Joyce Meyer - Give God Your All - Part 2 (02/10/2025)
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Joyce Meyer recounts Saul's partial obedience in 1 Samuel 15—destroying most but sparing the best and king Agag—showing how rebellion equals witchcraft and pride leads to rejection by God. Through personal stories and biblical examples like Jacob wrestling for blessing, she urges full surrender to God, even when it hurts or seems illogical, because partial obedience deceives us and costs dearly, while total obedience brings transformation and blessing.
I wanna tell you the story of Saul today and we’re actually gonna take some time and read these scriptures. Because he was asked to do something and he did part of it, but he didn’t do all of it. He sacrificed something, but he didn’t obey. And God said that to do that is like witchcraft, to not do all that God tells you to do. 1 Samuel 15:1-3, Saul was king. Samuel had anointed Saul to be king at God’s direction. He had spent a lot of time with Saul. «I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel: so listen now to this message from the Lord. This is what the Lord says: 'i will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt'».
God's Clear Command to Saul
Now here’s his instruction to Saul, «Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally…» See, we miss some of these words. «And totally destroy all that belongs to them. Don’t spare them: put to death men, women, children and infants, cattle, sheep, camels and donkeys». Now, we could have a whole lot of questions about that, «Well, what did the infants do? What did the babies do»? We don’t understand some of these things, but we know they were idol worshipers. And God always has a reason for what he does. Verse 8 says «He», meaning Saul, «Took Agag king of the Amalekites alive».
Now, God didn’t tell him to do that. He said, «Totally wipe 'em all out». But he took the king alive, but all the other people «He totally destroyed with the sword. But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the cattle». You know, it probably didn’t make any sense to them to kill them. «Well, these are good sheep, these are good cattle». But listen to this. They kept «Everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak, they totally destroyed. Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel,» the prophet, «'I regret that I have made Saul king'».
God's Regret Over Partial Obedience
Well, I hope and pray that God never has to say I regret that I put Joyce over that ministry. I don’t want God to ever have any regrets concerning me or anything that he has allowed me to do or asked me to do. «'i regret that I made him king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions'. Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night». Samuel had spent so much time with Saul, and it angered him now that all that time was gonna be wasted. «Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, 'Saul has gone to Carmel'», now, listen to this, «'and there he has set up a monument in his own honor'».
See, if you really take the time to read these, you can see he had gotten full of pride. And so, people full of pride think they can do anything they want to, and they no longer have to listen to God. In Romans 12, the Bible says, «Be careful that you don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought to». That’s why a good leader is a servant leader. You know, there’s a difference in a boss and a leader. And a lot of people that are called to be leaders think they’re bosses and because they have the authority, they just boss everybody around and mistreat people. But we should lead by example. «He set up a monument in his own honor».
Now, how stupid would it be, if you came back the next time, I recorded TV and you saw a Joyce monument out in the front yard and I said, «This was built in my honor because of all the great works that I have done»? Well, you would think that was ridiculous, of course. But we have to be very careful about pride. Pride is what brought the devil down and don’t think it won’t come after you. And when you start judging other people and criticizing them, that’s when you need to really search your heart and ask yourself, «Who do I think I am to judge other people»? «When Samuel reached him, Saul said, 'the Lord bless you! For I have carried out the Lord’s instructions'».
Saul's Deception and Blame-Shifting
Now he lied on top of it. «But Samuel said, 'well, then what then is this bleating of the sheep that I hear and this lowing of the cattle'»? Now, this is really a good one. «And Saul answered, 'the soldiers brought them'». Now, you see we’re blaming it on somebody else. And isn’t that what we always do? I mean, it started with Adam and Eve. «Adam, what have you done»? «It was the woman you gave me. You gave her to me. If you wouldn’t have given her to me, then I wouldn’t have listened to her».
I could go on and on about Adam and Eve, but… I won’t. «The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites: they spared the best of the sheep and cattle», here it is, «To sacrifice to the Lord». «Well, I only did it because it was the really good stuff, and it just didn’t make any sense at all to get rid of it. So, I kept it, God, to sacrifice it to you». I mean, how deceived? You know, pray every day that you don’t become deceived. Because the scary thing about deception is when you’re deceived, you don’t know you’re deceived. And the more deceived you get, the more unwilling you are to listen to anybody who tries to tell you you’re deceived. And satan is the deceiver. And the Bible says that, «In the last days, the deception will be so great that if he did not shorten the days for the sake of the very elect, no man could stand the temptation coming on the earth».
So, if we believe we’re living in the last days, then we also better believe that there’s a temptation to become deceived. I mean, when you look at this, it’s like, it’s all right there. It didn’t make any sense to him. «Why get rid of this»? You know, we have to be very careful when we feel like God has told us something to lay our minds to it. «Well, that’s not logical». Well, God’s, you know, a lot of the things that God has asked me to do over the years haven’t made any sense. It didn’t even make any sense when he called me to teach. I had no training. I’d never been taught how to put a message together. I didn’t go to Bible school. I didn’t even know the Bible. And yet you take that first step of faith and then God gives you what you need. And then you take that next step of faith and God gives you what you need.
Full Obedience vs Partial – Costly Deception
This is why the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1 that, «God chooses purposely the weak and the foolish things of the world to confound the wise». He chooses people that nobody else would choose. He chooses people and uses them, and it makes no sense. Because then people have to say, «Well, I guess it’s God». I get asked the same stuff all the time, «How did you do this? How did you write 151 books»? I have no clue. I just been writing 'em for almost 50 years. «And how did you do this? How did you do that? How did you know to do this? And how did you know to do that»?
