Intervening Grace

The Stories We Believe

It is good to be with you here this week. If you’re a guest with us, welcome to the Well Community Church. I am so glad you chose to hang out with us today. Whether you are at our Clovis campus or one of our other campuses and venues, I am thankful for the time to share God’s word with you. My name is Brad, and if you have a Bible, please turn to 1 Samuel chapter 25.

Before we get into the text, I have to confess something. When I was a kid, I thought my dad was the best. I thought all the stories he told surely must be true, and if they were, his renown just went before him. As I got older, I started to wonder, “Is that story really true? Is that really the way it went down, or is there maybe a little embellishment in there?”

See, my dad was a Southern California kid. I grew up with stories like, “Oh, I went to high school with the Beach Boys. They dated my sisters.” And I would just think, “Mhmm, sure.” Then years later, the Beach Boys came through the fairgrounds. My dad said, “Let’s go to the concert. Maybe we’ll get backstage.”

We went to the concert, and it was amazing. Afterward, we went to the back and he told the security guard who he was. Nothing. No reaction. I’m thinking, “I am so embarrassed right now.” But then, Al Jardine, one of the founding members of the Beach Boys, walked by. My dad yelled out, “Al! It’s Roy Bell!”

Al stopped in his tracks and shouted, “Roy Bell! Get in here!” I couldn’t believe it. Suddenly, we were backstage with the Beach Boys, and my dad was officially the coolest man in the history of coolness. I even found out that the car in the song “409”—the one that’s “real fine”—was actually his car in the original recording.

The Dashboard Lights of the Soul

As cool as those old cars were, we have to acknowledge that things have changed. Do you remember back in the day when you worked on a car with a wrench? You didn’t need a computer; you just wrenched it. You could listen to the engine and know it was out of tune. Today, you have to be a computer hacker to fix a car. We don’t just have gauges anymore; we have lights telling us things. Now, my car even pushes alerts to my phone and texts the dealer when there’s an issue. It’s like witchcraft.

But here is the thing: there is still a human component. Be honest—how many of you have had the “check engine” light come on and thought, “I’ll just put some tape over that”? It’s been on since Jimmy Carter was president, and you’re just ignoring it. You have a choice. When that light comes on, you can address it, or you can ignore it. And when you ignore those dashboard lights, the situation usually doesn’t get better; it only gets worse.

Last week, we watched David’s journey as he learned to respond to a season of desolation. We talked about three moves of the will. One is to be willful, which is fleshly—trying to fix everything yourself. It’s unsustainable and exhausting. The second is to be will-less, where you just “quiet quit” your spiritual life and give up. The third move, which David leaned into, is being willing. It’s saying, “God, I want to open to you because you’re doing a work in my life.”

1 Peter 5:6-7 (NASB)

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

In chapter 25, we are going to look at the “dashboard lights” in David’s soul. David has been on a meteoric rise, but now he is in desolation. He is being hunted like a dog, one step ahead of death. Under this pressure, the lights are starting to flash. He has to decide whether to address them or ignore them.

Owning the Quiet Parts

Here at the Well, we try to be peculiar. We want to put words to the dashboard lights in our own souls. We want to own our stuff and say the quiet parts out loud. We aren’t here to fake it. We even have a recovery ministry called Regeneration because we want to slow down the gospel and ask why we do what we do.

When people hear “recovery,” they often think, “Oh, that’s for those people.” I hate to break your heart, but we are those people. We are all owning our dashboard lights and asking God to search our hearts.

The good news is that if you have embraced the gospel, you are in Christ—fully forgiven, accepted, known, and loved. There is no condemnation. But there is still a battle being waged deep within your soul: flesh versus spirit.

Galatians 5:17 (NASB)

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

The Christian life is unnatural. What is natural is living in the flesh—reacting, indulging, and being willful. Now that the Spirit is present, we have to learn what it looks like to live by the Spirit.

What are the dashboard lights in your life? Some call them “signature sins” or “flesh residue.” For me, they are usually anger and control. I need my keys to be on the top right hook of the key box. If they’re on the left, I’m upset and I’ll never find them. Order matters to me. I can feel the intensity rising, and it shows up in control and anger.

David has his own lights. In this chapter, we see his anger and his issues with women. You might ask, “I thought he was a man after God’s own heart?” He is. But he’s also human, and his flesh is a mess at times.

A Recipe for a Fall

I have some compassion for David. He’s been on the run, pushed physically and spiritually in the desert. In chapter 25, he finds himself in a dark place. His mentor, Samuel, has just died.

1 Samuel 25:1 (NASB)

Then Samuel died; and all Israel gathered together and mourned for him, and buried him at his house in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

David is emotionally depleted, physically exhausted, spiritually in desolation, and relationally alone. If you told me you were feeling all those things, I would tell you to be very careful. You are vulnerable. This is a recipe for a fall.

