In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: If God tells you to walk 10 paces and you walk 8, you've disobeyed God. One of the reasons so many of God's people will live out their whole entire Christian life and wonder why God never used them, one of the primary reasons is they were too independent to obey the precise, exact directions of God.

Guest (Male): God has given us the ability to logically think through complex problems and find creative solutions, and He expects us to use those skills. But reasoning in the absence of faith will get us into trouble. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we'll learn a valuable lesson from the life of King Saul. In today's message, "Satan's Successful Snare," here is Dr. Stanley's lesson.

Dr. Charles Stanley: I want to take just a moment to read a passage in 1 Samuel chapter 15. I want to talk about one of Satan's most successful snares. Usually, he pulls this trick on us when we're not even aware of what's happening because we're so action-oriented and we so pride ourselves in being busy and serving the Lord. Sometimes that can be a snare.

In the 15th chapter of 1 Samuel, Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the words of the Lord." He said, "I want to tell you what God has told me to say to you, having anointed you as king of Israel. Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt.

Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him, but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'" We say, "My goodness, what kind of a God is that?" What we don't realize is that from God's point of view, anything that would bring about idolatry and the dispersion of His people and endanger their faith in Him was an enemy of God.

Then Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim: 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. Saul came to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the valley. Saul said to the Kenites, "Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came up from Egypt." So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

So Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He captured Agag—now watch this—he captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. Whenever God tells us to do something and we say "but," we just began our trouble. Let's go back up to verse 3. Here is God's command: "Go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has. Do not spare him, but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."

Whenever God tells us to do something, we must be very careful to hear what He says. Haven't you said to your children, "Come here, son. Here's what I want you to do," and they're out the door on their way to listening and on their way don't even know where they're going? They're just in a hurry to get on with it. Sometimes when we get down to praying and say, "Lord, what do You want us to do?" and God begins to speak, we are up off our knees and running, wanting to obey God when we didn't get His precise, exact instructions.

Here's the conclusion we come to, and this is Satan's snare: that partial obedience is true obedience when partial obedience is never obedience. There's no such thing as partial obedience. Partial obedience is disobedience in the eyes of God, and disobedience might be concisely defined as independence in action. Listen to what he did.

Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Here is Satan's snare. Watch this. Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands." Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night.

I want you to watch something. Let me ask you a question. Do you want to obey God? You want your life to count for God? I mean, you really want it to really and truly count for God? There's no way to do that until you learn how to listen, and there's no way to fulfill that until you learn how to obey God precisely in what He says.

Here is Satan's snare. Satan says, "Yes, that's exactly what God said, but..." What did he say to Eve when she was talking and they were carrying on a conversation? "Yes, that is what God said, but..." When God tells us to do something and we begin to weigh God's command, what we begin to do is we begin to weigh what He says and begin to think about it and begin to evaluate what He has said and begin to compare what He said with what we think may be an equal alternative. We've just begun to head for trouble.

If God tells you to walk 10 paces and you walk 8, you've disobeyed God. If He tells you to walk 12 and you walk 11 and three quarters, you have still disobeyed God. One of the reasons so many of God's people will live out their whole entire Christian life and wonder why God never used them, one of the primary reasons is they were too independent to obey the precise, exact directions of God.

I can look back in my own life and think about times when God says, "Here's exactly what I want you to do." Without fail, Satan will always come up with just a little, just a little twist in what God said. Let me tell you something about what Satan says. Satan will always give you something that seems to be very logical, very rational, very acceptable, and very palatable to us. When we reason it out from our point of view, surely it is acceptable to God.

When you and I are unwilling at any given point to do exactly what God said, what we are doing is we are deliberately, willfully disobeying God. What appeared to them to be waste was an act of disobedience. Friends, you can't go by appearance. You can't go by reason. You can't evaluate what God says against what you think is right and choose what you think is right and disobey God. That's acting independently of God.

He said, "I want you to kill everything in sight." Human reason said, "Well, my goodness, you don't want to waste all these good sheep and oxen and fatlings and lambs." So when Samuel came to visit Saul, and Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the Lord. I have carried out the command of the Lord." Samuel came to Saul, having listened to that, Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" You know what he's saying? He said, "Saul, the evidence is you didn't obey God."

You want to get along in your life out there where somewhere where you think God is going to be blessing you and all of a sudden begin to hear something that is going to remind you that what you've really done is walked in disobedience and not obedience? He says, "What is this bleating of the sheep I hear?" Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen," listen, this sounds so good, "they saved all of those in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God, but the rest we have utterly destroyed."

That sounds real good and you say, "Well, if the motivation's right, then surely God's going to accept that." The truth is it doesn't make any difference what my motive is. If I am deliberately, willfully disobeying God, I can do it in the name of Jesus, I can do it in the name of God, I can do it in service to God, it is still outright independence and disobedience to Almighty God. But Satan says, "But look, that'll please God to offer sacrifices of sheep and oxen and all these fatlings. That'll please God." It sounds good, but it's just pure old sin. It's acting in independence of God.

Samuel said, "Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel?" Now listen to me, and I want you to listen to me carefully, moms, dads, as well as young people. If you and I want God to use us, we have to learn very, very, very early in life to do exactly what He says, whether it is reasonable, rational, acceptable, whether it looks good or doesn't look good. What the alternative may seem to and appear to be the best thing we could do, but if it isn't what God said, then stay away from it.

Here's what will happen. Samuel said, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" God says, "I want you to tithe the income." You say, "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to give a tremendous offering once a year. May not be a tithe, but I'm going to give a big offering." That's not what God says. He said in the Bible, "Upon the first day of the week, let everyone of you lay by him in store as God has prospered him."

God lays His hand upon one of you young people and He tells you, "I want you to preach the gospel." You say, "Lord, I do want to serve You. I mean I want to serve You and I'm going to go to college and get myself a good education. I'm going to get out in the business world and make lots of money, and I'm going to give it to missions and I'm going to serve the Lord by sending others." Brother, how many times have I heard that story from men living in absolute disobedience to God? What they're saying is, "I'm going to substitute my life with what? Money."

You know what the truth is? God isn't interested in any of our substitutes for obedience. Not any of them. If He calls you to serve Him in a given area, serving Him somewhere else won't count. If He calls you to a specific task, another task won't work. No substitute for precise, exact obedience is acceptable in the eyes of God.

Friends, I want to tell you, one of the reasons so many of God's people have absolutely no power in their own personal private spiritual life is because they developed the lifestyle of partial obedience to the will of God for their life. It is the easiest thing in the world to do because it looks oftentimes like it's a better plan. Let me ask you something. Let's be honest. How many of you know at some time in your life that God told you exactly what to do and you worked out a better plan? Well, it really wasn't better after all, was it? It appeared at the moment to be a better plan.

So he says to him, "For—listen to this now—to obey is better than sacrifice." Watch this next phrase. "And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king."

Let me ask you something. You want God to use you? You want your life to count? I mean, really count in someone else's life and maybe in the lives of multitudes of people? Here's what I want to ask you: are you willing to give up your own way for God's way when it appears oftentimes that His way is not really what you think is right? Our big problem is pure old pride. I really think my way is a little better.

God says to you, "Don't marry that gal." You say, "Well, Lord, I'm willing to marry anybody You want. I really think this is the right choice. Let me tell you why I think she is, Lord." You can give him about 49 good acceptable rational reasons that even God ought to accept when you get through. The only problem is if it isn't God's will, it won't work. I've had people sit down to tell me, "Yes, I know what you're saying is true, but I'm going to do it anyway." Whenever you tell God "but I am," you're acting independently of His will for your life.

I want to ask again. Do you really want God to use you? Want to reach your potential? Want to find out what God could really do in your life? Then you need to make a decision. It's this simple: whatever God tells me to do, I'm going to do it, when He says do it, how He says do it, whether I like it or not. I'm going to obey Him by the energy and the strength of the Holy Spirit and believe that God is wise enough that whatever He tells me will always be for my good. Then, my friend, what you do is you put yourself in a position for God to bless you and use you to the maximum.

But to act otherwise is to act in an independent manner. If you keep it up, I can tell you what He'll do. He will reject you for a given place of service if you insist on a lifestyle of living under the attitude of partial obedience to God. I didn't say He'd reject you as a person. I said He'll put you on the shelf while somebody else who isn't nearly as talented, nearly as gifted, nearly as eloquent, nearly as capable as you are comes along. But they're just wise enough to do exactly what God says the way He says it, whether they like it or not.

God isn't impressed with any of us. He's just looking for folks like you and me who are willing to do what He says and not argue with him by giving some substitute that we think may be better. Let me ask you a question. What are you doing tonight in your life that you know when you evaluate it, you rip off the covers and take off all the paraphernalia, just get rid of all the junk? What is it that you are doing tonight that you know in your heart is not quite exactly what God said? It's close. It's close, but it's not exactly what God told you to do.

You think God's on your side? He is. Then let me ask you this: then why don't you stop substituting your thing for God's thing and tell him, "God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to do what You tell me to do, when You tell me to do it, how You tell me to do it, whether I like it or anybody else likes it or not. I'm going to obey You." There is no substitute for doing what God said, when He said it, how He said it, whether I understand why He said it or not.

I want to ask you a question. Are you living in partial obedience to God in an area of your life tonight and you absolutely know that you are? Somehow you just can't cross the line to say, "Lord, not any of my will, but all of Your will." Then I want to invite you to avoid ultimate disaster in your life, future discouragement, disillusionment, and great disappointment at the end of your life by confessing that to Him tonight and telling God you are surrendering your substitutes and you will do exactly what He says, when He says, how He says it, in the power in which He has to give it.

Father, we thank You tonight that You've never required anything of us that You have not equipped us to do precisely and exactly the way You have called us to do it. I want to ask for somebody tonight who has already been ensnared by Satan and whose lifestyle is already evident: partial obedience with reasoning, excusing, and blaming, all of which is unacceptable to You.

I pray in Jesus' name that for that somebody to whom You have spoken already in these very moments and You have pinpointed, pricked their conscience, brought to the surface and it's glaring them square in the eye right now that at this moment they're practicing partial obedience. I pray that there might be genuine confession and repentance and the personal renewal in these very moments of their total obedience to Your will is my prayer, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Could you be rationalizing your disobedience to God? If you're presenting Him with logical reasons that seem to justify your course of action, it's time to stop arguing your case and surrender your will to His omniscient plans.

To go back over this lesson again, click "Today on Radio" at intouch.org and order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, "Satan's Successful Snare." Visit our online bookstore. It's also included in our teaching set "Pursuing God's Heart: A Study of 1st and 2nd Samuel." You can find this and more at our website. The address again is intouch.org. Call or text us at 1-800-INTOUCH. You can also write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357.

If you disobey God, there are consequences, right? But what if you seem to get away with it? Insight is just ahead in today's moment with Charles Stanley.

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Guest (Male): From the Pastor's Heart is an in-depth teaching letter inspired by the teachings of Dr. Charles Stanley. To receive In Touch's From the Pastor's Heart letter, call 1-800-INTOUCH or visit intouch.org/pastorsheart. You're listening to In Touch. Have you ever wondered the difference between obedience and partial obedience? Here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: You want to know why many young people come along in life and they start out having been saved early in life, commit themselves to serve the Lord, and just want to be whatever God wants them to be, want to serve Him, and God never uses them? I want to tell you, listen to me. Because somewhere along the way you began early in life to practicing this little principle right here: after all, I'm not perfect. After all, I can't be expected to do everything that somebody requires of me.

So you begin practicing partial obedience to your parents. You see how many of us have said, "Well, I didn't get punished." Next time it comes along, what do we do? It's partial obedience again. "Well, I made it through that one." It's partial obedience again, made it through that one. It's partial obedience again, made it through that one. We think we're getting by with something when all the time we are cutting a rut for our life that one day we'll end up and look back and think, "Where did I get off base?" It's real simple. Back here where you started in the very beginning, practicing partial obedience and you got by with it, you start practicing that on God.

Guest (Male): You can learn more about obedience to God at intouch.org. If today's program gave you renewed motivation to obey God, we'd love to hear from you. Next week on In Touch, are you mad about something? Allowing that feeling to grow can be more dangerous than you might think. Hear about the acid of anger in our continuing study of 1st and 2nd Samuel on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.