 Turn with me in your Bibles now to Judges chapter 17 We're continuing our walk through the history of the judges this record of the judges between the conquest of the land under Joshua and the elders and the monarchy in Israel We have this what is becoming a dark period of history In Israel as we consider the period of the judges And tonight our text is judges chapter 17 verses 1 through 13 the title of our sermon right in his own eyes Think you'll see where we get that title from as we work through the text But follow along with me now as I read judges chapter 17 verses 1 through 13 Now there was a man from the mountains of Ephraim whose name was Micah And he said to his mother the 1100 shekels of silver that were taken from you and on which you put a curse even saying it my ears Here is the silver with me. I took it and his mother said may you be blessed by the Lord my son So when he had returned the 1100 shekels of silver silver to his mother his mother said I Had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son To make a carved image and a molded image now therefore I will return it to you Thus he returned the silver to his mother Then his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them till the to the silversmith And he made it into a carved image and a molded image and they were in the house of Micah the man Micah had a shrine and Made an ephod and household idols and he consecrated one of his sons who became his priest in those days There was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah of the family of Judah. He was a Levite and was staying there The man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place Then he came to the mountains of Ephraim to the house of Micah as he journeyed and Micah said to him where do you come from? So he said to him I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah I'm on my way to find a place to stay Micah said to him dwell with me and be a father and a priest to me And I will give you 10 shekels of silver per year a suit of clothes and your sustenance So the Levite went in Then the Levite was content to dwell with the man and the young man became like one of his sons to him So Micah consecrated the Levite and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah Then Micah said now I know that the Lord will be good to me since I have a Levite as a priest This is the word of God. Amen Pray with me Father in heaven It's a blessing a privilege Lord a joy To come back this evening and to sit under your word and to hear from you Thank you Lord for the blessed privilege the blessed joy that it is to hear from you To consider your revelation to us to consider these accounts and history that you said is for our admonition Thank you Lord for the blessing of taking instruction from you from your word And help us Lord to learn Spirit of God, please be with us now as we consider this text and help us to learn help us to Take hold lay hold of the lessons here that are being taught through this Chapter in the Bible and this will become a dark tale a tragic tale in the history of Israel And help us to learn Lord from her errors and to honor you and all that we do And so maintain or true worship of you. You are worthy of our worship Be with us. He's with us now as we consider your word. Help us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen Right in his own eyes the title of our sermon text is judges chapter 17 verses 1 through 13 This evening in our study of judges We enter now the third and final section in the book of judges chapters 17 through 21 And these chapters chapters 17 through 21 considered to be some of the darkest and most tragic chapters in all the Bible With the death of Samson the accounts of the judges the accounts of the saviors the deliverers Have come to an end and It has been the accounts of the judges that have led us to and essentially prepared us for The events that now follow in these final chapters in the book of judges In the lives of the judges and in the lives of those in Israel that they the judges were raised up by God to deliver We've seen and we see now a steady decline of basic morality This is basic morality. We see the steady unraveling of any kind of biblical compass It's all but absent now in these sections of the text and we see a steadily increasing in a pagan worldliness the nation of Israel God's covenant people Have become largely Canaanized they've become like those nations that surround them have been Absorbed essentially by those nations that even live among them. They've become cananized And we've become very familiar walking through the book of judges. We've become very familiar with this pattern of decline Right the Lord pours out his grace on his people. He gives them security gives them rest gives them blessing on all sides And then the next account begins with these words Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord our problem Always begins with sin doesn't it Their problem our problem always begins with sin and with sin comes suffering to axiomatic It's a truth. We should all take to heart and consider God then answers their wickedness with and they're in gratitude Answers that with judgment answers it with retributive justice Delivering them into the hands of their enemies to punish them and then God responds to their misery With mercy by raising up a judge to deliver them and the pattern begins again Then the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord right and the pattern continues However as we've seen With each repetition of this tragic pattern as you would expect There is a spiritual root rot that is spreading under the surface as it were in Israel their spiritual condition is worsening and