David's heart, a man after God's own heart, is explored through his experience of rest and communion with the prophet Nathan. When God gave David rest from his enemies, David's thoughts turned not to riches or self-indulgence, but to the dwelling of the Ark of God. This concern for God's presence and house, coupled with his humble heart and patient waiting for God's timing, exemplifies a life focused on divine purpose rather than personal gain. The sermon highlights David's disciplined mind, his humility in recognizing his own insignificance before God, and his willingness to wait for God's vengeance, ultimately pointing to the covenant God made with him and the eternal kingdom established through his seed, Jesus Christ.
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Be like a horse being tied up when I put this thing on. Well, yesterday we had a chance to think about some of the life of David as it was a picture, a type of the Lord Jesus. And we consider David in his anointing and then took a look at the anointing of the Lord Jesus. We consider David as he entered into battle with Goliath. And then we took a look at the Lord Jesus and the victory that he certainly won for us as he entered into battle for us at the cross. I'm going to leave off the life of David and look at David's heart. You know, we read that he was a man after God's own heart.
And God said he was going to choose him as that kind of a man. Now I'm going to look at the covenant of David. but not necessarily look at the covenant, but look at the experience that David entered into here, the thoughts of his own heart. Second Samuel chapter seven. We're going to check the heart of the king. And we read in verse one, and it came to pass when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round about him from all his enemies. that the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.
And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart, for the Lord is with thee. What the heart of a man. You know, most kings, when they won all the victories that David had won, and you know he captured Zion, made it the city of David, Jerusalem. The throne was going to be the throne of the most high one day when he reigns, when Christ reigns from that throne. He vanquished the Philistine. He made all these victories. He brought back the Ark of God. Ever since David became king, he wasn't idle.
He was doing something. And it can't help but think of the Lord Jesus in his kingship and in his offices that he has, those that are mediatorial, that of the high priest, advocate, and king as well. He is there interceding for us and doing a work for us. But as I look at David and the heart of David, I see as the king sat in his house, God gave him rest. Not a time of rest. Most of us look for different things to find rest and relaxation. Recreation, it's called.
And some of the things, it ought to be recreation, but so many times it is just that as recreation. It's a good thing when a man at rest can find rest in his God. And you know, that's what David did here. He found rest with his God. He found rest with a prophet. What kind of friendships did David pick up as the king when he sits here at rest? He didn't go and get all his treasure and everybody else and say, hey, fellas, let's start counting all the stuff we took away from the Philistines and all the rest. He could have done that. He could have got all the vessels of gold and silver.
And that's a man. That's the matter of man to normally do that. Hey, what's my riches? You know, this man, even though he was successful, he was not slothful. David was not a lazy man, and he had a mind that was occupied. Can I help but think of Peter, you know, and he said, gird up the loins of your mind. It's a good thing when a child of God's got his mind girded up. You know what it is when you gird up something, you bind it up, don't you? And you know, that's the way God would have us with our minds bound up. When we get at rest so many times and we're looking for a little back and off, let the stress go, we want to look in different degrees, in different things to put our mind to.
But here was a man of God that had a heart after God's own heart. And when he sat down in his spare time, in his rest, it wasn't to entertain himself with something else. and I was struck by this. How do I know it? Who was his company? Ah, I read that he had a man called Nathan the Prophet. Ah, it's good if we got a prophet to sit down with. You know when I was a young guy and I used to fly all over this country and one time I was down in Florida and a dear friend of mine was down in Miami and I called him and he said, Ray, come on down here.
He said, there's a spare room in the back of the chapel. I was staying in a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. He said, come on down here. We can spend a weekend together. So I said, okay, I got on a bus and went from Fort Lauderdale down to Miami and went over to the meeting where my brother was. Had a nice room in the back of the chapel. And that night, I sat at his feet. And as I sat there, he taught me. taught me things and answered questions that I probably wouldn't ask to anybody else. But you know, after that in my lifetime, because I knew how my heart sang that night, I thought, what it must have been for a man like David to sit down with a prophet and commune with that prophet over the things of God.
