The Old Testament In A Year - Micah

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Well, this morning we have the opportunity to take part in watching and celebrating with Anthony, who's going to be baptized. He'll come in in a little bit. Before he comes in, though, I want to just introduce you again to the idea and purpose of baptism. It's a public demonstration of faith. We don't believe that it saves you. Rather, the person has already trusted in Jesus as their Savior and Lord. And this is an outward demonstration of what has already happened on the inside of someone. And so as someone has chosen, like Anthony has to follow Jesus for the rest of his life, he'll come in just a minute and. And share his testimony with you. Before that, I want to read from the book of Romans just a passage that talks about how we are dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus a new life that we have. It says this, Paul speaking in chapter, in chapter six of Romans, he says, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? And he's making an argument saying, well, God's grace is good, so should we keep sinning so that we keep getting more of God's grace? And what's his reply? Everyone, by no means. Of course not. We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into this death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now, with that said, we have died with Christ, which we have. We believe that we know that now we get to live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over death over Him. The death he died, he died to sin once and for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. And so for all of us, in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Baptism is a picture of that new life, the picture of someone going into the water, as we're going to see in just a moment and coming back out, says, this was the life I once Lived. Going into the water is a picture of the death that is now happening, has happened on the inside, and coming back out is a picture of the new life that has happened because of faith in Jesus Christ. So this time, I want to invite Anthony Tafoya to come in with me. [00:02:42] Speaker B: All right. [00:02:42] Speaker A: And I'm. Anthony's going to read his testimony here for us before we baptize him. [00:02:50] Speaker B: I was raised a Jehovah's Witness. Growing up, that was all I knew. I knew the theology, but one thing was missing. A personal relationship with God. When I turned 18, I made choices that led to me moving out and being excommunicated from the faith. Two years later, I worked my way back and was reinstated. But things were never the same. Eventually, I decided it wasn't for me, and I turned my back on God altogether. I spent the next eight years living without God's values or the wisdom of the Bible. And it affected my life in ways I'm still learning from. On January 5, 2026, I hit rock bottom. I was brought to my knees, and all I can do was look up. I hadn't prayed in years, but that night I asked God for help. There was a specific time along my journey. I remember reflecting on my sinful choices and asking God to forgive me. Since then, I've been coming to living hope, and I have found community, purpose, wisdom, and the Lord's forgiveness. Life still brings challenges, but I no longer feel like I'm facing them alone. And almost nine months later, I look back and barely recognize the person I was. I asked the Lord to mold my heart and show me a path forward. I chose to listen. I'm grateful even for the lowest point in my life, because through it, I had the opportunity to find myself again and more importantly, to find my way back to God. [00:05:03] Speaker A: Well, Anthony, because of your profession of faith, I'm going to baptize you in the name of the Father. The Son and the Holy Spirit. Had the privilege of walking with Anthony in recent months. It's been a joy to see him trust in the Lord and walk with the Lord in the way he has. Let's pray a blessing over him before we see together. Father in heaven, thank you for the love that you have shown each and every one of us in Jesus, coming to this earth and dying in our place so that we can have new life. Pray a blessing over Anthony. Pray that you would guide and direct him as he continues to walk with you. Pray that you give him strength in the midst of hardship. Give him joy when things are down. You continue to remind him of your love and your strength. You would help us as a church family around him, to encourage him, to challenge him and to continue to point him towards you. As he said, thank you that he's not doing this alone any longer. As he walks with you, we rejoice knowing that we're now a part of the same family, your family. To you as our Father, we thank you for your faithfulness in our lives. You show over and over and over again. In Jesus name, amen. Well, good morning, church. Good morning. Good morning. Well, happy Sunday to you all. It's a great day to be able to come together and worship the Lord. We're going to be in the Book of Micah, so let's dive right into God's Word this morning. Book of Micah. Hopefully your Bibles are there or your screens are wherever. It's important that we're all looking at his Word together this morning. Be a lot of things for us to see here. Let's open with a word of prayer here, and then we will point ourselves in the right direction. Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity to come together in this way. I think even about our brothers and sisters around this community right now, around our city, who are gathering in other buildings, opening the same Bible that we have in front of us, singing, perhaps even some of the same songs that we're singing. We are reminded that this morning that though we may be in different places, we are all part of the same family. And so I just pray you would work around even our community this morning while the Gospel is preached, while your word is open, while worship and song is joined together in a beautiful and special way that you would be honored. As we spend time here in this place, in your Word, we just ask you to move our hearts. You would set us up in the right place to hear from you. There's places and perhaps people here today not really ready to hear your word. Lord, I pray that you would do a work that only you can. You would soften our hearts to hear from you. We're grateful, Lord, to know that your spirit is working. We don't have to do it ourselves, but we can ask you and humble ourselves and ask you to help us. You continue to shape us to be more like you. In Jesus name, everyone said Amen. All right, Micah, chapter one. If you have your bulletin, on the backside of that is the outline that we're gonna walk our way through. I sort of joke, kind of about where Micah is. There are 12 what's called minor prophets in The Old Testament, the minor prophets come after the anybody, the major prophets. And the major prophets are not major prophets because they have a different or even better message necessarily. They're made, they're called major prophets because there's so Isaiah, Jeremiah, bigger books. These are some of the shorter books. And so they're called minor prophets. And there's 12 of them. We're looking at the sixth one in that series of 12 books on the screen. You have, we have what I often give you kind of a snapshot of this book and so you can look at that. We can read. I'll just read through it here and then we'll go on to the basics of what you have in your outline. The theme of this book is not really a different message than many of the other prophets that have given because it's a message that God wants to get into the hearts and the minds of these very hard hearted and stiff necked people. But God is a God who is persistent. Amen. Right. He doesn't just give us a message once and say that's it, I'm done. He gives this message over and over and over to the people of Israel and to the people of Judah. The Lord, the judge is, we're going to see here is the one who scatters his people. Really there's judgment because of their sin. And also he is what's called in this book, a shepherd and a king who will gather, who will protect and who will forgive them because not because they're awesome, but because of his faithfulness to really this very wayward and as God says, a special nation. Now there's a setting that's important for us to have here as we read through this book and it's a courtroom. How many of you have been in a courtroom before or served on a jury before? I actually just got a jury notice. I'm supposed to have jury duty this week. Fun fact. That was not planned for this. Just I don't know why that was on my mind anyway. So I guess that might be in my near future. If you've been in a courtroom before, you know, and maybe you served on a jury, there's a jury, there's the people who are defending themselves and then there's those who are again making some accusations. There's a judge that's there and there's various people kind of all a part of this courtroom. And, and we're going to unpack that a little bit as we go through this because Micah is setting the stage as a courtroom for us and here's what he's doing. He's bringing a lawsuit, if you will, against the people of Israel and Judah. He's going to make accusations, particularly to the people of. We see Samaria and Jerusalem. Now, Samaria is the capital of the northern nation of Israel, and Jerusalem is the capital of the southern part of portion called Judah. And he's saying, you know what, there's a lot of things y' all have done wrong and there's gonna be judgment for that. Look in the basics of your, of your outline and look at verse one. Because of chapter one of Micah. Chapter one, Verse one answers the questions that you see in your outline of the basics. So who's the author? When did this happen? And the audience is listed there in verse one. I'll read verse one for us. It says this the word of the Lord that came to. Who's looking at their Bibles? Micah. So who's the author? Micah of Moresheth in the days of. And this is the time frame or the date? 735, 720. Somewhere in there, Jotham. These are kings, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria, which I told you earlier, is the capital of that northern part of Israel and Jerusalem, which is the capital of the southern part of Israel. Those kings, we can see the time frame in there. Now, what do we know about Micah? Very little. His name means it's a great name. By the way, is Micah here? No, I don't think we have a Micah here. Tom Nelson's son is named Micah. His name means who is a God like you. So great name, who is a God like you. He isn't labeled as a prophet. We don't know anything about his family. We just know. Look in verse one. Where is he from? More Sheth, which is about 