It is an absolute joy to be here this morning, not only with my awesome family, but with this really, really precious congregation. My wife Ann couldn't be here, unfortunately, because she is caring for our 99-year-old mother-in-law. my mother-in-law, her mother, and they attend along with me and Jonathan's youngest brother, Josh, a mission church, PCA church, in the Villages, Florida. Several times in the last couple years, our mission church has been bumped. We meet in a community center and Every so often the powers that be there say, sorry, but we've got something else going Sunday morning, and so you can't use the building. And so we find another congregation, and this is it. You are our YouTube congregation. our fallback plan, if you will, and we love to worship with River Oaks Tulsa when we can't worship in person. Y'all are really a wonderful, wonderful church. I want to talk this morning about friendship that started in the Old Testament, the friendship between Prince Jonathan and Shepherd Boy to become great King David. That's the strongest friendship in Scripture, in my opinion. And so my wife Anne and I named our twins David and Jonathan in the hope that they would have that kind of friendship, and that as the Scriptures say, their hearts would be knit together in love for the Lord. And our prayers were answered, and then some. We're so thankful for David and Jonathan. Kind of a funny P.S. to the naming of our twins. I was a youth pastor when David and Jonathan and their little brother Josh were young. And when they were, the twins were about eight months old, Ann and I went on a much needed R&R vacation to Florida. And while we were there, we decided to surprise one of the kids in the youth group who had gone to a Bible college in Florida. And so we went to her dorm and they called up to her and she came down and she is one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever known in my life. She said, David and Ann, I can't believe you're here. How are you? How's the church? How are David and Goliath? She knew they were Old Testament guys, but kind of got the story wrong. Well, the friendship of David and Jonathan is the backdrop to the wonderful passage that I want to read with you this morning. And if you're able, would you stand for the reading of God's word from 2 Samuel 9. Listen, for this is the word of God. And David said, is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba, and they called him to David. And the king said to him, are you Ziba? And he said, I am your servant. And the king said, is there not still someone of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? And Ziba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. The king said to him, where is he? And Ziba said to the king, he's in the house of Maker, the son of Amiel at Lodabar. Then David sent and brought him from the house of Maker, the son of Amiel at Lodabar. And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered, behold, I am your servant. And David said to him, do not fear. for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. And I will restore to you all the land of Saul, your father, and you shall eat at my table always. And he paid homage and said, what is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, all that belong to Saul and to his son I have given to your master's grandson. And you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring in the produce that your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always eat at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then Ziba said to the king, according to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do. So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah. And all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem. for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Please be seated. A prominent member of the so-called emerging church has said that We shouldn't preach from the Old Testament because it's too negative. I could not disagree with that statement more. I believe that the Old Testament is written, and one of its purposes is to point us to the Anointed One that we sang about, the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of David. who fulfills all the law and the prophets. The big idea in the message this morning is that in this story, the relationship between David and Mephibosheth is a picture of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Now I need to maybe give a little bit of a background, the story behind the story here. In verse 6, David calls him and says, Mephibosheth, and he falls in homage. I do not believe that Mephibosheth was the name that Jonathan and his wife gave to this boy. Jonathan died in battle, along with his father Saul, fighting the Philistines. And when that happened, His five-year-old son's nurse fled with the boy. And as she fled, she dropped him, and his legs were broken. There were not orthopedic surgeons back in those days, and so he became lame. And he lived in the land of the Canaanites. And I believe they gave him the name Mephibosheth, which means cursed by Baal. Baal was the Canaanite god of nature. Excuse me. Have you ever had someone put you down? I'm sure many of us have. I think of a dear friend of mine. His name is Hollis Half. He's an Episcopal pastor. And he was, before that, the chaplain of the Pittsburgh Steelers. We actually held the Pittsburgh Steeler Bible study in the church that I pastored. Hollis was one of our elders. And if he were to preach this morning, you would probably notice two things. One, he's six foot five and 245 pounds, still looks like an all Big East tight end. And secondly, you would probably notice that that guy has a great preacher's voice. Well, when Hollis was in fifth grade, his music teacher said to him, half, if you can't sing, don't. And he received that curse, if you will, and he told me that he had seriously considered not going into the ministry because he didn't think he had a good voice to teach and preach. I believe that Mephibosheth was the victim of those who named him and had a negative self-image as a result. Now, a question for this passage is, if David and Jonathan were best friends, which they were, why didn't David know about Jonathan's son? Well, I think it's very simply because Jonathan's son didn't want to