 But today we're in 1 Samuel, we're in chapter 15 here. And what I'll do is I'll read verse 1, get into our study, and we'll be looking at the 15th chapter. 1 Samuel, chapter 15 verse 1, Samuel also said to Saul, The Lord sent me to note you king over his people over Israel, now therefore heed the voice of the words of the Lord. And so what we have here is we have Samuel, and he's now speaking to the king of Israel, a man by the name of Saul. Now from the very beginning this first king of Israel, man by the name of Saul, has disobeyed God's commandments. From the beginning we saw that in chapter 10 where Samuel had told Saul to wait for him in a place called Gilgal. He said, wait seven days and when I'm there then I'm going to offer a sacrifice. Well, we know that instead of obeying that Saul had grown impatient and because Samuel didn't arrive at the time that he felt he should have arrived, Saul went out and offered that sacrifice himself. And as we were looking at that, I was pointing out to you that his impatience showed lack of faith and a simple rebelliousness against God. You see when Samuel arrived at Gilgal he saw what Saul had done and he began to question Saul about it and Saul immediately began to make excuses and he actually blamed the people and even Samuel for his sin. We saw then in chapter 13 verses 11 and 12 when it says there that Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, when I saw the people were scattered from me and that you did not come within the days appointed and that the Philistines gathered together at McMash then I said, the Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal and I have not made supplication to the Lord. Therefore I felt compelled and offered a burnt offering. He didn't admit that he was wrong. He didn't admit that he had become impatient. He didn't admit that at all. He actually blamed the people and even Samuel. So from the very beginning we saw that Saul was prone to impetuous decisions and he had a habit of blaming other people. Now that may work in the world, but it doesn't work in the service of God and ultimately what that results in is rejection, rejection by God. Because in 1 Samuel 13 verses 13 and 14 Samuel said to Saul, you've done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God which he commanded you. For now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. And so that's what we're seeing here. We're seeing the man who is prone to blaming other people and the man who rejects the things of God. So in chapter 15 we see in verse 1 how that Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you, king over his people over Israel, therefore heed the voice of the words of the Lord. So Samuel reminds Saul of what had occurred when he privately had anointed him as king. We saw that in chapter 10 in verse 1 where it said Samuel took a flask of oil, poured it on his head, kissed him and said, it's not this because the Lord has anointed you commander over his inheritance. And so with this reminder Samuel begins to issue a command to Saul and this command is from the Lord. That's what he means when he says, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. In other words he is saying I've got something for you from God. God is giving you a command, He's giving you an order, you are to obey it. That's what it means when he says heed the voice of the words of the Lord. And now he speaks to him. Verse 2, thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. You have your marching orders. Your orders are to go and destroy Amalek. And the reason that you're to do that to them is because of what they did to Israel when Israel was being taken out of Egyptian bondage. And see what had happened is when the nation of Israel had escaped from Egypt and they began to move out, Amalek was the first pagan nation to attack the nation of Israel. And as they began to attack Israel, Moses had given instructions to his young general, Joshua, and he had said to him, it's found in Exodus chapter 17 verse 13 through 16 that he was to battle against Amalek and defeat them. And the Bible says that Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then the Lord said to Moses, write this for a memorial in the book and recount it in the hearing of Joshua that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, called its name, the Lord is my banner. For he said, because the Lord has sworn, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. God from the beginning said, I am going to have battle against him. So later on, God is commanding Saul to complete what he intended to do in Deuteronomy in chapter 25 verses 17 through 19. We read, remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt. How he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear when you were tired and weary, and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall be when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around in the land which the Lord your God has given you to possess as an inheritance that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget. So God said, listen, I am going to give you some time to rest, but there is going to be a day, and I don't want you to forget this, that you are going to wreak vengeance on them for what they did to your nation, how they attacked the children and the women in the back, the weak and the old, how they came from behind and attacked them with no mercy and no fear for God. And he said, you're not to forget this because ultimately you