In the book of Esther, in chapter 4, we see an
incredible event. Are you familiar with it? Does
anybody know what happens in the book of Esther
in chapter 4? So, Mordecai sends a message. Who's
Mordecai? Mordecai sends a message to Esther
and asks her to go and approach the king. That
sets the stage for the greatest moment of fasting
in the Bible. I mean, every moment of fasting.
When Esther learned that Haman had plotted to
destroy the Jewish people, she understood that
there was really nothing that she could do. No
amount of political skill, personal influence
over the king, none of that was going to help
him. So what she did instead was she asked Mordecai
to ask all of his people in his circle, and also
she asked all of her ladies in her circle. And
she said, go gather together all the Jews and
fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three
days, night or day. That's actually chapter 4,
verse 16. Now, you might think that they were
fasting to change the king's mind. And in the
world, that might be what people think, right?
I can do this. For example, if you're a child
or a teenager and your parents don't give you
one, like go to your room, stalking mad, mope,
tell them you're not going to talk to them for
a couple of days, give them the silent treatment,
and then finally they might change your mind.
You might think that the way that you behaved
is how you elicited the change. That was not
their goal at all. This fasting was not about
changing the king's mind. As I said, Esther already
realized that there was nothing that she could
do to change his mind. What fasting did instead
was prepared Esther's heart. And then just a
second later in that same chapter, she says,
so then after that time, I will go to the king.
And if I perish, I perish. See, she knew that
the fasting might not change the king's mind.
The fasting was not for the purpose of entreating
the king to receive her positively. It was for
preparing her heart that if she should die in
the service of the Lord, she would be right with
God. That's different. Jesus then reinforced
the same principle in the New Testament, in Matthew
6. Jesus says, when you fast, it's an assumption,
not if you fast, but when you fast. And he taught
them that they don't do it for public recognition.
Don't do it out there so everybody can see you.
Don't look all lopey and sad that you're going
without this or that. But as an act of sincere
devotion before the Father. Biblical fasting,
which is our spiritual discipline emphasis for
this sixth month, is not about forcing God's
hand or entreating somebody else to change their
mind. It's about drawing near to God. with humility
and dependence. You are saying, essentially,
Lord, you are more necessary to me than, insert,
whatever you're fasting from. Right? And classic
fasting is food. So, we know that we need food
to survive. We have to eat, or at least take
in nutrients by some means, and if you, God forbid,
you can't eat for some reason, they'll probably
give you a stomach to you, if it ever came to
that. But, bottom line is, you have to take in
nutrients. But you're saying to God, that God,
you are more important to me, than my comfort,
than my sustenance. I need your strength more
than my own strength. And when we receive the
idea of fasting that way, then we, like Esther,
come to the place where we can say, and if I
perish, I perish. Now we may live in a nation
where that may not be required of us in living
for Christ, because in Syria you have religious
freedoms. But there could come a time, situationally
in one person's life, or governmentally, there
may be laws or rules made at some point in time
in our nation. And I wonder, will we wait to
fast and come to the moment of saying, and if
I perish, I perish, until such a time arises?
Or will we remember this spiritual discipline?
I submit to you that as our church, as New Heights
Fellowship, we know that we do not fast to manipulate
God. We fast because we recognize how desperately
we need God. You can do this, and probably should,
before major decisions, difficult conversations,
ministry opportunities, or anticipated spiritual
battles. Fasting reminds us that victory belongs
to the Lord. So I'll ask you today these questions.
I'm going to mull them over in your minds for
a second. In a moment, we're going to pray and
move on, and we'll worship the Lord with our
tithes and offerings and sing a little more.
But don't let this time pass you without dealing
with a few of these things. First, is there a
burden that you have been carrying without first
seeking the Lord in prayer and fasting? I hear
a lot of times people say, well, I prayed about
it. Jesus didn't say if you fast, he said when
you fast. Is there a burden that you have been
dealing with without first seeking the Lord?
first seeking God in prayer and fasting? Is there
a decision that requires more dependence on God
than confidence in yourself? You know, there
really is nothing that's put before you that
you can't just make a decision about. You're
a human being created with free will, a creator
and a destroyer created in the image of God.
You can speak things into existence, create them
with your hands, envision them with your mind,
dream, imagine a future that does not yet exist.
So you can... With any decision that is presented,
you can say, well, this could result in this,
this, or this. You could be a master chess player
who's working on it every single day, and they
think 10, 11 moves ahead for 64 pieces. Did I
get that right? It's not right. How many is it?
32. Anyway, you can do it. The question is, will
you require dependence on God to do it or not?
And the Bible says we are meant to require dependence
on God. Consider then setting aside a meal or
a day to seek the Lord with a focused heart.
Or maybe you look at your life and say, I realize
I have become attached to this thing. I'm spending
a lot of time and effort maintaining my TV series
or my books I'm reading or my recreation, whatever
it might be. And you can say, I'm going to fast
from that for self -discipline purposes and to
focus on the Lord. Ask God then to prepare you
to obey whatever he calls you to do. As I pray
in this moment, I'm going to lead us in a prayer.
A little bit about fasting. A little bit about
fasting. A little bit about worshiping and recognizing
the Lord for who he is. And I ask you to join
me. Would you join me now? Father in heaven,
we pray today that you would teach us to believe
on you. Day in and day out. When we rise and
when we settle for the night. When we sit to
eat or sometimes rush to eat and can't even sit.
When we do the work of the kingdom and when we
enjoy our recreation, hopefully in the way that
we're doing it for you. Lord, we ask you to show
us what dependence looks like. We realize that
dependence does not look like being weak. And
I think that's a lesson of fasting as well. It
takes some effort. It's an intentional choice.
That's why it's called a spiritual discipline.
Because it's a choice. And a choice that then
must be enforced. Lord, I see how when we don't
apply ourselves in the spiritual disciplines,
we kind of languish. We don't grow. We don't
reach for what you would have for us, and when
we're not reaching for what you would have for
us, maybe other things fall in our lap, or we
reach for something else that's proper. No, Lord.
Help us to be dependent on you. I don't think
the world talks about independence. That if you
make enough money, influence enough people, bless
you, that you'll be okay, that you'll do well.
Kind of like the American dream. Here we see
pictured the dream of the kingdom that we belong
to. The dream of the kingdom of God is a man
or a woman dedicated to God, depending on God.
We were made to be in right relationship with
you, and for that we depend upon you. That you
would put us in, that you would keep us in, that
you would walk us through it all, that you would
stay with us through it all, that you would fulfill
all the promises that you have made, and you
are a God who fulfills his promises. Even as
we go to tithes and offerings right now, Lord,
think about that widow who gave her the last
two mites. And it was said that she gave more
than all those who piled in their coins and rang
the horns that day because she gave out of her
need. She gave out of her want. She gave out
of her sacrifice. But we know that that's the
kind of giving that the Bible calls us to now.
