Fruits of the Spirit, Part 5

Last week, we explored the fruit of the Holy Spirit, known as goodness, and showed how that meant active goodness. It's not a passive way to live. It's a very active way to live, including being active enough to stand up against evil.

To stand up against evil. And it showed a couple examples. It showed where Jesus was actively good when he threw the money changers out of the temple. It showed where Phineas, God, considered him actively good in the Old Testament, when he asked God to judge people who were just committing. They were just in an orgy. They were just drunk in orgy. They wouldn't stop. And he said, okay, you go and you go ahead and kill the people who are doing this to stop this because the whole congregation, everybody, the whole nation is getting involved in this.

And they won't repent. They won't stop. And nobody even would do that. And Phineas took a jab, and killed a person. And everybody stopped. People started repenting. And God had actually poured out an illness on the people that was killing them because they wouldn't stop. And he stopped that. And that was an act of goodness. Now, I also ended the sermon by saying, we have to remember, though, if we look at these examples of active goodness, it's goodness. That means you and I can't walk around with spiritual javelins just waiting to stab somebody.

Phineas did that once in his lifetime. But it is an example, an extreme example. You and I are supposed to kill people, period, physically. But spiritually, we can still walk around with our spiritual javelins saying, who can I stab today? I remember this was many, many years ago. I mean, I was talking to him, and his son walked up, he was, I don't know, seven years old.

He said, hey, Dad, just walk around and see who can find sinning. So we can correct them. You know, his dad looked at him, we looked at him like, you've got the wrong idea here, boy. You know, this is what this is all about. It was a church. I said, who can find sinning? So we can, you know, we heard all these sermons about sin and all this. So he somehow grabbed his spiritual javelin, was going to go around stabbing people. Now, that's not exactly what we're supposed to do, either. So we always have to merge all the fruits of the Spirit together to find out what we're supposed to be. So active goodness can mean standing up against wrong.

That's why we should make stands and make public stands against abortion, homosexual marriage. These issues, we should make public stands against these things. You make public stands in your lives at times, at work or at school. You know, I say, no, I don't believe that.

It's not what God says. It's not what the Bible says. It's not what I believe my religion says. So, but we're to another of the fruits that now sort of takes this active goodness and affects that. Like, each of these affect the next one. You know, self-control and neatness and faithfulness. Each of these, in this active goodness, each fruit works with the next one. So, let's go back to Galatians 5. Galatians 5. And let's look at what is the next of the fruits of the Spirit. Verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Now, we've gone through self-control, gentleness, faithfulness, and goodness.

Now, we're to kindness. Now, in some of your translations, some of you may have a different translation. That's not kindness. It's gentleness. Wait a minute. Gentleness is already listed once. Remember, I told you that many of the Greek words in this list don't have exact English equivalence. So, what we have to do is we only have to look at the places where it's used and how it's used in different ways. And then we have to find examples of it. So, we have a word here that can be translated kindness or gentleness, and actually kindness is better.

One Greek lexicon, and it's Christothes, is the word. It's not used all that often in the New Testament a few times. Christothes is... now, listen to this. This is from a Greek lexicon.

A quality which pervades the whole nature, malleying all that would have been harsh and austere. In other words, this kindness involves a reaching out to others that takes away all harshness. So, you can be actively good, and you stand up and take Jesus through the money changers out of the temple.

But other people he treated with this kindness, and probably gentle kindness is the best way we can put it in English. Literally, the word means usefulness. In other words, it is a kindness that is useful. So, it has to be active. Once again, like active goodness. This is an active kindness that is gentle. It is useful to the person you're being kind to. That's what's really interesting about this word.

