Obligated To Treat People Right

Say what you will or say what you want, as children of the Most High God, we are obligated to treat people right, even if we ourselves are treated wrong.  Accepting this understand can be a bitter and somewhat hard pill for most to swallow.  We who name the name of the Lord, are obligated and instructed to yield ourselves to all forms of righteousness.  

How we treat and deal with others is a major part of our holy witness before this world.  Our Lord Jesus lived a righteous life while he lived upon the earth, and so must we.  The way he treated people must also be the way in which we treat people.  I pray that this message pricks your hearts and minds, sharply.

Transcript

Pastor Rickey D. Dixon 0:11

We thank God this morning. And I thank God for you who have joined this morning's message for this Second Sunday conference line services. We're going to get into the word this morning because I don't know what the power is going to do. It's pretty, it's coming down pretty hard out there, and it's raining pretty good here. Um, so we're not gonna belong to time. I want to talk this morning about an area of study that the Bible teaches that it tells us, it teaches us that, and I and this is gonna be this gonna be a hard, I mean a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow. You know how people always say when they go to the doctor, they get they'll give them them big old pills, they be calling them big old horse tablets. Well, this probably gonna be a big hippopotamus pill here for you to swallow. But nonetheless, this is what we must swallow because this is what the word of God is teaching us. There's a there's a few places in the Bible where this is, and Jesus the one taught this, where the word of God teaches us that if we won't, if we won't, it ain't now it ain't gonna tell you that this is what they're gonna do, but if we want people to do us right or right toward us, it is saying we must do right to them. It didn't say they gon' do you right, but it says if you would that people would treat you in a certain way, the way that you want them to treat you is the way that you should be treating them. Now, here's the stipulation. If they don't, the word of God don't teach you to do it only when people are doing you good. But what it does stress is that when people are treating you the worst, you are you and I are to still treat them like we want to be treated. Let me let me let me let's let me get some word in here. This Jesus. What you want people to do to you? It says he says this, do ye also to them likewise. If you want people to talk to you right, do you talk to people right? If you want people to respect you in the way you want to be respected, do you respect people? Now in the book of Matthew, he says it like this. Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. For this is the law and the prophets. This is what they call. Now, if you read, if you go in depth and read, go back and read those passages, whether it be Matthew or Luke, it is telling us to love our enemies, to do right to them that despitefully use us. But this morning, just for a few minutes, I want us to understand why it is Jesus is talking and teaching like this. He is telling us, in essence, that we ought to do right towards others, whether they're doing right to us or not. We are to treat them in a manner in which we would like to be treated, even if they're not treating us this way. We are never supposed to get on the level of the wrong that people are doing towards us. We're never supposed to get on that level and do those things in return. The way people are talking to us, the way people are treating us, the way people are acting toward us. We're never supposed to do that, not being sons and daughters of God. Jesus tells us to treat them like you want to be treated. Do unto them like you want to be done. Now I'll tell you why Jesus is saying this, and why he wants us to get to this place in our spiritual growth and in our relationship with him as being ambassadors and representatives of him on the earth. I'll tell you why he wants us to be this way. The Lord wants us to always be mindful of this one thing. While we were sinners and doing wrong, and a lot of that wrong was being done towards him, toward the kingdom of God, toward his word, disobedient. He yet treated us with love. Oh, you might not have known it, you might not have recognized it, but the Lord still loved us. Read the Bible. While we were yet sinners, God commended his love toward us. And Christ went head on and died for us in our ungodly state. Ungodly, we ain't trying to do right to God to God, to nobody. When you are an ungodly person, you ain't doing godly to nobody. And when we was in our ungodly state, we were not trying to do right toward him. What God wants us to be mindful of, remember how you did towards me. But yet and still I showed you love. Now I want you. Now I want you. When those are treating you evil, when those are treating you bad, to still show love and to still do what's right. Now I told you it's gonna be hard for a lot of people to swallow this hippopotamus deal. But here's the thing about it. The truth of the matter is, until we die to self and die to the flesh to overcome