"A Love Story" - John Bradshaw (Sermon Only)

[Music] foreign well we all want to express our appreciation for our singers don't we can you say amen amen thank you thank you thank you good morning everyone what a blessing to be here today thank you Pastor Harden for extending an invitation for having me here that's really a blessing now for those of you don't know I come here from Collegedale Tennessee where I live in udawa kind of the same thing uh Collegedale Ottawa Chattanooga now I have some it is written resources in the foia and I hope you'll grab them be just so embarrassing we have to take them back with us but what I should have brought it seems to me what I should have brought was magazines from real estate agents it seemed like for a while like every two or three weeks we'd have a transfer request come through the bulletin at the church that Melissa and I attend we attend Chattanooga first someone or other from Franktown Colorado oh in effect three or four weeks later Franktown Colorado Frank down Colorado a month later I have to tell you I wondered what was wrong because they were all all coming out and then I realized that the Exodus is not yet completed so it's time for the rest of y'all it's uh what's the temperature outside don't give me that nonsense just tell me the temperature and she did how about that I don't know your location yes you do you know everything about me Siri what's the temperature in Chattanooga Tennessee it's best I don't tell you I was going to but it's best I don't anyway uh the stances and others who love loved and loved Franktown uh asked me particularly please send our greetings so greeting is from the former coloradans who are now tennesseans and who are not paying state income tax it's true not one of them well it's lovely to be back thank you again my wife Melissa is with me this time and she's uh she's right there it would be remiss of me if I didn't tell you how brilliant she is Melissa recently uh completed uh something called buried treasure it is an evangelism program for kids we don't want to call it an Evangelistic series because that has the connotation of sermons and so forth but it's what you'd use as the kids meetings during an Evangelistic series it's outstanding with it there's a CD of 25 25. 22 22 scripture songs they're just great they're as good as anything I've ever heard Melissa wrote almost all of them our daughter Shannon wrote one and another brilliant boy wrote one and one we stole but other than that they're all original we didn't technically steal it we tried to find out who wrote it no one knew we asked the people who knew all that stuff no one knew so we just like thank you and we borrowed it because so anyway the CD itself is fantastic and and spinning off from that Melissa is now uh developing a vacation bible school called flight 316. and it's wonderful and it's based on the uh it is written bible studies for kids the My Place with Jesus Bible guides and they're great and uh the the one thing about this look I'll just be honest because I don't know if I'll ever be back so I can take a few chances um one of the things that drives me nuts about vacation bible schools is the music just drives me nuts you don't have to say amen and out yourself you can just you can raise your eyebrows and say well look listen to him but that just drives me nuts it's music like you'd hear in a nightclub and I don't want my kids going to that stuff at a VBS so Melissa has incorporated good music I think without the without the without the I don't know even who the musicians are today without any of that um so anyway that's not all but that's just one good feature so that's that and Melissa is having a wonderful time and doing a a great thing busy busy time the thing about it is written is it's just evangelism if it's not evangelism we don't do it so that's why today my friend and colleague Wes Peppers is in Loma Linda conducting an Evangelistic series it's really interesting he was invited there by the Advent hope Group which is a student group and as he's as he's preaching I mean Evangelistic messages he's being approached by uh lifelong Adventists who are saying why have I never heard this before or with this we need to be hearing this so that's fun but decisions are being made for baptism and people are being lit up by the gospel and that's great I mentioned last night my friend and colleague Doug na who runs our salt evangelism training program is in Texas doing meetings and salt is going great and but full of mission trips happening it's just a fun it's a fun time uh it beats working for a living and um and we're we're having a happy time just got back from um somewhere but soon we're going to Bolivia last year Robert Costa who leads our Spanish language Ministry uh was there and there were seven thousand baptisms which we think is nice but they invited us back and they said this year eight thousand so John if you come there'll be eight thousand so Robin and I are going I'm really going just to get in Robert's way I don't speak Spanish he does he's a wonderful preacher I'm and he's going to translate for me which I think is hilarious um but we're going now so you wonder right you say why are they thinking there'll be 8 000 baptisms in the city of Santa Cruz where we'll be going there are 567 small groups operating and every one of them is Evangelistic I was there recently for a rally the union president preached and he preached a sermon mostly about Sabbath school which as I listened I thought this is a curious sermon but it was about evangelism and what they do there is they they attach small groups to the Sabbath school and anyway it just goes great so I I don't want you thinking I'm going to wave a magic wand and people are going to respond and say wow he is so good I must be baptized the work is being done now you know and we go there just to call people to decision uh Robert is holding meat is in Colombia later this year they're having an initiative called ten thousand plus ten thousand ten thousand small groups and they're all being encouraged to win one soul well you know there'll be about six of them when it's all the others will win one or two or three or four so they're ten thousand baptisms would be 25 or 30 000 