We'll read tonight in the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 13. We'll begin reading in verse 8. 1 Samuel, chapter 13, read down to verse 14. And he carried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed. But Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him. And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering. And it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him. that he might salute him. And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together and mickmashed. Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord. I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering. Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly. Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God which he commanded thee, for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue, for the Lord has sought him, a man, after his own heart. And the Lord commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee. Let's pray. Father, guide us again. We need our eyes to be open to understand the truth of thy word, to see the things we need to see, that we might be better servants for you. And those who are not sure of salvation might get it settled, and those who are away from where they ought to be would get back to where they need to be. Guide us tonight. Work on our hearts. We thank you, we love you, and we ask it in Jesus' name. I want to preach to you for a few moments tonight about God's valentine. The Bible tells us here that when King Saul disobeyed the Lord, God sought him a man after his own heart. That man, as we know, was David. So we can look at the life of David. And we can see God's valentine, we can see, and we know the Bible teaches that God loves all men, for God so loved the world. But he especially loves those who fit this category, this characteristic of David, a man after God's own heart. Now when we look at David's life, we find that David praised the Lord often. Often he praised the Lord. He was a man that had continual praise for the Lord. If you look in 1 Chronicles 23 and verse 5, notice what the scripture says here. Moreover, 4,000 were porters and 4,000 praised the Lord. with the instruments which I made," said David, to praise the 4,000 instruments he made, so that they could use them to praise the Lord. David was a man of praise, and if you look in 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 6, 2 Chronicles 7, verse 6, And the priests waited on their offices, the Levites also, with instruments of music of the Lord, which David the king had made to praise the Lord, because his mercy endured forever, when David praised by their ministry, and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood. You can read the Psalms and you can just read through the life of David. He was a man of praise. He was really caught up in this thing of praising the Lord. If you look in 2 Samuel 23, verse 1. Now, these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, And the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of God, of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel said," the sweet psalmist of Israel, the majority of the psalms were written by David, not all of them were, but the majority of them were, "...their songs of praise to the Lord." He was a man who was caught out in praising the Lord. If you look in Psalm chapter 9, Psalm chapter 9 and verse 1. The 9th Psalm verse 1. Psalm 9 verse 1. Here it says, I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all thy marvelous works. Praise the Lord with his whole heart. He was caught up in how wonderful his God is. David was caught up in that. He was a man who praised the Lord often. Look in Psalm 138. and verse 1, Psalm 138, verse 1. There are so many of the psalms that we could look at that were written by David. I will praise thee with my whole heart before the gods, for I sing praise unto thee. He was caught up in his God. And then if you just hold your place there in Psalm 138 and go to Hebrews, Hebrews 13 and verse 5, the Bible says to us, Hebrews 13 and verse 5, let your conversation Verse 15 is the verse I want. But by him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Remember now that David was a man after God's own heart. And when we study his life, he was a man who was caught up in praising the Lord. And the Bible tells us that we ought to be doing the same. Continually our lips ought to be thanking and praising him. So many of the days we go through, our days we're down and gloomy and we're thinking about all of our problems and woes and we forget to be thankful and to praise our Lord. Sometimes we even lose that song, you know, we don't sing like we ought to sing and praise the Lord throughout our days. David praised the Lord often. Remember, he's a man after God's own heart. Secondly, we notice about David that he made much of the word of God and obedience to it. Go back to Psalm 138, verse 2. to word thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth, for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." Magnified thy word above all thy name. David was a man who magnified the word in his own life. He did that. He made much of the word of God. Look in 1 Kings 15, and verse 5, and what the Bible says about him here in 1 Kings 15, verse 5. The Bible says, "...because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." When he went into Bathsheba and he had Uriah killed, that's the only time the Bible says that he really got off course. But we find that the Psalms record his repentance. He was quick to repent and to turn from his sin. But David was one who made much of the word of God and obedience to it. Look what the Bible says to us in John Chapter 14, along this same line. of the word of God, and thinking about a man after God's own heart. John 14, verse 21. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him. and will manifest myself unto him." Notice that. The word of God is very clear. That's verse 21, verse 22, "...Judas saith unto him, Not ascertain it, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, He will keep my words, and my Father will love him and will come unto him and make our abode with him." You see, David was a man after God's own heart, because he made much of the word of God and obedience to it. Look in Isaiah 66. The Bible teaches the same for us. to our Lord if we make the word of God special in our life. Look at it in Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 2. For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look. even to him that is born of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." That's the one he says he'll look to. Special. God's valentine. He was a man after God's own heart. He was a man who praised the Lord often. He was a man who made much of the word of God and obedience to it. Look in 2 Samuel 22. And in 2 Samuel 22, verse 20, here's what it says. He brought me forth also into a large place, he delivered me, because he delighted in me. Why did the Lord delight in him? He explains it. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and as for his statutes I did not depart from him. I was also upright before him and have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore the Lord hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his eyesight." So David was one who made much of just keeping the word of God and living by the word of God and obedience to the word of God. That's why he was a man after God's own heart. Now, Saul, if you go back to our text in 1 Samuel, Saul did not do that. He did not obey. Let's take a look at Saul here in chapter 13 just for a moment. Verse 11 of 1 Samuel chapter 13 says, get in the right chapter here, I'm in 2 Samuel, 1 Samuel 13, and Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me. And when you look at him, And what he had to say, and you read on through this chapter, you find that Saul was blaming the people, but it was actually Saul's fault. He's the king. He can order the people to do what they need to do. He doesn't have to let them be in hiding, like the Bible says, they were scattered and hiding. He could order them out and bring them out. It was Saul's fault, but he wanted to blame somebody else. Then he says, "...and that thou camest not within the days appointed," in verse 13. Well, he should have waited for further instructions. But now you know what he's doing. First he blames the people, now he's blaming the Preacher. He's blaming the Preacher. Then look what it goes on to say. and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash." Now he's bringing up the Philistines. He's now dwelling on the problem. He's looking at the problem. He's not looking at his God, he's looking at the problem. He's blaming the people, he's blaming the preacher, he's blaming the problems, and then it says, verse 12, The Philistines will come down now upon me to gild down, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord. I forced myself, therefore, and offered a burnt offering." Now, if you analyze that closely, now he's blaming God. He's blaming God because of God, what God has done here, requiring these offerings. So he's blaming the people, he's blaming the preacher, he's upset because of the problem, blaming God and Saul. is told by Samuel in verse 13, Thou hast done foolishly, done very foolishly. The Bible tells us in chapter 15, verse 3, he told him again, Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not. What did Saul do? He didn't obey. He didn't do it. He kept back the best of the animals and he took the king alive. of the Amalekites, Agag, didn't do what he was supposed to do. As a result, we go down to verse 22. Samuel said, "...hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord." Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king." See, Saul, he didn't have respect for the word of God, he blamed everybody else for his problems, and he didn't listen to the word of God. He should have patiently waited and followed the word of God. When things don't go the way we think they ought to go, we need to learn that thing of wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord. That wasn't what God was looking for. He was looking for someone who would be obedient to his word. David praised the Lord often. He was obedient to the word of God. I think many of the Psalms were probably written while he was out there. In his mind they were written. I don't know when he penned them down, but in his mind they were probably written while he was out there caring for the sheep before he ever became king of Israel. He was a man who had learned to praise the Lord, a man who made much of the word of God and obedience to it. And then thirdly, David trusted the Lord even in hard times. Look in Psalm 28 and verse 7. Psalm 28, verse 7. Here's what the Bible says concerning this. In verse 7, he said, "...the Lord was my strength and my shield, my heart trusted in him, and I am helped." Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song will I praise him. He was one who had learned to trust the Lord, even in hard times." You remember in 1 Samuel 30 when the Amalekites came in to Ziglag and took all of his possessions, his wife and his possessions, the men were out to go to the battle when they came back. They weren't allowed to go to the battle with the Philistines. They came back. You remember everything was gone. But the Bible says that David encouraged himself in the Lord. David's life was not a sheltered life. Sometimes when we hear preaching about trials and difficulties and troubles in our life, we say, well, those people just don't know what it is to suffer. David did not live a sheltered life. It hadn't been green pastures and beside the still waters for him all the way through. It hadn't been that way. He had dipped down into dreary canyons at times in his life, and he had been up over the rugged mountains in his life. More than one tempest had come upon him. There were rude winds that had pounded him with their cruel fists. If you read the story of David's life, numerous times he had come face to face with calamity after calamity. It was a rough life. His face had been wet with hot tears that gushed down many times. David knew what suffering was. And he said, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, because he would learn the statutes of the Lord. He would learn to trust his God. You know, sometimes we go through great difficulties and we kind of pull back in our little corner somewhere and we think everybody else doesn't understand. But you know, when trials come When the difficult times come into our life, there's three areas of action that we can take. First of all, we can surrender. We can just surrender. I've seen many people do that. When I was out last year and preached the