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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
music music music music music music music music music music music music music Hey Sandal Church, thank you so much for being with us today. I want to start by just thanking my pastor and his wife for giving me this opportunity to share and to be able to share on such a special day. It's Mother's Day and to all the moms, Godmoms, aunts, sisters, grandmothers, mentors, spiritual mothers, all the women in our life that means so much. I just want to speak a word of blessing over you today and thank you for being here. I've done a lot of things in my life but clearly by far the hardest thing is being a mom. I used to be a mom. I used to say being a mom is hard but actually being a good mom is hard. And so it's a privilege and it's a blessing and it tests the Jesus in me every single day. And I'd love to start by just introducing my family. A lot of you know my husband Adam is the discipleship pastor here. And then I have three kids, my oldest son Elijah turned 20 this year. That doesn't feel real. My youngest two are twins. That's... Paying attention. My son, Betty, came home from Ethiopia seven years ago and my daughter Addison, she's the baby, she just turned 16. And you know, I know I'm speaking to all the moms when I say we always know we're not going to be perfect. But can we at least be present? And so when my kids were really little, I just made the decision I was going to try to be as present as I could and nurturing. So they would grow up with memories of me being there and us doing things together. And so when Elijah was about six and Addison was three, I had a routine where I put him on the bus in the mornings. And then I'd spend all morning with Addison. We'd run errands, we'd go to Target, we'd do nails, we'd play babies. And then I'd put her down for a nap and I'd get Elijah off the bus and we'd play cars and trucks and ball and do his homework and dinner and then bath and then bed. And then we'd do it all again the next day. All the young moms like I feel you, I feel you, I know that life right now. Stick with it. Okay, the days are long but the years really are short. But I remember when Elijah was in first grade, he brought home an invitation to a mother's day T. I could not wait to go to this mother's day T. It was like I'm really crushing the mother game, you know, so I just, I can't wait to go and be celebrated for it. And so we, we get to his classroom, the teacher welcomes us and she says, I thought it'd be fun to play a game to help us get to know each other. So this morning I called each student over to my desk individual and I asked them to describe their moms. And I wrote down exactly what they said. And so I'm going to start reading these descriptions out to you and what, and moms, hey, when you notice yourself, raise your hand and we'll see if you got it right. I'm like, this is couldn't be awesome. Like, of all the things I do with Elijah, I wonder which one he picked. I couldn't wait to see. And so she starts reading these things. My mom tickles me till I cry. My mom and I bake cookies and take him to the neighbors. Okay, good Samaritan, calm down. You bake, you take him to the neighbors. You know, my mom reads me stories and sings me a special song at night. Like all these things and the moms are raising their hands and that's me, it's me. And this is no exaggeration. She had one left and I hadn't had my net so I was just waiting. And she sort of pauses like I'm doing right now. And she goes, so, so this one says, my mom likes to lay on the couch watching young and the restless. And she says, why she eats ice cream and Christ. So I look at Elijah and he looks at me and he says, remember yesterday. I was like, remember yesterday. Oh, actually, son. Yes, I remember yesterday. Yesterday when I took your terrorist, toddler, sister to target and when she didn't get candy, she lay, prostrate on the floor and wouldn't get up. And when I tried to pick her up, she screamed, strange, it danger. You're not my mother. And I had to peel her off of the floor and strap her into a 10 point harness car seat and drive her home, throw her in the bed before you got off the bus. And yeah, buddy, did I need 15 minutes to decompress so that I could be fully present for you? And did I eat a Klondike bar? Shoot me. Do I remember yesterday, bro, you're never going to forget today. Let me tell you that right now. I was like mortified and I forgave him. I mean, I did ride him out of the will, but I forgave him. But I went home that night and I cried to my husband. I was like, I feel so unseen. Does what I'm doing make a difference? Does it matter? I'm trying to be so present. I'm trying to be so available. And clearly, it's not making a difference. And you know, listen, you don't have to be a mom to even feel that way. You could be showing up at work every day. I wonder, just my boss see me see the