Grace will set you free from the tyranny of other people. Some of you are prisoners to other people's foolish opinions, their unreasonable demands, their domination and manipulation of your life. I want you to hear this. Quit trying to please the tyrants who are trying to control you. Take charge of your life or someone else will. Regardless of what you do, and I can tell you this from experience, it makes no difference what you do or don't do: you're going to be blamed for something by somebody. So go on and enjoy your life and make the decisions you and God make together, and it's going to be a wonderful life. Many of you are prisoners of the performance trap. You're trying to earn other people's approval by what you do. Give it up.
Have you ever made other people your master? You shouldn't. Paul says in Galatians 1:10, "Am I seeking the favor of men or God"? That's a powerful question. "Or am I striving to please men? If I'm striving to please men, I cannot be a bondservant to Jesus Christ". You cannot please both men and God. The fact is, and listen to this, you are either going to be a Father pleaser or a people pleaser. Which one of those two do you choose? Grace will set you free to forgive others, free to allow others to be who they are even when they're different from you. How many of you like to hang around only people who agree with you all the time? All of you, because it's in our nature. But don't write people off who disagree with you, because they have the right to disagree as long as you're not arguing about a Bible truth.
A preacher wanted to know what his teenage son would to be in his future life. So he thought he would give his son a test. He put on his son's dresser a Bible. And if the boy took the Bible it meant he would be a preacher. Then he put a silver dollar by the Bible. That meant he would be a banker. And then he put a bottle of whiskey and if he took that, he's going to be a worthless drunk. And he put playboy magazine beside those things. And if he took that, he's going to be a womanizer. The preacher hid in the closet waiting for his teenage son to come in. The teenage son came in, saw the four things and picked them all up and carried them out. And the father said, "Uh-oh, the boy's going to run for congress". God's grace is greater than all of your sin. Romans 5:20 says, "For where sin did abound, God's grace did much more abound". That is an awesome verse of scripture! Where sin did abound, God's grace was much greater than the sin.
I've heard people say, "Well, I've committed adultery". God's grace is greater than that. "Well, I've horribly failed". Everybody on planet earth has failed. God's grace is greater than your faults and failures. "But I'm in the occult". The grace of God is greater than the power of sin and Satan. "Well, I've committed murder". That's terrible. But Moses killed the Egyptian. He committed murder. David committed murder. He killed Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, the woman he impregnated. He killed her husband to shut him down: yet, God used him in the future. Paul killed Christians. He put them in jail when he was a pharisee. And some of those Christians were put to death. He was a monster before he came to know Christ, because God's grace is greater than all of your faults and failures. Grace is greater than legalism.
Listen to me, church members. Legalism is Satan's theology. Legalism is Satan's theology. Legalism defined is keeping man-made religious rules to obtain righteousness with God. You should write that down. You cannot live under grace and law at the same time. Paul said that. You must choose one or the other. And I can tell you, if you choose legalism, you're going to be one miserable wretch until the day you die. Paul said in Galatians 2:21, "if you can be saved by what you do, Christ died in vain." Get that in your brain, because that's what it's about. If some group of men can make up a set of rules that guarantee you Heaven, Jesus Christ went to the cross in vain. And Paul attacked legalism with a ruthless writing that just cut it down to the ground. You are not saved by what you do. You are saved because of Who you know, Jesus Christ, the son of the living God.
In the theater of your mind, go with me back 3,000 years ago to Israel. King Saul and Jonathan have just been killed in bloody, hand-to-hand combat on the Hills of Gilboa. The news of their death reaches the capital city of Jerusalem. It was a brutal time in history. It was customary for all of the members of the royal family to be slaughtered: lest, the new king in the future would find a legitimate heir for claiming his throne. When the word reached Jerusalem that Saul and Jonathan had been killed, the nurse of Jonathan's infant son raced into the nursery. She grabbed this baby, Jonathan's baby, and they ran for their lives. She dropped the baby, and the baby was crippled in both of his feet for life. His name is Mephibosheth. A name like that makes you appreciate the name of John or Tom. He failed the third grade trying to spell his name.
Mephibosheth is five years old, and we hear nothing of him in scripture for 20 years, because he flees to Lo Debar, the land of barren pastures. It is a place of desolation. It is a place where many and some of you are living. It is a place where you could hide in seclusion without fear of someone finding you, because Mephibosheth knew that if he was found, it would be considered very kosher for David to kill him. Years passed. One day king David is remembering his dearest friend Jonathan. And he asked the question that shattered the silence of the palace. He said, in 2 Samuel 9:1, "Is there anyone of the house of Saul that I might show them kindness for Jonathan's sake"? It is a majestic statement of God's amazing grace. "Is there anyone..." "Is there anyone..." Not, "Is there someone deserving"? Not, "Is there someone qualified," not, "Is there some brilliant mind that can help me with my political career"? But "Is there anyone..."
This is the question that the church in America needs to ask: "Is there anyone"? Most churches are looking for the right kind of people, the right amount of education, the right doctrine, the right denomination, the right amount of wealth. I want to tell you what we should be looking for. We should be looking for any life that has been shattered. We should be looking for people whose dreams have been crushed. They're hope has been given up. We should be looking for the down and the out, the up and the out, the drug addict, the alcoholic. The prostitute, the poor, the rich, the forsaken. Revelation 22:17, "Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the rivers of life freely," because that's the will of God. God's amazing grace will clean you up and make you a new creature in Christ Jesus. There is a new beginning because God's grace is greater than all of your sin. His grace has no limit. It has no measure.
Again, it's an ocean that has never been charted, because it's beyond the understanding of man. God's amazing grace was on parade. Go with me now, 33 generations into the future from King David when king David's great-great grandson, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, said to a sin-crippled world, "Is there anyone..." It's recorded in the Word of God like this: "Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the rivers of life freely". That was for you. That was for me. He stands here today beside me on this platform saying, "Is there anyone here" Is there anyone with a broken heart? Is there anyone lonely and forsaken? Is there anyone whose dreams have been shattered? Is there anyone whose family is in a time of crisis? Is there anyone whose marriage is dead or dying? Christ and His amazing grace has the answer for you!
Right now, the airwaves are filled with people that say they have the answer. Let me tell you, secular humanists do not have the answer to the crisis of life. They do not have an answer to the chaos in America. Their Philosophy has produced an educational sewer dominated by socialists, racial hatred, anarchy, antisemitism, and absolute rebellion against the authority of God Almighty. Higher education does not have the answer. And believe me: I have plenty to prove it. Education without God only produces an intellectual barbarian. And no one could be more vicious. If you think that's an obscene statement, and if you're a freshman in school, you do: Hitler's Nazis had a Ph.D., and they threw the Jewish children into the ovens alive. They were educated barbarians who had hearts of stone, because they did not know God. Washington, D.C. does not have the answer. Washington, D.C. Is the problem. America is going in the wrong direction. There must be a return to righteousness, or this nation will not endure much longer.
David makes the statement in 2 Samuel 9:1, "Is there anyone of the house of Saul," Saul, who lied about David: Saul, who cheated David: Saul, who hated David: Saul, who tried to murder David: Saul, who chased David across the hills of Israel like a dog would chase a wounded rabbit to kill him! David says, "Is there anyone of the house of Saul"? Is there a Saul in your life? Is there someone in your life who has tried intentionally to hurt you? Here's a verse of scripture that I have a hard time reading myself. Luke 6:32 (1 John 2:15) It says, "If you love only those that love you, the love of the father does not dwell in you," because I can tell you, if someone really, truly hurts me deeply, it takes me a long time to get over it. It does. It does. Eventually I do, but it takes a while.
Grace is loving the unlovable. Grace is showing mercy to the merciless. Grace is being good to people who are totally bad. Grace is forgiving the unforgivable. Does that describe you? Or can you only love people who love you? The world does not care what you know until they know that you care. Does that describe you? The church of Jesus Christ in America is divided into 268 major denominations fighting each other like dogs in a back alley. Where is the grace of God in that? Jesus continued in John 13:34, "Love one another as I have loved you". Jesus loved them unconditionally, and He loved them even to the death! "God is love. And they that have not love, have not God". Grace can conquer racism. Let me get to this issue very clearly. God loves all of us or He loves none of us.
Let's talk about materialism. If you have the wealth to sit in your church in a $2,000 suit, and a young man sits beside you with blue jeans. I started to say, "With holes in them". They cost more now with holes in them. With blue jeans that don't have holes. My generation wouldn't wear those things to a dog fight. You treat him like a prince in Israel, because God loves him as much as He loves you. If you're more proud of your denomination than you are Jesus Christ, you are in religious rebellion against the throne of God. Granting forgiveness without demanding change in conduct makes the grace of God an accomplice to evil. People sin repeatedly and think, "I'm covered by grace". Jesus, when they caught the woman in the act of adultery, by the law of Moses, she should have been stoned. But listen to what he said in John 8:11, "I forgive you, but go and sin no more". Don't you ever do this again. I expect you to change. I expect you to change.
So fast forward to the 21st century. How does that work in a relationship? A husband comes to the wife and said, "Will you forgive me for adultery"? The answer is, "Yes, but I expect you to change. And if you don't change, partner, I'm going to pack your clothes and put them on the front door, and you're gone forever. Good-bye". That's the answer. Back to the story. King David said, "Is there anyone of the house of Saul"? A paper-shuffling bureaucrat, Ziba, stepped out of the shadows of the palace, and said, "There's still a son of Jonathan who is crippled in both his feet". You can hear the sarcasm in his self-righteous self. The implication concerning Mephibosheth, "he really doesn't fit in here. We don't want him around. He's crippled. He's really not the right kind. He's not like the rest of us."
Lurking in the shadows of every church in America are smug, arrogant, self-righteous grace killers, who segregate the King's children, saying, "They really don't fit in here. His doctrine is different from ours". Now let me tell you that if that person believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the cross is the basis of forgiveness, and that the Word of God is the Holy Spirit inspired Word of God, that person is a member of the body of Christ, and that person is your brother or sister in Christ, treat them like a brother and sister in Christ. David said, "Where is he"? He's in Lo Debar. He's in barren pastures.
Many of you here, you're living in Lo Debar, a place of barren pastures. You're marriage is as dead as Julius Caesar. That's really dead. You have no joy. You have no peace. You have no laughter. You have no direction for your life. Your business is bankrupt. Your finances are in shambles. You're humiliated by addictive problems. You're angry because of the rejection of significant people in your past, probably your mother, your father, your spouse. I've got good news for you. King Jesus, just like King David, is searching for you. He's looking for you. He's inviting you to come home so He can give you back everything that you lost in the fall. He's going to give you joy. He's going to give you peace. He's going to give you health. He's going to give you a new home. He's going to give you everything that Heaven has to offer!
See King David's chariot pull up to the shack where Mephibosheth has been living for 20 years. He's afraid he's been discovered. He's afraid he's going to be killed. He's placed in the chariot, and the matching milk-white stallions race toward Jerusalem and king David. And Mephibosheth is certain he's seen the sunrise for the last time. He's escorted into the presence of David and falls flat on his face. And king David said, "Mephibosheth, I'm going to restore to you all that you lost when your father died".
David is sitting in this magnificent banqueting hall. The table is covered with every delicious kind of food you can possibly imagine. The floors are white marble imported into Israel. White columns hold up a 30-foot roof, and they are clustered with blue drapes with gold ropes around the drapes. King David is sitting at the head table. He is at the epidemy of his power. He controls two-thirds of the land grant that God gave to the nation of Israel. Israel now doesn't have a fraction of what David had. To this day, David's reign is called "The golden age of Israel". He has won 18 wars, destroying the enemies of Israel. He is their champion. Then comes in his son, Absalom, with his long, black, raven-black hair, deceitful, miserable wretch. Then comes in Solomon, precocious, brilliant, the heir apparent. Then comes in Tamar. Then comes Joab, the Rambo of Israel, the commander in chief of David's armies.
When they all get in that room, they hear the clump, clump, clump of a wounded man walking down the hall. It's Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth is walking. He said, "wow: this has really been a great day. I started out in a shack in Lo Debar. The King sent a taxi over to pick me up. Now I'm wearing a Hart Schaffner Marx suit. I'm watching Fox News on a spread television. It's really a wonderful life. And now I'm going to go eat. And he goes into the presence of King David, and he sticks his crippled feet under the table. From the waist up, he is perfect. All of his past is invisible. And so it is with you. When you come into the presence of King Jesus, He set a table before you. You can put all of your miserable past out of sight by receiving His infinite grace, because you have been redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ!
I ask as king David asked, is there anyone here, you've been crippled by your past. You've been emotionally poisoned by loneliness, by divorce, your family is divided. Perhaps you're addicted to drugs, alcohol. The King of Glory is saying, "Is there anyone here"? Is there a Saul in your life, someone that has hurt you deeply, a Father who forsook you, a Mother who turned against you, a friend who betrayed you? And you're bitter, too bitter in your soul to enjoy life. You're living in Lo Debar, a place of barren pastures. Your life has no peace. It has no direction. It has no hope. You need God's love and you need God's provision. If any of that relates to you, would you pray this prayer with me.
Heavenly Father, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I ask You to forgive me of all of my sin and I ask You to bring me to the banqueting table of Jesus Christ. Let me place all of my past under the table of His provision, and let me receive the blessings that Jesus Christ made possible by His death and resurrection. From this day forward, I'm going to live with God's amazing grace. I'm going to have a new beginning. My life in the future is going to be lived without limit, because God is with me, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.
