July 19, 2026, Morning Service
God Looks At The Heart
Bro. Steve Lee

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For^] the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

If you ever got together play with neighborhood kids to play baseball or basketball or any game the first thing was to pick teams. Of course the first chosen were always the athletic ones, then if basketball height might get you chosen, baseball if you looked like a good runner or muscular. Players were chosen by outward appearance for the most part, that’s human nature. If you look the part you would do. The Lord tells David that he looks at the heart. Is the Lord looking to see if the valves are all working properly, or if the blood is flowing the way it should, or is the heart strong and pumping correctly? No He is looking at the intentions of the individual. We look at the surface and the Lord looks deeper inside. Our intentions are what matters to God!

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.               Proverbs 21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts. 

   Something I did not know: David did not write the entire book of Psalms, only about half – 73 out of 150 were credited to him. But here are some that David did write… Psalm 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.     51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise.  Psalm 139:1-2  O Lord, You have searched me and known me. ² You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.

As David said God knows every intent of the heart and he knows our thoughts nothing is hidden from him. God knew David well and here is what Acts says about David…

Acts 13:20-22 ²⁰ “After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. ²¹ And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. ²² And when He had removed him, 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.   

    God said David was a man after His own hear who will do all His will. Wouldn’t we all like to have God say that about us? What an honor! But David wasn’t perfect he wasn’t without faults. We know that one evening David walked out on his roof and saw Bathsheba bathing. He inquired about her, had her brought to him and he lay with her all the while knowing she was the wife of Uriah. Long story short David had Uriah placed on the front lines of battle and once there the rest of the men were to retreat from him resulting in his death. So David sinned and then tried covering up his sin but it wasn’t hidden from God.  2 Samuel 11 ²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. ²⁷ And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and  bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased^[f] the Lord.

As a result we know the Lord struck the child, a son, born from this union and he became ill. David pleaded with God for this son and fasted and lay all night on the ground but the child died.

     There are lessons to be learned from the Bible, we are not left to wander aimlessly without guidance. Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Matthew 6¹⁹ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: ²⁰ But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: ²¹ For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Romans 10:¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Central to the heart of God is His love and compassion. God did this for us…. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.1 John 4⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.