OPEN: A mother was telling about her 6-year-old daughter, Lori, who was studying 1 Samuel 15:22—"To obey is better than sacrifice" for her Bible memory course. One day Lori observed her 3-year-old sister, Kristi, being disobedient, and she immediately took her sister aside and sternly admonished her:
“Kristi, if you don’t obey, you will be sacrificed!"
(Luella Bredin, Prince Edward Island, Canada)
APPLY: Now that wasn’t quite what her memory verse said, but it wasn’t far off. In our story today, we find that King Saul had not obeyed God’s commands, and because of that
• He sacrificed his entire kingdom
• He sacrificed his once close relationship with Samuel (Samuel never saw him again)
• And he sacrificed his relationship with God
But let’s revue.
About 40 years before this incident, Samuel had been the leader of Israel. He served as a prophet, a priest and a judge for the people before God. But as he grew older, his sons took over his responsibilities to be judges for nation.
Unfortunately, 1Samuel 8:3 tells us “(Samuel’s) sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.”
Because of this, the Elders of Israel took Samuel aside and “said to him, ‘You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.’" 1Samuel 8:5
Now, there were a couple things wrong with that request:
1st – Samuel apparently hadn’t done anything wrong, but the Elders had decided to replace him anyway. They decided they wanted to reject Samuel as their leader. We know this because Samuel takes the issue to God and God says (in part) "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; IT IS NOT YOU they have rejected…”
The 2nd problem with their decision was that the Elders hadn’t bothered to get God’s input on this decision. And this error on their part deeply upset God. God’s full statement to Samuel about this was: “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected ME as their king.”
Now God HAD intended to give the people a King – it’s just that the time wasn’t right yet. The man that God wanted to anoint as King (David) hadn’t been born yet. But since the Israelites were clamoring for a King God gave them best man available for the job: Saul, son of Kish.
When Saul was first anointed King he seemed the ideal candidate
• He was athletic.
• He was humble.
• He was pious.
• And he stood a good head taller than everybody else (it made it easier for his men to rally around him on the battlefield).
But in time, Saul’s humbleness was replaced with pride and his commitment to God became about a mile wide and a foot deep. By the time we get to the incident recorded here in I Samuel 15, Saul has gone over to the dark side.
So, what did Saul do wrong?
Well, the most obvious problem was his concept of obedience to God.
God had given Saul some pretty simple instructions
1. go, attack the Amalekites and
2. totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. 1Samuel 15:3
Granted, that seems a little gruesome… but still, the instructions were pretty straightforward.
Destroy everything. Kill all the people and all the animals.
So, did Saul do that?
Well… kinda.
He spared the best of the cattle and sheep - and he spared King Agag.
But he killed everything and everybody else.
Now, in Saul’s mind this made sense.
He didn’t care about the Amakites – they were only getting what they deserved.
But why waste all those good cattle and sheep???
And King Agag?
Well, this was a powerful man. He knew people.
He may even have made a deal with Saul to make it worth his while to spare his life.
But other than that, Saul obeyed God… at least in his own mind.
ILLUS: I once read the story of an Elder who was trying to explain to a doctor the meaning and importance of consecration – the idea of giving his life completely over to God. The doctor was one of those folks who merely wanted to go to church and warm the pew and the Elder was trying to use his considerable talents to serve God. But the doctor balked at the idea. He liked how he was living. He figured God would overlook his desire to live his life his own way.
During the course of the conversation, the Elder said to him, "Suppose patient asked you to take charge of her case but refused to tell you all her symptoms, or to take all your prescriptions. She might say to you, ’I am willing to follow your directions when they seem sensible to me; but if they don’t, I will use my own judgment.’ What would you do in such a case?"
"Do!" was the indignant reply. "I would refuse to accept her as a patient. I could do nothing for her unless she put her whole case into my hands and obeyed my directions implicitly."
"Then obedience to the doctor’s orders is essential if the patient wants to be cured!"
"Absolutely!"
"And that is consecration. God must have your whole life put in his hands without any reservations and his directions must be implicitly followed."