baptisms and we wonder why and it's absolutely true that it's not one world and the United States is different than let's say Central or South America it's just true that there are differences but what they what I've discovered down there is they're in acquisition mode where many of our churches here are in maintenance mode and and the leaders down there are all about acquisition and growth appropriately and and we don't always share that in the Western World so it's absolutely fun to be part of what they're doing down there um just real fun we go to Idaho soon and we're doing a Statewide series of meetings there from Treasure Valley so anyway that's that's us um we're filming programs like crazy where um we just finished filming a series on the seven churches we go to England soon to do programs about Great Men of Faith John Newton George and John Bunyan um and then I I forget a series of nine or ten on the Book of Revelation that are in development right now anyway good fun so what I'm asking you is is to pray for us we don't make programs just for the sake of making them we make them so people will watch them and be moved by them if you did not know not move but move to make a decision for Jesus if you didn't know it is written as a television channel and that's where you can see our weekly Flagship program that's the one that most people know about um our programs in Spanish are there our conversations programs they're fun programs where we just sit down and interview people and talk to them about their story uh I sat down and talked to one man and and we were going to talk about a book didn't know he had been a student missionary in Cambodia when Paul Pott was rolling through the countryside and so we never did talk about his book didn't even get to it we brought him back to talk about that um I mentioned last night the fellow who's who's who deals with um recovery now he was an addict for years and years and years and now he's been working in recovery for even longer than he was an addict and that was a long time the pastor who was driving his car crashed into a lamp post he got run off the road one of those Transformer things fell down front to the front of his car and his car began to melt he noticed the windshield was melting and the windows on the side were doing this and as as the windshield started to drip on the floor it actually was so hot it went right through the floor what he didn't know is that all the electricity from that Transformer was running through the car he couldn't get out he was he couldn't get a seat belt undone he couldn't get out but a man approached the car opened the door unclicked the seat belt got him out said you'll be okay and he disappeared and even one of those Mysteries of the Unexplained TV programs went searching for the Mystery Men couldn't find him the conclusion was that he was an what else could he have been so a Modern Life Angel story we were in Ethiopia last year several thousand people baptized that was fun what was a real fun it was at 65 percent of them were Muslim so God's at work God's at work if we work God is at work so would you if you would be gracious enough just to pray for us if it is written from time to time uh we have one of our it is written executive committee members here present today uh great to see you Terry Terry Anderson so glad for you um and uh and that's all I was going to say something else about Pastor Houghton but that would that would feel a little bit like sticking the knife in and twisting it so I went uh several things I believe I believe that Jesus is coming again soon do you believe that I believe he's coming again soon I also believe that God is for us and not against us that's what I think there's a verse written by Peter which says that the long-suffering of Our Lord is salvation think that true the long-suffering the patience of God that's salvation which says that God suffers along with us he hangs in there with us in in the in the psalm Psalm 103 when I've read this verse it absolutely changed changed my life he knoweth our frame he rememareth that we are dust God Knows What You're Made Of loves you anyway isn't put off by any of that isn't bothered if you'll allow me to use that word by your colorful history or even the struggles you're having with right now having right now he understands something about the power of Grace and what Grace can do in your life so I believe I believe there's every reason to be hopeful today every reason to be hopeful in the goodness and grace of God and perhaps my remarks this morning might speak to that we have a group of people joining us online I've spoken with several who said he can't be there today but but we're online I don't know whether you're there or there so I'll do this welcome is it the green one or the red one It's usually the red one happy Sabbath nice to see you thanks for being here in the spirit if you're unable to be here uh bodily we're just grateful that you're here very very thankful for you come on let's pray together a father in Heaven in Jesus name we come to you if we could we would bring to you our goodness and our righteousness but being as we have none of either we come to you pleading the merits of the shed blood of Jesus and we thank you that that will be always enough we have been blessed this morning blessed through prayer and beautiful music blessed as we have witnessed and participated in the dedication of one of your newest Young friends so we've been encouraged today and now I pray you'd encourage us again would you speak to us please undoubtedly we have come to church today with our baggage and I mean that just in a matter of fact way we we've brought out hurts today and sometimes it's it's out it's our I don't know even our ill intent our sin our weakness our dysfunction here we are here we are with it all but we believe that we've brought it all to the right place this is the day that the Lord hath made we have every right to look at this moment as the high point of our week the zenith of this 168-hour period so make it special would you and I pray that we can all take from here something that will encourage us in your way we thank you and we love you and we pray in Jesus name please say with me amen this is a love