 So, Judges 18. So, I don't even know where to begin here. Does anybody have any ideas? It's quite a story in Judges 18. Of course, it's continuing the story of Micah and his priest from Judges chapter 17. And the story just kind of gets worse and worse in Judges 18. And even if you think this story is bad, wait till next week. Anyway, let's finish off the story of Micah tonight and look at what's happening in this story. So, let's go verse by verse through in Judges chapter 18 and then afterwards we'll see if there's anything we can possibly learn from this mess. So, look at Judges chapter 18 and a key verse in Judges chapter 18. Judges chapter 18, I'm sorry, is verse number one. This kind of gives us the premise for the main lesson for the whole chapter here. Look at Judges 18 and verse number one. The Bible says in those days there was no king in Israel and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them inheritance to dwell in. For unto that day their inheritance had not fallen under them among the tribes of Israel. And look at verse number two. So, first of all, we're talking about the tribe of Dan here. The tribe of Dan comes into this story of Micah and his priest. And the Bible says that unto that day their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel. And look at verse number two. And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of Valor, from Zorah, from Eshtal to spy out the land and to search it. And they said unto them, Go, search the land. Who when they came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, they lodged there. So, the whole premise of this story turned to Judges chapter one. The whole premise of this story is that Dan did not have enough land. Dan didn't have enough land and they sent out these five guys to go find more. Go find us more land. Because unto that day their inheritance had not fallen unto them. So, you're saying why is that? Why has Dan's inheritance not fallen unto them? So, either God made a mistake and didn't give Dan enough land according to what he deserved or according to what he needed or whatever. You remember, you know, in Joshua they're conquering the land. Throughout the entire book of Joshua they're conquering the land. Then Joshua dies and we see something happen in Judges chapter one. And you'll also see tonight that Judges, the book of Judges is not in chronological order, especially this chapter in the story of Micah. Okay, so I'll get to that later. But look at Judges chapter one in verse number 28. So, let's find out why that Dan did not have all his inheritance. Why did the tribe of Dan not have all their land? Look at verse number 28. And I know we've studied this but it's very important in this story. And it came to pass in Judges 1.28. It came to pass when Israel was strong that they put the Canaanites to tribute and did not utterly drive them out. And then in the following verses it goes through all the different tribes and how they did not utterly destroy the people that they were supposed to. Remember, when they were sent into the land they were to utterly destroy the people. And that is how they would get their entire inheritance. But at the end, after Joshua, at the end of Joshua, they stopped at some point during the conquest. They stopped utterly destroying the people. They started making deals with them and putting them to tribute. Remember, they started saying, okay, we'll not utterly destroy you. You can just pay us taxes and we'll put you under tribute. I mean, it's tempting, right? Why would I utterly destroy this entire city when they could pay me all this money? So, they started not listening to what God said for them to do. And then if you look at verse 34 of Judges chapter 1, it talks specifically about Dan. So, of course, you know, what are the spies? What are the 12 spies except for Caleb and Joshua? What did they see when they went to the Promised Land? You have to remember that when the Promised Land was conquered, when Joshua took the people across the Jordan River and started in Jericho and started conquering the Promised Land, it's not like they were just rolling right over a bunch of people that didn't know how to fight. It's not like it was just a bunch of women and children, and it was just an easy battle. The difference is that they had faith that God would deliver the land unto them. And while they had that faith and they went forth to God, the Lord won the battles for them. And the Lord won the battles for them. But they got in the midst of their enemies, remember? They got in the midst of their enemies, and they started, you know, turning against the Lord, and they started not listening to the Lord and lacking faith in the Lord. And then their enemies started gaining victories over them. I mean, look at the entire book of Judges. They fell away from the Lord and their enemies came in. So we see this pattern that when they turn away from the Lord, the victories stop, and not only do the victories stop, but the people overcome them. The Philistines, the Amorites, I mean everybody. And especially in verse 34, it says, the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain, for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley. So either God made a mistake here when he gave Dan this valley, or the people of Dan just lacked faith in the Lord and lacked, you know, that faith for God to fight their battles for them, and they stopped gaining those victories, and they were forced into the mountains. So they didn't have this valley, and the valley was their inheritance. So these guys, without getting too deep into this yet, these guys are looking for new land to settle. You know, their state of their relationship with the Lord is such where they are not able to conquer their land. Let's just leave it there for a few minutes. But they're looking for more land. So instead of