Good Friday Message - 2014

God on the Cross (John 19:28-30; Psalm 69)

Friday, April 18, 2014 (Good Friday)

        As Jesus was dying on the cross he said “I am thirsty.” The author of the 4^th gospel adds the editorial comment that he said this in order to fulfill the scripture.  That notion, that Jesus did things to fulfill scripture, is sprinkled throughout the gospels.  What scripture was fulfilled when he said, from the cross, “I am thirsty?”

          Psalm 69:21.  It is from a prayer of David who says in this verse, “they gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” 

          The Psalm begins “Save me, O God, from the waters that come up to my neck” (v.1).  Early in David’s life, he stared down lions as he protected his flock.  He battled the Philistine giant Goliath.  Then, as he rose to prominence, the jealousy of King Saul led him to repeatedly attempt to kill David. 

          After Saul’s death and David’s rise to the throne, problems continued.  He fell into deadly conflict with his son Absalom.  At times, Saul had armies hunting for David.  Later, it was Absalom with armies on the hunt.  More than once, surrounded by enemies David felt himself to be as good as dead unless God saved him.  And God did.

          The Messiah was to be a descendant of David.  Raised by Joseph who was in the line of David, Jesus met the requirement.  As a ‘son’ of David, Jesus had the qualification needed to be the Messiah. 

Jesus was also David’s Lord.   He lived differently than the great king.  David, in desperation, prayed that God would save him.  God did as David made it through many treacherous scrapes.  In the end, David died of natural causes.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus likewise asked God to take the cup of suffering from him (Luke 22:42).  This time, God did not. 

Another difference was the attitude toward tormentors.  Both had enemies intent on killing them.  Who was it that hated David (Psalm 69:4)?  The Psalm does not say but in his life, we see many candidates.  Any number of people might be opponents who David, in the Psalm, asked God to punish severely. 

Let their table be a trap for them, a snare for their allies.
²³ Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually.

²⁴ Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.

²⁵ May their camp be a desolation; let no one live in their tents.

²⁶ For they persecute those whom you have struck down, and those whom you have wounded, they attack still more.^[b]

²⁷ Add guilt to their guilt; may they have no acquittal from you.

²⁸ Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

        When the mob came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter using a sword, cut off the ear of one of the men.  Jesus healed the man as he rebuked Peter (Luke 22:51; John 18:10-11).  When the soldiers whipped Jesus, crowned him with thorns, and nailed him to a cross, he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).  Unlike David, he did not pray “May their camp be a desolation … let them be blotted out of the book of the living.”  Jesus did not ask for God’s wrath to fall on those who were so cruel.  He asked God not to hold their sins against them.

          Yes, David lamented that his tormentors gave him vinegar.  Obviously he spoke poetically using metaphor to pour his heart out to God.  Yes, Jesus fulfilled that line from David’s poem, not in metaphor but literally.  As he hung dying on the cross he said “I am thirsty.”  A soldier jammed a vinegar soaked rag in his face.  The Fourth Gospel rightly sees the threads of Israel’s scriptures in Jesus’ story. 

          David was a man of his times, an era of visceral, up close violence.  He could not launch missiles that would kill his enemies who were 100’s of miles away.  He could not stay safely out of sight as warriors do today.  He had to look them in the eye as he stabbed them in the heart.  David’s prayer that God blot out his enemies may not sound holy, but it was honest.  The Bible calls him the one after God’s own heart; but not the Savior.

          That’s Jesus.  Yes, as John says, his actions fulfilled scripture.  What he demonstrated in word and deed and heart also re-imagined the Bible.  Jesus cast a new light on everything humanity thought about God.  In Jesus, we see God working in new ways.  People knew of God’s mercy and love prior to Jesus but he brought God closer than ever before.  Because of him, the path to God was opened to all people.

          “It is finished,” he said.  Then he died.  The old day was done. 

          In our somber remembrance we are painfully aware that like David we would like to call down curses on our enemies.  Like the religious authorities who killed Jesus as a matter of convenience, we would remove anyone who obstructed our path and foiled our personally made planes.  Like the Pilate, we are blind to truth.  Like the rage-filled Roman soldiers, violence pumps in our veins.  Jesus hangs crucified because of sin – because of my sins.