contributions that I'm trying to make. Maybe you're in a relationship with someone. You're like, I feel like they complete. It's completely lost on them, who I am, and what I'm bringing to our relationship. And if you're a parent and you're asking, do my kids see and appreciate the answer is no, they don't. But if you were to ask me, what's one of the things I love most about Jesus? It's that Jesus loved making the unseen feel seen. And the invisible, valuable, that's what he's good at. And that only did he do that when he was on earth in ministry. He's filled the scripture with stories of people that their stories we may never find. They're hidden deep within the pages of the word. But man, when we extract those and pull those out, there is something for us to learn. And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to go deep into the pages of the Old Testament for a story that you might not have ever heard with three characters, two of which maybe you know, but one you don't. And find out what God has to say to us in the story of someone who could, who could be laid what is insignificant. But she's not. The story is rich. And here's what I want you to do today. This is my ask. Don't listen to the story and detach yourself from it. Oh, that's what happened to them. Oh, that's an interesting story. I've never heard that before. I want you to find yourself in the story. I wonder if before we start today, you would pray God, how do you want to speak to me today? What's in this story for me? Because here's what I'm convinced. My time with God has convinced me of this. There is a word for you today. A word specifically from your father to you that he wants you to hear and receive and go forward and be different because of it. So pray with me, please Jesus speak to us through your word. Your word is alive and it's powerful and it is good for us. So show us what you want us to see and where you want us to make changes in your name we pray. Amen. So we're going to be in first Samuel 25. And we're going to, I'm just going to go through the story and we're going to make pit stops along the way. The first character we meet is verse 1. It says, then David moved down to the wilderness of Mayon. You've heard of King David. He's a superhero from the Bible. But in this story, David is not yet King. He is a warrior. He is a soldier. But he is on the run because King Saul is after him. You say, wait, didn't he kill Goliath? He did. He killed Goliath. He killed a lot of other enemies of Israel. He is a mighty warrior. And so all the guys who are finding themselves in the story gets probably me. I'm probably probably mighty warrior. David's probably me. Okay. But David gets so good that the women of Israel write a song. Saul has killed his thousands. That's pretty impressive. But David is 10,000. Saul didn't like that. Jealousy much. And so because in Saul becomes so filled with jealousy that he begins to hunt David. So now we see David in the wilderness of Mayon. He sort of collected a misfit army at this point. About 600 men. Some his family. Some down and outers. That's who he has. But he's in the wilderness. So just imagine he can't run to Target. He can't doordash his food. He is his life is in danger. And now he is responsible for all of these people. That's where we meet David. Verse two through three says, and there was a wealthy man for Mayon who owned property near the town of Carmel. He had three thousand sheep and 1,000 goats in today's economy. He is rich. And it was sheep sharing time. That's important. We're going to come back to that. The man's name was Neh-Bal and his wife Abigail was a sensible and beautiful woman. But Neh-Bal, a descendant of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings. Another translation says he was mean spirited, bad tempered, and an embarrassment to his tribe. Neh-Bal's name means full. And he was rich. And he was rude. And he was stingy. But his wife Abigail was a sensible and beautiful woman. And listen, the Bible is trying to let you know how beautiful she is. Because it only uses this word to describe two other women in all of the Bible and their beauty. Abigail, it's like she's a 10, but no, she's just a 10. Abigail is just a 10. She's all that and more. Well, how did she end up with Neh-Bal? Well, she didn't have a choice. Women in those days didn't get to choose who they wanted to be married to. It was chosen for them. So most likely, between the ages of 13 to 17, she was given to Neh-Bal, no choice of her own. And here is what happens. It's sheep sharing season. That's when they would have big parties, big celebration, and with 3000 sheep. Let me tell you something. Neh-Bal had a lot of rack of lamb to go around for everybody. Okay? He had plenty to go around. And David's got this band of army, this army in the wilderness. And they just want to eat. And so David does something very reasonable. He sends some of his messengers to Neh-Bal and he asks for a favor. He