All right, stand right here. Breathe, breathe. All right. Good evening. See? You're just like every other church. You're so asleep when I first get up here. Let's try that one more time. Amen? Good evening. There we go. Now I know you're awake before the preaching starts. Amen? Alright. We're just going to sing a short little song for you and then I'll introduce who we are. And then I'll let them down because I know they're tired and they're probably ready to get off the stage. Alright. You guys ready? Alright. He's able, He's able, I know He's able, I know my Lord is able to carry me through. He's able, He's able, I know He's able, I know my Lord is able to carry me through. Always a, always a, All right. Thanks, buddy. All right. Alright, so that's my lovely wife Ally and then our oldest and only son Jeffrey six Hannah is four and then Okay, and then Esther is asleep. She was not able to come up here because she's zonked out but she is three and so that's our whole family there and And like I was telling Pastor, everyone tries to guess at how to say our last name or tries to figure it out. We put a little cheat sheet on our prayer card, and I do apologize, we ran out on this trip down. But as soon as we get home, I'm going to ship down some prayer cards to you. But the easiest way to remember it, and obviously you can tell I'm not Shaquille O'Neal, I'm not tall, but the easiest way to remember it is that I have hazel eyes and I'm short. So remember, Hazel Short, it gets you close enough, amen? And then, if not, you can be like the first church we ever dropped in at, and we dropped in on them on a Wednesday night, just like tonight, and the pastor got up there, and he didn't even try to say it, he just said, H-E-S-E, and then he stopped, and he put the prayer card down, and he put it to a church vote to change our last name to Smith. So if you wanna do that, and call us the Smith family, we're okay with that too, amen? That makes it easier for me, so. No, amen. See, I know my wife loves me because she went from Becker to Hazelshort. So I knew she was committed, amen. But we are the Hazelshort family. We are going to Kenya, East Africa is where we're based out of. We're going to be part of Team East Africa there. There's four other families. Three of those families are all on the field now serving already. And one more is about a year ahead of us on deputation. I'm just going to take a couple minutes to share kind of mine and my wife's testimony, and then just share a few things that aren't covered in the video, and then I'll let the video kind of explain the rest there and how the Lord called us in His direction there. But my testimony is, and I see a lot of young people in the room, My testimony is that I did not grow up in a Christian home. We went to a church when I was younger, but I don't ever remember hearing the gospel message. And then when I was in about fifth grade, my parents unfortunately went through a divorce due to my dad's unfaithfulness. And they, for a year, were divorced, but they worked everything out, praise the Lord, and they got back together, and they're still faithfully married to this day. But we never went back to church after that. And I praise the Lord that my sophomore year of high school, my best friend to this day, he kept inviting me to church. And it seemed like it was every single day. It probably wasn't, but it seemed like it was. He just kept saying, Brandon, do you want to go to church with me? Brandon, do you want to go to church with me? Brandon, do you want to go to church with me? And like I always say, listen, your parents already think that you're annoying and probably some of the people around you. But if you're going to be annoying, let's be annoying in the fact that we're trying to get people to the house of God. Amen? And I'm so thankful that Jeff never gave up on me. And so I eventually said, all right, you know what, Jeff? I'll go. And so I started to attend. And that summer, we went on a teen canoe trip, and on the night of 7-22-2005, after hearing a gentleman, all he did was simply share his testimony on how when he was eight years old, he realized that he needed Christ as his Savior. God used that, took out a hole in my heart, and made me realize that I'm not okay, and that I needed God as my personal Savior. And so, 7-22-2005, I prayed and accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior. I would love to say, and this is why I say, see the young kids in the room, listen, if you're a young one in here, listen, or a teenager, We have to be careful with who our friends are. I did not give up. I got saved. I attended for a little while. But because I did not give up the old friends from high school, one decision after another, and that's all it took was one decision, one thought of, is God really against this? What does God really think about this? Oh, I think it's okay. And one decision after another, from my sophomore year of high school until my freshman year of college, I woke up one morning completely living like the world and realized here God was, and here I was, not living for God at all. And the Holy Spirit, I'm so thankful that one more child got, we got the Holy Spirit in us, and He broke me. And I just remember coming to my pastor and just weeping and getting everything straightened out. And from that moment on, I can say I don't want to look back, I haven't looked back, I'm just trying to move forward and give God the time that I have