Micah

Good morning, church. Today a scripture selection will

be from the book of Micah. If you're using the Bibles we

provided under your seats, you can find the first reading that

we'll start off with on page 729.

All right, this is Micah chapter 3 starting at verse 1.

Micah 3 · chapter mention

And I said, hear your heads, and of Jacob and rulers of the House

of Israel. Is it not for you to know

justice, you who hate the good and love the evil, whose tear

the skins from my from off my people and their flesh from off

their bones? Who eat the flesh of my people,

and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in

pieces, and chop them up like meat in a pot, like a flesh in a

Calderon. Then they will cry to the Lord,

but He will not answer them. He will hide his face from them

at the time, because they have made their deeds evil.

Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people

astray. Who cry peace when they have

something to eat, but declare war against Him, but put nothing

into their mouth. Therefore it shall be night to

you without vision, and darkness to you without divination.

The the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be

black over them. The seer shall be disgraced, and

the diviners put to shame. They shall all cover their lips,

for there is no answer from God. But As for me, I'm filled with

power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might

to declare to Jacob his transgressions, and to Israel

his sin. Hear this you heads of the House

of Jacob, and rulers of the House of Israel, who detest

justice and make crooked all the all that is straight, who built

Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.

It's heads give judgement for a bribe.

It's priests teach for a price, it's profits practice divination

for money. Yet they lean on the Lord and

say, is it not the Lord in the midst of us?

No disaster shall come upon us. Therefore, because of you, Zion

shall be plowed as a field. Jerusalem shall become a heap of

ruins in the mountains of the house, a wooded height going

into Micah. Chapter 4, verse one through 5.

Micah 4 · chapter mention

It shall come to pass in the later days that the mountain of

House of the Lord shall be established as the highest of

the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills, and

people shall flow to it. And many nations shall come and

say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the

House of the God of Jacob, and that that he may teach us his

ways, and that we may walk in his past.

For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the

Lord. From Jerusalem He shall judge

between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong

nations. Far away they shall beat their

swords into plowshares, and their Spears into pruning hooks.

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall

they learn war anymore, 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.

For all the people walk each in the name of its God, but we walk

in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

Going into Micah chapter 5, verse 2 through 5.

Micah 5:2–5

But you, O Bethlehem Ephratha, who are too little to be among

the clans of Judah, for you shall come forth for me, one who

is to be the ruler in Israel. Who's who's coming forth is from

of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up

until the time when she who is in labor has given birth.

Then the rest of his brother shall return to the people of

Israel, and he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the

strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name, the Lord

his God, Lord his God, And they shall dwell secure.

For now he shall be great to the ends of the earth, and he shall

be their peace. Going into Micah chapter 6,

Micah 6 · chapter mention

verse one through 8, here's what the Lord says.

Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills

hear your voice. Hear you mountains the

indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the

earth. For the Lord has an indictment

against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

O my people, what have I done to you?

How have I wearied you? Answer me, for I brought you

from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the House of

slavery, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

O my people, remember what black king of Moab devised, and what

Balaam the son of Bior answered him, And what happened to

Shidam, to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the

Lord. With what shall I come before

the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a

year old, with the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams,

with 10 thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my first born for my transgressions, the fruit of

my body for the sins of my soul? He has told, he has told you, oh

man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but do

justice and love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.

And then finishing off with Micah Chapter 7, verse 18

Micah 7:18–20

through 20, who is God like you, pardoning iniquity, passing over

transgressions for the remnant of his inheritance.

He does not retain his anger forever because He delights in

steadfast love. He will continue compassion on

us. He will tread our iniquities

under foot. You will cast all of our sins

into the depths of the sea. You show will show faithfulness

to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham as you have sworn to our

fathers from the days of the old.

This is the word of the Lord. What's going on port city family

and friends how we doing good. It's good to be with you.

Some of y'all might know I came to faith in college praise God

at 18 years old. Maybe that's your story or maybe

you grew up kind of around the church, but but things started

popping in that kind of 18 to 22 year range.

And what's really cool when you come to faith in that time

period, there's different advantages of different times,

but the summers are super strategic because you're kind of

a free agent. You know, you got to get an

internship, you're trying to make like $100 or whatever, but

then you come back in the fall. And so God just used a lot of

what I, I kind of think of like gospel greenhouse environments

to grow me quickly. He just puts you around strong

believers during the summer and just turns up the the faucet a

little bit of how quickly you can grow.

And this year, praise God, we are launching our first ever

city life initiative for our college students here at Port

City. Can we give the Lord a round of

applause for that? OK, if you don't know what city

life is, basically you get to experience adulthood for the

summer with us. OK, You get to learn how to live

in Norfolk, not on a campus, which I have told you is a

resort, but you get to just be a normal kind of adult, get an

internship or a job, make some money, and we'll teach you how

to walk with Jesus and love on a city and be a member of a church

during the summer and just invest in you.

So if you're a college student or you know somebody who needs

to apply for that, you've got like a week.

And if you want to talk to somebody or guy Isaac back here

in the doorway, talk to him before you leave today.

If you're like, I want to hear more about city life, Isaac will

get you the info, application, all that good stuff.

