Services | Obedience Is Better

Bulletin

Hymn # 409 “When We Walk with the Lord”
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalms 113:1 - 5
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate


Praise and Worship
“Echo Holy”
“How Great Is Your Love”
“Egypt”


Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Obedience Is Better”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Behold the Lamb”




Acknowledgements and Announcements



Sermon Notes
1 Samuel 15:1 – 3 Saul ordered by God to destroy the Amalekites
1 Samuel 15:4 & 5 Saul raises an army
1 Samuel 15:6 Saul spares the Kenites due to their previous kindness to Israel
1 Samuel 15:7 – 9 Sual defeats the Amalekites, but does not do as ordered and spares the king and the best of the spoil
1 Samuel 15:10 – 12 God tells Samuel He regrets making Saul king and Samuel cries out to the Lord
1 Samuel 15:13 – 16 Samuel meets with Saul and Saul tells him he did as the Lord commanded
1 Samuel 15:17 – 19 Samuel tells Saul what the Lord had told him the previous night
1 Samuel 15:20 & 21 Saul makes excuses
1 Samuel 15:22 & 23 To obey is better than sacrifice
1 Samuel 15:24 & 25 Saul confesses his sins and seeks pardon, but Samuel refuses to forgive
1 Samuel 15:27 – 31 The kingdom is torn from Saul, God does not act like people, but Samuel agrees to go back with Saul
1 Samuel 15:32 Samuel does not see Saul again
1 Samuel 15:34 & 35 The separation of Samuel and Saul

---

Scritpures

---

Transcript of Service

When given the option to do good, most of not all of us would choose that option to do good. But when the option is given to do good or it would be better to choose the better option, God is going to give us that which He believes and therefore orders as that which is better. So therefore it is better for us to take that option. Let us find out what the Lord said is better for us to do and then today's message is very important. I'm not going to say that I'm going to do it exceptionally well or even an adequate job. But the contents of the message is important and I encourage you to dig into what the Bible is a better option. And so if you have your Bible and you should turn to first Samuel chapter 15 and we're going to start with the first verse. It says, then Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you as king over his people over Israel.

Now therefore, the Lord. Samuel is going to remind Saul the reason he is king is because God is the one who anointed him king over his people and therefore he has responsibility as a king to follow the words of God. And so Samuel is going to tell him, now this is Lord R. And so he's telling him, I came to you to anoint you as king. You are now king and now I'm going to tell you what the Lord is going to require of you. Thus that's the Lord of hosts. I will punish a mavela for what he has did to Israel.

How he set himself against him on the other was coming up from Egypt. And so we're told that God has determined that he's going to punish a mavela for what he did to God's people when they tried to and were leaving from Egypt as slaves and going to the promised land and how they oppose him. Now go and strike a mavela and utterly destroy all that he has and do not spare him but put him to death both man and woman, child, infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. Now in our current civilized, how barbaric, how could God, a good God, order a people to be destroyed, men, women and children? We would think that seems to be a bridge too far. We could spend hours and hours debating and discussing this topic which is kind of outside what we're going to be doing today.

But let me give you a couple of things to think about as you wrestle with this. First of all, we are going to see that basically God has determined that he is going to judge a mavela for what and how he's sinned against the Lord and sinned against his people. And so he is judging them. Secondly, the situation is that God is sovereign. God can do what God chooses to do.

As Job was reminded, where were you when he formed the earth and the mountains and the seas? I don't pretend to know all the wisdom of God. But I also do know that he and as creator, he has the right to mulls and use and even perhaps abuse those people as he sees fit because he's the creator. On another level, if a person has cancer, there's a couple of ways that we deal with that. It's not either or, but it's an and.

When a person has cancer, oftentimes we will treat them with chemotherapy, which seems to almost kill the body and makes the body sick in order to save it. Or sometimes we go and maybe do the second surgery to cut out the cancer. Again, it seems to affect the body and the body needs to recover, but it is necessary to rid the cancer. And so perhaps it is necessary for God to take this action and to instruct Saul to take this action for the body and for his people. After giving that commandment, it says, then Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Tellyam, 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah.

