Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of having a heart after God's own heart, using David as the prime example. He highlights that God seeks individuals who are devoted to Him, regardless of their outward appearances or societal status. Bickle encourages the audience, especially the youth, to make radical commitments to love and obey God, just as David did, and to understand that their choices can significantly impact their lives. He reassures them that even if they feel like nobodies, they are known and valued by God. The sermon concludes with a call to action, inviting attendees to dedicate their hearts to God and pursue a deeper relationship with Him.

Well, we're blessed. We get to hear Him all the time. We love it. We love to hear it over and over again. The Lord's given so many new songs to so many young people. We've got this heart like David. That's what we're going to talk about tonight. Having a heart after God's own heart like David did, but the Lord's releasing songs throughout the earth through young men and women that have this heart, but it's not limited to singers and musicians, but there's a particular and unique demonstration of His power when the songs are released from heaven through people that agree with God's heart, and the picture of what God calls agreeing with His heart is the life of David. So I'm going to ask you to turn to 1 Samuel 16. Now most of you have the notes. We've got a one-page set of notes, which just has the main principles that we're going to highlight and the Bible verses. But those that are joining us on God TV, if you want to get those notes, you can just go to ihop.org, and they're right there on the home page. We're talking about becoming a person after God's own heart. We're looking at the life of David. The kind of heart that God says, this heart is in agreement with me. The kind of heart that God says, this attracts my attention. Now the love of God is what, why God loves us. He loves us because of who He is. But when the Lord's purposes are unfolding in the earth, He wants people on the earth that are in unity with His heart. Well, the life of David, paragraph A, it's one of the most dynamic stories, and the most dramatic and dynamic, inspiring, interesting stories in the whole of the Bible. Now David's known as the man after God's own heart. In other words, he was known as the person who loved God. Now that's what we want to be known, in heaven, as people after God's own heart. I mean David was known by God, not just by people. He became famous through history as the man who loved God. But more remarkable is that David was known by God as the man after God's own heart. It was the prophet that spoke that from God's point of view. This young man has a heart like mine. Could you imagine God saying that about you? Well beloved, why not? Why not determine that you're going to live in a way, we have the clear pattern in scripture, we have the life of David. Why, why not you? Why not you be one that sees what God calls a person after his own heart and say I'm jumping in. This is what I'm determining to do. As in my teen years, many years ago, that I set my heart reading the life of David, I said this is what I want. And I could feel the Lord's pleasure. And I believe that the God's raising up a David generation in this hour of history. It's old and young, but we're focusing on young people right now. He's raising up a David generation. Some that are viewing through television, internet, you may be in your 80s. It's not too late. You can still have a heart after God like David. But God's raising up millions of young people. This is what's on his mind right now. This is what's on his heart. To mark a generation. And we believe in this three-day high school conference that God's going to be marking people tonight even. As we go into a time of ministry, as Misty Edwards and the team come up, I'm believing God is going to mark hearts and separate people in a new way tonight. I mean the message that Lou Engel gave earlier today, the opening session of the conference. I mean that was powerful. Talking about marking our hearts. Well, David, well, I'll say this. My goal is that you would leave here as high school students, worshipers of God, lovers of God, and you would have a determination to understand the life of David. That's part of my goal here. Not to give you the whole life of David in one short session. But to have you leave and say, you know, I've heard of David. I don't know much about him. But, uh, wow. My goal is to convince you to go become a student of David's life. When they told me about it in my teen years, and I said, okay, I'll give it a try. It captured me. I mean the drama, the dynamics, the inspiration, the ups and the downs of David's life that we can all relate to is quite remarkable. Here's what it says in 1 Samuel chapter 13 verse 14. The Lord sought for himself a man. Now, he's a young man. He's in his teens. The Lord, this is a prophet speaking this about David. In other words, this is God speaking it to the prophet, because the prophet Samuel had never met David. This wasn't David's reputation on earth. This was David's reputation in heaven. No one had ever heard of David. He was a little shepherd boy in his teens that nobody had ever heard of. Samuel never heard of him. He had no reputation. This was his reputation from God's point of view. So Samuel's announcing to the rebellious king Saul, you're replaced. There's a young boy over the way there. God's found him. Now, it's remarkable. God sought for him. He sought for him. Notice this. I'm going to highlight this later. He sought to have a person for himself. It says God sought for himself. The very first principle of David's life is that God anointed David so that David and God could connect with one another. He said, David, I'm doing this for me. I found you for me. First for me. Yes. I want a king that I can use. Yes. I want a warrior that can defeat the enemies of God. But first, I've anointed a man that would be for me. It's because of who we are together. That's why I want to give you more power and more influence across the nation of Israel. And then God spoke about him. He called him a man after his own heart. Now remember, God is saying this about a teenager. I want you to get that. He's 14, 15, 16. We don't know. Did you know that God's mind is on teenagers? God was looking for a king and he looked among teenagers across the earth for the future king. The Holy Spirit takes your dedication to Jesus very, very seriously. You must take it very seriously. Now others may roll their eyes and say, well, you'll grow up and you'll kind of grow out of this kind of fervency. Beloved, you don't have to apologize for your radical devotion to the Lord. And people may not take it seriously, but I tell you God does. Because when God was looking for the great king of Israel, he found him among teenagers. And the Lord's looking the same way in this hour across the nations. Did you know you're on God's mind? You're actually on his mind. You move his heart. Now David was a lonely child from a poor family in a small out-of-the-way town, Bethlehem. Now Bethlehem's famous because Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But in David's day, even in Jesus's day, David, by the way, was born a thousand years before Jesus. We're talking a thousand years BC. Bethlehem was such a little out-of-the-way village. So David's a lonely rejected child. We'll get to that in a few moments. He has seven older brothers. And it's real clear from the scripture that his family and his friends rejected him. I mean we think of David in his glory, but the David that God's eyes fell on was a lonely young man in his teens from a poor family from a little out-of-the-way village that no one had ever heard of. Beloved, I want to encourage you. God's mailing list is up to date. His database. He can find you on the backside of the hills of Bethlehem without anybody helping him. He knows your address. He sees your heart. You don't have to have a resume with man. Nobody knew David and the ones that knew him were not impressed by him. But God was impressed with what he saw in David's heart. This little town, they thought nothing was happening. They looked around Bethlehem. Nothing was happening. Boring little town. I'm sure some of you live in boring little towns. And you're thinking, I've been passed by. Holy Spirit, we don't, I'm not a part of the big dynamic youth group with the great this and the great that and the big city. But let me tell you, let me tell you, you're not passed by. The eyes of the Lord are searching to and fro across the earth. He can find you anywhere. Now if you would have asked