"The Window" Series

Good Morning, I’m excited to be able to kick off this series called BIOGRAPHY:

NICKNAMES

Historically, individual names were believed to be a person’s private property. As such, they were not to be spoken too often. So, back in the day, people began using "extra" names to call or refer to each other. Today we call them Nicknames.

I have always been fascinated by nicknames. They are everywhere. Always have been, always will be. (IMAGES?)

o Elvis Presley was known as The King

o Harrit Tubman was known as Moses

o Wilton Champerlon was known as Wilt the Stilt

o William Booney was known as Billy the Kid

(IMAGE ON SIDE SCREEN?)

MELNAIE

My son was born when my daughter was just 14 months old, as they grew up we would often ask him, “Where’s sissy” and he would run to find her.

As he began to learn how to talk it was difficult for him to say Melanie so he simply called her “SISSY.” somehow in that process both my wife and I also started referring to her as “Sissy”

• and even though she is now seven, we still sometimes call her “sissy”

MATT – (IMAGE ON Other SIDE?)

When my son, Matt was just a toddler he had this habit

• Often when he was tired

• or cranky

• to woddle around like most toddlers with his blanked and go “hoo hoo hoo hoo”

• He would do this sometime for hours without actually crying. It was not long and we started to call him BO BO, nnow that he is older we still call him “BO”

GREAT ONE ANOTHER

• How many of you have a nickname?

• How many of you have a nickname that you wouldn’t mind sharing Let’s take just a moment, stand up and introduce yourself to someone next to you using your nickname.

• If you don’t have one, or don’t have one that you are comfortable sharing, make one up.

This morning I am going to tell you THE story of a man named MEPHEBOSHETH. Now there’s a name for you. Let’s say that together, Mephibosheth.

As someone who enjoys nicknames and because Mephibosheth is hard to pronounce I thought about giving him a nickname for today.

• I thought about just calling him “M” – but that seemed to short

• Then I thought about “FIB” but didn’t think that would work

• “Sheth” Didn’t do much for me

• “BO” sound pretty good but only for a few minutes

So then I did what every self respecting, bible school graduating pastor does I went and looked up what Mephibosheth means in Hebrew and found that it means

• “Scatters Shame” or

• “From the mouth of the shameful thing”.

The more I thought about it I finally came to the conclusion that with a with a name like Mephibosheth….

• You probably don’t deserve a nickname.

So even though it’s a bit of a tongue twister, today we are going to call Mephibosheth……Mephibosheth.

The story of Mephibosheth is a story about the distress that is experience by change. It is a story about an invitation that was accepted. It is a story about friendship, promises, grace, love, compassion, forgiveness and hope.

THE WINDOW? – (IMAGES OF WINDOW ON SCREENS)

A young salesman lands a job selling new windows door to door. On his first day of the job he comes across this sweet older lady who agrees to purchase a beautiful new window in her living room. A few days after the job was completed the salesmen gets a call from the lady informing him that she is not happy with the view from her new window.

Wanting to make a good impression at his new job the young salesmen works with the lady and replaces the window with a much larger one at no additional cost.

A few days pass and he once again gets a call from the lady saying that she is not happy with the view from her window; once again the salesman doubles the size of the window at no additional cost.

As predicted a few days pass and the lady calls him again letting him know that she is not happy with the view from her new window. The young salesman explains to the woman that he has just installed

• the newest

• most efficient

• Largest window that the company sells and asks her what the problem is with the window.

The lady responds that every time she looks out the large new window she can still see the ugly old oak tree in her front yard.

What do you see as you look out your window of life?

• What do you see as you look at your marriage