God's delight in obedience is good news because everything he commands me to do is for my good. And therefore, when it says that he delights in my obedience, it means

he delights in my happiness. And that's good news.

Why does God delight in our obedience?

That's the question John Piper answers from 1st Samuel 15, 22, and 23 in this

sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on March 29th

1987.

Our text has And our text as you can see is 1st Samuel 15 verse 22. It says has the Lord has great delight in bird offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?

And of course the answer is no.

And so since the answer is no, you can take that question and make a statement out of it.

You'd go like this,

the Lord delights far more in obedience than he does in ceremonies of worship, where there's

disobedience. Now I have two questions to ask about this delight that God has in obedience, this pleasure that

wells up in the heart of God when he beholds an obedient people.

The first question is, why does he delight in obedience?

Why does God's heart feel with pleasure as he beholds obedience? And second question, is that

before we try to answer those questions, let's get the story before us.

You remember what happened to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt?

The Pass along the southern part of Palestine

where the Amalekites live,

and the Amalekites attack them from behind

and cut off the stragglers. Moses saw it. He commissioned Joshua, his right-hand man to return

fire as it were, and he fought and while Moses hands were up on the mountain,

...