Man, the title of my sermon this morning
is an ungrateful fool, an ungrateful fool.
Of course, this week is Thanksgiving,
so we're gonna look at one of the most unthankful people
in the Bible, which is this character, Nabal.
And I hope that you were listening
as we read the entire chapter,
because I'm not gonna have time to really go over
every twist and turn of the story in the sermon,
but you just heard the entire story.
And the thing that I wanna get across this morning
is that God wants us to be thankful,
and thankfulness flows from a place of humility.
Everything that we have was given to us.
Here's what the Bible says in James.
It says, "Do not err, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above
and cometh down from the father of lights
with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
No matter what blessings we have in our life,
any good thing that has come into our life,
it is a blessing from God
and we need to be thankful to God for giving it to us.
And we need to be humble enough to realize,
hey, I'm not just a self-made man
that did everything for myself.
No, God has blessed me.
God has given me these gifts.
Whatever abilities we have, the Bible says,
it's the Lord that gives you the power to get wealth.
So whatever you achieve at your job,
you should ultimately thank God for those things.
So thankfulness flows from humility,
whereas unthankfulness is based on pride
and the idea that we achieved everything by ourselves
without the help of anyone else, including God.
Now, let's get into the story here
and let's look at what happened here.
So David had helped out Nabal in the past,
and now he wants to just enjoy some hospitality
from Nabal.
And the first thing I wanna show you
is that David's request is totally reasonable here.
David is in the right.
Look what the Bible says in verse number seven.
It says, "Now I have heard that thou hast sheers.
Now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not.
Neither was there aught 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 here sends 10 men unto Nabal,
and what you have to understand
is that Nabal is shearing the sheep.
This is sort of like a harvest party or something, right?
So when the harvest comes in, everybody celebrates.
It'd be sort of like in certain cultures,
they butcher a pig or something, and then, you know,
everybody comes out, and it's kind of a party,
and everybody enjoys, and what have you.
My wife told me that when she was a kid,
they would still do this in Hungary,
where they would stab the pig in the side of the neck,
and then it would run around squealing
before it died, and then that was sort of like an alarm,
like, hey everybody, we're having a party,
we're having a pig slaughter, come on over.
It was a form of mass communication, literally.
And so the shearing of the sheep is a similar idea
that basically you've put a bunch of work and effort
into these sheep, and now comes the harvest, as it were,
as you harvest the wool from the sheep,
everybody enjoys and parties and has a good time.
And so David is sending his men
just looking to get in on this party
and to just get some hospitality
and to enjoy some of the bounty of Nabal
because they have been helping Nabal out.
They've been protecting Nabal
and helping Nabal succeed in business.
And I'll talk about that a little more later.
Look what it says in verse number 15.
This is what Nabal's own servants are testifying.
Verse 15, "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."
And here's the key, verse 16.
"They were a wall unto us, both by night and day,
all the while we were with them keeping the sheep."
And so the idea here is that David
is essentially providing like a private security force
for Nabal in a very lawless wilderness region
where there are all kinds of bandits and marauders
and all kinds of damage would typically happen
to Nabal's flocks in the past historically,
but because David and his warriors are around,
they are able to protect Nabal,
be a wall to them by day and by night,
and they end up just doing way better in business
because of David just volunteering
as a private security force
'cause he's pretty much there anyway.
And so he figures, you know,
I'm gonna take care of this guy
and then eventually he'll take care of me.
And so it's a reasonable request
because David had provided a valuable service to Nabal.
And then another reason why this is reasonable
is that you have to understand that in the biblical times,
this is a culture that depends upon reciprocal hospitality.
Okay, this isn't like in our modern day
where you travel and you go stay at the Holiday Inn Express
and you, you know, you got your restaurants,
you got your rental car, you got your hotel.
In these times, there's a reciprocal hospitality
that goes on where you stay with them
when you're in their town,
they stay with you when they're in your town.
I do you a favor, you do me a favor.
This is the way culturally that this society function.
And so it's perfectly reasonable for David
to expect some hospitality from this guy
when he's been showing hospitality unto this guy's men.
It's a reciprocation that he's looking for.
And also notice that David is not demanding anything
or saying, hey, you owe me this, give me this or whatever.
He basically is just requesting any hospitality
that Nabal's willing to give.
