James Merritt - Revenge Factor - Part 2
Well, good morning, I want to ask you a question, how many of you're excited to be here? Now just tell the truth, excited to be here. I am pumped, I'm excited, I love the series that we're in, I've had so many people say they've enjoyed the series on David which we're in by the way if you are a guest of ours today, so good morning to those at our Mill Creek campus, to those who are watching online, those who are watching by TV, those at our Sugar Loaf campus, thanks for being with us today. Gary Eugene Holmes and Acen King had never met each other and probably will never meet each other again. Gary's a full grown man, Acen was a three year old boy. Gary's life is ruined and Acen's life is over because of two words: road rage. Acen's grandmother, Kim, was taking her three year old grandson Acen out on a shopping trip and at a stop sign in Little Rock, Arkansas, a man walked up to their car, fired a bullet into their cab and killed that three year old boy.
A woman who was riding in Holmes' car told the investigators he was angry because he thought the grandmother was tailing him too closely. That little three year old boy, the age of my youngest grandson, was shot in the back and died in the hospital. All because a man flew off the handle, lost his temper in the heat of the moment, he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison and a family is going to mourn the loss of a three year old boy for as long as they live. Most of us have flown off the handle at some time in our life. Maybe it was on the road, maybe it was in your living room, maybe it was in your office, maybe it was a football field, maybe it was a golf course, maybe it was on a business deal... And that phrase by the way, fly off the handle, goes back about 200 years and it refers to a loose ax head that would sometimes fly off the handle.
Now, when that happens, if you're ever chopping something with an ax and the axehead flies off the handle, two things happen, the ax loses its head, and somebody gets hurt. And the same thing happens when we fly off the handle, we lose our head and somebody gets hurt. And it's an age old problem because it almost ruined the life of one of the greatest kings who ever lived. As I said we're in a series called David, we're calling it Life Lessons for the King because there's so many lessons we can learn about this man named David, and today we're going to talk about not just if you have a problem with anger, but maybe you have a problem with bitterness. Maybe you have a problem with resentment, maybe you have a problem with jealousy, maybe you have a problem with fear. I don't know what your emotional hangup or your emotional problem may be, but today we're going to learn how to keep those things in check because flying off the handle has a 100% success rate. Every time you fly off the handle, you're going to crash land, every single time.
Now, I want to be transparent today, I want to make a confession. My wife, Teresa, 42 years of marriage, knows what I'm about to say, the two things that have gotten me in to trouble more than any two things in my life are my temper and my tongue. Not necessarily in that order, but my temper and my tongue. And they are interrelated because I want to ask you a question, by the way, this is one of those messages, don't look too holy at me today, how many times have you ever said something and you didn't really mean it, but you did mean it at the time you said it and you said it because you lost your temper? How many things do you wish you could take back, how many things do you wish you could walk back, but you can never go back because you flew off the handle and you lost your temper, and here's what happens 99% of the time. Most of the time, we lose our temper because somebody hurt us. Somebody did us wrong and that's why we lose our temper, that's why we lash out, that's why we want to hurt them, as people have well said, "Hurt people hurt people". Hurt people, hurt people, and King David almost fell into that same trap.
Last week, if you missed last week, we did a message we called "The Revenge Factor Part 1", today we're going to do "The Revenge Factor Part 2" because David did have a problem with flying off the handle, David did have a problem with controlling his emotions and this story today has three characters and it has three parts and it teaches us how to avoid flying off the handle whether it be because of fear or anger or bitterness or resentment or jealousy and crash landing. So, before you do that, before you let your temper take over, before you let your bitterness take over, before you let your envy and your jealousy and your resentment take over, always ask three questions. Number one, who is causing my anger? Who is causing my anger? Now, we're in first Samuel chapter 25 if you want to look on with me today, if you got a Bible, an iPad, a phone, or whatever, it's real easy to find, start at the front of your Bible, turn right, go about seven books, you're at first Samuel chapter 25.
