Saturday, September 08, 2007

A Heart for God (Sep.9, 2007)

A Heart for God
September 9, 2007

New break between verse. 10-11

Big Idea: What matters is not your height or hair or what you have, but your heart.

1 Samuel 16:1-13

When I was living in the United States, in addition to being involved in planting a new church, I was doing some work as a feature writer for one of the newspapers. I ended up attending a conference for writers hosted by the Seattle Times. A journalist was leading a seminar on writing feature stories. He told us that if we were writing a character piece on someone, don’t write a series of adjectives about them but follow the person around and describe what he or she is doing. The journalist said, “For example, if you are doing a story on a Christian minister (my ears perked up), and the minister says, “We really have compassion for people,” don’t necessarily put that into your story, but if, as you are riding the bus, you see this minister push an old lady out of the bus as it opens, write that down. Because when it comes to revealing character, it is better to “show”, than to “tell.” When you want to reveal something about someone’s character, it is best to tell a story.

When God wants to reveal his character to us, he uses stories. As we look at scripture, we see that the primary way which God has chosen to reveal himself to us is through story.

When we read the gospels, we see that when Jesus wants to make a point, he tells a parable; he tells a story. Eugene Peterson a former professor at Regent College and also a respected translator of the Bible, says: “The biblical story comprises many literary forms: genealogies, sermons, prayers, letters, poems and proverbs, but story carries all of these forms as part of larger organic plot.”

This fall we are going to be looking at the longest, most fully detailed feature story in scripture. We are going to be looking at the life of David. We know more details more about David than any other single person in the Bible. David is mentioned 600 times in the Old Testament and over 60 times in the New. In fact, David’s story is the longest feature story about any particular person in ancient literature.

The story of David is a story in which we find ourselves. We see in David taking down the Giant Goliath with a sling and stone, but we also David running for his life from a King and his army, we David passionately seeking God and living with total integrity, we also see him commit murder and adultery… we see in David has this wide range of experiences and in David’s story we’ll find our story…

But most important of all, David’s story is a story in which we find God.

As we see God relate to David we discover things about God’s character, about the way he relates to people.

God has filled the pages of scripture with story so that we can better understand ourselves, but even more important, God has filled scripture with stories, so that we discover who God is and how he relates to us.

In the story of David, we come to know ourselves more fully and we come to know the God who made us more fully. And as John Calvin put it, “As we know God, we come to know ourselves, and as we come to know ourselves more fully, we come to know God.”

Let me take a moment to set up the context of David story.

In the 1100’s B.C., the people of Israel were clamoring for a king. Their king was God, Yahweh, but they wanted to be like the nations around them, so they cried out to the prophet Samuel, “Give us a king to lead us!” So the prophet Samuel ended up anointing Saul as king. Saul was tall—a head taller than anyone else; he was very impressive; looking. He was effective in war.

As an ancient near Eastern king, Saul was expected to embody his people (that is, to stand for them as their representative), but also to represent God for the people. But Saul proved to be unfaithful. Saul, as Israel’s king, was to represent the character of Israel’s God. But he proved to be no different from other ancient Near Eastern kings. His priorities were to accumulate power, property and possessions. Because of this, he had a habit of disobeying God… As a result of his lack obedience and trust in God, God rejects him as Israel’s king. So God calls the prophet Samuel to anoint another king.