So what I want to do right now is pray because Micah is dope

and we got to dive into it. OK, so let's let's pray and

we'll dive in. Our Father, we're so grateful

you saved so many people in so many ways, so many times, Some

young, some old, some in college.

God, we pray you would continue by Your word to save people, by

the Son of God through the Spirit, applying the word to our

hearts, cutting us, giving us faith.

Lord, would you do it again? Your word says it always

accomplishes that for which you send it out.

We pray on this rainy morning in our great city, You would do the

same thing, that as the rain goes out and accomplishes its

purposes, Your Word would do that now.

So what we know not right now. Would You teach us what we have

not? Would You give us and who we are

not? Would You please make us let the

words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be

acceptable in Your sight? And everybody who agree with

that said Amen. I remember one time I was like

11 and I was at this thing where my parents and another family

were hanging out. I didn't know these people, but

I got assigned watch the seven-year old and I was 11.

Mind you, this 7 year old was in AY phase.

You know what I'm talking about. Well, no matter what I told his

brother, you know what he said back to me?

Why? And I was like, eventually you

get to where you're like, because I said so little boy,

you know, but what's so interesting about that?

Why question is it just gets existential really quick.

Why, why, why was I born to this family?

You know, like you're just like, I I don't know what your parents

have told you, man. Like, so it's it's just the

question. Why gets really deep really

quick. It only takes like 3, you know,

to get to like, but why? OK.

And today's book is Micah. Micah is in the middle of the 12

prophets. He's a contemporary of Isaiah.

Some have called him the little Isaiah.

He's also contemporary of Amos. So a lot of this sermon, you

need to have Pastor John's sermon, Don't pass go, don't

collect 200. Just go listen to that sermon.

I'm assuming a lot of that is backdrop to this from a few

weeks ago. You can check that on our

podcast. And Micah is ministering lower

down in Judah, but the topic is justice.

Somebody say justice, and the question why just has to be

asked, because if I'm you, you probably agree that being good

is good, that doing justice is good.

The question becomes why though? But why though?

Is morality some sort of sheet of paper standard that exists in

the universe? Is karma governing things and

some abstract energy with this sheet of paper and somehow, or

is it because we agree that things are good, that they're

good or in some kind of way when injustice, when murder or

something happens, you're like, not only is that wrong, but it

should not happen and should means like we are obligated to

do good in some kind of way. And if you agree with that, what

I invite you to consider today is that the Bible presents an

extremely compelling reason for why we should do justice.

And that is because God envisions justice happening on

the earth, because it's been happening in heaven.

Actually, the Bible presents at the center of all things is not

a sheet of paper. It's not an energy.

It's a person. His Father, Son, Spirit is God

himself from whom love flows. Love doesn't govern God.

Justice doesn't govern God. It's not even side hustle to

God. It flows from His very essence,

His own operations within himself.

Father, Son, and Spirit have always been loving and just and

good. And we who are in Christ are the

ones who have agreed with God that that is.

So we get justified by God because actually we are unjust.

We are not aligned with God. So the first justice that's got

to happen is between you and him.

And then once that happens, you get to live in alignment with

God and everything can become a means of administering his story

and walking in your purpose. So moving forward in this

sermon, I'm going to assume you want to be a good person.

I'm going to assume you care about justice.

I'm going to assume that this matters to you.

And what I want going through your mind is just that that

little 7 year old of like why though?

And is it possible the Bible presents a more compelling case

than than what is just dripping in our culture and in the the

shows we watch and all these things.

Are you with me? And my prayer for the church in

here is that we walk out of here living a Christ filled Micah 68.

We would do justice, love, kindness and walk humbly with

our God. Amen.

To get there, we're going to look at the indictment, the

restoration and the king. The indictment, the restoration

and the king. If you are ready, let me hear

you say I'm ready. Point #1 the indictment calling

out injustice. We're going to start in chapter

6, chapter 6, verses 1 and 2. That's what it, that's what it

says. Hear what the Lord says.

Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills

hear your voice. Hear you mountains.

The indictment of the Lord, and you enduring foundations of the

earth. For the Lord has an indictment

against His people, and He will contend with Israel.

Here's what you got to understand about the prophets.

OK, I've said this over and over and over, but it's just good for

us to hear it, OK? They live alongside things that

are happening in history. The prophets are God's

interpretive communication of what God feels as that stuff's

going on. OK, so the people of God are

going into exile. 722 Assyria takes them over.

Micah prophesied from like 760 until 680.

So he's going to see Israel fall.

And the, the, the idea here is that God has an indictment

against his people. Somebody say indictment, you

should be thinking like a law room, like a courtroom, OK.

And the idea is if you are an Israelite, your life's getting

hard, OK? We're talking physical violence,

gruel stuff like stuff is starting to go down.

Other nations are taking you over.

And it's real simple to just be like God is not for us, like he

said he was, because if he was, this wouldn't be happened to us.

I thought he was a God full of compassion.

And so the Lord is like, let me let me take you all to court

right quick. Let me roll out my indictment.

