1 Samuel 13:13-14 The Message
13-14 “That was a fool thing to do,” Samuel said to Saul. “If you had kept the appointment that your God commanded, by now God would have set a firm and lasting foundation under your kingly rule over Israel. As it is, your kingly rule is already falling to pieces. God is out looking for your replacement right now. This time he’ll do the choosing. When he finds him, he’ll appoint him leader of his people. And all because you didn’t keep your appointment with God!”
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Have you ever laid your head down on top of someone’s chest and heard their heartbeat.
If you were to do that you had to be pretty close to the individual whose heart you heard.
Unless you were a Doctor or a Nurse or a related healthcare professional, You don’t just go up to someone on the street and say “May I listen to your heart?”
I can only begin to imagine the wild array and diversity of words and phrases that would come spewing out of peoples mouths in that moment of intrusion.
Many quote 1 Samuel 16:7 and say that David is a man after God’s heart but never tell us clearly what the heartbeat sounds like.
1 Samuel 16:7 The Message
7 But God told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.”
I want to do the best I can to try and help you the reader along with laying our heads on God the Fathers Chest, trying to hear His heartbeat over our very own.
What is God’s desire, what does He really want?
What do we learn as we hear the heartbeat of God?
The heartbeat of God is the heart of man.
Mark 7:14-23 The Message
14-15 Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.”
17 When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, “We don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
18-19 Jesus said, “Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you see that what you swallow can’t contaminate you? It doesn’t enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed.” (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)
20-23 He went on: “It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.”
I. God desires men and women’s hearts
Why is Go so concerned with our hearts.
Is it just that God is a completely selfish tyrant that believes it belongs only to Him?
The answer is Yes and no.
As our creator our hearts belong to Him first and foremost.
It is not merely for Him that he desires our hearts.
Listen Closely to the words of Jesus.
Mark 7: 21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit sensuality, envy slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceeds from within and defile the man.”
Jesus just gave the reason for evil in the World of man it is the hear t of man.
It is evil.
Jesus clearly told us why our upward, outward relationships are out of whack.
A) The Upward and Outward
Mark 12:28-34
Mark 12:28-34 The Message
The Most Important Commandment
28 One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: “Which is most important of all the commandments?”
29-31 Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.”
32-33 The religion scholar said, “A wonderful answer, Teacher! So clear-cut and accurate—that God is one and there is no other. And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that’s better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!”
34 When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, “You’re almost there, right on the border of God’s kingdom.”
After that, no one else dared ask a question.
If you remember the story a group of Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes were trying to trap Jesus.
Now think about this with me.
If he were a man wouldn’t it have been terribly easy for them to trip Jesus up.
I mean this was a carpenter’s son.
Don’t Forget He is the Son of God.
One man asked him what some believe to be a sincere question.
What is the foremost commandment of all?
Jesus’ answer reflected Moses’ plus Leviticus: Hear O Israel, the Lord is one God Love Him with your all. All you heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second Is this, you shall love you neighbor as yourself, there is no other commandment greater.
It is clear and has been said that Jesus summarized the ten commandments.
He clearly showed us that our upward relationship to God must be right for our outward relationships to be right.
A relationship with God does not create murder, evil thought, theft, adultery, envy, deceit, pride or foolishness.
Are you at the end of your rope in your relationship with your husband, with you wife, with you children, friends, co-workers.
Realize if they are not a Christian then you have the very great opportunity of showing them what a real God can do for relationships.
B) The Kingdom of God
The Upward is where Matthew talks of the Kingdom of God.
The phrase Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is used more than 100 times in the New Testament.
The word Kingdom comes from a Greek word that means not territory but means dominion.
So we see that the domain of God is the heart.
The throne of the King of Kings is the heart of those who believe.
Why is this so important.
He is also the wonderful counselor, professional sessions every minute of every day. He is the prince of peace. For the peace of heart and mind He must sit on the throne. He is the Mighty God. The Great Physician. On and on we could Go.
If Jesus were authentically in complete dominion of all the hearts of churches there would be no division or rancor, no chaotic competition with our culture because there is One Lord, One Baptism, one Mission, The Kingdom of God.
That is what Home for you Heart for the world is about.
John 14:15-17 The Message
The Spirit of Truth
15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you!
Letting God be at home within us so that our hearts will be shaped, reshaped and slowly, but inevitably transformed to care for others being our neighbors.
Romans 12:1-2 The Message
Place Your Life Before God
12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Transformation: Hearts of Stone into Hearts of Flesh
Ezekiel 36:26-28 The Message
24-28 “‘For here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to take you out of these countries, gather you from all over, and bring you back to your own land. I’ll pour pure water over you and scrub you clean. I’ll give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands. You’ll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors. You’ll be my people! I’ll be your God!
A Heart of Truth:
1 Timothy 2:4-7 The Message
4-7 He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.
