A Messenger Without a Message | March 22, 2026 PM

Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

I think I mentioned that we're in Second Samuel chapter #8 T.

I'm glad to be back in our series this evening.

I want to pick up right where we left off a few weeks ago as we

were looking at David and we were looking at Absalom and we

were looking at the death of Absalom, and we're really

getting into the Scriptures right after Absalom has died,

but David doesn't know it yet. Do you remember that David gave

an instruction as he had his men go out in three different groups

and he had them go out into Ephraim Wood for that battle

that was there, and he gave one very specific instruction and

that was this, don't touch Absalom.

Now remember there was a problem with that, a great problem that

David had some blind spots when it came to his family, that

David had a blind spot when it came to his son.

Absalom deserved to die. Absalom was a usurper of the man

of God there, David, but he was a usurper of that which God had

put into his own life and that which he was trying to do it.

There was no reason why he should have been put to death.

There was a multitude of reasons why he should have been put to

death. But yet David said don't do it.

Of course Joab decides he's going to do his own thing.

Joab, you know, kind of enjoyed that, didn't he, doing his own

thing. And so Joab sees an opportunity,

takes that opportunity. And now Absalom is dead.

Remember, hung by his hair there in the tree that which was his

glory. We saw the last time we were in

our text that the Bible tells us that sowing and reaping is real.

Do you remember that? That the principle of sowing and

reaping is real. That it's not just something for

the Old Testament. It's not just something for the

New Testament, but it's as true today as it wasn't the Garden of

Eden. Amen.

That sowing and reaping is real. But here we see that now the

absolute is dead. Joab knows it.

There's someone who doesn't know it, and that's David.

And Dave's going to be upset when he finds out that job is

dead because that goes absolutely against what he had

commanded here just hours before.

But in the midst of that, we're going to see that there's going

to be two messengers that are supposed to bring this message

to David. 1 is very fast, 1 is very slow.

One likes to speak and the other doesn't like to speak.

And from this, we're going to look at tonight the very issue

of a messenger with no message. Now, if you're going to be a

messenger, you probably ought to have a message.

Kind of goes with the title, doesn't it?

It goes with the job description that a messenger ought to be

able to have a message. Can you imagine me coming up

here tonight in the pulpit and looking at you all and saying,

open your Bibles and then after that say, well, I really don't

have anything to say. Now, some of you might rejoice.

I don't know. You might think you'd get out

early. I don't know that could be the

case. But the fact of the matter is,

if I walk up to this pulpit as the messenger, if you will, you

expect me to have a message. You expect that I have been in

the word of God. You expect that I rightly divide

the word of truth. This is the expectation that you

ought to have of your pastor about of any man that gets

behind the pulp. But he's not just get up here

and talk like he's on talk radio or get up here and go through

his rants and ravings of the things that bother him in life.

But rather what he's going to do is preach the Word of God

straight and true for what it is, leaving his own opinions and

his own thoughts out of the mix. Why?

Because it's all about having a message when you're a messenger,

but there's a guy who's supposed to be a messenger who chokes up

when it's time to give the message.

And we're going to look at him tonight and draw some parallels

to ourselves as well. Now find it interesting that

Brother Sandy preached on what he did this morning, because

preaching this morning about the word of God, preaching this

morning about the need for those to be saved, preaching this

morning and brought bringing parallels to Acts chapter 2 and

Acts 2 · chapter mention

that which is going to be taking place here in just a few weeks

in Foxborough. Certainly it's important for us

to get involved when there's these types of opportunities.

But I would say even more so than that, ever before the World

Cup takes place, there's people that need to get saved in this

area today. That's right, yeah, but if

people need to get saved in this area tomorrow, and what are we

going to do with the message that God has entrusted to us

when it comes to the message of life?

Would you stand please, for the reading of God's Word?

Second Samuel chapter #18 We're going to be in verse #19 Don't

worry about sick. I just have some allergies.

There's I like Scotland, but my sinuses didn't.

All right, Second Samuel 18. I thought that was funny.

All right, verse #19 it was funny in a different time zone

maybe. All right, verse #19 in four

hours you'll laugh at that. OK, then said to him, As the son

of Zadok, let me now run and bear the king tidings.

Now what tidings? Absalom is dead.

How that the Lord hath the venture of his enemies.

And Joab said unto him, Thou shalt not bear tidings this day

without shall bear tidings another day.

This day thou shalt bear no tidings, because the King's son

is dead. Then said Joab to Kushai, Go

tell the king what thou has seen.

