The Era of the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of God (2) King David (1)

“But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Sam 16:7)
 
Review
We are currently exploring what it means to live as people of the Kingdom of God through the stories of the Old Testament. Last time, we talked about Saul, the first king of Israel.
At the end of the Judges Era, the Israelites asked Samuel to appoint a king. This meant they were rejecting God as their true King, but God allowed them to have a king and had Samuel anoint Saul as king.
He was a handsome young man who was the tallest among the Israelites. However, that wasn’t the reason God chose him. God chose Saul as the first king of Israel not because of his appearance, but because of his humility. Saul was a very humble man before he was anointed. When Samuel declared Saul king before all the Israelites, he thought he was unworthy so he hid among some supplies.
However, after he became king, he started to change little by little and made huge mistakes. We talked about Saul’s two crucial faults. The first one happened when the Israelites were at war with the Philistines. During the battle against the Philistines, Saul offered up a burnt offering to prevent the Israelites from leaving the battleground. By God’s law, he wasn’t allowed to do that because he was a king, not a priest.
He used worship as a tool to win the battle. By doing so, he disobeyed God. Seeing this, Samuel rebuked Saul twice, saying, “You have not kept the Lord’s command.” For Saul to offer up a burnt offering was indeed a serious sin because in doing so he didn’t follow God’s specific rules about worship and therefore nullified them.
Saul’s other sin occurred when the Israelites fought the Amalekites. Through Samuel, God told Saul to attack the Amalekites and completely destroy all that belonged to them. However, Saul didn’t follow God’s order. Even though he killed the Amalekites and some of their animals, he spared Agag, the king of Amalek, and the best of the sheep and cattle.
Seeing this, God said that he regretted having made Saul king. When Samuel asked Saul why he didn’t follow God’s command, Saul said that it was the soldiers who spared the best of the animals and that it was to sacrifice them to the Lord. Again, he used sacrifice to justify his mistake. Hearing this, Samuel answered,
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.” (1Sm 15:22-23)
Saul worshiped, but God didn’t accept his worship. Saul spared the best animals to sacrifice to the Lord, but God regretted making him king. Why? Because he didn’t obey God. Saul seemed to worship God but he didn’t really worship Him. He did what was right in his own eyes. To Saul, God wasn’t his King. Saul was the king of his own life.
These two representative sins originated from the same root: failing to serve God as King. This was manifested through his disobedience to God's word. Saul ignored the laws and orders established by God and offered worship according to the standards he thought were right. Saul kept alive what God called evil because it looked good in his own eyes.
However, doing so was equivalent to rejecting the word of God. Ultimately, it was a rejection of God Himself, who spoke those words.
Samuel rebuked Saul, saying: “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.” (1Sm 15:23)
The most important principle we must not miss as people of the Kingdom of God, which we can learn from Saul's story, is that we must live with God as the King of our lives.
This means complete obedience to God's word. It means regarding what God calls good as good, and viewing what God calls evil as evil. It means obeying God's word completely, even if it differs from our own standards. The Kingdom of God is established through His people who fully obey His will.
 
