Welcome to Gateway Church's podcast. Wherever you're tuning in from,

we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

If you have your Bible, I want you to go with me to Second Samuel chapter 9.

A Second Samuel chapter 9, we're going to begin at verse 1 and

this is really one of my favorite stories in all of the Bible.

And you'll understand why here in a moment. This is Second Samuel chapter 9

beginning at verse 1. Scripture says, one day, David asked,

is anyone in Saul's family still alive, anyone to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan's

sake? Now, let me pause right there just to remind you, Saul was the first king of Israel

and Saul was disobedient and he also disliked David. In fact, there were multiple times where

Saul tried to kill David. But Saul had a son named Jonathan and Jonathan and David were

really close friends. And so the Bible tells us in first Samuel chapter 20 about a conversation

that David and Jonathan have. Jonathan understands that at some point, David is going to be the king.

And so he says to David, he says, when you become king, will you show kindness to me?

Or if I'm dead, will you show kindness to my family? And so David says, yes, I will,

and at that moment, they essentially have a covenant of kindness. And so this is the promise

that David is remembering. So verse 2, it says, he summoned a man named Zeba who had been one

of Saul's servants. Are you Zeba the king asked? Yes, sir, I am Zeba replied. The king then asked

him, is anyone still alive from Saul's family? If so, I want to show God's kindness to him. The

word kindness there is the Hebrew word hasaid. And it means faithful love or there's a sense of

steadfast loving kindness. In other words, it's extravagant kindness. He says, all right, I want to

show them extravagant kindness. Zeba replied, yes, one of Jonathan's sons is still alive. He is

...