The Heart God Sees

Welcome to the Enduring Grace Sermons Podcast.

This is the home for the weekly teaching and ministry of Pastor Ben Hill.

Our mission is to share the timeless truth of God's Word with a world in need of hope.

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And now, here is this week's message.

The first question I want to ask this morning is a simple one.

And it is simply this.

When God looks at you, what does he see?

When God looks at you, what does he see?

That's one of the biggest questions that we have to wrestle with in life.

Is that when we are looking at what God sees, it is different than what we see.

For example, we might be able to get away with making sure everyone thinks everything is great in our life.

Sometimes what we do is we say, hey, you know what?

I'm great.

And it usually happens on Sunday mornings.

We walk in and we're like, hey, life is wonderful, but in reality, we're trying to keep everything that we're struggling with deeply hidden within us.

It can even happen in the home between you and your wife or your husband.

It can happen in your job with your coworkers.

But we oftentimes can put a facade in front of people that looks different than what is going on in our heart.

Also, it is true that oftentimes we might look at someone and go, man, they would be an awesome leader.

They have the looks for it, they have the voice for it, they are amazing.

I love listening to them.

But the reality is that they are not okay on their heart, that they do not have a walk with the Lord.

And therefore they're not a good leader at all.

And we see that with different pastors having moral failings throughout the country.

And so when we ask the question, when God looks at us, what does he see?

What we're asking is, what does God really see within us?

Not what is outside.

In fact, that's really largely what happened with Saul, the king that came before David.

Was that he looked the part, but his heart wasn't really in it.

In 1989, there was a man that went to a flea market and began looking around, and he was looking, trying to find something to buy, and he came across an old canvas.

It was tattered, it was torn, it looked pretty worthless.

But as he inspected it, on the inside, there was a beautiful frame.

He was like, that frame I could use.

So he started to haggle with uh the person at the flea market, and they got down to$4, so he paid$4 to get the frame because he really didn't want the painting.

He gets it home, he begins to take that canvas off of that frame, and disaster strikes.

The frame disintegrates.

He's distraught.

He thought it was good, but it wasn't.

It had dry rotted.

But as he looked down on the floor, he noticed that something had been hidden within the frame.

There on the ground was a folded piece of document.

As he reached down and picked it up, not knowing what it would be, he unfolded that document to discover that it was one of the original printings from 1776 of the Declaration of Independence.

He would go get it authenticated and then sold it for$2.4 million two years later.

He had no idea what was inside, but you know who did?

God.

God knew what was inside.

He spent$4 thinking he was getting a beautiful frame, but what he actually got was wealth beyond measure.

We cannot judge a person based off of what is outside.

We have to judge them based off of what's inside.

And that is the overflow of which God sees.

And so as we turn our attention to 1 Samuel chapter 16, if you've made your way there, would you say word?

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

We're just going to read the first verse and then we'll walk through the text together.

You can stand in the honor of reading God's word.

It says, The Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?

Fill your horn with all and go.

I will send you to Jesse the Bethemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.

You may be seated.

If you go back earlier in 1 Samuel, after Samuel is becomes a prophet and a judge for the Lord in Israel, Saul starts off pretty well.

He starts off pretty well.

But over time, he became prideful and haughty and arrogant, and as a result, he decided that he wasn't going to follow what the word of the Lord was.

The Lord instructed him to go in and destroy this people group called the Amalekites, and that they were not to survive no one.

Not even the livestock was to be left alive.

And Saul goes in and does mostly everything.

He kills mostly everyone.

He kills mostly all the livestock.

And when Samuel comes into the army, he hears the bleeding of the sheep.

And so they have an altercation.

Samuel tells Saul that your kingdom is being stripped from you because you have lost sight of obeying the word of the Lord.

That you no longer obey God.

Therefore, God has removed his anointing of you as king.

And as he walks away, he tears the garment of Samuel, and Samuel turns and says, And God has torn the kingdom from you and given it to another, a brother in this nation.

In other words, there's someone in Israel that will be the new king.

Not your son, not you.

That sets us up for what we see in that first verse of Samuel chapter 16, is that Samuel is grieving.

Keep in mind that Samuel is the one that anointed Saul.

That Samuel was there at the anointing of the first king of Israel.

And here he is, seeing that Saul has fallen so far because he has allowed pride to enter the picture.

And as a result, his kingdom has been stripped from him.

God's anointing has been stripped from him.

And so what God says to Samuel is, hey, how long will you grieve over Saul?

How long are you going to sit there and grieve?

I've done this act.

I am the one, is what the Lord is saying.

I am the one that has done this, not you.

He says, Since I have rejected him from being king over Israel.

