Judges 17:1-13 "The Cost of Convenient Worship"

1:01I'm just thinking about some of the elements of our convenience culture. Here are some of my favorites. Online shopping, Amazon's two-day delivery, curbside pickup. Can I get an amen, anyone? There's Grubhub and DoorDash, social media and streaming services. Now, friends, none of these things in and of themselves are bad. But we have to acknowledge that this culture of deliveries and drive-thrus. Is forming us into a certain type of people. People who've been formed to desire and expect that the world will come to us on our own terms, that each experience will be personalized and tailored specifically to our wants and needs. Living in this culture of convenience, it should come as no surprise that we would be tempted to bring this desire for convenience into our relationship with God.

2:03We suffer from a convenient worship complex. We're all tempted to gamify our worship of God, to make it into something that fits nicely into our comfortable lives, something that becomes a personal enhancement without any costly sacrifice. Where are you tempted to convenient worship this morning? Perhaps this is seen most clearly in your Sunday morning or your life group attendance. You'll come when it's easy, when it fits into your schedule, but as soon as something better comes along, when you have to sacrifice, when you have to miss out, when it will cost you, then you opt out.

2:51Maybe for you, it's in your giving. You'll happily give to the work of the gospel out of your abundance, but when it will cost you, You literally, then it's the first thing to go. Perhaps for you, you are most aware of your temptation to convenient worship in your practice of experiencing communion with God in His Word. Sure, you'll read the Bible when it fits with your schedule, but as soon as life gets busy, when work or homework piles up, when the kids' activities eat into your free time, then reading the Bible and prayer become optional. What is it for you?

3:35Well, brothers and sisters, whatever your struggle with convenient worship looks like this morning, know that you are not alone. This is something that God's people have struggled with since the Garden of Eden, and in his kindness to us, God speaks directly into this struggle. In our passage this morning, God encourages us to reject convenient worship by showing us the cost of worshiping God our own way. That's what we're going to see this morning. More than anything else, we are going to see the cost of worshiping God our own way.

4:15Now, rather than giving us a lecture this morning, God is inviting all of us to come close as he tells us a story. A story that I have to tell you would be one of the funniest things that you've heard if it just wasn't so true. Tragic. In our time together, I want to honor this story by taking you into it, unpacking all of the irony and the satire that fills each scene. And after we've appreciated the story, I want to unpack the main point for us and apply it to our lives. So we're going to see the story, the point, and then the application. That's our roadmap this morning.

4:54So, first, the story. As the curtain opens on our first of three scenes, we find ourselves in the final section of the book of Judges. With the death of Samson that we heard about last week, the cycle of the judges is over, and now the author is bringing his book to a close. Chronologically speaking, the events that we're going to hear about today and next week actually took place very early during the time of the judges. But the author has placed them here at the end to intentionally highlight the spiritual decline in Israel. In the opening words of our story in Judges 17:1, we read, There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. Here we see that our story takes place in Ephraim, a town in central Israel, and we're introduced to one of our main characters, a man named Micah. His name means who is like Yahweh, who is like The Lord.

6:01We're off to a promising start, right? I mean, this man, Micah, comes from a Jewish home where his parents wanted him to have a name that reflected their religious devotion. But as we've already heard, everything's not okay. Unfortunately, Micah's character does not live up to his name. As the story continues, we learn that Micah has recently come into a large sum of money. We are told that he runs into 1,100 pieces of silver. The problem, he came by this money by stealing it from his mom. As if stealing isn't bad enough already, stealing from your mom is certainly not cool.

6:50Well, as Micah is celebrating his new fortune, as he is thinking about all the investments that he might make, or if he's doing what I would be doing, adding everything from my Amazon wish list into my cart, as he's doing this, he overhears something that makes his heart stop. His mom has done the last thing in the world that he ever thought she would do. He hears her pronouncing a curse on whoever it was who stole this money.

