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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jason Sliger

Better To Obey Than...

It's good to be here with you this morning.

My name, as you already know, is Jason Sligar.

And Advent Hope for me is 1 of those places that I hear a lot about, but unfortunately haven't been able to come and visit you guys very often.

I think I may have come once before, but it's a privilege to be with you here, and I wanna thank the organizers of Advent Hope for the invitation to come and share with you from the Word of God.

You already know I work for Amazing Facts.

I've been working with them for about 6 years doing Bible prophecy seminars.

And unfortunately, the better half of my family, my wife was unable to make it with me this weekend.

She had some other things that she had to take care of and so I had to come out on my own.

But she wanted me to make sure that I sent my best regards to the folks at Advent Hope.

We really appreciate what you guys are doing here.

And audio verse and the sermons that you guys record here have been a great source of inspiration for me and my wife as we travel on the road hearing good biblically solid, solidly based sermons off of the Word of God.

It's just been a real blessing to be part of that ministry from a distance.

I thought before I shared with you just a brief thought this morning, I thought I would share with you a little story that happened in the field this past year.

As I already mentioned, Amazing Facts, I've been working with them for about 6 years and it's just a tremendous privilege to work with such a high caliber ministry doing Bible prophecy seminars with these great guys that are out there pounding the pavement, sharing the Word of God and bringing people to the point of decision.

This year has been full of a lot of great experiences.

And as I thought about what story to share, it was really kind of tough because there were so many good experiences that happened this year.

But I decided to share with you 1 that came from Springdale, Arkansas.

And before the meetings began, we have what we call an organizational meeting where we meet with the church and the church members and kind of organize ourselves before opening night.

And at the organizational meeting there was a church member who came up to us and asked for a special prayer request that her sister and her sister's boyfriend would make the decision to come to the meetings.

So obviously we made this a matter of prayer and we spent some time that night praying for this young lady and her boyfriend.

And opening night as we were standing there greeting people as they were coming in, they were registering and all that stuff.

This young lady came up to the pastor and I and she said, my sister is here.

Now her sister was familiar with the church.

She had come to the Adventist church before but had a series of really challenging events that happened in her life and kind of had hardened her heart towards God.

But there she was in the seminar opening night, and when she was pointed out to me, I could tell just by looking at her that she was a deeply troubled young lady.

And her boyfriend that was with her was as well very troubled.

Opening night I preached the message, and as I looked over at them when I was preaching, I could tell that they were really struggling.

And so I made it a matter of prayer throughout the course of that meeting to pray for Amy and her boyfriend, Brandon.

About halfway through the meetings, I was going through some decision cards, and I couldn't believe my eyes.

I saw a decision there from Brandon and Amy that they would like to be baptized.

The pastor and I met with Amy and Brandon.

They were living together and they were not married.

And so we met with them and we talked with them about their decision to be baptized and become part of God's family.

And we encouraged them to make right this particular point in their life of living together outside of marriage.

They said, Pastor, we understand that this is what we need to do.

And at the end of that seminar, Brandon and Amy got married on Friday night, and on Sabbath morning, they were married to Christ.

And I wanna tell you, from my perspective as the presenter, I noticed a stark change in their lives.

From that first night when they walked in that very troubled and furrowed brow that they had very weighed down with the weight of sin in their life.

By the end of that seminar, as they heard the Word of God preached 4 nights a week for 4 weeks, 24 presentations, their life was deeply changed.

And I can tell you to this day that Amy is a completely different person because of her hearing the Word of God.

Maybe tonight I can share with you a few other stories when I give you my second message at 4 o'clock.

But God is doing a work out in the field, changing lives of people as they come to Bible prophecy seminars.

By the way, have any of you ever been to the Amazing Facts Bible Prophecy Seminar?

I know there's not very many out in this area, but if you ever get a chance to go to 1, you should go.

This morning I want to share with you something from the Word of God.

It's a Sabbath school, and so we're going to spend some time studying the Bible just briefly this morning.

And what I'm going to share with you is something that for me has personally touched my life.

So just understand that as I present the short message this morning that I'm really preaching to myself.

Over the past week and months that I've been studying this chapter, God has been pointing out different areas in my life personally that needed to be changed.

I know that's kind of a cliche with a lot of speakers to kind of soften the blow, but this is definitely true in my case as I've studied this chapter of the Bible.

It has definitely spoken very deeply to my heart.

So before we begin this morning, I'm going to invite you, if you wouldn't mind, to just bow your heads with me this morning as we begin with a brief word of prayer.

Father in heaven, we are thankful that you have brought us together here in this building this morning to study your word.

And Father, we are thankful for the Sabbath day of rest that you have entrusted to each 1 of us.

And Father, this morning I pray that we can push aside the busyness of our life and all of the things that took place this past week, and that this morning we can sit here in your presence.

Lord, we invite your spirit to be with us here this morning and to teach us and guide us as we look at your word.

Want to invite you to go with me to the book of 1 Samuel.

It's nice to hear all of those Bible pages rustling.

And this morning what I'm going to share with you is probably not new.

It's not gonna be new to any of you here, for the most part, I'm sure.

But perhaps it might be a little bit of a reminder for some of us.

This morning we're going to look at the irrational thoughts of an unrepentant sinner.

The irrational thoughts of an unrepentant sinner.

First Samuel chapter 15, we find here a story that is written about the first king of Israel, Saul.

And at this point in 1 Samuel 15, he has been king for quite some time.

He has become a very successful general, fighting many wars and winning them.

And here, Samuel comes to Saul in 1 Samuel 15, and tells him something from the Lord.

Verse 1, And Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel.

Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt.

Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both men and women, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

They were descendants of Esau, and were the first ones to make war with God's people when they left Egypt on their way to the Promised Land.

The Bible records that as the children of Israel were on their way to Canaan, the Amalekites came up behind them and destroyed many of the children and the women and the elderly folks and the slower moving animals, they kind of snuck up behind them and destroyed many of those, many of the children of Israel.

And because of that, God had cursed them and had made the decision, he told Moses, and later on Saul was to carry this out, but he told Moses that the Amalekites were to be completely destroyed.

In fact, the Bible here uses the word utterly destroyed, which simply in the Hebrew means to exterminate.

They were to be completely and utterly obliterated because they were enemies of God.

Now, from the time that this first war had taken place with the children of Israel to the present, it was somewhere around 400 years of probationary time that God had given to the Amalekites, but yet they were still defiant of the Israelites and defiant of God and his people.

And so here, Samuel comes to Saul and he says, Saul, God is going to use you to exterminate the Amalekites, to completely destroy them.

And so Saul is given this decree to destroy everything that they have.

Now let me just ask you a simple question here this morning.

The command that was given to Saul from Samuel, was it a complicated command, yes or no?

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Better To Obey Than...

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