There are really only two approaches to life. There's the outside approach that says: "Life is found in what you can see, you can touch, you can taste, you can hear. And that approach always leads you to three places. It leads you to an inordinate occupation with appearance--all of us are free of that. (That was a joke!) Think about this stunning statistic from the American Association of Plastic Surgeons. In 2007, there were 11.7 million cosmetic surgeries done in America. We are obsessed with appearance.
The Outside Approach to Life
It will lead you to be obsessed with possessions. Success will be defined by the size of the pile of your stuff. The credit card companies, themselves, would tell us, that in America, we are in possession of almost a billion Master Cards and Visa Cards. In fact, if you're here this evening, and you're under 30, your generation has been given a new name. The name is, "Generation Debt." The debt load of people in this age group, this is a stunning fact, has increased 55% between 1999 and 2008. It will lead you to an inordinate occupation with pleasure.
Happiness is found in the pursuit of pleasure--get all the pleasure you can get. An amazing article in USA Today would tell us, this is hard to imagine, that we, two years ago crossed the border, where in the average American home, there are more televisions than people. It's shocking, but it's true. There is another very different approach to life. It's the inside approach. This approach would say that life is a matter of the heart, and the deepest joys that could ever be found, the most significant things that exist are things unseen.
And there is a war this side of eternity between these two approaches in our lives. Oh yes, sometimes we get it right, but all of us are seduced; all of us are attracted by the power of the material world. The material world isn't in itself an evil world, but you must not be ruled by it. Well, we are in this evening, if you want to look back in your 'Order of Service', or turn to I Samuel 16, one of the Scripture's great heart passages. And in many ways, it really does reveal to us the significance, the importance, the struggle of this inside approach to life and the lie of that outside approach to life.
We find ourselves in what is one of those sad and celebratory moments in Scripture. It's very, very sad that God has come to the point where He's had enough of Saul. Saul was an arrogant, self-focused, rebellious king who would not and did not do the will of God. And God had rejected him as king. God is about to send Samuel to anoint the next king of Israel, a King whose kingdom would never end, whose house would live forever. What an amazing thing. And God calls Samuel, and right away, as Scripture is so able to do, in this very understandable human moment, because Scripture paints humanity with such familiar colors, if you want to see yourself with accuracy, read the Bible.
We get a window into the heart of Samuel. Look at the beginning of the passage: "The Lord said to Samuel. How long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?" Samuel had the sad duty of looking Saul in the face, and saying, "Saul, it's over! God has rejected you as King." And Samuel was never again to see Saul until Saul's death. And even though their relationship had been a rocky one, this godly man loved this king. And he was filled with grief--maybe it would be more accurate to say he was held by grief.
And God comes to Samuel and says, "Samuel, my plan isn't over. My purposes are not done. You cannot let this grief rule you. How long will you grieve? I need you to get up. I have a job for you to do. I have a commitment to my plan, and I'm calling you to be part of it." Grief is a very, very powerful thing. I would ask you this evening, is there, in your life, perhaps some kind of grief in the way of you, with joy pursuing the plan of God?" Maybe you're a parent, and you're looking back on your time with parenting, and you're filled with regret, and that regret is a powerful force that paralyzes you, and keeps you from experiencing the joy that you should know as a child of God, and the courage with which you should live.
Samuel's Struggle and Yours
Maybe you're grieved over a dream that is shattered, a plan that went awry, a hope that has been dashed, a friendship that has been broken. Could it be that Samuel's struggle is your struggle? There's a grief that's in the way of God's plan and purpose for you. But that wasn't all of Samuel's struggle, God says, "Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king amongst his sons." The minute Samuel sees that, his heart is filled with a second, very powerful experience, and in both of his experiences, we can relate to.
And Samuel says, "How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me." The minute God says, "Samuel, this is what I'm calling you to do," well, Samuel knows this king. He knows his anger, he knows he's capable of violence, and Samuel is immediately filled with fear--wouldn't you be too? Fear is a powerful thing, and it can rule my heart in ways that push out of my heart, my confidence, and my trust, and my zeal for serving the Lord. Psalm 37 says, "Do not fret." It only leads to evil--the things that you do out of this kind of fear are often the things you later live to regret.
What is the fear for you? Physical fears, fears about questions of the doubt of the goodness of God, maybe it's fear of man, maybe you know that you have been given wonderful opportunities to reflect the love of the Lord Jesus Christ with a neighbor? You have this opportunity to speak His truth into their lives, but fear keeps you from doing that. Is there some ministry that God is calling you to that God has opened up an opportunity for you to do, but fear keeps you from doing that? What universal experiences these are.
