Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

If you have your Bible, I want you to go with me to 2 Samuel chapter 9.

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

2 Samuel chapter 9.

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

We're going to begin at verse 1, and uh this is really one of my favorite stories in all of the Bible.

And you'll you'll understand why here in a moment.

This is 2 Samuel chapter 9, beginning at verse 1.

2 Samuel 9 · chapter mention

Scripture says, one day David asked, Is anyone in Saul's family still alive, anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?

Now let me pause right there just to remind you, Saul was the first king of Israel.

And Saul was disobedient, and he also disliked David.

In fact, there were multiple times where Saul tried to kill David, okay?

But but Saul had a son named Jonathan, and Jonathan and David were really close friends.

And so the Bible tells us in 1 Samuel chapter 20 about a conversation that David and Jonathan have.

1 Samuel 20 · chapter mention

Jonathan understands that at some point David is going to be the king.

And so he he says to David, he says, When you become king, will you show kindness to me?

Or if I'm dead, will you show kindness to my family?

And so David says, Yes, I will.

And at that moment, they essentially have a covenant of kindness.

And so this is the promise that David is remembering.

So verse 2, it says, He summoned a man named Zeba, who had been one of Saul's servants.

Are you Zeba?

The king asked.

Yes, sir, I am, Zeba replied.

The king then asked him, Is anyone still alive from Saul's family?

If so, I want to show God's kindness to him.

The word kindness there is the Hebrew word chassed, and it means faithful love, or there's a sense of steadfast loving kindness.

In other words, it's extravagant kindness.

He says, All right, I want to show them extravagant kindness.

Zeba replied, Yes, one of Jonathan's sons is still alive.

He is crippled in both feet.

Where is he?

The king asked.

In Lodabar, Ziba told him, at the home of Maker's son of Emil.

So David sent for him and brought him from Maker's home.

His name was Mephibosheth.

Everybody say Mephibosheth.

Say it again, say Mephibosheth.

I'm going to say that name multiple times in this message, and I just wanted you to see how hard it was before you judged me.

His name's Mephibosheth, which by the way means dispeller of shame or out of the mouth of shame.

His name is associated with shame.

He says, His name is Mephibosheth.

He was Jonathan's son and Saul's grandson.

When he came to David, he bowed low to the ground in deep respect.

David said, Greetings, Mephibosheth.

Mephibosheth replied, I am your servant.

David says in verse 7, Don't be afraid, David said, I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father Jonathan.

I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king's table.

Let me skip down to the latter part of verse 11.

And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly at David's table, like one of the king's own sons.

Mephibosheth had a young son named Micah.

From then on, all the members of Zeba's household were Mephibosheth's servants.

And Mephibosheth, who was crippled in both feet, lived in Jerusalem and ate regularly at the king's table.

The title of the message today is Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?

I'll never forget it was a Monday earlier this year.

I was beginning my last semester at the Kings University.

Shout out to the Kings.

And unfortunately, on that particular day, I wasn't feeling very well, and we actually had an all-day lecture.

And so instead of going in person, I reached out to my professor to let him know that I wasn't feeling well, but I would join via Zoom.

And it just so happened that several of us weren't able to attend in person, and so about half the class was on the Zoom call, and half the class were there in the classroom.

And honestly, I did pretty well until after lunch.

I just I wasn't feeling great after lunch, and so I had this thought.

I thought, you know what?

I want to take a shower.

I want to take a shower.

Showers make me feel better.

I'm gonna take a shower.

But then I had another thought.

I thought, you know what?

I'm a good committed student.

So, so I'm going to take my laptop into the bathroom with me because I want to continue to listen to my professor because I'm committed.

So, so I turned off my video, I muted the volume, and I took my laptop from the bedroom into the bathroom and I set it up on the edge of my shower so that as I showered, I could see the video.

Some of you know where this is going.

So, so I get into the shower and I go to work, y'all.

I mean, I'm scrub a dub dub and so fresh and so clean, clean, like this is happening.

And I do this for about five minutes.

And then my professor says something, and I think, I want to go see what he's talking about.

