Frankie Mazzapica - Sitting At The King's Table
Thank you for tuning in today. My name is Frankie Mazzapica. The title of the message is, "Sitting at the King's Table". Sitting at the King's Table. I'll tell you where I'm getting this message from. It's in 2 Samuel Chapter 9, and I just want to share with you verse number 3 and verse number 7, and we're gonna build the entire message off of those two verses. This is what it says. In verse 3, it says, "The king then said, 'Is there anyone still alive from Saul's family? If there is, then I would like to show them God's kindness.'" The person he was talking to is one of his servants. His name is Ziba, and Ziba said, "Yes, there is. One of Jonathan's sons is still alive".
Now Saul was the king that David was referring to. David was the present king. He was referring to Saul, and Saul had a son named Jonathan, and Jonathan and David were very, very close. They were best friends, but the entire family of Saul had died. And so, Ziba said, "Hey, one of Jonathan's sons is still alive. He is crippled in both feet". Verse 9, it says this. Well, before I get to verse 9, "David said, 'You know, what's the young man's name?' He said 'Mephibosheth.'"
Everybody say Mephibosheth on three, and you pronounce it, Mephi-Bo-Sheth. Alright, one, two, three. Yeah, let's do it again 'cause now you said it, it's kinda fun. Alright, one, two, three. Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth. He he says I want to see him. Bring him to me. But Mephibosheth was scared because his grandfather Saul, his father, Jonathan and the rest of his family were all killed in that very city, at that very time. Some of 'em were in the valleys and in the mountains during the time of war. Some of them died out there, but he ran, not literally. Someone, a nurse picked him up because he was just a baby at the time, and ran away from those who are besieging the kingdom, and as she was running out, she dropped him, and both of his legs were crippled for the rest of his life. And so, now David is summoning him. I want to see you. Come to the kingdom. I want to see you.
So Mephibosheth is scared. He doesn't know. He's been living in isolation. He's been living in a place called Lo Debar. Lo Debar has no grass. No one wants to live there. No one even communicates with people who are living in Lo debar. It was like the slum. He's been hiding out there his entire life. All of a sudden David says I want to see him. So he comes walking in, not walking in. They carry him in. He is young man now. He's afraid. David looks at him and he says these exact words. Verse number 9. "Don't be afraid for I intend on showing you kindness because of the promise I made to your father Jonathan. I am going to give you all of the property that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you are gonna sit with me and eat here at the king's table".
So, I'm going to talk about in a very short amount of time, I'm gonna talk about three things that I believe Mephibosheth was thinking while he was sitting at the table. The first one is nearly obvious. He was thinkin' to himself, I am not worthy to sit here. I'm not worthy to sit here. And keep in mind, he's showing up broken, wounded, and he's been forgotten his entire life. You know, there's... As I have an eight-year-old, and the worst thing that happens in her life is that she can't be on the computer. She can't be staring at... that's the worst thing that could happen in our life. But as you get older, you experience some heartbreaking moments, and they come real quick, and real abrupt, and they hurt. And there's a limp. There's a limp. There's some brokenness, and we all do the best we can to overcompensate for it. We're grown man, we don't have time to cry. We're ladies, we don't have time to cry. We're parents, we gotta take care of things.
Don't take me down memory lane. I don't feel like it's gonna help me anyway. I don't have time for that. We have learned to overcompensate brokenness. But to all of a sudden be summoned to the table, he is sitting there knowing that he has brokenness, knowing that he's unworthy to be sitting there. I mean, my goodness, all of a sudden the servants are coming in. They smell like perfume. They're wearing silk. They're floating on air. They got rings. They got, you know, what are those birds with the... peacock. They got peacock feathers. And he's thinking, what is going and here? It smells like potpourri. There's grapes in the middle of the table. What is going on here? You know, it's funny because, when I was 19, I was tryin' to get into the ministry.
I wanted to get into the ministry, but I had been acting like a fool. That's an understatement. A fool all through high school, as a 19 year old, I was a freshman in college. That wasn't goin' very godly. Everything was not going good. But I was tryin,' I was like really tryin,' and I didn't know that strength came from our prayer life not from my discipline. I didn't know that yet, but I was tryin,' and this preacher came from out of town to preach at the church. Everybody knew the preacher. And in those days, after this out of town preacher, this evangelist, in those days when they're done, they would like escort him to another room, and they would feed him, and some other people could be there, and there was a table in the middle of the room. We don't do that stuff now anymore.
Now it's kinda like, "Hey, we'll take you to Subway". But anyway, in those days, there's like this big round table with peacock feathers, and that's the head table that only the evangelists can sit at, and other important people, and then the rest of the people like me, all the minions and scum, you can go sit in the bathroom at these other little tables around the main table. And I walked in. It was after service, and the Speaker was there, I was there, and we were the only ones in the room. So, it was awkward. So, I'm like, I gotta talk to this guy. I'm like, "Hey, how are you"? And we kinda hit it off. You know, we're talking about sports and stuff like that. And then, and so, I'm awkward 'cause I'm lookin' down over him while he is sitting down.
