"Gods Plans Are Our Hope" - Micah 4

You got your Bibles, you turn to Micah 4. It's really hard to hope in something.

You know, when your kid and your parent tells you something like,

I promise we'll go to X, Y, or Z, or I promise you can have X,

Y, or Z, or whatever that is, even if you have great parents,

even if they've never lied to you, even if they've never said something to you

that's not true, which I doubt.

But even if they had, even if they were perfect, There's something about knowing

that something is promised to you, but not having it in your hands makes it

really hard not to sit and think and ponder, what if I don't get it?

What if I don't have it? What if it doesn't happen? What if something happens to them?

I'm sure every kid is getting ready for Christmas and this is,

they're going to be their constant issue is they make lists and they give them

to you and they just sit and hope about what's going to happen on that list.

I can remember one year, my sister, I can't remember which boy band it was, to be honest with you.

She wanted like an NSYNC calendar.

If you don't know who NSYNC is, know your boy band history better.

Okay. But if you don't know who NSYNC is, she wanted that. And my mom,

because she's an adult with responsibilities and doesn't watch TRL,

bought a Backstreet Boys calendar.

And my sister, I know it was terrible. My sister, all the women in the room

are like, oh, gross, gross.

Next thing you know, she would have bought 98 degrees. Disgusting.

New kids on the block. Gross. Okay.

I digress. But my sister had been hoping for an NSYNC calendar.

That's all she wanted. That's not all she wanted, but that's one of the main things she wanted.

So of course, when she opens it and it's a Backstreet Boys calendar,

everything is ruined. It's the worst Christmas ever.

My parents hate her. God has left her in desolation. And all of us have probably

had that experience one or another.

And even more so in your own lives, when you think something is going to go

well, when you have something in your life that you and your mind are going,

man, this is going to really work out for me.

I'm really excited about what's going to happen here.

And then in a moment, you get that taken from you, right?

You get the phone call, you get a text message, you get the news,

whatever it is, the doctor gives you the diagnosis.

Your friend calls you and tells you what's been going on behind your back.

Whatever it is, all of us have had this moment of, man, I was really putting

a lot of hope, a lot of stock into that.

And now all of a sudden that seems to be washed away from my life.

Where do I go from there? What do I do after that?

And so when we're dropped into Micah 4, we've had three chapters of Micah telling

the people of God, this is what God is going to do because of your sins.

He finishes chapter 3 like this. He says, I will surely assemble all of you.

He's talking to their leaders, but it applies to everyone.

I will gather the remnant of Israel. I will set them together like sheep in

a fold, like a flock. Sorry, that's in a chapter two. I was like,

that's not good. That's too positive.

In a chapter three, he says, therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field.

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins and the mountain of the house, a wooded area.

That's where we leave in chapter three. And so you can imagine if you were an

Israelite hearing this, there's a couple of responses.

We know that a lot of the Israelites, a lot of God's people just ignored it.

Because they had false prophets that would come to them and say,

hey, I know what Micah's saying. I know what Isaiah is saying.

I know what these prophets are saying, but you should listen to us because we're

God's chosen people and God would never do that to us.

But you have to imagine there's some people that hear that and they begin to

fear and they begin to go, man, is this really going to happen to us?

We talked last week that it does indeed happen, but it happens about 100 years

after the prophet Micah is on the scene.

And so really who chapter four is written to in its immediate context is those

people, the people that are going to exist a hundred years after this is written.

Micah's writing this knowing that, hey, this generation is going to repent.

They're going to turn. But a hundred years from now, the same sins are going

to overtake them. And God will do exactly what he said he's going to do.

He's going to allow the Babylonians to come and make Jerusalem a place of ruins

to take these people and hold them captive in Babylonia.

That is what is going to happen.

And so there's this moment of hope in chapters four and five.

And maybe a way to think about it is, what do you do? What do you hope in?

What is your hope when your life does spiral out of control, when the bad news comes?

Because the truth is, you may have had a great week. You may have had a great

month. You may be having a great year.

But you can be sure that at some point, there will be some bad news.

There will be hardships. There will be things to deal with. If nothing else,

every single one of us will have an experience with death, both in our personal

lives and in every life around us.

That is the curse that sin brings.

And that doesn't even account for life in general, right? When friends betray

you, when family doesn't act like family, when friends don't act like friends.

Or when life is just life.

You know, we joke about kids and high schoolers when they go through drama,

and we joke to say like, you have no idea how bad it can get.

