Tag Archives: sermons

Pastor Wrinkles: A Road Through Romans 1:1:5

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Here we are five days into our Romans study and still on verse 1. I think we will be to verse 2 on Sunday; So just hang on.

If you have missed our previous conversations on Romans please find them on the

“Road Through Romans Page”

Today we are beginning to speak about one of the major themes in Romans. It is the idea of being “set apart”.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.

Right from the get-go Paul tells us he is two things. He is called, which we already said meant he was “invited”; And he is “set apart”. The Greek word Paul uses here is “aphorizo”. It means Paul is-marked off from others by boundaries, he was limited, or separated from others.

Paul starts his letter by saying, “I am different from other people. I am limited in ways other people are not limited. I have boundaries within which I live that other people don’t have.”

Once again it is important to note that these limits were not imposed by God. Paul was invited into them by God. They were necessary but they were not forced. Paul needed the boundaries because they were good for him. In fact we will learn later in this letter that those boundaries are actually part and parcel of the salvation that comes from God. Paul needed the boundaries, the limits because only inside of them could he walk in the fullness of power.

Paul helps us to understand the idea of being “set apart” or limited in his first letter to the Corinthians when he writes,

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 24No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. 1 Corinthians 10:23

Paul was set apart not just as an apostle but as a Christian. What that means is that those of us in the rank and file are really no different from the apostle in respect to being set apart. If Paul was different from others, we should be different from others. If Paul had boundaries he had to live within, we should have the same boundaries. If Paul was limited in his choice of behaviors, we should have limits. If Paul had to separate himself from the world, we have to separate ourselves from the world.

Now what in the world do you think that means?

Don’t Be Mr. In Between Pt. 4

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Today we will conclude our discussion on “friendship with the world.”

If you have missed any of our previous discussion segments you can find them….

HERE

HERE

OR HERE

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Yesterday we defined the terms “friendship with the world from James 4 and 1 John 2

Here’s the problem. Most of us mess with Mr. In Between. We do the absolute opposite of what we should do. We make friends with the world by accentuating the negative in our lives and by eliminating the positive.

We build up pride in our achievements and call it self-improvement or positive affirmation. I have no problem with saying someone did a good job or even “I did a good job”; But if I fail to recognize the role God plays in my success, if I take His credit then it is pride!

We encourage ourselves to hunger and thirst after lifestyles God never meant us to have by buying into the thought that Jesus intends everyone to have the best and newest of everything and so we begin to spend our resources for our own wants and needs rather than investing our resources with the Kingdom in mind. Folks when you get to Heaven God is not going to ask you what cable package you had or what television you watched it on. He is going to ask what you did with the resources HE gave you. He is going to ask you how what you did pointed other people towards Him.

Finally, we accentuate a life focused around forward advancement creature comforts and worldly success and pleasure and we eliminate the place of prayer.

God is challenging us in these days. God is challenging us towards relationship because He loves us. God has great things in store for you. God has amazing miracles in store for you. Some of you God would use to bring restoration to your family. Some of you are about to learn what it means to walk in a healing anointing. Some of you are about to be used as prophets. I believe there are people reading who are about to go on incredible God adventures . Some of you may have the opportunity to lay your hands on cancer patients and watch them recover. Some may even be given the opportunity to see the dead raised and lepers cleansed as you pray. But before He can do any of that you need to let go of your friendship with the world because it is holding you back.Mr. In Between is holding you back. Perhaps you have sold out for a paycheck. Maybe you have given up on God’s plan because you know it will displease someone important to you. You are holding back because you know the anointing means getting rid of your pet sin or that impure relationship.

Can I encourage you with these words of Jesus from  the Gospel of Mark?
Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

There is a price to pay for the life God wants you to have. But the price is never higher than the reward, even when the price is everything you have. So I dare to call you today. Will you leave behind your friendship with the world today and give everything to Jesus? He will give everything He has to you.

Don’t Be Mr. In Between Pt. 3

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Over the last few days we have been having a discussion on what it means to be a “friend of the world and an enemy of God.”

If you have missed the first two segments of our discussion you can pick them up

HERE

AND HERE

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Today we will begin to discuss the nature of friendship with the world…

The problem is  most of us can’t get out of our own way when it comes to having a relationship with God all because we won’t take Johnny Mercer’s advice. When it comes right down to it, many of us struggle in our relationship with God because we keep messin’ around with Mr. In Between or as James would put it we have a friendship with the world that makes us an enemy of God.

Folks, if this is going to change we must begin to accentuate the positive and eliminate the Negative, and I am not just talking about “thinking happy thoughts.”