story let's start in first Samuel chapter 18 beginning of the chapter if you have your Bible or your device go there right now I'll start reading while you catch up first Samuel chapter 18 it's worth looking at and verse 1. the Bible says now when he had finished speaking to Saul that was first Samuel 18 at the beginning when he had finished speaking to Saul the son of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David and Jonathan loved him that's David as his own soul first Samuel 18 verse 2. Saul took him that day and would not let him that's David go home to his father's house anymore then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he Jonathan loved David as his own soul and Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David with his armor even to his sword at his bow at his belt I'll come back I think to the significance of that in moments from now now in the previous chapter chapter 17 David a Shepherd boy up until this point had killed the guy the Giant Goliath Goliath had been challenging actually taunting God's people for six weeks and an untrained youth with a sling and a handful of stones and faith in a mighty God brought the giant down Jonathan no doubt saw in David what he did not see in his faithless father who was willing to put armor on a boy and send him into battle while he stood back at a distance what Jonathan could have seen in David was a rival but he did not Jonathan was a big man he was he was God's man he was a true hearted man and his own record shows that he was Valiant he was Intrepid he and David quickly forged a bond that as we'll see lasted long after they were still able to meet together on terra firma Jonathan's act towards David was magnanimous it was gracious it seems he gave David the very sword he had used when he conquered the Philistine Garrison that he took care of and weapons had been extraordinarily hard to come by the Philistines had prevented the manufacture of Steel weapons in Israel forbid it outlawed it the Bible tells us the only two in Israel who had swords were Saul the king and his son Jonathan Jonathan therefore in giving this to David as a gift was modeling kindness and courtesy he was demonstrating real Philadelphia brotherly love and when he helped David even saving David's life he imperiled his own life as he did so Saul in a fit of rage attempted to take the life of his own son but Jonathan understood friends help friends it's just what you do he also knew that his father was losing his grip now if you are familiar with the story and I believe that for the most part you are you will know that Jonathan lost his life in the same battle during which King Saul his father died now they were on a Fool's errand in that battle Victory against that great Philistine Confederacy was never likely never likely David witnessed the kingdom suffer a great loss while he himself suffered an enormous personal loss when his dear friend Jonathan perished then even though David had been anointed to assume the throne Jonathan's brother this is significant grabbed the throne David had to wait another two full years before he was Monarch then then David LED Israel in a great overwhelming Victory against the Philistines who fascinatingly enough had come to Victory with their Idols the record says that when they fled the battlefield was looted with the idols that the Philistines had left behind David did not come to battle with his idols David came to battle in faith in a mighty God things went well for this faithful King David the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to Jerusalem he defeated Moab he defeated Syria he defeated Edom and then and then came time for David to reflect and when he did now let's go to second Samuel chapter nine and when he reflected second Samuel chapter 9. David said in verse 1. is there yet any that is left of the House of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake and there were also of the House of Saul a servant whose name was zaiba and when they called him to David the king said to him are you zaiba he said yes thy servant is he I'm zymon the king said I believe this is verse three of second Samuel 9. is there not yet any of the House of Saul that I may show the kindness of God unto him phenomenal and zaiba said unto the king Jonathan hath yet a son who is lame on his feet now this tells you everything you needed to know about zyba you will notice as we progress that he was a sneaky sort of a fellow he was a grabbing grasping man is there anybody left of the House of Saul yep a son didn't name him and he's lame on his feet yes there's this crippled boy I could have said that 50 years ago and you all would have been that's all right but we don't say that now there's a disabled boy now this is really significant consider the context remember in Jesus day this boy is born blind so who sinned did he send it at his parents sin he's blind clearly this is the stroke of God it was believed in that context in that culture that if you were disabled in some way that you had displeased God so sneaky zeiba said yeah there's a there's a kid I won't even name him he's disabled you wouldn't be interested in him the the inference was you might be interested in me though because even though I was not a son of Saul one of his family I was a servant next best thing so David is told that of the House of Saul there is somebody living it happens to be the son of his dearest ever friend he's not been named yet but he will be soon he's a disabled boy for what that's worth when you read the story you discover that in in a in a great Panic his nurse gathered him up and fled dropped him drop the little fella on us on his well on his feet legs so we don't know if he couldn't walk if he if he limped if he if he if he was on crutches we don't know exactly the nature of his disability but it's enough to know that he was disabled and he was had some difficulty getting around we'll come back to that in a minute but I want to talk about Saul for a moment because I can contrary to what a reasonable person might expect David was not giddy upon learning that Saul was dead he was not exultant you might think he would be because Saul had made David's life an utter misery a misery Saul is dead David's not thrilled we can learn some things from the downfall of King Saul one of the things that drove him to Madness was jealousy the women went about singing Saul has killed his thousands David has killed his ten thousand yeah I can understand how that might great but that was just pride and his pride was badly wounded what we learn is this if you are prone to jealousy it's better that you let it go now than later just let it go and you can you do know don't you that you get to choose what you think about you can brood and stew and plot and scheme or you can actually remove your thoughts from that place them somewhere else start the day I mean don't but if you start of the day think about how you got so much to do and how miserable it is and how people don't like you and so on by the time you get to two o'clock in the afternoon you're ready to jump off a bridge but if that thought enters your mind in the morning and you said oh don't say go it's good I've plenty to live for and there is my much that's good in the world by two in the afternoon you are singing joyfully to yourself you get to choose what you think about your thoughts shouldn't push you around now I'm not talking about somebody who's clinically depressed or dealing with something that perhaps a doctor might best work but I'm not sure about that but for the great majority of us you get to choose what you think about and think what you want to think if you want to be jealous you can be but that's evident that you are small self-centered and and Petty let people be people and if that woman gets complimented all the time about how pretty she is be thankful for her and if this guy has told what a great guy is and how smart and talented and what an achiever he is if you don't measure up in your mind let it go you measure up in God's mind God loves the rich and the poor the free and the bond the black and the white the the infamous and the famous he loves all equally and that's what ought to matter you have as much reason to feel good about yourself and good about your life as absolutely anybody on this planet when Jesus comes back he is coming back for you you ought to feel good about that wonder if you can say Amen all right when God asks you to do something point two do it God commanded Saul kill the amalekites wipe them out wipe them out and he almost did brought back a lot of animals and he brought back the king king agag well what's the big deal well two things number one he disobeyed God and the prophet Samuel came to the king and he said pretty much you're done if you can't do something like this in obedience what kind of a king will you ever be but secondly you go further down the line of History to the time of kingada Xerxes and Queen Esther and in Estes time there was that awful fellow Haman and a Haman issued a decree or had a decree issued rather that every Jew in medo-persia would be executed Haman was an agagite he wouldn't have existed if Kings if if King Saul had done his job but Saul backed up let some Scoundrels escape and as a result Along Came the Haman and that dark night for the Jewish people when God asks we give him a hundred percent there's no point giving him 99 98 or anything less and then number three it's important to stay in your lane I think it's pretty good to be king but when Saul was King he decided that he would be priest Samuel didn't keep an appointment that fit in a way with uh Saul's timetable so he said no priests no worries I'll offer the sacrifice and that was it he should never have done that stay in your lane that is do what God asks you to do presumption is not necessarily a good thing in fact it's necessarily A Bad Thing David watched Saul descend deeper and deeper into madness essentially but he always respected Saul Saul was the Lord's anointed he had opportunities to kill Saul when Saul was hunting him in the wilderness there was a time he crept into the camp and he and he was inches from Saul I mean inches he took some of his possessions on one time cut off a little bit of Saul's clothing at another time there were others who said shall we kill him if he had people would have called David a hero but he opted not to kill the man he showed him Respect by virtue of his god-given position it's something we could learn about that I think I'll leave you to figure out what that is because maybe it's different things for different people but I was reading this morning in a book called The Desire of Ages where the author made a point and I'm going to paraphrase it's always better to let God do something in his time than for you to do something inappropriate and try to speed up the process David you I'm going to be the king I don't need to kill the man God Will Take Care he had respect for this man in authority and there's a lot in that thought Saul was absolutely David's enemy and yet he was David saying is there anyone from the house of Saul to whom I could show Mercy now in that culture in that time it wasn't unusual for someone like a new king to find every surviving member of the old King's family and do them in I mean if you didn't probably going to take revenge and you'll wake up with a sword in your back it was the done thing to kill the family of the outgoing monarch but David wasn't like that he would show kindness to Saul's household he would go so far and this was far as to show kindness to his absolute enemies his enemies could we do with more of that today anyone can be harsh or spiteful to an enemy that's easy but can you be big enough to be gracious you can hold a grudge no doubt but can you hold yourself with dignity I read a line recently somewhere it wasn't some great philosopher it might have been online I don't know and whoever wrote it said Christianity isn't just about loving Jesus it's also about loving Judas Jesus said love your enemies he was merely echoing what God had inspired the prophets to write in the Old Testament there's something in the book of Deuteronomy that says if you see your enemies your enemies animal going astray it is your duty to go and find that animal and bring it back even though it belongs to your enemy if you see a donkey falling down under its load and the donkey belongs to your enemy you ought to go and assist the donkey move some of that weight get it back on its feet even though it's just a dumb donkey and it belonged to your enemy Proverbs 24 17 if your enemy is hungry give them food to drink if he's thirsty give him water to drink Proverbs 25 21 don't rejoice when your enemy fails goes on and says if you do God will be displeased I wonder what the world would be like if we just chose to love our enemies you know I wonder what the church would be like if we just chose to love our enemies we'd have less enemies I'm sure when we were kids going to Saint Paul's School in my little Hometown in New Zealand we would sing a song that said they will know we are Christians by our love David loved his enemy I want to show kindness to Saul's house notice this there was nothing compelling him to do that nothing there was no social expectation no societal ritual or custom why would a king be moved to do such a thing well I told you this is a love story and you'll notice you'll notice David went out of his way to do this it's not a it's not that his PR team came to him and said this will help you in the polls this will play well on social media David didn't do it for likes it wasn't a Tick-Tock stunt I'll do something nice and I'll post about it online so I can everybody can see I'm a great God just love these guys you find a homeless guy and they give him fifty dollars and the homeless guy cries and hugs them and then they post it online like what a guy I am couldn't you just given a guy 50 bucks and moved on oh no you got to have the world see what a terrific person you are David though wasn't what my one friend called a lick spittle it's an actual word in the English language he was you can I mean it's I think it's obvious what it means he was not a Toady nor was he a men pleaser two points sometimes you just do what you do for the sake of doing it not for Applause not for upvotes and not for likes and second if you're on social media you'd be better off getting off than doing something imprudent or inappropriate for likes yeah there's probably a parenthetical statement you do know don't you that once it's online it's online forever and you think you're rolling up to a job interview with a resume forgetting that you have another resume it's called everything you've ever done online and I can tell you as a potential employer they're exactly the same thing David was magnanimous though he was altruistic he believed in doing right because it was right verse 5 David had the son of Jonathan brought to him now imagine this imagine this the Fella's name is mephibosheth mephibosheth's dad and David they were good friends but mephibosheth's Uncle had tried to take the throne and mephibosheth's granddaddy had hunted David like a wild animal now this King has sent an order find the guy and bring him to my office if you're mephibosheth I think you think you're dead and given that he's as the Bible says lame he has a disability uh and I'm talking about the context of the time he might have thought you know I'm not worth a whole lot I'm not able-bodied I'm the granddaddy of his worst enemy it's over verse 6 says now when mephibosheth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul was come unto David he fell on his face and did reverence David said mephibosheth he said behold thy servant and David said first two words after he out of his name were fear not oh that must have been like music right to mephibosheth fear not like bro don't worry you have nothing to worry about right now it is all good for I will surely show the kindness for Jonathan your father's sake poof wow and David went on I wonder if he could hear him expect he must have and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father grandfather you shall eat bread at my table continually so you got a disabled guy who's the grandson of the worst enemy anybody in the Bible had other than Satan he's brought into the presence of David whom he's never met he thinks it's over and by the time he's done David has essentially said to lame mephibosheth I am now making you a part of the Royal Family all that land that belonged not to your dad but to your grandfather we've gone back a couple of generations now I'm gonna take that letter how much land do you think it was by the way you don't think that King Saul had a little postage stamp size lot on which he was going to build a home one day this man had acres and acres and Acres he had real real estate he said I'm giving it to you you are what yes you it's yours and eat no no no he said I know how I know how Bachelors cook man from now on you eat at my table my servants will prepare the food it's the best food in Israel you can come and eat this fantastic Middle Eastern food here at the palace from now on this was almost an exorbitant thing that the King was doing he bowed himself he said what is your servant that you should look upon you've got to love the language such a dead dog as I am so David told cyber who had been Saul's servant that everything that was Saul's was now mephibosheths and that cyber and his sons would tend the land and harvest the fruit of that land for mephibosheth now think this through mephibosheth life has been tough for you you're getting all your granddad's land all of it those servants are gonna till the land work the land so everything the land produces it's yours but you won't be needing to eat it because you're eating at my house now so now you have a steady income stream you can grow your pomegranates and you can grow yarana figs and grapes and whatever sell it at the market that's just pocket money you do whatever you want with that because you will not need to buy food because you're basically part of the family and I'm looking after you like a son some mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem for he to eat continually at the king's table and was lame on both his feet what motivates someone like David to do this well I mentioned to you this is a love story you know the story isn't only about David and Jonathan and David and mephibosheth this is a love story about the love of God for a fallen human race this is David having Mercy on a man who should be his enemy Saul's grandson the Flesh and Blood of a man who repeatedly tried to end David's life for no good reason he's the Flesh and Blood of the man who attempted desperately to foil God's plans to act actually nullify the express will of God David will be king oh no oh no I'll take care of that David became so completely demoralized by Soul he ended up seeking Refuge with the Philistines a silly move a move of faithlessness but something we can understand no doubt this man had made an utter mess of David's life why then does David go out of his way to find surviving relatives of Saul only to show kindness to them no the better question is why does God send his son Divinity in human flesh to travel across the cosmos to this rebellious planet in search of people to whom he can give everlasting life it's not a small question if you answer this question accurately or close enough to accurately you then understand your place in the heart of God in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth and burn right after that his children went askew when they did God responded by giving to Adam and Eve the gift of repentance he spoke to the servant he said you will bruise the heel of the woman's seed but he will bruise your head now notice Divinity wasn't getting out of this unstayed the heel of the Messiah would be bruised then God clothed Adam and Eve and animal skins teaching them that not only did something die to clothe them someone would die to clothe them with righteousness but sin did such a number on Humanity that just the second generation of human beings contained a murderer just three chapters after the fall the Bible says God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually a handful of chapters later we are told the men of Sodom were Wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly Paul described us as God's enemies he told the Ephesians we were separate from God dead and trespasses and sins the Prophet Jeremiah said that our hearts are desperately wicked but then you notice Isaiah wrote this let the Wicked Man forsake his way and the unrighteous thoughts and let him return unto the Lord the wicked if that one would return to the Lord God would have mercy upon that person to our God for God would abundantly pardon he could have just said pardon but that wouldn't have quite contained the idea of God's mercy he said he would abundantly pardon after all we have done God would abundantly pardon what in the world well the most famous verse in the Bible tells us that God so loved the world Mercy's a fascinating thing it isn't extended because it's deserved there's a phenomenal story from the 1560s the Dutch anabaptist named Dirk villains was locked up imprisoned by the Roman Catholic Church they were going to put him to death because he not only baptized by immersion but disagreed with Rome about baptizing infants so he was doing different and by his belief he was exposing their foolish tradition he escaped the story says that because he'd been in prison so long he'd lost a lot of weight and as he ran across the ponds covered in ice the ice held his weight the prison guard who chased him had not been so deprived of nourishment and carrying a few pounds more than Willems was carrying that man went through the ice into the frigid water where he certainly would have died he cried out for help the only person around to hear him was the Escape he he went back and rescued the man but as he was rescuing him he was apprehended taken back to prison and then executed it said that the man who was rescued uh uh uh he advocated for Mr Williams and said he really ought to let him go he saved my life after all but the church said no and he died Mercy that man showed Mercy he had to have known that he was imperialing his life but he showed Mercy and he and he gave a gift to all who followed as we share that story and are inspired by his example in the Psalms it says listen to this it says the Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous and mercy merciful pledius and mercy I mean David is repeating the thought in the exact same verse frequently in the Proverbs in the Psalms you'll have a thought expressed and in the next verse re-expressed that that that's a form of poetry of rhyming the thought not the not the words necessarily but David stuck it in the same verse the Lord is merciful and gracious and plenteous in Mercy as high as the heaven is high above the Earth so great is his Mercy toward them that fear him as far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us like as a father pity at this children so the Lord pity at them that fear him because he knows our frame and remembers that we are dust why Mercy same chapter the mercy of the Lord is from Everlasting to Everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto children's children this is a good God we are talking about he is merciful we deserve death there's no question we have sinned and the wages of sin is death we're all guilty every last one of us me you the person sitting in front of you behind you beside you to the right or to the left all we are we are deserving of nothing from God and yet Jesus said come to me all ye that labor and a heavy laden and I will give you rest he said your problem is that you will not come to me that you might have a life it's not sin that keeps you from God it's your unwillingness to run to God and experience and receive his mercy so the question is this the mercy surrounds this Earth encloses this earth like the atmosphere every breath that God gives you this is God saying I love you I love it what is it going to take to get through your thick head I love you this is why I let you breathe and eat and rest and exist and worship and read the Bible this is love that God extends to the Human family you you you can be as bad as you try I can try to be God will still love you and still offer your mercy you can't out sin the grace of God it's just not possible God will love you anyway so the question is what have you done with Mercy what are you doing with it availing yourself of it claiming it reveling in it he's shown it to you again and again the truth is you can get accustomed to Mercy you can presume upon it Mercy can be misconstrued and converted into license you have to somehow learn to Value God's goodness and mercy so you don't live a careless life you're dishonest you ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit encouraging you to come up higher before long you've made some catastrophic mistake like you've sinned and God said okay I see the sin but but I really love you and I know what you can become and I'm I'm calling you I want to change your life I can take your sin away I can replace that as as amazing as it seems God can take your love for sin away and replace it with an even more fervent love for God now I know depending on where you're wondering that can seem like that's crazy talk but that's absolutely true so what happens is somebody practices a morality and they get away with it at least in the Earthly sense and they feel empowered and liberated and they're having fun and then they stay on that course and before long you're offering you're offering the money needed and you're offering a a home for the child that is born but she says no we're not going to go through with this and so you live the rest of your life understanding that you almost brought a child into the world but because you were fooling around with God's mercy child lost its life and you have a hard time living with that it all started because when God said you don't need to go that I have mercy for that you said oh no no don't bother me with that mercy God let me go do my own thing we presume upon God's mercy doesn't work out well now thank God later God will say I'll still have mercy on you Manasseh was sacrificing his kids and God saved him at last I mean that's Mercy I don't know a human being who'd be that merciful but God is merciful merciful and so God offers us Mercy designed to help you see the goodness of God we deserve to die Jesus did die have you thought about that the cross was so bad that Jesus called out and said my God my God why have you forsaken me you ever been forsaken oh yeah you have your friends left you and you couldn't get a ride home or didn't get an invite to the school reunion I pour out you you were so forsaken but have you have you ever been that forsaken carrying the sins of the whole world nailed to a cross a nail through your ankles nails through your wrists perhaps your hands more likely your wrists Jesus was enshrouded in darkness being humiliated ridiculed by people around oh really you're the Son of God are you really why don't you just come down from that cross and Jesus was thinking I would if I could but I didn't come to this earth to come down from the cross I came to this Earth to be nailed to a cross no one's been forsaken like that Jesus on a cross struggling to breathe you know that crucifixion victims died from asphyxiation eventually they couldn't breathe and Jesus was struggling to breathe on the cross he'd have leaned back against the cross but you remember his back had been ripped open it was like raw meat there was no way out of the agony that he was experiencing someone said that the emotional spiritual Agony Jesus went through was greater than any physical suffering he bore and he's on the cross he had to be remembering judas's betrayal he couldn't have forgotten Peter's denial he had to have remembered being in the garden and coming out and finding Peter James and John asleep and not praying these my best friends I've asked them to wait they couldn't do it they fell asleep Jesus was forsaken pilate turning Jesus over to be executed even though Jesus and pilate knew it had done no wrong no wrong Pilots ah whatever his wife was it had nothing to do with this just man but he was pressured you know and he wilted in the moment afraid of the threats of these Jewish leaders yeah innocent Jesus on a cross that bitter brutal experience you can't possibly believe that God does not have a place for you in his heart given that Jesus went through so much to make you his I mean how do you leave church today careless and callous how do you do that when you know that in heaven right now there is a Jesus ministering his blood in your behalf how do you just how do you flip that switch and turn that off I don't think I don't think you can but I don't deserve it somebody said well I hear that all the time well that's very true you don't but the Plan of Salvation isn't about what you deserve if it was then you'd be dead the fact that you're alive means that God recognizes you don't deserve it but extends you life and mercy and blessing anyway Jesus went through what he went through so that we could get what he deserves he got what we deserve we don't have to sweat that now it's just true it's true Mercy you don't deserve it mephibosheth didn't deserve it but he got it Peter didn't deserve it Solomon didn't deserve it Paul actively seeking out Christian believers who can drag him back to Jerusalem into heaven put to death he didn't deserve it but God stopped him in his tracks and right then and there made him a missionary Jonah didn't deserve mercy God extended it to him parable of the lost sheep this is Jesus going after a lost world no we didn't deserve that Matthew chapter 18 A man with a gargantuan debt now it's it's it's not easy to find out exactly how big that debt was in today's money but some say that would be uh it's too so I can't even believe this 200 000 years of Labor 60 million working days that man in Matthew 18 with the dead According to some had a debt of around three and a half billion dollars and the man said okay I'll show you Mercy I mean that's just radical isn't it and I can't tell you whether that was a documentary a parable a figure of speech I don't know but that's God trying to get across to you the depths of his Mercy it doesn't matter how big your debt is God says I'm willing to forgive you and offer you everlasting life that's what the Bible teaches us I'll tell you what's stung though David is leaving Jerusalem after the rebellion of Absalom got out of hand and cyber cyber's back the servant of mephibosheth he intercepts David on the way out of town and tells David mephibosheth is planning on grabbing your kingdom and he could have grandson of King Saul now I'll be king he says mephibosheth has said but when David comes back to town after absalom's death and the rebels are being defeated mephibosheth notice mephibosheth comes out to meet David now what's impressive about that is it cannot have been easy for a man with a disability he was lame in his feet so he couldn't have just walked out at best he'd limped out and struggled out he may have had crutches I just don't know as I confessed earlier but the first one out there one of the first out there to meet David is mephibosheth oh that's something and mephibosheth looks like a complete mess he hadn't trimmed his beard or washed his clothes since David left when the Rebellion broke out and he wasn't a teenager either he did this in solidarity with David he was mourning or maybe protesting he was certainly marking this watershed moment in the history of the kingdom and showing that he was troubled by the circumstances in which his Patron found himself David asked mephibosheth why didn't you go with me when I flared and he's told because zyba the servant deceived him and spread falsehoods about him mephibosheth could have been based on what zeiba had said so the king said divide the land with zybah and this is really interesting I think mephibosheth said let him have it all I'm just glad you're back let him have it all you think I'm after the kingdom I'm not even after the land that's mine you see mephibosheth cared more about the benefactor than he did about the benefits it was just good enough for him to be in the presence of the king that's true for us isn't it it's just enough to be in the presence of Jesus he'll benefit us there's no question about it but that's not the point the benefit is Jesus he's the benefit he's the blessing he's the prize the stuff doesn't matter I'm just glad to be with Jesus for mephibosheth just glad to be with David so here's what we know David was moved to have mercy on mephibosheth he didn't have to but he because he's merciful mephibosheth was so moved by that Mercy that he was willing to give everything up just to have David in the beginning God created he came unto his own and his own and received him not and then he died on the cross and he said I have mercy for you do you want that Mercy how do you measure the mercy of God just one way consider who Jesus was and then realize that's him on the cross dying for you that's God saying I love you this much what do you do about that you got to respond mephibosheth said oh I'm a dead dog I mean you know David said forget all that so we don't go to God and say what would you want from what somebody like me but no no God has demonstrated how much he wants you how great his Mercy is you just surrender to that Mercy and you ask Mercy to do its thing in your life now you've probably read the book A thousand shall fall have you read that book written by Susie Hazel Mundy about her grandfather Franz Hazel who was a soldier in Hitler's army during the second World War now Susie's nephew if I got that straight As Dr Michael Hazel who's on the faculty of the Southern Adventist University and so we see each other a little bit Dr Hazel told me this story he said this is a good one it's not in the book he said when they were doing their thing in one area the German army they were routing a place that had been filled with Russian soldiers a couple of soldiers were given the order to go into a house see if they owe any on some building see if there were any Russians in there and if they were to kill them which is what you do in a war they went into the house I don't know if it was one two or three of them the others found nothing but Franz Hazel The Man From A thousand shall fall looked under a bed and looked straight into the face of a Russian soldier who knew he was going to die now I can't give you all of the circumstances but that Russian posed no threat to not a single German and Hazel knew that and he looked him in the face and I can't remember if he smiled or if he didn't smile but he lowered the bed covers left him where he was and walked out of the house and the unit moved on what did he demonstrate towards that Russian soldier could have killed him given the given the dimensions of War should have killed him but that which prevented him from killing a man he was authorized totally within his rights to kill that which prevented that from happening was Mercy the wages of sin is death but Mercy the great Loving Heart Of God offers us everlasting life now the next time Temptation comes you're going to remember that when you're looking for a direction in your life you've got to fight that off in order to go another way or you could say God Is So merciful so gracious so good he could have he could have flushed me out from under that bed and ended my life thousand times but instead he was merciful walked a God and because of that Mercy one day soon we together will be standing on the circle of the earth we'll look towards the heavens and we will say perhaps as one Lo This Is Our God we have waited for him and he will save us this is the Lord let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation Rejoice with me now can we pray please bow your head and we're going to pray a prayer together our father and our God there's a wonderful story no a wonderful question rather recorded in the Book of Psalms I think it's psalm 8. whether some writer asks the question what is man that thou art mindful of him the son of man that you visit him what is humanity what are men and women that you even bother with us you are so good give us Grace to never forget that your mercy is so wonderful so broad so powerful you sought us out you offered us Mercy you've been so gracious to us so take our hearts and make them yours now and always question for you before we close friend would you be willing to receive God's Mercy today simple question can't imagine how you'd say no but maybe it's say no you may not even understand all all that entails but it's pretty simple would you receive the mercy of God into your life if your answer is yes would you lift up your hand it's an easy one would you say to God thank you for your mercy Lord we thank you and love you let us walk in your mercy give us Grace to be merciful to others and fill us with hope and the soon return of Jesus this is our prayer in Jesus name amen

Channel: Franktown SDA Church

Views: 3,682

Keywords:

Id: Vpcd8qFtUzc

Length: 63min 50sec (3830 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 04 2023