So Saul raises an army in response to God's word that he had to destroy this enemy. And so he raises an effective army of 200,000 plus 10,000. And remember, Saul only had about 3,000 soldiers when he became king and dismissed everybody else. So they keyed the call and they respond to Saul's summons.

And Saul came to the city of ML, MLCAP and set an ambush in the valley. And Saul said to the Kennenites, go to part, go down from among the melequites so that I do not destroy you with them for you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they... Egypt. The Kennenites departed from among the melequites. So basically what happened was the Kennenites did show Israel kindness in their journey. And when Baylam to curse Israel, part of the blessing that he could own Israel was the Kennenites.

And he said that they made their habitation endure. So Saul recognizes the promises of God to those people because of their actions. And so he gives them an opportunity to escape the judgment and they do. So Saul defeated the melequites from Havala as you go up to shore, which is east of Egypt. And he captured Agag the king of the melequites alive. And utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fastlings, the lambs, and all that was good.

And they were not willing to destroy them utterly. But everything despised and worthless that they utterly destroyed. So basically they decided to only partially do God's work. Instead of killing the king. Instead of destroying all the spoil, all the sheep, all the livestock, and get rid of all of the spoils, they decided to keep that which was best and only destroyed that which they considered worthless or useless. So they decide God's word to fit their situation.

And the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, I regret that I have made Saul king for his turn back from following me and has not carried out my commands. And Samuel cried out to the Lord all night. Now there's two things I want us to notice here. Number one, God rejects Saul as being king. He does not reject Saul. Saul will receive a consequence of his lack of said to do by removing him as king that he was appointed and God regressed in doing that.

However, he did not reject Saul. He did not say Saul's no longer mind. Saul's not part of my people. Saul can no longer qualify as king because he's my words.

The second thing I noticed this interesting is the quality of the person of Samuel. Because Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night. Now, Samuel was the leader of Israel.

He was the judge. People followed what he said. But the people wanted a king. And God said it was okay.

So Samuel was being succeeded by Saul. Not because Samuel wanted it, but because the people said so. And then God said, go ahead and listen. So most of us, when somebody, we kind of hope they don't do well.

Samuel on the other side is distressed because Saul isn't following after the Lord. He's concerned about it. And he cries out to the Lord all night. It's not like a little 30-second prayer and then everything's fine.

No, he's concerned about his kingship and what he's been doing. And so, when he rose early in the morning to meet Saul, and it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set up a monument for himself, then turned and from the end of the day. Remember, Saul was a guy when he was told he was going to be king, said, well, I'm just the least in my family, which is the least in the tribe of Benjamin, which is the least of the tribes. He had this sense of humility, if you will.

He also acknowledged because the enemy is to be defeated, that it was a God who won the battles. Now, suddenly, he's setting up a monument to himself because he thinks he's all that. That he thinks he should be appraised and adorned. And so much like, let's say, the Washington, it was erected by others, not Washington. Saul decides that he should have a monument erected to himself. And then after that, monument was erected, he decided to go home. Samuel came to Saul, all said to him, blessed are you of the Lord. I have carried out the command of the Lord.

He's lying. He's a liar. Because he did not follow the command of the Lord, because the Lord said to kill everyone, including the king, to destroy everything, all the livestock, destroy everything else.

There must be no spoils in this combat. And yet Saul decided to keep everything that was good for Israel, for himself. He did not follow the command of God. He only partially did. Kind of like us. We think because we keep part of God's law, or part of God's commandments, that we are therefore completed everything. No, when you only follow part of God's law, or part of God's commands, to follow His commands.

It's not you've got some of the right and some wrong. If you get some of it wrong, you've gotten all of it wrong. But Samuel said, what then is this? The bleeding of the sheep in my ears.

And the lower... Try here. So because, wait a minute, the facts don't seem to correlate with what you just told me. Because I'm hearing a lot more livestock than you had, and you didn't bring your army with livestock. You brought them the enemy.

So he's going, I'm hearing this. Apparently, what you're telling me is not true. And Saul said, I have brought them from the amelikites, but the people spared the best of the sheep in the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God. But the rest of... we have utterly destroyed. Part of it, it was a people who decided that they would spare the best, so that they might sacrifice it. Now notice what happens. He goes, to sacrifice to the Lord your God.

