Bring Back the King — Carter Conlon

David’s Flight and the Need to Bring Back the King

Psalm three, please, if you will. Message that I've entitled, Bringing Back the King, or Bring Back the King, Psalm three. Father, I thank you with all my heart this morning. Oh, Jesus, for your word, your presence.

God, if it wasn't for your word, we'd have no way into the future. We would be overwhelmed by the circumstances around us. Your word is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Your word offers comfort.

Your word discerns the thoughts and intents of our heart and says to us, this is the way, walk in it. Your word offers us safety and hope in the future and promises too deep, too powerful, Lord, to ever be achieved in any of our own human effort.

God, help us to believe your word. Help us to see your word, to obey your word. Help me, Lord God Almighty, to convey the thoughts that you've spoken into my heart. Lord, we lift up this service to you.

We lift up those that are listening online, those in North Jersey as well. God, we ask you to cause us to move forward as your people and to live to see your hand move in power one more time. Thank you, Lord, for this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Psalm three, a 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 say of me, there is no help for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield for 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 10 ,000s 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 had 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.

Mercy in the Midst of National Rebellion

People were looking and they were saying as he and whoever was left following him, and many people abandoned him, even some longstanding 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've 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.

Doesn't take any strength of character, 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 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 wanna 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. 2 Samuel chapter 15, verse 23. It says, and 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, intolerant, 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 as 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 2 Samuel 16, verses five to eight, there was a man called Shimei, who 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 2 Samuel 16, now when King David came to behold him, 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 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 called according to his purpose.

Nothing happens without the permission of God. And if it does happen, we are 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.

David’s Spiritual Laziness and Moral Failure

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, 2 Samuel verse one, 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 and 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 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 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 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 families that we sent out and we give our 10 or $20 a month to support them. And that of course became, but we didn't go to prayer anymore.

We chose an easy way and we say, God, you blessed us. You've 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 gonna stay home and I'm just gonna 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 supposed that others somewhere would carry the battle forward. Pastor, a friend of mine in another state in this country told me one time, he said, 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 gonna 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, he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful. And people to behold, I'm reading a book right now on some of the moral state of the nation and the ministry and the statistics are shocking of the numbers of God's people who 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.

Warning Against Self-Seeking Theology

I can speak from personal experience. 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. And so we did what nations who are backsliding always do, we vilified and will continue to vilify those who speak for God.

A Generation Pursued Because the Church Abandoned Prayer

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. And 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 that 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.

Praying for Mercy in a Darkened Society

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 ahold 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 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.

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 say of me, there's no help for him and God, but you, O Lord, are a shield 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 belongs shame of face, like Daniel prayed, but to you, O God, belongs mercy.

And so for your great namesake, not for our sakes, we've failed you in what we were called to do, but for your great and holy namesake, O 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 refugial eyes and welcome into your bosom the thousands, if not millions, that 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.

Prayer Still Moves the Hand of God

I cried to the Lord with my voice and he heard me from his holy hill. Psalm three, verse four, that tells me my prayers can still be heard. That tells me our prayers can still move the hand of God. That tells me no nation's ever gone so far that mercy can't touch it again.

That tells me that though weeping may endure for a night, there's a promise to joy, will come again in the morning. That tells me that thank God, the finest day of the church of Jesus Christ may very well be upon us.

God had to get us out of our lethargy. God had to get us off the rooftop. God had to get us away from the refuge of lies. God had to get us away from this free for all murdering of our brothers and sisters in Christ by casting down anybody and everybody in order to maintain our own position.

God had to bring us back together as a church. One more and one last time for the honor of his name. David said, I laid down and slept. I woke for the Lord sustained me. In other words, I will not be overcome.

We will not be triumphed over. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. He promises to give us peace every day. A peace that passes understanding because in the natural there's no reason that we should have peace.

I will not be afraid of 10 ,000s of people who have set themselves against me all around. Faith comes into the heart. That's where David started. And that's where God was trying to get him back to. Faith that we sang about can move a mountain.

