“A GREAT MULTITUDE OF ALL NATIONS AND KINDREDS AND PEOPLES AND LANGUAGES” (REV. 7:9). tsc.nyc VOL XVI / ISSUE 3 / MARCH 2020 Dear Friend, WILL I EVER BE FREE? Ecclesiastes 3:1 says: “To everything by Carter Conlon there is a season; a time for every purpose under heaven.” The season I have been “When He had come down from the it began to consume him. Similarly privileged to enjoy as Senior Pastor mountain, great multitudes followed for many today, captivity starts as of Times Square Church has been a Him. And behold, a leper came and a small thing. Consider how so joyful one indeed. Yes, even with its worshiped Him, saying, ‘Lord, if many people in this generation mountaintops, joys, valleys and sorrows, You are willing, You can make me are trapped in pornography, not I can truly say that I wouldn’t trade a clean.’ Then Jesus put out His hand realizing its mental and physical repercussions. They may have day of it for any other pathway. and touched him, saying, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ Immediately started viewing something online, his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus unaware that it was going to make Jesus said that being born and led of said to him, ‘See that you tell no an impression on their brain and the Spirit resembles the force of wind in one; but go your way, show yourself become part of their character. They nature—we can’t determine exactly where to the priest, and offer the gift that thought they could contain it, but it came from or where it is going. Living for Moses commanded, as a testimony now it has spread throughout their God is as exciting as it is rewarding and to them’” (Matthew 8:1–4). mind, and they are captivated by it. my wife Teresa and I truly look forward to Pornography puts people in a prison what Jesus has for our future together. For many today, from which it is almost impossible to escape, apart from the power of God. According to the scriptures, I am now one captivity starts as of those old men dreaming dreams! I have a small thing. Or think of the person who just a dream of countless thousands of men, reached for a glass and thought, women and children being eternally set “I can consume this little bit of free! I dream of churches vibrant, prayerful I believe the following question tugs alcohol. What harm can it do?” and spiritually alive once again. I have a on the hearts of many Christians They thought they could control today: Will I ever be free? Surely dream that under the guidance of Pastor it, but now it controls them. Or the leper in the above account was maybe it started as just a little Tim Dilena, Times Square Church will living with the same question in his bit of depression, but now it seems reach heights of life and joy which will be heart. In those days, leprosy carried to be a darkness that literally wondrous to behold! And I have a dream a stigma with it so severe that envelops them. And now they that I will live to see and enjoy it all. the person with the affliction was are left with a cry in their heart, required by Old Testament law to “Oh, God, is there any hope From the bottom of my heart, I thank you put a veil over his face. This speaks for me? Will I ever be free?” for sharing this part of the journey with me. of the necessity for the person to I will still be here at TSC as a help and a mask his or her true condition. n THE HUMAN CONDITION guide. Please pray as I go through the door They walk through society feeling The apostle Paul speaks of the which God has opened before me. May unclean, pretending that they have condition of the human heart in your life and mine count for His eternal victory when they do not—as is the book of Romans: “For I know glory until the day we are all home. the case with many in the Body that in me (that is, in my flesh) of Christ today. nothing good dwells; for to will Love you so much, is present with me, but how to Pastor Carter Conlon The leper’s condition may have perform what is good I do not started small—perhaps as a little find” (Romans 7:18). In other spot under his eye—but eventually words, “I know what I should do; WILL I EVER BE FREE? tsc.nyc I know what my life should look conditions. He did not say, “Let’s “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, like. But somehow I have lost the go back and talk about who caused saying, ‘This shall be the law of power to move in that direction. this in your life. Did your father love the leper for the day of his cleansing: “The good that I will to do, I do you? Was your mother kind?” He just He shall be brought to the priest. And not do; but the evil I will not reached out because here was a man the priest shall go out of the camp, to do, that I practice” (7:19). who knew what he was: someone who and the priest shall examine him; Have you ever felt that way? could not change himself; a man and indeed, if the leprosy is healed Have you ever made a New Year’s who was sick of feeling unclean. in the leper, then the priest shall resolution only to have it crumble command to take for him who is into the sand ten minutes after to be cleansed two living and clean midnight? You were convinced When you become birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and that it was going to be different sin-sick, you are at hyssop’” (Leviticus 14:1–4). It was this time. You were going to be understood under Old Testament that husband or that wife that you the beginning of law that leprosy was an incurable never had been. You were going to a healing that only disease that only the hand of God be that father, that brother, that could heal. And if God, in His mercy, friend. You were going to be honest. God can bring to chose to heal you, then a gift had to You were not going to lose your His people. be offered in the temple before God temper. You were not going to as a testimony. drink. But it was not long before you were right back in your When you become sin-sick, you are “The priest shall command that old behaviors because you at the beginning of a healing that one of the birds be killed in an are imprisoned. only God can bring to His people. earthen vessel over running water” You get to the point where you say, (Leviticus 14:5). Note that after Jesus Paul goes on to say, “Now if I do “I don’t care who knows what I am. had died on the cross, the Bible says, what I will not to do, it is no longer I want to be free. I want to be clean.” “One of the soldiers pierced His side I who do it, but sin that dwells in By stepping out of the crowd and with a spear, and immediately blood me. I find then a law, that evil is saying what he said, the leper was and water came out” (John 19:34). present with me, the one who wills identifying himself to the multitudes to do good” (Romans 7:20–21). In that were all around Jesus. He “As for the living bird, he shall take other words, “I want to do right, but stepped out and admitted, “I am it, the cedar wood and the scarlet something has gotten hold of me, and dirty. Lord, if You are willing, and the hyssop” (Leviticus 14:6). it is consuming me. It sends me on You can make me clean.” “Where they crucified Him” a pathway that I do not want to be (John 19:18). The cross would on—practicing things that I know n EVERYTHING POINTS TO CHRIST be the cedar wood. So one bird are wrong. “For I delight in the law Interestingly, after Jesus healed the was to be sacrificed, and one was to of God according to the inward man. man, He said to him, “See that you be washed in the blood. But it was But I see another law in my members, to be done in conjunction with wood, tell no one; but go your way, show warring against the law of my mind, which represents the cross of Christ. and bringing me into captivity to the yourself to the priest, and offer the law of sin which is in my members. gift that Moses commanded, as a O wretched man that I am! Who testimony to them” (Matthew 8:4). The beauty of this will deliver me from this body of This may seem a bit odd unless whole story is the fact death?” (7:22–24). Who will set we remember that everything in me free? Who can make a difference the Bible points to Jesus. You see, that God still desires to in my life? Then he says, “I thank before the world was even formed, touch you, even though God—through Jesus Christ our God knew His Son would have to Lord!” (7:25).