Real Life Radio

David J.: Today, on Real Life Radio.

Jack Hibbs: What Paul says here in Philippians 4:9, what you've learned and received and heard and saw in my life, do those things. That's the example of the Christian walk in life. We should be able to turn to someone and say, watch my life, listen, watch my life and live it.

David J.: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J., thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

Hey everybody, on February 11th, that's a Wednesday night at 7:00 PM Pacific Time, I'm going to invite you to sit down with me as I interview Hedieh Mirahmadi. She was once a Muslim, born and raised in the Islamic world, and having heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, came to know the Lord. We're going to sit down and talk about the world around us, about faith, and about our country. So join us Wednesday, February 11th at 7:00 PM Pacific Time on the Real Life Network. Go to reallifenetwork.com.

On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues now with his series called First Samuel and a message titled, "How to Handle the Fool, Part One." Samuel of the Old Testament was the last judge of Israel and the first of her prophets.

So here in chapter 25, we'll consider how even though Samuel has now passed on, David, prone to his own humanity and passion, was still a blessing to those around him. You see, our human nature is always tempted to seek its own before anyone or anything.

But the life of a wise man is a powerful example to all those who look on. Saul, of course, ignored the example of Samuel, and here we'll see that a man named Nabal ignored the example of David. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that when we fail to embrace godly examples, we ourselves are acting like fools.

But if we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and seek him first, God promises to direct our paths. Now, with his message called, "How to Handle the Fool, Part One," here's pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: How to handle the fool. Now, no one, please, go up to Lisa afterwards and ask her how. But we might say, we're all fools or foolish. The Bible says and teaches clearly that foolishness is bound up in our hearts. Did you know that? It's in us. It's like a cancer. Foolishness.

When we do something that you know you did wrong, or I know that I did wrong, it was a stupid decision. It wasn't necessarily a sin. We're not talking about sin. We're just talking about a bad choice where we might expend energy or money in a direction that was not a good thing to have done. That's a foolish decision.

We step into those decisions because, quite frankly, we don't wait on the Lord. It happens every time. When we fail to wait on God, we make foolish decisions. All of us have made them. Some of us are in the process of making them and will make them in the future. The beautiful thing is that we can take this message tonight and apply it to our lives and minimize the damage in our lives from here on out.

But the message specifically deals with a man by the name of Nabal. Nabal, his name in Hebrew means not only fool, but his name in Hebrew means the chief or head fool, the supreme knucklehead. Nabal. He's married to a wonderful, beautiful, godly woman by the name of Abigail, and David and his men will become very involved in their lives.

This chapter is a fantastic chapter in that it's so bluntly honest in the Bible here about the Holy Spirit himself making very clear, as he is the spirit of truth, the Bible tells us, that the biblical account of David is a man after God's own heart. We've read that before, that David is a man after God's own heart.

But we're going to see tonight that David now begins to, as it were, possess his own heart. He begins to make a stupid and foolish decision, all because Nabal is being a stupid and foolish man. Many times we'll get drawn into a situation because we may be walking with the Lord and we may be doing fine.

We may be handling situations in the previous chapter really good, like David handled with Saul. Remember with the cutting off of the robe in the cave and how David so godlily presented himself, a man under control? And then the very next chapter, another man's sinful acts get David to crawl right down in the gutter and almost commit the very same shameful things.

That's an important thing for us to realize, how we conduct ourselves in the witness of a believer and that we don't want to be the fool. By way of introduction, Proverbs Chapter 3, verses five and six says, "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart." We could close our Bibles and go home right with that.

Isn't that enough? We could preach on that until the Lord comes back. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Am I trusting in the Lord? Am I trusting in the Lord with all of my heart? What does it mean to trust in the Lord with all of my heart? We could spend forever on that one. Lean not to your own understanding. Why? Because that's when we become fools.

In all of your ways acknowledge him, that is seek him first, and he shall, that is he will, direct your paths. That is a promise from God. Proverbs Chapter 3, an absolute promise that he will lead and guide and bring you to success in the ways of the Lord and in the ways of life. We need to keep that in mind.

So as we look to our study this evening, we're going to go as far as we can and we'll just handle it like that rather than rush through this chapter and beat it to death. We're talking tonight about how to handle the fool. The first thing that we see in our study together is verses one through nine of chapter 25, and that is know that life will have its fools.

Just resolve yourself to that now. Life will have its fools. They will come into our lives. The world will see to it, the flesh will see to it, and Satan will see to it. There will be fools that come into our lives. Now, listen carefully. Jesus warned us to not call anyone a fool. Did you know that? In the Sermon on the Mount, he said, "Don't call anybody a fool."

The main reason why is because when you call somebody a fool, you're actually attacking God in his creative work regarding that person. In other words, you're calling God a poor manufacturer because this guy, and the word is *raca*, it means empty head. This guy's got an empty head. God says, "Don't do that. Don't tell people that they're a fool."