And Kushai bowed himself unto Joab.

And Ram then said to him, as the son of Zadok, yet again to Joab.

But howsoever let me, I pray thee also run after Kushai.

And Joab said, Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing thou

hast no tidings ready? You, you don't have a message.

The message just went out. And howsoever he said, let me

run. And he said unto him, run then

him as ran by the way of the plane, and overran Kushai.

We'll pick that up here again and see the remainder of the

text in just a moment. Why don't you be seated and

let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for this

evening. We thank you that you have given

us the opportunity to be your messengers.

We have a message, but let us be the messengers who give the

message and not just the messengers who hold on to it.

And not give the words that needed to be given.

Lord help us to draw some parallels from this text to our

own life. Help this not just to be a story

from the word of God that goes in one ear and out the other.

But let's remember this is a real factual account of an event

that took place that has relevance for us today.

May we find that relevance and apply it to our own life this

evening. And we do ask it in Jesus name,

Amen. As a reminder, this is the

capstone of all that has taken place over the last few

chapters. In fact, we could go all the way

back to when it said that David looked upon Bathsheba.

You remember that took place and all of a sudden David's

household began to unravel. And it seems like this is in

many ways the culmination. It's not that this ends the

sword being in David's house because the sword will plague

David's house throughout the rest of his life.

But yet it seems like in many ways this is a culmination

leading up to the the rebellion of and the battle of man against

man, Israelite against Israelite fighting against one another,

one for the House of David and the other for his renegade son

Absalom. It's all done.

It's been put off to the side. David, his forces won.

Why? Because they were on the side of

the Lord. He is the anointed king.

He is the one who is supposed to be crown king and crown

sovereign. Absalom was nothing but a

pretender. He was nothing but a paper

tiger. He was certainly big in his own

mind, but his own mind was where he was best because in real life

he wasn't the man that he was supposed to be in the Lord's

eyes. But now the time has come.

Absalom is dead and David has to find out the news and Joab has

to, to send somebody to come and to be able to give that news.

And so as we see this, this evening, first of all, I see

that there's a burdened messenger.

There's this man named Ahim as. And there it is in verse #22 If

we go back there, it says, actually, you go back up to

verse #19 and it says and then said, Ahim as the son of Zadok,

let me know. Run and bear the tie, the King's

tidings. How that the Lord hath avenged

him of of his enemies? Now I will say I read several

commentaries about this verse. And there are those who would

condemn him As for seemingly having some zeal or excitement

for wanting to go and run and tell David about what's taken

place. And of course, when it talks

about the avenging of the King's enemies, it's talking about

those who align themselves with Absalom, but it's also talking

about Absalom. And the next verse makes that

clear. Joab makes the connection when

he says that thou shalt not bear tidings this day, thou shalt not

bear tidings another day. Or rather, thou shalt bear

tidings another day, but this day thou shalt not bear.

Note, try again. This day thou shalt bear no

tidings because the King's son is dead.

Joab, it's a finer point on what a Himaz is trying to say.

No, you are not going to be the one to go and tell David that

his son is dead. And again, there's some

commentators who really get upset that a Himaz would

actually want to go and tell David because of what David had

said before. But I would have to argue on a

Himaz's aside and in his defense that Absalom had abhorred the

nation of Israel, that Absalom had abhorred his father, and

most importantly, that Absalom had abhorred God himself.

And there is a him as who at least has a little bit of

gumption within him, that has a little bit of fire within him to

be able to say, no, this man has fought against Israel.

This man has fought against his own brethren.

This man has fought against his own father.

And most important, this man is fighting against the very will

of God. No, no, somebody needs to be

able to give the news to David. And so I don't look at this as a

bad thing. We ought to have more people who

are burdened about their Christian beliefs.

You have more people who are burdened about that which they

believe. I'll be honest with you, there's

a lot of lackadaisical Christians that are out there

today. And maybe we'd have to put

ourselves into that category as well, that we get a little bit

lackadaisical, that there ought to be a little bit of fire in

the pulpit, that there ought to be a little bit of fire when it

comes to our devotional life. There ought to be a little bit

of fire when it comes to the way that we handle our day-to-day

business as believers. I'll be honest with you, there's

a lot more of those who believe the wrong things who are sincere

than Christians who believe the right thing.

I'll say that again. There's a lot more people who

believe the wrong thing but are yet sincere about it than those

who believe the right thing. And they're not sincere about it

as we ought to be, as we were going through immigration at

Heathrow Airport. And I'll tell you, I was so jet

lagged because we were going from Boston to Heathrow.

