

There's something in in every society. There's something in our society today that says yes, we're in difficult days. But better days are coming. We're going to get back to where we used to be we're going to one day be a righteous people again and and and we sing our patriotic songs and we think about our history and we just don't believe that the judgment could actually be total and God was trying to speak to his people of that time saying Jerusalem is going to fall.

Judah's going to be taken captive, but there were other voices. Being raised up among those who are already captive are already experiencing the judgment of God and they were they were telling the people.

No, this everything is going to change. We're going to go back. Everything's going to be the way it was and God raised up Ezekiel to tell the people. No. It's not going to be the way it used to be as a matter of fact.

It's going to get worse and the captivity is going to be very very long-standing. In chapter 2 in Verse 1 the call comes to Ezekiel's life and he said to me son of man stand on your feet and I will speak to you.

Then the Spirit entered to me when he spoke to me and set me on my feet and I heard him who spoke to me. In verse 3 of Ezekiel 2 he says then he said to me son of man I'm sending you to the children of Israel to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me.

They and their fathers are transgressed against me to this very day for there. They are impudent and stubborn children. I'm sending you to them and you shall say to them thus says the Lord God as for them whether they hear or whether they refuse.

For they are a rebellious house. Yet they will know that a prophet has been among them and in chapter 3 verse 26 The Lord says to Ezekiel. I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth. So that you shall be mute and not be one to rebuke them for they are a rebellious house.

In other words the people of that time the rebellion against God's ways and God's thinking had become so deep in them that they would no longer respond to words. They had their own truth. So it's a truth didn't matter anymore and folks whether or not you recognize it.

This is the moment we're now living in. I was sitting with a member of Congress just about a year ago and the particular person said to me. How how do you have a discussion with people who have no basis no foundation for truth?

I want to reach out to others around me. But they're they're stuck in this concept of your truth and my truth. There's no parameters of truth anymore because we have forsaken the ways of God. Therefore we've lost the foundation of our nation and every man's way is now right in his own sight.

And there's a point where people can't be reasoned with anymore you you can't speak because they won't hear because they don't believe that the Foundation of truth is the Word of God and the kingdom of God and the person of God himself in Jesus Christ.

They've literally cast it off. And so there's a point where God said to Ezekiel. I'm gonna stop you from speaking to them anymore. But something interesting happens now in chapter 4 verse 1. He says son of man.

Take a clay tablet and lay it before you and portray on it a city Jerusalem. So and he says lay siege against it build a siege wall against it heap up a mound against it set camps against it. Also in place battering rams against it all around.

Moreover take for yourself an iron plate and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it and that shall be besieged. You shall lay siege against it and this shall be assigned to the house of Israel so bottom line.

When Pictures Speak Louder Than Words

Because they wouldn't hear his words anymore. God said the last Thing I'm going to speak to them is in a picture. I'm going to give them a picture of who I am a picture of their own future. I'm going to set before them an image because they can't be spoken to anymore.

You can imagine I think it was 390 days Ezekiel had to do this that people are coming in and out doing their whatever they had to do and throughout their daily lives and and Here's the prophet of God and he's laying on the ground.

He's cooking his food with cow manure. He's which represented the siege and the hardship that's going to come into that the Jerusalem and Judah and he's. He's he's built this a little cardboard city may I put it that way on a slate and he's laying siege against it.

It's just almost like a cartoon in a sense, but they have to pass by it every day. And he's not speaking anymore because nobody's listening but God said this is the last warning I'm going to give is going to come in a picture and We're living in a moment like that in America today the pictures that are heart-rending the pictures are heartbreaking.

Here are just a few examples just a couple of weeks ago a store camera in New York City at about 1158 p .m. Almost midnight captured an image of a mother crossing the street and her little toddler four years old is is trying to keep up with her behind her and she She just left the top the toddler stops in the corner.

The mother just keeps on walking and and literally just abandons her at midnight in New York City. This toddler was picked up by the police department taking to social services. It took four days to find the mother and of course, everybody is horrified, right?

