Introduction

Today, I get to preach a message. I titled this message “Too good to be true”. Think about it. When is the last time you thought or you said, “Wow, this is just too good to be true”. Well, sometimes, or many times, people say this phrase, “too good to be true” when reality is so good that you doubt whether you are in reality or whether you're dreaming, right. You say, “too good to be true”. Well, the highest point the best time I said it said this was six years ago, at the bottom of this very aisle, and when I saw this beautiful lady walking down the aisle. It's my wife six years ago, just waiting here, and I was just slapping myself, “Wow, this is too amazing, it's too good to be true, I get to marry my childhood sweetheart, the girl of my dreams”. And the best thing is, my photographer captured the most epic moment ever. So, this was my face when my wife came down the aisle. Safe to say, apart from this sermon, no one else is going to see. I'm not going to upload this onto my Instagram, or any social platform. For those at the back, this is the close up. Yeah. Too good to be true. Let's get that out of your face.

King David’s Unmatched Kindness

Well, today's passage is really about this – “Too Good to be True?” Today's passage describes life under a good king. Life is so good under a good king that is simply too good to be true. You see, Israel has had their first king, King Saul, self-absorbed, sinful, disobedient, and Israel really suffered under him. However, God replaced him with humble King David. David is known as Israel's best king. Today's passage, we come to a point where David has taken on the throne. He's about to do his first couple of acts as king. So, if you just flash back with me to all the Chinese King and monarchy movies, what is the first thing an emperor does when he comes into power? He removes all the threats to him, right? If I squash all the threats to my throne, my rule will be unchallenged. Well, David doesn't listen to any of those Chinese dramas. We see this today, David in his very, very first act. He acts out of the ordinary. And this reveals to us what kind of king David is. If you look with me in verse three, the King said, “Is there not still anyone of the house of Saul”, the previous king, that I may kill him, no, no, that I may “show kindness” to him. [2 Samuel 9:3] He ignores every single thing that the Chinese dramas have taught us. Ziba, the servant, said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. You see, David seeks out the grandson of Saul not to kill him, but to show him kindness. You see, Mephibosheth would have been the easiest heir or competitor to the throne to get rid of, because he is crippled in his feet. He can't run. So, David says, “bring him into my court”. Imagine this, imagine you are Mephibosheth, the crippled enemy of the king, and he invites you to his palace. You must be fearing for your life. What on earth is going to happen? This is we see this in verse six. Mephibosheth comes, He bows down, he pays homage to David, and he says this. He says, Behold, I am your servant. This is a line of self-preservation. If the king has invited me, let me be his servant. Instead of losing my life. Smart, move, right? If I become His servant, he might spare my life. However, what does King David do? He says this. He says in a very calm, gentle voice, “Mephibosheth, do not fear”. “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father, Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul, your father, and you shall always eat at my table”. (2 Samuel 9:7) Wait, are you, am I reading this right?

Mephibosheth’s Transformation

This guy, the enemy of the king. He doesn't just spare, David doesn't just spare his life? He restores all the land of Saul. And that is extremely significant. But what is the kicker is the last line. He says this, “Mephibosheth, you shall always eat at my table”. What is David promising? Mephibosheth? He is not just promising restoration of land and royalty. He says, Mephibosheth, come and be my son. Can you imagine, at the king's table with all his other sons, and you have this Mephibosheth, the enemy of the family, who is sitting there, who is made his son? You see, this is the kindness of David. He is promising Mephibosheth royalty and sonship. Mephibosheth has gone from rags to riches, from exile to favor, from emptiness to fullness, from ridicule to royalty, from outcast enemy of the previous king to the son of the current king. And then David, he doesn't just say it. He means what he says. He takes it into action. He calls Ziba, Saul's servant. He says, “Ziba, all that belongs to Saul and his house, I have given to your master's grandson, and you and your sons and your servants, (that’s a lot of people, by the way), 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”. (2 Samuel 9:10)

You know, we have guests over to our house. They join us. Everyone has guests. They join us at our table to eat a meal. But who is the one that really has always has a seat at our table? It is our family. It is your daughter it is your son. So, David is saying, “Mephibosheth, you are now my son”. And this is so ridiculous to Mephibosheth. He responds once again. He paid homage. He's bowing down again, and he says, “What is your servant? Or who is your servant that you would show regard for a dead dog such as I?” Mephibosheth is mind blown at the generosity and the kindness of King David, once his enemy, now a seat at David's table. Mephibosheth is saying, David, your kindness is so great that it's like you inviting a dead dog to eat at your table. Well, I don't know too much about dogs. I've never had a good relationship with dogs. The way I would describe my relationship with dogs is one word, “allergic”. But I married my wife, and my sister-in-law loves dogs. So, when I married into the family, I had a “nephew”. This “nephew's” name is Finley, okay. My sister-in-law loves this dog so much. We just went on a holiday to Perth coming on the way back, three quarter of her luggage was filled with toys and treats and things for Finley and I had to carry one hand-carry for him also. She loves him that much. And as much as she loves him, Finley knows, and everyone knows that Finley is banned from doing this at the table. Finley is sitting on the chair right because as much as the family loves him, we know that the table is not a place for a dog. Well, to highlight it more, even my 16-month year old son knows. Catch what he's doing here. He knows that when he's eating his dinner and when grandma gives him vegetables, he knows that if I take the vegetable and I drop it onto the floor, Finley will pick it up, because Finley doesn't deserve a seat at the table. He's a dog. But I understand that there are dog lovers here who might have dinner with their dogs. I'm not against it. I'm just allergic to dogs. But in those days, dogs are not these cute, fluffy animals that we push around in the pram and send them for manicures. Dogs, in those days were wild animals and pests, and because they are wild, they have diseases. They weren’t even welcome, not even at a table. They weren’t even welcome in the home.

The King’s Kindness Received

So, I think a good way to think about it in our context today is like dogs, when Mephibosheth says a dead dog, it's almost like our HDB rodent, right? What does everyone want to do with the rodents? We want to get rid of them, kill them because they spread diseases. So, Mephibosheth is saying this, “David, your grace and your kindness is so amazing that it's like inviting a HDB rat to sit at your table and eat”. Just try to process that picture with me today. No one here in the right mind would do it. If you do it, we need to have a conversation after this. But no one here would do that. But this displays the kindness of King David that he would have a HDB rat on his table, and he would show kindness to this HDB rodent. You see, Mephibosheth was a cripple from the despised house. His grandfather, King Saul, led Israel into all kinds of pain and suffering. He eventually committed suicide in battle. He was good for nothing, and Mephibosheth’s name literally means “from the mouth of shame”. But what does King David do? King David says “Come, have a seat at my table forever”.

This is why I have titled my first point today, “The King’s Kindness Received”. Well as I was reading this, maybe as you’re hearing this thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great if we have King like that?” Graciousness, kindness and mercy. These are not words that we want in our country’s leaders today. We want somebody strong and dominant and great in leadership skills but David is all of that plus he is kind. Wouldn’t it be great if we have someone or a king who was this kind to us. If he was this kind to his enemy, how kind would he be to the rest of his people? Wouldn't it be amazing if I could have a king like that? Well, in some sense, you don't have a king like that. We have a king who is far more generous. You see David elevated Mephibosheth status, but in King Jesus, he condescended to our level. We see this in the book of Mark [Mark 2:16-17] who says the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that Jesus was eating with sinners.

You know, sometimes, as Christians, we get numb to sinners. The word sinners here probably mean things like prostitutes, murderers, criminals, tax collectors, not IRAS. Tax collectors would be your loan sharks, today, the people who you avoid, you know that they are scamming money and they're going to hurt you. But just think about it for a moment, the king of all of heaven and all the earth would do what? Eat with them, because he says, “I came exactly for these people”. That is the king we have today. Jesus came for these people, for all of us to make us sons and daughters of him. David was generous. But Jesus wasn't just generous. He was self-generous to the point of being self-giving. He gave up all his rights, all his privileges as God to make his seat among the criminals, the prostitutes, the loan sharks, the scammers. Guys, sometimes we look at Mephibosheth and say, I wish I had, I wish I lived in the time of David. But hey, reality check, we live under a better King, and that is just way too good to be true. If you are a Christian today, that is the invitation. Know where you sit, know where you sit, know where you come from.

This ends the chapter in Samuel, “So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table”. (2 Samuel 9:13) And that's our reality today. Jesus came to dine with sinners, so that we can be God's children forever. That's why John can say in 1 John 3:1, he says, see or behold what kind of love the Father has given us, that we who were his enemies, who were like the HDB rodents, would be called the children of God. You see, while you awe at Mephibosheth’s story, you have a better story because of what King Jesus has done. You see, the rags to riches, the exile to redemption story is your story.

You know, this entire text screams the doctrine of adoption, which is probably something we don't really know about. If I ask you today, “Men, what is your relationship with God? many might say, “Yes, I'm sinners under a gracious savior who saved us”. Maybe a small percentage will say “We are children of God”. But if I really ask you that, if you are a child of God today, what does that mean for your life and how you live today? And I realized that before this passage, I knew I was a son of God, but what exactly does it mean? How does that transform my life? Well, here's the application for you today. The application today is that there is no application. The application for you today is not to go and do something, but for you to see something, to behold something. I do wonder if a lot of Christianity today is hyping up the “Do, do, do, do, do”. Great, amazing stuff. But if you really look at some texts, some texts are saying, “Behold, see”. Because if Christianity is really Grace motivated, there's a lot more beholding before doing. So, guys, what's the application today? No application. But behold. I want to read a couple of quotes to help us start thinking about adoption. I'm going to quote a wise man, J.I. Packer. He said, “Our understanding of Christianity will never be better than our grasp of adoption”. Why? He says “Adoption is the highest privilege the gospel offers”. In adoption. God takes us into His family and fellowship – He establishes us as His children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship”. Can I read that line again? Allow me to, “Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship.

To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by the Father is infinitely greater.” We as Christians, we know that we are not fit for a place in God's family. The idea of his loving and exalting us as sinners as he loves and exalted the Lord Jesus sounds ludicrous and wild, yet that and nothing less than that, is what our adoption means. HDB rodents at the table of the king because of Jesus. So, what do we do? This verse literally tells us. See, behold the love the Father has given to us, that we will be called the children of God. [1 John 3:1] It's too good to be true. I want to push the issue a little deeper. I think sometimes, even as children of God, the primary way we relate to God is out of shame, rather than sonship. Asian context, we are brought up this way. But Christianity, yes, shame is a good starting point, but Christianity offers assurance, confidence because of the work and person of King Jesus. So rather than constantly shrink back and hide from God, remember where you sit.

The son of shame, Mephibosheth no longer has to relate to the king in shame and avoidance, but with thankfulness, confidence and assurance as he takes his seat at his table forever. And if you are a Christian today, that's where you sit. That's where you sit. So that's my first point.

The King’s Kindness Rejected

For those who are little sharper, you have realized that I wasn't just preaching chapter nine. I am going to preach chapter 10. So, unlike Mephibosheth, who received all the extravagant gifts with acceptance, we see a different picture in the next chapter. We see the king's kindness rejected. Maybe you're asking hey Luzerne, why you add one more chapter in? We could have gone for early lunch. Okay, I'm not trying to keep you back from lunch, but it was only when we were in varsity, we were working through Samuel, that I saw this passage in a different light, and no longer Mephibosheth in a silo.

Here's why, at the start of these two chapters, you have two sons, you have the grandson of Saul, and then you have the son of Nahash, Hanun. Hanun is the Ammonite King. In verse two, David said, “I will deal loyally with Hanun”. This word loyally is the same Hebrew word as the word kindness in chapter nine, verse one, is the word “hesed”. So, when you combine these two chapters, you have two differing pictures, two differing responses to the king's kindness that often reflects our own acceptance or rejection of Jesus. You see this guy, Hanun, he responds to Jesus in the most Singaporean way ever. Singaporeans will say this. If it's too good to be true, then it is probably not true.

