“Chasing God’s Heart”
1st Samuel 16:1-13a and Acts 13:22
Shug Jordan who was the football coach at Auburn University, asked one of his former players (named Mike) if he would help him do some recruiting that year. He says, “Well, sure coach…..just tell me what kind of player you’re looking for.”
The coach says, “Well, you know there’s that fellow, you knock him down and he just stays down!” Mike said, “We don’t want him, do we, coach?” He says, “You’re right.”
Coach says, “Then there’s that fellow, you knock him down and he gets up, you knock him down again and he stays down.” Mike says, “We don’t want him either, do we, coach?”
Coach says, “You’re right. No, we don’t….but Mike, there’s a fellow you knock him down, he gets up, knock him down, he gets up, Knock him down, he gets up!” Mike says, “Oh, that’s the guy we want, isn’t it, coach?” Coach says, “No, we don’t want him either. I want you to find the guy who’s knocking everybody down. That’s the guy I want!”
From Genesis to Revelation, we find God selecting men and women who would not have been obvious choices if we were making the decision.
Look at the list:
• Moses stuttered
• Jacob lied
• Timothy had ulcers
• Abraham was too old
• Jonah ran from God
• Thomas was a doubter
• Martha was a worry wart
These were not the kind of people you and I would have expected God to pick for His purposes. But the Bible tells us that not only did God choose these men, He did it on purpose. He did it deliberately. God deliberately chooses people that you and I would probably overlook. And in this passage, today, we find God doing it again.
As the story opens, we see that Israel had a problem. They needed to replace King Saul. Now, why replace Saul? Saul didn’t seem like such a bad person to have as king. He was handsome, strong. He was tall, taller than anyone else in Israel. And at the beginning he seemed wise. And he was very popular. Everyone seemed to like Saul. Everyone was impressed with him. Everyone except God.
God’s problem was simple – when Saul was faced with tough decisions, when he was faced with difficult choices and he knew without a doubt what God’s will was…….He knew what God wanted Him to do……But he didn’t do it.
Saul made his choices based on fear.
• Fear of failure
• Fear his army would abandon/leave him
• Fear his enemies would destroy him
• All kinds of fear – in fact, it seemed that Saul seemed to fear everything and everyone except God.
So, the Bible tells us that God rejected Saul as His King & (listen) God went looking for someone after His own heart.
A man after God’s heart. Now here’s the question: “What does that look like?”
First of all it is not about our physical appearance…..outside, looks at the heart.
A group of high school students were asked recently, “If you could change anything about yourself, anything, what would it be?”
Was it:
“I wish I had better grades?”
“I wish I was healthier?”
“I wish I had more athletic ability?”
“I wish I had more money?”
“I wish I was more popular?”
None of those! 90% responded in this survey with this answer: “I would change my physical appearance.” The girls want to be thinner; the boys want to be taller; and they both want to be free from pimples/acne.
Listen, the Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The Lord looks at the heart.
God isn’t impressed with:
How handsome or beautiful we are
He’s not impressed with our wealth
Not impressed with our accomplishments
Not impressed with our college degrees
“What God looks at is the heart. The Bible says that the eyes of the Lord run throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.”
So what does it really look like? You know what? I can’t completely define it today. What does it look like to have a heart like His? For the next 8 weeks, this is what I hope to unpack some of these truths for you. Today I want to give you 3 guiding principles from the scripture. Three principles to guide us in developing a heart like His.
The Principle of Putting Jesus first in everything. If we are going to be men and women after God’s (own) heart, then our lives must be completely focused on Jesus, not on ourselves. David said to the Lord, “You are my Lord. Apart from You, I have no good thing.” Godly people recognize that life is not about us; it’s about Him. They’re willing to step aside and allow God to get the glory.
You see, Godly people practice humility. I use the word “practice’ intentionally because we don’t usually get it right the first time. Having true humility takes practice. Pride creeps in too easily and destroys our hearts. Pride distracts us and constantly pulls our attention/focus away from God. Pride is the reason Lucifer was thrown out of Heaven and the reason he took 1/3 of the angels with him. Pride cost Adam and Eve their place in the garden. It is the essence of all sin and the scripture tells us that God hates it!
The word “humility” in the Old Testament comes from a Hebrew word that means “to bend the knee…to bow down.” It’s the quickest way I know of to remove pride from your life.
A man after God’s heart must practice humility.
The principle of living in the Word. If we are going to be men/women after God’s (own) heart, we MUST learn to love God’s Word. David constantly lived in the word. David wrote, “God’s laws are perfect. They protect us, make us wise and give us joy and light…..They are more desirable than gold. They are sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb…..For they warn us away from harm and give success to those who obey them.” Vv. 7-11 LB. David was determined on a daily basis that he would build his daily life around the Word of God. Whenever David needed advice, he would go first to God’s Word. Let me ask you, who do you go to first for advice? Too many times we only go to God after we have exhausted all of our resources. God does not want to be last on own list. He will be lots of things, but LAST is not one of them!
We see at least 9 times when David struggled with decisions that he ran to God ASAP! The Philistines robbed the people of their food. “Lord, tell me what to do!” God said, “Fight back!” And David led them into battle.
Goliath stood there taunting the people day and night: David
Lord, do you want me to go to battle? Lord, should I defend your people? Lord, there’s a giant out there…..what do I do?”
God led him and he stood against Goliath.
And on too many occasions, when he made the decision to follow God, the people said, “No! We’re afraid we just can’t support this.” We’re not behind you. But it never changed David’s mind. Because David knew he had a word from God.
A man after God’s heart will always go to God and His word….first.
3. The shepherd principle. A man after God’s heart will take care of God’s people.
David had the heart of a shepherd. A shepherd takes care of sheep…..why? Because they can’t take care of themselves. When sheep are afraid, they run…….they tend to follow each other. They have a bad habit of getting lost. True story……in Turkey, in 2006, one of the sheep made an attempt to cross over a ravine about 40 to 50 feet deep. He fell in. So the rest of the flock of 400 sheep did the same thing. All 400 died that day. Sheep have to have a shepherd. All of us need one and we all must be one to those in need. We must develop the heart of a shepherd.
Frankly we have to learn to love God’s people and we must learn to love them as God loves them. Jesus understood this principle of course. David understood this, but I’m not sure that we do. You see if I want to be a man/woman after God’s heart, then I will be careful about how I treat God’s people. I don’t want to talk about them behind their back. I don’t want to be mean. I don’t want to mistreat anyone. That’s the heart of a shepherd.
Fanny Crosby was a great songwriter. Perhaps one of the very best. She wrote over 8000 songs including several that we sang today. Blessed Assurance, To God be the Glory. Great hymns of the faith. What some of us don’t know/remember is that Miss Crosby at 6 weeks of age developed an inflammation in her eyes. They took her to a local doctor for treatment. However, the doctor who treated her used the wrong medicine on her eyes and she became totally and permanently blind for the rest of her life. In an interview years later, Fanny Crosby said she held no bitterness whatsoever against the doctor. In fact, she once said,
