Take Your Seat
Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 26:57
0 ratings
· 223 viewsFiles
Notes
Transcript
Life Groups start the week of May 24th, sign up sheet to join is in the back. Thank you to those who have already joined life group via the online form. Also thank you to those who are willing to host/facilitate a life group. 6 weeks ending the week of June 29th.
Take Your Seat
Take Your Seat
Bo had a lot going on in life.
His legs were lame. That’s not a very significant thing today. But back then, it was. It shaped everything about Bo’s life. He didn’t have a job, occasionally he got some money from strangers when he ask for it, some people call it begging. He lived with some distant relatives that he barely knew, well that’s not totally true. He knew them very well, now. Especially since he had lived with them since he was about five years old. They had pity on him and took him in. The lame boy with no future.
Yep, Bo had a lot going on in life.
He had been uber wealthy at one time, not him really. His parents. Disgustingly wealthy. But they were dead. Killed tragically just before the country fell into civil war.
Bo had stood to inherit it all, all the filthy money that a person could stand. But he never saw a single dime of it.
It was all in the hands of his father’s best friend. A family friend that would most definitely kill Bo if he ever knew he was alive.
You might think that it was going bad for Bo. But you’d be wrong. It was going very good. He had beat the odds, anytime you beat the odds it’s going good.
He’d managed to stay hidden in plain sight and alive under his new identity from the age of five until adulthood. Sure he was broke, depending on family and lame in his legs with not a single opportunity for a decent life. But he was alive. That’s something. It might not be living the great life, but it’s living. Bo was satisfied with that.
At least he was, until a former employee of his grandfather ratted him out. Now his dad’s best friend had invited him to come to his house. So there was Bo, leaning on his crutch standing on the front porch waiting for the door to open to his dad’s best friend’s home, a huge home, a palace of a home that belonged to the man that had taken over his families wealth and would most likely kill him.
Stack on top of the complicated history the fact that this particular family friend hated people who were lame or blind. This meeting would not bode well for him.
Sometimes life surprises you. Sometimes the poor lame man that has been in hiding is invited out of hiding. Sometimes the poor lame man is ask to eat every meal at a table with a king who hates the sight of lame men. Sometimes the poor lame man has the wealth of his family restored to him by the king that hates poor lame men.
Sometimes the expected, logical outcome is not what happens at all.
It was common and expected that a new king would solidify his authority by killing any and all competitors who could claim the throne. But David was a different kind, a Christ like kind. So when David initiated an investigation to find the kinfolk of Saul, he did it with the purpose of being kind to them.
3 Then the king said, “Is there not still someone of the house of Saul, to whom I may show the kindness of God?” And Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet.”
He was the grandson of King Saul. In direct line of inheriting the throne that David now occupied.
He was a lame man. A condition that kept him from ever sitting on the throne. A condition despised by David.
8 Now David said on that day, “Whoever climbs up by way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites (the lame and the blind, who are hated by David’s soul), he shall be chief and captain.” Therefore they say, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.”
David would not even let the lame come into his house. So it is a halting thing to consider that David would ignore his own displeasure to have this lame Mephibosheth come into his house.
6 Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, had come to David, he fell on his face and prostrated himself. Then David said, “Mephibosheth?” And he answered, “Here is your servant!”
7 So David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather; and you shall eat bread at my table continually.”
8 Then he bowed himself, and said, “What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?”
Not only did David ignore his own disgust and displeasure of being in the presence of this lame man, but he would endure it daily by offering Mephibosheth, lame in both feet a permanent seat at his table.
It is a beautiful picture of our coming to God.
He invites.
We come wounded, broken, lame, and poor. We come in sin. We come in a condition He hates.
But instead of death, He offers hope. Instead of despair, He offers peace. In place of our brokenness, He restores.
He makes open His table. He offers a seat at the throne.
2 Samuel 9:11 says that Mephibosheth shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.
11 Then Ziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king has commanded his servant, so will your servant do.” “As for Mephibosheth,” said the king, “he shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.”
The lame man who’s condition kept him from the throne is now going to be treated as one of the king’s sons. This picture of redemption Jesus offers to us.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Such great lengths the Lord will go to redeem us that he doesn’t just invite us to Him but He is willing to come to where we are.
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
He makes up the difference where we cannot.
Mephibosheth is still lame. It doesn’t matter if he has Saul’s land restored to him or if he can come to David’s table for every meal. Mephibosheth would still be dependent on his family members that he had been living with.
9 And the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “I have given to your master’s son all that belonged to Saul and to all his house.
10 You therefore, and your sons and your servants, shall work the land for him, and you shall bring in the harvest, that your master’s son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth your master’s son shall eat bread at my table always.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
David uses his authority to make Mephibosheth independent.
I have found that the Lord makes up the difference for our shortcomings. He gives us an inheritance and gives us power to overcome.
Altar music
2 Samuel 9:12-13 give us a glimpse of the future for Mephibosheth.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micha. And all who dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants of Mephibosheth.
As best as I can understand the name Mephibosheth means “one who scatters shame” or “out of the mouth of shame”, now welcome at the King’s table the man of shame has a future, a son, and names him Micha “Who is like Jehovah” or “Who is like the Lord?” Quite a difference from the name given Mephibosheth, a difference that shows the change God can make in a persons life.
The one who scattered shame, now directed attention to the Lord.
13 So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king’s table. And he was lame in both his feet.
He ate continually at the king’s table.
Every time Mephibosheth sits at David’s table, the thing that everyone notices first. The mark on his life. The lameness from his childhood. When you sit at the King’s table the thing you would go back in time and undo is hidden from view.
The one who had kept hidden, because he was willing to come at the king’s call now had restoration and acceptance.
I speak to someone today that you have been as Mephibosheth, broken, in poverty of spirit, wounded from a young age, now hiding in plain sight running from the search of the King. Afraid at the outcome, afraid at falling short again. But Jesus is inviting you to come in your lameness.
If you stay hidden you will never know the great blessings He has for you.
If you stay in hiding you will never know the restoration He has for you.
If you keep your sin hidden you will never know what deliverance He has for you.
Hiding from Him you can’t experience the hope, healing, and peace He offers.