The Church of Eleven22 - A Seat At The Kings Table: The Testimony of Mephiboseth: Testimony - Wk. 3

Episode Date: January 28, 2024

Jesus is the greater and better Jonathon. Because of His loving kindness toward us we have been invited like a cripple to the King's table. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to coe22.com

Amen, amen. So good, right? So good. Hey, if you got your Bibles, we're going to be in Second Samuel, Chapter 9, start making your way there. And how many of you would agree with me that foster families are modern day heroes? Amen. Amen. So for all of you fostering, thank you, thank you, thank you for doing that. Hey, we are going to be continuing in this series on testimony, and it's kind of a foster story from antiquity. So make your way to Second Samuel and As you make your way there, I just gotta do a little family business before we get there, okay? Because I know we're spread out over locations from all over the place and online, but we're still just one big old family. And we got a little family news, and we need the family to be praying.

Last Sunday morning before our 9 o'clock service, one of our elders, Lars Peterson, had a stroke. And pretty significant, but he was rushed to the hospital via ambulance. And for all of you first responders, thank you for being an answer to prayer. I hope you realize that people cry out in need. Lord help me. And somebody with a uniform and light show up. And so that's part of the reason we got you back because you got ours. And they got me to Mayo and also thank God for every doctor and nurse too because all healing comes from God.

He is the great physician. And oftentimes he decides to heal people through medicine and technologies and doctors and nurses and all the folks. And so thank you. So he got to Mayo stabilized, had a procedure on Tuesday morning. It went really, really well. Yesterday he went to rehab. He will be in rehab for a while. while and so we just need to be in prayer for elder laurice peterson and his family his wife deb

his daughter errant and so would you just join me and agree with me for healing in jesus name for laura's and let's pray our good and gracious heavenly father god we know you've never been surprised nothing's over your head nothing's out of your hand you are the great physician and so god we ask you for healing and lord we don't care how it comes lord i could walk in that that room this afternoon and peter could just get up walk home with me we'll take that or it could be through a slower process with doctors and medicine and technology, but we just know that you're not finished with him. You've got a lot of work to do through him.

And God, we love Pita. God, we pray for Deb and we pray for Aaron. God, we pray that you would give them a peace that transcends all understanding. You would guard their hearts. You would guard their minds. You would heal his body quickly so he could get back to work here with us. God, we know that you love him. God, we pray that the Spirit of God in his room would be thick.

that every doctor, nurse, visitor that walks into that room would sense something different. And what they would sense is a peace that comes where the presence of God is. And God, we love you. And because of the blood of Jesus, we pray this with all boldness. And everyone who agrees with this will say, amen. Amen. Second Samuel, Chapter 9 is where we're going to be. We're in this series called Testimony.

And what we're doing is week one, we talked about the power of testimony. Last week we talked about you writing your testimony. I hope you did your homework. If not, then give yourself an F and get after it right now. And then for the next three weeks, we're going to look at particular testimonies in the scripture, people's stories of what their life was like before they met the Lord, how they met him, and what their life was like since then.

And so if you find Second Samuel, if you need help, it's in the Old Testament, it's sort of the beginning, it's right behind First Samuel. Maybe that'll help. And the heading here says, David's kindness to Mapheth. So try to say that word, a couple of few. time. Maph. I've been practicing all week. Said it 700 times. If I slip and say

cussar words, it's not my fault. Anyway, it says David's kindness. Now, here's the thing about that word kindness. It's not just like a person that's nice to a person, but David's going to demonstrate the Hebrew word is ha said. Say ha said. You got to put a little more in it, all right? Has said. It doesn't just mean like nice. Has said, it gets your. It gets your. It gets your translated as loving kindness. And it means, it means a costly love in light of a covenant. That's the kind of love that we're talking about here. And so it starts out in chapter 9, verse 1, and David said, this is King David, is there still anyone left in the house of Saul? Now, if you're new to Bible study, you don't know what we're talking about here, so I got to catch you up a little bit. So let me just

give you a little bit of context. If you go all the way back, I don't know, we'll go to Exodus, the second book of the Bible. The people of God find themselves. as a slave nation under the thumb of the Pharaoh who is king of Egypt. They got there via Joseph, the coat of many colors guy for some of you old hands. And so they've been there for like 400 and something years and they're crying out to God. They're being oppressed. They're crying out to God and they know that they are the promised people. They know that they're God's chosen people that God has a promised land for them but they're living in the promised land. They're living as slaves in Egypt. And then eventually God hears their prayers.

and he sends a very unlikely hero named Moses. Now, Moses was old. Moses had a tattered pass. He had killed a guy at one point in his life. And so at this point in his life, he's wandering around in the desert, working for all people, his father-in-law. So you know he ain't in the will of God. You understand what I'm saying?

And so he's out there just thinking, God's done with him, but God ain't done with him. God comes and speaks to Moses through a burning bush and says, Moses, I want you to go to Pharaoh, and I want you on behalf of God to say, let my people go. And listen, man, Moses can't talk good. Moses has been in trouble.

