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Second Samuel chapter #16 Now if you are saying pastor, it seems
like we're going backwards in our series.
Are you sure about that? The answer is yes, I am sure we
are going backwards a few chapters so that we can go
forwards. And that'll make sense here in
just a moment. But we will go backwards this
evening so that we can go forwards and look at this young
man named Mephibosheth, who we had seen last time in the Word
of God as a man who was of the household of Saul, who was
fearing for his life. Why?
Well, because David was king and because Dave was king in those
days when one household became king, that the previous
household would oftentimes be eliminated.
We find that a lot of times in the Word of God, that doesn't
make it right, but that's just the way that it would happen,
particularly hello, in those days, that's the what would
happen. And so that doesn't make it
right, but that's what it was. Now, what Mephibosheth wasn't
anticipating was the fact that David was trying to find someone
of the household of Saul to show kindness unto him, to be able to
give him blessings and benefits of which he did not deserve.
On top of that, Mephibosheth had a physical handicap.
He was lame on his feet because of the fact that he had an
accident in his flight as a young boy from the Philistines
back at the end of First Samuel. And so here is Mephibosheth.
He has been granted ancestral land from Saul's family with
which he does not deserve, and has also given a place at the
table of King David so that he is taken care of continually.
Mephibosheth, by the way, is a picture of us.
And in that story, David is a picture of Jesus Christ.
Here we are. We are lame on our feet, if you
will. There's nothing within us that
would call upon us to be saved. There's no reason and no way you
can save yourself. But yet here's the king who has
done what. He seated us in heavenly places.
He's provided for all of our needs.
I'm the beggar and he's the king.
That's what we find in Mephibosheth.
But we haven't heard anything of Mephibosheth since then.
But in David's flight at that time when Absalom was trying to
take over the Kingdom, we find a couple of accounts.
The first, which we'll read before the Battle at Ephra Wood
and the second after the Battle of Ephraim Wood.
And that's where we are in our series right now about
Mephibosheth, and it's going to help us to understand a little
bit about some situations that we have happened to us in life.
You say what kind of situations? Well, we have the situations in
life that sometimes are our own fault.
I don't know about you, but I get in plenty of those myself.
Amen. But there are some situations in
life that happened that are totally out of our control.
There are situations in life that it's almost like we can
only sit idly by and watch it unfold in front of us because
the world is wicked and people are wicked.
No, no, yes, you and I have been saved by the blood of Jesus
Christ. That if we act within our
spirit, not our flesh, we're different.
But yet the world, who knows? Not the spirit and only the
flesh. They are looking for reasons to
tear you down, to cut you out and to find ways to do things to
you that which you really do not deserve.
And that's what happens in Mephibosheth in today's account.
He goes through something that he didn't deserve.
He goes through a situation that he could see it happening right
in front of him, but because of his lameness on his feet, he
couldn't even do anything about it but just watch it unfold.
And so we're understand some principles this evening that I
hope will be a help to us. The title of my message is this.
What to do when someone rides off on your donkey For the
longest test title I've ever had in my ministry, What to do when
someone rides off on your donkey.
Now that may not make a lot of sense, but by God's grace, I
hope in a few minutes it will make some sense.
And if there was a subtitle, it would be this.
You can't lose what you don't have in the 1st place.
Would you stand, please, for the reading God's Word?
Second Samuel chapter #16 and we'll begin in verse #1 again.
We are going backwards in our series chronologically here with
our text. I understand that.
But we want to see this unfold before the battle between David
and Absalom. And we'll look at the other
passage in just a moment, It says.
And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold,
Zeba the servant of Aphibosheth, met him with a couple of asses
saddled upon them 200 loaves of bread, and 100 bunches of
raisins, and 100 of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
And the king said unto Zeba, What meanest thou by these?
And Zeba said, The asses be for the King's household to ride on,
and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and
the wine and such be faint in the wilderness may drink.
And the the king said, And where is thy master's son?
And Zeba said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem.
For he said, Today shall be the House of Israel, or today shall
the House of Israel restore me the Kingdom of my father.
