Obedience is Sacrifice
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A. Rapport for the time
Obedience—This word is up their with responsibility in my book. We would all love to run from both of these words very often in our life. usually begins in the teenage years for us all don’t you think. But obedience is a part of a Christians life.
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Obedience > Oo
Act or instance of submitting to the restraint or command of an authority; compliance with the demands or requests of someone or something over us. The general words for obedience in both Hebrew and Greek refer to hearing or hearkening to a superior authority. Another major Greek word includes the idea of submission to authority in the sense of arranging or ordering oneself under someone in a place of command. A third Greek word suggests obedience that is a result more of persuasion than of submission
B. Reading of the text
Read at the beginning of each section...
C. Review of the text
Samuel and Saul had an interesting relationship. Samuel is constantly pushing Saul to be more than Saul himself believes himself to be in the book of Samuel. Last week in the first 9 verses Samuel reminded Saul of how he became king of Israel and then gave him a direct command from the Lord.
3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
Saul and the people would take it upon themselves to obey how they wanted.
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
Last week our focus was upon God’s authority to establish direction because he alone is judge. God does not need you help or my help to decide exactly how merciful HE should be. He is more merciful than you and I could ever Imagine and we know this by our own life because of the Mercy he has shown us.
D. Relevance of the text
Our obedience placed upon display before the Lord established God’s ways in our life that we might live a transformed life daily before him.
I. Pay attention to God’s voice
I. Pay attention to God’s voice
10 The word of the Lord came to Samuel:
11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night.
12 And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.”
vs. 12---set up a monument for himself.
Coming out of our understanding of our God who is Judge could you find a more scary verse than this portion of vs. 12. Oh how great I am to have secured this victory on this day for Israel. I must stop and set up a monument for myself that all may remember what I did on this day.
13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”
Detached from reality in the Kingdom of God. So proud in this moment that he really thinks he has done something.
14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?”
15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”
16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”
Samuel’s job is to bring Saul to reality.
Saul blames the people. And then says their motives are to keep the good stuff to sacrifice to God as if God needs help being told how he will be worshipped by HIS own people.
Let you in on a secret before we go further. GOD DOES NOT NEED YOUR HELP IN MAKING DECISIONS. HE’s GOD.
T.S.
II. Prioritize Heartfelt obedience
II. Prioritize Heartfelt obedience
17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.
18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’
19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”
Saul---His view of himself when he began this entire journey.
21 Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?”
20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
22 And Samuel said, “Has 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 listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
III. Practice Genuine Repentance
III. Practice Genuine Repentance
24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.”
26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
27 As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore.
28 And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.
29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.”
30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the Lord your God.”
31 So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord.
vs. 30 Yet honor me now…WHAT???
1 Samuel for You 1 Samuel 13:1–15:35
When we do not repent, our voice rules our life or we are ruled by the voices of other people. But when we repent, it is God’s voice that shapes our lives. That is the test: are we listening to the voice of God? Are we submitting to his word? Are we letting God’s word rule our lives? A repentant person is a listening person—a person who listens to the voice of God.
T.S.
IV. Preserve Your divine Relationship
IV. Preserve Your divine Relationship
32 Then Samuel said, “Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
33 And Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.
34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul.
35 And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Samuel will be obedient to what the Lord has commanded.
Evidence of your walk of faith in Christ Jesus is our Obedience.
3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:
Jesus
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,
Salvation comes by Faith not in obedience. Obedience comes from our saving faith that enables us to be obedient.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,