someone in that town if something dynamic was happening spiritually in that town, they would have said no. Nah, nothing really. Youth groups only got three people in it. Churches only has eight. Everybody's poor. Nothing's happening. Worship is really rough. Nothing's really happening. But they were wrong. Because though they couldn't read it on the outside that much was happening in a dynamic way, there was a young man who was moving the heart of God. And beloved, that's dynamic. Whenever God's heart is moved, that is significant and that is powerful. A spiritual dynamic thing was developing in that little out-of-the-way town, but nobody knew it but God. So don't look at the size of your ministry and how dynamic and how great the worship is. And how great this and how many great stories. Beloved, I like those kind of things. I like good stories and I like good testimonies coming out of ministries. Don't write yourself off because something dynamic may be happening in your little out-of-the-way town, your little out-of-the-way church. Because that dynamic thing's happening inside you because you're responding to God in a way David did. And I'm telling you the thing that was so dynamic, David moved the heart of God. Beloved, that we can, broken people, we can move the heart of God by our response. Now, it's because of his grace, but still God's moved. And God was touched by the way that David responded to him. Now, I know many believers, they spend their whole spiritual life and they never ever get a hold of the idea that they moved God's heart. They know that God forgave them. You know that God stamped the passport because Jesus died. God has to forgive them. I mean Jesus died. They have to be forgiven. So God looks at them and stamps their passport says, okay, you're in the kingdom of God. Don't trouble me, but you have to let you in. Legally, I have to. I forgave you because my son bore the judgment. But they never ever feel the power. They never feel the impact of moving God's heart. But David felt that in his teen years. So David's story, I have still here in paragraph A here, is the story of a young man who was an absolute nobody in man's eyes, but he discovered that he was a somebody in God's eyes. He was a young man that was a nobody in anybody else's eyes. Again, he was rejected by his friends and family. But by the Holy Spirit in the Word of God, he understood. He went on a discovery. He found out the most dynamic reality you can ever come to that you're a somebody in God's eyes because of his calling and the way that his heart moves towards you. Now the reason we want, I really want you to know David's life. And again, I'm just going to give just a little snapshot of it. Just enough, hopefully by the grace of God, to excite you. So you leave this conference saying, in the next year or two, I am going to learn the life of David. I mean, I want to, I want to get inspired by this. I want to know it because David's story, the reason it's significant to you, it's your story. Or it can be your story. Now you won't be king of Israel. You won't have the same outward assignment in ministry, but you can move God's heart in the way David did. That's why God put so much time in the Bible on David's story. Now, do you know that David, there's more about David's life than any other man in the whole Bible, except for Jesus. The longest story in the Bible is about David. Because God wants us to be captured by how God related to him and how he related to God so that we would be inspired so that we would imitate it. One of the things that David did is that he was discontent with a mediocre spiritual life. He said, it's business as usual is not okay with me. He set his heart to be a lover of God. He set his heart to be radically committed with no knowledge that his assignment was going to be to be king of Israel. He didn't do it because he was king of Israel. He didn't even know about that. He did it because it was God. He wanted to be a lover of God. He loved God and he could felt, he felt the love of God in his heart. It's not like the prophet came along and said, hey, you got a big ministry. So he said, you know what, if I've got a big ministry ahead of me, I better get dedicated. Now that works. A lot of people, the spirit of prophecy is released through somebody and the Lord lets them know that big things are ahead. Then they get excited because big things are ahead. But there's something better than getting excited because there's a big ministry assignment ahead. David was connected to God before he knew he had a big ministry assignment. Beloved, that's why God told the prophet Samuel, I have sought this man out for myself. I found him for me. This, this young man touches my heart. He moves my heart. Lou said it today. I'm going to say it again. Lou Engle mentioned it earlier. Don't let anybody tell you that you can't be dedicated this way even in your youth. Don't let anybody steal this from you though. Some will not take you seriously. God takes you seriously when you set your heart to love him in the way that David did. Well, let's look at the verse again. First Samuel 13, 14. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart. Number one, the idea that God sought for David. Did you know that God's eyes are searching across the earth for a people, for individuals who have a heart response like David does. Look at 2nd Chronicles 16, 9. This needs to be one of your main verses that you reference for all the days of your life. 2nd Chronicles 16, 9. Learn this one. The eyes of the Lord. I have it right there in the notes. Paragraph 1, under A. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro across the whole earth. God's eyes are moving constantly all over Asia, Africa, all through the islands, on the mountaintops, the out-of-the-way villages. His eyes are moving across the earth just like they were in the days of David. And what's he looking for? Someone's whose heart is loyal to his heart. Loyal when nobody's looking. Someone's heart who is set to love God. Someone's heart that is loyal to God. Again, not so that men will go, wow, you're so dedicated. They're doing it because it's in their heart to be a lover of God and to receive the love of God and to feel the love of God even in a greater way. Now, God doesn't love us more because we love him, but we can experience and feel it more because we line up with his word. Jesus said this in John 4. It says, remarkable truth. God is seeking for people. Isn't that remarkable? John 4, Jesus said, the Father's seeking true worshipers. The Father's seeking. How could the Genesis 1 God how could the God that created the heavens and the earth seek for anything? I mean, what do you mean you're seeking? It says it in the Old Testament. It says it in the New. He's searching for people that have a willing response of love. He's not looking for maturity. I mean, of course he wants maturity. But he's looking for willingness. He's looking for the setting of the heart. The maturity will come. He's looking for the people, young people, that will say yes. I mean with a fierce yes. Yes, they will stumble. They will fall. They will run into walls and setbacks and discouragements, but they won't quit. When they when they fail, they'll admit it. They'll repent of it. They'll push delete and within the hour, they'll get right back up standing in confidence before God. I love you, God. You love me. Forget what I just did. Here I am. I'm yours again. Full blast. That's the kind of person the Lord's looking for right now across the earth. Now, what's it mean to be a person after God's own heart? I have three short little definitions here just so you can go home and say, hey, you know, this is I want to do this. I want to do this. I want to be a person after God's own heart. Number one, they are people who obey the commands of God's heart. They set their heart to obey. Again, they don't always follow through in the way they want, but the setting of the heart is sincere and real. When we set our heart to obey him in sincerity, that doesn't mean we'll never stumble. But when we do stumble, we don't camp out there. We call our sin, sin. We repent of it and we jump back right into the race of running wholehearted for God. And again, we ask for forgiveness. We receive the righteousness of Jesus. I mean, we've already received it as a free gift. The day we're born again, we push the lead on our on our failure and we set our heart to obey God fully. But it's more than just obeying the Lord, though. That's very, very important. Being a man or a woman after God's own heart also refers to becoming a student of the emotions of God's heart. Now, when you think about this for a minute, this