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The title of my sermon this evening is Be an Abigail, Be an Abigail. We have a really interesting story here, and we have a lot of information about a young lady named Abigail in the Bible, and this is a very cool story, there's a lot of interesting things that are going on, but as I was reading this, I felt like Abigail, this character really kind of stood out to me in this section, and there was a lot of things that we see, a lot of good qualities we see in Abigail in this chapter. In fact, it kind of reminds me of Proverbs 31, where we just see constant good attributes and different things that we can kind of pick out of the story and look at Abigail and see a lot of her qualities that she has, and really, it's not like a three-point sermon. This is going to be simply just going through and looking at all the different qualities that Abigail has, because there's literally dozens of things that we could take out of the story and see all the good attributes and qualities of Abigail, and how we should strive to be like Abigail, and while obviously this goal of this sermon would be more geared towards women, because Abigail might be a little bit more applicable of a character for her, us as men could still gain some wisdom and just some good qualities from her as well. But look back at verse number 18, the Bible says this, it says, then Abigail made haste, and really this is kind of an entrance to Abigail. We have in verse number 14, it says, but one of the young men told Abigail Nabal's wife, saying, the old David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he railed on them. So in this story, we have David is trying to get food for his men, he's trying to get some kind of goods, and he has protected Nabal for a very long time. He's done good on Nabal, he's been a blessing on Nabal, and so it's just expected that Nabal would be willing to help David, to help his men, to bless them for all the good that he's done unto them. But instead of returning good for good, Nabal returns evil for good and ends up railing on David. Now, railing here is the fact that he's lying about David, he's slandering David, he's bringing up a false accusation and railing against David, and the servants of Nabal realize how bad their master is. They realize that their master is an evil, wicked person. So they go to Abigail and they tell her about this problem. And what I like in verse number 18, it says, then Abigail made haste. Notice that whenever there's a problem, she tries to immediately solve the problem. She's very quick to get to work, she's a hard worker, and she's not someone that's just going to lay around and waste time and, well, I'm kind of watching this TV show, let me wait until it finishes, or, you know, well, I'm kind of doing my hair. She made haste to fix and rectify a problem once it had been identified. And if you keep your finger, go to Proverbs chapter 31 for a moment, go to Proverbs chapter 31. A good quality in someone is someone that will work quickly, that will respond to a negative situation quickly. They won't drag their feet, they won't take a long time to make some kind of a decision. And in fact, as you read this story, you find out that if Abigail had not hasted, if she had not quickly responded, then they would have all been wiped out. David would have come quickly and would have destroyed every single one that pissed against the wall, as he said. He even told Abigail, you needed to haste. I mean, if you had not hasted and come to meet me, if you hadn't rectified this problem quickly, we would have been destroyed. And, you know, there's going to be problems in this world, problems in your life that they have to be fixed quickly or you will be destroyed. You know, you look at America and man, when it comes to all the problems in our government, if there's not a quick rectification, just destruction. You know, whenever you identify wicked evil people, you have to quickly destroy them. You can't just wait around and just like, I don't know. I mean, when they were talking about defunding the police, these Antifa, you know, rioters and whatever these leftists, they say, well, these cops, they're just so quick to get in there and shoot and, you know, respond to the threat. We need to have social workers going out there with them and try to talk down, you know, these people that are upset or you're not going to talk down criminals, okay? Well, let's talk about your father real quick. You know, why are you pointing a gun at everybody? You know, why are you shooting everybody? But sometimes you just need to quickly respond to a negative situation and I appreciate that about Abigail, that when there's a negative situation, she responds quickly and she's going to do a lot of work here. She's a hard worker. Look at Proverbs 31 verse 27. She looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. So Proverbs 31 is known as being the proverbial woman, a woman who someone to be praised, someone to look up to. It's kind of an ideal. You know, I don't believe that anybody is going to be the Proverbs 31 woman. It's like no man is going to be Christ, okay? Christ is our ideal. We're never going to arrive. And you know, a woman is never going to arrive on this list. So if you guys are thinking like, well, you're not Proverbs 31, you need to first be thinking like, well, you're not Christ, okay, all right? Quit trying to think like, well, I haven't found her yet. I've been looking at, you know, she checks Mark's a couple of these off and it's like, well, you're not there yet either. And additionally, when it comes to the Proverbs 31 woman, she's already married with kids, okay? You single guys, that's not the woman you're supposed to be looking for anyways, all right? You should be looking for, you know, someone different. But obviously, you know, the Proverbs 31 woman is just an ideal. It's something to strive for. It's something to look towards. And one of those qualities is a woman that would work hard, a woman that doesn't eat the bread of idleness. She's not laying around just feeding herself. No, she's working hard. She's feeding others. She's doing good. And that's what Abigail does in this story. She quickly responds and she's going to work very hard to serve others. Additionally, go back if you would, keep your finger here. But go right back. I want to just flip back and forth real quick. Let's read a little bit more of this story. It says this. Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched corn and 100 clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs and laid them on asses. She said to her servants, go on before me, behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal. So in verse number 18, not only does she quickly work, but she gets a lot of food. I mean, this is a very generous portion. A lot of food is being given. And another quality is that a Proverbs woman would be someone who's very generous. Go and look at verse number 20, Proverbs 31 verse 20. She stretches out her hand to the poor, yea, she reaches forth her hands to the needy. So notice a Proverbs 31 woman is one that's not only concerned with herself, she's concerned with the wellbeing of other people. And not even just those in her own house, but even people outside of her house, she's worried and concerned for other people because she's a liberal person, not our modern definition, but a generous person. You know, a liberal person in the Bible is a good thing. You know, it's someone that's willing to distribute, someone that's willing to communicate, someone who's willing to help others, they give. And obviously, liberals, they love to take good terms and add them to themselves. But it's fake, okay? They're not actually