says, when he heard that Neh-Bal was sharing his sheep, he sent 10 of his young men to karma with the message. He's very kind and honoring. Peace and prosperity to you, your family, everything you own. I'm told it sheep sharing time. Remember that David was a shepherd years ago? He knows all about sheep sharing time. And I want to let you know that when your shepherds were near us, we never harmed them. Nothing was stolen from them. So would you be kind to us, Neh-Bal? Would you share any provisions you might have with your friend, David? Kind. He's being honoring. They gave the message to Neh-Bal and David's name and they waited for a reply. So here's how Neh-Bal responds with arrogance. Who is this fellow David? Let me explain something because David has gone viral at this point. Okay? If you opened up your phone and tiktok, there's David swinging that slingshot, hitting everyone's like, oh, shoot, dang. Like David's viral. Okay? Everybody knows who David is. So this is a mockery. He's being rude. And he says this, who does this son of Jesse think he is? Now listen, timeout. I don't know where you're from. But where I'm from? You don't talk about my mom or my daddy. Okay? I grew up in Jersey. Jersey has rules of its own. But even from a young age, I felt a fierce protection over my family. And I'll never forget there was a day I was about, I was about, about fourth grade. And at the time, my dad was a pastor at a smaller church in New Jersey and I had baby sisters and my mom was staying home. So we didn't have a lot of money. My parents made it go as far as they could and our needs were met. But I'll tell you what, my dad got paid once a month. And on payday, my mom would go to the store and on payday, the grocery store hall was good. We got name brand stuff. Okay? No more doctor thunder. We were getting Dr. Pepper. It was like, we couldn't wait for her to just open those bags up here. Come the real Pringles. Like, it was a party. But the day or two before payday, we were like, okay, we can make it. We can make it work. So my mom sent me to school and I had a snack and it was like basically like salty crackers, you know? I'm just sitting in my desk, mind my business eating my crackers. And the girl in front of me who was always rude turned around. She said, that's your snack. That's all you can, that's all you could afford for snack. And she sort of elbows the girl next to her and they turn and they start laughing. And I became filled with rage. And I just finished my snack. And a few minutes later, the teacher said, take out your homework assignment, pass it to the person behind you. We're going to check, we're going to check and see what, how you did. The Lord is good. And so we had like 10 questions. She got seven wrong. I was red marker all over that paper. And right when the teacher's like, okay, hand it back, I had this moment. And I felt like it was the Lord speaking to me, but I'm not sure. But at the bottom of her paper, I wrote, I may be poor, but you're dumb and money can't fix that. It probably wasn't the Lord, but it came to me in that moment. And I wanted to be found faithful. So listen, you talk about someone's family. That's a different level of anger, right? That's a different level of, we are not okay. And so here's how David responds. His young men come back and tell him what Neybaugh said. And I love the Bible. David says, get your sorts. He was from Jersey. Get your sorts. And the Bible goes on to say, as he strapped on his own. In other words, imagine this. David's under the tree. He sent his men. He's thinking about some rock lamb, some goat's milk, some some figs. He's in his mind. By the end of the day, boy's going to be full. And I know how I get when I know I'm about to be full because I love to eat. When they came back with what with what Neybaugh had said, David went into full blown rage. So angry. Get your sorts. And listen to what it says. He took 400 of his men and left 200. Neybaugh's rich. He might have 50, 100, maybe 150 sermons. David's taking 400 men because David's not going for a little confrontation. He's going for annihilation. You won't feed me. I will kill you. I feel that sometimes. But I want you to pay attention to this. What we see is we see David react rather than respond. And the difference between those two is what I call a pause. Sometimes a holy pause. Dad's, what are you like when you're angry? How do your kids experience you when you're angry, when you're triggered, when someone takes you to the next level? Do they feel unafraid? I mean, do they feel afraid? Unsafe? Anxious? Dad's in so many ways you set the temperature for your home. Learning to respond rather than react. Teach your children how they can grow into the character that God wants for them. Listen to what it says in James 119 and 20. Understand this. You must all be quick to listen. Slow to speak and what? Slow to get angry. Why? Because human anger does not produce the righteousness, God