Leaving Lodebar, the place of suffering

We are going to read the Word of the Lord in Samuel in chapter 9, Second Samuel in chapter 9, the Word of the Lord says like this: "David said: Is there any of the house of Saul left to whom I show mercy for love of Jonathan? And there was a servant of the house of Saul named Siba, whom they called to come to David, and the king said to him: Are you Siba? and he answered: Your servant, and the king said to him: Is there no one left of the house of Saul to whom I show mercy to God? and Ziba answered the king: Jonathan's son is still crippled in the feet; Then the King asked him: where is he? and Siba answered him: behold, he is in the house of Machir, son of Amiel, in Lodebar; Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir the son of Amiel, from Lodebar. And Mephi-bosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, and fell on his face and bowed down. And David said: Mefi-boset. And he answered: here is your servant.

7: “And David said to him: Do not be afraid, because I will truly show mercy to you for the love of Jonathan your father, and I will restore to you all the lands of Saul your father, and you will always eat at my table; And he leaning down, said: Who is your servant that you look at a dead dog like me? Then the king called Ziba Saul's servant, and said to him, "All that became of Saul and of all his household, I have given to your lord's son."

10: “You will till the land for him, you with your sons and your servants, and you will store your fruits so that your master's son may have bread to eat; but Mefi-boset the son of your master will always eat at my table, and Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.”

11: “And Siba said to the king, According to all that my lord the king has commanded his servant, so shall your servant do. Mefi-boset, said the king, will eat at my table like one of the king's sons. And Mefi-bosheth had a little son, whose name was Micaía. And all the family of the house of Siba were servants of Mefi-bosheth. And Mefi-boset lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king's table; and he was crippled in both feet.”

That is the Word of the Lord that we read. Also, brothers, there are some stories that we read from the Bible that serve to illustrate the Will of God for us, and through some men and women, here when one preaches, tea comes and everything, right? (they offer him a cup of tea) wow, (laughs) what a thing, right?

And I said, through the lives of some men and women of God, the Word teaches that God has a project and a purpose for each one of us, and let me tell you: no matter the perspective that you and I have of life, no What matters is the perspective that you and I have of the world and how we look at the world, and how we look at the things of this life, what matters is how God sees me, what matters is the bread of God for your life, what God has projected in history, those eternal breads for your life.

In other words, you can tell me: Pastor, I was not born in a golden cradle, I have nothing, I do not have prosperity, I have no goods. We are not talking about that, we are talking about plans that God establishes in eternity thinking of you and thinking of me. In other words, when God planned my life, when God planned your life, He had dreams, purposes.

I have brought a special message, a meditation from God for your life. This is a message that intends to change your perspective, how you see yourself, how you see yourself, how you see your life today, how you see your future, your plans for tomorrow, how you see your family. In other words, all the dreams that you have invested in until today, dreams of getting married perhaps, or thoughts about how to have a better job or buy a nice house, thoughts about how to go to university, thoughts about how to have better studies and make an investment in my family, are those plans that we make many times and brothers: sometimes the story changes in a certain area at a certain moment in our life, the story changes, we enter a different dimension from the perspectives we previously dreamed of, from that what we thought we were going to achieve when we were thinking about our life in the future.

And this story is a very interesting story, I love it, there is a part of it that really catches my attention. Here the man called Mefi-bosheth, his name was before Merib-baal, you find in First Chronicles chapter 8:34 and also in chapter 9 verse 40 that he was a man called Merib-baal, that is, his name has a different meaning. The name Merib-baal meant: the one who was born to win, the one who was born to be a warrior, the one who was born with perspectives.

And until the fifth year of age, he was only five years old, until he was five years old, until the fifth year his name meant: future, his name was victorious, his name was the one who is going to war. Brothers: we are talking about a prince, we are not talking about someone who in the future was going to say: I am a dead dog, we are talking about a prince, the grandson of a king, the grandson of King Saul son of Jonathan, now imagine the story of this child, beautiful right? The children of kings are pretty, they look pretty to me, right? the king's children, a pretty image; They have green eyes and everything, right?

Five years old, Saul goes to war with Jonathan and it is a tragic war for Israel, a war where Saul dies, where his family dies, where his son Jonathan dies, and it is a terrible tragedy for Israel, the King died. The boy is now an orphan: orphaned by his grandfather, orphaned by his father, we can't find a reference to his mother, right? I imagine her name was maybe Maria? (laughs), I'm making it up.

But until the fifth year this child was a child full of dreams and perspectives. Saul was a nice king of Israel for the people, and you know the story where the people ask for a king, and this king was obstinate, stubborn. Young Saul's life as king was one of disobedience, Saul reigning over Israel for over 40 years until he lost his life in this terrible tragedy.

