“Open Heart Surgery”
1 Samuel 16:7; Acts 13:22
What is the secret of success? It all depends on whom you ask. Hollywood would say, "A pretty face is the secret.” In D.C. they might say, “Knowing the right people is the keys. On Wall Street they would say, it takes “Financial clout and leverage.” Is this true success, what is God’s idea of success? How do we determine if we are successful in God’s eyes? 1 Samuel 16:7 Character is the bottom line. It's not your circumstances, it's your character that matters. If you want to make your life count, if you want to be successful in God’s eyes, it's a matter of the heart. Today we're going to look at David, one of the greatest men who ever lived.
• He was a king, a shepherd, a poet, and a general.
• He wrote the most of the Psalms we have recorded for us in the Bible
• He united the kingdoms – He was a giant killer – He had an incredible line up of achievements – But God wasn't impressed with any of those things.
What impressed God about David was his heart.
• Acts 13:22
There are four life tests to determine if you need heart surgery: sin, stress, service, success. Today we're going to compare how David handled these things with how we handle them.
I. Test 1 Sin:
A. A Repentant Heart
1. This warrior, this man of men, this leader of a nation, had a tender, repentant heart.
B. When David blew it, he admitted it –
1. He didn't hide it –
2. He didn't deny it –
3. He didn't make excuses for it –
4. He didn't rationalize it.
C. Psalms 51:1-3
1. This is David's prayer of confession after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba - He lays all the cards on the table – “I blew it. It was wrong.”
2. He is honest to God and that's the first characteristic of a heart after God.
3. David proves you don't have to be perfect to have a heart after God.
D. He was a great sinner but he was also great at repenting.
You don't have to be perfect to have a heart after God, you just have to be great at repenting.
The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God,
you will not despise. – Psalms 51:17
David believed in a forgiving God.
He learned to focus more on God's forgiveness than he did on his own failure and that's why God says, "He's a man after my own heart."
Satan has conned many of you into thinking, "Because of my past God can never use me. Because of my past, I'll never amount to anything great in the kingdom of God."
But you're wrong! If God can use David, He can use anybody.
You don't have to be perfect, you just have to sincerely repent and admit it when you're wrong.
Evaluate your heart – Compare it to David's.
How do I react when I sin? Do I deny it?Excuse it? Rationalize it? Give yourself 1 Do I repent immediately? Give yourself a 10
Do you instantly repent or let it pile up? God says when it comes to sin, a person after My own heart has a repentant heart.
2. The Stress Test: David Had A Trusting Heart
We have a stress epidemic going on in our culture – According to the Harvard Business Review 60-90% of all doctor visits are stress-related.]
Few people experienced more stress than David.
- In my distress I prayed to the LORD, and the LORD answered me and rescued me. The LORD is for me, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? – Psalms 118:5-6
- Very few people have had stress as intense as David’s.
He had constant war with his neighboring nations – He had to fight giants, run from Saul and hide in caves for years.
He had incredible family problems – I mean, his family was an absolute mess.
He had one son rape his daughter and another son kill that brother.
He had another son rebel against him and overtook the throne and took over his place and then was killed – Lots of tragedy and stress in his life.
David said, I pray, I trust, and I keep moving.
In fact he wrote the following words under a time of great stress:
I wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge. – Psalms 62:5-8
Courage isn’t the absence of fear; courage is moving on in spite of your fear.
David said, “God is my rock, God is my salvation, God is my fortress. When I’m under stress I trust God.”
When we’re under stress we need to have a trusting heart – one that knows that no matter what this life brings us, we still have a Father in heaven to take care of us.
Evaluate yourself on this one – What is my response to stress? Do I have an anxious heart or a doubtful heart? Give yourself a "1". Or a trusting heart? “10”
If you find yourself on the low end of this scale I have one piece of advice for you – you have to learn to turn things over to God – that might go against your nature, but it is the only way to wholeness.
The first thing we must do when we come under stress is to pray like David did.
3. The Service Test: David Had A Servant’s Heart
He was willing to do whatever God wanted him to do.
His desire was always, "I want to do God's will more than anything else."
God said, `David son of Jesse is a man after my own heart, for he will do everything I want him to.' – Acts 13:22b
Could God say that about you and me? David did everything God asked him to do. - So often we're lukewarm in this area of service.
We say, "Get somebody else to do it. Let somebody else serve; I don't have time.”
At the White House prayer session of leaders after the 9/11 tragedy, Gerald Kieschnick, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, read aloud from Romans 13 and told Bush that he had a divine calling in this crisis:
“Mr. President, I have just come from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. I stood where you stood. I saw what you saw. And I smelled what you smelled. You not only have a civil calling, but a divine calling…You are not just a civil servant; you are a servant of God called for such a time like this.”
Bush nodded and said, "I accept the responsibility."]
