(applause) - Well good morning. For those of you who
were not here last night, my name is Lysa TerKeurst and it's such a joy and
honor for me to be here. I am from Charlotte, North Carolina. That will become very apparent. It seems the more moved
I get in the spirit, the more southern my accent becomes. (audience laughs)
So I apologize. If you need an interpreter,
you can just raise your hand and I will have my good friend,
Colette, who's from Alabama so she's not gonna be any better than me. But she understands the
Southern dialect so well she'll be able to come and help
you out so that'll be good. Let's ask the Lord to
be with us this morning. Lord, thank You. Thank You that Your
presence is in this place. We acknowledge and we recognize that this is holy ground
because You are here. You are going to do a work
as You already have begun through the amazing praise and worship. What an honor it is to
stand up in a public place and to be able to freely worship
You and to read Your Word. May we never take for granted what a glorious freedom that is. We dedicate this time to You now, Lord, and we ask that You would
help us to take Your words in. Lord, not to just ingest
them but to digest them and make them all the way part
of who we are and how we live to the glory of Your name
and all God's girls said, Amen.
- [Congregation] Amen. - We learned last night
that there is no shame in going to the table of, (congregation mumbles) that's right, and you
might be thankful for that because today we are going to
be in First Samuel chapter 25. And if you haven't traveled
to First Samuel in a while, I'm going to help you find it. So if you look at the Table of Contents in the Old Testament, it goes like this. These are the books of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth. You find First Samuel, you can draw your finger
over and find the page number and we're gonna be in
First Samuel chapter 25. We're gonna stick our toes a little bit in First Samuel chapter 16 but just know that those are
the places that we're gonna be in this first session this morning. Last night, we talked
about the ultimate question that we all will have to wrestle with and probably not just one time in our life but maybe many times in
our life and that is this. Am I going to submit myself to God's will or will I demand my will? And really, it's the
crux that we must come to where we decide my will or Thy will. And we probably will need
to make that decision over and over as we face
different hardships in our life. And this morning, we
find a woman and a man that will have to wrestle
with that very question. My will or Thy will, God? Sometimes when we hear sessions like the one I'm gonna teach this morning, it's very easy to start thinking about all the other people in your
life that need this message. So it will be very easy
for you to think about your neighbor that needs this message. It will be very easy for
you to think about the woman seated near you who has the
ministry of discouragement. And you're gonna be wanting
to lay hands on her, God, let her hear, let her hear. You're gonna think of your mother-in-law. You're gonna think of your husband. You're gonna think of
your boyfriend or that boy that doesn't know he's supposed
to be your boyfriend, right? So you're gonna be so tempted to want to assign this message. The reason you're hearing it is because this other person needs it and you're surely gonna be a conduit to help them receive it, right? But I want to encourage you
that the God of the universe has arranged all of eternity
to make sure you were here. And I would love for you to seek and find that which God has intended
for you this morning. And so just to solidify
that in our hearts, I would like for you to look
at one of your neighbors, one person who's seated beside
you and repeat after me. This message is for me. (audience repeats) I will not use it against you. (audience laughs and repeats) Okay, perfect. Now, I would like for you to now turn to your second choice neighbor. She's not at all offended that
you didn't pick her first. (audience laughs) And I would like for
you to repeat after me. This message is for me. (audience repeats) But you need it more. (audience laughs) Just in case you haven't experienced any conflict or rejection
lately, we're just gonna make it so that this message falls
on fresh ground, okay? (audience laughs)
Very good. Well, we are gonna talk
about a message this morning about what can happen when we have undealt with
rejection in our past. Rejection can become like a deep infection and if we do not attend
to it, it will fester and it will haunt us for a very long time and it can make us very very sick and not even will we realize it until we start tripping over
the effects of rejection time and time and time again in our life. If we find our scripture this morning in First Samuel chapter
25 starting in verse two, I'm gonna introduce
several characters to you and then I'll stop and unpack
exactly who these people are and what they have to do with our story. First Samuel chapter 25 verse
two, "A certain man in Maon, "who had property there at
Carmel, was very wealthy. "He had a thousand goats and 3,000 sheep, "which he was shearing in Carmel. "His name was," and we're gonna use the Hebrew pronunciation
for his name, Na-val. Say it with me, Na-val. Because that's just in keeping
with this man's character. "His name was Nabal and his
wife's name was Abigail. "She was an intelligent
and beautiful woman, "but her husband," and
if we were at my church, the organ would go dun-dun-dun!
