The Story of Abigail || Women of Wonder Pt.1 || Pastor Adam Mesa

Welcome to the Lessee podcast. Here at LESSE, we seek the loss,

teach the found, and send the disciples. We truly hope you're encouraged by

this week's message. Right now we're gonna get ready for the Word. And

I'm excited for this because we're launching a new series that we're calling Women of

Wonder and Fathers of the Faith. Women of Wonder and Fathers of acause we

believe that God has created you and I as men and women, uniquely different,

uniquely purposed. And the more that we understand how different we are and

how God has created us, the more that we can come into alignment with

one another as men and women of God. And we live in a world

today that honestly does not know how to define a woman or how to define

a man. And so we believe as a church, what better way than

allowing God to speak to us and talk to us about some characteristics, talk

to us about some DNA, talk to us about some mindsets that God has

placed in the mind of women and God has placed in the mind of men,

and these things should be celebrated. I grew up in an age where

it was common in the nineties where they would say women are from Venus and

men are from Mars. They're aliens from each other. But as a Christian,

I also see in the Bible that God created man and woman in his

image, and when he was done, he said it is good. And

so society tells me that men or women are not good. If you're a

man, women are no good. If you're a woman, men are no

good. But when I look at the scriptures, God is telling me that

it is good what he created. And then also I found that as we

come together in marriages, it says that God says, I take two and

I create one, since the two shall become one, which means women,

men and women can come together and we can create something of unity that give

God glory in our life. And so over the next couple of weeks,

from May and June, of May, we're gonna really talk about Women of

Wonder, and June we're gonna talk about Fathers of the Faith. But it's

not something that during Women of Wonder that men can't take away something, and

it's not something during Fathers of Faith that women can't take away something. This

is something every single weekend that no matter where you are, you'll be able

to receive something for your life and be able to take something to apply it

into your life the way that God has intended us. And so today what

we're gonna be talking about. If you have your Bible, we're not gonna

read the scripture yet, I'll lead into it. We're gonna go to First

Samuel chapter twenty five. First Samuel chapter twenty five. We're gonna talk about

a very special woman in the scriptures. And this woman goes by the name

of Abigail. You know, Abigail is an incredible, incredible woman of God,

and this is a circumstance that we see that happens in First Samuel chapter

twenty five. There's three characters in the story that we're going to read today.

The first one is a man named Nabaul, who is Abigail's husband.

The second man is a man named David, which many of you would know

as King David, but at this time he's not a king. He has

not become king yet. Samuel has anointed him privately to be king one day.

But in this story, no one publicly knows that God has done something

privately in his life, and so to everyone else, he's just a normal

shepherd boy who has served in Saul's army. That's it. And what happened

is is this is now after David has killed Goliath. A many of us

know the famous story where David a little man who was not very tall,

not very muscular, not very broad, but he had a confidence in his

slingshot, and he had a confidence in God that he fought a giant named

Goliath. No one else in Israel wanted to fight Goliath because they didn't want

to be the person that lost their country too to this battle. But David

thinks to himself, if God has delivered me against lions and bears, then

surely he can deliver me against this giant. And so he fights Goliath.

He slings a shot at his head, he kills him, he cuts his

head off. Israel wins over the Philistines. Now David becomes very famous as

a warrior, so much so as the ladies in the towns sing songs whenever

David is around, and they say, Saul has killed his thousands, and

David has killed his ten thousands. So the ladies are getting under Saul's skin

at this time because they are singing songs that are dissing him, and so

Saul becomes angry, and so anytime David's in the room, Saul tries to

kill him. The young man who literally saved Saul's kingdom, he now is

trying to kill David every chance he gets. So David is now on the

run. He's a fugitive of the state, and he's loved by many people.

People are aware who he is as a warrior. But the thing is

he's a normal guy and he has a few hundred men that have decided to

follow him and their team David at the time, and so these are known

as David's Mighty Men. These are now These guys are the brawlers. These

aren't These aren't the guys that went to Ivy League schools. These aren't the

guys that got full right scholarships. These are the gritty guys. These are

the guys from Sam Bernardino that he's hanging around. These are the guys from

rialto that he's brought on his squad. This is the Englewood crew that's rolling

with him. That's who's rolling with David. It's not the Beverly Hills crew.