The word rejected means that God has said, I will not accept him.

I will no longer accept him as the king of Israel, as far as I'm concerned.

He has rejected Saul the person, because Saul has been disobedient.

But there is good news.

That's the reason why he doesn't want Samuel to continue to grieve.

He says to him that not only have I rejected him as king, but I need you to fill a horn with oil and go.

I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite.

Now, let's be real.

Bethlehem was a little, small, nobody town.

It was like going into the middle of nowhere where there's about 50 people that live and they're all in one little spot.

It is no city.

It is a little town, a little town of Bethlehem.

And he says, I'm going to send you there to a man named Jesse, because I have provided for myself a king among his sons.

Now that word provided is really interesting because it actually happens several times in this text, but it's not translated provided except for right here.

And maybe if you have the NASB or CSB, it says selected.

But this word actually means to see.

So what he's literally saying is, I have seen for myself a new king.

He's saying that I have seen to it that there will be a king, and he will be my king for Israel.

Keep in mind, the reason why Saul was king to begin with is Israel rejected God as king.

They demanded a king like the other nations.

And so God permitted it and allowed Samuel to anoint a king.

And that was Saul, who stood head and shoulder above everyone else.

He was the king of kings as far as earthly terms go because he looked the part.

But what we're going to see is that God has chosen someone that doesn't necessarily look the part to be king.

He says, I have chosen, I have selected, I have provided a king for Israel.

This is a reminder that God has a sovereign selection when it comes to his will.

David did nothing to try to earn that.

God sovereignly selected him.

You go back to Abraham.

This is a theme throughout scripture.

Abraham, a pagan in Ur.

Abram at the time by his name.

God changes his name to Abraham.

But Abram in Ur is selected by God to carry the lineage that would lead to Christ.

Just a short period of time, and then you get Jacob and Esau.

And guess what?

God chose Jacob while he was in the womb to be the one who would carry the lineage of Christ, not Esau.

God sovereignly selected him to bring about his will.

You go to David, you see David is sovereignly selected.

Even Samuel's own story was God's sovereign selection of him.

Remember his birth.

His birth was from a mother who had never given childbirth, praise for a child, says, I will dedicate him to the Lord.

God sees fit to it and then calls him in a temple where there is pagan practices taking place with the priest's sons in the temple.

You go to the New Testament, and Jesus tells us in John chapter 15, verse 16, that he has chosen the disciples.

John 15:16

They did not choose him.

And then you get to Paul's life.

We've been studying the book of Acts, and you might be saying, What happened to Acts?

We're going back to Acts in August, okay?

We'll be back.

We're just taking a short break to study the life of David this summer.

But you get to Paul.

Paul is persecuting the church, and you know what happens?

Jesus has sovereignly selected Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles.

He appears on the road to Damascus, and Paul is saved and commissioned for ministry.

When God acts, it is in his sovereign plan to propel the gospel message to others, to propel the story of Christ.

And so we see David, who is the son or the great grandfather, essentially, the great-great-great-grandfather of Jesus.

Because he comes through the house of David, through Joseph, his non-biological father.

But Mary's husband.

And it's because God has selected him.

He has seen fit to choose David for this.

There was a British evangelist named Henry Varley.

You might know that name if you know of this story, but he was an evangelist and he ended up sitting with a young American.

And that young American, he told a simple statement.

He said, The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to him.

Now what we need to understand is that God desires for all of us to be consecrated to him.

In other words, to be totally dedicated to the Lord.

That's God's desire.

When he saves us, he wants us to dedicate our entire lives to him.

Samuel had dedicated his entire life to obeying the Lord.

He didn't delay.

What we see is that Samuel said, How can I go if Saul hears he will kill me because he's concerned that he doesn't, his ministry is not done.

And the Lord said, Take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.

That's verse 2.

And then in verse 3, notice what he says, and invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do, and you shall anoint from for me him who I declare to you.

He's not even telling Samuel, who his his prophet, that normally is in on all that God is doing.

He doesn't even tell him who it is.

He doesn't even say that it's going to be David, the youngest.

He just says, I'm going to tell you when you get there.

And what does Samuel do?

Samuel did it what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem.

The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, Do you come peaceably?

And in verse 5, look what it says.

And he said, peaceably, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.

Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.

And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

In other words, they prepared themselves to sacrifice to the Lord.

What Henry Varley said was that we have not seen what God can do through a person who truly consecrates themselves, gives themselves totally over to the Lord fully.

We even have Paul.

And why he says that is because we cannot be fully consecrated until we're with Christ.

But here is what impact that statement had.

That young American who heard that statement started thinking to himself simply this.

He said, a man.

