SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you today thankful for life.
SPEAKER_00: Thankful for breath in our lungs, God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, in your Sermon on the Mount, the most famous sermon ever, you said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, give us such a posture before you today.
SPEAKER_00: Give us the riches of your salvation and of your grace.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we ask that as your word gets open, that you would bless it, that you would speak, Holy Spirit, that you would heal, that you would declare who you are, that eyes would be made to see.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we invite you in.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Feel free to take a seat.
SPEAKER_00: All right, it is my honor and privilege.
SPEAKER_00: Well, by the way, my name's Adam.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors here at Skyline Church.
SPEAKER_00: We're a new church, about two and a half years in that we've been meeting.
SPEAKER_00: Our first public launch was Easter of 2024.
SPEAKER_00: Um, as Jeremiah said, if you're new here today, I I would love to meet you.
SPEAKER_00: Um so please come up and say hey after the service.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's my special honor and privilege today to introduce someone.
SPEAKER_00: Beck, if you wouldn't mind come on up.
SPEAKER_00: Give a light round of applause for Beck Easton, everyone.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the thing about Beck.
SPEAKER_00: Uh technically Beck and I were the first um the first official church planting residents and in the Crossway Network, right?
SPEAKER_00: I think so.
SPEAKER_00: Can you give him juice, Jesse?
SPEAKER_00: Can you give him microphone?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I gave him mic.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's his phone.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I we planted a church in 2023, but the church that Beck was at as a resident was like, we don't actually want you to go.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to stay here for a while, and you can plant later.
SPEAKER_00: But later has now come, hasn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It has definitely come.
SPEAKER_00: So Beck, you guys have moved down to Pueblo now.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, Monday.
SPEAKER_00: Last Monday you did.
SPEAKER_00: Or this coming Monday.
SPEAKER_01: Uh last Monday.
SPEAKER_01: What's today?
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It's been seven days.
SPEAKER_01: We we packed up everything, and I'm the moment I got in the house, I ripped up carpets and ripped out floor and tore down walls.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're kind of a homeless wandering people right now.
SPEAKER_00: But also in Pueblo, you can buy a lot of space, right?
SPEAKER_01: You can buy a lot of house, but it needs a lot of work.
SPEAKER_00: So, Beck, you want to tell us a little bit about the launch team?
SPEAKER_00: How's it going?
SPEAKER_00: What's kind of the timeline here?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, we uh, like I said, we just moved down Monday, and by God's grace, we have a team of about 33 people, uh, families that have young children, singles, freshly newlyweds, uh, even some people with uh silver hair or no hair have uh decided to join the plant.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're really grateful for the team.
SPEAKER_01: These we did not think we were ever going to Pueblo.
SPEAKER_01: Ever.
SPEAKER_01: And uh by God's grace, not only has he led us there, but so many other other folks.
SPEAKER_01: We're still working through the eldership process uh to get a plurality of elders, and so we're gonna start meeting as a core team for an extended amount of time.
SPEAKER_01: You could pray uh for our lunch sometime, you're gonna laugh when I say this, between Christmas and Easter.
SPEAKER_01: I know that's a big gap, but we're giving ourselves a lot of runway and not a lot of expectation.
SPEAKER_01: I think one of the biggest things that could hurt a church plant like this is the desire to go fast, to rush it.
SPEAKER_01: And so I, as you can tell, was not built for speed.
SPEAKER_01: I was built for comfort.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna cruise at a comfortable pace uh in this time, get to know each other, and pray that the Lord blesses it.
SPEAKER_00: So, Beck, it's our privilege to have you preach here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It was important to me to have you guys meet Beck if you haven't met him before, because he's uh a church planter now in the Crossway Network, and we're really excited about that.
SPEAKER_00: The the city of Pueblo is going to be immensely blessed.
SPEAKER_00: Can't wait for the families, the neighborhoods, the city, the campus to be transformed in the coming years in an unrecognizable way.
SPEAKER_00: So give it up for Beck, guys, as he brings us the word.
SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks everybody.
SPEAKER_01: It's so good to be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Um I was asked to come and preach, and they said I could preach on whatever I wanted, which is a dangerous endeavor.
SPEAKER_01: I decided to pick an obscure passage, but quite possibly one of, if not my favorite texts in all of the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It's a scripture that uh really connected the Old Testament and the New and let me see Jesus in the Old Testament and really brought Jesus kind of into my lap and into my life and let me understand a little more of how I see um myself.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you're familiar with 1st and 2 Samuel, the story of the life of David, basically.
