One of the ways I know people have been praying for us so much in anticipation of the conference is this: I print out my notes before I come, and then, in the twenty-four hours before I share, I end up with more things written in the margins than I actually have printed out. You cannot really see this, but I know it is because the Lord really wants to speak a fresh word, and we need His fresh oil as we come before Him today.
So, why do we not take up our theme verse again, Acts 13:22?
And when He had removed him,
He raised up David to be their king;
to whom also He gave testimony, and said,
I have found David the son of Jesse,
a man after Mine own heart,
who shall do all My will.
That is Saul whom He removed. He raised up David as king, a man after His own heart who would do all His will.
Let us also take a look at one of the Psalms I mentioned yesterday, Psalm 19. We will read verses 12 through 14.
Who can discern his errors?
Clear Thou me from hidden faults.
Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me:
Then shall I be upright,
And I shall be clear from great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight,
O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.
Lord, we are so grateful that we can come before You this morning for a new day and for Your new mercies. What a privilege it is to come before You with brothers and sisters and to entreat You to speak to us. Thank You, Lord, that Your heart is to speak to Your people.
We open our hearts to You now. We pray by Your Spirit that You would arrange this time, Lord. We tune our hearts to Yours. We want to know what You want to speak in this hour. We open ourselves to You. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
So, just a quick recap. It is good to know where we have been in order to see where we are now.
Yesterday, I spoke generally about David. He had this blessed title of being “My servant.” God looked at him as His servant. We saw that there are three themes pervading David’s life that show why he was such a man after God’s heart.
The first theme we took up yesterday was that David had a searching heart. We talked about his pursuit of God—how he invested his life in pursuing God and wasted time on Him. As a result, he discovered God’s heart.
Today, I would like to discuss two other aspects of David’s life that we can mine out as to why he was a man after God’s heart: he had a pure heart, and he had a trusting heart.
Yesterday, in considering David’s searching heart, I tried to make a parallel with the Beatitudes. I said that the New Testament parallel was that David hungered and thirsted for righteousness. That was the search he was after.
Our brother Lucio mentioned last night that David had a pure heart, and the Beatitude he mentioned is the same one I was going to mention today: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
What a precious thought—that the pure in heart get to see God. Is that not really why we are here? That we can see God; that He does not hide Himself from us, but wants to show Himself to us.
Let us take up the first one: “Blessed are the pure in heart.” We have to consider what really motivated David. It was not that he simply had a pure heart. He saw something in the Lord that motivated him to be a man with a pure heart.
Maybe it can be simplified this way: David saw that God loved him first, and as a result, David loved Him.
There is a difference between the fear of God and the fear of the Lord. Lucio mentioned this last night. This could be a whole other study, but it is worth mentioning now.
The fear of God is being afraid. We see this in Jacob’s life. Jacob started as one who was fearful of God, but when the Lord met him, he had the fear of the Lord.
On the other hand, Solomon began his life with the fear of the Lord and ended up with a fear of God. You can see how his writings changed from Proverbs to Ecclesiastes.
The difference is this: when we live in the fear of God, we live as though we are under probation. We feel that anything we do will bring condemnation. We fear that if we mess up, we will never be able to recover.
The fear of the Lord is when we see that God loves us in such a way that our response is that we want to please Him. It is an overflowing response. The inspiration comes from seeing that He loves us so much that the response of our hearts is to please Him.
That is the fear of the Lord—not that we are afraid of Him, but that we fear Him, and it motivates us to live for Him. It is a subtle difference, but it is the difference between life and death.
The fear of God brings condemnation. People think, “We can never live up to His standards,” and it is true that we cannot. But because of what He has done for us, we can live in a way that is pleasing to Him. We see that when we have this picture of the fear of the Lord.
What David saw, in seeing that God loved him, was the nature of God. We know that God is love. There is this fourfold nature of who God is: God is love, He is light, He is truth, and He is holy.
God’s holiness is what David saw in God, and I think it motivated him in a great way to have a pure heart. When you see that God is holy, you see that He hates sin.
When you see that He hates sin, you see there is no tolerance for it. Our fleshly nature is to tolerate things. We try to make the most of all things in life: “Well, this is not that bad,” or, “Well, I can handle that.” There are so many ways that we use justification to get around what we know God’s standard is.
God is holy. David saw that God is holy, and it motivated him to have a pure heart.