You are useful in the way you treat the other person for their goodness, for their best. You are kind to them for them. Really, probably, the closest English word we have is, or phrase would be willing service. You are willingly serving others, which denotes a sacrifice. This kind of kindness includes a sacrifice for other people. You are kind to the point of sacrifice, because it's useful for them. It helps them. It does good for that person. So, the other person is the focal point. Sometimes people look to do kind deeds, so they can say, Well, God says to be kind, so I need to go do some kind deeds. I'll go work at the food bank. I've worked at food banks. That's good. I'm not saying it's bad. But if you're doing it for that reason, I'll do it so that people recognize my church, or I'll do it because now I've done a kind deed and I've earned some favor with God. We've done it for the wrong reason. This kind of kindness is useful for the person you're being kind to. The person you're being kind to is the focal point.

So, my kindness has a purpose for them. It's not a kindness, it's a purpose for me.

And it is not harsh or austere. There is a point where active goodness can be a little bit harsh, right?

Remember, we went through judgment. That we are to carry out God's judgments. Not our judgments, but God's.

And sometimes that seems harsh to others, just like Phineas seemed harsh. Or Jesus throwing the people out of the temple seemed harsh. They weren't. That's what God wanted, but that's the act of goodness. This gentle kindness are actions that are gently towards the other person for their benefit.

So these things work together. They're actually not separate concepts, but they work together.

One softening the other, the other making the other very active with your face's evil.

So we're actively good, and we're gently kind.

Look at Luke, Luke chapter 6. We'll look at a place where this word is used.

I know this is a concept that goes beyond kindness. Kindness means saying hello to people or helping them pick up something when they drop something. Okay, these are all true, maybe visiting them when they're sick. These are all acts of kindness. But this act of kindness, like all the spirits, all the fruits of the spirit, doesn't just involve the actions. It involves the reasons for the actions, the motivations for the actions. And the motivation for this kindness is for the usefulness of the person you're being kind to, for their benefit.

Luke 6, verse 32.

And I'm going to read this whole context to get down to where the word is used to show you the context of what Jesus is using this word, this Greek word. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. Even a person who's a murderer may love his wife.

Even mafia lords love their children. So if that's all this is, how are we different than them? And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

So if our goodness, our actions, either active goodness or kindness, is only towards people that are like us, you say, what good is it? That's the whole question of who's my neighbor. Well, we are a special group of neighbors because we are a community bound together by God's Spirit. But my neighbor is the guy who lives next to me, too, right?

So my kindness, our kindness, can't be just limited to us. Because the fruits of the Spirit are who you are. In other words, it's just what you do. It's how you think. It's how you act. It's how you are. He says, verse 34, And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners and receive his much back.

So we need to have a generous giving attitude towards others. But lob your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great, and you will be the sons of the Most High God.

Be this way, and you will be like the children of God. You will be his children. Then the next statement is about God. For he is kind to the unfaithful and evil.

Therefore, be merciful just as your father also is merciful. The word kind there is the same word in Galatians 6.

He is gently kind, even sometimes to bad people.

Now, God stands up to evil. There's a point where he stops and says, I will not accept evil anymore. We know that. That's why we already went through active goodness.

If we went through this one and didn't talk about active goodness, you would think, well, we just have to treat everybody the same, and there is no evil. That's not true. Active goodness is there is evil, and God, when Christ comes back, Christ, when he comes back, will kill tens of thousands of people. The Prince of Peace. Because they are evil. But, you and I are supposed to kill tens of thousands of people, but we already stand up against evil.

But we are also to be actively kind, compassion. God is kind, therefore the world is not wiped out. That's basically what he is saying here. It's this active, kinder, gentle kindness of God that looks at the world and just says, I really want to help you here. I'll punish you if I have to. But my desire is for you to come to me.

When you look at all the Old Testament prophets, every one of them have a message. God says, repent, because he wants you to come back to him. In the kindest ways, I'm going to give a whole series on the minor prophets at some point here in the future. Hosea is an amazing story. Because he has the man marry a prostitute, so that he can tell them, this is the way I feel about you.

Every time she would run away, because she ran away to be with another man, and he had to go get her back. And he said, he told Hosea, you love her when you bring her back. You love her, and then tell Israel, this is how I feel about you. I will take you back, even though you've been like a prostitute to me.

