Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / God’s Heart, God’s Man, God’s Ways Msg 124 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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God’s Heart, God’s Man, God’s Ways Msg 124 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: The extraordinary life of David began in the dusty sheep
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Speaker 1: pens of Judah. It ended with the completion of a
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Speaker 1: 40-year reign as the greatest king in Israel's history. Think
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Speaker 1: of that. In between, the man killed the giant Goliath,
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Speaker 1: ran as a fugitive from Saul, composed so many of
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Speaker 1: the majestic Psalms, and expanded the borders of Israel. Remarkable achievements.
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Speaker 1: But none of this would have happened without the work
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Speaker 1: God did behind the scenes, as He prepared the kingship
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Speaker 1: for the one Samuel said was a man after God's
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Speaker 1: own heart. I chose a passage from 1 Samuel 8
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Speaker 1: to begin this study of David, because I want you
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Speaker 1: to see how God works to prepare a place for
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Speaker 1: us long before we have any inkling of what He's doing.
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Speaker 1: He always has our best interests in mind. So with
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Speaker 1: that in mind, turn with me in your Bibles to
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Speaker 1: 1 Samuel 8, as we read of the Israelites who
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Speaker 1: ask God's prophet Samuel to anoint them a king. Verses
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Speaker 1: 1 through 5, And it came about when Samuel was
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Speaker 1: old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. Now
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Speaker 1: the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name
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Speaker 1: of his second, Abijah. They were judging in Beersheba. His sons, however,
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Speaker 1: did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after
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Speaker 1: dishonest gain, and took bribes and perverted justice. Then all
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Speaker 1: the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel
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Speaker 1: at Ramah. And they said to him, Behold, you have
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Speaker 1: grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways.
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Speaker 1: Now appoint a king for us to judge us, like
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Speaker 1: all the nations. God then directed Samuel how to answer
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Speaker 1: their request. We read in verse 9, Now then, listen
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Speaker 1: to their voice. However, you shall solemnly warn them and
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Speaker 1: tell them of the procedure of the king who will
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Speaker 1: reign over them. But the people insisted on their own way,
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Speaker 1: despite Samuel's warnings. Drop down to verse 19. Through verse 22,
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Speaker 1: we read, Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the
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Speaker 1: voice of Samuel. And they said, No, but there shall
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Speaker 1: be a king over us, that we also may be
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Speaker 1: like all the nations, that our king may judge us,
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Speaker 1: and go out before us, and fight our battles. Now
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Speaker 1: after Samuel had heard all the words of the people,
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Speaker 1: he repeated them in the Lord's hearing. The Lord said
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Speaker 1: to Samuel, Listen to their voice, and appoint them a king.
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Speaker 1: So Samuel said to the men of Israel, go every
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Speaker 1: man to his city. This evening we begin a new
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Speaker 1: series of studies which are biographical in nature and they
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Speaker 1: have to do with the study of the life of David.
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Speaker 1: Now there are a lot of very well-known characters in
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Speaker 1: scripture that It may surprise you to know that more
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Speaker 1: is written about David than any other biblical character. Abraham
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Speaker 1: has some 14 chapters dedicated to his life, and so
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Speaker 1: does Joseph. Jacob has 11. Elijah has 10. Have any
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Speaker 1: idea how many are dedicated to David? Sixty-six, if my
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Speaker 1: counting is correct, not counting 59 references in the New Testament.
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Speaker 1: to his life. Think of that. Wow. A lot of
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Speaker 1: material is revealed in scripture about this man of God.
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Speaker 1: And you would expect that because he is called in
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Speaker 1: the Bible on two occasions, a man after God's own heart. Now,
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Speaker 1: when you hear those things about how much is said
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Speaker 1: regarding David and the the fact that he was a
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Speaker 1: man after God's heart, you could get the feeling that
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Speaker 1: he is some sort of super phenomenal person in his flesh.
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Speaker 1: But just to set the record straight, I want to
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Speaker 1: begin the series not in the Old Testament, but in
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Speaker 1: the New Testament passage of 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Because
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Speaker 1: I don't want you to have the idea that he
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Speaker 1: was sort of some kind of special person who had
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Speaker 1: in himself certain qualities that God just had to use
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Speaker 1: because he was so great he became the king. As
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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, quite the contrary. In 1 Corinthians
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Speaker 1: chapter 1, the context has to do with the way
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Speaker 1: different people viewed Paul, or better than that, the gospel.
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Speaker 1: Some who were readers of Paul's letter were Jewish, and
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Speaker 1: they were looking for a miracle, for a sign that
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Speaker 1: proved the man was of God. Some of his readers
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Speaker 1: were Greeks, and the Greeks, according to verse 22, were
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Speaker 1: in search for wisdom. Now you've got to understand the
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Speaker 1: Greek mind. The Greeks of that day were very impressed
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Speaker 1: with the surface impressions. The Greeks looked for brains and
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Speaker 1: or brawn, and they were impressed with what they saw.
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Speaker 1: Whether your inner life was of value really meant little
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Speaker 1: to the Greek. What was important is that you were
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Speaker 1: bright or you were strong, very athletic, you looked good,
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Speaker 1: and then they were impressed. Paul's whole thrust in the
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Speaker 1: first chapter is, I'm not coming to you with wisdom
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Speaker 1: in the flesh, brilliance, nor am I coming to you
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Speaker 1: with any kind of impressionable physique. I come in the
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Speaker 1: power of God, and there's a reason. Read with me
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Speaker 1: now as I look at verse 26 and following of
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Speaker 1: chapter 1. Consider your calling, brethren, that there were not
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Speaker 1: many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not
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Speaker 1: many noble, That's a little bit of a slam, by
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Speaker 1: the way. Paul says, look around, Corinthians. You won't find
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Speaker 1: many who are very impressionable, or that is, those that
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Speaker 1: will impress others. Next verse. God has chosen the foolish
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Speaker 1: things of the world to shame the wise. God has
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Speaker 1: chosen the weak things of the world to shame the
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Speaker 1: things which are strong. And the base things of the
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Speaker 1: world and the despised, God has chosen. The things that
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Speaker 1: are not, that he might nullify the things that are.