fixing themself and taking what God has given them in the right way with God with them, they send these five guys out to look for new land. That's what's happening here in Judges chapter 18. Look at verse number 3. And when they were by the house of Micah, these five guys, they knew the voice of the young man, the Levite, and they turned in thither and said unto him, who brought thee hither? And what makeest thou in this place, and what hast thou here? And he said unto them, thus and thus deal with Micah with me, and he hath hired me, I am his priest. So they knew the Levite, and they talked to the Levite, and the Levite says, hey, this is the deal. You know, he basically explains Judges 17 to them. And they said unto him, ask counsel, we pray thee of God, that we may know whether our way, which we shall go, shall be prosperous. So this shows you the state of the children of Dan, of these men of Dan. They come across this priest, and remember, this guy looks like a priest. He's got, you know, the outfit, and he's got all the stuff. But he's a priest of a temple of idols, a temple of false gods. But these guys don't know or don't care, or both. And they ask the guy for advice. And the priest said unto them, go in peace, before the Lord is your way wherein you go. So I mean, it's pretty good. He sounds like a priest. I mean, he looks like a priest. He's speaking for the Lord, must be a priest. You know, so these guys clearly don't know their Bible. Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw that the people were therein. How they dwelt careless. After the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure. And there was no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in anything. And they were far from the Zidonians and had no business with any man. Turn to Romans 13. Turn to Romans 13. So these guys, these guys stumble upon basically like a commune or something. This city, kind of in the middle of nowhere, this civilization in the middle of nowhere, there were Zidonians, but they were far away from the other Zidonians. They were kind of just off by themselves, living careless. It didn't mean careless. It just meant that they were just living like there was no danger. They didn't have cares. They didn't have walled cities. They didn't have defenses. And there was no magistrate in the land. Well, how is that relevant? Look at Romans 13 in verse number 3. Basically what this is saying is that they had no protection. Look at Romans 3 in verse number 3. This Romans 3 is talking about the purpose of government. You know, the purpose of government. In verse number 3, the Bible says, For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So he's talking about here how government's job is to, you know, make sure there's no evil and to revenge evil, meaning bad things, hurt, danger, okay? And there was no government. There was no magistrate. There was no sheriff in town. There was no government protection in place for these people. And the men of Dan thought that was pretty good, because they were there to do evil. That's what they were there to do. Look at verse number 8. They were there to do hurt. And they came under their brethren, Tezora and Estrual, and their brethren sat under them. What say ye? So they went back to their original inherited land on the coast. So this spot here is in the far north. If you ever look at a tribe of the children of Israel in the 12 tribes, you know, this spot that Dan is about to acquire is in the far north. But what God actually gave them, we'll talk about in a little bit, is right on the border, right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. We'll talk about that in a little bit. Look at verse 9. And they said, For we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And are ye still? Be not slothful to go and to enter to possess the land. So look, they came back and they're like, hey, we found an easy way. We found an easy way to get some land. This is what they reported back to the children of Dan. Verse number 10. Look, turn to Joshua chapter 19. Turn to Joshua chapter 19. Joshua chapter 19. Let's look at the land that God gave to Dan. And let's take a look at what's happening here. Look at Joshua chapter 19 and look down at verse number... Now look up at verse number 41. So it's basically, in verse number 40, it's talking about the lot, the land that Dan was given. And the seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan, according to their families. And the coast of their inheritance was Zorah and Estriol and Amrash. And there's a whole list of places of this, you know, the border of what Dan's inheritance is. And look, there's a Zidonians or Leshem, is not listed here. Okay, this is not the inheritance that they went out these five guys and found. Their inheritance was along the coast. And the coast, 47, and the coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them. Therefore, the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem and took it. So it lists what the inheritance was, and it says it was too little for them. It doesn't explain why here, but we'll get to that in a minute. And so they went out and they took it and they smote it with the edge of the sword. So in verse number 47 is talking about the events of Judges chapter 18, about what they did and they went out and they got this extra land. So it's... Judges chapter 18 is happening sometime after Joshua has died and they have stopped conquering the land, utterly destroying the people. I'm not going to say exactly when it happened. A lot of people think they know exactly when that date was or whatever. But sometime after and according to, you know, the fact that they stopped utterly destroying the people is when Judges 18 is taking place. And so much so that Joshua chapter 19 here mentions it, okay? So in verse number 48 it says, this