And you're right, they don't. But in their own worlds, in their own lives,

sometimes that's as bad as it can get.

Of course, being in youth ministry for a while, 90% of my job was just relationship counselor.

And when kids would break up, it feels like the end of the world to them.

Now, of course, it's easy to look them in the face and say, hey,

this isn't that bad. Get over it. Life's going to be a lot harder than this.

But I think that's really bad advice.

I think good advice is what Mike is going to do here, which no matter how small

the pain is, no matter how small the struggle is, or how great it is, the hope is the same.

I think one of the hardest things that Christians are called to do is to live

in hope, that we don't have the things that God says we're going to have,

that the things that God's promised us, we don't have in our hands.

And so I can't see it with my eyes. I can't hear with my ears.

I can't lay my hands on these promises yet.

It's like those old commercials, it's my money and I need it now.

That's how every Christian feels When they're going through something.

And this is the message that Micah is going to give these people.

Again, really written for the people 100 years from now that are going to have

to hold on to something. There has to be some hope.

It's also written to us, of course. And really, here's the question for the morning.

Will you hope in God or will you not?

Sounds like a really churchy question. That's because it is.

But there's not a churchy response to those things.

Oftentimes when we think about hope, we think about a song or a season in our

life or a type of music or a type of preaching or something that just makes

us feel good. Hope is not about feeling good.

Hope is not about having a good life. Hope is not about becoming the best you.

Hope has nothing to do with any of those things. Biblical hope is no matter

what happens, no matter how bad it gets, no matter how awful my life is,

or no matter how good it gets, No matter how awesome my life is or how much

money I make, my hope will not be found in what's good.

My hope will not be deterred by what's bad. My hope will be in the Lord and

I will trust him and I will know that even when things are good,

he has promised me something better and not to trust in those things.

And when things are as bad as they could possibly be, I'm reminded that he has

promised that he will make all of this right one day.

So let's just get into Micah 4. We're just going to walk straight through it

this morning. Let me give you three things that's promised here.

Number one, a promised kingdom, a promised kingdom.

He begins by saying, it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain

of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains.

Now remember, he's just said the mountain of the house of the Lord is going

to be like a wooded height, just like a jungle, like people won't even know it exists.

And then he begins chapter four by saying, but in the latter days,

this mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains.

It shall be lifted up above the hills and peoples will flow to it.

Now, this is just a quick side note, a little bit of a soapbox,

but when you read the latter days or when you read the last days,

there's a lot of fear that people in our generations tend to carry with that.

We think of a movie or we think of some pastor on TV going like,

this is the last days, it's coming, get ready.

And there's always a lot of fear wrapped up to it. But let me just tell you

how the apostles talked about the last days.

So the apostles are 2000-ish years in front of us as we read their words today.

And this is how Peter says it in 1 Peter 4, 7.

He says, the end of all things is at hand.

That sounds like a televangelist preacher, right? Like he's getting on there

and he's saying, listen, the end of all things is at hand. It is time.

Somebody said there was something on social media the last couple of days that

the rapture was supposed to happen on like the 23rd. Is that a real thing?

I know I'm getting old when I hear things like that and I'm like, yeah, I don't even know.

What's Instabook? It doesn't matter. All right. But the end of all things is at hand.

Here's what Peter rightly knows that we often forget. Every moment since Jesus

has ascended to the right hand of the father is the last days.

Every time somebody comes to you and says, you know, we're living in the last

days. You go, yeah, so were people 2000 years ago.

I say this kind of tongue in cheek, but in all seriousness, do not let people

scare you with last days talk.

Who cares what day it is? That's not the point.

It's never the point. When Peter's talking to his audience 2000 years ago,

he's thinking back to this time in the Old Testament where Micah says things

like, it shall come to pass in the latter days.

And Peter says, well, the latter days, the last days are the days that Jesus has ascended.

The only thing left for it to happen is for Jesus to come back.

And we don't know when that's gonna happen, but you are in the last days.

I often ask people when they say, well, look around you at the world.

Look how awful it is. Don't you think Jesus is about to come back? I was like, maybe.

But I imagine if you would drop yourself when the bubonic plague is sweeping

through Europe and everyone's dying, they would probably look around and go,

how could it get any worse than this?

There's tons of books that came out of the Civil War that talked about things

like this. This is the last days, guys.

Everything that they said was gonna happen in the last days has happened because

people are looking around and they're going, man, there is so much evil in the world.

There's so much strife. There's so much war. There's so much fighting.