And the indictments are a series of how God is going to say I did

everything I said I would do. I chose you and he's just going

to layout his case for why Judgment doesn't mean he's done

with you, but it is part of his faithfulness to you.

And if you will turn your hearts, we will keep walking

this thing out together. Does that make sense?

He wants to make sure, let nobody.

I'm telling y'all before I send you to exile.

I'm sending you and I'm still good to you.

Are you with me? That's the idea.

So there's four indictments. I want to walk you through them.

Let's look at verse 30. My people, What have I done to

you? How have I wearied you?

Answer me, for I brought you from the land of Egypt, circle

that, and redeemed you from the House of slavery, and I sent

before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what

Balaam the son of Beor answered him.

And what happened from Shateem circle that to Gilgal circle

that, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.

So he gives 3 locations and all of it makes up 1 indictment.

Here's the first indictment. You forgot what I've done.

You forgot what I've done. You know what Egypt means?

Slavery. When I bought you, you were a

slave to sin. When I bought you, Pharaoh ran

you and you did what he said. I got you out of there

miraculously through the templates with Moses and all

these jokers. I I saved you then I wish I

could go into it. If you came to a quit we would

have walked through it. It was dope.

From Shatim to Gilgal, just write these down.

Shatim is numbers 25. Arguably the lowest moment is

your light history OK? They once rescued from Egypt

they go out into the desert and start tripping and

intermarrying. Just doing some crazy sexual

religious practices with another nation, aligning themselves with

them just years after God did the templagues and split the sea

and all the stuff, right? That's their lowest moment in

history. Now, Gilgal, you can write down

Joshua chapter 4, the moment they get through the Jordan

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

River, if you remember this, OK, they get through the Jordan

River. They're now in the promised land

and God says get 12 memorial stones, one for each tribe.

And where they're standing when that happens is Gilgal.

So look what God's doing. Egypt, slavery, Shateem, your

lowest moment, Gilgal, your highest moment in the promised

land. I've been faithful every step of

the way even though y'all been doing what you did.

And Shateem are y'all with me? So let me point out your worst

moment is my most faithful moment.

So let us not get it twisted that the next chapter where you

go into exile means I'm against you.

It's my new mode of being for you.

If you would listen to me, are y'all with me?

But y'all before we, it's so easy to throw rocks at at people

in the Bible before we the second your life starts going

hard. Do you not think God's not good?

This is happening the second it happens.

And just imagine in some kind of way God is faithful to

everything he said he was going to do.

We just can't see it. So our lesson here is to see

God's heart pleading with his people through the indictment.

Are you with me? God's heart, because he's so

frustrated with how unjust they've been and just so

oppressive to the poor. We're going to get into some of

that stuff and just how awful they've been.

They're not embodying his law at all.

So he's going to say do justice. But behind that, the heart of

the indictment is a broken heart that you forgot how good I am.

Y'all remember in Lion King when Rafiki brings Simba over to the

water, he's like, come with Rafiki.

He show you to it and then they run through with the beat and

stuff and then they get there and he's like, it's just my

reflection. He's like look and his finger is

like the whole length of the screen.

Then he looks down and Mufasa comes out and he goes, Simba,

you have forgotten me. No, never.

You've forgotten who you are and thus you have forgotten me.

You are more than what you've become.

That's what's happening right here.

Are y'all with me? That's kind of the idea is you

have forgotten me. Verses 7 and 8 say this.

Verses 7 and 8, will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams,

with 10 thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of

my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, old man, what

is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice

and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?

Here's the second indictment. You don't know what I want.

You don't know what I want. You've forgotten what I've done,

and you don't even know what I want.

Like you're out here like, what does the Lord want?

Does he want sacrifices? Does they even hypothetically

were asking, does he want us to sacrifice our own kids to him to

prove we love him? And he's like, you've lost it.

You're out your minds. I've told you what I want.

And he walks through this threefold pattern of what he

wants for his covenant people to do while in relationship with

him. And the first one is do justice.

Somebody say do justice. Y'all do justice means make

things right and we could get this can look real big like when

injustices are done and y'all it could be all the way down to

aligning things with reality, picking up the trash.

In a weird way, it's it's setting things to right.

The question becomes again, why what is right?

The ultimate right is who God is.

It's aligning yourself with his story, with his character, and

it's living with him. So what God envisions for the

New Testament people of God is that we would, because we've

been made right with God, not through our own.

But through the actions of Jesus Christ, we now live with Him in

faithfulness, doing justice not to get His favor.

We don't do justice to get God to love us.

We do it because He already did. We do it because we love Him.

And now I don't pick up the trash like you.

See that, Lord? We do everything we do with God

so that He can look good and all things can have their proper

place and enjoy the alignment with God.

Are you with me? So that's the idea of do justice

#2 love, kindness. Somebody say love.

Don't you love this shift from do to love?

Don't you love that? Do this and like I can do that.

Lest we think we could do without loving.

I love this one, you know. Love, kindness, love it.

That speaks to virtue. Become the kind of soul for whom

the loving response is your default, which is sort of what

the Sermon on the Mount is all about.

It's it's shifting from a world where you're like, I'm not

supposed to X to where your soul can't fathom the type of

behavior where that would even be a thing.

