WEBVTT 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:09.519 You're listening to the rogue. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:11.759 Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:20.480 God's not all that interested in our degrees, our looks, our intellect, our abilities. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:23.120 He's focused on our heart. 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:32.000 David is noted by God because of the direction of his heart, not the development of his resume. 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:40.079 God is looking for wholehearted people, those whose hearts are given over and surrendered to him. 00:00:40.719 --> 00:00:46.320 At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:50.799 For more information on the road, visit theroad.org. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:56.240 We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:02.320 All right, be seated. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:04.959 We're starting a new series, Worshiper Warrior. 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:08.400 I'm cherry-picking some of the aspects of my book. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:10.959 I wanted to start with being wholehearted. 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:21.280 I want to start with this theme, and I want to give us a context of how God raised up David in the midst of another king, and his name was Saul. 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:29.359 And if you turn to 1 Samuel 10, so in your Old Testament, if you don't have a Bible, there's Bibles most of the time in front of you. 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:32.319 If you look down your row, if you don't have one, there is one there. 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:34.719 1 Samuel 10. 00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:39.840 And if you recall, the nation of Israel had not had a king. 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:45.200 It had judges and it had prophetically gifted men. 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:53.599 It had raised up armies through anointed men and even women of God that the Lord used. 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:55.040 But they wanted a king. 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:56.719 They wanted to be like other nations. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:11.439 And we have this interesting commentary in 1 Samuel 10, 19, concerning God's view of Israel wanting a king. 00:02:12.639 --> 00:02:33.680 Samuel writes this, but you have today rejected your God, who himself saved you from all your adversaries and your tribulations, and you have said to him, No, we don't want you to be our king, in other words, but set a human king over us. 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:38.319 Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans. 00:02:38.479 --> 00:02:44.879 And so God acquiesces to the desires of the people, raises up Saul. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:49.840 Saul is an interesting study in and of itself, and we don't have time to go into it. 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:53.840 And I don't even want to focus on it today, but I'm going to give you a little bit of an insight into Saul. 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:57.280 Saul is never wholehearted. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:00.639 Saul is never fully all in. 00:03:01.039 --> 00:03:02.960 Saul is for Saul. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:12.319 And Saul is about himself, and I would call him, instead of, you know, you've probably heard of Edward the lionhearted. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:15.199 We could say it's David the wholehearted. 00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:19.199 We could say of Saul, he's Saul the half-hearted. 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:29.039 And I want to just think about Saul just for a moment to give context to God having his eyes and his heart upon David. 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:31.919 And we're going to look at David until the end of the year. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:34.479 So we're going to hear all aspects of David. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:39.199 One of the things we're going to notice about David is that he's not perfect. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:43.120 That he is not the altar boy. 00:03:43.439 --> 00:03:45.599 He is not the perfect man. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:49.439 But one thing we will say about David is God notices his heart. 00:03:49.599 --> 00:03:56.800 So I want to look just quickly at three characteristics of being half-hearted by looking at Saul the half-hearted. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:05.680 So, first of all, half-hearted people, Saul in particular, tend to be reactionary. 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:09.840 Saul doesn't have a vision for his life, he doesn't have a vision from God. 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:12.719 I want you to look at chapter 11, verse 7. 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:21.360 In chapter 11, verse 7, we see how Saul motivates Israel to follow him. 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:24.160 This is just one example of so many. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:30.720 There's a mounting problem, there's another nation coming in to attack, and this is what he does to motivate his people. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:46.560 So he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of messenger, saying, Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen. 00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:48.959 Great motivational tool. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:51.439 He's reactionary. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:54.399 Saul again and again will show himself reactionary. 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:58.160 Second, he's spiritually unprepared. 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:03.920 He's spiritually unprepared for what he's about to face as a king. 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:15.120 Men and women, when we're half-hearted, we're constantly reacting to circumstances and situations because we haven't spiritually prepared our heart. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:26.720 Anyone figure that out? 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:30.720 Life is difficult and it's hard, and we go through depression sometimes. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:32.000 We go through despair. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:36.959 We have kids that rebel. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:39.439 We have a spouse that's struggling. 00:05:39.600 --> 00:05:40.879 We have sickness in our life. 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:44.480 Sometimes there's something like a cancer, or we lose our job. 00:05:44.639 --> 00:05:52.240 And so if we are not prepared spiritually, we're constantly reacting. 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:56.800 And so, my goodness, so much here. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:06:06.480 But in chapter 13, I'm not going to go through it, but all of chapter 13 shows a man, a half-hearted man, who's about himself, not about the Lord. 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:10.399 And listen, he's not about the people either, trying to figure out what to do. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:15.759 And in one case, at the very beginning of chapter 13, he calls thousands to himself. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.199 I mean, you heard why and how he motivated them to come. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:23.120 They come and then he figures they've got it in the bag. 00:06:23.199 --> 00:06:29.040 The battle's in the bag, and so then he sends everybody back home, leaves 3,000. 00:06:29.199 --> 00:06:32.639 He rules over and he commands 2,000. 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:35.360 His son Jonathan commands 1,000. 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:42.000 Then they get themselves in a huge pickle, and then he needs more men, so he's trying to call them back. 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:43.680 He's just unprepared. 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:49.279 He's unprepared spiritually, and he's unprepared strategically. 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:51.839 And then thirdly, he has a fear of man. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:53.439 He's constantly fearing man. 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:55.360 Look at verse 11 of chapter 13. 00:06:55.519 --> 00:07:00.800 Samuel said, What have you done when I saw that the people were scattering from me? 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:03.360 Do you remember the story? 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:07.040 So Samuel had said, I will come. 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:10.399 I'll be there on the seventh day. 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:13.839 Wait for me, and I will do my priestly duty. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:15.279 You have a kingly duty. 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:18.079 How many of you know there's kings and there's priests? 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:20.399 And in Scripture it's very clear. 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:22.000 There's kingly jobs. 00:07:22.079 --> 00:07:24.319 There's a kingly job description. 00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:27.040 And then there's a priestly job description. 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:28.720 And when they work together, it's beautiful. 00:07:28.959 --> 00:07:30.399 Same in the church. 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:37.839 A lot of what I do is in priesting and kingly work, but a lot of my week is kingly stuff. 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:44.560 I mean, it's leading, it's delegating, it's getting us ready for the battle. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:08:18.639 And so what Samuel does is he says, I'll be there on the seventh day, I'll do my priestly duty before you go into battle, and I believe it's totally of the Lord that it goes all the way up to the 11th hour, the people are scattering, and so out of fear of man, out of fear in reactionary mode, unprepared spiritually, unprepared strategically, Samuel takes on the priestly duties and offers a sacrifice he's not supposed to offer. 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:43.120 And so as Samuel confronts him, here's his excuse, verse 11, when I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, which he did, but it was the last minute, and that the Philistines gathered together at Mikmash, then I said, The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, full of fear, and I've not made supplication to the Lord. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:47.759 Therefore I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering. 