(audience laughs) It just sneaks out. It'll happen several times so here we go. "But her husband," (vocalizing) "was surly and mean in his dealings. "He was a Calebite." Verse four, "While David
was in the wilderness, "he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. "So he sent 10 young men and said to them, "'Go up to Nabal at Carmel
and greet him in my name. "'Say to him, long life to you! "'Good health to you and all
who are in your household! "'And good health to all that is yours! "'Now I hear that it
is sheep-shearing time. "'And when your shepherds were with us, "'we did not mistreat them. "'The whole time they were at Carmel, "'nothing of theirs was missing. "'Ask your servants
and they will tell you. "'Therefore, be favorable toward my men, "'since we have come at a festive time. "'Please give your
servants and your son David "'whatever you can find for them.' "And when David's men arrived, "they gave Nabal this
message in David's name. "Then they waited." (vocalizing) Okay, this is very exciting. You have probably been
reading the scriptures before and just thought, I'm not really
sure who these people are, where they're from,
what their background is and therefore, sometimes
we miss a lot in the story. But my goal today is to
read it in such a way that you will go home and
you will be so captivated by the stories that we find in the book and much less captivated
by getting on Facebook. I'm just gonna be honest,
that is one of my goals, okay. So let me unpack who these characters are. We have Nabal. Now Nabal is a wealthy
landowner with a beautiful wife. But Nabal is very mean
and surly in his dealings. And I don't just think
that he's mean and surly in his business dealings. I think he's probably mean and surly in his home life as well. So we have Nabal. Now let me explain what Nabal has done to get so much wealth. Nabal has been taking advantage
of smaller landowners. He has been making loans
to these smaller landowners so that they could increase their animals and then hopefully increase their profit and get a little ahead in life. The problem is that
Nabal would make the loan to the smaller landowner and then that smaller
landowner would buy up animals. But then Nabal would call the loan before that smaller business owner could make a profit from those animals. In fact, then Nabal would bankrupt the smaller business owners. And when you would bankrupt
someone, Nabal would then go in and take all of their
animals, most of their land, maybe even enslave some
of their family members or enslave the smaller
business owner himself. So you can see, Nabal was very
cruel, he was very shrewd. He was mean and surly in his dealings. Then we have Abigail. Now Abigail is a beautiful
and intelligent woman who unfortunately is married to Nabal. So this is her reality. She lives with Dude-is-rude, okay? So you can just think of it that way. So think of her life. She wakes up everyday
next to Dude-is-rude. She smells the stinky
breath of Dude-is-rude. She does life with Dude-is-rude and she goes to bed every
night with Dude-is-rude. So this is one of the
burdens in Abigail's life. But she also has a blessing because her husband has financial means so therefore she has financial means. So she has a burden, she has a blessing, and then she also has quite
a bit of busyness in her life because it's about to be festive time. Now you know, since it's
about to be festive time, that the girl has been on Pinterest. And so she has,
(audience laughs) she has her list because she's found all kinds of new recipes
that she wants to try. So she has her Target
list, her Walmart list. What's your grocery store here? (audience shouts) What is it? Okay, whatever that is. Okay, so.
