This past Wednesday evening in our doing the right thing series we were looking at what it means to be human and in the course of discussion I directed our group to look at a passage from the Older Testament and I told them it was the greatest Old Testament passage that they didn't know. That's where I'm gonna look at this morning. Let's pray together. My father again now we've come to this point in the service where we look into the Word of God. Thank you for your word. Know that your word is truth. We ask that you would use this word to sanctify this morning to fit us in the mold us and to shape us more and more conformed in the image of your son Jesus. My name I pray. Amen. Let me just begin before we get to the text but tell you this this message won't be for everybody. This message is for those who are broken and know it. This message is for those who are weighed down by life, weighed down by their own sins or the sins of others are committed against them. People have a sense of their own frailty, their own lack of completeness. A number of years ago reading Lance Armstrong's book it's not about the bike. You all know Lance Armstrong is a great champion cyclist that he is but maybe you don't know. You've forgotten that one of the defining events in his life is when he found he had cancer in a very aggressive form of cancer. There's a pretty advanced stage. Not many people survive it. I mean with you just a horrific chemotherapy regimen. Some of you know all too well a chemo therapy is like and his was just horrendous and as he says in the book most people won't survive what he went through and he said he didn't survive it because his world class athlete cancer doesn't care but he says this he said I wanted to live but whether I would or not was a mystery and in the midst of confronting that fact even at that moment I was beginning to sense that to stare into the heart of such a fearful mystery wasn't a bad thing. To be afraid is a priceless education. Once you have been that scared you know more about your frailty than most people. I think that changes a man. We sing a great hymn, a worship the king and in that hymn we confess we are frail children of dust and feeble as frail. This message is for the broken for the fragile and the frail. Now the text is second, same to nine one through thirteen but before before we start reading the text let me just give you some background. Saul was the first king of Israel the anointing king of Israel he looked the part as Shakespeare said a king leader every inch a king. Saul looked the part but unfortunately Saul didn't have the heart for the job and he basically defaulted or disqualified his way out of being king by committing what I could best describe as spiritual infidelity and so God said to Saul you had forfeited right to be king. Saul had a son named Jonathan Jonathan a man who would have been king was very close friends with a shepherd boy named David who in fact would become king and the greatest king of Israel see we got Saul the current king but soon to no longer be king got his son Jonathan who would have been king you have David who will in fact be king and David and Jonathan are close close friends and back in the second same you'll fool we read about the worst day in a little boy's life because on that day King Saul and his son Jonathan are killed and Jonathan has a son this is what is said of him and second same you'll for for Jonathan had a son who was lame in both feet he was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezrelle his nurse picked him up and fled but as she hurried to leave he fell and became crippled the boy's name was Mifibisheff now five chapters and many years later David is the king of Israel and things are good again right now the nation of Israel and that's we'll pick up the story second Samuel verse chapter 9 verse 1 David asked is there anyone still left at the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake now there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba they called him up here before David and the king said to him are you Ziba your servant he replied the king asked is there no one still left at the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness Ziba answered the king there is still a son of Jonathan he's crippled in both feet where is he the king asked Ziba answered he is at the house of Makir son of Amiel in Lodivar so King David had him brought from Lodivar from the house of Makir son of Amiel we don't stop right there for a moment this is an unexpected kindness on the part of King David a most unexpected kindness typically in the ancient Near East and that's where ancient Israel sits is the ancient Near East typically in ancient Near East when one man is deposed or is toppled from being king and someone else comes into the throne not a relative not an heir but someone else from outside the family comes king then the family of the former king their lives are forfeit the new king will immediately put to the sword all the members of the family of the deposed or the fallen king but David was not a typical king he was the king of the nation of Israel of God's covenant people and as such he was held to a higher standard than the other kings than the typical king in ancient Near East King David had to place the welfare of his people above his own wants and desires this is unique in the annals of ancient Near Eastern history King David was held to this higher standard and David remembered a promise he had made his friend Jonathan many years before we read about it first Samuel chapter 20 what had happened was that David and Jonathan had become close close friends the son of the current king and the man who would be king and they have a meeting and Jonathan says in verse 14 but show me unfailing kindness like that of the Lord as long as I live and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family and Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him because he loved him as he loved himself later on that chapter 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 apart from one other brief conversation that would be the last time David and Jonathan would ever see one another so many many years ago by and unlike a lot of politicians today King David remembered his promise unlike a lot of us King David remembered the promise he made he never forgot the promise he made to his friend Jonathan all those years ago and so he searches out and he finds Jonathan's son his crippled son Mifhibasheth in order to fulfill the vow he made all those years ago a most unexpected kindness in his book up from slavery Booker T. Washington relates an encounter that he had meeting an ex-slave from Virginia let me just read the quote Booker T. Washington I found that this man had made a contract with his master two or three years previous to the emancipation proclamation to the effect that the slave was to be permitted to buy himself by paying so much free year for his body and while he was paying for himself he was to be permitted to labor