To Obey is Better Than Sacrifice

Howdy. Turn your bowels to first Samuel 15, please. We'll be reading about, the Lord rejecting Saul. The title of tonight's message is to obey is better than sacrifice. We'll be studying verses one through 28. Our title, is actually found in verses twenty two and twenty three. I wanna frame our minds, as we get to the rest of the text, so I wanna kinda zero in on twenty two and twenty three, then we'll pick up our study back in verse one.

As we read the these two verses here first, I want you to notice, a couple of things. I want you to notice the weight, or the gravity of of of a few things. One is that, you'll see that the Lord's desire for us is to walk in what delights him.

I really wanna drive that home tonight. That the Lord's desire for us is to walk in what delights him. This is this is not the point of my message. It's Lord's desire for us is to walk with the lights in. This delighting obedience must be done in faith.

I I don't wanna skip do do to be is obedience, that. As being greater than sacrifice. But this this delighting obedience must be done in faith. Saul would have done well to do this. He would have done well to, in faith, obey from the heart as opposed to sacrifice and will do well to have, the same heart posture.

Not like Saul, but like I'm gonna explain to you. The the other thing I wanted you to really key on in this text is the gravity of man, a man who offers heartless sacrifices to God. It's shown here by Saul. Saul is going his own way. He has a heart far from God, as you'll notice.

And what he'll do is he'll cover his rebellion and his rejection of God with ritual deeds, which the Lord despises. There's an awful weight that follows that of the rejection from the Lord, the result of Saul's heart posture that is truly oriented to self. He's gonna get rejected from the Lord.

And and while you're watching this story unfold in this chapter, and maybe you're familiar with the previous chapters and the rest of the story, but you constantly want to shake Saul and and say, wake up, Saul. You wanna beg him to do that because he's he's going his own way, and his own way is gonna end in disaster as we all know.

And he's too in love with himself to not go his own way onto disaster. We're that. And to so belief problem, a faith problem. That's why he goes his own way. Let's, read these verses, then I'll pray, and we'll we'll talk some more. First, first Samuel 15 verse 22, The anchor verse is here.

And 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 listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king. Alright. Let's pray. Father, as we come to you, we we love to open your word. We delight to read your word, and I want to for every person here to delight in your word and your ways because they they have confidence and trust and faith in you and that this faith would, be born in them.

And then it it would it would bear out all these wonderful graces like love and joy and peace and patience and and on and on. We want we want to obey, Lord. We want to obey, not like Saul with mere sacrifice, but we wanna obey from the heart.

We want to have a heart that delights to walk in your ways to the glory of your name. I pray that you would, speak through me, as I as I try to, bring clarity to your word that you delivered to us that we might grow and be equipped, into maturity, that we might be, more and more growing into Christ likeness.

Help us this this this evening, we pray. In name of Jesus Amen. Right. The the thesis point again is is to obey is obey from the heart is is better than sacrifice. Saul would have done well to do this. I I do wanna make a note. There is one sacrifice, however, that the Lord, is pleased with, and that sacrifice would be a a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, o God, you will not despise.

So it says the who one is the the the one obligation. He is does is not want heartless deeds. The one true sacrifice spoken of in Psalm 51 is done from faith. Faith begets or causes obedience from the heart. The Lord desires the heart, not sacrifice and offerings.

Mere sacrifices and offerings are an abomination to to him. I'll I'll I'll give some, some verbs here that will really put that into into the right picture here. The lord says he hates, despises, abhors, detests, cannot endure, cannot stand, has no delight in, finds no pleasure in, sacrifice.

Here are some supporting verses for that. Amos five twenty one, if you wanna just write these these references down. It says he that he hates and despises your feasts. I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Isaiah one eleven says that I take no delight in the blood of bulls and goats.

Isaiah one thirteen, I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Jeremiah six twenty, your your burnt offerings are not acceptable nor sacrifices pleasing to me. So let's mine for treasures in one to 28 of, first Samuel 15, and, let's see how Saul got into such a state where the Lord ends up rejecting him as king.