will deal with them. And that's what's supposed to take place. Well it says in verse 4, Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Tel-Aim, 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, go depart, get down from among the Amalekites. Lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up from Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. Now God hates sin. God hates it to the point that it needs to be dealt with and it needs to be utterly destroyed. It's interesting how when we read in verse 3 how it says, go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy. Well that phrase, utterly destroy, is used six times in this chapter. It's used in verse 3, verse 8, verse 9, verse 15, verse 18, as well as verse 20. Utterly destroy is a phrase that usually speaks of setting something apart that is completely defiled and it's destroyed because it is identified with or associated with idolatry. God is saying that this nation is in need of annihilation because it does not fear Him and is in need of complete termination. Why is that? It's because God hates sin and God completely rejects it. Somebody says, it sounds kind of cruel to me that the Lord is going to wipe out the Amalekites, that's a people, an entire people group. Yeah, that sounds serious and it is. But it only emphasizes to me how serious God is about sin because as I recall, not only did he wipe out a people group but according to Genesis chapter 6 and following from there he wiped out the whole earth with a flood. Remember in Genesis chapter 6 verses 5 through 7 how it says that the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intent of his thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and that the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, that he was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air. I'm sorry that I made them. Yes, it's serious that he wants to wipe out the Amalekites but at one time he wiped out the whole earth. How about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the small cities that surrounded them? God heard the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah. Came down to see if it was true and ultimately God judges them. You see that in the book of Genesis chapter 18. So God judged the whole earth, God judged Sodom, Gomorrah and the small cities around it and that's because of the outcry of sin and that's what's taking place here. Now it's interesting verses 4 through 6 how that Saul gathers the people together. What he does is he, in southern Israel he gathers the troops, numbers them, begins his march. He arrives at a city of Amalek and there are people there who are called Kenites, the Kenites. The Kenites are the ones who are married to a woman named Barbie. It's a very interesting group of people, no actually. Just kidding of course. Actually their descendants from Moses' father-in-law and you see them in the book of Judges. What's interesting though and I want you to see this in verse 6. Notice how it says, Saul said that the Kenites go depart, get down from among the Amalekites lest I destroy you with them. You get a principle here that you need to grab hold of. God doesn't destroy the innocent with the guilty. Remember when God brought the flood on the earth? Noah and his family were saved. He didn't destroy the innocent with the guilty. When God brought judgment on Sodom, Gomorrah and the smaller surrounding cities, he judged them but Lot and his daughters were saved because he did not judge the innocent with the guilty. In this particular case, you see it again. You see that Saul is saying you need to leave, you've been kind to the nation of Israel, you need to get out because God does not judge the guilty, guiltless rather, with the guilty, and so that's what's taking place here. And so as this is going on, verse 7, Saul attacked the Amalekites from Havila all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He also took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But 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 unwilling to utterly destroy them, but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Now, the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments, and it grieved Samuel and he cried out to the Lord all night. So Saul's army marches against the Amalekites and the victories are extensive. Though they're extensive, they're not complete because some of the Amalekites actually survive, you'll see them later in chapters 27 as well as chapter 30. But I want you to notice what he did. He destroyed the despised and the worthless, what he kept the best alive, including Agag, the king. Saul and the people were motivated, not by a fear of God and not by a desire to obey him. That is something very important to notice here. They are motivated, not by the fear of God, and allowing to obey him and fulfill his commands, because that's exactly what Samuel had said. Heed the voice of the words of the Lord. He had been given orders by God himself. But he's not motivated by that. What he is motivated by is greedy materialism. Instead of destroying it all, as he had been commanded, notice what it says, he kept the best alive. And as he kept the best alive, it revealed faithlessness on his part. God intended to use Israel to bring judgment on Amalek, but it didn't happen. For them, it was simply a shame destroying all these beautiful things they wanted to spoil. And especially the king. The king should have been killed, because he represented all that