generous. They call themselves liberal because they want to sound good. Just like they call themselves gay because they don't want to say, hey, I'm a pervert, you know, faggot sodomite. You know, they're not like, hey, I'm a reprobate. That's what I am. They're not going to call themselves gay because they're happy. You know what? They're the least thing from happy. And liberals are the least thing from generous. You know, Joe Biden, like they calculated how much money he's given to charity and his entire like life or something. And it's like $500 or something. It's like under $1,400 or something. And it was funny. Obviously, this isn't right, okay? But this guy named Steven Crowder, he was like, we're going to give more money than Joe Biden. So they gave like $1 more than him to charity and they're like, we're more generous than Joe Biden. But it was just a publicity stunt or whatever. But it's just funny. These guys, they talk about how liberal they are and how wonderful they are and how generous they are and they want to help everyone. Yet, when you actually look at them on the inside, it's fake. When you look at what they really do, it's fake. They're lying. But Abigail is not that person. Abigail genuinely cares about the poor. She genuinely cares about those that are in need. And when you help those that are in need, the Bible says you're not even supposed to let your left hand know what your right hand doeth. You don't know when you need to go around and sing praises and tell everybody all the good things that you do. Maybe Joe Biden's really generous and private and we just don't know. I'll let you think about that, all right? But as we learn about Abigail, one of the cool things, she's quick to respond, she's hard working, she's generous, but we also read in verse number 19, it says that she did not tell her husband Nabal. Now what you have to understand is Abigail is actually a very good example in every way in this chapter. I couldn't identify anything that she did wrong. Now I don't want you to get the wrong idea though about this chapter because the Bible makes it clear that a wife is to obey her husband in every situation, but that has a context defined around it, okay? Keep your finger here and go to Ephesians, chapter number five, because we're going to be coming back to first Samuel 25, but go to Ephesians, chapter number five, and I want to explain something here. Now some people will go so extreme, you know, they're independent from the Baptist, but they'll go so extreme, they'll say that a wife is to obey her husband no matter what he says, period. That there would never be a caveat, there would never be any example in which a wife should technically disobey her husband, and you say, well where would they come up with an idea like that? Well look at verse 24, Ephesians, chapter five, verse 24, it says this, Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wise be to their own husbands in everything. Now what they'll do is they'll take this verse and they'll say, see, everything. But here's the problem with that. Sometimes a husband can tell his wife to do something that's sinful. Sometimes a husband could potentially want his wife to sin with him, and the Bible does not command women to obey their husband against the commandments of God. The Bible teaches that you are supposed to obey God above every relationship, humanly speaking, even a spousal relationship. But notice that as the church is subject unto Christ, here's the thing, how many times is Christ going to tell you to do something that's sinful? Never. So in the same way that the church is always going to be subject unto Christ in following God's commandments, so should a wife be obedient to her husband in following God's commandments. And I'll say this, I also believe because there could be discrepancy, right? Let's say a husband believes the Bible says A and the wife says B, well you should give your husband the benefit of the doubt in every single situation. I mean if it's clear cut in the Bible and you know for 100% fact that what your husband's telling you wrong, then I do believe the Bible would give the precedent of saying, okay, you can disregard that. But in every other situation, whether you're going to go to eat, what you're going to wear, what you're going to do, I mean that is for your husband to decide. Now go to 1 Peter chapter 3, I'm going to show you another verse there, 1 Peter 3, and then Abigail, I believe would be a very obedient wife, it's just she has a different kind of husband than all the rest of the women in the world. She has a reprobate husband, okay, she has a very wicked husband. The Bible says he's a son of Belial, she says he's a son of Belial, the Bible shows him to be a son of Belial. It says in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 1, look at this, likewise ye wives being subject to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wise. So first of all, the Bible says you should be subject unto your husband like the church is to Christ. So obviously you would follow all of Christ's commandments in relation to marriage. But then even beyond that, the Bible says that even if your husband was not saved, okay, even if your husband was not saved, or let's say he is saved, but he's not following God's commandments, you should still be subject unto him, generally speaking. Even if he's backslidden, even if he's wrong, as long as the commandment he's giving you is not violating clear scripture, then you're supposed to obey. A wife who's saved and loves God and her husband doesn't go to church, if he says, make me a sandwich, you make him a sandwich. He says, I don't want tomato, you don't put tomato. He says, I want you to cut off the crust, you cut off the crust. That's what the Bible teaches, okay? Just like men who go to work, if their boss is unsaved, if he says, make me a sandwich, you make him a sandwich. You're like, oh, you're so misogynistic. No, I just appreciate authority. And look, it's no different than going to work. You know, these women that want to be feminists and they want to say, oh, I can't believe it's women that obey their husband. It's like, what, are you going to go to work and obey O'Karen? How is that any better? How is it any better to obey your manager than to obey your husband? Your husband loves you, your manager doesn't, Karen doesn't care about you, okay? You know, you're the company, they might tell you that they love you, they're flattering you. Okay? They don't. All right? Especially if you work for like Amazon or a big company, like they really don't, okay? So I said that to then go to Acts 5. Go to Acts chapter number 5. I want to show a clear example though because someone would say, no, I think that even if the husband said, kill someone, you should do it. I think even if the husband told you, don't ever go to church, you should do it. I think if the husband said, don't read the Bible, you should do it. That's wrong. I believe a woman that, you know, is saved, if she's trying to serve God, she should read her Bible no matter what the husband says. She should go to church no matter what the husband says. Now if it's an argument of which church, you know, as long as it's within the commandments of God, obey your husband. But at the end of the day, you know, if push comes to shove and your husband's telling you to do something that's wicked, he's trying to get you to break God's commandments, there is no biblical precedent for a woman to do so. And in fact, you will be punished severely for breaking God's commandments, even if your husband tells you to do it. And I'm going to show you an example of this. Look at Acts chapter number five and look at verse number seven. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out and buried him. I'm sorry, I read verse six. But that's, this is talking about Ananias. Ananias lied to the church. He died. They carried him out, verse seven. And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. What was she doing? Three and a half hours, a lot of makeup, all right. Verse number eight. And Peter answered her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, yea, for so much. Then Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them, which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out. Now here's the thing. If your husband tells you, hey, this is how much we sold it for, you're going to tell the church that, should you obey the husband or should you be honest? Well, when she obeyed her husband or agreed with her husband, what happened? She died. What should she have done? No, we didn't. Then what would have happened? She would have lived. This is a direct example of how obedience to a husband and violation of God's commandments is wrong. Because there is no human relationship that ever is acceptable to elevate above the Lord. You should always elevate the Lord. Now go back to First Samuel chapter number 25. Think about what's happening. David is expecting some kind of blessing from Nabal and the family, and Nabal's rejecting it. Think, what's the right thing to do? To bless David. That's the right thing to do. Even if the husband is not going to do it, she still is supposed to bless David and help David so she does it and does not tell her husband. You say, in normal circumstances, this would be wrong. Hey, if someone comes up to my household and says, hey, give me money, and I say no, it's not for my wife to then grab my wallet and start handing the guy money. But if I'm a reprobate and is in clear violation of God's commandments, she can do what God said. Because that would be appropriate, and in fact, what she's doing is going to save not only her and her husband, but it's going to save the whole household. She knows, if I don't bless David, everyone in my house is going to die. Let me give you an example of what this could look like in a modern application. What if a husband told his wife, don't preach any of our children the gospel or anybody the gospel? What should she do? She should preach them the gospel. Because if she doesn't, they'll die. And notice, if she's not going to bless David, what's going to happen? All of the servants of the entire house are going to die. Why is that acceptable? Why would that be the right decision to be in obedience to that? No, it's in clear violation of what would be right. And she is a mother, in a sense, to these servants. She's the one in charge. She's the one making decisions, potentially, too. She's a protector. And you know, this is what I appreciate. She has a reprobate husband, but she's willing to protect people from her reprobate husband. She's willing to guard people from the reprobate husband. She stays close to him so that she can protect even the servants. And you know, there could be a mother who has to protect her children from a reprobate husband. There could be women who have to protect their family from a reprobate in the family. It may not even be the husband. It could be the father. It could be a father-in-law. It could be the uncle. It could be anybody in the household. But you know what? A woman still has authority over those children and over her household and over the servants. And you know what? It's her responsibility to also keep them safe. And I like that Abigail is a protector. She's one that's willing to guard her household from evil that's going to come upon them. She's not going to just sit there and just say, well, I don't think I can do anything to help anybody. You know, there's no election fraud, I guess. You know, what am I going to do? You know, nope. She's going to get in the game. She's going to say, hey, you know what? There's a problem here, and I'm going to fix it. She's not going to say, like, I can't kill the scorpion, you know. I can't kill the cockroach. I can't kill. Hey, if there's a real danger to your household, kill it. You know, get rid of it. And I like that about her. Let's look at verse number 23. Verse 25, verse 23. And when Abigail saw David, she hasted and lied it off the ass and fell before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground. So now here's the thing. Abigail, she comes and she meets them. She brings the offering to David. She rides out to him. And I like what it says in verse 23, it says, she hasted. So notice, she's never stopped quickly working. She's always, she's just always hasting. She's just always ready to do the work. And you know what? I like people who drive fast, all right. I don't like people that mosey around or just slow. I like for people to get things done. And you know what is a good quality is someone that works hard and works fast. There's no benefit in working slow, okay. I like people that do things quickly. And look, obviously not hastily, but you're working at a good pace. You're working at a good tempo, okay. It makes sense to work hard. And I like the fact that she does this. Not only that, whenever she hates off of this and she lights off this ass, notice what she does. She fell before David on her face, immediate respect, immediate. She hasn't even met David. She doesn't even, like, and it's, we don't know that she's ever even seen David necessarily. But what does she do? She immediately bows herself down. She immediately shows respect to David. She immediately humbles herself. The word humble simply means she's just lower. And what does it, falling down and it's showing reverence, it's showing respect unto David. She's humbling herself to David. You know, she's a person that's not so prideful and like, I'm Nabal's wife, who are, you know. You know, there's these like trophy wives and they go around and they just, you know, these country club wives, the Stepford wives, the real housewives of Dallas. You know, they go around and they have to flaunt their stuff. They could never bow down to anything. They could never show respect to anyone. You know, that's a bad attitude. You know, even the first lady of the United States, okay, she should still be a willing person to humble herself. You know, I don't care what status you have. You can be humble. You can be respectful to David. And I really appreciate that about her. Not only that though, she shows an ultimate picture of humility here, an ultimate picture and really of Christ. That's what I like about Abigail is there's so many characters in the Bible that picture Christ here. But notice what she says. Let's keep reading. She fell before David on her face, bowed herself to the ground and fell at his feet and said upon me my Lord, upon me let this iniquity be and let thine handmaid I pray thee speak in thine audience and hear the words of thine handmaid. Let not my Lord I pray thee regard this man of Belial even Nabal for as his name is so is he Nabal is his name and folly is with him. But I thy handmaid saw not the young man of my Lord whom thou didst send. Now therefore my Lord as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth seeing the Lord hath withhold in thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging myself with thine own hand. Now let thine enemies and they that seek evil of my Lord be as Nabal. Now look at what it says in verse 28. I pray thee forgive the trespass of thine handmaid but the Lord will certainly make my Lord a surety house. She is immediately apologizing and saying this is my fault. All of the sin, all the iniquity of Nabal just lay upon me. That's a very humble attitude because frankly speaking isn't it pretty easy for her to say it's not my fault? He said she didn't even see them. Nabal talked to them. She didn't even see them. It's not her fault at all in fact. Now go to Isaiah chapter 53. This is the most perfect picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because he's the perfect spotless lamb. He did nothing wrong at all. But what does he do? He took all of the iniquity upon himself. Look what it says in Isaiah chapter 53. Look at verse number 4. Surely you have borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. Notice what the Bible is saying. The Bible is saying look, it was our transgressions. It was our iniquities. Verse number 6. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. You know what? Abigail is actually a perfect picture of Christ. How she comes and she takes the iniquity of Nabal upon herself. You know what's really epic about this is Nabal is like a reprobate. The Bible makes it clear that the Lord tastes the death for every man. There's people that Jesus Christ died for that will never get saved. That's an incredible sacrifice. That's an incredible humbling and offering that Jesus not only died for us, he also bought them. He also paid for them. He's also their propitiation. He's also their savior. They just rejected him. He's literally going to save Nabal. Nabal will be spared because of him, but then because he rejects what she did, he's going to die. He's going to split hell wide open. But we have to understand that she is like Christ here. She's willing to take the faults of other people. Let me ask you this. How willing are you to take someone else's fault? Or anytime someone does something wrong and it's not your fault, it was their fault. It was the woman that you gave me. You know, it's always the woman's fault, right? At work, in any position, look, when you're in leadership, you should honestly just always just take the responsibility. In any kind of leadership. Something goes wrong, it's your fault. Look, she didn't even see. She didn't even talk to him and she says, it's my fault. She takes responsibility. She takes ownership for the problem and she fixes the problem. She humbles herself and she says, you know what, I'll fix it. And a good attitude of a good leader in any position is that when something goes wrong, they take ownership of the problem and they fix it. Even if it wasn't technically their fault. Hey, Jesus Christ did that for you, okay? I think you can take ownership of a few extra faults every once in a while. Some people, most people in fact, won't even take ownership of their faults, let alone the faults of others. But you know, a godly person, a person that's going to be like Abigail, they'll take the fault of people that aren't even, it's not even their fault, they're taking other faults upon themselves. They're taking other iniquities. They're taking other transgressions. They're being a mediator. You know, the apostle Paul is doing this for Onesimus in the book of Philemon. He says, put that on my account. He says, hey, whatever he did wrong, just charge it to my account and just let me pay for that. Let me take that. This is another picture of Christ making intercession for us, allowing his blood to atone for our transgressions and sins. This is the type of attitude we should have towards people. Now, I like verse number 25. Let's go back. I know we read some of this, but look at verse 25 again. Let not my Lord, I pray thee, regard this man Abilio. You know what I like about this? She is the ultimate person that's not a respecter of persons. Because if you can call your own husband a reprobate, then you're not a respecter of persons. Okay? Because if there's one person that you're pretty much going to guard, it would be your spouse, right? I mean, in fact, even according to the Bill of Rights, you don't even have to testify against your spouse in a court of law. But notice, she's just forthcoming. Yeah, this guy's a man Abilio. I mean, his name's Nabal and so his name is. It's Folly. You know, this guy's just an idiot. This guy's stupid. This guy's of the devil. That's what she's saying about her husband. Now I'll say this. A spouse should never criticize their spouse, except for in this case. If they are truly a reprobate, I'll take that one off the table. But in normal circumstances, and look, I'm not saying like you don't like them. I'm not saying like they divorced you or something. I'm saying like they're a literal pedophile, faggot, you know, they're a known reprobate. It's not even questionable. Everyone would agree. Okay? Then you can take that off the table. Otherwise, you shouldn't criticize your spouse. I don't care how burnt the food is, okay? You don't complain. You choke it down. All right? You get lots of water and you just choke it down. I don't care how much of a jerk he is. I don't care what he says. I don't care what he does. You're like, man, this guy's lazy and he just orders me around and I feel like he doesn't even care. And for Valentine's, we watched psychopath reprobates. It's like, you know, it's like for Valentine's, he took me out shooting. You know, it's like some women might like that, all right? You got a real winner, all right? But I'm just saying like it doesn't matter. You don't go around and gossip and tattletale on your spouse. Don't take this the wrong way. She's saying this because it's true. She's saying this because he's a reprobate and she's saying this to let David know that she understands the situation and it's only because she's not a respecter of persons that she's willing to make these type of statements. And you know what? We should not be respecters of persons. Hey, if someone in our life is wicked, call them wicked. I don't care if it's your brother. I don't care if it's your uncle. I don't care if it's your pastor, Manly Perry. Hey, if your pastor's evil, he's evil. Don't be a respecter of persons today. Be an Abigail. Be an Abigail and say, you know what? This guy is Nabal, Bali. No one can speak to him and he doesn't know David. Sounds like it fits. All right? If the glove fits, all right? Look at verse number 26 again. I want another point here out of verse 25. I'm sorry. There's just so much here. But I also like this out of verse 25. She's very wise because you know, identifying the reprobate, identifying her husband being this bad person, and you know, making all these decisions is not someone of low level of intelligence, low level IQ, or low wisdom. This is a person of high wisdom. And she's going to give really good advice to David on not going and killing Nabal and killing all the household, but rather just allowing the Lord to avenge. That's great advice. And even David himself commends her on such great advice. Keep your finger, go to Proverbs 31 again. Go to Proverbs chapter 31. David said, and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou. So David really commends Abigail's advice. He likes her and she's a very intelligent woman. You know, obviously they'll say, oh, you got, you don't want your wife to go to college and you don't want your daughters to go to college. You just want them to be dumb. You just want them to be, you know, imbeciles. No, that's not true. I want my wife to be the smartest person on the planet. There's nothing that wants me to stop my wife from having intelligence. And you know what? Women should not cease to try and gain knowledge or gain wisdom. And I'll tell you this, homeschooling moms, I guarantee they're going to kick the butt of any of these other women when it comes to knowledge and education because they have to do the material again. And you know, doing that material again, you're going to relearn it. You're going to learn a lot of things. I forget a lot. High school, I didn't really learn anything anyways, but the stuff that I did, I forgot. You know, I'm not going