Kindness
The Fruit of the Spirit • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Richard Ezell wrote in a sermon on this very chapter that we read; A king expressed one of the most beautiful acts of kindness to an outcast. For years the half-crazed lunatic Saul had obsessively hunted David like big game. Now that Saul was dead David had been crowned king of Israel. It was common practice in those days to exterminate all members of a previous dynasty to prevent any descendant from seeking the throne. As long as a spark of life from that family still smoldered, it was a threat to the new king. Yet David’s response was quite the contrary. He asked, “Is there anyone remaining from Saul's family I can show kindness to because of Jonathan?" (2 Sam. 9:1).
2 Samuel 9
1 David asked, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's sake?" (1 Samuel 20)
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?"
"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?"
Ziba answered the king, "There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet."
4 "Where is he?" the king asked.
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.
David said, "Mephibosheth!"
"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?"
(What good is a dead dog)
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." (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
11 Then Ziba said to the king, "Your servant will do whatever my lord the king commands his servant to do." So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons. (He became family, Blood.)
12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica, and all the members of Ziba's household were servants of Mephibosheth.
13 And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king's table, and he was crippled in both feet.
NIV
We first hear of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 4:4.
I wonder if Ziba thought in his mind that the king was going to put Mephibosheth to death and he and his family would be free of the house of Saul.
Ziba was an opportunist. We see this in 2 Samuel 16:1-4
Again in 2 Samuel 19:24-30
Richard Ezell told a story that went like this:
My Daddy traveled a lot buying shoes for the shoe store he and mother owned and operated. On some of his overnight trips he would take someone with him for company. Sometimes it was one of us children. Sometimes it was an African-American man named Willie.
On one overnight trip Daddy pulled into a motel to stay the night. Daddy and Willie walked to the front desk and requested a room for the two of them. Looking at Daddy the desk clerk said, “I can give you a room, but I will not give one to him (pointing toward Willie).”
“If he can’t stay then I won’t stay,” answered my father.
They walked out.
Out in the parking lot Willie said, “Mr. Ezell, you can stay in that room and I’ll sleep here in the van. I’ll be alright.”
“No,” replied Daddy. “If they won’t let you stay in that motel, then I won’t stay either. You are like family to me.”
They both slept in the van that night.
At my Daddy’s funeral, Willie related this story to me. He said that my Daddy’s words changed his life. For years he had thought of himself as second class and second rate. But when my Daddy said, “You are like family to me,” it raised his esteem and his dignity.
The fact that David made the first move to rescue Mephibosheth reminds us that it was God who reached out to us and not we who sought Him.
We were estranged from God and enemies of God, yet He loved us and sent His Son to die for us.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8 nkjv).
For David to rescue and restore Mephibosheth cost him only the land of Saul, which he had never paid for to begin with, but for God to restore us and bring us into His family, Jesus had to sacrifice His life.
Our inheritance is much more than a piece of real estate on earth: it’s an eternal home in heaven!
Kindness costs nothing. This fruit again goes back to the first fruit of the spirit, love.
David couldn’t show any love or kindness to Jonathan,
so he looked for one of Jonathan’s relatives to whom he
could express his affection.
This is how it is with God’s children: they are called and saved, not because they deserve anything from God, but for the sake of God’s Son, Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:32).
Eph 4:32
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
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