Obedience is Better than Sacrifice

What the freedom we desire is on the other side of obedience? 

In 1 Samuel 15, the Lord commands Saul to devote things of offense to destruction. But Saul, in his disobedience, decides to offer some things he kept back as a sacrifice. The Lord makes it clear: He desires our complete obedience in what He has commanded. Not the sacrifice of the defiled things He requires to be destroyed. 

The Lord wants to free us. He wants us to know Him and to experience His love, grace, and mercy. He wants us to grow in sanctification and wisdom. But these things cannot happen if we refuse to surrender and give over to the Lord the things that have held me. To destroy them fully out of our lives. To destroy the idols that have held us captive. 

Friends: Jesus is alive. He wants us to walk in confidence. He has come to free us from the oppression of the devil, the tyranny of the flesh, and the bondage of the world. Today, let's fully cut away the things that the Lord wants to destroy that have brought death that we would be raised into the newness of the life of Jesus.

Scriptures Referenced:

• 1 Samuel 15
• 2 Peter 1
• Acts 2
• Luke 9:23-24
• Isaiah 53
• Psalm 51
• Romans 5 and 6

You can find me on Instagram / Threads

Transcript

Carrie 0:05

Hey everyone, welcome to a brand new episode of Honey from the Rock. I am so glad you're here. And I am going to jump straight into today's episode. And today's episode is going to be talking about disobedience, things in our lives that the Lord once devoted to destruction, that his life can come forth. And how dealing with these things actually really prepares us for what the Lord has called us to. But also, I think really reminds us in a good way and in a hopeful way that Jesus has come to not only forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, from the very nature of what we are, but he has come and he has died to transform us into his likeness and to teach us how to be his disciples, how to not be our own master anymore, how not to be ruled by the pl the passions and the lusts and the desires and the things of our heart, mind, soul, and strength that are separate and opposed to the Lord, but to be transformed into his likeness, to have wisdom, to walk in a way that makes our calling and election sure, right? And when Peter says that to bear fruit, um, that Jesus has saved us, to draw us to himself, to walk in union and intimacy with him, and that he would be Lord of our life.

Carrie 1:55

And so I am I am moving away from John 15 and jumping into the Old Testament, into 1 Samuel 15. And part of the reason why this has kind of come to my attention and stirred in my heart and spirit is because, you know, the Lord is dealing with things within me. Uh, there are areas in my life that the Lord has said to me, I want you to devote these things to destruction. You need to let go. They are harming you, they are hurting you, they are between you and I. And I want to free you from them. I want them out of your life. I will help you get them out of your life so that you can walk in freedom and clarity and in wisdom and walk in union with me because that's what I died. That's what I died to give you is is union and fellowship with me and the father and the spirit.

Carrie 2:54

And the other thing that has kind of stirred this up is um, I talked about Jenny Allen last week in her book, uh, The Lie You Don't Know You Believe. So excellent. But one other thing that Jenny is doing is she is going around to college campuses and she's preaching and and revival is breaking out in small ways at these campuses. And what I mean by small is the Lord's just lighting a campfire here, it seems like, and a campfire over here. And why is he doing that? Well, if you listen to Jenny talk about it, one of the things that has really been the catalyst for revival, for the Lord pouring out his spirit, for college students to come and want to give their lives to Jesus and also find a church and be discipled, is while they're preaching, there's a particular point where Jenny encourages people to start calling out sin in their own life. Not the sins of what they think are the sins of other people, but the sins in their life that they have not confessed to anybody else, right? Things that they're holding on to. And she's not having people come up to a microphone and air their dirty laundry, but you've got 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 students in an arena or in a hall, and um they start calling out their own sin and they start confessing it to the Lord and they start repenting, and the Lord starts moving.

Carrie 4:31

And that is the pattern throughout scripture. You think of Peter at Pentecost, um, he preaches, you know, the the Holy Spirit comes on the 120 who are in the upper room, and people are like, Well, what's going on with those people? They're drunk. And Peter's like, uh no, it's 9 a.m. Also, I'm gonna stand up here and I'm gonna preach this sermon. And he basically lays out the plan of the Father to send Jesus to die on the cross so that people, not only Israel, but but Gentiles as well, would have the opportunity to come to come to the Lord and be redeemed. And what is the response of some of the people that listen to that in Acts 2? They're pricked in the heart, right? Their conscience is stirred, and they say, Lord, brothers, what does it take to be saved? And what does Peter say? Repent and be baptized.