Are you with me? So like thou shall not murder.

I've never murdered nobody. Becoming the type of soul for

whom you want peace with people so bad for them to see how good

God is. You can't even fathom calling

somebody an idiot. You know what I'm saying?

That's what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount.

Become that type of person who so loves kindness.

And y'all, I just got to say this in 2026.

What has captured your imagination like mine?

We're obsessed with efficient lives.

What loving kindness about is living a beautiful life.

It's living your life in such a way that you love the virtue in

the essence of what things are and what they mean about who God

is and how it makes Him look. You don't value how it turns

out. Are you with me?

You parent the way you do because it's beautiful.

You don't know what's going to happen with those kids.

Amen, somebody OK, you teach the way you do, you lead the way you

do, you give money the way you do, you share Christ the way you

do and have no guarantee of any result.

But if you love efficiency, you'll just become a gold chase

in podcast hacking habit chase in person who feels like loving

kindness is sort of keeping you from being on the top of the

mountain and having as much money as you could and all.

Are you with me? If what's captured your

imagination is efficiency, beauty will feel inefficient.

Are you with me? But if we fall in love with a

life that just makes God look good, there's this old phrase be

good for goodness sake. Y'all ever heard that?

I felt like I used to be getting cussed at when my parents said

be good for goodness sake, you know, like almost like goodness

sake, son. And now I'm like, think about

that phrase. It's the idea that something is

good just because it's good, which again, should ask us to

lead, to ask the question, why? What is good?

And all those existential questions point us back to who

God is, what Christ has done, the Spirit, and we walk with

them. But we've kind of removed that.

And it's like just hustle for hustling's sake.

You're somebody if you've got some ground, you've earned.

And I'm just telling you that's not what the Bible envisions #3

walk humbly with your God. If you're kind of in the

headspace that just being a good person, it doesn't matter who

cares, Bible, whatever path to be good number.

This third part's going to challenge you because you were

created by God, who is the center of all things to do

justice and love kindness and to do it with him.

And for all the believers in the room, just a reminder, you live

with God, not for God, Amen. Like I live for the glory of

God, but I'm living with them, man.

And that just that's way easier than get through the end of your

day. And look what I did for you

today. Lord, No, like the goal is that

you'll just be human sized. You're just a human.

That's what it means to walk humbly with God.

You got limits, you got to sleep, you get sick, you're

just, you're all you can do is what you can do, but you do it

humbly with your God. Be a humble, human sized, owned

by God person. That's what the Bible envisions.

OK, to get the other two indictments, we got to go back

to chapter 3. We're going to be in verse 9,

starting in verse 9. Hear this you heads of the House

of Jacob and rulers of the House of Israel, who detest justice

and make crooked all that is straight, who builds Zion with

blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.

It's heads give judgement for a bribe.

It's priests teach for a price. It's profits, practice

divination for money. Yet they lean on the Lord and

say, is not the Lord in the midst of us?

No disaster shall come upon us, y'all.

The third indictment is you leaders don't know justice.

You don't know it, ignorant of it, don't get it.

You preach for money, you teach for money, you do what is good,

not for goodness sake, but for money's sake.

You know it's only when it pays off for you and you've built

your your lives on the backs of the poor.

And y'all, this breaks God's heart.

Y'all power. The everybody has power.

By the way, even little kids have power.

They have dominion over the little toys you've given them,

which is scary when one of the arms is broken and the eyes,

eyes are plugged out and I'm just playing.

But the idea is all of us have power and authority.

All of us. You are authoring something in

your life. You're exercising authority over

something. And the idea is with power, the,

the goal of it is to bring about the flourishing of that which

you have power over of the doll, right?

So there's nothing quite like a leader who isn't doing justice

because they're taking their power and leveraging it for

their own comfort, right? It's the idea that like the

people under their authority are pawns.

They're not people. And that's what sin pushes us to

is it's just to use people. You become my pawn.

You are no longer a person. You're a pawn in my game.

Are you with me? That's what sin corrupts power

to do. Jesus would later say in Mark

Mark 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10, he would say the the leaders of the day, the

Gentiles, they, they take their power and Lord it over you.

They take it and hold it over you and leverage it for their

own game. And he says, but it will not be

so among you. For the greatest among you will

not be the one who can hold things over.

People will be the one who serves the greatest of all, will

be the servant of all, for the Son of Man came to give his life

as a ransom for many. You know, we live in a day of

scandal, and scandal has been normalized.

And some of that is just our access to the amount of scandal

there probably has always been. I fully understand that.

What we've got to be careful of is that scandal doesn't become

sport. Y'all with me or we're scandal

chasing. There's a new a little trend

where people make a post seem like a scandal and then make fun

of you for looking at it. Have y'all seen any of these?

I know because it's happened to me.

It'll be like, do you want to know what happened on this day?

And you look at it like shame on you because on Sunday and

they're using almost as like an inviter thing.

But it's, I mean, scandal is sport a little bit.

And I think the point when you see a scandal, I think it should

sober us to self analysis of how we're using our power, you know,

and yes, we need to look into what what things are going on

out there and how that's impacting things.