desires. We are rarely righteous when we're reacting. Righteousness comes when we are responding. Neighbors servants go back and tell Abigail what happened. They basically give her the whole story and he tell her. But Neighbors screamed insults at them and they go on to explain to her that while they were tending to sheep, that's going to make the celebration possible, David's men were actually protecting them and keeping harm from coming to them. And they said, in fact, day and night they were like a wall of protection to us. And Abigail, listen, you need to know this and figure out what to do. There's going to be trouble for our master and all of us if we don't do something. And I love this because here's what this tells us that Abigail had gained a reputation for being wise, for being sensible, and for knowing how to respond in moments of crisis. What's your reputation like? Do people come to you for advice? Do people know that they can trust you to give them wisdom and wise counsel? Let's be honest, we can fake it today because you know what we can do? We can post about wisdom, but not actually practice it. We can find that last thing, Lisa Tercour said, that last thing Pastor Matt said and we can post it. But actually be living something completely different. Abigail was living out her wisdom and her sensibility every day that her servants knew she's going to know what to do. She's going to help us get out of this and I love her response in verses 18 and 19. It says Abigail wasted no time, no the difference. Nave all wasted no time being rude. David wasted no time going into a rage and Abigail wasted no time being reasonable and rational because she was wise. The next verses tell us she gathers a feast. Golden Carouse on crack, she's bringing it all. 200 loads of bread, two wine skins full of wine, five sheep, a bushel of grain. I mean she just said load it up, boys, get it ready. And then she says go ahead I'll follow you shortly and don't miss this. But she didn't tell her husband, Nave all what she was doing. Now why is that important? Because another part about being wise is knowing when to share and when to stay silent. Man, what if we apply this to our social media influence? You see something, you hear something, someone does something and you're mad and what do you do? You sit down and tell the whole world what you would do better and different because you're better and you're different. Sometimes you know we need to do church, American church, we need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. By talking about this Jesus who's amazing, who's been who's been everything, who's changed everything for us and then engage in the world the way that everybody else does. What if we were instead guided by wisdom like Abigail? And I want you to imagine how afraid she must have felt. She has no standing, no clout, David has no obligation to listen to her or anything she has to say. He could kill her and no one would care. And there's David and 400 men coming and it says as she was riding her donkey into the mountain ravine she saw David and his men coming toward her. What did that feel like? But it's never wrong to do the right thing. Hey, if this message has been an impact to you, I would love for you to give and you can do so by going to donate.se. For now, let's get back into the message. And David was ranting. Has your rage ever sent you into a ramp? Someone cuts you off on their freeway and you have that initial rage and then you ramp for 10 minutes. Let me see that dude in 7-11. Let me find, let me tell you, I'm a, I'm called, like you're, and your kids, my kids are always like, he's going and I, he, here's what David says. God strike and kill me. If one person in his household is alive tomorrow morning, David is level 10. And then we have the longest recorded speech by a woman in scripture in these next verses. Do not miss what Abigail does and says and note the character traits that we see. When she saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and she bowed low before him. Do you know how to be humble? Do you know how to be humble when you feel wronged or someone that you love is wronged? Do you know how to move into a confrontation with the spirit of humility? She fell at his feet and she says, I accept all blame in this matter. She had done nothing wrong. She could have said, listen, my heart, like just take him out. I be happier, you be, I accept all blame, she says. But he's a fool, I says name suggests. She didn't have to call me fool, his name means fool. And now she says this and now my Lord, a term of honor. As surely as the Lord lives in you, your self-live, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nebel. And here is a present I have brought to you and your young man and she was generous. Man is your life marked by generosity. Please forgive me, if I offended you and anyway the Lord will surely reward you with the lasting dynasty. For you are fighting the Lord's battles. Abigail knows all about David, so she shows him honor. And even when you're chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord, your God. And when the Lord has done all he promised and made you lead her visceral, listen to this. Don't let this, don't let this be a blemish on your record. She decides to be courageous and speak vision and a prophetic word over the man who would be king. Then your conscience won't have to bear the staggering burden of needless, bloodshed, and vengeance. She's giving him wise counsel. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, you're sermon. This is what I love about this. I had my own time of celebration with the Lord when we went through the scripture together. Abigail mentions David by a term of honor, my Lord, two times. But she mentions the Lord seven times. David, I respect you, but there's someone I respect even more. David, I know who you are, but David, I know who you are. And here's why this is remarkable. Abigail most likely was not educated, had not been taught the Torah, was not being led spiritually by Nabah. So do you know what she was doing, ladies? She was feeding and leading herself spiritually. Single girls step into my office. Some of you have decided that the worst thing in the world is to be single. That's a different sermon, because I disagree with that, but let's just go with that. You think that's the worst thing, there's something worse than being single? It's being spiritually mature. What if you spent less time searching and sometimes stalking calm down girls, the thirsty calm down? And more time studying. This is who I am in Christ. This is what Jesus says about me. This is where my beauty comes from. When you're not spiritually mature, you become, let's be real friends, girls, a hot mess. And when you're a hot mess, you know what you're going to attract? Another hot mess. And then y'all are going to spawn hot messes and send them to us at church. You're like, you made that mess. Feed yourself, lead yourself. Married ladies, if you are married to a man who loves God, loves you, loves your kids, loves the church, sister to sister, thank him more and nag him less. Because there are women who would give anything, anything to have that. One of the godliest women that I know is my mother-in-law. And for years, Adam's father was not a believer. Basically an agnostic. And for almost 20 years, she got her three children up and took them to church. She taught them how to serve. She studied her Bible. She hosted Bible study at their house. She served in the church. She did that all while she continued to honor and love and respect her unbelieving husband. And you want to know what God did? When he was in his early 40s and needed open heart surgery. And he was faced with his mortality in a way he had never been before. And realized, my life might be coming to an end. He didn't call a priest. He didn't call a pastor. He called his wife. And she led him to faith and secured his eternal salvation. And it's because she was leading and feeding herself spiritually. Women, God does not want to be a stranger to you. You are an image bearer of God so seek him and pursue him with your whole heart and your whole mind no matter what anybody else is doing around you. Abigail makes this speech. I mean, give that woman an Oscar. She makes a speech. And David says, praise the Lord who has sent you to meet me today. You know what he says? Thank God for your good sense. And all women said, yes, Lord. Bless you for keeping me from murder and carrying out vengeance. And then he says, I swear by the Lord God of Israel. If you would not hurry it out to meet me, no one in your house will be alive tomorrow morning. She saved 50, 100, even more people. He says, return home and peace. I've heard you and we will not kill your husband. How does Abigail feel getting back on that donkey? Right? Like someone she's throwing her party. She's sharing should now be an honor of Abigail. But guess what guess what she returns home to? Nebaw was throwing a big party celebrating like a king very drunk. So you know what? She didn't tell him anything about her meeting with David until the next day. Again, her wisdom now is not the time to tell him what I need to tell him. And women, here's another, here's another moment we can learn from. To be wise, even when we tell things or want to share things that are important to us, understanding that timing is important. In the morning when Nebaw was sober, she told him what happened. And as a result, he had a stroke. And he lay paralyzed on his bed like a stone, listen to this, and 10 leaders, the Lord struck him and he died. Because he was a foolish man. Do you know what I want to ask someone in here today, someone across our campuses or wherever you're watching from? And maybe there's people in your life who are asking you this very same question. When are you finished being foolish? When are you done being