Think about David. David was a man of grave faults. We are talking about the worst of the worst. Later in his life, he took a census. Why was that bad? Because in Exodus, God said to take a census only when He directed it. It was a thing for the Lord, not a thing for man.
In David’s pride, he took a census, and there was judgment. It was a grave fault.
David committed conspiracy, adultery, and murder. I mean, these are serious crimes. This is the stuff I live to prosecute. This is my bread and butter. You want a man like David—a man with such a name and stature—you want to take a man like that down.
David did some really, really bad things. This past year, as I read through the Bible, I was making a note of every crime that I understood from the penal law in New York. There are a massive number of crimes in the Bible, and David committed some really bad ones.
We all agree that murder and adultery are big things. This is major sin, and we must repent from these major things. But what really strikes me about David is that he counted the small things as just as serious as the big things.
Let us consider an example from 1 Samuel 24. Saul is pursuing David, and David is on the run. Let us pick up at verse 4.
And the men of David said unto him,
Behold, the day of which the Lord said unto thee,
Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thy hand,
And thou shalt do to him as it shall seem good unto thee.
Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily.
And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him,
Because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
And he said unto his men,
The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my lord,
The Lord’s anointed, to put forth my hand against him,
Seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.
David saw that cutting the garment of the one who was trying to kill him was displeasing to the Lord. He saw that it was totally displeasing to do anything against the Lord’s anointed, regardless of how he was being treated.
David saw that God had a standard, and he refused to accept anything less than that standard. It was not only grave faults that David judged himself rigorously over, but also the smallest things.
What we see from David is that the best way to deal with sin, whether grave or small, is to deal with it head-on.
I have learned something in my nine-to-five job. Often, I will have a witness testify in court, and that witness will have a criminal record. We think that affects their credibility because they are a bad person.
Over the years, I have learned that if I need to call a witness—say James is an eyewitness to a particular crime—I do not get to choose my witnesses. I cannot go around picking the nicest people in the room or the most holy people in the room. If I had the option, I would pick Luke, but I am stuck with James.
Now, James has a nasty background—really bad. When I ask him questions about what happened, I bring out all of his past wrongdoing. What that does is completely neutralize the adversary, the defense attorney.
The defense attorney will get up and try to accuse him: “Isn’t it true that you did this? Isn’t it true that you did that? Aren’t you such a bad person?” But by then, it has already come out. I have already dealt with it. James has a criminal record; we talked about it; it is out there.
So, by the time the adversary gets up and tries to accuse him and make him look bad, it means nothing. It has no impact.
I hope this makes sense as a parallel. The adversary loves to accuse us. He wants to keep us under condemnation. But whether it is sin that is grave or small, we confess it. We bring it before the Lord. We get ahead of the game, so to speak. We deal with it head-on.
“Lord, this is the sin. I know it. My heart is troubled in some way. I bring it before You. I confess it.” Boom—move on.
We do not hold on to anything. We bring it out. We do not let it sit there and fester, because the enemy uses the things we allow to fester in our lives to accuse us and keep us under condemnation.
He loves to keep us in that state of guilt, that place where we feel as if we cannot get out from under the cloud and heaviness of whatever we have done in the past. It is sad to see so many believers live their whole lives under condemnation, never really seeing that they have truly been forgiven.
Though our sins were as scarlet, they are white as snow. So many believers live like that, but it is not the way we are supposed to live.
This makes me think about Psalm 139. We took it up as a devotional yesterday, but it really speaks to David’s heart.
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts;
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart.” This is not a cursory look. When David says, “Search me,” he is not asking God to take a quick glance and move on. He is asking God to search his heart.
As I meditated on this verse, my first thought was: Can this really be our honest prayer? Honestly: “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me.”
There is a painting—I do not know who painted it—of a figure with his mouth open in a silent scream. That is what I picture our flesh doing when we pray this prayer: “No! Anything but search me. Do not look at my heart. Please do not do it.”
When we honestly say, “Search my heart,” it reaches every part of our heart: the emotions, the mind, the will, and down to the conscience. Search every bit of it—the whole thing.
But our flesh says, “That is the last thing I want You to do. Do not search me.” Yet that was David’s prayer: “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me.” Every bit—every single bit.
There was no room in David for anything displeasing to the Lord, not one bit of it. David knew that God loves to forgive. God was not going to hold these sins over his head.
