May 14, 2023 / Difficult People and the Goodness of God

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast.

This season of messages takes us through some of the great comeback stories in the Bible.

Pastor John Metter of Cross City Church will show us how God can take any situation in

any life and bring hope and victory out of hardship.

These messages will inspire you to trust God in your own challenging seasons.

If you have your Bibles, please take them to turn to 1 Samuel chapter 25 today.

1 Samuel 25 · chapter mention

We're in our God's Not Done With You series.

And we've been walking through the stories of some of the greatest heroes and characters

of the Bible and how God has used them in really special comeback kind of stories.

Every one of these characters have had to come back from something highly unusual, very

difficult, challenging circumstances.

And today it's about the lady named Abigail and an incredibly toxic marriage and relationship

and how God met her in the middle of that.

The title of this message today is Difficult People and the Goodness of God.

Now I love that title, difficult people and the goodness of God, because we know those

things are both true at the same time.

Now without taking a show of hands, without actually voting on this, let me ask you, do

you know any difficult people who are in your life?

Just kind of nod your head.

Some of you are actually laughing right now as I ask that question.

Some of you are looking to your right or left.

I hope you're not looking at that difficult person.

But how many of you also know that the goodness of God is a real thing?

That in the midst of difficult people or difficult circumstances, the goodness of God stands

side by side in alignment with you while you walk through those times.

And the lady whose name is Abigail is going to be an incredible example of what that's

all about.

On the worst end of spectrum of relationships, you have this word that we use from time to

time, toxic relationships.

Toxic relationships are dangerous relationships.

They're threatening kind of relationships where dysfunctional narcissistic people are

in our lives.

And it brings about a lot of destruction and a lot of difficulty.

And I'll tell you this, I love that the Bible does not hold back from these examples.

In fact, as you read the Bible, you have to conclude that the Bible is about real truth

and about real people in real difficult times and about the real intervention of an amazingly

good God in spite of all the difficulty we have in the world.

Let me just say this.

We live in an evil, wicked world.

That's what we live in.

We live in a sinful world.

There's no way that any of us can think we can escape difficult people or difficult circumstances

or difficult relationships.

But God is everywhere.

He is almighty and He is ever-present.

That means that even though we face difficult people, we have the goodness of God to help

us through those times.

Today, that's what this story is all about.

I want you to stand with me as we read several verses of 1 Samuel chapter 25.

1 Samuel 25 · chapter mention

In one chapter, one of the most amazing women in scripture comes to life and we see her

story.

Beginning in verse 2 of chapter 25 of 1 Samuel, now there was a man in Mayon whose business

was in Carmel and the man was very rich and he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats.

And it came about while he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

Now the man's name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail.

And the woman was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil

in his dealings and he was a calabite.

They were shearing his sheep and David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing

his sheep.

So David sent 10 young men and he said to the young men, go up to Carmel, visit Nabal,

greet him in my name.

And thus you shall say, have a long life and peace be to you and peace be to your house

and peace be to all that you have.

Now I have heard that you have shivers.

Now your shepherds have been with us and we have not insulted them nor have they missed

anything all the days they were in Carmel.

Ask your young men and they will tell you.

Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes for we have come on a festive day.

Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.

They were looking for food, they were hungry.

Verse 9, when David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words

in David's name, then they waited.

But Nabal answered David's servants and said, who is David?

And who is the son of Jesse?

There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master.

Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shivers

and give to those men whose origin I do not know?

So David's young men retraced their way and went back and they came and told him according

to all these words and David said to his men, David's angry now, he's hungry, his servants

are hungry, those following him are ready to go with him.

He says, I want you to gird up every man on his sword.

And David also girded on his sword and about 400 men went up behind David while 200 stayed

behind with the baggage.

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, behold, David sent messengers

from the wilderness to greet our master and he scorned them.

Yet the men were very good to us and they were not insulted.

We were not insulted nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with them while we

were on the fields.

They were a wall for us by day and by night and all the time we were with them, we were

tending the sheep.

Now therefore know and consider what you should do for evil is plotted against our master

that would be Nabal and against all his household and he is such a worthless man that no one

can speak to him.

Long phrase, long statement, little bit of detail there.

Let's ask God to bless this passage.

Father, in Jesus' name, take these words and this narrative, this story.