22 miles south of Jerusalem. So he's from Judah. That's all that we know about him. The time frame, we saw that already. It's about a 20, 25 year ministry that he had there. And Jeremiah, Jeremiah, the king has said to the prophet, I should say references that King Hezekiah listened to this prophet named Micah, and then we know the people that he's speaking to Israel and Judah. So right through the basics there, and I told you this was. What kind of setting are we looking at here? A. A courtroom. Right? So what's important for us to know is what are the accusations? What are the sins that have taken place when you go to court or when you're going to serve on Jury duty, you know, that somebody has done something, something wrong. What has Israel and Judah done wrong? That's the question that, that we need to know. And we're going to see even more detail as we go through the book. But if you like to write things down, you could write some of these down. Idolatry, theft of property, seizures of property. People who are more powerful would come in and say, I want your land. And the other person would say, well, no, it's my land. And they'd say, I don't care, I'm going to take your land anyway. Failure of leadership, civil leadership, religious leadership, prophetic leadership. They are believing that they can do anything they want on the other six days of the week. But when they come to the temple, they worship God and they think that's going to make God happy. They believe that personal sacrifice on Sunday, if you will, for them Saturday would be sufficient to just make up for all the sins that they did during the week. And God says, no, that's not how you make me happy, is just come to church on Sunday, if you will, for us. And then everything else that happened in your week, we just don't have to worry about. And then lastly, corrupt business practices as well. As you read through this book, if you've read through it before, it can be kind of confusing because there's prophecy and there's poems that are woven through this book. And so what I'm going to do, what we're going to do as we read through it, is just help us ourselves understand what's actually happening here. So you can go to the outline word there. I said a couple weeks ago, when somebody comes maybe running up to you and they say, hey, I have to tell you something, but I have some good news. And I have some. What is it? Bad news. The book of Micah is literally structured like that. He has three messages and he says, instead of leading, and it's like the people say, we would like the bad news first. He goes through these three big messages and he says, all right, here's the bad news and then here's the good news. And then he does that again in his second message. Here's the bad news and here's the. And then he does that a third time and you're like, alright, we already know, we already know. So what we're going to see here is in each of these sections, in the first, second and third message, there's a message of bad news, which is judgment. And he tells them why. And then he says there's good news Or a message of hope. And he does that three times. And what we're going to do is just look at what is he talking about, Understand this bad news and why it's happening. Let's understand the good news and why it's good news. And then for us here today, how does that relate to us? What do we learn from this book? It's on the screen. You already see it. The first message. And all three of these messages starts with the word here. Can someone say here, here? Which just means pay attention. So pay attention. Here's the first one we see in chapters one and two in your Bibles is the first here word. Notice it says in verse two of Micah, chapter one, it starts off and says, hear you peoples. All of you pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it. So we'll keep reading verse 7 also. Then starts pointing ourselves at the problem. What's the bad news that he has for them? Let the Lord God be a witness. There's that courtroom word. Witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. And then verse seven we can jump into what's the problem. All her carved images have been beaten to pieces. All her wages shall be burned with fire and all of her idols laid to waste. What do we see here? There's a problem of idolatry. Major idolatry. So you already wrote that down for that point one there for the judgment. Chapter two leans into this a little bit more. Woe to you. Can someone say woe? And it's not like, wow, like, oh, that's cool. It's like, whoa, this is bad news for you. Woe to those who devise. Look at chapter two, verses one through three. Devise wickedness and work evil in their beds. When the morning dawns, they perform it because it is in the power of their hands. So now we see something else. Woe to those who devise wickedness. And this is what he's saying. You are thinking about the wrong thing to do. You are planning at nighttime to do the wrong thing. And then when morning comes, you go out and do it. Now, what's interesting about that is this. Most of us know when something illegal is going to happen, or we assume something illegal is going to happen or something that I shouldn't do. We do it in secret, right? Nobody else is watching. It's at nighttime. That's when the crime is going to occur. What do we see here? Their conscience is so seared, the evil is so potent in