Obeying is better than sacrifices

I invite you to look in the first book of the prophet Samuel, Chapter 15. Thank you musicians, tremendous work, a blessing. Chapter 15 of the first book of Samuel.

Brothers, I want to share with you a word that has been burning in my spirit all week and in reality it is a topic that has been percolating, bubbling in my life through the last months And it's a topic that seems so basic that it's almost redundant in a sense, but it's so important that we can never preach enough about it. It deals with the theme of obedience, obedience, obeying the Lord. And if they asked me for a title for this sermon, we always put the titles of the sermons on the Internet and I would like to always remember, help our brother Ernst Diehl and Esmeralda by giving them the titles of the sermons, but this time I remember and I want to put it there and It is related to the very story that I want to tell you about, first Samuel 15, and the title that I would give it is 'Obeying is better than sacrifices', words of the prophet Samuel himself.

I want to read this passage with you, First Samuel 15. We talk about prophecy and I say that when the Lord puts a burning word in our hearts and we preach that word, it is God's prophetic word. Receive this word as a prophecy, receive this word as a direct word from the heart of God for you and for me, because I have already had to filter it through my own life, my own being, my own needs and deficiencies and already God has spoken to me, I transmit to you the fruit of that hand-to-hand fight with the angel of God also through his word.

First Samuel, Chapter 15, I'm going to read from verses 1 to 3 and then I'm going to skip to verse 7 or thereabouts and read to 23. says the word of the Lord

“... Then Samuel said to Saul – Saul the great Hebrew king before King David – Jehovah sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. So now pay attention to the words of Jehovah...”

You know one could just stand there and make a sermon out of this. God gives us a commission, as he gave it to Saul, to carry out a task, a mission, a career in life and our call from God is to be attentive to the word of God, to the commandments of the Lord. He knows that obedience begins with an attitude, a posture, a behavior and that behavior, that posture is to be attentive, to be alert, to be vigilant to the word that comes out of the mouth of God. If we are attentive to the word of God and take it seriously, then we can obey, we can be aligned with the word of the Lord.

God called Saul on a mission to lead his people and to do it well he had to be attentive to the word of the Lord. Now specifically, God had a word for him, a specific commandment for him, a mission that he had to fulfill, and there we will see how all this obedience unfolds.

It says in verse 2: "... Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish what Amalek did to Israel by opposing him on the way when he came up from Egypt..."

You know, God has a very long memory, but for those of you who don't know so much about the Bible or the history of Israel, when Israel was in the desert, they had come out of Egypt and were wandering in the desert. during 40 years of pilgrimage, Amalek, a more numerous tribe, stronger than Israel ambushed the Jewish people and they trickily started attacking Israel from the back side, the weak, the old and the children. They showed great viciousness, they showed great hatred against the Hebrew people and through the centuries Amalek, even today in Judaic Hebrew theology, Amalek is still seen as a symbol of Satan and his hatred against the people of God, that opposition that many times is launched against the people of God. God never forgot that treacherous, terrible attack by the tribe of Amalek against the Israelites when they were in the desert, and God swore eternal enmity with Amalek and Amalek always showed war against Israel. And so that is why God tells him, so that they understand the context, he tells Saul, you have to destroy them. So he says, I'm going to punish what he did. And look at what the terrible directive is, I have chosen this passage because it is very scandalous, I am going to show you precisely why, because what is embodied is dramatic, what this passage contains and my point is made effective, I believe, through of the.

God tells Saul, “...go then and smite Amalek, speaking of the whole tribe, the whole nation, the Amalekites, and destroy everything he has, and have no mercy on him , Bush. That is a terrible word. It kills men, women, children and even breastfed ones, cows, sheep, camels and donkeys....”

He gave Saul a terrible mission but there was an undercurrent to it. God knew the hearts of these people, he knew that they were an inveterate tribe. God had given these people plenty of time to repent and as He did with all the other tribes of Canaan, God waited centuries before handing over the land of Canaan to the Hebrews and taking it away from these tribes that were there because He was waiting for them to do so. they would fill the cup of their sin and when the time came when there was no turning back spiritually for these people, God then commanded the Hebrews to come out of Egypt and to possess the land of Canaan because God always prefers mercy before judgment first. But there comes a time when God's cup of wrath is filled and then judgment comes.