We're supposed to sleep during the night.

And there was turbulence almost the whole time.

And I got to London and it was 7 in the morning and it was just,

I'm, I'm sleepwalking through, but I know I got to wake up

because I'm about to go through customs.

They're going to start to asking you questions, all these

different things. And I get through, I hand them

my passport. And again, some of you may have

traveled a lot internationally. Me, not so much.

I know I'm an international speaker, but I just haven't

travelled that much. I wasn't at that point yet.

It's still a week away. But I, I was going through and

they said, you know, can we speak to you for a minute Now

that's not what you want to hear a customs agent to be able to

tell you. And I said, do you happen to

have a knife in your, in your bag?

And immediately I thought a knife.

And then the first thing I thought, to be honest with you

was what did AJ put in our bag? You know what, what did he put?

Because we've gone through before with empty water bottles

and didn't know that he didn't want an empty water bottle.

And he filled his up. And then we got through TSA and

they're like, why is that water bottle filled?

And AJ thought, well, I want a water.

So he said no, no, he but he but he clarifies, you know, maybe

like a butter knife or something like that.

What ended up being a comb that had an edge to it at the end

that it looked, I guess through the X-ray machine a little bit

funny. But as it was that we went over

to the X-ray technician and the X-ray technician that was there

was a Muslim woman in her Muslim head guard.

And she starts going through our bag and she has her gloves on.

And she says right there in the bag shows are these Bibles.

And if you're like me, probably for your thinking, you thought

this may not be so good. And I said, yes, ma'am, these

are about, this is my wife's Bible and my Bible.

And she says, do you mind if I take these gloves off?

She says, I believe that these are holy books and I don't want

to touch them with these gloved hands.

And I said, oh, I'm so I'm not getting arrested.

I didn't say that part. I thought, oh, I was shocked at

the reverence that she had for the Word of God and I was able

to talk to her a little bit about her testimony right there.

Obviously had to be pretty careful in that situation, but

explained to her that I was a pastor.

My wife then came over that time we were talking to her a little

bit just about the Lord and about what we believe as best as

we could in that very short period of time.

But you know what I walked away from in that moment thinking

she's more serious about the Word of God as a Muslim than a

lot of Christians are. That really troubled me.

It really made me ask myself about my own commitment.

No, no, we can't be upset when there's someone who has a little

bit of fire. No, we can't get upset when

there's someone who has a little bit of zeal, particularly about

the things that are right. No, we're not talking about zeal

for things that are wrong. Listen, you can be wrong and

zealous and you're just zealously wrong.

You want to be zealous and right.

But here's a him has who had the right message and had some zeal.

No, I'm not going to condemn him here, at least not in this

moment for the fact that he says no.

David needs to know what took place.

David needs to find out. He was a burdened messenger.

And you and I, we need to be burdened messengers as well.

Why? He and him has had a message of

death. A man has died and David needs

to know. But you and I have a message,

not of death, but of life, that you and I have been entrusted

with the very message of life. What is that?

Well, that there was one of the line of David who died, that's

Jesus Christ. But that he rose again and lives

today and will live forever more, and that if you believe in

that same Jesus, you will have life everlasting.

That's the message that has been entrusted to us.

And there ought to be a burden. There'll be a fire that'll be a

little bit of get up and go within us to be able to tell

other people the message of the good news of Jesus Christ.

That was John the Baptist as Malachi chapter 3 verse one in

Malachi 3 · chapter mention

the prophecy of John's birth said behold, I will send my

messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord

whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple.

Even the messenger of the covenant whom he delight in.

Behold, he shall come saith the Lord of hosts.

John was the one who laid the axe at the root of the tree.

The Bible says, meaning this. He always got to the very heart

of the matter. You didn't walk away from here

in John the Baptist, say, I wonder what he meant, The

message of life. Herod understood what he meant.

We said you ought not take that woman.

He paid for it with his head, but he did what was right

because it was the message. But that message that was

committed to John and the disciples had been also

committed to us, said Corinthians 5 verse 20.

Now that we were ambassadors for Christ, as though God did

beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled

to God. Walking through the streets, you

know what I saw? Consulate, consulate, consulate.

What is that? Places where ambassadors are,

places where someone is working on behalf of another.

This one's working on behalf of the French government.

This one is working on behalf of the German government.