There are people who go to church regularly who either don’t understand that concept… or maybe they don’t care.
They’ll sing in the choir on Sunday, but they’ll curse like a sailor on Monday.
They’ll work with the Ladies Group on Tuesday, but spread malicious gossip on Wednesday.
They’ll teach the youth on Thursday, but look at porn on the internet on Friday.
* I’ve talked with Elders who felt they had could overlook sin in the church because the one sinning was one of their relatives.
* I’ve watched a church piano player sit in the third row during the sermon and saw the hatred and spite in her eyes.
* I’ve known of rich men who felt they could do whatever they wanted in God’s church because the church “needed” their support.
* And I’ve known church leaders who publicly enjoyed the respect of the congregation but who privately were committing adultery.
How could they do such things?!!!
Well… they say to themselves:
“I’ve sacrificed so much.”
“I’ve sacrificed my time, my money, my resources for God.”
“I’ve earned a little leeway here. I don’t have to obey Him about this”
But God says “To Obey is better than sacrifice to heed better than the fat of rams”.
In fact, God tells us that when we choose NOT to obey… that’s the same rebellion.
It’s the same as idolatry.
It’s wicked in God’s sight.
God considers obedience to be more important than anything else in His relationship with us.
* Deuteronomy 11:26-28 says “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing if you OBEY the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands...”
* In Exodus 15:26 we’re told "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and DO WHAT IS RIGHT IN HIS EYES, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."
* In John 14:15 Jesus says: "If you love me, you will OBEY what I command.
* And 1 John 5:3 declares: “This is love for God: to OBEY his commands. And his commands are not burdensome”
Obedience is at the very heart of our relationship with God.
We can’t have a healthy connection to our Father if we have a disobedient heart.
But, now wait a minute?
Haven’t you ever been disobedient to God since you’ve become a Christian?
How many of you have disobeyed God at least once since you’ve been saved?
Yeah… we all have.
That’s when we have to turn to I John 1:9 where we are promised:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Whenever we fall into disobedience, we need to go to God and admit we’ve failed. Admit we’ve sinned. Acknowledge that we’ve hurt Him and that we don’t want to do it again… and God promises to forgive us.
So, why does confession fix our problem when we’ve disobeyed?
Because it puts our relationship with God where it belongs.
God is God… and you’re not.
He is the God who gave you everything you have in your life, and He is the one who has the right to ask for us to change our lives and repent of our sins.
But, you see, Saul didn’t think like that.
He never really confessed his sin.
Notice what he says when Samuel calls him on his disobedience:
Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest." 1Samuel 15:15
Whose fault was it?
Not Saul’s… it was those baaaad soldiers.
And the more Samuel confronts him about his sin, the more Saul tries to defend himself.
He says: “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." 1Sa 15:21
The text tells us Saul took one last stab at this confession thing… but even then he couldn’t quite do it right. 1 Samuel 15:24 tells us “Saul said to Samuel, ‘I have sinned (sounds like he’s repenting). I violated the LORD’s command and your instructions (and that sounds like he’s repentant… but then he says) I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.’”
Once again he’s not really confessing. He’s passing the buck
He’s saying: I was afraid of those bad, bad soldiers. If it hadn’t been for them I’d have obeyed God.
Now, why wouldn’t Saul confess his sins?
Why would he deliberately disobey God and then try to blame somebody else????
Well, the problem for King Saul was that he’d begun to edge God out of the picture.
Notice first what we’re told in I Samuel 15:12
“… Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, ‘Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has SET UP A MONUMENT IN HIS OWN HONOR and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.’”
Saul set up a monument to himself!?
Throughout Scripture only one other man ever did this: Absalom – the rebellious son of David.
In both cases, Saul and Absalom did this monument thing to establish themselves as having the “power” in the kingdom.
Now, Saul was King because God had made him King.
He had power because God gave it to him.
But Saul began to think that he deserved his power and he stopped looking to God as the source of it. That’s why – instead of erected a pillar to honor God - Saul built a monument to exalt himself.
I’ve seen people in churches who’ve been drawn to power.
They like to call the shots.
They jealously guard their influence. (I repeatedly praise God I’ve not encountered anyone here who would do that).
ILLUS: I remember an Elder who didn’t want to discipline one of the members of the congregation. He actually said “I know Paul said to do that, but Jesus didn’t… therefore we don’t have to do that!” My jaw almost hit the table.
Why would he say that? Because the Bible challenged his authority and his sense of what ought to be done (it didn’t matter that God commanded it to be done).
ILLUS: I once encountered some people who wanted to see the church “by-laws.” Why? Because they wanted something done in the church that the leadership wouldn’t allow, and they figured to do an end-run using the by-laws to force their opinion on the congregation.
I have never seen the by-laws of this congregation… and I never want to either. If the church can’t honor God by obeying the Scriptures, it doesn’t deserve to exist.
Then, every once in while, you’ll run across someone who’ll say “this is MY church.”
If anyone ever uses that phrase, ask to see the their hands to find the nail prints there. Then examine their side to see if you can find the hole left by a Roman spear.
If they died for the church, they can call it “their church.”
Jesus bought it with His blood… not yours or mine.
For someone to view the church as belonging to them - as being “THEIRS”, that’s like Saul raising up the monument to his own glory.
You see, Saul had fallen prey to lure of power and the sin of pride.
He didn’t think about God as the one who had blessed him with position.
He DESERVED his power and his position.
And so, when that power was threatened by David he lashed out and tried to kill him young David a number of times.
It occurred to me, as I was preparing this sermon, that Saul’s pride left him no room in his heart for God. And then, I stumbled onto a passage in Scripture that says exactly that:
Psalm 10:4 says: “In his pride the wicked does not seek Him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.”
That helps explain the one part of this story that has always puzzled me.
Three times in this chapter, Saul says the same thing, again and again and again:
He says it in verse 15, verse 30 and here in verse 21
Saul is talking with Samuel when he says “The soldiers took … the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal." 1 Samuel 15:21
YOUR GOD???
Not “my God”
Not “our God”
It’s YOUR God.
You see, the sin of pride separates us from the NEED for God, and establishes US as god.
Whoever is in charge of our lives is OUR God.
And you can’t serve two masters. God will either be your master… or your slave.
And of course – every god needs his monument.
So here are the lessons in this sermon:
1. Don’t ever be fooled into believing you can use your service/ sacrifices for God as an excuse for allowing bitterness, pride or sexual immorality. Service to God is wonderful, but it won’t hide a disobedient heart.
2. When you do disobey God, learn to take responsibility for your sins
- Don’t pass the buck
- Don’t try to blame someone else for why you failed
- Just admit you failed and let God forgive you so you can start again.
And 3rd, as James 4 tells us "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." Therefore Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:6 and 10
CLOSE: When a Christian is mindful of who God is, they learn how to do things God’s way.
1. They learn to humble themselves before God
2. To confess their sins when they’ve failed
3. And to be obedient to God and honor what He wants done.
ILLUS: I read about a TV news camera crew that was on assignment in southern Florida. They were filming the widespread destruction of Hurricane Andrew. But in one scene - amid the devastation and debris - stood a house still on its foundation. The owner was cleaning up the yard when a reporter approached him.
“Sir, why is your house the only one still standing?” asked the reporter. “How did you manage to escape the severe damage of the hurricane?”
The man replied “I built this house myself, and I built it according to the Florida state building code. When the code called for 2 x 6 roof trusses, I used 2 x 6 roof trusses. I was told that a house built according to code could withstand a hurricane. I did, and it did. I guess no one else around here followed the code.”
Jesus once told the story about the wise man who built his house upon the rock
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Matthew 7:24-25
That’s why we give an invitation at the end of every service – a time to obey God in becoming His child.
• A time to believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God.
• A time to admit that you’ve sinned and you don’t want to live like that anymore
• A time to confess Jesus as your Lord and Master
• A time to be buried in the waters of Christian baptism and risen up a new creation in Christ.
• And a time to decide that you want to live for Jesus forever.