That is such a dangerous thing in relationships. Often, a husband or wife will hold on to something from the past and hold it over the other in a condemning way. It prevents freedom in a relationship.
But if we see God as holding things over our heads, that is not His nature. Mercy triumphs over judgment. God loves to forgive.
I love to forgive my children. They mess up all the time. They are cute sinners. That is the best way to look at them. They need a new heart.
They are adorable, but if you have children, you know this: you can literally just teach them what to say or what not to say, and then they do the very thing you just taught them not to do. They look at you, ask for forgiveness, you give them a hug and a kiss, and you move on. Then what do they do? The exact same thing.
Do I hold it over my children? No. Because I love them, it is my joy to teach them again. “No, I am going to show you. I love you. This is the way to walk. Do not turn to the right or to the left.”
I am going to continue to love them and show them. That discipline is love. It is not a fearful thing; it is loving discipline. God loves us.
Sometimes we need to be reminded that God actually loves us in such a way that He loves to forgive us. He hates sin, but He loves to forgive and wash us clean.
The flesh and the enemy love to keep us in the gray area, in the shadows, where we do not think that who we are or what we have done is that bad.
As we walk with the Lord through the years, we have a temptation to live in compromise, believing that what we are doing is not that bad. This is Saul’s life. Saul lived a life of compromise. He was not a man after God’s heart because he thought his own way was fine.
We need to repent of compromised hearts. If we feel that we are compromising, if we know we are living in the shadows or the gray area, repent.
Do you know what repent means? Literally, it means to turn—to turn or to return.
Think about it simply. When you make a wrong turn while driving, do you keep going in that direction when all you need to do is turn and get back on the right road? Or do you keep going in the wrong direction until you end up somewhere you do not want to be—like back in New York City?
Every time we go away from New York, on the way back we ask, “Why are we coming back here?” The Lord has us there.
But if you make a left turn and know it is the wrong turn, you make a right turn. It is that simple. Ezekiel 18 contains this precious word in the middle of a heavy prophecy: “Turn, and live. Turn, and live.”
This is our life: turn and live. When we repent, we turn from sin and evil, and we turn back to Him. We return to what He wants for us—the place of peace, rest, joy, and forgiveness.
Jesus began His public ministry with the word, “Repent.” This is how we begin: turn. Turn back.
The flesh also loves to compare us with others. It loves for us to think, “Well, he is doing that. I am not that bad. I do not do what he does.” Or, “I would never do that.”
We do not usually say it so plainly. It is more subtle. It is deeper in our flesh, but we have this tendency to compare ourselves with one another, and it is dangerous.
I think about David. Did he compare himself to his brothers? He had seven brothers, and they seemed to have more esteem in Jesse’s household.
Did David think, “I have such a better heart than my brothers. My brothers are carnal. They just want to be warriors for Saul. I am this pure shepherd, out with the sheep, appreciating God’s beauty in nature. Why do they get all the good stuff?”
Why do they get the best part of the fish, and why do I have to eat the gills? I do not know. Why do they get all the best stuff? Why do I have to settle for secondhand love, or whatever it is?
There are so many ways we can compare and complain. It is danger. This is danger zone. When we find ourselves subtly allowing these little things, it is like cutting off Saul’s robe.
We understand the big things. It is the little things we must be aware of. “Lord, search our hearts. Is there any way—any way in my heart—that is displeasing to You?”
We see this in Psalm 19. We read it at the beginning, and there are lessons we can mine out from David’s life that speak to his heart. Nothing displeasing to the Lord was acceptable to him.
Who can discern his errors?
Clear Thou me from hidden faults.
There is one thing about sin that other people know about. There is another thing about sin behind closed doors.
There is a verse in Numbers that has always convicted me: “Be sure your sin will find you out.” Whoa. That is a heavy verse. You can run, but you cannot hide. God knows your heart.
There is nothing hidden from Him. He knows the depths of our hearts. “Cleanse me from secret faults.”
As we are honest with the Lord, is there anything in secret that needs to be exposed by the light? This is a searching question for each one of us. Is there something behind closed doors?
Sometimes we think about this in a very literal way. The brothers in Manhattan recently had a retreat, and we talked about sexual purity. This is one of those things that can be behind closed doors.
