3.164 Obedience Matters

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose this day whom you will serve.

How often have you seen a small child kind of wrestling with mom or dad and saying, "No, let me do it! Let me do it!" Hopefully you've seen that at least once or twice in your life. I know I've seen it many times, especially being a dad, but many times just out watching the world, I think there's a lesson inside of those moments of the children saying, "Let me do it my way.

Let me go." We have kind of a moment like that with Saul. You know, it's interesting. I've thought often about Saul.

It seems like initially as I look at the story of Saul, I think, "Gosh, doesn't he get another chance?" You know, like he made a mistake, but isn't that what repentance is for? And I think we see that inside of here. And then we see another side of Saul.

It's a sad part in the story but one that I think is trying to scream messages and lessons to us. So, I hope you certainly are able to take your personal lessons from it as well. 1 Samuel 15 is quite a pivotal moment in the story. And we get this conversation between Samuel and Saul where Samuel is trying to be like, "Saul, don't you remember what it was like when you when you were first called?

Don't you remember what those feelings were like?" And they talk back and forth. But then we get this interesting insight here as Saul now for the second time has chosen to do it his way rather than the Lord's way. In this scenario, he was commanded to completely destroy the people in the war, right?

And he takes some prisoners and he takes some animals. And he's, according to him, he's going to use these animals for sacrifices to the Lord, but that's not what the Lord said to do. And then we get this comment from Samuel that I think is so telling.

In 1 Samuel 15, verse 22, which is our verse for today. And Samuel said, "Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams." My friends, there's absolutely a spectrum of things that are better to do than others.

I remember a conference talk years ago, decades now, that "Good, Better, Best." There certainly better things and best things. And here we see the power and the importance of obedience through the lens of the Lord. That then turns us to what we will do with that obedience.

Will we choose to. The Lord not going to force us into that obedience. He certainly didn't force Saul into it and Saul made his choice.

But it took me down a line of thinking. I came across a powerful, a wonderful conference talk in October of 2010 by Elder Hales called "Agency: Essential to the Plan of Life". Please take some time to look into this one.

But I just wanted to grab a section of it and share it with you to see agency in its perfect use. This is what Elder Hales says about our Savior in agency. He says, "Throughout his life, our Savior showed us how to use our agency.

As a boy in Jerusalem, he deliberately chose to be about his father's business. In his ministry, he obediently chose to do the will of his father. In Gethsemane, he chose to suffer all things, saying, 'Not my will, but thine be done.' And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. 'Father, why hast thou forsaken me?' He asked.

At last he exercised his agency to act, enduring to the end until he could say, 'It is finished.'" My friends, we certainly see a different lens here on the power of agency through the example of Saul. The Gospel of Saul and the agency that he took to make decisions separate from the Lord. Selective, as Elder Hales calls it later in his talk, selective obedience to pick and choose the parts of the commandments that were important.

We see the Lord's path of agency. The opportunity, taking that opportunity, to choose to do the will of the Lord. I hope that that's a powerful lesson for us to learn.

Thank you for watching. Thanks for watching!