LIVE Sagemont Church, 09/05/21 Sunday 9:30 am Service

is the king who conquered the grave worthy is the lamb who was there worthy is the king who conquered the grave worthy is is [Music] oh this is amazing this is [Music] that you've done for me [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on give him a shout out praise hallelujah [Music] holiness with human hands treasure for the traitor nowhere had heard no i had seen the image of the father until heaven came to live with me a rescue like no other [Music] you are worthy of your name you are worthy yes you are you are worthy of your name jesus you did not speak you made no sound you died for your accusers do you redefine my future [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes you are [Music] jesus [Music] you're my author my maker my ransom my savior my refuge my hiding place you're my helper my healer my blessed redeemer my answer my saving grace you're my hope in [Music] [Music] you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] are [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] [Applause] come you sinners poor and needy weak and wounded sick and sore jesus is ready he stands to save you [Music] he will embrace me in his arms and in the arms of my dear savior oh there are [Music] ten [Music] god's free bounty [Music] [Applause] every grace [Music] you will never [Applause] come he will embrace [Music] 10 000. feel him crosstalk in the garden on the ground your naked eyes and on the bloody tree behold him sinner will this [Music] is [Music] let no other [Music] oh [Music] oh yes there are 10 000. oh [Music] we are glad you're here this morning we welcome you to our 9 30 service thank you for being here and those who are watching us streaming and all the platforms that we have we're grateful uh this morning we have a lot that we can pray for this morning is so good to have the opportunity to hear jay louder i'll introduce him in just a moment but we pray for souls don't we for sure i i have been praying for one in particular this week i pray even this morning we'll come to know him and um we we don't want to fail to pray for so much going on in our in our community and our country you know covet is so uh very difficult right now uh it's caused a lot of illness you know we have this this very weak lost uh two very dear uh people to us one even yesterday so we pray we need to pray pray pray pray we don't need to fail to pray we need to be measured in our speech but we need to be extravagant with our prayers right we need to be just absolutely on our on our faces so we need to pray for our our country and the those who are left behind in afghanistan and those uh who are christians over in afghanistan who are struggling and being martyred have been so very persecuted and we need to pray for our government we need to pray for our president that god would give him wisdom and help him make the kinds of decisions that would honor and please our our lord so i just want to invite you to pray with me for just a few moments you pray how god has prompted you to pray but i'm going to voice some of these things would you bow with me for a moment god thank you for the morning and the opportunity to meet with my brothers and my sisters here in this room and we come before you god with with hearts that want to be so empty of self and so full of jesus we pray god this morning that you would speak the hearts in this very room and that you would save many souls here today lord i pray it would be so that you would just break our wills lord jesus and help us to see these lives for what they are just a fleeting vapor and yet eternity lies before us forever with you how blessed we have been to hear about that this past week and god we pray for uh this rampant covet that's going around and we know that it's still affecting so many people and for those who grieve the loss of those ones that they love so much who be passed even this very week we left them to you we pray for peace we pray god that you give them mercies in you every morning that they would understand that we do not grieve as those who have no hope we have hope here today just because of you so we pray god you would break the back of this this horrible virus break the back of this virus and set set us free to be about doing your will we pray for our country lord we pray god that you would protect those christians over in afghanistan who are so afflicted and maybe even in hiding and we know that some have already been martyred before you they will wear the martyr's crown god we pray that you would speak hope to the hearts of the ones who were there and give them a path forward through your spirit lord show them your way show them your way we pray for our country pray for our president we pray for those leaders who make these decisions lord that you would break their hearts and that you would cause them to see see the face of jesus and hear your heart i pray the word of god will be strong in us today god we need you we need you so badly we love you and we pray all in your name amen amen would you be seated for just a moment thank you all so much i want to introduce to you jay louder i grew up when there was a lot of evangelists all around and we don't see so many today especially those who are wonderfully anointed by god but this is this is a friend of sage my church he's been here many times and every time he comes we see people come to know christ he knows god's word and i so do appreciate that about you jay i think you know more scripture than anybody about ever heard but i'm so pleased to uh say he is here today and i pray that you will all through this message be listening to to the lord and the holy spirit and i just do pray that your your your mind will be set on prayers and set on heavenly things and good things just as this man comes but would you make this dear friend j louder welcome to sage my church today we sure do love you jerry bless you well it is great to be back and i'm going to say it even though it sounds cliche truly this is one of my favorite churches that i ever get a chance to preach in and again i have been here several times and it's never enough i'm always hoping that i get invited back again um i love your pastor i got a chance to really kind of get to know him a lot better over the summer and of course many of your staff i've known for quite some time so i'm grateful to be here if you would turn with me to second samuel chapter four second samuel chapter four then hold your place there i want to preach a new message to you and i think maybe some of you may be very unfamiliar with this story in this individual um i personally have never heard a message on this individual but i i think it's very apropos and i think that maybe many of us can relate to it and the backdrop of course of all this is a king named saul of course he was the first king of israel and the backdrop also of this is king david who