I experienced this first hand. I was on my way to lunch one day, and suddenly I had the most amazing thing happened. This flashed before my eyes. Someone came up to me. I wasn't aware, I was on my headphones. Someone flashed this free burger thing right in front of my eyes. I was like, “Whoa, amazing free lunch”. And just as I was about to reach my hand out to grab it, the person put the voucher behind [him] and replaced it with an iPad. He said “Sir, if you want the free voucher, you need to sign policy with me”. I guess that's the world we live in. There's a certain amount of skepticism. And maybe that's why you might be here today and you are slightly skeptical of the kindness of Jesus.

Well, Hanun is going to show you how he responded in skepticism. You see this in verse two, David says, “I will deal loyally with Hanun because his father dealt loyally with me”. He sends His servants to them, into the land of the Ammonites and Hanun and his advisers could not believe it. They say, if it's too good to be true, it probably is not true. So, they say in verse three, his adviser says, “Do you think, because David has sent comforters to you, that he is honoring your father? Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and overthrow it?” Maybe that's how you feel towards the kindness of Jesus. Certain amount of suspicion. There are no free handouts in the world, right? Well, Hanun does something bad. He doesn't just stay suspicious his suspicion turns into flat out rejection. David extended his hand of kindness, Hanun spits in his face. Verse four, “Hanun took David's servants, shaved off half their beards, cut their garments in the middle, exposing their nakedness at their hips, and sent them away”. He sends them back to David, back to David, full of shame. Let's pause. If you were King David, you are the most powerful king in the region at that time, your kindness has been met with rejection and insult. What do you do? Squash the fly, right? Send the whole army in. But here's the real interesting thing David does nothing.

In fact, the next thing we see in this narrative is not what David does, but what Hanun does. Hanun saw that they became a stench to David, and he gathered all his army to fight against him. He didn't just get his army. He got a mercenary army, the Syrians to come and fight. And then, as they are about to head into battle, as we are reading, ready to hear about the most exciting battle in the world, the most anticlimactic battle happens. Joab, who is David's commander, and the people who were with him, drew near to battle with the Syrians, and they fled before him. Before a single arrow was fired, a single spear was thrown, they ran away. No battle, no fight, the same things happen to the Ammonites. If you read on in the chapter, I don't have time to go through all of it, they re-gather for round two, but the battle ends in defeat for the Syrians and the Ammonites. And at the end, what did they have to do? They had to make peace with Israel and become subject to them.

The Urgent Call to Accept Jesus’ Kindness

You see in chapter 10, we see a few things. Firstly, we see an interesting picture of David's kindness. His kindness is not just once-off, his kindness is patient. His kindness is long-suffering. However, we also see in King David that the kindness will come to an end one day. If you don't relate to the kind king now in acceptance, you will one day be subject to his might. You see David is a picture of Jesus. Jesus is not just kind. He is mighty. He is strong. So, you will either sit at his table as a son or be subject to him in defeat.

Here's the good news, if you are new today, if you don't know Jesus. The time now is a time of grace. Jesus, the kind, long-suffering King, is inviting us to come to his table, to have a seat and be his son, to receive royalty. Yet this passage says the kind king will come again, and this time with judgment. We see this in the New Testament. It says “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, …” Why doesn't Jesus come to judge again? Because he is patient towards you, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance”. Now is a time of patience, love and kindness. Come to Jesus. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” (2 Peter 3:10) The heavenly, mighty king will come again one day. I want to say that this text is condemning rejection. I'm not so sure that it's condemning skepticism. I think we live in a time where the internet, social media, has made us generally skeptical. But if that's you today, don't let your skepticism become rejection.

Talk to someone about Jesus today, and I know it is strange, because we are not used to getting free handouts in Singapore, right? It's ingrained in us to earn what we need, right? Everything we need, everything we have, we need to earn it, which is why Jesus, King Jesus, can be a little bit uncomfortable for us and all his kindness. If that's you today, this passage says this, the decision you have to make is not just important, it is also urgent. There is a ticking clock, and we don't know when Jesus will come again. My friends, just because it's too good to be true, it doesn't mean it's not true with Jesus. Maybe you're uncomfortable because Jesus' kindness is out of this world, but that's the thing, right? Because Jesus is not from this world. He is love itself. So please have a conversation with someone about Jesus.

For the Christians today, I like us to really think about our adoption. Maybe we forget where we are sitting at the moment. I tend to forget that I have a seat at my generous king's table and that my seat at the table has never been guaranteed by my merit, but by the generous kindness of my king. And if it's the generous kindness of my king that secures my seat at the table, it means that I will always have a seat at the table, because he doesn't change. This text was really pivotal to me this year, I'm a new dad of a little boy who is 16 months now. So, 16 months is where all the little horns start to come out, and I've been figuring out this whole thing about disciplining and training my son up in the way of the Lord. Not a marriage workshop. I am 16 months a dad, I have no qualification. But here I just want to share how this text changed and really guided me through it. You see, it's only when I started to figure out my position as God's son that I could figure out how to be a father to my son. Just a little example is when I was disciplining him, right? One of the books that one of my friends told me, he says, when you disciplining your son, you need to reflect the love of the Father. So, it means that when I discipline him, that is not the end of it. It means that there's an extended time of love and assurance and confidence that I need to give him, that nothing has been changed because of his bad behavior. That's our relationship with God. Everything totally paid for in King Jesus.

My seat at the table never guaranteed by my failings or my success, but because of King Jesus. How about you today? You're coming to the end of the year. How would you describe your relationship with Jesus this year? What's the word you would use to describe? Well, maybe some of you feel like “I'm an utter failure this year, nothing has gone right, everything has gone wrong”. Hey, you are a son and daughter of God. The Father smiles at you. That is why sonship and daughterhood must be the primary identity that we have. If we try to prove our identity into anything else, we are going to get crushed when we fail and we are going to be proud when we succeed. But when our identity is secure as God's son and daughter, that's where I am rock solid, because the father smiles at me. The other thing I've been thinking about this year in our church was the health of our church. I love that people are serving, yet some areas people don't really serve. And I wonder whether a big reason of why we are not serving is because we are relating to God incompletely. What do I mean by that? Let me share a quote. It says, “If you feel like a slave of a distant God who demands your obedience, then your service will always feel like hard work and be characterized by joyless duty”. Many of you serving here. I do wonder. I thank God for the smiles that we see, but what's beyond those smiles? What's really going on in your heart? Has it become joyless obligation? “But if you feel like a child of God who has poured out His love on you, then your service will be willing, full and joyous. You will delight to please your Father rather than feeling obliged to obey your master”. (Tim Chester)

Maybe some of you have burnt out. End of the year, hard year, man. Guys, the solution is not run back into service. The solution is, see, behold, behold the love of the Father that has guaranteed your seat at his table. So, guys, the application is this today. No application. Go back. See and behold the Father. I wish I had three sermons to preach adoption, because it's changed my life that much. I don't, so I can recommend a chapter of a book to read. If you have time today and you'd like to think more, reflect more on adoption, J I Packer's book “Knowing God”, has a chapter called “Sons of God”. Just take some time read it with your spouse, with your family, and it's worth “marinating” over. And I pray that God's extravagant love for us, HDB rodents will be poured out into our hearts today.

Let's pray. What a privilege we have to call you, “Our Father”. God, we thank you that we come before you today. Yes, some people have messed up. Some people have had a horrible year. Some people are burnt out. But you smile at us because of the adoption, because we are now sons and daughters, always having a seat at your table. God, as we go back, as we marinate on these words, think about these words. I pray God, this would transform our life to see how adoption is really the highest privilege of the gospel, that children of wrath beforehand can now become sons of God. Pray and ask all these things, in Jesus name we pray. Amen.