World War I or World War II, same thing. There's all kinds of books that come

out of terrible times, people trying to convince you, well, this must be the last days.

The truth is, again, every moment since Christ has ascended it is the last days.

I mainly wanted to say that to hopefully put you at ease a bit so that if you

get a little spooked when you hear things like the last days,

just know you're in good company. Peter thought he was there too.

So again, in the latter days, in the last days, the mountain will be raised up.

Verse two, he says, and many nations shall come and say, 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.

This is a picture of God's law being the law of not just God's people,

but of the whole world and that God's word doesn't just rule over his people,

but it rules over the whole world, that nations will come to the mountain of

God to hear his word and to hear his law and to obey it.

Now, of course, if you were reading this in Babylonian captivity,

it would be hard to believe that.

You'd be thinking, Lord, I know that's what you said, but it's hard to believe

that one day these people who hold us captive, who have no reason to let us go,

who have every reason to enslave us and use us as forced labor or whatever they want to do,

it's hard to imagine that one day these people are going to flock to the mountain

of the Lord and ask for your word to be spoke over them, to ask for your laws

and for your statutes to be told to them?

Verse 3 says, He shall judge between many peoples and shall decide for strong nations far away.

They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Again, God will be the judge of the nations, so much so that they will put down

their weapons and that all of their swords and spears become gardening tools.

Micah sees a future where God's place is the place where every single nation

will come to have disputes settled.

And if that's the case, then there is no need for war. There's no need for anything.

If you have a dispute, you bring it before the Lord and whatever he says goes.

Swords and spears are no longer needed. Armies are no longer needed,

right? You You can decommission everything.

You can turn the U.S. Navy, all those boats into cruise ships. Nothing is needed.

Like all prophecy in the Old Testament, we're in an already not yet situation.

Most prophecy that you read has a temporary or we'll say a short-term fulfillment

and a long-term fulfillment.

And so we look out at the world today and we say, well, that's obviously not

the times that we're in because we still very much have wars.

And we still very much have spears and swords and guns.

There's still very much people fighting battles all over the place.

And people certainly aren't flocking to the Lord to have him decide how to handle the disputes.

And I would say that, yeah, that's true. Certainly Christ has not returned.

Certainly he's not ruling and reigning over the whole world at this point.

However, in part, this is true.

Paul says famously in Galatians 3, 28 through 29, There is neither Jew nor Greek.

There is neither slave nor free.

There is neither male nor female. For all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

If you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring.

Heirs according to the promise.

In other words, certainly more of this prophecy is to be fulfilled.

But the fact that we're not in a synagogue and we're not sacrificing animals

and we don't have a priest or a holy of holies or a temple, some of this has

already been fulfilled. The gospel has gone out to the nations.

If you want to know who God is, you don't become Jewish. You come to Christ.

And it doesn't matter if you're from China or Africa or America,

you come to the same Christ.

You need the same forgiveness. and God invites everybody from every tribe,

tongue, and nation to come to his mountain, to hear his word,

to allow him to rule in their lives.

God offers that to the whole world.

That's the not yet. The fulfillment of this is of course, Revelation 7,

9 through 10, it looks like this.

After this, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one can number from

every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the

throne and before the Lamb.

Picture this mountain with a throne on top, with Christ sitting on the throne,

clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with

a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

In our day, the gospel has gone out. God is calling his people unto himself,

from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

And many of us, hopefully every single one of us sitting in this room,

looks to the Lord to say, what is your law? What is your perfect word?

What is your statutes? How do I understand the world I live in?

How do I live the life that you've called me to live?

And that's a great thing. But one day when Christ returns and he sits on his

throne on the new heavens and the new earth, Every single person that exists

on that new earth will flock to the Lord and they will say out loud,

salvation belongs to you and you have given it to me.

And your law is perfect and your word is perfect.

And we have no disputes because you have handled all of those disputes.

We have no need for weapons because everywhere that this king rules is peace.

So much of what happens here in verse four, it says, but they shall sit every

man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid

for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

This imagery here is drawing us back to the garden of Eden where God had this

perfect place up on a mountain that he had made for his people,

that this land was going to give them everything they ever needed,

that he was going to be their God and they were going to be his people and he

would take care of them. He walked with them in the cool of the garden.

This is the perfect place for mankind and our sins cost us that.

We have an enemy who is out to tempt us, to push us, to cause us to sin.

And now we are sinners.

That's the problem. Why is this reality not true if you're a Christian?