It's not the Claremont and Upling crew. That's rolling with him. It

ain't even the Rancho Cucamonga. You know how Boogie Rancho has gotten. Now,

this is the Rancho Crew, nineteen eighties Rancho crew, not the two

twenties Rancho crew. These are the guys that are rolling with David's rough guys,

and they'll do anything for David. So what happens is is we're gonna

get to the stories we read in a second, but it's important to lead

up to it. Nayball is a very rich man, and so nay Ball

has and rich back in the day met you had a lot of sheep,

you had a lot of land, you had a lot of crops, and

you had a lot of workers. That's what wealth met back then. So

he has thousands of sheep under his care, well David as he's hiding in

a fugitive Since you have thousands of sheep and they graze all throughout the land,

David would come across his sheep on a regular basis, and David,

who him and his men are on the run, they could easily three thousand

sheep, two three or four or five sheep getting lost every once in a

while. Nayball would probably not even notice. But David had honor, and

so he told his men, if it's not something that is given to us

or earned, we will not take it. And so he tells his men,

even if it's there in your sight, you will not take someone else's

sheep that's under their care. So he does this for some time. So

one day his men are hungry. He thinks to himself, let me go

tell Nayball how much we have looked after him and his men and his sheep.

Because I got all my guys from the hood that have no problem getting

their pre saved days and either robbing a shepherd for some food and water or

stealing a lamb. I know some of y'all are saved, but if I

asked you guys to do dirt tomorrow, a lot of you would do it.

You would. And so David's like my men. I told them,

we're gonna be men of character. So nay Ball, we're hungry. Could

you give us some of your sheep to eat and have? And nay Ball

says no. He says, I don't. You could read all of Psalms

twenty first Samuel twenty five, so long chapter, but essentially Naball says,

I don't know who your mama is. I don't know who your daddy is,

so I don't know who you are. So if you ain't gonna work

for it and earn it, then I'm not gonna give it to you.

And you want to know what David's response was, we are going to kill

this guy and every man in his household. He tells his men, strap

up your sword. That's what he tells his men. He said, we're

gonna kill every man. We are gonna obliterate Nayball's lineage today. So now

David is mad, mad, and he tells everyone in that area, which

all of his men are just begging for a day to be able to buy

these are those guys, just give me the word, David. So no

one there, he ain't got no one there that's logical. That's saying,

David, maybe we shouldn't do this. They're all like, yes, sir,

get the swords sharpened on, must go. So Nayball's wife. Here's

from a servant, because the servant that went back to David when David said

let's grab the swords, they said, I'm not gonna go back to nay

Ball. I'm gonna go to Nayball's wife, Abigail, And so they run

and tell Abigail and say, David is on his way and he's gonna kill

every man that works for Nabal and all of your family, all of your

lineage. He's gonna kill them all. So now we come to the place

where Abigail is now confronting and coming to David to ask for mercy. And

we're gonna see some characteristics in her life that are important to note, the

way that she leads. She's known as the woman of discernment. That's what

she's known as, and we see her discerning spirit come out within this historical

account. So would you do I mean favors? We read some of these

verses First Samuel, chapter twenty five, starting verse twenty three, would you

join me in standing for the honor of reading God's word. We're gonna be

here for a few verses, and we gotta remember now this is now the

point where Abigail runs to David after she has found out that he's on his

way to kill all of the men of her family. And it says this

as we read First Samuel twenty five, starting in verse twenty three, when

Abigail saw David. She hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before

David on her face and bowed to the ground. She fell at his feet

and said, on me alone, my Lord, be the guilt. Please

let your servants speak in your ears and hear the words of your servant.

Let not my Lord regard this worthless fellow nay Ball. She has called her

husbands, my Lord, there's ladies over here. They got highlighters now never

highlighted anything in the Bible. But worthless fellow, they all of a sudden

bold now as worthless fellow, Nayball. For as is his name is,

so is he. Nabal means fool. By the way, But I,

your servant, did not see the young men of my Lord, whom you

said. I wasn't there when you came. Now, then, my Lord,

as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, because the Lord

has restrained you from blood guilt and from saving with your own hand. Now

let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my Lord be as

nabal. And now let this present that your servant has brought to my Lord.

