After God's Own Heart

3/30/1988

“‘The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go’” (Acts 3:13).

God glorified His servant Jesus. Why did He do that? Why did He exalt Him and give Him the Name above every other name? He exalted Him because He made Himself nothing and took on the form of a servant and became obedient to His Father, even though it cost Him His life. Zeal for His Father’s House consumed Him and just lit a fire in Him. He was a torch burning for the glory of God. He had no other selfish ambitions or vain conceits, but He emptied Himself. “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus…” is the introduction to that passage. Because He had that attitude, “God highly exalted Him and gave Him that Name above every name” (Php. 2).

God confirmed Him because He was a man after His own heart. He was the Man after His own heart. He glorified His servant, Jesus. Why? Because His servant, Jesus, lived for Him. David was a man after God’s own heart too. Why was he a man after God’s own heart according to Acts? “Because he did everything I told him to do” (Acts 13:22). That’s why he was a man after God’s own heart. It wasn’t that David sat around and hummed and swayed back and forth and lifted his hands in the air. It wasn’t a mystical idea. He was a man after God’s heart because he did everything the Father wanted him to do. That’s the challenge that’s in front of us.

It is entirely possible to harden our hearts at this instance in time. That is what tends to happen over the course of time when you hear the Word of God and it comes to you and touches you and your eyes light up—but you don’t do anything about it. So, harden not your hearts and instead cry out to God and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem as the praise of the earth (Isaiah 62:6-7). That has to be your heart. Give God no rest until He establishes His people as the praise of the earth. Give Him no rest until His mountain is established as chief among the mountains and not a byword among the nations (Ps. 44:14) or a land called desolate (Is. 62:4), which is what the world thinks about it right now.

If you were to take a poll in the United States or anywhere else asking what Christianity is to the world, the feedback you’d get is that it’s just another idea or hobby. It’s a byword. There’s nothing about it that would cause men to say, “Whoa, these people that have turned the world upside down have come to our city also!” (Acts 17:6). Nobody responds that way to today’s Christianity. They don’t care about it or really notice it. Maybe in a communist country they wouldn’t like our philosophy, but they aren’t threatened by it because God is in it. The people’s hearts are not melting as they did in Rahab’s day (Joshua 2:8-11) or as they did in the Philistines’ day because the Ark of God was coming and a great shout had gone up from the Israelites (1Sam. 4:5-9).

I want to encourage you all to not get sidetracked with religion here. This is big stuff. It’s important and it’s essential. If your heart isn’t wide open to what we’re talking about right now, and if you’re instead sniffing porridge, then you’ll die in your sins. You’ll die in your hardness of heart, and you’ll always be chasing a new idea or system or program or format. You’ll always be running after little side things which will never have God’s thumbprint on them. It’ll never be, “God pouring out what you now see and hear.” You’ll die in a mundane existence of statistical probability. I hope that idea makes you sick.

It makes me sick to think of any of us settling for the mundane, so that’s why I’m talking about these things. You don’t need to be sitting around 20 years from now singing a few songs and having a few prayers and God not be in it. I don’t want that to happen to you. I’m all for singing songs and praying prayers—you know me well enough to know I’m not knocking those. I’m just saying that if it’s not God, I don’t want any part of it. We may as well join the Kiwanis Club or the Lions’ Club. If God’s not in it, I don’t want it. And I hope that’s true for you all, too. Where God is, there’s no mistaking it. You don’t have to drum it up and you don’t have to have a pep rally to prove anything. Where God is, there will be no mistaking it. He did create the universe after all. He’s a Big Guy.

<<< >>>