is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages. So we see that in Joshua chapter 19. Look at verse number 12 of Judges 18. And they went up, verse 11, they went from there a family of the Danites out of Zorah and out of Estel, 600 men appointed with weapons of war. So they go get an army and they're going to head back and they went up and pitched in Kyrgyzath-Jiram in Judah. Wherefore they called that place Manahadan till this day, behold it is behind Kyrgyzath-Jiram. And they passed then to Mount Ephraim and came to the house of Micah. So they come through Micah's territory again. Then answered the five men that went out to spy the country of Leish and said unto their brethren, you not know that we're in these houses is an Ephod, a terraphan, and a graven image and a molten image. Now therefore consider what you have to do. And they turned to their word and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, Micah and saluted him. And the 600 men appointed with their weapons of war which were the children of Dan stood by the entering of the gate. And the five men that went out to spy the land went up and came in the other and took the graven image and the Ephod and the terraphan and the molten image. And the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the 600 men that were appointed with weapons of war. And these went into Micah's house and fetched the car of image, the Ephod, the terraphan and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, what do ye? So these guys came through with their army and they saw the priest and they went into Micah's house. They went into Micah's temple and they took everything. They took all the priestly stuff and they took all the idols and they took the graven image and the molten image and they're basically stealing all his stuff. And the priest comes out, Micah's priest, he comes out and he's like, what are you guys doing? He's like, why are you taking all this stuff and look at verse 19. So the priest is going to stand up for Micah and they said unto him, hold thy peace, lay thy hand upon thy mouth. And they just said, shut up. That's what they basically said to him. And go with us and to be with us a father and a priest. It is better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man that thou may be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel. So basically what they say to him is, look, you're a priest right now to one man. He's like, how would you like to be a priest to an entire tribe? Promotion. And the guy's like, no, I'm loyal to Micah. And the priest's heart was glad. He's like, I'm in. Just like that. So he leaves Micah just like right now. He's like, are you kidding me? I can be a priest to an entire nation? To an entire tribe? He's like, sign me up. And the priest's heart was glad. And he took the ephah and the tariff and the graven image and went into the midst of the people. So they turned and departed and put the little ones in the cattle and the carers before them. And they were a good way from the house of Micah. The men that were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together and overtook the children of Dan. Now Micah sees all his stuff is gone and his priest is gone. And he chases these guys down and they cried under the children of Dan and they turned their faces and said unto Micah, what aleeth thee? That thou comest with such a company. So they stole all his stuff and they took his priest and they're like, what's the problem? And he said, you've taken my gods which I made and the priest and you're gone away and what have I more and what is this that you say unto me what aleeth me? So that's kind of, I mean, I love parts like this in the Bible because it shows you that people talk the same back then as they do today. So basically Micah chases down this army that stole all his stuff and his priest and he goes up to them and he's like, what are you doing? And they go to him and they're like, no they say to him, what are you doing? He's like, you just stole my stuff and you're asking me what I'm doing? He's like yelling at them for stealing everything that he has basically and he said you stole my idol and my priest and you ask me, what is wrong? This is what Micah says, look at verse 25 and the children of Dan said to him let not thy voice be heard among us lest angry fellows run upon thee and thou lose thy life and the lives of thy household. He's like, shut up or we're going to kill you. Translation, just be quiet or we're going to kill you and the children of Dan went their way and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him he turned and went back unto his house so basically they said we have more people than you we're going to kill you if you just don't go away so Micah goes away and they took the things which Micah had made and the priest which he had and came unto Leish unto a people that were quiet and secure and they smote them with the edge of the sword and burnt the city with fire and there was no deliverer because it was far from Zidon and they had no business with any man and it was a valley that lieth by Bethlehem and they built the city and dwelt therein so basically they took this city, this town whatever you want to call it that was just living on their own they were off the grid, these people they were not connected to Zidon they didn't have any protection from a larger city or a larger government or a larger army and they found this city tucked in this area of land and they just killed everybody they killed everybody, they burnt the city and this is actually where the city of Dan is where they set up the city that's called Dan so they called the name of the city Dan after the name of Dan their father who was born unto Israel albeit the name of the city was Leish at first so literally they renamed this burnt city Dan and the children of Dan set up the graven image