 Hey man, Judges chapter 17. So we're entering the part of Judges where we're getting into, you know, the really messed up stories in the Bible. If I was going to preach a sermon series on messed up stories in the Bible, I'd spend most of my time at the last, the latter part of Judges. Okay, and this is where it kind of, we're done with Samson, we're done with Gideon, a lot of the stories of the Judges in the Bible, and we're getting to these stories in Judges where you just like, you're reading these stories and it's funny because this particular story here, I can, when I read this story I still remember how I felt the very first time I read this story, and I don't know if you you have that feeling where you've read something several times, but I can still remember reading this story for the first time and like almost every single verse in Judges chapter 17, you read it and you're just like, what in the world? What's going on here? So let's go ahead and look at Judges chapter 17 and get into this story and as we as we go through these stories in the last part of the book of Judges, we are going to look at the parallels in these stories to what's happening with us today and our lives today. Okay, and you know, you may be shocked at how many parallels there actually are. You know, so when you read something like this, you know, you're typically like, well, you know, what's going on here, but you may be shocked at how it's not really that new even compared to what you're dealing with today in the world around you. Look at Judges chapter 17. It's a short chapter, but there's a lot here. Okay, look at Judges 17 verse 1. The Bible says, and there was a man of Mount Ephraim whose name was Micah. Oh, that sounds nice. This is a nice story. Let's see what Micah is up to. Okay, verse 2, and he said unto his mother the eleven hundred shekels that were taken from thee about which thou cursest and spakest of also in mine ears. Behold, the silver's with me, and I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son. What in the world's going on here? What? I mean, I'm done with this chapter. Just close the Bible. This makes no sense. You know, what? So basically this woman just says, okay, let me go back. We won't be done. We'll finish. But I mean, she's like, hey, Mom, you know, let me translate this into modern-day English. Okay? Hey, Mom, remember that, that, you know, thousand dollars that you lost? And you just swore up and down, and you were cursing everybody and everybody, and, and you couldn't find it. And you were like, somebody stole it from me. Hey, Mom, it was me. I stole it. And she's like, Blessed be the Lord. So that's what's happening here. Okay? That's what we just read. Okay? He's like, I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son. I mean, you thought Samson was spoiled. You know? I mean, so look, first of all, it gives you kind of an idea of the kind of guy that we're dealing with right here. All right? Right off the bat. We get kind of an idea of the character of Micah. And probably that Micah probably didn't have the best start in life. He probably wasn't, he just, the boy wasn't raised right. It was basically what you can say. Okay? Look at verse number three. So let's see if it makes more sense. Maybe I just took one verse out of context. Verse number three. And when he had restored the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, well, at least he gave it back. At least he gave it back to his mother so there's hope for Micah. Okay? His mother said, I had whole, holy dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand from my son to make a graven image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it unto thee. You're like, what in the world? Look at verse four. Yet he restored the money unto his mother and his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the founder, meaning, you know, the person that runs the foundry that makes stuff out of metal, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image and they were in the house of Micah. So first of all, the mom says, I've dedicated this money to the Lord. I dedicated it to the Lord for you to make a molten image for you. And you're like, what? What's going on here? So she wants to make a molten image to dedicate the money to the Lord. It's kind of like saying, hey, let's take a special offering in the church. Like, we, you know, let's do a special offering next week and we'll take a bunch of money and the money that we raise will go and we'll buy a, you know, a satanic statue to worship. You know, that's basically what she said, right? So there, she's got, she's got, they're all mixed up here, okay? They're all backwards and mixed up and then he gives her the money back and that's exactly what she does with it. She goes and she makes a molten image. She literally makes her son an idol. She doesn't make an idol of him. I think she probably has already done that from reading these first few verses, but she makes him a literal idol. Look at verse number five. And the man Micah had an house of gods. So he already had several idols. This man, he was a collector of gods. He already had a temple or whatever you want to call it, of false gods, of gods, of idols or whatever. And he made an ephod and a tariff him and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. So, I mean, it makes perfect sense, right? I mean, you're like, he's got this big temple. He's got all these false idols in it. He's like, we've got to get me a priest. You're going to get me a priest to run this place. So he's like, uh, Jacob, you're going to be my priest. You know, and he consecrates his own son as his priest. Look at verse number six. In those days there, and now we make, now we see. In verse number six, we get to see what's happening here. It kind