He's not the guy you would pick. But God calls him anyway to demonstrate God's goodness. Gives him everything he needs. He stands before Pharaoh. And he says, let my people go. Eventually he does it. They go to the Red Sea. God parts the Red Sea.

They walk through the Red Sea on dry ground. And then as a gift to God's people, God calls Moses up on Mount Sinai and gives him this incredible gift called the law. Now, we don't think about the law as a gift, but it is, because it's people that was a slave people that couldn't make decisions for themselves. They were told what to do and when to do it and what to eat and when to eat. They were commanded these things. Now they are a free people, and they've got to know how to love God and love one another,

and so God gives them the law. Starts with the Ten Commandments, continues on. There's 613 commandments. And the commandments are a gift, because commandments are two things. The commandments are both a map and a mirror. First of all, they're a map on how we are to rightly live before a holy God and how we are to get along with one another. But if you've got two brain cells to rub together, if you read them a little bit, it's also a mirror because you go, uh-oh, there ain't no way I can pull this off on my own. And so then right behind the law, God sets up the sacrificial system so that blood would be shed for the covering of sin so that sinful man and woman could be in the presence of God.

And then by the time you get to the end of the first five books of the Bible, Moses dies. And that's all it says. And Moses died. It doesn't say much about him. He just goes up on a mountain one day. It didn't do his quiet time. He never comes back. And then Joshua's in charge.

Think about that. Talk about some shoes to feel. Imagine following Moses. And so in the first chapter of Joshua, God says to Joshua, be strong and courageous, strong and courage. Strong and courageous, three times. Why? Because Joshua's weak and afraid, weak and afraid, weak and afraid. And God says to Joshua, he doesn't give him a pep talk because pep talks won't work.

He doesn't say, come on, Josh, you got this, buddy. I know it. You're good enough, you're smart enough. Doggone, and I like you. That's not what he says. He says, be strong and courageous for I am with you. And so Joshua eventually does exactly what God says. They do the water part thing again.

They go through the River Jordan. They go into the promised land. and God's commandment to Joshua is to wipe out all of the idols in Canaan, but they don't wipe them out. They make room for them. They just try to make room for the pagan idols in their life, which is the problem with the whole rest of the Old Testament with the nation of Israel. Eventually, eventually, there's this cycle when you get to the book of judges that continuously repeats itself. that there's this rebellion and remorse, and then finally return to God and then repeat. And then rebellion, remorse, God sends a judge, return to God, repeat.

Sound familiar? It's called your life, just in case you're a little slow on the uptake. And so there are a bunch of judges that come through, and then eventually a prophet rises up. This prophet's name Samuel. And Samuel says, on behalf of God, we're not going to run our nation like all the other nations. We don't need a king. We have a king. He is the one true God.

be king. And then the nation of Israel says, that's not fair. We want to look like everybody else looks. And God says, be careful what you ask for. In fact, Romans chapter 1 says that it is the wrath of God to turn you over to your own desires, but it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance. So God's like, all right, you want a king? I'll give you a king. And so they go and pick the biggest, tallest, bed-looking, toughest guy around named King Saul. that King Saul wasn't as tough as he looked. It doesn't take very long. It actually starts out okay, but how many of you know it ain't how you start that matters.

Starts out all right, but then very early in his kingship, you begin to see some fractures in who he is, in his character, and his integrity. And you can see his insecurity, and you can see some of his fear. We find him, even if you're brand new to Bible study, you've heard about this one. There's a day where there's a giant out in the field cussing God and cussing God's people. And it's this one man, and he stands out there, and he's like, bring it on. His name's Goliath. And you know who's supposed to go out and fight him?

The king. You know what the king's doing? The king's back here hiding behind all his other people going, all right, not it. Who wants to fight this dude? Didn't this little boy that you've heard of, a little guy named David? David's a shepherd. He's hanging out with the sheep. He's really good with a slingshot.

And he shows up on the scene, he's like, who does this giant think he is? He's like, I'll fight him. And so David walks out there as a kid. and says, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. And this day, I'm going to cut you down and chop off your head and feed your body to the birds of the air and the beast of the field. And the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. And then he gets this slingshot, which would be like, you know, the modern day AR-15 and it just pops them in the head.

If that makes you nervous, you just pray about that, okay, don't worry about it. cuts his head off. And in that moment, the prophet Samuel begins to talk to David about God's plans for David. And he anoints him as king. Well, Saul don't like it. Saul gets jealous. And then Saul begins to lose his mind because that's what happens when you turn away from God. See, Saul begins to ignore God's ways but still wants God's blessing.

God has set up the temple in, he set up how he wanted to, because he's the sovereign king of the universe. He gets to make the rules. And Saul thinks, no, no, no, I can just jump to the end to be blessed without following your means to get to that end. It don't work. Well, he begins to go crazy. It begins to go crazy. And so they find out that not only is David good with a slingshot, he's also good with a harp, plays the harp. And so when Saul's losing his mind, he would come into the king's quarters and he would play the harp, but it would calm him down.

