This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to day four of week seven of our look through first and second Samuel.
We're going to look at second Samuel chapter nine today. We've seen David as a
warrior.

We've seen David as a king. We've seen David in victory and battle. We see a
different side of David in what happens in second Samuel chapter nine.

Let me read for you the story of what happened. Chapter nine verse one, David
asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show
kindness for Jonathan's sake? " Now, there was a servant of Saul's household
named Zeba.

They called him to appear before David and the king said to him, "Are you Zeba?
Your servant? " He replied.

The king asked, "Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can
show God's kindness? " Zeba answered the king, "There's still a son of Jonathan.
He's crippled in both feet.

" "Where is he? " the king asked. Zeba answered, "He's at the house of Makir,
son of Amiel of Lodabar.

" So King David had him brought up from Lodabar, from the household of Makir,
son of Amiel, and when Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to
David, he bowed down to pay him honor. David said, "Mephibosheth, your servant,"
he replied. "Don't be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you
kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan.

I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather, Saul, and
you will always eat at my table. " Mephibosheth bowed and said, "What is your
servant that you should notice a dead dog like me? " Then the king summoned
Zeba, Saul's servant, and said to him, "I have given your master's grandson
everything that belonged to Saul and his family.

You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in
the crops so that your master's grandson may be provided for. Then Mephibosheth,
grandson of your master, will always eat at my table. " Now Zeba had 15 sons and
20 servants.

Then Zeba said to the king, "Your servant will do whatever my lord the king
commands his servant to do. " So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of
the king's sons. Mephibosheth had a young son named Micah, and all the members
of Zeba's household were servants of Mephibosheth.

And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem because he always ate at the king's table,
and he was crippled in both feet. And by the way, how is he crippled in both
feet? Well you go back to 2 Samuel chapter 4 verse 4 and you find out.

It says there, "Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in both feet. He was
five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His
nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became
crippled.

His name was Mephibosheth. " Now first of all, let me just say, as you study
through 1 and 2 Samuel, you run into these Ishbosheths and Mephibosheths.
There's a lot of names in here that aren't our kind of names, but they're the
names of those people that lived then.

And this name, Mephibosheth, lives forever as a story of grace. Why did this
nurse pick this young boy up and run out of the house so fast that she fell and
he was crippled? Because in that day, if you were part of the family of the
previous kingdom and a new king came in, you were killed.

What would usually happen was you were killed. That's why Mephibosheth was so
terrified when David brought him before him because he thought he was going to
be killed. But instead, David chose him kindness.

We've walked through what it means for David to be a man after God's own heart,
and we've seen that it's because he had a heart full of faith, the kind of faith
that could slay a Goliath. It's also because he had a heart full of submission,
the kind of heart that could submit to Saul all of those years when he was doing
all those crazy things. But David, a man after God's own heart, it's also seen
in that he had a heart of compassion, the compassion that could bless, show
grace to a Mephibosheth.

No one else would have shown this kind of grace, but David looked to show this
kind of grace. When you and I look at this action that David took this day, this
action of compassion, this action of kindness, one of the questions that should
come to my mind, your mind, is who needs my kindness today? David is king, yet
he still takes time to show compassion.

You're never too important to stop showing compassion. You're never too busy to
stop showing compassion. Sometimes when we feel too busy, compassion goes right
out the window.

Often it does. And when it does, you realize something's wrong in my life,
because God has created us to show compassion, that the Bible commands us to be
compassionate to one another. The second commandment is love your neighbor as
yourself.

Show love to everyone who's around you. How do you show compassion? Let's just
think about that for a minute before we look at Mephibosheth a little bit more.

How are you going to show compassion today? Let me give you five ways, five
words that start with S. Be sensitive, be supportive, be sympathetic, be
straightforward, be spontaneous.

Thanks to Pastor Rick Warren for these five ways. Number one, be sensitive. Be
sensitive.

That means you're looking, you're listening for people's hurts. So often we run
through life so fast, all we notice are our own hurts. But the truth is,
everyone you meet today is hurting in some way.

And when you're sensitive to those hurts, you have an opportunity to show
compassion just in the moment, just to stop long enough, or to look in their
eyes long enough to say, "I'm praying for you. I care about you. " Be sensitive
to other people's needs.

You walk by somebody, you say, "How are you doing today? " They say, "I'm fine.
" "How are you doing today?

" They say, "I'm fine. " Walk by the next person, "How are you doing today? "
"Well, okay.

