Developing a Heart for God

Do you have a heart for God? Remy thinks you do. It just needs to be developed.

Part One: This series opens with a look at the story of David bringing back the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem when Uzzah was struck dead by God. This dramatic story is the backdrop to learn six principles about what a heart for God looks like.
Part Two: Remy looks at what makes a wayward heart from the story of David and Bathsheba.
Part Three: is an overview of the Psalms interwoven with a powerful real-life tragedy from guest speaker Beverly Deyo-Svendsen.
Part Four:is an overview of the Song of Songs. Remy looks at how we can reclaim the beauty of sex and speaksfrankly to both singles and married couples about their sex life!

This document contains:

Part One: The Anatomy of a Heart for God by Remy Diederich
Part Two: The Anatomy of a Wayward Heart by Remy Diederich
Part Three: A Ride Through the Psalmswith God by Beverly Deyo-Svendsen
Part Four: Reclaiming the Beauty of Sex by Remy Diederich

Today we start a new series called “Developing a Heart for God”. Let me ask you… do you think you have a heart for God? The Bible says that King David, the king of Israel, he had a heart for God (1 Samuel 13). What do you think that means – a heart for God? Do you have one?

Well, I think you do. You wouldn’t be here this morning if you didn’t. There’s something inside of you – no matter how faint – that longs to know God better than you already do. In fact, even people outside of church have a heart for God because God made them that way. They just don’t know it. But that heart needs to be developed. The small flicker of a flame needs to be fanned into a fire. It needs to be encouraged. And that’s what I’m here for - and we are here for as a church – to encourage your heart.

So this summer we are going to help you develop your heart for God by looking at a number of books in the middle of the Old Testament. We’re going to start with the books of Samuel and then move through Psalms, Proverbs and the other Poetical books. It’s a study that comes with a study guide that you can buy in the lobby if you want to track with it all summer. (The Old Testament Challenge – Part 3)

Let’s start by looking at this man David. Let’s see what we can learn from him about developing a heart for God.

In the book of second Samuel, we jump into the David story mid-stream. The David and Goliath event was years earlier when he was just a teen. Then he was anointed king by God but had to wait another eighteen years before being crowned king. During those years of waiting David was chased through the desert by King Saul who wanted to kill him. But then, Saul is killed in battle and David finally becomes king. David quickly takes control and starts to defeat Israel’s arch enemy, the Philistines.

So David did what the LORD commanded, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.5:25

In 2 Samuel, chapter six, there’s a story that I want to focus on because I think it will help us learn about what it means to have a heart for God. We’re going to learn six aspects about having a heart for God. Let’s read…

1Then David mobilized thirty thousand special troops. 2He led them to Baalah of Judah to bring home the Ark of God, …

Before I continue, I’ve got to stop right here and tell you what the ark of God is. In those days people didn’t have a concept of God living in their heart like we do today. God’s Spirit didn’t start to live inside individuals until after Jesus was resurrected and the Spirit was sent on the Day of Pentecost (see Acts 2 in the Bible). The presence of God was thought to live in a place, not a person, and for the Israelites that place was the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant was a large wooden chest – covered in gold - that contained the Ten Commandments along with the staff that was used by Aaron to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

On top of the chest were two large golden angels and the presence of God hovered between the wings of these angels (called The Mercy Seat of God). If you are a fan of the movie, the Raiders of the Lost Ark, what they were searching for in that movie was the Ark of the Covenant.

But, here in Samuel, the ark was no longer with the Israelites. The Israelites had left the ark in a small town near the Philistine border. So, that’s where these thirty thousand troops went to bring back the ark.

3They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the hillside home of Abinadab. Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab's sons, were guiding the cart 4with the Ark of God on it, with Ahio walking in front. 5David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the LORD with all their might, singing songs and playing all kinds of musical instruments – lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.