Bringing the King Back Through Spiritual Awakening

In 2 Samuel chapter 19 verses nine to 11. Now all the people were in a dispute throughout all the tribes of Israel saying the king saved us from the hand of our enemies. He delivered us from the hand of the Philistines.

And now he has fled from the land because of Absalom. But Absalom whom we anointed over us has died in battle. Now therefore, why do you say nothing about bringing back the king? So King David sent to Zadok and Abiathar the priests saying, speak to the elders of Judah.

Saying, why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? Since the words of all Israel have come to the king. To his very house. A spiritual awakening happens when rebellion against God in society comes to a dead end.

And people begin to realize those that we have followed who stand in rebellion against God's order have led us down a darkened path. And there's just a sudden awakening among the people. That's what a spiritual awakening is.

We've lost something. We've let it slip through our hands. But there's still a chance to have back again what used to be ours. And so the king, David himself, the Christ type sends a message to the elders of Judah, the leaders, those standing in pulpits, those having spiritual influence and authority and says, why are you the last to bring the king back to his house?

Since the words of all Israel have come to the king, to his very house. And God was speaking to me yesterday as I walked these streets saying, you don't know what these people are thinking. You don't know the hopelessness and despair on these faces.

Yes, it manifests as rage and anger and such like, but you don't know what they're thinking. You don't know the cry that's in the heart, but God says, I know the cry. And I'm willing to reveal it to those who want to hear it and see it.

And the sad thing is that the hearts of the nation can turn back to the testimony of God or the history of God, but sadly, those in pulpits can be the last to hear it. So stuck in programs, so stuck in the way of doing things, so stuck just trying to survive.

Spiritual leaders sometimes are the last to hear and quite often they will resist an awakening because it disturbs their order. You look at the history of revivals. Every time God has moved in a nation, who resists it?

It's not the prostitute or the drug addict or the person in prison. It's people in pulpits that resist it. They've established a nice little place. It's very comfortable. They've got their three hymns, they've got their programs, and they don't want the lost coming in and disrupting it all.

They don't want people leaping and dancing in the aisles, giving praise to God because they once sat outside begging and now they've been touched by the healing power of God. But oh God, 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.

Bringing Back the King to Society, Worship, and the Home

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 gotta 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 the king back into our schools and our colleges, into our streets. Bring the king back into our boroughs. Bring the king back into our worship. Bring the king back into our lives. Oh God, get us off our rooftops.

Get our eyes off the things they shouldn't be on. Bring us back into the work of God. Bring back the king. And that should be the cry of every heart. It should be the cry of your heart, the cry of my heart.

Wherever I've gotten lazy, wherever, oh God, I've been looking in places I shouldn't look for comfort. Whatever I've been embracing, whatever's bringing weakness, whatever is causing a biothar to roam the streets instead of coming to the house of God, get it out of my life.

Bring back the king. You say that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. That means in this temple there has to be a throne, and on this throne there has to be a king. Oh God, oh God, bring back the king and sit on the throne of this temple and govern this place of worship.

Bring home the king. Weeping endures for a night, but you and I have the hope that as was the case of David, that the nation may see what she has lost. And one more, perhaps one last time, and I do believe it's one last time that America will bring back the king.

It may not be everybody. Isaiah was in a generation so hardened that only a 10th, even though he'd been at the throne of heaven, only a 10th could hear what God had given him to speak. They were so hardened against truth.

But even a 10th, I was thinking last night, a 10th of this nation would be 33 million people. Even a 10th. Psalm three, last two verses, it arrives, oh Lord, save me, oh my God. For you struck all my enemies, and this is the history of the past.

You've struck all my enemies at the cheekbone. You've broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongs to the Lord, and your blessing is upon your people. So David was saying, break the voices that tell me there's no hope for my life.

Break the voices that tell me that my life doesn't matter and that no good will ever come from it. Break these voices and let your blessing, in spite of my past failure, let your blessing determine my future.