we all know was we've all heard the story of david and goliath second samuel chapter four verse four we're going to read one verse and we're going to skip over to chapter nine but this is what god's word says second samuel 4 4 i'll be reading out of the new king james version the bible says jonathan saul's son had a son who was lame in his feet he was five years old when the news about saul and jonathan came from jezreel and the nurse took him up and fled and it happened as she made haste to flee that he fell and became lame his name was mephibosheth now that's a long name so probably today i may just shorten it to bo to make it simple how about that and many of us have heard that vernacular in texas anyway so move on over to chapter 9 and then we're going to read a little bit longer passage chapter 9 ii samuel we're going to read verses 1 through 13 kind of a long passage but i think it's important in the context of this message second samuel 9 verse 1 says this and david said is there still anyone who has left of the house of saul that i may show him kindness for jonathan's sake and there was a servant of the house of saul whose name was ziva and when they had called him to david the king said to him are you zeva and he said i'm at your service and then the king said is there not still somebody of the house of saul to whom i may show the kingdom of god and zebus said to the king there is still a son of jonathan who is lame who is crippled in his feet and so the king said to him where is he and zebus said to the king indeed he's in the house of makkar the house of amiel and lodibar then king david sent and brought him out of the house of macker the son of amiel from lodibar and when mephibosheth that's beau again the son of jonathan the son of saul had come to david he fell on his face and prostrated himself and then david said mephibosheth and he answered here is your servant and david said to him do not fear for i will surely show you kindness for jonathan your father's sake and will restore to you all the land of saul your grandfather and you shall eat bread at my table continually verse 8 and then he bowed himself and said what is your servant that you should look upon such a dead dog as me and the king called to ziba saul's servant and said to him i have given to your master son all that belonged to saul and to all his house you therefore you and your sons and your servants shall work the land for him and you shall bring him in the harvest that your master son may have food to eat but mephibosheth your master son shall eat bread at my table always now ziva had 15 sons and 20 servants then ziva said to the king according to all that my lord the king has commanded his servant so will your servant do as for mephibosheth said the king he shall eat at my table like one of my own sons mephibosheth had a young son whose name was micah and all who dwelt in the house of ziba were servants of mephibosheth so mephibosheth dwelt in jerusalem and he ate continually at the king's table and he was lame in both of his feet father god we speak we pray before you this morning and lord we recognize as great as the worship was and lord this is a phenomenal church but lord we all recognize that without you and your spirit it all comes to nothing and so lord we pray today that your spirit would speak to every single person in both of these services god i pray that your mercy and your grace would be so evident that no one would be able to resist your mercy and your grace lord i pray that literally today would be a turning point in the lives of students and moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas that literally today would be that turning point where nothing is the same as it's ever been and lord we just welcome your spirit to move in a mighty way in jesus name amen a few years ago i was in georgia and i was doing a multi-day multi-day event and on sunday the monday after the sunday services the pastor and i were in the sanctuary because we were meeting up for lunch and so we were just kind of talking about the previous day's services and we're just kind of walking through the sanctuary and as we were about to leave he remembered that he left his keys in his office as we walked into the office to grab the key the secretary was out all the staff was normally they did not take phone calls from 12 to noon because everyone was gone and certainly the pastor as busy as he is wasn't the person who would normally take a phone call but for some reason of course providence as he walked in the office to grab his keys and here we were in a rush to get to lunch he picked up the telephone on the other end of the line was a lady who was standing on a ladder a very wealthy husband living in a mansion standing on a ladder with one end of a rope tied around one of the rafters and the other end around her neck she began to tell the pastor that she was about to end her life and decided as a last-ditch hope that she would open up the phone book and pick a church at random to see if anybody would answer the phone well he was able to talk with her and obviously she came down off that ladder and of course we were having services that evening and he begged her to please come to the services that night that lady who was so completely desperate that early in the day had literally stood in this mansion about to end her life came to the services that night and by the mighty power of god and his spirit came forward that evening and gave her life to christ it was a turning point for her but obviously this was a lady who was in great desperation a lady who literally had lost all hope and as i think back on that story i think it's a good leading to what we read this morning we read this story about this man by the name of mephibosheth you have to understand that his grandfather was saul the king his father was a guy named jonathan who happened to be best friends with david who we have all heard about as we pick up the story saul and his son were killed in battle and as was the custom of the day when a new king was going to be taking over a kingdom the custom was to exterminate all of the family and so when beau's nurse found out that his father and grandfather had been killed she picked up bo and began to run out of the house to take him into hiding and as we read this morning in the process of picking up this young boy named mephibosheth she dropped him and he became lame in his feet as the story goes on two decades have passed of course david is king it's 10 times its original size without a single defeat and for 20 years this young would-be prince hasn't been seen or heard from he's in hiding the young prince who would one day have become a king the one the prince with such a bright and promising future that future has become as dark as a coffin and we see some really unique things in the story the first thing we see is is there's this stigma on bo the stigma he's dropped many of us understand this whole concept of being dropped dropped off at the orphanage dropped by a spouse dropped by an insurance policy dropped from the team dropped from by a boyfriend dropped by a girlfriend in essence it means being discarded forgotten left behind it's it's amazing to think that this boy who would have become king one day is now 20 years in hiding not only did he have a stigma being dropped but he also had this stigma of being labeled i find it very ironic as we read the story this morning that for the most part his name is not mentioned but his condition his label many of us understand this we're referred to as the widow the ex-convict the former addict the divorcee the one who is handicapped people have a tendency to label us by our failures by our problems by our difficulties not only was he dropped and not only was he labeled but he was helpless i've got two sons i think about what it must have been like for mephibosheth growing up and he not only was in hiding because of fear that if the king found out that he was alive that he would be killed but in his little village of lodibar he couldn't run as the other little boys could he couldn't do the other things that people could do there was a degree of helplessness in his life with these crippled turned up feet and you know when i think about this that this morning in some degree really that's all of us i mean we were born in sin the bible says in isaiah 64 verse 6 but we are all as an unclean thing and all of our righteousness is as filthy rags that there is a degree of helplessness and we've seen that here in the last 18 months with what's been taking place in our nation and in the world that there are so many things that are outside of our control we get also think about isaiah 41 verse 10 where the bible says fear not for i am with you be not dismayed for i am your god and yes i will strengthen you i will help you i will uphold you with my righteous right hand i think about the words of jesus in matthew 11 28 when he said come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest there was a helplessness in his life and i would certainly think that there was a hopelessness i don't know that there's been any time in history where i've met more people than i have in the last year and a half two years where there has been this feeling of just no hope many many people not only in the united states but worldwide and you know when you turn on the television you look at what's taking place right now just in the united states earlier this week i turned on my tv i was flipping back between one channel and the other one channel was talking about the fires in california that are worse than they've ever been another channel was talking about the hurricane and all those who are suffering and their homes have been wiped away that doesn't even include what's taking place with the racial division the political division a worldwide pandemic there are so many things that are unfolding in our life many people even as bill mentioned a while ago this week loved ones that have passed even the last week a certain degree of hopelessness helplessness but yet i think about what jesus says in john 14 1 he says let not your heart be troubled you believe in god believe also in me because in my father's house and many mansions and and he says in in john 16 33 he said these things meaning this book he said these things have i written unto you that in me you might have peace and he went on to say in this world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer because i've overcome the world i think about psalms 34 verse 10 where god spoke to david and he said the young lions even they suffer hunger and lack but they that seek the lord will not lack any good thing have you ever wished that maybe sometimes people could just forget your past and your failures and your mistakes and quit looking at the labels that you wear and just look at you for who you really are so we see this stigma of being dropped and labeled and helpless and hopeless and then the next thing we see in this passage is he is living in a place called lo dibar if you do some research on this place known as low to bar you will find out very quickly it basically it's this place of barrenness it's desolate it would be the equivalence of just being dropped off in the middle of the desert it's the sticks it's the wasteland how quickly life can change how quickly i mean here's this young boy and he's destined to one day be a king he runs every day in the palace and when we pick up the story he's now he's on the run he used to sit in the castle and feast and now it's days of famine at one time he laid his head down in the castle and now he lays it down on a borrowed couch how very quickly life can change as we've seen in recent days but let me remind you today maybe that's you maybe you're in this place of low to bar this wasteland where you feel like you're a castaway where you've been forgotten where people have turned their back on you where there seems to be no hope and no solutions and no answers you may feel as though you're there but let me remind you and that's one of the things i love about jesus that oftentimes i don't even see among church people is jesus was always so sensitive and so compassionate towards those who are hurting the very people that many times the religious run away from the scarred the forgotten [Music] is the ones that jesus ran to he loved hurting people and he still does that's one of the characteristics thank god that he does that there's that sympathy uh you know in his sermon on the mount matthew chapter 5 verse 4. what did jesus say he said blessed are those who mourn you say wait a minute jay that doesn't even make sense how can someone be blessed who is in mourning but jesus said you're blessed if you're mourned because i'm going to bring you comfort but let me remind you this morning god knows we see it in church after church after church that while jesus is compassionate towards those who are hurting and those who are mourning and those who are meek that what god detests and cannot stand as those who are filled with pride james the half-brother of jesus chapter 4 verse 6. it's the only place i know of in scripture where the words are spoken that god resists a group of people in james chapter 4 verse 6 says god resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble in that same chapter verse 10 what does the scripture say humble yourselves in the sight of the lord and he will lift you up first peter 5 6 says humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of god that he may exalt you in due time yes god is compassionate towards those who are hurting and towards those who are vulnerable but god is against those who are filled with pride i love what david said in psalm 75 verse 6 and 7 i meet these men and they say well i pulled myself up by my own bootstraps and and i've worked hard my whole life and these are the things that i've accomplished but no those things are not true because the bible says that promotion doesn't come from the north or the south or the east or the west but god is the judge and he raises one up and he sets another down and we see in mephibosheth all this potential and and this life that has so much promise and now everything seems to be unraveling and he's living in this wasteland and he's in hiding i think about what my grandfather used to say he would say jay make plenty of friends on your way up because you're going to need them on your way down and let me say sometimes i believe that we forget who we are because of where we're at it was before my time but many of the older generation will remember this there was a photograph that was made very famous years ago and it was when kennedy was president and his little son john john was was playing underneath the desk and people were captured by this photo that here is this man he's the most powerful man in all the world and yet here's this young little boy playing under the president's desk here he is executing world affairs in this little boy's play but it captured people's attention what the photograph really should say or should have said is the fact that john john was there not because of who he was but it was because of who he had access to and i think sometimes the pain for us is so great the scars are so deep here we are in this barren wasteland and we feel isolated and forgotten and we forget who we are i don't know about you but i want to tell you i've seen lotibar i've seen it i saw it a few months ago easter sunday when i was preaching in louisville kentucky and a man walked up to me at the table at the conclusion of the service and asked if he could take me on a short ride a little nervous about that quite frankly i didn't know this guy from adam he said i want you to meet my sons i said well are they here in the church he said no they're down the street i'm like well sir i don't really know you but he was a lot smaller than me so i figured if worse came the worst i could handle myself we got in the car his wife got in the back seat we drove about three miles between services down the road and he walked me fast the graves of three of his boys yeah i've seen lotibar in the eyes of parents who've lost a child i've seen load a bar in the eyes of spouses who have lost a lifelong partner i've seen load a bar in the eyes of alcoholics who couldn't put a bottle down i've seen in the eyes of addicts couldn't resist slamming another vein with a needle i've seen it in terminal patients can't find a cure i'm not only seeing low to bar i've lived there i know many of you have as well i've parked in low to borrow when my dad went through bankruptcy i stayed in low tomorrow for a while when my sister had a car accident in dallas texas and lost her right leg stayed in low debar when my daughter was diagnosed with incurable disease i stayed in lower bar when i was 21 years of age and put a gun in my head in my life i've seen low to bar and i've lived there and i'd venture to say that some of you not only have seen it or lived there it's quite possible that some of you are living there right now some of you are living there right now and your own family doesn't know it some of you are in low to bar your own spouse your own husband or wife or mom and dad has no clue but i want you to understand that god does he knows some of us are there because of our decisions some of us are there because of the decisions of others some of us are there because we haven't learned to get rid of the shovel that we keep using to dig ourselves deeper and deeper into a hole you know when you're there you you tend to ask the question you know it's not the right question but you tend to ask the question why we all know that we shouldn't ask that question we should be saying what what are you trying to teach me what do you want to do in my life but it's a normal question maybe that's a question you asked this morning watching by internet or in this very auditorium i don't have some colloquial christianese answer to give you but i know this in hebrews 13 5 the bible says god says i will never leave you nor forsake you i know that psalms 147 verse 3 says that he heals the brokenhearted and he binds up their wounds i know that psalms 34 18 says and i quote he is near to the brokenhearted i know that psalms 119 114 says that god is a hiding place and a shield god has not forgotten you it may seem like it but he is there i would imagine that certainly mephibosheth must have asked asked these questions time and time again so we see not only was he labeled and he had all these stigmas and he'd been dropped and he was referred by his by the accident that had happened in his life we see that he's living in literally the middle of nowhere in hiding on the run and then we see how the story begins to take a big turn honestly it's one of my favorite stories in all the script all the bible and i think by the time we get to the end you'll understand why we follow the story the next thing we see that of course he's in fear of the king as we talked about earlier he knows that the custom is to exterminate all the remaining families so there's no resistance to the throne he's lived the 20 years in hiding and one day here he is on this borrowed couch with these turned up crippled feet and the sound of a chariot he can hear in the distance i can't imagine what it's like always looking over the shoulder wondering when uh that day might come and sure enough according to scripture the chariot pulls up right in front of this place that he's in hiding oh what that must have been looked like the palace guard arrives and he is struck with terror my execution is at hand king david has finally found out where i'm living and so he's escorted to the palace he knows it's doom's day there's no question about that and we read this morning that as soon as he gets to the palace the first thing that he does is he falls down on his knees and he uses this expression where he says to the king that i am nothing but a dead dog now i understand that we look at dogs differently in this culture than they did but it was the ultimate way of communicating i am nobody i am nothing please show grace and mercy to me imagine the desperation that he must have felt the absolute terror and fear that he must have felt standing before this great man of war this great king known as king david one of the things that i absolutely love about this story is the first thing that the king does is not what the writer of the story that remember how he kept referring to beau by his by his problem that he was a crippled but the first thing the king does in the story is the king calls him by name dear god what's it gonna be like one day i wonder one day what it's gonna be like when i stand before christ and i've heard other people call my name traveling across the