And then he says, but if you don't repent, I will destroy you. They did not repent, and he destroyed them. He destroyed the reservation. But we understand God's feelings, emotions, if you are not feelings, he's not physical, but emotions. We understand God's emotions through Hosea. So we understand now, this gentle kindness, yes! He stands against evil. Yes, he fights against evil. Yes, but his desire always is, I would rather be kind to you. I want to gather you in, like Jesus said, I want to gather you in as a hen gathers his chicks. That's what he wants. There's an interesting use of this word in Romans 2. Romans 2. Once again, in the reference to God. Remember, all of the fruits of the Spirit are simply aspects of God's Spirit. They're aspects of His character, of His mind. So when we look at the fruits of the Spirit, we're looking at who God is, at the core of His being. Romans 2, verse 4 says, breaking in the middle of a sentence or a thought, or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Goodness of God here is Christotes. It is His gentle kindness that even allows us to repent. That leads us. Now, we still have to repent. But none of us woke up one day and said, you know, I'm going to try out this God guy, and I'm going to call Him and talk to Him and set up an appointment. Right? At some point, God got our attention, and we said, I have to repent. It is God who leads us. Now, we have to follow. But you and I didn't start the process. God started the process. Why? Why would He take rebellious beings who He created, who live and rebell you against Him, and lead them to Him? Because He is gentle kindness. And what He did was useful for us. Now, think about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It is useful for us.

So now we're starting to understand more about God. And this is what we're supposed to be. There's a place in Romans where Paul describes this kind of kindness and action. Now, he doesn't use the word here. So I can't say, well, he'll show you where he used the word in this little set of verses. But we can see, obviously, this kind of goodness, this gentle kindness, I mean gentle kindness in action. Let's go to Romans 15. Now, I'm going to read this from the New Revised Standard. It's very similar to the New King James. But there are just a couple words that they translate, and it really helps us understand it.

Romans 15. Verse 1. We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak. And notice what motivates us to put up with the failings of the weak. People who may not understand things, people who may fail, people who may struggle with the sin. And we are to put up with that. People who may just be a little odd.

Of course, I hate to tell you this. We're a room full of odd people, but that's just the way it is. We're all a little eccentric here. You do realize that. And I sort of like that because then I fit in. But he says we're to put up with that. Why? And not to please ourselves. Remember this? When we're talking about the kindness as the fruit of God's Spirit, there is an approach to other people that is useful to them. That means sometimes we're not pleasing ourselves. This kind of kindness sometimes is difficult for us. We pay a price to do this. Just like God pays a price in His gentle kindness to bring us to Him. His actions are for our good. And they sometimes cost God a great deal. So this gentle kindness would involve some sacrifice. He goes on. He writes, Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. Now, I didn't say please your neighbor so you'd be popular. Okay? Compromise with God's law in order to please your neighbor. That's how he said it all. What he said was, please your neighbor to build him up for good. So we are actually to look out and be kind for the useful purpose of the neighbor. Or the people that anybody would come in contact with. And this really would mean anybody would come in contact with. But he's specifically speaking to the church. Now, here is the example how or why we do this. Verse 3, For Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written, The insults of those who insulted you have followed on me. He took it for us. This is the kind of gentle kindness. He was standing up to Satan when he died and was crucified. I knew standing up to evil. But he was also carrying out active kindness. In fact, he was carrying out every one of the fruits of God's Spirit. Every single one of them. He was doing through his sacrifice, death, and resurrection. He's exhibiting. This is how this works, folks. This is what this is. And I'm doing this for you. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness, by the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. So we can look at the Old Testament, because the Scripture is here in the Old Testament, and in it we find the hope of Christ. In it we find all the truth that we see expounded in the New Testament. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may, with one voice, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can learn to live in harmony that starts inside our own families, and that extends inside the church, that extends outside. We can learn to live in harmony, and by doing this, we glorify God, the Father of Jesus Christ. You know, I listened to the speech yesterday of our new president. That's not going to unify anybody. And every nice prayer is given, but it's not going to unify anybody. Because it has nothing to do with God's Spirit. It has nothing to do with leading people to God. Nothing to do with leading people to God. But then, I've never seen a president lead people to God. Not in my lifetime. Waiting to lead people to God. And this country is moving farther and farther and farther away from God all the time. And what God's response is, Repent, because I wish to gather you in. When the evil gets so great, he will destroy this country. And that's going to happen. Someday, the evil will get so great, he'll destroy them. That's what's happened to every country, and if it hasn't happened to every country, it will happen when Christ returns. Because all countries get destroyed when Christ... Everybody comes under one government, one kingdom, at that point.

