Christian Character

Introduction

But as usual, all joking aside, Tony is in our prayers, and please keep him in our prayers because we truly miss him and Sherry here in their presence today, and especially his love for the word of God that he preaches to us every Lord’s day as he’s here and presents the lesson in an according way that with boldness, with love, and with truth, according to the word of God. Have you ever just sat around and read while reading your Bible? You sat there and you were like, wow, what a great story that was. You just sat there and you read something about a person, and you said, Wow, that is such a great example for somebody to be, for me to be, just like this man.

Let me give you some examples. Just like when you pick up your Bible, you go to the Old Testament, you go to Genesis, the first chapter, and you read Genesis and the creation of man in the earth. You just kind of go, wow, this is awesome how God created the heavens and the earth in seven days. And then later on in the chat in the book of Genesis, he floods the whole earth. He destroys all men because of their wickedness, and only eight are saved, and Noah and his family. And that’s it. You sit there and you go, Wow, I’m just this is just unbelievable. Or you read about Joseph in Genesis also, and how he went to captivity with his brothers betraying them and so forth.

And what he became, what kind of a man he became. Well, what about the Jesus, all the works with Jesus and all he did, all the teachings that he did, his love and his death on the cross for us? I mean, these are just some short stories that we read about in the scriptures and we really enjoy them and we love them. But one story I’d like to share with you is I was reading several, actually sometime last year, and that’s the story of somebody. I got it turned on. See if this is gonna work now. Because my battery already did. Oh well. It’s okay. Because mainly we’re going to be doing a lot of reading this morning. We’re going to read about Abigail, David, and Nabal in 1 Samuel the 25th chapter.

1. The Story of David, Nabal, and Abigail

Let’s start turning there in 1 Samuel the 25th chapter. And we’re going to do a little bit of extensive reading on this because I don’t want to paraphrase. I don’t have Aaron’s brains and his memory. And I don’t have Tony’s brains and his memory in the scriptures. So I don’t want to miss anything. I want to make sure that we get the whole concept of this story about David, Nabal, and Abigail, and all the concepts that we can take to our lives. And then the we don’t just don’t want to miss anything. So starting in verse 2 in 1 Samuel 25. Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had 3,000 sheep and 3,000 goats.

And he was sharing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man, the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife, Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb. When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was sharing his sheep, David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal and greet him in my name. And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity. Peace be to you, peace be to your house, and peace to all that you have. Now I’ve heard that you have shears. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them.

Nor was there anything missing from them all the while that they were in carnal. David’s just telling them, and he’s saying, Look, he’s got some sheep. We were in a battle. Nothing happened to your men. Nothing happened to your shears while they were out there. In verse 8, ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David. So when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all the words to the name of David and waited. Then Nabal answered David’s servants and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse?

There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shears and give to men who, when I do not know where they are from? So David’s young men turned on their heels and went back, and they came and told him all these words. That’s pretty brave, I think, of the ball to say something like that. Actually it’s not brave, it’s kind of brazen. But anyways, it’ll pay off in the end. Then David said to his men, every man girded on his said to his men, So every men, man gird on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David and two hundred stayed with supplies.

And one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he reviled them, or he scolded them. But the men were very good to us, and were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them when we were in the fields.

Now therefore know and consider that what you will, for harm is determined against your master and against all his household, for he is not such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him. So now they’re saying, tell Abigail what’s going on. And is just sitting there saying, Hey, David’s men came over here, and now he’s saying, No, you’re not going to get it. This is my stuff. And they’re already calling him a scoundrel, that nobody can talk to him. In verse 18, Then Abigail made haste, took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five sheas of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on the donkeys. And she said to her servants, Go on before me.

I am coming after you, but she did not tell her husband Nabal. So it was so it was that she rode on the donkey that she went down under the under the hill, and there were David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them. Now David had said, Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. May God do so, and more also to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belongs to him by morning that night. Now when Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground.

So she fell at his feet and said, On me, my Lord, on me let this iniquity be. And please let your maidservant speak to you, speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. Please, let not my Lord regard the scoundrel Nabal. She’s calling her husband a scoundrel. Honey, don’t please don’t do that. For as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name and folly is with him, but I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of the of the Lord whom you sent. Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed, from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek harm from my Lord be as Nabal.

