The King and the Beggar | September 14, 2025 PM

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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 mylibertybaptist.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.

We'll be looking at David and Mephibosheth this evening.

I couldn't help as I was getting this message ready that this oh,

the opening words of this book kept coming to my mind.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times, Dave.

All right, listen to Dave. All right, He's going to.

Why don't I sit down and you come up here, Dave?

I was asked. I was hoping you'd just give me

the name. I didn't know you'd keep talking

because honestly, I didn't know. I didn't know the next line

after that. So that's good.

You could have just said something that was total

nonsense. And I always said, Yep, that's

the next line. So, but Dave, that's our well

learned, well read brother. But it was the best of times of

the worst of times, The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

And when I think of the best of times and the worst of times, in

many ways I think of David and Mephibosheth because David was

living in the best of times. David was the king of Israel and

listen, everything was going right.

I mean, haven't we seen David give, or God rather give David a

covenant just a few weeks ago? And then we saw that David has

been winning in battle, that he's gone all the way to the

land of the Philistines and has captured Gath, and then in the

eastern direction has gone all the way to the Euphrates and has

gotten land there that was promised all the way back in the

time of Abraham. But it was a promise that really

hasn't been realized in the Life and Times of the people of

Israel yet. I mean, it was the best of

times. But then there's Mephibosheth, a

man who was lame on his feet. And to live life in disability

at that time was in many ways a death sentence.

Because you think of all the ways that someone who has a

disability is able to live with dignity here and now, with the

different modes of transportation, the different

methods that are available to help people that aren't able to

do some of the things that those of us who are able bodied are

able to do. There's an inherent dignity that

in some ways, in many ways, or is offered to someone with a

handicap or disability here and now where we live.

That was not the case in the time of Miss Fibischath.

It literally was the worst of times I've been to find the

disparity between David and Mephibosheth.

You couldn't get a gulf that was much larger than what we're

going to see here in Second Samuel chapter #9 But in the

midst of the sorrow, in the midst of the grief, in the midst

of the beauty and the turmoil that we'll see here tonight, we

find one of the greatest accounts you will find in the

Word of God of the love of David for the son of an enemy's

family, Saul Mephibosheth, a grandson of Saul, a son of

Jonathan, and the inherent kindness offered to him by the

king. And you can't help think, even

as we've already said here this evening, to see the parallel

between our neediness, our abject poverty spiritually, and

the king of all creation who smiled upon us and didn't just

save us. As if that would have been

enough, but gave us far beyond anything we possibly could

imagine or deserve. It's all here in Second Samuel

chapter #9 This evening. Would you stand, please for the

reading of God's Word? Second Samuel chapter #9 If

you're looking to have a book club this week, see Dave after

church and he'll be glad to recite the remainder of of the

book to you. That was great, Dave.

I, I enjoyed that was that was so much even better than I'd

imagined in my mind before service started.

That was great. Second Samuel chapter #9 Look at

verse one. It says, And David said, Is

there yet any that is left of the House of Saul, that I might

show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

And there was of the House of Saul a servant, whose name was

Zeba. And when they had called him

unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Zeba?

And he said, Thy servant is he? And the king said, Is there not

any of the House of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God

unto him? And Zeba 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 Zeba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the House of

Maker, the son of Emil in Lodibar.

Then King David sit and fetched him out of the House of Maker,

the son of Emil from Lodibar. 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 he answered, Behold thy servant.

And David said unto him, Fear not, for I will surely show the

kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore

the all the land of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread

at my table continually. And he bowed himself, and said,

What is thy servant? Thou should look upon such a

dead dog as I am. Then the king called Zeba A sole

servant, said unto him, I have given unto thy master son all

that pertain to Saul and to his house.

Now therefore and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land

for him, and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master son

may have food to eat. But mephibosheth thy master son

shall eat bread alway at my table.

Now Zeba had fifteen sons and 20 servants.

And said Zeba unto the king, According to all of my Lord, the

king has commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do.

As 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 Zebra were servants unto Mephibosheth.

So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat

continually at the King's table and was lame on both feet.

The title of my message tonight is The King and the Beggar.

And not realizing that maybe before we started the service

that the king and the beggar we're Speaking of is not so much

Mephibosheth and David, but the Lord and us and our need.

