Kindness

Last week, we explored active goodness as one of the fruits of God's Spirit. And one of the aspects of active goodness, we showed that it means actively doing good. It's not just being good. The goodness comes out in actions. And one of the ways that that active goodness is expressed is actually standing against evil. It showed that there are times when to be actively good, you have to make a stand against evil. You have to make a stand against something that's wrong. And we used a couple examples.

We used Jesus as an example. We also talked about Phineas in the Old Testament. And how Phineas actually took a javelin and killed two people, a man and a woman, who were openly rebelling against God. Do they were doing it, parading it in front of the entire congregation, parading it in front of the temple, parading it in front of Moses and Aaron, and Phineas killed him?

And God said, good. That's active, active goodness that is extreme. Now, you and I are supposed to go around killing anybody. That's not the point. The point is, God had already passed a sentence on those people in a situation where they were supposed to kill people doing this.

And it was happening openly, and nobody was doing anything about it. And Phineas, one of the priests, said, God told us to kill these people. We have to stop this now. And I said that we have to be careful, though, not to create the Phineas complex, where we walk around with the spiritual javelin waiting for somebody to do something wrong, so we can run them through.

Right? So that kind of active goodness is where we have to make a stand, maybe at work, maybe at school, maybe with some friends. Maybe there's times you have to say, no, I can't interact with you. I can't hang out with you anymore. Maybe there's a time you have to say, no, I will not work with the Sabbath. Maybe there's a time you say, no, I won't do that. That's as honest. No, I won't do that. I won't drink. You know, I'm underage, or I know I'm not going to go get drunk.

We have to make these active stands. Sometimes it costs us things. It costs us friendships. It may cost us a chance to move up in our career, but we have to be actively good. But now we get to the next of the fruits of God's Spirit, which actually is a bellowing fruit. It's something about our character that's supposed to give us a balance in this act of goodness. Let's go to Galatians 5. Galatians 5. Once again, verse 22, "...but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Now, we're working backward through this, so we've talked about self-control, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, and now we're to kindness.

Now, depending on the translation you have in the English translation, some places that's not translated kindness. It's translated goodness, but we already had goodness. Well, and your translation will be a different word. Remember how I said some of these words, the problem is there is no exact English translation. So they will seem to be talking about the same thing, but they're not. In Greek, there is a difference. And the only way you can really understand it is you have to go through some of the places where it is used, or there's a description of this kind of character.

What we have here is kindness would be a better translation, but even that isn't exact. And that's why sometimes it's translated gentleness. This word has in it the concept of compassion. So there's a kindness that comes from you that has a gentleness that is because you are concerned about the person. In fact, if you translated this exactly into English, it means something like excellent usefulness.

Well, that doesn't even mean anything. I mean, what does that mean to us? Excellent usefulness. Well, what it means is, the mean literally means, if you try to bring it into English, that it's a kindness that is useful to others. It is a kindness that is meeting the needs of somebody else.

Without harshness, this kind of kindness has no harshness in it at all. In fact, the word mellow is used in some lexicons. It is a gentleness expressed in kindness. So, remember we talked about meekness and how that meekness produces a certain gentleness because we're meek before God. We have a goodness that produces a strength in standing up for what is good. And now we have a kindness that sort of mixes this together, and this strength that comes from within you, that you now do what is good for the other person, even at personal cost.

A kindness that comes from a character trait. It's not just an act of kindness. It is because you have a compassion, and what you're doing is useful for the other person. The concern for the other person is the motivation here. And it comes out in these acts of kindness. It is basically, I mean, I think probably the closest English word we may have is service. It's a servant attitude.

You have a desire to do service for others for their benefit. Your motivation is their benefit.

Let's look at the word Christotes, which is an interesting word. It's not used that many times in the New Testament, but it's used a number of places. Look at one place here in Luke 6.

Luke 6.

But you will find this word used numerous cases of the New Testament in reference to God.

Luke 6, verse 32. Now, I want to read this whole section because I want to get the context because he's... Jesus is making a point about how we should be in our service towards others. And then he's going to make a statement about God. He says, But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. Now, that's an interesting point.

Someone gave me one time that people know why I collect historical stuff. They gave me a picture that was a propaganda card. It was handed out during World War II. It was handed out to everybody. The government gave it out. And it's a picture of Adolf Hitler in a German hospital with wounded German troops. He looks genuinely concerned. There's other pictures of him with children, he interacting with children. You know, even the most horrible people in history maybe love their own family. And Jesus is saying, just because you love your family or just because you love people who are your best friends, does that make you a Christian? Is that what I'm talking about? He says, even absolute sinners, atheists can love somebody. So the love he's talking about has to go beyond that. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is it that to you for even sinners do the same? He says, you're out doing this good work. Now, this could be sort of like that act of goodness that we've talked about. Okay, we're actively good, but is that enough? Is that all that he's talking about too? He says, if you lend to those who you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you for even sinners lend to sinners who receive as much back? Even sinners lend to sinners. But to lend to somebody, I've not expected anything back. That's a totally different approach. Verse 35, but love your enemies, people who mistreat you, people who may hurt you. He says, love them. Do good. So you are actually doing good things for these people who maybe are mistreating you. And lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great. And you will be the sons of the Most High. And then he says, he explains, understand this is God's attitude. And if you realize, if this wasn't God's attitude, none of us would have any hope. He says, for he is kind to the unfaithful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your father also is merciful. So this kind of kindness contains in it mercy even toward someone who may be mistreating you. The word kind there, same word in Galatians. God has this gentle kindness. Therefore, He doesn't kill all the evil people. Now He judges them. Remember, we went through active goodness to show that God is actively good. In fact, there's a place where in Romans where Paul actually uses this word to talk about God. And he says, you see, He is both kind and severe. So be on the kind side. God is gently kind and God is severe. And you want to be on this side.

