Sacrifice of Praise, Sacrifice of Joy, Sacrifice of Service, Sacrifice of Thanksgiving — Devern Fromke

The Priesthood of All Believers and the Normal Order of Praise

As I was saying, everything is wrong in the religious world today, and God is trying to bring in a right order of things. And we may not have realized it, but the Lord's desire out of his people is to have a priesthood people, a people who are offering up to the Lord sacrifices of praise continually.

You see, sometimes we get God's normal order, I like to call it his normal order of things. The normal order, as I understand in the Old Testament and what he is wanting to bring about today, is an order we call the priesthood of all believers offering up to the Lord daily the sacrifices of praise unto him.

Now, when this comes short, and God's people are not giving to him, and the Lord in turn teaching them, we have then the priesthood, and we are teaching that it's a primary, it's the normal order. What happens when God's people miss the normal order?

That is, they get away from the normal thing that God plans. That's what happens. Well, when they get down in this condition, God has to raise up a prophet, and the prophet's voice rings out to call them back to what?

The normal order, that of praise and worship and thanksgiving. It used to bother me, because I didn't understand meetings like this, and I thought, they won't give any room for the priesthood. And one day the Lord got through to me and said, when I get the normal order of things, there will just be the priesthood, the people, everyone entering into priesthood, offering praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and out of it comes his teaching.

Now, that's a shock to you, maybe. But don't forget, the prophet, the preaching, is only to bring God's people back into the normal order of things. And so, the more normal, do I dare say it? The more normal things are, the less need or room there will be for the priesthood, the prophet.

Priesthood? The priesthood? Yes. You see, we've developed a mentality through the years, and it's gotten so far amiss that we don't feel like we've had a good service unless somebody priests. That's just where we are, doesn't it?

It's been the last 15 or 20 years that we've moved among the Lord's people, and our ministry has been primarily that of trying to bring them into a worship of praise, a giving unto the Lord that which he is worthy of, and the teaching.

And when you have a perfect group of people gathered who are more in the normal order of what God wants, the teaching is for it to be. And I used to wonder why, when Sunday morning would come, and I'd get in a place, and the other crowd would come, invariably I'd have a, how do I put it?

A real prophetic spirit that would rise and want to cry out, and I'd say, Lord, what's wrong with me? I'm not, you know, I couldn't understand it. It was because of those who were in that God was wanting to bring them back to the normal order thing.

Oh, I would encourage this now. Don't just, don't get the expediency or the thing that he has to do. Don't get this mixed up with the normal order thing. Could I go on and give you another little picture of what happens?

Sometimes when God does not have his normal order, the priests, men fulfilling their place, and things get down in a condition like this, he has to even use a woman to get things back. I say that for the sisters here, and I say it because I appreciate that when men don't do what they ought to do, God through the scriptures, look at the book of Acts, look at a number of times, look at the judges, Deborah, different ones, what did he do?

He used a woman, he used a prophet to call things back. But we get so accustomed to living down here that we think that's the normal order. No, it isn't. This is God's normal order. So sisters, thank God if he's using you if things are below normal.

And thank God when he doesn't use you again, because hopefully things are worse. Well, I don't know how I get started on that. It's just sort of been growing in my heart for several days that we need to accept that the Lord is bringing into and among his people who are really alive to him the normal order of things.

So you can expect this type, that is, you can expect times when the Lord's people will gather and they will sing, they will worship, they will lift their hearts, they become a true priesthood under the Lord.

We've been finding in the church in Indianapolis where the Lord's people gather, it's been quite a thing to see less and less preaching. Even though we're there in the last six or seven weeks, I think I've just shared once, the Lord is raising up ministries in the midst of the group.

He gives a burden, causes someone... I don't think ministries should come from outside all the time. In the normal order, here we go again, in the normal order of things, they grow right up in the midst because the Lord is exercising the hearts of his people.

When we get professional, we have to bring someone in, and it's not that we don't enjoy coming, but it's not the normal order. What I want to speak about tonight will take us back, first of all, to a look at Abraham and I think you will see as you consider the life of Abraham for a few moments.

