Welcome back to Further. I am Brenton Grimm.

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Today we got another full table.(...) So we had three guys preaching. Nathan Williams, welcome.

(...) It's good to be here.

Thank you. Coleman. Howdy. So Coleman Reed is one of our pastors down at Fort Madison. He preached there. And then we got Nate Todd as well. Welcome. Hello, everyone. How you guys doing today?

Doing good. Doing well.

Wonderful. Well, so this week was Micah.

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And mostly focused in chapter six. But as I talked to a couple of you, the week you were prepping(...) sounded like maybe there was more to this book than just chapter six. Is that right?

(...) Oh, man.(...) It was really hard. You know what I mean? How do you do a whole book? And I think Chris told us. That's going to be hard. But just pick something out of it and go with that.

(...) So I guess my question is, how would you guys

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kind of characterize some of the things we might have missed not covering one through five and seven?

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Yeah, I just love the Jesus imagery. Even though they didn't know who Jesus was going to be, they were looking for the Messiah. And you know what I mean? The whole idea that he's going to be born in Bethlehem.(...) You know what I mean? Just all this pointing to Jesus. The imagery of Jerusalem was going to get brought into Babylon, stripped and naked. And here Jesus was-- that's just as punishment. And Jesus was stripped and naked for us. He took on our punishment. Just these things that just keep pointing back to our Redeemer. And then just how it ends is just like he's going to take our sins and throw them into the depths of the sea. And it's all because of Jesus. And I just love that. Just keep pointing back and back and back to our Redeemer.

Yeah, and if you look hard enough here, it's really easy to point your finger at those people and say, look what they were doing. But we were just as guilty of the same things

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as what they had going on in that time. And we can see it. Some of it we can see in our own lives. And as we look around the world, we can see the exact same kind of sin and struggle.

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Yeah, and I think we can even really relate to what both of you just said.

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We spend our lives under rulers who don't do the best job of being just or righteous. And so the book of Micah does a great job describing that. And then as Nathan mentioned in chapter 5 over here that Jesus is going to come from Bethlehem, it then describes what the good shepherd will look like. And it's almost in direct opposition to the rulers of this world, the way he loves, the way he's strong, the way he shepherds. So yeah, it's not always an easy work to drive into judgmental Hebrew poetry, but it's a good work to do.

For sure. Yeah, good.(...) You know, when we have three different people preaching,

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most of the time, most of the people aren't going to hear what was talked about at different campuses. And so one thing I like to do is just,

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what did you guys really want people to walk away with from your sermons?

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Yeah, I'll go first.

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The main point of mine was, what does Lord require of this? Well, he requires our hearts. And so when you see in chapter 6, the people they're trying to ask, what sort of a religious ritual can I do to atone for my sins, Lord? What can I do to please you? And it's very evident that the Lord doesn't want those religious rituals. What he wants is our heart. And so he wants our focus and our affection to be for him and obedience for him because of a love for him, not just because it's just obedience.

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Yeah, and similar but different, I took more of an approach that God loves us too much to leave his work in our lives unfinished. And so he's not going to make it complicated for us, right? Like Micah 6a, it is three key things. And he also loves us too much to let any of the idols we've built and worshipped remain. He's going to lovingly discipline us and bring our hearts back to him.

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What kind of struck me as I'm going through this is like it's really easy to just read this and sort of saying, this is an old book. It's got moths in it and mold. It's so old. And that was written to those people way back there 2,700 years ago. But what does that have to do with me? But as I'm reading through it and it's describing the people of this time, and it's just like,

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we're living in this time. I mean, this is describing us. So it's just like, whoa, hold on a second. If this was God was warning those people then for the way they were acting unjustly and unkindly and all these things, the opposite of what he's called us to be, to love justice and kindness and walking home with God. And in our pride from today, and the way we just take advantage of people and say all about me is number one, and what can I do? And it's just like, wow, this is speaking to us. And if God was calling them to repentance, he's calling us to repentance. And then how do we do that, again, gets into, I think where we're all talking about, he needs our heart.

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Well, maybe that's an interesting line to go down. What are some parallels between the Israel during the dates of Micah and now? What did you guys think of as you were prepping for this?

So, I mean, one thing that stands out right away is the worship of other gods, false gods, idols. And so, we do this in our own lives, whether it be the idol of comfort. So just, I'll expose myself right here. That's my biggest thing is I wanna be comfortable. And so I sometimes worship comfort more than anything else. And so comfort, money,

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jobs, ministry, even, doing good church things that can replace God in our life. And I think, the way I described an idol as anything that takes place with God and Coleman had a little more extensive,

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a little more scholarly definition of what an idol is. But so first and foremost, that stuck out to me is the idol worship.