David: A Man After God’s Own Heart
Today, I’ll move on to the second king of Israel—King David. After God rejected Saul as king, He told Samuel to find another man who would succeed Saul. God said to Samuel:
“How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.” (1Sm 16:1)
So Samuel went to Bethlehem and invited Jesse and his sons to sacrifice to the Lord. He looked at Jesse’s seven sons, and when he saw the first son, Eliab, Samuel thought that he was the one God had chosen because his appearance was good, much like Saul’s. However, God said to him:
“Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1Sm 16:7)
From this verse, we know what God is interested in. To us, appearance matters. However, God is more interested in what’s in our hearts. God sought a man whose heart acknowledged Him as King.
Samuel saw Jesse’s seven sons, but God didn’t choose any of them. Jesse had not even shown his youngest son to Samuel because he was out tending the sheep. Samuel told him to bring the youngest, and when he arrived, God said to Samuel, "Rise and anoint him; this is the one.” (1Sm 16:12) Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him. The Bible says, “From that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.” (1Sm 16:13)
This is the story of how Samuel anointed David as the second king of Israel. This leads us to ask: Why did God choose David?
We have already seen the answer: it was because David’s heart was centered on God. In other words, the true King of David’s heart and life was God. Therefore, God chose him to establish the nation of Israel as the Kingdom of God.
We can see this reflected in other biblical passages as well. When King Saul made his first major mistake, Samuel rebuked him, saying:
“But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command.” (1Sm 13:14)
Here we see the reason why God rejected Saul and chose David. God rejected Saul because he rejected God’s word and failed to acknowledge God’s sovereignty. God chose David because he was “after God’s own heart.”
In this context, the original Hebrew word for "heart" is 'Leb'. This refers to more than just the seat of emotions; it signifies the very source of human life where intellect, will, and decisions are formed. For David to be "after God's heart" meant that his beliefs, will, purposes, and values were aligned with God's will. David was a man who served God as King and was prepared to live according to His will. Thus, he possessed a heart fit to be God’s representative ruler over Israel.
We find a similar expression in Acts 13. During his first missionary journey, Paul went to Pisidian Antioch and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Jews there. Since they were well-versed in the Old Testament, Paul began his sermon by summarizing Israel's history:
This is the introduction to his sermon, found in Acts 13:16-23:
“Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said: “Fellow Israelites and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me! The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country; for about forty years he endured their conduct in the wilderness; and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan, giving their land to his people as their inheritance. All this took about 450 years. “After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised.” (Acts 13:16-23)
In this summary, Paul emphasizes that David was a man after God’s own heart and adds a crucial explanation: “he will do everything I want him to do.”
This is the true meaning of being "after God’s own heart." It means not being swayed by one’s own thoughts, emotions, or circumstances, but seeking God’s will above all else and living according to what pleases Him. It means enthroning God as the Master of one's life and making Him the highest priority. It means handing the helm of one's life over to God and yielding all initiative to Him. A person who seeks God with such a whole heart and strives to know and obey His will—that is a person after God’s own heart.
This is the most important mindset we must possess to live as people of the Kingdom of God. If there is anything we put before God’s will—whether it be our circumstances, emotions, or plans—we cannot live as true citizens of His Kingdom. Only when we confess God’s sovereignty and humbly lay everything at His feet can He work through us and accomplish things far greater than we ever could on our own. When we completely surrender the initiative of our lives to God, we will finally witness His work in building His kingdom through us.
I hope we can examine our lives today in light of this message. What is at the center of your heart right now? What is your greatest interest at this moment? What do you love the most? If it is something other than God, I hope we can offer our hearts up to Him once again.
Being a person "after God’s own heart" does not mean doing His will perfectly. Because we are all weak and possess a sinful nature, no one can obey God's word perfectly. In that sense, a person after God's heart is not someone who never sins. David also committed grave sins several times.
A person after God's own heart is not someone who never falls, but someone who falls on their face before God every time they stumble. It is someone who, when tempted by sin, does not defend themselves with excuses like Saul did, but honestly comes before God’s mercy. God does not look for our perfection; instead, He recognizes a "broken and contrite heart"—one that trusts Him and turns back to Him until the very end—as being after His own heart.
I pray that this becomes the state of our hearts as we move toward God. Even now, God is looking for those who seek Him in this way. He is looking for those whose hearts are centered on Him. And God strengthens such people, establishing His will and His kingdom on this earth through them. As it says in 2 Chronicles 16:9:
"For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." (2 Chronicles 16:9)
I hope that each and every one of you gathered here today becomes that one person God is searching for. I pray that our lives would be marked by seeking God with all our hearts, surrendering all our reasoning, desires, and decisions to His will, making Him our top priority, and loving and following Him alone.
Although today’s sermon is shorter than usual, it contains a very important message that we, as people of the Kingdom of God, must keep in mind. I hope that we will reflect on and examine our hearts and lives in light of this word, so that we may all become people after God’s own heart.
My prayer is that everything God desires—His kingdom and His will—would be established wherever you are: in your homes, your workplaces, your studies, and in all your relationships.
Starting next week, we will dive deeper into the life of David to explore specifically what it means to live as a person after God’s own heart. Let us pray together.
 
 
[Prayer]
Loving and Gracious Heavenly Father,
Today, through the stories of Saul and David, we have learned the most precious attitude that people of Your Kingdom must possess.
Lord, we come before You in repentance. Forgive us for the times we placed ourselves on the throne of our lives instead of You.
We sincerely desire to become people after Your own heart, just like David. May our intellect, will, and decisions in our hearts be aligned with Your will.
Lord, we are weak and we often stumble. But in those moments, let us not hide behind excuses. Instead, grant us a broken and contrite heart that honestly falls before Your mercy. We lean on You, God, who looks not for our perfection, but for our unwavering trust in You.
As we go out into the world, may Your Kingdom be established through us. Let us witness Your power daily as You strengthen us whose hearts are fully committed to You.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Eternal King, we pray. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1. What kind of heart is a heart after God’s own heart? How much is your heart aligned with God’s heart? If you could express it as a percentage, what percentage of your heart is filled with a mind toward God? What are the practical steps you can take this week so that your heart can become more aligned with God’s heart?
 
2. God is looking for someone whose heart is "fully committed" to Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). What is one specific area of your life that you want to intentionally surrender to God this week?