" Be sensitive to that moment. "What do you mean, okay? How can I pray for you?

" Because you know something's going on in their life. Be sensitive. To show
compassion, you also have to be supportive.

You can be supportive in a lot of ways, but one of the strongest ways is with
your words. You can show kindness and compassion to others through the kinds of
words that you share with them. Words not that tear down.

We hear enough of those kinds of words in this world, but words that build them
up. God is at work in your life. God does care about you.

God loves you. God has a plan and he has a purpose for your life. Be supportive
with your words towards other people.

It'll shock people many times because you don't hear people talking like that
often enough. Be sensitive. Be supportive.

Be sympathetic. Be sympathetic with your feelings. Feel along with people the
hurt that they're facing as you pray with them, as you put your arm around them,
as you let them know that you're caring for them.

Be sympathetic towards what they're going through in that moment. Compassion
means not only that somebody says the right things, but I sense from them that
they're feeling along with me the hurt that I'm facing in life. Be sympathetic.

The fifth way to show compassion, to show kindness, is to be straightforward. I
talked a moment ago about being supportive with your words. That doesn't always
mean that you say really nicey-nice things.

Sometimes being supportive with your words is in a kind way saying the truth to
someone. We've got this epidemic of being so nice with our words that we can't
say the truth to someone. Their life has fallen apart, but we can't recognize
that their life has fallen apart.

There is some truth they need to hear, but we can't say the truth that they need
to hear. They're running away from God, but you can't say in just a kind way,
"When are you going to realize it? You don't have to run from God.

He's the one who loves you. He's the one who's inviting you in. You don't have
to be judgmental in being straightforward.

You can be loving and being straightforward and still say the truth. People need
to hear the truth in a supportive, encouraging way. It's one of the great things
we miss in this world today.

It's kindness. It's compassion. And then the fifth word is be spontaneous.

You can't always plan your kindness. Now David here planned to be kind. You need
to plan it sometimes, no doubt about that, but sometimes you just run into it
and you have to stop and you have to spend some time with that person.

It might be just a minute. It might be an hour. In some cases it might mean you
change all your plans and you spend that day.

In order to show compassion, kindness, you have to be spontaneous. If you look
at the ministry of Jesus, most all of his compassion was shown when he was
spontaneous, when he stopped in the moment to heal someone, to speak to someone.
Who can you be compassionate to today?

Where can you show kindness today? Like King David showed kindness to
Mephibosheth. Now Mephibosheth, he's a picture of kindness, but there's
something deeper here.

Many many teachers of the Bible see a picture of our salvation through Jesus and
David's actions towards Mephibosheth. David is a type, he's a forerunner of
Christ, he pictures for us many of the things that Jesus is going to do for us
someday. He's not perfect, he's not Jesus, but he is a picture many times.

And here you see in Mephibosheth the truth about us. Here is one who's fallen
and crippled. And he's living on the outskirts of Israel, hiding, waiting his
death someday.

And he's brought in before the king. And instead of being given judgment, he's
given grace. He's given the grace of the king.

He's invited to sit at the king's table. This is the same thing as every one of
us. We're fallen, we're crippled.

Every one of us is crippled in some ways, not physically maybe, but emotionally
and certainly spiritually. We're separated from God. And God could bring us in
and simply judge all of us and end it all, but he does not.

Because of the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, he invites us in and
he says, "You don't have to live on the outskirts anymore, you don't have to
live in hiding anymore from me. I invite you to come and sit at my table, I
invite you to experience my grace. " And you can walk away from that and miss
out on that, or you can come in with open arms and sit at the king's table.

The Bible is saying here that God comes to all of us. We're all broken, we're
all crippled in some way. And God says, "I want to bring you into my family.

I want you to sit at my table. I want to treat you like royalty as one of my own
sons, one of my own daughters, simply out of grace. " Have you received that
grace, that invitation of forgiveness and life in Christ?

If not, you can receive it right now. This old story of Mephibosheth can be a
story that leads you to that place of realizing who Jesus really is. You receive
his grace by saying, "Yes, yes, Jesus, I will sit at your table.

Yes, Jesus, I am grateful for your forgiveness. Yes, Jesus, I want to live the
life you've given me to live. Yes, I trust in you, I trust in you.

Thank you for your grace. In your name, amen. " Tomorrow, we're going to learn
more about grace from this man, Mephibosheth.