left, amen? And so I just jumped into, it will say in our video, I just jumped into, and my wife, when we met, we just served anywhere we could. And just through, I think, being busy for the Lord, serving where we could in our church volunteering, God began to then press upon us to surrender to full-time ministry. And I'll let the video explain about that a little bit more. My wife's testimony is she did praise a little girl up in a good solid Christian home her her dad is one of the most godly men I know one of the first ones I ever go to when I'm stuck on something I'm in the Word of God and When she was seven years old after vacation Bible school She realized she needed Christ their Savior and her daddy was able to go through the Bible and lead her to the Lord at age 10 she was baptized and then And that's kind of her testimony. She started to attend our home church back in 2012 that's how we met while we were on a missions trip in North Carolina. And I'll be honest, she's not in the room, normally I see her smiling at this point because she knows what I'm going to say. But I was known as kind of the goofball, the rowdy one with the teenagers. And my wife came along and I thought she was crazy. And one of the ladies in our church said, you know, you should really talk to Allie, I think you have a lot in common. And I said, Heather, no, she's crazy. And so eventually I said, you know what, I'll just be your friend. And six months later we were engaged, and six months after that we were married. And then Jeffrey, Hannah, and Esther came along, and now I'm just tired and I'm trying to serve the Lord, amen? No, God is good. And just real quick I want to share, last August, Jeffrey trusted Christ as his Lord and Savior. Just the beginning of this year, in January, Hannah did as well. And then just before we went into deputation full-time, I quit my job of nine years as an x-ray tech in the operating room. The week that we were getting ready to pull out with our camper and our truck and hit the road full time, Esther at two and a half years old, and this is where I'm so thankful that God makes his word so simple that at two and a half we can understand it, and with complete sincerity she looked at my wife and said, Mommy, if I die right now, I'm gonna go to hell. And so Allie just explained to her how she didn't have to worry about hell. She didn't have to go to hell because of what Jesus did for her. And they prayed together and she just asked Esther, she said, Honey, where would you go if you died now? And she just smiled and said, Mommy, I'd go to heaven because I trusted Christ my Savior. I'm so thankful at two and a half we can receive Jesus Christ our Savior and He makes it so easy. Amen. Unlike what this world tries to teach us. What I want to say real quick before turning over the video, Some of the things that aren't covered in the video, it says two families in the video like I said. It's four other families we're working with. I do apologize right now we're actually in the process of updating our video to get a new one put out that's a little bit better quality and covers a little bit more what we're doing. Our vision, our goal when we get there is one of the other families that we had met along deputation that we're working with as part of our team. Our vision together is this. In Kenya, there are 110 people groups. 32 of those people groups have still never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're considered completely unreached. And so we're prayerfully considering that as we get adapted to the culture, as we learn the language, that God would open the doors for us to reach those 32 people groups with the gospel of Jesus Christ. and then to train nationals and to see churches planted across Kenya where there are no gospel preaching churches. There are many villages that still do not have one gospel preaching church. And then one of the other aspects of our ministry that we're praying about when we get to the field is that we have many refugees from the surrounding countries around Kenya that are limited to our ability to go in and out or completely closed for us to go in and out due to their religious beliefs. But if we can reach the refugees, if we can reach the nationals, which they can be reached, and if God places the same burn on their heart, our desire is to send those men back into their home countries and to continue to reach other people in the country surrounding Kenya with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so please, please be in prayer with us on that. And then before I turn on the video, If you get anything out of me tonight, I hope that it is that you get this out of me tonight on how blessed we really are. And that is, if you have your Bible, would you hold it up nice and high for me? Amen. Bible's all over. You can put your Bibles down. Listen, I've seen one on the way here. There's a Dollar Tree in town. I can go right into Dollar Tree and buy a paperback King James Bible for, I don't know what taxes here, but in Michigan it'd be $1.06 to get a paperback King James Bible, amen? That's how easy it is for us to be able to get our hands on the Word of God. For most Kenyans, 90% of them in Nairobi, this is the capital city of Kenya we're talking about, Most of them, it would take them a full day's travel or a full day's commute to be able to walk, because most of them do not have vehicles, to be able to get their hands on a King James or a Swahili Bible, we would