A Picture of Grace: Mephibosheth

Again, just wanna welcome you. Those of you who don't know me, my name is Brian, lead pastor here. We're coming up very quickly on eight years that we've been meeting here in Lowertown, which is always exciting. And so before I kind of jump into the series that we've been in in the summer, this cloud of witnesses, I don't know if you noticed the signs on the door, that First Baptist is not gonna be having service in here today. So we got hours. We got no rush today. I know it's hot in here. It's okay. Just think of it as like a. You know, they do a hot yoga. We do hot, hot church. That's the same. Same thing. Anyways, I do have an update financially that I want to give you all. As I mentioned, I just want to give you specific. Some specific numbers. I was hoping to get a little bit more clarity. And so that's why I didn't give you exact numbers in the email on Wednesday, if you were looking for those. I wanted to wait to give you even more exact numbers. And so anyways, let me just say this, that our June goal, our overall budget is just over $200,000. So it's not like we have this, you know, exorbitant budget, you know, or anything like that. But we're a small church, and that's a lot of money for a small church. And so I don't want to make light of that. And so. But when we came to June, which is the last month of our fiscal year, our goal to kind of try to get us to catch up was $73,000, which is a lot of money, right? When you add up the whole year. And I. Yeah, let me. Let me just say this. So then, as of June 30, that was the last day. That was Monday. We were, Angela and I and the family. Our family. We were down in Iowa at a family camp. And that's why. I don't know if you saw the video recorded. Just, you know, the zip line is behind me. We're just at camp, and I'm recording, saying, man, we are. We're hurting. Right? We're still over $40,000 plus that still need to come in as of, like, the last day. We've got hours left. And I don't know who did it. I don't know if it was one of you or several of us or what, but about $20,000 came in just in that last couple hours, which really helped a lot. So our June goal of being $73,000 basically, $50,000 came in. Specifically, $49,838 came in in June, which is insane. $50,000. That's a quarter of our budget that came in in the month of June. And so, yes, thank you. But, man, we serve a God. And I shamefully need to confess this, because I really doubted this. I just had. I had very little faith. I mean, it was like, I know my theology's in the right place. God is good. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. God can do this. But I didn't think we would, honestly. And I was really struggling personally, and feeling like the elder brother of the prodigal son of. Hey, you're giving all these other people the fatted calf. I just want a goat. Where's my goat? We've been faithful. And I could just hear subconsciously God just saying, all that I have is yours. And I'm like, yeah, you keep saying that, but can you just show up? And he did. And so I need to confess my lack of faith in that. And I just want to take a moment and praise God, if you will let me just pray, and then we'll jump into this. Father, thank you just again for the time to gather today that you are so good to us. You showed up in a way that, shamefully, I didn't think you would, and you met needs financially for this church, for this body to continue to continue to keep meeting here in Lowertown. And just thank you for that, that you are good, that you obviously have a plan for your church and even specifically maybe for Hope Community church in Lowertown, St. Paul. And so just thank you for that. Thank you for all those who gave generously out of the goodness of their hearts, out of cheerfulness, of giving, that I pray that you would just respond and just thank you that those people have responded in a way to say, yeah, this ministry has meant enough to me. It means enough to the community and St. Paul that we want to give to that, and they have done so sacrificially. And so thank you. Yeah. Pray now that you're just your hand of blessing now in the sermon, this text, and that you'd be honored and glorified. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. All right, those of you who are visiting, I never cry. And so this is not par for the course. This is weird. Sorry if that made you uncomfortable. It won't ever happen again. I promise. Just, like, give it 10 minutes. All right. We've been in a series of cloud of witnesses in the summer, looking at kind of seemingly unknown, not unknown, but just maybe some minor characters. I think last week we looked at Jonathan, the son of Saul, that he probably was the most maybe popular character that we've really kind of looked at so far this summer. And so this idea comes from Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1. It says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, that there are people who have gone before us that have pointed us to Jesus, even if they didn't even realize they were pointing to Jesus. And that's where we've been looking at some of these characters in the Old Testament. They don't. They don't know who Jesus is. Jesus isn't born yet, but there's a Messiah. There's hope in God. There's hope in the promises and the sovereignty of God to say, hey, look at. Look at who God is. And so we've been looking at that. And so we. In verse three, we consider him, that is Jesus, who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will no longer grow weary and lose heart. So today's sermon is titled A Picture of Grace. We're going to be looking at