Then said the king to Zeba, Behold, thine are all that
pertaineth unto Mephibosheth. And Zeba said, I humbly beseech
thee that I might find grace in thy sight, my Lord, O king.
Now you may not know everything that's going on right here, but
sure does sound like this guy Mephibosheth turned on David, a
man who had done so much for him has now said, I'm casting my lot
with Absalom. Now we're look at what that
means and why maybe not everything is exactly as it
seems here in this chapter, here in just a moment.
So why don't you be seated. We'll pray together.
Heavenly Father, we do thank You for this evening and for Your
word. What I know that there's some
people here this evening. They're going through some deep
waters. They're going through some heavy
issues. And certainly we can bring that
upon ourselves. And when it does happen because
of our sinful choices, we have to bring it to You, confess it,
and leave the reaping after our sinful sowing to You.
But yet there are times that we're just living life and this
wicked world tries to take advantage and do very difficult
things. Lord help us to see through this
text how we are to respond and we do ask it in Jesus name,
Amen. You'll remember that on this
flight that David and his men, he had about 600 or so men on
top of his own household and his family, that there was a lot of
them that needed sustenance as they went.
And there was that man Barzili. Do you remember him who came and
provided for the needs along with his friends as well?
And so as there are those who are coming to the aid of David,
there is this man named Zeba. Now we're not going to go back
to the original text of Mephibosheth, but if we were
that I just referenced in the introduction, if we were, we
would find that Zeba was tasked to be able to be the
householder, if you will, to be able to take care of the land in
a way that Mephibosheth could not.
So here is some land that is given to Mephibosheth, again,
ancestral land of their family, and he can't till it himself.
He can't take care of himself because of his physical
handicap. So David says you have this
person who has served you and helped you these years.
His name is Zeba. And So what Ziba is going to do
is he is now going to be the major domo, if you will.
He is going to be the person who is going to take care of all of
your affairs because you're not able to do so on your own.
And so it seemed like a pretty good setup of which David did.
Why? Because his land was taken care
of. And yet at the same time,
Mephibosheth could also dine at the King's table.
We can put it this way. No matter where Mephibosheth
was, he was going to be taken care of.
And aren't you glad as a child of God here this evening, that
wherever however you are, that your God will provide for your
needs? Matthew chapter 6 makes that
abundantly clear. You say, well, God hasn't been
good to me. Then you haven't been paying
attention because God has been good to you.
He's far better to us than we deserve in 100 lifetimes.
And yet here is Mephibosheth, a picture of us in our own
lameness and our own inability. But yet the king has smiled upon
us, and that wherever we go, hit her or yawn, that we're going to
be provided for, just as Mephibosheth was.
But now we're at the place where David's on his flight and he's
needing supplies. And here comes the same man
named Zeba, and he's saddled on his asses with loaves of bread.
200 loaves of bread, 100 bunches of raisins.
Personally not a big fan, but anyway, sure, if that's what you
want, that's fine. 100 summer fruits, a bottle of wine.
And so here he comes and David has some recollection of this
man named Zeba. And he says, what are you doing
here? What's going on?
And Zeba gives this story where he says and verse #3 and he
says, Where is thy master, son? And Zeba said of the king,
Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem, for he said, today shall the
House of Israel restore me, the Kingdom of my father.
You realize the accusation that is being leveled here by Zeba.
Zeba is saying David Mephibosheth has cast his lot
with Absalom. It's almost as if he's saying
that all these years Mephibosheth has just Biden this
time. He never really liked David.
He never really cared for David. He was just waiting for someone
to come along to knock David off his pedestal.
And as soon as Absalom was that man, Zeba says, you know what he
did? He made his way to Jerusalem and
he is now saying this, that Absalom is going to restore the
household of Saul in its totality and make Mephibosheth
at the head. Now you say, pastor, it don't
seem right and the answer is it's not right.
You say, but it's right here in the Word of God.
But remember, the word of God is accurately recording a
conversation that took place here.
Why? Because the word of God is
accurate, Amen. It's accurately reporting a
conversation that took place. It is not saying that what Zeba
said is true, it is just saying this is what he said and this is
what he said. He has made it clear that he
that Mephibosheth is gone and Zeba brings all of the fruits of
Mephibosheth's land and gives it to David.