7:23And as the story continues, we learn that Michael, not that Michael, we learn that Micah. Is superstitious, or at least he's a little sstitious, because in verse 2, he confesses to his mom the 1100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse. Behold, the silver is with me. I took it. Now, it's important for us to see here that Micah doesn't do this because he feels guilty before the Lord and before his mom for his sin. He's not confessing this sin because he desires to make it right in the eyes of the Lord that would have required him to give back the 1,100 pieces of silver plus 20%. That's not why he's confessing to this sin. He's doing it because he is afraid of the curse that his mom has placed on this money.

8:24Well, after coming clean and returning the silver to his mom, what comes next must shock him. Rather than experience the effects of this curse, his mother cries out, Blessed be my son by the Lord. And after blessing Micah, she dedicates all of the money to the Lord for her son. Well, at this point, you wouldn't be wrong if you're thinking, how did such a godly woman end up with a son like this? Well, as the narrative continues, Use, we see that the apple didn't actually fall very far from the tree. Because while her words sound great, as we continue reading in verses 3 and 4, we see that instead of giving all 1,100 pieces of silver to the Lord for her son, she actually only gives 200 pieces of silver to the Lord, keeping the rest of it for herself.

9:28And with the silver that she does use, the silver that she's dedicated to the Lord, guess what she does with it? She uses it to commit idolatry. She uses these 200 pieces of silver that she's dedicated to the Lord to create two images for Micah to add to his household shrine. Everything this woman is saying sounds great, but unfortunately, we see that here she is just furthering the idolatry that we see her son has already started. In verse 5, we see that Micah has already created his own shrine where there is an ephod and there is his own household items. And here, to add to it, he now has two additional carven images that he can worship in his own household shrine. And to top it all off, we see that he, in direct disobedience to God's command, has established his own son, a non- Levite as a priest over this household shrine. Friends, you cannot read more than a few words of this story without coming across a direct violation of one of God's commandments.

10:46In verse 6, we see that the narrator, the author here, provides his theological summary of this first scene as he writes, and you can almost picture him shaking his head in bewilderment as he writes, In those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Apparently, Micah and his mom weren't the outliers. It seems that their behavior was simply typical of all of the Israelites in those days. And as we turn to scene two, beginning in verse seven, we see this is proven true as we see the religious decline of the priesthood, those responsible for the spiritual leadership of the nation. Entering stage left, we are introduced to an unnamed Levite from Bethlehem in Judea, who is traveling, looking for a place to stay. Now, this certainly seems innocent enough, right? A Levite traveling, looking for a place to stay. But the reality is. Here is anything but. This unnamed Levite had been staying in a town that the Lord had not given to the Israelites to stay in, and now he is set out on a journey wherever he could find a place, rather than setting out on a journey to the place that the Lord would show him, as the Levites were called to do. As we'll see more clearly throughout this story, this man is simply an opportunist. He is leaving one town in search of a better gig. He has turned the priesthood into a means of advancing a life of comfort and ease and money. On his journey, he comes to the hill country of Ephraim, the setting for scene one, and he just so happens to run into Micah. Seeing this man carrying his luggage, Micah asks him where he's coming from, what is he doing? It's then that Micah finds out this man is a Levite who's looking for a new place to work. I mean, hearing this, you can just see the smile grow and increase on Micah's face. This is his lucky day. He has his shrine, he has his carven images, he has his ephod. The only thing that he is missing is a priest, is a legitimate priest, a Levite to be his priest. And here it's his lucky day.

13:28Beginning in verse 10. We see that Micah invites this unnamed Levite to stay with him and to be his priest, making him an offer that he can't refuse. He tells him he will give him four ounces of silver a year, a new suit of clothes, and a living allowance. The Levite doesn't need to hear anymore. There's no bartering. There's no countering with a better offer. He is sold. This is better than what he was looking for. Signing on the dotted line, this unnamed Levite accepts this position. Micah, unable to do this, ordains him as his priest. He pays him his wages, and the scene ends in verse 13 with Micah proclaiming, Now I know that the Lord will prosper me. Your translation might say, Now I know that the Lord will be good to me because I have a Levite as a priest. Sisters and brothers, this has to be one of the most ironic statements in this story. Micah, who has violated the Lord's commands at every turn, who has created his own shrine, who has filled it with idols, who he now here has the audacity to believe that the Lord is going to bless him because he's hired an illegitimate and opportunist Levite to be his priest.