So he compares the two in one passage in Romans. So he says, if God can be actively and gently kind doing acts of kindness towards evil people who are abusing Him, should we not be able to do the same? Now there's a time to stand up. We learned that last week. That's why he said you can't separate any of these fruits without talking about all of them together. There's a time to stand up. Is there a time that God stands up? Yes. That's why Paul says, look at His goodness or kindness and look at His severity and decide which side you want to be on. And be merciful like He is merciful. So when we look at this kind of kindness, it involves mercy, the showing of mercy to others. We only show mercy to people who are mistreating. You don't show mercy to somebody who's treating you right. So this kind of kindness includes reaching out or treating people in a different way than they're treating you. Look at Romans 2. And that's why compassion is part of this. There's an emotion that's part of this kind of kindness. It's part of your emotional makeup that we have to learn to become compassionate, that we actually feel compassion. And sometimes that includes feeling compassion for someone who may be mistreating us. And therefore, we show them mercy. One of the things that this word in Greek really stresses is this comes out of the inner part of the person. It says, oh, I'm being kind. No, this comes out of the person. There's a kindness that comes out of this person because they care about the usefulness to the other person. One, lexicons, really it's moral excellence that has to do with being useful. There's always attempts to explain this in English. Moral excellence that has to do with being useful in your relationship with other people. Let's go to Romans 2. Romans 2. Romans 2. Paul says here to the church at Rome, verse 4, Romans 2, 4, or do you despise the riches of His goodness? Talking about God. God's goodness forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. You know, the word goodness there is the word kindness in Galatians. It's a word that gets translated in different ways because, well, it has depths of meanings. It is God's gentle kindness that leads us to repentance. You and I don't repent on our own.

You did not get accepted by God because one day you woke up and said, you know what? I've been looking at myself. I've been thinking about this. I want to repent. I've been going to tell God I'm going to repent. You woke up one day and decided to repent because God had touched your life. If He doesn't come into our lives, we don't repent. What causes Him? What motivates Him to come into our lives?

Compassion that leads to useful kindness. The most useful thing God has done to you is help you repent. Then He gives you His Spirit. Is that useful kindness? Could we demand God's Spirit? Can we say, you know, God, I repented now. I'm really good. I'm so good, I should get your Spirit. No. So when we look at the fruits of the Spirit, we begin to understand the motivations of God. What motivates Him? He is motivated by a useful kindness. A useful kindness.

That's how He interacts with us. That's why Paul said, His kindness, His severity. Let's be on this side of this. You don't want to be on the other side, because they're both aspects of His nature. It's His goodness that leads us to repentance. Now, there's another passage in Romans where this word isn't used. The Greek word we're talking about, Christothes, isn't used. But Paul explains it. I mean, this is the best explanation of this word I can find. I've looked it up in all kinds of dictionaries of lexicons. And Paul, even though he doesn't use the word, he uses all the concepts of it. And he's talking about God's character and His relationship with us, which gives us now an understanding of how this fruit is supposed to come through us. Remember, we've talked many times how the fruit is the God's Spirit coming into us, and then it comes out. It bears something in us because we're submitting to it. We're giving into it. We're not resisting it. This is a fruit that's easy to resist. That I must be kind and do useful kindness sometimes, even to people who are mistreating me. I must show mercy. And as we read, Paul said, do it because, well, that's the way God is. Oh, I mean, we read what Jesus said in Luke 6. You do this because it's the way God is. And when you start to think about it, well, yeah, that's the way God treats me. Well, that's the way He wants us to treat others. Because, as He said, you will be His children when you do this. You act like Dad. We act like our Father when we do that. So let's go to Romans 15. Once again, that word isn't used here, this word Christotes, but here we have Paul describing... It's just an explanation that fits all the different dictionaries, all the different lexicons. It's like, well, Paul summed it up here. Because he's talking about a concept. And this word is supposed to capture a concept. So this is... We'll start here in Romans 15, verse 1. And I'm going to read this to begin with from the new Revised Standard. Because then we'll read it in the King James. We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Now notice he's starting this little discussion with we who are strong, those who are growing in the Spirit of God, are to put up with... And he's talking to the church, with everybody else in the church who may not be as strong.

