His Heart
Notes
Transcript
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”
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David gets anointed by Samuel as King secretly, then Saul brings David into his courts to play the lyre. The reason he does this is because Saul was being tormented by an evil spirit and it was told him that if someone played the lyre then the spirit would stop, so David apparently played the lyre very well and he was picked. Then David defeated Goliath and the Philistine army and everyone fell in love with David. At this point Saul began to be jealous of David. After this Saul was being tormented by an evil spirit again and so he tried to kill David by throwing a spear at him, but David escaped. Then Saul promised to give his daughter Merab to David in marriage but he ends up giving her to another man instead. Then he promises to give his other daughter, Michal, to him in marriage, but he told him that he had to kill 100 Philistine soldiers before he would allow him to marry her. He did this because he wanted David dead, but he knew that everyone loved him, so he couldn’t kill him, himself, or the people would turn on him. So, he thought, why not let the Philistines kill him, then he’ll be dead, and no one will blame me. But David ended up killing 200 Philistines and so Saul’s plan did not work. So then Saul told his son Jonathan and his soldiers to kill David, but Jonathan talked him out of it, because he knew that David had done nothing deserving of death or punishment. Saul then was being tormented by an evil spirit again and so David was playing the lyre for him, and again Saul tried to kill him by throwing a spear at him, but again David escaped. This was not a very good working relationship. So then David goes into hiding and tells Jonathan that Saul was trying to kill him. So Jonathan stands up for David and then Saul tries to kill Jonathan with a spear, his own son. It is very obvious at this point the amount of hatred that Saul has for David. So now David has to live as a fugitive. He had to leave his family and life as he knew it. He went through a town called nob, he encountered a priest there and lied to him in order to get food and Goliath’s sword, and then took off again. When Saul found out that the priest had helped David escape, even though he didn’t know at the time he was running from Saul, Saul had 85 priests of God at nob killed. Then he had the entire town killed. So Saul continued to hunt David down from town to town. At one point Saul and three thousand of his men were hunting David down and Saul went into a cave to use the restroom. David and his men were hiding in that cave. His men told him to kill him but David only cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. And even after doing that, the scripture says:
5 And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.
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So Saul quits pursuing David and goes home. He ends up giving Michal, David’s wife to another man to marry. Then David has a second opportunity to kill Saul while he was sleeping, but again David does not attack him because Saul is God’s anointed. So David has to go on the run again, moving from town to town to escape Saul. Then Saul and his sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, end up dying in battle. But Jonathan had a son Mephibosheth who was crippled in both feet. When the news was brought to David that Saul and Jonathan had died, this is how he responded: But before we look at how he responded, this reminds me of a story that Ravi Zacharias told about two brothers...
Now that is how we would respond. Just think if you were David. Put nicely, Saul was an evil man who constantly disobeyed God, tried to kill David countless times, and slaughtered God’s priests and an entire town because of his murderous hatred of David. And David has been on the run for years, restless the whole time, separated from his family, sleeping with one eye open, never trusting anyone, had two easy opportunities to kill Saul but didn’t, and now he finds out he is dead. How would you have responded? Probably the same way I would. With a sigh of relief. With thoughts of being able to see your family again, to get a good night’s sleep for the first time in who knows how long. But this is how David responded:
11 Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and all the men with him did the same. 12 They mourned, wept, and fasted until the evening for those who died by the sword—for Saul, his son Jonathan, the Lord’s people, and the house of Israel.
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He then wrote a lament for Saul and Jonathan and in it, this is how he talked about Saul
23 Saul and Jonathan, loved and delightful, they were not parted in life or in death. They were swifter than eagles, stronger than lions. 24 Daughters of Israel, weep for Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with luxurious things, who decked your garments with gold ornaments.
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Do you see that? David didn’t say a negative word about Saul. How was he able to do this? Because his heart was changed by God through the power of the Holy Spirit. David was by no means a perfect role model. We see him commit outrageously egregious sins. But his heart was repentant. He grieved over his sin. He repented of his sin. And he was able to love even those who hated him. You see, the three things that are going to last forever, are God, His word, and the souls of men and women. And those are the three things that matter the most. God, His Word, and the souls of men and women. Our hearts are sinful and inclined towards evil from our youth onward, the Scripture says. It also says that our hearts are deceitful and we shouldn’t follow them. But He also promised to change our hearts if we will follow Him. He will remove our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. He will make us into new creations. He will make us more into His image, and make our hearts more and more like His. And right now in America, that is exactly what we need. We need everyone who professes the name of Christ to have their hearts be made into a mirror image of Christ’s heart for others. And we know what God’s heart looks like because He showed us in the scriptures. Not just in places like this, where we see the forgiveness and brokenness of David’s heart for a man who completely despised him and wanted to kill him. But we see it even more clearly in Jesus’ heart for you and for me, who have completely despised him and are responsible for killing Him. It is because of our sin that He died on that cross, and while He was hanging on that cross, He asked God to forgive them for they know not what they do.
8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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That’s the heart I want. That’s the heart I need. That’s the heart we all need. We need the heart of Jesus. We need love for those who love us, and we need love for those who hate us. We need to know that every time we have a conversation with someone. Whether everyone’s laughing, or wether they are trying to cut you down, we need to refocus. We don’t need to get caught up in the moment, we need to take a min to focus on three things. We need to focus on God. We need to focus on His Word. And we need to focus on the fact that that man or woman or child is a soul that will last forever, either forgiven in the presence of God forever, or unforgiven in hell apart from God forever. And our, and their, eternal soul, is SOOOO much more important than whatever the conversation is about in that moment. And when we keep our focus on those three things, we will see our hearts be made more in the image of Christ’s heart, and we will be able to love them a little bit more the way God loves them.
This is what we all need. We need His heart. And I can promise you, if you ask Him to make your heart more like His, then He will give it to you. He loves You, and so do I. Let us pray.