A Compassionate Heart

SUMMARY

Karl Ihfe examines 2 Samuel 9, where King David seeks out Mephibosheth, Jonathan's crippled son, to show him kindness. This story reveals three essential qualities of compassion that made David a man after God's own heart. First, compassion is personal—David called Mephibosheth by name, restoring dignity to someone who saw himself as "a dead dog." Second, compassion is active—David didn't just feel sorry for Mephibosheth but gave him land, servants, and a permanent place at the royal table.

Finally, compassion is born out of love—David's actions flowed from his deep love for Jonathan that even death couldn't diminish. Ihfe connects this to Jesus's compassion in the Gospels and challenges the congregation to learn someone's name this week, take action for one person, and remember that true compassion flows naturally from those who understand how much they've been forgiven, as Jesus taught in Luke 7:47: "whoever has been forgiven little loves little."

TRANSCRIPTION:

What it is exciting to look out and see so many new faces. And he was talking with Jeremy just before worship started. He said we had 45 brand new folks come and visit Atlas this morning who were just interested in saying, I want to learn about what's going on at Broadway and what's happening in the college ministry. So we're excited. Let's continue to be praying for.

If you see a visitor church, let's do our best to show them who we really are, to welcome them really well. If you have your Bible, invite you to Turn over to 2 Samuel, chapter 9, the passage that Audrey read for us just a moment ago. And there were some tough names in there. Audrey, way to go. That is not an easy reading.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Those of us who have to do this, Curtis. Right. We know that Mephibosheth is a tough one.

I think that's how it goes. That's how I say it. So you can kind of say it however you want. But we've been looking together this summer at David, the life of King David and the heart of a king. What does it look like to have a heart that's after God's own heart?

David's the character in scripture that is described that way. And we've interacted some with just the complicated life and nature of David. David is a complicated guy. We got to see some of the highest of highs with him when he defeats Goliath. I mean, this incredible act of courage and faith.

And we've seen him at his lowest of lows, committing adultery and murder, of neglecting family and his responsibility as a father. We've been all over the map with him this summer. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, we were sitting around at the family lunch table just talking about how complicated David was and is and would we want to be friends with a guy like David, somebody who struggles so much? And I think I'm impressed with the story of David. Maybe that's why it's so compelling.

You see, he can't be reduced to. To one thing, to one image, to one perspective, because he was one who was known as a man after God's own heart. And yet at the same time was a man broken and full of sin. And how do we reconcile these two? It's not easy.

Maybe that's the power and the compelling nature of David's story. I think it's amazing that scripture doesn't hide any of this from us, that the story, the writers of scripture wanted to include these stories so that we could wrestle alongside David and so Many others who are trying to learn how to be human, how to be real, how to have a heart that chases after God and yet be sinful this side of heaven. How do we do that? What does that look like? And today I want us to look at a story that I think helps illustrate maybe one of the main reasons why David was known as a man after God's own heart.

We looked at several different attributes this morning. We're gonna look at compassion. David is going to teach us a few things about compassion. So as you make your way back to 2 Samuel 9, let me set the scene. The first eight chapters of 2 Samuel are recounting the 15 or so years that it took from the time that David was, or rather that Saul was killed and David would become the king.

Those 15 years were full of all kinds of uncertainty. How is it going to go? How is David going to respond to all these people who had given their allegiance to Saul and now Saul is out of the way? What is David going to do? How is he going to treat us?

There's a lot of uncertainty there. But as Chapter 8 unfolds, we see David’s doing his best to try to unite the kingdom that's divided. He's conquering Israel's enemies and overwhelming them. So he conquers the Philistines and the Moabites and the Arameians and the Edomites. And by the end of chapter eight, we're told this David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people.

So now we have this powerful king. David now sits on the throne that's finally been established for him, and he can do anything he wants. And the first thing he does is he asks this question. He said, is there still anyone left in the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for the sake of Jonathan? Word starts getting around the palace.

