April 21, 2024, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.
Who have I in heaven but you, and besides you I desire nothing on earth. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God, you are the strength of my life and my portion forever.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalms 73:25-26, ESV)
Jesus, King Jesus, Resurrected Jesus, Living Jesus, Son of God, King of kings and Lord of lords, we love you. Heavenly Father, we love you. We’re so glad you’re our Father, we’re so glad you sent your Son to seek and save that which was lost. Holy Spirit, we love you. We love you working in our lives and moving mysteriously in our midst.
We love the surprises. We love your persistence. Lord, we want our church and we want our lives not to be a place for you to visit, but a place for you to reside. Dove, come land on our shoulders and stay there. We ask that we would not offend you, but we would welcome you. We ask it in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen means so be it. That’s good. That’s good. Did you guys find those 11 pennies or just bring them up here to be encouragement?
The 11 pennies on the desk here. Okay. Yeah. I’m a preacher. I will never say no to an offering. So yeah, sure. Bring the pennies. Bring the pennies. Yeah. Pennies from heaven, baby. All right. We’re going through the Bible. How’s your Bible reading going, folks? You doing good? You can stand up. All right. If you’re not, that’s all right. I want to give you, this is modern day, and I want to give you the benefit of technology. My wife uses this. She will, because she’ll be driving and stuff, and she’ll use the audio Bible.
That counts, alright? I just want to let you know, in case you didn’t think that counts. And there’s a reason I know that counts, because Jill’s using it, and she would not break the rules. So, I know it counts. If Jill does it, it’s got to be within the rules. And so, yeah.
Alright, we’re going to be in 1 Samuel 25, and I’m going to read almost the whole chapter to you. So, 1 Samuel 25, the story of Nabal, David, and Abigail.
So, then David moved down to the wilderness of Maon, and there was a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the town of Carmel.
1Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered for his funeral. They buried him at his house in Ramah. Then David moved down to the wilderness of Maon. 2 There was a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the town of Carmel… (1 Samuel 25:1-2, NLT)
And if any of you have ever been to Carmel, you know that’s expensive property. Alright? Anybody ever been on the 17 Mile Drive, and Pebble Beach, and all that stuff? Man, those people down in Carmel, they’re living good.
He had 3,000 sheep, 1,000 goats, and it was sheep-shearing time. And this man’s name was Nabal, and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible and beautiful woman.
2 …He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and it was sheep-shearing time. 3 This man’s name was Nabal, and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible and beautiful woman. (1 Samuel 25:2-3, NLT)
Alright.
Men, if you ever want to compliment your wife, just tell her she’s a sensible and beautiful woman. Alright? That’ll be good.
But Nabal was a descendant of Caleb. He was crude and mean in all his dealings.
Women, if you ever want to compliment your husband, don’t call him Nabal.
When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep, he sent 10 of his young men to Carmel with a message for Nabal. Peace and prosperity to you, your family, and everything you own. I’m told that it is sheep-shearing time, and while your shepherds stayed among us near Carmel, we never harmed them, and nothing was ever stolen from them. Ask your men, and they will tell you that this is true. So, would you be so kind to us, since we have come at a time of celebration, please share any provisions you might have on hand with us and with your friend David. David’s young men gave this message to Nabal in David’s name, and they waited for a reply. Who is this fellow David? Nabel sneered to the young men.
Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There’s lots of servants these days who run away from their masters. Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where? So David’s young men returned and told him what Nabel had said. Get your swords, was David’s reply as he strapped on his own. Then 400 men started off with David and 200 remained behind to guard their equipment.
Meanwhile, one of Nabel’s servants went to Abigail and told her David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed insults at them. These men have been very good to us and we never suffered any harm from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time that they were with us. In fact, day and night, they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep. You need to know this and figure out what to do, for there’s going to be trouble for our master and his whole family. He’s so ill-tempered that no one can even talk to him!
Abigail wasted no time. She quickly gathered 200 loaves of bread, two wineskins full of wine, five sheep that had been slaughtered, nearly a bushel of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys and said to her servants, Go on ahead and I will follow you shortly. But she didn’t tell her husband Nabel what she was doing. As she was riding her donkey into the mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her.
David had just been saying, A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen, but he repaid me evil for good. May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning. Abigail intercedes for Nabel, and when Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him. She fell at his feet and said, I accept all the blame in this matter, my lord.
Please listen to what I have to say. David is a wicked and ill-tempered man. Please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just like his name suggests. But I never even saw the young men you sent. Now my Lord, as surely as the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is.
And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men. Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty, for you are fighting the Lord’s battles, and you have not done wrong throughout your entire life. Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in His treasure pouch. But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling.
When the Lord has done all He promised and made you leader of Israel, don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant.
David replied to Abigail, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today. Thank God for your good senses. Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands.
For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me, not one of Nabal’s men would still be alive tomorrow morning. Then David accepted her presents and told her, Return home in peace. I’ve heard what you said. We will not kill your husband. When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so she didn’t tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day.
In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. As a result, he had a stroke and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone. And about ten days later, the Lord struck him and he died.
