Obedience is better than sacrifice

“But Samuel replied: ‘Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed to better than the fat of rams.’” 1 Samuel 15:22
In 1 Samuel 15 we read of how Saul failed to completely obey the word of the Lord given through Samuel, to attack the Amalekites and completely destroy them all. He attacked them and was victorious, but he spared the king, Agag, and kept some of the spoils. When Samuel challenged him on this, he claimed they kept the sheep and cattle in order to use them as sacrifices. But essentially, Saul thought his way was better than God’s.
Saul did his own thing, and was unwilling to destroy everything (1 Sam. 15:9). Then he made excuses, blaming his actions on the soldiers (1 Sam. 15:15, 20-21, 24), each time insisting that he did obey the Lord. As a result, God told Samuel that He had rejected Saul as king (1 Sam. 15:23).
The lesson for us is clear. If we fail to obey God completely in what He has called us to do, then it doesn’t matter how many other things we might do to try and substitute for it. If He has called us to give up some sin, and we are unwilling to, it doesn’t matter how much we tithe, serve in the church, help the homeless, or whatever. God wants our obedience first and foremost, rather than sacrifice. He wants our hearts to be devoted to Him.