SPEAKER_01: God's people get a king, and his first king kind of looks like the world.
SPEAKER_01: He's big and tall and handsome and well spoken.
SPEAKER_01: His name is Saul, but he's not a good king.
SPEAKER_01: And there's this little shepherd boy, you've heard of him before, David, who God blesses and anoints to become the king of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But how is this shepherd going to get into the throne room?
SPEAKER_01: 1 Samuel is basically the story of Saul's demise and David's rise.
SPEAKER_01: And right at the end of 1 Samuel, you have this transfer of power, which brings us into David's reign.
SPEAKER_01: Now, David is a king that follows God by trusting him.
SPEAKER_01: He submits himself.
SPEAKER_01: And in there's these three chapters here in 2 Samuel 7, 8, and 9.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Samuel chapter 7 is where God anoints David.
SPEAKER_01: There's this covenant relationship between David and God.
SPEAKER_01: And basically what it says is that David is just going to be faithful to God and God's going to take care of the rest.
SPEAKER_01: And it starts to work.
SPEAKER_01: In chapter 8, you get a lot of war.
SPEAKER_01: David is fighting wars literally to the north and to the south and to the east and to the west, and guess what?
SPEAKER_01: He's winning.
SPEAKER_01: And years go by, and we get to 2 Samuel chapter 9 to a really unique story.
SPEAKER_01: But what I would argue to you is the pinnacle of David's reign as king.
SPEAKER_01: It's the time in the scripture where David is acting the most like God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, most of you know David because of the killing of Goliath, faithfulness when he was a teenager back in 1 Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: That's a great story.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to tell you that this obscure little passage tells us more about David's faithfulness and in turn tells us more about who God is.
SPEAKER_01: This story would be totally famous if the character in it didn't had a more marketable name.
SPEAKER_01: If his name was Noah or Jonah or something like that, this would be in every child's storybook, but I would argue to you that it should be in your lap.
SPEAKER_01: It should be in the ears and the hearts of your children and of you as well.
SPEAKER_01: It's the story of Mephibosheth.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for me, because I have to say that name no less than 20 times in the next 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: So David is on the throne.
SPEAKER_01: Twenty years have passed.
SPEAKER_01: Saul and his best friend Jonathan are gone.
SPEAKER_01: They've died.
SPEAKER_01: He is ruling and is successful in every direction.
SPEAKER_01: And 2 Samuel chapter 9 puts the king on the throne and he's pondering.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we pick up this unique story.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 9, verses 1 through 13?
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bible, you can turn with me there and we will read it together.
SPEAKER_01: Says this.
SPEAKER_01: And David said, Is there still anyone left in the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?
SPEAKER_01: Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David, and the king said to him, Are you Zeba?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I am your servant.
SPEAKER_01: And the king said, Is there not still someone in the house of Saul that I may show kindness, the kindness of God to him?
SPEAKER_01: And Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan.
SPEAKER_01: He is crippled in his feet.
SPEAKER_01: The king said to him, Where is he?
SPEAKER_01: And Ziba said to the king, He is in the house of Makar, the son of Amamel at Lodabar.
SPEAKER_01: And the king David sent and brought him to the house sorry, from the house of Makar, the son of Amal at Lodabar.
SPEAKER_01: And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage.
SPEAKER_01: And David said, Mephibosheth.
SPEAKER_01: And he answered, Behold, I am your servant.
SPEAKER_01: And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan.
SPEAKER_01: I will restore to you all of the land of Saul, your father, and you shall eat at my table always.
SPEAKER_01: And he paid homage and said, What is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?
SPEAKER_01: Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, All that belongs to Saul and all of his house I give I have given to your master's grandson, and you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and bring in the produce, that your master's grandson may have bread to eat.
SPEAKER_01: But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always eat at my table.
SPEAKER_01: And Zeba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
SPEAKER_01: Then Zeba said to the king, According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do.
SPEAKER_01: So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons.
SPEAKER_01: And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah, and all who lived with Zeba's house became Mephibosheth's servants.
SPEAKER_01: So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table.
SPEAKER_01: Now he was lame in both feet.
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would use me, that you would use everybody here to glorify you by understanding you more and your character.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that this would not be a historical story about David the king, but a reflective story of you and your character.
SPEAKER_01: Would you help us now?
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: This is a story about David.
SPEAKER_01: And a story about Mephibosheth, but it's really a story about what God is like.
SPEAKER_01: If you've known me for any amount of time, and some of you have, you'll know this phrase.
SPEAKER_01: The most important thought you can have is what you think God thinks about you.