But y'all, the point is like, where am I treating people like

pawns? You know, like where am I taking

my authority? Where am I just irritated if

people just get in line with me? Lest we think if you were in

that seat, you wouldn't do the same, you know what I mean?

Like the point is, let's all eat some humble pie.

It's not just that the leaders had an issue in Israel, it's

that as go the leaders kind of so goes everybody.

You know, that's sort of the idea.

OK, look with me at verse 5 and verse 8.

Last, last indictment here. OK.

Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people

astray, who cry peace when they have something to eat, but

declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.

Verse 8. But As for me, I am filled with

power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might

to declare to Jacob's transgression into Israel his

sin. Here's the 4th indictment.

You prophets don't tell the truth.

You prophets don't tell the truth.

Remember, there's no they're, they're, they're all just saying

what's happening and interpreting it for the people.

And some of them are saying we're good, God loves us, peace,

all is well. And you got guys like Mike,

Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, others over the years going not well.

Look at how these people are doing.

Look at how they're eating good and they're not.

Look at this. This is reality, friends, I'm

telling y'all. And so the people get put in

this position of picking sides. Who do we believe, right?

Which I think is a very fair question in 2026.

OK, who do we believe? Anybody could teach a compelling

word. You just got to tell a joke.

There's a formula to it. Tell a joke, do this, tell some

half truths. They were saying things like

we're the people of God. Was that not true?

It's true. It's half true, right.

So as we, I want to give you a diet of discernment here in 2026

of how to discern what you're listening to.

Before I do that, we just have to agree that we're susceptible

to following false teaching, lest we think you couldn't.

And maybe you have at some point in your life.

There is no shame in that. OK, Like black guys, Grace,

hopefully you know you're not now.

But y'all, we all are susceptible to it because what

the New Testament calls itching ears, there's something in us

that wanted back then to hear peace.

All is peace. So the reason we're listening to

them say it is I want there to be peace.

Does that make sense? So it's not just the mouthpiece

that is held accountable. It is also those who wanted to

hear peace when there is no peace.

Are you with me? So there's a dual relationship

here. Can I give you just a little bit

of history of how dope this is just real quick.

And then I'll give you the diet of determine for 2026.

Just real quick right now. Jeremiah 26 y'all this is dope

write down Isaiah 36 to 39 go read it later.

This is what was happening is Jeremiah hundreds of years

later, said the the people listening to Jeremiah go have a

conversation of should we believe Jeremiah that we're

about to go to Babylon a couple 100 years later and they're

like, yo, remember Micah prophesied that it was about to

go down for the Syrians with Israel and Hezekiah listened to

Micah and changed his heart and then LED to reform.

And that's why Judah didn't fall to Assyria.

So amongst themselves, they're like, yo, Micah was right.

So we should listen to Jeremiah. So they discerned they were

well, actually the person who said that they didn't listen to

because they threw Jeremiah in a hole and said, stop listening to

him. OK, Jeremiah didn't go super

well for but they were trying to discern who do we listen to?

Right? And they leveraged Micah was

right because it happened. And then even once they knew it

happened and said Jeremiah's the same.

We should listen now. And they don't.

Are you with me? It's pretty crazy.

So here is kind of what I would give you as a diet.

First things first, hopefully most of the teaching you're

hearing is highly local. Stay local, start local, stay

local, OK? That doesn't just mean me.

It doesn't just mean the ministry of the word here.

It even means in community as you do life here.

Hopefully the people who have the green light to call out sin

in your life, you know them like you know them really well.

You trust them. This is book of Proverbs,

abundance of counselors. We're so prone to listen to a

preacher 300 miles away. I'll never meet.

Then the 300 people one mile away that know you, right?

They know you and they're bringing you the word and you

don't listen. But that dude had a dope word.

300 miles way, you know, and you listen to everything they say

until it ain't right. Then you find another one.

So let's not be those people. Are you with me?

Let's start local, stay local. But there's some dope Christian

teaching on the Internet. I hope you're listening to some

great stuff. Many of them are better

communicators than I'll ever be, and that's great.

So I'm going to give you some discernment of how you process

that. Here's three questions to ask

yourself. Number one, what is their

source? Just real point blank basic.

Is it the Bible? And are they teaching the Bible,

the historical pieces of the Bible?

Are they pulling the Bible out? Or is it just immediate, like,

let me grab that word and then just rants, nothing but stories

and rants and, and almost like they're just getting to what

they can. Now let me tell you what I

really want to tell you. Or is it teaching what the Bible

says #2 what is its gospel? What is like, what is the person

of Jesus's life, death, ministry, resurrection, pushing

you towards, you know, the gospel is that God is the prize,

and Christ died for you so that you could know him and live with

him. Irregardless of how your life

goes, you get God. Amen.

But there's all kinds of stuff out there that takes the work of

Jesus and mascots him on some other gospel.

A mascot can't speak. It just represents, right?

So there's the political gospel that Jesus represents my side

left, right or middle. We know that Jesus ain't in a

camp, OK? He's over it all.

He's not left, He's not right. And let's not glorify the

middle. He just is, OK?

