2 SAMUEL 24 WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE PURSUE GODS HEART2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Samuel 24 What Kind Of People Pursue 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 2018. We're going to finish up the book of 2 Samuel and finish up this series with

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Let's dig in and jump into verses 1 through 9. We'll read through that and then we'll go through what God has in store for us this evening. 2 Samuel chapter 24, starting in verse 1, here's what it says. Again, the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him,

Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people that I may know the number of the people. And Joab said to the king, Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than they are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing? Nevertheless, the king's word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army.

Therefore Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel. And they crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aror on the right side of the town, which is in the midst of the ravine of Gad toward Jezer. Then they came to Gilead and to the land of Tatim, Hodshai. And they came to Dan, Jan, and around to Sidon. And they came to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites, the Canaanites.

Then they went out to the south Judah as far as Beersheba. So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days. Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king. And there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword. And the men of Judah were 500,000 men. Let's pray. Lord, as we consider this final chapter in the book of Samuel this evening,

I pray that you would stir up our hearts once again to understand what it means to pursue your heart. I pray, Lord, that you would stir up within us the desire to pursue your heart, to draw near to you, to be pleasing to you, to live lives that glorify your name. Help us, Lord, learn from the example of David and to seek after your kingdom first and foremost above all else. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Well, as we finish up this series in chapter 24 of 2 Samuel, I've titled the message, What Kind of People Pursue God's Heart? What kind of people is it that God allows to pursue his heart?

What kind of people can be pleasing to God? As we've looked at this idea of pursuing God's heart, we've seen that it is not just like a casual, just kind of, you know, you know, if I do what God wants me to do, you know, then that's cool. And if not, you know, no big deal. But to pursue God's heart is, it's an all out pursuit. It's, you know, pedal to the metal, sirens wailing, like we're doing the best that we can. It's an intentional and aggressive and an intense pursuit.

seeking after the will of God and seeking to be pleasing to God. And so as we consider this this evening, I would ask you to consider what kind of people do that? What kind of people live that way? And I would pray to encourage you this evening that it's our kind of people. It's us. It's

who have this opportunity, who have this potential to pursue God's heart. And we see that in the example of David, as we look at point number one this evening, which is in verses one through nine, people who make mistakes. You know what kind of people pursue God's heart? People that aren't perfect. People, again, like us, who make mistakes. And here, David is gonna make a big mistake in

in seeking to count the number of people in the nation of Israel. Looking again at verse 1, it says,

And so this situation begins to unfold and there's a little bit of complexity here to what's happening in verse one. It's kind of packed full of some interesting thoughts and lots of discussion that commentators and scholars and Christians have had for thousands of years.

One of the reasons why there's so much discussion is because, well, in the parallel account in 1 Chronicles 21, it says it a little bit differently. 1 Chronicles 21, verse 1 says, And so if you compare verse 1 in these two chapters, there is a little bit of a conflict, perhaps.

Because in verse 1 of 2 Samuel, it says, God moved David.

To say, go, number Israel and Judah. In 1 Chronicles chapter 21, it says, now Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. And so this causes some concern for some people. There's a little bit of complexity here. Now, I'm not going to go through all of the different options, but I would just share briefly my perspective, my take on this passage and what's happening here.

First of all, notice that the first part of verse one, again, the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. Everything else that's about to happen is preceded by this understanding. It's the setting up of a situation that, well, God was going to bring judgment upon his people. And so the people of Israel, we don't know exactly what they were involved with at this time.

David had called them back to the worship of God. He had brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. He had, you know, called them back. But under Saul's reign, there were, you know, not so many faithful to the Lord in that way. And so perhaps there were some who continued in idolatry. Perhaps there was some big event or situation and many people, you know, turned away or disobeyed in some way. We don't know exactly the context of what happened, but something has happened.

And the people of Israel as a whole, the people of Israel as a people, as a nation, as a society, are in a position of deserving judgment, deserving wrath from God. There has been some issue that has been going on. And so my perspective is this.