Now what we think is why I'm strong, and so I look down at everybody else, it's the opposite, because he says you're to put up with them, you're to work with them, you're to love them, you're to care for them. Why? So that we are not pleasing ourselves.

This act of service. We are serving others who are failing. We are serving others who are failing so that we don't please ourselves. If somebody else is failing, what we want to do is please ourselves, because it's hard to put up with people who are failing. Of course, at any given time, any of us in this room is failing, right? Any given time, half of us are failing, probably, and half of us aren't. That's okay, because next week it will reverse. The other half will be failing, and the other half won't. And he says here, if you're really strong with these failings, the only way you do this is you realize the purpose here is not to please myself, because you know what happens in a congregation where everyone's trying to please themselves? You get rid of everybody not like you.

The point is, is get the congregation smaller and smaller until there's only 10 people just like me. Now it's the perfect congregation. And all 10 of you say, wow, this is the perfect congregation, because everybody's just like me. That's not how congregations are supposed to work. So he says to the congregation of Rome, which we can say to any congregation throughout history, you have to put up with each other's failings, because your motivation is not to please yourself.

This isn't how you want it. It's how God wants it.

He goes on, he says, each of us must please our neighbor. Why not please our neighbor? Does that mean we're all just sort of just sort of, you know, fawning and just sort of pleasing everybody and giving in on evil? No, remember, we already talked about active goodness. There's times we actually have to confront each other.

But he's saying here that our motivation for everything we do has to be for the goodness of each other. Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor.

So the reason we're doing this is not to please ourselves, but for the goodness of our neighbor, we care. This is where this compassion comes in. Now, we can't do this if we don't know each other. If church is just someplace we come once a week, as is what we do, you know, oh, it's the Sabbath, it's the day we go to church. But we don't know each other and we don't care for each other, then you cannot fulfill this. We can't fulfill this.

I mean, we can be a group of people that meets together every Sabbath, but we're not doing this unless we are serving each other for what is good for each other.

He goes on. For Christ, now he gives us the example. Paul does this all the time. Okay, I've told you something really hard. Let's look at Jesus Christ, because he's the one who shows us how this works in the human form. So he says, for Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me. Whoa, because of the Old Testament basically says, look, anything that bad happens to you, remember, he was sacrificed for everybody's sins, including the sins of the people who misused you.

He says, I took it all. This is the ultimate act of service. This is the ultimate kindness that leads to usefulness. I will die for you. There's no greater kindness, useful kindness, than what Jesus Christ did. I will die for you so you can live forever, and I will be resurrected so you can live forever. The ultimate expression of this kind of kindness.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness, fastness, and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope. We hold on to what God is doing, and we're encouraged by what God is doing, and we have hope. We hope. We know things will get better with Him. Some things don't get better until the resurrection, but they do get better. So this is supposed to encourage us. We're supposed to be encouraged by my life as dedicated to the service of others, especially those of the church. That's what we're supposed to think. And because of that, we receive encouragement. Because that's what Christ did. I'm being like my brother. That's what we're supposed to think. I am like my brother because I am giving my life. I'm dedicating my life. I sacrifice. That's what we're supposed to think. Are we willing to sacrifice for each other? Give up time, effort, energy, resources for each other? Useful kindness.

He says, I love the way he ends this, made 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. By this actively serving each other, putting up with and working with each other through our failings, right? Whoever's strong one day, maybe the week the next day. Everybody has to take turns being the strong and weak of this, by the way, as we put up with each other. And in this, we learn to live in harmony with each other. What we think is, we'll live in harmony with each other when everybody's just like me. If you haven't figured out yet, we're never going to be just like each other. Because God made us as individuals. We're not supposed to be exactly like each other, but we have to serve each other. So when you read through that passage, I was going to read it in the King James' book, that sums it up. I don't have to. It's all right there in the New Revised Standard.

That we are willingly serving with each other, even when the other person is flawed, this useful kindness, service. And I really think... Now, this is mine. This is not from any lexicon or dictionary. I think service is the closest English word we have. Service that comes from compassion. There's a compassion, so you serve. You don't always say, is that person worthy of being served? That's never the question. Never the question. Never the question. You serve with compassion and remembering that it's based in mercy because God's kindness, according to Jesus, produces mercy. As compassion He has, produces mercy. So He puts up with us. So we put up with the failings of the weak. Something we have to be very aware of. One of the reasons this is hard for us to do, and there's two, one was just selfish. We don't want to spend time and energy serving. We want to show up what we need to show up. We want to be involved somehow with other people, but we live our own lives. And it's sort of like the other people we come in contact with, whether it's in the church or outside the church, or outside our bubble. We just live in this little bubble all our lives. We don't let people in the bubble. And we don't really, you know, have to sacrifice for others. So selfishness is one. But another reason that we can have a hard time with this fruit is because we erect an emotional barrier between us and other people because we've been hurt before. I'm not going to show compassion. I've shown compassion to other people. They've hurt me. So therefore, I'm just, you know, I'll do some acts of kindness once in a while. But acts of kindness once in a while is not what this is talking about.

