To Obey or Not to Obey, That is the Question | Robby Gallaty | 1 Samuel 15

I want to welcome you to Long Hollow. If you're here at Hendersonville, our campus, our chapel, or if you're at our Gallatin campus, so good to see folks from Gallatin yesterday. I don't know if you know this, but last week, in the summer, they had over 500 people at Gallatin. Is that not crazy? So we welcome, we celebrate you at Gallatin. If you're incarcerated as well, we welcome you. Today, the question is to be, I'm sorry, to be, it's not, to obey, that would have been a good quote, that's where I got it from, to obey or not to obey, that is the question. To obey or not to obey, that is the question. Full disclosure, when I was growing up as a teenager, I hated cleaning my room. Anybody with me? I kind of still hate, thank you, I still kind of hate cleaning my room as well. My mom would walk in and she would find clothes shrewd all over the floor. She would see finished soda cans on the dresser. She would see socks and shoes everywhere. Laundry was everywhere. And she literally would say to me as a teenager, you are not leaving this house until this room is what? Cleaned up, right? And about 20, 30 minutes later, I'd say, oh, mom, come on back. And surprise, this is anyone, she surprisingly came back

and she saw the floor was tidy. She saw the bed was made and everything looked great. And at that moment, she started to slowly make her way to the closet and I'd say, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. You might not wanna open that. Don't open that door up, mom. And then she would open the door and realize that I just took the mess and moved it to the closet. It was stacked from floor to ceiling high. Technically, watch this, the room was tidy. Unfortunately, it was not cleaned. Look at me. Some of you treat your relationship with God the same way. See, on the outside, you look good. You look like you're a bit, you look like you're following God, you look like you're worshiping, you look like you're giving but inside, you know the propensity of your own heart. The one word that I wanna set the tone for the whole sermon today is this. Write this one word down. This is the word, almost. Almost. The room was almost cleaned, right? I almost obeyed. I almost went. I almost gave. I almost served. I almost surrendered my life to Christ. Almost, I wanna submit to you,

is probably one of the most dangerous words in the Christian life. Why? Because almost can feel, from our perspective, like obedience while quietly leaving the door open for Satan to have a foothold. That's what almost does. This morning, I wanna introduce you, if you have a Bible, to a king named Saul. Saul was tall, dark, and handsome. He had it all. That's why he was called Saul. But Saul is gonna teach us that even though he went in the battle and it looked, for all practical purposes, like a victory, like success, Saul is gonna show us one thing, almost costing the kingdom. And I wonder where you are today, and I don't know all of you in here, obviously, and I don't know where you are, but where are you at with the Lord, where you are one step away of faith and obedience from a breakthrough in your life? But it's almost. You're almost there. You almost respond. You almost submit. You almost obey. 1 Samuel chapter 15.

I have to warn you, one of the most comical passages in all of 1 Samuel. If you have a Bible, we like to say word at Long Hollow, so if you're there at 1 Samuel, you could say word, verse, chapter 15. Say it like you mean it. Amen. Missed you guys, too. The word of the Lord. Samuel told Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you as king over his people, Israel. Now listen to the words of the Lord. Just a sidebar. We know this already from the Old Testament. Whenever you hear the word listen, it doesn't mean audio, hearing. It means action. Listen means to hear and do. It's what it always means in the Bible. Listen to the words of the Lord. This is what the Lord of armies says. I have witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they opposed them along the way as they were coming out of Egypt. Now go and attack the Amalekites. Completely destroy everything they have. Do not spare them. Kill the men, women, infants, nursing babies, oxen, sheep, camels, and donkeys.

Now, this is going to sound harsh, but there's a principle in this text about God and us. The first one is this. I wanna give you three ways for us to obey instead of not obeying. Number one is this. Don't disobey God's word. It's a simple one, but here's the point. When God speaks, how long should we take to act? It's not a trick question. No time, like immediately. When God speaks, we act. The principle in this chapter is this. You're gonna write down. Some notes, different things. I'm gonna give you the first one. Here it is. What you refuse to kill or destroy completely will come back to completely destroy you. The sin in our lives that we refuse to deal with and ruthlessly eliminate, if we leave it, like I said earlier, it's like a foothold for Satan to come back and destroy us. Say it another way. The sin you spare never stays dead. It destroys you. The thing you keep a little of ends up keeping you. Anybody know what I'm talking about here? I've been there myself. So God gives Saul a plan.