She brought him a ton of sheep and a ton of food as an

offering, and she said, brought to my Lord, be given to the

young men who follow my Lord. Please forgive the trespasses of your servant,

for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure host, because my Lord

is fighting the battles of the Lord, and evil shall not be found in

you so long as you live. If men rise up to pursue you and

seek your life, the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle

of the living, in the care of the Lord, your God, and

the lives of your enemies. He's how sling out? See how she says

sling out because she knows he's killed Goliath with a sling. She's so smart,

she's she's using word play. You know, she's a genius. And

it says, and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from

the hollow of a sling. And when the Lord has done to my Lord

according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed

you prince over Israel, my Lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs

of conscious for having shed blood without cause, or for my Lord working salvation

himself. And when the Lord has do it well with my Lord, then

remember your servant with these few moments. Let's pray this morning. God,

we thank you for your word. Today. Lord, I pray Lord that

as you speak to us in your spirit, minister to us, Father God,

may we stretch in new fresh ways. May your spirit spirit fill us

with an anointing and a care for your word. Lord, And may we

grow in our faith and our knowledge of Jesus. And may we grow in

the knowledge of your great love for us Today Lord and Jesus name, Amen,

you may be seated. Thank you so much. So. Where are

we at? In the story, we have a woman named Abigail who now

she's run to David, and what she does is she tells David two things.

She reminds. This is why she's called the Woman of discernment, because

she reminds David of a couple implications that will happen if he does what he

was going to do. She tells him in the verses we read, if

you follow through with this, here's the first thing that's going to happen.

When everything is said and done and you kill all of these men, you

are gonna have innocent blood on your hands. And I perceive that one day

you're gonna be the king of Israel. Now, mind you, no one

knows that publicly yet. But she's a woman of discernment because she can step

back and she can see hundreds of men who will follow him and die for

him, and they see the type of authority he has over other people.

And she says, one day you're gonna be something great. The Lord will

establish a house for you, which is another way of saying the kingdom or

the throne. She says, the Lord is gonna, which we know Jesus

comes from David. So also if David does not make it to the throne,

there's no line of David. So we see God's sovereignty at play in

giving the spirit giving her discernment. And so what happens is is she says,

I see that the Lord is gonna establish a throne. And here's the

thing. If you have guilt and blood on your hands before you even touch

the throne, then this is gonna weigh on your conscious for the rest of

your rule. And so she says, let me remind you, if you

go through with what you're trying to do, you will have a conscience that

does not bear witness with your actions and therefore this will be over your head

for the rest of your rule. You don't want to do this. You're

gonna be guilty the rest of your life, and people in Israel will know

that you take innocent blood when you're unhappy. And then she says, and

also, aren't you the man that when you killed Goliath, didn't you say

that this was the Lord's battle and not yours? So that's why she says

the sling She says, wait, wait, wait, aren't you the guy

famously for saying that God is the one that LIU follow, that the Lord

is the one that fights your battles, having by now you wrote in a

few psalms about the Lord delivering you from your enemies. Aren't you the guy

that always talks about God fights my battles? But all of a sudden,

you're gonna fight your own battles, David, all of a sudden, you're

gonna You're gonna take this into your own hands. Well, then now you

won't be known as the guy who has God fights his battles, that David

does it with his own hands. And when God, when David's not happy

with the way God is doing things, then David will take it in his

own hands. I mean she I know we're reading this in a biblical Hebrew

thing. But she's talking to David with that much you would keep hearing,

giving her at him a lot of honor. So she bows, she kisses

him, she's calling it. She's saying, I'm your servant. So she's

using a lot of honorifics, which which honestly is a great way into a

person's heart. Right, So she's giving him honorifics, and she is being

keeping it one hundred with David about her husband, and then said, you

know, he's worthless man, and he's a fool. And because the thing

is in that moment, if she just went straight to his defense, David

would have been like, oh, your husband sent you here. That's all

it is here. So she's like, no, you're right, David,

here a fool. But he's my fool. That's that's what it is.

That's that's the fool that I'm married, that's the one I commit. So

so so she says, what his sin and his guilt be both stowed to

me. If there's anyone you're gonna kill, kill me, that's what she

says. So she evaluates the thing and she says, Look, I'm not

saying that you can't exercise righteousness and judgment, but don't do it on my

husband, and don't do it on the men of our house. You could

do it with me, David. And so, being a woman of discernment,

she reckon as a lot of things which we're gonna look at with the

brief moments we have. But what we have to understand with a man like

Nabel in the heart that he had was he was a very wealthy man.

The first couple verses, starting a verse two in First Samuel, chapter twenty

five, here's what it says concerning Nabal and also Abigail. It says,

and there was a man in Moa and whose business was in Carmel. H

The man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats.

