on God's response to this event in Exodus 32 and God appears to them and He declares His identity. Our series is called Hope Has a Name and His name today is Loyal Love. God is a God of love. The scripture says that this God so loved the world He gave His Son. He so loved the world that He bankrupted heaven so that you as a pauper might be made a prince and a son of God. That God commended, He showed, He exhibited His love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If I'm in a room with people who are satisfied by the wonderful love of God, can I get an amen this morning? And his loyal love. Let's all stand together, we're going to read our text. and get into the message this morning, Exodus 34 and verse number 6. And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children under the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. Father, thank you for the reading of thy word today. Help us, Father, to know what this means and what difference it makes in our lives. Help us, Father, to get to know you today. And we praise you for all that you'll do if we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for standing and be seated together. Years ago I had a great mentor in college, his name was Keith Kaiser. Anyone who was familiar with Keith Kaiser back in the 90s would know of his great ministry. Brother Kaiser at one point was a missionary for Wales for a couple of years and he told a humorous story that kind of illustrates the power of Understanding a word. We have in our laps today the English Bible preserved for us, and thank God for the Word of God. But the Word of God was not given in English. The Old Testament was given in Hebrew, and the New Testament was given in Greek, and a few Aramaic expressions in the ministry of our Lord. And so, when we go from one language to the other, there's often a learning curve to understand the meaning of words. Well, in verse number six, we come across the word goodness. And as we'll look at a moment ago, it's the Hebrew word chesed, and it has a lot of meanings. And just to illustrate the power of words and what they mean in a different language, Brother Kaiser was joking around with us one day, and he said he was preaching in the church in Wells, and he said he was trying to establish his office, and he was setting up his books, and he said, I was just piddling around in the office. And he said, when I said piddle, for some reason everybody began to laugh, laugh hysterically actually. He didn't know exactly what was so funny and so he continued preaching. And so after the service there was a nice Welsh gentleman who came to him after the service and he said, Brother Kaiser, I'm not gonna give you a Welsh accent though, you would like me to try. He said, you can't say piddling here in Wales, that means going to the bathroom. And he thought, oh boy, that's a terrible thing. And then the guy goes, I tell you what, I'll give you a tinkle on the telephone this week and maybe we can get together and talk about language. And Brother Kaiser famously said, if I can't piddle in my office, you can't give me a tinkle on the telephone. Language is an interesting thing. These words that were given to Moses some 3,500 years ago are as relevant today as the day they were given. Better yet, they are more relevant than what's on the front page of the New York Times, even this morning, as God has a message for you and for me. Some words, though, are so impactful that it takes numerous words to convey their meanings. I've often used the word love. Love's a hard thing to define, isn't it? But it's easily described. And as is the case with the word love, so is our word has said in verse number six, where the Lord is abundant in goodness. So if you're writing notes down or following along, I hope you'll notice, number one, the meaning of chesed, the meaning of this word goodness. One writer said that chesed cannot be translated with one English word. This is the covenant term, wrapping up in itself all the positive attributes of God. Think about one word encapsulating every great attribute of God. of God. So let me show you how the word is translated in the Old Testament. You might be reading the Old Testament and you come across the said, but you don't know that you're seeing it. Maybe when you read the word goodness or favor, or you read the word pity or kindness in the Old Testament, maybe you read the word mercy or mercy sake or Love. It's all this word has said. Someone said it means unfailing love. It means steadfast love. It means God's covenant love or it speaks of God's covenant loyalty. As a matter of fact, it's such a powerful thing about God that in these verses I just read, God repeats this quality of Himself. Notice in verse 6, He's abundant in goodness and truth, and then He repeats it in verse 7, keeping mercy. Same word, this loyal love that God has for His people. Someone said this way, that Chesed is an act of promise, keeping loyalty, motivated by a deep personal love and care. In Genesis chapter 32 verse number 10, Jacob is coming back from his exile. He's lived with Laban for a number of years. He's going to cross the river. He's going to appear before his brother who has been angry at him for a really long time. And Jacob wants a sign that God is with him. And what word does he go to? He goes to our word has said. He says in Genesis 32 verse 10, I am not worthy