Passion for His Presence

The first thing I see here in regard to having a heart for God is that a heart for God is passionate for God’s presence. David wasn’t content to have God’s presence 100 miles away. He wanted God’s presence to be as close as possible. So what did he do?He sent thirty THOUSAND men - special forces - to retrieve it. Thirty thousand! That tells me something. That tells me that David was serious about wanting God’s presence. He didn’t just send a dozens guys to pick it up on their way back from another trip… “Hey, would you mind swinging by Baalah and pick up the Ark if it’s not too much trouble?” It cost a lot of time and money to send all those men up there. Send those men there put them at risk on other fronts. It was inconvenient and obviously dangerous (being near the Philistine border where they might be attacked). But David was willing to do whatever it took to get God’s presence. It was that important to him.

So, let me ask you…

How important is God’s presence in your life?

On a scale of 1-10 how much do you long for God?

That is, how much do you desire to know God, to see him move in your life and to follow his lead?

Now, you might say, “To be honest, I’m a solid one. I’m not passionate for God at all.” That’s okay. At least you are honest enough to admit it. But, are you willing to ask God to make you passionate? In fact, let me stop right now and pray for you…

Father, the truth is, we aren’t all passionate for you. Even those of us who are passionate, aren’t passionate all the time. But we want to be. I ask you to come and stir our hearts. Make us hungry for you – even now. Amen.

Honest About Disappointments

Second, a heart for God is honest about disappointments.

6But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah put out his hand to steady the Ark of God. 7Then the LORD's anger blazed out against Uzzah for doing this, and God struck him dead beside the Ark of God. 8David was angry because the LORD's anger had blazed out against Uzzah. He named that place Perez-uzzah (which means "outbreak against Uzzah"). It is still called that today.

This is an amazing story. It’s a confusing and troubling story. Here, there are 30,000 men risking their lives to retrieve the presence of God. They are worshipping with every ounce of their being and God strikes this guy dead for keeping the ark from falling on the ground! What’s up with that? Is God nuts? You’d think God would reward him for catching the ark but God kills him instead.

What I want you to see here is that God did something that David didn’t like and he didn’t understand. But David wasn’t afraid to show his anger. He didn’t stuff his emotions and act spiritual. It says in verse eight that David was angry because of what God had done.

This happens a lot. I meet people all the time that are offended by God - usually over the death of a loved one. But instead of telling God how they feel – like David did - or ask God for insight, many people just get bitter and walk away from God like he owes them an explanation. But he doesn’t – and he won’t chase them down to explain himself either. Parents don’t have to explain themselves to their children and God doesn’t need to explain himself to us.

If you want to understand God – if you want to overcome your offense you have to draw closer to him, not run away from him. That’s what a heart for God does. The person with a heart for God talks to God about their concerns and wrestles with their issues or their hard questions. Let me ask you…

What things in your life are you mad at God for?

Have you ever told him how you feel?

Have you ever asked him for insight?

If you are willing to stopping running from God and start talking to him about how you feel,

I think you’ll be surprised at what he’s willing to show you. I met a woman once who hated God. She had three miscarriages and she assumed that God hated her and killed her babies. I asked her if she ever asked God about how he felt about those miscarriages and she said “no”. So I prayed right then and said, “God, show her your heart. Show her what you want to know about those miscarriages.” Now, this is a woman who had no relationship with God but she started crying. I asked her why and she said that she sensed God was telling her that he wept for those miscarriages and that he had nothing to do with them. That broke open her life to God in a big way. She committed her life to Jesus and she’s been actively following him for the last four years.

Fears God

Next, a heart for God fears God.

9David was now afraid of the LORD and asked, "How can I ever bring the Ark of the LORD back into my care?" 10So David decided not to move the Ark of the LORD into the City of David. He took it instead to the home of Obed-edom of Gath. 11The Ark of the LORD remained there with the family of Obed-edom for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.

David was mad at God but he still showed God respect. David knew that, in dealing with God, he was playing with fire, so he wanted to be very cautious. That’s why he parked the ark and didn’t bring it back to Jerusalem right away. He wanted to understand what went wrong and take corrective action.

