January 15, 2012
Psalm 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
He governs our souls by grace. When someone shows you mercy you look at them and wonder what’s up. I deserve to be punished, what’s up with you? God wants to govern us by grace. It is favor by God, undeserved and there is nothing that you can do to gain it.
Obedience God’s Way
Our one desire should be to please God, to walk upright before Him, to obey Him. It all depends on how we look at ourselves and how we look at God. Obedience can freely be given to someone in authority who express love toward us. It is owed to a God who has shown time and again that He loves us. David says let the think that I say express that which is in my heart. We don’t want what’s in our heart and what comes out of our mouth be two different things. That’s lying.
Are we obedient to God? Not just with our words but with our lives. It begins in our hearts.
The children of Israel ask Samuel for a king (1 Samuel 8:19). Samuel is getting older and his sons are supposed to be the next in line but they are no good. They have not chosen to follow and obey the Lord. And the children of Israel want a king after seeing the other nations around them. God tells Samuel their not rejecting him (Samuel) but rejecting God.
Here comes Saul and he looks good. We have an image of what we want our leaders to look like. And Israel wanted Saul based on what they saw.
1 Samuel 13:8-11
Israel is about to go to war. The priest is supposed to bless them before they go to battle. Because the priest was late Saul does the blessing himself. This is against the law set by God. Isn’t it more important to wait on the Lord instead of jumping the gun to do it in your own time? What if the “delay” is part of God’s plan. Saul was elected based on popularity and he wanted to keep it. Because the people were grumbling and not looking at him he had to get it back
1 Samuel 15
Saul once again disobeys God. The Israelites are about to go into battle and God tells him to destroy everything but Saul keeps the king alive and some of the spoils that they were told to destroy. This time Saul is rejected by God (v26). The first time you can say it’s a mistake. The second time you cannot say you didn’t know better. It reveals your character.
Saul tried to fix it his way to make it look good and then throw some God in the mix.
Is it better to make sacrifices to appease God or to obey him? Sacrifices are usually done after we’ve screwed up. Sacrifices were done to fix the wrong that was done. But Samuel says it’s not about fixing the wrong but not causing the wrong in the first place.
1 Samuel 28
This is how far disobedience takes you. Samuel dies. When God rejected Saul, Samuel told Saul that God was done with him. So Saul knew he was out of the reach of God but with Samuel still alive he knew the voice of the Lord was in the land. Saul wants to hear from God but Samuel is gone so he goes to a medium. When Saul first became king he got rid of them but now that Samuel is gone he seeks one out.
We need to live upright before the Lord, to do it God’s way so that those who examine us can say like Pilot; "I find no fault with him". The tragic ending of Saul's life is that he committed suicide. He was going to be defeated; he was wounded in battle and fell on his own sword.
David tells us to check ourselves. The One we want to please is God. It’s about character. Truth could be in front of us but we would rather believe in other people’s opinions. Which would you rather live by: Someone's opinion or God's truth? It is important that we be honest before God and not let anyone change our stance for God. Let’s obey Him.
Pastor Pete
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