Why can't we just go out and tell everyone about Christ and they become Christians

and we just do this ourself? because sins still exist.

And what God is saying here to the prophet Micah, especially in verse four,

is that one day you will sit under your own vine and your own fig tree.

In other words, one day you will sit back in the garden that I made for you,

and I will be the king of this place, and that garden will provide for you everything

that you need, and I will be with you forever.

Why can we do that? Why is that true? He says, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

The mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

In other words, it's going to happen because God says it's going to happen.

It's going to happen because God has promised it's going to happen.

And it's so hard at times in our lives to remind ourselves of that,

to think, I know it's awful right now. My life seems like it's falling apart.

Nothing's going the way I want it to go. but I know the Lord has not lied to

me, that he will do what he says he is going to do because he has done exactly

what he said he was going to do.

You say, I can't even imagine a place like that. I can't even fathom a place like that. Yeah.

Just like the Jews couldn't fathom God becoming a man and dying on a cross and

rising again three days later for the salvation of his people.

We give the New Testament people a hard time by trying to say,

didn't you see him do the miracles?

Didn't you see him walk on water? Didn't you see him raise people from the dead?

How could you not believe that guy?

They had no way of truly understanding what was going on 2,000 years ago.

In the same way, we have no way of really understanding how good it will be

to live in a world with no sin and no death and no struggles and no fighting

and no strife and the ground giving us everything that we need and our king reigning on a throne.

We have no way of being able to fathom how good that will be.

We trust in the words of the Lord. We live each day on this sinful earth with

the hope that one day soon, the Lord will do what he said he is going to do.

We look at the world around us and we know that every single thing in this world is passing away.

Every single thing in this world is passing away.

And with it, sin, death, pain, and toil will soon be defeated.

Soon Christ will reign on his throne and we will eternally be crying out,

Salvation belongs to our God and he has given it to us.

He has given us this new earth. He has defeated all of our enemies.

He has raised us from the dead to be seated with him in heavenly places forever and ever.

He has made all things right and good.

Verse 5 is the refrain for them as it should be for us.

He says, for all the peoples walk each in the name of its God,

but we will walk in the name of the Lord, our God forever and ever.

In other words, he's making a juxtaposition here. Other people,

other nations have other gods and they walk in the name of those other gods,

but we walk in the name of our God.

And the difference between walking in their God's shoes and walking in our God's

shoes is that we will do it forever and ever.

That those who follow false gods, that those who refuse to bend the knee to

Christ, that there will come an end to their following those gods.

Famously, every single knee will bow and every single tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

There's a thousand different ways to believe and think about God right now.

One day there will only be one.

There will only be one way to think about it.

Verses six through eight is a reminder of why this is true, why we walk the way that we walk.

He says, in that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather

those who have been driven away, and those whom I have afflicted.

And the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off a strong nation.

The Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth forevermore.

Now again, already not yet. In the immediate future of these people,

about 100 years after this, they get taken into Babylonian captivity.

Jeremiah even tells them, hey, if you'll surrender peaceably to the Babylonians,

maybe they'll allow you to keep the temple. Maybe they'll allow you to keep some things.

It's an incredible thing for a prophet of the Lord to say, hey,

you just should surrender because whether you do or you don't,

God is not going to protect you from them.

And of course they don't listen. And so the Babylonians come in and completely wipe them out.

And exactly what Micah says is going to happen happens, but they're held there

for 70 years before they're allowed to come back.

So you can imagine 170 years after this is written, people start going back

to this holy land that God had given them.

And they're thinking about Micah chapter four.

They would have had chapters. I realize that. But they're thinking about Micah chapter four.

They're saying, God's really doing it. He's gathering these lame people who have been driven away.

He's gathering these afflicted people who has been driven away.

I would also add here that if you're not okay being called.

Lame, crippled, things like that, you will not like what the Bible calls you

because it never talks about us in very strong terms.

But again, the picture here is that these people have been driven away,

that there's nothing they can do about it. They've been afflicted.

You see a lot of this same language in Exodus 1 and 2, describing God's people

under Pharaoh's rule, under slavery.

It's the same kind of language here. And it says that God's going to bring them back.

He's going to bring them back to this Mount Zion, that he's going to reign over

them in Mount Zion, but also not yet.

Because once again, the people of God would be overtaken. Once again,

their sins would find them out.

There's a reason that this isn't taking place today.

But again, the picture for us is that one day it will.

One day God will gather all of his people together. One day God will reign again from Mount Zion.

