All right, we're here in First Samuel chapter 25, and we're continuing our series through
the alphabet of characteristics.
So we are looking at the letter P. And one thing that is challenging about a series
like this is when you get toward the end of the alphabet, it starts getting a little
bit harder.
You have, you know, fewer choices of, you know, just basic words to use.
But today's sermon is about being polite, and we're going to look at the character
Abigail.
And it's interesting in the story because Abigail is married to a man that's the exact opposite
of being polite.
So basically you've got the polite person, and you've got the rude person.
And what we're going to do is just kind of have a comparison between husband and wife
in this story, and just see kind of the things that go along with being polite with
Abigail, and the things that go along with being rude with her husband Nabal.
It says here in verse number 1, And Samuel died, and all the Israelites were gathered
together and lamented him, or mourned him, and buried him in his house at Ramah.
And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
And there was a man in Mahon whose possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great,
and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail, and she was
a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance, but the man was churlish and
evil in his doings, and he was of the house of Caleb.
So you've got a woman of a beautiful countenance.
She has a great attitude, friendly person, nice person, polite person, and her husband's
just rude.
He's just obnoxious.
So you've got the exact opposite with husband and wife.
And point number 1, we see with Abigail that Abigail is willing to inconvenience
herself.
And we're going to see that Nabal is the exact opposite of this.
Verse number 4, And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep, and David
sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel
and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name.
And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and
peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.
And now I have heard that thou hast shearers.
Now thy shepherds which are with us, we hurt them not, neither was their ought missing
unto them.
All the while they were in Carmel.
Ask thy young men, and they will show thee.
Wherefore let the young men find favor in thine eyes, for we come in a good day.
Give I pray thee whatsoever cometh to thine hand, unto thy servants, and to thy son David.
And so David and his men are in a pretty desperate situation.
They need food.
They need water.
You know, obviously, especially with water, if you don't have water, you're going to
die after a short amount of time.
And they're in a desperate situation, and they were helpful to Nabal and his men, and
they said, Can you just kind of help us out?
And they greet with a good attitude.
He sends his men out to be kind and respectful, and then just ask for something from them.
Now, what you do not want to do is just take this story and say, Every time anybody
asks you for anything, you give it to them no matter what.
Because I can just say, as an American living in the Philippines, I have people that
ask me for money all the time.
Right?
I mean, it happens several times every single time that I'm in public places.
I have a lot of people come up to me and ask me for money.
And also, I'm sure a lot of people ask you for money as well.
And I would personally not advise you just to give money to every single person under
the sun.
I don't think that's wise.
You can do whatever you want with your money.
I'm just saying that I don't think we can take this story and say, Every time
somebody asks for something, we just give it to them.
But obviously, David is a righteous man.
He's a godly man.
And in this story, they actually do deserve to get help from Nabal.
Verse number nine.
And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in
the name of David and ceased.
And Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David and who is the son of Jesse?
There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master.
And so David and his men were polite, they were kind, and they were respectful.
And how does Nabal respond back?
He's just obnoxiously rude to them.
Or I'd be like, for example, you see somebody in the morning, you say, Hi, good morning,
how are you?
And they just like, you know, yell at you, and they're really rude back.
It's like, whoa.
And here's the thing.
I mean, if Nabal was going to turn them down, he could have done it in a polite way.
There's no reason to be rude.
There's just no point to do that.
But the statement of Nabal makes no sense whatsoever.
Look at this statement.
Who is David?
You don't know who David is?
I mean, the hit song of the land is, Saul has slain his thousands, David is ten thousands.
Who is David?
What are you talking about?
You know who David is.
You know who killed Goliath.
I mean, everybody knew who David was.
And you see that many times throughout this chapter.
He's aware of who David is, you say, well, I don't know if that's really true.
Well, he says, Who is David and who is the son of Jesse?
How do you know his father's name if you don't know who he is?
Who is David and who is the son of Jesse?
Well, obviously, you know, obviously, you know, this was the head military man for King Saul.
He won great victories.
And quite honestly, every single person in the land benefited from David before he was even the king, from his military victories.
I mean, he knows who David is.
He knows who David's father is.
There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master.
I mean, he knows about the situation.
I'm sure everybody in the land knows, hey, you know what?
Saul is persecuting David unjustly.
Now, they can't really do anything about it because Saul's the king.
He's got the power.
Who are you going to complain to?
There's not really anything that you can do.
Same thing exists in our world today.
You see situations where politicians are just, you know, persecuting people unjustly.
Can't really do anything about it.
I mean, it just is what it is.
They've got the power.
But obviously, Nabal knows who David is.
He knows who David's father is.
He knows the story, and he knows that David has been wrong, and it's not fair what was done to David.
This is not a situation of some random person coming up and saying, hey, can I have money?
No, I mean, Nabal already knows David, and he already knows what David did.
He already knows he was a godly person.
He won military battles.
So what he's saying doesn't make any sense.
Verse number 11, shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be?
And once again, this doesn't really make any sense.
You don't know where they came from.
You know who David is.
That doesn't make any sense.
You know who he is.
You're just trying to use an excuse because you don't want to be inconvenienced.
You don't want to do anything to help out anybody no matter what.
Verse number 12, so David's young men turned their way and went again and came and told him all those sayings.
And David said unto his men, gird ye on every man his sword, and they girded on every man his sword.