SPEAKER_01: What you think God thinks about you is going to determine your worldview about everything.
SPEAKER_01: Is this God an angry kid on an ant hill with a magnifying glass and worthy ant?
SPEAKER_01: Is this God distant?
SPEAKER_01: He's lays back, puts his feet up on the ottoman, presses play on time, and just watches it all unfold.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of God is He?
SPEAKER_01: God of power and thunder and fear and darkness, a God of love and mercy?
SPEAKER_01: Is it a combination of it all?
SPEAKER_01: I submit to you that the Bible is one unifying story.
SPEAKER_01: It's a love story that leads to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's true, but it's telling us what God is like.
SPEAKER_01: If there's a God in heaven, we better know what kind of God He is.
SPEAKER_01: This story is telling you, and He's telling you namely that God is kind.
SPEAKER_01: God is kind.
SPEAKER_01: The word in Hebrew there is Hised love.
SPEAKER_01: It's a word for loyal love or loving kindness or mercy.
SPEAKER_01: It's translated different ways.
SPEAKER_01: But the word kindness in the ESV, I think, is fitting.
SPEAKER_01: Look in your text, or I think it is up on the slide.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see this multiple times.
SPEAKER_01: The kindness of God.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: And David said, Is there anybody in the house of Saul that I may show kindness for Jonathan's sake?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Is there not someone in the house of Saul that I may show kindness to him?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, do not fear, David says to Mephibosheth, I will show you kindness for the sake of your father.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the story is about.
SPEAKER_01: It's about God's kindness.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the point of today's message.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I hope you'll walk away with.
SPEAKER_01: It's on your bulletin and it should be up on the slide.
SPEAKER_01: The more we understand the kindness of God towards us, the more we will display the kindness of God towards others.
SPEAKER_01: David is this young shepherd boy who understands and contemplates the kindness of God towards him.
SPEAKER_01: And as he is pondering, he lives to display that kindness to others.
SPEAKER_01: That's the point of the text and what I hope to show you.
SPEAKER_01: But this isn't just about David's kindness.
SPEAKER_01: You know, in Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7, some of the most famous scripture in all the Bible, it says that God's name, his own character, merciful and gracious and abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: That word is his said.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this kind of kindness isn't the kind of kindness for a good tipper.
SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about people that put the carts away at King Supers.
SPEAKER_01: Those are all good things.
SPEAKER_01: But this is a kind of kindness that is covenant love, promise-keeping love, the love that we get that we have not earned.
SPEAKER_01: When we talk about mercy and kindness and love in this way, it's more like the love that you would see displayed at a wedding ceremony.
SPEAKER_01: This covenantal care.
SPEAKER_01: David is at a point in his life where he's grateful to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He understands that he's getting what he did not deserve.
SPEAKER_01: And if you know the story of David soon, it's all gonna fall off a cliff because he failed to remember.
SPEAKER_01: The number one promise in the Bible is do not fear.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see it actually today in the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: The second promise, most common in the scripture?
SPEAKER_01: Remember.
SPEAKER_01: That you would not just know the kindness of God and understand the kindness of God, but that you would remember the kindness of God.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that's the purpose of this story.
SPEAKER_01: He's a king, but his identity is still as a servant.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's remembering this relationship he had with his best friend, this brother, Jonathan.
SPEAKER_01: David's former king, Saul, hates David.
SPEAKER_01: But Jonathan, Saul's son, he gets what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: And in 1 Samuel, you see this relationship between David and Jonathan operate in a covenant type of love.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, all over 1 Samuel chapter 20, you see this relationship with Samuel where he is saying, Don't forget my household.
SPEAKER_01: Show kindness, he said love, to me and my household, because I know what God is doing in your life.
SPEAKER_01: I understand and agree with the providence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so David and his best friend have this covenant moment.
SPEAKER_01: And he's sitting on this throne and he's remembering that promise.
SPEAKER_01: And boy is he gonna keep it.
SPEAKER_01: Look with me into verses one through three.
SPEAKER_01: David is saying, Is there anybody left in the house of Saul?
SPEAKER_01: This is a political enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Back in that day, you didn't have changes of power with a vote and a parade.
SPEAKER_01: No, there was mutinies.
SPEAKER_01: You killed everybody with the legacy of that name because you didn't want to allow for a coup to uprise in your own kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: It was commonplace to wipe everybody out of the old regime.
SPEAKER_01: And so when David is saying, Is there anybody left in the house of Saul?
SPEAKER_01: Everybody in the king's court is going, Oh man, we're gonna clean them out.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a pivot, a covenantal pivot, that I may show kindness to him.
