1 SAMUEL: PURSUING GODS HEART2017 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Samuel: Pursuing Gods Heart

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2017. Well, this evening, we're going to be beginning the book of 1 Samuel.

I'm really excited to jump into this journey with you and dig in to some of the things that God has for us in 1 Samuel. This evening, we're going to not really do jumping into chapter one, but kind of do a little bit of an introduction, a little bit of an overview regarding the theme that the Lord put on my heart as we're jumping into 1 Samuel. You can see it there on the slide. It's pursuing God's heart.

It really comes from this passage. I have reference there. 1 Samuel 13, verse 13 and 14. Here's what it says. And Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be the commander over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

These words that Samuel delivers to King Saul really kind of provide for us this theme of pursuing God's heart and that Saul was no longer going to be king, but God was going to find a man who was after his own heart. Or in other words, a man who pursued God's heart.

And that's a theme that I believe that God wants to speak to us about throughout our study of this book. The need for us to be in pursuit of the heart of God, to know the heart of God, and to be seeking to live lives that are in agreement with the heart of God. And so we're going to be digging into that over the next several months as we work our way through 1 Samuel. Now, 1 Samuel is a transitional book.

because we're transitioning from the time of the judges into the time of the kings. And so we start the book with the last judge, Samuel, and we end the book with the second king, but the greatest king of the nation of Israel, and that's King David. And so we'll be looking at these three main people throughout our study of 1 Samuel. Samuel, the prophet, Saul, the king, and then David, the king.

Now, as we look at these three people and God's work in their lives, we learn a lot about God in these chapters and in these accounts of what the Lord was doing in their lives. We learn about how God works. We learn about the nature and character of God. There's also many leadership lessons for those who are in leadership and need to get some guidance on how to trust God, how to walk with God, how to lead God's people, how

But again, the one thing that the Lord continued to highlight and put upon my heart as I was working through 1 Samuel is this idea of pursuing God's heart. And so that's what we want to look at tonight. We'll see it throughout the book, but we'll start with it here. And again, it comes from this passage in 1 Samuel 13, again in verse 14.

Samuel tells Saul, now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart. A man who is after the heart of God. What does it mean then to be a man after God's own heart?

And you could, you know, make that pronoun female if you'd like. What does it mean to be a woman after God's own heart? What does it mean to be a person after God's heart? What does that look like? Well, if you just look at these couple verses, verse 13 and 14, you can get a good picture of that by noting the contrast that Samuel is giving. The opposite of Saul is going to be this man after God's own heart. And

And what was the issue there with Saul? Well, in verse 13, he tells him very clearly, you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. And then in verse 14, he says, the Lord sought a man after his own heart because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. And so here, I think we get a real clear picture about what it means to be a man or a woman after God's own heart.

Here's what it means to pursue God's heart. It's not some kind of weird thing or mystical thing or even some emotional thing. It really comes down to obedience to God. To be a man or a woman after God's own heart is to be a man or woman who obeys God, who seeks to please God, who seeks to be obedient to God,

in their life and in all things. And as we look at 1 Samuel, we'll be able to see how Saul was disobedient regularly. It was kind of the rule of thumb for his life. When God wanted him to do something, he didn't do it. David, on the other hand, when we look at him, the rule of his life was

was that he sought what God wanted, and he sought to obey God throughout his life. And so this obedience to God is really kind of the core issue of being a man or woman after God's own heart. And you can see that from the quotation of this passage in Acts 13, verse 22.

It says, when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king, to whom he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. And then notice, who will do all my will.

There is Paul kind of refers back to first Samuel and this whole transition from Saul to David. He, he points out that, that God highlighted David and said, that's the man after my own heart. But, but he adds on this little explanation, which again, helps us understand what it means to be a man or woman after God's own heart. And that is to be one who does God's will to pursue God's heart and

is about pursuing the will of God for your life. Pursuing what God desires, pursuing what God prefers, pursuing what God decrees. A man who will do God's will is a man after God's own heart. And so the question to ask as we get into this book this evening, as well as the coming weeks,

Are you a man or a woman after God's own heart? Do you have a pursuit of the will of God taking place in your lives? It's not something that happens automatically. It's not something that happens naturally. But that pursuit is something that we'll be engaging in as we go through these chapters and see the work of God that is taking place.

Pastor Chuck Smith says that God is always seeking for a man after his own heart who will do his will. Too many times, he says, we have self at the center of our lives, as did Saul. And because self is at the center of our lives, we're more interested in doing our will than we are doing God's will. And I would suggest that Pastor Chuck's assessments of us generally is fairly accurate.

That very often we are at the center of our lives, that our desires, what we want. And so we talk about what I think, I talk about what I feel, I talk about what I want. But it's really important that we kind of change gears a bit and we begin to ask, what does God want? God is always seeking for those who would be pursuing his heart.