Why don't you be seated? Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, I pray to you be with us tonight.

And again, thank you for this time and I thank you for what

we've experienced already today. But Lord, we cannot live off the

blessings of the past. Lord, even a message from

earlier today, Lord, we don't, we don't, we don't seek

something new here tonight because there's nothing new in

your word. But we do just seek that you

would speak to us afresh and anew from your word tonight.

And that are hard to be encouraged and helped through

what we see with David and Mephibosheth and our

relationship with you as well mirrored through what we see

here in Second Samuel Chapter 9. And we do ask it in Jesus name,

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

Amen. What an amazing picture we have

here in Second Samuel Chapter 9 of the love of the King.

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

But yet we also see not just the love of the King, but the depths

of depravity of this man named Mephibosheth.

And really, the depths, the total depths that he is

suffering aren't probably immediately clear as we go

through our text just by reading it the first time here this

evening, we start verse #1 where David asked a very interesting

question. He says, is there yet any that

is left of the House of Saul that I might show kindness for

Jonathan's sake? You know, it's interesting that

David a few chapters ago had basically said this.

What can I do for God? Remember, can I build the Lord a

house? I dwell in a House of Cedars,

and God dwells in a House of tents.

And what can I do for God? And now just a couple chapters

later, what's David saying? What can I do for others?

And isn't that real really showing why David was a man

after God's own heart? What's the 1st and greatest

commandment? Love the Lord thy God with all

thy heart, and all thy soul with all thy mind.

And the second is like unto it. Love thy neighbor as thyself.

And David is showing that here in the Old Testament.

What can I do for God and what can I do for others?

Now, may I also remind you that here in verse #1 He doesn't know

that Jonathan has a son that's alive.

He doesn't recognize You could maybe if you're a little bit

jaded, say, well, sure, he wants to help Mephibosheth because

Mephibosheth is the son of Jonathan, and Jonathan was his

best friend. He did not know that was the

case. His original question was this,

can I help someone in the House of Saul because of Jonathan?

But basically he was saying this, I will help anyone who is

yet alive, who is in the House of Seoul, in the household of

Seoul. And that's even more remarkable

when you consider the last encounter he had with the

household of Seoul was Ishma Chef.

And that go very well. Remember, Ishbosheth tried to

steal his Kingdom. And in some ways he was able to

for a short period of time. Listen, David dealt with Saul.

David dealt with Ishbosheth. If in the back of his mind he

says, you know what, if I never hear the name of the House of

Saul again, I'll be a happy man. But this was a God.

This was a man who loved God and this is a man who loved others.

And so because that he says, listen, there's got to be

someone in this family that I would be able to be a help to,

that I will be able to be a blessing to.

And the word comes to him that there is such a man and his name

is Mephibosheth. And he's a man who is lame on

his feet. He's a man who is disabled.

He cannot move on his own. He has no physicality like he

would have had others would have had as well.

And so Zeba, this servant comes and explains this to David.

And David reiterates once again, why want to show some kindness

unto him because of the he's of the House of Saul and because of

the of my friendship with Jonathan.

But also, we can go back and we won't do this for the sake of

time, but you can go back to first Samuel chapter #20 verses

14 and 15. And remember there was a

covenant made between David and Jonathan, basically that they

would care for one another and that they would care for one

another's families. And they did so in life.

And after Jonathan passed away, David continues to want to

maintain this covenant that he made with his best friend

Jonathan. He may be gone, but I want to

honor Jonathan's family because of the promise that I made those

many years ago. Well, the question maybe that

you might have in your mind is, well, what happened to

Mephibosheth? How did he get into the

situation that he was in? You might remember we so briefly

read about Mephibosheth's problem several weeks ago.

It probably would have been about a couple months ago.

And I kind of said at the time, mark this in your mind because

we'll be coming back to this eventually.

And guess what? Tonight's the night.

All right, Second Samuel chapter 4.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

Leave your spot there, but just go a few pages back to Second

Samuel chapter #4 we'll read the first 4 verses.

It says. And when Saul's son heard that

Abner was dead in Hebrew, his hands were feeble, and all the

Israelites were troubled, And Saul's son had two men that were

captains of bands. The name of the one was Bena,

and the name of the other Rekhab, the sons of Rimmon

Berethite of the children of Benjamin.