was evil amongst the people. But instead of that, he became a war trophy. He became a symbol of the success of Saul. And Saul wasn't willing to do that. He kept this man alive. And as this takes place, it reveals something about the heart of this man. When God says to destroy it, it needs to be destroyed. These people were not completely consumed. And it's interesting how five centuries later, five centuries later, a descendant of Agag is spoken of in the Book of Esther. Because in the Book of Esther, in chapter 9, verse 24, there's a man mentioned there by the name of Haman. And Haman is the son of Hamadotha, the Agagite, meaning he was a descendant of Agag. And Haman, the son of Hamadotha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews plotted against the Jews to annihilate them. They were not destroyed. Survivors remained. Five centuries later, they're still plaguing the nation of Israel, trying to annihilate that nation. And that's why God had said through Samuel to Saul, wipe them all out. But they refused to do so. They were motivated, not by fear of the Lord or a willingness to be obedient, but by greedy materialism. And the result, verse 10, the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king. He has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments and it grieved Samuel and he cried out to the Lord all night. God said, I regret that I placed him in the position to look at the kind of man that he is. And he grieved, he grieved this great man of God and he cried out to the Lord all night. He was grieved because Saul was just like every other king in every pagan nation. He was self-centered, self-willed, selfishly ambitious. He rejected the commandments of God. That's what you see in human leadership. That's what you see. Those are the ones who very often rise to the top to become the leaders, people who are self-centered and overly ambitious for things for themselves. And that's exactly what had happened to this man and it grieved him. But what was his response? He prayed for him. He cried out to the Lord all night, more than likely praying, God, somehow perhaps you can touch this man's life. Well, verse 12, so when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel saying, Saul went to Carmel and indeed he set up a monument for himself. And he has gone on around, passed by and gone down to Gilgall. He was really into building monuments or memorials for himself. He liked the attention and the glory that he would get and that's the first thing he does. Well, verse 13, Samuel went to Saul and Saul said to him, blessed are you, the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. But Samuel said, what then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? Saul said, they have brought them up from the Melchites. For the people spared the best of the sheep in the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God. The rest, we have utterly destroyed. He thinks that he's really done what God commanded. He really does. I've done everything. I see this quite often, by the way, in ministry. I see it all the time. People who think that partial obedience is what God has commanded us to, partial obedience. That's what he basically did. It was an act of partial obedience. He didn't do all that God had commanded. He only did a portion of it. That which was most pleasing to him is what he did. It's a spiritual blindness. It's a spiritual blindness. It's been said there are none so blind as the one who will not see. And it's true. The one who refuses to see, you cannot convince them that what they've done is wrong. They just refuse to see it. They will not see it. It's like when Jesus on one occasion in John chapter nine was speaking to some people and he said to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, we see. Therefore, your sin remains. You don't see what you ought to see. You don't see the fact that you're in sin. And because you do not recognize that you have sin, you can't ask for forgiveness. But he's saying, oh, I've done. I did everything that the Lord commanded. And that's why in verse 14, Samuel says, well, what is this bleeding of the sheep that I hear? The loin of the oxen. If you did it, then how come there are survivors? If you did it, how come I can hear their cattle? You see, a person can never be forgiven if they don't take complete responsibility for their own sins. If a person doesn't recognize that they need forgiveness, they're never gonna really ask for it. And they really need to be brought to a place where they understand that they have sinned. And if they don't come to that place, they're never gonna ask for complete exoneration. They're never gonna ask God, please forgive me. You see, that's what the Holy Spirit is intended to do. The Holy Spirit, one of the functions of the Spirit of God is to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Because as long as I'm on my own, as long as I use my own standards of goodness, as long as I set up my own standard of righteousness, as long as I establish the way it is to get into heaven, then I'm gonna pretty much, I'm gonna pretty much achieve my goal. I was talking to my wife Marie the other day and I said, you know, anybody can put up a little bar, you know, a foot high and step over it. And if that's the bar that it's required for you to enter into heaven, anybody can put that bar low enough to be a champion to step right over and enter in. That's not hard to do. But the bottom line is, as the Lord's standard is perfection, we don't understand that. That's why it takes the Holy Spirit's conviction to awaken me to sin, righteousness, and judgment. Because when I realize that God is holy and I'm not, when I begin to realize that perfection is the entrance requirement for heaven and then I'm not perfect, perfect, then I have to find somebody who can be a substitute for me, somebody who can pay the entrance fee and that's what Jesus Christ did on the cross. That's how that works. And that requires the Holy Spirit's conviction. Saul thinks that he's doing it okay. He's doing all right. There's no problem. I did everything that the Lord commanded. But the fact is that's just not true. Proverbs 28 verse 13 says, he who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Well, verse 16, Samuel said to Saul, be quiet and I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night. He said to him, speak on. So Samuel said, when you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel and did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Now the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites and fight against them until they're consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord? Notice how he begins his conversation with the king. Be quiet. That's an interesting way to speak to a man of authority, to be honest with you. Be quiet. I'm gonna tell you what God says. Sometimes we need to be quiet to hear what God says. Sometimes we need to stop trying to make excuses. When my kids were younger, and this happened actually a few times when they were in their teens, there would be times when they did something that they were not to have done. And sometimes they think that we parents, we're dumb, we don't know what they've done. And I used to bust them when they were babies, I could still bust them when they were adults, I mean. And I can still remember, on a few occasions, sitting down with them and saying to them, we need to talk. And then I'd say, I need to hear what's going on about this. And man, before you know it, all of these excuses and things. And then I have patience, I can handle that for a little while, okay. But I'm just giving them some rope so they can hang themselves, that's really what I'm doing. I'm giving you some time, I'm giving you some space, tell me what happened. I already know, but I'd like to hear from you. And it would be real wise if you speak the truth. And then they'd begin to talk and they'd do this and they'd do that. And finally I'd say, well, and I'd start to speak and then there's occasions, it only happened a couple of times, to be honest with you. Or they would interrupt. And that's when daddy, the daddy hat came on. And I would say, I think you're making a mistake. We're not having a conversation. You think we're having a conversation, we're not. No, I'm talking, you're listening. That's not a conversation. What we're doing is we're dealing with something. And what you need to hear is this, because see, I know what you did. And until you agree that you were wrong, we're gonna be here for some time. My daughter, Anna, told me one time, she said actually more than once, see, I've never spanked her in her entire life. Anna never got a spanking from me. Never, never spanked her. She says, you spank me dad, that's not true. I never spanked her. She'd remember if I spanked her. I never spanked her. But I would lecture her. And she told me more than once, she said, you know dad, when you'd lecture me, I used to say to myself, I wish he just would spank me and get it over with. She said, you know, because it's true, because it would be two hours, two hours. I mean, I'd speak to her for an hour, and then she wouldn't do anything. We'd take a break, I'd receive an offering, we'd go into second service. You know? You're not getting away with this, you're not getting out of this room until you tell me you were wrong. When you admit you were wrong, and I'd tell her that, I'd say, man, you know what? You could say it from the beginning and save this. But if you wanna argue, I got plenty of time, I'm going nowhere. And neither are you for some time, by the way. Just tell the truth. Just tell the truth. Just say what's honest. I can deal with honesty, but don't try and convince me of something that's not true. I wasn't born yesterday. I've done a lot worse than you ever did, and I know where you're coming from. So what you need to do is speak the truth. Now that's a dad speaking to the kid. How much more so my Heavenly Father speaking to me? Don't try and pull the wool over my eyes. God sees everything. He knows the words before they are formed on your tongue. He knows your thoughts before they're formed in your mind. He knows everything. And here we are trying to pull the wool over his eyes. And here you have this guy saying, oh, I did it all. I did it all. And Samuel's saying, be quiet. You did not. You did not do it all. And that's the whole problem. Proverbs 9 verse 6 says, for sake foolishness and live, go in the way of understanding. So Samuel speaks to him. You started out well because you recognize yourself as inadequate and unimportant. When I came to anoint you as king, we had to look for you because you went into hiding. But now that you're king, you've had some military victories. You think yourself great. You were given a direct order. You were told, go destroy the sinners, those Amalekites. But you didn't do so. Instead, you swooped down on the spoil in order that you might get rich. Well, verse 20, Saul said to Samuel, but I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent rain. Brought back, Agag, king of Amalek, I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took the plunder, sheep, and oxen. The best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord, you're god in Gilgal. And so what does he do? He blames the people. Instead of confessing and repenting, he justifies himself. He blames them. Well, Samuel isn't having any of that. Verse 22, Samuel said, has the Lord as great delight in bird offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king. Do you think God wants your external religious behavior? Is that what you think God wants? He wants you to go and offer sacrifices? Do you think that that's what God wants from you? Your activity, your religious activity, that's what you think. You know what? There's a lot of people who think that right now. They think that. There are a whole lot of people. Entire religious systems are built on religious activity. Systems are built on it. Religious activity. Does God want my religious activity? No, God wants my heart. Real worship is of the heart. It isn't outer appearances alone. True worship is revealed by behavior because true worship is motivated by a heart that is willing to be obedient to God. Witchcraft and idolatry are sins, sins that are worthy of death and disobedience is in the same category. You see, when someone says I'm a follower of God, one of the evidences is their desire to obey him. Obedience isn't based on ideas of what he may or may not want. Obedience is based on what God has said in his word and that means that they're a student of the word. That means that they read the Bible. They're not, they're creating things. They think, oh, I think God would like it if I did this. They read the Word of God and they discover the things that God wants and demands from them. And then they just yield to him because that's what he says he wants. In 1st John in chapter two, verse three, John said, by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. In 1st John two, verse five, he said, whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him and by this we know that we are in him. We know him and we can know that we know him because we have a hunger to obey him. That's why Jesus would ask the question, why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not the things which I say? That's why Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments because that demonstrates that I actually have a relationship with him. It's the reading of the Word and it's the prayerful decision. God, as I read this and I see these things that please you, I wanna do those things that are pleasing to you. In the case of Saul, no, Saul wanted to have the goods and he wanted to take that King captive and Samuel says, no, that's the sin of witchcraft. It's an idolatrous thing for you because his heart is rebellion and disobedience to the will of God. Well, verse 24, Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words because I feared the people, bathed their voice. Now, therefore, please, pardon my sin, return with me that I may worship the Lord. But Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you for you've rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being King over Israel. And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe and it tore. So Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a neighbor of yours who's better than you. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor relent for he's not a man that he should relent. It's not gonna change his mind in other words. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel return with me that I may worship the Lord your God. Samuel turned back after Saul, Saul worshiped before the Lord. Now, his motivation was not one of repentance. You need to understand that. He's not repenting. What he's doing is he's regretting. There's a difference between regretting something and repenting. Somebody goes out, gets stupid, robs a store, gets caught, gets arrested, calls a minister. I'm so sorry, man, can you pray for me? Of course, of course we'll pray for you. Is that guy repentant or is that guy regretting? A lot has to do with whether he gets set free or not. If he's there before the judge and the judge says, I'm going to give you some probation. He gets a slap on the wrist and he leaves. Kind of like, is he going to live after that? Demonstrates whether he repented or regret it. Because a lot of times, what that person was doing was regretting. They were regretting getting caught. They were regretting because they're going to do some time. They're regretting all those things. They're feeling sorrow in the heart, but not repentance. You see, repentance is a change of mind. It's an attitude change. It's a shift of thinking. When somebody regrets, they can go back to doing the things that they regretted doing and they'll still feel bad about it. It's the person who stepped away from the alcohol for a week, a month, two years, then returns. He feels bad about what he's done in the past. He feels bad that he's going back, but he's back. Repentance is, I'm never going back. I'm never going to have anything to do with that again. I'm going to fight this in the Lord and I'm going to win because I know what it does. I know what it's done to my family. I know what it's done to me. I'm repentant because it's a sin against God and God has said he'll forgive me as a repentance, but it's not just a regret. He had a man in the Bible by the name of Judas. He had another man in the Bible by the name of the Apostle Peter. Both of them denied the Lord, but Judas went on and hanged himself. The Apostle Peter repented and became a tremendous man of God because there's a difference between regretting and repenting. Judas said, I betrayed an innocent man, but the Apostle Peter said, I have betrayed the Son of God and I am broken over this. That's the difference. Some of us in this room need to understand. When you get right with God, it's not an attitude of regret. It's a heart of repentance. God, you're right and I'm wrong. What we have with Saul is a sorrow of heart because he's losing his position and he's losing the power that he had before the people, but it isn't anything that he's repentant over. And so that's what's taking place. When it says in verse 29, the strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. He's not a man that he should relent. He said, I have sinned. You'd honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel return with me that I may worship the Lord your God. Same, you'll turn back after Saul and Saul worship the Lord. He's saying, Saul, you are easily motivated to change by your emotion, but not so with God. The strength of Israel does not lie nor does he relent. He's not moved by emotion the way you are, but I'll go with you and he indeed does. He travels with them, but there's a reason he does that. Notice verse 32. Samuel said, bring Agag, King of the Amalekites here to me. So Agag came to him cautiously. Agag said, surely the bitterness of death has passed. In other words, enough time has passed by, he won't kill me. But Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Samuel went to Rama. Saul went up to his house and said, give you of Saul. And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Samuel enacted the judgment on Agag that should have taken place under the hand of Saul. It's shocking, but it's a sober warning. You see, Agag thought, surely the bitterness of death has passed. I've gotten away with it. I'm gonna continue living. That's how a lot of people think. Well, I didn't get in any trouble. I didn't get caught. I've been waiting to see if the boss figured out that I took that money out of the till and he hasn't. I got away with it. That's not how it works. Because eventually an accounting has to take place. In the life of this man Agag, God had made sure that he was gonna be judged for all the evil that he had done. And he did receive his judgment. So this is a warning. Judgment comes even though it may be delayed, but it does come. For us, I'm grateful that God gives us a space to repent because it gives us opportunity to get right with him as he gives us that opportunity. But if I refuse to over time, then ultimately I stand before him and I have to give an account of myself to him. Agag thought he got away with it. Samuel said, you didn't, you didn't. And neither will we if we take God's mercy lightly. Father, I ask that you would work in us today. I ask that you would work in us today, Lord, and that your Holy Spirit would awaken us that we might live for you. May we not take your word lightly. May we not take your commands lightly. May we never take the blood of Christ as a vain thing. And so Lord, we lift up our lives to you and we pray that we might see the stories here, what took place and learn from them, that we might live lives that are pleasing to you, that your spirit would work in us and that we would be faithful to you. Our eyes are closed, our heads are bowed, perhaps I have some in this room right now who need to get right with the Lord. I wanna pray for you right where you're at. If you know that Lord is speaking to you, you need to get right with him today. I wanna pray for you before this prayer is closed. If you need to get right with him, would you raise your hand right now? Let me pray for you right where you're at. You know the Spirit is speaking to you. Father, you see these hands. You know the reason why they're being raised to you. In Jesus' name, I'm asking that you would reach down and you would touch these lives, Lord. As their hearts are open, their hands are raised, Lord. They're saying to you, God, as you're passing by, please notice me. I ask, Lord, in Jesus' name, that you administer to them right now, wash them, cleanse them, and may they sense your presence with them, and may they, Lord, pursue you from this day forward with all that's within them. Lord, we thank you for this and pray your help will be with them every day from now on, and we bless you for this and thank you, praise you. You can put your hands down. And Jesus, I ask that you just keep moving in us that we might live for you every day. In your name, we pray. Amen, amen. Let's all stand. Well, praise the Lord. I made it through three services and I feel good about that. Amen. Amen. I look forward to seeing you 1835 tomorrow. That would be a blessing. We're looking forward to that. And tonight, the Truth Project Wednesday, God has given us plenty of things to do to keep growing in the things of the Lord. Let me encourage you in that. And so we'll pray and we'll close with the song. Father, we ask that you'd work in us and through us and use us for your glory. We're about to leave this place and go into a field that is white for harvest. Lord, use us to reach the lost for Jesus' sake. We give you praise and we give you thanks in his name. Amen. God bless you.