God allowed Satan in that situation, in that understanding, to bring forth a temptation to David because he was looking to bring forth wrath that was due, judgment that was due to a people that were disobedient. So Satan rises up and brings forth the temptation. And you know what David does? He takes the bait. God allows it. Satan tempts David. David falls for it.

And in all of this, God is able to orchestrate the bringing about the judgment of the people that they deserved. And so we see here the hand of God, the sovereignty of God, but we also see the work of the enemy, the frailty of man, and the issues of sin. So there's a lot of doctrine here in just this first verse, but great things for us to consider to understand the complexity of the work of God and the plan of God.

But kind of going back to David for our time together this evening, here we see David, he takes the bait. He fell for this temptation. And I would ask you to consider as we work our way through this, do you ever take the bait? The enemy places some temptation in front of you, maybe to, you know, count your dollars, maybe to count your dolls, maybe to count whatever, I don't know. But there's some temptation there that you have.

And you fall prey to the enemy's trap, to the bait that is set. Here's the thing to consider. If you ever fall for it and take the bait and give in to temptation, then you just might be qualified to be one of those people who pursues God's heart. Because here we see David, the man after God's own heart, who makes mistakes. He falls for traps. He messes up in a way that

Going on into verse 2, we see some resistance to what David wants to do. In verse 2 it says, And Joab said to the king, Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than they are. And may the eyes of my Lord the king see it.

But why does my Lord the King desire this thing? Joab says, you know, I don't think this is a good idea. Why do you want to do this, David? Now, Joab, as we've seen throughout his history, he doesn't always give good counsel. He's not always right on with the Lord. In fact, very seldom he is. But in this occasion, he offers a little bit of pushback to David's command. He says, I don't think this is a good idea. Why do you want to do this?

I mean, I pray that God would multiply the nation abundantly and that you would get to see it. But why do you want to do this? It doesn't seem like a good idea. And David ignores Joab's counsel. But it's not just Joab. In verse 4, we see,

So it's not just Joab who's speaking up, but now there's a council. There's the captains of the army who are saying, David, we don't think this is a good idea. This might be bad news. You might not want to go forward in this direction. But the king's word prevailed. David was stubborn. Are you stubborn? Hey, good news. You just might be qualified to be one of those people who pursue God's heart.

Have you ever ignored warning signs? And people came and told you, ah, this decision that you're making, this direction that you're going down, I don't think that's a good idea. There's some problems that are, you know, involved in this plan that you have. And that's not going to be what you think it is. It's not going to work out very well. And like David, we can sometimes push through and be stubborn and, you know, override that counsel and do what it is that we intend to do.

Like David, we can still be men and women, people who pursue God's heart. We can be people who make mistakes. Now the following verses go on to record their route and how they went through all of Israel. They went from top to bottom and they go all over and they count the army of Israel, the fighting men of Israel. In verse nine, it gives the summary. Then Joab gave the sum of the number to the people, to the king. And then he gave the sum of the number to the people, to the king.

And there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword and the men of Judah were 500,000 men. So here the count is in. 800,000 men in Israel, 500,000 men in Judah. This is the size of David's army. And now this is going to bring forth some judgment from God because of this count, because of this census that was done. Now,

Why is this such a mistake? And what is the issue here? Really, there's some discussion that could be had about that as well. And I'm not going to get into a lot of the details, but I like the way that G. Campbell Morgan kind of summarizes it. He says,

They were carried out by the command of God. There's lots of things that we could read into this situation. Perhaps David is wanting to know how strong he is. And so he counts his army.

Perhaps David is trusting in his army instead of God. And so he needs to number his army to make sure that he has enough to take care of the situations at hand. So it could be a misplaced trust of David. It could be a vanity and glorying of David and his own success. It could be a pride issue. It could be a lot of things. And there's a lot of speculation. But here's the bottom line. The reason why this was sin is

Well, partly we can look and understand it was the motivation of his heart. But this command, this counting has been done before when God commanded it. Which means the act in itself isn't necessarily and isn't always sinful. But it's sinful because God has not instructed it. And that's something important to consider as people who make mistakes. People like David, you and I. There are lots of things that

we do that may be not technically sin. Maybe the Bible doesn't directly, you know, forbid it. Maybe there is not a direct, you know, command about that. But to take things into our own hands, to do what we want to do, to do what we think is best, well, it can be

sinful thing to do when it is not what God desires of us and for us. It's often been said there's no right way to do a wrong thing, right? There's no right way to do something that is wrong. However, the opposite of that is not true. There are plenty of wrong ways to do something that is right. And even when we want to do something that is right or even that is not directly forbidden in

We can do it wrong. We can miss out. We can miss the mark. We can make mistakes just like David. But here's the thing. It does not then put us in a place where we cannot be men and women who pursue God's heart.

It doesn't keep us from being able to seek after God and seek to be pleasing to God and seek to glorify God with our lives. It doesn't end the story for us. And we made the mistake. We disregarded the counsel. We were stubborn in our ways. We did what we wanted to do. And so, you know, now we've ruined it for the rest of our lives. That's not the case. And that's what we see here in the example of David. He was a man who pursued the heart of God.

He made mistakes. But then as we move on to verses 10 through 14, we get point number two, and that is people who respond to conviction. What kind of people pursue God's heart? People who respond to the conviction of the Lord. Look at verse 10. It says, "'And David's heart condemned him "'after he had numbered the people. "'So David said to the Lord, "'I have sinned greatly in what I have done. "'But now I pray, O Lord, "'take away the iniquity of your servant.'

The count comes in. The numbers arrive. 800,000, 500,000. This is the size of your army. And then all of the sudden, David's heart begins to condemn him. He begins to feel conviction. He begins to recognize the wrong that he has done. And he responds to that conviction.

And I would look at this idea of responding to conviction in two ways. First of all, in growth, that is learning from past mistakes, as well as secondly, sensitivity and repenting quickly. And here we do see David repent quickly, but just thinking about the growth for a minute. In verse 10, again, it says, Think about the contrasts.

to David's sin with Bathsheba and then Uriah. We know from the Psalms that David's heart condemned him for a long time. So the first part of verse 10, David's heart condemned him. That was true back then as well. But what happened in that case was David did not respond to the Lord. He didn't confess right away. He was condemned right away. He was convicted right away by

but he didn't confess right away. And so he describes it in Psalm 32. He says, when I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Here, David is describing what it's like to keep silent when his heart is convicting him, condemning him for his sin. Instead of confessing his sin, he kept silent previously. But David has responded today

since then. He's grown since then. He's learning from past mistakes. And so this time, when his heart condemns him, he responds quickly. He repents quickly. He confesses quickly. And he turns to the Lord and he says, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. And he asks God for mercy. He says, please, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very

foolishly. I wonder what it was that kind of triggered this understanding in David. Again, it goes back to, we don't really know the motives of his heart. Was he not trusting in the Lord and wanting to make sure he had a strong enough army? Or was he wanting to glory in how impressive an army he had? You know, what was his thoughts? But he gets the numbers and he's thinking, all right, yeah, I have 800,000 in one hand. I have 500,000 in the other hand. And this is great.

And then suddenly as he's kind of reveling in that, rejoicing in that, worried about that, I don't know, but something about the situation, he begins to realize, what have I done? I've trusted in horses and chariots and some will trust in that, but we will trust in the name of the Lord, right? That's a Psalm, old song we used to sing as well, that David is trusting and he's looking at these things and suddenly it's dawning on him.

And he begins to respond right away. He begins to recognize, oh my goodness, I've blown it. I trusted in my bank account, my savings account. I trusted in this backup plan. I trusted in this thing. I was glorying in that thing. And whatever it was that stirred that up, like David, we can have those things and our hearts can begin to convict us. And David responds and goes straight to the Lord. And he says, oh Lord, forgive me, I've sinned. The right thing to do, confess.

in response to this conviction upon your heart. Verse 11. Now, the prophet Gad comes to David. Now, notice again the contrast.

Previously, David had the prophet Nathan come to him when he had been silent after sinning, not responding to conviction. And after a long time, God sent Nathan to David to bring that awakening, that opening of his eyes to help him come to that place of confession. But this time, by the time the prophet gets there, David's already repented. He's already confessed. He's already, you know, recognized the sin and asked for forgiveness.

Again, he's grown. He's repenting quickly and responding quickly as his heart brings conviction. And the point that I want to bring about here, the point I want us to consider is that we may be in this context where, man, our heart's bothering us and we run to the Lord quickly. But we also might be back in the previous one with David and Bathsheba where your heart's been bugging you for a while, but you haven't been responding quickly.

And that doesn't preclude you from being a man or woman after God's own heart. That doesn't mean you can't be one of those who pursues the heart of God, but you have the opportunity like David to grow and to begin to learn to respond quickly and to start now to respond as God speaks to your heart. And so by the time the prophet Gad gets there, David's repented. He's come clean before the Lord and confessed that,

But as we've talked about and seen many times, sin can be forgiven, but not undone. And so there's going to be some consequences. And so he sends the prophet Gad with a message to choose one of three things. Verse 13. So Gad came to David and told him and said to him, shall seven years of famine come to you in your land or shall you flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you?

Or shall there be three days plague in your own land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to him who sent me. This is a very unique situation. We don't really see this happen anywhere else in the scriptures where God says, there's gonna be some consequences to sin, you pick.

I don't know if that still happens, but I remember when I was growing up, it was kind of a thing where parents would say, you choose your punishment. You know, what do you think is right for what you did? And I don't know if parents still do that, but that's kind of what God does here. And he says, okay, you pick, what do you want to happen? Seven years of famine, three months of being pursued by your enemies, or three days of a plague in the land. There has to be some consequences. There's no getting around that. You reap what you sow.

But I'll give you a choice. And which do you choose? Now, it's not so important to evaluate each and every one. And you can, you know, talk about all the reasons why one might choose one over the other. But David reveals the important things in verse 14. It says, and David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man. David says, I want to...

Trust in the Lord. And even though I've wronged the Lord and I've sinned against him, I want to place myself in his hands. And so I don't want to be pursued by my enemies. I don't want to be placed in the hands of man. I want to be placed in the hands of the Lord. And in that, he chooses the plague, the three days of plague, because not so much about the differences between the plagues or the punishments,

but because of the differences of the heart of God, the differences of whose mercy they would be at. Would they be at the mercy of enemies? Would they be at the mercy of the neighbors around them to provide them food? Or would they be at the mercy of God to relent from the plague that would come? And we see David here, even though he's sinned against God, even though he has failed God, even though he has sinned

not trusted God or glorified himself against God, whatever the motivations of his heart were. He has sinned against God, but then he places himself in God's hands. And what we see here with David is a real, genuine faith. Again, he's responding to conviction, but he believes God that as he confesses that God is faithful and just to cleanse him.

And he says, I want to be in the hands of God. Now, if you sin against God, do you want to be in the hands of God? He's like, no, don't put me in the hands of God. But David says, no, no, put me in the hands of God. He really does believe in God's forgiveness. In verse 14, he says, for his mercies are great. He really does believe. God does not deal with me according to my sin. I want to be in God's hands. And this is what makes God.

Someone who pursues God's heart. It's not that you don't make mistakes, but that even though you do, and even when you do, you run to God because his mercies are great. It's people who respond to conviction who are people that pursue God's heart. Think about Psalm 147, 11. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy. God loves it.

God loves it when we hope. I'm running to God because I am hoping that he will be merciful. I am trusting that he will show me mercy and compassion, even though I have violated his word, even though I have sinned against him. It's a boldness, but it's the kind of boldness that we need.

The author of Hebrews talks about having boldness to enter into the presence of God, to enter in before the throne of God that's based upon Jesus, our high priest, who has compassion upon us because he's faced temptations like we faced. He knows what it's like. And so we can come before him boldly and find help in our times of need. We can find grace and mercy. And when we need grace and mercy is not when we've been righteous. When we need grace and mercy is

is when we've made mistakes, when we've been stubborn, when we've pushed through bad, you know, good counsel and done what we wanted to do instead. People who respond to conviction by running to the Lord and trusting and hoping in His mercy are people that pursue God's heart. That's what kind of people pursue His heart.

Well, moving on to verses 15 through 19, we get point number three, and that is people who obey God's instructions. And now God is going to tell David and instruct David, okay, here's what I need you to do from this point. Yes, you messed up. Yes, it was sin. Here's what's going to happen now, or here's what needs to happen now. We're going to read verses 15 through 19. Here's what it says. So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time.

From Dan to Beersheba, 70,000 men of the people died. And when the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction and said to the angel who is destroying the people, it is enough. Now restrain your hand. And the angel of the Lord was threshing, or was by the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite."

Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, surely I have sinned and I have done wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father's house. And Gad came that day to David and said to him, go, go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Arunah the Jebusite. So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord said.

commanded. David chooses to trust in the mercy of God, and the plague is brought forth on the nation of Israel. And it tells us that 70,000 men of the people died. Just try to put yourself in David's shoes for just a moment. You made a decision. You said, let's count the people. Now, as a result, you're responsible for 70,000 people dying. Sin has a terrible cost. We always...

are convinced and we think that our sin only affects us and only, you know, it's my choice, I get to do what I want, it's my, you know, this or my that, whatever we might say to ourselves. But we often forget that there is not just us who are involved in our lives. And even if we're not the king, our sin can have a great cost and a great impact on the people around us. And so here, 70,000 men of the people died.

But I would also just stop for a moment, rewind to verse one, and remember what it said there. Again, the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel.

The sovereignty of God is marvelously displayed in this passage. As you see, David and his choices and what God is doing in his life, but God is also working in the midst of that because, well, he is needing to bring judgment upon the nation of Israel. Now, if it had been, it could have been a different situation. God could have brought about this judgment on these 70,000 of the people in a different way. But,

God allowed it to happen this way. And you can wrestle with God about whether or not you think that's the best way for 70,000 people to die. That's, you know, between you and the Lord, and you can try to figure that out. But the point is, it's not just that these people were, you know, necessarily completely innocent or, you know, that kind of thing. But there was a judgment that was deserved. The people as a whole were due judgment.

for this kind of judgment to be poured out upon them. David happened to be the one who was king, made the choice, and so this judgment was brought, and he has a part in it, and he is responsible for it. But also at the same time, the people as a whole are responsible for it because they have stirred up the anger of the Lord. Well, it's interesting. As this plague is going, it's being administered by the angel of the Lord. And so it's a supernatural thing that's happening.

And the angel is stretching out his hand and people throughout, it says from Dan to Beersheba. So that's from the top of Israel to the bottom of Israel. People are dying as a result. And he comes to Jerusalem in verse 16. It says the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it. But then the Lord says, okay, now hold off. You raise your arm to, you know, swing, but don't swing. Just stay there. That's enough.

Instead of three days of plague that God told David to choose from, you know what God does? He shows mercy and he relents. And they're not going to experience the fullness of judgment that they deserve because God is merciful. God's merciful. And so here's the angel. And it's interesting because David sees the angel in verse 17. David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, surely I have sinned. He takes the blame again. He says, no, no, this is, what did they do?

Now we know they did something because they've stirred up the wrath of God, but we don't know what they did. And David is not blaming the people. Think about the contrast to Saul, right? He would have blamed the people. He did blame the people whenever they brought back the sheep and, oh, I didn't want to, but you know, the people, they wanted to come and offer sacrifices. David doesn't do that. Even though perhaps they had a part to play, even though they were deserving of judgment, David says, no,

No, this was my sin. He owns it. He confesses it to the Lord. And he says, no, let that judgment, don't punish them for my mistake. And so God responds to that. He loves it when we come to him with a genuine confession and owning of our sin. And then God provides a way to make things right. Verse 18, and Gad came that day to David and said to him,

Go set up an altar on the threshing floor of Arunah, the Jebusite. Go set up an altar on this guy's property and I will relent. And then in verse 12 or verse 19, it says, so David, according to the word of the Lord, I'm sorry, the word of Gad went up as the Lord commanded. What does David do? Again, he sees the hurt. He sees the harm. He feels it. He asked the Lord to

place the penalty on him and not on the people and God says okay here's what you need to do and then David immediately begins to put it into practice he begins to obey the Lord he goes up and we'll see that unfold in the next couple minutes again the point as we look at this example of David this evening is not about whether or not you make mistakes that's guaranteed that's for sure you are going to make mistakes and you are going to be stubborn and you are going to do dumb things

But will you respond to conviction? And will you respond to God's prompting when he begins to say, here's the steps that you need to take to begin to make things right, to begin to resolve this issue and this situation. And here, David, he gets to work immediately.

He goes and does according to the Lord's command. What kind of people pursue God's heart? This kind of people, our kind of people, people who make mistakes, who respond to conviction, who obey God's instruction. And fourthly, looking at verses 20 through 25, people who sacrifice to God. Verse 20, and let's read verses 20 through 25 to finish off the chapter. It says, now Arunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him.

So Arunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. Then Arunah said, why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said to buy the threshing floor from you to build an altar to the lord that the plague may be withdrawn from the people. Now Arunah said to David, let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood.

Verse 24. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver.

God tells David exactly where to go. It's right where this angel is. The angel is right there over Jerusalem at this property owned by this guy, Arunah. And God says, go there, David. And so he goes. And

I think this whole, in my mind, you know, most everything in my mind is comical anyways, but verse 20 and 21, this whole situation with Arunah, it kind of cracks me up every time I go through this passage. It tells us in verse 20, Arunah looked and saw the king. He went out and he bows down, right? And then in verse 21, why is my lord the king come to his servant? There's kind of a casualness to Arunah's language and his behavior, right?

He's like, hey, what brings the king out today? Meanwhile, this angel, this destroying angel is like looming over him about to strike the city of Jerusalem. And I'm not just kind of exaggerating because in 1 Chronicles chapter 21, the parallel passage where we see Arunah's other name is called Ornan, but same guy, it says in 2120 of 1 Chronicles, now Ornan turned and saw the angel and

And his four sons who were with him hid themselves. But Ornan continued threshing wheat. So I have this picture. Here's this man and his sons. They're all working out in the field. And then they look up and boom, here's the angel of the Lord bringing down this plague. And the sons go and they hide in the rock. And he goes, okay, well, I'll just get back to work. You know, he just kind of just goes about his business.

I don't know if he had great boldness or ignorance or what, but here he is and he comes out to the king and he's like, hey, so, you know, what brings you out today? Why are you in this neck of the woods? And David's like, can't you see this angel right there, this destroyer about to strike Jerusalem? Well, David now negotiates. He says, I need to buy your property. Oh, no, no, I'll give it to you. And David says, no, no, no. I need to sacrifice to the Lord. It wouldn't be right for me to take from you

in order to give to the Lord. No, what's right and appropriate is for me to purchase, for me to spend, for me to expend. And so sacrifice kind of has a double meaning there. He was offering a sacrifice on the altar that he's building, but he's also making a sacrifice in that it's costing him something. The kind of people who pursue God's heart are people who are willing to spend their own money

to please god to honor god to glorify the name of god in verse 24 again david says nor will i offer burnt offerings to the lord my god with that which costs me nothing the kind of people who pursue god's heart are the kind of people who say you know i could use this money i could use these resources for these other things that i want that i would love or that my family would like

But instead, I'm going to use those things to do something that honors the Lord. The kind of people who pursue God's heart are the kind of people who say, I could use this time, this energy, these talents to accomplish something for myself, to better myself, to put myself in a better position. But I'm going to put those things first.

towards honoring the Lord and putting God's will first, putting God's desires first. In the words of Jesus, I'm going to lose my life in order to find it. I'm going to give of myself. It's worth expending. Sometimes we just want to give God our leftovers. And if we're just giving God our leftovers, we're not the kind of people who pursue God's heart.

Because it's only if we have extra. If only if there's an abundance. If only there's something I don't want. Well, then I guess God could have it. But the kind of people who pursue God's heart are people who are willing to say, no, I will put my own money in. It's going to cost me.

And doesn't necessarily mean it has to cost me, you know, everything and I have to be out on the streets, but it's going to cost me something. This wasn't like, you know, David is going to be in poverty after this. You know, it wasn't like it had to be that extreme in order for it to be a sacrifice. It was an amount of money that David had that he could afford, but it cost him. He had to expend of his own resources.

And he says, it's not right for me to take what's yours and say, here you go, God. That's not an appropriate way to worship God, to seek to please God, but to sacrifice to God. Well, it's going to cost us. It's going to involve some expense on our part, an expense of resources, time, money, energy, talents, whatever it might be, we're willing to give.

of ourselves and to lay down some of our dreams and desires and hopes and wishes in order to honor the Lord. This is the kind of people that pursue God's heart. Are you that kind of person? Do you make mistakes? Do you respond to conviction? Do you obey as God begins to speak? And are you willing to give of yourself and to sacrifice in order to please the Lord and honor his name?

Well, I want to finish it up by moving out of 2 Samuel and let's turn over to 1 Chronicles chapter 21. Again, this is the parallel passage. It's the same event, but here we have a different telling of it in 1 Chronicles chapter 21 and a little bit additional insight to kind of tack on to the end of this account that we find here. And it gives us point number five this evening. What kind of people pursue God's heart?

the kind of people who help accomplish God's plans. When you're this kind of person, you make mistakes, but you respond as God convicts you and you follow the instruction that God gives you and you're willing to give of yourself to serve the Lord and honor the Lord. Well, then the incredible thing is that God is able to use all of that

to accomplish something probably even greater than you understood or could imagine. Here in 1 Chronicles chapter 21, let's jump into verse 26 and read down through chapter 22, verse 1. Here's what it says. And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on the Lord. And he answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering. So the Lord commanded the angel and he returned his sword to its sheath.

At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. For the tabernacle of the Lord and the altar of the burnt offering, which Moses had made in the wilderness, were at that time in the high place in Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord. Then David said, this is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel."

Here in 1 Chronicles, we see something very interesting. First of all, in verse 26, I think it's interesting. David, as he purchases this from this guy Ornan or Arunah, he builds this altar, he offers a sacrifice. Verse 26 tells us that God answered by fire from heaven. So this wasn't just, you know, a little sacrifice

They saw a little smoke, you know, come up from the altar, but fire from heaven. Think about Elijah, right? And the false prophets and he called down fire from heaven like that. Like God showed in a very real and demonstrable, demonstrable, something like that, you know, a very real way that he was pleased that he accepted the sacrifice, that this resolves the issue. And that's something important. Remember what the author of Hebrews says? There is no forgiveness of sin unless

Without the shedding of blood, without the sacrifice. And here God is saying, you're forgiven. I'm resolving this situation. For us, we understand that in Jesus Christ, we have that fire from heaven. That once and for all, it's resolved. God has dealt with our sin as we confess and are forgiven by the work that Jesus Christ has done for us. And so David sees this. And I bet it was impressive, right? It was something to take note of.

And so David begins to realize this is more than just some random place where the angel of the Lord happened to stop. God's orchestrating something here. Now it points out that the tabernacle was at Gibeon and we saw that on Sunday. That's where Solomon was to sacrifice to the Lord, right? That's where the tabernacle was. But David couldn't go there because the angel was here. He had to go here. God told him to go here to offer this sacrifice. Now again, we see

we saw that Solomon made a mistake in sacrificing on the high places. God deals with that in 1 Kings 3. He says he followed David except for he sacrificed in these other unauthorized places. But here is David sacrificing in a different place because God has told him to sacrifice here. And why is that? Well, that's where 1 Chronicles 22, 1 comes in and David begins to realize this is the house of the Lord God.

This is the place where God wants his temple to be built. God has chosen Jerusalem out of all Israel to place his name there. And he's chosen this property specifically to be the home of his presence in the nation of Israel. And here's the crazy thing. If you think about it, it's kind of crazy, right? David here sets out, he starts out in 2 Samuel 24, right?

making a bad decision, ignoring counsel. It's a big mistake. It costs many lives, but God uses that whole situation to bring about a revelation of here is the place that I want to build on. Here is the place where I want to do a radical work for the nation of Israel and meet my people in a very real way. This is the house of the Lord. David, although he made mistakes, he

in responding to conviction and following instruction and being willing to spend of himself to give to the Lord and to honor the Lord unknowingly. It wasn't about this for him, but for the Lord. He knew what he was doing. He was bringing all of this together to accomplish something great. And this will be the location for the temple where many people will be connected to God and walk with God for hundreds of years to come.

This was an amazing orchestration of God, again, demonstrating his sovereignty as he works out all of these details to bring David and the people to this place where they would be able to meet with the Lord and connect with him. Even though David made mistakes and fell short, he pursued God's heart and he became part of the plan of God and the work that God wanted to accomplish. And so again, this evening, what kind of people pursue God's heart?

our kind of people. And I would encourage each and every one of us. Yes, you make mistakes. Yeah, you fall short. Yes, you're stubborn, but it's not too late. It's not over. David was still the man after God's own heart, even though he made this mistake. And even though he made many, many, many other mistakes, but the issue, the question is not whether or not you're, you'll make a mistake, but how you will respond to it. Will you respond to conviction and look at

For God to instruct and begin to obey him, being willing to give of yourself, to sacrifice, maybe finances, maybe hopes, maybe dreams, maybe time, maybe energy, but you're willing to give of yourself to honor the Lord, to please the Lord. And if you'll do that, you're going to be part of God's plans. He's going to do something far bigger than you would think or imagine or could plan out for yourself. The enemy wants to use these things for evil in our lives.

but God wants to work them out and accomplish good even in the midst of our own failures and weaknesses. So let's be men and women who pursue the heart of God, who seek after, not casually, not just kind of like, well, if God happens to show up while I'm sitting here, well, then that's cool, but to be people who are intentional, seeking after, and desiring intensely to please God and to honor his name. We're not gonna do it perfectly, but we're gonna do it.

But even then, God's able to work out those things to accomplish his purposes. Well, we want to close out our time together this evening with some time of worship and just an opportunity for us to, well, pursue God's heart, to give of ourselves, to offer sacrifice. And one of the sacrifices that we can offer is the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips. And so whether we've made mistakes, whether we have, you know, failed and fallen short or been successful,

walking with the Lord in a marvelous way, we have opportunity to pursue God's heart, to offer sacrifices, to give of ourselves and to worship him. And so let's take some time to do that. They're gonna come up and lead us in this closing time of worship. And as we always do, we wanna leave it open and give you the opportunity if you wanna pray for one another, encourage one another, if God's moving or prompting in your heart, feel free to do that. But let's take this time and center ourselves once again on the Lord and pursue his heart.

Amen. Lord, I pray for each one of us. Lord, you know where we're at. You know, Lord, our intensity, our level of pursuing your heart and what you desire to do in our lives. And God, I pray that you would help us to be responsive as you speak to us. I pray, Lord, that you would minister to us in this time of worship. Lord, that we would hear from you, that we would follow your instruction as you speak to us.

Lord, that we'd be willing to give of ourselves and whether that be lifting our voices or doing something else that you prompt us, Lord. Maybe it's instruction, not for this moment, but for this week. Lord, I pray that you would help us to walk in that and to really seek after, to really pursue. And Lord, may it be an all out pursuit. May we bring glory to your name and be pleasing to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. 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.