3 …But Nabal, a descendant of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings. 4 When David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5 he sent ten of his young men to Carmel with this message for Nabal: 6 “Peace and prosperity to you, your family, and everything you own! 7 I am told that it is sheep-shearing time. While your shepherds stayed among us near Carmel, we never harmed them, and nothing was ever stolen from them. 8 Ask your own men, and they will tell you this is true. So would you be kind to us, since we have come at a time of celebration? Please share any provisions you might have on hand with us and with your friend David.” 9 David’s young men gave this message to Nabal in David’s name, and they waited for a reply. 10 “Who is this fellow David?” Nabal sneered to the young men. “Who does this son of Jesse think he is? There are lots of servants these days who run away from their masters. 11 Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I’ve slaughtered for my shearers and give it to a band of outlaws who come from who knows where?” 12 So David’s young men returned and told him what Nabal had said. 13 “Get your swords!” was David’s reply as he strapped on his own. Then 400 men started off with David, and 200 remained behind to guard their equipment. 14 Meanwhile, one of Nabal’s servants went to Abigail and told her, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he screamed insults at them. 15 These men have been very good to us, and we never suffered any harm from them. Nothing was stolen from us the whole time they were with us. 16 In fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us and the sheep. 17 You need to know this and figure out what to do, for there is going to be trouble for our master and his whole family. He’s so ill-tempered that no one can even talk to him!” 18 Abigail wasted no time. She quickly gathered 200 loaves of bread, two wineskins full of wine, five sheep that had been slaughtered, nearly a bushel of roasted grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 fig cakes. She packed them on donkeys 19 and said to her servants, “Go on ahead. I will follow you shortly.” But she didn’t tell her husband Nabal what she was doing. 20 As she was riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her. 21 David had just been saying, “A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good. 22 May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!” 23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him. 24 She fell at his feet and said, “I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say. 25 I know Nabal is a wicked and ill-tempered man; please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just as his name suggests. But I never even saw the young men you sent. 26 “Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is. 27 And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men. 28 Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty, for you are fighting the Lord’s battles. And you have not done wrong throughout your entire life. 29 “Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in his treasure pouch! But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling! 30 When the Lord has done all he promised and has made you leader of Israel, 31 don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant!” 32 David replied to Abigail, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today! 33 Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands. 34 For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me, not one of Nabal’s men would still be alive tomorrow morning.” 35 Then David accepted her present and told her, “Return home in peace. I have heard what you said. We will not kill your husband.” 36 When Abigail arrived home, she found that Nabal was throwing a big party and was celebrating like a king. He was very drunk, so she didn’t tell him anything about her meeting with David until dawn the next day. 37 In the morning when Nabal was sober, his wife told him what had happened. As a result he had a stroke, and he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone. 38 About ten days later, the Lord struck him, and he died. (1 Samuel 25:3-38, NLT)
And God, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord , my rock and my redeemer. (Psalms 19:14, ESV)
All right, Nabal is a rich fool, David is a mighty warrior, and Abigail is a beautiful and wise and kind woman.
And in this story, basically you need to get the picture of 3,000 years ago in Israel. And 3,000 years ago in Israel is not like Paulsbo, Washington in 2024, it’s not like it at all, all right? And so this is a barbaric time. Think of, I don’t know, think of a movie like Braveheart, anybody see the movie Braveheart, you know, and people are raiding and they’re raiding castles and they’re cutting off their enemies’ heads and there’s these hand-to-hand battles.
And we tend to think, you know, the Bible talks about David and he writes all these psalms and he’s a man after God’s own heart, and we tend to think of David as this wonderful little shepherd boy who went out and threw a rock at Goliath. Let me tell you something, David is a warrior. David is a warrior. He’s kind of a barbarian. I mean, he’s a man after God’s own heart in that he serves God, he believes God, he doesn’t seek vengeance on Saul, he writes psalms, he prays.
But David is not a man of peace; he is a man of the sword. Remember when David wants to build the temple, what does the Lord tell him? He says, you can’t build the temple, Solomon’s got to build the temple, why? Because you have shed so much blood, all right?
You know how, you know, David, here’s a story of how David got one of his wives, Abigail. David had many wives; his first love was Michal, and she was the daughter of Saul. David wanted to marry Michal, and Saul wanted David to get into a battle where he would die. So, Saul told David, “This is the kind of people we’re dealing with 3,000 years ago, okay? These are barbarians.” And Saul says, “I’ll tell you the price for my daughter, Michal, 100 Philistine foreskins, all right?” And what does David do?
He goes out and kills 200 Philistines and brings 200 foreskins back, all right? And then dumps them out. I mean, you know, let your imagination work on this one. You know, it’s like, there it is. This is, yeah, there you go. This is, this is, this is life 3,000 years ago. Villages raided villages. Cities raided cities. When your crop wasn’t good, maybe the crop over there was good. And if you can surprise and attack them, you can kill all the men. You didn’t capture all the men.
You killed them because you don’t want those men alive to come back and get you. You either killed the women and children, or you took the women and children. You took the livestock. You took their food. You raided. David was a raider. David, when David, after this episode, David despairs and he goes over to the Philistines for a while. And he makes his living raiding cities outside of Philistia. He did, he was prevented from raiding Judah. He never ended up raiding Judah. But he raided other cities outside Philistia.
And not, not cities God told him to raid. Not cities God told him that that city’s under judgment. He, he was, David’s a violent guy. All right? Nabal is a fool. He’s a rich fool. But just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’re smart. In fact, there are a lot of rich fools. All right? You may be good at one thing. You may be good at accumulating wealth. But that doesn’t make you a worthy person or a person to follow and you can still be a fool. And Nabal is a fool.
And here’s how he’s a fool. He is rich in large part because he has 600 people, 600 warriors surrounding his property, keeping the Philistines from raiding his property. And those 600 warriors are honorable toward him because he is a part of Israel. And so they don’t steal his livestock, and they don’t raid his men, and they don’t take his wives. They, in fact, protect him. It’s a little bit like the mob except it’s different in a way. You know, the mob is different in a way.
