Sorry, I had church before church started. Some of you know what I mean by that. So in February I announced that on Sunday mornings that I would preach through a series. I was going to confine myself to a topic, to a direction. And what I called my series was called The Broken Ones. I determined that I would search the scriptures for broken individuals and I'd see what God did in their life and how that would apply to us. So far we've looked at the life of Hannah. Hannah was an emotionally broken woman who couldn't meet the social expectations of her for that day. It was to have a child. And Hannah taught us that a closer relationship with our Savior would bring us peace, even if God didn't meet the desires of our heart. We saw where she was on her face praying, and Eli, the priest there, the preacher, falsely judged her and said she was drunk. But instead, she was on her face just weeping, crying out to God. And the Bible says that when she got up, she had peace. But I think what some of us missed was when she got up, she still didn't have a baby. She wanted a child, but when she got up off her face, she'd already gotten what God wanted to give her. God wanted to give her peace. And that came through a closer relationship. Next, we looked at King David. And unlike the brokenness of Hannah, David brought his hardships on himself by sinful choices. We looked at that. We saw that the sin that David committed was adultery and murder, neither of which could have been forgiven by the law. There was no sacrifice that David could have brought. His judgment was death. And we saw there that God is a God of helpless, helpless circumstances, hopeless cases, because God forgave him anyways. And He didn't just forgive him. In the line of David came Jesus, the Messiah. So Hannah was emotionally broken. David, he was broken by sin. And this morning I want to introduce you to a man named Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth, it's kind of a tongue twister there. This man, he was physically broken. This man, he wasn't an emotional case first, he was a physical case first. He wasn't a man broken by sin, he was just a man broken. And this morning, I'm not, I'll just be honest with you, church, I'm not coming to you as some amazing preacher. I'm coming to you as one of those men who were, you know, such were some of you. Because when I sing songs of God's forgiveness, I think, what has God forgiven me from? And in the New Testament, it's not in my notes, whatever, but in the New Testament, I want to say it's around Timothy, but it says, you know, some of you look at the perfect law of liberty. Some of you look into the word of God and you see yourselves. And then you walk away not realizing what you used to be. You forget what manner of man you were. And when I look into the word of God, I see what I used to be. And I don't beat myself because of it. But I walk away happy. I'm not crying out of sadness this morning. I'm crying because I remember what I used to be, and I know what I'm not anymore. And it's not because of me, church. It's not because Jimmy Jackson is some amazing anything. It's because God's good. So this morning, I'm gonna bring you Mephibosheth, and I'm coming to you not in strength. Listen, church, I'm coming to you in weakness. I'm coming to you, just my heart's heavy this morning. And and I don't want to be the reason that God doesn't show up I don't want to be the reason that God doesn't work in your heart So we're gonna pray we're gonna ask God to show up because if not, I've wasted your time Just to sit and listen to somebody open their Bible and then walk away having not met with God is a waste of time So that's what I'm gonna ask this morning and please you pray as well Demony father we we God we've loved the song service and and God I thank you for the offer of a changed life and Now we're going to open up our Bibles and we're going to look at a broken man this morning and Lord, we need you to work in our service. God, I'd hate to, I need to draw a crowd and open the Bible and say that they're going to hear from God and God, you don't show up this morning. I ask that the Holy Spirit of God would have free course, free reign and God, whatever that, uh, that might be a distraction to people this morning, that you might put it away and that we would just have a sweet time with the Holy Spirit of God working in our lives. and meeting with us this morning, God ask that you'd bless the preaching of the word in Jesus name. Amen. So Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth, he was the son of Jonathan. He was a grandson of King Saul. Jonathan, as you know, he became very close to King David and they said, Nowhere else in the Bible does it say that somebody's heart was knit with somebody else. And, you know, the world doesn't understand this sometimes, you know, and they say, well, you know, there's something nefarious going on between Jonathan and David. And that wasn't the case. The case was they were they were so close that the relationship had gone beyond just being a brother in arms. And it become, you're a brother of mine. So the story of Mephibosheth, listen, it wouldn't be so hard to tell if I could start the story out by telling you just how wicked he was. But, you know, I can't tell you that. I can't start the story off by, listen, this guy deserves this. When you watch a good movie, the director, he tries to paint a horrific picture of the bad guy. Unless you're watching, you know, some movie where, like, you're thinking that's the good guy and then you get to the end and he's like an axe murderer. I hate those movies. But