That was the terrible command God gave Saul. Now in verse 7 it says: "... And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Avila until he came to Shur, which is to the east of Egypt and took Agag, king of Amalek, alive..."

Look at this, here begins the problem, God tells him, destroy everything because he takes Agag the king of Amalek alive, “... but he killed all the people with the edge of the sword. And Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the cattle, of the fattened animals, of the rams, and of all that was good, and they would not destroy it. Plus everything that was vile and despicable, they destroyed... -and now comes God's reaction to this mixed action on the part of the Hebrew people- ..... And the word of Jehovah came to Samuel saying, It weighs on me – it's a rather anthropomorphic expression, God is as if God were weighing him down, well God knew that this was going to weigh him down, but his anger, his annoyance was in the divine heart, - .... It weighs me down for having put king to Saul because he has turned after me and has not kept my words....”

Brothers, God takes very seriously when we do not keep his word, because God takes himself seriously .

“... And Samuel was grieved and cried out to the Lord all that night...”

I wonder what Samuel asked of him. He spent the whole night crying out for Saul. Samuel loved Saul. Saul was like a spiritual son of Samuel. He had introduced him to the kingdom and I wonder how many times, brothers, we, people we love, who are in disobedience, could be a brother of ours, could be a relative, a close friend, a person whom we respect and love , but they are in disobedience, they are contrary to the word of God and yet Samuel had to execute the word of the Lord, he had to go to Saul and give him the terrible verdict. And that already enters into the sermon that many times today I see so many people in society that even in the Church of Jesus Christ itself, we are allowing affection and affection to make us slide from executing and supporting the word of the Lord . I see every day more and more people saying, well, but I love those people and what's wrong with it, and that they are such decent and good people, and this and that, and as if we could change God's verdict simply because our affections are committed to people.

We know better. Love and affection and affection have nothing to do, brothers, with the justice of God when it has to be carried out. God's justice is above our affections, yes or no? It is above our friendship, it is above our family ties, it is above our loyalties and our alliances. The word of God is the word of God and we have to obey it.

Samuel loved Saul, God loved Saul, but there was a spiritual principle involved in this drama and that principle had to be respected, had to be asserted. But Samuel's drama impacts me, crying out all night. What could Samuel have said to him, Father, have mercy on him, give him a little more time, he is disobedient but he is not a bad person, he has tried but not yet, but... God was clear with Samuel, no, go and give him my word, has not kept my words.

So Samuel got up early, when God tells you to do something, even if you don't want to do it and even if it involves a person you love, do it quickly. Don't do it halfway. Samuel got up early.

I remember Abraham when God told him, sacrifice your son and it says that Abraham got up in the morning and got ready and prepared the wood and went on his way to execute what God had told him to sacrifice to his son too. Acts of obedience that are painful but that have to be executed because the word of the Lord is much more powerful than any affection that is in our hearts. May the Lord give us that integrity that Samuel shows here.

But that's not my sermon, really, but I'm pointing out a few tidbits along the way. Samuel gets up early to go meet Saul in the morning “....and word was told to Samuel, saying, Saul has come to Carmel and, behold, a monument was set up and he turned around and passed on and went down to Gilgal.. ..”

Before you go any further, take a look at that, what you're doing. Saul made a monument to himself. You can see something of this man's heart there, how it is linked to his record of disobedience. In the heart of Saul, at the end of the day, there was spiritual pride, there was arrogance, there was an aggrandizement of himself before God. and shows it several times later. But I have always said that at the bottom of disobedience there is pride, there is rebellion, it is in us to believe that we know more than God, and to put our needs and our appetites before the word of the Lord.

In this culture in which we live, which has strayed so far from God's commandments, in the end there is just that, a culture that wants to make a monument to itself before God.

