Upside Down

and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,

and it's my joy to bring God's word to you today.

Special welcome if you're new or visiting with us.

We're glad that you're here,

and we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats,

but because we're following Jesus together as one community,

and as we follow Jesus together,

we become convinced that there's no one so good,

they don't need God's grace,

and no one so bad that they can't have it,

which is why we come back week after week

to hear what God has to say to us in his word.

What I'm about to say has nothing to do with Judges chapter 17,

Judges 17 · chapter mention

but I was thinking this morning as we were worshiping,

the longer I serve as a pastor,

one of the emotions for me that grows and grows is that of gratitude.

I am more and more just grateful for the folks who come here every Sunday.

There are many places that you could be this morning,

and God called you here.

And I'm grateful for every month that God sustains this church financially.

Grateful as he brings new people and he blesses them as they go out.

And so I just want to say as we start this morning, I'm grateful for you.

And I'm glad that you're here.

And I always mean that,

but I mean that I think more and more as the months go by.

And so one of my catchphrases now,

as I see many of you on Sunday mornings,

I just say I'm glad you're here,

and that's because I am.

I'm grateful that God has brought this church community together.

With that, we are continuing our series in the book of Judges.

And you will remember that the book of Judges is about many things.

It is about our need for constant renewal and revival among God's people.

It's about the need for a faithful and true king,

a king who can do what no human can do,

which is to change the hearts of men.

It is about the power of spirit-filled leadership,

and it's about God's mercy to hard-hearted people,

people like you and me.

Now, last time we were here,

we finished the story of Samson,

and you'll remember we saw God's redemption in Samson's life.

He used Samson's greatest failure to bring about,

in fact, Samson's greatest success.

We talked about that's the way that God's redemption works in this world,

and I reminded you that wherever you are

or whatever you've done,

if you're still alive,

all is not lost.

That was the end of the lesson of Samson,

and I told you for a while that Samson was the last and worst judge.

And so there's a sense in which we are done with judges.

We are done with judges when it comes to them as people,

as rulers of Israel.

We, however, are not done with the book of Judges.

So Samson ends in chapter 16.

Judges goes all the way to chapter 21,

because now we move away from these central figures,

these leaders,

and instead the author of the book of Judges

begins to tell us what it was like for normal, everyday Israelites.

We go from looking at the chiefs of God's people

to what it was like day to day on the ground in Israel.

And just as we saw with the judges,

we're going to see with their people

that there is a fast descent downwards.

As with that, I invite you to turn with me.

We're in Judges chapter 17.

Judges 17 · chapter mention

You can turn in your Bible.

You can turn on your phone.

You can turn in your worship guide.

No matter where you turn,

remember God tells us in Proverbs chapter 30

Proverbs 30 · chapter mention

that every word of God proves true.

He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

And so that's why we read now Judges chapter 17,

Judges 17 · chapter mention

starting in verse 1.

There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim

whose name was Micah.

And he said to his mother,

The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you,

about which you uttered a curse,

and also spoken in my ears,

Behold, the silver is with me.

I took it.

And his mother said,

Blessed be my son by the Lord.

And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother.

And his mother said,

I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son

to make a carved image and a metal image.

Now, therefore, I will restore it to you.

So when he restored the money to his mother,

his mother took two hundred pieces of silver

and gave it to the silversmith,

who made it into a carved image and a metal image.

And it was in the house of Micah.

Verse 5.

And the man Micah had a shrine,

and he made an ephod and household gods

and ordained one of his sons who became his priest.

In those days there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah

of the family of Judah who was a Levite,

and he sojourned there.

And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah

to sojourn where he could find a place.

And as he journeyed,

he came to the hill country of Ephraim

to the house of Micah.

And Micah said to him,

Where do you come from?

And he said to him,

I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah,

and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.

And Micah said to him,

Stay with me and be to me a father and a priest.

