Good morning to everybody and good to see you. Today, we're going to venture back into the book or the letter of Micah. You may remember from our introductory teaching that Micah, the letter itself, is considered to be a minor prophet of the Bible. And that's not because of its importance, but it's due to its length. As I've previously stated, the only difference between the major and the minor prophets is the length of the letter. As we've learned over these past few weeks, Micah himself was a prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah. He was a man chosen by God to deliver His instructions, His oracles as they're called, to His chosen people, the Jewish people. Micah was a prophet just like all other prophets, but his target audience was a little bit different than the others. Unlike Amos and Isaiah, who prophesied to Jerusalem and Samaria, those metropolitan areas, Micah prophesied to the rural communities, to the people who lived in that southern kingdom of Judah, which earned him the name the blue-collar prophet.

Micah also prophesied during a time of great outward prosperity. This is very important for you to understand as we go through this teaching because what was going on during that time matters. Even though it was a time of great outward prosperity, Israel and Judah, despite their prosperity, were plagued by deep spiritual corruption. Evidently, they either didn't know it or failed to realize it or recognize it. The question is: Why was there such spiritual corruption during that time? All that prosperity had a tendency to cloud their spiritual lenses and their minds, which is exactly what great prosperity tends to do to people. Just look at America today. You can also look at people who've suddenly come into a lot of money or people who've won the lottery, that type of thing. It has a way to skew our lens and keep us from depending on God and then beginning to lean on our own understanding and ourselves.

Both Samaria, Israel, and Jerusalem, Judah, believed they were secure, both religiously and politically. But unfortunately for them, Micah's message was about to shatter that illusion, which by the way, did not make him very popular at all among the people. For the most part, prophets in general were not very popular among the people. When we read Micah 1:6-16, we can already see why the people didn't want to receive his instructions as God, through Micah, announces an unavoidable judgment and calls people to respond appropriately, which would be not with denial, but with honest grief and repentance. Just an FYI to everyone listening today, when we find ourselves in the middle of bad circumstances, especially circumstances that are of our own doing, we too should heed God's advice spoken through the prophet Micah and repent. We should get back to a place where we're in a right relationship with our Creator and Savior because that's the only way we'll live in peace.

With that brief introduction behind us, let us pick back up where we left off last week with Micah 1:6-16. Don't forget what I told you last week. In these verses, we're going to encounter some very difficult words to pronounce. I'll do my dead level best to pronounce the words correctly if you'll do your dead level best to act like I'm pronouncing the words correctly. Amen. Let's get started. Micah 1:6-16. Here's what the prophet wrote: "For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country, planting places for a vineyard. I will pour her stones down into the valley and will lay bare her foundation. All of her idols will be smashed. All of her earnings will be burned with fire. And all of her images I will make desolate. For she collected them from a harlot's earnings. And to the earnings of a harlot, they will return. Because of this, I must lament and wail. I must go barefoot and naked. I must make a lament like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches." Which, by the way, let me pause there. That sounds like we're talking about the ostriches that we see in the zoo, and that this is actually an owl. It's a creature like with the jackal that actually hunts at night, and that kind of plays into all this, and we'll talk about that not as much today, but maybe next week. So this is just an owl.

Verse 9: "For her wound is incurable, for it has come to Judah and has reached the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem. Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all. At Bethleaphra, roll yourself in the dust. Go on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in shameful nakedness. The inhabitants of Zanan do not escape the lamentation of Beth Ezel. He will take from you its support. For the inhabitant of Merath becomes weak, waiting for good, because calamity has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem." Harness the chariot to the team of horses, O inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion because in you were found the rebellious acts of Israel. Therefore, you will give parting gifts on behalf of Moresheth Gath. The house of Akzib will become a deception to the kings of Israel. Moreover, I will bring on you the one who takes possession, O inhabitants of Mereshah; the glory of Israel. Enter Adam-Alam. Make yourself bald and cut off your hair because of the children of your delight. Extend your baldness like the eagle, for they will go from you into exile.

