“A GREAT MULTITUDE OF ALL NATIONS AND KINDREDS AND PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES” (REV. 7:9). tsc.nyc

VOL XIII / ISSUE 4 / APRIL 2017

Dear Friend, THE RESPONSIBILITY Imagine yourself today getting this OF LITTLE STRENGTH greeting, as Gideon once did: “And the Angel (Messenger) of the Lord by Carter Conlon appeared to him, and said to him “And to the angel of the church Furthermore, we can be encouraged (or her, as the case may be), ‘The in Philadelphia write, ‘These because Jesus says in this passage, Lord is with you, you mighty man things says He who is holy, He “I have set before you an open of valor (someone who has been who is true, He who has the key door that no one can close” (see given more ability than they realize)!’” of David, He who opens and no Revelation 3:8). In other words, (Judges 6:12, parentheses mine). one shuts, and shuts and no one “I am inviting you into a place opens: I know your works. See, where the impossible becomes Today you might be tempted, as I have set before you an open possible. It is a place where you Gideon obviously was then, to say, door, and no one can shut it; will win a battle that you could “Wow, did this greeting ever find for you have a little strength’” never win in your own strength.” the wrong address!” Aware of your (Revelation 3:7–8). own frailty, your initial thought is, It is critical that we hear this “Maybe somebody else, but never today, for we are in the midst me.” My question today is, Why We must be of an intense battle—a battle not you? aware that there for the souls of the people of this nation and a battle for Throughout history God has are demonic the future of a society. Just to never been able to use anyone who powers specifically clarify, this battle is not between possessed even a secret inward boast Republican and Democrat or of his/her own strength. Remember, set against this Libertarian. Yes, they have in 1 Corinthians 1:27 we read that the ability, in measure, to “God has chosen the weak things of nation to destroy give or take away hope for the world to put to shame the things and divide it. the future. However, there which are mighty.” And so I ask is a much deeper battle going again: Why not you? Has God I believe that just like this on, a battle that, according to changed? Has He regretted His church in Philadelphia, the the Scriptures, is not against former manner of doing things? Church in America today has flesh and blood but against only “a little strength.” We are powers, principalities, and Take this first and simple step not nearly as strong or powerful spiritual wickedness in high today: Ask God what He wants as many of us would like to places (see Ephesians 6:12). you to do. When He answers, believe. Our voices have been We must be aware that there simply take the first step in faith largely marginalized and we are demonic powers specifically and watch what begins to unfold. have been cast out as “salt to be set against this nation to destroy Jesus is still a miraculous Savior. trodden underfoot,” as godlessness and divide it. As believers in Enjoy the newsletter. It has your seemingly has the upper hand Jesus Christ, this ought to be name written all over it! :) (see Matthew 5:13). However, our concern now, for we have I believe that the beginning of been given a great responsibility Blessings, a spiritual awakening comes from in this hour. After all, what is Pastor Carter Conlon having the humility to finally admit the point of having everything our true condition rather than go our way while most of our boasting of what we are not. nation ends up in hell? THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LITTLE STRENGTH tsc.nyc