say. It would take them a full day's work. It would cost, the cheapest that we've been able to find, our team members in Kenya, was $4 for a Bible in their language or a King James paperback Bible. That's $4 to us, but let me put it in perspective to you this way. To 90% of those Kenyans I'm talking about, that's equivalent to one month's rent. And so that'd be like me telling you that if you just want a simple paperback King James Bible from Dollar Tree here in America, it would cost you one month's rent. I don't know how much rent costs here, but in my hometown it's about $1,200 for a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment. And so that's what you're looking at. And then can I say this to some of those refugees that we want to reach with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that we want to see them go back unto their own people? If some of them are caught with the Word of God, it would cost them their life. And so please, please don't take for granted the liberty and the blessing that we have to be able to hold this word in our hand and read it and meditate upon it and come to God anytime we want. And so please don't take that for granted. Thank you. On behalf of my family, I definitely want to say Asuti Sana, which is thank you very much for allowing us to be with you tonight and to present the Lord's work there and what we'll be doing and just share our heart for the people there. I watched that video, I don't even know how many times, but it never gets old. Amen. That's home to us now and we just can't wait to get back and to be a part of the work there and jump right in. So thank you for the opportunity tonight. 2 Samuel chapter 9, we're going to look at verses 1 through 11. If you'll stand with me out of respect of God's word. I'm going to read verses 1 through 11 if you'll follow along with me. Now I'm going to say ahead of time. I know some people say Ziba. I say Ziba. I'm sorry if it's weird to you. That's just how I've always said it, okay? And so, that's how I'll say it tonight. But starting in verse 1, it says, And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And there was of the house of Saul a servant, whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he. And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet. And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Micah, the son of Amuel in Lodabar. Then King David sent and fetched him out of the house of Micah the son of Amuel from Lodabar. Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to 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 thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake. and will restore thee 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 that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? Then the king called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that pertain to Saul and to all his house. Thou therefore and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master's son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth thy master's son shall eat right away at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. And as for Mephibosheth said the king, he will eat at my table, as one of the King's sons. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you again for just the freedom we have to be able to come together like this, Lord, without persecution or without fear, Lord. How we can come freely and assemble together and to open your word and hear from it. And Lord, I need your help for just the next several minutes, Lord, I pray. Lord, would you hide me behind your cross? Would you use me to be your mouthpiece here this evening, Lord? Be your instrument. Father, pray help me to not do anything out of my own strength, Lord, but just have your Holy Spirit come down upon me and speak and work through me, Lord, and just the message from your word tonight. Lord, we pray for every heart that's in here tonight, Lord. Would you open our ears? Would you open up our hearts to hear what it is that you'd have for us, Lord? Would you just encourage us maybe where we need encouragement? And Lord, would you challenge us, Lord, where we need to be challenged to be more like you? Lord, I pray that you'd start with myself. And then, Father, we pray most of all, if there's someone here tonight that has never trusted you as their Lord and Savior, we pray that they would settle that before they leave this place. Lord, we love you. We thank you for all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Second, Samuel chapter 9, this message came about when I was preaching in the nursing homes. And listen, if you feel God's calling you to maybe preach, nursing homes are a great start because 90% of them are sleeping anyway when you're preaching, amen? And so that's where I gained some of my confidence before I then tackled the prisons and the jails and started doing that. But I remember one of the men in the church We were one day just talking about our favorite portions of the Bible, our favorite verse, our favorite chapter, and he said 2 Samuel chapter 9 was his favorite chapter in all the Bible because of the beautiful illustration that we see here between King David and Mephibosheth, and how we can see that between us and God, and how we were sinners and yet God loved us, and not because of what we've done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done, that He saved us, amen? And just that beautiful picture that you see there, And