00:08:47.919 --> 00:09:00.639 So out of fear of man and lack of fear of God and lack of trust of God, we see a whole hearted fear grip his heart instead of a wholehearted belief in God. 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:04.639 Interesting 2 Chronicles 16, 9. 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:21.360 For the eyes of the Lord sweep across the earth to and fro, looking for a man or a woman whose heart is loyal to him, that he might come down and support them. 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:23.840 Jeremiah 5. 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:31.440 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, see now and know, and seek in her open places. 00:09:31.759 --> 00:09:35.360 You can find a man or a woman. 00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:41.759 If there's anyone who executes judgment who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her. 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:52.240 God is always in all generations, men and women, looking for people whose hearts are devoted to him. 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:55.360 Just one man, just one woman. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:57.919 He searches across the globe. 00:09:58.159 --> 00:09:59.840 He searches across our city. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:06.159 He searches across this sanctuary for those whose hearts are wholly devoted to him. 00:10:07.200 --> 00:10:08.480 And so it is. 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:24.240 In this great story, the great drama of the ages, the story of David, God finally runs out of patience with Saul, and he finds David. 00:10:24.320 --> 00:10:30.320 So look at chapter 13, right after his ill-fated sacrifice. 00:10:30.480 --> 00:10:31.840 Look at verse 14. 00:10:33.759 --> 00:10:37.759 But now your kingdom shall not continue. 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:42.639 The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart. 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:52.639 And by the way, there's no other man or woman in the Bible that is described as a man or a woman after God's own heart, but David. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:11:01.360 And the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:19.440 In his landmark book, Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, he writes about a woman who was raped and killed, and 38 people saw the incident and nobody reported it. 00:11:19.840 --> 00:11:21.039 True story. 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:44.320 In the subsequent research that was done after that and interviewing the 38 people, other studies that had been done in comparison to what happened on that day, they found that the more people that see something or a part of something, the less chance of any of those people taking any action. 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:48.799 Because everybody thinks that someone else will. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:33.279 Matter of fact, most of you in this room already do. 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:38.480 God's on the verge of something really big. 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:43.200 God's on the verge of something really big in this city. 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:48.320 And God is on the verge of something mighty and powerful in this church. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:55.039 When we look at the midterm elections, which happened on Tuesday, we had our 24-hour war room. 00:12:55.519 --> 00:12:59.440 Many of you came out and we sought the Lord from 5 to 7 a.m. 00:12:59.600 --> 00:13:00.159 as men. 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:04.000 We sought the Lord from noon to 2 as women. 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:08.720 We sought the Lord from 6 to 8 with another group of us and we cried out to God. 00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:14.080 We took every one of those boards of the seven mountains of God and we and we prayed it. 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:17.679 We prayed it for our nation. 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:24.639 We gave up two, four, in some cases six hours of our day to cry out to God. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:36.639 Men and women, there is absolutely no way logically or politically that the left is ever going to agree with the right. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:44.240 The only bridge between the left and the right is the kingdom of God made known through the church. 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:54.639 The only way God can bring unity again to this nation is through the kingdom of God proclaimed and demonstrated through the church. 00:13:55.360 --> 00:14:04.320 So David comes along with a half-hearted king and really a frustrated prophet. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:07.279 Look at 1 Samuel 16. 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:13.360 And I think it's interesting when you study Samuel, because Samuel's writing this, so he's writing about himself. 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:18.720 Pretty humble guy, because I think the next few verses are kind of embarrassing. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:23.600 I think I would edit those out if it was me that came to Bethlehem. 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:39.600 But it shows here, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaking through Samuel, an insight into how far off even Samuel was in understanding the heart of God. 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:57.759 Because just a few, probably weeks before, that's what we just read, was 1 Samuel 13, 14, about the kind of person that God's going to raise up, but Samuel still follows the same formula in chapter 16. 00:14:57.840 --> 00:14:58.320 Let's read it. 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:06.480 Now the Lord said to Samuel, verse 1, How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing that I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? 00:15:06.720 --> 00:15:09.039 Fill your horn with oil and go. 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:16.000 I'm sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:19.039 And Samuel said, How can I go? 00:15:19.279 --> 00:15:22.240 If Saul hears of it, he will kill me. 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:30.399 So mighty Samuel has a pretty big fear of man. 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:35.360 He's not thinking about what God's telling him to do, he's thinking about his own life. 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:40.720 So there's the only way I can describe it as half-hearted people tend to attract half-hearted people. 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:43.519 Was it birds of a feather? 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:52.159 So I think Samuel, who started off so well, is not doing so well right now. 00:15:52.720 --> 00:16:00.799 He's been affected, he's been impacted, he's been infested with half-heartedness, and he has a fear now of man. 00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:06.159 But the Lord said, Take a heifer for you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord, verse 3. 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:09.919 Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:13.600 You shall anoint for me the one I named to you. 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:21.679 So Samuel did what the Lord said and went to Bethlehem, and the elders of the town trembled at his coming and said, Do you come peaceably? 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:25.679 And he said, Peaceably I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:29.120 Sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. 00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:33.919 Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:46.320 So it was when they came that he looked at Eliab, and he said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. 00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:57.440 But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance, or at his physical stature, so he must have been maybe tall and handsome, because I have refused him. 00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:01.600 For the Lord does not see as man sees. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:07.920 For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:14.720 So Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel, and he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:20.079 Then Jesse made Shammah pass by, and he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:28.160 Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen any of these. 00:17:28.720 --> 00:17:32.319 And Samuel said to Jesse, Are all the young men here? 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:38.240 Then he said, No, there remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep. 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:44.640 And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here. 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:46.720 And so he went and he brought him in. 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:50.480 Now he was ruddy, bright eyes, and good looking. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:54.160 And the Lord said, Arise annoying him, for this is the one. 00:17:55.039 --> 00:18:02.799 God's not all that interested in our degrees, our looks, our intellect, our abilities. 00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:05.440 He's focused on our heart. 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:14.880 David is noted by God because of the direction of his heart, not the development of his resume. 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:23.759 God is looking for wholehearted people, those whose hearts are given over and surrendered to him. 00:18:25.359 --> 00:18:38.400 On December 5th, 1955, Rosa Parks was exhausted from work and she sat down on a white-only seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:41.680 Parks rejected bus driver James F. 00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:47.519 Blake's order to relinquish her seat into the colored section to a white passenger. 00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:50.720 Rosa Parks was just tired. 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:57.039 She was tired of indignity, and she was tired from work. 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:01.039 And that one woman began a movement. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:07.200 A movement by which she's been called the mother of the freedom movement, the mother of the civil rights movement. 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:18.319 And Martin Luther King heard of it, and he jumped on board, and so did others, and thus began one of the greatest movements that this country has ever known through a whole-hearted woman. 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:25.519 I think we could say there's two kinds of people in this world: there's whole-hearted and there's half-hearted. 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:30.160 There's courageous and there's fearful. 