One day he will, as Jesus says, give everyone over to his son and whoever comes

to Jesus will never be cast out,

will eternally never be cast away from God's promised land again,

because God will give them the land. He will defeat our enemies.

But just realize, as we always like to remind ourselves in here, who's doing this?

Who's doing the working right here. Let me read it one more time.

In that day declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and I will gather those

who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted and the lame I will

make the remnant and those who were cast off a strong nation.

The Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion for this time forth and forevermore.

God is going to do it. He will afflict his people when they sin,

but he will gather them together at the end of all things.

So first, First, a promised kingdom. Second, a promised deliverance.

In verse 8. Actually, go ahead and go to verse 9. Now, why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you?

Has your counselor perished? The pain seized you like a woman in labor.

Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor.

For now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country.

You shall go to Babylon.

There you shall be rescued. There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

Why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? As I read that verse,

I thought about all the times in my life, even this week, where I complained

and groaned about my life, whatever it was.

I didn't go to the Lord in prayer. I didn't ask him to give me patience.

I didn't ask him to help me bear it. I didn't want anything from him.

I just wanted to sit and pout about how things weren't going my way.

I've seen this happen in countless churches Where you want things to go a certain

way you want things to turn the corner You you think you have the plan you think

you've got it figured out and instead of Going before the lord and seeking his

face and asking for his wisdom.

What do we like to do? We like to sit around and pout And complain If they would

just listen to me If we would just have this If we could just get this worked

out This would make it better.

This would fix all our problems I think this is a great verse to put on a sticky

note and put it on the mirror in the bathroom or in your car somewhere.

Why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Do you not have a king?

Do we not have a counselor? Do

we not have a perfect king, a perfect counselor in the man Christ Jesus?

Why do we complain? Why do we whine? Why do we do those things? Why?

If we're honest with ourselves, deep down, there's moments where we think,

you know, he's just not doing what he's supposed to be doing.

If Christ was doing what he was supposed to be doing, he would fix all of my

problems. I wouldn't feel the way I feel.

I would have a little more money. Rent wouldn't be so expensive.

Life wouldn't be so hard. My friend wouldn't be in the hospital.

We think about this all the time. If you don't believe me, consider your last week.

Every time you got frustrated, every time you went to complain,

every time you went to whine, Did you go to the counselor and say,

God, I need some peace about this.

I need some wisdom about this.

Or did you like me admittedly just go, you know what would feel a whole lot

better right now if I just sat in my car and threw a little mental temper tantrum

about how dumb everyone else was?

Like if they were only as smart as Brady, everything would get fixed.

That's what he tells the people. You cry aloud because you act as if there is no king in you.

You act as if your counselor has perished. And so what does it look like when

someone refuses to accept the fact that they have a king, that they have a counselor?

It says it's like a woman in labor.

If you've never experienced that, which I have not, I've been around it.

And it's just, it never looks comfortable. That's all I'm going to say.

I thought about bringing someone up to give some personal experiences,

but I figured that's probably not the best thing.

But again, the picture here is you have a woman in labor and she's experiencing

the pains of not honoring the king and the counselor of their life. And so what happens?

She gets carried away to Babylon.

She goes to the last place she would want to go to have a baby.

But God says, there you shall be rescued. The Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

What a beautiful picture of the gospel.

Why do you get carried away to Babylon? Why do you get carried away into sin?

Why do you find that you struggle? Is it not your own fault?

No one has sinned more in my life than me. I've had some people do some things I didn't like to me.

I've had some people sin against me. I've had people say things about me behind

my back that weren't true.

I've experienced some things. I have no doubt that many of you have experienced

much more hardships than me, but I can say confidently that almost every single

one of us in this room, save maybe some of these kids, can look ourselves in

the mirror and go, no one has caused me more problems than myself.

No one has caused me to sin more than myself. No one has walked me to Babylon,

deservedly so, more than myself.

Back at countless times in my life, even at 36, and think every season of my

life that I go, that I've woken up and said, how did I get here?

I can easily pinpoint, oh, because I did that.

Because I made that decision. Because I decided that that pleasure or that that

moment or that that money or that that stuff or that what I thought I wanted,

I decided that was more important than reminding myself that I have a king and

a counselor who is perfect and good and just.

And I walk myself readily right in to Babylon.

What is the beauty of the gospel? There you will be rescued.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were enemies,

God treated us like children.

While we were dead, he made us alive. That is the gospel and it is preached clearly in Micah 4.

So what about us? What's a verse that we can take away here?

