1 Sam 15:22, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt 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.  
This morning, we come face to face with something in which we all have our intense dealings. Much like Saul, in his disobedience to that which the Lord demanded of him, we often find ourselves putting forth excuses and examples of human reasoning to explain why we make certain choices in our lives which are at extreme odds with the Lord.
We, as human beings, are very adept at the means of trying to make our statements of reasoned thought processes to explain away, at least to ourselves, those requirements of the Lord which we find to be in conflict with what we want or what we think is a better course.
Stop at this point for a moment! We, human beings, with finite minds and oh so limited knowledge of even what the next second will bring, think that we have a better plan in place than that which God has made evident in His Word and by His Holy Spirit. We think that we have legitimate and reasonable arguments to put up against the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, and the Omnipresent Lord God Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Somehow, we convince ourselves that when we are disobedient, it is for a better purpose and outcome than what God has ordained from before even time was created. 
We think, and ever so adamantly and persistently and divisively, that our ways can be better and higher and more fulfilling than that which God has put forth as His perfect will for us on this earth, today, tomorrow and for all the days of our lives. We have the audacity to defiantly stand before the throne of God’s Holiness and Righteousness and tell Him that He is wrong! Our defiant attitudes show that we think He is wrong; that He is making a mistake; that He is leading us down the wrong path! We think we know a better way, a short-cut through the wilderness which will bring us out into our Promised Land in the fastest way possible! 
Sadly, I am not being overly dramatic in this description. This is exactly the impudence that we put forth every time that we refuse to obey Him. We think that our way is better than His way. This is what Saul thought when he did not carry out the Lord’s commandment. 
Thinking back to our morning’s reading, notice how Saul first pushed the blame on the people. He was their king and yet he was unable to stop them from gathering the finest of the booty. It was entirely their fault because they chose not to listen and Saul was powerless to stop them. 
Then, Saul began to defend himself. He mentioned that in fact he was bringing the choicest of the flocks to sacrifice to the Lord. He proffered the idea that surely God would be pleased with such fine sacrifices of the very best of the flocks and herds of the Amalekites. These would undoubtedly be animals that would appease and please the Lord. 
As well Saul was bringing the king of the Amalekites in order that he would bow before the throne of Israel and be an emblem of the great work of Saul to deal such a blow to the enemies of the people of Jehovah. Agag was a prize to be exhibited as to the power and the strength of the Israelites over those who would try to oppose and abuse them. That was the apparent thought process of Saul. 
However, as this morning’s text describes there was far more at stake in the disobedience of Saul. No matter how many excuses of human reasoning could be put forth to show that Saul’s actions and decisions should have been considered as good ones and should be recognized as such, they were still absolutely indicative of his lack of honor and reverence and obedience unto God! These were all in direct contrast and in defiant opposition to that which the Lord required!
As Samuel so forcefully proclaimed, declaring the decision of the Lord to take the kingdom from the hands of Saul, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt 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. 
And continuing on in verse 23 of this 15th Chapter, 1 Sam 15:23, "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." 
Thus is the case with every one of our excuses and our arguments and our justifications, and our dissertations as to why we did what we did when we did it and how we did it  - despite the fact that it was utterly against what the Lord required of us! We can put forth every humanly reasoned argument, and sentimental plea, and imaginative scenario, but the answer and the judgment will always be the same. When we do not obey, we suffer the consequences of the displeasure of Our Lord God Almighty! 
This is such an insinuated behavior of our old human flesh, that we would do well to spend some time dwelling on what is our required and necessary task on this earth as God’s Redeemed and Chosen and Beloved people. He takes no pleasure in the manner of having to deal with our impudence, but He will never overlook it or let it slide! He will work fully, albeit lovingly, to make us realize that His way is always and forever much better and perfect and the expression of an eternally glorious plan which He desires all of His children to know as the full blessing of His so great love to us. 
Consider what Jehovah told His people when He led them out of bondage. There was no demand for sacrifices or any of those other rituals which have become the essence of determination as to the spirituality of so many groups of people claiming to be the chosen ones. Notice, in Ex 19:3-6 what the Lord told Moses to say to the Children of Israel. 
Ex 19:3-6, And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel." 
Throughout it all there is that call to obedience, to honor the Lord in doing that which God puts forth as His will for His people. God knows that the manner of His people as the means to show how much we love Him is how completely we obey Him. This is the way in which the relationship will grow and flourish into something far beyond rules and regulations. 
That is what we, humans, have made of it. We have turned all the loving precepts and the gracious protection of the Lord into calloused and rigid regulations and restrictions. What God intended as our security from all the terrors of the nations with their countless diseases and their idolatrous enslavement to the power of the enemy has become a burden in our eyes. We have morphed them into those regulations and requirements which we think are intended to weigh us down and to hinder our enjoyment of the pleasures of this age. 