You can relate--is there a grief that holds you? Is there a fear that grips you? Well, Samuel actually does go. God loves this man; God is a God of grace, and God is not intending to needlessly expose this man to the violence of Saul, and He provides a reason for Samuel to go to Bethlehem and to Jesse. And says, "Go there and make sacrifice. Take a heifer with you." When Samuel arrives at Bethlehem, the elders meet him, and they're a bit jittery because they know this is the prophet of God. They know that there are times when he comes to announce judgment, and they run out and meet him before he gets to the city to make sure that he comes in peace.
And Samuel makes sacrifice, and you'll notice there in verse 5, he consecrates Jesse and his sons and invites them to make sacrifice. And then Samuel moves to do what God has called for him to do. It says in verse 6: When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, 'Surely the LORD's anointed is before him.' But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.' There it is.
Even this man of God, this man who, in many ways, has come to understand that life is a matter of the heart, and that God has rejected Saul because God never owned this man's heart. Yet Samuel falls into what is so typical of us. It's pretty clear from what God says that he's attracted to the stature of Eliab, and to his appearance--he perhaps looks kingly. I'm not sure what that means, but that's probably how he looks, maybe he's strong and of big frame, and he's a handsome guy. And God says, "This is not what I'm paying attention to; this is not what's important to me.
Samuel Courses Through the Sons
What's important to me is this man's heart." I want to come back and talk about that. Let me work you through the story. Well, Samuel courses through the seven sons that are before him. And he gets to the end of the lineup, and God hasn't placed his anointing on any of these boys, and it's a bit of a confusing moment. So Samuel turns to Jesse and says, "You know, Jesse, it's none of these guys, none of these has God chosen. Are these all of your sons?" Now, it's an amazing thing, there's another son--he wasn't even invited to the lineup.
It's David, and he says, "Well, there remains the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep." What an amazing family scene. Poor David--the most important gathering of his family, the most significant lineup this family would ever know, and David isn't even given an invitation. Samuel said to Jesse, "Well go get that boy. We'll not sit down until he comes." And when David comes, he's a ruddy and handsome man as well, young man with beautiful eyes. Maybe it doesn't need to be said, but God wasn't looking for someone ugly.
That's not the point of the passage. God is looking for a man who has a heart for Him. And the Lord said, "Arise and anoint him, for this is he." And Samuel takes the horn of oil and anoints him in the midst of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord falls on David- -that spirit of anointing given to David to equip him and to empower him to do the thing that God was calling him to do. This is an incredibly significant moment in the Old Testament, because out of this man's line will come the Messiah, the Lord Jesus.
Now, I want to go back with you to verses 6 and 7, because I think that we want to understand the significance of what God says in this moment. It's almost impossible to overstate it. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, 'Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.' But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. (Now hear this!) For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.' Now there are many, many things that we can draw out of that little statement, but I want to make sure that you understand the language of the statement.
First of all, what is the Bible talking about when it talks about this thing called the heart? I am sometimes afraid that the more we use biblical terminology, the more familiar that it becomes, and the more familiar it becomes, the less defined it becomes, and we think we know what we're talking about when we don't actually know what we're talking about. And this is important for us to talk about because this term and its significance have fallen into fundamental disuse in our culture. The Bible, when it talks about a human being, it divides the human being into two pieces: your outer man and your inner man.
Your outer man is your physical self. Your inner man is your spiritual self-it's the essential 'you'. The Bible uses many terms for the inner man: mind and emotion, and spirit, and soul, and will, and all of those terms are collected in this big basket term, the term 'heart'. There are few single terms in Scripture that are used as much as this term 'heart'. The Bible is literally an examination, an exposition of the heart, and a story of God's zeal to reclaim our hearts. Now, when Scripture talks about the heart, it is talking about the causal core of your personhood.
It's talking about the thing that causes you to say what you say and to do what you do. The thing that structures, shapes, controls, and shepherds your behavior and your words is not the situations around you. We want to think that. We want to think that we do the things we do because of what is around us. And there's some self-atonement and self-justification; there's some ease in conscience in that because that allows us to think we couldn't possibly be as bad as our words and actions depict, because our words and actions are not really a depiction of what we are; they're a depiction of the difficulty of our situations and relationships.
Behavior Is the Result of the Heart
And if these difficult situations and relationships weren't in our life, we wouldn't be doing the things that we do. I know that you can relate to this. The Bible would say that our behavior is the result of the way that our hearts interact with the situations and relationships of life. Now, I don't think there is a more fearsome phrase in all of Scripture than the one I'm about to say to you, "But the Lord looks on the heart." God sees every thought of your heart; He sees every interpretation, every interaction of your heart.
He sees every purpose, and desire, and motivation of your heart--there is not one movement of your heart that isn't fully known by the Lord. So hear this, brothers and sisters, our Lord will not be satisfied with externalities. He is not fooled by your wealth. He is not fooled by your power. He is not fooled by your appearance. He is not even fooled by your theological ability. He is not necessarily fooled by your ministry. God is not fooled by your worship. Now maybe you're thinking, "Oh, Paul, you've gone too far."
Turn with me; please do this if you grab one of the church Bibles there to Matthew 15. Christ is responding to the Pharisees who had elevated their tradition to the same level of God's command, and notice what He says as He quotes the Old Testament, end of what is it there?...verse 7: Well did Isaiah prophesy to you, when he said: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' In the Old Testament, God says, "Away with your feasts, away with your holy days, away with your solemn assemblies; they are an abomination to me."
Imagine God saying, "I don't want your worship, I don't want your acts of worship if your acts of worship are not a picture of the deep allegiance of your heart to me and to me alone." Now I wish I could say to you tonight, brothers and sisters, that the heart of this man is full of allegiance to God alone and nothing else, but there is a war taking place in my heart. And things that are alright to desire rise in their importance, and they challenge the worship that I should have for God and God alone.
And it is possible to come here, brothers and sisters, we need to face this, and to sing with a ready heart, "Great Is Thy faithfulness," and "Who Is On The Lord's Side," and "This Is My Father's World," and to do that at the end of a week that's been a week of functional idolatry. God doesn't want you to come here to experience worship; He wants you to come here as a worshipper. He will settle for nothing less than our hearts because He created our hearts, and He knows that if He doesn't have our hearts, He doesn't have us.
If He doesn't have your thoughts, if He doesn't have your motives, if He doesn't have your desires, and if He doesn't have your purposes, He doesn't have you. And He couldn't love you if He would settle for anything less; that wouldn't be love. He wants our hearts; He wants our hearts; He wants our hearts. In Ezekiel 14, there are elders of Israel who come to ask questions of God, and God recognizes that they have idols in their hearts, and His response to them is a powerful one. It's as if God stands up in the middle of Israel, and He says this, "This one thing I will do.
Are Your Words and Actions Worship?
I will recapture the hearts of my people to serve me and me alone." I don't want to ask you this evening just if your heart was lifted in worship this evening. I want to ask you if your words and actions this week were shaped by a deep love and worship for God? That you are living in joyful pursuit of Him, that there is nothing more significant, nothing more important in all of your life than that your words and your actions, your choices and your decisions, would please your Lord and Savior? God is not fooled by appearances because God sees the heart.
Now, how can you hear that and not live in utter terror? Well, I would like you to turn to another passage; turn with me to Micah 5. You see, brothers and sisters, here's our struggle. It's okay to want respect of others, but I must not be ruled by it. It's okay to desire comfort, but I must not be ruled by it. It's okay to be attracted to beauty, but I must not be ruled by it. It's okay to want success, but I must not be ruled by it. It's okay to want to live in a thankful community, but I must not be ruled by appreciation.
It's okay to want a life that is orderly, but I must not be ruled by control. There's a war for our hearts, and God knows every thought and motive of our hearts. Micah 5, verse 2: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be the ruler of Israel, whose coming forth (origin) is from old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.
And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And He shall be their peace. (ESV) Why am I not afraid when I hear the truth that God knows every thought and motive of my heart? Because out of the line of David came another King, but this King didn't come to set up an earthly kingdom. This King came as a Lamb. He came, not just to make a sacrifice, but to be a sacrifice.
And this Perfect Lamb took all of our sins, past, present, and future, on Him. And, in Him, there is forgiveness, forgiveness for every wrong thought, forgiveness for every wrong motive, forgiveness for every wrong desire, and forgiveness for every selfish, ungodly intention. And His promise is this...that He will give us a new heart. God will settle for nothing less than owning your heart. But that God, who makes that requirement, is the only hope for your heart because, in Him, there is forgiveness; in Him, there is life; in Him, there is hope.
Let me ask you, "Where the rubber-meets-theroad in everyday living, who owns your heart?" Let's pray: Lord, what a significant thing it is to understand that you've created us with hearts that are meant to be owned by You. That sin causes us to give our hearts to other things, and yet You are a God of amazing grace. And You've made a way for us to be forgiven. And You are a God of radical, personal change, and You've made it possible for our hearts to be renewed, and once again find our deepest, fullest joy in loving You, in serving You, in the worship of You. Oh, Lord, come near and change our hearts by Your Spirit, we would pray. In Jesus's name, Amen.