I'll go through four main points for the message tonight. The first one is the outline will be like this. Authority speaks, man is to obey, or you could write there's an expectation of obedience. Authority speaks, and man is to obey. Then we'll talk about that there's a clear command.

And the next point will be the clear rebellion. And then the last point tonight will be true obedience is from the heart. Heartless sacrifice is worthless. Let's start with point number one. Authority speaks and man is to obey. The framing, the framing of authority here is in verses one and two, and I want you to notice that.

And then, and then what I want you to really take away from this is that when when the Lord's the Lord's voice thunders, when it when it speaks, how how come it is that simple man gives little notice to it? You'll see Saul will ultimately give little notice to it.

But look look at verse one with me. And Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people, Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts. I have noted of And And And so we're the flip to Deuteronomy Deuteronomy verses 18 to 20.

And when when there's a king in Israel, this is a command for the king in Israel. So Saul knows of this command that this is the, the rights and duties of kingship are are here described. Verse 18. And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law approved by the Levitical priests.

And it shall be with them, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them. That his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel.

So he's to write a copy of the law so that there's there's four things I noticed here. So that he learns to fear God by keeping all the words and doing them, so that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, so that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the left or to the right, that he would obey the Lord And he may continue long in his kingdom.

Another cross reference you can you can write down a couple more just just for amplification here. First Samuel twelve fourteen through 15, just a few chapters previously. It says, if you obey the voice of the Lord, then it will be well with you. If you will not obey but rebel, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.

This is talking to the all of the nation of Israel. And in, first Samuel twelve twenty four twenty five, just a few verses later from that cross reference, it says it says, only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. That's in verse 25. No.

That wasn't that was previous. But verse 25, but if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. Realize there when it says serve the Lord faithfully, we're talking about the subject of obedience. We keep having this theme. This is Old Testament. Same God.

He keeps harping on. It's with all your heart when you obey. Obedience is not the same as mere sacrifice. It's not the same as rite or ritual. It's not rote mechanical doings. Obedience is is from the heart, and the authority is authority of the Lord is speaking here, and he's saying, I want your heart when you obey.

That's something that we need to take in. So with all your heart is a sign of true worship. The text does not say do this no matter what even if you don't want to. You you parents who have kids, if you were to tell them to do a chore, vacuum the living room, the dining room, and the hallway, and and that room over there.

And if they get the vacuum cleaner and they do this thing that you want them to do, but they do it grumbling. They do it out of obligation. They're compelled to because you're their, father, and they must do what you say. That is not honor. You know, the word honor, when you look at, the 10 commandments, it talks about honoring your father and mother.

We get a lot of mileage in the youth group when we talk about this and in our family as well. This is, really good to consider. The word honor means to make weighty, to make heavy, to cause to be glorious. When my kids obey me, the obedience that I'm looking for is obedience with honor.

With a oh, my my father is weighty in my life, and I delight to serve him. And that's why they're vacuuming the way they're vacuuming on a good day, which is, you know, every day. Otherwise, I have to call my kids out about about stuff like that. No.

I'm just kidding a little bit there. But, yeah, I the lord wants true worship. He wants obedience from the heart. He does not want mere sacrifice, and parents can see the same thing. Again, authority speaks. The Lord speaks. Our question for you is, did Saul do well here?

You see the end result in verses twenty two and twenty three where he is rejected by the Lord. So the answer is obviously no. Did he hear the warnings when authority speaks? Did he did he care? Did God's word weigh on Saul? Was Saul careful to obey? I want you to consider the word careful, full of care.

So careful as to not divert to the left or to the right. Did we notice Saul going God's way with all his heart? No. We did not. Saul did Saul did terribly. So a point of application here is when the Lord thunders, which is whenever he speaks. When the word of God is even held in your hands, when authority speaks, what is the response that God expects from Saul?

What is the response that God expects from us? Consider the word response. Man has a responsibility to respond to God. When God speaks, there should be a natural response from man. And we know that if man is not in Christ, his natural response will be towards the inclination of his flesh.