Well, I think the first one's good, but just listen to 1 Peter 5.10.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace,

who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore,

confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

There you shall be rescued.

And after you have suffered for a little while, that doesn't feel encouraging.

Next time somebody is going through something, just pat them on the head and,

hey, man, you're just going to suffer for a little while. See if that helps.

That's exactly the way Peter talks. Peter knows that as long as you live on

this earth, that God has not renewed.

As long as you live in this place where sin and death still exist, you will suffer.

For as long as you live on this earth, there will be suffering accompanied with your life.

Both internally, in your own sins and struggles, and externally,

the things that happen to you.

Peter's point here is not to minimize your suffering Peter's not looking at

this group of exiles and saying Man, don't worry about the suffering,

it's not a big deal Don't worry that your family betrayed you Don't worry that

the government seized your property,

Don't worry that your husband got taken for being a Christian It's not that

big of a deal He's not minimizing the suffering What he is doing is asking us

to put a magnifying glass On the grace of God that has called us to his eternal glory,

It's not that the suffering is not intense.

It's not that the suffering is not real. And he's certainly not asking you to

neglect the fact that you are suffering.

What he is asking us to do is to do the exact same thing that Micah is going

to ask these people to do.

Fix your eyes on God. Look at how good he is. Look at how gracious he is. Look at how kind he is.

90 years of suffering is nothing in light of eternity, nothing.

There is a promise deliverance.

All right, let's close here. Verses 11 through 13 says, now many nations are

assembled against you saying, let her be defiled and let our gaze be upon Zion.

This is literally a picture of like a man looking at a woman.

You see some of this same language when David looks at Bathsheba to say,

I'm going to take that and do with it what I want.

I'm going to take this nation. I'm going to take God's people.

I'm going to take God's place. I'm going to file it. I'm going to make it my

own. I'm going to do what I want to with it.

And verse 12 says, but they do not know the thoughts of the Lord.

They do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.

Psalm 2, why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers all conspire against who?

Against the Lord and his anointed one.

This has not changed.

When Christians face suffering, when they face persecution, whatever it is,

it's not that they're at war against you, they're at war against your king and

you just so happen to be a part of his country.

This is how most wars start. I know very few infantrymen that sign up to start a war.

I know plenty of kings and rulers that have started them.

It's the same exact way here.

He says, the nations are assembled against you, that they would take you into filing.

What an incredible comfort. They do not know the thoughts of the Lord.

Understand his plan. The implication here is that the people of God should understand

the Lord, that the people of God should understand his plan.

That as the nations come around the people of God, as they get ready to,

as it says here, defile her and to take her stuff and to do with her whatever

they want, that the people of God should be the one saying they have no idea what God's going to do.

They have no idea what God's up to, but we do. But we know.

We know that it doesn't matter what the nations do. We know that it doesn't

matter how people treat us.

It doesn't matter how people perceive us. It doesn't matter if people think

we're weird. It doesn't matter if people think we're awkward.

It doesn't matter if people think that our morality is stupid and outdated.

It doesn't matter what people think of us. The nations can think what they want. We know God's plan.

He has told us what he is going to do. He has promised us a kingdom.

He has promised to be our king. He has promised us a victory.

He has promised all of these things to us. And so when we look at the nations

around us and the nations look at us and go, man, y'all are really weird.

We go, man, if you knew the Lord's plan, you wouldn't think that way.

This is why the New Testament says things like that the world would look at

you and see the hope that is within you.

That's not that we just keep quiet, live our lives, and hope people come to know Jesus that way.

But what it is, is that the world will look at you and go, why can these awful

things happen to them and they just seem to have so much hope?

There's story after story in the first century of Christians that are beaten

and bruised and persecuted, both men and women.

And the takeaway is always, no matter what we did to them, they just seem to

have a bunch of joy. They just seem to always have hope.

I like to think that sometimes Paul's in prison and he's thinking about a verse like this.

As he's in prison, he's taken, he has no idea whether or not they're going to

kill him, whether they're going to torture him, that he's sitting there thinking

about Micah at the end of chapter four.

And he says, man, these people have no idea what God's plan is.

They don't know the thoughts of the Lord, but I do.

But I know, I know that his plan

is for me that he is working all things for my good that nothing that anyone

does to me nothing that I lose nothing that is taken from me nothing that is

done to me no matter how much hurt that I endure no matter how much suffering

that comes my way I know the Lord has a plan and his plan is for my good.