It was a blessing to come together with the brothers so that we could be honest, share with one another, and bring things in the darkness into the light. This is one of the blessings of fellowship.
Confess your sins one to another, and live in the light. The enemy loves to keep us in darkness, where we think no one else will find out.
It does not necessarily have to be sexual purity. It can be anything that is in the dark. Let the light expose it. There is freedom in it. It is so much better than living in darkness and trying to hide. Living a lie is a difficult thing.
I just tried a murderer a month ago. This man was lying about so many things, and it was awesome to expose his lies. You have no idea how awesome it is to expose lies.
When you live a lie, lies are difficult to maintain. If you have ever lied, you know it is hard to keep a lie going, because you have to make another lie to cover the first lie. The lies keep going on and on and on.
By the time that man finished testifying, he had told so many lies that I had one exposed lie for every juror sitting there. “How about this lie? How about that lie?” They were like, “Whoa, yeah, this guy is a liar.”
Lying is hard to keep up. We lie when we keep things in the dark. Keeping things in darkness is like lying to ourselves that no one will find out. Danger zone. The red lights should be going off in our hearts: “Danger, danger, danger.”
Let the light come in.
There is another thing David saw in Psalm 19. Verse 13 says:
Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me:
Then shall I be upright,
And I shall be clear from great transgression.
Presumptuous sins. We have to know our state.
Pride is one of those things that seeps in, usually in a subtle way, and exposes itself differently in all of us. We must realize that apart from Him, we can do nothing.
A brother prayed that a couple of nights ago: “Apart from Him, we can do nothing.” Who are we to think that we are anybody or anything? The battle is not ours; the battle is the Lord’s.
We cannot fight against the enemy in ourselves. Who do we think we are? It is the Lord who fights our battles for us. If we try in our fleshly nature to live a good life, we fail.
If you have ever tried to live a good life in your own strength, you end up failing over and over again, because we cannot do it. Sometimes we have to come to the end of ourselves.
Some people have to hit rock bottom before they realize they have been presumptuous for so long. It is so easy to live the Christian life presumptuously—in pride.
David prayed not only about present presumptuousness. It is almost like a future thing: “Keep me back from things I have not even done yet, things I might do today.”
I can picture David in his morning devotion, praying and communing with the Lord, inquiring of the Lord: “Lord, search my heart regarding all the things I have done, but also, as I go forth this day, keep me back from anything presumptuous—anything I might do today.”
“Speak to my heart before I do it, that I would not step in a way that is contrary to what You want.”
This makes me think about one of my good Christian friends who has been struggling in his marriage. I have had many opportunities to counsel with him and have fellowship with him concerning his marriage.
He complains about his spouse a lot. I told him, “You have to be careful, because if you continue in this direction, it leads to adultery.”
His response was, “I would never do that.”
Whenever you make the claim that you will never do something, danger zone. “I will never do blank.” Fill in the blank. That is presumptuous.
We need to understand our state. We are capable of far worse than we think.
Let me give you a personal example. I mentioned yesterday a job I was applying for. I was sitting down with two executives, talking about various things. One of them kind of baited me into a question.
He asked me whether something was my idea. My response was, “Yes,” even though it was not. I lied to him.
Then he gave me an opportunity to correct it. He asked it in a different way, and my heart was saying, “No, this is not true. You have an opportunity to correct yourself.” But my response again was, “Yes, that was my idea.”
I lost focus for the rest of the interview because all I could think was, “How did I just do that?” I had prayed before I went into that meeting. I felt I had the right heart, but in the middle of talking to those executives, I lied.
I could not believe that I was capable of actually lying. There was no benefit. It gained me nothing. They never would have known one way or the other. It did not even matter, and I lied about it.
I never thought I was capable of doing that. What a silly little thing. I came home, confessed it to Eunice, and she was very gracious. She said, “Confess it and move on.”
I could have easily lived in guilt and thought, “The consequence of this is that I am not going to get the job. I did something wrong, so I will not get it.” But the Lord is so much better than that. His ways are so much higher than our ways.
It really convicted me. I am capable of much worse than I thought I was. As we continue to press into the Lord and search Him out, we become more sensitive to these things. We realize that no sin is acceptable in His eyes, just as David saw.
Verse 14 comes along with this repentance:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight,
O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.
Not only is there a heart of repentance and an emptying of sin, but there also needs to be a filling. Whenever there is an emptying, there needs to be a filling. We are going to be filled by something.
