Bible Covenants Part 9 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Praise Jesus. Friends, it is great to have you today. We’re gonna be sharing a great story, talking about restoration is the purpose of the covenant. And there’s a Hebrew word in the Old Testament that really is the equivalent of grace in the New Testament and it’s actually used in these scriptures talking about David and Mephibosheth. It’s actually the Hebrew word hesed. So open your heart and receive God’s word. Friend, it’s just great to have you with us. I’m so glad that you’ve taken the time to receive the Word of God today. And, you know, there are great things in the scripture. We’ve been teaching the last two weeks on Bible covenants, and we’re talking about pictures of the covenant. And today we’re gonna be sharing on a phenomenal, really picture of grace, a phenomenal picture of the love of God from the old Covenant. And it’s David and Mephibosheth. And it’s really, you know, talking about restoration is the purpose of the covenant. You know, God wants to restore everything to us, really, that Adam lost in the garden. When you begin to understand the gospel, you can find that Jesus not only wants to restore you in your right relationship with God, but Jesus wants to restore, you know, your possessions and restore your strength and different things. So praise God, we got a wonderful gospel.

It’s so important to see God for who he really is and he is a restorer. You know, we talked about that when we were going through Ruth a few days ago, how eventually Ruth’s daughter-in-law, or sorry, Naomi’s daughter-in-law, Ruth had a son named Obed.

And, you Know, all the community prayed over Naomi and praised her and said, you know, he’s gonna be a restorer of life. You know, God is such a restorer, and some people don’t really connect all the dots. They think that God just controls everything and if something was stripped away from them. They like to quote Job, you know, in the moment, you know, when he was going through his difficulties, said, you know, he said, you know, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away,” but that doesn’t mean it’s true. You know, actually God showed up at the end of Job and rebuked him for saying a bunch of nonsense. And, you know, God actually rebukes Job and his friends and said, you weren’t with me. You don’t know, like when I created the universe Like He basically just put ’em all in their place and said a lot of the stuff you’re saying is a bunch of nonsense.

Right, and if you read even where Job is saying, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away,” if you read the context, it wasn’t, the Lord take it away. The Lord had given to him, but it was plainly the devil who was taken away. And yet people seeing that act like it’s the gospel that is not the gospel.

Yeah, and some of you had this mentality too. I was actually talking to someone, he said, well, maybe God doesn’t do it, but God allows it.

Lawson Right.

And I actually came against that statement too.

Lawson Absolutely.

Because when you say that, you allow something you’re actually attributing blame to that person.

Right, it’d be like me as a father, allowing someone, when you’re my young child to come in and violate you, so on and so forth, and blaming me, that is terrible. You know, that is not who God is, that is not what God does, amen. Well, and you know, recently there’s actually a famous case. There was young man who, you know, was deranged and got access to weapons and shot up a school, but the state actually found the parents guilty. Yeah, and this is like one of the first times that the parents were found guilty in this because the parents, even though they didn’t do the crime, they they allowed it.

Lawson Right.

So that allowance, you know, was enough to convict them as guilty as being partly guilty in this, you know, crime.

Lawson Right.

And that was one of the first cases where that, that kind of happened legally.

Right.

But when you’re saying that God allows things, you’re saying God’s guilty of this.

Right.

So God does not create evil. He’s not the author of evil. He doesn’t allow evil. He is completely, completely good. He is a restorer. He actually wants to do the reverse of what the enemy does. The enemy wants to steal, to kill, to destroy. God wants to do the reverse, that he wants to restore, he wants to redeem. Jesus said, “I came that you might have life and that you might have life more abundant.” I hate robbing. I hate it.

Lawson Yeah.

You know, recently we had someone break in and steal, you know, mail from our church and they kept coming back and doing it, and we just had to get rid of the mailbox.

Lawson Yeah.

Because it just, just, the thieves don’t stop. You know, the devil doesn’t stop. A lot of people don’t–

He’s persistent.

The devil will beat people up.

Yeah.

Just beat ’em up over and over and over. He, he’ll just-

Well, I didn’t want to go to Old Testament living and get my shotgun and sit out here and take, you know, take–

Come on, no one has time for that.

So we just took the mailboxes out and just said–

Just move on.

Hallelujah, but anyway, we need to get into this story. It’s a wonderful story of God’s grace and restoration. And so two Samuel chapter nine, what had happened prior to this was David, when he was, you know, being raised up, made a covenant with Jonathan, the son of Saul, and they had this covenant love for each other, and they made a covenant, hey. And, and Jonathan said, Hey, even you know, if I die, I want you to take care of my family.

Well, and this is a neat covenant too. You mentioned when we’re talking about Bible covenants. Covenant, there’s two different types of covenant, a bilateral covenant,

Right.

And what was the other one?

Unilateral.

Unilateral, so bilateral is like between two equals. So Jonathan and David formed a bilateral covenant. But when Jonathan and his father died, it became unilateral, you know.

Lawson Right.

Because David has all the power now. He has all the authority, he’s the king. He can do what he wants. He could actually wipe out all of Saul’s family, all of his lineage, all of Jonathan’s. But, but he still remembers that covenant he made with Jonathan. So even though he’s now in a unilateral position where he has all the power, all the authority, and this is a picture of God, you know.

And his grace

And his grace, you know, it is a great picture of us. You know, we are a type of Mephibosheth. We’re really, we have a lot less control over the situation.

Yeah, we don’t have control, but we can have faith and belief, God, and he’s given us authority, amen. Now, in second Samuel 9:1, David said, “Is there any yet that is left of the house of Saul that I can show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” And this word kindness, I have taught this for years as a type of grace and restoration. Actually, it’s the Hebrew word hesed and it’s actually a type of the love of God and established through the blood covenant. And it’s actually a really tremendous picture of grace. I never heard anybody teach on this until the last couple years. I heard Mark Hankins teaching on this, And he got his teaching basically from Kenneth Copeland years ago. But it’s a type of the love of God. And it says, “There was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba” in verse two. “And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, ‘Are you Ziba?'” “And he said, ‘Thy servant is he.’ And the king said, ‘Is there any yet of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God?'” The love of God to him? And Ziba said the king, Jonathan has yet a son who is lame on his feet. And the king said, “Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, he’s in the house of Makir, son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.'” Now Lo Debar in the literal Hebrew means a desert fire, the place of utter destruction. So you know, Jonathan had a son, right, the grandson of Saul, Mephibosheth, these lame on his feet. He’s living in the place of utter destruction. That’s where sin really put all of us is a place of utter destruction. “And yet then King David sent and fetched him outta the house of Makir, the son of Ammiel from Lo Debar. And when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul was come to David, he fell on his face and Reverenced, and David said, ‘Mephibosheth.’ And he answered and said, ‘Behold your servant.’ And David said, fear not, for I will surely show you kindness for Jonathan, your father’s sake and I will restore to you… “I’m gonna restore to you all the land of Saul, your father, and you will eat bread at my table continually.’ So David said, “I’m gonna restore you.” “And he bowed himself and said, ‘What is your servant that you should look on such a dead dog as I?'” In other words, did you know what sin will take you to places you don’t want to go, and it’ll do things that you don’t, you know, want to receive, But this wasn’t about him, right. It wasn’t about his strength. It wasn’t about who he was. This was really about who his father was and the covenant that David had with his father. And in this way, David’s like, I wanna show the love of God. His father’s a type of Christ, essentially, and it’s about what Jesus has done. And so they had David and Jonathan had this covenant, and David comes and he’s gonna show him the love of God. So David steps in the king calls Ziba Saul servant, and says, “‘I’ve given to your master son everything that pertained to Saul.'” This is not only his father, Jonathan, but Saul who was king of all Israel. And like you said, Aaron, David could just wiped him out. I mean, and I’m sure this is what Mephibosheth when he’s coming to come in the presence of David, he’s like, surely I’ll find out thinking, hey, I’m a dead dog. I’m done, I’m finished, but yet David shows the grace of God to him.

Well, and just look at this picture of restoration, you know?

Lawson Yeah.

He gives him all of Saul’s land, but he also gives him, you know, a servant in this entire family to just maintain the land.

Lawson Right.

And it’s really a picture God’s love for us, you know?

Yeah. And God’s–

Really what he’s called us to be, it’s more than we can do on our own.

Lawson Right.

You know, to live the Christian life is impossible on your own. it takes, it takes Ziba and his. It takes the Holy Spirit.

Lawson Yeah, Ziba has–

It takes the power of the Holy Spirit, to live, you know, Christian life, to live what God has called you to live out.

Yeah, so Ziba has 15 sons and 20 servants. So David appoints 36 people.

Well, you know, Mephibosheth was crippled. Like there’s no way like he could–

Yeah, he could have this property, but he couldn’t do anything with it. He couldn’t receive anything from it

Because-

And not only that, you know, Mephibosheth, you know that they’re told that he is gonna sit at David’s table. It’s not like, I’m gonna forget about you. You know, a lot of people think, well, God sure he sent Jesus, but Jesus is gone, you know, went to heaven and just were forgotten about.

Lawson Right.

You know, there’s actually a whole like, theology of people that think that God just created everything and just kind of checked out and isn’t really involved with humanity anymore.

Lawson Yeah. But he said, no, Mephibosheth will be here at my table. In my presence every single day, period.

Lawson Yeah.

So that’s God’s heart for us. He wants to be with us every single day. God has not checked out. He didn’t just prepare a place for you so you could be there and he could forget about you. You know, send you off to boarding school or something.

Lawson Right.

You know, he actually wants you to be at his table in his presence every day.

Yeah, so he speaks into the situation. And so, you know, he says, well, number one, I’m gonna give you all the property of Saul, but there’s more to come. So we’re gonna come after a short break, and we’re gonna talk more about restoration that God wants to bring in our life, ultimately through Jesus. So stay tuned. If you need prayer, feel free to give us a call during this break, blessings. Friends, we’ve been teaching Bible covenants from my syllabus, but I’ve been teaching at Bible school that I developed over 20 years ago. I’ve been teaching it for over 20 years in Bible school. We actually have that syllabus free of charge on our website, plus “Hebrews: The Better Covenant” in book form, in audio and video downloadable form, check our website out. God doesn’t hear you because you bombard heaven with your prayers. God doesn’t hear us because we get a thousand people praying, or 2000 people praying, or 10,000 people praying. In fact, when Jesus was in a tight situation, he didn’t call a bunch of people to pray. He brought up a whole bunch of people out. And then Jesus took three of his top guys, Peter, James, and John in with him, and said, let’s get this job done. Friends, I’m so glad you stayed with us. We’re right here in Second Samuel chapter nine. And David has, you know, actually went on to look at, to find out, is there anybody alive of Saul’s house. Finds out, yes, Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan is still alive. And David was saying, because of the covenant I made with Jonathan, so this is even better news, but Mephibosheth is lame on both of his feet, living in Lo Debar, the place of it means desert fire or the place of utter destruction. And David calls him in and Mephibosheth says, what are you doing looking at a dead dog like me? And David said, well, really, it’s not about you, it’s about your daddy. I made a covenant of love with your daddy, amen. And, you know, I’m gonna give you everything. Not only that was your father’s, I’m gonna get give you everything that was your grandfather, Saul, he was the king over all of Israel. So it’s amazing restoration. But not only I’m gonna, I’m not gonna stop there. I’m gonna give you Ziba and his 15 sons and 20 servants, right. So grace will restore you, not only in your relationship, but grace will restore you in your property, in your possession. And grace will restore you in your ability. You know, I love this aspect. One of my favorite scriptures on grace, first Corinthians 15:10 verse 10, where Paul says, “I am what I am by the grace of God.” And he says, “Yet it wasn’t me, but it was the grace of God that was with me.” He, so he says, I labored more. He went from grace back into works more abundantly than all. Yet it wasn’t me, it was the grace of God that was with me. And grace is actually God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves and the person of Jesus when he died and rose again. So this is a tremendous picture of grace, restores all the property and then gives him 36 people, Ziba his 15 sons and his 20 servants to take care of this property. Said everything that grows on that property, all of that wealth is gonna go to him. But it not only is about him, right, because Mephibosheth has a son and it’s about the next generation because of Mephibosheth didn’t have a son, if he didn’t have an heir it, this gift didn’t really even mean that. But David said, man, this is not only gonna go to you, it’s gonna go to your son. So this is, I’m giving this to you and it’s gonna be good, amen, for a long, long time. And then it’s not only that, ultimately grace is God calling us into relationship with himself.

Well, and it says that “He’ll eat at my table like one of the king’s sons.

Lawson Yes.

So that’s a powerful place to be. You know, and this story of Mephibosheth and David, it’s a picture of God’s grace for us–

Lawson Yes.

You know, grace, whenever I talk about grace, I think about these three really important aspects of grace,

Right?

And some people really just focus on one. First of all, grace frees you,

Lawson Right.

You know, a lot of Christians, a lot of ministers understand that. You know, “As far as the east is from the West, so far, has he removed my sin from us.”

Lawson Right.

You know, that we’re forgiven at salvation. But grace doesn’t just free, it also transforms you,

Lawson Right.

So Mephibosheth is transform, you know, he’s set free from, you know, he could have been killed.

Lawson Yeah.

You know, from who his grandfather was, Saul. So he was freed from that death sentence, but not only that, he’s transformed, he’s actually transformed into being like one of David’s own sons. So Grace transformed you.

Lawson Right.

You’re now in Christ, you’re a new creation in Christ. You aren’t the old person. You’re transformed, right. So some people don’t get that far. They still look at themselves as a sinner,

Lawson Right.

You know, a lot of people believers, when they still pray, they still pray like, I’m just a sinner. I’m just a beggar. I’m just in Lo Debar,

Right.

But no, you’re transformed. You’re actually in God’s presence. You’re one of his sons. You’re one of his daughters. So Grace frees you, it transforms you and lastly, it empowers you,

Right.

And by David giving, you know, Mephibosheth, Ziba and all of his sons and these servants to, you know, combine the land, when Mephibosheth couldn’t do it–

Right. You know, that that’s a picture of that empowerment side of grace.

Lawson Right, yeah, so you see all three of these aspects of grace. You know, I like to teach on grace. I like to say, number one, it’s unmerited favor, right. We’re saved by grace. It’s the unmerited favor, the divine favor of God that saved us. Number two, I like to say that grace is this, it’s the divine influence in the heart, and its reflection in the life. You know, and that’s what Strong actually defines the Greek word, Charis or grace, right, as the divine influence on the heart and it’s reflection in the life. So it’s not only favor, it’s not only that that brings us salvation, unmarried favor, but it’s God’s influence on our heart and it’s reflection in our life. But the third thing is it’s God’s ability. And you see really all three of these here in Mephibosheth. And you know, it’s God doing for us what we could not do for ourselves and the person of Jesus. So God wants to restore us through his grace. So Ziba said to the king, according to all that, my Lord, this is in verse 11 of 2 Samuel 9, “Has commanded his servant, your servant will do as from Mephibosheth said the king. He will eat at my table as one of the king son. and Mephibosheth that a young son whose name was Micah, and all who dwell in the house of Exhibit were servant to Mephibosheth. So Mephibosheth dwell in Jerusalem for he ate continually at the king’s table and was lame on both of his feet.” So we can eat continually in the Lord’s presence, amen. And we can feast at the table of Jesus, Praise God. And you know, when you think about this as long. The Bible actually says in Ephesians chapter1:6, that we’re accepted and beloved. But as all, as long as we stay pulled up to the table of grace, we can’t even see the lameness of our feet. So Mephibosheth lives like a king’s son. We’ve been brought in the presence of God by grace, and we’re continually taking care of supplied other people are taking care of the work. The Lord takes care of all the work he’s done. The work, it’s grace is an amazing thing. The love of God’s an amazing thing. And God ultimately wants to restore us through his great grace for us.

And David, it’s really interesting his interactions with Saul, his interactions with Jonathan and his interactions with Mephibosheth.

Lawson Yes.

And you know, David, multiple opportunities to kind of avenge himself, you know, with Saul, he was running for his own life because Saul knew that, you know, David was probably gonna be king. So Saul for years was chasing after David trying to kill him and David had more than one opportunity to actually avenge himself. But he said, you know, this isn’t my battle to fight.

Amen.

And he just trusted God in all these situations. So he trusted God in his interactions with Saul. Right now, he’s the king and it’s not up to me to dethrone him. God’s gonna take care of it. He said, I don’t know how it’s gonna happen. He might die of old age, he might die in battle. I don’t know, but I’m not the one who’s gonna dethrone him.

Lawson Right.

You know, his interactions with Jonathan. You know, Jonathan actually cared about David,

Lawson Right.

Even warned him and said, you better get outta here, or else might, you know, Saul’s gonna kill you. And Mephibosheth, you know, David could have kind of set some things right there, but he showed to, you know, decided to demonstrate grace,

Lawson Right.

So David, you know, in all these relationships, he demonstrates God’s grace.

Right.

And it just, you know, when you can do that, it’s because it’s someone that has a very strong relationship with God.

Lawson Right.

You know, people are always trying to make things right themselves, avenge themselves, who just get really upset when they’re wrong. And I gotta bring justice. It’s usually ’cause they don’t trust God.

Lawson Right.