For B Roth was reckoned to Benjamin, and the B Ross fled to

get him, and were sojourners there until this day.

Now note this verse 4. And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a

son that was lame on his feet. Well, how did that happen?

He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and

Jonathan out of Jezreel. And his nurse took 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. So Mephibosheth was not born

with this disability. Mephibosheth was not born unable

to walk. It just so happened that in the

commotion, you'll remember the the fog of war that took place

at the end of First Samuel when Israel was under siege by the

Philistines, that Saul and his sons all died with the exception

of Ishbosheth. Because we don't know where that

guy was until he showed up sitting on his false thrown with

his false crown here around the same time period.

But on that day, what do we see that Mephibosheth just five

years old, their family is evacuating.

Their family is trying to get away from the danger that is

coming upon him. He has a nurse.

This nurse grabs Mephibosheth somewhere along grabbing him and

trying to get him to safety. There's an accident.

He falls, he hurts himself, he breaks his legs.

Very likely not being able to receive medical attention at the

time because of the the danger that they were in that his legs

grew back in a way that was deformed, that he wasn't able to

walk. This was not something that he

was born with. This was something that came

upon him while he was still a young child.

Now I do want to say this and I want to be careful how I say

that this evening, but but Fibba chef and the trouble that he was

in was not of his own doing. That the difficulty that he

found himself in. Yes, he was under the Providence

and watched care of God. Of course, certainly he was as

we all were. But but I will tell you this.

When I look at the life of Saul and I look at what happened that

day, Saul died, his sons died, his grandson, grandson became

disabled. Listen, our bad choices have

consequences. All bad choices have

consequences far beyond anything we could have imagined.

Could you imagine if someone had told Saul, listen Saul, you're

going on a road that if you don't get off this road, your

sons will be dead and your your grandson will be physically

disabled because of you and because what you have done.

I would imagine that perhaps he would have had the mental

clarity to say, well, I probably shouldn't be going this way.

But listen, none of us are able to see the end from the

beginning. None of us are able to know

where our choices will take us. God has not given us that

luxury. So what do we need to do?

We need to trust the Lord that we live a life that is good and

right and holy. Why not?

Because if we do so, that calamity doesn't befall us.

What? We understand that bad things

can happen even when we are following the Lord.

But listen, there's some things that God wants you to avoid when

he wants you to avoid sin. And listen, there's some things

that when we don't avoid sin, that will befall not just

ourselves, but the people we love.

Now listen, I don't like living with the the consequences of my

own sin, but if you're like me, you understand I did it.

I've got to live with it. You know, what's hard is getting

the place where I understand that there are people that I

love that have to live with consequences because of my sin.

That's a lot tougher, isn't it? There could be people you've

never even met, people that aren't even alive yet that can

suffer the consequences for sin. Now listen, is God a gracious

God? How much time do we got tonight?

Of course, God's a gracious God. God's loving and he's kind.

And listen, even though we have wandered from him, as many of us

have at some point in our life, has God be gracious to restore

us? Oh yes.

But is it a warning to us? Yes, our choices have

consequences. It sure is.

And it's a warning in Mephibosheth's life, a man who

suffered, I would dare say, because of the poor choices of

his grandfather. So what happens?

Well, going back to chapter #9 as you turn back there, we find

that it says that here is Mephibosheth, and he is living

in this home, and he is in a place called Lodibar, and he is

called to meet David. It seems to me that he is afraid

and that he is in a place where he feels like he's going to die.

Now, why would that be? Well, in those days, if you were

found to be a relative of a royal family that has been

fallen from grace, Well, what does that mean?

The new royal family, the new king can do what?

The statue. And again, because the king was

the law, no one would say anything.

And so perhaps maybe in Mephibosheth's mind, he's

thinking, well, all, all David knows about my family, at least

recently, has been Ishbosheth. And, and maybe he believes that

someday I'll have an uprising myself as well as Ishbosheth

did. And certainly he's going to try

to take care of me as well. I do believe he was afraid

because David's first words to him were fear not.

Why would David say fear not if he wasn't exemplifying it,

wasn't showing some level of fear in the way he was

presenting himself to David. He did him reverence and

David's, he said, behold thy servant.

He's trying to show himself as a man of humility.

