June 14, 2009
What Does God See? - 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
Pastor: Luke Maybry
DownloadI am sure that most of you already know this, but we record these services on CDs every Sunday. Wray Moxely sits up there in that booth in the balcony and runs the sound system, and part of his job is to make the clearest recording as possible. You are more than welcome to ask him for a recording of any service that we’ve had here. Or, you could just call the church office. Or, you could just wait until the website gets out, which hopefully will be very soon, and download it off the website. You may in fact want to do that often. I can tell you for a fact, though, that I don’t. I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, but listening to yourself speak is a very unnerving thing. I don’t like it. In fact, in the 15 months that I’ve been here, I’ve only done that (listened to myself on a recording) three times. I just don’t like it. I don’t mind it now. I’m obviously hearing myself now, and I don’t think I sound all that bad. I don’t talk too fast, I don’t have too heavy an accent, and I know what I mean and what I want to say and how I want to say it. I make a lot of sense to me. But hearing myself on those recordings is different.
And, while I’m at it, I don’t like to see myself either. I got my picture made a couple of weeks ago for that new directory (and I strongly encourage you to do the same thing). The photographer said at one time that he wanted to display a picture of me and my family sort of a model for what those pictures would look like, sort of. I hate to say this, but if I were you, that would turn me off. I look in the mirror at least a couple of times a day, and I don’t think I look that bad. But when I see that picture, I fully realize that I’m getting bald up top. I used to make fun of people who parted their hair to cover up their bald head. But I do the same thing now, and I don’t like it. And I’m getting grey on the sides, and my face is looking older than it used to, with almost a baggy appearance, all of which is obvious in that picture. I don’t mind looking at myself in the mirror, but for whatever reason, I don’t like a picture.
Why is all that? When I hear a recording of myself, I hear the same thing that you hear and that I hear now. And I see in a picture the same thing you see in reality and that I see in the mirror. It’s not that I hear or see anything different, or that you hear or see anything different, but you are different. So when I see a picture of myself or hear a recording of myself, it forces me to see myself in a very different context. It forces me to see myself as others see me, and that is, at the very least, awkward. The Scottish poet, Robert Burns, has a line in his poem, “For All That,” that mentions the gift to “see ourselves as others see us.” That is a gift, you know. I think I’m pretty hot stuff, or at least I’m normal. But when I hear myself or see myself independently of myself, I’m nowhere nearly as hot as I think I am. It really is a gift to know how others see me. And so I wonder about that.
But more than that, I wonder how God sees me. This passage certainly indicates to us that however God sees me, it’s very different than how either I or others see me. By Chapter 16, Saul was finished, and God was about to pick another king. God told Samuel to go to Bethlehem, and God would make clear to him there who that king would be. God even told Samuel that it would be one of the sons of Jesse (whoever that was). Samuel simply needed to anoint him. So Samuel set out for Bethlehem, and, sure enough, he found Jesse. And Jesse lined all seven of his sons up before Samuel.
The very best looking one was named Eliab. Eliab apparently had it going on. Surely, Samuel thought, Eliab was it. But God said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord does not see as mortals see. They look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Then came the next best looking boy, Abinadab, and then Shammah, and then five more best-looking boys. All seven boys took their turn, and God didn’t select either one of them. “You have to have one more,” Samuel said to Jesse. “I do,” he said, “but he’s tending the sheep.” “Bring him,” Samuel said, “because we’re not going to sit down until we see him.” And sure enough, they brought that boy, whom the text hadn’t even named yet, and the Lord said, “that’s the boy. Go anoint him.”
Even though David did not look like a king, David was the one with the right heart, you see. The appearance did not matter. The heart mattered. That’s what God sees when he sees us. So, evidently, when God looks at me, he’s not at all concerned about the fact that my hair line is receding and what’s not receding is turning grey. God is not at all concerned that I look like I did when I was twenty. In fact, God may well be flabbergasted that we spend so much time and energy and money in this country on cosmetics. We could supply the developing world with clean drinking water for less than one-third of what we spend on cosmetics in one year. We are a nation grossly obsessed with outward appearances. Yet we spend precious little time on the inside, on the heart. And so I wonder what God really sees when he looks beyond my balding head into my heart. Evidently, that’s what matters the most.
