A Man After God's Own Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I wonder if you would say today, "Lord, you're looking to and fro throughout the earth. You're looking for those whose heart is completely yours. And by the grace of God, Lord, I will be that one. I want to love you. I want to serve you. I want to be genuine and honest and sensitive and grateful and thankful. I want to have a passion for you that would far exceed my passion for anything else. Oh God, do a work in me." Hey, here's the thing. Do you want to have a heart for God? Do you want to be the person that God looks for?
Guest (Male): The Bible tells us in Second Chronicles, chapter 16, verse 9, "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his." In essence, it assures us all that God is looking for those who genuinely love him. They want to know him and want to follow his ways above their own preferences. It's less about outward religion and more about a deep inner desire to please God and live in alignment with his will. Do you have what God's looking for? This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. And thank you for listening today as he continues the lesson, "The Heart of the Matter," from his new eight-message series, "Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel." And you can learn more about this timely and powerful series when you go to fromhisheart.org. Now though, open your Bible to First Samuel, chapter 16, and let's break it down together to get to the heart of the matter, part two. Here again is Pastor Jeff Schreve.
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Okay, three discoveries for today concerning the heart of the matter. Do you have what God is looking for? Discovery number one, God is not concerned with the outward appearance. Outward appearances don't mean anything to God. They mean a lot to us. The Lord said to Samuel, "Man looks at the outward, but the Lord looks at the heart." That word "looks" means to consider, to take heed, to inspect. And so here's the good news. You can be chosen regardless of your physical attributes, regardless of your age, regardless of your social importance. And the Bible reminds us in First Corinthians, chapter one, the Apostle Paul says, "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen the things which are not, so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God." God is not concerned with the outward appearance. Secondly, God is singularly concerned with the heart. God sees not as man sees. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. He considers the heart. He takes heed and inspects the heart, the core of who you are. Now, there's a lot we could say about David's heart, but I want to just focus in on four things about his heart. Because you ask the question, "Okay, well what did God see in his heart? What was it about David that the Lord said he's a man after my own heart?" Well, God looks for a heart that is open and honest. And David had an open heart. He had an honest heart before the Lord. David didn't care about looking right. He cared about being right. See, when you're honest before the Lord, you know that you're not keeping secrets. And David was the one who said in Psalm 139, "Search me, Oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any evil hurtful way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." David had that kind of a heart. Saul didn't have that. Saul, as I said, he wanted to look good on the outside. He didn't want to get things right on the inside. God looks at the heart. He looks to see, "Do you have an honest heart?" I love what it says in the parable, Luke chapter eight, where Jesus is talking about the sower went out to sow, and he sowed the seed and some fell upon the road and some fell upon the rocky soil and some fell upon the thorny soil and some fell in the good soil. And this is what he said about that. "But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast and bear fruit with perseverance." They have a good heart. They have an honest heart. Their heart is good soil so that the word can go down in it. They believe God when God says what he says. David had that. Do you have that? A good and honest heart, a believing heart, or are you constantly arguing with scripture? "This can't be true. That can't be true." David didn't have that. He had a good and honest heart. Secondly, God looks for a heart that is humble and sensitive to him. David was very humble. You know, when David was installed as king, David, the story of David, he gets anointed when he's 12. He fights Goliath when he's about 15, probably. We don't know for sure. The Bible doesn't give us exact ages, but we know he was less than 20. You had to be 20 years old to fight. And his brothers are fighting. Three of his brothers are fighting and the three that are mentioned. But so David is probably about 15 when he fights Goliath. And so from there, Saul takes him and puts him into his army. And then David does really well in his army. And then David has to flee from Saul because Saul sees David as a threat to his kingdom, and he tries to kill David on numerous occasions. David spends about 15 years of his life on the run from Saul. And then he becomes King of Hebron. And he's King of the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, those two tribes. And then he becomes king of all Israel. And so he's 37 years old when he becomes king of all Israel. And he goes before the Lord after the Lord installs him as king and he says to the Lord, "Who am I, Oh Lord? And what is my father's house that you have brought me this far? I'm the eighth son of my father Jesse. I'm a nothing nobody. I was tending sheep and you called me. And you have brought me to this place. Who am I, Oh Lord?" He was humble before the Lord and he was sensitive to the Lord. You know, David, he writes so many psalms. 73 of the psalms are attributed to David. And what do we see in David's psalms? Humility and honesty and openness. And David shares his heart with the Lord. He's sensitive in his heart to the Lord. I love what the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 66, verse two. The Lord says, "For my hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word." That's David. That's David. That's why God noticed his heart. This is a guy who has a heart for me. Thirdly, God looks for a heart that is grateful and thankful. Do you have a heart like that? Grateful and thankful heart. What do we read in so many of the psalms? The 73 psalms that David wrote. He's all the time thanking God and praising God. When that one experience happened in his life, when he's running from Saul and he goes to King Achish, who was the king of Gath. David, you know, Goliath was from Gath. The people of Gath knew about David because David is the guy who killed Goliath. And so David goes there and they recognize him. "Hey, this is David. This is the one they sing those songs about. Saul has slain his thousands and David his tens of thousands. This is the guy who killed Goliath." And David got very afraid because they know who I am. So what did he do? He had to act like a crazy person and let the saliva run down in his beard and start scribbling on the wall. And the King of Gath said, "Do I lack madmen in my kingdom? Get this guy out of here." And so he was spared and he was able to flee. And he fled to the cave in Adullam and he writes Psalm 34. And what does he say in Psalm 34? "I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear it and rejoice. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together." He is praising God. He is grateful. He is thankful. God is looking for people who have that humble heart, that sensitive heart, that grateful, thankful heart. Do you have that? Bible says, First Thessalonians chapter five, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is God's will in Christ Jesus concerning you." So a lot of us, we grumble and gripe and moan and groan and never is anything good enough. We always find something that we can say, "Well, yeah, but it's not this way and it's not that way." You know, you have people that are constantly down on America. What are you comparing America to? Utopia? That doesn't exist. And so the people that are, "Oh, we're terrible here and we're terrible there." I love what Charlie Kirk said when somebody said, "Well, I hate America." He said, "Well, do you want to leave?" "No." He said, "That shows how great America is. It's the only place where people say they hate it but don't want to leave." There's something wonderful about that. But see, we compare everything, we compare our lives to this utopia that doesn't exist. How much better just to be grateful and thankful for what happens in our lives because we know that God is over it all? That's the way David was.