this and accomplish this, a lot of us, the first few tests that we have in this area, the first few tests, you're gonna flunk them because you don't want to do it. It's hard for us to treat somebody right, or to do right towards somebody who mistreating us, who dogging us out, who talking to us any kind of way. It's hard to do, did they tell you how to do right, Bob? Do good. Some of y'all might remember when we was fellowshipping with Mother Nose on Wednesday night doing their Bible study a few years back. One of them nights in Bible study, she hauled off and was telling us about her when she was married to her husband and how he was no good and how he treated her. How he talked to her, stepped out on her. But you know, one thing I remember how she said she would still fix his meal, she would still do her wisely do, and she will still take care and do what's right. She was stressed that I still did what was right. Look, I see what you doing, see, this this will help you to swallow the pill. Stop thinking you doing it for them. We'll let that get in there first. Stop thinking that you doing it for them and their satisfaction. You got to look at this thing from a spiritual perspective and realize, no, you doing it because the master said to do it this way. You doing it for Jesus. Don't let your reluctance, don't let your stubbornness cause you when you stand before him to get thrown out the line. Because you didn't obey in this one area to treat people right. Treating people right is not predicated on whether they treat you right or not. We got to get that out of our head. Because if you wait around for some people to treat you right, it'll never happen. If you're waiting around for some people to talk to you right, it ain't gonna never happen. You'll be waiting to Jesus come. But what you can be doing is making sure you're doing right towards them, regardless of how they have treated you or been towards you. Make sure that you still did what was right. And some of us, I know we're in some harsh, some very harsh situations and some very harsh relationships. Where even the very one you lay beside every night, they'll start to take you for granted, don't see you the way they used to see you when they was out running after you and couldn't get enough of you, and things now, feelings have changed, certain ways they have have changed. And instead of love, you know that ain't love. Because love don't treat another person like that. Love don't cause you to talk to another person like that. You know you're in a harsh situation. And even though you realize that and it hurts, and you'd rather not be in it, and you'd rather not be treated like this, you still got to do what's right. God knows I sympathize with people who are in marriages like that, people who uh work with co-workers like that, people even with your children, as your children, some of you, y'all's children talk to you and treat you. Now, it ain't no sign of weakness for you to do what's right. It's a sign of obedience to God. And if he said this is how we should do it, that means this is how we got to do it. Through the tears, we got to do what's right. Through the pain, we gotta do what's right. Through the heartache, we gotta do what's right. But know that he is there as your comforter, he will comfort you when you're not getting that comfort from whoever you thought you should be getting it from, or who you thought you should be getting from. We got to do what's right, as you would, that men should do to you. Jesus said, Do ye even to them the way you would. And if you love the Lord, if you love the Lord, you're gonna do it. I say, listen, I said if you love Jesus, you're gonna do it. See, we trying to make it, y'all. And there's some things that we're gonna have to suffer for his namesake, and some of that suffering gonna mainly be right right around your your house, but it pleases the father. You remember how the word of God told us that it pleased God to have Jesus on that cross? It pleased him to suffer, it pleased him to go through what he went through for. Do you know the Bible teaches that God it pleased God to see that? I know people don't want to teach that, but read your Bible. Because the Son was doing what was required of him of the Father. You mean you remember even Jesus rebuked Peter for trying to talk against what God sent him here to do? He said, get me behind me, saying you don't stop what God's trying to do and getting God business, I'm paraphrased. Peter said, No, you ain't gonna, we don't want you to be crucified, we don't want you to, no, you can't stop what got the plan of God. If this is what God wants, this is what you got to do. And Jesus was focused on doing what the father wants him to do. Well, you and I got to be focused on what the father wants us to do, even in the area of suffering. For his name's sake. Even in the area of taking some things, y'all do, y'all, do we think we was gonna get in heaven and just slide right on in and ain't been through nothing? Do we thought that we thought that? We just gonna get in heaven and ain't been through nothing. Oh now, the people that made it in heaven gonna be those not only been through something, but they endured it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. They