We need to be filled by the Lord. Once we empty ourselves, that is part of our consecration. We consecrate ourselves to the Lord day by day and moment by moment.
We are not only emptying ourselves of things that are displeasing; we must be filled with things that are pleasing to the Lord. This is part of our daily consecration.
I think this was a regular discipline for David: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable.” Not only will I confess my secret faults and presumptuous sins, but I now want to be filled by You—filled by Your Word and filled by Your Spirit.
“I want to know what is on Your heart, be filled by You, and live in the good of what You have provided for me.”
So, coming back to where we started, part of David’s pure heart was that he had a repentant heart.
Another part of purity in heart is singleness of heart. When you think of something that is pure, there is no mixture. It is unadulterated and uncompromised.
Lucio mentioned this last night, so I will not go into it much now. But part of David’s pure heart was that it was wholly for the Lord—a heart that did all the will of God.
What else helps keep us in a day-to-day pure heart? We have discussed this repentant heart: when we see sin, we immediately confess it to the Lord. Do not delay. Confess it immediately.
Another part is the Word of God. We spoke about this a little yesterday, so I will not go too deeply into it, but there is a cleansing work that comes as we spend time in God’s Word.
Psalm 119 asks, “Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way?” By taking heed according to Your Word. Paul speaks about the washing of water with the Word. In John 15, Jesus says, “Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.”
There is a correlation between the Word of God and the cleansing work that is done in us. David saw this as well.
If we look a few verses earlier in Psalm 19, we see the work the Word of God was doing in David’s life, sustaining him as a man after God’s heart and preserving his pure heart.
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul:
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Simply put, the Word changes our hearts. When we see the reality of God’s Word, we see the Lord behind His Word, and it changes our hearts.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. David was a simple man. Think about many of the apostles—Peter, a simple and humble fisherman. He had no outward qualifications to be an apostle, just as David had no outward accomplishments that made him special.
But the simple are made wise. The wisdom of the world is foolishness to the Lord. Things that do not make sense to the world are wise, because the Lord makes the simple wise.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart:
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
There is such joy that comes from seeing the Lord in His Word. When the Lord reveals something from His Word to your heart, what joy it brings.
In Manhattan, we go through a yearly Bible-reading plan together. As we read the same Scriptures year by year, the Lord speaks in a fresh way every year.
I have read Scripture dozens of times, but then one day it becomes real. “I never saw that before.” What a joy it is when you sense the Lord speaking to your heart through His Word.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. I wonder if this enlightening of the eyes spoke to Paul’s heart when he wrote of the eyes of the heart being enlightened.
David saw that the Word is pure, and it motivated him to have a pure heart as well.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever:
The ordinances of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
I have already mentioned the fear of the Lord. It was a healthy fear that inspired and motivated David to have a pure heart.
That is one part of David’s heart that we have considered today. The other part, in addition to his searching heart and pure heart, was his trusting heart.
I would say that the corresponding Beatitude for the trusting heart is this: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
Who is someone who is meek? Someone who is meek recognizes who they are and who God is. Someone who is wholly trusting and dependent on God is meek.
Meekness is the opposite of self-reliance and self-assertiveness. There is nothing in self when we are meek. The meek inherit the earth because they are completely reliant on God.
That is the picture of David: one who was fully trusting.
To consider the perfect example of this trusting heart, let us read some of the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17.
Can you imagine how that day began for David? David knew there was a battle, a kind of standstill between the Israelites and the Philistines. He was out attending sheep in Bethlehem, and I have a feeling he knew what was going on because his brothers were in the battle.
But he never thought that day would end up as it did. Let us read some of the story and mine out some lessons from it. We will pick up at 1 Samuel 17:20.
And David rose early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper,
and took the provisions, and went, as Jesse commanded him;
and he came to the place of the wagons, as the host which was going forth to the fight shouted for the battle.
And Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.
And David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage,
and ran to the army, and came and saluted his brethren.
And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion,
the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name,
out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words:
and David heard them.
And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him,
and were sore afraid.
And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying,
What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine,
and taketh away the reproach from Israel?
For who is this uncircumcised Philistine,
that he should defy the armies of the living God?
And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men;
and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said,
Why art thou come down?
And with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?
I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thy heart;
for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
And David said, What have I now done?
Is there not a cause?
