REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON
CHEROKEE PENTECOSTAL HOLINESS CHURCH
“‘Obedience is better than sacrifice, saith the Lord,’ stated Pastor Melton. In today’s Christian-‘ese’ the ‘Fear of the Lord,’ has long been neglected in being lived out and is scarcely emphasized. Yes, He loves all the people He has placed on this Earth. The only way any of us can honestly show our love for Him, is by our simple obedience in doing just as He tells or shows us in His Word, accurately obeying His instructions. Yes, there are instructions. More importantly, they are actually ‘the commands of God.’ They are not merely ‘suggestions’. As such, just as in the military, all commands must be obeyed promptly and completely at the time given. Remember, too, God is God.
“God respects everyone’s right to make their own ‘free will’ choice, with each one choosing rightly and well. All governance does depend and can hinge on the reasonable hope that all will be handled as ‘for the ‘common good’. Everyone gets to make their own good or possibly bad choices. However, no one gets to choose all of the consequences that may come as a result of a bad choice having been made. Any rejection of an order or command, has to be considered as being ‘in rebellion,’ since even the timing for completion is absolutely vital to any mission. If timing is missed, there could be a serious cost of someone’s life or grievous injury.
“In living a life, everyone should have a good plan. Life concerns everyone’s right to a good existence, and each person should be considered as being precious and important. We are all extremely valuable to God.
“Look into 1 Samuel 15:10-26 to see what happened that caused such grief to the Prophet Samuel, and to Saul, the newly anointed King of Israel. Saul, as the first leader of the nation of Israel, had broad shoulders and ‘stood head and shoulders’ above his people. Saul, as a new leader, did not completely understand his role of leadership. By choosing not to accurately fulfill all the commands of God as given to him, through the Prophet Samuel, he lost it all. He seemed to think his choices made would bear no consequences for him. However, Saul had been given the responsibilities for all of Israel as well as the privileges that would come through his being their King. Not realizing the heaviness of carrying them, it was in trying to balance his leadership role with simply following and obeying God, that he erred. By listening more to the people instead of choosing God’s always more perfect plan, he lost his own good legacy, and that of his son and grandson. Saul should have always chosen to follow God’s leadership plan first, then the people could have more readily and easily followed him with God’s perfect plan.
“The command given was to completely destroy the nation of Amalek. He chose not to do so in God’s way.
“…Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken, than the fat of rams.”
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”
1 Samuel 15:22b-23 (KJV)
“Rebellion is pride. Every deed done, every thought that is thought, attributes a person with an identifiable characteristic of what he has done. Lost fellowship can result, as when Adam and Eve used sewn-together fig leaves, all that was covered was still visible to God, explained Pastor Melton.
“My God created me. Nothing is missed, He is able to see it all, to turn everything around, even brokenness. Follow Him. Get into the Bible. The good fight of faith is when faith rises up and attacks that ‘fallen angel’. When our flesh is weak, faith is stronger and blesses us! The Holy Spirit, All of God, is inside of me. All power is inside of me. He is the Teacher, and all of His knowledge is accessible.
“The Glory has to come out of each of us. You have to know how to love Him. He loves to know that when there is a problem, our deliverance spills out. When we have a problem, He can fix it.”
“Read Proverbs 15:3; Proverbs 22:12 Psalm 32:8; 1 Peter 3:12; Job 2:31; Zechariah 4:10; Proverbs 5:21; Psalm 33:18. Bless Israel, we are grafted in. Bless Pastors, Prophets. ‘We are precious in the Eyes of God,’ he added, ‘Do great and mighty things!’”
