Faithful Obedience: Lessons from Saul, David, and Sacrifice

said in order for your faith to work, you need to have certainty, not uncertainty about your faith, to move from the if to the can. We also said that working faith is a productive faith, that when we give first, when we do what God has called us to do, first, then he gives back to us and prospers what we do. [00:03:49]

You see, the Israelites had been struggling with surrounding armies, particularly the Philistines, and the king was King Saul, and King Saul was a tremendous warrior, a tremendous battle king. He was very, very good at wiping out other armies, all right? When you really read about Saul, you kind of, you kind of wonder whether or not he had all of his marbles together, okay? [00:05:14]

okay but you see we have to go through challenges in order for us to mature we have to come up against adversity in order for us to reach down and find the god in us and have that actually become our manifested better selves and so everybody wants things to be smooth and honky dory but life isn't that way you actually got to go through the process and go down the rough roads and so god was with them and leading the israelites through these various phases of adversity [00:06:24]

what is this the mooing of cows when what is going on and so here's what saul says and this applies to us in our everyday faith life here's what saul says saul says well you see um i kept the good wonderful sheep and i kept these premium cattle so that we can sacrifice them to god this is my sacrifice to god but you see this is how the enemy works he will give you a rationalization to disobey god and it'll make human sense when god understands and knows that you know what you're doing even though you might not consciously know what you're doing [00:09:38]

God asks for an offering. He didn't give any parameters. He said, give me an offer. In other words, take something that is a product of the gifts that I put in you and give it back to me because this keeps you sane. This keeps the proper perspective so you never get too big -headed and think that whatever you have is really you. [00:11:21]

he obeys god he plunders the land but then he gets into his own rationalization and one would ask what was the problem then with what saul did i say it is very similar with the problem with what cain did the problem is some thinks that god doesn't know what saul is really really thinking because what saul was really thinking is this saul is thinking you know what i really like my very best stuff at home i really don't want to give my very best stuff when it comes to sacrifice time so i'll take their very best stuff and i'll give that at the offering time and that will allow me to keep my very best stuff and so things that god doesn't know that so you see the thing is we think we're playing games with god we think we're smarter than god and god is way ahead he's way ahead of you and so you can't fool god just listen and obey god because god loves you and wants the very best for you and so what does samuel say to saul saul says obedience is better than sacrifice why why is obedience better than sacrifice the reason obedience is better than sacrifice is because obedience is the first sacrifice when we're choosing to obey what are we doing [00:14:30]

And, you know, he's like a lot of our teens are. He's just playing video games all the time. And his mom keeps coming in saying, you know, why aren't you playing this video game? And I, you know, and he says, oh, I don't have a problem with my games. I'll be off in a minute. He's up. And then he gets a job because he was up all night on the video game. He didn't get enough sleep. So he's late to his job. And he's a mess. [00:19:18]

And when he prayed, he listened to God. And he's all, God, no. God, no. Please don't let me give up my video games. And he had a whole lot of them, you know. I'm sure they're like each like 65 bucks. And he's got all the discs there, you know, and everything like this. And so he goes up and he's going through his discs, boom. And he's throwing them in the trash, boom. And they listen to this one. Oh, man, I don't want to give this one up. I don't want to give this one up. And he's like, boom. Right? And then he's got his little pad thing. And he takes that. And he says, well, the mother comes in the next day. And she sees this big bin full of this stuff. And she's like, what is going on with my son? But you see, it was after that that you see this transformation in him. And he just becomes this wonderful young man. And his whole life has changed. Wonderful. Why? Because he gave up everything. [00:19:58]

And so David had learned how to trust God by battling the bear and the lion. And so his faith was being developed and God was preparing him for his great future. But the real turning point was this battle with Goliath. Now just to understand, the Philistines were considered to be almost inconquerable. Saul was so great at leading his armies, but he never really, he was, the scripture says that he just was always at war with the Philistines. In other words, he was never able to really get them. [00:22:43]

he knew how to walk by faith and not by sight and so what happens King comes to him and says well if you're going to go up against that advanced armor you should at least have the less advanced armor that I have but that was the real test the real test was are you going to try to fight this fire with fire are you going to try to compete in their area of expertise or are you going to rely on what I have shown you throughout your entire life David are you gonna have that faith and I believe this is the challenge for us all it's not only to get all of the wickedness out of our life and to be obedient without any rationalizing but also to realize that through all of that time God was teaching you lessons that you're gonna need to use at a critical juncture and when that juncture comes up remember everything that God brought you through because God doesn't do anything by accident it all happened for a reason you know I love these preachers I love these preachers who are candid about their struggles things that they have overcome you see the enemy works with fear he wants you to hide things he wants to be fearful he wants you to be shameful right all this kind of things are the preachers who will take the adverse things or not just preachers there's anyone given a testimony about the adverse experiences that they've had in life and how God brought them out of whatever out of alcoholism out of drug [00:27:22]

use out of sexual abuse or all of these, you know, learned things, how God brought them through and out of that because that's a slap in the face of the enemy because his power is in fear. And that's why Peter sunk, and that's why David is standing because David is fearless because he knows the power of God. [00:29:04]

The battle of, am I going to depend on the material or am I going to depend on the spiritual? Am I going to get caught up in the enemy's world and plan or am I going to get caught up in the enemy's world and plan? I am going to stand on God's plan. And when David stands on God's plan, miracles happen. [00:29:48]