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:31.920 You know what the difference is. 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:40.799 A courageous person is simply a fearful person who's focused and praying. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:44.400 All of us struggle with fear. 00:19:44.640 --> 00:19:47.200 All of us struggle with what people think about us. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:48.480 All of us struggle with that. 00:19:48.559 --> 00:20:03.279 But the whole-hearted person is one who is seeking God and spending time with the Lord, and God's downloading his heart into them, and they begin to be captured with those things that capture God's heart. 00:20:03.519 --> 00:20:05.119 That's really all it is. 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:19.359 All that a whole-hearted person, a Jesus follower, disciple is, is one who has felt God's heart, is experiencing God's heart, and begin to live, begins to live God's heart. 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:25.359 Someone has said the dearth of leaders, I love this. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:29.119 Little leaders have little problems. 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:33.200 Big leaders have big problems. 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:36.480 I fear we only have little problems. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:40.000 God's looking for whole-hearted leaders. 00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:42.079 God's looking for whole-hearted men and women. 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:51.279 He says to God, God says to Joshua in chapter 1 of Joshua 1, he has to tell him three times to be strong and courageous. 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:55.200 Why would you tell someone three times if it's true already? 00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:56.400 Because it wasn't. 00:20:56.559 --> 00:21:03.440 And Joshua, Joshua had followed Moses to the mountaintop. 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:12.400 It says of Joshua that he stood right next to the tabernacle as Moses sought the Lord and the cloud came down. 00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:17.119 Nobody was as close to Moses as Joshua. 00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:27.359 And yet, as Moses passes away, the Lord has to say three times to Joshua, be strong and courageous, for I am with you. 00:21:27.519 --> 00:21:29.519 Be strong and courageous, for I'm with you. 00:21:29.680 --> 00:21:31.920 Be strong and courageous, for I am with you. 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:34.799 Church, how many of us need that? 00:21:35.440 --> 00:21:40.960 God says to us, be strong and courageous, for I am with you. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:50.720 The power of one, the power of what a whole hearted disciple can do is amazing. 00:21:51.440 --> 00:21:59.839 Before 1954, the consensus opinion was that no human could ever run a mile in unconscious. 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:01.359 Four minutes. 00:22:02.079 --> 00:22:12.480 Even studies had been done by cardiologists that said if you tried to run the mile in four minutes, you would have a cardiac arrest. 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:26.480 On May 6th, 1954, Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile, three minutes 59 seconds.3. 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:34.240 And just a few weeks later, Bannister's record was broken. 00:22:34.480 --> 00:22:46.160 And over the next few years, athlete, runner, athlete, runner after another broke his record again and again as the numbers and the time began to drop. 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:54.079 Sometimes it takes a whole-hearted person to break into an area so that others can follow. 00:22:54.960 --> 00:23:00.799 Sometimes it takes a whole-hearted person to do what everybody else says is impossible. 00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:05.279 But then they do with all the courage that they can muster. 00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:07.599 And then we pour in. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:10.559 We all pour in. 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:15.599 David is a forerunner of the whole-hearted disciple. 00:23:16.480 --> 00:23:19.920 David is just a man. 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:22.720 Everybody listen to me. 00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:25.279 David is just a man. 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:30.480 He's no different than any of us in this room. 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:33.680 What God could do through some of you. 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:41.279 What God can do through some of you young people in this room for your generation. 00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:46.799 What God can do for some of you old people for your generation. 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:54.319 Because God works through wholehearted people who begin to say, God, what do you want me to do? 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:56.400 God, how do you want to use me? 00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:09.440 It says in Scripture about David, Incline your ear and come to me, hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:13.440 Indeed, I have given him as a witness to the people. 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:21.440 No other Old Testament character is quoted and referred to more in the New Testament than David. 