He just says, hey, whatever comes into your hand,
whatever you wanna do would be great.
Hey, we've been taking care of your guys.
We've been helping your bottom line.
We've been protecting them from marauders.
And so just whatever you can do, we'd appreciate it, right?
And then what does Nabal do?
Well, he ends up just railing on him.
And we'll get to that in a moment.
But here's the thing, if you wanna apply this spiritually,
if you think about it, God is often protecting us
and we don't necessarily think about it or acknowledge it.
God is protecting us.
God is providing us.
And God is blessing us in ways that we didn't even ask for.
And we don't even necessarily think about or appreciate it,
but yet God is doing all these wonderful things
for us all the time.
Here's what the Bible says, and you don't have to turn there,
but in Matthew 5, 48, it says, or 45, sorry,
that you may be the children of your father,
which is in heaven, for he maketh his son
to shine on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Acts 14, verse 17 talks about God saying,
"Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness,
and that he did good and gave us rain from heaven
and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts
with food and gladness."
So the Bible says, no matter who you are,
man, woman, boy, girl, whether you're a Christian,
non-Christian, good person, evil person,
God is constantly doing stuff for everyone.
He gave us all life.
He gives us the sunshine, the rain.
He gives us food.
He gives us all kinds of blessings.
He sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
And we need to be thankful and appreciate
the things that God has done for us.
Now, here's what you have to understand.
The stuff that God does for us by feeding us,
clothing us, protecting us, giving us life,
these are things that we need that God does for us.
Okay, now here's the thing.
The common objection to this story about David and Nabal
is like, well, David is demanding something of Nabal,
but Nabal never really asked for David's help.
And so here's an illustration that could maybe help you
to understand the objection here,
is that you drive across the border into Mexico, okay?
And here's what happens.
You slow down and stop at a red light,
and next thing you know,
a Mexican man has leapt onto your hood of your car
and is violently, frantically washing your windshield.
Who has had this happen before?
The rest of you have never been to Mexico, okay?
So you go to Mexico,
and you got some guy just leaping up
and just washing your window,
and you're like, bro, I didn't ask for this help.
I didn't ask you to wash my window.
I don't need you to wash my window.
And what is it is the guy wants money from you,
and he wants you to pay him for a service
that you didn't really need.
And I think some people are wrongly
reading the navel story like that,
and thinking like, oh, well, David wants to be paid
for a service that Nabal didn't really need.
But the reason why that is a bad illustration
is that Nabal needed David's help
because without David's help, they lose sheep,
they lose men, they get violently attacked,
they get robbed.
And so David is stepping in and helping him
in a way that he for sure wants to be helped.
I mean, there's no way this guy just enjoys getting robbed.
He just enjoys losing his property.
No, it's important.
And so I was trying to think of some modern day
illustrations to help us understand this.
And obviously no analogy that I come up with
is gonna be perfect.
But let's say, you know, you at your house
are just, you're constantly getting robbed,
people are always breaking into your car,
they're breaking into your yard,
maybe even breaking into your house and stealing stuff.
Right?
Let's say, you know, the neighbor across the street
orders a security guard or something
because he's sick of getting robbed and broken into.
So he's just got a private security force.
Now all of a sudden you just never get robbed again.
You're never getting broken into again.
Nothing bad's happening to you, right?
And then basically that guy comes to you and says,
hey, listen, it's Thanksgiving and I'm struggling.
You know, can you help me out with some stuff
so I can put on a Thanksgiving for my family?
And you're just like, who the heck are you, man?
I don't care about you.
And then starts slandering the guy
and calling him names and falsely accusing him
when this guy has helped you out demonstrably
because you're safe.
Or I was thinking about even the parking lot
that our church is in that's filled with all kinds of bums
and transients and stuff from time to time.
And you know, they make the parking lot gross
by leaving their trash everywhere,
maybe even going to the bathroom publicly
and things like that.
And so obviously this is a problem that's just epidemic
in America with people that do this.
And let's say, you know, one of our neighboring businesses
just really just cleaned up the parking lot
and just had zero tolerance and just cleared out
all these bums and transients all the time, right?
And then they wanted to come and, you know,
enjoy the chili cook-off and say, hey, you know,
can we get some bowls of chili?
Can we get some cornbread?
Can we get some cider?