Speaking to God, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou has showed unto thy servant. Jacob said, I'm not worthy of all of God's has said. Now, what's interesting about Jacob's confession here is he says, I'm not worthy. And the fact is Jacob is not worthy, but it's not about how worthy Jacob is. It has nothing to do with Jacob. Chesed has nothing to do with Jacob and it has nothing to do with me or you. Chesed is about God fulfilling all of His character and His grace to us as sinners. It's not about us. We don't deserve God's goodness. It's all about God. He chose to love the world, and He chooses today to give goodness and mercy and loyal love in your life and mine. One of the interesting ways it's translated in our Bible is in Psalm 36, verse 7, where the psalmist said, How excellent is thy lovingkindness. Oh God, this word came into the English language, you may be not have used the word loving kindness in the grocery store this week. But in 1537, a man by the name of Miles Coverdale, he translated the Bible into English. And when he came to passages like Psalm 36, he didn't know how to encapsulate all that God is, all that God does, all that God wills. And so he took all that God is and he made up a word. Matter of fact, we sang a made up word this morning. When we were singing that first hymn, Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul, the made-up word was supernal. When the author was writing that song, he didn't have a word that rhymed with eternal, so he made up the word supernal. It's in the dictionary now, supernal. Do you guys ever make up words? I make up words all the time. I think my made up words are better than a lot of the words that have already been made up. And so Coverdale makes up a word, loving kindness. Why? Because one word is insufficient to describe what we know that God does for us. Like if I say to my wife, I love her. What do you mean by that? Can you describe the acts that love conveys? So it is with Chesed, if I say God is good to me, I'm encapsulating every great and glorious thing that God brings into my life. So I want to illustrate this word. We may come back to Exodus, but I want you to go in your Bibles with me to the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah and chapter number nine, the book of Nehemiah and chapter number nine. If you are a Bible reader, you come to the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is much a book about leadership. What's interesting is I was preparing for this sermon is that if I could have you read one chapter of the Bible that would tell you the whole story of the Old Testament. I mean, it gives the whole story of the Old Testament in one chapter of the Bible. I have a friend who's just finishing his journey through the scripture, and I just want to give you a challenge. If you've never read through the Bible from cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation, from generations to revolutions, you ought to take the time to read through the Bible. Every born-again Christian ought to read through the Word of God at least one time in their life. Can I get an amen right there? Nehemiah encapsulates all the Old Testament. Let me illustrate. Notice in verse number six, Thou, even Thou art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, and all their hosts, the earth and all the things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein, and you preserve them all, and the host of heaven worships you, and Thou art the God, the Lord, the God who did choose Abraham. There you have the book of Genesis. So what brings us to Nehemiah chapter number nine? Well, Nehemiah chapter number nine is about God putting into the heart of a Jew to go back to Jerusalem after the city had been destroyed. And he was called to come back to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of the city. God had really worked in the heart of three men to rebuild the city. Zerubbabel had come back. He'd come back to rebuild the temple. Ezra had come back to rebuild worship. And Nehemiah was called to come back and rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem. You'll notice as we come into the ninth chapter very quickly in verse number one, we see the setting of the story. In the 24th day of the month, the children of Israel were assembled with fasting and with sackcloth and earth upon their head. This is a group of people that are very desperate for God. Their forefathers had, many of them had been killed. Others had been taken into captivity. Their fair city, their Washington DC had been fully destroyed. I mean, raised to the ground. Many of these have been born as prisoners of war and captivity in the land of Babylon. And they've come back to do a work for God. And they got to this place where food was not anything that they so desired because there was something they desired greater than food. They wanted God to work. And they wore sackcloth. They put burlap sacks upon them to say that there's no material possession that we desire to have more than God. They put earth upon their head, signifying how desperate they were for God to work. And then the scripture says, in verse number three, that they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God, One fourth part of the day, that's six hours. And another six hours, they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. Now, I didn't tell you this when you came into church today, but for the next six hours, we're going to read scripture. And six hours after that, we're all going to confess our sins to God. And all God's people said, good luck. I'm going to lunch. That's what many of you said. These people are so desperate for God to do a work in their lifetime for the glory of God. Well, who are the speakers that give us this chapter? We'll notice in verse number four. Then stood up upon the stairs of the Levites, Yeshua, and Bani, and Kadmiel, and Shabaniah, and Bani, and Sherabiah, and Bani, and Shennaniah, and cried with a loud voice unto the Lord their God. These representatives for all the nation of Israel stood up for to read of the goodness of God to the nation of Israel. Now, I said it's the whole Bible in one chapter, and I'll come back to that. If you'll trust me, just set that on the side for a moment. We'll come back to that. But we have a wonderful illustration of God's loyal love in this chapter in the Bible in Nehemiah chapter nine. Now, let's look at verse 32. When they had described everything that God had done for their nation, the Bible says, Now therefore our God, the great and terrible, mighty God, notice the next phrase, who keepest covenant, and there's our word, chesed. He's the covenant-keeping God of Now, I think by now we have a pretty good idea of what Chesed is. Now I want you to see the meaning and message of the covenant. They talk about a covenant here. Now, I've referenced this in the last couple days, but I think it might be helpful for us to see exactly what's taking place in this portion of Scripture. So I want you to hold your place here, and we're going to go back to the book of Genesis. I hope you brought your Bible with you to church today. Genesis chapter number 15. Now again, when we go to buy a car, we sign a contract. When we buy a house, we sign a mortgage. When we even make agreements between friends, maybe we want that in writing, right? Word is no longer bond. deeper way of promise and covenant of some sort that you will keep your word and I will keep mine. Well, covenant is a much stronger form of contract because covenant signifies that if I sign a contract on a car and I don't make the payments, they're gonna come and they're gonna retake the car. If I don't make my mortgage payment, they're going to reclaim my home. But covenant doesn't mean I'm just gonna lose my car or lose my house. Covenant means, this means so much to me that I would rather die than go back on my word. This is the covenant, this is the promise that God makes with His people Israel. That He's so serious about this covenant that blood would be shed if the covenant was not kept. That blood would be the result, that death would be the result of somebody not keeping their side of the covenant. Now in Genesis chapter 15, we have a man by the name of Abraham. And Abraham has a promise from God. You can read it back in Genesis chapter 12. Abraham has a promise from God that God is going to make of him a mighty nation. Now he's an older man at the time. He's 75 when God appears to him. He says, you're gonna have a son, and that son will become as the stars of the heaven, as the sand by the seashore, and I'm gonna make of you a mighty nation, and in you will all the families of the earth be blessed. Now that promise was for Abraham to found a nation, the nation of Israel, the Hebrew people in the Old Testament. Well, the answer didn't come right away. And Abraham is aging, of course, his wife is aging, the biological clock has struck zero. And Abraham, this couple with AARP benefits in chapter 15, they're wanting a sign from God that God actually meant what he said. How many of you have put God to the test at times in your life? That I'm going to put God to the test and I want to make sure that God's going to uphold His end of a promise. And that's exactly what brings us to Genesis chapter number 15. Notice in your Bible where God says to Abraham in verse number one, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Look at verse number 15. 8. And he said, Abram, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? You're saying you're going to give me a land, you're going to give me a people, but I don't have any substantial proof that you're going to do what you promised you would do. How quickly we are to doubt the promises of God. Verse number nine, and he said to him, God says to Abram, take a heifer of three years old, and she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another, but the birds divided he not. We have a picture here of a covenant. Now I told you the word covenant means to cut. So he takes a bull, he takes a ram, He takes these animals, He divides them in two, He lays them across each other, and when we cut a covenant, I'm going to meet you in the middle of this cutting. We're going to begin at each other's backs, and we're going to walk away from each other, and we're going to form a symbol, 8, an infinity symbol. We come back, we meet each other face to face in the middle of this covenant. We're going to exchange garments. which says, what's yours is mine and what's mine is yours. We're going to exchange names. We're going to exchange blood. We're going to become blood brothers. In other words, I would rather die than go back on my end of this agreement. And so Abraham feels like, I asked God to show how this is going