John the apostle helps us to understand what we have to accentuate and eliminate when he gives us a definition of what being a friend of the world really entails.

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. 17And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. I John 2:15-17

So let’s put this to a list:

James says“Come close to God” (James 4:8)– Which means to accentuate a life in God that is a life rich in: prayer, church and study of the Bible.

John says- Eliminate a life focused on physical pleasure and comfort. (I John 2:16)

James says- Wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts (James 4:8)–  which means to accentuate a life based on Kingdom principles. Accentuate a heart that desires the things of the Kingdom of Heaven before everything else. This was the last point of last week’s sermon.

John says- Eliminate the tendency to crave and want everything we see. Stop wanting what everyone else has. Stop wanting all the creature comforts. (I John 2:16)

James says- Accentuate humility (James 4:7). This is a whole sermon series itself. I encourage you to do a study through the Bible on the subject of pride versus humility because humility is one of the most misunderstood virtues in the Bible. Suffice it to say we should accentuate the truth, which is that we are just empty vessels. Our created purpose is to be filled up and poured out, nothing more

John  says- We need to eliminate the tendency we have to take credit for God’s work by thinking our achievements are all about us and our talent, when they are really only gifts from God. (I John 2:16)

Tell me which of these forms of “worldly friendship” stands out to you as the hardest to avoid?

Don’t Be Mr. In Between Pt. 2

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Yesterday we started our discussion on “friendship with the world” from James chapter 4 using the song “Mr. In Between” by Johnny Mercer.

If you missed that you can catch up

HERE

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Now let’s talk about keeping away from Mr. In Between.

You know there’s actually a whole In Between family you should avoid if at all possible…They are a real problem for just about all of us.

You know who Mr In Between is don’t you? Oh sure you’ve met him. James talks about Him when he says, What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? James 4:1

Mr. In Between is the guy who goes to church on Sundays, but who fights all the way to church with the family. He’s the guy who puts on his plastic grin and walks into service. Then the worship leader starts Mr. In Between’s favorite worship song. Suddenly his hands are raised and  he’s praising God. Mr. In Between shakes hands  with everyone on the way out. Then, he gets in the car to go home and he gives the family the silent treatment for the rest of the day.

You know who Mrs. In Between is don’t you. James identifies her when he says, “You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.” James 4:2,3

Mrs. In Between is the lady who is trying to keep up with the Jones’. She’s the lady who gets jealous and pouty every time she’s invited to THAT friend’s house, because THAT friend has things Mrs. In Between wants that Mr. In Between can’t provide. So Mrs. I.B. goes out and spends money she doesn’t have to look good for people she doesn’t like and all the time she forgets to check with God to find out what HE thinks she should have.

And of course Mr and Mrs. have darling little Kid Betweens too. Of them James says, “Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning?” James 4:4,5

You can always tell a Kid Between. He has his thumbs wrapped around the latest I Phone tech. He can tell you almost anything about anyone on Facebook in a New York minute but can’t find Genesis in the Bible without first going to the Table of Contents to find out what page it’s on.

Last week we learned that Jesus loves us and passionately wants a relationship with us. Isn’t that just a kick in the pants? The God of the universe wants a personal relationship with you. If you were the only person on Earth Jesus would have died to restore relationship with you! You can have a personal relationship with God, a relationship where you can talk to Him daily and where He will talk back! This is  relationship where you will pray for things and God will do them because He loves you. You can have a relationship in which you are powerfully aware of God’s presence guiding you through even the darkest of life’s circumstances.

The problem is  most of us can’t get out of our own way when it comes to having a relationship with God, simply because we won’t take Johnny Mercer’s advice. When it comes right down to it, many of us struggle in our relationship with God because we keep messin’ around with Mr. In Between, or as James would put it we have a friendship with the world that makes us an enemy of God.

What do you think it means to be a friend of the world?

Don’t Be Mr. In Between Pt. 1

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My lead Pastor started home from Canada this weekend; so yesterday I got to take the pulpit and address the congregation at Cornerstone Church one last time. The title of the message was “Don’t Be Mr. In Between.” Here for discussion is pt. 1

Today our study together from the Word of God is taken from the Book of James Chapter 4. Let’s begin in Verse 1

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? 2 You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

You adulterers![a] Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. 5 Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him.[b] 6 And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,

7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Today we are talking about friendship with the world and what it does to us.

In 1944 Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen wrote a song that went like this:

As Johnny says, I feel a sermon comin’ on.

Jealousy Demanding As the Grave Pt. 4

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We have been discussing the nature of God’s love for us in this series.

If you have missed any part of the conversation you can pick it up

HERE

HERE

AND HERE

Today we are discussing the JEALOUS NATURE of God.

God loves you. God is crazy for you and that makes Him jealous for you.

God is not jealous of you. He is jealous for you. He wants to be first and only in your life. He wants the final word on everything: He wants the final word on what church you go to; He wants the final word on how much time you spend in private prayer; He wants the final word on what ministry you participate in; He wants the final word on whom you date and on whom you marry or even if you marry; He wants the final word on where you work and the final word on what you do with your free time; When you don’t give Him the final word He gets jealous.

If God were a human we would probably call him a control freak or maybe even a stalker; But God is not human. He is the creator of the Universe. We were made for Him and He has given all of Himself to us. Only when we let Him be God can our lives truly begin to click.

When we don’t let God call the shots we are practicing idolatry. God knows idolatry will destroy us. It will wreck our lives. He is jealous for us because He knows that He is what is best for us. Hear me, if we can come to the place where every decision is put before Him, the place where we willingly submit to His plan, then our lives will be truly full, meaningful and all that they should be.

Do you know God loves you? Do you know that He is protecting you. Do you know that HE is thinking about you? Do you know that He is jealous for you because He wants to see you become everything you can be and not be held back by distractions and idols that will destroy you?

So what should our response be to this kind of love?

Jesus loved us so much He died for us so that we might have eternal life. In light of that we should receive His gift of love. We should live for Him. And we should prioritize His kingdom.

Three responses to His love.

Receive His gift. Receive Him. In prayer let Him know  that His love is free to invade you and you won’t fight it.

Live for Him. Every single one of us has an area of personal holiness that the Spirit is talking to us about. Living for Him means to start obeying Him.

Finally prioritize His kingdom. He loved us enough to include us in the Kingdom. He expects us to be part of building it. When the Jews rebuilt Jerusalem under their governor Nehemiah no one got to sit down and watch while the rest worked. Every man and every woman for that matter in the city had a part in building the part of the wall that was nearest to their house.

Your responsibility as one of God’s loved ones is to build the part of the Kingdom that is near you. Support what God is doing in your area. God is crazy in love with us and we should desire to show Him crazy love back by receiving His gift, by living for Him and by prioritizing His kingdom.

Where have you seen the love of God active in your life this week?

Jealousy Demanding As the Grave Pt. 3

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Much can be said about the love of God, more than we have room for here. Still, we have begun speaking of it and so we must continue until our meager powers fail, though the depth of love never will.

If you have missed our conversation on God’s radical love up to this point, you can catch up

HERE

AND HERE

Now let’s continue with our discussion about God’s love…

God is crazy about you! He wants what is best for you! He sees what is best better than you do! Everything God does is motivated out of love for you and what is best for you. when you fight against it you are fighting against true love and your own blessing.

You see, God knows what is best for you because…He thinks about you constantly. In fact He cannot get you off of His mind Psalm 139:17-18

How precious are your thoughts about me,b O God.

They cannot be numbered!

18I can’t even count them;

they outnumber the grains of sand!

The truth is, He has been thinking about you since before the foundations of the earth. In fact,He had your life all planned out and was thinking about how to be involved in it before you were even born Psalm 139 goes on to say,

You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Psalm 139:16

God loves you. He knew every trial you would face. He knew every difficulty you would walk through and some of you have been through life threatening difficulties. He was there with you in them. You survived because of Him and He has a plan to redeem even the most evil of circumstances. He is going to give you back what you have lost. He is going to restore you to better than you were. He is going to heal the wound that Satan put in your body and in your spirit. He is going to save you unto eternal life because He loves you desperately. Remember, if you give Him an inch He’ll take a mile (see pt. 2) .  All you have to do to experience that redemption, that deliverance, that healing, that restoration is let Him in and then follow where He leads.

How is your life leading you to God’s restoration right now?

Jealousy Demanding As the Grave Pt. 2

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

Yesterday we started a discussion on the love of God. If you missed it you can find the conversation…

HERE

Oh the deep deep love of Jesus!

Oh the deep deep love of Jesus!

Now on to today’s topic…

Do you understand God loves you?  Because God loves you He is trying to save your eternal life.

To save your eternal life God continually works to draw you away from sin and into righteousness. He actively works to get sin out of your life. He is trying to rescue you from danger. Sin is dangerous. The truth is though,many of us don’t hold a biblical worldview of sin. We don’t really think sin is all that dangerous. In fact much of the time we consider sin just another form of fun!

And we are not wrong in that.

In Hebrews 11:25 we are taught that there is a pleasure to sin that lasts for a season. This is the part of sin that is fun. It is the part of sin that makes us think that God is trying to withhold something good from us when He tries to get us away from sin. Truth be told, It is pleasurable to sin.

But the Bible tells us that sin is a double-edged sword.

In Hebrews chapter 10 we are warned, “Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. 27There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies.”

You see, God loves you enough to protect you from that which will ultimately destroy you.

Here is something else I know about God. If you give Him and inch He is going to take a mile. This is something that many of you didn’t get when you invited Jesus to be Lord of your life. Jesus is absolutely crazy about you. Because He loves you, He is not content with just a tiny little bit of you. That being said, many of us joined the faith thinking we were just going to get forgiven of our sins by Jesus. We thought we would have this passing acquaintance with Him. You know what I mean. We planned to visit Jesus for special events. We planned to check in with Him when it was convenient. We thought we might do stuff for him if it wasn’t too inconvenient. Nothing serious. Easy Peasy.

The only problem is that is not how God thought about it on the day you approached Him for forgiveness. On that day, He moved in and set up residence. He started trying to take over. Now you find God is messing with your life and you don’t like it. You want to be forgiven. God wants you to be Holy. You want to go out and party on a Friday night after work and God shows up in your heart and starts making you feel all guilty about that drink in your hand or the girl at your hip. He just won’t leave you alone.

You feel like David in Psalm 139 when he said

I can never escape from your Spirit!

I can never get away from your presence!

8If I go up to heaven, you are there;

if I go down to the grave,a you are there.

9If I ride the wings of the morning,

if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

10even there your hand will guide me,

and your strength will support me.

11I could ask the darkness to hide me

and the light around me to become night—

12but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

Do you ever feel like you cannot get away from God but you wish you could?

Saulish Worship Pt. 5

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We have been discussing the heart that is acceptable to God over the last several days.

If you have missed any of the conversation you can find it…

HERE

HERE

HERE

AND HERE

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Yesterday we discussed the heart that was unacceptable to God and worship that was unacceptable to God by using an illustration from I Samuel 15

This is an example of Saulish worship. God gave a command. That command was, “Destroy everything.”

Saul reinterpreted that to mean “Destroy everything but those things you find useful.”

Then he compromised and said, “Well I won’t do what the Lord said to do but I will worship just after my own fashion. That will be good enough. God’s way costs too much. God’s way is too hard. So I have a better way. I am still going to worship God but I am going to do it in a way that makes me comfortable, a way that benefits me as well as God. God gets some of His way and I get some of mine.”

I believe this is the mindset that those on the day of judgment in Matthew 7 will hold (see Saulish Worship Pt. 1). They will worship God according to their way. Jesus says they do not do the will of the father even though they worship and serve. They are like Saul worshipping God but only in the way that makes them comfortable.

In contrast there is another story from 2 Samuel 24 of How David, the King after Saul, worshipped.

 “David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”

11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer: 12 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”

13 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three[b] years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”

14 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

15 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. 16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the Lord, “I have sinned; I, the shepherd,[c] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.”

18 On that day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up, as the Lord had commanded through Gad. 20 When Araunah looked and saw the king and his officials coming toward him, he went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.

21 Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”

“To buy your threshing floor,” David answered, “so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped.”

22 Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take whatever he wishes and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. 23 Your Majesty, Araunah[d] gives all this to the king.” Araunah also said to him, “May the Lord your God accept you.”

24 But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels[e] of silver for them. 25 David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the Lord answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped.”. 2 Samuel 24:10-25

What differences do you see between David and Saul?

Saulish Worship Pt. 4

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

Once again we are launching into a conversation on holiness and the type of worship God accepts.

If you have missed the previous postings of our conversation they can be found…

HERE

HERE

AND HERE

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In our previous discussions we have established that Grace isn’t just about forgiveness. It is about change. I am afraid while many are on board with the forgiveness part they are not on board with the change part.

There are two illustrations from the Old Testament that help us understand this mindset which is unacceptable to God and the mindset He desires us to have. Today I will share the first illustration. This  is the story of two kings…

I Samuel 15

1Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroya all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”

4So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. 5Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. 6Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

7Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. 8He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calvesb and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.

10Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11“I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

12Early in the morning Samuel 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 own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”

13When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”

14But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”

15Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”

16“Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”

“Tell me,” Saul replied.

17Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

20“But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21The 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 Gilgal.”

22But Samuel replied:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obeying the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

23For 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.”

What are your thoughts as you read this passage? What do you see in Saul?