Just going down the street and seeing an American flag right

there in the middle of Edinborough, I was thinking, I

just wanted to, I want that eagle to go, you know, right

down, right in that moment. I thought that would have been

great. You know what?

They were ambassadors. They are working on behalf of

those who had sent him. You and I are working on behalf

of he who has sent us, and that is Jesus Christ.

We are ambassadors for Christ. I'm ambassadors for ourself, not

ambassadors for our own thought processes and designs, but

ambassadors for him. Acts chapter one, verse 8.

We saw this morning, but you shall receive power after that.

The Holy Ghost has come upon you.

He shall be witnesses but unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all

Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

Romans 9 verses one through three.

I say the truth in Christ, I lie not my conscience also bearing

me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and

continual sorrow in my heart. For I, I wish myself were cursed

from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.

Paul said this. If I could trade my salvation in

so that all of Israel could be saved and I could spend an

eternity in hell, I'd do it. Now I'd say if anyone ever said

that to you, they're probably blowing smoke.

But when it's in the Word of God, inspired by the Holy

Spirit, Paul meant it. Now it doesn't work that way,

does it? But Paul said this, I may not be

able to give my eternal life for Israel, but I can give my life

for them and making sure I do everything I can to give them

the message. No, here's a him as he, he's a

very burdened messenger. It says he was a son of Zadok,

who is a dog. He was one of the priests.

Who do you work for? David.

He watched David, he watched his father work for David.

Now Zadok the priest worked for the Lord before he worked for

David, but he was faithful to David.

He says this, I've seen this man, I've seen the Lord, I've

seen how faithful my father has been both to David and the Lord,

and I got to have a message sent to him.

So there is this burden messenger that is there, but we

also see that there's also that before, actually, before we get

to that, it's not just that that burden messenger is about to

give the message. What does Joab say?

Son, I like your spirit if I could distill it into something.

It's not like your spirit. But today's not your day.

It looks this man named Kushai, he says this Kushai go run.

And he says, I'll go. Isn't that what he says there in

verse #21 It says. And Kushai bowed himself unto

Joab and ran. He goes on his way, but but

there's him, as he can't give it up, he sinks his teeth in.

He says to it says the son of Zadok yet again to Joab.

But howsoever let me, I pray thee also run after Kushai.

And Joab said Wherefore what thou run my son, seeing thou has

no tidings ready, now you say, well of course he has news, we

know what the news is. But basically Joab saying this,

it's not your news to give today.

I just gave it to Kushai. What are you going to say?

Why would you go? I've already given the news to

another man, but he's so agitated, his spirit, he says

this, just let me go. And Joab, I kind of wonder if

Joab just like, man, get out of here, I can't deal with you

anymore. He's like, hey, hey boy, you

want to run, run, go for it. You know, it's kind of like, you

know, the parent just wants to let the kid out in the backyard.

Just like, look, hey, just leave me alone.

You want to go run in the backyard, Go run into a tree for

a while. That's fine.

Go do it. Just, you know, don't cry to me,

man, just go. And Joab just says hey, run.

And him has ran by the way of the plane and overran Kushai.

It says in verse #23 that he ran and he ran so fast that he

overran Kushai. Now Kushai had the news.

Now Emma has had the news as well.

But Kushai was the appointed messenger and he was doing the

best that he could. But for some reason that him has

had a little more pep in his step.

That doesn't mean that he was right and Kushai was wrong.

It just happens to be that some people are faster than other

people. And the man who had the news was

a little bit slower. The man who was the one who says

let me go, Coach put me in, coach put me in, coach put me

in. Finally, he had all that energy

in him, and man, Red Bull gave him wings or something.

I don't know what it was, but he was on his way.

And so you have this burdened messenger, and again, that

burden should be ours as well. I think of First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 9:16

Chapter 9, verse 16. For though I preach the gospel,

I mentioned this just a few weeks ago, I have nothing to

glory up for. Necessity is laid upon me.

Yeah, woe is sent to me if I preach not the gospel.

You say, pastor, it's a good thing that you preach the word

of God. Well, Amen.

And I praise the Lord for whatever good you find in me.

But I will say this, I'm not good because I preach the

gospel. I'm just doing what I'm supposed

to be doing. That is just what God has called

me to do. That's special about me because

I'm standing behind this pulpit. It's just what God's calling is

in my life. And I know you believe that

about me, but I'll say this, I believe that about you as well,

that God has called you to be able to give the gospel to the

people around you. And it's not that we're doing

anything special. It's not that we're doing.

No, no, I know the fact that it's, it's special.