That's very rich. Back then he was shearing his sheep in Carmel,

which means he was just taking care of him. And now the man and

now the man's name was nay Ball, and the name of his wife was

Abigail. And it says this concerning Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful,

but the man was harsh and badly behaved. He was a Caleb bite.

I don't know too much of why they called him a Caleb bite,

other than Caleb bites must have been harsh and very badly behaved. Not to

dis my brother in Caleb in any way, shape or form, he said.

He said, David heard in the wilderness that Naball was shearing his sheep.

So what happens is we understand within these few characters is the first one

you have is Nayball. And nay Ball has resources galore. Nayball's got all

the fruit you can imagine. He got the bananas, he's got the bread,

he's got the eggs, he's got the milk. I mean, nay

Ball is overflowing with resources. And so David goes and tells nay Ball,

you are overflowing with resources. Out in the wilderness, I saw your men

and I saw your sheep pass all the time, and we never touched them.

Could we have maybe one little vine of your grapes? Could maybe we

get just a couple of eggs, like one or two eggs, maybe maybe

two slices of bread. Look how much that you have, nay Ball,

and we were looking out for you. We never stole from you, but

we're kind of we're kind of in difficult circumstances right now. Could we have

some of your resources? And his response was no, I don't. I

don't know you, and he goes, there's a lot of people in need.

I don't why would I help you over others in need? And I

don't know what family you come from, So no, you can't have any

of my resources. And so we see a man that is literally overflowing with

resources who's unwilling to share it with anybody. This is all for him,

I know. One of the first things that me and my wife said is

when we got into our home. We moved into our home in September of

twenty nineteen, kind of took a couple of months. One of the first

things her and I said was, if God would give us a home that

we're praying for, then then we will give him our home as his.

So whatever he wants to do with it, whoever he knows that needs to

be in it or be hosted and housed in it, it's theirs. It's

for God. Well, God called came calling a few months later because we

went through COVID and for much of COVID. Uh, we didn't. We

didn't have our staff working in the same room, and we were preparing to

shut down, and we couldn't have volunteers running everything. So our staff team

for three months, you guys, some of you guys remember this. We

hosted everything in my living room. We filmed everything in my living room,

everything, and so for three months there was cameras and recorders, and furniture

was flipped upside down and all these things. And Ashley never said anything the

whole time. And finally when I asked her, why doesn't she bother you,

she said, because didn't we say that this home was not ours,

it's the lord's. So if he wants filmed camera crewment in this for three

months during COVID, he can you see nay Ball was not that type of

person. He probably when he went to church on Saturdays, he probably thanked

God for his resources, but when God came asking for his resources, he

was not willing to share them. I don't want to give them anyone.

And so therefore he was a man of great greed. And then we have

David, who Now David becomes a great man of anger because when he can't

get some of his resources. He says, well, then we'll just get

the sword. We'll just start killing you guys. Then if nobody's around anymore

to claim the resources, then they'll be ours. And so now David shows

us what it means to have your emotions take control of situations that don't come

out the way that you intend them to. And so instead of David showing

that he's a man of trust in God, he actually shows that when I

don't get my way, I will take it by force because I have the

resources of men that could come and take whatever I need. Now, you

may not have a sword, and you may not have hundreds of men,

but what you do have is you have your presence. You have your voice,

you have social media accounts, you have secrets of other people's And the

moment things don't happen the way we want to, the way we go to

war, as we start hitting that unfollowed button, the way we start to

go to war, as we're around the water cooler and you're saying, you

know, Janet, she ain't her marriage. It ain't even all that I've

heard she's been saying. And I heard about them, and oh man,

he he's not even that type of guy because I heard, I heard he

got credit cards and he in debt and he may go bankrupt. So don't

And all of a sudden, we go to war. We go to war

with our mouths. So we start cutting people with our tongues. We start

using our bitterness and our anger. And so, yeah, we may not

have a sword like David, but we're no different than David. And so

then now you have a man who has resources he won't share, another man

who has emotions that he's not in control of. And then now we have

Abigail, a woman who's willing to sacrifice herself, put herself on the line,

to give her life up to protect those in her family. And so

she's a woman of discernment. And she's known as a woman of beauty not

because she had some type of secret that no one else knew. It was

because she was willing to use her words, and she was willing to use

the discernment of the Holy Spirit to change the hard heart of David. And

if you ever noticed, that's something that many women have the power to do,

is they have the power to use their words to dictate the scenario.