But David says fear not. Basically saying this, whatever

you think's about to happen, it's quite the opposite.

Whatever you think is about to take place, it's not what you're

thinking. He says, here's my plan.

Mephibosheth. Your father, Jonathan was a

friend of mine. The two of us made a covenant.

He took care of me. I took care of him.

We said we'd take care of each other's families.

He helped make sure that me and my family were hidden from your

grandfather. And now you have a need.

And I am someone that has means. And so you know what I'm going

to do? He says, I want you to come, and

I want you to eat your bread at my table continually.

I mean, Can you imagine what a privilege that would have been

for a man to be invited to the table of the king?

But it wasn't just that he was invited to the table of king.

He said this, I want to invite you, but I want to invite you in

perpetuity. He says.

It's not just that I want to invite you to a banquet tonight

and send you off tomorrow, but I want you to stay here.

And I want you to know that you're always going to be fed

with me. But it wasn't just that He says

you lost some land. Your family lost land.

The land of Saul has been gone. Your ancestral land is gone.

And you've not want to make claim against that land.

And So what I'm telling you is that you are going to make claim

against that land. I'm going to make sure that your

ancestral land belongs to you. But you know, physically you

can't work that land because of your situation.

And so Ziba, the servant here, he's going to take care of your

land. And he's got 15 sons.

And by the way, whoa. All right, fifteen sons.

And did anybody else catch that? All right, fifteen sons and 20

servants. It's like, you know, wow.

I mean, so many things we could say about that here tonight.

But he said, listen, they all are working for you now, but

they're not on your payroll. They're on my payroll.

I'm going to take care of them. And not only that, you're going

to be at my table. It says in verse #10 Alway.

And then in verse #11 it says you're going to eat at my table

as one of the King's sons. Basically, you're going to live

as royalty because you lost your royalty when someone else made a

bad decision. But I'm going to restore you in

essence, to that which you could have had if Saul hadn't made the

choice that he has. You're going to be a son of the

king, and I'm going to take care of everything that you need.

Man, you want to talk about the best of times.

The man who had the worst of times is now living in the best

of times. It's an incredible account, but

I'll tell you what makes the account even more incredible is

I mean, look, look, you feel bad for, for I'm a Fitbit chef here.

He's lame on his feet again. He lived in a time when there

would have been very little that would have been there to help

him with his disability. But I would tell you, as you you

do a little bit more digging, you find there's there's more

hints that his situation was even more dire than maybe we

would have thought at first. Just kind of doing a cursory

reading of the chapter. In fact, go back to verse #2 it

says this. And there was of the House of

Saul a servant whose name was Zeba.

And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto

him, Art thou Zeba? And he said, thy servant is he?

I would suggest to you that David didn't even know that

Mephibosheth existed, because Mephibosheth was living in

hiding. He was living in fear.

It wasn't that he was living out in the open.

He literally as the king who had the knowledge of the Kingdom in

front of him, he had to do some real reconnaissance to even find

this guy in the first place. So he was living in fear.

It wasn't just he was fear full of David in that moment.

It very likely that he had been living in fear for years.

Wondering if David finds out where I am, I'm a dead man.

But it gets worse than that. Go down to verse #4 it says king

said unto David, where is he? And zebra said unto the king,

behold he is in the House of make here the son of a meal.

So is he even living in his own house in hiding?

No, he's bumming out at someone else's house.

He doesn't even have his own place to live.

So he's in hiding. He's hiding in someone else's

house. Even though he owns land, Saul's

ancestral land would have belonged to him.

He doesn't even want to claim the land.

He's living with someone else. He's living in hiding.

He barely has his own place to be able to take for his own.

And it says that he lives in a place called Lodibar.

Now this might be the most descriptive of all.

Now you know in the Bible that often times we find names.

And we find places and these nouns that we find the, the,

these, these names often mean something.

You know, you can go back and do a little bit of research and

find out what it means. Lodibar is a very descriptive

name. Now, Lodibar was a city to the

east of Jordan. You'll remember we just talk

about the east of Jordan last week as David was moving towards

the Euphrates, reclaiming land. But you remember those 2 1/2

tribes that never crossed the Jordan River?

I mean, they did cross to be able to help with the conquest,

but then they decided to live in what is called Gilead.