world what it's gonna be like when i hear my name come from the larynx of the son of god and one day you're going to hear your name come from the larynx of the son of god and and david calls him by name not his injuries you see the king did not look at his ailment at his being crippled at his issues the king recognized him as a person of worth that's what kings do remember folks you're not your past you're not what happened to you you today can literally not be any of those things but be a child of the king somebody say amen i'll just run around the auditorium on my own and that's exciting to me goodness gracious and then the next thing that the king does is he promises grace instead of judgment how many people have i met over the years that are so afraid that when they come to christ that there's going to be some lecture or some judgment but today is the day of mercy there can be a day of judgment for those who reject christ but the day is a day of mercy and and the king promises grace instead of judgment you remember titus 3 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy has he saved us titus 2 11 for the grace of god to bring salvation has appeared to all men first timothy 2 4 listen to this god is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance i don't care who you are whether you're watching by internet or whether you're in this room there is not one single person where your sin is greater than the grace of god almighty and there is not one single person it doesn't matter what you've done it doesn't matter how terribly you fail god that he is not willing to forgive you now that day can come you can die without christ that's not the day now the king he promises grace instead of judgment and then not only that he promises to restore what was lost this story is getting too good to be true i mean i'm sure mephibosheth i'm sure his mouth is wide open first of all he's called by his name and he thinks he's going to be executed and and he's all of a sudden receiving this grace and mercy and now the king is telling him everything that you lost that you were entitled to as a member of a royal family i am going to restore to you do you understand that god wants to do more than just give you a ticket to heaven but he wants to adopt you into his family and make you a child of the king and give you more than just a sunday morning attendance at church but an authentic life-changing relationship with his son man that's fine go ahead and clap that's great news [Applause] it's gonna restore what is lost we've all heard the verse isaiah 1 18 come now let us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they can be white as snow and if you thought it couldn't get any better it does if you remember in the story after the king says that he gives him a seat at his table according to the king of king david he is not only giving him a seat at the table he's giving him a seat at the table as though he were one of his own sons wow it basically is adopting and adopting him into the family no he's not embarrassed of this broken crippled man he's accepting him just the way he is and then something else we probably don't have time but i gotta i gotta just say something about this the other day when i was reading this something stood out to me that doesn't normally stand out to me and a king only has to say something one time a king doesn't have to repeat himself and the king says three different times in this process of communication three different times he says mephibosheth is going to sit at my table now i don't know about you but i love this he said well jay that's really not very significant i mean okay big deal well that may not be a big deal to you but it's a big deal to me now first of all i i think that the reason that the king said it three times is because everybody in ear distance couldn't believe what was happening i think everybody was stunned they were completely shocked i mean how could it be this crippled maine he doesn't fit into the royal family look at him he hasn't shaved he's got these old dirty clothes he's a people would look at him as a as a has-been and king david keeps saying he's going to sit at my table sit at my table sit at my table see the reason why i love that sometimes people think if you're a person who's in the public eye that there's a lot of confidence but that's not always true and i'm one of those people that i like a lot of reassurance and it drives my wife she's be here the next service she's not here now it drives her crazy i don't want her to blow up my tires and make make up lies but i like to be reassured and sometimes people think that maybe someone like me who can stand in front of groups of people but no i love to be reassured so i love this part of the story it's just a little side note it excites me i like that reassurance when the people's jaws drop down going okay i must have misheard it couldn't be that he's gonna sit at the king's table the king david says three times wow i want you to imagine the scene okay here the king has now told him okay this is the way it's going to be i'm going to restore the land basically i'm showing mercy i'm showing grace i'm now adopting the fan i want you to see the scene imagine the castle maybe there's a gold trim ceiling i envisioned sterling silver candelabras i imagine a a table with a feast that is so ornate it's so unbelievable that the food doesn't even look real i see king david sitting at the head of the table king david the one who the bible says no one ever loved god more than he did he's a king he's dressed in his royal attire at this big beautiful table to the right of him would probably be bathsheba his favorite wife i imagine she's drop dead gorgeous probably dressed in a her royal red dress maybe ruby red earrings i would imagine probably sitting next to bathsheba and all likelihood would be solomon the young man who already speaks with an eloquence and a wisdom that is unbelievable he's the one who would eventually go on to write the book of proverbs the wisest man that ever lived imagine on the other side of david is his son absalom uncharacteristically scripture very seldomly mentions what someone looks like but according to what samuel tells us is that absalom is this very handsome young man the most eligible bachelor in all the kingdom he even talks about his hair i would imagine he sits next to his father in that charcoal colored hair probably next to absalom would be tamar hair's finest silk a complexion like that of a new baby the beautiful young princess and then probably at the other end of the table would be a man by the name of joab he's a military commander he literally is a gladiator he's david's right hand man he is a man of war now as you envision this scene with here's the royal here's the strong here's the noble here's the current here's the up and coming and in the midst of all that you begin to hear some one before you even see