The Highest Vista of All [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

What blessing might we forfeit just because we hide ourselves from the very God who wants to bless us? That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see yourself in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, Free Yourself, Be Yourself. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. As we've been learning, shame is, simply put, is a lie that says you don't measure up, and you need to figure out what's wrong, and you need to fix it in order to make yourself acceptable. If you're ever going to be really loved, then you're going to have to be more or do more than you are now. And in that gap between what you are now and what you think you ought to be, in that gap, there is great temptation because there's great anxiety.

It is probably the greatest source of anxiety in all the universe. And so, as we've learned all about what shame is, about how it is like a stronghold, how it can come tumbling down by the power of the gospel, and we have seen in some practical ways how it is that we can help other people without shaming them. And we have learned also about how it is that the gospel can be proclaimed in a way that does not bring religious shame involved. And I want to show you in this segment how it is, theologically, that I have been transformed by the gospel.

In our next segment, we'll be talking some about just how an encounter with God can change you, and I've got some personal testimony to share with you, but I want to share with you that there is a revelation that has changed my life, and it is a revelation of what the new covenant actually is. I had always known there was an old covenant and a new covenant. I knew the old covenant was a covenant of works. The new covenant was called a covenant of grace.

But I always thought of it this way. In the old covenant, the Lord said to Moses, tell the people if they will obey me, then they will be my treasured people, and I will bless them. And the people said, we will do everything that you commanded us to do. And I knew that the new covenant wasn't like the old and that it was about a set of rules like that. And yet, when I became a Christian, what I realized is that I felt like I was in a covenant with God, and God has said, I'm saving you by my grace, but your part is to walk with me faithfully, serve me diligently, study your Bible, pray, and be a good disciple, and love me with all your heart.

And if you'll keep up your side of the covenant, then you'll be really blessed. I think that's the way that most Christians think about the new covenant. But if you think of it that way, what really is so different about it from the old covenant? I mean, in the old covenant, where people were keeping the law, and God said, you're my people, and you belong to me, and the more you obey, the better it will go with you. If we come into the new covenant, we say, well, it's a covenant of grace, and yet, we say, well, the more that I obey you, and I stay in your word, and I pray, and I'm a faithful disciple, and I give, and I serve, then the better it will go with me, and I'll be your disciple, and I'll keep my end of the covenant.

What's really so different about that? I mean, we know that Jesus has come, and we know that it is a covenant of grace, but what really makes the new covenant new? That's what I want to talk about, because when I found out something that for all my Christian life I didn't understand about the new covenant, it changed everything.

And I'm going to tell the story of the new covenant from an old covenant story that's got to be one of my favorites. It's the story of Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth, as far as I know, is the only character in the Bible, Old Testament or new, whose name means essentially shame, the root of Mephibosheth.

It is shame. And to walk through the story of Mephibosheth is to lead us into the idea of covenant in a way that will point us to the understanding of the new covenant, and to me, when you come to that point of revelation, it's like, well, I called the chapter the highest vista of all, because it's like sometimes in a beautiful fall day in North Carolina, if you could ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway, and you come to what's called a scenic overlook, and you look out and you see how beautiful it is, and it's just this beautiful sight, but then you know you can travel a little higher and get to a better vista. And to me, the new covenant for a Christian, it's the highest vista of all.

And so I want to look at Mephibosheth. To understand the story of Mephibosheth, whose name means shame, you have to really look at the story of Jonathan and David, because there's a lot more in the Bible about Jonathan and David than there is about Mephibosheth, and that's the big part of the story of Mephibosheth. If you're familiar with King David, you know that he came into power after King Saul, and King Saul was a very jealous, really mentally ill king, who hated David, was threatened by David when David began to have success and be lauded by the people. Saul hated him, despised him, and wanted to kill David. So this story begins with Saul, King Saul, the reigning king of Israel, despising David because of the threat that David was to the throne, and all the people began to love David.

They began to chant great songs about how great David was. Well, through a lot of history here in which David has to run for his life from Saul and David lives honorably, there is an unlikely friendship that emerges between Saul's son, Jonathan, and David. In fact, they became as close as you could possibly become, as two friends could possibly be. The Bible says that they loved each other as their own souls. It was a deep-knit friendship. It was a spirit thing.

It was a spirit thing. And what happened was when Jonathan recognized that David was going to come to power eventually , Jonathan made a covenant with David. And this was an amazing arrangement because you had David, who was considered to be the king's enemy, in a friendship alliance with the king's son. And so Jonathan is helping David by warning him and giving him information. And David, for his part in the covenant, is going to make a solemn pledge that no matter what happens, that he'll take care of Jonathan's descendants. And we pick up reading this story in 1 Samuel.

It's in 1 Samuel, chapter 20, where I pick up the story at verse 14. And this is the covenant that they made. 1 Samuel 20, 14, Jonathan says to David, if I'm still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord. Let me just pause here and say that word for steadfast love is one of my favorite Hebrew words, chesed. It is the word for covenantal love. You could translate it unfailing kindness, steadfast love, the covenantal love of the Lord. I almost like to just call it the covenantal love of God. It is a love that is rooted in covenant.

Show me the chesed of the Lord that I may not die. And do not cut off your steadfast love, your chesed, from my house forever when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David's from the face of the earth. And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, may the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul. So a covenant has been made, a covenant between Jonathan and David, an unlikely covenant, but it is a covenant in which Jonathan who has been such a friend to David and has helped spare David's life is now saying to David, when you take power, would you promise this in our covenant that if I'm still living, continue to show steadfast love to me and never remove your steadfast love, never remove kindness from all of my descendants. Because what Jonathan knew was that it was customary that if a king was dethroned in ancient cultures, as it still is in some cultures, if a king is removed from the throne, the first thing that the new king does oftentimes is to seek out any possible threats to the throne from the previous king's lineage. So they're assuming that David, when he comes to power, if he's like most kings, would have all of the king's children and grandsons, all of Saul's grandsons' lineage banished or imprisoned or executed. And so he's making a covenant saying don't kill them, show them love.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Can you imagine what it would be like to be accepted perfectly? Envision it, being free to be yourself with no fear of rejection. If you mess up, people don't roll their eyes, make fun of you, or love you less.

Imagine no more of that anxious feeling that you get deep down in your gut that makes you feel like the pressure is always on so you can never really relax. What you're imagining and longing for is a life with no shame. In Paradise, before sin came into the world, the Bible tells us only one thing about Adam and Eve's relationship.

They were naked and felt no shame. Ever since the fall, the human heart has been riddled with shame. It's a lie that says, until you measure up, you can't be truly acceptable. Shame causes some to say, I'll try to be perfect in order to be accepted, and others to decide, since I'll never measure up, I might as well rebel.

Either way, the heart is poisoned by shame, and there is only one antidote, the grace of God in Jesus Christ. In his highly acclaimed book, Free Yourself, Be Yourself, Pastor Alan Wright not only exposes the lies of shame, he leads you into a revolution of God's love that heals your soul. Discover freedom, joy, and destiny as you shed performance-based living and let God take the shame off you for good. It's a life-changing, full-length book from Alan Wright.

Free yourself, be yourself. The Gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. We're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. David says yes, and they have made this covenant. So the covenant was to assure that David would not extinguish the lineage of Saul and Jonathan and their descendants.

A covenant, an agreement between two. Then the story continues. Because what happens is that news does come to Mephibosheth, who is a young child, he's just five years old, and to the nanny that keeps Mephibosheth has been watching, worrying about this day, knowing and fearing, as everybody knew, that David was going to come to power.

Eventually, this day would come. And here's what we read in 2 Samuel chapter 4 verse 4. Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet.

He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. And his nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth. He was named shame, and now he has suffered a great fall because he and his nanny were running in fear of the king that they didn't know, and now he's crippled. A great fear of a king that he assumes would harm him. A great fall that left him lame. A great fear and a great fall, and he mobilized.

Start sounding familiar? A great fear and a great fall, even though he didn't know the king and didn't know about the covenant that had been made between David and Jonathan. So, Mephibosheth goes into hiding because now the purpose of his life is to just not be found out. Just like we've learned all throughout our study together, what shame does is it leads you into hiding because you don't want to be found out for fear of punishment. And this is Mephibosheth, and he is hiding from the king that he doesn't know had made a covenant with his father to bless the descendants, including Mephibosheth.

What blessing might we forfeit just because we hide ourselves from the very God who wants to bless us? The story then continues after David has come to power. In 2 Samuel 9, David has come to the throne, and David has expanded the borders of Israel. He has secured them with military prowess. He has shown that he loves the people, that he loves God. He is beloved by all the people. David is the most wonderful king you could ever imagine having, and he is so full of gratitude.

You've got to remember he had been running. He had been running just for his life from King Saul, and now he's not only been spared, but God has brought him and put him on the throne of Israel, and he has all things at his hands. His life is full. His heart is full of gratitude. He's full of worship. He's full of wonder.

He's full of celebration, and so this is what happens. At chapter 9, verse 1, David said, Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? He just is saying, Is there anybody that I could bless? You know, I think sometimes people have an image of God. The reason he created the world and created all of us was because he was sitting up in heaven kind of lonely, and he was like, You know, what am I going to do up here? God up there just twiddling his thumbs, and he's like, You know, I need to make some people so I won't be so lonely, and then he made you and me, and we came in and kind of saved God from his loneliness.

What a silly idea. God was happy all by himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Sublime trinity. He made the world because God is so full of wonder and beauty and creativity that he's like a master painter, and he was ready to paint his masterpiece. He was the sculptor, and he was ready to demonstrate the beauty that was within him. Everything that has been made, including you being made in his own image, you were made out of the overflow of God's fullness. He is full of life and full of love, and so God is pictured here as one like King David. He's the king, and he's upon the throne of the cosmos and the heart of God. If you want to understand the heart of God, understand it like this. God is always saying, Is there anyone that I could bless?

Anyone that would be ready to receive the magnificence of my love? David is just saying, I don't even know if Jonathan has any living descendants, any children, any grandchildren. I don't even know if they exist, but I just feel like blessing somebody because of the covenant that I made with Jonathan.

Is there anybody? And so the servant, verse number two, whose name was Ziba, was called to David, and the king said, Are you Ziba? And he said, I'm your servant. And the king said, Is there not still someone of the house of Saul that I might show the kindness of God to him? And Ziba said to the king, There is still a son of Jonathan.

He's crippled in his feet. And the king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, He is in the house of Machir, the son of Amiel at Lo Dabbar. Scholars say that Lo Dabbar either means the place of no pasture or it may just mean no place or barren place. The man whose name was shame, who was crippled because he fell during a great anxious run, was hiding out in the place of no pasture, no life, no productivity, fearing being found out existing but not really living, Mephibosheth.

And all the while he had no idea that there was a king in Israel that was calling out for someone just like him. If we could just understand the heart of God, if we could just get a glimpse into the heart of the king of the cosmos, what we would see is that he is pursuing us with his majesty and with his love, and he wants us to experience it. Alan Wright. Today's teaching is titled The Highest Vista of All and it's in our series Free Yourself, Be Yourself. We're placing a bookmark here to pick up on the remaining part of this teaching next time. But Alan Wright is back in the studio here in just a few moments and we'll have a closing good news thought for you today.

Stick with us. The Bible tells us only one thing about Adam and Eve's relationship. They were naked and felt no shame. Ever since the fall, the human heart has been riddled with shame. It's a lie that says, until you measure up, you can't be truly acceptable. Shame causes some to say, I'll try to be perfect in order to be accepted and others to decide, since I'll never measure up, I might as well rebel.

Either way, the heart is poisoned by shame and there is only one antidote, the grace of God in Jesus Christ. In his highly acclaimed book, Free Yourself, Be Yourself, Pastor Alan Wright not only exposes the lies of shame, he leads you into a revolution of God's love that heals your soul. Discover freedom, joy, and destiny as you shed performance-based living and let God take the shame off you for good. It's a life-changing, full-length book from Alan Wright.

Free yourself, be yourself. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries.

Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, pastoralan.org. Back now with Pastor Alan in the studio and our parting good news thought for today. Theology is thrilling when you understand the story of the Bible. And it is a story not of God coming and telling us what we ought to do.

It's a story of God coming to rescue us. And many, many people today are fearful thinking that if they really got close to God, it might not be a good thing. But in the story of Mephibosheth, what we see and we're going to see tomorrow is that God has made it possible in Christ for you to come to His banqueting table where you join the royal feast. And there your shame is covered and there you are fully and completely accepted because of a new covenant in Christ. It's not like the old covenant that was between the people and God where the people said we'll try hard to obey. The new covenant is a covenant that is between the Father and the Son. And the Son has made and kept the covenant on your behalf. When you are in Christ, therefore, you're in the new covenant and a recipient of all its benefits.

Daniel, I can't think of any higher vista of theology than that, the glory of the covenant of the grace of God. Guilt and shame are two words that typically in the Christian world go hand in hand together. But there is a distinction between the two, right?

Well, we're going to learn a lot about that. You know, guilt is a real thing, right? If I commit a crime, I'm guilty and I have guilt. So we're all guilty. We all have sinned.

We've all fallen short of the glory of God. To say shame off you is not to soften up on sin. That's not what it means. It's not to say that grace means that you get soft on sin either.

Instead, it says, what's the solution to all of this? And what we're distinguishing between is what some have called true guilt and false guilt. But shame is something that's not just the same thing as false guilt. And it's not even the same thing exactly as condemnation. But what we're going to learn is that shame really is a system of thought. It is a whole stronghold, a house of thoughts, a way of looking at life, a way of looking at your own life. And it's subtle at times and you don't realize it.

And then there are others who've been through the deepest and darkest types of trauma for whom it is a poison that's been taken in very deeply and is very toxic. But the conviction of sin, as we'll discover, is a good thing. That's a gift from God.

It's good to know how we can go a better way. It's good to know how the grace of God can lead us into a better way of living. So that's the grace of God. Conviction of sin is not something to be ever shy about. It's something we should run to because it's good. It's from God. But the shame that I describe in this series, Daniel, is something we say it's toxic. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.