15:01Seems like the narrator doesn't want us to miss this, because in chapter 18, verse 1, the next verse in our story, he repeats the refrain that ended the first scene, where he repeats, in those days, there was no king in Israel. He doesn't include the second half of the statement, assuming that we will simply fill that part in ourselves. There was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Well, as the story continues, we now turn to our third and final scene. Now, there is a lot that happens in chapter 18, and I'm not going to cover every detail, but I am going to hit the points that are important for us to see. Chapter 18 and our scene open by introducing the tribe of Dan. And the tribe of Dan is looking for a place to call home. In verse 1, we're told, in those days, the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in. The reason that they're homeless? Well, verse 1 continues. We read, until then, no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them. Well, you might be tempted to feel bad for the tribe of Dan. To feel bad for them, to your heart to go out. They are homeless. They are people with no place to call home. Home, we find out, and we've actually already been told, that the reason that they had no inheritance, the reason no inheritance had fallen to them, is because they failed to trust God and to go in and capture the land that God had given them.

16:50In Judges chapter 1, their cowardice is on full display in verses 34 and 35, where we read that they allowed the Amorites to push them into the hill country. It appears here that they have grown tired of living in this hill country, and rather than obeying God and driving out the Amorites from the land, they seek out a more convenient option. They seek out an easier option. And what comes next is just a brilliant parody of the original spy mission that we read about in Numbers 13. Here we read that the tribe of Dan selects five brave men. These men who were apparently, these men were apparently brave enough to go and look for a new place to stay, but they were not brave enough to stay to fight and to capture the land that God had given to them. So as these brave men set out on their journey, they, like the unnamed Levite before them, find themselves in the hill country. Of Ephraim, the home of Micah. As they are traveling through the land, they hear the Levite's accent, and knowing that it was out of place, knowing it didn't belong there, because a Levite should not be in the town of Ephraim, they go up to him and they find out what is he doing there. And as Micah tells them that he is now the priest to this man named Micah, the spies have a great idea. They ask him to find out if God will bless their mission. I mean, can you imagine the nerve on these guys? Here they are, actively disobeying God's word by not taking the land that he's given them. And now they're asking this priest to inquire, to ask of God, if their plans, their plans that are disobeying God, are going to succeed.

18:58Now, you would think that any priest worth his salt would immediately rebuke these spies. But we know that this is no ordinary priest. This is an opportunist, a man whose job is to tickle people's ears, to tell them what they want to hear. And so, of course, he tells them exactly what they want to hear. Reading this account, you almost get the impression that no sooner does the question come out of the mouth of the spies than He's answering them in verse 6: Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord. I mean, it doesn't even appear that he inquires of the Lord. In fact, we know that he doesn't inquire of the Lord, because if he did, that would not have been the reply.