SPEAKER_01: He calls for Zeba, this servant.
SPEAKER_01: And Zeba says, There is one left.
SPEAKER_01: His name is Mephibosheth.
SPEAKER_01: Mephibosheth is in a place called Lodabar.
SPEAKER_01: He's in hiding.
SPEAKER_01: Now we know a little bit about Mephibosheth in 1 Samuel chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Jerusalem is under siege and Saul is in trouble, and so he's gonna escape the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And so Mephibosheth is five years old, and the maidservant picks him up and they're fleeing the castle, as it were, and she drops him and he breaks both of his feet.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine Mephibosheth's upbringing in the temple court, knowing that his pathway as a prince was to reign in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: He played on the throne that David is sitting on now.
SPEAKER_01: And when the regime change happens, he loses his feet, he loses his home, he loses his family, and he moves to a city called Lo Dabar.
SPEAKER_01: It literally means place of no harvest, place of nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Emptiness.
SPEAKER_01: Mephibosheth is no man in no place with no hope.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that true of us sometimes?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not crippled in our feet, but crippled in our past, crippled in our heart, crippled in our mind.
SPEAKER_01: We are in a nowhere place, going nowhere and with no hope.
SPEAKER_01: He's in the house of Mekar.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because in that day he couldn't care for himself.
SPEAKER_01: So this former prince now has to be cared for by somebody else and in their loving kindness.
SPEAKER_01: He's in hiding as an expat.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a knock on the door.
SPEAKER_01: Here comes Ziba.
SPEAKER_01: The king requests you.
SPEAKER_01: This is it for him.
SPEAKER_01: This is the end.
SPEAKER_01: This is the end for him.
SPEAKER_01: His miserable, nowhere, no hope life is coming to an end in the same court he played as a child.
SPEAKER_01: And he's drug in.
SPEAKER_01: Look at in verse 6, or pardon me, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He's uh verse 4, the end of verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: He's in the house of Makar, the son of Amamel at Lodabar.
SPEAKER_01: Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Makar, the son of Amamel at Lodabar in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David and fell on his faith and paid homage.
SPEAKER_01: Just picture, look, create a scene in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: This guy is being dragged in for his execution in his own mind.
SPEAKER_01: He is seeing the highest authority in the land.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way out.
SPEAKER_01: He can't even walk the last few steps.
SPEAKER_01: He has to crawl.
SPEAKER_01: And he lays on his face, knowing that there's nothing he can do.
SPEAKER_01: He pays homage, getting ready for his just punishment.
SPEAKER_01: Not just because of what he did, but because of the blood that runs through his veins.
SPEAKER_01: The hand he was dealt, the cards he was played, the world that he lives in, and listen to these grace-filled words that shock him to his core.
SPEAKER_01: And David said, What does David say?
SPEAKER_01: This is the high point.
SPEAKER_01: What's he gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: What's gonna happen?
SPEAKER_01: Read it in your text.
SPEAKER_01: It says, do not fear.
SPEAKER_01: A phrase that we hear so often in the Bible, specifically in the gospels, when the king is coming and when the king returns and when angels are heralding, what is the the term that the shepherd boys hear in the field?
SPEAKER_01: What is the term that Mary heals with the air hears at the empty tomb?
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: I know there's a ton of authority in the room.
SPEAKER_01: I know I could do whatever I want to you and it would be just.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna tell you what I'm like.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Because of the sake, for the sake of your dad, I'm gonna bless you.
SPEAKER_01: He gives him kindness.
SPEAKER_01: Do not fear, for I will show you great kindness.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you get to verse 8, he said he paid homage to him and said, What is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that true of us?
SPEAKER_01: No matter what the authority says, we're still kind of like stuck in our own mind.
SPEAKER_01: What happened yesterday?
SPEAKER_01: The deleted search stuff on our phones, all of that has a louder voice, the cuts on our thighs, the thing that happened, the past, the dad, the mom, the whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Speaks louder than the king, even in the room.
SPEAKER_01: See, the dog back then is not like something you like walked on the Evenings and let sleep on your bed.
SPEAKER_01: That was a term not of endearment but of disgrace.
SPEAKER_01: A dog was the lowest of the low in the first century Judean world.
SPEAKER_01: And a dead dog was worse than that.
SPEAKER_01: It was just disease-ridden frustration and kind of honriness associated with that term.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that David's response to Mephibosheth after he says it?
SPEAKER_01: Look down at your text.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't even reply.
