The Miracle of Rebuilding

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. I am the messenger who's come to your house telling you the king has said you can get up and you can go home, and you can rebuild everything that you thought was lost. God will build your house better than before. He'll provide peace in your heart. God will do the miraculous. He'll do it so powerfully people around you will say, look what the Lord has done for him. Carter Conlon will elaborate on this week's A Call to the Nation program.

Let's join Carter with his message, The Miracle of Rebuilding. Psalm 126, and it begins in verse one with these words, When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion, we were like those who dream. It was a moment in the history of God's people. It had been 70 years they had been in captivity. Now, most of the people that this particular psalm is about were born into captivity.

In those days, if you lived to be 50, you were considered an old man or an old person. And so it's been 70 years they're in captivity. These people had a dream, a dream that one day we could be free, one day perhaps our lives could be like our history was. It's like somebody that's reading that you're a believer in Christ and you've been reading the Bible and you know the history of the people of God. You know the history of the Gadarene demoniac who was set free from a thousand devils and you know the history of Mary Magdalene was set free from demonic oppression. You know the history in the book of Acts chapter two of 120 people who were all failures really in their own sight that the power of God came upon and not only changed them but they became changes of the environment, the society all around them and brought to us this incredible story, this miracle story of the forgiveness of God through his son Jesus Christ. Now, a lot of you are reading the Bible but you're in captivity, okay? You're here in the prayer meeting because you really do want to walk with God but everything is almost like the miracle power of God is like a history lesson.

It's something that happened in the past. You are in captivity and some could say just like these people I was born into captivity. They were 70 years in this place of captivity and as far as I know I was born into a home that was captivated by depression, alcohol, drugs, anger, violence, separation, selfishness, divorce, whatever the case might be. You're listening to me saying well it's saying well it's just this captivity has been in my life so long that it's the only thing I know and being free for me or being the person God's designed me to be is just a dream. But suddenly one day the dream is fulfilled.

Can you imagine? Let me read to you the rest of the Psalm before we go back to the beginning line. When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing.

It's like you're getting a present maybe on on your birthday or Christmas that you never anticipated anybody would ever get you and this sudden joy just rises in your heart as you as you look at it and say oh wow you didn't have to do this and there's there's a sudden burst of joy inner singing may I call it that in your heart. Then they said among the nations the Lord has done great things for them. In other words there was something so powerfully done for these people that people who lived outside of the realm of God's kingdom saw it and had to comment on it. The Lord has done great things for us whereof we are glad. Bring back our captivity O Lord as streams in the south. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy and he who continually goes forth weeping bearing seed for sowing shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. So the psalmist is talking about a day of freedom that did come to the people of God when they least expected it and his prayer is God do it again that's my prayer do it again. We find ourselves in a similar place and we're in a place of weeping but yet we have this seed a promise in us that you've made to us. There's something inside that tells us that we are indeed called to be new creations in Christ Jesus and and maybe you're at a place where all you have is that little seed of promise but yet you live in captivity. But the Bible promises that if you hold on to that little bit of faith that you have one day you will walk out of captivity into freedom and the fruit in a sense of your faith will become evident not just to you but to everyone around you. Now come with me for just a moment back thousands of years into Babylon which became also known as Medo-Persia. It's been 70 years you've been there so long that I think a lot of these people would have just said you know to their captors please just don't make my life hell and I'll serve God here and and some of you are just like that you're saying to your captivity just just don't make my life hell you speak it to alcoholism or drugs or pornography or depression or anger or disappointment or whatever it is that holds you captive if you just leave me alone if you don't make it too hard for me I will serve God here and that's that's what God's people had come to they'd come to a place of of making peace in a sense with their captors and then suddenly one day can you imagine being there it's been 70 years maybe maybe you're 80 years old you remember you would be just a kid when you you went with your mom and dad into captivity or maybe you're you're a young person that's just been born there you've never known anything else other than you've been reading and hearing the stories about what you really are called to be as a son or daughter of God and then suddenly one day somebody visits your home and says to you we can go home we're free the king said we can go home can you just imagine I mean there would be a lot of people who just didn't believe the report some people you're having a hard time just as I speak these words to you oh no it can't be this can't be for me for somebody else no the king said it's for everybody everybody called by the name of Jehovah God of that time can get up and go home and you can you can rebuild what you lost and you know it would be incredulous it would be picture yourself sitting there because you are sitting there you don't have to picture it you are there I am the guy that's just come to your door and I'm saying to you you can go home the king said you can go home the first question that comes into your heart is well how do I do this I mean I've lost so much I've lost credibility I've lost resources there my addictions have cost me my confidence has cost me my family in some cases you can say my family's gone I mean so much has fallen through my fingers and you're telling me to to get up and and go home and I'm telling you yes you can get up and you can go home now not everybody of that time took the journey now history tells us there was roughly about 50 000 people that that got up and said okay we're going now there was a whole lot more than that in captivity probably uh 10 times that amount if not more but yet 50 000 got up and said we're going to take the king at his offer and I'm my prayer today has been oh god oh god let 50 000 people tonight get up and go home let them make the choice in their house let Ralph on his couch and let Alice on her kitchen table and and whoever else is out there just say I'm in I'm in I don't get how this is going to work but I'm going if the king said I can go home I'm going home and and I don't know how I'm going to do this but the king said I can go so I'm going to go and I'm going to trust God and it is a journey of faith it is it is a mustard seed of faith it does require leaving behind some things that maybe we've grown accustomed to a lot of people had made peace with their captivity do you understand they they planted there they had a business there they had a community there around them and they had to get up and make the choice I'm going with God you know a lot of those folks had really given their all to their captivity and may I challenge you those of you who have given your all to drugs and you've given your all to unforgiveness and you've given your all to whatever your all is would you just turn and give your all to God now and leave that behind and just get up and say I'm I'm going but I don't know how how am I going to build this I'm going to go back and rebuild what was lost maybe rebuild what you've never it wasn't lost you've never seen it was lost to somebody else maybe your parents lost it or your grandparents and they kind of brought you into Babylon and Medo-Persia you've never really been in the place that's called the land of promise but you say I've read about it and and I see it in the bible and other people talk about it and and now I'm being given an opportunity to get up and actually go there so I'm just gonna go I'm just gonna I'm just gonna get up and I'm gonna go I don't know about you but that's what happened to me back in 1978 I just said I'm just going I'm just getting up and I'm going I I'm not I'm not content just to read about what happened to somebody else in some other time I want it to be my story I'm going and I don't know what it's going to look like but I know that if God's given me the invitation then it's going to prosper now imagine the surprise of the people who arose to go it says it and I'm just going to read it to you from the book of Ezra it's chapter one beginning at verse five it says the people got up whose spirits God had moved they rose to go and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem now then all those who were around them encouraged them with articles of silver and gold and goods and livestock and precious things besides all that was willingly offered suddenly when you get up and you decide to go there's going to be people around you who are part of the body of Jesus Christ the church of Jesus Christ the true church the real church and and they'll help you they will encourage you they will share the strength that God's given to them with you so that you can get up and make this journey back now not everybody gave there's obviously stingy people then as there are today some a lot of people are really stingy with their love and their encouragement but there are people who aren't and so turn away from the stingy ones and turn towards the ones who have the spirit of God and they care about you and they care about your journey enough to part with their strength other resource whatever it is God's given them to help you on your journey so you can go home and you can begin to rebuild then something really really miraculous happens a lot of people read these old testament books and they don't even see this it says king Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the lord which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his god so Jerusalem was captivated 70 years before and all the instruments and all the vessels and the knives and the spoons and the forks and the bowls and everything that was required for the worship of God had been taken captive they were vessels of pure gold and pure silver and Cyrus the king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Midrathoth the treasurer and counted them out to Shethbazar the prince of Judah this is the number of them 30 gold platters 1,000 silver platters 29 knives 30 gold basins 410 silver basins of a similar kind 1,000 other articles other articles all the articles of gold and silver were 5,400. 70 years before heathen kings had conquered Jerusalem taken all of these vessels out of the temple of God and they didn't melt them down they didn't sell them they stored them they stored them for 70 years what heathen king would do that how all of these things taken from the temple were brought into captivity and put in storage until the people of God decided to go home I really want you to think about that everything you need is in storage for you until you make the decision to get up and go home then suddenly the king says okay bring all the things that they will need all the vessels that are required all the instruments for worship everything that they're going to need to rebuild that which was lost because of the carelessness of previous generations and this is the people of the province came back from captivity and they they they went back and they returned to Jerusalem and Judah everyone to his own city now they they were corporately working on the temple but they were also at the same time working on their own houses so you don't you God just says I'm going to bring you back to a place where you once again restore true worship of me you learn again who I am but also I'm going to enable you to rebuild your own house in your own town your own family and you say to me well how does that work I mean pastor you have no idea how much I've lost while I do have an idea we've all lost something over the years and we could either focus on our loss or we can focus on the God that promises to give it all back to us I chose years ago to focus on the God who gives it all back and I have found in my lifetime God is faithful it is absolutely absolutely amazing what God can do let me just conclude with a short story a true story in the book of Acts of a situation where the two saints of God Paul and Silas were in a prison and at the darkest time of the night they chose to worship God in this prison and as they begin to worship God the scripture says all the prison doors fell off their hinges literally they all opened and this was the inner prison so these are people more or less in most cases condemned they're in the darkest dankest place you could ever want to be on this earth and suddenly the the doors all fly off the Philippian jailer he's in charge of looking after this jail he's in charge of the prisoners maybe this is it's all speculation on my part but maybe this is his whole sense of identity I think this man maybe felt like he blew it with his family you know I can't see a Philippian jailer going home and being kind to his wife and his kids these guys were mean this was this was the inner prison this is where the worst of the worst criminals are kept these are where people condemned to death and to be crucified in some cases are are kept before their judgment or before they go to trial these are these are the worst of the worst at least according to the people the Romans of that time and so maybe his whole sense of identity now maybe this is all he's got control of in his whole life is is this prison and it's his job and it's his sense of worth and whatever else he's got going for him and and suddenly he becomes aware that all the doors have fallen off all the the prisons cells and he assumes as as you would that all these prisoners are gone like wouldn't you if you were there I'd be out of there and then suddenly he draws a sword and he intends to kill himself like it's just over we we're hearing that in some of the prayer requests people have just lost the will to live you feel like you've lost everything well that's what this man felt like I've lost my home I've lost maybe his marriage is a shambles his kids are who knows they probably have no respect for him other than they fear him and then he's lost his sense of self-worth it's just all gone everything is gone he's going to fall out of favor with the authorities because he's given these people to keep and he's lost them and he just it's just over as far as he's concerned he's just going to take a sword and probably just run it through his throat or his heart whatever he would do to end his life and suddenly a voice which is the voice of the apostle Paul says do yourself no harm we're all here now Paul could only know that by the spirit this place is dark there's a lot of people in there but Paul knows there's something divine going on here and it makes no sense to this man's mind that everything he thought was lost is still there it just makes no sense it should all be gone everything should have fled everything should have fallen through his fingers just like it it would have made no sense to the people of God in Medo-Persia at this time that all the vessels of the temple are still there those things should be long gone they should have been melted down and made into coins there should have been all kinds of leaders and rulers that use them to pad their own pockets and build their own houses and and what a surprise when suddenly all these thousands of vessels start are coming out and and gold and silver and being restored to the people of God do yourself no harm we're all here you see nothing is lost in God God knows where everything is God knows how to give it all back God knows how to keep it for the day when you decide to go home God knows where your strength and your resource is and so this jailer comes in and Paul says do yourself no harm for we're all here and then he called for a light and he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas not that he was afraid of Paul and Silas but he knew this was a miracle of this was a miracle of God he knew that this is not normal this is not natural something is happening in this jail that is outside of my control it's outside of my influence everything that I thought was lost is still here everything that should be gone is standing still and then he said what must I do to be saved you see this man was just saying whatever you've got I want whoever your God is I want him to be my God whoever whoever this God is that can knock prison doors off of their hinges and yet preserve those things that are kept inside I want to know who this God is and then Paul says to him believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your household you see Paul knew something not only about God but also about this man he knew that God will be faithful when we turn to him he will be faithful not just to you but everyone who's under your influence will be touched by the presence of God in your life now Paul knew this but he also knew that this man will give his whole heart to whatever he's doing if if it's evil he gives his heart to it if it's abusing people he gives his heart to it if it's being mean he gives his heart this guy is all in that's why he was going to kill himself when he