And David said to Saul,
Let no man’s heart fail because of him;
thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
And Saul said to David,
Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him:
for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
And David said unto Saul,
Thy servant kept his father’s sheep;
and when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock,
I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth:
and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
Thy servant smote both the lion and the bear;
and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them,
seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion,
and out of the paw of the bear,
He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.
And Saul said unto David, Go,
and the Lord shall be with thee.
Think about David’s life. David was this humble shepherd, out in the fields around Bethlehem with his flock of sheep.
Can you imagine lions and bears? It is like he was on safari in Bethlehem. Have you ever heard a lion roar? We went to the zoo a couple of years ago, and we heard a lion from about a mile away. You actually felt the roar.
I was scared, and the lion was caged and I was a mile away. Again, thank you for marrying me. I am not the lumberjack poet.
But lions and bears are no joke. Think of a lion or bear coming up, grabbing one of the sheep. What did David have? Maybe he had his staff. Maybe he had practiced with a sling and stones. Who knows?
But at one point, David grabbed the lion or bear by its beard. There are a lot of men with beards here. Look, I need to find a beard. Imagine grabbing the beard of one of these animals and being face to face with it.
You can picture David saying, “You are no match for me,” making some move on the animal, and then saying, “God gave me the strength for that.”
How did this begin? Can you imagine the first time a bear or lion took one of the sheep? Do you think David just walked over and said, “All right, come on, buddy. Take a walk”?
These are ferocious animals. You do not just walk up to a lion or bear. So, I have to imagine that David began by learning to trust in God in much smaller ways.
Before the first time he dealt with a lion or a bear, he had learned to trust God in simpler things. This is how our life of faith works.
The Lord gives us opportunities in very small things. Do not despise the day of small things. Most of our lives are actually made up of small things.
There are very few times in our lives when there is a major moment or gigantic test of faith, when we need to exercise overwhelming and amazing faith. Most of life is actually very small things—very little things.
This is what most of our Christian life is. I can picture David in small and simple ways trusting in God as a youth. God showed Himself trustworthy.
David trusted Him in little things here and little things there. The Lord spoke to his heart: “Have confidence. I am a living God. I am a sovereign God. You can trust in Me.”
Then imagine the first time David actually went after a lion or bear. He had built up a life of faith and trust over many years. What did he do when the Lord gave him victory? He must have rejoiced.
Can you imagine his joy? I picture him worshiping and dancing around alone in the fields of Bethlehem: “Wow, God, You just helped me destroy a lion!”
Think about how excited he must have been. Then, when the next time came, think of the confidence he had because he trusted in God.
This was not just a single encounter with a lion or a bear. David said, “When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock.” This was a regular thing. Lions and bears were part of a shepherd’s regular life.
We may picture this humble shepherd living in peace and whistling while he works. But the reality was that it was a pretty intense job. Whenever a lion or a bear came: boom, a test of faith; boom, another test of faith.
I picture David, every time the Lord showed Himself trustworthy, dropping down an Ebenezer.
Earlier in 1 Samuel, we learn the word Ebenezer. When the Israelites won their battle against the Philistines a few chapters before this, Samuel set up a stone called Ebenezer.
Ebenezer means, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” Thus far, the Lord has helped us.
David lived an Ebenezer-filled life. Every time the Lord showed Himself faithful and trustworthy, I can picture David laying down an Ebenezer: “Wow, God, You are trustworthy.” Boom—Ebenezer.
He would take another step of faith: boom, another Ebenezer. Situation by situation and moment by moment, he laid down these Ebenezer stones figuratively in his own heart, seeing how worthwhile it was to trust in God.
Many of us have Ebenezers that we take for granted. I think of how I wandered from the Lord for years when I was in college. When the Lord convicted my heart and brought me back to Him, that was a return moment—an Ebenezer.
If you have ever walked away from the Lord for any amount of time, that time when the Lord brings you back and captures you is an Ebenezer. You lay it down and say, “Wow, God, You are so good.”
I think back to that time, and it makes me emotional to remember how merciful God was to continue to run after me and not let me go.
I look back to that moment often. I think about how good He is and how worthwhile it is to trust Him. No matter how far I wandered, He never let me go.
I look back and think, “Wow, the Lord is good. It is so worthwhile to trust in Him.”
