 First Samuel chapter 25. We're going to look at the entire chapter. Let's begin at verse one together I'll read verse one get into our study and move on into the chapter first Samuel chapter 25 verse one then Samuel died and The Israelites gathered together and lamented for him and buried him at his home in Ramah and David arose and went down to wilderness of Peron Now Samuel is a very famous very famous individual here in in the book Obviously a first Samuel he was a judge as well as the last judge that the nation of Israel had and He judged something like 18 years This is a man who who had been dedicated to the Lord for the Lord's service and spent his entire lifetime in the temple and In his latter years was a judge there in the nation of Israel and saw great things happen as we've been going through first Samuel We've seen how that Samuel was the one who anointed Saul who was the very first king of the nation of Israel We also saw how that he had anointed David who was to replace Saul So this is a man who was there anointing the first king as well as the second king in this mighty nation as a matter of fact He was there watching the nation as it grew into a military power So he had a lot to do with the greatness of this nation the nation of Israel But one of the things about him that that comes to mind is the fact that in spite of the fact that he Saw many great things. He's also one who sorrowed over the sorrowful things that took place because he's the one who anointed Saul as first king But he's also the one who announced to Saul that Saul was going to be removed because of his disobedience In first Samuel 1535 We read Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul Samuel mourned every day until he died for Saul because Saul had rejected God It isn't enough that there was great potential in this man this king named Saul That's not what caused him to weep into sorrow and and to have this great pain and grief in his life until the day He died it's that that Saul rejected God and one of the things that we need to understand is those who have a righteous heart Those who have a righteous life have a tendency of grieving for those who have rejected the Lord And that's what happened in the life of this man and In Samuel's life and he grieved until until until until he died Samuel died And the Bible here makes it clear that the Israelites gathered together and buried him so as it's common with all men Samuel as good as he was finally died You see some of the saddest words that you're ever going to read in your Bible are found in the book of Genesis rather Genesis chapter 5 verse 5 In Genesis chapter 5 verse 5 we we read these words all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he died 930 years and he died you see God's intent for man was to experience beauty and joy peace Love to be with him forever but because sin entered in through Satan and the temptation whereby Eve Handed to her husband this forbidden fruit and and he took of it and died Adam was held accountable for that and and as a father of mankind it passed on his sinful nature to all men so that All of us are actually born spiritually dead we're in need of regeneration you see and So when you read the Bible when you see that God had created all things intended A man and woman to enjoy them to have pleasure the the peace and all fellowship with God and then to read the words And he died he gives to us an insight into what happens the wages of sin is death And the Bible tells us in Hebrews 9 27. It's appointed unto men to die once and after this the judgment You see there are those who believe that you get second chances after you die The Bible does not teach that I Was raised in a system that taught a that there was a place called purgatory that you'd go to this place and and that your Residual effects of your sin on earth would be dealt with purged if you will in this place called purgatory Where residual sins are dealt with but we don't have there's no such place as purgatory outside of junior high ministry Now that's the closest thing you're gonna get to purgatory But the bottom line is is there's no second chances. It's appointed unto men to die once And after this the judgment it doesn't say that you have reincarnation. It doesn't speak about souls being Transmigrated and taking up residence in some other physical essence It speaks simply in the scriptures as one chance to get right with God One lifetime you don't have two opportunities. You don't have an opportunity After you physically die Either you die in the grace of God and enter into the presence of God or you die outside of the grace of God in Interended judgment in the case of Samuel he died But Samuel was a man of God who followed after the Lord and when he died he was buried He was buried in a place called Ramah. He was buried in the family plot at his home All Israel gathers together and they mourn such a loss The Bible in verse 1 also says that David arose and went to the wilderness of Paran So as this was taking place David and his men went south towards the Sinai Peninsula And that's where he was as you know that he's been running from from King Saul So now he has moved when Samuel has died David has moved on down south into this wilderness Now as we move on we're introduced to a married couple It says in verse 2 there was a man in my own whose business was in Carmel the man was very rich He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel the name of the man was Naval and