Approaching The Throne Of A Laughing God — Carter Conlon

Approaching the Throne of a Laughing God

My message is a little bit unusual this morning. The title is Approaching the Throne of a Laughing God. Approaching the Throne of a Laughing God, Psalm 2, Book of Psalms, Psalm 2. So Father, I thank you, Lord, today for this time in your house.

A Prayer for Repentance and Spiritual Awakening

I thank you, Lord, for your presence seems to be getting stronger week after week as we gather to meet with you. Lord, I feel in my heart that you are extending your hand to us. You are asking us to come back to you.

You're giving us an opportunity to consider our ways. Lord Jesus Christ, would you help us? Would you help us to walk humbly before you? Would you help us to acknowledge our need? Would you help us, Lord God, to get through that doorway that you promised leads to eternal life?

Father, I thank you for the touch of heaven on your word. Your word indeed is a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. Your word is truth. And you said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

And so, Lord God, even as this word is preached today, I'm asking that you would open prison doors. You give sight to those who are spiritually blind, that you would heal those that have been wounded in their heart beyond human repair.

God Almighty, that you would deliver those who are living in places of darkness, that you would bring all out into a place of light. I ask that the power of your presence be made known again, not just here, but in this city and in our generation.

We ask you, Lord, for deliverance, God, for our cities, our children, my God, our families, our whole society. Help us, Lord, to get back to you. Give us the grace to acknowledge our condition. Give us the grace, Lord, to bend our knee one more time in your presence.

I ask you personally, Lord, for a spiritual awakening in this nation, a touch of heaven that can only come from God, a sudden turning, a sudden reasoning among the people where you come down and begin to speak and we start listening again.

Help us, Lord. We've been an arrogant nation. We've defied, Lord, your truth and believe that there's no consequence to it. And now we see violence in our borders at every turn every day. Would you help us, Lord Jesus Christ, to recognize that all of these things are happening because we've turned our backs on you?

How it must break your heart when you set a people apart for yourselves, Lord. You set us apart for you only to have us, as other nations have in the past, turn our backs on you when you have blessed us as a people.

God, forgive us for this ignorance at this time. God, give us righteous leaders again in our nation. Give us, Lord Jesus Christ, unity among the people. All races, political viewpoints, and ways of life, bring us together at the cross.

Help us to meet there again, oh God, as we once did in days gone by. Send an awakening to New York City, Lord. God, and fill every church on every corner with seeking people. And do it your way, Lord.

Do it your way, oh God. We're not ashamed to cry out to you. We're not ashamed, Lord, to admit that we can't do this, Lord. It's got to be you. You have to come, Lord, and you have to extend your hand to us.

For we seem incapable of extending our hands to you. Try as we will, Lord, we can't as a society. We're too divided. We're too dark. God, the enemy has gotten too deep and inroad into the fabric of this culture, Lord.

You've got to extend your hands to us and draw us back to you again. Oh God, help us to come to your house. Help us to pray, Lord Jesus Christ, oh God Almighty. Set righteous men and women in the pulpits of this city who will unashamedly, unashamedly preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My God, that there be an unleashing of charity from your people to those that are hungry and hurting in this city, Lord. God, do what programs can't do. Bless your people again, Lord. Bless your people again, oh God.

Awaken us one more time, Lord. Give us an opportunity, Lord. Reach our cities, oh God. Every borough in New York, Lord. Every avenue, every apartment building. You know those that are crying. You know those that are despairing of life.

Reach them, Holy Spirit. Reach them when we can't reach them. Find them when we don't see them, Lord. Father, I thank you for this with all of my heart. Lord, the time for religious games is over. It's time to pray.

It's time to seek you again. It's time to call out to you. Let prayer meetings erupt on every street corner, in every college, in every high school, in every grade school, even in kindergarten. Let prayer meetings break out, my God, in this city.

Father, I thank you, Lord, with all of my heart. With all of my heart, Lord, I say thank you. Thank you for what you're going to do, and I praise you for it in Jesus' name. Praise God. Psalm 2, approaching the throne of a laughing God.