You say, well, let's see. Three weeks ago, some guy on the street was out of work and I gave him five bucks. I did an act of kindness. That's not what this is talking about. Now, that would be this if it comes out of compassion. But this is talking about a fruit of God's Spirit. This is what we're supposed to be 24 hours a day. Act of kindness. It's tough. I've never known anybody that has all these fruits all the time, right? If you have, wow, please come teach me. We see it in Christ. We struggle as we try to let be attached to the vine and let the vine dresser work with us. Remember, we talked about that last week. Attached to the vine and letting the vine dresser work through us. So we can get hardened. We can get hardened because, well, yeah, but other people have more money than I do. Or, I can't do all those things. I can't serve others because I have health problems. Well, that holds us back in times. But sometimes we get hardened. I can't because not realizing that all of us can, at some level, serve others. And especially in the household of faith.

Especially the household of faith. We can all serve. So this is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Let me read something to you from a person who, if anybody had the right to never serve others, this person had that right. Okay? But let me read what this person wrote, and then I'll tell you who it was. This was the... Can you hear me okay in the back? I know sometimes you can't hear very well back there. Can you hear okay in the back? Okay. Join the great company of those who make the barren places of life fruitful with kindness. Make the barren part of life fruitful with your 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. It's outer trappings. The great, enduring realities are love and service. Anybody have any idea who wrote that? It's part of a speech. Helen Keller. Can't hear, can't see.

I'd go crazy if I couldn't hear or see. I don't even... I think I'd go... Well, she was almost crazy, right? And after living her life, said, you know what's most important in life? Being kind and serving others. You can change the world with that. That's one of the fruits of God's spirit, combined with all the other ones. So he said, you will find some people who have elements of these fruits, and we hold them up. I mean, most people look at Helen Keller as one of the great examples of what could be done in life. But we're supposed to have all these fruits together as part of our life, how we live. God's spirit tears away the harshness, and that's what this is. Remember, this word is kindness without harshness. Without harshness, you do it for the benefit of the other person, with no meanness or harshness involved.

Look at Titus 3. Titus 3.

Sometimes we can be kind and say, well, there, I was kind. I earned my brownie points.

It's easy to be kind when you think I have to be kind. I've done that before. I don't want to be kind here. I'm tired. I don't feel good. I don't want to be kind to this person.

And then you say, no, I have to be kind. This fruit is, yes, I have to be kind. I'm not there yet at times. I must now put forth the effort to do what is good for that person, and what I feel doesn't mean a thing, because I'm no longer concerned with what I'm going through. Remember what we just read in Romans? I'm not doing this to please myself. I'm doing this to please the other person for their good, as it says in Romans. I'm doing this for that person's good. Whether I feel like it or not is immaterial. That's not the issue. This goes so against human nature. That's why it takes God's Spirit. It is to produce this at the level that He wants. Titus 3, verse 3. Paul, talking to this minister, telling him how to be a good minister and how to do his ministry, he says, for we ourselves, he wants Titus to be reminded of the fact that it is God's mercy that has changed us. It's God's mercy that brings us into his relationship with Him. Now, we have to submit. We have to do our part. We don't have to go along. But it's God that brings us there. It's God's power that we have to submit to. He says, for we ourselves, we're also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lust and pleasures, living in malice and envying, hateful, and hating one another. He didn't say you to Titus. He said, we! Come on, Titus. You know, when we deal with our congregations, remember, yeah, we all have corrupt human nature. We've all struggled here. We've all failed. But let's remember where God's taking us. And the whole point of his letter to Titus is, teach your people this. Stay focused on what God's doing with you, and then teach your people this, to keep them focused. He says, but when the kindness, the kindness, same word, when this useful kindness, motivated by God's compassion, was given to us, when the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man, appeared, not by the works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us. I want to stop there a minute. Think about this. He said, which one of us pulled Jesus Christ down? Which one of us said to the Father, would you send your servant to die for me? What motivated God to do that? Useful kindness, motivated by compassion. Useful kindness. Jesus did not do this because it felt good to be brutally tortured and killed. He didn't do that because He liked what it felt like. Yet you see Him doing it for us, and it even talks about how joyful He was afterwards.

See, we can only see this in Christ. We say, wow, that's way beyond me. God says, no, no, no, this is what I want to develop in you. That kind of useful kindness towards others. He's not going to require any of us to be sacrificed for each other, right? He just requires us to sacrifice a little of our time, a little of our effort, a little of our emotions, sometimes taking a little wrong from somebody else.

That's what He requires. Service, an attitude of service. And this breaks down to every level of our lives. At home between husband and wife, children and parents, outward into the church, outward into our extended family, outward into the workplace, outward into where you're walking into the ball, and how you interact with people, how you drive your car. Oh boy, dog is tough.

Service for what is good for the other person, even if they're not converted. And that's why Jesus said, remember, God does this for people who are evil.

God doesn't make it so that the whole world doesn't have rain except righteous people. Now you can tell you're righteous because everybody else in your neighborhood is in drought, but there's rain falling in your house. Right? That's not the way this works.

