I was looking through my old sermon notes when I came across a talk I gave to the graduating sunday school kids of my church. I had completely forgot about the talk, and as I read it through it reminded me of how important it is to establish the foundations of our faith in Christ – to love Him instensely with all our heart.
I thought I’d share my talk today, as it was a really apt reminder for me and the current status of my relationship with God.
I remember my first day of high school when I had gotten lost trying to find my way around – it was ten times bigger than my primary school! That’s the great thing about you graduating, it means that you’ve been recognized to have the maturity and smarts to move up and learn new things, more challenging things and see some more of the world. Things are really similar at church, you’ll be moving into the main service and into the senior Sunday school – that’s a big change.
It reminds me of this one young guy in the bible. We get introduced to him in 1 Samuel and his name is David. Now, we all know the stories of David and Goliath, how he took five stones and flung it at the giant Philistine. And we know that many years later, as an adult, the shepherd boy became a mighty king. But many of us won’t need to fight lions, or bears, or giant philistines. But you are now growing up and I think there’s a lot we can learn about the young boy David.
Let’s turn to the Bible to see what God thought of David as a boy, to 1 Samuel 13:13-14. The prophet Samuel was telling off King Saul when he was doing wrong and had told him that someone else was going to take over as king.
“but now your kingdom will not endure, the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people”
And in 1 Samuel 16:7, when Samuel is trying to find out which of the sons of Jesse is going to be king, tells us what God was looking for.
“do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him. The lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
You see, God was looking for a “man after His heart.”
What does that mean? If you look at David and read his many battles, learning about how he earnestly supported the building of the temple, and if you read his psalms, I think you can find out one really important thing we can all learn and apply.
You see, David loved God A LOT. For most of the time, David loved God so much that he would do anything for him. He would sing about him, write songs about Him, he would enjoy God’s Word. He would go out to battle for God and give all the glory to Him. He would listen to what God has to say. And when he did wrong, he went to seek for forgiveness.
You see, David loved God and had a personal relationship with Him. I really want to challenge you this year, as you step into this new part of life, to think about what it means to love God, and what it means to have a personal relationship with Him.
Do you consult God when you’re struggling? Do you sing your lungs out at church because you just love to sing about how awesome God is? Do you dedicate your triumphs to Him, but go to him when you’re feeling low? Do you try and get to know God more by reading the Bible, learning from a sermon, or trying to understand a passage of the Bible in Sunday school class?
I want to challenge you to really enjoy God. To understand what it means to really love Him, that you could step up to your giants and say that you have the Lord Almighty behind you? I really hope that this year, you can discover that in senior Sunday school and the main service, and many people will be praying that God works in your lives just as much as he did in the shepherd boy, David.