to come to pass in my life. And God said, make a covenant and I'll meet you there. And Abraham thinks, great, God's going to enter into covenant with me. And God's going to keep up his end of the agreement and I'm going to keep up my end of the agreement. Well, there's a great problem with that type of thinking, isn't there? The problem is we are so quick to go back on our word with God. I mean, how many of you have ever made a promise to God and didn't keep it? I mean, you made one of those God save my life and I will promises to God, right? And so God sets this scene for Abram. The Bible says he doesn't divide the birds. Verse number 11, when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Verse 12, notice it in your Bible, and when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years, and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge. And afterward shall they come up with great substance, and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and thou shalt be buried in a good old age. So Abram thinks, this is exactly what I've been praying for. God's going to take me. He's going to give me a son. And son, sons are going to be grandkids and great grandkids. And this family is going to grow. And then he's going to send us to a place of captivity where we're going to spread. And God's entering into a covenant with me and my people. That's what Abram thinks. Notice in verse 17. And it came to pass, when the sun was down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those places. In the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Under thy seed have I given this land, and from the river of Egypt and the great river, the river Euphrates." Where's Abram when all of this takes place? Verse number 12, he's what? He's asleep. And as Abram is asleep, watch this, as Abram is asleep, God enters into the covenant experience alone. And what God is saying to Abram is so instructive for us today. God is saying to Abram that I am entering into this covenant with myself. He's not entering with Abram because God is going to save the world and he's going to do so without his help. And if blood is to be shed, hear this very carefully. that if blood is to be shed, if this covenant is broken, it will not come from Abram's seed. If blood is to be shed because of the breaking of this covenant, God will Himself die and God will Himself bleed for the violation of this covenant. In other words, if it all goes wrong, if it all goes south, if it all breaks apart, He's saying Abram's not the one who's going to suffer. God himself will suffer for the transgressed terms of this covenant that is made. Ladies and gentlemen, 2,000 years later, The Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says in John 1, 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He repeats the words from our verse today. And Jesus Christ. does indeed die for our sins. He indeed does bleed for our sins. He indeed was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm saying this to you this morning, that salvation has nothing to do with the promises that you make to God. Salvation is regarding the promise that God made within himself, that God paid the debt to his father that Jesus Christ suffered and bled and died at the hands of sinful men. But he did it to please the father. He took your penalty. He took your place. And we are saved today, not because of what we did for God. We are saved because of what God did for those of us who are sinners. Amen. The meaning of covenant. This covenant keeping God. Says, I will suffer the penalty. For your sin. He says to Moses, I want you to know that I am a God of abundant has said. And truth, I will die for you. You know, there's no other religion in the world that makes the Christianity claims. that this God would become personal, that would become part of the world, that he would die for the sins of those who follow him. Muhammad says, die for me and you can have eternal life. Did you know, by the way, the only promise of eternal life in Islam is to become a martyr for the cause? The Quran never says that Allah loves you. You die for him. But God, through the person of Jesus, He died for you. And He loves you. He's a God of great hased. But I want us to go back to Nehemiah, and I want us to go to chapter 9. I want you to see number 3, the motivation of all Christians. The motivation of all Christians. Now I said to you, this chapter in the Bible is the whole Old Testament in one chapter. Verse 38, the scripture, when we get to the end of the chapter, I want you to notice what he says. And we're talking about God's loyal love. They've experienced this. The covenant keeping God. They've experienced His goodness. Three times in this passage they sin and He's still good to them. Three times, seasons of transgression, He still comes to them. He says in verse 38, and because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it. Notice the words again in verse 38, because of all this. Can we all say that together? Because of all this. Now, we all live, notice, we all live between two motivations. I hope you'll get this. This could change your life. We all live between being motivated in order to or because of. In order to or because of. They said, we make this covenant sure because, because of all God has done. And I would submit to you that God's has said is unlike our has said. In Hosea 6, 4, he