Introduction:
Matthew 10:34-36 - Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
When You Start to Despair: Believe (Micah 7:1-20)
- Put your eyes on your Walk with God. (Micah 7:7-10)
- Put your eyes on God's Promises . (Micah 7:11-17)
- Put your eyes on God's Love . (Micah 7:18-20)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:43-00:50
Open up your Bibles to the book of Micah, and we are going to be in chapter seven today.
00:52-01:11
And while you're turning there, let's just pause for a moment, and sort of piggybacking off Pastor Taylor's prayer, I'm gonna ask that you would please pray for me to faithfully and accurately communicate God's word, and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive it.
01:11-01:11
Deal?
01:13-01:13
All right, let's pray.
01:21-01:26
Father, we thank you for the communication that you've given us through your word.
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There's so many things that could distract us.
01:34-01:45
And right now, Father, I pray for some work of your spirit that would just focus our hearts and minds, lock us into what your word has to say.
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I just pray, Father, against any distractions right now.
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Father, this is a message I know people need to hear right this minute.
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But there are gonna be some people here that are gonna need this message tomorrow or next week.
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And I just ask, Father, that you would just imprint this message into our hearts and into our minds.
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So you may be greatly glorified through us, Father, we pray in Jesus' name.
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And all of God's people said, amen.
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Amen, Micah chapter seven.
02:33-02:36
Starting in the first verse, he says, "Woe is me!
02:40-02:45
For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned.
02:47-02:54
There is no cluster to eat, no first ripe fig that my soul desires.
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The godly has perished from the earth." There is no one upright among mankind.
03:10-03:19
Micah starts out this portion, he says, godly people are just gone.
03:24-03:26
Well, like, what do we have, Micah?
03:28-03:33
He says, they all lie and wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.
03:35-03:41
Their hands are on what is evil to do it well.
03:43-03:46
The prince and the judge ask for a bribe.
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And the great man utters the evil desires of his soul.
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Thus, they weave it together.
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The best of them - it's like a briar - A thorn hedge.
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So what do we got, Micah?
04:06-04:13
He says what we got are violent, conniving, greedy, dishonest people.
04:16-04:19
And you saw here he's talking about the general population.
04:19-04:21
He's talking about the government.
04:22-04:23
He's talking about the courts.
04:25-04:53
Interesting phrase here where he says at the end of verse 3, "Thus they weave it together." about. He's saying that wicked people have a way of going in cahoots. They work together to exponentially increase the wickedness for their own benefit. Like for example, I was trying to think of maybe a real or a hypothetical example.
04:53-05:07
It would be like if there was a like a pharmaceutical corporation that had corrupt motives working with a government maybe that had corrupt motives.
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Use your imagination if you have to.
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But that's what he's talking about.
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They're in cahoots.
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They weave it together.
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How much better can we be?
05:24-05:32
And as human beings, we are adept at shockingly shameless sin.
05:36-05:50
And I was trying to think of an example to kick off this sermon with to sort of illustrate how shockingly shameless the sinfulness of people can be.
05:51-06:02
I was going to tell you, many, many years ago, my wife, Erin was an in-home family counselor.
06:04-06:20
And she had told me one time about these clients where the man had abused his daughter and he had to go to this support group for sexually violent predators.
06:20-06:30
And there he met another man that he took back to his home to be with his daughter.
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Shockingly shameless sin.
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I'm not going to tell you about that one though.
06:39-06:53
I was also thinking about many, many years ago there was this young man who was just struggling and he was having problems with the law and came from kind of a hard family.
06:55-07:04
And our church camp manager said, you know what, I'm gonna take him sort of under my wing, I'm gonna put him up, I'm gonna get him a job, I'm gonna kind of mentor him, I'm gonna help him out.
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The young man ended up stealing from church camp.
07:10-07:15
At what point do you get in your life and in your mind and in your heart when you're stealing from a church camp.
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And when the police showed up to arrest him, the camp manager was begging, is there a way that we can, and they said, no, no, no, this is a probation violation off the jail.
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We are adept at shockingly shameless sin.
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I could tell you about foster kids who were abused, foster kids that we've personally had locked in closets that were fed sandwiches with literal maggots on them.
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And the parents end up taking us to court because we're not Catholic enough or something.
07:54-07:55
Could talk about elder abuse.
07:56-07:59
Could talk about corruption surrounding COVID.
08:00-08:03
Could talk about nefarious politicians.
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But I think you kind of see my point.
08:10-08:18
And I gotta ask you, does the wickedness of people ever just wear you out?
