Bring My Soul Out of Prison — Carter Conlon

Good morning Times Square Church. I have a special prayer on my heart this morning. When Jesus stood up in the in the synagogue, there was brought to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And then he said these words, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering a sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised. I have a prayer in my heart that God do all of these things this morning.

That on a specific topic that he's given me to speak on on this church congregation this morning, from Psalm 142 please, if you can go there. Psalm 142, the title of my message this morning is bring my soul out of prison.

Bring my soul out of prison. Father, Lord, God, I can't deliver this with any power unless you choose to empower it. There's nothing I can say here that will bring about any kind of victory unless you give it.

Lord you have to empower me, you have to enable me, you have to enable us as a congregation to hear this, you have to give us the desire for this and Lord you've got to do it because it can't be done.

There's nothing in us that can do this. We can give it our best effort and fall short of the glory that you would have in your church. And so father I come not in a position of strength but in weakness.

I don't come with any great confidence in myself but I have confidence in you Lord, I have confidence in your word, I have confidence in the thoughts that you put upon my heart. Give us the grace to hear this.

Lord Jesus Christ open prison doors and set us free Lord, those that have been bruised and wounded, those who don't see a way into this truth that you're going to speak about, those who feel that they'll never be free.

I pray God Almighty that you do a miracle today. Do the miraculous Lord. I ask you for a supernatural work in this church this morning Lord. I know this can't be done by any goodwill of man. Nothing would be done that lasts.

It has to be a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit and Lord I yield to this. I yield my body to it O God and this church to it and I ask you Lord Jesus Christ to do this work so profoundly, so deeply Lord that we would be stunned and amazed in the days ahead at what you have done.

That there could be nobody pointing in any direction but you. There'd be only one testimony, Jesus has done this and Father I thank you for it with all my heart today in your precious name. Amen. Psalm 142, bring my soul out of prison.

Verse 1, I cried unto the Lord with my voice. With my voice unto the Lord did I make my supplication. I poured out my complaint before him. I showed him before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me then thou knewest my path.

In the way wherein I have walked they have privily laid a snare for me. I looked on my right hand and beheld there was no man that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. I cried unto the old Lord.

I said thou art my refuge in my portion in the land of the living. Attend unto my cry for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors for they're stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name.

The righteous shall compass me about for thou shalt deal bountifully with me. Now this is a song, this is a testimony of someone anointed by God, King David of Israel. He was anointed for the purpose of bringing honor to God's name and gladness and security to the people of God.

Yet partway into his journey he finds himself in a place that is very familiar to some of us here today. Verses 1 and 2 he said, I cried with my voice. I made supplication. I poured out my complaint before him and I showed him my trouble.

There's a specific prayer that I think many people here have been praying in this local church body. And here's the question, if I am a part of what is your testimony on the earth, if this indeed is your body, if this church or the church is your body and it is my family, my new family on the earth, if being one with these people is supposed to bring fulfillment into my life and glory to your name, then why do I still feel so alone?

Why can't I integrate? Why can't I experience the love, the security, and the joy that is supposed to be here? We sing about it. We talk about it. We read about it. It seems to be everywhere and for many others.

But why am I on the outside looking in? Why can't I bond with people? What is it about me that I'm sitting in a crowd? In verse 4 he said, I look on my right hand and behold there's no man that would know me and refuge failed me.

No one seemingly cared for my soul. I'm sitting in a crowd yet I can't seem to form any kind of meaningful friendship with anyone. There's 8 ,000 people attend this church and there are some people in here that's exactly the cry of your heart.

Why am I still alone? Why can't I fit in? Why can't I integrate? What is it? What will set me free? Why do I feel so lonely? Verse 6 he said, I'm brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors for they're stronger than I am.

There are voices and they're stronger than my reasonings and they're telling me that I'll never fit in. There's something wrong with me. People don't like me. I might as well just give up. I'll never fit in.

Maybe it works for other people but it seems to be a lost cause for me. Anybody here ever felt that way in church? Verse 7 he says, bring my soul out of prison that I might praise thy name. Oh God help me.

God help me. What is it about this generation that it seems to be so hard to bond one with another? It's so hard to trust. Now there are many reasons why people feel that way today. Now this is a church of over 100 different nationalities.

Crossing Cultural Barriers Through Christ

That in itself is an integration nightmare apart from the Spirit of Almighty God. God had an idea in his heart. The statisticians say it can't be done. You cannot even bring two cultures together and have harmony, let alone over 100 in one church body.

There are just too many differences. The statisticians say no, you have to build the churches around a typical race, typical socioeconomic conditions. You have to target. You have to move into different strategies of society.