And David also girded on his sword, and there went up after David about 400 men and 200 abode by the stuff.
And so David is kind and respectful to Nabal and his men.
Nabal is rude back.
The response of David, let us kill every last man in the house.
Now, look, David was a great man in the Bible, but, you know, we were talking about this yesterday after church.
It's like, who needs soap operas when you have the life of David, right?
I mean, a lot of drama is involved in David's life.
And then David gets turned down, and he's like, let's kill every single one of them, right?
Now, I mean, if you said let's just steal stuff so we have something to eat okay, but you're going to kill every single last one of them because Nabal was rude.
Obviously, that's the wrong response.
Obviously, that's going overboard, but this is kind of typically how men are.
I mean, and, you know, I had somebody explain this to me a long time ago when I was in college, and I think it actually makes sense with the difference between men and women.
And what they stated was that women are emotional about every situation they make, but they are also partially logical with every situation.
So they have a mix of emotion and logic in every situation.
Men are not really like that.
Men can be completely logical, and if something kind of tips them overboard, all of a sudden they're just filled full of rage and anger, and they've lost all sense of logic, and they're completely emotional.
And I would say that actually makes a lot of sense.
I mean, I haven't really studied this stuff before, you know, that what the person was telling me about.
I was like, it makes sense.
I mean, that's what I see with men and women in this world, that men, when they lose their temper, they lose it.
That's just the way that it is.
I know for me personally, I don't feel like I really struggle that much with anger, but when I reach my tipping point, it's kind of like you just go, right?
That's just kind of the way that men are, and we see that certainly with King David in this story.
He's acting, you know, kind and respectful.
Obviously, he's very stressed.
I mean, who's going to provide the next meal?
What are they going to do?
I mean, they could starve to death.
I'm sure people are complaining.
And so obviously, he's already stressed, and then he's under control, and that one thing tips him over, and then he's just like, well, let's just kill every single one of them.
Verse number 14.
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he railed on them.
But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, and neither missed we anything as long as we were conversant with them when we were in the fields.
They were a wall unto us both by night and day.
All the while we were with them keeping the sheep.
And so what I'm saying here in verse number 16 is that basically the men were actually helping Nabal's men.
They were a wall of protection.
You got to understand, you know, during these sorts of days when it was hard to have access to water and you'd be fighting for wells, it was a dog eat dog world, and people could rob you.
People could steal from you.
An enemy could come in and just take what you have.
I mean, that would have been a commonplace thing that could take place.
And so what the men are saying is, hey, it was nice to have men that were not going to steal from us.
They're not going to take advantage of us.
And they're actually a wall of protection.
They were fighting the enemies off so we could just kind of go about our business and didn't have to worry.
So what the men are actually saying to Abigail is they do deserve something for this.
They helped us out, and we didn't ask for help, and now they are asking for help, and they've already helped us.
We should be actually, you know, giving them something back in return for what they did.
Right.
Then it says here in verse number 17.
Now, therefore, no one consider what wilt thou do, what thou wilt do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him.
And so what these men say about their boss is that he's a son of Belial, which means a son of the devil, a child of the devil, a reprobate.
Now, I don't know when they say he is such a son of Belial, like in our modern vernacular, it's kind of a way to curse.
Like if someone's like a really bad person, he's such a, you know, and whatever word and whatever language.
I don't know if that's the way they're saying it or if they're being literal.
But I will say that I do believe that Nabal actually is a reprobate.
I mean, it seems like that in the story because even his wife seems to think that's the case later on in the chapter.
And so I would say that's probably true that Nabal is actually a reprobate.
He's just a really bad person.
And so they say he's such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him.
Now, here's what you have to realize.
If your husband is a reprobate and he said, I'm not going to provide any food whatsoever,
and you put in the time and effort to help these men out, the Nabal has refused.
Not only are you inconveniencing yourself, you might actually be risking your life.
I mean, she's literally putting her life on the line.
And here's the thing.
She's not going to be killed in this story because they're killing the men.
They're not killing the women.
And it's kind of like a situation of like Esther just being in a situation where you got to just step up to the plate
and just risk yourself for the situation.
And so she's inconveniencing herself because she's putting the time and effort to gather the supplies and give it to them.
She's also risking her own life in this situation, or at least potentially.
Now, go back to verse number 10.
And let us see the contrary with Nabal, who is the rude person.
And by the way, you know, the old adage, do unto others as you would have done unto you.
Right, I mean, if you were in a situation where you wanted something,
it's just like you ought to be willing to return the favor.
And that's what we see with Abigail, who inconveniences herself.
But with Nabal in verse number 10, and Nabal answered David's servants and said,
Who is David and who is the son of Jesse?
There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master.
Basically, Nabal's like, Hey, I don't have to deal with this.
Quit wasting my time.
Quit bugging me with stuff.
I got more important things to worry about.
He is unwilling to be inconvenienced at all.
And this is not a doctrinal sermon specifically on being polite or rude.
We're looking at it through the lens of two characters.
But I would say this is probably normally true that with the rude person,
they are unwilling to be inconvenienced or help out anybody.
All they're going to care about is themselves.
Whereas with a polite person, Abigail, she steps up to the plate
and she helps out in a situation she inconveniences herself.
Go to verse number 18.
Point number one, we see that Abigail inconvenienced herself,
her husband, Nabal, the rude person, he is unwilling to be inconvenienced.