So as we see in the text their physical condition is also worsening as What beneath the soil in their heart so to speak is rotting and is decaying What we see above the soil so to speak and their physical condition is also Decaying is also worsening and so much of Israel's spiritual condition under the Old Covenant is Illustrated for us through their physical condition the two are related and we see in their decaying Spiritual condition a decaying physical condition as we see decay physically in the nation of Israel We are to understand that as a result of decay spiritually in the heart of Israel's that makes sense So much of Israel's Spiritual condition is illustrated through the physical physical temporal blessings and judgments all pointing to the spiritual realities that lie beneath the physical Men look at the outward appearance don't they but God looks upon the heart Israel is in grave spiritual peril exceedingly serious exceedingly grave spiritual peril and Far more so than the mere temporal physical peril that they experience or often find themselves in no matter how bad it gets with the Philistines no matter how it gets how bad it gets with the Midianites It's always worse in the heart of Israel dealing with their own wayward idolatry their own wayward sin The spiritual peril is far more damning than the physical peril As a consequence now This section of the book of judges is marked then by a recurring theme That theme is this In those days there was no king in Israel Everyone did what was right in his own eyes Samson's attitude of Taking for himself what looked good in his own eyes That attitude is now spread to his own tribe the tribe of Dan And as we'll see that doesn't stop with Dan it spreads to the whole nation It wouldn't be long now before Israel all together Rejects God as king you remember that story that account from the first of the first of Samuel Where Israel rejects God as king and wants a king for herself like what like all the other nations of the world around them And listen we need to take and take a lesson from Israel Don't we we need to consider how these things apply to us how they sit with us The attitude of the whole nation that was seen in Samson's own heart can often and Easily be found in the attitudes and inclinations of our own heart if we allow Worldliness to seep into our worship if you're not abiding in him you will find yourself in spiritual peril That's the text. That's the lesson of John 15. Isn't it if you are not abiding in him You will be fruitless as a branch Dried as a branch good for nothing, but to be bound up and thrown into the fire If you're not abiding in him you'll find yourself in spiritual peril Israel can't seem to learn that lesson you and I need to remember it and we need to remember it from the exhortation of Israel Here in the book of judges. This is a lesson. We need to remind ourselves of constantly an recipient increasing an inherent worldliness in your thinking and your worship in your prayer life, whatever it is is Spiritual root rot to you and it will cause the decay Ultimately the apostasy of a professing Christian Like a branch attached to the vine you must abide in him and he and you Otherwise you'll be barren and unfruitful What does that mean? What does that look like? It looks like regular intake of God's word, right? You personally regular intake of God's word regular regular study study of God's word regular Meditation on God's word, but not just regular intake of God's word personally But sitting in the corporate worship of God's people under the preaching and teaching of his word. We need that and listen There's a in scripture. It becomes very clear to me in scripture There is a special abiding presence of the Lord Jesus Christ by his spirit in the corporate gathering of his people That just simply isn't the same with us individually on our own prayer closet We need both. We need reading. We need the corporate worship of God's people. We need the fellowship of God's people We need time to pray. We need time to memorize Meditate we need to check our obedience all of these become means of grace through which we abide in him and he and us If you avoid that then this world Will begin to leech Into the soil of your heart. It's the way it is folks. You and I know this the world will begin to leech into the soil of your heart my heart and we Paris the thought become canonized ourselves the end of your canonization right your friendship with this world Adopting the attitudes and thoughts in the interest of this world the end of those things is death Paul says Romans chapter 6 verse 22 But now having been set free from sin having become slaves of God You have your fruit to holiness and to the end everlasting life We need to cling to him right and the more that we cling to him the more that we keep the world at bay Right the more that we depend upon him the more in prayer that we are the more that we pour ourselves into his work The more that he by his spirit Pours his word into us The more that we hold the world at bay Now these chapters chapter 17 through 21 can be divided into two sections each Section representative of this devastating decline The first section focuses on the tribe of Dan in chapters 17 and 18 The next section focuses on the tribe of Benjamin in chapters 19 through 21 now We move then in these chapters from considering the enemies without Now in these chapters to considering the enemy within We've seen enemies without Philistine right the Midianites we've seen those nations that God set against Israel as Judgment against Israel for their sin enemies from without now the book makes a transition from 17 to 21 to enemies from within the idolatrous Fallen nature