The man after God's own heart

David Guzik – enduringword.com
..let's talk about the man after God's own heart, reading from 1 Samuel chapter 13 verses 13 and 14.

“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said {to king Saul}. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.
But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”
^NIV

King Saul sinned foolishly before the Lord. He failed to keep God's commandment and Saul made excuses instead of getting right with God.
It wasn't only that Saul sinned, the sin came from a heart far from God. Therefore God promised to take the kingdom away from Saul and his family.
Through the prophet Samuel, God told Saul, 'but now your kingdom shall not continue'. From these words, we might expect Saul to be removed as king right at that moment. But he would reign another 15 to 20 years. He was still on the throne as king, but the end of his kingdom was inevitable.
The kingdom was taken from Saul because he sinned, but it was more than that.
The man who replaced Saul, of course that was David. He also sinned. Yet God never took David and his descendants kingdom away from them.
The issue was more significant than an incident of sin. The issue was being a man after God's own heart.
What does it mean to be a man after God's own heart? We can compare a man who was not a man after God's own heart, Saul, with a man who was after God's heart, David.
- Number one, Saul was more concerned with his will than God's will. David knew that God's will was most important. Even when David didn't do God's will, he still knew God's will was more important.
All sin is a disregard of God, but David sinned more out of weakness and Saul sinned more out of disregard for God.
- A man after God's heart, secondly, enthrones God as king. For Saul, he was king. For David, the Lord God was king. Both David and Saul knew sacrifice before a battle was necessary.
Saul thought it was important because it might help him win the battle, and he believed that God would help him achieve his goals. But David thought it was important because it pleased and honored God, and that was the goal.
- Thirdly, a man after God's heart has a soft, repentant heart. When Saul was confronted with his sin, he offered excuses. When David was confronted with his sin, he confessed his sin, and he repented.
- Fourth, a man after God's heart loves others.
Saul became increasingly bitter against people, and he lived more and more unto himself. But David loved people. When David was down and out, he still loved and served those who were even more down and out than David was.
So when we read in 1 Samuel chapter 13, the Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart. We see that God was looking for this kind of man, and God found this man in an unlikely place. Matter of fact, at this time, he wasn't a man at all. He was just a boy.
But we can say this: Today, God is still looking for men and women after his own heart. He's still looking for men who are more concerned with his will than God than the will of men. God's still looking for men and women who will enthrone God in their hearts. He's looking for men and women who will do his will and honor him.
Today, we can be those kind of people, people after the heart of God.
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