And if you read in chapter 4 of the same Book of Second Samuel you find: “After the son of Saul heard that Abne had been killed in Hebron, his hands became weak and all Israel was terrified. And the son of Saul had two men captains of marauding bands, the man of the one was Baana, and the man of the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon, a Beerothite, of the sons of Benjamin (for Beerot was also reckoned as Benjamin; for the Beerothites they had fled to Gitaim, and dwell there as strangers to this day).”

4: “And Jonathan the son of Saul had a son with cripples in the feet. He was five years old when the news of the death of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him and fled; and while he was running away hastily, the child fell from him, and he became lame. His name was Mefi-bosheth."

In that passage he tells the story of what happened to the five-year-old boy when this woman was running away to save the boy, the king is dead, his son is dead, we are going to run away from here, we are going to get out of here. Imagine the woman trying to save the child's life and she ran and took the child, and we don't know the story, brothers, we don't know exactly what happened to that child and how that terrible accident happened, but we know that the child was lame. crippled in the feet, and the Bible says that for a lifetime that child was crippled in the feet.

But something interesting is that from that moment the name of that child changes, from that moment it is no longer said that his name was Mefit-baal, the one who wins, from that moment the story of a winner, from that moment the story of a loser is told, of a man who was considered a dead dog, but he was a prince who lived in a palace before, he was a prince who had perspectives like any child who grows up and lives in a house belonging to a family with perspectives, and that terrible accident happens in the life of the child, and it is renamed Mefi-bosheth, now it is renamed: hopelessness.

Brothers: while I was going through that passage of the Bible I thought that there are many times that this happens with us too. How many times do we have promises, we have life perspectives, life dreams and something happens to us, a tragedy happens to us? a sadness in the family happens to us, a loss and we lose perspective, we lose hope, we lose our name, we lose the intuition we had before running and winning, and of being a victorious person.

When a tragedy happens to us, we begin to think that everything else is gone, right? when something happens in our life. I don't know if it happens with you but there are situations that come into our lives that sometimes we think: now, nothing more good can happen with my life. What beautiful, what good can we see in the life of that child from now on? what good thing could happen to that child now called Mefi-bosheth?

And the Word says that King David, now king of Israel, now anointed by God, the king that God now wanted for Israel, one day the king got up and said: I remember a friend I had, and if you read The first Letter of Samuel in chapter 18 will find that there was a pact of love, a pact of grace, a pact of friendship between David and Jonathan.

And the Word says that David remembered the pact he made with Jonathan, the pact that if one day I die, if something happens to me you take care of my family, if something happens to your life you take care of my family, and let's go to take care of each other, it was the pact that David had with his friend Jonathan, and it was hard for me to love that guy named Siba, and the more I read the more I hated him, he was a depressive guy.

And David asks Ziba: Ziba, is there someone from Saul's house, is there someone from Saul's offspring that I can show mercy to from God? David is not talking about his own mercy because he was a king, he was a warrior, he was a vigilante, he is talking about God's mercy. And my brothers I love that Word about the mercy of God.

It is the same Word that we find in Exodus when God says that he shows mercy to His people, and three times David mentions in verse 1 to whom do I show mercy to God? In verse 7 he says: "Do not be afraid because I will truly show mercy to you for the love of Jonathan." And that word mercy is a word, brothers, that describes love, compassion, help, and David says: I want to help, I want to be merciful to that person.

And David asks Siba: is there anyone? and he says to him: yes, a boy, the son of Jonathan. Can you imagine David's mind when Ziba mentioned Jonathan's son? Jonathan's son, my friend, my best friend, and where is that boy?

My brothers, and he was in a far place. And it says in verse 4: “Behold, he is in the house of Machir, son of Amiel, in Lodebar. Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir” but before going into this matter of bringing the boy from the house of Machir in Lodebar, Lodebar means arid land, Lodebar means land that does not bear fruit. Lodebar means land without expectation, land without pasture, without dreams, with nothing, nothing prospers in Lodebar, nothing prospers in this land, what does a prince do in Lodebar then? But he was a prince who became a dead dog, he was a prince who became nothing.

Lodebar means without words, silence, it is not explained, there is nothing, nothing exists, nothing grows in Lodebar. I imagine Mefi-bosheth living in Lodebar in Maquir's house, Maquir adopted him too, right? Mefit had a condition, and he adopted him, and he was there crippled on his feet, he was crippled on his feet, the child was dragging himself with the time of his life.