is very, very important. David didn't only say, I'm going to obey you. He said, I want to know the emotions of your heart. I want to know what you feel. I want to know what moves you. I want to know what your heart's like. And I want to receive it and I want to be like it and I want to worship you according to the truth of what's in your heart. It was in my late teens where I determined, and my reason of telling you this because I want to inspire you to do the same, I determined I wanted to know the emotions of God. I want to know what you feel like, positive and negatives. I don't want to just run errands for you and do tasks. I'm happy to do tasks called my ministry assignment. I want to do more than tasks. I want to know what your heart's like. I want to know your heartbeat. As Misty sings that song, I want to know your heartbeat. I want to feel what you feel. I want to see what you see. David was captured with being a student of God's emotions. I remember Allen Hood who's the head of our Bible school. He's told the story many times and I love to tell the story. It was about 20 years ago when he was about 20 years old and he was just a young man in the church here, Kansas City. It's before he went off to seminary. He was just a young man. He was visiting actually just for a few months. And I was just teaching at a youth conference or some event like this. I said this a number of times. He heard it and he grabbed hold of it. I said this, become a student of God's emotions. I encouraged everybody. I said start in Genesis, read straight through to Revelation. The whole book, Bible may take you a while. Get yourself a highlighter and highlight every verse that reveals how God feels. Every verse. And then go back and pray it and say, Lord show me more about how you feel. Mark every verse that reveals how he feels. Allen, about 20 years old, again hadn't gone to Bible school yet, hadn't gone to seminary, his master's degree and all that. He said, I'm gonna do this. He set his heart as a young man. Took him a while. But he went through the whole Bible and he marked it. And he's told that story for the last 20 years how that rearranged and shifted his relationship with God. Allen wanted to have a heart after God like David. He didn't want to just obey. He wanted to become a student of God's emotions. But third, it's more than just understanding his heart. We want to contend for his purposes. Whatever God's purpose is for our generation, we want to contend for it. Pray, fast, preach, serve, work your justice, release his power. We want to be actively involved in contending for the full manifestation of his purpose. That's what David was like. Paragraph B, Isaiah 55. Here's what Isaiah says about 300 years after David, after he died. Isaiah come along and God whispered to Isaiah the prophet. He said, let me tell you about David. I made David a witness or an example for others to follow. I mean, could you imagine 300 years after you lived God highlights you? I mean your whole story, the whole life story's out. And God says, you live the kind of life. And you responded to me in such a way. I want my people to look at you and to follow your example. Now the encouraging thing is David made so many mistakes. I read this passage again. Isaiah wrote this at 300 years after David. I go, Lord, David really blew it. I mean, that's part of why I like him. Because he was so weak, but he was so determined to get back in the race and to give himself wholly to God and to receive God's forgiveness and his mercy and to jump right back in the race. I would have thought God might have used somebody else as a witness, as an example. And of course, there's many examples in the Bible, but God particularly told Isaiah, I have made David a witness for the people to follow. So that verse alone inspires us. I want to study David's life. I want to respond like he responded. I want to see what he saw. Because God said that he's a model. He's an example of a heart response. Now Jeremiah 315, this is for the generation that the Lord returns. When you read Jeremiah 315 in its context, it's talking specifically about the generation the Lord returns. Although you could use this verse throughout history, there's one particular generation where this verse will have its greatest fulfillment. Beloved, I believe we're in the early days of that generation. That's my personal belief. It's not a revelation, but it's a strong opinion that I have. We're in the early days of that generation and if that be true, here's what God said he's going to do. I will give you shepherds after my own heart. Or this translation says according to my heart. Other translations say after my own heart. In other words, I'm going to raise up shepherds like David. That's what the Lord was saying in essence. I'm going to raise up men and women and look what they're going to do. They are going to feed the people on the knowledge of God. They are going to feed others on the knowledge of God's heart. Now right now, the Holy Spirit is raising up a David generation. He's raising up shepherds after his own heart. Then he wants you to encounter his heart so you can feed others on what you encounter. Now many of you will do it through testimony. Others will do it through song, do it through music, through art. Many will do it on one-on-one discipling of people of, you know, getting younger people and teaching them the things of God. But here's the point. God's raising up shepherds right now that he will feed others on the knowledge of his heart. When I first read this verse some years ago, I said, Lord, I want to be one of those shepherds. I want to be one of those shepherds. And in a few minutes, when we have ministry time, I'm going to invite you, not just to say I want to be one, but a little stronger than that, but to say, Lord, I want to give myself to this kind of lifestyle that David walked in. This is what I'm after. This is what I'm after, to live in this kind of lifestyle. Paragraph C. Again, the importance of David's story. Why do you care about the life of David? Because it can be your story. It can be your story. That's the reason why. By simply making the choices he made, you can have a similar storyline, different assignment. You won't be king of Israel. We know who the king of Israel is. He's coming soon. But this is a story about how God sees our heart. The life of David is a story about how we move God's heart. That's one of my favorite things in David's life, is the way that David moved God's heart. It's a story about how God uses weak and broken people. Because the remarkable thing about David is how weak and broken he was, but how he refused to give up. How he constantly gave himself back to the Lord, full-hearted, whole-hearted. And in his weakness and brokenness, God not only used him, God enjoyed him. And God revealed to David, I enjoy you, David. I delight in you. I like you, David. And when I read this about David's life, I go, wow. Man, if this is how it works, if this is how God feels about weak and broken people that set their heart like David did, this is what I'm going to do. And it was in my early days, I said, I am going to model my life after this man, in terms of his heart responses. Paragraph D. Now the life of David, you can find it right there. 1 Samuel 16 to 2 Samuel 24. You can read it straight through. It's about 40 chapters. The whole life of David, start right there. And I'm going to recommend a book. We have this on the website. It's a free book. It's a big book. I mean, it's about four inches thick. That's a big one. But that's good, meaning there's lots of great materials. There's 90 chapters in this book. It is one of the best books on the life of David I've ever read. I've read many books on the life of David in the last, you know, 30 plus years. But this one by A.W. Pink, we have it on our website. It's free. You can download it. And I'm telling you, it will move you. I've read that book through a number of times and just moved to tears. A tremendous insight as to what's happening in the context of David's life as well as spiritual principles. I want to highly recommend this book. Now in my early days, walk with the Lord, I loved biographies. I loved to read the stories of people that were dedicated to God. Matter of fact, I read biographies more than I read the Bible because I found the Bible really boring. I'm just being honest. I really love God. So I was 16, 15, 16, 17, 18. I was really committed to Him. But the Bible was really boring to me and prayer was miserable. I'll get to that in a few minutes. If you would have told me 30 plus years ago, about 40 years ago almost, you would have told me back then that I would be leading a 