took it. Because we're trying to get somewhere. Don't let that person cause you not to get to what you're trying to get to. Don't let them prevent you from making it to the city. Do right now. Like I told you, it ain't for them. It's because you're trying to be obedient. Because there's somebody that you love greater than anybody on this earth. There's got to be, and I don't mean no harm, there's got to be somebody greater that you love greater than your husband, that you love greater than your wife, that you love greater than your children. That's got to be Jesus. And if you love him greater than anybody, if he's your first love, you're gonna do this. I know the Bible teaches. If any man, the Bible says hate, but it's talking about love less. Love, if any man, hate is not, and that means any if you love, don't love nobody more than Jesus, mother, father, sister, brother, children. But they say, yeah, even your own life. You can't worry about how you your own life is being treated. When Jesus is your first love. You take it for him. I say you take it for him. Because he requires this of you and I. And you say, Yes, Lord. Therefore, all things, whatsoever ye would, that men should do to you, do ye even unto them. For this is the Lord the prophets. He says in Luke again, as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them, likewise. Keep cooking for them. Keep doing for her what you've been doing for her. And when your heart gets so heavy that you need to release, go to the Lord, go to your closet, go to your secret place, and unload on Jesus. Release it. Come out of there and keep on doing what you've always been doing. I tell you what. Let me read y'all a story. Dumb let you go. I ain't holding you long today. Let me read y'all a story. See, there's a story about a woman who was married to a man full of the devil. But she still did what was right. So I'm gonna give you an example out of the Bible. She still did what's right. And as a result of her doing right, she was blessed. And you're gonna see how she was blessed. Now, the reason I say she was married to a man full of the devil, because that was the Bible gonna say, he he lived according to the bail. Video, if you understand. Put your phones on mute. Put your phone on mute. And she gonna, and she knew it, but she still did what was right as a wife. Let me read it to you. Her name was Abigail. Her name was Abigail. Her name was Abigail. And she had an old mean, stubborn husband named Navel. And you might be married to a neighbor. Or you might be married to a neighbor that. But listen to the story. And I'm gonna show you what I want you to focus on as I read it. First, and this is we gotta go with old back and old book old first Samuel in the book of First Samuel. And there was a man in Moor whose possessions were in Carmel. And the man was very great. He had a lot of he was he had money. He got a lot of rich devils. And he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. He was shearing. Had so many. Back then, sheep, people had a lot of sheep and goats when it came time for shearing. All that wool they could sell for a lot of money. Because it was used to make clothing and different items. Now, the name of the man, the Bible said, was Nabel. And the name of his wife, Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding. Now, if you got if you married to somebody with good understanding, you bless. Now, flip it over. If you married to somebody that's got bad understanding, I can't tell you just how much your trouble is gonna be. If they got a bad understanding, but Abigail, the Bible says she was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance. She was a good-looking woman, too, a beautiful countenance. But the man, the man she married him to, Nabah, was courage and evil, oh mean type thing, in his doings. And he was of the house of Caleb. He was descended. If y'all remember Caleb, he was a descendant from the tribe of Caleb. You remember? It was just Joseph, uh Jacob, excuse me. Joshua and Caleb were the only two tribes. You remember when they come back with the report about them giants in the land? It was the tribe of Joshua and Caleb said, we can take them. But the other ten tribes, but so Nabal came, he came from good stock. But that don't mean you come from good stock and still have a devil in. But he was come the tribe of Caleb. Anyway. And David, David is also in the story. And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep. Now, this was a time before David was king. But he was a warrior. And he was throughout the land of Jerusalem, fighting the Philistine. But a lot of times he had to cross through people's lands to get to where it was him and his men were going. But there was a time before that he had passed through. And a lot of times they would take what they want from different households for their men to eat and uh sleep for the night or whatever. But the time before they had passed through Nabel's land, he didn't bother nothing. They didn't take nothing. They let them alone. And David considered this as a favor. But he's gonna come now when he really needs it. Now he's gonna call now. I did you favor, now I need a favor. My men is hungry, and we need some of them sheep to eat, and we need supplies. Well, we're gonna get to that in a minute. He heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. And David sent out ten young men. And David said unto the young men, get ye up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. Go to him in the right way. We ain't gonna go to him wrong. Let him notice me. I sent y'all for a few supplies. Because he really can he can afford it. And we just need it right now. And thus shall ye say to him that lives in prosperity. See, he knows neighbor had it. David just wanted enough to feed his men. Because sometimes one of the main things when it comes to God is trying to keep them fed. He said, Tell him, peace be both to thee and peace be to thy house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. David said, Message, right? Be honest to man. And now have, and now I have heard that thou hast shearers. Now thy shepherds, which were with us, we hurt them not. See, when we come to once before, we didn't hurt your shepherds that was watching your flock. We were all about our bed and we left them alone. We hurt them not. Neither was there all missing from them. We didn't take that from them. All the while they were in common. He said, Ask thy young men, and they will show thee. Wherefore, let the young men find favor in thine eyes. For we come in a good day. Give, Silver, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thy hand. We ain't gonna tell you what to give, but if you give anything, can you give whatever the Lord put on your heart? Well come into thy hand until thy servant and to the son of David. And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and they see. They didn't say no more, they just told what David told them to say, and that's all they see. And then here comes the devil rising up in Nabal. This is what Abigail got to put up with. And Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David? I don't know no David. Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? I don't even know his daddy. There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his mouth. I don't know who he could be somebody that broke away from his mouth and just trying to get my stuff. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh and my sheep that I have killed from my shearers and given unto men whom I know not whence they be? I told you we sent David sent us. So David's young men turned their way and went again and came and told him all those things. They went back and told David, David mentioned, and David got hot. And David said unto his men, gird ye on every man his sword. Every man put your sword on. And they gird up on every man his sword, and David also gird on his sword. And there went up after David about 400 men, and 200 abode by the stuff. He took 400 with him, and 200 stayed back with the stuff that they had from where they were camped at. But one of the young men told Abigail, for some reason, one of the young men told his wife, Nabel's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messages. Now David sent some people. Now she didn't see the men when they had come down. But she did the young man telling, David sent me out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he railed on them. He talked bad to them and treated them wrong. Your husband. This is how your husband treat people. But the men were very good unto us. And we were not hurt. This one of them shepherds that tell us why the servants came. They didn't do us no wrong. They treated us respectfully. Neither missed we anything as long as we were conversant with them when we were in the field. In other words, they was having them around protected us. All the while we were with them, keeping the sheep. Now therefore, know and consider what thou would do. For evil is determined against our man. See, y'all hear what's going on. When you with somebody like this, evil in your house. The devil in the house. But you still got to do what's right. And against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial. He's so full of the devil. That's who Biel is. That a man cannot speak to him. Can't nobody tell him nothing. Anybody mad to somebody that you can't tell nothing to? We can't even go to David and talk to him. We have to come talk to you, his wife. We can't be mad and go talk to another man because can't nobody tell him nothing. He got bad understanding. He done disrespected David, and David done got hot. Because they treated us right. And he's talking about David like David ain't nobody. He finna give David nothing. Who is David? Who is Daddy? Totally disrespecting the man. This was Abigail was married to. Anyway. Then Abigail, because she got good understanding, made haste, the Bible said, made haste. She got in a hurry. And took two hundred loaves, two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, already dressed up, five measures of parched corn, a hundred clusters of razor, and two hundred cakes of feeds, and laid them on asses, on donkeys. And she said unto her servant, Go on before y'all go on take this stuff before me. Y'all get this, y'all go ahead and start leaving out for me. Get this stuff to David. Behold, I come out there. I'm coming right behind you. Look at what she's doing. I want you to look at what she's doing. She still wants to do right towards David, even though her husband was doing wrong. Now she could have, being tired of being in what she is, couldn't let David come home and kill him. Anyway, she had been rid of him and free. But now she's still gonna do what's right. Because that's still my husband. He ain't no good. But I've still got to do what I can to do what's right for the family and for the household. I'm gonna come on after you. But she told not her husband, neighbor. She didn't tell neighbor what she was going, because he got bad understanding. Can't tell him nothing. She tried to save the family, trying to save the house, and he don't even know it. Because he about to he done put the house in danger. He done put the family in turmoil. And it was so as she rolled on the ass that she came down by the covert of the hill, and behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met them. Now David had said, Surely, in vain have I kept all this fellow hath in the wilderness. I shouldn't have treated him like as good as I treated him. So that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him. And he has required me evil for good. He'll return me evil for good. David's man. So and more also do God until the enemies of David. If I leave of all that pertain to them by the morning light, any that pisses against the wall. I'm killing everything. That's what David means by that. And when Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off her ass and fell before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground. Look at this woman. Still trying to do what's right. In spite of her husband wave, 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 thy audience, and hear the words of thy handmaid. Just hear me out first. Before you kill my husband, before you kill us and take all our stuff. You hear me out first? Let not my Lord, I pray thee, regard this man abelia. She knew she said, tell him, she knows her husband, the devil. I pray thee, regard this man Abelia. Belea being the devil. Research and read your Bible. You see what I'm talking about. Ungodly. He didn't live a good life. This man will be an evil neighbor, for as his name is, so is he. Neighbor is his name, and folly with him, foolishly. I got a foolish husband. I know it. But I I, thine handmaiden, saw not the young. I didn't see the young men you sent there. Had I seen them and heard what they wanted, I'd have made sure you got what you wanted. For my household's sake, even for my no-good husband's sake, whom thou did send. Now, therefore, my Lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord has withholding 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 his neighbor. Don't be like him. Don't be like him. I'm praying, don't be like him. And now this blessing which thine handmaid has brought unto my Lord, I let me bless you. Let me do good towards you when my husband has done done you wrong. Let me treat you like I would hope that you would treat me. Even my husband, even in his room, in his folly foolishness. Let me bless you. Let it even be given unto the young men that follow my Lord. Let feed your men. I got enough here to feed your men. You got about 600 men with you. I got enough to feed them. I pray thee. Forgive the trespass. Listen to this woman. Pray for her household. I know she got no good husband. She knows her husband, the devil. I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thy handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure house. God gonna bless your house. You remember you understand what she said? Ask him to forgive her and her trespass because she married to this man. They won. And what he does is gonna affect her. But he said the Lord is gonna bless you, your house, because my Lord fighteth the battles of the Lord. I know you fight for the Lord, and evil has not been found in thee all thy days. Yet a man is 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 the enemies. Them shall he sling out as out of the middle of a sling. And it shall come to pass when the Lord shall have done to my Lord according to all the good that thou hast spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel. See, she's speaking something before it even happened to David, that he's gonna be king, he's gonna be ruled. That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offense of heart unto my Lord, either thou hast shed blood costless, or that my Lord has avenged himself. But when the Lord shall have dealt well with my Lord, then remember thy hand. Remember I said these things to you. And David said, That touched David. And blessed be thy advice, the things that you the things that you just said to me, the advice that you just gave me. And bless be, see, even when you've been treated wrong, you still gonna tell people right, because you still gonna do right yourself. You're not gonna just go do right, you're gonna still tell people right. Even though you don't ain't been treated right yourself, you still gonna tell people the right way how to do. And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou which has kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself, myself, with mine own hand. I shouldn't be trying to