He's concocting the story now, if we've learned anything about
David that here when he's on this flight, his mind is
distracted at best. Why His son is trying to kill
him. His son is trying to take his
Kingdom. He's likely found out at this
point about it. Well, it's not happened yet, but
the he knows that there's some very specific things that are
happening that are awful. And he also knows deep down in
his mind, a lot of this is my fault because I didn't handle
the sin in my household the way that I should.
And he can trace it all the way back to him and Bathsheba.
So he's not thinking right. And so he hears this story.
He sees the wine, he sees the summer fruits, he sees the
bread, he sees the raisins, he sees all of these things here.
Yes. And by the way, I know raisins
are dried grapes, all right. I still don't like them.
Don't dry them all right, Just eat them the way that they are.
But anyway, David in his confusion says in verse #4
Behold thine or all that pertaineth unto Mephibosheth.
And Zeba said, I humbly beseech thee that I might find grace in
the sight of my Lord, O King David, legally, which he could
do as the king said this, if that's the way Mephibosheth
feels about me. I'll tell you what, Zeba.
Everything that Mephibosheth has, it now belongs to you.
You own it all, lock, stock and barrel.
And we're going to see here in just a moment, that's exactly
what Zeba wanted. No, he was double dealing here.
No, he wasn't right in what he said.
The Bible is accurate in what was said.
But the Bible is going to make clear to us here in just a
moment, again with perfect accuracy, that Zeba was nothing
more than a traitor to his master.
That Zeba was nothing more than a power hungry, money grubbing
loser who saw a weak man Mephibosheth and took advantage
of a man with a physical handicap.
So what takes place next? Well, everything we've read over
the last few weeks and months, right?
That there's a battle that takes place and there's Absalom.
He got hung by his hair and he wasn't supposed to die.
But Joab says, you know what? I'd probably prefer that he's
dead. Joab kills him.
A bunch of other guys come around and finish the job and
there's this great morning from David and Joab says, hey man,
snap out of it. You keep crying like this,
people going to think you care more about your son that was a
rebel, then the people who faithfully served you this day
out in battle. And so he stepped out of it.
And then they're going to start going back to Jerusalem and
David on that trip. And I'd encourage you to go read
some of these chapters yourself in their totality.
David's going to meet a lot of those same people that he met on
the way over the River Jordan to Gilead.
He's going to meet a lot of them on the way back, and we're going
to get a little bit of a more revealing look at some of these
circumstances that we've seen before.
So now we're going to go to chapter 19.
So go to Second Samuel chapter #19 and verse #24.
You know, it's a beautiful thing when the preacher knows where
the text is. I'm so, so thankful.
All right, here it is, Second Samuel 19, verse 24.
I know I was drowning this morning.
All right? And so David is greeting some of
these men, some good, some not. And he gets to verse #24 and it
says it's a Mephibosheth. The son of Saul came down to
meet the king. He neither dressed his feet nor
trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes.
From the day the king departed unto the unto the day he came
again in peace. Now stop right there, just a
moment. Why is that important for us?
Because it's showing the fact that whatever Mephibosheth is
about to say is genuine. There's certain things you can
fake, but you can't fake facial hair that was not there, that
has grown over a certain period of time.
You can't, you can't fake the fact that you've not washed
yourself for for months or weeks, probably more weeks is
what it was. It's very clear that this man
was in great distress. And so Mephibosheth arrives on
the scene. It's very clear from his
countenance. It's very clear from the way
that he's carrying himself that he has been in great distress
for some time. And it says in verse 25.
And it came to pass when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the
king, that the king said unto him, Wherefore wentest not thou
with me, but him. And I have to imagine that David
asked this question with hurt and his heart, because David up
to this part thinks, look at all I did for this guy.
I cared for him. I think he genuinely loved him.
And he said, but you turned your back on me.
You stabbed me in the back thought my son was going to give
you back the entire household of your family.
What Mephibosheth, why would you do that?