the name of his wife Abigail and She was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance But the man was harsh and evil in his doings He was at the house of Caleb. So what we have here as someone once once spoke of it in this way And therefore I call it the same thing what we have here is beauty and the beast You have Abigail a woman who is of great understanding and beautiful appearance who is married to a man by the name of Naval Now when you look at these people the the name Abigail that literally means the cause of joy The word nabal speaks of that which is foolish or wicked beauty and the beast So you have the ball who's described as being a very wealthy man married to this very wise woman by the name of Abigail She undoubtedly had an arranged marriage so that she was given to this man as his wife So he did a lot better than he deserved when he got Abigail And so we're introduced to these two people here as Individuals who are going to have a tremendous impact in in the life of David notice verse four when David heard in the wilderness That nabal was sharing his sheep David sent ten young men and David said to the young men go up to Carmel go to nabal and greet him in my name and thus you shall say to him Who lives in prosperity peace be to you peace to your house and peace to all you have Now I have heard that you have shearers Your shepherds were with us. We did not hurt them nor was there anything missing from them all the while They were in Carmel asked your young men They'll tell you Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes for we come on a feast day Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David Well during this time when they were shearing the sheep as this is a celebration It's a festival a fiesta That's when they would get together and they would they would they would have a banquet and and enjoy themselves So it was a time of celebration David is aware of this David's down south Carmel is up north And so what he says is I'm gonna send ten of my young men there in order that they might greet nabal in order that he might give us some supplies because our men have been taking care of of Him and and his his wealth and and it's a festival time It's a time when people will be generous and also I better send ten men to collect all the goods that he's gonna give to them So they can bring it back and supply us because David has an army that needs to be supplied And so he he sends them with a real courteous greeting He says that they're to greet him in a proper fashion and greet him in my name He says give him a blessing peace be to you peace on your house peace to all that you have The refresh his memory by letting him know that we are the ones who took care of your sheep Nothing was ever stolen and we took care of the people that were there guarding your sheep We actually were guarding your people as they took care of the sheep and therefore if we have found favor in your site Can you give us something because we have need now? That's a customary thing David is expecting this man to respond in a good way well It says in verse 9 so when David's young men came they spoke to nabal according to all these words in the name Of David and waited then nabal answered David's servants and said who's David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat and that I've killed for my Shearers and give it to men when I do not know where they are from So his response is absolute rudeness. Who are these guys anyway? What are you escape slaves? Why should I supply food for a trader anyway a renegade somebody who is disloyal to the king? Why should I do any good for him when he's done so much evil to others and that's how he speaks well notice What happens it says in verse 12 David's young men turned on their heels and went back They didn't wait a moment the many said that they turned around and left and they came and told him all these words David said to his men Every man gird on his sword 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 Now one of the young men told Abigail nabal's wife saying look David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master and he reviled them 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 we were in the fields They were a wall to us both by night and day all the time we were with them keeping the sheep Now therefore no one consider what you will do for harm is determined against our master and against all his household For he's such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him So he gives a good report David and his men have cared for us Something has to be done No ball won't listen to wise advice. You see David's absolutely furious He had received what had been said his anger is provoked He prepares his 400 men and he's going to go deal with the ball Now the Bible tells us in Proverbs 20 verse 2 the wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life, and that's exactly what took place here David is so upset So here comes David in fury with the with 400 armed men and the servant is telling Abigail Your husband treated him rudely. I'm concerned for you But he says something in verse 17 that we can look at for a moment It says in verse 17 the last portion for he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him You know how unreasonable this man is When he says he's a scoundrel that is literally he is the son of Belial That means he is a completely worthless person. This man rejects advice This is somebody that you can't reason