Abraham’s Altar and the Whole Burnt Offering

Chapter 12. I think you will see that Abraham is a lovely picture of what I have just been saying. God calls this man. He's a representative man in many ways. He calls him out of Chaldea, out of the world and all that idolatry has been, and he's calling him out and he's calling him unto something, unto the land, the place that he's going to fulfill his purpose through in.

And we read as Abraham leaves, as he goes out, it says in verse 7, or let's pick it up with verse 6, chapter 12, verse 6,. And Abraham passed through the land, unto the place of Sikkim, unto the plain of Marah, and the Canaanite was then in the land.

And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. Beloved, the life of Abraham in his going on in his service for the Lord begins with this simple little thing.

He builded an altar. Now, I don't want to shock you too much, but you search in vain to find one time when he went to church, as we think of it, for church was different then. Church was what? It was building an altar and giving unto the Lord.

Not just going to meetings, but it was a life that was being poured out. You don't find Abraham preaching a sermon. Not that I can find. He gives some wonderful statements occasionally. But he doesn't, you see, we've developed a mentality today that's so far away from the real art of things.

Abraham builded an altar. Could I say to you tonight that whether we realize it or not, every one of us have an altar. There is something upon which our life is being consumed, poured out, burned up. Something has become our altar.

Tonight you're giving yourself to something or for something. You have an altar. And I delight to see that the very first thing that Abraham does in his life unto the Lord is to build an altar. It was the whole burnt offering that he offered.

The burnt offering, you remember, is this consecration, the giving of his whole, his total being unto God for what God wanted. Our problem today is we're so conscious of the sin offering, getting a little peace, a little forgiveness, a little bit of, you know, so that we can feel a little bit better and then we go on our own way.

But Abraham is a representative man, speaks to us. The first thing that God really wants is a whole burnt offering. And of course the sin offering was introduced later with Moses in order that those who have given themselves to the Lord might maintain a closer, might have a fellowship with the Lord.

But first of all, we're a burnt offering. He built an altar. And then it says, having built an altar, we read, And he removed some fence into a mountain on the east, a vessel, and pitched his tent. Isn't it interesting that most people are tent conscious?

First of all, where am I going to live? What's my dwelling like? Young people, let me say to you tonight, if you get your altar right and the Lord develops, first of all, the altar and what it really means, your tent will follow immediately.

It's automatic. You dwell with the thing near that which has become the primary goal and object of it. I've noticed it for a number of years. When I find a young fellow or a young lady who's sort of in a dither, they're in confusion.

Should I go here to this school? Should I go to that school? You see, where should I dwell? It's true with all of us, but seems to be more evident in young people. You bring, you allow God to give the full picture of the altar to you, of what it really means.

And from that, there'll be the dwelling that goes right along. Oh, you read back in some of the lives of those who've been poured out, really poured out. Their altar has been very real, given to the Lord, you see.

It doesn't make any difference where they dwell. I'm quite interested to see the joy that comes in dwelling because the altar's been established and the tent is pitched accordingly. So I say to you tonight, and what I would like for us to get a hold of is the fact that basically every individual has an altar.

We must realize that the altar should be given to us by the Lord. It's a given thing. And if we do not accept the altar that has been given, the altar that the Lord provides, then we'll develop our own.

What do you mean by that? Well, I've been talking for days now, and I keep being brought back to the things that are given and the things that are developed. But God, first of all, wants to have us see that his altar is a given altar.

No other altar will he meet man. And that altar, likewise, has its own sacrifice, which is also given. He accepts no other altar, no other sacrifice. You know what I'm heading for, don't you? That altar, of course, is the old rugged cross.

It's the altar which the Lord Jesus himself has become the sacrifice, and he's given. And the altar that we must reckon with, then, is Christ himself, Christ himself. He is the one whom we meet. Now, the thing that's interesting is that man, in their ambition, and in their zeal, and in their longing to serve the Lord, they go after an altar of their own kind, of their own building, of their own developing.

And it's over here that you see individuals beginning to work for the Lord. The work becomes their altar on which they're going to die. Or some project becomes their altar. Or some cause that becomes big enough to last with them and they give themselves to it.

I don't know, dear hearts, I have to get more and more pointed. The further along I get, I feel like God keeps saying to me, Be very straightforward. This is an hour when people need to be liberated and set free from some of the things they have given themselves to that are sinkholes for time, and dissipating energy, and bringing tragedy, and their whole life is being wasted.

