David: A Man After God's Own Heart

SERMON: 2015-09-13--s0215--david-a-man-after-god-s-own-heart-part-2 SOURCE DURATION: 00:35:44.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with a theological exposition about King David and continues through the reading of hymns and historical context (Timothy Dwight), all constituting the main sermon content. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- I pointed out last week that in all of scripture only King David is ever said to be a man after God's own heart and he is said to be a man after God's own heart not because he was so perfect because he wasn't but because at some very fundamental level he understood the heart of God not only but he was really committed to carrying it out and the Apostle Paul and his first missionary preaching in Pasidian Antioch and Acts chapter 13 22 sums it up powerfully like this when he says concerning the Lord after removing Saul he made David their king he testified concerning him I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart and then this phrase he will do everything I want him to do David was a man after God's own heart because God knew that he was committed to fulfilling God's agenda in the world so far then we have looked at one of the ways in which David said about his heart on God's passion and that is in his own personal walk with God David walked closely with God David understood something about God's heart that even a lot of Christians today don't understand at least not very well and that is the fact that God wants to hang around with you and me he wants to impart his plan to us and he wants us to work together with him to accomplish his purposes you see that throughout scripture in the relationships that God establishes why is Abraham called a friend of God because God shares his secrets with Abraham why is Moses called a servant of God because God entrusted him with the house of God in the Old Testament and similarly then why is David called a man after God's own heart because he knew the heart of God and he cultivated that relationship through and through and obviously the moral lesson there for you and me is that through faith in Christ that is what God is looking for in your life that in my life we can accomplish the greatest things in all of the world but at the end of the time all that really matters is do I know Christ and does he know me have I lived my life in relationship with him David illustrated that by his life of faith he illustrated that by his life of obedience he illustrated that by his life of repentance and most of all of course he illustrated that by his life of worship Psalm 34 I will bless the Lord at all times his spray shall continually be in my mouth my soul makes its boast in the Lord let the afflicted here and be glad O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together David's personal life was intimately caught up in his walk with God that brings us this morning then to a second area in which David really expresses his understanding of God's heart and that is in David's love and commitment to God's people his love for and his commitment to the people of God think back with me for just a moment to the scripture reading that we did from one Samuel chapter 16 why does Samuel anoint David with oil well it's because God has chosen David to become the king or in biblical language the shepherd of his people Israel I love the way Psalm 78 of the verses 70 to 72 put it for us he that is God chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob of Israel his inheritance and David shepherded them with integrity of heart and with skillful hands he led them lots of things in that verse that we could be emphasizing the one that I want to emphasize particularly is the emphasis on Israel as God's inheritance he brought him to be shepherd of his people Jacob of Israel his inheritance want you to think that through with me for just a little bit because that reference comes from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy chapter 32 the verses 8 to 9 and these verses read as this when the Most High gave the nations their inheritance when he divided all mankind he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel let me stop there for just a moment because what he is saying here is what Paul emphasizes in Acts chapter 17 that God made of one all the nations of the world and then he he selected times and places for each nation to have their habitation so God decides who lives where and who lives when fascinating insight into the biblical version of history but then the passage goes on in verse 9 listen to this the Lord's portion is his people Jacob his allotted inheritance now listen carefully Jacob the Lord's portion is his people Jacob is allotted inheritance what is he saying what is he saying is that God has chosen the people of Israel out of all the nations of the world to be his particular people which brings us to the question why in the world would God be so enamored with the people of Israel in the Old Testament in fact here you can see one of the huge differences between secular history and biblical history those of you you know young enough to remember going to school and studying history will remember that in your history classes what did you study well you study the rise and fall of the great empires did you not for some of you it's been so long you've been to school that you don't remember anything of what you learned but you know try to refresh your memory here you learn about Egypt and you learn about a Syria and you learn about the Greek Empire and you learn about the Roman Empire and and and Western civilization and and how the whole world is shaped by the rise and fall of these huge empires then you get the scripture and you discover they're all mentioned in scripture but they're not the focus of scripture at all instead the focus in scripture is in this puny little nation that is called Israel a people