with this is somebody that has got a Proudful spirit that that even when they're wrong you cannot reason with this person at all You can't speak to them. You can't bring to him anything any logic or anything. He's not gonna listen to you Think about it before you got saved think about what you may have been when somebody approached you and and Started speaking to you perhaps even a Christian and and started saying to you listen The way that you're going the direction that you're headed is just not good for you You're gonna end up in misery. You're gonna end up with lost life. You're gonna end up with lost opportunities You're gonna end up just messed up Stop I had a friend of mine by the name of angel Angel and I were high school, but he's good friend Angel got into taking second all Reds Downers He took so many that something happened in his blood And he started having bloody noses nosebleeds And I can still remember I was hanging around with him one night and his nose was just pouring out blood And I said you know all you need to do is just you know apply pressure And he says you don't understand he says I've been taking so many drugs and so many reds that my blood doesn't coagulate You got to get me to the hospital and you could talk to people like angel and you could talk to others like him And and you could try to reason with them and you try to explain to them. This is gonna hurt you The way that people tried to reason with me the way that they would say look at if you stay in the drugs You're gonna harm yourself if you stay in the alcohol. You're gonna get into a lot of problems And and you just blow them off. You don't want to hear what they have to say. Are you kidding? What do you know about my life? I'll be okay You can't reason with somebody like that Somebody who is unreasonable doesn't receive wise counsel In Proverbs chapter 12 verse 1 the Bible says whoever loves instruction loves knowledge But he who hates correction Is stupid What a word is stupid is without intelligence is not a person who is intelligent enough to listen Proverbs 23 9 do not speak in the hearing of a fool. He will despise the wisdom of your words And then you can tell him if you keep going down this path a fool just continues to go down that path They don't care what you're saying and that's what Nabal was like He was a scoundrel. No one could speak to him And so this man comes and speaks and shares with Abigail and says, you know how he is well notice verse 18 Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves of bread two skins of wine Five sheep already dressed so they had little ties and suit jackets on Five seas of roasted grain a seo that represents about 80 rather eight gallons seahs eight eight gallons so they had about 40 Dry gallons of roasted grain 100 clusters of raisins 200 cakes of figs loaded them on donkeys She said to her servants go on before me. See I am coming after you But she did not tell her husband of all So it was that she wrote on the donkey that she went down under cover of the hill and there was David and his men coming Down toward her and she met them now David had said surely in vain I've protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him And he has repaid me evil for good May God do so and more also to the enemies of David if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light Now when Abigail saw David she dismounted quickly from the donkey fell on her face before David bowed down to the ground So she fell on at its at his feet and said on me my Lord on me let this iniquity be Please let your maid servant speak in your ears and hear the words of your maid servant Please let not my Lord regard this scoundrel nabal for as his name is so is he nabal is his name Folly is with him, but I your maid servant did not see the young man my Lord 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 for my Lord be as nabal And and now this present which your maid servant has brought to my Lord let it be given to the young men who follow my Lord Please forgive the trespass of your maid servant The Lord will certainly make for my Lord an enduring house because my Lord fights the battles of the Lord Evil is not found in you throughout your days So she comes into your reasons Without saying a word to her husband. She acts wisely and what she does is she sends a generous supply to David Not only did she send a generous supply, but she also made her way to him in order that she might personally appease his anger by coming in a friendly manner Proverbs 21 verse 14 says a gift in secret pacifies anger and that's exactly what she was doing So Abigail makes her way to David and as he she does so David is making his way down to kill her husband And as David is on his way He's making a strong oath that he will definitely kill the ball and notice what he's saying in verse 21 How he says he has repaid me evil for good In spite of the good David had done in other words and a ball has insulted me and his inclination is to seek Retribution and he's going to annihilate every male now under normal circumstances This is not the proper way to deal with this kind of situation Under normal circumstances, we're called to take the higher ground And what David is doing is he's giving Into his his carnal nature his desire for retribution for vengeance and and as he's giving into it He is he is breathing out within himself a threatening. I'm just going to wipe this guy out And I'm bringing a curse upon myself. I am going to kill