How about those words? As I stated last week, Micah's words are written in poetic form. There's a reason for that. Poetry often paints a very powerful picture and imagery through words. If you've ever read Shakespeare or Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson, you'll understand what I'm talking about. Even though poetic language can be very hard to read and understand at times, it contains power—power to paint the most beautiful and powerful imagery through the words themselves. When you read Micah, you just need to keep that in mind. You have to slow down and ingest it very slowly. Think about what he's saying. Look up the words. We have the internet, use it to look up the words, see what they mean, what he was saying. Micah writes in this truly poetic form.

This morning, I want to do something that I don't do a lot of. I rarely do. I want to take these 10 verses, 6 through 16, and break them down into four distinct brackets or sections. The reason for this is I feel that's the best way to exegete this type of poetic scripture. Let's begin with the first bracket, verse 6 and 7. I would tell you that this section, these two verses, could be best titled, The Certainty of God's Judgment. THE CERTAINTY OF GOD'S JUDGMENT. Listen to it one more time: "For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country, planting places for a vineyard. I will pour her stones down into the valley and will lay bare her foundation. All of her idols will be smashed, all of her earnings burned with fire, and all of her images made desolate, for she collected them from a harlot's earnings, and to the earnings of a harlot they will return." Paraphrasing here, God declares that Samaria will be reduced to ruins. Perhaps a better way to say it is it'll be flattened, completely annihilated.

One key takeaway from these verses is that judgment from God is not random. God does not react the way that we react. He doesn't get angry quickly and then fly off the handle. No, it's not random. It's very calculated. Matter of fact, in God's dichotomy, judgment is both deliberate and deserved. Because of God's character and His attributes, we know that God is a God of justice. He's a God of righteousness. When we study the Old Testament, we see the wrath of God highlighted more than many other attributes. But many times, we fail to realize that although His wrath is on full display, right alongside it are two other attributes that show up, and they show up prior to His wrath. Does anyone know what those might be? How about patience and long-suffering? When I think of His patience and long-suffering, I often think about Matthew 23:37-39 when Jesus spoke to the people.

Here was the title of this scripture section from my NASB 95 version of the Bible: Lamentation Over Jerusalem. Listen to what Jesus said, verse 37: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. For I say to you, from now on you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." In these verses, God, through Jesus, tells us something about Himself. He reveals something to us. First, He tells us that He's pretty much fed up. He's done. As a result, His wrath and destruction are proclaimed upon Samaria and Jerusalem, which once again highlights the title of our opening section of scripture—the certainty of God's judgment. This is not all that He tells us. Just like Micah, God gives us a glimpse into His patience and long-suffering. More often than not, we not only see the bad side of God through His wrath and judgment, but we also see His good side. By the way, His good side often appears before His bad side, which tells us something. It tells us not only do we serve a God of wrath and judgment, but we also serve a God of justice, patience, long-suffering, love, kindness, and waiting. Meaning God doesn't just condemn us right out of the gate. No, He gives us opportunity—opportunity after opportunity to do something about our condemnation, to deal with our sin. To see that in scripture, you must study it comprehensively, holistically. Before we see God as a God of wrath, we must first understand that He's a God of justice. We must understand how long God has been dealing with His people. How long has it been? A week? A couple of days? A few months? If you want to see the extent of God's patience and long-suffering, just study that particular thing.

In Micah's time, this had been going on for hundreds of years. For hundreds of years. And as we know, the relationship between God and His chosen people has always been a complicated one. One that mirrors His relationship with His children today. That would be me and you. I guess you could say it's an up-and-down type relationship where one day we're up in our faith, recognizing Him and giving Him credit for all that He's done. The next day, somehow, we're down. Many times, this happens when good things happen to us. When we find ourselves in a place of prosperity and blessing, we somehow quickly forget. We quickly give ourselves all the credit for all that has been accomplished in our life, maybe not consciously and outwardly, but certainly subconsciously and inwardly. The story of God's relationship with His children has always been this way. Throughout history, the Bible has chronicled the same story, both in the Old Testament and the New, but obviously much more in the Old Testament, especially concerning the Jews. The pattern is always the same. At some point, God's children—you and I—were in a right relationship with Him. Something changed, got us off track, and that change caused us to slowly drift away.

But what is it that changes us? What causes these things? In Micah's day, it was a time of great prosperity where everyone was doing well, enjoying life, saying we have no need for God. Look at where we are and what we've done. We've got plenty to eat, plenty of money, evidently. Their story mirrors our story. Just look at our country today. We're living in the most prosperous times that planet Earth has probably ever seen, at least holistically across the board with people as a whole. The divide between the haves and the have-nots has been closed dramatically. Think about it. We're living in a land where the poorest people in America are wealthier than the most common people in other countries. Yet, at the same time, in our country, people are more depressed than they've ever been. Last week, I listened to a lady talk about how her daughter was bullied online and committed suicide at 13 years old. It was a heartbreaking thing. It's a confusing thing, to be honest with you. If you don't think the enemy's behind that, if there's no better proof in your life that the enemy exists, this should do it. Suicide is at an all-time high. People are depressed. Divorce appears to be about the same, but that's not true. Let me tell you why it's not true. It's not true because people aren't getting married anymore. Marriage is down because people don't see the value in the union of marriage anymore.

Confusion is way up, way up. I would say it is rampant. With the most educated among us believing in the most illogical, irrational things, the ability to critically think through things is gone. Leaving people to lean on their emotions more than the logic that stands before them, people have completely lost their way. Even good men are beginning to question what is right and what is wrong. This is so crazy to contemplate because you would think in times of prosperity, it would be the opposite, but it's not. I often think about times in this country when we have been more in unity than at other times. I think about 9-11. I think about Vietnam. I think about World War II and I, and the Great Depression. Now what is different about those times? What's different is people begin to realize their mortality, that this life is short. They begin to hope and yearn for something greater out there, something outside them. They put down all their biases and their aggravations with people on the other side of the equation. You begin to see people who say, "I do not believe there is a God here." You begin to see them mentioning how they prayed last week or last night. The cycle continues. We prosper. We lose focus. None of us are immune to it. People begin to look inward instead of upward. And they become very haughty, indignant, entitled, proud of all that they've accomplished, all the while failing to remember who gave them that prosperity to begin with. As such, they begin to drift, losing sight of what's most important.

What is most important? It's just one thing. It can be summed up in one sentence: God in His glory, lived out through your life. That's it. Matter of fact, that's all there is, which means if we can remember that and return to it, then everything else will fall into its place, lining up perfectly with what King Solomon had to say. Listen to Proverbs 3:1-11. Listen intently to what I'm about to tell you. Let it sink in, marinate, because if you do, I assure you it has the power to change your life. Listen closely. This section of scripture has been rightly entitled the rewards of wisdom, beginning with verse 1 and moving forward through to verse 11. Verse 1: "My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you." Just listen to that first verse. "My son, do not forget my teaching. What is his teaching? His word. But let your heart keep my commandments. Comes from his word. For the length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you'll find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Here's the key: do not lean on your own understanding, your emotions, how you feel. Instead, in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He'll make your path straight."

"Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all you produce." This is a great tithing verse, by the way. Great tithing verse. You know, guys, I don't get up and beat people up over tithing. I don't know what people give. I don't want to know what people give. I have no idea. It's between you and the Lord. But I will tell you, there's a blessing that comes, and Daphne and I have experienced it so many times, when things seemed so bleak and God stepped in. We could refer back to and knew that our faithfulness in giving was God honoring it in those times. Verse 10: "So your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof. For whom the Lord loves, He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights."

In Proverbs 3, we're given a wealth of knowledge. You could sit and study it over and over again. It was written, according to the scriptures, by the wisest man and the wealthiest man who ever lived. I want to encourage each one of you to hide these verses in your heart because in them lies the secret to true happiness and contentment while you live out the rest of your life on this planet. Even though this concept is easy to understand, unfortunately for most Christian men and women, it can be very, very difficult to live out. Here's the concept: this life, our lives, and everything in it belong to God. We all belong to Him. Everything you think you own belongs to Him. We're just sharecroppers at best, tending to it until we move on to our next destination, which is heaven. Therefore, our job is to remember to acknowledge Him in everything we do. We also need to remember that our circumstances do not change that formula. It never changes.

If it's a good situation, you praise God and give Him all credit and glory. If it's a bad situation, well, you praise God and give Him all credit and glory because in that bad situation, He's doing something within you. You're the clay, and He's the potter, and He's molding you through that. We're to acknowledge Him and praise Him in all things, good, bad, or indifferent, because it's all about Him all the time. If we do that, the Bible says He will make our path straight. Translated, He will guide us into the paths of righteousness and eliminate the confusion, the murky water that seems to plague so many believers today. The problem always finds its origin in pride. It's the pride of man, which is why when these good things happen, we can't help pat ourselves on the back and say, "Look at what I did." And then when bad things happen, we often say, "Why me?"

At the center of that type of thinking lies a fundamental problem, and the fundamental problem is pride. It's you, which happens when we view ourselves as the center of all things. That's not what the Bible teaches us. On the contrary, the Bible teaches us that we should view our life circumstances through a God-centered set of lenses the Bible teaches us that we should view our life circumstances through a God-centered set of lenses, for eyes for eternity. Instead of saying, "Look at me," or "Woe is me," we should be saying, "Lord, your will be done, not mine." No matter what comes our way, we should say, "It is well with my soul." Because those who were living in Samaria and in Jerusalem at that time forgot that concept and drifted far away from God, God has had enough. His patience is up. His long-suffering is up, and He's about to lay waste to these people and the land. But He didn't do that without a warning. He doesn't do it to us without a warning. No, because God has those other attributes. But remember, there's an end to it, and Samaria and Jerusalem are about to find out the hard way. The same applies to all of us living today. God is allowing us to continue doing what we're doing for a time, but there's coming a day when His patience and long-suffering will run out.

Pressing on and back to our next section of Scripture, which begins with verse 8 and ends with verse 9, where Micah says once again the following: "Because of this, I must lament and wail. I must go barefoot and naked. I must make a lament like the jackals and a mourning like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable, for it has come to Judah and has reached the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem." In these verses, Micah does something striking. He weeps. He's the one delivering the message, and he weeps. He mourns openly, walking barefoot and naked, howling like a mourner. Why does he do that? Because a heart aligned with God will always feel the weightiness of the consequences of sin. The more in line with God you are, the heavier your heart gets, so much so you can't contain it.

By the way, walking barefoot and naked and howling, this is not idiomatic speaking here; it's not symbolic. This was a common practice in those days as it was an outward display of how the prophet felt about what was going to happen to his own people because of their sin. The prophets were also known to rip or tear their clothes as well. What would make them do such a thing? It was a natural response externally representing how they felt internally. It was extreme grief produced by the revelation of sin. The very thought of sin in our lives should invoke a similar reaction. Maybe not externally, but certainly internally. The image here is like that of a sinner with a stain on his or her hands. Unaware at first, but once realized, they try very hard to get it off. The more they try under their power, the worse it seems to get because God is the only one that can clean us up.

Another way to say it is, the more we try to deal with our sin in our own way, essentially, the more it's ignored, the worse it gets. This creates a certain level of stress and anxiety internally, designed by God to create a proper response within us. And what is a proper response to sin? One of grief and repentance rather than indifference. Indifference is so dangerous. I've seen it happen so many times. I've had bouts with it myself in my life. It causes the heart to become calloused and hard, turning somewhat toward God, recognizing Him, but making illogical excuses and reasonings for wrongdoings.

So, my question for everyone listening today is: Where are you in your relationship with God? Are you on track and doing just fine, or have you gotten off track? Have you lost your way? Are you outside that right relationship with our Lord where your heart has become hardened and calloused? If the answer is yes, after an honest self-assessment, then remember the way back home is always the same: repent. Remember John's instructions to the church of Ephesus in Revelation where he said, return to your first love. And if you do, God will cleanse you and realign your heart and focus. It's the ultimate do-over.

All you have to do is remember to praise Him and give Him thanks. Moving on to verses 10 to 15, we enter our next and final section of Scripture this morning. Micah says: "Tell it not in Gath, weep not at all. At Bethleaphr, roll yourself in the dust. Go on your way, inhabitant of Shaphir in shameful nakedness. The inhabitant of Zanan does not escape the lamentation of Beth Ezel. He will take from you its support. For the inhabitant of Marath becomes weak, waiting for good, because a calamity has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem. Harness the chariot to the team of horses, O inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion because in you were found the rebellious acts of Israel. Therefore, you will give parting gifts on behalf of Moresheth Gath. The houses of Akzeb will become a deception to the kings of Israel. Moreover, I will bring on you the one who takes possession. O inhabitant of Mereshah, the glory of Israel will enter into Adum Adalim."

The next set of verses here could be summarized by one statement: the spread of sin and its consequences. Each name mentioned represents a town in Judah, and Micah is saying that the sin of Samaria has spread to the outer edges of Judah. Samaria has become toxic in her infection and has spread throughout the land. This is exactly how sin tends to work when left or not dealt with. It spreads like cancer, not only to you but to others as well. Sure enough, that's what we see with the sins of Samaria. What began in one place is growing from town to town, which tells us that sin never stays contained; it always spreads.

In these verses, Micah uses wordplay paired with irony to prove his point. Each city's name could become a sermon illustration on its own, highlighting the fate of the city. For example, Bethleaphr means "house of dust," and in Micah 1:10, Micah says, "At Bethleaphr, roll yourself in the dust." Shaphir means "beautiful and pleasant," but soon that city would be shamefully naked when the invasion arrives. Zanan sounds like the Hebrew word translated "come out," but when the invasion strikes, they would not be able to come out to escape. Beth Ezel means "house of removal," and those people would lament because the Lord would remove His support. Marath sounds like the Hebrew word for "bitterness," and the people of this town would become weak as they waited for help that would never come.

In the ultimate display of how sin creeps in, Micah references the gate of Jerusalem, the city that housed the temple of God on earth. Behind those gates was the temple of God, which contained the Holy of Holies, the Spirit of God on earth. During that time, the temple was a place of ultimate holiness and righteousness. Even that place was not safe anymore as sin had found its way to the gates of Jerusalem, consuming everything in its path much like lava flowing down a mountain after a volcanic eruption.

The picture painted here by Micah—this poetic picture—is that of an all-consuming and all-unassuming nature of sin. It moves slowly, creeping and devouring everything in its path, and if left unchecked, it destroys. As we close this morning, I want to ask you to examine yourself right where you are. As Dave closes us out with a song, examine your heart. Do an assessment, asking yourself, are you in a right relationship with God? Or has sin slipped into your life? Have you allowed it to take a foothold? Is it taking a toll on you and those around you, slowly consuming you and eating you up from the inside out? If the answer is yes, then there's only one thing to do: repent. Don't try to hide it or ignore it. Don't try to deal with it on your own. God is patient, He's long-suffering, and He's waiting. His arms are open wide. He's willing and able to give you a new beginning this morning, right now, right here. All you have to do is repent and ask Him to forgive you of all unrighteousness, and He'll do that.

Once you've done it, you need to double down on church, on fellowship, your support system, prayer, and certainly on the study of God's Word. If you do, I'll make you a promise: God will hear your cry, He will forgive you, and He'll take you to places with Him that you never even knew were possible. Amen?