And so I walk over and I look at the computer screen and I have this thought.

In fact, it was a question that I begin to grapple with.

And here was the question.

When I looked at the computer screen, I thought to myself, is that my belly on the screen right now?

Is that my belly?

True, true story, true story.

Uh, I found out later from some of my classmates, uh, thanks be to God, that what they kept seeing on the screen was my belly come in and out the screen, in and out the screen.

I'm so thankful that was all they saw.

But but then but then after I realized that, I was horrified because I remembered that my wife had been feeding me a steady diet of crumble cookies and drinking Sprite, and and I just thought, you know, Pastor Robert said a couple weeks ago that he looked like he was in his third trimester.

I looked like I was in my fourth.

It was it was a very, very hard thing.

Is that my belly on the screen right now?

You know, when I think about this story that we've entered into with David, David is in what we would consider the climax of his kingdom.

He is enjoying peace from his enemies, he is enjoying prosperity in the land, and now he has a moment to pause and to reflect.

And David finds himself grappling with a question.

And his question is Is there anyone still alive in Saul's family to whom I can show the kindness of God to?

The answer to this question and the action that follows, I believe tells us a lot about humanity, and it tells us even more about a holy, compassionate God.

And so what I want to do is I want to look at that.

What does this story speak to us about humanity?

And what does this story speak to us about the character and the compassion of God?

If you're taking notes, here's point number one: here's what it tells us about humanity.

We're all crippled.

We're all crippled.

Thank you, Jelani.

I'm so thankful I came to church today to be encouraged to know I'm crippled.

Now, I do want to be very sensitive because I understand that from a physical standpoint, there are some of us that are literally crippled.

So I want to be sensitive to that.

But when I suggest that we're all crippled, what I'm saying is that it's not solely an outward condition, but inwardly, because of sin, we're all crippled.

That there is a sense of brokenness, if you wear.

There is a sense of weakness or deficiency.

In essence, there is something wrong.

When I think about this, I think about my two-year-old little girl, her name is Jordan.

Now, what you have to know about Jordan is Jordan thinks she's the boss of everyone.

And I mean everyone.

And so just this week, I decide to take Jordan on a bike ride.

And when I say I'm taking her on a bike ride, we have an attachment that connects to my bike and I pull her around the neighborhood, okay?

So she's on a joyride and I am exercising.

So this particular day we are riding in the neighborhood and we go past one of the parks in our neighborhood, and and my daughter says to me, she says, Daddy, I want to go to the park today.

And so I respond to her and I said, Well, well, baby, um, we're not going to go to the park today.

And then she responds very matter-of-factly, I think we will go to the park today.

And I remember thinking, You're so cute, but something's wrong.

Something's wrong with you.

Here's how David says it.

This is uh Psalm 51, verse 5.

Psalms 51:5

He says, For I was born a sinner.

Yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

In other words, I was broken from birth.

Paul expounds on this in Romans 3.23 when he says, Yes, we were we were broken from birth, but we've also made some choices.

He says, For everyone has sinned, we all fall short of God's glorious standard.

So we're we're broken from birth, things are exacerbated because of choices that we make, but then there's another category, and this is the category of our lameness or our brokenness actually being contributed by to by someone else.

That that someone made a choice for us, and this is actually what happened to Mephibosheth.

The origin of his lameness is actually found in 2 Samuel chapter 4.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

And the Bible records the story.

What happened was Saul his grandfather and Jonathan his father on the same day they were killed in battle.

And when the news of both of them dying made it to Mephibosheth's nurse, she picks him up.

He's five years old, she picks him up, and she is running out of the house in order to save his life.

She knows they're coming for him.

And the Bible doesn't give us all the details, but unfortunately, she drops Mephibosheth.

And when she drops him, the way in which he landed on his feet created irreparable damage.

And from five years old on, he could never walk.

It wasn't his choice.

She actually meant well, but he was dropped.

The truth is, for some of us today, in our honest moments, we were dropped.

He made a decision to end the relationship.

She decided to walk out.

Now here's what's amazing about Mephibosheth, though, is that I believe the Bible is also communicating to us that he's not only crippled physically or outwardly, he's also crippled internally.

And let me explain why.

In the story that we just read, the word crippled is used twice.

Once at the beginning, once at the end.

When you look in the Hebrew, it's actually two different words.

The word that's used at the end of the story is a word that speaks solely to his physical condition of lameness.

But the word that is used in the beginning of the story is this Hebrew word naka.

And this particular word carries with it more than the idea of just something physical.

It means smitten or stricken or even translated sometimes contrite, but fig literally it means maimed.

But figuratively, it means dejected.

Now think about this.

Just as a reminder, uh, dejected means that I am discouraged or downcast or depressed because of failure or loss.

This particular Hebrew word is used three times in the Old Testament, once in the book of Isaiah, and twice to describe Mephibosheth.

Why is that?

I believe the Holy Spirit wanted us to understand, yes, he was crippled externally, but he was also crippled internally.

He was dejected.

But here's the good news, church.

Our crippledness does not ban us from the king.

In fact, our brokenness is actually what causes us to become candidates for the kindness of the king.

Let me say that again.

Our brokenness does not ban us from the king.

In fact, it is our brokenness that actually makes us a candidate for the kindness of the king.

And we serve a kind king.

Amen.

And so here's what we're gonna see.

In fact, if you're taking notes, here's point number two the king is kind.

Yes, we're crippled, but the king is kind.

And in fact, under this particular thought of the king being kind, I want to give you three sub points.

And really what they are, they're just expressions of the king's kindness.

And here's sub point A.

The kindness of the king removes our fear.

The kindness of the king removes our fear.

When I think about fear, I think about when I used to play college football.

Now, when I say, uh tell people that I used to play college football, people are generally surprised because of my stature.

I am five foot five and three-fourths of an inch tall.

And so when they see me, they think, you played college football, and I say yes, and then they assume, okay, you must have played running back, okay, because of your size.

And I'll say, well, no, I actually wasn't a running back.

I was a wide receiver.

You you were a wide receiver?

These guys are usually taller and long.

And I said, Yeah, I was a wide receiver.

And then they'll say, Okay, well, you must have been really fast.

And then I always say to them, No, I wasn't.

I actually wasn't really fast.

I was really scared.

You see, I I knew uh my teammates, they ran for the end zone.

I ran for my life.

I knew if they hit me, I was dead.

I was scared.

Mephibosheth, when he is called to see David, guess what?

He's scared.

He's scared because Mephibosheth knows what kings do.

You see, in that particular culture, when a new king assumed the throne, he would often eradicate all the relatives of the previous king because he wanted to make sure there was no possibility of a rival or a revolt.

And so when Mephibosheth is summoned to see King David, guess what he's thinking?

This is it for me.

This is it, and this is why David does what he does.

When he calls in Mephibosheth, the very first thing he says to him in 2 Samuel chapter 9, verse 7, don't be afraid.

2 Samuel 9:7

Don't be afraid.

David is removing the fear.

He says, I intend to show you kindness.

Now, here's what's amazing about fear, church.

What fear does often is it will take a situation or a circumstance and it will play it forward in our minds with an outcome that is always void of the kindness of God.

Let me say that again.

Fear will take a situation or a circumstance, and it will play it forward in our minds with an outcome that is always void of the kindness of God.

In other words, fear paints a picture of your future and God is always missing.

Here's the problem with that.

If you're a believer, Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5, God says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

Hebrews 13:5

You know what that means?

That there is no version of your future that God is not in.

And if God is in your future, his goodness is in your future, his faithfulness is in your future, and his kindness is in your future.

So listen, I don't know what fear you may be wrestling with today, but let me just remind you of what the scripture says.

This is Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 17.

Zephaniah 3:17

For the Lord your God is living among you.

He is a mighty Savior, he will take delight in you with gladness.

Listen to this.

With his love, he will calm all your fears.

It's his love.

This is 1 John chapter 4, verse 18.

1 John 4:18

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.

If we're afraid, it is for fear of punishment.

And this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

You know what the scripture's saying?

The remedy for our fear is a revelation of the love and kindness of God.

I don't know what you're struggling with today, but the remedy for your fear is a revelation of the love and kindness of God, because the kindness of the king removes our fear.

Here's B.

The kindness of the king restores our land.

The kindness of the king restores our land.

Not only does it remove fear, but it restores our land.

Let me tell you the rest of the Zoom story, okay?

Because uh I realized when all of this transpired that my professor was recording this particular Zoom lecture.

And the reason why he recorded it is because he wanted to send it out to the rest of the classmates so that we could watch it over and over so we can prepare for our exam.

Well, I thought there's no way I can let that happen.

That's gonna end up on YouTube.

That's I mean, this is gonna be a mess gateway pastor in the shower.

We just don't want to go there, people.

And so I thought, okay, I gotta call this guy in between breaks.

Okay, in between breaks, I gotta make a phone call to him.

This is the worst phone call I've ever had to make, but I gotta make a phone call.

So so I pick up the phone, I call him, his name is Dr.

Jeremy.

I say, Dr.

Jeremy.

I I am so embarrassed right now, but but I need to tell you, as you were lecturing on engaging in contemporary culture and apologetics, I need to apologize to you because you may have noticed in the background I was streaking.

It was awful.

It was an awful phone call.

And then I've got to think about okay, wait a minute.

I still have several more days of Zoom calls with these classmates.

I can't show my face.

They've already seen my belly.

I can't show my face.

I mean, literally, I'm thinking, I don't know if I could ever join this.

I just want to hide in a corner.

This is where Mephibosheth is.

The Bible says that when David went to get him, he was in a place called Lodbar.

Lodabar is actually on the east side of the Jordan River.

Lodabar literally means pastureless.

It is, in essence, the land of nothing.

The only reason why an Israelite would hang out at Lodabar is because they were hiding.

They didn't want to be found.

And so David summons him from Lodabar, this land of nothing, now back into the promised land.

And in their conversation, he says, I'm going to remove the fear, Mephibosheth.

And then he says, and I'm going to restore the land that belonged to your grandfather.

Think about this.

Mephibosheth couldn't work.

He was a poor man.

Someone took care of him.

Instantly, when David said, I'm going to restore your land, Mephibosheth became rich.

And not only that, Mephibosheth was an outcast.

He didn't have a community, and all of a sudden, he owns land in the promised land, which means now he is a part of the community.

David in one statement says, I'm going to make you wealthy and I'm going to make you part of family again, Mephibosheth.

I'm going to restore the land.

We need a relationship restored.

We need our health restored.

We need our souls restored.

Let me just remind you of what the scriptures say.

This is Psalm 23, verse 3.

Psalms 23:3

David said, He restores my soul.

He restores my soul.

Hosea chapter 2, verse 15.

Hosea 2:15

God says, I will return her vineyards to her and transform the valley of trouble into a gateway of hope.

I will return her vineyards.

What is he saying?

I'm going to restore.

Listen, I don't know what you need restored today, but here's what we all have.

To know.

God doesn't ignore us when we feel like we're in the land of nothing.

In his kindness, he restores us to the promised land.

God does not ignore us when we feel like we're in the land of nothing.

In his kindness, he restores us to the promised land.

The kindness of the king restores our land.

Here's the last point, point C.

The kindness of the king requests our presence.

The kindness of the king requests our presence.

In other words, he's inviting us over for dinner.

Uh uh, my wife is here on the front row.

I'll never forget the first time I was invited to her home for dinner.

This was uh before we were married, and in fact, this was actually before she liked me.

Um I don't know if you've ever had a relationship like that, but were were you really you're into someone, but the feelings aren't reciprocated?

Uh, that was me.

And uh in fact, I remember the day that I decided to give her a phone call and express my undying affection for her, and it didn't go well.

Um I remember I picked up the phone and I called her and I put on my best slow jam RB voice, and I said, Hey girl, I just need to tell you how I feel about you.

And I go into this long story and I explain my affection, and um she didn't feel the same way, and she made that very clear.

It was so clear that I decided I was going to summarize what she said to me back to her, just so we were on the same page.

So so I said, Okay, so here's what you're saying.

You're saying you're not ready for a relationship.

And even if you were, you don't know if it would be me.

And she said, Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Now, now for a normal person, that would be a deterrent, but for me, what I heard was, so you're saying there's a chance, huh?

That's just this is we got a shot here, boys.

We got a shot.

Well, you can imagine how elated I was when several days later, out of nowhere, I received a random text message from her on a Friday inviting me over for dinner.

I was praying in the spirit.

I was thankful to God.

I mean, this is he he moved on my behalf, church, in that moment.

But then you can also imagine the shock that I felt when I showed up to her house and I found out that her younger sister had come into town, stolen her cell phone, and invited me over herself.

Yeah, yeah.

Um let's just say dinner was awkward that night.

It was a different night.

David says to Mephibosheth, listen, I I'm gonna remove the fear, I'm gonna restore the land, but that's not it.

I'm requesting your presence for dinner.

I I want you to eat at my table.

Now this is this is amazing.

Because Mephibosheth was an outcast.

He, because of his condition, would have been considered at the bottom of the totem pole in society, and and it didn't even look great for the king to have him in his presence, but King David didn't care.

I want you around me.

And to be invited to someone's house for a meal was a great statement of honor, but especially for the king.

All of a sudden, this man who was an outcast was now highly esteemed and honored.

All of a sudden, with Mephibosheth being at the table, he was now also in the know.

I mean, he he gets to hear what's happening around the kingdom.

Not only that, he also became instantly influential because he had the king's ear.

But that's not even the best part of all this.

The way the Bible describes this is that it says that Mephibosheth was treated like one of the king's sons.

And in a sense, it's almost like David says, I'm I'm adopting you.

I'm going to treat you like one of my sons.

Wow.

When you think about this progression, what you see is you see Mephibosheth, who starts off as an orphan when we're introduced to him.

His father was killed when he's five.

We have no record of his mother.

And so, for all intents and purposes, he is an orphan.

Here's what's interesting about orphans.

Jesus said in John chapter 14, verse 18, he's talking to his disciples about the Holy Spirit, and he says, I will not abandon you, I will not leave you as orphans.

John 14:18

Because here's how orphans often feel they feel abandoned.

They feel like they have no place to belong.

And so what often happens is that because of that space, orphans will often perform with a posture of heart that says, pick me.

Pick me.

If I perform well enough, maybe you will pick me.

But then if we follow the story, he goes from being an orphan, and the first thing that he says to David is, he says, I am a servant.

Now, now that was actually a very honoring thing to say to David, and he should have.

But I love what Pastor Robert has taught us in a series a couple years ago called Sons, not servants.

Because he talked to us about the fact that yes, all of us are called to servanthood by Jesus, but there's a difference in serving for a position and serving from a position.

And so he says, I'm I'm a servant.

And here's the thing about servants.

Jesus says in John chapter 8, verse 35, a slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is a part of the family forever.

John 8:35

In Luke chapter 15, when the story of the prodigal son, the prodigal son says, I'm coming back home, but I'm not worthy to be called the son.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

But maybe my father will allow me to be back at the home as long as I'm a hired servant.

Or in other words, I'm a wage earner.

In other words, here's what a servant will say: a servant will perform with the posture of heart that says, keep me.

Like I'm I'm around, I'm near the home, and if I perform well enough, you'll keep me.

So the orphan says, pick me.

The servant says, keep me.

But clearly, David is not satisfied with Mephibosheth as an orphan or Mephibosheth as a servant.

He says, No, I'm going to treat you like a son.

And as a son, you don't have to worry about pick me.

As a son, you don't have to worry about keep me.

As a son, you know what you are?

Grateful me.

Because you know that it's not about your performance.

You weren't picked because of your performance.

You were chosen because of the kindness of the king.

And that makes you grateful me.

Here's what I have to tell you.

I I've got to be honest with you and say that I've struggled with all three of those.

I know God has said, Jelani, you're a son, but sometimes I operate like an orphan, and sometimes I operate like a servant, and sometimes I simply rest in sonship.

And God in his goodness has done some things to really help establish sonship in my life.

And one of the things that happened was last year with my five-year-old son Jaden.

We were leaving one of his soccer games, and it was me and my father and my son Jaden in the back of the car.

And as we're driving home, my son says, Daddy, I scored a goal today.

Now he says this like I wasn't even at the game.

And so I'm there and I'm thinking, okay, I watched the entire game and I don't remember him scoring a goal.

I look at my father, my father looks at me, he doesn't remember him scoring a goal.

And so finally I say, I said, I said, You did, Jamie?

He said, Yes.

I said, well, JJ, and we call him JJ.

I said, JJ, I may have missed something, but I watched the game, your grandfather watched the game, and and and we didn't see you score a goal, and none of the parents came up to us and said anything.

So, so are you sure?

Did you score a goal?

And he said, Yeah, I scored a goal.

And I said, Okay, JJ, I'm going to ask you one more time, did you score a goal?

And he dropped his head in the back seat, and he said, No, Daddy, I didn't.

So then I had another question for him.

I said, Jaden, why did you tell me that you scored a goal?

And I'll never forget what he said to me.

He said, Daddy, it's because I wanted you to be proud of me.

And in that moment, internally, I was wrecked.

Because the last thing as a loving father I wanted for my son was to think that the only reason that I would be proud of him is because of his performance.

The only reason that he would experience my pleasure was because of his performance.

And so I said, Jaden, let me tell you, first of all, I'm so sorry.

If you feel like the only way daddy's proud of you is because of your performance, that's not true.

You need to know I'm proud of you because you're mine.

I'm proud of you because you're mine.

And yes, I'm gonna celebrate when you accomplish something, and I'm proud not in the sense of a prideful or arrogant way, but but I want to celebrate the things you do, but but but you're mine, and so I'm proud of you.

And so I was just I was torn to bits internally.

But you know why I was also wrecked?

It's because I also knew this.

I knew that I had spent a lot of my life trying to score goals for Jesus.

Hoping if I perform well enough, he'll pick me, hoping if I perform well enough, he'll keep me.

And all he ever wanted was grateful me.

See, I needed to learn a lesson from Mephibosheth.

Because I can imagine Mephibosheth the very first time he he goes to dinner with the family of David.

Everybody else walks in, and they are beautiful people, beautiful sons, a beautiful daughter, and then here comes Mephibosheth crawling into this space, crawling past the sons, the beautiful daughter.

He crawls right on up to his seat, and he sits at the table, and all of a sudden, sitting at the table, the object of his shame is now underneath the table.

And he looks across and he sees all of these beautiful people.

And you know what Mephibosheth knows?

See, he looks across this table, he knows something.

He knows I didn't get to this table because of what I did.

I got to this table because of what my father did.

I want to remind you, church, you're invited to the table today not because of what you did, but because of what your heavenly father did.

Your heavenly father sent his only son to die so that you could receive salvation, and so that we could be a part of a family, and so that we could be sons and daughters.

And 1 John chapter 3, verse 1 says, See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are.

1 John 3:1

We're all crippled, but the King is kind, and the kindness of our King removes our fear, restores our land, and requests our presence.

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes.

I just want to ask you the question that Pastor Robert asks us every weekend, and that is what is the Holy Spirit saying to you in this message?

For some of us, the Holy Spirit may be speaking to you about a fear that you have, and he's saying, It's time for you to have a revelation of my love and kindness.

For some of you, the Holy Spirit may be speaking about something he wants to restore in your life.

For some of us today, he may be speaking about simply resting in sonship and daughtership.

And maybe for some of us, he's speaking to us about our brokenness, our lameness, that we're crippled and we're in need of a savior.

We want to pray with you.

And so, whatever the Holy Spirit's speaking to you, I want to encourage you to respond.

We're going to have the pastors at each of the campus.

In a moment, when I finish praying, they're going to lead you in a response time.

I just want to encourage you right now, whatever the Holy Speak Spirit speaks to you, I want to encourage you to say yes.

And so, Father, I simply pray today that we would all experience the kindness of the King in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

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