Psalm 2 and the Rebellion of the Nations

Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then shall he speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. All throughout history, if you're a student of history at all, you see the same pattern.

Just as we say in the scriptures, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. We know that. He does not change, but the ways of the wicked don't change either. When the wicked get into power in any society, any culture, you study history.

If you don't believe it, just study history. You'll see it. When the ungodly get into positions of authority, they have one main objective above every other objective. Verse 3 says, let us break their bonds in pieces and let us cast away their cords from us.

In other words, let us take away the borders that their belief in God has set around us, the restraint that it's put upon our behavior, and let us break all the cords. Let us break all the ties, the restrictions on our thought and behavior.

You see, the inherent sin nature in man is to be as God is and to determine what is good and evil. That's the seed. That's the poison that the serpent sowed into Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. You can be as God, and you can determine in yourself what is good and what is evil.

You don't have to listen to the word of God. The word of God is too restrictive. The word of God has borders, and you have a mind that is meant to dwell outside of these borders. You can be as God is.

That's what he said. It wasn't an apple that they bit into. It was a theology. When they bit into the theology, the seed of the devil himself got into humanity, and humanity began to believe that we can determine what is good and what is evil.

We can cast off all the restrictions of the word of God on our lifestyle and on our behavior, and we can create our own utopian society and our own utopian end at the end of it. The only problem with it is that it's all a lie.

Psalm 59 and the Spirit of Godlessness

Psalm 59 verse 12 tells us that when God intervenes, frustrating their objective to promote godlessness in the nation, then the true and not so subtle spirit comes to the surface. David, the psalmist, surrounded by ungodly people in Psalm 59.

King Saul commissioned them. King Saul was a man who simply could not obey the word of God. He just simply couldn't obey. Always going outside the borders of what God told him to be and what God told him to do.

Eventually, he turned evil as a leader, and he began to consult with a spiritist, a witch, instead of seeking the face of God. Fearing the anointing that was on King David, who is the Christ type in his generation.

You know that Christ would come through the lineage of David. Fearing that anointing that was on King David, he sent spies into David's house. To try to capture him and literally take him captive because he feared the anointing on this man and what it was going to do.

David said, let them be taken in their pride and for their cursing and lying, which they speak. Pride, cursing, and lying. You notice lately that the propensity of those who thought that they had this nation in their pocket, you notice the pride of failing to understand or self-examine.

You see, if self-examination was done honestly, it would lead to the conclusion that the majority of this nation in America do not believe as the godless do. The much greater majority of people believe in God.

Did you know that in America today? In spite of what the media tries to tell you, the majority of people in this nation believe in God. Many, many people still fear God and still go to church and still try to lead godly lives.

David talks about the cursing. Have you noticed the open four-lettered speech, especially towards those who hold the Christian worldview among politicians, media, entertainment people, and news people now?

Open cursing, unheard of, unthought of. In my generation, when I was young, if somebody uttered a four-letter word, a politician would never get reelected. A news person would be kicked off the station the next day, but today it's become accepted speech.

Do you notice as the godless are not getting their way in society or feel that there's a restriction to their objective, the more they begin to curse openly because that is what is in their spirit. It's now coming to the fore and lying.

David said, let them be taken for their pride. They're cursing and they're lying. Goodness sakes, man. It's now so commonplace among the godless in an attempt to sway the viewpoint of a society. Have you noticed in the media, for example, that big lies are published about almost everything followed by little we apologies.

And that's the pattern now. Writers know that they're writing a lie. People in the news know they're about to speak something that's not true and they know it's going to be exposed as a lie, so they speak it in a big way.

And then they apologize in a little wee way, thinking that the big lie will overshadow the very late and very, very little apology. Psalm 2 verse 4 says, he who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision.

Access to the Throne Through Prayer

How do we approach the throne of God if we're aware that God has arisen to push back darkness or make a way for truth to prosper one more time? I happen to believe that we're living at such a moment in America today.