Jesus went on to say to the by a foreign power, He called What could be so serious? church in Philadelphia: a man named Moses to bring After all, Moses obeyed God “Hold fast what you have, deliverance to them. However, in his weakness. He chose to that no one may take your upon witnessing the burden of go through the open door that crown” (Revelation 3:11). his people, Moses initially set the Lord set before him, so I believe the Lord is saying out to make a difference with what was it that caused God to us today, “Do not despair his own strategies, only to end to consider taking him out because of this moment. Do up defeated. Rather than bringing along this journey? not despair because of the three million people into freedom, darkness that has invaded he managed to bury one Egyptian We see what the issue was our schools and seems to be (see Exodus 2:11–12). That was in the next verse as his wife in every facet of our society. all he could accomplish in his “took a sharp stone and cut Do not despair because evil is own strength. off the foreskin of her son and on parade, calling itself good. cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, Hold fast to the truth that I have Moses was then driven into the ‘Surely you are a husband of planted within your heart.” wilderness for forty years, where blood to me!’ So He let him he became keenly aware of his go. Then she said, ‘You are a inadequacy. Once a powerful husband of blood!’—because Whenever God orator in Pharaoh’s court, he of the circumcision” (Exodus intends to move lost his ability to speak well 4:25–26). Moses’ son had (see Acts 7:22, Exodus 4:10). not been circumcised! Most powerfully, He By the time God called Moses commentaries agree that intentionally to return to Egypt, he was fearful, bringing an uncircumcised stuttering, and no longer had son on this journey to set a waits until we anything but a staff in his hand. nation free represented the In other words, God called him fact that Moses had not yet have only a little at his lowest moment—when become fully identified with strength left. he had only a little strength the people of God, nor was left. That is when the Lord he fully engaged in the calling “He who overcomes, I will make gave him a great responsibility, of God on his life. Although him a pillar in the temple of essentially saying to him, “Now it was within his power to do My God, and he shall go out no you are ready. I have heard the so, his own son had not been more” (Revelation 3:12). Perhaps cry of My people, and I am set apart. Moses was bringing you are thinking: What if I can sending you to bring them out something of himself and his barely survive as a Christian of bondage, that My glory might lineage into this battle. now? I cannot even lift my be reestablished in the earth” voice in the workplace because (see Exodus 3:9–10). Are you part of I am so afraid of being vilified or mocked. I am a coward, and n FULLY SET APART something bigger I know it. Yet now God is asking Despite his initial reservations, something else of me? What is it Moses obeyed the Lord. Taking than yourself? that I have to overcome? his family with him, he headed back to Egypt in the little strength We see this issue arise again n HOW GOD PREPARED MOSES he had left. However, along the when Moses’ successor, Joshua, First of all, you have to overcome way, “it came to pass on the way, was leading the people of God your own sense of inadequacy! at the encampment, that the into the Promised Land to claim You must understand that whenever Lord met him and sought to their full inheritance and become God intends to move powerfully, kill him” (Exodus 4:24). There the testimony that God was calling He intentionally waits until we was something in Moses’ life them to be in the earth (see Joshua have only a little strength left. that had the potential to cause 5). A whole generation that was Let me give you an example failure on this mission—to the raised up in the wilderness had from the Old Testament. degree that, if undealt with, it not been circumcised! In other would have been better that words, they had not fully identified When the Israelites, God’s own he die rather than progress themselves as the people of people, had been taken captive on this journey! God. Before they could enter the tsc.nyc THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LITTLE STRENGTH

Promised Land—before Jericho purpose for your life? Before you could fall, before the Amalekites are tempted to give an immediate “If you follow and all the other enemies could be “yes,” remember that in order defeated, before the full inheritance to fully embrace God’s purpose Me, I will do that God had for His people could for your life, there cannot be any something so be claimed—there had to be a uncircumcised thing that you are reckoning with God. All those trying to bring with you into the powerful in and born in the wilderness had to be work of God. In other words, is there through your life circumcised, wholly set apart for anything in your life that the Lord the Lord and His purposes. has His finger on—anything that that false religion you know you need to put away? will lose its hold Is there For example, are you a purveyor on the people.” anything in of hate in this society? Are you your life that fostering division? Is your speech We may not know exactly what clean? Are you a loyal employee? that door will look like for each the Lord has Are you stealing in the workplace? one of us, but we do know that Do you pay your taxes? Are your those who are willing to go His finger on— relationships holy? What do you through it have an incredible anything that do on Friday nights? Just as the promise from the Lord: “I will Lord stopped Moses on his journey, make those of the synagogue you know as well as the Israelites, you and of Satan, who say they are Jews you need to I must stop and deal with these and are not, but lie—indeed things before we can continue I will make them come and put away? on to do the work of God. worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you” And so my question to you today n A DOOR NO MAN CAN SHUT (Revelation 3:9). I believe is: Do you fully identify with the Remember, in our opening the Lord is saying to us today: people of God? Do you fully identify Scripture, Jesus said, “Behold, “If you follow Me, I will do yourself as part of a Body that Christ I set before you an open door.” something so powerful in has placed on the earth for a divine That means that once we are set and through your life that purpose? Are you part of something apart and have fully embraced false religion will lose its bigger than yourself? In the book of God’s purpose for our life, all hold on the people.” First Corinthians, we see that we have to do is get up and go the apostle Paul admonished the through the door that He has set Jesus continued, “I will make church because selfishness had before us! The text implies that you a pillar in the temple of crept into their fellowship. The though our strength is small, we My God. And I will write on people were gathering together are invited to arise and pass you the name of My God and to worship, but they were actually through into a place of victory the name of the city of My God, self-consumed, unconcerned about which has already been prepared the New Jerusalem, which comes those around them. They never for us. We do not have to fight down out of heaven. And I will bothered to consider: Does my for it, for the fight has already write on him My new name. He neighbor have enough to eat? been won. As the Scripture says, who has an ear, let him heart Are they encouraged? Paul “‘Not by might nor by power, but what the Spirit says to the churches” said that “many are weak and by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of (see Revelation 3:12–13). In other sickly among you, and many hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). You see, words, “I will give you strength, sleep because you have failed God is not asking us to craft some making you unmovable. I will to discern the Lord’s body” (see brilliant strategy in order to win write on you the name of hope 1 Corinthians 11:30). They did our cities. He is simply saying, and victory in the midst of a not understand what it truly “I am asking you to get up in the crooked and deceived generation. means to be part of the Church smallness of your strength and go You will have another countenance. of Jesus Christ. through whatever door I open for You will have a source of inward you. You will go through solely strength that does not come from And my second question to you by faith and it is a door that no anything in this world—it comes is: Have you fully embraced God’s man can shut!” only from Me!” THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LITTLE STRENGTH