Since we have cleaned up this gross mess in the parking lot
and we've made the parking lot better,
we've made this shopping center better.
And then we're just like, oh, you guys are trash.
And we just started calling them names and railing on them.
Can you see how that would be ungrateful
and sinful and wrong?
And so I hope that helps you understand the story here
that first of all, number one, David's request is reasonable.
He has provided a valuable service that was needed.
This isn't like someone gave me a gift I didn't ask for.
Somebody gave me a gift card
and now they think I owe them something.
No, it's like something that you needed.
Getting your life saved, getting your property saved,
not being robbed, not being stolen from, et cetera.
So we see Nabal's ingratitude in verse number 10.
Look down at your Bible there in 1 Samuel 25.
It says, "And Nabal answered David's servants and said,
"'Who is David?'
"And who's the son of Jesse?"
Just total disregard for David
and what he has done for him over the course of time.
And who is the son of Jesse?
There be many servants nowadays
that break away every man from his master.
There's the false accusation right there.
Because remember,
David is the number one most loyal servant of Saul.
God says it.
The other people in the story say it.
David himself knows it.
Everybody knows it.
And this guy falsely accuses David and says,
"Oh yeah, you're just another servant
"breaking away from his master.
"So I then take my bread and my water and my flesh
"that I have killed for my sewers
"and given unto men whom I know not whence they be."
So first of all, he fails to recognize David
and what he has done for him.
Then he slanders David and rails on him
since he was actually super loyal to Saul.
And of course, this is called railing
'cause in verse 14, it says 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.
So number one, he just has no gratitude to David.
Number two, he slanders David, rails on him.
And then number three, it's my bread, my water, my food.
He basically just thinks I did everything on my own
without any help from anyone.
And a lot of people have this attitude today,
just thinking I did everything myself,
and my parents don't get any gratitude,
God doesn't get any gratitude,
my teachers and mentors and people that have brought me here
don't get any gratitude.
This is foolish because no one achieves anything in this world
on their own.
Every single one of us has been helped along the way
and blessed by other people,
and we should be thankful and grateful to those people.
Now, what's interesting is that Nabal's name
literally means fool, okay?
And you say, well, why would anybody name their kid fool?
What happens is when you go from one culture
to the other, one language to the other,
this is where this happens.
Because I remember I knew a guy in the alarm business,
a Chinese guy, whose name literally sounded like the F word.
So he went by Philip, okay?
Because here's the thing, in our culture,
that's not a name that you walk around with.
Because it's gonna make people mad,
it's gonna offend people, it's gonna confuse people.
And so therefore you go by Philip, okay?
But here's the thing about that,
is that when you go from one language to another,
maybe in one language a name is a cool name,
and you think about even the name Caleb in the Bible, right?
And Caleb is a popular name.
Lots of people name their kid Caleb.
Caleb is a great man in the Bible,
but Caleb literally means dog in Hebrew, right?
But if you remember, Caleb is not coming from
necessarily a Hebrew speaking culture.
Originally, he's one who comes into the tribe of Judah.
And so the point is that a name
could have a negative meaning in one language
and a positive meaning in another language.
And that's the idea here.
So this guy's name happens to be Nabal,
which is Hebrew for fool.
Okay, let me remind you of a verse in the Bible.
The fool has said in his heart that there is no God, right?
So notice, and of course, if you're reading this in Hebrew,
it's like the Nabal has said in his heart
that there is no God.
And the Bible defines it for us right here
in first Samuel 25, that this is the Hebrew word for fool.
He said, it's just like his name.
Nabal is his name and folly is with him, right?
Folly is the noun that describes the attribute
that a fool has, folly, stupidity, right?
And so the point is that just as the fool says in his heart,
who is the Lord, right?
And what does the Bible say in Proverbs 30?
Lest I be full and deny thee and say, who is the Lord?
Right, people, they're wealthy, they're prosperous,
they're successful and they start just saying, who's God?
God didn't do anything for me, I did this all myself.
And so it's no coincidence that the fool says in his heart,
there is no God, who is the Lord?
I did this all myself.
This is Nabal's attitude toward David, who's David?
I did this all myself, right?
Because of course, David in this story represents God,
represents the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why Abigail says to him,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
This is all foreshadowing things that have to do
with the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we've got some modern day Nabals today
who are ungrateful fools like Nabal.