That's not going to build people together. Not what Paul's talking about. What Paul's talking about here takes God's Spirit. And it is pleasing... Doing active kindness towards others in the same way that Christ did active kindness towards us. Think about that. The same way that he did active kindness towards us.

So here we have Paul really explain this.

Part of our problem is...

We get hardened by the things that happen to us in life.

And we get so hardened that we don't open ourselves to do this kind of gentle kindness. And the reason why is this gentle kindness...

When you're just kind to everybody, you get taken advantage of.

Bad things happen to you sometimes.

Some people don't appreciate kindness.

People mistreat you.

So we have to be careful not to become hardened by life so that we just don't pursue this kind of gentle kindness. We just become harsh.

We treat everybody else harshly. Listen to this quote. Because this is an amazing quote when you realize... I'll tell you in a minute who said this.

Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness. Carry a vision of heaven in your hearts, and you will make your name, your college, the world, correspond to that vision. Your success and happiness lie within you. External conditions are accidents of life, its outer trappings. The great, enduring realities are love and service.

Remarkable statement. But even more remarkable, and you realize that was said by Helen Keller, a person who was blind and deaf.

And in her blindness and her deafness came to the conclusion, life is measured by how much you serve other people.

Remember, I said that the only words I can find in English that really capture this is willing service.

Willing service.

Titus 3.

Titus 3.

And verse 3.

Paul writes to Titus here, and he reminds them that all of us at one time were not following God. All of us at one time were strangers to his teachings, strangers to the law of God, the teachings of God, obedience to God. Verse 3 says, Verse 3 says, In the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, and he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, and having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

So we understand where our justification comes from.

And in that justification, we have to make sure that we never go back to being foolish, disobedient, deceived, those things.

We talked about the unpardonable sin about a month ago. Well, I went over that now, about two months ago. Boy, time goes by fast. We can't commit the unpardonable sin by rebelling against God after he has given us this regeneration of the Holy Spirit through what? Through his kindness, through his love. That's what motivates him. He wants us.

Now, where do you go to find an example of this? Now, last time I went through an example of Jesus, what he did at the temple in Phineas, as two examples of this kind of act of goodness, and how it can't mean standing for good against evil.

Where do we find an example of this? There's a number of examples in the Scripture, but there's one that really stands out to me.

An example of this kind of gentle kindness that really had a profound effect on a lot of people.

And this is in 1 Samuel. Let's go to 1 Samuel chapter 25.

There's two ways to look at 1 Samuel.

Using what we read 1 Samuel, what we're looking at in chapter 25 is David's example, because there's an awful lot in here that tells us about David, his character, why God worked with him.

But I don't want to zero in on David. Some other time we'll go through this and talk about David. I want to talk about somebody else in this passage. Verse 2.

Now there was a man in Mayo, his business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Debal, and the name of his wife was Abigail. Now, Abigail's the person here that sometimes we miss in the story, because we're looking at Nabal and we're looking at David. Now notice the next statement about her. She was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. He was the house of Caleb. Abigail was in a bad match. Now, understand probably, probably it was a rain marriage, as most marriages were.