revival in Oklahoma, there was a woman out there that had lost her baby, and she would not respond hardly to anybody. She wouldn't talk. She just pulled back in her corner. kind of went out of living. That is no way to respond to trials. When you've lost a baby, you're going to see the baby again in heaven, and if you just trust God, he'll give you more. But yet she didn't see that. She just decided to surrender, and through the years as a pastor, I've seen many people do that when difficult times come, is surrender. Where are they? They're out of church, they're sitting at home, they've given up on God because it's just too rough and too tough, too many trials, too many problems. So the first thing we can do is surrender, like so many do. Or secondly, we can become hard and cynical. I've seen a lot of people do that. They don't have no more joy. They've been through problems and difficulties, and they have no more joy, and they're just kind of zombies, walking around zombies. You talk to them, and, yeah, I know, I know. You have to baby them along. You have to kind of crod them along in life, because, oh, it's so hard for me. We can take that approach if we want. We lose our joy, life becomes dreary, we're hard and cynical. Or, we can be like David, a man after God's own heart. He turned his losses into gain. He was the type of man who turned pain into praise. That's what he did. He turned pain into praise. If you study his life, he was a man that took the hard times and through them, he trusted his God, he praised his God, and he determined to continue to serve his God. And as a result, God brought him through. And as he wrote, God delivers us from all our afflictions in Psalm 34. It's like the Apostle Paul. said the things that had happened to him fell out to the furtherance of the gospel. All the trials and difficulties he went through, and his goal was to preach the gospel in Rome, but you know what it took to get him to Rome? It took the Persians to get him there. Paul realized that. You find Paul's life, he's praising the Lord through the midst of the storms. A man after God's own heart, David trusted the Lord even in hard times. And then number four, there's seven of them I'm going to give you, so I'm going to hurry through. David was a man of prayer. You can read that in Psalm 34 and verses 15 through 17. A man of prayer. The Bible teaches that that's what we ought to be. Men and women of prayer, 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 12. Philippians chapter 4 verses 6 and 7, it says, And the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Do you know where that peace of God that passes understanding comes from? From being a prayer, from being a person that learns to pray, and to pray as we ought to pray. David was a man, when you study his life, he was a man of prayer. Not only that, when you study his life, David, number five, was not easily offended. He was not easily offended. Boy, this man, when you read and study about them, in Psalm 119, some say we don't know for sure who wrote the 119th Psalm, but when you read it and look at it, and you read David's other psalms, it appears to me that David was very probably the author of the Psalm 119. And in verse 165, it says, "...great peace have they that love by law, and nothing shall offend them." Not easily offended. Well, you can read that in 1 Samuel 25, verses 32-33, and his reaction to Nabal there. That was one time in his life when he was determined to take vengeance. Remember, Abigail came out there and I stopped him and he realized this is wrong. I was going to take vengeance myself. I should have let God handle it. But if you study his life, it was characterized that he was not easily offended. Remember how he dealt with King Saul? He had several opportunities to kill King Saul, but what did he do? He said, I'll not put my hand against the Lord's anointing. I won't do that. I won't touch the Lord's anointing. He was just a man that was not easily offended. Remember when Shemai was cursing David when he was fleeing from his own son Absalom? Shemai was over there on the other side, yelling and cursing David. You remember Abishai? He said, Let me go over there and take off his head! That's the way most of us react. But David said, No, we're not going to do that. We're not going to take off his head. When Chimei came back after David was restored to the kingdom, Abishai wanted to kill him again. David said, No. We'll let God handle that. He was a man who was not easily offended and did not take vengeance. Number six, David was God's servant. Look in 2 Samuel 33, verse 18. This is a good one, of the characteristic of David. That's in 2 Samuel 3, verse 18, if I've got the right reference written down here. Now, then doeth, for the Lord hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant I will save my people, Israel, out of the hand of the Philistines and out of the hand of all their enemies. My servant David. That's what the Lord called him, my servant. Well, in the Bible we look at this thing of my servant, and we find several people that are called my servant, but nobody is called my servant as much as David. Twelve times it says, my servant David. Ten times it says, thy servant David. One time it says, his servant David, and eleven times it says, David my servant. Thirty-four times David is mentioned as the servant of the Lord in the scripture. There were others that were called his servant. Abraham was called my servant, but he was also called the friend of God. Moses was called my servant, Caleb, Job, Isaiah, Eliakim. Jacob, Nebuchadnezzar, Zerubbabel, who brought the first remnant back from Babylon, and then he said, My servants, the prophets, which would include Daniel and all those prophets. And then Jesus is called My servant. And then you and me. Did you realize that? Look in Isaiah chapter 43 in verse 10. Isaiah 43, verse 10. He says, You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be here after me." So he says that his witnesses are his servants, those who witness about the Lord testify for Then look in John 12, and verse 25. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, Him will my Father honor." So you see, we're his servants, too. We have the opportunity to be his servant. We can obey his commandment to love one another. We can obey his commandment to preach the gospel to every creature. We've been told to go with the gospel. It was our Lord that gave us that commandment in all four gospels, to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. And the Bible says in Romans 10, how shall they hear without a preacher? How are they going to hear if they haven't been told? How are they going to hear the gospel story, the simple gospel story that God created us and man fell into sin and because of his sin he will face an eternity in a lake of fire because God is just and the punishment for sin is the lake of fire. Hell is so clearly taught in the scripture. When you study the Bible, Jesus had more to say about hell and hellfire than any other speaker in the Bible. He warned against it. He warned that it was coming for those who failed to put their faith and trust in him. And the Bible says that if thou, that's important to understand. Thou is singular. It means you must do it. You can't trust this Calvary Bible Baptist Church to save you. If your trust is in the Calvary Bible Baptist Church, if your trust is in the Baptist faith, you are headed for hell. No church can save. No church has the power to save. Only Jesus can save. And he says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, thy is singular as well. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, you must do it. For, Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." And Jesus told the woman at the well very clearly. If you look in John Chapter 4, he said to her in John Chapter 4, And verse 10, Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God," okay, we're listening to Jesus here. You're not listening to Floyd Lederbaugh, you're not listening to a Baptist preacher. You are listening to the word of God and to Jesus the Savior himself. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God. Well, what is the gift of God? Romans chapter 6 and verse 23 says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. So we know what the gift of God is, it's eternal life. He said that thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me a drink. He'd ask her for a drink of water from the well. He told her, you need to know who it is that's talking to you. Who was it? It was Jesus. She recognizes that on down in the chapter. She realizes that. That it was Jesus, the Savior, the Messiah, who was talking to her. She didn't at this point. And he said, if she knew who it was, well, we know who it was, Jesus. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He said, if you knew this, if you knew what the gift of God is and you knew who it was that was talking to you, he said, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. You see, in Matthew chapter 7, there are many people who stand before the Lord, and he says, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you. You never came to ask. You say, well, I go to church, I've been confirmed in the church, I'm a member of the church, I've gone. No, that doesn't cut mustard with God. It is only personal faith in Jesus Christ that will save us from our sins. Thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And Jesus said in John 5.24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, half everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." Personal faith in Jesus Christ. Not a member of the Baptist church, not a member of any church. Personal faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus established the church so that we could learn the teachings of the word of God, not salvation. And so David was God's servant. He served the Lord. And we have that responsibility to serve the Lord as well and to preach the gospel. I've been trying since we are live streaming our messages to make the gospel plain because we don't know where it's going to go out there. Make it clear, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Whosoever believeth in him, personal faith. So David was God's servant. And finally, number seven, David was not selfish. I don't have time to go into these references, but 2 Samuel 23.16 and several others David was not a selfish man. He was always giving. There was a time I read their history, and I'm sure you've read it too, where he gave a good piece of flesh, a flagon of grape juice to everybody in Israel. Whoa! Think about that. If we tried to do that to everybody here in the United States, we'd be broke. We'd be out of business. But David was a very unselfish man. And the Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5 and verse 5, very clearly here, 1 Peter 5.5. 5. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud. and giveth grace to the humble. So there you have it. There's God's Valentine. Do you want to be specially loved of the Lord? I know all of us at this time of year, we have some Valentines. We like to give out Valentines, and there are some people that are just extra special to us that we really love. We can say that we love others, yes, but we just specially love them because of the way they do and are. If you want to be God's special valentine, there you have it in the life of David. He was always praising the Lord. He tried to live by the word. He trusted the Lord no matter what came into his life. He was praying always. He was not easily offended. He was a servant of the Lord, and he was unselfish. God's special valentine, a man after God's own heart. It ought to bring to us conviction about our own lives that we would love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and be God's valentine. Let's pray. Father, work on our hearts tonight that we might be more for you, we might love you more that we might be determined to serve you more and be the servant of the Lord. I always remember what my brother-in-law said there out in Oklahoma when he told me one time, he said, when I stand before the Lord, I'd like to hear him say, my servant John, Instead of, well done thou good and faithful servant, I would like to hear him say, my servant John, Father, help us to live our lives in such a way that we would truly be your servants. This Valentine's season, help us to determine to make you our special Valentine, to live for you and serve you like we should. And for those who are here tonight, not sure they're saved, help them to get it settled tonight. We thank you and we love you, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together and go and sing the invitation song and if you're here tonight not sure