He said, a man.

He didn't say a great man.

He didn't say a learned man, not a rich man, but simply a man.

If a simple man or woman could consecrate themselves to the Lord, then God could do great things.

He says, by the grace of God, I will be that man.

Do you know who that American was?

D.

L.

Moody, who changed the world in both America and Europe.

He consecrated himself to the Lord.

Paul consecrated himself to the Lord and he changed the world.

He was the first great missionary.

What would God do through you if you simply dedicated your life to him and you enjoy that he had just saved you for the purpose of the glorification of him and the proclamation of Jesus?

What could you do for the Lord?

David had been consecrated by God to lead Israel.

And so God had sovereignly acted and moved in a way that allowed him to do so.

But also there is God's searching sight.

That God has a searching sight that we see unfold in this text.

Because remember, he had said, I have rejected Saul.

And I have provided for myself a king.

Then look at verse 6.

When they came, he looked on Iliad and thought, Surely the Lord anointed is before me.

Iliab was probably the oldest, and he walked before him, and he's like, hey, this guy, he's strong, he's mature.

Surely this is the one.

This has to be the one.

And look at what it says in verse 7.

But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

Don't miss this.

For the Lord sees not as man sees.

Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks where?

On the heart.

God is not, as he told Saul after he had sacrificed, when he was not allowed to sacrifice, through Samuel, that God is not as pleased with sacrifice as he is with obedience.

Obedience comes from the heart.

So let me ask you a question this morning.

Are you obeying the Lord?

When he sees you, does he see a heart of obedience, or does he simply see you being a person who performs for others but never worships him?

That was Saul's issue.

While also, apparently, Eliab had the same tendency not to worship the Lord.

He was not the one that the Lord had called because he saw an issue in his heart that he would not be able to lead Israel as God would desire him to.

Nor was he the chosen one to bring the line of Jesus to the world.

And then in verse 8, we see that Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel, and he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one.

I can just think about Samuel sitting there going, Okay, Lord, you did not tell me which son, and now I'm having to look at all these sons, and every single one so far, the first two, you've said no.

And they both could have been good candidates, Lord.

Why have you said no?

I don't understand.

But then look, verse 9.

Then Jesse made Shammah pass by, and he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one.

Okay, now we're three strikes and you're out, right?

Like, what is going on, Lord?

Then Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.

Could you imagine sitting there having seven people walk by you, and all of them, the Lord says, The Lord has not chosen these?

It'd be disheartening.

At that point, you're like, I don't see any more young strapping boys here in this place.

Is there another?

Because God has sent me here.

I know I didn't mishear that.

And that's what he asks.

Verse 11.

And Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your sons here?

And he said, There remains yet the youngest.

But behold, he is keeping the sheep.

Notice he said, the youngest.

The youngest would have got had all the worst chores because all the others had aged out of those chores.

The youngest would have been the least high on the totems of the home.

They would have had the least amount of authority in the house.

He is the youngest in the family.

He is the lowly shepherd boy.

And Samuel, you know what his response is?

He says to Jesse, send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.

Now I don't know about you, but if they're talking about consecrating themselves, which usually enjoy uh involved fasting of some sort, then you sacrifice and then you get to feast.

I'd be pretty hungry at this point.

I'm thinking, we're not gonna sit down and sacrifice and eat.

Like, okay, let's get on this, right?

Like if I'm in the dad's shoes, like or I want to sit down.

I've been working all day, Samuel.

Samuel's like, no, we can't delay.

We gotta get going.

Because I've got a job to do.

I'm being obedient to the Lord.

And so the Lord says, Hey, I have chosen someone.

And Samuel is obediently allowing the Lord to confirm or to reject the person according to him, not his own desires.

You know, one of my favorite shows is America's Got Talent, and I'll watch Britain's Got Talent on YouTube because I enjoy seeing the chaos.

Sometimes they're creepy, sometimes they're they're hilarious, sometimes they're crude, and you don't like it, and you don't watch it with your kids because of that.

But there's always these people that they don't look like what you expect them to perform like.

So you sometimes have this great dressed person, they'll Come up there and they'll perform terribly.

You'll laugh because their singing is so off-pitch.

They're like me.

Like I'm not good looking, though, but you know, I can't sing a lick.

Catherine does that.

But then there's also people like Miss Boyle.

Miss Susan Boyle.

She was a Scottish jobless lady who volunteered in her local church.

She comes and she's very homely.

She has big hair.

And she has this very tan dress that is a little poofy.

And she walks out and she talks a little goofy.

And Simon's sitting there rolling his eyes, going, Oh my goodness, this lady, what are we about to see?

Like this has to be the comedy part, right?

