When Your Way Isn’t Working – To Obey or to Disobey

• God wants us to obey Him.

• Bible Engagement
• Obeying God and Denying Self
• Serving God and Others
• Sharing Christ
• Exercising Faith
• Seeking God
• Building Relationships
• Unashamed (Transparency)

• ⅓

• We Want Control (Build In)
• It’s Fun (Build In)
  • I wanna do hoodrat stuff with my friends
• We Think We Know Better (Build In)
• We Think Our Way Is Faster (Build In)
• Obeying God is only easy when a person's own desires match God's.
• Obeying God is only easy when a person's own timing matches God's.

John 14:15  //  “If you love me, keep my commands.”

John 14:23  //  “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching…”

• Those who want to be mature in Christ have a desire to obey Him.
• Our way is to disobey, but God’s way is a way of obedience.

1 Samuel 15:2-3  //  “...This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

• Obedience is an Opportunity   

1 Samuel 15:3  //  Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

• Time doesn’t diminish sin in the sight of God.

Acts 13:22  //  After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’

• Obedience is an opportunity to align with God.
• Begin to view every act of obedience as an opportunity to align more closely with God.
• Obedience is 100%

1 Samuel 15:20-21  //  “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

1 Samuel 15:22  //  But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

• Worship is good, but obedience is better.
• Anything less than full obedience misses the mark of God's calling for our lives.
• Delayed and/or incomplete obedience is disobedience.
• Begin to actually do what God has called you to wholeheartedly and completely.
• Obedience is a matter of the Heart

1 Samuel 15:11  //  “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

1 Samuel 15:35  //  Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

• Obedience isn’t just about our outward actions; it’s about the inward condition of our heart.
• Begin to keep a close check on your heart.
• What is it that God has called you to do?