Amazing Grace: Grace

We talked last week about the Apostle Paul. What do you think he was like before he was converted?

What are some words? Legalistic. Hypocritical. Devout. Okay.

What? Vicious? Ruthless? Holier than thou? Rigid? Blind?

It's interesting, isn't it? There's some overlap in the words there. The way we think that Paul was before his conversion, and maybe some words people might apply to us. Legalistic, moralistic, holier than thou, self-righteous, etc. What happened to the Apostle Paul?

What happened to the Apostle Paul? I think there's one word that sums up what happened to him that changed him. And there's one word that we, those of us who are first and foremost Christian, I use Baptist because I thought I would get a clearer point that I'm trying to make here, self-righteous, moralistic, and so forth. But there's one word that should make all the difference in how people view us as Christians. It's the one word that I think sums up what happened to the Apostle Paul and changed him from that rigid, harsh, moralistic, self-righteous, stuck-up, I'm-better-than-everybody-else thinking kind of person.

One word. And it's a word we're going to talk about for the next several weeks. That word is a word that is never explicitly defined in the Bible, yet it pervades the whole Bible. The one word is a word that Jesus never uses, but it's a word that He embodies. The one word is in every introduction to every letter written by the Apostle Paul, ends every one of his letters. So in every one of Paul's letters, this word appears at the beginning and at the end of his letters. God extended it to us before we were even born, and it is a gift that never ends, this one word.

Without it, we are lost. With it, eternity is ours. This word sums up something that cost God so much, yet it is free to us. It is a word that has brought us safe thus far and will safely lead us home. What's the word?

Grace. Grace. When people think of us, do they think of grace?

It's a word that changes us. It's a word that should change how we relate to other people. And I must confess for myself, one of the biggest journeys that I've had in my Christian life, in a journey on which I am still going, is this journey of grace. Learning what it means to be an object of God's grace and learning what it means for me to be an agent of grace to other people.

I think it would revolutionize us individually and revolutionize our church if people, when they saw us, were persuaded that we were people of grace. Here's some definitions of grace.

One anonymous definition is this. Grace is everything for nothing to those who don't deserve anything. Here's a more formal definition. A theologian wrote this one, C.L. Milton.

Grace is God's unmerited, free, spontaneous love for sinful man revealed and made effective in Jesus Christ. Here's one I love. The grace of God is glue for mending broken people. Isn't that a great definition? The grace of God is glue for mending broken people.

Grace is healing medicine for the broken and brokenhearted. Grace is a word that is used 155 times in the New Testament. The Greek word is charis. 100 times of the 155 times that this word is used, 100 times it is used by the Apostle Paul. Paul is the apostle of grace.

Grace changed him. Grace made him different. Grace made him look at the whole world through a different lens. It made him look at people differently. And he came to realize because of grace that this message of the gospel was for everyone.

Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor. people of every nation, men and women, slave and free. It didn't matter where you came from, where you'd been, what you had done. Grace made all the difference. Grace liberates us.

It sets us free. Grace lets us be ourselves. We don't have to put on the mask any longer. Grace will sustain us through difficult times. Grace will and should change our attitude toward others and make us more forgiving and kind.

Grace should spice our speech with kindness and cause us to care more for other people. Grace should make us grateful people with a song of thanksgiving in our heart.

What does grace look like? What does it cause us to become like? That's what we're going to look at over the next several weeks. I once, the summer after my freshman year of college, I spent a whole summer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I just felt the Lord calling me there.

It's funny how those calls like that are so clear. I lived in an apartment. My apartment, I stepped onto the beach when I stepped out of my apartment. It was a rough summer. It was a summer that I worked in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and was part of a navigator's training camp.

We had Bible studies at night and so forth. And it was a place, quite frankly, I didn't always feel comfortable. because I felt like I had to try to be holy. And I had to talk a certain talk. I couldn't just be myself.

We got through with one session one night of Bible study and we came back and everybody was talking about it. And I looked at somebody I was talking with and I said, you know, that talk really convicted me. Well, the truth was, it didn't. It probably should have, but it didn't. it sounded holy to say, boy, that really convicted me.

But the person I said it to did something I wasn't expecting. They said, of what did you feel convicted? They weren't supposed to ask me that. They were supposed to just let me say these pretty words and think I was holy because I said them. And then they said, well, of what were you convicted?

And I said, well, you know, I just felt convicted. You know, the whole thing, I just felt convicted. And in that question, I realized what a hypocrite I was. And as I look back on that story, I recognize that I didn't understand God's grace. And sometimes, even with all the good things that came out of the Navigators, they helped us, you know, learn the Bible and memorize Scripture, there was this sense that something was missing in the Christianity that we were taught.

And the sense of what was missing was grace. You don't have to put on a show around us. You can just let your hair down, so to speak.

You don't have to put on a show. And you know what? We're just going to love you. Just come on in.

Isn't that what we want people to feel? isn't that what they should feel or sense from people who have experienced God's grace not that harsh judgmental legalistic we're going to cross every t dot every i and pin you to the wall if you make a misstep but that's the way we so often come across and i'm guilty As I've been studying for this series of lessons, I've been reading a book by Chuck Swindoll called Grace Awakening. It's my prayer that we will have a grace awakening. Individually. As a class.

As a church. The kind of grace that is winsome and delightful and inviting, wholesome, that exudes goodness and just says to people, come on in. You're going to be loved.

Well, if you would, let's read a passage to begin our study of what I have entitled this series. The title is Lessons for Life, the Radical, Liberating, Demanding, Transforming Power of God's Amazing Grace. And I'm going to take us to an Old Testament story found in 2 Samuel chapter 9.

And I'm going to read the whole chapter, 13 verses. Some of you may remember the story, but it is a great story. And here it goes, 2 Samuel chapter 9. This is King David. Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?

Now there was a servant of Saul's household named Ziba. They called him to appear before David and the king said to him, Are you Ziba? Your servant, he replied. The king asked, Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness? Ziba answered the king,

Where is he? the king asked. Zeba answered, He is at the house of Makar, son of Amiel, in Lodabar. So King David had him brought from Lodabar, from the house of Makar, son of Amiel. When Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.

David said, Mephibosheth, your servant, he replied. be afraid, David said to him, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table. Mephibosheth bowed down and said, What is your servant that you should notice a dead dog like me? Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, I have given your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops so that your master's grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. Then Ziba said to the king, Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do.

So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. Mephibosheth had a young son named Micah. And all the members of Ziba's household were servants of Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem because he always ate at the king's table. And he was crippled in both feet.

Let's pray. Lord, open our eyes that we may see your grace. For it is in Christ's name we pray. Amen. It's a great story, isn't it?

Here's the situation. King Saul, the first human king of Israel, is dead. He and his three sons, including his son Jonathan, were killed battling the Philistines at the end of 1 Samuel on Mount Gilboa. Saul actually killed himself in that battle. He realized the Philistines were about to overrun their position.

His sons were already dead, and he fell on his own sword, killing himself.

David is now the undisputed ruler and king over Israel. And he begins to inquire, are there any persons left of the house of Saul to whom I may show kindness? And he wanted to show kindness principally because of his relationship with Jonathan. You remember Jonathan was David's close companion, a beloved friend. David makes it clear in verse 1 of our text that he wants to show kindness to someone for Jonathan's sake because of this close friend whom he has lost.

And one thing we learn in this passage, or the first thing we learn, is that where there is grace, there is kindness for those who are broken. Where there is grace, there is kindness for those who are broken. Because you see, David, as he begins his inquiry about the house of Saul, he brings in Ziba, who was the servant of Saul and the chief steward of Saul's household, and he begins to question him, Does Saul have any descendants to whom I may show kindness? And Ziba says, There is a descendant, the son of Jonathan, your beloved friend, who is now dead, the grandson of King Saul, and this one, his name is Mephibosheth.

Mephibosheth, though, was a grandson with a severe problem. According to our text, he was crippled in both feet, or lame in both feet. And that happened because of something that we are told about in 2 Samuel 4. So if you have your Bibles, just flip back just a few pages. 2 Samuel 4.4, where we read about Mephibosheth.

2 Samuel 4.4 says this, Jonathan, son of Saul, had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she hurried to leave, he fell and became crippled. His name was Mephibosheth. The nurse, out of fear, was fleeing.

She was apparently going to go into hiding and take this five-year-old child, Mephibosheth, after she heard that Saul and Jonathan had been killed. She was fearful that their enemies would come to kill the descendants of Saul and Jonathan. So she apparently scoops up this five-year-old Mephibosheth, and as she's running, she fell. We don't know exactly what happened, but likely she fell on Mephibosheth, breaking both of his ankles. And because of inability to get proper medical care, Mephibosheth for the rest of his life is crippled. And when David asked whom he can help of Saul's descendants, he's told Mephibosheth, but Ziba says, King, he's crippled in both feet. He's not someone who can help you or hurt you.

You know, kings in those days often killed off all the descendants to be sure no one would rise up against them. But Mephibosheth was neither a threat, nor would he be a benefit to David. Maybe that's what Ziba was trying to say. It's interesting where Mephibosheth lives. He lives in Lodabar, we're told.

That's about 10 miles southeast of the Sea of Galilee. Lodabar means nothing. It means a barren place. person living in a place called nothing. It's almost like the writer's wanting to emphasize how useless, how of no benefit Mephibosheth could be to King David. Why should the king even pay him any attention at all?

But David says something about this crippled person who lives in a place called nothing. You ever felt like that? You ever felt broken and felt like you lived in a place called nothing? You were so far down. But this king comes and says, I want to show, and the translation of our text here, verse 1 says, I want to show kindness to this person for Jonathan's sake.

Jonathan's sake. a word about the word kindness here. It is a Hebrew word that is so rich in meaning. In your handout I wrote it out for you. And you got to say this word right in Hebrew, you got to kind of get a little hawker down in your throat.

You got to say, kesed. You got to kind of almost spit it out. Kesed. Kesed. It is a word that is so rich. It's the word that we have in the psalm.

The 23rd psalm. goodness and chesed will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What is chesed? It is kindness but it's a word that means mercy it means kindness it means goodness it means love it means faithfulness it's a word that is so rich in meaning that some translations when they translate it They say loving kindness. Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life.

I think there's a New Testament word that captures what chesed is. Chesed is grace. It's a word that captures the idea of love, of mercy, of kindness, of goodness. And that's what David wants to show to Mephibosheth. Where there is grace, there is kindness for those who are broken.

When people walk into the doors of our church, do they experience the kindness that should be exuded by Christians? We should be the most kind of people. We should display that kindness to others. That's what David did for a crippled man from a place called nothing. The second thing I want to say about grace is not only where there's grace, there's kindness for those who are broken.

Secondly, where there's grace, there's no fear. The first thing that King David says to Mephibosheth when Mephibosheth comes into the king's presence, this is in verse 7, the first thing that David says to him is, Don't be afraid. You know, Mephibosheth could have thought he was going to be killed. Descendant of Saul, maybe a threat to David on the throne at some point. David, when Mephibosheth walks in, says, Don't be afraid.

Where there is grace, there is no fear. You ever been around a street preacher? I'm talking about one of those hell, fire, and damnation street preachers.

Was there grace? Or was there fear? I was in New Orleans with Louise on a business trip one time. We were walking down the street. We were kind of close to Bourbon Street.

And there was a hellfire and brimstone preacher shouting damnation at the top of his lungs to all who passed. I was so scared of that guy. I got as far away as I could.

Three blocks away and I could still hear him. shouting. Where there's grace, there's no fear. The command that Jesus gave more than any other command in the New Testament. You know Jesus gave us a number of commands. The one command He gives more than any other command is this.

Fear not. Don't be afraid. Where there's grace,

When people are around us, are they afraid? Afraid we're going to chop their legs off, critically analyze everything they have done wrong or haven't done right,

dredge up all of their past and make them relive it in a way that shows that we're judgmental and harsh toward them. Where there's grace, there's no fear. When Mephibosheth came into the presence of the king, he didn't have to be afraid. The third thing about grace is this. There's generosity.

David does three things for Mephibosheth in verses 7 through 13. First, he restores land to Mephibosheth. In other words, all of the land that had been his father's Jonathan and the land of Saul that Saul had owned is given to Mephibosheth. Land was important in this day. Land was wealth.

And it was the way that one provided for oneself. You raised crops. You raised animals.

Mephibosheth, this crippled man from the place called Nothing is given land. He's immediately given wealth by this king. And he's given servants to work the land for the rest of his life. Ziba and the other servants are commanded by David to care for Mephibosheth for the rest of his life. The second thing that Mephibosheth gets is he gets to eat at the king's table.

This broken man from a place called nothing, a place where he probably didn't eat the finest of food, is now welcomed to the king's table and gets the best food. And the text says that the king's table would always be open to Mephibosheth. That little word always is an important word. There will never be a time from that day forward that Mephibosheth will have to lack. He will always be welcomed at the king's table.

And the third thing that Mephibosheth gets is he gets treated like a son. In other words, Mephibosheth and his family are extended to privileges of sonship by the king. And when he eats at the table, he eats just like one of the sons of the king. Not as a servant, not as an outcast, not as one who is lame or broken. is welcomed to the table as a son of the king.

A broken man from a place called nothing now lives like a child of the king in the king's palace. That is grace. Let me give us several lessons for life from this story of Mephibosheth. My first lesson is this. let's always remember and be willing to admit our brokenness.

Folks, we all have been and are broken. Our brokenness comes in many shapes and forms. Our brokenness can be an addiction of the past. Our brokenness can be our pride. Our brokenness can be our hypocrisy.

Our brokenness can be our mean-spiritedness. Our brokenness can be our lust. Our brokenness can be drunkenness. Our brokenness can be greed. Our brokenness can be mistreatment of a spouse.

Our brokenness can be pain of loss. It can be so many things. But you know what happens? we come to church and nobody's broken, at least while we're here.

We find out about brokenness outside of this place, don't we? Nobody wants to admit they're broken here. Nobody wants to admit their struggles. And why is that?

I fear it's because they know this is really not a place of God's grace.

that says we love you even in your brokenness.

Come to the hospital of grace found here and we will help you become well and whole. The second lesson I want to give us is this. Hold your head up. you are a child of the king.

Some of you may deal with issues from your past that are so deep and so hurtful and so harmful, maybe even shameful, that you can't hold your head up. You don't feel like you're anything but a crippled, broken down person who deserves nothing. And psychologically, psychologically, you berate yourself, belittle yourself, put yourself down. I'm telling you today, if you sit at the king's table, you're a child of the king. Hold your head up.

When you come to Jesus Christ, the brokenness is healed. You no longer need to hold your head down to anyone. To anyone. The only person before whom you bow, if you're a child of the king, is the king.

So stand up. Hold your head up. Live your life like a child of the king. The third lesson is this. and live without fear.

The more I talk to people, and the more I think about myself, don't we live so often with fear? We're afraid of what people will think about us. We're afraid that people will really see our insecurity. We're afraid that people will see through what we are. We're afraid that somehow we won't make it because we'll lose our job, leave us or also we're fearful of all these things that can happen. What I want to say to you is by God's grace we can live without fear and the reason for that is lesson number four. The king will supply us with all of our needs. God knows what we need. He knows what we need to overcome to make it through this life and He will provide it if we will seek it from Him. My God will supply all of your needs according to His riches and glory. So no matter where you are, no matter what you're experiencing, maybe it's financial difficulty, maybe it's financial, maybe it's difficulty in a relationship, maybe it's psychological difficulty because of something in your past. Whatever you need to make it in life, it if you'll go to him and seek it. The fifth lesson is this.

All the best delights are found at the king's table. A lot of us try to find delight by going to Lodabar and looking for delight. We go to a place called nothing because somebody says, oh, that's where the fun is. But the reality is it is Lodabar. It's nothing. There's sort of this sense that if you really want to enjoy life, you need to be doing those things that Christians say you shouldn't be doing. And somehow when you come to Christ and follow Christ, there's really not that much delight in it. We just sort of grit our teeth and bear the burden of being Christian. Particularly Christians who are Southern Baptists. Because Southern Baptists can't do anything that's fun. We'll talk about that more as this series goes. But I'm going to tell you first and foremost The false delights of this world are nothing.

The best delights are found at the king's table. You want to have the choicest meat, the sweetest desserts, the most refreshing beverages come to the table of the king. There's no greater delight than being with our Lord. The sixth lesson of this. Having tasted the delights found at the king's table, crumbs found anywhere else. That's what a lot of people do.

They will taste of the delights of the king's table, but they will drift away after the crumbs that the world offers. Those crumbs will not satisfy ultimately. The last lesson is this. Having received the king's grace, let's extend grace to others. And this is where I'm going to press us during this series.

We should be the most gracious of people. And I'm going to press us to examine ourselves to see where we are often that legalistic, harsh, unforgiving, unkind sort of person. that nobody wants to be around and that Jesus Christ does not wish us to be. And I'm going to say, let the grace of God infuse your heart so that you too can be gracious to others. I close with a story.

It's the Spanish-American War. Teddy Roosevelt is fighting with the Rough Riders. Colonel Teddy Roosevelt needs supplies for his men, some of whom have been wounded. He goes to see Clara Barton, the founder of what we today call the American Red Cross. And he goes to Miss Barton and Colonel Roosevelt says, I need to buy some supplies for my men.

And knowing Teddy, I'm sure he said it in a very commanding voice. I need to buy some supplies for my men. Clara Barton, without batting an eye, said, Colonel, your request is refused. Teddy is incensed. How can you refuse to sell me supplies for my men?

They're in need. We're fighting a war. Clara looks at the colonel and says, Colonel, you can't buy them. However, if you want them, you must only ask, and they will be provided. And Teddy, properly chastised, said, Oh, well then I ask.

May I have some supplies? and she gave him everything he needed. Some of us think we have to buy this grace from our Lord. The Lord says, you can't buy it. Come and ask.

And I will give you grace upon grace upon grace.

Amazing grace. How sweet the sound. May we be people of grace.

that we are children of the King and sit at the King's table. May we know what we have. May we delight in your grace and be agents of grace to a world that is hurting. For it's in Christ's name we pray.