and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh and he and his sons were priests to the drive of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land in Judges 5, 17 let's look a little bit more at this tribe of Dan look at Judges chapter 5 in verse number 17 remember in Judges chapter 5 in verse number 17 I just want to give you kind of a picture because you can't really tell by one verse what actually happened with the children of Dan here even in Judges 18 it's pretty clear that they just came upon these people that were living in peace but you know what maybe Dan was just you know they were brave and the people were just too strong for them we kind of know that that's not the case from Joshua 19 but in Judges chapter 5 we see the story of Deborah remember Deborah when she had to she was looking for people to stand up and fight the battle against Cicera and she couldn't find everybody and she had to even persuade Barak to go and fight the battle well there were several nations that were listed that would not join Deborah that would not join the good fight and look at Judges 5 in verse number 17 it's talking about look at verse 16 for the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart so Reuben was this unstable tribe which she was an unstable person so there's definitely the Bible's ripping on Reuben here for not joining this fight and a boat beyond Jordan and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the seashore and a boat in his breeches so it's now talking about Dan is on the coast Dan's on the coast and his original inheritance before this happened and Dan just remained Dan did not come to join this fight either so look Dan was not this this tribe that was just known for its courage and its bravery that they couldn't have enough faith to conquer their own land so they went and they just found an easy target they went outside of God's inheritance and they just burned these people so look at verse number 30 of Judges 18 I'm sorry verse 31 and they set them up Micah's graven image which he made all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh so when they named this city Dan and they named this area for their territory turn to Judges chapter 18 Judges chapter 18 remember where the house of God was in Judges chapter 18 verse 1 tells us this I'm sorry Joshua 18 1 I'll just read it for you and the whole congregation of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there and the land was subdued before them so look the Bible says here that they stayed here until the day of captivity of the land this wasn't the captivity of the nation it was just the captivity of this particular area here as you can see all these different tribes went into captivity at different times because of their lack of faith and their turning on the Lord so basically you have this situation where this tribe of Dan chose to not conquer, chose to not to turn on the Lord and to not have the Lord fight their battles for them and they weren't able to drive out the people that were in their inherited land so they go out searching for the easy way out and they find an easy way right here with these people and they end up stealing Micah's priest and taking him but the important thing to look at here is that when they do conquer these people and they do get these people conquered and they name the city Dan they just set up all these idolatrous temples and they start worshiping false gods right away so you know that this was not of God they basically were an idolatrous tribe already which makes perfect sense because one of the reasons they started making alliances with all these nations around them is because they were joining them they were adopting their cultures which is why God said utterly destroy them do not make marriages with them so they did all these things and by the time they even got here they were into idolatry and they asked the priest the priest says, oh the Lord says go here but look the priest, he wasn't a priest of the Lord he was a priest of false gods he was a self ordained priest basically it was worshiping false gods so what can we learn from this it's a messed up story that had a lot of serious results the first thing, there's a big picture here but there's a couple small things that we need to take from this and the first one is, you have to make sure as far as application goes don't take advice from the wrong people you need to make sure turn to Proverbs chapter 20 you need to be careful who you take counsel from turn to Proverbs chapter 20 Proverbs chapter 20 look at verse number 18 the bible says every purpose is established by counsel and with good advice make war that's pretty much the opposite of what Dan did here especially in war especially in decisions of going to war, you would think that you would want to be established by godly counsel in situations where you're literally going to be costing people taking people's lives in war I mean I wonder if our leaders get down on their knees and pray to god on whether or not we should go to war in situations you know I tend to doubt it I tend to doubt it in this day and age but look is this what Dan did, did they take wise counsel they did not I mean turn to Jeremiah chapter 7 here's what Dan did in Jeremiah chapter 7 look at verse number 4 it wasn't their inheritance we saw that already we saw that this land was not the inheritance that god wanted them to have but look at Jeremiah chapter 7 in verse number 4 the bible says this trust you not in lying words saying the temple of the lord, the temple of the lord the temple of the lord are these for if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between man and his neighbor if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless and the widow and shed not innocent blood in this place, either walk after other gods to your hurt and dwell in this place