Everybody's the police that she's charged now with willful neglect and abandonment and all these things. But people fail to realize this is God. Setting a picture before the nation a nation that has walked away from 60 million of its babies and.

It's a picture of the fathers who walk away from their families. They're not raising their children the fathers who because of the lust of their own heart and a lack of the lack of ability as Paul says to the loss of family affection is one of the the signs of the last days and and and you see it's a picture but just like when Nathan came to the King David and he talked about this man who came he had a whole bunch of sheep and he took one.

He took this one man's little lamb and sacrificed it for his own guest and and David was angered and David was yes. This man's gonna pay fourfold for what he has done. He he declares judgment on himself really without even knowing it.

Nathan turns and says you're the man David. You see this is what God's trying to do. Everybody's horrified that this mother would walk away from this little four-year-old at at midnight in New York City.

But how many have done that? How many fathers have walked away at midnight from their families? How many mothers have walked away from their children? This is a picture of what American society has become because we won't listen anymore.

Can't be spoken to. See, we have our truth and you have your truth. We we we call all of these things. We do medical necessities you you call it you call it murder for the sake of convenience, but that's your truth.

But our truth is we have the right to do what we're doing. I woke up this morning to pictures of riots and in three of our major cities last night where people are now carrying Pepper spray and bear spray and hammers and saws and axes and weapons.

This is a picture of what's going on. There's a picture of the lawlessness that's starting to invade our society and and it's it's not going to get better. It's going to get worse in the days ahead. We have pictures every day of corruption corruption at the highest levels of religion in this nation in Incivility in our political systems the inability to speak Civilly the inability to have a discussion with one another.

It's it's a picture that God is presenting. You see because the nation is under judgment whether anybody wants to believe it or not. The nation is under judgment. God has been setting the pictures very very clearly because he's a God of justice a God of righteousness.

He he doesn't judge without warning. We're living in a society today that's glorifying evil and vilifying good. A pastor a week ago in a in a sermon a Decent good man. He got up and he he basically talked about various forms of sexual attraction and practice and he said it's it's It's not right according to the Word of God now this morning he's got a huge demonstration outside of his church a Picture of what we have become and I was thinking this morning of Sodom and Gomorrah when when the crowd gathered outside the door pushing against the door trying to get the messengers of God to become partakers of their sin.

Oh Beloved, let me tell you there's a line you can't cross with God and we've come there as a society. Do we even know how close we are? The Prophet Haggai cries out in chapter 1 consider your ways. He cries out twice consider your ways to the people of God.

But yet we've come to a point Where we're no longer as a society willing or able to even consider our ways. Little over a year ago. I was walking across the street in New York City with one of our staff members and at this point our Essentially the leaders of our city and leaders of our state and others are saying kovat is not coming here.

No reason to worry go out to restaurants eat. Enjoy your life carry on as usual. I turned to my friend and I said I want you to order 1 ,500 medical masks for our staff. He says well, they're saying that there's not going to be a problem with kovat.

I said no, they're wrong. Kovat is coming and it's going to be problematic. He said are you afraid of kovat? I said to him. No, I'm not afraid of kovat. What I really have a trepidation about is what's coming after kovat has run its course.

Kovat is going to come but something after Kovat much more sobering and much more serious is coming our way. I don't honestly know what it is, but I know that I have a churning inside even when I think about it.

The Church as God’s Final Picture

But now even in these dark times. Just as with Ezekiel. There is one final picture. One final picture, you know, we have all these other pictures the mothers and fathers abandoning their children. Religion being exposed for the corruption at some high levels.

That's always been there our Political system breaking down the incivility and divisions becoming almost they not almost they are irreparable apart from an intervention by God. But even in this dark time just as with Ezekiel, there's there's one Final picture through which the grace mercy and goodness of God can still be known and that final picture is you.

You are the light of the world. You are the city set upon a hill that cannot be hidden. You are the lamp that God says I will put it on a lampstand and it will give light to all who are in the house. But you see you have to want the light.

