Doing It All Wrong - 1 Samuel 15:18-23

18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

22 But Samuel replied:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices     as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice,     and to heed is better than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,     and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,     he has rejected you as king.”

What does the Lord delight in more than burnt offerings and sacrifices? Obedience! He likes when we do what he tells us to do.

God’s commands don’t simply require action - they require attitude. what caused Saul to misunderstand the Lord’s command? It wasn’t that God wasn’t clear. What caused Saul to misunderstand was the lack of faith in his heart for God. He didn’t trust God and instead did what was good in his own eyes.

There is one prevalent theme in the story of Saul vs David and that is very simply - God looks at the heart. God can make the impossible possible so he doesn’t need large armies.

in fact the chapters right before this shows us his power.

Saul loses all confidence in battling the philistines because their army is so big and the Israelites have no weapons so they begin deserting and so instead he rushes the offering of the lord which is meant for Samuel the priest to do to gain God’s favor

““You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”” ‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭13‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In chapter 14 God is with Jonathan, Saul’s son and he alone takes down 20 philistines and God uses this to send the entire philistine army into terror allowing the Israelite army to capitalize.

God uses one man to undo any confidence an entire army has built.

What resides in your heart?

There’s plenty of ways to see:

what you think about

what you spend your money on

what you spend your time doing

what gives you stress or anxiety

what makes you joyful or irresponsible

what changes you

But I want to target something very common in stumbling Christians and that is people pleasing.

Proverbs 29:25 “25 Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”

Deuteronomy 10:12 “12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”

At the core of Saul’s heart issue was his desire to people please. HE CARED MORE ABOUT THE EXPECTATIONS OF PEOPLE THAN THE DESIRES OF GOD.

how can we be sure God will not reject us? We have to accept and trust His Word. Believe in Jesus and trust who he is.