The God arose and he's given us a window. That's all it is. Just a window of seeking him again, an opportunity to walk in truth, an opportunity to consider our ways as we head down this path into the most godless, fearful society that you can even imagine.

If you think the recent school shootings are something, you haven't seen anything yet. If we keep going down this path into godlessness, everybody's looking for somebody to blame. How about this? How about reintroducing prayer into our high schools again?

How about teaching our children thou shalt not kill? How about telling them there's a heaven, there's a hell, and there's a savior that stands between the two? Queen Esther, when she realized that the king now was with her, she petitioned for authority for the people of God to rise up and defend their society, their laws, and their families.

Listen to what she said in Esther chapter 8 verses 4 to 8, the king held out the golden scepter. That means favor and power towards Esther. Now she's not physically in the position of the greatest strength, but she has something that nobody else has.

She has access to the throne of the king, just as you and I have access to the throne of the king. We can stand there in Christ, not in our strength, but in our weakness. Not when we have it all together, but when we don't have it all together.

We're invited in the book of Hebrews to come and find grace in our and help in our time of need. Not when we're full, not when we're rich, not when we say we have need of nothing, but when we recognize God, where have we been when we have access to a throne to move your hand against this evil in our generation.

So Esther arose and stood before the king. That's why I have been crying out across the nation on the radio and every other avenue the Lord creates and calling this nation back to prayer again, calling anybody and everybody in every place to recognize that we have an opportunity to turn back to God.

Do you understand? We've been given a moment in this society. We've been given an opportunity to see a spiritual awakening again in America, a turning back to God, a reversing of the evil trend in this society.

And Esther said, if it pleases the king, and if I've found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king, and I'm pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king's provinces.

For how can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people? How can I endure to see the destruction of my countrymen? Then King Hauser said to Queen Esther and Mordecai, the Jew. Indeed, I've given Esther the house of Haman and they've hanged him on the gallows because he tried to lay his hand on the Jews.

You yourselves write a decree concerning the Jews as you please in the king's name and seal it with the king's signet ring for whatever is written in the king's name and seal with the king's signet ring, no one can revoke.

So Esther took that moment that was given her by the king and she petitioned for authority for the people of God to rise up and defend their society and their homes and their families. Hear me if you've never heard me before, not just in this sanctuary, but anywhere in this country where you'll hear my voice.

This is the moment now to rise up. This is the moment to begin to pray. This is the moment to call up to God, to bring truth back again into our borders, into our homes and into our families. This is the moment to say, oh God, only you can make a difference now.

Abortion, Violence, and the Nation’s Moral Condition

This is the moment to call up to God like we never have before. And we need to pray now for authority to take back our children. We need to pray for the willingness to acknowledge our condition as a nation.

We're horrified. I want you to hear this. I'm not making light of anything here today. And I'm not minimizing the horror or tragedy of the high school shootings and grade school shootings we've seen in the last while.

But as a nation, folks, listen to me carefully. As a nation, we've been murdering children for years now, you see, but we call it a right. As vile and violent as this whole procedure is, even to the point of what we call partial birth abortion, where a baby's head comes out.

The baby is totally viable. It could live in the doctor's stick scissors in the back of the skull. And we call it a right. You see, we've been violently murdering children for years, 60 million now in this nation.

And yet our children do to each other what we've been doing to them. And we're horrified. Somebody has to do something. No, we have to recognize what we've become as a society. We have to see what we are.

We've driven God out of our collective consciousness. We've driven God out of our schools. We've raised up children on vile videos in the name of freedom. Oh no, they can't hear about God because there's supposed separation between church and state.

Did you know what the constitution really says? You know what the separation really is? You know what the law really says? The law really says the state shall not impose a religion. That's really what it says.

It doesn't mean kids can't pray in school. It has never meant that, but you see the ungodly propagated big lie and hope that whole society is going to believe it. Now we're reaping what we've sown. We've sown the wind, as the scripture says, and we're reaping the whirlwind now in America today.

