After His Own Heart

This past weekend we dealt with the vision-mission of the church.  Not just what God is speaking to us this year, but what overarching principles that are foundational in our church that supersede any season and that endure the test of time.  This establishes and reveals that as a church, our DNA declares that we are called to LOVE GOD, CONNECT PEOPLE, & REACH THE WORLD.  It is simple in its articulation, yet profound in its veracity.   Everything we do in our church family and ministry is governed by these three central directives.

We are called to LOVE GOD.  What we must discover is that every one of us is called to love God.  That is an unquestionable virtue of a Christian.  But what does it mean to Love God as a part of the family here in our local house? How do we express it?  Love is a verb.  As a verb, it requires action.  There are many ways to show your love for another.  My wife loves chocolate and she loves wild flowers.  If I bring chocolate or wild flowers, they tell her “I love You” and “I am thinking about you.”  She would not say the same thing if I brought her a sleeve of golf balls or a gift card to a Sporting Goods store.  But if she brought me those things, she would be doing well!  Learning to speak your loved ones love language is important.  God has a love language.  His love language is obedience.  He asks us to obey His word, to express our love for him in doing what His word commands us to do.  But there are so many expressions of obedience in scripture.  We do them all, but some we do more than others.  God loves that all His children express their love for him differently.  At OHCCEvansville, we express our love with the same heart as David.

“After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.‘” Acts 13:22 NIV

The Apostle Paul found himself in the city of Antioch and he attended church on the Sabbath day and after the ruler of the Synagogue had finished reading the law and the prophets he asked Paul if he had a word.  Paul stood and preached under the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  As a part of his exhortation, he describes an amazing trait of David and that God said,  ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.‘  For your study time this quotation is the substance of Psalms 89:20 and 1 Samuel 13:14; perhaps also of Psalms 78:70-72.  God describes David as a man after my own heart.  We are to have that same heart as a church body.  A CHURCH THAT IS AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART!

What does that mean?  David had some amazing traits.  David was, according to Psalm 62:9 humble; Psalm 18:3 says he was Reverent; Psalm 31:9 says he was Respectful; Psalm 27:1 tells us he was Trusting; Psalm 18:1 says he was Loving; Psalm 4:7 shows he was Devoted; Psalm 23:6 he was Faithful; Psalm 119:34 he was Obedient; Finally, in Psalm 25:11 David was Repentant.  These should be qualities that mark our culture and the primary standards we live by.  To be a church after God’s own heart we are to live humbly, reverent and honorable.  We respect the things of God and we Trust God with all our heart.  We are loving in everything we do showing our devotion to God first and foremost.  We show our heart toward God by being steadfast and faithful. We show our love for God by being obedient, even when it is culturally unacceptable.  Finally, we are repentant people that walk with a healthy fear of the Lord and recognize we all must require the blood of Jesus over our lives daily! All of these virtues should govern everything we do as a people and a family!

Today, let us call on the Lord and cry out for a HEART LIKE DAVID!  Lord give us these qualities!  Let us pray now for each one of these things to become more and more of a virtue and a living testimony of the Holy Spirit living in us and through us!