(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Okay, the title for the sermon this morning is The Royal Servant, The Royal Servant. And 2 Samuel 9 is, I love this story so much. I love the story just from a humanity point of view and the care for a lame man, but also the greater lesson that is, you know, I guess you could take the story symbolically and talk about the great love that God the Father has for us and how he saved our souls. And so what I want to do is just, let's break down this chapter. Let's understand the story at the face value story, as it were, and then we'll pull out some greater spiritual truths from this chapter. So look, it says there in verse number one, and David said, is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? And so this is, of course, before King David, it was King Saul. And you know the story that Saul hated David and then David sought to kill him. And then eventually Saul would lose his life. And not only would Saul lose his life, but Jonathan was David's best friend. And you know, David wanted Jonathan to live, but you know, as many times you've got a Royal family that perishes and especially a family that was seen as an enemy to King David, not only is the King wiped out, but many times his children are wiped out. And Jonathan was a son of Saul, which like I said, David's best friend. Unfortunately, Jonathan also lost his life during this transition from Kings. And then, so you got King David who, you know, after he becomes King, he takes over Jerusalem and he rules from Jerusalem. So this is maybe 10 to 15 years, I think about 15 years later after he becomes King. And now he's there in Jerusalem. He's there on his throne, I guess. And you know, he's wondering about his best friend, Jonathan. He's like, is there anyone left? You know, I know Saul was wiped out and his children, but is there anyone in the family, anyone in the household of, you know, of Saul that I can show some kindness for Jonathan's sake, for the sake of my best friend that perishes well, I want to do something kind there for the house of Saul. And so verse number two, 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, thou Ziba. And he said, thy servant is he. So Ziba was someone important in the household of Saul, you know, managing the affairs, you know, whatever was Saul's land and vineyards and whatever belonged to Saul, Ziba was there kind of in charge as a servant, looking over those things. And verse number three, 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. So Ziba says, David, David. Yeah, actually there is one left. Jonathan has a son, you know, but this man is lame on his feet. He's a paraplegic, if you want to call it like that, right? He's unable to walk. Now, what we have in the Bible, we actually have the story that took place as to why this man is unable to walk. So come with me to 2 Samuel 4, please. Come with me a few chapters back to 2 Samuel 4, and this again takes place, what we're reading in chapter four takes place during this transitional power, when King Saul lost his life and the family of Saul was being hunted down and killed. And so what takes place is the grandson of Saul or Jonathan's son is taken and there's an attempt of a rescue. So in 2 Samuel 4, we'll just look at this one verse here in verse number four, 2 Samuel 4, it says, and Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame on his feet. So it's the same one, okay? But this tells us how he became lame on his feet. It says, he was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel. And his nurse took him and fled, all right? So the nurse that's looking after this five-year-old, she says, look, I need to save this child's life. You know, and so she takes the child and flees. It says here, and it came to pass as she made haste to flee that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth, okay? So as she's fleeing, I don't know, maybe on a horse, who knows, right? On horseback and he tumbles and falls. He breaks his back and is unable to walk now. Okay, so that's why he became lame. All right, so come back with me to 2 Samuel 9, 2 Samuel 9. So the man is lame on his feet, this Mephibosheth. And then verse number four. It says, and the king said unto him, where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, behold, he is in the house of Makor, the son of Amiel in Lodobah. All right, now this Lodobah, I've tried to figure out where it's located. It's not commonly agreed where Lodobah was, but it's acknowledged that it's in the region of Gilead. Okay, so it's a bit of a fair distance. It's a bit of a long distance away from Jerusalem. Maybe, maybe 150 to 200 kilometers away. Okay, so like for us, maybe we say, okay, we can get a car. 100K is not that far, but you know, obviously when they didn't have cars, it's a longer distance for them to travel. So it's quite far away. And then verse number five, it says, then king David sent and fetched him out of the house of Makor, the son of Amiel from Lodobah. And when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul was come unto David, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth, and he answered, behold thy servant. And David said unto him, fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father, and thou shall eat bread at my table continually. So, you know, David says, look, don't be afraid, fear not. I mean, it makes sense. Cause like, man, you know, your soldiers wiped out my family. And so, man, I'm being brought before the king. He, you know, he's found me out and I guess he's fearing for his life. But what Mephibosheth does, he lowers himself, he humbles himself before King David, right? Shows him reverence. And he says, look, I'm your servant. And David just makes it clear, look, for Jonathan's sake, for your father's sake, your father was my best friend. Look, don't worry, you're gonna be taken care of. And he says, all the land of Saul is gonna be restored to you. Everything that's so old will be yours. You know, you're going to get all the inheritance rightly belonging to you, all right? And not only that, not only are you going to receive all the land back, but you'll be able to eat at my table. You know, when I sit down and I feast, when I sit down and eat, and I'm eating of the best, I'm eating, you know, I've got the best chefs, you know, I've got the best food, best quality food, whatever's at my table, you're gonna sit at my table with my family, with my household. You're gonna be acknowledged as someone important around my table. And so, I mean, this is a wonderful blessing, right? A wonderful, wonderful blessing for this man who was unable to walk. And then look how Mephibosheth responds in verse number eight and he bowed himself and said, what is thy servants? That thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am. So he can't believe his ears. Like what, I'm nothing. I'm nothing in comparison to you. I'm just, I'm a dead dog. You know what I mean? His whole family's dead. In his view, he should be dead as well because of his family lineage. And then look at verse number nine. Then the king called to Ziba, soul's servant. Ziba's the one that looked after the household of soul back in the day. So then he called to Ziba, soul's servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that pertain to soul and to all his house. Thou therefore, and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him. And thou shall bring in the fruits. And thy master's son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth, thy master's son, shall eat bread always at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. So Mephibosheth, like he's inheriting everything that belongs to soul. All the land, all the whatever, the houses that are on that land and all the farm and all the animals, all the cattle, but he's lame. He can't work, right? He can't till the ground. He can't do anything. And so David calls Ziba, he goes, look, I'm employing you. You've got your old job back, all right? I need you to till the ground. You need to make the crops to grow and the food to grow and everything that's on the land belongs to your master. Your master was soul, Jonathan, now Mephibosheth, right? Everything belongs to him. And so instead of Ziba, I mean, instead of a Mephibosheth laboring, now he's got, what did it say? He's got Ziba and Ziba's got 15 sons and 20 servants. So 36 people essentially in charge of all the work to be done around soul's house, all the growing, like think about like what Mephibosheth could do if he had the ability to walk, right? Well, it's been multiplied by 36 times now because he's got all these helpers that can help the land grow and to flourish. And he's got the pick of where to live. He's got the pick of what foods to eat. Nevertheless, David still makes it clear that he is more than welcome. He is going to eat at the king's table anyway. Like, you know, Mephibosheth is being greatly blessed, you know, beyond, you know, his cup is overflowing, right? Beyond what he is even able to consume, he's been blessed in such a great way. And then verse 11, then said Ziba unto the king, according to all that my Lord the king have commanded his servants, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. All right, so even more, he goes, not only is he going to eat at my table, but I'm going to look at him as one of my sons. People are going to see him. This guy, like, he's not just King Saul's grandson, not just Jonathan's son. He is like one of my sons now, okay? He's going to be acknowledged as part of the royal family. And so not only are his provisions taken off, but his status, all right, he's got a high status, part of the kingly family adopted into the family line, if you want to see it that way. Verse number 12, and Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah. And all that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at the king's table and was lame on both his feet. So we have this historical lesson and, you know, we see the heart of King David, we can definitely see that, yeah, he definitely loved Jonathan. Jonathan was his best friend, right? And if you don't know this, Jonathan was about roughly, you know, like a generational difference. It's not like their best friends that like, they're both like around 20 years old or something like that Jonathan would have been about the age of, like he could have been old enough to be David's father. You know, I want to point that, and this is why, like, you can still see that even Mephibosheth also has a son, okay? And I like to highlight that because when people think about you know, close friends or best friends in the Bible, we often think of David and Jonathan, okay? But what's interesting when it comes to believers, and look, when it comes to just being saved, there aren't many of us. Like, I know there are many Christians, but how many Christians are saved? Not many, right? And then how many saved people actually choose to read from the King James Bible and want to attend a traditional independent Baptist church even less, right? There's so few of us. And sometimes, you know, in conversations I have, it's like, pastor, you know, I just want to find fellowship. I want to find friendship at church. But there's like, there's no one my age. There's no one that, you know, is going through the same experiences that I am. Like, you know, I might be a young mother and I'm looking for other young mothers or, you know, I'm a teenager, but there aren't other teenagers or, you know, I'm trying to find this kind of person. And yet in the Bible, the best friends that we have are a whole generational difference. And so there's no reason why I can't be best friends who can say with Jordan, because Jordan calls me an old man. I guess he sees himself as a young man, right? There's no reason why I can't be best friends with even people that might seem completely different to where I am in life. And I just want to encourage you in that because, you know, when we live in a society where we go to school, like, you know, and we have grades and we often make friends, of course, I mean, it makes sense. We often make friends with people that are in the same grade as us. And, you know, and then that's kind of like the mindset that we have in life is that we got to make friends with people that are exactly just like us and say, oh, like we should be able to develop friendships, you know, with all kinds of people. Anyway, that's not the main point of the story today, the lesson today. I just want to show you the kindness that David was able to show Mephibosheth and the story that is laid out for us here in this chapter. Now, when, now that I've explained it to you, as far as just a surface level story, do you see similarities with salvation in the story? Do you see the same, like if you took the story symbolically, can you see the kindness that God has for us? That he reached down to a dead dog like us who are unable to do anything lame as it were in our feet, right? Because salvation cannot be earned by our works. We cannot do enough, you know, fully functional, you know, just doing good for the rest of our life. That is insufficient to be saved. That is insufficient to go to heaven and be made a son of the king. That is insufficient. You know, we understand that salvation required Jesus Christ to come and to die on the cross. You know, we're coming up to Easter, I'm seeing the chocolates, you know, Easter bunnies and all this stuff already on sale. So I guess Easter's not far away. So during Easter, we obviously, it's not the Easter bunny, but we remember Jesus Christ, you know, who came and was born as a babe in Bethlehem's manger and then came and lived the perfect life and he died on the cross and he paid for our sins. Instead of our sins being punished, you know, instead of God punishing us for our sins, he punished his son instead. And then Christ rose again from the dead three days later. And he did that to pay our way to heaven, to make it free. We understand that story. And it's simple faith, not our works. We're like Mephibosheth, you know, laying on our feet. It's not our abilities or our works that saves us. It's simply coming to the king and saying, hey, you know, I accept what Christ has done for me. I believe that I'm trusting. That's what I'm trusting in, Lord, to get me to heaven. Thank you so much for your salvation. And the moment you do that, you've trusted Christ as your savior. You're born again, you're a child of God, aren't you? You understand that? So I want to just pull that out of this story here and let's look at it again. Let's go through it again, this time taking it more symbolically. And look at verse number one. It says, and David said, is there yet any that is left of the house of soul that I may show kindness for Jonathan's sake? Can you keep your finger then? Come with me to Ephesians chapter four. Come with me to Ephesians chapter four. So David is looking for one to be kind to one for Jonathan's sake, all right? And what I want you to start thinking about in the story, and look, I'm just saying this chapter, this storyline, I'm not saying take this beyond this chapter, but King David in the story represents God the father. And Jonathan, you know, his best friend who passed away represents Jesus Christ. And Ziba represents the Holy Spirit. I want you to take that view as we look at this chapter and look at Ephesians four, Ephesians four, verse number 32. Ephesians four, 32, the Bible says, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake, have forgiven you. So we've been encouraged to be kind one to another, even as God, so God was kind to us, wasn't he? And we have David who wants to be kind to the house of soul and he wants to be kind to the house of soul for Jonathan's sake. Well, why does God the father want to be kind to us and save our souls and forgive us our sins? It says here, for Christ's sake, for the sake of his son, because his son did such a great thing for us and died for us, he took on our sins, suffered, was tortured, was beaten, whipped for our sake and he rose again from the dead. And so God the father looks down at man and says, who can I be kind to for Christ's sake? And of course, God showed his kindness to us all, all right? All we have to do is accept the invitation that God has given us to trust his son, Jesus Christ, solely for our salvation. Anyway, come back with me to second Samuel chapter nine. We'll look at verse number seven, please, verse number seven. So this is when Mephibosheth turns up and you know, he humbles himself before the king shows him reverence. And yeah, sorry, yeah, look at verse number seven again. And David said unto him, fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake, and will restore thee all the land of soul thy father, and thou shall eat, sorry, and thou shall eat bread at my table continually. What does that remind you of? I mean, this gets brought up three times in this chapter. It's like, that is the emphasis of this chapter, that you're gonna eat at my table continually. What does that remind you of? Well, for me, it reminds me of probably the most famous Psalm, Psalm 23. If you wanna turn there, you can please, Psalm 23. Psalm 23, you know that Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Well, in Psalm 23 and verse number five, Psalm 23 verse number five, the Bible reads, thou, so this is David speaking to God. He says, thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. He goes, Lord, you take care of my needs. You know, even my enemies can see that you bless me and take care of me. And he says, it's like you set a table before me and I can eat the best foods, right? The foods that you would have me to eat, Lord, the best quality, the blessings, the rewards you give me, Lord. And everybody can see this. And he says, thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. He says, it's just too much for me to appreciate. You're like, you bless me too much, Lord. And we know this, we know that what David is offering Mephibosheth is too much for him. As a layman, he can't even walk probably all the land that belongs to Saul. He can't lay, but he can't till the ground. It's too much. Well, the Lord's blessings, you know, are too much. We know we don't deserve salvation. We, because of our sins, we deserve to die and go to hell. Jesus Christ spoke more about hell than he did of heaven. But he blessed us, he's given us his son. Jesus laid down his life for us. For Christ's sake, God has forgiven us. And so we have this Psalm and look at verse number six, Psalm 23, six, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Just like Mephibosheth. The offering is, hey, you will eat at my table continually. Every day, forever till the day you pass on, you will be welcome in the royal palace. You'll be able to sit down with a family and you'll be counted as one of my sons. Well, this is the promise that God gives us. It's this table before us, this cup that runs over, we get a feel for what this is. Like we saw in verse number six, surely goodness and mercy. God will do us good. God will show us mercy. And I need his mercy because I struggle. I need his mercy because I fall and so do you. We need God to be there when we stumble and fall, to be ready to pick us up and to encourage us and to motivate us and to love us and to comfort us and to help us in times of difficulties and trials. And our Lord God is good to us, isn't he? I mean, God's been good to me, very good to me. He's been vastly, like salvation can never be repaid. You know, sometimes we, I think even some of the hymns we sing, sometimes it's like, man, you know, the Lord's died for us and he's done this and now we've got to pay it back. It's like, you can't pay it back. If you could pay it back, then he would never have to pay it in the first place. It's unpayable, salvation. But even after salvation, even after you know you're on your way to heaven and your soul is secure in Christ Jesus, besides the goodness of salvation, boy, just my life. And I'm sure if you've lived long enough as a Christian, your life, you can say God's been good to me. I've received much more than I deserve. You know, God is so much more good to me than I am to him. God is so much more faithful to me than I am to him. I feel that you should be able to express this. You know, honestly, just living on the Sunshine Coast, what a beautiful place to live. God has allowed me to leave here for the past eight years. It's a beautiful place. That's something good, right? My wife is something good. My marriage is good. My children, beautiful, love them, good. The church, the friends that we have here at church, the brethren, these are good things. His word is good. The wisdom and the encouragement that I can feed myself in his word is good. I mean, where hasn't God been good in our lives? Oh, but I still have problems. Of course you do. And to the world, everybody does. But the goodness of God is that he'll never leave us nor forsake us. He'll help us through those trials. And so, you know, when we go out there, when we lock doors and we try to show people how they can go to heaven, I mean, we don't even have enough time to express that it's not just salvation, but the goodness of God that you can have for the rest of your life. We don't even have time to go through all of that to show them how wonderful it is to have God as their God, or the God of the Bible as their God. Well, look at verse number eight. Sorry, come back with me to second Samuel nine, second Samuel chapter nine, verse number eight. When God makes, sorry, when David makes his offer there to Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth responds in verse number eight, and he bowed himself and said, what is thy servant? That thou shouldst look upon such a dead dog as I am. Now, this is the right response. If you want to be saved, if you want to go to heaven, this is