This month in worship we are talking about “Game Changers”. I got this slogan from Chad. We love football at our house, so as Chad recalculates the plays he will end the big ones with “that’s a game changer”. So I started thinking about what a game changer would look like spiritually. We defined Game Changer in worship as an event that totally, and radically affects someone’s life for the good.
So as we get started let me ask you a question, “Are you a game changer, or a spectator?” You see there are people who are always willing to see a need, but few who are willing to go out and meet the need.
In 1 Samuel 25 we find a man by the name of Nabal. Nabal was known for being a rich man with thousands of sheep and goats, but was also known for attributes of harshness, and arrogance. David had been on the run from Saul, and ended up in the Desert of Paran, close to Nabal. It was the time of the sheep sheering celebration. (say that three times fast) The Bible tells us that David and his men had been providing protection for Nabal’s men as they went about their jobs. After it was over there would be a huge celebration with great food and wine. So in return for the protection David freely offered, he asks Nabal for food and goods for his men. This was very common and is actually still practiced today. When Nabal denied David’s reasonable request with words of contempt, David’s men were ordered to strap on their swords.
Have you ever witnessed an ego battle? This is exactly what is about to take place. Two men are about to let their pride override what is best for everyone around them. Nabal is thinking how dare he assume he should get what is mine. David is on the other side thinking how dare he not give us what he owes. So David is literally about to march into a town and level it with 400 men. David has been in a lot of battles for the Lord, but this one is simply for him. Nowhere do we see God commanding him to go, but instead his flesh drawing him into battle.
Then enters Abigail into the picture. She is unaware anything is going on until her servants bring her the message of Nabal’s insults to David. The Bible says, “18 Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs[b] of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. 21 David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!” 23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet…..
Let’s stop and really visualize this in our mind. Here is a woman who is married to a very mean, and unloving man. She has just found out he has insulted the next King to be, and her whole family is about to be destroyed. She gathers a ridiculous amount of food together in record time, and rides as fast as she can to confront 400 men looking for a battle. I don’t know about you, but I like her. She is riding into what could easily be her beheading, yet she presses forward. Immediately when she gets off the donkey she falls before David. Notice what Abigail does neutralizes David’s anger. She is on her face before him calling him master eleven times, and herself his servant six times. She is defusing the situation with humility. She knows God would not want him to shed blood over someone like Nabal, so she continually reminds him of the God he serves. She reminds me of the verse found in Proverbs "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Could it be that Abigail has just stopped 400 warriors in their tracks because of a kind word? I think we easily under estimate the power of words. It's easy to be loud, and always have the answers, but its totally different to choose a servants words. Due to Abigail's good judgment, and kind words, she in fact stopped 400 warriors where they stood.
I find it fascinating that only one chapter ago David spared Saul’s life after being hunted like an animal, and now he wants to destroy a whole city because of a small offense. When left to our own we will always fail God. I am so thankful for the Abigail’s in life that help keep us on track. David has this to say to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. 34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”
Have you ever had an Abigail in your life? Sometimes things are hard to hear, and we really don’t like the message, but it’s exactly what we need. There have been times in my life I have taken offense at first to advise, but in the end it saved me so much heartache. I am truly thankful for the Abigail’s that are willing to stand up and remind me it is about God’s plan, not my own plan. Abigail was no doubt a “Game Changer” that saved not only her family, but David from having needless blood on his hands. God never promises it will be easy, but that He will be with us. Are you willing to be a “Game Changer” or are you content to live on the sidelines only seeing the need, but never meeting it? I encourage you today to get in the game!!
So as we get started let me ask you a question, “Are you a game changer, or a spectator?” You see there are people who are always willing to see a need, but few who are willing to go out and meet the need.
In 1 Samuel 25 we find a man by the name of Nabal. Nabal was known for being a rich man with thousands of sheep and goats, but was also known for attributes of harshness, and arrogance. David had been on the run from Saul, and ended up in the Desert of Paran, close to Nabal. It was the time of the sheep sheering celebration. (say that three times fast) The Bible tells us that David and his men had been providing protection for Nabal’s men as they went about their jobs. After it was over there would be a huge celebration with great food and wine. So in return for the protection David freely offered, he asks Nabal for food and goods for his men. This was very common and is actually still practiced today. When Nabal denied David’s reasonable request with words of contempt, David’s men were ordered to strap on their swords.
Have you ever witnessed an ego battle? This is exactly what is about to take place. Two men are about to let their pride override what is best for everyone around them. Nabal is thinking how dare he assume he should get what is mine. David is on the other side thinking how dare he not give us what he owes. So David is literally about to march into a town and level it with 400 men. David has been in a lot of battles for the Lord, but this one is simply for him. Nowhere do we see God commanding him to go, but instead his flesh drawing him into battle.
Then enters Abigail into the picture. She is unaware anything is going on until her servants bring her the message of Nabal’s insults to David. The Bible says, “18 Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs[b] of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. 21 David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!” 23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet…..
Let’s stop and really visualize this in our mind. Here is a woman who is married to a very mean, and unloving man. She has just found out he has insulted the next King to be, and her whole family is about to be destroyed. She gathers a ridiculous amount of food together in record time, and rides as fast as she can to confront 400 men looking for a battle. I don’t know about you, but I like her. She is riding into what could easily be her beheading, yet she presses forward. Immediately when she gets off the donkey she falls before David. Notice what Abigail does neutralizes David’s anger. She is on her face before him calling him master eleven times, and herself his servant six times. She is defusing the situation with humility. She knows God would not want him to shed blood over someone like Nabal, so she continually reminds him of the God he serves. She reminds me of the verse found in Proverbs "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." Could it be that Abigail has just stopped 400 warriors in their tracks because of a kind word? I think we easily under estimate the power of words. It's easy to be loud, and always have the answers, but its totally different to choose a servants words. Due to Abigail's good judgment, and kind words, she in fact stopped 400 warriors where they stood.
I find it fascinating that only one chapter ago David spared Saul’s life after being hunted like an animal, and now he wants to destroy a whole city because of a small offense. When left to our own we will always fail God. I am so thankful for the Abigail’s in life that help keep us on track. David has this to say to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. 34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”
Have you ever had an Abigail in your life? Sometimes things are hard to hear, and we really don’t like the message, but it’s exactly what we need. There have been times in my life I have taken offense at first to advise, but in the end it saved me so much heartache. I am truly thankful for the Abigail’s that are willing to stand up and remind me it is about God’s plan, not my own plan. Abigail was no doubt a “Game Changer” that saved not only her family, but David from having needless blood on his hands. God never promises it will be easy, but that He will be with us. Are you willing to be a “Game Changer” or are you content to live on the sidelines only seeing the need, but never meeting it? I encourage you today to get in the game!!
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