of wraps it up. In those days, there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. You think? It's exactly what's going on here. Micah's doing what's right in his own eyes. His mom has raised him in the way that is right in her own eyes. She is doing what's right in her own eyes. He's doing what, you know, hey, he saw some money. He took it. She saw some money. She got it back and she went and she bought it. She had an idol made, you know, a false God made. And it's because every man did that which was right in their own eyes. There was no, you know, there was no law that anyone was following. So we get some clarity on at least why things are so backwards and so mixed up in the first few verses here. Everyone was just doing what they felt was right in their life. You know, what they felt was spiritual. You know, they, you know, Micah had a house of God. He felt like that would make him spiritual. He needed a priest. So he just went and he made his son a priest. You know, he just made anybody a priest. Here's my son. Sounds good. He's right there. He can be the priest. Look at verse number seven. And then it gets even better for Micah because, I mean, he had his son as a priest. But now, I mean, we have a chance to get even more godly here. Look at verse number seven. And there was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite. Whoa! This guy's a Levite. And he's sojourned there. He stayed there. And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehem Judah to Sojourn where he could find a place. And he came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah as he journeyed. And Micah said unto him, Where com, whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah. And I go to Sojourn where I may find a place. He's like, I'm just traveling around looking for a place. I have nowhere. He's not really going anywhere. And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me. He said, Be unto me a father and a priest. And I will give thee ten shackles 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. Then said Micah, Now I know that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my priest. So Micah sees this guy that's a Levite and he's like, Hey, I mean look, he obviously doesn't know a lot about the Bible. But he knows enough to know that the Levites are supposed to be the priests in the house of God. He doesn't know obviously that you're not supposed to worship false gods. You're not supposed to have idols in the first place. Or he doesn't seem to care. But he's like, Hey, I'm going to get me a Levite. Now I got a real priest even though he's got false gods and still all these things. So basically, you know, I don't even know where to begin. You know, when you read this chapter, you're like, you preach a sermon on this chapter. You're like, Where do we even begin here? This is so messed up. But look, first of all, I want to point out the parallels. When we talk about Judges 17, Judges 18, Judges 19, and the end of the book of Judges, there's a lot of parallels to what we're dealing with today. Okay. And you know, don't just sit there and think that, Hey, that's messed up because I want to show you tonight how what's happening in Judges 17 is happening today. The exact same thing is happening in our country today. You say, explain that. We'll turn to Ephesians chapter six. Let me give you a few points just to show you how Judges 17 is applicable to exactly what we're seeing in our world, even in our country, even in our city today. Look at Ephesians chapter six. First of all, just this disrespecting of parents. Okay. This idea that we're going to be disrespectful to our parents is extremely common today. Look at Ephesians chapter six. And we can't look, we can't even read all the chapters or all the verses in the Bible for sake of time that talk about being respectful to your parents. But Ephesians chapter six and verse number one is one, children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise. What's the promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth? So this is saying, look, if you're disrespectful to your parents, if you just dishonor your parents, you're just nasty to your parents, the Bible says that will affect you how long you live on this earth. I mean that's, I mean that's a promise. So I mean here you have an adult son literally stealing from his mother. He's stealing from his mother. I mean that's the opposite of obeying and being respectful to your parents. Now the parallels to this today turn to Second Timothy chapter three is we actually see an entire generation today I would say being raised with absolutely no respect for their parents. An entire generation. I mean if you don't recognize that pattern, you know, if as you're out in the world, as you're soul winning, as you're doing everything else, you know, you're not paying attention. Look at Second Timothy chapter three. That's why when we teach about, you know, discipline from the Bible and all these different things, you know, people that first come into this church from outside into a Bible preaching church and they hear sermons on how you're supposed to raise your kids and how you're supposed to discipline your kids and how you're supposed to chastise your children if you love them, you know, that may be hard to hear for people coming from the outside world to hear or coming from some, you know, liberal church that says nothing to hear. That may be a difficult message to swallow because it's not what's being teach anywhere today. Okay, which is why we're seeing what we're seeing today. Look at Second Timothy chapter three. It's also a sign by the way of the end times. It's also a sign of the end times. Look at Second Timothy chapter three verse one. The Bible says this know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, and