God's Kindness

Theme: God’s Kindness

Object: Is shown to us in Jesus, even in the depths of our lowest times

Did you see the movie Shallow Hal? It is a movie about an unattractive, really shallow middle-aged man named Hal Larsen who judges women on how “hot” they are. But then one day, Hal gets stuck on a stalled elevator with a motivational guru who helps him overcome his shallowness by hypnotizing him so that he sees only the inner beauty of people. Leaving the elevator, Hal sees large, unattractive women as supermodels. When a 330 pound blonde named Rosemary shows up, to Hal she looks like. . . well like Gwyneth Paltrow. He is overcome by her kindness and humor, and she becomes the most beautiful girl in the world to him. Somehow I think that is the way it is when God sees us. He does not even notice our weight, our shape or our nose, or if he does, we look very beautiful to him. When he comes into our lives, he gives us an extreme makeover. He sees the person we are inside. He sees the person we can be. He is attracted to us because he sees the image of his Son in us. He sees the Holy Spirit living in us. He sees us growing into the likeness of his Son.

Sin is an awful thing. It entices, it creates beautiful images of what life will be like when we give in and live in un-loving ways. When we dwell on these empty lies, we begin to be drawn away by desire, and as James says in ch 1:15, that desire gives birth to sin, and sin, it is full grown, brings forth death.

Along that path we turn from the enjoyment of what ever our preferred behavior is, to a feeling of being “less than” we should be; a feeling that something is not right within us. The further we get into it, the more this feeling intrudes into our awareness, the more difficult it is to push it out of awareness. We find ourselves becoming more and more stressed, like sitting on a pressure cooker trying to keep the lid from blowing off. Eventually the effort saps all our strength, our will, our efforts to keep going, and finally we just can’t put one foot in front of the other anymore. If the life we have chosen itself does not kill us, which it may – alcoholism is one of the nation’s biggest killers, promiscuous sex brings forth untold numbers of unwanted children, fueling the abortion industry, as well as life threatening and life ending illnesses, and of course we could go on and on – but if the lifestyle itself doesn’t kill us, many times people find suicide the only apparent way to stop the suffering.

Many times our feelings of low self worth come out just as recorded in 2 Sam 9:8 – when Mephibosheth says, “What is your servant, that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?”

Let’s begin reading at 2 Sam 9:1: 1 David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?"

2 Now there was a servant of Saul’s household named Ziba. They called him to appear before David, and the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?"

2 "Your servant," he replied.

3 The king asked, "Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?"

3 Ziba answered the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet."

4 "Where is he?" the king asked.

4 Ziba answered, "He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar."

5 So King David had him brought from Lo Debar, from the house of Makir son of Ammiel.

6 When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor.

6 David said, "Mephibosheth!"

6 "Your servant," he replied.

7 "Don’t be afraid," David said to him, "for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.

8 Mephibosheth bowed down and said, "What is your servant, that you should notice a dead dog like me?"

9 Then the king summoned Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, "I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You and your sons and your servants are to farm the land for him and bring in the crops, so that your master’s grandson may be provided for. And Mephibosheth, grandson of your master, will always eat at my table."