          Remembering, we grieve how our sins crucified him.  We also do well to set our hearts’ attention on the one who died for us.  Think about whom he was, who he is.  He did not die so much as he, as the gospel says, bowed his head.  Even in this moment, nailed to the cross, seemingly immobile, shamed, and beaten, it is Jesus who is in control. 

          Jesus provided for his mother’s care as he hung cross (John 19:25-27).  Nothing more happened until he determined it would.  He said, “I thirst,” and then scripture was fulfilled.  Jesus declared, “It is finished.”  Only after making that statement did he give up his spirit (v.30). 

Yes, God is the one who flooded the earth but protected Noah, split the Sea so Moses could pass through, stopped the sun in the sky for Joshua, and closed the lions’ mouths for Daniel.  God is the mighty God of the whirlwind in the book of Job, the God praised by the most powerful forces of nature in the most thrilling of Psalms, Psalm 148.

          God is also the humble savior who washed his disciples’ feet, who healed the ear of one of the guards sent to arrest him, who shared truth with the governor who tried to intimidate him, and forgave the soldiers who mocked and crucified him.  We can see God in the scriptures leading up to the Gospels but we are invited closer in the Jesus we meet in the Gospels. 

          Good Friday is a day to be as honest as David was.  We come fully clothed in sin and hang our sins on him as he hangs.  Naked we stand before him.  He drapes a robe of light onto us, his divine light.  We shine because his name is affixed to us.  It is a day of sadness on one level.  We enter that sadness and do not minimize it.

But, it is a remembered sadness, not a felt one.  We know where story goes.  More importantly, entering it at this point, at the cross, we know that is a day that we see God.  This is a day we understand how it is that God loves us. 

          The gospels tell us nothing of the Saturday after the crucifixion.  I do not know the proper spiritual practices for that day.  I do not believe there is any one way to observe ‘holy Saturday.’  I offer this.  Why not spend that Saturday quietly, fixing our minds on the crucified God.  Do it early, so that the sense of Jesus being for you sets in.  Do it intensely enough so that truth that you are forgiven and free becomes so real, you live it.  Saturday is a day for washing; Jesus cleanses our hearts, polishes our souls, renews our minds.  He brightens our smiles.  We are bathed in the redeeming, creating love of the crucified God.  We come out new because Jesus makes all things new including you and me. 

AMEN 

A Story Full of Evil

            When Lehigh beat Duke in the NCAA tournament, commentators said “David beat Goliath.”  The Bible is full of incredible stories and David’s victory, a teenager defeating the giant, is one of the most known and retold and referenced.  A basketball team from a small school beats a perennial powerhouse – David beat Goliath.  An individual wins a court case against a massive corporation with a high priced legal team – David beat Goliath.  We know what this means.  We know this story.

            Do we hear it as God, through the story, reaches into our lives?  Imagine, God of the heavens reaching into you, penetrating your heart, taking personal interest in your life.  The Bible is great drama, but more than that, it is God’s word to us.  What is God saying in this story?

“I know the presumption and the evil of your heart,” Eliab said to his younger brother David.  He was wrong about David.  David’s heart was not full of evil.  In fact, he was the man whose heart was most like God’s.  But evil is in the David and Goliath story – it is a story chock-full of evil; evil in various forms that locates in individuals or groups of people.

            For 40 days, Goliath taunted Israel …

            This giant won the psychological battle over his enemy without unsheathing his sword.  They saw his size and heard his voice and that was all it took.  His power was obvious to him, to his fellow soldiers, and to the enemy.  Because of this Goliath was arrogant and mean.

            This evil, the evil of arrogance arises whenever people exploit a power advantage and keep others under heel.  An older brother pushes his brother around, occasionally punching the younger for no reason other than to let him know who’s boss.  A street gang forces a small storefront business to pay them 30% of their prophets.  If the business owners, an immigrant family, don’t pay, the gang will break the father’s legs and smash the business’s windows out.  Power leads to arrogance – evil arrogance.  This evil distorts the vision of everyone.  The victim senses he or she is worth less than he or she really is.  The power-holder sees himself as being much greater than he really is. 

Neither the victim nor the bully can see that they are both small and weak before the holy God.  In fact, when this evil of power and arrogance is running wild, God is not seen or worshiped at all. 

