The King Is Looking For You

Pastor Joel @ Lakewood Church

It's easy to live guilty sitting on the sidelines in self pity. God is not in the condemning business, he's in the restoration business.

• MEPHIBOSHETH
• 2 Samuel 4
• Son of Jonathan, David's best friend. She dropped him and he became cripple.
• Sometimes in life well-meaning people can put you at a disadvantage.
• They tripped but we have to pay for their mistake.
• It's easy to make excuses especially when it wasn't your fault.  But you have to take the hand that you were dealt and make the best of it.
• A lot of times people aren't giving you something because they don't have it.
• Mephibosheth ended up living in poverty.
• Your location doesn't change your identity.
• When you gave your life to Christ you were made royalty.
• Revelation 1:6 NIV 
• ...and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. 
• 2 Samuel 9
• Years later David (the King) went looking for Jonathan's son.
• Luke 15: Parable About the Lost Sheep
• Jesus's parable about the lost sheep.
• In the natural you're lost but the shepherd will leave the 99 to come looking for you.
• David gave all of the land back to Mephibosheth
• He was restored.
• Religion can make God mean but God is not looking for you to condemn you,  but to restore you.
• Luke 4:18
• “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,    because he has anointed me    to proclaim good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners    and recovery of sight for the blind,to set the oppressed free....
• Mephibosheth had settled in Lo Debar
• It's easy to settle in place of no pasture and/or communication.
• Mercy is all about God not giving us what we deserve.  God doesn't write us off when we make mistakes.
• Prodigal Son
• The younger son asks for his inheritance before the father dies, and the father agrees. The younger son, after wasting his fortune (the word "prodigal" means "wastefully extravagant"), goes hungry during a famine, and becomes so destitute he longs to eat the same food given to hogs, unclean animals in Jewish culture.
• He then returns home with the intention of repenting and begging his father to be one of his hired servants, expecting his relationship with his father is likely severed. Regardless, the father finds him on the road and immediately welcomes him back as his son and holds a feast to celebrate his return, which includes killing a fattened calf usually reserved for special occasions. 
• John Osteen's first marriage didn't work out and his church wrote him off so he left the ministry for 2 years.
• Romans 11:29
• God's gifts and his call are irrevocable.
• God knows where you are and he's not going to stop until he puts you back where you're supposed to be.
• Psalm 147:3 NIV 
• He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. 

Victoria Osteen @ Lakewood Church

On the phone with son who thanked her for something that she did for him and then shared something that he did because it would make her happy. He thanked her with his actions.

• Hebrews 13:15-16
• Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
• The closest thing to God is helping hurting people. That's how we express our gratitude with our actions.
• Let's show God that we want to please him.

• We're blessed to be a blessing.

Jentzen Franklin @ Lakewood Church

The Gates

• Acts 3:2 NIV
• Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 
• http://bible.com/111/act.3.2.NIV
• The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwellings of Jacob. 
• Psalm 87:2 NIV 
• http://bible.com/111/psa.87.2.NIV 
• A wall keeps people out but a gate is on henges to let people in.
• The henges represent a choice.
• Joshua 24:15
• But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord ." 
• The Tree of Life
• Genesis 2:9
• The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• The tree of life could have been put outside because he wanted them to decide for themselves.
• God will always provide a place of refuge.
• Numbers 35
• City of Refuge
• v 6. "Six of the towns you give the Levites will be cities of refuge, to which a person who has killed someone may flee. In addition, give them forty-two other towns. 
• v.9-15 When you cross the River Jordan into the country of Canaan, designate your asylum-cities, towns to which a person who accidentally kills someone can flee for asylum.
• Psalm 91:1-2
• Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord , "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." 
• Psalm 37:7
• Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
• Don't let someone talk you out of the King's protection
• 2 Samuel 3:6-38
• Abner had crossed the River Jordan into the city of refuge
• David negotiated a treaty with Abner via messenger.
• Even when negotiating, Abner did not leave Asylum until an agreement was reached.
• David sent Abner safely on his way
• v. 22-26 But just after David had sent Abner away in safety, Joab and some of David’s troops returned from a raid and found out about the treaty
• v. 27 When Abner arrived back at Hebron, Joab took him aside at the gateway as if to speak with him privately. But then he stabbed Abner in the stomach and killed him in revenge for killing his brother Asahel.
• v. 33 Then the king sang this funeral song for Abner: “Should Abner have died as fools die? 34 Your hands were not bound; your feet were not chained. No, you were murdered— the victim of a wicked plot.”
• All Abner had to do was stay in the city of refuge and he could have lived.
• He removed himself from the King's protection
• Don't be lured through the gate away from God's protection.
• Cecil the Lion
• He was lured out of refuge with a dead deer.
• He took the bait.
• Cecil's brother, Jericho went looking for Cecil.
• This speaks to the phenomenon of influence.
• It doesn't take long to mess your life up.
• Heaven, Hell, and God's Presence all have gaits.
• Psalm 100:4-5
• Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
• Revelations 21:21
• The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
• Matthew 16:17-19
• ...“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
• The praise that costs the most counts the most.
• You have to get victory over your personal enemies before you can fight God's enemies. David fought the lion and the bear before he defeated Goliath
• Whatever it is that gives you entrance into the place that God has delivered you from is a gate that needs to be removed.
• The music, the internet, alcohol, etc. There's no joy with one foot in the city of refuge and one foot out. Quit explaining it and get rid of it.
• Judges 16:3
• But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. 
• You make your choices and your choices make you.