That's why it's often been said that the woman of the home is the thermostat

of the home. When she's hot, the house is hot. When she's

cold, the house is cold. Don't matter what the husband does, doesn't

matter what the kids do. And so her voice and her attitude will actually

shift the temperature of the room. And Abigail is a woman of discernment because

she knows that she has that God given ability. And instead of doing a

moment of weakness like David had and allowed his emotions to take control, his

anger to take control, she began to put her emotions in check. And

then she said, how can I use my words to build David up and

make him feel all good? You see, you're gonna be a king one

day, David. You're gonna be rich one day. David, look at

all these people in fall. He's like, yeah, keep keep going,

keep going. I mean, that's how I am. When my wife starts

saying nice things, I'm like, I could do this all day, just

keep coming and give it. And then she's like, and by the way,

can I buy this? I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah,

here's the credit card, get whatever you want. Because a woman who knows

the discernment of the words, So how many more women in the church.

If they began to be more discermented in the church, what they started using

their words to start to build people up around them. What happened if we

started being very cautious with the things that we say and how we say.

That's what we see about Abigail. And so here's something Abigail shows us about

her life that we can learn. And first Samuel twenty five, the first

thing she shows us is how wise and witty she is. She's very wise,

and she's very witty, you know, Matthew, Chapter ten, verse

sixteen, Jesus tells us that behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in

the midst of woods, so be as what wisest serpents, and as innocent

as dobs. What Jesus says is he says, in this life, as

disciples of Christ, you are gonna have to use wisdom at times. You

are gonna have to be cautious about the words that you say and the actions

you make, because there will be true, real life implications that will come

out of your attitudes and out of your habits. And so Abigail, as

a wise and witty woman, what she's able to do is she's able to

survey the landscape, and she recognizes, if I don't intervene in this circumstance,

all of them men of my family and in my husband's care, is

gonna die. And so she had to make a judgment call in that moment

in her wisdom to go by herself and put herself into an actually dangerous circumstance

with David and lay it all on the line. And not only that,

she becomes a woman who's aware of what makes David flutter. She knows what's

important to David, and so she knows that God is leading him to a

throne. She knows that he fought the life, and so therefore her words

are chosen in a way that builds David up and not tears him down.

It's a wife's person because she needed something from David, She needed to appease

his anger. And so she could have just come out him and be like,

you dog of a man, you kill her, you murderer. David

would be like, oh hush, he keep doing what he was doing.

No, her wisdom in her approach made all the difference. A lot of

times, it's not what you say, it's how you say it. She

understood that. That's why she's so wise. There was something she needed to

say, but she understood, there's a way that I have to say this

in order to turn this man's heart from anger to faithfulness, to love to

righteousness. So then we also see that she's beautiful and she's brave. When

we saw that, it said that she was discerning and beautiful. The question

is, are they just talking about like just an obstructive beautiful Like are they

just saying, oh, when you looked at her, she was a beautiful

woman. No, that's not what they're talking about. This is what First

Peter says concerning beauty in First Peter, chapter three, verse three to four.

Your beauty should not be from the outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles

and the wearing of gold and jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should

be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet

spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. And so what the

scripture is talking about is this saying she was beautiful. What in the way

that she carried herself. Her beauty was not in her wealth, and her

beauty was not in her jewelry. Her beauty was not in her hairstyle,

and her beauty was not in the things that she went and purchased to upgrade

her life. Her beauty was in her countenance, in her ability to be

a strong, faithful woman of God. And other people looked at her and

said, that is a beautiful, confident woman who knows who she is in

God. And the way they would have described that beauty would have been in

the way that she talked, in the way that she carried herself, in

the way that she spoke. That is where they would have said, this

is a beautiful woman. It's not what's happening on the outside, But so

many of us we get so caught up on the approval of what everyone is

saying on the outside. That's what we care about. About A month ago,

there was I was out in the courtyard and there was a teenager about

sixteen seventeen years old, and he's out there for a couple of minutes.

What I'm what I'm figuring, he's probably he's probably waiting on his mom or

dad, and so um, he's kind of walking around doing a couple of

circles. So finally I saw him a couple of times, so I'm out

there, service is still ending. I just spoke, and so he walks

by one more time and I'm like, hey, what's up, homie.

I just gave him a little dap, which I guess that was enough for

him to open the door to have a conversation with me. So he walks

a little closer and he says, hey, um, what's your shoe closet?

Looked like I said, uh, I said, I mean it's it's

decent, and he goes, oh, okay. So it was like the

way he asked it though, was not like as if it was a compliment,

because I know I can tell between a compliment and a dis I mean,

I was born at night, but not last night, so I understood.

