[Aaron Dean] Recently they published their list of lineups on TV. I don't watch a whole lot of TV. There are a few shows I like, some of the old ones. I was looking at a title of one of the shows that came on last season called "Motive", and as with most crime shows – there's lots of them on there – they try to find the criminal by finding out what his motive is for the crime. Because there's always some motive, often the motive is hidden, and the plot will go to one person then they'll change the plot line and it'll go to another person until finally the culprit is exposed. Seldom are things done randomly except in those plot lines where someone tries to create a serial crime to hide the actual person that they wanted, that a single act might expose them.

Dr. Phil made a statement popular when he said, "There's a benefit in a behavior, or the behavior would stop." And that's true.

Today I want to talk about motivation. What are our motives? Jesus Christ told us that God wants people to worship Him in spirit and in truth – people with a pure heart. So I've titled this today "Seeking a Pure Heart", because to understand our motivation is to understand ourselves and to get closer to God.

We're familiar with Jeremiah 17:9. It's one of the memory scriptures where it says,

Jeremiah 17:9 – The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

This is true. We can deceive ourselves. And verse 10 continues with:

Jeremiah 17:10 – I, the Lord, search the hearts, I test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

God actually sees not only what you do, but why you do it, and He rewards that according to those reasons. The longtime members here remember a phrase that was made very popular in many ways by Herbert W. Armstrong when he said, "The way of give versus the way of get." It's a simple concept, but a true one, and defines the fruit of our doings, really. It defines a motive for all we do. Do we do it to give to others, or do we do it to get for ourselves? Now I know it's better to give than to receive, and someone has to receive in order for someone to give, so we do have to receive at times.

I remember the famous movie line from Laurel and Hardy where there's two pieces of pie there, one's much bigger than the other one and Ollie tells Stanley to go ahead and pick, so Stanley picks the big one and then Ollie says, "Stanley, if I were you and had chosen first, I would have taken the smaller piece." And of course Stanley replies, "Well, why are you complaining? You got the one you wanted." Now Ollie didn't really want the smaller piece. He let Stanley pick first so Stanley would be the courteous one and let him get the leftover, bigger piece. And that's very often the case with us. Ollie didn't really want the smaller piece, and often with our motives, we may take the smaller piece when we really wanted the bigger piece. My mom saw that problem when I was a kid because she would let my brother and I cut the cake and one cut and the other one got to choose, so you learned to cut it pretty fairly, or else you cheated yourself.

The same motives can be true in our lives of why we do things. If we don't truly look at ourselves the way God looks at us. We can desire a lot of wonderful things, things that may not be wrong of themselves, but what is our motive for these desires that we have? Is it money? The world seeks money. It's a big motivation. They put bounties on people to raise the price. Do we seek power? There are some people who really want power, and when they get it they won't let go of it. When it's taken away they get angry. It's sad. We want respect. Certainly not a bad thing to have, but why do we want it? Perhaps intelligence, some people want to be the smartest person. I liked that, when I was in school, I chased the stars across the board. I wanted to be the first one to finish memorizing all the scriptures or get a 100 on the test. What was my motive? All the stars, all the things, it's more selfish. Perhaps we want fame. Some people become famous. There are a lot of famous people in the bible, good people. A lot of infamous people that did some wrong things, and we learn from both. But if these things that we desire come, did we come about it honestly? And even if we came about it honestly, did we have the right motive for acquiring it? That's where God tries the heart and tries the reigns.

We traveled a great deal in my early life. I remember being in Belgium with Mr. Armstrong once, and we went to the palace in Argenteuil, which we went to several times to see King Leopold III. It was always sad some ways and happy in others; sad because to get there you had to drive through the war memorials of the first world war and all the graves of the people who died – heroes because they died for their countries – and probably most of them, like most young men wanting to be heroes for a selfish reason, and then when you get in the war you don't really like it. You find out being a hero isn't always what it's cracked up to be, but then we'd go to the palace at Argenteuil, and the grounds were beautiful, large, gardens, and we'd be met by the royal staff at the entry and we'd be ushered into a nice room where we'd wait and soon we be taken to a larger lounge where King Leopold III and Princess Lilian would be. We discussed the projects that the foundation was doing with King Leopold III and his foundation and we discussed those things, and in one of those discussions, as we were talking a young lady walked in – in her 20s – and we were introduced to her. Her name was Esmeralda, she was the princess, the youngest daughter of King Leopold III. She was a beautiful girl, as most princesses are, after all, most kings don't marry unattractive people, and their progeny usually comes out fairly nice looking, as did she, and we went into the dining room after our discussion and we had lunch.