And probably she was arranged to marry this man in her mid-teens. 16, 17 years. Boy, it was done in ancient Israel. You know, if you were 21, you were an old maid. So somewhere probably between 16 and 21, she's probably in an arranged marriage with a very rich man, which her parents would say this is good. She would be taken care of. Now, Abigail is a brilliant person, and she's mentioned as a very wise and brilliant person. She's also strikingly beautiful. And she's married to a goon, okay? She's married to this disgusting guy. And she's got to be presented with a number of choices that are quite remarkable.

She's going to have to make some decisions and actions here, whether they're in her interest or a different interest, because her interest is different than some of the actions she's going to take. So we have to see what motivates her. Now, understand the time period. David has been ordained king of Israel, but Saul is still king. David believes it's wrong for him to kill Saul. I mean, he just can't go in and kill Saul. Gods are ordained in king, only God can remove him. But David can't live with Saul because Saul's trying to kill David. So David has 600 men. He's patrolling the borders of Israel, basically driving off marauding tribes.

You know, get these nomadic tribes. So you have Amorites and Midianites and different peoples that, you know, you might have a band of Amorites come across the border, attack some of the ranchers, and steal all their sheep, or come into a little village and steal everything they can, burn the village down, take off some of the women, kill some of the men. So in this marauding, you know, sort of marauding Arab culture out here, he's trying to protect the borders because Saul's too busy doing other stuff.

So this is what David's doing. He is now considered a criminal by the very government that he is king over. Saul has declared him a criminal, and yet he's been ordained king. But there's two kings. And he says, I can't kill the man. God says, I can't do that. So I'll go protect the borders. I'll do what a king is supposed to do and hide from Saul.

Now this is the odd situation that they're living in. And people know that David has been ordained king. So they're watching what he does here. Why does his army march on Saul? Well, Saul is a much bigger army for one thing, but David's not going to do it. Remember, David had a chance to kill him. We go through 1 Samuel 2, we'll see that. And he didn't kill you because God says, I can't kill you.

I mean, it wouldn't be wrong. He ordained you and hasn't removed you yet. Even though you're not. I mean Saul had gone insane by this point. So what's he supposed to do? So here David is protecting the borders of Israel. Verse 4. When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing, as she and David said, 10 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. I mean, this is one of the richest men in the whole country. Peace be to you, peace be to your house, 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 we were at Carmel. Ask you young men, and they will tell you.

Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we may 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 these words, in the name of David, and waited. Now, this would be very common. I mean, they protected his shears from these nomadic raiders. And he said, would you give us some food? Now in the Middle East, remember I talked about hospitality. And when you look at the wall, hospitality was a command. They had to be hospitable to people.

In other words, for him to ask for food for his 600 men, because he's one of the... This would be like going to Bill Gates and saying, hey, could you give me some food for my 600 men, because we just saved your company $10 million. Or $10 billion or whatever. You see what I mean? This would be considered to be a requirement for this rich man to give them some food, because of what they had done.

This was hospitality. So David isn't asking anything that's odd here. You know, we had done this great service to you. Well, I'm not asking for gold. I'm just asking for some food. Verse 10. The neighbor answered David's servants and said, who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. There's lots of runaway slaves out there. Lots of criminals. So I then take my bread and my water and my needs that I have killed for my shears and give to men who I do not know where they came from or where they're from.

Oh, come on. Who is this David? He's just another criminal out there with his band of... He's just a gang. He's just a band of gang. 600 guys. But he's just a gang. And you go tell him, I don't even know who he is and I don't care who he is and you're not getting anything from me. This isn't just a refusal to show hospitality. It is an insult. A massive insult.

And David, you know, and his soldiers... this weren't... Understand, David and his soldiers weren't just some farmers out there. The 600 men that were David were professional soldiers. This is what they did for a living.

They were warriors. When you read some of the accounts of his men, I mean, some of them had killed dozens of men in hand-to-hand comment.

So you've got sort of Israel's special forces out here with David and he insults them.