Okay? It's kind of like ancient Prozac or whatever, right? And if you're on Prozac, don't worry about it, man. God heals through people, prayers, and pills. All right, it's up to him. But then, but then David, not only is good with a slingshot and a harp, he's good with a sword. And even like modern day Israel now, they are under attack at all times. There's a war on every front.

And so David turns into an incredible warrior, and he goes out to war. and then people begin to hear about his track record and they even begin to sing songs about it like Saul kills his thousands but David has 10,000s. King Saul don't like it. So the insecurity begins to rise up, the jealousy begins to rise up, the crazy cannot be contained.

And then one day while David's playing the heart, the king picks up a spear and throws it at David to try to kill David while David's serving the king. I mean, you think you're in a top. toxic work environment. You understand what I'm saying? So, this happens multiple times, but what David never does, David never picks up the spear and throws it back. He just trust that whatever God has for me, you can't keep me from it, and if he ain't got it for me, I can't go get it. And he just trust God. Well, you can't keep yourself in that kind of environment forever, and so he goes on the run.

meanwhile he and the king's son jonathan become best friends jonathan is a follower of the one true god and jonathan can see where david's life is heading and the anointing on his life and so jonathan makes a deal with david he's like hey listen man i eat dinner every night with the crazy king and i'll make you this promise if i ever hear that my dad's trying to kill you i'll shoot you a text and let you know and you can get out of there first samuel 20 says it this way and jonathan said to david the lord the God of Israel be witness when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow or the third day. Behold, if he is well disposed towards David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you,

but should it please my father to do you harm the Lord do so to Jonathan more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away that you may go safely, go into safety. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father if I am still alive. He's willing to risk his life for King David. If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love, the Hasid of the Lord, that I may not die. And do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. And Jonathan made a covenant with a house of David saying, may the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

They made a covenant. Hussed is a costly love wrapped up in a covenant. Covenant's different than contract. I hope you know that. Contract is, if you do your part, I'll do my part. But if you don't, I ain't doing my part. In a contract, there is no room for the loving kindness of God. How about this?

Anybody love their cell phone provider? No. Why? Because you have a contract. Did they love you? No. You can't even talk to a real human. Unless you don't pay your bill.

Now all of a sudden, everybody's available to chat. Okay, so. So this covenant is made between David and Jonathan. And then after this, you live by the sword, he died by the sword. And a battle takes place, and King Saul and Jonathan are both killed in battle. And so there is this kingdom transfer between King Saul to King David. And now David is the king. By the time you pick it up in 2 Samuel 9, David is the king.

Everything is going pretty good. And David said, he begins to remember. Here's what happens. He remembers the covenant that he made with Jonathan. And David said, is there still anyone less in the house of Saul? The guy that used to try to kill him, that guy. Now here's the thing. When most people heard this in David's presence, they thought,

ooh, here it comes. Because what most kings would do that did not inherit their kingdom from their dad, but took over the kingdom by force, what most kings would do would find all the relatives of the previous king who had a claim on their throne, and they'd wipe out the competition, and they would just kill them. So the moment they hear anybody from Saul's family left, they're thinking, uh-oh, this ain't going good. I've shared this with you before.

It's like that moment when I was in elementary school, and they would come over the loudspeaker and go, could you send Jobie to the office? Never was I like, I bet I won a prize. Never. you're like, oh no. But this was different. Is there still anyone left in the house of Saul? That I may show him,

Has said, loving kindness. Why, David, is it because you're so kind? No, no, here's why. For Jonathan's sake. You see, it's not even for the guy that I'm going to show kindness to, but it's for the sake of my friend that was willing to put his life on the line for me,

and for his sake, we made a covenant, and I promised to do. what I'm going to do. Verse two, 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 Ziva? And he thinks he's going to die too. You get it?

Because he used to work for the other guy. And he said, I am your servant, and he's thinking, uh-oh. And he's expecting you'd be hit by judgment, but instead he's going to run into the loving kindness of God through King David. And the king said, is there not still someone in the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God. Notice with the source of the kindness, the source of this Hasid, this love.

It doesn't come from David. It comes from God through David. That I may show the kindness of God to him. You see, remember, David's the guy that writes in the 23rd Psalm that his cup overflows, that the love of God has poured into him, and he as a vessel cannot contain the love of God so that it doesn't stop there. It overflows through him and gets on everybody. else around him. This is what he's about to live out here. And Zeba said to the king, there is still a son of

Jonathan. He is cripple in his feet. And a part of what he's saying here is, yeah, there's one guy, but I don't think he's worth much to you. Now, we learned this last week in John Chapter 9. That's not the game God plays. You see, in antiquity, they thought your physical condition represented God's position towards you. And in John 9 goes, no, no, no, no, that's not how it works. Every single human being is an image bearer of God and worthy to be fought for, amen. No matter who you are, where you are, how old are you are, what your physical or mental condition is. Everybody is valuable to God.