SPEAKER_01: He's just doing king stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Gives it no attention.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he pays no mind to what you say about you because what the king says about you, that's the way it is.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Ziba, go give everything that Jonathan and Saul had.
SPEAKER_01: Not the whole kingdom, but his personal land, his home.
SPEAKER_01: Guys, imagine this.
SPEAKER_01: Mephibosheth gets restored to the place of his youth.
SPEAKER_01: The grandpa's house that he never thought he would ever get to be, and again he gets it back.
SPEAKER_01: More than just not being killed.
SPEAKER_01: He gets this restorative, regenerative blessing put upon him.
SPEAKER_01: And we as Christians, sometimes we can live like I'm a Christian, which means I'm just barely not going to die forever.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what God is like.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing could be further from the truth.
SPEAKER_01: God is not penting up his anger towards you and holding it back.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the character that we see in the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: He's penting up his mercy and kindness towards you, looking for an opportunity to, as Ordlin would say, burst it forward.
SPEAKER_01: That's the character of God.
SPEAKER_01: He gets servants.
SPEAKER_01: Ziba is a slave at the time, but you can't think of slavery in the way we would understand our sinful history as American cat chattel slavery.
SPEAKER_01: This guy is the CEO of a major corporation.
SPEAKER_01: He has servants himself.
SPEAKER_01: He has multiple children.
SPEAKER_01: He's running a massive account.
SPEAKER_01: This is a high authority man.
SPEAKER_01: And with the snap of his fingers, the king says, You have a new job description.
SPEAKER_01: And Mephibosh saith, You have a new house, and you're going to get new grain, and you are going to be taken care of.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not it.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh, sorry, uh, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Then the king said, Zeba, Saul's servant, said to him, All that belong to Saul and to his house, I've given to your master's grandson.
SPEAKER_01: And you and your son shall till the land for him, bringing the produce, and the master's grandson shall have bread to eat.
SPEAKER_01: But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always eat at my table.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know a better way to say it than aren't we all just looking for a seat at the table?
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: Place in the world to be a part, where there's a chair reserved for you.
SPEAKER_01: In the Gospels in Luke chapter 14, we even hear about this banquet, this invite.
SPEAKER_01: And in other places in Matthew, we hear about this cosmic banquet that's being held.
SPEAKER_01: The end of time, as we understand the book of Revelation, it's not just like lightning and thunder, and we are wearing white robes and singing for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: No, the picture that's displayed at the end of time is a wedding feast.
SPEAKER_01: It's a banquet table.
SPEAKER_01: To sit at the king's table was not just a place of good food.
SPEAKER_01: It was a place of prestige.
SPEAKER_01: It was a place of prominence.
SPEAKER_01: It was it was saying that you are on the in crowd.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't like giving a beggar some bread.
SPEAKER_01: You know, have you ever, I just did a wedding last night.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever seen the bridesman or the the the wedding party table?
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: And there's always the guy who like barely makes it.
SPEAKER_01: He's like on the end with his legs crossed using a plastic fork as a as his knife.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about being put in the place of prominence, being on the in crowd forever.
SPEAKER_01: And not just that.
SPEAKER_01: Go down a little further.
SPEAKER_01: Then Sebas said, or pardon me, verse 12, Mephibosheth, I'm sorry, verse 11, I can't find it.
SPEAKER_01: There it is.
SPEAKER_01: The end of verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons.
SPEAKER_01: When David is acting most like God, this is so touching for me.
SPEAKER_01: There's no such thing as a second-class citizen.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody gets to be the rung below.
SPEAKER_01: The cripple gets raised up, gets a seat next to the highest authority in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Now he wasn't healed.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the last line, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: He ate at the king's table always, though he was lame in both feet.
SPEAKER_01: David has seen grace and the mercy of God in his life.
SPEAKER_01: I think there's a slide for this.
SPEAKER_01: And so it impacts him and to treat others with grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: That's our main point.
SPEAKER_01: I want to read it one more time.
SPEAKER_01: The more David understands the kindness of God towards himself, the more he would display the kindness of God towards Mophibosheth.
SPEAKER_01: We talk about heaven coming to earth.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we pray that.
SPEAKER_01: We talk about it.
SPEAKER_01: Want to bring the kingdom into the world.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of kingdom are we talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Because when David is acting most like God, it's a kingdom of loving kindness.
SPEAKER_01: It's a kingdom of sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: It's a kingdom of saying about something or saying about somebody something that's true of them, even when they don't believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, it's a kingdom that always has room at your table.
SPEAKER_01: That's heaven coming here.