Not to the Lord our God. Because unfortunately, which is true, sin, there seems to be a distance between God and us. And it's not God who moves.

And so he acknowledges that one, he wants to sacrifice to the Lord, Samuel's God, not the Lord our God. But that wasn't one... He didn't want to sacrifice from the amelikites property. He wanted Saul to follow the command. And Samuel said to Saul, wait.

And let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night. Speak. So again, Samuel is not saying, I'm not telling you this because basically I heard the sheep in the oxen and all this. And I've observed that you didn't...

God told me this last night. God and I have had a conversation of what you think. And then Saul acknowledges, go ahead and tell me what God said. And Samuel said, is it not true? Though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel. And the Lord anointed you king over Israel. You on a mission and said go and utter destroy the centers, the amelikites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.

So first it goes, you came from humble origins and God chose you to be king over his people. And you even thought you weren't qualified. But God chose you anyway. And God sent you on this mission to follow what he says and what he said was to utterly destroy the amelikites, to exterminate them.

Isn't that what the message was? What the gen was that God told you? So then he asked a very pointed question, why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? But rushed upon this foil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He goes, not only did you not follow the commands of the God, you decided what you told the God told you not to do. Why did you do that?

Why did you not obey the voice of God? Many times we need to ask ourselves that, why are we not obeying what God has told us to do? Did Saul say to you? I did obey the voice of the Lord and went on the mission on which the Lord sent me and had brought back Agag the king of amelikites and have utterly destroyed the amelikites. Again, that's a lie. He did not do and did not obey the voice of God because he did not utterly destroy them. The king, any save that property which he considered valuable. So first off, his excuse is a lie.

Secondly, he gives another excuse, but the people took some of this foil, cheap and oxen, the choice of the things to sacrifice the Lord, your God, Agilgal. Now notice, he's basically saying it was the people's fault. Now I want to remind you if you've been following this series that when we're going to attack Israel, the people panicked. Saul then cut into some oxen and things and sent it throughout the Israel and said, if you don't come to me so that we might do the same thing to you. So they became more afraid of fall than the enemy. Just a little while ago, we took a look at that he made the people square and oath saying that they were not to eat that day while they were going to fight a...

and the people took that oath so seriously that they didn't eat even though they were famished. And now he's saying, I'm afraid of the people rather than the people who are afraid to make sure that they did what you told me to do. So he's not only saying I did fulfill it, but the people and the excuses, the people were to go and to sacrifice these things again to the Lord, your God. And they're going to take it to my hometown, Gilgal, to do it. And Samuel said, as a Lord as much delight in burn offerings and sacrifices, as obeying the voice of the Lord, it holds to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of ramps. And sacrifice is one thing. Do I take delight in the sacrifice of burned offerings and them, or is it better to obey than sacrifice?

I'm going to what's going to seem like a... but it's relevant here. When I was a student both in high school, in college, in law school, in seminary, it was my practice when I was listening to the professor or the teacher to listen. Because I thought it was better for me to hear what the teacher or professor was saying, to understand the concepts, to busy write down things. Now there are other people, and I'm not saying it was my way, it's the only way. But for them, they might just keep writing as fast as they could or take shorthand in order to write it all down.

My view was to what was being said. However, I would do certain things. If the professor or teacher wrote something down, I would write it down, because I thought it would be important. If the professor seemed to say something more than once, then I go, hmm, this must be important.

Or, except that I was not familiar with, and they used a particular phrase, I might write down that phrase so that I would either in my notes or other studies emphasize that. And I jokingly say, well, first let me say, that everything that is important. There's not one single thing that God might say is not important. They're all important. But then I jokingly say, if God says something two or three times, not only is it important, it's on the test. This context, so Bay is better than sacrifice, is so important that God throughout his word, the Bible, has said it ten times. Not once, not twice, not three times. He has said this thing exactly or similarly, ten.

