A Better Tomorrow

Text: 2 Samuel 9:1-7

Introduction

The story of Mephibosheth is a testimony of overnight increase. It is a story of how you can be suffering and weeping today and tomorrow you are smiling and dancing for joy (Psalm 30:5). It is a story of how you can be living with someone today because you can’t even afford to rent a place of your own, and tomorrow you are the owner of not just a house but a massive estate and different plots of land. It is a story to assure every believer that if you are truly a child of God and the King of glory is your father, your tomorrow will certainly be brighter and better than your today. The story of Mephibospeth is the kind of testimony God wants to give you and I in this season of enlargement.

Mephibosheth story is the kind of story that makes headlines – CRIPPLED MAN BECOMES MILLIONAIRE OVERNIGHT. Every newspaper and soft sell will want to carry the story. Talk show hosts would want to invite the crippled man that has had this kind of breakthrough to come and be a guest on their show. I can imagine Mephibospeth being asked on a talk show ‘so please can you tell our viewers your story. How did it happen, what did you do to experience this kind of overnight increase?’ And he would reply ‘it’s just the grace of God’. The host won’t be satisfied with that answer. She will probably say ‘I know it’s the grace of God but what did you do as a person’? The host won’t want his answer to end with it was the grace of God because most times when people say it’s the grace of God it’s assumed that they don’t want to say the whole story or they are trying to be humble. Apart from that we don’t believe that people get rich overnight. There must be something you must have done either that all your life you had this dream or vision that you would one day own an estate of your own or you have always been a very determined and hardworking person or you came from a very wealthy family. Yes, Mephibosheth came from a wealthy family being the son of Jonathan a onetime prince of Israel and grandson to Saul a onetime king of Israel, but at the time this breakthrough came to him, all that wealth had gone. Both his father and grandfather were dead and everything they had had been taken as David the new king had come to power. Neither his father nor his grandfather left anything for him in their will that we can say he had something he could survive on. He had nothing whatsoever. In fact, things were so bad for him that he was living with someone because he didn’t have money to rent or buy a place of his own.

So what happened that Mephibosheth went to bed as a poor man and woke up the next day as a very wealthy man? Today God wants to open our eyes to three simple things that can give us all round increase and enlargement.

1. Enlargement comes when God’s grace speaks for you

What is grace? Grace is simply a gift from God. It is something you get from God which you didn’t work for or you don’t even deserve (Ephesians 2:8-9). Romans 11:6 tells us that the moment you can point to something you did to get a particular, blessing, promotion or increase, grace has been completely removed from the picture. It’s no longer by grace but by works.

GRACE CAN GIVE YOU WHAT YOU DIDN’T PRAY FOR AND MORE THAN WHAT YOU EVEN PRAYED FOR: Mephibosheth's turn around, his increase and enlargement was a pure gift of grace. He wasn’t the one that asked for the estate and lands that were given him, he didn’t pray for them. It was David that asked “is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness...” (2 Samuel 9:1). We see from Mephibosheth story that grace is what gives you more than you could ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20). If David had given him an opportunity to ask the king for something, anything at all, Mephibosheth wouldn’t have even asked for what David gave him. I believe that the thing that would have been uppermost in his mind, the thing he would have asked for would have been ‘now that you are the one in power and everyone knows my grandfather was your number one enemy, just allow me live in peace’.

Anytime a new government comes into power, a lot of people who occupied key positions in the former government usually go into hiding. Some seek asylum from other countries. The belief is that every new government has a witch-hunting agenda. They would want to deal or bring to justice everyone considered to be a threat to their administration or that caused problems when they were in power. It was this mindset that actually led to Mephibosheth becoming crippled and going to live in Lo Debar. When the news came that both Saul and Jonathan had been killed and David was now the one in power, his nurse picked him up as he was just a 5 year old boy at that time, for them to run for their dear lives. It was in the process of running for safety that Mephibosheth fell from his nurse' hands and became crippled (2 Samuel 4:4). This event happened many years before the day David decided to show him kindness. Now Mephibosheth was a grown man. So you can imagine what would have been going through his mind when they came to tell him that David was looking for him and had given instructions that they should immediately bring him to the king. There would have been fear in his heart as he would have been thinking at last David has discovered where I’m staying and wants to take revenge on me for all the atrocities my grandfather committed when he was the one in power. If David had given him an opportunity to ask for something, he certainly wouldn’t have said give me all my grandfather’s estate and lands or from today let me start eating with you at the king's table. The grace of God gave Mephibosheth more than he could ever ask or imagine. David did for Mephibosheth something very strange by all human standards. Today you will receive a pure gift of grace from God which will be more than what you could ever ask or imagine.