We talk a lot about tithing because, of course,
that's still a biblical thing too. But really,
sacrificial giving is the giving of the New Testament.
So that, Lord, today, as we give of our tithes
and offerings, as we say, our 10 % and our whatever
mores, I pray that you'll take that money as
a testimony, as a statement, as an act of worship,
and use it for whatever you would. That the church
would, united, understand your will for us. We
know that in the renewing of our mind is the
ability to understand your good and perfect will.
So as we do that today, Lord, we pray that you'll
take it all and make it all, bless you, whatever
it needs to be. Bless us as we continue to worship
you. Set this people not on a pedestal. Lord,
we don't even pray to be a light on a hill, although
we know that we don't have a choice in that matter.
We already are. We don't pray to be better than
anyone else. We don't pray knowing that we are
better than anyone else. We simply come to you
in dependence today and ask you through the blood
of Jesus, your son, that you take care of us,
provide for us as you promised, protect us as
you promised, purpose us as you promised, and
empower us as you promised. And therefore, we
pray, your will be done here on earth as it is
in heaven. In Jesus' name, amen. I like sports.
I like watching football, but I used to be a
young guy. I used to like playing football, and
then now not so much anymore. And so I don't
watch as much football as I used to watch either.
I like to watch baseball, but I prefer to play
baseball. And so I play softball, so I don't
watch very much baseball anymore. But I remember
a number of times watching the Super Bowl, and
you're familiar with that, or even the Rose Bowl.
And at the Super Bowl and the Rose Bowl, ultimately
there is a victor, a person who wins. The coach,
the quarterback, the team wins the game. And
a lot of times the team will say, well, it was
my line, or the quarterback says, it was my line
that protected me and did a great job, that did
the team do a great job. This was a whole team
effort. And I kind of like doing that. So right
after the game, the announcers do a lot of analyzing
the game. They did it by ball control. They kept
the ball for a long period of time, and that
really did it. Or he really made this work. was
the one who scored 200 yards today. He's the
one who made the victory possible. A lot of analyzing
that. And then right after they get to talking
about what it was about the winning team that
made them win, and maybe a little bit about what
it was about the losing team that made them lose,
right after that, they start talking about the
winning team in another way. Think about it for
a second for the sports people that are in the
room. They start looking at that Super Bowl team
or that Rose Bowl college team, and they start
asking a certain question. You know what question
I'm thinking of? Say it again. I'll talk about
after what could they have done better. What's
the next topic? Yep. Can they do it again? That's
the next topic, right? So in the college, a lot
of that has to do with, well, they've got 13
seniors rotating off this year, including the
quarterback, the running back, and three linemen,
right? And so they've got some good up -and -comers,
but... Maybe not. In the pro team, they're stacked
to do it again. These guys are all young and
strong, and they're blowing away. They'll do
it again for sure. They'll be a contender next
year for sure. And that becomes the topic. Can
they do it again? I submit to you that victories
carry with them a certain impetus, a desire to
have more victories. And that, as well as some
other things that we're going to see today, creates
a certain result. And so be careful. Be careful
in your victories to ensure that they are godly
victories. What we're going to see in the book
of Judges today is a victory that is not godly
and a result that is very sad. And so grab your
Bibles, if you would, and turn with me to Judges
chapter 18. Okay, Mark, come on. Is there anybody
out there? All right, we'll try it again. Turn
with me to Judges chapter 18. Thank you. This
is God's Word. Whatever I get right or wrong
in what I have written about it, God's Word will
never fail you. So if a whole other sermon comes
into your heart and into your head because the
Holy Spirit is putting it there today, I suggest
you listen and respond accordingly. So we're
going to do it a little differently today than
we usually do it. Instead of reading all of Judges
18 and then going back and breaking down each
part, which I love doing it that way, we're going
to read the parts as we go. That will be in the
interest of time. So before we go into 18, consider
this, that it is true in the world in general
that culture measures everything by results.
How well you succeeded determines whether or
not what you did was the right thing. If the
business grows, it must have been right. If the
church gets bigger, God must be blessing it.
If the plan succeeds, it must have been God's
will. But scripture repeatedly teaches from beginning
to end something completely different from that.
Proverbs 14, 12, which we're a little familiar
with, I hope, because we used it last week as
part of the sermon. There is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the
ways of death. So you can look at a way and say
this way looks right, but the end of it is death.
And that death is talking about could be death
of your body, but also could be referring to,
and probably is, that spiritually we're separated
from God, and we don't have that oneness or that
unity with God that we would like to have or
should have. We see many times in Scripture where
people didn't really do anything wrong, and everything
goes wrong. And so it is not as simple as looking
at whether or not things went right to determine
whether or not right choices were made. Job did
not do anything to have all of his children killed,
to have his house destroyed, Everything lost,
right? That was not because of punishment. It
was because the devil wanted to test it. And
the Lord gave him permission to do so, probably
knowing what no one would do. That story repeats
itself. There are a lot of times when people
face suffering, and their suffering is not a
direct response to the choices that they've made.
Now, are we all worthy of suffering? Do we all
have sin and therefore possibly the ways of death?
Yes. For the grace of God, it is possible for
us to also enjoy great blessings of the Lord.
The bottom line is, it's never so clear as success
means it was done right. So Judges 18, then,
looks at a tremendous military success. You may
or may not know some of the history. I'm pulling
it in a little bit as we go. The tribe of Dan,
at the time of the book of Judges, has not settled
into the lands that they were said that they
would take. Okay, so they're supposed to take
over all the lands, kick out all the people that
were there before, and kill as necessary everyone
who would not retreat. And Dan has not done that.
And in this story, they will finally receive
a territory and mark out the area that they're
supposed to be in. They will win a huge battle.
They will gain a city. They will establish worship.
By human standards, it looks like everything
is going according to God's promises being fulfilled.
And at the end of the chapter, we will see...
one of the greatest, darkest spiritual tragedies
in Israel's history. Something, the greatest
danger sometimes arises out of these successes
and victories. So first of all, look with me
then at Judges chapter 18. We're going to read
verses 1 to 6, and it says in 18, 1. In those
days, there was no king of Israel. And in those
days, the tribe of the Danites was seeking an
inheritance for themselves to live in. For until
that day, and inheritance had not been allotted
to them as a possession among the tribes of Israel.
So they hadn't figured out where they were supposed
to settle yet, even though it's been generations.
So the sons of Dan sent from their family five
men, out of their whole number, valiant men from
Zorah and Eshto, to spy out the land and to explore
it. And they said to them, go explore the land.
And they came to the hill country of Ephraim.
Now you know that's where... The guy that we've
been reading about lives, right? You remember
he's there, that guy Micah. First he had his
son be his priest, and then later he hired a
guy. So that's the guy that we've been reading
about. So he said, go explore the land. And they
came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house
of Micah and stayed overnight there. When they
were near the house of Micah, they recognized
the voice of the young man, the Levite. And they
turned aside. They turned aside there and said
to him, who brought you here? And what are you
doing in this place? And what do you have here?