dumb? Like when is that over for you? When will you make the decision that you're going to be finished with your foolishness because you understand that it's costing you something and it's costing the ones who love you something as well? Nebaw had no idea that that was going to be his last party. Some of y'all need to hear today your last party is coming. Because listen to what Psalm 107 17 says, some people became fools, infected by their rebellious ways and sickness followed because of their sins. God works like that. Yes, sometimes God's finished with your foolishness. And what I want you to hear today is God, if you're here today, God's love and mercy can cover your foolishness if you're willing to be finished. But that's a decision that you have to make. So here's we get to the end of the story. Pray for David, y'all. When David heard Nebaw was that he said, praise the Lord. I mean, he didn't take a moment and say rest in peace or he just... David needs some soul care training. Nebaw has received the punishment for his sin. And then you know what he says? He sent his messenger to ask Abigail to become his wife. And she's happy to marry David. She says, she'll be willing to become a slave washing his feet. Calm down Abigail. And then it says, and so she became his wife. Now listen, when I was telling this story to my 16 year old daughter and I got to that verse, and so she became his wife. She was like, slay. Let's go. Just like Netflix wrote it. I said, we got to go another verse, babe. Verse 43 says, But David also married. And oh, in a him, I can say that word. Making both of them his wives. Yeah, she's not married to Nebaw anymore. And he was mean. But David's not monogamous. And some people say, well, that was common. That doesn't matter. These people are human, just like you and me. For you to watch your one and only husband go to bed with his other wife, never felt good. In fact, what I imagine is it felt pretty bad. And actually in a few chapters beyond this, David's enemies come and they actually capture Abigail and his other wife. And they don't kill them, but what happened to them? Were they tortured, raped, beaten? David goes on to get eight wives. And as beautiful as she was, remember, she's a ten. The one he loved the most was the one he had an affair with. So my question is, Man, what happens to you? What happens to your faith when the victory doesn't feel victorious? When life just punches you in the gut and you're like, I didn't see this coming. When life feels pretty bad, we could go around and we could all share about a bad night that we've had. When life got pretty bad, for me by far, February 2013, worst night of my life. When my husband had a heart attack in our bed, when my two little children slept across the hall in their rooms. And when we sat in the family room waiting for the paramedics to come, he began to talk to me like this was the last time he was ever going to see me. And I just tried to detach from the moment. It's probably his gallbladder, it's probably acid reflux, it's probably fine. He goes away in the ambulance and I sit there and I'm waiting to just hear he's going to need out patient surgery. It's all going to be fine, but that's not the call that came. The call that came was get someone to come stay with your kids and get to the hospital. We need to medevac him to a different hospital to save his life. And I've never, ever felt fear like I felt in that moment. Everything about it felt bad. You know, I wanted to have that and in that moment I felt the goodness of God, I didn't. I didn't. I felt alone, I felt afraid, I felt terrified. I got someone to come stay with my kids, someone to take me to the hospital. And by that time I got there, the procedure was done and he was alive and know that I was grateful. And he got on heart meds and we had to start living with this new reality of heart disease. And in my mind, I'm like, we're going to take meds and he's going to be fine and we're not ever going to have to worry about this again but then five years later, I'm in a hospital waiting room again because he needed more sense. And that's when I got real with God because I was angry. Because this didn't feel good at all. And I had mapped out a really good life for myself. I married a good husband, we had good kids, we were in a good church, we had good friends, we had good friends. We had good jobs, we lived in a good house, we felt fulfilled, we were doing things in a wise and honorable way so that we could receive blessing and this didn't feel good. And isn't good what we always want. That sure looks good, that song sounds good, he looks good, she looks good. How you doing good? We want the good, isn't that wrong? No, it is not wrong to want the good. We're human, of course we want the good but in my anger and when I got real with God and God wasn't afraid to get real with me and I said this isn't good, God said to me melody has your good become your God. I've given