Take this incident that happened with Abigail, Nabal and David.

Show us how your goodness meets us even in difficult moments.

Lord, we ask this in Jesus' name.

All God's people said amen.

Please be seated if you would.

I love this story for so many different reasons and as you open up with the introduction here

that we read, you'll see what I would consider the Instagram version of Abigail.

She's beautiful, she's intelligent, she's wealthy, she has everything going on for her,

it seems on the outside.

But if you dig a little bit deeper, you'll realize she's in a toxic relationship with

a man named Nabal.

Even his closest servants call him worthless.

His name itself in the Hebrew means fool.

I have no idea how that was bestowed on him or why, but the reality is this was a foolish,

worthless man.

And Abigail is married to him and they're in this kind of situation way out in the wilderness

where they are shepherding all these sheep.

Now the reality is today, this is not a message about marriage even though Abigail is married.

It's not a message about motherhood even though she is a mother we learn later.

But it's really about how we deal with relationships and especially difficult relationships, how

we handle them, how we view them, what we look to God to help us do in the midst of

all those things.

And Abigail gives us some amazing insights about how to navigate the complexity of relationships

including one principle I'll give you a little later in the message that I believe will be

one of the best guiding principles for all your relationships for your entire life.

I believe that principle merits that kind of description so listen carefully to what

I say in these next few moments.

So I'm gonna break Abigail's life and this account down into three different areas today.

First of all we're gonna look at the circumstances that God uses.

The circumstance in this particular case was this very very tough marriage.

In verse three it says the man's name was Nabal and the wife's name was Abigail.

And we've read that text and when you read that text you have to just kind of step back

and say wow so much detail here.

Why does the Bible give us so much detail that would be considered someone's dirty

laundry?

And I think one reason is because God wants us to know that every life is not perfect.

In fact no life is perfect.

And every relationship has some mess in it and sometimes those messes are really bad.

We see real life, real circumstances in the scripture.

And when we see those real circumstances and we identify with them in ways that say yeah

I know that pain and I know that difficulty they're there in the scripture to bring you

encouragement.

Most of the time when people have difficult circumstances they pray this way.

God changed my circumstances.

Now we want God to make it easy for us and comfortable for us.

And I remind you again we live in a sinful world.

It's not gonna be easy, not gonna be comfortable.

If you've got an easy life hang on at some point it's not gonna be so easy as you think

it's gonna be in the long run.

So we have this kind of story that says wow at least my circumstance is not as bad as

Abigail's was.

And we can say that about a number of those characters in the scripture.

But we also know this we see how God has a way of using the worst circumstances in the

best ways.

As we walk through this Old Testament series God's not done with you.

Almost every character we deal with has been through some rough rough stuff and as we look

back on their lives we have principles that describe how God works through tough circumstances.

I want you to know that first before we get into the details.

God always is there present aware that can help you through tough circumstances in life.

We looked at the life of Joseph.

Joseph went from being rejected by his brothers and a highly dysfunctional family to being

thrown in the pit.

They intended to kill him but the good side of that was they eventually just sold him

to traders going to Egypt.

So that was a good side of that particular season of his life.

He was falsely accused thrown in prison after two years of being in prison.

He was forgotten by those he had helped interpret the dreams.

I mean his his life was a roller coaster ride.

Finally these ten evil wicked step brothers come into his presence after God rescues him

from all that.

And this guy Joseph has these words to say to those brothers and it really is a fitting

ending for the whole story.

It's Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 as for you you meant evil against me but God meant it

Genesis 50:20

for good.

That's how God redeemed circumstances that are disastrous.

He does that in Joseph's life.

He does that in Abigail's life.

He does that in our lives.

We also have invoked this principle this verse over and over Romans 828.

We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to

those who are called according to his purpose.

We talk about difficult people but we also talk about the goodness of God.

And those two verses remind us that God is always good.

He's always working.

He's always redeeming whatever circumstances that we face no matter how bad they are.

I think these these kinds of details are recorded so we might be encouraged.

We might have hope that in my circumstances God can even use those.

I hope you're encouraged by that today because I believe it's a fact.

The real question is how will you face and respond to your circumstances and that that's

what Abigail is going to teach us today.

So first of all the circumstance God uses.

Secondly we look at the life of Abigail today for a few moments and as we look at her life

we're going to see the character that God honors.