of their own sinful hearts is on display and It's worth noting here in the tribe of Dan in the tribe of Dan chapter 17 and 18 We see a complete breakdown in acceptable worship and Then in the tribe of Benjamin chapters 19 through 21 We see a complete breakdown in an acceptable morality and listen the two are tied together The two are tied together when you abandon the worship of God you abandon biblical morality You have no hope right those two are intimately tied together Well, what are the results of this breakdown? What are the results of this breakdown in the nation of Israel? We see apostasy and we see anarchy what is going to flow From this breakdown is apostasy and anarchy Israel physically nationally and more particularly spiritually in ruins Well With everyone doing what is right in his own eyes. We first see in Judges chapter 17 verse 1 a worldly worship a worldly worship. Look at verse 1 now. There was a man From the mountains of Ephraim whose name was Micah Ephraim and then Dan to its south earn the very heart of Israel just north of Judah these aren't Outskirts or tribes on the border. This is the very heart of Israel. This is affecting the very heart of Israel the name Micah in its full Hebrew form Micah you means who is like Yahweh? That's what the name means who is like Yahweh? Well, obviously not this Micah Micah is not like Yahweh His family was obviously a wealthy family and this Micah steals from his own mother look at verse 2 He said to his mother The 1100 shekels of silver that were taken from you and on which you put a curse even saying it in my ears Here is the silver with me. I took it Now to put this amount of silver into proper perspective verse 10 Tells of Micah offering a Levite 10 shekels in a shirt per year To live in his house as a Levite and be priest to him right to be his own personal priest 10 shekels for a year This is a considerable amount of silver that's been stolen. It's a large sum of money and Micah Fesses up doesn't he I heard your curse Here's the silver. I took it. Maybe you didn't want the curse to fall on him So Micah not only a thief is also superstitious Not only a brazen heartless thief stealing from his own mother, but a brazen heartless superstitious thief The curse has him spooked right so This brazen heartless superstitious and now superficially penitent thief son of his mother returns the silver But his mother said may you be blessed by the Lord my son How the mom invokes the name of Yahweh in her blessing of her son who stole her silver Blesses her son invokes the name of not just Elohim, but Yahweh the covenant name of God and Then invoking the name of Yahweh the covenant name for God What does she do? She leads Micah into idolatry look at verse 3 So when he had returned the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother his mother said I Had wholly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son To make a carved image and a molded image now therefore I will return it to you Micah doesn't want it back verse 4 thus he returned the silver to his mother Then his mother took 200 shekels of silver gave them to the silver Smith and he made it into a carved image and a molded image and They were in the house of Micah and I thought we read the text right I thought she consecrated all 1100 shekels. Did she consecrate 1100 shekels or did she consecrate 200 shekels? I think she consecrated 1100 shekels. I guess she figured she'd rather have the money Micah took it as she missed it gave it back. I'm just I'll consecrate 200 dot 1100 Seems crass okay seems crass, but professing Christians do this all the time Don't they Sometimes to our shame don't we I? Surrender all to you Lord. I surrender all to you And what does that mean that means an hour on Sunday morning? Okay, okay, okay, I'll give you Sunday morning, but Sunday night is for me Sunday night is for me. I Thought you consecrated all to him. Now. What are you holding back? We packed the house in here for Jerome's ordination And I love that brother But that brother would be the first to acknowledge that no one was here that night for him I'll be the first to acknowledge you're not here for me Who are we here for we're here for the Lord We're here for the Lord Pack the house on a Sunday night for that. What about packing the house for the Lord every other Sunday night? It seems to me Inconsistent it may be inconsistent at best. It may be hypocritical at worse. You judge for yourselves Christians are often Saying I love you Lord with all my heart. I love you with all my heart Lord and what they mean by that is That part of their heart that isn't reserved already reserved for all the other things that they love to in addition to him Right the stuff they refuse to give up for him I love you with all my heart, but there's all those things that they reserve for themselves that they're not willing to give up for him right it The mother consecrated 1,100 shekels of silver when it came now when it came down to it She gave 200 and an Ananias and Sapphira did the same thing didn't they so verse 5 the man Micah had a shrine Essentially a private chapel he essentially had a private chapel and he made an ephod and Terafeme is what the word is means household idols and He consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. What is he doing? He's doing what is right in his own eyes. You see doing what's right in his own eyes Dale Ralph Davis Calls them Micah's collection of cultic tinker toys. That's what Micah's got here collection of cultic tinker toys, so Who is like Yahweh Micah Micaiah? Who is like Yahweh? Well apparently the incomprehensible God the creator of the universe the one from whom? Through whom and to whom are all things? He's