What God is Really Looking For (1 Samuel 16)

All right, we are continuing our series on the life of David and

finally we get to finally talk about David, although he is just

a minor character in this story, but we we first meet David in a

job interview. One of the most important

questions you ask yourself is what kind of answers are they

looking for? The people interviewing you?

Because you can give the exact same answers and be seen

completely different, seen completely differently depending

on the interviewer. For example, when my wife

Christine was interviewing, she applied to two different school

districts, Hawthorne and Torrance, and she didn't have

direct school experience in the school system, but she took, she

put together like a pretty, in my opinion, pretty awesome

portfolio, like a physical portfolio.

And it it, you know, had her accomplishments, her work

experience and, and there was even a little section in the

back that even her time as a wedding planner, Hawthorne

really loved whatever she put together.

And, and she they hired her. And then later on her boss said,

you know, you didn't have any experience, but you have to

write tools. I knew I could, I could train

you. But Torrance, Christine said

that within the first couple of minutes, she knew they were

going to select her. Torrance was looking for

experience. So same person, same resume.

One saw her as the right candidate, the other didn't.

Why? Well, it all depends on what

they're looking for, right? You're looking for experience.

Are you looking for the right tools?

It really depended on that. Now, last week we was starting

on Saul, and largely it was about what God was not looking

for. But we are introduced to a

little sentence in one of the verses that highlights what God

was looking for. God is looking for a man after

his own heart, basically somebody with God's heart.

But that raises a question, what is God actually looking for?

What kind of heart does God value?

Because a man after his own heart could be a lot of things.

So unless we understand God's heart, we won't understand what

it means to go after it. And in today's passage, God

shows us in this passage at least a portion of the heart

that God is looking for. So that's a question we want to

answer today. How can we have a heart that is

after God's own heart? How can we have a heart that is

after God's own heart? Number one, stop trusting our or

appearance. We need a heart that is no

longer trusting in outward appearance only.

Let's read verses one through 12.

It is a lot of verses, so please try to pay attention and read

with me first Samuel chapter 16 verses one through 12.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

The Lord said to Samuel, how long are you going to mourn for

Saul since I have rejected him as king over Israel?

Fill your horn with oil and gold.

I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have

selected for myself a king from his sons.

Samuel asked How can I go so I will hear about it and kill me?

The Lord answered, Take a young cow with you and say I have come

to sacrifice to the Lord. Then invite Jesse to the

sacrifice and I will let you know what you are to do.

You are to anoint for me the one I indicate to you.

Samuel did what the Lord directed and went to Bethlehem.

When the elders of the town met him, they trembled and asked, Do

you come in peace? In peace, he replied, I've come

to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come

with me to the sacrifice. Then he consecrated Jesse and

his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, Certainly the

Lord's anointed 1 is here before him.

But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or

his stature, because I have rejected him.

Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is

visible, but the Lord sees the heart.

Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel.

The Lord hasn't chosen this one either, Samuel said.

Then Jesse presented Shama, but Samuel said the Lord hasn't

chosen this one either. After Jesse presented seven of

his sons to him, Samuel told Jesse the Lord hasn't chosen any

of these. Samuel asked him, Are these all

the sons you have? There is still the youngest, he

answered, But right now he's tending sheep.

Samuel told Jesse, send for him. We won't sit down to eat until

he gets here. So Jesse sent for him.

He had a beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance.

Then the Lord said, anoint him, for he is the one.

Now the youngest is not named, but of course we know that is

David, the to be second king of Israel, having a heart that is

after God's own heart begins with us stopping when we stop

trusting in what we can see in this story clearly, Samuel said,

aha, this guy is the one. This guy has to be the one.

He has the look, he's the oldest, the first born.

This guy has to be it. And the dad, Jesse, maybe he

didn't. We don't know that, you know, if

he felt like his first was the one, but he certainly felt like,

OK, well, it has to be within the first seven.

I'm sure there was a lot of work to do.

You have to dress them up, clean them up, prepare food and say,

you know what, David, it's too far away.

We got to go get him. He's probably smells like poop.

All right, the first seven, there's no way the 8th is will

be considered. And, and let's go back to verse

7. Samuel.

He already made this mistake with Saul.

Not that, you know, of course God told him to pick Saul, but

the mistake was that he was impressed by outside appearance.

In Chapter 9, verse 2, it's, you know, last week's passage or

it's one of the passages that we skip.

It says it describes Saul, right?

And it says Saul was more impressive than any other.

He was also the tallest. That is included in Saul's

description. And the verse 7 God says, OK,

you still haven't learned your lesson.

Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have

rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord

sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the

heart. So Samuel is corrected by the

Lord again. And then just a few verses later

we see Jesse making the same mistake in verse 11.

