It was not a good day for King Saul. God had given him a command and he failed miserably. The story is in 1 Samuel 15. God had told Saul to attack the Amalekites because they had opposed Israel. The prophet Samuel told Saul that he was go in and slaughter and destroy EVERYTHING… every person, every animal, and all the stuff they find. Nothing was to be left. As the story unfolds, Saul attacked them but didn’t fully obey. It says that they captured the king and they confiscated things that looked valuable to them. They only destroyed what was worthless. Hence, Saul did what he wanted; not what God commanded. When confronted with this, Saul said… “Oh, but we’re going to sacrifice these things to the Lord.”
Because of his disobedience, Samuel the prophet told Saul that God had rejected him as king. And then he says these infamous words: “Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22). In other words, obedience is only obedience when it’s fully carried out.
As Christians we want to submit to the Lordship of Christ, right? I mean… this is our hearts desire. If we don’t have this desire, then we should question if we are TRUE followers or if we’re following for our own benefit. This morning when I was reading this story of Saul, I thought… sometimes we are just like that. We hear what God is saying but for whatever reason, we pick and choose what we want to listen to. What’s easy for us. What seems right at the time. Here’s the thing though… submission to the Lordship of Christ means that I fully obey. Let’s examine this for a minute by looking at some mandates in Romans 12…
Paul writes: “Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other” (Romans 12:10). We think… how can I honor someone who keeps stabbing me in the back? So, we ignore this mandate when it comes to certain people.
Paul writes: “Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them” (Romans 12:14). But our hurt is stronger than our obedience. We pray that God will take them down rather than bless them.
Paul writes: “Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). We are good at weeping with those who are struggling, but being happy when God has blessed someone or when things are going well for someone and it’s not going so well for us? Not so easy. Sometimes our jealousy wins over following God’s mandate.
Paul writes: “Do all you can to live in peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18). We think… I can live at peace with this person, but this person is difficult so I choose to keep arguing with them rather than find some middle ground of peace.
Now, do you understand how we can be like Saul? But listen closely… we aren’t perfect and we can never do everything right all the time. Even the great apostle Paul struggled to always obey. But God just wants to know that we’re trying and trying hard to obey. Submitting the Lordship of Christ means that I listen and seek to obey ALL His mandates not just the ones I want to or the ones that are easy. For those hard ones, we ask… “Lord, help me because I can’t do this on my own.” This message is speaking to my heart this morning. I want to submit fully. Let this encourage you today.