Therefore, they're valuable to us. And so what happens is back in 2nd Samuel 4, after the transition of power between one kingdom and another, this happens in 2nd Samuel 4. Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippling his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jesrael, and the nurse took him and fled. And as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Maphibishev.

Now, I know some of you are looking for biblical baby names, and you're like, oh, Maphethyseth has a ring to it. I wouldn't go with it. It means shame, okay? You got to look that stuff up, too. My name's Joby. You know what it means? Afflicted.

So, appreciate that. Apparently my parents, Google, wasn't a thing. yet, so whatever. Afflicted it is. And so that's what happens. Now again, if you've been around Bible study for a minute, hopefully you've got some like gospel lights going off on your dashboard right now. But in the transfer of a kingdom, there was a fall that left this man cripple.

And his name is Maphibishe. Verse four. And the king said, where is he? And Ziba said, to the king, he is in the house of Macir, the son of Amiel, at Lodabar. And when people heard Lodabar, they were like, oh, not Lodabar. I mean, Lodabar, that's like, you know, the other side of Palacca or something. Like, what the heck? Lodabar.

Lodabar means God forsaken. Lodabar means without pasture. Lodabar means without communication. And this is where Maph, full of shame, lives. You see, in fact, oftentimes this can happen. You see, this wasn't even Phippeches's fault, man. He's five years old.

The person that was supposed to take care of him didn't do their job and she didn't mean to, but dropped him and because of her fault, what happened to him through this fall, he was left cripple. And then the problem is he began to let that define him all the days of his life. You know, one of the big lies of the enemy is that your past defines you and determines your future.

And so not only is he crippling his feet, but he's also living in a place where there's no pastor. And don't you remember, David is the guy that writes down that we have the kind of good shepherd that leads us to the green pastures. This is the place where God is forsaken. And he's hiding out because now there's a new king and he thinks, maybe I'm going to die. And then King David sent and brought him from the house of Makir, the son of Amiel at Lodabar.

Please hear this, okay? The way the King James says it, I love this. The King James says, and King David sent and fetched him. Fetch is kind of a grandma term, man. And listen, man, if you're a grandma here, you're my favorite. Man, supposed to say favorites. Don't tell nobody, but the grandma's 11-22 are my favorite. My grandma would use that.

Joe, we go and fetch up something. You know what you go when you fetch up? You don't have to fetch up something that can just bring their own self back to you. You understand? And so what David is saying is this one who's crippling his feet who thinks that he's worthless, that is full of shame, that is in the place of silence without pastor, I'm going to go do for him what he can't do for himself,

and I want to go and fetch him up, and I'm going to bring him here to the palace. Again, hopefully you see the gospel implications there. Because you and I were just like this, just broken body, broken spirit, broken soul, and then God did for us what we could not do for ourselves, and the God of the universe, since his very own son, Jesus Christ, to come and fetch us up out of Lodabar.

Come on, man. King David said, and he brought him, fetched him up from the house of Macir, the son of Amiel at Lodabar. and Maphibishev, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. Why? He thinks he's about to die. He is at odds with the king.

And everybody else, in every other culture, he would get run through in this moment. And he's bracing himself for the judgment, but instead of getting hit with the judgment, he gets hit with the loving kindness of the king. It reminds me of John chapter 8, just in case you're new to Bible study. in John chapter 8, the religious people kept a woman, catch a woman caught in the act of adultery, which means the religious people are shady. How do you catch somebody in that act? You understand what I'm saying? That means you're looking for it.

And so they catch this woman. I don't know what they do with the dude, but they bring the woman in the presence of Jesus, probably with no clothes or maybe just some clothes, and they go, ha-ha, we got her. We got her, and the law says we should throw rocks at her until she dies, and that's what she deserves. What say you, Jesus? The Bible says that Jesus gets down and scribble some stuff on the dirt. And you know what he wrote? Nobody knows, thank goodness.

I think he's just taking everybody's mind off of it. And he goes, oh, you want to play the judgment game? Cool. How about this? All the perfect people start judging. Oh, look, that just leaves me. And the Bible says that the old heads go first. I'm like, I ain't playing this game.

They drop the rocks and they leave. And then he says to her, who condemns you? She says, no one, sir. And he says, then neither do I condemn you. Now go and leave your life of sin. You realize this lady is bracing for impact to be smacked by rocks until she's dead. But until she gets run over by the grace train of Jesus Christ

and it changes everything about everything about everything, man. This is what's going on right here. Maph is waiting for the judgment and instead he gets the loving kindness from the king. He says, behold, I am your servant. And David said to him, do not feed him. fear. This is the most commanded thing in all of the Bible. 366 times in the King James version of the Bible. There is some version of, don't fear, be anxious for nothing, be strong and courageous, 365 times. Why? I don't know about you,

but every single day of my life I need to hear from God, do not fear, including leap year, amen? Because I have a tendency to take my trust and put it in my circumstances. And what God calls us to do is snatch it back and put our trust in the sovereign king over all of our circumstances and perfect love drives out fear, and he perfectly loves you through his son, Jesus Christ. So he says, man, don't fear. And then he's going to do three things for him. Four, number one, I will show you Hussed. But not because of you.