Afterwards though, on the way back, Mr. Armstrong asked me a question – I thought it was kind of funny because he commented on Princess Esmeralda and her beauty – he asked me, "Do you ever wonder what it would be like to marry a princess?" Now I hadn't really thought about that – I suppose when I was young and saw Disney movies, Cinderella and those, I may have. I had already married my princess, and she was just as stunning as Esmeralda was, if not more so, so my fantasies had already come true. But would you like to marry a princess? Would you like to make millions of dollars? Would you like to not have to pay any tax? I'd like that one. Do you want everyone to respect you? Do you want fame? None of these desires are necessarily wrong by themselves, but let's face it, most of them have a selfish motive, something to our own benefit. And we may even kid ourselves, we often do. I've heard people say, "If I just won the lottery, or if I had lots of money, I could help my family. I could put my kids through college. I could help my aging parents. I can help my friends. I can help my church. Wow, I can even help God!" Now that sounds pretty arrogant and vain when you say it that way, but often people will think that way. It's selfish, and we can deceive ourselves when we have that selfish streak in us, a self-esteem weakness perhaps. We all want to look good. That's innate and human nature I think. We all want to be the hero, and being a hero is fine, but only if your motive is pure, only if you have that pure heart. Because if you really look at it, what great act can we do that impresses God? There really isn't anything. I mean Job learned that when God talked to him, and He said, "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" And we think perhaps He built the great pyramid, which is great, but that's only a speck in the universe, if that.

I'd like to turn to a familiar story today and look at it maybe a little differently than we've thought of before. It has a villain. It has a hero. It has a princess. It has a promise of wealth and fame. Turn to 1 Samuel 17. It's a story we've all heard, if you grew up in any type of religion, basically, you heard the story of David and Goliath, but I'd like to look from it from the standpoint of motives today, and how people think. 1 Samuel 17:1, it defines the enemy:

1 Samuel 17:1 – Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Soco, which belonged to Judah; and pitched between Soco and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim.

1 Samuel 17:2 – And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.

1 Samuel 17:3 – And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.

Which is the way wars were fought back in those days; you just faced off and then marched towards each other. But the villain comes in next, in verse 4:

1 Samuel 17:4 – And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

Now if you look that up that's either at the bottom 9 ½ feet, at the top, 12 feet. At 12 feet he could stand up in this room. He'd have to duck through all the doorways. And you could imagine how large he was and how far his arm span was, if you're 10-12 feet tall.

1 Samuel 17:5 – He had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

That's about 156 pounds when you look at the weight of a shekel. That was just his coat that he wore, and the armor.

1 Samuel 17:6 – He had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. –for protection.

You know, when you think about this guy you wonder why he needed any protection. He could just put his hand out and hold you off and you'd be splaying away underneath trying to reach him. I doubt if I could reach him even with a three foot sword, anything longer than that and I wouldn't be able to carry it. But even Shaq would probably look like a dwarf next to him.

1 Samuel 17:7 – The staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; so this man carried a telephone pole around with him – and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron; about 19 pounds.

If any of you have ever shot a shot-put, which weighs less than that, you know how hard it would be to throw that, let alone a weaver's beam attached to it. That was his spear. And then someone else carried a shield in front of him. Again, I'm not sure who that person was, but I'm sure the shield was pretty heavy.

1 Samuel 17:8 – And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, "Why are you come out to set your battle in array?" Why are you all here? Am I not a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul? Choose a man for you, and let him come to me.

So he says, "Just send one person out, and I'll fight him."

1 Samuel 17:9 – If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.

That way the rest of us don't have to die, just one person and it'll be over.

1 Samuel 17:10 – And the Philistine said, "I defy the armies of Israel this day; - I defy you. -give me a man, that we may fight together."

Now, I'm sure Goliath was motivated by pride. He was pretty happy that he was the toughest kid on the block, the biggest guy in the army. He could fight anybody. He was arrogant, obviously. He knew the deck was stacked in his favor. If you're 12 feet tall, I would say that's stacking the deck pretty good, compared to everyone else. And here's your chance to be a hero. If you're motivated by wanting to be a hero, all you had to do was go out and kill this guy. That's all, and certainly your respect would be enormous, and you'd be a true patriot if you could kill Goliath. There would be a ticker tape parade for you. Would that be your motive though, for fame? You'd be saving Israel. You could argue it that way.

