God fills with his Spirit those who have a surrendered heart to him. And this language of the Spirit rushed on David—that might make you recall something that happens in the future in Acts 2... When the Spirit of God rushed upon the apostles there in the upper room, it's the same idea of the Spirit coming... that those who would bow the knee to Christ would also receive the Spirit of God.
God is not just interested in how we look. He's not just interested in how clean our physical hands are or not. God is interested in our heart. God's interested in our heart. And not just the existence of our heart, not just a heart that is trying—I'm trying with my heart, I'm trying all that I can to be, to do well, to do good—but it's not just a trying heart. God is looking for a surrendered heart.
[00:33:27]
To pursue the heart of God, it comes from a place of surrender. And Saul wasn't willing to fully obey what God was asking for him to do. And so the king, when God made Saul king, the king was supposed to represent, be the human representative of the divine kingship of God, of God's divine kingship. And it was this idea of, okay, Israel, follow me as I follow God.
[00:35:09]
What we think we need and what we want is usually different from what God wants. And what God wants, what God wants is really what we need. We think we know the problem and we think we know how to solve it, but God is the only one who can resolve it.
[00:38:30]
Saul exemplifies a king who would not be transformed ultimately by the divine will of God because he, I would argue, was not surrendered to God's will. Fascinatingly enough, Saul's name—do you know what it means? It means asked for. His literal name means asked for, that God gave them what they asked for.
[00:42:13]
We can't always control how others respond to God. We can't. It's so frustrating. Some of the most frustrating things in life are when we're dealing with others who have rejected God or are dishonoring God and that how that practically impacts us. And just because God allows someone to seemingly get away with something without judging them doesn't mean that God approves of it.
[00:46:04]
God will use the brokenness of the world, God will use the brokenness of people, God will use the pride of people, the blindness of people, the fear of people, the insecurity of others to work in our own heart and mind to shape us more into the image of Christ.
[00:48:33]
Sometimes God, just like God allowed Saul to remain in David's life even after he was anointed, God will allow eels in our life to make us humble before the Lord and pursue God straight before him and look to him, look to him and how God would shape us more into the image of Christ to say, well, I trust God that what he allows, it will ultimately end up being for my good.
[00:51:49]
God is looking at your heart, trying to figure out, is your heart aligned with his heart? He's looking with his heart, and God can see way better than we can see because he can see the heart. We can only see the outward appearance.
[00:53:24]
What counts to God isn't necessarily what you look like, but it's the heart. It's the heart that God wants. It's the heart that counts. First Corinthians 1:27 says God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
[00:56:59]
David's courage wasn't in his physical ability, it wasn't in how others perceived him. David's courage—we'll especially see this in a couple, in two, three weeks—is David's courage was in almighty God. Saul had misplaced fear; David had a right place fear because it was fear of God, and he had a love for God, a love and a value for what God loves and values, because God is looking for a surrendered heart and he found that in David.
[00:57:27]
If we could see how God sees, we would see more clearly David wasn't any underdog. Why? Because he had a surrendered heart, and because he had a surrendered heart, he was open and willing to receive the heart of God that God would work through him.
[00:58:14]
David here was anointed with oil, he was chosen to be the next king, but he wasn't just anointed with oil, he was anointed with the very Holy Spirit of God. And in the Old Testament, the Spirit would come upon those who were kings and prophets who God would use as human leaders to embody the presence and message of God.
[00:59:01]
We don't have to be a king in the Old Testament to have the Holy Spirit upon us. We can be a New Testament believer following our King Jesus who, guess what, is going to help us rule and reign with him for all eternity. And we are a child of the King, the true King.
[01:01:39]
When we have a surrendered heart before God, he fills us with his Spirit and we are commissioned into the training ground to be shaped more and more into the image of Christ, to be able to be even more and more surrendered to him, to have a surrendered heart before God, and then the Lord transforms us.
[01:02:59]
A surrendered heart pursuing the heart of God isn't just shaping ourselves to be better. It's not self-improvement, it's not self-help, it's surrender. And when we surrender, that's when true transformation is able to come about.
[01:06:29]
Your most true self is found in Christ, in his purposes. David's name—Saul's name meant, anyone remember, what is it? Asked for. All right, back row's paying attention, I love it. Asked for. David's name: beloved. It means beloved. Our true identity, you know what it is? We're loved. We're loved. We're loved. We're loved by almighty God. We're loved through the death and resurrection of Christ who died in our place, and that is why we surrender. It is out of an act of love. We love because he first loved us and he demonstrated for us on the cross, and we surrender because Christ surrendered.
[01:07:56]
The secret is that a surrendered heart is surrendered because it is secure. It is secure. It is secure in the love of God. That's what a true surrendered heart is—one that receives and is secure in the love of God.
[01:09:07]
I would argue either now or at some point in the past, we're little Sauls. We are little Sauls, and it's only by an act of God's grace that he provides for us a new and a better king, because we are little Sauls, because we don't want to let go of our own kingship, we don't want to let go of our own authority, we want to hold on to it ourselves, we don't want to surrender.
[01:10:01]
It is a complete and full surrendered heart that God is looking for—a change in leadership, a change in kingship in our life. No longer doing whatever is right to me, whatever is right in my own eyes, whatever I want to choose. Christ becomes our King and becomes our everything.
[01:11:33]
King Jesus isn't a tyrant that's going to force us to be surrendered. It is the best thing that we can do when we respond to the love of Christ. It's by God's grace that God calls us to a better and more faithful King living in our place, dying in our place.
[01:11:54]
How do I know if I have the Holy Spirit on me? Well, one, you have a surrendered heart. All right, God, whatever you want, I am yours. All I have is Christ and anything else, I trust you—a surrendered heart that loves God. Number two is God by his Spirit begins to change your desires and transform you and give you what I call is a want to. I now have a new want to where I didn't in the past. I have a want to to align my heart to the things of God.
[01:12:28]
God is looking for a surrendered heart. When he looks at you, does he see a surrendered heart? Would he see what he looks for—the heart that is being transformed more into the image of Christ, surrendered to the things of him?
[01:15:00]