The second is a purpose gospel. A purpose gospel is when the the

personal work of Christ unleashes your purpose so that

you can thrive. And again, that's half true,

right? All of these are rooted in, does

God care about politics? Yes.

Does God want you to have purpose?

Absolutely right. But it it hijacks the work of

Christ and makes it subservient to you as the main agent of of

life with God and purpose #3 prosperity gospel.

If you do right by God, God will do right by you.

You do your part, He'll do his part.

Believe it enough, name it, claim it.

Breakthrough becomes all that the ministry is about over time

and #4 there's an experienced gospel where what is wanted for

you isn't to intimately know God and in Christ and man, that is

experiential. Half true.

I want you to have experience as you do that, but it leverages

the work of Christ to make your experience of worship and

feeling with God usually under the ministry that you're sitting

under feel elevated to anything else.

OK, and I would just say watch out for all that stuff.

And lastly, does the ministry, does the teaching, does it

slowly make people feel like neighbors or enemies?

Does everybody around you become an enemy or do they become a

neighbor to love? You know, there's tons of

ideology that's against the gospel of Jesus Christ, right?

Tons. All kinds of stuff that we push

back on all the time. But the people embodying that

ideology, we still got to find a way to love, even when it's,

yeah, truth and love all the stuff.

I'm not talking about caving on truth.

But I am saying if the tone of the ministry is just like, if

this type of person cease to exist, we'd be better off.

It's like, that's tough. You know, that's tough.

Hopefully that's helpful for you.

Let's get into restoration. Some dope stuff here.

Restoration. Let's envision the future of

justice. So we've called it out.

We've indicted. Let's talk about the future.

Chapter 4. Verses 1 and 2.

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, and it shall be lifted up above the hills, and

people shall flow to it. And many nations shall come and

say, 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 way, and

that we may walk in his past. For out of Zion shall go forth

the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

All right, here's the first image.

The nations will flow to the Lord for His teaching,

literally, people flocking for teaching, literally like

sprinting to get in on the action that is God's law.

The flow in the passage is up to Jerusalem.

We're literally just coming to get what we can't get anywhere

else. This flow to God's lifted uphill

and then what's flowing out of it is teaching and teaching.

Because without teaching, all there is is darkness.

That's kind of the idea is that God's law, his ways is just

illumination flowing from his very essence, not from a sheet

of paper. Amen.

Somebody if you think of the even something like the 10

commandments, just as tablets, you're missing something.

It flow from a God who is OK and so they're coming to get him,

not it the instruction flows from him.

OK, how many y'all seen Wreck it Ralph?

One of the greats, OK, in Wreck It Ralph, there's these bugs

that are eating everything in their path and they're, they're

destroying everything. But then when a beacon of light

shot up in the sky, they would and they would all like go to

the light. Y'all remember this?

OK, That's sort of the idea of what God's word is.

It is the beacon without which people don't know their right

hand from their left. They're just kind of doing

whatever. Are you with me?

So the word which flows from who God is, again, the word is not

adjacent to God, it's flowing from him, from the person of

Christ, from the Spirit, and it's imagining that the nations

are literally sprinting to get there because it's that good.

Y'all, we take soul for granted some teaching of God in our

culture. We do y'all.

Do you know the Romans used to write letters to each other

being like, these Christians are crazy.

Y'all, there would be a sickness and the Romans are dying by

thousands and they're like, get out of town now because their

Pagan idolatry LED them to believe every man for themself.

Watch your back, cover yourself. Get out of here.

But the Christians were flocking to the sickness.

They were flocking to help those dying.

They were risking their own lives into a Roman worldview

that made no sense. They literally were like, get a

load of these guys. We take for granted something as

basic as caring for the vulnerable, the oppressed, human

rights, y'all. These concepts are the air we

breathe in our culture. But they they, they, they, they

really, the game really changed when this dude named Jesus came

on the scene. Are you with me?

And had he not? We take for granted some of

those shifts that now we we we see as normative.

Are you with me? And here's kind of the the New

Testament twist on the flowing to the beacon, the wreck it

Ralph. The New Testament twist is that

when Jesus came, instead of that being located in Jerusalem, when

Jesus comes, he is the temple. He is not a building.

He himself is the temple and those who follow him.

If the Spirit indwells you, you're the temple.

So now the idea is that God has scattered the beacons.

Are you with me? What once had to happen there

and everybody kind of came like a long journey.

The New Testament sends out, it's no longer come to the

beacon. It's like, let me scatter

beacons everywhere and the nations will be reached for

Christ. Are you with me?

OK, look at Micah 4 verse three. He shall judge between many

peoples and shall decide for nations far away, and they shall

beat their swords into plowshares and their Spears into

pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword

against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Here's the second image. Conflict will be replaced by

peace. Y'all when the word comes, When

the beacon comes. When the nations flow, they go

back home and they're like, what do we do with swords now?

Now that we got God's word, we don't need this anymore.

Now that we know this Yahweh this, this God who is so kind

and good and we've been reconciled to him, maybe we

could use this to farm or something.