this community, that it's at nighttime. They're thinking about what to do. And it's not like, oh, now it's morning. I'm not gonna do it because somebody might see me. What do they do in the morning? They go and do it. And that's what Micah is saying. Do you see how far from God you are? Verse 3 goes on. It says, therefore, thus says the Lord. Behold, this is of chapter 2, verse 3. Therefore, Thus says the Lord. Behold, against this family, I am devising disaster from which you cannot remove your necks. And you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster. So what's the bad news? You all are incredibly. There's a lot of evil, there's a lot of sin going on, and you aren't even ashamed of that. And so what does God say? I'm devising what? Disaster. Can someone say disaster? Disaster. And what's this talking about? He's talking about how another nation is going to come in and remove them from Israel and remove them from Judah. In other words, there's going to be a judgment coming in the form of another nation, and they're going to punish you. God says, you all have devised disaster or sin against other people. Now I'm planning sin, or I'm planning bad news for you as well. Judgment for you. This is bad news for them. This is really bad news. So the question then is, is there? We said this earlier, right? Micah says, I have good news and bad news. We started with the bad news, but he says, I also have what good news? So the bad news is your sin has caught the attention of God. Now he's going to punish you. But also there is good news. What's the good news? God is going to show up. He's going to protect you, and he's going to lead you one day. This is the hope on your outline in message one, in verses 12 and 13. Look in your Bibles in chapter two, God says, all these bad things are going on, but I'm not going to abandon you. One day I will actually show up. And look what it says in 12 and 13. I will surely assemble you, O Jacob. I will gather the remnant of Israel. Here's this shepherd mentality that we saw earlier in. In that snapshot. I will set them together like a sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men. So there's this God saying, I'm gonna bring you all together, just as a sheep, a shepherd brings sheep together. And then he says something else. Look at verse 13. And this is when we have to think like a king. So with that king mentality, picture in your mind. He who opens the breach, find think of a big gate being opened in a castle. He who opens the breach, goes up before him. They break through it and pass the gate going out by it. Their king passes on before them. The Lord is at their head. So what's he saying here? He's saying there's a bunch of bad news for you. You have rejected God as your shepherd. And also, I'm done with you because of that. But also there's good news. I'm going to bring you all back together. I'm not abandoning you forever. And I will lead you into what is a king. He's leading an army here. He says, I'm gonna lead you to face hardship and we're gonna do it together. This bad news and this good news that God wants them to see, your sin matters. What's the major message for us? I said there's gonna be three things we look at in each of the messages. The bad news, the good news, and a message for us. Here's the message for us. Major message in this minor prophet, if you will. It's premeditated sin, sin that is planned. God seems to, as we see here in these first two chapters, hate it more. Perhaps he labels it. He doesn't just say, as you and I might have times in our life where we're going about our day and we do something and we're like, oh, I shouldn't have done that. And then there's other times that we're thinking, I would really like to do something. I, I know I shouldn't, but I might be able to get away with it. Here's what God is saying. That's a problem. That's a big problem. Now why do we do that? Or maybe am I the only one who's done that before? Okay, I just, like, I know I shouldn't, but why do we do that? Here's maybe some reasons that we might do that you know, I wouldn't do. I know it's not right for me to do blank, whatever it is, but if my spouse had done blank, then I wouldn't need to do this. If my work wasn't so stressful, then I wouldn't need to. But what am I doing here? I'm blame shifting, right? I deserve something to make me happy. I may be doing this or plan to do this, but they've done something way worse. We have these excuses, we compromise in some of these ways and God says, that's not good at all. Psalm 19 says this, Keep your servant back. As David speaking. Keep your servant also from presumptuous sins. That is, sin that is planned out. Let them not have dominion over me. We end up doing the things we're not supposed to do when we find ourselves in places we're not supposed to be. Think about that for a second. When you find yourself in a place you shouldn't be, you're probably going to find yourself doing something you shouldn't, you shouldn't do. And oftentimes it takes a little planning to get to that place. We shouldn't be thinking through this together. And I said, what's the next word? Here? Someone say, here, here. So that's the second message. All three of these start with the message here, here. Here's where we see it's a different audience, not just to, if you will, the general public. Now we're going to lean in specifically to the. Give me