There's a certain kind of character this woman has with which she faces this toxic relationship

this disastrous kind of confrontation.

The entire story turns on her responses.

Now you've heard the first 13 14 verses and verse 14 as this confrontation is brewing

Nabal's disrespected David and here David comes and so a servant comes to Abigail and

in verse 14 it says one of the young men told Abigail all of a sudden this all rests on

her shoulders.

David's not going to turn away.

Nabal's not going to turn away.

It all rests on her.

As you read the story you see these two men are on a collision course.

They're about to clash in a huge way.

Nabal has responded to David's polite request to help feed his men with a refusal and with

disrespect the Bible uses the word scorn and basically he's challenged David who are you?

You don't matter to me.

On the other hand David is a young king to me.

He's a warrior.

The young boy who killed Goliath.

He's not afraid of Nabal.

He's got 600 men with him 400 of whom now have swords girded on on their horses coming

down the mountain.

What do you think is going to happen?

Well it's not going to be pretty.

Not going to be good and all of a sudden the servant comes and says to Abigail here's the

scene.

Here's the scene.

David's coming.

He's mad.

He's been disrespected.

Nabal has been acting foolish.

What we have is what I call a toxic situation.

Now whenever I use the word toxic let me define it for you.

Toxic situation is one that means it's a dangerous poisonous destructive kind of situation

or kind of a relationship that might not change.

Toxicity means it's been poisoned.

Literally that's a word that's used to describe toxicity.

It's poison.

And just in this interchange that we read about in these first few verses it's amazing

how poisoned this whole conversation has become in just a few moments.

I just want to pause for a moment and ask the question how many women have stood in

the gap in toxic situations where the responsibility is on them to protect their family or their

marriage or their future when everything else is poisoned.

And my response to that question if I were asked would be multitudes of women have been

in that situation.

And multitudes of them have been able to stand up and act with character.

And that's what we have a picture of here.

This strong woman that stands up at the right time in the most difficult moment during the

most urgent seconds and does the right thing.

I love examples like this.

So let's look at what she does.

First of all she takes responsibility.

She takes responsibility.

Is it her responsibility that this collision course is happening?

No.

Because she steps up and says I know what's happened.

I know how this is unfolding.

So she says after hearing no one considered what you should do she says I'm going to take

responsibility.

And everything she says in those verses following demonstrates that she is taking responsibility.

Now someone with less character than Abigail might say this is a good day to get rid of

the navel.

I hear women saying amen all over the room.

And I don't hear that well so that must be a real resonating kind of point.

This is a good moment for me to step out of the picture and let him get what he deserves.

I mean 400 men coming with swords that's not going to be pretty.

It's not going to take long.

And he'll be gone.

But that's not what she does.

This woman is not thinking just about herself and her self survival.

She's thinking about her household.

She could have started over.

After all she's beautiful.

She's wealthy.

I mean she's got a thousand goats.

Who wouldn't want a thousand goats right?

She's got everything she needs to start over.

And yet at the same time she takes responsibility.

She begins to ask questions like what about my husband?

What about all those household workers?

What about all we've worked for all of our lives?

What about all those things?

And the rest don't hurt.

There's something about the situation because navels are worthless man.

She knows it.

The Bible knows it.

The servants say it.

He's not going to step up and do anything.

So she takes responsibility.

Now get this.

Please get this in your mind.

Some situations are not fair nor does it seem fair that God allows them but they exist.

And we must respond.

If you're waiting for a fair situation so that you can respond to that you might be

waiting a long time.

Because things are not always fair.

They don't always seem just.

Sometimes it seems like God does not recognize all that we're going through.

There are times we don't get to ask why.

There are times where we don't get to unravel all that has led up to that point.

We just have to respond and this woman does.

She is loyal.

She is faithful.

She's got others on her mind not just herself.

And she steps up and she steps up quickly.

She surveys the situation.

She assesses her resources.

She knows she can bring food together.

She prepares her appeal and she stands in the gap alone when nobody else would do it

and in doing so she saves her life and her family.

When I was growing up my mom, one of the sweetest women I've ever known, rescued me one day,

myself and two friends of mine.

We had been floating down a river near our home and we basically ran out of water and

ran out of energy.

