Be Real - By Worshipping From the Heart!

Today’s post will explore the importance of worship that originates internally not externally. As people, we can be fooled and can fool others about our internal motives by masking them with our external actions. In other words, it is possible to engage in an activity externally apart from a right motive. Today, we will look at a situation where King Saul went through some external motions that were separated from an internal desire to obey. The result was partial obedience which isn’t obedience.  

If we aren’t careful, we can find ourselves just going through the motions to get what we want or need from others instead of being worshipful. Be Real – by worshipping from the heart! Today our text is 1 Samuel 15:19-24. The key verse we will focus our attention on is 22 – “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’.” Obedience begins in the heart and flows through our actions.

Context: The LORD had given instructions to King Saul through the prophet Samuel regarding a people group called the Amalekites. The Amalekites brutally attacked the Israelites while they were on their journey out of Egypt. They were without weapons and were incapable of defending themselves and the Amalekites took advantage of them. At that time, God promised He would judge the Amalekites and that He would not forget their harsh treatment toward His people. Saul and his army are the means of judgement and they go to battle against the Amalekites. They win the victory but they fail to obey God’s commands in the process.

Lesson: Saul was given instructions to spare no cattle and person and yet he spared the best of their cattle and the king of the Amalekites. When confronted his first response is to declare he had obeyed God. Upon further questioning, his second response was to deflect responsibility and blame the people. Finally, on the third confrontation, he admits that he feared the people and therefore allowed them to do what they pleased, disobeying God.

Our key verse makes very clear that the Lord desires our obedience more than our acts of service or sacrifice. External acts of worship separated from an internal heart of worship grieve the heart of God and often land us in a place of apathy towards His Word. This is a daily grind, to ensure that my heart is seeking to honor God and that my actions are flowing from that desire.

 Application: Our fear of other people and desire to please them will make obedience to God difficult and secondary. Obedience starts in the heart with the conviction that God is worthy of our fear and worship not other people. Obedience begins in the heart and flows through our actions.