Who here has lived entirely righteous lives? Maybe it's possible to be righteous from the standard that the world sets, but what about if we hold ourselves up to God's standard? Who here has ever worshipped an idol? You may not know what I mean, so let me say it this way.

Whether we are stubborn and rebellious from the beginning or obedient and righteous, all of us fall short of the good and righteous lives God wants us to live. Israel and David show us a significant problem with our hearts. The truth is that we are all incredibly broken people. We don't want to believe that someone so good and pure could do something so horrible. When we hear that story, our hearts ache. All of his prosperity hardened his heart so that he committed adultery and murder. Unlike our movies today, David has a miserable fall.

There is just one problem with being like David. There were times when he suffered greatly, but it all worked out in the end. In response, David was an obedient and great king. He protected him and won many battles for David. His rags to riches story has Hollywood written all over it. We don't resemble David, but we want to be like him. That's like carrying a knife to a gunfight. How many of us would go up in a battle against someone who is nearly ten feet tall, heavily armed, and armored with nothing but a few rocks. Here is a man who is faithful and selfless.

Who doesn't remember the story of David stepping up to defeat Goliath with complete faith and trust in the Lord? That's who we want to be like. Do we relate to David? He's a man we want to resemble. He loved the Lord and wanted God's name to be glorified. Let's consider him because David is called a man after God's own heart. He was among the greatest of the Israelites. In the Old Testament, we have an example of these catastrophes in David. Many times, other people's evil makes no sense to us, but our evil is justified. Events like this confuse us because we would never think of doing something so evil toward innocent people. When we see catastrophes resulting from someone's evil intentions, Sandy Hook Elementary, Columbine, 9-11, child trafficking, etc., we might wonder how anyone could be so evil.

Give me a new heart bible verse