I don’t think I did know up here. Dave didn’t know up here, but we just followed what we felt like God told us to do. And in the very beginning, we felt like God told us, «Don’t get hooked up with somebody and do what they do. Follow me and do what I tell you to. I don’t want a replication of somebody else. I want fresh and new». Amen? And I would even try to get appointments with different well-known people so I could ask them, «What do you think I should do»?
The only guy I ever got close enough to was a man who was on television, had a very successful TV ministry. And he was speaking at a conference I was speaking at, and I saw him in the hotel hall that night. It turned out his room was right down the hall from ours. And I said, «Can I ask you a question»? And he said, «Yes». And I said, «We’re getting ready to go on television. Do you have any advice»? And he said, «Yeah, don’t do it». Well, that was really encouraging. And guess what? If I would have listened to him, we wouldn’t be standing here today.
So, sometimes, you have to be willing to lose all to obey God. I bet you I got some people squirming in their little, «'Enough'! Samuel said to Saul, 'Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night'. 'Tell me, ' Saul replied. Samuel said, 'Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel'». He said, when you were small, when you were humble, when you knew you were nothing without me, I promoted you and anointed you as king. Now, since he’s king, he’s setting up monuments to himself and disobeying God. «And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites: wage war against them until you’ve wiped them out'».
Now listen to this, «Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord»? And Saul said, «But I did obey the Lord». Perhaps he was deceived too. You know, when you head down that road of disobedience, it’s easy for the enemy to deceive you. «I did do what was right. But Samuel replied: 'does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than to sacrifice. For rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft'. And arrogance is like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king».
Consequences of Rebellion and Pride
And here it comes, «Then Saul said to Samuel, 'i have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions'». And here’s why, «'i was afraid of the people, so I gave in to them'». I wonder how many people stand in a pulpit and don’t say to their congregations what they know God wants them to say because they think it might make a few people mad. Or how many won’t say what they know they’re supposed to say because some of the rich people in the congregation are there that day and they don’t want to stir them up and have them stop giving. I’ll tell you what, the day is gonna come when we’re going to be accountable to God. We are already accountable, and the accountability shows up in our life. But imagine standing before God and him asking, «Why didn’t you do all that I told you to do»?
I had a situation that’s funny, but it makes the point. When God first called me to teach, I taught a home Bible study for five years. And then I taught a second one, two and a half of that five years I taught a second one. And I started feeling like God wanted me to quit my job. And so, I would have time to study the Bible because you can’t, at least you shouldn’t be teaching the Bible if you don’t know the Bible. And I already had three teenagers by then. I couldn’t go off and go to Bible school and we wouldn’t have had the money anyway. And quitting your job might not sound like much if you got lots of money, but if I quit my job, we were gonna be $40 a month short of being able to pay our bills, let alone have anything for clothes or repairs or any kind of entertainment or anything like that.
Partial Obedience – Costly Lessons
So, if we listen to God, it was gonna be slim pickings. And we weren’t even gonna be able to pay our bills if we didn’t have a miracle every month, a miracle a month. Now Dave never seemed to have much fear concerning money. He always was able to really trust God in that area, but I had a lot of fear concerning money. And I think that was partially because I never really had anybody to take care of me and didn’t really fully know how to trust God. Sometimes if you really don’t know how to trust God, he will put you in positions where you have no choice. And so, I quit my full-time job and I got a part-time job. Uh-huh, see, got a little bit of Saul there. «Well, I’ll sacrifice that full-time job, but I’m gonna make enough money just to make sure if you don’t come through».
You know, we all kind of like to have a backup plan, don’t we? Come on, a lot of you have one, «I’m gonna trust God, but if he doesn’t come through, I’ve got this here in the bank». So, it’s really funny now, but it wasn’t funny then. I got fired from that job. And I was not the type of employee that got fired. I always got promoted. And I was a bookkeeper is what they called us back then and they used bookkeeping machines, and something went wrong with that machine every time I touched it. I mean, it got to the point where it was obvious that it was supernatural, that it wasn’t just, you know, me. Well, long story short, I ended up finding out that the office manager practiced witchcraft.
Now, of all the places for me to pick to go to work part-time, I got drawn into a good one. One day she was copying this big book on the copy machine. I said, «Oh, what are you copying»? She said, «My book on witchcraft». And I thought, «Uh». So, I tried to witness to her a little bit and that didn’t go over good. Well, the bottom line was, was she hated me and so she found a reason to fire me. So, I got the idea pretty quick when God said, «Quit working,» he meant quit working. He didn’t mean get a part-time job. Now you can laugh at me, but do you have any part-time obedience in your life?
See, sometimes God may ask us for something, and we’ll give him part of it. And then deceive ourselves like Saul did into thinking that we actually really did what God asked us to do. And you know, I’m only teaching like this today because I think we need to hear some of these messages that make us squirm a little bit in our seat. You know, God loves you and he’ll never stop loving you. He loves you unconditionally. You’re not saved by your works. You’re saved by the grace of God. But if we really are saved, how can we not want to serve God with all of our heart? And in order to do that, we have to be taught some things that maybe make us a little uncomfortable when we’re hearing 'em. He did almost all he was asked to do, but almost all is very deceptive. Amen.
There was another situation in the Bible that’s a very good one to learn from and that’s Esau and Jacob. Jacob stole Esau’s birthright. Well, actually Esau sold it to him for a bowl of soup, but Jacob took advantage of him because he waited until he was very hungry. And at that point he was so hungry, «What good is the birthright gonna do me if I starve to death»? Which I doubt he would have starved to death, but he ended up selling his birthright, which made it appear that it was not important to him, it was beneath his notice. Well, actually that was one of the most important things that a son could have because the firstborn son got a double portion of the inheritance, plus they got a special blessing from their father on their life.