And I will give you ten pieces of silver a year

and a suit of clothes and your living.

And the Levite went in.

And the Levite was content to dwell with the man,

and the young man became to him like one of his sons.

And Micah ordained the Levite,

and the young man became his priest

and was in the house of Micah.

Then Micah said,

Now I know that the Lord will prosper me

because I have a Levite as priest.

I invite you to pray with me

as we come to this portion of God's word.

Our Father in heaven,

we do praise you and thank you

that you do sustain us.

You sustain this church day by day and month by month.

You sustain us in our lives,

in our faith,

by your spirit.

And we thank you that you sustain us by your word.

We ask that you would do that again this morning.

That you would use it to instruct us

and to challenge us.

You'd use it to encourage and comfort us.

Most of all,

you would use it to help us to see Jesus.

That we would see his beauty and his glory

and his majesty and his holiness.

We'd see his power and his authority.

We'd see his mercy and his grace and his love.

And we ask that you would be merciful to us,

that you would not leave us where we are,

but that you would remember us,

that you'd change us,

that you would use our time together this morning

to change us and make us look

more like your son and our savior,

our Lord Jesus.

It's in his name that we ask all of these things.

Amen.

Many of you know that for several years

before and even a little bit after I went to seminary,

I was a teacher.

And one of the concepts that I learned as a teacher

was something called the irreducible minimum.

It's a mouthful.

But the irreducible minimum is what someone must know

to move on to the next level.

So there are certain things that you must learn

in third grade if you are going to have success

in fourth grade.

And so on and so forth.

The reason that someone fails a grade

is not because the school is cruel or mean,

but because they're saying to you,

look, you actually don't have what you need

to succeed the next level.

If you cannot add or subtract,

it is going to be very challenging

for you to work with multiplication.

I told you many times when we talked about Samson

that Samson should have been taking senior level classes

when it came to be an Israelite,

and yet he was failing the most basic things.

He was failing 101.

Now we move along, as I mentioned,

from the leaders of Israel

to those folks who lived on the ground every day,

everyday Israelites.

And as we look at the rest of the book of Judges,

what we are going to see is that at best,

God's people are failing.

That the most basic things,

the most elementary commands

that God has given to his people,

that's best.

At worst, God's people are doing unthinkable,

unspeakable things.

If you don't believe me,

you can just look ahead to Judges chapter 19.

Judges 19 · chapter mention

What is Israelite 101

if not the Ten Commandments?

I talked about that earlier this morning

in our confession of faith.

Those are the basics, right,

of all the rules and laws and commands

God gave his people.

The Ten Commandments are the irreducible minimum.

This is what they are meant to know most of all.

This is what Jesus summarizes in Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

Remember, he says,

the sum of the law is love of God and love of neighbor.

I mentioned the Ten Commandments here

at the beginning of Judges chapter 17,

Judges 17 · chapter mention

and I mention the irreducible minimum

because the original audience

who is reading this story,

any Israelite who is hearing about

what Micah is doing

should notice immediately

the Ten Commandments are being broken

left and right.

In fact, it starts at the very beginning.

Verse 2,

Micah has something to confess to his mother.

This is his way, I guess,

of honoring Mother's Day.

Ironic that we're here this morning.

Micah is not coming to his mother

to confess that he broke a lamp, right,

or he marked, you know,

with his crayons in her favorite book.

No, he just sort of casually stole from her

1,100 pieces of silver.

You may remember from the story of Samson and Delilah,

1,100 pieces of silver we've seen before.

That was the amount of money

each lord of the Philistines

offered to Delilah

if she would hand over Samson.

In other words,

Micah has not taken $5

from his mom's purse, okay?

He has taken an enormous amount of money.

So we're starting out here.

Eighth commandment,

thou shalt not steal.

One commandment down.

Now, at the same time,

Micah is able to kill two birds with one stone.

You may realize he's also broken another commandment,

the fifth commandment,

honor your father and your mother.