like a couple of small silver figurines that you keep in your house, and you worship in your private shrine So what was it that Micah and his mother were doing here? They're simply doing what is right in their own eyes. They're simply doing what is right in their own eyes in those days verse 6 There was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes Well, it wasn't and it isn't right in God's eyes Do you see the second commandment of the law exodus chapter 20 verse 4 you shall not make for yourself a carved image Any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth You shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God Now Micah Obviously knew that he was a Jew Micah knew that he was a Jew Micah knew that Yahweh was God They're even using the name of Yahweh to refer to him It's very likely to be expected that Micah knew the second commandment. He knows the law, but what is he doing? It's called syncretism. It's called syncretism. He's syncretistic He's blending the worship of God with the idolatrous worship or practices of the pagans He's blending the worship of God with idolatry with pagan worship This is representative of the world's influence on the true worship of God. It's syncretistic Right mixing worldliness with worship mixing paganism with worship Mixing mysticism with worship. It's syncretism syncretistic Well, how does it come in? What if we're gonna mix if we're gonna mix worldliness with our worship? How does it come in here in judges chapter 17? They're just doing what they think is right in their own eyes doing what they think is right in their own mind according to their own Imagination according to their own ideas their own wisdom their own philosophy whatever it is. How does it happen today? It happens in the same way All right, it's devised after man's own mind devised after his own imagination devised after his own thinking and it creeps in in a number of ways through music through entertainment Think with me, right? How does worldliness creep into the worship of God's people? How does it come in? It comes in through you and I comes in through man How does it come in through man? It comes in through the trappings that we like to presume our worship of God and they're not So what do we do? We introduce our own ideas. We introduce our own thinking our own feelings our own preferences Our own thoughts we introduce that into the worship of God without being informed from the word of God without Subjecting ourselves without submitting ourselves to the word of God And how does it come in it comes in through music comes in through entertainment comes in through Man-centered questions. What do you think the people would like? What do you think they would enjoy what we thought about doing? Yeah, they wouldn't enjoy that. Let's do this instead Where's God in that question, right? Where's the Lord in our decision-making? Man centered worship man centered entertainment. It's a man centered social club most churches today It affects not only their worship That attitude that approach that way of doing things affects not only their worship It affects the way they understand the gospel affects how they preach the gospel, right? I'm not gonna preach of that Because that's not popular. That's not palatable. They're not gonna like that. I don't want to offend anyone Besides I'm not here to offend anyone. I'm here to be an encourager, right? I'm not gonna preach that difficult part of the law because I'm I just want to encourage everyone Worldliness mysticism paganism rebellion How does it seep in it seeps into their gospel seeps into their understanding then of conversion seeps into the preaching seeps in Into the prayer seeps into the singing before you know it you have a worldly essentially pagan Abominable so-called worship that isn't honoring to God. It's a stench in his nostrils And it's a pathway to false conversion Ultimately a pathway to complete apostasy and what do we see today absolutely? Bursting at the seams in the professing modern-day church false conversion and apostasy Verse five Micah had a little shrine a private little temple is doing what is right in his own eyes He had a little shrine a private little temple when the center of worship was to be in Shiloh He's doing it himself Micah made himself an ephod an ephod was only to be warned by the priests Micah made himself Terafeme household idols a violation of the second commandment and Micah consecrated one of his sons to serve as his own personal priest What's he doing? He's doing what is right in his own eyes Well, this is the way I see it. This is the way I see it Micah even says as much later in the text, right? This is the way I see it. This is what I think needs to be done. Look how sincere I am Look how dedicated to worship. I am I have my own shrine. I have my own ephod look I have my own priest. Look how sincere I am. Look how dedicated I am. Look how holy I am Surely surely God will be well pleased with me was watching a documentary a while back and the documentary was They were reviewing Archaeological digs in Jerusalem in and around Jerusalem fascinating documentary so they're looking at various archaeological digs that were taking place in and around Jerusalem and they had this section of the city that they were excavating that were public households so and they were Wealthier households these were folks who are a little better off living toward the center of the city and But many of these apartments if you will that they were excavating where Jews in and before the first century lived in Jerusalem and What they found one of the things that was sort of mentioned in passing that as they were walking through the dig site And they're picking up pieces of pottery. They're picking up Tablets things that were scribbled on or etched in they were picking up figurines Everywhere they went these houses inhabited by God's Covenant people Prior to around the time of Jesus Christ Full of household Terafine little idols little figurines Violations every one of them of the second commandment and the worship of the true and living God Tragic they were finding them everywhere. It's tragic Well while you presume to worship the one true and living God You do so with worldly ideas worldly conceptions worldly philosophies worldly music worldly forms and worldly traditions When there is no practical king in your life When the Lord Jesus Christ isn't king you do what you think is right in your own eyes It's as if you don't own a Bible. It's as if they don't own a Bible Well, I did pray about it, you know, we prayed about it and we just thought this was the best thing, you know, I felt led I felt led Verse six in those days as well as in the days that we're living in right now There was no king in Israel Everyone did what was right in his own eyes in the true church Jesus Christ is king amen he rules and Reigns over his kingdom in the hearts of his people right now But this world is full of false worship, isn't it? And there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes Don't you think that like every time you turn on the TV today? Every time you walk down the street watch the news Don't you think that when you consider the absurd tripe that is peddled as worship in most churches that claim the name of Christ? today The worship of God being subject to man's passions man's wisdom man's desires man's Preferences and so they build their own little shrines. We're relevant and relational They make their own little ephods They make hirelings their own little priests. It's an abomination And we have to ask we have to ask the question. What about the inconsistency? What about the hypocrisy in our own worship? In my own heart and mind Am I worshiping God in spirit and in truth? Informed by the word of God motivated by the word of God Constrained hemmed in by the word the revealed word of God is my worship Regulated by the word of God, or is it anything goes in my own heart and mind anything goes When there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes our author Obviously had in mind a king who wouldn't tolerate that godless nonsense. We have a king that doesn't tolerate it He obviously had in mind a king who would uphold God's good rule Well as we'll see Micah's worldliness obviously isn't restricted to Micah alone. This was widespread. Look at verse 7 Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah of the family of Judah He was a Levite and he was staying there. So wait a minute verse 7 is this man a Bethlehemite or is he a Levite? Which is it the text says he's a Levite. So what was he doing living in Bethlehem? Why isn't he laboring in the service of God at the Tabernacle in Shiloh? Where's he supposed to be right now right verse 8 the man departed from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to Stay wherever he could find a place Wherever he could find a place then he came to the mountains of Ephraim to the house of Micah as he journeyed This man is looking for a place to serve as a Levite. That's what he's looking for He's looking for a place what Micah had done building his own little shrine Consecrating his own son making some household idols. This was obviously widespread in Israel at the time here. You've got a traveling Bethlehemite slash Levite looking for a place to be employed looking for a place to stay This is all over the place. This man is looking for a priestly position wherever you can find it again doing What is right in his own eyes? Micah said to him verse 9 where do you come from so he said to him? I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I'm on my way to find a place to stay Tell me it's not like this today, right? Tell me it's not like this today young man goes to school Little concerned given to his calling little concerned giving to it given to his actual conversion Who has these conversations with him, right? He gets his piece of paper at the end of that effort He walks across a platform with his piece of paper in hand and he goes out looking for a place to stay Goes out looking for a job Well, he seems nice and he's got his piece of paper Looks like he knows some stuff Let's make him our hireling Like let's make him our personal priest I once had lunch with a young man who was finishing his doctoral work at southern seminary and as we I hadn't Known him before that we just met and so as we sat having lunch I Wanted to hear his testimony. How did he become a Christian, right? How are things now with him? And so we had a conversation. He told me how he was saved gave me his testimony I asked him some questions. We had a good conversation about his testimony And he's finishing his doctoral work at southern seminary and it struck me to ask him in your time through a master's in divinity and now PhD at southern seminary Have you ever had a conversation where anyone sat down with you? And asked you about your testimony asked you about your conversion asked to know whether or not you're a genuine christian Or is this the first? And he said no, this is the first And so what happens is he's got now this valuable piece of paper and any church in the land Would it only be too well pleased to hire a guy that they don't know Don't know his family And maybe they don't ask about his conversion his testimony how he was genuinely saved And now you've got a man preaching presuming to preach the word of god standing in the pulpit of some church somewhere who Has never been asked these things it's like we are Looking for a bunch of hirelings. Do you see? The system is broken in that sense the local church is the church that is to affirm that and so the lord raising up Men from among us who we know we know them. We know their family. We know their testimony We know there's evidence given that they are genuinely converted at least have the conversation, right? Well, micah said to him verse 10 Dwell with me dwell with me be a father and a priest to me And I will give you 10 shekels of silver per year in a suit of clothes and your sustenance And so the levite went in then the levite was content to dwell with the man and the young man became like one of his sons to him And listen, this is no ordinary levite This is no ordinary levite. We find out later in chapter 18 That this man's name is jonathan and he's the grandson of moses My what a priest you have well all of a sudden we're in serious business here There's an air of respectability now to his little private shrine and his little household idols and right What a terrible downgrade My how far they have fallen the grandson of moses. It's interesting In chapter 18 it said that the scribes Later added a suspended nun. It's a hebrew letter hebrew alphabet a suspended nun To change the name from moses in hebrew to manasseh in hebrew To save moses the dishonor Of his own grandson acting in such tragic and abominable ways And manasseh is an evil wicked king in israel. So You'll see manasseh in your new king james version in chapter 18 verse 30 Other translations will say moses verse 12 So mica consecrated the levite and the young man became his priest And lived in the house of mica then mica said Now i know That the lord will be good to me since i have a levite as priest He professes to believe in the lord uses the name yaway the covenant name for the lord But there is no fear of god before his eyes. Do you see? He has no difficulty breaking his commandments and worshiping god as seems right to him What about the book of the law right? What about the bible? He expects there's an expectation that all will be well with him and he thinks to himself the lord can't do anything But bless me. Look at how sincere i am. I have my own levite Not considering that his thoughts are not our thoughts nor our ways his ways Isaiah chapter 55 verse 9 as the heavens are higher than the earth So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts says the lord What's happening here now in the nation of israel represented here in this little account of mica and his personal priest Is little different than paganism The devastating influence of the canaanites on israel Syncretistic worldly worship that is essentially pagan mica Believes himself to be doing well. He has a levite for a priest We consider the application of this text in our own experience What Levite priest are you holding on to? What levite priest? The lord would be pleased with me. Look at this area or look at that area I memorized a whole chapter of the bible last week. The lord would certainly be pleased with me when you won't give up your sin When you won't give up your preferences when you won't give up your desires when you won't give up worldly wisdom when you won't give up worldliness What levite priest are you holding onto? Is it some experience that you had? Surely the lord is pleased with me Because look what I did for him back then when I was 15 back then when I was 21 22 Some decision you made in the past some service used to perform some service you perform now The church that you belong to Right is that a levite priest to you the lord would certainly be pleased with me. I go to this church Maybe a friend is your levite priest reassuring you that all as well You refuse to give him up Because he's a worldly influence on you or or Do you let go of that? idolatrous priest And heed the word of god Submit yourselves to the word of god When you abandon the world the word You embrace the world When you abandon the word you embrace the world There is no in between Worldliness has infiltrated the church with everyone doing what is right in their own eyes You and I need to be concerned with Concerning ourselves entirely with what is right in his eyes amen amen. Let's pray Father in heaven lord. We love you lord. You have Saved us you have Sent your son the lord jesus christ to live a perfectly righteous life to Go to the cross in our place bearing our own sin and his own body on the tree standing in our place as your wrath Undiluted poured out upon him for our transgressions And we praise you lord for that gift that sacrifice praise you that it's by his stripes. We are healed Now lord having been set free from sin having turned from sin may we worship you in spirit and in truth Guide us and form us according to your word lead us by your spirit convict us lord as we Walk the course of this world as worldliness would seep into our hearts and minds Help us lord to consider how we might consecrate ourselves more holy to you Putting off the old man putting on the new man Separating our separating ourselves more from the the trappings of worldly wisdom and worldly philosophy and worldly thinking and worldly preferences And worldly desires worldly imaginations I help us lord to think more on you to keep our eyes fixed on Eternal and unseen things in the heavenlies And may we worship you rightly as you are worthy to be worshiped lord. It's our joy to worship you in that way We look forward to the day when The systems of this world That seek to undermine true worship will be cast down in jesus christ crowned over his kingdom And you exalted We know he reigns even now. We pray lord come quickly In jesus name. Amen