I can see it now: Just as the of our own strength or with our CARTER CONLON early Church began on the Day own plans, but because of the Carter Conlon is senior pastor of of Pentecost, in smallness of victory of Christ who has Times Square Church, where he strength, you and I will burst given us authority over all has been on the pastoral staff out into the marketplace one the power of the enemy (see since 1994. more time in our generation, Luke 10:19). Remember, God and false religion will bend its is the One who makes us more knee before us. We will travel than we are. He is the One TIMES SQUARE CHURCH from place to place in our who takes us where we could Times Square Church was founded weakness, and the glory of never go, that His name in 1987 by Pastor David Wilkerson, God will follow us. That which might be glorified once author of “The Cross and the seeks to destroy men and women again in the earth! Switchblade.” It is an interdenomina- around us will have to bend its tional church located in the heart of knee, acknowledging that Jesus New York City. Christ is with us! Carter Conlon Tel: Of course, this means that you ©2017 Times Square Church 212-541-6300 and I are given the choice today: Will we stay in smallness? Will we stay swallowed up in what this Fax: world has told us we are? Or will 212-541-6415 we get up and go through the open door—in our weakness, in our struggles, in our trials—yet with Church Location: faith to believe God for victory in 237 West 51st Street every area of our lives? Will we Between Broadway & 8th Avenue believe that God will give us the power to put away whatever needs to be forsaken—every work of Mailing Address: darkness, evey wrong attitude of Times Square Church heart, every mistake we made in 1657 Broadway, 4th Floor the past that still heeds the voice New York, NY 10019 of condemnation?

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our responsibility in this hour. [email protected] hybridstudios.com design: It is time to believe God for the power to identify with the Body of Christ and fulfill the purpose WEEKLY SCHEDULE OF SERVICES that He has ordained for our lives! Sunday 10:00AM 3:00PM 6:00PM It is time to get up, though we Tuesday 7:00PM Prayer Service have only a little strength, and Friday 7:00PM The Gate* go through that open door into *Youth and Young Adult Service a victory that only God can bring—believing God for our families, our coworkers, our city, Live Webcast: our nation! It is time to believe All our Sunday and Tuesday services God as Moses did—not because can be watched live and replayed for seven days on our website.

This newsletter is an edited version of “THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LITTLE STRENGTH ,” a sermon given on November 13, 2016 in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in New York City. Other sermons are available by visiting our website at tsc.nyc. You are tsc.nyc welcome to make additional copies of this sermon for free distribution to friends. However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission existing copyright laws apply. This sermon cannot be posted on any website or webpage without permission from Times Square Church. Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the New King James Version.