It's too late to waste five or ten years and come to the end and find you've missed the real thing God's after. And we don't see you very often, but God seems to burden my heart in a new way these days.

Brother, sister, we must be very clear about the altar on which God is working. When I see in Abraham's life now that he built the altar and he picked his tent, I get a glimpse of the priority of his life.

It's expressed several places in the Scripture by others. You remember David? He said, One thing have I desired of the Lord. One thing. That's sharpening you down, isn't it? How many desires do you have?

Can you narrow your desires down? Can you narrow them down? One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after? That I may what? Do well. Now I believe his tent followed because he had already come to want to really be poured out as the man who would fulfill God's purpose in his generation.

That's what the Scripture says. God looking down says he is a man who fulfilled his purpose in his generation. And he speaks of this desire, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord, to inquire.

He's something of a priesthood there, a life that's given unto God. You read of Mary when she sat at the feet of Jesus, remember? Martha was busy and cumbered with many things. She sticks her head out of the kitchen door and says, Lord, don't you care that my sister isn't helping me?

And Jesus said, Mary hath chosen that one thing most needful. She sharpens the priority down. What was Mary doing? Working for the Lord? Getting his dinner ready? No, not necessarily. Mary was occupied with the Lord, seated at his feet.

One thing most needful. And our reasoning says, yeah, but about supper time. The Lord always has the Martha's, don't worry. He's called you, if you have seen and heard, to the one thing most needful. And I love the words of Paul when he sharpens his life down to a sharp priority.

He says, this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth and pressing forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Somebody says, praise the Lord. That's my goal to do, to make heaven my home. That's what he said. The heavenly calling, the high calling is to get to heaven. Do you know why I know that? Because he's talking about a prize.

And eternal life is a what? Gift. Don't get your prizes and gifts mixed up. You'll be in awful shape. A lot of people are. There's a difference. The gift of God is eternal life. And that includes heaven, that's just thrown in.

But I'm so glad that God's challenge and something that he lays out before us of a prize, and Paul is pressing toward the prize for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. There's a high calling. Not as though I have already apprehended, he says, but I want to apprehend that for which I am apprehended.

Oh, let me, let me with all there is in my heart tonight, stir your sisters, your brothers, to remember you can settle down and just play along, but you'll be sorry. God's word, God's word, here's a prophet coming out now.

God's word is to lift us out of our playing shirts and playing around and bring us to the place where we want to be more and more aware of things. And that's a life that is learned at worship and a life that is being burned out, as it were, on the altar, the altar for him.

The House of God, Living Stones, and the Danger of Ruin

All right. We've said then that there's a difference between man's developing his own altar where he's going to sacrifice, give some time and some energy and some work for the Lord, or the recognition of the real altar where God meets man.

Read just a little further before we leave Genesis. Verse 8 again, chapter 12. It says, And he removed his tent unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

I've been interested in the names of those two places. It's quite a thing to have your tent pitched, building it all around the Lord. And two things to remind you. Bethel on one side, Ai on the other.

I believe it speaks very pointedly of the life that is really being poured out on an altar for the Lord. You know what Bethel means, don't you? It means the house of God. And I believe while Abraham may not have fully grasped all that it meant, it's significant to us today because the life, the individual, who is really poured out unto the Lord for his full purpose has one interest.

And that is to accomplish the thing that's God's real interest. What is it the Lord will have? A dwelling place for himself. A corporate habitation. Living stone. Somebody says, I've just one goal, and that's to get people saved.

And I say, well, praise the Lord, that's a good gateway. What are you going to do with some veins? God wants living stone, but he doesn't want just piles. That's straightforward enough. He doesn't want just piles of stone.

Praise the Lord, got another one, pile, another one, making a big pile. God's after us. He's wanting to make living stones that are shaped and framed and fit into a lovely house, a dwelling place for himself.

And way back here, this early in the book of Genesis, God is fastening the priority by saying in the life of Abraham, his altar, his dedication unto God, the house of God. Now, we know what that means tonight, I trust.

The Lord cannot be satisfied just in having individuals. But he wants to build us together as a corporate dwelling place. And this means taking stones and shaping them and fitting them, working them together until they have their relatedness in the Lord, one to another.