He said to them, Micah has done this and that
for me, and he has hired me, and I have become
his priest. Then they said to him, inquire of
God, please, that we may know whether our way
on which we are going will be successful. And
the priest said to them, go in peace. Your way
in which you are going has the Lord's approval.
That takes us through verse 6. Notice that they
said to him, ask counsel, we pray thee of God.
They arrive at Micah's house, but notice what
they don't do. There's not a question about the
stolen idols. There's not a question about a
graven image. There's not a question about a
molten image that's carved out. That's all against
God's commands. These are valiant, honorable
men amongst the tribe of Dan. So we can reasonably
expect that those people represent the faith
beliefs of the tribe of Dan. And they don't question
the fact that this guy is a priest and he's not
supposed to be. This is a temple that's set up
there where it's not supposed to be. This has
idols in it and it's not supposed to be. They
don't even ask. They don't even think about it.
Rather, this homemade priesthood seems perfectly
acceptable. That makes sense to us. They don't
take the high ground of speaking out against
graven images. They don't question why worship
is taking place outside the place that God has
appointed. They simply just join right in. Idolatry,
introduced in Judges 17, has already become ordinary
in all the tribe of Dan. This is one of Satan's
greatest strategies. Satan rarely begins by convincing
people that sin is a good thing, because that's
kind of black and white. We kind of feel it.
We kind of know it. Rather, he convinces them
that it's normal. That it's what everybody does.
Even saying, I'll take care of it. You hear things
like, everyone will lie, right? Or, trust me,
my reasons for not being there, even though I
said I would be there, are sufficient. I made
a commitment, and I can't come now because X
interfered. And that's acceptable, right? No.
Actually, it's not acceptable. You say, I know
what I'm doing, and we expect everybody to believe
us, even though... They know, and we know, and
everyone knows that we've made mistakes before,
and this one could be just as much a mistake
as the last, or it could be right, but how are
they supposed to know that? They're just supposed
to take our workflow. Or even things like, I
said so. Think then on these scriptures, and
I'll just, I'm going to read them to you. If
you're a note taker, write down the references.
If you're a fast Bible flipper, you can go there,
but I'm not going to take time for us to turn
notes. Romans 12, 2, for example, which says,
and be not conformed to this world. Don't be
like what's normal, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, so that you may what?
Prove, or you may test, what the will of God
is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
So there is a way for you to, by participating
in the renewing of your mind, seek knowing what
is good and acceptable and perfect according
to God. Isaiah 5 .20 says this, Woe to those
who call evil good and good evil, who substitute
darkness for light and light for darkness, who
substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
You see, we're living in a world where words
are getting redefined and people are saying,
this is okay. And God says, it's not okay. And
then people are joining. And do you know that
in one of the greatest proponents of Adolf Hitler
at the beginning of World War II, you know who
one of the greatest proponents of Adolf Hitler
in? Germany at the beginning of World War II
was? The Christian church. They had him in their
pulpits. They talked about him every Sunday and
how he was turning the nation in the right direction.
The Christian church. Do you think knowing the
mind of Christ they should have been endorsing
a man who would do what he was already doing,
even though it wasn't public everything that
he was doing yet and what he would do? Or should
they have been saying by the renewing of their
mind, there's something wrong here. Be careful
about jumping on the bandwagon. of this individual,
we can already feel by the leadership of the
Lord that something's not right. Exodus 20, verses
3 to 5 says, You shall have no other gods before
me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or
any likeness of what is in heaven, above, or
on the earth, beneath, in the water, under the
earth. You shall not worship them or serve them,
for I, the Lord, I am the Lord your God. I'm
sorry, I, the Lord, your God, am the jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers, hang
on, on the children, on the third and fourth
generations of those who hate me, but showing
loving kindness to those who love me and keep
my commandments. And that's really a significant
statement, directly contrary to everything that's
going on in our text today. But listen to Deuteronomy
12. And this one will touch your heart a little
bit. It says, but you shall seek the Lord at
the place. Remember, Shiloh is in Ephraim within
walking distance. Micah's house is within walking
distance of the temple dedicated to the Lord.
Not easy walking distance, but they walk long
ways, right? So you shall seek the Lord at the
place with the Lord your God will choose from
all your tribes. To establish his name, therefore,
his dwelling, and there you shall come. Let's
lay it out really clearly. He says, You shall
not do at all what we are doing here today. every
man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.
Do you hear that? That's everything that they're
doing in the book of Judges. That phrase has
repeated a bunch of times, every man doing what
was right in his own eyes. And he was saying,
don't do that. Don't do what's right in your
own eyes. He says, for you have not as yet come
to the resting place and the inheritance which
the Lord your God is giving you. When you cross
the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord
your God is giving you to inherit, and he gives
you rest from all your enemies, around you so
that you live in security, then it shall come
about that place in which the Lord your God will
choose for his name to dwell. There you shall
bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings,
your sacrifice, your tithes, and the contribution
of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings,
which you will bow to the Lord. And you shall
rejoice before the Lord your God, and you and
your sons and daughters, your male and female
servants, and the Levite who is within your gates,
since he has no portion of inheritance with you.
Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings
in every cultic place you see, but in the place
where the Lord chooses in one of your tribes.
There you shall offer your burnt offerings, and
there you shall do all that I command you. So
it's worth noting that societal position, arrival
being an expert in the eyes of others to accept
the ungodly way, your godly life. You know, they
look at you and say, hey, that's a Christian.
And you're living a certain way. And they look
to you, and now you have authority. They're seeing
how you're living. So it's worthwhile noting
that if you want to be a Christian and live out
in society, you can go out there and tell them
all kinds of things. And that's not where they're
supposed to get it from. They're not supposed
to get it from you. Or if they're getting it
from you, then I'm sure that whatever they're
getting from you is coming from them. It's not
your story to make up. It's not my story when
I'm out walking the streets to make up. We are
the church. The church answers to God. We are
the body of Christ, and we answer to our head,
Christ. If people want the answers to the dilemmas
of the universe, they should come to the church,
because the church is the one whom God has made
his agent on earth in our day. The Danites actually
asked this false priest. This guy has no authority
whatsoever. He is a sinner against God, worshiping
idols. outside the temple that God has destructed.
And he has no authority whatsoever. And the Danites
come to him and ask, you know how many times
I've had people come to me and say, I kind of
like you, you look good, you've got a tie on.
What about this? How do you prefer to live my
life? And if my answers are not from the God
of the universe, then my answers are worthless.
They're worse than worthless. They wanted God's
blessings without God's authority. And this guy
was their best chance. Which you can be for people.
Just the same as he was. But religion without
obedience always creates counterfeit comfort.
If you're not following God, if that is not your
choice, if you're not doing what it is that God
wants you to do, you will find yourself at peace,
as long as you don't think about it very much.
Like that line from popular TV a while back that
says, it makes perfect sense if you don't think
about it. And that's how the world is living.
