Anush A. John Podcast
Anush A. John Podcast
The Sound of Sheep - The Deception of Devotion
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Is our devotion what we think it is? Or are we cutting corners in our commitment to God? This sermon looks at Saul and his assignment.
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Evaluation of Saul's Mission Failures
Speaker 1Thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, pastor David and Pastor Joey and Aaron and everybody for this invitation. We actually collaborated on a project last Christmas. We did 25 days of Christmas reading that our friends wrote on my website, so we had 25 days for Christmas reading. It was a fun project to do.
Speaker 1I have a confession to make I have very poor facial memory, so if I don't see somebody's face for about two months or so, I have completely forgotten their face. And two months is a very generous time. It's usually about, I don't know, 30, 40 minutes, but it's very difficult. And when I first started coming here in 2016, 2017, those years each time I came to speak, joey had a different facial and hair design that it confused me. I was like is it, joey? So if you met me earlier, when you saw me say hello, what you didn't see was the panic in my head, wondering if I've seen you before, if I acted like I didn't know you. I'm so sorry about it. I really struggle. My family's here and they will vouch for the fact that I can't see a movie through because I don't remember who was in the movie. You know, 20 minutes ago, because I don't remember who was in the movie 20 minutes ago. That's what it is.
Speaker 1If you are an employee, the odds are that you filled out some employee evaluation forms. When I bought my office from the previous guy, he had an annual evaluation form and there were these parameters and there were two columns and the first column was what the employee thought about themselves. They had to rate themselves out of 10. And then on the other column was what the employer thought about them, and sometimes it lined up. You know, the employee said I was 7 out of 10 in terms of my job efficiency and the employer thought, yes, you were 7 out of 10. But many times it's possible that the employee thought I was a 9 out of 10 in communication and willingness to learn something new, but the employer thought, no, you're only a 3 or 4 out of 10.
Speaker 1This morning, in a sermon entitled the Sound of Sheep, I want to look at a self-assessment that was completely different than reality. Turn your Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 15, and we will look at verses 10 through 26. 1 Samuel, chapter 15, verses 10 through 26. The word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my Commandments. And Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night.
Speaker 1And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel. Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal. And and Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him blessed be you to the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said what then is the bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Saul said they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord, your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction. And Samuel said the Lord anointed you over a king, over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission and said go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord has sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took the spoil, the sheep and oxen, the best of things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord, your God. And Samuel said has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.
Speaker 1I've divided the sermon into four parts. In the first part, we will look at the mission that God gave Saul. In the second part, we will look at the perception that Saul had about his mission. In the third, we will look at an evaluation that God did on the mission. And fourthly, we will look at the application and to see how it applies to us. First, let's look at the mission. This is what God commanded Saul.
Speaker 1Let me tell you a context to the story. The people of Israel had initially a theocratic society where God was directly king over them, and this worked well, because from Egypt, the people of Israel about two million of them came out of Egypt all the way through the desert, wandered for 40 years, and then they came to the promised land, the land of Canaan, and God was their king. But once they came to the promised land, they wanted to be like the other countries around them, and so they demanded a human king. And so God gives them a human king, against his perfect will and to fulfill the longing desire of the Israelites. And Saul was the very first king of Israel. And when God made Saul king, he gave him a test assignment, and this you see two chapters before.
Speaker 1In 1 Samuel, chapter 13, there's a test assignment, and the assignment was to wait, and Saul failed in the assignment. He failed in the waiting assignment. Just as an aside, let me tell you that the waiting assignment is an assignment that happens to every single person. If you've not waited yet, you have not lived long enough. You will wait, and God will make you wait, and sometimes you will wait your entire life for certain things. Many times you'll wait in seasons. Once a waiting period for something is over, you'll be waiting for the next thing and you'll wait for the next thing. Waiting is a very common test, and Saul fails this first test. But then there is another assignment that God gives him, in chapter 15, as we read, and this assignment is an actual warfare. And this is a very important assignment and the reason for it is because this assignment was to fulfill a 300 year old prophecy, because in exodus, chapter 17 and verse 14, it says the lord said to moses write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the years of joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of amalek from under heaven. So this was not an accidental assignment. This was a 300-year-old prophecy that was about to be fulfilled. So Saul was stepping into a very important assignment.