listen, like a prosecuting attorney building a case, you know, to a judge and jury, the director, he rarely sets into this action movie leaving you wondering who the bad guy is. You know who the bad guy is, and you're like, oh, he should be punished for this. Real life is not a movie. Real life isn't a movie. But still, we're naturally drawn to pick who's good, who's bad. It's almost instantaneous with us. Again, just being honest with you this morning, when we step into a room, our eyes are drawn to who looks different than us. Because obviously, we're right. We're right all the time. So when we find somebody who looks different than us, talks different than us, who has a different set of cultural beliefs or whatever, we walk into the room and go, you know, they're wrong. They're the bad guy. We don't even know who they are. We haven't talked to them. We know nothing of them. But yet we've already picked sides. So those who are mentally, physically impaired, they're probably the easiest targets for this. We walk into a room and we see somebody who's dealing with some mental issue, some physical issue, and we go, yeah, you know, I can do everything fine. I'm in good health, whatever. You know, God's obviously blessing me and them. God's obviously punishing them. And they seem to be a target for us. Listen, this shouldn't be this way. The Book of Acts, the Book of Acts is a transitional book. I'll get to my message in just a little bit. This is free. The Book of Acts is a transitional book. It's a historical book. It documents the shift from the Old Testament sacrificial system to the New Testament. And there are huge changes take place. So when you build your entire belief system on the Book of Acts, you create a mess for yourself. So some of those changes take place. There are miracles. There are miracles that take place that never make it to the end of the book. Miracles are taking place at the beginning of the book. And for whatever reason, they stop before even the end of the book. If you ever wondered why the miracles took place in the early church but were not even continued to the end of the book of Acts, the reason is that God used miracles to authenticate the New Testament. You imagine, you imagine, you've had church this way your whole life. This is how church is to you. This is how you worship God. And somebody walks in and says, no, no, no, listen, it's totally different. I don't have a Bible to show you, but it's totally different. You would be skeptical. No way. No way. I'm not changing that. So when you change the message, you have to authenticate the messenger. In Acts chapter 10, Acts chapter 10, Paul said, or Paul saw a vision. God asked him to eat food that was forbidden for Jews to eat. Paul objected. He objected to the food. He said, no, God, I'm not eating this. I'm not eating this. And in that, God says, listen, listen, what God has cleaned, call thou not common. Hmm. So up until this point, the Bible described non-Jews or Gentiles. He described them as this, listen carefully. I don't know if there's any Jews in the room, but I'm not one. So this is me, I'm reading, okay? It's kind of harsh, but I'm just, quick little Bible study this morning. The Bible says, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That is the Gentile. So something's going to change. God is going to go to the Gentile world. How do you authenticate the change? How do you know this is going to take place? So it sounds harsh again, like I said, but listen, you had to leave your culture and join the Jewish nation. You had to leave everything behind to become a Jew if you wanted to be saved in the Old Testament. So the New Testament had brought about so many changes, changes that now would be offered to the whole world. Peter's vision, it prepared him to see these changes. As Peter was contemplating this vision, God came to him and said, listen, there's some guys coming to get you, go with them. Peter obeyed, and he was originally, Peter was a witness to the Holy Spirit filling people at Pentecost in the upper room. Peter was there, Peter watched this take place. So how was God going to authenticate the change? God says, Peter, Peter, I'm going to send somebody to get you. You go with them and watch what I'm going to do. So Peter goes and he sees this group of Gentiles, these unclean aliens who are not a part of the nation of Israel. And God says, listen, listen, they're going to get saved and I'm going to show you. And you're going to see the same miracle take place. The signs, the signs were unique in the purpose was to authenticate the message. So what took place? You say, how could Peter see someone getting saved? That is an unseen, invisible thing. Yeah, it is, but not at that time, because God was trying to authenticate the message. The truth of the vision, it finally clicked with Peter, and he immediately said in Acts 10, verse 34, he said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. Now the gospel gets so big at this point. God takes from working from the nation of Israel and he shows Peter, a Jew, he says, listen, I'm going to work through the whole world now. God is not a respecter of persons. That day, Peter learned that God, not based on race, condition of life, if a man will accept Christ, he is clean. And what a great truth for us to learn today. There is so much, listen, there is so much bigotry in the news. There's so much racism in the news. And here you have a Southern boy coming to New England. I thought, you know, this is going to be a bastion of acceptance and inclusiveness. And there's so much racism here. It's ridiculous. I thought I got away