The boat wasn't going anymore so we got this John boat up off the bed of this dry river

and we dragged it across the farmer's field not thinking about what we were doing.

Trying to get to a road that wasn't too far from our hometown.

And what we didn't know is that this farmer had some prize oats, state fair prize oats

that he was growing.

O-A-T-S.

You don't know what that is, you have to look it up.

But oats and he was offended that these three boys would drag this boat across this field.

He was yelling at us.

He was screaming at us.

He was threatening us.

I seem to remember, I don't know how good my memory is, it seemed like he had a shotgun

in his hands.

I mean, man oh man.

About that time my mom who had discovered where we were showed up in a truck.

We didn't even own a truck.

She showed up in a truck.

She gave instructions to the three boys, including me, and said put the boat in the back of the

truck and get in the truck.

And have you ever heard that term mama bear describing a woman?

My mother went into mama bear mode.

I've never seen it before.

It scared me to death.

It must have scared that farmer to death too because he put, well I thought he had a gun.

He put a gun up and he went back in his house and she said come on let's go.

I don't know what she said or what she did, but I know that she took responsibility for

something that was really my fault and those boys' fault.

And she intervened for us.

At that moment on the spot, I'd never seen her do it like that before.

Gratefully, I'd never seen it again after that either, but reality is she did what was

necessary.

Sometimes we have to just take responsibility for those that we love, that we care about.

Second thing she does is she shows respect.

She shows respect.

In verse 23 it says, when Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey

and she fell on her face before David and bowed herself to the ground.

So get the scene, when David's coming down the mountain with all these men who are hungry

and they're angry and really have murderous intent upon Nabal, she is coming to meet them

as they come down that mountain.

She knows that David has been disrespected and she determines to show appropriate respect

for this king to be.

He's not on the throne yet, but he's been anointed.

He's got power.

He's got the ability to do what he's trying to do, but she shows respect in every way.

Right, and you read that text 14 times in her very limited conversation with him.

She uses the word my Lord.

Each time that she addresses him, it's my Lord.

In fact, I count 24 times in these verses that she shows respect in one way or another.

Now I'm just going to pause and say respect is a big deal for everybody, but it's especially

a big deal for men.

And the Bible points that out.

If this were a marriage series, I might jump over to Ephesians chapter five, where in verse

33, after details about how a man and a wife should respond to each other, verse 33 makes

this statement in summary.

He says, therefore let each man love his own wife even as himself and the wife must see

to it that she respects her husband.

In other words, when Paul sums up the marital relationship between a man and a woman, he

makes sure that the man knows the woman needs unconditional love, he makes sure the woman

knows that the man needs respect.

And Abigail seems to understand that principle.

By the way, that's not the only place you find this principle.

It's all the way through the Bible.

It's a principle God will use over and over again.

And here she is showing respect and immediately as she shows respect to a disrespected man,

he begins to calm down.

Woman's got wisdom.

I'm gonna give you that principle I promised to give you a moment ago.

Here it is.

Love and respect is the language of reconciliation.

The love respect idea.

It is the language of reconciliation.

It's the language of relationships.

If you wanna have reconciliation, you must love unconditionally and you must give respect,

even if it's not earned.

The love is not earned.

The love is given unconditionally.

You must give them both.

And if you don't do that, reconciliation is not likely and relationships are not going

to be strong.

And sometimes that's the hardest thing to do, to love unconditionally or to give respect

to someone you don't even know.

And quite frankly, David didn't look very respectful at the moment as he was coming

down that mountain ready to slaughter the whole household of Nabal.

And so she gives this to him.

And it has a profound impact on David and his destination.

She shows respect.

Thirdly, she exercises restraint.

She exercises restraint.

There's a verse in verse 26, the wording is great.

It's Abigail saying to David something that hasn't happened yet, but she wants to happen.

In other words, here's how she says it.

She says, my Lord, since the Lord has restrained you from shedding blood and from avenging

yourself by your own hand.

Now she's speaking about it in past tense.

You notice what she's saying?

David is going to go shed blood.

David is going to take revenge.

And she says, since the Lord restrains you and since you're not going to shed blood and

take revenge, she's already there and he's not there yet.

That's one of the most amazing conversations I've ever heard.

What she's doing is she's articulating for a king to be the way he ought to be acting.

She has wisdom.