If you have your Bibles, please turn to 1 Samuel, Chapter 16.
Samuel Anoints David
1 The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
2 But Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me."
The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."
4 Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?"
5 Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me." Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these."
In verse 6, we read that when Jesses’ sons arrived , Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things human beings look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
As soon as the prophet Samuel saw Jesse’s son Eliab, he thought, ‘Surely this is the one chosen by God to be the next king.” Samuel was impressed by Eliab’s appearance and height. Eliab was a warrior, part of Saul’s army. He was tall and impressive looking. In Samuel’s day it was essential for a king, a leader of the people, to have certain physical attributes.
This story, of course, takes place a long time before the “information” economy or the “experience economy”. It is a time when a nation’s power is largely defined the by the land you own, and you acquire land as a nation through war. And if you can physically dominate your opponents in war, you have great power. So, in a time before guns and computer guided missiles, the ability to subdue your opponent through the sword or spear was highly prized. Part of the reason of why William Wallace of Scotland upon whom the movie Brave heart is based because he apparently stood 6 ft. 6 in. or 6 ft. 7 in. tall and could wield a sword that was 5 and half feet tall in a time when people, in general, were not as big as they are now today. Wallace was basically able to subdue his enemies through his sheer physical strength. And so, when Samuel saw Eliab and his impressive appearance and height, he thought, “Surely, this is the Lord’s anointed.”
Like the prophet Samuel, we are very much swayed by how a person looks.
When people are interested in finding a significant other, a dating partner, when they are at a party checking out potential partners on the basis of appearance alone people will immediately eliminate maybe 80-90 % people in the room. They will focus on the one’s that they deem to be attractive and are saying to themselves, “H-m-m, he or she seems really cute. I wonder if they have a good personality, or not.” We end up eliminating people who may be great partners—just on the basis of their looks.
Did you see the article in the Vancouver Sun this past week with the photo of Donald Trump and his 3rd wife with the headline” Men want beauty, but women want riches? The article citing research done at places universities here in North America as well as universities in Great Britain, said that people may say they want like-minded soul mates, but in fact when it comes to our actual choices—men tend to choose women who are beautiful and women men who have money and can provide security.
Someone I know was working at a bank, and felt a call to go in the Christian ministry. His mother said, ok it’s your choice. But if you leave the bank and go into the ministry… you know you’ll only be able to marry a woman who actually loves you…
Our culture tends to value what a person looks like, their level of wealth, their level of achievement… in school in work…. in some field rather than their heart…
If you’re a Christian or part of some faith community the emphasis can shift to spiritual or ministry achievement… A person’s worth is determined by their level of “ministry achievement” and that’s what determines a person’s worth…
The apostle Paul in the famous 1 Corinthians 13 chapter of the Bible says,
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Our culture to really value what a person looks like and what a person possesses or what they achieve…
What we see in God’s rejection of Eliab as King is that what matters to God is not what’s on the outside, but what’s on the inside. What matters is not your height or hair or what you have, but your heart. As Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. it’s not about the color of your skin, but the content of your character.
Part of our vision here at Tenth Avenue Church is to create a community that focuses on developing people with great heart, hearts for God, hearts for people. That is not something that the world necessarily celebrates.
I don’t envision People magazine coming up with an edition that celebrate the fifty most beautiful hearts in the world. I don’t imagine Fortune magazine coming up with an edition that profiles corporations with the five hundred greatest hearts (the new Fortune 500), instead of top 500 companies in terms revenue.
But heart matters to God. Here at Tenth we want to foster the kind of community where people can develop great hearts for God and people can develop…
Jesse not only had Eliab pass in front of Samuel, but all of his sons. But the Lord had not chosen of them, so in verse 11 we read:
11 So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered. "He is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."
12 So he sent and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; this is the one."
13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came on David in power.

The brothers passed in front of Samuel but none of them were chosen. When Jesse is asked, “Do you have any other sons?” Jesse says, “Well, there is the youngest.” He is not even in the room. Jesse does not even use his name. Jesse simply says, “Well, there is the baby.” The word he uses means “baby brother”, “Baby brother is out tending the sheep.” Eugene Peterson says that the word “haqqaton” carries the connotation of insignificance, “not counting for very much.” “The runt.” Certainly not a prime candidate for important work.

Robert Alter, the Hebrew scholar, points out that the fact that Jesse had shown Samuel seven sons, symbolizes the fact that that subset was considered a complete subset, that “7,” in Hebrew, is considered a perfect number, a complete number. And David is seen, not only as the run, but as the unnecessary outsider who not even considered part of the whole…

But David had what was most important in God’s eye’s… he had a heart for God… as we’ll in this series in the weeks to come we’ll see a heart that passionately sought God…

As we see in Scripture, what matters most to God is not your birth order (in the a time when that was very, very, important, not your gender, not your outer beauty, not your networth, not your achievement but your heart).

And if we had a heart for God like David’s (though his heart imperfect) if we had a heart for God, we would be happier, more whole, joyful people…

My wife and I have doing a form of Japanese exercise, somewhat yoga-like called Jiriki-setai. The master instructor, the founder of this Japanese form of exercise, who is not a Christian, says that the way to less stress and greater happiness is to become a person who does not chase after money or things or status—in many ways very anti-Japanese; in many ways anti-North American; in many ways an anti-human perspective (who thinks like this?). But if we became people who focused, not on money, not on achieving status, not on the accumulation of things, we know that we would have far less stress, be far more content. If we were less self-conscious about how we looked, or what people thought of us. If we are far less preoccupied with trying look like a success, far less vulnerable to criticism and what others think of us the happier we’d be.

But how can a person become like this? It is not as a person can simply “decide,” I’m going to become less materialistic from this day forward, less preoccupied with money…

How does a person change?

One of the most powerful ways to change is to be with people we want to be like.

And if we want to become people with a heart for God, the most powerful way we can do that is by entering into a relationship with the one whom David points to—his great, great offspring, the one who would the “The Son of David” Jesus Christ.

The text tells us that when Samuel anointed David with oil the Spirit of God came upon him… when come to Jesus Christ…. we are anointed by his Spirit and receive his DNA.

Jesus Christ was the one person in the universe who had the opportunity to choose exactly what he would look like, to determine exactly what his networth on earth would be. And Jesus Christ according to Isaiah 53 chose to have no earthly outward beauty, that we should be moved by that. He chose to be born into a poor family. And yet, we are told in scripture his joy was greater than that those of people around him.

People like St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Theresa and Thomas Merton who followed Jesus so closely, so had nothing in terms wealthy possessions, but were people of luminous joy.

If we embrace the one who was utterly pure in heart, the one whose purity can make our hearts pure, then we can become people whose hearts are directed toward God.”

As far God is concerned, it not about the outside, but what’s on the inside that counts…. What matters is not your height or hair or what you have, but your heart.
It is about heart. If we center our lives on Jesus Christ, we can become people whose hearts are after God’s, we can experience the heart that God longs for.

(The sermon can be heard on line at: www.tenth.ca/audio)

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