Do while you wait. Again, a message like this, you can easily kind of curl up

in a ball and say, I'm just going to find a little hope and I'm just going to

hold on to it. And I'm going to weather the storm.

I'm going to live like a Christian hermit. I'm not going to get out of my bubble.

I'm going to just stay the course because anytime I get out of my bubble,

people hurt me and I have to deal with people and people are stupid.

And if they were smart as me, I wouldn't have to worry about that.

That's how we can quickly turn.

Again, I've seen plenty of churches get this way where they go,

listen, every time we get new members in here, they rock the boat a little bit.

So why don't we just kind of cut that off a little bit?

Why don't we make sure the entrance exam is 200 pages long, that they all think

the same way we think and dress the way that we dress and act the way that we act.

That's what we really need. And we'll just all be this one big bundle of hope.

If you've been in churches like that, you know that there's really no hope there.

Because what happens is the hope becomes if every church worship like us, they would be awesome.

If every church dressed like us, if every church had our name,

if every church did children's ministry like us, or worship like us,

or had a pastor like ours, or wore what we wore, that everything would be good, right?

Our hope becomes who we are and what we think is right, not in the Lord.

Earlier, we read 1 Peter 5, 10. It says, and after you have suffered a little

while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ,

will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

If you go up four verses, this is how I want to close. Let me read this whole passage.

Yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you.

In other words, you are not your own. You were bought with a price.

God is God and you are not. So humble yourself under his hand.

And when he is ready, when he decides that it's time, when he thinks it's right, he will exalt you.

One of the commentaries I read about this verse makes a case.

I'm not saying I completely agree with this point.

I'm thinking through it. he makes a case that at the proper time he may exalt

you is, at the proper time, he will take you home to glory.

You will take your last breath on this earth, and he will call you into his presence.

I don't hate that interpretation because I think what it does is helps us see

that Peter does not have the world in mind.

Peter is not saying that if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God,

at some point, your business is going to take off.

If you humble yourself before the mighty hand of God, man, that perfect spouse

is just gonna appear before you in a cloud and you will know that it's them.

If you humble yourself before the mighty hand of God, all your health problems will be solved.

Your boss won't be a jerk anymore. Your wife or husband will do exactly what you asked them to do.

Your kids will obey every command you give them. That is not what Peter has in mind.

When Peter says that he may exalt you, it's that he may bring you into his presence.

Verse 7, casting all your anxieties because he cares for you.

So humble yourself. He will exalt you in due time.

And while you're working on

that, cast all your cares and anxieties on him because he cares for you.

14, do all things without grumbling or complaining. It's the worst verse in the whole Bible.

I'm not saying that the Bible is bad. I'm just saying I hate that verse sometimes

because that's the opposite of what Peter's asking me to do.

I love complaining. I love grumbling. It makes me feel good.

But I know if I take it to the Lord and cast my cares on him and give him my

anxieties, that if I don't leave them with him and I take them with him,

what I've admitted out loud.

And what I've shown the Lord is, I really don't think you can handle this amount of anxiety.

I really don't think you can handle this amount of stress. I really don't think

you're able to do anything for me.

So I'm going to tell you it, but I'm going to take it back with me because I

need to go take care of it.

Verse eight, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil,

prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

So what do you do when you hope in the Lord. What does it look like to hope in the Lord?

It looks like being sober-minded, being watchful.

Christians aren't lazy.

Christians are not lazy. Christians are vigilant. They're sober-minded.

They're watchful. They're in the Word. They're praying.

They're involved in church. They're doing the things that God has called them to do.

When I say involved in church, I don't mean the building or the place or the time.

I just mean you have people in your life. You have the church assembled in your

life, because you know, you know what's easy pickings for a lion? A sheep by itself.

You know, it's easy pickings for a lion, someone who's out wandering that doesn't

know where they are and doesn't know what they're doing.

Verse nine gives you the antidote to that, resist him, right?

Lazy people don't resist the devil. They throw their hands up and go,

well, this is just who I am. You ever heard somebody say that?

They're struggling with a sin. They're struggling getting out of a sin,

right? They're struggling with something in their Christian life.

They're struggling with the command that God gives them.

And they've tried and tried, they say, and then all of a sudden they throw their

hands up and go, you know, that's just who I am. It's just who I am.

I'm just never going to be able to get over that sin. I'm just never going to do that command.

I know that God calls me to be a certain way in my marriage.

I know that calls me to be a certain way with my kids.

I know that he calls me to be a certain way with my church. I know that he calls

me to live a certain way in my life, but I've just decided I'm just never going

to be that person. So I give up.