He says, remember that, as we interact with others. And so Paul tells Titus, it's the kindness and love of God that had Him send Jesus Christ here.

And then he says, but according to His mercy, He saved us. Then the last part of the sentence, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, who be 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. Once again, when we remember God's kindness, not only do we look at Him bringing us to repentance and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but He took Himself, His Spirit, and put it in us. He lives in us. And that's what produces this fruit. That is an act of kindness, active, useful. This is what's good for you. Sometimes I've wondered, you know, it's good for me to have God living in me. I'm not sure that's so good for God at times. Have you ever thought about that?

Have you ever thought about what it's like for God to live in a sinful person? And He hates it? This is going to be rather unpleasant for Him at times. I think it has to be. This has to be unpleasant for God to live in you and me. But He does, because it's useful kindness. He doesn't do it to please Himself. He does it to please us. In other words, He does it for our good. And He's pleased by that because He gets children out of it. He gets children out of it. So when you start to think about what God, the price God pays for us, not only in Jesus, but in His living in us, this is real service on His part, because He doesn't have to do any of this. He's still God whether we're here or not. He's still God. He's still happy. You know, He still has these fruits whether we're here or not. He still has love, joy, peace. Whether we're here or not, He still has those things because that's His character. So He's only doing this because He wants children and He's doing it for us. These acts of service. This is the greatness of the God that we worship. When you look at the Bible, you find some examples. I always try to find one or two great examples of this kind of useful kindness. There's one example of the Bible where there's a person who did this kind of useful kindness at what could have been a terrible price. The service this person did could have cost her her life.

But she did it anyways. It was the right thing to do. We see, in fact, we're going to see self-control. We're going to see meekness before God. We're going to see all the spirits, the fruits of the spirit we've gone through so far exhibited by this person. Now, it doesn't say in the Bible she had God's Spirit, but she was submissive to God enough that God was working in her enough that we see in this one action. This is basically all that we know about her in the Bible. In this one action, we see her do these things. She's one of my heroes here for this story. Let's go back to 2 Samuel. I'm sorry, it's 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel 25. I couldn't remember whether it was 1 or 2 Samuel. 1 Samuel 25. 2 Samuel 25. Abigail was a woman who had married poorly.

She was probably, it's probably arranged marriage, as marriages were then. She was probably married at a very young age, a mid-teenager, to an older man. He had been 25, maybe 30, but older than her. She didn't get to pick her husband, probably. The families picked the husband. And she was beautiful, and she was smart, and she worshiped God, and her husband was an absolute jackass.

So this is the life of Abigail, okay? But she obeys God. She lives a good life, even though this isn't a real good match. So this is her story, and we're going to see her do something that is absolutely this kind of kindness, useful kindness, and actually doing active goodness, being meek before God. We're going to see all these things now and these actions she takes, and the difficulty she had to face in the decisions she was going to have to make. And she changed the course of the history of Israel because of it. Start in verse 2.

Now there was a man of Maon whose business was in Carmel, and his man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife was Abigail, or Nabal. Nabal means, Hebrew by the way, full.

So his parents at least had given him a name that fit his character.

Now notice verse 3. It says, she was a woman of good understanding. There was this. She's wise, she's intelligent, she's got a great personality, and it says, and she was a beautiful appearance. This is an absolutely gorgeous woman who's married off at a young age and happy in spite of it because she's obeying God. She teaches this a lot here, by the way, about life.

She's obeying God, she's living God, but she's in a bad match because look what it says about him. But the man was harsh and evil in his doings. It was the house of Caleb. It's a harsh man, and he treats other people badly. He's evil in his doings. And Abigail is married to him. Under the law of God, she's going to be a good wife.

Now, this is interesting because he hadn't done anything that would allow her to divorce him, but she was still in a bad marriage. Divorce is the very narrow reasons you can divorce. This woman is in a bad marriage, and she's not divorcing her husband. In fact, what she's going to do here is incredibly remarkable. Now David, David at this time is being chased by Saul, and David has 600 men with him. And based on what he's doing, he's going around the borders of Israel, fighting off any nomadic tribes that tried to come in and raid. Because the nomadic tribes would come in and raid the Israelite farms and ranches or small villages. Well, Saul's got the army chasing David. David's running around through the edges of Israel, fighting off all the tribes because he's not king yet. He's not allowed to take the throne. God said, I will make you king after Saul. He's been ordained king, but he has to wait until Saul is no longer king. So he won't fight Saul because that would need his rebelling against God. So here he is, doing the best he can. Now this is 600 warriors. These are all men of war. These are all men who were trained as children, grew up. These are 600 fighting men. Now it's important to understand this story. These are 600 men that don't back down from anybody. And David, their leader, he can't afford to back down from anybody either. He doesn't want to lose face in their sight. This is 600 hard guys. Some of their stories are amazing in Scripture. So here we have 600 warriors and David, and they're protecting Israel the best they can, even though he's considered an outlaw. Saul has declared him an outlaw. Now this is hard for David because God is our David king. Samuel said you're king, but you've got to wait until Saul is gone. So here he is, an outlaw in the country where he's king. But he won't fight Saul. He won't try to overthrow Saul.

So when David heard in the wilderness that Abol was shearing his sheep, David said, 10 young men, and David said to the young men, go up to Carmel, go to Abol, and greet him in my name. And thus you shall say to him, who lives in prosperity. Now there's a very rich man. He's one of the richest men in Israel. Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have. Now I've heard that you have shears, and your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them. Nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we may come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David." In other words, we were there. We didn't hurt your shearing sheep and all these goats. We didn't hurt them. In fact, we protected them. We made sure nobody bothered your property, your people, your animals. So can we come on a day where you're having a feast at...can you feed us? That's a lot. I mean, that's 600 men. Could you just give us anything you have? He didn't ask for, you know, that you go kill a bunch of sheep. He just, can you give us anything that you have? So when David's young man came, they spoke to Nabal, and according to all these words in the name of David, and waited. And Nabal 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. In other words, I know about slaves who run away and they become just gangs of thieves. How am I to put up with you your gang? I'm not sure you knew how many there were. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shears and give it to men when I do not know where they're even from? Yeah, he knew where David was from.

So he basically said, you go tell this David guy who's nothing but a gang leader, a criminal, I don't know who he is, I don't care who he is, and stay off my property.

Sounds like an old Westerner. Now, you can imagine when this message gets back to David. So David's young men turned on their heels, I like it, in other words, they were angry, they turned around and went right back, turned on their heels, and went back, and they came and told him all these words. Now, David listens to this. Here's one of the richest men in Israel. He's protected his property from marauders. He's taking care of his people, and all he asks for is one meal for his men. And this man says, you're a criminal, don't even step on my property.

And David loses his temper. There's two stories here. One is about David. We're not going to go into that one, but David learned from this. But the other is Abigail. Then David says, verse 13, to his men, every man gird on his sword.

He goes, we're going to ride. He just sits like a washroom.

So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword, and about 400 men went with David and 200 stayed with the supplies. He said, okay, 200 men stay here at the camp. We don't want some amorite gang coming along and raiding our camp while we're out. 400 men? 400 men! He has one intent here. He's going to kill Nabal and every man in Nabal's company. Now, Nabal had a village of people working for him. He's the richest man in Israel, or one of the richest. He has, who knows, hundreds of people working for him. They have families. He said, we'll go kill every man in the village. David's lost his temper here. He's clouded by anger. I mean, this is an enormous insult. I don't even know who you are. Well, yeah, he is. Samuel announced he was going to be king. Saul was trying to kill him because he was going to be king.

So David and 400 men are riding. They're headed that way. Verse 14. Now, one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greater master, and he reviled them. He said he treated them terrible. You know, that's the way it is. He just treated them like scum. But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor we missed anything as long as we accompanied them, and we were in the fields. When they were around, nobody messed with us. We were taken care of. They were a wall to us both at night and at day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. They protected us from everybody. And usually we get attacked. We have to fight off some Amorites or some Midianites or somebody coming through, you know, in a bunch of camels. They try to steal some sheep, and we have to fight them. We lose a couple men. No, they were a wall. Everything was great. So, you know, it's for him to ask for a meal is perfectly, I mean, in that age of hospitality, that would be considered expected. To be treated that way was just spitting him in the face.

He says, now therefore no one consider what you will do. Now, this is very interesting.

One of the servants would have been one of the managers of his, you know, his ranch. Goes to the wife and says, you're going to have to do something here. The old man just, this is going to be terrible. What he just did is, what are you going to do? Here's, I don't know how old Abigail's at this time. I don't know how long she'd been married. But it's interesting that she's looked on as the smart one. She's the one to have some wisdom here. She's the one who will think this through, because you know you can't go to the boss because he's an idiot. Now, therefore, no one consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him. He says, I've tried talking to him. All the managers, we've tried talking to him, saying, oh, you don't understand. You would have lost a lot of sheep. You would have lost men if it wasn't for David. He'd protect us. He took care of us. Even if you can't talk to the man. David's just a, you know, come on, he's a criminal. He said, I can't even talk to him. This would be a great movie, wouldn't it? So one of these head men go to Abigail. Now, Abigail has an interesting decision to make here, because she's presented with a way out. They have David right in, kill my husband, and I get everything, because this is a rotten marriage.

Yeah, she is an easy way out here. She's about to show incredible kindness towards her rotten husband, because it's the right thing to do.

But in order to do that, she has to put her own life at risk.

In order to protect and support her rotten husband, she has to put her life at risk. Boy, that's a new concept, isn't it? That's not something that's in our modern world. Get rid of the guy. Look what she does. Verse 18. That Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five sheeps of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. Now, you know how rich they were when this was just the stuff that was laid around. Okay, this is just food that was around there. Oh, yeah, these are already animals that have been butchered. Load them up. So they load them up. And she said to her servants, go on before me. See, I am coming after you. But she did not tell her husband, Deimos.

So it was as she rode on the donkey that she went down under the cover of a hill. And there were David and his men coming down toward her, and she met them. Now, I want you to picture this in your mind. 400 angry men, they're writing. I mean, this is like a magnificent seven. They're writing. You know, there's 400 of them. There's a dust cloud coming off the back, and they've got one thing in mind. We're going to go kill this scoundrel. And anybody that stands in our way, and David's leading the way, they're kings leading the way, this is stuff Hollywood would love to have. And standing in front of them is a woman on a donkey.

A young woman on a donkey. They could have run right over. In fact, David could have had her killed on the spot because she tells him who she is. In order to do this act of kindness towards a rotten husband, she actually has to do active goodness and put her life in jeopardy.

Now, this only takes... she had to have a weakness before God to do this. She also was an incredibly wise person. It says she had great understanding. She was a very wise person. It says, verse 21, Now, we can look at it and say, wait a minute. David's really overacting here. The servants of David will never do anything bad to him. David is about to commit a sin. And Abigail knows it.

She's not only protecting her husband. She's standing up against 400 men to do this act of kindness. This is what we're talking about in Galatians. Verse 23, Now, when Abigail saw David, she dismounted quickly from the donkey and fell on her face before David and bowed down to the ground. So all 400 guys stop. There's a woman in the middle of the road laying down before him. There she is. So they all stop. And I'm sure when she stood up, they all said, whoa, is she pretty? Okay, because it says she's beautiful. Wow! Okay, but they're all, get out of the way. We're going someplace here. We got a job to do. We're angry. We're behind your king.

So she fell at his feet and said, On me, my Lord, on me let this iniquity be.

He's my husband. It is my job to support him. So I am here supporting him. I tell you, ladies, Abigail's an amazing woman.

She says to David, it's my fault. If I was a better wife, okay, come on. Deal with me, not with him. And please let your maidservant speak in your ears and hear the words of your maidservant. Please let not my Lord regard this scoundrel. It's very interesting. She says, I know he's a scoundrel. Okay. My husband's an idiot, I understand, but he's mine.

Regard the scoundrel, Nabal, for as his name is, so he is. Nabal is his name, and folly is within him. I know his name means fool. You know, that's exactly what he is. I understand that. When I'm his wife and I'm supposed to support him here. But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my Lord, whom you sent. Now therefore, my Lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek harm from my Lord be as Nabal. God's taking care of you. You are the one that God's going to make king. So think through what you're about to do. Now, these are 400 angry men. David could have said, kill her in the road right past. David could have killed her, me and King, and probably told somebody else to do it. You understand, she knows exactly what she's facing at this point. She's correcting the king of Israel in front of 400 men.

I know my husband's a fool. If they would have come to me, this would have never happened. What shows you the power, by the way, she had. Because remember, it's one of the managers of the ranch that comes here and says, your husband's such a scoundrel, we can't even talk to him. And this isn't going to turn out well. What are you going to do? So the real power here was actually her. Her foolish husband was just foolish. But she's doing a subservient role because that's what she's supposed to do. He says, and now she says to him, this present which your maidservant has brought to you, my Lord, let it be given to you to the young men who follow my Lord. Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. Please forgive me because this would have never happened if I would have found out about it. She takes the responsibility because she knows all these men's lives are at stake. Then she says, verse 28, 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 has not founded you throughout your days. Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, which is 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 from the pocket of his sling. And it shall come to pass when the Lord is done to my Lord according to all the good things he has spoken concerning you. Now there's one, he makes you king, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, that this will be no grief to you. She says, think about this. This is a brilliant politician too. Think about this. When you're king, do you want to be known as the man who killed the fool and all the innocent men that were his employees? Is that what you want to be remembered as, as the king? Now David's got to be sitting there, listen to all this. He's got to be angry. He's got to feel guilty. He's got to feel ashamed. He's going through all this stuff, as she's telling him, do you really want this to be your legacy?

I don't know what the 400 guys are doing. You know, they're listening to this. He might have someone say, just run over, let's go kill Nabal, right? I'm, I'm probably, everybody's quiet. Probably they're all quiet.

He says, so when you become rule over Israel, that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my Lord, either that you have shed blood without cause or that my Lord has avenged himself, but when the Lord has dealt well with my Lord, remember your main servant. He said, so remember me when God makes you ruler, remember I'm the one who told you don't do this so that this won't be your legacy. And I don't know, there's probably this silence as David tries to figure out, how do I respond to this?

Now, the story about David is interesting because his response is a whole other story. Why he did what he did. It shows the character of David, but it's, you know, we're going through Abigail today. We'll go through the story at another time, not study David. Then David said to Abigail, blessed is the Lord God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me. And blessed is your advice, and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. For indeed, as the Lord God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried to come to meet me, surely by morning light no wails would have been left to name on. So David received from her hand what she had brought up and sent her, Go in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person. David said, Yeah, you're the smartest one here. You're the one that was wise. You're the one that gave God's advice. Thank you for the food. You know, you go in peace. And he turned the army around and went back. Think of the process she had to go through to do these actions. She had to protect a foolish husband and keep the king of Israel from committing a sin.