You know, the Gospel of John doesn't open very far. But immediately we find two men, two men who had been following John the baptizer. And as they're following John, suddenly John introduces them to somebody else. He said, Behold the Lamb of God. And immediately I read they left off following John and they turned and followed the Lord Jesus. And he knew they were following and he said, Whom seek ye? And they said, Master, where dwellest thou? Now that's always a good question. Where do you live?
What's inside? Want to draw near? Master, where dwellest thou? He said, Come and see. And they went that night and they spent that time with him. You know how to change those men? I believe the two men were Andrew and John. You can take odds with me if you want. That's okay. But one of them first went and found his own brother, didn't he? There was something in the life of the Savior, something in the love of the Master that so touched Andrew's heart that he wanted to go get somebody else and bring him to the Master. What did it do for John when I read this blessed book of John the Evangelist?
You know, I had a Sunday school teacher. who taught me a lot about John. I think he thought John was the only book in the Bible. That's been okay with me since I've grown, because it taught me a little of the love of the Savior. And you know, John wrote of himself in that gospel from then on, as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He learned something of the love of the Master. What a joy. to be able to sit down with a prophet. And that's what Jesus Christ was, prophet, priest, and king. You know, David sat down with Nathan. And as he sat with Nathan, they communicated the things of God.
I feel that because of what David had to say. Now, David had been fighting battles and he needed a rest. Any of you know who you go day after day. especially we got lots of camp workers here because I've worked with you through the years and I know and you know when you're in camp day after day after day after day gets pretty tiring there's a time where you need rest or you burn out you get hourly and everything else with the kids so you you need a little rest well when David rested he found rest in his Lord and when David rested because of the communication that he had with Nathan.
He found strength in it. But you know, we have some enemies. Like David did. And we rest with those enemies day by day. They hardly take a vacation. You know those enemies are. Oh, God makes it plain in his word, doesn't he? He said the world, the flesh, and the devil are enemies. No. All that's in the world, I'm told, by John is the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Lust is desire, strong desire. And those things in the world entice us, don't they? Draw us after those things.
There's something in the flesh that wants to respond. And because of that battle that goes on, we need a rest. You know, when we look at the flesh and what the flesh is, there are three words all from the same root and the same word. One of them is in the adjective form. The flesh, the natural man, and the sensual man, all the same. And so God has given us a little understanding in His Word of what a battle that we enter into. And as a younger man, one time sitting in a discipline of an older brother, I went because the elders thought I should be there, but I kept my mouth shut and listened.
And when the discipline was passed, I had a look at that older brother and then to myself say, Ray Routley, the flesh is never dead till it's six feet under. Do you have any understanding why John says, little children, I've written unto you because you know the Father. Young men, I write unto you because you've overcome the wicked one or the evil one. You know, when you get to win a little battle and you got the victory and you sit down to get a little rest, oh boy, there's a good time when zap he can give it to you. And that's when he enters with the thought of the mind.
But David's mind was girded up. David didn't let it run. How many times I had to sit to myself and say, hey, your mind's on the wrong thing. You need to change the direction. You ever awoke in the middle of the night and you couldn't go back to sleep? And all kinds of things come flooding in on your mind. And as they flood and you begin to consider them. And sleep won't come then and you say, how you dummy? You're here again. You're at it again. You're letting your mind wander, and then you turn and you fix your mind on Christ. You begin to praise. You know, he said he's given the spirit of praise for the garment of heaviness. Man, some of you folks who might be prone to heaviness, there's the cure for heaviness.
It's the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And we need to begin that. That's in the exercise of the mind. doesn't come any other way. It's a discipline of mind. How do we get that? The Lord says when it comes to fear, and you know at night when you start worrying about everything, that's fear. That's what it is. Worrying about what might happen. He says in Second Timothy one, seven, he's not giving us the spirit of fear. But what's he give? Power, love, and a disciplined mind comes from him. I love David's heart because I see his mind. It was a disciplined mind.
Our brother reminded us earlier today, as a man thinketh, where? In his heart, so is he. And if we apply that to David, where's this thinking? Ha, on God himself and God's house. That's where his thinking is. I like David because he stirred my heart one time. You know, David's sitting here thinking about his God dwelling in tents, and David's living in a house of cedar. And I remember as a young guy when I got home from the service, and one day I drove by the chapel. And when I drove by the chapel and I saw the place grown up in the backyard and all things in a mess, and I said to myself, Ray Routley, you wouldn't do that to your house.
Why should we in a place that we meet together in his name, let it go to that state? You know, David's heart was concerned with the house of God. I wonder, beloved, how much our concern is toward the house of God. Not a physical building, but remember Paul writing to Timothy, He said that you might know how to be saved yourself. I think it's First Timothy three, thirteen. That you might know how to be or you ought to know how to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of God, the pillar and ground of truth.
Now you got a concern for the house of God or you wouldn't be here today. You got a concern of what God can do for you through that house. But you know it's good when we've got such a concern for the local church and the assembly. We're not those gimme people who say, I don't go because I don't get. But we're some of those give people who say, here it is, it's yours, take it. That's what Christ did at Calvary. He gave his life. He didn't hold back. When you think of the spiritual sacrifices that God wants.
David was a man who could give freely. And if we look at the church as the house of God, the pillar and ground of truth, then we have to answer to our own heart. What kind of a giver am I? How do I pray? How do I pray? How do I bring thanks? How do I exercise the gift that's been given? How do I take out this thing in my hip pocket? and give back to God what He's given to me. David was a man at rest, a man wearied by the battles, but a man whose heart was upon the Lord.
A man who was calm in his nature here. You know, the storms come Trials come to us, the fights that come over our temperaments and all the rest. But then it's just like in nature, seems like God gives us a chance to rest. You ever watch the storm and see it coming and it looks so fierce? I don't know if too many of you people take an interest in storms, but I do. As a pilot, I didn't have much choice. But you know, you can recognize the storm by the clouds. When you see a cloud that's anvil shaped, that's ever so high and it comes out like an anvil, that's a cumulonimbus.
You can be sure that if you're in an airplane and you hit that cloud, you're going to get a ride for your money and beyond your money, believe me. I remember one time we were leaving Birmingham, Alabama and heading for New Orleans. And there had been a front laying west of New Orleans for several days. And we said, oh, it's been stuck there. We can make it all right. So we took off and had flown about an hour or two and we come to some weather. And so we call and ask for an altitude. So they gave us an altitude of ten thousand feet and we went on instrument. One little while we started to get a little snow, little slush on a windshield.
Then it began to rattle, little hail. And then it began to look like this and like this and every other way from Sunday. That airplane weighed twenty-nine thousand pounds. We had the throttles pulled completely back, just idling the engine, had the landing gear hanging out, had the flaps down, just trying to make it like a duck waddling in the water, so it would be more stable in the storm. They had told me to check leaving every thousand feet. I checked leaving eight thousand, and they never heard from us again. We had started our descent. They came back and said, five, six, six, what's your altitude? said thirteen thousand five hundred we'll call you when we get down that storm had taken those twenty nine thousand pounds up like an elevator with no power on the aircraft at all should have gone the other way I've often said a good thunderstorm that God has made make the atom bomb look like a peanut with the forces that are within that thunderstorm sometimes we get in a storm but you know as the storm passes then there's the quiet and the rest I think that's sometimes why we come to a place like this, to find a quiet place where we can fix our
minds on the Word of God. We can allow God to work through a mind and a heart, to draw to Him, to learn the Scriptures and be stirred by Him in a new way. I told my brother last night, he warmed my heart yesterday. as he spoke of the cross. Your heart been warmed through the word of God in a time of rest. But rest doesn't last. The rest has to come to an end. The work is ahead. But God in his grace does not give us any more than what we can bear.
He had told us, then he told his disciples, come ye apart and rest a while. And so he draws us to that place. But while we're in the journey and the battle's gone, He doesn't give us any more than we can bear. He gives us grace sufficient for us. Now, David was meditating. He wasn't miserly. And what's Nathan say to him? And David says, See, I dwell in the house of Cedar, but the ark of God within curtains. And Nathan says to the king, Go and do all that's in your heart, for the Lord is with me. I know some of us have picked poor Nathan apart.