David's looking for Saul's relatives or for someone who might still be alive. And it's not to harm them, to hurt them. It's actually to help them, to bless them. And so they hear about this servant that was a servant of Saul's, and they bring him before David. His name is Ziba.

And David asked him the same question. He says, is there still no one alive from the house of Saul to whom I can show God's kindness? And Ziba answers, there's still a son of Jonathan. He's lame in both feet. Kind of an odd way to introduce that character.

Here's a guy, he's kind of ugly. Here's a Gal, she's got a weird hairdo. Know what? Do we know this? Well, circle that little phrase there.

He's lame in both feet. We're going to come back to that in just a minute. Why would that detail be included? David finds out about Mephibosheth, where he is, and he has him brought up to the palace. And it's here that David demonstrates, I think the first part of compassion.

Compassion is personal. When Mephibosheth arrives in verse 6, we’re told that he bows down before the king. And David doesn't soak it in. David doesn't say, pause, 2, 3, 4, 5. Yeah, I'm the king.

Yeah. Your dad's not around anymore. Yeah. Your grandfather can't save you. He doesn't gloat.

In fact, he immediately says, “Mephibosheth at your service.” He responds, don't be afraid, David says, for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father. I'll restore to you all the land that belong to your grandfather. And, you will always eat at my table. I think it's powerful.

David says his name. There's something powerful about the experience of being called by name. When Kaley and I moved here in 2012, we were on the preacher lunch circuit meeting all of you wonderful people. And we had a couple of you came up to us afterwards. A couple, I remember specifically.

And they got to know you a little bit and they ended. A couple of these ladies said, hey, would you do me a favor? I said, sure, no problem. You name it. She said, would you remember my name?

I. I thought, h. Interesting. Never had anybody asked me that before, but okay, sure, I can do that. Went to another event with another family. Another person came and said, would you remember my name? I served in campus ministry for 12 years.

That's why this is one of my favorite Sundays. I love college ministry and students and being around them. I remember we were doing our welcome week similar to what Atlas is doing this week, where we had a event all the time and girl shows up and she's kind of hanging around the fringes, but she's really friendly and smiling and kind of meeting people, but just kind of setting aside. And so we talk a little bit, visit, go throughout the evening, all the events and activities. And at the end of the night, she's kind of walking out and out of the side of the room.

So I kind of hop over there and I say, bye, Rebecca. And she stops and turns around and I go, oh, no, I've called her the wrong name. And she has this look of shock and surprise on her face. And she goes, you remembered my name. And I thought, yeah.

She goes, I've been to several different places. I'm a junior, no one's remembered my name. And I said, well, I did. And I hope you'll come back next time. And you know what?

She came back. And not only did she come back, she got involved and she got engaged in our ministry and then she got engaged to our youth minister and they got married and they're still married. The power of just remembering someone's name. I had no idea that just remembering a name would have some power to it. I wonder if that's kind of what has s been going on here.

David can see. I mean, Mephibosheth is going, what am I doing here? I mean, he's so surprised at how David treats him that he says, who am I that you would remember a dead dog like me? I mean, what has that got to do with anything? What is your servant to notice?

A dead dog like me? A dead dog. Remember how I said earlier, circle that little note there. When we first find out about Mephibosheth. Oh, and he's lame in both feet.

Kind of an odd detail to throw in there. Well, if you read through the end of chapter nine, you'll see as the chapter ends, Mephibosheth is brought up again and it says, and he was lame in both feet. What is the deal? Well, I can't help but wonder if there's more to that story going on if you think back or if you look back rather in 2 Samuel, chapter 4, after word begins to spread back to Israel after Saul and Jonathan are dead, that David, his army, his growing in power and strength. So you can imagine there's all kinds of uncertainty and chaos and fear.

