Bring Back The King

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. David says, no, let them do what they do. They're only allowed to do it because God has appointed them to do it. And when God's trying to get ahold of us again, He will allow us to be driven into the wilderness. I want to remind you, it is the mercy of God that is governing this moment. That's Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City with an insight into today's message taken from Psalm 3. Here, we discover David is on the run. Because of David's laziness, the people of Israel had turned against him and were now turning to Absalom for their leadership. But like in our world today, the real cry that is needed is, bring back the king.

Here's Carter with today's message. Psalm 3, the Psalm that David, the king of Israel, wrote when he was fleeing from a rebellion that rose against him from Absalom, his son. Absalom, who should have been the heir of his kingdom, is now pursuing him and trying to kill him. And David wrote, and he said, Lord, how they have increased to trouble me. Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who save me.

There is no help for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield from me. My glory and the one who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice and he heard me from his holy hill.

I laid down and slept. I woke for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God. For you have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone.

You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. Now David wrote this Psalm about a time of deep personal sorrow in his life. It was a time when many were turning against the testimony of God's power and provision and hope and order that had previously been established through his life. What a contrast to the sweet psalmist of Israel who walks into the camp in his youth, the camp of Israel, as they're fighting against the Philistines and with faith and a song in his heart, faces a giant and brings an incredible victory. King of Israel danced in days not too much earlier before the ark of God as the presence of God was accomplished and the purposes of God were being fulfilled through his life and people saw through his life power that God was willing to give to humanity.

They saw the provision. They saw everything that God could do and now David's at a time when he's being pushed into the wilderness. He's being pursued by his own heir and there were many at this time, David says, who were saying of me, there is no help for him in God. People were looking and they were saying as he and whoever was left following him and many people abandoned him. Even some long-standing warriors abandoned him. Even sadly, one of the priests who really did have a living word from God but had an unsurrendered area of his heart that caused him to move into rebellion in the last days with those that were rebelling against the order of God and there were many who were saying that he'd gone beyond the point of God helping him one more time and many say that about America today.

About this generation where we're living in. There are many voices that would try to tell you and tell me that we passed the tipping point of rebellion against the order of God. You know it's a lot easier to declare doom than to speak faith.

It doesn't take any strength of character. It doesn't take any vision to see things the way they are in the natural and in the natural it was all over. In the natural David's being driven out. Absalom is David is getting old.

Absalom is young and tall and strong and he's got seemingly the multitudes behind him. They're shouting long live King Absalom and even with with all of this people stood and will say to us that we've passed the tipping point in this nation of rebellion against God's order but I want to tell you this morning that you never pass the tipping point until you pass the tipping point of mercy and I want you to remember that God when his glory came down into Solomon's temple that was established through David's life. That the song that was sung that brought the glory of God is that God is good and his mercy endures forever. Even in judgment God's mercy can triumph.

It doesn't mean the judgment goes away necessarily but he can come down in mercy and sweep a multitude of people into his loving arms and into his eternal kingdom. There were many that were saying David is in too weakened a condition to make a difference now. All of his best days are in the past. It's all over. There's a new order now. There's a new society being formed. There's new leadership and there are many in America today who say the church is too weakened to make a difference. We're now living in a post-Christian society and the Bible tells us about this particular moment in history. Let me just read it to you. Second Samuel chapter 15 verse 23 it says in all the country wept with a loud voice and all the people crossed over.

The king himself also crossed over the brook Kidron and all the people crossed over toward the way of the wilderness. There's such a sense of defeat coming into so many people's hearts now. An awareness that we're being driven into the wilderness. We've lost our voice. We're looked upon as bigots and tolerant out of step with the new order.

Unneeded, unwanted, unheeded, unnecessary. And society itself just like in the days of David has risen up. They've established in great measure a love for this new order and they're pushing the testimony of God as we see it into the wilderness.

And there's a weeping beginning, a sorrow people are beginning to understand. Oh God what have we done? God almighty what have we forsaken? Lord Jesus Christ how have we let go? The blessing of your life and presence that was once part of our nation gave us giftings and abilities and prosperity perhaps beyond measure in the history of the world. Life, liberty were ours. What happened to us?