There are so many times in our lives when the Lord speaks to us in a particular way. We cannot let those times go. Every person here has different times in which the Lord has spoken to them individually.
Do not take for granted the things the Lord has spoken to you. Sometimes it is even a corporate thing. The Lord speaks in a corporate way.
As a body in New York, we have gone through many changes over the years, and the Lord has spoken to us corporately many times. We have learned to trust Him in prayer: “Wow, God, You actually answered this prayer. You are so worthy to bring these matters before, because You answer prayer.”
We begin our prayer meetings with answered prayer. Instead of simply going into prayer topics, we begin by asking, “Does anyone have an answer to prayer or praise from the week?”
What a way to start prayer: “Wow, Ebenezer. God, You helped us this week. We have been praying for this for a long time, and boom, You did it. How good You are, Lord.”
We have to look back to those times and not take them for granted. This is such a healthy lesson for our Christian lives: lay down those Ebenezers all along the way, and be reminded of them.
Write it down. We are forgetful people. I think about how rarely I go back to notes that I write. We listen to many messages, but how rarely do we return to our notes?
Every once in a while, when I do go back, I am reminded of something the Lord showed me. Go back to your notes, or write a note. When you have your devotional time in the morning, keep a notepad next to you.
When the Lord shows you something in His Word, write it down. Write a little note: “Wow, Lord, I never saw that before. This is really special.”
It can become a word that turns into a ministry time on a Sunday. The Lord may speak in a simple way during devotions, and then use that word to well up in your heart and bear fruit months later.
These things happen often—little things—but write them down. Do not think we have the capacity to remember everything easily. Write it down. My journal can be like my Ebenezer stone: there it is, my Ebenezer.
One thing that goes along with a trusting heart is an obedient heart.
David had many reasons to complain and not be obedient, but he was willing to obey his father. If you look right before this passage, Jesse told David to bring grain and ten cheeses to the warriors.
Often, we go through things we do not understand. We ask, “Why do I have to go through this? Why do I have to face this particular trial? It is unfair.”
But the Lord says, “Press on. Trust in Me. Just obey.”
Sometimes children want to know why. They say, “Why do I have to do that?” You say, “Just do it, all right? Just obey.”
There is a joy that comes out of obedience. David obeyed his father, even though his father, as we discussed, seemed to have contempt and ridicule toward him. David brought the cheese and grain.
I think that heart of obedience goes along with a heart of trust. David was willing to obey his father in this case, but more broadly, he was willing to obey God. He learned that in obedience and trust, the Lord was pleased.
There is much more we can learn from this story, but I think I will end with this thought. The most foundational thing about a trusting heart is believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
We have so great a salvation. His precious blood is so powerful. There is power in the blood.
Part of a trusting heart is trusting that He has covered us, that the work is finished, and that there is nothing we can do. We put our trust in Him.
That is the foundational beginning of our trusting relationship: really believing in the depths of our hearts that what He has done has washed away the guilt and sin of our past, and that we live as new creations.
We live as new creatures in a new and living way. Now we can come boldly before Him. We do not have to be afraid. We can approach the living God because of what His Son did for us.
This is the initial step of trusting. When we begin by trusting Him in this simple way, we can build upon that and trust Him in all areas of our lives.
There are many other lessons in the story of David and Goliath—lessons about spiritual warfare and how David prepared for future battles.
But it starts with simple trust. David believed that God was the living God and that the battle was the Lord’s. Let us put our trust in Him.
Why would we put our trust in ourselves when we have a living God in whom to put our trust?
Let us close in prayer.
Lord, we are so thankful that we can come before You. We are nothing apart from You. We need You so much, and we are thankful that You are so good, so faithful, and so worthy to be trusted.
We are thankful for this example of David, who had a searching heart—always searching for what Your heart was. He saw that part of Your heart, and ultimately saw so much more of who You are: why You did things, why You did not do things, and what was pleasing to Your heart.
What an encouragement he is to us as we press on in this world. As we see ourselves in this last hour, Lord, You are looking for people who are after Your heart.
We pray that You would continue to speak to us as we go forth from here. Show us how to encourage one another and press on together. Help us to encourage one another as we share these Ebenezers from our own lives in fellowship.
May these testimonies be an encouragement to one another, that we would be able to press on together toward You.
We are so thankful for Your Word. We pray that You would continue to speak to us as we go through the rest of this day and this weekend. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.