That's not resisting. That's not firm in your faith.

So he says again, resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds

of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

That every single Christian that exists is being tempted and being tried and

being pressed on all sides.

In other words, it's the classic, you're not alone.

And maybe more importantly, what I need to hear more than anything is, you're not special.

You're not special. Now, certainly your problems are your own problems.

To say, you know, nobody understands the problems that I have.

And in some ways that's true.

I've talked to many of you guys who have told me some of the things that you've

went through and I can't look you in the eye and say, I know exactly what you're going through.

Cause I don't, I have no clue what it's like to go through some of the things

that you've gone through. No clue.

I've said before, my life on a whole has been pretty easy to this point.

Kind of gets me worried because I'm like, man, I hope not building something

up for later, but, but it is to say, listen, there's Christians all around the

world that are experiencing hardship and strife and struggle and suffering.

Again, Peter is not at all trying to minimize your suffering or your pain.

He's not looking at you and saying, how long you just get over it,

you big baby? That's not what Peter's saying.

Peter is saying, you have a king who is good and gracious and kind.

And no matter how awful your suffering becomes, no matter how hard life gets,

no matter how much temptation plays a role in your life, don't give up,

resist, be watchful, firm in your faith.

Do the things that God has called you to do. Don't be lazy.

Get up. The hope that you have in Christ should not cause you to be idle.

It should not cause you to say, well, I know I'm saved. I walked the Nile.

I did what I was supposed to do now.

I just need to show up at church every now and again, give some money,

maybe go on a mission trip. We'll see.

At the very least, put in my penance at camp or VBS, and I'm just going to ride

this thing out until God comes and takes me home.

That is the exact opposite of what God has called you to.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace,

who has called you to his eternal glory, he has called you to his eternal glory

in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

To him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Do you hope in the Lord? Is the Lord your hope?

And an easy way to know whether or not he is, is what are you doing with that hope?

Realize that what Micah is calling these people to when they read this is they're

in Babylonian captivity.

They have no property. They have no homes. They have no rights.

They have nothing. What Micah is saying to these people who he's writing to,

when he'll be dead and gone, but they'll be reading this, he's saying,

you have a hope and you have a reason to live the way that God has called you to live.

You have a reason to be strong and courageous.

You have a reason to cast your cares on him because he is good, gracious, and kind.

And people might say, well, I don't know if you've seen our situation,

but we're in Babylonian captivity.

To which the faithful remnant of God will look at them and go,

they don't know his plan.

They don't know what God's up to, but we do. We don't know how it's going to work.

We don't know when it's going to work. We don't know when he's coming back.

We don't know what the new heavens and new earth is exactly going to be like.

There is so much mystery. What we do know is we have a God who is good.

We have a king who is righteous. and one day he will make all things perfect.

And I pray that the hope that we have, the hope that we take away from that is, let's get to work.

Let's do the things that God has called us to do, to be sober-minded,

watchful, and firm in the faith. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word.

Thank you that you redeem your people.

Like Micah that remind us, you have been asking your people to trust in you

for thousands and thousands of years.

Even in the midst of Babylonian captivity, you call your people to hope.

You call them to trust you.

Even when it is their own sins that have taken them to that place,

you ask them to remind themselves, you will save them.

You will redeem them. You will bring them into the kingdom.

You will bring them back to a place like Eden where they will need no swords.

They will need no spears. They will need no grocery stores, that there will

be no fear that all of their enemies will be defeated.

God, you have promised that to us. And I pray that we live that way. We live in light of that.

God, that we're a people of incredible joy.

It's amazing how many Christians have turned into last days,

fear-mongering, trying to convince people to come to the Lord based solely on

what's going to happen or what they think is going to happen or how they think people should act.

God, I pray that we are not that way here, but that we can put in front of people

a hopeful joy, that that might be one of the reasons that people look at Trinity Bible Church and think,

man, they've got something different there because no matter what happens in

their lives, they seem to have this foundation of hope.

And God, we know that's not something that we have in and of ourselves,

but that we know your plan.

We don't know exactly how you're going to execute it. We don't know exactly

how you're going to do that.

We don't know exactly how you're going to mold and fashion the nations and the

world around us to ultimately accomplish your purpose.

But God, we know your plan is for us, that you are working all things for our

good, that one day people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will stand around your throne,

and we will sing out loud, salvation belongs to the Lord, our God, and he has given it to us.

We will live with you forever. You hear I pray. Amen.