Speaker 1If you have young kids, they probably watch some kind of cartoon. Kids, they probably watch some kind of cartoon. And one of the genres of cartoons that have cropped up in the last decade or so is the abundance of Lego cartoons. And one of the Lego cartoons that have been played in my house as recently as yesterday is this LEGO cartoon called Ninjago, the Masters of Spinjitzu. Have you? Yes, yes, and in this LEGO cartoon and I know this because I've listened to it while I was doing my work, I hear it. So the main protagonist is Master Wu, and Master Wu is a master and mentor to these six ninjas. And these ninjas are Red Ninja, that represents fire, and Blue Ninja, that represents lightning, and Black Ninja, I think, coal, that represents earth, and there are three other ninjas of various different colors. And so Master Wu and I've heard this he tells them this is part of an old prophecy. So what they're about to do it's not some random, silly ninja work, it is part of an age-old prophecy that they're about to fulfill. So it is very, very important.
Speaker 1Saul was entering into a very important prophecy and it was not accidental. This kind of warfare was called harem, where everything in the target had to be completely extinguished. This was reserved for the severest of judgments, and everything was destroyed. This happened once before, when the people of Israel came from Egypt. All the way to the promised land, they crossed the Jordan river and the first city that they encounter is the city of Jericho. And God commanded Harem for the city of Jericho. It had to be completely destroyed and, of course, when God gave the command, he wanted everything completely destroyed. So here was Saul, an agent of the Lord, in spite of what he thought, representing God in judgment, and no profit was supposed to be taken. No spoil was supposed to be taken from this war A parallel to this harem or the war situation. No spoil was supposed to be taken from this war.
Speaker 1A parallel to this harem or the war situation is seen in the Levitical priesthood system. So there were multiple sacrifices in the Levitical priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood. One of the sacrifices, for example, is called a wave offering, where the priest would come and wave the flower or the grain or whatever it was, and once they submitted it before God, they, the priests themselves, could take the grain or the flower for their own families. But there's another kind of sacrifice, called as the burnt offering, and in the burnt offering the priest does not take anything. In the burnt offering the entire sacrifice is completely burnt and it's submitted as an offering unto the Lord. And that is how this was in this kind of a war, when everything had to be destroyed, and this was the mission.
Speaker 1Second, let's look at the perception. So Saul and his army went on this mission and they won the war, but they did not complete the job. There were two things that they did. One, he spared Agag the, the king of Amalekites. And second, they spared the spoils of war. It must have been precious metals, maybe some animals, money, weapons. So his perception of his devotion was completely erroneous. Even when Samuel tells him you didn't do everything, he says I did do everything. It's like that employee that writes I'm 10 out of 10 for communication and the employer says no, you're 5 out of 10 for communication because you don't listen to a thing I say.
Speaker 1And because of his actions. Verse 10 says that God was grieved. God was grieved. The only other time before this when it says God was grieved because of human actions was just before the flood, where God was grieved because of the wickedness of humans and he destroyed the world. So Saul had deceived himself and he grieved God. He was serving the self under the pretense of obeying God. So the self was first in at least two aspects. Firstly, in immaterial entities. In immaterial entities, after winning the war, what does Saul do? Let's read verse 12.
Speaker 1And Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul. And it was told Samuel, saul came to Carmel and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal. The first thing he does is he goes to Carmel to build a monument for himself and then he goes to Gilgal to sacrifice for the Lord. So first he celebrates himself, then he celebrates God. And you may wonder well, what's the problem with that? You know, if you've watched football or a soccer game and the person scores a touchdown or a goal, they go behind the goalposts and they do their little dance. Some of them are funny, some of them are cute, but mostly it's kind of weird. And then they come back and then they blow a couple of kisses Some of them are funny, some of them are cute, but mostly it's kind of weird. And then they come back and then they blow a couple of kisses, maybe to their god or to their grandmother or their coach or whoever they are looking up to. And then you're like well, what's the problem with that? Right, why not? Why not celebrate yourself first?