In this state, David encounters a man who is a total fool. His name is actually Nabal, which literally means “foolish.” Nabal was an incredibly wealthy rancher, but the Bible describes him as harsh and evil. He had a wife named Abigail, who was intelligent, wise, and beautiful.

David and his men had been providing a sort of security detail for Nabal’s shepherds in the wilderness. When it came time for the sheep-shearing—which was a time of harvest and celebration—David sent his men to ask for a small share of the provisions as a “thank you” for their protection.

Nabal’s response was a massive insult. He basically said, “Who is David? Who is this son of Jesse? There are a lot of runaway slaves these days. Why should I give my bread and meat to people I don’t even know?”

1 Samuel 25:10-11 (NASB)

But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, ’Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master. ‘Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men whose origin I do not know?’

This wasn’t ignorance; it was a targeted insult. David had been protecting this man’s livelihood, and Nabal spit in his face.

Scorched Earth

When the news got back to David, his dashboard light of anger didn’t just flicker; it turned bright red. He told his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” He took 400 armed men and headed out, hot and ready for a fight.

David was enraged. We’ve read the Psalms David wrote when he was opening up to God, but this version of David sounds very different. He was ready for scorched earth.

1 Samuel 25:21-22 (NASB)

Now David had said, ’Surely in vain I have guarded all that this [man] has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good. ‘May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning I leave [as much as] one male of any who belong to him.’

He vowed to kill every single male in Nabal’s household by morning. Notice that David didn’t pray. He didn’t seek God’s guidance. He wasn’t looking for God’s vengeance; he was trying to use God to justify his own vengeance. This was pure flesh.

Fortunately, Abigail heard what happened. She recognized her husband’s folly and jumped into action. She made a massive “Costco run,” grabbed a bunch of food, and went to meet David. She bowed before him, acknowledged that her husband was a fool, and asked for forgiveness on behalf of her household. She essentially de-escalated a massacre with wisdom and a few hundred sandwiches.

David’s anger was assuaged. He realized how close he came to making a massive mistake.

1 Samuel 25:32-33 (NASB)

Then David said to Abigail, ’Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.

Abigail went home, waited for her husband to sober up from his drunken feast, and told him what had happened the next morning. The Bible says Nabal’s heart died within him, and ten days later, the Lord struck him and he died. God handled the vengeance that David was so ready to take into his own hands.

The Downward Spiral

But as I mentioned, dashboard lights usually come in pairs. David’s anger was one issue, but his second light—his issue with women—was also flashing.

The Bible advocates for the protection of women. In God’s design, a woman was protected by her family and then by her husband. When a husband died, she became vulnerable. While the Bible regulates the cultural reality of polygamy in the ancient world, it never affirms it as God’s design. In fact, every time you see polygamy in the Bible, it is a train wreck.

After Nabal died, David took Abigail to be his wife. You might think, “Oh, how nice!” But the text quickly adds that he also took Ahinoam, and he was already married to Michal. Eventually, David would have at least eight wives and ten concubines.

1 Samuel 25:43 (NASB)

David had also taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both became his wives.

David was leading from the flesh. He wasn’t thinking about God’s design; he was thinking about David. This began a downward spiral that would eventually lead to even greater heartache in his family.

Walking and Keeping Step

I want to ask you again: Do you know what your dashboard lights are? When you are alone, exhausted, or vulnerable, what comes out? We have to own these things, or they will own us.

Galatians 5:19-21 (NASB)

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

We all have these “deeds of the flesh.” The question is, how do we address them? You can try to address them in the flesh—telling yourself, “I’m going to get better, I’m going to work harder.” But you don’t have the capacity to transform yourself. That’s why the light keeps coming back.

The only way to address the dashboard light is through the Spirit of God.

Galatians 5:16 (NASB)

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Paul uses the word peripateo for “walk.” It implies a relationality. Because of the gospel, Christ’s righteousness is yours, and His Spirit is in you. To walk by the Spirit is to have a relational connection with God that gives you a different perspective on your flesh.

Then, Paul uses another word, stoicheo, which means to “keep in step.”

Galatians 5:24-25 (NASB)

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

This is directional. Imagine a stone path in a field of grass. To keep in step with the Spirit is to walk the path God has laid out in His Word.

The Christian life is not about mustering up the strength to be better; it is about yielding. It is about being in step with the work the Spirit is already doing in you. God is faithful to complete the work He started.

A Prayer for the Process

Father in Heaven, what a gift it is to see that there is hope for us, even when our dashboard lights are flashing. Some of David’s struggles feel eerily familiar. Lord, even when our lights are different, they are still there. It is frustrating to feel like we haven’t fully changed, but we know that while the obligation of sin is severed, the influence remains.

By your grace, help us to rely on the relationality and directionality of your Spirit. May our dashboard lights be a reminder that your strength is made perfect in our weakness. Lead us, direct us, and guide us. As we walk out this messy process of life together, may it honor you. In Jesus’ name, amen.