The Apostle Paul says that they honored the creature before the creator and that is why God gave them over to a reprobate mind, a failed mind. How many times do men want to make a monument to themselves and say, we know more than God. This word is already out of fashion. Today our psychological and sociological, historical and scientific knowledge has already shown us that this is out of date, and they want to erect a monument as a result of all that. and that is why I believe that obedience is so important to God, because the root of disobedience is always the doubt of God's character, it is to question, oh, yes God said it, but perhaps, those are old things, that's it It is too old, it has lived for too many centuries, so we are going to update it, we are going to update the word of God.

There is a neglect of the person of God, it is like the root of humanity's evil is that, it is rebellion, it is disobedience. Adam and Eve in Eden, what was it, a disobedience and that is why this world has suffered so much throughout history. And before Adam and Eve, who, Lucifer, the most exalted angel that God had created, who also wanted to put himself in the place of the creator. He disobeyed the Lord, he rebelled against him and that is why God hates disobedience, brothers. What's more, look how he puts it here, I'm going to stop there but we'll see later, I don't want to get too far ahead. Look,

“... Samuel came, verse 13, to Saul he said, blessed are you of the Lord, I have fulfilled the word of the Lord...”

Are you do you agree? I have complied.... He had not complied with the word of the Lord, but Saul was a superficial man, or perhaps he wanted to get healthy as we say, there was a little thing that told him, you have not complied, you have not done everything and he wanted to put on as before they said anything to him.

“... I have fulfilled the word of Jehovah. Samuel then said, aha, well - that aha, I'm adding it, a comment - well what a bleating of sheep and bellowing of cows is this that I hear with my ears..."

The man was there cattle bellowing and making all kinds of noises and sounds, contradicting with their presence Saul's assertion that he had fulfilled the word of the Lord.

And what is it that I hear? It's a DVD or a CD or whatever, a recording of animals. They are the animals that you refused to kill as God told you.

“...And Saul answered, well, Amalek has brought them because the people spared the best of the sheep and herds to sacrifice them to Jehovah, your God. but the rest, we did destroy it....”

Explanations, explanations, justifications. I am also interested in that which says, to Jehovah, your God. Saul did not know God well, he did not know the God of Samuel. Saul did not have true intimacy with God. He knows that many times disobedience is born from a lack of compenetration with the character of God.

How many of us take all kinds of liberties with God, including the one who speaks to them, because sometimes we do not understand everything that the presence, the holiness of God entails. There is superficiality, I believe that many people sin out of ignorance of who God is. We underestimate the seriousness of God, we underestimate how seriously God takes himself, we underestimate how heavy God's decrees are. When God says something, he doesn't mean it, less or more, no, he says what he says and he says what he means. And what he means is what he says, no more, no less. The word of the Lord, the expressions of God are like, the Bible says that they are like, it says, refined 7 times, they are passed through the sieve and when they come out, they come out with precision.

Brothers, what God puts in his word that is what God meant. We cannot add to it, we cannot take away from it, we cannot stretch it to fit more, we cannot make it narrower to fit less, it is what God says, and what we have to accept, and what we have to hold on to. But many times, like Saul, we are playing, we do not know God, we do not know what is serious, we do not know how precise, how exact God is in his commandments, in his principles, in what he has established, and if the people of God would be more attuned to the holiness of God, if we understood more.

But Saul speaks of Jehovah, your God. Saul was a half Christian, and I am using that expression. He was a believer of those lukewarm believers like so many politicians who say they are Christians but do not have a true experience with God. They take liberties left and right and then you see them playing with the word of God, trying to make the word of God say what it hasn't said. And we see that here in this dialogue.

“.....Yes, we, the best people of the sheep but to sacrifice them, but the rest we did destroy. Then Samuel said to Saul, let me declare to you, Saul, what Jehovah has told me tonight. And he replied, well, say,... - then things kind of cooled down a bit, I think Saul's enthusiasm dropped a bit and he understood that things were serious and Samuel said-.... Saul, though you were small in your own eyes, you have not been made chief of the tribe of Israel... -God is taking him through a tour- ...and Jehovah has anointed you king over Israel and Jehovah he sent on a mission and said, go, destroy the sinners of Amalek and make war on them until you finish them off. Why, then, have you not listened to the voice of the Lord, but having returned to the spoils, have you done evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul answered Samuel, well rather, I have obeyed the voice of Jehovah...

