This morning we're going to pick back up with our teaching and our journey through the book of Micah. As you remember, Micah is a prophet. He's considered a minor prophet in the Bible—minor meaning not less than or less important, but minor because of the length of the letter. And so you have major and minor prophets, and Micah is one of the minor prophets. What did the prophets do? They spoke the oracles of God. They heard directly from God in the Old Testament, and they spoke the oracles of God, the instructions of God, to the Jewish people, to God's people.

Today, as I said, we're going to pick back up on that journey. Last week we broke down and expounded on Micah 3, verses 1 through 4, a section of Scripture that could be appropriately entitled, “When Corrupt Rulers Devour Their Own People.” We entitled this section this way because of what the Jewish leaders were doing to their own people at that time—exploiting them, taking advantage of them, both morally and financially. From there, we moved into Micah 3:5–8, where God, through Micah, addressed the sin of those so-called spiritual leaders and the false prophets of their day by focusing on the results of their sin. He did so by describing what they did and how they did it, using what we call poetic language—poetic language, by the way, that might have seemed a little bit strange at first glance, which was true. If that was your thought process when we read through it, that’s okay because, to be honest with you, it was.

I want to read it to you one more time as a segue into today's teaching, as we listen to and hear what the prophet Micah wrote. Micah 3:5–8—where we entitled this section of Scripture, “False Prophets Distorting the Truth.” One more time, Micah 3:5, beginning there: “Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who led my people astray. When they have something to bite with their teeth, they cry, ‘Peace,’ but against him who puts nothing in their mouth, they declare holy war. Therefore, it will be night for you without vision and darkness for you without divination,” which is another word for revelation. “The sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will become dark over them. The seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God. On the other hand, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and courage to make known to Jacob”—Jacob being a synonym for the nation Israel—“to make known to Jacob his rebellious acts, even to Israel his sin.”

In these verses, Micah highlights how the leaders and their “truth” had been reduced to really that of a transactional action. Why was that? Because they were, in fact, motivated by profit. They had become motivated by profit, which then caused them to speak whatever words they thought the people wanted to hear. And what was the byproduct of what they were selling? They hoped for it to be comfort. Unfortunately, it was comfort instead of declaring the truth of God, which has in it and contains in it the power to change. Where God had once spoken to those prophets, instructing them on what to say to His people, now—because they ignored His words and began twisting His words, speaking what they wanted to speak—verse 6 says, and I'll paraphrase it for you, that God blinded them.

So you had these prophets who were speaking to God's people and they were doing what they were supposed to be doing. Then all of a sudden they began twisting the words, began speaking words of prosperity and comfort instead of truth. And so what does God do? God blinds them and begins withholding His revelation from them. Another way to say it is He quickly addressed and fixed the situation. By the way, I want you to please understand that if you're a believer, that means you're a child of God, and as such, if you ignore the conviction of the Holy Spirit and continue on in sin, you need to know that God will and does discipline His children.

Having said that, throughout the years there has been some debate—many times a lot of debate—over the topic of spiritual discipline, and it's been a debate on at least two fronts. The first revolves around how God disciplines His children—how it truly works. The second is whether or not God disciplines His children at all. I want to dispel that debate this morning, and I will attempt to do so by reading to you from Hebrews 12. The writer of this letter—and I say the writer of this letter because we do not know who wrote the letter, as we're not told—has been the subject of much speculation. That hasn't stopped some theologians from guessing or some even saying that they know for sure who it was. There have been many theories about who wrote it, and most theologians land on either Paul or Luke. But as I said, nobody knows for sure.

Anyway, here's what the author wrote concerning this topic of discipline and the discipline of the Lord—Hebrews 12:4–11. The writer said this: “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” The concept in that first verse is really this: it hasn't gotten that bad for you, has it? The discipline is not that bad—to the point of shedding blood—is it? “And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons: ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.’ It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet, to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