Now, the first character in this story, the villain who causes this problem, his name is Nabal. We're going to pick up the story in verse two. A certain man in Maon, not Macon, Maon, who had property there at Carmel was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep which he was shearing in Carmel. His name was Nabal and his wife's name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman. By the way, whenever the Bible goes out of its way to describe something, it's in there for a reason. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings. He was a Calebite. Now, Nabal's got two good things going for him, okay, number one, he is wealthy, that's what the word is, wealthy, by the way, the word wealthy means heavy. In other words, he was loaded, I mean, he was loaded, he had plenty of money, he had plenty of meat, he had a big mansion, he's one set dude, which is probably one of the biggest reasons why this loser marries this beautiful intelligent woman because after all, he was wealthy, he did have a lot of money. The problem is, it was his wealth that almost got him killed and it was his wife that came to his rescue.
Now, we're told that Nabal was surly and Nabal was harsh, he was extremely selfish, and we know that he was just a loser and the reason we know that is because of what his own wife said about him later in the story. Here's what she said. "Please pay no attention, my lord," she's talking to David right now, "to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name, his name means Fool," so don't ever name your kids Nabal, okay, "and folly goes with him. As for me, your servant, I did not see the men that my lord sent". We'll come back to that in a minute. Nabal's name means fool and Nabal lived up to his name, he was a 24 carat gold fool, now by the way, in scripture, the word fool does not refer to somebody that's dumb or somebody that's stupid, or somebody that's uneducated and doesn't have good judgment, in the scripture, a fool refers to someone who doesn't have any room for God in their life, they've got no space for God, they've got no time for God in their life and this is the man that David is about to deal with in the middle of the wilderness where you've got thieves and you've got sheep robbers and you've got all kinds of thugs everywhere.
Here's what's going on so I'm going to set the story up for you. David is on the run from Saul, he's got about 600 men, they're kind of like guerrilla fighters and they're kind of like Robin Hood and his Merry Men except they didn't rob from the rich and give to the poor, they actually protected the poor who were working for the rich because here's what happened, you had these people like Nabal and they've got all of these sheep and they've got all of these goats and they've got all of these flocks and they're all in different pastures, so they've got minimum wage workers, shepherds who are working for them taking care of their flock. But shepherds are shepherds, they're not warriors, they don't fight, so you've got all these bands of robbers and thieves roving the countryside and they would just come and they would overpower the shepherds and they would take the owner's sheep and they would leave him without anything.
So, what would happen was, David and his band of men, they were kind of like guardian angels. They took it upon themselves to protect the owner's flock and protect the shepherds and they would make sure that the robbers and thieves would not take what belonged to the owner. By the way, they did it for free, they didn't charge any money, but according to the custom of the day, when it came time to sheer the sheep, and it came time to take the wool and the meat to market, it was just a common practice for the owner to set aside a portion of the profit that he made and give a certain portion of that to those who protected the shepherds while they were out in the fields. So David and his men get word that hey, it's time to go to the market, they're sheering sheep. David's been protecting Nabal and his shepherd employees, he's been protecting his assets, the only reason why Nabal's got any sheep to take to the market is because David took care of him and made sure that he did, so now it's time to kind of show your gratitude and it was just a custom of that day that it would be a payday for all of these men that helped to protect your assets.
So David does the gracious thing, he sends ten young men to go see Nabal and request a little kickback for their security services. Okay, now, let me just set this up. This is not a mafia shakeup. He didn't find the dead horse's head in his bed, or something like that, that's not what's going on, they're not shaking Nabal down. They're just asking for a customary appreciation gift and David isn't asking for a lot, he's not charging a fee, he doesn't have any set amount in mind, here's all he says. "Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them". In other words, just a nice way of saying, "Look, we're not charging you anything, we didn't really do it for the money, but we do believe we've earned a reward, so whatever you think is fair, whatever you think is right, we will be satisfied with that".