it goes on and on. But look, this is, remember the clues in the milestones? This is a clue. Okay, because look, it was happening in Judges chapter 17. That obviously wasn't the end of the world. Okay, that obviously wasn't the end times. It's happening today. Could it be the end times? We don't know. But it could just be, look, it's a sign of a declining civilization for sure. I mean, this civilization in the end of the book of Judges here that we're seeing in Judges, it was reaching a breaking point. It was reaching a breaking point where civilization had broken down, where morality had broken down to the point where God had to just, he had to reset things. He had to reset things. He had to give them a king. He had to put in, you know, a new leadership structure because things were just completely out of control. Things were just completely out of control. So look, we see that there's parallels to even just the first couple of verses here where Micah is just completely disrespectful to his mom and she's okay with it. She's okay with it. He stole from her. She's like, oh, blessed be my son. You know, she wishes a blessing on him after he admits that he stole from her after she was even upset that she had this money stolen from her. But the main point that I want to make this evening is this. So that's just a kind of a side note. This disobedience to parents. Look back at verse number seven. The main point I want to make and the main parallel that I want to make with Judges chapter 17 with our society today is this. And that is this. It is doing things our own way. So if there was a title to this sermon, it would be our own way. Our own way. That is the story. That is the real, the heart of the lesson of Judges chapter 17 is our own way. Look at verse number six. In those days, there was no king in Israel, but every man. So it says there was no king in Israel, meaning, look, there was just no leader. There was no leader in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. You know, the Bible teaches this philosophy that as a society gets more and more and more immoral, that you will need more and more and more worldly leaders over you. You know, the founders of this country knew the same thing. They knew that as, you know, we're not a religious people anymore and as our morality declines, is like your freedom is just going to be inversely proportional to that. As your morality goes down, you know, well it's directly proportional. As your morality goes down, your freedom is going to go down. Because you have to be controlled by something. That's just the way it works. So look, our own way is what was going on in Judges 17 and look, I'm telling you, it's what's going on today. It's what's going on today. Micah was a man going his own way. Micah was a man doing things the way he thought they should be done just out of his own, just how he wanted. He wanted a house of gods. He made a house of gods. He wanted a priest. He made his son a priest. He made an ephod for him to make him look like a priest. He gave him all the stuff that a priest would have. He made him a priest and then a Levite came along. He's like, oh, now I got a real priest. He's a Levite. So Micah was a man that was just, he was just making it up as he went and he was doing things how he wanted. Now look, the first thing I want to point out about our own way is how we worship God actually matters. Did you know that? Turn to Exodus chapter 20. Knowing the law matters. Clearly people were not reading the Bible in Micah's time and place. Turn to Exodus chapter 20 just for a simple example. Look, it's part of, it's one of the 10 commandments. You know there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of commandments in the Bible. This is one of the main 10. Okay? Look at Exodus chapter 20 and look at verse number 4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any lightness of anything that is in heaven above, that is in the earth beneath, that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So look, God here is saying, don't make a graven image. Why? Because you're going to worship it. He's saying, don't make graven images because you know men are stupid enough, I mean look, men are stupid enough that if they make these graven images and they make these little temples they're going to worship it. I mean how many Buddha temples have you ever seen? How many little Buddha statues do people in this city probably have in their house? You know how many statues of other religious whatever's do people put in their house that they think that gives their house power or they think that that gives their house some kind of you know religious protection or whatever. Look, God says don't do that. He says I'm a jealous God. He's like I'm the God, not these idols, these dumb idols of stone and wood and iron or whatever else. He's like I'm a jealous God. The parallels, I mean the parallels today, so I mean Micah, he was just worshiping God in a completely, he wasn't even worshiping God. He was worshiping different gods but he was worshiping, he was getting his spiritual fix in a completely unacceptable way, completely unacceptable. But look as stupid as this whole story sounds, look at what's happening today. Look at what's going on today. Look at the churches today that are popular even in our own city. You know look at you know these mega churches. How are they worshiping the Lord? You wonder, you wonder even what Lord they're worshiping. As you know they have these you know the rock concerts and the music that you know it sounds no different than the music somebody is driving down the street in Fresno blaring in their car. It sounds the exact same as that in a church. I mean look these people I mean their music mimics the world. You know