 

            “When the Israelites saw [Goliath], they fled from him and were very much afraid” … (17:24)

            As arrogance is evil, so too is fear.  FDR was wrong – we much more to fear than just fear itself.  There are things to be afraid of.  I’d be afraid of jumping in pool of hungry great white sharks.  Sometimes when I hear a noise at night, I wonder if someone has broken into my house.  If someone ever did in fact intrude, I’d be afraid.  Fear is not a bad thing.  In scripture we are to have an appropriate fear of God.

            But, giving into fear gives fear power it’s not supposed to have.  The Israelites were the people of God – the God who created the Heavens and the Earth.  Goliath was big and bad and scary and mean.  Rather than turn to their God, the Israelites succumbed to their fear and it became the prevailing force which they could not overcome.

            Our enemy, the devil, will use all means to drag us away from God and to assault our faith.  Fear is an evil that is a great tool to control someone.  The Philistines were on the verge of dominating Israel and fear was an insidious means of achieving that domination.  The evil of fear took the Israelites’ focus off trusting in God.

            Eliab, David’s oldest brother and one of Israel’s terrified soldiers, expresses a third evil, one that is born in his jealousy of his youngest brother.  He thought David was bored with sheep-keeping and came to see some bloodshed on the battlefield.  He though David was insensitive to the sacrifices of real soldiers.  He thought David just wanted a show.  So, he accused David of bearing an evil heart.

            Eliab’s evil was an evil of ignorance.  He didn’t know David’s heart or God’s heart.  In his ignorance, he spouted off, said things, spoke on matters in which he knew nothing. 

I have participated in evil of this type.  As a young man, I got in arguments with people over issues of race and issues of poverty.  My problem was I spoke from the privileged position of being white, being male, and being middle class, which is wealthy by the standards of 99% of the world’s population.  It’s not that white, rich men cannot have opinions.  But, I acted as if it did not matter that I didn’t know the perspective of a minority or underprivileged person.  In my ignorance, I spoke authoritatively and judgmentally, and when that happens, it more than just insensitive.  It is more than just brutish and conversationally clumsy.  Insensitivity that ignores another’s suffering and even ignores another person’s reality leads to evil.  Notice that ignoring as opposed to listening and considering leads to ignorance.  Eliab’s evil, one often overlook but one as damaging as arrogance or fear was ignorance.

The final evil I see in this story comes from King Saul.  He was the king and thus had the responsibility of leadership.  He wasn’t just accountable for his own conduct or even his own household.  The safety, wellbeing and flourishing of his people was on him.  Where was he when Goliath was shouting his taunts?  It says Saul tried to outfit David with his armor.  Why wasn’t Saul out there wearing his own armor, confronting this uncircumcised Philistine?

Saul’s evil is an evil of limitation.  This evil is painfully common among Christians in our day and it grows with each new accomplishment of science.  Each new invention and each new discovery is so wonderfully impressive, we begin to trust in science.  What science declares to be reality becomes what we accept as reality.  We then relegate faith to the sideline, an unimportant issue, and we have smaller and smaller views of God. 

Saul’s view of God was sinfully limited.  He could see swords and spears, helmets and shields.  He could see 500,000 Philistines across the valley from his army. He could see the 9-foot tall Philistine shouting and taunting his nation.  But he couldn’t see God and didn’t bother looking.  Even when David came and expressed bold, irrational faith, Saul kept looking through a small lens.  Though he was in the role of leader of God’s people, he didn’t have God-sized vision, not of himself or his task or anything else. 

Four evils – the arrogance of Goliath, which was a failure of vision and led to abuse in relationship; the fear of the people, which was a failure to focus on God and led to surrendering to fear; the ignorance of Eliab, which was a failure of perspective that led him to miss God at work in his brother; and the limited view of Saul which was a failure to live by faith and led him to reduce his view of God – these evils mark this story.

Perhaps the conclusion should be we all need to have a faith like David so we can avoid failure and defeat evils like these. 

Before we say that though, we need to acknowledge evil.  We must name the evils present in this story and in our lives.  Evil is all around us conspiring with our own sinful natures to drag us away from the eternal life we are promise.  The enemy will use all forms of evil to lead us to a death apart from God.  We need to acknowledge evil.

We also must look a bit a David’s life.  When did he defeat Goliath?  It wasn’t when he fired that stone from his slingshot.  It wasn’t when he ran to face Goliath on the battle line.  David’s moxie didn’t unnerve Goliath.  It simply elicited more insults.  It wasn’t when David spoke of his faith to King Saul. 

