Good morning.
There's nobody here.
Every last day you go around, turn back to face. With the darkness all that's in front, still I will sing.
What's the name of the Lord? What's the real name? What's the name of the Lord? What's the real God in your name?
Let there be a place in the land that is massive and full of the wishes of a violent soul.
Let there be a place.
Let there be a place. When I'm out in the desert, when I'm walking alone, let there be a place.
Every last day you go around, turn back to face. With the darkness all that's in front, still I will sing.
What's the name of the Lord? What's the real God in your name? What's the real name of the Lord? What's the real God in your name?
Let there be a place in the land that is massive and full of the wishes of a violent soul.
Breaking out from the children of freedom. Every race and every nation singing out, singing to you, hallelujah.
Let us sing love to the nations. Breaking out from the race that excretes us.
Making war and making bravest. Sing it out, sing anew, hallelujah.
Let the hearts get to turn to rise. Let the heart beat to the other side.
Let the heart beat to the other side. Let the heart beat to the other side.
And when you hear that's a new song. Breaking out from the children of freedom. Every race and every nation.
Singing out, singing anew, hallelujah.
I'll give you all my worship. I'll give you all my praise. You Lord I long to worship. You Lord are worthy of my praise.
I'll give you all my worship. I'll give you all my praise. You Lord are worthy of my praise. You Lord are worthy of my praise.
I will sing you upon my head for all of my days. And I will live and I will follow all your ways.
I'll give you all my worship. I'll give you all my praise. You Lord I long to worship. You Lord are worthy of my praise.
Alright, so this is our time for our experience. This is what happens today. It's going to go by fairly quickly.
I did hand out to all of the adult teenagers that were available at that time this quiz. I promise they'll be on Tuesday.
So if you were here on Tuesday and you know this material, let's start with just the bottom section.
I'm going to ask you to have all the answers right now. But if you are here and you think you know all of the answers,
right here, 100%, and you can get them. Is there anybody that can say yes?
Okay, that's fine. So this is the ones.
RJ is not her say confident in a couple of them. If you think he knows, he's not sure.
It's up to you. Do you want to take a stab at it? Maybe you'll get them all right?
Alright, so the first one is David's son who abstained.
Absalom is correct. So if you want to get these answers on right now, that will help you later.
Prophet who almost spoke God's wisdom.
One of the hardest ones.
Hold on.
That is correct.
So it's two for two. The prophet who...
Absalom both looked at him and said he spoke wisdom.
He spoke from the mouth of God or the word of God.
This man was loyal to David, a priest, but was sent back to Jerusalem.
This is the time.
That is incorrect. Jason, you know it?
Here we go. It is a die. So you're going to pick up from there when your dad left off.
Oh, that is what I put down.
Oh, I see.
Okay, here we go. Put school of God. Everyone knows that one, right?
The Ark of the Covenant. That's right. From Gath, David killed him.
Tim, who did David kill from Gath? Remember?
Goliath. That's right. Goliath was from Gath and David killed him.
It's probably the most famous one-on-one battle in the Bible.
Gath, but became David's general. Jason? It's a die.
That's correct. It's a die is correct.
This person cursed Ahithophel begging God.
No. Anybody know it? Jason?
It's David. That's correct.
David cursed Ahithophel begging God. This person is probably the hardest name on the list.
Zadok's son, the messenger. He was one of Ahithophel's messengers.
That's correct. Very good, Jason.
The last one was a little bit tricky. This person committed suicide.
The only person in this entire list who committed suicide.
That is incorrect.
Is that anybody?
That is correct. It was Ahithophel. That's a little bit tricky.
That one was used quite. Also, you'll notice that Jonathan, Saul, and Samuel, which are very famous
Bible names, none of them were used because they're not in there.
The map is up here. I'm not going to do the map right now. Do this quiz for yourself.
Listen, here's the thing. The bottom ones are not as important. Maybe they're
important because they're biblical like that. Knowing this map, where these things are located at,
is hugely important. I will illustrate that to you for a second.
You look right smack in the middle of your map where it says, Philistia.
You'll see the letter F and the letter E. Did anybody get the letter E?
That is incorrect. F is gap.
Normally you would know. You're like, that's weird.
What is there? Go ahead.
It's Gila, which is where David and Gila had fought.
Now you can see that's gap just inside the border there.
To give you an idea, on this map, take your fingers and go like this.
Go from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. See that?
Now take a guess how far that is in real life. Does anybody know how wide the promised land is?
70 miles.
So if that's 70 miles, I don't actually know the distance, but what you do know is that
Gath and Gila are not very far away.
Goliath was from Gath. He was that far from home when he met
David and they fought and David killed him. This is 70 miles.
It's probably talking about 5 to 10 miles to be my guess. Not very far.
And almost in his hometown.
Right out there to the right you see Jay. Do you know what Jay is? Bethlehem.
And whose hometown is that? Whose hometown is Bethlehem?
So you've got Gath, Gila, and Bethlehem.
So basically what you've got is a situation where a guy from Bowling Green and a guy from Toledo got together
and they fought and one killed the other. And the guy that won the fight was from
like, let's see, maybe Grand Rapids. Not so far, right?
So you've got a place where you can go and you can read the Bible.
And when you read the Bible, you can read the Bible.
And you can read the Bible, and you can read the Bible.
And you don't have to worry about it. These are hometown boys and you'd better believe it's spread.
So knowing those locations, knowing where these things are on this map when you're reading the Bible, you can know
like it says the army marches from here to there. If you in your mind know where here is and there is,
you know what that looks like. And you should. And it's Bible intake time, baby.
Or you don't watch a police show and it's like Hawaii Five-O and you just forget
that it's Hawaii. Because in those opening scenes, they show all those pictures of Hawaii,
right? So you know it's Hawaii. You know it's not like this is not like Midwest America.
It's Hawaii, right? And they have an NCIS for all of these different
locations. And if you watch those shows, they highlight the culture
and the geography and what things look like in those areas.
And so we need to know where the Bible is taking place. If you can't look
on a map, by the way, Gaza's on here. Pretty famous place.
The newsletter H on the map. Pretty famous place in the world.
Right now, right? Not just in the world. And then Jerusalem is on here.
Pretty famous place in the world right now, right? And so if you
watch the news and you're like, oh gosh, I didn't realize, did you realize
that Jerusalem is not that far from Bethlehem where Jesus was born.
And there's war there right now still. I mean off and on for centuries, right?
Millennia. There's been war there. There's war there now. Not that far from where the King
of Peace was born and David was born and where David killed
Goliath. It's not far from where they're fighting today. You understand?
So you can put that in perspective. It adds another dimension, another
level of understanding. Now we study these things on these nights. If you're not able to come on these
nights, then you've got to do the work yourself, right? You can get the worksheets online.
You can watch it on Facebook. We do try every week and we've been pretty good about that
a couple times ago when we lost the audio. But it's
ends of the
been pretty good. So you can get that information. And I'll tell you what, you can't
go to churches. There's not a lot of churches out there. They're going to teach you the setting
of the Bible or they're going to teach you the teachings of the Bible. They'll teach you exactly like a train.
They'll teach you so that you can know exactly what God is saying from the text. We're not making this stuff up.
This is real. This actually happened. It's historical. You can learn it.
week. Within a couple of weeks of the outside, if you're not able to come on Tuesday nights and you're
gonna do the work yourself, in a couple weeks of the outside, you should be able to get 100% on this
quiz. You should know where every one of these locations are. And when we did it on Tuesday,
we had another eight to ten locations on there, okay? So let me encourage you to learn and grow
in the Lord and taking your Bible. All right, we're gonna pray at this time. We move on to the time
and offering, then I spring from dude, darüber, as we pray. Our Lord, thank you for taking in
Blessed offering as we pick it up.
We thank you, Lord, for everything you have given us.
We appreciate it all.
Everything you have given us.
And now, watch over us.
Thank you.
Piano imitations...
I am so sorry.
I have to open up the chorus.
Don't go there.
Worship God.
Don't get him off the plane.
Morning stars, they're wet.
Morning sun, they're still.
The Savior of the world has come.
His body on the cross
His blood poured out over us
The weight of that weight does upon him.
One final breath it gave
His heaven looked away
The sun of God was laying in darkness
A battle in the grave
The war on death was waged
The power of hell forever broken
The ground began to shake
The soul was thrown away
His breath did not touch the earth
Now that when you're saved
Our resurrection king
Has raised his crown of freedom
Forever he is
His power has come
Forever he is
His power has come
Forever he is
His power has come
He is alive
The ground began to shake
The soul was thrown away
His breath did not touch the earth
Now that when you're saved
Our resurrection king
Has raised his crown of freedom
Forever he is
His power has come
Forever he is
His power has come
Forever he is
His power has come
He is alive
We sing hallelujah
Theavors overcome
We sing hallelujah
The airl preset overcome
We sing hallelujah
The manufactured harvest
We sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah, we sing hallelujah
The mountain hands are straight, the snow is all the way
This heart that knows it cannot be broken
Now death will be your sting, our rest for ever be
As ready to defeat it is
Forever he is glorified
Forever he is the rest that has
Forever he is free and set
Forever he is the rest he is forever
Every secret, every shame, every fear, every pain
Live inside the dark, that's not who we are
We are children of the day
The wake of sacred day drawn in
We were meant for more than this
Earth and a shadow clagged together
Make the most of the time we have alive
We are the light of the world
We are the city on a hill
We are the light of the world
We got it, we got it, we got it, let the light shine
We are the light of the world
We are the city on a hill
We are the light of the world
We got it, we got it, we got it, let the light shine
Let your light shine, let your light shine
We are called to spread the news
Tell the world the simple truth
Jesus came to save
His freedom is His name
We are the light of the world
We are the city on a hill
We are the light of the world
We got it, we got it, we got it, let the light shine
We are the light of the world
We are the city on a hill
We are the light of the world
We got it, we got it, we got it, let the light shine
We are the light
Jesus, you are the light
She was alive, she was alive
We will live to write and shine, shine, shine
We are the light of the world
We are the city on a hill
We are the light of the world
And we gotta, we gotta, we gotta let the light shine
We are the light of the world
We are the city on a hill
We are the light of the world
And we gotta, we gotta, we gotta let the light shine
Who knew love's sin
And we might become
His righteousness
We don't know themself
Carry the cross
Love so amazing
Jesus Messiah
Reign above all things
Blessed, raging, above
Reign above
Rescue for sinners
Ransom for better
Jesus Messiah
Reign above
This town of red
This flood of wine
Broken and poured out
From our bodies
The Lord of
Reign above
This town of red
This flood of wine
Broken and poured out
From our bodies
The Lord of
Reign above
This town of red
This flood of wine
Broken and poured out
Blessed, raging, above
Reign above
Rescue for sinners
Ransom for better
Jesus Messiah
Lord of all
My life of love is in you
The life of love
Jesus Messiah
Alright, before we get started, I need a few volunteers.
So I need two volunteers who think that they might be just a hint of artsy-craftsy.
We can take Josh, okay I'll take Tyler, but we're going to try to leave Josh out of it
if we can because we know Josh is artsy-craftsy because he's called of God to be artsy-craftsy.
So I've got Tyler so far, I need one more.
Alright Alex, if the two of you are going to come up here.
Okay I'm going to need a third volunteer, someone that considers themselves to be a
little bit physical and you might get hurt so don't volunteer unless your parents give
you permission.
So you're going to take these and you're going to take this.
Alright, what you want to do is go back corner over there and I need you guys to turn this
into a cage.
Okay I've already made five sides for you and then here's the rest of the pieces and
you're going to be a three-dimensional cage.
Okay, alright go ahead.
Alright who is the courageous one?
Okay you're going to be my courageous one?
Alright I'm going to come up here.
Okay you're going to go back there right just in front of the garbage can.
They're going to work on their cage.
Alex and Tyler listen to me for a second.
You can only work on the cage while Haley is either doing push-ups, sit-ups, or jumping
jacks.
If she stops you have to stop.
Understand?
Okay go ahead.
You volunteered, go back there in front of the garbage can.
Be quiet about it because we're going to be doing things up here.
So you all got to listen while you're crafting and don't build unless she's either doing
sit-ups, push-ups, or jumping jacks.
She can't do jumping jacks, she's afraid she'll fall on her face.
So okay jumping jacks it is.
Alright you guys hurry up because she's going to get tired.
Okay so today's Bible story comes out of the book of 1 Samuel.
We know that the book of 1 Samuel is essentially where we see David getting ready to come
to kingship.
And Samuel was the high priest who anointed David with oil and told him you will be king.
When he first chose David, David was a boy.
All of his older brothers might have been king but he wasn't.
But they weren't.
They chose David.
They didn't choose the handsome, didn't chose the physically strong, they chose the one
who would eventually be a man after God's own heart.
At this point in time in the story where we're picking it up, David is on the run for his
life.
He's got about 600 guys with him, faithful warriors, and he is on, don't talk please
because we're talking up here.
So he's got about 600 guys with him, faithful warriors, and they're on the run from Saul.
