The King After God’s Own Heart - Chronicles Of The Kings (Week 2)

In Week 2 of Chronicles of the Kings, we look at the life of David, a shepherd who became king and a man after God's own heart. Through David's story, we see that God chooses differently than people, values a surrendered heart over outward appearance, and calls us to trust Him in the face of fear. 

Watch as Pastor Mike Cantrell takes us through Week 2 of The Chronicles of the Kings and discover why Jesus is the better David.

Transcript

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Frank Abignell Jr. This is a name uh that you may recognize uh from the popular early 2000s movie called Catch Me If You Can. This is the real uh character right here. He was played by Leonardo DiCaprio uh in the movie Catch Me If You Can. Uh and the story goes like this In the late 1960s, Abignell had run away from home. And as a teenager and young adult, uh he began to put together a series of cons and a series of posing as different characters that were unlike any other throughout all of history. In fact, what he often would do is he would dress as some sort of professional to pose as that kind of character. And so he's most well known for uh posing as a pilot for the Pan Am Airlines, uh flying over one million one million miles in the cockpit jump seat of Pan Am American uh Airlines. He also played the role of a doctor working in a hospital for a short period of time, despite having no medical training at all. And finally, he was a lawyer, or at least he played the role of a lawyer, even representing clients in legal settings without having any former credentials. And what he would do is he would let his outward appearance do the talking. He wouldn't even have to say any words, he would just show up dressed as the person that he was supposed to be, and therefore people would assume that that is exactly who he was. Today we're continuing on uh in the series that we're gonna be in this summer. And uh I want to begin with just a simple question for all of us, and we'll come back to this question at the end of our time today. The question is Are you who you appear to be? Are you who you appear to be? Uh today we are going to uh spend some time looking at the life of King David. I want to encourage you, as a part of this series, uh, we have a reading plan. And you can get that on your way out today. Uh, it will help you as you come in and uh hear the message each week. You can also find that reading plan on each of our social media platforms. Uh but this this summer we're gonna spend our time looking at several Old Testament kings. And like all of humanity, this is a complex group of humans. Uh, as we will see, there are good kings and there are bad kings. There are just kings and there are unrighteous kings. But uh what I think I love the most about the biblical authors is they're not afraid to put on full display the humanity of these people. Like these kings were not just some fictitious character, these are actual humans who walked on the face of the earth. And so we began last week. Pastor Obed uh talked to us and preached the message about King Saul, and we learned all kinds of things about King Saul. In fact, we'll come back and talk to him, talk about him a little bit today. But this series will culminate at the end of our summer uh talking about the great King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Today we're gonna pause and we're going to look at King David, Israel's second earthly king. And even if you're new to church, even if you're new to reading the Bible, you're probably at least somewhat familiar with the story of David. His uh accounts are some of the more famous stories in the entire Old Testament, much less the Bible. But I think what David is most well known for is that he is the king after God's own heart. And this is a theme that we're gonna come back to over and over again today, uh, because I want to ask uh each of us to ask ourselves the question: are we who we really appear to be? And so today we will be in the same text that we were last week. We'll be in the book of 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel chapter 16. If you have your Bible or your device, you can open up there. Uh, we'll be in verse 1 here in 1 Samuel chapter 16. It says this the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you mourn for Saul since I have rejected him as king over Israel? At this point, uh Saul was still the king, but he tells Samuel, it says, Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I'm sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. Now remember that name. We'll come back to it here in a little bit. I have chosen one of his sons to be king. But Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me. The Lord said, Take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate. So Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, Do you come in peace? And Samuel replied, Yes, I come in peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourself and come to the sacrifice with me. Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. And when they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, Surely, everybody say, Surely. Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord. But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the what? The Lord looks at the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel, but Samuel said, The Lord has not chosen this one either. Jesse then had Shamma passed by, but Samuel said, Nor has the Lord chosen this one. Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, The Lord has not chosen any of these. So he asked Jesse, Are these all of your sons? Are these all the sons that you have? There are still the youngest. Jesse answered, He is tending the sheep. This is King David. Samuel said, Send for him. We will not sit down until he arrives. So he sent for him and had him brought in, and he was glowing with health, and had a fine appearance and a handsome and handsome features. And then the Lord said, Rise and anoint him. This is the one. So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. And Samuel then went to Ramah. This is the word of the Lord. I just got back a few days ago from a trip overseas. Some of you have been here over the past few months, and you've heard uh how my sister got engaged, and so she uh lives in France, and so we had the privilege of taking a 10-hour plane ride and then a two-hour train ride and then another 45-minute taxi ride. And uh when we finally made it to the south of France, we got to celebrate her wedding. And uh so it was a blast. We had so much fun, but it did not take us long after going through the airports and into the train stations and walking on the streets of Paris. It did not take us long to realize, as Dorothy would put it, we ain't in Kansas anymore. Because as I looked around, I did not see a single F-250 anywhere. There was not a suburban on any street that I looked at. I did not see one poncho shirt or any Lucas anywhere. I didn't see any Hey Dudes, I didn't see any Lululemon, I didn't see any Enclouds, there was not one dude that had a sleeve tattoo at all in all of Paris. And it didn't take me long to realize that I was not in West Texas anymore. Because the French uh they are sophisticated. The French, they are dapper, the French, they are a stylish people, they are elegant, and let me tell you the strands we fit right in. But what I did learn very quickly was that the French cared a whole lot about their outward appearance. As we would walk down the streets, whether people were going to the boutique or whether they were uh headed towards a restaurant, whether they were headed to their office, whatever it may be, we could tell that these people cared an awful lot about their outward appearance. They put a lot into the clothes that they were wearing, and they wanted us to know as Americans, we're better than you. But it got me thinking this week how it is so easy to make an internal judgment based off of external appearance. Don't we do that? I mean, it just comes natural to us. Like we look at someone and we're like, ha ha, I know what you're like. We make an internal judgment about a person all the time based off of their external appearance. In fact, uh, there was a well-known study that was done back in 2005 where Alexander Todorov and his colleagues, he was a professor at Princeton, and he wanted to study something. He wanted to know how much does somebody's physical appearance affect their ability to get elected into office? And so they did this study and they gathered a group of participants and they gave them photographs of candidates who were running for U.S. congressional elections. And the per participants did not know the candidates, they were only shown facial images, and they were asked to judge strictly on their image, strictly based off of what they saw, if this person would be competent for office. Not surprisingly, uh, the the remarkable result was that the candidate judged to be more competent based off of looks alone was the one who most often won the election. Shocker. Nearly 70% of the people who went on to win were those who had the better physical appearance. And I think what this teaches us is we can fool people. I mean, we can make people think something about us just by our external appearance. We can make them think we we make them think that we're better than we are, we can make them think that we're okay even when we're not okay. We can make people think everything is good. And what the Bible ultimately would probably call us in that is a poser. We're posing to be one way when everything is not really that way. And I think that this matters to us because God chooses in a different way than you and I do. You see, often we choose based off of external appearance, but God is not like you and I. God chooses in a different way, He has a different criteria for who He chooses. God doesn't often or always choose the best and the brightest. God doesn't always uh choose those who look good or smell good or even act good. God often chooses in a very different way than you and I do. Now, let me give you a little uh illustration here. This is uh illustration my friend AJ used, but I think it is absolutely relevant to you and I today. Sometimes I do the grocery shopping in my family. I actually go to the grocery store. Did you know that you can still do that? Some of y'all ain't seen the inside of an HEB since 2019. And I actually will go to the grocery store because here's what I have found. If you are a curbside worker or you work for Instacart, I got nothing against you. But here's what I found that when I get avocados from the curb side, they are the nastiest avocados in the whole entire store. They are the squishiest, they are the brownest, they are the nastiest, they are the bruised-ish, I don't even know if that's a word, avocados that you can find in the entire store. That avocado wasn't even good a week ago. Why are you giving it to me today? And based off of your reaction, some of you have had a similar experience. You know what I'm talking about. Because you know that what is on the inside matters more than what is on the outside. This is true for watermelons and cantaloupes and avocados and all the produce that you're looking for. But did you know that God views things in the same way? That he cares much more than what's going on in here than what's going on in here. You see, God cares what's going on in the inside, and most often humans choose off of external appearances, but God he looks at the heart. And one of the best illustrations of this in all of the biblical text is found in what we read today in 1 Samuel chapter 16, because Samuel is one of God's most aligned prophets. He knows the Lord, he listens to the Lord, and yet he, though he is one of God's men, makes the same mistake over and over again. He makes an internal judgment based on an external appearance. And honestly, I get it. After uh the failed experiment of the first king, the first human king at least, King Saul, who was handsome and tall and impressive, uh, he should have picked it up. He should have understood