If you do that, you're in danger of hellfire yourself because you were condemning somebody. It's not judgment of evaluation, it's condemnation. You are judging someone to condemn them. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Don't do that." But yet we have Nabal tonight in our study who is, by name and by action, a fool.

So know that life, your life and my life, will have its fools in it. How do we deal with them? How do we handle the fool? David's going to show us through personal example. Life has its fools, and we look at this in verse one, and it's not for a lack of examples.

"Then Samuel died," says the scripture here, "and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him and buried him at his home in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran." The first thing that we notice is that this great, wonderful man that we've been studying about, Samuel, passes from the scene.

That's a scary thing. A great stabilizing factor in David's life now departs. Samuel dies. What's tragic about this is that Samuel's life was a tremendous example of how not to be a fool. Everybody in Israel knew about Samuel's life. Nabal will be one who experienced benefit from Samuel's life.

Saul was a man who received much from Samuel's life. David looked to Samuel's life. He was a great example. There will always be fools, even in the presence of great examples. There are great Christian godly homes that have tremendous morality, tremendous spirituality, and they bring up a child or two that is altogether whacked out, different from the efforts and the dedication of the parents.

And you scratch your head and you wonder, how did this happen? You hear them on Christian talk radio programs: "We have a godly home, we raised our children up, and all of our children are Harvard grads, but this one kid of ours, he's a mugger, he's a bank robber, he can't hold down a job." There are fools in life, and that happens even if there's no lack of a godly example.

You can have a godly example. Saul is a man who's failing, and Nabal will be as it were almost a son of Saul. David, on the other hand, thank God looked to Samuel's life and there was a great example. Now David arose and went to the wilderness of Paran. Now David has been in exile as a fugitive, but now he gets as far away as possible.

It's an amazing thing though when a witness dies like this of this magnitude. Remember Samuel was the kingmaker. He anointed Saul and he anointed David. He was an interesting man of God, a wise man of God, a powerful example that God had brought. Godly examples are inspirations to people. We need to remember that.

Unfortunately, Saul and Nabal apparently in our study neglected the witness of Samuel. In the book of Philippians, chapter four, verse nine, Paul says in the book of Philippians, "The things which you learned and received and heard," listen to that, "and saw in me, these things do and the God of peace will be with you." This is what we as Christians are to say to our children or to our neighbors or to our friends, to our brothers and sisters in church.

Girlfriends to girlfriends, guy friends to guy friends. Hey, John, Mike, Peter, Paul, Mary, what Paul says here in Philippians 4:9, what you've learned and received and heard and saw in my life, do those things. That's the example of the Christian walk in life. We should be able to turn to someone and say, watch my life, listen, watch my life and live it. That's what we're to be able to say.

Now, immediately as Christians, and specifically I'm thinking of parenting, that's a tough thing because you know what? Jesus said, "A prophet has honor everywhere he goes except where? In his own home." You want to know why? Because the people in your own home know you. They know you. They see warts and all. See, on Sundays and on Wednesdays we only see the all, we don't see the warts.

And can you imagine if there was some big cataclysmic event, some Southern California massive earthquake, and we all lived together in one big tent out here at the park with bottled water and we're cooking hot dogs out there over a barbecue? You think, that'd be fun! Do you know how long that would be fun for?

If it was so much fun then how come we just don't do it now? See, what happens is you really find out who is what, and you find out truly how great the grace of God is when you live one on one with someone. And you see engaged couples and they're so great and it's so cute. And they have no idea.

She has never thought, "Does he squeeze the tube in the middle or does he roll it from the bottom?" I guarantee you, whatever you do, girl, he'll do the opposite. Guy, whatever you do, "I roll it from the bottom, I'm a neat freak," she won't be. You watch what happens.

And for my wife and I it was disaster from the very get-go because she was the baby of nine kids, and I was the baby of three. And when you're the baby, everybody picks up after the baby. And we married one another, and then we look at each other and go, "Aren't you going to pick it up? Come on, you've got to pick it up. Why? Because my mom walked behind me and picked everything up."

"Well, that's what my mom did!" And it's like crazy. And the difference, examples. Okay, when in doubt go to the Bible. Philippians 3:17 says, "Join with others in following my example," the way that we live. Paul says, "Brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you." An influence, a godly pattern, an example.

Listen, fools will even be in the presence of godly examples. Though you may even raise a home that is right, there may be a fool in that home. And so many times we get so down on ourselves because we think we have failed miserably, and that's not the case. In First Corinthians 11:1, Paul said, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ."

Church, did you hear that? Paul says, "Hey everybody, mimic," the word is *mime* in Greek. Mimic. Move exactly how I move, speak exactly how I speak, because Paul is saying, "I speak and I move in the same manner that Jesus did, so you follow me." Wow, doesn't that sound almost arrogant? But it's not.

You know what we would call somebody like this in the world today? We'd call them a hero. And you dress up like your hero, right? You walk like your hero. That's an important thing. I remember this great football player in our high school. I was a freshman, he was a senior, and he was just tremendous. Fullback.