we'll turn to Romans chapter 12. You say what's the big deal? As long as we make Christian lyrics and we talk about Jesus what does it matter what the tune of the music is? Well it does matter because the Bible says it matters. That's why. Look at Romans chapter 12. You say I mean man you're getting really specific but the Bible tells us that we should not be doing this. What do you mean? We should not be looking, we should not be trying to turn this church into what the world looks like. Because the why? Because me know because the Bible says this in Romans 12 too. It says and be not conformed to this world. Is that hard to understand? It says hey don't try to go out and look like the world looks like. But you know what? You know what? You know what's funny? You know there's a reason they do it. They don't do it just because you know they like the tune. They do it because that's what people want. They do it because people look it's almost like God when he wrote Romans 12 too. It's almost like he knew what would happen. He did know what would happen. He said be not conformed to this world but what's the opposite of that? But be transformed. Be transformed. That means that means you know what that means? You know when you transform something you know what you do? You know when you transform when you take when you have a transformer for electricity you know what you're doing? You're changing it in some way. You're taking something in and you're sending it out and it's different. You're making it different for a different use. And look it says be transformed by what? The renewing of your mind. It's saying your your mind should be transformed. It should be changed. That you may prove that what is that good acceptable and perfect will of God. Look it is it is God's will. It is God's perfect will that when you go to church and you study his word and you listen to what the Bible has to say for you. Look the Bible has a lot to say for you. Does it not? I mean how in the world can I get up here? I'm not that interesting. How can I get up here and preach so much? How can I get up here and preach so many messages that aren't exactly the same? It's because the Bible has so much to say for your life. It has so much to say on what this transformation is about. And look you're to be and that that transformation is the perfect will of God. Is what Romans 12-2 is saying. It is God's perfect will. It's not just it's not just his his thoughts his idea that he had one day. It's his perfect will that you be transformed and that you be transformed according to this. There's a lot here. Look you're going to come here for a year and you're not going to hear everything that's here. You're going to come here for two years three years four years. You're not going to hear everything that's in here. That's how much transforming needs to be done. That's the perfect will of God that you would be transformed. Not that you would go somewhere so you could just be the same. But you know what it's easier. It's easier to go somewhere we can just be the same. We're going to have to transform anything. You just go there be the same. And they're going to tell you, bless you, they're going to tell you hey everything's fine. Be the same. No but if I get up here and I read what the Bible says and I say look no this one thing right here that's got to change. This thing over here it's got to change. If you don't change this it's going to be a disaster. If you don't change here you're going to wreck everything. Look that's not that great to hear sometimes because change is hard. It's difficult. So you go you know you go to a church that's just like just pure solid entertainment. People they just want to be entertained you know there's a they just want to like go to you know they just want to go well let's turn let's turn the pulpit into a clown show. Hey kids how about that how about to get up here in a clown outfit big red shoes and we just have a clown show every day. You come to church we have a clown show. It's funny for five minutes until everybody ruins everyone's lives and nobody gets transformed nobody changes anything and but look people want to be entertained. That's why people go to movies. They don't care it's just a bunch of sin garbage and all this stuff. They just want entertainment that's it. Look I don't want to be boring. I mean the Bible's not really boring I'm like you're gonna hear stuff that you don't necessarily want to hear. It's not just pure cheap entertainment but people don't want to hear what the Bible has to say. That's why they go to these other places and that look they want to have that spiritual feeling right they don't want to go to a rock concert. You know they want to go to the rock concert on Saturday night and then they want to go to the rock concert on Sunday morning to you know get that spiritual fix. I went to church that was Micah. I went to church and worshiped a bunch of false gods. I went to church you know with a real priest he's a Levite. You know I had a real lie priest look at him he looks like a priest see all that gold and stuff I put on him. So look he wanted to get that spiritual feeling but he wasn't doing it the right way. Look that's why these churches have hundreds and thousands of people. It's very easy to understand because they're conforming to the world and they have a bunch of people because look I mean I'm telling you I mean if I know anything after a year and a half of doing this it's hard to get people to conform. I mean senior you preach you preach you preach it's difficult because people don't want to conform and I want you to conform because I don't want you to you know ruin things for yourself and your family but people don't want to do it. People don't want to do it. The message the message so you got the