where and for whom he pleased finding that he could secure better wages in Ohio he went there when freedom came he was still in debt to his master some three hundred dollars and even though the emancipation proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master this black man walked the greater portion of the distance back to where his old master led to Virginia and placed the last dollar with interest in his hands he talked to me about this the man told me that he knew he did not have to repay that debt but he had given his word to his master and his word he had never broken he felt that he could not enjoy his freedom until he had fulfilled his promise now contrast that if you attitude of some of your professional athletes today who write in the middle of the mega million dollar contract they've signed right in the middle of getting exactly what they agreed to get for the performance they gave on the quarter on the field they stopped they hold out because they want more money they want that contract that promise they made they want to negotiate or the coach who sweared with a straight face I'm gonna be here next year to coach this team and then the first opportunity comes on to jump to the pros he's gone the power of a promise kept and a most unexpected kind has shown and secondly I want you to see here an unlikely guest of honor most unlikely guest of honor pick up the near video with me and second Samuel 9 verse 6 when Mifhiba chef son Jonathan son of Saul came to David he bowed down to pay him honor David said Mifhiba chef your servant he replied don't be afraid David said to him I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan I will restore to you all the land that belonged your grandfather Saul and you will always eat at my table but Mifhiba chef bowed down and said what is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me Mifhiba chef we've had a very difficult time in his life I have some small point of reference for what it's like to deal with overwhelming disability but my life trying to negotiate 2012 Miami with the disability and Mifhiba chef life dealing with being crippled a thousand years BC are radically different most of places I go they try to accommodate a person in wheelchair when I did the last I guess four or five trips to St. Louis to finish my degree of covenant theological seminary being there I had to take public transport everywhere I go Metro bus and the Metro link on the train by the way it was quite a quite a phenomenon to get on board a public commuter train and see wall-to-wall red cardinal jerseys I thought maybe I died don't have it but I'd come in from class and how you say well how did I go and I'd say three things about people in St. Louis they're all blonde they're all nice they all have no clue what to do with a guy in a wheelchair but they tried they really tried to accommodate me and by the way you should know this that's been the case mostly mostly here in Miami most places I go they try to accommodate a person in wheelchair every now and then I'll go to a restaurant or try to get into a store some place where they really are not they're really not accessible and depending on their attitude about it sometimes I have some fun with them there's not if they're not accessible reasonably I look at the person who's in charge the manager whoever I'll say you know I could own your store by the clothes of business that they have I wanted to and I get these horrified looks on their face I'll say I'm not gonna sue you come on 21 years since the ADA went into effect come on get with it you need to know from a fibrochef they didn't care they didn't care they called him disabled differently abled physically challenged handicapped or all of you from as we play they didn't get they called him lame and they called him crippled and they weren't worried about reasonable access and there was no IDA is really disabilities act the guaranteed to maxes into places his life would have been extremely difficult as a lame as a cripple he himself would have been filled with shame with a sense of worthlessness a grandson of a king and he can't even walk he can't work he can't contribute he has to be taken care of so in verse 8 it's understandable the fibrochef Bowslow and says to King David what is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me because what he felt like he did not expect that kind of royal reception from King David disability's coming all forms ladies and gentlemen some of ours are you can't miss us some of ours are visible for everybody to see but there are other disabilities that are not so noticeable there are other disabilities that are not only to you maybe a few people around you maybe I'll know only you and God maybe you don't even know you have them disabilities like racism sexism greed self-centeredness anger depression addiction addiction to a chemical addiction to gambling addiction pornography there are disabilities of all sorts all kinds of frozen heart critical spirit like I said this passage in for everybody it's for the broken but if you are part of the fellowship of the broken you know it this passage for us God's word has some very direct things to say to us Isaiah says this so beautifully in Isaiah chapter 42 a bruised read he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish but notice Isaiah does not promise we're going to be exempted from the flame and the brokenness he does not promise we won't have them and in fact Jesus guarantees we will go through them he will not break us he will not extinguish us but we are not exempt from the wounds in the flame listen if you're on top of the world this morning God bless you you bet on I'll have another to win the Kentucky Derby yesterday you predicted the Cardinals win the World Series last year you bought gold at eighty dollars an ounce how wonderful for you God bless you you're on top of the world right now this message not for you but just remember it for the time when the world rose over on top of you when that day comes I would give you the prayer I heard from of course a great black preacher may the Lord prop you up on every leaning side you have an unexpected kindness you have an unlikely guest of honor you have an uncommon grace uncommon grace verse nine then the King Summon Zeba Saul's servant 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 bring in the crops so that your master grandson may be provided for and my fifth chef grandson of your master will always eat at my table as he would have 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 my fifth chef eight at David's table like one of the King's sons my fifth chef had a young son named Micah and all the members of Zeba's household were servants of my fifth chef and the fifth chef lived in Jerusalem because he always ate at the King's table he was crippled in both feet if you were the son of the grandson of the former King and the new King took the throne as I told you you were on the endangered species list you were marked for extinction for the gallows or the chopping block or maybe the flames instead of the gallows or the chopping block my fifth chef is invited to sit at the new King's table for the rest of his life to be the honored guest of the new King to be treated as though you were still heir to the throne dining with the enemy an uncommon grace amazing grace a thousand years before Bethlehem's stable would echo with the cries of the infant incarnate God a thousand years before Bethlehem David paints such a compelling picture here he gives us such a compelling picture of the gospel David sees him the fifth chef not crippled not an outcast not an enemy not a threat to his throne no he sees in the fifth chef the vestiges a royalty the vestiges of nobility he sees the worth of the person not the disability not the shame he sees him as a person made in the image of God to be treated with respect and yes even honor and ability that's why we're looking this passage past Wednesday night in our class we ask what does it mean to be human see back in the fifth chef's time he would have been more for extinction it was quite common not the exception but the rule in the ancient world if you were born handicapped or soon as you started showing signs of it that you were put to death mark for extinction it was only with Christianity began to take hold Christians began to raise their voice their first legal appeal to the king it wasn't for themselves in the persecution it was to stop abortion and infanticide the church has always spoken up for those who cannot speak for themselves aren't we glad we live in much more enlightened times we would never mark for elimination or extinction those who are handicapped women you know this if you're pregnant today and amnus and thesis shows anything like a marker for Down syndrome a marker and I understand there at least for it if you show even one marker that means you could possibly be carrying a Down syndrome baby it is expected you will abort that child mark for extinction because of a disability now this message is for us it hits us right where we live because to be humans to be made in the image of God and to be entitled to be treated with dignity and respect and compassion not mark for elimination because of some defect some inconvenience ladies and gentlemen I am the fubus chef but so are you I am the fubus chef not because of my disability you are my fubus chef regardless of what you are regardless of what you have done regardless of what has been done to you you are an heir with the prince you are royalty because royal blood rose through goes through your veins lift up your head you are if you know Christ you are an adopted child of the Lord most high you are an adopted son or daughter of the God of the universe a most a most uncommon amazing grace the same invitation that David extended him a fubus chef that's extended us leave behind our old tangled and twisted lives and start a new life dined the King's table to be treated as a son or a daughter a co-air with Christ to see the gospel is about inclusion the gospel is about inclusion the incarnation is about inclusion when there was no way for God to be reconciled to his fallen race he made away by penetrating the radio activity the contamination chamber that had become this planet and God reached out and made away in the incarnation of his son the gospel is about inclusion when we had by our own sins disinherited ourselves disqualified ourselves as children of God he made a way for us to come back we say this often in one of our affirmations of faith Paul wrote about in Romans chapter 5 but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us since we have now been justified by his blood how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him for if when we were God's enemies we were reconciled to him through the death of his son how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life not only is this so but we also rejoicing God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation the gospel of that inclusion of the lame and the outcast the poor the oppressed the leper the tax gather the prostitute the most unlikely God seems to take the light and calling the most unlikely to himself and making them sons and daughters of the Lord most high if you are here this morning you never been told this before you are an image bear of God Almighty you were created in his image God designed you to live forever and to be in relationship with him it's not about church it's not about religion it's not about putting money in a plate we're showing up or a prayer meeting or Bible study I'm for all those things it's about whether or not you know Christ's Lord whether or not you have ever once received the payment Christ made on the cross for you that's what it takes to be a Christian so if you're here this morning and you've never done that before I would urge you to make today the day to open your heart your mind your soul your life to submit to the Lordship of Christ and make this the first day of the rest of your eternity in a right relationship with God dining with the enemy former enemies now reconciled sons and daughters and I expected kindness unlike the guest of honor an uncommon grace and an unforgettable image what a picture this chapter is this chapter the most you've either never read before forgot if you had picture of God's grace and what do we like in the kingdom of God at the wedding feast of the lamb you know the original purpose of this story writer Samuel here is trying to make David look good see what a great king he is while he even reaches out to those who would be his enemies he reaches out and extends a hand of reconciliation to the one who would have been a threat to him to his throne see how great a king David is David was a great king the greatest old covenant Israel ever had but the deeper fuller meaning of this story is that it points to another king Jesus the son of David also seeks out the name the outcast the lowly and the unlikely those who would otherwise be his enemies he invites them to his table to dine with him and to make sons and daughters of the king for whenever we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes one day until he comes let's pray together father we do not begin to comprehend the kind of grace the David showed mephibisheff but even more the kind of grace that you show us and reaching out and the incarnation of Jesus reaching out to the outcast and unlikely to make us sons and daughters of the king but we don't understand it we receive it we trust in it we know it is by him and by his life his death and his resurrection alone that we are justified may write in your eyes and we thank you for him for his sacrifice make our prayer in Jesus name oh man we thank you for being with us today we hope that you have a great rest of your Sabbath they can receive now the Lord's benediction now may they God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus that great shepherd the sheep equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever amen