Dan [reenact this scene from my childhood!]: I spent a lot of time in the bathroom, making myself look so handsome that all the girls couldn’t help but want me: hair parted in middle, collar up.
• We spend a lot of time and $ trying to look nice, to make an impression
• Our Maker really doesn’t care about our outside.
o He doesn’t get turned off by our bad breath, or wear a polyester suit, or . . . . . .
o He cares about something much, much, deeper
[PROP: Hand out the Playdough (homemade, soft, fragrant, red), instruct children and parents to each make hearts)
God looks at the heart
Retell the story:
God was disappointed in the first King of Israel, Saul. He knew there was someone in Isreal that would make a much better king, and he wanted his judge, Samuel, to go find him, and anoint him king.
• Goes to a man named Jesse.
• Jesse gets six of his sons.
• Samuel looks at the first, the oldest, and says: “This has GOT to be the one God wants. . . his anointed.
1 Sam 16:7
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t look at how handsome Eliab is or how tall he is, because I have not chosen him. God does not see the same way people see. People look at the outside of a person, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (have them all hold up their hearts at this point)
Our hearts are a Very Special place that are very important to God.
What was good about David’s heart? Let’s take a look at some examples from his life.
[Retell the story of Goliath ]
• 9’4”
• The tip of his spear: 15 pounds [have a boy come up to the front and hoist up 15 pounds of weights to emphasize the size and strength of Goliath)
• Armor, 125 pounds
• Choose a man and send him to fight me. 9 If he can fight and kill me, we will be your servants. But if I can kill him, you will be our servants.” 10 Then he said, “Today I stand and dare the army of Israel! Send one of your men to fight me!”
David has to make a cheese and bread run to his brothers. He sees Goliath, making fun of Isreal and scaring them. And he gets mad!
16:26 Who does this uncircumcised Philistine think he is? Does he think he can speak against the armies of the living God?”
David’s oldest brother, the one that Samuel thought was handsome and strong enough to be king got mad at David, and made fun of him:
“Why did you come here? Who’s taking care of those few sheep of yours in the desert? I know you are proud and wicked at heart. You came down here just to watch the battle.”
Kind of funny, isn’t it? The brother that God said didn’t have the right heart was making fun of the little brother that God DID say had the right heart.
Well, to make a long story short,
David went out to Goliath, that big strong man that the whole army of Israel was afraid of.
Goliath saw David and started making fun of him: “This little shrimp is supposed to fight me? No way! I will feed your body to the birds and wild animals!”
But David wasn’t afraid of this great big Giant, so he looked him right in the . . . knee cap and said:
NO WAY, JOSE, you don’t scare me. I come to you in the name of the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the armies of Israel! You have spoken against him. 46 Today the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll kill you and cut off your head. Today I’ll feed the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds of the air and the wild animals. Then all the world will know there is a God in Israel!
David was all about God. God protected him when he took care of the sheep. God helped him fight lions. God helped him take care of his sheep. And he knew God would always take care of him.
Psalm 23:1-3: [have 8 year old Alexa recites them]
Many of you know that Psalm quite well . . .
There is a story about a little four-and-a-half-year-old girl was who raised her hand to recite all of Psalm 23. A bit skeptical, the teacher asked if she could really quote the entire psalm. The little girl came to the podium, faced the class, made a little bow, and said: "The Lord is my shepherd, that’s all I want." She then bowed again and sat down.
(SOURCE: Alan Smith in "The Lord is My Shepherd" on www.sermoncentral.com.)
Is God really all you want? You can tell what your heart really wants by what—or who—you turn to . . .
• When you are bored . . .
• When you are scared . . .
• When good things happen . . .
Feel how soft your heart is (that you made out of play-doh). That is the kind of heart God is looking for. Soft for him. His heart is always soft for those who look for Him, who want him.
God is all David wanted . . . most of the time
Like most of us (probably all of us), David would sometimes take his eyes off the Lord.
I have done that.
• I remember having secret places where I would hide things I knew mom and dad did not want me to have
• ASK CHILDREN what kinds of things put “dirt” in our heart
• PARENTS, TEENS, ADULTS:
o Is it too easy to hear what the children say, and feel safe?
o Is it too easy to read about fallen Bible heroes, and think we are not like them?
What would happen if God’s light was shined on the farthest corners of our hearts? What would He see?
When we aer alone, when we are stressed, these times often show what is deep in our heart. Larry Crabb tells us of a tendency we have to demand God fix things immediately—another example of a lacking heart of trust in God:
One Saturday afternoon, I decided I was a big boy and could use the bathroom without anyone’s help. So I climbed the stairs, closed and locked the door behind me, and for the next few minutes felt very self-sufficient.
Then it was time to leave. I couldn’t unlock the door. I tried with every ounce of my three-year-old strength, but I couldn’t do it. I panicked. I felt again like a very little boy as the thought went through my head, "I might spend the rest of my life in this bathroom."
My parents—and likely the neighbors—heard my desperate scream.
"Are you okay?" Mother shouted through the door she couldn’t open from the outside. "Did you fall? Have you hit your head?"
"I can’t unlock the door!" I yelled. "Get me out of here!"
I wasn’t aware of it right then, but Dad raced down the stairs, ran to the garage to find the ladder, hauled it off the hooks, and leaned it against the side of the house just beneath the bedroom window. With adult strength, he pried it open, then climbed into my prison, walked past me, and with that same strength, turned the lock and opened the door.
"Thanks, Dad," I said—and ran out to play.
That’s how I thought the Christian life was supposed to work. When I get stuck in a tight place, I should do all I can to free myself. When I can’t, I should pray. Then God shows up. He hears my cry—"Get me out of here! I want to play!"—and unlocks the door to the blessings I desire.
Sometimes he does. But now, no longer three years old and approaching sixty, I’m realizing the Christian life doesn’t work that way. And I wonder, are any of us content with God? Do we even like him when he doesn’t open the door we most want opened—when a marriage doesn’t heal, when rebellious kids still rebel, when friends betray, when financial reverses threaten our comfortable way of life, when the prospect of terrorism looms, when health worsens despite much prayer, when loneliness intensifies and depression deepens, when ministries die?
God has climbed through the small window into my dark room. But he doesn’t walk by me to turn the lock that I couldn’t budge. Instead, he sits down on the bathroom floor and says, "Come sit with me!" He seems to think that climbing into the room to be with me matters more than letting me out to play.
I don’t always see it that way. "Get me out of here!" I scream. "If you love me, unlock the door!"
(Larry Crabb, The Pressure’s Off (WaterBrook Press, 2002); pp. 222-223; www.preachingtoday.com)
Part of our maturity is to learn to trust God, to sit with him, to wait on him, and to examine what needs to be examined in our hearts.
God will also, out of love, light up those corners of our life that need worked on—like he did with David—even when it is painful to us.
After one of David’s lowest points, after he stole another man’s wife, killed that same man to try and cover up his sin, the prophet Nathan was used by God to shed light on David’s hardness and sin. God’s method was powerfully effective and David’s response was captured in this Psalm:
(Have Lori recite Psalm 51:10-12)
David wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but when he woke up from his disobedience, he humbly submitted to God.
God does these things out of love. His desire—whatever it takes—is to make our hearts clean/soft (soft/flesh—Ezekiel 11:19)
Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,
In fact, God promises that those who seek him will find him, if we seek him with all our heart. And the amazing thing is, even when we are hardened—up to a point—God will work and work and work on us to move our hearts back to him….even if it is painful to us.
Yes, even when we are not looking for God, he seeks us out
I heard the story of a man who asked for a Gideon Bible …He said the paper is very fine and perfect for rolling his cigarettes. The Gideon gave him the Bible on the condition that he before using the pages that he read them front and back. The man proceeded to smoke his way through Matthew, Mark, Luke and a then came to John and stopped when he read chapter 3:16 – and he gave his heart to the Lord
(George Rennau, www.preachingtoday.com)
Having the Lord in our heart is the most important decision we can make. This little girl, granddaughter of a lady named Carol, about the same age as some of you children here today, had the right idea:
My four-year-old granddaughter, Amanda, went to the doctor’s office with a fever. The doctor looked in her ears and said, "Who’s in there? Donald Duck?"She said, "No." He looked in her nose and said, "Who’s in there? Mickey Mouse?"Again she said, "No." He put his stethoscope on her heart and said, "Who’s in there? Barney?"Amanda replied, "No, Jesus is in my heart. Barney is on my underwear."
(Carol Leet, New York. Today’s Christian Woman, Vol. 18, no. 4. )
Having God in our heart is so important, because He shows us, like no other, a love that is better than any grandma, mom, dad, aunt, uncle, or friend could ever give—though some of your families do a great job loving themselves. He loves us even when we are unlovable. Another little boy, six years old, had a kind, older woman named Mother Theresa show him a love that gives us an idea of what God’s love is like.
This six-year-old boy had an ugly birthmark on the side of his face, and was brought to one of Mother Teresa’s orphanages. He appeared fearful, unloved and uncared for. He immediately went and sat in the corner and wouldn’t talk to anybody.
Mother Teresa walked over and knelt down beside him in the corner and said, “Well, what do we have here?” Then she embraced him in her arms and kissed him right on the birthmark on his face.
The other children started clapping because they knew that if Mother Teresa kissed the birthmark, it was all right. It made it beautiful, just because Mother Teresa said it was.
(retold by J. John, It’s What You Are on the Inside: Shrek; www.sermoncentral.com)
Conclusion:
We all know how much time we can spend on our appearance—how we look. The question is how much time to we spend working on the part that matters most to God: our heart?
[paint the picture of different scenes, relationships that are improved, healthy, because of hearts that are soft to the Lord’s influence: fathers who see their children as joys, not interruptions, families that sit around the dinner table, laughing together, praying with each other, friends who show real care and commitment, etc.
Admonish: “commit to growing in the Lord, being refreshed by his word, given power by his spirit. Look around at each other today and commit to love each other deeply, taking time to hear concerns, to pray for each other, and to build up each other. All of us, like David, will have moments of failure. But we are called to be their for each other in moments of weakness, to restore hearts that are soft with love for the Lord.