SPEAKER_01: This is a story about God's kindness, and it's also a story, a greater story, about the gospel, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Can't you see the overlap?
SPEAKER_01: People think there's the Old Testament, and it's just kind of like the diving board for the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, it's all one story.
SPEAKER_01: God is telling you what he's like, and he's telling you what he's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: And he sends his son to live a perfect life and to die a perfect death.
SPEAKER_01: For any who believe in him by faith, Ephesians, this is Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, let's reflect on Jesus' life and death.
SPEAKER_01: If you believe in him by faith, the scripture says you enter in him.
SPEAKER_01: You're in him.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus died, who died?
SPEAKER_01: Well, if I'm in him, I died with him.
SPEAKER_01: If he resurrected, who resurrected?
SPEAKER_01: Whoever's in him.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, For my son's sake, I'm going to give you everything that was his.
SPEAKER_01: This is the inheritance that is given to the Son Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Christ Jesus is given to us cripples, us expats, us rebellions or rebels.
SPEAKER_01: There is going to come a day where every single one of us is going to be laid on our face in front of the King's court.
SPEAKER_01: A cosmic court.
SPEAKER_01: With greater power than David ever could have imagined.
SPEAKER_01: With more authority.
SPEAKER_01: And my, I've come here today to tell you that could be a terrifying experience.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a way that it can become a glorious day.
SPEAKER_01: Where we don't have to hide our crippled legs.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to be afraid of our lineage or what we did yesterday or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we're in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We're hidden in Him.
SPEAKER_01: We're cloaked in the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We have no worthiness.
SPEAKER_01: But because of our position and our unitedness to Christ, we will get a seat at the table.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you could say it like this.
SPEAKER_01: Before you can sit at the table, you have to kneel at the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And when we understand the kindness of God towards us, the more we display the kindness of God towards others.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we can live in a world where we hear about the gospel and we hear the four spiritual laws or we hear the bridge or whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: We hear some Christian tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: And we raise our hand and we jump up and down during the fast songs and we raise our hands during the slow songs and we say, okay, let's move to higher spiritual things.
SPEAKER_01: Let's move away from the cross.
SPEAKER_01: I want to get into some of the debates of the day.
SPEAKER_01: I want to understand higher theology.
SPEAKER_01: Beloved, let me just tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: Maturity is not knowing the wars that rage on in the theological world.
SPEAKER_01: It's not knowing the most up-to-date music or what's going on and or having nuanced theological conversations.
SPEAKER_01: Maturity is reflecting upon the cross and obeying his commands more and more forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Any engineer or PhD or doctor, maybe in the room or in this city, is living off of a foundation that they learned in kindergarten.
SPEAKER_01: And they don't ever move away from it.
SPEAKER_01: A E-I-O-U.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes why?
SPEAKER_01: That's important no matter what kind of industry you're in.
SPEAKER_01: We should never be a people that move away from reflecting upon the cross because it will grow more and more in our heart.
SPEAKER_01: And the more we understand the kindness of God through our meditation on the cross, the more we display that kindness to others.
SPEAKER_01: The more grace and maturity we have towards the cripple in our life.
SPEAKER_01: The brother or sister who's hard-headed.
SPEAKER_01: The begetting sin that just, oh man, it just never goes away.
SPEAKER_01: The more we know how to deal with that.
SPEAKER_01: So I just have some quick uh applications for us.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't this a great story?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it good?
SPEAKER_01: We read your Bible, man.
SPEAKER_01: It's so full of stuff like this.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: I have three observations and three applications.
SPEAKER_01: The applications are on your little handout there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to make an observation and then a quick application and we'll move on.
SPEAKER_01: Is that okay?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: The first observation I want you to make is uh who came to who first?
SPEAKER_01: Because we think like, well, Mephibosheth came to David.
SPEAKER_01: Look again, as my friends would say.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: It's David who sends this servant, this spirit figure, great authority, to Mephibosheth.
SPEAKER_01: Right, there's this picture in the Gospels where we think we have to come to God with it all figured out.
SPEAKER_01: Trust me, friends, he's coming to you.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe he's knocking on the door of your heart right now.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're in this expat, crippled position in your life.
SPEAKER_01: He comes to you before you ever come to him.
SPEAKER_01: And if he's coming to you, he's a good and kind God.
SPEAKER_01: We shouldn't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: But perhaps an application should be: who are you waiting to come for you that you should be going to?
SPEAKER_01: An application might be, who are you waiting on, or what are you waiting on that actually you should be going to?
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 28, Jesus dies and resurrects, and he gives this command.