And asking that question, God, what do you want in my life? What do you want with this decision? What do you want with this direction? What do you want with my children? What do you want with my occupation? What do you want with whatever? That we would be seeking God's will and his direction for our behavior, for everything and every aspect of our lives. Now, that's really not a complicated concept, but

But also we see throughout the scriptures, it's kind of a rare find to find someone who is pursuing the heart of God. And so, again, it's a good exhortation for us as we jump into this book that we're

We need this reminder. We're not looking at these things just so we can be encouraged about how great we are at pursuing God's heart. I would suggest to you that the Lord has brought us here into this book for this time because, well, we need to be reminded and encouraged and stirred up to not just continue on in what we want, to not just continue on in what we think, to not just continue on, but to really look to God and find out what does God want for my life?

What does he say about these things? As we look at the book of 1 Samuel, this introduction to the heart of God comes at a time when the people desperately need a man pursuing God's heart. Now, God says that specifically regarding David, but I'm also going to apply it to Samuel because he was a man after God's own heart also. And as he is brought on the scene, it was at a time where the nation desperately needed God.

this kind of leadership, they needed the example of a man who was dedicated and devoted to pleasing God, to seeking God, and to being obedient to God. And again, I think this is timely for us to consider. As you look at our nation, as you look at our families, as you look at our church, we are desperately in need of men and women who will stand up and pursue the heart of God.

who will be steadfast and devoted to pleasing God, no matter what the cost. Now, as we get into this, I want to take some time to kind of back up a little bit and give us some context to understand their condition and where they were as a nation as God brought the prophet Samuel into their lives, and then later on David as well. And so here's a quick look at the timeline.

And I meant to hand them out Richard I'm sorry can you. There's, it's called a historical books it's an orange handout. Yeah, Richard's going to hand those out so you can kind of have it in your lap if you want to look at a closer look at this timeline, but

Here's a quick look at the historical books. And so you have Joshua, you have Judges, you have Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles kind of overlaps that time frame, and then Ezra and Nehemiah. This is what's known in the Old Testament as the historical books.

which records the majority of the history of the nation of Israel. And prior to that, you have the books of Moses, which record the history from the beginning up to the time of Joshua. And so this is really the record of the whole Old Testament. And we have kind of it outlined there for you. Now, as we're jumping into 1 Samuel, we're jumping in when the nation is again in transition.

There's been about 400 years where there has been no king and no real significant leader over the whole nation. But there were these local judges that would rise up whenever there was a need and and they would be raised up by the Lord and deliver them. But now Samuel is going to be kind of used by the Lord to bring a unity to the nation as a whole with the word of the Lord.

And then at the end of Samuel's ministry, Saul is going to be anointed king and then David a little bit later on. And so David is anointed king at the end of 1 Samuel, and we'll see that when we get there. And so we're going to be looking at this time period where Samuel is coming on the scene after this long period of...

People not really pursuing the heart of God, number one, but also not having an example of someone who really pursues the heart of God. I want to take us kind of back to the beginning. And so if you would turn with me, please, to Joshua chapter 24. Joshua chapter 24 and kind of set the stage for where we are in 1 Samuel and also give us some insight about what it is to pursue God's heart and what that looks like.

In Joshua chapter 24, you're probably familiar with the passage. It's just a couple books back, so you should be able to find it pretty quickly there. But Joshua in chapter 24 is at the end of his life. He has led the people into the promised land, as God called him to. He's helped them conquer the promised land and all of the nations. And, you know, there was still the smaller nations that were in there that the individual tribes had to go in and conquer, and they hadn't done that yet.

But as Joshua is winding down his ministry in chapter 24, he calls all of Israel together kind of for like a last exhortation, a last encouragement. And he's really challenging them to follow the Lord. And we find in Joshua chapter 24, verse 14, we have Joshua's words. He says,

And so here Joshua calls the people to serve God. And that was going to entail, notice, putting away other gods. And that gives us a little bit of insight about where the children of Israel were in the time of Joshua, right? They knew God. They...

worshiped God. They would probably say that they loved God, but they also had other gods. And so Joshua is calling them to put away those other gods and serve the Lord exclusively. He goes on in verse 15, and if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.

whether the gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. And so here in Joshua's exhortation, he says, look, you have to choose. If it seems evil for you to serve the Lord, well, nobody's going to force that on you. So make a choice.

You have to choose, though. That's the point. Whether you're going to serve the gods, which your father served, whether you're going to serve these idols and these things that the people around you worshipped or the things that you brought out of Egypt with you, if you're going to serve those things, well, then make that choice and serve those gods or choose to serve the Lord. But choose this day. And then Joshua makes the statement for himself.