Next we we find out here, right? We don't know earlier, but it

says here, are these all the sons you have?

No, they're still the youngest. Jesse is making the same

mistake. Both Samuel and Jesse are

operating under the same assumption.

What looks impressive must be what matters most.

And this is not just their problem.

This is not like, oh, look at Jesse.

Look at Samuel. So shallow.

This is a human problem. This is our problem.

We value image, we value success.

We value charisma, influence gifting, We value looks.

Think of the people we hold in high regards.

People that are, you know, highest positions.

People who are famous celebrities, for the most part,

they have these outward characteristics.

Is it a coincidence that every president pretty much since the

TV era have been 6 feet or over? 510 is the shortest since then.

Donald Trump is 6. Three.

Look at all the actors. There are some short ones.

There are someones that are not good looking.

Jack Black is right around my height, a little bit chubbier

than me, but he's immensely talented.

He sings, he dances, he's funny, he's so talented, he writes

music. He has other outward

characteristics to make up for that.

For the most part, people who are famous are good looking and

tall. You could look it up.

CEO's are tall, pastors are tall, bigger churches are tall,

right? My height fits perfectly with

the size of our church, right? That's how they do a seminary.

All right? Tall ones, mega church, shorter

ones, small church. That's how they divide you up.

Although we may not never say this out loud, but there is

assumption that we kind of take it as fact.

What's visible is valuable in being impressive means they're

trustworthy. If they're successful, it means

they're godly. And this is not just the error

in judgement. This is not just, oops, I looked

at the outside again. What just what we've seen, Jesse

and Samuel, what we see in our lives.

It's not a mistake is idolatry because it means if we are

judging this way, it means we are building our identity on

what can be seen. If we live life assuming that

what's visible is what matters, then there are a few things that

might be true also true in your life.

If you believe that being impressive matters, then you're

going to live life thinking I have to stand out.

Look at my achievements, look at my kids, look at my wealth, look

where I am compared to others. Those things start to matter and

you have this false narrative saying, telling you if I look

successful, I'm OK, if people respect me, I'm secure.

If I'm impressive, then I have worth.

And this is true for me as well. I might even say this is

especially true for me. About 10 years ago, I was guest

speaking at a church and afterwards the senior pastor

came to me. It was a mixed youth and maybe

young adults group. And the senior senior pastor

came to me afterwards to thank me for, for speaking at his

church, which is unusual. Usually senior pastor doesn't

care who speaks at the English service.

So I was like, oh, and I, you know, I said hi and he asked me

what church I went. I said was a church called South

Bay Michigan Church. He said, oh, who's the senior

pastor there? Now?

Of course, I could have said me, but that, you know, that makes

things awkward for him. So I just said, oh, yeah, we

have a senior pastor. I just say, yes, you look kind

of confused. And then he, he offered me a

job. He said, you know what?

There's an opening. If you're interested, you know,

you know, talk to me. I have a opening, a youth pastor

job. He offered me a job as a youth

pastor. Clearly he heard, he heard my

story, man. And he thought, ah, youth

pastor, I was very offended and I didn't even know why I left

thinking like, oh, like girls, like what a jerk.

Like I don't know why. I just did not feel OK.

And it didn't even hit me until way later that that moment

exposed something in me, exposed something in me that I didn't

want to just serve God. I also wanted to be someone

that's impressive because what was impressive about me at that

point of my life 10 years ago puts me at 35.

What, that I had a Church of maybe 40 people.

That I had a kind of a new car, but it's a minivan.

So no, that's not impressive that I was married with a couple

kids. The most things I had in my

life, most things I achieved, my grades, the school I went to,

the seminary, everything was just normal.

Nothing stood out. There was one thing that stood

out in my life at age 35. It was my job title, senior

pastor. When I told somebody that I was

a senior pastor, it was like, whoa already whoa.

And people were impressed. Now, of course, I did not start

this church. Let me be clear.

I did not start this church to have a job title, OK?

But when I did get the title, I experienced how people treated

me differently. It was the only thing that made

me stand out. And this pastor, he destroyed it

by saying I'm a youth pastor. That's why I was offended.

This is sinful. Someone messed up with myself

worth. That's why I was upset.

Someone indirectly told me that I was worth less.

And when we have this kind of identity that what's visible is

valuable, that being impressive or standing out is needed to

have worth, then it really effects all aspects of your

life. It affects how quickly develop

opinion on others. It also affects your decision

making. Like it affects who you date.

It affects who you choose to marry.

I don't know how many times people come to me, oh, I'm

seeing this guy or I'm seeing this girl.

Oh, you know, he has this job and he's hard working.

He's romantic. Well, I also ask like, OK, how

about does he have like a worn out Bible in his car?