00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:27.599 No other Old Testament leader is spoken of more often by Jesus than David. 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:33.119 Jesus even refers to himself as a son of David. 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:35.920 We know more about David's personal life. 00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:37.519 We know more about his writings. 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:42.240 We know more about his failures than anyone in the Bible. 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:47.279 David is a forerunner of the wholehearted disciple. 00:24:47.599 --> 00:24:50.160 So I want to give you three thoughts as I close. 00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:53.440 Three characteristics of being whole-hearted. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:56.240 Three characteristics of a whole-hearted disciple of Jesus. 00:24:56.400 --> 00:24:59.519 Number one, God saturated. 00:24:59.839 --> 00:25:03.759 They are saturated with God and by God. 00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:13.920 David is described as a man after God's own heart, and men and women, it's from here that we receive God's heart. 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:20.319 It's beginning each day in God's Word, reading God's Word, listening to God's word. 00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:34.400 Martin Luther, a good, solid, Emmy Award-winning Augustinian monk who did everything he was told to do. 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:40.240 He fasted and he prayed and he crawled on his knees until the blood came. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:46.960 He lacerated himself, which was customary at that time, to feel the sufferings of Christ. 00:25:48.079 --> 00:25:52.160 He would sometimes go to confessional up to eight hours a day. 00:25:52.319 --> 00:25:54.640 It drove his confessor nuts. 00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:03.119 And then he was asked to go by his mentor to Wittenberg to teach the Bible at Wittenberg. 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:06.400 He just wanted Luther to get off Luther. 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:12.319 Luther was more into Luther than he was God, but he was an Augustinian monk. 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:17.920 There's a lot of pastors that are into themselves more than they are their flock. 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:19.519 It's easy to do. 00:26:20.480 --> 00:26:27.440 So he goes to Wittenberg and he begins to read the scriptures. 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:31.119 He's reading them in Greek and Latin. 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:33.200 He's an expert in both. 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:47.680 And as he reads the word, as he reads the Hebrew and the Greek and the Latin, he comes across a new version of Jesus that breaks his traditional paradigm. 00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:54.559 And he begins to have a heart on fire by God because he starts to listen to the word. 00:26:54.880 --> 00:27:02.319 As he listens, not just teaching it, but listening from it, he says, the just shall live by faith. 00:27:03.039 --> 00:27:06.240 For by grace you've been saved through faith, and not of yourself. 00:27:06.319 --> 00:27:25.359 It is a gift of God, not as a result of works, not as a result of crawling, not as a result of fasting and prayer, but that he had a, he could be a son of God by receiving God's grace through his finished work at Calvary by faith. 00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:29.519 And his heart came alive. 00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:32.799 And a movement began. 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:36.640 He was saturated with God. 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:39.200 He was saturated with God's love. 00:27:39.359 --> 00:27:42.480 He was saturated with God's word. 00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:48.319 John Wesley thought he was a great believer. 00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:51.200 He started the holy club. 00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:55.759 The holy club with George Whitfield at Oxford. 00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:02.160 And from the Holy Club, they would fast and they would pray and they were believing God for revival on their campus. 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:05.279 And then he goes as a missionary to Georgia. 00:28:06.400 --> 00:28:09.920 We still need a lot of missionaries in Georgia. 00:28:10.720 --> 00:28:15.039 And he and he went and he had just a dismal missionary experience. 00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:16.160 It was an utter failure. 00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:17.599 Tried to start an orphanage. 00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:19.440 It was an utter failure the first time. 00:28:19.599 --> 00:28:26.400 And he's coming back on the ship, and they hit this massive storm. 00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:30.559 And he becomes fearful for his own life. 00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:35.279 But he sees this group of believers called Moravians. 00:28:36.079 --> 00:28:43.039 And there's just a peace and a joy, and he is moved by them. 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:54.000 And so when he returns to London, he searches high and low, and he finds that there's this fellowship of Moravians at Aldersgate in London. 