In Hebrews 12:4–11, we're introduced to the concept and the purpose of God's discipline. In this concept we learn two things about this all‑important tenet of God. First, we learn that not only is God's discipline real, it's essential in the life of the believer, because according to verse 10, it is what affords us the ability to share in the holiness of God. And then it says, for those who have been trained by it, it appears in the moment not to be joyful, but rather sorrowful. What's interesting about that is we see an injection, if you will, of your choice—your free will—to be able to choose whether or not you are interested in receiving the instruction that comes from God. In other words, as I said a few weeks ago, Benjamin Franklin said that pain instructs, and then I added to it, well, it instructs if you let it. In the moment it's sorrowful, but eventually it turns into joy. That all takes place after it has done its work. The writer says that it “yields” something. It does something to you. What does it do? It brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness into your life—the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Our Father who is in heaven disciplines us when we sin and move outside of His will. He disciplines us when we step outside His will for our lives. Once that discipline takes hold—or as the writer says, once we are trained by it—it does something to us. It yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness in the life of the believer. But what is that? Do I even want it? It sounds pretty good; I would think we would want it. What's the peaceful fruit of righteousness? If you do a deep dive into the word “righteousness” here in Hebrews, it means judicial approval. It refers to what is deemed right by the Lord, concluding His examination of your very life. Another way to say it is: it's what is approved in His eyes. So the peaceful fruit of righteousness is the peace we obtain internally after we've been approved by God, after His examination of our life.

Simply put, it's the Philippians peace that Paul speaks about, which is a peace that passes all understanding, best described as a peace when there's no reason for there to be peace. It's a peace in the midst of the storm. In the midst of chaos, it looks a lot like the prophet Jonah when the storm was raging and the ship was about to be overturned, and Jonah goes down into the bottom of the ship and goes to sleep. That's the peace that passes all understanding. That type of peace can only be obtained one way—by faith and through God—which means you cannot obtain it any other way outside of Him, as He reserves it strictly for Himself. So the writer of Hebrews says one of the ways we obtain peace is through the discipline of God.

By the way, I have a theory—or maybe a concept, if you will—relating to this whole discipline-of-God thing. It's based on something that we just read in Hebrews 12:7–8. One more time: “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” So here's my theory, here's the concept: I believe that true believers will endure to the end. That's what I believe. That doesn't mean that's what you have to believe; that's okay. I want you to study for yourself to find that these things might be true. But that's what I believe, and partly because of verse 7, where we clearly see that God's discipline is what causes us to endure. You would think it would be the opposite. You would think that prosperity, health and wealth and comfort and money would be more likely to cause us to endure—but not according to God. Listen to it one more time: “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”

For further proof of my theory, let's read verse 8 once more: “But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” So clearly God disciplines His children just like we discipline our children. If He doesn't discipline you, then according to verse 8, something's wrong. According to verse 8, you're illegitimate, meaning you're not one of His. Remember that the next time you experience various trials—as James said—of many kinds.

Moving on and back to Micah 3, we're going to pick back up and move forward into verses 9 through 11, and we're going to entitle this section of Scripture, “The Root Problem: Leadership Without Integrity.” Here's what Micah wrote, verse 9: “Now hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and twist everything that is straight, who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with malice. Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests teach for pay and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord not in our midst? Catastrophe will not come upon us.’”

In this next set of verses, Micah broadens his indictment of the leadership of Jacob—of Israel. This time his indictment includes all of the leaders: the rulers, the priests, and the prophets. Micah holds nothing back in verse 11 when he says, “Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine”—they deliver revelation—“for money, yet they lean on the Lord saying, ‘Is the Lord not in our midst? Catastrophe will not come upon us.’” Essentially, during this time, everything had a price tag, and nothing—and I mean nothing—was sacred, including but not limited to justice and teaching and prophecy.

Today, in our modern-day church era—this church of the 21st century, as I call it—we too are experiencing the same thing. Just as everything was monetized then, it still continues to be monetized in some churches, denominations, and Christian establishments. And worse, in some cases it gets even worse than that, which means if you have enough money, you can buy the results that you're looking for. As I said, this applies to the church as well. The interesting thing about all this is that even though these leaders were doing these things during this time, they still believed they had a covering from God somehow. They believed that. Listen to the last part of verse 11 one more time: “Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, saying, ‘Is the Lord not in our midst? Catastrophe will not come upon us.’”

My question is: how narcissistic and blind do you have to be to rob your own people—God's people—and still think that somehow you're in good standing with the Lord? But it's not that shocking when you stop to think about it for a minute, because what was happening then still happens today. Preachers, ministers robbing God's people both morally and financially, while at the same time thinking they're under God's protection, is simply mind-blowing to me. The only explanation I can give for it is narcissism—maybe spiritual narcissism—which is simply a hyper lack of self‑awareness that leads someone to believe the words that are coming out of their mouth. It leads someone to believe that even though they're doing something wrong, it's okay. It leads someone to believe their own lies.