We learn in chapter four that Mephibosheth is about five years old and he has a caretaker, a nurse, who's watching over him. And she knows he's in direct line and descendant to the throne. His life is going to be in danger. I've got to get him out of here. So she scoops him up and she runs off, only to trip and stumble and to drop him.

And he falls and he breaks both his ankles. And we're told he’ll be crippled the rest of his life.

His dad’s gone his grandfather is gone. He may not be aware at five years old, but eventually he's going to become aware of this story, this narrative of the once and future king who's now Crippled and lame and forgotten and pushed aside until the king remembers. And not only does he remember, he says his name. David demonstrates that compassion is incredibly personal. There's this incredible power that restores dignity to someone when we use their name.

Whether that's at a restaurant and someone's serving you, maybe it's in the grocery store check out line and you can lock eyes and say their name. How many times if you've served in a role in a job like that, that you're just minimized to your job, what you can perform your duties and instead to be known by name? There's a power in restoring someone's dignity that David gives here. Compassion is personal. It begins with this personal relationship.

That's an amazing thing we celebrate, we talk about all the time, our personal relationship with a king who knows our name. He knows our name. He cares deeply about us. I love when Jesus is teaching his followers about giving them a picture, some way to orient their mind of the kind of relationship that he is going to have with him. He uses this image of a shepherd.

And here's how he describes the shepherd in John 10. He says, the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. And when he's brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

The shepherd knows their names and they know his voice. This beautiful picture of relationship. Mephibosheth isn't the only one called by name by a king. So are we, so am I, so are you.

Compassion begins with learning someone's name. Perhaps that's one of the struggles that we're having in our world these days. When you hear these conversations happening out in the world, whether it's politics or other areas, sometimes even in the church, we talk about these groups of people. We don't call them by name. We.

We call them a name. Those people. We don't actually know any of those people. We don't know Mary or Joe or Brian or Carl. It's just those people.

And so we can dehumanize how powerful it is to see with compassion. It brings dignity back into the conversation. I know your name. You're not just in the other. You're a person who has life and hopes and dreams.

You see, it's so easy for us to begin to see those others as just dead dog like Mephibosheth thought he was David doesn't do that. So let me ask you this morning, whose name do you need to learn this week?

Maybe it's somebody at work. It's that person, you know, the one I'm talking about. And some of us, we're the one that I'm talking about. Whose name do you need to learn? I promise you on campus, you're going to need to learn s name.

Somebody's going to need their name to be known at school, in the classroom, maybe it's in the neighborhood. Whose name do we need to learn this week? Church. Compassion begins by being personal, but that's not where it ends. It also, David, shows us it's active, that true compassion moves towards another person.

It's an action, it's a verb. It's not just a descriptor. Compassion isn't satisfied with conversation. We re just knowing it up here. It's got to move down into our hearts.

We look at David, ask at the beginning of 2 Samuel 9, is there anyone I can show kindness to? He finds out an answer, and he brings Mephibosheth to the palace. And that's not all that he does. He calls him by name. But then he says, I'm going to give you all the land that your grandfather had, and I'm going to set it up in such a way that there's somebody who's going to work that land so that you have some income.

And then I'm going to give you a place at my table. Then I'm going to treat you just like one of my sons that you can eat at my table for the rest of your days. And he will see David's compassion isn't selfish. There's no way that Mephibosheth could repay him, could give him anything back. There's no restitution that he could come up with.

It's just grace. It's just grace. I mean, he doesn't know Mephibosheth, right? He asked the question at the beginning, is there anybody? Why does he ask that?

Because he doesn't know. He doesn't know. This guy Mephibosheth could be a jerk. He could be angry and bitter and resentful that you're the king and I'm not. And then I'm crippled and I got nothing and you got everything.

It's not fair. David doesn't know. He just says, is there anybody that could show kindness to. Is there anybody out there? See, Jesus had this kind of compassion on people.

We follow him through the Gospels and we see the way that he interacted with people. You may remember the story over in Matthew 9. It begins with the story of Jesus healing. Guess what? A lame person, somebody who is crippled.

In all through chapter nine, he keeps encountering these people who are lost and lonely and broken and sick and damaged and wounded and wondering, is there anybody out there who gives a rip? Is there anybody out there? And Jesus, we're told in verse 35, he goes through all the towns and the villages and he's teaching. These's proclaiming the good news. And he's healing all kinds of people.

And when he saw the crowds, we're told he had compassion on them because they're like harassed and helpless and like sheep who don't have a shepherd that knows their name, who don't recognize the voice of someone who genuinely cares for them. Or a little further on in Matthew, in chapter 14, when he feeds the 5,000, he's out teaching by the sea and this crowd of people gathering, it's late in the night or late in the evening rather. And the disciples come and say, hey, send these folks out to get something to eat. Jesus says, you give them something to eat, and they're going, what? All we have is five loaves and two fish.

Jesus says, bring them here. See, compassion isn't just a feeling. So Jesus continues into action. It's not just something we think about. So to those who were wrestling and dealing with all kinds of sicknesses and illnesses that he has compassion on, Jesus says, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the field. Don't just see it, disciples. Do something about it. A lot of people can see it. Not many people are willing to actually do something.

See, having compassion, it's more than just feeling sorry for somebody that saying, what can I do to make a difference? What can I do to make a place at the table? Sometimes we're paralyzed by. It's just so overwhelming. I love Andy Stanley.

He said it one time, he said, do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Well, there's just so much. Okay, so just start with one. But there are so many people on campus. There are just so many.

Let's start with one. How about your Monday morning class? But there's just so many things that work that have to be done. I know, but just start with one conversation. Just hold one door.

Just learn one person's name and use it in a good way. Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. See, it's why unleashing compassion is one of our values here at Broadway. Because we believe in the power of compassion. Not just seeing it, not just recognizing it, but actually doing something about it.

Which leads to the last thing that I want to share this morning. I think David shows us compassion. It's personal, it's active, but actually maybe should have started here. It begins by being love. True compassion is born out of incredible love.

The love between David and Jonathan was legendary. A few weeks ago, we looked at their friendship, their relationship, their. But David, or rather Jonathan, had this fierce and loyal love to David. So much so that he was willing to give up his own position and power and influence that his friend David could step into because he recognized God's anointing in his life. David's love was so fiercely loyal and deep for his friend Jonathan that even death could not separate it.

Scripture tells us it was more precious to him than that of a woman. Which is an interesting metaphor I think at the time. Certainly if you look back at David's track record of how he treated women, we're like, o, okay. I mean, you know. But I think what he's trying to say is know it was so precious, so valuable to him that it went beyond this idea of a relationship, a marriage, a sexual relationship.

It went deeper than that. To say, even when you die, I'm going to still find. Is there anyone that I can bless because of my love for my friend? I can't contain it. It just.

It's so overflowing in me that it's coming out. Is there anywhere that I could share that love with others? You see, compassion is next to effortless when it's born out of love. And again, I think this is why. This is maybe one of those qualities, at least for me, helps me understand a little better about why David would be called a man after God's own heart.

Because our God is nothing if not compassionate. It just overflows. Is there anyone else I can bless? Is there anyone out there that I could bless that I could reach out? May remember the story in Luke 7 when Jesus goes to this Pharisee, his name’s Simon, he goes to his house for dinner and we're told the sinful woman shows up.

She's got this jar of perfume and she's just reckless with it. She's weeping at Jesus feet and wiping them off with her hair and pouring this perfume on it. And the Pharisees kind of stepped back. If this guy really were a religious person, if he really were the Messiah, if he really were a rabbi, he really knew what was good for him, he would know who this woman is and he wouldn't let her touch him with a 10 foot pole.

Jesus says, Simon, do you see this woman? I came into your house, you didn't give me any water for my feet. And she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped with her hair. You didn't give me a kiss. But this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.

You didn't put any oil on my head, she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little. See, Jesus reminds us that whoever understands, who truly understands what God has done for us, they can't help it. They can't help it.

It just flows. They're overwhelmed, they're transformed by it. It changes how they see any and everything. They can't help but overflow that love into kindness and compassion. In fact, this is the kind of love that Jesus will go on to say in John 13.

He says, the way that the world is going to know that you're my people, that you're my disciples, is how you love people, how you love others. We've been talking about Friends Day and how it's so much bigger than just having more people here. We'd love to have more people here. We always want more people here. But, is there anybody in your neighborhood, your relationship world that could use a little love, that could use a transforming grace, that could use getting unlocked from the baggage of their past?

Oh man, bring them, bring him here. We want to introduce them to a God who was not willing to just stay set apart and far away, but send his own son, that we could have life with him both now and into eternity. Paul would go on to talk to the church about the amazing power of the Holy Spirit. It says when you begin following God and you give your life to him and you're baptized into him, that the Holy Spirit comes and brings this incredible power. And not only that, he's going to give you a gift.

And as each one of us uses our gift as a part of the church, he said, it's going to unlock this incredible spiritual potential in your community. In fact, we saw it in the early church and acts that thousands of people were coming to faith in a moment after a sermon. Just an incredible acts of power. The Holy Spirit can work through a person's life who's willing to be the vessel. But he follows up really quickly.

He says, but you know what, Church? If you have all that spiritual power and you don't have any love, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

Love is that key to compassion.

In fact, he would write to the church, Paul would in Colossi, he'd say, therefore, as God's chosen people, the holy and dearly loved ones of Jesus, clothe yourselves with compassion.

If we really recognize and understood who God is and what he's done for us, he says, then let's live it out, Church. Let it not just be words. Love must be sincere. John would say love with action, with words. Truth.

Why? Because he who has been forgiven lunch loves much. And who who has s been forgiven little loves little. Some of us this morning may not know there is a king in heaven who knows your name and he longs to be in a relationship with you. So much so that he would send his only son just to have opportunity to have life with you both now and into eternity.

And for some of us this morning, we need to hear that word and we want to know more about it. We would love to help you take your next step in learning more and discovering and encountering that God. Some of us may have been at this for a while and we may have forgotten all that God has done for us. In just a moment, we are going to sing a song together here. Gary and the team are going to come and lead us in a song.

Mighty to save our God is mighty to save. And my prayer and our hope for us during that song is you'll let the Lord, the Holy Spirit do the work in you that needs to be done this morning. Maybe it's to remember all that God's done to say, would you find someone this week and get to know their name? Just start with getting to know their name. Or maybe for you, you know their name.

It'just now it's time for you to take the next step and perform a little action in the world. Would you be willing to be generous? Would you be willing to sacrifice? Would you be willing to befriend, to encounter, to walk alongside of? Because the greatest compassion that we'll see, it's born out of love that God has given to us.

Let's pray together. God, I am praying that you would help us to take our next step. This week, for many of us, we’re on campus and everybody's new, we don't know anybody's name. God, would you help us to have the courage just to get to know one more name and would you help raise up somebody in our world who would get to know ours and we could discover a friendship and a fellowship that's deep and true like David and Jonathan's? God, would you help us to be people who get to know names and take action, take that next step, whatever that step needs to be.

Lord, give us the courage and give us feet ready to follow where ever it is that you lead. Maybe some of us, we need someone to take action in our lives on our behalf. God, would you raise that person up and if it is one of us, God, give us courage. Lord, I pray that all of this, all that we do, all that we are, would come from the amazing love that you've poured into our lives, the grace that we have so freely received from you. God, would you help us to be people who give it out to others?

Thank you Father for showing us an example here with David of. Of a heart that chases after your heart, a heart filled with compassion. Lord, you help us to be compassionate people. This week we pray in Jesus name.