them maybe it's the creaking of crutches as this crippled man named mephibosheth makes his way in probably you heard him not because of cr crutches but probably you might have heard him as he enters into this feast because he's probably fastened on a piece of wood that has rollers on the bottom of it as you take a piece in this take a peek into this this royal feast you might see him using his fist and and pushing his way to the table he begins to slither up to the table if you didn't know and you looked in you would say something is out of place the beautiful the young the royal and all of a sudden this crippled man you might assume he is a visitor but no he's not he's no visitor he's no guest of honor he is a son of the king and a member of the royal family i hope as you sit there it's not lost on you i hope as you listen via internet or are in the audience today that you recognize the application mephibosheth bow is you and me no it's not just some story of the old testament days because according to the bible every one of us were born in sin every one of us without the grace and the mercy of god almighty we're broken we're labeled we're hopeless and we are helpless every one of us mephibosheth knew the king owed him nothing we all know the verse ephesians 2 8 for by grace are you saved through faith grace means something for nothing no beau knew that king owed him nothing there wasn't something in him that drew the favor of god it was because of the king's generosity the king's grace the king's mercy yeah you were broken maybe you are you were lame maybe you still are maybe you've been crippled in fear but the king wants to invite you to his table the past can be just that the past some of us have been running from it for years trying to escape it try to avoid it some of us we are true believers there was a real time in our life where we truly committed our life to christ it wasn't just some religion it wasn't just a baptism or a sprinkling or something religious some religious right we went through no for for many of us who are watching and who are here there was a time when we were truly born again i mean truly saved it went from here to here and yet for many of us even though that time actually did come for many of us we are still living like mephibosheth we've been on the run we've been plagued by bitterness and anger maybe even blaming god for the things that have unfolded in our life that don't seem fair yes we're a son of the king a daughter of the king yes one day we will go to heaven because we truly repented of our sin but we are running from god and living in a wasteland because we're not right with him that's some of us today as we listen or watch by internet we know we're not right with god yes we many of us know we're going to heaven but we know we're on the run there are others of us in this room watching the internet and we've heard about the king we may have some general knowledge about him that we might even be able to quote john 3 16 but we've never truly received him we may try to live a good life we may have went through confirmation or done catechism we have done various things not even have walked an aisle when we were young in a evangelical church but right where we are we know that our relationship is not real just like me who grew up in a southern baptist church and was lost until i was 21. i want you to hear me clearly i want you to understand this morning that whether you are one of those people who have truly given your life to christ and maybe because of circumstances or pain or the scars or whatever is unfolding in your life that you've been living in lodibar in the wasteland away from the king today he wants to welcome you back home i want you to know today that although you may be religious or a good person or you might even teach sunday school we've seen literary preachers preachers wives worship team members choir members we've seen sound men cameramen all these people we've seen all over the years that grew up in church or have been in church that didn't really have a relationship with christ i want you to know that this day whether you're the person who's been on the run or you're the person who's never really accepted christ where right where you're seated you you kind of question and wonder does jesus christ really live in me i want you to understand this clearly the king sent a chariot to bo and this day he sends a chariot for you his chariot is the gospel of jesus christ his son who was executed on dead man's heel and who rose from the grave so that today you you you could be adopted into the family of god almighty the bible says today is the day of salvation jesus said i have not come to call the righteous by the way for those of you that have it all together and you don't need god you won't find him jesus said i didn't come for the righteous i came for the broken and the lost and i came to seek and i came to save that which was lost today he comes for you what decision will you make every heads bowed and every eyes closed i'm going to ask you right where you're seated if you would to just bow your head and close your eyes there's nothing mystical or there's nothing magical about this i ask you to do that because i don't want you to be distracted by anything that's going on in this auditorium some people having to leave to start sunday school class but if you would just bow your head and close your eyes just for a moment as you do that i i want to ask you this question was there a time in your life not a time when you joined a church not a time where you were christened or sprinkled or baptized not even a time when you walked an aisle or maybe went forward at youth camp i'm not asking you that because you can go forward and still not know christ right when you're seated could you say definitively i know without a doubt that my sins have been forgiven that my relationship with jesus christ is real and i know that whether i live another 20 years or if i don't live through the end of next week i know that one day jesus christ will welcome me into heaven i know for certain that my relationship is real now you might say well jay nobody can know that you might say nobody could know that but the bible says that a person can know that you've heard the gospel this morning and the story of mephibosheth the gospel is is that we've been broken and that god the king wants to welcome us to his family he sent his son jesus to die to be executed he's alive he's literally here this morning and the bible says that whoever calls on the name of the lord will be saved do you know that are you absolutely certain that jesus christ is your lord and savior well i can't help but believe that there may be some in this audience that might say jay i don't know that maybe like me you grew up in church i was baptized on three different occasions and yet i still was a non-believer if you'd say jay i just don't know that for sure maybe at