And they function, they're coordinated, all that this means. That's the vessel that was on one side. And I believe it stood as a constant reminder, it does to me, the altar is right. This will be the thing that God will produce out of the life.

You know what AI means, H-A-I? That was on the other side. God has hidden some things in his word. I'm told, by those who know the Hebrew, that AI means a heap of ruins. Many a life in serving the Lord.

Many an individual in serving the Lord is going to come down to the end. The twilight hours of a lifetime, having served, sacrificed, all the rest. But I wonder if it'll be AI, a heap of ruins, or a vessel.

I stood in an office of a missionary who had come back after many, many years in Japan on the mission field. He'd been well known for about 25 years in our area back in Missouri as a radio preacher. I dearly loved him.

One day I slipped into his office and we were sitting, chatting. And he opened his heart. I don't know how often he had done it to others, but he opened his heart to me. And he said, you know, I wish I could go back and recall 50 years of serving the Lord.

I said, what do you mean? He said, I've just discovered what Romans 12 .1 means, where God speaks of the good, the acceptable, and the perfect love of God. Tears coursing down his cheeks, he said. I hope I qualify for the good.

You know, I feel like all the people in that whole high state area would have said, surely, brother, of all the men we know, yours should be the perfect. And it really spoke to my heart. May the Lord get through to us.

In the life of Abram, the altar upon which we are being consumed will either produce that which God can really be pleased with, or that which is things done, but it could be failed. Well, let's look at it a little more closely.

He said, what do you mean? Every man has an altar. Let's just consider for a little bit some of the sacrifices that are produced, that are brought from people's bills or when they're working from this as their altar.

The Sacrifice of Fools and Religious Impulsiveness

Let me ask you to read, first of all, in Ecclesiastes. Your turn, please. Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 1. Keep thy foot, Ecclesiastes 5, verse 1. Keep thy foot, for thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools.

Now, just stop for a moment and ask yourself a question. What's the sacrifice of fools? What is the sacrifice of fools? I feel like it's over in this altar right here. It may sound strange to you, but if I would reinterpret it, I would say, now be careful when you go to church.

You know why? You could get all enthused with something that you hear. You could get all enthused in the realm of your soul with something that you hear. And out of the impetuosity and the spirit of the moment, you could say, I don't know.

How many of you know what it's like to get all enthused in a meeting? And you pound your fist and you say, I'm going to go home. And after the whole thing is over, about six hours or a day later, your willpower isn't producing it anymore.

Your mind's no longer challenged. Do you know what I'm trying to say? This is that impetuous sacrifice of fools when people say, I need to do something for the Lord. And they're challenged. But it's the soul that gets challenged.

The motion, the mind, the will responds. And the individual makes what we call the sacrifice of fools. I don't wonder that the religious world today goes through its kinds of enthusing. They get the boiler all stoked up.

It really is hot for a while. But it hardly lasts till next Sunday, Frank. Soak the boiler again, get everybody enthused. Is that the best? Is that what God wants? How many of you have ever been through that?

Oh, I'm not wanting to just be negative and play. But we have to realize there's a vast difference. The altars that we develop and the causes and the challenge and the projects, the programs, the things that men use to carve out kingdoms and all the rest.

It's working for God. And I'm not saying people aren't sincere or zealous. But the religious world tonight is cluttered with it. And I think this is why it says, keep thy foot, now careful, when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to what?

With your inner ear. Than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they consider not that they do evil. Be not last with thy mouth. And let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven and thou upon earth.

And therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business. Oh, the dreams today. And a fool's voice is known by a multitude of words. When thou vowest a vow unto God, be sure not to pay it.

For he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldst not vow, than that thou shouldst vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Can you understand why the life that God's dealing with speaks less and less, doesn't get so immediately enthused in the realm of the soul, but knows how to hear in the inner?

There's the sacrifice of fools, and we've all been through it, in our zeal and working for the Lord. I was out in the West some years ago. After a morning service, some of the businessmen asked if I'd have lunch with them.

We got a private room, and after we were through eating, one of the brothers sitting next to me said, do you believe you should pay vows, fulfill vows when you've made them? Well, that was a loaded question.