It's important in God's eyes that we give the gospel.

What I'm saying is this, we're not going above the Call of

Duty. It is the Call of Duty.

Sure, it's special anytime the gospel is given when the word of

God is presented. Sure, it's special anytime

someone gets saved. The angels in heaven rejoice

when one soul comes to Christ. But it is not that we are going

above and beyond the Call of Duty to give the gospel.

We're just doing what God has called us to do.

Well, I'm a super Christian. I'm going out on visitation.

We're a Christian. No, not be unkind about it.

I'm just saying this is what God's called us to do.

I'm a super Christian. I give out tracts.

We're a Christian. No, not diminishing it one bit.

No, no, don't understand, don't misunderstand what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is this. It's just what God has called us

to do and that which God has called us to do, God will equip

us to do. Well Pastor, I, I could never do

that. One of my favorite verses comes

at the end of First Thessalonians when it says this

faithful is he that calleth us, who also will do it mean this

God will equip those 3 calls. If God's called us to give the

gospel, you know what he's going to do?

He's a help you give the gospel. How awful would it be for God to

call you to do something and say well, you're on your own now.

Some almighty God. Well he is an almighty God.

Almighty belongs to him. And if He calls us to be able to

do a certain task as He has for us to be able to give the gospel

in the Great Commission that He's going to equip us for that

task, does it look differently for all of us?

It does. Some can seemingly give the

gospel with ease. They can find their way into a

conversation and turn to the Lord almost at every turn.

Others have more difficulty. Some enjoy talking.

Some don't enjoy talking. Well, no matter what your

personality trait is, God will help you in your own way to be

able to give the gospel and not just give the gospel, but to

live the gospel. But I'll tell you, I've reached

a lot more people just by the faithful witness, by living the

way that I should than just by handing people tracks.

No, I'm not against handing people tracks.

God uses that as just that planting and watering that we

should. You should be hanging out more

tracks. But you'll find that more people

will come to you about Christ as you faithfully live Christ and

as you faithfully talk about how Christ has been a blessing in

your life. And you'll find that people will

come to you because they'll want to learn more about how you have

the peace that they wish that they had.

It's a burden messenger. There's only one problem about

this burden messenger. He was also a bashful messenger.

We didn't finish the story. We only gave you the first half.

And I want to look at first number 24.

And on it says. And David sat between the two

gates and the watchman went up to the roof, over the gate under

the wall, lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, a man running

alone. And so David, of course, needs

to find a way to be able to get the news.

You remember, he was told to stay behind.

They said, listen, we know that Absalom wants you and that you

have to stay behind because he doesn't care about us.

He'll mow through all of us to be able to get to you.

So David, you stay behind. You sucker us, meaning you bring

us reinforcements if necessary. But in general, you stay behind.

So David's staying behind. There's no Twitter, there's no

Facebook, there's no Telegram Telegraph, there's no nothing.

And so he, all he's doing is sitting there and waiting with a

few men and waiting for a messenger to come.

And so he sees cresting over a hill, a messenger, a man running

alone. Well, we would know that that

would be a hemaz. Why?

Because he overtook Kushai. Kushai was the appointed

messenger, but a hemaz overtook him.

So what he's going to be seeing here is a hemaz.

And verse #25 says the watchman cried and told the king, And the

king said If he be alone there is tidings in his mouth.

And he came apace and drew near. The watchman saw another man

running. And the watchman called into the

Porter, and said, Behold, another man running alone.

And the king said he also bringeth tidings.

The watchman said methinketh the running of the foremost, the one

in the front is the running of him as the son of Zadok.

And the king said he is a good man and cometh with good

tidings. Now, my heart goes out to David

here because you could tell he's just reaching for any type of

good news. Just because you're a good man

doesn't mean you come with good news.

And he says, hey, him as I like that guy, he's got good news.

Well, David, just because he's a good man doesn't mean he's got

good news. In fact, I would say to you that

the good man will give you the news.

It's the truth, not just the news that you want to hear.

You know, that often comes to my mind in preaching because I want

everyone to love me. Because why?

Everybody wants everyone to love them.

You know, I don't come into this church.

I don't drive up to 800 Washington St. and say, boy, you

know, by the time I'm done today, I hope everybody hates

me. It's never come into my mind.

It never has. I hope that when I walk in,

everybody loves me. I hope when I walk out after

preaching, my gut's out that everyone still loves me.