entertainment you got the light shows you got the music it's all conformed to the world so what's the message at that point? So you got this church full of worldly people you got this church full I'm not even talking about salvation or not you got a church full of worldly people you know most I mean most of the gospels are not correct okay but I don't even have to go there let me just give you an example you got a church full of worldly people that they don't want to conform to anything they want to sing the rock music they don't want they want the light shows they want it to look like the nightclub they you know what's the message they got the nice building you know the big arena or whatever it is look the message is this the message and it has to be this it's nothing it can be nothing it can be nothing turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 1 because once you have a bunch of people that you're not preaching that they need to be conformed and you filled your church that way you can say nothing in the bible why why because here's why because the bible says this it says 1st Corinthians 118 for the preaching of the cross cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of god they would hear the preaching of the word of god and we saw again turn to john chapter 8 turn to john chapter 8 we saw again look the word of god offends remember it cuts to the heart it cuts to the heart so you can have this church full of people that you're just trying to you know get them to just be the same as the world and you're trying to make that your church like the world and you're trying to make everything look no different than the world and then you're going to preach the bible well that's not going to work at all that's not going to work at all look at look this has been the tactic of satan from the beginning the word of god offends people the word of god offends people look at john 844 the bible says this you are of your father the devil and the lust of your father you will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there's no truth in him when he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own for he's a liar and the father of it look he's been trying to get people to doubt god's word from the very beginning and all those people that are conformed to the world to the world that are sitting in those churches they all doubt god's word they would hear god's word and they would just sting their ears and they would be like ah what's that all about turn to john chapter 3 genesis chapter 3 and verse 1 the bible says i'll just read for you now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said out of the woman yay hath god said that's the first tactic that he uses and it's the main tactic that he uses today he's like hey did god really say that he said to eve are you sure did he really mean it that way he's trying to plant seeds of doubt he's trying to take away the absolutism of the word of god is what he's trying to do and that's what's happened today which is why people can sit in these churches and why you can't preach the word of god to those people you can't do it it won't work it's like oil and water look at john chapter 3 and verse 19 and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil for everyone that do with evil hate at the light neither cometh to the light last what his deeds should be reproved you can't have a bunch of people conform to the world and start preaching the word of god to them it something's got to give something's gonna give they're either they're either gonna give or they're gonna they're they're gonna leave is what's gonna happen so you have a church if i had you know if we started verity baptist church fresno and we just like we're just rocking this thing out up here rotten you know we just left the old hymns and we left all the you know the principled stands on the bible and we just had this smoke show up here and all this stuff look i couldn't preach the bible if i built the church that way i couldn't preach the bible or i'd be preaching to a bunch of empty chairs because all those people would leave if that's what they came for look bible preaching cuts to the heart and a man that is in the world is not going to like it it's it's very simple you know what a cool experiment would be would be to take some you know like take joel ostin's church i don't even know what it's called take this big mega church and just put some fire breathing baptist preacher in there and just do like a just do an experiment for like i don't probably only take about a week you need to have a church about like this people i mean you know a handful of people probably get saved you know people probably get saved that's the first thing but the vast majority of people they'd hit the door they hit it fast as soon as that first time that that bible started getting preached people would be their ears would just ah maybe out the door but it'd be cool to watch the filter of god's word work an experiment like that but what people in the world folks they don't want to hear you know the world preached against it's like you're preaching against you know they're you know you're basically you're gonna you're gonna expose their sins that's what the bible says it's not comfortable but this is religion today this is religion your own way this is religion when you do it your way and and not god's way but we'll still call it church we'll still you know we'll still have a pulpit we'll still put a cross on the building we'll give the priest an ephod maybe we can get a levite you know how many times have you been to the door and you ask somebody if they're going to heaven and they're like yeah i'm going to heaven well how do you know that well my dad's a pastor my my mom's a deacon my mom's a deacon so i'm going to heaven