And now the present which your maid servant has brought to my Lord, let it be given to the young men who follow the Lord. Please forgive the trespasses of your maidservant, for the Lord certainly made for my Lord an enduring house, because my Lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil is not found in your in you throughout your days. Yet a man seeks you, has been pursuit pursue you, and seek your life, but the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God and the lies of your enemies. He shall sling out as from the pocket of a sling. And it’ll shall come to pass when the Lord has done for my Lord, according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, that this will be no greed to you, nor offenses of my heart to my Lord.

Either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my Lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord has dealt well with my Lord, then remember your maidservant. Then David said to Abigail, Blessed is the Lord of God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, and blessed is your advice, and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried to come to me, surely by morning light, no males would have been left to Nabal. So David received from her hand what she had brought with him, from brought him, and said to her, Go up in peace to your house, see if you have indeed heeded your voice and respected your persons.

Now Abigail went to Nabal, and there was there he was, holding a feast in his house, like the rest of a king, and Nabal’s heart was merry with him. For he was very drunk, therefore told him nothing, little or much until morning that morning life. That’s just a little lesson in itself, right there in that one verse about how she’s trying to avoid her own husband because he’s intoxicated. Not a good time to confront somebody with what she did with David. And going on. So it was verse 37. So it was in the morning when the wine had gone from the ball, and his wife had told him these things that his heart did not die within him, and he became like a stone. Then it happened after about ten days that the Lord struck the ball and he died.

So when David heard Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal and has kept the servant from evil, for the Lord has returned wickedness of Nabal on his own head. And David sent and proposed to Abigail to take her as his wife. When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, David sent us to you to ask you to become his wife. Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, That here is your maidservant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey, attended by five of her maidens. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

What an incredible story that is. Here we have a scoundrel man who wouldn’t share his wealth with some of David’s servants. They were hungry. They wanted some food. And it’s pretty simple. You have plenty. Let’s share it. And he would. So then Abigail hears about this. And she says, I’m not going to let this happen. This man’s a good man. David’s a good man. All he’s going to do is he’s going to avenge what he said he was going to do. And that’s something some of the things that we need to learn in our life also that are we going to have revenge on some of the things that people do to us? That’s a lesson in itself right there. And then it goes on, and she says, Don’t do this.

And he doesn’t do it. He humbles himself. He acts, he tells himself, you know what? I don’t need to be doing this against God. I don’t need to be doing this. And as we see later on down in the chapter, that God did what he needed to do. That Nabal was struck dead. Now there are a lot of lessons we can learn in this whole thing. And I’m just going to take one concept out of this whole book right here, this whole account of Abigail, David, and Nabal. And that’s with us is how are we as Christians can apply some of these things to our life that we do read about Nabal and Abigail. I’m going to leave David out of this picture for right now.

2. The Characteristics of Nabal

And the reason why is because I just want to concentrate on Abigail and Nabal. But some of the things we can learn is the characteristics of Nabal. What kind of man was this guy? He was a he was his name itself tells what kind of guy he is, that he’s a fool, that he’s senseless. I had it off. No wonder. But the other thing is that he’s harsh and evil, according to 1 Samuel 25th chapter, verse 3. We saw where he’s like that, when he wouldn’t share his wealth, when he wouldn’t share his food with David and his servants. That he’s a scoundrel. I mean, even his own wife called him a scoundrel. That’s not a very pleasant term that I hope my wife never calls me.

She may have, I’m not real sure. If she has, nobody’s ever told me, maybe in her sleep or something like that she’s, you know, you’re kind of a dirty scoundrel. See, she’s making the face on there. Can’t see it. But, anyways, that’s a that’s a brutal statement right there that a wife would tell, call her husband that. And these are the kind of characteristics that Dabal is. That he’s dishonest. He’s vagrant. He’s a tramp, unscrupulous person, no moral principles. Nothing good for nothing and unethical. All these concepts are right here in what we read in 1 Samuel, the 25th chapter about this man. That’s not very pleasant. That’s not some of the things that we hope that we have those characteristics in us. The other thing is folly is in him.

That’s what one of the servants said that lack of good sense. He’s foolish. He’s full of acts. That he jumps to some things like this. Now, is this how we want to be like this, like Nabal? We can be. And if you really think about some of these things, we can be like them, like Nabal. And we are like him in some ways. And that’s what we need to study real hard on. What is our Christian characteristics like? How is our character toward other people? How is our character toward people we’re trying to teach or even our own brethren here in this building today? What kind of characteristics do we portray? That we love God? We must, because we’re here on one of the worst days of the year.

3. The Characteristics of Abigail

But this year it’s raining, it’s pouring. We come here and we come to worship God. That shows me right there that you have good loving characteristics of enjoying God’s word. That you do love God, that you’ve taken the time out today to come worship him. Or the visitors who have come our way. Your encouragement to me is showing your characteristics also that you come here, that you’ve taken a busy time for your day to come and visit also. Well, how about the characteristics of Abigail? She’s the father, her name actually means the father of joy. And we see that she’s a beautiful woman. It sounds like that she’s a beautiful woman, both on the outside and inside. But she doesn’t want this to happen to David.

But she doesn’t want him to sin against God. That she has all this good understanding, that she has beautiful appearance, and she’s wise. She knows what she’s going to say to David. That she takes all this food to him, to his servants, and she confronts him. That’s pretty bold right there. That this maid servant’s going to bow down before David of all people. That she loved God. She didn’t want him to sin against him. And of course, her bravery and her humbleness that she bowed down to him. Those are great characteristics that we ourselves in 2018 need to have also. That we need to humble ourselves, that we need to be brave, that we need to stand up for the truth, that we need to flee from sin when it confronts us.

4. We Should Humble Ourselves

We talk a lot about Tony saying, you know, whenever you whenever you have a you see something sin, maybe in your office or somewhere. I’ve said it a million times up here. Somebody confronts you, say, let’s go have a brew or do whatever the case may be. The sense is that we flee from it. And that we humble ourselves. I think we were talking about it in class today that humility was brought up. Sometimes that’s a hard word for us to put into our heart and in our mind. Our pride’s going to get in the way. And it shouldn’t, brother. It shouldn’t get in our way. We should humble ourselves and admit sometimes that we’re wrong. Just like David did right here in verse 20, in verse 32 and 33.

He humbled himself. He accepted what the Abigail told him. And David said to Abigail, Blessed is the God of Israel who sent you this day to me. Yesterday we had the men’s class upstairs. It was an incredible class. We had a lot of men and a round table. It wasn’t a set setting where we had a teacher up there and started lecturing or anything. We had, I think, I can’t remember how many, 18, 19, 20 young men up there and old men and older men. But it was a great session because we were able to open up. And we could sit there and we’d say, Yes, I need to humble myself. I sin sometimes, and I need to I need to admit to myself that I do sin.

And I need my brother here right there. And I’m going to take my pride and I’m going to swallow it. And I’m going to go to my brother and I’m going to confront him and say, hey, can we talk? I’ve got this sin in my life. I don’t know what yours is, but I know I have some. And I need my brethren here. I need to humble myself, just like David did. And not be too prideful. And go to my brothers and say, Let’s talk, brother. I’m hooked on this. I can’t get this out of my mind. The scenario in the book was in this men’s Iron Sharp’s iron. The scenario was a man who had one click away of committing adultery. And he did. What if he would have just said, I need to I can’t do this right now.

5. Christian Characteristics in Romans 12

I need to go to my brother. I need to talk to somebody. I’m not going to click the acceptance of this woman to drive down from Kentucky to Birmingham and to meet me at a hotel. It’s not going to happen right now. I need my brother there. And that’s why we need everybody in here. And that’s why things like this are so important to us. That we read these accounts in 1 Samuel the 25th chapter. We take those applications and we apply them to our life in biblical in Christian characteristics. These are some of the things I came up with here as far as some of the characteristics. How about love without hypocrisy? That we love somebody, not say, I love your brother, and then go back and talk behind their back about them.

How about that? You ever done that? Hey, I did. Being hypocritical in it. I’ll admit it. But then I regret it later. It’s a lesson learned that we’ve got to stop doing. I’m not perfect. If you are, let me know. I’d love to talk to you. How about despise evil? You ever have that time in your life where you’re like, I just despise what’s going on right here. I don’t like what I’m seeing right now. I want to get out of this environment at my job or at my school or wherever the case may be. I tell you, one of the things that Terry and I talked about, embarrass you, Reagan. He’s looking at it, he’s about to go to college. And everything I’m sitting there listening to what Amy and Scott are talking about college.