24-hour prayer ministry. I would have said it's impossible. I mean if a prophet came forth and called out some of you and said, thus says the Lord, you shall lead a 24-hour prayer ministry. You'd cry. Oh Jesus, you love me. You love me. If that would have happened to me when I was your age, I would have said that's that's horrible. In the name of Jesus, I bind that word. No way. That would have been horrible to me. That would have been, that would have been prison. I loved Jesus, but I didn't like to read the Bible. I didn't like prayer. I hated fasting. The idea that one day I would be leading a 24-hour prayer ministry with a Bible school with fasting teams every day, not a chance, not a chance. We'll talk about that in a few moments. Well, I just want to give you this resource on David's life. We have some commentaries also on our website that are free. You can read these and they'll give you more insights as well. Now here's what I used to do. Again, it's the longest story in the Bible, the story of David except for Jesus's. And here's what I would do. I was 18, 19, 21, 22. I would randomly, I didn't have a particular order that I did this. I would take a weekend or two days, whatever. I would read the whole life of David straight through. I mean from 1 Samuel 16 right through to 2 Samuel 24. I would read it one day. Sometimes, I want to encourage you, take a weekend. Every now and then, even though you don't understand some of the episodes in his life, just take, say I'm going to take next Saturday. Just do this every now and then. Or Sunday, whatever. And I'm going to, or maybe a weekend will take you two days, but you can do it in one day. And read it straight through. I've done that many times over the years. Just said I'm going to read the whole life of David just for fun. And you might get a friend, two or three of you, say we're going to take Friday and Saturday, Saturday, Sunday, whatever. We're going to take turns together. We're going to each read a chapter until we read the whole 40 chapters. Again, you could do it in a day. Maybe you'll spread it out over two. And you read the whole life of David together. I challenge you to do that every month or two. It might blow your mind what you will discover. You will begin to get really captured by the things that David saw. Okay now, Roman numeral two. I'm going to point out four primary themes in David's life that you're going to run into when you begin to study his life. Four primary themes. And I'm only going to give you a minute, a few minutes on each one. Just real brief. Because I want you to look for these four themes. When you read through these 40 chapters plus, there's a little bit more, it's more than 40 chapters, but that's about, it's round number. When you read these 40 chapters of the life of David, you are going to give yourself, I mean your attention, you're going to say, Holy Spirit touch me according to these four themes. You will run into these four themes. These are four, now there's more than four themes in his life, but you will run into these over and over and over again. And these are four themes that you want to imitate in David's life as a man or a woman after God's own heart. Paragraph eight. First, David had unusual insight. I mean there was no one like him in the whole of the Old Testament who understood the love of God equal to David. David's revelation of God's heart, there was no one like him in the whole of the Old Testament. The only one that surpassed him, no one did till Jesus came. David had a revelation of the love of God, but the thing I want to focus on, he understood a little bit how God, how his love moved God's heart. Beloved, you get that. How your love moves God's heart. I tell you, it will change your life at one point. If no other truth of David hits you besides that one, but many will actually, many other truths will hit you, this will change your life right there. The foundational truth of David's life was this. He found his identity in his relationship with God, not in his relationship to other people or in what he accomplished. I'm going to say that again. I'm going to explain it for a moment. David found his identity in his relationship with God, not in his relationship with other people or what he accomplished. Now what do I mean by he found his identity? When we talk about your identity, what it boils down to, it's a little simplistic, but I'll be just simple. You could say it a little more complicated than this, but your identity is what determines why you're successful and why you're valuable. The way you measure why you're successful and why you're valuable, that's what your identity is. The way you see yourself. It's the way that you view your value and your success. It's the way that you measure it. That's where your identity is. Most people's identity is in what they accomplish. If they're good in sports, that's what their identity is. It's they made first string. They're a good musician. They're a good singer. Maybe they're good in the house of prayer. There are people, even in our midst, their identity is in how good they are as a musician or singer, not in their relationship with God. And if things go not so good in their music, they're crushed beyond measure. Other people, they find their identity in relationship with other people. If the cool people like them, they're happy. If the cool people don't like them, they're crushed. Their identity, their sense of value, the way they measure their success is in their relationship with people. It's in who they know and who likes them. Now, in high schools, colleges, well, in the marketplace, the pulpits everywhere across the earth, most people find their identity in who likes them and how big they're, how successful they are in terms of how big their ministry, how big their business, how good things are going. They find their sense of value in their accomplishments or in their relationships with other people. David wasn't like that. David found his relation, his identity in his relationship with God. David said this, God, you love me. I love you, therefore, I'm already successful. You love me, the God of the universe. Can you imagine? The Genesis 1 God loves you. You got it made. If the Genesis 1 God loves you, you have it made. Trust me, you have it made. But it's more than that. Not only does He love you, because God so loves the world, but a lot of the world didn't respond. And you have to respond. You have to receive the love of God in order for it to go well. If God loves you, since God loves you, and you, by the grace of God, respond to love Him back. God loves you. You love God. Beloved, that is the primary definition of success. You are already successful. That if you could grow in the anointing, the revelation, the grace of God is what I mean by the anointing, the power of the Holy Spirit touching you is what I mean by the anointing. If you could grow in the anointing, that the revelation that God loved you, and you would love Him back, and that's the basis of your success, you will be unstoppable as a human being. Nobody can stop you. No matter who opposes you, your spirit is alive in God. He loves me. I love Him. I'm already successful. This was the key to David's life. This was the absolutely foundation stone. David didn't care about being king. When people came to steal the kingdom, he didn't really care. He wanted to love God and to be loved by God. He didn't fight for his position. I mean, men by nature are so paranoid. Somebody will take their position. David said, the guy can have my position. I didn't want it anyway. It was just my assignment. My true success in life is in God. You know, I'll give you an example. And I don't want to give this example, and I don't want you to take it the wrong way, but I'll try to say it right, so you won't. Because I'm the hero of my own story that I'm going to give you an example of. So, I don't want you to hear it wrong. But it was years ago. Matter of fact, it was about 27 years ago in May 1983. That's a long time ago, May 83. The Lord speaks audibly. He says, do 24-hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David. He speaks it audibly in May 1983. I mean, I've never received an audible voice of the Lord directed. That's pretty intense. I didn't know what 24-hour prayer looked like, and I didn't know what the spirit of the tabernacle of David was. He said, do 24-hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David. Now, I understand that what that means a little bit is with singers and musicians, do 24-hour prayer. Now, the truth is that I didn't even like that. I went, what? You know, my first feeling is, why would I want to do 24-hour, what? But he spoke it, so we made a sign, and we put it on the wall. The sign said, 24-hour prayer in the spirit of the tabernacle of David. So years go by, and the church I'm pastoring right here in Kansas City, because this is in the first year of our church life, and I'm 27 years old, and it's a young adult church, and a couple hundred people there, whatever, and they're kind of going, okay, what's this new thing we're going to do one day? And I said, I don't really know, but God said it, so we put it on the wall. It's a sign. And five years goes by, 10 years goes by, it's 16 years before we actually start IHOP. Because I don't know what it is, and I certainly don't know when it's going to happen. He just said do it. He didn't say what, or how, or when, so I figured I'd just put it on the wall until further notice. So over the 16 years, people would visit our church. We grew to be several thousand people, and so all the new people would come in, and inevitably, they would ask, what's that? 24-hour prayer of the Spirit of the Tabernacle of David. I would say almost every time the same thing. I don't really know. Well, when are we going to do it? I don't know that either. Why do you have it on the wall? Well, the Lord said it. He didn't give me any more info. I'm not a singer. I'm not a dancer. I'm not a musician. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, but I'm going to keep the sign on the wall for further notice, until further notice. Well, 16 years comes and goes. We start IHOP. That was 11 years ago. We're right at our 11-year anniversary of going 24-7. And so what's happened over the 11 years is that people from the church that I pastor and friends from all about 16 years of waiting before the 11 years of IHOP, you know, the 16 years of waiting, they would come visit IHOP. You know, we had, we got a thousand staff members and another thousand in the Bible school and 20,000 at the big One Thing conference. And so things are growing. And they're going, wow. I mean, they're positive. I have lots of friends from all around. They come and visit. And they look at the numbers, the increase, and they go, well, and I've been, I've heard this inevitably. This is what they will say. Your dream, it came true. Your dream came true or something like that. And I'll say, no. No, IHOP is not my dream. They go, what do you mean? For 16 years you waited. I said, no. IHOP is not my dream. IHOP is my assignment. My dream is the anointing, the power of God to feel His love and to love Him back. That's the dream of my heart. And I said, if IHOP gets real big, my dream is not enhanced at all because IHOP can't touch my dream. The dream of my heart IHOP can't touch. And if IHOP falls apart, my dream is not hurt at all. Nobody can touch the dream of my heart. The dream of my heart, the deepest dream of my heart is to grow in greater revelation of how He feels about me and the anointing to love Him, the first commandment, with all of my heart. Beloved, that's the dream of my heart. And IHOP can't touch the dream of my heart. So I will look at them and I'll say, I appreciate IHOP most of the time. I mean, I really do. But it's not my dream. It's my assignment. Again, I didn't want to draw attention to me in that. But some folks will comment. They'll go, we want one of these. And I go, maybe you will, maybe you won't. I don't know. But don't make that your dream. If that's your dream, it will burn you out. If your dream is to be a great singer, great musician, great preacher, great football player, great businessman, great husband, wife, great anything. If that's the number one dream of your life, it could be one of your secondary dreams. If it's the number one dream of your life, I assure you it will burn you out and break your heart many times. Make those things your secondary dream. David's dream was not to be king of Israel. David's dream was to give his heart to God and to love him. Well, that's the one I took the longest time on. I won't spend as much time on the other four, the other three. Peggy, I'm giving you four themes you're going to run into in David's life. David was a worshiping warrior. He had a warrior spirit. David wanted to face the giants. He wanted to release the glory of God. But he was a worshiping warrior. He had a warrior spirit, but he was first a worshiper. Now, many of you in this room, you have a warrior spirit. You want to rise up and you want to, you want to confront the enemy and release the glory of God. And that's good. That's very important. That's like David. You'll see that all through David's life. Yeah, warrior spirit. But let me encourage you this. Being a worshiper and being a warrior are not contradictory. And I've heard this for many years. Well, we're really in to ministry and we're really into outreach. We're into the warrior spirit. And that group over there, we're not into worship and loving God. And I go, beloved, it's two sides of one coin. There's no contradiction. Because the great warrior king of Israel, David, was the lovesick worshiper. The most anointed worshiper in all the Old Testament was the greatest warrior. There is no contradiction between this. So men, you want to be a great warrior for God? You will be a better warrior if you're an extravagant worshiper. Ladies, God has called you to be anointed warriors. He wants you to rise up in the fragrance of worship and to attack the works of the enemy with a warrior spirit. And many of you ladies already have that spirit. But there's no contradiction. Don't make people, don't let people make you pick between the two. They are two sides of one coin. You will run into this all the time when you study the life of David. He was attacking. Attacking, but with a heart of love for God, for the glory of God. Attacking for all the right reasons. Usually. Sometimes we see David's error in his sin. Top of page two. The third thing that will strike you in the life of David, David had great confidence in God's mercy. There is nobody like him. I mean in the whole Bible. I mean this almost offended me at first, then it excited me. You'll see it over and over and over when you read the life of David. This is kind of my favorite part now. David would, I mean David had many big failures. I remember one Sunday at church many years ago, I taught on 10 failures, 10 sins of David. I put them all in one sermon. I'm sure when I meet David in the resurrection, he may go, thanks. You put all 10 of them in one sermon. Most guys only pick on one or two of them. But I've read his life the over and over. I put 10 of them to show that how David responded with confidence to receive the love of God. I mean people were almost mad at David. They almost, you know, thought about taking him out of the children's church curriculum, you know, after they heard all the bad things he did. Because they never put him together. One, two, they go, whoa. He did all, man. That guy had some issues. He did have some, he had a weak, he was weak and broken. But here's the amazing thing. David, he had this incredible ability to repent and within the hour be fully in confidence. You love me. I love you. We're back. You love me. I love you. Nothing went wrong. You love me. I love you. He just wouldn't flinch on the mercy of God. It was remarkable. After one of great David's greatest failures right here in Psalm 19 in Ziklag. You can read that on your own. 16 months of compromise in Ziklag. I won't go into the story. The day that he is liberated after 16 months of compromise, they asked David, David, why did God deliver you after 16 months? I mean, you had some issues. He said, because God likes me. That's why he delivered me. He delights in me. When I first read this, and it says in the Psalm, this was, uh, the day that he was delivered. Here he is. You would think after 16 months of compromise, he fully repented. That was his worst season, by the way. Was that 16 months? You would think that he would kind of lay low for a year or two. David stood up. He attacked the enemy. And when interviewed, I'm, I'm picturing, you know, they come to interview him. Why did God deliver you today? Because he likes me so much. What? He delights in me. And I can imagine David's guys around him going, David, we've been with you the whole 16 months. What? They go, he likes me. What can I say? And he says, the reason I will be great, and he meant even in his heart response, the reason I will go on to be great in the love of God is because God deals with me with so much gentleness. David had a revelation that God would be gentle with him and that God delighted him even in his weakness. But David was a fierce repenter. When David came, when, I mean, when he got his mind clear on the issue, that one time, that 16 months, that was his longest season. And it wasn't like he was in a total, you know, denying God, but he had compromised in his life the whole 16 months. That's a story for another day. But he understood God delighted him. Beloved, you will run into this revelation over and over in David's life. Here's one of the great truths of Scripture that David shows forth. Rebellion and spiritual immaturity may look like the same outwardly, but they are not the same. There's a rebellious person towards God, person A, person B, maybe they're doing the same things outwardly, but person B, they're not rebellious. They're spiritually immature. Their heart is sincere, very different intention of the heart from the rebellious one. They're doing the same thing, but they have a very different spirit, a very different setting of their heart. And what David understood, God does not wipe out immature believers. He reveals His love, and He woos them to be wholehearted lovers of God. The fourth thing, and then we're going to look at the great prophetic event of David's life, and we'll end with that in just a moment. But I'm going to give you the fourth great trend, the great theme of David's life. You'll read this in these 40 chapters that I've been pointing out, the life of David. David, paragraph D, David saw God as his source. David saw God as his source of protection, promotion, provision, direction. When David needed protection, he cried out to God. When David needed direction, he called and cried out to God. David didn't look to people to be his provision. He looked to the Lord. It's the most remarkable trait in David's life. It's straight through all the days of his life. Again, he had some moments of failure where fear got a hold of him. But the rule of his life is that he yielded. I mean, he saw God as his source of protection. And one of the famous statements you'll run into in the life of David is that when King Saul, this rebellious king that David's replacing, I mean, King Saul's in his 60s when David's in his 20s, and King Saul has 3,000 men trying to kill David. Could you imagine the ex-king? He's still in power. He knows that God has anointed a young man in his teens or now he's in his 20s to take his role. This jealous king is going to take 3,000 full-time soldiers to try to kill David. And a couple times David caught King Saul where David had a sword at King Saul. He's had a sword at him. And David wouldn't kill him ever. He said, no, I'm not going to fight my battles this way. He let him go every time. He goes, matter of fact, I'm even going to bless you. And David's famous statement was this. He goes, I will let the Lord decide. Meaning, in God's timing, in God's way, he will put an end to your attacking against me. I'm not going to stop you. I mean, this is gloriously outrageous. When you look at the life of David, I mean, his men said, you got your enemy at the end of the sword, take him out. And David said, no, no. He said, Saul, I'm going to let you go. Matter of fact, more than that, I'm going to bless you. And I'm going to let God take care of you in his time and his way. And I will never raise my hand against you. It is the most remarkable thing that happens in David's life over and over. Well, let's look here in the middle page 2, the end of the handout. Let's look at the great significant prophetic encounter that David has. He's a teenager now. We don't know if he's 15 or 17 or whatever. This prophetic encounter so formed David's life. I mean, it really formed his heart. So, let's take a few minutes on it, and then we'll call the worship team up and have a ministry time and respond to the Lord. But this, here it is, 1 Samuel 16. And I want to encourage you to get familiar with this, because in this encounter, in these first, in this chapter, we see the seeds of David's heart. We see the seeds of David's heart that attracted God's attention to him. We see what God says about David that attracted this special attention that God had towards this young teenager. But also, when the prophet Samuel prophesied to David, this prophecy, this whole prophetic afternoon, it formed David's heart for years to come. You'll see what I mean as we develop this for a moment. So, it reveals the seeds that were already in David's heart. But this prophetic encounter, this anointed afternoon, it changed David's life, because it gave him the revelation that his whole heart was formed by this experience. He understood God more clearly than he ever did back in the days when he would just worship God under the sun by himself, I mean under the stars by himself. So here it is. Here's the story. The Lord says to Samuel, now Samuel's the aged prophet. I mean, I don't know how old he is. Maybe he's 80s or 90s. He was a Nazarite his whole life. He's never cut his hair. So his hair's way down. He's got piercing eyes. He's an old man, the most anointed prophet in all of Israel. Everybody's a little bit afraid of Samuel actually. So imagine this most, the most famous and most powerful man in all of Israel, he walks up to David's house. And he said, here's what the Lord says, fill your horn with oil and go. I'm sending you to Jesse. Now Samuel never heard of Jesse. Jesse's this little guy in this little town. He goes, who's Jesse? Just go to little Bethlehem, which is a little town out nowhere. Remember Bethlehem was way, way out there. No one even hardly knew anything about Bethlehem. So Jesse, the prophet I mean, walks there. Hey, who's Jesse? Oh, Jesse's that guy that lives over there. He has eight sons and several daughters. He's got a big family. Okay. Samuel knocks on the door. Your name, Jesse? Yes. Whoa, you're Samuel. He goes, yeah. Jesse's eyes get real big. Hi, what's happening? Samuel said, I'd like to have dinner with you guys. Have a little ministry time with your boys. Okay. He says, get all your sons. I'll tell you, we'll have a meal and then I'll tell you what I'm doing. We're going to have a little ministry time, a little prophecy team over my sons. Okay. You're the great prophet. I mean, you're like Elijah. It's okay. Let's eat first and we'll talk later. So they're all sitting there really nervous. The dinner's over. I'm sure it's a very awkward dinner. Jesse's, I mean, never been heard of by anybody and here the great prophet's in his home having dinner, going to pray for one of his sons. But they don't know why. They're going to pray for him. Just say, I'm going to pray for one of your sons. So the Lord tells him, the prophet Samuel, he goes, I have provided myself a king among one of his sons. Now, this is just God telling the prophet. The prophet doesn't say this on the front end. Look at this, verse 3. Samuel, you shall anoint for me the one I named you. Now notice again, Samuel, the one that you anoint, the first issue of his life, he will receive this anointing for me. We will have a peculiar connection. I am calling him first for me and second to use him. I have found a man that cares about me like others do not care about me, that loves me like others don't. So first he's for me. I can imagine Samuel going, wow. I like that. That other jealous king Saul, he didn't do it for you. He did it for himself. So verse 4, Samuel knocks on the door, invites Jesse. He says, bring all your sons to the meal. Now, here's the problem. Jesse has eight sons, but he only invites seven of them. He doesn't invite little Davy, the young one. He only invites the other seven. So the prophet, the meal's over, verse 6, he looks at the old guy, the oldest son. He's probably in his 30s. He's a military captain. He's a strong, tall, dark, handsome, in the military, powerful. And prophet says, this is surely the guy. I mean, wow. He's going to take the horn of oil, pour it on him, and the Holy Spirit says, no, wrong guy. This guy will do it for himself. We went the tall, dark, and handsome route last time with Saul. Nothing wrong with tall, dark, and handsome. But that's what they said about Saul. He was a head and shoulders stronger and bigger, and he was handsome, and all of Israel was wowed by him. But he didn't end up doing it for God. Samuel, we went that way before. We're not going that way this time. This guy's for me first. So, he looked at Eliab, and God says, no. Verse 7, the Lord said to Samuel, now here's the key. David hears this prophecy later. He didn't hear it the second, but before the afternoon's over, I'm sure Samuel explains this to young David. He says this, don't look at his outward appearance, because I'm not looking at his outward appearance. Beloved, God's calling people, and he's not looking at your outward appearance. Not what you look like, not how good you are, not how many friends you have, how popular, how big your ministry, how talented. He's not looking at your resume outwardly at all. Now, when the prophet would become good friends with young David, and he explained all this, this just encouraged David like never before. Because this is how David was living. He was living from the heart before God. He wasn't, David didn't have a resume. He hadn't accomplished anything. Nobody knew who he was. He wasn't good at anything that got anybody else's attention. Matter of fact, he was rejected by his family. He was rejected by his friends. We're not going to go into that, but there's plenty of verses that make that clear. In his youth, he was rejected. He goes, don't look at his height. Don't look at his physical abilities. Don't look at how good looking, how popular, how gifted. Forget all that. That's not what I'm looking at. Because I have refused him. Here's the great revelation. God does not measure a person in the same way man measures a person. God doesn't see like man sees. God does not measure in the same way that man measures. Man looks at the outward. God looks at the movements of the heart. So, Samuel says, okay, Jesse, not your oldest son. Verse 8, so he looks at Abinadab, the second oldest. Samuel said, this must be it. He gets ready to pour the oil. The Lord says, no, not him either. Oh, maybe, verse 9, it's the third oldest. Shema, the Lord says, no, not him either. Verse 10, paragraph B. Jesse made all seven of his sons pass. Every time the Holy Spirit said, no, not this one. Samuel finally said to Jesse, the father, what's the deal? None of your sons are anointed. I walked 25 miles. It was a 25 mile walk about. That's a long walk. He didn't catch the train. I walked 25 miles. None of them are anointed or chosen of God. Verse 11, Samuel said to Jesse, are all of your sons here? By chance, is there one that's not here? And then the father, Jesse said, well, technically, one of them is not here. But he, he's a funny little guy. I don't think he's the one. And look, it's interesting. There remains, yet the youngest of my sons is not here. And he points. There he is. Now, here's the picture. They're on the outside patio. They're having their meal outside on a hill, down in the valley. They can see David with their eyes. They go, there he is. Now, what's the significance of that? Here it is. The most famous man in all of Israel comes to your house for one afternoon. The president of the United States and everybody else, all compiled in one, the most famous personality in the nation, comes to their house. And everybody comes to dinner. But the youngest son is tending the sheep, tending the sheep. Anybody can tend the sheep. A 14-year-old could do it. It was like mowing the lawn. Dad, can't we get our neighbors for maybe just two hours to watch the sheep? Can't we do, mow the lawn and later? No. You stay down there and you just tend the sheep. This was less than minimum wage job. Dad, are you sure I can't come to dinner? Just, I won't say nothing. No. You mow the lawn right now when the famous man comes. This is real. It's not, I mean, it's funny, but it's real. So he points. He goes, there he is. I mean, he's within the sight of all the brothers. There's that guy. I could picture the brothers rolling their eyes. They go, oh brother, David got in this. So David, Samuel says this, bring him here. Matter of fact, we're not going to sit down for the prophecy time. We're not going to do it till he gets here. We're not even going to have the meal. No. Stand. So the seven brothers are like, you know, huffing and puffing. Oh, man, whatever. And you can see this. David comes running up the hill, you know, out of breath. Hey, what's up? Bright eyes and the spirit of God says, this is the one. Anoint him. Well, David gets more trouble from his brothers. I mean, I mean, it causes him more trouble. More trouble continues. Again, I'm not going to develop the point, but he was rejected by his family. Here we have this guy in a little out of town village in a poor family rejected by everybody and God finds him. God knows his address and God calls him. And the reason that God did this to David, he can find you in the out-of-the-way place. You don't have to wave a flag so that all the popular people know you're there. The greatest person that's ever walked the earth, Jesus, he knows where you are. You don't have to do anything in fear that you're going to be bypassed. God made it clear to David. The prophet Samuel said, David, the reason God's chosen you isn't because your resume with men, it's because of your resume with God. It's what you've been doing in your heart. It's the choices that you've made. Beloved, I look back in my teen years. I made several choices. Here in paragraph C. And here's my point. My point isn't how great my choices were. That's not my point. My point is, the choices you make in your teen years will affect you for decades. I can testify to that from my own life and the lives of others. The choices that you're making right now for God. You make radical choices for God right now. I'm telling you, many people won't take you seriously, but God will. Many people might even laugh at you and say, you'll never stick with it. But beloved, you set your heart. And I tell you, it will move the heart of God. I remember in my early years, I determined. I have just five choices I made. Let's take 20 seconds on each one of them. Because I want to, I want to, I want you to make the same ones. I determined. I said, Lord, I am going to love God and obey God. Now, this is a big statement, and I haven't done it. But I set my heart, and I've set my heart all these years. I said, I am going to love God and obey Him. I want to love you second to no man on the earth. I want to obey you second to nobody. I want a spirit of love that shows itself in obedience. I mean this. I've had many failures since I've made those dedicated commitments. But I tell you, I'm 16, 17, 18 years old. God, that moved God when I said those things. And many have done that around the earth. But here's my point. I look back 40 years later. Nearly those choices formed my life. And they will form your life. You can make a choice. Does it matter how little your ministry is? How forgotten you are? What you look like? What gifts you don't have? Beloved, you can choose. I want to be like David. I want to be one of the most obedient, lovesick worshipers of anyone on the planet. I may never be famous. No one may ever know me. But I'm going to do it. I may never have a resume with men, but I will have a resume with God. Secondly, I said, I'm going to be a man of the Word. The only problem is, I didn't like the Bible at all. I really didn't. I said, I'm going to be a man of the Word. I'd read the Bible and fall asleep and be utterly bored. I said, Lord, this is horrible. Third, I'm going to be a man of prayer. I remember saying that. More bitter than death. Again, if you would have told me back then, I would have a 24-hour prayer ministry. I would have bound it in the name of Jesus and cast it out. That would have been a horrible word, not a good word. I would have gone, oh, finally God saw me. I would, ah, what did I do? No, I mean it. That would have been a horrible identity. But I said in my heart, I'm going to be a man of prayer. I told the Lord, I want to learn to minister to people. I want to do this. I want to move in power. I want to learn how to disciple and evangelize. I want to learn this. I'm going to study. I'm going to do this thing. And I made a determination in those days, financially, in my early days. I said, Lord, I'm going to give to missions. I'm going to live simple. I want to make millions, but I want to live simple and give to the kingdom. I want to live extravagant. Now, these five commitments I made in my early days, and again, I'm not commenting on how well I've kept them, but I will say this. I made fierce commitments, and they've been fiercely in my heart for all these years. I'm not claiming how good I've done them, but I am claiming that I have fiercely been committed to them all of these days. And I know this. The Lord looks down from heaven, weakness. I mean profound weakness, but He liked it. Now, if you would have asked me back then about year one, two, three, after some of these commitments, I didn't make them all in one day, but in a short, you know, small amount of years, I made them one by one. If you'd asked me, hey, Mike, how are you doing on those commitments? I said, not very good. I mean, prayer's boring. Fasting's horrible. Bible's boring. I'm not good at ministry to anybody. But hey, I am not giving up. I'm going for this. I just know the Lord enough to know He liked that a lot. And it really, really shaped my life. I look back. I go, Lord, who could know the decisions as 15 and 18, a 20-year-old is making? You can't know how powerful those decisions are in your life. Does it matter how good they look? What I ask, encourage you to do, make them. Make them. Determine you're going to be like David. Go all the way. I mean, not a little bit. Not a content with a mediocre spiritual life I'm talking about. You're going to say, no, I'm going to do it David's style. And God will look at my inward heart, not my outward performance, and it will move the heart of God. I assure you, and you'll look back in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. I have friends all around the world that made these kind of decisions in their early days. And I tell you, the fruit in their life over decades, these decisions will bear fruit, but you stay with them. And I knew discouragements. I know boredom. I know oppressed, meaning prayers oppressed. It was, ah, and in the Lord, they just whispered, stay with it. Stay with it. And get some other young men and women that have the same commitment. Like Lou said today, you get a bunch of half-hearted friends. They will lead you into half-heartedness towards God. Find two or three. I don't care if they're popular or famous or the best this or the best that. Go find two or three friends regardless what else is going on or who knows them or who doesn't know them. They got this heart and lock in with them and say, you know what? We may not do this great, but we're going to do it fiercely with all of our heart and you just let some time pass and you will be blessed because you will understand in the days to come that God's heart was being moved and the less will bear fruit in your life because God is raising up a people after his own heart and even tonight He's going to mark some of you. Amen. Let's stand. Let's have our worship team come up. So you're standing up you're going oh Now that would do I would do that for like eight minutes like oh I mean you've been you sit there for an hour. It's amazing. So worship team comes. I'm going to ask you just to get just take another few moments of attentiveness. I realize you've been you've been real attentive for a full hour. That's impressive, but I believe there's going to be a transaction. Shh There's going to be a transaction I know that everyone in this room isn't going to do this, but there's going to be some of you in this room You're going to say this is for real. I'm doing this I am going to do this Misty i'm gonna put you on the spot. I do this regularly at conferences You're 15 years old you're out in west texas About an hour drive to the closest walmart. Yes It's true. It's true. I'm not being funny. It's a little church a little Town you're 15 years old I don't actually know the answer to what i'm going to ask you What do you say in your little heart at 15? Because I think of you as a person with a heart like david. You're 15 years old. You're doing something With god and he paid attention to it I don't mean he paid attention to it because you came here and you lead big 20 000 member conferences That's not what I mean. That's not the point Because your heart has been moved. I've watched you that 11 years. You've been here You have given your there's something happening in you and numbers at ihop I've seen this with lots, but you're just they're all the microphones. I'm picking on you a little bit They're 15 16 17 years old. What did you do? I know you're thinking of your song list, but just No, i'm thinking about the message. This message is so, uh, I mean, I I feel kind of weepy actually. It's so dear to my heart I'm a little bit emotional actually That's not so bad. Yeah, I remember being 15 And going looking up at the sky and going I have to touch you I said there's no point in my life if I don't touch you I wanted to impact the world. I wanted to change the world. I wanted to do something with my life I was going nowhere little tiny town. I mean just Saw no no purpose in my life and I looked up and said if there's a god I have to know this god and then the more I I grew in faith the more I fell in love with him genuinely And I started making these decisions with my life going all I really want to do is interact with you At the heart level more than a sermon more than a song more than a nice Bumper sticker like for real. I I have to know you. I want to know you to love you to be loved by you I mean even as he's talking i'm just thinking back over my life at 15 at 16 17 19 21 And and seeing how this same this message aligns your heart over and over and over again And at the end of the day when you die It's all that you're going to have Really? So i'm I feel very stirred. So you were saying you said god if you're real now you were a believer You're raised up in a church. Your father was a pastor. So you knew the lord was real So when she said if you're real god, I have what she meant is I have to have deep interaction with you The reason i'm saying that to you is that many of you have been raised up in church context And you're 15 years old. You're 17 And you're saying lord. I need to engage. I don't mean just know that you're real in the generic sense I need to i'm going to give myself to you because you went far beyond just saying lord if you're real touch me You gave yourself. I know some of the dedications that that you gave to the lord And so the point I want to make is this i've seen people do this for years I mean people all around the world. I know examples here there guys and gals, you know 20 years ago 30 years ago 40 years ago that made these kind of decisions. They will change your life Take them seriously Not not just to kind of make sure you're born again. That's what i'm talking about I'm talking about having a radical response god's raising up shepherds after his own heart like david He's raising up shepherds after his own heart. Let's pray Father I come to you Lord, I ask you to mark hearts right now across this auditorium It's not the emotional response though. There's nothing wrong with emotion It's the resolve It's the heart that says i'm gonna do this whether I feel nothing whether the bible's boring prayers. Well, i'm doing this I am going the whole way I'm going to study the life of david. I'm going to go after this thing Just talk to him for just a minute. I want to give a few of you a chance again, not everybody's engaged with this that's fine, but Some of you this is a life-changing two three minutes I'm, not talking about you're going to be the most fiery one in your youth group you're going to make a dedication to say lord, I want to be as as obedient as A man or a woman can be on the earth in this hour of history I want to know the love of god. I want to love you second to no one on the earth You're not competing with anyone But if you will give the anointing to love at whatever level I want it i'm talking about going all the way Not just being the fiery one in my High school or college ministry. That's all i'm talking about. I'm talking about my resume with you. God not my resume with men Talk to him for just a moment His eyes are going to and fro across the earth right now His eyes are looking over this auditorium just like his eyes were looking over bethlehem in the days of old I'm gonna ask the holy spirit to come and just touch us before we start the music Holy spirit i'm not gonna get in a hurry Holy spirit come and touch us right now Matter of fact, let's do this. Mr Just lead us in a little bit of worship Then we're going to bring it down I just want them to talk to god privately for a few minutes in the context of worship Then we're going to get quiet again And we're going to wait on the holy spirit and see the way that he wants us to lead in ministry So let's just because I want to give him some space some sacred space just to talk to god for the next Five or ten minutes and then we're going to kind of shift gears in a minute I have waited for you You have won my heart I am following for a long time I've been crying out for you Tears make my heart soft I am ready for the return Of the lovers The very fabric of god At the start of time setting free to decide I will love you. You're the one who loved me first Just one look from your eye i'm captivated by the eyes The lover Oh the eyes Of The lover For a long time I have awaited for you You have won I've been tears make my heart soft I am ready for the return From I will love you. You're the one Just want to look from your eye Eyes For the eyes For With all my strength With all my strength With all my soul Is I'll hear the bells chime for the wedding It will wait no longer. Oh how I love you I'll finally fall into the heart Of I will wait I'll be We