So I go, hey, why you ask and he goes, because

I see you wearing them shoes a lot, and I might I'm like,

wait, wait, wait, bro man, I wear these a lot when

I'm preaching because I'm standing on my feet all day and then my back starts

hurting, and so these new ballots are like orthopedic and so I know,

but and then they're white, so they go with every and then he literally

goes, you don't have to explain it to me, and he walks away.

I'm like, I'm like, why am I sitting here trying to explain

myself to a sixty year old I'm married, I had kids. So then

I thought about it for weeks. So then one Sunday, I wear one

of my best shoes in my shoe closet and I tell Phil Phil, if

I see that kid again, I'm gonna be like, what's up, homie,

what's help? Hold what you think now? But I didn't think I

was gonna see him. So the service ends and he shoots back up to

me and he goes, that's a lot better, Pastor Adam like, but

you know what, I felt good. I felt better. But here's the

thing. If that compliment means so much to me, then that means I

hold criticism at the same regard, because if I'm living for people's applauses,

then that means I'll also die on people's criticisms. And so though we're here

and I had a funny moment together, I walked away and I was like,

why do we care so much about what other people think of us?

Why are we so concerned with getting a random person's approval people, Oh,

they gonna love me when I walk in the room with this new handbag.

They don't know you. They ain't even gonna go to your funeral one day.

And yeah, we're like, they gotta see my new car. Okay,

I'm pulling up to work and I always park it over here, but

this week, because my new car, I'm gonna park it to where the

staff take their lunch break. Why we do that? And so Abigail is

known as a beautiful woman not because of what she can do on the outside.

It's how she carries herself on the inside. And that, by the

power of the Holy Spirit, is how God, God chose to define Abigail

a woman of discernment and a woman of beauty. He's not trying to tell

you this, she's a good looking person. Look at what I created.

Look how beautiful she is. He's trying to tell you this woman has beauty

in ways that you'll only understand if you get to know God. If you

start to discover what God finds beautiful, then we will carry ourselves in different

ways. And then the last couple of things we are with some of the

last few thoughts is we see about Abigail is that she's humble and helpful.

She's humble and helpful, she's helpful to her family, and she's humble enough

to still honor David's position even though he's about to make a pretty unrighteous decision.

And so it says this, This was now David's response, with a

few moments we have, it says in First Samuel twenty five, verse thirty

two, it said, and David said to Abigail, blessed be the Lord

of God Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. But just

remember moments ago he has he has a sword in his hand, he's got

hundreds of men with him. He's going to kill. And this is David's

response, Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you who have kept me

this day from blood guilt and from working salvation with my own hand. For

surely as the Lord the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from

hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly,

by morning there had not been left to nay ball so much as one male.

Then David received from her hand what she had brought him, because she

remember she brought him an offering a bunch of food, a bunch of sheep.

She blessed him with a bunch of things that he was asking for,

and he said to her, go up in peace to your house. See,

I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition. You

see in her humility, she was willing to protect her family, to lay

it all down. I mean, this was a very dangerous decision she made.

Number one is she made a decision to go before David by herself,

he could have easily taken her life. At the same time, she still

has to live with the repercussions of going and disobeying her husband and getting all

of these things and giving them to David. And so here's the great thing

though, because a lot of times we talk about submission. This is how

Abigail is submissive in this story, because if she doesn't intervene, nay Ball

doesn't live, and all the males in her family don't live. What it

says is it says what happened was is after she had did this. It

said at night, she had went to go tell him. So what submission

looks like she was not keeping secrets from nay Ball. She didn't have her

own privacy from na Ball. She said, I have to make a decision

right now in the moment from my family. But I'm not gonna hide this

from my husband. How many times do we find ourselves parents, You tell

some you tell one of your kids. Is between me and you that we're

not gonna tell mom, We're not gonna tell dad. So keeping secrets right.

So what happens then is then kids start choosing favorites. It becomes rifts

in the families, that becomes things in the families. And so what happens

is is she says, I gotta make a decision, but I'm still gonna

go home, and I'm gonna tell Nayball what I did because he's still my

husband. And then whatever repercussions come from that, repercussions will come from him.

And it says she went to go tell him at night, and it

said he was having a feast for himself, and he was belligerently drunk,

and so he was so selfish. The food that he could have gave to

David and his men, he decided to still cook it and eat it and

waste it on himself. And it says he was now throwing a feast for

himself, and it says he was belligerently drunk. Here's another woman of wisdom.

She said, now is not the time to have the conversation with Nayball.

He's drunk. So she also knows when that mean, how many times

do you guys have had drunk arguments with your spouse? Were you and this

right now? You spit coming out of your mouth and all these things like

that you think you're gonna get somewhere with this, or how many times right

when you're angry, We're gonna do this right now and you're feeling you think

no. Abigail was like, well, I'm not gonna tell him right now.

I'm gonna tell him in the morning. And then that's what she does.

She tells him in the morning, and she tells him everything. She

tells him everything, and we'll get to what happens in that moment in a

second. So what we see is the next couple of points, these are

the last couple of ones, is we see that she is discerning and she

is decisive. So she discerns the spirit and she makes the decision. She

moves forward because God has already released her and said this is something that you

need to do to protect your family, and she makes that decision, and

in her submission, she is willing to not only submit to David as a

potential king, but also to her husband by going home and telling him everything

that had happened. And so we see that as a woman of great discernment,

she's also a person that can make great decisions for her family and weigh

them accordingly, because she did not have a husband in that moment that was

making a decision that would protect the family. He was making a decision out

of his own selfish desires. And then the last thing that we see is

that she becomes, as we close, rewarded and revered. She becomes rewarded

and revered. So we didn't get to that part yet. But what happens

is she tells her husband in the morning what she did, and she tells

him David was coming to kill all of us. I gave him a bunch

of our sheep. I gave him a bunch of our resources, and it

subsided his anger. And what happens is first amreechapter twenty five tells us that

nay Ball was so mad that ten days later he had a heart attack from

that anger. He had held in so much emotion that his emotion killed himself.

His inability to think level headed, his inability to release his anger,

to release his resentment, to release his judgment, it led him to death.

We can see how our emotions lead to our own sicknesses, how the

emotions that we carry that are not God given, that are you're inflicted by

your herself, by our own decisions and our own angers. It says,

ten days later he had a heart attack. And guess what happens when David

finds out, y'all are gonna trip. If you don't know this story already,

Here's what happens first Samuel twenty five. Is we begin to close.

It says, when David heard that Napaal was dead, he said, blessed

be the Lord who avenged the insult I received at the hand of Naball and

has. I guess there is a time you can say they got what was

coming to them or something. I mean, I don't know, it says,

and he kept his servant from wrongdoing. And it says the Lord has

returned to Eball and Naple on his own head. And it said, then

David here comes apart. Then David sentence spoke to Abigail to take her as

his wife. He's like, that's a woman that I need on my team.

They dude, he was so impressed by her just sermon and her ability

to hear God that he says, you're gonna be my wife. And guess

what you know? You think Abigail is gonna be like, I'm a recent

widow. He just died. I can't love another man until some time from

now. Then, don't look this what happens then David's folk taker his wife

and says, when the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they

said to her, David has sent us to take you to him as his

wife. It says she rose and bowed her head to the face of the

ground and said, behould, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet.

She says this, David need his feet washed. And it says this

in verse forty two. And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey.

I mean, if this was a Western movie, the doors on the western

door would be flapping as she's on the horse headed to David to marry her.

The dirt over his grave has not even been finished, laid she on

the donkey. I'm coming, David, get a fucking of water. I'm

gonna marry you like she wants to wash his feast now. And it says

this and her five young women attendant. She brought a crew and she said,

ladies, ladies, we going to the east side. We're moving on

up, come on. Says she took her five women with her because her

friends probably figured he probably got some young single men with him. Takes five

women with her, and it says she followed the messengers of David and became

his wife. You know what messengers do for someone like David is they represent

him to other officials and they interpret other people's statements to David. You see,

when you send a messenger, you're gonna ask them the first thing that

they're gonna say. They're gonna come back and they're gonna say, hey,

David, so and so said X, Y and Z, And he's gonna

say, how do you think they meant that? What was their demeanor?

How do you think we should respond to this way? And so messengers were

people that represented him and interpreted other people's words. So he immediately he doesn't

just keep him as a wife and puts her in the kitchen. In this

moment, he says, I'm gonna take you, and you're gonna go and

represent me because you're a woman of great discernment. You're not gonna be like

the other wives that mostly are here in this moment to serve another purpose.