so I remember when I first was starting to preach, I was all geeked. I was like, hey, this would be a great salvation message I can put together and have, amen? But it's funny that sometimes when you sit down, you go to study the Word of God, that He totally leads you in a whole other direction when you're preparing a message that you would never have guessed. And so tonight's message is this, or the title of the message is this, A Servant's True Heart. And what I want us to look at tonight is so many times, and there's nothing wrong with that, but so many times we look at David, and we look at Mephibosheth, but I believe we overlook some things that we can learn from Ziba tonight. And so I want to just real quickly tonight challenge us this evening with six things that we can see from Ziba the servant. And so that's exactly what he was, a servant. Now listen, this world puts a negative picture on servant. But listen, if we're all a child of God, we are all a servant of Jesus Christ. Amen? And I think that sometimes we forget that. Sometimes we think we're our own master, that we can do whatever we want. But first and foremost, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ. Amen? And I'm here to serve Him. And I think of so many times, I'll just pick on myself. So many times when I get discontented, when I get upset in my life, so many times it's because my focus or my priorities are focused on myself and not just serving others and not just serving Jesus Christ. And I believe if we would just remain and remember that we're a servant before anything else, we'll have a lot more joy in our heart. Amen? Just like they say, joy stands for Jesus first, others second, and ourselves last. Amen? And so, that was not part of the message, but there you go. And so, what I want us to look at is six things here, and the first thing I want us to look at is verses one and two. Would you look at them again with me? Verses one and two. It says, And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, and listen to these words, Thy servant is he. What I want us to look at first tonight is this, that he was one, he was an available servant. When David says, is there anyone that's left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness? Ziba comes forward, and we see it in his answer. He says, thy servant is he acknowledges who he is before the king. And then we see his attitude in that. He doesn't come forward and say, what do you want? What is it that you're trying to learn about? He says, out of respect, thy servant is he. And I wonder tonight, how many of us are an available servant of Jesus Christ? If God is softly speaking to us, if He's pressing something upon our hearts that He wants us to do, are we available for Him? And listen, don't think I'm picking on you because I'm preaching to myself more than anyone here tonight, amen? But I wonder how many times we get so caught up in this life and just the busyness of everything that's going on that we miss or that we're not available for Him. We kind of put Him on the back burner, amen? And so the first challenge tonight is are we available? Are we available servant for Him? I think of three main examples I just want to touch real quick on. The first example would be Jonah. You know, God calls Jonah, and He says, I want you to go to Nineveh, and I want you to preach unto the people repentance. And what does He do? He tries to run from God, and we see that it costs Him time, and hardship, and money. And I wonder if that's us tonight. And I'm not saying that we're all called to go to Africa, that we're called to go to some foreign land. What I want to start off with is this, is that we all in this room are a missionary of Jesus Christ. We all have our mission field. That God has placed you in your job to reach those around you with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are family members in your family that might not know Jesus Christ, and He's placed them in your life to be able to share the gospel with them. What about your neighbor? What about your friends that you have around you? We need to realize that we all have a mission field. And I wonder if God's maybe pressing upon our heart to witness to somebody at work, or to witness to a loved one. Are we available for Him? Are we like Jonah and saying, no, no, no, Lord, I won't do it. We see that what he went through. Don't put yourself through that. Amen. And then we see the second example of Moses. God calls Moses and we say he has the five excuses, but really the fifth excuse is he just simply says, Lord, I can't do it. Have someone else do it. I can't do it. When really in the reality of things is that he can't do it. We can't do it. It's not in ourselves. If we try to do it of ourselves, it's not going to accomplish anything. Amen. It's the perfect place that we need to be is saying, Lord, I can't do it. But Lord, would you just use me? And so I hope that we're not Moses tonight. I hope one, we're not like Jonah, we're saying flat out no. I hope that we're not like Moses in that, that we're arguing with God or we're fighting God on it. But I pray that we would be like Isaiah. We read Isaiah 6 in verse, I think it's 8, off the top of my head, where he says, hear my Lord, send me. And I pray that that would be our attitude. We would just have that servant's heart of whatever it is. If we're in town, and in the middle of everything that's going on, he says, I want you to know that person, give them