to, you know, the finer tunings of geometry and trigonometry and all the aspects of English language and stuff, I've forgotten a lot of that. I've forgotten a lot about the history. You know, a woman that's actively teaching her children, she's going to know those things better in many cases. And you know, they should be reading the Bible. They should be reading the Bible to their children. They should know what the Bible says. Just because you're a woman, do not think that you shouldn't be able to know the Bible better than any other person. You should know the Bible just as well as anybody. It says this in Proverbs 31 verse 26, she opened her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness. So notice the Proverbs 31 woman, she opens her mouth with wisdom. But the only way to have wisdom is to get it from God. Is to actually study the Bible yourself and to read the Bible yourself. And you know what? You can't fake it. Even if you go to church three times a week, you will not be wise. You have to read the Bible. And you know what? I don't want my, I don't think, well, my, my, it's my wife, she can read the Bible, you know, a quarter of what I do or a half of what I do. I hope she reads it more. I don't want my wife to think like, oh, you're, you're not as important. You knowing the Bible is less important. I think it's more important. She's raising my children. And you know what? I would rather teach you guys, but I would rather my children know more Bible than you guys. Sorry. You know, I'd rather my wife be teaching them all the Bible and they know the stories and they get all the good doctrine from her at home. You know, I don't want them to, to go without any kind of education. And you know what? Abigail, she has good advice. She has great wisdom. That didn't just happen magically. And let me tell you this, you don't get wise just magically. You don't get wise watching YouTube. You get wise reading and specifically reading the Bible. Okay. Go to first the image 25. You can tell people that don't read because they can't write well. They can't speak well. They can't spell at all. Okay. People don't know how to spell at all anymore. It's crazy. I, you know, I like to test people in our preaching class and other things and I'll give them written tests. The spelling is really bad. Okay. And you know, honestly, if you don't write a lot and you don't read a lot, your spelling is terrible. And you know what? Don't let word fix all your problems for you. You should be highly educated and you know, above and beyond the normal person. Don't think, well, we don't have Bible college so we can just slack off. No, we should be smarter than the Bible college students. You know, I don't want to think like, oh man, we can't compete with the Bible college students. I want to think my worst person's 10 times better than the Bible college students. And you know how you get that? Reading the Bible. Yeah. By writing things, by studying, by working, that's, you know, we should not elevate, you know, idiocracy. You know. I'm not going to get up here and, oh, you believe the Bible? We're from the south in Texas and we believe the Bible, God bless God. I can't even understand half the words in the chapter but I believe them by faith, brother. I got me an education and good stuff. We're not a bunch of bumpkins in here, okay, and I don't like bumpkins, you know. I'd rather you just, you know, be educated. I'm not looking to be as dumb as I can. I'm looking to be as smart as I can, okay. I'm trying to be like Christ. Christ wasn't stupid. They loved what he said. He didn't go around fumbling and bumbling and just, you know, an ignoramus. No, he actually was very intelligent. Now, I had you go back to 1 Samuel 25. Look at verse number 28. This is an important verse. It says, I pray thee, forgive the trespasses of thine handmaid, the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house because my Lord fighteth the battles of the Lord and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. Now, what I like about this verse when you think about the context and I know we haven't read all the context but just once. But if you can kind of remember, Nabal rails on David by saying that he doesn't know him. He's like, who's David? You know, who's this guy or whatever. But notice what Abigail's attitude is. She says, because my Lord fighteth the battles of the Lord. She knows who David is. She's not ignorant of David. She's not saying, oh, who's David? She's like, you're the guy fighting the Lord's battles. Notice, and evil hath not been found in me all thy days. She knows who David is, okay. She's very aware of who he is. Now, who does David often picture in the Bible? Christ. And notice, she knows who Christ is and she knows that Christ is what? Perfect. Because notice, there's no evil in David. There's no evil in Christ. But you know who doesn't? Nabal. Nabal, well, who's Jesus? You know why? Because he's reprobate. He doesn't even want to retain God in his knowledge. Even though it's obvious, even though who David is is obvious, even though it's been showed unto him, even though he's been protecting him, even though he's his savior, he doesn't want to know who David is. He pushes him out of his mind because he's a reprobate. That's why. But notice, Abigail knows exactly who he is. Picture of the saved versus the unsaved. Go if you would to Exodus, or no, I'm sorry, go to John chapter five for a moment. Go to John chapter number five. I want to show you a few verses here. And the saved know who Christ is, the unsaved don't. John chapter number five, they can say, oh, I know who Jesus is. No, you don't. Oh, let me tell you what the Bible says. You don't know what the Bible says. They're Jesus of fake Jesus. John chapter five verse 36, the Bible says, but I have greater witness than that of John for the works of the Father have given me to finish the same works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father has sent me and the Father himself which hath sent me hath borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape and you have not his word abiding in you for whom he hath sent him you believe not. So notice, they've never heard the voice of God. They haven't even seen his shape. They're saying like, you don't know God. Go if you would to John chapter eight. Look at verse number 42. John chapter eight verse 42. Jesus said unto them, if God were your Father, you would love me for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me. There's your modalist just destruction right there. Verse 43, why do you not understand my speech, Tyler Baker, even because he cannot hear my word? You have your father the devil and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth. Because there is no truth in him. That's why he doesn't like memes. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, even if it's in memes, you believe me not. Why? Because which of you convinces me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words. He therefore hear them not because you're not of God. Notice why they can't know David. Notice why they can't know David because they're not of God. Notice why they can't know Christ because they're not of God. Why is it when you can show them the Bible they just don't get it because they're not of God, my friend? Go to 1 John chapter 4, 1 John chapter 4. Look, who cares the medium? Who cares if it's a text, a picture, a meme, a letter, a video? Look, if it's the truth, it's the truth. If it's a lie, it's a lie. I don't care. The prettiest lie is still worse than the ugliest truth. 1 John chapter 4, look at verse number 5. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Nabal can't know who David is. He doesn't want to know who David is, but Abigail knows who David is. Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 25. I love this about her. She knows God and she knows God's servants. Hey, when you reject Jesus, you're rejecting God. And when you're rejecting David, you're rejecting God. And you know what? When you hate the brethren, you hate God. If you say that you love God and hate your brother, you're a liar. That's what the Bible says. Now, 1 Samuel 25. I want to back up and look at verse 28. I'm sorry, verse 26. Go back to verse 26. I know we've been kind of cherry picking a lot of this, but look what it says. Now therefore my Lord, as Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies and they that seek evil to my Lord be as Nabal. Now, you know what she's doing? She's praying imprecatory prayers in a sense. She's cursing Nabal. She's not afraid to curse. Now, you know why? She probably reads Psalms. Go to Psalms 58. You know, if you read Psalms, you're going to be a lot less afraid to pray an imprecatory prayer. Okay? You actually understand you're supposed to be singing them, not just praying them. And you know what? She curses her husband. Now, that's an extreme thing to do. And again, I make it clear here, this guy's a reprobate. Okay? If someone found themselves in that situation, curse. Hey, I'm with you. She's like, I hope that all your enemies are like my husband, Nabal, and he's going to be destroyed of the Lord. All right? Psalm 58, look at verse 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent. They are like the death adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hear the voice of charmers charming never so wisely. Break their teeth, oh God, in their mouth. That's curb checking. Okay? Break out the great teeth of the young lions, oh Lord. Let them melt away as waters which runneth continually. When he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces as a snail which melteth. Let every one of them pass away like the untimely birth of a woman. That they may not see the sun. That doesn't sound nice. That's about as mean as it gets. Let's see if we can find meaner. All right? Psalm 69. Psalm 69. You're never supposed to be singing this in church, okay? Someone needs to break out the hymnal or the harp or something to get attuned to this bad boy. Psalm 69, verse 21. They gave me also gall for my meat and my thirst. They gave me vinegar to drink. Hey, you remember when he talked about that verse this morning that was fulfilled? It's here. Verse 22. So what about the people that did this, all right? Let their table become a snare before them and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loins continually to shake. He's saying, I hope they're afraid every single second. He says this. Pour out thine indignation upon them and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate and let none dwell in their tents, for they persecute him, whom thou hast mended, and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous. Now, some people get mad because they say, oh, you guys reprobate everyone. If this is not reprobating someone, then I don't know what is. He says, let them be blotted out of the book of the living. That's literal reprobation. Okay? That's what you're supposed to sing. Okay? Oh, you guys reprobate too many people. Well, I don't feel like you're reprobating anyone. You should be ashamed that you're not reprobating anybody. There's plenty to reprobate out there, all right? Go back. And we see, be like an Abigail. She reprobated her husband. Now, I'm not saying reprobate your husband. I'm saying if he is, all right? You can curse him. But notice, that's what the Bible's teaching, okay? And, you know, for some people, this is actually comforting because if I have a pedophile faggot husband, you know, if I was a woman and I was married to a dude and I had that, I wouldn't want to have to hear, you know, sermons and say, obey him no matter what. You're thinking like, what? You know, let your children still be around him. I'd be thinking like, everything inside of me would be like, I hope he dies and goes to hell every second. You know, why would God want to sit there and vex that person? That person actually gets comfort and realizes, you know what? I'm just going to pray and ask God to curse him every day, just every single day. And you know what? That's my prayer with every single woman that has in that situation, you know, because that's a horrible situation to be in. You know, would to God we'd have godly laws and put these people to death. But because we can't, you know, we have to ask the Lord to help us. Okay. Verse 25, look what it says in verse number 29. Yet a man has risen to pursue thee and to seek thy soul, but the soul of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God, and the souls of thine enemies, them, shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. And it shall come to pass the Lord shall have done to my Lord, according to all the good that he has spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed the ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offensive heart unto my Lord, either that thou shed blood causeless, or that my Lord has avenged himself. When the Lord shall have dealt well with my Lord, then remember thine handmaid. I like this. She trusts in the Lord. And if you're a woman who's married to a reprobate, and you're just still in the house in a level of submission, but you're not doing what he wants necessarily, like as far as violating God's commandments, that takes a lot of trust in the Lord to avenge her of that situation, doesn't it? And take a lot of trust for a woman to just be content to wait for the Lord to avenge. She might want to take action in her own hands, get the sawn-off shotgun or something, or go after him or do whatever, but she's content to trust the Lord, and so she can give that same advice to David by saying, David, I know you can kill this guy, but don't. Hey, you're going to be king one day. Hey, God's going to put you in charge of everything. And then when you're in charge, you're going to be well off to think, you know what, I'm glad I didn't avenge Nabal myself. I let God do it. It won't be any kind of grief. You won't have anything to have offense. No one has anything to say against you. No one can be like, should you have really killed Nabal there? Because when God does it, you're free and clear. It's not really blood on your hands in any way. You're clean of everything. And so she's one who trusts in the Lord's deliverance. And that's a quality that it's hard for us. Not want to avenge ourselves. And not avenging yourself, let's understand this, okay? She still publicly marks Nabal. She still prays and curses Nabal. So then if I call out a false prophet, and I say, this guy's teaching false doctrine, and I hope that God punishes him, that's not me avenging myself. Avenging myself would be physically attacking them. Or harassing their church, like calling their phone number, and being like, hey, who's there? Are you the pastor? Hey. And then hanging up or something. That's avenging myself. Harassing them, calling them, doing something to try to attack them. That's avenging myself. Calling the IRS on them. Calling CPS on them. That's, in my opinion, avenging myself. Unless it was legit. Obviously, if you're reporting a crime, report a crime. I'm just saying, just making crap up. Trying to attack them for no reason or whatever. That would be evil. We should just let God do it. Just let God deliver you. Let the Lord save you and rescue you. Verse number 30. And it shall come to pass, according to my Lord, according to all the good that he hath spoken. He knows the Bible. She knows that God spoke about David. You know why? Because she reads her Bible. She knows what the