So it's here, and then let me rattle off the nine other times. He says it in Psalm 40, 6 through 8, Psalm 51, 16, and 17. Isaiah 11 through 15, Micah 6, 6 through 8, Jeremiah 7, 25 and 26. Matthew 12, 7, Mark 12, 7, and Hebrews 10, 6 through 9. If God says something one or two times or three times, it's on the test.

If he says it ten times, it's on the final exam. It is important that God has referred and repeated and repeated this idea. So many times we think, well, if we just say I'm sorry, or if we ask for forgiveness, or the grace that might come because we expect what God does, well, we'll say I'm sorry.

And that'll be good enough. Well, if you in human terms, if you were to harm me, if you were to hurt me in physically or emotionally, whatever, and you said, I'm sorry, that would help. But you know what's better than saying, I'm sorry, never having to say it because you never did the wrong thing. Similar in our relationship with God. It's not that it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. So spoke of buzzes and Romans when he said that yes, God has grace and he forgives our sins and the question is, well, if God has his grace, then why can't we do that? Times and Paul rejects that whole concept.

And God through his word here for ten different times is saying, no, that is not the prescription. The better thing is not to say, I'm sorry, not to seek sacrifice, not to try to make up for what you did, but to obey the first time. Obedience is better than anything else. Obedience is better than saying, I'm sorry, obedience is better than giving sacrifice. Obedience is better than excuses. For rebellion is as a sin of divination and is as an equity and idolatry.

We always kind of think, well, some sins are more terrible than other sins in the sins that I do are on the small minor scale, but the sins that other people do they're on the major scale. God says sin, if you're in subordinate, is the same as being having an equity being sinful and the same as worshipping other gods. Not doing what God tells us to do is in subordination and that is iniquity and worshipping other gods. That's a heavy thought. We so tend to want to excuse our sins. But God says obedience. I want you to also consider this.

It's true that we are saved because God the Father loves us. The scripture clearly says, for God to love the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. It is also true that Jesus the Son of God loves us and died for us. But you know what is all the truth? That God, the Father, was loved so much by God the Son that He was obedient to the Father, even to the death on the cross. Jesus was obedient, not just because He loved you and me, but to God's will. When we have been in heaven for three billion years and we see the scars on the hands and feet of Jesus and the wound on his side.

Not only did God love us and that's the reason we are here, but because of God, God the Son's obedience to God the Father, I am blessed for being here. And maybe it may be difficult for you and I to follow God's command. And oftentimes it's not. Say do something different and oftentimes our own flesh does do something different. Maybe if we followed the command of God, not only would we be blessed, but perhaps others would be blessed as well by our obedience to God. For Saul's failure to obey the commands of God because you have rejected the word of the Lord is also rejected you from being king.

And again, I want you to notice he's rejecting Saul for being king, not rejecting Saul. We have all sinned. We have all come and fought short of God does not reject us because we fail. And God puts us in a position where we are to follow the Lord's command and we don't do it, then he replaces us. And that's what he's going to do with Saul. He says, Saul is the king because you're not following my command and is God who made him king. Saul said Samuel, I have sinned. I have indeed regressed the command of the Lord and your words because I feared the people and listened to their voice.

Excuse. He should have just said, yeah, I sinned. And I did transgress the command of the Lord and your words.

He should have stopped there, but he didn't. He continued to making excuses. Yeah, Lord, that I feared. So I listened to their voice. Well, as king, you should be listening to the voice of God. As a believer, you should be listening to the word of the Lord, not to the people.

We should not fear the people. We should fear God. That doesn't necessarily mean shivering and shaking, although that probably be a good thing because the word also says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But he chose to fear the temporary rather than the eternal. Who didn't put him in the power of position against the one who did. So I listened to their voice. Well, then Saul, how can I trust you to follow God's command in the future? Well, as the people said, and therefore I didn't.

Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord. Again, he's wanting his position back. He's thinking, well, I've given my confession that I am a sinner, but because of other people. So forgive me and let everything be back the way it should. And we'll go and we'll worship God, even though he keeps saying it's the Lord.

Samuel's God. But Samuel said to Saul, Alruro, we're not turned with you for you. The Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. He again announces that Saul is rejected as king.

Saul is not rejected by God. And Samuel says, I'm not pretending everything is the same. Saul is wanting to go and act like everything is the way it was. In essence, he's asking Samuel to be a hypocrite.

To act one way, even though he knows, it's not the same. Now, I'm going to use an example of a, if I use an example of conduct, you'll think I'm talking about you or me or whatever. So a fake plant can look really real. It can even look better than the original, the true thing, but it is made of plastic or some other kind of, it is not a plant.

It pretends and acts. When you see an act or act, one of my favorite movies is Braveheart. Mel Gibson is not William Wallace. He's acting as if he were William Wallace. Saul wants to act like everything is just fine, so that the people won't know that there's been a change. And as Samuel turned to go, Saul sees the edge of his robe and it tore.

I find this to be a little ironic. The people of Israel, even to this day, if there is mourning for either their sin or a death and a family or something or some form of grief, they will tear their clothes. Saul tears, Saul's clothes.

So Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor. And here's the Zinger who is better than you. He's given it to someone who is better than you. And why is that person going to be better than him? Because he will realize that to obey the voice of God is better. Not that sacrifice is not important. Not that worship is not important, but obeying the voice of God is better. And therefore taking the better decisions makes the new one better.

Also the glory of Israel will not lie or change his mind and that he should change his mind. Now he regretted making Saul king, the Saul king, but he's going to replace Saul because of Saul's lack of obeying the word of God. So he's not going to change. And he said, I have sinned, but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. And go back with me that I may worship the Lord your God. Again, he's one, let's keep up this ruse, let's keep up this false narrative that everything is fine with me and I'm fine with you. And we're going to go back and we'll worship together and it'll seem like everything is just wonderful.

But it's not. So Samuel went back following Saul and saw worship the Lord. Now put him. He didn't go back with him.

So he went and saw it didn't say Samuel that's all. It's his soul worship the Lord because he's still hoping God will change his mind. And Samuel said, bring me egg. The male heights and egg egg came to him cheerfully. And he guys had surely the bitterness of death is passed.

Egg had survived and he thinks, OK, everything's fine. The heat of battle is over and I've been spared. And so nothing to worry about everything and I'm good. But Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, social your mother be childless among women.

And Samuel healed egg egg to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal. Two things. One, Samuel completed the word of God.

He made sure that egg egg died. I also find it somewhat amusing that the reason place as judge was because he was old. Even Samuel himself said, I'm old and have gray hair, which I tend to think that Samuel was saying. I have wisdom, but yeah, I'm not as young as I used to be. But Samuel being old cuts to pieces. Egg. Just following what the Lord says.

Doesn't depend on how young I am. But I am going to do what the Lord said, even though the people rejected me and even though the people said we ought to spare him. He is going to be treated to everyone else. So he says, as your sword has made women childless, you killed everybody that you came in contact with. I'm going to kill you. And now I need to kill him.

I need to kill him to pieces where Saul lived. And Samuel went to Ramallah. The Saul went up to his house at Gibbia of Saul. So again, the two depart. One goes to their house, the other goes to the house. And they depart.

And Samuel did not see Saul until the day of his death, where Samuel grieved over Saul and the Lord regretted that he made Saul king over Israel. Again, I want you to notice. Samuel, who was replaced by Saul and Saul, who makes a man and does not follow the Lord. Samuel has every right to be happy that his successor is messing up. But he doesn't. He's a better man than that. But not only that, but also learn.

We should never rejoice, but always grieve when others sin. Don't make ourselves feel better because we resisted that temptation and they didn't. We should be grieving over the sins of others. And he continued to grieve over Saul's rejection of God and God's rejection of Saul being king. Having done that, he said. There is a old hymn that says, the only way to be happy in Jesus is to trust and obey. We need to trust.

But God says we'll come about. And to follow it, no matter how difficult it may be that it may happen or difficult because we think it shouldn't happen. The trust that it will.

And obey whatever he says. And as I mentioned previously, when we have been in heaven, millions and billions of years. And we see the Son of God. And those scars will still be present.

We'll be able to say, behold the Lamb of God who took away my sins. Not only because he loved me, but because he was obedient to the Father and to obey God is better. And all the people said.