Here is a sermon I preached at New Life Fellowship in San Antonio

Who Sits at Your Table

Thesis: Inviting ALL people to your table is the sign of your trust and belief in Jesus Christ. 

2 Samuel 9:1 One day David asked, “Is anyone in Saul’s family still alive—anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 He summoned a man named Ziba, who had been one of Saul’s servants. “Are you Ziba?” the king asked. “Yes sir, I am,” Ziba replied. 3 The king then asked him, “Is anyone still alive from Saul’s family? If so, I want to show God’s kindness to them.” Ziba replied, “Yes, one of Jonathan’s sons is still alive. He is crippled in both feet.”

He is found in Lo Debar and comes to Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 9:7 “Don’t be afraid!” David said. “I intend to show kindness to you because of my promise to your father, Jonathan. I will give you all the property that once belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will eat here with me at the king’s table!” 8 Mephibosheth bowed respectfully and exclaimed, “Who is your servant, that you should show such kindness to a dead dog like me?”

9 Then the king called Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his house I have given to your master’s grandson. 10 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.

3 Men of the Story:

• David: a Man of great POWER and AUHTORITY  “Who can I honor?”
• Mephibosheth had nothing to offer David.  He was lame in both feet. Living in Lo debar
• Ziba has no authority but is in a critical position to serve and facilitate. For David and Mephibosheth.

There are quite possibly folks here today that aren’t used to this church thing and you might feel like you are out of place because church is for good people.

“What do you have to offer God?” 

“What have you done that would make you right with God?”

I have good news for you today.

Humans left God; rebelled, sinned.  While we were in the midst of doing our own thing and living a life that built our own kingdom, He died for us.

God so loved the world that he put a chair at His table for us. 

We (like Mephibosheth) have no power, resources or value to give God that he doesn’t already have in his existence already. YET, he gives us a spot.  He gives us a place to simply be…us.

He is looking today for people to sit at his table that have nothing to offer him. He is looking for Mephibosheths that are broken, hurting, lonely, desperate.

If you are looking for a place to belong, then you have come to the right place!  There is room at the kings table for you.

You have the right to sit at the table, not because you have done things well or know the right people.  You are able to sit at the table of the King, because…HE LOVES YOU.  He loves you so much that He didn’t make a path for you, HE IS THE PATH for you.

The Bible says that while we were busy with our own life and our own way, while we were living a life that was not honoring him, HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR US.

Mephibosheth was restored to divine sonship based on nothing he did.  Only the status of someone else (his father).  He was not only given the land of his fathers, but the title and position of Son also.

We are saved by God not because of anything we do, but because of what Jesus did for US!

JESUS like David has the power and the authority to bring whoever he wants to the table and guess what…HE PICKS YOU!

In a minute, we are going to pray and we want to pray with you that your life is committed to the King’s family. The King’s name! You will be in the adopted in!

What about everyone else in here?

Some of you have been sitting at the king’s table for years!  You guys have been eating chicken fried steak, carne quisada, soppapillas…

Who are you in the story?  For those of us that have been saved for a long time, who are you in the story? Are you David? Are you Mephibosheth?

I want to propose that you are ZIBA.

David asked ZIBA to: GO FIND AND SERVE.

That sounds exactly like what Jesus asks all of us: GO FIND AND SERVE.

We respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ by serving HIM and loving those of ‘no value’.  We are Jesus on the Earth.

God asks us, like David asked, “Who can I invite to my table?”  Who can we invite into our life/our place of intimacy?

We don’t have the power to save people and we don’t have the resources to give people what they need (earthly possessions or eternal life). However, God does and HE is ASKING us to GO and FIND those that need a place at the table.

Our temptation is to get to the table, and start to feel like we own it or that we are entitled to it.  We are tempted to play the part of David the King and look down our noses at people are not worthy enough, who can’t perform or tow the line like we have.

The only problem with that is that WE AREN’T the KING, Jesus is.

Yet, he calls us like David called ZIBA to go and get Mephibosheth.  Scholars believe that when David called for Ziba, he was living on Saul’s land.  He was already taking care of it and sort of owning it himself.

Mephibosheth was not living on Saul’s land, instead, he was living in enemy territory on the other side of the Jordan River.  Ziba had to follow the king’s orders, step down from his little paradise, and go get Mephibosheth.

He was a middle man.  He wasn’t responsible for the conversion of Mephibosheth, but he had to go find him, get him, and SERVE him.

Ziba is the one who put Mephibosheth at the King’s table!

Let me run through our problems real quick as Christians: Our natural/flesh tendencies

1. We value and serve people…. that serve us
2. We value and serve people…. that can advance our cause.
3. We believe the lie of our culture…. that says if you produce, you have value.

If we had our way, we would go pick the millionaires, business owners, politicians.  God is going to call them to the table, but he is also going to call the prostitutes, poor, angry, hungry!  We can’t look at value as what people can bring to the table. Value purely comes from the KING.

My Story of Kennady

My wife and I learned this lesson the hard way.  When we were pregnant with our first child, we found out from a routine sonogram that our daughter was going to have significant problems in life.  The nurses kept going in and out of the testing room. Finally, a specialist told us, we can’t find your daughter’s brain.  She had so much fluid built up in her head that they couldn’t find any brain tissue.  She was born 8 weeks later, they put a shunt in to drain the fluid and she had significant brain malformation.  Several days later, I was sitting by her little crib in the ICU and looked down at the doctors report at the foot of the bed and it said, “We have told her parents that their daughter will not have a meaningful life.”

As I read the words on that page, I was furious! I couldn’t believe that a doctor had the audacity to proclaim a meaningless life over my daughter!

WHO DEFINES MEANING?  WHO DEFINES VALUE?

Do we allow our culture to define meaning and value?  Do we let society’s norms determine who or what is important?

I HAVE  BETTER WAY.  Let the KING determine!  LET THE KING MAKE YOU RIGHT. LET THE KING GIVE YOU VALUE.

The Least of These

Inviting ALL people to your table is the sign of your trust and belief in Jesus Christ. 

It is not how you respond to those who can help, support, or elevate you that determines your position with Jesus.  Instead, it’s how you engage with, accept, and elevate those who are the least that reveals outwardly the faith you have inwardly.

Matthew 25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,  36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’  37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘when?”…40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,you did it to me.

Take Aways!

• Humility (modeled by David and Jesus)
• Serving People Serves God (Matthew 25)
• God Creates Purpose and Value (Gospel)