And in a sense,

it's not just Micah who's broken that commandment,

it's also his mom.

There's a man named G.I. Williamson

who points out that the Ten Commandments,

the fifth commandment,

can be broken in two ways.

The fifth commandment can be broken

by children who refuse to honor their parents.

And it can also be broken by parents

who do not require their children to honor them.

And we can make a safe assumption here

that Micah's an adult,

we find out he actually has a child.

This is the dynamic he is used to with his mother.

This is the way, perhaps, that he's been raised.

I stole 1,100 pieces of silver.

No big deal.

I can just give it back.

No consequence.

So we've got two commandments broken at this point.

But wait, there's more.

We move on from verse 2 to verse 3.

His mom says,

hey, let's dedicate this silver

and we're gonna make a carved image

and a metal image.

What did we confess together this morning

if not the second commandment,

which says this,

no carved images.

We're now up from two of the commandments

to three of them,

but we are not done yet.

What happens in verse 5?

They don't have just an idol.

They don't have a household god.

They have household gods, plural.

Second commandment.

The first commandment tells us,

no other gods.

We are not meant to miss this.

In five verses,

Micah and his mother have broken four commandments.

And that is just scratching the surface.

There is so much in this passage

that is completely upside down.

In fact, we don't have time this morning

to list everything that Micah and his mom do

that is twisted and inside out.

I'll give you just a few of them.

Verse 2,

Micah comes and it seems like

maybe he's repenting of stealing the silver.

No, there's no repentance.

Micah is afraid that the curse

is going to fall on him.

That's why we're told in verse 2,

he heard the curse

and then he returned the silver.

Micah does not do this

out of some sense of guilt or fear of God.

No, he's very pragmatic.

He was pragmatic in stealing the silver.

He's pragmatic in returning the silver.

Oh, I didn't realize

this was going to involve a curse.

Well, in that case, mom,

here all of it is back.

Maybe you can take that back for me.

The mom doesn't get off the hook either.

Verse 3,

she takes the 1,100 pieces of silver

and says,

I'm going to dedicate this to God.

We find out in verse 4,

she gives not 1,100 pieces of silver,

she gives 200 pieces of silver.

And so the reader is left wondering,

what happened to the other 900 pieces?

All is dedicated to God.

Only some reaches at the end.

Verse 5,

they set up their own worship site,

which is in direct violation

to what God has taught his people.

There is to be one place of worship

that God has established.

And if that were not enough,

Micah appoints,

ordains his own son as a priest.

And it should go without saying,

God establishes priests,

not men.

How are things going for God's people?

Everything is upside down.

And we could go on.

And commentators do on and on

about everything in this passage

that does not add up.

That raises a question for us.

What in fact is Micah thinking?

He should know, right?

As an Israelite,

he should know the irreducible minimum.

It should be obvious to him

what is obvious to the readers.

That he is so far away

from God and his commands.

Well, thankfully,

we are not left to wonder.

We find out very quickly

exactly what it is

that Micah is thinking.

Verses 7 through 13.

Now in verse 5,

we found out that Micah

made his son a priest.

That is just for now.

Micah is always willing

to accept a better deal

if it comes along.

He is always willing

to make an upgrade.

And what shows up

but the best upgrade

that Micah could dream of?

If you're familiar

with the Old Testament,

you know that the Levites

were the Israelite tribe

that were designated

to serve as priests.

And so those were the ones

who were actually supposed

to be managing God's house.

And it's verses 7 through 8.

Who comes along?

What luck does Micah have

but that a Levite

stumbles across his path?

This Levite, we're told,

is looking,

this is verse 8,

for where he could find a place.

In other words,

this Levite had gone on

to his LinkedIn profile

and his profile picture

had a banner on it

that said,

Open to work.

He needed a place to plug in

and so he's wandering around.

He is looking for a place to serve.

Micah is open to an upgrade.