felt like he had lost everything and Paul knew that when you give your your whole heart to evil you'll also give your whole heart to good some of the best saints that I know were the were the best sinners before they got saved they gave their all to drugs and they're all to violence and they're all to whatever it is that they were doing but when they came to Christ that same just like the apostle Paul himself that same personality that that drove Paul into this religious rage also drove him to serve God with all of his heart and Paul recognized that in this man he said you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because you're not going to be one of these kind of noodly Christians that kind of bends with the wind you're going to go for it you see something you've seen the power of God and you're going to come out of the prison yourself and you're going to go home and God's going to touch your house and so you try to imagine the shock in this man's family when he brings two prisoners home this guy doesn't bring prisoners home there's just no way there's no way there's murderers and thieves and rapists in this prison and insurrectionists he does not bring these people home you can just see the shock on his wife and his kids when he comes in the house he's got two prisoners with him they've been beaten pretty badly their backs are all bloody and scarred they've been they've been whipped they've been they they they probably stink because it obviously not there's not a daily shower in this place and this man his wife and kids start watching him and you see the scripture says he he bathed their backs and they're just saying like in heaven's name what happened to my dad and she's looking to say what happened to my husband this guy that comes home every day and he's rough and he's gruff and he's he's harsh and if the kids misbehave all they get is a swat in the back of the head and suddenly they see this man coming in and he's you see because there was something about when he did something he did it with all of his heart that's why Paul could say you're not only you will be saved but your house will be saved and it says he took them the same hour and he washed their the wounds on their backs and it says and immediately he and all his family were baptized I just love this story because the bible is telling us this man decided to get up and go home to God and going home to God when he went home to his family change in his life suddenly the provision of mercy is there the provision everything that was in storage it always was there for him but it was all in storage it had been taken captive by foreign kings and suddenly when he made the decision to get up and go home you'll find the tenderness of God that he didn't have most likely is suddenly in his life and the compassion for others he didn't have as suddenly in his life the hospitality I have no doubt whatsoever don't even have to stretch my imagination to imagine this man was not hospitable and suddenly he's bringing two strangers home and he's not only feeding them and he's speaking tenderly to them he's washing the wounds on their backs and his kids look and they say and his wife looks and says whatever happened to him I want that to happen to me and immediately it says he brought them into his house he set food before them and he rejoiced having believed in God with all his household when the Lord when the Lord turned our captivity we were like those who dream then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with singing and they said among the nations the Lord has done great things for them the Lord has done great things for us and we are glad bring back our captivity oh Lord as streams in the south those who sow in tears shall reap in joy and he who continually goes forth weeping bearing seed for sowing shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him so my message to you is this is your day this is your time I am the messenger who's come to your house telling you the king has said you can get up and you can go home and you can rebuild everything that you thought was lost you can reclaim that which rightfully belongs to you and along the way everything you need will be given to you to accomplish that which God has put in your heart to do everything this is your day this is not a positive confession speech I'm giving you this is truth the truth shall set you free on your part you have to get up just admit you need a savior the Philippian jailer had to do that he couldn't save himself just get up and admit that there's there's a wonderful opportunity that God's given you through his son Jesus Christ to be forgiven of your sin and to become the person that God designed you to be captivity made you into another person it took you into another place you've been living where you shouldn't be living you've been doing what you shouldn't be doing and you became a person that God never intended you to be but the word comes to you from the king saying you can get up and you can go home and you can rebuild back to your town back to your city you can rebuild the place of of God's worship and you can rebuild the place of of God's worship and God speaks to your heart and says I will give you back things that you thought were lost forever I'll give you back things in your heart that you thought experience had taken from you and could never be regained I'll give you back hope I'll give you characteristics in your life issues of character that you thought were lost forever I'll give it back to you sovereignly supernaturally it's all been in storage and it's been waiting for you to get up and go home and rebuild listen to me on this there's not some pie in the sky religion I'm talking to you about this is life it's real it's an invitation God will build your house better than it was before you've been listening to Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City for more information and resources to help you in your walk in Christ log on to tsc.nyc that's tsc.nyc and be sure to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon