Carried to The Table Part 2
2 Samuel 9:13
This is a Part 2 message to last week’s story of our “Forever Friend” – Mephibosheth. That’s why I gave it the same name (to keep them connected). If you weren’t here please watch or listen to Part 1 (last week). Get the CCN phone app in your app store. This Part 2 message is about Living at the Table of the Lord.
I had to do a Part 2 to last week’s message because the truths illustrated in the life of Mephibosheth are just too big and too life changing to walk away from without talking about the “now what.”
So today is about the now what? Maybe you recognized last week that Mephibosheth was a picture of you. That the Lord has sent for you from your own barren and desolate place and he has “carried you to his table.” I pray you have recognized that and I pray you have allowed the Lord to make a place for you at his table. The question today is “Now what?”
After all we learned about Mephibosheth last week, the very last verse we read is the one that moves me the most.
2 Samuel 9:13 ESV
13 So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.
I don’t mean to make us all start crying again, but this is where the “now what” begins. Jerusalem is the City of God and Mephibosheth is there! He is as far away as he can get from that barren and lonely place he was carried from. But now, there’s just one word we’ve got to focus on in order to begin to understand the now what.
It’s the word… ALWAYS. “he ate always at the king’s table”
Mephibosheth was always at the King’s table.
He was always in the King’s presence.
He was communing with the King… daily.
And… (here in verse 13) we are reminded again the Mephibosheth was still LAME in both his feet. But… maybe that is what kept him always at the King’s table. Maybe… Mephibosheth ultimately saw his difficulty in life as the thing that kept him close to the King. Maybe it was the difficulty in his life that kept him daily communing with the King.
And maybe… if we can grasp that, then we may begin to see a great good that God wants to bring out of our own difficulties.
Last week, after the service, I had a good friend ask me “How do I stay at the Lord’s table… I’ve come to the table of the Lord. I’ve experienced his salvation – his mercy – and his grace. But… I fade away, or I’m drawn away or I drift away and I have to always fight to come back to the Table of the Lord.”
And he’s right, we do.
And certainly, there is a part of that that is our need to always be crucifying our flesh nature so that we can stay in communion with the Lord.
But I wonder if it isn’t partly because when we received Jesus as our Savior – that maybe it wasn’t made clear to us that our salvation is a forever abiding in the presence of the Lord.
Let’s look at this. If you want to follow me through this, turn over to John 14.
In John 14 when Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, he said in John 14:3,
John 14:3 (NLT)
3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Isn’t that what the King said to Mephibosheth? “you will always eat (commune) with me at my table” and here Jesus says I am preparing a place for you to always be with me.
Then, a little further down in John 14.
John 14:15–16 (NLT)
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.
That’s the Holy Spirit whose role in the Trinity is to literally be “GOD WITH US” always. Jesus has made a place for us to always be with him and he has given the Holy Spirit to always be with us.
Then in John 14:23,
John 14:23 (NLT)
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.
This is God making a permanent dwelling place – in us. This is God abiding with us always until we get to that eternal place where we will abide with him – for eternity.
Do you get the idea that our relationship with the Lord is one of:
Always - ABIDING,
Always - COMMUNING,
Always - Being in the PRESENCE of the Lord?
And do you see why the picture of Mephibosheth always eating at the Table of the King is such an important picture for us to grasp?
Guys, please hear me. Our salvation is a forever abiding in the Presence of the Lord and maybe our culture’s “approach” to salvation doesn’t make that clear enough.
The Table of the Lord is not a quick stop at a fast food window.
“QWHE QWHE . . . Welcome to Heaven, what can I get you today?”
“Eh, yeah, can I get a Double-Double Salvation with Cheese and an Extra-Large Side of Forgiveness with that. Oh, and a Diet Coke – so I can look good when I get up there.”
I don’t mean to poke fun at our culture’s “style of salvation.” I’m just saying when God carries you from LO-DEBAR – when God carries you from that barren and desolate place in your life and he pours out upon you his mercy and his grace and he seats you at his table, not as a guest, but as a son or daughter of the King – when God does that, he does it for always.
He does it so that you can always be with him and so that he can always be with you. This is what the Bible calls abiding in Christ. It is an “always there” – “always communing” relationship with Jesus Christ.
And maybe in our desire to get people save, may we haven’t made it clear that Jesus doesn’t really offer a fast-food order of salvation. The only salvation the Bible really offers is the “always communing at the Table of the Lord” salvation.
A salvation that is the beginning (literally) of an eternity of always abiding with God and always being in communion with him.
So. there is only one Salvation. There is only one type of Salvation. What we see is a “continuing call” from Jesus himself as people go from being unbelievers to being Christ-followers.
To unbelievers the call that Jesus made most often was follow me or come to me. But to believers the call that Jesus made most often was abide in me or remain in me.
That does NOT mean there are two type of salvation or two choices of salvation. It means one leads to the other. It means the call to come to Jesus (to follow him) leads to the call to abide in him (remain in him).
It means when he carries you to the table to commune with him there that you learn to abide there, to remain there. It means, as we grow in him, we learn to always be communing with him at the Table of the Lord.
Just look down at John Chapter 15 from verse 1 to verse 11. It is the abide section of John 15. (We have a ten-message series done on these verses. You can get that series on the Word By Mail phone app or through the Calvary Chapel Nuevo phone app.)
But for today, I just want to look at verses 4 and 5. Starting with John 15:4.
John 15:4 (NLT)
4 Remain (abide) in me, and I will remain (abide) in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain (abide) in me.
Listen to that again from the Amplified Bible.
John 15:4 (AMP)
4 Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.
There’s the word dwell. Live in me. Not just when you’re having a hard time. Not just when you need a life preserver thrown to you. Live every breath, every moment Live in me.
The word abiding in means “being vitally united to” – vitally united to Christ. This is inseparable. Vital is a word of a life source. This is your life source, to be united to Christ.
The phrase vitally united to is a definition that is put in there to amplify the Greek word for “abide” being vitally united to Christ, comes from always communing with him at his table. What does it mean “being vitally united to” Jesus Christ? The best definition of “abiding” I have seen is “a continuous living in union with Jesus Christ” … that is being always at the Table of the Lord.
Abiding in Christ is living in constant union with him and in constant communion with him. And listen please, this is what causes the life and the power of Jesus Christ to flow through you. This is what causes you to thrive in your life with Christ.
Abiding always at the Table of the Lord – always communing with the King – is the conduit by which God continually pours the power of the Holy Spirit into your life.
And that abiding always at the Table of the Lord is where our lives thrive as the life of Jesus Christ is poured into our lives in a constant communion with him.
Look at John 15:5.
John 15:5 (NLT)
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain (abide) in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
We can paraphrase that verse: “Whoever abides in a vital union with me, will THRIVE in life”
It is this always remaining in communion with the Lord that brings true transformation into our lives.
It is this “always being” at the Table of the Lord that gives us strength we need for each day, that gives us the peace that passes understanding and this is what gives us true joy.
Look down at John 15:11. This is the last verse of the ABIDE teaching.
John 15:11 (NLT)
11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
At the end of this critical section on the vital importance of abiding (remaining) in constant communion with the Lord.
Jesus says, I’m Calling you to ABIDE in me (to always be at my table) - SO THAT you will be filled with My joy and SO THAT Your joy will overflow!
Remember, the second fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22 after love – is joy!!
And joy is the by-product of living life in communion with God.
True joy is the by-product of always being at the Table of the Lord and of always sharing life with him – at his table. At the Table of the Lord you pour out all of your burdens and difficulties to him and he pours his life and his strength and his peace into you.
If you are saved today, Jesus has carried you to his table. He wants to commune with you there. He wants to pour his life and strength and peace into you. He wants to give you counsel – he wants to give you direction. He wants to lead you and guide you for His name’s sake there.
Your King Jesus wants to do that. But he can only do that if you abide in him, if you remain in constant communion with him and if you remain always at the Table of the Lord.
Your seat at his table has been reserved – reserved for you as a son or daughter.
The Lord has made a way and he has made a place to commune with you, to take your burdens and replace them with his joy.
Where are you?
After being carried to his table, after receiving his mercy and his grace, have you wandered away? Have you run away? Have you followed some temptation back to that desolate, barren place of Lo-Debar?
You have a seat at the Table of the Lord with your name on it. The King of Kings is there – waiting for you.
Where are you??
If we never commit to always being at the Table of the Lord… if we never set ourselves to learning how to abide there, how to remain there, we will never know the power, the joy of living the new life we’ve been given in Jesus Christ. We will never experience the new life Jesus died to give us because living that new life is completely enabled by always “being with” Jesus, at his table.
When we commune with him there, we receive the grace and strength and the power to live for him and be transformed by him.
I had to do a Part 2 to last week’s message because the truths illustrated in the life of Mephibosheth are just too big and too life changing to walk away from without talking about the “now what.”
So today is about the now what? Maybe you recognized last week that Mephibosheth was a picture of you. That the Lord has sent for you from your own barren and desolate place and he has “carried you to his table.” I pray you have recognized that and I pray you have allowed the Lord to make a place for you at his table. The question today is “Now what?”
After all we learned about Mephibosheth last week, the very last verse we read is the one that moves me the most.
2 Samuel 9:13 ESV
13 So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.
I don’t mean to make us all start crying again, but this is where the “now what” begins. Jerusalem is the City of God and Mephibosheth is there! He is as far away as he can get from that barren and lonely place he was carried from. But now, there’s just one word we’ve got to focus on in order to begin to understand the now what.
It’s the word… ALWAYS. “he ate always at the king’s table”
Mephibosheth was always at the King’s table.
He was always in the King’s presence.
He was communing with the King… daily.
And… (here in verse 13) we are reminded again the Mephibosheth was still LAME in both his feet. But… maybe that is what kept him always at the King’s table. Maybe… Mephibosheth ultimately saw his difficulty in life as the thing that kept him close to the King. Maybe it was the difficulty in his life that kept him daily communing with the King.
And maybe… if we can grasp that, then we may begin to see a great good that God wants to bring out of our own difficulties.
Last week, after the service, I had a good friend ask me “How do I stay at the Lord’s table… I’ve come to the table of the Lord. I’ve experienced his salvation – his mercy – and his grace. But… I fade away, or I’m drawn away or I drift away and I have to always fight to come back to the Table of the Lord.”
And he’s right, we do.
And certainly, there is a part of that that is our need to always be crucifying our flesh nature so that we can stay in communion with the Lord.
But I wonder if it isn’t partly because when we received Jesus as our Savior – that maybe it wasn’t made clear to us that our salvation is a forever abiding in the presence of the Lord.
Let’s look at this. If you want to follow me through this, turn over to John 14.
In John 14 when Jesus was preparing to go to the cross, he said in John 14:3,
John 14:3 (NLT)
3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
Isn’t that what the King said to Mephibosheth? “you will always eat (commune) with me at my table” and here Jesus says I am preparing a place for you to always be with me.
Then, a little further down in John 14.
John 14:15–16 (NLT)
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.
That’s the Holy Spirit whose role in the Trinity is to literally be “GOD WITH US” always. Jesus has made a place for us to always be with him and he has given the Holy Spirit to always be with us.
Then in John 14:23,
John 14:23 (NLT)
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.
This is God making a permanent dwelling place – in us. This is God abiding with us always until we get to that eternal place where we will abide with him – for eternity.
Do you get the idea that our relationship with the Lord is one of:
Always - ABIDING,
Always - COMMUNING,
Always - Being in the PRESENCE of the Lord?
And do you see why the picture of Mephibosheth always eating at the Table of the King is such an important picture for us to grasp?
Guys, please hear me. Our salvation is a forever abiding in the Presence of the Lord and maybe our culture’s “approach” to salvation doesn’t make that clear enough.
The Table of the Lord is not a quick stop at a fast food window.
“QWHE QWHE . . . Welcome to Heaven, what can I get you today?”
“Eh, yeah, can I get a Double-Double Salvation with Cheese and an Extra-Large Side of Forgiveness with that. Oh, and a Diet Coke – so I can look good when I get up there.”
I don’t mean to poke fun at our culture’s “style of salvation.” I’m just saying when God carries you from LO-DEBAR – when God carries you from that barren and desolate place in your life and he pours out upon you his mercy and his grace and he seats you at his table, not as a guest, but as a son or daughter of the King – when God does that, he does it for always.
He does it so that you can always be with him and so that he can always be with you. This is what the Bible calls abiding in Christ. It is an “always there” – “always communing” relationship with Jesus Christ.
And maybe in our desire to get people save, may we haven’t made it clear that Jesus doesn’t really offer a fast-food order of salvation. The only salvation the Bible really offers is the “always communing at the Table of the Lord” salvation.
A salvation that is the beginning (literally) of an eternity of always abiding with God and always being in communion with him.
So. there is only one Salvation. There is only one type of Salvation. What we see is a “continuing call” from Jesus himself as people go from being unbelievers to being Christ-followers.
To unbelievers the call that Jesus made most often was follow me or come to me. But to believers the call that Jesus made most often was abide in me or remain in me.
That does NOT mean there are two type of salvation or two choices of salvation. It means one leads to the other. It means the call to come to Jesus (to follow him) leads to the call to abide in him (remain in him).
It means when he carries you to the table to commune with him there that you learn to abide there, to remain there. It means, as we grow in him, we learn to always be communing with him at the Table of the Lord.
Just look down at John Chapter 15 from verse 1 to verse 11. It is the abide section of John 15. (We have a ten-message series done on these verses. You can get that series on the Word By Mail phone app or through the Calvary Chapel Nuevo phone app.)
But for today, I just want to look at verses 4 and 5. Starting with John 15:4.
John 15:4 (NLT)
4 Remain (abide) in me, and I will remain (abide) in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain (abide) in me.
Listen to that again from the Amplified Bible.
John 15:4 (AMP)
4 Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.
There’s the word dwell. Live in me. Not just when you’re having a hard time. Not just when you need a life preserver thrown to you. Live every breath, every moment Live in me.
The word abiding in means “being vitally united to” – vitally united to Christ. This is inseparable. Vital is a word of a life source. This is your life source, to be united to Christ.
The phrase vitally united to is a definition that is put in there to amplify the Greek word for “abide” being vitally united to Christ, comes from always communing with him at his table. What does it mean “being vitally united to” Jesus Christ? The best definition of “abiding” I have seen is “a continuous living in union with Jesus Christ” … that is being always at the Table of the Lord.
Abiding in Christ is living in constant union with him and in constant communion with him. And listen please, this is what causes the life and the power of Jesus Christ to flow through you. This is what causes you to thrive in your life with Christ.
Abiding always at the Table of the Lord – always communing with the King – is the conduit by which God continually pours the power of the Holy Spirit into your life.
And that abiding always at the Table of the Lord is where our lives thrive as the life of Jesus Christ is poured into our lives in a constant communion with him.
Look at John 15:5.
John 15:5 (NLT)
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain (abide) in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
We can paraphrase that verse: “Whoever abides in a vital union with me, will THRIVE in life”
It is this always remaining in communion with the Lord that brings true transformation into our lives.
It is this “always being” at the Table of the Lord that gives us strength we need for each day, that gives us the peace that passes understanding and this is what gives us true joy.
Look down at John 15:11. This is the last verse of the ABIDE teaching.
John 15:11 (NLT)
11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!
At the end of this critical section on the vital importance of abiding (remaining) in constant communion with the Lord.
Jesus says, I’m Calling you to ABIDE in me (to always be at my table) - SO THAT you will be filled with My joy and SO THAT Your joy will overflow!
Remember, the second fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22 after love – is joy!!
And joy is the by-product of living life in communion with God.
True joy is the by-product of always being at the Table of the Lord and of always sharing life with him – at his table. At the Table of the Lord you pour out all of your burdens and difficulties to him and he pours his life and his strength and his peace into you.
If you are saved today, Jesus has carried you to his table. He wants to commune with you there. He wants to pour his life and strength and peace into you. He wants to give you counsel – he wants to give you direction. He wants to lead you and guide you for His name’s sake there.
Your King Jesus wants to do that. But he can only do that if you abide in him, if you remain in constant communion with him and if you remain always at the Table of the Lord.
Your seat at his table has been reserved – reserved for you as a son or daughter.
The Lord has made a way and he has made a place to commune with you, to take your burdens and replace them with his joy.
Where are you?
After being carried to his table, after receiving his mercy and his grace, have you wandered away? Have you run away? Have you followed some temptation back to that desolate, barren place of Lo-Debar?
You have a seat at the Table of the Lord with your name on it. The King of Kings is there – waiting for you.
Where are you??
If we never commit to always being at the Table of the Lord… if we never set ourselves to learning how to abide there, how to remain there, we will never know the power, the joy of living the new life we’ve been given in Jesus Christ. We will never experience the new life Jesus died to give us because living that new life is completely enabled by always “being with” Jesus, at his table.
When we commune with him there, we receive the grace and strength and the power to live for him and be transformed by him.