Brother, when God tells you something, do not try to refute it, do not enter into a dispute with God, do not enter into fight and conflict with the Lord, hold on, submit. But Saul begins to justify himself, “... rather, I have obeyed the voice of Jehovah, and I went on the mission that Jehovah sent me, and I have brought Agag king of Amalek and I have destroyed the Amalekites. Well, and the people took sheep and herds and the first fruits of the anathema from the booty to offer sacrifices to Jehovah, your God in Gilgal...."

Look, now it's like the people are the problem . Sometimes we try to throw things at others, blame people, my dad and my mom who did this and didn't do that and treated me this way, and society that has misrepresented things to me, and this and the other. We are always blaming others. And look at these next two verses that I was saying to the church, this is my work Bible. If you look at these two verses, I first have them bold, with a shadow pencil, highlighted, yellow, I have it in yellow, but not content with that, then I underlined it in some other reading and after that I put a vertical line in it next to it, and then I put a very big asterisk on it, so that what it says here doesn't escape me, because it's a very important spiritual principle, it says:

“... And Samuel said, he is pleased Jehovah both in holocausts and victims and in obeying the words of Jehovah. Certainly obeying is better than sacrifices and heeding the fat of rams, for rebellion is the sin of divination, and obstinacy is like idols and idolatry, because you have rejected the word of Jehovah, he has also rejected you for that you are not a king....”

Terrible image. But it is a very, very graphic passage that if we pay attention to it we can avoid many headaches, my brothers, many tragic and difficult moments in our lives.

Let me at the bird's eye share with you some specific principles that emerge from this passage.

1. God is specific in what he asks and commands. In verse 3 we see here that God gave an order to Saul and was absolutely crystal clear in what he expected from Saul, and how terrible that order is, but God told him in great detail. He said, "go then, smite Amalek, destroy everything he has and have no mercy on him..." It is to the entire nation, including its king, "... kill men, women, children and just in case, even those who are breastfed...." I know that mothers at this moment kind of shudder at the terribleness of that order, but it was very clear and that is why many people today try to get away from certain verses of the word of the Lord, because it offends the sense of justice and mercy and everything that one as a Christian has learned from the heart of Christ and the values of the Gospel. One listens to something like that and one says, but that was written by a sick psychopath, one of these genocidals. That cannot have come from the heart of God, that is the human reaction to such a word, but God was very clear, very specific, ".....even those with breasts, cows, sheep, camels and donkeys... .” and may have said, look, if you see a worm over there, you cut it in half too. And if there's a little bird flying around, shoot an arrow at it too so it doesn't get away. The idea was totally compelling, clear, detailed, precise, solid, concise.

Brothers, when God says something, God... is what I say, that the words of the Lord are refined 7 times. I have learned to respect the word of the Lord as much as I can, with the passage of time because experience teaches me that when God says something and we violate it, even minimally, the consequences cannot be missed. God is detailed and many times we believe, well, no, God said that but not exactly what he meant, I'm sure, and so we started playing with the word. And how many of us allow ourselves all kinds of liberties. The word of the Lord has so many commandments and principles and that is why we have to know the word to be able to swim according to its currents instead of against the current of the word of God. We have to be precise.

I have learned, brothers, to respect this word, love it, study it, scrutinize it. It says if you search like gold and silver then you will understand wisdom. I want to tell you brother, look, I have seen how this word is precise in everything, it is reliable. You can go to the bank with her. When God sends you to some commandment in some area of life, be it in the area of human relationships, be it in the area of your intimate life, thinking, be it in the area of your finances, be it in the area of your work, be it in the area of your marriage, be it in the area of your children, be it in the moral area, in the ethical area, in the financial area or whatever, in any area, God has specific guidelines that he gives you in your life and it suits us very well to respect the specificity of God and to walk within the commandments of the Lord scrupulously, specifically. Search the word of the Lord and then stick to it with specificity.

God told Saul exactly what he wanted so God is specific. Let's learn to respect what God commands.

2. That has a corollary, something that is added, that is attached to it. It says, we have to obey, this is the second principle, we have to obey God to the letter. I wrote here in parentheses, partial is not enough. Obeying God in part misses the mark, doesn't meet the requirement.