This is a deal made in heaven.

There's a perfect match.

The Levite wants work.

Micah wants a Levite.

And so they strike a deal,

verses 10 through 12.

And without getting into

lots of nitty-gritty detail,

I'll just tell you

this deal is highly irregular.

This is not the way

that Levites are supposed

to be chosen.

It's not the way

they're supposed to be compensated.

This is not the way

things work in God's house.

But we've already gotten the picture

that normal was thrown out

a long time ago.

And it's here

that we finally get

to the heart of the matter.

Micah reveals to us

what in the world

he is thinking.

There are two key

and critical verses

in chapter 17.

One of those

is the last verse,

verse 15.

Then Micah said,

Now I know

that the Lord

will prosper me

because I have

a Levite

as a priest.

What is Micah thinking?

Micah loves

religious show.

He has no

religious substance.

Micah is worried

about certain rules.

Micah has no category

for deep

and real holiness.

Micah has religious

actions

and he has

religious activity.

And he does not

have a heart

for God.

So what is Micah

doing here?

He makes it

crystal clear

that really

all he's interested

in doing

is manipulating

God.

He is just

like the pagan

nations around him.

Religion

is merely

a superstition.

In fact,

religion is something

you can make up

as you go along.

If you have

the right priest,

God will bless you.

He is showing

us

superstition

at its

very

worst.

In fact,

one commentator

says this,

the Levite

is nothing

more

than a good

luck

charm.

We might

say that Micah

is like the

Pharisees

that Jesus

condemns,

clean on the

outside,

full of filth

on the inside.

And so

Judges 17

warns us

about this.

Possible for us

as well

to hide

behind

religious

activity.

It is

possible

to have

religious

show

and pomp

and circumstance

untethered

from a love

for God

and his

ways.

It is

possible

to claim

the Christian

faith

and have

merely

external

compliance

to certain

rules.

It is

possible

to claim

the Christian

faith

merely

because of

some sort

of religious

connection.

Micah

here gives

us the

formula.

Now I

know

that the

Lord

will

prosper

me

because

I

have

a

Levite

as a

priest.

And so

we might

say this.

Now I

know

the Lord

will

prosper

me.

I

might be

cheating

on my

taxes,

but

my

grandfather

was a

pastor.

I

might be

destroying

others

with my

mouth,

but I

was baptized.

and I

grew up

in the

church.

So I

know that

the Lord

will

prosper

me.

I

might be

immature

and easily

angered,

but I

have a

big library

that has

a lot

of theological

books in

it.

Now I

know

that the

Lord

will

prosper

me.

me.

I

might

lie

and

conveniently

change

the

story

when the

truth

catches up

with me,

but I

read my

Bible

every day.

Now I

know

that the

Lord

will

prosper

me.

of course,

Micah

could not

be further

from the

truth.

He set up

a system

that allows

him to

worship,

something he

can control,

something that

submits to

his preferences,

something that

is mere

superstition.

Don't hear

what I'm not

saying.

These are not

bad things.

It is good

to have a

Levite as

a priest.

In fact,

Levites should

be priests,

right?

The problem

is focusing

on good

things and

missing the

great things.

The problem

is turning

certain types

of obedience

into a

superstition.

Remember

what Samuel,

the prophet,

says in

1 Samuel 15.

Has the

Lord as

great delight

in burnt

offerings and

sacrifices as

in obeying the

voice of the

Lord?

Behold,

to obey

is better

than sacrifice

and to

listen

than the

fat of

rams.

God says

the same

thing through

his prophets

in other

places.

Amos 5

and Jeremiah

6.

God comes

to his

people and

says,

I will

not accept

your burnt

offerings

because you

practice

injustice.

What did

Brit read

from us?

From Matthew

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

chapter 23,

Jesus comes

and condemns

the religious

leaders.

He says,

look,

you worry

about tithing

on your

herbs and

mint and

cumin.