And not just mine, the futures of others. Where you will send me, the future of my own children. That's why David was so brokenhearted. When Absalom was killed, oh Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom. Would God, he said, I had died in your place.

You didn't have to die. It was my spiritual death that caused this. David knew that Absalom should have a crown on his head. He should have been governing in righteousness. David knew it, and he knew his own failure.

It all started when he just chose to stay home. It all started when he got lazy. It all started when he flipped up his laptop because he had nothing else to do. It all started when he started viewing things he shouldn't view, and he turned into another man, and he became a liar and a murderer.

God, in his mercy, drove him out. God, in his mercy, is driving us out again as a church age into the wilderness for a season. But oh God, I love that scripture in the Song of Solomon that says, who is this coming out of the wilderness leaning upon her beloved?

Altar Call: Returning to the King

Who is this? Who is this that's been chastened by the hand of God that's found him again as her husband? Who is this that's coming out not to do her own will but the will of the one who sent his son to die for her?

Who is this who's coming out with faith again that God still can move mountains, he still answers prayer, he still opens prison doors, he still gives sight to the blind, he still heals the sick and the oppressed?

Oh God, bring back the king. And that has to be the cry of every heart now. Bring back the king. Where I've failed, bring back the king. Where I've drifted, bring back the king. Where I've lost faith, bring back the king.

Where my home is falling apart, bring back the king. Where I've lost zeal for the kingdom of God, bring back the king. Where I've lost the eyes of faith, bring back the king. Where I've lost the heart for the lost, bring back the king.

Oh God, bring back the king. I'm gonna give a simple altar call. Bring back the king. God's already spoken to your heart, you already know where the places of faithlessness or fear, compromise are, you know the situations around you that, where you feel like you've been driven into the wilderness and the devil is mocking you and cursing you, and even people around you are telling you there's no hope.

You fail so often, why don't you just close your big mouth and leave the rest of us alone. Oh yes, weeping may endure for a night, but joy does come again in the morning, thank God. So we're gonna stand in just a moment as we do.

I'd like to invite you just to come forward in this annex between the screens, the same in North Jersey and those that are listening at home, and we have a lot of people online listening this morning.

You can stand up just in your living room where you are and say, God, bring the king back into my house, into my heart, oh God, don't let me be the last one to hear what you wanna do. You want to revive your church, you want to revive your people, you want to revive my heart, you want to revive your house, you want to take me to a deeper place than I've ever gone before, and so Lord, let me be the one who stands at the border of the wilderness and just says, bring back the king.

Where I've failed, bring back the king. Where I don't see, bring back the king. Where I've lost heart, bring back the king. Bring the king back into my life, my testimony, my home, my song, my children, bring back the king.

Bring the king back into New York City, in our streets that are offering naked people to be painted. Bring back the king into our boroughs where gangs of young people gather together because they don't have fathers, they have no direction, bring back the king.

Oh God Almighty, bring back the king. Let it be the cry of your heart, it has to start with us. Starts in me, starts in you. I'm not ashamed to let God examine my heart because he is my glory and he's the lifter of my head.

He is the one who says, you may be ashamed of what you did, but I am not ashamed of you. And so look at me, eye to eye now. Come, let us reason together. Let me come back into your life, let me be the center of your heart.

If that's the cry of your heart, we're gonna stand, we're gonna worship for about 10 minutes. I'm just gonna invite you to come forward and we're gonna pray together and we're gonna believe God for great strength.

The balcony, go to either exit if you wanna come down. Would you stretch out your hands please just for a moment? God almighty, bless this church. Bless those online, bless God, people listening from all over the world.

Bless us, oh God, with a love for you. Just a love for you, that's all we ask. A love for you, a love for truth, a love for your ways, a love, a love God for your songs, a love for your words, a love for people.

Bless us with this, Lord, this is true prosperity. This is the true blessing of God. Father, we thank you. Give us faith to believe that mountains still can be moved. Father, we bless you and we praise you in Jesus' mighty name, amen and amen.

Thank you. Thank you.