You have to want this life you have to want this picture to be to be displayed By the power of God through your life. It is not going to impose it on you. It's not going to impose it on me. We can live our lives just hiding in church or we can say God.

I want my heart set upon that hill. I want a new heart. I want a new purpose. I want new giftings. I want the enablement of the Holy Spirit in my life to make a difference for this generation. I Gonna lay down and let the children of this time be given over to evil.

I I'm not gonna lay down let our families be destroyed by the power of evil. And I don't know what it's going to cost and I don't care anymore what it's going to cost. But by the grace of Almighty God put me on the lampstand.

Set me on a hill. Put something in my life put something in my voice and this is a call to every saint of God. It has to be Everyone who calls themselves by the name of Christ. We are the last line of defense.

We are the Ezekiel. That's Outside a city about to come under judgment. We are the only ones that can make a difference. Now. The society is too broken down. There will not be another political leader.

There will not be another Superstar events us all these days are over. It's now you are the light of the world. You not somebody else you and so for you and I. It's to say God. Where would you place me?

What do you want to do through my life? It's that prayer of Paul when he had that encounter with the Living God and he said Lord What do you want me to do? It's no deeper than that. God knows you. God knows the plan he has for your life.

He knows how to get it done he knows how you see we Paul said as we behold him we are changed. From image to image and glory to glory even as by the Spirit we are changed. We're given a new heart. We're given a new mind.

We're given a new purpose. We're we're given new passions. We're given new compassion we're given we're given the ability to get outside of ourselves and Start living as we teach at this school for the benefit of others because that's where the power of the gospel is actually found.

I had the privilege of being at the Midwest food bank this week and Being part of their dedication service in a sense of the opening up of a food center. That's going to feed thousands and thousands and thousands of people in the tri-state area and here in Pennsylvania as well and I heard a story actually a young lady was there who wandered in about she wandered in about two weeks ago and She said who are you people?

And what are you doing here? And they they said well most are volunteers and we are Feeding people that are hungry. She said for real you do this you do this you do this just out of the goodness of your heart and The lady and her husband that we're talking to her said no we do it because Christ the love of God is in us and we do it because we are in relationship with God and he has called us clearly to to give food to the hungry and to give clothing to those that have no clothing and to Receive those that have no family and they just started sharing with her.

And as they were sharing with this this lady was about in her late 30s, maybe early 40s. She she said I want that in my life I want to receive Christ and so they led her in the prayer to receive Christ and She went home and She said I and she had been deeply involved in yoga and all this stuff for a long time.

And she she's her testimony this week was I didn't light a candle. I didn't dim the lights. I Just said Oh God, I can talk to you. And as she started talking to God, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and started speaking with other tongues.

She didn't even know anything about it. Praise God. You see the the point is The point is she saw something. She saw she saw a huge warehouse. She saw I don't know how many people were there at that. Maybe 20 30 people just giving of their time.

Filling bags and boxes and loading trucks and putting stuff on shelves. He she saw an image of Christ In people and it became attractive and she said I I would like to be like that. I would like to do that.

I would like my life to be like that life and see it was an image and you see we are the last-day image of Christ we are so we're not called to be an argument and Said to say some are going to be relegated just to throwing rocks over the fence and they throw rocks back and we throw more Spiritual rocks at them.

There's people who are going to do that. They're just going to be arguers of doctrine. But we're our calling is to be a light. Our calling is to be a lamp. Our calling is to have our heart set upon a hill where a Savior went to a cross to be given.

For this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this he said in remembrance of me. I've allowed my dreams to be broken. I've allowed my plans to be broken. I've allowed my self-image to be broken. I've allowed my my lust for my own convenience to be broken and I'm out there and I'm you see this is the point.

Not everybody has to be an evangelist. Not everybody has to have a high-profile ministry. But every one of us are called to be set on a candlestick and we're called in so everybody in that warehouse that day.

Let's say there were 30 people there everybody in that warehouse had a part in this lady's conversion. Everyone because everyone was a light everyone was a lamp. It's like she walked into a candle factory instead of lighting one candle and doing a yoga exercise.

