male announcer: The
following program is paid for by the friends and partners
of "Touching Lives." James Merritt: There is no way,
if you knew me, if you knew what I've done in the past, if you
knew what I did last night, you would dare look at me and say,
"Oh, you can be someone after God's own heart." Here's what you don't
understand. God's not looking for a perfect
heart, he's lookin' for a pure heart. announcer: Teaching people
everywhere who Jesus is and why they need him. This is "Touching Lives
with James Merritt." James: Generally, biographies
are written about the greatest men and the greatest women,
and the reason why they're such great biographies is because you
can learn a lot of great life lessons from great people who
have lived their life before you. And one of the things I learn
when I read a biography is, it always teaches me, on the one
hand, on how to succeed in handling success. But a biography will also teach
you how to either avoid failure or how to handle failure when it
comes. So today, we're going to begin
a series where we're actually looking at the biography
of a man who actually became what many would say is
the greatest king who ever lived. He was a king that both
succeeded fantastically, but he failed miserably. He knew victory and he knew
defeat. He climbed to the top
of the mountain of prosperity and he fell flat on his face
in the deep valley of adversity. His name was David. How many times have you ever
found yourself in a wrong place, or a wrong situation, or a wrong
position? You may be even saying, "Hey,
that's where I am right now. I'm just glad I came. That's my life right now. I have wound up in a place I
never dreamed I'd wind up, and it is the wrong place." Well, if we're honest, 99%
of the time, the reason why we wound up in the wrong place,
and the wrong situation, in the wrong position is because
we were following the wrong thing. It's on us. So, here's my question as I set
up today's message. How do you think your life would
be different, and better, if every day your number one goal
was to stop pursuing success, and fame, and money,
and influence, and to pursue God's own heart instead? How do you think your life would
be different if in the morning when you got up, you said,
"Lord, whatever else happens in my life today, no matter what
else I do, I'm gonna do everything I can to be
after your heart. I'm going to do everything I can
to capture your heart?" Well, that leads us to this
question. So, what was it about David that
God saw that said you are a man after my own heart? And before I get into this, let
me just say this. You might be sitting there
and you may already sayin', "Okay, I'm checking out. I could never be David. You don't know my background. You don't know my story. You don't know my past. You don't know what's goin'
on with me. There's no way I could be
after God's own heart." Sure, you can. David was a man just like me. He was a person just like you. And if David can be after God's
own heart, we can be after God's own heart. The key is, what did David do
that made him a man after God's own heart? And as you're goin' to see, we
can do these things every single day, three of them, alright? Number one, walk with God
faithfully. Walk with God faithfully. Now, when you're after God's
heart, you have a heart for God, that makes sense. If I've got a heart for God, if
I'm after God's heart, I have a heart for God. Now, when you have a heart
for God, you will have a walk with God. And there are two things that
have to be true if you're going to have a walk with God, because
when you walk with God, God decides who does the walk,
or God decides who walks with him. You don't get to choose, he
chooses. And if you're gonna walk, you've
gotta go in the way he's goin.' You gotta walk the way that he
walks. And in order to have a walk
with God, two things had to be true. Number one, you've got to love
God's Word. You have got to love God's Word. David loved God's Word. He loved God's law. If you're gonna read the book
of Psalms, there are 150 of them, David wrote half
of those Psalms. And when you read all the Psalms
that he wrote, the number one topic that David wrote
about in all those Psalms, how much he loved God's Word, how
much he loved God's law. And the reason why it's
so important that you love God's Word is this. When you love this book the way
you ought to love this book, and you read this book the way
you ought read this book, and you study this book the way
you ought to study this book, here's two things that always
happen. You always will put God where he
belongs, and you'll put you where you belong. When you read God's Word, you
put God where he belongs, and you put you where you
belong. See, even though--when David was
a shepherd, he always knew who the Shepherd was. That's why he said, "The Lord is
my Shepherd." When he became king, he knew how
he became king. He knew who the real King was. He never let the crown that he
wore, or the kingdom that he ruled, or the enemies that he
conquered go to his head, 'cause there's one thing David never
forgot. He knew that without God, he
