Making Big Moves With God: Obedience

1 Samuel chapter 15 verses 1 to 23, the new international version.

Samuel said to Saul,

I am the one the Lord has sent to a long-tube king over his people, Israel.

So listen now to the message from the Lord.

This is what the Lord Almighty says.

I will punish their malakites for what they did to Israel when they

would lead them as they came up from Egypt.

Now go, attack their malakites and totally destroy all that belongs to them,

do not spare them, put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep,

camels and donkeys. So Saul, some of the men and mustard them are telling,

200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 from Judah.

Saul went to the city of Amalek and sent an ambush in the Raven.

Then he said to the kinites, go away, leave their malakites so that I do not destroy you along with them.

Go away for you have showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt

so the kinites moved away from their malakites.

Then Saul attacked their malakites all the way from Havila to shore near the eastern border of Egypt.

He took Agag, king of their malakites alive and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword.

But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle,

with fast cows and lambs everything that was good.

These they were unwilling to destroy completely but everything that was despised and

legally totally destroyed.

Then the word of the Lord kings is Amal. I regret

that I have made Saul king because he has turned away from me

and has not carried out my instructions.

Samal was angry and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

Early in the morning, Samal 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 honor.

And has turned and gone on down to Gilgal when Samal reached him so said,

The Lord bless you. I have carried out the Lord's instructions.

But Samal said,

What then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears?

What is this lowering of cattle that I hear?

Saul answered, the soldiers brought them from their malakites.

They spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God.

But we totally destroyed the rest.

Enough, Samal said to Saul. Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.

Tell me Saul replied, Samal said, Although you were one small in your own eyes,

did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel?

The Lord anointed you king over Israel and sent you on a mission saying,

Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalakites,

wage war against them until you have wiped them out.

Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?

But I did obey the Lord. Saul said, I went on the mission. The Lord assigned me.

I completely destroyed the Amalakites and I brought back Aegir their king.

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 Kilga, but Samal replied.

Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in Obey in the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fatal runs.

For rebellion is like the sin of divination and arrogance like the evil of idolatry

because you have rejected the word of the Lord. He has rejected you as king.

Why would before breakfast know that things are going well here? Good morning.

This is such a sad story. Such a sad story.

We're still talking about making big moves with God.

What's the thing? I want us to look at something that is very very important to God and that is obedience.

Yesterday we talked about intimacy and quiet conversations with God. You know,

those quiet movements where your confidence is built. But today I want to talk about what happens

after you hear God because let's be honest. One thing to hear God is another thing to obey.

Hearing God is powerful but the real transformation comes from obedience. Many people here

have a few people move and big moves we got are powered by obedience.

obedience is actually the bridge between hearing and moving because you can spend

intimate times with God. You can have those quiet conversations we've talked about.

You can pray, you can draw now, you can highlight scriptures in three colors,

but until you will be nothing shifts. Hearing God is not the same as obeying God.

Nothing shifts until you will be God.

I found that the hearing gives you information but obedience gives you transformation.

You know, that's why the scripture doesn't celebrate listeners. It only celebrates to us.

Today's story is so heart-rending for me because

so started out well, so really started out well. God chose him and he was small in his own eyes.

He did not understand how they could even pick him. I'm the youngest in my family.

Our tribe is the smallest in the hour and my family is the smallest in that smallest tribe.

He knew was God, it wasn't him, but he went to fight the battle, the Lord asked him to fight,

but went with partial obedience.

partial obedience. You know, we God selective obedience is not obedience.

God gave solely clay and structure, destroyed everything, spent nothing.

You know what that means? Destroy everything, spare nothing.

So did most of it, but he kept the best animals and he spared the king.

That was selective obedience. Now when confronted, Saul said,

I did it to sacrifice them to God. It sounds spiritual, but God was not impressed.

If anything, God called it rebellion.

The verse 23 says, because you said no to God's command, God says no to your kingship,

and he just let that thinking. Saul did not deny that God told him to do this thing. In fact,

he moved. He didn't abandon worshiping God. In fact, he claimed that he brought the cattle and the

sheep and the lambs and all the good things to worship God, to sacrifice to God.

He didn't not do what God said. He just edited God's instruction and he cost him everything.

You know, what I learned from this story is that partial obedience is full rebellion

and God's eyes. Obedience that is negotiated is no longer obedience. Do you know that this

selective obedience costs all is true? Costing is authority and eventually,

costing is peace because an evil spirit began to torment him from that day.

Another interesting thing about God is that God really fully explains before he instructs.

With God, you may not have all the steps, but when he says move, you move and you move fully.

You don't yet edit the instruction. You don't negotiate it. You don't think about it

through the lens of human beings. You don't think this is a good idea. You stick to what God said.

God said you disobeyed me.

For me, my eyes are from where I stand. Not quite Lord, but with God. It's either absolute

or it's nothing at all. Let's look at someone who's not quite like King Saul Abraham.

God gave Abraham an instruction. Leave your country, leave your family and your father's home

for a land that I will show you and Abraham left. Honestly, it sounds like nothing,

but the Bible says Abraham left just as God said. Now we need to stop and think about this

one moment. No five-year plan, no prayer chain, no counseling sessions, no brainstorming sessions,

no planning committee, Abraham left. Simple. And you see that obedience triggered something.

The same waking souls disobedience triggered something. With Abraham, you gave him a new identity

with King Saul. He lost his identity. With Abraham, he gave him a new covenant. With King Saul,

he lost his kingship and his covenant with God. With Abraham, obedience triggered a lineage that

would bless the entire world. Saul lost the throne for his lineage and it was given to another.

Years later, God came back again and this time for something that would cost more.

God said to Abraham, take your son. You won, you love, I seek and go to the land of

Mariah and sacrificing there. And the Bible says, Abraham got up early the next morning.

Early, no delay, no bargaining, no emotional manipulation, no negotiation, nothing.

And because Abraham obeyed promptly, God intervened powerfully. Abraham's obedience did not

kill the promise. If anything, it secured it. Big moves require obedient hearts.

Not selective obedience, not delayed obedience, but prompt obedience. This morning, I want you to ask

yourself, am I really, really, really the kind of person who when God speaks, I will be to the

last instruction. I need you to stop spiritualizing disobedience today. If God says something, do it.

If God says forgive, forgive, don't forgive, but if God says apologize, apologize, don't apologize,

but if God says move, don't make excuses, don't edit, don't negotiate, don't make footnotes, don't

have planning committees, just move. Big moves record are not made by people who just talk,

they are made by people who are obedient. Hearing God's gift no doubt, but of being God is a choice.

Be like Abraham. Abraham chose obedience and became a father of missions. Saul chose selective

obedience and he lost his throne and his place in destiny. Think about that. Good morning.

For the wonderful way to start your day, Bible for breakfast is noted.