She walked into a candle factory and saw the light and saw people doing something that that she knew. Instinctively she couldn't do unless there was a power source in her life greater than herself. This is the light as we reach out and as we just say Jesus in whatever way I can see though.

Ordinary Believers as Visible Witnesses

So this is for everybody. It's not just for high-profile people or just preachers of the gospel of those that know every Hebrew meaning of every word and Greek meaning in the New Testament and the Old Testament.

It's not about that. It's about you and I saying Lord Set me on a hill. Let my let your light Be seen in me because people won't listen anymore. But they will still see this is a generation now as we're told has an eight-second attention span.

Can you imagine and? So that's the news news media picked up on this. That's why they'll put a false headline and then the real story will be underneath. They know that most people don't read beyond the false headline.

So they can form public thought and opinion and they just say well the truth was in the article. But they know that the people the majority don't read the article. They just read the headline. So they can form and may I say warp public opinion to their their purposes.

So this is the cry of my heart. And I'm hoping that it will become the cry of yours if it's not already. And I'm gonna go back to where I started and finish where I started. That if you're being drawn into the presence of God, you feel unworthy.

That's a good thing. So your proud person can't represent Christ. A proud person will touch the glory a proud person will get involved in the work of God and and Add that leaven Into what God is doing and poison the whole thing.

No God needs people who know I'm nothing Lord without you and you're everything in me so Let your light so shine Before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven.

So the prayer we need to pray. Every one of us is Lord. What would you have me to do? It doesn't have to be grand. It just has to be God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah Father. I thank you God for giving us your word today.

A Prayer to Be Sent, However Small the Assignment

What else can I say you've been here the whole service. Lord there's been a weight in the sanctuary of your presence and. And you're calling us as you called Ezekiel and Isaiah and Jeremiah Esther Deborah.

You're calling us. You're calling us to be the last you said the gospel will be preached in all the world in our generation. I've never fully understood. It's not necessarily with words any longer. It'll be preached by your presence inside of your church a glorious Glorious glorious bride a Bride whose heart is in tune with yours you who so loved the world.

God thank you. God. Thank you. God. Thank you. All I can say is I'm in and The rest is up to you Lord. Lead me guide me. Show me. Open the doors that need to be opened. Give each of us the courage. To go through the doors you set before us and to do what you call us to do.

Whether it's grand or whether it's small whether it's visible or whether it's hidden. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that it's you. Even if we feel foolish how foolish Ezekiel must have felt some days.

Just lying in front of his little cardboard city as people went in and out among their business. But he knew it was you he knew it was you. So God give us the grace to not consider something too foolish or too small.

We want to be the image of you. Your heart your will your way in this last moment of time. God have mercy on this wicked society. God have mercy on the moms and dads that have abandoned their families.

God have mercy on the Sexually depraved people that are gathered protesting outside the church today. We're not asking for judgment. We're asking for mercy. Help that congregation to be an image of you who you are.

God have mercy. God have mercy on our government. God have mercy on a religious system in America. That is sick. God have mercy. God have mercy and Raise up a testimony In us one more time before you come and we thank you for it in Jesus name.

The Call to Go Like Isaiah

Just as we worship for a few moments if it's in your heart, we we can't give altar calls because of kovat and such like but if it's in your heart to say I'm going I want to be God set me on my candlestick wherever that is I'm gonna go.

I'm not gonna say no to you. And if it looks foolish, I'm still gonna do it and if that's in your heart as we worship just stand just stand where you are and as we worship and and make it like a. It's an Isaiah moment when there was this this silence in heaven suddenly when God says who will go and who shall I send who shall we send.

And nobody answers and I've always seen it this way that there's this this awkward silence and suddenly this one man stands up and says I'll go I'll go and he's the most unworthy one there. He's the one that feels undone.

He's everything else there is holy everything else is doesn't even need redemption except for him. But he says I'll go if nobody else will go I'll go. And that's the way it's always been that's the way it will always be.