Who are you? I'm a rich man and you're just a bunch of criminals. Well, their response is not very good.

Their response is, David's young man turned on their heels. Okay? They just... they were angry. They just turned around and they came and told them all these words to David.

And David said to his men, this would be a great movie. It'd be like a Western, you know. He says, let's ride. Okay?

Every man girded on his sword. So every man girded on his sword, you know, you could see it in the movie. They were strapping their guns on. How many Westerns have you seen that? They killed Bill and all the guys strapping their guns on. You know, it saddled up the horses. This is what's happening here.

Every man girded on his sword and David also girded on his sword. Then about 400 men went with David and 200 men stayed with the supplies. So you leave 200 men back with the supplies because you don't want to leave them there because some amorite came over to take them. Okay? So you've got to leave 200 men to protect the camp and 400 men. This is 400 men, professional soldiers. They have one thing in mind now.

We're going to go kill the man who insulted us, who broke the law of hospitality. And we're going to stop him because he's an evil man.

Now one of the young men, so now we're back at Nabal's place, and one of the men who worked for Nabal goes to Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he reviled them. But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them when they were in the field with us. We didn't lose anything. We didn't lose any men. We didn't lose any sheep as long as we were with them. They protected us.

They were like a wall to us, both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.

Now therefore, Noah can consider what you will do for harm is determined against your master and against all his household. This is interesting. This is what the servant is saying about Nabal. For he is such a scoundrel that no one can even sneak to him. I tried talking to him, but you know that your husband is an idiot. He's an absolute idiot. So what are you going to do? Abigail is actually the power behind the throne in many ways. She's the one that's having to solve problems, take care of things, because her husband is a fool. In fact, Nabal means fool. So his name means.

So here he is, a foolish man. Now, she has the perfect out.

The future kings of the show-up kill my lousy husband, and I'll be free of this mess.

I've talked to many women who have said, if I could just divorce my husband, I'd be happy. She has the... I mean, it's not even divorce. It's kill the guy. I can marry somebody else.

This is it. Get rid of this fool of a husband. She has the perfect chance.

Legally. By the king.

This is what makes what... She does something very kind here. And what she does is very interesting because of the motivation behind it.

Verse 18. Then Abigail made haste, took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five sheaves of roasted grain, one herd of clusters of raisins, two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on doggies. How wealthy was this guy? This was just the food he had laying around. She didn't have to go make this stuff. I mean, this all happened very quickly. Remember, they're riding, okay? It's been like the Western. You see the guys riding, then you see the ranch. And you see, remember the old Westerns where they do that back and forth. They had different music every time? You know, the guys are... The ranch. Then the... Okay, this is what's happening.

And she...

Just because it gathers all the food they have, it says, okay, put this on doggies and let's go.

And she said to her servants, go on before me, see I am coming after you. But she did not tell her husband, Nabal. So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of a hill. And there were David and his men coming toward her, and she met them. So she goes, sends out all these doggies only with food, and she's off in the brush.

As soon as David comes up, she rides out in the road. Now you have to picture what's happening here.

This is one woman on a donkey facing 400 angry professional soldiers that have a mission, and their king has said, let's ride.

And they're headed there.

And there she is.

They can just run over her.

They literally can just run over her.

They can kill her.

There's anything can happen here. And most of us are not good, okay? For her, at least.

Now David had said, this is work 21, Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed 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 belong to him by morning light. Now, you get a real problem here. He lost his temper.

He wasn't just going after Nabal. He was going to kill every male in Nabal's little village. He's very wealthy. He had lots of, you know, hundreds of families that worked for him. He had slaves. So, I mean, he has a village. He's going to kill every male in the village.

And to his soldiers, this seems just. How can you insult the king? This is just.

You know, the king ordained by God, and you're going to insult him like this.

So, here they go.

And this is what David had said. Now, when Abigail saw David, she discounted quickly from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground. So she fell on his feet and said, Now, this is fascinating because this is a... I don't know how old she is, but she's... I don't know how long she's been married. But this is a young woman. This is a young woman.

And she's now bowing before him, and the whole army has stopped. Now, I'm sure some of the guys are saying, Whoa, is that a babe? Okay. Because this is a beautiful woman.

You know, I mean, to be mentioned as beautiful, you know, this is way above average here, or you know, whatever.

And she's laying out in front of the army on the road.

And she starts the conversation. Now, she doesn't wait for David to start it. Wouldn't that be the proper thing to do?

She says, On me, my Lord, on me, let the syndicate be. Oh, go kill my husband. He's a lousy guy.

This is my fault. I'm the one who really runs the place. It's my fault.

She said, And please, let your maidservant speak in your ears and hear the words of your maidservant. Please, let not my Lord regard this... I love the way she talks about her husband. The scoundrel fool, this scoundrel, Nabal. I understand my husband's a scoundrel. I understand.

Nabal is his name, as his name is. So is he. Nabal is his name. And folly is with him. I understand. I mean, even his name is fool. And the man's a foolish man. I understand that. She's protecting the life of her, this scoundrel.

Because it was the right thing to do. We find, meet this self-control here, faithfulness to God.

It's amazing what we find and what she's doing.

And we find this act of goodness. She's standing up at a price of her possible or own life against evil, against wrong. And she's done this great kindness. She's brought enough food for all these 600 men.

But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my Lord, whom he said. Now therefore my Lord, as the Lord lives, as Yahweh 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 his name. Her argument is, it would be wrong for you to do this because you are the king.

Because seeking revenge as the king is not wise.

Verse 27, And now this present, which your maid, this is the kindness, this present, all this food, which your maidservant has brought to my Lord, let it be given to the young men who follow you, my Lord. Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant, for the Lord will certainly make for my Lord an enduring house, because my Lord fights the battles of the Lord, and evil is not found in you throughout your days. Yet a man is risen to pursue you and seek your life. She's talking about Saul. But the life of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God, and the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as the pocket of the sling. She says, I know who you are. My husband knows who you are. And we know that Saul isn't going to win this because you are God's chosen. You're the one God's chosen. And I know that, and you're going to be king.

Verse 30, And it shall come to pass, when the Lord is done for my Lord, according to all that is good, he has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, that this will be no grief to you. Now, she's actually going to correct him. Nor offense of heart to my Lord. Either 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 main servant. She says, I know now, she says, I know after I've said this, you're not going to do this. Because you will be, one, committing an act of vengeance, and two, you will be killing innocent blood because the men aren't responsible. They're not responsible. They're not responsible. You can't kill all these innocent men. So I know you're not going to do this. Now, at this point, there had to be some silence. I want you to think about this. Because David had just had some woman stop his army, and in front of all the men, telling these wrong before God. And this is all done with this huge act of kindness. I've got enough food for everybody. We have a big feast. He could have said, killer. In fact, Saul probably would have. David did not. But David says, then David said, verse 32 to Abigail, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me. So we usually go through this looking at David and Abel, but Abigail is the one who does the kindness that changes the course of what's happening here.

She's the one who figures this out and says, Oh boy, I've got a fool on one side, and an angry man of war on the other. And this isn't going to be good.

Because he's going to avenge himself, but he's going to kill innocent men too. And this will be a shame on his king. That he's king. Who knows what God would have done to him if he would have done this? I'm sure David would have received some kind of punishment.

So David says to Abigail, Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, who sent you. He says, You know what God sent you here?

And blessed is your advice, and blessed are you. Because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed is the Lord God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you. Unless you had hurried and come to meet me surely by morning light, no veils would have been left unable. So David received from her hand what had been brought to him and said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice, and I respected your person. He says, You are a person to be respected, and you are a person to be listened to. Please go home. I will accept your kindness, and I will leave. And he did.

Isn't this an amazing story?

This young woman.

