How to be a person after god’s own heart (Family Service 1/13/19)
ATTN: While every boy in Sunday School sees himself as David, defeating a giant, when I was little, I identified more with Goliath. I was big, fat, and slow. So, whenever we would re-enact the story of David and Goliath, well, guess who took the role of Goliath? Yup, some little boy was David and I was Goliath. So, I developed this weird habit of rooting for the one that everyone else roots against. In Tom and Jerry, I always rooted for Tom, the cat, for him to one day catch Jerry and eat him. In Looney tunes, i rooted for Wile E coyote to catch the Road Runner and eat him.
But today, rather than comparing David with Goliath, I want to compare and contrast David and Saul, his predecessor. David was called the “man after God’s own heart “ by God Himself. (1 Sam 13:14) But this was said in contrast to King Saul – the king before David. So what was about David that was different from Saul such that God gave that kind of accolades to David, absent from Saul?
Before we look at the differences between them, think of the similarities. They both sinned. They both held high positions. They both knew great successes. They both had great men around them. They both reigned long. So, note that you can be all those things without having the heart for God – high position, success, great entourage, long life… But one was called a man after God’s own heart and the other didn’t.
The difference was that David’s heart – his desire – was for God. It was an inward disposition of his heart that was directed toward God that was the difference. How is that difference displayed in both these men’s lives?
- How they worshipped privately.
- How they dealt with success.
- How they dealt with threat.
- How they deal with sin.
- How they worshipped privately
David worshipped from the heart. Saul didn’t.
The Psalms are replete with David’s songs about God. it is impossible to write these words without having a personal relationship with God. Psalms are like David’s diaries and when you read his diary, it’s all about God – sometimes praising, sometimes repenting, sometimes getting frustrated with, sometimes being puzzled, sometimes lamenting. To David, it was a real person that he was talking to.
But Saul kept no such diary. He couldn’t because he didn’t have a relationship with God. There is not a single psalm out of 150 of them that says king Saul wrote it.
They both went to public worship ceremonies. But what was different was that David worshipped God privately.
APP: Do you worship God internally, privately, from the heart? Is there a song in your heart for God?
- How they dealt with success
David used his success to make God’s name great. Saul used his success for his own gain.
When God made David great and gave him peace from war, what did David want to do? He wanted to build a house for God. But surprisingly God says, “No,” to that. Instead, He tells his that his son, Solomon, will build him a house. What does David do? Resent and pout? No. He helps young solomon by buying all the materials out of his own money, rather than from the national treasury, to prepare for the construction. David uses his success and money to make God’s name great.
When God gives success to Saul by helping him win a great battle against the Amalekites, what does Saul do? He keep the loot for himself even though God told him to utterly destroy everything. Saul uses his success for his own gain.
APP: If God gave you success and made you rich, it’s not for you. It’s for you make God’s name great.
- How they dealt with threat (to their position)
David puts God before his position. Saul puts his position before God.
When David was threatened to be dethroned by his own son, Absalom, he flees his palace. And as he does so, he says in 2 samuel 15:25, “If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place. 26 But if he says, ‘I have no pleasure in you,’ behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.”
In other words, he’s leaving his position in God’s hands. He’s not too attached to his position of being king. If God were to remove his position, so be it.
But when Saul is threatened in the same way by no other than David, what does he do? He tries to remove that threat by killing him. He takes the situation into his own hands and does it give it to the Lord.
APP: When someone challenges your popularity, your position, your reputation, don’t be so quick to defend yourself. Trust God. Leave it to Him. Let Him defend you.
- How they dealt with sin
Please note that both men sinned. Greatly! So, sinlessness or perfection is not a criterion for being called a man or a woman after God’s own heart. But it’s what we do after we sin!
David confesses. Saul conceals.
When the prophet Nathan confronts David about his sin with Bathsheba, David confesses and writes one of the most beautiful psalms in psalm 51 – “Create in me a clean heart, O God. And renew a right spirit within me.” But when Saul is confronted by the prophet Samuel about the loot that he kept when God told him to utterly destroy, he comes up with a lame excuse – “I only kept them so that I can sacrifice them to the Lord.” (1 Samuel 15:15)
David confesses his sin. Saul conceals and gives excuses.
APP: When your spouse confronts you or calls you out, how do you react? When a church member corrects you or even rebukes you, how do you react? Are you correctible? Are you rebukable? Without losing the relationship? How you react in those situations says a lot about whether you are about you or you are about God.
Would you strive to be a man or a woman after God’s own heart this year?
- Worship God privately from the heart. Read and meditate on his word.
- If God gives you success, it is to glorify God with it. Remember our Thai children.
- When someone challenges you, leave it God.
- When you sin, confess. Repent. And feel His joy.
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