and in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever here we see the same methodology that if you do the right things and you are loyal to god he will let you dwell in the land he will give you the land look the land the idea that the land was just always there is just the dumbest thing in the world I mean it's you've clearly not opened the bible it came with a clause the agreement and the agreement is right here look he's like don't walk after other gods why? because it's going to hurt you don't walk after other gods to your hurt behold you trust in lying words that cannot profit this is what dan did look at verse 24 but instead of following the lord and letting the lord have them dwell in their own inheritance in their own land verse 24 is what dan did but they hearken not nor incline their ear but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart that's really what's going on here and went backward and not forwards really so look it really wasn't about the priest it really wasn't about Micah's priest they had these evil imaginations in their own heart and they just found counsel to tell them what they were at they just found someone to back up what they wanted to do anyway it was their evil heart that caused them to do this and look it was too hard where they were at according to the way they were living and the relationship they had with the lord it was just too hard for them to take their land so they went to an easy place that was the evil intentions of their heart but look here's the thing you will always be able to find somebody to give you counsel that goes along with your evil heart intentions if you do not have intentions that are towards the lord and towards the bible you will always be able to find somebody that says yeah that's okay yeah I agree with what you're doing there that's why you need to be careful who you are getting counsel from faithful look faithful are the wounds of a friend the bible says it doesn't say faithful are the words of a friend a friend a christian brother or sister or spiritual leader that will look you in the face and say look what you're doing is not the right thing you are not supposed to go there and conquer these people you are supposed to go back to your own inheritance have faith turn back to the lord and he will win the battles for you that's not what they wanted to hear go go go take over the look at all the hills look at all the nice views and it's just one little town they don't even have a sheriff the lord be with you look you will always be able to find somebody that will give you the advice that will give you the counsel that will go along with the evil intentions of your own heart even in the smallest things so don't remember that be careful who you get counsel from it's a super important thing turn to Proverbs chapter 20 because look be careful because if you do have evil intentions in your heart if you do have wrong intentions in your heart and you go and you get that counsel to back you up and then you continue down that road look this story shows us that the results will be disastrous and I'll show you how disastrous they were in a little bit Proverbs chapter 20 the second point I want to make about this situation is this loyalty easily won is easily lost look at Proverbs chapter 6 I'm sorry Proverbs chapter 6 and verse number 20 Proverbs chapter 6 and verse number 20 look at what the bible says Proverbs chapter 6 and verse number 20 no maybe it is Proverbs chapter 20 I'm sorry Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number 6 I was dyslexic when I wrote this Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number 6 the bible says but a faithful man who can find finding a man who will tell you how great he is is easy the bible is saying here but finding one that is truly loyal and faithful is hard true loyalty is hard to find go back to judges chapter 17 you say why did the Levite stay with Micah in the first place go to judges 17 judges chapter 17 look what Micah said to him remember last week Micah said unto him dwell with me and be unto me a father and a priest and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year and a suit of apparel and thy victuals so the Levite went in and the Levite was content to dwell with the man and the young man was unto him as one of his sons and Micah consecrated the Levite and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah now turn to judges 18 so why did the Levite stay with Micah because Micah paid him he offered to pay him silver he wanted to he just gave him money look at judges 18 verse 19 and he left for basically the same reason for selfish reasons in verse 19 they said unto him this is the children of Dan hold thy peace lay thine hand upon thy mouth and go with us and be to us a father and a priest for thee to be a priest unto the house is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel and the priest's heart was glad and he went so look he found a better deal he was just all about the you know finding the better deal for himself so loyalty easily won is easily lost the problem and the problem wasn't that he wasn't treated well in verse 11 of judges 17 the young man was unto him as one of his own sons he treated him like he was family but look he was purchased he was swayed by money thus he was easily he was easily led away to get loyal people is a difficult thing it requires work respect is earned life would be too easy if you could just pay people off effectively anyway remember Abimelech I'll just read for you judges 9 verse 4 Abimelech the whole story and they gave him 3 score and 10 pieces of silver out of the house of Belbereth were with Abimelech hired what? vain and light persons which followed him so Abimelech they wanted him to you know take over and he took over and he hired all these mercenaries these vain and light people and look