would've never been king, he would've still been a shepherd. He knew without God, Goliath
would've eaten him for lunch. He knew without God that he
would have never killed the bear and the lion he talked
about killing, they would've killed him. So, number one, you're gonna
have a walk with God, you've got to love God's Word. Now, if you love God's Word, you
will live God's Word. That's the second thing. You've got to live God's Word. And, by the way, once more we
hear this statement made about David. I told you it was said about him
twice in the Bible. The other time you hear this
about David, it's over in the book of Acts,
and God himself clues us in on why David was a man
after his own heart, listen. "After removing Saul, he," that
is God, "Made David their king. God testified," now this is what
God says. "God testified concerning him,
'I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own
heart.'" And God, what was it about David
that you said now there is a man after my own heart? "He will do," what's that word? "Everything I want him to do." God says anybody that looks
at me and says the answer is yes before you ask, that's a man
after my own heart. The man who says it doesn't
matter what you say and how much it costs, if you tell me to do
it, I'm going to do it. That is someone after my own
heart. David's greatest desire all
of his life was to follow God's will and do everything that God
wanted him to do. Now, the next four or five
things I'm going to say it slowly, 'cause they're all
connected, okay? If you love God, you will love
God's law. Nod yeah if that makes sense,
all right. If you love God, you'll love
God's law, all right. When you love God's law, God's
law will be in your heart, not your head, your heart. I love my wife, Theresa, I love
her more than anybody else on this planet. I don't carry Theresa just
around in my head, I carry Theresa around in my heart. Now, when God's law is in your
heart, his love will capture your heart. I carry Theresa around in my
heart all the time, and you know why? Because her love has captured my
heart. And when God's love captures
your heart, you will want to live out God's law that is
in your heart. So, it's all connected together,
and by the way, that's exactly what David said. David wrote this later on, he
said, "I desire to do your will, my God," why? "Your law is within my heart." Now, let me tell you what that
means. When you have a heart for God,
and you're after God's own heart, then what burdens God
will burn you, and what bothers God will bother you, and what
delights God will delight you, and what excites God will excite
you, and what's important to God will be important to you. See, this is something, and I've
preached this for 40 years, and I don't think people get it
yet. This book, it's not just a book
to be read, it's not just a book to be explained, it's not just
a book to be memorized, it's not even just a book to be believed. This is a book to be obeyed. This book will never come alive,
it will never mean to you what it ought to mean to you,
until you take all of it that applies to you and you live it
out. That's what this book is all
about. By the way, this is first
service. Do we have any former Marines
in the in the building? Any former Marines? Oh, way back here, way back
there, okay, there's a Marine, there's two or three of you,
yeah, three or four of you. First of all, to all you
servicemen, thanks for serving the country. Thank you very much. But you wonderful patriots who
are Marines, you'll appreciate this story. I was reading a book not long
ago about how Marines trained their soldiers. And I was reading about, true
story, there was this young recruit, and he really needed
to be in the Marines. He was kind of rebellious, he
didn't like authority, he didn't like rules, and so he, you know,
he joined the Marines. And there was--and he just
didn't understand the rationale behind the way he was being
trained. And he had this particular drill
instructor that was very hard on him, and he always insisted
he didn't do just the big things right, he did even the little
things right. So, for example, the first time
they went to the mess hall to have lunch, he got all of his
group together, and he said, "Now men, this is how you hold
a tray. You put your right hand
on the bottom like this, you put your left hand on the top
like this, and you hold the tray against your chest. Well, this guy is saying, "You
know, dude, it's a tray. I mean, what does it matter
whether I hold it this way or that, hold it with one hand,
what does it matter?" So, one day, sure enough, he
goes in and he forgets, he just kinda picks up the tray like you
and I would pick up a tray. The drill instructor saw him,
told him to put the tray down, told him to drop on his belly,
told him do 50 pushups, and then he said, "Now, you're gonna walk
around this thing holding your tray the way I told you." And the guy was just
so frustrated, he says, "I don't understand. I didn't come here to learn how
to hold a tray, I came here to be a Marine, why does it
matter?" But later on when he was issued
his first weapon and his first gun, they were telling them this