19:49Well, thrilled by the priest's answer, they spy out the land, and surprise, surprise, the land of Laish in northern Israel looks ripe for the taking. They say that this land is a fruitful land with an unsuspecting people who won't put up a fight. Time and time again in this narrative, that point is highlighted. They are in no position to fight back. So the cowardly tribe of Dan has found exactly what it's looking for. They go back to their hometown. They tell all the people that they need to leave right away to go capture this land. In verse 11, we're told that the 600 men depart to take the city. And on this return journey to Laish, they once again pass through the hill country of Ephraim. And along the way, they've come up with a genius idea. They're going to steal the Levite and Micah's household shrine so that they can set it up in this land that they are going to take. So arriving at Micah's home, they begin to take the Ephid, the household idols, and the carved images that Micah's mom. Had made. The Levite walks in, he sees them stuffing these items into their bags, and he asks them what they're doing. Well, the spies respond forcefully in verse 19, telling Micah to be quiet. Literally, they tell him to put his hand over his mouth. They don't want Micah hearing what's going on. Well, after ensuring that the Levite will be quiet, the spies now make this Levite his second offer, and again, it's one that he can't refuse. They say to him in verse 19, is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man or to be the priest of a tribe and a clan in Israel? Knowing what we know of the priest, his response comes as no surprise. In verse 20, we are told that the priest's heart was glad. LinkedIn profile updated with his new position. He helps the spies finish packing up all of his stuff and he heads out. Well, the spies know that it's only a matter of time before Micah finds out what's happened. And they know that when he does, he is not going to be happy. So as they set out from the hill country of Ephraim, they put the women and the children, they put all of their livestock. All of their goods in front of them with the men of war behind them, so that if Micah were to come from behind, the men would be there to protect all that they have. Well, as expected, after some time, Micah and the men of his town race out to meet the men for him to get the Levite in his shrine back. Knowing that their forces can easily take Micah's, the men of the tribe of Dan approach him with an arrogant tone, yelling out at Micah in verse 23, What is the matter with you that you come with such a company? Hearing this, Micah responds with words that almost make us feel bad for him. Hear his reply in verse 24: He says, You take my gods that I made and the priests and go away, and what have I left? How then do you ask me, what's the matter with me?

23:37Micah just comes to them. You've taken every single thing that I have, all that I value, all that's important to me, you have taken from me, and you're asking me, what's the matter with me? No, no, no, I should be the one coming to you saying, what's the matter with you? Now, as I mentioned, Micah's words almost make us feel bad. For him. That's until we consider all that we've learned about him thus far. I mean, everything about Micah's story is just filled with irony. I mean, even here, did you catch what he says to the spies about these gods? He says, You've taken my gods that I made. Right? Just openly owning up to his idolatry, openly admitting that he is worshiping these things as false gods, and he is mad that they've taken his gods.

24:33He's mad that they've taken this priest that he ordained. And the biggest irony of them all is that this man, who was a thief in scene one, now finds himself the victim of grand larceny in scene three. Well, realizing that he is outnumbered and there's nothing that he can do, Micah and his men turn around and go home empty-handed. Leaving Micah behind, the tribe of Dan travels to Lash. They easily overtake the people and conquer the land. And then, the final moment of our story, the narrator does two things for us. First, he shows us the lasting legacy of all that has taken place, beginning in chapter 17, ending in chapter 18. And secondly, he unmasks. This unnamed priest for us. Look with me, beginning in verse 30.

25:36And the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves. And Jonathan, the son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up Micah's carved image that he made as long as the house of God was at Shiloh. First, the lasting legacy of these events. Here we see that the carved image that Micah's mom commissions at the beginning of our story becomes the central feature of false worship in Israel. As the Danites create a rival worship site with the legitimate site of with the legitimate site of worship at Shiloh. This site in Dan will come up time and time and time again as you read through the stories of Samuel, Chronicles, and Kings. This site is the heartbeat of false worship and idolatry in Israel. And it all begins with Micah's mom commissioning these two objects of false worship.

26:49This shrine exists for hundreds of years until it's eventually destroyed when the northern kingdom is taken captive by the Assyrians. And as shocking as all of this has been, as the original listeners heard this story for the first time, you can only imagine their shock when the narrator reveals the identity of this unnamed priest. This opportunist, this guy who's perverted the worship of Israel, is none other than Jonathan, the grandson of Moses. How quickly things have turned in Israel. The grandson of the greatest spiritual leader in Israel, the man who met with God face to face, who led the nation out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, the man who brought them to the front door of the promised land, his own grandson is here responsible for the establishment of a rival sanctuary and false worship among the people of Israel. With this scene in people's minds, the curtain closes as our story comes to an end.

28:15I told you this was a tragic comedy. There is just so much sin, irony, and parody wrapped up in these two chapters. But having just heard this story, we have to ask ourselves, why? Did God give us this story? Out of all the stories he could have included in our Bibles, why does God choose to give us this story? Well, there's a lot that we can take from this story. I think the overarching reason that God gave us this passage of scripture is to show us that worshiping God our own way will cost us everything.

28:56What we see more clearly than anything else in these two chapters is that when we worship God our own way, it will cost us everything. I mean, isn't this exactly what we see throughout the story, especially in Micah's life? He worships God in his own way, offering him convenient worship, and in the end, it costs him everything. As he says in verse 24 of chapter 18, what have I left? And our heart breaks for him. But it isn't just Micah. We see that his mom, Jonathan the priest, and the tribe of Dan all worship God their own way, and their end is the same. It eventually costs them everything.

29:50So in many ways, this passage is here for us as a prophetic warning. It was a prophetic warning for the Israelites then, as they first heard this. Story, and it's a prophetic warning for you and me today. A prophetic warning of the costs of convenient worship. By way of application, I think we can look at this passage and see that there are two specific warnings for us in this passage. As I was thinking about these warnings, I was reminded of a conversation that I overheard between Donna and one of our children some years back. We are at home, Donna's getting ready for the day, and in walks one of our kids who asks Donna if she ever reads the warning label, the warning labels on the back of the lotion bottle.

30:43Confused look on her face, Donna's like, no, I've never read the warning label on the back of the bottle of lotion. Our child then proceeds to tell Donna that she reads warning labels on everything, on the toothpaste, the shampoo, the conditioner, on the cleaners, anything that has a warning label on it, she reads it. Well, if you are like one of my children, and you yourself are a warning label reader, you can think of this story here as offering two warning labels for our discipleship. In this passage here, aware that convenient worship will cost us everything, there are two warnings for our discipleship. The first warning label is a Warning of the allure of convenient worship. The first warning label here is a warning of the allure of convenient worship. For most of the story, it seems that everything is working out just fine for those folks who are worshiping God their own way. Micah steals from his mom and is rewarded with two idols for his shrine, only to have a Levite show up on his doorstep, giving a sense of legitimacy to this convenient worship. As we saw in chapter 17, verse 13, Micah is absolutely convinced that the presence of this Jonathan was a sign that the Lord was blessing him. We see in the story that Jonathan's opportunism seems to be paying off for him as well. Leaving the town of Bethlehem, where he should have never been, in search of a better situation, he lands a lucrative deal as serving as Micah's priest. And after helping out the spy, telling them what they want to hear, rather than rebuking them for their disobedience, Jonathan once again finds himself moving up the corporate ladder as he's promoted from being the priest of one house to being the priest of an entire tribe of Dan. I mean, one can only imagine the pay raise that comes with that new position. And speaking of the tribe of Dan, there certainly doesn't appear to be any downsides to this. Their convenient worship. Asking for God's favor for their journey while they're actively disobeying his word. Based on the outcome of the story, it definitely looks like they receive God's blessing. They easily take the city of Leish, and on top of this new city, they now have their own priest and their own shrine. Convenient worship can be quite alluring, and at times, as it does here in Judges, it can even appear like God is blessing it. I mean, who among us would not be tempted by the thought that we can worship God as we please, picking and choosing which commands to obey and which to ignore, all the while it will look and feel like we are living the hashtag blessed life.

33:49I know I find that tempting. I find it tempting to want to give in to convenient worship, particularly when it looks like things will go well. I mean, I'm sure that we all know people who have fallen victim to the allure of convenient worship. I think the question, the warning for you and for me this morning is to discern where you are personally tempted by the allure of convenient worship, by the allure of worshiping God your own way. Perhaps for you, it's a temptation to want to worship God and live by the world's sexual ethic. Perhaps for you, you're tempted. To want to worship God and the idols of comfort and pleasure.