(audience laughs) So she's got her grocery store list. So she's got all the lists. So there's some realities
about Abigail's life that we can relate to. She has certain burdens about her life, she has certain blessings about her life, she has busyness about her life. So we can all sort of relate to Abigail. She's just doing her thing in
the middle of everyday life. And let me assure you, Abigail had no idea that she would be included
in God's holy word. Abigail had no idea that there
was anything about her life that was anything but ordinary. Abigail had no idea that
thousands of years later, we would be sitting here
studying about what she has done. She was just living an ordinary life full of ordinary stuff just like we face. Burdens, blessings, busyness. And yet, there was something
about Abigail's heart that God took note of and is about to use her in a mighty way. News flash, you are probably
living a pretty ordinary life. And you are probably unaware of how much God desires to use you. And how crucial it is
that you don't get stuck just focused on the burdens of your life. That you don't get so distracted by the busyness of your life. That you don't get so enamored with the blessings of your life that you forget your ultimate job is to be obedient to God in
the midst of everyday life and allow God to do everything else. And trust me, you don't
have to feel extraordinary to be in the process of being used in an extraordinary way by God. Abigail, I promise you, she did not feel extraordinary at all. If she came into this conference, she'd be sitting in an ordinary seat in the middle of an ordinary day thinking her life was quite ordinary. And yet, look at what God is about to do. And the same is true for each one of us. You do not have to have a platform. You do not have to have a microphone. Abigail had none of those things. She just had an ordinary life and an extraordinary
relationship with God. Okay, so that's Abigail. Then we have David. Now David is a little bit
of a interesting character, an interesting man in the Old Testament because he is going to be used by God also in an extraordinary way but he is given a platform
in a really big way. However, when we encounter David here, he's in a very difficult spot in his life. You see, David has been
anointed to be the future king but he has not yet been
appointed to take the throne. So the problem that David is having here is that God has said, I'm gonna
use you in a really big way. However, currently, we
find David hiding in caves and doing odd jobs just
to try to make ends meet. And he's surrounded by some men who have chosen to follow him. So you would think, oh, well
at least in this hard place of his life, at least
he is seen as a leader. But if you look at First Samuel chapter 22 verses one and two, you
find a little description of the men who are following David. It says all those who
are in distress, in debt, and discontented gathered around David and he became their leader. Well, wow.
(audience laughs) That sounds like a really
charming group of people to lead. Do you want to know who these men are that have gathered around David who are also hiding in caves, who are also in debt, in
distress and discontented? It's these men, these smaller landowners, these smaller business owners that have been so wronged
by men like Nabal. And they are not in a good place. They're in a very difficult
place, as is David. And if we look at First Samuel chapter 16, and if you want to just
make a few left-hand turns over to First Samuel chapter
16, I'm gonna give you just a tiny bit of
history about David's life because I really want you to understand how deeply I believe David
is infected by rejection that happened so long ago in his life. Okay, in First Samuel chapter 16, we find the prophet
Samuel has now been sent to the house of Jesse
to anoint a new king. The existing king, Saul, his heart has turned away from the Lord. His heart has been hardened. God is going to not let
Saul be king forever and so God tells Samuel the prophet to go and anoint a new king. So Samuel goes to the house
of Jesse and says to Jesse, "Go bring in all of your sons, "I want to have a meeting with you." Now this would be one
of the biggest events in the house of Jesse ever. So Jesse does pretty
much do what Samuel says, with one exception. Jesse goes and gets all of his sons and because it's such a big deal that the prophet is coming to their house, this would be like the
President of the United States coming to your house today. And you know you would
be scolding your children up one side and down the other. This would be one of those rare times that they all bathed at the same time. You have their hair combed,
you know, you have them all, hey, when was the last time
you brushed your teeth? Guess what, today isn't
gonna be that day, okay? So you're gonna make sure
that they all look nice and I'm sure that Jesse did that and he brings in all of his sons but he leaves David out in
the field tending the sheep. And I have no idea, because we don't have
any clue in the text, why did he leave David out in
the field to tend the sheep except for the fact that maybe, maybe Jesse the father
thought, yeah, I mean, all of these sons they look like a king, they smell like a king,
they act like a king. But you know, there is
this one son I have, he's the youngest, David. I'm just gonna, you know,
he doesn't look like a king, he doesn't act like a king,
he doesn't smell like a king. I'm just gonna leave him
out tending the sheep. Surely, Jesse could
have found someone else to tend the sheep. There was some human dynamic going on here of why he left David out in the field. So Samuel the prophet goes and