I will show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. I mean, don't miss this. You who are technically my enemy will receive this costly love because of a covenant that I have with your father. that the way I treat you is based on what somebody else has done for you, which is rooted in God's love for me. So one, I'm going to show you kindness. Number two, I will restore you, I will restore to you, all the land of Saul, your father. Guess how much land King Saul had?

I looked at it up on Zillow, a lot. He said, not only are you going to be loved, you're going to be blessed. You're going to be loaded, dude. And so he says, I'm going to show you kindness, and I will rest. store to you all the land of Saul your father. And number three, and you shall eat at my table always. I am going to adopt you into my family. That's a long way from Lodabar, is it not? When is he going to eat there? Always. Well, what if he screws up? You're going to kick him away from the table? No, he didn't do anything to deserve the invitation to begin with, so it's not his to lose.

And he paid homage and said, what is your service? servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I. That's how Maphibisheth sees himself, just a dead dog. Now this means something different in antiquity. I mean, we love, some of you people love your dogs more than your kids, all right? I know you do. Well, it has a lot to do with your kids too, doesn't it? So at least the dog listens. Anyway, this was like the lowest of the low insult. Now, he's humble for sure, and you never want to forget where you've come from. He's like, I've done nothing to deserve this. In fact, this is the way Jesus starts the sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5. It's a blessed of the poor and spirit. For yours is the kingdom of

God. Like, when you realize that you were spiritually bankrupt, you're perfectly positioned to receive the kingdom of God. And if you've been around here for long enough, you have heard me lovingly share with you that your kindergarten teacher lied to you. You're not a snowflake and you're not puppy's breath and you're not a skittal. Look here, skittal. You are a wretched, crooked, and depraved black-hearted sinner.

And if that bothers you, it's because you are a crooked and depraved egomaniac that thinks the world revolves around you and you've got to get over yourself. Is anybody here going, no, I'm holding it down pretty good. Anybody who want to say that? If so, you're full of pride and that's the granddaddy of all sins, okay?

I mean, all of us know. Houston, there's a problem, and the problem is me. And so when I lovingly call you a wretched, black-hearted sinner, it's where you came from. But, theoretically speaking, if you're in Christ, that's not who you are anymore. You see, one of the biggest lies of the enemy is he wants you to identify with your past. He wants you to believe that your past defines you and determines your future. But I'm here to tell you the world doesn't get to tell you who you are. I'm here to tell you the alarm clock in the empty tomb or empirical evidence.

that God's not done writing your story, and he ain't done with Maphibibiseth, he ain't done with you. There's still a whole lot in your story. And so, I want you, when the enemy begins to try to define you by your scars, I want you to know that you are defined by scars, it's just not yours. You're defined by the scars of Jesus. And only God gets to tell you who you are. And so there's a guy named Neil Anderson that jotted down a few Bible verses. It's like 100.

And when the NEP begins to whisper, I want you to remember this, and I'll post it online later. But this is who the Bible says that you are, if you are in Christ. That you are the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world. You're a child of God. You're a part of the true vine, a channel of Christ's life. You are Christ's friend. You are chosen and appointed by Christ to bear his fruit.

You were a slave of righteousness. You are enslaved to God. You were a son of God. God is your father. You were a joint heir with Christ sharing in his inheritance with him. You were a temple of God and his spirit and his life dwell inside of you.

That you are united to the Lord and you are one in spirit with him. That you were a member of Christ's body. You were a new creation. You are reconciled to God and you were a minister of reconciliation. You were a son of God and one in Christ. You were an heir of God since you are

a son of God. You were a saint. Hear that Catholics? You get your own necklace with your own face on it. Call it Saint You. Ephesus 1 says that, that you're a saint, that you were God's workmanship, you were his handiwork, you were born anew in Christ to do his work, you were a fellow citizen with the rest of God's family, you're a prisoner of Christ, you were righteous and holy, you were a citizen of heaven seated in heaven right now, you were hidden with Christ in God, you were an expression

of the life of Christ because he is your life. You were chosen of God, holy and dearly love. You were a son of the light and not of darkness. You were a holy partaker of a heavenly calling. You were a partaker of Christ. you share in his life. You were one of God's living stones being built up in Christ as a spiritual house.

You were a member of a chosen race, a royal priest that a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. You were an alien and a stranger in this crazy world in which you temporarily live. You're an enemy of the devil. You're a child of God, and you will resemble Jesus Christ when he returns.

You are born of God, and the evil one, the devil cannot touch you. You are not the great I am, but by the grace of God, I am who I am. You have been justified, completely forgiven and made righteous. You have died with Christ and died to the power of sin's rule in your life. You are free forever from condemnation.

You have been placed on Christ into Christ by God's doing. You have received the Spirit of God into your life that you may know the things freely given to you by God. You have been given the mind of Christ. You have been bought with the price. You are not your own. You belong to God. Therefore, honor God with your body.

You have been established, annoyed, and sealed by God in Christ. And you have been given the Holy Spirit as a pledge guaranteeing your inheritance. it's to come in heaven. Since you have died, you no longer live for yourself, but you live for Christ. You have been made righteous. You have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you. The life that you now live is Christ's life.

You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. You were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy, and you are without blame before him. You are predestined. Don't worry about that, Methodist. You are predestined to be adopted as God's son. You have been redeemed and forgiven, and you are a recipient of his lavish grace. have been made alive together with Christ.

You have been raised up and seated with Christ in heaven. You have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit. You may approach God with boldness and freedom and confidence because he is your heavenly Father. You have been rescued for the domain of Satan's rule and transferred into the kingdom of light, which is the kingdom of Christ. You have been redeemed and forgiven of all of your sins. The debt against you has been paid in full.

Christ himself is in you. You are firmly rooted in Christ and now are being built in Him. have been spiritually circumcised and the old unregenerate nature has been removed from you. You have been made complete in Christ. You have been buried, raised, and made alive in Christ. You died with Christ and you have been raised up with Christ. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Christ is your life.

You have been given a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. You have been saved and set apart according to God's doing. Because He sanctified you, you are one with the sanctifier, and he is not ashamed to call you brother or sister. You have the right to come boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in your time of need. You have been given exceedingly great precious promises by God through the name of Jesus Christ. You are not a dead dog. You are an adopted son or daughter of the Most High King. And because of Christ, he looks at you and he says over you, behold my son, behold my daughter, whom I love.

In you, I am well pleased. And one day you'll hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. That's who you are. That's who you are. And you say, well, I don't feel like that. Well, I got good news, man. Your feelings and the Lord of the universe. And so I would trust what he says about you.

Feelings can't be trusted. Feelings are an incredible tool of God to navigate life. They make a terrible Lord of your life. And so he's like, how would you show regard for a dead dog? And then here's what the king says. The king says the king called Zeven saw a servant. and he said all that belong to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson and you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce

that your master's grandson may always have bread to eat. But Mephbeth chef, your master's grandson shall always eat at my table. Look at the response. Now Ziba had 15 sons. That's Hebrew for he didn't have cable. So Zeba had 15 sons and 20 servants and then Zeba said to the king according to all that my Lord the king commands his servants so will your servants do. And so Maphibisheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. You get that?

He didn't do anything to deserve it, didn't do anything to earn it. But because of God's loving kindness for the king, the king displayed loving kindness to Maphisheth and he was invited to the table. Not to earn a spot as a servant, but to be celebrated as a son. In Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells this story. We call it the prodigal son. It's not a great name. Pridical means lavish. The real prodigal one is God.

He lavishes his love upon his children. But the kid that we call the prodigal kid, rejects his dad, goes to his death, says, forget you. Give me my inheritance now. I got this. That's ultimately what he says. The most dangerous thing you could ever say. And then the Bible says that he takes the inheritance of his story. father and he goes and squanders it on wild living. Everything goes south. He finds himself

feeding pigs. We don't think that's that big a deal. But as an Orthodox Jewish boy, this would have been the lowest of the low of the low. He's outside of fellowship. He couldn't go to the synagogue. There's nothing lower. And the Bible says, and no one did anything for him. Parents, one of the hardest things to do in parenting sometimes is to allow your children to fail miserably so that they will know that only a Savior can help them. And no one does anything for him. And then the Bible says he came to his senses. You see, we serve a God that would love you so much that he may allow you to fall flat on your back

so your only option is to look up and see a way out, which is him. And so then he, if you read the text in Luke 15, he's thinking, he says, my dad's servants eat better than this. So I'll go and do the wheat eating and cut the grass and then maybe I can eat with the service because it's better than the pig slop I'm trying to eat. And so he's rehearsing his apology on his way back home. We've all been there. But then the Bible says that the father sees him from a long way off. Why? Because every single day the dad wakes up, thinking maybe here's the day that my boy is going to come home. Then the Bible says that this man

runs to his son. Grown men didn't run, especially a Jewish landowner. He didn't run. It'd be shameful. And so at great shame to himself, the dad hikes up his robe and sprints. And a part of the reason he's running is this, is if the boy get to the elders that sit at the city gate, then they would meet the judgment of the elders first. And I believe what the dad is doing, he's got to outrun the judgment of the elders so that he can get to his boy before the law gets to him. And then our English translation say, and the dad kissed him. That's not what the Hebrew. The Greek says.

The Greek says, he covers his face and kisses. Because he thought his son was dead. Now he's back. He was lost and now he's found and he runs out there and he wraps his arms around his boy. Why? So you can't tell where the dad begins and the sun ends just in case somebody gets a little jumpy with the stoning. And the dad will take the shot. And then he does four things.

And it's just son, son, son, son. He gives him a robe. The Bible does not say that the boy runs and says that a holiday in express and gets cleaned up first. He's still got the pig slop on him. So the dad says, go get my robe. And he wraps his robe of righteousness around the boy. so when everybody sees the boy, they don't see the filth. They see the cleanliness of the dad.