We'll find Gilead as we go through some of these accounts

later on. This was this land that was kind

of, well, we would call it the Wild West, but really for them

it would have been the wild E because it was the East.

It was a land that really wasn't well settled.

It was a land that seemed disconnected from the rest of

Israel because of the Jordan River and because of the

distance. And so this town of Lodibar was

of some distance from the other 9 1/2 tribes of Israel.

But the word Lodibar is very descriptive because lo, the word

lo in Hebrew means no. And D beer as it's used means

either word or thing. So Lodibar means no word or no

thing. Could we maybe put it this way

in the way we talk in 2025 English?

Lodibar was a nothing town. Lodibar was in the middle of

nowhere. Listen, Lodibar was the Mayberry

of Israel. Listen, we've been to the Rio

Mayberry in Mount Airy, NC It's a pretty neat place to get to go

around and see Floyd's Barbershop and, you know, the

Walker Drug Store and all that stuff.

And for someone that grew up on that kind of television, when

television was television, you know what I'm saying, and watch

that kind of stuff, I enjoyed it very much.

But you know, one of the appeals of watching The Andy Griffith

Show is that Mayberry really had nothing going on.

And what did Barney always want to do?

He always wanted to get to Mount Pilot or always want to get to

Raleigh, where all the action was, you know, he want to get

out of Mayberry because there was nothing going on in

Mayberry. And that was where the humor of

the show was found. Listen, Lodi Bar was the

Mayberry of Israel. There nothing going on.

By the way, there was Number Gomer, there was Number Goober,

there was Number Floyd. There was none of them.

There was no entertainment of any kind of note.

What do we see? That Lodi Bar was a nothing

place. And so here's a man who's lame

on his feet. He's living in hiding.

He has to live in someone else's borrowed home and live with

another family and he's living in a town that has nothing going

for it. Mephibosheth has nothing.

Can I even put it this way in? In essence, Mephibosheth is

nothing. He's a nobody.

He's a non entity. The world was passing him by.

Listen, I'm thankful because we have a son with disabilities.

I'm thankful that there is a movement that shows the inherent

dignity of everyone, including those with disabilities.

I'm thankful that there is that's been seen and that's been

heard and that's talked about in our society today.

Listen, that was not the case back then.

There was no help there. There was no assistance there.

There was no real help in that time the way that we would think

of it today. But what do we see?

Here was a man who had nothing. He had nothing going for him.

He had nothing by way of anything he could provide for

himself. He was completely at the mercy

of everyone until the king came along.

And a man who had nothing all of a sudden had everything.

Does it sound like anybody you know, say, well, pastor, I'm not

disabled. Pastor I, I don't have the

physicality issue. Pastor I, I own my own home.

Pastor I don't, I don't live in Lodibar.

I, you know, I live in Bridgewater and I would say no,

nevermind. I would say listen.

Well, physically, the similarities may not be the same

as Mephibosheth. Spiritually, we were

Mephibosheth before our King came by.

Who was our king? King Jesus?

That we had nothing. We were nothing.

In fact, our prospects were so dim that death and hell were in

our future. But then the king came by and

what did he do? He said eat with me.

But he didn't just say that. He said this.

You could sit at my table forever.

But he didn't just do that. He said this, I'm going to

provide land for you, but he didn't just say that, He said

this. I'm going to make you as one of

my own children and adopt you into my family.

Do you realize what God has done for us?

That you are a Mephibosheth and I'm Mephibosheth.

That you can't read Second Samuel Chapter 9 without seeing

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

Jesus Christ and yourself in this text.

You know David is real, Bephibosheth is real.

But but why is this in the word of God?

Because God wanted to show you what your life was like apart

from Christ, and God wants to show you how rich you are now

that you're in Jesus Christ. Only God can take a nobody going

nowhere and set him at the table with the King.

Only God can do that. So what does our King do?

He tells us to fear not. He says he'll take the bread of

life and feed us with it, and he says He'll give us a home with

Him forever in heaven. Revelation One verse 6 says He

had made us kings and priests, and to God and his Father, to

him be glory and dominion, forever and ever.

Amen. He has made us kings and

priests. David in essence adopts him.

David brings him into his family.

He's going to eat like one of the King's sons.