is important, this is how you hold a gun when you're fighting. This is how you hold a gun when
you're running. This is how you hold a gun when
you're jumping into a foxhole. How do you think he was taught
to hold it? Just like he held the tray,
right hand on the bottom, left hand on the top, close to his
chest. And, all of sudden, he realized
that little detail could one day save his life. See, when you're after God's
heart, you want to do whatever God tells you to do, whether
it's a big thing, like killing a giant, or it's a little thing,
like taking care of a lamb. You just say, "Lord, what do you
want me to do? I am going to do it." That's what David did. So, you walk with God
faithfully, all right? Number two, you wait on God
patiently. You wait on God patiently. I want you to--some of you need
to hear this. One of the marks of a person
who's after God's own heart, and they've really captured
God's heart, and God's captured their heart, they're willing
to wait on the Lord. See, you're not only willing
to do whatever God wants you to do, that's just half of it. You're willing to do it only
when he wants you to do it. See, Saul he made two big
mistakes, and when he made these two mistakes, God said, "Okay,
that's the last straw. You're out of chances. You're out of luck. I'm done with you. Your kingdom is over." He not only did something that
God especially told him not to do, he did it because he
wasn't willing to wait on God to do it. So, let me kind of set this up. Here's the situation. You've got the Philistines
and you've got Israel, and it's gonna be winner take all, 3,000
chariots, 6,000 charioteers. They've got more soldiers than
you can count on your fingers and toes. The Israelites are scared
to death, Saul's about to lead them into battle, he says, "Man,
we really need God's help before we go into battle." Well, it was the job of Samuel
the priest to offer up the sacrifice and the burnt
offerings to make sure their sins were forgiven, they were
right with God, and God would go and do battle with them. I mean, and the rules were very
plain. When Saul became king, He said,
"Saul, now you're the king, you've got one job, you rule
the kingdom, that's your job. Samuel is the priest. It's his job to offer
the sacrifice and the burnt offering. So Saul, he's the priest, you're
the king. You rule the kingdom, he offers
up the burnt sacrifice." Everybody got that background. So, we read these words
beginning in verse 8. He, that is Saul, "Waited seven
days, the time set by Samuel." Samuel evidently said, "Be
patient, I'll be there in a week, and I'll take your
business." "But Samuel did not come
to Gilgal, and Saul's men began to scatter. So, he said, 'Bring me the burnt
offering and the fellowship offerings.' And Saul offered up the burnt
offering. Just as he finished making
the offering, Samuel arrived and Saul went out to greet him. 'What have you done?' asked Samuel. Saul replied, 'When I saw that
the men were scattering, and that you did not come
at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling
it Michmash, I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come
down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord's
favor.' So, I felt compelled to offer
the burnt offering.' 'You have done a foolish thing,'
Samuel said. 'You have not kept the command
the Lord Your God gave you. If you had, he would've
established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not
endure. The Lord has sought out a man
after his own heart and appointed him ruler over his
people, because you have not kept the Lord's command.'" Now, I notice some
of us right now, you're thinking, "I don't get
it. I don't understand what the big
deal is." Okay, so, Saul fires up the big
Green Egg, and barbecues the meat before the priest did. What's the big deal? Why is God so upset with that? Here's why God gets upset
at that. When you refuse to wait on God,
what you're really saying is you don't trust God. When you refuse to wait on God,
what you're saying is you really don't trust God. When you refuse to wait on God,
what you're saying is, you know, I just don't believe you're
gonna come through this time. I think you've gone asleep
at the wheel. I don't think you're gonna do
what you said you would do. I don't think you're going
to keep your promise. And anytime you don't trust God,
you may not think it's a big deal to you. Anytime you question his
character, his integrity, his truthfulness, it's a big deal
to him. How many times have people
married the wrong person because they wouldn't wait on God
to bring the right person? How many times has someone taken
the wrong job, for the wrong reason, because they wouldn't
wait for God to open up the right job at the right
time? How many times has someone tried
to rig the system or manipulate the circumstances rather than
wait on God to work things out? Listen, I want to give you
a thought right now, that I hope you'll really just Super Glue
it. I hope you'll Velcro it to your
heart, okay? When you take life into your own
hands, you take God's hands off your life. When you take your life
