Obedience Over Sacrifice

Do you think that God desires sacrifices only? No, listen in and see what God really desires.

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And this is what the word says. And Samuel told him, Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord has anointed you King of Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission and told you Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead. Why haven't you obeyed the Lord? Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord's sight? But I did obey the Lord, Saul insisted. I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. But Samuel replied, What is more pleasing to the Lord, your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen, obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king. I've read first Samuel chapter fifteen verses seventeen through twenty three from the New Living Translation. Our subject for this afternoon's Toolbox Tuesday inspiration is Obedience over sacrifice. Obedience over sacrifice. Not long ago I preached a sermon the Lord instructed me to about Moses entitled Obedience, not performance. So I feel like the Lord is making a point regarding obedience of his people. So please listen carefully and heed the words of this text. And I say like Paul, I beat my body down and bring it under subjection, that when I preach to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. When we consider all that God does for us, we must acknowledge that he asks for very little in return. Basically, he asks us to acknowledge him as our supreme being, Almighty God, and reference him as such. He wants us to love him as our Father and Savior and love all other people as the brothers and sisters that they are to us. We are all one. But why do we deviate from this path? Why do we do our own thing, go our own way? Well, some do it because they don't know any better. That's why it is so important for us to be that light to those around us. Some of us stray away because we have goals and ambitions and things we want to accomplish, things we want to do, we want to get, regardless of our relationship with Jesus. Some of us feel like if we give God our Sundays and throw a few dollars his way, that we have done our part. Some of us simply are oblivious to the fact that God is the one who is holding us up, keeping us afloat, despite all the challenges we face daily. And the truth is any of those half-hearted positions of connection with our God are dangerous places to be. Because, like the scripture says, we have all sinned and fallen short, some of us shorter than others, but it doesn't matter. Short is short. Partial obedience is simply disobedience. God said, I would rather you be hot or cold, because lukewarm is nasty to my taste buds. In other words, acknowledge God for who he is and worship him. Deuteronomy ten and seventeen states that God is supreme over all. Psalm ninety seven and nine exalts the Lord as the most high over the entire earth. And first Chronicles sixteen and twenty eight tells us to give to the Lord glory and strength. None of these scriptures and others tell us that half-heartedness, partial obedience, and casual reverence is good enough. As I recall as a teacher, that some students would try to do half of their assignments and turn them in for full credit. But half is only fifty percent. That's a failing grade by any grading scale. Some would do only the bare minimum to pass. But if that is not good in the secular world, what makes us think that we can give God partiality? We need to be all in for God. We must stop halting between two opinions. As Elijah told the people, if God is God, follow him. But if you believe Baal or Satan or worldly success or money is God, then follow that. You cannot do both. God is a jealous God, and he will not tolerate your adultery with other gods. You see, that was Saul's problem in the text. He wanted to follow God, but he wanted to please the people also. When God had told him to kill all of the Amalekites, the king, and all the men, women, children, and animals, he didn't do it. He captured King Agag and brought him back alive as a war trophy and allowed the people to plunder and take the best of the animals and livestock under the disguise of sacrificing it to God. He wasn't willing to tell the people no, that's not what God said, nor was he completely willing to obey God himself, regardless of the cost and his reputation. God was not pleased. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Samuel made, excuse me, Saul, King Saul, made two very important blunders or mistakes or bullheaded decisions. Call it whatever you like. But as king and the leader of God's people, he gave an unlawful sacrifice in 1 Samuel 13 that only the prophet Samuel should have performed. And then he refused to kill all the Amalekites and destroy everything here in chapter 15. In all fairness to Saul, he wasn't planning to be king, he didn't know how to be king, but that was all the more reason to listen to and obey God, not to become arrogant and confident and lean to his own understanding, but in all his ways he should have acknowledged God, and so should we. As God gives us success and anoints us for our paths, for our calling, gives us responsibility. That's not our opportunity to say, okay, God, I got it now. You can go sit over on the corner. No, that's our opportunity to say to God, show me the way, take me by the hand. You lead, I'll follow. So today we get three important lessons from this story about Saul. Lesson number one, I've already said it, partial obedience is disobedience. Samuel told Saul that God said, When you were a virtual unknown, and you knew it, I, God, anointed you king over all of Israel, anointed you, gave you position and power. And here I gave you a clear command: kill all of the Amalekites, sinners, enemies of Israel. But like us, Saul defended himself and tried to rationalize his actions. He said to Samuel, and this is from the message Bible, what are you talking about? I did obey God. I did the job God set for me. I brought in King Agag and destroyed the Amalekites under the terms of the holy band. So the soldiers saved a few choice sheep and cattle from the holy band for sacrifice to God at Gilgal. What's wrong with that? Isn't that what we say? How we rationalize what we do and don't do? We say, Oh, I feed the poor and the homeless at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I go to church on Sunday. I put money in the offering plate. I read the scripture of the day on the Bible app. I say my prayers at night. I even take communion once a month. What else? What else, God? What else do you want? But Samuel answered Saul with this explanation, and it applies to us today. He said, Do you think all God wants are sacrifices, empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him. Plain listening is the thing. Not staging a lavish religious production, not doing what God tells you is far worse than fooling around in the occult. Getting self-important around God is far worse than making deals with your dead ancestors. You see, rebellion is like divination or witchcraft. And stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. We say, well, we don't worship idols. We don't put up things and we worship them like they used to. But the word says stubbornness, not doing what you're told. That's as bad as worshiping idols. Again, partial obedience is disobedience. We cannot pick and choose what things we want to do and which ones we want to ignore and think that God will be pleased with us. That's lesson one. So lesson two is that listening and obeying is paramount, paramount with God. Remember in Psalm 51, David said to God, For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. In other words, God wants our heart postured towards Him and our spirit submitted, listening and ready to obey. Not trying to be self-important and filled with selfish indulgences. That's what God wants. And finally, the third lesson of this story of Saul is that disobedience leads us to more. Like small sins lead to bigger ones. Disobedience leads to more disobedience. You see, when God realized that Saul wasn't listening, wasn't willing to listen and obey him, God rejected him as king. He didn't remove him from the office, but he removed his hands of protection and guidance from around Saul. When we continuously reject God, ignore his convictions, refuse to hear Holy Spirit talking to us, we're headed for some deep, deep trouble. Saul started having bouts of depression and anxiety as an evil spirit came upon him. He needed David to play the harp to calm his nerves. But when Saul realized God's favor upon David, he turned against him. And Saul hunted after David like an animal to kill him. Saul was highly insecure and supremely jealous of David. He was enraged by David's success. And even though he was still king, and David did nothing to dishonor Saul, he still wanted to kill him. And for years David ran from Saul. Saul's demise was slow but sure. He eventually committed suicide in a battle against the Philistines, where three of his own sons were also killed. On the battlefield, realizing his future, Saul told his armor bearer to stab him to death. But when the man hesitated and was afraid to do so, Saul deliberately fell on his own sword and died. A sad story. Sad story. Saul was a man who, the Bible says, stood head and shoulders above the rest. A handsome man, anointed and empowered by God, given position and honor. Yet his legacy is one of sadness and dishonor. So we see here that God is saying this to us. Don't pick and choose what you want to do. Partial obedience to me is disobedience. Listening and obeying is what I desire, God says. No matter how good we think it is, or how smart and capable we think we are, our demise is sure. So don't do it, church. Don't be like Saul. Be like Jesus who prayed, not my will, but thy will be done, Lord. God's way is sure. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this word on today that lets us know that we need to be obedient to you. That we can't just give you half-hearted worship, half-hearted praise. We can't hold back for ourselves some of the things that we want to do, that we think we deserve, or that we think we have control over. Because the word says, without God we can do nothing. So help us to realize, Lord, that we need to obey you in all things as much as we can. And when we fall short, we fall down, we make a mistake, we need to be quick to ask for forgiveness, to repent of that thing, and to ask you to make it right to bring us back into the fold, to forgive us. We thank you, Lord, for what you're teaching us each and every day. We thank you for your mighty hand of protection around us. And we ask that you would continue to be with us. We know you will. You said you would never leave us nor forsake us. And we honor and glory in you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today. I hope the word was inspiring to you. I hope that you can go out and inspire others. Be that salt and light that God would have you to be. Now unto him who's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, both now and forevermore. Let us all say, Amen. Go and be great for God.