Pillars of Faith

Be This Way

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: C. A. Murray

Series Code: POF

00:23 It is my privilege to welcome you today
00:26 to a program entitled, Pillars of Faith.
00:30 Pillars of Faith.
00:31 This is a series of programs that we air to give a good
00:37 foundation for life from Scripture.
00:41 And each one of our "Pillars of Faith" programs
00:46 look at various subjects of Scripture that are
00:51 foundational for life.
00:54 And today I am privileged to introduce to you our speaker,
01:00 our own C.A. Murray, Pastor C.A. Murray.
01:03 He is a student of Scripture.
01:06 He has the love of God in his heart.
01:09 He's much loved here at 3ABN, and I know you viewers
01:13 around the world love Pastor Murray as well.
01:19 His series is entitled, Walk This Way.
01:24 Often times life has been described as a journey.
01:29 As we walk along this journey in life, it's important that we
01:35 follow a good map so that we reach the destination
01:40 that we want to achieve at the end of the road.
01:44 And of course, we hope that destination is heaven.
01:48 And there's no better map that I know of than the Word of God.
01:53 And Pastor Murray has developed a wonderful series
01:56 entitled, Walking This Way.
02:00 Part one was, Stay This Way.
02:03 Part two, The Wise Way.
02:06 Part three, Pray This Way.
02:08 And now we are going to hear, as Elder Murray presents,
02:13 Be This Way.
02:16 So I will have a word of prayer, and then I would ask all of you
02:22 to give our own Pastor C.A. Murray your undivided attention.
02:27 Let's bow our heads for prayer.
02:28 Father in heaven, we just thank You so much
02:32 that You loved us enough to not only give Your Son
02:37 and send us the Holy Spirit as we need for a guide,
02:40 but You also left a written Word that we can hold and read
02:45 and use as a map for guiding life.
02:49 Please be with Your manservant Elder Murray
02:53 as he breaks the bread of life to us.
02:55 Give him clarity of thought, give him articulation of tongue,
03:00 and may we listen and take heed to the Word.
03:04 We pray in Jesus name, amen.
03:15 Thank you very much.
03:18 I can call him actually Pastor Brian Hamilton,
03:21 though he is now the CFO here at 3ABN.
03:25 Brian has pastored, and is no mean student of the Word.
03:31 He's a solid content preacher.
03:34 He's stood in this pulpit many times on Sabbath morning
03:37 and delivered the Word with passion and with power.
03:39 And if we are fortunate and blessed, we'll get to hear him
03:44 in a future Pillars of Faith.
03:45 He is a good preacher, and one who divides the Word well.
03:53 Today's message is a little something that I put in
03:56 simply because I wanted to add something to this series
04:01 that pertained to our daily walk,
04:04 to making our Christian walk better.
04:07 So we're taking, dare I say, just a slight left turn,
04:11 but it does fall into the regime that we have established.
04:18 "Stay This Way" was Paul's counsel to the Hebrews...
04:25 Hebrews Christians, I need to say.
04:29 ...who were thinking about returning back to Judaism.
04:33 And Paul in his, dare I say, apologetic, in his commercial,
04:40 in his reciting and reminding the Hebrew Christians
04:46 of the pedigree of Christ, the greatness of Christ,
04:49 the all encompassing uniqueness of Christ,
04:53 was encouraging them throughout the book of Hebrews,
04:57 "Now that you've begun to walk this way,
05:00 stay this way.
05:02 Don't go back into Judaism.
05:04 Don't go back into the old way.
05:06 Even though it's convenient, even though it certainly has
05:10 less trauma and drama than the new Christian faith,
05:13 stay this way.
05:15 Stay with your brothers and sisters."
05:18 And then we talked about the book of John
05:22 in dealing with, The Wise Way.
05:25 And John, in the gospel of Saint John, does almost the same thing
05:32 that Paul is doing to the Hebrew Christians.
05:35 He is giving a, dare I say, commercial for Jesus.
05:43 He is telling them of the excellency of Christ.
05:46 Again, the uniqueness of Christ.
05:49 And we saw in, The Wise Way, the touchless Jesus.
05:53 We saw a Christ whose miracles did not contain any kind of
06:00 physical touch.
06:01 And we said that the reason for the way John
06:06 structured his gospel, the way he viewed Jesus,
06:09 is because John wrote to an audience who lived
06:13 after the death of Christ, who was the second generation
06:17 of Christians towards the end of the first century.
06:20 Didn't know Christ face to face.
06:22 Didn't touch Christ, didn't handle Christ.
06:24 All they had was the testimony of the apostolic fathers
06:28 and the Word.
06:29 And we established that when you've got the Word,
06:32 it's as good as having the presence.
06:35 So those who were with Christ had no advantage over those
06:39 who came a little bit later, because of the
06:41 power of the Word.
06:43 In the beginning was the Word; the Word was with God,
06:45 and the Word came and dwelt among us.
06:47 And so their connection to Christ was the Word.
06:50 And John is saying that that connection is as strong
06:54 as the physical connection.
06:56 And healing can come about through the Word
06:59 just like it can come about through the touch.
07:03 And then we dealt with another aspect of the gospel
07:12 on yesterday's presentation.
07:15 So we see now that in the, staying this way and
07:20 wisdom's way, and those things that Christ has asked
07:25 us to do, we can serve Him faithfully.
07:29 So today we want to look at an aspect of Christian living,
07:33 of Christian growth, of Christian life,
07:38 that I think is important to our Christian living
07:44 and will help us as we walk this road that leads to glory.
07:48 I'm going to ask you to turn with me now
07:50 to the Old Testament.
07:51 2 Samuel 9:3-8
07:57 2 Samuel 9:3-8
08:06 And we will speak with the Lord just once more.
08:11 Father God, we ask You to bless our words
08:16 as we look at a very special aspect of Christian living.
08:21 Would You please give us a complete understanding
08:25 so that we can know and do that which is right.
08:29 We thank You, Father. In Jesus name, amen.
08:40 When we spoke of, Pray This Way, on yesterday,
08:46 our last presentation, we looked at the model prayer.
08:52 And there are aspects of that model prayer that really
08:57 feed into what we are going to talk about today,
09:00 as we looked at Matthew 6 on yesterday.
09:04 But I'm in 2 Samuel 9 beginning at verse 3.
09:09 "Then the king said, 'Is there not still someone
09:13 of the house of Saul to whom I may
09:15 show the kindness of God?'
09:18 And Ziba said to the king, 'There is still a son of
09:22 Jonathan who is lame in his feet.'
09:27 So the king said to him, 'Where is he?'
09:29 And Ziba said to the king, 'Indeed he is in the
09:31 house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Lo Debar.'
09:38 Then King David sent and brought him out of the house
09:41 of Machir the son of Ammiel, from Lo Debar.
09:48 Now when Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan,
09:51 the son of Saul, had come to David, he fell on his face
09:55 and he prostrated himself," the Bible says.
09:59 "Then David said, 'Mephibosheth?'
10:01 And he answered, 'Here is your servant!'
10:03 So David said to him, 'Do not fear, for I will surely show
10:07 you kindness for Jonathan your father's sake,
10:10 and will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather;
10:16 and you shall eat bread at my table continually.'
10:21 Then he bowed himself, and said, "What is your servant,
10:24 that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?'"
10:31 Be this way.
10:35 His name means, exterminator of shame.
10:39 Or in short, idol killer.
10:43 You don't hear many sermons about Mephibosheth.
10:46 And that's possibly because one, the name is rather difficult
10:50 to pronounce, and two, as I learned from the learned editors
10:56 of the Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, who all agree,
11:00 he is possibly the poster child for a life of disaster,
11:08 a life of disappointment.
11:13 He was born into a disgraced family,
11:18 dispossessed, orphaned, crippled as a child.
11:24 Most of his early life and his formative years were spent
11:29 in hiding, in a sort of forced seclusion.
11:37 Always afraid that he would be caught and summarily executed.
11:45 He was placed in, sort of, a witness protection program.
11:50 All of this through no fault of his own.
11:55 Mephibosheth had done nothing wrong.
11:58 His only sin, his only sin, was being born into the
12:03 wrong family at the wrong time.
12:07 Of course, you've heard that you can choose
12:11 your friends, but you don't get to select your family,
12:16 or your relatives, and even sometimes your in-laws.
12:22 When you find someone that you want to love,
12:26 and you say, "I do," that, "I do," includes the in-laws,
12:31 the out-laws, and everybody else connected
12:33 with that person you love.
12:34 And you don't get to choose them.
12:36 They come as part of the package.
12:39 So you don't get to choose your family,
12:42 but you do get to choose your friends.
12:45 And Mephibosheth's only sin was being born,
12:48 wrong family wrong time.
12:52 And then when life and the Lord gives him a break
12:56 and turns his fortunes, he gets lied on and loses it all.
13:04 Anybody ever been lied on?
13:07 Someone just tells a lie that kind of just destroys your life.
13:12 I mean, one of those character assassination kind of lies.
13:16 One of those kind of lies that it's hard to recover from
13:19 and that people tend to want to believe.
13:22 Not just damage or ruin your reputation, but the kind of lie
13:26 that can destroy your livelihood or even your life.
13:28 That's kind of tough.
13:31 Mephibosheth was victimized by such a lie.
13:36 And the truth is, he never fully recovered.
13:42 It's almost as though he was predestined to be the fall guy
13:47 for the sins and machinations and God-cursed conduct
13:52 of so many around him.
13:55 No wonder he doesn't get preached on too much.
14:00 No wonder we don't preach about him too much,
14:03 because on the face of things there is not much good
14:08 to preach about.
14:10 Except one thing.
14:12 One beautiful God-blessed thing
14:15 that we're going to come to a little later,
14:17 which actually is the basis for this entire sermon.
14:22 So let's quickly examine his pedigree.
14:24 Let's take a look and contextualize this man
14:26 with the strange name that means, idol killer,
14:29 or smasher of idols.
14:31 Let's look at his legacy and the legacy that was left to him.
14:34 First of all, he came from and was born into a wealthy family.
14:40 Now most people would say, "So what's wrong with that?"
14:44 He's born into wealth.
14:48 His grandfather was Israel's first king.
14:53 His grandfather was quite rich.
14:56 And those riches passed...
14:58 I'm sorry, his great grandfather was quite rich.
15:01 Those riches passed to his grandfather,
15:04 to his father, and should have passed to him.
15:09 His grandfather, great grandfather,
15:12 was Israel's first king; appointed, anointed,
15:19 against God's will.
15:22 I need to make that point.
15:24 1 Samuel 8
15:26 With the election of Saul, Israel changed from a theocracy,
15:33 a nation ruled by God through priests and judges and prophets,
15:39 to an aristocracy, or even an oligarchy, a nation ruled by
15:45 kings, priests, and prelates.
15:49 The election of Saul, you need to understand,
15:51 was ostensibly a beauty contest.
15:55 With Saul, it was all outside, it was all surface,
16:01 it was all patina, it was all facade.
16:04 it was all veneer, it was all polyurethane coating.
16:08 Inside, the Bible lets us know, as do the sacred writings,
16:12 Saul had no heart.
16:17 In the book, Patriarchs and Prophets,
16:20 we read this about king Saul:
16:23 "The personal qualities of the future monarch
16:26 were such as to gratify that pride of heart
16:32 which prompted the desire for a king."
16:37 So they wanted him to be king.
16:42 And he wanted to be king.
16:45 His own pride drove him to want to be king.
16:52 Reading further, "There was not among the children of Israel
16:56 a more goodlier," goodlier, not godlier,
17:02 "a more goodlier person than Saul."
17:07 Saul was a good-looking guy.
17:14 But the truth is, Saul had no business being king.
17:20 Saul had no business ascending to the throne.
17:26 The truth is, and the Bible brings this out,
17:30 there was nobody better looking than Saul in the entire nation.
17:39 Saul was the best looking guy there.
17:42 Let's go to 1 Samuel 9 and I'll read you verses 1 and 2.
17:46 I'm in 1 Samuel, just go back one book,
17:48 chapter 9 and we'll look at verses 1 and 2.
17:51 This is kind of interesting.
17:53 1 Samuel 9:1-2
17:57 The Bible says, "There was a man of Benjamin
18:00 whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror,
18:06 the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah,
18:10 a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.
18:13 And he had..."
18:15 Now listen to the words that the Bible employs here.
18:17 "And he had a choice and handsome son
18:22 whose name was Saul.
18:25 There was not a more handsome person than he
18:29 among the children of Israel."
18:32 So you get that.
18:34 The Bible is making it plain that Saul was the
18:38 best looking guy in the entire nation.
18:42 Nobody looked better than Saul.
18:43 And you know, when you're the best looking guy in the room,
18:47 that puts a little pressure on you.
18:49 When you walk into the room and everybody's head turns.
18:53 And the women say, "Man, he is good-looking."
18:56 And even the guys say, "Man, he is good-looking."
18:59 He's the best looking guy in the kingdom.
19:03 Tall and devastatingly handsome.
19:07 You know, in our culture, it's interesting because
19:10 people defer to good-looking people.
19:13 In western culture, we equate beauty with honesty.
19:19 Yeah, we do.
19:21 I had the, I was going to say misfortune, but I had the
19:26 chance years ago when I was pastoring,
19:28 a man came to me.
19:30 He was, I think as I recall, 69 or 70.
19:36 Very wealthy.
19:38 And he wanted me to marry a girl who was turning 40.
19:46 I think she was 38 or 39, just sub-forty.
19:48 He's just over 70.
19:51 And I would not do it.
19:54 Because in talking with her and in counseling with them,
19:57 it occurred to me that this may have been a situation
20:00 where she was going after the cash and not the man.
20:03 And so I told him, "I don't think this is a good match.
20:06 And I'm not really comfortable doing this wedding.
20:09 I think she's taking you for a ride."
20:11 And I told him that by himself.
20:13 And he said to me, "Pastor, look at her."
20:17 You see, we equate honesty and beauty.
20:24 Beautiful people never tell a lie.
20:26 Beautiful people are never evil or do wrong things.
20:31 And Saul is the best looking guy in the entire kingdom.
20:34 He's the most handsome guy in the entire kingdom.
20:36 And look what else the Bible says.
20:37 I'm in verse 2.
20:41 The Bible says, "From his shoulders upward
20:43 he was taller than any of the people."
20:45 So not only is he the best looking guy in all of Israel,
20:49 he's the tallest guy in all of Israel.
20:51 Nobody comes up taller than his shoulder.
20:53 So he's gorgeous to look at, he's taller than everybody else.
20:59 And he is a person who, when the people saw him,
21:06 they said, "This guy has got to be the king
21:10 because nobody looks as good as he does.
21:12 Nobody is as tall as he is.
21:14 He's got to be the leader."
21:16 Tall and devastatingly handsome.
21:18 But look at this, Patriarchs and Prophets, page 608.
21:21 "Of noble and dignified bearing, in the prime of life,
21:25 comely and tall, he appeared like one born to command."
21:30 So when they saw Saul, and they thought of who a king should be,
21:37 the women said, "Anybody that looks that good
21:40 has got to be the king.
21:42 Look at him.
21:44 Taller than everybody else.
21:46 He's better looking than anybody else.
21:47 We want him to rule over us."
21:50 But let's finish what it says here.
21:52 It says, "Yet with these external attractions,
21:56 Saul was destitute..."
21:59 Now what does destitute mean?
22:01 Totally devoid of.
22:03 "Saul was destitute of those higher qualities
22:08 that constitute true wisdom."
22:13 In other words, Saul's only qualifications to be the king
22:19 of Israel was that he was tall and good-looking.
22:23 But he didn't have any of the qualities
22:26 that make for a good king.
22:28 He was just, as we like to say today, eye candy.
22:32 Looked good, but inside he had no heart.