A minority viewpoint doesn't have the right to dictate to this nation what is right and what is wrong and what we should and what we should not believe. A minority viewpoint is guiding the nation. Do you understand that?

It's only a small percentage of the population is dictating all the rules of this society, but I make a declaration today. America is still a nation under God. We still trust in God in this society and we are not powerless.

We have access to the throne of the king and we're going to return as a people and begin to pray and watch God raise his hand one more time. Enough is enough in this generation. Enough of this threatening letters and the lawsuits and telling our kids they can't pray even in a sporting event.

Enough of this stuff. O church of God, rise up O church of God. If you can't find a prayer meeting, find a neighbor that wants to pray and start to pray and watch what God will do. Psalm 59, Psalm 59, David was being spied on, searched out, and Saul had sent emissaries to kill him.

David’s Prayer for Deliverance and Strength

History always repeats itself, folks. And David said, deliver me from my enemies, O my God. Defend me from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloodthirsty men.

For look, they lie in wait, verse three, for my life. The mighty gather against me. See, David understood something in the natural. In the natural, he didn't have the strength that his adversaries had at that moment.

He said, they gather against me, not for my transgression, nor for my sin. They run and prepare themselves through no fault of mine. Awake to help me and behold, you therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to punish all the nations.

Do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors. At evening, they return. They growl like a dog. They go all around the city. They belch with their mouths. Swords are in their lips, for they say, who hears?

But you, O Lord, shall laugh at them. You shall have the nations in derision. In other words, you will confuse them. That's what it means. You will laugh. Who are these people that say they have the power to cast me out of any border in any society?

Who are these people? God will arise. God will laugh at the foolishness of humankind, of thinking we can cast him out of anywhere. The omnipresent God can't be cast out of any place. Oh yes, we can push him out of our collective consciousness, but we can't cast him out, folks.

He's everywhere in the world. You can't cast out somebody who's everywhere out of anywhere. David cries out, you Lord shall laugh at them. You shall have the nations in derision. I will wait for you. Oh you, his strength, for God is my defense.

My God of mercy shall come to meet me and God shall let me see my desire on my enemies. Do not slay them, lest my people forget. Scatter them by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield. See, we are not advocating any form of violence against anybody at any time.

David says, no, don't slay them, scatter them. Scatter them. Let their objectives come to nothing. Bring down their lofty thinking, that they could exalt themselves above the knowledge of God. For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them be taken in their own pride.

And for the cursing and lying which they speak, consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be. And let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth. And at evening they return, they growl like a dog, they go all around the city.

They wander up and down for food and howl if they're not satisfied. But I will sing of your power. I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning, for you've been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble.

To you, O my strength, I will sing praises for God is my defense and the God of my mercy. As David did, you and I now need to pray for personal victory, for courage and for strength. God, give me victory in my heart.

Give me victory over all of those personal battles that every one of us has to fight. Lord, bring me to victory that I may know you inside to be God. And knowing the victory and knowing your power, I will be given courage and strength to face this moment that we are all now facing in our society.

God, they may grumble in the streets. They may curse. They may lie. They may do all of these things. They may be exalted in their own pride. But God, what I'm asking you for is for power, mercy, and a new song of praise.

God, give me as your child power. Give me power to approach your throne. Give me power in my speech. Give me influence through my life. Give me power to cast down every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

Let me know your mercy deep inside that I would not hoard it to myself, but let me freely express your mercy to all who can still hear it in our society. We are not against any person in this world, folks.

We are for everyone that they may find Christ as their Lord and Savior. Let that be clearly noted. But we do not have to bend our knee to godlessness. We do not have to acquiesce to that which we know is against the word of God.

We do not have to lay down on the side of the road and whimper as a whole generation is destroyed by evil. We have the right to stand. We have the right to go to the throne of God. And God says, not only will I give you power and show you mercy, but I'll give you a song of praise that cannot be denied.

I'll give you a gladness of countenance. I'll give you a song when everyone else is grumbling and singing the blues. I'll give you a song of praise and no one can deny it. King David said, I was sinking.

