Sunday, March 11, 2012

A Trivial Life

“They are a warning to your servant,
a great reward for those who obey them.

 How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
 Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.”    Psalm 19:11-13 NLT

Any sin that we spare in our life may be the one that carries out our death sentence—if not physically, certainly spiritually. Harboring sin in the heart definitely harms the person. We must obey the admonition of the writer of Hebrews, who said, “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us…” (Heb.12: 1b).  Obedience is not optional.

An attitude of optional obedience led to:

SAUL’S DISOBEDIENCE, SAUL’S DENIAL and SAUL’S DOWNFALL.

Saul lived what could be called a trivial life.  He lived only for the moment—only for himself.  It is a tragedy to live a trivial and frivolous life.  But the truth of the matter is that one seldom gets away with such a life. The sad thing is that a trivial life often leads to tragedy for the one living it, as well as those they love.

We never know what lasting effects our sins will have on the future.  Saul did not eradicate the Amalekites as God had told him to do. Years later the Israelites would suffer the results of Saul’s sin.

Haman is said to be the “…son of Hammedatha the Agagite” (Esther 3: 1).  In other words, he was a descendant of Agag the Amalekite. Had not God intervened, Haman would have single-handedly exterminated the nation of Israel.

Sin that is not put to death in our heart is likely to destroy us, and possibly others as well. God told Israel many years before Saul’s reign, “…I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” (Ex.20: 5b).

Sin is serious to God.  Sin caused the death of His Son in order to purchase our salvation and forgiveness.  Sin should be no less serious to Christians, for obedience is not optional.

God delights in the obedience of repentance, holiness and spiritual separation from the world.  We sometimes think that sacrifice will cover everything.   If we render one day, Sunday, at the Lord's house, then we can return to six days where disobedience is found in our life.  We maintain a form of religion.  We entertain besetting sins which we cater to and we leave un-crucified within us.  Yet we go through the actual rituals of our religious thinking that those rituals are more important than obedience.

If we minimize disobedience, it is because true humility and faith in God are NOT consciously dwelling in our hearts.  It is because we are stubborn, self-willed, and insistent upon our own way.

Disobedience is not confusion.  Disobedience is not that we get ourselves into a position where we get all mixed up and cannot tell what we should do.  Disobedience is because we are proud.  We will entertain the thought that our desires are more important than listening to God.

Obedience honors God.

The life of King Saul is a very sad commentary of someone who God anointed in a great way and then chose to rebel against God.  King Saul lived with the same free will that God gives to all of us. He had to make choices each day to obey or rebel against God.

Sadly, there are ALWAYS consequences for our rebellion. These consequences come in many forms but there is always a price to pay when we choose not to obey God.

Likewise, blessings will always follow our obedience to God. The greatest blessing of all is that peace that passes all human understanding we receive when we are living our lives the way God has asked us to.  When we are living for Him and making choices that honor God, there is a peace and joy that you could never put a price on.

“Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
 Yes, what joy for those
whose record the LORD has cleared of guilt,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!
 When I refused to confess my sin,
my body wasted away,
and I groaned all day long.”   Psalm 32:1-3 NLT

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