What are you doing in Lodebar? If God has promised you that he is going to bless you, let me tell you: He is going to bless you. If God has promised you that he is going to heal your family and that he is going to heal your house, he is going to heal them, if God has promised that he is going to do great things in your life, he is going to do great things in your life, and let me tell you my sisters, my brothers that I went to Lodebar, there was a time when I was in Lodebar.

I remember writing a letter to a Pastor friend of mine saying: I am in a moment of darkness in my life where I don't see prospects, where I don't see the sun, and I remember my friend's letter saying: Miki, get out of that place of darkness, get out of that place without perspective, get out of that place where there are no dreams and let me tell you: only you can get you out of there, no one else can do anything for you, and I knew that only I could get out of Lodebar .

There was a Lodebar in my life but let me tell you that the most tremendous Lodebar that exists is the Lodebar of your heart. When you believe that there are no prospects, when you believe that there are no dreams, when you believe that there is nothing else and you hide from everything, you become sad. Because there is an illness in your family, because there is an illness in your life, because there is an economic situation in your home, or because you simply believe that there are no good prospects for you, if you do not believe that there is nothing else good that can happen in your life because they abandoned you, because you look sad, because you see yourself in the solitude of life, let me tell you: God is capable and powerful enough to get you out of that darkness, to get you out of that place of insecurity.

God's dream, dad's dream is that you eat at His table, it is that you participate in the Lamb's Supper, it is that you be part of His initial project. God dreamed of you, He thought of you, He has eternal plans for your life, but today get out of the place where you are, get out of the Lodebar of your life, out of the darkness and enter into the joy of your Lord, hallelujah.

Mefi-boset represents my beloved brothers to many of us who remain in lives of shortcomings, injustices, we do not see the colors of life, we lose our way and direction. Mefi-boset represents many who were abused, violated by life, unprotected, carry deep wounds, bitterness, resentment, frustration, all that prevents the process and normal development in life.

Mefi-boset represents social injustice, it represents the world we live in today where we look everywhere, in all directions and we see injustice, we see a lack of perspective, and you say: there is no justice on this earth, there is no love on this world. Mefi-boset also represents the reality of the current Church and its lukewarmness, religiosity. From our generation and past generations we inherited, you know what? a spiritual poverty, that we do not pray! we don't seek the Lord, we don't spend time with God, we don't read the Word.

We live in a generation in which we lose our passion for the Word of God, an electronic generation, a generation in which we change reading the Bible for a movie, a generation in which we change a time of prayer for a cinema, a movie or something, we live in a generation in which we lose our dreams, we become morbid, lukewarm.

It represents the lack of life, it represents the lack of expression in the life of the Church, it represents the lack of expression of the gifts of Christ in the life of the Church, we do not see the gifts in the Church. God has called us my brothers so that we manifest His Kingdom and His glory on this Earth and there are gifts in life for the Church. Mefi-boset represents this Christ who wants to bring His reality to our Church today.

But you have to get out of Lodebar, you have to get out of the land of coldness. Lodebar also means no words, no communication, do you know why? because pain also often leads us to silence. Can you imagine the silence and pain of Mefi-boset? a 5-year-old boy living in a stranger's house, he had no relatives, no parents, but in his heart he knew he was a prince.

Let me tell you, let me tell you today: you are a prince, a princess of God (applause). Say to your wounded spirit at this moment: I am a prince, I am a princess, and allow these words to come true in your life, so we often become a Mefi-boset of shame that we carry a shame in our life, but what God wants and what He is interested in is getting us out of shame to work. The life of shame, the life of pain, of terrible memories, memories that sometimes affect us in our relationship with God, we go to work.

Have you felt at some point in life as a Mefi-boset that you have lost hope, lost perspective? Have you ever identified with this character? Mefi-boset hides behind the silence of the aggressiveness of what happened in his childhood, Mefi-boset does not hide behind the superficiality of his existence but rather the reality of life of what happened five years after his existence .

Mefi-boset took refuge in Lodebar, hid in Lodebar, where are you hiding today? where is your life? Will there be hope for the Mefi-boset of this time? Is there hope for those who are condemned forever to live the same, to live in Lodebar, without hope and without prospects?

The Bible says that David was a king according to the Lord's own heart, and David said to Siba: Siba, and who is that person? and what did Siba say? ooh! He is the son of Jonathan, but he is lame, "negative" right? That reminds me of many things in my life that I don't want to tell you. He's incredible, he's a good person but, he's good people but.

Always in your life you will find people who tell you negative things and who will try to make you feel bad or people who will not find beautiful things in you, good prospects, people who fail to see the brightness in your existence. You will always find people who will not see the beauty in your life and the beauty of God in your life, there will always be the Sibas in your life, those who will say: he is a prince, he is a princess but, but.