He says, as for me and my house, here's my decision. I've made a choice. We will serve the Lord. Nobody is forced to serve the Lord. If it's evil to you, well, you choose for yourselves. You get to choose, but you must choose who you're going to serve. What's going to be the priority of your life? What's going to be the passion of your life? You get to choose that.

It's not forced upon you, and it's not subject to just whatever happens in your life. It's your choice whether or not you, I'm going to put it this way, pursue God's heart. That's your choice. Nobody can choose it for you. And so, well, that gives us point number one for this evening, and that is pursuing God's heart is a personal choice. You need to know that pursuing God's heart is a personal choice. You must choose God.

whether or not you're going to serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you, well, that's your choice. And you can serve anything else that you want. And you can pursue your own heart. You can pursue the heart of the world around us. You can pursue, you know, the heart of this or the heart of that. You can pursue this life or that life. You can pursue this priority or that priority. But that's your choice. And the exhortation from Joshua, which is now extended to us, is serve the Lord.

Put away those other gods. Now, Joshua could exhort the people, but he couldn't make the choice for the people. He couldn't force it upon them. They had to voluntarily choose for themselves. And thus far, they were not choosing to pursue God's heart. It's something important to consider because they had idols. They were not choosing to pursue God's heart. They wanted...

God in their lives, but they also wanted these other idols and gods and these other passions and these other priorities. They wanted to try to have the world and have God, and Joshua is calling them to make a choice. You can't try to pursue God's heart, or you can't have the heart of God, as well as be pursuing your own passions, your own dreams, your own desires, your own thoughts, your own ways.

Now, the people responded after this here in Joshua 24 and said, yeah, we will serve the Lord. And Joshua challenged him on that. He's like, are you sure? Because listen, you make that choice. God takes it seriously. And they said, no, no, we're serious. We will serve the Lord. And in verse 23, notice what Joshua says. Now, therefore, he said, put away the foreign gods which are among you and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.

And the people said to Joshua, the Lord, our God, we will serve in his voice. We will obey. The people said, we will pursue God's heart. Joshua says, you made the choice to follow the Lord. That's great. Good. Now here's what you need to do. Make it exclusive. Put away the other gods and incline your hearts towards the Lord. That is pursue God's heart. And they said, yes, we will obey. We will pursue the heart of

And so Joshua gave a great exhortation, a great call to action. But notice that Joshua could not force the people to make the decision. And he couldn't set laws to make the people choose to pursue God's heart. It's important for us to understand that. We can influence people. We can have a part in the choice and call to action. But it still has to be the individual's choice.

I can't choose for you. I can't force you to choose. And that can be real frustrating for us because we want to make people choose, right? We want them to experience God's best for them, but they have to choose. And here that people choose to serve the Lord, I would say maybe dot, dot, dot, kind of, that they choose to serve the Lord. That's what they said, right?

But then as we head into the time of Judges, and so again, we're with Joshua, they've conquered the land, they've experienced great victory, but they haven't gone anywhere. They've been kind of just at a stagnant place for many years. And Joshua, at the end of his life, calls them together and says, look, you guys need to make a choice and go forward with God. And so they say, we will serve the Lord. But then we go from there into the time of Judges. And in Judges chapter one, you have the death of Joshua and Joshua,

As they begin to conquer the land and Joshua now goes to be with the Lord, now the real test of that declaration of their choice is going to be taking place. And you can turn with me to Judges chapter 2.

In Judges chapter two, we have kind of a summary of the whole book of Judges, which is, you know, shown there in the outline. And you have in green the different guys, you know, who are raised up as judges. It's not all of the judges. It's just a sample. But over this 400-year period, there was this repeating cycle where the people would disobey God. As a result of their disobedience, they would experience judgment and be brought into captivity and affliction and oppression from the enemy.

And then because of the difficulty of the affliction, they would cry out to God and then God would send them a deliverer and they would be set free from whatever, you know, a nation or, or, or people that were coming against them. And this cycle was repeated over and over and over and over and over again for these 400 years. Well,

When we think of the word judge or we think of judges, you know, automatically, at least in my mind, I think of, you know, a courtroom, legal proceedings. That's not the kind of judge that this this was a deliverer, someone who would be like a conqueror, you know, a military leader who would come in and and lead the people to victory, but also lead the people to call out to God once again, to call upon the Lord again.

Now God gives his summary. That was my summary of judges. God gives his summary of judges in Judges 2, verse 18 and 19. It says, And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. And so you see here, God, you know, would deliver them as they called out.

But then in verse 19, and it came to pass when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. Here we see the pattern over and over again. They said, we will serve the Lord. But when Joshua died, what happened? The people, they veered from that declaration.

generations were going on. So some of this is happening because, you know, kids are being raised up and it's the next generation that's turning away. But at the same time, there's the current generation that is turning away, that is veering from their declaration, their choice. I made the choice. I will serve the Lord. But after that prophet is dead,

After that season is over, after that thing that was so inspirational to me, so influential for me, after that is removed from my life, I find that my choice was not as deeply rooted as I thought or as I hoped, as I wanted. And now I'm wandering and not faithful to that declaration of pursuing God's heart.