And they will look to you as an expert. in counterfeit
comfort. I want you to think for a moment about
a bank where everybody in the bank is using counterfeit
money. All the tellers have counterfeit money,
all the deposits, everybody has counterfeit money.
No one questions it because everyone else is
accepting it. They don't look to see whether
the money is counterfeit because they assume
someone else has checked to see if it's counterfeit.
Being the fastest counter or holding the greatest
quantity of that worthless money would still
be a position of great honor. And it's like that
in fake churches in the world. Now, I'm not judging
any one church, but I will tell you, there are
things and people out there who call themselves
churches that definitely are not. The government
recognizes churches in the United States of America,
calls them religious or faith bodies, that are
clearly not churches as Christ commanded. They
don't even pretend to be. And yet they are recognized
in that way. Employee of the Month in our fake...
Money bank might well be best at dealing with
concerns of those who start to wonder about the
counterfeit nature of the money. Somebody comes
in their bank and says, yeah, this doesn't look
quite right. Is this real? And they deal with
it. They're like, oh, it is. It's no problem.
Let me convince you. Here's the arguments for
it. The money is definitely good. You're fine.
Just take it and go. And because they're able
to. or stall concerns about people who think
the money might be counterfeit, they now win
the day. They get their picture up on the wall,
and they get the trophy every couple of months,
and they get the raises, etc. You and I cannot
be that. We can't. We have to be true. We have
to follow the Lord of the universe and his promises
of fulfillment. God's truth never changes when
public opinion changes. The right direction is
almost always different from what is everyone
else doing. The only place that you might find
that that's the right direction is when you're
surrounded by a loyal people of God. I suggest
you find one of those. In fact, I suggest you
may have found one of those. And then you can
look around and see what other people are doing.
And if you see them not doing what's right, then
you can Matthew 18 accountability, hold them
accountable so that we can be a people that are
doing what's right. But you can know that the
right direction is rarely what everyone else
is doing. The question, rather, is what has God
said? Back to his word. Back to the spirit. Back
to his presence. When you feel him pushing you
in a certain direction, you cross -check it with
the word of God. You listen to the sermon. You
study the Bible. And you say, yes, between what
God's word says and what the spirit is saying
to me, I know this is the right thing. That brings
us to the second point, then. Which is that success
is never God's standard for truth. Success is
never God's standard for truth. Notice then,
beginning in verse 7, it says this. So the five
men departed and came to Laish. And they saw
the people who were in it living in security,
in the way of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting.
For there was no oppressive ruler humiliating
them for anything in the land. And they were
far from the Sidonians. and had no dealings with
anyone. So this is a cut -off society that's
not connected. Notice it's not an Israelite society,
and Dan has the commission to push out people
who live in this land. So if they push them out,
then they are doing what God said that they could
do. So this looks like maybe a good deal. Verse
8. When they came back to their brothers at Zorah
and Eshdeel, their brothers said to them, What
do you say? And they said, Arise, and let us
go up against them. But we have seen the land,
and behold, it is very good. And will you sit
still? Do not hesitate to go, to enter, to take
possession of the land. When you enter, you will
come to an unsuspecting people with a spacious
land, for God has handed it over to you, a place
where there is no lack of anything that is on
the earth. Then, Okay, so they set out. Where
are they going? They're going up to that city
that they found that was Iceland, Laís. isolated
from everybody else. It doesn't have easy reinforcements,
but it's a beautiful land with lots of stuff
in it. It's a great place for Dan to settle.
That's what they're thinking. And they've been
told by this fake priest that their plan would
go well. And they did go up and spy out. That
was their plan. So they've had success. But they
come first to the house of Michael. Then the
five men who went to spy out the country of Laish
said to their kinsmen, do you know that there
are in these houses an ephod, and household idols,
and a carved image, and a cast So they turned
aside there, came to the house of the young man,
the Levite, to the house of Micah, and asked
him how he was doing. Meanwhile, the 600 men
armed with their weapons of war, who were of
the sons of Dan, were positioned at the entrance
of the gate. That's got to be intimidating. Now
the five men who went to spy out the land went
up and entered there. They took the carved image,
the ephod, the household idols, and the cast
metal image. While the priest was standing at
the entrance of the gate with the 600 men armed
with weapons in war, when these men entered Micah's
house and took the carved image, the ephod, the
household idols, and the cast metal image, the
priest said to them, What are you doing? And
they said to him, Be silent. Put your hand over
your mouth and go with us and be to us a father
and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest
to the house of one man or to be a priest to
a tribe and a family in Israel? The priest's
heart was glad. And he took the ephod, the household
idols, and the carved image, and went among the
people. So the priest says, go in peace before
the Lord is your way wherein you go. He sends
them off. Then they go spy out the land. They
come back. They get all their brothers, all their
weapons. They come up here to Micah's house.
Now the priest is enlisted to come and be their
priest. Everything appears to happen exactly
as predicted. They find an unsuspecting city.
The attack succeeds. Their army is going to win.
They are going to do something amazing. They
can see that already right now. Everything seems
to be working. But this is where countless believers
become confused. We're assuming that it's working
because it's right. It's working because it's
what God wants. We say, it must have been God.
But God's approval is never measured by immediate
success. The enemy will argue for it. Demons
and evil spirits will shriek how they were right.
See, we were right. We took you in the right
direction because you agreed with them. And your
flesh nature will want to agree with them again
because it worked last time. So they came, they
consulted the priest, and they went up and they
spied out the land and everything went perfectly.
Now they've rallied this huge army to go up there
and take the city. Even your mind. By liberal
application of your reasoning, you'll figure
this out and say, hmm, the road that led to victory
must have been endorsed by God. It just makes
sense. But Jesus said it this way in Matthew
7, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does
the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.
Now before we go any further, let me just ask
you, did Micah do the will of God? Did the priest
do the will of God? Did the spies do the will
of God? Is the army doing the will of God? As
a people, they have accepted idolatrous worship
and leadership of a false priest as the reason
for doing what they're doing. They're not doing
the will of God. And yet they are expecting great
blessings and then attributing those blessings
to God. Hear me now to say to you simply, if
your life is blessed and you are not doing the
will of God, Those blessings are not coming from
God. You can become rich. You can become at peace.