Speaker 1The problem is that for Saul, it was not just a one-time thing, it was a mindset. Even after this passage, even after God told him that I'm taking away the kingdom from you, he still wanted his honor to be intact. His honor was predominant for him. Those days when one king conquered another king, it was customary to parade the vanquished king in chains. So, even though it's not written specifically in this passage, it is possible that Saul brought back Agag for his own honor. Secondly, the self was first in material things. The command was to destroy everything in judgment, you know, like a burnt offering. But they picked up whatever they could and then whatever they didn't want, they gave it up to the judgment of God. And he justified his disobedience by saying well, it was for God, I wanted to sacrifice to God.
Speaker 1Napoleon was a French emperor and military commander by saying well, it was for God, I wanted to sacrifice to God. Napoleon was a French emperor and military commander in the 18th and 19th centuries, but his self-deception was his downfall. In 1812, his overconfidence caused him to ignore warnings about the brutality of the Russian winter and how his army was not equipped to handle the Russian winter and they suffered significant losses of the Grand Army. He also overestimated the loyalty that people had and the citizenry and the military had for him. He thought that they were loyal to him, but his continuous wars had caused discontentment and that is what forced him to abdicate in 1814. And then in 1815, he overestimated the superiority of the French army, but he wasn't keeping up with the changing geopolitical situation at that time, and so he was forced into exile after his loss at the battle at waterloo in 1815. It was his self-deception that caused him to fail. Saul was deceived in thinking that he was devoted to God, when actually he was devoted to himself.
Speaker 1Third, let's look at the evaluation. How does God evaluate Saul's actions and his assessment of himself? Saul claims complete obedience, and look at what Samuel says in verse 14. And Samuel said what then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? The sound of sheep is evidence that you have not obeyed me completely. So God assesses Saul's situation and I want you to read this verse with me.
Speaker 1It is easy to miss this verse because it comes after a very common verse that says obedience is better than sacrifice. But the verse right after that says for rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. So what God is saying your partial obedience is like the sin of divination and idolatry. These are two sins that God has completely banned Israel from doing, and these were two sins that the neighbors of Israel, that the enemies of Israel, do, for which they are destroyed. So God is saying your partial obedience. You may think it's obedience, but it is actually significant rebellion against me. And so he gives consequence for his disobedience. And at the second half of verse 23, it reads because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Saul's sin would lead him to death and loss of his kingship.
Speaker 1Fourth, let's look at the application. Let's look at our own situation. The problem is that we look at partial obedience and we think it is full obedience and it is not. When God looks at it. Partial obedience is partial disobedience, which is disobedience, is partial disobedience, which is disobedience. Let's come to that verse that is very common, verse 22. It says to obey is better than sacrifice. What does this mean? To obey is better than sacrifice. It means that inner obedience is a better indicator of devotion than outer action. Inner obedience is a better indicator of devotion than outer action. Inner obedience is a better indicator of devotion than outer action. Of course we need to have outer action that flows from inner obedience, but outer action by itself, without inner obedience, is not devotion. Let's look at the two categories that we looked for Saul.
Speaker 1How is our obedience in immaterial entities. How is our obedience in immaterial entities? Let me give you some. Do we have a refusal to forgive? We know that we have to forgive. We know the verses about forgiving. We know the parable about forgiving. We know the Lord's command that says forgive me as I forgive, and yet many times we can refuse to forgive. I understand that we all have different sins that we struggle with. It could be anger, hate, pride, revenge, indiscipline, lust, laziness, fear, anxiety, unwillingness to forgive, and we all struggle with certain sins and we all struggle with different sins differently. In a sense, it's better to struggle with the sin where you go back and forth, than to completely accept it. That's what we do sometimes. We think, well, not forgiving is not that big a deal, in spite of what we've heard. Forgiveness is a choice, just like unforgiveness is a choice. They both are choices. Let me give you another example of an immaterial entity in our obedience to god.
