Pursuing God's Heart

I was really excited about this past Sunday, but I seem to be very excited about our Sundays, don't I? Especially lately. There is a special sense of God's touch and grace upon us in this season of growth and expansion. Our teams have been incredible and are really understanding what it means to live heart-first. Yet, we have room for everyone to join our teams. Don't ever believe for one minute that the Lord and we, do not need you. Recently a man stopped me and said: "Must be great to have all these people serving, you are able to do so much, you probably don't need me." I told him that nothing could be farther from the truth. Since we are larger than many churches, we also choose to do more, give more and serve more and with three services each Sunday, it takes many willing hearts and hands - people willing to pursue God' heart. I think LFC is pursuing God's heart more and more and this thrills me. More people are willing to get into Life Transformation Groups, willing to read the bible and journal everyday and willing to pray for others and step out and serve and give.
"...The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, (1 Sam 13:14). In God's pursuit of the right hearted person, the beginning of the end of King Saul came.
Summarizing the history of Israel in a sermon delivered at Antioch of Pisidia, the Apostle Paul said of the Lord, "...when He had removed him (Saul), He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.'" (Ac 13:22). What a wonderful commendation of a man, from the LORD Himself!
What does it mean, when the LORD speaks of David as "a man after My own heart"? It certainly does not mean that David was always sinless before the LORD, because we know of his sin. It is an affirmation of David's desire to do the things of God. To pursue Him and be after His heart. His heart was to give faithful service to the Lord.
1 & 2 Samuel reveal the desire of David to serve the Lord, and the Psalms time and again express his faith and love unto the Lord. We have in David perhaps the most complete picture the Bible gives of any character's faith and service before God. The Scriptures continually witness to his love for worship, the Scriptures, a genuine desire to communicate with God and wisdom in serving the Lord
David wrote, "When You said, ‘Seek My face,' my heart said to You, ‘Your face, LORD, I will seek.'" (Ps 27:8). Of God's choosing David, another psalmist wrote, "He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes that had young He brought him, to shepherd Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands." (Ps 78:70-72)
I believe LFC is becoming more and more a church community pursuing God's heart. By living passionate about God, loving others and treating them with "integrity of heart," the Lord will use us greatly and fill us with more and more of Himself.
Let's turn up our pursuit of God - let us be after His heart with a deep passion. We cannot rest on our past or be hindered by it - we simply move on towards what is ahead in "hot pursuit of the heart of God."

• Will you ask Him to give you a greater capacity to turn up your passion for Him?
  
• Will you make sure you are spending time with God in prayer, bible reading and worship each day?
  
• Will you ask Him where you might serve or find a place to use His power and touch in and upon your life?
  
• Will you find others you can bless and treat with "integrity of heart" and brotherly / sisterly love?
  

In doing so you will realize you are growing deeper and deeper into a place of being after God's own heart.
In pursuit of God with you,
Pastor Bernie