Point number two, we see that Abigail is generous.
Abigail is generous.
Verse 18.
Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine
and five sheep ready dressed in five measures of parched corn
and in hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs
and laid them on asses.
And she said unto her servants, Go on before me.
Behold, I come after you.
But she told not her husband Nabal.
And it was so as she wrote in the ass that she came down
by the covert on the hill.
And behold, David and his men came down against her and she met them.
And what we're seeing here in these verses is Abigail is generous.
I mean, of course, Nabal is the head of the home.
But of course, with all the supplies they have at the house.
Well, Abigail is her husband or his wife.
So she also has access to all those things, but she's being very generous
with what they have to help out David and his men.
Now go to Proverbs 21.
Proverbs chapter 21.
Proverbs chapter 21 and notice what it says in verse number 14.
Proverbs 21, verse 14.
The Bible says a gift in secret pacifieth anger
and a reward in the bosom strong wrath.
And the Bible says a gift in secret pacifieth anger.
And this is basically what Abigail is doing,
because she's just kind of going to David and giving supplies.
But why does the Bible say a gift in secret pacifies or soothes
or gets rid of anger?
Well, let's say, for example,
that two people get into a fight and they're mad at one another.
They're not happy with one another.
And other people are aware that they're not getting along.
And then all of a sudden the one person says, hey, I got you this gift.
And they say it in front of everybody.
That could often make that person mad
because the person is like, you just did that to make me look bad.
If you really wanted to deal with the situation, you know what you do?
Well, you do what the Bible says in Matthew 18.
You go one on one to that person.
A gift in secret, rather than doing it to be seen of man. Right.
And so a gift in secret pacifieth anger.
So, look, if you have a problem with somebody
that you're not getting along with and you want to get rid of the situation,
you know what the secret is?
You go one on one and deal with the situation.
That's the way that you deal with the situation properly
to get rid of the situation.
Now, it's not always possible to pacify or soothe the situation,
but that ought to be what you try to do.
Go to Proverbs chapter 11.
Proverbs 11.
Proverbs chapter 11, verse number 25, Proverbs 11, verse 25.
The Bible says the liberal soul shall be made fat
and he that water it shall be watered also himself.
So the Bible saying is the person that just, you know,
gives liberally, is very generous, is going to be watered himself.
And the idea is, you know, well, you reap what you sow.
I mean, if you're generous with what you have, then you know what?
You reap what you sow.
More money can come back to you.
God can help you out.
God can bless your life.
I'm not saying you're going to be rich,
but the Bible says that you're going to be watered yourself.
Now, it's interesting what it says here.
The liberal soul shall be made fat.
And when it's saying fat, it's just saying, you know,
fat and flourishing are often linked.
Like you have money, you have food, you have nice things.
That's what it's referring to.
But it's interesting that it says the liberal soul shall be made fat.
Now, in the United States, you've got kind of two primary
political parties.
You've got the Republicans and you've got the Democrats.
And when you think of the Republicans, they're known to be the conservatives.
That's another way that people refer to them as.
And the Democrats are known to be the liberals.
And so Joe Biden is a Democrat.
You know, he's a liberal is another way that you would describe it.
And, you know, technically, what being liberal is, is
when you give out of your own pocket to help other people out.
But that's not what the liberal party does.
What they do is they take from the people of the land
and give to other people.
So it's kind of like the Robin Hood technique.
Let me steal from the rich and give to the poor.
Now, is that right to take what belongs to somebody else?
No. I don't want to destroy
all your Disney movies you watched growing up, but Robin Hood's the villain.
I don't fully remember the whole story,
so there's probably a lot of villains in that story.
But when you steal from someone to give to somebody else, actually, that's wrong.
You say, well, it's not fair that they have more money.
Where does the Bible ever say that everyone is financially
going to have the exact same amount of money in life?
That's actually communistic philosophy.
Everyone should just be equal. And then what do people do?
They trust the government's going to be the one
that's going to balance the scales of right and wrong.
And what takes place?
Then you'll have a few rich politicians that are controlling everything.
That's what's going to take place.
And so being liberal is not about taking from somebody
and then giving to somebody else.
Now, if you're liberal, that means you give of what you have.
That's what being liberal actually is.
So it's completely wrong.
You say, well, I mean, Joe Biden's a liberal.
It's like, well, he's certainly not conservative,
but he's not really liberal either because he doesn't give of what he has.
He just gives of what other people have. Right.
Anyway, that is often it's not just in the United States.
This is what politicians do all over the world.
It's like, look at how generous these politicians are.
And they're generous because they take from other people
via taxes and things like that, and then they give to other people.
It's like if they're so generous,
why do they have like a 30 bedroom house and 11 cars? Right.
I mean, if they're really generous,
they'd be taking of what they had to give to other people.
That's what generosity would be.
That's what being liberal would be.
Not taking from somebody else and then giving to somebody else. Right.
But that's that's the way that the world is today.
Now, turn your Bible to Matthew, chapter five, Matthew five.
Now, I mean, obviously it's an issue here in the Philippines as well,
but I would say it's more of an issue in the United States.
I mean, the welfare system is huge in the United States.
And, you know, what the welfare system is
basically in the U.S. is people that do not work.
Basically, they get paid via the government
taking money from those that do work.
