1 SAMUEL 25 YOU STILL HAVE WEAKNESSES WHILE YOU PURSUE GODS HEART2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel 25 You Still Have Weaknesses While You Pursue Gods Heart

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017.

1 Samuel chapter 25, we're going to be continuing our journey through Samuel, looking at David in this encounter with a man named Nabal and his wife Abigail, as we continue to look at David as a man after God's own heart and learn ourselves how to pursue God's heart from his example.

We're going to look at 1 Samuel chapter 25 in its entirety this evening, but let's begin by reading verses 1 through 12, and then we'll jump into the message that God has for us. 1 Samuel chapter 25 verse 1 says, Then Samuel died, and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him, and buried him at his home in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife, Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance. But the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb."

When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, David sent 10 young men and David said to the young men, go up to Carmel, go up to Nabal and greet him in my name. And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity, peace be to you, peace to your house and peace to all that you have. Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us and we did not hurt them.

Verse 9. Verse 10.

Then Nabal answered David's servants and said, who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men when I do not know where they are from? So David's young men turned on their heels and went back and they came and told him all these words."

Here in 1 Samuel chapter 25, we are continuing to walk with David through the wilderness. Last week in chapter 24, we saw the encounter where Saul had gone into a cave where David happened to be hiding, and David there had the opportunity to take Saul out. But

He had an appreciation and a respect for the role and the position that God had given to Saul. Even though Saul had done so much against David, David would not take matters into his own hands and put Saul to death. And it was a great example for us. Now, as we move on into chapter 25, we're still with David in the wilderness. He's still on the run.

And yet, as he has this encounter with this man named Nabal, it's going to be a different experience than we saw last week. And that is, actually, David's weakness is going to be revealed here. And as we look at this chapter, I have titled the message, You Still Have Weaknesses While You Pursue God's Heart.

Here in chapter 25, we have a really important reminder, and it's probably a reminder that we know, you know, it's something that we know, but it's also something that we need to be reminded of, but it's also something that we may not feel that we need to be reminded of, but it is something that we need to be reminded of, that we have weaknesses. And even though we are pursuing God's heart, and even if you are, you know,

As I gave the exhortation earlier about spending time with God and his word daily, even if you do that, you're still going to have weaknesses. There's still going to be situations where you don't respond well to the things that take place, where you find yourself like David in just a few verses, we'll see him mount up and he's going to pay Nabal back for the insult that he was given in those verses. And we're going to see David try to take matters into his own hands, even though he's

He didn't in the previous chapter. And the positioning of this chapter is very interesting because in chapter 24, David has the opportunity to take Saul's life. And you see his strength as he restrains and he restrains himself and his men from taking Saul's life.

In chapter 26, we're going to see a very similar situation where David has an opportunity to kill Saul and he restrains himself and he honors the position. Again, he accurately represents God's heart. But in between these two great victories and great models for us, we have chapter 25 where Nabal insults David and David mounts up to put him to death.

As you look at this passage, as we consider this chapter, I would encourage you to consider the emotions that David is experiencing. And it's really his emotions that trigger this response that we're about to be meditating on and considering. And that's important to recognize because we all have triggers. And we all have situations in our lives where we can be victorious and show great strength

And yet at the same time, we also have those areas of our lives that it doesn't take much. It's just a little insult. It's just a little thing. It's a little this or a little that. And it

it brings us to a place where we are, well, we're no longer reflecting the heart of God, pursuing the heart of God. Instead, we are taking things into our own hands and seeking to accomplish what we want. I love what Alan Redpath, that great commentator, shares about this. He says, this story tells me that however long I may have been on the Christian path,

However often I may have overcome one temptation or another, however many times I have defeated sin in one area, it can strike in another and crush me in a moment. And we need to be reminded that we still have weaknesses. We still have areas that are in need of God's work and God's strength and for God to intervene in our lives.

And we must keep ourselves in a constant reliance upon God, even, maybe it sounds a little bit strange, while we are pursuing God's heart, that we can't take for granted that our weaknesses are not there or that they're covered or that they're taken care of, but that we would need to recognize that we have those weaknesses. We have those things that can trigger us and those issues that can spring up. And so we need to be on the alert sometimes.

and in reliance upon God for those areas of our lives. And so there's four things I'd like to highlight about our weaknesses as we work our way through 1 Samuel chapter 25. The first one is found in verses 1 through 12. It's the verses we just read. Point number one is your efforts are not always appreciated.

Now, this chapter, chapter 25, does have quite a few verses. And so we're not going to be spending a lot of time on each individual verse, but kind of getting an overview of this chapter and looking at these concepts that kind of pop out as we read through the passage. And what we see here in these first 12 verses is that David sends a request to this man named Nabal. He was a shepherd. He had flocks of sheep and sheep.

David had protected his flocks from attack while David was out there in the wilderness, that he was hiding from Saul, but he wasn't just hiding in a cave all the time. He was going from place to place and providing for himself and providing for his men and also fighting against the Philistines. And so there were battles going on. There were things that were happening. And in the process of that,

David had provided protection for Nabal. Now we're introduced to Nabal in verse 3. It says, And it gives their character. He says, And so you have this married couple with incredible differences.

It shows the stark contrast of Abigail. She was wise. She had good understanding and she was beautiful. But here you have Nabal and he was ugly inside and outside. He was harsh in his doings. The word Nabal, the name Nabal means fool. And later on, Abigail is going to say he lives up to his name. He is a fool.

And so there's this married couple and they don't seem to be matched up very well, but they are married. And so here they are together and David now is going to approach them. In verse four, it says, when David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, David sent 10 young men and David said to the young men, go up to Carmel, go up to Nabal and greet him in my name.

And so he's sending some messengers and he's going to be asking for provision. Because he had provided protection, he asked for provision. Notice he says in verse six, and thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity, peace be to you, peace to your house and peace to all that you have. David here is sending his men to Nabal for provision, asking for provision. But notice David points out,

that Nabal is living in prosperity.

The time of sheep shearing was a time of celebration and a time of feasting. It was the shepherd's equivalent of the harvest, you know, where they would gather in everything. And then in a harvest, the farmers would celebrate the crop that they had received. And there would be celebrations that went along with that. For a shepherd, this would be similar as they would bring in the sheep and shear the sheep. And there would be celebration and feasting. And

And it would be a celebration of their prosperity and the abundance that they had as they sheared the sheep. In verse 7, David says, Now I heard that you have shearers, your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel.

Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes. For we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son, David. David sends his guys and he asks for whatever comes to his hand. He's asking for a donation. He's asking for a handout, but not for nothing. He's saying, look, I have provided a service to you.

And I've provided this protection and I was a wall for your guys that we protected them and there was nothing missing. We didn't take advantage, even though, you know, we were a mighty force of 600 men and, you know, we could have just took a sheep if we wanted to, but we didn't. We honored you, we respected your property and we protected you guys while we were there and while you were there.

And so, hey, I just wanted to see, I know you're celebrating today. Would you mind, you know, just providing something for me and my men as you celebrate and as you, you know, get to benefit from some of the things that we helped provide for you? Dave Guzik points out that David makes this request because he had performed a valuable service for Nabal.

And so he's not just, you know, doing nothing and just begging for whatever provisions Nabal wants to give, but he says, I was generous and I protected you. I was there with you. We cared for you guys. And so, you know, we'd like to see if you find it in your heart to give anything to help compensate us for that, to bless us as you celebrate the provisions that you have. This is a biblical concept that says,

The worker is worthy of his wages. Jesus makes this point in Matthew chapter 10. As he's sending out the disciples, he tells them, don't provide gold or silver or copper for yourselves.

Don't bring a money bag, he says, or two tunics or sandals or staffs, for a worker is worthy of his food. Now, we could think of that in terms of, you know, apostles, evangelists, pastors and ministry, you know, those kinds of things. But without getting into the ministry aspect of it, just the concept that

That a worker is worthy of his wages or his food is the point that Jesus is making. And that is something that is biblical. As Paul told the Thessalonians, if a man doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. That there should be this tie between these two things. That there should be labor for wages.

And not just given for nothing, but also that there would be work that he's done. And so what David is asking for is completely appropriate.

He's not demanding. It's not like some shakedown like, hey, you know, like a mafia guy, like it would be a shame if your sheep fell off the cliff, you know, because we weren't protecting you, you know. Like he's not doing that. He's just saying, look, we already provided this valuable service. We didn't charge you ahead of time. There was no contract. I understand that. But we did. And you're celebrating the fruits of that now. And so if you'd like to, you know, bless us for what we did, you know, that would be appreciated.

And it's appropriate thing for David to do, especially as he's addressing one who lives in prosperity. So he's not asking someone who can't afford it, you know, hey, we did this for you, you know, now give us money. But he's saying, you've got the abundance. You have extra. Would you mind sharing some of that extra? Because we did provide a valuable service for you.

As I've been doing these different works on websites and things like that, it's one thing I've grown to appreciate in this whole season of this website work I do, and that is to value people's work.

just to really value people's work. It is amazing how often we are expected or asked or even demanded to work for free. That, you know, I don't want to give you anything, but I want you to do all of these things for me. And, you know, there's some negotiating tactics that are a part of that. But there is oftentimes this expectation that, you know, you should just give me

your time and do what I want for free without any return. And having that presented regularly gives me a very good appreciation for, you know, when people do work for you, when people do things that you benefit from, that you're blessed by, it is really appropriate and important that you value a

what they do and how they contribute to what's going on in your life. Well, verse 9, it says, So when David's men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David and waited. So they brought the message. All right, Nabal, you know, anything you want to give to us, we'd just love to receive it. We're definitely in need of it. Now, Nabal answers in verse 10 and says, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master.

Nabal here responds with insult. Instead of saying, hey guys, I really appreciate what you did. Unfortunately, I really am not able to give or I really don't want to give. He doesn't just decline and say, no, thank you. He instead insults David and

I said, who's David's son of Jesse? Like, who's that guy? Who does he think he is? There's a lot of servants who rebel against their masters. And so basically he just says, David is a rebel who's, you know, rebelled against Saul. And now, you know, he's treating him with scorn and disrespect. He says, shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I've killed for my shears and give it to men who I don't know where they're from? I don't know what you guys are about. I don't want to have anything to do with you.

And the servants of David felt this insult. And you can see that in verse 12. It says they turned on their heels and went back and came and told David all these words. They turned on, they were just like real quick, they were out of there because it was like, whoa, this is not going well. This is not good. This is not a favorable response. They were insulted. And so they got out of there quick. Their efforts, they had protected, they had preserved, they had cared for, they had honored and respected David.

Nabal and his shepherds and his sheep, but they were not appreciated. This is something important for us to be reminded of. Again, things that we know and maybe even things that we don't think that we need to be reminded of. And yet we need to be reminded that as you pursue the heart of God, there's sacrifice and there's going to be great effort expended by you, great energy expended by you. And you need to know right off the bat that that's not always going to be appreciated.

And you're going to serve. In reflecting the heart of God towards the people around you, you're going to serve them and get nothing for it except for insults sometimes. That is the way that it works as we look to seek after the Lord and pursue his heart. All you got to do is look at Jesus for the example of this. His efforts are not always appreciated. What Jesus did for us, people don't always accept that.

and believe that, and appreciate that, and celebrate that. In fact, what Jesus experienced many times was scorn and disrespect, just like David did here. In a similar way, we need to understand that as you seek to pursue the heart of God, there's going to always be those occasions where it's not received.

but you still do it. It's not accepted. It's not appreciated, but you still do it because your objective is to reflect the heart of God, not to receive the appreciation and approval from man. And so your efforts are not always appreciated as you pursue God's heart. And that can be difficult. And it reveals our weaknesses sometimes. For example, in the life of David, as we move on now to verses 13 through 22,

we find his response. And in that, we find point number two, and that is you do not always respond well. Check out David's response in verse 13. Then David said to his men, every man gird on his sword. So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about 400 men went with David, and 200 stayed with the supplies. David's response was, let's go to battle.

Everybody put on your swords. We're going to go wipe out Nabal. We're going to go kill him. We're going to kill his family. We're going to kill everybody involved and their grandmas. We're just going to go take them all out. Why? Because Nabal said, who's David? There's a lot of guys who rebel from their masters. Nabal insulted David. And as David receives that insult, he mounts up for battle.

Now again, isn't it interesting to consider this? Consider this chapter in comparison to the chapter before and after, where David has opportunity to kill Saul. Saul, who had pursued David. Saul, who had thrown spears at David. Saul, who has attempted to kill David over and over and over again for the past 10 years or so. The opportunity to kill Saul was really great. Saul was right there, but David restrained himself. Such strength, right?

Such trust in God. But here this insult, this smack of the glove to the face, this insult from Nabal triggers David and he is out for blood. David says, every man gird on his sword. Put on your sword, guys. We're going to battle. Now let me ask you, is David accurately representing the heart of God here? Is this how God wants David to respond? Is he pursuing the heart of God in this moment?

And I think it's clear from the passage, he was not. David does not respond well to this situation. He allows this situation to become such that now he is out to take vengeance for himself. He's not responding well. In verse 14, it says, now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, look,

Verse 16,

For he is such a scoundrel that no one can, that one cannot speak to him. Such a scoundrel. The servants of Nabal go to Abigail because they see the situation and they realize, probably by the countenance of David's servants as they left, you know, probably by the tension in the air as the situation unfolded, they realize, well, this is not going to go good.

And so they go to Abigail and they say, look, this is what happened. And the way that they describe it,

What David said, you know, as far as them protecting them in the wilderness, in verse 16, that's where it says, they were a wall to us, both by night and day. They protected us. They were our protection from the Philistines, from the raiders, that we were safe, as opposed to when we were in other areas, and there wasn't that protection, and we were losing sheep, and, you know, difficulties were happening. They were protecting us. They were caring for us, and they honored us and respected us, and

They encouraged Abigail, you should probably do something. And so verse 18, it says,

Now, take note of what happens here. First of all, Abigail just, you know, she gets to work right away. She starts packing lunch for David and his men. But notice the quantities here, 200 loaves of bread. Now, if David came knocking on your door this evening, would you be able to give him 200 loaves of bread? Probably not, right? Well, maybe the donations that we received from Panera, you know, we can give them back. But even that's not 200 loaves of bread, right?

it gives us an indication of the scale of this celebration that Nabal is hosting. Again, it's not that David was asking for something from someone who had nothing. This is a man of great wealth. He has the means to provide for David and his men and to give them something for their services. It's not taking advantage of someone who has nothing. It's

Yeah, we've got, you know, pantries full of stuff. We're overloaded with all of the provisions that we have for this celebration. So she's able to put together 200 loaves of bread, some wine, five sheep already dressed. I mean, that's a feast, right? How many pounds of bread?

carne asada is that, you know, five sheep already dressed. I don't know, but you understand, like, this is a huge amount of food that she's able to just throw together in a hurry to take to David because she doesn't want anything bad to go down. Verse 19, she said to her servants, go on before me. See, I'm coming after you, but she did not tell her husband Nabal. So it was as she rode on the donkey that she went down under cover of the hill.

And there were David and his men coming down toward her and she met them. And so she heads out to meet David and his men. She comes out to intercept and she's going to intervene in this situation. And we'll see that in the following verses.

verse 21 and 22 give us the heart of David in this situation. Verse 21. Now David had said, surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him and he has repaid me evil for good. May God do so and more also to the enemies of David if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light. Where's David's heart at? Where's David's mind at?

This guy has repaid me evil for good. I'm going to kill him and I'm going to kill all the men of his family, all the men of his shepherds, all the men involved. I'm going to just take them all out because he has offended me greatly. And again, is David accurately representing the heart of God here? No, he's not. Why not? He is the man who pursues God's heart. He is the man after God's own heart, but he has weaknesses just like we all do.

And sometimes even though we can be really strong just a chapter earlier and a chapter later, there are these moments in between where there's this emotional thing that happens. And for David, he was insulted and maybe that is a trigger for you, but there are other triggers. There's other ways that, you know, maybe in grief, you know, maybe in anger, maybe there's other things that cause you to go down this path of, even though you've had victory in other ways,

I got to do this my way. I'm going to do this, you know, what I want. I'm going to take care of it. And it's a response that is not representing the heart of God. Listen, you need to remember that you do not always respond well. Even if you're spending time with God every day in his word.

Even if you come here and you're faithful, show up to service, and you worship, and you listen to the message, and you take lots of notes, and even if you had an awesome time with God today, and he spoke to you some great things, that does not mean that everything that happens after that is exactly what is supposed to happen as far as God is concerned. No, there are occasions, there are

Maybe occasions gives the idea of like infrequent, but there are regular consistent occasions where we do not respond. We allow the moment and the emotions and the things that happen to trigger us to go down this path that is not in pursuit of God's heart. And of course, you know, we don't always recognize it right away. It's a reaction that's happening. David here is reacting and he's overreacting immediately.

He will come to his senses, but it's only because of Abigail's intervention. And we'll see that in just a moment. But without that, he would have carried out this plan. He was, you know, involved in this. He was all out in this mission, which was not at all what God desired. Pastor Dave Guzik points out that David's anger was justified.

and his rights were violated. But David responded wrongly because vengeance and retribution belong only to God. He has the facts straight, but not his heart. And this is one of those areas where it can be so difficult because David's right in his understanding of the situation. And he's even right in his rights that, hey, Jesus says, you know, a worker is worthy of his food. And so I have rights.

But that doesn't give him the right to make it happen on his own or to pay Nabal back for failing to bless and to give David anything in that situation. David does not respond well. Not always. Sometimes he does. In the next chapter, we'll see that he does. But in this chapter, he doesn't. And we need to remember that.

We need to be reminded that we have these areas of weaknesses as well and these things that can be triggered within us that cause us. And the purpose of being reminded of these things is so that we can look to God and ask God for help in those areas of weakness because

Well, we don't want to be caught up in a situation like this where we mount up for arms and we go off the handle and we do what we want or whether it's an anger situation or a lust situation or a grieving situation or a pursuit of money situation or whatever it might be, that we respond in pursuit of God's heart instead of carrying out the desires of our heart.

I think there's another factor to consider in all of this as well. And that goes back to verse one. It tells us, then Samuel died and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him and buried him at his home in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. What started this whole situation was the death of Samuel. Samuel has died. All of Israel mourns for him.

And David goes now to this wilderness area where he is having this encounter with Nabal. I would say this is a factor to consider. This is a factor to understand and to meditate on. And that is that David here has lost a good friend.

Samuel, who has anointed him king, Samuel, who has brought him counsel and who has helped him when Saul began to bring this persecution against David, Samuel, his friend, has died. David could be triggered probably without the death of Samuel, but the death of Samuel affects him and makes him a little bit more susceptible, I would suggest, to this response where he is

In his grieving, in his lamenting, as it says, the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him. As he has lost Samuel, it puts him in a place where he's a little bit more vulnerable to be reacting in ways that are not honoring to the Lord and not in pursuit of God's heart. And again, these are things that we know, but I would say we are worth reminding ourselves about that emotions really do affect you. And sometimes we forget that.

Sometimes we forget that, you know, when you're having issues with your spouse, it doesn't just affect you in your marriage relationship, but it affects you in your pursuit of God. It affects you everywhere. And how you respond to things, it affects you. When you've lost a loved one, when you have those times of grief or those issues, those stresses, those things that happen in your life, it

it plays a part in the rest of the things that happen in your life and in your pursuit of God and in your response to situations. David may have responded differently if he was not grieving the loss of Samuel at the time. And I point that out just to help us to remember to recognize that in our times of grief and in our times where there are emotions that, you know,

Again, it's a men's Bible study. So guys, you know, we're so like convinced that we compartmentalize everything, right? And it's like, okay, this is this part of my life and this is this part of my life. And you know, it doesn't really matter. Okay, I can put that aside and just focus on this. And to an extent we do that, but also to an extent there's no separation and we can't do that. It does affect us.

when we're grieving, when we're experiencing those emotions and those stresses. And we need to be aware of that so that we don't ignore those things and pretend like that's not affecting us, but that we call out to God and that we allow God to meet our needs in the midst of that loss, in the midst of that grief or whatever emotion we happen to be experiencing at that time. Because that, on top of other things that happen, can bring us to a place where we react very poorly and

We began to put ourselves in a situation where we are going to bring great destruction to ourselves and to the work that God wants to do. Well, moving on to point number three, here we have Abigail's intervention. And point number three is that sometimes you need intervention. Sometimes you need someone else from the outside to step in and say, wake up. You need to pay attention to what's going on because you're not recognizing what's really happening in this situation. In verse 23, it says, now when Abigail saw David,

She dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David and bowed down to the ground. So she fell at his feet and said, on me, my Lord, on me, let this iniquity be. And please let your maidservant speak in your ears and hear the words of your maidservant. In verse 25, please let not my Lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him.

But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my Lord whom you sent. Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek harm from my Lord be as Nabal. Abigail, she demonstrates some great courage here.

She's not just approaching David and his men, just kind of like, you know, hanging out in the field. She comes to intercept David on his way to do harm to Nabal and his family. I mean, she is literally putting herself in harm's way. You know, she's

putting herself in between David and Nabal and saying, you know, please, you know, stop and think for a moment. And it's a great risk. It's great courage, but she also does it very well with great tact and with wisdom from the Lord. And David will say in just a few moments that she's speaking on behalf of God, that she is representing God in this situation. And she does that well.

And she says, please let this iniquity be on me. She starts out saying, don't hold it against Nabal, hold it against me. Now, why? It's not her fault. Nabal's the man of the house. I mean, it is his responsibility. It's not like it was her responsibility. But she takes it upon herself. Why? Because she's asking for David to not do to Nabal what he intends to do. And she knows that he won't treat her the way that he would treat Nabal. So she says, charge it to my account.

Let the iniquity be on me. Because he's a fool. He's a scoundrel. And David, I pray that all of your enemies would be like him because he's just a fool and God's going to deal with him. In verse 27, she says, now made in this present, I'm sorry. And now this present, which your maidservant has brought to my Lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my Lord. Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant for the Lord will certainly make for my Lord an enduring house and

because my Lord fights the battles of the Lord and evil is not found in you throughout all your days. She continues to talk to David. She says, look, here's a present for you. I thank you for your services and what you provided. We just want to give it to you. Let this, you know, let your men enjoy this and please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. Please forgive us for not respecting you and providing for you

But then she also looks to the future and she says, look, God is going to provide for you an enduring house because you fight his battles and evil is not found with you. In verse 29, she goes on to say, yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life and

talking about Saul, but the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God and the lives of your enemies. He shall sling out as from the pocket of a sling. He's going to wipe out your enemies. Even though Saul seeks your life, you're going to be bundled with the living. You're going to continue to live. You're not going to be taken by Saul or by your enemies.

In verse 30, And it shall come to pass when the Lord has done for my Lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you ruler over Israel, that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my Lord, either that you have shed blood without cause or that my Lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord has dealt with my Lord, then remember your maid servant. And so Abigail takes David and she says, look, David, into what God has promised in your future.

Think about what God has promised in your future. And will you regret what you're about to do? When you're king and you can look back and realize, wow, yes, I didn't take innocent blood. I didn't take matters into my own hands. I didn't avenge myself and wipe out Nabal and his whole family like I wanted to. I didn't do that. Oh, I'm so thankful that I didn't do that. That the fulfillment of God's promises in my life isn't marred by sin.

my fleshly desires and my taking matters into my own hands. She tells David, think about the long term effects of this and the big picture of all that God has promised to you. And then she says, and when God does all of that, because surely God will do all of that, then remember your maidservant. Please remember me. Show me kindness when God blesses you with all the things that he's promised to you.

If you ever have to do this kind of intervention, Abigail has some really good pointers for you. There's a lot that we can learn from her. As very gently, she guides David to turn around and look, not at the insult, but to look at what God has promised. She guides him. She helps him come to the understanding and the conclusion that this is not what's best for

It's not in line with the character and nature of God or the character and nature that God has called David to have and the promises that God has given to him. Pastor David Guzik says,

Again, some good pointers here for when you have to have this kind of confrontation and this kind of intervention that it is easy to criticize and to beat down and say, David, you're stupid. What do you think you're doing? Now, there are some relationships that we have with one another where we have built the relationship so that we can communicate in different ways and on different levels. And sometimes there is that need for that strong and stern rebuke. And yet at the same time,

It's not necessary in every occasion. And sometimes the best route is a more gentle approach, more tactful approach. David, you're a great man of God. Does your actions that you're about to carry out, does that fit in with who you want to be and who God has called you to be and what God has promised you?

David Guzik goes on to say, She helps David think about the big picture.

Does this fit in with that? Are you going to have regrets later on when God fulfills his promises and you look back and go, oh man, I shouldn't have done this that way. I shouldn't have taken innocent blood. I shouldn't have taken vengeance on my own and taken matters into my own hand. It's a very gentle but strong correction for David. In verse 32, David says to Abigail, blessed is the Lord God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me.

David responds with, blessed, blessed, blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, he says. God sent you to meet me. Abigail, I recognize right now, God sent you to meet me.

sent you to meet me. God has intervened. God has called you and given you the words, and he's sent you with this message so that I would not carry this out. And blessed is your advice. This is words from God. This is a message from the Lord, and blessed are you. David's blessed. He hears the Lord's voice. He hears what God is saying through her.

And he receives it. Verse 34. David receives the message. He makes the correction.

He allows for her words to take root in his heart and he repents. He stops. He doesn't continue on the path that he was on. This is a great example for us. We don't always respond well, but we need to train ourselves to be able to receive correction, intervention, interception, that we would receive advice. Now,

I mean, without getting into any kind of, you know, political issues or whatever, in their context for David to receive counsel from a woman, I mean, that was not something that would be expected. David is not thinking in those terms. He is not, you know, biased in those terms. He recognizes this is from God and immediately responds to it. This is why David is a man after God's own heart.

Not because he was always perfect and that his first reaction is, you know, initial response was always right and was always reflective of God's heart. But because when he recognized and realized that God was speaking to him, he would respond quickly. This is where we need to be. And this is what we need to ask God to do in our hearts that we would respond quickly to

when God speaks, wherever that source is from, whether it's from someone that we want to hear from or someone that we are not particularly fond of, but that we would allow people to intervene, that we would allow people to speak into our lives and to bring forth a message from the Lord and cause us to think. And again, it's something that we need to be reminded of because we have to prepare ourselves to receive these words.

to remind ourselves the importance of and the need for correction. Listen, none of us like to be corrected. We don't look forward to that. We don't want to be rebuked or told how we're wrong or told that we didn't do that quite well. None of us want that, but teachability is so necessary for us. We need to be teachable. We need to allow for people to speak on behalf of God into our lives that we would respond, that we would

even when we've gone in the wrong direction, would allow ourselves to be corrected by the Lord and by those that he sends to us. And that thought continues into the final point in verse 36 through 44. We have point number four, and that is stay close to wise people who love you. Verse 36. Now, Abigail went to Nabal.

And there he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. Therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light. So it was in the morning when the wine had gone from Nabal and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him and he became like a stone. Then it happened after about 10 days that the Lord struck Nabal and he died."

Abigail continues to show her wisdom. As she goes home, Nabal's drunk. That's not the time to share with him what has happened. She needs to. It is right and appropriate for her to share with her husband what she has done on his behalf. It is important that she do that, but now is not the time. He's drunk. This is not the opportunity, you know, to try to share these sensitive things with him. So she waits till the morning, and then she shares with him what she has done.

This is what happened. This is what I did. This is how I protected you from David and what was about to happen. And the Lord dealt with Nabal right there. His heart died within him and he became like a stone. 10 days later, he dies from Nabal.

What exactly? We don't know except for it says the Lord struck Nabal and he died. God will deal with injustice and unfairness and all of those insults and all of those things. With Nabal, with Saul, God is going to deal with those who come against David in this way. God will deal with those who come against you in that way or whatever way they come against you. God will deal with them.

You don't have to take things into your own hands. You don't have to take and fix those things on your own. If God tells you to do something, then do something. But without that, it's something you need to leave in the hands of God.

And God strikes Nabal and he takes care of him for his foolishness and his disrespect of David and what he had done for him. In verse 39, so when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, blessed be the Lord who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept his servant from evil. For the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head. And David sent and proposed to Abigail to take her as wife.

So David recognizes God did this work. And look, God protected me from taking matters into my own hands, from doing this. God repaid him. And God has the right to do that. And God is right and just. And he is able to take care of those things. And it's his place to do so. He says, vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. It's his, right? It's his role. And we only have that opportunity if God specifically directs us to do something about that.

So he recognizes God has preserved me. Now, what he does now is he proposes to Abigail. In verse 40, when the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, "'David sent us to you to ask you to become his wife.' Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth and said, "'Here is your maidservant, "'a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord.' So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey and attended by five of her maidens. And she followed the messengers of David and became his wife.'"

David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and so both of them were his wives. But Saul had given Michelle, his daughter, David's wife, to Palti, the son of Laish, who was from Galim. And those last couple of verses just give us a quick update on the development of David's family. But I see this as important. Again, point number four is stay close to wise people who love you.

Abigail was a wise woman and David seeing that and appreciating her wisdom and her looking out for him. Remember, love is doing what is best for people. That's what Abigail did. She intervened to do what is best for David.

And so he says, that's a woman I want to be near me. That's someone I want to be next to me. And he proposes to her. He invites her to be close so that later on when he gets stupid again, she could intervene and she could speak wisdom and speak from the Lord and be, you know, continuing to contribute to his pursuit of God's heart. And again, things we know, but we also need a reminder of, we all need to bring wise people into our lives, right?

It's a proactive thing. David sends for her and brings her and says, hey, stay in my life. Let's stay together. And inviting people in to stay close, to help give wisdom in the situations that you're going to face. This is something that we all need. Again, I know we lost the slides, but the message tonight is that you still have weaknesses while you pursue God's heart. We need to remember this evening that

we're still going to have issues. We're still going to have things that we respond to, even when we're pursuing God's heart, even when generally speaking, we were experiencing victories and God is speaking, God is working, God is leading. There's still going to be those occasions and those moments and those days where we just don't respond well, whether it's because of some emotional trigger, some thing that we're experiencing, whatever,

combined with a couple other things that happened in our life, and we're just in a not a good place, and so something happens, and now, boom, we start to act and behave in a way that is not appropriate for who God has called us to be, and what God has called us to, and what God has promised for us. We don't always respond well, and so we need to be seeking the Lord for those areas of weakness in our lives, but

but also remembering the importance of others that God has placed around us, that we would receive from them the words of the Lord, that we would bring them close and not keep them at bay, but that we would bring them close to receive the intervention, the correction, and what we need to get back on track. And again, this is what made David a man after God's own heart. Not that he always responded immediately in the exact right thing,

but that when God spoke, he amended his ways. He turned around, he updated, you know, his course according to what God said. And that's what I want to encourage us in this evening. We have weaknesses. Don't think that we're invulnerable even when we have great victories. We still need to be seeking God and calling out to God and allowing him to speak to

And whatever form or fashion he chooses, whatever source that he wants to use, but that we would allow him to intervene when we get caught up in our own minds, in our own hearts, in our own emotions, and head out on a way, on a path that is destructive to us and to others around us because it does not accurately represent God's heart. We want to close out this evening in a time of worship. And so Kim's going to come up and get ready and we're going to spend some time worshiping

the Lord together. And as we worship the Lord, I would ask you to consider a couple things. First of all, is there a situation in your life right now that you are not responding well to? And maybe you're already caught, you're already on the path like David was. Is there something that the Lord wants to address in your life? Because you're on a course that is not where he wants you to be. And maybe you're conscious of it, or maybe you're not. If you're conscious of it, then

correct that. Be like David and amend your ways and turn it over to God immediately. But as we worship the Lord, I would also encourage you to just seek the Lord for kind of an open-ended question. Lord, is there anything in my life that I'm on a path like David? I need you to intervene. I need you to speak to me and show me because I'm not recognizing it. I'm not caught up in your will, but I'm caught up in my will. And so let's invite the Lord to speak to us about that. Secondly, I would say,

Let's seek the Lord about if there's a need to intervene. Abigail took it upon herself and said, I need to step in. This person is on a course. They're going to regret it for the rest of their life. Has God called you? God called Abigail. He gave Abigail the words and sent her to intervene. Is God wanting to do that in you? Nobody really wants that role. It is a risky role to stand in between the aggressor and the one who has insulted him. But

But maybe God is calling you to intervene in someone's life and say, look, I don't want you to go down that path. And as we seek the Lord, I would encourage you to ask God for wisdom, to be like Abigail, to have words from God, to be able to be gentle and tactful and be able to help someone realize that the path they're on is not what the Lord wants. And then finally, as we worship the Lord, I would encourage you, as the Lord is ministering to you and speaking to your heart, if you need to, invite a wise person to pray for you.

Just as we always do, have that freedom to minister to one another. And perhaps you find yourself not responding well to something or needing something or not sure what the Lord wants to do or whatever it might be. But it's a good opportunity as we worship the Lord to just plop yourself down next to someone and say, you know, I need prayer. This is what I'm going through. I still have weaknesses, even though I'm pursuing God's heart.

and invite each other to pray for us. And so if we're not responding well to something, if we need to intervene or we need to invite someone in, then let's do that as we worship the Lord and seek him together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.