And I said, tell me your story. He said, well, we had a high-powered speaker come about a year ago. He said he'd had a dream the night before that God was going to help him raise $200 ,000 for a certain project.

And the best part of the dream was that everyone who would give, everyone who would give, would be blessed tenfold. And he told the stories of other situations where uncles had died and aunts had died, and they'd all gotten inheritances.

And before it was through that night, I guess he got pretty close to his $100 ,000 in pledges. And the dear man, director of a Episcopal church sitting right next to me, looked up. He said, do you think I should pay the vow I vowed I'd pledge $1 ,000?

He said, for six months now, I've been giving $20 and $30 and $50. I said, well, what do you think? Twenty men sitting around the circle, every one of them looking back rather seriously and said, we all blessed.

We've had a hard time. What was it? What was it? The man's project. The man's dreams the men had made to sacrifice the poor. I'm sorry, but I'm sure that's what it was. Because after they opened their hearts, I couldn't help.

And it happens all the time. I meet people who have been merchandised at the hands of religious experts, and I've come to grow within. Now I'm sort of negative in this. But I have to say to us, brothers, sisters, people will use us for their end.

Make merchandise out of God's people. And this is why the religious world looks on. And the situation today is what it is. All is a wonderful thing when we get over on an understanding of God's ways and the building according to Christ.

There is the sacrifice of fools because of men who have never found the right altar, but they are working for the Lord. And they get to sacrifice the fools. I don't have to go on. I'll just give you sort of an outline.

The Sacrifice of the Wicked and Ulterior Motives

There's another sacrifice, as Scripture calls, the sacrifice of the wicked. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination unto the Lord. What is it? It's men, those who are sacrificing, who have a hidden and an ulterior motive back of it.

It's not really for God. They somehow are giving that they might. The heart is mixed in this moment. And it's abomination to the Lord. The sacrifice that pleases God is the heart that gives to him just for him.

Nothing else. I'd like to go into that. But I can't. I believe God is very careful. I believe he's very careful. I'll illustrate this way. A number of years ago when we were back in the West Coast and this was our altar, we were building projects and things for God.

We had a lovely youth center trying to do something for the Lord's people and had a group of businessmen, and they were capable. And our annual drive came for fun. And as they went around to the various businesses and the various places to meet our budget for the year, one of the men came in real excited one night.

He said, I have a real place. $25 ,000 from the sixth brewing company. In five minutes we had a real division right down the middle of the board. One of the men said, Oh, God could not be... God could not...

We just can't receive something from the wicked. And he quoted this verse. The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. Others of the men said, I'd take money from the devil if he'd give it.

That's human reasoning. Call everybody you can. Why? Because the end justifies anyone. You'd be surprised how much of that goes on in the religious world today. The end is big enough. There's any means to get them.

But God doesn't go along with that. Oh, I thank God for one of the men in the group. I was such a young fellow. I didn't know any better. I didn't know anything in those days, but I never got over the story when he stood up and he said, Man, God will provide.

We don't have to go out like this. He'd been against it. And it sort of settles the hearts of all of us. Oh, let me just reemphasize to us tonight, if we're working for the Lord, and we've got our project, and we've got our ambitions, and carving out our little kingdom, we'll be prone to use some of these methods.

But I believe in 25 years, God has proven to this heart again and again, his work done in his way, noticed in his way, never lacks his commitment. I believe it is so. It's been proven. Well, there's another sacrifice.

The Sacrifice of the Blind and Obedience over Outward Service

I call it the sacrifice of the blind. Do you remember when Samuel spoke to King Saul, and he said, Go down and slay all the Amalekites, and all that they had. And King Saul put the army down, and they slayed the best of the sheep and the oxen.

They slayed all of those things that were vile and refuse. Why not? The reasoning of the mind says get rid of that. But they spared. They slayed the bad. They spared the what? The good. Now he comes back, and he meets Samuel, the prophet.

And Samuel gets this kind of a testimony. Yea, Saul says, we have performed the commandment of the Lord. Stands up in thirst, and he gives his testimony. He had a great battle. What a great victory down against the Amalekites.

My, how they fled. Except that every testimony has an undertone, and Samuel has his tentative ear. He says to Saul, What is that bleeding of the sheep and lowing of the oxen that I hear? What is that?