You can praise yourself and stop arguing with
yourself and feel perfectly calm in your current
course of action. But if you are not following
God and doing as what God would have you to do,
then you can safely trust this one fact, that
the blessings you're receiving were not sent
by the Lord. Every good thing comes from God
in heaven. But a blessing... that supports your
wicked way, is not actually a good thing. And
did not come from the Lord. Rather, Jesus says,
many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord,
did we not prophecy in your name? I submit to
you, did not that priest prophecy to those men
in the name of the Lord? He did. But was he actually
speaking for God? No, because he wasn't living
for God. He wasn't connected to the commands
of the Lord. Many will say to me on that day,
Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name,
and in your name cast out demons, and in your
name we were winning miracles? And then I will
declare to them, I never knew you, depart from
me, you who practice lawlessness. Deuteronomy
13 says it this way, and this will blow your
mind if you just make the connection with the
story of Micah. It says, if a prophet or a dreamer
of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign
or a wonder, in other words, if he can do something
miraculous, let's say he heals a lame man, Or
he wakes the dead. The dead person brings them
back to life or whatever. It doesn't matter what
the sign or wonder might be. It says, and the
sign of the wonder comes true concerning which
he spoke to you, saying, let us go after other
gods whom you have not known and let us serve
them. So in other words, we have this guy who
can do these miraculous things, yet his life
says, let's follow false gods. Let's be into
this thing that the world's into. Let's collect
these things that the world collects. Let's find
our success in these successes that the world
says are successes. If he would do that, it says,
verse 3, You shall not listen to the words of
that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the
Lord your God is testing you to find out if you
love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul. See, they were warm as a
people. Moses warned them before they went to
the promised land that there would be these people
who could seemingly do amazing things. Why did
didn't they go back to that priest? They went
back because he told the five spies that they
would have success in going up there. And they
did. They said, well, this guy's the real deal.
And here we have Moses saying, when you think
he's the real deal, be careful. The real deal
listens to God, follows to God. The last of that,
verse five says, so you shall purge the evil
from among you. which comes right before 1 -9,
which is the one that says, be strong and courageous.
The book of the law shall not depart from your
mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night,
so that you may be careful to do according to
all that is written in it, for then you will
make your way prosperous, and then you will have
success. You can see where the problem arises,
because the word says, if you will do all that
God has said to you, then you will have prosperity
and success. So then when we see somebody who
has prosperity and success, It's kind of natural
to assume that maybe they did what God wanted
them to do. Except that's not the order of things.
If you have the prosperity and success without
doing what God wanted you to do, then that prosperity
and success did not come from the Lord. In the
early days of teen and young adult ministry,
pastor, youth director, really, they didn't call
me pastor there, youth director at East Toledo,
and then came to New Heights, and I was leading
the youth group for a while, and then Chris Mitchell
did it for a while, and I was helping her, and
then I was doing it again for a while. And all
that time, I learned something about young people.
Young people, listen, this is huge. And if you've
got a young person who's ready to come up in
your midst, pay attention, because this is huge.
Young people want what old people have. They
want houses, cars, successful careers. They want
families, etc. But here's what young people don't
want. They don't want to endure the work that
old people went through to get there. And I get
it. Because I was a young person and I was in
the exact same way. When I was at Radio Shack
back in the day, 19 years old, computers were
just becoming a thing. I was a salesman at Radio
Shack. And I was very successful in selling at
Radio Shack. But I was spending every penny I
made. I had a girlfriend who liked to eat out
and go see the point and stuff. And so I was
spending the money. As fast as it could have
been, I was spending it. As fast as it could
have been. And then they came out with a 286
megahertz computer. Can't even call it a PC because
that term was kind of coined later. Computer
that could fly at 286 megahertz. The computer
boss was going, what? That's not fast. It's not
fast, right? And I wanted that bad boy. I'm like,
how much is it? $1 ,200. That's a lot of money.
That's like three, four paychecks. And I don't
have it because I spent everything that I got.
So I got a RadioShack credit card with a $500
limit on it. That's not near enough to buy a
$1 ,200 computer. So then I went out and got
a Citibank credit card with like a $700 limit
on it. And between the two, and then I paid a
little bit of extra cash, I bought that computer,
maxed out both of those credit cards. Why? Because
I wasn't willing to wait another month and not
spend my money during that month to have the
money to buy the computer that I could afford
because I was making good money. But I wasn't
willing to do that because I wanted it right
then. So I maxed out both credit cards. Now I
not only had to pay off. the balance of the computer.
But on top of that, interest rates were high.
So I paid off like another 20 % accumulating
every month. And instead of paying it off in
a month, which I could have done if I had just
worked my butt off and stopped spending all that
money. Instead, I paid it off in a year and a
half. And that $1 ,200 computer cost me about
two grand. I get it. We all get it. Every person
that's over the hill in this room has been there
and done that. Young people, listen to me. There
is work to get where you're going. It is work.
to do the things that God has asked you to do.
But it is a yoke that God will help you carry
and you can build a life that will honor the
Lord. If you go another route, you might get
there faster. The dark side is faster. But you'll
not be where you want to be. You'll not be walking
with the Lord. You'll not be spiritually alive
inside. Psalm 1, verse 1 to 3 says this. How
blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel
of the wicked. Watch out. There are a lot of
people who will tell you. And some of them will
wear a collar or a tie. Some of them will bring
money. They'll bring a word that's charming,
better than me. I don't speak that way. I get
that. Right? But this is from God, not from me.
The book of the law shall not depart from your
mouth. How blessed is the man who does not walk
in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the
path of the sinner. Do you see the difference?
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight,
that would be your delight, young man, young
woman, my delight, is in the law of the Lord.
And in his law, he meditates day and night. He
will be like a tree firmly planted by streams
of water, which yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither. And whatever he
does, he prospers. But it's really easy, then,
to look at somebody who seems to be planted by
a stream of water, who seems to be getting money
coming in on a consistent basis, who seems to
be dressed nice, who seems to be able to talk
nice, or maybe they have a bigger vocabulary,
or they have a high reading level, or they have
a better education, and to think that, well,
those are the things that I need, and to look
at how they got to where they are, and to try
to follow the same path by which they went, not
realizing that it's not godly. The order is different.
First, make sure that you are following God.
First, make sure that your counsel is coming
from somebody who respects the Lord. First, make
sure that your choices are submitted to what
the Word of God sends. Then, God will add in
prosperity. Out of that, he'll make you as if
you are planted by a stream, forever watered
from underneath. And so when you might be ruffled
on the surface and struggling and trying to get
by, inside you'll be filled up with a power.
and a glory and a grace and a mercy and a kindness
and fruit of the Spirit that will see you through
difficult times. You wonder why people are scratching
and clawing and trying to get forward? Because
people don't understand that the goal is not
to try to get forward. The goal is to get deep,
is to reside in the Lord and the rest. You're
better off to be broke and depending on God than
to be rich and not be able to find Him anywhere.
1 Samuel 15, 22, To obey is better than sacrifice.
Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the
Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams. The
Danites wanted reassurance more than they wanted
revelation. The priests became their spiritual
mascot. FYI, I am not applying to be your spiritual
mascot, nor is anyone else in this church. You
want to learn about Jesus? Look to Jesus. Can
Jesus use people to do that? Yes. but at any
point in time that any person or thing interferes
with him doing that, you don't look to them,
you look to him. The priest became their spiritual
mascot. It becomes comforting to honor the one
who takes on the name of a godly one, and it's
more comfortable because honoring an actual godly
one would have meant repentance. I've gone out
visiting people's houses who are in the church,
and I've gone out visiting people's houses who
are in the world, and I'm just... generalizing
when I say that. I visited people in their homes
who maybe knew Jesus, maybe didn't. By their
profession, they did. But they don't go to church
anywhere. They're not learning from the Bible.
They don't have a pastor. Right? I knock on the
door. Who's there? Pastor Dan from New Heights.
Oh, come in! Come in! I've gone and stood with
them in their kitchens while they were cooking
their dinner and they begged me to stay and eat
with them. I've gone and sat in their living
room where they brought me ice cold water and
snacks and almost like honored me as being a
pastor of New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church
and the positive things that comes out of that
name. You don't know this necessarily, but New
Heights Fellowship Baptist Church is well looked
upon in the entire city because they hear my
own personal calls, because they hear our podcast,
because they get delivered. groceries from the
life station, because they've been to our block
parties, right? We are affecting people all over
the place because they talk to Holly and Chris
and constantly hand them the church information
at the front door at the life station. It's constant,
right? So thousands and thousands of people.
So I'll go, Pastor Dan from New York, oh, come
in. And I've stood with them while they cooked
their dinner, and I've sat in their chair, and
they brought me ice -cold water. And at the same
time, I've gone to Christians' homes in this
church, and I'm not scolding anybody, where they
were too busy to receive me. Or they said, hey,
you know, We're kind of busy right now, could
you come back another day? Or come on in, come
on in, but I'm working on this car, or I'm working
on this project, or I'm doing something, I'm
too busy to talk to you right now, but you're
welcome to come on and hang out. See, the ungodly
of the world want to latch on to the godly. You
will find favor by walking with the Lord amongst
the ungodly because it's easier to latch on to
you than it is to latch on to Jesus. In fact,
a person cannot latch on to Jesus in their own
strength. Jesus latches on to them. And so in
this case, they chose a priest who was not godly
because it was easier to latch on to a priest
that was godly. And if they had gone to Shiloh,
there might have been great shame in the fact
of how their people had accepted so readily idolatry
and listened to false prophets. His prediction
gave them emotional confidence. Everyone found
in themselves a desire for everything to just
be okay. They wanted victory. They were told
they would have it. That sounds good to them.
This priest's office gave religious credibility.
His robe, his idols, his titles, his endorsements.
None of these things could actually give divine
approval because that man was not divinely approved.
People often look for someone who will bless
the direction that they've already chosen. I
remember when we bought that house up in Michigan,
a loan officer said, you can do it, you can afford
the boat. We were never supposed to buy that
house for young Christians at the time. And ran
on ahead of God. He told us where we were supposed
to live, we were not supposed to buy it. God
calls us to seek his will before, all caps, before
choosing our direction. By now, everybody has
some form of GPS, usually, at their accessibility.
I've seen that yesterday that 90 % of Americans
own a car, and that 90 -some percent of the people
who own a car use GPS in some fashion. Did you
know that GPS can take you the wrong way to get
where you're going? Now, you've probably noticed
on your GPS, on your phone, iPhone, Android,
whatever, that it'll say this route has a similar
arrival time. And you might pick three or four
routes that have a similar arrival time, right?
But one of those routes, the road might be rougher.
It might require more turns. Traffic could be
developing right then and that moment, and the
satellite hasn't caught up yet. A road could
be closed, and the programming might not be in
there yet to tell you that the road is closed.
The GPS can take you down a route that is not
the right route. But people always say, well,
I got here. It said it would take me 11 minutes,
and I got here in 11 minutes. So that must have
been the right route, right? Maybe not. What
if it's not? What if the other route, you've
been driving on past a gas station, you go, oh,
there's a gas station there. I need gas. I'm
at like three -eighths of a tank. I may as well
get it now so I don't have to get it the next
day. You stop and you get it. Then the next day,
you don't have to stop at a time when you really
needed to not stop. While you're at the gas station,
maybe the person behind the counter needs a little
witness, a little encouragement, a God bless
you, something like that. And the GPS route that
took you the other way didn't take you past the
gas station at all. So there's nobody to win
to Christ. You arrive in 11 minutes, you assume
it's the right way. Why not get in your car before
you press... on the directions to pray and see
if it's the way that God wants you to go. Oh,
but yes, the GPS is easy. And it does always
get me there. This is exactly what I'm talking
about. It's the human mentality to assume that
if we arrive at the destination, the directions
that we took to get there must have been right.
A church can grow through entertainment. A business
can prosper dishonestly. A family can accumulate
wealth, stability, education, physical health.
All while drifting spiritually. Success proves
ability. Only scripture proves obedience. The
standard is not, did it work? The standard is,
did God command it? Is my path holy and righteous?
There is a moment in time you can get too far.
And that is exactly what the tribe of Dan does.
This victory becomes the most dangerous victory
of Dan, bringing us to our third point. Look
at verse 21, and we'll finish the chapter. 21.
Then they turned and left. And they put the children
and the livestock and the valuables in front
of them. And when they had distanced themselves
from Micah's house, The men who were in the houses
near Micah's house assembled by command and overtook
the sons of Dan. When they called out to the
sons of Dan who turned around and said to Micah,
what's the matter with you that you have assembled
together? So the people from the house of Micah,
they don't want the priest to be taken. They
don't want the stuff to be taken. They're going
after the tribe of Dan to try to stop it. Verse
24, he said, you've taken my gods, which I made,
and the priest. and have gone away, what more
do I have? So how can you say, notice he said,
what more do I have? And that's a place that
you can get to when you're in false worship.
You can think that you don't need God, you have
this, and now that's taken away, and you wind
up with nothing. So how can you say to me, what
is the matter with you? Then the sons of Dan
said to him, do not let your voice be heard among
us, or else fierce men will attack you, and you
will lose your life and the lives of your household.
So the sons of Dan went on their way. And when
Micah saw that they were too strong for him,
he returned and went back to his house. By the
way, that's pretty much the end of his story
there. They took what Micah had made, and the
priest who had belonged to him, and came to Laish,
to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck
them with the edge of the sword, and they burned
the city with fire. And there was no one to save
them, because it was far from Sidon, and they
had no dealings with anyone, and it was in the
valley, which is near Beth Rehob. So they rebuilt
the city, and they lived in it, and they named
the city Dan, after the name of Dan, their father,
who was born to Israel. However, the name of
the city was previously Laish. The sons of Dan
set up for themselves the carved image, Jonathan
the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh. He and
his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites
until the day of the captivity of the land. So
they set up for themselves Micah's carved image,
which he had made. All the time that the house
of God was in Shiloh. That last part was poetic.
They set up a temple within walking distance
of the temple. Everything that God had promised
the tribe seems to be happening. So they were
told that they would go and take the people out
of the land and take it over. And it was a prosperous
land and they would be great. They got land now.
They got security. They got inheritance. They
got victory. But notice the tragic ending. And
they set them up Micah's raven image. Instead
of establishing worship centered on God, they
institutionalized, permanentized idolatry. Now
they will false worship all the way until the
people of God go into captivity. In a second
you'll see it's even a little worse than that.
One writer commented that they may have done
this by way of an apology to God for not having
honored Shiloh. So they set the temple up, dedicated
a lot of money to it, a lot of effort to it,
to kind of say to God, God, we're sorry that
we're not going to Shiloh. We want to worship
you. Look at all that we've dedicated to your
service. Let me tell you that an apology with
a reason sounds a lot like not an apology. Somebody
says to you, I'm sorry, but blah, blah, blah.
It doesn't really seem like an apology, right?
An apology that gives a reason that persists
is actually no apology at all. If the reason
for the bad behavior is good, then that reason
or another reason would be sufficient to repeat
the same bad behavior in the future. For example,
if I say to you, well, I'm sorry, but you said
the wrong thing and it upset me and that's why
I did what I did. Then that's no apology, because
if you say the wrong thing in the future, I'm
going to do it again. Right? And that's the problem.
That's why a lot of times you talk to me and
you say, I'm sorry, but... it doesn't feel like
an apology to them because you're basically giving
your excuse to be bad again. And that's what
they were doing. They might have been apologizing
to God, but if they were, they were doing it
by way of saying, we're going to keep doing this
bad that we're doing. In this case, the victory
becomes the birthplace of generations of false
worship. They lock their children and their grandchildren
and every person that will come to live in the
city of Dan into false worship. What looked like
freedom becomes spiritual slavery. God had always
intended for Dan to possess an inheritance. He
was always going to give them a place if they'd
just be faithful. And now they have it, it's
true, but God never intended them to gain it
by stealing idols, by recruiting an illegitimate
priest, and by ignoring his commands. God's promises
are inseparable from God's character. You understand?
If you say, God told me to do this, but the thing
that God is telling you to do does not match
up with God's character, then one thing or the
other is true. Either the thing that you're saying
is true is a lie, or we misunderstand God's character.
And according to being a Christian and what it
means to have God in your life, we don't misunderstand
God's character. That creates a problem. God's
promises are inseparable from his character.
His blessings are designed to produce... Holiness.
Whenever we pursue God's gifts without God's
ways, the gift itself becomes, wait for it, bondage.
Now you're trapped. You see, you have to repeat.
You have to again say, I got great victory by
not following God. I'm not going to repent and
turn to God because I don't want to admit that
I did all these things not following God. But
now I need victory again. In order to keep proving
that you're not walking away from God, you have
to keep finding bigger and better victories.
It becomes like an addiction, and you're in bondage
to your own success. And people do that until
it is their whole life. Galatians 6 says, Do
not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever
a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one
who sowed to his own flesh will from the flesh
reap corruption, but the one who sowed to the
Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due
time we will reap if we do not grow weary. Do
it right. Do the right thing, and in time you
will be blessed. Farmers go off, put the seed
in the ground. They don't go the next day to
harvest. They harvest when the seed grows to
a crop. So do the work of the Lord and let the
Lord bless you in the Lord's time. That's what
it says. James 3 .17 says this, But the wisdom
from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle,
reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering
without hypocrisy. Psalms 37 says this, I have
seen a wicked, violent man spreading himself
like a luxuriant tree in its native soil. See,
I've seen a wicked guy. That man is doing awesome.
He's doing great. Then he passed away, and lo,
he was no more. I sought for him, but he could
not be found. Mark the blameless man, and behold
the upright. For the man of peace will have a
posterity. A posterity means you'll go on, and
the effects of you being in the world will last
beyond your lifetime. But transgressors will
be altogether destroyed. The posterity of the
wicked will be cut off. but the salvation of
the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength
in time of trouble. And then the prophet Micah,
he has told you, O man, what is good, and what
does the Lord require of you, but to do justice,
to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your
God. And then Jesus said, if you love me, you
will keep my commandments. God never separates
destination from discipleship. If you cannot
grow as a Christian in the process of getting
where you are going, then you are going to the
wrong place. If you cannot grow as a Christian
while reaching the destination that you've plotted
the course to, then the course you have plotted
and by very good likelihood the destination you
are headed for are both flat out wrong. A builder
may finish a beautiful house without a foundation.
My parents' house in Tennessee was built during
World War II. We had to turn in ration certificates
to get bricks. We had an extremely limited supply
of bricks. So they built the house without a
foundation. Now you can set a matchbox car at
one end of the kitchen and it will roll to the
other end by itself. You can trip getting up
in the middle of the night to walk to the bathroom
over the floor because the bathroom floor is
two feet higher than the bedroom floor because
there was no foundation. But you know, when he
built that house, it looked good. It looked perfect.
It was sitting on piles of block, the little
bit that they could get. But over time, the ground
settled in various places. And then over top
of that, they would put in trims. My parents
paid a guy $30 ,000 to put a foundation under
the house. And he told them that when he put
that foundation under and leveled the house,
that it would all kind of level back out. The
floors would go back to being horizontal and
everything would be good. Except that somebody
had built in trim and cabinets and everything
else while the floor was already tipped. So there
were so many nails resisting. That no matter
how much they jack the house, all they could
do was bust the cabinets off the walls and break
up the trim and the floor and never level. You
need a foundation. And you may look pretty for
a while not having one. And everybody would think
about how smart he is, how fast he is, how capable
he is, how well he pays his bills, whatever.
And if you don't build your life on Christ, you
will crash down when the storm comes. Dan gained
the city, but they lost generations. Their children
and their children's children and their children's
children's children would follow false gods instead
of the God of the universe because of what they
did that day. Parents can provide financially
while neglecting spiritual leadership. Do you
understand that if you put food in their mouths,
if you put clothes on their backs and a roof
over their head, but do not make the single,
number one, most important thing in your life
and in your house, Jesus Christ, the Lord of
the universe? that you may well be clothing them,
feeding them, and sheltering them on their way
to hell, and securing it for their lifetime and
the lifetime of their children to come. Jesus
must be first! And if he's not, we'll be surprised
when they start to build their houses without
foundations. Churches can become larger while
becoming weaker spiritually. In fact, that is
the normal way that things go, because lost people
want to attach themselves not to a godly church,
present but to an ungodly presence because attaching
to a godly presence is more difficult. And so
if tomorrow we make a motion as a church to start
preaching a health and wealth gospel or become
an open and affirming church, we'll probably
get more people pretty quickly. But will we be
more godly? No. In fact, we will not be godly
at all. Christians can achieve impressive accomplishments
while drifting from fellowship with Christ. Never
sacrifice God's character. To obtain God's promises.
That's what they did. Because eventually, what
you gain becomes that which enslaves you. That
brings us to our conclusion. Judges 18 is not
merely about one try. This text is a warning
to every generation that will ever live on the
earth. Dan accepted idolatry because everyone
else was accepting it. Dan confused success with
God's approval. They took matters in their own
hand and took for themselves what God would have
eventually given them had they just been faithful.
Dan obtained victory, but planted seeds of future
bondage for themselves and for generations to
come. Years later, this is the thing that will
blow your mind. Years later, you might have heard
this story, and I'm going to tell it to you briefly.
There comes a king, and he has to rule the northern
kingdom after the two kingdoms split. The southern
kingdom becomes the tribe of Judah and Benjamin.
The other ten are in the north. And he's ruling
the northern kingdom. And he says, well, we've
got a problem. There's a temple built in Jerusalem.
And every time they have a big festival down
there, everybody in my kingdom is walking down
there. And it's investing a ton of money in their
economy. And they're giving. They're doing offerings.
And they're worshiping. And they're listening
to the priests there. Talk about how that's the
only place that you can worship and there's only
one way that you can worship God and all that.
And he said, Jeroboam said, I got to do something.
So what he decided to do was to set up two beautiful,
molten, made, precious calves that people could
come and worship. And he says, I got to have
two places that I can set up these beautiful
calves so that people can come and worship and
not always go down to Jerusalem where all that
money, all those people, and some of them stay
there. They don't ever come back. I've got to
get some solid area in my kingdom. So I'm going
to put one of those calves at Bethel. That's
in this part of my kingdom. And then a clean
opposite side of my kingdom. I need a good place
to put another one. And guess where he put it?
Yes, go ahead. Where? Dan. He put it in Dan.
He put one in Bethel and one in Dan. And now
Jeroboam's people, the entire nation of Israel,
ten tribes. will worship falsely. Not worship
God anymore. And they'll go into captivity because
of it. And it started here with Micah taking
first his son and then a guy from Bethlehem with
a fancy name to be their priest. And then that
priest prophecies to five spies and those spies
go and they seemed to get good success by listening
to that false priest. And then they go back to
the people of Dan and said, we can do it. We
can finally make happen what God said he would
make happen for us. And they went and they stole
the idols. They stole the priest. They stole
the ephod. They went up and they took Laish and
they turned it into Dan. And they started generations
of idolatrous worship, just the same as you or
I could do today. And then Jeroboam needed a
place to put that cabin and put it there. And
you can guarantee that those two streets became
stumbling blocks for the entire nation of Israel
from then until Israel would no longer exist.
The seeds planted here produced a harvest like
that generations later. Our culture still asks
the question, does it work? Does your Christianity
work? Is God prospering you? God still asks the
question. Is it holy? I'm calling myself a holy
people. The cross reminds us, and you should
never forget every time we take the Lord's Supper,
that reminds us that God's greatest victory did
not look successful. Jesus appeared defeated,
rejected, crucified, buried, yet through apparent
failure came eternal triumph. God has never measured
success the way people do. He measures faithfulness.
I'm asking you today, where have you allowed
results to become your standard instead of Scripture?
I'm asking you today, where have you pursued
God's blessings while neglecting God's character?
Today, God calls us back. Not merely to successful
living, that's in his hands, but to faithful.
Because in the kingdom of God, faithfulness is
always a greater victory than success. Indeed,
God has a great plan for you. No doubt about
it. God's great plan for you must prioritize
what he is trying to build in you. Otherwise,
it's not his plan. And the result will be something
decidedly ungodly. And when we choose ungodliness,
even by mistake, We fulfill that need in us for
God for a time at first by a pattern that is
in our own strength repeatable. We can do it
again and again. We say, for a little while,
I can make it like God is in my life every day.
And the victory, those victories, those successes
that we begin to have, people leave addictions,
people leave bad habits behind, people become
dependable. Those victories become all we need
to stay that course, that course that's not godly,
that's not dependent on him, trapped, attached,
separated from his fellowship until the end.
I get it. It's a lot to come to church on a Sunday
and to talk about the end of your life or the
end of your journey or the successes beyond your
successes. That's not what being here is exactly
about. But it's absolutely the right thing to
come and talk about our journey. Absolutely the
right thing to come and talk about are we accepting
into our lives things that we begin to worship
then. Things that may bring us success. I'll
give you a few just kind of commonplace examples
and I'm done. I know people who profess to love
the Lord. And if you ask them, they'll be...
transparent. And they'll tell you that they haven't
opened their Bible since last Sunday. Now this
is the Word of God. It has everything in it that
God really wants you to know in a written form
inspired by the Holy Spirit. I know people who
have been pastors for 30 years, and they'll tell
me that they have never heard or experienced
God's direct leading on their life. That doesn't
make no sense to me. Whenever I feel like I'm
not hearing from the Lord, and it starts to be
a while, a day or two, or I feel like God is
not leading my life specifically. I'm going,
what's wrong? And I'm seeking the Lord. And I
think sometimes God talks quietly to us so that
we'll lean in to demonstrate that we want to
hear what he has to say. And I'm told by people
who have been pastors for 30 years that they've
never heard from the Lord or his guidance. There's
a very real part of Christianity that says that
the only way you can hear anything from God is
just to read from this book. That's it. That
makes my Christianity something. Because quite
frequently, God will say, don't do that. Do that.
Now, I know that that's informed by my experiences,
so a lot of times it's a verse that pops in my
head. So I read my Bible, and the verse pops
up in my head. So I submit to you, it's time
you began to do the work. The work to get to
where God is taking you is work that is attached
to God's character. And there's nothing wrong
with you working, but you can work so hard until
you bleed or sweat or pass out from exhaustion.
As long as the work that you are doing is work
in God's character, that would be fine. But for
those that work the 100 -hour work weeks to put
more money in the bank, to retire, to stay away
from, isolate from the work of God, that's not
Godly. That's something altogether different.
But I feel for them, because it's not like I
necessarily willfully make the choice anymore.
What we just read is it's not that they're trapped.
Let me ask you, are you trapped? Well, guess
what? He's a chain breaker. He can make you free.
There was in John 8 an example. There were a
bunch of Jews who came to believe in Jesus. The
Jewish men had their history traced all the way
back to Abraham, but they came to believe in
Jesus. And Jesus looked at them that believed
in him, and he said, You come, follow me. Come
follow me, and then you will know the truth.
And Jesus said, the chain breaker, you're still
free today. If you've bought into that model,
repent and turn to the Lord. If you're here today
and you say, I don't like Jesus, Lord. I don't
think he's saving my life, but I want him to
save me. All you got to do right now, I'm not
waiting for music or anything. I'll just say,
okay, right now, I'm ready. I'm going to follow
Jesus beginning today. He'll make you new. He'll
make you new right now. And then you can just
follow him for the rest of your life. And yeah,
you may get it right or wrong some days. Just
remember that your decisions are meant to align
with his character. And that's how you live for
Jesus. I'm not sure. And do you promise to help
them make that decision? Do that in courage with
somebody else. Make some decisions. Make them
look as if that was you. Can you stand with me
and sing a song? We'll sing together. If the
Lord is in your heart, we're going to respond.
So, lifestyle? Nothing at all.