But do you know what? I found that it really doesn't

come down to being a good man and preaching the good word in

the sense that it makes everybody happy that I hope you

find that I'm a good man. And sometimes that it may not be

a good word that you hear, but it's his word.

That's what it comes down to. And listen, if that makes me

your enemy, then we'll have to be enemies.

I'm not looking to be anyone's enemy and I sure don't want to

be someone's enemy because I present the word of God and an

I'll found way. But I will say this, I got to

preach it straight and true. Well, he's a good man.

He's going to say things I want to hear.

Well, I may not be saying things you want to hear.

In fact, I may say the opposite you want to hear.

But if it comes down to the Word of God, then you got to believe

it because the word of God said it, not because I said it.

And so here's Dave. He says he's a good man.

He's got good tidings. And the answer is, well, David,

that's all the way it works. But we understand in our heart

that the David again had that blind spot to his family.

He's hoping against hope that there's something good here.

And Ahemaz verse 28 called, remember, he's overtaken

Khushi's in the rear. Ahemaz is now in the front.

Ahemaz is the one who has the that had the news that that we

wanted to go. Khushi is the one who was just

ordered to go a little bit slower.

And Ahemaz called and said, verse #28 under the king, all is

well. And he fell down to the earth

upon the face before the king and said blessed be the Lord thy

God, which has delivered up the men that lifted up their hand

against my Lord the king and the king said, is the young man

Absalom safe now again, David's blind spot here is real him has

just told him your men have won the victory and seven give glory

to God and we're and we're going to find this out the next time

that David was more caring for Absalom than he was for his own

people. That was problematic.

But instead of saying praise God, the victory was won in his

name. What's the first thing he says

as my son, He says, is the young man Absalom safe and him as

answered. When Joab sent the King's

servant, and me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew

not what it was. Now stop right there for a

moment. He said.

Pastor, am I tracking this story right because of him?

As was the one who said he wanted to go and tell David the

news. He's the one that overtook who

shot. And now David looks him in the

eyes and he says, is this what happened?

And he goes, you know what? Who could say?

I have no idea. Now, again, looking at some

commentaries, I saw some that would defend him as say, well,

maybe he didn't know what happened.

But I don't have to be a Bible scholar to know back at the

beginning of our text that when him as he wanted to go, Joab

said someone else is going to say that the King's son is dead.

I mean, you saw that just a few moments ago, just as I did.

So Ahemez knew with 100% certainty that Absalom was dead.

But David looks him in the eyes. He says that Absalom dead.

He goes, well, who could know? And he walks up.

Now, why would he not tell the truth here?

I think there's probably a couple of reasons why 1, he

could have been afraid for his own safety.

Now, why was that? Well, there have been times that

men had come to David and said so, and so is dead.

And David's answer was and you're dead too.

Hey, Saul is dead. Oh, well, you had a hand in

that. You're dead too.

Ishbosheth is dead. You think I was going to be

happy about that? You're dead too.

Now. Is this the same situation as

that? Not even close.

He's just the messenger. I believe that in both those

other cases there were men who acted unrighteously and David

was acting righteously in that which he did.

But maybe in his mind he had a flashback about those other men

who had brought some news to David about kings or pretenders

of kings that had been slain, and he thought maybe his head

would be on a platter next. It could be because he was

afraid of the recipients reaction in general.

He didn't want to see David upset.

Like in that moment he's looking Dave in the eyes.

He's thinking, this wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to

be. Maybe he thought he was going to

be the big man, the big dog who's going to come to David and

give the news. And now he's looking David in

the eyes, and he realizes this isn't some exercise, this is

real, and that now he's had to look this man in the eye and

tell him the truth about what happened.

And he locks up. He doesn't know what to do.

Well, what does David say about this verse #30?

And the king said unto him, turn aside and stand here.

And he turned side and stood still.

David basically says, son, I don't have much use for you.

You're a messenger with no message.

You ran all this way, you ran so fast, and now you've got nothing

to say. Just stand off to the side.

I'll wait for this other man to come.

And Kushai was slower, but Kushai was willing to give the

message. And the king said unto Kushai,

or rather verse #31 Behold Kushai came.

And Kushai said, Tidings my Lord the king, For the Lord hath

avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee.

This is, this is the same thing that a him has just said.

And the king said unto Kushai, Is the young man Absalom safe?

And Kushai answered, The enemies of my Lord the king, and all

that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man

is. Now He said this very artfully,

but yet still gave the truth. And that boils down to this.

Absalom is dead. And if you don't think that's

what he said, look at the next verse.