The Lord, I think the Lord just said hogwash to the whole thing. I'm gonna bring together a church of a hundred nations and do a miracle when people say it can't be done. Number one, you can't. Statisticians told Pastor David Wilkerson you can't form a church in the middle of Times Square.

It will never work. Well here we are. The Lord said it's going to take a specific kind of skilled leadership to guide these people into this form of integration. So God looked down from heaven years ago because he knew this church would be here.

And he saw an angry, fearful, whiskey-drinking police officer that was afraid of crowds. Said okay that would be a good senior pastor. And then he saw a Haitian American throwing his parents' furniture all over their living room and said well no that would make a great youth leader.

And then he saw an African American homeless man living in Central Park and sleeping on the trains. And he said now that would be an incredible Bible teacher. Then he took an 87 year old man who lives four hours from the church and said now that would be a great voice for passion and righteousness in the church.

And he'd do a great job leading the seniors in the church. And he said to top it all off and to add a whole other dimension to this I'm going to put a woman on the platform who's got a greater anointing than all of them put together.

If this church were a nightmare then God just added to it immeasurably and put a leadership over it that in the natural is doomed to failure. Except that God's Spirit and his ways are not our ways. Now many many people here today you're in a new culture and that in itself can be hard to adjust to because of the unfamiliarity of it all.

You know various cultures throughout the world have different meanings. Many people don't fully understand this yet. That's why the integration of a hundred different nations can be so difficult. Eye contact means different things in different societies.

In one part of the world eye contact means disrespect. In another part of the world eye contact means honesty. That's America. Look me in the eye son. And so we're out in the lobby trying to talk to somebody from from a typical Asian culture who thinks it's disrespectful to look you in the eye.

And you're trying to you're like this trying to have a conversation. You walk away saying what is wrong with that person? They won't look me in the eye. And the other person is walking away saying wow that was incredibly dishonoring.

That person just kept staring at me the whole time we were talking. How about personal space? It's different in different parts of the world. Like a typical North America we have about a two and a half to three foot no-fly zone.

You know in our lives all around us. Like you're not allowed in this circle. I mean talk to me. Fine. You know my wife is allowed there. My grandchildren are allowed there. And maybe a few other people.

But the general population just just don't get any closer than my three-foot circle. But what about East Indian culture where the the generally accepted social distance is six inches. And so you go out to the lobby after a service and you want to be friendly to people and you start talking to somebody who's who's from an East Indian background.

And a person just walks right up into your face like that and starts talking to you. You can't even hear what they're saying because you're just exploding inside saying what is this person doing so close to my face.

And so you back up. And the other East Indian guy says well I just want to be intimate with this person. So he steps forward and you back up. He steps forward and it looks like you're doing a dance around the rotunda.

How about just common understandings in different cultures of respect. For example in traditional Japanese culture if you ask a person a question and what they will do is pause for 15 seconds or so to to to let you know that I respect you as a person.

I respect what you've just asked me and I'm giving very thoughtful consideration. So you walk up to a traditional Japanese person in there in the lobby after the service and say did you enjoy the service today.

The next thing you know they're standing there and they close their eyes. They're standing before you. And if you're like I am you lean in and you say it louder. Did you enjoy the service today. Then we have the barrier of a voice intonation.

There are various voice intonations that are culturally learned throughout the world. In America for example we have a low pitch drop at the end of our sentences. Just like I just did right there. If you were to graph my voice if I'm in a friendly mood at the end of every sentence would be what's called a low pitch drop.

A low pitch drop at the end of my sentence. And so I would say to you if I were an usher say in Times Square Church I would say good to see you. Come in. Sit down. It's it's a low pitch drop. Well what about other cultures for example India that don't have a low pitch drop.

They've not learned to speak culturally the way we do. So it's just good to see you. Come in. Sit down. Now to our ear that's the way it sounds. But and a person is wondering why why is everybody so offended by me.

I'm just being polite. And you understand that there's there's intonations of the voice that are different in different cultures. Now some cultures. Now this is strictly advice for those who are born and bred in New York City.

When you say I hope to see you next week they really think you mean it. And so you come to church next week and there's brother sister so-and-so in the lobby waiting for you. Following you down the aisle to your seat because you said I look forward to seeing you next week and having fellowship with you and they thought you really meant it.

So be careful what you say. Now I'm just giving you a really quick overview of all of the cultural faux pas that go on when you have a hundred nations meeting together that show you and I that without Christ it's impossible.

Without Christ there never will be a United Nations. Without Christ we never will be able to break the barriers and and of course you coming into a church like this if you are a little bit insecure in in the first place it makes it even worse to try to integrate.

