AFTER GOD'S HEART

"The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart" 1 Samuel 13: 14

"‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will." Acts 13:22


What is the Lord looking for in a man and a woman? Is He looking for someone who is perfect? Successful? Strong? Victorious? Flawless? As I look at the scripture, we learn what God is looking for in you and me: A man and woman after His heart. The Bible is full of stories of people who had a passion for God yet frequently failed; imperfect people who loved God.

I know no better model for a man after God's heart than King David. God's own description of him was that he was a man after God's heart in Acts 13:22. His very name meant, appropriately, "beloved." An unavoidable question dangles over the account of David's life. How could anyone so obviously flawed-he did, after all, commit adultery and murder-get the reputation as "a man after God's own heart"?

Let me give you two examples from his life. The first we find in 2 Samuel 6:12-23. In one of his first official acts as king, David sent for the sacred ark to install as a symbol of God's presence in Jerusalem, the new capital city he was building. When the ark finally arrived, to the accompaniment of a brass band and the shouts of a huge crowd, King David totally lost control. Verse 14 says, "David danced before the LORD with all his might". Bursting with joy, he broke out into a dance in front of everybody. The sight of a king dancing for joy in a scanty robe scandalized his wife until David set her straight. "I will celebrate before the Lord and i will become even more undignified than this" (Verses 21- 22), he told her. David did not care about his royal reputation as long as the One before whom he danced and celebrated before could sense his jubilation. A man after God's own heart of passion, David felt more passionately about God than about anything else in the world, and during his reign that message trickled down to the entire nation.

The second scene occurred years later, at the peak of David's life, and more than any other it shows the king's greatness. If you read 2 Samuel 12:1-15 you will see an explicit account of David's sin with Bathsheba. This episode with Bathsheba reveals a weak, fleshly, carnal ,and evil side to David. Augustine once wrote, “Who is not aghast at the sudden crevasses that might open up in the life of a dedicated man?” When his plan to cover up the adultery failed, he turned to a ruthless scheme involving the husband's murder and needless death on a battlefield. David, a man after God's own heart, broke the sixth, seventh, ninth, and tenth commandments in quick succession. When Bathsheba moved into the palace and married David, it appeared he had gotten away with the crime. No one raised a word of protest-except the prophet Nathan.

Nathan began his confrontation with story of a rich man with many sheep who stole his poor neighbor's single pet lamb. Then Nathan risked his life by making a direct application to David. What happened next brought out the reality of the heart of this fallen, weak man, and flawed man. David could have had Nathan killed. Or he could have laughed and thrown him out of the palace. He could have issued a string of denials and demanded for evidence that Nathan could produce?

But listen to David's humble, honest, and contrite response. "I have sinned against the Lord"(verse 13). No blame, no rationalizations, no minimization's, no justifications, and no excuses came to mind; only God. As he had danced before God, so David had sinned before the God.

David wrote a Psalm that reveals to us the outcome of Nathan's confrontation over his sin, Psalm 51. This psalm exposes the true nature of sin as a broken relationship with God. "Against you, you only, have I sinned," David cried out in verse 4. He saw that God wanted "a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart" (Verse 17); qualities, which David had, in abundance within his soul.

Looking back on all the bible says about the words and deeds of the greatest king to ever rule the Jews, what ultimately stands out is Davids pure devotion. Yes, he was a lustful; yes, he committed murder; yes, he was vengeful; yes, he was weak and flawed; but....King David was deep within his soul, "a man after God's own heart." He loved God with all his heart, and what more could be said?

What made David this way? The two scenes, one a buoyant high and the other a devastating low, hint at an answer. Whether dancing behind the ark or lying prostrate on the ground for six straight nights in contrition, David's strongest instinct was to relate his life to God.

Psalm 73:25-28, "whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; you have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry. But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all Your works."

In comparison, nothing else mattered at all. As his writings make evident, he led a God-saturated, God-centered, God-entranced, life. He writes in Psalm 63:1-2, "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.... Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you."

I have learned over the past 38 years of being a Christian that God's approval depends not on my performance and actions, but solely upon God's grace. I have also learned that my relationship with God does not switch on or off depending on my behavior. God does not love me more when I am good and less when I am bad. He does not send me to a vacant room down the hall when I disobey him. Quite the opposite. The times when I have felt most estranged from God have brought on deep senses of desperation, which presents a new launch pad for God's grace. Sulking in a cave in flight from God, Elijah heard a gentle whisper that brought comfort, not a scolding. Jonah tried his best to run from God and failed. And it was at Peter's lowest point that Jesus lovingly restored him. John 21:17, "He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep"

God can forgive any sin and deal with any flaw, sin, or weakness in our lives. We fall down, we get up. We know where to go. John 6:68, "Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life."

As Luther remarked, we are always at the same time sinners, righteous, and penitent. The halting, stuttered expressions of love we offer may not measure up to what God wants, but like any parent he accepts what the children offer.

Philippians 3:12-14, Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

God dwells with flawed people like you and I who are after His heart. 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us."

God’s grace triumphs over the sins and flaws of mans. David passion, his experience, and his life was built on one reality, the reality of God’s grace alone. May our lives be full of a boundless passion after God’s own heart like David.

Pastor Bill