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Speaker 1: The reason? That no man should boast before God. That
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Speaker 1: is a principle we always forget because we're a lot
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Speaker 1: like the Greeks. We look for things that will cause boasting.
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Speaker 1: We are terribly enamored of the surface. We want the
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Speaker 1: individual to be exceedingly bright or exceedingly attractive physically. When
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Speaker 1: God says, my choices aren't on that basis. In fact,
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Speaker 1: as I read part of it from the Berkeley Bible,
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Speaker 1: it is even clearer. Go down to your verse there,
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Speaker 1: verse 28. God has chosen the world's lowborn and contemptibles
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Speaker 1: and nobodies. I love that one. Nobodies in order to
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Speaker 1: annihilate what amounts to something so that all humanity may
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Speaker 1: be boastless in the presence of God. Isn't that beautiful?
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Speaker 1: God has chosen nobodies to turn them into somebody. Now
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Speaker 1: that's the story of the life of David. Let me
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Speaker 1: give you the principle, and I want you to write
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Speaker 1: it down, and I want you to be reminded of
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Speaker 1: it all through the message tonight. Here it is. God's
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Speaker 1: choice of a person is contrary to human reason. Now,
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Speaker 1: I have, of course, a reason for saying that. God's
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Speaker 1: choice of a person is contrary to human reason. The
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Speaker 1: reason I want to say that at the beginning is
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Speaker 1: because I want all of the people here tonight and
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Speaker 1: all that may hear this message in years to come
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Speaker 1: to know that you're no different, in essence, than David.
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Speaker 1: Nor are he different from you. There was nothing about
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Speaker 1: David on the surface that impressed God and caused God
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Speaker 1: to say, wow, that is my man. God, as we
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Speaker 1: will see tonight, looked for and chose an individual, in
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Speaker 1: this case, David, who really had nothing very impressive about
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Speaker 1: him on the surface. If I could do anything to
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Speaker 1: change my mentality, that's the one thing I would change.
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Speaker 1: I would like to be able to see as God sees.
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Speaker 1: I would like to be able to block out of
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Speaker 1: my mind the initial impression, the surface, and be able
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Speaker 1: to immediately strike at the heart of someone so that
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Speaker 1: I might know their motive. Wouldn't that be a threatening
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Speaker 1: thing to know that someone was able to see you
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Speaker 1: like God could see you? I could be able to
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Speaker 1: see the motive and know whether they really meant what
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Speaker 1: they're saying or not. I could see beyond the facade
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Speaker 1: and see that there's not really a heart for God.
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Speaker 1: There's just a religious surface. I could know if a
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Speaker 1: person happened to be dishonest when he was trying to
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Speaker 1: appear honest. I could know if he was a phony
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Speaker 1: when he was trying to look authentic. I could spot
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Speaker 1: the car salesman. Wouldn't that be a relief? I could
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Speaker 1: see the person who says, I really love Christ, but
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Speaker 1: he doesn't. And I could call a spade a spade.
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Speaker 1: The Lord says, my choices are not according to human
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Speaker 1: reason that no person should boast before me. Now, I
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Speaker 1: want to give you hope tonight. We're not going to
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Speaker 1: dig right into how God began to use David this evening.
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Speaker 1: We're going to dig into his times and we're going
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Speaker 1: to illustrate that one principle about David. He didn't look
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Speaker 1: any different than any other Jewish boy his age at
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Speaker 1: the time he was chosen. But he had character. And
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Speaker 1: that's what God saw. You know what? I think if
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Speaker 1: we could have been the neighbors of Jesse, living in
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Speaker 1: the farmhouse next to their house on the Judean hillside,
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Speaker 1: we may not have even known the name of the
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Speaker 1: youngest son. I mean, his dad didn't even think of
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Speaker 1: him when Samuel asked, is this all your sons? And
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Speaker 1: Jesse rubbed his beard and thought, oh, yeah. Now there's
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Speaker 1: the baby who is out in the field keeping those sheep.
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Speaker 1: And well, Samuel said, go and fetch him. Samuel was
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Speaker 1: from the south. That's why he said, go and fetch him.
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Speaker 1: And so Jesse went and he got him. And suddenly,
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Speaker 1: of all things, this little runt, this nobody became somebody.
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Speaker 1: But you and I would not have even been impressed
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Speaker 1: by the fellow that they brought in from the field
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Speaker 1: who smelled like a sheep. I want to show you something.
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Speaker 1: 1 Samuel 16, 12. We're going to sort of hop, skip,
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Speaker 1: and jump tonight through different sections of the Bible to
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Speaker 1: show you some things about this choice that God made.
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Speaker 1: But I want to land on the only verse in
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Speaker 1: all the Bible that tells us about his choice. Appearance. Okay?
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Speaker 1: The only verse that talks about his appearance. Verse 12
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Speaker 1: of chapter 16 of 1 Samuel. So he sent and
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Speaker 1: brought him in. Now that's the he is Jesse and
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Speaker 1: the him is David. The father sent and brought David in.
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Speaker 1: This is the only description and there are three things
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Speaker 1: we're told. He was ruddy. with beautiful eyes and a
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Speaker 1: handsome appearance. Well, you read that and you think, what
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Speaker 1: else do you need? That's not bad to start right there,
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Speaker 1: you know. You know what it means? It means he
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Speaker 1: was redheaded, most likely. Ruddy suggests red. Fair complexion, maybe
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Speaker 1: bronzed from the sun. He had sparkling eyes and he
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Speaker 1: was good looking. Phyllis Prokop writes in her book, Conversations
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Speaker 1: with Giants, an interesting thought. David, where are your press agents?