speaks about the nation of Israel, and he says, he calls them Ephraim, a pet name. Oh, Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? Oh, Judah, what shall I do unto you? For your chesed is as a morning cloud. As the early dew, it goeth away. Your mercy is fleeting. Your mercy is like a cloud that appears and it diminishes. Your love and longsuffering is like dew that's upon the ground, but God's longsuffering is so much greater than ours. What did he do for them? Notice in verse number nine, and did see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard their cry by the Red Sea. He parted the Red Sea for them. They came to an impenetrable sea in Exodus 14 and Moses lifted up his rod and the people were terrified that the Egyptians were pursuing them and the wilderness was both sides of them and the sea in front of them and this God parted the sea and they crossed on dry ground. He said in verse number 10, He freed them from slavery and showed signs and wonders, verse 10, upon Pharaoh and all his servants and on all the people of his land, for thou knewest that they dealt proudly against them. So did thou get a name as it is this day. He delivered them from bondage. Don't you remember what it was like to be bound? And aren't you grateful that God set you free? He said, In verse 14, the Bible says He provided a Sabbath for them. He made known unto them, verse 14, His holy Sabbath. He gave them seasons of rest. Can I utter a four-letter word in this fast-moving society? It's the word rest. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The algorithms of this world are designed to distract you and to captivate you and to enslave you and to make you a prisoner of the moment. But God has a gift called Sabbath whereby we cease from the labor of our six days. We give ourselves entirely to God. Every seventh day they had a day of rest. Every seventh year they had a year of rest. Every 50th year they had a year of Jubilee in which everybody's Debts were canceled and the land was allowed to rest. The best part of being a Jew was God's seasons of rest. He taught them how to come apart from the culture and he taught them how to find rest for their souls. Verse 15, he said he gave them bread to satisfy their hunger. He brought water to them to satisfy their thirst. He gave them a land to enjoy. Verse 17, after they had sinned, the scripture says, now we're about in Exodus 32, in position in this passage, verse 17 of this text, they refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them, but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion, appointed a captain to return to their bondage, but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and you forsook them not." He didn't render evil for evil. He didn't give them evil for their evil. He rendered goodness and mercy for that which they gave back to God. Notice verse 20. The Bible says, he gave them his spirit. Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them. And He didn't withhold manna from their mouths. He gave them water for their thirst. He gave them the Spirit to guide them. This great God gave them His Spirit to lead them, to direct them, to show them the way that they were to go. Can I just stop and say, we as believers in Jesus Christ have been given the promise of the Holy Spirit, and He leads us, and He guides us, and He comforts us, and He enables us, and He convicts us, and He comforts us, and He leads us, in our lives. How many of us are grateful today for the Holy Spirit of God? Verse 21, He sustained them. Yet 40 days did thou sustain them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not. Can you imagine shoes? Can you imagine shoes that lasted for 40 years? Can you imagine clothes that lasted for 40 years? It's as if God was sustaining His people in a miraculous way. Verse 23, then He multiplied their seed. Verse 23, "...their children also multiplied as the stars of heaven and brought them into the land concerning which thou hast promised to their fathers. Indeed, they became innumerable as the sand by the seashore." They became innumerable as the stars in the sky. He multiplied their seed in his promise to Abraham. Verse 25, He said, They took strong cities, and fat land, and possessed houses full of goods, and wells digged, and vineyards, and olive yards, and fruit trees in abundance, so they did eat, and were filled, and became fat, and delighted themselves in thy great goodness. They enjoyed a life that was prepared for them by God, because eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and neither entered into their hearts the things that God had prepared for them that love Him. Spoiled them. He provided for them. Look at verse 27. Now we're in the book of Judges. Verse 27. Therefore, thou deliverest them into the hand of their enemies who vexed them. And in the time of their trouble, when they had cried unto thee and heardest them from heaven and according to thy manifold mercies, thou gavest them saviors who saved them out of the hand of their enemies. He gave them judges to defend them. The people would cry out, and he would bring deliverance, and the deliverer would bring rest, and they would enjoy the spoils of rest, and then they would recline, and they would backslide, and then God would bring persecution, and then he'd raise up a leader, and the leader would set them free, and they would have rest, and