All these acts of kindness. And what did she do? Useful kindness. She showed up with some food. She showed up with some food, an act of useful kindness, and kept David from what would have been a horrible legacy. God may have actually turned his back on him if He'd have done this. I find Abigail, just an amazing person, realizing what she was faced with and realizing her personally would have been better for him to come kill everybody, all the males.

She'd have been rid of that bad husband. I say that probably one of his relatives would have come and taken it over the way it was set up in Israel, but still she would have been out of the bad marriage. But she didn't do that. She protected him. She protected the males, all the men of the ranch that would have been killed. It would have been a sin. And she protected David. All because of an act of kindness. This is hard to do, isn't it? If her motivation would have been, what's good for me, she wouldn't have done this. This is what was good for everybody. Of course she goes home and, day ball being a fool, is in a drunken stupor. He's been partying, he's drunk. So later she comes to him and says, by the way, I saved your bacon. Well, she probably didn't say that. Yeah, in Hebrew, she would not have said that. He said, I saved you. Do you realize David was coming with the whole army to kill everybody here? All the males. All that had been left was the women of children. He was going to kill you. But I took food and I gave it to him. I explained to him why this would not be right before God. He said, you're right. And he turned her on and went back. Scared him so bad he had a heart attack and died. It came to David to say that they said, you know, they've all died, had a heart attack and died. Remember what she had said to him? When God is good to you, remember me. You know what he did? He said, I don't know her that well. Remember that beautiful woman who was out in the street there that stopped you. You go tell her if she'll take me, I'll marry her. Now, he didn't love her. He didn't know her. Understand the point he's doing. I will take care of her the rest of her life. She gets to keep her rent. She gets to keep everything. I will take care of her.

David took care of her the rest of her life. I don't know. I mean, he may have loved her over time because she became his wife. But he said, that woman's so special. If she'll have me, I'll marry him. She said, oh yeah, I'll marry him. I'll marry the king. Yeah, okay.

I dump a fool for the king. Yeah, this is working out pretty good. Okay. But she didn't know that, right? When she did all this stuff, she didn't know what was going to happen here. Bad marriage. It can't be any worse than this, right? It can't be any worse than what I'm in. So David remembers her and says, I will take care of you the rest of your life. And the best way I could do that is marry you because then I'm bound by law to take care of you. I will take care of you. So the story has, then she sort of disappears. She's just David's wife for the rest of her life.

It's one action by one person. But in that action is so intensely amazing. It's so wise that it's active goodness, which we talked about last week, and useful kindness. Merge together, and she changes the course of Israel's history.

So that's why I say Abigail is one of my heroes in the Bible. You know, Hannah, Sam's or Samuel's mother, and Abigail. That's two of my great... I mean, man, I'm thinking, would I do that? Would I go just throw myself... because I'm not a beautiful woman. David would run right over me. Four hundred horses just want to run over me. And then David would have said, was there somebody back there in the road? I thought I heard someone scream. I couldn't figure out what was going on, you know. But this story is just remarkable because of her.

If you lack active kindness, compassion... sometimes we lack compassion. We don't do the kind thing because we don't think of the kind thing. We sort of ignore everybody around us. Then go ask God to give it to you. Ask God to develop this fruit in you. Ask God to soften your heart so that you are kind, so that you... you're mellowed so this harshness is gone from your personality, from your character. Because remember, harshness can't be part of this kind of kindness.

It's interesting. We read in Matthew 11 where it talks about Jesus being meek, that that's the same word of meekness in Galatians 5. Well, you know when He says, take my yoke, it is easy? That's the same word. The word easy there is the same word that's translated kindness in Galatians 5. My yoke is gentle kindness. That's what I will bind you, Christ says, to be with. He binds us to Him through His gentle kindness.

Because, you know, I'm often wondering, what does that word easy mean? Because, you know, being yoked to God or Christ is not always easy, is it? Sometimes it's hard. But the word there, translated easy, it's not translated well because Christothes doesn't... there's not one English word. It literally means, come to me and my yoke is this kind of useful kindness.

So He's talking about His relationship with us is useful or useful kindness.

Now that should be encouraging. We are yoked to Christ. We're connected to Him. We're tied to Him by His gentle, useful kindness towards us. That's the yoke that we carry. And then He says, now, try to do that with others. And He says, it's not always easy, I know.

He knows that. Because He was a human being. Remember, there's times He ran away from people. Oh, man, I've got to get away from everybody. There's times He got angry with some of His disciples like, God, don't you guys get this? How long must I be with you and you don't get it?

Man, be with you, people. It's not easy. See, He knows. We're with each other, and it's not easy. But that yoke, we should understand what we're connected to Him with. Self-control, meekness, faithfulness, goodness, kindness. See how they're all related, but they are different. They're all related, but they're different. They're all characteristics that combine to reflect God's character. Remember, it's God's desire for this to be developed in us because He wants us, literally, to be His sons and daughters.