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Speaker 1: I read page after page of your acts, your deeds,
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Speaker 1: and David, there's only one sentence to describe your physical appearance.
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Speaker 1: When you came before Samuel, you were described with these words.
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Speaker 1: Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.
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Speaker 1: And was handsome. Indeed, handsome. How many of us will
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Speaker 1: buy a ticket to see a man of whom we
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Speaker 1: have no more particulars than this? We need life-size prints
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Speaker 1: these days. I like that. Can you lift one jaunty eyebrow? David,
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Speaker 1: you may not understand my point of view. You see,
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Speaker 1: I live in a world where young men with certain
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Speaker 1: looks about them are reverenced as gods. David, perhaps you
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Speaker 1: should get a new agent. Your public knows only that
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Speaker 1: you walked as a giant before God. We don't even
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Speaker 1: know how you combed your hair. Isn't that quaint? I mean,
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Speaker 1: 66 chapters and all we know is he was redheaded,
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Speaker 1: had bright eyes, and he was good looking. You know
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Speaker 1: what that tells me? It tells me that God means
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Speaker 1: what he says when I look at the heart. Hey,
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Speaker 1: that gives hope to people that are big as a blimp. Or,
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Speaker 1: you know, six feet eight and they're 12 years old.
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Speaker 1: And they're girls. No. I mean, there's there's no reservation.
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Speaker 1: God can use any of us. You don't have to
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Speaker 1: be straight A's. Isn't that great? Say amen all at once.
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Speaker 1: You know, yeah, I thought you'd like that. You don't
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Speaker 1: have to come out at the valedictorian. The girl in
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Speaker 1: our high school is valedictorian, wore pigtails. And I never
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Speaker 1: will forget tying her pigtails the night of the graduation
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Speaker 1: to the back of the chair. And so she stood
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Speaker 1: up to get her thing and she went. You do
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Speaker 1: a lot of dumb things when you graduate toward the
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Speaker 1: last of your class and she graduates first. You know,
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Speaker 1: you're going to get back one way or the other.
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Speaker 1: You have to be valedictorian. He can use any of us.
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Speaker 1: That's the beauty of this message tonight. That's the joy
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Speaker 1: of the message on David. He was nothing more than
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Speaker 1: a shepherd whose name wasn't even known in the community.
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Speaker 1: And we've got him revered as some kind of plastered
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Speaker 1: saint with a halo. And all he was was a
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Speaker 1: kid not even 20 years old who was picked out
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Speaker 1: of the field from following the sheep. And God said,
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Speaker 1: you've got what I'm looking for, boy. And he anointed
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Speaker 1: him with oil. I tell you, I am deeply encouraged
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Speaker 1: to know that a guy like David could be seen
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Speaker 1: with qualities and used of God. So can every person
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Speaker 1: here tonight, even without a superb track record. Well, let's
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Speaker 1: go back 40 years, okay? Let's go to chapter 8.
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Speaker 1: 1 Samuel chapter 8. I want to show you some background.
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Speaker 1: I know that most people hate history, but you've just
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Speaker 1: got to get a bite of it to appreciate where
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Speaker 1: David was, so I'll try to make it interesting. To
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Speaker 1: quote G. Frederick Owen in his book, Abraham to the
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Speaker 1: Middle East Crisis, there's one sentence that I've lifted that
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Speaker 1: just describes the times. The people were on a long
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Speaker 1: drift from God. That was the world into which David
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Speaker 1: was born. Let me give you the backdrop that led
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Speaker 1: up to the people's choice. The judges were dead. Eli
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Speaker 1: came and he did the job as the high priest
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Speaker 1: and then he got old and rickety and he died
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Speaker 1: and he left two sons that hated God. So they
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Speaker 1: weren't qualified. And then he had adopted a boy named
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Speaker 1: Samuel who was the son of Hannah and he was
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Speaker 1: a man of God. But his boys weren't as he
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Speaker 1: grew up and had children. And now Samuel was old
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Speaker 1: and people were on a long drift from God. They
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Speaker 1: had heard about the days in which Israel was really
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Speaker 1: a great nation. They had read the books that talked
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Speaker 1: about Eli and those great early days of Samuel and
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Speaker 1: the zenith of his career. But listen, they knew nothing
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Speaker 1: of it personally. You know what they knew? They knew compromise.
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Speaker 1: They knew disobedience. They knew the profile of aged Samuel Daniel.
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Speaker 1: In fact, it says in verse 1 that when he
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Speaker 1: was old, he appointed his sons judges over Israel. And
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Speaker 1: you'd think, wow, now we're going to move on. Look
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Speaker 1: at the sons of Samuel. It names them in verse
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Speaker 1: 2 and it says they didn't walk in his ways.
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Speaker 1: In verse 3, they turned aside after dishonest gain. They
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Speaker 1: took bribes and perverted justice. That's the legacy that Samuel left.
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Speaker 1: By the way, does that haunt you, dads, like it
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Speaker 1: does me? You know the only legacy we have that
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Speaker 1: will live on as reflections of our character? Our kids. Well,
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Speaker 1: that'll haunt you. My kids. They are reflections of my investment.
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Speaker 1: Kurt and Carissa and Colleen and Chuck. That's what I
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Speaker 1: provide for society to witness as the works of my
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Speaker 1: hands before God that live on with my name. Samuel
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Speaker 1: lived and got ready to die and here were boys
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Speaker 1: that just brought reproach to the name of Jehovah. Think
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Speaker 1: of that. So the people were disillusioned, frankly, and they
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Speaker 1: had three reasons for wanting a king. They're given to
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Speaker 1: us in verse, well, let's see. They had a summit
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Speaker 1: meeting at Ramah, verse 4, and they said, there are
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Speaker 1: three reasons, Samuel, we want a king. First, verse 5,
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Speaker 1: you have grown old, Second, your sons don't walk in
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Speaker 1: your ways. And third, we want to be like all
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Speaker 1: the other nations. Verse 5 concludes, appoint a king for
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Speaker 1: us to judge us like all the nations. Hey, people
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Speaker 1: have always wanted to be like everybody else. And we're
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Speaker 1: tired of worshiping an invisible God. Everybody says, where's your king? Oh,
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Speaker 1: he's in the heavens. We want to have him on earth, Samuel.
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Speaker 1: We want to be like all the other nations. Look
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Speaker 1: at the Philistines, God. Look at their king. And the
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Speaker 1: Moabites and the Jebusites and all the other ites. They've
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Speaker 1: got all those kings and we don't have a king.
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Speaker 1: We want to be like all the other nations. Interesting
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Speaker 1: how believers want to be like everybody else because everybody's
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Speaker 1: doing it. So they said, look, you're out to lunch.
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Speaker 1: You're dying. Your sons are out to lunch. We want
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Speaker 1: to be like everybody else. And so Samuel was broken
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Speaker 1: hearted because they didn't say we want to wait on
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Speaker 1: God to provide what we need. You find a man,
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Speaker 1: we'll find a man, and we want to put him
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Speaker 1: in office. Well, it broke his heart. Verse 6, it
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Speaker 1: was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said,
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Speaker 1: give us a king to judge us, and he prayed.
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Speaker 1: Samuel's on his knees more than he's on his feet.
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Speaker 1: What a man of God. And the Lord said to Samuel,
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Speaker 1: listen to the voice of the people in regard to
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Speaker 1: all they say to you, for they've not rejected you,
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Speaker 1: they've rejected me from being king over them. Go ahead
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Speaker 1: and listen. Verse 9, Listen to their voice, however you
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Speaker 1: shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure
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Speaker 1: of the king who will reign over them. Did he ever?
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Speaker 1: If you're a student of the Old Testament, you know
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Speaker 1: that Saul, oh, what a willful man. Tall, dark, handsome.
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Speaker 1: All of the externals that you would expect in a king.
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Speaker 1: That's how people choose kings. They get someone that looks
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Speaker 1: good and, wow, he'll be a good image for Israel.
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Speaker 1: Saul's the guy. And he came on the scene and
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Speaker 1: he really swept them off their feet. He had a
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Speaker 1: measure of humility to start with. He seemed to be
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Speaker 1: able to rally people around a cause. He apparently had
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Speaker 1: enough moxie to get an army together. And before long,
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Speaker 1: you'd think, wow, he's the man for the job. But
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Speaker 1: you know that even though he was 30 years old
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Speaker 1: when he started, chapter 13, verse 1 tells us, That
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Speaker 1: man before long became thin-skinned, hot-tempered, angry, and even was
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Speaker 1: given to seasons of depression and murder, and he died
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Speaker 1: a suicide. Now that's the people's choice. Now wait. Somewhere
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Speaker 1: between the anointing of Saul and the suicide of Saul,
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Speaker 1: David came in. That's his times. Talk about being born
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Speaker 1: into volatile times. That was David's entrance into life. People
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Speaker 1: were on a long drift from God. They became disillusioned
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Speaker 1: with their choice. But what do you do when your
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Speaker 1: king doesn't walk with God? Well, ask America. What did
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Speaker 1: we do? The most disillusioning, insecure feeling is to know
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Speaker 1: that something is wrong in the Oval Office and you
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Speaker 1: can't put your finger on it. They knew that Saul
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Speaker 1: spent a lot of time in his tent and it
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Speaker 1: was dark. And he said strange things and he and
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Speaker 1: he spoke with a strange tone and he walked in
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Speaker 1: the flesh. And finally, chapter 13 tells us God said,
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Speaker 1: you're not qualified any longer. Well, it's severe. Samuel said
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Speaker 1: to Saul, you have acted foolishly. You have not kept
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Speaker 1: the commandment of the Lord, your God, which he commanded you.
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Speaker 1: For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over
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Speaker 1: Israel forever. Next verse. But now your kingdom shall not endure.
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Speaker 1: Now here's the first prediction of David right here. Verse 14.
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Speaker 1: The Lord has sought out for himself a man. Wait
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Speaker 1: before you read any further. Look at that little three
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Speaker 1: letter word man. Okay. Just a human being. God is
24:30
Speaker 1: not on a search for angels in the flesh. He
24:35
Speaker 1: is not looking for perfect people. There are none. He
24:40
Speaker 1: is on a search for men and women like you
24:44
Speaker 1: and me, people of flesh. But he has three qualities
24:50
Speaker 1: in mind he's looking for. You ready for them? Number one, spirituality. Spirituality.
24:56
Speaker 1: A man after his own heart. There's the first quality.
25:06
Speaker 1: What does it mean to be a person after God's
25:09
Speaker 1: own heart? Well, it means that you are a person
25:15
Speaker 1: whose life is in harmony with the Lord. What is
25:20
Speaker 1: important to him is important to you. What burdens him
25:25
Speaker 1: burdens you. When he says go to the right, you
25:30
Speaker 1: go to the right. When he says stop that in
25:33
Speaker 1: your life, you stop it. When he says this is
25:36
Speaker 1: wrong and I want you to change, you deal with it.
25:39
Speaker 1: You come to terms with it because you have a
25:42
Speaker 1: heart for God. That's putting it on the bottom line
25:49
Speaker 1: of biblical Christianity. When you are deeply spiritual, then you
25:55
Speaker 1: have a heart that is sensitive to the things of God.
25:59
Speaker 1: Do you? Not does your school, but do you. Not
26:08
Speaker 1: asking does your mate, do you. Not your church, but you.
26:15
Speaker 1: So that if nobody else was here, except you alone,
26:19
Speaker 1: and you could hear the echo of your voice... Could
26:21
Speaker 1: you alone sitting in this room tonight say, I'm a
26:25
Speaker 1: person after God's heart? If so, you're on your way.
26:32
Speaker 1: Hold your place here because you'll lose it if you
26:34
Speaker 1: don't and go to 2 Chronicles 16, verse 9. Just
26:43
Speaker 1: want to give you a parallel verse that confirms what
26:45
Speaker 1: I've just said. 2 Chronicles 16, 9. For the eyes
26:58
Speaker 1: of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth.
27:02
Speaker 1: Isn't that a beautiful expression? That he may strongly support
27:07
Speaker 1: those whose heart is completely his. Circle that verse if
27:12
Speaker 1: you haven't already. What is it that God is looking for?
27:17
Speaker 1: God is looking for men and women whose hearts are
27:22
Speaker 1: completely his. Completely his. That means there are no closets
27:29
Speaker 1: that are locked. There are no rugs under which things
27:34
Speaker 1: are swept. That means that when wrong comes, you come
27:38
Speaker 1: to terms with it quickly. You're grieved over wrong. You're
27:44
Speaker 1: concerned about those things that displease him. And you long
27:48
Speaker 1: to count for him in motivation. All the way down
27:51
Speaker 1: to the reasons behind the actions. The first quality David
27:56
Speaker 1: had was, is spirituality. Now go to chapter 16 of
28:03
Speaker 1: 1 Samuel, verse 1. Let me show you the second quality.
28:09
Speaker 1: When God makes a choice, it's contrary to human reason.
28:14
Speaker 1: We would choose people that look like Saul. God chooses
28:18
Speaker 1: people that have character. The first is spirituality. The second.
28:25
Speaker 1: Now the Lord said to Samuel... How long will you
28:29
Speaker 1: grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being
28:34
Speaker 1: king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go.
28:38
Speaker 1: I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite. For notice,
28:44
Speaker 1: I have selected a king for myself among his sons.
28:49
Speaker 1: God had come to the home of Jesse in spirit form.
28:53
Speaker 1: Jesse didn't know he was there. And God had given
28:56
Speaker 1: surveillance over the home and had spotted his sons and said,
29:01
Speaker 1: that's my man. What was it that he saw in David?
29:06
Speaker 1: He saw a heart that was completely God's. And second,
29:13
Speaker 1: he saw humility. Humility. You will have to hold here
29:19
Speaker 1: and go to Psalm 89 to have it confirmed. Well,
29:23
Speaker 1: you can leave this right now, 1 Samuel. Just turn
29:25
Speaker 1: to Psalm 89. The first quality was spirituality. The second
29:30
Speaker 1: is humility. I know we say a lot about it,
29:34
Speaker 1: and I always wrestle with how do you communicate humility?
29:40
Speaker 1: It's maybe described best as a servant's heart. 89, 19
29:49
Speaker 1: of the Psalms. Once thou did speak in vision to
29:53
Speaker 1: thy godly ones and did say, I have given help
29:56
Speaker 1: to one who is mighty. I have exalted one chosen
30:00
Speaker 1: from the people. Verse 20. I have found David my servant.
30:06
Speaker 1: Those words, my servant, describe David more than any other
30:11
Speaker 1: words when referring to that man. My servant. With my
30:18
Speaker 1: holy oil I have anointed him with whom my hand
30:22
Speaker 1: will be established. The first quality that God looks for
30:26
Speaker 1: Inside our lives is that sense of sensitivity to God.
30:31
Speaker 1: My heart is completely yours. And second, I want to
30:37
Speaker 1: serve you and others, God. Look at 78, 70 psalms
30:43
Speaker 1: in the book of Psalms. Psalm number 78, verse 70.
30:48
Speaker 1: He also chose David his son. There it is again. 78, 70.
31:03
Speaker 1: He chose David his servant. We're talking about God's unusual
31:09
Speaker 1: kind of selecting. We would choose people that have the
31:14
Speaker 1: surface appearance and have a good up front image. But
31:18
Speaker 1: God says, I care little about that image business. Show
31:23
Speaker 1: me a person that has the character and I'll give
31:25
Speaker 1: him all the image he needs. I don't care about temperament.
31:29
Speaker 1: I don't care about personality. I don't care about size.
31:32
Speaker 1: I don't care about track record. I care about character.
31:37
Speaker 1: First is, is he really deeply authentic in his spiritual walk?
31:43
Speaker 1: Or is he faking it? And second, is he a servant?
31:48
Speaker 1: My wife and I rubbed shoulders for, oh, about two
31:51
Speaker 1: years with a young man who kept saying, I want
31:54
Speaker 1: to have a servant's heart. I want to really serve.
31:58
Speaker 1: I want to be your servant. I want to be
32:00
Speaker 1: with you and I want to help you and I
32:02
Speaker 1: want to assist you. I want to have a servant's heart.
32:04
Speaker 1: If I heard that once, I heard it 25 times.
32:07
Speaker 1: It fell from his lips. It was amazing. When we
32:10
Speaker 1: would give him a job to do, he would always
32:11
Speaker 1: have an alternative plan. When we would say, look, why
32:16
Speaker 1: don't we do this? He would always have another approach.
32:20
Speaker 1: And when we would ask him to take care of
32:22
Speaker 1: such and such, he would seem to come back with... Well,
32:25
Speaker 1: not really. I don't know why you want that. You
32:27
Speaker 1: should want this. I began to wonder, where's this servant's
32:32
Speaker 1: heart business coming in? When you have a servant's heart,
32:35
Speaker 1: you're humble. You do as you're told. You don't rebel.
32:45
Speaker 1: You respect. You serve. That's David. God looked at David
32:52
Speaker 1: as he was keeping the sheep. And as he did
32:55
Speaker 1: his father's bidding and he said, he's got the qualities.
33:02
Speaker 1: I mean, his dad didn't remember his name hardly. But
33:05
Speaker 1: God says, I got my eye on that guy. He's
33:09
Speaker 1: my man. Look further in this psalm. He chose David,
33:14
Speaker 1: his servant. By the way, a servant doesn't care who
33:17
Speaker 1: gets the glory. Remember that. A servant has one great goal,
33:23
Speaker 1: and that is to make his superior successful. If you
33:30
Speaker 1: really serve in your home as a husband, your desire
33:33
Speaker 1: is to see your wife succeed. Or wife, the husband.
33:41
Speaker 1: Or parents, the kids. Boy, talk about mutual, bilateral servanthood.
33:48
Speaker 1: That happens in the home. So that you care too
33:51
Speaker 1: much for one another to let them fail. You have
33:56
Speaker 1: one great goal and that's to watch them used of
33:59
Speaker 1: God in a greater way than you're used. If that's
34:02
Speaker 1: his plan. You don't care who gets the glory. Now,
34:09
Speaker 1: he says, I chose David, my servant, and took him
34:11
Speaker 1: from the sheep foals. Have you ever hung around sheep? Oh, wow.
34:18
Speaker 1: What a humbling experience. They are gross. There's no other
34:23
Speaker 1: word for it. Especially if they haven't been shorn. You
34:30
Speaker 1: smell them before you see them, usually. Not only did
34:34
Speaker 1: he keep sheep, he kept pregnant sheep. If you think
34:38
Speaker 1: sheep are bad, look at verse 71. From the care
34:41
Speaker 1: of the ewes with suckling lambs he brought them, he
34:44
Speaker 1: brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance. Man, if...
34:50
Speaker 1: Sheep are unbelievably dumb. And here was David with a
34:59
Speaker 1: few sheep and he committed himself to the care of
35:04
Speaker 1: those sheep. That was his calling. His brothers were off
35:10
Speaker 1: in the army making rank. But not David. He kept
35:18
Speaker 1: the sheep. Who wants to keep sheep when there's a
35:23
Speaker 1: fight going on? If that's your job, then you have
35:28
Speaker 1: a servant's heart. That's what you want to do. I
35:33
Speaker 1: noticed the third quality is integrity. He shepherded them according
35:39
Speaker 1: to the integrity of his heart. Oh, that is so significant.
35:48
Speaker 1: God is not looking for... magnificent specimens of humanity. He's
35:53
Speaker 1: looking for deeply spiritual, genuinely humble, honest to the core servants.
36:00
Speaker 1: That's what he's looking for. He shepherded them according to
36:08
Speaker 1: the integrity of his heart. I checked the Hebrew word,
36:13
Speaker 1: which means integrity, and listen to these synonyms. Complete, whole, innocent,
36:23
Speaker 1: having simplicity of life, wholesome sound, unimpaired.
36:29
Speaker 2: Isn't that beautiful? It's what you are when nobody's looking.
36:40
Speaker 2: Integrity is honesty right down to the nubbins. Not a
36:48
Speaker 2: tinge of guile or deception.
36:52
Speaker 1: That's David. You know, we have a long ways to
36:59
Speaker 1: go when it comes to choosing leaders. I think these
37:05
Speaker 1: are qualities we ought to look for. In faculties of schools.
37:14
Speaker 1: In staff of churches. In counselors of camps. In seminarians
37:22
Speaker 1: who say we want to be spokesmen for God. First
37:29
Speaker 1: thing we look at is a transcript. I realize that
37:33
Speaker 1: you can't educate a dum-dum. I realize that that's a
37:36
Speaker 1: problem when you put them in graduate work. I understand that.
37:40
Speaker 1: But surely there ought to be something said for character reference.
37:45
Speaker 1: I mean, a genuine spirituality, a servant's heart, and honesty
37:55
Speaker 1: when it's dark. And nobody else is there. The way
38:06
Speaker 1: you do your homework. Oh, man. Why mention homework, Swindoll?
38:14
Speaker 1: Anybody can show up for class. Well, almost anybody. Some,
38:19
Speaker 1: it seems, just can't get to class. But how do
38:22
Speaker 1: you do your homework? How faithful are you when nobody's looking?
38:28
Speaker 1: You see, the delight of preaching is simply the cream
38:32
Speaker 1: on the pie. The work goes into the preparation. The
38:38
Speaker 1: hours and hours and hours that are spent, nobody knows about.
38:43
Speaker 1: Investing yourself in time with God, time in the books,
38:48
Speaker 1: time in literature, and everybody else goes home. And you're
38:56
Speaker 1: staying by the stuff. Because you want to have something
38:59
Speaker 1: to say. You want to get your act together. I
39:05
Speaker 1: fear we are raising up a mentality in many a
39:10
Speaker 1: school that says just have it on the surface. Have
39:14
Speaker 1: a good impression and that's all that's needed. You will
39:17
Speaker 1: never be a man or woman of God if that's
39:20
Speaker 1: your philosophy. Never. You cannot fake the Almighty. Furthermore, people
39:32
Speaker 1: with discernment will know that you haven't got it together.
39:39
Speaker 1: David had that integrity. Character is what you are when
39:46
Speaker 1: nobody's looking. Well, If I could just borrow from these
39:50
Speaker 1: three verses we're looking at to wrap things up, the
39:54
Speaker 1: whole idea of how God trained David, I could pick
39:58
Speaker 1: four words to do it. Here they are. Number one,
40:02
Speaker 1: God trained him in solitude. When you keep sheep, when
40:08
Speaker 1: you live in the field, then it is solitude that
40:13
Speaker 1: nurtures you. I.
40:17
Speaker 1: I have a great concern that too little time is
40:21
Speaker 1: spent by leaders in the making in solitude. If you
40:26
Speaker 1: have to always have noise, there's something wrong. If you
40:30
Speaker 1: can't stand to be with yourself, there are some unsettled
40:33
Speaker 1: and there are some unsolved conflicts. F.B. Meyer writes, nature
40:41
Speaker 1: was David's nurse, his companion, his teacher. The moorlands around
40:49
Speaker 1: Bethlehem forming the greater part of the plateau did not, however,
40:53
Speaker 1: present features of soft beauty. They were wild, gaunt, strong,
41:01
Speaker 1: character building. It was there that David first imbibed that
41:07
Speaker 1: knowledge of natural scenery and pastoral pursuits which colored all
41:13
Speaker 1: his life and poetry as the contents of the vat
41:18
Speaker 1: color the dyer's hand. When's the last time you got
41:27
Speaker 1: all alone with nature and just kind of soaked it in? Hey,
41:37
Speaker 1: that gives you depth. No one around so that even
41:45
Speaker 1: the sound of silence is deafening. Just kind of comes
41:48
Speaker 1: in on you. That's where David lived. That's where he
41:52
Speaker 1: learned to king it. When he put those woolies in
41:58
Speaker 1: that little spot that night and, you know, settled them
42:00
Speaker 1: down and he got out under the stars and there
42:03
Speaker 1: was no one there, not even a jet to bother him.
42:10
Speaker 1: And he heard the blistering winds of the winter and
42:15
Speaker 1: he felt the sting of the sand In the spring
42:20
Speaker 1: and summer of the years. And his skin was bronzed
42:26
Speaker 1: under the sun. Solitude. That's how God trained him. Number
42:39
Speaker 1: two is obscurity. Obscurity. Obscurity. That's being faithful in the
42:49
Speaker 1: little things. Unknown, unseen, unappreciated, and unapplauded. That's where God
43:00
Speaker 1: trains his best personnel in obscurity. Hidden away in some
43:08
Speaker 1: study carol tonight is a man of God in the making.
43:13
Speaker 1: Pouring over that thesis... pouring over his studies, that woman
43:19
Speaker 1: of God, dealing with those little kiddos in the constancy
43:25
Speaker 1: of diaper changing and table manners and putting to bed
43:29
Speaker 1: and matching pajamas and putting socks up. Doesn't sound very exciting,
43:35
Speaker 1: does it? Wow. I've always said things change the more
43:40
Speaker 1: kids you have. By the time you have four, you
43:42
Speaker 1: don't even care if the pajamas match. Just Anything, you know.
43:51
Speaker 1: In the exacting demands of the home, that's where character
43:55
Speaker 1: is built. That's where the bills come due, women. No
44:00
Speaker 1: wonder they want to break away and say, live your
44:03
Speaker 1: own life. That's being free. Sounds exciting. But those exacting
44:11
Speaker 1: demands of obscurity That's where character's built. In the teaching
44:17
Speaker 1: lessons that you prepare, and nobody knows you're doing it. Ah,
44:23
Speaker 1: don't you believe it? The class knows. Teachers here tonight,
44:29
Speaker 1: businessmen here tonight, your men that you are serving as
44:33
Speaker 1: a leader, they know if you've got your homework together
44:36
Speaker 1: or not. You can't fake them over the long haul. Diligence,
44:41
Speaker 1: staying at it. And here's the third one. Monotony. Boy,
44:45
Speaker 1: it's getting worse, isn't it? Solitude. That sounds a little adventuresome.
44:49
Speaker 1: And then obscurity. Well, now monotony. That's being faithful in
44:56
Speaker 1: the menial, insignificant, routine, regular, unexciting, uneventful daily tasks. I
45:03
Speaker 1: don't know how to make it any less attractive than that.
45:06
Speaker 1: I got a friend who's a commercial pilot and he
45:08
Speaker 1: said it's like flying. He says, flying is hours, endless
45:13
Speaker 1: hours of tired monotony punctuated with a few seconds of
45:16
Speaker 1: sheer panic. That's life for you, maybe without the panic.
45:23
Speaker 1: Just constant, constant, endless hours of tired monotony as you
45:28
Speaker 1: pour over those graphs and those charts and those plans
45:31
Speaker 1: or whatever might be your job. That's where you learn
45:34
Speaker 1: to be a man or woman of God. Not when
45:37
Speaker 1: you're up front. Hey, that's the fun part. It's when
45:42
Speaker 1: nobody else is around. That's when you learn to king it.
45:50
Speaker 1: Here's the fourth one. It's my favorite. Reality. You see,
45:57
Speaker 1: up until now, it sounds like that the answer is
45:59
Speaker 1: to be a hippie. Sort of an irresponsible mystic who
46:03
Speaker 1: sits out on a hill and pops birdseed and whistles...
46:07
Speaker 1: And whistles those neat little choruses. And you just sort
46:11
Speaker 1: of meet with God. Sort of an irresponsible kind of
46:15
Speaker 1: Christian individual. That's not character building. You might get the
46:21
Speaker 1: feeling that David, boy, he sort of danced around Judah.
46:23
Speaker 1: Had a great time training those sheep to sit on
46:25
Speaker 1: their hind legs and all that. That's not true. I
46:28
Speaker 1: want to show you something. 1 Samuel 17. I can
46:33
Speaker 1: hardly wait to get to David and Goliath. That's one
46:35
Speaker 1: of my favorite chapters. But this section is too good
46:38
Speaker 1: to be true. Here is David standing by Saul in
46:42
Speaker 1: 1 Samuel 17. Remember Saul? Great big tall guy. Scared
46:46
Speaker 1: to death. Knees knocking. Inside the tent. And here's little
46:50
Speaker 1: David saying, hey, let's go whip the giant. And Saul says,
46:54
Speaker 1: who are you? David says, I'm David. He says, where
46:57
Speaker 1: have you been? He says, I've been with my father's sheep.
47:00
Speaker 1: He said, put on my armor. Boom. Boom. And he
47:04
Speaker 1: couldn't wear the armor. And David's, I can't fight like this.
47:07
Speaker 1: Saul says, what kind of guy are you? Look at
47:10
Speaker 1: verse 33. You're not able to go against this Philistine
47:14
Speaker 1: to fight with him. You're but a youth. Well, he's
47:18
Speaker 1: been a warrior from his youth. You're just a little kid.
47:23
Speaker 1: David said to Saul, now note, here's reality. When nobody's looking,
47:28
Speaker 1: your servant was tending his father's sheep.
47:32
Speaker 3: Yeah.
47:33
Speaker 1: Solitude, obscurity, monotony. When a lion or a bear came
47:39
Speaker 1: and took a lamb from the flock. That's reality. A
47:44
Speaker 1: bear came. And David says, ah, bear. Magnificent observation. A bear.
47:53
Speaker 1: And there's a great big bear coming down to eat
47:56
Speaker 1: on one of those sheep. And he says, look at it.
48:00
Speaker 1: Verse 35, I went out after him and attacked him.
48:03
Speaker 1: Oh man, Shazam. Where did David get that kind of courage? Hey,
48:10
Speaker 1: he's learned it before God. Some $ 6 million shepherd standing
48:16
Speaker 1: out there in the field and a bear comes and
48:18
Speaker 1: he attacks the bear. What kind of guy is this David? Hey,
48:24
Speaker 1: he's no dummy. He's a man of reality. He's a
48:29
Speaker 1: man that's responsible when nobody's looking. As a matter of fact,
48:34
Speaker 1: it says, and I love this, it says, I attacked
48:38
Speaker 1: him and I rescued it from his mouth. That means
48:41
Speaker 1: he's close enough to, you know, be inside that creature.
48:45
Speaker 1: And he says, and when he rose up against me,
48:52
Speaker 1: this bear came up against him, he said, I seized
48:56
Speaker 1: him by his beard and struck him and killed him.
49:00
Speaker 1: Great Scott. You know, however you strike and kill a bear,
49:07
Speaker 1: he did it. This bear. David says, so Saul, and
49:12
Speaker 1: it's high pockets out there named Goliath. I'm not worried
49:16
Speaker 1: about Goliath. And he walks out there and he, you know,
49:22
Speaker 1: right between the running lights and boy, down he goes.
49:25
Speaker 1: It's no big thing. He's been killing bears while nobody's looking.
49:30
Speaker 1: We got an idea about this business of getting alone
49:33
Speaker 1: with God. It's unrealistic. It doesn't mean you get alone
49:36
Speaker 1: with God and think about infinity. It means you get
49:40
Speaker 1: alone and discover how to be more responsible in areas
49:45
Speaker 1: of your assignments in life, namely diligence, following through, fighting bears,
49:53
Speaker 1: and attacking. I don't go along with this ridiculous kind
49:58
Speaker 1: of deeper life where you stand back and God does everything.
50:02
Speaker 1: I never did have God fix a flat for me.
50:04
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. Oh, David rolled up his
50:09
Speaker 1: sleeves and he fought for those sheep. He learned to
50:14
Speaker 1: king it. Isn't that important? You see, any value in
50:17
Speaker 1: the lessons you're doing, hey, that's all part of it.
50:21
Speaker 1: That's what God puts iron in your bones. The way
50:25
Speaker 1: you fill out those reports, the way you take care
50:28
Speaker 1: of those assignments, the way you complete the tasks of
50:30
Speaker 1: home or dormitory or work or school is just a
50:35
Speaker 1: reflection of whether you're learning to king it. The test
50:42
Speaker 1: of my calling is not so much how I do
50:44
Speaker 1: on Sunday, it's how I do Monday through Saturday. And
50:48
Speaker 1: there's nobody to check up on me. Or how some
50:53
Speaker 1: dear mom stays up half the night to keep that
50:56
Speaker 1: fever down. She's learning to king it. Well, intensely courageous
51:05
Speaker 1: man who from the outside didn't look like anything worth
51:10
Speaker 1: whistling at. A couple of final lessons. Let me lay
51:14
Speaker 1: this on you. It's in the little things we prove
51:18
Speaker 1: ourselves capable for big things. If I'm saying anything, I'm
51:22
Speaker 1: saying that. It's in the little things we prove ourselves
51:26
Speaker 1: capable for the big things. You're going to set your
51:31
Speaker 1: eyes on the big things if you're going to be
51:33
Speaker 1: a person with big vision and plan on doing little
51:36
Speaker 1: things well. Second, When God develops inner qualities, he's never
51:44
Speaker 1: in a hurry. Alan Redpath is the one who said,
51:54
Speaker 1: The conversion of a soul is the miracle of the moment,
51:58
Speaker 1: but the making of a saint, ah, that's the task
52:00
Speaker 1: of a lifetime. When God develops character, he's never in
52:06
Speaker 1: a hurry. Well, thank you for listening. Let's pray. Thanks, Lord,
52:25
Speaker 1: for your sufficient grace. Thank you for the schoolroom of
52:33
Speaker 1: solitude and obscurity. For the schoolmasters of silence and constant demands.
52:44
Speaker 1: For the tyranny of long hours. For the rewards of
52:51
Speaker 1: hard labor and work. For the periods of our lives
52:57
Speaker 1: that are unapplauded. And the qualities that are unseen by
53:03
Speaker 1: any human eye. Because it is there we learn to
53:08
Speaker 1: king it. Encourage us tonight. Father, encourage us with your goodness,
53:18
Speaker 1: your all-seeing eye, that's still looking for people whose hearts
53:24
Speaker 1: are completely yours. Turn our hearts to you, our Father,
53:31
Speaker 1: in a fresh new way, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
53:38
Speaker 3: The preceding message, God's Heart, God's Man, God's Ways. was
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Speaker 3: copyrighted in 1977, 1988, 1997, and 2009, and the sound
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Speaker 3: recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.
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Speaker 3: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
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Speaker 3: commercial use is strictly prohibited.