He's like, all right, here's the deal. You're gonna go after the Amalekites and you're going to decimate the population. Now, this seems harsh. Why would God decimate these people? Why would he get rid of children and men? Here's why. You have to understand who the Amalekites were. The Amalekites were descendants of who? Do you remember this? Pop quiz. This is fascinating. Here's a fun historical biblical fact. They're descendants of Esau. Remember Jacob and Esau? They are the bane of Israel's existence. God has repeatedly let these people have chances, grace after grace. Oh, sidebar. Remember when the Israelites left Egypt and went into the wilderness for those 40 years? Guess who the first group of people are that come and try to take them out before the mission starts? Do you remember who they were? The Amalekites. These are bad people, right? And here's what God's showing us. There is a systematic cultural mindset of people like this, in a sense,

that is bent on raping and killing and destroying the people of God. And what God's saying is, as an example, it's impossible to fix. So what I want you to do is hit the proverbial reset button on these people and we're gonna start over. Now, just as a sidebar, I had this in my notes and I took it out for time and then I went over because I said it, so I'll let you guys have it. I was gonna cut it out, but it makes sense, so I'll give it to you. Okay, all that's said. The number one question people push back, Nate'll tell you this from apologetics, one of the big pushbacks is, how did God allow slavery in the Old Testament? If he's a God of love, why would, you've heard this before. I can't believe in a God who allows slavery. Okay, first of all, let me just clarify. Again, this is a long sermon in three minutes. Slavery in the Old Testament is not slavery in modern-day world. In a sense of 90%, I heard one scholar say, 90% of the slaves in the Old Testament were prisoners of war, okay? God would say, go take on a nation, and here's what happens. When you take out, let's say, the Amalekites, there's only three options on how to deal with the people. You only have three options. Number one is this.

Now, keep in mind, picture in your mind a group of people who are bent on jihadist Muslims, Islam, that's what it is, okay? These people are bent on destroying anybody who doesn't worship Allah. I saw one undercover video years ago where they were leading the jihad Muslims, and one hand he had a pistol, and one hand he had the Quran. He said, if they don't take the book, give them the gun. Okay, not scary, but that's what they do. Okay, these people. So God says, go take them out militarily. You only have three options. Number one is this. You capture them and let them go, option one. What is that young boy, young girl, young man, what is he gonna do the moment he gets free? He's gonna come back and try to kill you again, okay? That's option one, so that's not gonna work. Option two is you kill them, okay? Option three is, which is the most gracious, is what? You bring them in as a prisoner of war. Now, one of the things about slavery back then, they were considered like family. They were treated very well back then. And so the point is not God trying to decimate the people. Here's the point, forget that for a moment. God is trying to see if Saul is gonna obey the first task that he's given. Let's see how well.

This is the first extracurricular activity on Saul's kingdom agenda. Let's see how well you do. And what does Saul do? Saul decides to win, but leave some people and take some goods for himself. And here's the problem. Saul misses the purpose of the expedition. Saul thought that the battle was a get-rich-quick military operation. No, this was an eradication of decimation. God says, I want you, let's see how well you obey. And Saul says, well, I think I know better than God. Now, I know you've never done anything like that before, but it happens, right? Now, here's the reality, if you're a Christian, maybe a new Christian, listen to me. There are going to be times in your Christian life where God is gonna lead you to do something that makes no sense in the natural, visible realm. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Pick up your family and move to California. Can I get an amen? Move from California, not to. Sorry, I have nothing against California. They need Jesus, too. Move from California. How many people heeded that word of faith? and I see your hands proudly. What took you so long to get here?

Anyway, I'm like, yeah, that's my favorite line. I meet him all the time. Hey, where are you from, California? What took you, anyway. I love California, to visit. But anyway, so step of faith. Or leave a job, like you have a job, God. Or step out in ministry. God's like, hey, I want you to do that. We don't have any money. God leads us to do things sometimes that make no sense from a human perspective. And it's not about, look at me, and you may be there. It's not about God being unfair. It's about trusting a God who has a perspective higher than you, who is able to see not just your past, but your present and your future simultaneously. It's about obeying the one who knows best for you better than you know yourself. Someone told me this years ago. God knows your future better than you know your own past. Think about that. Even when everything inside of us is revolting, we trust God. And that was Saul's failure. Saul decides to trust his own read on the situation over the word of God. And he's gonna pay for it, why? Because instead of slaying the enemy,