22:36 And that's not enough.
22:38 Let's look at the last line in this little reading from
22:41 the book, Patriarchs and Prophets.
22:43 "Saul had not learned in his youth to control his rash,
22:50 impetuous passions; he had never felt the renewing
22:56 power of divine grace."
23:00 So, this is the guy we're going to make king.
23:06 He's better looking than everybody else.
23:09 He's taller than everybody else.
23:12 But he lacks self-discipline.
23:17 He doesn't have self-control.
23:22 And he's never had a relationship with God.
23:28 And this is the guy you're going to make the king?
23:34 He has the power as king to control you,
23:38 yet he doesn't have the power to control himself.
23:43 He can run your life, but he cannot run his own.
23:50 And worse than that, the guy has got no God in him.
23:57 So we're going to make him the king simply because
23:59 he's taller than everybody else
24:02 and he's better looking than everybody else.
24:05 But those qualities which make for a good ruler;
24:09 compassion, self-control, empathy, caring,
24:13 and a love for God, he doesn't have any of that.
24:18 This is the guy we're going to make king.
24:23 Wealthy, self-indulgent, from the tribe of Benjamin,
24:29 a big fish in a small pond.
24:32 That is why when Saul was finally dispatched
24:39 and they were looking for a second king,
24:44 the Bible makes it plain, "Man looks on the outward appearance,
24:50 but God looks on the heart."
24:52 You can't go with it because it's tall and handsome
24:55 and looks good.
24:57 You've got to see what's inside.
24:59 You've got to see what's in the heart.
25:03 Let me just take a quick left turn and say this too:
25:05 When you look at the life of Saul and the life of David,
25:08 if you look at the list of sins, the truth is
25:11 David's list of sins far exceeds and is much longer than Saul's.
25:16 And I've wrestled with that for many years.
25:18 How come Saul got rejected so easily...
25:22 I shouldn't say so easily, but.
25:24 ...after what seems like a short list of sins,
25:26 and David, who murdered and caballed and slept with
25:31 someone's wife, and fathered a child,
25:33 and went on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on,
25:36 and God seemed to live with him for so long.
25:38 I think maybe we get a little clue here.
25:42 David knew God.
25:44 When David was out in the field with Goliath,
25:46 slaying bears and slaying lions, David knew God.
25:52 We find here Saul never knew God.
25:57 Never had a relationship with God.
25:59 There was nothing in the bank for Saul.
26:01 And so when Saul went off the tracks, he went off far.
26:04 He didn't take blame for his own sins.
26:08 At least David, when he sinned, said, "Lord, if You've got to
26:11 spank me, count to ten before you do it.
26:13 But I have sinned and I have sinned against You."
26:16 Saul never took blame for his sins.
26:19 And so the prophet Samuel leaves Saul.
26:24 And you know the story.
26:26 He never speaks to Saul again.
26:29 And then after Samuel dies, Saul decides he needs
26:33 to talk with him.
26:34 And what does he do?
26:36 He breaks another command of God and goes to a witch.
26:38 And the witch comes up in the form of Saul,
26:41 and even the witch tells him, "You and your family
26:45 are going to die."
26:49 Then Samuel dies, Saul is left alone.
26:54 And one day it all comes true.
27:00 I need to say here that Saul has a son by the name of Jonathan.
27:07 Jonathan loves David, and David loves Jonathan.
27:09 They are two individuals who are knit together.
27:12 Just two guys who liked each other, who loved each other,
27:15 the Bible says.
27:18 Israel is fighting Philistia at Gilboa.
27:21 The Philistines kill Jonathan, his brother Abinadab,
27:26 his other brother Malchishua.
27:29 Saul is hit by an arrow.
27:31 And in chapter 31:6,
27:36 he asked for his armor bearer to kill him.
27:39 The armor bearer is not going to kill the king,
27:40 even at the kings request.
27:43 And so Saul commits suicide and dies in disgrace.
27:48 His army is destroyed, Israel is humiliated,
27:53 and Jonathan's son's nurse panics on that day.
27:56 And this is what is interesting.
27:57 Johnathan's son's nurse hears what happens
28:01 at Gilboa, she panics, and in 2 Samuel 4:4,
28:07 when she hears of the death of Jonathan and Saul
28:10 she grabs the little boy and runs in terror
28:14 and drops him, and he becomes a cripple from that time on.
28:23 So little Mephibosheth never really has a chance in life.
28:28 On the day that his dad is killed
28:31 his two uncles are killed, his grandfather is killed,
28:36 his nurse makes him a cripple when she drops him
28:40 and fractures both of his ankles.
28:42 There's some indication that he still could walk,
28:46 but he walked very ungainly and was crippled
28:50 for the rest of his life.
28:52 Now war breaks out between Saul's family
28:54 and David's family.
28:55 And this is the way it is in ancient days.
28:58 Once a new king comes in, then everybody in the old family
29:01 gets exterminated or war breaks out.
29:04 And Abner, Saul's general kills Asahel.
29:08 Joab and Abishai, David's general, kills Abner.
29:12 And there is this systematic extermination of the family.
29:15 And as David's house gets stronger,
29:17 Saul's house is getting exterminated and getting weaker.
29:21 And Mephibosheth is taken into hiding, a self-imposed exile,
29:26 for a full generation.
29:29 In fact, he is so far off the radar, so far off the charts,
29:33 that when David finally finished all of his wars
29:36 he remembers a promise that he made to Jonathan
29:39 who he loves.
29:41 He said to Jonathan, "When I become king,
29:45 I will do something for your house.
29:48 I'm not going to take out on you the bad things your father
29:52 Saul did to me.
29:54 But I will do something for your house
29:58 because of our relationship together."
30:01 Here's where the story picks up in 2 Samuel 9:1.
30:06 2 Samuel 9:1
30:08 This is where the story picks up
30:11 in the Scripture lesson that we read.
30:16 And the thread is not long.
30:17 David had promised Jonathan that even though there was enmity,
30:22 he was going to do something for his house and for his lineage.
30:25 It took a full generation, 20 years plus,
30:28 to fulfill that oath.
30:31 But there had been so much time and so much killing
30:35 and so much hatred between the two houses,
30:38 the house of David and the house of Saul,
30:42 nobody even knew if anyone was left from Saul's family.
30:48 So when David asked, he is informed by Ziba
30:53 that there is a life-long crippled son of Jonathan
30:57 by the name of Mephibosheth.
31:01 And we see in the book, Patriarchs and Prophets,
31:03 written by Ellen White that Mephibosheth had been trained
31:07 and taught those long years of hiding to blame,
31:12 distrust, and hate David.
31:14 So when he is brought before David,
31:16 you see why the Bible says he came in trembling.
31:19 Because he's assuming that David has discovered him
31:22 and is going to finish exterminating the house of Saul
31:25 because he was the last one left.
31:28 But no, David told him not to fear.
31:32 "I'm not going to take your life.
31:35 I'm going to give you back all of the land that your
31:38 grandfather had, and I'm going to restore you,
31:44 and I'm going to let you eat at my table every day."
31:48 Now that term can be taken a couple of ways.
31:51 One, "I will set a place for you at my table."
31:54 The other is, "I will provide to make sure you have
31:58 food at your table from my table every single day."
32:01 In other words, it meant a full acceptance and restoration
32:06 of Mephibosheth.
32:07 When you ate at someone's table, when you are invited
32:10 to eat at someone's table in Bible times,
32:12 that was full acceptance of who you are, and what you are,
32:16 and what you're all about.
32:18 And so David was saying, "I'm saying you're now part
32:22 of my family because of my love for your father."
32:29 Then we see the expression of Mephibosheth
32:31 who, in shock, says, "What are you doing
32:41 that you should look upon such a dead dog as I?"
32:47 We could write a whole sermon, preach a whole sermon,
32:49 on the term, "dead dog."
32:52 There aren't many stronger terms of disrespect and disregard
32:56 in the Old Testament than dead dog.
32:59 It's a totally self-deprecating term.
33:02 When you use that term, you're really saying,
33:05 "I am nothing. I am less than nothing."
33:08 You recall when David fought Goliath,
33:10 and Goliath was so upset that he, this giant champion,
33:14 would be asked to fight this little stripling boy,
33:17 he said, "Am I a dog?
33:20 You're going to send this little kid out here to fight me?"
33:24 When Abner slept with Rizpah, Saul's concubine,
33:29 Ishbosheth accosted him on that, and he said,
33:35 "Am I your dog that you would talk to me like that?"
33:39 So though the term doesn't have that kind of strong connotation
33:42 in our day, back in Bible days when you used, "dog,"
33:47 or, "Am I a dog," or, "This person is a dog,"
33:51 you're really using strong language.
33:54 "Am I a dog," is a term of total disrespect and total disdain.
34:00 So when Mephibosheth says that, "You would have compassion on
34:05 a dead dog such as I," he is humbling himself
34:11 in the strongest way before David, and saying,
34:15 "I'm just like nothing.
34:16 I'm nothing.
34:21 And I'm humbled and shocked that you would do this thing for me."
34:28 And from that time on, his life changed.
34:32 The key that I want to wrestle with in the last
34:36 little bit that is here before us was the gratitude.
34:42 When we talk about, be this way,
34:47 the way I want you to be is gracious
34:52 and have gratitude for God.
34:56 Gratitude is a life-changing quality.
35:00 And I believe that this little story is put here
35:06 for two reasons.
35:07 One, it shows the love of two men and how one kept
35:13 his promise to the other.
35:16 But it's also there because of the gratitude of Mephibosheth.
35:22 It's mentioned because even in the face of
35:26 systematic ingratitude and injustice,
35:29 the story within the story is the gratitude of Mephibosheth.
35:38 Here is Ellen White's closing line on Mephibosheth.
35:44 "He became strongly attached to David, and like his father
35:48 Jonathan, he felt that his interests were one with the
35:52 king whom God had chosen."
35:55 In other words, his heart went out to the man
35:59 who he thought all of those years was going to kill him.
36:03 And it was his gratitude that bound up his life with David.
36:10 Now that's important in these last days,
36:12 because the opposite of gratitude, I think,
36:15 is entitlement.
36:17 The idea that you deserve something.
36:19 And you hear about that so much today.
36:22 But gratitude ought to mark and earmark the life of a Christian.
36:31 The necessity of gratitude is part of the Christian life.
36:36 To be grateful for the things that God has given us.
36:41 Gratitude makes our life happier,
36:45 makes our life sweeter,
36:48 makes our walk with the Lord so much better.
36:52 But I want to touch on gratitude.
36:53 Or perhaps ingratitude may be better.
36:57 Isn't it interesting that most of the counsel on gratitude,
37:02 or ingratitude, is found in four books of what we call,
37:06 the spirit of prophecy.
37:07 Testimonies for the Church, Testimonies to Ministers,
37:11 Messages to Young People, Ministry of Healing.
37:16 There is an intimate and intricate connection
37:21 between gratitude to God and mental health, we are told.
37:27 That when we express gratitude for the blessings that we have
37:34 and show appreciation of the attentions that we receive from
37:38 God, it keeps the heart full of the precious promises of God.
37:44 Now that's in the book, volume 5, Testimonies.
37:45 In other words, when you show gratitude for what God has done
37:50 for you, with you, to you, through you,
37:52 it makes you a better person to be around,
37:56 it makes your heart lighter, it makes your mind sharper,
38:01 it makes you happier, and it brings you closer to God.
38:06 In the book, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing,
38:08 another great book, page 84, Ellen White talks about
38:11 Christ's sermon on the mount,
38:13 she writes this, "God watches for some return
38:19 of gratitude from us, as a mother watches for the smile
38:26 of recognition from her beloved child."
38:28 You know, when babies are born, the things we go through
38:32 to try to make them smile.
38:34 You know, we just...
38:37 All the kind of things we do to make the child smile.
38:39 And when you get a little smile, oh your world is just perfect.
38:43 And then you want to do it again.
38:44 You want to have the baby smile again.
38:46 And you see, grown people act like children
38:50 trying to get children to smile.
38:52 Well that's what Ellen White is alluding to here.
38:54 She is saying that God is watching us to look for
39:00 a return of gratitude on the blessings that He's given us.
39:07 Now you may be selfish and prideful to say,
39:13 "God hasn't done anything for me."
39:15 The fact that you can speak
39:18 means He's done something for you.
39:20 The fact that you are bold enough to make such a
39:22 foolish statement means He's blessing you.
39:25 So God is saying, "I'm looking for a return...
39:29 I'm not asking for your money.
39:31 I'm not asking you to swim the deepest river.
39:34 I'm not asking you to climb the highest mountain.
39:36 I'm not asking you to cross the deepest sea or widest ocean.
39:41 I'm just saying, be thankful for what God has given you.
39:47 I'm just saying, show a little gratitude
39:50 for the blessings that you have."
39:52 And if you do not say, "Thank you," for what you've got,
39:57 why would God give you anything more?
40:05 Just be thankful.
40:08 "He," that is God, "would have us understand
40:11 how earnestly and tenderly His heart yearns over us.
40:17 He invites us to take our trials to His sympathy,
40:21 our sorrows to His love, our weakness to His strength,
40:26 our emptiness to His fullness.
40:30 Never has one been disappointed who came unto Him in sincerity."
40:36 Now that's something to be grateful for.
40:38 When you don't have anything, He's got everything.
40:41 When you don't have any friends, He'll be your best Friend.
40:44 When all you've got is sorrow, He'll give you joy.
40:47 When all you've got is weakness, He'll give you strength.
40:49 When you're empty, He can make you full.
40:52 For those things, we ought to be grateful.
40:57 The result of fellowship with gratitude to God
41:02 will increase our piety, our purity, and our fervor.
41:09 So in other words, fellowship with God through gratitude
41:14 will make you more pious.
41:15 What is pious?
41:17 Piety is sincerity and fervor in which you do the things of God.
41:23 That's piety.
41:24 That's the sincerity that you approach the things
41:27 that God has asked you to do.
41:29 Purity.
41:31 That means the things that you do are motivated
41:36 by unadulterated motives.
41:40 You're not suppose to use the answer in the question.
41:44 So the things that you do are...
41:50 I want to say motivated.
41:51 But they are a force that drives what you do for God.
41:57 It comes from unadulterated motives.
41:59 In other words, you're not going to serve God
42:01 because you're trying to get something from Him.
42:04 You're not going to pay your tithe because
42:06 you want Him to bless you.
42:08 You're going to pay your tithe because He loves you
42:10 and you love Him, and that's what He's asked of you.
42:13 It just so happens when you pay your tithe,
42:15 God says, "I'll pour you out a blessing."
42:17 But your motives are pure.
42:19 You do something not to get something.
42:22 You do something because that's what love does.
42:24 So your piety is increased, your purity is increased,
42:29 and your fervor is increased.
42:30 Now fervor is the energy that you put
42:34 into anything God asks you to do.
42:36 You can be a reluctant Christian,
42:38 you can be a reluctant servant,
42:39 or you can be an energetic servant.
42:42 And when you show gratitude to God, your piety increases,
42:48 your purity increases, your fervor increases.
42:52 So your Christian walk will get better if you be this way;
42:59 if you are a gracious person, as Mephibosheth was.
43:05 I'm in fifth volume, Testimonies, page 315.
43:11 "How often those who are in health forget the wonderful
43:14 mercies that are continued to them day by day,
43:18 year after year.
43:19 They render no tribute of praise to God for all His benefits.
43:26 But when sickness comes, God is remembered."
43:31 Is that not so?
43:33 "The strong desire for recovery leads to earnest prayer,
43:37 and this is right."
43:38 So we're told that when you pray earnestly to get well,
43:41 there's nothing wrong with that.
43:43 "For He is our refuge in sickness and in health.
43:46 But many do not leave their cases with Him;
43:50 they encourage weakness and disease
43:54 by worrying and complaining."
43:56 You need to thank God. And it is tough.
43:59 It's tough when you're sick to think about when you were well.
44:06 Because you just want to get rid of that sickness.
44:09 But we are being told here that if we are as gracious to God,
44:15 if we show as much gratitude in sickness as we do in health,
44:19 God will actually work through to make us well again.
44:24 And even while we are sick, having gratitude
44:29 helps us deal successfully with the sickness.
44:33 Now you can shake your fist at God and say,
44:35 "This is all Your fault," or you can look back on the
44:38 times when you were well and say, "God, I thank You
44:40 for those good days, and I pray that You will restore them."
44:43 And being gracious, having gratitude, will help your
44:47 mental faculties even while your body is suffering.
44:50 And that's what we're trying to get through here.
44:52 That gratitude helps you wrestle successfully
44:56 with the issues of life.
44:57 And don't always be looking on everybody else's plate.
45:00 Be gracious and thankful for what you have.
45:03 I always see people, you know, looking on other people's plate.
45:06 Don't worry about their plate.
45:08 You don't know what comes with that plate.
45:11 You don't really know what comes with that plate.
45:13 Just be gracious and thankful to God for what God has given you.
45:18 And that will open the door for God to give you more.
45:23 She says, " If they would cease repining
45:26 and rise above depression and gloom,
45:29 their recovery would be much more and would be sure.
45:35 They should remember with gratitude how long
45:38 they enjoyed the blessing of health;
45:39 and should this precious boon be restored,
45:42 they should not forget that they are under renewed
45:45 obligations to their Creator to show Him gratitude.
45:51 When the ten lepers were healed, only one returned
45:57 to find Jesus to thank Him and to give Him glory."
46:03 Let us not be like the unthinking, ungrateful nine,
46:09 whose hearts were untouched by the mercy of God."
46:12 You don't want to be like that.
46:14 When God does something good for you,
46:16 show a little gratitude.
46:18 And it's not always just cash.
46:21 People tend to say, "Oh, the Lord blessed me.
46:22 I won the lottery."
46:24 "Our Lord blessed me. I got some money."
46:25 "Our Lord blessed me. I found..."
46:28 You know, there are blessings in being able to
46:32 sleep at night when you go to bed.
46:34 There are blessings in having a good friend to talk to
46:36 when you've got troubles.
46:38 There are blessings being a part of a church that
46:40 tells the truth and knows the truth.
46:42 There are blessings that come that you cannot quantify,
46:48 and yet they make the quality of our Christian life
46:51 so much better.
46:53 Colossians 3:15, let me just slip that in.
46:56 "When you open your eyes in the morning,
47:00 thank God that He has kept you through the night."
47:03 Thank Him. Show Him a little gratitude.
47:05 "Thank Him for His peace in your heart.
47:08 Morning, noon, and night let gratitude as a sweet perfume
47:12 ascend to heaven.
47:15 Why is our gratitude so limited?" Ellen White asks.
47:20 "It is only a ripple on the surface compared with the great
47:25 tide of love given to us by God that flows to us
47:31 from the Father."
47:33 The spirit of gratitude promotes health.
47:36 So if you want to be healthier, particularly mental health,
47:40 be thankful for what you've got.
47:44 "All true religion..."
47:47 Fourth volume of the Testimonies, page 223.
47:52 "All true religion is filled with gratitude."
48:02 In the fifth volume of the Testimonies, page 474,
48:05 "Christ is abused by the ingratitude of His people."
48:14 "Satan reproaches Christ," Christ's Object Lessons,
48:17 page 168, "because of our ingratitude."
48:20 Satan says, "Listen, You're blessing them,
48:22 You're saving them, You're taking care of them,
48:23 You're doing all this stuff, and nobody even says, 'Thank You.'
48:27 You ought to just quit and then see what happens to them."
48:30 Satan would like that.
48:31 But God loves us too much.
48:34 Messages to Young People, Ellen Whites says we are stupid.
48:40 Now you're saying, "Ellen White wouldn't say a word like that.
48:44 She wouldn't call us stupid.
48:47 The messenger of the Lord would never use the word, 'stupid.'"
48:50 Well, oh yes, she would.
48:53 She would use that word. In fact, she did.
48:56 I'm in, Messages to Young People, page 365.
49:02 "He," that is God, "has implanted in the hearts
49:05 of His children," that's you and me, "the love of the beautiful."
49:10 Beautiful sunsets, beautiful flowers,
49:13 beautiful people, beautiful situations,
49:15 beautiful mountains.
49:17 "But by many this love has been perverted.
49:22 The benefits and beauties which God has bestowed upon us
49:27 have been worshiped, while the glorious Giver
49:31 has been forgotten."
49:33 So rather than thanking God and being grateful to God
49:37 for giving us these things, we turn our attention
49:41 and worship the things and not the Person who made those things
49:46 or who gave us things.
49:50 Now comes the quote.
49:52 Messages to Young People, page 365,
49:57 "This" she says...
49:59 That's giving praise to the thing and not the Giver.
50:03 "This is stupid ingratitude."
50:08 Message to Young People, 365, "This is stupid ingratitude."
50:16 And if you are unthankful or ungrateful for what you have,
50:23 why would God undertake to give you anything more?
50:29 If you cannot thank Him for what you have,
50:32 be it little or great, why would you deserve more
50:38 if you're not thankful for what you've got?
50:42 Hebrews 13:5
50:44 "Conduct yourself without covetousness;
50:47 be content with such things as you have.
50:54 For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you
50:59 nor forsake you.'"
51:01 Isn't that something to be grateful for?
51:06 It's repeating an Old Testament proverb
51:08 found in Joshua 1:9.
51:13 "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
51:16 The fact, the very fact, that you've got a God
51:20 who has promised to stand by your side,
51:22 to stick with you through thick or thin,
51:24 is something to praise God for, and to be thankful for,
51:29 and to be grateful for.
51:34 I'm in the fifth volume of the Testimonies, page 640
51:38 Ingratitude, we read, oppresses the soul
51:42 and separates us from God.
51:46 That's a dangerous position to be in,
51:49 to be separated from God.
51:52 Simply because you're not grateful.
51:54 Simply because you won't show gratitude for what you have.
51:57 And as I said before, don't compare yourself with others.
52:01 We all need pride.
52:03 Pride is the kind of thing that makes you brush your teeth
52:06 and comb your hair in the morning before you go to work
52:08 or come to church.
52:09 That's pride.
52:11 Pride makes you look at yourself in the mirror
52:13 to make sure your clothes are on straight.
52:15 That's pride.
52:17 Nothing wrong with that kind of pride.
52:19 The problem is when pride becomes proud.
52:23 And how does pride become proud?
52:26 When you compare what you are, what you have,
52:31 with somebody else.
52:33 That's when you become proud.
52:35 That's when pride, which is good,
52:36 becomes proud, which ain't.
52:39 Because the only person you're supposed to compare
52:40 yourself with is Jesus.
52:43 Because when I compare myself with anybody else
52:45 on planet earth, I'm going to find a way to come out
52:48 looking better, smelling better, thinking better,
52:50 singing better, talking better.
52:52 Somehow I'm going to say, "Well, he's better looking than me,
52:56 but I've got more money."
52:59 Or, "He's got more education than me,
53:02 but I have more common sense than him."
53:04 You know, when you compare yourself with other people,
53:06 you're always going to come out some way,
53:08 you're going to find some way to justify who you are.
53:10 Until you compare yourself with Jesus.
53:16 No way you're going to come out of that equation
53:18 looking good and smelling good.
53:20 What you come out with is a realization of precisely
53:26 who you are.
53:29 You realize you've got nothing to be proud about.
53:32 And your only pride is in the fact that Jesus loves you
53:36 and died to save you.
53:39 So ingratitude oppresses the soul and separates us from God.
53:42 5T, 640.
53:44 Cherishing ingratitude puts your salvation in peril.
53:47 And that's one you ought to underline.
53:50 Cherishing ingratitude puts your salvation in peril.
53:55 Because it makes you disrespect the God who saves you.
54:00 Cherishing ingratitude puts your salvation at risk.
54:06 Well we can be lost...
54:10 ...we can be lost...
54:13 ...for being ungrateful.
54:19 Let me close with this story.
54:21 I, years ago, had a chance to go to Uganda
54:28 and cross into Kenya on a mission for 3ABN.
54:32 We had a new radio station that was being produced.
54:35 One in Uganda and one at the conference office
54:38 in Kisii, Kenya.
54:43 I found out that on the African continent, they have
54:46 a nut, they call it a berry, but it's really a nut
54:51 because it's quite hard, called the taste berry.
54:57 When you chew this nut, you don't swallow it.
55:00 You just put it in your mouth and you chew it.
55:02 You crunch it and just chew it.
55:04 Chew it for about five minutes.
55:09 For the next hour or so, everything you eat tastes sweet.
55:18 Now the nut itself does not taste sweet.
55:21 It's the effect that it has on your taste buds.
55:26 So they call it the taste berry.
55:28 Because I mean, you can eat bitter roots, herbs,
55:32 take foul tasting medicine.
55:34 Anything you eat after chewing this nut tastes sweet.
55:39 And the effect lasts for quite a little time.
55:43 So young children who have...
55:45 Well they don't let children take it too young
55:47 because it does have some little side effects.
55:50 You don't want kids tasting that thing because
55:52 it has a little caffeine in it.
55:53 But evidently everything that adults take, medicine,
55:57 anything else, after chewing this thing, it taste sweet.
56:01 It occurs to me that gratitude is the Christian's taste berry.
56:10 If you are in right relationship with Jesus,
56:15 if your heart is open to the things of God,
56:18 if you see the things of God in the right perspective
56:22 and are grateful for what God is doing for you, with you,
56:26 to you, through you, you will find that even life's most
56:32 bitter experiences can taste sweet.
56:37 That something good can come out of it.
56:40 That those things which would break a lesser person
56:44 makes you stronger because of the gratitude you have
56:49 for the God who sees you through.
56:51 There's no promise in heaven or on earth
56:54 that everything is going to be hunky-dory and pain-free.
56:59 In fact, the Bible says, "In the world you shall have
57:01 tribulation, but be of good cheer; I've overcome."
57:04 That's John 16:33.
57:07 You're going to have tribulation.
57:09 But be of good cheer.
57:11 Be gracious, have gratitude.
57:14 Because even with the tribulation,
57:16 you've got a promise that Jesus has overcome the world.
57:22 And you can overcome even as He has overcome.
57:27 That, brothers and sisters, is our taste berry.

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Revised 2016-12-07