And the king was much moved and went into his chamber over the

gate and wept. And as he went, he thus he said,

Oh my son Absalom, my son Absalom would God, I had died

for thee. Oh Absalom, my son, my son.

And this will continue the next chapter.

We'll look at it by God's grace next week.

But Kushai was slower. We got the job done.

He gave the message that needed to be given.

You know, we've been given a message of grave importance and

it requires that we give the message even if we don't get

there as fast as others may want us to get there.

It's not about how fast we get there.

It's about the fact that we get there and are faithful to the

message that we've been given. Now look at Brother Sandy.

Every month Liberty Baptist Church sends $100 a month.

You say that's not a big deal. Well, when there's 30 or 40

other churches that are also sending $100 a month, and I

don't know, that's how many supporting churches they have.

I'm just guessing. But we're giving him the money

that is necessary to do what? To be able to do that which God

has called him to do. And if we could, I would say

something like this, that we put money in Scott Sandy's hand and

we tell them this, run, run, go give the message.

That's what we're doing. Kenny Keck in Papua New Guinea

and Kaylee Keck, I should say, because he's not the only

missionary. His wife's the missionary and

the kids are the missionaries. We put money in their hands and

say this, run. Now, we don't put that on the

memo line of the check. We just put their name.

But do you know what we're saying?

Hey, go run. You got a message, and when you

get there, you give the message that you're supposed to give.

Run. I don't know if you're aware of

this, but you pay me. I hope that doesn't upset any of

you, but it's you pay me a little bit of money.

And that's not always been the case, but I thank the Lord of

the past few years. That's what it is.

But you know, you probably think that, you know, you pay your

pastor to gallivant around the world and be an international

speaker, but that's not why you pay me.

I thank the Lord that there's abilities to be able to do

certain things at certain times. But you know why you have a

pastor? Every month there's a paycheck

that's put in my hand. And you know what you're telling

me as a church run, do not run away from here, but to go run

and give the message to as many people as I can.

That's what you expected me, by the way.

You ought to expect that of me to be able to proclaim from

behind this pulpit or in front of this pulpit the good news and

to proclaim the good news outside of this building to as

many people as we can. This is what you expect of me.

But also remind you today that the expectation that is had of

the missionaries and the expectation this had of the

pastor is God's same expectation for you as well, is that he's

put the gospel in your trust. And this is what he's saying,

run, run. And when you get there, make

sure you open your mouth and say what you need to say.

You know, here's the problem. This man had the story.

He had the speed, but he didn't speak.

What do we have? We have the story.

You know, I'm not talking about a story like a fairy tale.

We have the greatest story ever told, the story of the good news

of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.

We have the story. We have the speed.

The message can get out faster than any other time in human

history that God has allowed you to be able.

Some of you will give the gospel on your social media.

I see you do that. You can.

You can give your own words to hundreds, if not thousands of

people for free. Do you realize how amazing that

is? Now, not everybody is

comfortable doing that. Not everybody should do that.

But we can have tracks printed at a low price, a very low

price. In fact, we've got three boxes

in the back that I'm about to put out now that I'm back that

because we've used so many of them and there's more.

We can print those. We can do social media

campaigns, a YouTube videos, all these different types of things,

but it really all comes down to this, that every single one of

us, we have the story, we have the speed, but if we don't

speak, we're nothing better than him as who runs and runs and

runs and runs. He gets there, he's out of

breath, and when he looks the guy in the eye, he's got nothing

to say. Now, let's get real here for a

moment. Not that I haven't been real for

the last 30 minutes, but let's get real here for a moment.

There are times you know you need to give the gospel.

You can feel within your heart the Holy Spirit telling you this

is someone that you need to talk to about the Lord and you look

him in the eye and it doesn't come out.

Why? Well, it could be like a him as

you're afraid of the repercussions.

Maybe he thought he was going to die.

It could be because you're just afraid of the reaction to the

other person. So I'm not afraid of what other

people think. Well, come on, man.

Let's get, remember, I said we're getting real.

Of course you are. I'm a pastor.

I get afraid. I, I, I, I'm embarrassed to

admit that. But at the same time, I, I have

to be honest with you. There are times I am fearful of

giving the gospel. Why?

Why should I? God's given me everything.

But yeah, I looked that guy in the eyes.

I looked that woman right in the eyes.

And I, I think I don't know how they're going to respond.

Maybe this isn't the day and I'm a Himez.

I got the story, I got the speed, but I don't speak.