I’m glad that I have a chance to talk about the fear of God today because I haven’t done it very much. You have to understand that at Cedarbrook we have a number of people that come here every week that are taking their first steps toward God. I’m aware of that and so I try not to talk about God killing people a lot! It’s just hard to understand. I don’t want people’s first visit to be their last visit here. Instead, I spend a lot of time talking about God’s unconditional love. I want you to understand that God accepts you just the way you are. You don’t have to jump through any religious hoops to know God. He loves you no matter what you did the night before or week before.

But as true as God’s unconditional love is, there is another side to God that’s just as true. God is holy – he’s perfect in every way - and his ways need to be respected. The way we respect God is to obey him no matter what we think of his commands. Too often - in our church culture - we think God is open to negotiating with us. We really think that he buys into our rationalizing and justifying our lifestyles. But guess what? He doesn’t. He won’t negotiate. God is always right and he always wins the argument.

If you don’t agree with him you can change your theology or change your church or quit going to church altogether – you can even gather thirty thousand people together who agree with you – but it doesn’t matter. God won’t change. He won’t tolerate your compromise. And he demands obedience.

That’s why God killed Uzzah[1]. He had told Moses how to move the ark but David didn’t follow the instructions. If you go back in the Bible you’ll find that God had a very specific way that he wanted his ark handled. He wanted it carried on two poles on the shoulders of priests (Exodus 25).

Did you notice how David’s men handled the ark? They put it on a cart. That’s not what God had instructed. And the two men handling the ark weren’t priests- they weren’t even Israelites. The were the sons of the land owner where the Ark was being kept. But God didn’t strike the men dead when they put the Ark on the cart. He could have but he didn’t. God struck Uzzah dead when he touched the Ark. Touching the Ark was like touching God. You just didn’t do that. God had to draw the line somewhere in their lack of respect. David got careless with God’s presence and Uzzah paid the price.

Folks, I don’t know how to say this without offending some of you…but the truth is, some of you have become careless in your lifestyles and you may have to pay the price. I’m not saying that God is going to strike you dead (although it’s not out of the question. It has happened) but the consequences may be more than you bargained for. You might think that God is winking at your sin but he’s not. You might think that he understands why you “have to” sin, but he doesn’t.

The dangerous thing about disobedience is that when you consistently choose to disobey God, your heart slowly hardens toward him. Instead of developing your heart for God, you are hardening it. And as your heart hardens - you start to drift from God. The sad thing is, you don’t even know it’s happening. You get up one morning and you don’t realize that you aren’t thinking about God as much as you did the week before. And then one morning you wake up and you don’t even think about God at all. You don’t want that to happen.

I like David’s attitude here. Even though he was mad at God he parked the ark for three months,

learned what he did wrong and then tried again.

12Then King David was told, "The LORD has blessed Obed-edom's home and everything he has because of the Ark of God."

David saw that blessing and he wanted it for himself. He was missing out.

So David went there and brought the Ark to the City of David with a great celebration. 13After the men who were carrying it had gone six steps, they stopped and waited so David could sacrifice an ox and a fattened calf. 14And David danced before the LORD with all his might, wearing a priestly tunic.

Did you notice the change? In verse thirteen the men were now carrying the ark. David learned from his mistake. In his enthusiasm for God he had become too casual. So this time he added respect to his worship and obeyed God’s command. And just to be sure, he made a sacrifice. I don’t think that was required but David added it in for good measure. He didn’t want to take any chances this time!

If there is anything that I fear is wrong with our church - (and there are probably many things!) -

I fear that we are too casual. We’ve made it casual here on purpose. We encourage people to come as they are. You can walk in late and it’s no big deal. You can get up in the middle of a sermon and refill your coffee. And we never pressure you to give financially. We want people to know that God accepts them unconditionally so we don’t put any conditions on your being here. That’s a good thing but I’m afraid that some people may get the wrong impression. I’m afraid some people may think that God has no standards. That God not only accepts us unconditionally but he accepts all of our behavior as well – we can be as sloppy as we want and it doesn’t matter to him. But that’s not true. Our behavior does matter. Like a parent, he loves us, but he has expectations for respect and responsibility. So, if there’s any area that we can grow in here – it’s in developing a healthy fear of God.