A Man After God’s Own Heart

A Message for Josiah

Today I am going to be doing something different, something quite unusual

I have preached hundreds of sermons over the years – in fact, well over a thousand

When I preach a sermon I almost always am preaching to a large group of people

Not only those of you who are gathered here at Harvest Family Fellowship but also to those who listen on the radio and those who listen online

But today I am doing something that I’ve only done 3 other times

Today’s message is not directed at a group, but at a specific individual

I’m sure that there will be things that everyone else will get from this message, but it was written with one person in mind and it is to that person that I will be preaching

My message for today is a message for my incredibly handsome and overly talented son Josiah

In a little less than a month we will be taking him to the University of Valley Forge outside of Philadelphia where he will be beginning his freshman year

To say that I am proud of Josiah would be a huge understatement along the lines of saying that the ocean is wet

Some of you may think that I am biased in my opinion and you are absolutely right

I am unapologetically biased when it comes to my children

I am fortunate that I have children who are all smart, talented, and good looking – of course, with the gene pool that they came from how could they be otherwise?

Seriously though, this is a tough time for me

For 18 years I have had the privilege of you living under my roof full time

In just three and a half weeks this will no longer be the case

Yes, you will be back for breaks and still have my home as your legal address

But you are beginning your life on your own

You have become your own man

I always knew this day was coming, but it doesn’t mean I am ready for it

I’ve been doing some reflecting and asking myself if I’ve done everything that I need to do as your father

Have I taught you all that I can?

Is there anything else that you need to learn from me before you go out and take on this jacked up world that we all live in?

I have no idea, but just in case there are a few things that I want to say today

Over the years you have heard many lectures from the Ol’ Man, but please humor me today and listen to this one

I don’t believe that I am going to be telling you anything new – you know all of this stuff – but it’s good to be reminded from time to time about things that we know

So today my message to you is based on the life of David

Why did I choose David?

Because I believe that David is a very relatable person

He was an amazing man of God

In fact, the Bible has an amazing thing to say about David

Acts 13:22 He [God] testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'

God is testifying about David that David has the same heart as God!

What an amazing statement!

That’s something that most of us can only hope and pray that we obtain

The interesting thing is that David was far from perfect

He messed up in many ways, but in his heart his desire was to do the things of God

Josiah, I don’t expect you to be perfect

I know you are going to make mistakes

But through it all my prayer is that you, like David, will be a man after God’s own heart

I see a lot of that within you now and I know I will see more in the future

So, as I look at the life of David there are a few things that I’d like to talk about

The first thing is this –

God chooses unlikely people from out of the way places to do amazing things

What do I mean by that?

When we look at the history of the nation of Israel we see Israel asking God for a king

God has the prophet Samuel anoint Saul as king over Israel and everything goes well for a few years

Eventually Saul turns away from God and God rejects him as king

God then send the prophet Samuel to anoint a new king

God tells Samuel to go to an out of the way place – the small town of Bethlehem – to the house of a man named Jesse

God tells Samuel that one of Jesse’s sons has been chosen to be the next king

Samuel was to have Jesse line up all of his sons, and God would then tell Samuel which one was going to be the king

Jesse does what Samuel asks him to do and Samuel starts going down the line

1 Samuel 16:6,7 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord." ⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

Samuel goes down the line looking at each of Jesse’s son’s but God does not choose any of them

Samuel then looks at Jesse and asks if he has any more sons

"There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."

I’m not sure what Jesse was thinking when he didn’t include David in the line up

But whatever the reason, David was apparently the last person he expected to get chosen to be the next king

I can picture in my mind the conversation talking place between Jesse and his oldest son Eliab

“What’s going on Dad”

“The prophet Samuel said that one of you boys is going to be the next king!  We need to meet him and such and such of a place for a sacrifice!”

“But who’s going to watch the sheep?”

“Ah, we’ll leave David to watch the sheep, there’s no way God would want him to be king!”

But Jesse was wrong!  God did want David to be the king!

They went and got David and when he came in Scripture says

He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the Lord said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one." ¹³ So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.

David was an unlikely person

So unlikely that his own father  didn’t call him to stand before Saul

Yet David was who God chose to be the next king

Josiah – you may feel that you are unlikely – that there is not that much that is special about you

You are definitely from an out of the way place!

But always remember that unlikely people from out of the way places can change the world!

The next thing I want you to learn from the life of David is this:

Sometimes you go from a big fish in a little pond to a small fish in a huge lake

Right after Samuel anoints David as king we read that Saul was tormented by an evil spirit

Saul’s attendants suggested that they find someone who played the harp well and that maybe when this person played the evil spirit would leave Saul

1 Samuel 16:18 One of the servants answered, "I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him."

The son of Jesse being spoken of here is, of course, David

Saul sent for David and when David played the evil spirit left Saul

This was a significant step for David

Why?

Because even though David was selected to be the next king of Israel he was not yet ready to fulfill that task

There were many things David had to learn, so God put him in a place where he could learn

David may have been, and probably was, locally famous as a musician, but now he was on a national stage!

He went from being the best in his small town to being one of many very good players in the nation’s capital

I believe God is doing the same thing for you

In my totally biased opinion you were the best soccer player that New Covenant Academy had

Most likely you were one of the top high school players in our region

You were a big fish in a pretty small pond, but you are now moving on to play college soccer

You are soon going to be a small fish in a huge lake

That is quite a shift, and many people do not handle it well

It’s easy to feel insignificant and to lose all confidence

But remember this – God took David out of his small pond and put him in a big lake because there were things David needed to learn to fulfill his destiny

Josiah, you have no idea how significant your destiny is

God has big things in store for you and I am convinced that playing soccer at the University of Valley Forge is part of God’s preparation for these big things!

The third thing I want you to learn from the life of David is this:

People will be jealous

One thing that I have discovered is that whenever someone is fulfilling the call of God on their life people will get jealous

Usually these are people who are not following God’s call on their life so they will try to bring you down to make themselves feel better about their own shortcomings

David was a victim of this kind of jealousy

Not long after David was hired to play the harp for Saul Israel went to war with the Philistines

The Philistines had a giant by the name of Goliath that David ended up killing – you know the story

After David killed Goliath he returned with the army and we read this

1 Samuel 18:6-9 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes. ⁷  As they danced, they sang: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands." ⁸  Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. "They have credited David with tens of thousands," he thought, "but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?" ⁹  And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

Saul became insanely jealous of David and even tried to kill him on multiple occasions

It got to the point that David had to run for his life

Now hopefully people will never get quite that jealous of you!

However, don’t be surprised when they do get jealous

When this happens I encourage you to hold on to the promises of God and the confidence that you are following His will

Here’s another point I’d like to make

Choose your friends wisely

Your close friends can either make or break you

They will either lift you up, or drag you down

David’s best friend was Jonathan, the eldest son of Saul

As the eldest son of Saul he was next in line for the throne, yet Jonathan knew that God had called David to be the next king

We read in 1 Samuel 18 and 19 how Jonathan saved David’s life

Jonathan was an amazing friend for David and supported David totally in the call that God had for David

Contrast Jonathan, the friend of David, with the friends of David’s grandson Rehoboam

In 1 Kings 12 we read about how Rehoboam followed the lousy advice of his friends and literally divided a nation

I beg of you to surround yourself with good friends – people that lift you up, that support you, that challenge you, and that are not afraid to kick your butt if you need it!

The next thing I want you to learn from the life of David is this:

Nobody is perfect

Yes, Acts 13 calls David a man after God’s own heart – this must be true or Scripture would not say is

Yet even though David was a man after God’s own heart he was far from perfect!

David was a man just like you and me with all the imperfections and character issues common to man

In fact, Scripture records an event in David’s life that resulted in epic failure

In 2 Samuel 11 we read about the story of David and Bathsheba

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In this story we discover that David – this man after God’s own heart - was an adulterer, a liar, and a murderer.

That is certainly not anything that anyone would want to be known for

However, David did do something unusual

In 2 Samuel 12 the prophet Nathan confronts David, David takes total ownership of his mistakes

He made no excuses, he didn’t blame anyone else, he owned it

Not only did he own it, he fully repented towards God and begged for God’s forgiveness

The bottom line is that none of us are perfect, and that includes you

I know you know that you are not perfect

But I do want you to remember that even in your imperfections, God is crazy about you!

Nothing you could ever do will make God love you less

Hopefully you will never mess up to the point David did

But when you do mess up follow David’s example and own it

Don’t make excuses for your behavior

Don’t blame others for your behavior

Own your mistakes and turn them over to God

I could go on and on giving many more examples of important lessons to learn from the life of David, but I will end with one final thing

Leave an amazing legacy

David was a man that did many great things for God and also made some pretty big mistakes

But one of the things David also did was leave an amazing legacy!

There are many names mentioned in the Bible that never get talked about

But 3,000 years after David people are still talking about him!

In fact, one of the names that Scripture uses for Jesus is The Son of David

David left such a legacy that his name is associated with Jesus’ name for all of eternity!

Right now you are building the legacy that you will be known for

My prayer is that your legacy will be a powerful one

That countless lives will be changed for the better because of your influence

That the Kingdom of God will grow through the unique talents and abilities that God has given you

I am not at all ready for you to leave, but I know you must

I am not at all excited about the huge hole that you are going to leave in my home and in this ministry, but I am excited that you are beginning to fulfill the call that God has on your life!

One day, I hope that God will testify about you “I have found Josiah, son of Harry, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do”

I love you Josiah!