Go through it to 1 Timothy chapter number five.
1 Timothy chapter number five.
We don't want to be a fool.
We don't want to be ungrateful to God.
We need to stop and remember that everything we have,
every good gift is from above
and coming down from the father of lights, right?
God gave us everything.
God gives us the power to get wealth.
If you say, no, it's 'cause I'm smart.
God's the one who made you smart.
No, it's 'cause I worked hard.
Hey, there are people out there
that wish that they could work hard,
but they're physically unable to do so.
At least thank God for your health.
That God, oh, I just, I'm a self-made man.
Yeah, you live in America, the land of opportunity.
That makes it a lot easier to pick yourself up
by your bootstraps 'cause you live in America.
And so you've at least been blessed to live in America.
And other people made America happen.
You did not build this country.
You didn't make this country, right?
Other people built this country, we're thankful.
People stood up for freedom.
People stood up for what was right.
People preach the gospel.
You got saved because someone got you saved
and someone got them saved.
Look, we are here today because of God, ultimately,
and more immediately, we're here today
because of other people in our lives
who helped us get where we are.
That's what the Bible teaches.
But here's what you'll hear from people
that don't wanna be grateful and don't wanna be thankful.
Here's what they'll say about God.
And you'll hear atheists talk this way.
"Well, I didn't ask to be created.
"I didn't ask to be born.
"I didn't ask for God to give me life."
We've all heard that before.
And again, this is the navel mentality.
And again, remember, God didn't jump on your windshield
and start washing your window that wasn't dirty, right?
You pull into Mexico, your windshield's totally clean
and some guy starts washing it.
That's not what God did you.
God gave you life.
God fed you, clothed you, protected you.
That is stuff that you needed.
And he did it for you.
And then that same attitude toward God
can be had toward people's parents.
And kids will literally say to their parents,
"I didn't ask to be born."
And mom says, "Hey, I was pregnant with you.
"I was throwing up every day for the first trimester
"with hyperemesis.
"And I went through all the pain
"and struggle of childbirth.
"I risked my life giving birth to you.
"Oh, I changed your diaper thousands of times.
"Oh, I didn't ask for any of that.
"I didn't ask to be born.
"I didn't ask to have my rear end wiped.
"I didn't ask to be fed."
Guess what?
That's all stuff that you needed,
whether you asked for it or not.
You gotta be thankful
and not be some death-worshipping nihilistic weirdo
where you say, "Oh, I don't even wanna be alive."
And, "Hey, this is the day which the Lord has made."
Let us rejoice and be glad in it
and not be these nihilistic weirdos
that, "Oh, I didn't ask to be born, Mom."
You need to be thankful to your mother.
Be grateful to her that gave you life.
Look what the Bible says in 1 Timothy 5, verse four.
It says, "But if any widow have children or nephews,"
Now, let me just warn you, this is an archaic word here,
nephew, because in this context,
it is actually referring to grandsons.
And if you look up the word nephew in an English dictionary,
you will see that it does not only mean nephew
like we would think of it,
but that in an archaic meaning, it means grandsons, okay?
And that is what it means in this passage.
That's why it says,
"If any widow have children or nephews,
let them learn first to show piety at home
and to requite their," what?
Their parents, right?
So that kind of gives us the clue here
that the nephews are talking about,
direct descendants here, okay?
And so, "If any widow have children or nephews,
let them learn first to show piety at home
and to requite their parents."
Now, what does it mean to requite their parents?
If you break down this word,
see the re there?
You know what re means again?
And you know what quit means?
Quit means we're even, okay?
We are quit, we are even.
And so when the Bible says to requite their parents,
it is saying to pay back their parents,
to recompense their parents,
to return the favor to their parents.
And so the Bible says
that if any widow have children or nephews,
those children or nephews should learn first
to show piety at home and to requite their parents
for that is good and acceptable before God.
You know what the Bible teaches
that children owe their parents something, right?
Your parents, your dad sired you,
your mother birthed you, your parents provided for you,
fed you, clothed you, changed your diaper,
raised you, brought you up,
and now you are indebted to your parents.
You, oh, I didn't ask for any of that.
You are indebted to your parents, what the Bible says.
Look at verse number eight, it says,
and this is on the same subject,
talking about children or nephews.