In 1 Samuel 15, verse 9 you see here it says that “... Saul and the people spared King Agag and the best of the sheep and the cattle...” what did he say to him? the Lord to them? Kill everything even if it is the most beautiful cow in the world, you have to kill it. Even if you see inside her the most precious and thickest steak, you have to kill her. You can't forgive her. And you have to kill everyone. They allowed themselves to be impressed by the king, perhaps the king asked them for forgiveness, or offered them this or that, and Saul instead of executing the order, perhaps forgave in a moment of false mercy. Ahab another evil king forgave Benadad, the king of Syria, and God also executed him terribly. Because there are times when it is not time for mercy and thanks. There are times when grace and mercy to a God who has told you that it is not the time for it, that is disobedience and sin. It's a difficult word, brethren, because you would think, well, mercy and grace are for all time. No, there are times when judgment is convenient. There are times when what you have to do if you love a person is, with love, with trembling and fear, give them the word of God and then there they are and they are responsible. But woe to you, if when God tells you, look, warn that person that he is on the path of destruction and sin and you go and tell him, don't worry, everything is fine, God is a God of mercy. God understands, God understands, don't worry. That is terrible and God executes and judges the person who gives a word of peace when God is at war with an individual. And in our own life it is the same, we have to satisfy to the letter.

Saul to his credit executed the mission, went to the site, killed all the people, but only one person forgave and that was enough for him to disobey. He did not kill all the cattle that God had told him, all the animals, and that brought God's judgment. How many of us are often obeying God in many significant areas in our life, but there are areas that we know are weak, there are a few nuts and bolts of machinery that are loose. And we say, well, I don't have time now, or not, later another day when I have more strength and feel more consecrated, then I'll do this and that. And we live schizophrenic lives. There are areas of our life that are separated from God, are closed to the penetration of the word of God and in other areas we are fine. But you know what? We have an enemy of our souls that does not forgive the areas of inconsistency and that he comes before God and accuses us for those areas and they are gaps that we open to the attack of the enemy.

There is a story in the Bible of a king who went to war against the will of the Lord and the Bible says that when he went to war, he disguised himself so that they would not know that he was the king , and the Scripture says that a soldier, anyone, shot an arrow into the air and that arrow came blindly and penetrated the king between the two seams of his armor, between an opening in his armor, through there the arrow penetrated. And that king ended up dying that same day, why? Because he was in disobedience.

And many times it is like that, brothers, sometimes in our lives there are areas, we have 80%, 70%, 90% that are all good, but there are 10% and the devil gets in there. his arrow. The Bible says, give no place to the devil. And place means, in the original Greek, it means, don't give him a handhold, don't give Satan a little unit, don't give him any space because he knows, he is an observer of humanity and he knows where he grabs us. And many times in our life there are many areas, there are people, well, you will not be caught in the area of finances, or women, but you will be caught in the area of anger and resentment. Another person you are never going to get hold of in the sexual area but you are going to get him for finances or for human relationships or anything else. There are others that the devil will not get hold of because of any financial problem, but because of gambling or anger or anything else. And that is where we have to be careful, where are the holes in our armor, what are the areas in which we have not yielded to the Lord and what we need... and we have to examine ourselves to bring those areas to the Lord , so that the Lord closes them, seals them, because an area of neglect is enough to bring destruction to our lives because we have an enemy. God is merciful but there is an enemy, a prosecutor who accuses us and does not forgive any debt and demands that a trial be held against the person who is in disobedience. And we have to look for those areas and ask the Lord, Lord, straighten out that area of my life.

As the psalmist says, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there is a wicked way in me and guide me on the eternal path. Can you say amen to that.

3. another principle that follows from this passage. Praise and rituals are not a substitute for obedience. Look what happens here, Saul says, oh, but those cows and those sheep, it was that we kept them to worship the Lord. The finance department of the temple told me that if we saved 400 of the best cows at $400 each we would save $160,000 which we could then use to pay for the temple and to pay for worship and this and that. and God said, I didn't tell you to start calculating, no, I told you, kill everything. I prefer, before you give me sacrifice, that they give me obedience. That was what Samuel told Saul.