And the way he moved even between classes, I would watch him and I would want to mimic the way he even moved. Well, in a spiritual sense, Paul says do that in my life. That's the heart of God that these men, David, Nabal, Saul, would have followed Samuel's example. God raises up men and women that we might mimic or to shadow them.

Well, verses two and three: Life will have its fools, but not for a lack of blessings. "Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich, he was a very wealthy man. And he had 3,000 sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. The name of the man was Fool, Nabal. And the name of his wife was Abigail, the joy of the father or the father's joy."

"And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his doings, and he was of the house of Caleb." This man is super blessed. Don't think for a moment that just because a man is super blessed in business or whatever that he's not a fool.

Ladies, listen carefully. Listen even if it's painful. We have got a fool who's wealthy, who's influential, who's powerful. He is married to a woman who is sweet. She is gentle. And the Bible even points out that she's beautiful to look at. The word in Hebrew actually says that she was of a good shape. She was not only bright of face with joy, but she was built shapely.

Interesting. She's got the world, so to speak, except she's got a fool for a husband. "Well, the Lord doesn't want me to be married to no fool." Well, Abigail was married to a fool. You can have all the money, you can have all the looks, dear, you can have everything, and there's one thing that you are lacking and that is a godly, wonderful husband because you've been married to a fool.

He's not a believer. He makes fun every time you go to church. He mocks your friends and your faith. And if you don't maintain a healthy strong Christian walk with the Lord, a spiritual connection with God, you can easily begin to justify with books that are out there and people that surround you: "I think I'm going to leave this stooge. I'm going to dump this clown. He's a Nabal, and surely God would rather have me be happy than unhappy."

Listen how God deals with such situations. She's a godly woman. Life will have its fools. There will be great examples, but God will have his fools. God will give great blessings, but God will have his fools in this world that we might learn by them. And he doesn't make them fools, he allows us to learn from them.

The second thing that we see here, look at verses four through nine, is that know that fools lack a thankful heart. Listen to this. They don't care about anyone else. "When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, David sent 10 young men. And David said to the young men, 'Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name,' that is greet him in my authority, in my name, in my office or my power."

And so David says, "This is what you're going to do, you guys. Go to his house." Why? You know what, we know about this time of the year, this time for celebration. Plus David's men are hungry. And David's men have been providing protection to those that were in that area, people, from marauders and from invaders of the territory.

David's men were almost like a police force. And he had protected Nabal's sheep, his flocks. So David, not suspecting anything, David says, "Hey guys, go and greet him in my name, in my authority, because everybody knows who I am, and go for it."

Now, listen to this. A fool will have no thanks in his heart. They don't care about anything else. They don't care about anyone else. So David makes preparation. The men go. They don't care. Verse six teaches us that they don't understand what they have. "And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity," that's Nabal's life, "peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have."

People, this is a very precious blessing. David is saying, "Peace to all that you have, to all that you are, and all that you encompass. Peace." But listen, Nabal's not understanding this. He's a fool. Emptiness matters nothing to him. There's no quality or standard in his life. We would say today, "Man, what's wrong with that guy?"

This verses seven through nine really rips on your heart. When a fool has an unthankful heart, they don't appreciate others. What are the marks of a fool? They don't care about anybody. They don't understand what they have. And verses seven through nine teach that they don't appreciate others.

"Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us," in other words David's men protected his shepherds, "and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore, let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David."

Listen to the humble approach that David's taking here. "So when David's young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David and waited." They waited for a response. They waited for him to speak.

The Bible says in Philippians 3:18, "For many walk," Paul said, "for many walk of whom I have often told you and now even tell you weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly." They only care about what they can amass.

So even among the Christian setting and even in the church, Paul is saying these fools, these Nabals exist. Their god is their belly. They don't spare the flock; what's implied here is that they fleece the flock. They take money from the flock, they pad their lives with proceeds from the flock. And Paul says, watch out for them. They have completely forgotten that Jesus bought the church with his own blood.

David J.: Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called, "How to Handle the Fool, Part One." You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called First Samuel, a series that highlights the prophet Samuel who was called by God during one of Israel's darkest times to bring the people back to a heart of true worship. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Fear does not have to control your life. Not when Christ is at the center of it. This month, we're featuring a powerful and deeply personal book, *Living Fearless in Christ* by Hedieh Mirahmadi. Once a devout follower of Islam and a high-level attorney in Washington, Hedieh had everything except peace until she encountered the living Jesus.

Choosing to follow him cost her everything: her career, her status, and her place in the world she once knew. But what she gained was far greater: freedom, identity, and a fearless faith that cannot be shaken. Her story will challenge you, encourage you, and remind you of the power of the gospel to transform lives.

*Living Fearless in Christ* is more than a testimony; it's a call to bold surrender. Available for the month of February for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com, where real stories point you to real truth and real life in Christ.

This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.