And I understand there are people that have legitimate disabilities.
They would not have the ability to work.
But most people that are living on the welfare system are cheating the system.
They are lazy derelicts and they're often drug addicts and drunks,
and then they're just cheating the system.
Anyway, it would absolutely shock you
how much money you lose as an American every year from taxes,
how much taken out, because I've told people before
what my salary was in the U.S. and people are shocked.
Like, that's so high.
It's like, yeah, you don't understand how much the government takes in taxes.
You don't understand that rent is a lot more expensive.
You don't understand that car insurance is extremely expensive.
It's like it goes very, very quickly.
But a large part of it is to support all these governmental programs
so the United States can bomb whatever country they want
or help promote abortion all over the world or whatever they're doing now in 2024.
But being actually liberal, according to the word of God,
that means that you're generous with what you have,
not that you're generous with what somebody else has.
Right. Matthew chapter 5, verse 42.
Matthew 5, verse 42.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow thee,
turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor
and hate thine enemy.
Now, let me ask you a question.
Does the Bible tell us that we should love our neighbor and hate our enemy?
The Bible does not teach that when they say you have heard
that it hath been said.
Jesus is not saying, thus saith the word of God, love your neighbor,
hate your enemy, but now I'm giving you something else.
No, that's just what was said.
Now, most of what takes place here in Matthew five.
You have heard that it hath been said.
They're true statements.
This is not a true statement.
The Bible does not say love your neighbor and hate your personal enemy.
What the Bible says is love your neighbor and hate God's enemies,
not to hate your own personal enemy.
So if somebody is rude to you, somebody is not kind to you.
That doesn't mean that we're supposed to be rude back to them.
You're supposed you're not supposed to love your neighbor
and hate your enemy,
and the Bible says, you know, love your neighbor and also love your enemy as well.
Verse number 44.
But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you and persecute you.
You know, often in life, when you have personal enemies
or people that you don't get along with, as much as you think it's one sided,
usually there's probably both sides that are involved in this friction.
If you have someone that you just don't get along with,
it's probably both sides or at least partially to blame.
And I would say this, that what I had a pastor tell me a long time ago,
if there's someone that, you know, you don't get along with,
what you should strive to do is pray for that person for a week.
Every day, pray for that person, and at the end of the week,
you're probably not going to be upset at that person anymore.
And that's actually exactly what Jesus says here in Matthew five verse 44.
And I can just say that it actually worked.
You find yourself starting to care about someone because the reality is in life,
you know, we're going to develop people that we get mad at
or we have people that we're enemies with or whatever.
And here's the thing, unless they're a wicked person, though,
unless they're an enemy of God, though, we're not supposed to hate that person.
We're not supposed to hold bitterness or hate.
We're supposed to forgive people when they've done us wrong.
And one thing that can actually help you overcome it in your heart,
because as I've said before, bitterness inside your heart is going to harm yourself.
It's not going to harm other people.
One way that can help you overcome it, according to Jesus
and according to, you know, lessons I learned from my old pastor
a long time ago is pray for that person.
And you're actually going to find yourself
actually not being so mad at that person anymore.
Go to Ephesians chapter four.
Now, obviously, take that with a grain of salt, because I'm not saying,
you know, someone is someone burned down your house.
Just pray for them for a week and then you'll get over it.
Obviously, you know, you can take this to extremes.
I hope you understand the balance that I'm talking about.
But, you know, that's something that we should strive to do, obviously,
because we don't want to have personal enemies in our lives.
Bible says in Ephesians chapter four, verse twenty eight.
Ephesians four, verse twenty eight.
And it says in Ephesians four, verse twenty eight,
let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor
working with his hands, the thing which is good,
that he may have to give to him that needeth.
And what the Bible says is one reason to work hard
and to actually be financially successful
is that when others are actually in need,
you can actually help them out.
See, the way Nabal should have looked at this situation.
And look, we don't really know that much about Nabal.
It's really just this chapter that speaks about him.
I mean, it's very possible, especially if people love money,
they could be very hard workers to get that money.
And so he probably worked very hard to get what he had.
But instead of being greedy and covetous and loving money,
he should have looked at the situation and said,
You know what? God has blessed me.
I've been successful.
Let me in turn help somebody out has been a defender of our nation.
The great military leader, David, the one who protected us against Goliath.
The man is being unjustly and wrongly persecuted.
God has blessed me.
You know what? Now let me help him out, because I've been put in a situation
where I am actually able to help out.
Go to your Bible to First Samuel 25.
First Samuel 25.
And so we see that Abigail is a very generous person.
She is willing to be inconvenienced, even risk her own life.
And Abigail is a very generous woman.
Nabal was not willing to be inconvenienced at all.
Well, let's see if he's generous,
like his wife, Abigail, or if he's the opposite.
First Samuel 25, verse 11.
Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh
that I have killed for my shearers and give it on to men
whom I know not whence they be?
He's like, I'm not going to give you any bread.
I'm not going to give you any flesh.
But you can't give water.
I said, really?
I mean, that's just like inside of everyone's heart,
you should have the attitude.
If someone's asking you for water,
it's like you're willing to help them out.
I can't imagine having this attitude.
Where we live, the trash men come around
a few times a week, they take the trash,
and sometimes they'll stop and say, can we have water?
You know what we do?
I mean, shall I give my water to men
whom I know not whence they be?
I mean, that's like five pesos worth of water
I'd put in your bottle for you.
Wouldn't that be foolish?
I mean, do you really think that God
is going to bless you financially
if that is how stingy that you are with money?
I mean, because look, it's hot.
When they ask us for water, you know what I'm thinking?
I don't think that they're trying
to just get rich by stealing water.
You know what I think?
They're really hot, they're sweating,
they've got a difficult job,
and they're actually helping us
because they're doing something in the community.
Obviously, it's their job,
but they're helping us by taking out the trash.
It's like, yeah, you know what, we'll give you water.
Or if we have snacks going around here,
we'll give you this as well, try to help out.
I mean, that's just common courtesy
that a normal person would feel.
That's not how Nabal feels, though.
I mean, if you're not gonna give bread or flesh,
you cannot give water.
I mean, he probably would've been responsible.
Obviously, God was gonna protect David,
but he would've probably been responsible for them dying,
not giving them water.
They're just gonna pass out and die
if you don't actually help them out.
Go to verse number 36, verse 36.
You say, well, I mean, yeah, I mean,
Nabal had some stuff, but maybe,
maybe he wasn't as financially blessed as you're saying.
Okay, well, let's see what it says in verse 36.
And Abigail came to Nabal,
and behold, he held a feast in his house,
like the feast of a king.
You've got more than you need.
You've got everything.
Oh, I'm unwilling to give you a little bit of bread
to help you out.
It's like you're having the feast, not just a feast.
The Bible says the feast of a king, right?
You know, it's interesting when your kids
will learn new words growing up,
and sometimes they like to try to use words all the time.
Like my son, Zeph, he learned the word feast
in the last year, and he likes to use it a lot.
And so we have a lot of food on the table.
He's like, it's a feast.
It's like, I wish we had a feast.
This is not really a feast, right?
But Nabal has a feast, a feast of a king.
So basically, all the meat that you could ever want,
I mean, everything.
He held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king.
He's very rich.
And Nabal's heart was merry within,
and for he was very drunken.
Wherefore, she told him nothing,
less or more until the morning light.
Now, obviously, it's wrong to drink alcohol.
Obviously, it's wrong to get drunk.
But let's be honest, grape juice and wine
would have been very, very, very expensive.
I mean, it's expensive now, right?
I mean, grape juice is like the greatest tasting drink
in the entire world.
But the reason why I don't drink it every day
is because it's expensive.
And especially without modern technology, having wine,
I mean, that's worth a lot of money.
Nabal has everything that man could want in life.
And it says that he's very drunken.
Wherefore, she told him nothing,
less or more until the morning light.
But it came to pass in the morning
when the wine was gone out of Nabal,
and his wife had told him these things,
that his heart died within him,
and he became as a stone.
Look, Nabal is a very greedy man.
He is the exact opposite of being generous.
I mean, a man who has all of this stuff,
and you can't even give water,
you're feasting on wine on expensive beverages,
but you cannot be bothered to give a little bit of water
to someone that's helping out.
I mean, it's pretty ridiculous when you look at this,
because you might see this story
and kind of passively read it,
and then just be like, well, why did God kill Nabal?
But literally, Nabal, by not giving them water,
I mean, in his mind, he might be thinking
they're gonna die, and he doesn't care.
Has no concern whatsoever about David at all.
First Samuel 15, go to verse 21.
First Samuel 15, verse 21.
Point number one, Abigail, in convenience to herself,
she even risks her own life potentially
by helping out David and his men,
and once again, her life is not really at risk
because they're planning to kill all the men,
not the women, right?
Point number two, we see Abigail was generous,
and her husband Nabal was very greedy.
Point three, we see in this story
that Abigail takes responsibility for the situation.
Verse 21, now David had said, surely in vain
have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness,
so that nothing was missed
of all that pertained onto him,
and he hath required me evil for good.
So David says, I've helped out, and it was in vain.
It was useless, it was pointless.
Why did I help out?
That's actually a foolish statement by David.
You know why?
The Bible says in all labor there is profit.
You don't want to take this attitude,
well, I mean, I'm not getting paid for it,
so I don't want to help.
It's like, in all labor there is profit.
I recommend to all of us, adults, children,
it's like, hey, you know what, you got free time,
there's something to do, in all labor there's profit.
But David feels like it was pointless,
it's in vain because he's like,
man, we don't have food, we don't have water,
what are we gonna do?
David's having a bad attitude.
Verse 22, so and more also do God
unto the enemies of David if I leave
of all that pertain to him by the morning light,
any that pisseth against the wall.
And that's an expression to refer to all the men,
referring to obviously men,
they stand up when they use the bathroom, right?
And so the Bible's referring to just
he's gonna kill all of the men
and just, I guess, save the women of the house,
Abigail and whatever women there might be.
Go to verse number 24, actually verse 23.
When Abigail saw David, she hasted
and lighted off the ass and fell before David on her face
and bowed herself to the ground.
So Abigail just bows down before David
and she's just kind of interceding in this situation.
Now let me ask you a question in this situation.
Is Abigail at fault for the situation?
No, she's not.
I mean, there's nothing in this story
that she could possibly say that Abigail is at fault.
But notice what it says in verse 24.
And fell at his feet and said,
Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be,
and let thine handmaid, I pray thee,
speak in thine audience,
and hear the words of thine handmaid.
So she's stepping in on behalf
of her just obnoxiously rude husband
and said, let me take responsibility.
I'll take the blame for the situation.
Verse number 25.
Let not my lord, I pray thee,
regard this man of Belial, even Nabal,
for as his man is, so is he.
And so she refers to her husband
as a reprobate, basically.
This is a unique marriage.
You know, you might ask the question,
we were talking about this yesterday after the sermon,
what was it that Abigail saw in Nabal
where she decided to marry him?
Was it an arranged marriage?
Did she marry him because he had a lot of money?
I mean, it's just like,
those are kind of the two options
that you see in this story.
Because there's really nothing good about Nabal.
I mean, when she's like,
my husband's a reprobate.
It's like, well, why'd you marry him?
Right, doesn't make sense.
I don't presume to know for sure
because the Bible doesn't really give a direct statement.
She says, for as his name is, so is he.
Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.
But I, thine handmaid, saw not the young men of my lord
whom thou didst send.
Now, therefore, my lord, as the lord liveth
and as thy soul liveth,
seeing the lord hath withholden thee
from coming to shed blood
and from avenging thyself with thine own hand,
now let thine enemies and they
that seek evil to my lord be as Nabal.
Verse 27, and now this blessing which thine handmaid
hath brought unto my lord,
let it even be given unto the young men
that follow my lord.
I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid.
She takes responsibility for the situation.
I'm not even saying that she had to
because she did nothing wrong.
For the lord will certainly make my lord a sure house
because my lord fighteth the battles of the lord,
and evil hath not been found in the all thy days.
So she's saying, you did nothing wrong,
and you're being unjustly persecuted by king Saul.
So everybody knows about the story of David.
He's well known in the land.
Yet a man has risen to pursue thee
and to seek thy soul,
but the soul of my lord shall be bound
in the bundle of life with the lord thy God
and the souls of thine enemies.
Them shall he sling out as out of the middle of a sling,
and it shall come to pass
when the lord shall have done to my lord
according to all the good
that he hath spoken concerning thee,
and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel.
So Abigail knows that David's gonna be the next king.
Right?
Don't tell me that Nabal didn't realize
that David was set up to be the next king.
I'm sure everybody was aware of,
hey, king Saul's been replaced,
but it's kind of like, you know,
he's just kind of a puppet head
until God fully replaces him and king David takes over.
Abigail's fully aware of that.
Everybody knows who king David is.
So don't give me this, Nabal.
I don't know who you are or your story or whatever.
Then it says here in verse number,
let's see, what verse are we on?
Verse 31.
That this shall be no grief
unto thee nor offensive heart unto my lord,
either that thou hast shed blood cause us
or that my lord hath avenged himself.
But when the lord shall have dealt well with my lord,
then remember thine handmaid.
And David said to Abigail,
blessed be the lord God of Israel
which sent thee this day to meet me.
And blessed be thy advice,
and blessed be thou which hast kept me this day
from coming to shed blood
and from avenging myself with mine own hand.
Now in verse number 33, David makes a statement,
blessed be thy advice.
And you know, one thing we need to realize as men
and as husbands, yeah, we are the heads of our homes.
There's no question about that.
But don't get this idea
that means that you're more intelligent than your wife.
I mean, what David said is blessed be thou, be thy advice.
And I would say David was probably very intelligent
and educated man.
But he still looked at Abigail and said,
you know what, I can actually learn
and get some advice from this woman.
She actually taught me something.
And you know what, one reason God has given you a spouse,
I mean, as to become one flesh,
I mean, one reason is because your wife also has a brain.
You can also learn from her as well.
Blessed be thy advice.
And he says, so don't have this attitude
why I'm the head of my home
and that means I'm better than my wife or whatever.
That's the wrong attitude to have.
That's a foolish attitude to have.
And that's the beginnings of an unhappy marriage
that you're going to have
if that's the attitude that you're taking, right?
So he says in verse number 34,
for in very deed as the Lord God of Israel liveth,
which hath kept me back from hurting me,
except thou hadst hasten come to meet me,
surely there had not been left unenabled
by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.
So he tells her,
I was gonna kill every single man in this house.
That's what he tells her.
Why does she end up agreeing to marry David after this?
Honestly, I'm not sure when he just said
that he was gonna kill every guy in the house,
but she ends up marrying David after this, right?
Verse number 35, so David received of her hand
that which she had brought him and said unto her,
go up in peace to thine house,
see I have hearkened to thy voice
and have accepted thy person.
So we're seeing that with Abigail,
not only is she willing to inconvenience herself
and she's very generous,
she takes responsibility for a situation
that honestly it was not her fault.
Another great example,
probably a better example in the Bible
is the character Naomi.
She never blames her husband.
Now whose fault was it in the book of Ruth?
Alimelech, 100%.
I've literally heard,
I heard online it's like people that were saying
it's actually like Naomi's fault in the situation
because she takes responsibility in the situation.
There's nothing from the text itself
that says it's the fault of Naomi.
She just doesn't blame her husband for the situation.
It clearly says Alimelech brought his family to Moab.
But she shows the characters of a virtuous woman
and it's probably not a surprise
that her daughter-in-law becomes virtuous herself
because she has a great example in Naomi
that showed her a great example.
And so Naomi's another great example
where basically you take responsibility in situations
even if it's not really your fault in situations.
What about Nabal?
Go back to verse 14, verse 14.
What about Nabal?
Does he take responsibility for situations?
Verse 14,
But one of the young men told Abigail,
Nabal's wife, saying,
Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness
to salute our master, and he railed on them.
But the men were very good unto us,
and we were not hurt.
Neither missed we anything
as long as we were conversant with them
when we were in the fields.
Verse 16,
They were a wall unto us, both by night and day,
all the while we were with them, keeping the sheep.
As I said before, they were basically free protection.
It's like paying for security guards
or getting security guards for free,
but you didn't pay for them.
I mean, I'm sure every business would love that.
Instead of having to pay for security guards,
you have free security guards.
Now, here's the thing.
Imagine somebody came to you,
and you're a business owner,
and you're very successful.
You have a lot of money.
You're very rich.
And then all of a sudden, somebody comes to you,
and it turns out that somebody was actually
really helping you make a lot of that money,
and you were not aware of it.
And you find out.
You know, you're a millionaire.
You've got like 100 million pesos in your bank account.
And it turns out somebody actually helped you make
like 500,000 pesos worth of that money.
You didn't realize it,
but somebody was actually doing work for free,
and they helped you out.
And you can't give them water.
You can't give them food.
I mean, come on.
And here's the thing.
This is God's judgment for killing Nabal, right?
It's not my judgment.
I mean, this is what God determined.
He's like, I'm gonna put this,
and here's the thing.
Let's say Nabal is a child of the devil,
because I'd say he probably is.
All of his servants seem to think so,
and his wife thinks so.
He's probably a reprobate.
He probably hates God,
and there's probably a reason why
he hates the next king of Israel.
He's probably very anti anything godly at all.
Well, here's the thing.
You know what?
I would never feel sad about any reprobate dying.
That's a good thing.
It's like, yeah, you don't even deserve to live.
Just die now,
and just because the world would be
a much better place without you.
And Nabal ends up getting struck down dead by God,
but it's like somebody comes to him
and says, hey, you know what?
They helped us.
It helped us make so much more money,
and you can't give them water.
I mean, it's pretty ridiculous
when you really think about this story,
but this is the rude person, Nabal.
He's unwilling to help.
So this is not some random person
approaching you on the street
and saying, oh, you know, can I have money?
This is an example of someone
who's actually helped you out for free,
someone you actually know a lot about already.
I mean, David is known in the land.
He's a godly person.
He fought all these battles.
He beat Goliath,
and then you can't even give him water
when he's helped you out.
It's pretty ridiculous.
Go to verse number 36.
We'll close up.
Verse 36.
And let me say this.
I know sermons like this about being polite.
They're not like the most exciting sermons.
They don't get the most views on YouTube or whatever,
but I think all of us can learn from this.
I mean, if you turn someone down in life
for a situation, they ask for something,
and yeah, you have the liberty to say no,
whatever belongs to you.
You don't have to say yes.
I'm not saying you should say yes to every situation,
but if you're gonna say no,
you can do it in a kind way.
You can be polite.
I'm sure David would have been pretty disappointed
if he got turned down by Nabal,
but if Nabal had said it in a respectful way,
I doubt that David would have said,
let us kill every single last one of those people.
I seriously doubt that,
and what I would say like this is,
if you have a ton of enemies in your life,
maybe it's because you're rude,
because honestly, if you act polite and kind to people,
it's like you're not really gonna get
a lot of enemies in this life.
Now, people might hate you for what you believe,
but in terms of you're not gonna be getting in fights
with the person who's the waiter at the restaurant
or the person that's bagging your groceries,
the cashier at the grocery store.
I mean, look, if you're getting in fights
with every cashier at grocery stores, it's you.
You're the problem.
It's not them.
I mean, look, if you're in situations of fights
in every area of your life with just random people
that you don't know,
it's not because you're an independent fundamental Baptist.
The common denominator is you,
because if you're a polite and kind person,
honestly, you're just not gonna gather that many enemies.
Now, as I said, the exception would be
that some people are gonna hate you for what you believe.
I'm pretty sure if Vice Pongy'd ever listen
to a sermon of mine, he would hate me.
Okay, I get that.
You're gonna have some people that hate you.
But I'm just saying, you know what?
I don't get in fights with people
that I meet in public.
You know, if you act friendly, if you act nice,
if you act polite, you're not gonna develop enemies.
There's no reason to be rude.
We can just be polite.
First thing with 25, verse 36,
let's just finish the chapter.
Abigail came to Nabal, and behold,
he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king,
and Nabal's heart was merry within him,
for he was very drunken.
Wherefore, she told him nothing less or more
until the morning light.
I didn't think about this, but I was like,
why does it mention this specifically?
I would probably imagine the reason
why she waited till the morning, though,
just thinking about this, is if he's a reprobate
and if he's drunk, it's probably not the best time
to say anything to him,
because he's probably a pretty dangerous person,
to be honest.
That's probably why she waited until the morning light.
That would be my opinion.
I could be wrong, but that kinda makes sense to me.
But she waits till the morning light,
but it came to pass in the morning
when the wine was gone out of Nabal
and his wife had told him these things
that his heart died within him
and he became as a stone.
And it came to pass about 10 days after
that the Lord smote Nabal that he died.
And as the Bible says, vengeance belongeth unto me.
I will repay, saith the Lord.
And so if God looks at your situation and says,
this vengeance deserves to be poured out,
we can leave it in God's hands
to right the wrong in the situation.
Verse 39, and when David heard that Nabal was dead,
he said, blessed be the Lord that hath pleaded
the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal
and hath kept his servant from evil.
For the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal
upon his own head, and David sent and communed
with Abigail to take her to him to wife.
And when the servants of David were come
to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her,
saying, David sent us unto thee
to take thee to him to wife.
And she arose and bowed herself in her face to the earth
and said, behold, let thine hand may be a servant
to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord.
And Abigail hasted and arose and wrote upon an ass
with five damsels of hers that went after her,
and she went after the messengers of David
and became his wife.
Now, as I said, I don't know,
I would not suggest if someone says
that I was gonna kill every single guy in this house,
I wouldn't say that's the person that you should marry,
but Abigail decides to marry David in this story.
And so I will say this, though,
that David's already a married man.
Bible says not to multiply wives unto yourself.
And so if you're married to one person,
you can't get married to another person.
Now, I will say this,
that when you look at polygamy in the Bible,
it is certainly a sin, right?
Don't multiply wives unto yourself, the Bible clearly says.
It is certainly a sin that a lot of godly people
are guilty of.
When you're looking at it in the Bible,
it doesn't seem to be as big of a sin
as it feels to all of us.
What do I mean?
I mean, I think fornication is a worse sin than polygamy
because God holds it more accountable.
It doesn't feel worse, and I get that
because when you think of polygamy,
it's like, what are you, a Mormon or a Muslim, right?
It's like, and look, polygamy's wrong, it's a sin.
You see that every time anybody marries multiple wives,
it does not help their life.
They're certainly not blessed by it.
But I would just say this,
that I'm not saying that we should make light of this sin
because it's certainly a sin.
I would say we make light of a lot of things
that are actually pretty serious, though.
And what I would say is that
if you were to approach college students
and you were to ask them,
would you ever marry multiple people at the same time?
You're like, no, I would never do that, that's horrible.
But the same person would sleep with someone
they're not married to.
And in reality, the Bible says God killed 23,000 people
in one day for the sin of fornication.
That seemed pretty serious to me.
Now, both are wrong, but let me just say something.
Young people in this room, be very careful.
The Bible says flee fornication.
And I'm not saying that God would strike you down dead
for committing that sin,
but He's certainly going to hold you more accountable
when you know the truth and you grow up in this church.
But it also says this, flee fornication.
Every sin that a man doeth is without the body,
but he that commiteth fornication
sinneth against his own body.
And there's something about that sin of sexual sin
that can stick with you.
And look, if you end up marrying somebody else,
you sleep with a bunch of people
that you're not married to,
then you marry somebody else,
you're going to cause permanent problems
down the road in your life.
Now, obviously, you know how people make mistakes.
I'm not trying to rip on you
for whatever past mistakes that you made.
All of us are sinners and have done wrong,
but I'm speaking to the young people
that have not done that choice yet.
Hey, wait until you're married, is what the Bible says.
Now, David is guilty of polygamy,
and it's kind of interesting
because he's guilty of polygamy.
And then in the next verse, verse 43,
David also took Ahinam of Jezreel,
and there are also both of them as wives.
And it's just like, why aren't you happy with,
I mean, you're married to Michael,
and I understand that one got messed up,
and it's kind of a unique situation,
but why aren't you just happy with Abigail?
Then you marry somebody else.
You know why?
Because once you start going down a road
of doing wrong and committing sin,
all of a sudden, you just really dive in.
Isn't that true?
We have the mindset,
well, I'm only going to marry Abigail,
but then all of a sudden,
you're just marrying a bunch of women.
Right?
Then it says here in verse 44,
but Saul had given Michael his daughter,
David's wife, Defouti, the son of Laish,
which was of Galem.
So his first wife, Michael, was taken from him.
She's given to another man,
and then David's married to multiple women.
He's no longer with Michael, but he will be later on.
But look, going back to the idea of the sermon
of being polite,
and we have the polite person, Abigail,
and we have the rude person, Nabal.
Abigail's willing to inconvenience herself.
Generally, rude people are not willing
to inconvenience themselves.
Abigail's very generous.
Polite people are often very generous.
Rude people are often not very generous at all.
And then lastly,
Abigail takes responsibility for situations,
and Nabal, he's not willing
to take responsibility at all.
Right?
And look, let me just say this in closing,
that us as people, it's like,
you know what, we need to be polite and kind people.
And oftentimes, it's not what we say,
but it's how we say things.
And we can be kind.
We can be polite people.
It's one thing that we can often forget,
because as fundamental Baptists,
we stand up for the truth.
We believe in hard preaching.
Thus saith the Bible.
We stand up for the commandments of God.
Yeah, but we also need strong character in our lives.
And it's not a good thing
if we're getting in fights and disagreements
with every single person under the sun.
No, the Bible actually speaks about the person
that's a godly person that grows.
They're not gonna have strife.
They're not gonna have fightings
with every single person that they meet.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today,
and I ask you to help us learn
from the example of Abigail.
Help us be people that are polite
and just kind and nice people, God.
Help us not to be like Nabal.
Help us not to be rude people,
but help us to be people
that just have a good attitude
and are kind and nice and polite people, God.
We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.