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Yeah, I think that idol worship is something that we always need to guard against because we're so darn good at building our own idols. I think also just maybe the way that we see that justice and injustice set apart. Nathan, you mentioned the Statue of Liberty and the blindfold and the scales, which I think is just beautiful imagery. And it doesn't take us very long to think of instances of injustice. And so I think the comfort I had as I was reading the text and working through it was that our God cares about that. I know Pastor Chris talked about that a couple of weeks ago, but just the fact that it's not lost on him what's going on in the world. And yet he reigns supreme. And we see through how he deals with the nations around Israelites and even with them, he's going to be a God of justice. He's going to have his vengeance for the sake of his name. I think there's just a lot of hope and comfort in that.

That's good.

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Any other thoughts, Nathan?

(...) Yeah, I mean,(...) you guys both talked about idols and it's so true, but it's so easy to say with them guys back then, they literally set up an Ashra poll or bail, or you know what I mean? It's like, but the New Testament, more talks about idols of the heart. And that's what we deal with more today. We don't bow down, most of us don't bow down to graven images, but we bow down to a lot of idols. So, you know what I mean? So it really boils down to the heart thing. What are we worshiping?

Yeah, and to that point,

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part of those most convicting to me, the idea of bowing down, but then Nathan also is it describes the nations around them. Like, what are we willing to sacrifice to idols?

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Like, unfortunately it's a lot, our family, our time in church, our time with the other saints, our time in the morning with the Lord.

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If we want to know what our idol is, let's see what we cut out around at first to leave standing. And that was a major heart check for me, is what am I willing to literally sacrifice?

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To the altar of self or whatever you want to call it.

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All right, so yeah, let's get a little more personal, maybe all three of you obviously emphasized and we've talked about it already today that God wants our hearts, not merely religious activity.

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And you know, this is a fairly common topic on the show. We've talked about legalism a lot.(...) I'm curious though, if you guys would share how you've personally experienced this fight,

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between the works that flow out of obedience and then the works that kind of flow out of our duty, things that we're doing to find peace with God, right?

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I think I saw this exposed even in sermon prepping. I was trying so hard just to get it right. And I was trying so hard just to,(...) just to make sure everything was said and wrote down in the correct way, which is very important. I mean, obviously we wanna handle God's word(...) with integrity and with a high level of just importance and there's a heaviness to that. But I think often my focus becomes on myself. And so I was recently challenged with this is what are you focusing on? And so as I'm writing the sermon, I found myself focusing on what I was able to accomplish and what I wanted rather than just focusing on what was most important. And that was glorifying God.

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I think a lot of us, for me, it's just where, you use the word focus, you know what I mean? It's like, and focus your heart. I know for me, it's kind of like, hey, if I can just read my Bible, if I can pray,

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and you do this, because we call it a discipline, discipline of reading and being in the word, but what if I do it because I want to do it? Because I'm actually saying, God, show me from your word. You know, convict me rather than just going through the motions. So the heart can just be, well, Jeremiah 79 says, "The heart is deceitful, but the whole thing is desperately wicked." And it's so easy to just go get sidetracked and just go through the motions rather than constantly keep going back to God and saying, search me, oh God, and know my heart. See if there'd be any wicked way in me. You know what I mean? And I think that that's so key to staying focused on what the real, real thing is. You know, the Pharisees, they knew the Bible inside out. You know, they studied it, but their heart was in the wrong place. And it's so easy for me to just go down the same path. You know what I mean? I'm doing this, I'm helping other people. You know what I mean? It's like, but I gotta say, but God, what about me?

(...)

Yeah. You know, we know that judgment is first gonna come to the house of the Lord and revelation to it.

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Verse four, it says, "But this I have against you, that you have left your first love."

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And the prayer you said at the end of Psalm 139, Nathan, like that's a dangerous prayer. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. I mean, that can really expose some things that maybe we're not ready to do. And the reality of the Christian life is like, there are times when you are just getting the reps in. Like you're disciplining yourself to get your booty out of bed in the morning and getting God's word. But there's also this aspect of the Christian life that we can't forget our first love. And that's the love that Christ had for us. And so, yeah, it's just a really humble reminder that, yeah, he does give us those three things in Micah 6-8, but if they become three check boxes that we're looking to do every day, we've really missed the point of not just the gospel, but of this whole revealed word.

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That's good.

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Callman, I'll come back to you. You described God's judgment as loving discipline that tears down our idols rather than simply just being a punishment.

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You brought up Hebrews 12, and I kinda just wanna talk about the idea of(...) God disciplining us.

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Hebrews 12 says, "For the Lord disciplines the ones he loves and chastises every son whom he receives."

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And this can be open to all of you guys, but what does God's discipline often look like in our lives?

That's a great question. I think the first thing we need to do as we set up kind of the signposts of the conversation is recognizing that God is sovereign over everything. And so if we minimize that, I think we rob ourselves as the hope of the reality that he's in our suffering. And the second kind of guidepost or the other thing keeping us out of the ditch is that God uses suffering as is described here in Hebrews 12 to grow us more like his son. So when we think of suffering or discipline, like when I'm sick, Sunday morning, to be completely honest, I woke up very sick. What is the first thing when I'm preaching on idols that the Lord's working on is like my ability to do me my own ability, my own worth, my own pride in myself.

(...)

And so not every sickness or cold or today as a staff we're out in Geode and probably some of us got poison ivy. Like I can promise you that the Lord's teaching you something if you take your focus off of self and get in his word and see like, oh, maybe he's telling me I should have stayed on the path instead of wandered in the woods. You know, like we just, I think we can so quickly rob ourselves both the promise of God's sovereignty and the blessing that he cares about us too much to just throw random things our way. That if we miss those things and don't see it as him sanctifying us, make us more like his son,(...) we're gonna just be left struggling with like, why am I going through this again? Why do I have another hard thing? Instead of what is the Lord laying before me that I'm being called to grow and trust in him and continue on?

(...)

Yeah.

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Any other thoughts?

(...) Yeah, I just think sometimes we don't even realize it might be discipline. You know, we might be just have done something or going through a period in our life and we're just depressed and feel, and it's like, hold on a second. I need to check my heart. And this was the case of David after he's in and he used the word, he says, "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me and my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." Psalm 32, here's the thing.

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For him it was emotional. It was like, I don't think his bones were really broken. You know what I mean? Crushed. I mean, but it was that crushing depression because he knew he was carrying that guilt. You know what I mean? And it took him to get into that low, low point before he actually come and confess that. And then he says, "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin." And then he goes on to say, it's just like, oh, the birds are singing, you know what I mean? Kind of thing. But it's so true. So sometimes we need to sort of say, hey, why am I going through this terrible everything

(...)

and check myself? Is God disciplined me? Because he wants me and maybe I do need to check my heart, you know what I mean? And confess and yeah.

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I think of Romans 8,

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all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. And that good is not good feelings and sunshine and rainbows. That good is helping us be more like Jesus. And so God, like you said, Coleman, God is sovereign over everything. And so whether he brings some, he brings something in our lives,

(...)

like with David, he brought Nathan and you are that man. And that was painful. He called him out on his sin, but God allowed that to happen. Or if God just allows something,

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even something bad to happen in our lives and he allows that and that is an opportunity for us to conform more and more into the image of Jesus, God allowed that for a purpose. And so he's sovereign over that too.

(...) Yeah, but the whole idea of discipline, you know what I mean? Which comes right along with justice, you know what I mean? Justice deserves a punishment. And ultimately we thought, think about Jesus taking our punishment, but just on a smaller level when we face judgment, and I just love what's happening in our prison ministry right now. I was talking to Dan Enger here this week and guys getting baptized, you know what I mean? That are coming to the Lord, that are getting saved in prison. And if they weren't being disciplined(...) for what they were doing, they would have been just out doing, carrying on doing the things that landed them in prison. But now they're in prison and it gives them a chance to stop and think and reflect. And they're hearing the word, they're getting saved and getting baptized, you know what I mean? So God's disciplined. If he wants you, he's like, I'm gonna let you feel the pain.

(...)

And then you'll come back to me, you know what I mean? If he's called you, you're gonna come.(...) And I just love that, just like he allowed them to get brought away into captivity.

(...)

And in captivity, he says, I'll redeem you. You're not gonna be worshiping the idols when you go over there, because you're going to turn back to me.(...) And that's why we have some of them great stories in Daniel and in Esther, and because people are turning back, and how God used those people. It took the discipline to start with.

But that's what real love is.(...) We live in a society that's so watered down, what is defined as love, that most people look at the Bible and say, well, there's an Old Testament, a New Testament God. No, there's only one God. And it's the same love of God that's permeated every page of scripture. And that God of love has consequences when we aren't walking the way we should be. That's real love. Like I remember being in high school and I gotta be careful, because my parents listen to this.(...) I remember in high school wanting to have the quote unquote, like cool parents, that let me do all the things, right? That was not who my parents were. They were very strict. But now I look at it and it's like, oh, that was for my good. That was for my benefit. When I got in trouble, it taught me a lesson. And that's not painting God as a lesser picture, but it's the same thing in our lives. There are a very black and white way that we are called to live. And yes, there's grace, but it's not cheap grace that we just take advantage of. It's costly grace that sent a son to the cross. And so God gives us these things and consequences to discipline us because he loves us. Not because it's just a lovey dovey, whatever.(...) You might have to cut some of that.

I can't believe you just called Vern not cool.

Yeah, I was just gonna say, just for the record, Vern and Cindy Reed are very cool in my opinion.

(...)

No, that's good. One thing, just as you guys are talking, that I was thinking is that,

(...)

discipline from God, discipline in general is meant to be corrective, right? First and foremost, and not just punishment for punishment sake. And I think that we,

(...)

just as kids do, can take that discipline as,(...) well, you're just mad at me. You don't want me to have fun. You don't want me, whatever those responses are, we have those same responses as adults. And I think coming back to the humility we see here in Micah that we need to understand that when we're disciplined, that's happening for our good, for God's glory to correct us, right? And so having the humility that's needed to actually be corrected, I think is hard sometimes.

(...) Yeah, I'm gonna jump off the theological deep end here for a second and get in some deep water. But in the movie "Bruce Almighty,"

(...)

there's a part where he clicks accept all to everybody's prayer requests and everybody gets what they want. And the world is in utter chaos. And it's like, we don't actually want the Lord to give us what we want, because that would be literal hell on earth. We need him to be God and us to be the one he's molded out of clay, not the other way around.

(...)

Yeah, sweet movie recommendation.

(...)

That's about as far as my movie recommendation.

(Both Laughing)

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All right, so one theme that kept surfacing in all three of your sermons was the idea of remembering what God has already done.(...) This came out of verse five that says, "That you may know the righteous acts of the Lord."

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I guess just to all of you, why is remembering God's faithfulness(...) such an important tool to fight idolatry in our lives?

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I touched on it, but when we remember God's love for us and how he has poured out that love,

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then that in turn wants us to, or it causes us to want to just love him back. When we just stand in awe of what God has done for us, then as believers, our hearts response then is to say, "Lord, if you could do that for me, if you could humble yourself and come to this earth and die for someone who has turned their back on you, then how can I not show love to you and show love to others?" And so I think that as believers,

(...)

that just needs to be a natural response.

(...)

Yeah, I agree. It's an attitude of awe

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and appreciation, which we so easily forget. You know what I mean? It's just we take, and over and over and over in the Bible, it's like, remember when God brought you out of Egypt, remember when he took care of you in the desert and in the wilderness, remember when he gave you, remember and why they would set up this Ebenezer stone to remember, because so easily they forget.

(...)

And we're no different, just the things you said. You know what I mean? We take for, "Oh, why did Jesus come to earth? Oh, to diverse ends." We say it so flippantly. Well, no, he literally hung there for me. You know what I mean? We just take it so, I don't know, to stop and really remember and just appreciate that and just the awe of it and the majesty and just to see everything he's writing here in Micah and just say, "Whoa, some of these things that I'm looking at right now are happening today that he predicted way back then." And it's like, only God, only God.

(...)

And just stop and just awe in all of him.

Yeah, yeah, "Prown to wander, Lord, I feel it.

(...)

Prone to leave the God we love." You hit it spot on, Nathan, our forgetful hearts and the need to be reminded. We have one of our elders for his community group keeps a journal of prayer requests and then what I think is super sweet is prayers answered and he'll bring them up. And I just think that's kind of like a Lebanese, you know, like, who are we to only go to the Lord and ask without also remembering what he's done for us?

(...) Okay, so in the spirit of that, what are some practical ways of doing this often?

(...)

Yeah, so I think keeping a prayer journal is a good way of doing that. I think coming to church on Sunday morning and singing with the saints and knowing what's going on in the other saints' lives,

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whether it's a cancer diagnosis or a tough thing with a pregnancy or whatever, you get to witness the physical manifestation of Christ's bride loving on each other.

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I'm not sure, to be honest with you, if I can think of a better reminder than that.

