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Years ago, when I was a much younger

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man, I preached my first public sermon in

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a federal penitentiary.

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Me and another man from church one evening

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drove two hours from Memphis to Mississippi to

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preach in a prison.

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When we got there, we had to pass

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through several security checkpoints.

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Then we were led by a prison guard

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to a large cement room where three rows

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of wooden chairs were lined up in front

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of a little wooden podium.

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I was the man preaching that night, and

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I was as nervous as a cat in

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a room full of rocking chairs.

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As we stood in the room, a heavy

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door opened, and in walked about 30 prisoners

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in their uniforms.

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Then the guard introduced me as the speaker

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that night, and he left the room and

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closed the door behind him.

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He left me and my friend alone in

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that place with those hardened criminals.

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And as I looked around that room at

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the faces of those murderers and thieves and

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rapists, my blood ran cold within me, for

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I could just picture them getting angry at

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me for something and rushing me in a

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mob to hurt me or worse.

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Well, I told them my text that I'd

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chosen that night was Psalm 40, and I

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told them I was going to read it

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right now to them and tell them about

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it because it spoke of a man in

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a prison.

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That this man, David, who wrote the Psalm,

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he was stuck in what was called a

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bottleneck prison, and I began to read Psalm

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40 to them.

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I waited patiently for the Lord, and he

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inclined unto me and heard my cry.

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He brought me up and out of a

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horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and

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I said what David was describing here was

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a bottleneck prison that back in ancient times,

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if a man was caught stealing or committing

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a crime, and they were out in the

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country, that man would be thrown into a

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hole in the ground, a cistern, or a

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bottleneck prison made of earth where the ground

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was wide at the bottom.

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There was a opening at the top which

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was more narrow, and the walls leaned toward

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one another so you couldn't climb out, and

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it was wet in there and miry in

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there and muddy in there and slippery in

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there, and it looked like a coke bottle,

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and all you had to do was just

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sit there and hope and pray and wait

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for someone to come by and pull you

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out because either you fell in there by

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accident or were put in there on purpose,

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you were stuck, literally stuck in the muck

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and mire of that prison until someone came

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by to rescue you by dropping a rope

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or a chain and pulling you out, or

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like the prophet Jeremiah was pulled out of

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the dungeon by placing filthy rags under his

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arms, or by Joseph when he was cast

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into a bottleneck prison by his brethren, he

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had to wait until a traveling caravan passed

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by and heard his cries.

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Some prisons have cells of cement and doors

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of steel.

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This prison that David was speaking of was

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one of mud and loneliness and suffering.

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He had to wait to be pulled out

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by another, but no matter what the prison

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is constructed of, whether dirt and mud or

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cement and steel, a prison is a prison

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nonetheless, but you don't have to be incarcerated

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to be in a prison.

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Men have prisons of their own.

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They are prisoners to physical addiction like booze

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or drugs or pornography, or it can be

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a prison of emotions like an unforgiving heart

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toward another.

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It can be a prison of grief that

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is unreconciled or a prison of physical pain

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and disease that medicine cannot alleviate or cure.

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Some men live in a prison of resentment.

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Somewhere down the road someone wronged them and

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they're full of hate and resentment toward that

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person or persons, but whatever the prison may

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be, whether physically, emotionally, visible or invisible, there

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is one prison that's far worse than any

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of these mentioned and whose sentence is far

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greater and more severe, of which I speak

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is a spiritual prison where a man is

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unreconciled to God, to the God who made

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him.

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Man enters this world with a poison in

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his blood.

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For when Adam fell, we fell.

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We're each born with a fallen nature, a

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spiritually ruined nature, and a bent toward sin,

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and it is sin that causes prisons to

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be built.

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Sin causes all the misery in the world.

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It causes tears to fall and hearts to

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ache.

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It busts me up even to recreate this

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message tonight for you friends, but I'm gonna

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do it anyhow because it needs to be

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heard.

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Prisons have to be enacted and built to

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curb vice and murder and immorality.

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That's why we have them in our cities.

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That's why we have them throughout our states,

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and my Bible describes sin as transgression of

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the law, and the sentencing of the law

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must be carried out upon all guilty lawbreakers.

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The final sentence would be carried out at

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a final judgment of all mankind, where the

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dead, small and great, will stand before the

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judge, the judge of all the earth, and

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shall not the judge of all the earth

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do right, but we each are sinners.

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We each are sinners who deserve punishment for

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our transgressions against a holy God.

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Punishment in a lake of fire reserved for

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the devil and his angels.

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Trust me friend, when I tell you you

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don't want to end up being bound hand

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and foot and cast into that burning boiling

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lake of fire, but there is hope in

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our passage tonight friends, hope in a God

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who can hear our cries and listen intently

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to our prayers.

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Our text when it says he heard my

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cry, that means he cupped his hand to

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his ear and bent over to hear David

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more intently.

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He bends his ear to us when we

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cry to him and pray to him because

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he loves us.

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He loves us so much that he sent

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his only begotten son into the world to

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suffer and die on a bloody cross for

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sinners like you and me.

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For God so loved the world that he

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gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth

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in him should not perish but have everlasting

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life.

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Our passage from Psalm 40 says, blessed is

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that man that maketh the Lord his trust.

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Well that man is any man whosoever whether

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that man is a big sinner or a

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little sinner.

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If you turn to God for forgiveness of

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sin by faith and trust in his son

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Jesus Christ, then you can have everlasting life.

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That's what the Bible says.

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That's what the word of God says.

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And in Psalm 40 the psalmist says that

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when he was delivered he had a new

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song to sing.

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He brought me up and out of a

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horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and

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set my feet upon a rock and established

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my goings.

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And he hath put a new song in

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my mouth, even praise unto our God, many

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shall see it and fear and trust in

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the Lord.

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I then said to those prisoners that our

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passage tonight tells us that there is hope

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here, hope for the one who puts his

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trust in the Lord, that you can have

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hope even in a hopeless place, a hopeless

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place like a prison, a prison that is

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man-made or a prison of your own

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making.

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There is hope here.

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God is hope.

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Then I closed my Bible and I finished

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my message.

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And when I did, my worst fears were

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realized as the men on the front row

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rushed me.

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I was frozen like I was made out

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of cardboard.

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My arms were at my side.

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My eyes were closed in fear about what

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was going to happen.

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I felt arms around me clutching at me,

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but I was okay.

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I opened my eyes and the man in

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front of me had tears in his eyes.

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The man just wanted to hug me and

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tell me how thankful they were for me.

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They were thankful for the message that night.

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They were thankful for the time I took

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to come visit them.

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They had seen that God of hope that

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night and it gave them hope.

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Since that time, friends, I've preached over 2

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,000 sermons in churches and conferences and meetings.

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But that first public sermon that I preached

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to those prisoners will always be fresh on

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my memory and warm in my heart because

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God showed me that night that men are

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just men, whether inside or outside a prison.

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We are all sinners without excuse and we

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all need a savior for sin in the

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person of Christ Jesus.