or you know my wife is a pastor of the church i'm good thank you son for stopping by you know i mean look it's the same thing is hey we got a levite here it's making the priest it's the same thing you know calling it church calling it worship doesn't make it so doesn't make it so turn to second timothy chapter four especially when they're preaching the wrong message turn to second timothy chapter four look what the bible says in second timothy chapter four and verse number three the bible says this tell me there's not parallels here for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine i think mica needed some sound doctrine is what mica needed mica's priest needed some sound doctrine i mean think about this levite i mean was this guy a levite coming right out of the temple i mean this guy was this guy i mean the temple wasn't even around but i mean my point is that this guy he was you know a levite this guy came in and he decided he's like i'll take the job of a priest of all these false gods i mean some spiritual guy this was for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers there's mica right here he's just bringing himself in a priest he's like he probably told the guy what to say he's like here's how you run this place and here's what i want you to say having itching ears that they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned onto fables they have itching ears they want to hear the things that they that they want to hear they want to do it their way so they're going to get themselves priests i mean that's what people are doing today they went out they went out and you know the joe ostens and all these people they got themselves some priests to tell them some fables that's what they're doing you ever listen to the messages of these people that's what they're doing they're telling fables they're telling fables they're telling they'll tell some story there's nothing to do with the bible that's usually an entertaining story maybe even it has lessons you know jack in the beanstalk had a lesson a couple lessons in it no seriously jack in the beanstalk you remember this i mean lessons like don't be greedy listen to your parents that's great let's tell jack in the beanstalk next sunday morning that's the sermon jack in the beanstalk but no it's not in the bible it's an interesting story there might be some neat little lessons we can learn there but it's fake it's not real i mean they're not the truth is the problem with these fables so the lesson here with mica is that first of all with church with church with worship with spiritual things for look we must do church god's way we must do church god's way that's why there's so many specific things that are done specifically everything's done specifically around here there's not anything that i can really think of that's done on accident around here but look here's the thing a church that operates in the right way that it operates god's way is going to offend people it's going to offend people it's look maybe what you hear every sunday every sunday night every wednesday maybe what you hear is not what you wanted to hear when you came but it surely every single time what you need to hear because we're doing church god's way here we're not doing church your way we're not doing church my way we're doing church you know god's way we're going to offend some people homosexuals or unnatural people that's going to offend people i mean the fact that they've been given over to this oh i mean the bible explains exactly about it everyone's so confused the bible explains how it happened what it means what it means for us they can't be saved which means they can't come to church here that people aren't going to like that people aren't going to you know but all the answers are there all the answers are there i mean not just homosexuals all unnatural things all unnatural things i'm not even going to name we know how it happened the bible tells us but that offends people today people don't want to hear that today you're not going to grow a church wait maybe you will maybe you will grow a church that way i mean i'm optimistic but you'll grow a church with the right type of people that want to hear the truth if we're going to preach the whole thing even the stuff that offends people i don't care what the world accepts i could care less like i could it's on the negative scale of what the world accepts and what they don't i could care less and that's where you need to be abortion we will always preach against that here we will always defend every single human life here born or unborn i mean abortion is murder you know i don't care if 80 percent of the country gets to the point where they accept abortion i could care less i could care less we're going to preach the truth here we're going to preach what the bible says here fornication we're going to take that so seriously that if you're in fornication you could literally be i mean i hope not but i mean you could literally be thrown out of a church for that that's how serious that we take that sin i mean look not just church but just the overall point here is this folks your life your life must be done god's way and look you listen up listen up because everyone's like oh yeah i knew that no you don't because i mean every single person has times in their life look you hear a lot of practical preaching here turn to matthew 12 you hear a lot of practical preaching here you're going to hear you're going to see a lot of you're going to see a lot of it look because i mean is are all the things that we're seeing in the world today specifically detailed out in the bible no but we're going to hear preaching that applies the bible to every single detail of the things that you're dealing with in your life that's practical preaching look but your