Obey and Heed

22Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23″For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.” Samuel I 15:22-23

Saul was able to defeat the Amalek with God’s power; yet, he chose to disobey God’s directive of destroying them completely and not gathering any plunder. Saul betrayed his contract with the Lord and chose to serve his own purpose. Saul knew that letting the Israelites take all the plunder of their battle would build his stature amongst the Israelites. Making sacrifices did not make up for his abandoning God because his disobedience was a rejection of God.

Here we must understand that there is only to follow the law of God or everything else. Obeying and following the purpose of God is believing in Him, while following any other purpose is not believing in Him. No matter how often we fast and pray, attend services, make sacrifices like Saul and the Israelites did in this passage, without obeying and heeding God’s purpose, we reject God, and God will reject us.

However, God will never abandon us first. It was only after Saul abandoned God’s law and broke his contract with Him that God rejected him as king. Similarly, it is only after we betray Him, forget Him, or act against Him that God will abandon us. If we listen and obey his purpose, God will take care of and bless us. This is very clear and straightforward. To obey God means to have God in our spirit, hearts, minds, and body. With obedience, God exists everywhere in us, and He will take care of all our needs. God is the only one who can protect us from evil, from failure and destruction. If we obey His Word, then our studies, health, our jobs, all of it is fulfilled because God opens the way.

How do we know what to obey? Knowing God’s purpose completely is impossibly difficult. But finding His purpose in our lives can be very easy and natural if we first focus on what we know. We focus on the very basic commandments which we know to be true and obey them. God will send us situations, tests, and challenges at moments in our lives where we can discern what is right and wrong. Focus on obeying whatever it is at that moment. We learn more about how to obey God from that experience. Listen and obey. Step by step, little by little, we gain a better understanding of God’s purpose. Again this is a very simple and straightforward process.

Please understand, we cannot obtain this knowledge through our own efforts, through academic study and research. David, Joseph, Samuel, Daniel – they did not pursue academics but simply practiced obeying God and acting according to His direction. Being scholars was not their priority; yet, they achieved great things. Moses learned all that Egypt had to offer but used none of it when he followed the Lord to lead the Israelites. Through obedience, we can study well, succeed in work, achieve great health, everything. Then why do people not obey? Demons, worldly aspirations, and our own ambitions block us. We are seduced by worldly, secular, and individual philosophies, sciences, logic, human perspectives, desires, and instincts. They distract us from seeking and seeing what God desires for us to do.

Finally, when we obey, we must be careful in several ways.

First, we cannot test God or try to deceive God by giving less than our full effort in our obedience. God sees through it. Remember Ananias and Sapphira who tried to hold onto some of their money after they said they would abandon their wealth and completely follow Peter and the apostles.
When we obey, we must also be careful not to seek specific blessings or outcomes. It is not for us to seek specifics like wealth, status, or a job. As soon as we try to obey to receive something specific, our selfish desires will betray us.
Lastly, we must not expect God to deliver to us based on our desired schedule or timing. Never think, “I will obey if I can get this thing before this date.”

We must remember to obey completely. We must not determine what and when we seek from God as a condition of our obedience. Rather, we must entrust all to God and believe in His protection and care. We must simply obey and heed.

For Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1985-2-23-mixdown-1