00:28:54.480 --> 00:29:05.680 And as he goes into the room, into this small setting with these Moravians, he hears the preface to the book of Romans by Luther being read. 00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:15.359 Just reading the preface of Luther's explanation and commentary on Romans, and he says, My heart was strangely warmed. 00:29:16.960 --> 00:29:23.440 And then he goes on to say, and then I knew that I knew that I believed that I had eternal life. 00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:37.519 And oh my goodness, what John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield did to London and did to England and did to the British Isles and then came over to America and were part of the first great awakening. 00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:44.400 What God can do through one man or one woman or one child, even. 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:51.039 David's about 13 years old when this happens with Samuel. 00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:54.640 Oh God, that you would give us 13-year-olds. 00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:57.599 Oh God, that you would give us 14 and 15 year olds. 00:29:57.759 --> 00:30:06.319 Oh, God, that you would give us nine-year-olds that begin to seek your face, that begin to go after you and say, oh, God, I want to be wholehearted. 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:09.279 I'm not going to do what my classmates do. 00:30:09.599 --> 00:30:11.200 I'm not going to go to those parties. 00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:12.400 I'm going to spend time with you. 00:30:12.480 --> 00:30:14.640 I'm going to, I'm going to learn how to pray. 00:30:14.799 --> 00:30:17.119 I'm going to hang out with people that are fired up. 00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:18.640 I'm going to grow through my parents. 00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:21.519 And if my parents aren't there, I'm going to find somebody who is. 00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:24.240 That's what we need, men and women. 00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:27.200 We need whole-hearted disciples of Jesus. 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:30.079 And God is no respecter of age. 00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:38.400 Some of you would look at your life and you would say, Here I'm 65, I'm 75, I'm 85. 00:30:39.440 --> 00:30:42.240 What do I do with these waning years? 00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:45.359 And God would say, Be saturated with me. 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:54.160 One writer speaking of this 13-year-old David said this: the single most characteristic thing about David is God. 00:30:55.200 --> 00:30:56.799 David believed in God. 00:30:57.039 --> 00:30:58.240 He thought about God. 00:30:58.480 --> 00:30:59.599 He imagined God. 00:30:59.759 --> 00:31:00.960 He addressed God. 00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:02.160 He prayed to God. 00:31:02.319 --> 00:31:08.079 The largest part of David's existence wasn't David, but God. 00:31:09.759 --> 00:31:12.799 We don't need more self-esteem. 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:15.279 We need more God esteem. 00:31:16.720 --> 00:31:24.880 And Jesus said the greatest of all commandments is that you would love me with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:37.839 And I think the sequential order of that is that it's really hard to love your neighbor as yourself if you don't love yourself, and you can't love yourself if you haven't learned to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:48.079 The greatest self-esteem training we could do at the road is to press in and equip all of us to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:50.079 That's God saturated, folks. 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:51.680 So that's the first characteristic. 00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:58.240 Secondly, and the first leads into the second, fully alive. 00:31:59.599 --> 00:32:02.000 Most people are half dead. 00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:04.880 And God calls us to be fully alive. 00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:11.599 Arrhenius, the great church father, said, the glory of God is a man fully alive. 00:32:13.039 --> 00:32:15.039 Are you fully alive today? 00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:19.920 Are you engaged, heart, soul, mind, and strength? 00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:21.279 That's life. 00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:27.599 That's why Jesus starts John 14 by saying, Let not your heart be troubled. 00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:29.599 Let not your heart be troubled. 00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:33.680 And then a few verses later says, I am the way and the truth and the life. 00:32:33.759 --> 00:32:35.599 No one comes to the Father but through me. 00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:42.960 I think what he's saying is we like, we see that as kind of a salvation verse, but it's actually a life verse. 00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:45.119 I am the way. 00:32:46.319 --> 00:32:52.000 There's a Jesus way that makes us fully alive. 00:32:53.279 --> 00:33:01.680 That causes us to rejoice in the midst of incredible difficulties because God's got it. 00:33:02.799 --> 00:33:06.400 True manhood and true womanhood is not about perfection. 00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:08.240 We're going to learn that in David. 00:33:08.960 --> 00:33:11.440 But it's about the direction of our heart. 