Refine 2021 (Nate Whitley)
by Nathan Whitley
August 28, 2021 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church
Kind: sermon

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/nathan-whitley--refine-2021-nate-whitley
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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because of somebody else listen to me right now he was just a five-year-old little boy he was being taken care of by his nurse while jonathan and saul were out to battle and word comes back i don't know how she got word but word was brought back that jonathan and saw were killed so in her haste she picks up mephibosheth and runs and falls and she drops this little boy and he's lame on his feet there's some people listen to me now who are wounded because of somebody else and the greatest of wounds was the fall in the garden of eden that adam and eve are true parents disobeyed god and by one man's disobedience many will become sinners but there are others who are hurt because of somebody else it wasn't mephibosheth's fault that he was in that condition and there are some in this room you've got temptations you've got hurts you've got weaknesses not of your own doing but somebody else did it to you but david wants to know are you going to let that stop you from getting to the king's house are you going to let that stop you are you going to let that be your crutch and your excuse why you can't get there but mephibosheth realize i'm gonna have to rely upon somebody else to get me there i'm gonna have to get i have to have somebody else take me to the king i can't get there under my own power take me there get me there all i can do is just get there there are some who are just hoping hoping to get here you know there's people in your family just hoping that you'll tell them about a covenant there's people in your school there's people on the job just hoping that you'll tell them that the king has a promise for them now listen to him i'm almost i'm almost done that's how fast i can go i'll go a lot faster if you'll help me all right they bring mephibosheth to david falls at his feet i'm just an old dead dog what are you going to do for me david i can't do anything for you mephibosheth i didn't bring you here because you could do something for me you know you don't bring your works to god in salvation this covenant is one a one-way street you cannot pay your way into the kingdom you cannot earn your way into the kingdom you can't do enough things you can't give enough money you can't your righteousness is as filthy rags you are a dead dog before him i can't do anything for you good i didn't ask mephibosheth let me ask you to come do something because your condition is not what i'm concerned about i have a covenant to keep and mephibosheth says okay wha what does that mean zeba hey my friend um guess what you're gonna do from here on out you're gonna serve this one and i'm gonna make him as one of my sons this is the gospel he didn't call you to be his servant although that's part of it your first position that needs to be restored in salvation is in the family he wants to know will you be my son or my daughter because when you become a son or a daughter you're treated different than the servants have mercy because as a son or a daughter you become an heir to all that the king has that means you don't have to work for what daddy's got you get it simply because you're a son or a daughter in the family now let me just i know i'm going way out out here in the deep somewhere and i hope i hope we can swim back to the shallow end here in just a moment but when your dad has everything when your dad has everything you're not afraid to ask him for anything now i was at t.j.maxx last night before we we came down last night and just to see y'all before y'all started playing ball and and and getting all wore out we're old we're old-timers we can't i can't do that anymore but we went to eat dinner and before we went to eat dinner we went to the tj maxx or marshalls i came here which one we went to my little girl she's the she's the she she is the sweetest thing smart so smart she can she can bargain like nobody else and she said daddy and we had already now our deal last night was come down and get her a treat for having a good week at school school was back in session and had a good week hey you want to go down we'll well if you want to go to claire's and get some kind of knickknacks or something like that and so we would she got that and she she likes lotions she's sick and she likes lotions and chapsticks and i'm like how do you do this already and you just i mean just loves that stuff and so we already bought her something we're going to go eat and we ran into marshalls and she says daddy i want to show you something i know what that means there is something that she wants me to buy and she said daddy i want to i want i want to show you something and mommy had already told her no we already went to claire's in the mall we got enough stuff little knickknacks you had a good that's what was your prize she said okay just let me take daddy over here so he can see it away from mommy and so i see she shows me this ugly looking purse with a cat or something it's like a cat unicorn or something it's got a cat face with a unicorn horn and it's got sequins on it and i'm looking at i go maybe you've already got a cat unicorn purse she's like but i got to have something i got i got to have something to put all the stuff that i got at claire's tonight into when we go to eat i said well we got bags you got you got more you got more bags and purses than most malls have available and she's like yeah but i don't have this cat unicorn looking thing and i'm like you don't need that i said you i don't you no she goes well the bag that i got is ugly and i said what bag she said the claire's bag it's so ugly it says claire's on it well you're right that's can't take that into jimmy nix tonight all right she said well that was daddy oh look at these over and she starts showing me the more expensive bags and i started to realize this one's not that not that bad and i thought just give it to me so i take it and thank you and so and my wife makes fun of me as we're going over and she goes she got you you get you caved you caved but i want to tell you because there's something about when your dad knows you want something and you ask enough he'll get it for you and so when you're a son or a daughter to christ you realize that when i go to prayer i'm not bothering him i'm just showing him what he can get me because he has it already that's that's prayer that's the power of prayer you don't have to that's the other thing about the holy ghost you don't have to beg for the holy ghost it's a good gift that your father wants to give you he wants to give it to you when you ask you don't plead for a gift you ask for your i wish somebody was hearing me right now and when you realize your position is being restored as a son or a daughter you realize you get everything that your father has and what doesn't your father in heaven have he has everything so that gives you power and it gives you authority to go ask him for it so mephibosheth i'm going to restore good lord have mercy your position was lost and i'm going to restore it my god have mercy i want you to realize whose you are this evening you're not some popper you're not some peasant in god's kingdom you are his son and you are his daughter and with that comes position and it comes rights and david looks at broken mephibosheth and says i'm gonna restore the position oh my god have mercy because the covenant is greater than the condition stand with me now i love this story man because as hopeful as it is and wonderful as it is david looks at mephibosheth and says got a place for you at my table here's a man who had been in low to bar barrenness alone and the king replaces loneliness with companionship sit at my table mephibosheth i mean you probably heard this before and it's not original to me i'm sure of that is that when you're sitting at a table even in the ancient near east and the ancient near east they didn't have chairs like we have at a table they would they would sit on the ground and sit at a table and even if you're at a table sitting on the ground at the table you can only see waste up so as david's looking at mephibosheth from across the table he sees him as one of the king sons he looks just like everybody else but underneath the table is still a broken man listen to me now there are some things god can restore but there's some things that god doesn't heal there are things that he restores but there's some things that he doesn't heal he can forgive and he can forget he can wipe your debt clear but he might let that weakness stay he might let that condition remain but that doesn't mean you're not his son you might be dealing with the same weakness over and over and over and over and over and over and over again but that does not mean you're not his son or his daughter there are some things oh listen to me now he leaves as a reminder of where you came from there's some things he leaves as a testimony of his mercy mephibosheth how you doing i'm great got everything restored look at this it's as it as if that i'd never left this place but mephibosheth your legs your feet and he still loves me he still accepts me he still communes with me because underneath the table is a testimony of where he brought you from and it's like paul lord i've sought you three times to get this thorn out of my flesh and you just keep telling me my kindness is sufficient my grace is sufficient and my strength my power shows off in your weakness it's a testimony to everybody else that the covenant is greater than my condition don't you lift up your hands right now and close your eyes some young person here in this youth weekend has just you limped in you crawled in you just i don't know how i even got here but i'm here you deal with the same thing you fight the same battles you lose the same battles maybe it's some some young lady you feel like you just i just don't feel worthy i just don't feel worthy why doesn't he just take this thing away from me why doesn't he just remove this thing from me i want to tell you that the covenant is greater than the condition i'm not sure what your custom is here in this room maybe if there is somebody who understands what the word the lord is trying to say to you would come out of your seat and out of your pew tonight maybe come to this place and find a place to pray maybe there's somebody who would come to this place tonight and say lord i realize i'm your son i'm your daughter come on would you come right now is there somebody some young person can we make this room a prayer room right now if we make this a place an altar where somebody comes and realizes that he wants to be my companion he wants communion with me he doesn't he doesn't want me to stay in low to bar he doesn't want me to stay in in that place but he has a place for me and his house and the king's house there's a place for me in my condition there's a place for me with all my wounds and all my hang-ups and all my troubles he's got a place for me there and he's he's coming for me he's calling he's beckoning for me to come sit at the table would you lift up your hands one more time as he begins to play and maybe sing a chorus but would there be somebody who would pray under the anointing of the holy ghost right now and say lord lord i'm willing to come to your table tonight i'm willing to come and commune with you i know i'm not deserving i know i'm not worthy but lord i need your mercy i need your grace i need your kindness come on would you pray for somebody right now is that okay would you pray for somebody maybe you can encourage somebody the holy ghost wants to minister to you tonight a sure word an engrafted word that he can come and speak to you right where you are that the king has restoration for you he has hope for you he has grace for you the covenant the covenant's that's right young person that's right young man that's right there's hope for you come on there's hope for you come on there's a covenant for you you're not deserving we're not we're all not deserving but there's somebody he wants to show mercy to is there anybody left is there anybody left is there somebody that i could show mercy to come on would you pray for somebody right now on this youth weekend come on that somebody is gonna get restored somebody's gonna have their position restored maybe you've never repented but he's here to forgive you he's faithful and just to forgive you of all of your sins maybe you've never been baptized before this is for the washing away of your sins for the remission the removing of and by his spirit he unites us to him and restores position of sons and daughters you're coming to the family of god you're adopted into his kingdom oh wild offshoot i am engrafted in come on mephibosheth come on as the king's sons of the good as the kingdom's daughters sit at the table come on sit at the table sit at the table hallelujah well there's a sweet presence of the holy ghost here in this room on this first night there's a great movie hallelujah is while he's restoring your life is is your goodness is running after me you have been so he's not forgotten his promises of god i hey why don't you go find somebody pray with them right now come on we got some young folk praying come on some of you adults help us pray would you come on the spirit of the lord is here for a reason there's hungry hearts oh that's right come on there's hungry hearts i i need you lord i need your lord oh come on pray come on pray great god great god i need you i love you i believe in you you're holy you're holy you're holy you're holy come to bless your name your goodness is hallelujah i love you jesus what a wonderful word from the lord the gospel according to mephibosheth is translates as the good news according to him he would sit at the king's table all busted up huh all broken and as much as mephibosheth was amazed that david the king would come and get him you gotta know david was just as impressed by the covenant he had made with his dad why else would david care listen to that why else does jesus keep pulling at your heart because every time he looks at you he's reminded of the covenant he's made i died on a cross for your sins i gave up every thing because that's why he came to earth come on if you're thankful for the holy ghost slip your hand up right now thank him for it lord i'm thankful if you don't have the holy ghost come on lord i want that evidence in my life because i want to know the covenant still works come on somebody open your mouth and bless the lord right now open your mouth and bless his name i thank you jesus i know god that you are on the throne and i choose to love you such a great great promise you've made me hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah my mama you could go 100 directions right now couldn't you i'm not preaching that to get to the table somebody had to take taken just to get to the table come on you can't let a in the presence of the king not allowed so before the king got there they had to get him in there and then the king would come in everything looks like oh wow maybe it's your job to get somebody to the table oh king's coming king's coming you good bro you good and when this is over i'm gonna come get you and take you home oh wow