Because of the blindness of Israel's leaders, they assumed their religious identity somehow equaled divine approval. On top of that, they believed ritual activity equaled moral innocence. Once again, the same thing has taken place in many of our modern-day churches today. But you need to remember this: God is not lax. God is not fooled by appearances. Spiritual language cannot mask moral decay. Maybe better translated: even if you attend church and say all the right things, do many of the right things, I want you to know—be rest assured—God knows the heart. God is not fooled. Everyone around us might be, but God is not. The only hope for that person who is living in that state of blindness is recognition followed by repentance. Anything short of that will not satisfy the wrath of God—God's judgment.

Moving on next, we move into Micah 3:12. This is the last verse in chapter 3, where we're going to see God's judgment play out. Micah 3:12—here's what Micah wrote concerning this situation: “Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed like a field. Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the temple will become high places of the forest.” I guess you could say we've reached what I would call the climax of this whole situation, starting in chapter 1, moving through to chapter 3, and it culminates with God declaring that Zion—Israel—will become like a plowed field. I'm not going to go into all of it, but just to tell you: that is exactly what happened. In the last destruction, the final and total destruction of that city, they literally pulled up the foundations, they plowed it over, and Jerusalem did become a heap of ruins.

Essentially, the unthinkable has now become the inevitable, as the Holy City, the center of worship, is reduced to rubble. Why? Because privilege without obedience invites judgment. Even sacred places do not guarantee divine protection. “Privilege without obedience invites judgment.” Isn't that an interesting statement—and one that needs to be spoken about more often, especially in the church age we're all living in? I've personally experienced situations like this with preachers and Christians alike who thought that because of how long they've attended church and how long they've been a believer, they had some type of privilege and status that acquiesced them above their circumstances and their situation—that they had somehow become untouchable believers, not only by the other believers and brothers and sisters around them, but by God Himself, which is a ridiculous thought—but it's true. It happens when man becomes elevated in his own mind to a place of high status.

We see it happen when churches explode in attendance, for instance, and the preacher begins to view himself through the lens of stardom—as if he is the center of attention and he's the reason why. When this happens, what must we do? As a body, what must we do? The elders, the leaders in the church, must address it. I have personally been a part of that process a time or two, where the pastor was called out. The reaction to that played out like you might think, where he doubled down on his pride and his arrogance in defense of his position, making statements like, “Who are you to hold me accountable?” Once again, this is a blindness of monumental proportions, and that blindness is brought on by God. Why? For a minimum of two reasons: one is to bring that person to the end of themselves—to a place of repentance; and two is for the protection of God's children. Blindness is a tool that God uses to accomplish His purposes and His will. The scary part is, the blind person—for the most part—has no clue they're blind, at least until it's too late.

Let me say one thing regarding this statement: God does not blind a person right out of the gate. He only does so when they repeatedly ignore His instruction, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and refuse to repent. Maybe better said: He doesn't invoke blindness until they've ignored His discipline to the point that they begin believing their own lies.

As we end chapter 3 of Micah, verse 12, I think we can see three major themes that have emerged. Another way to say it is, I think we can see three key attributes of God's character that have emerged. They are these. Number one is justice—justice, what's right, protecting the vulnerable, the innocent, standing up for what's right, as God demands justice. If you want to see how fast God's judgment will play out, all leaders need to do is divorce themselves from righteousness, because when that happens, leaders automatically invite destruction into their lives—and that destruction eventually becomes apparent.

The second attribute that has emerged from Micah 3:12 is how God rejects performative religion—specifically, how external worship cannot be a substitute for internal integrity. That's one that hits home for me, and I'd like to talk about it for just a moment. This concept of performative religion—what is performative religion? The most obvious example of it is rock concerts inside the church walls, where people praise God on Sunday and forget about Him Monday through Saturday. This is what I mean when I say God rejects performative religion, where external worship takes the place of internal integrity.

We all know worship is a part of the Christian dichotomy and program, and certainly we're all called to worship our Lord, and music is one way that God has given us to do that. But it's not the only way. There are many Scriptures that testify to this very fact—verses like John 4:23–24, where we're called to worship in spirit and truth; Romans 12:1, where we're told to offer our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice; Matthew 4:10, which says, “You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.” One of the biggest problems facing the modern church of today has been the advent of Christian contemporary worship services. I know that this is not going to make me popular, but I'm just telling you—that's the truth. Why is that? Because music is so powerful today. It is so powerful. It's something God gave us. It's something God gave mankind. In the beginning there were no instruments, and today look at what we have—it's unbelievable.