a word from the Lord. And here's what the prophets would do. How much money do you have? And then if the people said, oh, let's. I'm just throwing out a number here, I have a thousand dollars for you today. Like, oh, wonderful, God is gonna bless you. Good things are gonna come upon you. Now let's say the person said, I've only got a couple bucks, I just wanna hear from God. And here's what this is saying, but declare war against him who puts nothing in their mouth. Now these prophets are saying, yeah, God's not gonna bless you. God's not with you. Bad things are probably gonna happen, all starting with thus says the Lord. God says, this is evil and unjust, therefore it shall be night to you prophets, false, bad prophets without vision and darkness to you. Here's what he says. I'm going to cover their lips and they will not hear from God again. Here's what it says in verse nine. Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight. Verse 12. This is important for us to see here. Here's what God says. This is the bad news, if you will. The judgment that's coming. Therefore, because of you, Zion shall. Because of you Zion shall be, that is, Jerusalem shall be plowed as a field. Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins and the mountains of the house and a wooded height. What's he saying? There's going to be destruction upon a beautiful city that people would usually flock to because they want to hear from God. But now, because the people in there, that Supposedly speak for God are practicing incredible injustice. God says, I'm going to plow you like a field. How many of you have driven down a field before, after it's been plowed or you've seen it, like, partially plowed? You see, like, for example, the corn stalks, they've cut them off, and it's pretty short corn stalks. And then you see the plow going, and they turn the soil over. Like, that looks totally different. That's what God's going to do. I'm going to plow you under. Why a specific message here for these false prophets, it would be like this today. It'd be like one pastor looking at a bunch of other pastors and saying, you're a false teacher. How many of you have seen or read articles like that, stuff like that, where you're looking at. And some of us would say, well, that's not very nice of them. They should just let the pastors say what they want to say. Let these teachers say what they want to say. Well, God says, in this situation, no more Micah. You need to call them out for their sin. So the punishment is going to be. They're going to be plowed under, the city's going to be plowed under. What's the hope? Right? That's the bad news. What's the good news in this? Jerusalem will again be the capital of justice and peace. A place that did not demonstrate justice or. Or peace is one day again going to demonstrate justice and peace. And this actually is looking, even in my understanding, in my interpretation, further than where we are today to the millennial kingdom where God is going, where Jesus is going to show up and actually be that king who is just and who is righteous. Look on the screen here. You can see this in verses 1 through 4. It says this in verse 1 of chapter 4. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established. And people will say this. Many nations will say this, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge between many peoples, and he shall decide disputes for strong nations far away. And look at this. And they shall beat their swords into. What's the next word? Plowshares. And their spears into what? Pruning hooks. What's he saying? He's like all those articles of war that you used to have. You will have no need for them anymore. And those articles of war will now be turned into articles for peace. Why? Because the Lord will be there. The Lord will bring justice. What's the point here? God is saying this. I wish justice was on your lips. I wish you actually spoke what my word says. And I'm going to judge you prophets and even nation of Israel because you're comfortable with this kind of sin. What's the message for us? We have the bad news, we have the good news. God is not going to abandon them. He will one day bring justice to this nation. What's the news? The message for us? And it's this again, major message for us in this minor prophet. God holds spiritual leaders, teachers to a higher standard, doesn't he? If the spiritual leaders are corrupt, what can we expect from the rest of the people or even from the rest of the leaders? The prophets of the day here are to speak on behalf of God, but they give the wrong message. Why? In another portion of Scripture, to tickle the ears of the hearers. To be popular, to be wealthy, to get power. Friends, this is still happening today, isn't it? You know what I'm talking about. All over the place. It is not hard to find messages from the Lord that pick and choose parts of the Bible. I'm going to read this verse and then I will read this verse and then this one, because it's going to make you feel good or it's going to bring a bigger church or it's going to get me more money. Friends, this is not a new message. This is a message from 2,700 years ago that is still relevant today. Thus, anyone today who says thus, says the Lord, should be very careful. Very careful. This is why it's important for anyone teaching the word of God to know this. And this is true for us collectively as a