And that is a sobering thought. I have this aunt who is known to say that “you can fool most of the people most of the time.” I would add to that you can also fool yourself most of the time. But you can’t fool God any of the time. And God looks to the heart. So what does God see in your heart? And, for that matter, what do you see in your heart? When was the last time you even looked there? And for that matter, what do you think God sees in our church’s heart? And what do we see in it, and when was the last time we really looked?
I went on a run this past Thursday. It was supposed to be an easy run because I had gone on a hard run on Wednesday and I had just eaten about five cookies that Martha Osborne had cooked. So I set out for my easy run, and I looked at my watch and discovered that I didn’t have much time, and I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to step it up. I did great for about two miles, and then I was turning left onto this trail. Right before I turned left, I saw this girl (who looked like she was fifteen) approaching me who was turning right on the same trail. I don’t know why I cared whether she beat me or not, but I did and I could hear her behind me huffing and puffing and gaining ground on me. She finally caught up to me and ran ahead of me, probably about twenty yards or so, which was completely unacceptable. So I sped up, way up until I caught her. And when I caught her, as my heart was about to beat out of my chest, she looked over at me and smiled and said just as cool as a cucumber, “nice run, man.” And then she looked ahead and sprinted at least thirty yards ahead of me. I will say that I did manage to keep up with her and finally overtake her just long enough for me to turn right and for her turn left and hopefully never see her again because she ran me in the ground. She called my bluff, you see. She gave me a measuring stick to see just strong my legs really were.
I hope that we get a similar measuring stick for our hearts. We need that, you know, because right now I’m not sure that my heart looks as good as it should. Or, maybe I can put it this way. I’m not as concerned about my heart as I should be. I’m still all worried about this outward stuff that doesn’t matter. I don’t lose any sleep over my hair falling out, or turning grey. It’s got to go sometime, but do I think we’re all worried about our status, about how we look to our friends. Or maybe we’re worried about climbing some kind of latter, maybe a corporate latter or a social latter. Maybe we’re worried about getting a bigger steeple on our church, or a bigger staff, or a growing membership, all of which is fine, but sometimes it can, if we aren’t careful, become an idol. According to this passage, God doesn’t see any of that when he sees us. God does not see what we see. God does not look at me and my nice car and nice suit and nice house and nice wife and nice church and nice hair-do and nice abdominal muscles and say “Wow! I wish I could look like that.”
No, God looks solely to my heart. Our heart, then, is what we need to address. I’m not sure how best to do that. Maybe only God himself can help us address the true health of our hearts. Maybe God will send along a runner for us, a measuring stick of sorts, and call our bluff on it. Or, maybe we can read some Scripture and spend some time in prayer over it. You may have heard Scripture called the “Canon” before. The “Canon” refers to that set of writings that the Church has deemed to be holy, that which we call Scripture. “Canon” comes from the Greek word, “Canone,” which means rule, or a standard, or a measuring stick of sorts. Either way, Scripture is a good measuring stick for the heart. And it’s the heart that counts. God sees us in vastly different ways that we see ourselves. God sees in us what only God can fully see, and that is our hearts.
So while you go about trying to improve your status this week, and trying to keep your hair from either falling out or turning grey, or while you strive and strive for that promotion which will give you a better pay check, or a nicer house or a nicer car, or while you wrack your brain over getting a good evaluation, spend some time making your heart looking good. God may be the only one who ultimately can get that thing looking right, but we do have a role to play in it. So read some Scripture, spend some good time in prayer, get active in a Bible Study, go love and serve others. All those are disciplines and they are great for the heart. Don’t worry so much about the outside. God doesn’t even see that. God doesn’t see as we see. God looks on the heart. And that’s what matters.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