Why did we let it slip through our fingers? And then even worse in second Samuel 16 verses five to eight there was a man called Shimei came out on the hillside as David is being driven with his entourage into the wilderness. It says now when king David verse five of second Samuel 16 now when king David came to Bahurim there was a man from the family of the house of Saul whose name was Shimei the son of Gerah. He came out cursing continuously as he came and he threw stones at David and at all the servants of king David and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. Shimei also said thus when he cursed come out come out you bloodthirsty man you rogue the Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul in whose place you have reigned and the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son so now you are caught in your own evil because you are a bloodthirsty man. Now this was an unrestrained voice of cursing that had risen against him in the land unthinkable unimaginable only several years before that this could be allowed to even exist that cursing could rise up against the anointing of God the presence of God the order of God and suddenly this man Shimei is standing there and those that were left that had strength and might still upon them said to David let us go and take his head off why should he be allowed to curse the king but David said no leave him alone because in verse 11 he says the Lord ordered him God appointed him to do what he's doing and you and I have to realize that all things are working together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose nothing happens without the permission of God and if it does happen we're wise to say God why have you allowed this to happen and what are you trying to teach us what is the lesson in this when society rises up and begins to openly curse us as the people of God openly openly unashamedly cast us out as worthless and evil is there something in this we need to know David said leave him alone God appointed him to do this David knew in his heart that he had been the cause of the difficulty and division that had begun to plague his society David knew it he was a man after God's heart even in his failure he was still a man after God's heart and he knew I bear the responsibility for this it all began years before when a spiritual laziness got into his life and into his practice chapter 11 second Samuel verse 1 it says it happened in the spring of the year at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah but David remained in Jerusalem you see this dissolving of godly order began when a spiritual laziness entered his life in his practice I think David thought that he'd fought it long enough and he'd won enough victories maybe he just wanted to smell the roses for a while he was tired of fighting I don't know I don't know I do know that I have been there I've been there in a place in my life of thinking God I've fought long enough how long do I have to carry this weight how long do do I get to enjoy things for a season I understand the common struggle that all of us have I think he began to send others and he stayed home I think about the Christian church how we vacated the prayer meeting we vacated the personal work of God personal evangelism personal holiness we we kind of stayed home and supported a few missionaries and that became sort of our spiritual walk and our spiritual warfare we could come to church and there'd be a little board on the side of the church and it would be four or five years later four or five families that we sent out and we give our ten or twenty dollars a month to support them and that of course became but we didn't go to prayer anymore we chose an easy way we say God you blessed us you won marvelous victories we live in a safe society your name is still honored there are still some voices speaking for you so I'm just going to stay home and I'm just going to rest because I work hard all day why should I go out and pray but he forgot that though we may rest we have an adversary as a roaring lion who walks about seeking whom he may devour he doesn't stop if we do when we left the prayer meeting our diminishing began we suppose that others somewhere would carry the battle forward pastoral friend of mine in one another state in this country told me one time he said in my in my vicinity there are a hundred churches he said I know of only two prayer meetings in 100 churches we've assumed that somebody else was going to carry the battle and we went home and then of course his laziness turned to lust and self-indulgence it says then it happened one evening David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house and from the roof or might I say from the internet you saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold I was just I'm reading a book right now and some of the moral state of the nation and the ministry and the statistics are shocking of the numbers of God's people are trapped in pornography I would venture a guess and I think I'm safe that about a third of the people listening to me now are dabbling in some form of pornography perhaps even higher and it came because of laziness when you're lazy you'll turn to lust because that's where your body that's where your natural body will want to go your natural mind will want to go there you get bored you'll start looking for things to pacify you and you'll end up looking where you shouldn't look and in this country in the United States of America the theologies of self got a hold of us and began the weakening process we left the prayer meeting and when we left the prayer meeting we lost the focus of God and when we lost the focus of God we lost the focus of the cross and the commission of the church to win the lost to disciple them so they can stand in God and teach them how to win others and disciple them that is the whole mission of the church of Jesus Christ there's no other mission but when we vacated the prayer meeting we lost the mission of God we turned inward lust began to be able to get a hold of the people's hearts and everything became about me myself and I coming to the house of God what is new in this for me today we allowed preachers to be raised up over the testimony of God in this nation that fed that lust in the people tell the people anything they want to hear as long as they make us feel good about ourselves build our ministries fill our coffers and give us all the glory that we desire that's the kind of a ministry we allowed to be raised in this nation and self-indulgence in David's life turned to sin it turned to dishonesty and even the murder of someone whose honest testimony exposed the bankruptcy of his own spiritual condition in America and in Canada in particular we vilified those who tried to warn us of the dangerous spiritual course we had charted I can speak from personal experience it was called once years ago before coming here to speak at a conference a huge conference in Canada and God's Holy Spirit came on me and I warned that particular group you're about to make a calf and you're going to greatly harm the body of Jesus Christ with this thing that you're doing because you've lost your focus I spoke it not arrogantly but with a broken heart the end result was to be vilified I remember David Wilkerson speaking at a missions conference one time quite a few years ago warning the ministers there that if you will not judge this self-seeking theology that's coming into the house of God there's going to be a darkness that staggers the mind come on the nation I remember the report I wasn't there but I remember the report of droves of ministers getting up and walking out vilifying the voice and the only thing they could say about him is while he's shrill what prophets generally are because they stand in pulpits with broken hearts they stand as a parent would behind a chain-link fence warning children that are about to try to cross a six-lane highway they see the danger and they speak something from the heart of God from the heart of God and so we did what nations who are backsliding always do we vilified and will continue to vilify those who speak for God and so now David finds himself pursued by the very son who should have been his heir and that's the point I want to make Absalom was supposed to be the legitimate heir but because of David's lack a wrong spirit got a hold of Absalom and he starts pursuing to drive out the anointing that should have been his he's pursuing it to actually drive it out of the nation and the people who should have been the inheritors of the blessing of God that had once flowed through his life also joining with him just as we now find ourselves pursued by a generation that would be in the prayer room if we had led them there I'm not speaking this to condemn you I'm not speaking this to condemn myself nor to condemn the church in America but for the sake of God we have to have the courage to have an honest look at ourselves we're being pursued by a generation that should be in the prayer meeting but we vacated it so how do we expect them to be there today and so now they're doing exactly what Absalom did when David vacated the calling of God that was on his life and the pathway he should have taken when he walked away from it and let lust become his guiding principle and it turned him into a man other than the man God called him to be when this happened he ends up pursued by that which he should have led as he had been into the presence of God if he had gone to prayer and he had gone to battle I have little doubt that Absalom would have been with him because he'd had a promise of God it was given to him there would not fail a man of his lineage to be on the throne of course it is fulfilled in Christ but he had a physical promise as well even though Absalom had become an enemy of the ways of God yet David prayed for mercy and don't you forget that I took time yesterday and I walked up to Central Park and I walked down to 60th and I walked all the way down Park Avenue and just going around looking I was stunned I said oh God God how dark this society is now the darkness if you have the eyes to see it the darkness that's getting a hold of people is terrifying if you just looked at it in the natural you realize this is just waiting its opportunity to break out but instead of judging it instead of walking by people that are yellow eyed because they're so full of drugs and tattooed from head to toe and angry and violent I say God have mercy they shouldn't be like that and they don't have to be that way if we will go back to your throne if we will pray again there is mercy with you Lord it's so easy to judge our politicians that are saying we're in a post-christian society and Christians are a nuisance to the new order it's so easy to get angry like the mighty men that were still with David saying shall we take their heads off how dare they say this thing David says no let them do what they do they're only allowed to do it because God has appointed them to do it and when the church is backslidden and when God's trying to get a hold of us again he will allow us to be driven into the wilderness I want to remind you it is the mercy of God that is governing this moment the situation we're in today didn't just happen we played a large part in letting it get to where it is and yet just like David we can lift our heads from our shame David says there'll be many who saved me there's no help for him and God but you oh Lord are sealed for me my glory and the one who lifts up my head I thank God with all my heart that I can look at the failure in my life and not be condemned by it we ought not to be condemned we ought to say Lord to us belong shame of face like Daniel prayed but to you oh God belongs mercy and so for your great namesake not for our sakes we failed you in what we were called to do but for your great and holy namesake oh God almighty move one more time in this generation move one more time in this society spread your arms out like a swimmer push aside the refuge allies and welcome into your bosom the thousands if not millions it will turn to you in a moment of history you Lord are a shield for me my glory and the one who lifts up my head David said I laid down and slept I woke for the Lord sustained me in other words that will not be overcome we will not be triumphed over the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ and the cry of my heart is let the program go to the wind let it all be gone and let the glory of the Lord come let the glory bring home the king bring home the king bring home the king that heals the king who delivers the king who gives sight the king who opens prison doors the king who puts in every heart a new song bring the king home and when the king comes home there's dancing when the king comes home there's shouts of victory when the king comes home they start hitting on the high sounding cymbals when the king comes home people start to shout glory because in their hearts they know this is who God is this is what God does this is the glory of God bring home the king and that's got to be the cry in our prayer time now God Almighty bring the king home in America bring him home bring back the knowledge of Jesus Christ into our society bring home the king and that has to be the cry of every heart now bring back the king 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 dot NYC that's TSC dot NYC and be sure to be with us next week for a call to the nation with Carter Conlon