This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is our last day, day five of week seven of our look through 1st and 2nd
Samuel. We started the story of Mephibosheph yesterday and found that David
brought this relative of Saul into his household, this grandson of Saul, and
instead of killing him, as most kings would have done in that day, instead of
killing him, he blessed him. He showed him grace.

He said, "I want you to sit at my table. " Now today, we're going to hear and
we're going to skip through the rest of 2nd Samuel, not go to the next chapter.
In this case, we're going to skip through several chapters to hear the rest of
the story of Mephibosheph because it's one of the great examples of our response
to God's grace in all of the Bible.

As you continue to walk through 2nd Samuel, we're going to find in a few
chapters that David is going to be chased from Jerusalem by one of his sons. And
when that happens, listen to what happens to Mephibosheph, 2nd Samuel 16, 1-4.
When David had gone a short distance beyond the summit, there was Zeba, the
steward of Mephibosheph, waiting to meet him.

He had a string of donkeys saddled and loaded with two hundred loaves of bread
and a hundred cakes of raisins, a hundred cakes of figs, and a skin of wine. The
king asked Zeba, "Why have you brought these? " Zeba answered, "The donkeys are
for the king's household to ride on.

The bread and fruit are for the men to eat, and the wine is to refresh those who
have become exhausted in the desert. " The king then asked, "Where is your
master's grandson? " Zeba said to him, "He's staying in Jerusalem because he
thinks today the house of Israel will give me back my grandfather's kingdom.

" Then the king said to Zeba, "All that belonged to Mephibosheph is now yours. "
"I humbly bow," Zeba said. "May I find favor in your eyes, my lord the king.

" So here is Mephibosheph seemingly staying in Jerusalem when David is chased
out, still thinking, even though David has shown him all this grace, still
thinking, "I'm going to get the kingdom back from David. " That's how it seems
as you read this. For many, many years I used to think that that was the story
of Mephibosheph, but then I looked more closely and I found 2 Samuel chapter 19.

If you look closely here, you see the clues, you see that that's not the story
at all. In fact, Zeba, this servant of Mephibosheph, is the one who's lying
here. The one who's doing evil here.

Listen to what happens in 2 Samuel chapter 19 verses 24 to 30 when David returns
to Jerusalem from this time of exile. Verse 24, "Mephibosheph, Saul's grandson,
also went down to meet the king. He had not taken care of his feet or trimmed
his mustache or washed his clothes from the day the king left until the day he
returned safely.

When he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, the king asked him, 'Why didn't
you go with me, Mephibosheph? ' He said, 'My lord the king, since I, your
servant, am lame, I said I will have my donkey saddled and I will ride on it so
I can go with the king. But Zeba, my servant, betrayed me, and he has slandered
your servant to my lord the king.

My lord the king is like an angel of God, so do whatever pleases you. All my
grandfather's descendants deserve nothing but death from the lord the king, but
you have given your servant a place among those who sit at your table. So what
right do I have to make any more appeals to the king?

' The king said to him, 'Why say more? I order you and Zeba to divide the
fields. ' Mephibosheph said to the king, 'Let him take everything, now that my
lord the king has arrived home safely.

'" These verses, there are some great lessons of grace in these verses. First,
who was telling the truth? I think Mephibosheph.

The clue here is he hadn't washed his clothes since David left. He hadn't
shaved, he hadn't trimmed his mustache since David left. He'd been grieving
since the day that David left.

If he wanted to become the king, he would have been plotting, not grieving. But
David doesn't know maybe all that we read here. He doesn't understand all that
had happened, so he decides to immediately divide the field between Mephibosheph
and Zeba.

And then the most amazing thing happens. Mephibosheph says, "Let him have the
land. It's more than enough for me to be able to welcome you home.

It's more than enough for me to be able to sit at your table. " This is the
different perspective of grace. Mephibosheph doesn't focus on the land that he's
lost.

He focuses on the table that he's sitting at. Essentially, what he's saying here
is, "I don't care about the land. I'm grateful to be sitting at your table.

" What a truth, what an example for us. I don't care about the land, the thing
that I've lost in this world, the thing I should have had in this world, the
thing that somebody took from me in this world. I don't care so much about the
land as I care about the table, the fact that I'm going to sit at the banquet
table of Jesus forever and ever and ever.

The question is, am I focused on the land or am I focused on the table? Am I
focused on the losses of this world? And you're going to have them because it's
a sinful world.

Or am I focused on the grace of God? That banquet table of Jesus that I'm going
to be at forever and ever and ever. And Mephibosheph responds to the grace that
was shown him by prioritizing the grace that was shown him.

This is the different perspective of grace. I deserve death, but I've been given
life in Jesus. And through this life, the truth is, people are going to cheat me
of things.

Life is not going to go as I expected, and many times it's going to be other
people's fault, things that they have done. I can point to myself most of the
time, but other times it's just plain going to be their fault. They took my
land.

And the question is, am I going to focus on them or will I focus on the life
that I've been given in Jesus? Am I going to let the land that they took steal
from me, the joy that I should have in Christ? It happens all the time.

It's the easiest thing to happen because it's so clear that they took the land
and it's so wrong that they took the land. No matter what's taken from you in
this life, even if someone takes your life, it cannot take away from you the
banquet table of Jesus. It cannot take away from you the grace that's been given
to you in Jesus.

As I read through this story, the question comes to my mind, what's more
important to me right now, the land or sitting at his table? I know what the
right answer should be, but I also know how a sense of being taken advantage of
or a justice that should be done on the behalf of another, it can rise up within
you and it can cause you to focus on the land for the rest of your life. I'm not
saying that we should not stand up for the rights of the poor.

I'm not saying that we should not stand up for our rights when something has
been taken, but standing up for your rights and focusing, prioritizing only
those rights over that land. Those are two different things. Is it wrong to have
the land?

No. To use the land for God's work? No.

To even fight for the land sometimes? No. What's wrong is focusing on the land
that you don't have.

Focusing on some land that's been taken away from you, something that's been
taken away from you so much that it causes you to miss the grace of God in your
life. Miss the number one gift in your life. The only thing that's going to last
into eternity, you're rescued from death.

You're sitting at the king's table. Never lose sight of that. Mephibosheth just
keeps continuing to experience this grace, this grace, this grace, all the way
towards the end of the book.

And at the end of the book of 2 Samuel, the Gibeonites asked for some of Saul's
family to face punishment for what had been done to them by Saul. We'll get to
that story later, but here's what happens with Mephibosheth in this story. 2
Samuel 21, 7.

The king spared Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the
oath before the Lord between David and Jonathan, son of Saul. Because of the
oath that had been given, even though some others in Saul's family faced
punishment that day, Mephibosheth did not. God's made an oath to you.

He's made a commitment to you through the death of Christ on the cross and your
receiving of that gift. He's made a promise to you. And no matter what anyone
else does to you or does not do for you in this life, God will remember his
promise to you.

God's oath to you will be remembered. His promise to you will be remembered all
the way into eternity. So I don't know if this week or this month, this year,
this life, you've just seen the losses pile up and pile up and pile up.

I want to tell you from this story of Mephibosheth, it's a reminder to us that
those losses are nothing compared to the life that you've been given in Christ.
What's been taken from you in this world, what you've lost in this world is
nothing compared to the banquet table of God that you sit at now in a way by
experiencing the presence of Jesus, but that you will experience fully all
throughout eternity in heaven. That's what we focus on.

So let's focus on it together right now in prayer. Lord, you know our hearts.
You know how easy it is to focus on things that we've lost, things that haven't
worked out.

And you tell us to bring our disappointments to you, and we do bring them to
you, but Lord, we don't want to live there. We don't want to stay there. We want
to stay.

We want to live in the place of your grace. And the truth is, we've been given
life in Jesus. We sit at your banqueting table.

Help us to sense right now that we're sitting there in your presence, enjoying
your blessings in this world, the blessing of your presence, of your love, of
your grace, your forgiveness, and looking forward to your eternal blessings in
your presence forever. Right now, in our mind, in our heart, help us to sense
that that's where we sit, and that because of what Jesus has done, we're never
going to be chased from that table. That's the place you've invited us to be,
and that's the place you've promised for us to be, and you will keep your
promise.

We thank you for this, Father. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, join us next week.

In a sense, there are two great ands in David's life, one a success, the other a
failure. If I say David and, what do you think? Some would say the success,
David and Goliath.

Well, next week, we're going to look at the failure, David and Bathsheba, and
how God worked in David's life, and David trusted God even through the failures
of life. We'll see you next week.