church. It's true for me, for pastors, the primary audience of the teacher of the Word of God and the proclaimer of the Word of God is God. He needs to be the one that we're saying, are you good with this God? I don't really care what everyone else says. First, first I want to make sure, God, you are good with this. And if you're good with this, then secondarily the people can deal with it. Like if it's a good message for them or a hard message for them, that's not the most important thing. And that's what God wants for these prophets. But unfortunately, these prophets, these teachers, are saying what do you have to give me. Because that's what I'll say is from God, rather than what does God want me to say? And that's what I'm going to teach you. This is why in many churches, for example, they do something called expository preaching. And that is where you pick a book of the Bible or a text of Scripture or the whole Bible and you teach your way or preach your way through the Bible or why do we do this? Because it forces us to read the hard things. It forces us to not just say, what would you like to hear today? Okay, we'll do that one. It's what does the Bible, the whole Bible, actually say? And that's what these prophets had neglected completely. And God says, there's judgment coming for you. Let's look at the third message. The third message starts off in chapter six. And what is the word that we have already said a couple times? Look in chapter six, verse one. Or what's the first word of chapter six? Hear or listen? Pay attention. So what's the third message? Who is it aimed at? And what do we see here? Because of. We're aiming at the common folk again, and perhaps some of the leaders as well. Judgment. Why is judgment coming? Here's the bad news. Because of injustice, because of pride and disobedience. If you look at the beginning of chapter six, we go back to the courtroom and God says this to the people of Israel. He says this. You plead your case. You say what you want to say. I have done a lot of really, really good things for you. You can see that in the beginning of chapter six, in verse three, he says, oh, my people, what have I done to you? He's almost asking this, like in a rhetorical way. Look back at all of the things that I have done, and you're saying, who is God? Does he really care for us? Here's what the people say, because they know that God is not happy with them. And it's important that we have the right tone here as we read this text. Here's what the people are saying to God when they realize God is not happy with them. With what shall we come before the Lord? And bow myself before God on high? What do you need? Shall I come with burnt offerings with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with a thousand rams, a thousand of them with 10,000 rivers of oil? What is going to make you happy, God? Shall I even give my firstborn for my transgressions, for my sins, the fruit of my body, for my soul, for the sin of my soul. That God, what is going to make you happy? You're clearly not happy with us. What do we have to do to appease you right now? Are you with me there? That's what they're calling out to God, if you will, in this courtroom. The accused is calling back at the judge. Why are you not happy with us? And here's what God says. Again, it's important to have the right tone here. Here's what God says. A verse that is actually part of the verse of the month for this month. But listen to the tone here. He God has told you. Verse 8. He has told you. You're saying, what do you want from us? Micah's like, friends, he has told you, O man, what is good and what the Lord desires of you. You already know what is it? Do what? Do justice, Love what? Kindness, and walk humbly with your God. He's like, you are sitting over there in the box saying, we don't know how to make God happy. And Micah's like, yes, you do. Read the word of God and you will see what's going to honor God is how you worship him from, if you will, Sunday to Friday for them, for us, Monday to Saturday. Don't show up and be like God. I'm just trying to make you happy and completely walk in rebellion all week long. What does God want from you? Do justice on Monday and on Wednesday and on Friday. Love, kindness. Those people that you were oppressing, that you were taking land from, that you were stealing from, that you were devising wickedness for. Be someone of justice. Walk humbly with your God. Don't just show up at church, if you will, and say, oh, I'm doing my duty, I'm offering all my sacrifices and God should be happy with me. This is the bad news, friends. You have completely missed sight of what justice, mercy and humility looks like. That's the bad news. And so there's judgment for you. And so if a thousand rams, a lamb a year old can't satisfy God, what can? And this is the hope that we have that God is not just going to be judging them, he's also a God who is faithful and forgiving. Amen. And that's what we see the hope part in the next section there in your outline. The hope is because God is faithful and forgiving. You can write that in verses, chapter seven. The last chapter of the book reminds us of God's faithfulness who is a God like you. Which, by the way, Micah, remember what Micah's name means. Who is God like you? Here we see that again, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance. What do we see? God is a God of mercy. He does not retain his anger forever, but delights in his steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us, and he will tread our iniquities underfoot. This is a good message for them. For those people sitting there going, is God going to be angry with us forever? Micah says, no, There will be a day that you can rejoice in the forgiveness of God through the person and work of who, Jesus Christ? That's you and I. We get to experience this faithful and forgiving God because of what Jesus has done. How many of you have done something, you made a mistake before you did something wrong? And we have this phrase, like. It's kind of like a slang phrase. I don't know. We say like, my bad. You know what I'm talking about? You're like, oh, I shouldn't have done that. Oh, my bad. And it's like a different way of saying, I'm sorry for doing something wrong. But we don't want to say all of those words because that's humbling. And so we just say, oh, my bad. And so we see here that God is saying, no, we don't treat sin like, oh, my bad. And then for some people, like today in our culture, we say something like, I don't worry about it. In other words, because it sounds really strange to be like, I forgive you for sinning against me. You know, we don't, like, say that. So we just. Someone says, oh, my bad. And you're like, ah, don't worry about it. And here's what we see with God. He doesn't just say, ah, my bad, God. And then God doesn't just say, ah, don't worry about it. He's like, no, no. Treat sin as it is. It's a crime against the throne. God, I have sinned against you. I am sorry. And God doesn't just say, ah, don't worry about it. He says, I forgive you because of what Jesus has done in your place. We treat sin properly. Recognizing the faithfulness and the forgiveness of God is something that we should carry as a significant part of our life. So we have the judgment that Micah communicated to the people. We have the hope that he says, what's the message for us before we look at the Savior? And it's this very clearly. I've already kind of hinted at it many times. It's this if you like to write things down, it's this, don't do church and then do your own life during the week. Don't do church and do your own life during the week. That's what we find here. The people say we're doing all these sacrifices when we come together to gather. We're doing all the right things. But also we see earlier in the book that they are completely walking away from God and justice and mercy and kindness. God says here, love, justice, mercy, humility, all of that should be true of you during the week as well, not just when you show up here. If you like to write things down, I'm going to just give you kind of a phrase to think about. And it's this. The greatest demonstration of your theology that is what you believe about God. The greatest demonstration of your theology is not found in what you do when you're around other Christians, but it's what you do when you're not. The greatest demonstration of your theology is not found in what you do when you're around other Christians, but it's in what you do when you're not. Something for us to think about. In this book of Micah, he's calling out the people, the religious people, who are really far from God. What's so good for us is that God is a God who is faithful and merciful. And in the midst of all of this, when we stumble and we fall, and we stumble and we fall, we stumble and we fall. We continue to look up and we don't just say, sorry, God, my bad. We look up and we say, God, I am grateful for the forgiveness that you offer because of Jesus death. I know the wages of sin is what. And Jesus died in my place. And speaking of Jesus, let's transition to the Savior. We see Jesus showing up all over the New Testament. I just want to point out one place for us. In chapter five, verse two. It's a prophecy. This is the good news. That one day a ruler is going to come out of this place called Bethlehem, which again was about, excuse me, about 10 miles or so south, 12 miles or so south of Jerusalem. So here we see Micah 5:2. This is a passage that is quoted usually at Christmas time in Matthew chapter 2, verse 6. If you want, you can flip your Bibles that direction. I'll read it as well. Here's what it says, quoting from Micah 5:2. This is Herod speaking. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled. That is, the Magi had shown up in Jerusalem. They said, we're looking for the king of the Jews. And Herod's like, oh, I thought I was the king. He was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, and assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people. He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born, and they told him in where? Bethlehem of Judea. For so it is written by the prophet who Micah. And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. We know that Jesus came from this place called Bethlehem to both be a shepherd who calls his people, who are scattering all over the place. As we know, we are prone to wander. We feel that. And this good shepherd Jesus comes and says, I want to bring you back to me, and I want to lead you towards something better. That's what a good shepherd does. And then we move a little bit further and we see the application. What are some application points for us today? If you like to again write things down, you can do that here. What does