Guest (Male): We'll continue to explore this truth with a moving illustration from Pastor Jeff in just a moment. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today and part two of the lesson, "The Heart of the Matter." In everyday language, if someone says a person has a heart for God, they usually mean that person is sincere, spiritually hungry, and devoted to living in a way that honors God. More personally for each of us, it means God's priorities become our priorities. Now, it doesn't mean we're perfect, but it means our direction is toward God, not away from him. And that's what every lesson in Pastor Jeff's hope-filled series is all about. We're airing it this month and it's called, "Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel." And Pastor Jeff would love to get a copy into your heart and help you to enjoy the relationship with God that God so desires. The series is our gift to you for your support this month of any amount. To get your copy in the format of your choice on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 downloads, call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go to fromhisheart.org and request the series, "Leaving a Legacy." And thank you for joining with us to share our legacy of loving God with the world. Again, call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org. Now the conclusion to the lesson, "The Heart of the Matter."
Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now many of you know the name Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry, the one that wrote the commentary on the whole Bible, that man that was such a great man of God. Well, the story is told of Matthew Henry, true story, he was attacked by some robbers on the way to preach. And they stole his wallet or his purse containing all his money for the journey. And he went to the event where he was scheduled to preach and he wrote this in his diary listing four reasons after the attack and the robbery to be thankful. He said number one, "I am thankful because I was never robbed before. Number two, I was thankful because although they took my purse, they did not take my life. Number three, I'm thankful that although they took all I had, it wasn't much." And number four, "I'm thankful because it was I who was robbed and not I who robbed." Now, when you get robbed, mugged and robbed and you can have four things to thank God about, you have a thankful heart, right? It's easy to grumble and gripe and complain if you get robbed. I mean, if you go out and you got a dead battery after church, many of us are not thanking the Lord for that. But in everything give thanks, for this is God's will in Christ Jesus concerning you. David had a grateful and thankful heart. And David had a thirsty heart and a passionate heart for the Lord. And God looks for that. Who is interested in me? Who really loves me? Who is passionate about me? Psalm 42 says, "As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for you, Oh God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." Do you have a thirst, a hunger to know God? "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness," Jesus said, "for they shall be satisfied." David had that. I remember when I asked my father-in-law Jerrol Kanon, who's with the Lord now, when I was a young Christian and introduced to David and this idea of being a man after God's own heart, I said, "What does that mean? I want to be like that. What does that mean?" And I asked Jerrol, I said, "Jerrol, what does that mean?" He said, "Well, David had a passion for God. He desired to have this deep relationship with God." That's what that means when your heart is connected to God. That's why in chapter 17, when Goliath is calling out the ranks of Israel and David hears him and it's a mocking challenge when Goliath says, "I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together." And David heard those words and David said, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God? I'll go fight him because he has dishonored God and dishonored his people." And David had such a passion for God. God chose David. He was looking for a man who had a heart for him, and he found it in a 12-year-old shepherd boy. Now you say, "Well Jeff, what do I do with that?" I mean, the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. But I don't have these things in my heart. Hey, here's the thing. Do you want to have a heart for God? Do you want to be the person that God looks for? Because discovery number three, God wants you to be the one he is looking for. God is no respecter of persons. I don't care your age, I don't care about your background, I don't care how unimportant you might be. I don't care if you're the tallest person in here, the shortest person in here, the biggest person in here, the smallest person in here, doesn't matter. God wants you to be the one he is looking for. So how can that happen? Let me show you how you can be a person after God's own heart. Four things you need to do. Number one, constantly consider who he is, who the Lord is. Fill your mind with the fact that God spoke the worlds into existence. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. God is the great God of the universe. The Bible says in Isaiah 40, "All the nations are as nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing and meaningless." If you put all the nations on a scale, they're like a speck compared to God. And you fill your mind with the fact that God is so far beyond what anything my mind can comprehend. He's huge. And we need to let our minds out and consider how great the Lord is. "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised." And if you let your mind out and you think to the ends of where your mind can go, God is greater than that. So constantly fill your mind with how great God is. That's the fear of the Lord. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's the beginning of knowledge. It's the beginning of everything. It is recognizing that God is God and you're not God and God is in control and you're not in control. And that's a good thing and I can trust God because God is over all. The Lord sits as king at the flood. The Lord sits as king forever. Constantly consider who he is. Secondly, constantly consider his great love for you. This God who is so far beyond anything our minds can comprehend, he loves you. He knows about you. Little old you. You who are like David, so insignificant that you're not even invited to the feast. God loves you. God knows about you. He knows what happened last night. He knows that some of you cried yourself to sleep. God knows everything about you. He cares. The Bible tells us cast our cares upon him because he cares for us. Psalm 107 talks about Israel's history and all the things that they did and how many times they turned their back on the Lord and disaster would come and then they'd cry out to the Lord for mercy and he'd deliver them. And it says this, "Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things and consider the lovingkindnesses of the Lord." God loves you. And then seek him. Thirdly, seek him first and foremost. And Matthew 6:33 says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you." Make him a priority, the priority of your life, that he would have first place in everything. What does that mean practically? That means when you get up in the morning, you say, "Hey, I'm going to spend time with God today and it's going to be the first thing. And if I have to get up 15 minutes early, then I'm getting up 15 minutes early. I'm going to discipline myself for the purpose of godliness because I want to have a heart for God." And that's not going to happen by osmosis. I'm not going to stumble into that. I have to seek him. The Lord says, "And you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." And so you have to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. And then ask God to do a deep work in your heart. I've been praying for decades, "God, I want to be a man after your own heart. I want to have a sensitive heart to you. And when I sin, I want to be very sensitive that I've sinned against you and get it right." And I want to believe you for things. I want to have a good and honest heart when I read your word. I want to say, "Yes Lord," and surrender to what God wants me to do. I don't want to fight him. And so God do a deep work in my heart. Because I know my heart is like everybody else's heart. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. And so we just have to keep coming back and keep coming back. "Lord, do a work in me." The Bible says in Psalm 119, verse 32, "I shall run the way of your commandments for you will enlarge my heart." God, I want to have more of a heart for you. I'll close with this story. This is a very familiar story about Dwight L. Moody. You know, Dwight L. Moody was the Billy Graham of the 1800s. And Dwight L. Moody was a poorly educated shoe clerk who came to Christ at the age of 17. Edward Kimball witnessed to him at the shoe store and Dwight L. Moody put his faith and trust in Jesus. Well, fast-forward some years and Moody is in Dublin, Ireland. And he is talking to his friend Henry Varley, who was an evangelist. And it was after Varley had preached and they're talking, and something Varley said to him just struck Moody. And he couldn't get it out of his mind and he couldn't get it out of his heart. And he asked Varley a year later, "Do you remember in Dublin when we were talking?" He said, "Yes." He said, "Do you remember what you said to me?" And Varley said, "No, not specifically." He said, this is Moody telling Varley, he said, "You told me the world has yet to see what God can do in with and through a man who's totally surrendered to Jesus Christ, who's totally consecrated to Jesus Christ." He said, "Those words just lit me up. And that's all I could think about. And sailing back home to America, that's all I could think about. I just saw it all over the Atlantic Ocean, those words, those words, those words." He said, "They have changed everything for me because I said, by the grace of God, I will be that man." I wonder if you would say today, "Lord, you're looking to and fro throughout the earth. You're looking for those whose heart is completely yours. And by the grace of God, Lord, I will be that one. I want to love you. I want to serve you. I want to be genuine and honest and sensitive and grateful and thankful. I want to have a passion for you that would far exceed my passion for anything else. Oh God, do a work in me."
Guest (Male): When you approach God with an attitude of repentance and faith, he will come in and he will change you forever. You'll become a child of God. To find out more about what that really means, we hope you'll go to our website at fromhisheart.org, click the "Why Jesus" link. There you'll discover some resources to help you to get started in your Christian journey and answer the myriad of questions you may have. If you'll appropriate all that you've heard from scripture today, it'll free you up to be all God wants you to be and to do all that he calls you to do. What's he calling people with a heart of God to do? Seek God in prayer and scripture, desire to obey God even when it's inconvenient, care about what God cares about like holiness and mercy and justice, be instantly willing to repent when you're wrong, and seek to love people the way God loves you. That's the lesson that we should take away from today's lesson, "The Heart of the Matter," from Pastor Jeff's series, "Leaving a Legacy: Lessons from the Life of Samuel." Our gift to you for your support this month of any amount. Just go online to make that gift, fromhisheart.org. Well, thank you for joining with us today. I'm Larry Nobles reminding you that From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve will return tomorrow to begin the last message in the Leaving a Legacy series. It's called, "The King, the Witch, and the Prophet." That's Wednesday on From His Heart, the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Schreve, who believes that no matter how badly you may have messed up in life, God still loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.