You're gonna be a wife that I actually I'm gonna send on my behalf,

and you're gonna represent me as an authority figure amongst other people. You're gonna

be part of my messengers. And so he brings her in to make decisions

with him and his men. Now, in that day, many oftentimes people

had multiple wives. If you know the story of David, you know his

first wife was Saul's daughter. You know that his fourth wife was best Sheba.

So my man had wives. So not necessarily a story of love,

it's actually more so a story of what God will do to honor you when

you honor God. Because in her day as a widow, she wouldn't have

survived very long in those days. Widows did not go far in those days.

So David recognized that immediately and said, I'm gonna bring you into my

house and you're gonna become part of my family, because I'm not gonna leave

you out to dry. Because you've honored me, You're gonna become part of

the family. And that's what I see God begins to do the more that

we begin to honor God. Romans chapter eight says He has adopted us as

children through Christ. When you get brought into adoption with God, it's because

we've gone to a place where we humble ourselves before Jesus, and we say,

Jesus, you have every right to exercise whatever judgment you want on the

world and the people. But because you have walked this earth, because you

have given your life for our sins, I am willing to fall at your

feet and give it to you all. Abigail represents what it means to humbly

sit before God and be a person of discernment, something that we can all

take a note of. And ultimately we see that her salvation comes from the

house of David, and we know that Jesus came from the house of David.

And so this is a picture of God honoring and saving those who would

follow him and those that would lay before the Lord. And that is something

that you and I can do together as we can be people that are wise

and witty. We can find a beauty and bravery unlike any other. We

could be humble and helpful to those around us. You and I can be

discerning and decisive in new fresh ways. And then lastly, just like Abigail,

there's a point where she becomes revered and honored and rewarded. God brings

her into His house and that's something you and I can learn from today in

the life of Abigail. Let's pray this morning. Lord, we thank you

so much for this word. Today, Father God. We pray as we

gathered together, Lord, and we learn from you. Father God. I

just thank you so much Lord that your spirit is ministering to us right now.

Father God, I pray Lord that in the lives of these men and

women, we can see how people hungered for you and strived after you and

followed you. Lord. And may we see, Father God, that we're

not meant to look like the world. We're not meant to blend in.

We're meant to stand out. And so God, may you help us to

understand that what it means to be a light for christ it's not just always

saying that we're Christians and putting across around our neck. It's also in the

way that we carry ourselves. It's in the way that we speak, It's

in the way that we talk, it's in the way that we do business.

It's in the way that we work with our hands. So God,

I'd pray that we honor you with those things today. Lord, and God,

I pray that you would speak to us and this would carry with us

the rest of the week in Jesus name. Amen, Hey, we're gonna

leave here with two more minutes together. In these next moments, I do

want to just make that invitation to everyone that's here, whether you're in the

courtyard, whether at one of our campuses, or you're in this room.

I just encourage you today that if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ,

don't wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow's never promised. There's always Pastor Dag always

puts it that we're always one germ, one virus, one accident, misshape,

mishap from Heaven's gates and Hell's doors. And that is a reality,

is that tomorrow is not promised, and we don't know what tomorrow will bring.

And so today we must choose who to serve. And so today you

and I can follow Christ in a new way, give our life to him

and recognize that he truly is who he said he was, that he is

the one who carried our shame and carried our sins. And it's through his

death and resurrection that you and I truly have victory and we can truly be

born again, be born anew in the Kingdom of God. And it starts

with a confession in Christ, to say, Jesus, I recognize that you

died on the cross for my sins, and I recognize that you resurrected from

the dead. Resurrection shows that Jesus had victory over sin and death. And

so therefore, as we follow Christ, it means that we have received that

relationship with the Father. And so today, if you've never given your life

to Christ, I want to encourage you in this moment. We're going to

say a prayer together today. But by no means the prayers, the thing

that saves you, the Lord and the Spirit, is already at work in

your heart. By us saying this prayer today, what we're doing is we're

affirming the goodness and mercy of God that today you and I are humbly submitting

ourselves before God and say, God, I receive you, and God I

choose to follow you. So, family, would you all join me in

this prayer today? As they're going to be some people in this room and

in the courtyard that are saying it for the first time or rededicating their life.

So would you join me and saying this, Dear Lord Jesus, in

this moment, I confess you as Lord and Savior. I believe in my

heart that you died on the cross and you rose three days forward. From

this day forward, I commit to follow you for the rest of my days

in Jesus name. We really hope you enjoyed the message, and if you

said yes to Jesus, we just want to say congratulations and give you a

free devotional to help you walk out your faith. Click the link of the

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