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*Where You’ll Find Grace** *

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2 Samuel 9:1-9:13 (NIV, NIRV, TNIV, KJV)

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Where You’ll Find Grace \\ 2 Samuel 9 \\ \\ INTRO: 1. Mephibosheth would never forget that day.

Word quickly spread through the countryside, “King Saul and Prince Jonathan are dead and David is now King.”

At the house of Jonathan this not only brought grief but panic as well.

In that day it was customary that if a King took the throne he’d often eliminate the family of the King before him.

Sitting playing on the floor was little Mephibosheth oblivious to it all and soon his nurse burst into the room grabs him up and heads toward the door to run for safety, but in so doing she drops him crushing his ankles crippling him for life.

\\ a.

He believed that there would never be a day that would so impact his life and so affect his future like that day.

(Destined him for destitution, to live as a pauper instead of a prince) \\ b.

But Mephibosheth would discover that soon would come a day that would make a far greater impact on his life and on his future.

The Day he found Grace.

\\ 2. Grace is a dirty word for the devil.

\\ a. It’s the power behind the gospel.

(not creed, religion or philosophy) \\ “gospel of grace” \\ b.

It’s the wonder of the gospel.

(that God would reach somebody like me) \\ c.

It’s the distinction of the gospel.

(No other religion is based upon such a concept) \\ 3. GRACE: God’s favor that is unearned, undeserved and unrepayable.

\\ a.

This concept is the key to the entirety of the New Testament \\ 4. Too often we limit it to the work of Salvation in our lives, but Grace is power for our lives \\ 2 Tim.

2:1 ... be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

\\ 1 Pet.

4:10 ... as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

\\ 2 Pet.

3:18 But grow in grace, ... \\ Rev. 22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

Amen.

\\ a. Satan would have you leave the grace of God at the alter of salvation, but God’s grace only starts there, enriching and enabling our lives.

\\ b.

The devil will tell you that from that point on you must pull yourself up by your bootstraps and make it in your own strength.

\\ c.

But Grace is God’s undeserved favor on our lives.

\\ 5. David had just subdued his greatest enemies the Philistines, Moabites & Syrians \\ a.

As he sat in his palace, looking back over his past and how he had come from a sheepfold to a throneroom – no doubt he was taken by the wonder of God’s grace on his life.

\\ b.

I believed he began to look for a way that he could demonstrate the grace of God to someone that was just as unworthy as he was.

\\ Vs.3 “that I may show the kindness of God unto him?”

\\ 6. Mephibosheth would become the recipient of David’s act of grace, but there’s a deeper story here – the story of God’s grace toward us, it reveals were we can find grace.

\\ \\ I. GRACE WILL FIND YOU FIRST.

\\ a.

David asked “Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God unto him?

Grace begins in the throneroom and finds us.

\\ b.

Like Mephibosheth, before we were ever aware of grace at all it already began seeking us out.

\\ - While we were yet in sin, he loved us and sought us out.

\\ A. GOD GRACE REMEMBERS US. \\ 1. Forgotten by his nation, abandoned by his family –no reason to remember Mephibosheth.

\\ 2. But out of God’s grace, David remembered this crippled man.

\\ 3.

They were quick to remind David that Mephibosheth was crippled, as if that would turn David’s heart.

\\ 4. Didn’t remember him because of what he could get out of him (no use)—motivated by pure grace.

\\ 5. God’s motivation to reach us is pure grace.

\\ B. GOD’S GRACE PURSUES US. \\ 1. It’ll go wherever you are.

\\ 2. Lo-Debar – “no pasture” barren, desolate place, hiding place, destitute place.

\\ 3. ILL.

Ask the prodigal son, it found him in a pigpen and brought him home.

\\ 4. ILL.

Ask Joseph it found him in a pit dug for him by his brothers and it lifted him as high as second in command of Egypt.

\\ 5. ILL.

Ask the Samaritan Woman, it found her at a well in the middle of the day.

\\ 6.

Like David, he sends out his messengers of grace.

\\ 7.

No matter where you may be today, grace can find you there and change your life.

\\ C. GOD’S GRACE CARRIES US. \\ 1. Mephibosheth could not help himself, he couldn’t reach David if he had to – so David sent men to carry him.

\\ 2. God’s grace is dependent upon His ability, not mine.

\\ 3. When you can’t walk any farther, let his grace carry you.

\\ 4. When you can’t believe any more, let his grace carry you.

\\ 5.

When you’re weak let his grace carry you \\ 2 Cor.

12:9 ... My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.. \\ \\ II.

GRACE IS WHERE YOU ABANDON YOUR CRIPPLED PAST.

\\ a.

David had summoned Mephibosheth, but it was up to Mephibosheth to respond.

\\ b.

Although grace is offered to us, it’s up to us to embrace it.

\\ c.

But embracing grace means letting go of our crippled past.

\\ A. ABANDON A CRIPPLED LIFE.

\\ 1.

Not only had Mephibosheth’s feet been crippled, but his life had been crippled as well.

\\ 2.

He could have let bitterness keep him in LoDebar, blaming David.

\\ 3.

He could have let fear keep him in LoDebar.

(David was a bloody man) \\ 4. God desires to trade your past for His presence.

Let go of it and take hold of Grace.

\\ B. ABANDON A CRIPPLED MENTALITY.

\\ 1.

His handicap and his past left him feeling worthless, useless as he called himself “a dead dog”.

\\ 2. How transforming it must have been for him to realize that he had value in the eyes of the king.

\\ 3. When you awaken to the reality that he finds you precious and valuable to him, it just drives out that crippled mentality.

\\ \\ III.

GRACE IS WHERE YOU DISCOVER WHO YOU WERE BORN TO BE. \\ a.

Maybe as a boy Mephibosheth pretended what it would have been like had he been the royalty he was born to be, but time had taken those dreams away.

\\ b.

Now David looked down at him and restored his place in the palace.

\\ c.

We too, were born to be royalty in the kingdom of God, but sin dethroned us.

\\ A. AN INTIMATE POSITION \\ 1.

Not merely was Mephibosheth given a position of royalty, he was given a position of family.

Vs. 11 “as one of the king’s sons”.

\\ 2. God’s grace won’t just make us his servants, or just the royal priesthood, but sons and daughters of God.

\\ 3.

This was a position of fellowship.

(personal communion) \\ 4.