Tea calls me (laughs), tea is going to preach here, who is going to preach here? tea (laughs). We will always find people who will say: there is no perspective for you, there is nothing, you are in Lodebar, you are going to continue in Lodebar.

But the King's Word, I love this Word: do not be afraid. Can you imagine Mefi-boset when he hears that the king sent for him? There is a version that I love that says that the king ordered them to bring him, that is, it was not an invitation, it is an order, the king calls you today to get out of your morbidity of life, the king calls you to get out of your your Lodebar because there is a table, because there is a banquet that awaits you, there is a dinner that awaits you and you must have an invitation to eat from that table.

Do not be afraid because in truth I will show mercy to you for the love of Jonathan your father, and I love that part "and I will give you back, I will give you back all the lands of Saul your father" imagine, a while ago he was a dead dog, now, a live dog! Now I have land, I have property, I see the light, something is clearing up in my life, things are improving.

Let me tell you: when you come to Jesus, things become clear, the doors open and there are those who say that when one converts to the Gospel, everything happens, right? Everything happens to him, everything happened to me. Everything happened to me but let me tell you: nothing better than seeing the powerful Hand of God over my life.

Do you know how my mother was converted to Jesus? I was 13 years old when God healed me of blindness, I was blind! from an accident I was blind for six months and God healed me on a Sunday like this, I use glasses to see you better (laughs). My mom converts to Jesus, surrenders her life to the Lord and my family begins to see the grace and mercy of God, and the doors begin to open wide, the Lord begins: and leave Lodebar, leave the dry land , and your life will be changed.

I love that word: mercy, it is the word in Hebrew: chesed that communicates clemency, compassion, tenderness, kindness, benevolence, intense love, good will, it is a term that describes someone's willingness and commitment that is above and says: now I bless you, now I have mercy on you, and what David did with Mefi-boset is what God does with you today, glory to Jesus.

Mefi-boset could not believe, he could not believe, verse 8, it says that he leaned down and said: who is your servant that you should look at a dead dog like me? and David thinking: you do not know what is going to happen, you can tell the Lord today: Lord, I have no prospects, I have no dreams, I have no future, I have nothing, God tells you: today you have everything in Me, I have what you need, hallelujah, hallelujah.

The king declared: it is for the love of your father Jonathan, because of a pact of friendship that he made with your father, and here, my brothers, the Word of God is fulfilled that even if your father and mother abandon you, the Lord will take you in, even if the night passes. greatest tragedy in your life the Lord will never abandon you.

Psalm 27 says: the Lord is going to pick you up, and I love that you say that the Lord is going to pick you up from the abandoned, the God I know, the God of history is the God who sees everything, and he saw Mefi-bosheth , the boy Mefi-boset at five years of age, and plotted his story until the call of the king, He plotted the story, it was a pact of blessing.

Brothers: David represents here the true king Jesus Christ, he represents our king whose kingdom has no end, he represents a king who has all power, he represents a Jesus Christ full of love and compassion, he represents a Jesus Christ who died on a cross, who was pierced on the cross, represents a Jesus who thought of me and thought of you on that cross, David represents a Jesus who made a pact of love to remove all curses from our lives, to remove all curses from our existence and all curses from humanity .

David represents a Jesus who came committed to undoing the works of the devil, if the devil told you that you cannot God tells you today: you can, if the devil tells you today that you do not have God tells you: you have, if the The story of your life was marked by one of defeat. I tell you from the Word of God that you are more than a victor for the one who loved us through Jesus Christ, you are a victor, your name is not a dead dog.

Your name will be changed today by the one who has a promising life and a life, and a beautiful future. Jesus Christ is the true king who is seated on the Throne of God, he is the king we sing to today sitting on a true Throne and He is there to reign with all authority, and to bring true freedom to earth, and He is here today, hallelujah, He is here today to restore you, He is here today to encourage you, He is here to lead your life out of that darkness, He is here to lead you out of Lodebar, to lead you out of life with no perspective and no hope, and let me tell you: there are many Mefi-bosheth today, many men and women without hope, many men and women wounded by life, but many of them still have not heard or had the opportunity to hear the King's order and call to come and sit with him.

The King calls you today, the King sends you to call, the King gives you an order, go and bring the people from Lodebar, no matter what situation they are experiencing, I want them in my house, I want them at my table so that they may eat from my table. First Peter chapter 2 verses 9 and 10 says: "But you are a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired by God so that you may announce the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his admirable light, you who in another time you were not a people, but now you are the people of God, that in another time you had not obtained mercy, but now you have obtained mercy.”

