HEART TALKS:
A Heart Like David
(Righteousness)
1 Samuel 13:14, Psalm 51
I knew that my mother was dying of cancer, but I still was not prepared for the day I arrived home from school and found a message telling me that my father was at the hospital with Mom and I was to wait for my uncle to come by to take me to the hospital.
I knew what that meant.
I sat on the front steps,
folded my arms atop my knees,
and laid my head down on my arms.
I did not cry, not yet--
But as I sat waiting for my uncle,
I thought through the past year of my mother’s illness. . . .
the diagnosis and subsequent operations,
her slow, gradual loss of strength,
the times when, after she lost the ability to lift a comb or a spoon, I would comb her hair or feed her pea soup with a straw,
the realization that, even though she had continued to breathe and, until a couple weeks earlier, to talk, I had really lost my mother months ago.
I didn’t expect to cry. . . .
I thought I’d already done all the crying a 14-year-old boy could do. . . .
You see, for months, I had cried out to God,
begging Him to spare my mother,
pleading with Him not to let her die,
reminding Him that she was my spiritual mentor.
But on September 29, 1972, I walked into the hospital room my mom had occupied for nearly three months, and--when I saw her empty form on the bed--I felt an eruption of emotion rise in my soul that made all my cries and all my tears of the past few months seem shallow and passionless. And I sobbed in my father’s arms for what seemed like forever.
That day--September 29, 1972--was the worst day of my life. It was also- believe it or not-- the best day of my life.
You see, until that day, my parents--my mom especially--were the center of my universe:
I ran to them when I was scared,
I leaned on them when I was weak,
I sought them out when I needed advice,
I trusted them for my safety and security.
But all that ended on September 29, 1972,
and that was the best thing that could have happened to me.
Now, don’t get the wrong idea. At the time, I was inconsolable:
I would lock myself into my room and play my mom’s old records--the saddest songs I could find.
I would lay my head on my pillow at night and pray--pray--that I would dream happy dreams of her.
I would shut myself off from my father and brothers, and refuse to talk about what I was feeling.
But over the first few months and years after my mother’s death, I began to do something else--
I began turning to God to fill the void my mother’s death had left.
I began running to Him when I got scared.
I began leaning on Him when I felt weak.
I sought Him out when I needed advice, and little by little
I began to trust God for my safety and security.
It didn’t happen overnight, but in the months and years after my mother’s death,
I began to hunger and thirst for God,
I began to desire a relationship with Him,
I began to develop a heart like David, whom the Bible calls “a man after God’s own heart.”
And I want to stress to you this morning the importance of that process in your lives. . . .
In these next few months and years, your relationship with your parents is going to be changing. I hope it will always be close, and positive, but as I said Friday evening, other relationships are going to compete and, perhaps, replace that relationship as the most important to you and your continued development.
As we’ve already discovered, friends are going to assume increasing importance in your life, as are romantic relationships; but the most important relationship for you to develop and cultivate in the coming months and years is going to be your relationship with God. And the change of heart that I most covet for you is for you to develop a heart like David, the man the Bible calls “a man after God’s own heart.”
So please turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Samuel 13; we’ll look there first, as we discover what qualities and characteristics will give you a heart like David’s heart. As we look at the 14th verse of that chapter, let me quickly mention the background of this verse. King Saul, the first king of Israel, has just been informed by God’s prophet, Samuel, that he--Saul--has blown it big time as king, and that God has already found someone else, someone not in Saul’s family, to be king when Saul dies. So Samuel tells Saul, in 1 Samuel 13:14:
“But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command”
Saul did not know--but we do--that the man Samuel referred to in that verse was David, the son of Jesse. He called David “a man after [God’s] own heart.”
Now, I don’t know what goes through your minds when you read that verse, but I can tell you what happens inside me. A chill goes up my spine, because I know that that phrase refers to something special, something unique, something extraordinary. No one else--not Moses, not Elijah, not Peter, not even Paul--was called “a man after God’s heart.”
But something else happens when I read that verse. A question begins to form in my mind--actually, two questions. I want to know:
What does that mean? and
How can I emulate it, how can I become a man--or in your case, young women--a woman after God’s own heart?
So let’s answer those questions:
I WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
When the Bible says that David was “a man after God’s own heart,” it does not mean that he was sorta the “teacher’s pet,” that God liked him better than he likes us, because “God does not show favouritism,” according to the Bible (Acts 10:34).
What it does mean is that God saw qualities in David--in David’s heart--
that made God smile,
that made God want to trust David,
that made God want to use David.
When the Bible says that David was “a man after God’s own heart,” it means that
here was an individual who could not only build fine friendships, with friends like Jonathan,
someone who could not only earn the genuine love and devotion of someone of the opposite sex, as he did with Abigail,
but it means that here was an individual who considered it a priority to develop and maintain the third key relationship of adulthood, that of fellowship with God.
And I wanna tell you this morning, that’s what I want. I hope it’s what you want, too.
I want to be a man after God’s own heart.
I want to be a person God can trust.
I want to be an individual God can use.
But what was it about David that made him so exceptional in this area? What qualities existed in his heart that struck a harmonious chord with God’s heart? And,
II What can each of us do to develop a heart like David?
Well, let’s look at David’s own words to find the answer to that. Turn with me to Psalm 51, a song written by David at one of the lowest points of his life, and we’ll see the characteristics of this “man after God’s own heart.” Let me point you first to the 17th verse, where we see that:
A. David’s heart was a broken heart.
He wrote,
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
David’s heart was a broken heart. That’s what happened to me when my mom died; my heart was broken and shattered by her death.
A similar thing happened to David; he had been ridiculed by his brothers, driven into exile by King Saul, and had watched his infant son die as a result of his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. David’s heart, though it was the heart of a king, was a broken heart.
And God has a special place in his heart for the man or woman with a broken heart this morning. Whether it’s because of an abusive past, a shattered relationship, or a mistake you may have made, God often begins his best work with the pieces of a broken heart. And if that describes you this morning, then I want you to know that God is waiting not only to put your heart back together, but to remake you into a young man or woman after his own heart.
So first, David’s heart was a broken heart. Second,
B. David’s heart was a humble heart.
Look at the first verses of Psalm 51, and you’ll see the depths of David’s humility. He wrote,
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
David’s heart was a humble heart.
He was not too proud to admit his sin.
He was not too proud to acknowledge his need.
He was not too proud to accept responsibility for the wrong he had done.
He may have been an A student,
he may have been one of the most popular kids at school,
he may have been a football star or a cheerleader--well, he probably wasn’t a cheerleader--
but none of those things kept him from falling on his face and admitting that he was a sinner in need of God’s forgiveness.
And I’ll tell you what,
I’ve been to retreats like this one,
where all it takes is one humble heart,
someone who is not too proud to say,
“You know, I’ve got a problem,”
someone who is not too proud to kneel in repentance at an altar,
someone who is not too proud to communicate,
“I may look like I’ve got it all together, but I need God’s forgiveness, and I need his help,”
and the floodgates open, and young men and women begin to seek God and His righteousness, and whole schools and churches and communities begin to be transformed.
David was a man after God’s own heart because his heart was a broken heart, it was a humble heart, and finally,
C. David’s heart was a hungry heart.
Look at what he says in verses 7-12:
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
David’s heart was a hungry heart. He wanted, more than he wanted anything else,
to be clean,
to be pure,
to be pleasing to God.
He was hungry to experience God’s mercy,
He was hungry to experience God’s cleansing,
He was hungry to experience God’s power,
He was hungry to experience God’s presence,
He was hungry to experience God’s joy,
He was hungry to experience God’s support,
and he was willing to do ANYTHING to get it!
He was willing to pray for it,
he was willing to plead for it,
he was willing to sacrifice for it,
he was willing to get up earlier in the morning,
he was willing to go to bed later at night,
he was willing to do whatever it took to
gain God’s forgiveness & experience His blessing.
David was a man after God’s own heart because his heart was a broken heart,
it was a humble heart, and
it was a hungry heart, a heart hungry for God, .
a heart hungry for righteousness.
Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”
Do you desire to be a man after God’s own heart?
Do you desire to be a woman after God’s heart?
Are you willing to be broken?
Are you ready to come to Him with a humble heart?
Are you hungry for God, for His righteousness, do you want nothing more than to please Him and experience His forgiveness and blessing?
If that describes you, then I want you to do something about it: I want you to commit now, this morning, to follow Him in a way you’ve never done before. I want you to confess any sin that stands between you and him, I want you to seek and claim His forgiveness, and I want you to commit publicly to spending fifteen minutes every day in prayer and Bible reading, in getting to know Him, in growing closer to Him, in developing and deepening your relationship with Him. And I want you to share that commitment with one other person, whose job it is to ask you weekly if you’re keeping that commitment.
If you’re willing to do that, please stand now and join me in prayer. . . .