SPEAKER_01: He tells us to go and to make disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes, you've seen this, in our lives, especially Christian lives in the West, we can say, I'll wait till someone comes to me.
SPEAKER_01: Now I don't want you to think that you have to just like stand on the street corner and talk to anybody who has a breath and become an evangelist, or I have to become a preacher or something like that, or a missionary to some other foreign land.
SPEAKER_01: Those things are all good, yes and amen.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you should.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you should go to Pueblo.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Come on down.
SPEAKER_01: The water's 111 degrees.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 13, verses 31 and 32, Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, and it grows into a tree that all the nations would hold on to.
SPEAKER_01: The principle is this in the kingdom of God, small things can become big things.
SPEAKER_01: So here's my encouragement to you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to go in big, you know, magnificent ways only, but maybe just a tiniest thing done in faith could become something huge.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe just that one extra word to your barista.
SPEAKER_01: Or the knocking on the door of your neighbor and saying, I don't know, I just had extra bread.
SPEAKER_01: I'm really bad at this.
SPEAKER_01: Here you go, and walk away.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe, just maybe, God could do something big with something small.
SPEAKER_01: That the church may be made of, not just of huge acts of faith, but of billions of tiny little acts of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second observation.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, sorry, let me just give a quick illustration from this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Pueblo, uh, for the first one.
SPEAKER_01: Pueblo is like the Loda Bar of Colorado, right?
SPEAKER_01: It is the place of no harvest.
SPEAKER_01: It is, it is the place of people laugh at it, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And and I have just fallen in love with that place because I believe, I'm gonna get emotional, I believe that it's a place where there's mephiboshest hiding all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: And um my be my beautiful wife, we're gonna, we're building this huge table.
SPEAKER_01: I actually want to name our house.
SPEAKER_01: I'm into naming things.
SPEAKER_01: Um, I want to call it Long Table.
SPEAKER_01: That everybody would have a place.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't have to worry about the tattoos or the decision or the parole or the whatever.
SPEAKER_01: You can come and you just have a place.
SPEAKER_01: There's always enough food, and there's always enough time.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're interested in being a part of that, you should come talk to me.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to know that there's a lot of spiritually political expats right here in Denver.
SPEAKER_01: They're all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: And they're in hiding because they think one day they're gonna stand in front of a God who's gonna behead them.
SPEAKER_01: What have you told them the character of God isn't like that?
SPEAKER_01: That there's a kindness if you will come to him and enter into Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, uh, number two, we're almost out of time here.
SPEAKER_01: I want the second observation I want you to make.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is who came to who first?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second one.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to observe the lavishness of David's generosity.
SPEAKER_01: This is kindness at a great cost.
SPEAKER_01: David has all this stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It was given to him, and then he gives all of it away.
SPEAKER_01: This radical generosity, this is a kindness at cost.
SPEAKER_01: This is obviously expounded in a greater degree behind Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: This is a kindness of God that he would take the blow for us.
SPEAKER_01: That he knows that you and I have a price we cannot pay, a debt that we cannot balance, and time is running out, and so Jesus takes the blow.
SPEAKER_01: What great sacrifice and great kindness.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my question.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the application.
SPEAKER_01: What does your, you could take this harshly, I was on a pause, please don't, with all grace.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to just consider this.
SPEAKER_01: What does your generosity say about you?
SPEAKER_01: The generosity of David tells us something about his character.
SPEAKER_01: The generosity and kindness, the loving kindness of Jesus tells us something about him.
SPEAKER_01: What does your generosity say about you?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to pause here.
SPEAKER_01: I know some of you are like, man, I don't have any money.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have any time.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have anything to get away.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the guy who needs something.
SPEAKER_01: I understand that.
SPEAKER_01: And God is listening to that prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But could it could you consider this?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's not money.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're strong and you're gonna start a moving company called you're gonna ask me to do it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Preach, I know that.
SPEAKER_01: I was built for couches.
SPEAKER_01: Um maybe it's something as simple as like you can be a listening ear.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe your generosity is just being interruptible.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're the person who can cook the extra batch and invite somebody over.
SPEAKER_01: Don't assume that you can't be generous.
SPEAKER_01: Assume that if the Spirit of God is in you, there is an endless vat of love for you to give out.
SPEAKER_01: Because the more we reflect on God's kindness, the more we can display his kindness in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Be lavishly generous, but be creative in how we do it.
SPEAKER_01: Um, we just moved to Pueblo, and none of my family are Christians, and it's a wild bunch, you know, like uh yeah, I don't want to say any more about that.
