Pride and placing my opinions above God’s.

<p>Pride and placing my opinions above God’s.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

Selective Obedience

Well, I have a story this morning about a boy who wanted to inherit his father's farm.

I don't know what it is, but there's something about a farm growing up as a kid That's just a lot of fun.

I was just telling somebody the other day about how when we shot up to the UP of Michigan, we stayed on a farm for about 2 weeks.

And as a young boy of about 10 or 12, I loved it.

We wore cutoffs every day, and that was it, and tennis shoes.

And we played in the barns, we went down to the creeks, and we dug worms, we had to watch out not to get shocked underneath the electric wire, but that's where the biggest night crawlers were, and on and on and on and on.

There's something about a boy and a farm that's fun.

In fact, just last night I was putting Matthew to sleep and I don't even know how it came up but he looked at me very seriously.

He says, Dad I know what I want for Christmas.

I said, sure what do you want for Christmas Matthew?

He said, I want seeds from a real farmer and a cow to ride around.

But as this story goes, it's kind of a parable of sorts, but This young man wanted to inherit the farm and it probably had a cow and it did involve some seeds and this young man went off to school and he got all kinds of training and learned all kinds of techniques that his father knew nothing about.

His father was more schooled in the old school farming and you watch nature and different things and you just kind of get a sense and a feel for what will do well here and there and he had a wealth of experience.

But the son on the other hand, he'd been to school and he knew all about how to do these soil samples and to check for pH and alkalinity and all these other things in the soil.

And so it came time when he said, Dad, I know how to run this farm.

Well, the father was getting a little bit tired.

He was getting quite ready to hand it over.

I will sign the entire farm over to you on 1 condition.

I'm going to take your mom on a trip and we're going to travel.

We're going to see everything there is to see there and I won't be here to bug you.

You can do whatever you want here on the farm as long as you follow a few specific directions.

In each field I have mapped out, in fact here's a piece of paper, and he pulled something out and he had there the whole farm and in each field he had specifically listed what was going to be planted where.

So we got soybeans over here and corn and some of you know what I'm talking about.

You even map out your little plot, right?

We're going to have 5 rows of this and on and on and on.

He says, you can do your soil samples, you can do your tests, you can do whatever you want.

Just promise me you will plant what I have listed here.

And they took off and he was just going to town.

He was going to all these places, and sure enough, dad knew what he was talking about.

He checked the soil here, and for soybeans, Perfect.

He checked the soil over here in this little valley here for corn.

He went all the way around on that sheet until this 1 little place down by this lazy river.

And That's where he was supposed to plant something that the soil tests were saying was not going to work.

I don't remember if it was broccoli or green beans or whatever it was.

He scratched his head and he said, green beans will never work here.

You know what would grow really well here?" And he came up with his own idea.

And so time goes on and it gets to the end of the summer and his parents come home and they're all suntanned and worn out and he's all excited.

And look at how this corn's coming up over here.

And he started showing them all the way around the farm.

They got to that lazy patch down by the river and the father starts to scratch his head and he says, oh I know dad you said you wanted me to plant soybeans here but I did the soil test and soybeans was just been terrible they wouldn't even grown here it was just all wrong I figured it had to be a mistake.

And he said, I gave you very specific instructions.

And I told you to plant everything as I told you to plant it.

And I did, I did everything just as you said.

Yeah, I know, but I obeyed and everything else.

And the father said, you didn't obey me 1 bit.

You did everything the way you thought it should be planted and it all lined up with what you came out on your soil tests except for in this 1 plot.

And As the parable goes, the son did not inherit the farm or the cow.

Have you ever noticed how willing we are to obey until it rubs against what we want to do?

Has anybody had somebody that works under them and they're all agreeable as long as they agree with what should happen.

But as soon as they see something that they would certainly do different problems.

The true test of obedience is when it doesn't make any sense, but you do it anyway.

It's in the Old Testament here in 1 Samuel chapter 15, but we have to get a little context before we jump into today's story in chapter 15.

But Saul has been crowned king and he's been doing a wonderful job until chapter 13.

And It's there in chapter 13 that you will recall the Philistines were going to attack Israel and for 7 days the men are quaking with fear waiting for God's prophet Samuel to come and offer sacrifices.

But Samuel doesn't come, he doesn't come, he doesn't come, and the people grow very impatient until finally Saul himself offers the sacrifices, which was not lawful for him to do.

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Selective Obedience

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