The end result in the book of Judges, in Judges chapter 21, verse 25, it says that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And that's a contrast to pursuing the heart of God. Here's the general declaration of the people in the time of the judges. Everybody did what they wanted to do.

Not everybody pursued the heart of God. Not everybody did what God wanted them to do. Not everybody did the will of God, but everybody did what they thought was good, what they thought was right, what they thought was wise. It was a bad condition. There was no good leader. Everyone did what they wanted. It was kind of like anarchy and chaos and wickedness and corruption and idolatry and

again, as Samuel is going to come on the scene here after this time of judges, as he's kind of the final judge for the nation of Israel, he's coming into a time of great corruption. And we'll see that in just a moment as we jump into 1 Samuel, actually. But again, just to recap this idea here, the point is pursuing God's heart is a choice. And the people said they made the choice. But to make the choice, actually...

Well, it demands then that you live up to that choice and you live accordingly, that you act accordingly. Saul, as we saw in 1 Samuel 13, he chose to disobey. He had the commands of God. He had the will of God right in front of him. And he chose to do his own will instead. The people of Joshua's day had the call to choose, had the example of Joshua, but they chose to follow their own ways instead. And the people at the time of Judges,

They had the deliverers. They had the redeemers. They had the examples. They had the call. But again, they chose. It was a personal choice. That judge had influence during their life, and it impacted their life, and it was a good influence. But it wasn't a lasting change because the judge couldn't make the people choose to follow the Lord, choose to pursue God's heart. It has to be something that the individual people choose.

So again, I would ask you to consider, what do you choose? What's your choice? Will you follow the Lord? Or will you prioritize what you think, what you feel, and what you want? And neglect to consider, neglect to follow what God wants. As we go through this, I really do want to encourage us to pursue God's heart, because we need, we need the will of God in our lives. Now,

As we look at this time of judges now heading into the time of Samuel and the Kings, Samuel is the final judge. And so when he comes on the scene, it's at the tail end of judges where everybody's doing what's right in their own eyes. And so again, I would say the nation is in great need of a man who pursues God's heart. They need this example. They need this call to follow the heart of God and to do what God wants. And so God says,

provides this man himself. He works miraculously through the barrenness of Hannah to bring her to the point where she would devote Samuel to the Lord. And then Samuel, devoted to the Lord from his birth, is used by God to call the nation once again back to the heart of God.

He comes on the scene by God's providence. God brings him on the scene at a time where the nation is desperate, desperate for a man of God. You can turn with me now to 1 Samuel 2. 1 Samuel 2. Keep in mind, at this time, everyone is doing what's right in their own eyes. There's no king. There's no good leaders. The priesthood is corrupt. Check out 1 Samuel 2, verse 12.

It says, now the sons of Eli were corrupt. They did not know the Lord. So in this nation at that time, everybody's doing what they want to do. And even the priests, now Eli was the high priest and the way it worked, the priesthood worked was the sons of the high priest were the priests. And so the sons of Eli were the priests, but they were corrupt. They were wicked. In fact, as we'll get into it in the coming weeks and we'll see that they were so wicked that

They were involved in sexual immorality there at the tabernacle with the people who came to worship God and, you know, saying, hey, if you do this with me, you know, you're worshiping God. It's your service to God. I mean, that's it's absolute wickedness, right? That's that's corruption. Like what you can't get, you know, worse than that, can you? I mean, it's it's absolute corruption. This is the condition of the priests, right?

The people who were called to lead the nation spiritually, who were called to teach people how to pursue God's heart, this was their condition. And Eli, their dad, wasn't much better. He, well, he knew what was going on, but he didn't do anything about it. And God will rebuke that. And so Samuel comes on the scene when all of this is going on. It's chaos. It's corruption. Not only that, but as we now move to 1 Samuel 3, verse 1,

It says, and the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no widespread revelation. So are you getting the picture? There was no king, no good leaders. Everybody did whatever they wanted to do, whatever was right in their own eyes. The spiritual leaders were corrupt, far from God, and not helping people to know God or walk with God. And there was no word from the Lord for a long time.

God hadn't spoken. Now don't fault God for that. God hadn't spoken because look at the condition of the people. They weren't seeking to hear from God. They weren't pursuing God's heart. But God in his mercy provides himself a man to break through the chaos, to break through all of the wickedness that's going on, to shine a light and call the people back to choose the heart of God, to choose to pursue God's heart.

And so God strategically, supernaturally places Samuel right here at the perfect place at the perfect time and now begins to speak to Samuel. And we'll get to that in a couple of weeks. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel's laying down to sleep and the Lord calls out to him, Samuel, Samuel. And he thinks Eli the priest is calling out to him. So he goes to talk to Eli and says, hey, Eli, you called me. What's up? And Eli says, I didn't call you. Go back to bed. Samuel, Samuel. He goes back.

You called me for sure. I mean, I heard Samuel, Samuel. And after a couple of times, Eli realizes, oh, you know what? God's probably talking to you. It took him a while because again, there was no common thing. It wasn't a common thing for God to speak in those days. They were far from God. So Eli said, no, no, that's God talking. When you go back and you hear that again, you tell God in verse 10, we see the response. It says, now the Lord came and stood and called us at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel answered, speak.

for your servant hears. This was really the beginning for Samuel to pursue the heart of God. How did he pursue God's heart? He responded to God's call and he said, speak.

I'm listening. I want to hear what you have to say. And then as God speaks to him, then Samuel is obedient to do what God calls him to do, to deliver a message to Eli, a difficult message, but he delivers it. And that's the beginning of him pursuing the heart of God, that he hears from God. He's open to receiving from God, that he does what God says. He does God's will. He does God's command.

And so here we find Samuel pursuing the heart of God as he receives from the Lord and then responds to it. Now that brings me to the second point as we look at 1 Samuel 3, and that is that God reveals his heart by his word. In verse 21, it says, "...then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord."

God's bringing the word of God to the people now, to the nation. And it's beginning to be well known that Samuel is a prophet of the Lord. He's the light in the midst of the chaos, in the midst of the wickedness and the darkness. And the Lord appeared again. And how did he appear? He revealed himself. How did he reveal himself? He revealed himself by the word of the Lord. And so as we spend time in 1 Samuel, spending time in God's word,

God is going to reveal himself. If you want to know God, if you want God to reveal himself to you, get into his word. And again, pursuing God's heart comes back to obedience. It comes back to pleasing God. It comes back to doing the will of God. If you want to know his commands, if you want to know what pleases God, if you want to know God's will for your life, get into the word of God. And you could think about that as the prophetic word, because Samuel was a prophet who brought forth

the prophetic word along with the scriptures, but then also you have the written word and they both go hand in hand. They both are essential and necessary in our lives. The idea of a prophetic word, it's a speaking on behalf of God. And Samuel as a prophet, that's what he did. He spoke on behalf of God. And you know, God still uses people to speak on his behalf today.

Of course, we can look at the example of the pastor, right? God has established the pastor teacher in the church to speak on behalf of God, but it's not an exclusive thing in that way because what we find Paul encourage us in first Corinthians chapter 14, verse one, to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. You know, God wants to use you to bring forth his word and

Into the lives of other believers. This is in the context. First Corinthians 14 is in the context of the church. In the lives of other believers, God uses us to bring forth prophecy, to bring forth a prophetic word, which helps reveal God's heart to people. And you and I have the opportunity, but Paul says it's not going to happen automatically. You need to pursue it and you need to desire spiritual gifts, right?

You need to love people enough to pursue and to seek after and to seek that God would use you to bring forth his word in a way that reveals himself in his heart to the people around you. Pursuing God's heart is not a topic, you know, for those occasional Davids or the actual Davids, you know. So this whole message only applies to that guy sitting there, right? No, no, no. This is for all of us. God wants his people to know his heart.

He wants us to pursue his heart and he wants us to be agents to help others to know his heart.

And so I want to encourage you, you know, this is one of the reasons why we dedicate the closing time on Wednesdays to a time to be able to minister to one another, whether it be individually or corporately, that we would have that opportunity to be those agents of the Lord, to bring forth prophecy, to speak on behalf of God. And it doesn't have to be

you know, something weird. It can just be a verse or something that's on your heart or something that God gives you or a prayer that you give, you know, and pray over someone. It could be a variety of things that God would move, but it's that response to, like Samuel, speak Lord for your servant listens. And it's part of us pursuing God's heart to pursue love and desire spiritual gifts and minister to others and bring forth that prophetic word to others because God wants to use us

to minister to others. It's a need. And if you're going to be pursuing God's heart, let me tell you, this is going to be part of your life. God's going to want you to be his agent, to speak to people, to encourage them, to build them up, to comfort them. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, that's what prophecy does. It edifies, it comforts, it builds up. Now, a little quick side note, as I talked about Samuel being the light coming in at a time of chaos, I think that Corinth, the church of Corinth,

was the New Testament book of Judges. Because in Corinth, what was happening? Chaos. And people were abusing spiritual gifts. They were out of line. They had bad theology. All kinds of stuff was interrupting the service and things were going on. And Paul had to set things in order and set things straight. And we do have to follow God's heart on the order and get in line with what God wants. But understand that what God wants is that you would

Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, especially that you would prophesy, especially that you would bring forth the word of God to others around you. Now, to go along with that, that the protection for, you know, just outlandish nonsense is the written word. And that is any prophetic word will be in agreement with the written word if it's truly from God. And if it's contrary to the written word, it's not of God.

The Lord says in Isaiah 8, verse 20, to the law and to the testimony, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And so there's the bumpers, you know, on the lane for us. We can't mess up when we stick to the word of God and we can bring forth the word of God

knowing that it is what God says and God's desire for us. And so pursuing God's heart, God reveals his heart by his word. We need to be students of the word. We need to be in the word of God. We need to be sharing the word of God. We can think about what I think, what I feel, what I want, but what does God say? What does God want? What does God desire? He's spoken. He's revealed. He's shown already what we need. And it's found in the scriptures. If you want to know God,

Get into his word. Be engaged in receiving the teaching of the word of God like you are this evening, but also be engaged in ministering to one another. It's part of the way that God works as we pursue his heart. Be like Samuel, that openness, that willingness. Speak, Lord, for your servant listens.

Well, I want to hit a couple other points as we kind of work our way a little bit through 1 Samuel. Not hitting a ton of points, but just considering some other aspects. If you'll jump with me down to 1 Samuel 8 here, the point is God's heart is not inherited. As we talk about pursuing God's heart, you need to understand that it's not something that happens automatically. It's not inherited automatically.

You know, there's some things that I inherited from my parents and I have my, you know, my dad's hairline. You know, they say it comes from your mom's side, but I don't know. I kind of look a lot like my dad. I inherited things from my parents and it's just automatic. I didn't have to work at it. I'd have to work for it, but it's just automatic. I received it. The heart of God is not that way. There's a saying, God has no grandchildren.

Think about that for a second. God has no grandchildren, meaning that he only has children. That children of children doesn't work. Each generation has to have their own encounter with God. And I think that's clearly demonstrated here in 1 Samuel 8. Look at verses 1 through 3. This is now jumping to the end of Samuel's ministry. In verse 1, it says, Now it came to pass when Samuel was old...

that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah. And they were judges in Beersheba. But verse 3, but his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. Samuel is one of the greatest men of God,

In the Bible, the greatest man of God, one of the greatest men of God that's ever existed. I mean, he's a great man of God, used by God, lumped together with Moses by God through the prophet Jeremiah, that he was a great man of God, but his children were not. His sons, they didn't inherit that from their father.

Samuel had a heart after God. He pursued the heart of God, but his sons didn't inherit that trait. They might have inherited his hairline. They might have inherited other traits from Samuel, but they didn't inherit that trait. They did not pursue God's heart. And so when it was their time to lead,

Well, they perverted justice and turned aside after dishonest gain. Now, a lot of people look at this and kind of fault Samuel for his parenting skills at this point. And that's possible that he wasn't a good dad. You know, that's all God's servants, you know, fall and fail. But I would suggest that that's not necessarily true. Now, we look at Eli and his sons, and Eli's sons were corrupt.

And it specifically records Eli failed to correct them and God rebuked Eli severely. We don't have God rebuking Samuel for his sons. The reality is his sons, going back to point number one, they had to make their own personal choice. And Samuel could have been the best father in the world and still had sons.

that turned away because, well, they have to make that choice. And I think it's interesting in verse three, it says, but his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside. And kind of the implication there is they were in line, but then they turned aside. And so they made that choice. I would also present Judas, right? Not that he's Jesus's son, but he hung out with Jesus for three years along with the other disciples, and he still didn't pursue God's heart. So

you know, having the best parents isn't necessarily, you know, the deciding factor there. It still comes back to that personal choice. But here's, again, the point I want to make. If you have godly parents, you don't automatically inherit their godly heart. You have to have your own encounter with God. You have to make your own choice. Hey guys, it's not enough for your wife to pursue God's heart. You don't inherit that. You don't get that just because she has it. And vice versa, ladies.

Your husband, he's a man of God. He seeks after God. You don't automatically inherit that. That's not how it works. It's something you have to choose and engage with yourself. You're attending a church. You don't automatically inherit the hearts of the people of that church and the pursuits of God. Whatever example you want to use. Again, it's each person has to have their own encounter with God. When Joshua died,

The people were reliant upon his walk with God, and then they turned away from God because they didn't have their own solid relationship with God. As each judge died, the judge was influential for their lives, but then the people turned away from God. There has to be that individual choice, that individual pursuit of

And so in this case, now Samuel is setting up his sons to lead, but they're not doing good. And this lack of leadership causes the people to ask for a king here in 1 Samuel 8. In verse 4 of 1 Samuel 8, it says, Now make us a king to judge us. And notice what they say, like all the nations.

Here's the condition of the people still after Samuel's ministered to them for many years. They have not inherited the heart of Samuel. At the end of Samuel's ministry, he's been a good influence. He's caused a lot of people to get right with God. Like collectively as a whole, the people, they want to be like the other nations. That's their priority. They didn't come to Samuel and say, look, this isn't working out. We need to pray and ask God, what does he want to do? Because your sons aren't like you.

They said, we've got the solution. I already know. Here, let me tell you what you need to do, God. We've been looking at these other nations. They got it really going on. We need a king like they got. Where do they look for direction? Not to God, but they look to other nations. They look to what they want. They look to their wisdom, their thoughts, what they think. And there's a contrast. We want to be like other nations versus we want to please God. And understand, and this is important, pursuing the heart of God is not going to look like

other nations. It's not going to look like the people around us. It's going to be different. And again, it's so easy for us to just fall into, well, that works for them. Looks like it's going pretty good. So we just kind of fall into that, but it's not the heart of God necessarily. Don't just expect that you've inherited the heart of God because you've been attending here for a long time.

You need to make that personal choice. You need to have that encounter. You need to hear from God. You need to have that real relationship with God. It's not inherited. It doesn't come from other people. Notice what Jesus said in John chapter 1. Well, Jesus doesn't directly say it, but here's what God says in John chapter 1, verse 12. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God.

Again, the saying, God has no grandchildren. When you believe in Jesus, you are his child. You're a child of God.

You have that direct access to God, that direct relationship with God. It's not through somebody else. It's you connected to the Father through Jesus Christ. And you're born again when you receive Jesus. But it's not born of blood. That is, it's not your natural birth. It's not born of the will of the flesh.

It's not human wisdom or desires. It's not the will of man. You being born again is not somebody else's influence or some other thing. It is being born of God, being born of the will of God. Our very nature as Christians is, well, it's begun, it's birthed in the will of God. We're born into it. But at the same time, I would just remind us, it's still not inherited.

That is that we need to pursue it. Paul encourages us to put on the righteousness of Christ, put on the new nature that you have in Christ. There still has to be this incline, this movement towards this pursuit. It's not inherited. It's not automatic. You need to have your own encounter with God and you need to take it past. You've been born again to a pursuit of knowing God, of hearing from God and then doing what God says.

Well, moving on to point number four and found it's found back in first Samuel chapter 13, where we started, it's foolish not to pursue God's heart. If you'll jump there to first Samuel chapter 13 in verse 13, Samuel says to Paul, I'm sorry. Samuel says to Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord, your God, which he commanded you for now. The Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

He goes on to say, God's chosen a man after his own heart. You chose Saul instead of pursuing God's heart. You chose foolishly. You chose to do what the people wanted. You chose to do what you wanted. You chose to do what you thought was good, what you thought was best. You chose and had all kinds of reasons and all kinds of excuses, but it was foolish choice. It's foolish. It's not automatic. We don't automatically receive the heart of God. It's not automatic that we are in pursuit of God's heart.

But also understand to stay in that condition is foolish. To make decisions without seeking God is foolish. To go forward without knowing what God wants for your life is foolish. You need to be in contact with the Father. You need to know what God has for you. You need to hear from him direction and instruction. You need to hear from him his commands. You need to follow what he says and anything else is foolish.

Again, I like the way Pastor Chuck says it. He says,

Now, it doesn't seem foolish when we look at it because we look at what God says and we look at the situation and we think, well, that doesn't fit. That doesn't match. But as I shared a couple of weeks back, we're called to walk by faith and not by sight. We need to trust God and know God knows best. Even when we don't think so, even when we can't figure out how that's better, it's foolish to prioritize our will, our thoughts, our ways, our wisdom, or what the nations around us are doing or anything else.

over what God would say to us personally as we seek him for what's happening in our lives. We need to be pursuing God's heart. One final point, jumping now to 1 Samuel 16. Here's our introduction to David. As Samuel is sent by the Lord to anoint David, he sees the first son of Jesse and thinks, man, that's a good looking guy. That's got to be the king.

And you remember God rebukes him in verse 7 of 1 Samuel 16. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at a heart. That gives us point number five. God knows who pursues his heart. So many times our, what we would call a Christian walk, is primarily outward appearance.

It's for other people to observe. It's for other people to show them that we would get their acceptance, their approval, they're okay. But listen, God knows who is pursuing his heart. On the outward, we might look amazing. You look at Josh and you think, man, that is a man of God, holy, he never sins, amazing to his wife, incredible dad. We don't know what's happening within.

I don't know. I'm not trying to, this is not a prophetic, this is a silly illustration. I apologize. I apologize. Okay, I'm backing up now. Rewind the tape. I didn't mean to put you on the spot, Josh. You got to live up to that now. But you get the point that any one of us, we put on a good show. We look really good. Brent was sharing in his testimony a while back, right? He looked good. God needed to get a hold of his life. He needed to turn his heart around. He wasn't pursuing God's heart.