We said, oh, he jumped the gun. He spoke before he had the mind of God and all this sort of thing. And perhaps there's a measure of that might be true. But I would like to suggest to you there was a man who was a man of God, who was a prophet, who was going to encourage a man that had a heart willing to move out for God. We need that kind of encouragement. Now you can talk about finding your strength in the Lord and all of this. When a young man comes along and he makes some misquote or he stumbles a little bit, he doesn't need someone to jump on him and step on his toe and tell him all that he did wrong.
He needs somebody to encourage him to tell him what he did right. Isn't it amazing that we are so prone to find out what's wrong in another brother than what's right? I had a dear old brother back in Lake Geneva. Morning meeting after morning meeting went by after I'd moved there. It was all quiet as far as he was concerned. And so I said to him one day, George, and he was in his seventies. I said, how come never hear your voice?
Once in a while, maybe he'd give out a hymn, if his wife jabbed him a little bit. And then he said to me, Ray, when I was a young man just your age, he said, one day I stood up in the assembly, and he said, I prayed. And after that meeting was over, one of the elder brethren came to me and told me everything I said wrong. And he said, I felt all the time he talked to me, I felt smaller and smaller and smaller. He said, until I became afraid to ever open my mouth, I said, George, nobody here in this place is going to climb on your back, open the lips and praise your God.
You know, we need to encourage, and I believe that's what Nathan did for David. He encouraged him. Oh, but God spoke to Nathan that night. You know, and God told him what he wanted him to do. And what a blessing it was for him to tell David what God had to say. I'm going to read it to you. Verse eight. Now therefore, so shall thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcoat. Remember, he's been king for quite a while. He's still a shepherd though.
He was called from the sheepcoat. I took thee from the sheepcoat from following the sheep to be ruler over my people Israel. And I was with thee wherever thou wentest. and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of great men who are on the earth. Moreover, and this is what God says now, David, I'm going to do for you, just because of the intent of your heart. That's an amazing thing, isn't it? If our heart is right, and we've got an intent, what we want to do for God, even though we may never get to fulfill that intent, God's going to honor that intent.
But he said, David, because of your intent, I'm going to do something for you. I will appoint a place for my people, Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more. Neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as formerly. And since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people, Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thy enemies. Also the Lord telleth thee he will make thee a house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thine own body, and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." I will be his father. He shall be my son. If he will commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee. And thy throne shall be established forever. What a cheer to David's heart. Because of the intent of his heart. Now God says, David, I'm going to make a covenant with you. I'm going to build you a house. I'm going to give you a throne.
I'm going to give you a kingdom. And I'm going to give it to you forever. What do you think about that? That's quite a gift, wasn't it? All on God's side. David didn't do anything. David had the intent of his heart. Have you got that much straight in your brain? Now listen to what he said in Isaiah fifty five. He's saying in the first verse, Ho everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Come, buy wine, and milk without money and without price. And then he says, incline your ear, hear, and your soul shall live. What's he say to him? And I'll give you the sure mercies of David.
You know that means, beloved, if you're without Christ here today, and even if you know Christ, it's something you need to grasp. It's mine. A house. A kingdom. A throne. And forever. And praise God in the seed of David. Jesus Christ. That is ours. Every one of us, because we answered the invitation to come and drink, to buy without money and without price. Praise God for such a covenant that He made with David. You know, I love David.
David wasn't like Nebuchadnezzar. When Nebuchadnezzar looked all around about everything that he had in Babylon, is this not great Babylon that I have built? What did David do when his battle is done and he sits at rest? He looked at his God. He said, I dwell in a house of cedar, but my God in tent. He wasn't like Nicodemus, or pardon me, was it like Nebuchadnezzar? And he was encouraged, encouraged so much now that he moves to the place in verse eighteen, where now David goes in before the Lord.
And I think every time that we have an experience Of looking around at all that God has given to us. And being challenged of what we ought to do. There's something that draws us to make us want to come and sit before him. And that's what that man did in response to all God said he was going to do for him. He went and he sat before him. Then went King David in and sat before the Lord. Now, a lot of the brainy scholars who want to argue, say David couldn't have sat before the Lord because there wasn't any chair in the tabernacle to sit on, and they want to say, see here, it's not all straight.
But did you ever sit or spend some time fixed, not necessarily sitting on a chair, standing? Or maybe David fell on his face as he was there. But he sat. He spent the time before God. Sitting speaks to us of spending some time. And you know it speaks in the sense of the word of the Lord Jesus in Hebrews one. When he sat himself down at the right hand of the majesty on high, it was a finished work. It was all done. He had purged us with his blood from our own sin.
Finished work. He sat down. So when you look at David here, he's simply spending time before God. And as he spends a time before God, he says, Who am I? Who am I? And what is my house? As you read of David, do you ever think of David saying that before? Can you ever remember a reading when David expressed that before? You know there was a king that David was before one time, and his men went and said, Saul wants you to marry his daughter. He promised that. If you defeated the Philistines, you'd have a wife. And then he promised it again.
You know, and David said, Who am I? That I should be the king's son-in-law. Who am I? I come from a little tribe, a little clan, my father's house the least in the tribes of Israel. Who am I? Did you ever say that? When you sat before your God, who am I? Oh, I have lots of times in my life when God broke me with the thoughts of his grace.
When I was young, I used to say, how come, Lord, why should you love me? My brothers heard the same gospel I heard. And some of them went an altogether different direction. And I would say, oh God, who am I? That you should save my soul. That you should make me a son of God. An heir of God. And a joint heir with Jesus Christ. One of a kingdom. Priest, who am I? I see David with a humble heart.
That who am I speaks to me of a man who knew something about humility. My brother talked a little bit about that a while ago. There was a dear brother who has now gone to the glory. His name was Van Ryan. wasn't Ernest, or it wasn't August, it was his brother Charlie. I don't know how many of you knew Charlie. The old Dutch accent never did live him, was very thick and heavy until the days that he was taken home. But one time Charlie was up at Lake Geneva, I sat with Charlie, talking with him a bit.
I was directing the camp then, and Charlie just came up to help. You know, he's a dear brother. He'd pick up a paintbrush or anything else. He knew the word. He spent most of his time there at Emmaus. He didn't travel much. August did the traveling. But Charlie knew the word. And he said to me one day, I don't know exactly what we were talking about, but what he said has never left me. He said, Ray, humility is the crowning glory of a Christian. Do you know that never left me? I've never forgotten it. Humility, the crowning glory of a Christian. Another dear man once wrote that humility is the grace that gives God his proper place.
Isn't that what the Lord Jesus did with the Father? When it was the Father's will that he should come to die for sinners, did he not give the Father his proper place? when he was there in a garden of Gethsemane, and he prayed, Not my will, but thine be done. Did he not give God the Father his proper place? Paul, writing through the Spirit of God, said, Let this mind be in evil. Now I know my heart. I know the pride that can raise up in my heart.
I thank God for His Spirit. I thank God for a God who can take a verse and send it home to His brain and say, that's sin. And then I thank God for the provision that He made for that sin, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, and that He could say, If we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What's the best word in that verse? If you were to think about it, which word is best?
Which word packs the most power? Oh, there's a couple words that draw my heart, but you know which one I think it is? He is just in forgiving me. Why? Ah, because He already judged His Son for my sin. And when it's confessed, I can know His forgiveness. You know, David said in speaking of himself, He said, My heart is not haughty. Psalm one, thirty, one, nor my eyes lofty. Could you write that as a man? We know if we're honest, what rises up within our heart or how lofty our eyes can get.
Maybe that's why James wrote James chapter two and reminding them, don't take that guy who comes in dressed so fancy and say, sit up here and poor that poor old bum and say, sit here at my feet. Oh, he knew the heart of men, didn't he? But David could say, my heart. You know, God knew that heart, and that is one reason I believe that God said, is a man after my own heart. A man who wasn't haughty by heart, nor eyes lifted up. What sin is it that God hates the most? Well, it could be pretty rough thing to say, which one he hates the most.
But one day he gave us in the book of Proverbs the list of seven sins the Lord does hate. What's the first one he listed? I'll put it that way. A proud look. Isn't it so easy for that heart to look down that nose to make somebody else a little lower than self? Do you ever wonder why God had to write so many things like that in the Word of God? Humble yourselves before God. I know. I know. I know what the natural man is.
But I know the new man. I know Christ as he developed in us. And I know the one who shapes us and conforms us to his own image. Oh, listen, I want to show you something. First Samuel, twenty-six, nine. David did not covet the throne. What do you think of that? I want you to let your mind wander a little bit, and I can't wander too far because the clock's going. But you know, if you remember when David and his men were in the cave. And Saul comes in to refresh himself. He was pursuing David like a bunch of hounds after a fox.
And David and his men are hiding from him in that cave. And Saul comes in. And he stretches himself out. And he goes to sleep. Ah, there's one young man named Abishai. He says, David, let me put my spear through him. I'll pin him to the ground. What David say? He said, no. He said, destroy him not. For who can stretch forth a hand against the Lord's anointed? He could have had that throne in a minute. What was he waiting for?
Ah, he's waiting for God's time. He knew the throne was going to be his. There was a later time, you know. When Saul and Habner and all of them are out there sleeping, and David comes up and David is standing there looking over the valley, and he sees them sleeping, and he and his men go down there, walk right into the midst, and then he takes his javelin, and he takes his bag, his canteen, and then he backs off and goes to the high hill, and then he cries out to Saul's defenders. How have you defended your king? You know, he could have taken his life again in that moment, but he didn't.
Ah, the man after God's heart is showing. A man of a humble heart. A man that didn't covet. A man that was patient to wait God's time. What about when he went to destroy Nabal? I want you to know that David was no pansy. You know, he had a temper in him. He had that emotion that wells up in anger. And you know, his men had been there in the wilderness protecting all that Nabal had. And now his men are hungry and they've gone without some food. And so they send to Nabal thinking that Nabal ought to give him something to eat.
And what's Nabal do? No way is he about to give him anything. And he go back and tell David and then in David's anger. He turns around and he heads for Nabal. Nabel's name means a fool. Nabal's name means a withered leaf. You know, Abigail heard what Nabal had done. And you know, Abigail loads up the camels or the donkeys and puts those raisin cakes and the loaves of bread and the skins of wine and she heaps them all up and she goes heading in the way to meet David. And then what does David say?
No, he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who sent thee this day to meet me. Blessed be thy advice who kept me this day from coming to avenge blood and avenge myself. You know, David had an anger that was risen in. We could say, oh, that was a righteous anger to a measure, but not to take blood. And you know as that advice was given to him, David's heart knew there is certain vengeance that was God. Just as was Saul, now with Nabal, and he backs off.
Did God take care of Nabal? He sure did. Did God take care of Saul? He sure did. Because of a man who had a heart to wait on God. Now I have to leave that go by. I want you to go to the nineteenth verse. And this was yet a small thing in thy sight. O Lord God, that thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? Now I understand that literally this could have been translated this way.
And this is the law of the man, the Lord God. Now, and what David had previously, I believe David got a glimpse in that covenant that was made with him of a spiritual kingdom that one day his seed was going to reign from, a kingdom that would endure forever. And now perhaps David, having that understanding, would make a comment like that. I want you to look with me into the eighth psalm, if you will, please. I'd rather read a portion of it.
And honor. Ah, the Lord Jesus has that double crown. Glory and honor. Thou madeest him have dominion over the works of thy hand, and thou hast put all things under his feet. This is the man, the Messiah. And that meant heart. God gave him the answer to that heart, an answer that looked beyond. And as you read those messianic Psalms, you can have no question at all. of what God was giving that man as a prophet and as a hope for the day to come.
O to be men, after God's own heart, not coveting, a heart of humility, and to be able to wait upon one who says, vengeance is mine. I will repay. but to wait upon one who one day is going to show us the fullness of God's heart in the person of His Son. You know, people have said to me sometimes visiting with them in their suffering and said, well, if God loves me, why is He doing this to me?
Remember a young guy said that to me in the hospital one time. I said, look, friend, God displayed his love two thousand years ago when he nailed his son Jesus Christ to that cruel jiblet of shame. He does not have to do it again. Beloved Christian, if you're undergoing trial and you're saying, does he really love me? Take a look at the cross. Then your heart will begin to be like the man. after God's own heart. Thank you, our Father, for this blessed word.
Take it, multiply it over and over in our hearts, as we would desire that we would be conformed to your image. Indeed, we would have hearts like John, the baptizer, when he said, He must increase and I must decrease. Tenderize our hearts, O Lord, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.