David // The Kindness of God // Pastor Josh Evans

Amen. If you've experienced the goodness and faithfulness of God, let me hear you say Amen. And I'm telling you, man, He's been faithful.

He's been faithful, and He's going to continue to be faithful in the days to come. Man, what a great service. I could have stayed down front and kept singing. The rest of it, I mean, man, I was good. And man, it just gets me excited, a little bit fired up. I hope that you are fired up and excited. And how many of you are glad to be in church today? Okay, sweet, some of you. And that's exciting.

Some of you still waking up, kind of you feel like, man, there's a lot of things you could be doing right now. I'm glad you're here. And I do want to echo what Pastor David said earlier. If this is your first time here, thank you so much for being here, and we really appreciate you joining us. And we would love to connect with you and meet you after the service.

And so maybe stick around for a little bit. And we would greatly appreciate that. Hey, before we jump into the message, I want to invite you, if you have been attending our church for any length of time in the past, could be many years.

It could be many months, could be weeks. I want to invite you to what we're calling Starting Point. That's going to happen on Sunday evening, April the 3rd. It's going to happen at 5.30 p.m. at the gathering place. And if you're like, where is the gathering place? We can help you find that, okay?

That's at our house. And we would love to bring you over and feed you a good meal, all right? But this is an opportunity for you to learn a little bit more about our church and maybe even join our church, become a member of our church.

So if you have been coming for any length of time, let me encourage you, if you're not a member but would like to be, this is for you. It's your next step. And it's your next step with us. And we would love to connect.

You say, if I go to Starting Point, is there a commitment? Are you going to lock the doors until you sign your life away to our church? And we are not going to do that. And if our church is not for you, we want you to find the right church for you. And there's a lot of good ones in our community. But we would love for this to be your church. So I'd love to invite you to that. You can sign up in the Welcome Center or you can sign up on our website, right on the front page. You can sign up for that. So if you have your Bible here today, I'd love for you to turn to 2 Samuel chapter number 9.

2 Samuel chapter number 9. And by way of introduction, I want to ask you, how many of you, just be honest, this is a safe place, okay? So you're not going to be judged.

How many of you have somewhat of a hard time being kind to someone who does not deserve it? Okay, let me see your hands. And some of you are a little scared. You know, you're like, do I raise my hand? I basically am admitting I'm a sinner.

But we all are. Everybody that raised their hand is a sinner. And the ones who didn't raise their hand, they're an even worse sinner, all right? So, but we all struggle with being kind to people when they don't deserve it, right? How many of you have or have a sibling, you know, like brother, sister?

And man, we got one raising his hand high in the balcony. And listen, I had a sister growing up. I still have a sister. And listen, I'll just be honest with you, like growing up, it was just like, I mean, if she's not going to be nice to me, there's no chance I'm going to be nice back to her. And I really wish I had lived my life differently growing up because I'm reaping all the benefits.

I think the Lord said, I'll show you when you have kids. And my kids can't get along for anything, you know, it's just like, and every time they get on, here's what happens. They always say, if I get on to Lindley, she's always like, Cameron made me do this, or Cameron did this, or Cameron kicked me, or whatever, you know.

He has a problem with kicking, I don't know. But they always are fighting and blaming one another. And they struggle being kind to one another when, you know, somebody else is not kind to them. It might not be siblings that you have a struggle with, but people that you work with, you know.

That can be difficult sometimes when they don't treat you the way that you want to be treated. And so you're just like, man, I'm not going to be kind. Or how about this, if that doesn't apply to you, how about when you're traveling on the interstate? Okay, you see what I'm saying? Like, here's the thing, like, how many of you, you're going, and you feel like you're going a decent speed in the fast lane, and somebody comes up behind you, and they go to the slow lane to get by you? And here's what I do, okay? If I see that there's a car in the right lane that they're going to have to, like, fly and get in front, oh, you better believe I'm speeding up, man.

I am that, I'm that guy. I'm not going to be intimidated by this person. And my goal is to get to the point where they have to get behind me, and then I just, I feel so good about myself after that. But listen, I just like, I struggle sometimes, just like everybody in here with being kind to people, when I feel that they don't, that they don't deserve it. You see, kindness is something that we, when we are born with, we kind of are okay with being kind to people who deserve it, but in our minds, the way that we're born, or the way that we're built, is we want to be kind to people when they deserve it, and when they earn it. And here's the thing, is the Bible, and this is what I love about the Bible, and I'm really glad that you're here, and I hope that this is not the only time that you open your Bible. I hope that you open it throughout the week, and in your quiet time when you're at home, because the Bible is so, so important, because it gives us a completely different way to live life.