Outside of this King there is no salvation, you need today to listen to the Voice of the King and leave Lodebar, and leave the land of silence, and leave the land of no words, no perspectives. Just as David made a love pact with Jonathan, God made a love pact for you and long before you were born, long before you were born. Before the world was the world and before life let you fall from the nanny's arms, before you became lame, a cripple from history, God thought of you and had plans for you, what you need today is accept that the only way, the only thing that will change your life is leaving the place where you are for the King's table.

Let me tell you: there will be no human effort that can free you if God is not with you. It is by faith, not by works so that no one can boast, it is by believing in what the King declared in Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 and 29: “Come to me all you who are labored and loaded, and I will give you rest; and learn from me that I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

My brother, my friend: you must leave Lodebar today, you must leave the sadness of your life today and prostrate your life before the true King, the only one who can heal your life, the only one who can heal your soul. Let me tell you: it is time, it is time, time to rethink your true position before Jesus and to understand who you are in Jesus Christ and to understand that the love of God, the love of God is very capable of restoring your life and your entire existence.

I don't know how long you have been living in Lodebar, in this land of dryness, in this land of no words, in this land of lack of dreams and perspectives in life, today the King calls you, today the King invites you to come and for you to eat from His table.

The King has promised to restore all of your life, everything, everything that the devil stole from you, everything that the devil tried to take out of your life, let me tell you: the King is going to restore everything that was stolen from your life.

This same hope of the King's children to sit at the table together with the King, right? The Word of the Lord says that Mefi-boset lived in Jerusalem because he always ate from the King's table but he continued to be crippled in the feet, but now he had servants, now he had people who worked for him, he now had a fortune, the heir to the fortune of Saul and his father Jonathan, now you are no longer a dead dog, now you are no longer the one without dreams, now you are the one who sees in the king the only way for his life and for his salvation.

I don't know your position today, I don't know how your life burns, if you feel that you are far from God or far from his ways, far from the dreams that God has for you, the King commands you to call today, the King He invites you today to sit at His table, to eat from His table.

I traveled in that passage, I imagined the heart of Mefi-bosheth restored, a heart that now understood what the love of a promise is, can you today imagine a God who has promises for you? He has promised you wonderful things and He wants to get you out of this lukewarm and morbid life so that you can sit at His table and eat together with the King, hallelujah, hallelujah, glory to Jesus, glory to Jesus.

How many today would like to eat from the King's table? I want to make an invitation to those who are far from the Lord, those who in some way, in some area in their life, have distanced themselves from the Lord, a situation in their life, a suffering, something happened and look: when I was in my Lodebar a brother sent me a song, and at this time there was no WhatsApp right? maybe we had an email and there was no Skype and all those fantastic communication things that we have today, and he sent me an email and said: Pastor, I want to send you a song for you to listen to, but I am going to send it in the next email? do you know why not? Because there wasn't enough internet to send an email and an attachment at the same time, right? so you had to send a different email with the song.

He sent me a song that said that God was going to restore everything that was stolen, everything that was plundered, everyone that was dead in life was going to be revived, and I listened to that song maybe thirty times, and while it I heard, I felt that every day God was restoring me and taking my life out of Lodebar so that I could sit at His table again.

I don't know how many here are far from the Lord for some reason but today understand that God wants you to sit at His table, and you want to leave your place and come here, and say: I want to restore my life with God, courageously stand up and say: I want, I want, it's me, I want to restore my life, my relationship with God. Pastor, I have been like this for a long time, but today I want to restore my life and my communion with God. Is there someone this afternoon who says: yes, I want to restore my life with God?

I want to get out of Lodebar, I want to get out of suffering, I want to get out of the non-words and the silence of my existence, and enter another level from today, it is a high level, and let me tell you, people are not going to understand, there are people who will criticize you, but what God has for you is greater than anything in this world, and today He is inviting you even if you are crippled in your feet, even if you see yourself as lame, hallelujah, Hallelujah.

If you are on the balcony up there I invite you to stand in the Name of Jesus, stand up and make the decision in the Name of Jesus, yes Jesus, glory to God, glory to Jesus. Lord: we accept Your Word this afternoon, we accept your invitation, Lord, to sit down and eat at Your table, Lord, to enter into Your rest, Lord, we accept Your invitation, Lord. Oh Lord, we left Lodebar today, we left the comfort of our existence and today we entered a new life, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Lord we accept Lord Your lordship, we are Your children, we are Your friends, we accept Lord that we are justified by You and that Jesus has come to save us, and to give us new life, and to change the history of our existence Lord, glory to Your Name, Hallelujah, keep praying to the Lord, glory to Jesus, glory to Jesus.