from that. Listen, it's an epidemic. Why? Why is it an epidemic? Because we have people who look at others and say, you know what? You're not like me. I'm right. You're wrong. I'm obviously right. I'm just, I have to be right. I mean, It's just, you know, you just don't see it yet. Listen, listen, to accept people, to accept people is great, but to accept them and to not preach Jesus, we're nothing more than a religious club. For years, for years, listen, I wanted to be in a church where I could accept, I could bring in broken people and I could see what God could do with them. See how God could help them. I'm blessed because I believe I'm finally in that type of church. As we grow, we become a better witness in our neighborhood, in our communities, in our work, and we're telling people the good news, how they could have new life in Christ. Listen, we're gonna have shattered lives come through those doors, and they're gonna sit in our church. What are we doing? If Mephibosheth were to come into our presence, how would we treat him? When we look at him, I go, you know, you look different than me. Your condition of life is not like mine. Well, we go, you know what? He's the enemy. We have it right. We obviously have it right. People just don't know it, so we're gonna tell them we have it right. The story of Mephibosheth, it begins in tragedy, and it's only made worse because his condition in life, until he was surprised by grace. Flip with me, go to 2 Samuel 4. 2 Samuel, Old Testament book, long introduction. long message. You thought I was going to say long introduction, short message. I'm not going to lie. 2 Samuel chapter 4, if you don't know where that's at, go to the recording in front of your Bible, look through all the names. 2 Samuel is right after 1 Samuel. That's all I got. I had a joke. I didn't read it. Can I say it now? You know what drives me buggy? Me horsey. That's all I got. That's all I got. All right, 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 4. You can't tell jokes while you're crying. So 2 Samuel chapter 4, verse 4. Let's look at Mephibosheth. And Jonathan, Saul's son, he had a son that was lame on his feet, couldn't walk. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel. So they'd been killed. And his nurse took him up, picked him up, and fled. And it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame, and his name was Mephibosheth." The area in that part of Israel was very rocky. Some theologians believe that she picked him up just running away and dropped him somehow, or they both fell, landing on rocks, breaking his legs, unable to get him seen. his legs healed improperly. Can you imagine, can you imagine the life of this young man? Now that I have children, I see things differently. Now when I hear a child in the news, I look at my kids when they were that age or I look at other children that are that age and I kind of, it becomes more real to me now that I've, you know, I love children who are that age, you know. So can you imagine a carefree child of five his his nurse runs in to the room in tears. She's just beside herself. She's an emotional wreck. We have to leave the country. Now the king's dead. Your dad was killed. You have to go. You're next. You're in the line of the king. The king is dead. Somebody is going to try to set you up as king. They don't set you up as king. They're going to kill you. In the rush to get out of town, something tragic happened. The young boy was seriously injured. In the rush, they were not able to be treated. He would never walk again. In one single moment of time, a child of the king turned into a crippled orphan running from the wrath of a new king. Listen, life is tragic. I must say it again. Life is tragic. It only takes a few moments for your entire world to flip on its head and to fill your life with misery. Blessed a blessed day is when nothing comes apart When when we lay in bed at night, sometimes I will I will thank God Thank you, but nothing tragic happened today. Thank you for giving me a blessed day You said well my car broke down. Did anyone die? Well, the car broke down. Is anybody in ICU? You know, I can't pay my bills. Yeah, are you breathing? Life is tragic Listen, if we sit here long enough and we grow big enough and we stay together, you know, through enough time, one of these church services, your phone might go off. And one of you might have a parent who dies, a spouse that got into a car wreck. Life, life is tragic. It doesn't take long. When other young boys were out playing with their dads, he was begging for food. having a nightmare, other people would run to their parents for comfort, he'd just shiver in his bed alone. Listen, the memory, the memory of that dreadful day, it wasn't just a memory from a pibashef. It was written on his legs. Every morning when he woke up in pain, it spoke through the pain, that memory was there. Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this life? I would love to tell you again how dreadful he was. But I can't find it in the text. God doesn't say that he was a terrible young man. Life was just tragic for Mephibosheth. As David's family prospered and grew in strength, the family of King Saul was dying off. Mephibosheth, being a grown man now, must have lived his entire life in fear, wondering, wondering, when was David going to learn that I'm still alive? I'm still in line to the throne. When is somebody coming to execute me? The Bible says Mephibosheth, he was found in a city called Lodabar. Lodabar is, I've got the picture there. It means without a pasture. If you were to find it on a map, it is just barren desert. It says where there's no pasture. The word also means no word, no communication. Before modern mail systems and phones, communication, it came through supply routes. Merchants would bring news with their supplies as they made their way from one city to the next. Lodobar was so hostile, so desolate, so lonely that the news rarely got in and out of town. What a good place to hide. If I wanted to hide out from the king, where would I go? If I were in America, I would find the swamps of Louisiana. Nobody goes there. I mean, you could say the mountains somewhere, but some rich guy is going to have a cabin up there. If I were to hide somewhere, I'd go somewhere where the news didn't get in and out very quickly. Mephibosheth, he began running at five years old, and I believe his life was marked by fear and torment, waiting for the dreaded day when the messengers from the king would come for his life. And as much as he tried to get away, the day came, the king came. Listen, I spent many years in Lodabar. I did. I ran from the king of heaven when I came face to face with my need of a savior. Somebody said, listen, you need Christ. If you left earth right now, if you died, your soul would be in hell. What did I do with the message? I ran. Where did I go to? I ran to the place where there's no word, where there is no communication. I ran from God. Where did I go? Even after coming to Christ at 17 years old, there's many times, there's many times where the truth of God hit me, and it hit me so hard, and the truth was so raw that I didn't want it anymore, and I walked away. Saved by God's grace, but I ran from God. Where did I ran? I ran off in the desert. You've seen people in Lodabar. You've seen their faces. Their faces are blank. They're filled with hopelessness and pain. You've been there yourself, haven't you? You spent years of your life there. You could spend years of your life and not even realize it. Waking up, finally somebody telling you, listen, when are you going to get right? When are you coming back? I haven't been gone very long. It's been years. How long have some people laid out of church? Oh, it hadn't been that long. Brother, it's been five years. Really, five years. It doesn't take long. Time will fly. You start running from God, you lose sense of time. There's no green pastures, no rest. The Word of God isn't there. My question for you this morning is, how long are you going to stay? The people in your life that you see who are there, are you going to ask them the question, how long are you going to stay? Are you offering them the gospel? Do they even know? The day finally came for Mephibosheth, 2 Samuel chapter 9. Look at chapter 9. The day came. And David said, is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when he called him unto David, the king said unto him, art thou Ziba? And he said, thy servant is he. And the king said, is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I might show the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. And the king said unto him, where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Maker, the son of Amel, in Lodabar. And Amel, sorry, the king sent and fetched him out of the house of Maker, the son of Amel, from Lodabar. Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth? And the answer, Behold thy servant. The king sent his servants to Lodabar, the place of no rest, where there is no word, to find a broken man and to invite him to the king's house. The king, the king is still sending his servants to Lodabar today. So who are the king's servants? You are. You say, well, pastor, it's you. No, no, no. It's not just me. I can't do the work by myself. It's not just me. It's you. Who's God sending into Lodabar? It's all of us. The place of no rest, there's no word of God to find broken men and broken women. You say, well, I don't want to go there. It's uncomfortable. I know. You say, I don't want to go there. There's no encouragement there. I know. You run in, you do what you have to do, and you run out. But you go in for people. David called out Mephibosheth's name And did you see how he answered? He said, behold thy servant in fear and anguish of soul. You can almost hear him screaming for his final, his plea for life. Behold thy servant. David, when he called out his name, Mephibosheth, instead of being blessed by being in the presence of the king, Mephibosheth was scared. The gospel ministry, it's dirty. Sinners don't go to good godly places. I remember, I remember being on Pensacola Beach and some students from Pensacola Christian Academy were standing out on the boardwalks where everybody was walking around drunk. I remember these, they stood out, they stood out like light bulbs in the middle of the dark, in the middle of the night. And they're holding up these scripture signs, they're saying nothing, they're not preaching, they're not hitting me with their Bible. I'm an immature Christian of maybe three years at the time, and they're just standing there holding scripture verses. And I'm walking around with my friends. And we're all getting drunk, and we're having a good time, I thought. And when I walked up, all my friends just ignored these students. They just walked around. And I could imagine what the students felt like being in that crowd, dressed close, tie, holding a scripture sign. And when I walked up and I saw the sign, God just Jimmy, you should be there. What are you doing? My friends, it didn't bother, the Holy Spirit of God didn't speak to them. The Holy Spirit of God went, you should be there. Jimmy, what are you doing with your life? That should be you. What are you doing? I