David – A Man After God’s Heart

David – A Man After God’s Heart

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU8QCJZmfvM

Today, we’re continuing in our series on faith by looking at the faith of our forefathers. And, if you haven’t noticed by now, I am usually in the Psalms and quoting from King David a lot, and so I thought that David would be the natural one to follow Abraham whom we looked at last week.

God teaches us a lot about faith through the lives of these men and women who are listed in what is known as God’s Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11. And even though David is given less than a casual mention, that is, only his name is given, he is mentioned more often than anyone else in the Bible.

There’s a story about this guy walked into the local library and said, “I have a complaint.”

• What is it,” the librarian replied.

• “The book I got here last week was terrible,” the man said.

• “What’s wrong with it?” the librarian queried.

• “The book just seems to go on and on. It has way to many characters, and there is no plot whatsoever.”

• “Oh,” replied the librarian, “You must be the one who stole our phonebook.”

If we think we’ve got it all together, then we need to think again, because we don’t. That’s why God has put these people in His Hall of Faith to give us practical examples of how we can live our lives by the kind of faith that pleases Him.

Now, we can see what God thought about David’s faith through David’s heart.

In the book of Acts the Lord says, “I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.” (Acts 13:22b NIV)

David understood that he was a servant, even though he was a king. In fact, what I find fascinating is that when we think about David, we think of him as King David, or we remember the Bible saying that he is a man after God’s own heart. But God referred to David more often as, “My servant.”

This is probably the most important title that anyone can have, that is, “A servant of God,” because it describes who we were created to be.

David knew that he was under submission to the Lord, and what we often see in the Old Testament when it talks about David is how often he continued to go to God. Whatever situation David found himself in, he would go to God and find out what to do.

Being a servant is something that we see concerning Jesus. He is the ultimate example of what our identity should be. And Jesus did this in a dramatic fashion when on the night he was betrayed took a bowl of water and washed the disciples’ feet. This was the position of the lowest servant in the household. And this is the position Jesus took upon Himself, and then He said, “What you have seen Me do, go do likewise.”

God has created us to be servants and to serve His purposes for our generation. In one of my life verses, it speaks of David as just that.

“After David had served his generation according to the will of God, he died and was buried.” (Acts 13:36 NLT)

So, the purpose of our lives is to serve God’s purposes. And to serve His purposes we need to live a life of faith, like David. And that life began in David’s heart, and it’s the kind of heart we need to live our lives by, because this is a life that pleases God the most.

Now, to get the full measure of what the Lord is saying about David’s heart, we need to realize that God was in essence comparing David’s heart to that of King Saul’s heart. So, let’s look at the complete Scripture verse.

“After removing Saul, He made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’” (Acts 13:22 NIV)

Saul was a man rejected by God as being king, while David was a man who would reign with God’s anointing, and David was the predecessor to the Messiah, Jesus. But why did God reject Saul and anoint David. What sins did Saul commit that caused him to fall from grace, while David ruled with God’s blessing, even though it seemed he committed more sins?

In the end, I guess the question should be, what does it take to be a person after God’s own heart and to have a faith that is pleasing to Him?

The difference was in their heart. Saul sinned because in his heart he sought after his own benefit and to please himself. Whereas David, despite his many sins, had a heart to please God, and not himself.