Carrie 5:23

And so I think as we are walking out discipleship with Jesus, as we are trying to get to know the Lord more and get free, be free from some of the things that have just bound us so tightly for so many years. Uh, there are areas that the Lord is challenging me to let go of and to surrender to him and to repent of my grabby hands, essentially, you know, of holding on to things uh for a lot of different reasons. And so I want to dig into 1 Samuel 15, and I'm gonna do a brief overview, and then I want to share some things that the Lord really made stand out to me. So Samuel 15 comes at an interesting point in Saul's reign over Israel. The first couple of years seem fine, and then start Saul starts to do some crazy things, right? He starts to get a little whackadoodle. And he we've we've hit a point in 1 Samuel 15 where the Lord is already displeased with Saul because Saul has taken it upon himself to make some wrong oaths and put harsh restrictions on some of the people when they were fighting the Philistines. He did not wait for Samuel to uh make a sacrifice and worship the Lord after another battle, I think in chapter 13 or 14. Um, and he's he's shown signs of weakness in that he gets the word of the Lord, the Lord very graciously reveals to him what he wants him to do. And Saul seems to be like, thanks for the suggestion, Lord. And I'm gonna do 85% of it.

Carrie 7:23

And the other 15, I'm just gonna adjust and kind of, you know, make fit for my needs, right? So in chapter 15, Samuel goes to Saul and he says, This is what the Lord said to me about you. This is this is what the Lord's saying. Do not forget that I, the Lord, have anointed you as king over my people, right? So there's that reminder, like, yeah, Saul, you might be king, but the people still belong to the Lord. The Lord's essentially put you in a place of stewardship over his people, and that is a that is a heavy responsibility. And the Samuel reminds Saul that it is his job as king to ultimately submit to the Lord and to listen to the Lord's word, and he was to model that for the people.

Carrie 8:16

And in this particular instance, the Lord is calling Saul to go destroy the Amalekites. And the reason why the Amalekites needs to be destroyed to the uttermost is because of the way that they opposed Israel when Israel was coming up into the promised land. And so the command of the Lord is to destroy everything, all the people, all the livestock, all the gold, all the silver, silver, everything. Don't keep, don't keep any of it. And so Saul gathers his army, he gets ready to go, he shows mercy to the Kenites who were kind to Israel when they came up from Egypt. And then him and his army, they go and they defeat the Amalekites and they destroy a lot of things, but he doesn't completely obey the Lord. He keeps the king alive, and him and his army, him and the people, decide to keep the best of the oxen oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good. And the scripture tells us that the people and Saul were not willing to destroy them utterly. Everything that they looked at and they thought was despised and worthless, they destroyed. But the things that they kept for themselves are like, well, that looks really good. So we're not gonna destroy that. We're gonna keep it.

Carrie 9:44

And in the midst of all of this, the word of the Lord comes to Samuel, and he tells Samuel that he's regretted that he's made Saul king because Saul has turned his back from following the Lord and has not carried out his commandments, which Samuel then is distressed. He cries out to the Lord all night, and then he gets up and he's like, All right, I gotta go find Saul. So he sees a messenger who is like, Oh, hey, Saul was here at Carmel, but um he has built a monument to himself here, and now he's gone back to Gilgal, which I just find so interesting. So not only has Saul not fully obeyed the Lord by devoting everything to destruction, but he's also built a monument to himself and then moved along. So Samuel, you know, traipses back to Gilgal. And here's what's so interesting: Saul sees Samuel coming and he says, Blessed are you of the Lord. I've carried out the command of the Lord.

Carrie 10:52

And Samuel, like, if you have not read first Samuel in a while, I would encourage you to go back. This this book is bonkers in the best way, and it's also very sobering. There is so much happening. But Samuel, Samuel is a man who the Lord says not one word of his fell to the ground. There was not one word of prophecy or one word of judgment or one word of exhortation that Samuel gave that didn't see fulfillment. It all was fulfilled. Just he was incredible and he loved the Lord. He devoted himself to the Lord. So Saul's like, hey, I did it. I obeyed the Lord. Woo-hoo! And what does Samuel say to him? He says, What is the bleeding of sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen that I hear? He's like, Because I specifically, you know, I mean, underneath that is, I remember telling you that the Lord said, everything needs to be destroyed. And, you know, Saul then starts to do what I think we all do when we are confronted either by um a pastor or a friend who cares about us and loves us and is like, hey, I see this in your life. What's going on here? You know that that's not right. You know that that's wrong. You know that that's sin against the Lord.

