True Wealth: Character Over Material Possessions

"sort of sobering isn't it this great man of god samuel who was dedicated to the lord and who served him from his youngest days now he dies and as godly as he was and as powerful a man of god he was and as much as the impact he made on the nation of israel that in and of itself didn't preserve him from death no he was still born of adam and so he was subject to death and he passed from this world to the world beyond but when that happened it's important for us to notice that god's work did not end when samuel's days on this earth ended god's work is never dependent upon one man" [00:21:50]

"there are riches in what you have that's the kind of wealth that nehabal had didn't he he was rich in what he had he had a lot of sheep he had a lot of tents he had a lot of flocks he had a lot of whatever he had a lot of what you have that's not the only way to be rich some people are rich in what they do they're people of real action a real accomplishment a real achievement they might be famous for what they've done they may never make a lot of money at it but they're well known they're famous for what they do other people are rich not so much for what they have or for what they do there are some people who are rich for what they know very powerful brainy kind of people they know all sorts of things and their knowledge and understanding gives them great success or power in this or that friends there's a fourth way to be rich and i think it's better than any of the other ones you can be rich in what you have you can be rich in what you do you can be rich in what you know but the best kind of wealth is to be rich in character it's to be rich in what you are and that's the kind of wealth that nabal was completely lacking in" [00:33:36]

"my friends we should remind ourselves what jesus said that material riches are a definite obstacle to the kingdom of god remember that when jesus said it in matthew chapter 19 that it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter into heaven when jesus said that his disciples were blown away they said well then who can enter into heaven how can anybody be saved and jesus said with god excuse me with man this is impossible but with god all things are possible friends it's not impossible for a rich man to be godly but we should understand that being rich makes walking with god harder it just introduces another obstacle in your life that has to be overcome for you to keep the right focus the right the right attention in your life upon god" [00:48:10]

"generosity is really god's key from keeping us from being idolatrous with material things and so when we read that nabal was rich we should want to know was he generous was he a man in love with his riches or was he a man in love with the lord let's see if he was a generous man so we know something about naval we know where he lived we know where he worked we know that he was rich if you look at verse two we also know that he was shearing his sheep in carmel that's not carmel up north you know although he's probably rich enough to live there but this is an area in israel and he was shearing his sheep there well sheep shearing time if you're a sheep rancher that's harvest time i mean the the sheep keepers the shepherds back in israel's day they didn't keep the sheep primarily for the sake of the meat they kept the sheep for the sake of the wool and when you shear the sheep that's when you collect the wall that's harvest time you've worked all year you've put your money your time your investment into those sheep and now you're bringing in the harvest so sheep shearing time was a time of real joy and generosity and abundance in a time where everything was shared and everybody was generous" [00:57:12]

"you know writing almost a hundred years ago the bible commentator fb meyer wrote something very striking on this and let me read it to you he says a woman may still find herself in abigail's pitiful plight to such a one there is but one advice you must stay where you are the dissimilarity and taste and temperament does not constitute a sufficient reason for leaving your husband to drift you must believe that god has permitted you to enter on this awful heritage partly because this fiery ordeal was required by your character and partly that you might act as a counteractive influence you must stay as you are it may be that someday your opportunity will come as it came to abigail in the meantime do not allow your purer nature to be bespotted or besmeared you can always keep the soul clean and pure" [01:14:49]

"friends that's not how the lord wants us to respond when we're insulted the lord would have us bear it with love and kindness and return the evil with good friends that's pretty high ground to walk on i'll admit it's what jesus commanded you remember what jesus said in matthew chapter 5 you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but i tell you not to resist an evil person but whoever slaps you on your right cheek turn the other to him also a lot of people have misunderstood this business about turning the other cheek they think that jesus was talking about like a physical assault and if somebody's physically assaulting you don't protect yourself just let them beat the pulp out of you that's not what jesus is talking about jesus isn't saying if somebody hits you across the the right side of your face with a baseball bat then you should just stand there and say okay go ahead and hit the left side of my face too no the slap on the cheek and that culture wasn't about a physical assault it was about an insult like you've seen the old movies where the englishman takes off his glove you know finger by finger and then he slaps some guy in the face you know it's the insult i despise you you're worthless you're nothing well friends that's what jesus was talking about and jesus was saying when you're insulted when you're despised when you're treated this way turn the other cheek take it bear it" [01:31:15]

"friends this is a very critical situation i want you to see the hand of the devil at work right here if david were to do something in this fit of passion and rage so foolish as to go and to massacre the men of the household there think of what the repercussions would be david might be disqualified from being the king over israel i mean what would it be known as soon as it got around israel that david massacred a whole household of men because they insulted him that might disqualify him in the eyes of many people as being a valid leader for israel i think satan is at work trying to derail david from his destiny and he's inflaming his passions you can imagine what satan was whispering in david's ear all the while they were riding over to nabal you don't have to take this how can they treat you like this you got to stand up here come on david you've got the men you don't have to take any more of this" [01:59:34]

"friends do you understand what a critical juncture this is please it also makes us say wait a minute here wait a minute in the previous chapter you resisted the temptation to take vengeance when you had the opportunity but now you're giving in to it and doesn't that kind of sober us doesn't it kind of wake us up you know my friends you can resist the temptation and resist it time and time again but let me just tell you straight out it's going to come back or another temptation will come back and you know how often we have to be on guard all the time david resisted it one place but here he's following himself falling prey to it so what do you do you just have to resist it again" [02:28:32]

"alan redpath said does it not show beyond all possible doubt that i cannot stand against the enemy of my soul unless the lord upholds me moment by moment this story tells me that however long i may have been on the christian path however often i may have overcome one temptation or another however many times i defeated sin in one area it can strike in another and crush me in a moment and that's what david was faced with friends the lord has his victory for us the lord has his way of sustaining us my friends we've got to trust in him and look to him moment by moment then we'll have the victory then we'll have the the joy and the power that he wants to give us" [02:50:32]

"and so nabal is simply assuming abigail is simply doing what nabal should have done but did not do on this occasion now notice here what happens he would pick it up at verse 21. 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's 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 i want you to kind of compare verse 21 and verse 22. in verse 21 i would say that david is accurate wouldn't you surely in vain i have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness well i could see where dave would be accurate in that he provided a service for nabal and it's been in vain because nabal won't pay him okay david you got that fact correct going on in verse 21 and he has repaid me evil for good what was that accurate yeah certainly it was david you got your facts straight no problem with your facts david the problem is david has his facts straight but his heart isn't right look at what he says in verse 22 may god do so and more also to the enemies of david i leave one male of all who belonged in my morning life i'm going to kill him and every male in his household wow" [01:58:11]

"i remember reading a charming story once about a woman who talked about how she assessed the men that she dated in college she would go over and and she'd see the guy in the dorm complex and what she would look for is not how the guy treated her she figured listen i'm the date he's going to treat me nice that doesn't say anything she looked at how the guy treated the custodial crew at the dorm room you know the men the women who were the janitors if he just treated them spitefully and laid down trash for them to pick up and and spoke meanly or a superior way to them then she knew something about that man she could measure that man's character not by how he treated her but how he treated the people who might be thought of as beneath him friends that's how it is with us i think david was probably hung up on this exact point it was one thing for him to show this forbearance and this long suffering to saul it was a whole nother thing to do it to nabel and so he says let's get the 400 men let's go let's have ourselves a little wipe out here and so he goes and they mount up and they're on the way" [02:37:27]