You know

what?

That's great.

That's actually

a good thing.

And you've

missed the

weightier matters

of the law.

You've missed

what matters

most of all.

The saddest

thing of this

passage perhaps

is this,

that Micah

says this

with no

hint of

irony.

He is in

fact self-deceived.

He actually

believes that

the Lord

will actually

prosper him.

that is how

far Israel

has fallen.

That is how

separated he

is from

what God

actually calls

his people

to.

And so the

challenge for

us is

this.

Where have

we traded

God's

heart

for mere

religious

ritual?

Where have

we exchanged

the love

of God

and the

love of

neighbor

for going

through the

motions in

the right

place at

the right

time?

Israel has

fallen

far.

They will

fall even

farther.

Because they

truly have

forgotten

the Lord.

There's the

problem here

that Micah

has of

superstition.

there's

another

problem that

brings

itself to

the

forefront

in this

passage

and it's

this.

Micah

and Israel

make it

up as

they go

along.

This is

buffet

style

worship.

We will

make sure

we have

this.

We're

going to

have the

Levites.

We'll

take that

from the

buffet.

We know

Levites

are good.

We're

going to

reject

God's

appointed

worship

place.

We

don't

have a

taste

for that.

We

actually

like having

the worship

site here

in our

town.

It cuts

down our

gas mileage.

It makes

travel easier.

We have the

ephod here.

We don't

have to go

somewhere else

to receive

God's

revelation.

This is

convenient.

What works

for us

is what

we are

going to

do.

Of course,

the same

is a

temptation

for the

church

today.

I don't

need to

worship

God as

he's

commanded.

I don't

need to

search the

scriptures to

know what

it is that

God wants

in the

worship of

his people.

I don't

need to

gather with

his people

as he's

called them

to do

together.

No, I

can make

it up as

I go

along.

You

worship God

at church.

I worship

God on

the hiking

trail.

You think

God has

commanded you

to read

his word?

That's

great.

God has

been speaking

to me

through the

self-help

books that

have come

along my

way.

That's

good for

you.

This is

good for

me.

There's

a new

way of

making up

what feels

good in

the moment.

You'll see

this on

page 7

of your

worship guide.

Micah's

family

shapes a

God who

is convenient

to follow.

They

follow the

laws they

like and

ignore the

laws they

don't.

Why is it

that we

take God's

word and

find a

book and

go from

beginning to

end?

Because we

want to

protect

ourselves from

the temptation

of the

human heart

which is

to pick

and choose.

God's

God's

revelation

for his

people.

We want

to know

the entire

counsel of

God.

We want

to worship

God.

Not in the

way that we

like but in

the way that

God likes.

You wouldn't

give your

mother today

flowers she's

allergic to.

right?

We give

God the

worship that

he has

commanded.

Not what

suits us and

our preferences

and our

entertainment.

I told you

earlier there

are two key

verses in

chapter 17.

The first one

was chapter 13

which reveals

to us what's

happening inside

of Micah's

heart and

his mind.

The other

key verse

is verse 6

which is going

to become a

refrain in

our final

chapters.

In those

days there

was no

king in

Israel.

Everyone

did what

was right

in his

own eyes.

Now you

can take

that verse

and I

think it's

meant in

two senses.

In the

first sense

there is

a manner

in which

there is

no earthly

human

king in

Israel.

We are

looking forward

in a sense

to the

monarchy

that's to

come.

Solomon

and Saul

and David

have not

yet shown

up on

the scene.

So there's

a restraint

that's

lacking.

There is

however a

second sense.

We have

already seen

how deeply

God's

leaders fail.

Samson

did not

lead God's

people into

peace.

Jethro

was wildly

ignorant of

God's word.

We're going

to move on

to Solomon

and Saul

and David

who are

all

disappointments

in their

own way.

And so

what Judges

is pointing

us to

is beyond

simply the

period of

the monarchy

in Israel.