the enemy's going to slay him. Here's the point, and I'll say it one more time. What you refuse to kill in your life will one day come back and kill you. And we'll talk about that in a moment with Sid. Number two, don't disobey the word of God. Number two, don't grieve the Father. Don't grieve the Father. Look at verse 10. Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel. Now this is a very, a lot of things in this passage that are really neat to think about. I regretted. I think one translation says the Lord repented. Interesting. Does God repent? God repented. God relented. I was sorry that I made Saul king, for he had turned away from me and from following me, and he has not carried out my instructions. So Samuel became angry, and he cried out to the Lord all night. I'll just tell you what I don't think that means. He's not in his room. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray. That's not the kind of prayer. Samuel is madder than a hornet's nest. I mean, he is, why? Because his blood, or Saul's blood is on his hands,

because he anointed the man. He affirmed the man. He recommended the man, and now he's turned against God. Now, here's what I wanna explain. What does it mean for God to, quote, relent or regret or repent, right? It's an interesting concept. Before I explain this to you, I gotta show you that this is not the first time we see this concept in Scripture. How many people remember reading early, early in the year, January, another passage of the Old Testament where we see almost the same thing? How many people know where I'm talking about? Genesis what? Genesis six with Noah. You remember this? Verse five. When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time. That's a mouthful, right? I gotta pay attention. Nobody did good, and so the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and he was deeply grieved. That's an interesting word. I can't say it better than the commentator Matthew Henry

who wrote about what is happening here. So let me explain and read what he says, and then I'll give you some commentary of my own. Here's what he said. Repentance in God, lock in, is not, as it is in us, a change of his mind, but it is a change of his method. He does not alter his will, but he wills an alteration. All that means is is that God knows what he's doing, when he's doing, and God doesn't repent. See, because we think repent means I'm going the wrong way and I made a mistake, so I turned around. And the point I want you to think about is this. It's not focusing on regretting or relenting as much as it is on grieving God. See, this is the key here. When you and I sin, I want you to get this if you get nothing else. When you and I sin, did you know it grieves, feel the weight of this, it grieves the heart of God. I know what you're thinking, really? I don't get that, how do we grieve? That doesn't make any sense. Well, Paul said it this way, Ephesians chapter four. Do not grieve the what? Holy Spirit. Now, that's an odd response, and here's why. Because when you and I look at this theological concept, we're looking at it from a human perspective to heaven. And in order to understand how God regrets or relents

or even repents, you can use that word, just turn around, you have to understand there is a difference between emotions and affections. Okay, so follow me here. Emotions and affections, here's what I mean. God's sorrow, God's grief, God's regret are a reflection of his affection toward us. And when God grieves, it doesn't contain human emotions or characteristics like ours do. Here's what I mean. When God grieves over sin, here's what it's like. God is not crippled by the effects of grief like we are, because when we grieve, it bothers us. Somebody hurt us, the wounds are deep. Here's the difference. God's character is unchanged. He's unchanged by you, me, or anybody else. However, God grieves, and here's the idea. God grieves over us because he knows how much more you and I are capable of. That's why he grieves. C.S. Lewis said, we have a vacation holiday at the sea that we trade for mud pies in the sewer. We, God said, look, here's a kingdom. You can have it all, and we'd rather settle for viewing pornography behind the scene. We'd rather gossip about our friend, rather criticize. God's like, no, no, I got all this for you. Leave that alone and come here. Friends, if nobody told you this in a while,

God wants what's best for you. You have to understand this. God is for you. God loves you. He cares for you. He sees in you what you can't see in yourself, and so he's grieved when you're not doing what he has given you the ability and the capability of doing. I was thinking this week, what's a way to explain this and unpack this visually, and it hit me. The best illustration of how we grieve the Holy Spirit is Jesus and Judas. You remember the story? Before I tell you what happens in the garden, you have to understand the concept of an ancient kiss. In the first century, when a person greeted another person, say a man to another man with a kiss on the cheek, this wasn't a casual introduction. It was a sign of intimacy. It was similar to a son greeting a father or a student greeting a rabbi. Here's what you said when you kissed that person on the cheek. You said, I honor you. I belong to you. I respect you. I love you. Now watch this. Of all the signs that Judas chose