Speaker 1How about refusal to obey all of scripture? Refusal to obey all of scripture? How Refusal to obey all of scripture? How about people who've become believers for a period but are not yet baptized? There's a command in scripture to get baptized one time. It's soon after conversion. That's a one-time event and then there is repeated event of taking communion. Those are the two sacraments of the church. So if there is anybody who has become a believer but then, over time, forgot about getting baptized, why? Why did we not get baptized? Is it because we are waiting for some voice to tell us to get baptized? It's there in Scripture, though Our refusal to completely obey Scripture is disobedience.
Speaker 1Second, immaterial things. Do we disobey God in material things? Immaterial things Do we disobey God in material things? So, in the aspect of giving time, the aspect of giving money, in the aspect of giving energy, do we obey God? Do we give God what he is worthy, what he is due? In the New Testament? It is not about a percentage right, what he is due. In the New Testament, it is not about a percentage right. It's not about the quantity of what you give, it's about proportion. So when Jesus saw the old woman in the temple giving two coins, he said this woman gave more than the other people that were putting sacks into the temple treasury. Why? Because she gave most of what she had. She gave all of what she had. She gave a greater proportion of what she had.
Speaker 1We usually think of giving in terms of money, which is something that we need to do. How about giving of our time? How about giving of our energy? Instead, what we most commonly do is, like Saul, we take the best of it for ourselves and then, when we are exhausted, using it for ourselves. Then we are willing to give a few minutes here and there, a few coins here and there, a few calories here and there for God, and then, as we go to sleep, like, oh, my goodness, I forgot to pray today. Let me just say a couple quick words of prayer and finish up the day.
The Cost of Obedience vs. Disobedience
Speaker 1In their song In the Light from their 1995 album, jesus, freak DC Talk sings these words the disease of self runs through my blood. It's a cancer fatal to my soul. Every attempt on my behalf has failed to bring the sickness under control. Tell me what's going on inside of me. I despise my own behavior. This only serves to confirm my suspicions that I'm still a man in need of a savior, that I'm still a man in need of a savior.
Speaker 1At the core of disobedience to God is the obedience to the self. I wonder if lack of obedience in the church and lack of obedience in our personal lives cause God to withdraw his blessing from us. I'll make something very clear. Our obedience or disobedience is not the reason why we go to heaven. Right, that's not what I'm talking about. The reason why we go to heaven or not is not based on our obedience or disobedience. It is based on our belief in the obedience of Jesus Christ. That is the reason why we would go to heaven. But I'm talking about what happens after we have become believers. Do we obey or disobey God after we have become believers? And is it possible that if we disobey God, that God withdraws his blessing from us? I don't know. I've got to study this topic a little bit more to say, yes, these are the ways he does it. But in the scripture it seems to indicate that if we don't obey God fully, he withdraws blessing from us.
Speaker 1So, adam and Eve they were sent out of the Garden of Eden because of disobedience. Moses didn't go to the Promised Land because of disobedience. Samson lost his strength because of disobedience. Saul lost his kingship because of disobedience. David lost four sons and didn't win a single battle after he disobeyed God. The northern army was taken captive by Assyria and the southern kingdom was taken captive by the kingdom of Babylon in 722 BC and 587 BC because of disobedience. And then you come to the New Testament and the rich young man could not follow Jesus because he loved money, and Ananias and Sapphira lost their lives because of disobedience. Is it possible that we may lose blessings because of disobedience? Obedience is costly, but disobedience is costlier. Let me end with a story and a couple of verses. Let me end with a story of costly disobedience, the story of costly obedience.
Speaker 1On September 5, 1986, pan Am Flight 73 left Mumbai International Airport, headed to New York, but they had to make two stops. The first stop was in Karachi, pakistan, and the second stop was Frankfurt, germany. On this flight were 380 passengers and 30 crew members, and one of the crew members was a young lady by the name of Nirja Banot, who was a senior flight attendant. After this flight, she was awarded India's highest peacetime gallantry award, called the Ashok Chakra, and she received rewards from the US government and from the Pakistani government. You see, ladies and gentlemen, when they landed at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, pakistan, four terrorists stormed the plane and hijacked the plane.
Speaker 1What Neerja did was very critical. She took the phone and called the cockpit and asked the pilots in the cockpit to escape. There were three people in the cockpit the pilot, the co-pilot and the engineer. They opened the overhead hatch and they escaped. These terrorists were from the Abu Nidal organization and they were backed by Libya, and this terrorist was against America and American interests.
Speaker 1The plan was to hijack this plane, take it to Cyprus and use it in a hostage situation to set some Palestinian prisoners free who were in Cyprus. But when the terrorists came to the cockpit, there was nobody there, and so they went back out and they grabbed Neerja. They put a gun to her head and said you're going to announce that the plane has been hijacked. And she announced it. And just to show them that they meant business, they called up one of the passengers who was Indian American. They brought him to the front, shot him and pushed his body outside the door, and then they asked her to collect all the passports, and she knew that these terrorists were against Americans, and so as she collected the passports of 380 people, she counted 43 American passports. She took the 43 American passports and stuck it under one of the seats. She took the remaining passports and stuffed it in the garbage chute, and the terrorists did not know who was American and who was not. So they didn't know how to how to handle the people.
Speaker 1And now they were stuck in a plane with nowhere to go and nothing else they could do. They had to wait for the fuel on the plane to run out and 17 hours later, at 9 pm Karachi time, the fuel on the plane ran out and the plane plunged into darkness. And when the plane plunged into darkness, the terrorists thought the commandos will come into the plane and they will kill us. So they started to shoot everybody indiscriminately and started to set up bombs inside the plane. At this time, neeraja opened the exits and let people escape. She could have escaped, but she would not have been fully obedient to her calling. So she let people go one at a time. One at a time, they escaped down these exit ramps and they went away to safety. At the end she was shielding three people, three little kids. One of them was a seven-year-old, and as she was shielding them and helping them go down the exit, one of the terrorists came, grabbed her by her hair and shot her. She was two weeks short of her 23rd birthday.
Speaker 1Ladies and gentlemen, the greatest example of obedience is seen in the life of jesus christ. Let me read for you, philippians, chapter 2, verses 5 through 8 christ jesus who, though he was in the form of god, did not count equality with god a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus gave up his honor, jesus gave up his external manifestation as God and he came down to earth. Isn't becoming a human humiliating enough? Isn't becoming a human obedience enough? But no, he went all the way. He was obedient to the point of death, even death in the worst form of punishment at that time, by crucifixion, and he obeyed to the point of death so that you and I can live.
Speaker 1I'm going to give us time for two groups of people to respond to this sermon. If there's anyone here who's never invited Jesus into your life, I'm going to give you a minute to respond to this sermon. Secondly, if there's anyone here who wants to choose to obey God fully, I'm also going to give you a minute to respond to this sermon. If there's anyone here who's never invited Jesus into your life. Jesus came, he lived a perfect life. He died a cruel sacrificial death in your place and mine, and he rose again on the third day and he lives now to give you life eternal.
Speaker 1You can pray a prayer after me. It's not a magical prayer, but if it's a prayer that comes from the bottom of your heart, god will answer it. You can pray something like this dear lord, lord Jesus, I am fully disobedient, I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. Thank you for the obedience of Jesus Christ, thank you for his life, thank you for his death, thank you for his crucifixion. I ask Jesus to come into my life and make me complete. Thank you for the promise of eternal life. Heavenly Father, I pray for the rest of us who have become believers, who are part of the family of God and yet we think that partial obedience is full obedience. We are distracted with a lot of things that take our time, our money and our energy away, when we are actually stewards of all the resources that we have. Help us to fully obey you. Help us to seek after you and seek to honor you. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen.