The Highest Vista of All [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Bring your shame and come and scooch your seat up at the King's table.

And there, for the rest of your life, enjoy the banquet of grace. 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 could 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. Pick up reading this story in 1 Samuel, and so he's making a covenant saying, don't kill them. Show them love. And David agrees. 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, 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's 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 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 is the king and he is 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?

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. 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.

Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. And so the servant, verse number two, whose name was Zeba, was called to David. And the king said, Are you Zeba? 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 Zeba 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 Zeba 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 self, and he wants us to experience it. He's at Lo Dabbar, verse five, and King David sent and brought him from the house of Machir, the son of Amiel at Lo Dabbar. Can you imagine that day? Can you imagine that day for Mephibosheth when the king's soldiers showed up at the door, when they just showed up at the door, knocking at the door of Mephibosheth? Someone opens the door and there's the king's regiment and the king's horses, and they said, where is Mephibosheth?

Mephibosheth is hiding in the most remote part of the house. This is the day they'd feared. This is the day they'd worried about. This is the day that Mephibosheth had dreaded. Every day of his life, he had thought about this day in which he would be found out and taken to the king and executed. I also wonder what it was like when he came and the soldiers said, come with us. The king wants to see you.

So off they go. And Mephibosheth the son of Son, verse six, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. He was falling down and trembling, certain that he would be doomed at this point. And he could never ever imagine what King David would say to him at verse seven. David said to him, do not fear. Don't be afraid. Fear not. Fear not. Do not be afraid. Someone has said they've counted up and found 365 instances in the Bible where God says, do not be afraid enough one per day. Don't be afraid. He said, do not be afraid, 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 he paid homage and he said, listen as a voice of shame speaking, Mephibosheth said, what is your servant that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? This can't be. See, the hardest thing about the gospel, the hardest thing about faith is that it seems too good to be true.

In fact, I have a friend, a preacher who said, unless you preach the gospel and it sounds too good to be true, then you hadn't really heard the gospel, nor has it been proclaimed. He said, don't be afraid. I'm going to show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. And the king said to Ziba, Saul's servant, he said to him, all that belonged to Saul and to all his house, I've given to your master's grandson and you and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him and shall bring him the produce that your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master's grandson shall always eat at my table. So it said in the next verse, so Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's son. And then it says again at verse 13, Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem for he ate always at the king's table.

Three times it's repeated. Mephibosheth, you'll eat at my table. Mephibosheth ate at the king's table. Mephibosheth ate at the king's table. This extraordinary, beautiful story is a story not about Mephibosheth.

It's a story about the king. It's a story about a covenant because the reason that Mephibosheth was blessed had absolutely nothing to do with Mephibosheth. The only thing that Mephibosheth had going for him was that his father had made a covenant with the king of Israel. And so in a very real sense, what you could say is that Mephibosheth was blessed because he was in Jonathan and because the king had made a covenant with Jonathan promising to bless Jonathan and Jonathan had made a covenant with the king promising to be faithful to King David and they had agreed in their covenantal faithfulness and their obedience to one another to keep their word to one another, what happened was that Jonathan was a third party who was just benefiting from this covenant that had been made. He was just brought into it.

He was just brought in. The king just said, I want to bless somebody for the sake of the promises that I made to Jonathan. So if you were in Jonathan, then you were going to be at the king's table. That's a covenant. Now here is the highest vista of all for Christian theology, for the exhilaration of your soul, to understand what the gospel is all about and this has transformed my life and healed my shame as much as any single revelation. I always thought that I was in a covenant with the father and that God had said essentially, if you'll be a good disciple and if you will be faithful and if you will, you will serve me and you will keep up your part in this covenant, then you will really be blessed. And what I've discovered is that the new covenant is new because yes, there's a divine representative and there's a human representative. There is in this covenant God and man, but I'm not the one and you're not the one that is the representative because we are told in Hebrews that Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry in as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was of better promises. And this we learn for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Jesus Christ, that Jesus being both God and man was able on behalf of humanity to be the human representative in the covenant, promising to obey, promising to be faithful and he also because he was the God man, he in Jesus himself, he was God, God himself was representing himself through Jesus to all humanity and he is the covenant partner. So in this one man, in Jesus Christ, there is both God's side of the covenant and the human side of the covenant. In other words, the new covenant is new because it is not about me and God, it is about the Father and the Son. It is about one God man. Jesus made the covenant with the Father and the Father said, if you will be obedient on behalf of all humanity, I will pour out unlimited blessing upon you. And the Son said to the Father, if I remain obedient, will you promise that you will never remove your steadfast love from me? And the Father promised this was a covenant that was made between the Father and the Son. There is one mediator. We are not the mediator. The Son is the mediator and there is a new covenant.

In other words, we are taken out of it. We are just like Mephibosheth. And the bottom line to this was the question is not whether Mephibosheth was obedient, not whether Mephibosheth was beautiful, not whether Mephibosheth could run like the wind, whether Mephibosheth could contribute to the king's army.

He had nothing to do with it. He just said, is there somebody I could bless for the sake of Jonathan? And what the Father says now, is there somebody who is in Christ that I could just bless for the sake of my son who kept my covenant and went faithfully even to the cross and scorned his shame and took upon him the sin of the world. The new covenant is the gospel truth that says anyone who is in Christ is blessed forever with every spiritual blessing. If Mephibosheth got blessed because he was in Jonathan, how much more are we blessed because we are in Christ? This goes far to explain what Paul means in Ephesians chapter 1 when he says we are blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing. To me, this informs what Paul says and what he means.

We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world because anybody that accepts Christ becomes Christs and in Christ we are blessed and it takes us out of the picture. And so what it means instead is that the Christian life is not about me trying to keep my end of a bargain. Instead, the Christian life is about me being like Mephibosheth and the invitation of God is come and bring your crippled legs and bring your shame and come and scoot your seat up at the king's table and there for the rest of your life enjoy the banquet of grace. This all gives new meaning to me and this all gives new meaning to me every time that I take communion and I hold up the cup or someone else holds it up and reminds us of the words of Jesus who says this is the cup of the new covenant. This is the fulfillment of what Jeremiah had prophesied when he said the time is coming when I will make a new covenant with my people and it won't be like the old covenant. It will be a new covenant. The new covenant is an invitation to anyone who would simply place their trust in Christ for whoever would receive Christ the Bible says has the right to become a child of God. In other words, through Jesus Christ all of us Mephibosheth are invited to dine with the king now and forever more. That's the new covenant. That is the gospel. Allen Wright, today's teaching on the highest vista of all, and boy it's good news. It's from the series Free Yourself, Be Yourself, and Pastor Alan is back here in just a moment with our parting good news thought for today.

Stick with us. Can you imagine what it would be like to be accepted perfectly? Instead of being 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. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from 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. Back now in the studio with Pastor Alan and somebody's listening right now and boy, they've heard something that has really pricked their heart and they say, this is good. This is good theology, as we've been talking about.

This is, if it's like what happened to me when I really saw the new covenant, it will rock your whole world. Because we spent so much of our life thinking that the covenant is sort of a modified old covenant. Like, you know, the people in the old covenant agreed that they would do their best for God, you know, and they'd be blessed. And somehow we just bring Jesus into the equation and think that we've got a new covenant just because now we have Jesus and he talked about grace.

And that's not what it is at all. It is an entirely new covenant that has rendered the old fulfilled and obsolete, the writer of Hebrews says. Therefore, we're in a covenant that is rooted in the finished work of Jesus and his shed blood for us on our behalf. And this covenant is altogether better because it does not depend upon my righteousness, but upon Jesus's. Now, when you understand the covenant in that terms, it is the highest vista of all. And boy, doesn't it change everything. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.