To Obey is Better
Notes
Transcript
22 So 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 heed than the fat of rams.
Chapter 15:
1 Samuel also said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord.
2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt.
God said to utterly destroy them - leaving nothing alive - (not even their animals)
Saul gathered 210,000 men...
Saul utterly destroyed the people, but...
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.
10 Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying,
11 “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night.
13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”
14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes....did not the Lord anoint you king...”
Saul blamed the people… to sacrifice to the Lord your God....
22 So 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 heed than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.”
25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”
Samuel refused
27 And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore.
28 So Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.
30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.”
God expects only one thing of me — obedience.
This obedience must be prompt and entire.
I must leave no “bleating sheep” around.
I must not try to develop:
faith,
love, or
hope,
for these things are elements obedience.
Nor must I try to develop:
spiritual power,
for this is the result of obedience.
Obedience is my concern, the results of obedience are God’s concern.
Obedience is God’s way of testing my discipleship, therefore God’s commands may sometimes seem strange to the natural mind.
I must obey God’s commands as literally as possible; there can be no “spiritualizing away” what God tells me to do.
We are not just saved by His death....
We are saved by His life....
10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
When I compare my life to His.....
I see my raggedness against His perfection
I confess and repent of my sin.
I surrender to HIS LIFE!
He makes me more alive than anyone or thing can.
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.