Bible says. Verse 31. And this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offense of heart unto my Lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my Lord hath avenged himself. But when the Lord shall have dealt well with my Lord, then remember thine handmaiden. You know what she really just wants to do, just to serve God? And she's in a bad situation. But she's just like, you know what? Somehow God's going to deliver me at some point. And when God delivers you, please remember me, because I want to serve God too. Notice that's what she wants. And you know what? God's going to grant that request. Go to verse 36. I'm going to kind of speed up. I have a few more points. Verse 36. And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken. Wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. Now this shows some discretion. She realizes because he's drunken and not in a good state, she's not even going to waste time talking to him. He's going to let him go to sleep, then get sobered up, and then she's going to let him know how much he sucks, all right? Verse number 37. But it came to pass in the morning when wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wine had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and it became as a stone. Now this is like a physical picture of a reprobate. How he's still physically alive, but his heart is dead within him. The Bible says twice dead, plucked up by the roots. And the Bible talks about the gospel going into your heart. When your heart is dead as a stone, the seed is just going to bounce off. It just has no effect. There's no way for it to implant. There's no way for it to spring forth. It's just died within him. But he's not physically dead. This is a picture of a reprobate. They're spiritually dead, even though they're physically alive. Now, she's bold, because she told him what happened, and that would have included saying, I hope you die. I hope all the enemies die like you. That's pretty bold to tell your husband. And notice, whenever she tells him that, his heart dies within him. And you know what? The righteous are as bold as the lion, but the wicked flee when no man pursueeth. We should get in the face of the wicked and tell them what God says about them, and not be afraid of their faces, not be afraid of them. They're the ones that are going to shake. They're the ones that are terrified. They're the ones that have something to fear. We have nothing to fear. Jesus Christ got in the face of the Pharisees and called them children of the devil. He didn't just like, oh, you guys are great. I like your long dresses. They're great. Prancing around in them. No. He said, beware of these guys. You know, you think that our preaching's bold? Jesus' preaching gets people in the room. He's publicly marking the false prophet in the room. That's way harder. You know, that's way more hardcore. Okay? That's boldness to call people out right in just front of everyone. Now, verse number 38, it says this. And it came to pass about 10 days after that the Lord smote Nabal that he died. So for 10 days, he was just this like physical reprobate, in a sense. Then he eventually dies. And he was reprobate before that. I think this is just a picture to show you what reprobate looks like. It says, verse 39, when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, blessed be the Lord. Oh, he's excited that someone died. He wasn't sad that the sodomites got shot in the gay nightclub. He said, praise God. Hey, every time a fag dies, blessed be the Lord. Then hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil. For the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent a commune with Abigail to take her to him to wife. And when the servants of David were come to Abigail, to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David, sent us unto thee to take thee to him to wife. She arose and bowed herself on her face to the earth and said, Behold, let thine hand make be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. Now, there's a couple things here that's cool. She becomes his wife and, obviously, from a carnal sense, he shouldn't keep getting married and married and married. But the reason why this is happening, I think, is just a picture of the bride of Christ. You know, we are joined unto Christ and we get saved and we get to be his servants. That's one kind of a picture here. This is what I really like. David is the top guy. Like, if there was someone, if you're a lady and you're thinking, like, who's the best guy to marry? It's David. He's the best guy looking wise. You know, he's really handsome. He's the best warrior. He's in charge. I mean, he's the heartthrob, all right? It's David. And she gets to be David's wife, which would seemingly be a position of prominence, too, of elevation. I mean, now she's the second in charge. But what's her initial response to that news? What's the initial thought that comes into her mind? When she's going to be elevated to the highest position that she could possibly elevate it to, she bowed herself on her face to the earth and said, behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my Lord. Even when risen to the highest position of authority she could possibly have risen to, she wants to serve. And she wants to serve his servants. You know, some people think, like, I can't wait to be a pastor. Pastor in lights. You know, the position of pastor should be the one that says, I want to serve everyone. Hey, any position of leadership should be to serve. Any time you get risen to a position of preeminence, don't let that go to your head. She could have been like, all right, carry my stuff, guys. Lift me up. Put me on the finest camel. Wash my feet. And here's the thing. If she had said, wash my feet, they would have washed her feet. She's now the wife of David. If she had said, you know, snap and was like, give me new clothes, do whatever, they would have done it all. You know, there's a lot of women that would do that. But what did she do? She washed her face and she washed their feet. Another picture of whom? Christ. Because he went and he washed his disciples' feet. Go to John 13. Let's read a few verses there. John chapter 13. Be like Abigail. Be like Abigail that no matter what position you find yourself in, you're always ready to serve. You're always esteeming other better than yourself. You're not looking to see. She didn't want to be David's wife so that she could live the high life. She just wanted to serve God. And now, instead of serving Nabal and his servants, she now gets to serve David and his servants. She's just glad she's serving the right people now. She gets to serve better people now. John chapter 13, verse number 14. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I send you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. Neither he that is sent is greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them. You know, the happiest person on the planet is the person who serves. Not the person that's risen to the highest level of prominence. Not the person that's being served, but rather the person who's serving. And you know what? Christ gets to serve us. And that's the example he set for us to serve. Now, one last point that I want to make is this. Also, she never assumes any position of prominence. She's not a presumptuous woman. Even though she's now going to be David's wife, she still again goes straight into service, not into assuming that they are her servants now. Which she could have. She could have presumed that now, or presumed other things. Or even when she asked David to remember, she could have said, make me your wife because of my good advice, or something. But she didn't do that. And let me tell you this. It's a bad quality in someone that presumes things. Go to Luke chapter 14, Luke chapter number 14. You want to be like Abigail, never presume anything. And you know, even when I knew that Steadfast Baptist Church was going to go through a hard time losing their pastor, and I called Pastor Anderson and I asked about the situation, I just said, how can I help? I'll do anything. And then he said, what about be the pastor? What if I called Pastor Anderson and said like, Pastor Anderson, make me the pastor? That would be very presumptuous, wouldn't it? That would be self-willed. That would be a very poor quality in a person. To just presume things. You know, people will come up to you and they'll say, let me do X, Y, and Z. Why are you so presumptuous? Why don't you just say, hey, I want to be used, and then just accept whatever that position is. And sometimes you can't use somebody. You have to wait. But I keep that in my mind and I think, okay, when the opportunity comes, I'll use that person. But the person that comes to you, trying to dictate what they're going to do, that's a bad attitude, okay? Look at Luke chapter 14, verse number 8. When thou are bidden to any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room, lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden of him, and he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, give this man place, and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. Now, I'll give you a guy that's like this, Chad Morgan, okay? Chad Morgan texted me after I became the pastor of steadfast or it was clear that I was becoming the pastor. He texted me and said, hey, brother, I'm ready to preach at Pure Words whenever you need me. And I'm thinking, like, I don't remember asking. You know, don't presume anything. Now, if he had said, hey, brother, I know that you've got all these opportunities and you've got all these things you're dealing with, if you ever need any help, I'm willing to help you in any way that I can. And then maybe I'd think, yeah, I could use this guy to preach or something or I could use this guy to do something. You know what, don't presume, because then when the person's like, you're not the right fit, it's like, oh. Or they're like, that's a great idea. I'm gonna let someone else do that. Go to Esther chapter six. We'll finish in Esther. You know, the Bible says, but when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meet with thee. You know, don't sit in the front seat. No, just kidding. Because you can only go backwards. Sit in the lowest seat, because then you can only go forwards. You know, look how to serve people. Don't look how to be served. And any person that wants to be in a position of leadership, this is, you know, or is in a position of leadership, please, please only care about serving other people. Because when you start getting presumptuous and you start thinking about serving yourself, that's when, you know, I'm gonna be rubbed the wrong way. And not just me, everyone. Everyone gets rubbed the wrong way when people become presumptuous, when they start self-exalting, self, you know, they're self-absorbed. They're only thinking about them. You know, the person that you want to elevate is the one that's always concerned with other people and what they can do for other people and trying to promote other people. That is the greatest person. Esther chapter six, look at verse six. So Haman came in. The king couldn't sleep. Haman comes in. The king said unto him, What shall be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor? Now Haman thought in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself? There's every single person on the planet and Haman's like, there's no one. It could be but me. I mean, it's definitely me. This is the ultimate picture of presumptuous. And Haman answered the king, For the man whom the king delighteth to honor, wink, wink, nod, nod, let the royal apparel be brought, which the king useth aware, and the horse that the king rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head, and let his apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal, whom the king delighteth to honor, and bring him on horseback through the street of the city and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delighteth to honor. Then the king said to Haman, Make haste. He knows, make haste, all right. That should be your life verse. And take the apparel of the horse as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew. Oh, man, that must have stung. Oh, man, I would have loved to have seen his face. He's just like, what? You know, what's going on? You know, Mordecai? And he's like, That thou saidest in the king's aid, Let nothing fail of all that thou spoke. And it's so weird because he wants to be what? Like the most high? And guess who ends up getting to be like the most high? Mordecai. You know what? He wants to be the most high? The devil. Who ends up getting to be the most high? Jesus. What does the devil try to do? He tries to resume to be the greatest thing on the planet. What does Jesus do? He lowers himself to be the least thing on the planet. And then what does God do? He elevates him to the highest. Look, Abigail, you know why she rose to such a high level of prominence? Because she humbled herself. When you humble yourself, you're going to be exalted. And a good lady that also didn't presume was Esther. Chapter 8, look at verse 4. Then the king held out the golden scepter toward Esther. So Esther rose and stood before the king and said, If it pleased the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the things seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his sight. This is a lot of caveats. Let it be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hamadatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews, which are in all the king's provinces. You know what's so incredible about this verse? Is it was obvious that Haman devised this wicked plan to kill all of the Jews in Esther. It would seem only logical for him to want to reverse that, or to go back on that. But she doesn't even presume that. She just says, Hey, look, if I'm pleasing in my sight, and this is exactly what you want to do, and you're completely okay with it, please, can we fix this obvious issue that should be fixed? Why? Because he's not presumptuous. And you know what? God's people, we should not be presumptuous. We should be like Abigail. Let me give you a quick rundown. She's quick to respond. She's a hard worker. She's generous. She protects people from her reprobate. She protects her children. She haces. She's respectful. She takes the iniquity of others. She's not a respecter of persons. She's perceptive. She's wise. She gives good advice. She prays imprecatory prayers. She knows who David is. She trusts in the Lord's deliverance. She knows the Bible. She wants to serve the Lord. She has discretion and understanding. She's bold. And when her day came to be queen, so as it was, she was a humble servant that washed the feet of God's people. Wouldn't it be great if that's what was said about you? Let's be like an Abigail. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you for this great story and these great pictures of people who lived a very humble life of service. And we know that it was nothing in comparison of what you did, Jesus, for us. But I pray that we take the examples of Christ, we take the examples of Abigail and that we would apply them in our own lives and we'd try to be more Christ-like in 2021. We wouldn't try to be like the devil. We wouldn't try to be like Haman. We wouldn't try to be like Nabal. But rather, we would humble ourselves and lower ourselves and esteem other better than ourselves. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.