The voice, the singing, words that you sing—I could easily recite those words, just read them, but they do not bring the power that they can bring when you put music to them. Music moves us like nothing else can. If done correctly, it is great; it is awesome, as it serves to clear the hearts and the heads and the minds of the people, preparing us to receive God's Word—clearing all of the muck and the mire and the cloud of this past week, all the stuff we're worried about that's coming up this coming week. It helps us have a level set. This is the job of the worship leader. Dave and I have talked about this many times. He should always pray and ask God to direct the people back toward Himself. If he does that, he's on the right track, and I assure you God will honor it. But if he doesn't, it often implodes—often leading to church scandal.

I remember one time, probably about six to eight years ago, Daphne and I were invited to another church here in town. It was on a Sunday night and they were having a service, and we went. They had a really good Christian contemporary service. At that particular time in our church history, we didn't really have much in the way of music—we had a computer playing some songs, and that was it. I remember them playing their music, and I remember it kind of taking me back, realizing that I felt as if I was in a dry and thirsty land as far as the music and the worship went. To walk in there and be face‑to‑face with that revelation, they were playing this super catchy song—one that I had never heard before—and it kind of stuck in my mind.

The next day, I was driving home, and I remember trying to sing that song, recite the words. You've probably done that before, even though I'd only heard it one time. I remembered the chorus, but not all the lyrics. As I was singing along in my head, I was having a good old time by myself. All of a sudden, right in the middle of it, I felt the Spirit of the Lord come over me and say something. This is what He said: “Remember, praise and worship is about Me, and the Word is for you. Praise and worship is about Me, not you.” That was kind of a sobering thought. As most of you know, I'm not a proponent of hyper‑spiritualizing things. As a matter of fact, I watch out for it all the time. My meter goes up—meaning I don't walk around charismatically spiritualizing everything, saying, “God told me this” or “God told me that.” But on that day, I will say, in that moment I felt those words very strongly in my spirit—as strong as I've ever felt anything, maybe outside my call unto salvation.

As I thought about what the Spirit said—“Remember, praise and worship is about Me, not you”—that led me to dig a little bit deeper and go read the lyrics of that song. Well, guess what I discovered? I knew why the Spirit had told me that. The words of the song were not about God. I mean, they mentioned God, but God wasn't the focus. The focus was about “me”—specifically, the individual—and about what God could and would do for that person, which led me to begin reading the words to other contemporary songs that I loved. Sure enough, many of those songs were crafted the same exact way.

You see, when you praise something, pronouns are not part of our vocabulary. It's not about us; it's about the object of our praise. I don't want to belabor the point this morning, and I don't want to plant seeds in your head. Let me say one more thing: this always boils down to a matter of the heart. So don't leave here today and say, “I'm going to read the lyrics to every song that I've ever heard before.” That's not what I'm saying. It's about the heart. It's a matter of the heart. But I will say this: if you walk out of a church service and you go eat somewhere, and someone asks you how your service was today, and you say, “Oh, it was amazing, the Holy Spirit was moving,” I want you to remember something: the Holy Spirit doesn't operate that way. The Holy Spirit didn't just show up because the drums and the guitar started playing. No—the Holy Spirit lives inside each and every believer, and He arrived right on time when you arrived. He's inside the temple of God, which is your body. He's very much a static and consistent force in your life—not going high and low, meaning He's not an emotional force like we as humans are. The Holy Spirit resides inside of you and is very even-keel on a day‑in and day‑out basis.

Us, on the other hand—we tend to get emotional. By the way, we were created that way; it's okay, as long as we don't mistake emotion for the work of the Holy Spirit per se. To be honest with you, if the Holy Spirit were going to move in some supernatural way, I submit to you He’d be more likely to do so with the reading of God's Word than maybe the music. Often people will say to me, “We had a powerful church service yesterday”—this happens on a Monday. I'll say, “Oh yeah? What'd you learn? What Scripture did the pastor teach on?” More times than not, they can't remember. They can't remember.

I'll digress on this point only to say: remember, praise and worship is great—it's something God has given us—but only if it's kept in its rightful context and perspective, which is, we must remember to focus on the object of our worship, not ourselves. Just a side note: the reason that hymns were created and the reason they're so great is because they're almost always based on the words of Scripture.

Moving on, we're going to finish Micah chapter 3, highlighting verse 12 just a little bit further, and we're going to touch on one final attribute of God's character—the last one I wanted to highlight from these verses: God always holds leadership accountable. God always holds Christian leadership accountable. The Bible makes this clear: to whom much is given, much is expected. Those with heavier influence in the church will bear a heavier responsibility for what they did and did not do in this life. This applies to all Christian people in any type of leadership, including that of civil government, the church, and family.

Beginning with civil leadership: if a Christian leader is concerned about whether or not they are leading correctly—with God's will clearly in front—all they have to do is ask three questions. First: Do I serve or exploit? There’s a big difference. Second: Do I pursue truth or do I pursue approval? (For a politician, that would be: Do I pursue truth or votes?) Third: Do I lead with integrity or self‑interest? If the answer is “yes” to all of these (serve, truth, integrity), chances are that individual is good. But if the answer is “no,” probably not so much. Leaders must remember that leadership means stewardship; it's not ownership. Leaders are called to serve those who elected them, those who placed them there.

Next, let's move on to church leadership. Church leadership must value truth over comfort. This is a tough one, but as I said during last week's teaching, it's tough for many people. It's tough to share the truth with people. I personally don't find it that difficult because truth—what I call absolute truth—comes from God's Word, not from man's opinion. So when a tough discussion has to take place relating to sin or some other moral dilemma, I simply refer people back to the Scriptures. When we do that, it must be something that we pray about. It's not to be weaponized. It's something we do from a place of humility and love and concern. If you can't do that, have somebody else do it.

Next on the list when speaking about church leadership is integrity over charisma. By the way, God always chooses the most unlikely candidates to carry out His mission. Paul, by his own admission, was not a very good speaker. He wasn't a great orator. Descriptions of Paul kind of make fun of him—calling him gangly, odd‑looking, that type of thing. I wouldn't have said that he was very charismatic—in the sense of charisma and the way he came off, the excitement he invoked. No—it was integrity first. Integrity over charisma. This one can be tough because a man of God can be really charismatic and moving in the pulpit but struggle with integrity, especially as it relates to big church donors. Often, when the pastor knows who the big givers are, he can't help it. I don't think it's conscious; I think it's subconscious. But he will often craft his messages to suit that person or their liking, or many times he will avoid the tough messages that hit home in some part of that individual's life. But lucky for you guys, I don't know what anyone gives. That may be sad for you; I'm not sure. “You mean to tell me he didn't know what I—?” No, I don't. I don't know who gives. I don't know how much or how little or whatever. It's not for me to know. It's between you and the Lord. I purposely make it a point not to know, and to be honest with you, I don't want to know. I think the reason for that is pretty much self‑explanatory, both in a good way and—some might view it—in a bad way.

Finally, one last thing that church leadership needs to keep in mind is: faithfulness must trump popularity. Once again, this has to be taken in context—humility and love. When I say faithfulness, I mean faithfulness to the truth of God's Word over preaching, say, popular feel‑good messages—messages that tickle the ears. Here's what I try to tell people over and over again: the power to change—the power to change the life of the unbeliever to the point that he would answer the call unto salvation—lies in God's Word. For the believer, in God's Word lies the power for him to become sanctified, to climb the scale of spiritual maturity. All of this is contained in God's holy manuscript. But in order for that to happen, the pastor‑teacher must teach it correctly, rightly divide the Word of truth, keep it in context, never making the mistake of watering it down or diluting it or changing its meaning somehow, twisting it, bending it in any way.

Finally, for all other Christian leaders—specifically you men who lead your households—Micah 3 ultimately asks: do we as believers (and this is for all of us) reflect God's character? What words would best describe God's character after our study of the first three chapters of Micah? It would be justice, compassion, humility, brokenness, truth, and, last but not least, humility again. The most important of them all is that all‑important word—humility. To be humble brings all of this into line, and it's hard to do. Even for the most humble of us, it's hard to do. If we're not humble, us possessing all other attributes of God's character is and will become a futile effort at best. Here's what's interesting: guess how we remain humble? When we become arrogant and prideful, God disciplines us. It's cyclical and brings us back so that we can be in a state where we can experience that fruit of righteousness.

As we close Micah 3, I want you to remember: Micah 3 is very sobering. In many respects, it's been a little bit unnerving. It's been a little bit unsettling. It has seemed a little bit negative in tone, but it's been very necessary, as it reminds us that God is patient but not indifferent. He's long‑suffering, but only for a time. He's merciful, but not permissive. Most importantly, God still seeks leaders who are filled with His Spirit and committed to justice and anchored in truth.

I want you to come back next week as we're going to continue our journey through the book of Micah, as we begin our expository deep dive into chapter 4, where the tone and the narrative are going to shift to the kingdom that is to come—a specific focus on the end times, also known in theological realms as eschatology. Amen?