34:36Having trouble coming up with an area? Just answer this question: What area of your life are you holding back from God? Where are you wanting to experience the blessings of relationship with God without having to obey Him? In this passage here, this passage serves as a warning for you and for me against the allure of worshiping God our own way, helping us to see that just because it looks like everything is going well, just because it looks like God is blessing our decisions, that doesn't necessarily mean that all will end well. That's the first warning. As I mentioned, there's a second warning label. And this is the warning of the danger of convenient worship. The danger of convenient worship. As we've already seen, the ultimate danger of convenient worship is that it will eventually cost us everything.

35:36Worshiping God on our own terms will leave us empty-handed, just like it did for Micah. At the end of the story, Micah's God, Micah's true God, was revealed, and it wasn't the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. No, Micah had been worshiping a God in his own image, a God that was just as powerless to help him in his fight against. The Day Knights, as he was. You see, convenient worship will always leave us disappointed because sooner or later, whenever we worship God our own way, we will discover that we're not actually worshiping God, but we're worshiping ourselves, and that always leads to disappointment. It might have the appearance of worshiping God, it might look good on the outside, but eventually our false worship is exposed, and it will cost us everything.

36:37I mean, we don't have to look very hard to come up with the names of prominent pastors or leaders who have lost everything and cost great damage to the church because they preferred convenient worship to costly worship. While God is certainly warning us here of the ultimate danger of worshiping God our own way, there's a more subtle danger that this passage highlights as well with convenient worship. And that is when we ignore God's word and when we ignore and we worship God as we please, we will struggle with doubt. I think this is what's behind Micah's claim in chapter 17, verse 13, when he says that now he knows that the Lord will be good to him. Now he knows that the Lord will prosper. For him. It seems that up to this point, even with all of the religious stuff that Micah had, all of the religious activity that he was doing, seems like he was still plagued by doubt. Not really sure if he was doing enough to earn God's favor. Not really sure if he was doing enough to earn God's blessing. But now that he has a Levite for a priest, he's convinced of God's feelings for him. But I wonder how long that lasted for. You see, when we ignore God's word, when we refuse to worship him his way, as he's made clear in his word, we will constantly worry about God's heart towards us, lacking the assurance that he desires for us to have, the assurance that only comes from worshiping God God's way.

38:24Brothers and sisters, are you doubting God's heart towards you this morning? Is doubt something that you find yourself regularly struggling with? Well, perhaps in His word this morning, the Spirit wants to encourage you to look at your life and to see if there are any areas that you might be holding back from Him. Any areas of your life where you are preferring convenient worship to costly worship. Wanting the blessings that come from a relationship with God without. The cost of obeying his word.

39:05That's you this morning. Just ask the Spirit to reveal that to you. It's possible it is not because of an area of convenient worship. Certainly, all of our doubts do not come from a convenient worship of God, but it's possible for you it might. So just encourage you to discern, ask the Spirit whether that might be true. Well, this subtle form of convenient worship can leave us in danger of doubt. Brothers and sisters, when we opt for convenience over the cost of commitment and obedience, we open up ourselves to doubt and many other spiritual dangers. That's the second warning label that God's giving us in this passage. He's warning us of the dangers of convenient worship, showing us that convenience always comes at a cost.

39:59Now, this is not a very encouraging passage, is it? As I've been working on this sermon for this past week, I have felt like quite the Debbie downer, knowing that there doesn't appear to be much hope in this passage. There is no character or event that happens in this story that I can point to and encourage you to model the spirit-empowered obedience or faithfulness of this person or that person, or to see God's grace in this person's life or That person's life. As one commentator put it, there just simply isn't one admirable character in these chapters. All we see is people shamelessly worshiping God as they please to get their own way. But as I thought more and more about it, as I spent more time pondering this text, I finally saw it. I finally found the glimmer of hope. Now you'll remember that twice in our story, we are told, in those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. The hope here seems to be pointing to a day when a king does reign in Israel, when a king does reign that will lead the people to do what is right in God's eyes. Now we know that eventually Israel does have a king. But we also know that except for a few years during the reigns of David and Solomon, the kings do not lead people into doing what is right in God's eyes. In fact, in some cases, some of Israel's worst kings lead the charge in doing what is evil in the sight of God. This is climax in Manasseh, the most evil king that Israel has ever had, who did the most evil things that Israel did in their history. And he, this king, did not lead the people in the right worship of God. He only led them into further idolatry.

42:01Well, aware of Israel's history, as we read this passage, we're left wondering, we're left with this longing for this day when this king comes who will finally lead the people in true worship of God, where everyone will do what is right in God's eyes. And in the pages of the New Testament, we see the fulfillment of this longed-for hope as Jesus comes as our faithful priest king. You see, Jesus is the king that Israel most needed. Jesus is the one who comes as the king, who will lead his people in true worship of God, enabling and empowering all who trust in Jesus to do what is right in God's eyes. And more than that, Jesus is our faithful priest, the one who, unlike Jonathan, the unnamed Levite, unlike that false priest, Jesus is the faithful priest who paid the cost for our convenient worship. He paid the price through his own costly worship, seen in his perfect life and death and obedience to God on the cross, where Jesus paid for the sins of all who trust in him. Sisters and brothers, this passage here is pointing us to our longed-for and our faithful priest-king. Jesus is our faithful priest-king. Who is able to lead us in worship and who is able to remove any doubts and bring us into true and lasting peace because he is proof that God will be good to us. He is proof that God will prosper us because as we look to the cross, we can see that he already has in Christ.

43:51If you are here this morning and you have yet to trust in Christ, perhaps you're aware of those feelings of doubt that Micah experienced. Maybe you are vaguely aware, or maybe this morning you are very aware of the emptiness and the pain that come from living life, doing what's right in your own eyes. If that's you, I want to encourage you this morning to look to Jesus, to turn to him, trusting in his life, death, and resurrection, where he paid the cost for your convenient worship. And this morning, he is offering you the abundant life that you are searching for, the abundant life that is only found in costly obedience to him.

44:40Perhaps for you this morning, maybe you have grown up in the church. If that's you, I think that Jonathan, Moses' grandson, is meant to be a warning for you and for me, for all of us. It's meant to be a warning that just because our parents or our grandparents Parents were faithful Christians doing great things for the Lord, that is no guarantee of your own obedience, of your own faithfulness. In fact, what happens with Jonathan seems to align pretty well with what D.A. Carson has observed can happen in the church. D.A. Carson has written, he says, here's the trajectory. He says that one generation believes the gospel. The next generation assumes the gospel. And the third generation forgets the gospel. It seems this is what's happened to Jonathan, right? He's forgotten all that God has done, all that God did through Moses and for the people of Israel. And brothers and sisters, it's possible that you here this morning are assuming the gospel. Or perhaps you have forgotten the gospel. Sure, you do all the religious things, but there is no worship. There's no sacrifice or obedience when it's inconvenient. If that's you, see this passage as a sign of God's love and care for you. He doesn't want you assuming or forgetting the gospel. And in this passage, he is warning you of the dangers of convenient worship. So this morning, turn to Jesus. Place your faith in him. Because through his costly obedience, he has paid. Paid for our convenient worship, opening the way for us to enjoy the blessed life. Thanks be to God for Jesus, our faithful priest-king. Pray with me.

46:50Oh, Father, we Father, we come before you with this story of Micah in mind. Lord, just so aware of the ways that we can be just like him. That we can seek to worship you our own way. That we can seek to worship you when it's convenient, ignoring the cost and the sacrifice that you call and require of us. Oh, Father, we thank you that, aware of the ways that we so easily fall short and give in to convenient worship, that we can look to Jesus, our priest-king, the one who brings true blessing, the one who leads us in true and right worship of you. Oh, Father, this morning, I pray that you would help us to see Jesus as bigger and better.

47:46Oh, Spirit of God, I pray that you would give us the faith to believe what we have heard in your word this morning. Oh, and Father, through your Spirit, give us the grace that you know we so desperately need to live in the good. Of costly worship. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.