But yet there's all these different groups out there that

have got lies wrapped up in lies, gift wrapped in further

lies, and they're out there peddling their wares everywhere

you go. And here we are.

We got the truth. We've got a Resurrection Sunday

two weeks from now, and there's people you know that need to be

in this building even more that there's people that you know

that need to know the gospel. And you can invite him in here

and we can preach the gospel to him.

Praise the Lord for that. But you could also give it to

him if the Lord opens the doors for you as well.

We have a visitation right before the day before.

Why? Because there's some people we

want to remind him the next day, hey, there's a church you need

to go to that's open, that loves you, that's going to preach the

gospel. We need help that day.

We need help every time we have visitation.

We need help that day. I'll tell you something that

really affected me while I was away.

Diane had about an hour that she was doing something in Edinburgh

and, and I had an hour to myself and here I am in a foreign

country. And I thought, what am I going

to do for the next hour? And I said, you know what, I'm

just going to walk around and see what I can find.

And so downtown Edinborough, the old city, the castle's right

there. I mean, it's, it's so

incredible. And I start walking and I

realized, oh, you know what I would do?

I'll go walk to the train station because I love trains.

And so I'm going to walk over there.

It's about 10 minutes away. So I walk over the train

station. I look inside and it's, you

know, it's train station all right.

But it's pretty neat. And so I walk back out and I

look around. I say, what else?

What else should I do? I still got a decent amount of

time. And I remembered as I looked

over into the gardens that was across the road a little bit of

a way, that there was a statue of David Livingstone.

Now the world looks at David Livingstone as a great explorer,

the one who saw the first from Europe, who saw what would be

called become Victoria Falls, the first who who mapped out

Africa in a very meaningful way. But we know him not as much as

explorer, but the preacher of the gospel.

In fact, he was the one who requested at his death, he says

you can bury me at Westminster Abbey, but bury my heart here in

Africa. And there were men who had great

expense, decided to take his body themselves and a journey

that was arduous that delivered him there.

But they buried his heart there in Africa because he loved them

so much and gave them the gospel.

He was, he may have been explorer second, but his heart

was not let me be an explorer. His heart was, I'm going to be a

missionary and he made track so much.

They haven't explorer quite a bit.

I'm going to look at this statue and I go over, there's David

Livingstone. The statue of him, just to be

clear, I know I'm jet lagged, but I know it wasn't him.

All right, there's the statue. I'm looking at it, and I look

just about 15 feet away and there's four people standing

there, groups of two with communication racks.

And there are 4 Jehovah Witnesses standing in front of

the statue of David Livingstone. And my heart broke and I thought

there's no one here to tell the story of David Livingstone.

There's no missionary that I know of in Edinburgh.

There are some places where there are churches, but there

are so many of them don't even preach the word of God.

I couldn't even tell you where you could hear the word of God

preached in Edinburgh or many places in in in Scotland today.

A place in the United Kingdom that sent out missionaries in

the 1800s in a way that no one else did, that now needs

missionaries in equal proportion.

And here I'm looking at one of the greatest missionaries,

Whoever lived and the ones who are speaking the most are for

Jehovah Witnesses. I thought if that's not the

state of Christianity Today, I don't know what is.

We've got the message, we've got the story, we got the speed, but

we don't speak. It's a problem.

So if you know the comedic duo, Penn and Teller, I, I've used

this before. It's a very well known story and

it, but it is a real story of Penn Jillette.

He's an avowed atheist. He went to church as a younger

person, but now is an atheist. And there was someone who came

up to him with a Bible at the end of a show and wanted to give

him the Bible. And there were people that

mocked this man for doing so. And Penn Jillette, you can look

this up. This isn't just preaching.

This is true. All right.

I did find it on the Internet. But it's true that Penn Jillette

said this. I have more respect for this man

than anyone else. I don't believe a word he's

saying. But if he believes the message

of which he does, then he has to tell as many people as possible,

including me. Why?

Because the message is this heaven is real, hell is real,

and that if he believes that he has to tell as many people as

possible, I have more respect for him than almost anyone else,

even if I don't believe it. No, if we're not careful, we

could be messengers with no message.

This isn't the Country Club. This is not a recreation room.

It's not a place where good Christian people meet and mingle

and have friendships that they can't have other places.

There's a place where we gather for fellowship, but so that we

go and tell as many people as we can.

You may be a Kushai, you may be a little bit slower, you may not

be the first one there, but when the times are ready, open your

mouth and say what God's told you to say and God will bless

it. 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

[email protected]. 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.