God takes pleasure not so much in sacrifices as in being obeyed. Many times, brothers, how many of us want to bribe God, let's see. How many times do we believe, well, going to church and offering and tithing, that will make God see me with a little more mercy and not pay attention to all the areas of my life that are up the sleeves.

Or if I serve in the deacon corps, if I am in church every day doing this, and I am the director of a cell, that I dance and praise the Lord with joy and this and what another, but you are in disobedience in areas of your life. There are areas of your life that you are not yielding to the Lord. You are, perhaps in your marriage, you are not honoring your wife and you are abusing your direction as a spiritual leader, you are perhaps oppressing at home. Perhaps you are speaking ill of your neighbor, perhaps there are other areas in your life that are not right with the Lord and you believe that just because you give to the Lord or serve the Lord, that this is enough.

I have learned that God cannot be bribed, that we have to be consistent in everything possible before God. Saul thought, and I think it was a mere justification, that if he put these things aside, Samuel told him, no, it's not like that, Saul, this is a matter of obeying the Lord.

The Lord Jesus Christ, in another passage that I debated which of the two I used for the basis of my sermon, is where the Lord tells the disciples and the people, why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I command? This is what the Lord says many times to the congregations and to us. You are praising me, you are glorifying me, you are coming to church, you are giving your tithe, you are devoted to many things, but you do not do what I tell you in your spiritual life, in your moral life, in your ethical life, in your character, in your human relationships. Brethren, worship is not a substitute for obedience.

4. listen to this, our sense of justice and mercy are no better than the justice and mercy of God. I'm going to say it again, because it can be confusing, our sense of justice and mercy are no better than God's justice and mercy. Why do I say this? Because Saul put his own sense of mercy first, forgiving Agag before God's law, which he said they have to destroy everyone.

I see a problem in this society and I also see it in the evangelical church, more and more in the United States, and this idea that we believe that over time we can improve and calibrate a little plus the love and mercy of God, and we believe that looking for subterfuges and little things here, there, we can be more merciful and more loving than God.

Today, for example, with homosexual marriage, how many people say but what's wrong with that, if they love each other, if they are people who also have the right to love, have you ever heard that? ? And who am I to say, it's not you, it's what the word of the Lord says. My love, my mercy, brothers, or that he is my friend and he is such a good person and I love him so much. And you know what? We are putting Or that I spoke with that person and there is so much anguish and so much struggle in him that I have to believe that this is from God.

Look, the word of God is the word of God. Your sense of justice and mercy, you cannot be more merciful than God, listen well. You will never be able to improve the mercy, goodness and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, never. And I have always said that if God says something, that in itself makes it good, makes it noble, makes it just, makes it perfect. I am not one to question what God says. My role, my role, is to grudgingly submit to what God has said and obey and say, one day when I get to heaven I am not going to ask Daddy God why he sent me to do that and believe that. And I assure you that God is going to sit down with you and tell you, look, this and this was the reason, and you are going to say, ah, now I understand. And you are going to realize that it was exactly what was required in light of the total economy of humanity.

How many times in our lives have we gone through things that don't seem to make sense at all and then, years later or months later, we see, wow, the truth is that God brings it to you. What sense does it make and how do we thank the Lord because he imposed himself on us. Yes or no? Because brothers it is like that, many times God humbles human reason to see if we are going to honor and accept it or not. And if you lower your head and do things as God said, even if it offends your reason, you will be blessed, even if it offends your sense of justice, even if it offends your sense of mercy.

When the Lord Jesus Christ tells Peter, Peter, casts the nets into the sea to fish and Peter tells him, but Lord, if we were fishing all night, in optimal situations and we didn't catch a single fish , but Peter adds, but Lord, at your word I will cast the net. In other words, you know what you're doing. And what happened? Pedro collected a multitude of fish, so much so that the boat was sinking and he had to call others to come and help him collect fish. Because? Because when God says things, even if it seems crazy, even if it seems scandalous, even if it seems unfair, that is what goes and woe to those who rebel against it and whoever receives the word of the Lord is blessed and prosperous. Let us never think that we are going to improve on what God has declared.

Woe to that nation that wants to put its own sense and definition of justice before what God has determined.

5. We have to obey and be faithful, not only in what is acceptable and reasonable, but also in what is scandalous and offensive to reason. I already said it, that is the corollary of what I said before. That is why we have to obey and be faithful, not only in what is acceptable and reasonable, but also in what is scandalous and offensive to reason.

My brother, my sister, there are people here in this congregation right now, I say it prophetically, Lord that there are areas in your life that for you to align with what God wants from your life, you are going to have to do something that is going to break your heart, you are going to have to break up with someone you love very much, and your soul is going to bleed, but you are going to have to do it, and if you do it you are going to be blessed. If you are stubborn or stubborn and persist, judgment will come to your life.

There are areas of your life that give you a lot of pleasure, a lot of pleasure, a lot of satisfaction, they flatter you, but if you don't give them over to the Lord, they will be the source of your destruction, it will hurt, you you're going to ask, but why, what's wrong with that. Because the Lord says so.

Another passage that came to my mind this morning about that is when the Lord Jesus Christ sends the disciples and tells the disciples, tell some people they didn't know, that that donkey was given to them. surrender to the Lord, it was when the Lord was going to enter Jerusalem in his triumphal entry, mounted on a donkey. And look at what he says, Jesus Christ says, and if they ask you why you have to deliver that donkey, tell them the following, because the Lord needs it. Wow that struck me, it's a beautiful verse.

Brother, when the Lord tells you to give him something, give it to him, because that's what he says, that's what he wants and that's what you have to do. And if you do it, you will be blessed, even if your heart hurts, even if your soul breaks, even if your entrails bleed, do it because there is a great blessing in that. And when you correct that area and align yourself with God's will, even though the path is painful, blessing will come to your life, God's coverage will come, peaceful sleep will come, hope will come.

How many things in our lives are hidden there and prevent God from doing everything he wants in our life. Look, there are people here in this church right now that God has an incredible bank account that God wants to pour out on you, but is waiting for you to align your life with his will, there are things that God wants to do in your life, listen to me, and You wonder why the blessing does not come to my life, why do I go to church, why do I tithe, why do I do the other thing, and I have not seen God's blessing. Look, that area in your life that you need to align with the word of God, give it to the Lord, you're going to bleed, it's going to hurt, you're going to kick, you're going to look bitter, but when you do it immediately that goes away and the God's blessing in your life. Whoever has ears to hear, hear what the word of the Lord says.

I'm closing this here. Another important point.

6. sooner or later disobedience brings disastrous consequences. Here the emphasis is sooner or later, sooner or later disobedience brings disastrous consequences. Saul was a man who from the very beginning of his reign was disobeying the Lord and the Hebrews, if they had had understanding eyes, would have realized that something was wrong in the heart of this man because when God blessed Saul and pointed him out as the the first king of Israel and put his seal on Saul, it says that when they went to present Saul, when Samuel went to present Saul before the congregation, before the people of Israel, Saul did not appear anywhere. And the people were asking where Saul is and they couldn't find him. Do you know where they found it? Hiding out there in a place because he was afraid to introduce himself, he was shy and he was afraid to introduce himself to the congregation. There was already something in the heart of this man that he himself understood that he did not live up to his calling. There was a lack of integrity in him. There was a sense of separation, like when Eve and Adam hid from the presence of God, because they knew they were wrong.

And Saul again and again rebelled against God, he was inconsistent in his walk. And God had mercy on him but one day God said, the cup was overflowing. Today is the day and he charged it all with interest.

Brother, sister, do not allow, do not play, let us not play with God because many times God's mercy is long and God gives us a very long rope and we do and undo, and we run around here and over there, and there are inconsistencies in our lives and we say, well, God knows, God is merciful, this and that, and that. and one day God pulls the rope on us and breaks our necks. Or one day the enemy charges us, because that one does not forgive anything, you know? He doesn't forgive and I am sometimes more afraid of….. I am not afraid of God, I have respect for God, but I am afraid of Satan because he is an accuser. He does not forgive any debt, he has no mercy, he is always ready to collect anything. And so that's why we have to walk straight.

Brothers, if I could emphasize in some way that the word that I am giving is not to frighten you, it is to bless you. If you take it seriously, Lion of Judah congregation, God wants to do beautiful things in you, God wants this people to honor it, lift it up, bless it, use it, prosper it, but God says, before my blessing comes upon you, let's settle accounts, get well align with me, align yourselves with my word, the Lion of Judah people God tells you, I want to bless you, I want to pour out my grace on you, I want to use you greatly, I want to show the truthfulness of my word to you and I want to give you everything I have conceived in my heart since before the foundation of the world, I have it destined and prepared for you, the gifts that I made for you are prepared and my heart is willing to give them to you.

Now, be on good terms with me, fix your walk, straighten the crooked paths, what is too high, lower it, what is too low, raise it, what is excessive, make it precise and what is little widen it, and when you align yourself my blessing will descend on you, when obedience is the rule of your life, my blessing will flow like abundant sources to your life. That is my word to the people of León de Judá on this day, it is the word of the Lord.

People of God, this message is for you, obedience before sacrifice, cleanliness before boasting, integrity in small and big things, holiness in public and in private, obedience to the Lord, integrity before of God.

The last thing, because I want to finish on a positive point, is that when we obey we are blessed and prosperous. I want the musicians to come in, please, thank you, when we obey we are blessed and prosperous. I have something here that says, obedience is the best conduit.

In the world of science there are different conductors of energy, some are better than others. For example, electricity, copper is one of the best conductors and that is why electrical cords are made of copper, wires, copper is used and there are even better conductors than copper. But the important thing is that I would say the best conductor of God's blessings is obedience.

There are many other drivers of God's blessing, praise is one, service is another, tithing and giving preferentially to the Lord of your goods is another driver of God's blessing, but of all I know the best is to obey the Lord, to have a subject heart, submissive to the Lord, a tender heart towards the Lord, a heart like soft wax that when God only oppresses a little bit immediately conforms to the image that God imparts. that our hearts be like this, that our sensitivity towards the Lord.

Brothers, I am convinced of the precision of this word that I am sharing with you this afternoon and of how timely it is. That is why I say that this is a prophetic word for you and for me who have been fighting with it and struggling with it all these days, these months. Today the Lord gives me freedom to share it with you.

God wants to use us, bless us, prosper us, but let's remember this, church, church, congregation that listens to me, God wants each one of us to be neat before him. You do not realize all the desire your Father has to bless you and prosper you. If you understood how great God's passion is at this time to bless his creature, man, humanity, and use his church, but that cannot come until we put things right before God.

What the prophetic word said this morning, you have to fix the altar first before the blessing comes. When Gideon was called by God to liberate Israel from the Midianites, he told him, the first thing you have to do is take down this statue of the goddess Asherah that they have, remove it from there, cut it down and make me a sacrifice with it. Before the blessing comes.

You see, what idol is in our lives, what things are in your life, in my life that we have put before God and obedience. and God says, my people, my people, I want to use you. The cry, your call, your request to see my glory descend on New England and on this nation, I have heard it and I want to give it but straighten your ways, correct your paths, prepare the way for my coming and I will arrive, prepare clean vessels and on those vessels I will make my oil descend, my anointing, because my anointing is priceless and cannot be contaminated. My anointing will not descend on impure vessels. Let us examine our ways, seek the Lord, let us obey his word. Prepare a home for yourself, prepare a clean vessel in your life, uncover the ears of disbelief, my brother, my sister this afternoon and leave here committed to the Lord, committed to the Lord to walk straight. Let's not play games with the Lord anymore, I tell myself first, no more games with the Lord so that God can have a people, a people, a people, a people, a people capable of containing his glory.

What God wants most is his people, a people. We are going to give the Lord a people according to his glory. Stand up.

We are going to give our lives to the Lord, we are going to consecrate our lives to the Lord again, we are going to give the Lord what he wants from us, what he wants most is your heart. That is what he wants most on this day, more than sacrifice, tithe, time, effort, work, your heart. Give me your heart, my son, says the Lord and look at your eyes through my eyes. Give your life to the Lord, consecrate it to the Lord right now, your way.