passes before all of the sons and then he looks at Jesse and says, "God has not given the nod "for any of these sons to
be anointed to be the king. "Are these all the sons that you have?" First Samuel chapter 16 verse 10. "Jesse had seven of his
sons pass before Samuel, "but Samuel said to him, 'The
Lord has not chosen these.' "So he asked Jesse, 'Are
these all the sons you have?' "'There is still the
youngest,' Jesse answered. "'He is tending the sheep.' "Samuel said, 'Send for him. "'we will not sit down until he arrives.' "So they sent for him and brought him in. "And then the Lord says,
'Rise and anoint him. "'This is the one.'" Verse 13, "So Samuel took the horn of oil "and anointed him in the
presence of his brothers, "and from that day on "the Spirit of the Lord
came powerfully upon David." Now can you imagine, just sometimes I think it's so important
as we read God's word, we never want to add to God's word, but it is okay to understand these were real people
in real family dynamics. So I want you to just imagine what David would have felt like when he walked in and realized his father had made sure
that all of his brothers were there to be considered but not him. I imagine David walking in and as the scene sort of
comes into focus for him, might he have looked across
the room, identified his father and tilted his head and
thought to himself, Dad, your love is supposed to feel
like a security blanket to me but today it feels much
more like a question mark. And then, can you imagine as he looks at all of his brothers, what would the brothers'
expressions have been? You know siblings, right? So just imagine the dynamics of what's really happening here. And so I believe this was
simultaneously David's best day and worst day in all
just a very few minutes. I believe it was David's worst day because he felt very
overlooked by everyone else. But it was his best day at the same time because he was, in
fact, handpicked by God. And David is gonna have a choice to make as he walks away from this event. Will he forever look at his
life through the lens of I've been overlooked by everyone else and let that be the perspective that reigns on high in his life? Or will he remember I have
been handpicked by God, and yes, I've been overlooked by others but I'm gonna let the reality that I've been handpicked by God reign supreme in my thought life? David needed to make this
choice and so will we. The reality is we all have
this dynamic going on. We can all look at past
rejections in our life. And it's our choice whether
those past rejections, those hurtful words will reign
supreme in our thought life or will the reality that you are a holy and dearly loved child
of the Almighty God, will that reign supreme
in our thought life? Because how we think is how we live and it matters more than we know. You see this is what
happens to so many of us. There is a line that is spoken to us and that line suddenly
becomes a lie we believe. And that lie we believe
then becomes a label that we put on ourselves. And then that label
that we put on ourselves will become a liability in
all our future relationships. That's how rejection works. You see, rejection steals
the best of who we are by reinforcing the very
worst that's been said to us. How do I know that that's true? Think about it. You get up in the morning and you're having this
wonderful day and, you know, everything is going well,
you have on praise music, you've read your scriptures
and you're thinking, boy, I'm really knocking
it out of the park today. And then your people wake up, right? (audience laughs) And in just a few seconds
upon their arrival in your presence, they
will bump into your happy. They will, right?
(audience laughs) And then all of a sudden, all that amazing stuff
just goes out the window because somebody will
say something to you. For example, my husband
said to me one morning, "Lisa, why don't we ever have "any clean towels in our bathroom?" Now, that was just a simple statement but because it tapped right
into a deep insecurity in me. His mother majored in Home Economics. (audience laughs)
I'm serious. She not only has towels,
she has warm towels waiting for all of her people when
they step out of the shower. Me, I'm like, oh shoot,
the kids have taken all the towels out of the bathroom. I run to the back bathroom,
I grab a Barbie towel, I throw it over the thing, you know. And my husband says,
like, "This is the towel "that I know I've seen
the dog sleeping on. "The dog sleeps on the Barbie towel." And I think to myself, do you really think I would
give you the dog towel? No, this towel was folded, it was cleaned. Maybe the dog laid on it last year but this year it is,
this is the king's towel. That's what I have just presented to you. But you see, I start
riding the crazy train because he has tapped into some insecurity because some line was spoken over to me. You know, your husband's mother, she majored in Home Economics. Okay, so that line was spoken. All of a sudden, it
became a lie I believe. I will never be as good as his mother. And then that lie I believe
becomes a label I put on myself. I really stink at managing the home. And then that label I put on
myself becomes a liability. So the minute he mentions the towel, I have already set myself up for defeat because I have traveled back here and I have picked up some
rejection from the past and I have multiplied it to the rejection I'm
feeling in the present and I have a completely
out of proportion reaction to the offense at hand. He asked for a towel and I
completely lose my mind, right? Anybody want to testify?
(audience laughs) So I'm telling you, we
must make that choice. Last night we talked
about Thy will or my will. But today we're gonna get real
practical with this, right? Are we going to operate so
that it's our insecurity, our inferiority, our past rejections that are the first thing
that people encounter when they have a conversation with us? Or will it be the absolute security that I am a child of God,
holy and dearly loved? What will people encounter
when they encounter me? Which reality? That I've been overlooked by others or that I've been handpicked by God? And every one of us has
to make that choice. Well, we're gonna see the
choice that David makes because by the time we find
him in this story with Abigail, you see, he has just sent 10 of his men to go request that Nabal
give them some food for this special festive time. And we're about to see whether
David is looking at his life through the lens that he
has been handpicked by God or that he has been overlooked by others. And it'll become crystal clear which of those perspectives reigns supreme in David's thought life. So David and his men have been
doing Nabal a great favor. They have been encamping like a human wall around Nabal's flocks and
his shepherds at night protecting them from invaders,
from intruders, from thieves, from other animals that would eat them so that nothing of Nabal's went missing. So David says, "I know. "We have done Nabal this great great favor "so surely he will be so eager to help us. "So remind Nabal of the great thing "that we have done to help protect him. "Surely, now it's about
to be festive time, "he will give us food for the festival." So David sends these 10
men to give this message to Nabal in his name and then he waits. Well, in verse 10, Nabal finally
answers David's servants. And Nabal says this. "Who is this David? "Who is this son of Jesse? "Many servants are breaking away "from their masters these days. "Why should I take my
bread, water, and meat "that I have slaughtered for my shearers "and give it to men coming
from who knows where?" Well David's men turned around
and they basically said, "Oh, we are telling!" (audience laughs) When they arrived, they
reported every word. If you write in your Bible, and I highly encourage you to
do, if anyone ever told you you're not allowed to
write in their Bible, we need to just take that and cut it right out of our memory. Because it's beautiful
to write in our Bible. It's wonderful to go back and be able to remember things that were significant. And so if you write in
your Bible, underline this. They reported every word. Why is that important? Well let's see what
exactly what Nabal says. Nabal says when he
answers David's servants back in verse 10, "Who is this David? "Who is this son of Jesse?" Now what do you think
happened when David hears that Nabal said, "Who is this David? "Who is this son of Jesse?" What probably was
triggered in David's mind? The rejection of his father. And so David pulls that rejection from the past into the
present and he's about to have a completely out of proportion reaction. Remember, David woke up
that day hungry for food. Now, he's going to be
starving for revenge. And that's how we know which perspective reigns supreme in David's thought life. That he has been overlooked by
others or handpicked by God. Right now, his thought life is consumed that he has been overlooked by others. Because David says back
to his men in verse 13, "Oh no, he di'int, I will cut him." Okay now,
(audience laughs) if you do not have the
Bon Qui Qui translation, (audience laughs) I'm gonna read to you the NIV translation. Okay, here we go. "So David says to his men, "'Each of you strap on your sword!' "So they did, and David
strapped on his as well. "About 400 men went up with David, "while 200 stayed with the supplies." So David has a total of 600 men with him. 400 of those men have
now drawn their swords and they've got their
testosterone pulsing, their adrenaline flowing. They are ready to kill! Why? Because Nabal didn't give
them a glorified Happy Meal? It's like bread, water, and meat, right? That's it! It doesn't make any sense
except that's how powerful it is when we have undealt with
rejection in our past. Well, one of the servants
hears what's going on and decides it's high time
to get a woman involved. Okay, so verse 14. One of the servants told
Abigail, Nabal's wife. Now I'm gonna read you
what the servant says and I just need a little assistance. I want you to help me determine if this is a female
servant or a male servant just based on the number of dramatic words that are about to be used
in this paragraph, okay? So here's what the servant says. "David sent messengers from the wilderness "to give our master his greetings "but he hurled insults at them. "Yet these men were very good to us, "they did not mistreat us. "The whole time we were
out there in the fields "nothing of theirs was missing. "Night and day they were a wall around us "the whole time we were
herding our sheep near them. "Now think it over and see what you can do "because disaster is
hanging over our master "and the whole house. "He is such a wicked man,
no one can talk to him!" (audience laughs) Male servant? Female servant.
- [Congregation] Yes. - Amen, okay.
