Knowing the Sound of God’s Heartbeat
I remember being a kind and my mother drawing me in close, my ear pressing into her chest, and feeling the thump thump thump of her heart beating. It made me feel safe and it filled me with a sense of security. There’s this strange rushing of realizations all at once when you listen to someone’s heart beating in their chest. It’s how a parent feels when they hear the first tiny heartbeat of their unborn child. It’s what I feel every time I use my dog as a pillow, I can feel it pounding wildly with life and love and desire.
This is the beauty of the heart. It’s life, yes. Actual physical life. The anatomical process of oxygenating blood and circulating it through our bodies. But it’s also where our dreams grow. Where the first seeds of love are planted. Where our passions bloom. Yes, the heart is a wonderful and miraculous thing.
As I want to know the sound of my husband’s heartbeat, and the
heartbeat of my beloved friends, I want to know the heartbeat of God.
Knowing is more than just hearing or listening to it, knowing takes
time, knowing involves intentional intimacy. I want to know the sound of
my God’s heartbeat. More than that, I want to know what it beats for.
This takes more than just reading the Bible, because we can also “know”
someone without really knowing them.When I was online dating, before I ever met a person or even started a conversation with them, I got to read their profile. And yes, I’m about to compare the Bible to an online dating profile, but bear with me. On paper, a lot of guys seemed like the perfect fit for me. We had similar interests, aspirations, you get the picture. But when we started chatting, that “perfect fit” turned to be incompatible. Then there were other guys whose profile was eh, less than assuring. But when we started talking, they turned out to be way more interesting and cool and dare I say compatible with me than their profile originally let on. And while the Bible is in no way a poorly written dating profile, the Bible transforms once you begin to get to know God intimately.
Scripture should always move and inspire us to seek out God in intentionally intimate ways. Only then will we get to know the sound of the His heartbeat. Then you’ll be able to hear his still soft voice like Samuel, or tap into an intimacy with God like King David did before Jesus, before the Bible was ever complete. King David is the model of a man after God’s own heart, and he did it all under the old covenant and laws. He knew the God of love while others were experiencing his wrath. As scholars and priests were memorizing scripture, David was drawing water directly from the source.
God wants you to know Him, inside and out. He wants you to not only be acquainted with the Word, but He desperately wants you to know the Creator behind Scripture. God wants you to know what makes His heartbeat. He wants you to be deeply acquainted with His heart. And the more we know God’s heart, the more we know the sound of His heart beating, the more our hearts will begin to beat in rhythm with God’s.
Summary: What moves the heart of God. If we like John could place our heads on His chest what would God’s heartbeat sound like?
Intro: Have you ever laid you
head down on someone’s chest and heard their heartbeat. If you were to
do that you had to be pretty close to the individual whose heart you
heard. You don’t just go up to someone on the street and say “May I
listen to your heart?” I can only begin to imagine the words and phrases
that would come out of peoples mouths.Many quote 1 Samuel 13.22
and say that David is a man after God’s heart but never tell us clearly
what the heartbeat sounds like. I want to the best I can help you along
with me lay our heads on God the Fathers Chest and hear His heartbeat.
What is God’s desire, what does He really want?
What do we learn as we hear the heartbeat of God?
The heartbeat of God is the heart of man.
1 Samuel 13.14
I. God desires men and women’s hearts
Why is God so concerned with our hearts. Is it just that God is a completely selfish tyrant that believes it belongs only to Him? The answer is Yes and no. As our creator our hearts belong to Him first and foremost. It is not merely for Him that he desires our hearts.
Listen Closely to the words of Jesus.
Mark 7.21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit sensuality, envy slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceeds from within and defile the man.”
Jesus just gave the reason for evil in the World of man it
is the hear t of man. It is evil. Jesus clearly told us why our upward
and outward relationships are out of wack.
A) The Upward and Outward
Mark 12.28-34 If you remember the story a group of Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes were trying to trap Jesus. Now think about this with me. If he were a man wouldn’t it have been terribly easy for them to trip Jesus up. I mean this was a carpenter’s son. Don’t Forget He is the Son of God. One man asked him what some believe to be a sincere question. What is the foremost commandment of all?
Jesus’ answer. Hear O Israel, the Lord is one God Love Him with your all. All you heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second Is this, you shall love you neighbor as yourself, there is no other commandment greater. It is clear and has been said that Jesus summarized the ten commandments. He clearly showed us that our upward relationship to God must be right for our outward relationships to be right.
A relationship with God does not create murder, evil thought, theft, adultery, envy, deceit, pride or foolishness. Are you at the end of your rope in your relationship with your husband, with you wife, with you children, friends, co-workers. Realize if they are not a Christian then you have the great opportunity of showing them what a real God can do for relationships.
B) The Kingdom of God
The Upward is where Matthew talks of the Kingdom of God. The phrase Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is used more than 100 times in the New Testament. The word Kingdom comes from a Greek word that means not territory but dominion. So we see that the domain of God is the heart. The throne of the King of Kings is the heart of those who believe.
What do we learn as we hear the heartbeat of God?
The heartbeat of God is the heart of man.
1 Samuel 13.14
I. God desires men and women’s hearts
Why is God so concerned with our hearts. Is it just that God is a completely selfish tyrant that believes it belongs only to Him? The answer is Yes and no. As our creator our hearts belong to Him first and foremost. It is not merely for Him that he desires our hearts.
Listen Closely to the words of Jesus.
Mark 7.21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit sensuality, envy slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceeds from within and defile the man.”
Jesus just gave the reason for evil in the World of man it
is the hear t of man. It is evil. Jesus clearly told us why our upward
and outward relationships are out of wack.A) The Upward and Outward
Mark 12.28-34 If you remember the story a group of Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes were trying to trap Jesus. Now think about this with me. If he were a man wouldn’t it have been terribly easy for them to trip Jesus up. I mean this was a carpenter’s son. Don’t Forget He is the Son of God. One man asked him what some believe to be a sincere question. What is the foremost commandment of all?
Jesus’ answer. Hear O Israel, the Lord is one God Love Him with your all. All you heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second Is this, you shall love you neighbor as yourself, there is no other commandment greater. It is clear and has been said that Jesus summarized the ten commandments. He clearly showed us that our upward relationship to God must be right for our outward relationships to be right.
A relationship with God does not create murder, evil thought, theft, adultery, envy, deceit, pride or foolishness. Are you at the end of your rope in your relationship with your husband, with you wife, with you children, friends, co-workers. Realize if they are not a Christian then you have the great opportunity of showing them what a real God can do for relationships.
B) The Kingdom of God
The Upward is where Matthew talks of the Kingdom of God. The phrase Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is used more than 100 times in the New Testament. The word Kingdom comes from a Greek word that means not territory but dominion. So we see that the domain of God is the heart. The throne of the King of Kings is the heart of those who believe.
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