Not because he bought a use, but because he read it so much.

Does he have faith in God? Does he serve?

It also effects church decisions.

If the majority of the church states value in what's visible,

then when we choose leaders, what happens?

We choose successful people. It's not a accident that the

vast majority of the people you take, the 5 richest people in

the church, they're usually the five elders of the church, are

pretty close to it. If you value these things, you

make decisions based on these things.

It affects how you parent you. You start raising your children

to have these external achievements.

When your child has something that makes them stick out in a

good way, of course, then we we praise them, we throw money at

it so that so that the child will stick out even more.

Here's a tutor, here's a coach. And the child starts figuring

things out, catching on. The child says home.

If I'm better at something than other kids, then I have self

worth or even worse. Oh, my parents love me a lot

when I'm better, when I'm good at something.

It'll affect this. Idolatry effects all areas of

our life. OK, so this is God rejecting

what we naturally value. So this is what not to do.

But then how do we form this heart?

How do we actually form the kind of heart that He desires?

Which brings us to point #2 we must trust in God in times of

hidden seasons. And I'll explain what that

means. Let's read verse 13.

Really the second point is really 13 and beyond 13 until,

you know, next 10 chapters perhaps.

But we're not going to read 10 chapters, so we'll just read

verse 13. So Samuel took the horn of oil

and anointed him David in the presence of his brothers.

And the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully on David from that

day forward or that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to

Rama. God chooses who the seven sons

that was paraded in front of Samuel or the one that was in

that was hidden. The young teenager, the one that

smells like poop that the parents were probably hiding

from Samuel, the hidden 1 was chosen.

You may feel like you're uninvited, forgotten,

overlooked, but you are never unseen by God.

God gives his spirit to David. David gets anointed with oil by

Samuel to be the next king of Israel, and the Spirit of the

Lord comes upon David. If you never read First Samuel

before, if you never watched any movie or show about King David,

you would assume chapter 16, right?

A couple chapters before, right? Saul.

God, through Samuel, rejects Saul's kingship, right?

You're not going to be king. I'm going to pick somebody who's

after his own heart. In the next chapter we see we

meet David. He's anointed.

Logically, if you don't know, if you don't know the story,

chapter 17, we would expect, ah, we would expect David on the

throne. We're going to have a teenage

king. He's anointed by God.

The Spirit of God is with them and he's going to reign.

But that doesn't happen. Next chapter is David and

Goliath. Following chapter is other

things. He's in the King's court and

majority of chapters after that is David just running away

because Saul's trying to kill him.

David is around 15 or 16 at this age when he's anointed.

He does not become king until age 30, 14 or 15 years.

It takes for David to be king. Now why does God do this?

This is actually a pattern in the scriptures.

We noticed this, this pattern of blessing throughout the

scriptures. We think it's calling.

The Spirit of God came and boom, immediate fulfillment.

We think we get saved. Spirit of God comes, Holy

Spirit, boom, our life is perfect.

It's great, but that's not the formula that we see.

It's calling and then it's waiting, suffering, then

fulfillment. And during the waiting and

suffering, that's the time God forms us.

God forms us during the time of hiddenness, the time of waiting

where nothing is going on and sometimes even suffering.

Then we reach fulfillment. We just learned about Samuel's

mom Hannah a couple sermons ago. She had to suffer with

barrenness before all the blessings came.

She was taunted by arrival for years before the blessings came.

Moses the same way, 40 years in the palace, 40 years as a

shepherd, then God used him to rescue Israelites out of

slavery. We all want and expect immediate

blessing. We don't want any of the

formation stuff. We want to skip over the

waiting, the hiddenness, the suffering.

We just want something immediately.

But God does His real work in your heart.

God forms your heart, shapes your heart in that time of

hiddenness, waiting and suffering.

The truth is our hearts need to be formed.

It needs humility, it needs dependence.

Your heart needs to trust in God.

It needs to learn how to endure during hard times.

And how do you get these things is when you see God in those

time of hiddenness now of what David actually did during those

times where he was shepherding and, and all that.

We're going to talk about that a little bit more next week.

But in this passages today, we see evidence that his heart was

being formed the entire time, even though he was just 15.

That is, God was already working in his heart and he was already

being formed while being a lowly shepherd.

Let's move to 11 and 12 real quick slide before this.

Now let's think about this situation.

Samuel is a famous guy. He's the prophet of Israel.

You could say that he's more powerful even than the king.

Maybe in human eyes, king and the prophet, but in the

spiritual eyes, well, God tells the prophet what to do.

God fired fall through Samuel. So I would argue that Samuel is

perhaps the most powerful person in Israel, and that's why when

he shows up, people were very scared.