And then she tells him that she's going to sing, and he's like, Oh, this could be really bad type of expression.

And you know what happens?

She starts singing, and it is beautiful, elegant, glorious.

Simon's mouth drops.

Because he had judged her by her appearance rather than what she was gifted with.

She'd been gifted to sing.

And here she is, singing, even though she didn't look necessarily the part.

Here's the thing that we oftentimes miss that God uses unexpected people for his glorious purpose.

And that is the beauty of the gospel, is that God can use anybody.

We get to serve a God who can turn the most unlikely candidates into the best candidates for his glory and praise.

It is amazing.

And so here we see this unfolding that God sees the ability of the person under his authority, not the person on the outside on their own authority.

Which leads us to where we get our strength from, which is from the Lord.

So we see God has a strengthening spirit.

Look at verse 11 again.

It says, Then Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your sons here?

And he said, There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.

And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.

Verse 12.

And he sent and brought him in.

Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.

I want to see David.

You know, like that description, it's like, man, it sounds like all the men would be envious of his looks.

But that is the description.

But remember, God's already said the looks doesn't matter.

Doesn't matter.

Because it's a matter of the heart.

God sees the heart.

And so, verse 12, and the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he.

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers.

And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.

And Samuel rose up and went to Rama.

This is a reminder of the power that is in every Christian.

Did you know that when you get saved, you are immediately filled with the Holy Spirit's authority and power in your life?

Immediately.

What David just experienced with the rushing of the power of God upon him, the anointing, that's what every believer experiences when they get saved, is the anointing of God to be called children of God.

Are you living within that power?

Are you worshiping and following the Lord in a way that allows you to enjoy the riches of that power that dwells within you?

I brought a glove with me.

Now, it's just an ordinary kitchen glove, right?

We're all kind of like this glove, though.

I can set it here and it doesn't cook for me.

It doesn't mold my meat, it doesn't do anything for me.

It just sits there.

Now, if you blew hard enough, it would fly away, but that's because the wind took it, not because it did it on its own.

But when we take a glove and we put our hand in it, what happens to the glove?

It becomes active.

We're in control.

We're the ones that control the glove.

But now that glove is serving its purpose to protect my hand from getting food particles on my hand so I don't mess up anything else in the kitchen.

I can take off the glove and throw it in the trash, and there's no cross-contamination.

If you work in the yard, you are very familiar with a work glove.

A work glove can't do your yard work.

That would be nice, though.

But when we put it on, it protects our hands, right?

When I was in Texas, we had a tree that had died in the front yard.

And I got my nice work gloves and went out there and tried to get the tree up, and over time we didn't really have all the tools necessary to get it out.

So we I sit I'm sitting there with hedge trimmer, like hand trimmers for like pruning bushes, like rose bushes, cutting all the roots that we dug out.

Still wouldn't move because the roots go deep.

And so now we're wetting it down, trying to pull it out with rope and everything else.

And my gloves got absolutely wrecked.

And our mud was not just dirt, it was lots of clay.

And you know what happened?

I did not clean my gloves off like you're supposed to after messing with that wet, muddy clay.

When I went back out there, we got the tree out, by the way.

When I went back out there to use the gloves a week later, I went and put my hands in, and it was so hard.

I couldn't use them.

They had become rock hard.

I'd used them.

I've used them for their purpose.

But guess what?

They didn't stay clean.

Here's the problem with many Christians today is that they've experienced the filling of the Holy Spirit when they were saved, but you've allowed sin to cake on to you that is unconfessed.

And the Holy Spirit is waiting for you to be washed by the blood of Jesus to be used again.

Are you a muddy Christian today?

Are you a muddy Christian?

Do you have unconfessed sin in your life that is desperately in need of confessing?

Because there is grace.

If you want to see God use you mightily, live a confessed life and watch what God does.

We're just tools for God to use for his glory and his purpose.

But it in order to be used by God for his glorious purpose in the church and in life and to have life to the fullest, you have to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit, you must confess your sins and say, Lord, I need you to save me because I know I'm a sinner, desperately in need of saving grace.

And if you do that, God is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins.

And as a child of God, our responsibility is to remain usable for the Lord's glorious purpose by living a confessed life.

As we will see as we study David's life, David was not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination.

David had some serious sins.

But what defined David was not the sin, it was the forgiveness he sought from his Lord.

You're never too far gone to return home.

Will you return home this morning as a Christian that's living in sin?

If you need Jesus, will you believe and repent?

And for children of God who are walking with the Lord and living a confessed life, I have an encouragement to you this morning.

Never delay obedience.

Seek the Lord and follow him all of your days.

With every head bowed and eye closed this morning.