avenge myself with my own hand, I should let God do it, and God's gonna do it. For in in very deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which has kept me back from hurting thee, he was gonna hurt her too. Except thou hast hastened and come to meet me. If you haven't done that, surely there had not been left unto Nabel by the morning light, before morning, everything he had been done. Any that pisses against the wall. So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house. See, I have hearkened to thy voice and have accepted thy person. And Abigail, now here come God. Now God's gonna get in it now. And Abigail came to Nabal. He ain't know his life was in danger. And behold, he held a feed of having a party. He held a feast in his house. Like the feast of a king. He really went all out. And Nabel's heart was merry within him. He was full of. He was feeling pretty good. For he was very drunk. He was feeling good. Wherefore she told him nothing. Less or more. She saw the state. I don't need me telling him that nine too drunk. He won't even remember what I said. She didn't tell him nothing. Less or more until the morning, like I'm gonna wait till the morning. When the war letting know just how endangered his life was. But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabah, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. It hit him like a ton of bricks. He didn't die. He wasn't saying he died dead. But it's like to hear you like you hear something, it just affects you so to such a way you didn't realize just how endangered you were. And when his wife told him that it hit him so hard, he became a stone. All the emotion went out of his face. He just like a the reality of just how what kind of person he was hit him, but God still ain't through with it. Because he never let him got over. Something about when Nabel saw himself, the full picture of himself, the Lord came in. And it came to pass about ten days after this. The Bible said that the Lord smoked Nabel, that he died. See, you ain't never got to worry about how nobody treating you. You just keep doing right. You just keep doing good. Don't pray that God do nothing to them. Don't pray that God get them. You just keep doing right in the eyes of God. And in God's good time. Well, and because you know the old saints used to say that the Lord He looking and he booking. That means he's writing it down. He knows what Nabel do. And Nabel's time was coming. Just like anybody's time is coming. Know this if you don't know nothing else, I'll let you go. Don't nobody get away with mistreating God's people. I want you to know that. Those people that's treating you wrong, those people that's dogging you out, and if you are son and daughter of God, and if you do your part to do what's right and to treat them right and still show them love, if they don't straighten up and repent, anybody that mistreat God's people got it coming. But you leave that to God. Let that leave that to God. Don't even worry about that. Don't even think on that. Don't even say I'll be glad when God gave it. Don't even think like that. Uh-huh. Don't do that. God don't take no pleasure. And none of us wishing harm to nobody. Even our enemies. Even those that have done us wrong. Just leave that part alone. Stay focused. And make sure, Lord, I'm doing right. Don't intentionally try to burn his food. Don't intentionally try to burn his clothes if he asks you to hand his shirt. I'm gonna say this and I don't mean no harm. Don't intentionally make the bed cold. And you know what I'm talking about. The bedroom cold. We got to do what's right. Because God wants us to be mindful of how He showed love to us when we wasn't right toward Him. And we now must show right toward others, even though they're not showing right toward us. Abigail was a good person, and she wanted to do what's right because she had a good understanding and she had respect to God's servants, even though she wasn't being treated right. Now, you know if he dogged other people out, dog David out, he was dogging her out. But she still was a good wife. And she still did what she was supposed to do in the eyes of God. Now, I ain't gonna read the rest of it because I don't want to go off with it because David didn't have to snatch her up. Soon as David died, he's gonna snatch her up in Mary. Get a woman time to grieve, David. He snatched up in Mary. Anyway, my point this morning, in this morning's message. When was the last time we treated someone like we wanted to be treated? And done what was right in the eyeside of God toward even our enemies. I'm not just talking about people that just don't like you. I'm talking about those that's a bona fine enemy. It's a hard pill to swallow, but you got to swallow it. Because if you want to see Jesus, you want the books to say that you treated your enemies right out of obedience to Jesus, because he told us to do this. None towards your enemies. Do right to them that's despitefully used. Because you're doing it out of obedience to the master, and not basing your actions on who it is that's in your life, or who it is you work with, or how your children behave it. You doing what's right because he who is righteous, his spirit dwells within you. God bless you.