him and everybody that's associated with him David is so upset Some of us many of us in our lifetime have been insulted and people have done things that that have been harmful to us and We've had this inclination. We've had this desire to get even that's what David has David saying I'm not going to put up with this I've been taking care of his if his wealth all of this time and this guy has the the the ability to To insult my messengers after we have put ourselves between them in danger We've never taken anything never harmed anyone. We've actually treated them well and look at the way we're being repaid Are you kidding me? He was so angry. He said let's just go arm up. We're going to take him out Here comes Abigail. She sends them all of these goods and now she's falling down before him and saying please Don't let your anger do this Under normal circumstances believers take higher ground Jesus and Luke 6 28 said this he said bless those who curse you pray for those who spitefully use you That's what Jesus taught us to do Romans 12 21 says do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good Jesus was the greatest example of this the apostle Peter in 1st Peter 221 through 23 said it like this 40 you For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example That you should follow his steps who committed no sin nor was the seed found in his mouth Who when he was reviled did not revile in return when he suffered he did not threaten but committed himself to him We judges righteously We've been taught to turn the other cheek. We've been taught to pray for those who despitefully use it David is given into his his inclinations of his flesh. He is so angry He's gonna wipe him out and he's not even reasonable about it. He is so angry So what happens is Abigail sees him she approaches him she falls down before him in deep humility pleads with him She says listen. He is what his name implies. He's a simple fool. He doesn't doesn't know what he's doing and Then she reasons in this way in verses 26 through 28. She's reasoning She's basically saying God has kept you from from coming to bloodshed because you're better than that And I brought you a gift. It's not even good enough for you. Give it to your men You see David unlike Saul you fight God's battles where where Saul gets over to the inclination of his own flesh And if he feels insulted he wants to take up arms against those that he feels is is a threat to him You're not like him and don't be like him is what Abigail is saying Don't be like him. God has better things for you and if you go out and Have bloodshed it's gonna diminish you It's interesting in verse 29 how it says a man is risen to pursue you. That's Saul To pursue your life, 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 a sling And it shall come to pass when the Lord has done For my Lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you ruler over Israel That this will be no 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 When the Lord has dealt well with my Lord, then remember your maid servant. Don't bring yourself down Don't do this. God has a plan for your life Let God work. I was 26 once my bride My young wife Marie It's pregnant with Corinne We went and visited some people Climbed into the car. We were about to leave When she started to cry. I had started the engine put it in gear. I was driving Away from the curb when all of a sudden my little girl 24 years old at the time Starts to cry and I'm not talking about just I'm talking about loud Like her heart was broken and I hit the brakes I had just started to pull away from the curb Which she cried and I hit the brakes and I said what's wrong What's wrong? And she tells me someone hurt me and I said, oh I Sped up and made a u-turn and went back to the house With her holding on to the steering wheel She grabbed the steering wheel and I yanked it so hard it pulled out of her hand And I rolled up into the driveway and I started to take off my seatbelt because I was going to talk to somebody Who just hurt my wife and I was going to speak to them in a way that he would never forget I was going to go beat the snot out of them is what I was going to do I was so mad. I I she had never seen me get angry She had never seen me like that, but you hurt my wife. Are you kidding me? It's on and that's the truth It's on and I started to go out of that car and she's grabbing hold of me and she says don't Don't don't she's that's just my hormones. You know, I'm just pregnant. It's no big deal I was sitting there and I I have to tell you I was a young man once and I had a temper I had a bad temper and you just don't do that and you make my wife cry I'm gonna make you cry. That's just the way it is and that's how a lot of you men understand exactly what I mean You know what I mean just The switch goes off. Are you kidding me? Bang. It's on and and with Murray. I'm extremely protective. Oh, really? She held on to me. Don't go. Don't go. Don't go. Obviously. I didn't I sat there for a moment and She was an Abigail in my life. She still is to this day. She whispers into my ear good things Do the right thing honey do the right thing glorify the Lord That's the voice of an Abigail and I have one in my life and I didn't go in there and and cause any problems I didn't do anything. I sat there in the car. I fumed for a moment I drove home and the Lord ministered to me because I have had so many opportunities Since then to minister to this person that I was gonna go and harm I've had so many Opportunities since then those doors would have been closed forever if I'd have gone in with the flesh if I'd have gone in as angry as I was It would not have been a good thing at all and I'd never had a chance to to minister to them as I have and to and and and they asked me spiritual questions and Things like that. They don't know to this day how angry I was sitting there in a in a driveway Ready to just go in and and to beat them up frankly to beat them up and you know what I Thank God for that Abigail's in our life I do I thank God for the calm spirits and and the heart that sees something beyond the right now And that's what Abigail is here Abigail is saying to him listen if you go out and do that You're gonna be just like Saul a man who is busy always defended himself and always seek him for himself David you're not like that as a matter of fact this man is after you don't be like him Don't be a man of the flesh. You see we have battles that we have guys We have battles that we fight and then we have the outside enemy Yes, we have things on the outside that we fight, but there's a greater foe that I have to overcome and that's myself That's what's inside of me That's my sin nature the nature that rises up to say look at you're not gonna insult me You're not gonna insult my wife. You're not gonna do that. It's that sin nature that I have to die to At the inclination of the flesh to go and just take care of matters Just do it in your own strength or in your own wisdom your own ability your own power And and you have to have somebody like an Abigail the Abigail in a way It's like the Holy Spirit whispering into the into the heart of David listen You can be like Saul or you can be a man of God. What is it gonna be and? That's a question that is still asked to this day. You can act in the flesh or you can act by the spirit What is it gonna be? Are you gonna act in the flesh or you can act by the spirit is the spirit of God gonna move in you? Or are you gonna act at your flesh? Are you gonna get mad and you're gonna take it out on people? Are you gonna let them know that they can't treat you that way or are you gonna turn the other cheek? Are you gonna seek good for them even when they're doing evil to you? What are you gonna do? Well, it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to pray for those who have spitefully used you It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to transform a life to the point where you actually see eternity and not just a moment I can get even right now, but I'm gonna lose an opportunity 10 15 20 30 years from now To minister to you simply because I couldn't hold back my temper for a moment and die to myself You have to die to yourself. I started learning this lesson a long time ago when I was a young man When God started saying either you can represent my kingdom or the kingdom of this world, but you can't Do both you have to make a choice What's it gonna be and for me at 26 sitting in that car holding on 10 o'clock 2 o'clock to that steering wheel just angry as any young man might be because my bride There is crying and you're not gonna are you kidding me? And the Holy Spirit from that point on has been working over time in this man's life to teach me gentleness Compassion the spirit of God how he moves what he can do when you die to yourself And it abagales to in that but guys you can't do that in your own strength You might want to you might want to be the best person that there's ever been you might really have a heart to be a very good person But if you don't have the power of the Spirit in your life if God is not resident within you by faith You haven't received Jesus Christ's Lord and Savior Who empowers you to live all life that is godly you're gonna fail David listened David listened to what Abigail had to say It calmed his spirit down And he made it very clear When David in verse 32 said to Abigail blessed is the Lord God of Israel who sent you this day to meet me 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 indeed as the Lord God of Israel lives who has kept me back from hurting you Unless you had heard and come to meet me Surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal David received from her hand what she brought him and said to her go in peace to your house See I have heeded your voice respected your person a wise man according to Proverbs 1 5 Will hear and increase learning man of understanding Will attain wise counsel and that's what happened now verse 36 Abigail went to Nabal and There he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king Balls heart was merry within him or he was very drunk Therefore she told him nothing little or much until morning light So it was in the morning when the wine had gone from Nabal His wife had told him these things that his heart died within him and he became like a stone It happened after about ten days that the Lord struck Nabal and he died there He was having a feast like a king. He was partying like a rock star is what he's saying there And as he was doing that he was so drunk and so incoherent That she couldn't even speak to him. I mentioned my friend Bill When Bill and I were 16 years old We went to a supermarket in Norwalk on front street for those of you who might be familiar with that area I don't even know what's going on there anymore, but there was a supermarket wasn't even that was a small market Bill and I went into this market and we both stole three bottles of wine We