Mephibosheth, and I'm going to have to just keep calling him Mephibosheth because there's just no good nickname for my boy Mephibi. You know, I don't know, Like, I don't know what. I don't know how to shorten that. I don't want to call him Chef. It's just a weird name, right? So we're just gonna have to stick with it. But we're gonna be looking at 2nd Samuel 9:1 through 13 and several other passages. But that's where we're gonna be last week, though. And the reason why I kind of tied it into last week is because we looked at Jonathan. And so Jonathan, if you remember, he is the son of Saul. And this image that I found of King Saul is labeled as mixed. Mixed nuts, because you just never know what you're gonna get with Saul. Is he the good guy? Is he the hero? Is he the villain? Is he trying to kill somebody? You just don't know what you're gonna get. And so he is the father, he is the king of Israel, and Jonathan is the next in line. But Saul does something priestly, something that a king shouldn't do. And God says, hey, I couldn't have made this any more explicitly clear. Kings cannot do what priests do. Priests don't do what kings do. Kings don't do what prophets do. There's no overlapping. And you have committed this sin against me. And so I'm going to remove my blessing, I'm going to remove my spirit from you. And you are no longer the house of Saul is no longer going to be a thing. Jonathan is not going to be king. But Saul remains king for a while. But then David, some unknown shepherd boy, is anointed to be king. And we see though, that David, God's anointed next king of Israel, becomes best friends with Jonathan. And that there are multiple times where Jonathan and David make a covenant, this a friend covenant between one another and their families. And specifically in 1st Samuel, chapter 20, verse 42, it says, Jonathan said to David, go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, the Lord is witness between you and me and between your descendants and my descendants forever. And there's a painting there that I have of Rembrandt's painting of Jonathan, who's in the royal robes, who's next in line to be king as far as bloodlines are concerned. David in rags, out in the wilderness, being hunted like a dog by Saul, by Jonathan's father. And Jonathan says, no, we have a covenant where we're friends and my descendants and your descendants forever. And so David leaves and Jonathan goes back to town. And so we see just this beautiful covenant friendship. Jonathan could have eliminated David and been seen as glorious in the eyes of his father. That's not what happens. Jonathan had enough theological clarity of his own situation and who God was in faith, that he was willing to give up his potential to kingdom, to see God's kingdom expanded. And why would you do that? Why would anyone set their preference aside, set who they are aside, their birthright aside? And as we see in this text, it's because of true covenantal sacrificial friendship. We saw last week that Jonathan unfortunately never sees David as king. So we read in 1st Samuel, chapter 31, the Philistines were in hot pursuit of Saul and his sons, and they killed his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab and Melikshua. And fighting grew fierce around Saul. And when the archers overtook him, they wounded him critically. So Saul dies, Jonathan dies, and now David is in line. Now that Saul is gone, David can be crowned king. So let's jump into then who is this guy Mephibosheth? As I've already mentioned, he obviously is the son of Jonathan. So if we look at 2 Samuel, chapter 4, verse 4, we're introduced to this character. It says, 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. So the news of King Saul and heir to the throne, Jonathan are killed. The nanny, the nurse, picks up Mephibosheth and flees. But as she hurried to leave, he fell and became disabled. And his name was Mephibosheth. So in this nurse's her situation, why would she flee? What is she fleeing from? Because Mephibosheth is an enemy of the state at this point. He is an heir of the king. He is part of the regime. And we see this all over the place in real history, not just movies or something where we see people that when there's a regime change or a king change, that families are just annihilated. What is the whole Anastasia story, right? Is it the Romanovs and the Bolshevik Revolution? Is that right? Or am I mixing metaphors? Okay, all right. Got some thumbs up from the nerds in the back. Thank you. No offense. No offense. It popped into my head too, so I don't know what that makes me. The ones that I have written down, though, in 1 Kings, chapter 15, we have this guy named Bashah who wipes out all of Jeroboam's descendants. And then the Next chapter in 1 Kings, chapter 6, this guy named Zimri wipes out all of Baasha's family. It's just because when you have descendants, they're a threat because they have this bloodline, this claim to the throne. We see this with the Romans, with Octavia, or Augustus kills Caesar's enemies and kills even some of his own sons. This is what some people do to that their own children are a threat to their kings, their kingdom, and so they kill their own family members. The Ottoman Empire is another aspect of this. And so Mephibosheth had every reason in this situation to expect execution. And I know he's just a child, but as he flees and he's hiding, he's in hiding. He's probably his whole life thinking, as soon as I am caught, as soon as they find out who I am, I'm dead. I'm going to be executed. And rightfully so. That's just what happens when you are a descendant of a fallen king. And so in chapter four of two Samuel, this