Spiritual Checkup; A Matter Of The Heart

INTRODUCTION: 2,400 people die from it every day… 80 million people in the US live with it on a daily basis. In 2008 the cost of preventing it was a staggering 48 billion dollars. 17 million people around the world die from it each year. Strangely much of it can be prevented… what is it? Heart Disease; our world is suffering from something that is largely preventable with good habits like eating right and exercise. But sadly most pay little attention to it until it’s too late.

How’s the health of your heart today? Here let’s do a little experiment... Let’s take our pulse… place your index, second, and third fingers on your wrist just below your thumb. Now press down lightly until you feel the blood pulsing beneath your fingers…. Can you feel it? Good! You’re alive! Even though we’ve just demonstrated that we are “physically” alive, that’s not the pulse that God takes… The pulse He takes is of a “spiritual” nature. (1st Samuel 16:7) God has a 24-7 lock onto our spiritual condition. He peers into the inner workings of our lives… do you find that fact fascinating or is it somewhat disconcerting? It’s probably a bit of both. What does your “spiritual” pulse indicate… what’s your checkup going to reveal?

BACKGROUND: We read in scripture that during the time of the Judges, “there was no king in Israel and everyone did as he saw fit (Judges 17:6). As the time of the Judges progressed, the nation began to ask God for a king. God tried to dissuade them from this course of action but they kept asking and so God granted their request. Samuel anoints Saul to be Israel’s first king, though he had a good start he turns out to be a disappointing failure. After God rejects Saul, He chooses David to lead the nation. David is described as “a man after God’s own heart.” David this young shepherd who was cast into national prominence after his stunning defeat of Goliath is now the anointed king of Israel. His rise to power and reign over a united kingdom will involve years of pain and frustration, but during this time, with its seasons of joy and seasons of suffering, David will develop as a man of faith.

PROPOSITION: Today we will explore several different episodes from David’s life, revealing what it is to be a person whose heart beats with God’s heart.

TRANSITION: On our journey we will look at four areas of our spiritual life, using David as our guide and in doing so ask ourselves this question… “What are the results of our spiritual heart check?” And from there what can we gain from this insight? We start with David’s…

I. HEART OF WORSHIP (2nd Samuel 7:1-2)

a. Before we jump into the story; let’s briefly examine what scripture means by the word “heart.”

• The word is used over a thousand times is scripture

• The heart is considered to be the center of our emotions, desires, passions and appetites

• It represents who we are on the inside, the place where our moral, spiritual, and intellectual life resides

• The bible tells us that our heart can be hardened (Exodus 4:21) that is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9)

• But despite our propensity for sin, the law of God is written there (Romans 2:15)

b. David had a heart that was focused on worshiping God

• Once he had positioned himself as king and established Jerusalem as his capital city as, he was deeply troubled that he lived in a palace