Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday
February 14, 2018
Pastor Rick Kabrick
One thing about time, we all have the same amount every day. No one can buy more, no one can steal another’s.
Timing can be defined as the best time or speed for doing something in order to achieve the maximum results.
Who am I, How did I get here and Where am I going.
Rather we should be saying at the end of our life:
I did it (for the most part) Your way Father.
Our founding fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor in the defense of liberty and freedom.
2CH 20:17, You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the LORD will be with you.
This simply means that GOD controls the weather and GOD knows what He is doing.
However, the Americans had a brilliant General, and they had the will to defend freedom from tyranny and oh yeah, the creator of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ was on their side.
“No people can be bound to acknowledge the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.
Every step which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by GOD’s providence.”
There were thousands of potential sites along the Atlantic coast where they could have landed and settled, but somehow they stumbled upon the ideal location.
ISA 49:13-16, Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted. But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me."
Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. "Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of MY hands; Your walls are continually before ME.
1TH 4:16, For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
JOH 14:1-3, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”
PSA 90:12, Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.
We are so used to everything moving at break-neck speed, that we then have a very hard time in adjusting to the slower ways that God will work things out in our life.
Rather, it is the determined choice of those who know GOD’s love through Jesus Christ.
PHI 4:4, “Rejoice in the LORD always; again, I will say, rejoice!”
Vs 3-4, Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation. His spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.
PSA 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”
PSA 146:5-6, How blessed is he whose help is the GOD of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his GOD,
Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever;
Spurgeon:
“The LORD pours most into those who are most empty of self.
Those who have least of their own self will have the most of GOD.”
- The LORD is able to bless
because HE is GOD,
HE is the creator of the heavens and the earth.
You can trust in GOD because, in contrast to mortal man mentioned in verses 3-4, the LORD is the almighty Creator.
- The LORD is able to bless
because HE is GOD,
HE is the creator of the heavens and the earth.2. The LORD is able to bless you because HE is forever faithful. He keeps faith forever. He never goes back on HIS promises. - The LORD is able to bless
because HE is GOD,
HE is the creator of the heavens and the earth.
2. The LORD is able to bless you because HE is forever faithful. He keeps faith forever. He never goes back on HIS promises.
3. The LORD is able to bless you because HE delights when HE sustains the weak and needy.
MAT5:10, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
1) The LORD is able to bless you because He is the almighty Creator.
2) The LORD is able to bless you because He is forever faithful.
3) The LORD is able to bless you He delights to sustain the weak and needy.
4. The LORD is able to bless you because he blocks the ways of the wicked.
The wicked look for joy, but find only disappointment. Because the world cannot provide real joy without the LORD.
The wicked look for success, but only find ultimate failure, because without the LORD there is no real success.
The wicked look for pleasure according to their lusts, they find that their lusts have only increased their misery.
We must be very careful of the influence people have on us and whose advice we take.
Had he alone been threatened for his conduct, that would have been one source of grief. But his conduct had led to a decree of destruction, not just against him or even against his whole family, but it was decreed against all Jews, everywhere.
When we face difficult circumstances, we may grieve that is normal, but ultimately we must trust God for deliverance from the problem.
God may show you the action to take, we must be willing to do it, not to sit on sidelines and watch.
All she could do was to look at the difficulties and see them as obstacles and then make excuses. And she actually had some good arguments and excuses.
Had any of us been in Esther’s place, we would no doubt have also been concerned about these problems. Yet it was also clear that such objections would not relieve her of her duty.
We may fear the problems we may face if we serve God, but we need to have a much greater fear of the consequences we will face if we do not serve God.
It is interesting that many of the bad things we fear never really happen.
If God can use such small things for great good, don’t you think He can use you and me!
PRO 12:15, The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel.
“My Father, My GOD is the source of all Joy.”
Among them is Racheal, Rahab, yes Rahab, Ester, and Sarai who became Sarah. Probably more, but you get the picture.
Wisdom and being able to discern the situation and seeing the direction God wants you to go, and then having the determination to do it, That’s the key to a successful outcome.
PRO 17:28, Even a fool, when he holds his peace, is counted as wise: and he that shuts up his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.
PRO 15:1, “A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger”.
Standing between them is a woman who has the Divine ability to fully understand the situation.
“Think twice before speaking once”.
Is wise advice.
2 ears 1 mouth, listen twice as much as you talk.
Watch how your man treats his mother…not just when your around and watching, but overall, because believe it or not, that has a lot to do with how he will treat you.
The Calebites were attached to the tribe of Judah; and since Judah would be the tribe most loyal to David.
If David had indeed done such a thing, it could have alienated the whole tribe of Judah. Another reason why Abigail and her involvement helped save David from that terrible mistake.
It might seem like David was operating like the mob, but David asking for supplies from Nabal were very much a part of the customs and standards of that time.
Without David’s wall of protection around Nabal’s flocks, there can be little doubt that Nabal’s flocks would have been taken away from him.
Nabal’s response infuriates David. He immediately orders two-thirds of his army (400 men) to strap on their swords and prepare for battle.
And Saul was David's bitter enemy; from Saul, David expected nothing except hatred, or even death; and now, because of a few hard, ugly words,
David felt that nothing but the blood of a whole family could pay for the insult.
Remember David was a warrior, and those 600 men with him were the special forces of the day.
Power only succumbs to power and even then reluctantly.
David’s thought process becomes very evident. He realizes how worthless all his good deeds to Nabal really were.
The thing is that David and his men could have easily done so. They were a powerful force.
The situation with Nabal did not warrant David killing him. He was Jew as well and taking vengeance upon him; as Abigail pointed out, was contrary to God’s law for David so to do.
Nabal was also a descendent of Caleb, so David killing him over this matter would have caused huge issues between the tribes.
In an attempt to ward off the bloodshed and save innocent lives, she asks for the blame to be hers.
What a contrast between Abigail’s wise humility and discernment and Nabal’s foolish pride.
Abigail’s skillful plea for mercy worked.
It was a sling that brought David to the attention of all Israel in his triumph over Goliath.
And she knew the story of David and the giant named Goliath.
Abigail’s wisdom here was surely inspired of God, because, David’s shedding the blood of Nabal would have started a blood feud among the clans.
David humbly received the rebuke of this woman, thanked her and thanked God that she had come to meet him with such a plea.
Nabal was dead wrong, dead drunk, and now dead physically!
Regardless, David remained a man after God’s heart despite all of his failures, and of course that is a lesson we can all learn.