What about us? When it comes to serving God in the church, in living out the life of Jesus Christ? Do we accept the responsibility? Are we willing to serve?
When you consider CRCC, where is your area of service?
Recently we listed every single person that has any area of service here in this church and I praise God that so very many of you have found a place of service here.
We would not be able to do what we are doing with o your service and I know that much of it goes unnoticed.
What was somewhat disheartening though was the number of members that are not involved in anything other than attending worship services.
Some have gotten to the point where they are relying on everyone else to take all the responsibility and not doing anything themselves.
This is not a problem of laziness – it is a heart problem that needs to be, and can be, fixed if we just dedicate ourselves to God and take the responsibility of service.
David wanted to serve God because that was what was going to count in life.
He was willing to invest his time and his money in service to God.
“…I cannot present burnt offerings to the LORD my God that have cost me nothing." – 2 Samuel 24:24
David was going to build an altar to God and a man told him he could have his land, rocks, cattle – that he would pay for the whole altar.
David said, "No way! When it comes to serving God, I don't serve God with freebies. I don't serve God with my leftovers. I don't serve God when it doesn't cost me. I owe everything to my creator, my savior. I will never offer to the Lord that which cost me nothing!"
If you claim to be a Christian, what is it costing you?
David said, I'm not going to offer to the Lord anything that cost me nothing!
If they outlawed Christianity, if they made it illegal to be a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Success always requires sacrifice.
Some of us our mired in mediocrity – we just try to get by.
We want to know, “What is the minimum I can do and still call myself a Christian? What is the minimum I can do and still say I believe in God.”
God isn’t asking for a minimum amount of service, He wants all we have to give.
Evaluate yourself here – How do I serve God? Not at all? Give yourself a "1".
Whole heartedly? ‘10”
:
David was a man after God's own heart because when he sinned he repented.
When he was under stress he turned to God and trusted him immediately.
And when he served he trusted Him wholeheartedly, freely, willingly, and sacrificially.
He eventually experienced the 4th test – If you do the first 3 the 4th is inevitable.
4. The Success Test: David Had A Humble Heart
God wants you to be a success – He wants to use it in your life to take you deeper and build your character more, not success for the sake of success.
David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the LORD was with him. – 1 Samuel 18:14
David was probably one of the most successful men who ever lived.
After he knocked off Goliath he became a national hero.
His name was known everywhere and people even wrote songs about him, “Saul has slain his thousands, David his tens of thousands.”
They praised and adored him – The Bible says that all Judah and Israel loved David. - He was Mr. Popularity – He could do no wrong–He has one success after another. - This is the ultimate test of your heart.
How do you handle praise? Success? Material success? Do you spend it all on yourself? How do you handle the good life? Easy street?
David's response was that he gave all the glory to God. He refused to take credit.
He didn't let it go to his head.
There are very few people who can handle adulation and praise in a godly way.
And very few people can handle success without it ruining them.
How do you handle it when people praise you?
When everything is going great the tendency is to forget God.
Look at David’s attitude:
Not to us, O LORD, but to you goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness. – Psalms 115:1
David gave all the credit and glory to God – He didn’t let it go to his head.
When everybody was praising him, he was saying, "God, You get it all. You get all the credit." He had a humble heart.
Evaluate yourself – How do you handle success? When things are going great, do you tend to pray less? When everything is fine and wonderful, do you let the spiritual discipline slide? You get away from God. – You start thinking life is pretty good, you've done it on your own.
How do you handle it? When you get that promotion, do you have a haughty heart or a humble heart? Do you tend to believe your own press releases? Mark it down.
Conclusion:
It's amazing to me that these four qualities are the very qualities that most people overlook when they’re looking for a great person.
They don't look for humility, a servant heart, a repentant heart.
But the very qualities that most people overlook in others when they're looking for greatness are the exact same qualities that God looks for when He says, "That's a great person! That's a person after My own heart. That's a person who has got it together!" God is still looking for people with great hearts.
If God did an X-ray on your heart what would it reveal? A repentant heart? or "It wasn't really my fault... it was somebody else's fault... It's not that bad" or "No, God, it was wrong. I'm sorry and I'm changing it!" A repentant heart.
Would it reveal a trusting heart or an anxious heart? “God, I'm trusting You in the situation. “I don't know where the money is coming from but I'm going to trust You in the situation. I don't know but I'm going to trust You.”
When it comes to service, would it reveal a servant’s heart or "Let somebody else do it... I don't have time to help... I'm too busy."
When things are going great do you say, "Lord, it's all from You and I'm grateful and I'm humbled by it."
God is looking for people to use.
One of my biggest frustrations as I stand here week after week as I look out on your faces and is that I’m thinking "That woman, that man, that young person, they're on the edge of greatness spiritually. God could use them in a great way.”
God sees it in your life and I see it but you don't see it.
My prayer is that you’ll begin to see it and do something about it, today.