is where David fights, or, sorry, all the way back in Samuel 1, sorry, he fights Goliath. But then we see in chapter five in Second Samuel nine, that he's declared king. And then he goes into battles. He returns the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. And he finally gets a chance to just sit down and relax. And he says, David, this is 2nd Samuel, chapter 9, verse 1. David asks, is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I came? And you'd think, historically, I'm sure, his advisors, right, the advisors to the king said, hey, King David, may you live on your throne forever. If you want to live on your throne forever, you need to annihilate the house of Saul. And he says this instead. Is there anyone still left for the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake? That is a covenant. That is a covenant made not just to Jonathan and the friendship they had, but it was so intense that he said, even to your descendants. And he holds true to that. So then we read. Let's just read the story, and then we're going to make some applications from this guy Mephibosheth. Now, there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They summoned him to appear before David. And the king said to him, are you Zibba? At your service, he replied. And the king asked, is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness? Ziba, answered the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. He is lame in both feet. Where is he? The king asked. Ziba answered, he is at the house of Machar, son of Emmiel, in Lo Debar. So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Micar, son of Amiel. When Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. And David said, mephibosheth, at your service. He replied, don't be afraid. Peace be upon you. David says to him, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan. And not just kindness. Listen to what he does here. He does far more than anyone could ever imagine or dream. He says, I will restore you all the land that belonged to your grandfather's soul, and you will always eat at my table. Mephibosheth bowed down and said, what is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me? Talk about not being invited, right? Or not feeling welcomed at a certain situation and table. This is someone who should have been annihilated and wiped off the face of the earth by all standards. And here David says, no, no, you're going to eat at my table because of a covenant that I made with your father. Might feel uncomfortable, you might not feel welcome. This is this is. You're seated at the king's table, and he recognizes that I am a dog. Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul's steward, 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 that your master's grandson may be provided for. I don't want Mesheth. He doesn't have to do anything. You serve Saul now. You serve him. And you and you are going to farm the land for him. And Mephibosheth's grandson of your master will always eat at my table. Now, Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then Ziba said to the king, your servant will do whatever the Lord, the king, commands his servants to do. So Mephibosheth ate at king's table like one of the king's sons. Mephibosheth. I can't even say it now. It's just sounding like I don't even know what I'm saying. It's this weird name. Had a young son named Micah, and all of the members of Ziba's household were servants of Mephibosheth. And that guy lived in Jerusalem because he always ate at the king's table. He was lame in both feet. And again, I think it just emphasizes that he's disabled because this. This he should. He. He could not take care of himself. And here the king says, let's sit at my table. Let me treat you like my own son. So let's make some connections in this text. You are Mephibosheth. You. Let's cross this principalizing bridge. If we can kind of take some interpretation of this text, this Old Testament text about King Saul and King David and Jonathan and Mephibosheth, and let's cross this principalizing bridge. What are some principles? And then consult the biblical roadmap to see that you and I, and how are we like Mephibosheth? This is the beauty of the cross of Jesus Christ, because he flips the world upside down. And he can take this seemingly innocuous, unknown character. And it just. It doesn't just point to Jesus. It screams and it shouts out, and it encourages us to pursue Jesus and to see who he is. And it tells us over and over that you would see Jesus, that you would see yourself in this, and you would see Jesus in this text. So what are some principles that make us exalt Jesus again from this maybe insignificant character and this cloud of witnesses? First off, you are completely helpless. We see in Luke chapter five, we're told the story of a man who's paralyzed. And Jesus is growing in fame. He's performing miracles, and he's got some friends. They. They can't get him in. There's too many people. So they lower him in through the roof of the house. And it says this in Luke chapter 5, verse 20. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, friend, your sins are forgiven. These people didn't even come for their sins to be forgiven. They came to see their friend healed. But Jesus goes a step 5,000 steps further. It doesn't say, I'm going to heal you physically. I'm going to have your sins be forgiven. In verse 21, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus knew that they were thinking and asked, why are you thinking these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say that your sins are forgiven or to say, get up and walk? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive. So he said to the paralyzed man, I tell you, get up and take your mat and go home. And immediately he stood up in front of them. He took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. He's proving, hey, I can forgive sins. They're like, that's not possible. No one can do that but God. And he's like, let me prove it by healing him. Let me do something else that only God can do. Get up and walk. This man was completely, completely unable to help himself. He was reliant on his friends, completely reliant on Christ, the same way Mephibosheth is, the same way that we are and we read in Isaiah, chapter 53. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds, we are healed. What do we need healing of? We need healing of our despair and our sin and our slavery to sin. We cannot fix ourselves. We are in need of a physician. I used this illustration nine years ago, so I think it's okay for me to use it again, because anytime I think of helplessness, I think of this, but I don't use it all the time. This is back, and maybe some of you remember this because it was awesome, but Homestar Runner. Any of you guys remember Homestar Runner? Okay. This was like when the Internet was new. Okay, so if you're a younger millennial or Gen Zer, you're like, I don't know what you're talking about. If you're a boomer, sorry to make eye contact with you or Gen Z or Gen X, you're like, I don't know what. I don't know what that is. What is the Internet. I'm just joking. I'm joking. This is Homestar Runner, though. This isn't Homestar Runner, but Homestar Runner is just this little stupid character, cartoony character. And then he had a brother, a brother, a buddy named Strongbad. And Strong Bad had this thing where he was like, I can get Homestar Runner to cry anytime I want. And what I do is I show him this picture of Lil Brudder. And Lil Brudder is a one legged dog who says, I can make it on my own in a pool of his own tears, okay? And so then obviously it makes Homestar Runner cry. Anytime I think of my weakness and despair and emptiness and death and slavery to sin, and to think, how do I get myself out of this? And not just from death to life, not just as a door from salvation, from. From. From being unsaved to saved. But I mean everything, Every sin I'm trying to fight, every. Every deed that I'm just trying to. I'm trying to work my way out of it. I can't. I think of myself as little brother, and I think as a religious person. Look at me. I can make it on my own. Little brother cannot make it on his own. He can't do it. He needs help the same way that you and I need help. We are completely helpless in fighting sin and winning victory over sin. We need Jesus. We need someone to enter into our weakness and pull us out. We are exiled. We are afraid. We are expecting judgment. We are called enemies of the King. We are at enmity with God in the same way that Mephibosheth was living in fear of judgment or death from the king. I think we also fall into this category. I've been listening to a podcast called Un Stink Undeceptions. There it is. Undeceptions. Some of you don't know, but I recently started working on my doctorate, which is cool and fun. And one of the things that I'm required to do is listen to this podcast that my professor does called Undeceptions. And in one of them, it's Medieval Jesus. How did the church view Jesus during this time period of 500 AD to about 1500 before the Reformation? And they had these Paintings called, like doom paintings, right? And this was just God, just angry and mad and casting people into hell. It's how we feel. And for far too long, I felt that guilt and shame of my sin, or thinking, I'm really good and I'm religious. But then when I said, oh, man, God must hate me now, That's. That's. This is what we are. We are in exile. We're afraid, expecting judgment. But then as we go back to even the first character that we looked at of Hagar, that she says, you are the God who sees. And there was this moment I remember just feeling seen that he made eye contact with me. And the Son of God filled my heart with his spirit and set me free from fear, rescued me from exile and delivered me from judgment. And so I can glorify him. Why? Because of Jesus. It's got nothing to do with me. We see this in Luke, chapter two. This is the Christmas story. And there were shepherds living out in the fields, thereby keeping their watch over the flocks by night. And an angel, the Lord appeared to them and. And the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And they were terrified. They were afraid. They were expecting judgment. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. Peace be unto you. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. We see Jesus saying the same thing in John, chapter 14, verse 27. Peace, I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. Those of you who grew up Catholic, or if you've ever attended a Catholic mass, they do this thing where the priest will say, peace be to you, and then the people will respond, all the Catholics, and also with you. Right? Why is that? Why do they do that? What is part of that liturgy? It comes from John, chapter 20. The very first thing Jesus does when he rises from the grave, God raises him from the dead. God raised Jesus from the dead. Someone who is crucified, who is supposed to be annihilated from the history books, is raised from the dead. And the first thing he does when he goes to his disciples, which they're all freaking out in the upper room. I think he probably did it in a joking way. He probably snuck up right behind him. They're all kind of afraid, and he just goes, peace. Right? What's that about? No, I'm just joking. That would Be antithetical, right? But he says, on that day, on that evening, the first day of the week, when the disciples were together and the doors were locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came, stood among them and said, peace be with you. Those are the first words that Jesus says. We are in exile, afraid, expecting, deserving of judgment. But Jesus shows up and says, no, no, no. No more of that peace because of me and what I have done. Third point. You are seated at the table. This is wild. This is wild when it comes to Mephibosheth. This is wild when it comes to us, because we aren't just saved. God just doesn't say, okay, all right, fine. You know what? I will allow you to not have to go to hell. I will allow you just to be saved. He says, I want you in my presence. And the same way that David says in chapter six, second Samuel, nine, 11, I want you to sit at my table like one of my sons, like one of my daughters. You are seated at this table with me. I mentioned this painting earlier from Rembrandt of Jonathan and embracing King David. There's also another painting by Rembrandt there of the prodigal son being embraced by the father as the elder brother looks on. This is an embrace by the Father that says, you were dead and now you're alive. You were lost, but now you're found. You are my beloved son. You are my beloved daughter. I see you in the same way. A covenant that David makes with Jonathan. And he is embraced unworthily. Unworthily. We, too, as the prodigal, as the wayward child, are embraced by the Father and seated at the table because of a covenant that Jesus establishes by his blood. By his blood, undeserved grace and mercy. Looking at Luke chapter 14, it says this. There's this big wedding feast. Jesus is telling this parable, and he says, right now there's not just the people that are worthy of seating at my table, not just my physical descendants, but everybody. He says, go and invite people to the wedding feast. And the servants come back and they report this to the Master. The owner of the house became angry. He says, nobody wants to come. All the people that were directly invited, they don't want to come. The owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, go out quickly to the streets and the alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Sir, the servant said, what you have ordered has been done, but there is still room. Then the master told his servant, go out to the roads and the country lanes and compel them to come in so that my house will be full. I tell you, not one of those who are invited will get to taste my banquet. Go to all who are willing to listen. Go to the lame, the crippled, the poor, the blind. Go to the outsider, the one who doesn't think they're invited to the party, the one who feels like there's no way I would be invited to that party to sit next to that God, to that king at that table. There's not a chance. Jesus says, welcome because of me. Going back to again that first week of Hagar that he she names God. First one to give a name to God says, you are the God who sees. I've been doing a lot of reading recently, just kind of with my brother on the side. And recently was reading a book by a guy named Ian Matthew. I've got the footnote in a minute. I forget the name of the actual book, but he's writing a commentary on this guy named St. John of the Cross from about the 1600s. He wrote what's called the Dark Night of the Soul. And a couple weeks ago, I was at football camp with Henry and I was sitting there and there's a neighbor kid who was there, and he comes running by and I've got my Kindle out, and he goes, oh, what you reading? I was like, ah, it's a commentary on St. John of the Cross as Dark Night of the Soul. Just some. Okay, moving on. Just go play football. All right. It's a little awkward, right? But I want to read a little bit of this because I think it ties into this idea of you are a God who sees that. I feel like an outcast. I don't feel welcome. I feel like I'm in fear or in danger. And as I was reading this, it just was connecting just even a few weeks ago, before I was even knew I was going to be doing Mephibosheth this morning. This is from Ian Matthew, and you'll kind of see some minor quotes in there from St. John of the Cross says this. So the guy, he's talking about the phrase that St. John of the Cross says this. The gospel has eyes. The eyes I long for. So the gospel has eyes which are not dispassionate nor merely passive. Their gaze is. Is not an art gallery gaze. Wandering from exhibit to exhibit and leaving what they see obviously unchanged. Their gaze changes what they see and affects it. I just love that language, that the gaze of the Gospel sees it and affects it. And Hagar saying, you are the God who sees Jonathan and Mephibosheth, you see me. These eyes are effective. God's gaze works for blessings in the soul. It cleanses the person, makes her beautiful, enriches and enlightens her. John says that when the Father gazes, he gazes through his Son. The Son is his face smiling upon the world. God saw that they were good, which was to make them good by seeing them in his Son. Creation has a sun like color, so British way of spelling color. A sun like shape which the sun alone could fill his eyes could not. Hold us in being, they hold us in friendship. Not only hold us in being, they hold us in friendship. A friendship made possible when he meets us with human eyes, humanity is enlightened. When the Son becomes flesh, looks at us, draws us out of ourselves, raises us up to himself. In this, the whole cosmos is renewed. Name that book, Impact of God by Ian Matthew. There. This is a God who sees. There's a gospel that sees you. There's a gospel that gazes at you and wants to transform you. So in gospel application, do you humbly see yourself as Mephibosheth, as an outcast, or as someone who deserves the love of the Father? And that could be kind of a double wave. So I'm like, oh no, yeah, look, I'm a good person, I deserve the love of the Father. Or is it no because of the sacrifice of Christ and he has bestowed that love on me. I deserve it not because of what I have done, but because of what Christ has done. Do you see yourself as poor and crippled, blind and lame and not just physical here this is spiritually, or are you an outsider looking in? There's no way God would ever let me in. There's no way God would love me and embrace me like a father. Jesus tells us that a physician doesn't need to heal the healthy. We have to view ourselves as unhealthy. And even those of us who have been followers of Jesus for a long time, to be renewed and be washed in that covenant blood of Jesus and that friendship and be seen by God afresh and anew and embraced by the love of the Father. This is not just a one time thing. Maybe just a few practical areas, like, right, okay, cool, this is Mephibosheth and I see myself in him and that's the gospel. And that Jesus sees me. That's great. Whatever. Maybe it's just some practical things. I don't even really do this this often, but I thought maybe this morning we would. One is Practice unreasonable kindness. Do the same as David. Live the way Jesus did. And again, this isn't because of. I have to, right? Oh, well, yeah. Jesus did this and Jonathan did this and David did this. So now I have to do it. I just gotta. Gotta go along with this even when I don't want to or I'm not feeling like it. No, we get to do this because we are recipients of unreasonable kindness. Second thing is keep your promises. Be a person of your word. Be it to your friends or to your family, to the church, whatever it may be to say if I'm gonna do it, if I'm gonna show up. It's just something culturally there is. It is one of the greatest feelings in the world to cancel plans on somebody. You know what I'm saying? I mean, it is a gift from God. Don't do that, right? If you say you're going to do something that doesn't make any sense, it was a gift from God, don't do that. You know what I'm trying to say? It feels good when you cancel plans last minute. If we say we're going to do something, let's do it. Keep our promises. Third, make space for the overlooked and marginalized. Is there someone who you would say that person or that type of person is not welcome in my house, is not welcome to eat at my table? Because that's you. That's me. We are not able to sit with God except by his good grace and mercy. Is there someone that we would say, I don't think I could do that. Pray. Let's repent of that fourth one. Let's sit at that table with gratitude and a heart full of joy again. Because God wants you at that table. That is mind boggling again. He doesn't just save you and say, yeah, go do your thing. Leave me alone. You cost me the death and the life of my son. Now get out of here. He says, no, no, no, no. He died so that you could be brought in. Aaron's gonna come back up and sing a few more songs and we're gonna have a time of communion like we do every week here at Lowertown. And we get to celebrate that covenantal friendship and blood of a Jesus who sees us and whose gospel sees who we are and makes us new. And we get to take the bread that represents the body of Christ that was broken for us, the juice that represents his blood, of his covenant that was renewed for us. His sacrificial life and friendship and brotherhood for those who are undeserving. You don't need to be a member of this church or any church, but if you're a follower of King Jesus, you're like, yeah, I love that Jesus. He's so good to me and I don't deserve it, but I want to worship him. Would love for you to take these elements with us. There's a gluten free option here on the left side if that is a dietary restriction. And Aaron will sing two songs. So just feel the grab those as you see fit and just praise God and worship. I pray that this kind of sermon would just point us to just see Jesus and to worship him new and fresh this morning as we take these elements to remember that covenantal blood and friendship that we have in Christ. Let me pray. Father, thank you for our time again just to be here this morning that we get to look at this guy, Mephibosheth, this guy, this individual who could not help themselves, who should have been exiled and killed, cast out, but is redeemed by David because of his covenant relationship with Jonathan. That we too, because of our covenant relationship with Christ and his blood, that we can now be seated at the table and that we would take the truths and the principles here from this story and apply them now in our own lives. That we would treat others who we might think, oh, those people are not invited to this party. I am now in. I'm one of the in crowd and I don't want that kind of person seated at this table. I don't want them being part of my community. Would that just be anathema to us? Would we just abhor that way of thinking and invite anyone who is wanting and willing to be part of the grace of God to be seated at that table? That we'd be people of our word, the way you have been and that we now see you because you see us and that enables us and allows us and emboldens us to want to be able to serve you and glorify you. We love you and it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.