(audience laughs) So Abigail acts very quickly. She took 200 loaves of
bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five
seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins
and 200 cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on the donkeys with the partridge and a pear tree. Okay, now I find this very very funny. Think about it. Nabal denied David the basics
of bread, water, and meat. And now, a woman has gotten involved and she has prepared an
entire banquet, right? Look at, this is so female
to me, I just love this. And let's look at exactly
what Abigail prepares because remember,
Abigail is very beautiful but she's also very intelligent. When it says she took 200 loaves of bread, this is not just like Wonder Bread like you would buy a loaf of Wonder Bread at the grocery store, okay? This is laffa. It's a big piece of flatbread. Each laffa would serve three people. So if she makes 200 laffa, each with the ability
to serve three people, she is making a banquet
perfectly-sized for how many people? 600, Abigail is very beautiful but she's also very intelligent. How many total men does
David have with him? 600, amazing. And then it says she
has two skins of wine. These would have been goatskins. Each goatskin would hold
about 15 liters of wine. She has two of them so
it's 30 liters of wine. If you divide 30 liters
of wine amongst 600 men, it's a perfectly-sized
communion cup of wine for every single person. Now was it fermented wine,
was it not fermented wine? It was absolutely fermented,
it had alcohol in it. And let me tell you how I know that. Because they would've
taken the fermented wine, the little communion-sized cup of it, and they would have added it to their own personal water supply. It would have purified the water
so that when they drank it, it could prepare their stomach for the extra burden of festive food. Abigail, she was very beautiful but she was very intelligent. So Abigail makes all of this food, she loads it up on the donkeys but she does not tell her husband, Nabal. (vocalizing) And then it says in verse 20, "As she came riding her
donkey into a mountain ravine, "there were David and his
men descending toward her, "and she met them. "David had just said," now
this is what David is saying. "'It's been useless! "'All my watching over
this fellow's property "'in the wilderness so that
nothing of his was missing. "'He has paid me back evil for good. "'May God deal with David,
be it ever so severely, "'if by morning I leave alive one male "'of all who belong to him!' "Now when Abigail saw David," because she was very close,
she heard exactly what he said, "she quickly got off her donkey
and bowed down before David "with her face to the ground. "She fell at his feet." And I believe she whispers so as not to shame David
in front of his men. "Pardon your servant, my
lord, let me speak to you. "Hear what your servant has to say." Abigail, she is beautiful,
she is intelligent and she also knows the
source of true strength. It's not pride. You see, if Abigail would
have been all bowed up when she showed up with
her finger and her head just a-waggin' like, "You
better not, I'm gonna cut you!" You know, I mean that kind
of stuff, which I understand. It's complicated being a woman because we do have the
spirit of discernment which means we're right most of the time. And it is, I know, it is very complicated. But the Lord has really been showing me my words matter more than I know. And you see, Abigail was so wise because she didn't bow up and
show up in front of David. She bowed down with her
face before the ground. She put herself in an
intentional posture of humility. Humility is not a position of weakness. It is actually a position
of great strength. Because it's only in humility that we will be given the opportunity for the other person to receive and listen to what we're saying. You see, I'm convinced Abigail, she is such a strong woman, strong enough to demonstrate humility even when her feelings
probably beg her not to. So Abigail goes to David
in this posture of humility and says, "Will you please
listen to what I have to say?" And he does. Can you imagine? David is in front of his
men, he is the leader. He's just told his men,
"May God deal with me "ever so severely if
I leave alive one male "of all who belong to Nabal!" And he's got his sword
drawn, can you imagine? And then this woman comes and
bows down before him and says, "Please, please, listen
to what I have to say." Do you know how hard it is to stop a man with a
drawn sword like that? And yet Abigail does. And I now believe Abigail, Abigail delivers one of the most beautiful and profound speeches in all of the Bible. And it's given by this
woman to this man, David. David is not just any ordinary man. You see, David is the bloodline from whom Jesus will eventually descend. It is crucial that David
does not derail his destiny. And of all the people
God could have chosen in all of the world at this time to come and help David
readjust his perspective from being that of one
overlooked by others to that of one remembering
he's been handpicked by God, of all the people that
God could have chosen to help David not derail his destiny, God chose an ordinary woman in the middle of an ordinary
life on an ordinary day. And we read this story
and we must understand that God will use us, too. And we probably won't even be aware of how profoundly God uses us
in the midst of ordinary lives in the middle of ordinary days. God is using us all the time. And it may be into
eternity before we realize how significant our assignments are. Abigail had no idea, she had no idea. She was just being obedient to God. And so Abigail says many
wise things in her speech but I want to point out two that I think are very significant for
us to pay attention to. First, she says in verse 25,
"Please pay no attention, "my lord, David, to that wicked man Nabal. "He is just like his name. "His name means Fool and
folly goes with him." In other words, Abigail
is saying to David, "David, watch where you pay attention. "Because if you pay attention
to fools and foolish things, "you will bankrupt your perspective." And the same is true for us. You know, if we get up
first thing in the morning, and this is where I get in trouble so I'm pointing the finger at myself. If I get up first thing in the
morning and I pay attention to fools and foolish things,
hashtag social media, if I pay attention to that first thing, it will alter the way I think all day. I get this general sense, if social media is the
first thing I engage with, I start to get this general sense that everyone else's
house is better decorated, everyone else's husband is more romantic, everyone else's kids have better grades, everyone else is doing life in such a more organized fashion than me. And I start to carry with
me throughout that day this feeling that I'm
a little bit less than, left out, and lonely. And you see, it's not
just a Biblical principle, it's a scientific principle. There's been brain research
that Dr. Caroline Leaf has done and it's fascinating. She says when we sleep at night, baby neurons are formed in our brain. And when we wake up in the morning, how we use those baby
neurons will determine our pattern of thought
the rest of the day. And that process is called neurogenesis. You see, we must be giving God the genesis thoughts of our day. If we will get into God's word and let God's word get into us, our perspective will be so much healthier. If we want to put God first in our life, this is a real practical way to do it. Give God the first thoughts of your day and let Him set your perspective. Don't bankrupt your perspective by paying too much attention
to the things of this world. I challenged myself a couple of years ago to really really live this and I wrote this little statement. It says, "I must be
exchanging whispers with God "before shouts with the world." And at my ministry through Proverbs 31, we've developed an app called First 5. It's completely free. You can download it and you can actually get into God's word every single day. And it'll give you five minutes' worth of a reading about a verse and will lead you through
books of the Bible, will get you through the
entire Bible in four years giving God just the first
five minutes of your day. So you can download that
app, it's called First 5, and that's a practical
way for you to implement exactly what I'm talking about here. But no matter what, watch
where you pay attention because ladies, we will
steer where we stare. And if we're staring at our problems and staring at other people and staring at all the blessings
that everyone else has, we will start to steer right toward all of that discouragement. But if we will turn our focus and we will concentrate on
what God has done for us, thanking Him, praising Him,
letting His word guide our mind and shepherd our heart, then
it will make such a difference. You see, our mind feasts
on what we focus on. And what consumes my
thinking will be the making or breaking of my identity. Will my identity be that I am
overlooked by everyone else or will my identity be the reality that I am handpicked by God and I must not derail my destiny? That's what Abigail is saying here. Another profound thing that
Abigail says starts in verse 29. It says this, "Even though someone "is pursuing to take your life, "the life of my lord
will be bound securely "in the bundle of the
living by the Lord your God. "But the lives of your
enemies he will hurl away "as from the pocket of a sling." This is very significant
because there was an event that has happened in David's history where he stood before a giant with all the confidence in the world. And if you go and you read the
story of David and Goliath, notice something. The Israelites were so terrified, they could not find one
man to face the giant. And it's not until David arrives, David is the first one in
the midst of that hardship that utters the word God and God is present then
on that battlefield. I think it's very significant
Abigail is saying, "David, do you remember when
you stood before Goliath "with such confidence in God? "And do you remember what
God did for you that day "when you held a rock
and a sling in your hand? "Do you remember how faithful God was? "If God was faithful
then, He will do it again. "If God was faithful
then, He will do it again. "In other words, David,
this is not the time "to start thinking that God
has forgotten about you. "I know it's hard. "You've been anointed
to be the future king "but you haven't been
appointed to take the throne. "And right now, your life does
not look like that of a king. "You're hiding in caves. "You're with men who
have such bad attitudes. "You are asking food from people "and they're not giving it to you. "I know life is hard right now, David. "But trace God's
faithfulness from the past. "Travel back, David. "Find the last time that
you absolutely remember "God being super faithful
and remind yourself. "God did it then and He will do it again." And we should do the same thing. If you're in the midst right
now of a very hard situation, (audience applauds)
absolutely, praise God for that truth. If you're in the midst
of a hard situation, sometimes we cannot
find God's faithfulness right now in this present situation. So travel back to the last time that God was so faithful to you and you stand on that moment and you soak yourself in that reality. Just the fact that we are living and breathing in this room today is such rich evidence
of God's faithfulness. So Abigail says in verse
30, "And when the Lord "has fulfilled every good thing
he promised concerning you, "because God is always
a promise-keeper, David, "and has appointed you ruler over Israel, "you will not have on your
conscience the staggering burden "of needless bloodshed of
having avenged yourself. "And when the Lord has
brought you success," and I just imagine, because remember, Abigail is very intelligent
but she is also beautiful, I imagine she may have just
said, "Remember your servant." I mean...