I was going down in the mud, but God came and lifted me up and set me up upon a rock and he put a song of praise in my mouth. Many shall see it in fear and trust in the Lord. May God give us a song of praise now.

May God give us the ability to see who he is, what he's willing to do, and who is willing to do it through. You and I in our weakness. You and I in our struggles. You and I in our trials. You and I with all of our frailty.

We are still the bride of the king by God's grace. We are still the bride of the king. How do we approach the throne of a laughing God? Firstly, we recognize the moment. Do you know the moment we're in now?

Recognizing the Moment for Spiritual Awakening

Do you recognize the moment? Do you realize we have just a short window, just a short time where we can turn to God in prayer as his people and see a spiritual awakening again in our nation? A spiritual awakening is something God does.

It's not something we do. There's a sudden consciousness of sin comes into the societies. A sudden inner yearning that can't be pushed away any longer. A sudden voice that can't be drowned out by any media.

A sudden awareness of lostness comes upon a society and they start heading to the house of God. They start looking for relief. A spiritual awakening, a true awakening historically is God's initiative, but it always comes in response to God's people praying again.

There's never been a revival in history that cannot be traced back to somebody somewhere, not only praying, but saying, God, whatever it costs me to see your kingdom come and your will be done, I'm in.

I'm fully in. Whatever it's going to cost me personally, I'm in for the victory. That's my question to you today. Are you in? Are you in? Are you in? We've had enough spectator sport in the church of Jesus Christ in our generation.

I went, who's in and who's not in? Praise God. You don't have to be eloquent to pray. You just talk to God. You go to your apartment tonight and just pace back and forth saying, God, I don't know. I don't know much, but I know if I heard the preacher right, I can talk to you.

So I'm here to talk to you now. And like, I don't like what's going on. I don't like what's happening in our streets. I don't like the violence. I don't like the lying. I don't like the cursing. I don't like the pride.

Something's wrong with this nation. We're sick at the core as a society. So he said, you can go to the throne. You'd make a difference. So I'm here. I'm here to ask you to make a difference. That's where you start.

That's where you start. Then suddenly you hear the voice of God starting to speak to you. What would you like me to do? And you say, well, and then the things, you know, you just start talking to God.

Don't make it a work. Don't make it a burden. Just talk to God. Talk to God. Like you talk to anybody else you meet, just talk to God. That's what prayer is. You're asking him to do something that you can't do.

Don't make it difficult. Just begin to pray. This is our last chance folks. This is last call to America. Do you understand? This is last call to a society that is quickly spiraling down into darkness.

And if we don't respond, God helped the nation. God help our children. If we don't respond as a people and take back this generation for the kingdom of God, I still believe that no matter what anybody tries to tell us in God, we still trust.

So my ultimate call is real simple. I want to pray. It's that simple. I want to pray. I want to make a difference. I want to be found among those that will make a difference. I want to live a righteous life.

That means I want to be in right relationship. I want my heart to be open for correction if I'm not in right relationship with you, God. I want to do right in my own home. I want to live right at work.

I want to do right. I don't want to be found with those that are cursing and prideful and lying. I want to be out of that crowd and I want to be found at the throne of God and with the people of God. And I believe, Lord, that because you said, if my people called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, you said you would hear from heaven.

You would forgive our sin and heal our land. The day of your tickling religion is over, at least in this house it is. I don't know if it's ever been here, but if it has, God forbid. We're called to the throne, folks, called to make a difference in our generation.

May God help us. Father, I just thank you with all my heart, Lord. God, I thank you. And I ask you to give each of us today the grace to pray. Help us to pray, Lord. Help us, Lord Jesus Christ, to stand up with courage and with power and with a new song.

Give us eyes, Lord, to see what the future could be with your presence in it. Not just for our sakes, Lord, but for the children. Didn't you say that you would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to their fathers, lest you smite the earth with a curse?

So raise men up, God, in this church that will be strong and have a strong voice to this generation. God Almighty, put a stop, Lord, to everything that tries to make men effeminate. Father, make the mothers, the women, strong.