1 Samuel 17:11 – When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.

They knew they weren't big enough to take him on individually. I remember when I was in college I used to play on a faculty [basketball] team, and once in a while I'd play against Mike Carter, who was drafted by the Lakers, and he wasn't 12 feet tall, but he seemed that way compared to me. If I played against him I may as well just kiss it goodbye because I'm not going to shoot anything that's not going to be swatted away, unless I can shoot half-court shots, but that would be like fighting against Goliath. And they knew that and they were afraid of him because they saw that and to them probably discretion was the better part of valor because he would probably kill you, and no one would fight him. And he would come out and chant these chants against Israel, and against Israel's God.

While the others were dreadfully afraid of this giant, we are now introduced to David. David is ready to do battle. Personal glory would be his if he killed him, obviously, if he could triumph. And perhaps God put the fear of fighting this giant in the other men so He could bring David to light. We don't know. God often does things like that. He works out things his way, not our way.

I learned that many times when I would try to work out trips and travel in my past. People I thought God would use, He didn't, and people I didn't think He would use, He did. I take a lot of flak sometimes for that. I took a lot of flak for a Buddhist monk that I used to set up in Thailand.  He shaved his head every new moon like Buddhist monks do, and he showed up in a saffron sheet. I had been praying for someone to help set up things there because the previous people that had set up things had bribed some people and done some things that weren't proper. And I wasn't going to use any of them, so I prayed to God and asked Him to send someone that I could use to help set up the trips there, and the next day a bald headed, orange sheeted monk showed up there at the college and wanted to see Mr. Armstrong. I was surprised, and Mr. Armstrong met with him. He had met with some of our students and was impressed and wanted to meet Mr. Armstrong. And Mr. Armstrong said, "I go to Thailand quite often. I always wanted to meet the queen, but I haven't been able to." And the monk said, "Well I'm the queen's favorite phra tham, which is kind of like a cardinal in the Catholic church. He was, I think at that time, seventh in line to be the supreme patriarch of Buddhism. He made it to number three before he died.

But it was interesting, he said, "I can help you set it up." And I'm sitting there thinking, "Is this what God wants me to use?" And sure enough, it was. He ended up helping us a great deal. He got us the presidential suite we used to pay $1000 a night for, for $300. He seemed to be related to everybody in Thailand, even though he never married anyone and he was a monk. I guess it works differently over there. But you use what God sends to you. And God does things differently, and perhaps He put the fear in some of these men who might have tried to go out and fight Goliath, to not do so. But we see David now, introduced in verse 12 of chapter 17:

1 Samuel 17:12 – Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man, in the days of Saul.

So he was old, he had already had eight sons, and David was his youngest. I don't know if he had any daughters, he probably did, but it doesn't talk about those.

1 Samuel 17:13 – His three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle. They were going to fight. And they name his three sons: …Eliab the firstborn, next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

And they went to war. They signed up to do their duty for their country.

1 Samuel 17:14 – David was the youngest: and the three eldest followed Saul.

1 Samuel 17:15 – But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem. Again, we all knew David was a shepherd boy, and he would go back and forth.

1 Samuel 17:16 – And the Philistine drew near every morning and evening and presented himself forty days.

Every morning he would ridicule the Israelites, and in the evening he would ridicule them.

1 Samuel 17:17 – Then Jesse said to David his son, "Take now for your brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to your brothers.

1 Samuel 17:18 – And carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and look to your brethren, see how they fare, and take their pledge."

Now that was quite a bit of things for David to carry. He obviously wasn't a small lad. He was young, but he was pretty strong to run to the camp and run back and carry all these things.

1 Samuel 17:19 – Saul and they and the men of Israel were in the Valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

1 Samuel 17:20 – And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took and went as Jesse had commanded him. And he came to the trench as the host was going forth to fight and shouted for the battle.

1 Samuel 17:21 – For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army.

And David was there in the trench.

1 Samuel 17:22 – And David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper, ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers.

1 Samuel 17:23 – Then as he talked with them, - and as he was talking, it must have been nearing the time for Goliath to come back out – there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines; and he spoke according to the same words. So David heard them.

He heard him ridicule God, ridicule Israel, the people of God. And he saw that the men fled when he came out.

1 Samuel 17:24 – And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were sore afraid. – of this giant.

1 Samuel 17:25 – So the men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man that is come up? Surely to defy Israel is he come; and it shall be, that the man who kills him – now comes some potential motives for killing Goliath, number 1: the king will enrich him with great riches,…

Wow, that's a good reason to do this. Talk about fame if you kill him, but now you can get rich if you can kill this guy. You can do it for money, put a bounty on his head. You can have all the money you want if you just take this guy out. And with riches is going to come respect, obviously. People often want to get rich, they buy lottery tickets, which doesn't kill them if they don't pick the right numbers, although it kills them slowly through poverty usually, people who buy them. Now look at motive number 2:

1 Samuel 17:25 – …it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, and will give him his daughter,…

Ah, you get to marry the princess. She's right there for you. Now I'm sure Saul's daughter Michal was beautiful, and now you get to become the king's son-in-law, because you get to marry his daughter if you do this thing, and that gives you entry into the palace and all the pageantry and all the beauty and things that go with it. You get the title of a prince, by marriage, and for all you ladies, you get to be Cinderella every day, if the shoe were on the other foot.