into your own hands, you take God's hands off your life. See, if what Saul did came
into a courtroom today, would it be declared illegal? No, it wouldn't even be declared
an ethical. You say, "Well, if it wasn't
illegal and it wasn't unethical, why was it so wrong?" Because it was so bad, it was
ungodly, it was just ungodly. What Saul did when he put that
meat on that Big Green Egg, here's what Saul did. He signed his own personal
declaration of independence from God. He said you know what, I don't
need you. I can handle things myself,
thank you very much. I think I'll just take matters
into my own hands. David, on the other hand,
totally different attitude. Here's what David said. "In you Lord my God, I put my
trust." "In you, Lord God, I put my
trust." See, David proved he trusted
God, you know I proved it? He waited on God. You say, "Okay, what do you
mean?" Let's play the tape back. God brings Samuel to Jesse,
Jesse brings David out to Samuel, Samuel looks
at David, and Samuel says, "You're the one. You're the anointed one. You're gonna be king." He even pours oil over his head,
anoints him, and said you're gonna be the king. Question, so did David become
King that day? No, the next week? No, the next month? No, the next decade? Nope, 15 years David waited. Oh, and by the way, not easy
years, hard years. He spent 15 years tending sheep
on the backside of the desert. He spent, in those 15 years,
fighting a giant that nobody else would fight. He spent 15 years being put
on a hit list by the king he was goin' to replace. He spent those 15 years running
for his life from both the king that was trying to kill him
and all those enemies he made when he killed their giant. So, 15 years he's hiding
in caves, he's hiding behind rocks, he even one time
pretends to be crazy, so the Philistines won't kill
him. But all that time, he said,
"God, I put my trust in you. I'm going to be king. I don't know when. I don't know where. I don't know how. I don't even know for how long. I may only be king for a day,
but there's one thing I know. You said I was going to be king,
I'm going to be king, and I'm going to wait on you, because no
one who ever waits on you ever is put to shame." Totally different attitude than
what Saul had. So, here's my question. Are you after God's own heart? Because one of the ways you'll
know it is, number one, yeah, I'm walking faithfully with God. I love his Word and I'm living
his Word out. Number two, I'm waiting
patiently on the Lord. I get impatient sometimes, I
want to take matters into my own hands, but I'm not going to do
it, I'm going to wait on God. And then there's one last thing,
and that is you witness to God truthfully. Now, let me tell you what I mean
by that. Let's go back to Saul
for a moment, okay. He's cooking the meat on the Big
Green Egg, Samuel comes up, he smells the meat, and he looks,
and he says, "What in the world are you doing?" So, Saul's caught, hand
in the cookie jar, red-handed, I mean, he is guilty. Flat out disobeyed God, and it
wasn't anybody's fault but his own. Okay, so, Samuel just says,
"What are you doing?" giving Samuel a great
opportunity. Look, just tell the truth, dude,
just come clean. Now, look what Saul does. "What have you done?" asked Samuel. Saul replied, 'When I saw
that,'" now watch this. "The men were scattering,"
excuse number one, "And that you," you're the guy, "You
didn't come at the set time," excuse number two, "And that
the Philistines," excuse number three, "We're assembling
at Michmash, I thought, 'Now the Philistines will come
down against me at Gilgal, and I've not sought the Lord's
favor. So, I felt compelled," I just
had to do it. The devil made me do it, had
to do it. "So, I felt compelled to offer
the burnt offering." Let's don't be too hard on him,
because he did what we all do when the chips are down and our
backs are against the wall. We start looking for people
to throw under the bus. We start looking for excuses. Put the blame on somebody else. Wasn't my fault. On the other hand, here's what
we're told about David. "He chose David his servant,"
that is God, "And took him from the sheep pens,
from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd
of his people, Jacob of Israel his inheritance, and David
shepherded them." That's one of my favorite words,
"With integrity of heart. With skillful hands, he led
them." I want you to hear that little
magic word, "integrity." I taught my boys going up,
and I'll say it to them still today, if you don't have
integrity, you got nothin.' I don't care what else you've
got going for you, if you don't have integrity, you don't have
anything. That word "integrity" means
complete, it means whole, it means innocent. Let me tell you what integrity
is, you ready for this? Integrity is what you are when
nobody else is looking. That's what integrity is. David was a man of integrity. It's telling the truth when
everybody else is telling a lie, and listen, let me just help
everybody here was something. 'Cause I've tried this and it
won't work, so, I'll tell you right now, I'm telling you,
don't even think about it. You can't fake it with God.