life according to all this practical preaching your life must be done god's way but because here's the thing folks look at matthew chapter 12 verse number 30 i mean i hate to break it to you but here's the reason that your life needs to be done god's way because god god is an absolutist he's into absolutism he's he's all one way and none the other way that's how god operates and you better understand that i mean just look at matthew 12 30 the bible says he that is with me is again he that is not with me is against me i mean that's extreme but it gets even worse it says and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad i mean that that basically could be interpreted like look if you don't go soul winning if you're saved and you don't go and get other people saved and gather with jesus you're scattering people i mean if you are not a soul winner if you are not out there spending your life opening the bible and giving the gospel to people to get people to believe on the lord jesus christ you're scattering people you're like that is extreme you're gonna stand up here and you're gonna tell me that if i don't go soul winning and i don't go out and preach the word of god to people that i'm literally sending people to hell yes why because that's what the bible says well look you get it you get a church where 80 percent of the people don't go soul winning or you have a bunch of people in the church who just they don't want to throw in they don't i want to well if if 80 percent of your church is like that and you preach this type of message those people are either gonna get right or they're gonna get out and you probably have a lot smaller church you keep preaching messages like that but the people that stay are gonna be right that's why we preach that you should look different i mean what what is it separation that's why we preach that you need to separate from the world you're not conformed but you separate you should look different that's the bible applied to how you dress you should look different you should act different this is why you know this is why we preach we push so hard homeschooling here because i mean that's the bible applied to how you raise your children Deuteronomy chapter six i mean that's the bible put on all these things that's why we preach that you should raise your own children that's the bible applied to that look that's god's way and i mean look it would not only keep the church right but it'll keep you right you keep your family right and i mean this is the difference look you get outside god's way you know i mean mica he wasn't even in the same he wasn't even in the same district but you get outside god's way i mean i hope you don't but if you do you know there's gonna be consequences to that so that's why look that's why it's it's way more important than how many people come here but it's more important what's way more important than the numbers here is how we're doing things here what's way what's the most important in your life is is how are you doing your life because here's what people will do by the way here's what people will do they'll sit here and they'll listen you want to waste your life coming to church here you want to waste your time here here's how you waste your time and if you do this i mean i mean i'm glad that you come here and have friends and stuff but you're wasting your time you're not getting what you could out of this if you take practical preaching and you listen to it and you're like yeah yeah i know yeah but but for me but for me you know i have these stimulating circumstances and things um yeah so god's way is here and but for me i'm gonna go over here you know i'm not going to pay for that i'm not going to pay for that that's judge 17 you see you want to see you say oh but Michael he's just some goofy guy oh yeah let's wait and see what happens let's wait and see the consequences of getting outside god's way and i'm telling you there's major consequences you get outside god's way of doing things there's major consequences this silly little story costs countless people their lives there's silly little story you will lose people people will die people will go to hell you will scatter people abroad people that you love if you get outside god's way like scary i'm trying to scare you because i don't want you outside god's way you go and you leave here and you do what you want you go you live your life how you think that you should live your life i'm trying to teach you what god's way is i'm trying to spend my life showing you what god's way is and trying to just beg and plead for you to listen to what god's way is because i don't want to see anybody suffer consequences i don't want to suffer consequences i don't want my kids to suffer consequences just just stick to god's way look here's the thing it's not complicated the gospel's simple god's way simple but you got to just shut your own way off you got to shut your own way off you got to shut this wicked world off because satan is out there just like he was doing to eve in genesis chapter three saying really just god really want that really for you i think it's different no it's not different for you it's the same it's god's way it's simple and it's the same for you and it's the same for your children and it's the same bible and it's always going to be the same and that's why look this is why this is not a mega church because people want to be conformed to that and they don't want to hear this type of thing it's why mica wanted to do things his own way and we'll see next week we'll see the consequences and you'll see if the consequences weren't necessarily for mica but the consequences were for other people and that's a really sad thing about getting outside of god's way let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer