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Hey, well, good morning, church.
If you've got your Bibles with you, and I hope you do, go ahead and open up to Micah chapter
7.
Just as a reminder, starting next Sunday, we will be back both offering live streaming
services, as well as in-person live services gathered back together at our campus.
As a reminder, our live services will be at 9, 11, and 1, and we will be live streaming
our 11 o'clock service.
So we want you to choose whichever service you feel like God is calling for you and your
family during this season of time.
Also, as you prepare for next Sunday, if you're planning on worshiping with us live together,
I just want to remind you that you will need to register for the services so that we can
make sure that we don't have more people than we can accommodate for each of the services.
That pre-registration will open up this Wednesday at noon, and you can access it through an email
that Pastor Dave will be sending out, or you can access it by visiting the church's website
this Wednesday at noon, all the way through on Sunday when the service starts.
So as we wrap up in this series on Micah, this Sunday, we're going to go on a little bit
of a ride, okay?
We're going to go on a little bit of a journey as we go through this last chapter.
And what's going to happen in Micah chapter 7 is this message from God through Micah to
God's people.
As it concludes, it's going to go from one extreme to another.
And it's going to be a pretty drastic extreme.
Last summer, Aaron and I had the opportunity to go to Alaska.
And when we got on the plane in Anchorage, right, we were there, we were in Alaska, even
though it was summertime in Alaska, it was cold, and we were wearing our coats.
And then the next time that we stepped back outdoors, we stepped foot out of the airplane
into Charleston.
And so we went from cold temperature to extremely hot, humid, and it was a shock to our system.
By the time that we got to our car, we were completely exhausted just because of the change in climates
that we had experienced.
And what you're going to see in this chapter of Micah is it really is an extreme change of
what is going on.
And what we're going to start off with at looking at the beginning of chapter 7 is an area of
despair, a season of depression, where when we look at these first few verses, there's
going to be no hope.
But what we're going to get to at the end is understanding the victory, the victory that
is found in God and God alone.
And kind of the warning for us is, again, as we try to take this scripture that was not
written to us, but is used for us to mold us and shape us, what we're going to be able
to understand is that if we're not careful, that you and I can miss the beauty of the hand
of God in the midst of the darkness and the despair of the world that surrounds us so that
we can look out into this world, we can look out into our culture, we can look out into the
events that are going on, and we can become so consumed with the negativity that is there
that in the midst of all of the despair, in the midst of all the suffering, we can miss
what is actually happening, is that the hand of God is at work, and that's a beautiful thing
to see.
And so that's what we're going to see as Micah walks through that.
So let's start reading chapter 7, starting in verse 1.
Micah starts and he says,
Woe is me, for I've become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes
have been gleaned.
There is no cluster to eat, no first ripe fig that my soul desires.
The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind.
They all live in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.
Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well.
The prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his
soul.
Thus they weave it together.
The best of them is like a briar, the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment has come, now their confusion is at hand.
Put no trust in a neighbor, have no confidence in a friend, guard the doors of your mouth
from her who lies in your arms.
For the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
A man's enemies are the men of his own house.
So we see from the very beginning here that Micah begins to share with us the despair as
he looks out over his people, as he looks out over his country, God's chosen people,
the despair that he sees as he looks out into a world that is broken.
And what he sees are two things.
He sees a lacking in one area, and he sees an abundance in another area.
The first thing that Micah sees is he sees a lack of godly fellowship.
Now Micah paints a picture of a vine and a fruit tree, a vine and a fruit tree that were
once ripe with the fruit in which they would bear.
But then as the season wears on, that vine and that fruit tree had been stripped of the
fruit that they had produced.
And so now Micah describes a time of great hunger that he's experiencing.
And as he goes back to those same vines, what he doesn't find are the grapes, what he doesn't
find are the figs.
What instead what he finds is bear is nothing.
And he says, this is exactly what it's like to find godly men and godly women in Israel.
This is what he sees.
A people who were once ripe and abundant in their desire and in their faith for the Lord have
now gone and left and what Micah sees is nothing left behind.
And he desires it and he needs it and he craves it.
So he looks out at his world and he thinks to himself, where are the faithful?
Where are the believers?
Why have they all left?
He sees a lack of godly fellowship.
But he also sees an abundance of deep-rooted sin.
He describes the best are like briars.
The best are like hedges of thorns.
So even those who are the best are still inflicting pain and suffering of those around.
And he says, look, this goes all the way up to the top levels of influence.
The people who are supposed to fight for justice.
Remember all the way back to what he said before of the injustice that is happening and has taken
place, that it's there, it's lacking, that it's not found in the prince, it's not found in the judge.
And he describes a situation where a powerful, wealthy man wants to take advantage of a man
who's found in poverty and so he bribes and he influences those who are supposed to stand up
for those who cannot stand up for themselves and instead what is found is corruption.
And Micah says, look, this is the norm and this is the world where Micah finds himself.
People who have broken their fellowship with each other and they've broken their fellowship with God.
People who no longer stand for what's right and for what's true, but who seek after what they want
in their desires, what they long for.
Now, I'll be honest with you, church, as I've worked through this passage of scripture,
as Micah looks out into the world in which he sees, I'll be honest with you, there's a lot of
similarities as I step back and as I look out into the world in which we live and a world in which
we face. What Micah sees is he sees injustice and division. And oftentimes when I look out into the
world that awaits us, the world in which I raise my kids, the world in which I find myself, I find
some of those exact same divisions. It's a different world and it's a different time, but the sinful
heart of man is still there. When I look out in the world, I see that we are a group of people who have
now moved beyond simply disagreeing with each other. We've moved beyond people who simply disagree
with those who vote differently than we do. And instead we move from disagreeing to hating those
who do not follow alongside in every step, in every stride, in our political positioning or in our
political agenda. I see a world in which we live where many of us have moved beyond caring about
tragedies and injustices that happen in the world in which we live. Where innocent lives are lost or
taken because of color of skin or socioeconomic divides that exist. And many of us are simply okay
with that. We live in a world where we don't even know what's factual and happening in the world
because the news is reported, is all too often based and rooted in the opinions of what they interpret
them to be, but not an actual fact of what's taking place. And we find ourselves living in a sense
of division. But it's not just within our world, it's oftentimes even within the church. Both the
church universal, amongst all believers, and maybe even for some of us, the church local for us.
And so what we choose to do is we sit on the outside and we look in, maybe at our church or
at other churches, as we pick apart every decision made by a pastor, another church in an uncertain time
when we have never been where they are and we don't understand the battles that they're facing.
Even right now, as we face this time with COVID-19, we take the opportunity to call each other
fearful or faithless as we think someone has taken too many precautions. And we call each other ignorant
and reckless if we think someone has taken too few precautions. And this is what we have.
And if I'm not careful, this is where I find myself. If I'm not careful, this is where I go. This is the
despair that I find myself in. But I want to continue on as Micah continues. Let's keep reading in
verse seven. Micah says this, but as for me, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my
salvation. My God will hear me. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall rise. When I sit
in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned
against him until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light.
I shall look upon his vindication. Then my enemy will see and shame will cover her who said to me,
where is the Lord your God? My eyes will look upon her. Now she will be trampled down like the mire of
the streets. And so what Micah does here in this moment in verse seven is what I have to remind
myself to do. Micah makes the decision. When I look out in the world and I see the brokenness,
when I look out in the world and I see the division, when I look out in the world and I see the effects
of sin that are continuing to surround me, when I see people wandering away from the God who created
them and the God who loves them, when I see people rebel against each other and I see hatred and
violence spew from man toward man, where do we position ourselves? In discouragement or in faith?
And my heart oftentimes wants to go toward discouragement, but Micah chooses faith. I want to be honest
with you. The last 10 weeks as we've gone through this have led me to some dark places. And I want to tell
you church, it's not because of fear of COVID because I don't have fear. It's not because of being isolated
at home because I've not struggled in isolation. It's when I place my faith in the people of this world
and not in God. That's when I find myself discouraged. And so I want to glean from this what I see from
Micah as Micah looks in these verses and what he points to is faith. So I want to
move my mindset out of discouragement and I want to move my mindset toward faith in God. And so what
does Micah teach us in this? What is faith? The first thing that he says is look for God. Look to
God is what he says. He says, I will look to the Lord. Colossians 3 verses 1 through 3 says this,
then if you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the
right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you
have died and your life has hidden with Christ. J.B. Lightfoot, a theologian, he's a English Anglican
bishop who lived in the 1800s, said this about what it means to set your mind on God. You must not only
seek heaven, but you must also think heaven. You know, when I read that, it struck me that it simply
moves us past what we long for in the future and heaven becomes what consumes us on a day in and day
out basis. But when we find ourselves in despair, too many of us, and I include myself in this, we look for
anyone else or anything else other than God and other than heaven to not only for us to long for,
but that consumes us. That that captures our mind and in doing so, captions our heart. And so church,
I want to ask you a question that only you can answer for yourself right now on what are you setting your
minds on? A quick test that you can take for yourself right now. And it's going to be found in a time
allocation for what you do. Because I have a feeling that so many of us are setting our minds on other
things that influence us greater than setting our minds on heaven. What's your time allocation between
your social media and your time with God? Take a moment and look back at that, of what I'm exploring in
one versus what I'm diving into in the other. What's your time allocation between your news programming
that you watch and your time with the Lord? Are we spending more time allowing what influences us to
be what we find on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter or Fox News or CNN? Are we setting our mind on those
things or are we finding ourselves rooted in what we long for with God? You see, church, when we fill our
minds with the world, what we come away with is discouragement. But when we fill our minds with
God, what we come away with is faith. So look to God. The next one that we want us to begin to see,
the next example for this, Micah says, is to wait for God. He says, I will wait for the God of my
salvation. Now here's what waiting for God means. Waiting for God means this, I trust in his timing.
Now how many times do we say that we want to trust in God's will, but we trust in God's will as long as
it happens in the time of man. God, I trust that you are going to do what you're going to do as long as
it happens in the predetermined time that I have set for myself. I know what I want and I know when I want
it, God, I want it now. But that's not waiting for God. Waiting for God means that I trust not only in his plan, but in the timing of
his plan. Where Micah is, he wants it to end and he wants it to end now. But his faith says that he waits on God's timing
because God's timing is perfect. God's timing will never be early. God's timing will never be late. God's timing will
always be perfect. But also to wait for God means I rest even when he delays. So I, what does it mean?
Do you, do I wait for God and rest or do I wait for God and stress? Here's what I can tell you.
If I wait for God, if God is delaying, it's because God is still working. Church, God has never forgotten.
He has never taken a break. He does not sleep. He does not eat. He does not pause. Even when we look
back at creation and the scripture tells us that on the seventh day, God rested. Do you know what God did
as he rested? He blessed. That's what our scripture tells us. That even in the resting nature of God,
what he does is he blesses his creation. And so we can wait for God. The next thing that we can see of
what faith looks like to not fall into despair, but as we can cry out to God, I love Micah's words,
my God will hear me. Here's what Micah knew. Micah trusted that he could go to God. Micah believed
that God would hear him and Micah knew that God would act. Here's what I've been so grateful for,
church, over these last 10 weeks. These last 10 weeks have created within me a longing and a
desperation of crying out to God to help me understand his plan and his will for our church like I've never
understood before. Because here's why. Here's what this has created for us. Here's what this has created
for me in here. I cannot rely on my experience. I cannot rely on my training. I cannot rely on a
Google search. I cannot rely on a friend who's gone this before. The only thing that I can rely on as we
go through, as we've gone through, and as we will go through what we are facing now is God. And what is
created in me is a desperate cry. God, not that my will happen, but God, that your will happen. So God,
when we come back, when we gather, when we meet, when we open, when we do ministry, when we add
different things, Lord, and when we take things away, Lord, that it's not our desire, it's not our plans,
but Lord, we're seeking you because that's all that we can seek. That's all that we can trust. That's all
that we can depend on in these days. So church, I'll be honest with you. Whether you agree with me or you disagree
with me, here's what I can promise you. Whether you like the decision or not, that the decisions that I've made
have been based out of a heart of crying for the Lord. And sometimes, sometimes,
we can stand in a wavering confidence, but Micah doesn't. Micah says, God will hear me. The last thing we can
understand in faith is this, that God will deliver me. Micah's words, he will bring me out to the light.
Listen, I don't want to be a fool, and I don't want to be afraid. I want to be obedient.
And that's what God has so taught me in this. I don't want to be a fool, and I don't want to be
afraid, because I know that God will deliver me. Church, there's a great confidence that we can have
as Christians. That whether it's the captivity of the Assyrians, whether it's a virus that spreads all over the
earth, or whether it's anything else, that God has a plan and a purpose for you and for me. And when God's plan is
done for you, and when God's done, a plan is done for me, then he will call me home. This doesn't mean that
I run carelessly to captivity or to a virus, but it doesn't mean that I live in fear either, because I know
that God will deliver me. How do I know that, church? How can we stand in this place and know that above all
of the things that the world throws at us, in spite of all of the things that we see, how can we know
that God will deliver us? Let's keep reading verse 11 as we close out Micah. A day for the building of
your walls. In that day, the boundary shall be far extended. In that day, they will come to you from
Assyria and from the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the river, and from the sea to sea, and from
mountain to mountain. But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their
deeds. Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in the forest in
the midst of a garden land. Let them gaze at Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old, as in the days when
you came out of the land of Egypt. I will show them marvelous things. The nations shall be ashamed of all
their might, and they shall lay their hands on their mouths, and their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust
like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth. They shall come trembling out of their strongholds.
They shall turn in dread to the Lord our God, and they shall be in fear of you, who is a God like you,
pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression from 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 underfoot. You will cast out your 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. Church, here's how we know that God does deliver us because God is a God of victory,
a victory that he speaks to, a victory that he claims. Church, as we go through this season,
as we talk about fear and foolishness, as we talk about all of these things that are encompassing
the conversations that so many of us are having right now, I want to say this. This isn't a message
about whether you should wear a mask or not in public. This is not a message about whether you should go in
restaurants right now or not or get a haircut or not. This isn't a message about whether you should worship
at home next week through the live stream or here on campus with us. This is a message about victory
that is over your circumstances and that is through the surrounding events that encompass our life. This is a
message about victory and where to find it because our victory is found alone, not in a strategy, not in a
plan, not in a president, not in a vaccine, but because our victory is found in the one true God who called
his people and led them out of captivity in Egypt. That our victory is found in the one true God who
empowered and strengthened a boy who took a few stones and killed a giant. Our victory is found in the one true God who
called a little innocent teenage girl who was a virgin to bear the savior of the world who would live a perfect life. Our
victory is found in that baby who lived that perfect life who was fully God and fully man and who died on a cross to take your
punishment and mine and was buried and put into a grave and from that tomb three days later walked out into a new
life and from that promise of life you and I found life as well. That's the victory that we find. So we don't have to
live in ignorance. We don't have to live in fear. We don't have to live inside. We can look at the world that surrounds us
and claim the victory of God that we have. Not victory in the right now, but the victory in
eternity. And so no matter what this world throws at me, that I can rest in him and him alone. Would you pray with me?
God be with us. Lord, in our world that is so divided right now. In many churches that are so divided right
now. Lord, where Satan wants to come into our heart and create division. Lord, when we begin to look out
and we begin to become discouraged as we take our eyes off you and put our eyes on the circumstances. Lord,
have us set our minds on you. To set our mind on heaven. To not only seek it, but to long for it
and to desire. Lord, may we live in victory that comes in a relationship with Christ and Christ alone.
And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast. We hope that you enjoyed listening to
this week's message. If you'd like to learn more about who we are or explore additional resources,
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