David defeated Goliath on those lonely nights when it was him, his flock of sheep, and the unforgiving dangers of the wilderness.  He said to Saul,

“Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; whenever a lion or bear came, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after and struck it down, rescuing the lamb from its mouth; if it turned against me, I would catch it by the jaw, strike it down, and kill it.  Your servant killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them since he defied the armies of the living God.”

            His experience as a shepherd readied him for this.  He may have been physically too small to wear Saul’s armor, but even as an adolescent, he was a fearless, agile warrior.  More importantly, as the Psalms show, David spent the lonely time out on the pastureland in constant prayer.  He wrote songs – great, artful poetry that expressed every emotion that lives in the human heart.  In those Psalms, David praised God no matter the circumstances.  David did not write all the Psalms, but the one attributed to him reveal a faith that was deep, emotional, real, and unwavering.

            Before we say, “We’ve got to be like David,” we have to live like David lived when no one was watching.  He didn’t pray and fight wild animals so he could be ready to defeat a 9-foot tall Philistine or overcome spiritual evils like arrogance, fear, ignorance, and limited perspective.  He prayed because nothing mattered to him more than God.  He put his life on the line for the sheep because tending them was his duty before God and because it was a duty before God, it matter to David more than his own life.

            I believe he was chosen to be king because God saw his character.  I don’t think God predetermined before his birth that David would be Israel’s greatest king and the Messiah’ ancestor.  I don’t believe the story was written ahead of time.  Did God know how it would go?  I am sure he did.  But I believe many shepherd boys in Israel could have become the king.  I believe David did because God arranged it that way.  I believe God arranged it that way because God saw the hearts of all the shepherd boys and young carpenters and tailors and fishermen – God saw all the hearts in Israel and chose the one most attuned to God’s ways.

            Each one of us can have that heart.  It comes as we are ridiculously honest and open with God in our prayer life.  While we won’t all be poets like David, we can pray with passion and desire and need.  We can pursue that relationship with God relentlessly, deciding we would prefer death over life without God at the center of it.  The way for you and me to overcome the evils of arrogance, fear, ignorance, limited vision, and any other evils we might name is to focus on God, long for God, reach for God.  This was what Jesus meant when he rejected the ultimate evil, Satan, by saying “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4).

            If we want to resist evil and defeat the giant obstacles in life, we will live like faith is everything and to be away from God is to slowly, agonizingly starve to death.  David’s desperate prayer, later in his life, after he had sinned horribly, was “Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).  He could think of nothing worse.  With God, he wasn’t arrogant; he was confident in God’s power.  He wasn’t afraid; he knew God always wins.  He wasn’t ignorant; he knew God would give him all he needed to know.  His vision wasn’t small; he saw what God showed him. 

            Later in that prayer, he said, “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).  Those words are an appropriate for us as we meet together as forgiven sinners who receive God’s grace as we put our trust in Jesus.  The world today is full of evil.  Our story in this fallen world is a tale of evil defeated and faith victorious when we thirst for God and put all our life energy into our relationship with God.

AMEN

Who is our God?

“Are all your sons here?”

            “There remains the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.”

            “Send, and bring him.”

            Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.  The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.”  Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him.”

            Thus David, the ancestor of Jesus is anointed by God’s prophet Samuel to become King of Israel.  How did the story get here?

“Yes, I have sinned,” Saul replied. “I disobeyed the Lord's command and your instructions. I was afraid of my men and did what they wanted. But now I beg you, forgive my sin and go back with me, so that I can worship the Lord.”

“I will not go back with you,” Samuel answered.  “You rejected the Lord's command, and he has rejected you as king of Israel.”

Then Samuel went to Ramah, and King Saul went home to Gibeah. As long as Samuel lived, he never again saw the king; but he grieved over him. The Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king of Israel.

            Who is this God we worship?  He chooses a people to be his own special people in all the earth, the people through whom he will call all the earth to himself.  His chosen people sin and do not live the holy lives he commanded them to live.  They demand that God give them a king though he has said he would be their king.  Though their intentions are sinful, God stays with his people, communicating through Samuel the Prophet, and God gives the king they request. 

            That King, Saul, is not up to the task.  He falls short and is rejected completely.  What does God do next?  God leads Samuel to another king.  But first, Saul has to get the message that he’s out of God’s plan. 

What is it to discover that you’ve become so distant from God that you find yourself cut off from his work in the world?  God created humankind to be in relationship with Him.  The primary reason we exist is to worship God, know God, and delight in God.  The plan from early on, back to the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, was humankind would relate to God through his chosen people.  Saul was chosen to be king over that people.   But his reliance on his own strength was too great; his relationship with God too weak.  He was cut out of the plan.

            In this passage Samuel tells Saul God has cut him off.  No amount of pleading – imagine the king pleading – will alter things.  Samuel emphatically declares.  God will not relent or change God’s mind.  Yet, God is sorry he chose Saul. 

            God is sorry?  Does this mean God made a bad choice?  God messed up?  Or does it mean God knew all along that Saul would fail?  God knew Saul’s sins would eventually disqualify, but though it was Saul’s own fault, God stilled loved him and sorrowed over him. 

Remember Jesus riding into Jerusalem.  He knew his death was imminent.  He still went and wept as he did.  His tears were for the people in the city who had God in the flesh among them and couldn’t see it.  When we suffer pain, loss, disappointment, and rejection, and it all comes about because of our own sins and our failure to rely on God and our insistence on doing things our way and relying on our own strength, when that happens does God weep as Jesus did?  Does God sorrow over us even when our suffering is something we bring on ourselves?

Is that why God was sorry for Saul?  God’s sorry when sin wrecks our lives.  When we hurt, God hurts.

As long as Samuel lived, he never again saw the king; but he grieved over him. The Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king of Israel.

 The Lord said to Samuel, How long will you go on grieving over Saul? I have rejected him as king of Israel. But now get some olive oil and go to Bethlehem, to a man named Jesse, because I have chosen one of his sons to be king.

How can I do that? Samuel asked. If Saul hears about it, he will kill me!

Who is this God we worship?  He’s a God who keeps to the plan.  He’s sorry over sin and love people even when we reject him and hurt ourselves and others as we do, but he doesn’t change the plan to accommodate us.

Saul didn’t fulfill the role God had for him.  God would find someone else for that role.  Samuel’s role was to be God’s voice.  Go to Bethlehem.  When I tell you, announce the king.  And anoint him.

Obviously this was a problem for Samuel because the only ones who knew the change in the story at this point were Samuel, Saul, and God.  The people of Israel and the people of Judah knew Samuel was powerful and a prophet of God.  They also knew Saul still wore the crown and controlled the Israelite army.  And word spread and people knew that Saul and Samuel weren’t on the same page.

As faithful as Samuel was, he didn’t like the plan.  He did what he was told, but voiced his objections along the way.  The villagers in Bethlehem certainly didn’t want to be caught in a war between God and the army.  They were scared.  They trembled, Samuel went forward reluctantly, Saul ruled clumsily and sinfully, and we have this story that leaves us asking, “Who is this God?”

            A God with a plan.

            A God who is sorry.

            A God who sorrows over us and loves us and hurts as we hurt.  But he still sticks to His standard of holiness and His plan.

            A God who helps us be sneaky?

Now get some olive oil and go to Bethlehem, to a man named Jesse, because I have chosen one of his sons to be king.

How can I do that? Samuel asked. If Saul hears about it, he will kill me!

The Lord answered, Take a calf with you and say that you are there to offer a sacrifice to the Lord.³ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will tell you what to do. You will anoint as king the man I tell you to.

 Samuel did what the Lord told him to do and went to Bethlehem, where the city leaders came trembling to meet him and asked, Is this a peaceful visit, seer?

Yes, he answered. I have come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me.He also told Jesse and his sons to purify themselves, and he invited them to the sacrifice.

            Since when is worship a covert method of avoiding the notice of the king who wants to kill you?  God could reach a divine hand down and flatten Saul.  God doesn’t act that way, at least not all the time.  God made the sun stand still in the sky for Joshua; open a path right through the Red Sea for Moses; raised Tabitha and others from the dead.  Sometimes God does things we cannot explain in any categories we possess.  Much of the time, God acts within history. 

            Within the history of painful racism, God worked through men like William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King JR and women like Rosa Parks to show all people are made in God’s image and all people have beauty, dignity, and worth.  Within the horrors of the Holocaust, God worked through Corrie Ten Boom and others to show the world what His compassion looks like.  Within the history of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Anointed Son of God there would be a protracted battle – war between David (Jesus’ ancestor) and Saul.  The beginnings of that conflict come when God honors Samuel’s fear and gives him a way of finding the next king even while the current king still reigned.