But to the saints of God in this room, your response should be to obey and to obey with all your heart. Authority speaks. There's obligation, sorry, not an obligation, that'd be the opposite of what I'm trying to teach you. There's an expectation of obedience, but there's also a delight, of obedience there.

Perhaps you struggle to obey God like the rest of mankind. If the if that's if that's the case for all of us, is the answer to try harder? Is the answer pull up your socks, obey harder? That would be a silly way to think, wouldn't it? Obedience cannot beget obedience.

What really will spur on, we'll talk about this throughout the night, graces in your life that would be growing in the fruits of the spirit is what I'm talking about. What will really cause that to happen if you're trying to grow in your obedience to the Lord and his commands and his and his word and his precepts is is you to grow in your faith.

There must be something behind obedience. Some might say, well, yeah, behind my obedience, I need to revere God more, then I want to obey God more. But even that is not quite the point you need to land on. You cannot force reverence. Reverence also will come from faith.

It is a belief in who God is as creator and who you are as his creature. It is that right believing of that creature creator relationship that will cause in you a reverence that will then respond to God. So faith is the root of even humility. We would talk a lot about, in youth group over the last year about how humility is the root of all virtues.

We must have a posture of humility in order to grow in love. Well, even before that, you have to first believe God that his ways are higher than my ways, his thoughts are higher than my thoughts, that I'm in desperate need of a savior, and on and on it goes.

That's why it says the righteous will live by faith. The righteous live by faith, and that begets reverence, which begets obedience or causes obedience from a heart that the do to And Now go we're and strike do Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

I want you to see how distinct the scenario is. We just saw, in the first point about authority. There's an emphasis on listening and then obeying, and now you have right before you, Saul, he just set you up for this. Here's a clear command, and there are very simple ideas that are expressed here.

Go, strike, devote to destruction. Do not spare. There's no need for further explanation. Does Saul have the context of the history of the is Israelite people for reference? Yes. He does. Does does he have the context of Joshua who preceded him in front of him? Yes. He he does.

They're simple ideas. At the same time, I'll I'll tell you this. This is a hard text to read when you when you think about the total destruction of a people group. Yet to have a problem with this, total destruction here is to have a problem with the justice and the wrath of God at large.

Did God judge the world in Noah's day unto destruction? Yes. Look at Genesis six for that. Did God judge the other Canaanite tribes under destruction? See the Deuteronomy seven and the book of Joshua. Does Revelation 20 also speak of judgment of all the dead whose names are not found written in the book of life that they will be thrown to the lake of fire?

Yes. It does. We're not callous here or lacking fee feeling. Even God does not take the light and the death of the wicked as, Ezekiel thirty three eleven would say or second Peter three verse nine. Yet God must be a God of justice or he is not nine.

A good judge. He would not be a good God. God must be able to be perfectly just as he is also perfectly loving. The implications for all this is really another sermon for another day that we can't we can't go into. But one thing I do want you to grasp on this is Romans nine says that you must remember that God is the potter, and we are the we are the clay.

You would expect that an infinite that. Do And so so we we do world. Romans nine. A And lot of people wanna give up on the why too early. But the why in Romans nine, why does God do these things? Why why why do some believe and some not believe?

He gives the big picture why as it is for his glory. He says, do I not have the right, to make vessels for honorable use and vessels for dishonorable use that my love might be shown or manifested more by having these two distinctions? And he says and, basically, it's it is for my glory, my manifestation of who I am as as the deity.

He he makes his point. But then you wanna know, well, why me and not them? Why this guy and not that girl? And he says at that point, Paul says, who are you, O man, to answer back to God? You need to remember your place, that you are not the potter, but that you are the clay.

I would tell you, maybe you still have a problem with with this after I've I've talked about it, Will God's justice wait forever? You actually have to deal with that that reality. You who are sitting here, are outside of Christ, who do not have the blood of the lamb covering you, who have not yielded your hearts and repentant faith to the Lord, will you treat the maker of the universe with apathy, presuming that his justice will never fall?

If you're a man that is outside of God's grace and forgiveness, know this. Paul says in Acts 17 that God gives to all mankind life and breath and everything, that all men should seek God and that he commands all people everywhere to repent because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

And in Hebrews three and four, he says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. And in John three thirty six, he says, whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the son, again, tying obedience and belief together. See how that obedience and faith theme comes up again?

Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. And Romans ten nine says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Consider this in verse 10 of chapter 10 of Romans. We often don't even, really, speak this verse as much as we do ten nine, But, considers it says with the heart one believes. I also want you to consider this. It is also with the heart that man goes astray.

Therefore, if you don't know the Lord, you must realize that your heart is desperately sick, bent on your own desires and far from God. You must forsake yourself, and and turn to the Lord. Do you do not suppose that you will stand before God, offering him a list a list of deeds that you perform.

You'll be found wanting on that day, if that's you. You must be righteous as he is righteous. When you stand before the Lord, you there's one requirement you must have, and that is what we we talk about, in the youth group a lot is the ROG. It's the righteousness of God.

I must have that. If I go to 6 Flags and I have a ticket that says one admission to 6 Flags. That's what's gonna say that. But my my ticket in heaven, so to speak, would be I must have it stamped the righteousness of God. If I don't have the righteousness of God, then I don't have righteousness at all.

I'd be left in my what? In my own name of I'm righteous. Come to Christ in repentance and faith. Can I remind you that the Lord's commandments are always clear? Are not, the 10 commandments summed up simply, by Jesus in Matthew 22? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. So Saul's command was clear about what he need to do to go strike and destroy, devote to destruction. We get clear commands from God too, and the and the clearest of all is that they're summed up, in two ways, love for God and love for neighbor.

The application for this would be, this is the clear command for you today. The clear command for you today is that you must love God and love, your neighbor. And I wanna bring this so clearly into your focus. When you desire to bring your thoughts, your words, and your deeds, unto subjection to the Lord, what is your motivation?

The predictable answer would be love, and and I would agree to a large extent, but it but that's not the ultimate route. The ultimate route of bringing your love to God is first, you bring your love to God in faith because you must first believe God, and then you live out your faith in God.

Essentially, what you're doing when you're saying, I I believe God, and I'm going to love him is you're saying that his thoughts, his ways, his understanding are higher than my thoughts, my ways, and my understanding. And his righteousness is what is needed for the day of redemption, and my righteousness will garner me or collect for me nothing.

So the simple command is love God and love your neighbor. It has to be born out of faith. It's belief in God, his word, and his promises, confidence in him, and that faith will then be be bearing out love and joy and peace and patience and on and on.

I would say this forced love is not love, and also duty masquerading as love is not love. You can help yourself out a lot here by considering, is it your faith that is spurring your love? Here's an example. Why are why do you come to Night Church? Is it is it because you're supposed to?

Is this a is this a command of the New Testament? You better be at night church or else. It's not. It's not. But in faith, I believe God. I believed him unto salvation. And in faith, I believe this clear command of love for God, love for neighbor extends to what governs me to get myself to church as often as possible.

Because when his word says, you need a shepherd, I believe God. When his word says that I need I need to be, Ephesians four, in the church for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, I believe God. Spurs me to be here with the saints.

When it says that the saints of God are parts of the body of Christ, I believe God, and they need me, and I need them. You see that faith is spurring my actions on. It's quickening my actions to come to fruition. And if you will do that when you're thinking about love for God and love for neighbor, it will help you not pretend to be loving, but just substituting the word duty for love and doing the same thing.

But think about that. Is faith what is motivating you that God's ways are highest, God's ways are best, and I wanna go his ways. His statutes look at Psalm one nineteen sometime. His statutes, his words, his precepts, his commandments are all wonderful. And I wanna go those ways, and in faith, I say they are wonderful.

And I wanna walk in them, And that's why I walk in them, not because I'm supposed to. I'm trying to beat this horse sufficiently dead because it's easy for a for a solid church like Emmanuel with good reformed doctrine to get this a little mixed up. But our faith should be causing the graces of God in our life to to flower and to blossom.

Spurgeon talks about this as well. I read a great little article. I don't I don't have it referenced here in front of me, but he talks about how you you when you when you go out in nature and you notice the flower blossom, and that would be our example of love, love would be the flower blossom.