were 16 years old We went out and drank these three bottles of wine and a friend of ours Mike Santa Maria had a 64 Chevy Impala Super Sport And he drove us to Whittier But Bill and I were so very drunk that he let us out of his car at Sierra High School in Whittier and Left us there to 16 year olds on Washington's birthday drunk Wandering around the streets We ended up in some backyard of some house. We still don't know how we got there We were reported the police came and arrested Bill and me put us in the Norwalk substation the sheriff station put us in jail. We just talked about that I'm still mad at Bill because I was so drunk I couldn't sit on the bench that they put us on and I fell down and Bill was seated right above me Right above me my face was looking straight at his as he vomited all three bottles on my face And I said to him stop and he said I can't Over me. I still remember it and he told my one of my kids. He said you're dead Yeah, he said all I know is I was fortunate enough to get the bench seat and I still remember it. How cool is that? How I am so cool I used to think I was so cool drinking and stagging around Incoherently is really really a cool thing to do It's like when I started smoking actually started smoking as a little boy But when I was about 14 I I thought that if you just stick that cigarette in your mouth and put your mouth But that cigarette in it next to the burner there on the stove and you and you light it up and that smoke It's in your eyes and you look so rather you really are cool Yeah, and I stuck my head too close and I had a pompadour and it was filled with I had hair spray and my hair caught On fire, you know, and I'm standing there all cool looking like Wiley Coyote at the age of what 14? How cool is that? How cool? Walking around all stupid I'll drunk You know and that's what we did for years Bill and I were laughing over those things because look what God has done He became a policeman. I became a pastor. That's an amazing thing and you see that but that's how stupid you can be this man of all was was an A person that was so he was just so out there His wife couldn't even reason with him some of us have tried to people have tried to reason with me when I was a kid And I was a drunken. There's no reasoning with the drunk You can't you cannot present to them anything that makes sense. They'll just look at you and agree with you or fight you You know or whatever. That's what they do. I mean you could argue with me all day long when I was drunk And I go, what do you know, you know, and and I wouldn't listen to you It's just not worth it. That's why she comes home and there he is the fool and he's all partying and everything and and His friends are all like a king, but the next day. She says oh by the way While you were busy being drunk. I stopped a man with 400 soldiers who was gonna come and kill you because of what you did What's he do? He's on the ground and the Lord takes him home now. It's interesting not take some home. Lord killed him He didn't go home anyway It happened after about ten days that the Lord struck nabal and he died David heard that nabal was dead. He said blessed be the Lord Who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of nabal has kept his servant from evil For the Lord has returned the wickedness of nabal on his own head In other words vengeance is mine. I will recompense sayeth the Lord David sent and proposed to Abigail to take her as wife When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel they spoke to her saying David sent us to ask you to ask you to Become his wife It's your rose bowed her face to the earth. Here's your maid servant a servant To wash the feet of the servants of my Lord Abigail rose in haste and wrote on a donkey attended by five of her maidens She followed the messengers of David and became his wife Nabal died as it was appointed unto him He died you can accumulate so many Material possessions over the course of a lifetime. You can even party like this like he was like a king But ultimately you die Ultimately, you let ultimately you die you leave everything behind Jesus said it this way you said take heed and beware of covetousness for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of the things He possesses You can get caught up you can get caught up with this this lie that you're you know You can have what you want all you need to do is go out and buy it and buy it on a payment plan And then when you do you end up paying for the rest of your life You end up making payments after payment after payment and if you're a little bit late Then they jack up your interest rate to nineteen point eight twenty one point whatever and that's what happens They get you sometimes Unfortunately, they can they can give you this credit card and start you out at three point nine But if you're a day late it goes up to nineteen point eight and you never get out of that And a lot of people have been trapped by this desire to have the material things now the wealth now You know I get married in that our furniture is a is a $99 TV set and a $10 couch We don't have a bed what we have is a a roll away that we use Till I'm able to afford $25 a month to actually $20 a month to purchase a water bed And that was pretty much it that was that's as far as we were gonna go I mean in terms of like going out and buying lots of stuff. Why would we get married and be in debt at the same time? Why would we do that? But a lot of people are a lot of people