Touched
By
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
OPENING: - There are many things that will touch your heart and send a range of emotions in your life. A stroll along a sandy beach at sunset with the love of your life will touch your heart and send the emotion of love running through you. The loss of a loved one will touch your heart, sending grief and sadness. Being able to find that time of peace and quiet will touch your heart, giving you a since of relaxation and comfort. Receiving a call from an old friend will touch your heart, sending joyful memories through you. Seeing starving children or children suffering from cancer will touch your heart and often move you with compassion. Seeing an innocent little baby murdered at the hand of a sadistic perverted maniac will touch your heart and send feelings of rage and revenge through you like the case that happened here in Michigan this past week. Many things will touch you but there is nothing like being touched by God.
That’s why the song writer said it like this: - Shackled by a heavy burden. 'Neath a load of guilt and shame. Then the hand of Jesus touched me, and now I am no longer the same.
He touched me, oh, He touched me, and oh, the joy that floods my soul. Something happened, and now I know He touched me, and made me whole.
The touch of God will not only send different emotions through you but it will ultimately change you.
PRAYER: -
SCRIPTURE: - 1 Samuel 10:26 “And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched”.
BACKGROUND: - Before God appointed a king for Israel, God reminded them of all He did for them. Speaking through Samuel, He showed Israel how their rejection of Him made no sense at all. It makes no sense to reject the one who Himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations. God reminded Israel that He was still more than qualified to be their king and their rejection of Him was all because of them and not because of the Lord. However, God, in His permissive will, allowed Israel to have a king despite knowing the how this king would treat them. They did not need a king but wanted to be like other nations. God had led them through His prophets, through judges, and through priest, but they became the victim to assimilation trying to be like others.
When God first chose Saul to be king, he was a good man and a humble man. He was God's choice not the people’s choice. The physical description of Saul showed he was exactly what the people wanted, a king that looked good to other nations, because his stature was larger than the people around him. So based upon the outward appearance of Saul, the people cheered in verse 24 “Long live the King”. Verses 25 says, “Then Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty, and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house”. Samuel taught them God’s guidelines for both rulers and subjects.
Verse 26 “And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and valiant men went with him, whose hearts God had touched”.
These men that went with him were not just the average man, they were not the everyday working man but these were men that were advisors, military strong men, in todays terminology they would be considered like the secret service and cabinet of the administration.
Valiant men = boldly courageous; brave; stout-hearted: a valiant soldier. They were marked by or showing bravery or valor; heroic: to make a valiant effort. worthy; excellent. Men committed to their nation’s leader, willing to stand with him and fight to protect him. Whether advisers, analysts, or military warriors, these men were committed to the king’s success.
These valiant men experienced a Divine Touch that involved much more than you can imagine. Understand the heart, in Scripture, involves the whole spiritual nature, including the will, the intellect, and the emotions. Their Intellect was touched, causing them to discern their own duty and the true interest of Israel. Their Emotions were touched, powerfully attracting them to “him whom the Lord had appointed to be captain of their inheritance” and inspiring them with desire and confidence. Their Will was touched, compelling them to acknowledge the Divine hand in the whole matter, and their own obligation in the appointment of the Lord, and to sustain with all their force the man who had been set over them. Re-enforcing with Divine grace their purpose to carry out the resolution they had formed; so that, whatever others might do, they would adhere to the king, and go with him to Gibeah, ready to protect his person, support his prerogatives, avenge all insults offered to him, and serve him in any emergency that might arise, in any capacity that might be required.
Without this Touch of God, none would ever be saved. True, there are ministries, programs, and many different avenues that are used to try to attract people, some use laser lights, certain genres of music and bands or DJ’s as means to try and draw people, but these without God are fruitless and inefficient. John 6:44 says “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day”. It is a touch from God in the heart of mankind that draws him and her to Christ not the superfluous acts.
The touch of God in the heart is an awesome thing. It is awesome because the heart is so precious to us, so deep and intimate and personal. When our heart is touched, we have been deeply touched. When our heart is touched the core of our being is touched. When our heart is touched it has penetrated all the layers of pride, guilt, shame, selfishness, arrogance, and gotten to the true center of our will, intellect, and emotions. We have been truly known. We have been truly seen. We have been ultimately pierced.
When God Touches the Hearts of mankind, it is with the touch of Conviction that produces Conversion, Commitment and Communication.
Conviction = Is the moment when God touches our hearts about something and we know with assurance that it is Him because it is not simply a guilty conscience or shame, it is not a sense of trepidation or a fear of divine punishment, it is not just merely the knowledge of right and wrong. Conviction come from the Greek word elencho, which means “to convince someone of the truth; to reprove; to accuse, refute, or cross-examine a witness.” Conviction exposes evil, reproves evildoers, and convinces people that they need a Savior.
Acts 9:1 – 6 says, “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do”.
Conversion = the repentance of sin.
Commitment = the foundation of our relationship with God, the response on our part to the touch of God on our hearts.
Communication = Communication is more than just our ability to talk, but also to listen to what saith the Lord. As we communicate with God, the first part of that communication is listening. God’s primary ways of communication with us are through His Word Romans 10:17 and by the Holy Spirit John 14:26.
When God Touches our Hearts, it causes us to fulfill our Purpose.
Acts 13:2 says, “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them”.
Our purpose is not to be rich or famous, a doctor, lawyer, athlete, or anything like that those are avenues we can use to bring our purpose to fruition. Our purpose in Christ is to glorify God, to praise God, to know God and know Him better, to fellowship with God, and to please God. Solomon concludes the book of Ecclesiastes as such Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 says, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil”. Solomon is saying that life is all about honoring God with our thoughts and lives and thus keeping His commandments, for one day we will stand before Him in judgment.
A Catholic catechism says, “The chief end of man is to know God and glorify him forever”. We glorify God by spreading the word to others and living a Holy and godly life that people will see Christ in us and glorify the Father. The touch of God on our hearts causes us to have pure religion and not just a form of godliness. James 1:27 says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world”.
When God touches our heart is causes us to live Micah 6:8 “ He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God”.
When God touches our Hearts, it causes us to have a concern for other people.
Romans 10:1 says, “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved”.
People need deliverance so when our hearts have been touched by God, we desire that all are saved, being delivered from the devil, hell’s damnation, and fear and doubt. Understanding that people need direction through the Holy Ghost and the Word of God. They need discipleship, edification and encouragement.
I want to close with this.
10 being the number of Divine Order, Completeness and Testimony.
10 things the Touch of God produces in our hearts.
1. It is the touch of a light that illuminates. Here begins all true conversion. It is God that touched the heart with the living light of His grace.
2. It is the touch of an owner that claims. As a man lays his hand upon his lost or stolen property, saying, "This is mine;" so God lays His hand upon the human heart, alienated from Him by sin, and demands it as His own. It has been captured and kept from Him, but He will not relinquish His claim.
3. It is the touch of a weapon that wounds. The heart is in rebellion and must be conquered. The two-edged sword of the Spirit must pierce and cleave it before it can be cleansed and cured.
4. It is the touch of a hammer that breaks the heart of His people, hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. God has graciously smitten the stone and turned it to flesh; and now He binds up the broken heart, and heals the contrite spirit.
5. It is the touch that dissolves. Job said in 23:16 “God maketh my heart soft”. The touch of God can melt the hardest heart, and change it into a crown jewel for the King of kings.
6. It is the touch of a key that opens because the heart is closed against Him by sin and selfishness. Acts 16:14 says, “And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul”. The heart is closed against Him by sin and selfishness.
7. It is the touch of a spirit that quickens. Ephesians 2:2 says, “And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins”. We are all dead until God touches our hearts. Our intellect is dead, Our will is dead, Our emotion is dead; and none but He who breathed into the first human form the breath of life, can make man once more “a living soul” “alive to God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
8. It is the touch of a Healer that restores.
9. It is the touch of a Fountain that cleanses.
10. It is the touch of a magnet that attracts. God is love, and the heart He touches must gravitate towards Him. When Elijah passed by Elisha ploughing in the field, and threw his mantle over the his shoulders, he instantly left his oxen standing in the furrow, and ran after the prophet, and never left him till a chariot of fire took him up from his side to heaven. So is the touch of the Touch of God.
Like the valiant men whose heart were touch by God will we determine to have our hearts touched by God.
I am determined to be a valiant man whose heart has been touched by God. I am determined to follow Christ.
Will you allow God to touch your heart.
The question I want to ask is can you say like the song says, “He touched me”.
Touched.
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