to identify his rabbi messiah, he chooses that one. So when I read the Bible, I always try to think, why not, I play the game, why not this? This would have been easier. Hey, listen, when we get there in the garden, I'm just gonna point him out from a distance. I'll say, that man. That would have been easier, right? He could have just walked in with a guard and said, hey, listen, I don't even want him to know it's me. I'm just gonna whisper in your ear, just say, I love that guy with the long robe, you know, long beard, that's it. Didn't say that. Why in the world, Judas chose, there was a dozen different options that Judas could have chosen, and he chooses the one gesture that portrays devotion, and he turns it on its head as a sign of execution. Why? Before I tell you what I believe why, there's one detail in the text a lot of us miss, because you have to go back to the Greek. When Judas goes, and I tell you, do this yourself. Go to Logos or go online, Blue Letter Bible, and look at the difference, fascinating. When Judas goes to the leadership and the police, and he says, hey, I'm gonna turn the Messiah in, he says, here is the sign so that you know who he is. Remember what he says?

I will greet him with a kiss on the cheek. Now, that word kiss, in the original first instance, is one time. It's a peck on the cheek, it's a single kiss. That's all it is, one time. But if you compare that Greek word with what actually happened in the garden, the Greek word changes. The Greek word used for what Judas does, different from what he says, is the Greek word for to kiss fervently, to kiss repeatedly, to kiss affectionately, and here's the point. It's the same word for a father throwing his arms around his lost prodigal son who finally comes home. That's what the affection is. Judas doesn't peck Jesus on the cheek and stand back. No, what he does, he lingers, feel the weight of this. He lays it on thick. He hems it up, you know, he hems it up so that it can become a big deal. Judas covered the worst sin in human history with the warmest sign of love he could counterfeit. And here's what stops us in our tracks and here's what stings the most. What does Jesus do? He doesn't recoil back like, whoa, what are you doing? He doesn't even like push him away like,

bro, what, what, this? We've been together. He doesn't do that. He doesn't shout, you hypocrite. You two-faced, he doesn't do that. This should shock you. Mark us all, Jesus simply responds with a question. Judas, are you gonna betray the son of man with a kiss? Friends, that, coming close, that is not the response of a critical judge. That's the response of a grieved friend. Because here's the point. You and I can only experience grief when we're betrayed by someone we love. That's the only way, right? I mean, you know this. And the pain in Jesus's question should really move us. Why? Because that's exactly what it means to grieve the heart of God. I was thinking about my own life. You know, some of the sharpest, deepest wounds, and y'all know this, in my life have been caused by some of my former closest friends. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You see, a stranger can look you in the eye and lie to your face, and it kind of rolls off your back. Doesn't bother you, because they don't mean much. But a friend, a best friend, a son, speaks to you in a way that you're blown away by.

Or a mom, or a dad, or brother, or sister, or college roommate. It wounds us. It cuts us deep. Why? Because you can only grieve someone you love. Friends, grief is what love feels like when it's been betrayed. And that's where Saul's standing. I mean, here he is, as a son, to father God, loving father, who's given him everything. He's crowned him king. He even said, man, me, I'm like the lowest of all. What are you gonna? God's like, no, no, that's the thing. I'm making, and Saul forgot where he came from. Saul forgot who he's serving. Saul forgot who he was listening to. And instead of owning up, this is the point of the message, that owning up, what is Saul gonna do? He's gonna justify. He's gonna rationalize, gonna minimize what he's done, which leads us to the third warning in our life. Don't ever cover your sin. Verse 11, I warned you, this is the most comical part of the passage. Here we go. I just love this. This week, I just laughed out loud. Early in the morning, Samuel got up to confront Saul.

Now remember, God told Samuel the night before what Saul did. Saul, unbeknownst to him, doesn't realize Samuel already knows he's a prophet. Saul went to Carmel, where he set up a monument for himself. I did so good. Let's get something erected right here in honor of me. I didn't put my face on it. That'd be fine. No, seriously. Sets up a monument for himself, and then he greets Samuel like a prophet. Bless you, my brother. May the Lord bless you. Oh, by the way, I have carried out all that the Lord instructed me to do. Now, so imagine, see, Samuel comes up. Saul's like, Hamer, listen, bless you, my brother. You're doing so good, bless you. Oh, by the way, I did everything. Now, he didn't realize Samuel already knows. This may be the mic drop moment of your entire Bible. I mean, this may be the greatest line of the Bible. That's all Samuel says is what? Go to the next one. He says, what is that sound of sheeps, goats, and cattle I hear? Mic drop. That's all he has to say, because he wasn't supposed to keep any of them.

He's like, what is that? And it's at that moment, Saul knows he done messed up Aaron. I mean, he's in a bad place right here. Saul answered, well, you don't understand, bro. The troops brought them back from the Amalekites, and they spared the best sheep and the goats and the cattle in order to offer a sacrifice to the Lord God. But the rest we destroyed. Verse 22, then Samuel said, and here's the verse we know well in context that I just gave you. Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look, to obey, underline, circle it, memorize it. To obey is better than sacrifice. To pay attention is better than the fat of rams. See, Saul thinks he can get away with lying. What he doesn't realize is that the man of God has spoken to God the night before. Now, we may not have a Samuel come approach us in our life to reveal our sin, but at the end of the day, here's the principle. You and I can hide and cover our sin from man or man or woman, but you cannot hide from God. You cannot hide your sin from God. Now, God may not reveal your sin publicly like this for all to see, might not put it on X or Instagram or Facebook, but God sees all of our sin privately, and I'll show you how it works.

Let's say, let's just take, for example, don't say it out loud, think internally. Everybody in here has it. including me, everybody in here has a consistent, persistent sin that plagues them. It's appearance, or pride, or a quick temper, anger, gossiping tongue, addiction, whatever it is, we all have that consistent, persistent sin. Here's my question to you. If you knew tonight when you're going to look at that cell phone, if you knew tonight when you're gonna comment on, if you knew tonight when you scream or respond back to your family, if you knew that Jesus would be in the room next to you, would you still do that sin? I'm talking like right next to you, like right there. Would you say, you'd probably say, of course not. Would you listen to music or watch a movie if Jesus sat beside you? Like, hey, Jesus, we're gonna watch this R-rated, or better yet, let's listen to this gangster explicit rap together. Here, take this AirPod. Would you ever do, you would never do that. Would you take out your phone at night when no one's there, with Jesus on the bed with you, and swipe through pornography of him? You would never do that. You're saying, that's crazy, I'd never do that.

Well, guess what? He's there all the time with you. Can't see him, but he sees you, and he sees me. Now, I wanna grant Saul the benefit of the doubt. I was thinking this week. Let's just say, for example's sake, he didn't really know what was happening on the battlefield. Let's just grant him that. Let's just say he's not purposely trying to cover up for the sin he committed. If that's the case, it teaches us another principle, and that principle is this. Young people, sorry for this word, but sin, write this down, this is a profound truth. Sin makes you stupid. Not really, but it is pretty profound, if you think about it. Did you know that? Sin makes you do stupid stuff. Anybody know that? The sin of disobedience in our life blinds us to the reality of our disobedience to God. I'll say it another way. Pride in your life, brother, and mine blinds us to the fact that we're prideful. If somebody says to you, hey, you're prideful, you probably say, me, not really. It's not until you have a trusted friend or confidant who you love and appreciate, and you know they want the best for you, speaks into your life to help you.

I have three discipleship groups. I get the privilege of leading, and I have one accountability group that I meet with, and these brothers will tell me the truth, and I'll ask them, and they'll say, yeah, you actually are being that way. We need that in our life, amen? You need somebody who loves you enough to tell you the truth. Here's what I've learned about pastoring churches now for over 20 years. I've learned, I've had to, unfortunately, let people go through the years, and here's the thing I've realized, and you can do this in your job, secular world, in your own life, it'll resonate. I have never, and I've been in the business world too, let's say this world, the church world, I've never asked someone to leave the church, okay? And they said to me after I let them go, bro, thank you so much. I really see why I messed up. I need to work on that. Thank you for being up. Never, you either. Think of the last person you let go. Here's what they said to everybody. I have no idea why I got let go. I really have no idea why. So I'm thinking about this this week,

and the Holy Spirit taps me on the shoulder and says, you're doing the same thing, because I thought back, I got fired after college, my first job, Alliance Prepest, I was selling printing equipment, and scanners, and printers, and all this. I was there six months, and they fired me. And I thought, to this day, I've been telling people, to this day, I don't even know why they fired me. And then I realized, there's a reason they fired you. You may not know it, but here's the thing. Nobody wants to admit it, including you. Including me. Why do I tell you that? You heard this story, but years ago, two MAC team elders at our church met with me on the front end of the Move of God revival at Long Hollow, and they took me to Metro Diner. How many people remember that place? I was there two and a half hours on a Friday morning. These two brothers loved me. One of them may be in the service. Loved me enough to tell me the truth. And I was only here four years, so I was still learning the culture. I didn't understand what was happening. And they started to tell me things about the church and issues in the congregation. I didn't see it.

I was like, these guys don't know what they're talking. What are you talking about? I'm leading the church every day. I don't see that. And I had a choice, and here's the point. When I left that restaurant, Candy will tell you, I was broken. I was emotional. I didn't know what to do. I had two options, and you only have two options in life. Watch this. When someone confronts you, especially when they love you and they're there for you, when they confront, and I knew these guys loved me and loved Long Hollow. When they confronted me, I only had two choices. I could push back and say, these guys are clueless. They need to just go. It's a new day at. I could have said that. Or you can take what they say, as hurtful as it is, and you can apply it to your life, and you could do. spiritual soul searching, and by God's grace, and God used other guys in this room to tell me the truth of things I didn't see. Little did I know, watch this, that decision to not push back, but to listen, would lead to me sitting on the porch 10 months, then the revival at Long Hollow. Little did I know, it probably saved my ministry

here at Long Hollow. It changed my life, and I think it changed the course of our church, who knows, for eternity. Here's the principle I've learned from all of that. I want you to write this one down, if you write nothing else. Here's the principle. Every criticism in your life and mine, every criticism contains a kernel of truth. Everyone. The random person who's commenting, the coworker who you say, they don't know me, the boss who fired you, the relationship you were just in, the mom who's, every criticism in your life has a kernel of truth. And it's not if we're gonna, listen, we're all gonna mess up, we're all gonna sin. The question is, how do we recover? Now, I don't know if you caught in the reading, but as we're reading this passage, you realize there is a parallelism between Samuel and Saul and another king and another prophet and another sin and another confrontation. In a sense, they are parallel in the sense of everything's the same, but one. Did you catch this? Samuel and Saul, king, prophet, sin, confrontation, mimics David and Nathan. Did you catch that? A king, a prophet, a sin, Bathsheba, and a response.

The only difference is how these two men responded. Hey, King David, Nathan here. Now, you gotta remember, Nathan speaks openly. He can get his head lopped off. He's done. Nobody approaches the king and calls him out. It's like, hey, can we have a story time for a second, please? Yeah, okay. There's a man who loved a lamb. You know, he's telling me a story. There's a man who loved a lamb, and he only had one lamb, and the other guy had a lot of lambs, but he took his one lamb, and he took it from him. What do you do with the man? David says, kill that man. And what does Nathan say? You're the man, David. And what is that? David has a choice. He doesn't say, dude, you don't know. Who do you think? Get out of here. Doesn't say that. Could've. I don't wanna hear that negative. Get out. I don't wanna hear negative. No, he doesn't do that.

David says, you know this, Psalm 51, this is his journal of his life, of his heart. He says, I have sinned against God, and what? God alone. And if you go back, if you're struggling with sin and reconciliation, read Psalm 51. It's a healing balm to our soul, because here's what David shows us. It was through brokenness of his life that God brought breakthrough. Now, let's compare it to Saul. Samuel comes to Saul. Bless you, my brother. Do you see the monument I made of myself? Got the nose right and everything. Look at that. Bless you, my brother. I did everything. No, you didn't. What is the sound I hear? Instead of owning it, what does he do? He minimizes, he justifies, he rationalizes. Here's the difference in the response. When a wise man is confronted, or a wise woman, they don't ask, was the, write this down, was the criticism fair? It's probably never gonna feel fair. Here's the question they ask, was any of it true? That's what they ask, was any of it true? You probably throw away 90% of the criticism,

but there's a nugget or a kernel of truth in about 10% that God, through his Holy Spirit, can perform spiritual heart surgery on your life that can lead through transformation for years to come. And instead of doing soul searching, what does Saul do? He points the finger. I was gonna give this to the Lord. You know, this, I kept this for the Lord. Here's what he did. He justified what he didn't do in the past by covering up with a sacrifice in the present. Here's what he did. He traded obedience for activity. It's what I call the, I haven't done that, but what about this syndrome? You ever heard of that? I haven't, I know I didn't do that, or I know I'm doing this, but what about this, right? I know I'm looking at porn at night on my phone, but I am reading my Bible in the morning. And we do that at that time, right? I know I'm not sharing Christ like I should, but I am paying for people to go to the mission field. It's like, I didn't do that, but I'm doing this, right? I know I'm consumed with anger and I'm ornery and over the top and negative all the time, but I am raising my hand in worship at church. See, here's what we do. We compensate for our disobedience by covering it with activity.

And that's what God says. He despises that. Friends, here's the Christian life summed in one section. I want you to get this if you get nothing else. God is not looking for extravagant worship if he doesn't have from us daily obedience. The Christian life is not built on the back of sermons on platforms and worship experiences and preaching. That's not what the Christian, your Christian life is built on the back. of God says, do this now, and all of us are there. Do this now, and you do it, and then you take the next step. Not 1,000 steps later, one step now. So here's my challenge to us, daily, simple steps of obedience. Here's my challenge as we close. I want us all to open the closet of our heart today. Because the room looks tidy. I look at you, brother, like, man, that's a good-looking dude right there, you know? That's a good-looking guy. I mean, from the outside, we look spotless, we look clean. But what is crammed in the closet of your heart? What are you almost doing for the Lord? God's not impressed with a swept floor. He's impressed with a sanctified heart. So what is God asking you? I'm asking you personally. What is God asking you today to do that you've been putting off down the road?

Or better yet, what is God asking you to destroy and to eliminate or to get rid of today so that you can experience life and life abundantly? Here's what I know about confession of sin and breakthrough. Watch this. When you ask God to reveal something in your life, to remove it, you need to identify it in order to overcome it, right? You can't confess, or you can't, you can't heal from what you won't reveal. Write that down. You can't heal unless you reveal. You can't say in generalities, well, I just have a problem looking at bad things. No, I have a problem every night when my wife goes to bed scrolling through pornography on my cell phone. That's how I sit. You know, I need to watch my mouth. No, I gotta watch getting around my buddies at night at their house playing cards when I have a potty mouth and I curse all the time. That's the kind of stuff you gotta get real at. You know, I have a problem talking about people's back online. Or I have a problem with my mouth. No, I have a problem talking with people's back. So I need to get off offline so I can have a relationship with God. You need to repent by revealing

and then ask God to remove it. Now, some of you are like, man, I don't even think I could do this step of obedience because I've got to call somebody and apologize because I've hurt somebody. I've wronged somebody. I've got to reconcile with somebody. I'm gonna call a son or a daughter or a mom or dad or a wayward child. Friends, I'm asking you right now, we're gonna pray and I'm gonna pray for you. But here's what I'm gonna ask you to do. We're gonna ask the Lord to reveal what it is in our life. And everybody has something in here, by the way. What is God asking us to do? Either the sin of omission, we're not doing it, or the sin of commission, we are and we need to stop. What does God ask us? We're gonna ask the Lord for strength and then we're gonna present it to him and then we're gonna step in faith of obedience. Why? Partial obedience is disobedience. God, I'll do it, but I won't do that. God, I'll give, but I won't give that much. I'll go, but I won't go there all the way. Delayed obedience is disobedience. I'll go, but not now. I'll do it, but not today. No, that's all disobedience.

So whatever it is in your life, some of you need to break up in a toxic relationship you're in right now. Some of you need to stop texting another woman who's not your wife on a DM on Instagram or Facebook or a husband that's not your wife. Some of you need to stop criticizing friends, family, the church, online, behind, I don't know what it is. God knows, you know. Father, I'm asking right now, bow your head for a moment. We're gonna pray. We're just gonna ask the Lord to help us confess and reveal to heal. God, we're asking right now in our life to take away anything, God, that would hinder us having a relationship with you. God, we wanna confess it, not generalities or just something out there. We want something tangible. We gotta name it and claim it in order for you to get rid of it as we confess it. So God, whatever it is, we're claiming that. We don't even know how we're gonna get over this. We don't think we have the strength to do it, but that's why we need you. And so I'm asking right now, God, that you be with us. You go before us. You give us the energy and the ability to do it. For your glory, we want the best in the Christian life.

We can't expect to be blessed in the future if we can't take a simple step of obedience today. So we ask it in Jesus' name. God's people said.