a gospel track. That we would be available for him, amen? And so, number one, Are we an available servant of Jesus Christ? We see that Ziba here was available to the king. Number two, look at verse three with me. Verse three again it says, And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet. The second thing I want us to look at tonight is this, is not only was he an available servant, but that he was an aware servant. See, Ziba could have come unto the king, and David could have said, okay, is there anyone that's left? And he could have just said, in my terms, he could have just said, I don't know. Beats me. You figure it out. No, he knew, right? He knew exactly that Jonathan had yet a son. He says, lame on his feet. He knew who that person was. He was aware. And again, I'll pick on myself tonight. I remember when I first got saved. I was 15 years old when I got saved. It feels like probably the first four years of my life as a Christian were just wasted for the Lord. Because I was saved, I knew it. But I never took the time to try to learn from God's Word and to understand the doctrines or understand the plan of salvation so that way I could reach others. And it seemed like I went really those four years of my life not really giving a thought of those around me if they knew Christ or not. Not even giving it a thought. And I wonder if that's some of us tonight, maybe that's you tonight, that you're saved but you're not aware. Do you realize that when we go outside these doors that it's immediately a mission field? That everyone we encounter, there's only two places they're going. It's based on the decision that they've made in Jesus Christ. They've either received Him or rejected Him. They're either going to heaven or hell. And it's only two decisions. Are we aware that all around us there's people dying, going to hell every single day? Are we just so focused on our, on our busyness in our lives that we don't even give it a thought? Like I said, I'm picking on myself here. I really wish I could go back to those years of high school and do it all over again. And it just haunts me of who knows who I could have been able to reach if I were just stepped up to the plate and been the witness I could have been. But listen, teenagers, young people in the room, your time is now. You can make it right. God has you in that school that you're in to be a witness to those around you, to share the gospel with them. I hope that you're aware. Amen. So we see that he was an available servant. We see that he was aware. Thirdly, we see that he was alert. Look at verse 4 with me. And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziobath said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Micah, the son of Emuel, in Lodabar. What I want us to realize is, not only was he aware, but he knew, I say alert, because he knew exactly where Mephibosheth was, down to the very house. And so real quick, because I see I'm running out of time, I told Pastor to be done at 8, amen? But I wonder if. we realize, or that we, do we put in the time to get to know people that we work with, or those around us, to have a, somewhat of an understanding, okay, based on what they believe, based on what they understand, where do they stand with Christ? It's one thing to be aware, it's one thing to know that people are going to heaven and hell, but it's a whole nother thing to reach those people, to talk to them, to develop those relationships, to get to know, okay, where is this person potentially going? Do they know anything about Jesus Christ? Or have they already placed their trust and faith in Him? I think of when I worked at the hospital, I had 30 to 40 other co-workers of mine. As hard as it was, I tried to look for those opportunities to witness or to talk to each and every one of them to understand, okay, God, where do they stand with you? Do they know you as their Lord and Savior? And then look for those opportunities to share the gospel with them, amen? And so I encourage you and I challenge you tonight, look for those opportunities, try to be alert to those around us. Number four, look at verse five with me. It says, Then King David sent and fetched him out of the house of Mithra, the son of Amal from Lodivar. The fifth point is this, is that, and I'm gonna step off to the side, because like my pastor says, unless it's there, it's just your own thought. And so this is just my thought. It does not say that Ziba literally was part of that group or the men that went to get Mephistosheth and bring him unto the king. But I would like to think that if he knew down to the very house that he was at, that he was with that group of men that went to bring Mephistosheth unto King David. So the challenge or the thought here, the application tonight is this. Are we aware? Are we alert? And then fourthly, are we an active servant of Jesus Christ? See, we need to be in the Word of God. We need to know our Bible. But then we need to take those things that we know, and we need to actively be engaging and going out and reaching other people for the cause of Christ. Amen? We need to look for those opportunities. We try to pray. God's really placed on our heart over the last couple weeks. We try to pray every day when we go out. Lord, bring someone along our way that we can witness to. Bring someone along my path that I can share your gospel with. And we just really pray about that. So I encourage you, pray about that. When you're at work, Lord, open up