that God looks at things in a very different way than often you and I do. But what God wanted was not the same kind of king. What God was looking for was a king with his own heart. God was looking for a king who had his own heart. So what does God do? Well, he doesn't give up on humanity, even though Samuel missed it the first time. He doesn't throw in the towel, he doesn't give up on the whole human partnership thing. No, you'll see all throughout scripture that God has made a covenant that he is going to work with humans. And it has to be so infuriating at times. I can only imagine. But that's his way. Even when we mess up, even when we don't have it all together, he partners with humans. And so he calls him to go to Bethlehem. If that name sounds familiar, it should ring a bell. And he tells him to go and look for one of Jesse's boys. Now, lest we forget who this family is. This is an important family in the royal family line who Jesus Christ would one day come from. You see, Jesse's granddaddy was a man named Boaz, and his grandmama was a lady named Ruth. Yes, that Ruth from the book of Ruth. And these folks were from the royal family line that would one day produce the ultimate King of Kings, Jesus Christ. So Samuel shows up on the scene, and he's looking for somebody who is king-like looking. He's looking for somebody who is tall, somebody who is handsome, and you would have thinked, thought that he would have learned from King Saul, but no. And so he's ready to do what God tells him to do. Until verse 6, we see this. When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord. It would make sense for him to choose Jesse's oldest boy. His name is Eliab. And of course, uh, he was surely the oldest child who had been bossing around all the other children for all of their life. This is where I make a firstborn joke. Anybody? I'm the baby, by the way. Okay. But no. The Lord says, uh-uh, it's not him. He was the one who maybe looked the most qualified. We could only infer that from the text. He was maybe the one who had the appearance who was king-like, but surely it was not this man because appearances can be tricky. Appearances uh can be misleading. It reminds me of uh my brother-in-law, Chris, was telling this story uh a few weeks ago. My brother-in-law is a basketball coach here in town uh at one of the local high schools, and uh he started his coaching career at Lubbock Trinity uh up in Lubbock, Texas. And he coached under Coach Todd Duncan, who at one point played at Middletown College here. And uh Coach Todd Duncan had this, he for years and years and years, Trinity has been a school that has had a very, very good basketball team. And almost always they have a bunch of five-seven dudes who, when they when you first look at them, you're like, we're about to put take these guys to school. And so uh this is what happened when Chris was telling this story about several years ago, it's about 15 years ago, they took a squad of 5'7 dudes to Dallas and they were playing in the tournament and they were playing against Lancaster High School. Now, if you know anything about Lancaster, South Dallas basketball, I mean, it's like 6'7, 6'8, 6'9, Division I athletes all over the place. And so Chris was like, Yeah, so we showed up and this Lancaster High School team, they looked back at Trinity, all these five-seven little white dudes, and they were like, oh, we're about to crush these dudes. And so they started doing this big dunk contest, and they were looking back and kind of joking, like literally laughing at them, and uh they didn't know what was coming. Because they didn't understand that Trinity High School is full of a bunch of fundamentally sound basketball players who know how to play some defense. And oh, by the way, did I tell you that they shoot 50% from three? And so, about an hour later, after Lancaster High School had lost by 30 points, they quickly realized that things aren't always as they appear to be. Because we as humans often look at outward appearance. So I would just ask you the question that I asked you at the beginning of our time today. Are you who you appear to be? So often in life, especially in today's day and age with social media, uh, we can appear to be one way when on the inside we're really just a mess. And this is what Samuel was learning. He worked through all seven of Jesse's boys, from Eliab to Abinadab to Shammah, which by the way, if you're pregnant, there's some names for you. You're welcome. And on down the line, but none of them were the one who God had given his own heart to. None of them had developed the heart of God. And Samuel learns this. This is why in verse 7 it says this it says, the Lord does not look at the things that people look at. People look at outward as appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. See, God tells Samuel not to look at his appearance, not to look at his height. God doesn't care if you're tall, dark, and handsome, or if you're short, bald, and rocking the dad bod. God doesn't care if you buy your kitchen appliances at Whirlpool or at Walmart or William Sonoma. God isn't impressed with what uh persona you portray on your social media feeds because God has a different way of evaluating people. And ultimately, here's what he cares about. He cares about uh lots of things in life, but I think what he cares most about is that God doesn't care or look at the outward appearance, he looks at the heart. In fact, Eugene Peterson puts it this way: he said, God looks into the heart because the heart is a great revealer of what else is going on in our lives. And this is why the scriptures talk about the heart all over the place. I want to talk about a few of them here. We see in Luke chapter 6, verse 45, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Anyone ever had one of those moments where um you said something and you were like, Whoa, where'd that come from? Right here. The Proverbs talk about the heart a lot. Proverbs 4 23 says, Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. I think my favorite scripture uh in all of the Proverbs is Proverbs 