She's gone ahead.

She's thought through the scenario when she says, since you're going to restrain yourself

because you're going to eventually realize this is not the best plan.

And as she says that, she says some amazing things.

She's basically saying to David, show restraint.

I have a particular conviction that Abigail, being married to Nabal, has shown restraint

most of her married life.

I believe that she knows what it means to be under unfairness.

I believe that she's asking David to do what she's been doing for years.

I want you to show restraint because I've shown restraint.

If I can do it, you can do it.

Basically she's saying to David, if you cause bloodshed today, it will stain your future

as king.

Don't do it.

That's what she says.

That's the essence of her word.

She models for him what she wants him to exercise, and that's just good leadership.

She speaks to him in a critical moment, great words that he needs to hear.

And I want us to notice this moment.

I don't want us to miss this moment.

I want your attention.

This is so important.

It's so very important.

Men especially, I want your attention.

There are times that the absolute smartest thing you can do is listen to the perspective

of a woman that is placed by God near you.

And when God places a woman near you and speaks up with wisdom, the smartest thing you can

do is to listen to her and factor that into your decisions.

And the dumbest thing you can do is ignore her.

Men, you ought to be the one clapping.

Because God provides the wisdom of a woman at times that a man doesn't have.

So here's a woman in the wilderness that doesn't know this king personally modeling behavior

for the future king.

Think about your future, she says.

And one of the greatest kings in history stops and listens to this woman with more wisdom

than he has.

If David can do it, we can do it, right?

Because God uses this woman in a phenomenal way.

I can't help but think of many instances in my life when I charge forward in some direction,

my wife will speak up with a voice of reason and wisdom and help me see a very different

perspective and I need that perspective.

So let me just show you a little bit of insight into what's going on in her mind.

If you go down to verse 32, there's a word there that I really hadn't had a chance to

do a deep word study on this until the last few days.

It's not included in the book, not included in anything else I've said about this woman,

but the word is discernment.

Because David says, blessed be your discernment.

If you go back into the Hebrew to look up this word, it's a word in the Hebrew that

means to taste, like to taste a stew that's being put together and then to judge, to taste

and judge.

Now there's a lot of insight in this word, so stay with me for just a moment.

David, like most men, is very linear.

He's thinking of one thing.

It's between me and Nabel.

I'm going to get Nabel.

All this whole circumstance is between me and Nabel, Nabel and me, and me and Nabel

and nobody else.

Abigail steps into that situation and she can taste what the future is going to be like

if that happens.

She knows the ingredients for peace and she knows the ingredients for chaos and she's

tasting chaos.

She basically says with her discernment to David, you don't want where this is going.

See, what's happening is Abigail is thinking not only of herself, but she's thinking of

Nabel and her household.

She's thinking of the flock.

She's thinking of all that they've worked for and she's thinking about God.

She's thinking about all these things and all David is doing is going, me and Nabel,

me and Nabel.

That's why when she spoke up, David stopped and said, she's thinking about more things

than I am here.

She's thinking about my future.

Now I know that's just a sidebar, but it's a very, very important sidebar.

She exercises restraint and God gives her incredible influence with David at that moment.

But here's the biggest thing she does.

The biggest thing she does is she remembers God.

She remembers God.

If you look down in verses 27 through 31, Abigail is talking about God one sentence

after another.

I'm going to read those verses today.

Let's look down in verse 27, if you would, and we'll read from 27 down to 31.

Let's see.

Now let this gift which your maidservant has brought to my Lord be given to the young man

who accompanied my Lord.

Please forgive the transgression of your maidservant for the Lord will certainly make for my Lord

an enduring house because my Lord is fighting the battles of the Lord.

And evil will not be found in you all your days.

Should anyone rise up to pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my Lord shall

be bound up in the bundle of the living with the living of the Lord your God and the lives

of your enemies.

And he will sling out from the hollow of a sling.

And when the Lord does for my Lord according to all the good he has spoken concerning you

and appoints you ruler over Israel, this will not cause grief or troubled heart to my Lord,

both having shed blood without cause.

And by my Lord having avenged himself when the Lord deals well with my Lord, then remember

your maidservants.

The Lord, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord.

It was a J. Oswald Sanders who said this.

It was a great word.

When we lose sight of God, we become reckless.