SPEAKER_01: It's just a wild bunch.
SPEAKER_01: People are like, no, my family's crazy too.
SPEAKER_01: And then they get to Pueblo and they're like, oh man, we gotta get ahead.
SPEAKER_01: And uh there was this lady in our church in Fort Collins who I don't really know all that well, and she was helping us move, and we got to the point where we were packing and we ran out of room.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't have enough space.
SPEAKER_01: And so she, without me really knowing, rented a moving truck, packed up the stuff, and moved it down to Pueblo.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad gets to be there, and he um he's like, I don't understand.
SPEAKER_01: You paid her?
SPEAKER_01: She I said, I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_01: She just came down with all the rest of the stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Okay, well, I cleaned out your refrigerator, I'll see you later.
SPEAKER_01: Name is Tracy.
SPEAKER_01: And and she just drove back up to Fort Collins, which is just shy of a billion miles away from Pueblo.
SPEAKER_01: And you can see my dad observe this thing and go, it's like he doesn't know how to compute it.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't understand generosity that way.
SPEAKER_01: And he's trying to, he's trying to reconcile with, well, who's like how's this, or how are you gonna settle up with her?
SPEAKER_01: Now do you owe her?
SPEAKER_01: How does the Christian world work?
SPEAKER_01: It's free, it's grace, and it's on display.
SPEAKER_01: What you observe about God, I pray, be on display in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Last one.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to observe the change in Mephibosheth's identity, and we're gonna be done.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't just provide, David just didn't provide for Mephibosheth, he treated him as family.
SPEAKER_01: There's a doctrine in this in the Christian religion called the doctrine of adoption.
SPEAKER_01: You don't just get into heaven, you actually get to be a part of the family business, the kingdom reign of the world.
SPEAKER_01: You get adopted, your identity is relocated, it's changed forever.
SPEAKER_01: He sat at the table, the family table, like one of the king's sons.
SPEAKER_01: And I think sometimes, like I said before, what we know about ourselves, when no one's in the room, with the quietness or loudness, as it were, of our own mind, can speak louder than anything we read in the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: God, through Jesus, treats all that come to him as adopted sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_01: And what I want to say to you is that David's authority usurped Mufibosheth's belief about himself.
SPEAKER_01: What does an all-powerful God who made the world with a word?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're talking real authority.
SPEAKER_01: What he says about you has to be more true than what you say about you.
SPEAKER_01: Would you read your Bible?
SPEAKER_01: Would you learn not only about who God is, but what he has to say about his people?
SPEAKER_01: John 1.12, one of my favorite verses, but all who did receive him and who believed in his name, he gave the right, he gave it, to become children of God.
SPEAKER_01: What defines you more?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the application.
SPEAKER_01: Your brokenness or the king's declaration.
SPEAKER_01: What is the definition of your character and identity, your brokenness, your secret sin, or what the creator of the universe has to say about you?
SPEAKER_01: Brothers and sisters, I don't know you all well enough, but I know Adam.
SPEAKER_01: You can come to this church with any baggage.
SPEAKER_01: You can come to this place and you can talk to the elders here about anything.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that possible?
SPEAKER_01: Because the more we reflect on the kindness of God, the more we display it.
SPEAKER_01: The more we understand that we are broken, crippled Mephibosheth ourselves in need of a place at the table.
SPEAKER_01: More willing to give it out.
SPEAKER_01: I want to let uh Spurgeon give the last word, shall we?
SPEAKER_01: And then I can pray.
SPEAKER_01: Um he just does it better than me.
SPEAKER_01: Mephibosheth, this is what Charles Spurgeon says, was not an attractive guest at the royal table, yet an open invitation because of King David could see on his face the features of the beloved Jonathan.
SPEAKER_01: Later, he says, their deformity shall not rob them of their privilege, lameness is no barred sonship.
SPEAKER_01: The disabled is as much the heir as if he could run like a gazelle.
SPEAKER_01: Our ability to enter may be impaired, but our right of entry stands the same.
SPEAKER_01: A king's table is a noble hiding place for lame language.
SPEAKER_01: And at the gospel feast, we learn to rejoice in the infirmities because the power of Christ rests upon us.
SPEAKER_01: At God's table, it doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter where you're from.
SPEAKER_01: At that table, we're all the same.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you for your word and your loving kindness towards us.
SPEAKER_01: We pray, Lord, that this would not just benefit us now, but for years and days to come.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, Lord, that we would reflect upon you more and display you more to the world.
SPEAKER_01: By your power and in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.