you these good things and they are good. But when it's bad, I'm still God and I'm still good. And that's what I needed to hear and you my friend, it is not wrong for you to want good things but it is wrong for you to worship them. And here's how you know the difference when your circumstances disintegrate what happens to your faith. When the good things get taken away, when you get rescued from one tragedy but you find yourself in another, betrayed, rejected, sick, alone. That is when you have to ask yourself the question, has my good become my God because any good thing that you're worshiping will always be a terrible God. It will never satisfy you, it will never fulfill you, it will never give you the joy that serving God and worshiping God always will. You know what God was calling me to? And maybe he's calling you to this today too and it's not a one time decision. But he's calling us to surrender. Surrender. All my hopes. All my dreams. All my plans. God, my kids. My job. My financial security. My 401k. All of it. It's all yours. Doesn't belong to me. I'm sturdying it for as long as you give it to me but it all belongs to you. And it's a recurring thing to come back to surrender. You can never do it once and walk away because something else is going to come vying for the attention and affection. You can never do it once and walk away because of your heart and you're going to have to surrender that to that relationship. He's my everything. That's a shame. He's going to fail you if you're everything. He's your everything. You're going to be good. You're going to be good. Surrender is really hard in the garden. Jesus said, my father, if there's any way, get me out of this. If you ever pray that, God, get me out of this. But then he goes on. But please not what I want. In our humanity, surrender is really, really hard. But here's what I want you to hear today. In determining what's ultimately good. Not temporarily good. Not today good. Not earthly good. But in determining what is ultimately good, God's compass is not our comfort. God is forever committed to you, but he is not committed to your comfort nor see committed to mine. And I will tell you why because in our moments of discomfort and when we're uncomfortable, we seek him way more. And he wants to be known and he wants to know you and he's calling us to do a really courageous thing by surrendering. And I don't know what that is for you today. What you need to surrender. Maybe you're sitting in a happily ever after that has crumbled right in front of you. And your heart is broken. Will you surrender that to a good God? Maybe it's your foolishness like Nebaugh and living your life the way that you want to instead of the way that he wants you to. And he's asking you today, would you surrender your life and your will? Maybe you like David's struggle with anger and you're filled with bitterness, resentment, someone wronged you, betrayed you, rejected you and you can't let it go. And today God's asking you, will you surrender that to me? Listen, here's how I know we can surrender because Jesus makes us a promise. That if we cast all our cares on him, he will care for us in your heartbreak and in your heartache, in your sickness, in your aloneness, in your anxiety, in your fear. He will meet you and he will care for you. One of the greatest lessons we can ever learn is this, that the strength of our faith can be measured by the strength of our surrender. The strength of your faith can be measured by the strength of your surrender. So where are you willing to say, God, I'm going to step back and give you all of me, all of me, because you're good. And I don't want to worship good things. I want to worship you and you're the giver of good things. So it all belongs to you. And I can trust that this is eternally good for me, even if it's temporarily bad right now. God is calling us all to surrender. And so in this moment, I just want you, after you found yourself in the story, after you've asked God to speak to you right now, what is he asking you to do? What is he asking you to bring before him? Jesus, we cannot surrender on our own. Sometimes surrender, it feels like our hearts are being ripped out. But God, we know this is what you want. And God, we know that we can trust you. And for anyone here today, God, who's really asking that question, can I trust you? I pray that you would make yourself so real to them right now. Your presence, that we would begin to value your presence and see it as goodness when things are bad. God, would you make us wise like Abigail? Wise as we navigate the complexities of life, wise as we navigate criticism, wise as we navigate relationships, God, keep us humble and keep us at your feet. God, I want you to have your way today. As you are speaking to your children, make your voice heard loud and clear what you're asking them to do and God make us courageous enough. To obey, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.