And that's what's happened to David.

David has lost sight of God, but Abigail is talking about God.

He's talking about her God in such a great deal of respect.

It's just amazing.

And it's a game changer.

As she starts talking about God, David also starts talking about God.

In fact, in verse 32, David responds by saying this.

Then David said, blessed be the Lord God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me.

And blessed be your discernment.

And blessed be you who have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself by

my own hand.

David says, you're right.

I was going to create bloodshed and try to get revenge, but you have stopped me in my

tracks.

The God conversation is what helped David realize that this woman was not just beautiful.

She was not just intelligent.

This woman knew God.

She was trusting God the way David had trusted God in the past.

This is not about me and Nabal anymore.

This is about me and God.

How would I respond to the thing that's happened?

In many ways, Abigail is like a rope in between the tug of war between Nabal and David.

And that's a tough place to be.

But everything she did demonstrated that she believed God was going to intervene on her

behalf.

And it's her character that stands in stark contrast to Nabal's stubbornness and David's

anger.

Let me tell you, when things are down, when chips are down and things are tough, you need

to remember that your character is what will get you through.

God has said character is both forged in fire and revealed in fire.

So if you're in a tough situation, if it's toxic, if it's difficult, if circumstances

don't look great for you, stay true to who you are.

Stay true to the character God has forged in you.

Now I'm going to pause just a moment to say this because this story doesn't end in every

life the way it ends here.

But let me just say, regardless of the ending of this story, whatever your story is, it's

still the right thing to do to respond in honor and respect and with truth, no matter

how it turns out.

Do the right thing because it's the right thing.

Now this story turns out well.

That's why the third point here is the comeback God orchestrates.

Now some of you have heard me teach over the years know that I consistently go back to

an illustration of the chess master moving the pieces on the chessboard around just as

he desires, that God ultimately is in control.

And I believe that about every individual.

I believe that about every character in the scripture.

And that's what I see happening here.

God has placed Abigail and David's life at a critical time when David otherwise would

have made a disastrous mistake.

And this comeback story is a great one.

Let me show you some things about it.

First of all, it's never too late for peace.

That's what we learn from this story.

David actually says, go up to your house in peace.

Now peace is promised, there's another storm to weather still.

Peace doesn't happen immediately.

She's still got to go back and tell Nabal.

And she knows that he's not going to respond well at all.

But here's God coming up in the fourth quarter at the very end, almost seemingly too late.

And he's going to give her grace and rescue her in every way.

We say this so often, God is rarely early, but he's never late.

And I find that to be true, don't you?

Rarely early, never late.

It'll always come through.

So she's going to go tell wicked Nabal what's happened.

And she knows that it's not going to be a good conversation.

Guys, let me have your attention for a moment.

We've talked about women for a while.

Let's talk about Nabal for a moment.

You know, Nabal is not the central character of this story, but you can't ignore him.

And in the same way that Abel, or that Abigail rather, is a sterling example of a great woman,

Abigail is, and Nabal is the perfect picture of a worthless man.

Just look at Nabal's life.

He's self-centered, he's selfish, he's foolish, worthless to his family, he's disrespectful,

and he doesn't have to be that way.

He chooses to be that way.

Abigail could have been all those bad things, but she chose to have character.

She chose to follow God.

And in the same way Abigail chose her character, Nabal chose his.

And at the end of his life, everything was wasted.

I'm going to be quick to say, Nabal is not a picture of all men, just some men.

Just like Abigail is not a picture of all women, just some.

But the reality is, we ought to aspire to not be a Nabal.

We ought to aspire not to be worthless, not to be insensitive, not to be all the things

that Nabal was.

And God was going to give Abigail peace, but he was going to have to take Nabal out of

the picture.

And he ultimately did.

Ten days later, after she told him, and he was stunned into submission, into quietness,

God took his life.

And sometimes that's how God brings peace to our life, by removing people out of our

lives.

It's hard, it's difficult, but that's how he does it.

You also need to see from Abigail's story that it's never too late for love.

Never too late for love.

In verse 39, we see that David sent a proposal to Abigail.

But before you get to that proposal, look in verse 39 at what David actually did.

When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, bless me the Lord, and has pleaded the cause

of my reproach from the hand of Nabal.

He's kept back his servant from evil.

The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.