But Romans 815 says, For ye have not received the spirit of

bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit of

adoption whereby we cry, ABBA, Father, and as I mentioned you

before, listen, God never had to save us, but he didn't want to

save us. He desired to save us.

That's why Jesus Christ came. But listen, He could have saved

us without adopting us into his family and giving us the rights

of adoption that we have by being brought into his family.

He could have saved us and kept us at arm's length.

He could have saved us and said, because of my love and my mercy,

I will save you. But in essence, you repulse me.

In essence, I want nothing to do with you.

In essence, I will keep you at arm's length.

He could have done that and he would have been righteous even

in doing that. But yet God in his love and God

in his mercy, in his care, He loved you so much that Jesus

Christ died for you and gave you everything when we I had

nothing. And not just that he says this,

I want you to be part of my family.

You belong to me. One pastor put it this way,

Mephibosheth's life teaches us the true royalty is not in

physical strength or status, but in the grace of a king who seeks

out the forgotten. That's beautiful.

You know, I don't know what anxiety you're dealing with

today, but know this, the King not only wants you to take

courage, he's going to provide for you.

He's not just going to provide for you.

He'll promise you protection. And he won't just promise you

protection. He'll adopt you into his family.

What more could a person ever desire?

What more could a person ever want?

I, I told this story before and so I apologize if you've heard

it before, but just smile and nod like you haven't heard it

before. And it does help me to be able

to have you, my children especially, feel that way.

It was several years ago that we had a veteran's service here,

the very first one that we had, and I was told by someone in the

town of a man who was a veteran who was homeless.

And to be able to visit this man, I literally had to drive in

Brockton to a homeless encampment.

It was basically go to the Dunkin, go down about half a

block, pull over on the side of the road.

There'll be a path. You go down a little bit and

you're going to find this man in such and such a tent.

And literally, that's what I was able to do with brother Dan

Woodward as well. We found this man, his name was

Richie. When I say he had nothing, he

had nothing but what was in that tent.

And listen, often times we think, boy, I don't have a lot.

You know, we have a whole lot more than we think we have.

And I would say even those who are homeless in this country

have much more than many do in other quarters of the world.

That what's provided even through our own government in

this country is far greater than what people have in many third

world countries and even other countries that are not the

United States of America talked to this man, Richie, and

encouraged him to be able to come to our church.

And he did. He came on that veteran Sunday,

Dan Woodward literally came out and drove the van out to that

homeless encampment, went out, picked him up, brought him into

church. I remember Richie coming in.

And I will tell you, one of the real, real treats as a pastor to

me. One of the things that has stood

out to me over the years, and I've said this before and I'll

say it again because I do think it bears repeating, especially

as new people come over the years.

Our church has been blessed to have many dignitaries, if you

will, over the years. We've had those who have been in

politics in our town. We've had a state representative

who in the last administration was actually a ambassador to the

nation of Ireland. She's been to our church before.

Claire Cronin. I think many of you know that

we've had a Major League Baseball players come here

before, but I won't belabor that point.

Did you ever think anyway that you would be in a car with Manny

Ramirez? But and people have treated them

well, and that's really the way it's supposed to be.

But I'll tell you one of the greatest things that's brought

me pride, the good kind of pride, was to see people rally

around a man who hadn't washed, who didn't have his clothes

clean, a man who looked pretty ragged but loved him with the

love of Christ. You know, anyone could be nice

to Manny Ramirez. And let's be honest, people were

coming out of the woodwork when they found out that Manny

Ramirez was here. Nobody comes out of the woodwork

when Richie comes to church. Isn't that what James chapter 2

James 2 · chapter mention

tells us to do? To not regard the one in the gay

apparel and the great and and grand apparel and then to look

at the one the other that the one that isn't right and say get

beneath my footstool, get away from me.

Don't, don't be around other people.

But people treated him as a soul.

It was not long after that that Richie was coming, that Richie

accepted Jesus Christ as a Savior.

We didn't have a lot of time with Richie, but we did were

able to help and be part of him getting into a program that

found him housing. Before you knew it, he got into

that place and he was in a house with other men about maybe 2

miles or so from here. He was coming to church, shine,

shave for Jesus, and folks loaned him clothes, gave him

clothes to be able to wear to church.