(audience laughs) I'm just reading the word, okay. Verse 32, well David says back to Abigail, "Praise be to the Lord, God of Israel, "who has sent you to meet me. "May you be blessed for your good judgment "from keeping me from
bloodshed on this day "and from avenging
myself with my own hands. "Otherwise, as surely as the
Lord, God of Israel, lives, "who has kept me from harming you, "if you had not come
quickly to meet me, Abigail, "not one male belonging to Nabal "would have been left alive by daybreak." Then David accepted from her
hand what she brought him and said, "Go home in peace. "I have heard your words
and granted your request." Now, verse 36, "When
Abigail goes home to Nabal, "he was in the house holding
a banquet like that of a king. "He was in high spirits and very drunk." Y'all, the Bible is spicy, it really is. I don't even know, like,
why do we watch reality TV when the Bible is this interesting, okay? "So she told him nothing
at all until daybreak." Dun-dun-dun! "Then in the morning,
when Nabal was sober," and you know he had a really bad headache. Okay, "Then in the morning,
when Nabal was sober, "his wife told him all these things, "and his heart failed him
and he became like a stone. "And about ten days later, "the Lord struck Nabal and he died." Hallelujah! Okay.
(audience laughs) No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Do not start thinking like,
I got a Nabal in my life, prophecy, right.
(audience laughs) Uh-uh. No, remember, this is what's
so amazing about Abigail. You know that it would have
been so easy for Abigail to have called David aside and said, "David, please spare all
the men in my household "but, you know, my husband,
well he is kind of a complicated "Dude-is-rude kind of figure "and so when he goes to the
outhouse at 10 p.m. tonight, "I'm just saying."
(audience laughs) But Abigail did not do that. She fought to save the life of Nabal. Because Abigail knew, my job
is to be obedient to God. God's job is everything else. And I find such
encouragement in those words. And I think that, I don't understand why God unfolded this story the way, I want Nabal to suddenly see the light and come to know the Lord and
now worshiping and praising and they ride off into the
sunset happily ever after. I don't understand. The Lord's thoughts are higher than mine, the Lord's ways are higher than mine. But it takes all the pressure off of me. I don't have to figure out anything. All I have to do is be obedient to God and God's job is everything else. Well, then David hears that Nabal has died and David says in verse 39, when David heard that
Nabal was dead, he said, "Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld "my case against Nabal for
treating me with contempt. "He has kept his servant from doing wrong "and brought Nabal's wrongdoing
down on his own head." Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife! That is just so amazing. Now it gets kind of complicated because David has some other
wives and some concubines so it kind of becomes like
a bad Sister Wives episode, you know.
(audience laughs) But I love that God's word doesn't tie up in a neat nice bow. Because my life never does either. I love that His divinity
is so very willing to enter into our humanity and
remind us that He is there. If you're physically able, will you stand as we close this session now? I just want to read this
declaration over you because I imagine that rejection has affected you in some way. And I want to remind you and
I want to declare over you that we have a choice and we
can make that choice today. Are we gonna let their words
become the words of our story? No, we want God's words
to become the words of the story that we must tell. Whatever rejection has stolen from you, I declare that the deepest
desperation you've experienced will lead to God's greatest
revelation in your life. I declare that the Lord will give you relief from your unbelief. He will restore you, redeem
you, and write His story, His glorious story onto
the pages of your life. It will happen. Doubt and defeat have no place in the sacred sanctuary of your heart. Bitterness, resentment
and anger have no place in a life as beautiful as yours. From now on, when misguided voices or the enemy himself tries
to put you down with lies or pull you away from the truth or push you into anything that
could derail your destiny, I pray that you will sense the mighty hand and heart of God lift
you up with His truth, draw you close with His loving tenderness, and shame Satan back to hell because of Jesus's resurrecting power. It will be done! Rejection, it may be a delay,
it may be a distraction, it may even be a devastation for a season but it is not your final destination. You are destined for a love
that can never be shaken, taken, diminished, or tarnished. May it be His word that becomes the word of the story you must tell
to the glory of God Almighty. Amen, amen, and amen.
(audience applauds)