was in Lodabar. I was running from God. Listen, sinners, sinners, they don't go to good, godly places. They don't hang out in church. They're not they're not gonna go to a nice clean place. So where should you go to get them? You should go to Lodobar. Well, I don't want to go there. It's dirty. I know. Get ready. What do soldiers do? Soldiers prepare. What do they do? They go to basic. What are they doing? They're preparing to go to a place that is hostile. You say, well, can I take my kids? Sometimes you can't. I'll just be honest. Sometimes you can't. Should you go? I think you should. I think you should. The gospel ministry is dirty. It doesn't, listen, it doesn't, it doesn't matter where they're at. It doesn't matter if they don't know, they misunderstand us. They don't know why we're so persistent, why we never give up. I don't want you here. That's fine. I need to be here. Those fellas holding the sign, the scripture signs, I'm pretty sure they got cussed on a regular basis. Did they go away? No. That's not why we should go. We shouldn't go because they want us. We should go because we know they need us. Luke 14, 23, God said this. Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. Now, I'm not speaking about the church house. But Jesus said, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. That word compel, I looked at that. That's almost by force. I'm not saying you go threaten somebody, that's just ridiculous, okay? But what should you do? You should compel them to come in. They don't want to come in. You have to compel them. Well, I don't want to. You should. Well, they don't want me to. It doesn't change your duty. They're hurting. They don't know where to find help. They're running from God. Listen, the people were called to reach for Jesus. They misunderstand us. They fear us. Some of you even hate us, but it doesn't change our duty. The king said to go get Mephibosheth. He told his servants, go get Mephibosheth. He's in Lodabar. There's only two options. You either obey or disobey. The Christian life is simple. You hear the truth, you see the truth, you obey, you disobey. That's all there is. Look at verse 9, 2 Samuel 9, 7. And David said unto him, talking to Mephibosheth, Fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan my father's sake. and I will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually." And he bowed himself, Mephibosheth did, and he said, What is thy servant? Thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I. Then the king called unto Zeba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that pertaineth to Saul, and to all his house. Look at verse 8, the very end of it. Look at what Mephibosheth says. Why is thy servant?" Let me back up. And he said, what is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I? Now look at what David says in verse 9. Then the king called to Ziba. Wait a second, Mephibosheth said something to David. David looks over at the servant. Mephibosheth says, I'm a dead dog. David doesn't even acknowledge what Mephibosheth said, just looked over his head. David completely ignored him. Instead of David looking at Mephibosheth and saying, yeah, you're a dead dog, David was already, in his mind, he had already decided what he was gonna do. He was just waiting for Mephibosheth to show up. When Mephibosheth showed up in repentance, David said, look over to Ziba the servant, said, listen, here's the particulars. Here's the particulars of the deal. Take care of these the father the father of the prodigal son. He did the same thing The prodigal son he comes back to the father and the prodigal he has this this whole repentance story worked out I'm going to go back to my father. I'm going to tell him that i'm not worthy to be your servant. Let me just work in your fields And when the when the servant when the sorry when the son came back to meet the the father the father met him halfway and hugged him And the prodigal said i'm no war worthy to be thy son The father looked over his shoulder and told the servant, hey, go get the fatted calf. Hey, shh, I'm talking to the servant. I've already decided what I'm gonna do with you. I was just waiting for you to come back. I'm no more worthy to be thy son. The father pays no attention to this. The father is already determined to restore his son. He's just waiting for his son to repent. Like the prodigal's father, David's mind was already made up. He was just waiting. He was just waiting for Mephibosheth to answer. The picture of David and Mephibosheth, it paints one of the clearest pictures of the gospel in the Bible. We did everything we could to avoid God. Who would ever spend their life in a place like that? Well, the lost do. We do everything we can to avoid God. We are afraid of God, but it's unfounded. We were content to live out the rest of our lives in Lodivar, a desolate place where there's no rest, there's no hope, but God wasn't content to leave us there. And that is where the gospel gets so exciting. God wasn't content to leave us there. He sent his servants after us. Who are the servants? Men and women you work with. My tech school teacher who left gospel tracts on his desk, he couldn't give them out in public school, but he put them on his desk. And out of curiosity, students would go pick them up. We'd ask him, what is this? I can't tell you. You're free to take them home, though. Reading through those gospel tracts, what was that? That was God sending a servant in the loader bar to try to get my attention. Did he get my attention that time? No, not that time. He was working on me, though. Who else? God sent somebody else, and God sent somebody else, and God sent somebody else, and finally, finally, finally, I went to go meet the king. A knock on your heart's door for the first time. When the Holy Spirit of God breaks your heart, the first time is terrifying. I've sinned against the Holy God." You fall down at your face and you say, I'm not worthy. What am I? I'm a dead dog standing before a Holy God. He's drawing you into the presence of the King. You know you're a helpless sinner. You know that you need to confess your sin to God. And while you're on your face, while you're on the face, the Father looks over the Holy Spirit and he says, listen, here are the terms. I'm going to give him this, and I'm going to give him this, and I'm going to give him this, and he tells the Holy Spirit, hey, you take care of that. You don't know it, but the moment that you're on your face and you're asking God to forgive you, asking Christ to save your soul, there is so much theologically that takes place. It takes years for you to finally grasp what took place. You are adopted. You are a child of the King. Well, how do I know that? Because the Bible says so. It says that your soul is circumcised from your flesh, that you are now a new creature in Christ. But I have this old nature. What does this mean? It's in the book. You are sealed. You are saved. How do I know that? But it all took place immediately, the moment you laid on your face and you asked Christ to save your soul. And God was already predetermined to reconcile his son. He was just waiting for his son to come back, and the moment that his son came back, it laid on his face. Forgive me of my sin, save my soul. God looked over the Holy Spirit and says, hey, take care of the rest of this, would you? Take care of the rest of this, would you? If God offered us salvation from hell, and I told you that was all the gospel was, that'd be enough for me. If just deliverance from hell was it, that'd be enough. But do you know, that's only half of the gospel. That isn't all of it yet. You say, well, I don't deserve any more. I know, I know. That's what's so awesome. That I can stand here in front of you, the son of a sailor, a trucker's boy, living and running from God the way I did, and I can stand here and tell you that I'm a child of the King. And there's more to the story. David, David didn't just offer him a febuchef piece. He offered him more. 2 Samuel 9, look at verse 11. Then said Ziba, the servant unto the king, according to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servants, so shall I servant do. And for Mephibosheth said the king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah, and all that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at the king's table and was lame on both his feet. So yeah, I can't stand behind there no more. So Mephibosheth started out in Lodabar, lame on his feet, unable to get to the king even if he wanted to. And the servant went to go get him and brought him to the king, and the king blessed him. And then at the end of the story, you find that he's gonna sit at the king's table. Does he deserve a place there? No. The king also gave him servants, an entire household to serve him. But the best part, if you highlight, if you circle anything, if you make notes, did you see right there at the bottom of that text where it said, and he was lame on his feet? He started out lame on his feet, unable to serve God, unable to reach the king, and still at the end of the story, he's still unable. to walk. You say, wait a second, how can God bless him? How can God bless him? He still can't walk. The Christian life, the Christian life is like that. The Christian life, you can't do it. You're like, well, you know, I'm gonna one day, one day I'll muster up enough strength and I'll do it. One day I will be strong enough that I can do it. No, that's not the word of God. The word of God is you never could. And a servant came and got you, and you were afraid of the king, you were afraid to go. Finally, one day you did, you went. Now you start this journey. I'm a new creature in Christ. I'm sitting at the king's table. I'm now adopted. I'm adopted as a son of the king. And now I'm gonna serve the king in strength, and I'm gonna muster all this up. And he was lame on both his feet. Church this morning, You brought a sinner up to be your assistant pastor and I'm lame on both my feet. I lay at home sometimes crying because I see my sinfulness and I'm so afraid that I'm going to stand in front of you and God's going to refuse to show up because of me. I say, God, I'm lame on both my feet. There's nothing I can do without Christ. And David adopted Mephibosheth as his own son. My ministry style, I've told some of you before, it's a style of adoption. You become mine. You become mine. When we minister to people, I think they should become ours. I can't reach them all. I don't have the influence, I can't get around. But at some point, at some point, you have to love the sinner more than the sinner loves themselves. Your love, your love has to be like Christ. We're adopted. I'll read for you. If you want to flip there, you can. Actually, everybody flip to Galatians chapter 4. New Testament Galatians. Galatians chapter 4. This is the doctrine of adoption. It almost sounds arrogant when I read the text. But God wrote it, and He wrote it for us. Galatians chapter 4, verse 3, Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world we lived in, Sam. Verse 4, But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Why? That we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, it doesn't just stop there. And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. There is an intimate relationship that is available there. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then heir of God through Christ. We are heir through Christ. We sit at the king's table, but we don't sit at the king's table as a servant. We sit at the king's table as a son. Again, I would never, I would never say that I was equal to Christ. That is so arrogant. But I'm just reading what the word of God says. But a son, and if a son, then heir of God through Christ. God said, I put Jesus here, I put you here. You both have a seat at the table. Mephibosheth, he was surprised by grace. He had no value in the world. He was broken and afraid, now sitting at the table of the king every day. The first part of the gospel is that Christ offered to save you from hell. Hell is real. The modern world says it's not, but it is. But it wasn't created for people. It was created for the devil and his angels. Why would a holy God send people to hell? He doesn't. You choose. You choose. You choose to stay in Lodabar. There was nothing that Mephibosheth could add to the king. When Mephibosheth came to the table, he didn't come with anything. There's nothing this morning that you can add to the king. There's nothing that you can bring to the table. If you're here this morning and the Holy Spirit has convicted you of sin and the need of a Savior, if there's never been a definite time in your life when you've repented of your sin and trusted Christ as your Savior, it would be a shame if you chose Lodabar this morning over being adopted into the family of the King. Let me tell you the good news this morning. Many of you know this, but let me say it. God sent His Son, Jesus, to be born of a woman. God became flesh and walked on earth. Do I believe it? Yes. 100% God, yet 100% man. Can I explain it? No. The Word of God says it. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. God limited Himself. How can the infinite God wrap Himself in flesh? I don't know. But I'm glad he did. Why did he do it? To be tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. Why? Why? To be offered as the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world. But it doesn't stop there. He rose from the dead. Why did he rise from the dead? He rose from the dead three days later because he said he would. And it was prophesied. Jonah, the story of Jonah, some mock, how could a man be swallowed by a whale? How can a man be swallowed by a fish and live? It was a prophecy of Jesus. He spent three days in that whale. Jesus said, if this generation wants to see a sign, I'll show you a sign. I'll be buried for three days and I'll rise up again. To show the world that I have power to lay my life down, no man takes it from me. And I have the power to rise up again. One of the most astounding things to me As I imagine, I imagine other men being crucified, other men being laid on a cross. And I imagine the fight and the soldiers having to hold their arms down as they're running these nails through their hands and their legs. And I think of my Jesus. And I think, what those Roman soldiers thought when my Jesus laid down. And the soldiers were ready to hold him down. And the soldiers were ready to hold his hand down and run those nails in his hand. And Jesus just stayed there willingly, having to bow or to, he had the power to tell the nails to turn around. He had the power to call angels and kill everyone there. But he laid there. Why? Because a lamb had to die. Throughout the shedding of blood, there is no remission. There's no, there's no taking away sin. After 33 years, the Lamb of God offered to take away the sin of the world. He didn't stay in the grave. He rose to prove His power. He proved the power that He had, the power over death and hell. But like I said, that's only half of the gospel. The other half is that you're invited to sit at the king's table. You're invited to have an intimate relation with the God of heaven, like Mephibosheth. But you have to come to the king. Do I have a pianist this morning? How many, how many Christians, how many Christians go years having been born again, saved, sealed by the Holy Spirit of God? You can play whenever you're ready. But they don't sit at the king's table. Christian, when was the last time? When was the last time that you came to the king's table? That fellowship is there, it is offered. If you'd stand with me. What about you today? Are you lost without Jesus this morning? If you bow your heads, please. Will you come to the Savior? Repenting of your sins, will you trust Him as that sacrifice, that payment for your sin? Or will you continue in Lodivar? The Christian life is simple. It's either obey or disobey. You think you're too broken to save this morning? Has your life been just one tragedy after another? Are you running from God? Remember, if God is able to break your heart, there's still hope. The moment when you can endure a church service, the moment when you go, Months and weeks and years without God ever breaking your heart be afraid God may be done with you, but if God can break your heart, there's still hope Mephibosheth he wastes his life in fear when he could have spent all that time in the near presence of the king If you want to do business with God I invite you there's an altar up here there's a place to pray and There's pastors up here. There's other church workers that I'll get. If you want to speak to somebody, if you just want to lay on your face and talk to God, I encourage you this morning to do that. Come now. The Holy Spirit of God has done anything in your heart. Move quick. Excuses come fast.