He doesn't want to kill Saul.
He figures God will take care of Saul.
And then David is staying out in the fields and he runs into, he and his men run into
the shepherds and guards of a certain individual.
And they do not molest them, they don't have anything to do with their animals, they don't
take from them in any way, they protect them from predators, that kind of thing as anyone
might do who is a responsible military man in the wilderness.
And then we pick up from there.
So if you grab your Bibles and maybe get just a little bit excited with me, say a little
hallelujah and amen or something as we go to 1 Samuel chapter 25.
Thank you very much.
This is the word of God.
If you allow it, this experience of just reading this text, and I'll break it down a little
as we go, but just reading this text will change your life.
God's word never goes out and comes back without fruit.
And so here we go.
And we're going to begin reading in 1 Samuel chapter 25 and verse 2.
It's a kind of long text, but I'll just make sure I explain things as we're going along,
but I'm not going to break down every verse because we'd be here for a long time if I
did that.
So there was a man whose business was in Carmel.
Does anybody know on that map where Carmel is?
Yeah, neither do I.
So we don't actually know where the story is taking place.
Boy, wouldn't it be good if we did?
We should probably learn that, right?
Yeah.
Okay.
So there was a man whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich, and he had 3,000
sheep and 1,000 goats, and that's a lot.
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 Calebite.
That means he was a descendant of Caleb.
Who was Caleb?
There were two spies that came back and gave an accurate report, and 10 that lied because
they were afraid, right?
The two spies that gave the accurate report were Joshua and Caleb.
So this guy is a descendant of Caleb, and he's shrewd, but he's also kind of mean and
evil.
So he's smart.
He knows how to do business, but he doesn't do business in a godly way, per se.
He's always out for himself.
He's got a beautiful and intelligent wife, verse 4, that David heard in the wilderness
that Nabal was shearing his sheep.
So now this is shearing time.
So all the sheep are getting their wool cut off.
How many sheep were there?
3,000.
This is not a one-day project.
It doesn't matter how many people you have doing it.
Probably it's not a one-day project.
And so this is like a festival.
It's ongoing, the shearing of all the sheep, taking all the wool off.
And then this is also a time of great festivities.
So this is a celebration because people are getting rich.
The workers are getting well paid.
The owners of the sheep are getting well paid.
Everybody is getting rich.
So they feast and they celebrate and they drink, especially at night and so on.
Now verse 5.
So David sent ten young men and David said to the young men, go up to Carmel, visit Nabal
and greet him in my name.
And thus you shall say, have a long life.
Peace be to you and peace be to your house and peace be to all that you have.
And those are pretty good blessings from an anointed one of God, a person chosen of God
to be the king over his people, verse 7.
And now I have heard that you have shearers, now your shepherds, have been with us and
we have not insulted them, nor have they missed anything all the days that 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.
So in other words, y'all are partying and getting rich.
So our men are coming.
Have a good feeling toward them.
Show them your love and care.
Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.
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's David?
And who is the son of Jesse?
There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master.
Okay, now we gotta stop there for a second before we go on and understand what's going
on.
So the ten men come to Nabal and they ask exactly as David suggested that they ask.
And they...
Almost there.
It's good.
There we go.
David, David blesses you today.
Blessing to you and all your people and all your lands.
Please give to us in this great festive time.
We have 600 men living in the wilderness and we don't have crops and we don't have sheep.
We don't have goats.
Please give to us.
Nabal says, nah, who is this guy?
A son of Jesse?
I'm not giving nothing.
In fact, he says to the ten men who are David's men, he says, understand, a lot of people
are breaking away from their master right now.
You hear what he's saying?
He's saying you don't have to go back and be with David.
You can stay with me and I'll take care of you.
Right?
Not only that, he's saying, David?
So he's breaking off from Saul.
So he's one of those men.
So if you, if you think, well, I wouldn't break off from David and stay with me, well,
then now you're stuck because David's breaking off from Saul who you're loyal to.
So this whole idea of breaking off from your master, that's what David's been.
He's breaking off from Saul.
So if you'd say you wouldn't break off from David and join me, then what would you say
about David who's breaking off from his master, Saul?
See?
So they're kind of stuck.
They don't really pay him any attention.
They expected that he would respond positively and he doesn't.
Verse 11 says, shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered
for my shears and give it to men whose origin I do not know?
So David's young man retraced their way and back and they came and told him, according
to all these words, they said to David, this is what the guy said.
And David said to his men, each of you gird on your sword.
So each man girded on his sword and David also girded on his sword.
And about 400 men went up behind David while 200 stayed with the baggage.
So of the 600 men, 200 stayed with the baggage.
That's all their luggage, their backpacks, their camping gear, all that kind of stuff
stay there.
And 400 of us are going to go with our swords and we're going to go out and take a, we're
going to pay this Nabal a little visit.
14.
But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife.
So now Abigail, remember she's beautiful and intelligent.
And one of the young men told Abigail this, behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness
to greet our master and he scorned them.
So this is one of Nabal's guys and he sees a problem developing.
And so he's going to tell Nabal's wife and he says to Abigail, he scorned them.
Yet the men were very good to us.
So while we were in the fields, they did take care of us.
And while we were not insulted, nor did we miss anything as long as we went about with
them while we were in the field.
So we know that these are good guys and maybe their requests should have been honored.
Verse 16.
They were a wall to us by both night and by day.
All the time we were with them tending the sheep.
We were always taking care of them.
Verse 17.
Now therefore know and consider what you should do for evil is plotted against our master
and against all his household and he is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him.
Do you hear that?
So Nabal, by his own wife, she's being told by this guy, he's his servant, our master,
we are in trouble.
This is not going to be good.
These men are going to come against us because it makes sense because we didn't honor all
that sacrifice and work that they did for us.
And no one can talk to Nabal for all of our effort.
For all of our effort, we can't even talk to him.
We can't get through to him.
Verse 18.
Then Abigail hurried and took 200 loaves of bread, two jugs of wine, five sheep already
prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and 200
cakes of figs.
She loaded them on donkeys.
She said to her young men, go on before me.
Behold, I am coming after you.
But she did not tell her husband Nabal, so she's going without his knowledge.
And it came about as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part
of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her.
So here comes the 400 men armed with swords.
And she's on the back of a donkey.
She's got a few guys in front of her and she's got the stuff that she's taken to David.
Verse 21.
Now David had said, surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness
so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him and he has returned me evil for good.
So David says, surely we did all this now that Nabal refuses to do good by us.
22.
May God do so to the enemies of David and more also if by morning I leave as much as
one male of any who belonged to him.
David said, we're going to kill every living male in Nabal's mansion compound employ.
Every living man is going to be killed.
23.
When Abigail saw David, she hurried, dismounted from her donkey, fell on her face before David
and bowed herself to the ground.
So let's be clear about this.
Make sure we understand what happens.
24.
Here is a man who has a promise from God that he will be king over God's people.
He has a promise from God.
He's not fulfilled yet, but he has a promise from God.
Who does that sound like?
Do we have a promise from God?
We have a promise from God, do we not?
So here is a man who has a promise from God and he's going about with the servants of
this wicked man and they have done good to the servants of the wicked man.
The wicked man behaves to them now wickedly by David's estimation.
By the estimation of the man who has a promise from God, he has been mistreated.
His servants, his family, the people with him, they have been mistreated.
So a man who has a promise from God has been mistreated by a wicked man and his estate.
And he's going to exact his revenge.
He's going to deal justice to Nabal.
Even Nabal's man thinks it's justice.
Abigail is who?
She is the wife of the wicked man.
So she's close to the wicked man.
She lives in his house.
She does not have a promise from God like David does.
You follow this?
She's going to go out and she's now going to try to arrest the vengeance.
She's going to try to stop the vengeance.
You follow?
So she's going to go to the man who has a promise and speak to him.
That's where we're at.
Verse 24, she fell at his feet and said, on me alone, my Lord, be the blame.
So what does she do?
She humbles herself.
And please let your maidservant speak to you and listen to the words of your maidservant.
Please do not let my Lord, that's David, pay attention to this worthless man.
So what is she asking David to do?
She's asking David to essentially forget him, to have nothing to do with him, to not deal
justice, to not interact with Nabal at all.
That's what she says.
Please do not let my Lord, that's David, pay attention to this worthless man, Nabal, for
as his name is, so is he.
And Nabal means folly.
Nabal is his name and folly is with him.
But I, your maidservant, did not see the young man of my Lord whom you sent.
So I was there, but I missed it when they came.
Verse 26, now therefore my Lord and the Lord lives as the Lord lives, that Lord there,
the capital L-O-R-D, we learned about that.
Remember what that means?
Anybody remember?
We see the capitals all in capitals like that.
It's God, specifically the creator God, Yahweh.
So the word there in the text is Yahweh.
Whenever they do that, that makes the word Yahweh.
Now therefore my Lord and the creator God, the one who created everything, lives.
And as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from shedding blood and from
avenging yourself by your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek evil against
my Lord be as Nabal.
So in other words, if you will not go and destroy Nabal, then God will take care of
these other enemies for you.
That's what she's asking for, 27.
Now let this gift with your maid servant has brought to my Lord be given to your young
man who accompany my Lord.
Please forgive the transgression of your maid servant.
So the mistakes I have made, forgive me, she says.
For the Lord will certainly make for my Lord an enduring house because my Lord is fighting
the battles of the Lord and evil shall not be found in you all your days.
You see that?
What she is arguing is that David is not ordained king to fight for David.
That he's not ordained king to fight for God's people.
That he is ordained king to fight God's battles.
You follow that?
That's what she's saying.
And if you are the person who is ordained to fight God's battles, then God will fight
your battles.
That's what she's saying.
Verse 29.
And should anyone rise up to pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my Lord shall
be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies
he will sling out as from the hollow of a sling.
And it shall come about when the Lord shall do...
You guys okay back there?
Are you about done?
She's still working?
She's still going?
You can do almost the whole thing without the tape probably.
Alright, focus.
We're almost to the point we need it.
We should have had Haley making it and Ty doing the pushups, huh?
Michael's like, yeah, that's how we should have done it.
Okay.
Alright, here we go.
Alright, so 30.
And it shall come about when the Lord shall do for my Lord according to all the good that
he has spoken concerning you.
In other words, when God fulfills his promises for you and shall appoint you ruler over Israel,
that this will not cause grief or a troubled heart to my Lord, which is David, both by
having shed blood without cause and by my Lord having avenged himself.
So if David went and avenged himself and dealt justice to Nabal and his household, then she
says that'll trouble you when the time comes.
But if you don't do it now, then it won't trouble you then.
When the Lord shall deal well with my Lord, then remember your maid servant.
In other words, when the promises God has made to you are fulfilled, when that has happened,
then don't forget that I was the one, I was here.
Now 32.
David said to Abigail, 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.
That's huge right there, by my own hand.
Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from harming you, unless
you had come quickly to meet me, surely there would not have been left in Nabal until morning
light as much as one male.
In other words, I was gonna keep my promise.
I was gonna go and kill every man.
So David received from her hand what she had brought him and he said to her, go up to the
house in peace, see I have listened to you and granted your request.
So he sent her back home.
Verse 36.
Abigail came to Nabal and behold he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king.
That's kind of ironic isn't it?
He didn't let the king come to the feast.
And Nabal's heart was merry within him and he was very drunk.
So she did not tell him anything at all until the morning light.
But it came about in the morning when the wine had gone out of Nabal that his wife told
him these things and his heart died within him so that he became as a stone.
Now scholars have dug into that really hard.
It doesn't say like he's not comatose.
He's just like, it's more an idea of dread.
It's a poetic way of saying like he realizes he really is in trouble.
Verse 38.
It says about 10 days later it happened that the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
So God killed this man.
He's not the only person God ever killed.
God killed this man.
Verse 39.
When David heard that Nabal was dead he said, Blessed be the Lord who has pleaded the cause
of my reproach from the hand of Nabal.
Remember the guy had treated him badly but God took care of it he says and has kept back
his servant from evil.
God restrained David from going and doing it himself.
The Lord has also returned the evil doing of Nabal on his own head.
Then David sent a proposal to Abigail to make her as his wife.
Okay, that's the whole story.
RJ, why don't you go back there and see if you can help them kind of button it up.
Since it's three teenagers.
Alright, okay.
So we've read a relatively long text and in the text we have a few interesting characters.
We have a guy who's received a promise.
Guess what?
I'm a guy who's received a promise.
Tim is a guy who's received a promise.
Alicia is a gal who's received a promise.
Tommy is a guy and we go all the way around.
We're all people like David who have received a promise.
The ultimate goal is that we will see God when we die and be judged as innocent because
of the blood of Jesus Christ and be in heaven for eternity.
That is the goal.
That's the promise that we have.
That we will be found innocent, not based on our own virtues, but based on the virtue
of the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us.
So we have a promise.
But there are people in this world who are living differently.
They're living in a way that will hurt you.