We tell God that we are not going to obey His ordinances and His stipulated and manifested Words of the Law because we want to experience all that this world has to offer. We want to taste the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil for ourselves, in order to have our eyes open to the delights and the enticements of those things that shine in our vision, like flashy lures to a fish, or flickering flame to a moth. 
We do not see His regulations as the means of showing His so great love by the fulfillment of them all in Jesus Christ. Rather than holding ourselves to the covenant of commitment and dedication and honor and filial sanctity, we cast aspersions and defamations against God and all that He has put forth as His message of love and perfection in Jesus Christ. 
What we fail to understand, in our human indignation and stubbornness is that the covenant into which we have committed ourselves, sealed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, is one of dedication and fidelity and consecration in the terms of a marriage bond. What God has set before us are not laws to restrain us, but terms of the covenant which are for the sake of the both of us, God with us and we with Him. It is our obedience to those precepts which bind us wholeheartedly and lovingly to Our Lord. Accordingly, we express our utmost and sincere love and appreciation of Who He is and all that He has done to bring us into this relatedness with Him.
That is how the Psalmist can express exactly what pleases the heart of God so succinctly in Ps 51:16+17. Ps 51:16+17, For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. 
God is not pleased with the ritualistic aspects of His people when they are done simply as a means of appeasement or because they have always been done as a cultural activity. God does not want to be considered as some Divine entity Who will rain down fire and brimstone upon those who do not offer Him the correct sacrificial obligatory works of human hands. Be it in order to avoid punishment or to show how spiritual one might be. 
That was so often the case when man would show everyone else how high and exalted that person should be considered in the eyes of others, forgetting that God desires the humbleness of heart and contriteness of spirit. A true reality of the living relationship with Jehovah is what pleases God, not those things that are done because they express the elevation of one man over another.
The writer of the Proverbs addresses this in the exact terms as we are seeing with King Saul. Please turn to Prov 21:2+3 as a witness against all of us who try to argue our spirituality in the ways that we think are better than obedience to God. 
Prov 21:2+3, Every man's way is right in his own eyes, But the Lord weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice Is desired by the Lord rather than sacrifice. 
We have dealt with this attitude of humanity in previous considerations, but it rears its ugly head again and again, as evidenced in this morning’s reading. Saul made every excuse in order to justify what he had done. Yet, God would not abide any of it! Everything that the king put forth as a reason for his disobedience is rank with this human propensity to justify actions that are in opposition to the Holiness and the Righteousness and the Perfect will and plan of God. We can all make these justifications for the things that we do. Yet the only thing that will please God is to do that which is His will and His way for our walk on this earth. 
When we are following the guidance of the love covenant of our relationship with the Lord, we will do only those things which will show our love for Him. This is especially true in our treatment of other people. We will deal with all others in the righteousness with which God is dealing with us. We will show them the same favor and loving kindness and gentleness and patience and service of heart that floods our beings from the great and endless treasury of Heaven through Jesus Christ. 
There will be evidenced through us justice, not according to human standards but that justice with which God has dealt with our sin and our trespasses. He sent His Only Begotten Son to die for us. He took upon Himself our transgressions and laid them forever on the death side of the cross!
Then, in all the splendor of God’s Righteousness, through His resurrection power, He raised us up together with Himself into glory. That is the justice with which we will deal with those who are in such need of the justice of God. We will lay down our lives, our rights, our natural instincts for the sake of their coming into the full measure of the love of God. This is the sacrifice that pleases God. Not that we toot our horn because we are so much better than someone else. Rather, it will be that quiet confidence in the Lord which will love even our enemies through the eternal and triumphant victory of the risen Son of God, incarnate.
 Finally for this morning, we hear the call of the Lord through the Prophet Isaiah, Isa 1:11-16, with the full measure of what God truly has in His heart against those who try to justify their actions. These are the ones who practice a form of religion without any true sense of Who God is. They set before the gathered throngs of admirers and suppliants the haughtiness of just how good they consider themselves without any true idea of how black their hearts and actions are before Jehovah.
Isa 1:11-16, "What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?" Says the Lord. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, And the fat of fed cattle. And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats. "When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? "Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. "I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me. I am weary of bearing them. "So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you, Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
This is the clarion call to us in our human residue of self-righteousness and disobedience. We may find ourselves doing this exact act of bringing before the eyes of our gathered assemblies the works and the hollow echoes of songs which have no true meaning or honor before the Lord. We need to earnestly seek after the Holy Spirit to be the validation of all that we offer to God. We need to ask God to work His Justice and His Righteousness and His Heart of love into us. 
We need to have contrite and humble hearts that put forth complete obedience unto The Lord as our sacrifices of honor and adoration. We dare not bring those token and ritualistic offerings and sacrifices which mean nothing before the throne of God. We must seek to delight Him with hearts that are humble and spirits that are contrite in the full measure of a love that will span the eternal ages in Jesus Christ. So be it!
"Has the Lord as much delight in burnt 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. Amen
This morning’s benediction is Neh 1:5, And I said, "I beseech Thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments… Amen.