08:20-08:21
Anybody else?
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You see all of this happening personally and nationally and worldwide, and it just wears you out.
08:34-08:37
I mean, look, I know we're all sinners.
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Yes.
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We all need a Savior, we're all sinners, yes.
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But can we just acknowledge, as the Word of God does, that some sin is just flagrant and abusive and foul.
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Look back at the text.
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Wherever you leave off, oh, verse four.
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He says, "The day of your watchman, of your punishment has come.
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Now their confusion is at hand." Micah says, "It's collapsing.
09:19-09:30
The panic is starting to set in because God's not going to tolerate this forever." That phrase, "Now their confusion is at hand." Wow.
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There is a verse that seems to describe our times with all of the gender confusion, insanity.
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And it's so sad.
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You're like, "How do people get there?" Well, when you walk away from God's truth, all you get is confusion.
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Look at verse 5.
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Oh, it gets worse.
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He says, "Put no trust in a neighbor.
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"Have no confidence in a friend.
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"Guard the doors of your mouth "from her who lies in your arms." Wow, Micah says, "It's just a point.
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"People are so wicked, "you can't even trust the people closest to you." Do you see?
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Closer and closer, he goes, "You can't trust the guy living next door.
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"You can't trust your friend." He says, "You can't even trust your spouse." That's how rampant wickedness is.
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Then verse six, he says, "For the son treats the father with contempt.
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"The daughter rises up against her mother, "the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
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"A man's enemies are the men of his own house." Ouch, that is a painful verse.
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I mean, it's one thing if like a stranger takes advantage of you or hurts you in some ways.
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Like, okay, whatever.
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But when it's somebody that's supposed to be for you, and right now somebody's like, well, you know what, Pastor Jeff?
11:11-11:11
You're absolutely right.
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And surely, surely the gospel is the solution to this relational disharmony.
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Actually, the gospel causes it, according to Jesus.
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Because you know, Matthew chapter 10, he quotes this verse about himself.
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Look, Jesus says, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
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I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
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For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a person's enemies will be those of his own household." Sound familiar?
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Jesus is saying that he brings division.
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And yes, absolutely, looking around the room, stay for the next service.
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Absolutely, the gospel brings amazing relationships into your life, for sure.
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You know what else the gospel does?
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It destroys relationships.
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If you look at these first six verses here in Micah, I don't have to sell you on this.
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People are a wreck.
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The question is, "Well, how do I live in the face of such wickedness?
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How do I live knowing God's judgment is coming?
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And as we saw in Romans 1, it's here.
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That's why Micah starts this passage off with "Woe is me." How do I watch my country mock God?
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How is it even possible that we're heading into an election?
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And the biggest topic is murdering babies.
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How did we get there?
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How do I watch my country target our kids to embrace perversion?
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How do I watch the same country that just closed churches over a virus?
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How do I watch my country promote sin as entertainment?
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And I could go on and on and on.
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But like Micah, you see, we're gonna go through seasons of despair.
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Where all of this wickedness just sort of suffocates us and we're right alongside him and we're like, woe is me, right?
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Like Isaiah, I live among a people of unclean lips.
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And some of you are there now.
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Some of you are going to be there tomorrow.
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So how am I going to get through?
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I want you to jot some things down.
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What do you do when you start to despair?
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You got to believe.
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You got to believe.
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You're like, "Well, what does that mean?" I'm so glad you asked because Micah tells us.
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Number one, write this down.
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Put your eyes on your walk with God.
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Put your eyes on your walk with God.
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Look at verse seven.
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But as for me, oh, stop there.
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What an amazing phrase.
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Underline that in your Bible right now.
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But as for me, underline that.
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We will have people at the door checking your Bibles when you leave to make sure that you underline that.
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But this, I love this.
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But as for me.
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You see what Mike is saying?
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He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, the world is sick, right?
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And people are cruel and heartless and I can't control that.
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But I don't gotta go with it.
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"But as for me." But as for me.
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Look at verse 7.
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He goes, "But as for me, I will look to the Lord.
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I will wait for the God of my salvation.
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My God will hear me." He says, "But as for me, I will seek the Lord." I don't really care what they're pushing in Hollywood or in Congress.
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I believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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I believe that the Bible is the Word of God.
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And I believe in the power of prayer.
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I believe that when God's people pray, God moves.
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That's not your bag.
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That's my bag.
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You do you.
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But as for me, I will seek the Lord.
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You gotta put your eyes on your walk with God.
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But as for me, oh here's another one, look at verse eight.
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Rejoice not over me, O my enemy.
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When I fall, I shall rise.
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When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
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But as for me, but as for me, I will never give up.
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But as for me, I will never give up.
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Micah says, look, I'm fully aware that I'm going to get knocked down a few times from my own stupid sin, from the sin of others, from the trials of life.
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I'm aware that when I get knocked down, there are going to be people that are going to clap and giggle about that.
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I'm aware that this life is full of disappointment and hurt.
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But when I fall, I shall rise.
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Because God's going to bring me through it.
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That's not your bag.
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That's my bag.
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You do you.
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Okay?
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But as for me, I will never give up.
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Here's another one.
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Verse 9, "But as for me," look at verse 9.
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He says, "I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him.
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Until He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me, He will bring me out to the light.
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I will look upon His vindication.
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But as for me, I'm going to take my sin seriously.
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People just love to excuse and defend and blame shift when it comes to their sin.
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Like Micah, we need to get to the place where we say, "As for me, but as for me, I'm going to own up to my sin." Look, I've sinned, and I'm going to have to face the consequences for that.
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I don't believe I'm better than anybody else.
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I just happen to believe that God vindicates the one who is willing to acknowledge their sin and bring it to Him.
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It's not your bag.
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It's my bag.
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You do you.
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But as for me, I'll take my sin seriously.
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You're like, oh wait, wait, wait.
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Just a couple of minutes ago, you talked about these rejoicing enemies.
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Like what about them?
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What about them?
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Oh, we didn't forget about them.
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Look at verse 10.
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"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.
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"Now she will be trampled down "like the mire of the streets." So those rejoicing enemies, those people that laugh and gloat when we fall, they're not my problem.
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God said he's gonna take care of them.
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Isn't that a load off your mind?
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Isn't it?
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Just be like, you know what, there's people that are against me, and there's people that hate me just because I follow Jesus Christ.
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God says he'll take care of them, so why am I giving them a second of thought?
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He'll handle that.
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So what am I supposed to do?
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I think Micah makes it pretty clear.
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Am I going to focus on my own walk, regardless of what anybody else is doing?
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All right, so when I start to despair, I'm just going to put my eyes on my walk with God.
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Secondly, when you start to despair, put your eyes on God's promises.
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Put your eyes on God's promises.
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Let's pick up in verse 11.
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He says, "A day for the building of your walls.
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In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
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In that day will come to you from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
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But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.
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Micah says restoration is coming.
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And here he says God's even going to save some of Israel's enemies.
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And we've talked about this before, but this restoration that the Bible talks about is a two-edged sword.
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for Jesus to come and make all things right.
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It necessarily means devastation for people who have rejected God.
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And in verse 14, he launches into a prayer for this restoration.
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Look at verse 14.
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He says, "Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land.
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Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead "As in the days of old," Bashan and Gilead, what's the reference there?
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That's Numbers 32.
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Remember Israel was about to enter the promised land, and Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh were like, "Hey, we want this land." And the Israelites were like, "Okay, but you're gonna come and fight with us, "and then you can go back and claim this land." And they're like, "Okay, deal." And it was just such a good land, And that's what this is pointing to.
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This is what God's restoration is going to look like.
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It's going to be a restored and good land.
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Verse 15, "As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things." When God restores, it's going to be like Israel and Egypt during the Exodus.
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I don't have time to get into what all that means, but I'll just sum it up with two words, nothing subtle.
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When God restores, nothing subtle.
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All right, verse 16 and 17.
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The nation shall see and be ashamed of all their might.
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They shall lay their hands on their mouths.
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Their ears shall be deaf.
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They shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth.
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"They shall come trembling out of their strongholds.
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They shall turn and dread to the Lord our God, and they shall be in fear of you.
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The nations who have rejected God, who refuse to repent, will be brought down, and they will be humiliated." And if you've been with us through this series at all, you might be like, "You know what, Pastor Jeff?
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There's really not a lot of new information here." And I agree and I really think that's the point.
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You see Micah starts this section going, "Whoa, it's me.
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Like, people are so horrible." And then he's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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God promised that someday everything's going to change.
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Right, right, right.
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The boundary's going to be extended.
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Some enemies of God are going to repent.
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The rest are going to be destroyed.
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God's glory is going to be displayed as it was in Moses' day.
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Things are going to change.
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God promised and God's going to deliver that.
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Do you have some promises from God that just sort of have like a special place in your heart, get some.
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Because when you're tempted to despair, you're going to need them.
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If I get personal for a couple of minutes, I've had a rough couple of weeks.
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Couple of weeks ago, we had a funeral for a lady from our church who I've known for twenty-some years, long before Harvest.
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She was like a mom to me.
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She was almost 90.
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And then last week, I had a funeral for an 11-year-old boy who died of cancer.
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I knew his family.
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You know, here on one hand you have a woman that lived almost 90 years with this huge family, all these kids and grandkids and people that have had the pleasure of knowing her decades.
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It's rough.
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And then on the other hand, you have an 11-year-old boy and a family that had to experience things that no family should have to.
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I got to tell you, the past couple of weeks, there's been so much hurt and so many tears.
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Like, what do you say?
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Well, I shared with both families one of my favorite promises from God's Word, one of the things that gets me through.
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You know, and I just want to share it with you now in the spirit of Micah here looking to the future.
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You know, Jesus said that he is going to prepare a place for us, right?
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John 14.
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Remember that time we went through the book of John?
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You remember that?
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Jesus said he's going to prepare a place for us.
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What do you think that's like?
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Do you think Jesus is just going to slap together a couple of two-by-fours and some plywood, maybe get some paneling?
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Do you think that's what it's going to look like?
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You're like, "No, but what does it look like?" You know there's a phrase used to describe it.
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Just one little phrase.
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I think about this all the time.
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To describe the place, Revelation 21 says that this place is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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Now, you know, I've been in ministry, you know, about two and a half decades or whatever.
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You lose count after a while, and I've been hitting the head a lot, but I've been doing this a long time, and I've done a lot of weddings.
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And I told these families, you know what I've never seen at a wedding?
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I've never seen this scenario where like, I'm up there with the guys, you know, the groom and the best man and these guys, and we're up there, we're ready, and like, okay, we're waiting on the bride, waiting on the bride, and then the door opens, and the bride's standing there wearing a college hoodie.
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I've never seen that.
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Her hair's up in like one of them pony knot things.
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And she's wearing like old sweatpants and Crocs.
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I've never seen that.
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But do you know what I have seen every single time?
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Every time, do you know what I've seen?
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I've seen a woman that spent so much time and effort and energy and money and care to look her absolute most beautiful for her husband.
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Everything she can do to present herself perfect, every bride, just astonishingly beautiful.
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All right, now the Bible says that the place that Jesus is preparing for you is being prepared the way a bride prepares for her husband.
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And you see, like Micah, there are promises of God concerning the future that we just got to hold on to.
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It's going to get us through the garbage that we're going through today.
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It's because of this, I just have this little saying that I'm always saying to myself.
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I don't know if I made it up, or I probably heard it somewhere.
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I don't know.
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I read a lot of stuff, and I listen to a lot of stuff.
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But I'm just, whatever the case, it doesn't matter, because I'm constantly saying this one phrase to myself over and over, and it's, "Things will not always be as they are now." I find myself literally every day saying that to myself.
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In the past two weeks of seeing so much misery, And I told you about two funerals, not mentioning the hurt that people in this congregation are going through right now.
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So in the face of pain and death, I just catch myself saying, things won't always be as they are now.
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In the face of my own son's health, which has been bad lately, really bad.
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I keep saying to myself, "Things won't always be as they are now." In the face of the corrupt government, who is going to miss the political commercials?
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Things will not always be as they are now.
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Starving children, sex trafficking, things won't always be as they are now.
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You see, when I start to despair, like Micah, I'm going to put my eyes on God's promises.
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more.
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I would say last, and believe it or not, most important when I start to despair, put your eyes on God's love.
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Put your eyes on God's love.
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Look at verse 18.
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Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance?
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He does not retain His anger forever." Stop there.
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I'm like, "Wow." Remember way back when we started this whole series in Micah?
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This is quite a different tone than the one that he started with, isn't it?
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He's like, "Who is a God like you?" And you're like, "None, because they're all imaginary." That's true.
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But there's something else too, and I think this is what Mike is driving at.
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You look at every other religion in the world, every one of them.
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They all teach the same thing.
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There are things that you have to do to appease the angry and dissatisfied God or gods.
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You have to do stuff to make Him or them, whatever, happy.
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The Bible tells us quite a different story.
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The Bible says God loves you.
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The Bible says God wants a relationship with you.
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The Bible says God wants to forgive your sin.
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He, just stop there for a second.
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He wants to forgive your sin.
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Why does God love us the way that He does?
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Anybody else ever wrestle with that?
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I remember as a young Christian, I went through a season where I really wrestled with that.
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Why?
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Why does God love us?
