Have you ever felt like a spiritual castaway—adrift on an island of your own making, waving for rescue from a God who seems distant or, worse, preoccupied? So often, we labor under the weight of a mistaken notion: that the Almighty is a distant, celestial accountant, tallying up our failures and waiting for us to measure up. In our loneliest moments, we may envision faith as a transaction where we strive and strain to earn His favor.
But what if we have it all wrong?
What if the real story is not about our desperate efforts to reach a remote deity but about a relentless God pursuing us? What if His kindness is not a prize for the righteous but an unearned, almost scandalous gift to those who least deserve it?
This is the message at the heart of 2 Samuel 9, where King David does something unthinkable. Instead of seeking vengeance on the last remnants of Saul’s house, he searches for Mephibosheth—the crippled son of his late friend Jonathan—not to destroy him but to bless him. David’s invitation to Mephibosheth to dine at the king’s table is a staggering display of grace, foreshadowing God's more incredible kindness in Christ.
In our loneliest moments, we may envision faith as a transaction where we strive and strain to earn His favor. What if His kindness is not a prize for the righteous but an unearned, almost scandalous gift to those who least deserve it? — Michael A. Milton
Today’s message, “The Kindness of God,” challenges us to see God not as a distant judge waiting for us to prove our worth but as a covenant-keeping King who seeks us in our brokenness and welcomes us to His table.
• Imagine: You are not striving to reach Him; He is already seeking you.
• Consider: The grace you receive is not earned but freely given.
• Realize: Like Mephibosheth, you are invited to dine at the King’s table. Limping? Ashamed? A painful past? None of those things can impede the unstoppable love of God. Just come as you are.
This is no sentimental fable; it is the very essence of the Gospel. It is the story of a God whose kindness transforms enemies into beloved children. So, dear friends, let us look beyond the wearying struggle of self-justification and embrace the astonishing, life-changing kindness of God.
Perhaps the island of our exile is not so desolate after all. Maybe you are closer to Him there than anywhere else in the world.
Resources
I am pleased to introduce a sermon supplement booklet designed to enhance Bible study and discussion.
The Sermon Supplement Series
This resource includes sermon summaries, discussion questions, theological reflections, recommended readings, and more. It is intended for pastors and churches that incorporate the morning sermon into small group studies or other discipleship settings. This booklet serves as a template that you are free to use to facilitate deeper engagement in your Christian community. While I may not be able to create this for every sermon, I am sharing it now—and may do so again in the future—to support and equip others in their ministry.
The Deep Dive Discussion
I have written in a recent academic paper that inventions such as machine learning can become a master or a servant. There is, of course, a price for the difference. The cost is borne by you, the pastor or teacher, in preparing, training, and working on such things as roles, prompts, feeding books and technical information, writing styles, and dos and don’ts. In short, machine learning is what you make of it. My book, Generative AI in Theological Higher Education (with that exciting title it is not exactly destined for great things, but if this white paper helps one faculty or even one professor, it is worth it) shows how certain institutions are looking at the latest technological breakthrough with understandable suspicion but also, in some cases, paralysis. It is good to be careful if the thing before you is a rattlesnake. Others (and I provide the results of a survey) are suspicious but thinking biblically about it and even learning how to use this new technology for good. And that is our goal, too. In this Deep Dive podcast (the Google Notebook LM version of a book talk podcast), below, the host voices are digitally produced, but to be sure, what they are saying is a product of a considerable amount of input by yours truly. I doubt that too many Google engineers are reading systematic theology or studying the Westminster Confession of Faith (although, I don’t know) but you wouldn’t know that by the conversation you hear. Whether it is helpful or not is your call. Some will find it as kitschy as a velvet Elvis rug on the living room wall. Others might enjoy it. To be honest, I haven’t made up my mind. But it just might serve Bible studies, Sunday school classes, or small groups to think through some of the topics broached. Of course, you might find it interesting but absolutely unusable. I understand. I will not be offering this each time, as I want to keep the focus on the message, not on innovation in delivery. So, I pray the message of 2 Samuel 9 and the Kindness of God comes through loud and clear. However, it is worth remembering that the same Roman roads Paul traveled were used for both evil and the advancement of God’s will. Paul was not captivated by the genius of Roman engineering itself. Rather, he used the infrastructure of an empire opposed to the Gospel as a means to spread that very Gospel—ultimately bringing some of its own officials to faith. Likewise, we seek to use every available means wisely and according to the Scriptures to reach all people. We are not excited about technology per se but about any possible road that will help us to reach more, equip more, and (particularly in my condition) multiply ministry despite encroaching frailty. So, thank you, Lord: “Glory be to God for dappled things – For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow” (Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844-1889, “Pied Beauty”).
Your invitation to come as you are is made possible by God in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, who paid for our sins and purchased our place in heaven by His sinless life and crucifixion for our sins.
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