this teach us about God, about humanity and me? There's a lot of things there. I'll just read them. I put them there so that you could kind of think through this. We just went through a book that did a lot of, like, bad news and good news, right? It was good news. There's bad news and there's good news and bad news and good news. Sometimes we miss a part of the character of God when we camp out in one area or the other. And Micah brings an aspect of that to light for us. God does not have to choose which characteristic or which attribute he is going to be at a specific time. He is all of them, all the time. God is not sometimes good, and then sometimes he has to be a judge. And sometimes he's holy, and sometimes he's loving all of them all the time. He is just and he is loving. He is righteous and he is forgiving. He is infinite and he is intimate. He is holy and he is humble. Humble, lowering himself even to the point of coming to earth. He is good, and he allows sin in the world. Oftentimes we say, how can a good God let all of these, what bad things happen? Right? We're saying there's bad things and there's good things, and they just don't work together. God says, because I'm good, I'm gonna let you make decisions. And also because I am just, I'm gonna step in sometimes. And because I am holy, you can't be with me. And because I am intimate and humble. I'm gonna step in and. And be next to you as well. What does this teach us? Not just about God, but about humanity. Injustice is a normal response. When God, the author of justice, has been rejected, you and I look around at the world around us and we see what a lot of injustice, right? And that can make us upset, that can make us angry, that can make us sad. And also, when you reject the author of justice, what are you going to have? Injustice. Injustice. And that's what we see here. God's saying, there's so much injustice going on, you might be doing the things that look good to everybody, but in reality, you've rejected me on a daily basis. And lastly, to bring all this to its conclusion, I, in the first person, for you and I, before we close, it's this. What does this teach me about me? What are the things that I can be thinking about? Is there a place. And this is a question that I asked myself. Maybe you can ask yourself this question. Maybe it's something else that you want to ask yourself that you want God to speak to you about, that you want to ask the Holy Spirit to teach you about. This is what came to my mind personally as I was kind of journeying through this book. Is there a place where hypocrisy is real in my life and I'm not battling against it? Cause there's plenty of places in our lives where, like, I know this is who I am, but this doesn't. This is not how I'm acting. I know this is who I am in Christ, but it's not how I'm acting. And we battle against that as we should. There's a battle between the Spirit and our flesh. That's appropriate. Now, here's the question. Is there a place where I'm not battling, where I'm not asking the Holy Spirit to help me wage war against my flesh, that I'm content in that sin? Is there a place? And if so, I need to do something about it? And similarly, another question. Am I putting on a face to look good to others and perhaps even to God? But my actions don't display this profession of Jesus where everyone else sees what's on the outside. And that's what the people that Micah is speaking to, they looked really good on the outside. Micah is saying this. It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside. It's what's on the inside that God sees. And he's challenging them with that. And he's saying, really, God's Already been the judge here. And there is judgment coming and there's nothing you can do to escape that. And God is a God who is merciful. Amen. Who says there's gonna be discipline, but as a good parent does, after he disciplines or she disciplines their child, they say, come back. Let me give you a hug. And friends, I don't know where you are today in the midst of your journey with Jesus, but I want you to know this. God is a God of mercy and grace who says, come, run back to me, no matter where you've been, no matter how far you've gone before, come back to me. Yes, there's going to be hard things and also there's hope. There's also a relationship with God. That's the message of the gospel, is there's bad news and there's good news, and Jesus is the hero in that story. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, thank you that we are able to know and even call you Father, not because of our good works, but because of what Jesus has done in our place. As we examine this book, we see how powerful sin is, that it's not something that you just pass off as nothing. But because of sin, there must be death, blood must be shed. That is your justice being seen, your holiness being demonstrated, and also your mercy and your grace is also demonstrated beautifully in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And so this morning we rejoice, knowing that we can come before you because of what Jesus has done in our place and call you Father and be a part of the same family of believers. Help us to continue to be shaped more into your likeness where there might be walls that we've put up, Lord, I pray that you'd break those walls down. And in the end, Lord, all that to be done for your glory, in Jesus name, amen.