You can't fake it with God. When you're after God's own
heart, you always witness to God truthfully. So, in other words, when you
fall, you don't blame somebody else for tripping you. When you take the wrong road,
you don't blame somebody else for changing the sign. When you mess up, you don't
blame somebody else for creating the mess. When you, you know, if you ever
testified in a court of law, you have to do it under oath, right? You swear to tell the truth, you
know, so help you God. Can I tell you something? When it comes to God, you're
always under oath. This doesn't work with God.
This doesn't work with God. You're always under oath. And God says, "Look, when you
open your mouth, if you're gonna be a man after my own heart,
or woman after my own heart, you tell the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth, so help you God." Now, what is the point
of the story? Well, what what is the point is,
we start this fantastic study the life of David. What is this story all about? Alright, listen, listen, God
chooses who he uses, and he starts with the heart. God chooses who uses, and he
starts with the heart. Now, here's what I want to talk
to some of you individually right now 'cause I know some
of you are thinkin', you're saying, "I
can't be David. I mean, this is so far out of my
league. This is so far above my pay
grade. There is no way, if you knew me,
if you knew what I've done in the past, if you knew what I
did last night, you would dare look at me and say, 'Oh,
you could be someone after God's own heart.'" Here's what you don't
understand. God's not looking for a perfect
heart, he's lookin' for a pure heart. He's not looking for a perfect
heart, he's looking for a pure heart. You know, there's an old saying,
you ladies remember this, that the way to a man's heart is
through his stomach, right? That may be true. The way to God's heart is
through his Son. The way to God's heart is
through his Son. God is willing to make a king
out of any man, and a queen out of any woman who will trust
the King of kings, the Lord Jesus as their Savior and as
their Master. When they say to the God that
created them, "I'm gonna love your Son so much, you can't help
but love me. I'm going to give Jesus my
heart, so I'll be someone after your heart." Because God always focuses
on the heart, and he wants us to focus on his heart. I have never seen Jesus. I don't really know what he
looks like. I don't really know what he
sounds like. I've never felt him and I've
never touched him, but as a nine-year-old boy, his words
captured my heart, and I love him like I don't love anybody
or anything. And I'm absolutely convinced
when my heavenly Father, the Creator of this world, looks
down and he says, "So, all the things this world has
to offer that you can touch, and feel, and see, and is
so attractive, so you turned all of that away to love my Son whom
you've never seen." Yes, Lord, I have. "You are after my own heart." announcer: To watch an extended
version of today's teaching message with Dr. James Merritt, go to TouchingLives.org. James: Years ago, there was
a great tennis player named Andre Agassi, and he did these
commercials for a camera company. They had the line, "Image is
everything." My generation bought into that. Our generation still buys
into that. It's image that counts. I beg to differ. Reputation is what other people
think you are. Character is what you and God
know that you are. Your character is far more
important than your reputation. Your character is far more
important than any image that you portray, that's why I've
written this book, "Character Still Counts," because it does. As a matter of fact, it counts
more than anything else in life. One of these days, you'll be
dead, I'll be dead, we will be gone, and our reputation really
won't matter, but the only true legacy that we'll leave
behind is our character. So, I wanna invite you to buy
a copy of this book today. Go to TouchingLives.org and get
your copy. And don't just read it, use it
to invest your life into the lives of those that you
love, the people that mean the most to you, and live
every day with this message that people can see, hear, touch,
and feel. Yes, my character still counts. announcer: "Touching Lives,"
teaching people everywhere who Jesus is and why they need him. This program is sponsored
by Touching Lives Ministries and is made possible
by the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.