everybody turned on him so I mean how did it turn out respect is earned and once you have it it lasts as long as you keep it so it's hard to it's easy to lose too this is why you know so you have to remember that that you know this is why people that you know if you ever heard about someone who's you know gotten divorced because their spouse left them for somebody else or something like that so I mean somebody you know that breaks up their marriage and marry somebody that they've gotten to leave their husband or their wife or whatever then they're just shocked when that person does the same thing for them like five years later or two years later or one year later or six months later because it's just it's just Micah's priest it's just the type of person that they are they're just going to look for the better deal all the time and as soon as they find something that's a better deal for them they're gone that's it so loyalty easily won is easily lost but the main point I want to make of this sermon is this Dan should not have been looking turned to Joshua chapter 9 no we saw in Joshua chapter 19 I've already read it for you they failed to conquer the land that the Lord gave them turned to Proverbs 16 they had a lack of faith that caused them to not conquer their full territory and then this is what I really want to point out it wasn't just a lack of faith it wasn't just a lack of faith because when you look at it from that perspective it wasn't just a lack of faith that the God would win their battles but they actually when you look at the story closer then not only had a lack of faith in God but they had literal faith in the wrong things they had faith in these idols in these false gods look at Proverbs chapter 16 look at verse 25 the Bible says there's a way that seameth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death this led Dan it began with a lack of faith and it turned into faith in the wrong things turned to 1 Kings chapter 12 as a matter of fact as a matter of fact this became Dan's legacy this became Dan's legacy especially this city that we're talking about that was burnt with fire look at 1 Kings chapter 12 in verse 25 the Bible's talking about Jeroboam he's just created the northern kingdom there was the split now you have Judah the southern kingdom and you have the northern kingdom in the north and Jeroboam is the king of the northern kingdom and Jeroboam is terrified that the people will go to Jerusalem to worship so he's going to create his own religion he's going to create his own false religion to keep the people there and look where he creates it verse 25 he built sesham in Mount Ephraim and dwelt therein and went out from Dan's and built penuel and Jeroboam said in his heart now shall the kingdom return to the house of David he's worried that the people are going to go back if this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the lord of Jerusalem then shall the heart of this people turn again under their lord even under Rehoboam the king of Judah and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam the king of Judah whereupon the king took counsel and he said unto them is it too much for you to go up it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem behold thy gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt so he goes and he creates his own religion he creates his own this kind of reminds me of communism actually this kind of reminds me of how how communism takes over and they have to be like you know what we can't have all these religious people worshiping God we can't have people worshiping God they need to realize that the state is God they need to realize that we are God that's why whenever you had a communist takeover I don't care where it is they kill all the religious people that's the first thing they do they kill all the religious people they make religion illegal as basically what Rehoboam is doing here except he's doing it by creating a false religion he creates these two calves of gold that people can go worship instead of going back to Jerusalem because he doesn't want to lose to David and look where he puts them and he set one in Bethel and the other and we were talking about cities here and the other where did he put it what city did he put it, he put it in Dan they were already idol worshipers they were known for being idolatrous literally idolatrous so it wasn't the point I'm trying to get at is it wasn't just a lack of faith it was that they had turned to God and they had faith in the wrong thing and this is where it will always go this is where the lack of faith will always go I mean because look you will have faith in something you will have faith in something they in this case they turn to literal idolatry is where their faith went sometime after the death of Joshua but it's not like I mean God vs. Mammon it doesn't say God vs. Mammon and you're going to like mix the two it says no you'll hate one of them you know it says you'll hate one or you'll hate the other it kind of puts to bed this idea that you can have one foot in and one foot out in this Christian life because you're either going to go the wrong way and fall into something bad or you're going to get right I mean so you need to check the areas of your life where you lack faith is the message here you know where where are you fighting the word of God in your life everybody in this room is fighting the word of God at some point in their life and I'm telling you it will continue it will either continue in the wrong direction and get worse and worse and worse or you will get it right there's no cruise control one foot in one foot out that's not how it works and look there will be major consequences that you don't see today if you don't get this right they just wanted a little bit more land I mean soony I just want a little bit more land we had all these battles were