Bible Text: 2 Samuel 9 | Preacher: Pastor Steve | Series: David: Abiding in the Lord
2 Samuel 9:1 Now David said, Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?
1 Samuel 20:14-17 And may you treat me with the faithful love of the Lord as long as I live. But if I die, treat my family with this faithful love, even when the Lord destroys all your enemies from the face of the earth
2 Samuel 9:2-3 And there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba. So when they had called him to David, the king said to him, Are you Ziba? He said, At your service! 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.
How do we run and hide from God? How do we find ourselves crippled for life?
2 Samuel 4:4 Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.
What is your IDENTITY?
Are we children of God Almighty? Are we followers
of Jesus? How do you IDENTIFY yourself?
Remember who you are!
2 Corinthians 6:18 …And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
God designs us and no one is an accident!
Isaiah 64:8 And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.
A healthy concept of self is basic to the development of a strong balanced confident personality
Genesis 3:8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.
Once Adam and Eve gave in to the distortion (they ate the fruit of tree in the middle of the garden) they “HID” from the Lord rather than ABIDE in the Lord.
2 Samuel 9:4-7 So the king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, Indeed he is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Lo Debar. Then King David sent and brought him out of the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar. 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!  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.
People who are NOT ABIDING IN THE LORD end up hiding and afraid
1 John 4:13 …we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
Abiding Releases Love!
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.
Romans 8:31-32 What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?
Abiding Releases Restoration!
David gave Mephibosheth the best gift, a NEW IDENTITY,
a NEW SELF-IMAGE, RESTORATION!
2 Samuel 9:8 Then he bowed himself, and said, What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?
Abiding Releases Acceptance!
1 John 3:1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!
Ephesians 1:5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
2 Samuel 9:9-12 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. 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….As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons. Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micha. And all who dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants of Mephibosheth.
FROM brokenness and barrenness TO abiding at the table of the king!
Receive the restoration that was intended for you—ABIDE IN Me!
John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
Abiding Releases Abundance!
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.
10 But Mephibosheth your master’s son shall eat bread at my table always.
11 As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.
12 So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king’s table
The King of kings restores what we were meant to be
Mephibosheth: an destroyer of the idols
The DESTINY of every person is to experience the victory of the Lord in his or her life!
God’s lesson: take your eyes off your “feet”
or what is “crippled” and realize you are
sitting at the table of the King!
Matthew 6:33 …seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you…