the right response. You see, when you ask the average person, do you think you're going to go to heaven? What do they say? Yep, I'm pretty sure, most people say that, right? I'm pretty sure, I hope so. Well, how do you know for sure? Because I'm a good person. Look, look at me, right? And the issue there is that people often compare themselves, because they're like, well, I'm not a murderer, I'm not a rapist, I'm not a racist, right? I'm not this and that and blah, blah, blah, and so surely I'm a good person. A lot of people are thinking that their goodness, their good works are getting them to heaven, but they're comparing themselves to another man. They're comparing them to the worse. You know, when I was in high school, I'd come home with what I thought was a good test result. Let's say I did an exam and I got 80%, and I'd go to my dad and read that dad, 80%, right? You know, top five in the class, whatever. He goes, yeah, but it's not 100%. Yeah, but dad, you know, I'm up there. Yeah, my dad's like, but yeah, but you're comparing yourself to the ones that struggled, you know, the ones that didn't study. You're comparing yourself to the ones that haven't tried, you know, and so 80% looks good when you compare yourself to that, but the goal is 100%. That's actually what salvation is. You need to be 100% righteous to go to heaven. 100%. Have you ever told a lie? We all have. You're no longer 100% righteous. You know, you're no longer. And this is why, instead of being, oh my goodness, look at me. Well, some people take it to another level. After they're saved, I know I'm saved because look how good I am. That's not, no. I'm a dead dog. That's what you have to say, all right? What's it say? He embedded himself and said, what is thy servant? What am I? Well, we need to understand in order to be saved, you have to acknowledge you're a sinner. I'm a sinner. I've done wrong. Instead of look at my good, look at my wrong. All right, the 20% on my exam, wrong. I'm not perfect. I mean, I don't know. Most human beings acknowledge not perfect, but they think they're still good enough for heaven. No, you need to be perfect. And the only way you can be perfect is by receiving the one that was perfect, which is Jesus. That's the whole point of Jesus coming. Like, it's amazing. People know the story of Jesus on the cross. Everyone knows it, that he rose again from the dead. But then you say, well, how do you get to heaven? Well, I'm good. Then if you can be good enough for heaven, why did you just have to come and die on the cross? Oh, I don't know. But like, that's the emphasis of Christianity. That's why so many churches have the cross as their symbol. That is the climax and the emphasis. That is what Christianity is all about. That God would send his son to die in our place. To give us salvation. We don't go to heaven based on our righteousness, our goodness, no. We go to heaven based on the righteousness of Jesus, on his goodness. The reason Mephibosaph is being received by David was because of Jonathan. Since Jonathan was my best friend. Jonathan was good. So Mephibosaph, you're being blessed. You're getting rewarded because of what Jonathan was to me. That's what salvation is. We get saved. We can be sure of heaven because of what Jesus did for us. His love, his friendship, his kindness, all right? Come with me to Ephesians. Did I tell you to turn that already? Ephesians two. Come with me to Ephesians two, please. Ephesians two and verse number four. See, if you're not saved today, if you're not sure if you're going to heaven today, you need to say, hey, what am I to God? I'm a sinner. I've done wrong. I'm a dead dog. And Mephibosaph, lame. I can't. I can't even walk. I can't walk to heaven. I can't make it there on my own. You have to realize you're lame. Ephesians two and verse number four. Ephesians two and verse number four. It says, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins. We were the dead dog once. Dead in sins have quickened us together. The quickened means made alive. Has quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. Grace is what saves us. Grace is undeserved merit. Mephibosaph has done nothing deserving to have the house of Saul given back to him and to eat at the king's table continually. Mephibosaph has done nothing. It's the grace of King David. Well, what saves us, brethren, is the grace of God. By grace ye are saved. Verse number six. And have raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If you're saved, you're already in heavenly places. You already sit at the master's table. You're already being blessed by God. You sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Christ is in heaven right now at the right hand of his Father. And because we're in Christ Jesus, it's as though, spiritually speaking, we are seated in those heavenly places with him. That's why you can't lose your salvation. You're already there. You're already in heaven in Christ Jesus. Verse number seven. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith. And that, look at this, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So how do we get saved? Well, not of yourselves. You're a dead dog, lame on your feet. Undeserving of sitting at the king's table. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Isn't that what people do? I'm good enough for heaven. You're boasting. God doesn't want man to boast. God must receive all the glory of our salvation. All of it. It's only through God. It's only through Christ Jesus that we are saved. And so we were once dead in sins. We were once the dead dog, but we receive the grace of God the father. The grace that David is showing, Mephibosheth, all right, to sit at his table. That's the same kindness that God has shown us, you know, through Jesus Christ. Come back with me to Second Samuel chapter nine, please. Second Samuel chapter nine. So while you're turning back there, again, it's said for by grace that you're saved through faith. The only thing that saves you is your faith. My question for you this morning is, is your faith on Jesus Christ? Now the Bible uses the word faith and trust interchangeably. That's what it means. Well, yeah, I do believe he died on the cross. Yeah, but are you trusting his sacrifice as the means of your salvation? Cause the one that says, yeah, but I'm a good person. They're not trusting Christ. They're trusting themselves. That their faith is on themselves. Look at me. Your faith is on you. Your eyes are on you. No, no, no. You just put your faith only on Christ Jesus. This is why I never doubt my salvation. Even if I mess up in life. Because if I mess up in life, well, my salvation is not based on whether I perform well or don't perform well. My salvation is based on what Christ and he performed well. He performed perfectly, perfectly. So I can have good days, bad days, good days, bad days. But I always know I'm saved not because I'm having a good day or a bad day. And I'm saved because of what Jesus did for me. My trust is on him. Not on how well I'm performing today. You perform well, I feel like I'm saved. You perform badly, I feel like I'm not saved. I think I'm saved. I don't think I'm saved. I think I'm saved. That's constant doubt, why? Cause your faith is on your performance. Your faith needs to be on the performance of Jesus. Jesus did it all. You're Mephibosheth, you're lame. You can't do enough. Even your good performance, I think I'm saved. It's still not the righteousness of Christ. I'm trusting the righteousness of Christ as my sole means of salvation. Anyway, look at verse number nine, in second Samuel nine, second Samuel nine, nine. Then the king called to Ziba, sole servant. And I said to you, Ziba, think of Ziba as the Holy Spirit. And said unto him, I have given unto thy master's son all that pertained to Solon, to all his house. Thou therefore, and thy sons and thy servants shall till the land for him. And thou shall bring in the fruits that thy master's son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth, thy master's son shall eat bread all the way at my table. Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants. You know, after you're saved, come with me to Galatians five, please, Galatians five. After you're saved, you can be exceedingly fruitful, but you have to allow the Holy Spirit to do a work in your life. You know, the Bible says to quench not the Spirit. The Holy Spirit has begun a good work in us and he wants to perform it to the day of Jesus Christ. But that good work can be quenched, right? We have to allow the Holy Spirit of God to work in our lives. Now Galatians five 22, you guys know this, the fruits of the Spirit, right? Galatians five, sorry, Galatians five 22, Galatians five 22. It says, but the fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. These are fruits that the Holy Spirit, it's his job to develop this in your life. My question for you is, how well does your life generally line up with the fruit of the Spirit that you see in this list? Are you someone that's known for your love, for joy, or you're always miserable, for peace, or you're constantly fighting in conflicts, long suffering, or are you short on patience? Gentleness, or are you crude and hard on people? Goodness, faith, that's the one I struggle with the most. I lack in faith in my walk. As I said, that hymn that we sang earlier, take your anxieties, leave it there, leave it at the front, and I'm like, no, I'm picking that back up. I'll be like, Lord, no, no, no, it's in your hands. I've gotta be faithful to you, Lord, and trust that you're gonna take care of things. Meekness, that's lowering yourself or seeing others as higher than you, where you can serve them. Temperance, that's, what do you call that? When you lose your temper, you haven't got temperance. Temperance is like moderation. You're in control of your emotions, or do you just lose control when things get out of hand? Against such there is no law. These are fruits that the Holy Spirit is trying to develop in your life, and you can't do it on your own. It has to be the Holy Spirit that does it, but what you can do is quench the Spirit. You can stop the Spirit from trying to do that. You're gonna be open to God to do a work in you. Can you come with me to 1 Corinthians 12? 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12 and verse number four. This is about serving in the local church. It says, now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. The Holy Spirit, after you're saved, gives you a gift. Diversity of gifts, we're all different. Verse number five, and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. So who does this work? God, God works in all, okay? But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all. The reason God gives us the Holy Spirit is to give us a gift that we may profit from that gift. And I always try to challenge the church. How are you serving New Life Baptist Church? What is the gift that God has given you? What ability do you have? You say, pastor, I've got certain abilities, but you haven't got the ministry. Well, maybe you're the one that needs to lead that ministry. I don't know, run it by me, we'll talk about it. I don't know what everybody's gifts are. Some have one, some have many. You say, pastor, I've got none. No, no, you got something. You know, even just being an encourager, being a helper, that's a gift. Maybe that's what you're able to do. But I want you to notice that it's God that works these gifts in us. In order for us to be the best church member we can be, we need to allow the Holy Ghost to work in us, okay? It's like, Mephibosaph, you have to let Ziba and his sons and his servants toil on the fields. You need to let them, you know, do the work and the changes and the cleaning, right? Get the dust out of the old houses of soul and you need to let the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit can multiply your abilities in such a great way. You can do beyond what you think you can do if you allow God to do a work in your life. I'm going to quickly read to you from Acts 1.8. But you shall receive power. What power? After that, the Holy Ghost is come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. I'm sure there are some of you that have preached the gospel and seen people saved. And if you go back long enough, you would have said, I can never do such a thing. I can never go up to a stranger and give them the gospel. I will never be able to open my mouth. Well, the reason you've done it is because the power the Holy Ghost has given you, the work that he can do in your life, to speak with wisdom and boldness and surety and truth and present the gospel to people, that's a work that the Holy Ghost has to do within you, give you the power and you have it. Especially in the New Testament, we have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Ghost. You have the ability to preach the gospel, okay? But you have to allow the Holy Spirit to do a work in your life, okay? Your abilities are multiplied. You have great power, you know, with the help of God working in your life. Can you come back with me to 2 Samuel 9? 2 Samuel 9, verse 11. Then said Ziba unto the king, according to all that my Lord the king have commanded his servants, so shall thy servant do. As for Meciphotheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table as one of the king's sons. As one of the king's sons. Can you come with me to 1 John 3, 1 John 3, please? 1 John 3. And while you're turning to 1 John 3, I'll read to you from Galatians 4, 6. Galatians 4, 6 says, and because ye are sons, God have sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father. And verse number seven is really interesting. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son. Then an, sorry, then an heir of God through Christ. You are no more a servant, but a son. How did Meciphotheth introduce himself when he came to the throne of David? He says, but I am but your servant, I'm your servant. All right, well, the moment you get saved, you're no longer a servant, you're a son. And you can cry to God the Father, Abba, Father. You can go to God, just like a child goes to their dad for their every need, for the cares and the things to be taken care of. That's the privilege that we have as the children of God to go to our Heavenly Father. You are his sons and daughters. Look at 1 John 3, verse number one. Behold what manner of love the Father have bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, but we shall see him as he is. We shall be like him when he shall appear. When Christ returns and we have the change of our bodies at the rapture, we shall be like him. Our bodies will change, immortal, incorruptible bodies, and we will be like him. Amazing. May Phoibos have the same. He is like one of the king's sons. Whoa, you don't even have the same blood, right? You don't, oh, you belong to Saul. You're the enemy of King David. Yeah, but we receive the spirit of adoption. That's beautiful. You know, the God of the Bible, and you know, sometimes what makes me sad is like, when I go to Saul and people say to me, well, I don't know if God's true. I don't know, who's seen God? And I'm like, yeah, but he's like my dad. He's my father. I can, you know, like you can know him as your father too. And it's like, you're denying the existence, or you don't even, you can't acknowledge whether my father even exists. My spiritual father in heaven. And he's made us his children. Oh, it's so great. Not only do we go to heaven, he's made us his family. I'm a family of God. You think of the devil, or the devil's minions on this earth seek to hurt you or attack you? You don't think dad's gonna go and take care of it? Our father's gonna look down at his children and go, man, I gotta protect my kids. Gotta protect my sons. What an honor. What an honor to have God as my dad, as my father. Beautiful. And we'll come with me to one more passage. Ephesians three. Keep your finger there in second Samuel. We're only gonna come back one more time actually. It's not the final passage, sorry. But Ephesians three, Ephesians three, and then I'll wrap it up. Ephesians three please. I want you to think about Mephibosheth. Laying, unable to walk, unable to work, has been hidden all these years, afraid that he's gonna lose his life. Afraid of death. The best, one of the great things about salvation is that I'm not afraid of death anymore. Not afraid anymore. Because when I die, I know when I open my eyes, I'm gonna be in heaven with my father. I'll be able to see Jesus face to face. And in second, sorry, in Ephesians three, Ephesians three verse 20, I want you to think about this. Ephesians three, 20. The Bible says, now unto him that is able to do, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power of God, that worketh in us. I want you to hold onto this hope that God is able to, exceedingly, abundantly, above all that you ask or think. God can do so much for you. Even today you say, God's done so much for me. All right, good. God can do even more for you. According to the power that worketh in us. Like I said earlier, you need to allow God to work in you. Don't get stagnant as a believer. Don't be like, well, okay, I'm saved, good. I'm doing, you know, going to church and doing this, and you know, I'm kind of happy where I'm at. God can still do exceedingly, abundantly more than you think. He can take Ziba and send his 15 sons and 20 servants, whatever it was, servants and do, make you abundant in all areas of your life. And then verse number 21 says, unto him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end, amen. We need to make sure that we give God all the glory. Whatever abundant blessings he gives you in life, that's not the time to pat yourself on the back. Look what I've done, look what I've achieved. No, no, you give all glory to the Father. Give all glory to the Son, okay? That he has done this great work in your life. And yeah, Mephibosheth has no one to, he cannot glory of himself in any way, shape or form. He's done nothing to deserve the privilege that he's been given to be part of the royal family. But I started with the title today. The title was The Royal Servants. The Royal Servants, and you say, well, you haven't talked about the Royal Servant really. There is one character in the story that is hardly even mentioned, okay? But without this one man, this story would not have taken place, okay? Even though we see the symbolism here of salvation, what God can do in our lives in a mighty way. If you can come back with me to 2 Samuel, please, 2 Samuel chapter nine. There's one more character in this story. 2 Samuel chapter nine. So after David learns that Jonathan has a son, Mephibosheth, right? What does he do? It says in verse number five, then King David sent and fetched him out of the house of Micah, the son of Amule from Lodobah. The Royal Servant, King David sent for Mephibosheth. We had to send somebody, didn't he? The unnamed servants in this story, he gets sent. He's like, yes, King, I guess. He gets out there and finds Mephibosheth. That's the Royal Servants. If he says, I'm not doing it, I'm not gonna go look for him. Well, we don't have the story, do we? We don't have this wonderful blessing that falls on Mephibosheth. Well, if you can come with me to one more passage, the last passage now, 2 Corinthians chapter five, 2 Corinthians chapter five. The conclusion of the matter of brevity is that you are the Royal Servants in this story. That's you. God is simply asking, who is there to be saved? And I'm telling you, boy, there are people all across the Sunshine Coast that needs to be saved. There are people in Sydney and Brisbane and Fiji and Philippines. There are Mephibosheths everywhere all around us. And God says, fetch him, right? Go and get him that he may receive my grace. Man, if the Royal Servant doesn't do his job, we don't have the story, do we? We don't have these blessings. And in 2 Corinthians chapter five, 2 Corinthians chapter five and verse number 18, it says, and all things are of God who have reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation. You have been given the ministry of reconciliation. I don't have to give it to you. It's already been given. The moment you've been reconciled to God, God says, all right, now you've got a ministry. Your ministry is reconciliation. Say, pastor, I don't have a ministry in the church. Well, you already have a ministry, the ministry of reconciliation. It says in verse number 19, to wit, to witness, you're a witness, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Brethren, God's given you the ministry to go and reconcile men with God. You need to go and find Mephibosheth. You need to go find the dead dog, the lame, spiritually speaking, of course, you know what I mean. The ones that are not saved, the ones that do not have the assurance of salvation, the ones that say, I don't know if I'm going to heaven. You go and find that person and introduce them to the grace of God. You're the sole winner. You're the royal servants. And praise God, in the story that we read, the royal servant was obedient. He went out and fetched Mephibosheth. Maybe there was one servant, maybe there were many servants that went out to get him. I don't know. You know, that's kind of out there in the story for us to think about a little bit. You know, was it one man or was it a team that went out there? I don't know. But it only requires one to get out there and find Mephibosheth anyway. If we have a team, praise God, even better. Find Mephibosheth that way. Okay. But as I said, brethren, the title for the servant today was the royal servants. Are you willing to serve, you know, in searching these fields, you know, going out there in the harvest and reaping the harvest and bringing people to the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, that's your challenge for this morning. Let's pray.