that opportunity and let me see it that I can know to witness to somebody else. We need to be actively trying to witness to others. And then just real quick look at verse 6 and 8 with me. I believe if we're actively engaging, if we're actively trying to reach people for the cause of Christ, we can see the results that come through that. Verse 6 says, Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered, Behold thy servant. Jump down to verse 8. And he bowed himself and said, what is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am? Not everyone we witness to is going to come to Christ. But if we would just stay faithful at it, we can see fruit come forth from that. And I'll just share with you, last month, I'll never forget it, there was a lady in Battle Creek, Michigan that we were outdoor knocking. And we went through the plan of salvation with her. And I just remember tears in her eyes. She said, you know, I've been in church all my life and people have said this and that, but no one's ever taken the time to explain the gospel so clearly to me before. And she received Jesus Christ her Lord and Savior. Amen. We need to just take, if we would faithfully take the time, we will see people come to Jesus Christ, amen. And then we can see, so we see the sinner's humbleness in verses six and eight, as they realize who they are before God. And then verse seven, it says, And David said unto him, Fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. We see here God's grace and mercy poured out. Amen. When we realize who we are before God, God restores us. He brings us back into His fellowship as His child. Amen. No more do we have the wrath of God against us, but now we are made one with Him through Jesus Christ. And so we can see the results that come through that. And then just real quick, look at verses 9 through 11 with me. We got two more points here. Verses 9 through 11. He says, Then the king called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that pertain to Saul and to all his house. Thou therefore and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him, and thou shall bring in the fruits that thy master's son may have food to eat. 5 But Mephibosheth thy master's son shall eat right away at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 6 Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. 7 As for Mephibosheth said the king, He shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. 5 Fifthly, we see here that not only was he an active servant, but he was an assisting servant. Here now David has restored unto Mephibosheth all that used to be his grandfathers, all that used to be Saul's. And then he says, Ziba I'm not done with you. Now I want you and your sons and your servants to go out to the field and to do the work for Ziba and to bring the fruits and he's going to sit at my table and he's going to eat. An application of the thought that the Lord laid on my heart through this was that, are we an assisting servant of Jesus Christ? And what I mean by that is, is we need to not only be actively looking for those opportunities to share the gospel with others, not only do we need to try to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us, but God has given each and every one of us a place in the church, amen, to assist, to have a part in this. We all have a place and a part. I don't know what it's like here, I haven't had time for a pastor to tell me, nor do I want to, but I know in our home church, hey, if there's a buffet, if there's food, everybody's there, amen? When it's time to take the tables and the chairs down, there's like five people. Can I get an amen? It's just how it is. But I encourage you, God has a part. all of us are part, and if we're not all doing our part, if we're not all serving in the church where we can, the church is not gonna fully function the way that it should, amen? He's given us all a place, and hey, it can be scrubbing the toilets in the bathroom and saying, pastor, I'll do that if you'll let me. Do you need someone to scrub a toilet? Hey, if we're too good to scrub a toilet, then we're too good to serve the Lord. That's what my pastor said, amen? We need to ask, I encourage you, if you're not serving already, ask pastor, hey, Where can I serve? Where can I help out at? I'm sure that would encourage them, amen? He didn't pay me to say that. I just want you to know that. But, amen. We need to all be assisting. And then I love what it says here at the end of verse 10. It says, He had 15 sons and 20 servants. Ziba wasn't doing it alone. It took a group effort, amen? And that's where we see all of us coming together. And then verse 11, I want to just read these words one more time real quick. If we would just really have that heart and that attitude, who knows what God could do, amen? If we would just say, Lord, whatever you tell me to do, I will do. But let's not end there real quickly, I'm already going over here. Lastly, I want us to look at point number 6. Go with me, you're there, chapter 9. Go over to chapter 16 with me, we're going to look at a few verses. And then we're going to jump to chapter 19 and look at a couple more verses. And then I promise I'll get to the point here. In chapter 16 verses 1-4 it says, And when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread and a hundred bunches of raisin and a hundred of summer fruits and a bottle of wine. And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be for the king's household to ride on, and the bread and the summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine that such be as faint in the wilderness may drink. And the king said, And where is thy master's son? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem. For he said, Today shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father. Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertain unto Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king. Jump to chapter 19 with me. I want to look at a couple more verses here. This time we're going to look at verses 24 through 30 real quickly. 2 Samuel 19, verses 24 through 30. It says, In Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king. Now listen, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace. And it came to pass when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said unto him, Wherefore wentest not thou with me, Mephusheth? And he answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me, for thy servant said, I will saddle me, and ask that I may ride thereon, and go to the king, because thy servant is lame. And he hath slandered thy servant unto my lord the king. But my lord the king is as an angel of God. Do therefore what is good in thine eyes. For all of my father's house were yet dead men before my lord the king. Yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own table. What right, therefore, have I yet to cry any more unto the king? And the king said unto him, Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land. And Mephibosheth said unto the king, Yea, let him take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house. What we see here unfolding is that, if you read through this, we know that King David's son is trying to take the throne from him, and they're in this battle. And in the midst of all this that's going on, his son dies, and we see that now, kind of fast forward, he's making his way back to Jerusalem. In the midst of all this that's going on, we see Ziba puts this kind of little scheme together. He says to Mephibosheth, we're going to go to David. We're going to bring all this food and the wine that they need. And then really, he goes without him. And then when he gets to King David, David says, Ziba, where's Mephibosheth? What's he say? He says, in my words, he says, you're not going to believe this. He's at Jerusalem. And he says, today's the day that you're going to die in battle. And everything that was Saul's, everything that was his grandfather's is going to be him again. Everything's going to be restored unto him. But then the truth comes out, we see in the verses here. In chapter 19, when David's coming back, he's making his entry. It says that Mephibosheth never trimmed his beard, never changed his bandages, never bathed himself, because he was sorrowful. Because he wanted his king home. He wanted to be with King David. And so we see David puts this little scheme together. He tricks David, he tricks Mephibosheth. Why? My last point is this, because he was a warding of self-servant. He was available, he was aware, he was alert, he was active, he was assisting, but when it comes down to it in the end, he really was out for himself. It was all about him. Now listen, He tricked King David. Praise the Lord, we can't trick our king, amen? He knows our heart better than we know ourselves. But we can deceive one another. We can trick one another. And the challenge is tonight, this last challenge tonight is this. Why is it that we're doing what we do? Is it because, and I pray that it's because, we want God to get all the honor and the glory and the praise, amen? Because we're doing it because He loved Himself and gave Himself for us, and the very least we can do is just be His servant and serve Him. But I wonder how many times, I even think of myself, that sometimes we get caught up that we just want to look good in front of others, or we want to impress someone else, and really it's about us and not the Lord. Listen, if we're serving because we want to impress, or we want to look good in front of others, then that's your reward here and now, and that's it. But if we're doing it because He gave Himself for us, and it's the least we can do, we build up earthly treasures, or heavenly treasures, amen, eternal treasures. And I pray, and I challenge us tonight, are we available? Are we aware? Are we alert? I pray that we're active. Are we assisting in the church? And then what's our motive? I pray that our heart is in it for the right reason, amen. Every head bowed and every eye closed, I'm gonna pray and turn it over to the pastor. Lord, again, we thank you for this opportunity. We thank you for this time tonight, Lord. Lord, I pray with myself first, Lord. Lord, I don't know everybody's heart. I don't know where they stand with you, but Lord, I know my heart sometimes, Lord. Lord, I just pray, would you help me to be more active, would you? Lord, where I need to be. Some days I just fight with the flesh, Lord, instead of just being in your spirit like we should. And then Lord, I just pray, help us to do it with the right reasons, the right motive, Lord, to just simply serve you with our all. Lord, I pray that you'd be with each and every one tonight. Lord, would you open our eyes to where maybe it is we need to be more and more like you. Lord, we love you. We thank you for this time. We pray that you'd be with the invitation, the closing of the service, and all that takes place. In Jesus' name, amen.