Does he come to judge us? Anyway, Samuel comes, he's a

celebrity, He is famous. And then we know that there was

food. He says we won't sit down to

eat. OK, there's food.

I'm assuming the seven boys are wearing their best clothes.

They need to shower real quick. They're doing their hair.

Best food is provided. It's probably, like, looks like

a party. And then they're like, oh, OK,

it's not all of your sons, you know, bring your youngest boy.

And then David shows up. He's a teenager.

He might be just a year or so older than my older son.

He shows up working hard, shepherding all day, and then

there's this party and there's this awesome food that people

are eating. I guarantee you it was not

peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches.

It was best of what they had. It's the prophet Samuel.

Everyone's dressed up. Something great is going on.

What will be your reaction? If it was any of my kids?

Like, what's going on? You just eating all this good

food without me? That's not fair.

Like, it'll be all kinds of stuff going on.

But look at David's reaction verse 12.

So Jesse sent for him. It's a weird thing to say.

He had beautiful eyes and healthy handsome appearance.

Wait a minute, did it? Samuel just gave rebuked.

It's like a lie up. This guy is the one.

Look how tired always buff. This is the next king and God

rebuked him to not look at the our appearance.

God looks to the heart. David walks in.

What a handsome boy. So it was very confusing.

You would expect some kind of contrast, right?

That God, you know, like if it's that he looked despicable like

that would make more sense to me.

Oh, that makes sense. But he had beautiful eyes.

That's kind of weird thing to say anyway, but and he was

healthy and he was handsome. Now, I, I looked at many

commentaries and like, explain to me what, what the why, you

know, and, and there is really two schools of thought.

One is and I, I think both, both could be right or both could be

true at the same time. Actually, one is.

It's kind of like, well, this kid is good looking.

That kid is good looking. Why him over him?

Well, because God lives to the heart, not all good looking.

Both kids are created equal. It's kind of like that, that

kind of thought, right? Good looking, good looking.

Why him? Well, because he has the heart.

OK. Or it's describing David.

After he realizes that he was not invited, he walks in,

there's food, everyone's dressed up.

It looks really important. And he realizes, oh, all of this

was happening while I was working by myself.

Most 15 year olds will be mopey, whiny.

I knew you didn't love me, mom. But he had beautiful eyes.

It was mopey eyes. He, he had something about him

that still looked healthy. It was still describing his

physical features, but despite the situation, he looked

healthy. What does this mean?

It means David, in the years that he was shepherding,

remember that's the lowest of jobs.

His brothers probably have better jobs.

It's usually given to the youngest, the lowest.

In those times, David learned how to be content without

recognition. He learned how to be happy,

fulfilled while being considered the lowest.

He was OK with that. This is evidence that David

learned to trust God without affirmation.

To me, it's evidence that they was.

David was able to find an identity in God apart from

status. His status was lowest in the

family. He was able to still find

identity. Some of us are in that season

now, the season of David tending sheep while everyone else is

having a party with Samuel. You feel overlooked.

You feel stuck, you feel like people are just passing you by.

You feel like nothing is happening.

It's just a grind. Work, come home, work, come

home. It's just a grind.

Just seems like everyone else's life is a party and yours is

not. We all have those seasons and

this passage is reminding us. God is not ignoring you, He is

forming you. Your hidden season should not be

wasted. It is not pointless.

It is not meaningless. God wants to form you in that

season. He wants you to find your

identity apart from your achievements.

He doesn't want you. He doesn't want you to live life

trying to stand out to find worth.

He wants you to be content because you have God.

He wants you to trust in God even when life is not going your

way. As I end this sermon, I don't

want you to go home and think, OK, fall is the bad heart.

David is the good heart. All right, be like David.

Let's go. That's not that's not it.

Because if you know David's story, he also his heart does

not remain somebody who's after God's heart forever.

We all have a sinful heart and always wants to turn the wrong

way. The point is not go home and fix

yourself and come back with a good heart.

The point is our hearts are always wrong and we cannot fix

ourselves. What we need is someone to

rescue us from this heart. What we need is a better king

than King David. We need the King of kings.

We need Jesus Christ. We need a king who doesn't just

evaluate our hearts, but we need a king that rescues our hearts.

We need the King of kings. We must trust the King of Kings

who has the perfect heart. Jesus lived the perfect life we

couldn't and He died for our sinful hearts.

And through Jesus Christ, what He has accomplished on the

cross, we are able to have a new heart.

Does that mean we are perfect? No, but what that does is we it

gives us the right to come back to God anytime and repent.

Our hearts are renewed. It could be renewed daily,

anytime, because the work has already been done.

The perfect work has already been accomplished for you.

You can go to your God anytime. Main point.

A heart after God's own heart is formed when we stop trusting and

what we see and trust God to shape us.

Let's pray.