It's a complete counter-cultural thing. All throughout Scripture, you find that, hey, we were born to react this way, but the Bible, through a relationship with Jesus, it actually tells us that out of a relationship with Jesus, we're going to act about the same situation entirely different, because we have Christ within us. You see, the Bible, it doesn't say be kind to those who do deserve it, or be kind to those who have earned your kindness. It actually says that we are supposed to be kind to everyone, regardless of if they deserve it or not.

Here's the big idea that I want to talk about. I want to talk about God's kindness today, and this is the idea that I want you to remember as you leave later this afternoon, is this. Kindness, God's kindness, is not earned, it is freely offered. God's kindness and goodness to us, it is not earned, it is freely offered to every single person in this room. Everyone.

I want to stress that. There's not a person in this room here today that has earned the kindness of God. Listen, this pastor, I haven't earned anything, but I'm thankful that the kindness of God, the goodness of God, the grace of God was freely offered for me just to accept it.

And you can accept that today. We're going to see a story in scripture through the life of David, as we've been in this series for the last several weeks, just kind of working through his life. We're going to see a passage of scripture about kindness here in 2 Samuel 9. It's one of my favorite passages of scripture, believe it or not. You don't hear it preached on a whole lot, and it's an incredible message, an incredible display, and really type of the grace of God we see here in this story.

So let's jump in. Verse 1 of 2 Samuel 9 says this, David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? So let me kind of get you a little bit up to speed because we've skipped ahead in David's life.

So just to kind of rewind for just a moment. Saul was the king, and Saul was doing things the right way, and then God rejected him because he disobeyed the commands of God. So when God rejected him, he told Samuel, who was the prophet, he told Samuel to go and anoint a new king. So Samuel goes to the house of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, and he shows up there, and he goes through all of Jesse's sons, and he's like, Hey, listen, Jesse, is this all the sons you have? And Jesse's like, Well, we have the youngest. He's out in the field.

We didn't even invite him to the party. And so they go and get David, and he comes in and they said, Surely this is going to be the king. So Samuel anoints David, and David, that day his life changed forever, but not a whole lot of things changed in the immediate.

And so he just kind of keeps doing what he's doing, you know, the shepherd life that he was living. And then, remember, God had rejected Saul, and so David, he shows up, remember the battle with Goliath, the Philistine, and he defeats him, so his fame begins to go everywhere. Saul hates David because of it. Saul wants to kill David. His pride, his jealousy, his envy, all of those sins got in the way. And so Saul just had a tough time.

So fast forward a little bit. Saul and his son, Jonathan, who Jonathan was best friends with David. They are, Saul and Jonathan, were at battle against the Philistines. Remember the bad guys, the one who they had, David had recently taken out, Goliath. Well, they're in this battle, and they strike Jonathan, and the Philistines kill Jonathan, Saul's son, David's best friend. They kill him, and obviously Saul, they're coming in at Saul, they actually pierce Saul in the battle, and Saul, he knows he's about to die, so he asks one of his servants that was with him, he said, hey, listen, just strike me dead right now. Well, the servant's like, man, I can't do that, because if everybody gets word that I killed you, then they're going to come and they're going to kill me.

And so he was afraid, and he was like, no, I'm not going to do it. And so Saul, he knew he was going to die, so he just pulls out his sword, and he just falls right on it. Okay, he kills himself.

Suicide. And so now you have Saul dead, you have Jonathan dead, David now becomes the king of Israel. And he's living life, and everything's good, and you can read the last several chapters, he is defeating the Syrians and everyone. I mean, life is good, people love David, and David could do anything he wanted. He was the man in charge, he was the man of power, prestige, everything that you want, David had. And so here he has this idea, he said, you know what, I made this covenant way back with Jonathan, and that he would take care of his family, and so he said, is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul? This is how disconnected David was with the house of Saul.

Now remember, in this day and age, basically what would happen is the royal family was the ones who would take over when somebody would die. Well, David's not from that family, and so David's over here, and David had disconnected himself all from Saul's family, and everyone that was related to Saul, he had no idea who was left, and so he says, hey, is there anybody that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness? That word kindness, we're going to see it today, it's what we're going to talk about.

It actually can be translated goodness. It can be translated goodness, it's the agape, unconditional love of God, it's that idea of mercy and grace, and so when you say, or when David says, I want to show kindness, he's talking about showing mercy and grace to somebody in Saul's household. He goes on, verse 2, and there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba, and when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, art thou Ziba? And he said, thy servant is he, and the king said, is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on his feet. Which is lame on his feet. By the way, the servant Ziba, he didn't mention this man by name at that time.

That's interesting, you'll see why here in just a minute. He didn't mention him by name, but he said he was lame on his feet. And so then in verse 4, and the king said unto him, where is he? Ziba said unto the king, behold, he is in the house of Michir the son of Amiel in a place called Lodabar.

Then king David sent, he fetched him out of the house of Michir the son of Amiel from Lodabar. Then you see in verse 6 his name, now in Mephibosheth. And listen, I've been praying all week, I'm going to say the name Mephibosheth a lot in the next 20 to 30 minutes, and I'm praying that I don't butcher his name the rest of the way. I thought about a nickname, but I couldn't come up with a good one. And so if I mess up on that name, don't judge me because you probably couldn't do a whole lot better. So, Mephibosheth.

And also if you're looking at a baby name, here you go. There's just an option, you don't have to go with it, but I would love to welcome a Mephibosheth into our church. But here's the thing, this guy Mephibosheth, and I want to explain how he became lame on both feet. So his dad was Jonathan, this was David's best friend. And when Mephibosheth, obviously he was young, he was 5 years old when he became crippled. And word got back to his household that Saul, Mephibosheth's grandfather, and Jonathan, his dad, had died in battle. Word got back to them, and true story, and you can see this in 2 Samuel 4 verse 4.

You can see this story, and when word got back to the house, the nurse that was taking care of him, because he was 5 years old, the lady taking care of him, she began to flee. You got to understand, in that time, you had Saul the king, and kind of that heir to the throne that a lot of people thought might happen. Jonathan, he's gone. Hey listen, it was chaos. It was chaos in the camp of Israel. And so word gets back, and she literally, she picks up Mephibosheth, and she begins to run and flee, and on her way out, she falls and drops him, and that's how he becomes lame. Mephibosheth, the crippled boy, he's now older, and David, he's the only one left of the house of Saul, and he can show him some kindness. I want you to think before we jump into really the text a little deeper, I want you to think about Mephibosheth for just a moment. This crippled boy, he's probably scared to death, which we'll see. You can understand, because it was very custom for the new king to pretty much do away and wipe away everybody from the house of Saul.

Do away with everyone that ever was a part of his reign, let's kill him, let's get him out of the way. So I can imagine, if I was Mephibosheth, and remember, he's crippled, he's probably sitting on the floor, he can't really go anywhere, he can't move, and he's sitting there, and this knock comes onto the door. And I bet somebody ran into his room, and I'm using some imagination here, and they probably said, oh my goodness, the people with King David are here. And Mephibosheth was terrified. He's probably scared to death, they take him, and they had to pick him up, and they bring him to the king's house.

He feels like, man, this is it, I'm gonna die, this is it, this is where my life ends. Verse 6, now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David, look at what he did. This shows that he was terrified, he fell on his face in reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth, he answered, behold thy servant. David said unto him, fear not, for I will surely, I'm gonna show thee kindness for Jonathan, thy father's sake, and will restore thee, all the land of Saul, thy father. Thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. And he bowed himself, and look at what Mephibosheth said to David, I mean he's probably, there's gotta be a catch.

It's gotta be something more, this is too good to be true. Verse 8, he bowed himself, he said, what is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am. In other words, look at how low Mephibosheth thought of himself.

A dead dog, no good, undeserving. Then the king called to Zeba, Saul's servant, and he said unto them, listen, I've given unto thy master's son all that pertain to Saul unto his house. All the land that was Saul's, he gave completely back to him, and not only that, verse 10, he said, thou therefore, thy sons and thy servants, they're gonna till the land for him. He got a whole group of employees right there to take care of it, and thou shalt bring in the fruits that thy master's son may have food to eat. But listen, Mephibosheth, he's gonna eat bread always at my table. Now Zeba had 15 sons and 20 servants, a lot of people working for Mephibosheth now. Then said Zeba unto the king, according to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. But as for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table.

I love David here because David's like repeating himself so much. He just wants Mephibosheth to feel, you know, awesome about this moment. He keeps saying, hey listen, Mephibosheth, he's not gonna take care of that. Servants, you guys are gonna handle this guy, Mephibosheth, the no good crippled guy from a place called Lodabar, he's gonna sit right here with me and with my family at the king's table. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah and all that dwelt in the house of Zeba were servants unto Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth clearly was older at this time. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem for he did eat continually at the king's table.

But he was lame on both of his feet. Listen, kindness here, we see a story and this is an incredible picture of just God's grace and his kindness towards us here in this story. But listen, kindness is not earned, it is freely offered. I want to talk about the kindness that Jesus has shown to us based on this story. Look, number one, I want you to see the beauty of the kindness of Jesus.

The beauty of the kindness of Jesus. I want you to understand from this story, number one, Mephibosheth had nothing to offer. He had nothing to offer.

There was nothing in David's royal family now. There was nothing that Mephibosheth was bringing to the table. He didn't have ability. He didn't have anything to offer. He wasn't going to be a warrior in the army. He wasn't going to be a leader. He had nothing. In fact, in this day and age, if you were crippled, it showed that you were poor.

And he didn't have anything to offer. In fact, the name Mephibosheth even means exactly this. It means shame that destroys. Shame that destroys.

Think about it. There was nothing good coming out of him. There was nothing good coming out of Mephibosheth. Crippled boy that had nothing except shame.

How about this? He was born into an undeserving family. He was born into an undeserving family. If you think about this, David is showing kindness to a man's family who tried to kill him multiple times. Now listen, I get upset sometimes when I'm driving. You know, road rage, right? But listen, I've never been upset at the person next to me because they've tried to kill somebody in my family. I'm upset because they think if they go around me, first of all, they think they can beat me.

But my four-cylinder will tear them up, okay? But I've never had something like me. And you and I probably are the same way. We get upset and we're like, man, I'm not showing kindness to that person because they didn't treat me the right way at the restaurant. When I came into church, that person didn't even greet me. Hmm, you better believe I'm not going to talk to them again. You see, sometimes we look at kindness and we're like, man, I'm not going to be kind to that person. You know what they did to me when we were in the eighth grade? Guys. Hey, listen, you're laughing now, but I hear stuff like that around here all the time. Listen, here's what I'm saying. Kindness is not based on people if they deserve it or if they've earned it.

Kindness in how you measure it and where you stop is solely based on how kind God has been to you. And you see, that is unending. Let me remind you that in this story, we like to think we're David, you and I, we're Mephibosheth. We're Mephibosheth. We're the ones that have absolutely nothing to offer. We have nothing good can come from us.

In fact, the Bible says that your good deeds, my good deeds are nothing more than filthy rags. Say, man, Pastor, I did not come for this type of a sermon today. Well, listen, listen, it doesn't end there. I'm thankful it doesn't end there.

It gets really good, in fact. And so don't get upset now about, man, I'm no good. Listen, none of us are good. None of us, there's not a person in this room who says, man, I am the one in this room that is worthy and deserving of the kindness of God. None of us are worthy of that. You see, we're Mephibosheth.

We had nothing, Mephibosheth had nothing to offer David. You see, the beauty of the kindness of God is that he is kind to us even when we do not deserve it. Aren't you thankful for that? Aren't you thankful that no matter what you do today, there's nothing that we can do that's going to make God love us any less than he does right now?

And I'm thankful that you can take all the pressure off. There's nothing that you can do today that's going to make him love you anymore either. He loves you right where you're at. He loves you. He's been kind to you.

He's demonstrated grace. He sent his son Jesus to die for you. You see, when we were born into this world, we were like Mephibosheth. We had no hope, no way to get to the Father, and we had nothing good inside of us. And I don't know about you, but I am thankful that the story does not, of my life, it doesn't stop there.

Listen, that's not fun. I don't wake up every day and just say, man, I am just a terrible person and I don't get excited about that. I'll tell you this, I do get excited about the fact that I was terrible, and he's good, and he showed me kindness, and he showed me grace so much to the point that he paid a debt that I could never pay for myself. Listen, he didn't make me just fix my life up in order for him to love me. No, he loved me in spite of how screwed up my life really was. And your life was no different. You see, everybody in here, we were undeserving, just like Mephibosheth.

We had nothing to offer him. The beauty of the kindness of God is that he's kind to us even when we don't deserve it. That's the beauty of this story, that's the beauty of the kindness of God to us. Let's look secondly at the nature of the kindness of Jesus. You say, what does that kindness look like? For the next few moments, I want to talk about how good the kindness of God really is. In verse 7 of our story, here we see, and David said unto him, what's the next two words? Fear not.

Everybody say those loud. Fear not. You say, what's the nature of the kindness of God?

What does it look like? First, he gives us security. He gives us security. Listen, let me tell you this, that you can be confident in him. You can be brave. In other words, when David looked at Mephibosheth, who is on his knees, he's thinking, this is over. I'm going to beg for my life at this point, terrified to be in his presence.

He says to Mephibosheth, hey Mephibosheth, fear not. Listen, I want you to understand something, that in your life, you can have safety and security in a relationship with Jesus. If you're looking for security, you're looking for confidence, it's not going to be found in popularity. It's not going to be found in a better paying job. It's not going to be found in a lot of people around you liking you. It's not going to be found in the next promotion. It's not going to be found in more money.

It's not going to be found in a new relationship. Those things, hey listen, there's a lot of things there that are good, and I hope God blesses you in some of those ways. But listen, what you're looking for and what I'm looking for, security in Jesus is not going to be found in any of those things. You see, security, what we want, is only found in a relationship with Jesus. You see, Mephibosheth was living in fear. The only way he could live free and relaxed was now he is a child of the king.

You see, it's true of your life as well. The only way that you can live free, the only way that you can be confident, the only way you can live brave, the only way that you can live relaxed, the only way that you can be safe, is through a relationship with Jesus. So what's the nature of the kindness of Jesus? It's security, kindness, that just means grace.

We've looked at this. You see, you say, what is grace? Grace is love that seeks you out when we have absolutely nothing to give in return. In other words, when you were unlovable, he loved us. When you didn't deserve it, it's undeserved, it's unmerited favor.

We did absolutely nothing to earn it. Security, kindness, how about this, restoration. He said in verse 7, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father. Can you imagine being Mephibosheth in that moment? Like he has nothing to offer. He's getting, I mean, he's looking around, he probably sees because they were poor.

He probably is looking around, he's like, man, there's food here. There's safety. I mean, I am talking face to face with the king of Israel. I don't have to fear for my life. And not only that, he's going to give me all the land of my grandfather and my family. He restores. He gave all the land back to Mephibosheth. He made everything right.

He made everything right. Listen, let me just say this, that I don't care what your life looks like today. God is the one who can restore you and make you whole again.

Listen, I know what it's like. I've been in church my whole life. I understand, I've seen a lot of broken people in church, and I'm a broken person that attends church, okay?

Everybody is in here. But church is the worst place for us to come in and just like cover up everything, isn't it? Isn't it the worst where we come in and we have all sorts of problems, and everybody comes up and they're like, man, how was your week?

Oh, man, it was awesome. But you know your week was awful, right? And listen, here's what I'm telling you. I understand there's a lot of people that walk into our doors with problems, and there are problems throughout this whole place here today, and I don't know who needs to hear this, but let me just tell you this, that the only way that you can find full restoration and all the broken pieces of your life and put them back together is through a relationship with Jesus Christ. You see, we all want to be fixed.

Everybody. That's why we show up here when we're broken. That's why all these things, and we look to all these things to fix us, all we need to do is call upon the name of Jesus Christ, and he can restore us and put us back together. You see, we were born into this world broken.

He's the only one who can make us whole again. So what's the nature of the kindness of Jesus? It's security. It's kindness.

It's restoration. It's belonging. Verse 7, thou shall eat bread at my table continually. Verse 10, Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread always at my table. Verse 11, as for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. Verse 13, so Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at the king's table. You see, the nature of the kindness of Jesus, it gives us belonging.

It gives us belonging. He had a seat at the king's table. By the way, if you're a Christian here today, and you've called upon Jesus for salvation, that song we sang about, he has a place for you. He has a place for you. If you're in here today, and you say, I've never called upon Jesus for salvation, listen, let me tell you this.

All you have to do is call upon and accept the free gift of kindness and grace that he fully offers you, freely offers you. And guess what? He'll prepare a place for you as well. You see, we have belonging. When I was reading this and studying this, I was thinking about big dinners, family dinners. You know when you get together for Thanksgiving? How many of you have assigned seats at those kind of days?

Any of you? My family's the only weird one sometimes. We have literally name tags. We have name tags. My in-laws, they go all out. They have name tags.

It takes me, everybody's done eating before I can find my seat. We have these name tags. It's a big deal. I can remember one time, me and my wife, we were dating at the time, I believe, and I brought her home to meet my family for Thanksgiving. And so we were meeting all the extended family, right?

Everybody else. We're all there, and I'm introducing her to everybody, and everybody's asking her questions and stuff. Well, it came down to the meal. So we're going through the line, getting our plate, and I'm kind of whispering, like, you okay?

Everything good? Has grandma said anything she shouldn't have said to you? You know, like, and so we're going through. Everybody has a grandma that you can't, you never know, right?

If you are that grandma, I'm sorry, okay? But listen, we all got them, right? And so I'm like, everything okay? So we get done. We get through the line, and then we go. I kid you not, true story. And all my family is at this table, and there's two seats left at the kids' table. It's the worst experience of our life. I'm literally sitting there, like, babysitting.

I'm like, hey, five-year-olds, have you even talked to this new girl I brought home? You know, they could care less. And so, but here's the thing, is like, it was a big deal, sitting at the table with your family, and I want you to understand something, that in this setting, like, the king's royal table, it was something. Not everybody got to sit there. It was for the important people.

It was the people who had been personally invited, or who are related. And listen, Mephibosheth, the crippled boy who had nothing to give, who deserved death, is now sitting at the king's table. Do you see the picture?

Do you see the picture? There's no better picture in scripture than that. That is what a relationship with Jesus does.

You go from undeserving and somebody who can't do enough good ever to get to him, and he shows kindness to us when we don't deserve it. And next thing you know, I'm sitting here, and I'm a pastor of a church, and I'm sitting here, and I'm like, man, I'm singing. God's preparing a place for me. Really, me? In heaven?

With him? Where only the people that should deserve it be there? Only the good people need to be there, right?

No. God showed kindness to us when we did not deserve it. That is the beauty of the gospel. It's belonging. It's restoration. It's kindness.

It's security. And then lastly, it's sonship. It's sonship.

You say, what do you mean? He treated Mephibosheth like his very own son. In other words, he was adopted into the family of the king. Listen, if you're a Christian here today, you're adopted into the family of God. You don't deserve it. You shouldn't be there.

But guess what? When we get to heaven, there's going to be a seat for us at the king's table. I want you to think about your kids. When I was thinking through this, I was thinking about my kids.

And if you're new to our church, I'll show you a picture. These are my two kids. Listen, there can be terrors, okay? But I love them so much, right? And listen, I want you to know Cameron's 8 and Lindley is 10 years old. And just like you are with your kids, I'm defensive over my kids, right? Something happens to these kids, you're going to see probably a little bit of a different side of me. But I want you to know, and it's the same is true of your family, is that these two kids can always come to me with anything in the world. Like, I want you to know that if I'm sitting in my office meeting with you and they need me, I'm leaving that meeting and I'm going to my kids.

Why? Because they're my kids. We love our kids. You are the same way about your kids. I know it. You probably light up when you talk about them or you frown.

I don't know either one. But listen, at the end of the day, even on the worst day, we're happy and we're proud of our kids, right? Even on the worst day, when you have to discipline them, don't you love when they're little and you get on to them, and then afterwards, you know, it's just kind of sweet because they're trying to suck up on them.

Just like, why can't you be like this all the time, you know? But listen, it's good because they're my kids. And I want to raise kids that one day when they grow up, when they grow up and they go out on their own and they're living their life, I hope that we've raised kids who want to come back home when they don't have to or when they're not made to. That's the beauty of having children.

It's awesome. But listen, these kids, the way that I feel about them doesn't compare to the way he feels about me. Listen, you love your kids, and I know you do because trust me, I feel very strongly about my kids, and you do as well. But listen, the way we feel about them pales in comparison to the way that our father feels about us. Listen, I know my kids, have you ever threatened them or threatened your kids with stuff that you know is not going to happen?

Like, think about it. A week before Christmas, your kid gets in trouble. We parents say the worst stuff, right? I mean, I've literally looked at my kids and I was like, you ain't getting one gift this Christmas.

And then on Christmas Day, it's like I'm filing for bankruptcy. You see, why? Because we love our kids. We're going to give them gifts. We're going to treat them awesome even when they don't deserve it because they're our kids. That's the relationship that we have with God.