The flower blossom doesn't cause the flower blossom. It is the life in the plant that causes the plant to grow, the stem to shoot up, the bud, then the blossom. Right? So the spiritual life in you that comes from faith is what will cause those things to blossom in your life, the graces that are given to us by God, like joy and peace and love and stuff like that.

So hope that's that's that's helpful. But, just to bring it back to Saul, like, have a clear command to love God and love neighbor. Saul had a clear command as well. The commands are clear to us. It should have been Saul's delight to follow a clear command from God.

And it should be our delight, delightful obedience. It should be our delight to follow the clear commands of the Lord because his ways are best. And he is higher than me. And he knows more than me. Point number three, the clear rebellion. Look at, verses seven to 21 with me.

The point two was the clear command. Point three is the clear rebellion. This is this is disobedience that we'll see here. We'll we'll we'll pick up in verse seven. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is East of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword.

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. The word of the Lord came to Samuel.

I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. Angry, and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.

And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, what then is the this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Lord, the Lord, pragmatism there?

Then Samuel said to Saul, stop. I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to him, speak. And Samuel said, though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.

Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me.

I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and Abdulid, the Amalekites, to destruction. But the people took up the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. I think our smallest, classes in Sunday school could probably spot the disobedience there as Saul is trying to, wiggle, around, incomparable, responsible for for, for a sin.

I want you to know some things. We'll we'll walk through this real quick. Verse eight nine, I want you to notice the exaltation of Saul's wisdom and understanding expressed in his actions. Look at eight and nine one more time. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devote to destruction, all the people with the edge of the sword.

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and the fattened calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they they devoted to destruction. So Saul uses his wisdom, his understanding expressed in his actions.

And I'm really glad we've laid the foundation foundational work for this this idea about believing first before obedience. Because, again, you you're seeing that his ways are higher than God's ways. His thoughts are higher than God's thoughts. Alright. Look at verse 11 with me. I want you to notice here that God notices, and he is not pleased.

Verse 11. I regret that I have made Saul king for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And Samuel was angry and cried to the Lord all night. Why was he not pleased? Not performed my commandments, the text says. You cannot pretend to love God if you will not obey God.

Again, my kids cannot pretend to love me if they will not do what I say. And the reason why they should be doing what I say is because they love me, not not out of obligation. Right? Notice the heart posture of Saul. Verse 12. This is the third point here in this, in this point three.

So this is, one, two, three of point three. Heart posture Saul. Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning and was told to Samuel. Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal to honor himself, juxtaposed to being not careful to obey God.

There's there's a you're too you're getting a a picture painted pretty clearly here about who Saul cares about. We're gonna notice Saul's pragmatism in verse 15. I didn't mention that as we were marching through that, but it says, Saul said, they have brought brought them from the Amalekites for the people people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.

Paul's being pragmatic. He's just doing what he thinks is practical to the situation instead of being, careful to obey. You notice, there also, this is my fifth point here is that Saul is blame shifting here. He's not taking responsibility here. You also in verse 21. It says, but the people took up the spoil, the sheep and the oxen.

Okay? So he's he's trying to shift the blame on that on on the people. Verse 17. Notice how Saul is held responsible. And Samuel said, though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel yeah, of Israel? I love God's assessment of this.

Do we sometime sometimes try to wiggle out of being culpable or worthy of blame when we sin? What what will really help us here is that let God's weight of his word bear on you. A lot of times we try to shift the blame. And if you will take God's word as authoritative and as perfect as it is, you don't have any wiggle room when it comes to sin.

Here's an example I've got. I was remember I was overseas and a and a chaplain. Chaplains aren't always known to be the grace of things in the military. I actually like this chaplain a lot, but he he said something that that didn't strike me as as right. He says, when you think about the perfection of God, you know, you you can just think about completion.

I'm like, no. That's not helpful to me. I need, when I think about perfection or holiness, I need to think about perfect without blemish. If I have any kind of mystical completion sense, I'll find a way to redefine those terms. And and if you're trying to bear the weight of responsibility for sin you've committed, you need to let God's weight, the weight of his word really bear down on you with how pure his word is, how pure Jesus is, how how holy the Lord is, and how he's called you to that same holiness.

I love how Samuel says, basically, behold, you're the man. You're guilty. And then, the last last point here I've got for this, third point would be, I want you to let Saul's clear rebellion be a watchword for us. I want you to notice the heart posture of Saul in all these things.

He's a heart that's not for God. It's a heart that's for self. He is he's not loving God. He he loves self, and that is the ultimate display of rebellion. For the believer, like I said before, don't hide behind justification of your sins. The the law of the Lord is perfect.

His word is pure. His holiness is pure. Let his searching words search you out. Let it cause you to not give justification for your sins. Think about all the sins we do in relationships. The the harsh words, the rude words, biting tongue, thrusting of the sword, and you just say, well, you know, you're tired or you were stressed.

That is that is not the Lord's way. Don't don't do that if you're a believer. Let the word bear on your life. How can you see that if you're in clear rebellion? If you're a believer and you're and you're rebelling against the Lord, what you can do is you can analyze your heart posture.

The way you analyze your heart posture is consider, was I loving God, loving my neighbor, or was I loving myself? How can you tell if you're loving yourself? We talk about this a lot in Emmanuel, thanks to pastor Baber. Love draws near. Love draws near. Hate pushes away.

It's a great theme that we've spoken of here and and just analyze. Am I drawing that person near, or am I pushing them away? Am I saying be be gone? That's what divorce is. It's saying I'm done with you, away with you. If you're in rebellion, consider if you're if you're drawn near or pushing away.

I'll also, point you to something helpful in my own life. It's first Corinthians 13. Look at the chapter on on the characteristics of love and just drag your finger. Some people will put their name in the in the place of love. Dustin is patient. Dustin is kind. You know, all that kind of stuff.

But just consider, you know, am I believing the best about about people? Am I, you know, rude? Am I assuming the worst and on and and on? That helps me. Another good way would be Galatians five. You'd have in Galatians five, you have the works of the flesh, and you have the fruit of the spirit.

I would take my finger and drag it along the text when you're in conflict or in rebellion to God and consider, okay, was I doing something that was was I being full of strife or enmity or division or dissension? And ask yourself those questions if that was true of you, and it can help to root out that rebellion to show what your heart is really wanting.

To me, it's fairly obvious after you get down to Galatians five goes, okay. That was the flesh. That was obvious, the flesh. And the spirit of God, I'm rude to my wife. No. No. That's definitely that's definitely not the spirit of God. That was that rudeness was the flesh.

It's pretty easy to see if you consider it. If that's you, repent. Repent when we do this when we do these things. Remove the sin that separates. That's the only thing that that, in a in a relationship, if something is separated, which is sin, what you have to do is you have to reconcile.

And the way to reconcile is to remove the sin. And to remove the sin, you have to confess, repent, and that other person had, transactionally needs to send your debt away. If you're not a believer, my question to you is do you see the perfection that the Lord demands from you?

Do you see that your love for self and your apathy or antipathy towards God is rebellion to your maker? And if you're looking for an idea of how to see your rebellion to God, I want you to consider the 10 commandments of God. It's just a great thing to go through to see the moral commands of God and how you do not meet God's perfect moral standard, which would be an example would be that you shall not lust.

But the Lord Jesus says, if you lust in your heart, you've committed adultery already in your heart. That's how pure God's word is and how how searching it is. It it looks into your heart. Okay. Last point here, and then I'll wrap it up with a conclusion. True obedience is from the heart.

Heartless sacrifice is worthless. It's a little more wordy. Verses 22 to 28. I wanna look at 22 again. I'll I'll say it one more time. True obedience is from the heart. Heartless sacrifice is worthless. K. My first point on this is that obedience is exalted. Verse 22. As Samuel said, has the Lord, has great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams. I do want you to cross reference Psalm 51 here. David and Bathsheba is what we're dealing with. It's Dave's repentance over over his sin, his adultery with Bathsheba. And, it says in verse 16, where you will not delight in sacrifice or out give it, you not will be pleased with the burnt offering.

We're already we've already talked about this a little bit, but I do wanna revisit it. It's interesting that, in Leviticus, God specifically requires sacrifice. So why here does he say that he does not require sacrifice? To that. We're we're going that. And ir careful And we that with What does he desire?

What does he delight? What would he he be pleased with? He wants your heart. Holy yield yield to him. Verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. And to we're be that. Is going to verse 18, do good to the Zion in your good pleasure.

Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices, and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. What does that mean? That means that once he has your heart, he loves your works. In fact, Ephesians would say that he's prepared works beforehand that you might walk in them.

God wants your heart, and then he loves when you, in faith, do works for him. But you're doing these works not for salvation. You're doing these works because of salvation, because you've been saved, because you've brought near. Notice, notice also in back in first Samuel. Notice also that the the heart posture, to obey is better than sacrifice.

I I do want you to to notice that one more time. Oh oh oh, if obeying is without the heart, it's just duty. It becomes the same thing as heartless sacrifice that the Lord takes no pleasure in. So true obedience, that delights the Lord has a pleasing heart posture behind it.

Saul's heart was bent on self, then it was bent on justifying actions under the guise of sacrifice. His heart went astray. His rebellion was likened to witchcraft and idolatry. Another point here, the heart that disobeys is the heart that rejects the Lord. Verse twenty three and twenty six, rebellion is as, is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you reject the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Verse 26. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. And in verse 28, he says, he has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to his neighbor of yours who is better than you.

What neighbor is that? That's David. A David who is a man after God's own heart. This theme could not be any larger to us about how much God desires the heart that is for him in faith, in obedience. Application for you here. For the believer, this ought to be great encouragement to you.

The true standing of God has yielded themselves to God. Notice in Romans ten nine, there's a heart posture. We already spoke of it. There's a heart posture in Romans ten nine. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

There's a heart posture there that is so comforting that the Lord wants. So the saint of God having a broken heart before the Lord has been brought near. Now do the works of the Lord. What works are these? Love for God, love for neighbor. What works what works do not please the Lord?

It'd be another point of application. What works do not please the Lord? Something I would warn you about. The works that are done that that can be equated to mere sacrifice or heartless sacrifice. Doing things because of ritual. Your your there are rote actions, r o t e, rote actions, mechanical doings.

Some people get in trouble with this. They chase holy doings instead of chasing Christ. Your goal is faith in Christ and then Christ likeness, and then the fruit of these holy things manifest themselves in your life. I really would like for that to be what you really learn tonight.

Let me wrap this up. The the heart of the matter of this text is faith causing a love for God and a love for neighbor to be born in our hearts, which is what obedience can be surmised as. I want you to see Saul. I want you to behold him in all the rejection of Saul.

Think why did the Lord reject Saul. His heart was for self. He exalted self, and he showed ultimately that he loved self, and he did not love God. Can you see Saul's unbelief? His rejection of God says, I don't believe you. I don't believe your ways are the ways that a man should go.

There is more pleasure found going this way, my way, than going God's way. Though God's authority is clear, his commands are clear, man's rebellion is clear, man is tempted to feign or fake worship. This is not true worship. Tempted to feign worship by offering up heartless sacrifices, and God wants none of that.

God wants our hearts fully yielded and committed to him. True obedience is from the heart, and that will be true worship, which is who the Lord is seeking, true worshipers, he says in gospels. I did look the verse up. We show this love for God by, by by faith, by believing God and then walking in him.

As a Christian, do not get distracted falling back into the work that resemble heartless sacrifices. Give glory to God that he has if you're in him, that he has redeemed you, and he's brought you near, that you might walk in the works that he's prepared beforehand. And that you might say, oh, Lord, you want true obedience, and I want to worship you truly.

And you might lovingly and and in delight do those things. Things. He's made his authority known. His obedience is clear or sorry. His his command for me is clear that I obey him. Obey him with my whole heart behind my obedience. With your whole heart behind your obedience, loving him, and giving praise to him and glory to him as you go through your days.

Let's pray.