one time you actually thought you were a christian maybe you've been a strong catholic or methodist or baptist or whatever the case may be but you would say jay i don't know for sure i want to invite you right where you're seated this morning i want to invite you to pray a prayer with me now i want to make it clear this morning nowhere in the bible does it say that you are saved by praying a prayer the bible says you are saved you are born again that you are adopted into god's family by your willingness to turn your back on your sin and receive christ but one of the ways that we do that is by calling on his name that's why romans 10 13 says whoever calls on the name of the lord will be saved and so while every head is still about those of you that sit there and say jay i just don't know but i want to know i don't want to struggle with this doubt and this uncertainty of whether or not jesus is truly my lord and my god i want to invite you right you're seated to pray this prayer with me something like it it would go something like this dear god i pray to you in jesus name i believe that your son died on the cross for me [Music] jesus i believe that you rose from the grave on the third day i want to turn my back on my sin i want to repent i don't want to ever doubt again whether or not you live inside of me and so right here right now i call on you jesus christ i receive you into my life as my lord and my god and my king with every head still bowed and every eye is still closed maybe the lights up a little bit brighter so i can see but with every head still bowed and every eye still closed i wonder how many of you would be unashamed and honest to say jay i just prayed that prayer with you i wanted to be sure i wanted to know without a doubt if if that was you while no one's looking around would you just lift your hand as your way of saying jay i just prayed that prayer with you just lift it up i'm not gonna embarrass you in any way just keep it up for a minute just lift it up high you say jay i just prayed that prayer with you you may have been in church all your life you may be a visitor today it doesn't matter just keep them up for just a second anybody else there's hands all over the auditorium the lights are bright it's kind of hard to see anybody else i see i still see people raising their hands anybody else say jay that that's me i i just prayed that prayer with you to invite christ in my life anybody else thank you way up here at the top thank you for your honesty anybody else i see hands all over thank you also yes is there anybody else say jay i'm not ashamed to admit i just pray that prayer with you i don't want to spend another day not being sure anybody else quickly you may put your hands down many of you literally from almost the front of the church to literally the very top row in the balcony thank you for being honest i want to ask one more question before we're done you know we talked about also not only some of us who who don't really didn't really know for sure whether or not our relationship was real but we also talked about some of us that do know christ and we've known christ for a long time but the pain and life and the scars and the difficulties somehow along the way we have just been on the run we we've run from god we've run from the king we've been in hiding we've been in a wasteland yes we know christ there was a time in our life when we truly repented of our sin and received the lord but but but we've just been away from god we've been like bo we've been lost somewhere in this land of the forgotten i wonder how many of you would say jay yes i know jesus but in some ways beau's story is mine i've been on the run but i want to come back to the king's table yes i know i'm going to heaven but i want to get back in the castle with god i want to be right with him because as i sit here this morning i know that even though i'm going to heaven my life is not right with god with every head still bowed and every eye still closed if that's you would you just lift your hand just be honest raise it up high and say jay i know jesus i'm going to heaven i know that but i i've been on the run i've been away from god for a long time and i want to get right with him anybody else many hands i know jesus jay but it's time to come back home anybody else quickly jay that's me just just i want to be honest this morning anybody else quickly just raise your hand i'm going to ask everyone in the auditorium every one of you to just stand up right now every one of you quickly and quietly stand every one of you with your heads bowed and your eyes still closed and just in a second i'm going to say a brief prayer when i do bill's going to begin singing and i'm going to ask while heads are bowed and eyes are closed if you are one of those people that said jay i just prayed with you to invite christ into my life or do you raise your hand to say jay i know jesus but i've been in low to bar i've been a long way from god and i i want to be right with him if you raise your hand for one of those two reasons while everybody else has their heads about and eyes closed if you raised your hand for one of those three reasons would you lift your head and look right this way at me if you prayed that prayer with me or if you said jay hey listen i i didn't pray the prayer with you but i know jesus but i'm away from god and he's spoken to me if you did one of those two things i want you to lift your head and look right this way while everybody else has their heads bowed and eyes closed and they're praying for people all around them literally there are people from the very front to the very top row i'm going to ask you to do something and just in a second as i said i'm going to pray when i finish praying my friend bill's going to he's going to begin singing and i'm going to ask that if you prayed that prayer with me or or you raised your hand to say jay i've been on the run but i want to come home i am going to ask the second that i say amen well it won't be easy and there will be some people who have too much pride to do it i'm going to ask you to get out from where you're standing there are literally some of you all the way at the top row i'm going to ask you to get out from where you're standing to come right here down to the front no one's going to embarrass you no one's going to ask you to say anything you will not be humiliated your friends or family will wait on you i'm going to ask you the second i say amen not to wait to see if anybody else is coming to get your husband's permission or your wife's permission or your friend's permission i'm going to ask you unapologetically to get out from where you're standing come right here down the front stand facing me we're going to have a prayer together i'm going to give you a little booklet that i want you to take home with you we're not going to ask you for money to join anything it's none of that you see i believe that it's a privilege to go public i believe if you mean it you mention it [Music] jesus said if you deny me before men i will deny you before my father which is in heaven no it won't be easy but i'm going to ask you the second i say amen just step out quickly quietly come down the front stand facing me you may not have raised your hand for anything but you know god is speaking to you there may never be another moment like this when i say amen you just come father god thank you that you've spoken to so many this morning spirit of the living god give these folks the courage to make their stand for you in jesus name amen you just start making your way right now don't wait just come on and there are many coming so if you would don't kneel down just stand many folks are coming from across the auditorium [Music] and if you would just kind of move closer so there's room for everybody if you don't mind [Music] [Music] i still will follow though none go with me i still will follow no turning back no no turn back i have decided i have decided to follow jesus i have decided [Music] to follow jesus i have decided to follow jesus no turning back no the instruments are gonna continue to softly play you know i believe with all with all of my heart i don't know about you but i sense the presence of god in this place and i don't believe in begging people to do what god's telling them to do i don't i don't believe in going out in the auditorium and grabbing you by the collar and making you take a stand for god i don't believe in that and i don't believe in just singing songs over and over and over we're not going to do that today but i do believe that there are still people in this room i've seen it so many times literally all over the world i believe there are many of you that as you stand looking at me or maybe even watching via the internet your heart is hurting people can't see it but there's this wrestling match that's going on inside of you right now you know god is speaking to you you feel his pull and his leading i don't know maybe it's a fear of what other people might think maybe it's concern of the impact of it but you know god is speaking to you and you know that he is calling you you know i mentioned earlier that the bible says that today is the day of salvation the bible never speaks of it tomorrow and so in lieu of all of that i'm going to ask bill and when i say we're going to sing just one more verse i mean one more verse that's it we're not just going to keep on doing this over and over and over but i just feel in my heart that there's still some of you that you need to be up here and so if you're going to come do it now as bill sings one last verse bill i have decided to follow jesus i have decided to follow jesus i have decided to follow jesus [Music] no turning back no turning back every head's bowed people are actually still coming father god we we thank you this morning for your presence and your power but i thank you that this morning there are people in this room who their name has been written in your book of life never to be erased and then lord i thank you for even those who have known you but today is a day of being reunited with you lord let this day be that turning point for the rest of their lives those of you at the front let's look right this way real quick i wonder how many of you you prayed that prayer with me would you just lift your hand you just prayed that prayer with me just lift it up i'm not going to embarrass you just lifted up high you prayed that prayer with me you may have been in church your whole life maybe you're a visitor today just keep it up high just for a minute many of you prayed that prayer with me and then although the majority of you are those you put your hands down who prayed that prayer with me maybe like me you grew up in church or maybe you were baptized or christian like i was and then there are others of you who came for this morning and you didn't pray that prayer with me but you said jay i just want to i want to be right with god so this one i'm going to ask you to do you may be a member you may not be i'm going to ask you to do something i'm going to ask that none of you go back to your seat before you leave today i have some friends here they're not going to accost you they're not going to try to get you to join anything they're not going to ask you for money they very quickly they want to pray with you before you go and i have written a little book such as a little pamphlet that they want to send with you and if you your family's here or your friends your spouse your parents or whatever they're not going to leave so i'm going to ask you if you would don't go back to your seats this won't take long just a couple of minutes they're going to pray with you and give you a booklet and so what i'm going to do to kind of make it easier i'm going to send the men i'm going to ask all of those you that are men if you would just quickly just those of you over here turn this way and every one of you began to walk right would you lift your hand and just walk right this way if you're a man just start walking right this way every man if you would and those of you are ladies would you just turn to my left and follow would you raise your hand brother danny and if you would if you're a lady just follow this man just give us a couple of minutes before you leave today now folks i know we're running a couple of minutes late could we just give the lord and these folks a hand clap as they go [Applause] this is why i love coming to sagemont folks is that not really what it's all about right there really amen today [Applause] i'll be back at the back i'd love to say hi to you bill don't be seated but don't move hey everybody pastor matt carter here and i'm so thankful that you've joined us today at sagemont church online you're one of a couple of thousand people that join us every single sunday online and we're so thankful you do if the lord was speaking to you today and you sense the holy spirit is leading you to him and you'd like to know how to enter into a relationship with jesus we want to help you do that you can go to sagemont.cc.jesus that's sagemont.cc and you can fill out old form there and a pastor will contact you this week here's the other thing i'm asking you if you'd be willing to do a quick survey online for us here at sagemont church we want to get to know you better and we want to know how to serve you better and so you can go to sagemontchurch.org survey sagemontchurch.org survey it'll just take a second and it'll really give us a lot of valuable information about how we can serve you better that's watching online we'd love for you to do that thank you so much for joining us today we'll see you next week [Music] you

Channel: Sagemont Church, Houston

Views: 623

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: S72nR2nAlo8

Length: 79min 28sec (4768 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021