then they would backslide, and then God would bring a persecutor, and he'd send a deliverer. God did this seven times in the book of Judges to prove to them that he cared for them, and when they would cry out, verse 28, he heard their cry. But after that they had rest, they did evil again before thee. Therefore left thou them in the hand of their enemies, so that they have the dominion over them. Yet when they returned and cried unto thee, thou heardest them from heaven. And many times, notice, many times did thou deliver them according to thy mercies. Over and over and over and over and over again. God was gracious in remembering his covenant mercy to the people. And when they get to the end of this whole synopsis of the Old Testament goodness of God, they said in verse 38, and because of all this. We make a sure covenant and write it. I hope you'll look at me for just a moment. God has been better to you than you deserve. I sound like Dave Ramsey this morning. Better than I deserve. God has been so good to me. God has been so generous and kind and patient and loving and forgiving and generous with you. And because of all that God has done, we ought to serve Him with our lives. I was reading about three types of grace. I'll give it to you quickly. Three types of grace through which Christians seek to interact with God. First of all, there's transactional grace. Transactional grace means if He will, I will. Or if I will, He will. Have you ever been transactional with God? We live in a very transactional generation. Very transactional. I remember doing demographic research in New Smyrna years ago. I discovered that on New Smyrna Beach, The divorce rate was like 17%. I was like, that's fantastic, 17%. That's like a third of the national average. And then I looked up the number of pregnancies out of wedlock. It was 93%. And I discovered people were not getting divorced because people were not getting married. That's the world we live in today. Not to be crude or unkind, but we live in a sexual culture of transactionalism. Young people who are involved in transactional relationships report that only 25% of young people involved in what's called the hookup culture, 25% even care to know the name of the person with which they have a sexual encounter. We live in an excessively transactional generation. Listen to me. We bring many of those same thoughts and philosophies into our worship of God. We think we can pay in and God will pay out. We think if I can be in church for a little while and tithe for a little while and be a good boy for a little while, then God will be gracious to me. That's in order to grace. And it's a misunderstanding of grace. We don't do in order to get something from God. We do because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary. Transactional grace. Then the author talked about unilateral grace. He will alone. God will alone. And we do nothing. And then the third is transformational or reciprocal grace. Reciprocal grace says, He will, so I will. He has, so I will. It's 1 John 4.19. We love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 3.16, Hereby we perceive the love of God because He laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. I want you to sit for a moment and think about all the good mercies of God and because of all Christ has done for us. How can we do less than give him our best and live for him completely? We talk about churches needing assistance and people volunteering. There is no such thing as volunteering. For those of us who are truly Christian and have been saved by grace, there is serving. serving because of what Christ has done for us. Hey, listen, God shouldn't have to shake me down for my money. God shouldn't have to shake me down for my time. God shouldn't have to shake me down for my submission. God shouldn't have to shake me down to make me do the right thing. God should look down upon an unworthy sinner who was revolutionized by grace and say he'll do what he ought to do because of all I've done for him. There's an Old Testament story I think that sums it up all really, really well. If you take your Bible really quickly, 2 Samuel chapter number 9, there's a story in the Old Testament about a man who was from this line of Abram, this this covenant people. He was a king in the line of this royal people. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and the tribes of Israel, and then God chose the tribe of Judah, and out of Judah He was going to raise up a king. And this young man had a really interesting childhood because he was anointed to be the king when he was a teenager, And as he's the anointed king, he goes out into a valley floor and he slays a giant. And it just seems like his life is on a trajectory of winning. I mean, he's like MAGA. He's won so much, he's tired of winning. I mean, he's just on this like MAGA track to success, right? But he doesn't meet success. He meets a lot of abject difficulty. God brings a man in his life that's from a different tribe of Israel, and I call the other man spiritual sandpaper. Does anyone in your life kind of represent spiritual sandpaper? I mean, they're designed by God to smooth off all the rough edges in your life. And for 20 years, this young man, I think you know his name by now, so I'll go ahead and tell you, his name is David. And David has a guy named Saul for 20 years that's like spiritual sandpaper