Half n Half

Half n Half 1 Samuel 15:10-26 After a long life and a clamorous marriage, Stan Herman dies and arrives at the gates of heaven where he sees a huge wall of clocks. He asks an angel, “What are all those clocks for?” “Those are lie clocks,” the angel replies, “Everyone on Earth has a lie clock, and every time you lie the hands on your clock move.” “Oh,” says Herman, “Whose clock is that?” “That’s Moses clock. The hands have never moved, indicating that he never told a lie.” “Incredible,” says Herman. “And whose clock is that?” The angel responds, “That’s Abraham Lincoln’s clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life.” “So where’s my clock?” ask’s Herman. “Your clock is in God’s office. He’s using it as a ceiling fan.” Today I want to talk about a growing problem that’s become interwoven within society. It’s not recognizing, knowing, and staying true to the truth. It’s people inventing their own version of the truth. It’s passing a lie off as truth. It’s flat out rejecting the truth. It’s even knowing the truth, but only telling half the truth. And half the truth is really no truth because the other half becomes personalized inwardly to satisfy their own convictions. Take swearing an oath by placing your hand upon the Bible. It’s not required, and many people do so out of tradition. When new members of Congress were sworn in a while back, many didn’t use a Bible or finish their oath by saying, “So help me God.” Anymore when a person swears to “the truth,” their only swearing to their own standard of truth which can change as their circumstances do. People sadly see truth as “Risk vs. Reward” based selfishly upon their own gratification. It’s no longer the truth, but everything but the whole truth. And in today’s Scripture, we’ll see from Saul’s confrontation with Samuel, that truth is not half-truth. Saul shows us that it's possible to lie the truth because he only said half the truth. From Saul’s standpoint, his truth wasn’t bitter because he sweetened it with half and half. But God’s truth doesn’t need anything added or subtracted from it. Half the truth was good enough for Saul, but not for God. If the truth tastes bitter, then don’t selfishly add or take away from it in an effort to avoid it. But rather let that bitterness convict you that something is not up to God’s standard. So let’s unpack today’s lesson. The first couple of verses provide some much-needed information. That the Lord is speaking to Samuel about how He regrets Saul as king, and how this deeply grieved Samuel. Now first, don’t be confused about the word “regret.” The Bible isn’t saying God made a mistake. God didn’t change His mind, but He did change His attitude towards Saul when Saul’s attitude changed about God. Verse 11 reveals that those who listen and obey God’s Word are those who grieve the most over people’s sinful actions. And that morning when Samuel went in search of Saul, he received some shocking news. Verse 12 tells us that Saul “set up a monument for himself!” How arrogant right? But we still see this every day. When a person knows they’re living a lie, but wants to feel better about themselves, they exaggerate an accomplishment in hopes to gain assurance from others. Their half-truth only makes them feel half good, so they look for other’s approval in vain attempts to fully fill their half-truth. That was Saul’s pitfall; he loved attention. He served people, not God. When we serve God first, we’ll naturally serve people as an outcome of being God-centered. But when we serve people first, it’s easy to become self-centered and serve people only in a way that benefit’s us. Now here comes the half-truth in verse 13, “I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.” Samuel must have been thinking, “Oh really?” You see what Saul didn’t know is that Samuel had already talked with God. Something Saul neglected to do. God had already told Samuel that when Saul went to battle the Amalekites, he was instructed to completely destroy them and take no spoils (15:3). But here stood Saul, surround by his disobedience. When Samuel confronted Saul with the truth, he pointed out that if you were to take nothing back, then why am I surrounded by the sounds of all these cows and sheep? Now, pay close attention to verse 15, because it is here we see how a half-truth will transform into an excuse in an attempt to cover up the lie. Saul’s excuse; “These soldiers over here did it! It wasn’t me. What we’ll do is we’ll take these animals and sacrifice them to the LORD. But we totally destroyed the rest.” His half-truth was, “we totally destroyed the rest.” True, but partial obedience is simply another form of disobedience. This is something else we see all to much of today. Half-truths are nothing new because people like to play it safe and get what they want. Even at a young age, you can ask a child, “did you do your homework?” “Yep.” “Did you do ALL your homework?” “Uh, no.” Adults, we’re guilty of it too. Advertisements are also notorious for their half-truths. I remember a few years back, Subway got busted for advertising their $5 footlongs, which only measured out 11 inches. And just like Saul, they gave an excuse. Subway claimed that when baking their bread, its size can change. What started at 12 inches doesn’t remain at 12 inches. Subway told half the truth. It’s only doing half the job. It’s only listening to half of the instructions. Nobody places their trust in someone like that. It angers us, it angers God, and it sure angered Samuel. He couldn’t take any more of Saul’s lies, so he yelled out, “Enough! Let me tell you what the LORD said.” Now I want you to remember this; God’s truth cannot be hidden! Samuel trusted God’s Word because as Hebrews 6:18 teaches, “it is impossible for God to lie.” Samuel reminded Saul just who he was and that he was getting too big for his own britches. It doesn’t matter how strong, good-looking, rich, successful, or popular you are, if you go against God’s truth, your lie will be revealed. You can’t live a lie. Some people think they can. They surround themselves with similar people. They talk big talk. They’re following their pride, not realizing their pride is blindly leading them further from the truth. Half-truth’s like Saul’s have a way of becoming a lifestyle. Samuel had to remind Saul that before God allowed him to be king, he was just a regular person. Not famous, not powerful, not rich. Saul fell in love with the world and desired its support instead of loving God first. And in an attempt to keep the support of the world, he fell into the habit of telling half-truths, which ultimately controlled his life. He was guilty of breaking the Greatest Commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). Obeying God and taking a stand for His truth is a focused mindset. People become lost and forsake God’s truth when their view of God is out of focus. God wants your entire being, heart, soul, mind, to be centered on Him. When you shift your center, you elevate one thing over another. You become off balance. You elevate financial security over God’s security. Or popularity over purpose. Like Samuel, all of us need to be so bold in our Christian faith by confronting others with the question, “Why did you not obey the LORD?” (v.19). We need to evangelize to them, re-focus their thinking, and show them just how far off-center they’ve become. In other words, show them God’s truth and pray the Holy Spirit convicts them. This is not easy. Many people shy away from confronting people with God’s truth. Just like in verse 20, when Samuel confronted Saul, Saul fought back. “I did obey the Lord.” Saul attempted to shift the focus off himself by placing the blame on the soldiers, not once, but twice. People become defensive when caught and confronted. For example, have you ever watched Live PD or seen a cop show? When the bad guy knows he’s been found out, what’s he do. He runs. Or he fights. He places the blame on someone else. He gets mad. Some more than others, but the point is, whether it's criminal or not, all of us are guilty of breaking God’s Law. Saul got mad. That’s good. That means he knows he’s in the wrong. It means he’s being convicted already. And Saul’s anger doesn’t make the man of God shy away, because Samuel spelled out a Sunday school lesson aimed at the heart. Beginning at verse 22, we see that God wants faithful obedience, not routine sacrifice. Sin is rebellion against God. And Saul rebelled against God by placing his authority higher than God’s. He wanted things his way, not God’s way. He wanted to please himself, not God. He was self-centered, not God-centered. He told half-truth’s, not whole truth’s. And lastly, to sum it up, in verse 24, Saul confesses his motives, “I was afraid of the men, so I gave into them.” How sad. How heartbreaking. And oh how this is still a problem today. It’s called Peer-pressure. He wanted to please men more than God. He desired people’s love rather than God’s. He was more afraid of people than of God. The Greatest Commandment was people-centered and not God-centered. Saul was afraid of people. Unlike David, who would reign as king next, and said in Psalm 56:11, “In God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?” Even in search of forgiveness, Saul reached out to Samuel instead of God. He said to Samuel, “I beg you, forgive my sin” (v. 25), forgetting that only God can forgive sin. He wanted to be made right with people more than God. He saw Samuel’s anger, but not God’s. Now, I’m not going to judge Saul’s heart. And we all know how Saul’s life came to an end. But even when someone truly repents of their sin, things are made right with God instantly, but it takes time with people. Sinful actions hurt people. It breaks hearts and burns down bridges. And although reconciliation with God happens the moment you cry out to Him, reconciliation with people takes time. So don’t give up. Stay God-centered. Trust in God’s Word and follow His unchanging truth. Don’t tell half-truths for any reason, because a half-truth can never fully satisfy. So what is truth? It’s not half-truth’s. It’s not false motives. It’s not people-centered. Please come back next week as we’ll continue to unpack what truth is not, so we can appreciate all the more, what truth is. Amen.