You can imagine all the soldiers talking about it. David listened to her. Yeah, but what she said was true. If we had been right there and killed all those people, we would have been killing people that didn't even do us harm. But we were all at work up. Right? Now the guys at the end of the line, you know, at the back of the 400 are probably saying, Was she really that beautiful? Okay, because that, you know, guys are, you know, Oh man! Okay, so that's the discussion at the end. But at the front of the line, where they heard her talk, the discussion is, She's right. This was a wise person. And look, she gave us, she was kind to us. She gave us food.

Now there's a little twist of this story. Because Abigail goes home and finds her husband in a drunken stupor. Okay, I mean, this guy really is a fool.

She had the way out. She didn't take it. What she did, it was amazing. She obeyed God and supported her husband, even though he was a fool. She obeyed God and talked David out of committing something that would have been a sin.

All this at the price of her own life. David could have killed her. Nabal could beat her half senseless. Okay?

She tells Nabal what she's done when he wakes up, has a heart attack and dies. Scares him so much, the man just drops over dead. Well, takes a while, but he dies.

David finds out and says, Go get her. See if she'll marry me.

Now, you think, why would he do that? David already had a wife. You have to understand the world they lived in. What he's saying is, I will take care of that woman the rest of her life. She will be taken care of. She won't have to worry about anything. She will be queen.

David didn't go get her because I followed in love with her. You know, it didn't say that. Go get her because I will take care of her. Remember what she said to him? When you're king, remember me.

Of course, it didn't help that she was a babe. Okay, I mean, it hurts. Okay, that didn't hurt anything. That didn't hurt anything. David was quite pleased to have her around. But he also said, this is a personal value that needs to be taken care of. Because her husband died, who knows who's going to receive that property? She would have been taken care of by the family, but, you know, she'd already lived one bad marriage. I'm not sure being married to David wasn't that great either, but she at least was taken care of. So that's the twist of the story. And it's just interesting. She said, you remember me. Someday, you remember me. And he did. He did what she said.

This is just an interesting example of someone who, through this kind of gentle kindness, took away the harshness from Nabal and from David and his army. All the harshness was taken away. Well, not from Nabal, because he was a fool. But from David, the harshness was gone because of her influence to an act of kindness that was carried out at great personal sacrifice. That's the kind of thing that we read about in Galatians. The fruit of the Spirit. This gentle kindness that is good for, is useful. You said the word actually means useful. Useful for the person that you're doing it for. This was useful for everybody, not necessarily for her.

Abigail's one of my heroes. When I read through the Scripture, she's one of my heroes. Because this is remarkable. The way she had to think through all this. Her argument with David is remarkable. He let her talk. It's like, oh, yeah, she's right. She let her talk. How many kings would have let him, well, right up on the donkey, talk to him? And sort of correct him in front of his always soldiers. He didn't lose the loyalty of his soldiers because of this, by the way. They saw she was right, too. They saw she was right. If you lack gentle kindness, pray for it.

It's like all the fruits of the Spirit. We have to pray for this. We have to pray for God to develop it in us, to give us this kind of heart and mind. Remember, these things are as real as, you know, the command to be baptized, as real as the 10 commandments. These are all what is supposed to be produced in us.

And what we're supposed to become. Ask God to remove that heart of stone, as the Scripture says we have. A hard heart. And give us this fruit of the Spirit, which we have a gentle kindness that removes our harshness. It's very interesting. In Matthew 11, remember I read where we covered meekness, that where it talks about how Jesus there is lowly. That's the same word. We know He says, take on my yoke. The word, He says, my yoke is easy. The word yoke there, I mean easy, is this word. It's a gentle kindness. He says, when you are yoked to Me, you receive gentle kindness from Me. That's really encouraging. Well, we're yoked to Jesus Christ. We receive from God, gentle kindness. That's His approach to us. Self-control, meekness, faithfulness, goodness, kindness. They're all aspects of the character of God. And as we study all these, we see these are all aspects of the very character of God that He wants to develop in us through His Holy Spirit.