Let me just say this. Kindness, God's kindness, it's not earned. It's freely offered. So I want to ask you two questions in response here tonight, or this morning.

Number one, so important. Have you accepted the kindness of God? Now, have you accepted the free gift of eternal life, the grace of God? Now, here's what I'm not asking because this is sometimes, if you've been in church your whole life, this is the first response. I grew up in church. Listen, I'm not asking about your church experience.

I'm asking about your relationship with God. Have you accepted the free gift that is freely offered to every person in here? You say, pastor, you don't know half of what I've done. Listen, listen, it does not matter.

It pales in comparison. Right now in the midst of your sin and brokenness, he's looking down in love with arms wide open wide. All you have to do is accept his free gift here today.

Have you accepted it? If not, listen, at the end of this service or during the response here in a moment, I would love to show you how you can have a relationship with God where everything in this story that Mephibosheth gets, belonging and sonship and a seat at the king's table, security, all these things that we are longing for and we're built to want and desire, you can have in a relationship with Jesus. I would love to show you how you can have that. And then secondly, just on a practical sense, who do you need to show the kindness of God to? See, this is a story that is all about what Jesus has already done for us. But you see, when we accept the kindness and grace of God into our life, we should change the way that we treat the people that we come in contact with. You remember at the beginning I asked you how many of you struggle showing kindness to people who don't deserve it? You see, you didn't deserve it. You experienced the kindness of God.

So go out and find someone who doesn't deserve it and be kind to them. I want Union Grove to be known as just a kind church. There's a lot of things. There's a list of things I would love for our church to be known for in this community. And by the way, churches are always kind of known for something in the community, right? Anytime we're like, hey, what's up with that church? Well, you don't know what happened there, right? Every church in the community, especially in an older community like this, every church is known for something.

Why not be known for being like Jesus and being kind to people that do not deserve it? And I'm talking about practical stuff. I'm talking at the ball field. I'm talking about in the gymnasium. I'm talking about at work.

By the way, I am talking about all gymnasiums, including our Christian school gymnasium. Some of us, man, we don't have kindness in there, you know? We got to be kind. Listen, because we've experienced the kindness of God when we don't deserve it. And so we need to show and demonstrate, just like David, you need to be asking, who can I show kindness to this week?

So two questions. Who have you accepted the kindness of God and who do you need to show kindness to this week? Would you bow your heads with me? Who do you need to show kindness to and have you experienced the kindness of God? If you're in here today and nobody's looking around seriously, this is just between God and every person in here. I don't always do this, but if you're in here and you say, Pastor Josh, I really don't know if I'm a Christian. I'm in here. I don't know if I've experienced the kindness of God.

I'm in need of it today. I'm a broken person and I'm in need of the restoring work of God in my life. If you're in here and you say, Pastor Josh, that's me. Would you slip up your hand? And if you don't feel comfortable doing that, that's fine.

Would you just look at me? I would love to lift you up in prayer here today. I don't care if you're a teenager. I don't care if you're an adult.

I don't care if you're married or not in here. But listen, if you're in here today and you say, Pastor Josh, I'm in here and listen, I'm broken and I'm in need of the kindness of the King of Kings and I want a seat at his table. If you're in here today, I want you to look at me if you're not sure.

And so most people in here are Christians. Who do you need to show kindness to? Let's do this.

Let's all stand. I'm going to pray for you and if God speaks to you, I want you to come and I want you to make a decision right where you are. Father, we love you. God, I pray that you'd work in this. God, thank you so much.

I'm the least deserving of everybody in here, God, but you've shown kindness to me and I thank you for that. God, there's somebody in here that I think is holding on. Maybe it's pride. Maybe it's just they can't do it.

And they're fighting. Maybe even right now in this moment, God, they're sitting there and they're like, man, I know I don't have this, but I don't want anybody to think differently than me. Father, I pray that right now that you would just reach down and speak to their heart and give them the courage to make a decision for you. And then there's a lot of Christians in here who, Father, we just need to be kind, compassionate, loving, grace-filled, merciful to people. For it's in your name we pray, amen. As the music's playing, hey, listen, if God speaks to you, this altar is wide open. Maybe you need to come down here and say, God, I need more kindness. Or maybe you need to come down front and just say, God, thank you. Thank you for loving us when we don't deserve it.