We all fall into that so easily where it's on the outside, it's on the outward. But listen, God really knows. You need to think beyond just are you being accepted well here at the church? Are things going smoothly and people not having too many issues with you? That's not the standard for whether or not you're pursuing God's heart. The standard is what does God say about your pursuit?

You might say, well, I'm pursuing God's heart, but you look at the speedometer, you're only going five miles an hour. That's not quite that much of a pursuit. What's your pursuit level? God knows it. How seriously, how intense is this pursuit of God's heart? How much do you want to know what he says and his word and his direction and his will?

And I pray, I'm praying for us as a church that as we work our way through 1 Samuel, that these things would be manifested and that God would be working and bringing us to a place of absolute pursuit, that we would be full on, pedal to the metal, sirens blaring, like we're in full pursuit of what God wants, what God says, what he desires.

for us individually, for us personally, but also for us as a church, that we would be in full, flat-out pursuit

prioritizing God's will over our own comfort levels, prioritizing God's will over what the world accepts or finds, you know, good or satisfying or what even, you know, kind of our Christian traditions and culture have that we would be in full pursuit of God's heart. Again, it's timely for us to consider our nation, our families, our church desperately need men and women who are pursuing God's heart.

Although we can't force it on other people, we can be a great influence. We can be used by God to help others come to a place of submission and looking to God to lead them. And we need to be that salt, that light. But it begins back here. It doesn't start with boldness. It starts with humility, submitting to the will of God, the heart of God, the commands of God, pursuing his heart above all else.

I want to close with one last thought, and this is from the book of Philippians chapter two. And this is specifically for those of you who are leaders, I would say here at Living Water or wherever you might be. Leaders, don't assume that you are pursuing God's heart. This is a call not just to, you know, kind of those who haven't been much involved or engaged or listen from the youngest to the oldest of us. We need to make sure

We truly are pursuing God's heart. Look what Paul says to the Philippians. In Philippians chapter 2 and verse 19, he says, You see what Paul says there? He says to the Philippians, I want to send Timothy to you because I don't have anyone like him who pursues God's heart.

I have other people around, but they seek their own. They are not pursuing God's heart. They have other agendas, other motivations, other things are going on. And listen, if Paul only had the one Timothy that was like that, I'm just saying this not to say anything other than how could we think that we have more Timothys than Paul did? I mean, that's

It's something that we need to consider. Don't just assume. Don't count yourself out and think, well, yeah, I already pursued the heart of God. Say, look, I'm involved in serving. I'm doing this. I'm doing that and leading. I mean, I'm talking to all of us leaders here. We can't just assume because we have this position. We'll look at Saul in great detail as we go through 1 Samuel 2. Saul was called by God, chosen by God. He had every advantage, and yet he did not pursue God's heart.

And no matter how great a miracle God did to give us a role and a responsibility in the body of Christ, it doesn't mean that we pursue God's heart. It doesn't mean that we are right with God and seeking after His ways and not our ways. And I want to call you guys, I want to call all of us to be submitting ourselves to the Lord, understanding it's a personal choice we have to make.

God reveals his heart by his word. And so we need to dig into the word of God and be looking and asking God, like Samuel saying, speak, Lord, your servant listens, recognizing it's not inherited. It's not automatic. It's not by default that I, oh yeah, I already pursued God's heart. It's that's not the case. That's not the natural condition. And to neglect that is foolishness. To neglect seeking God's counsel and his direction and his ways in our lives is foolishness.

And don't rely upon other people's acceptance and statements of how great you are and how amazing you are. God knows where your heart's at and you need to go to him. We need to be seeking the Lord regarding this thought, regarding this concept of pursuing God's heart. And I pray that God would reveal to us where we truly stand. Where's our heart at? Do we really desire to honor God above all else? Is pleasing him more important than

than pleasing ourselves or anyone else. Let's pray. God, I pray for each of us as we consider these things and as we begin this new journey through the book of Samuel on Wednesday evenings, God, I pray that you would do a great work within our hearts. Lord, that you would begin to reveal now and speak to our hearts about areas that are out of line, areas where we are being foolish, where we're not seeking you and giving you opportunity to speak or where we know what you say, but we

Lord, we choose our ways over your ways or the ways of the other nations or the wisdom that somebody else gave us. But I pray that you would reveal and that you would bring things to the surface as we work our way through this book. Lord, that we would have the opportunity to recognize that. And as Joshua instructed the people, Lord, that we would set those things aside and that we would choose you. Help us, God, to pursue your heart as we look around us,

The world around us, Lord, we see similar situation and there's a desperate need for your light to shine. But Lord, that begins in our heart, looking to you and receiving from you. And so I pray this evening, God, that you would bring us all to the point where in the stillness and the quiet, as you call and speak to our hearts, we could say, speak, Lord, your servant listens. We're ready to hear from you and to do what you say. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.