It says, but if any provide not for his own,
talking about if somebody has widows,
if somebody has people in their family that they owe,
and then they just leave them out high and dry
and won't help them out.
If any provide not for his own,
and especially for those of his own house,
he has denied the faith and is worse and an infidel.
So let's go back and think about Nabal and David.
What was Nabal's problem?
Nabal's problem number one was
that he didn't recognize David and what he had done for him.
Who is David?
Who's the son of Jesse?
Hey, same way people don't recognize God.
And what he has done.
When they knew God, they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful.
But they became vain in their imaginations
and their foolish heart was darkened.
What happened to Nabal?
His heart is hardened.
Same as your foolish heart being darkened
because you don't acknowledge who God is
and what God has done for you.
Or how about this?
Not acknowledging your parents
and what your parents have done for you.
And look, this is a good Thanksgiving sermon anyway,
because some of you are gonna get around family
on Thanksgiving and it would behoove some of you
to learn to honor your father and mother
at that Thanksgiving dinner
and not show up and be a pain in the rear end
and be a loud mouth and be a jackass at the dinner table.
No, you need to show up and be a blessing to your parents
and honor your father and mother.
That's what the Bible says.
Not ruin Thanksgiving by being obnoxious punk.
Well, my parents, shut up and honor your parents.
Who is David?
Who is my mom?
Who is my dad?
Your mom and dad are worthy of your respect and honor,
and you owe them your very existence.
You owe them your life and your survival.
That's what the Bible teaches, requite them.
So number one, he failed to recognize
what David had done for him and who he is.
Number two, he slanders David and rails on him.
And this is how typically people who are ungrateful,
they get out of honoring those who've been good unto them
and requiting those who've done good unto them
and being grateful and thankful to those.
What do they do?
Will they just criticize?
Because they don't wanna just say,
hey, I'm an ungrateful jerk,
so I'm not gonna requite my parents.
Like, oh no, my parents are bad.
And then same thing with the atheist.
Why won't the atheist be thankful to God?
What does the atheist say about God?
God's bad.
Isn't that what atheists say?
God's a racist.
God's homophobic.
God's misogynistic.
God did a genocide.
God wiped out the whole stinking world with Noah's ark
because he's God.
He kills, he makes alive.
He's a creator.
He brought you into this world
and he can take you out of this world.
All flesh needs to tremble before him
and glorify the God of all creation.
And you sit there and say,
well, it's just that God's a bad God
and oh, my parents are bad.
Oh, my mentor is bad.
The people who helped me succeed in business
and the people who helped me succeed at school
and the people who helped me succeed in sports,
they're all bad, bad.
That's an excuse that you dream up
and you start to slander and rail on people
that you don't want to be loyal to and thankful to.
It's exactly what Nabal did.
Look, Nabal doesn't wanna say, "I'm a cheapskate, right?
"I don't wanna pay back David because I'm greedy."
So he says, "Oh, well, you know,
"David is a rebel who rebelled against Saul."
It's a lie.
But isn't that give him kind of like a moral high ground?
Oh, well, here's, it's not that I'm just a cheapskate.
It's not that I don't wanna be generous.
It's not that I don't wanna share the wealth.
It's not that I don't wanna help a brother out.
It's just simply that he's bad.
You see how this, so then they add sin to sin,
first by not requiring their parents
and then going around talking crap about their parents.
Oh, my parents abuse me.
They gave you a whippin' 'cause you deserved it,
you little punk.
Oh, my parents are so bad.
You know what?
You need to honor your father and mother.
And you know, I'm not saying that David's perfect.
I'm not saying your father and mother perfect.
God is perfect and people still don't honor him.
But whether your parents are perfect,
whether David's perfect, you honor your parents.
You know, you honor people that have mentored you
and helped you and protected you and done good.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Don't return evil for good.
And here's the thing about David.
David's not a perfect person.
I mean, David had multiple wives.
That's not right.
That wasn't a good thing for him to do, was it?
Also, David is 100% right vis-a-vis navel
with this whole hospitality thing.
But at the same time, it's not exactly right
for David to overreact and say,
I'm just gonna kill everybody.
I'm not gonna lie.
That's an overreaction.
He's just like, all right, everybody, grab your sword.