27 19. As in water, face reflects face. So the heart of a man reflects the man. The heart is a great revealer, and God cares way more about the condition of our heart than our outward appearance. And so when Samuel sees David, he knew there was something different about him because he, listen to this, we're almost done. He had developed God's heart. As a young boy, he had developed a heart for God and had learned God's character and had learned God's heart. And so to finish our time today, I want to just talk just for a few minutes about how do we develop a heart for God? How do we develop God's heart? How do we understand and learn God's character? And I think we can learn some lessons from David. So how did David become a man after God's own heart? Well, the first area that I think we see that he did this in was David learned God's heart and God's character in the wilderness. Our text for today tells us that he was a shepherd, that he was out in the fields, that he was tending his flock, and this is where he learned God's character. This is where he learned God's heart out in the wilderness. And I can't help but wonder if some of you are in a spiritual wilderness right now, and what God is actually doing is he is forming his heart in you in the wilderness. And I want to encourage you, if this is you right now, if you find yourself in a bit of a spiritual wilderness, I want to encourage you to not despise this season, but to listen for God's heart and God's character in the middle of it. I think this is the first place that David learned God's heart. The second place that we see in scripture that David learned God's heart and God's character was as a mighty warrior. This morning I read uh Psalm chapter 3, where he talks about how uh in the middle of the battle, it was God who was actually the one who was fighting his battle. How others would look around and they would they would say, Ah, we can take him out. But David had learned to trust God as a mighty warrior. He had to fight off lions and bears uh away from the flock. And so when it came time to face Goliath, this is the part of the sermon where some of y'all are about to get some chills. He walks out against that giant and he says to the Philistine, You come against me with a sword and a spear and a javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied. You see, some of us are in the middle of a battle right now. And God is forming his heart for you. He is forming his heart and his character in the midst of the battle. I would encourage you to not despise this season. God's doing something through it. The third area that we see that uh David developed a heart for God and understood God's character was as a worshiper out in the fields. Some 73 to 75 of the Psalms were written by King David. He was a worshiper. You're familiar with some of these Psalms. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul. Man, I want some of that. He leads me in paths of righteousness. Psalm 27, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Whom shall I be afraid? In fact, when his wife rebuked him for being a worshiper, he said, I'll become even more dignified than this. You think I'm undignified right now? You watch. You see, he learned God's character and God's heart as a worshiper. And finally, I think maybe the one that for some of you need you need to hear more than any today is David learned and he learned God's heart and God's character in his failures. If you know any of the story of David, you know that he had maybe one of the worst failures in all of Scripture. In fact, it was a series of failures. He had an affair with Bathsheba, he went on to have her husband murdered on the front lines of the battle, and he was called on it. God called him on it, and his response was a broken man and a contrite heart, a man of humility, even though he was the king. This is what he says in Psalm 51. He says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. You see, David was a broken man in his failure. A man who had learned God's character, a man who had learned God's heart. And David, though he was one of Israel's best kings, he was far from a perfect king. In fact, he had flawed relationships with his children. At times he did not obey the Lord. He was not able to build the temple because of the amount of bloodshed that he had committed. And ultimately, he was a great king who pointed to an even greater king, Jesus Christ, who had come to defeat the true giant of sin and death. And he was a man who had a heart after God's own heart. So I'll just leave you with this question today. Are you who you appear to be? And if you're not, if you found yourself posing as one thing, our great Heavenly Father, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, today gives you an opportunity, as he does every single day, to stop living something that you're not. And to start learning and developing his character and his heart. And so I want to give you the opportunity today. Would you stand with me as we prepare to dismiss? Because really, to get God's heart, the only thing we have to do is ask for it. And then when he gives us some things to do, which he inevitably will, we obey those things. And so I want to just ask you to close your eyes for a moment. If you want to, feel free to put your hands out as if you're receiving something today. God, today we thank you for the life of David. And God, we thank you that there are many things to learn from his life. God, thank you that you used him in powerful ways. And though he had flaws, he ultimately points to a greater king, the one who will come and overcome sin in the grave forever. Father, for any of us who uh have not been living in a way that we appear to be, we just repent right now. And God, we pray that you would give us your heart. Father, would you deposit that in us so that we could understand who you really are, what your character really is. And Lord, will we leave today even as a different person maybe than we walked in? Full of your spirit. God, we love you. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.