"The Guidelines of Grace" - 2 Samuel 9:1-13

What can you learn from David about the guidelines of grace in God's kingdom?

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Well, if you're here for the first time, or it's been a little while since you've been here, uh we are in the midst of a sermon series in 2 Samuel, as we've been learning a lot from the life of King David. The title of our series is Faithful and Flawed, as we see through David, a man of great faith who ran after God's own heart, but also a man of great flaws who ran after God's amazing grace. And we're going to talk about that word a lot today. And as always, each week my goal is that even when we see greatness in the life of David, it points us to the need for a greater and perfect King, Jesus. Everything in the scriptures points to Jesus Christ. Everything, every promise of God finds its yes and amen in Christ. And uh every good thing that we see in people such as David point us to the need for Christ Himself. So let me just say this. A couple days from now, we're gonna have Easter Sunday. Uh, and it's gonna be great. We'll have the folding chairs out, we'll have a packed house, we're gonna hear the choir sing. I'm gonna get a chance to share. Uh, there's gonna be a lot of moving parts, we're gonna have flowers you're gonna be able to take and share as an evangelistic outreach to the one you hopefully have been praying for. We'll talk more about that at the end of the service here. But you're gonna hear the word grace a lot on Easter. You're gonna hear it behind the pulpit, you're gonna hear it through song, and I'm sure that you're gonna gather as a family around a table, and somebody's gonna say grace before you eat. But grace is one of those words that is used in church and used among Christians all the time. The most famous hymn that we sing is amazing grace. And yet at the same time, there are so many aspects of grace that most Christians don't understand. And actually, we're gonna see through the life of King David an amazing expression of grace that directly applies to you if you are a follower of Christ. And it may be an area that you've not thought of before. All right, it may be an area that you've not thought of before. So let me define the word grace. What is grace? Well, grace is an unmerited gift of favor and blessing that cannot be earned or repaid. I'll say it again. Grace is an unmerited gift of favor and blessing that cannot be earned or repaid. That's one way of defining grace. And, you know, if you look in the Old Testament, grace manifests itself in different ways. The primary way in the Old Testament, when you look at grace, you think of forgiveness. And that's because of the atonement that you see in the Old Testament that takes place through the sacrificial system of sacrificing animals. All right, according to the laws of Moses, when the nation of Israel was living in sin, they could experience great atonement by sacrificing animals, and the punishment that they deserve was placed in the blood of the animal. The whole book of Leviticus, it's not probably everybody's favorite book of the Bible. It's a really good bedtime book. It'll put you to sleep really quickly. All right, but it's important because you don't have Leviticus, then you don't have the cross. Okay? Leviticus teaches us that the wages of sin is death. There must be the shedding of blood because of sin, and Jesus shed his blood, that our punishment will be placed under his blood instead. All right, so in the Old Testament, when we talk about grace, most of the time you see grace is about forgiveness. In the New Testament, most of the time that you hear about grace, it's about power. Paul talks about that his the power of God is made perfect in our weakness because his grace is sufficient for us. So Old Testament grace is forgiveness, New Testament grace is power, but there's a whole lot more to grace that we miss. And there's stories that show us that there's many dimensions, many experiences of God's grace. And in this one, we see the grace that God shows us through the life of King David. He's bestowing the grace of honor on Mephibosheth. And we're going to see a lot about this. And it reflects the honor that God shows us when we receive the righteousness of Jesus, not by what we have done, but by what Jesus has done for us through his perfect life. All right, so I think this is one of the most misunderstood aspects of the gospel. All right, let me just say this. When I ask Christians, how are you saved? The default answer I get is Jesus died on the cross for me. And it's completely true and it's incomplete. If you say that Jesus died on the cross for you, I say you're absolutely right. But what did he do to make that possible? And the answer is he had to live a perfect human life. Because if he didn't, what he did on the cross would have been pointless. Why did he become human? Because you're human. Why did he have to be perfect because you're not? Why was he without sin and thought because you have sinful thoughts? Why did he never speak a sinful word? Because you speak sinful words. Why did he never commit a sinful act? Because you and I commit it all the time. He had to live perfectly to earn a perfect record and then die sacrificially to take the punishment. And he exchanged it. He took our very worst, our punishment, but then he gave us his very best, his righteousness. So we are honored. When you die, if you're a Christian, you're going to be clothed in the righteousness of God and you're going to be honored as if you were perfect, knowing that you never were. But Jesus was perfect for you. And if you read this story with me in 2 Samuel, what you're going to see is a beautiful portrait of the gospel where David shows honor to someone who is not worthy of honor and cannot repay the king if he tried. And it is a portrait of your salvation and righteousness in Jesus. And I'm going to line by line walk through this and show you how it fits together perfectly. So let me get after the right, the main idea. Let's get right after it in one sentence. David's kindness towards Jonathan's crippled son Mephibosheth reveals the guidelines of giving and receiving grace in God's kingdom. David's kindness towards Jonathan's crippled son Mephibosheth reveals the guidelines of giving and receiving grace in God's kingdom. So if you want to say grace, if you need grace today, oh, what a great invitation we have to understand more about it. So turn with me to the book of 2 Samuel. Okay, if you're new to the Bible, it's after 1 Samuel and it's before 1 Kings. If you don't have a Bible, grab the Pew Bible in front of you or beside you. We're on page 307 in your Pew Bible. And if you would stand at this time out of the reading of God's holy, infallible, inerrant, and fully sufficient word. We are in 2 Samuel chapter 9. We'll read all 13 verses. Starting in verse 1, hear God's word to us. It says, And David said, Is there still anyone left in the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? Now there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba. And they called him to David, and the king said to him, Are you Ziba? And he said, I am your servant. And the king said, Is there not still someone in the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan, he is crippled in his feet. The king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, He is in the house of Masir, the son of Amiel of at Lodabar. Then King David sent and brought him from the house of Masir, the son of Amiel, at Lodabar. And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered, Behold, I am your servant. And David said to him, Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul to your father, and you shall eat at my table always. And he paid homage and said, What is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, All that belongs to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master's grandson, and you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him, and shall bring in the produce, that your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always eat at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then Ziba said to the king, According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do. So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah, and all who lived in Zibah's house became Mephibosheth's servants. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table, and now he was lame in both his feet. Let's pray. Father, in this passage, it is such a beautiful portrait of your gospel, of your good news, of what you have done for us through your son. As a man with lame feet part of a defeated king's lineage who deserved to be sitting under the table like a dog, was invited to sit at the table as an honored guest and as an adopted child. And so we have no worthiness to come to your table. But you adopt us into your family by nothing that we have done, but by everything that Jesus has done for us. Help us to see clearly the gospel call in this passage, Lord. What a beautiful display that David does showing us exactly what King Jesus does for each of us. Lord, what a perfect passage for us to think about as we get close to Easter of all that Jesus did, despite our unworthiness, to invite us to a table of feasting because of his righteousness on our behalf. Be with us right now, Lord. I pray that each of us would understand grace a little bit more after we leave than when we first walked in. Be with us right now. In Jesus' name I pray. And God's people said. Amen. So again, if you're new to 2 Samuel or you haven't been here in a few weeks, just to kind of catch you up, we're in the ninth chapter. And in the first eight chapters, David's establishing his reign as the king of Israel. God had promised it long ago. When he was a shepherd out on the field, he went through many, many years of waiting and preparing. He even had to run for his life when King Saul was super jealous and wanted to put him to death. And yet God preserved him and protected him and transformed him and prepared him to take the throne. And we see in the first five chapters, he takes the throne of Israel. And then after this, we see that he is preparing for his reign. He's bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the Holy City. The Ark was the representation of the presence of God, returning to the people of God. And then we see last week that he is entering into this beautiful palace, and in response, he wants to build a temple for God. And God says, Oh no, oh no, you're not going to build a house for me. Your son will build a house for me. But David, I'm going to build a house for you, and it's not a physical house, it's a spiritual one. You're going to have a lineage that will point all the way to the Messiah, the coming of King Jesus, who is in the line of King David. What a great promise that God made, and what a great promise that God kept. Now we're in chapter nine. And in chapter nine, David, as he's establishing his reign, he could easily forget all the promises that he made. Now, you know I'm not a politician. I don't care a whole lot for politics. Praise God for the Christians who are in the public square trying to make a difference for Jesus. But I will say by default, a lot of politicians make a lot of promises, but not a lot of politicians back those promises up when they finally take office. David's not one of them. David made a lot of promises, and he is intent on fulfilling those promises. And one of the promises that he made, he made to Saul's son Jonathan. He said to Jonathan, If I become king of Israel, I will make sure I show tribute and honor to your descendants for the rest of my life. Now, when Saul and Jonathan were defeated, David could have completely forgotten that agreement, that promise. We're going to talk more about that in a minute. But David made it a priority because he wanted his word to mean something, that he was going to honor the house of Saul and the house of Jonathan, even though Saul wanted to kill him. He wanted to show grace to those who could not earn it and could not repay it. And it's the same with us. Jesus Christ offers us eternal life and adoption into the family of God and eternal rewards in heaven beyond your wildest dreams. And you did not earn it, you cannot lose it, you cannot repay it. You can only receive it as a gift that comes right from the hand of a gracious God. So this whole story is such a beautiful portrait of what God has done for us in Jesus. So I don't want to waste any more time. I want to get right into it. We're going to look at the reason for grace. We're going to look at the requirements of grace. We're going to look at the response to grace. And then we're going to look at the rewards from grace. And all this applies to you if you've put your faith in Jesus. All right, so let's jump right in. Verse 1. Let's look at the reason for grace. In verse 1, it says, And David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? All right. This is the reason for grace is there is a special covenant that is in place between David and between Jonathan. And David wants to honor the son because of the relationship that he had with the Father. In 1 Samuel chapter 20, verse 15, back last year we looked at 1 Samuel. As Jonathan and David were talking, Jonathan said, Do not ever cut off your loving devotion from my household, not even when the Lord cuts off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth. Jonathan said, David, don't forget me. Jonathan said, David, I see God's hand on you, even though I should be the one that should take the throne. I recognize the anointing of God is on you. And so when you take the throne and Saul's house starts to die off, remember my family. Remember my family. Have mercy and grace upon my family. And David agreed in that moment. He entered into covenant with Jonathan. And it said they had a special love for one another that goes deeper than any other kind of love there is. David made the commitment. Well, here he shows up and he says, I want to honor this commitment. Is there anyone left in this house of Saul, anybody of Jonathan that I can honor? Now, this reflects what God did for us from eternity past. Now, scholars call this the covenant of redemption. Before the world was ever created, one God, three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, we believe, before the earth was ever created, they wanted to create a creature made in their own image. Okay, that's us. We're made in God's image, to have eternal relationship. But the Father, the Son, and the Spirit knew that we would sin and we'd be separated from God. God knew that. But before God ever created us, God had a covenant among the Father and the Son and the Spirit that there would be a way of redemption. And so it's not like when Adam and Eve sinned, that the Father, the Son, the Spirit said, Oh man, why did I do this? I didn't know this was going to happen. No, God knew it. The Father was gonna send the Son in the power of the Spirit to live as a human, to live perfectly for us, to die sacrificially for us, to rise supernaturally for us, to ascend to the Father, to send down the Holy Spirit to help us, and eventually to come back to judge the living and the dead and make all things new. God knew this was gonna happen, and God made a covenant. All right? The Father sent the Son, and the Son said a long time ago, I'm willing to go. So we are honored, we are saved, we are made righteous, not by what we do, but by a covenant that God had in the Trinity. David is showing Mephibosheth honor, not by anything that Mephibosheth could do. We'll see, he was unworthy in many different ways, but he's honored as a son because of the agreement David had with the Father. What a perfect portrait of the gospel, a perfect portrait of what God did for us through Jesus Christ. This is the reason for grace. In this story, we are like Mephibosheth. We are crippled. We have no reason to come to a table of honor and sit with a king. And yet we're offered a seat at the table because of a covenant, a commitment that is made prior to us ever showing up. So I just want to say before we look at the next point do you know why you're saved if you're a believer? It's not because you're good enough, it's not because you came to your senses, it's not because you you finally got wise enough and understood enough to make a response. No, before you were ever born, God was at work. The Son said to the Father, I will go, and I will make, I will make salvation possible. Jesus did not go begrudgingly, he was not kicking and screaming, he willfully come. To do what needed to be done for you and I to be saved. That is grace, it's amazing grace, and it goes even deeper. That's just the reason. We needed to be saved. Mephibosheth could not come to the table by himself. We cannot come into fellowship with God by ourselves. We need somebody to do something for us. And that's what Jesus did. So that's number one. That's the reason for grace. Let's go to number two. What are the requirements of grace? Well, as you look at verses two through five, zero in with me for a moment on verse three. All right, in verse three, it says, And the king said, Is there not still someone in the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? And Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan, he is crippled in his feet. So this is Mephibosheth. As one professor I used to have used to love to say, he's a candidate for grace because he's absolutely at a point where he can do nothing for himself. He is at a place of total dishonor and surrender. There's nothing of merit that he brings to the table. All right, he's part of a house that has been destroyed, and he's also a social leper because he has crippling, crippled feet. There's nothing that he could do to bring honor to himself. And so David decides to show honor to him. He's a child of the covenant, not worthy of honor, but shown honor because of an agreement that was made well before he ever showed up. The same is true for us. You, if you're a Christian, it's not because you did something good. It's not because God saw something good in you. It's not because somewhere deep within he knew you were always worthy. No, our requirement for grace is we have to admit that we're not worthy of it. You can't earn it. You can't make your way back to God. That's what every other religion is struggling with right now. That's what every other religion gets wrong. If I could just do these 10 things perfectly, I can work my way back to God. Good works will reunite me in a relationship with God. That's not the right motivation because you and I can never make ourselves worthy before a holy God. You know why? He's perfect. God is holy, he is unblemished. And to be in heaven, you have to be perfect. If you and I were there right now, we would hear the angels crying out as they're worshiping God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God and the Lamb. They're in the presence of absolute unblemished perfection. And you and I, God will not let anyone in the kingdom that will taint or blemish that perfection. You say, well, Bo, if we have to be perfect, we're in trouble. Without grace, you absolutely are. You will never be good enough to go to heaven. You could work at a soup kitchen for eight hours a day, seven days a week, spending every hour helping other people, and you're still not going to earn enough merit to be with God because you still have a sinful mind. You still have a sinful heart. We're self centered people. All right, we deal with irritations and frustrations and arrogance and deceitfulness all the time. Jeremiah said the heart is wicked and deceitful beyond human understanding. And yet, Jesus, again, I want to say it again because I think this is the most misunderstood part of our faith. Faith. Jesus was perfect for us. He had to be to earn our righteousness. We have to admit that we're not perfect, that God requires us to be perfect, and that he made provision for that through his son. You have to admit that you're messed up. That's stage one of salvation. Admit that you need to be saved. You know, I've been bedside with many people before they take their final breath. And there's a big difference between those who know the grace of God through Jesus and those that don't. And the ones that don't, I will just say this. They spend most of their life with, I'm a good person. Well, I'm not perfect, but God's not going to send me to hell. I love people. I care about people. I've done good things. And you can tell that they can say that all they want while they're alive. But when they lay in bed and they're facing death and staring at the shadows on the wall, they know deep in their hearts something's really off. They have not received the offer of grace. And if you will not receive God's offer, God says, okay, then when you die, I'm going to judge you on your record, not Jesus'. But if you receive grace, if you trust Jesus, if you surrender to him as Lord and Savior, the Bible says that when you stand before him, you're going to be judged by his record and not yours. You will be declared perfect by the grace of Jesus Christ. What an offer. In this world, we are Mephibosheth. We're crippled. We cannot come to the table on our own merit. We have to be invited by a king, by his grace alone. That's the requirements of grace. That's number two. Number three, what's the response? Well, as you look at verses six through eight, look at how Mephibosheth responds. It says, And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered, Behold, I am your servant. All right, so he's coming already, saying in humility, I'm willing to serve you. And in verse seven, David said to him, Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always. And verse eight, and he paid homage and said, What is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? This is a portrait of humble surrender to grace. That's what it is. It is a posture of humility and surrender. Over and over and over, he says, I am your servant. I am unworthy. I'm like a dead dog in your presence. There's nothing I could do to earn a seat at your table. I'll serve you all your days. And David says, You don't understand what I'm doing. I didn't ask you to be my servant. I asked you to sit next to me at my table. I ask you to open yourself up for me to let others serve you. I know who you are, Mephibosheth. I choose to honor you anyway because I made an agreement with your Father, and I'm going to honor it because I'm a king who stands by my word. The same is true for us. Now, if that's true for us, what should our posture be towards God? It should be humility and surrender. If God sets the terms, there's nothing that you and I did to be saved. So there's nothing to brag about. There's nothing to be boastful and arrogant about. You know, in a climate like today, where American Christians are some of the most arrogant people on planet earth, it's the exact contradiction to the gospel. It's proof in every debate they get on on social media. It reminds me over and over and over they don't understand grace. Let us not be counted among that group. Let us not be counted among the people that boast in arrogance that we're Christian and slam people who are not Christian and put them in their place. Anyone who doesn't know Jesus, no matter what they say, no matter how they attack us, they're people that have not tasted and experienced the grace of God, so our posture towards them should always be humility. You have grace in a way that maybe somebody else doesn't, because of what God chose to do in your life. You didn't do anything to earn it. Be humble with people that don't know God. Understand when you get grenades thrown on you for what you believe, that's how non-believers, that's how they act. I've said this many, many times. You can't get angry at blind people for stepping on your toes. Pray for them and show humility to them the way that God expects you to be humble in his presence for the grace that you have received. You didn't do anything to earn it. Now, Mephibosheth, if he got prideful at the table, what would he be prideful over? His family is dead. He's a social leper. There's nothing he did to earn it. His father's the reason he's receiving it. It's the same with us. We didn't do anything to earn our salvation. We didn't do anything to earn our relationship with God. We didn't do anything to earn heaven or our rewards when we get there. Now I will say there are special rewards that you that God will bestow on those that were sacrificially faithful here on this earth. That's a whole separate message. But getting to heaven, that is all the grace of God done through Jesus Christ. So we should be humble. The second thing is we should be surrendered. If a king like that makes an offer like that to us, then our answer should be, well, then you're the king and I'm going to do what you say. You know, a lot of us want Jesus as Savior. We don't want him as Lord. Jesus, I like what you offer. I'll take your salvation, but I'm still going to do things my way. No, that's a packaged deal. Now, it changes in a moment, it unfolds for a lifetime. Understanding Jesus as Lord, that takes a long lifetime of letting go. That's why Jesus taught us to pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Because Monday we may be living for God's kingdom, but Tuesday we'll pick it back up and we'll try to live for our kingdom again. That's a battle that takes place in prayer. Not my will but yours be done. We need to learn that prayer every day. But Mephibosheth shows us, man, say that five times. That's a tongue twister. Um He shows us how we should be in the presence of God and towards other people, humble and surrendered. He paid homage. He was humble. He called himself a servant. He even called himself a dead dog in the presence of a king. That's our response to grace. That's number three. Fourth and finally, the rewards from grace. This is key. This is verses 9 through 13, but zero in with me on verse 10 for a minute. Verse 10, skipping down, it says, But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson, shall always eat at my table. This is what David says. And then in verse 11, skip ahead, it says, So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. And then skip to verse 13. So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both of his feet. It's not a mistake how that's written. Three times in that passage, three times from verses 10 to 13, it says that he's eating at the king's table. And then at the very end in verse 13, it reminds you that he wasn't there by his effort. It says, now he was lame in both feet. That's the author repeating the condition to say, pay attention. Pay attention. This is really important. He's there for one reason and one reason only, the grace offered by the king. That's why he's sitting there. This is the rewards of grace. Mephibosheth enjoyed eating at the table of a king where he should have been sitting underneath the table. Here's what I mean by that. In Old Testament times, it was tradition that if one nation overtook another, a lot of times the victorious king would take the captured king and cut off his thumbs and his big toes and make him sit under the table and feed him scraps like a dog. That was the tradition. In fact, scholars believe that's one of the reasons that Mephibosheth said, I'm nothing but a dead dog. He's saying, I deserve to sit under your table and take scraps like a dog. That is the rightful place of the child of a fallen king. And Saul was after David's life, even though they were both part of the nation of Israel. Saul wanted David's head on a stick. But David made a commitment to Jonathan. And the man who was supposed to be sitting under his table, getting scraps like a dog, is sitting at his table as if he was his own flesh and blood. Who does that remind you of? Should remind you of you. It should remind you of me. If God wanted to, He could show me over 45 years every sinful thought, every sinful word, every sinful action, and every sinful attitude I've ever had towards God and other people. And I would be horrified. I would try to dig a hole so deep I'd never see the light of day again. The same is true for each of you. In the last 24 hours, all of you have had at least one thought about God or another person that you would not want shown on the screen like a projector. You'd be embarrassed. We all have these thoughts. You know why? We have a fallen nature. We're self-centered by nature. God is putting that nature to death. All right? It takes effort, it takes a lifetime. That's why we say our mission statement is heads, hearts, and hands being transformed, continual present tense, being transformed through the gospel. All right. But if I ever get to the point where I think one day I'm going to heaven because I'm good, then it means I have forgotten just how bad I really am and how good Jesus really is. Gosh, we just have no idea. I think about the life of Jesus, and yes, I'm impressed by the cross. We're going to talk about that on Good Friday. Of course, to be on the cross and take all the punishment for my sin, past, present, and future, hour after hour on Good Friday, be nailed to a Roman cross and be scourged and have a crown of thorns and all the pain that he went through. Man, I'll never be able to repay him for that. But no Christian talks about what he did for the first 33 years. Day in and day out. He never said no to God. He was never arrogant towards his family. He was never disobedient, not one single time. He never had a sinful attitude. He was a teenager. And he had a perfect attitude. How much more proof do you have need to have that he was God? Think about that. I mean, seriously, it's unbelievable that he did all that for 33 years. And I get the reward. And you get the reward. You will be declared perfect when you stand before him at judgment if you're a Christian, because you'll be covered in his blood, and God will see you through the lens of what his son has done for you. My plea would be this when somebody asks you why you're a Christian and how you're saved, absolutely tell them that Jesus died on the cross. But make that the second thing that you say. Make the first thing that you say, Jesus lived perfectly to earn my righteousness. And he died sacrificially to take my punishment. What a great offer. What a the grace of honor and righteousness that God makes us through his Son. What a portrait we see in this passage. We're not dogs sitting under the table, we're adopted children sitting at the table with the King. And we're going to be sitting at the table with Jesus. We will have the marriage supper of the Lamb. Oh, I can't wait for that meal. I don't know how big that fellowship hall is going to be, but every believer, past, present, and future, is going to be there. And I don't know who's going to be sitting to my left and to my right, but it's going to be a party. And I cannot wait. It's going to be sooner than you think. And let me just say this. In this passage, it ends with saying, and he was crippled in his feet to remind us and Mephibosheth why it was grace that he was at the table. You know the reminders that we're going to have when we're at the table? The scars in Jesus' wrists and his feet. Jesus has a brand new, resurrected, glorified body, but his scars are still going to be there. How do I know this? Because Thomas, the doubting Thomas, said, I'm not going to believe until I touch the scars. And Jesus said, Come on. Come on, Thomas, put your finger right here. See that I am flesh and bones. See that it is me. Those scars are still what he's wearing in heaven. The only man-made scars that will remain in heaven are the scars of Jesus. So anytime from eternity, from now on until eternity, if we ever doubt how we got there, it will be the scars of Christ for our behalf. So let me let me land the plane here. In one sentence. David's gracious invitation to come to his table points to Christ's gracious invitation to come to his throne. David's gracious invitation to come to his table points to Christ's gracious invitation to come to his throne. Hebrews 4, 16 says this. You say, all right, Bo, you convinced me. I'm like Mephibosheth. I'm crippled. I have nothing that I can offer God other than my soul. I have nothing I can do to earn my salvation. I can just receive grace. So how should I respond to God? And this passage in Hebrews tells us run to the throne of grace. Go boldly to the throne as a child goes to their father for help. Know that when you're a Christian, you are now adopted as a family member. You're a child that can run and climb right on top of his father's lap and ask for anything that he needs. That's the love of God towards his children. Even though your sin looks like you're a crippled child, God looks at you as if you are a perfect son or daughter because of his son. What is it in your life that you need right now, that you're in desperate need of the grace of God? Right now, as you enter into the house of God today, we're getting ready for Easter. How is it that you can say grace in your life? Maybe you're in this room right now and you've never surrendered to Jesus. Maybe you've been in church, maybe your family's been in church, maybe you've you were in Sunday school growing up, but you know that you know that you know that your life doesn't belong to Him. There's an invitation that you have not fully opened up. Maybe today's that day. Jesus, I want what you did to count for me. I want to sit at your table and I know that I'm not worthy, but I want to receive what you did for me. I want you to be my Lord and my Savior. Maybe that's the invitation of grace. Maybe you're in this room and you're a you're a genuine follower, but you've drifted. Guess what? He's not left you or forsaken you, but maybe you've let sin be a barrier to experiencing intimacy with him. Maybe today is a day to walk away from that sin and run to the throne. Maybe you have needs right now beyond what you can provide yourself. Maybe today is a day to throw yourself at the throne and say, God, not my will but yours. God, I can't, but you can. I need you. Whatever the case is, we never outlive grace. There's never a day that you wake up and and and you don't need grace anymore. I was on the phone with Larry Guido the other day, 94 years old. And he said, Bo, I understand God's grace today more than I ever have because he gives me the grace to get out of my bed and make it to the other side of the room. That's a different way of experiencing grace. God's grace is everywhere. We need it like the air that we breathe. We're simply called to be like Mephibosheth, to be humble and acknowledge that we need it and be surrendered and receive it and answer the invitation. And we can sit at the table with a king. What a great promise. As we enter into this time of invitation, what grace are you lacking in your life right now? Pray about this with me as we enter into this invitation. Maybe you are a Christian and you are beating yourself to a pulp when God has already forgiven you over something that you've done. And today's a day to cut it loose. I don't know what the case is, but let's say grace together. Let's pray and seek God's grace no matter what stage we're in right now. Let's pray. Oh, what a great portrait of the gospel, Lord. What a great portrait of you doing for us what we could never do for ourselves, bestowing honor upon us when we deserve to be underneath your table like dogs. We get to sit at the table of honor like children. For everybody in this room, Lord, I pray for those that don't know you that today would be a day to say, Lord Jesus, I want you to be my Lord and Savior, and I want to live the rest of my life walking with you, Lord. For those that have drifted, let today be a day to come back and say, Lord, by your grace, cleanse me and make me new. For those that are struggling, Lord, by your grace, provide what is needed. Draw near to me, Lord. I need you. Whatever the case is, Lord, help us to respond right now to your invitation of grace. In Jesus' name. Amen.