The first thing David said when he heard about Nabal's death was, bless me the Lord.

He held me back from doing this.

God took revenge on my enemy.

God did all this.

That's the first thing he said.

But the second thing he said was, David sent a proposal to Abigail to take her as his wife.

That's why I say it's never too late for love.

It's really kind of amazing.

He sees the value this woman has in his present life and in his future life and his future

kingdom.

The Bible says she's beautiful.

The Bible says she's intelligent, but there's more to it today, but I'm sure of it.

He sees her wisdom, her discernment, and says, I need that kind of discernment for the kingdom

that I have inherited.

She has become indispensable to him.

Later on, David's son, Solomon, writes it like this in Proverbs chapter 31.

Proverbs 31 · chapter mention

Charm is deceitful.

You know this verse.

And beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

Now, women, listen to me.

Don't get caught up in Instagram beauty.

Get caught up in Abigail wisdom.

That's what you need.

That's exactly what God wants for our lives.

It makes one indispensable.

Never too late for love.

Finally, it's never too late for a new beginning.

The Bible says in verse 42, Abigail quickly rose, rode on a donkey with her five maidens

who attended her.

She followed the messengers that David became his wife.

After all the threats, after all the fear, after all the concern, taking all the risk,

Abigail's given the chance for a new beginning, and it's a great story.

You don't get to read it.

The Bible doesn't refer to her much at all after this moment, but it's a great movie

ending.

Don't you think so?

It's got everything a great movie should have in it.

It's got threats.

It's got wars.

It's got violence.

It's got food.

It's got romance.

It's got everything.

If you think the Bible is boring, you're not reading well enough.

It's got everything in this story that you would want to have your attention focused

on how this story unfolds in this life.

It's a reminder that God can do new things, build new comeback stories, tell new chapters

in lives even after the mess, even after the mess.

If you're in a toxic relationship, don't look for a handsome king.

Look for a wise God, and let him advise you and lead you and guide you.

You know, I love the fact that the Bible shows us these comeback stories.

Ultimately, the greatest comeback story was when Jesus died on the cross and was buried

and on the third day rose again.

You talk about overcoming something, overcoming sin, overcoming death, overcoming Hades and

hell, overcoming Satan himself, all so that he could give us life, all so that he could

walk with us in life, to give us the kind of discernment and wisdom that Abigail had,

to give us the kind of restraint that David eventually had, to show us how to live life

in a world of toxicity.

You need the wise one in your life, Jesus Christ.

And he offers himself to you.

If you'll put your faith and trust in him, let him be your Lord and your Savior.

He'll give you the Holy Spirit.

He will live with you and day by day guide you through all of the messy stuff in life,

encouraging you and convincing you that God redeems even your circumstances.

If he'll redeem your life, he'll redeem your circumstances.

In just a few moments, we're gonna give an invitation and that invitation will always

be one of two or three things.

First of all, I'll always invite you to stop by the invitation stations.

They're lit up now and they'll be there as you go out today.

You may wanna stop and talk to someone about the idea of putting your faith and trust in

Jesus as Lord and Savior.

It's one of the most important decisions you can ever make.

And if you put that off, why would you put that off any longer?

Because Jesus has done everything necessary for you to have an incredible life with him,

an incredible eternity as well.

Secondly, I invite you to come to our guest reception room.

It's right outside the center exit door across the hallway.

I'll be there to greet you.

We have a book, a free book, God's Not Done With You.

If you're a first time guest, we would love to invite you there and we'd love to give

you that.

Thirdly, I invite you to invite others to come back next week as we continue this series.

This week, the life of Elijah, the depression, the discouragement of one of the premier characters

in the Old Testament and how God rescued him from that discouragement and depression.

You know anybody that's depressed or discouraged?

Reach out to them this week.

Tell them they'll hear a story that'll inspire them.

Would you stand with me as we have this closing word of prayer?

Father, I'm so thankful today for your goodness.

In spite of all the toxicity that we face, the difficult relationships, the difficult

circumstances, God, you're here, you're there, you're present, you're wise.

You give us all we need.

Lord, I pray today that those that are struggling today will reach out to you, find their salvation

in you, but also find their wisdom in you.

Lord, today draw us to yourself.

Thank you for loving us.

Thank you for showing us that you'll come through for us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.