And he mephibosheth verse 26 answered, My Lord, O king, my
servant deceived me. For thy servant said, I will
saddle me an ass, that I may ride there on and go to the
king, because thy servant is lame, and he has slandered thy
servant unto my Lord the King. But my Lord the King is as an
Angel of God. Do therefore what is good in
thine eyes. For all my father's house were
but dead men before my Lord the King.
Yet did thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine
own table. What right therefore have I yet
to cry anymore unto the king? Now stop right there.
Can you imagine? I want you to visualize this
here for just a moment, because the Word of God is alive.
The Word of God, God is real, that we're talking about real
stories. And sometimes you see something
just in passing, but you have to flesh it out a little bit in
your mind to understand exactly what took place.
And that's what happens here. Mephibosheth hears this is what
really happened. And the fact is the Word of God
makes it clear just because of the way his countenance is, the
way that he is so distressed. It's very clear that
Mephibosheth here is the one who is telling the truth.
And so he finds out that Absalom is about to try to take over.
There's going to be a coup that takes place from his beloved.
And so he is troubled. He says this.
Wherever David goes, I need to go.
I need to be with my king. I need to be with my friend.
But he cannot go and meet David on his own again because he is
lame on his feet. So he goes to a servant, the one
he was supposed to trust. And he says to a servant, I want
you to saddle me a donkey. I want you to get me ready so I
can go out and meet David. And so I can imagine
Mephibosheth sitting by the window.
I can imagine Mephibosheth just waiting for Zeba to pull the car
around, if you will, so that he can go where he needs to go.
And there's Mephibosheth and he's out looking at that window.
And he goes, well, there's Ziba, and he says there's the donkey.
All right, we'll just pull it on over here, you know, Get Me Out
there, You know, put me on the donkey.
I'll go. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait. Where's where's he going?
He's going to the gate. Like, oh, come, Zeba, come back,
come back. He's opening the gate.
He he's riding away, He's he's got food, he's got wine.
That he that I'm supposed to be the one that's going to David.
What what's he doing? Why is he going where Zeba come
back? And there's not a.
Thing he can do about it as he watches that donkey go away.
And I bet somewhere in his mind he had a little bit of an
inkling this isn't good. Perhaps there was somewhere in
his mind he knew. You know, Zeba may not be
someone who is trusted. But certainly along the way,
word was brought back to Mephibosheth and said Zeba went
and told the king that you were in cahoots with Absalom and he's
cut you out. This land that you're sitting
on, it's not your land anymore, Mephibosheth.
David took the deed and gave it to Zeba.
The man. Who stole your donkey has now
stole your land and everything that you have.
Now if I was to. Summarize this in 2 words.
They would be this not fair. It's not fair taking advantage
of a man who physically could not take care of himself.
And now Mephibosheth has been cut out, seemingly of the
blessings of the land which was given to him.
But did you notice Mephibosheth's response here?
Mephibosheth's response was not one of while he's giving the
information of what happened, his his response was more David.
I'm just glad. You're OK, my King.
I'm glad that you were restored. His attitude was right.
So this is where I want to put myself in the Word of God for a
second. Maybe you can do the same here.
Let's pretend we're David here. David wasn't thinking right.
We know that David was in the right mindset as he was on his
flight from Jerusalem out to Gilead.
David makes a choice to inherit Zeba and disinherit
Mephibosheth. So now if I'm.
David and I get the full picture.
I say hold on just a second, Zeba, come over here,
Mephibosheth. I've made a mistake.
Here's what we need to do. Zeba.
That deed I gave you, I'm giving it back to Mephibosheth.
You've done it wrong. No.
No, you you lied. You lied.
You manipulated. You cut your master out of the
blessings of which I've. Who do you think you are, Zeba?
No, you get nothing. In fact, I'm throwing you in the
prison. You are not to be trusted.
You are not someone who should be trusted with such great power
and authority ever again. You shouldn't pay for your
crimes. If I'm David, this is what I'm
doing. And if you're David, I would be
honest with you. It's probably what you're doing,
too. Amen.
That's not what happened. Our version is fair.
No, I'm not trying to change the word of God tonight.
I'm just saying the way that I think it should have happened
seems to be pretty fair. Mephibosheth didn't deserve to
have what happened to him. But what did David say?