Carrie 12:17

And again, freely confessing and owning that that's been my, you know, sometimes certain things that I've been confronted about when the Lord has tried to confront me on my own, and then in his grace and his mercy, send someone to me to say, Hey, what is this? Saul doesn't just own it. No, he does exactly what Adam and Eve do or did in the garden. Well, the serpent made me do it, while the woman made me do it. Saul here. Well, the people, they wanted to keep the animals. Oh, and you know why? Because they're gonna sacrifice them to the Lord. We destroyed everything else, but we kept these beautiful, lovely, choice, juicy animals uh, because we're gonna sacrifice them to the Lord. But that was not what the Lord commanded.

Carrie 13:09

And so, you know, Samuel then says to Saul, let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night. And and I, this is such an interesting thing because, again, just the exposure and there it there is so much to relate to in Saul, and there is so much to relate to in Samuel because the Lord's righteousness and his requirement in obedience is is paramount, right? We it is on us to obey, it is up to the Lord to bring about the outcome when we obey. And if we disobey, then we reap the consequences of going against what the Lord has called us to do. And that's what's happening here. And before I go any further, I also just want to say, please understand that I am not saying that if you or I are in an area of disobedience right now and the Lord's convicting us about it, and we need to deal with it, that the Lord's like standing on the razor edge saying, I'm about to tear from you everything that I've ever promised to you. That's not what I'm saying.

Carrie 14:14

But I think there are some this chapter, chapter 15 of 1 Samuel, gives us a picture of the righteousness and the holiness of the God who sent his son to die for us. And that this is how serious obedience is. And it's not obedience from a place of, well, I've got to obey the Lord so I can earn my salvation, but that obedience is what is is due to the Lord. It is, it is his right as God of the universe, as the one who has sacrificed himself to say, when this is what I command you to do, I expect you to do it. But then on the flip side, he also says, I don't expect you to do it in your own strength. I will give you my spirit, I will give you my word so that you know you don't, you're not sitting up there second guessing, like, oh, what does God want me to do? I have a whole book that I've given you to show you what I love and what I hate, what obedience looks like and what disobedience looks like. So I just wanted to slip that caveat in there.

Carrie 15:23

But uh Samuel says to Saul, Isn't it not true that though you were little, and in the Hebrew that means feeble, in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And what I what is so what caught me about this verse is Samuel is reminding Saul that when he was first approached to become the king of Israel, Saul was rightly humbled. The Pulpit Commentary puts it like this, "Before his elevation to the royal dignity, Saul had deemed himself altogether unequal to so heavy a task. And that was in 1 Samuel 9. But now, after a great military success, he is filled with arrogance and will rule in open defiance of the conditions upon which Jehovah had appointed him to the office." So now Saul's like thinking that he's got this in the bag, right?

Carrie 16:44

But this is what happens when the Lord calls us to obedience in specific areas, and we decide that we're only going to partially obey, which incidentally is really no obedience at all. Because if we're not going to do it, or you know, and whatever it is, if we're not gonna deal with the things that the Lord requires us to deal with, if we are not going to um follow through to the uttermost, count the cost of obedience and say, Lord, you are worthy of me laying down my life in this area, you are worthy of me letting go of my offense, my bitterness, my unforgiveness. Lord, you are worthy of me trusting you when you say it's time to quit that job because I have something else for you. Or, Lord, you are worthy of my allegiance when you say this thing in your life, this relationship in your life is not good for you and you need to take a step back. Or um, I there's a multitude of things wherever it is that the Lord is speaking to you. If you know that the Lord has said something to you, that there is something in your life that is displeasing to him, there is nothing but full obedience to what the Lord is requiring of you that will that will work. That will work.