This is an anonymous quote,
“The relationship between truth and holiness is similar to that between light and Vision. Light cannot create an eye or give a blind eye vision, but It is essential to seeing. Wherever light penetrates, it dissipates darkness and brings everything into view. In a similar manner, truth cannot regenerate or impart spiritual life, but it is essential to the practice of holiness. Wherever truth penetrates, it dissipates error and reveals everything for what it really is.”
When we have hearts of truth we see things as God sees them.
We no longer laugh at sin we hate sin. I don’t know about you but the longer I live the more uncomfortable I become in this world.
It seems that there is enormous untruth many places we turn.
The news media, social media, politicians, religious people, and ministers too.
God desires to create in us a heart of truth so that through our lives he can use us to reveal untruth to others.
A heart that is filled with truth will know mercy and will know forgiveness.
B) A Heart of forgiveness
I would say mercy and forgiveness is the long forgotten fruit of Christians.
Jesus on the Cross “father forgive them for they do not know what they do.”
I have the secret to all the problems in the church as well as our Christian lives;
Colossians 3:12-14 The Message
12-14 So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.
A man named John Oglethorpe, while talking to John Wesley, once made the comment, ‘I never forgive.”
Mr. Wesley wisely replied, “Then Sir, I hope you never sin either.”
A heart of un-forgiveness cannot know the great God of mercy and grace.
Un-forgiveness starts out as a fortress yet ultimately becomes a prison with bars of bitterness and chains of hatred.
A heart filled with forgiveness will be a heart that yearns to serve.
C) A Heart of service
Acts 13:16-22 The Message
16-20 Paul stood up, paused and took a deep breath, then said, “Fellow Israelites and friends of God, listen. God took a special interest in our ancestors, pulled our people who were beaten down in Egyptian exile to their feet, and led them out of there in grand style. He took good care of them for nearly forty years in that godforsaken wilderness and then, having wiped out seven enemies who stood in the way, gave them the land of Canaan for their very own—a span in all of about 450 years.
20-22 “Up to the time of Samuel the prophet, God provided judges to lead them. But then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, out of the tribe of Benjamin. After Saul had ruled forty years, God removed him from office and put King David in his place, with this commendation: ‘I’ve searched the land and found this David, son of Jesse. He’s a man whose heart beats to my heart, a man who will do what I tell him.’
What does it mean to serve God.
What does it mean to have a heart of service.
It means no matter the cost no matter the distance we do God’s will.
The late 19th century Evangelist Reverend DL Moody once said, “The measure of a man is not how many servants he has, but how many men he serves.”
III. God desires to deploy people after His own heart
Romans 10:8-10 New American Standard Bible 1995
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” —that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 [a]that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, [b] resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, [c] resulting in salvation.
Romans 10:10 “For with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness. and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
A heart for the world begins with hearing the heart of God.
So God desires our hearts to always be ready, willing and able to serve so he can create in us a new heart of truth, true mercy forgiveness, and authentic service.
He is telling us in His word we should redeem the time for the days are evil.
Matthew 24:42-51 New American Standard Bible 1995
Be Ready for His Coming
42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 But [a]be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be [b]broken into. 44 For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.
45 “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his [c]master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that slave whom his [d]master finds so doing when he comes. 47 Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48 But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My [e]master [f]is not coming for a long time,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; 50 the [g]master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, 51 and will [h]cut him in pieces and [i]assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
He is saying to all of our Churches: “I have appointed you for such a time as this.”
Just as an Army Ranger is told Go before they repel or parachute out of some air craft. Just as Air Force pilots are given the go ahead , just as marines are told go as they take to the field of battle, Navies sets sails. God has clearly told us to Go!
The real heart of God is the kingdom of God. The rule of God in the hearts, minds, and lives of people. Lord’s prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Conclusion:
The heartbeat of God is the heart of man.
It was in Jesus Christ that this good news really was communicated clearly.
Mark 1:14-17 New American Standard Bible 1995
Jesus Preaches in Galilee
14 Now after John had been [a]taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, [b] preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God [c]is at hand; repent and [d]believe in the gospel.”
16 As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Acknowledgement in our hearts to the summons from God; the Good news will come easily from your lips, when Jesus Christ reigns completely in your heart.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 61 New American Standard Bible 1995
Confidence in God’s Protection.
For the choir director; on a stringed instrument. A Psalm of David.
61 Hear my cry, O God;
Give heed to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3 For You have been a refuge for me,
A tower of strength [a]against the enemy.
4 Let me [b]dwell in Your tent forever;
Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. [c]Selah.
5 For You have heard my vows, O God;
You have given me the inheritance of those who fear Your name.
6 You will [d]prolong the king’s [e]life;
His years will be as many generations.
7 He will [f]abide before God forever;
Appoint lovingkindness and truth that they may preserve him.
8 So I will sing praise to Your name forever,
That I may pay my vows day by day.
How is your heart today?
Why is your heart feeling like it is today?
Where is your heart today?
Why is your located where it is today?
We can never have a heart for the world if God is not home in ours!!
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 