00:33:12.640 --> 00:33:19.519 Because all of us are going to make a lot of mistakes, and David is notorious for the mistakes that he made. 00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:22.160 But his direction was toward the Lord. 00:33:22.400 --> 00:33:30.880 Brene Brown, a qualitative researcher of sociology at the University of Houston, has written extensively on the subject of being whole-hearted. 00:33:31.119 --> 00:33:38.880 She's described well-adjusted, joyful people as living and loving with their whole heart. 00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:50.960 She writes about such people as not being the most talented, not being the most successful, not making the most money, not even being the most self-sufficient. 00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:57.680 So she describes her journey this way in the 10,000 interviews she did. 00:33:58.640 --> 00:34:03.039 The first word that came to my mind in my research was wholehearted. 00:34:03.839 --> 00:34:06.160 I wasn't sure what it meant. 00:34:06.559 --> 00:34:10.159 I had a lot of questions about wholeheartedness. 00:34:10.960 --> 00:34:13.199 What did these folks value? 00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:22.480 As I started analyzing the stories and looking for recurring themes, I realized that the patterns generally fell into two kinds of people. 00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:25.199 Two columns. 00:34:26.159 --> 00:34:44.559 One column was dripping with words like perfection, numbing, certainty, exhaustion, self-sufficiency, being cool, fitting in, judgment, and an attitude of scarcity. 00:34:45.199 --> 00:35:09.840 But in the other column, the wholehearted column, I discovered words like worthiness, rest, play, trust, faith, intuition, hope, belonging, joy, gratitude, and creativity. 00:35:11.440 --> 00:35:18.000 So men and women, God wants us to be God saturated, and as we're God saturated with Him, He gives us hope. 00:35:18.239 --> 00:35:24.639 I heard a quote the other day the man with the most hope always has the most influence. 00:35:25.920 --> 00:35:27.519 I love that quote. 00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:35.119 The man or the woman with the most hope is the one who will carry the most influence. 00:35:36.079 --> 00:35:39.360 Thirdly and lastly, a singleness of focus. 00:35:39.679 --> 00:35:41.679 A single focus. 00:35:41.840 --> 00:35:51.360 Unlike Saul before him, David will walk into a battle with a single focus of God's glory and God's power. 00:35:51.599 --> 00:35:59.039 So look at 1 Samuel 17, and we'll cover this more in the weeks ahead, the famous story of David and Goliath. 00:35:59.199 --> 00:36:03.920 But I just want to camp on David's attitude here at the end. 00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:07.119 Look at verse 43. 00:36:08.400 --> 00:36:13.360 So let me paint the picture, and I know I'm running out of time, so I apologize. 00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:14.480 I'm just going to read it real quickly. 00:36:14.800 --> 00:36:18.239 We'll cover it more in the weeks ahead because it's such a powerful passage. 00:36:18.480 --> 00:36:20.480 But here's what's interesting. 00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:23.519 David, don't miss this now. 00:36:24.079 --> 00:36:29.519 David walks into a Goliath-dominated valley. 00:36:29.840 --> 00:36:31.119 Let me say that again. 00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:36.800 David walks into a Goliath-dominated valley, the valley of Elih. 00:36:36.880 --> 00:36:44.480 And what I mean is that all the soldiers of Israel were Goliath-dominated in their thinking. 00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:50.320 Some of you are Goliath-dominated all the time. 00:36:50.800 --> 00:36:56.320 All you think about are the obstacles, all you think about are the mountains in your life. 00:36:57.599 --> 00:37:03.360 David walks in, listen, with a God-saturated consciousness. 00:37:03.760 --> 00:37:15.039 David walks into the valley of Elah with a God-saturated consciousness, and he couldn't, and I really mean this, he's 13, and he couldn't care less about Goliath. 00:37:15.599 --> 00:37:20.719 All Goliath is, is an obstacle in the way of the glory of God. 00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:26.480 So we pick it up in verse 43, because he's disdained by this giant. 00:37:26.639 --> 00:37:31.760 So the Philistine said to David, Am I some kind of a dog that you come to me with sticks? 00:37:31.920 --> 00:37:34.800 And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:40.880 And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. 00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:51.280 Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 00:37:51.679 --> 00:37:56.639 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you. 00:37:56.800 --> 00:37:58.719 It's a 13-year-old. 00:37:59.199 --> 00:38:00.079 Come on. 00:38:01.679 --> 00:38:02.559 Come on. 00:38:05.039 --> 00:38:05.760 13. 00:38:06.239 --> 00:38:09.519 I mean, I'm just like, I dig this kid. 00:38:09.760 --> 00:38:11.920 I mean, I like this kid. 00:38:12.239 --> 00:38:15.119 This is David, a man after God's own heart. 00:38:15.519 --> 00:38:27.679 What God can do to create within our spirit a new consciousness of what God can do through us, because we're God saturated and we're wholehearted. 00:38:27.840 --> 00:38:29.840 So he just doesn't mix words. 00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:38.559 You come to me with a sword and a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 00:38:38.800 --> 00:38:44.159 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. 00:38:44.320 --> 00:38:55.119 And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 00:38:55.840 --> 00:38:57.519 Thirteen years old. 00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:08.639