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.
In Psalm 51, we can hear David’s plea for forgiveness. He said, “I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight – that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit” (vv. 3-4, 10-12). When David confessed his sin and asked God’s forgiveness he was showing his desire to seek the Lord’s will; contrary to Saul, who sought his own will at all times.
Saul: A Man Lacking Integrity
So, let’s begin looking at this contrast between David and Saul, by starting with Saul first. Saul was lacking integrity while David possessed integrity. In 1 Samuel chapter 8, Israel demanded a king to rule over the people instead of a judge, in order to be like all the other nations (v. 5). Samuel warned the people how the king they would choose would reign unjustly and place the people under bondage (vv. 11-18). But the Lord allowed Israel to have her king in order to prove that the people needed God more than this king (v. 22).
We’re immediately prepared to witness some atrocities by Israel’s first king. The king chosen was Saul, and he was chosen because he had qualities that appear good in the eyes of the world, for we read of how he was handsome and taller than any other man (1 Samuel 9:2). The prophet Samuel anointed Saul as king (1 Samuel 10:1, 24; 11:15), and problems began to emerge immediately:
Whenever Saul was to be anointed king he was nowhere to be found, and he was finally pulled out from where he was hiding among the equipment and the armor (1 Samuel 10:20-23). We’re told a little later on in the Scripture how Saul was afraid of David, because David was one who behaved wisely (1 Samuel 18:14-15). We see that Saul was fearful, and fear is not of God. We read in 2 Timothy 1:7 of how, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind,” and 1 John 4:18 tells us, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
When Jabesh Gilead was threatened by the Ammonites, Saul solicited soldiers by threatening that they would be cut into pieces if they refused to fight (1 Samuel 11:1-7). Saul was very rash and cruel, and he fulfilled Samuel’s prophecy where the prophet said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. He will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots” (1 Samuel 8:11-12).
Whenever Saul’s son Jonathan attacked the Philistines and incurred their wrath, Saul wanted to offer a sacrifice to the Lord to inquire of Him and seek His favor, but Samuel (the priest) did not immediately show up to offer the sacrifice; and so, after waiting for Samuel for seven days Saul became impatient and prideful and sacrificed the offering by himself (1 Samuel 13:1-12). Samuel’s response to Saul was this: “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue” (1 Samuel 13:13-14a).
Whenever Saul attacked the Amalekites, the Lord told him to destroy all the people, possessions, and animals of Amalek (1 Samuel 15:2-3); however, Saul decided to keep King Agag alive as a trophy (1 Samuel 15:8), and then he paraded him throughout the city and set up a monument to himself (1 Samuel 15:12). He also kept alive the best of the livestock for himself (1 Samuel 15:9). Then Saul lied and said that he did it all as an offering for God (1 Samuel 15:20-21). Saul was prideful and a liar. Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Samuel’s response to Saul was this: “You have rejected the word of the Lord, and [therefore] the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel” (1 Samuel 15:26b).
When Saul was anointed as king the Holy Spirit came upon him (1 Samuel 10:6); but, after Saul was rejected for his disobedience, the Holy Spirit departed, and we read that a distressing spirit came upon him (1 Samuel 16:14). In John 14:26, Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things,” and in John 16:13, Jesus declared, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” Saul was abandoned by the Lord; and as a result, he was without God’s instruction, guidance and direction in his life.
After David had killed Goliath, and after Saul had made David captain over the men of war, the women sang about David with admiration saying, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Samuel 18:7), and so Saul became jealous of David (1 Samuel 18:5-9). David’s own son Solomon said in Song of Solomon 8:6, “Jealousy [is] as cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame.” 1 Corinthians 13:4 tells us, “love does not envy,” and Paul said in Galatians 5:21 that those who envy will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Twice, as David played his harp to sooth Saul’s distressing spirit, Saul thrust a spear at David to kill him (1 Samuel 18:10-11; 19:9-10); and Saul even cast a spear at his own son Jonathon to kill him as well, because Jonathon defended David (1 Samuel 20:33). So, Saul was rash and a potential murderer; but he was not only a potential murderer; Saul killed the priest Ahimelech for giving David sanctuary. In fact he killed eighty-five priests, along with their families (1 Samuel 22:13-19). Saul was also a true murderer. After David spared Saul’s life and showed him mercy (chapter 24), Saul pursued David to kill him yet again (1 Samuel 26:1-2). It appears that Saul couldn’t get enough killing!
One time, Saul promised to give David his older daughter Merab as a wife if David would fight against the Philistines, and when the time came for David to marry Merab, Saul had given her away to another man (1 Samuel 18:17-19); and Saul swore to his Son Jonathon that he wouldn’t kill David (1 Samuel 19:6), but then he again sought to spear him (1 Samuel 19:10). Saul was a liar. In Proverbs 12:22 we read, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal truthfully are His delight.”
David later sided with the Philistines (1 Samuel 27:1; 28:1-2), and when the Philistines came against Saul in battle, then Saul sought advice from a fortune teller, for God’s Spirit had departed from him (1 Samuel 28:5-7). Saul failed to seek God for direction in his life. In Leviticus 20:6, the Lord said, “And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.”
So, let me summarize what we have learned about Saul, showing just how much he lacked integrity: Saul was fearful, rash and quick to judgement. He was cruel, impatient, prideful, jealous, a liar and a murderer. He also failed to seek God’s direction in his life and he was abandoned by the Lord.
King Saul was a man who lacked integrity, and he was a far cry from being a man after God’s own heart. In 1 Samuel 15:17, Samuel said to Saul, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?” You see, at one point in his life Saul was humble and depended on God, but then he became arrogant and self-dependent, forsaking the Lord. That’s when he lost his integrity and began committing the atrocities I just reviewed.
Proverbs 16:16-19 cautions us, “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren” – and Saul committed every single one of these sins.
David: A Man Possessing Integrity
So, now, let’s take a look at David! As soon as the Holy Spirit departed from Saul, guess where it went? It rested on David (1 Samuel 16:13); therefore, David was a man guided by God’s presence. God chose him because of what was in his heart, for in 1 Samuel 16:7, we read of where the Lord stated to Samuel concerning David, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature . . . for the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” David was pure in heart and Jesus declared in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
David also had a servant’s heart. Even though David had been anointed king, he served as Saul’s armor bearer (1 Samuel 16:21). He played his harp and soothed the evil spirit that was in Saul (1 Samuel 16:14, 23). In 1 Samuel 17:15, we’re informed, “But David went back and forth between working for Saul and helping his father with the sheep in Bethlehem” (NLT). In between assisting Saul and his becoming king, David still served on the family farm (A Significant Life, p. 42).
After the incident where King Saul sought to kill David with a spear, David still came back to serve Saul and fight for him (1 Samuel 18:27). In Matthew 20:28 Jesus declared of Himself, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” David didn’t know it, but he exemplified a characteristic of Christ, which was a servant’s heart.
David placed all his confidence in what God could do, and not what he could do. For example, when Saul and his army were afraid to fight the giant Goliath, David thought, “In the past God helped me defeat a lion and a bear while I tended sheep, and if God can help me defeat these huge animals then He can also help me defeat this ‘animal of a giant’ who’s defying and blaspheming the living God” (1 Samuel 17:34-36); but David’s confidence was interpreted as pride (1 Samuel 17:28). Too many times we’re afraid to be confident in God for fear of what people will think of us.
David not only placed all of his confidence in God, but he sought the Lord’s guidance and gave God credit for the victories in his life. We read that on numerous occasions, whenever David had questions concerning a battle, he would inquire of the Lord (1 Samuel 23:1-2; 30:8; 2 Samuel 2:1). When David became king he gave all the credit to God. We read, “Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far?” (2 Samuel 7:18).
David was a true leader – a servant leader – for he commandeered such respect among the people that even Jonathan, Saul’s own son, defended David before his father (1 Samuel 19:1-4). About four hundred men gathered unto David when he was hiding in the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1-2), and eighty-five priests died in order to defend him (1 Samuel 22:18). They defended David in direct defiance to King Saul. You see, Saul wasn’t worth serving, because he was a coward.
On one occasion, Saul happened to enter a cave in which David and his band of men were hiding out. Saul went into the cave to “relieve himself,” the Scripture says. David’s men encouraged him to kill Saul; but instead, David snuck up behind Saul and only cut off a piece of his clothing. After Saul had left the cave, David followed him out and then called out to Saul, showing him the piece of his robe, and he pointed out the fact that he had showed him mercy (1 Samuel 24:1-2).
After David had spared Saul’s life in the cave, Saul pursued him yet again. So, David and some of his men snuck into Saul’s camp one night and found Saul asleep with his spear lying beside him. One of David’s men said he should kill Saul, but David spared him yet again (1 Samuel 26:1-10). We see that David was man of mercy. In Matthew 5:7, Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
David was also a man who refused to rejoice over the demise of his enemies, for when King Saul died in battle David mourned for him (2 Samuel 1:11-12). Proverbs 24:17 says, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.”
So, let me summarize what we have learned about David showing that he was a man of God: David was guided by God’s presence. He had a servant’s heart and was a servant leader. He was a man of mercy, who refused to rejoice over the fall of his enemies. He also sought the Lord’s guidance in everything and placed all his confidence in God; and he gave the Lord credit for his victories.
In 2 Samuel 7:8, the Lord shared with David, “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.” So, why was it that David went from being a follower to a great leader? The answer is revealed in Psalm 78:70-72, which says, “He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes that had young He brought him, to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.”
Did you happen to catch that part about the “integrity of his heart?” David was a man after God’s own heart, because his heart was full of integrity. If we want to be men of God then we must become men of integrity. As I already shared, a man of integrity is one who acknowledges his dependence on God; whereas, a man who lacks integrity attempts to become self-sufficient. David learned how to follow God from following and tending sheep. In his humility and service, he learned his dependence on the Lord. James says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:10).
Time of Reflection
Unfortunately, many men today are lacking integrity of heart. Instead of suiting up for battle in the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18) in readiness to fight for the Lord, they’re hiding behind the weapon racks like Saul (1 Samuel 10:20-23). They’ve lost their dependence on God and have tried to become self-sufficient and plot their own course through life, and do their own thing, and seek their own pleasures; but when we fail to seek the Lord, His presences will depart from us and we will lose our way and become discouraged. We lose God’s leading, direction, and vision; and then, we begin taking the low road through life, because we’re lost and living in disobedience, sin and shame.
If we will seek the Lord, then we will find Him. In Jeremiah 29:12-14, the Lord encourages us, “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord.” If you will begin seeking the Lord afresh this morning, then He will begin the process of bringing you back and restoring you unto Himself, and guiding you in the steps of integrity to become men of God; or rather, men after God’s own heart. The first step to becoming a man “or woman” after God’s own heart is to confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