To try to make a friend. To try to get to know people because you're operating within a certain cultural framework and queuing and mis-queuing constantly in your conversations. Now of course there are other people here that have a hard time to be part of the church body because you've been betrayed.

You've been abandoned. You've been abused and it's so hard to trust again because to trust is to be vulnerable and to be vulnerable means you open yourself up. You're letting people in into that inner proximity as it is and you're letting people get close to you who could hurt you again and I wish I could tell you that that would never happen again but unfortunately that's not true.

It can happen even in the Church of Jesus Christ and there's even others just like I used to be who are just awkward with crowds and awkward with people and you're in a crowd but you feel like you're not of the crowd.

You want intimacy and fellowship but you're not quite sure how to do this. I remember when I was a young Christian we'd go to church Pastor Teresa and I and people walk up to me and say I love you brother and I'd say uh-huh and that was so awkward with that.

It was like I never had another man tell me he loved me and it was awkward for me. I have to be really honest with you and Pastor Teresa used to say to me why don't you why don't you tell them I love you back and I said because I don't love them.

I mean I love you, I love my kids, I love my mother but I don't I don't I don't I'm not I'm not gonna say it I don't mean it and it's hard you know what I can say it now but it was so hard to break that barrier of what is accepted what's not accepted and and how we're supposed to interrelate with people and how we shouldn't and it was a very difficult moment.

Christ's Prayer for Unity in His Church

How do we break through to the satisfying experience that Christ says clearly being part of his church should be. Now he says it in John chapter 17. I want you to read it with me please John chapter 17 beginning at verse 21.

Now Jesus makes it clear that being part of the church body should be a deeply satisfying experience spiritually speaking which should ultimately bring glory to God in the earth that should be so satisfying so fulfilling that people look at the church of Jesus Christ and technically say only God could bring about this kind of love and unity among a people.

Look at verse 20 Jesus said neither pray I for these alone that's John 17 20 but for them which also shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me that as you and I Jesus said are as father as you and I are interrelated we're one we're inseparable we speak with one voice we beat with one heart as it is that they may be one in us and that oneness in the body of Christ will be an irrefutable testimony to the world of the reality of God.

You see it's not supposed to be just a casual coming together it's not supposed to be just a hi how are you on Sunday morning. There's something that God has for you and God has for me as part of his church his body on this earth that is to be a living testimony with of the reality of God.

And if what you have and what I have don't amount to that then we have to have the courage as David prayed God take me out of the prison that I'm in. I feel like there's four walls around me. I feel like that I'm behind bars.

I feel like that there's something so much deeper for me as part of the body of Jesus Christ that I'm not experiencing my fellowship in the church is not a of the reality of God for I could get along with people in the in a secular club as well as I do with the people in the church.

So Lord you got to take me deeper. And verse 22 Jesus said and the glory which you gave me I have given them. The glory means the ability technically the weightiness of God the ability to perform this.

He said the glory which you gave me I've given them for this reason that they may be one even as we I gave them. Jesus said the ability to be one as we are one. Go back one verse for the purpose that the world may believe that Jesus Christ has been sent to it.

I in them verse 23. And thou and me that they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that thou sent me and has loved them as thou hast loved me that they all may be one. So how do we do this.

Pressing Through Fear and Failure for Fellowship

Hebrews 12 3 says. Consider him that endured such contradiction as sinners against himself lest you be wearied and faint in your minds. Consider Jesus who had to press through himself for this fellowship.

It didn't. It didn't just come naturally on. There were people all around him that were making promises they weren't going to fulfill. There were people who said they loved him or going to flee from him.

And he had this contradiction in a sense all around him but in his heart he knew that the father had sent him to gather a church. And the scripture tells us though he was alone in Gethsemane and abandoned even in his hour of need.

Remember David said in verse 4 he said I looked on my right hand and no man was there that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. Yet he pressed on because what was to come was worth it.

And folks there's there's a measure of fellowship that God has for you and I that we're gonna have to press on to achieve it. We're gonna have to press through our fears. We're gonna have to press through the failings of other people.

We're gonna have to press through misunderstandings. We're gonna have to press through our own inadequacies and our own struggles and trials. Because the end result is worth it. Hebrews 12 2 says. Who for the joy that was set before him went to the cross.

The joy of fellowship with you and I both now in time and forever. For the joy that was set before him. For the joy that's supposed to be evident in the body of Christ. For the joy that should be known when people see you and I walking down the street together even under normal circumstances.

There should be something in the in the passerby that says wow there's something there's a bond there not like the world gives the world promises bonds but they're all conditional and some of them are quite perverted.

But there's something pure here. There's something right here when they hear your conversation when they see you and I interacting together. There should be something in that fellowship that's worth pressing through to have it.

I'm not willing to sit in isolation in the body of Christ and neither should you be. We should be willing to press through press through all the struggles the trials considering Christ for the joy he endured what he had to endure that he might have fellowship with you and I today if Jesus Christ broke through for us then the question is how do I break through the barriers that want to keep me out of this joy as part of his church.

Boldness to Reach the Isolated

Now go to Acts chapter 4 please with me in this particular chapter of Scripture. In chapter 4 the disciples were up against a threatening that wanted to take their testimony away. And so they went to prayer.

In Acts chapter 4 and verse 29 he says. They said now Lord behold their threatenings and grant to thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. In other words God Almighty. There's there are voices that want to threaten to keep me isolated.

They're telling me that I'll never break through into the beauty as it is a fellowship in the body of Jesus Christ. I'll never know love the way God wants me to know it for other people while I'm on this earth they are threatening me.

They're threatening the testimony of Christ in my life. But Oh God give me the boldness to speak first. Give me the boldness to reach out. And in verse 30 they said by stretching forth your hand to heal.

And that signs and wonders may be done in the name of thy holy child Jesus. God Almighty stretch out your hand through me to bring healing to any division any breach any misunderstanding any person who's out there and alone.

God don't let me walk by even if I'm lonely myself. Don't let me walk by another lonely person without doing something without saying something without reaching out without being part of the solution to whatever the dilemma in that particular life might be.

And God give me the boldness to speak. Give me the boldness to say something and mean it. Give me the boldness to be the first one out of the gate as it is or out of the prison house to say I've noticed I've seen you around here before.

Where are you from. Engage in a conversation. Would you. Would you like to go out and just have a coffee together sit down talk. And if that person has a need stretch out your hand and let the hand of God reach out through you.

To do signs and wonders they said in the name of thy holy child Jesus to do signs to do things God that only can be done by the Spirit of God. They can't be done any other way. It's not by human reasoning it's not by human might or power.

But Oh God there are certain things that can only be done through the tender touch of Christ in the life of somebody who cares. And when they had prayed the scripture says the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.

And they spoke the Word of God with boldness. They were shaken. And folks you and I can remember Paul and Silas they were in prison and at midnight it says they began to praise God. And I don't know exactly what those prayers were but I do know what caused the shaking.

And it caused not only their own bands to fall off but it caused the prison doors of people who had lost heart and lost hope all around them. Prison doors started to open. And even an old filthy Philippian jailer dirty in mind and spirit evil in practice no doubt was set free from his prison even though the bars weren't evident by the tender touch of Paul's hands and Silas's hands washing this the filth away that had become part of his life going to his house speaking to his children speaking to his family seeing the glory of God come in that house because they were not afraid to reach out not afraid to go where people were gathering who had given their lives to Jesus Christ.

And when they prayed the place was shaken. I'm not satisfied. And neither should you be until there's a bond of love in this house that outsiders come in and say only Jesus could have done this. There's no other way this could happen.

Oh yes we have a great measure of this unity in our midst. Don't misunderstand me. But there should never be a lonely person here. There should not be somebody who walks in here week after week after week into this church and walks out alone with that thought in their heart.

Will I ever be free. Will I ever break into fellowship. That simply should not be in this house. There should be a care and a compassion one for another that staggers the imagination of those who live outside the kingdom of God.

It should be genuine. It should be Holy Ghost breathed. It should have a tenderness. It should have a power behind it that does not come from human effort. It comes from the power of God being manifested through our lives.

In verse 32 said. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. And neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own. But they had all things common.

That's an incredible thing. Here they are. They're praying. And it's a simple prayer. They said God break us break us out of the box of our limitations and give us an enablement to be able to reach out.

That's what it was. It was about human need. It was about not drawing back because of fear. And God stretch out your hand through us and bring healing. The place was shaken. And the first fruit of that prayer is a divine compassion that suddenly released among the people.

It's sovereign. It's supernatural. We can't ever have a program of compassion. It simply doesn't work. It's something God did in these people. They didn't. They didn't have a program. It just said. Suddenly the multitude of them were of one heart and one soul.

There's a sudden releasing of things that we hold to ourselves as if our lives depended on these things. And there's a sudden caring and compassion for the whole church body. Amazing. As you see a divine compassion moved together with divine enablement.

And it says in verse 33 that great power gave the Apostles witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them. All they were given a divine enablement to bond together. It was the degree of which they had never known before.

Great power and great grace. The people would look and say there's another hand at work here. There's another voice at work here. There's another life source at work because these are just ordinary people limited by the very limitations of all of society.

But yet something else had come into them. Some kind of a new heart some kind of a new mind and a new spirit was upon them. You know last Tuesday I was I was walking home after church and I happen to be walking behind two ladies from the choir in this church and I watched them for a while.

They were arm-in-arm under one umbrella laughing and talking and having an incredible like if I was unsaved looking at this I would say this is what an incredible thing for two people who might not really fully know each other apart from the church atmosphere having so bonded together.

And I know one of the ladies testimonies and it's a miracle this lady's living for God today all that she's had to go through. But yet I see a heart that was open to another person in the body of Christ.

And here they are arm-in-arm under one umbrella laughing and talking and having just a great old time. It's the envy of everybody in New York City who walks down the street angry frustrated folks. We have an opportunity to be a testimony in our generation that is so deep.

It's not what we say it's not the tracks that we give out. It's who we are in Christ how we have learned to interrelate one with another in the body of Christ. We have an opportunity to be a testimony.

You you couldn't you couldn't walk anywhere near those two ladies and not have a sense that the hand of God is on this. How did they ever these. Your initial thought if you didn't know them is that they have to be sisters that are actually getting along.

There's there's there could be no other reason for this kind of fellowship. And then we go down to the corner and there's always people on the corner of 51st and 8th who just can't say goodbye you know there.

Some are going down into the subway some are going across down. They're going to continue down 8th some are going over to Howard Johnson's and to get their car but they just can't say goodbye. And folks I love that.

I love it when I see that in the body of Christ this bond which should be in all of us now now you could be the master of your own misfortune if all you do is wait for the altar call so you can just run out the back door.

Then you're just authoring your own misfortune. The proverb says whoever would have a friend must show himself friendly. And so when we say take time to get to know somebody I really mean it not just shake a hand and just look look at the first opportunity to get away from the person to run out the door.

It's been great meeting you but to actually mean it these are people here in this church of a hundred nations that you and I are going to know forever. We're going to know each other for all of eternity forever forever.

Why don't we let that bond. Why don't we let that bond be formed in us in the way that Christ would have it to be formed. David said it this way bring my soul out of prison that I may praise thy name.

Bring me out of this place. That David said though I'm surrounded by people on my left and on my right. I'm God. I can't find any comfort here. I can't find anybody that really is even wanting to take the time to understand what's going on in my life.

I I can't find refuge here. And that's not the way it's meant to be in the church of Jesus Christ. Bring my soul out of prison. He said that I may praise your name God bring me out of this box at the end of me.

And my own culture and circumstance has me in and break the sides out of this thing. Oh God. And let me love people. And let God open my heart to let other people love me. Jesus you've got to do this.

And David said the righteous will compass me about for you will deal bountifully with me. David said I I foresee a day when friends will be on all sides. I foresee a day of fellowship. I foresee a day of joy.

I foresee a day of caring and compassion in the in this experience that God has given me and this calling he's put on my life. I foresee something of God with the righteous around me with fellowship. And what he foresaw was just ahead of him.

He didn't realize that mighty men mighty women of God were about to be born into the kingdom of God. God was going to give him fellowship companionship. Yes there'd be pain once in a while with it but it was not going to be taken away from him.

A Church That Demonstrates God's Love

And I thank God that you and I in this generation have an opportunity to break out of every prison all the walls the devil has put around us because God established this church in Times Square for a divine purpose for a reason.

It's got to go deeper folks. It has to go deeper than just a hundred different nationalities on the roll this church. It has to go deeper. It has to be something that lives among us a testimony that's alive a genuine care and compassion in this church.

While the whole world is fragmenting around social status and race and culture. There's a body that's sovereignly coming together by the power of Almighty God. And I don't know about you. But I'm not willing to be on the outside of this looking in.

I want to be right smack in the middle of it all and say Lord whatever walls are in my life break them down. Whatever happened to me that causes me not to be able to bond break it down. Whatever makes me want to preserve myself and from being hurt again break it down.

Whatever is in me that causes me only to be comfortable with people that look like me and act like me and talk like me. Break it down. Oh God. Break it down. Oh God. Bring my soul out of this prison and surround me with the righteous.

You said Jesus that this testimony of love and unity in the body would be a declaration in my generation of the reality of God. And so I'm not willing to settle with just church attendance. I'm not willing to settle for just hi how are you.

See you next week. I want to go deeper and farther than all of this because that's what Christ has for me. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. We need a miracle to see this happen.

It can only come from the power of God. That's why Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach healings to the brokenhearted deliverance to the captives recovering a sight to the blind and to set free those that have been bruised.