You know what I'm saying? Like imagine people taking a

bunch of swords and then beating them down so that they can no

longer do destruction but can be used to till up the ground

y'all. The image is that when God is

having his way, what once made us against each other makes us

together. What once led to war now we use

to work what once was an end. Like death is a new beginning.

Are you with me? The idea is let's work together

and church. I will just say we've got a

dream of where that could happen in our community.

Where does gang violence look like people working together?

Where does sibling rivalry, hey somebody become like peace in a

home? Where does the teammate that

you're so filled with resentment and irritation and jealousy of

or the Co worker that stabs you in the back behind your back?

What does it look like to dream of peace where there's conflict

and once you dream it, now you enter see that it might happen.

Does that make sense? You live in the peaceful future

now, and that's what makes you different than everybody.

Are you with me? That's what gives you belief,

even when there's still ongoing conflict.

Are you with me? That's the idea.

Jesus in him and him alone, hostility can become

hospitality. Let's talk about how we get

there. So we got the future vision.

We've got the indictments. What's the path point #3

inauguration, the path to justice?

Some of y'all probably picked up on it when guy all read from

chapter 5 verse 2. Check this out.

But you, O Bethlehem Apaphritha, who are too little to be among

the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who

is to be ruler in Israel, who from whose coming forth is from

of old from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up

until the time when she was in labor has given birth.

And the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of

Israel, and he shall stand and shepherd his flock, and the

strength of the Lord and the majesty of the name of the Lord

his God. In Matthew chapter 2, Yallah,

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

y'all know Matthew quotes this about who?

Jesus, because he was born where?

In Bethlehem, y'all, the idea is that the inauguration of Jesus

is sort of the bridge between these two realities, between the

indictment in which they're standing in the future that God

envisions. There is this king who will

come. There's this king who is a

different type of leader. Did you notice the verb noun

pair that describes what this king will do?

Starts with an S. What's he going to be?

What's he going to do? He's going to be a save it That

was incredible yes, he will and this Savior will SH yes shepherd

his flock come on. So when you think of this king

coming and again y'all we're talking about leaders that

preach for money for the people of God in exile to hear there's

somebody coming who will shepherd his flock who will care

for them. Y'all.

I don't know what you think of of God's primary verbs of what

he wants to do for you. He wants to shepherd you, which

means you were sheep, which means you can't do nothing.

You got no arms. All you can do is and just you

can't do nothing. Sheep are cute, but dumb.

They're they're silly. And God wants to shepherd you.

He wants to take care of you and although the text doesn't make

the link between chapter 4 and this coming one from Bethlehem

one to one of that will bring that what we know from the

ministry of Jesus, from his inauguration, from his death on

the cross. This is exactly what he came to

do was bring this world where conflict is no more, which means

we live now in a time known as the already not yet where we

don't yet see the peace. We don't yet see everybody being

shepherded, but it's coming. OK he came once dropped a lot of

miracles, doubt in everybody's place and he said I'm coming

back and we live in that in between I want to point out one

last dope thing and won't be done.

Is that OK? If you're still in it, let me

hear you say I'm in it and if you've checked out do a few head

circles and check back in. Here we go all right, verse 4

they shall dwell secure for now. He shall be great to the ends of

the earth and he shall be their peace.

Let's say that one together, he shall be their peace.

Y'all, this verse is crazy. It says that the Shepherd King

will be their peace. I don't know about you, but I

just need to hear sometimes. Your tax return ain't going to

bring you peace. Amen.

Somebody might bring you some more Grubhub.

OK, I got some spots you could try out.

Y'all? Gambling becoming more normal

than water around here has not brought our country peace.

We being legalized has not brought our country peace.

Shocker. OK, peace comes y'all not even

y'all watch this. This is it doesn't even come

just from a person. Peace is a person.

The text says he will be their peace.

Doesn't say he will give them peace.

He says it will. He will be their peace.

Some of us operate, even the believers in the room.

We operate like God gives peace. God is peace.

Does He give it? Yes, more than He gives it.

He is it. And some of us are living the

believers in the room. I'm going to talk to you first.

We're living in the gap between He gives it and He is it.

And God is just asking you to move closer and closer and

closer to who He is, not just what He gives.

If you continue to live in a world where God gives peace and

you know the gospel, you know what Christ has done, you're

going to get to the end of your life and be nothing but

disappointed. You're going to get to the end

of your life and be like, he didn't give what I thought he

would give. And y'all, I've got

disappointments. Let me be clear, but it's part

of how God, God uses disappointment to move you from

gives to is. Does that make sense?

He's trying to get you to a place where it's you and him and

his path to do that for each of us is different, but for all of

us, it's from gives to is because God is peace.

He doesn't just give peace and until you get there, God is

genuinely, truly, this is hard. He is subservient to something

you want to be given. That's hard.

That's really hard. It's true of me.

But we need to hear God does give peace, but even more than

that, He is peace. And if you are not a believer

here today, I don't know where you're going for peace.

I don't know if it's gambling, I don't know if it's the dopamine

through that or weed or whatever.

I'm not judging you, OK? I'm just telling you, you are

looking for peace, which makes you a human.

But the Bible is all about sin. We we talk about sin a lot sin

that we're not we're not ever trying to make you feel like a

bad person. We're trying to say sin is going

to the wrong thing, going for the right thing for the the

wrong. So are you with me.

You're going to the you're help me.

You're going to get the right thing from the wrong thing.

There we go wrong source right thing.

Everybody wants peace. Me too.

The question is, where are you going?

And as you enter into a space where the Word of God is taught,

don't hear us saying God gives peace.

He does, but He is peace. What we offer you is a person

who himself is the Prince of Peace.

We offer you God himself. So let's close out looking at

Chapter 7, verses 18 through 20. We'll be done.

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over

transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?

He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in

steadfast love. He will again have compassion on

us. He will tread our iniquities

under foot. You will cast all our sins into

the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to

Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham as you have sworn to our

fathers from the days of old. If you're not a believer here

today, maybe the the seven-year old.

Why, why, why question? Why can Micah say that?

Who gets to say that? Who gets to say God will have

compassion on us? Again, that's pretty.

Who are you to say God will have compassion on you and not

somebody else? Who, who, how can he say this?

Who gets to say this with confidence?

Because that's some dope stuff. I want compassion.

I want my iniquity passed over. I want him to not be angry with

me. I want him to delight and

steadfast love to me. You know what the Bible presents

is that this person, Jesus, has come at the perfect time, born

of a virgin under the Roman Empire's thumb.

He came and lived a life of peace.

He was justice embodied. He walked in it at all times.

And this king, this Prince of Peace, this just God lived a

just life and at the end of his life died an unjust death, so

that unjust rebels like you and me can trade places with him.

Y'all the Bible story is not you better start being just and then

you could say Chapter 7, verses 18 through 20 with confidence.

What the Bible presents is that Jesus is the perfect spotless

lamb, just in all his ways. He is peace.

And he died. He was thrown in the sea, He was

killed, He was unjustly murdered so that the unjust ones could

put our trust in Him and his death.

His perfection accounts to you, and he takes your death, you get

his life. That's the gospel.

The good news of the Bible, y'all, is that the reason our

sins can be thrown in the sea is because Christ died for them.

That's what the Bible teaches, that our confidence comes not

from what we do, but from what He did.

And ironically, you'll be more just if the just one has died

for you and you receive it as a gift.

Then you could ever live justly out of fear or trying to prove

something. If you actually see what he's

done for you at great cost to himself, free to you.

When you do that, your life just unlocks.

And believer, you need to hear today your sins are in the

depths of the sea as far as the east is from the West.

So far has he removed your sin from you.

That's crazy. Some of us only know, and I

resonate with this, we only know how to relate to God about our

sin. It's almost like we bring it to

him just over and over and over and somewhat what the Bible

presents. This is crazy is that he removes

the sin so he can know you. There is a you that is not your

sin. That's what he's after.

That's the 1. He wants to walk with him

humbly, are you with me? So it's getting to a place like

Micah where the scene is still bad, right?

Like we still live in a broken, sinful age and there's still sin

in us, but we don't approach the Lord wondering how he feels

about us. We could say you will have

steadfast love on us. You'll have, if Micah could say

this, how much more can we who know Christ, how much more can

we be confident that we stand in the, the faithfulness shown to

Jacob and Abraham and all, not because I'm a somebody, but

because Christ died for me and I'm sealed with the Spirit and

we have peace in him. We don't even have to beat

ourselves up for where we're going, for the wrong place for

peace. We just get to be reminded again

that he is our peace, not those things.

He is our peace. He is our peace, He is our

peace, He is our peace. So we chase after God knowing

he's for you. We don't chase him with a spirit

of fear. Y'all.

It just unleashes like an unhurried, just inviting tone

where you chase down the God who has bought you to himself at the

cost of his own Son. And if you don't know Jesus here

today, I believe you want to live a just life.

The question is why and in what power and who gets the glory

from it? That's other question.

Part of why God set it up this way is that we can just stand

back and all say, you know, God did all of that.

All things are from him and through him and to him.

I didn't get rid of my sin. I didn't think of justice.

I didn't think of that. I didn't make me right with you.

I didn't this. You did that.

You gave me that power. You did that.

And as we do it with Him, we get the joy, He gets the glory and

the earth gets the good. Are you with me?

I'm at peace with God. Have we considered what the cost

to be made right with my Father? Jesus had to take the cross.

Now he has taken my sins and thrown them into the sea.

When God looks at you, believer, He sees a child set free.

Now we walk humbly with Him, loving kindness as justice flows

from God to us to neighbor. Justice is the story of God, the

story of the world, and it's all empowered by our Savior.

Our God is love, beauty, and justice.

To Him be the glory both now and forever.

Can you imagine the future of justice with Jesus?

It just keeps on getting better. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we love you. Thank you for your word.

Thank you that you made things right with us.

Got to pray for my friends who are looking for peace in all the

wrong places. God, may they not feel shame,

but may they feel invited to lay those things down and to find

you. Who is our peace.

I pray for the believers in that gap between you give peace and

you are our peace. God, would you take us further?

Would you bring us to where we can genuinely say you God are

our peace, get the glory for the rest of our time we pray in

Jesus name, Amen.