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I mean, I see in His word, He clearly loves us with a sacrificial love and with this perfect love.
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But why?
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I bring nothing to the table for Him.
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I offer Him nothing.
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I am no good to God.
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So why?
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Why does He love us the way that He does?
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You know, I really wrestled with that.
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And you know, I found the answer in God's Word.
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And actually, the answer is in this passage.
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It's in the next phrase.
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You ready for this?
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Why does God love the way that He does?
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Here it is, "Because he delights in steadfast love." Like, wait, wait, what kind of answer is that?
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That's the best answer.
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Do you know why God loves you the way that He does?
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Because that's who He is.
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And according to this verse, paraphrasing it, you see what this is saying?
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It makes God happy to show you how much He loves you.
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He loves that.
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My God, do you have anything that like really like excites you?
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You got any hobbies that you really enjoy?
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God's like, "You know what I love more than anything in the world is showing love to people.
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That's what I love to do." "Oh, it just makes me so happy." Oh, it gets better.
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You're like, "I don't know how it can." Well, look at verse 19.
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He will again have compassion on us.
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He will tread our iniquities underfoot.
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You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
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your brains around that, my friends. God actively, God actively goes after removing the sin that we committed against Him. What does He do to them? According to this verse, He stomps him down and throws him in the sea. Imagine if I took your watch and I threw it on the ground and I stomped it and then I rented a boat and I drove that thing for hours into the Mediterranean Sea and just threw your watch overboard. What are the chances you're gonna get it back? You're like, "I don't want it back." You stomped on it. You see the point. There are Christians that are like, "I don't know if God's really forgiven me and sometimes I still struggle with sin and what if God's still mad at me?" He's not. Because He took your sin, and he curb stomped it, and he threw it in the ocean.
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It's over.
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See this verse speaks to how thoroughly we're forgiven, and this was fulfilled in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
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Jesus didn't come to just cover your sin.
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The Bible says He's the Lamb of God that takes away your sin.
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It's gone.
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If you're a born again follower of Christ, sin is not an issue between you and God.
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It has been forgiven.
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And yes, we still struggle with sin personally, and God still disciplines us as children, but you will never face the punishment of God for your sin.
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This verse speaks to how thoroughly God forgives us.
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Then the last verse in Micah, verse 20.
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He says, "You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old." Oh, there's a callback to the whole promise thing, right?
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Tying it into the love concept, right?
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God will keep His Word to love and be faithful to His people.
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Micah reminds us that someone very powerful loves you with an eternal love, so much that even though you've sinned against Him, He made the way for you to be forgiven.
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So when I start to despair, this really should be the first thing that I do.
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I should put my eyes on God's love.
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That's the last verse.
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Micah is over.
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And our series, "When Your Nation is Facing Judgment," it's concluded, but God's judgment has not.
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And as we've seen through this series, God's judgment is here, and it's coming.
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Meanwhile, sinners are going to sin.
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And it's my hope for you today, my friends, that if you take anything from this message, it's this beautiful phrase, "But as for me." That as we are drowning in the sin of our culture, that you can say, "But as for me, I'm not going to despair.
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But as for me, I'm going to keep my eyes on my walk.
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I don't really care what other people are doing.
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I can't control that anyways.
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All I care about is my walk with Christ.
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But as for me, I'm going to trust God's promises.
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Yeah, things are rough now, yeah, but things aren't always gonna be this way.
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But as for me, I'm going to rest in God's love.
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Even in the midst of God's wrath, God has love for his people.
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He's demonstrated that through Jesus Christ.
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But I want you to say, as a result of this series, in the light of where we are as a culture, you say, but as for me, I'm going to believe.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, what a passage that you've taken us through wickedness, personal to walk to the future, to landing on your character.
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And Father, I just pray for this church because there is a lot of despair, there is a lot of anger, there is a lot of just lack of discernment when we're facing all of this stuff, all of this sin that is just paraded in front of you, mocking you.
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And we get so sideways on knowing what we should do as a church, what we should do as a family, what I should do as an individual.
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I pray, Father, that these words that you've given us through Micah, your prophet, I pray that you would use them To keep us from getting swept up in what other people are doing.
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Just laser focused on who you are and what you're doing through us.
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Father, glorify your name.
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Let Your light shine brightly through Your church in these dark days.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Micah 7:1-20
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
In light of the wickedness of man (Micah 7:1-6), do you ever feel any degree of despair as Micah did (Micah 7:1)? Why or why not?
Which promise of God is especially comforting to you? Why?
What was your biggest takeaway from this series?
Breakout
Pray for one another.