After God’s Own Heart

Baptist Men’s Day, on the Southern Baptist Convention calendar, is observed on January 24, 2021 (which, of course, we are a week late). I have written this morning’s sermon to recognize the men of our congregation, and we’re going to be looking at living a life of integrity before God. Our message is entitled, “After God’s Own Heart,” and I’m going to expand on a devotional I shared a couple of years ago on a Wednesday night. We will be exploring today what it means to truly be “a man after God’s own heart,” in an attempt to reinstate a value placed on integrity.

This message is meant to encourage the men who are present here today, and it’s also meant to give us something to keep in mind concerning the men outside the church; those on whom we are seeking to have a positive influence, whether that be the lost or other believers. Let me tell you, the words of this morning’s message are something that both the lost and the saved need to hear. So, please stand with me at this time in honor of the reading of God’s Word, as we look at Acts 13:21-23.

A Man after My Own Heart (Acts 13:21-23)

21 And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” 23 From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior – Jesus.

Wow, a man after God’s own heart! Oh, that we could all be called men (or even women) after God’s own heart! This bold statement made about King David is derived from 1 Samuel 13:14, in which the prophet Samuel said to Saul concerning David, “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

David was such an awesome man of God that the Lord bestowed on him and his descendants the privilege of having the Messiah, Jesus Christ, born from his lineage. We’re told in Acts 13:22 – in contrast to Saul – that David was established as king because he would do all of God’s will, or be obedient to Him; whereas, in 1 Samuel 13:14, we read of how Saul failed to do what God asked of him.

Integrity begins with the decision to live in obedience to God’s standards and commands and not our own; meaning, we choose to follow the Lord’s desires. The way in which we will discover, this morning, what it is to have the heart of God is by contrasting “Saul’s heart of defiance” with “David’s heart of obedience.” But before we go any further, I want to point out that some of us are puzzled when we hear of David being a man after God’s own heart. We’re puzzled because we’re familiar with David’s shame of adultery, murder, and deception. Allow to summarize the account.

1 Kings 15:5 states, “David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” David experienced a fall during his life in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. So, what happened? Well, David realized his destiny of becoming the king of Israel, and after this was fulfilled it appears that he became a little bored and lonely, especially since it was springtime and his army had gone off to war. The Scripture tells us that David saw a young woman bathing on the roof, named Bathsheba, and he sent his messengers to retrieve her, and then he had an affair with her (2 Samuel 11:2-4).

She then became pregnant with his child (2 Samuel 11:5); so when her husband Uriah came home from war, David tried to get him to go and lay with his wife so that Uriah would think the child was his own; however, Uriah couldn’t bring himself to accept the pleasure of company with his wife when his soldiers were experiencing the discomfort of the battlefield (2 Samuel 11:6-11). So, David ordered Uriah to be placed on the front lines of the next battle, and Uriah was killed (2 Samuel 11:14-17). You can call David’s actions toward Uriah deception; but most call it murder.

So, how could this adulterer and murderer be called a man after God’s own heart? We have to wonder, because when we look in the Scripture we see that Saul committed many of the same sins. Jim Graff, in his book A Significant Life, asked, “Why did David recover from his poor choices and Saul die because of his?” He answers this question by saying, “Because David eventually recognized his immaturity while Saul insisted on having his way to the end” (p. 122). David messed up, but when he became aware of his sin he realized his need to submit to God and ask forgiveness.