The author

of Judges

is not

merely saying

hey they

didn't have

a human

king and

so that's

why things

were so

crazy.

No they

did not

have

the

king.

they

did not

have

what

they

needed.

They

were not

honoring

God

as the

one

who

rules

and

reigns

over

this

world

and

over

his

people.

They

did not

have

the

Holy

Spirit

at work

in a

powerful

way

like we

do

now

because

the

full

and

final

and

ultimate

king

had

not

come.

What do

we do

with the

problems

of

Judges?

Remember I've

told you

one of the

problems

is this

that there

is a

need

for

constant

renewal

and

revival

among

God's

people.

And the

other

need

is for

a

faithful

and

true

king.

Judges

reminds us

that we

need not

a false

God.

We need

not a

God that

we can

control

through

the right

actions

or through

superstition.

No,

we need

a God

who can

in fact

transform

the hearts

and minds

and lives

of his

people.

We need

a true

and greater

king.

Brothers

and sisters,

we have

what the

Israelites

in Judges

did not

have.

We

have

a true

and greater

king.

The

solution

to the

problem

of Judges

is not

greater

self-discipline.

The

problem

is not,

the solution

is not

that they

would

study

God's

word

even

more

intently

so that

they would

be able

to avoid

the things

that

Jephthah

and Micah

do,

as helpful

as that

would be.

No,

the solution

is our

Lord Jesus.

Our

Lord Jesus

is the

king who

comes who

can do

what no

human can

do.

He is the

king who

comes and

receives the

punishment that

God's people

deserve.

He is the

king who

comes and

lives the

perfect life

that we

could not

live.

And

he is the

king who

ascended to

heaven and

is seated

at the

right hand

of God

the Father

Almighty.

Why does it

matter that

he is seated

at the

right hand

of God

the Father

Almighty?

Because,

remember,

Jesus makes

a promise

to his

people in

John 14

and John

16.

He says,

I am going

to send

my spirit

to you.

That's why

he tells

them,

it is better

that I go

than that I

stay.

Because as

Jesus sits

at the right

hand of

God the

Father,

he is

sending out

the Holy

Spirit to

be at

work in

the hearts

and minds

and lives

of his

people doing

what no

human can

do,

to change

the hearts

of men.

In fact,

Jesus tells

us this in

John 14,

if you

love me,

you will

keep my

commandments.

And if we

left it right

there,

we would

easily be

crushed.

because who

among us

keeps God's

commandments?

Micah

certainly

doesn't.

We're not

crushed,

though,

because Jesus

doesn't end

it there.

Verse 16,

and I will

ask the

Father,

and he

will give

you another

helper to

be with

you forever,

even the

spirit of

truth,

whom the

world cannot

receive,

because it

neither sees

him nor

knows him.

You know

him,

for he dwells

with you

and will be

in you.

brothers and

sisters,

we do,

in fact,

have a

king.

We have

what Israel

could only

dream of

and look

forward to.

We have

great hope

that God

will continue

constant renewal

and revival

among his

people,

because we

have a true

and faithful

king,

a king who

can do

what no

human can

do,

which is to

change the

hearts of

men.

Let's pray.

Our Father

in heaven,

we do

praise you

and thank you

for our Lord

Jesus.

We thank you

that he's not

merely or simply

a good example.

We thank you

that he's not

just a good

teacher,

but we

thank you

that he is

the king

and ruler

of this

world

and of

your church.

We ask

that you

would continue

to honor

your promise.

Jesus promised

to send the

spirit to

his people,

that you

would be

at work

in our

lives,

in this

church,

that we

would not

be able

to say

there is

no king

here,

but we

would

recognize

you,

worship

you,

follow

you,

and serve

you as

our Lord

and our

Savior

and our

King.

We ask

these things

in the mighty

name of

Jesus Christ.

Amen.

I invite you

to stand

for our

closing hymn.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

You