be known. He was in hiding. The democratic process of transfer of power is a relatively new thing in history. Back in the time of David, the sons of kings, princes, when the king died and someone else was going to succeed him, they killed those sons to avoid any possible rivalry. We just went through the period of Advent where we retold the story of King Herod who killed all the two-year-old little boys in Bethlehem because he was afraid that there was a king of Israel that the wise men talked about who would challenge his throne. In fact, Herod killed his own wife and his two sons because he was afraid they would be his rival. The Jewish historian Josephus said, I'd rather be Herod's pig than his sons because Herod was a Jew and he wouldn't kill pigs. Well, I believe when Mephibosheth was brought before King David, he came in fear and trembling. He was afraid that he would receive a death sentence. And when David says, the first thing that he says to Mephibosheth is, do not fear. I think that's the best news Mephibosheth had ever heard. It's not a stretch. to say that you and I were also under a death sentence. Romans 6.23 says it very clearly, for the wages of sin is death. We deserve to die because of our sin, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. I don't know about you, but that's the best news that I've ever heard. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Do you notice Mephibosheth's response to David's statement of grace? Do not fear, I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the lands of Saul, your father. and you shall eat at my table always. And Mephibosheth plays homage and says, what is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? Now we love dogs, and many of us have dogs as pets, but that was not the case in Israel. There were a few really wealthy people who had domesticated dogs, but most dogs at the time of David hunted in packs like wolves. They were wild animals who killed cattle and sometimes people. The Jews called Gentiles dogs and it was not a term of endearment. Excuse me. Mephibosheth was saying to David, I have nothing, nothing to commend myself to you. I'm a dead dog. And the same thing is true of us. We have nothing to commend ourselves to God. Romans 5.8 says that God chose His love for us in that while we were yet sinners who had turned our back on God, Christ died for us. There is nothing that we can do to earn or deserve God's favor. It is sheer grace. That's the supreme gift that we celebrate at Christmas. How should we respond to that wonderful gift? Twice in this passage we see that Mephibosheth falls down in homage to the king. We should do the same. Philippians 2, 10 and 11 says, At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now that 10th verse is often misquoted as, At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in the future when He comes again. That's not what it says. It's a present subjunctive. Every knee should bow. Every knee in heaven, earth, and even in hell should bow at the name of Jesus right now and worship His grace. Does your worship reflect that praise? We're a nation of spectators, and many people come to worship like they do a concert or a movie. Their job is to evaluate. If the music was good, if the preaching wasn't too long and boring, I liked the service, or I really didn't get anything from it. Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, made the profound statement that in worship the audience is one, God Almighty, and the rest of us are performers. He is the one who is judging our worship. So the question at the end of the service isn't, did I like it? Did I get something from it? But how did I do? Jesus says to the woman at the well in John 4.25, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Here's some questions to ask yourself. Did I worship God with my whole spirit as these wonderful people were leading the music? Did I respond to the truth of God's word? A beautiful statement in this passage is in verse 11. So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. I recently heard two prominent people, a politician and a pastor, make the statement, we are all God's children. And probably most people in America would agree with that statement. but it is simply not true according to Scripture. We are all God's creation created in His image, but according to Scripture, we are by nature children of wrath because of our sin. John 1.12 says that all who believed Him, Jesus, who received Him, who believed in His name, He, God the Father, gave the right to become children of God. Romans 8, 14 says that all who are led by the Spirit of God, Christians, are the children of God. We become God's children by faith, and the Bible describes that as adoption. David adopted Mephibosheth as if he were one of his own sons. And Jesus adopts us into God's family. By God's amazing grace, he becomes Abba. That's the word Jesus and Paul uses for our Father in heaven. It's the Aramaic word daddy, which suggests intimacy, part of the family. We're part of God's forever family. Jesus prepares for us a seat at his table. Listen to what he says to us, his followers. I assign to you, this is Luke chapter 22, I assign to you as my father assigned to me a kingdom that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. We sit at the table of the Lord whenever we share a meal. That's why it's important to give thanks, to say grace, to acknowledge that it is God who has provided our daily bread. We sit at the table of the Lord in a special way when we take the Lord's Supper, communion. And we will sit at the table of the Lord for eternity in his kingdom. I has not seen Ear has not heard what the Lord has prepared for those who love him. Would you pray with me? Lord Jesus, we praise you this day for you are the giver of every good and perfect gift. You've given us the greatest gift, salvation. Our sins are forgiven. We are adopted into your family as beloved sons and daughters. We eat at your table forever. Lord, how amazing is your grace. We could echo with Mephibosheth that we are unworthy. But because Christ died for us, you have made us worthy to be called your children. We love you, Lord. We praise you. We thank you for the opportunity to worship you in spirit and in truth. And we pray in the strong name of Jesus, let God's people say.