And so, I'm like, "Gosh, I gotta sit down". So, I sit on the corner of the seat, non-verbally saying, "I know I don't belong here. I'm gonna get up". People start coming in. They come to sit at the table. I stand up, and I'm like, "All right, it's been nice talking to you". I'm going to go and sit in the bathroom where I belong. You know, it's got all these little tables, and you know, you get like Taco Bell, and everyone at the big table gets like you know rump roast, or whatever. Is rump roast...? anyway... They're eating really good over there. So, I go to stand up and this speaker looks at me, and he goes, "Sit down. You belong at this table".
And I'm like looking around and I'm like I don't want to get in trouble, and the other big big names coming to the table, and I'm like, I don't know if I'm allowed to sit here. You don't know what I did last night. Like, I don't know if I'm allowed to be here. And I believe that Mephibosheth was feeling something like that. He's like, "I don't think I belong here". I wanna say this scripture to everybody in this room. In Romans chapter 9 verse 12, it says this, "That the Lord has called his people, but not because of their good or bad works".
David did not call Mephibosheth to his kingdom to sit at his table because of anything good he had done. There was no interview with Mephibosheth. King David did not sit down and say, "Okay, what have you been doing for the last 20 years? How many people have you been nice to? How many people who've been mean to? How many people have you cursed at? How many people have you blessed? Are you a jerk"? There was none of that. It was because of who he was. He didn't call him because of his good works or bad works. He called him because of who he was.
When that moment happens where you get to experience the presence of God, you are going to be overwhelmed, overwhelmed on what his love feels like. You're gonna be overwhelmed, and you will realize at that moment It is not because of the good things you've done, and it's not because of the bad things that you... all of that is moot compared to how much he loves you. Right now he's looking at you with love. He's not thinkin' about all the things that you did last night, last summer, last year, last decade. He's not thinking about that. He's looking at you and he loves you. He loves you. See, the grace of God can cause a broken tree to bear fruit. Have you ever been driving down the road and you look in a field, and you see a tree that's down, but it's got branches in green everywhere. You're like, that's crazy. It's broken, but it's bearing fruit. This is what God does.
The second thing that I think that he was thinking about was, he was thinking, "Hey, sitting here at the Lord's table, at the king's table," you see the parallel. Sitting here with David, the table comes up to here. So as I'm sitting in the presence of the king, no one can see my brokenness. When you are in the presence of God, your brokenness is not bein' acknowledged. It is bein' forgotten. It is unseen. Your brokenness is unseen. He does not see it. In the presence of God, healing takes place.
Now for all of us that would love, would love to be able to sit down at a physical table with God and pull up to a table, look at Jesus, and feel that, there is a way. There is a way. In 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verse 14, the Bible tells us how to do that, how to be able to pull up to the table, and everything else just goes away. In 7, verse 14, it says this, in 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14, the Lord says this. "If". So not everybody is going to say, I'll do "it. If my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways". It's so interesting to me on how many Christians genuinely believe that they can live in sin and they're gonna be alright. That's coocoo. When you know you're living in sin, you are responsible for the decision. You understand?
All right, this just got real awkward. Let's just move along. I'm not takin' it back. I'm, leaving it out there, but that's not what my sermons is about. But look at my face. When I came across this verse, I stopped praying like this. I stopped putting my head down. Now my head is up, my eyes are closed, and I'm visualizing his face, and what I've learnt, and you can try it for yourself. Some of you are way beyond me. You've been doin' this for years. When your eyes are closed, and to the best of your ability you are visualizing his face, in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 8, it says, "Everyone who worships, worship with your hands raised".
When you are visualizing his face, and your hands are raised, you have just pulled up to the table. It is amazing on how all of the sins go away, how all of the worries, all of the mistakes, all of the sin, it is no longer on your mind. The only thing that's on your mind is his face. You are at the table, and you begin to experience intimate relationship with him, and the longer you sit at that table, the longer you sit there, the longer you visualize his face, the more you talk to his face, all of a sudden, the intimacy begins to rise. It is just like any other relationship. The more you sit across the table from a person, the more you begin to understand how they think, the more you begin to understand how they feel, and when you pull yourself up to the table, I can promise you, while you're in the presence of God, you will not be thinking about it.
You will be thinking about what God is thinking about because you're at his table, and you will begin to think about wonderful things, and I can promise you this, if you live your Christian life like this, like this, like this... That is what you're going to experience in church, in your relationship with God. That is what... God, you cannot look at God and go, go, go. I've heard about it. Go. If you did that to me, I'd be like... That's what I would do... You don't look at me and, go... You don't look at me like that. Look at your wife like that. Go ahead... You can't look at people like... And God doesn't work that way either.
But if you came to me or if I came to you, you go to your wife, you go to anybody and you're like, ... What's up? Are you with me? Say yes. You go to God, and you go... Close your eyes. All of a sudden that relationship begins. So you don't know what's under the table. I don't care. He doesn't care. Are you with me? Say yes. C'mon put your hands together for that. And can I tell you, the longer you're at the table, the more often you come to the table. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. I can't, I don't know, if I had every word at my demand right now, I still could not communicate what the presence of God feels like. I still couldn't do it. And the more you go to the table, the more you experience it.
Number three. Last and final point. Wouldn't it be a wonderful story if that's where the story ended? You know, David, King David, "Is there anyone from the house of Saul still alive? Bring 'em in. I wanna show him God's kindness". Here comes Mephibosheth; he's crippled in both legs, pull up a chair, and he lives happily ever after. But that's not how the story ends. If you go to 2 Samuel chapter 16, Mephibosheth decides to walk away from the table, not just physically, but also physically. He pushes himself away from the table, pushes himself away from the food was being presented to him, pushes himself away from the relationship, pushes himself away from the intimacy, he pushes himself away. How so?
King David had reached a point in his reign, one of the lowest points of his life. People were threatening him to take his kingdom. And so, what do we do when we get depressed? What do we do when we get down? We withdraw. It's not the best idea, it's the worse idea. But we withdraw. And so, he gets on a horse, and he just starts riding off. I guess they're taken my kingdom. Have you ever had a bad moment and you think you're going to lose everything? And then you look back on it, and you're like, what a knucklehead? He's like he's gone. Where's King David? He left. He's given up the kingdom. The devil said he's coming. He's coming. He's leaving. Everything's gone. All of a sudden, Ziba goes to the kitchen and pulls out bread, and sandwich meats, and wine, gets on his horse, catches up to King David... catches up, and he says, "Hey, I brought you some food".
David looks at Ziba and goes, "Man, thank you. Tell me, how's Mephibosheth doing"? "Ah. You're not gonna believe this. I'm sorry to tell you. He's tryin' to take over your kingdom. He's sitting on your throne in your throne room, and he's ruling your servants around, and he's beginning to build a and rally people around him that's gonna vote him in and anoint him to be king". And David looks at him. "Are you serious? He was my son. We drank together. We ate together. This is my son". "I know, I'm sorry". See, what happened with Mephibosheth is, all of a sudden the intimacy got trumped with personal ambition, personal ambition. If we can remember anything today, the ambition of a man will push himself away from God.
You gotta be so careful, there's a fine line between needs and wants. There's a fine line, because once... have we all lived enough life to know that more always wants more? And more wants more, and wants more, and we never have enough. None of us ever have enough. I can promise you, if someone put a million dollars in your bank account, you would say in a matter of time, "That's not enough". And I know what you're thinking. Let's try. I'd like to try. Just let me try. We always want more. And all of a sudden, Mephibosheth pushes himself away from the table of relationship, the table of intimacy; they laughed together, they cried together, they walked each other back to the to the rooms after dinner. He pushed him on wheels, he probably picked him up. The king picked him up. And all of a sudden, gone, pushed himself away from the table.
If I could implore you, implore you, regardless of how busy that world gets. See, outside of the sanctuary, it's crazy. Inside of the sanctuary, it's peaceful. Why is that? In Psalms 26 verse 8, it says, "I love to come to the sanctuary of God because that's where his presence dwells". But when you get on Highway 45, Highway 59, Beltway 8, 610, it's hard to find God out there. Are you with me? Say yes. It's hard to find God out there. And when everybody's yellin' in the office, and chaos, chaos, chaos, it's hard to find God, but when you pull yourself up to the table, you begin to experience him, regardless of where you're at.
So you're saying to yourself, practically speaking, Frankie talk to me. Talk practical. I see the parallels. I see what you did what the story. I see it. Practically, how do you pull yourself up to the table? I'm so glad you asked. I'm so glad you asked. Pulling yourself up to the table is a place of intimacy with God. And how do you get intimate with God like that? You become aware of his presence around you. You just take that moment and you're like, God is here. The moment you do that, you have sat at the table, you are aware of his presence. That is so critical, because we can live our whole week, a whole month, a whole year, and walk into a room, to room, to room, into car, into a restaurant, to a restaurant and never be aware that we are literally walking in the presence of God. The way we walk in oxygen is the way we're walking in the presence of God.
In Acts chapter 17, verse 28, it says, "In him we live and breathe and find our being". We are in his presence. And the moment we become aware, we have now pulled herself up to the table. And then, when we begin to communicate, we begin to spark intimacy with God. Simple things. Simple things. Smith Wigglesworth once said this. "I don't always pray an hour a day, but an hour doesn't go by without praying". You're always aware of his presence, and you're always praying. And the moment we stop being aware, and the moment we stop talking, is the moment we begin to step away from the table to engage in other aspects of our life.
We've got to become a person who never leaves the table and learn how to live our life from the table. We're in meetings, but we're still at the table. We're in the car, but we're still at the table. We are cooking, we're still at the table. We are always at the table. We never leave the table. When you're sleeping, before your eyes open up, your at the table. You're aware of him; you're talkin' with him. You're never, ever, ever leave the table. Are you with me? Put your hands together for that. Never, never leave the table. I've known some people that sat at the table, they walked away from the table, and they walked away for so long, they forgot how beautiful the table is. They forgot how wonderful it is. And then, they begin to doubt what they once felt because they've been away so long. I want to tell you, your seat at the table, it's always, always available.