Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Stop Being a Good Christian | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 15

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I'm a private school kid. Not just that, but a private Christian school kid. Until I went to college, I spent my life learning and growing up in a community of people who all professed Christianity. It was an incredibly rewarding and enriching environment to grow up in. I have my love of theology, of studying scripture and writing because of the teachers. and wisdom that I learned within those communities. But I also learned something else in those communities, something that was never explicitly taught, but was just infused into the communities that I grew up in.

Starting point is 00:00:48 I learned how to make myself look like a really good Christian, and I learned what happened when you didn't. I heard the way that people talked and treated certain people, people who didn't meet the standards of religiosity. And I learned, I learned that, To be accepted or considered a good Christian, I had to do certain things, present myself in certain ways, and outwardly appear devout. So many of us learned the same lesson. To be a Christian is to live a certain kind of life, to do the religious things, to attend to the right school, go to the right church, be involved in the right organizations and maybe give money where it's needed. There are hoops to jump through and images to curate on this road to being a good Christian. But along the way, I'm afraid that we lost a crucial aspect of the Christian's call.

Starting point is 00:01:41 Obedience. Now, we're obedient to the rules of polite Christian society. Obedient to do the right things, obedient to look a certain way, but obedient to the ways of God. Obedient to the call to be transformed inwardly, to study his word and follow its wisdom, to live lives that are submitted to his authority? No, thanks. It didn't really matter if I gossiped with my closest friends, as long as I knew the right answer in Bible class and made it to church on Sunday. It didn't matter if I applied the words I read in Scripture as long as I had the right translation and the pages looked like they were well worn and littered with reflections.

Starting point is 00:02:21 I didn't have to listen to conviction, as long as I was willing to pray out loud in youth group and sound spiritual. The human desire to appear outwardly religious is not nymph. In 1 Samuel 15, we find Saul, still king over Israel, given a direct command by God. He's to go out and destroy the Amalekites, to take nothing for himself but devoted entirely to destruction. Now, Saul hears the command, defeats the Amalekites, but spares the king and the finest of the cattle and oxen. He then leaves the battle behind, feeling incredibly accomplished, and he sets up for himself a monument in his honor. Now, feeling pretty good about himself,

Starting point is 00:03:06 Saul is naturally taken aback by his next interaction with Samuel. When Samuel reaches him, Saul said, The Lord bless you. I've carried out the Lord's instructions. But Samuel said, What then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear? Saul answered.

Starting point is 00:03:27 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. Now I want to reflect for a moment on what Saul's reaction to his victory and the rebuke of Samuel reveals about his heart. First, in his victory as king, he sets up a monument in his own honor. His true motives, his beliefs about who produces victory, who is in charge, is revealed right here. His actions were not for the glory of God, were not to be faithful to God, but to make a name for himself. And he solidifies that with a monument.

Starting point is 00:04:03 He's saying, look at me. Look at what I did. Look at how good of a king I am. Then, when Samuel approaches Saul, when he confronts him with his failure, pointing out the literal animals that he failed to destroy, Saul maintains his victory, his obedience. He's defensive. He blame shifts.

Starting point is 00:04:22 It wasn't him who brought the cattle, but the soldiers. And they did it for a good reason. Catch this. they spared them to sacrifice to the Lord your God. Now he says he's faithful. Look at his actions. But the proof is in his words. The cattle were to sacrifice to Samuel's God, not his own.

Starting point is 00:04:42 He isn't being obedient to God. He doesn't follow God. He doesn't understand what true obedience is. He's trying to appear like the good king, victorious, obedient, and he's defensive, unable to admit or see his own inaccuracy, his own folly, the ways that he has actually failed to obey God. He digs himself in deeper, justifies his sin, covers it up, and blames others. But God is not interested in the stories and images that we craft so that we can appear good. He wants an obedient, repentant heart submitted to his authority and his ways.

Starting point is 00:05:22 He can see through the image, see through the religiosity. He knows what lives in the heart. And so, Samuel responds, making things incredibly clear. Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than to sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of Rams. For 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 use are burnt offerings and sacrifices if they are not accompanied by a heart submitted to God,

Starting point is 00:06:03 a heart that desires to follow him in obedience? What good is the religious act of atoning for your sin if you walk away in continued rebellion against God? See, God wanted Saul's obedience, and Saul built monuments to himself, blamed others, and refused to see his own failure. I can't help but see myself in the actions of Saul. When conviction comes into my life, I want to point out all the places where I think I've been faithful, rather than humbly admit my failure, my disobedience.

Starting point is 00:06:38 I think the Bible studies I've taught, the podcasts I've written, the churches I've attended, the organizations I've volunteered for somehow make up for the lack of obedience in my life. The fear of losing community, of losing status, keeps me committed to the illusion of outward religiosity. I'd rather make sure that the world sees a good

Starting point is 00:07:01 Christian, that from the outside I look like I have it all together, I'd rather spend my days shining the monument I built for my honor rather than humbly submitting myself to obedience. And God hates it. He finds no delight in the religiosity I lay at his feet when the actions are done for my honor, when the things I do are to build my own monument rather than in humble obedience to the rule of God for His glory. The mark of a faithful follower of Jesus is not a spotless monument of all they've done for God. It's a commitment to obedience. Notice it's also not perfect obedience, but the inward posture of obedience to God,

Starting point is 00:07:46 coupled with repentance and reliance on the grace and mercy of Jesus. The book of Hebrew chapter 10 tells us, consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will. Oh God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. So Jesus has come to do the will of God, and what was the will of God for Jesus? Hebrews chapter 5. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence.

Starting point is 00:08:32 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Jesus came to live the perfectly obedient life that his people had failed to live, from Adam, to Saul, to David, not a one of them produced perfect obedience, but through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, you and I find eternal salvation as we faithfully follow him, through our continued, imperfect, genuine, and humble obedience to him. See, outward religiosity gets its reward now. Obedience will find its reward in the kingdom of God. A life of humble obedience is lived out in submission to God, in repentance and a desire to bring Him glory rather than to bring glory to

Starting point is 00:09:26 your own name. Build your life on obedience. Build your life on the things that will last. Give up the facade. Stop focusing on trying to make sure everyone believes you're the right kind of Christian and start actually living out the humble life of obedience marked out in Scripture. It isn't glamorous, it isn't eye-catching, it won't bring you celebration, but it will. It will. produce a genuine faith that leads to eternal salvation. Live obediently and you'll live for his glory.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Stop Being a Good Christian | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 15

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