The mob comes and says, hey, you need to pay us tribute for protection. Now why that’s bad is because the mob is basically saying, you need to pay us tribute and protection. Protection from who? Protection from us. If you don’t pay us tribute, you know, we’re going to burn your place down, all right? I think that’s how they do it in Jersey, I don’t know, that’s pretty much it, right? The Jersey guys, you know, we’re going to, the mob, all right? That’s what they do.
David is going to Nabal and saying, “you need to pay me for the protection I’ve already provided you.” Not protection from David, but because we’re out in the wilderness, living in caves, scraping a living, you know, hunting and living off the land and nearly starving to death, six hundred men, you know. David and his mighty men, that’s a smelly bunch of guys. Those are six hundred gnarly, bearded, those are, these are kind of wild men. They’re not, you know, they kill. We’re out there and we could have easily taken all the sheep we wanted.
We could have easily ruined you or abandoned you and let the Philistines ruin you, but in fact, we’ve been standing between you and your flocks and now that it’s time to gather in your sheep, gather, you know, shear the sheep and celebrate, we’d like you to be generous toward us. Now Nabal could have said, I don’t want to be, or he could have said, gee guys, I’d love to be, but I can’t afford it this time, you know, it’s, Saul’s putting a heavy tax on me, but instead he just hurls insults. Who is this David?
Then he knows who David is, right, because he starts saying, “you’re the son of Jesse, you abandoned Saul.” He says, “I owe you nothing.” Now, if David were Jesus, Jesus would turn the other cheek. David is a man after God’s own heart, and like I said, he’s a warrior. And what does David say? “Strap on your swords. Oh, it’s on. It’s on.” you ever get that attitude? That attitude, yeah, this is a fighting word. Did you ever get that attitude? It’s like, “Oh yeah, it’s on.” All right?
I never do it physically, because I would lose any physical altercation I was in, but if somebody wants to challenge me theologically, or even more importantly on baseball stats, it’s on. It’s on, baby. And that rises up. It would rise up when your little child defies you, right? That little parent to me goes, oh yeah, okay. You want to draw a line in the sand, little three-year-old? You know, who’s gonna win here? It’s on. David, it’s on. And when he says not one of your males will survive by morning, he’s not exaggerating.
Those 600 men knew what they were doing. All of Nabal’s shepherds were no match for David and his mighty men. The Philistine army wasn’t a match for David and his mighty men. There was nobody in the area who was a match for David and his mighty men. Throughout his career, nobody was a match for David and his mighty men. These were the elite, these were the best, these were the fiercest warriors, and it is bad for Nabal, and he’s a fool. He put himself in this position. And then comes Abigail.
And it’s interesting what the Bible says. The Bible says she is a beautiful and sensible woman. It’s interesting, there’s only three women that I know of in the Bible who get labeled as beautiful. Doesn’t mean others weren’t, but these women must have been very striking. I mean, the Bible calls them beautiful. Rachel, Leah, not so good. Rachel, Leah, not so good. Rachel, she’s the hot sister, all right. Esther. Queen Esther and Abigail, but more important than being beautiful, she was sensible. And the servant knows. The servant knows.
Don’t go to Nabal and say, “Hey, David’s coming with his 600 men to wipe you out.” Nabal would have thought, “Oh, we can beat him or whatever. He’s an idiot.” He might have been drunk by this time anyway. But he knows. He goes to Abigail, and Abigail acts immediately. She acts wisely. And she ends up saving David from something that he really didn’t want to do. And David recognizes it. The minute she stops him, David goes, “you stop me from shedding unnecessary blood.” And he thanks her. His heart turns. It cools down.
So as I read this story, and David doesn’t kill Nabal, and what does God do? God kind of takes care of it, doesn’t He? One of the most consistent themes in Psalms written by David is this. Vindicate me, God. Vindicate me, God. In other words, I don’t have to seek vengeance. I don’t have to seek my own vindication. God can vindicate me. That is one of the Psalms I actually pray more often than many others. It’s not that I want God to give my enemy a stroke and have them die.
But there are times where I want to be right, where I want to argue, where I want to prove my point, where I want to set the record straight. And more times than not, the Lord puts a kibosh on that. He says, Quiet, Kevin. Be quiet. Don’t say anything. Don’t go to that person. Just be quiet. Well, what do I do, God? He says, Pray the Psalms. Lord, you set the record straight. Because I wouldn’t do a good job at it, and I would sin in doing it.
And so Abigail protects her husband, protects David, protects all those servants, and she is a wise and sensible woman. This passage, when I read it, got me thinking about riches, because Nabal was a rich man, and it got me thinking about the different kind of riches that we can have, and the riches that we value in our culture, and the riches that are valued in the kingdom of God.
There are other riches than these eight, but I listed eight riches that are on display in this story, and on display throughout the Bible, and on display in our culture. And I would say that the first four are the kinds of riches that we idolize in Western culture, and the last four are the kinds of riches that are valued in the kingdom of God. And in our culture, these are upside down.
And the first thing I want to say about the first four riches that I’m going to talk about is none of them, in and of themselves, are evil. None of them, in and of themselves, are evil. The problem is, when we exalt them, we exalt something that’s fairly empty and shallow, and has very little value. But the other riches that our culture doesn’t highlight, that aren’t seen as valuable, in fact, in the kingdom of God, are incredibly precious, and powerful, and valuable. So let’s talk about these riches, and the people, Nabal, and David, and Abigail.
Nabal was rich in possessions, and that’s about it. Out of all these eight riches, that’s the only one I see here. He was rich in possessions. And we love rich people. When I was a young man, there used to be a TV reality, one of the first TV reality shows, it was called Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Right? Anybody remember that one? Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. And people buy magazines. They buy magazines, and go to internet sites, and search out… about what?
The lifestyle of people is fascinated with the Taylor Swifts of this world. And listen, I’m not a Taylor Swift hater. I don’t, Taylor, you know, people, and then, you know, the people overreact to that, like, oh, Taylor Swift is terrible. I don’t know if she’s terrible or good or anything. She’s tall and she sings pop songs, and she dates a football player and she sells lots of concert tickets, has lots of money. Good for Taylor Swift.
But that’s, I mean, I’m not going to buy, I’m not going to go read an article on her, and I’m not going to, you know, find out what she had for breakfast. Just, I don’t, I don’t mean I don’t care. I mean, as Jesus cares for Taylor Swift, I care for Taylor Swift. I want her to come to know Christ and be, and live and enjoy him forever. But my gosh, I’m not going to model my life after her. I just, and of course, my deal isn’t musical entertainers.
If I wanted to, you know, if I wanted to idolize anybody, it would be sports stars. I’ve been a sports fan my whole life. But here’s the deal. I definitely admire athletes for their athletic ability and the feats that they accomplish in athletic competition. It fascinates me. As a boy who tried to do that and wasn’t, had nowhere near the athletic ability, it fascinates me. And I’ll go to a, you know, I’ll go to a ball game or I’ll watch stuff on TV and I’m a fan and all of it fascinates me.
But you know what? I don’t want their lives. I don’t envy their money. I don’t envy their supermodel wives. I don’t envy their fame. And I don’t think apart from Christ, there’s anything there to, you know, set them apart from anybody else. They’re good at something. And our culture values it and gives them lots of money for that. I don’t, fine, I don’t care. But my goodness, is really the most important thing in life the ability to throw a ball? Or hit a ball? Or be 300 pounds and fast and be able to crush somebody?
Is that really what life is about? And then we idolize appearance. Oh my gosh, we idolize appearance. More so in females than males, but in males too. I mean, there are males that women tend to think are yummy. You know, and we idolize appearance. Oh, she’s so hot. But you know, appearance, listen, appearance just lasts for a season, folks. You know, your peak appearance years are, they’re like a vapor. They’re like a vapor, alright? I always told my daughters, marry a nerd, man. Marry a nerd. Don’t marry the high school quarterback.
He’s going to be sitting around at a bar in 20 years still complaining that he got a bad call in the last game. Say, marry somebody who’s going to MIT. I don’t care what he looks like, man. That guy’s gonna make you some money. Alright? Marry an engineer, for crying out loud. You know, Karen, good choice, good call. They’re good with math and they’re problem solvers. It’s hard to, that’s a great combination. Marry an engineer. You know, I tell you what, it’s hard being a good-looking person sometimes.
It’s a burden that I’ve borne for years, and it’s not easy. I tell people all the time, I tell people, you know, it’s not as easy as you think being a trophy husband. You know, but that’s, it’s a vapor. It’s a vapor and then…
And then I pity these Hollywood actresses who, you know, just desperately try with Botox and whatever, and they have to go their whole life without eating to maintain that. And it’s like, ah, how sad that is. There’s riches in fame. That’s a mixture. It’s nice to be loved by people.
I’ve heard these are two contrasting stories on fame from two Hollywood stars. One was Bill Murray, the famous comedian if you remember Bill Murray. And he’s pretty old now, but he made his fame on Saturday Night Live and did lots of movies. Very funny man. Very funny man. And somebody asked him one time, what’s it like to be rich and famous? And he’d say, I’d take the first but not the second. And so fame has been hard on him. It’s hard to not be able to go out.
None of us would want the paparazzi surrounding our houses and having to disguise ourselves. On the other hand, I heard Kevin Bacon, and he was talking about, everybody knows Kevin Bacon. He was talking about, he went to this mall in LA. And he said, 99% of my fame is a good thing. He says, what’s wrong with people coming up and say, hey, man, I loved you in that. You were great in that. He says, I love that. He says, I went to this mall. He said, I was in total disguise. Nobody recognized me.
He goes, “Man, most of you people, your life just stinks. It’s so great to have people tell me I love me. They love me. But you know what? That’s shallow, right? That’s a drink that doesn’t last.” I remember as a young pastor, and I started preaching, and people would come up to me, and they would compliment my sermons. And they’d say, “Oh, that was a great sermon.” In fact, just the other week, some guy, just two weeks ago, some guy at Discovery Fellowship came up.
And he told me, he just said, 80-year-old guy, he said, that’s the best sermon I’ve ever heard in my life. Now, that could be an incredible compliment. As an 80-year-old man, he’s heard a lot of sermons. On the other hand, as an 80-year-old man, he might not remember a lot of sermons. Yeah, so I didn’t know how to take it, but I just said, thank you. But I realized over the years, when people do that, people do that too. And I liked it. I like it. It’s not that I don’t like it.
I like it, but I also realized, man, that drink does not last. That’s gone by Monday morning. And so fame, all these things the book of Ecclesiastes would say are what? Vanity, vanity, vanity. None of them are evil. It’s not evil to be rich, by the way. The Bible never says it’s evil to have money, nor is it evil to enjoy your money. It says, it doesn’t say that money or the love of money is the root of all evil. It says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
It is the love of money. It is the vanity of physical appearance. It is the vanity of fame that causes evil. None of the things in and of themselves. Billy Graham was famous, and good. He was famous for Christ. He used it well. And finally there’s knowledge. You might think, well, knowledge is a good thing. Not necessarily. Knowledge is knowing stuff, but it’s not necessarily wisdom. And we so, oh my goodness, we so idolize experts in our culture, right? You turn on your news feed, and what’s the first thing it says?
Experts say, and usually they are experts in a particular field. But here’s what I’ve discovered about knowledge, about education, because I am knowledgeable. I know this about myself. I am knowledgeable more than the average person in our culture about two specific areas. One of those areas is Bible, Christian theology, church history, that sort of thing. I know more than probably most people on that. I’m not being vain here. I just do, right? I studied it. I got a three years master’s degree, and I’ve studied it my whole life. And I remember stuff.
And so, you know, somebody can say, you know, there’s a passage in the Bible that says blah, blah, blah, blah. And a lot of times I go, oh yeah, that’s blah, blah, blah. I can tell them what it is. And they’ll look at me like, wow, that’s impressive. And I go, I know. That and good. good-looking. I mean, it’s the package. It’s the package. You know, there was a line behind Jill. And the other thing I know is sports trivia, especially about baseball, basketball, and football. I know a lot of it.
And it is utterly useless information, except in conversation with a very narrow slice of people, mostly men, at cigar clubs. And then it comes in pretty handy. It’s a good conversation maker. I got baseball cards. I got lots of them. They got some value, maybe. But I didn’t know to take care of them when I was a kid. I used them for noisemakers in my bicycle spokes. Did you ever do that? Mickey Mantle. There’s thousands of dollars going down my Mickey Mantle rookie card. It’s like, oh, no. Alright.
So here’s what a PhD does for you. It doesn’t mean you’re smart, and it doesn’t mean you’re an expert about anything in life but one subject. In fact, it probably makes you ignorant of most other subjects because you’ve spent all your life studying the mating habits of the, you know, eastern panda bears in some obscure country. And, you know, you got that locked in, baby. But you’ve spent all your life studying that. C.S. Lewis pointed that out. He talked about Sigmund Freud.
He said he may have been a great psychologist, but he said when he got into my field of study, which was language, he said he found him incredibly ignorant. And that’s just true. I mean, here’s where my baseball knowledge gets me into trouble, or it would except the Lord tells me to be quiet. Literally, I go to a baseball game and I sit there and I hear some guy talking nonsense behind me trying to show off his baseball knowledge, and he is wrong about everything he’s saying to his girlfriend.
And it is literally, it takes everything in me not to turn around and say, that’s not true. Let me set you straight on what really happened back in 1924, or 1932, when Babe Ruth supposedly called his shot against Charlie Root in the World Series against the Cubs. Let me tell you what really happened on that day. It was an O2 kit, never mind, I won’t.
Now, knowledge, when I get on my newsfeed and it says, experts say, you know how I interpret that? You know how I interpret the word experts? Some guy, some gal.
Now, let me tell you what is valuable, wisdom. In fact, the Bible says wisdom is more valuable than silver and gold. Can you imagine if we were advertising at the firehouse church, and in fact, we could back it up, that if you walk through those doors, you would get a bar of silver and a bar of gold. Can you imagine, there would be more than 15 people here tonight, all right? They would be lining up for their bar of silver and bar of gold, because our culture thinks that’s incredibly valuable.
And the Bible says this: the Bible says more valuable than silver and gold is wisdom. And then it says this: God says, I’ll tell you how to get it. Ooh, this must be complicated; we have to be experts to figure this one out. He says in James, “Ask, and I give generously.”
5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. (James 1:5, NLT)
Wisdom is not knowledge. Wisdom is knowing what to do with the knowledge you have in life, to make it work right.
Wisdom is the application of knowledge in such a way that it brings the goodness of the Lord into the land of the living, that thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10, ESV)
Wisdom is knowing when to talk and when to shut up. Wisdom is knowing what to say at the right time, what to do at the right time. Wisdom is knowing whether to move to St. Louis or Washington or stay where you’re at. Wisdom is knowing who to marry and who to refrain from marrying.
And wisdom is one of life’s treasures. You can be rich in wisdom. And dear ones, you can be rich in good deeds. You can be rich in good deeds. And good deeds are an incredible thing to be rich in. And God says he rewards good deeds. He rewards good deeds. Doing good gets rewarded, not always by culture, not always by the person you do good to. My brother-in-law, who’s a counselor, he has a saying, no good deed goes unpunished.
There are people that you love well, and you do good to them, and they reject you, and they hurt you, and whatever, that’s true. In this world, there’s not a one-to-one correlation. But God says this, Jesus says there’s not a cup of cold water given in my name that will go without its reward. And I got to tell you, I’ve talked to Isaiah about this, but I struggle with the homeless crisis in our culture and homelessness, especially around our Bremerton church where it’s rampant.
And we have people who regularly sleep at our property and they make a mess. And not having the spiritual gift of service in a large measure, I do not delight in cleaning up other people’s messes. I resent it, it makes me mad. I’m not your mother, you know, I don’t want to pick up after you. Be an adult, pick up after yourself. And because I resent that, I then resent the people I suspect are causing that. And the Lord does not want that in me.
He does not want me to resent those people who are people. Not the homeless. Not the addicts. Not the losers. But people with names. With mothers and fathers. Brothers and sisters.
And at the same time, I think I have an obligation to draw boundaries for the church and for the protection of the church and the people who go there. And one of my boundaries is if I see you camping there, I’m going to ask you not to camp there. Because I don’t want needles. I don’t want to clean up your poop.
I don’t want you to camp. So I ask them. I say, you can rest here, but don’t camp here. And the other day, there was a group, and they were looking like they were getting ready to camp. And so I went out, and I said, hey, I just want to let you know you can’t camp here. And as I go out, the young lady starts backing away. You can tell she’s kind of nervous. She goes, who are you? What do you want? And it just dawned on me, she’s been hurt. She’s been abused.
Somebody got aggressive. And most of the people, in almost every case except very rarely, there’s no belligerence. There’s a lot of compliance. Oh, sure, we’ll move on. No problem. But I went out there and I wasn’t gruff or brusque, but it was just like, hey, you can’t camp here. And I noticed the girl’s, the woundedness. And I went back inside and I was just, I was uncomfortable. I was like, ah. And I still don’t want them to camp there. But you know what? I got bottles of water.
And it was a rare sunny day last week and it was sunny. So I went and I got three bottles of water. There were three of them, three bottles of water. And I went out and I said, hey, what’s your name? And all of a sudden this girl who’s backing away, she takes a step forward. She goes, I’m Mary. I said, you’re Mary. And I gave them the bottles of water. And I said, look, I know it’s hot. Enjoy these. And I asked them all their names. It’s amazing what a difference that makes.
What’s your name? Because you know what that question says? you’re a human. you’re a human. I recognize you’re a human. You know what that bottle of water says? You might be hot and thirsty. And I can alleviate that. I can’t fix all your problems. I can’t give you a place to sleep. That’s not the power that I have. And the Lord, and dear ones, please. I ain’t Saint Francis here. Alright. But I walked in and that verse popped into my head. That a cup of cold water given in my name doesn’t go without a reward.
I said okay. Okay, I’ll give a cup of cold water and I’ll ask somebody their name. I won’t just brusquely go out there and say, get out of here. And I don’t have the answers. I don’t know how to be compassionate and helpful and at the same time draw boundaries that don’t allow for people to live abusively. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know where that line is precisely. But I know that God does not want me to become callous and not struggle with that question. I know that.
And so the Bible says, do good to all people as you are able. And then it talks about the churches, especially to those in the household of faith. We ought to be good to each other. We ought to be good to each other. We ought to try to do good for each other. So do good for the people of the household of faith.
10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10, ESV)
And I’ve received goodness from you people. Thank you for your goodness to me. you’ve been good to me. Be rich in relationships. Be rich in relationships. Life is not 90% about relationships.
It’s 100% about relationships. It’s 100% about knowing, loving people. I’ve been a pastor long enough that I’ve been by enough bedsides that when people are dying, and I’ve never had anybody say, “Man, I wish I had made more money.” If you have enough, you’re rich. I have heard people say, “I wish my daughter was still talking to me. I would love to talk to her one more time and, you know, extend the forgiveness and grace and the apologies and before I die, have this relationship squared away.”
And when I was first a pastor, I discovered this as a young pastor. I would go, my job, here’s, I had an impossible job assignment, my first job. The senior pastor said, you need to do 40 pastoral visits a week. That’s eight a day. Yeah, I never made it. He had a little list for me to check the boxes and that was back in the day when people didn’t mind if you showed up without calling.
Now, people are offended if you show up without calling because, you know, the mom with three kids didn’t have a chance to clean the house, and she’s like, oh no, this is the worst day of my life. And so, you know, but, so I would try to visit, and we were a Methodist church. We had about 2,000 members, and so my whole first couple of months, I was just trying to visit everybody on that church roster. And as a mainline church, we had a lot of old people, right?
A lot of old people who weren’t coming to church, but they were members and they were shut-ins and I’d go visit them. And I could tell you something. I could tell you that their happiness could almost always be predicted by the number of photographs on the wall.
If they had pictures of children, grandchildren, and family, they’d take me to that wall and they’d start telling me, you know, about this one and this one and this one’s doing this and this one’s, this one’s riding horses and this one plays baseball. I do that now as a grandpa. You know, people talk to me and I say, hey, I bring out my phone, let me show you this picture. I got a hilarious, we saw four baseball games Saturday. Two from Noah and two for Theo.
And it was, it was like the most contrasting day. The morning, if you remember Saturday, the morning was glorious and beautiful. It was 72 degrees. It was like the days in Washington that you move up here for. And then all of a sudden the wind started blowing and the clouds came and it started raining and I got hypothermia. I thought I was gonna die.
But in the middle of that, my eight-year-old grandson, Theo, goes out to left field, and they play all this music in between the innings. Completely unashamedly and without a bit of self-consciousness, he is breaking out moves out there in left field and just dancing like a mascot on top of a dugout. We’re just cracking up, and we’ve got a film of it. You know what? I will bore you all with that film if you want to see it. I just, this is my grandson, look at that, look at these moves, he’s just dancing out there, he’s awesome, man.
But you’d go to these old people’s houses, and then they would just, they would light up as they would tell you stories about their relationships with people. I got to tell you this one story, this is a great story. A young pastor just out of seminary, and I’m visiting all these people. I go to this central California, Visalia, California, July, 108 degrees, and I go to this high-rise retirement apartment to visit this sweet old lady. As I drive up and I park, and I step by the apartment, there are guys out in the street, concrete, 108 degrees, jackhammers fixing the road, sweat pouring off their bodies. I’m thinking, I am not that guy, I don’t, you know. And I get in the elevator, go up to this air-conditioned apartment, and this sweet lady, one of the sweetest, you know, all these old Methodist ladies, most of them are just sweet ladies, you know. And a sweet lady, she baked for me, she knew I was coming, she had freshly baked chocolate chip cookies coming right out of the oven, you know where the chocolate chips still melty and gooey, and they’re soft, you know what I’m talking about, just. And she has ice cold milk, and she sits me down, and I can hear the jackhammers, and I’m eating this cookie and drinking this ice cold milk, like my mouth’s full of cookie, and she goes, “So, do you like your job?” Outside, there’s guys with a job, me, I got a great job, but I tell you what, be rich in relationships.
My wife and I talk about being married 43 years. We talk about it this way. We get it from the book Sacred Marriage. Great book on marriage, in fact, if you ever want to read it. Sacred Marriage. Gary Thomas. I just gave it to you again. There you go. Gary Thomas. And yeah, it’s a great book. Isn’t it a great book? And here’s what he says. He says, marriage is more about being holy than happy. And he says, what you do is you create a sacred history.
And I look at three kids who love Jesus, all married to spouses who love Jesus, and six grandkids, and the seventh on the way. And I look at my dear wife, and I’ll tell you this. I’ll tell you the truth. She is rich in appearance. She’s still, to me, I don’t know if anybody else, I still don’t get tired of sitting across a lunch table and looking at that face. I love that face. I do. And so, but it’s a, it’s a sacred history. It’s a relationship.
I haven’t been married to seven hot women and trade the old one in on a newer model like I want to do with cars. By the way, if you do it with cars or women, both, it’s very expensive. But if you’re going to do it with one or the other, do it with cars. It’s probably just as expensive, but it’s far less trouble. All right? Build a sacred history. Love your kids. Love your grandkids. Love your neighbors. Love the people in this room. Be rich in relationships. And finally, be rich in your heart toward God.
David was a man after God’s own heart. As I look at this, I would say, Nabil, Nabil was rich in only one of these. David was rich in a few. He was rich in appearance, apparently. You know, the Bible says he was ruddy. Is ruddy good? Ruddy’s good? You know, I don’t know. Is ruddy, ladies, is ruddy good? I don’t know. Yeah. I get a lot of this. You know, you ask women about appearance, like, how about, you know, I ask my wife, is he good looking? Is he good looking? She goes, yeah, yeah.
Is Denzel good looking? She goes, “Oh, yeah. Yeah, Denzel.” She’s got the Denzel thing, so yeah. All right, in fact, one time we were in church, we had like 600 people in church, we’re all worshiping God, and we had a bunch of youth up front, and it was so good, and I turned to my wife and I said, “Honey, in your wildest dreams did you ever think we’d be here?” And she said, “Dear, in my wildest dreams you’re Denzel.” So that’s, you know, I don’t know.
All right, David was handsome, he had fame, wisdom, he’s kind of impulsive. He was impulsive here, he’s a little impulsive with Bathsheba and Uriah, that was a pretty bad decision, but there are times he has great wisdom, there are times he operates in wisdom. He operated, he did some very good deeds, he had great relationships, those 600 men were loyal to him, he endeared himself to his men, and he had a heart toward God.
Nabal, he was a fool; he was rich in money, that’s about it, and that’s it, and it’s vapor, people, it’s a worthless life. Abigail, I think she’s got all of them, man. You want to emulate somebody, emulate Abigail here. My goodness, she was rich, I mean, she was married to a rich man. I always told my daughters, if you fall in love with a rich man, don’t hold it against him, you know. But she was rich, she was beautiful, you know. I don’t know if that helped when she interceded and cut off David.
I mean, certainly her wisdom and her generosity helped more, but you know, a young man’s more prone to listen to a beautiful woman than one that’s not so beautiful. I just know how young men operate; it’s like, whoa, hey, okay. I got an A in Hebrew in school because of a beautiful woman and a pestering friend. I was a terrible student; I would cut class all the time. I got to seminary, I started cutting class less because it was so expensive. Man, I’m paying for this class; I should probably go.
But most of my professors were bald, fat old men, you know. It’s like, it wasn’t all that stimulating. The subject matter often was interesting. But I took Hebrew, we had to take foreign languages, and I had a friend, and my friend was petrified of taking foreign languages, so he made me go to class with him every night, never cut, and he made me study with him. He said, you’ve got to help me get through Hebrew, you’ve got to study with me. So I never cut that class and I studied.
And there’s another reason I never cut that class. Our Hebrew professor was an Abigail. She was a wise, wonderful Christian woman and a scholar, had lots of knowledge and all that kind of stuff. And she was one of the most beautiful women. This is a seminary professor. She’s one of the most beautiful women I ever saw. So it’s like I have a friend saying come to class and there’s a beautiful woman teaching class, like okay, I’ll go. And I got an A in Hebrew. And I had an epiphany after I got that A in Hebrew.
And the epiphany was, go to class and study, you get an A. Who knew? Who knew that’s how it worked? I had been to school for 20 plus years and I finally put that one together. It’s like, I don’t know if you knew that, Isaiah, but go to class and study, best way to get an A. There you go. Who knew? All right.
Abigail was all for it. She was famous. At least she was famous with the people she worked for. The servants certainly knew what to do, right? David’s coming to kill us.
Should I go to Nabal? I don’t think so. I know who to go to. I know who the brains of this operation is. And he went to Abigail. She had knowledge. She knew how Nabal’s business worked. She knew where to get the sheep. She knew where to get the cake. She knew where to get the wine. She knew where to meet David. She had knowledge. She certainly had wisdom. She was abundantly generous and rich in good deeds. She was rich in her relationships.
Obviously the servants of Nabal’s household respected her and David ended up falling in love with her. And she feared the Lord and was rich toward him and she prevented David from doing something that he would later regret. So dear ones, I have two takeaways tonight. Takeaway number one, be an Abigail. Be an Abigail. She’s one of those characters who shows up just in a piece in the Bible, but who shows up well. Be an Abigail, and I’ll say this, if you’re a David, first of all, I’ll say this, if you’re a Nabal, stop it, knucklehead.
But if you’re a Nabal, you will not take that warning; you’ll just take it as an insult and so, whatever. But if you’re a David, let me tell you this: don’t be impulsive. Think before you act. But know this, dear ones, God has wonderful people that he is going to bring into your path and be a huge blessing to your life. Keep your eyes open. Keep your eyes open. Every morning I get up and I go through my email, and it’s junk.
But here’s what I say before I go through it: Lord, today, if it be your will, change my life. What if one of those messages is going to change my life? I mean, I go through them quick and I delete them, but what if one of them is going to change my life? Lord, what are you going to do today? What surprises are out there to change my life? There are, listen, most of life is being a steady Eddie, right?
Most of life is getting up, going to work, doing your job, but there are days and there are people who are life-changing. I was just a 17-year-old kid, recently converted to Jesus, still struggling with marijuana, sitting in the back, joking around with my friends, wanting to be a basketball star, and I’m flipping burgers and all of a sudden this girl walks in and all the guys go, “Oh, she’s new.” That day changed my life. That day changed my life.
I was driving my daughter home from a conference in L.A., and the Lord called me to come up to Washington to pray because I couldn’t get Washington off my heart. As I’m driving outside of Bakersfield, California with my daughter, just driving home, getting ready to go to Washington, saying, “Lord, what do you got for me in Washington? You know, who am I going to send up there to plant a church?” I hear a voice, “Change my life. Change my life.” Listen, you go about being your steady Eddie day by day, but never forget this.
There’s an Abigail around the corner. There’s a divine appointment. And it’ll change your life. And God has those. So be a David. Be on your tippy toes for the suddenlies of God. It’s really an interesting act, right? Because so much of the Bible is about what? Being solid, getting up, going to church, raising your kids right, going to work, being wise with your money, being generous, just being a good person. And we live our lives that way.
And yet, and yet, and yet, at just times, sometimes when we least expect it, except I never want it to be that time when I least expect it, because I want to be on my tippy toes with expectation. Here’s an Abigail. Not that I need an Abigail. I’m not saying that. Jill, I don’t need an Abigail. I’m good. But here, God’s going to change your life. In a moment, he’s going to bring somebody in. Or there’s going to be a conversation, and all of a sudden, things are going to change.
All of a sudden, you’re going to be leaving L.A. and moving to Washington. You know? And so, that’s the takeaway. The world was going about their business. Israel expected a Messiah, but they’d been expecting a Messiah for a thousand years. And they got oppressed by the Persians. And they got oppressed by, before the Persians, they got oppressed by the Babylonians. Before the Babylonians, they got oppressed by the Assyrians. After the Persians, they got oppressed by the Greeks. After the Greeks, they got oppressed by the Romans. And they’re just used to being oppressed.
And they’re just saying, “Lord, come on, when are we going to get a Messiah and get out from underneath this oppression? When are you going to send your promised Messiah? What’s going around, Lord? What’s going to happen, Lord?” And then the Messiah shows up. The Messiah shows up, and he does all the Messiah things, and most of them didn’t see it. But for a few, they wrote this book, and we name our kids after them. You notice, we name our kids after biblical heroes. Isaiah, your parents are like, “we want a prophet.”
Yeah, you’re not Nabal. Nobody ever says, here are my three sons, Judas, Pontius, and Nabal, and their little sister Jezebel. That’s nobody’s family, right? That’s nobody’s family. But there’s lots of Jacobs and Isaiahs and lots of Davids. I grew up Catholic and every Catholic kid I grew up with, almost without exception, their first name or middle name was Mary or Joseph. My father-in-law had nine siblings. I think five of them were boys. All of their middle names were Joseph. They were all Joseph. Come on, he’s Joseph.
All right, dear ones, don’t miss being a steady Eddie. Don’t miss God’s divine appointments. Every morning, wake up and say, God, change my life. What are you going to do today? And for ten years, it might be, go out and do your job. And by the way, don’t be a flake. Don’t be a flake. Do that. Do that. All right? Don’t sit around and let the horses starve because you’re waiting for God to change your life. Go feed those horses. All right? So do that.
Not that I worry about you being a man of responsibility, but yeah. All right, I think I’m done. Thank you, Lord, for Abigail’s. Thank you, Lord, for divine appointments. Thank you, Lord, for the times where we were just doing our thing, following you and praying for something, and then, Lord, when we despair and think that something’s not going to happen, boom.
Here it comes. Here it comes. Lord, give us the Holy Spirit awareness that our hearts would not be hard toward those moments, and we would see them and respond and have the wisdom. David, being impulsive and not wise, but he had the wisdom to recognize, Oh God sent Abigail. God protected me.
This is the intervention of the Lord. So, Lord, we thank you for those moments. We thank you that we regularly come and receive communion. But Lord, as we walk up to this table tonight, the table that you invite us to, that nourishes us for that daily life, Lord, we welcome you to change our life at that table tonight, that little white table with our little red and blue cups and yellow cup, Lord. We welcome you to just touch us and change our lives tonight as you invite us to this table. And so, Holy Spirit, meet us in this meal, feed us in this meal with the life of Jesus, and Lord, if you want to make us a little more like Jesus with this meal, we gladly accept it.
But Lord, if you want to bring healing to our bodies and transformation to our souls in a dramatic way, Lord, we receive that as well in Jesus’ name. And so, dear ones, come and eat, and come expectantly. Amen, amen.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