that God has said his love on why in the world would he do that it wasn't because they were so fantastic they were cantankerous they were rebellious they gave him a lot of trouble just like you and me sometimes why did God love them well because he entered into covenant with Abraham and he planned to use the people of Israel to accomplish his redemptive purposes he gathered Israel out of all the nations of the world to further his particular purpose he had a job for them to do and that job we can summarize in four steps there are many more as there always are but there are four particular things that God called Israel to do when he called Israel out of the nations and he brought them together let me backtrack for just a moment and show you this chart because I spent a lot of time on it and I don't want to just skip it it's pretty artwork don't you think I mean I'm really proud of this even though I didn't make these little figures I did make all the rest just so you know but what I've got here is a is a picture of what God is after in calling out the nation of Israel this is a very quick summary of biblical history here's Adam and Eve of course if I can find them somewhere anyway there you see them they're looking unhappy because they ate the forbidden fruit obviously they were originally designed to be the people of God through whom God would make his purposes for the world known they were to serve him they were to subdue the earth they were to build a kingdom that would reflect the plan and the purpose of God you know the story they fell into sin they got kicked out of the garden and after being kicked out of the garden what happened was that they had two sons Cain and Abel Cain killed Abel Abel was replaced by Seth Seth and Cain now become heads of two strands of people the bigger triangle there represents the offspring of Cain it's the world the smaller stripe in between is the offspring of Seth as time and history went on the sons of God entered into union with the sons of man many different interpretations about what that means but the end result is that by the time Noah appears on the scene he is the only one left who is not corrupt and you remember what God does the Bible says God repented of having made mankind because their thoughts were only evil continually so what happens you know the story along comes the flood and God wipes out the whole shooting match and Noah has three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth out of those three sons the world gets repopulated the nations appear and from Shem's offspring eventually God calls Abraham that's that dude in the striped coat there that's that's Abraham God enters into covenant with Abraham and Abraham becomes the father of Isaac and Jacob Jacob of the twelve tribes that becomes the nucleus of the nation of Israel and God enters into covenant with them at Mount Sinai that's what the Ark of the Covenant represents under the rulership of David and then Solomon Israel rises to its highest point ever but remember soon trouble enters the nation splits in 722 BC the dude on the throne up there that's David the arrow pointing up that is the northern ten tribes going into exile most of those have never come back Judah goes into exile years later in 586 BC that's Nebuchadnezzar down here they are in captivity for 70 years God fulfills his promise and in multiple migrations if you will he brings them back and they now become the nucleus of his people once again and they rebuild the temple and what I'm trying to show you here is how throughout this whole process God is holding on to a nucleus of people in a world that is filled with rebellion and sin and Israel's purpose in being separated from the nations for God's sake is a fourfold purpose let me try to walk you through that in the time that remains to us the first purpose for Israel selection is that they would keep the testimony of God alive that they would keep the testimony of God alive Psalm 78 5 6 & 7 very pertinent to this understanding it says concerning God he decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children so that the next generation would know him even the children yet to be born and they in turn would tell their children and then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands so here's the big question from God's perspective see how do you keep the knowledge of God alive as one generation gives way to the next generation think that through from God's perspective what happens is that as the generations go on they lose track of who God is because they lose the knowledge of God you can see that in our own day and age where more and more people don't know Bible stories more and more people don't know what the Bible teaches and the values of the world that are so readily being embraced even by people who have grown up in Christian homes is because they have lost the commandments and the teachings of God so the challenge for the faith in every generation is how do you pass on a living faith to your children and to your children's children and that is where the answer lies in one generation bearing witness to the next generation about who God is and what God values you and I as parents and his grandparents have an incredible responsibility to make sure that the knowledge of God as it is recorded for us in the pages of scripture is passed on from generation to generation lest it be lost I was so struck two weeks ago when Egbert and Jean had their 60th anniversary celebration their son George was emceeing the event and at one point he called the family up first Egbert and Jean and then the children and subsequently the children's children until all those that were there were lined up in front of us generation by generation and I remember being so struck because what an example that is of our responsibility to pass faith to children yet on board and I say that because two of the women married to grandchildren were both pregnant as I recall and you have that picture there of one generation passing on biblical values to the next generation and that's why God chose Israel as his people to keep alive the testimony of God particularly the revelation of God given through scripture Paul you might recall picks up on that in Romans chapter 3 the verses 1 and 2 he says what advantage then is there in being a Jew or what value is there in circumcision the way that we would answer that question is what value is there in being raised in a Christian home or what value is there in coming out of a Christian tradition that's really the question that he's asking and he says much in every way concerning the Jews he's talking about them now he says first of all they have been entrusted with the very words of God and wonder if I can use this moment to appeal to those of you who are parents here to understand the the the seriousness of you keeping alive for your children and your children's children the values of the kingdom you are surrounded by people on every hand who will try to impart into your children's lives values that do not reflect the values of God and apart from God's grace the natural tendency for your children is to drift away and to embrace those values we cannot impart faith to them we cannot stop them from going perhaps the way where they might want to go but we can do everything in our power to do what we can do which is to pray for our children which is to make sure they know the stories of Scripture and if I may be so bold as to say make sure that they are part of programs like the ones that you heard about earlier in the service this morning make sure that they are part of a place where they can be discipled in the things of God there's a thousand and one things that they can be involved in but I'll tell you at the end of the day all that's going to matter is do they know God and are they walking in his ways am I clear in what I'm saying you know if you talk to Sarah and to others in children's ministry they don't want to do the work for you they want to come alongside you as parents and his grandparents to instill biblical values through much prayer and hard work into the lives of the next generation because of the tendency and I don't want to belabor this but the tendency is for subsequent generations to lose faith and God calls Israel out of all the nations of the world to uphold a testimony to his name but there's a second reason and that is to model God's way of life what do you think happens when the knowledge of God disappears in a society what happens when people no longer know what God stands for what happens when people no longer believe biblical truth what happens when people drift away from God in terms of their belief system I'll tell you what happens their lifestyle follows and it follows in incredibly short order visually we can represent it like this once Satan once God is ruled out of the picture and people no longer can turn to God for wisdom and for direction they have to fill the void in their lives in other ways is that not true and so throughout the Old Testament and the thing same thing is true today we turn to idols and the idols can be power they can be relationships they can be money they can be pleasure they can be knowledge they can be phony forces forms of spirituality they can be as practical a thing as I'm gonna you know exercise till I have a body that can't possibly ever die as if that works but the net result then is that we end up embracing the world's value the pride of life the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and you and I both know how prevalent that is even in our own lives let alone the lives of our children and our grandchildren we lose the knowledge of God we lose a biblical lifestyle and so God's function in raising up Israel was not only that they would know the laws of God who God is and how God wants people to live but so they could actually model heaven's values of faith hope and love they never did it very well at least not most of the time but that was God's intention it's what Peter talks about when he says that we're a holy nation a royal priesthood bearing witness to the call of God in our own lives never underestimate if you please how your walk with God and how your refusal to participate in certain things that your friends or that your neighbors participate don't ever underestimate the power of being salt and light and God's purpose for Israel was that they would model to the nation's the reality of God's truth Deuteronomy 4 6 puts it this way observe them that is the commandments and the statutes that God gives to Israel observe them carefully for this will show your wisdom and understanding to where the nations who will hear about all these decrees and say surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people so God wants to keep his testimony alive God wants a model of what life in relationship with God and structured relationally according to his will looks like still a third reason is to set the stage for the coming Messiah because ever since the fall into sin God has promised that the seed of the woman would overcome the seed of the serpent from the very beginning God says to humanity somebody is going to come into history they're going to beat the tar out of all this satanic stuff and and this person is going to redeem the world and already back in the book of numbers you know Balaam a soothsayer but under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit looking into the future put it this way he said I see him but not now I behold him but not near a star will come out of Jacob and a scepter will rise out of Israel throughout the whole Old Testament God held on to the nation of Israel why because he knew that they were necessary so that eventually in the fullness of time the Lord Jesus could be born and out of that then comes the sum total of what it is that God is after by dealing with the nation of Israel and that is to provide salvation for the whole world when God enters into covenant with Abraham the covenant is that God would not only bless Abraham but that through Abraham God would bless the nations of the world and God's strategy consistently was that by preserving the court of Israel he would preserve the seed that one day would spread throughout all the earth and would cause there to be salvation for all the nations of the world and diagrammatically we can show it in this fashion picking up from where we left off in the previous one there you have Abraham becoming the foundation of God's people the the rule of King David the exile and then you have the return from exile and in the fullness of time after the return of the exile what happens is that Jesus is born of Mary lives his life dies on the cross and then gets raised on the third day and then 40 days later out comes the Holy Spirit on the church and you now have the new Israel you have the new people of God the new people of God who now get spread all over the world and who become the new sources of light wherever they get planted because today all over the world where Christians gather together you have a new Israel of God I know that gets into all kinds of questions about the relationship between the church and Israel we don't get into that now just understand that wherever the church meets together there you have God's people fulfilling a four-fold picture holding up the testimony of God modeling the life of God before the nations of the world setting the stage for this second coming of Christ by lives of holiness and godliness and ultimately serving as God's vehicle to call the nations to repentance until every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord for the glory of God the Father David got it he got it with all his heart he gave himself to that call with all his heart he served them with integrities of scripture and he served them skillfully and the question for you and me this morning then is this how much do you and I understand the heart of God to what degree are we men and women after God's own heart to what degree do we value our walk with God and how do we demonstrate that in what our daily values are but more than that to what degree do we value church and church community because I am convinced that what God is after in this day and age and in this generation is to make a people of praise and a people of power our people separated from the nations of the world by faith in Jesus filled with the Holy Spirit a people who can keep alive the testimony of God a people who will demonstrate however imperfectly in their lifestyle the values of the kingdom a people who hasten the coming again of the Lord Jesus and a people who are passionate about recognizing that the church is the hope of the world and it is our task and our job to so shine with the glory of God but the nations cannot but see that we are the object of his affection and that we can take people by the hand and we could lead them into the presence of God I don't know about you but many many years ago God grabbed my heart about that and like David of old and I don't want to compare myself to him but like David of old my passion is the local church my passion is to see God do the work that needs to be done in our lives to reconcile us to himself to reconcile us to each other to fill us with the Holy Spirit so that God's heart can be satisfied and he can look at you and me together not only individually but together and see that what Jesus came to do and lived for and died for and rose for has come to expression so that his heart can be made glad because when history ends you know what happens the bride of Christ which is the church descends from heaven like a bride beautifully prepared for her husband and one man who years ago to more than 200 years ago now caught that vision is the author of one of the oldest North American hymns a song that you will recognize as I love thy kingdom Lord I'll read it to you in just a moment his name was Timothy Dwight he lived from 1752 to 1817 he was a brilliant young lad at the age of four he taught himself how to read the Bible and his parents caught him evangelizing the native Indians at four years of age under an apple tree can you imagine that seven years of age he taught himself Latin at 13 years of age he entered Yale University then college at 17 he graduated at 19 he began to teach at Yale eventually became its president he became president at a time when religious life in the New England colonies was majorly in decline it is said that there were no more than five students left on the campus that lived by biblical faith and it so stirred his passion that he continually preached a series of revival messages that ultimately brought revival to the whole Yale campus and lit up the beginnings of the second grade awakening he wrote 33 hymns in his lifetime there's only one that has survived and its words go like this and the praise team is gonna come out as I read these to you and then we're gonna respond by singing it together I love as I read these put yourself in David's heart in terms of the centrality of the church I love thy kingdom Lord the house of thine abode the church are blessed Redeemer saved with his own precious blood I love thy church Oh God her walls before thee stand dear as the apple of thine eye and graven on thy hand for her my tears shall fall for her my prayers ascend to her my cares and toils be given till toils and care shall end beyond my highest joy I prize her heavenly ways her sweet communion solemn vows for hymns of love and praise sure as thy truth shall last to Zion shall be given the brightest glories earth can yield and brighter bliss of heaven Timothy [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:35:38.680; remove through 00:35:44.000] Dwight got it [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:35:44.000; resume after this marked segment]