losing all the time we just need a little bit more land seemed harmless at first the entire nation is known for idolatry the whole legacy of Dan is known for turning against the Lord they destroyed the whole nation the whole tribe because they went their own way so look where what are those areas in your life everybody in this room has one what are those areas in your life there's two things I want to stick in your brain before you leave number one what are those areas in your life that you are having a hard time putting your faith in God what are those areas identify the areas areas where you want to have one foot in and one foot out you know it's kind of like the land that area in your life is half conquered and you just can't conquer the whole land so you're going to find your own way and then number two when you identify that and by the way in those areas you'll find your idols in those areas in those areas where your land is half conquered in your Christian life that is where you will find your idols and then on top of that in you will find where your faith lies besides the Lord you will find what you are putting your faith in other than the Lord are you following me here in those areas where you are half in in the Christian life where your Christian life is half conquered there you will find your idols and there you will find where your faith is when it should be in the Lord in those areas this story shows us that it's not just not in God but it's actually somewhere else their faith wasn't just not in God it wasn't just a lack of faith it was somewhere else it's why it wasn't in God it's a zero sum game it's either all in the Lord or it's going to be somewhere else and that somewhere else will have progressively worse consequences maybe you're hanging on to some sin you say I can't think of any maybe you I know the Bible teaches against this but I think I can do both I think I can handle this sin and still go to church and look it will be a disaster it will be a disaster because you know why you know why it will be a disaster you say it's just a look at the sin and it's just a little sin it doesn't seem serious it will be a disaster because the problem is an issue with your heart it's a problem in your heart is what is the issue I'm just not going to go all in I'm just going to hang on to sin in this area you're trusting something else you're not trusting God and maybe that's the worst part about it you're just not trusting God you're trusting something else raising kids is a perfect example raising kids is a perfect example we talk about discipline here and what the Bible says about raising your children and how you should do it I just didn't grow up that way that's uncomfortable for me to do that well you're not trusting the Lord you're not trusting God you're putting your faith in your parents or however you were raised that's what you're putting your faith in not God when you talk about homeschooling your kids we're talking about it's just it's too much separation it's too obvious it's going to be too uncomfortable for people these are the ones that are really hard for people when you pull your kids out of public school people are going to notice that people are going to notice that you don't put your kids in public school that's unnoticeable separation when you start doing things different noticeably different people are going to notice it they're going to take it personally and you're like what they're going to take it personally maybe it causes trouble with your family you know what it's too much trouble it's too much trouble people in my family they put their kids in public school a generation ago insulting them it's just causing too much trouble when you're putting your faith in that not the Lord you're putting your faith in your culture or the status quo you grew up in you're not putting it in the Lord it's not like you have a lack of faith in the Lord you're literally putting your faith somewhere else I mean what are you putting your faith in? Secular philosophy good luck the public school talk about Micah's priest talk about Micah's priest talk about a false prophet talk about a false prophet that's out there destroying people for money that's Micah's priest the public school system is Micah's priest today a false priest paid to destroy your children but these areas the hardest areas are the ones that show outward separation look that's what takes the faith that's what takes the faith that actually show people outward separation of your life look it doesn't take a lot of faith to tell people that you go to church you know people go to church people go to church oh you know they go to church two days a week that's not really a big one people go to church maybe not anymore but they used to but look it's not just it's things that normal people in the status quo today don't do those are the things that take the real faith because it's outside it's outside the status quo look when you make those types of moves and you put that faith you make those outward moves that people can see and you put that faith totally in the Lord it shows where your heart is it shows where your heart is so it's a big deal it's a big deal especially the things that show that you're outside that status quo you know that outside that normal box that everybody else is in but look here's the thing you want to be where that box is leading everybody it's not a hard decision to make but this story shows us that this half conquered idea is a lack of faith it shows a heart problem and hopefully we don't have any of those areas that beat those areas out of our life because they will not be without consequences that's why this story is so important because we see the major consequences that happened not only just in this story but in the future for this tribe let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer