Joy Unspeakable, 198.
Joy Unspeakable.
I have found his grace is all complete.
He supplyeth every need.
While I sit and learn at Jesus' feet,
I am free, yes, free indeed.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory,
full of glory.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Oh, the half has never yet been told.
198 on the second.
I have found the pleasure I once scraped.
It is joy and peace within.
What a wondrous blessing I am safe from the awful gulf
of sin.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory,
full of glory.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Oh, the half has never yet been told.
I have found that hope so bright and clear,
living in the realm of grace.
Oh, the Savior's presence is so near.
I can see his smiling face.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory,
full of glory.
Joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Oh, the half has never yet been told.
I have found the joy no tongue can tell,
how its waves of glory roll.
It is like a great or flowing well springing up
within my soul.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory,
full of glory.
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Oh, the half has never yet been told.
All right, let's open up in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day,
and thank you for the opportunity to be gathered
together as a church, to sing praises to you,
and to hear the word of God preached.
Pray that you just continue to bless our church,
help us to do great exploits for you, Lord.
Pray that you just be with all those that couldn't make it
this evening, help them to heal.
Bless them, Lord, and pray that you'd bless our pastor
this evening.
We love you, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, for our second song, 180,
isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful?
180, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful?
There will never be a sweeter story,
story of the Savior's love divine,
love that brought him from the realms of glory,
just to save a sinful soul like mine.
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful,
wonderful, wonderful?
Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful,
wonderful it is to me?
Boundless as the universe around me,
reaching to the farthest soul away,
saving, keeping love it was that found me.
That is why my heart can truly say,
isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful,
wonderful, wonderful?
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful,
wonderful it is to me?
Love beyond our human comprehending,
love of God in Christ, how can it be?
This will be my theme and never ending,
great redeeming love of Calvary.
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful,
wonderful, wonderful?
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful,
wonderful it is to me?
Thank you for coming to 7th Baptist Church.
If you need a bulletin, you can lift your hand nice and high
and one of our ushers can come by, get you guys a bulletin.
We're on John chapter 1 verse 31.
And if you can quote that to a non or one of our ushers
or myself or Brother Dylan, you can receive an ice cream
after the service, help cool down, right?
And then on the inside, we have our service time,
soul winning times that meet here at the building
and then ones that meet in different parts of the city.
We also have our church stats.
Continue to send that information
into our soul winning captains
as well as turning in your maps over here
or to Brother Dylan.
On the right, we have the list of expecting ladies.
Continue to pray for all of them.
We also have our prayer list.
Continue to pray for those that are mentioned here.
If you have any prayer requests, please email them in.
We'd love to put them in our bulletin
and people can be in prayer with you.
Continue to pray for the Negara family for their health,
Miss Lucy's mother's tumors, Cameron's leg,
Verity Baptist Manila and Pastor Kevin Sepulveda,
our friends from abroad.
Also continue to pray for the Goodwin family.
Continue to pray for Brother Suhail
for traveling mercies coming back.
And then pray for Will Weathers.
I guess he was suffering RSV, some health issues.
And then we had Brother Alex was asking for prayer for a job
and he ended up giving us a prayer support
that he ended up getting that job.
So praise the Lord on that.
And that's definitely good, yeah.
Praise the Lord on that.
And that's pretty much all I have
as far as prayer requests for the bulletin.
We'll go ahead and say a word of prayer
as a church family.
Thank you Heavenly Father for this evening.
Thank you for giving us an opportunity to be gathered
and to hear the word of God being preached.
I pray that you would just bless our church family
all over the ladies that are expecting.
Continue to bless their pregnancies
and bless their children and help them to grow
and to be developed well
and for their pregnancy to go smoothly.
I pray that you would also bless our church family
that has some health concerns.
I pray that you'd just be with them, you'd strengthen them.
Please just bless them with health.
Please give them recovery.
I pray that you would also just bless our friends
from abroad and our friends across this world
that are definitely going through various persecutions
and struggles.
I pray that you'd be with them, you'd help them.
I pray that you would also bless our church family
with the rest of their concerns.
You know them better than we do.
And we just thank you for all that you give us.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
On the bottom we have the note about
there is solicitation pamphlets
that you can get on the soul winning cabinet back there.
Also we have a bridal shower July 2nd for Miss Cogdell.
We also have song leading class July 3rd, 10th, 21st.
So Brother Dylan is gonna help facilitate some of that.
But there is a sign up sheet just so we can anticipate
and plan for that a little bit.
But again, the song leading class
is a learning experience too.
So don't feel like you have to be an expert to participate.
It's really for people to learn
even if they don't know very much and or even practice.
So if you play an instrument,
even if you don't feel comfortable playing for the church
but you just wanna get a little bit better,
practice in an orchestra type environment.
We'd highly encourage that.
We'd like to have more musicians than we already do.
And nothing against Brother Jared
but it'd be nice to have some more musicians.
So with that being said,
see Brother Dylan if you have any questions.
It is gonna be from 9.15 a.m. to 10 a.m.
And then also we had the bridal shower details
there's from 12.30 to 2.30.
And then we had celebrated our homeschool graduate,
Ms. Elena Cardona.
So you can definitely congratulate her.
That's pretty much all I have
as far as announcements for this evening.
Let's go ahead and go to our third song,
187, Jesus Loves Me.
On 187, Jesus Loves Me.
Jesus loves me, this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me, He who died.
Heaven's gate to open wide.
He will wash away my sin.
Let His little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
Jesus loves me, He will stay.
He will close beside me all the way.
Thou hast bled and died for me.
I will henceforth live for thee.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so.
As the offering plates are going around, please turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 9.
2 Samuel chapter 9, and you can follow along silently and starting in verse number 1.
2 Samuel chapter number 9, the Bible reads in 2 Samuel chapter 9, and David said,
Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for
Jonathan's sake?
And there was of the house of Saul a servant, whose name was Ziba, and when they had called
him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba?
And he said, Thy servant is he.
And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness
of God unto him?
And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.
The king said unto him, Where is he?
And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Makar, the son of Emile, in
Lodabar.
Then king David sent and fetched him out of the house of Makar, the son of Emile from
Lodabar.
Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell
on his face and did reverence.
David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered, Behold thy servant.
David said unto him, Fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy
father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father, and thou shalt
eat bread at my table continually.
And he bowed himself and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldst look upon such
a dead dog as I am?
Then the king called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's
son all that pertain to Saul and to Wallis' house.
Thou therefore and thy son to thy servant shall till the land for him, and thou shalt
bring in the fruits that thy master's son may have food to eat.
But Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread all way at my table.
Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
Then said Ziba unto the king, According to Wall that my lord the king hath commanded
his servant, so shall thy servant do.
Ask for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons.
And Mephibosheth had a young son, whose name was Micah, and all that dwelt in the house
of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth.
So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at the king's table and
was lame on both his feet.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for 2 Samuel chapter 9 and for the carnal and spiritual truths
that are in this chapter.
I pray that you fill the man of God with the Holy Ghost now and help him to teach this
chapter to us.
In Jesus' name, I pray.
Amen.
We're in 2 Samuel chapter number 9, and it says in verse 1, And David said, Is there
any, or is there yet any, that is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake?
Now this is kind of an interesting point in our dialogue or in our chronology because
specifically David has done a lot of things since warring with the house of Saul.
As we kind of remind ourselves about this chapter, we remind ourselves of this entire
book, David had spent a long time warring with the house of Saul, but eventually the
house of Saul just kind of deteriorates, Abner gets killed by Joab, then Ish-bosheth gets
killed, and so kind of the leadership of Israel just kind of dissolves overnight, and they
end up reconciling with David.
Then David ends up having desires to build the house of the Lord, but that's not the
Lord's will that David would build the house of the Lord.
So then David ended up going and warring with the Philistines, David ends up warring with
a lot of other people in the most previous chapter, and so doing a lot more enemies after
realizing he can't necessarily build the house of the Lord.
So I think that why this chapter is kind of situated in this particular point in chronology
is David has essentially accomplished a lot of the fighting, a lot of the more important
tasks.
You kind of look at, from a task list, what's like the most important thing for him to accomplish?
Well, making sure God's house is taken care of, and making sure the enemies are subdued,
but then after he kind of has both of those situated, now he's kind of refocused, remembers,
oh yeah, there's the house of Saul, and I had a really good friend, Jonathan.
David was best friends with Jonathan, and in fact, he had such a good relationship with
Jonathan, the Bible even describes it as the fact that he was closer with Jonathan
than he was with any of his wives.
And so that just goes to show David didn't have a very good marriage life.
Some people make that out to be something that it's not, but if you're a guy and your
best friend's another guy, you don't have a very good marriage, okay, because really
your wife should be your best friend, and that should be the closest relationship you
have.
And it just goes to show that he didn't have a very good marriage, so he ended up having
Jonathan as a good friend.
Now, there's nothing wrong with having a good friend, there's nothing wrong with having
someone that you can lean upon, that you really enjoy their company, and of course, David
and Jonathan had a great friendship, but Jonathan had died.
So he wants to end up showing kindness to the house of Saul for Jonathan's sake, specifically
because of Jonathan, and because of his relationship with Jonathan.
And what's interesting here is he wants to show kindness.
Some people get confused about the word kindness or what that particularly means, but we have
to make sure that David is looked at from a holistic perspective, because David has
killed a lot of people.
David didn't show kindness to Goliath.
David didn't show kindness to the Philistines.
David didn't show kindness to all of these other kingdoms that he just subdued, yet David
is actually a very kind person, and he wants to show kindness unto the house of Saul, specifically.
Now, keep your finger here and go to Psalms 117, and what you have to understand is that
David is one of the most iconic characters in the Bible, because he often represents
the Lord Jesus Christ, and David is often a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
truth is that God, the Lord, is a kind God, that Jesus is a very kind person.
And we want to understand the kindness of the Lord, and we want to understand the kindness
of God, and the Bible brings us up to Psalms 117.
Look at verse 1.
It's a very short book of the Bible.
O praise the Lord, all you nations, praise Him, all you people, for His merciful kindness
is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever.
O praise the Lord.
Now, there's a way to learn an entire book of the Bible.
Real quick, kids, okay?
So you want to impress people, like, I know an entire book of the Bible, you know, there's
two verses, but look what it says in verse 2, it says, for His merciful kindness is great
toward us.
So notice that the Bible says the Lord is of great mercy.
He has merciful kindness, and it's really great, and we want to understand that the
Lord is a kind God.
You have to think about it.
You know, the whole world lies in wickedness, is what the Bible teaches, and the Bible says
that we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the Bible teaches that there's
none that doeth good, no, not one.
Think about how kind God has to be.
Think about how kind the Lord is, that we've sinned so much against Him, yet He still allows
us to live.
He still allows us to not even just live, but even have a really wonderful life.
He gives us all kinds of things, like a spout, like children, like food, like steak, like
brisket.
You know, there's so many, this is the kindness, great kindness.
You know, it's not even, you know, when it comes to a cow, I mean, there's so many great
options.
I mean, you've got ribs, you've got the flank, you've got the bottom roast, you've got the
top roast, the sirloin, the filet, the t-bone, the porter, and of course, some of these cuts
include filet and everything, I get that, but it's just, you've got so many options
that are just wonderful, and it's just the Lord is so kind.
And even if you don't have, you don't have beef, you know, you can satisfy yourself with
lamb or, in fact, I personally like pork ribs better than beef ribs.
Who's with me?
Pork ribs are better than beef ribs.
Okay, there's a couple people here that are saved, so that's good, good to know.
But you know, I like all things beef, you know, and then you've got bacon.
I mean, how kind is the Lord?
Think about this, all of the saints of the Old Testament, they never got bacon.
I mean, think about this, Jesus died on the cross, not only so I could go to heaven, not
only so I could be a child of God, so I could have bacon.
I mean, this is great.
You know, the Lord is kind and His great mercy that He shows towards us, and here's the thing,
I'm a sinner, just like everybody else is a sinner, and then the Lord still allows me
to have so many great blessings, so many, you know, wonderful things that happen.
Go to Proverbs 19 for a moment, go to Proverbs chapter 19.
Sometimes the Lord's merciful to me, and I play really well, and I, you know, nobody
can beat me at ping pong in the room, you know, and that's great mercy, you know.
It doesn't happen all the time, but you know, He's merciful unto me, even though I don't
practice or, you know, have as much skill.
So there's all kinds of great things that the Lord does for us, and I think it's easy
to get focused on all the negative, easy to get focused on all the bad things that are
happening in the world.
We don't really forget about the kindness of the Lord and how He shows us kindness,
just because we're kind of focused on all of the injustices or we're focused on the
evil that exists, but we don't want to lose sight or not remember the Lord's kindness
that He shows towards us.
Just like David wants to show the kindness in the house of Saul, the house of Saul doesn't
really deserve it.
Think about it, I mean, the house of Saul warred against David, the house of Saul rebelled
against David, but then he still wants to show him the kindness, and it reminds me of
how the Lord shows us kindness even though we don't deserve it.
You know, it's not like we deserve something great or we deserve a wonderful life.
We get this all just because of the Lord's kindness towards us.
Proverbs chapter 19, look at it, it says in verse 22, the desire of a man is his kindness
and a poor man is better than a liar.
And again, the desire of a man, you know, what I believe this verse is trying to indicate
to us is the fact that we all desire kindness.
We all appreciate kindness in a person.
It allows us to have affection towards an individual due to their kindness.
You know, the Bible teaches we love him because he first loved us.
And so because of the Lord's love, because of the Lord's kindness, it ends up enabling
us to have a similar response or to respond in kind as it were.
And if you want people to be kind unto you, we often have to be the first to show kindness.
We have to be the first to show love.
We have to be the first to enable that kind of affection towards other people.
And I think sometimes it's easy to think about, well, I'll only give this person kindness
if they deserve it, or I'll only show this person love because they deserve it, but rather
a picture of the Christian life, a picture of Christ, a picture of David is one who shows
kindness and mercy, shows love and compassion towards those that don't deserve it.
And we too have to have that same attitude.
Go to Matthew, chapter number five, go to Matthew, chapter number five in the Bible.
And I think this is an important thing for us to learn as the world is only going to
get darker because there's a lot of people in this world that do not want to show kindness
as their initial reaction.
And it makes sense.
Think about it.
I mean, this world, especially, you know, our country has kind of lived a charmed life
up until, you know, the past few years, the past few decades, depending on how you want
to look at it.
And they've really had a lot of things disturbed in their mind.
You know, children have definitely gone through an upheaval of all kinds of crazy things.
I mean, no one liked COVID.
And whether you I don't really care what your philosophy is on that.
It was just suffering in general, right?
Especially, you know, all the mass mandates that were just annoying and just like non-scientific
fact that have even tried to say anything about it.
You're just immediately censored or could lose your job or just all kinds of threats,
all kinds of anxiety, all kinds of stress.
People are just afraid of all kinds of different things.
And of course, when people are stressed and annoyed and irritated, then they start becoming
irritable, right?
Then you have all these companies and you have all these employees becoming what we
call Karens, right, where essentially they they're drunk with power and they they start
being rude.
And we're kind of used to the customers always right.
Well, that went out the window with COVID, didn't it?
I mean, man, just being attacked and assaulted and you just you don't you're just like kind
of like what's happening here?
I thought I was giving you my money.
Why are you treating me like a third rate, you know, citizen or something like that?
And you know, this world, for a lot of them, they don't have steadfast Baptist church.
So they don't even have an outlet to go and be around normal people, be around people
that are actually truly loving, truly kind there.
In fact, their only interactions are with the Karens.
Their only interactions are with the school board.
Their only interaction are with the TSA, their only interaction or with law enforcement or
or with these other groups or these other parties.
And I could see why you could be surrounded in that environment where you're just angry
all the time.
I myself struggle with this.
I myself feel like I just kind of want to be just angry all the time or I just want
to be frustrated about everything and, you know, understanding that virtually every company
kind of just sucks.
Like they they're always slow.
They don't deliver on time.
They don't have any customer service products, effective prices went up and you're just kind
of like like working with anybody has just gotten so frustrating and everybody's on edge
and everybody's upset and everybody's mad.
And because we live in this environment, we have to constantly remind ourselves, you know
what, I need to just start showing kindness to people when they don't deserve it.
You know, I go into the store when I'm dealing with people at a restaurant, when I'm when
I'm dealing with the company, when I'm doing these situations, you know, it's really easy
to want to get mad at them and yell at them, provoke them and be like, man, you guys are
doing all these causes all these problems, rather, we should try to be kind, you try
to be loving towards those individuals, and give them an opportunity to see, you know,
true love or true compassion towards them.
You know, a lot of times even going soul winning, kind of hostile environment out there, especially
go close to the church.
And but at the same time, you know, we just want to be kind of loving, we don't want to
be mean back or rude back to people.
The house of salt didn't deserve kindness.
That's what you have to constantly think about.
I'm not saying these people deserve it.
I'm not saying that it isn't your initial reaction to want to respond that way.
I'm saying you have to learn how to not do that.
You have to learn how to be kind, initially and have compassion.
And Matthew five teaches this it says, in verse 43, you have heard that it has been
said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.
I say and you love your enemies, bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you
and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the
children of your Father, which is in heaven for he make it this sun to rise on the evil
and on the good and send his rain on the just and on the unjust, we love them which love
you what reward have you not even the publicans the same, and if you salute your brethren
only, what do you more than others do not even the public and so be there for perfect,
even as your father, which is in heaven is perfect.
So Jesus Christ is trying to help them understand that we should not just be loving and kind
of people that are loving and kind to us, rather we should be loving and kind to people
that are even our enemies.
And David is always the best example of this, in my opinion, in the Bible, because you always
have that clear delineation, you have that clear separation of the fact that David is
killing Goliath, David is killing his enemies, yet then he's showing kindness and compassion
to Saul, yet David is showing love unto the house of Saul, illustrating the fact that
just because someone is your personal enemy doesn't mean you can't love them, but then
not taking this doctrine so far as to love the person stabbing you in the back, literally
an enemy of the Lord, one of Satan's ministers or something like that, it's not saying love
Jeffrey Dahmer here, it's not saying love Adolf Hitler here, of course no one loves
those people, no one should love those people, it's not saying love the devil, but what is
it saying?
It's saying people that aren't nice to you, people that don't deserve your love, you can
still be kind and compassionate towards them, and that's the majority of people, the vast,
vast majority of people we're supposed to love even though they're our enemy, even though
they say evil about Steadfast Baptist Church, even though they don't like Pastor Shelley,
even though they don't like you guys, even though they do evil unto us, we're supposed
to still show love back to them, passion unto them, good unto them.
Now some people would say, oh Jesus is correcting things in the Old Testament, they'll say you've
heard in verse 43, you have heard that it's been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and
hate that enemy.
Now first of all, notice that Jesus didn't say hey you heard in Leviticus chapter this,
because here's the thing that Jesus is correcting, he's correcting the doctrine, the man-made
doctrines that have been handed down from the Pharisees.
He's not saying this is what the Bible used to teach and I want to teach something completely
different than the Bible used to teach.
You have to understand that this chapter has other verses in it.
Look at verse 17, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am not
come to destroy but to fulfill.
So did Jesus come and say like, you know what, there was this Old Testament law like hating
people, I'm here to just change that all up.
I'm here to destroy that particular statute.
No, no, no, no, here's the thing, the Old Testament taught that you're actually supposed
to love your enemies and then the New Testament taught you're supposed to love your enemies
and Jesus taught you're supposed to love your enemies because Jesus didn't walk around contradicting
himself, contradicting the law, bringing up things that weren't true.
Jesus always taught the exact same thing, love your enemies.
You know and loving your enemies was still an Old Testament doctrine even though we had
people like Goliath.
Now Goliath was not someone that David loved.
He didn't love him by throwing a stone into his head and cutting off his head.
Of course, what David did was he destroyed the enemies of the Lord.
But here's the thing, when did Goliath go around and putting David in a headlock and
giving him a noogie and stealing his lunch money, Goliath didn't even know David.
He didn't even know his name.
David didn't know Goliath's name.
Why was it that he went and fought the Philistine?
It's because the Philistine was defying the armies of Israel because the Philistine was
an enemy of God and of course someone that's an enemy of God I'm not going to go up and
be buddy and buddy with.
But here's the thing, just because someone doesn't like me doesn't mean they're an enemy
of God.
There's plenty of people that don't like me and that doesn't make them a bad person in
the sense of like they're unsalvageable or they can't be saved or that they're not even
saved at all because Saul was saved his entire life while he was persecuting David.
He didn't become unsaved just because he started hating on David and attacking David.
And there are going to be pastors that are saved that attack our church or attack me
and that doesn't make them unsaved necessarily.
So we don't want to get this attitude of like anybody that's against me is a reprobate or
anybody that's against you is a reprobate or you know hey this person didn't make my
sandwich right at Subway, reprobate.
I mean who can't make a sandwich right?
Look have you seen the public education system?
They don't teach them how to do anything anymore.
They say that math is racist so of course they don't know how to even make a sandwich.
I could go more on a rant like that but I'm not.
But here's the facts, people are going to not like you and that's okay.
Just like we didn't like God first, we weren't good to God first, we didn't do right first
and God still loved us and God still showed kindness unto us and so we want to do the
same thing back to others.
We want to be kind and loving and merciful unto them.
Don't keep your finger, just go to Proverbs 24 for a moment.
Let me show you how in the Old Testament the Bible taught the same concept about loving
your enemies and not hating them.
And again something that would be really contradictory and people don't get this is that when Jesus
was walking around in Matthew chapter 5 preaching, that was still the Old Testament.
He hadn't entered in the New Testament because there's like this middle, there's like the
Old Testament then there's the Jesus Middle Testament and then there's the New Testament
and like this Middle Testament has like all these new rules that are like no death penalty
and no hate and all this kind of stuff.
Think about this, how could Jesus get up, if Matthew chapter 5, Jesus is saying you
can never hate anyone, then why is he in Matthew 23 telling the Pharisees that they
can't escape the damnation of hell?
Why is he calling them serpents and vipers?
Why is he screaming at them for being hypocrites?
Why is he saying you can't escape the damnation of hell and you're twofold more the child
of hell and just constantly just rebuking them and saying that they're evil and saying
that they're wicked and just, I mean it didn't feel, Matthew 23 is not the most loving
chapter of the Bible.
In fact, I would argue it's one of the most hateful chapters of the Bible and it's coming
from Jesus.
You know Jesus in the book of John, what we like to think of John as being this like super
loving book, keep reading after chapter 3.
Let's get to chapters 5 and 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and 10, 11 and 12.
It's like wow, he didn't like the Jews that much in some of those chapters.
He didn't say positive things about the Jews in those chapters.
He even said they couldn't even believe.
He said they were of their father, the devil.
This was not Jesus loving his enemies.
So you have to balance scripture.
Of course people want to just take any verse out of the Bible, suggest anything that they
want, and of course you could.
I could find anything in the Bible, I could say Jesus did everything if you wanted to.
You could take out a quote of Jesus and say he's advocating violence because in one point
of his parable he said, hey, take those men that rebelled against me, bring them before
me and slay them.
Oh, he's advocating violence.
That was a parable.
He's talking about what he will do in the future and it's not violence, it's not murder,
it's execution.
There's a difference between those three words and our world refuses to believe that.
Proverbs 24, look at verse 17, rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine
heart be glad when he stumbleth, lest the Lord see it and it displease him and he turn
away from his wrath, or turn away his wrath from him.
Does that sound like you should hate your enemy?
No, in fact it's saying the exact opposite, it's saying, hey, if something bad happens
to your enemy, don't get excited about that, don't be pleased with that.
In fact, God's mad at you when you're rejoicing over your enemy something bad happening to
them.
So, don't get this strange idea that in Matthew chapter number five, Jesus is like, hey, some
of these Old Testament laws aren't very good, let me clean that up for you.
Let me go ahead and tell you what the Old Testament law, you know, or not really, let
me just change the Old Testament law.
Now, what you do have to understand, the point of Matthew five is to suggest that there is
a righteousness that exceeds the law.
And what that means is, just because something's lawful doesn't mean that that's the highest
level of righteousness that you can achieve.
Because the law is just, but mercy triumphs over justice, okay, it goes over judgment.
Just like we deserve hell, you know what's greater than that is that we get to go to
heaven.
So we see that God's mercy and kindness is going to go above what we deserve, what justice
would be.
So there's a form of righteousness that's justice.
But then we as Christians, we don't want to live in this realm of justice, where eye for
an eye, tooth for a tooth, whatever someone does to me, I do that for them.
We want to also exceed that to say, hey, if you want me to walk one mile, I'll go ahead
and go two.
And here's the thing, if someone asked to go one mile, is going one mile good?
Yeah.
But isn't going two miles better?
So it's like, hey, someone hits you on the cheek, instead of punching the back or something,
turning the other cheek, isn't that going a little bit above?
So again, what Matthew chapter number five is saying is, hey, there is a righteousness,
the spirit of the law is to go above just what's actually equitable and doing good when
people don't even deserve it.
Actually suffering wrong upon yourself.
And that's the whole point of Matthew chapter five is to exceed righteousness.
If anything, Matthew five is adding commandments, not taking anything away.
If anything, Jesus Christ is giving us more instruction, not less.
If anything, Jesus Christ is cleaning things up, not throwing anything away.
Okay.
So it's silly for Christianity to constantly throw these verses in our face and say like,
oh, why do you follow the law or believe in the law?
Didn't you read Matthew five?
And it's like, yeah, I did.
Absolutely.
They're like, oh, why don't you love people?
Okay, well, why don't you come out with a soul winning?
I mean, we've got a soul winning time on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday,
Friday, Saturday, soul winning event.
Hey, you want to see the kindness of God?
You want to see the love of Jesus Christ?
Why don't you come out there with us and preach the gospel to the lost?
Why don't you go out there and minister to those that don't even like us?
I mean, these people, they want to pontificate about how loving they are.
Okay, then show me how loving you are.
And isn't it interesting, the people that pontificate about how loving they are, are
the ones that hate us the most.
I mean, I've never seen anybody come and say like, you know what, I just love you guys.
And I want to, I gave you, here's some, here's some Subway sandwiches for y'all.
I really disagree with y'all's message.
And I think you should be more loving.
So I want to show you what that's like.
Here's a bunch of Subway sandwiches for you.
No, no, no.
Give that to the people that hate us.
Show how loving they are, right?
You know, it's just a backwards world that we live in.
Don't let this fake Christianity warp your mind.
Don't let them lie to you.
When did you ever preach against adultery?
It's like, here's the sermon, well, but, you know, why didn't you preach as hard against
it?
Oh, here's an explanation of that.
Well, but, you know, it's like, you can't satisfy these people.
It's just like, well, why don't you believe in the death penalty in other places?
Have you read our doctrinal statement?
It has it on there.
It's like, well, why don't you focus on the gospel?
Have you read our doctrinal statement?
Have you seen an invite from our church?
Have you even visited?
You know, people just want to lie about you.
And you know what, they're going to lie about David.
They're going to lie about Christ.
And they're going to say, oh, he's mean, or we don't like him.
But here's the thing.
David's truly a kind person.
And you actually know him, you actually see him.
He's showing kindness unto the house of Saul, and they don't deserve it.
Why does David have to bless Saul's house?
I mean, what good has it done to him?
Saul tried to kill him multiple times.
The entire nation of Israel rebelled against him and wanted to kill him.
I mean, he could just kill them all and wipe them all out.
And it would have seemed just, you know what, David's not just giving justice, he's giving
mercy, he's giving kindness.
Go back to 2 Samuel chapter 9 for a second, go back to 2 Samuel chapter 9.
Really, I think that's the essence of this chapter.
If you really want to understand this chapter, it's all about kindness.
And we, too, want to model the same response of kindness.
And the latter portion of this chapter, it really kind of, to me, has some like symbolism
as far as how Christ is kind to us, just like David is here going to be kind to Jonathan's
house.
It says in verse 2,
And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba.
When they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba?
And he said, Thy servant is he.
And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness
of God in him?
Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet.
And the king said unto him, Where is he?
And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Makar, the son of Amiel and
Lodabar.
Then king David sent and fetched him out of the house of Makar, the son of Amiel from
Lodabar.
And on Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David.
He fell on his face and did reverence.
David said, Mephibosheth.
And he answered, Behold, thy servant.
Now what's interesting is King David ends up finding someone to show kindness of the
house of Saul.
It's specifically a son of Jonathan, Mephibosheth.
Previously we'd read about how Mephibosheth, his nurse, had left in haste.
And in that haste Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth, had fallen or had some kind of an accident
and his feet were either broken or injured in some way.
So now he can't walk.
That's what it means by he's lame.
Not like the churches across the street, but like he can't walk, okay?
So it's a different kind of lane.
Now here's the thing about Mephibosheth is Mephibosheth's attitude, think about this.
King Saul is supposed to be the king and who would be the next in line?
Jonathan.
Jonathan would have been the king.
And Saul got really mad at Jonathan for the fact that he was, he would say like spreading
confusion or making confusion because he's like supporting David and he's like, but this
is your throne.
This is your inheritance.
Why are you supporting David to be the king or giving him, because he's, Jonathan stripped
himself of all his armor and all of his clothing and gave it to David.
Well here's the thing, if Jonathan had then become king, who would have been the next
king?
Mephibosheth, right?
And I'm sure even though Mephibosheth was very small, very young age, he may have even
known about way before Saul ever died, he might become king one day.
He's going to be the one in charge, it's going to be his throne one day and they're raising
this young man, they're teaching this young man how to be king and so he has aspirations
to be the king.
And now he's standing before the guy that took that job away from him.
Now he's standing against the guy that his, his father was, sorry, his grandfather was
chasing and wanting to kill and his father was, along with Saul, he could even blame
David for the death of his parents because if you think about the fact that why is Saul
all the way away from home and then he got drawn away in another war, and even though
it's not obviously David's fault, people love the blame game, they could think like, oh
David's the whole reason my dad and grandpa were out in the battle and then got caught
up with the Philistines and died, he could have blamed David, then he could blame David
for Abner and Ish-boseth, Ish-boseth would have been a family member of King Saul and
obviously related to Mephibosheth here.
So he could look at this man with a lot of hatred, he could look at him with a lot of
anger, he could blame David for a lot of these things, but notice when Mephibosheth is in
the presence of David, he doesn't have a negative response, in fact, what does he say in verse
number six?
And he answered, Behold, thy servant.
Isn't that a pretty humble response?
That's a pretty interesting response and really that's the type of response that garners the
favor of the Lord, it's humility.
When you come to the Lord in pride or arrogance or you resist the Lord, you don't receive
his favor.
And think about this, salvation, God is extending his kindness, is extending his mercy to the
whole world, to every single person.
What happens when people reject that mercy and reject that kindness, do they get it?
No, they don't.
How do they get it?
By humbling themselves.
That's how you receive God's mercy, that's how you receive Christ.
We don't believe in this Calvinistic, irresistible grace where God just hits you with this laser
beam of grace and mercy and kindness and there's no way to reject it, there's no way to say
no to that.
No, no, no, we understand the Bible teaches free will.
You have an opportunity to accept or reject God's grace, to accept or reject God's kindness,
to accept or reject God's mercy and a lot of people, they blame God, they blame Jesus
for all the evils of their life.
I mean, wouldn't it be easy for Mephibosheth here to blame David for Saul, to blame David
for Jonathan, to blame David for Ish-bosheth, to blame David, heck, for his own feet?
Because you say, oh man, not only did they die, but then we had to rush out and I'm crippled
my entire life.
Some people, they look at all the evil that's happened in their lives and they just blame
God.
Well, if God loved me, why would he let me be crippled?
If God loved me, why would I be laying on my feet?
And you know, most people in this room, they don't have an illness or an injury that severe.
I mean, this is a very debilitating disease or injury.
I mean, not being able to walk would be horrible because you have to literally depend on other
people at all times and back then, they probably didn't have as many cool contraptions like
wheelchairs or like crutches and some of these others.
Maybe they did have some form of a crutch, but even modern day crutches hurt.
Who's had to do crutches before?
Okay, a lot of people.
I've had to do crutches before and it hurts.
Like my armpit and everything like that, you go around for a long time, it starts to really
hurt, it kind of rubs, it's not comfortable.
Can you imagine having to do something that's not even padded?
I mean, you don't think they had that really nice padding that you have on crutches back
then?
I mean, they probably don't have nearly as nice of stuff.
People having a cane.
A lot of times, we see the lame people in the Bible, they were forced to have someone
carry them.
You know, you see this in the New Testament and the New Testament is way past this point
in history.
So, even more so, they may have had them on a bed or they may have had them on a cot or
may have had them on some kind of a device that people just have to come and literally
pick them up.
Just for you to move around and, you know, sitting at home, you know what he didn't have?
TikTok.
He didn't even have Instagram.
You know, we're banned on every social media.
He didn't even have any options.
He didn't even have Gab with three followers to check anything out.
He couldn't even follow Andrew Torba.
You know?
Like, he couldn't even do anything.
He didn't even have TV.
He didn't have baseball to watch, you know, all 6,000 games they play every day.
I mean, he didn't have Jeopardy.
He didn't even have all of the old people commercials to watch, you know, Life Alert
and Mesothelioma, you know, and everything else that's on TV.
I mean, he couldn't even watch that commercial.
That commercial would have been exciting to him, okay?
I mean, think about the enjoyment factor of being crippled back then.
Wouldn't it be easy to just get bitter at God?
Wouldn't it be easy to just be mad at God or be angry at the Lord?
And unfortunately, because of people's issues, because of, you know, they lose a son or they
lose a daughter or they lose a mother or they lose a father or they lose an uncle or they
lose an aunt, they lose anything, they lose their job, they lose their money, they lose
their house, they lose their health, they lose their, you know, physical well-being,
they lose their eyesight, they lose whatever, they lose their teeth, the meth, they get
a drug addiction, they get molested.
I mean, wouldn't it be easy to just get angry at God for any of those things?
And yet, what is the right response?
Always to come to the Lord as a humble servant and you get His kindness.
Because even though those evil things happen, you know who didn't do any of those things
to you?
David.
You know who didn't do those things to you?
Jesus.
Jesus gave you bacon.
Jesus gave you steak.
Jesus gave you breath in your lungs.
You know who gave you all this evil, wicked stuff?
Most of the time, it's you.
Most of the time, it's the sin in this world.
It's the devil.
It's the evil that permeates our society.
It's Biden.
You know those stickers that Biden did that?
Do you need to start realizing that's true?
Or he's like, I did that, right?
He's like, got the little stupid thing.
He looks more coherent in that sticker than he does in real life.
But here's the reality.
We want to make sure that we're not displacing our anger towards the Lord.
We're thinking it's the Lord.
We want to have a humble response towards the Lord.
And look at his response in verse 7, that David said to him, fear not.
When you seek the Lord with humility, there's nothing to be afraid of.
Go to Hebrews chapter number 4, go to Hebrews chapter number 4.
And honestly, you know, children, you need to learn this, if you do something bad or
you do something wrong, you need to approach your parents in humility.
It's always better to just go to your parents and ask for grace and mercy than to try and
cover it up or to not tell them or to lie about it.
You know, it's always best to seek for their mercy and grace.
And you know, the Lord is a picture of this.
And in Hebrews chapter number 4, the Bible even teaches when we get saved, when we screw
up in the future, we shouldn't be embarrassed to go to the Lord, but rather we should do
it with all boldness.
Look what it says in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15.
We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need.
So notice, when you screw up, don't be afraid to seek the Lord.
Don't be afraid to seek Jesus.
And I think there's this temptation, there's this idea of, well, I screwed up and I don't
want the Lord to know about it, or I don't want the Lord to find out, but here's a little
tip.
He already knows.
He can't conceal it from Him anyway.
So the best idea, the best strategy, is to always seek the Lord and to ask for His grace
in boldness.
You know, of course we come to Him in humility.
Of course we come in a contrite spirit and a contrite heart.
We want to make sure that we're seeking the Lord according to His will.
But at the end of the day, we don't want to forsake the mercy that's offered to us, forsake
the kindness offered to us by being afraid to approach.
The same should be with church.
I don't know what people think about our church exactly, but let's say you screw up.
Don't think like, well, if I go back to church and I'm sorry about screwing up, Pastor Shelley
is going to probably rip me a new one or Pastor Shelley is going to be mad at me or whatever.
I don't really get mad at people for wanting to get things right.
In fact, I really don't even get mad at people, you know, in my church.
It's just, it's disappointing when people are afraid to get it right.
It's disappointing when, you know, someone, sometimes we get offended at our church and
then they quit or they go somewhere else or whatever, but then you know, like, they're
just actually just not going to church and it's just disappointing to me.
It's like, okay, well, you know, you think there's a better church or somewhere else,
great.
You know, I hope you get plugged in.
I hope you serve over there.
You know, no hard feelings.
I want you to serve the Lord, not like you have to come to steadfast Baptist church to
be right with God or anything like that.
You know, it's disappointing when people just don't seek the Lord and they're not seeking
His kindness.
They're not seeking His mercy.
They're not seeking His grace.
You know what?
We should always be seeking the Lord and not afraid to approach under the Lord when we
are seeking for His grace.
Now, if you are underpentant and you're wicked, yeah, you should be terrified.
You shouldn't come to church here.
You know, if you're a wicked, underpentant sinner, you know, you don't want to be in
the house of God.
That's just going to make them angrier.
If you're on the 1 Corinthians 5 list and we don't know, don't show up.
We're not interested.
But you know what?
If you're on the 1 Corinthians 5 list and you get it right, hey, let's celebrate.
You know, let's rejoice.
Just like the father seeing his prodigal son come back, he was all excited.
Now, think about it.
His son wasted all of his money on harlots and riotous living.
His son has literally been in a pigstyne.
He doesn't smell very good, FYI.
And isn't the father just so glad that he's coming back?
You know, that's the attitude.
That's the type of mentality we should have towards people.
We should have the kindness extended to these people, not just like, where have you been?
Oh, man.
You know, if they stink, offer them a shower, okay?
Like here's, you know, a pine scented, you know, thing you can put in your car or whatever.
Or you know, here's a gas station ticket for the shower or something.
You know, like, but we don't want to say we can't be nice or kind to these individuals.
So if we went to, back to chapter 9 and look at verse 7, and that's what Jesus did to us.
He offered us salvation.
We didn't deserve it.
And we get it by coming to them in meekness and humbleness and we shouldn't be afraid.
And once we're saved, there's nothing to fear.
It says in verse 7, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake,
and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my
table continually.
One of the things that's great about Lord, not only did he save us, but he gives us blessings
on top of it.
He gives us rewards on top of that.
And if you think about what's kind of transpiring here, is we don't have to be afraid.
We get to approach the Lord and not have fear.
We can have boldness to approach the Lord.
Secondly, he's going to restore land.
You know, whatever lands we may lose in this life or not have in this life, nuts to it.
Because guess what?
You're going to get so much more in the next one.
Go to Matthew chapter 19.
Matthew chapter 19.
Not only do we get salvation, we get this restoration of land.
It says in Matthew chapter 19, look at verse 28.
And Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the
regeneration, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, he also shall
sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.
And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake shall receive an hundredfold, and shall
inherit everlasting life.
But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
Here's the thing you have to understand.
I'm not going to go through all this list, but notice there's lands.
So you end up losing lands in this life, but notice he says, hey, you'll get a hundredfold
in the next.
You'll get a hundredfold.
Seems like Mephibosheth may have lost a lot, but guess what, David ends up restoring him
all this land.
Here's a picture of us.
Yeah, we may lose a lot in this life, but God will restore it to us in the next one.
And he says, many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
Here's the thing, Mephibosheth, carnally speaking, is last.
How is Mephibosheth, I mean, he's a cripple.
He has nothing.
His whole house has been basically decimated.
It's basically he's in last place, as it were, in life, but then David restores him, and
David is going to put him at his table, and now he's going to become first.
And there's many people in this life who are going to appear last, but they're going to
end up becoming first with Jesus.
You know, who's some people that were last?
How about John the Baptist?
I mean, John the Baptist, everybody that has any kind of position of authority or leadership
hates on this guy, rejects this guy.
This guy had to live in the wilderness eating locusts and wild honey.
He had to forsake his lands.
Think about it.
You don't think that his family had some inheritance, had some nice land, had some nice farms, had
some nice property, and while he couldn't eat bacon, he could still have had steak.
He basically had to forsake steak and lamb chops and beef ribs.
They're okay.
And, you know, I was going to get the pork ones, you know, those baby back ribs, whatever,
from Chili's.
I'm hungry.
Sorry.
The only thing I've had is donuts.
Dylan brought me donuts.
I was like, okay, I'll eat those.
I'm starving.
Donuts, the only thing that's terrible about donuts is they make you hungrier after you
eat them.
Like lemonade and drinking.
You know, you always get thirstier afterwards or whatever, so you have to bear with me on
my rant.
But what you have to realize is that him forsaking all of that and then dying and being beheaded,
that seems as if he lost his life and all these bad things happen, but he's going to
be one of the first in the kingdom of heaven.
Paul had to forsake a lot.
He had to forsake his own country, travel the world in preaching.
People constantly wanted to kill him and harass him, but he's going to be greatly rewarded.
The disciples had to lose everything, carnally speaking, but they're going to be greatly
rewarded in the next life.
And so don't think that, well, you know, I feel like I'm making a lot of sacrifices
for the Lord.
It's really investments.
And that investment is not in Bitcoin, which goes like this and eventually goes like this.
Okay.
Pyramid scheme.
Right?
Keep saying it.
You have to realize it's a pyramid scheme.
Anybody that doesn't believe it.
Now, of course, in pyramid schemes, you can still make money.
You know, it's less like casinos.
You could technically make money, but the house always wins.
So you, if you don't cash out early, you get left holding the bag.
Okay.
All of this cryptocurrency, I mean, you really think Bitcoin is going to work with the mark
of the beast is implemented.
I mean, what do you think?
You really think when Biden corrupt, like gets the whole dollar just to basically be
bankrupt.
Oh, but cryptocurrency is still going to work.
You know, it's like, that's stupid.
Okay.
You're just fooling yourself.
It's as good as monopoly money.
Go to Luke 22, go to the right, your Bible is here.
Not only did he tell Mephibosheth, he's going to restore his land, he said he's going to
eat at his table and that's a great honor.
And the Bible teaches this, look at Luke 22 verse 18, the Bible says, Luke 22 verse 18,
for I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God
shall come.
This is Jesus and notice he didn't say I'm going to drink Budweiser instead of the fruit
of the vine.
Because of course, Jesus, you know, they say he drank wine.
The only way that's true is if you mean it's fruit juice.
It's the juice that gets squeezed out of a fruit.
Now skip down to verse 24, and there was also strife among them, which of them should be
accounted the greatest?
He said unto them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and they that
exercise authority upon them are called benefactors.
He shall not be so.
He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he
that doth serve.
Whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat or he that serveth is not he that sitteth
at meat.
But I am among you as he that serveth.
He are they which have continued with me in my temptation.
And I appoint unto you a kingdom as my father had appointed unto me, that you may eat and
drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones drudging the twelve tribes of Israel.
So notice Jesus saying, hey, there's going to come a kingdom and there's going to be
my table and you guys are going to sit and eat at my table.
Just like Mephibosheth gets to eat at David's table, we will get to eat at the Lord's table.
Now, of course, you know, this privilege is going to be, you're going to be closest to
Jesus or at the best table, the more of a disciple you are, the more that you sacrifice,
more that you are willing to serve the Lord.
Get back to chapter 12, Luke chapter 12.
Not only does Jesus like put you at his table, think about this, and this verse is really
kind of an incredible verse when you think about it.
Jesus Christ is going to serve you.
The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, not only died on the cross for you, went to hell
for you, rose again for you, not only intercedes for you on a daily basis with the Lord.
The Bible, Jesus himself said he was going to serve us at his table.
Look at Luke chapter 12 verse 37, the Bible says, blessed are those servants whom the
Lord when he cometh shall find watching, verily I sand you that he shall gird himself and
make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them.
Now that might seem a little strange, but then I was thinking about it, he does that
to us all day anyway.
I mean, you know, we can't even make crops grow.
I know that we think we're smart or whatever, but we're just following God's instructions
on this.
You know, we don't actually tell the plants to grow.
We just put seed in the ground and water it and just hope that it comes out.
We don't really have any true impact.
We don't know if it's going to happen.
We can't force that to happen.
You know, God's allowing that crop to grow.
God's allowing those cattle to continually breed and bring forth and it's the Lord that's
sustaining us.
It's the Lord that's providing for us.
It's the Lord that's giving us all of these blessings.
It's the Lord that brought all the animals and put them on the ark.
Praise God that I didn't have to be a vegetarian for my entire life.
He brought animals on the ark.
Wouldn't it be disappointing if we read and it's like, oh, none of the animals survived.
You know, it's like, man, that cow sounded kind of good.
You know, that heifer, that battered calf, right?
I wouldn't even know and I would just realize it was good.
Just like that manna from heaven, I never tasted it, but I guarantee it was delicious.
It'd make cheesecake bread seem like nothing.
It'd make outback bread seem like nothing.
No, it just tasted so good and so delicious.
You know what?
There's coming a day when we get to eat heavenly food with Jesus and He's going to serve us.
Isn't that incredible?
Think about it.
Oh, I deserve it.
We don't deserve any of this.
Just like Mephibosheth is lame, we're lame in the sense that we've all sinned.
We can't save ourselves.
We can't do any good unto ourselves.
We are just as lame as Mephibosheth.
We just depend on the Lord for everything.
We depend on the Lord for my next breath of oxygen.
I can't even control how much oxygen exists in this world.
Oh, well, we need to plant more trees or something like that.
You know, it doesn't matter, God could just suck your life out of your body anyways.
I depend on the Lord for my heart to beat.
I depend on the Lord for my brain to allow the blood to flow through it.
I depend on the Lord to give me breath in my lungs for my lungs to work, for every part
of my body to constantly function.
I depend on the Lord to allow me not to get in a car accident and die.
And if you've ever ridden with me, you know that's true.
We all need that.
I mean, have you ever been on the highway in Texas?
I mean, how could you not realize, man, the Lord is just keeping so many people alive
by grace.
I mean, there's chicks there that are doing their makeup and TikTok videos at the same
time of driving and changing lanes, and we all survived it somehow.
And we're just, it's just like, how did that even happen?
You know, there's all kinds of chemicals and evil out there.
There's all kinds of just disease and all kinds of evil.
I mean, the fact that we are surviving is just by God's grace, we're just these lame
little ducklings.
Just like a baby depends on his parents for everything, we all are so dependent on the
Lord.
I mean, they constantly talk about terraforming Mars.
Good luck with that.
And even just anything, just an asteroid could come and just wipe out the entire earth.
Just the sun and the earth's distance, even if it just changed by like just tiny fractions
of percentages, we would all burn up or die or the whole earth could get flooded again
or just an infinite number of things could happen, and we're all just so dependent on
the Lord sustaining all of that, keeping all of that afloat, allowing none of those things
to happen.
And He even promised it, that the earth would never be flooded again, even though the devil's
going to try it.
There is coming a day in the future where the entire earth is going to have a flood
warning, and it's going to be this like devastating thing that's going to kill everybody, but
somehow the earth is going to open up its mouth and swallow the flood, and we're not
going to die in the flood.
And it's coming from the devil, it's coming from none other than Satan himself.
I mean, the Lord is not only keeping us alive from all those evils, He's not allowing the
devil to kill us, and the devil would kill us in a heartbeat.
The devil would destroy all of mankind if he could, and he's going to try with all of
his force, and it's the Lord that gives us that sustaining mechanism.
And not only does the Lord sustain us, not only does the Lord save us, the Lord's going
to give you a table.
He doesn't just sit at His table, He's going to give you land, He's going to give you all
these things.
How can you not look at the Lord and say He's so kind?
So kind.
Just like Mephibosheth doesn't deserve it, we don't deserve it.
And He says, go back, we're just going to kind of finish this chapter, there's not really
much left to say, but it says in verse 8, Mephibosheth, and he bowed himself and said,
What is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
You know what I like about Mephibosheth is he never changes his attitude, he always has
a humble spirit, he even compares himself to a dog, one of the worst animals in the
Bible.
Obviously, serpents are probably the worst, okay, I get that, but dog is just a negative
mention consistently and represents the worst people.
It says in verse 9, Then the king called to Ziba, Saul's servant, and said unto him, I
have given unto thy master's son all that pertaineth to Saul and to all his house.
Therefore, thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring
in the fruits, that thy master's son may have food to eat, but Mephibosheth, thy master's
son, shall eat bread all the way at my table.
Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
Then said Ziba to the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant,
so shall thy servant do.
As for Mephibosheth, said the king, He shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons.
Not only do you get all the blessings and the privileges we just brought up, you're
also a son.
Behold now what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God.
I mean, we are the sons of God, behold now we're the sons of God, and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be.
We don't even realize how glorious it is to be a son of God in our glorified state.
We are in our new man, the outward man is, you know, a son of Adam, okay, and it's got
some imperfections.
You know what, when we're glorified, we're gonna be like him and we're not gonna have
the same imperfections.
We're gonna have a glorified state, we can't even sin, and it's gonna be a wonderful day,
and we get to be the children.
We're not just the servants, we're the children, we're the sons, and what a privilege.
I mean, just the fact that God's not sending us to hell is just in and of itself the greatest
thing imaginable.
But then he goes way beyond that.
You gotta realize, like, the Lord is so kind, say like, not only do you sin against me and
not deserve anything good, I'm not just gonna save you from the worst punishment imaginable.
I'm gonna let you sit at my table, I'm gonna serve you, and I'm gonna call you my son.
It's like the spirit of adoption, you know, where a child has been forsaken by its parents
or rejected by its parents, and then someone brings that child into its home and treats
it like it was their own child.
That's a real kindness.
That's a real love that many people don't have.
And the Lord chose that to us.
Verse 12, and Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah, all that dwelled in
the house of Ziba were servants and Mephibosheth, for Mephibosheth dwelled in Jerusalem, for
he did eat continually at the king's table and was lame on both his feet.
He's always lame, he's always dependent, but then he always gets to be with the Lord, and
that's like us.
It's not like we're gonna get better on our own, we're always lame, but it's by the Lord's
grace and mercy that we just get to persist at his table.
Notice everything about God's forever, once saved, always saved.
Once a son, always a son.
Once you have a seat at the table, you always have a seat at the table.
Once you get the lands, you always have the lands.
I mean, I love the permanency of the promises of God that we don't have to worry about losing
these things, or them not being settled, it's just settled forever.
And that's why we come to church, that's why we worship the Lord, is we realize the goodness
that he's done for us.
And I pray that as we go through this week, that we'll remember all the goodness God's
done for us, so that we can do that to others, and do likewise.
Let's close in prayer, thank you Heavenly Father for your son and the gifts that he's
bestowed upon us.
Thank you for the reconciliation that we have for your son.
Not just salvation, but the fact that we get to sit at the table that we don't deserve
to sit at.
That we get to have lands that we didn't earn.
That we get to eat food that we didn't work for or deserve.
That we get to be called a son, which is a title that we don't deserve whatsoever.
I pray that we would see the kindness that you've bestowed upon us, and it would help
motivate us to show kindness to a hurting world, to a world that's lost, to a world
that's dark, to a world that's angry, to a world that's constantly being ripped off,
and stolen from, and defrauded, and lied to, and deceived, and just all manner of evil
is just happening to this world.
I pray that we can be a bright and shining light, one that shows the true mercy and loving
kindness of the Lord.
I pray that you would just bless everyone this week, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
There is coming a day when no heartache shall come.
No more clouds in the sky, no more tears to dim the eye.
All is peace forevermore on that happy golden shore.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see.
And I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace, when he takes me by the hand
and leads me through the promised land.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
There'll be no sorrow there, no more burdens to bear.
No more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there.
And forever I will be with the one who died for me.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see.
And I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace, when he takes me by the hand
and leads me through the promised land.
What a day, glorious day that will be.
God bless you all.
Thank you so much for coming.
You are dismissed.