We're just taking this guy out.
Obviously, that's not right.
And thankfully, God sends Abigail to kind of talk him down,
talk him off the ledge.
And he ends up not going crazy on navel's whole household.
Okay, so is David a perfect person?
No, no one's claiming that David's a perfect person,
but he is a man after God's own heart.
He is a great man of God.
He is someone God's blessing.
He is the Lord's anointed and so forth.
And so here's the thing.
Your parents, maybe they're not perfect,
but God still gave you those parents.
He appointed them.
He ordained them to be your parents, okay?
And oh, David's going a little hard on Nabal.
Well, here's the thing about that though.
David's right though.
Even though he's overreacting,
in the end Nabal should have shown the hospitality
and ultimately God ends up taking care of David.
And who does God kill 10 days later?
It's not David, God kills Nabal.
God punishes Nabal.
The ungrateful fool is the one who gets smoked by God
in the story, not David.
And so he fails to recognize David
and what he's done for him.
He slanders David and rails on him.
And then also he tries to take credit
for all his own success.
My bread, my water, my flesh.
When in reality he could not function
without all these employees
that are doing the work for him.
And also the security force
that's protecting those employees
and protecting his livestock and protecting his assets.
And so therefore he's trying to just act
like I did everything by myself.
And here's the thing, we don't want to go through life
not recognizing people who've contributed to our success.
You know, our spiritual success or whatever, okay?
Go through it to Psalm 100.
This is a really popular Thanksgiving Psalm, Psalm 100.
Because again, you'll get these atheists
and they'll say, you know, oh, well, you know,
if God is so good,
then why is there suffering in the world?
And why do bad things happen to good people?
And they ask these questions to somehow prove
that God is unjust and that they are justified
not to be thankful.
And then you'll hear atheists frequently make statements
like, well, I never signed up for this life.
I never wanted to be born into this world.
So instead of being thankful every morning
for another sunrise, another day, another meal,
another chance to serve the Lord and enjoy his bounty,
right, what do they just say?
Like, well, I didn't want any of this.
I didn't sign up for this life.
Well, look what the Bible says in Psalm 100 verse three.
It says, "Know ye that the Lord, he is God.
It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves."
Right, we did not create ourselves, God created us.
We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise.
Be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good,
his mercy is everlasting,
and his truth endureth to all generations.
So why should we be thankful to God?
Because he created us.
I don't know about you, but I'm glad to be here.
I'm glad to be here.
And look, I understand that there are people in the Bible
who went through dark times and horrible moments and times
where they just wish they'd never been born or something.
But you know what, in general, in the Bible,
what we see is a thankfulness and a gratefulness
for the life that God has given us,
for the opportunity that we have to exist and to be alive.
We didn't create ourselves.
God made us and not we ourselves.
And we are to thank him for that.
What did God ever do to me?
He created you.
You are here because he allowed you to exist.
He made you.
He created you.
Why didn't ask to be born?
You're here.
What do I owe my parents?
Your parents created you.
Do you understand?
That's what you owe your parents.
Your dad sired you.
What'd my dad ever do for me?
You wouldn't exist without him, right?
If your dad was some selfish guy who's just like,
I'm not gonna have any kids
'cause I just wanna live for myself,
then you wouldn't exist.
If your dad was a faggot, you wouldn't exist, right?
You know, be thankful that your dad decided,
hey, I'm gonna get married.
I'm gonna have a child.
He produced you.
And then your mom had to go through all that trouble
of hauling you around,
having this kind of imbalanced situation,
top heavy, falling forward situation, walking around.
And you know what?
Pregnancy really does a number on the female body
as far as just losing teeth, right?
It damages your teeth, you know?
And obviously it's just strenuous on your body.
And it's like you're suffering
to bring that life into this world.
And then it's all this pain at the childbirth
and agony and misery.
I mean, childbirth is one of the most painful experiences
outside of a man getting a cold, you know?
It's one of the most painful things
that anybody could ever experience.
And your mother did that.
And especially if you got siblings, right?
Are you thankful for your siblings?
You know, 'cause you don't necessarily wanna be
by yourself growing up.
It's nice to have that brother, that sister.
Every single time your mother is literally risking her life,
right, going into the jaws of death to give birth to you,
physical pain, physical agony.
And then after women give birth, you think it's over?
It's not over.
Because then that's when the pain really gets started.
And you know, it reminds me,
and obviously I don't know what it's like to give birth,
but I've done some like physically strenuous things before,
like running a marathon or an ultra marathon or something.
You know, and I know that sometimes it hurts more
the next day than while you're doing it, right?
The next day, it hurts more sometimes.
And I mean, there have been times
when I really triumphantly finished a long run
and felt really good.
And then the next day I was just like,
this sport's stupid.
I hate this sport.
I'm never gonna do this again.
Why would I do this?
This is torture because of how much I hurt the next day.
Okay, well guess what?
After women give birth, they're in pain
because they have all kinds of afterbirth contractions
and they're sore.
And then their body goes through this
hormonal roller coaster where a lot of women
will get postpartum depression
or even postpartum psychosis, right?
Where they go literally crazy.
And this happens to good people.
This isn't just some kind of thing.
Oh, you know, they're demoniacs or something.
No, I'm saying godly Christians,
because of the hormonal imbalances
and just the ravages of childbirth,
can have postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis
after they give birth.
And you know, it's just a lot.
And then just the sleepless nights and the breastfeeding
and the poopy diapers and just dealing with
the terrible twos and the terrible teens
and the terrible twenties and the terrible thirties.
And it's just terrible.
You know, women are reading their Bible
in sorrow, shout out, "Bring forth children."
And they're just like, it's like,
why is there a hole in the page there?
'Cause you underlined it so many times, honey.
And then you have these snot-nosed little punks
come along like, "Well, I didn't ask to be born.
I didn't ask to have my butt wiped."
You still want to have the same feces
from when you were two years old?
Are you glad that mom wiped them off?
You ungrateful jerk.
So unthankfulness is a rotten attribute.
Go if you would, do 1 Samuel chapter 25 verse three.
1 Samuel chapter 25 verse three.
Folks, be grateful to the people
that have helped you out in life, right?
All kinds of people that have helped you succeed.
You know, I guarantee you that if you're successful at work,
somebody probably mentored you at work,
taught you stuff at work, took time out.
You ever known those people on the job
that want to protect all their knowledge
and don't want to teach you anything?
But aren't you thankful for that guy that sat you down?
And you know, for me, it was Philip, you know?
Philip really taught me a lot of good stuff
on that alarm job.
You know, we're just gonna call him Philip.
But 1 Samuel, it's a true story.
1 Samuel 25, three, it says,
"Now the name of the man was Nabal
"and the name of his wife was Abigail.
"And she was a woman of good understanding
"and of a beautiful countenance.
"But the man was girlish," that means foolish,
"and evil in his doings."
Notice, God looks at this guy,
the narrator of the story says,
"This guy is evil and stupid."
And what's his big attribute in this story
is that he's unthankful, right?
What does the Bible say in 2 Timothy?
You don't have to turn there.
"This know also that in the last days
"perilous times shall come,
"for men shall be lovers of their own selves,
"covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
"disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy."
Notice how unthankful is in a list
of all of these horrible attributes
right between disobeying your parents and being unholy,
being unthankful.
What was the first step down the reprobate road
in Romans chapter one?
They were not thankful, is what the Bible said.
So unthankfulness is a rotten attribute,
and here's the thing,
ingratitude is gonna be punished by God.
God's not gonna bless you if you're unthankful.
God's gonna punish you for being ungrateful.
Look at 1 Samuel 25 verse 17.
"Now therefore, know and consider what thou wilt do."
1 Samuel 25, 17.
"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."
See, look, we can't get through to this guy.
We can't even talk to him.
He's such a fool and something bad's gonna happen.
I'm scared.
Evil is determined against our master.
I'm scared because evil is determined against our master
and all his household.
So not only is he gonna get hurt, we're all gonna get hurt.
We're all gonna be in trouble
because what did David swear he was gonna do?
David said he was gonna come in
and he was gonna kill everybody.
Not the women, but he was gonna kill the men.
He was gonna go in and kill them all.
And this guy is a guy and he's like,
I don't wanna get killed because Nabal's an idiot.
So when you're ungrateful, you hurt yourself
and you hurt the people around you.
God's gonna punish in gratitude.
Look at verse 36, we see the punishment happen.
"And 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."
So she decides not to tell him while he's partying,
while he's drunk.
She decides to wait till he sobers up
because what happened, the part of the story that we skipped
is where Abigail goes and intercedes with David
and says, "Look, David, I'm sorry about what Nabal did.
"Don't worry about it.
"We know that you're the Lord's anointed.
"We know that God's gonna give you the kingdom.
"And so look, here's the hospitality.
"Here's the care package.
"Here's the catering order, okay?
"We got you taken care of, buddy."
And then David, when he hears Abigail's speech,
it softens him up and he says, "You know what?
"Thank you so much because, you know,
"I almost just killed a bunch of people.
"So thank you so much for calming me down.
"Thanks for the grub.
"Appreciate it."
So she saved everybody's life.
David's got 400, 600 bad dudes with him
and they would have easily just smoked through Nabal's
entire household.
But you know what?
God wouldn't have been pleased with that
'cause we're not supposed to take vengeance like that.
We're not supposed to be out slaughtering people
and taking things into our own hands.
So God would have been displeased with David for doing it
and it wouldn't have been good for Nabal's servants
who were just trying to make a living
and it's not their fault that their boss is a crummy guy.
And so thank God the story ends with a happy ending
because the slaughter does not take place.
Abigail steps in and fixes things
and this is why Abigail is a popular baby name
because she fixes everything.
And then she's like, well, you know what?
I'm not gonna tell Nabal what I did
while he's drunk and partying,
but I'm gonna tell him the next day
because he's gonna wonder, you know,
why stuff's missing because she fed David and his men.
So verse 36, actually verse 37 it says,
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, right?
So when Abigail says, look,
I didn't want us all getting killed.
And so therefore I gave him the stuff.
And his reaction to this is just that any last bit
of decency or humanity that was left in him is now gone.
He's just a complete reprobate now.
He's just completely hardened in his heart
and just, like, he doesn't listen to reason.
He doesn't understand, like, well, thank you, Abigail,
because you just saved my life.
You just saved all of our lives.
He just, again, so here's the thing.
He wasn't grateful to David.
Is he grateful to Abigail?
Abigail just saved him.
He would be dead right now.
Who saved his life?
Abigail saved his life.
Is he thankful to Abigail?
No, he just gets even more hard-hearted
when somebody tries to talk to him,
somebody tries to reason with him,
somebody tries to tell him,
"Look, you need to do what's right.
"You need to honor the Lord.
"You need to honor your parents.
"You need to honor your boss.
"You need to honor your mentors.
"You need to honor people who've invested in you."
He just gets even worse.
And it came to pass, verse 38,
about 10 days after that the Lord smote Nabal,
that he died.
Of course, 10 in the Bible
typically is used in context of judgment.
And this is definitely the judgment of God
on Nabal after 10 days.
So the conclusion of this is just be thankful, right?
Be grateful, don't be a Nabal.
Don't be an ungrateful fool.
Be thankful to God and be thankful to your parents.
Be thankful to those who've invested in you spiritually.
Be thankful to people who've done good unto you.
People who helped you out when you were in a bind.
And I'm not talking about,
oh, this guy did something for me
and I didn't even need it.
Hey, there are some people who've done stuff for us
that we really needed.
We really needed the help.
We needed the guidance.
We needed the training.
You gotta be thankful to those people, right?
People who've helped you succeed at work,
at school, in the gym, whatever.
You know, just anybody who helps you out.
Be a thankful, grateful person
who appreciates what people do for you.
Your teachers, your instructors, your guides,
the people who've helped you.
And most importantly, be thankful to God.
And what does the Bible say in 1 Thessalonians 5:18?
"In everything give thanks,
"for this is the will of God
"in Christ Jesus concerning you."
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
We thank you so much for this church,
for creating us, for giving us life.
Lord, we often thank you for salvation.
Lord, but just thank you for even giving us life,
for even creating us.
Thank you that we even exist.
Thank you that we can enjoy this day.
Thank you that we can eat turkey and enjoy Thanksgiving
with, hopefully with friends, with loved ones,
with brothers and sisters in Christ, with somebody, Lord.
Thank you for all that you've done for us
and continue to do for us, Lord.
Please help us never to be ungrateful.
Help us not to be like this evil churl nabal.
Help us to be thankful, godly people.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.