You know what his number one priority is? God. God. I said, he’s not going to go to Princeton? He’s got offers up there. Not many churches up there. And then we’ve got two Aggie sitting back there. He’s not going to be an Aggie. Well, you know, the church is great over there, but all burden. How much did Tony pay you?

But that right here with this 30-year-old, 59-year-old man, it tells me something. And it’s an encouragement that this young 17, 18-year-old man that’s about to go to college. His priority is God. Because he despises all the evil that may go on somewhere else. And he knows he’s going to be confronted by the evil in colleges of what they have. And he’s going to need his brethren there. What a great example. How about being kind to somebody? Man, I tell you that’s a hard concept there. How about have brotherly love? These are characteristics that are pretty self-explanatory. Being diligent in what we do. Peter talks about being diligent in what we do. That we diligently seek out knowledge and love and so forth. How about rejoicing in the hope that we have?

Continuing in prayer. Patience. Oh my word, I can’t stand patience. I had no patience. I tried and I tried and I tried. I prayed to God for patience, and he sent me to be a school teacher. I became a teacher for seven years. I said, Oh, I’ve got to get out of this. I’m losing my patience. So I go on the oil field. That’s even almost worse. Because I’ve seen all the evil that goes on. But patience. And bless those who persecute you. We’re going to be persecuted. And there’s no doubt in our mind. How about helping down to other saints? We look around, brothers and sisters. We have a lot of people that are in need. How about being hospitable? When was the last time you had somebody in your house?

A brother. We talked about this in our class yesterday. You know, sometimes people just say, you know, I’m not involved in anything. I can’t, I’ve nobody invites me to anything. John brought this up. He said, What have you done to invite people to your home or to out to do? You don’t have to take them to your house. Just take them somewhere out to eat, or take them to another place. Being hospitable. How about being mournful? When we sin, we mourn. When we lose someone, we mourn. Be of the same mind toward one another. We’re hitting those same goals. And of course, I’ve already touched on humbleness. But do not be wise in your own opinion. These are concepts, brother, that we have, brothers and sisters that we have that we need to think about very seriously.

Now, here’s the reason why. We don’t want to repay no evil for evil, just like with David. He wasn’t going to do that. He was still, well, he was, but he was stopped. And that’s a great thing. Leave peaceably among all men. Do all these characteristics kind of sound familiar? Well, guess what? They are. They’re actually in the scriptures. That’s where I pulled these concepts from. I didn’t make them up. But in Romans 12, chapter verses 9 through 21, the writer says, Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love and giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patience, tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, giving hospitality and so forth.

You can keep on reading all the way to chapter the end of the chapter, and you’re going to get the same concepts that I just talked about. Because that’s where I got them from. I didn’t make those up. It’s written.

Conclusion

You ever think about that? You ever think about that? If you don’t, go to Romans 12 and read this every now and then. I do all the time. Because these are the concepts that I want, these are the characteristics I want in my life. For my children, for my grandchildren, for my brothers and sisters here at Decker Prairie. You know, we’re going to be confronted many times. This is Terry’s famous statement. Okay, I’ll tell you how many times I’ve heard this. Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it. And again, everybody has baggage. Everybody has things in their life or continue to have things in your life. How are you going to confront it? How are you going to beat it?

And right there, you think about what happens to you. Well, where are you today? Are you lost? You saved? Where are you in your life? Think about it for just a moment. Really deeply think about it. Because if you’re a Christian here and you have sin in your life, you really need to think about those two words. It’s pretty simple. Are you saved or are you lost? Matthew 5.28, Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. What a great concept right there. And Jesus said. And He’s our Savior. Brother and the lesson jurors today. And I hope that you got something out of this lesson because again, I when I read this story about Nabal, David, and Abigail, I just went, wow.

And I read it over and over again. I even taught it to some of the teenage classes one time. I said, I’ve got to teach this about characteristics and how we live. I’ve got to put this in my life. I want to keep it in my life, but I want to share it. And anytime I start thinking about being a scoundrel or a dirty person or a work, bad person, I just think of Nabal. Do I want to be like him? I think about these Christian characteristics in Romans the 12th chapter. This is how we want to be. And I hope that’s how you want to be. But the biggest thing right now is how are you in your heart and in your mind? Have you been baptized into Christ?

If you have, and you feel like that you’ve fallen away in some sort of way that your heart is hard toward God, and you need the prayers of the congregation. Whatever the need may be, please come forward. Now sing the song that’s chosen.