And if you just give some things to God, just, I’m gonna give this to God, I’m just gonna love people. Right. I’m gonna show grace to people even though they don’t deserve it.

Lawson Yeah.

When you do that, it’s because you’re trusting God.

Yeah, and it’s like David, you know, he had all these opportunities. Saul was trying to kill him, tried to kill him over 20 times, and David had multiple opportunities to return the favor, right, to kill Saul. And he probably would’ve been justified, but he said, listen, I am not touching the Lord’s anointed. If I’m gonna be king, God is gonna put me in that place and he let God deal with Saul. He let God take care of the details, so to speak. And so, you know, a lot of times, you know, there’s things that come up in life and people wrong you, different things happen. But you gotta let go of that and let God show up on your behalf.

Well, you know, I’ve been here pastoring for over eight and a half years now, and when I first came here, I was kind of surprised at how gracious you were in your interactions with people, you know. At church, but, you know, different leaders at church, but even different staff member people who were employed by the church and–

Right.

You really erred on the side of grace.

Well, if I want to err, I want to err on the side of grace.

Yeah, and I’ve kind of learned that that’s a better way to go about things. And when you do that, God works things out, you know. Someone wants to continue being a problem and continue, you know, kicking against the pricks. They’ll eventually, you know, move on or whatever, but you don’t have to just go trying to defend yourself and make things just being the justice police.

Lawson Amen.

And so it’s better to just trust God and to show grace to people. And even as I’ve grown in my role here at the church and, you know, help lead different ministries there’s opportunities where I can chop someone off that that’s really being problematic. And I try to err on the grace side of things.

Amen.

And, you know, just, just really trust God.

Well, you know, here’s something I’ve learned from both Andrew Wommack who really teaches grace, right, and then another one of my tremendous spiritual mentors, Dr. Lester Sumrall. And even though Dr. Lester Sumrall didn’t teach grace, like Andrew Wommack has a revelation of grace and like I’ve received a revelation of grace, he had tremendous revelation in other areas, tremendous revelation of authority and tremendous revelation in different areas. Dr. Lester Sumrall really dealt with people in grace. And I observed that as a staff member when I was going to Bible school and working for him, and observed that over the years, you know, as he came and did certain things, he dedicated our church and Kit Carson and came again. So I observed how I was gracious with people in really the way Dr. Lester Sumrall dealt with people. And the way that Andrew Wommack deals with people, they both deal in grace.

And you know, this is one of the fruit of the spirit is kindness.

Lawson Right.

You know, a lot of Christian people are try to be nice, but they’re not really kind. There’s a difference between being nice and being kind. You know, nice, it’s very superficial, it’s a mask. There’s ulterior motives attached to things that are given, but they really aren’t kind.

Yeah, so we need to, again, we need to be kind. My grandfather really was a great man and really he was another person that on my dad’s side, Darrell Purdue, who I worked for, for a number of years, you know, from the time, you know, I was about eight years old, we moved back to the farm until I was, you know, 23 when I moved to Bible school. I really saw the grace of God in my grandfather. And his favorite scripture actually was Ephesians chapter 2:8, “For by grace we were saved through faith. And that not of ourselves, but it is the gift of God.” Well, we’re out of time, but you know, we would love to have you partner. And we know a lot of partners you know, who really, when they start partners with this ministry, really see the grace of God flow in their life, in the area of finance. And if you wanna become a partner, we would love to have a call from you today. Or if you need prayer, just give us a call, God bless you.

Announcer Hebrews 8:6 says that “We have a better covenant based on better promises.” In “Hebrews: The better covenant,” you’ll learn how though new covenant is better than the old, simply because of Jesus. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of “Hebrews: The Better Covenant,” a $35 value free of charge. Don’t miss this opportunity to know what Jesus accomplished in establishing this better covenant. Visit charischristiancenter.com today to download your copy.

Hey everyone, I want you to mark your calendar for Family Camp meeting. We’re gonna have great teaching with Mark Hankins and Pastor Max Cornell. Great worship with Philip Renner, sharing the grace of Jesus all around the globe. And we’re gonna have great children’s meetings, great youth meetings, something for the entire family right here at Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs. We want to see you here, blessings. Friends, I want to thank you for being with us today. It’s our pleasure to share with you the word of God. We believe it changes lives, and because of that, we’re broadcasting all around the world. It costs me right now around $2 million a year just for my staff and paying for our broadcast costs. But if you wanna become a partner and help us share the message all around the world, we would love to hear from you today.

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