Then he gives him a ring. It's a signet ring. He's saying, shut up with your apology. I got time for that. You're not going to be a servant. You're my son. And he gives him a signet ring. You ever watch those cool movies?

Like Braveheart, when the king does a scroll, and they do it like this, and they put the little wax, and go, that's the signet ring. So only the person that has the name of the king can open up the scroll. And he is saying, all authority I have is yours. and what I have is yours. That's what he's saying. He reclaims him back into his family.

And he gives him shoes for his feet. Servants didn't have shoes. Only sons had shoes. And then he throws a party. He throws a party. Why? Because he's not a servant to earn a spot. He's a son to be celebrated.

And then in Luke 15, there's an older brother who's religious. In his replies, that's not fair. Man, you don't want fair. We get the lavish love of God. And then the dad goes out and shames himself again for the older son. And then treats him. Come on, want you come in. This party is for you too.

Ziba does not respond like the older brother. Ziba's like, way to go, king. According to all that my lord, the king commands his servants, so will your servants do. And so Maphibisheveth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And Mapheth had a young son whose name was Micah. I think we overlooked this. Do you realize God doesn't just want to do something to you, wants to do something through you? Listen, man, it's going real good at 1122 right now.

It's real good, okay? All your people that are in public, appreciate you. It's going good. I think we're just scratching the surface. Amen. I mean, we have no idea what's going to be what God's going to be doing in a couple of generations. You understand what I'm saying? How about this?

When an alcoholic shows up to 1122 and finds Jesus and sobriety, do you have any idea of the impact on the grandkids? If all they know is grandpa was a godly man? When a marriage gets restored, do you have any idea what happens to an entire family tree of people coming behind them? I mean, I think in God's economy, it ain't what you do, but who you raise, it makes the biggest difference. And so generations of God's blessing, of his Hsed,

of his loving kindness, are poured out through David, through Maphibibcheth, and into his son, Micah. And all who lived in Zeba's house became Maphis' servants. And so Mofibisheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both feet. God did not change his circumstances physically, but he changed his life eternally. Now, just in case you're a little slow on the uptake and have it picked up on the connections to the Gospel and the New Testament,

let me just put this on the bottom shelf down here so we can all get a bite of it, okay? Ready? We're all Maphibishif. That's it. This is the story of our life. We are all Maphibisheth. that back in Genesis chapter 3 when God created man and woman to rule and reign and then sin entered, there was a transfer of kingdom and the enemy, the devil, Satan himself, becomes the king of the air.

And in this transfer of power, this transfer of kingdom, then there was a fall. And because of that fall, people are even born now, broken, not just physically, but spiritually broken every single one of us. And there's nothing we could do to deserve a seat at the king's table, but because of the, God's loving kindness, a costly kindness rooted in a covenant based on what somebody else did on our behalf, you and I are invited like sons and daughters who sit with the king always at the king's table. That's what's going on here. He fetched us out of Lodabar, out of shame.

You see, Jesus is the greater and better Jonathan. Because of his loving kindness towards us, we have been invited like a cripple to the king's table. The table is a big deal in the Bible. There's a few symbols in the Bible. Number one, without a doubt, is the empty tomb. It is the bedrock of our faith. We don't have faith in faith. We have faith in the reality that the Son of God came down on a cross and was resurrected from the grave.

And we know if the tomb is empty, anything is possible, including cripples like us getting invited to the table. Two, the next symbol is the cross. I mean, it is the picture of God pouring out his justice and reaching out his love. for lost humanity that we could be reconciled with the Almighty God and maybe the third biggest symbol in the Bible is the table it represents covenant it represents family it represents nourishment so just imagine imagine what Maph is singing the first day he sits down at the king's table he'd been in the palace before his granddad was the king and now he's back he never thought he'd get back he looks

around there's David's kids there's David's wife and he's sitting with the king. And here's the thing. In a very similar way, because when we were broken in Lodabar, God said, go fetch him up. And he sent his only begotten son. And Jesus Christ comes at a love very costly to himself and offers a covenant with you and me. And because of that, we get invited to the king of king's table. We're to close our service with communion. Or the Lord's supper, whatever you want to call it. So I want to invite the ushers to begin to hand out the elements. And I want you to imagine a second what it would be like in the first century to be able to sit at the table with King Jesus. Can you imagine? We did nothing to deserve it. And yet we

who were broken get invited because of this great love with which God has loved to us. And think about this. Do you know who? Do you remember who Jesus invited to the table at the last supper. He invited all of his disciples. He invited Bartholomew. You know what's cool about Bartholomew? Nothing. We have no idea. There's not one thing written about that dude in the whole Bible. Do you know what this means? If you're a nobody, guess what? You're invited to the king's table. And he invited Matthew. Dude, Matthew's raking in cash. But the problem is Matthew's super shady. He's working for the enemy. He's working for the Roman government at the expense of his own people. collector and he's hated by everybody else in town and yet Jesus invited him to the table and he invited

Thomas we know him as doubting Thomas and so if you feel like you're the person that hadn't at it all figured out yet you got unanswered questions and what about this that and the other I got really good news you should just pick up your doubts and come to the table and sit down with king Jesus and he invited Judas who he knew was going to betray him but he thought love was worth the risk and he him anyway and he invited Peter, the guy that's all hat and no cattle, you know what I mean? Like, talked a real big game. He says, I would never leave you, I would never forsake you, I would die for you. And that night, Jesus is like, that's adorable. You're not going to make it until your alarm clock before you deny me three times, not me. And yet to every single one of

them, they were invited to come and to sit at the table. And so as you get the elements, Listen, I know we got these little cup things and everybody hates them. We all hate them too. But just deal with it. Because when we do communion, it's like the feeding of the 5,000 times four. So it's kind of complicated, okay? And you're just going to hold on to them for a second. Because Jesus gives us this sacrament of communion.

And it's a picture of the gospel, the body and blood of Christ for us. And I think a part of the reason he gives it to us is so that the church would remember and even ingest the good news of the gospel, participate in the gospel. Every single time we celebrate. And what we are celebrating is that we who do not deserve the loving kindness of God

because of what Christ has done for us, we have been invited to his table. Well, when the early church got going, they didn't take this nearly as seriously as they ought to. And so Paul has to write a letter to the church in Corinth. Sometimes my church planting bunnies

will say things like, we just need to get back to the first century church. And I'm like, you need to read your Bible. Have you heard that people were getting drunk on communion at church. You shouldn't get drunk anytime, especially at church on communion. You understand what I'm saying? This thing is off the rails. And so Paul says, listen, when you come to the Lord's table, it's a really, really big deal. And you need to examine yourself, examine your heart. You need to ask God, God, where in my life am I out of line with your ways and your word? And wherever that is, you should repent and you should confess your sins.

And what's beautiful about the New Testament, the new covenant, is we don't confess our sins so that God will save us. We are confessing that the blood of Jesus has already covered our sins, and that's why we even have a seat at the table. So what we're going to do is we're going to take some time and examine our hearts. And the band's going to play. They're going to come and they're going to sing a song about Christ's invitation to us, to his table, and how we get invited.

And as they sing, don't waste this moment. The rest of your week is going to be so busy and so loud. So take just a couple of minutes and just sit in the presence of the king. Lay your soul bare before him. Examine your heart that we would be prepared to take the body and the blood. Let me pray for us. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we thank you and we praise you for the invitation to your table, to a relationship with you.

God, would your loving kindness lead us to repentance? Lord, more than anything, we thank you for your presence. We pray this in Jesus' name. I did believe for a little bit of my childhood that what I was experiencing at home was normal. I would come into school and my teachers would ask me, are you okay? Like, you seem a little off today or to be real. like I would come into school with like a black eye.

And my teacher would be like, where'd you get that? And my mom would rehearse the story with me of what to say. And that's when it clicked in my brain that like that wasn't normal. That wasn't right. As I got older and the abuse got worse and worse, I was able to tell my mom like straight to her face, like this is not right. What's happening is not okay.

Regardless if you have both parents or not, they're supposed to protect you from the scary things at night. They're not supposed to be the scary things at night. So I went on a Young Life trip to Colorado. I had been intending Young Life for about two years. I got to go on this trip, and that was the moment where I heard the Holy Spirit, loud and clear, in my head of sitting in a little disciple group.

I surrendered my life to the Lord, and he was like, tell them. The Lord was like, tell them the truth, tell them what's going on. And I finally opened up to some abuse that was going on at home. and from there on, my whole world changed. I did have this calming peace that it was going to be okay. That was probably the biggest moment in my life

where I had to learn my faith has to be stronger than my fear. I went to the trip being in my dad's custody. I left the trip in state's custody. I went to a group home for a couple weeks before I was placed with a family. I very well believe in my whole heart that if I would have went home to live with my dad, I would not have made it.

I would not be alive. When I first went into foster care, I did have a temporary family. I lived with them for about three to four weeks, and they actually ended up getting shut down. That's when my forever family showed up at the door, and they picked me up and helped me pack my things, put me in the car.

One of the reasons, if not the main reason, of why they are my foster parents forever, is because when I went to that Young Life camp, my aunt, which is my foster mom's sister, was a young life leader. So she, I'm guessing, called up my mom one day and was like, hey, there's this wonderful girl. She's about to get ripped out of a home. She just went in three weeks ago, like, what are we going to do? And my foster mom just talks about how she felt so called by the Lord to let me in her home.

Like, this is what the Lord is calling me to do. And if it weren't for my mom listening to that call, I wouldn't be with them. I feel like my relationship with the Lord would be a lot different. people who aren't blood related to me don't know me from Adam chose me and chose to help me build a future for myself it's something where at my age now I can think I think the Lord like there's no other way to explain my life what I've been through without physically seeing the Lord in every step of the way I'm just so thankful to be able to hear his voice time and time again of like keep going