Give them a voice, Lord, to make a difference in every field, every occupation, every place. And let us all be found at the throne of grace. Let every one of us, oh God, cast our hat into this ring and say we're not giving this nation up without a fight.

And so, Lord, we thank you that our fight is a spiritual one. Our fight is in prayer. The enemy looks at it and thinks it's ridiculous and without power. But we know, we know that's where the power of heaven is.

So God, help this church to pray, all of us, Lord.

Esther and the Call to Lead in Prayer

We ask it in Jesus' name. In Esther's time, deliverance did start with prayer. The amazing thing about that story is, of course, that person, that woman, didn't think she was qualified. She was actually in a place she just wanted to hide and really, in some ways, did not want to be stirred out of what she considered, finally, a little bit of refuge.

But when the word came to her, the word says, don't think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace more than any other. And it said, for if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise from another place.

But you and your father's house will perish. But who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. I do believe that part of praying is feeling like we're not up to the task, but somehow it comes into our heart that we will not escape the hour we live in.

But God says, you're not to escape the hour. I actually want you to lead in this hour. I've not called you to withdraw. I've actually called you to lead. And the people who feel the most unqualified will be touched of my spirit, and you will pray because you know there's no escape.

And there's this feeling that God is saying, know it. I'm going to bless you with the spirit of prayer. I'm going to help you to go in boldly. You're going to remember who you are. You're called to lead this.

You're not called to escape this. It's amazing who God chooses to be served by a spirit of prayer. And I'm amazed that I'm hearing this message. I know you're amazed because one more time, we are being stirred.

It's by the grace of God. He will send an answer, and he's going to stir us to pray. And we're going to remember who we are, that we are loved, and we have been brought to the kingdom for such a time as this.

And when we begin to find our voice, God's going to set so much right. He's going to set our heart right. He's going to set our thinking right. We are not going to be condemned in the presence of an enemy who's been appointed for defeat at this time.

We are called to lead this, not be behind this. We will not look for an escape or a deliverance another way, for God has chosen his people. And he said, I will grant you a spirit of prayer. And you're going to get out in front of this darkness.

You're going to get out in front of what looks like disaster, because I'm going to help you. If you would call on my great name, I promise I have come. I will help you. I will help you. So Lord, we just thank you today for this message.

Lord, we know who we are. And we know, Lord, that we're leading this whole parade. But Lord, we've come to your house, and you've spoken to us. We thank you, O God, that you want to use us. You want to use us in prayer.

Closing Prayer for Mercy, Courage, and Deliverance

So Lord, we just give to you, Lord, our reluctance, our fear, another spirit, Lord, that wants to be enveloped by the spirit of this age. But you are greater, and you love us. You love us. So I pray, Holy Spirit, you would come, Lord, and do what only you can do.

Would you put your church, Lord, on its knees, as well as its feet? Will you put your church, O God, in a place where we are being compelled? Lord, would you put us in a place, Lord, where we can't run and hide from the hour we live in, but that we hear another call, Lord, we can do something, because we belong to you.

So Lord, this is way beyond us. But we thank you, O God, when we call on your great name, you promise to hear us, and to answer us, and to heal our land, and to give us a new way of praying and thinking, O God, where you're at the center of it.

Lord, we just pray for where tragedy has struck this week. We pray for all those that are hurting, O God. We pray, O God, for that spirit of death, Lord, that wants to just make it dark and hopeless, O God.

But I pray, Lord, your first response is always to reach your people, and said, I have called you for such a time as this. I know that you want to run and hide, but Lord, I thank you. Lord, you understand us, and you don't despise us.

So I pray, O God, that you would just, Lord, let us rise. And Lord, as we pray for, against the spirit of darkness, the spirit of death, where we ask you to forgive us, Lord, where we ask you, O God, in your mercy, Lord, which is great.

O God, in your mercy, O God, would you allow us to open our mouths to you in prayer, and then open our mouths with the spirit of God to be able to speak life and light to those around us. We thank you, O God.