He came. He was a different man. 1

Because of the love of people, but really because of the love

of Christ. And really the only love that

people can give is only a radiation, a reflection of the

love of Christ. I look at Richie and I think,

man, that's what it's about. You find someone that's down and

out, you find somebody that's got nothing, you watch them get

saved, you see them grow, and that is a joy.

And that's a blessing. I'm so thankful we got to

minister them to the short period of time before he moved

to another facility. And I've never had contact with

him again. But I know this, I'll contact

with him someday. I can't wait to hear how the

rest of his life played out and how we had a very small partner.

So it's a great story. But here's what I fear when we

hear stories like that. But most of us, and I would

probably dare say all of us would be at the place where we

could say my story wasn't like that.

I was never homeless. I grew up in a middle class

family. I didn't grow up with trauma.

I grew up with two parents that love me.

I'm not saying my life was perfect.

It certainly wasn't. But I'm saying, you know, I grew

up in a pretty, you know, stable place.

I got married at a young age to a, to a beautiful wife and I

just, I had amazing children. I just, I look at my life and

I'll tell you there gets to a place where you maybe you feel

like you feel pretty respectable and you forget the fact that

spiritually speaking, no matter how my life may have played out,

spiritually speaking, I was just as needy as Richie was.

I was just as down and out as he was.

Oh no, the physical may not have manifested itself the same way,

but I was in just as much of abject spiritual poverty as

Richie was, as much as Mephibosheth was.

Listen, Mephibosheth story is Richie story, but Richie story

is my story. And maybe you got saved a

younger age and maybe you feel like you can't even identify

with this. Listen, friend, understand this.

You are in the same position that Mephibosheth was.

You were in the same position as Richie was.

Listen, you had nothing and God gave you everything.

Well, I got saved when I was five years old, Pastor.

I got saved when I was seven years old.

You think that if you had continued on the trajectory of

being unsaved, that you somehow were going to be able to clean

yourself up yourself. You were in the exact same

position. You were needy, but you just

recognized that need at a young age by the grace of Almighty

God. But there will be many who would

say something like this may be different from me.

Pastor, I'm glad your story was like that, but my story played

out differently. I'm glad you grew up in a place

with comfort and ease and it wasn't that comfortable and that

easy, but maybe perhaps compared to yours, you say.

But Pastor, my story doesn't play out that way, doesn't play

out that way at all. May I remind you that even as

you now know Jesus Christ as your Savior, that God was the

one who did that and God was the one who enriched you, and God is

the one who continue to feed you, and God is the one who will

continue to care for you. Listen, there's not anything you

have that you have on your own apart from God.

You know why? Because He adopted you, He's

given you some land. You say, what kind of land is he

giving you, Pastor? I mean, you, you're a renter.

You said, oh, I'm a renter. But I do know where there's

going to be a mansion. The place has been prepared for

me. I do know that.

I do know he feeds me with his living bread every day.

And he's also promised to be able to meet the needs of my

daily bread as well. And hasn't God been good to you?

You know, I think sometimes we forget.

And the thrust of this message is abundantly simple.

This evening. I mentioned a few moments ago

that only God can take a nobody going nowhere and set him at the

table with the king. Listen, you were the one living

in Lodibar. You were the one that couldn't

help yourself. You were the one that was

disabled from being able to care for yourself.

And the king came along and gave you everything.

And if I was to give you just one thought this evening, it

would be this. Don't forget it.

We get so caught up in what we don't have, what we wished we

had, that things aren't right here or things that aren't right

there. And listen, I know there are

times to identify those things and there are times to take care

of those things depending on what they are in life.

But listen, you have been so well cared for by the king.

The King has cared for you in the way that no one else ever

could and no one else ever would.

Listen, keep your head up high. You're a child of the King.

Be encouraged tonight. He cares for you.

Listen, don't feel like you're alone.

He's adopted you into his family.

And by the way, that's why we call each other brothers and

sisters. Why?

Because we're part of the same family, because God has adopted

us all together and that we find commonality here in His house.

Be encouraged tonight and listen, even if your story

doesn't feel like a Mephibosheth or Richie story.

It was you were lost. You needed Jesus, you couldn't

do it on your own. But the King came along and

said, is there someone that I can show kindness to?

And when Christ died on the cross, he wanted to show

kindness to you. 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.