They're living in a way that will lead you to a bad place or hurt you physically, psychologically,
emotionally, etc.
More often than not, we know a right thing to do.
If it's not you, if you're not the one at stake, if you're not the problem solver right
now, if I jumped on the phone, if I text Trina, if I call Amalia, if I call Tim, whatever,
and I say, hey, what should I do in this case?
As long as you're not the one who has everything at stake, as long as it's not your livelihood,
it's not your life, it's not your health, whatever, you can right away go, oh, you should
do this.
It's no problem, right?
But when we get in the moment and we're now dealing with our own issues, now we've got
all the emotions, the psychology, the anxiety, our own addictions, our own struggles, our
own sin, our own troubles, our own financial burden, well, I should just do this.
Well, that'll cost me 500 bucks.
Where's that money gonna come from?
I should do this.
Well, if I spend that money, how am I gonna know for sure I'll have money for retirement,
money for food later, money fixing my car, right?
So we know, usually know what the good thing is to do, but quite often when we know what
the good thing is to do, it's muddied by all of the possibilities.
And so we say, well, I know what the good thing to do is, but here is like a choice.
There's really about seven or 10 or 15 things I could do here.
And you're gonna pick the one that is gonna get the most return that I can see that the
best result I can possibly see with the least expenditure.
Is that not what we do?
Right?
So I'm gonna get the best return with the least expenditure.
It's always kind of like give and take, push and pull.
But Jesus said, when in doubt, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
That's Matthew 7-12, it's the golden rule, right?
It's how we should manage everything.
So in other words, when you're dealing with somebody else, whether it be a wicked person
or not, and you're gonna, how do I handle them?
What do I say?
How do I act?
You do unto them what you would have them do unto you.
So there's no vengeance or justice in that.
There's no repercussions for what they've done incorrectly.
In the Bible, we have the very first story of the very first murder in Genesis chapter
4.
And it's Cain and Abel, it's that classic story, you probably already knew that.
And after he deals with Cain, he deals with exactly what we're talking about today.
So in chapter 4 and verse 6, he says this, he says to Cain, the Lord said to Cain, why
are you angry?
See, Cain was upset because his offering wasn't well received.
He says, why are you angry?
And why has your countenance fallen?
In other words, why does your face look so downcast?
Why are you slumped over?
Verse 7, if you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up?
Will not your countenance be lifted up?
In other words, will not God take care of you?
Will God not fight your battles for you?
Will God not be there for you?
Will God not keep His promises?
Why has your countenance fallen?
And if you do well, in other words, if you do the right thing, will not your countenance
be lifted up?
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you, but
you must master it.
See from the very beginning, it was simply this, do well, do the good thing, do right.
And from the very beginning, that is not what Cain does.
See, he had a choice between working a little harder, honoring God, being found faithful,
doing the things that he was supposed to do and not worrying about what was happening
with Abel, or he could do the other way, he could go and kill his competition.
And that's what he did.
And then of course, we know it doesn't go well for him.
When in doubt, just do unto others as you would have them to do.
But be very aware that when it's us, when it's our situation, when we're struggling
with what we're supposed to do, we mess it up.
We confuse it.
Righteousness is called for by everyone's sense of justice.
Listen, has anybody got money in your pocket right now?
Okay, how about if I come over and smack you in your head and take it?
No, I'm your grandpa, so I could probably get away with it.
How about if Joss comes over and smacks you and you take it, what are you going to do?
That sound right?
Are you going to run?
Maybe?
If you can get out of the way in time, right?
You tell your parents?
Tell me?
Righteousness is called for by everyone's sense of justice.
Every teenager thinks they know better than every adult what the right thing to do is
in every situation.
That's a reality.
Righteousness is called for.
You have an idea, you have a standard that was ingrained in you.
But all of this takes us to the logical extension that your sense of justice is perverted by
temporal success.
You think you know what's right right now because you can't see what's right and what's
going to affect what down the road.
The last $10 in your pocket, God says give it away.
He says, I can't because I've got to buy bread and milk and blah, blah with that.
I've got to do whatever with that.
But God knows already He would give you $100 if you gave up the $10.
And everybody's like, oh, I can't because my sense of justice says, well, I am responsible.
I have to take this step, whatever.
And so we miss out on the late.
Look at Nabal.
Nabal was a shrewd businessman.
He had grown his herds to be 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats strong.
They were having a huge festival.
He was eating as a king.
Was he doing well?
Everybody looked at Nabal and said, hey, there's a good man.
He knows what he's doing.
He knows how to do business.
He's got it all going on, right?
And in the midst of that, instead of being gracious toward David and his men who had
served his men in the field, he just said, shrewd, I can't do that.
I can't just go spending money on nothing.
So what a waste that would be.
No, I built up my fortune because I'm smart, because I'm strong, because I know better
than to take these steps.
See, righteousness is called for by everyone's sense of justice, but everyone's sense of
justice then is perverted by their temporal success.
So you need a standard that goes beyond that.
Look at David.
David said, this guy abused me.
God's going to make me king over all Israel.
I'm going to rule all the tribes.
I'm going to sit on the throne.
I'm going to rule all the tribes of Israel.
How dare he?
And my men are hungry.
Why can't we go and take what it is that we need?
We can.
We offered when all this plenty was going on.
We've got all this meat, all this, all of this, right?
We've got it all.
And David said, that's wrong.
That is wrong.
And if it's wrong, if it's wrong, I'm going to do something about it because I'm going
to be king.
I've got the promises of God.
I can do what I need to do to fix this situation.
David goes, put on your swords, men.
We're going to go kill them all.
But understand that he who profits illicitly troubles his own house, Proverbs says.
So if you do good for yourself and for your family and for your finances and for your
health and whatever, you do good, you will pay.
Are we okay back there?
I'm going to call it to close in about 30 seconds.
Brother Chris could have built it three times by now.
If you profit by not doing good, you will trouble your own house, Proverbs says.
Doing the right thing should prompt reciprocating actions.
Look at the situation with Nabal and David.
Haley, you just do jumping decks and shh.
So David had a right to expect that good would be done back to him by Nabal and his men because
David's men had done good to Nabal's men.
So it makes sense.
And the Bible says in Proverbs 3.27, do not withhold good from those to whom it is due
when it is in your power to do it.
You understand?
We have a responsibility to do good to those who have done good to us.
And that makes sense.
We see that, we're like, oh, but it costs money.
But you know, so they come and they fix your car and they say they'll do it for free and
you're like, oh good, I got it for free.
But the Bible says a workman is worth his wages.
So you're going to pay?
You're going to pay when you don't have to pay?
All right, you can bring it up here if you would.
It even has a functioning door.
Okay, we're going to just put the door on the bottom.
That works fine for us.
It works fine for our purposes.
Thank you very much.
I know you guys went through a real trial back there.
Haley just burnt like a million calories.
I just put a little man inside the cage in there.
All right.
Okay.
And so we have an expectation of good actions back.
When we do good, we expect somebody to say thank you.
We expect gratitude.
It is just the way things are in the world.
But we ought not and we ought not to, Proverbs says, withhold good from those to whom it
is due.
Doing the right thing can keep someone else from doing the wrong thing.
Look at what Abigail did.
She goes out and she says, look, you don't want to do this.
You don't need to do that.
Just ignore him.
Right?
I was there when you asked.
I'm sorry.
I screwed that up.
Please forgive me for that part.
I should have been paying attention there in the middle of all that partying and all
that that they got going on and he's not going to listen to anybody.
He's just, just ignore him.
Just ignore him.
You don't need to do this.
You're going to be king.
Do you want to have on your resume?
When I was waiting to become king, I went and slaughtered an entire, entire household
of young men, many of whom probably would have been fine with giving you everything
you asked for, but because they were in a ball service, you killed them all.
Does that, is that where you want to be?
That's what you want in your background.
So she does the right thing and keeps him from doing the wrong thing.
And we need to do that.
Concern for people's wellbeing and victims caught in the crossfire.
Understand that if you would take vengeance, if you would do bad back to bad, if you would
deal justice, when you deal justice, people pay and not just the person you're dealing
justice to, even though they deserve it.
Every person that's in jail has a family and they have friends and yes, they probably have
to be in jail to keep them from doing what they're doing wrong again.
But it's very hard to discern exactly how long, right?
And what's going to, bad things happen.
And so if somebody goes to jail for a crime that's relatively mild, they come out maybe
a hardcore criminal because they had to do whatever they had to do to survive.
It can happen that way.
Concern for the wellbeing of victims caught in the crossfire should make us slow to act
in dealing justice.
Doing the right thing avoids the wrath of God.
Look at Nabal and David.
If Nabal had just done the right thing, he'd be dead.
If you just take care of David and his mad, if you've just been hospitable, been kind,
whatever, been a little less shrewd in that moment, he'd still be alive.
And God killed him.
Take that phrase again.
God, who is love, God is love.
Killed this man.
So he didn't love Nabal, right?
Yes, he did.
God loves everybody.
So that means Nabal was in a circumstance where there was nothing left to be done except
for God to deliver his wrath.
And I submit to you that circumstance was that Nabal did not do the right thing and
no one on earth took vengeance against him.
Everyone left it in God's hands.
Doing the right thing is the only thing that stops the trap from forming around us.
The wicked are trapped.
And we basically should have nothing to do with them other than to free them if we can.
Just as I put a man in this cage.
And this cage might be made of bills.
It might be made of paychecks.
It might be made of health concerns.
It might be made of family members said this or that to me that I didn't like.
It might be made of my own mental state.
It could be made of all of these different things that affect me.
And I'm trapped inside this cage.
So when you see a person trapped in a cage how do you feel toward that person?
Oh gosh well I should hurt him because he's a liar and a thief and an abuser and I should
hurt him right?
He deserves justice.
No when you see a person trapped in a cage how do you feel toward that person?
You should feel compassion right?
When a person's locked in jail you should be like oh they're getting what they deserve.
No you should be like that's horrible.
We don't want that.
We don't want anybody in jail ever.
We don't want anybody chained up ever.
We don't want anybody in slavery ever.
We don't want anybody in poverty ever.
We don't want anybody stuck in loneliness ever.
We don't want any of that.
Jesus came to walk the earth to make it so that never has to be so.
And so when we see that we see it's pity.
What a shame.
What a waste of a human being.
What a waste of a person.
And so let's go back to the story.
What are we actually looking at?
We're talking about a person who is acting in wickedness.
So we see a person acting in wickedness rather than us saying oh we got to deal justice.
We got to get vengeance.
They hurt me I got to hurt them back.
Rather than that we should say no we see a person locked in a cage.
They're locked in a cage of their own wickedness.
They're stuck there.
And the truth is I was having a conversation with Ariana just about a week ago.
We're talking about some people who are getting away with some things.
And they're hurtful things.
And they hurt her and they hurt other classmates of hers and they're getting away with it.
They've learned how to get away with it.
And I said oh they're not getting away with it.
So what but they're not getting in trouble.
There's no school suspensions.
There's no detentions.
The teachers don't know.
People tell the teachers they don't believe.
Whatever it's like they don't know.
There's persecutions happening against Christians and other good students.
And they're getting away with it.
I said oh they're not getting away with it.
Because God sees all of it.
And so we talked about how when you see a person that's doing wrong and seems to be
getting away with it.
What is your response?
Our response is I'm mad.
I'm angry.
I'm upset because they're doing wrong and they're getting away with it.
I don't want that.
That's not your response.
At least not to that point.
If you want to be mad you want to be angry.
You realize that that is a person that is trapped in a cage of their own wickedness.
And there's only one thing that you could do for them.
If anything at all it is free them.
It is deliver the truth of the gospel and free them from a cage of their own wickedness.
And if they will not be freed then you take Abigail's advice and have nothing to do with
them.
Because they're choosing to be stuck in a cage of their own wickedness.
And once they're chosen to be stuck in a cage of their own wickedness there really isn't
anything that you can do for them.
But do realize they are trapped.
And at some point in time they might realize they are trapped.
Abigail realized she was trapped.
She came to David humbly.
She got down and she said my Lord my servant I am your servant.
I will be your servant.
I wasn't there when you came.
He didn't ask Abigail.
Did she have any real sin?
Was there anything really wrong that she just wasn't there to be asked?
But she claimed Nabal's sin.
Her husband.
She took it on herself.
She humbly said I'm the one who needs your mercy and grace.
Please forgive me.
She didn't put it on the men around her.
Oh it's so easy to play the blame game.
Pass on.
When somebody is upset with you for something that went wrong and you're like well I didn't
do it.
We taking it out on me for.
Why are you raising your voice to me?
And you're defending yourself because you're going to throw under the bus whoever actually
did what was wrong.
Do you have to do that?
No by the way when you do that and you throw under the bus whoever actually you know what
that Bible calls that is gossip and slander.
You say well I didn't do it.
Bob did it.
You just slandered and gossiped about Bob.
You said well that's true but what I said about was Bob is true and Bob deserves his
justice and that's true.
But if Bob actually did it Bob is in a cage of his own wickedness and he does not deserve
he does not need as a human being to receive justice from that unless he's going to receive
it from God.
And when you take it in your own hands to tattle.
We take it in your own hands to gossip or slander about somebody that did wrong.
You take it in your own hands to visit justice upon that person.
You're missing the point.
If they choose to be trapped there's nothing we can do for them but if they choose to be
free we can help.
We know the person who frees.
We know the person who has the keys to everything and Jesus said he would share them with us.
For this reason leaving place for God to avenge is a matter of avoiding offense when God's
right place is otherwise observed.
In other words if you think you need to have vengeance at best you're stealing God's job.
If you think you need to deal justice at best you're stealing God's job.
Now you need to protect your family.
You protect yourself.
Somebody busts in your house with a gun or a knife.
You do what you got to do.
Right?
Somebody's taking a swing at you.
You do what you got to do.
You defend yourself.
I'm not saying to become a punching mat or whatever but what I am saying is we don't
go looking for dealing justice or vengeance because those people they will get their
justice.
God will get his vengeance.
You may know in the New Testament in Hebrews 10 and another place that we'll quote in a
moment that it says, Vengeance is mine saith the Lord.
But did you know that that's quoting Deuteronomy 32 where it says vengeance is mine and retribution
in due time.
This is what he says.
Vengeance is mine and retribution.
In other words God's going to repay.
He says in due time their foot will slip for the day of their calamity is near and the impending
things are hastening upon them for the Lord will vindicate his people and will have compassion
on his servants when he sees that their strength is gone.
In other words when you stop taking it upon yourself that's when God will enter into the
fight on your side.
And when there is none remaining bond or free and he will say where are their gods?
The rock in which they sought refuge.
In other words they're believing in other things.
They're choosing other things over God.
Where's that?
Who ate the fat of their sacrifices?
Who drank the wine of their drink offering?
Let them rise up and help you.
Let them be your hiding place.
These false gods, these things, you think you're finding your sustenance in watching TV or
in sports or recreation or money.
You think you're feeling better because of any of those things.
That's called idolatry.
And you tell me how when you're on your deathbed dying of stage 4 cancer or when you've been
sick for weeks on end and you don't know the source, when you have a fever of 103.5 and
even the doctors can't get rid of it.
You tell me how football, money, games, any of the things, cars, women, your wife or your
husband, you tell me how any of that is going to solve the problem that you don't know how
to solve.
My wife and I were sitting in our living room less than two weeks ago, about 11 days ago.
And we had a list of three things that we've been praying about and they don't seem to
be getting answered.
And we're begging God.
We're talking about it.
And she said, I just don't know the answer.
And I said, I don't either.
Here we are.
We have these three things.
We can't get them solved.
We're begging God.
And so we decided that that is the answer.
The answer is we will beg God to intervene on those things.
God will either intervene or He will not.
And if He does not, we will still not bow down to the items of this world.
The same thing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, we're not going to bow down to your
golden statue.
And God will, you throw us into the furnace, God is able to save us from the fiery furnace.
God alone is able to save us from the fiery furnace.
But if He does not, we will still not bow down to your golden statue.
So go ahead, burn us.
And when we start thinking like that and stop trying to build justice in this world, stop
trying to become combat the culture and realize we just must follow God, God would end out
that same passage of scripture by saying, rejoice, O nations with his people, for we
will avenge the blood of his servants and will render vengeance on his adversaries and
will atone for his land and his people.
That God said He will do.
God's position in that is that those who are doing what is right in their own eyes are
actually trapped in a cage of weakness.
Will you fix it?
Will you deal with that?
Will you be the right thing?
Will you raise your voice?
Will you break something?
Will you come across as angry to force the situation to be what it is that you think
it should be?
Will you do that?
If you will do that, then you are doing what is right in your own eyes.
And God says that the one who is doing right in his own eyes, like in Isaiah 53, like in
the entire book of Judges, as they kept spiraling down in ascent, always doing right was in
their own eyes, that you are a person trapped in a cage of wickedness.
If all you can do is what is right in your own eyes, then you are a person trapped in
a cage of wickedness.
But if you will sit under God's teaching, if you will submit under God's direction,
and you will let God fight your battles for you, then, then God will redeem his people.
Then God will strike our adversaries.
Proverbs 15-29 says, the Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayers of the
righteous.
Because the wicked are far away from God, Immanuel.
Because it got to the point where everybody had strayed.
Everybody was doing the wrong thing and we all needed a Savior.
Jesus came.
When earth got real far away from heaven, Jesus came.
That's why we needed it.
Some years ago, we were playing Nightball Tag at my house.
This is before, even before I started playing with the youth group.
I was probably about 13 or 14 years old.
It happened to be one of the games where I was caught fairly early and we went around
and we looked for everybody.
We found all but like one person, like maybe one person.
We just walked around.
Olly olly oxen free.
As we were saying when we were kids, now we just say, you can come out now, game's over.
But that's what we say, olly olly oxen free.
You can come out now, you can come out now.
We went everywhere and then we got back together and we still couldn't find them.
We're like, they must be hiding.
And we were playing a really big field, so way back to the creek and way off into the
neighborhood and stuff.
So we all decided we'd all go to one location or another and look and see if they were there
and call out in that area so we could get the message to everywhere that that person
might be hiding, that that person didn't want to come out.
But actually they did want to come out because they had won and they wanted to come out and
they could gloat a little bit and declare their victory because nobody found them and
then they got to pick who was it the next game.
So they did really want to come out, but they just didn't know they wanted to come out because
they didn't understand it was time for the fulfillment of the game.
And so we all split up and we went to the far corners of the playing field, all crying
out Ali Ali Aksan free, you can come out now, you can come out now, freedom, you can come
out now, you won.
And finally somebody found them and they came out and they picked who was it the next game
and they gloated a little bit and everything was good.
I submit to you, this is what we are church.
We have to go everywhere that people are.
We have to take Jesus everywhere that people are, into prison, into senior homes, into
restaurants, into grocery stores, you know, retail.
Like people who work restaurant and retail and if they work overtime, they kind of have
like no life because the schedule is all over the place.
You got to go find them, find them where they're working and tell them freedom is available
through Jesus Christ.
You don't have to live in a cage of wickedness.
You can be free.
Jesus said to the Jews that had believed on him that if they came and followed him, he
would teach them the truth.
They would know the truth and the truth would set them free.
And they come back and they said, well, what are you saying?
We've never been slaves our whole lives.
And then he said, truly, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave
of sin.
The slave does not remain in the house forever.
The son does remain forever.
I was reading that and the spirit left in my heart and I see what it says.
You see what it says?
Don't you want to be a son of God?
Jesus is in the house forever, making intercession for us and we have the right to be called
children of God and we will make it through because he does not wear out or give in or
quit.
He's the eternal Savior.
There's more there because everyone who commits sin is slave of sin and the slave does not
remain in the house forever.
So what if I become a slave of righteousness and I decide to do the right thing day in
and day out?
I'm going to do the right thing.
I'm always going to do good.
I'm going to be honest.
I'm going to do the best.
I'm going to be a slave of righteousness.
Well, that's a problem because the slave does not remain in the house forever.
So all this talking about doing good and we do good, we can and should and we're coming
into the conclusion and I'll explain that in a second.
But the bottom line is if you chose to do good every day, that would not be enough.
You would be a slave in the house and the slave does not abide forever.
But because of Jesus Christ, you can be a child in the house of God.
You can be a child and the child abides forever.
Malachi 4 says, Behold the day is coming burning like a furnace and all the arrogant and every
evildoer will be chaff and the day that is coming will set them ablaze, says the Lord
of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
But for you who fear my name, the sun, S-U-N, of righteousness will rise with healing in
its wings.
That means when we do the right thing, those who bear his name, when we do the right thing,
healing comes.
God acts on our behalf.
And you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stalls.
You will tread down the wicked for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the
day which I am preparing.
I submit to you this, if you get nothing else, track with me on this one point, your whole
sense of justice, your whole desire to see people do poorly or for you to do better over
top of somebody who is doing wrong, for you to overcome liars and thieves, that whole
thing is just your soul hearkening for this moment in time which is predicted by God already.
And just like David will look at Nabal and say, what?
We did all that protecting, I'm going to be king over all of Israel.
We did all that protecting of them and they will now not take care of us.
How dare they strap on your swords.
We're going to teach not just Nabal but everyone who will mock David, everyone who will take
David's service and make nothing of it, everyone who will persecute the would-be king, everyone
who will go against God, we're going to bring them down to the grave.
And all David was doing was yearning for that moment in time which God was going to keep
his promises.
I don't think David was even distrusting that God was going to keep his promises.
I think David thought he was going to a little bit bring them about by himself.
When I was a kid, I remember one scene in particular where we were leaving a little
hotel in the middle of the motel, actually, you drive your car, your car was parked right
outside the door.
We were leaving a little motel.
My dad was walking up to the front door and something had happened and I don't even know
what it was that happened and he was singing, excuse me, but you see back in old Napoli,
that's a more.
You know what a more is?
A more is a social rule.
It's a rule of society.
And when people break mores, other people get offended.
Society has its own sense of justice, even a moral right.
It's almost always in conflict.
People are fighting all the time about what's right because people do not see eye to eye.
The moral standard is proof that there is a standard of morals that's higher, that there
is one standard of what's right and it's God's standards.
But the moral standard in our society will not save or even benefit when the choices
arising from that moral standard are actually wickedness to God.
So if what you do in response to somebody else's evil is evil in God's sight, you are
trapped in a cage of wickedness.
And if you've been set free from a cage of wickedness to do good, then you're free.
Do good.
But that good is not necessarily to be rewarded right now in this moment.
So if you then allow the situations that you're facing to affect your choice of what good
you do and you do the best thing you can do with the least cost to you, you will be trapped
again in a cage of wickedness.
If that is your standard, I'm going to do the best thing I can do.
God has told me to go and take care of the poor.
So I'm going to do as much as I can without actually impacting my family, finance, retirement,
faith, freedom, feelings, whatever is most concerning to you today.
This doesn't interfere with my recreation, my physical activity, whatever.
And if that's the standard, then you will find yourself doing wickedness in God's eyes.
Which is why God said, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse.
Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
Be of the same mind toward one another.
Do not be haughty in mind but associate with the lowly.
Do not be wise in your own estimation.
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.
Listen to that again.
Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.
Respect what is right in the sight of all men.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God for it is
written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
But if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
And if he's thirsty, give him a drink.
For in so doing, you will keep burning coals on his head.
Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.
So do good, not to be rewarded, but because we are good now.
Paul wrote to Titus, for the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men.
Listen to this, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly,
righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing
of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us
from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession.
Zealous, that means we have high energy and a great desire to do, zealous for good deeds.
Do good now, not because it's convenient, but because we are good now.
If not that, then do good out of the fear of the Lord.
If for no other reason, if you realize you're trapped in a cage of wickedness, then right
now begin to do good.
Fear most that He will let you go, that He'll let you go and stop trying to win your heart.
That you'll just wander the earth like Cain.
No hope of eternal salvation, no hope of saving grace through Jesus.
If you keep doing it by your own standard and not doing it by God's standard, you keep
trying to solve problems yourself and not submitting to the Lord's methods, then you
got to realize that's where you could wind up.
God say, okay, go ahead, just go ahead, do whatever you want to do.
Go to one of those big churches that doesn't really teach the gospel.
Don't share Jesus with anybody.
Whatever you want to do, just go ahead.
When you stand before me, we'll talk about it then.
In the meantime, just go ahead and do what you want.
No, fear God and do right.
The wicked are wicked, but by their own testimony of word.
Actually, they even know that what they're doing is wrong, but they do it because it
seems like the best thing they can.
They choose the lesser of two evils, but they do not do what is right.
We don't judge them, but the separation occurs naturally because we can't be a part of the
choices that they're making.
When someone betrays you, when someone lies to you, you can get mad at them, but that
makes you a part of what they're doing.
Or you can say, well, that's really a shame.
It's terrible that it's like that.
Pray that God will break them out, offer the gospel, offer the truth of Jesus, and pray
that God will break them out of the cage of their wickedness.
We choose what's right and we submit to Jesus in faith.
We believe He is the only way and we win.
Just as He told the Jews who were unable to hear it, in that same passage He says, you
cannot hear it.
They were trapped in a cage of their own wickedness.
He said He would leave them alone.
So He told the disciples on the other hand that He was going to prepare a place for them.
Do you want God to leave you alone so you can do what you want to do?
Or do you want God to give you tickets to the mansion that He's preparing for you in
heaven?
That's the very choice that we're making.
Choose to do good.
It's a good place that He prepares for us.
He's a good God and we are His good people.
And it is good that we go there when we are done doing good here.
Our good choices, taking pity on those who do not know Him and will miss the ride when
the time comes.
We're not taking vengeance, but we're sharing the truth.
And if we will love like that, we just might save some of them along the way.
And then we'll see the end that He has prepared for us.
Thank you very much.
God bless you all.