Where is that coming from? It's quite a thing to come in before a man of God like Samuel, who doesn't listen to your words. He listens for the undertone. Oh, how we need it today. Our words are so bleak.

Our testimonies have such empty reigns so often. We announce victory, but defeat cries out so loud. The bleeding, the lowing of the sheep and the oxen. And what does King Saul say? Well, he says, you see, it's like this.

The people spared are the best of the sheep and the oxen. We thought we'd just take it all down here to Gilgal, and we'd have a great sacrifice for the Lord. A sacrifice for the Lord. There's a lot of that going on today in the lives of people.

We're ready to get rid of the bad things, our bad habits, our bad self, our bad place, all that. But somehow in the blight, and I look back on it all now, and I see how merciful and wonderful the Lord was when one day he came in and put a mirror before a proud young man, and I for the first time began to see the work of the cross.

It all happened one Monday morning when I went to my office. There in the middle of the desk was a church bulletin, and the dear pastor had put in his bulletin that Sunday this little article by Tozer, the old cross or the modern cross.

And as busy as I was that morning, I remember starting to read it. I got so irritated that everything he said just unveiled all of my youthfulness. I thought he had put it in just for me. I went out to my secretary, who was a member of his church, and said, where did you get this?

Did you bring this in? Yes. I thought she would enjoy reading it. She was quite innocent. The pastor was too. God had his gun loaded for a proud young fellow. Oh, I never ceased to thank the Lord. I read that over.

I laid it aside. A couple hours later, I read it again. I couldn't get away from it. Hugo calls it the strange radium working of the cross. Once it's done, you're caught. You can't get loose. That was the beginning of the end.

What am I trying to say tonight? Beloved, Oh, if we could see that the flesh prophet is nothing. If we could see that that which God has condemned to death, slay, utterly destroy the Amalekites. You can't take reputation.

I know the religious mentality today is one of the wonderfulest, so-and-so would become a Christian. What an influence they'd have for God. You ever hear that? That's just exactly what it is, is influence.

And that's all. God alone draws men by the way of the Lord Jesus. There's influence. We don't doubt that. But the real working, the real working of the Holy Spirit that slays and straightens. Well, as long as men have their vision of working and serving the Lord, working for him, you have what we call the sacrifice of the blind.

Saul thought he could spare the best, take it down and give it to the Lord. Do you know why? Because he had never seen what a sacrifice was. I believe Saul lived in the outwards. I don't know, but I think he must have for years looked on every time there was a great ceremonial sacrifice.

Imagine bringing in hundreds, sometimes thousands of bullocks and lambs and sheep. Platter, platter. And unless you have spiritual protection, everything within your natural triumph, that's a waste, especially when so many people are going hungry.

Then tell me you don't. That's a waste. Why is this waste when so many are going hungry? What does it mean? He's living in the outwards. He doesn't understand sacrifice. Now, David did. By contrast. Remember after David had sinned, numbering the people, he goes out to the edge of the city to make an offering unto the Lord, to atone for his sins.

He meets the farmer there. He recognizes him and says, Oh, King David, what have you come for? And David says, I've come to make an offering. He says, Then I will give you wood for the altar and I'll give you an animal to sacrifice.

What does David say? What does he say? I will not sacrifice that which has cost me. What is an offering? What is a sacrifice? David had been schooled. God had been getting through to a young lad. What was it?

Beloved, a sacrifice is something that begins, as David said in the 51st Psalm, the sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken and a contrite spirit. Listen, a sacrifice is first of all an inward reality.

And then it manifests itself in something outwardly. If I merely give something outwardly, I can go over to the Malachites and steal their animals. I can go to my neighbor's purse and give it to the Lord.

That's just how crude it is. Is it an outward thing? The end justifies any what? Anybody doing that? All the time. The sacrifice of the blind. Why? We're working for God, working for the Lord. The sacrifice of the blind.

Finally, Samuel said, have the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and in sacrifice. Is this what he wants? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. Oh, dear Lord, thunder it home to us tonight.

The religious world is filled with outward serving, sacrifice, doing, people giving their time and energy, and God trying to get a hold of the news and say, listen, listen. What's wrong? You think from all our work for God we siphon out satisfaction.