spend so much money on their on their wedding itself the $50,000 $70,000 wedding And they just put it on the card They expect mom and dad to pay for everything they even send out as many as many as announcements and as many Invitations because they're they're saying well I sent out 500 that means everybody's gonna bring me a gift to give me some money And that's how a lot of people think it's almost as if they're wedding is it's an affair that they're gonna profit from and that's how A lot of people think today. It's unfortunate, but it's true It's true I've told my kids listen. You can have an expensive wedding or you can have a great honeymoon. What do you want? But you can't have both You can't have both You can have a nice honeymoon or you can have an expensive wedding. What do you want? You're not gonna get both Because we can't afford that. I'm not gonna go broke for you Listen get the license. I'll marry you here in the backyard We'll have a barbecue I'll let you swim in the pool. No problem And I'll rent you a room for the night No big deal You know what I'm saying. I mean greed can get to you materialism can get to you This man had had it all he had so much and he told us how much he had he had so much and the minute the minute It was time for him to die. He died. That's it. There's nothing you can do and it goes into eternity without God There's nothing you can do That's why you better make sure that you're right now. There are no second chances You better make sure you're right with the Lord now Because it's a plunit and demanded I once and after this the judgment. That's why and in this case the ball dies but that leaves Abigail and David was so impressed by Abigail. He said go get her and ask her to be my wife She says I will be I'll wash the feet of the servants and that is a great woman who said I will be this man's wife And she comes to be his wife, but notice verse 43 and 44 David also took a henoum of Jezreel Both of them were his wives Saul had given Michal his daughter David's wife to Palti the son of Leish was from Galim You suppose to marry one woman David? You got too many too many wives hard enough to be married to one woman You don't want to you don't want this David You don't want this But that's what he did does God does God in the Bible did God say it's okay to have more than one wife God allowed but God did not design marriage to have more than one husband one wife God gave Adam one woman Eve The first person to have more than one wife was a man who was not a son of God This is a man who was actually a sinful man God permitted it, but God did not ordain it it in the New Testament when God gave Qualifications for a leader in the church he said that this leader be a husband of one wife and that set the tone That made it very clear in the body of Christ one man and one woman for one lifetime God did not Say that polygamy was his plan. He allowed it, but it ceased in the New Testament You don't see it in the New Testament. You see it only in the old and it was by by God allowing it but not by design But you're gonna see what took place because he had more than one wife and the trouble that comes as we continue our study In first Samuel our father we asked that you would continue to work in us Lord we know that You have a way that you want to work in us and therefore we ask that you would have your way in us Lord that we would Be those who serve you with all of our hearts Lord and be aware of the fact that That our old nature is constantly rising in opposition to the work of your spirit And I'm asking now Lord that you would work within the hearts of many in this room right now We need to get right with you Our eyes are closed and our heads are bowed And I want to give an invitation today and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do it in an open fashion Normally, I'll ask you just to raise your hand, but today. I really I really believe that the Lord would have me to give an open Invitation in other words give you an opportunity if you need to get right with God today To in a moment stand and to come and stand in front of this platform and openly say yes to Jesus Christ I want to give an open invitation this morning Some of you need to get right with the Lord and you know the spirit of God has been speaking to you And so I'm gonna ask you in a moment as we stand and worship the Lord in song to Slip out from where you're standing and come and stand and humble yourself and stand here in front of this platform And say yes to Jesus Christ. Yes. I need to get right with you Lord You may be a backslider You may be a person who's never opened your heart to christ either way Today's your opportunity to openly confess christ Jesus said if you confess me before men, I will confess you before my father in heaven So I give you an opportunity to openly say yes to him to come and stand in front of this platform as we worship When the song concludes to pray with me a simple prayer opening your heart to christ And spending a moment with one of our follow-up counselors after service Who will share with you a few things that you need to know If the spirit of God is speaking to you I'm gonna ask you To take courage step in faith come forward and say yes to the Lord and get right with God today Father I ask that you bind the enemy I ask that you set the captive free And lord you receive all glory for any work that's done Because it's to you. They're coming lord We pray this now in jesus name amen. Let's all stand