Carrie 18:06

Elizabeth Elliott has a quote, and I'm gonna butcher it, but I'm gonna try and say it anyway. I believe a lot of what is disguised as struggling today in the church is actually disobedience. You know, and I'm not saying, please hear me say it that we can't, when the Lord asks us to do something, you know, we wrestle with it sometimes. But we have to be be wrestling forward and we have to be wrestling with the Lord and not against him. We cannot wrestle against the Lord. But there is a place of wrestling with him to say, Lord, what you have asked me to do is difficult and I am struggling. Please help me. Please help me come to terms with what you are asking of me. I know your grace is sufficient. I know you're gonna hold me in this, Lord. And I am choosing to trust that what you are asking of me right now, even though it might feel unfair or unjust or like I'm going to lose self-protection or I'm going to have to trust you to be my provider, or whatever it is that I'm choosing to wrestle towards what the Lord is calling me to do rather than obstinately wrestling against him. And there's a huge difference.

Carrie 19:20

And that's what Saul is doing here. You know, he he doesn't he doesn't immediately humble himself and say, you know what, Samuel, you're right. I, you know what, this is what the Lord said, and I screwed up and I need I need to repent and I need to come before the Lord and humble myself and and ask him to forgive me and to cleanse me from my sin. No, instead, Saul digs in deeper. He digs in deeper and he says, but I did obey, and here's what I did, right? But it was the people, it was the people who wanted to bring back um, you know, all of these animals. And and I brought back the king, you know, kind of like a trophy. Um, and we're, I'm telling you, why are you, you know, you can kind of feel it as you read it. Why are you getting so angry at me, dude? We brought this stuff back to sacrifice the best, but here's the key.

Carrie 20:13

This is what Saul says to Samuel. We've brought these things back to sacrifice the best to the Lord your God. And there is the issue. There has been so much disobedience in Saul's life, there has been so much rejection of the word of the Lord, there has been so much snuffing out the conviction of the Holy Spirit that now he's not even identifying the Lord as his Lord. But he's saying to Samuel, Well, we were going to sacrifice to your God. And that's when Samuel utters verses that these verses which have been used and have been preached much on in the church, but they are they are powerful and they are a warning.

Carrie 21:04

And Samuel says, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry, because you have rejected the word of the Lord. He has also rejected you from being king."

Carrie 21:33

And friends, this is this is what I want to encourage you with, and I want to encourage myself with because there are areas in my life where the Lord is saying, Carrie, you need to let this go. And I and again, I'll be honest with you. It's it's in areas of um of forgiveness, it's in places where I freely Admit there are some times where I still feel like, you know what? I have the right to feel this way. And the Lord's like, huh? Excuse me. And again, that's not to deny hurt. That's not to deny all of those caveats. And but it's to actively choose and to say, Lord, you require me to forgive as I have been forgiven. And I need to do that. And I am confessing to you, Lord Jesus, there are days that that's hard. There are days that I don't want to. And yet this is what you have called me to do.

Carrie 22:38

Because do you know what unfor do you know what unforgiveness does? It does not put the person that you have not forgiven in bondage. It puts you in bondage. It puts me in bondage. There are so many things that as hum as human beings, as sinful human beings, we feel like we have the right to not only hold on to, but to nestle away in a cave like smug in the hobbit, right? These little, these little chunks of gold and diamond, all these things that look precious to us, but are actually treasure that are are it's the treasure of sin. It's the it's not treasure that's set aside in heaven.

Carrie 23:19

And I don't know the areas, obviously, in your life where the Lord is saying, hey, this thing right here, this is between us, and I want you to devote it to destruction. And we're like, but Lord, this looks like a good thing. Or, but Lord, you know, I I just I don't think I can let go. Or, but Lord, like, do you know that if I do this, you know, if I quit my job, or if I move here, or I do this, like that means I actually have to trust you to provide for me. It's all of those things. And I think that Jesus in his graciousness to us comes in, and sometimes it is very gentle, and he is he extracts things slowly. But also there are times when he comes in and he binds the strongman, he comes in and he says, I have had enough of my child, my disciple, my brother, my sister being in bondage to this thing. And today I am going to say to you that if you will devote these things that I am saying, devote them to destruction, there is a freedom on the other side of that that you have been crying for and desiring, and I want to give it to you, but you have to let these things go. You have to devote them to destruction. And you can't half do it. It has to be all the way.

Carrie 24:57

And that's why I think this chapter is so powerful because we we get an actual biblical account of this. This happened. This happened to Saul. The Lord rejected Saul from being king. And again, I'm not saying that the Lord's just wait, look, if you don't do this, I'm gonna reject you from this and I'm gonna do that. No, but it's the spiritual principle that I really believe that that the Holy Spirit wants to impart to us. There are things that we hold on to that the Lord is saying, you've come to me, you've come into the promised land, right? You've come in and you have you have surrendered your life to me, right? In that very general, Lord, I I know that I can't do this anymore and I need you.

Carrie 25:51

And but surrender is not a one-time thing. Surrender is continual because there are places and pockets of things in our lives that have come from tons of different circumstances that the Lord then starts to reach into and say, I want to free you. I want this this is a thing that is here and it needs to be devoted to destruction. And and don't keep don't keep one iota of it. Don't do what Saul did and and give most of it to me, but say, Oh Lord, I'm gonna use this and I'm gonna, I'm gonna show you that, like, I'm gonna offer this as a sacrifice. When the Lord's like, it's a defiled thing. I don't want it as a sacrifice, I want it destroyed. No remnant left of it in your life.

Carrie 26:47

And I I want I want us to really lock in to what Jesus is, he's he is freeing his people. He died so that sin would no longer have dominion over us. He wants us to walk in the kingdom of light. He does not want us to live in deception, he does, he will not share the throne of our hearts and our life with the idols that we have had in the past. And I'm not talking about, you know, bowing down and and praying to a little statue, but the idols of our hearts. And there are some people who have done that. There are people who have been in other religions or in New Age, and the Lord has delivered them and saved them. And that's idolatry in that way.

Carrie 27:41

But the idols that we set up in our own heart or the things that we hold on to that we choose to still serve rather than destroying them and surrendering all of the authority of our life to the Lord are places where the Lord will continue to go after because he loves us and he does not want to see us walk in self-deception anymore. He doesn't want us to stay bound by the lies that people have spoken into us and by the lies that we have just believed ourselves. He has died to free us from the oppression of the devil and from the tyranny of the flesh and from the bondage of the world.

Carrie 28:36

Friends, this is what this is what Jesus has done for us. And with where our world is at, and with and with the pain and the suffering and the horrors that people experience, the Lord is raising up a people who can freely and willingly say to the Lord, Lord, I will devote to destruction the things that have held me. I devote, I give them to you, Lord, help me to destroy them fully so that I can walk in peace and love and joy. I can walk in you, and I can then turn around and minister that same freedom and joy at your leading to people who you are drawing to your kingdom. Friend, it is, it is not, it's not enough just to be quote unquote saved. And I mean that in the way of saying that I know Jesus or I've accepted him as my savior, but not let his cross have its full and effectual work in our lives.

Carrie 29:46

And I know that this chapter is in the Old Testament, but again, it's a picture of the holiness of the Father and how much he hates anything that is going to sit on the throne of our lives. And in his goodness and in his grace to us, he convicts us of our rebellion. He convicts us of our idolatry, he convicts us of our stubbornness and our digging in our heels because he, because he knows, he, he knows what that bondage will do to us. He knows that our adversary seeks to steal and to kill and to destroy. And Jesus has died to set us free. He has, he wants us to walk in fruitfulness with him. And this isn't some, you know, just rah-rah, feel good, because you know what? How a lot of these things are dealt with are in suffering and in affliction.

Carrie 30:50

There, the the discipleship walk is not an easy one. We're called to crucifixion and the laying down of our lives to Jesus, the forsaking of ourselves, the surrender of our dreams, the surrender of how we thought our life was going to look like. We are required. Jesus says, come and lay it all down at my feet. Come rest in me, but lay it all down and let me pick up. Let me, let me design your life. Let me lead you into what I have called you to because I know you. I have woven you together. I have made you the way that you are. And these things that you want to hold on to for whatever reason, I want you to give them to me. I want you to confess. I want you to repent, and I want to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Carrie 31:48

Because there, friends, I am telling you from my own life, and it is something that I struggled with for years, is this stinking perfectionistic play acting. I was a Pharisee. And I still fight my Pharisiacal tendencies of play acting, of, of, of putting on a show, of trying to look like a good Christian, and yet inside agonizing, never feeling good enough, believing all sorts of lies about the Lord. And I am, I know that this is a season where the Lord is saying, because I love you, I have had enough of these things holding my daughter captive. I have had enough of these things holding my son captive. And in my goodness and in my grace and in my love and because of my holiness, I have I say enough. Let it go, surrender it, devote it to destruction, and walk into who I am. Walk into the place where obedience to my word, where owning what you are, that you are a sinner, that you've screwed up, that there are things in your life that you are deeply ashamed of. Bring it to me, the Lord says. Bring it to me so that these things no longer have power over you. Come to me and surrender them to me so that you can know in the war that my banner over you is love. That I want these things out of your life, and I want to free you from them so that you can stand in me. You can walk in the light of my love. You can walk in the confidence that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, that you have the perfect place in my kingdom, a spot that I have designed just for you. You have work to do in my kingdom. I have things about me that you that I want you to know about me. I want you to know me. These are the things that the Lord says to us.

Carrie 34:02

And if we're going to see those things happen, not only in us, but in the church, we must devote the things of disobedience, the things of sin, the things that we hold on to, that we know the Lord is saying our bondage and and and wrecking us, we must devote them to destruction. We must obey the Lord and and and trust him. Trust him in our obedience. And that is why what Samuel says to Saul is so necessary to read. The Lord doesn't delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, he delights in obedience. Because obeying him is better than us looking at things and saying, Well, here, Lord, here's this, and yet shoving him away in the places where he is saying, No, I want this instead. This is what I want from you.

Carrie 35:05

And I would encourage you to dig into the words rebellion, divination, insubordination, iniquity, because they are intense. But this, this, this is where we have been, friends. Like the rebellion that's been in our hearts, you know, we we were enemies of the Lord before he came to us. And in coming to him, we have to trust him in the areas that he wants to deliver us from because we don't want to stay his enemy. We don't want to go back to being his enemy. And there's one thing before I wrap up, just consider the juxtaposition of this. Because Samuel says insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. The word iniquity means stubbornness, is idolatry. And it appears 78 times in the Old Testament, and it is moral perversity, interior deceit, outward oppression, ritual idolatry, the emptiness and the emptiness that attends each. That's the topical lexicon. Whether describing an individual heart, a societal pattern, or a physical shrine, the word signals a condition diametrically opposed to covenant faithfulness. This is, I mean, when David says I was conceived in iniquity in Psalm 51, this is what he was talking about.

Carrie 36:38

But here's the encouraging thing. Here is the thing that I want us to hold on to as we deal with the areas that the Lord wants to free us from and the areas that he is calling us to surrender so that we can walk in newness of life. Isaiah 53 says that there was no iniquity in Jesus. None. He has never worshipped another God. He's never been morally perverse, or he's he, and he's never walked in deceit.

Carrie 37:16

And I say that as encouragement because that is who went to the cross for us. Jesus, in whom there was no iniquity, became iniquity for us, became sin for us. In that while we were still sinners, Jesus died for the ungodly friends. He died for us. That's he wants to transform us. He wants to tear down the idols of our life. He wants to see them devoted to destruction so that we can walk in love and unity with him, so that we can know him and we can worship him in spirit and truth, so that we can find our place in this, in this kingdom of his, and so that we can proclaim his mighty name and the glorious works that he does to a world that is begging for freedom and doesn't even, that is so enslaved and doesn't even know it. Friends, we are called to carry the glorious banner of Jesus Christ in this world.

Carrie 38:35

So I just I encourage you, get alone with the Lord, go to where you know he is dealing with you. Surrender and devote the things that are holding you bondage to the Lord's destruction. And ask him, ask him to fill you with his freedom, with his love, with his grace, with reverence for his word, with a delight in obedience and with a single-minded focus to obey the Lord and to proclaim his glory and make him known. Amen.

Carrie 39:24

Thank you for listening to another episode of Honey from the Rock. If this episode or the podcast in general has encouraged you in your walk with the Lord in any way, could I ask a favor? Would you mind going over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and subscribing or leaving a review? These kinds of interactions on those platforms help get the podcast in front of more people. And I would greatly appreciate it. And I pray that you are blessed in the Lord.