in his life. And numerous occasions, Saul tries to kill this boy because he's threatened by his power with God and with men. But the king, Saul, has a son whose name is Jonathan. And in 1 Samuel chapter 18 verse 3, the Bible says that Jonathan and David made a covenant because they loved each other. They made a covenant. Well, as David is trying to navigate all of this difficulty with Saul, eventually Jonathan dies in battle and Saul dies in battle as well. And eventually David gets to the throne. And once he's in the throne, he can do whatever he wants to do. He can torment those who gave him a hard time. He could throw the book at the descendants of this family that was so toxic in his life. I mean, the purpose of life is to eradicate all the toxic people out of your life. That's the goal of life. I mean, once you're in power, I mean, the point of power is to take it out on those who threatened you getting to power in the first place. Here David is on the throne. In 2 Samuel chapter 9, David remembers the covenant that he'd made with his friend Jonathan. And the Bible says in verse number 1, And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul? And just bear with my reading of the Bible here. Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I might show chesed for Jonathan's sake? No, David, you're the king. Settle your scores. Take it out on them. Destroy their family. Ruin their posterity. Take their possessions away. Seize their property. Destroy their name. And David says, no, no, no. Is there anybody left of the house of Saul that I can show God's loyal love to? Well, they said there's one left. But when he was a little boy, he's like five years old, his nurse was fleeing from a difficult battle and he was dropped as a child and he's crippled on his feet. He cannot walk. His name is Mephibosheth. And David said, I want you to send a message down to Lodabar. I want the crippled one. I want him to come and eat at my table continually. And so Mephibosheth, the one that was lame on his feet, the son of Jonathan, the grandson of Saul, his mortal enemy, was called to the king's house and ate at his table. continually. Can I tell you something? It's one thing to be crippled. But brother, when you're sitting at the king's table, guess what people can't see? They can't see how cripple you are because you've been redeemed by God's amazing, wonderful, matchless grace. And David serves as an amazing picture of Christ who doesn't settle scores or seek to get even. He seeks to show the kindness and love of God to others in his life. Listen, as we come to get to know God, he calls us to be his reflection in this world. And I encourage you today, as God has been so kind and gracious to you through the merits of Jesus, he bled and died, to ratify the covenant to save the world as he died in our place because of all he's done. There's something we need to do for him today. Let's be faithful. Let's be loving. Let's be the hands and heart and feet of Jesus in this world and show his compassion until he comes. May we pray. Our father, we thank you for. Your has said your loyal love. Your kindness to us in Jesus. God, we know that you forgave us for Christ's sake and we forgive others for Christ's sake as well. We all condemn sinners as Mephibosheth have so much that we want covered in our lives. We are crippled on our feet too. But you've sat us at the king's table and you've allowed us into the throne room of the king. And there we have peace and fellowship and joy. And father, there are people in our lives we've excluded from that place. Help us to be redeeming people with loyal love. who extend your grace and your compassion in this world to those who so desperately need you. Guide us and help us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Our heads are bowed, I just want you to stand quietly with me together. Listen, because of all Christ has done for us, I wonder if there's something in our lives that we're holding back on Jesus today. Because of all he's done, how many of you say, Pastor, God has done so much for me, and because of all he's done, there's some things in my life I need to give to him today. Would you lift your hand and you say, hold it, God bless you, hands all over the building, because of all he's done. Jesus, we crown you with praise. Lord, we come to you today, we give that to you that you purchased on the cross for us, and we want to give it to you today. As the piano begins to play, we'll sing that chorus in just a moment, but God by His Spirit is speaking to your heart because of all He's done for you, you want to come to Him today and just give Him your life? Give Him your soul. Give Him your heart. Maybe you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. We invite you to come. Just take someone by the hand that's in the altar to help you and pray with you. I need to know Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. There's some needs in my life I'm holding out on God. I've been transactional with God, but I want to come because of all He's done for me. There's some things I want to do for God. Maybe He's calling you to serve Him today and you've been resisting Him, Because of all He's done for you, you say, I want to give my life to Him because He loved me. If He would bleed and die for my sin, I want to give my life to Him. And that's my burden today. I invite you to come.