It's always fascinating, hearing all the Lords and Ladies in Europe, as we were being introduced to them, they were really proud of their titles: Earl, or Duke, Lord, Lady, whatever, because if you had a title you get invited to things and you wouldn't be shunned. It's a lot of vanity. In England, the title, I learned, went to the sons. That's why Princess Diana's father was so anxious when he finally had a son. Because if you're an Earl, and you have a son, he becomes the Earl. If you don't have a son, one of your brothers or one of their sons becomes the Earl. And not only do they become the Earl, but they get to live in the mansion that belongs to the Earl. It doesn't belong to the family, it belongs to the Earl, as such. And so if you don't have a son, you get pushed out of your house even. So, that's how it worked with titles, people want those things. And they like that.

So we have some humanly desired motives that can go along with killing Goliath; motives of fame and riches, marriage into the royal family. Now look at motive number 3, we have one more added to this thing:

1 Samuel 17:25 – …it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free [from taxes] in Israel."

Now your family won't have to pay taxes anymore. Now for me that would be a good enough reason to go after the guy anyway, because if I won, I wouldn't pay taxes, and if I lost, I wouldn't pay taxes either!

But it's interesting. If you win, you get the fame, you get your title by marriage, you get your money. Pretty good motives, but of course this Goliath was a really big guy. All the soldiers and Saul were afraid because they saw a giant, someone that they couldn't defeat, bigger and stronger than they were, but what did David see in this?

1 Samuel 17:26 – Then David spoke to the men that stood by him, saying, "What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

David saw a bigger picture. He saw a man defying God, his God, the God of Israel. Do we let others speak evil of our God, of our church, or our family? Do we shy away from our beliefs? We have the truth, people may think we're foolish for it, but yet, I'm sure they thought David was foolish in thinking of killing Goliath. And David persisted:

1 Samuel 17:27 – The people answered him after this manner, saying, "So shall it be done to the man who kills him."

Again, money, the princess, and no taxes, and certainly the fame. So, David knew the prize, but is that what it was about for him? It would have been their motive, if someone else would have tried to go out and fight him. And even David was judged for his motive. Look at verse 28:

1 Samuel 17:28 – Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, "Why did you come down here?  You little welp, what did you come here for anyway? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? You're not doing your job. I know your pride and the naughtiness of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle." You're just a looky-lou. You're just coming down here to watch and stir up things. That was a motive attributed by his oldest brother, the oldest son of Jesse.

1 Samuel 17:29 – But David said, "Wait a minute." "What have I now done? "What have I said, other than this uncircumcised Philistine is defying God." Is there not a cause?" "Is this not a cause? Should not someone stand for the true God?"

Was this not the motive of David in his heart, to glorify God, to worship his God, to defend his God? He knew God didn't need that, but someone was defying his God. And who would stop this man who would defy the God of Israel?

And he went, in verse 30, it talks about him talking to more men:

1 Samuel 17:30 – …He spoke after the same manner: and the people answered him again after the former manner.

Again, money, love, and fame, no taxes. Won't any of you fight this heathen? He's probably asking the men, trying to give courage them to.

1 Samuel 17:31 – Now when the words were heard which David spoke, they rehearsed them before Saul' and he sent for him.

1 Samuel 17:32 – Then David said to Saul, "Don't let your heart fail because of this giant; your servant will go and fight with this Philistine."

I'll go fight him, this Philistine. Was he bragging? Was he calling the others cowards perhaps, in a sense? Was he telling him they lacked the faith they needed to fight this giant? David is saying, "I can do it." Because David knew it wouldn't be him that was doing it.

1 Samuel 17:33 – But Saul tells David, "You're not able to go against this Philistine because you're just a child, you're a youth, -He's probably 17 or 18, he's big enough, but no experience in fighting- and this Goliath has been trained as a Soldier all his life." He'll kill you.

1 Samuel 17:34 – And then David explains to him, "I keep my father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear and [took] a lamb out of the flock,

1 Samuel 17:35 – and I went out after him and I smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth; and he rose against me, and I caught it by its beard, the lion, and smote him and slew him.