            Kingdoms and governments and armies and empires have no say in the ways of God.  God is all powerful.  But, God has opted, and God has the choice, to work through existing human systems to accomplish God’s purposes.  You’re a prophet, Samuel.  Go to Bethlehem and worship.  Speak the word of the Lord.  Do what you do.

            You’re a homemaker.  You’re a firefighter.  You’re a nurse.  You’re a student.  You wait tables.  You do research.  Do your work to the very best of your ability, with professionalism and commitment to excellence.  Do your work knowing that God created and sustains the world in which you work.  As you do your work, express the love of God by being patient, courteous, compassionate, and true with the people around you, and when the Holy Spirit prompts, point those around you to Jesus.

            Samuel, you’re a prophet do what you do.

Samuel did what the Lord told him to do and went to Bethlehem, where the city leaders came trembling to meet him and asked, Is this a peaceful visit, seer?

 
Yes, he answered. I have come to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me. He also told Jesse and his sons to purify themselves, and he invited them to the sacrifice.

When they arrived, Samuel saw Jesse's son Eliab and said to himself, This man standing here in the Lord's presence is surely the one he has chosen.

But the Lord said to him, Pay no attention to how tall and handsome he is. I have rejected him, because I do not judge as people judge. They look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.

Then Jesse called his son Abinadab and brought him to Samuel. But Samuel said,
No, the Lord hasn't chosen him either.

Jesse then brought Shammah. No, the Lord hasn't chosen him either,
Samuel said.¹⁰ In this way Jesse brought seven of his sons to Samuel. And Samuel said to him, No, the Lord hasn't chosen any of these.

Then he asked him, Do you have any more sons?

            Who is this God, the one who receives the worship, when we sing our songs and raise our hands and lift our prayers and open our hearts to Heaven?  I do not judge as people judge.  They look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart.  When the God who works through human systems and sorrows over sin and sticks to the plan and watches over us and whose Holy Spirit resides in us when we put our faith in Jesus sees us doing what we do (fight fires, treat patients, examine data, serve food, etc), what does God see?  This God is a God who looks at the heart – the very essence of who the person truly is.  When God looks deep into you or deep into me, what does God see?

            David had all kinds of problems.  All his marriages were bad.  He routinely took women from other men.  He loved the Lord with all His heart, but he cared little for other people unless they could help him.  He was as far from perfect as Cameron Indoor is from the Dean dome.  But God looked past the sins and flaws and shortcomings, just as God looks past our sins and flaws and shortcomings, and God saw a man who loves God and God said that’s the next king. 

            What does God see when God sees our hearts? 

Jesse, do you have any more sons?

Jesse answered, There is still the youngest, but he is out taking care of the sheep.

Tell him to come here, Samuel said. We won't offer the sacrifice until he comes.¹² So Jesse sent for him. He was a handsome, healthy young man, and his eyes sparkled. The Lord said to Samuel, This is the one—anoint him!¹³ Samuel took the olive oil and anointed David in front of his brothers. Immediately the spirit of the Lord took control of David and was with him from that day on.

God is not looking for anyone here to become the King of Israel and forbearer of the Messiah.  That job has already been filled.

God is looking – this entire story is about a God who sees.  God already has a plan.  We know it will be carried out.  God is looking for people to be part of God’s story.  How do we qualify?  It’s all about what is in our hearts. 

Do we have a deep desire for God?  Do we yearn to know His purposes and plans?  Do we seek to live lives that are pleasing to Him?  When things are at their very worst in our lives, do we first think to turn to God before anything else?

David, son of Jesse, King of Israel, ancestor of Jesus was a man after God’s own heart.  God wants us to give Him our hearts.  This morning, as we enter into a time a prayer, and you are invited to give God your heart, your belief, your passion, and your love.  Give God your intellect, rationale, and reason. 

Identify where you are spiritually, emotionally, and mentally.  From that place – where your mind and heart are functioning right now – seek God.  Invite the Holy Spirit of God into you, into your mind, heart, and spirit.  Offer yourself to God completely.  Invite God to move to the center of your world – your work, your family, your play, your life. 

Ask God to give you a purified heart and ask God to help you live out the life He’s calling you to live.