A Call to the Nation
Carter Conlon
Introduction: The Tension Between Fear and Purpose Thank you, everybody here in the house. You may be seated. And those that are joining us online, God be with you. Thank you for being with us in this prayer meeting. We are truly believing that God's going to do a miracle in your life, not just right now, but in the days ahead as well. This message tonight is called Stand Still, Go Forward. It's an unusual title — Stand Still, Go Forward. I want to start in Psalm 11. Father, I thank you, Lord Jesus Christ. We are truly at a crisis point in history when godlessness seems to be abounding on every street corner. Lord, in the halls of government and in other places, there are numerous voices being raised up that are against truth as we know it, against morality, against clear definitions of what is right and what is wrong. Lord Jesus Christ, you've always had a plan throughout history, and that plan has involved the poor, the marginalized, the nobodies, the nothings of this world. You give us your Holy Spirit. You raise us up, God, and you cause our lives to make a difference. I pray tonight, Lord, that through the sharing of this word, you will bring people who are listening through the corridors of fear and into this place, God, where their lives will make a difference. Let faith abound where fear is trying to get access to people's hearts and minds. Lord, do a work that only you can do. Empower me to speak this. Illuminate your word. Let it find a lodging place in every mind and in every heart. And God, as you tell us, your word never comes back to you void. Thank you, Lord, that wherever your word finds a lodging place, miracles begin to happen. We thank you for it and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 11: David's Struggle with the Urge to Flee Psalm 11 — it's a psalm of David. Now keep in mind, David is a man who is slated to be a king in his generation. His life is going to be used by God to change the future. And there are people listening tonight — maybe you're here in the house, maybe you're listening online — and I'm going to tell you something boldly: your life is destined by God to make a difference in the future, in your family, in your community, in your neighborhood, and some even far beyond that. We look at the people in Scripture and we have a tendency to almost deify them. We forget that the people God has used throughout history were ordinary people like you and me — with ordinary fears, ordinary struggles, questions, doubts, unbelief sometimes, fears about the future. This is David, who is destined to be a king, in Psalm 11. He begins by saying, In the Lord I put my trust. How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? For look, the wicked bend their bow. They make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? David is living at least a portion of his life at a time when the leadership of the nation under Saul has really cast off the seeking of God, and all kinds of alternate thinking are beginning to prosper. David has a deeply embedded love for God at the center core of his being. But there are things beginning to happen in his life. The promises that God once gave him don't seem to be materializing at this particular point. And there's a thought inside of his heart: flee, find a refuge, find a safe place. Anybody here ever gone through that? Have you ever thought that in your heart? Oh God, I wish I could just find an oasis somewhere where I could ride out the rest of this life. I'm sick of the conversation. I'm sick of the media. I'm tired of the cursing in this society. I'm tired of the confusion. I'm tired of evil being called good and good being called evil. There's something in me that just wants to find a place of refuge. We're all like that. David was like that. He was not destined for this. He was destined to sit on a throne. He was destined to be a catalyst that was going to change not only the future of his nation, but our future too — because Christ, of course, was in his lineage. How do you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? Look, the wicked are bending their bow and they're making ready the arrow on the string that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. And if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? If we're watching everything we hold dear — everything that has made us the people we are today — erode before our eyes, the question comes into my heart and yours: what can my life do? How can I make a difference? How could God possibly use my life? Wouldn't it be better just to find a refuge somewhere to flee into some place where I can just live my life in peace? I think David is speaking directly to the fear that's wanting to rise and reign in his own heart. Just like the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 7:5 — he talks about being in Macedonia. He says, Our bodies had no rest. We were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts and inside were fears. David also says in Psalm 31:12-13, I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. I hear the slander of many. Fear is on every side while they take counsel together against me and they scheme to take away my life. In other words, they think that my life is of no consequence against their plans. They mock me and they scheme to take away my influence. We're living in a generation like that today, folks, where darkness is mocking the church of Jesus Christ as if our voice doesn't matter, our religion doesn't matter, our pursuits don't matter, our love of truth doesn't matter — as if the church of Jesus Christ is not much of a threat to the agenda they're planning for this day. As David says in Psalm 11:2, The wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. David is saying to God: Look, their plan is already in motion. And if our foundations are destroyed — or being destroyed — what difference can my life make? Those of us who love God, who still embrace truth, who still believe this is the word of God — the book that holds the key to not only eternal life but abundant and purposeful life here on the earth. If the foundations of all of this are being eroded from underneath us, what can we who love God still do? What the Righteous Can Do: Go Into the Marketplace I want to talk about three things that we can do. First, if I am indeed righteous as God declares me to be in Christ, then what I can do is what the church did in Acts 2 — I can bring Jesus Christ into the marketplace, in my speech, in my conduct, in the way I live my life, in the things I talk about, with the empowerment of God's Holy Spirit within my life. There was a whole plethora of ideas going past that upper room, of course, but when the early church stepped out into that marketplace, the presence of Christ went with them. And as they began to speak — empowered by the Holy Spirit — it stopped people in their tracks. There is all kinds of evil speech going on today. People can't even talk without cursing anymore. I find it so disheartening to hear political leaders using profanity as they speak, as if that's some kind of example to our children and young people who are being raised up in this generation. Oh, God, help us again. God, help us as your people to go into the marketplace speaking right, speaking truth, speaking with power, speaking about what God has done, what God is doing, and what God is able to do — speaking as empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. That's what the righteous can do. Not to draw back and hide on some mountaintop. Not to stay cloistered in some secretive, safe upper room. But to go out into the marketplace and let our speech be a contrast to the evil speech of this generation, believing that where it needs to go, God will take it. I remi...