So, David's request is not unreasonable but Nabal's response is so ungrateful. Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is this David?", now let me stop right there. Everybody knows who David is. David's no secret and he's the most famous man in the whole country, right? "Who is this David, who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water and the meat I have slaughtered", which by the way, David protected, "for my shearers and give it to men coming", and this was the ultimate insult, "from who knows where"? I don't know who you guys are, I don't know who David is, so David's men return, okay, and David says, "Hey, well what did Nabal say"? "Well, you want it in Hebrew or English"? He said, "Try Hebrew". They said, "Okay, take a hike, fly a kite, he's not going to give us anything".
Well, to put it simply, that doesn't go too well with David, okay. I mean, David is hungry, his men are hungry, they need the food, they oughta have the food, they deserve the food, they worked for the food, they put their lives on the line for the food and now David's thinking to himself, "Am I going to let some fool named Nabal stick it to me after what I've done for him"? So now David's got a decision to make. Here's what Nabal has done to David, now what is David going to do about Nabal and whatever David does is going to change his life forever. Whatever David does is going to have repercussions in his life forever, whatever David does it'll literally be mainly a negative effect on his life or a positive effect on his life but it won't be a middle of the road effect and David's trying to think, "What am I going to do?" and either way, it is going to be a life-changing, character-determining decision.
And David doesn't understand something, but he's about to. David, before you do anything, you need to consider who's causing your heartburn. You need to consider who's driving your blood pressure up. You need to consider who's causing you to hyperventilate because remember, always be careful before you let something else or something else determine how you act, always be careful before you let something else or someone else determine how you are going to act. So the first question you have to ask before you fly off the handle is, "Okay, who is causing my anger? Who's causing my bitterness, who's causing my resentment, who's causing my jealousy, who's causing my fear"? And in this case, David. Don't let a fool make a fool out of you. Don't let a fool make a fool out of you. So in number one, who is causing my anger?
Number two, who is counseling my anger? Who's talking to me about my anger? Who am I listening to? Now, David and his men have laid their lives on the line helping Nabal keep his sheep, make his money, and now Nabal's basically told David, go fly a kite, hit the road, get lost. Well, how's David going to respond? Well, his response is short, not sweet. Okay, so Nabal, no lambchops right, no bread, right, no milk, right, no meat, right? No money at all right, is that right? Yep, that's right, so David's response is real simple. David says to his men, "Each of you strap on your sword"! Not pretty, strap on your sword. David looked at his men and said "Hey guys, we're not going to get even, we're going to get more than even, he's bit off more than he can chew, I'm going to kill Nabal".
Now listen to this, he's going to kill a man over some lambchops. He's going to kill a man over some meat. He's going to kill a man over some milk. So that leaves now to the second character in the story, that's Nabal's wife, Abigail. One of Nabal's servants evidently overheard what was going on and kind of saw what was going on, so he runs to Abigail and he tells Abigail how good David had been to Nabal and how wicked Nabal had been to David. And so when Abigail hears the story, she, Wonder Woman, swings into action, all right. Abigail acted quickly, she took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs and loaded them on donkeys. Which, by the way, that's what Nabal should have done, if Nabal would have done that, it'd be the end of the story.
Then she told her servants, "Go ahead, I'll follow you". Wise woman, but she didn't tell her husband Nabal. Wise woman, now, what you're about to read, keep one thing in mind. She is not doing what she's about to do for herself. Because she has nothing to fear from David, David's not after her, she has nothing to fear. So why's she doing it? Well, what happens next in this story, which by the way is why you ought to read the Old Testament, what happens next, Hollywood couldn't make up what I'm about to share with you, don't miss this. Hollywood couldn't make this up. Now we're in verse 20. As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her and she met them.
Now, David's still steaming, he is still hot, you know, Teresa will tell you this, is one thing Teresa gets on to me about, I talk to myself a lot, don't I, honey? I do, I'll talk to myself, she wonders why, because I'm the only one that will listen to me so I just talk to myself a lot and she'll tell you this, when I get upset, I'm telling people off, I'll get in the room by myself and I'll just let people have it, I'm kind of just letting off steam, that's what David's doing, he's kind of talking to himself and he says, "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. May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning," now watch this, "I leave alive, not just Nabal, but one male of all who belong to him"! He is ticked, he's hot.
You see what David's doing, he's giving himself counsel. He's giving himself a pep talk. Nabal has given evil for good and so he says, "You know what, you've done me evil for good, I'm going to do you more evil than you have done to me. I'm not just going to kill you, I'm going to kill every male that's related to you. I'm going to kill your sons, I'm going to kill your nephews, I'm going to kill your cousins, I'm going to kill your brothers, I'm going to wipe your family out. You have messed with the wrong dude". Even though they've done nothing wrong, even though they're innocent, David doesn't care, he has flown off the handle, he has had it, so get the picture.
David and 400 of his fighting men are coming up this ravine and they're met by this one woman. One woman, standing up to 400 battle-tested, hungry, angry warriors and she gives the longest speech by a woman that's ever given in the entire Old Testament and you guys, I want you to listen to this, because women are smart, I'll tell you right now, women are smart and this woman is one intelligent woman and she gives David some great, great counsel. And by the way, if you've been interested in Pyschology and you want to become an amateur psychologist, we're about to learn Psychology 101, this woman is slick, okay, and watch what she does. She says to David, "Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name, his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent".
In other words, if I'd been there, this wouldn't have happened. "And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives and as you live", now she knows what she's doing, "since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal". Boy, she's good, she is a master psychologist. She says, "Sire, David, I know what kind of a guy my husband is, I'm married to him, and I want to tell ya, I married a fool, this guy's a loser, he is a mega loser, but David, you're better than him, David, look me in the eyes, don't bring yourself down to his level, take your eyes off of that foolish husband of mine and put your eyes back on God." and at this critical moment in David's life when he's about to fly off the handle and do something in the heat of the moment he will live with and he will regret for the rest of his life, she gives him two great pieces of advice, I want to give to you the next time you're tempted to give in to your temper and give in to your bitterness and give in to your fear and give in to your anger and give in to your resentment, two things, number one, don't forget God, don't forget God and number two, don't forsake grace.
Don't forget God, don't forsake grace. Now, watch what she does, watch what she does. Okay, she knows what she's doing. First of all, she takes him out of the present and she moves him into the future, look what she says. "Please forgive your servant's presumption". She says, "Look, I know I'm a woman, I know I'm not really supposed to address you like this, but please just give me some slack here". "The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord's battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live". Now listen to what she says to David. She says, "David, you're going to be the king. It's time to start acting like one". You're going to be the king, it is time you start acting like one. David, please hear me, don't let a fool make you do something foolish. Don't let a fool make you live life foolish.
All right, she's on a roll, she keeps going. "When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant". Boy, this good, listen. Never get around an Abigail with your wallet. She knows what she's doing, she says, "David, Nabal has to live with what he's done to you. You don't have to live with what you will do to Nabal. Don't go down to his level, don't let Nabal make you answer for evil you don't have to commit".
Now stop and think about this, think about Abigail. You're talking about a wonderful woman. Who is she married to, a fool, he's surly. He's mean, he's selfish, and here comes David along and David is going to take him out. Say you're Abigail, you'd be tempted to say "You're going to take my foolish, mean, surly husband out? I just hate it when things like that happen". She doesn't do that, instead, she says, "David, don't do that, I'm coming between you and him". You say, why in the world? Some of you ladies right now might be thinking, "Wait a minute, she's about to have her husband on a golden platter and inherit everything he's got and not have to put up with this fool anymore and she's coming between him and David, why would she do that"? The reason why she did it and the reason why she was a great counsel, listen to this, if you don't hear anything else, hear this, is not because she cared about what she wanted, it's not because she cared about what Nabal needed, it's not because she cared about what David deserved, had nothing to do with that. All she cared about was what God wanted. That's all that mattered to her. I care about what God wants.
Now incidentally, you may be like me, I'm reading this story and I'm thinking to myself "How in the world, if she's so intelligent and so beautiful, how does she wind up with a loser like that"? I mean, you have to ask that, how in the world did she wind up, some of you are probably thinking that right now but don't tell your husband, listen. How in the world did she wind up with someone like that? Well, I thought about it and I did a little research and I remembered most, in that day, marriages were arranged. Back then they didn't have courtship, they didn't have dating, you didn't have that freedom. A man and a wife had a son, man and a wife had a daughter. They liked their son, they liked their daughter, they said "You know what, I think it'd be a good idea, I think you ought to get married." and they would get married.
So most likely it was arranged, however, it does remind me of the story of a man that got into an argument with his wife and he just kind of popped out and he said "Well you do know that men have far better judgment than women, you do know that, don't you"? And his wife, to his surprise, said "I absolutely agree with that, you're right, men do have far better judgment than women". He said, "Really"? She said, "Yes, look at us, you married me and I married you". Yeah, don't clap, listen, when you're about to fly off the handle and you're about to do something or say something you may regret later, always, first of all, take advice from God's word and always take godly counsel.
So ask yourself right now, whether it's anger, fear, bitterness, resentment, jealousy, doesn't matter, okay, who's causing that emotion? Who is counseling that emotion? And then here's the last question. Who is controlling your anger? Who's controlling my fear, who's controlling my bitterness, who's controlling my resentment, who's controlling my jealousy? So now we've come to the last character. We've dealt with Nabal, we dealt with Abigail, now we're dealing with David. Now remember, what David's going to do next will be a defining moment in his life because, maybe you remember this little saying, "For every reaction, there is a..." Right, "For every action, there is a reaction," right, you need to add something to that. "For every action there is a reaction, and for every reaction, there is a memory". For every action there's a reaction, and for every reaction, there is a memory. If I were to say to you right now, "Hey, just let your life flash before your eyes right now".
Let's just say you're about to check out of here, literally, you're about to go to be with the Lord, so your whole life flashes before you. Just think about all the memories that you have in your life and I promise you you got two kinds, everybody only has two kinds. You're going to remember the things that you regret that you did and you're going to remember the things that you rejoiced that you did, that's where all of us are. I've got sad memories, I've got glad memories. I've got things I look back in my life, I wish I could do them over again, I wish I could undo some things that I've done, I wish I could untie some gifts that I wrapped, I can't. But then there are other things in my life that I look at and I go, "I'm so glad I didn't do that" or "I'm so glad that I did do that" and she's simply saying to David right now, "David, whatever you're about to do, you will live with for the rest of your life".
So, he's gotten great Godly spiritual advice from Abigail, right, master psychologist. She's played every card in the deck but the last one and now she throws down the trump card. "Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, that is Saul, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God," Now watch this, see it's so good, this girl, that's Abigail, unbelievable. "But the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a", what's the word? Sling. What does that make you think of? Yeah, Goliath. That rascal Abigail, you rascal Abigail. Why do you think she talks about the pocket of a sling? You know what she just did with David? She took him all the way back to the Valley of Elah. I get chill bumps thinking about this right now, I really do, she's so good, I wish I was as good as her. She takes him all the way back to the Valley of Elah to this giant Goliath.
She says, "David, you thought Goliath was a big giant, that's not a big giant. David, your anger and your temper is a much bigger giant than he was in the valley, and David I'm telling you, just as God through you conquered that giant, God through you can conquer this giant". In other words, here's what she was saying, "David, do you know why you defeated Goliath back in the Valley of Elah? Because you took your eyes off of Goliath and you kept your eyes on God. David, you know how you can make sure you do the right thing with Nabal? Get your eyes off of Nabal and put your eyes back on God". I mean she nails David, she's got him. Look how David responds. David said to Abigail, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment because mine wasn't so good, may you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. 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".
All of a sudden, David comes back to his senses and David remembered who is in control and for the first time, do you realize this is the first time in the whole narrative David ever mentions God and it's the first time in the whole narrative David even talks to God and all of a sudden it finally comes back to David, he finally remembers he is not the only one who should be controlling his emotions. He all of a sudden remembers, "Wait a minute, I'm not living for Nabal, I'm living for God, I'm not controlled by Nabal, I'm controlled by God". And he learned such a great lesson, here's the lesson. The way to stay in control of every situation is to let God be in control of every situation. That's the way to stay in control, let God be in control of every situation.
Now, I could just stop right there and I could say "Okay, amen, time to go home," and we'd all be finished and it would be okay, except, let's go all Hollywood on this deal, okay. Have you ever been to a movie and you loved the movie except you hated the way it ended? You know, it was a great movie, but I didn't like the way it ended. Well, we always like to go to stories that have kind of happy-ever-after endings, all right, listen, Hollywood could not make this up. Listen to what happens next. When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak. Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. And about ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Praise be to the Lord," I love David, man, hey, hotdog, hit the bricks, boy, okay, now, "Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal's wrongdoing down on his own head". David says God is good all the time. Took him out, what God did for David is what David wanted to do because he let God do it, so there was no blood on his hands, no regret in his memory, no guilt in his conscience, you know why, it always pays not to get in God's way. It always pays not to get in God's way. And there's an even greater lesson, I want you to listen to this, this is my favorite. If you're tempted to fly off the handle, give God the handle and He will handle it.
Now, I made that up, you oughta like that, all right? Now, if you're tempted to fly off the handle, give God the handle and He will handle it. Now again, I could stop there, you could say "Hey man, the story ended great, Nabal's dead". Well, if you're sadistic, you probably would feel that way, right? But that's not even the best part of the story, I'm telling ya, Hollywood can't make this up. You talk about a fairy tale ending, get ready for this. Then David sent word to Abigail asking her to become his wife, whoa! His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, "David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife". I love Abigail's response, she bowed down with her face to the ground and said "Well I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord's servants".
And Abigail quickly got on a donkey and attended by her five female servants went with David's messengers and became his wife. Did God take care of David? He give David a wife who is good-looking, brought good cooking, which is why I think Abigail is the Hebrew word for Teresa. Now, I told you you're in the sermon. Now remember who's the hero, I know God's the ultimate, but in the story, who's the hero, Abigail, right, Abigail's the hero. Now watch this, this is so good, this is the best part to me. Abigail never knew Jesus, but she was a perfect picture of Jesus. She places herself between David and Nabal, just like Jesus put himself between us and God. She volunteered to be punished for Nabal's sins that she didn't commit. Just like Jesus was punished for the sins he didn't commit. She turned away the wrath of David from Nabal just like Jesus turns the wrath of God away from us. And she became the bride of David just like one day, we'll become the bride of Jesus.
What a story, Hollywood couldn't make this up if they thought for a million years. And what a model she is for us just like Jesus. I'm going to wrap this up, we're going to be done. There were three characters in the story, remember? Remember how last week I told you about the three different levels of life you can live your life on? You see them all right here, right? Nabal, he gave evil for good, that's the satanic level. David said, "Okay, I'm going to give evil for evil". That's the sensible level, you hurt me, I hurt you. Abigail gave good for evil which is the supreme level and we can live on that level. I know some of you say, "No, I can't do it". Yeah you can, you can. And don't take my word for it.
Remember the story I told at the beginning of the sermon? That little three year old boy that was shot and killed in that instance of road rage? After the guilty verdict was rendered, Acen's mother, Gashon Bell, asked the court for the privilege of speaking to the killer of her son. Everybody was there, it was a packed courtroom and they just knew, here comes this fire-breathing mother and she's going to spew every bit of righteous anger and venom she's got toward the man that killed her three year old boy. But to the shock of everyone, especially the murderer, this is what she said. "As bad as I want to hate you... I just can't. I forgive you". You're battling the giant of anger, bitterness, resentment in your life. Take the high road, that's where you'll always find Jesus and it's the only road that will lead you to live happily ever after.