Well, go to verse #29. And the king said unto him, Why
speakest thou anymore? Thy matters?
I have said, Thou and Zeba divide the land.
Now stop right there. It's almost like David said, I
don't know who to believe here. I don't know what's going on.
I don't know if you've ever done.
This as a parent, I've done this today, but you got two kids that
are arguing. You don't know who's right, you
don't know who's wrong. You just want it to stop.
And you say, look, I don't know what's going on, but you both be
quiet. And I kind.
Of feel like this is what David's doing here.
He says. This I named Zeba's over here,
but Fibba's over here. Who knows who's right?
He says. I'm not talking about it with
you anymore. Here's what's going to happen.
You just take the land and divide it.
Now that's better than nothing. But again.
What happened to Mephibosheth by Ziva was not fair.
And now what David has done is almost legitimized what Zeba has
done. And now instead of Zeba being
the servant and Mephibosheth being the master, now what's
happened is they are equal stakeholders.
And basically Zeba got away with it because he ended up stealing
half of everything that Mephibosheth owned.
And that's not fair. I read this, I don't like it.
I read this and I look at Dave and say, what are you thinking,
man? You, you can't see this man
who's obviously in distress. You can't see this man who
obviously has the physical scars, the physical signs of
being in distress all this time. And here's this Zeba, here's
this character who just happens to come in at the right time
with bread and summer fruits and wine and raisins.
He comes with all these things and he sweet talks you.
And now he ends up getting half the land.
It's not fair. Now I got a problem with that
and look at some of your faces, some of you got a problem with
this. You know who didn't have a?
Problem with it, Mephibosheth. Let's look at verse #30.
It says this. And Mephibosheth said unto the
king, Yeah, let him take all. For as much as my.
Lord, the King has come again in peace unto his own house.
That's a. Response.
I guess. Not a response that I think is
warranted on its face, not one that myself and my spirit thinks
is satisfactory. But Mephibus just says listen,
my king, if Zebra wants it all, I don't care.
I'm just glad you're OK. He said well.
Pastor So the next verse is when David comes to his senses and
then says, Toto, I'm just kidding.
I, I, I, I really made a mess of this.
No, see, but you get nothing. Mephibosheth You get everything
back. The next verse, David's on to
the next issue. And now he's greeting Barzili,
who was the one that brought many of those things that helped
give them comfort in the desert on the way there.
And David's treating him with great kindness, seemingly a
kindness of which it doesn't feel like he's extending to
Mephibosheth on the surface. That's the end.
Of the story, that's it. I got nothing more for you
tonight. Oh, I got to play more
preaching, don't worry. But that's all.
I got nothing more from the Bible.
About Mephibosheth. Somebody got excited for a
second, like I'm not crazy. We're not we're not releasing at
5:40, all right? But there's nothing more that's
said here. And this is in its face
completely and totally unfair. But there's something that
Mephibosheth understood here that I think that we need to get
into our minds here tonight, and that's this.
Mephibosheth, realize what to do when someone rides off on your
donkey. Just leave it to.
God. Remember the title?
What? To do when someone rides off on
your donkey. This is what happened to
Mephibosheth. He says this, I leave it to the
Lord. Now why could he say that
Mephibosheth rightly understood that nothing, that he had
belonged to him in the first place?
What did? What did Mephibosheth boy hard
saying Mephibosheth so many times in one sermon.
What did Mephibosheth have before David?
Nothing. Nothing, Mephibosheth
understand. Understood, David, before you I
had nothing. And with you now I have half.
I'm still ahead because in the end, it's not really about what
I have, but who I have in verse #30 He made clear.
It's not what I have, it's who I have.
David, I have you and that's enough.
Now can I remind you who we are? Befibishad, may I remind you who
David is a picture of? Christ, what do we have before?
Jesus Christ. Nothing.
Are there times that now you're not going to want to answer
this, so don't answer it out loud.
Now, when I say that somebody inevitably answers out loud, but
don't answer out loud, but there are Are there times when it
seems like God's unfair to you? No, he's the answer.
No. I'm just kidding.
There are times it. Feels like God's being very
unfair to us. God, I'm trying to get ahead.
I can't get ahead. I'm getting behind God.
I thought our family was going to be in this way.
Our family's not in this way. In fact, my family's torn apart.
I thought I was gonna get a. Promotion at work, but instead
somebody got promoted. That really is kind of a liar
and a cheat. You know I.
I thought that my health was going to be good.
I've taken care of myself. But yet, despite the fact that
I've worked very hard at taking care of my body, it feels like
my health just gets worse and worse and worse, and we can get
to the place where we feel that just doesn't feel that life is
fair. Here's the problem.
Life, in many ways as we look at it, is not fair.
And we should be. Grateful that life isn't fair.
So why would you say that if life is fair, you belong in a
devil's hell. And so do I.
Let's just stop right there. The fact that he.
Saved us the fact that He seated us in heavenly places, the fact
that He gave us that which we could not deserve because we
were lame in and of ourself and we could not perform the natural
functions that we were supposed to.
But yet the King saw us in our need and saw us in our disgrace,
and yet cleaned us up and gave us everything that we have.
You may not have much, but you have him.
So what do we do if someone rides off on our donkey?
We say it's OK because I still have him.
You know, there's a great issue of life, or great principle of
life rather, that would help us when it comes down to the things
we think we have that we lose that really for the believer,
you can't lose what you don't have in the 1st place.
What do we say? My car, my house, my clothes, my
money, my wife, my children, all is ours.
You know, I try to be. Careful as a pastor.
I I say. You've heard me say this before.
I try. I try not to.
Rather, this is my church or my people, my pulpit.
Why do I not use those kind of terms?
Because it's not my church, it's his.
It's not my pulpit. It's his.
You're not my people. Now listen, you're my people in
the sense that you know, this is where I feel loved and this is
where I belong. This is where God's called us.
You're my people, but you don't belong to me.
All of it. Is his.
Now you would rightly say Amen about that, about me, but
everything that I just mentioned are all gifts of the Lord as
well. My spouse.
I'm thankful for Diane. Thankful doesn't even cover how
I feel about my wife, but I know this.
She's a gift from the Lord in my life that God directed her,
directed her from Scotland to Australia to Scotland to
Oklahoma. Didn't see that one coming and
put our paths together. That's just a start.
She's a gift from the Lord. My children.
They have 4 amazing children. They are typically gifts from
God. Some of you caught that they're
gifts from the Lord when I was a as a young adult.
I think I should be a father like I I need to I need to be
parented into adulthood basically, But yet they got be
quiet. All right, But he said that's
right. That was not the time to say
that's right. Was that you?
Was that Rick all right, So no, it was not Rick.
Don't do that right. So don't confuse me right now.
All right, I'm going to end up going to Matthew chapter 4
again. But yet God saw fit to make me a
parent and have children who's made I've made mistakes more
than I could count on my arm. But yet the God saw fit to make
me a parent. It's a gift, you know.
I, I don't believe I'm going to, you know, make it on the Forbes
500 list of richest people in the world.
I don't think I would make it on the Forbes 5 million list of
richest people in the world. I mean, I'm making 5 billion.
I'm not sure, and you may not either, but God's given us a lot
financially. He's taking care.
Of us more than we deserve. Our health may not be all that
it ought to be or that we like it to be, but you're still
sucking oxygen right now. You're still above ground right
now. What does that mean?
God has you here for a purpose. It's a gift, the job that you
have. If if.
You are working if you're able to work at.
However, that situation is but. But that God.
Would place you in a place where you could be a light for him and
also still meet the needs of yourself or your family.
That's a gift. The successes that you have,
that you know, skills that you know certain things about life
and that you've been able to have success in certain areas.
Well, Pastor, that's because of the sweat of my brow and because
of my, my muscles and my and my brain.
Who do you think gave you all of that?
You see it all. Belongs to him.
So when he deems that some of that no longer belongs to us,
the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, and blessed be the
name of the Lord. What do we do?
When we see someone ride off on our donkey, well, we're like
Mephibosheth. What right, therefore, have I
yet to cry anymore to the king? Let him take all he says.
I don't even have a right. You realize how powerful that
statement is? I don't even have a right to cry
to you. But yet here our.
Heavenly Father bids us to come and prayer to him.
He may not give us. Back that which is lost, but He
will take care of us. We could be like Job as I just
mentioned. Naked came out of my mother's
womb. Naked shall return, hit her.
The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. I think of John.
On the Isle of Patmos, served the Lord faithfully was the one
disciple that wasn't martyred, at least as history tells us.
But yet there he. Is exiled on the Isle of Patmos.
What is he deserving of? To be there just preaching the
word of God, but in the midst of the world coming down on him and
saying we're going to hold you down?
He says I was in. The Spirit on the Lord's Day and
what happened? We have the Book of Revelation.
God takes away, God gives when someone rides off on our donkey
and it's not our fault and it's not anything that happened
because of what happened to us. It's just been perpetuated on us
by the world or by situations or standards or or situations or or
that have taken place. What do we do?
We just say, Lord, you're in charge.
I'm not. Whatever you put in my hand,
I'll receive with gratefulness. There are Zebas out in this
world that are out to get us. No, there are people who.
Are out there that know you're a believer and want to take
advantage of the fact that you're a believer.
They want to take advantage of your good graces.
They want to take advantage of your kindness.
They want to take advantage of you just because they don't love
the Lord and Jesus said you think they treated me bad.
How do you think it's going to be when I'm gone they're going
to treat you bad as well. And so this is what's going to
happen to us. But yet Despite that, even with
what the world brings upon us, Matthew Chapter 7 verse 11 tells
us that our Father loves giving good gifts to us.
Despite all that the world tries to take away, He still loves
taking care of you. One of the things I love doing
as a parent is giving my children gifts.
I love seeing their face when you give them a gift.
I would, I realize now as a parent what people always say,
you know, and about, you know, I'd rather, I'd rather give the
gifts than receive them. And I thought that's crazy.
I'd rather receive the gifts, you know, But when you see your
child's face light up, it's something that they wanted.
You think, man, that's pretty cool.
That's pretty cool. And here's our Father, our
Heavenly Father, who derives joy out of giving us good gifts.
Well, how? Could we be upset at him?
For what he's. Done to us what he's, quote, I
should say, done to us, when all he's done to us is provided
everything that we have. By the way, if you lost
everything, believer, you know what You'd still have salvation.
For it is the gift. Of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. Satan can't take your salvation.
Once you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you belong to Him.
And that's a gift that can't be taken away.
That's right. You know, even if you lost
everything in this life, and I'm not saying that I hope that you
do. I certainly hope that I don't,
but even if you lost everything in this life.
And you had Jesus. Christ for eternity.
Do you think you'd be up in heaven saying, man, I'm glad I'm
up here with Jesus, with you for eternity?
But and what happened down there, you took everything away
from me. I When you're in the presence of
Christ, those things will just fade away.
I'm not. Saying that the difficulties and
hardship of your life are unimportant.
I'm not saying that. I'm saying they do need to be
put in perspective and then the perspective of a great God.
You know, one of the best parts about all this, and I think
somewhere in the back of Mephibosheth's mind, he
understood this. What did he lose?
He lost his land. He lost the financial means of
the crops which were being grown.
He owned all of it. Now he owns half of it.
But there's one. Thing that he didn't lose.
It's never mentioned. Here, and that's this, that even
if he didn't have anything left, where was he still always
welcome at the King's table? That even if he had lost
everything, he still will be provided for by the hand of the
King. If you lose.
Everything. And I don't hope you lose
everything. But if you lost.
Everything or I lost everything? You will still be provided for
by the hand of the King. Why?
Because he's a good king. It's not about what it is, it's
about who it is. David says.
Mephibia says. David, I have you.
That's enough. It's so easy to be able to look
at the situations of life and and to to twist them so out of
proportion that you're you get angry at God.
When I found. Out and I know some of you have
been or newer here, but I so I'll, I'll try to tell the story
without belaboring it, but it's been on my mind a lot this
weekend with with brother Steve being here back in 2020.
I was just having a tooth removed.
I had a sore tooth that had been bothering me for a while.
I'm ready to have the oral surgery over in Brockton.
I'm in the chair. They've already got my vitals.
They're ready to go to take out the tooth and and the doctor
comes and says, hold on, hold on a second.
There's something I didn't see here before.
I'm just checking the last time. There's a there's a little bit
of a mass inside your jaw. I can't, I can't do this today.
And he said the words that none of us want.
You just want to hear that live around here.
You need to go to Boston. You know what I'm saying?
When Brockton doesn't cut it, you got to go to Boston.
And that's what I did. Within a few days I found out
that a non cancerous tumor, but a very aggressive growing tumor
in my jaw and it was going to require major surgery, could
have been out in the hospital for two weeks.
I'll just be out of the pulpit for 8 weeks.
And it was a thing. And, and, and the reason I think
about it with Brother Smith and talked about it was because when
I was in the hospital, his wife Becky came and took care of my
family and took care of, of, of the everything on behalf of my
family while Diane was trying to come help me at the hospital
because it was still in the middle of COVID and you can only
have one person come for five hours a day to come come check
on you. And I couldn't talk because my
mouth was wired shut. So I needed someone to help on
my behalf, take care of things because I had some medical
needs. And sometimes I didn't even know
we're going on because I was so medicated out of my mind.
All this is going. On, you know, I got this cut
here, some of you've commented on, on that big guy.
It wasn't a knife fight that I was in Dorchester one day.
You know, it was a it was, was just surgery that took place.
And I'll tell you, I was in the midst of all that and there were
there was a couple days I was laying in that hospital and I
got to this woe is me place of saying God.
I planted a church. We worked hard here.
You know what I've done? For you.
I don't know how to try to be. Humorous about it.
I'm I'm being serious. You know what I've done for you
and here I am I'm in my late 30s I'm laid up on my back I've got
a bone taken out of my of my leg to be able to rebuild my jaw.
I used to run all the time for years and it's hard for me to
run right now to be able to do those things that I enjoy doing
and because of of that, like I knew that I was going to be laid
up. I didn't know how I would be
able to talk. I didn't know how to be able to
preach all these things. I was at the point is like.
Why now here Here's the. Thing.
My. Story.
It's it's a big one in my life. But that's just my.
Life. Because each and every.
One of you have stories that are equally as painful, maybe not
physically, but emotionally and spiritually.
Now you're just being. Faithful to the Lord and all of
a sudden someone you trusted did something to your money, and
maybe it's gone. Someone you.
Trusted you told them some very. Intimate.
And deep things about your life. And they use that information to
hurt you with someone else. You knew that you're.
On the fast track at your job and that you were going to be
just going up, up, up, up, up until one day you got called in
the office and say go up, up, up, up, you're out with no rhyme
or reason. You could be feeling.
Great. And all of a sudden you have a
routine checkup. The blood work's off, and the
next thing you know, we could go on and on and on.
Here's the thing. I could make the application,
but you're already making the application in your mind, I'm
pretty sure. What do you do?
When someone rides off on your donkey.
You know it. Really comes down to this.
Thank the Lord you had the donkey as long as you did.
And move. On in trust and faith that the
king will take care of you there's.
A lot of bitter. People out there.
They're saved by the. Grace of God we had.
They're bitter how God has treated them.
If you're going to spend an eternity with Him in heaven, you
probably ought to get that settled down and know that that
good God who saved your soul is good, whether he gives or
whether he takes away. Now, I'll be honest to you,
looking back several years at what happened to me at that
time, I'm careful to say I'm thankful for what God did with
me through that time. Because if he thinks I'm really
thankful, he might do it again. Because I got another jaw, I
still got another side, and I don't want him to do that.
But I can see all that God did in my life to strengthen me, to
help me to prepare my future. And I would I want it.
To happen again? No.
But did I know God was with me every step of the way?
When I thought He forsook me, they was actually drawing me
closer. God.
Cares for you. The King.
Will take care of you if your donkey is gone.
Thank the Lord you had as long as you did.
But keep on going. And doing what God has called
you to do. Thank you for.
Listening to the sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist
Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.