Sounds a bit like bragging: "I did this…, I did this…" But look at where he came next:

1 Samuel 17:36 – Your servant slew both the lion and the bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing as he has defied the armies of the living God."

1 Samuel 17:37 – And David said, "Moreover, the Lord that delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." His motive was to glorify God. He knew God delivers each of us. And then Saul said, "Go, and the Lord be with you!"

I can hardly imagine that.

1 Samuel 17:38 – And then Saul gave David his armor. "Here, put this on." Now David put on these various things, and I'm sure in some ways, you know, if you see men in uniform, and all the brass and all the things, you tend to think, "Wow, pretty impressive." And he armed him with his coat of mail.

Now, to be seen in the king's armor with the king's sword, would be kind of like holding Excalibur, and walking out to the troops and seem like you're pretty good. Kind of like when Mordecai and Haman, in the story of Esther, when Haman thinks he's being rewarded and the king asks Haman, "What should I do to honor someone." And wanting to honor Mordecai, but Haman thinks it's him, so he tells him, "Put him on your horse, and give him the royal clothes, and give him all this stuff…" That's where David was. He had the king's armor, the king's things on. But David, it says:

1 Samuel 17:39 – David girded the sword on his armor -but he decided not to go with that, because he hadn't been trained with the sword. And David tells Saul, "I can't go with these." And he took them off.

Because it wasn't about him getting the king's clothes and the king's sword and going out there and defeating Goliath with the king's armor and sword. So he took what he knew, what God had trained him with.

1 Samuel 17:40 – Then he took his staff in his hand' and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.

Probably looking kind of like Peter Pan, a small little guy with a sling and a shepherd's uniform, and he went out to face Goliath, the giant. Now the Philistine is there, the giant, and he looks, in verse 42, and he saw David:

1 Samuel 17:42 – And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, -Now, I'm sure he was expecting someone a little bigger, a little more experienced, perhaps even Saul. Saul was head and shoulders above most of the men of Israel. And Saul should have been the one leading. He should have been the one who had the faith to do this, but he didn't. …when he looked about and saw David, it says, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy and of fair countenance.

Of course, David might have looked a little older had he worn the uniform of Saul.

1 Samuel 17:43 – And the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come out here to throw sticks for me to fetch, and stones at me?" What are you doing, you little runt? He ridicules him, and it says: The Philistine cursed David by his gods.

So, he was pretty upset that this boy had been sent out. It probably hurt his ego a little bit, too, to think that he's going to fight this kid. He probably doesn't even want to fight him.

1 Samuel 17:45 – But David says to the Philistine, after the Philistine challenges him and says he's going to kill him and feed his flesh to the birds (1 Samuel 17:44), and David answers back and says, "You come at me with a sword and a spear, and with a shield. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

I am here because you defied God, not about me.

1 Samuel 17:46 – And this day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will smite you and take your head from you. And I will give your carcass and the carcasses of the host of the Philistines, all of them, to the fowls of the air.

And then, in verse 47

1 Samuel 17:47 – When this is done, all this assembly shall know, that the Lord saves not with the sword or the spear, -it'snot your 18 pound spearhead with your weavers beam and your 156 pounds of armor you're carrying. For the battle is the Lord's and He will give you into our hands."

David's motive was to please God, to defend his beliefs, to know that God was behind him. And of course, we know what happened. He slew Goliath, with a stone to his forehead (1 Samuel 17:49). And when the big bully went down, you know how everybody like to stand behind the bully, it says the Philistines fled (1 Samuel 17:51). Which is what happens when you take down the bully, all the people behind him that are tough guys behind the bully tend to just run away. And they did, and it was a great victory. But it was interesting, because I often wonder if Saul even thought David had gone down to fight him. I mean, he talked to him, and he offered him his sword and his armor, but look at verse 55:

1 Samuel 17:55 – When Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the host, "Whose son is this youth?" Whose kid is this? Who is this? And Abner said, "As thy soul lives, king, I don't know."

1 Samuel 17:56 – And he said, "Enquire whose son this little stripling is. This young lad.

1 Samuel 17:57 – And as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before the king with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

1 Samuel 17:58 – …And he told him, "I'm the son of Jesse, your servant."

David made it about God, not about himself. It could have been about himself; he did marry Michal, the king's daughter. He did achieve fame, and these things didn't seem to always work out for him that well because Michal ended up going with somebody else, and his fame: Saul was jealous of it and tried to kill him. So it didn't always work out good, and sometimes when you do the right thing, for the right reason even, it doesn't always go well.

Turn to Malachi 3, if you would. Malachi 3:14. Saul became jealous. He tried to kill David. It didn't out, but it doesn't work out all the time, and people think it should often.

Malachi 3:14 – You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinances…

Do you do it for show? What profit is it that we did all this stuff? That we kept His Sabbath, that we tithe, that we kept the holy days? You know, people look at us, they think we're funny, we're weird. Do you ever feel it's useless? Israel, Malachi talking to them, didn't think it paid to serve God. They wanted a payoff. What was their motive? I'm sure all of us at one time or another have felt that way. "I did what God said and it didn't work." Have you ever said that? I have. Of course, it does work. God's way always works. It just doesn't work the way we want it, always. We don't always slay Goliath. Sometimes we lose. At least we appear to.

Even Elijah. You don't have to feel bad about that because all the great men of old had weak moments. Elijah who called down fire from Heaven. I always think, "what was he thinking?" That everyone would just worship the true God because I mean, fire comes down, it takes the offering, it takes the alter, it takes the stones, it takes the water, it takes the trench, everything. And then he has to flea for his life from Jezebel and complains to God he's the only one. So we can be down sometimes, but obviously God heard Elijah, because Elijah did worship the true God. And we can have our moments of self-pity, perhaps, and raw motivation, but we need to keep our eyes on God; why we are here to serve God and to glorify Him.

Verse 14, continuing:

Malachi 3:14 – You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

We've walked mournfully. They wore clothes like sack cloth and ashes and they did all the ritual things that they needed to show their righteousness toward God. But it was a show. What was their reason for it? They forgot Isaiah 58, where it says, "Why do you fast?" Isaish 58:4, keep your finger in Malachi, we'll go back to that, but it says:

Isaiah 58:4 – You fast for strife and debate...

And God says, "Is this what you call a fast?" You fast because you want your motives, you want it your way, and you want to call that an acceptable day to God. Do we take the outward show for true humility? The fact that you put on sack cloth and ashes and do that. Christ made it clear in Matthew 6 when He talked about motives there, when he talked about some of the Pharisees, and Sadducees, and the priests, and various ones who did everything out in the open when Christ said,

Matthew 6:2 – When you do your alms, don't sound the trumpet before you, like the Pharisees do and the hypocrites. Why? Because they want the glory of men, He says, and He says,

Matthew 6:5 – When you pray, don't do like the hypocrites because they pray loudly in the streets and the corners so that people can see them praying.

Have you ever seen pictures of the Western wall? You can see all the people praying there. Not bad people, but it's all seen of men. And He says,

Matthew 6:16 – When you fast, don't be like the hypocrites "Oh, I'm so hungry today!" "Oh, it's so terrible!" "I'm so righteous today." Wrong motive. He says to,

Matthew 6:17 – …wash your face; and

Matthew 6:18 – Look like you're not fasting.

Because it's before God. Because the motive has to be there. Why do you serve God? Sometimes it doesn't seem to work out. But is it about you, or is it about God?

Verse 15 of Malachi 3:

Malachi 3:15 – And now we call the proud happy; Do proud people seem to be happy? I remember the Pharisee and publican in Luke 18:[9-14], where

Luke 18:11 – [The Pharisee prayed], "Boy God, I am so good, I just thank you that I am not like these terrible wicked people, the extortioners, and these people that are unjust, and adulterers, and even this publican down here that I walked by.

He was in his rich garments, I'm sure, and felt real good about himself.

Malachi 3:15 – And now we call the proud happy; where yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yes, they that tempt God are even delivered.

Sometimes the righteous don't look like they prosper, and the wicked seem to. It seems the wicked do prevail. Indeed, Christ was innocent and He died. When He was being put on the cross people were probably saying, "Yeah, see." Of course, He was resurrected. The Sanhedrin who pronounced guilt on Him, they were guilty, and they lived.

I'm always amazed at criminals who know exactly where they were 27 days 8 hours and 37 minutes ago, when they're trying to give an alibi. And I can't even remember what happened 27 days ago. Because the innocent tend to not try to document their steps to have alibis.

Why do you do what you do? Do you do it to profit yourself, or do you do it to make the way of God look good? Ever make promises to God? "God, if you do this, I'll do that." It's not wrong to ask God for things. But are you any better off than the wicked? They ask their gods for things, too. They offer their children to god, in times of old. Do you serve God because you love Him, or do you expect Him to compensate you for it? I want what I want.

Again, you're back to motives. What is your motive? Do you want to be compensated for your good deeds that you do? Often times I'd see people around me, I worked in the Dean of Students' Office in Pasadena for a time, and it was interesting some of the students would come in and talk to me, I was a class advisor. And a lot of them wanted to help, but quite often there would be some of them that would come in and tell me about one of their roommates that had done something wrong. And it was interesting because I could read some of them the fact that they weren't so concerned about their roommate. They were more concerned about showing their righteousness, "I didn't do that. He's done this evil thing, and we need to fix this." And it was interesting how I would solve the problem with some of these people who would come in and do this, because I felt like they were doing this to make points, not to help their fellow student. So I would ask them, "Does anybody else know about this problem?" And they would say, "Oh, yes." And I would say, "OK, what I want you to do is I want you to go tell one of those people who knows to come in to the Dean of Students and tell him about the problem, because you won't get any points for it." Nine times out of ten they never told the other person to come in, because they really weren't that concerned about the other person, they were more concerned about getting points for themselves. Was it a good thing to do to help your fellow student? Yes, it was, and if it was a severe thing, I made sure that they were talked to. Most of the time, it wasn't that severe. Usually it was they would talk about some type of music or loud music or whatever. I'd always ask them, "Well, if I call that person in, would he say that you went to him?" Because I'd always say, "Have you gone to your brother?" "Oh yes, I went to him, I told him how terrible that was." And I'd say, "If I called him in, would he say you went to him?" Because at times I'd talk to them and I'd say, "Did somebody talk to you about your music?" "No?" "You sure?" "Well, no, well come to think about it, somebody thought I might play it a little bit loud, but it wasn't that big a deal." He really hadn't gone to him. When you go to your brother, they have to know you went to your brother.

But what's the motive? Is it about righteousness? Being your brother's keeper and helping? God wants us to have the right motive. The right things, doing it for the right reasons.

Verse 16, there is a reward:

Malachi 3:16 – Those that feared the Lord spoke often one to another; and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.

If your motives are right and you're looking for God, you're in a book. God has that book. We read about it in Revelation, the Book of Life. There is a reward, but that reward only comes with right motivation in your quest for the kingdom of God. The reward isn't now. Verse 17:

Malachi 3:17 – They shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son and serves him.

When? In that day. It's later. We do it because it's the right thing to do. And we do it now even though the reward isn't now, it's later. The reward is later. God tells us how to have that right motivation in your quest for the kingdom of God. It's summed up in the key, humble yourself. Humble yourself.

James 4:10 – Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.

Do you want to be lifted up by God? Humble yourself.

1 Peter 5:6 – Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Do you want to be exalted? Humble yourself.

Matthew 18:4 – Christ says, "Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

Do you want to be great in the kingdom? Humble yourself.

When you are humble, you do things for the right reason. You try to help other people. Your motives are pure, and you have a pure heart. Humbling yourself is one of the continual themes in the scripture that God tells us to do. All through the scriptures we see God doing mighty things through what we call mighty men, but it was through these men who humbled themselves, who saw it was God, not them. God can work through us if we're humble, but he can't work through us if we're full of pride. Great men of old were great because they glorified God, not because they were twelve feet tall and could beat everybody up.

Proverbs 8:13 – Solomon came to the conclusion, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Why does he hate it? Because you can't serve God, you can't have the right motive if you have pride. Pride is about self. Arrogance is about self. Being evil is to profit the self. Do you hate pride? It stands in the way of your serving God the way He wants you to. That's the problem with pride. Pride says, "I'll serve God, but I'll do it my way." Humility says, "I'll serve God His way."

Are you motivated by pride or humility? With pride you fail. With humility you succeed. Proper motivation is critical with God, absolutely critical. Doing the right things for the wrong reasons is better than doing the wrong thing, but improper motivation may well be idolatry because an improper motivation focuses on yourself and the approval of others and we are to seek the approval of God, and of His son Christ.

Some people go through the right religious motions. You can see that in most religions, where they spin prayer wheels, they do the hajj, they crawl on knees for miles in the desert. They do these religious things, but for the wrong reasons. It might make them look good, and we all do things sometimes that try to make ourselves look good. There's nothing wrong with doing things for the right reasons, but God wants a heart that has repented from the sin of seeking self-glory and one that seeks His way.

Look at Matthew 6:33. We know it by heart, we quote it by heart.

Matthew 6:33 – Seek you first the kingdom of God,

Do you realize if you stop right there, at that part of the verse, we miss the point, because this can be selfish. I mean, how many people who believe they go to heaven when they die, how many people want to be good because they want to go to heaven. I mean, heaven is described as not a lot of fun in most religions, but it sure beats the alternative, right? Most people want to avoid hell more than they want to go to heaven. Most people fear pain.

But it's interesting, if we just seek the kingdom of God and we stop there, that can be selfish, but if we finish the rest of the verse:  

Matthew 6:33 – Seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; all these things shall be added to you.

You can't have a wrong motive for seeking the kingdom if you add His righteousness because His righteousness is not selfish. It's a pure heart. He wants you and me to be controlled by His love, motivated to show His glory and His righteousness. We acknowledge His authority. We acknowledge that He's God. Paul talks in Ephesians about servants being obedient to their masters because we are under authority, the authority of God. Respecting authority is respecting God. Even man's authority, which we're told to respect, which is pretty hard to do with some of the people in power, a lot of unjust people, but God does work these things out if we have the right motive and do it right.

We have to regularly evaluate ourselves against His standards, not our own. And we may get ridiculed for it, by our coworkers, our fellow students in the world. That's the nice part about ABC, we're all going in the same direction, which is nice, but what does it mean to have a pure heart? It's not to seek the approval of men, the applause and the recognition of men or women; it's seeking the approval of God. Now if the recognition of men comes, like it did for David, and has for other great men, that's fine, as long as you direct the glory to God, but don't hold your breath for human approval, it's pretty rare in this world, but we have to learn to obey with sincere motives and willing hearts. Doing the things outwardly that reflect our heart inwardly. When we finally get to the point where we want to do what God says, for the right reasons, and we don't want to do what the world wants, for selfish motives, then we've finally begun to have a pure heart.

I've done a lot of things for the right things in my life, reluctantly, many of them, just as you all have. Children are good at that. As a child, I did a lot of the right things reluctantly because the alternative was a sore rear end, and so I did it. I should have wanted to do it, but I didn't want to do it. God seeks those who willingly, eagerly, and readily seek His glory in what they do and say, for the right reasons. When you do that, you actually prove to God that you have faith, and David standing up for God proved he had faith in God. It doesn't take faith to get your reward now. To get your reward now, it's not faith. It takes faith to know it's coming at Christ's return. Pride destroys the heart, creates raw motives and destroys faith. Humility lifts God up and builds faith. We need to keep striving for that.

In Colossians 3:23-24, When Paul is writing to them, looking at your work and wanting a reward, he says:

Colossians 3:23 – Whatever you do, do your work heartily, you have to work hard, as for the Lord, rather than for men;

Do you feel like you're working for God in your job or do you feel like you're just putting your time in?

Colossians 3:24 – Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance: Ifyou do right with men, you're doing right with God. …for it's the Lord whom you serve.

All of us work for God, in our actions, in our lives, what we do. The goal is to come to a place where we do our service for His glory with all of our hearts and that we can be assured of our awards in the honor of His name and advancing His kingdom. This is who Christ wants us to be: those motivated by a pure heart, not self-seeking, but desiring to reflect God, to reflect Jesus Christ. What should be our desired motivation? Turn to Hebrews 2:9, it has to be the motive of God and Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 2:9 – But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels –and again, He was at the right hand of God- for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

He died for you. He died for me. He died for David. He died for Goliath, for that matter. He did nothing wrong, totally unselfish act. We had nothing we could do for Him, and He had everything He could do for us.

Hebrews 2:10 – For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, -is our desire to bring many sons to glory? To help them, we can't save them, only Christ's blood does that, but we can help them. We can serve. -He's our captain to make our salvation perfect through sufferings.

He suffered making our salvation available through the hope of the resurrection. We win in the end, but our desire can't be simply winning. You see, you don't need to slay Goliath to be someone. In fact, if you slayed a Goliath, it would probably destroy you. Most people can't handle the fame. Very few people in history have without it destroying them in some way. You don't need the wealth of kings, because if you look at money and look at those who have it, that also would likely destroy you. You don't need to marry the princess or that prince on that white horse. Usually you find the white horse is just a nag. It's only white while you're looking through the rose-colored glasses.

Unfortunately, you do have to pay your taxes.

The only way to a pure heart though is to put on the true humility where Christ humbled Himself to be willing to die. And the mind of Christ, where He said, "Not My will but Thine." The will of the Father that sent Him. The will of the Father who begot us. To be like our older brother.

David may have slung the stone, but God killed Goliath, because David's motive was to glorify God because Goliath was there and David came in the name of the Lord of hosts. It wasn't about him, it was about God.

May each of us come to the point where we are about the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, and that everything that we do in our lives is motivated by love, motivated by the glory of God and the glory of Jesus Christ, His son, our older brother. If we come to that position of humility, to where we do things with a pure heart, then truly at that point, we've created in ourselves the pure heart that God desires.