Yeah. Yeah, being in the Word,

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having good conversations with people in church and then outside of church,

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you know, listening to good Christian music.(...) And I think all those are just great opportunities to go back and remember. And so what are we filling our minds with? What are we focusing on? Again, it goes back to focus and where's our heart? And so are we focusing on things that are gonna point us to the gospel? Or are we focusing things that are gonna distract us from God's goodness?

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It goes back to ourselves. By nature, we're selfish people.(...) And as selfish people, what do we do?

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It's all about me. God, I need this. God, help me with this. How quickly we'll forget to give thanks.

(...)

Give thanks in all situations we're told to do. Philippians 4 says, present your anxious request with thanksgiving, you know, that act of faithfully thanking him, even when we don't even understand, you know what I mean?

(...)

Even acronyms like the Acts Prayer thing, the adoration, let's stop and just remember who he is and adore him, you know. And then the confession is so important too, but then the thanksgiving, you know what I mean? It's so easily we just, all our prayers are like, well, thanks for the food, but now Lord, help me with this and help me with this and help me with that and the other. And we forget to just stop and just glory in everything he has done for us and just the nature we see around us and just give him thanks.

Yeah, 1 Thessalonians 5, 16, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. And so are you just, are you thanking God and just looking for opportunities in your life to thank him?

(...) Yeah, what both you shared, this isn't, we were all pretty careful to say this, but this isn't like another thing you need to make sure you're doing. The Lord gives us the opportunity and ability to adore him like Nathan's talking about, because we need that perspective shift off of ourselves because we need to focus on someone who is so much more than us,

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not let another checkbox or we can quickly make it about that, but it is a huge help to our own hearts to realize that that's kind of an eternal perspective at stake here.

(...) Yeah, yeah, you don't make it real far in Israel's history without them forgetting, right? I mean, like coming out of the Exodus, a generation or two later,(...) they forget. And I think that's something that we maybe need to keep a longer time horizon on these things too, that that's the time span in which Israel's forgetting is a few generations. And so what are we doing to pass that stuff on to our kids,

(...)

to our grandkids?

(...)

Because that is part of our responsibility too, is to, hey, this is how God has saved us. This is what God has done in our lives and this is why you're here. And so, yeah, just maybe having a longer time horizon on some of this stuff too.

No, that's good. I think one note on that is I recently heard somebody say that point out the fact that somebody is discipling your family and who is it? As you, as the fathers of our home, are we the ones discipling our kids, fathers, mothers, or are we allowing something or somebody else in their lives to disciple them? Deal their kids at school.

(...) Yeah, TV, whatever.

Name it, there's a million things.

But I think too, what you just touched on, Bretton, I can't help but wonder if all we're talking about isn't the best cure for this anxiety-ridden life we have with every single news thing that comes up is now the most urgent matter in our lives. If we zoom out and look at God's faithfulness day after day after day for thousands of years, I think that perspective shift is kind of seismic in many ways.

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Okay, let's make Micah 6A, because that was kind of the center of what you guys talked about this week. Let's make it really practical.

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For each of you, what are some practical ways we should be seeing these three things play out in our lives? To do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God?

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If we're not walking humbly with God, the other two can get so distorted. I mean, really distorted. Well, I'm just a kind person. I just do all these things, and it's not kind to tell somebody not to do something that they wanna do, even if it's sinful. You know what I mean? So the first part is, if I am not walking humbly with the Lord,

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the other two can get really messed up. However, if I'm walking humbly with the Lord, I recognize what true justice and kindness, that I don't deserve it, that He gave it for me anyway, and I see His loving kindness in that. And then I should be able to exhibit that to others in an appropriate way. For instance, you know what I mean? Being kind is maybe telling your friend that they're going to hell if they don't wanna bend. You know what I mean? That's kind.(...) But I've got to love kindness and seek justice.

(...)

We've gotta have justice in this world, right?

(...)

But if you don't let Jesus die for your sins, and He takes that so that justice is paid by a punishment that Jesus took for you, you're gonna have to pay for your own sins. You know what I mean?

(...)

And this is seeking justice and loving kindness in a way that puts it into set, but I'm walking humbly with God, and I want your kind of justice and your kind of kindness, and it makes you think about it in a whole different way.

(...) Yeah, I think what you hit on there, Nathan, is so key. Part of walking humbly with the Lord is recognizing that He gets to define those things, not us. It's His definition of justice. It's His definition of loving kindness. And if you're informed, Madison, you heard me(...) give a brief Hebrew lesson, but that loving kindness, ch'ced, is translated as essentially the most accurate way that we can describe our God. There's so many different words, loving kindness, covenant,

(...)

steadfastness, long suffering, devoted, loyal.

(...)

If we look at Micah 6-8 from the standpoint of as defined by God, it really does change and shape how we read it and then how we live it out.

(...)

But I'll also go, as far as to say, there's a lot of people that say they're just speaking kind, you know what I mean? Because they're speaking the truth, but they don't see it, even when they're sharing the gospel, but they don't share it in a kind, loving way. And we're also told, speak the truth in love.

(...)

Ephesians 4, verse 15, but instead speaking the truth in love. And so being kind is not just necessarily telling somebody they need to repent, but it's coming alongside them and showing that you care about them. You know, and it's so different than so many of the things that the reels you see and everything, and people are just beating on each other from both sides. It's like, stop it, you know what I mean? You're not even showing kindness in this. So we gotta do it in a way that we think, I don't know, how would Jesus do this? You know what I mean? I just gotta ask myself that all the time. You know, it's like, a lot of times when I'm sharing the gospel with somebody, and I will say, hey,

(...)

you know you're a sinner, you know what I mean? They'll look at me and say, just like me, you know what I mean? And it's so important to be able to take that, and that's the humble part, you know what I mean? It's like, apart from God, I'm nothing.

(...)

And yeah, it's just,(...) I gotta be humble in this because so go I, apart from him.

(...)

One of the commentaries I found helpful(...) was a commentary, and mostly it was just R.C. Sproul teaching a lesson to one of his classes, but what you just said, Nathan, is he talked about walking humbly being the recognition that we walk before the face of the creator of the universe every single day, and that should humble us. Because there's no escaping him. We can't fool ourselves. And I think that sober mindedness of nothing being hidden from the Lord should in some ways be a holy fear for us to do the things that are required of us in Micah 6-8. Right.

(...)

Yeah.

(...)

Yeah, just as we close, Micah ends with this just incredible picture of God's mercy in chapter seven.

(...)

And actually, do one of you wanna read that for us? Just those last three verses.

Yeah.

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"Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity "and passing over transgression "for the remnant of his inheritance. "He does not retain his anger forever, "but he delights in steadfast love. "He will again have compassion on us. "He will tread our iniquities under foot. "You will cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea. "You will show faithfulness to Jacob "and steadfast love to Abraham "as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old."

(...)

Yeah, that's good.(...) For the person who's listening today and recognizes that they're caught in idolatry,(...) maybe adultery, or maybe they've spent years trying to earn God's favor through performance.

(...)

What hope do these final verses offer them? How would you encourage them based off of these three verses here?

(...)

Yeah, I think ultimately it's really the only hope we have in any aspect of the Christian life that the work being done is not up to us. It's up to him who's already done all of these things for us.

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Maybe it was a little bit of a subconscious slip there, Bretton, but I mean, the reality of idolatry is that it is spiritual adultery. Like we're giving our hearts to something that's not God. And so to see his loving nature in verses 18 through 20, I just think are such an incredible picture of who our God is and truly our means of hope in seeing that even when we continue in sin,

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he does not hold as fast to his anger forever because he delights in loving kindness. Essentially he delights in himself. That's why we have hope.

I see these last verses is just fuel. They're just fuel for us to do the things that he wants us to do, to walk humbly with him and to have that desire for kindness and mercy and then to do justice in this world. And so these are just good reminders of the things that the Lord has done for us and how he showed us his steadfast love, his mercy, and then we use that as fuel to show that to the world and to reflect him in the world.

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Yeah, I think for so many people that they've been living a sinful lifestyle and they're like, they're without hope. And they're like, "I've just done so many bad things. There's no hope for me.(...) I'm just, I'm too bad. I'm too far gone." And that's not the case. He's like, "Look, what does it take? I love when the people, when Peter is talking to the crowd on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two, and it says they were cut to the heart. In other words, they were convicted.(...) I'm a sinful person in need of it." And they said, "What shall we do?" And his response was, "Repent, repent."(...) If we repent and trust in Christ, as if he's repent and be baptized, every one of you for the forgiveness of your sins,

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he's saying, "Repent, trust in Jesus and get baptized to show people that you really believe that." And he says, "You're gonna be forgiven for your sins." And this is what Micah is saying. It's like, when we do that, he is gonna take our sins and throw them into the depths of the sea. I mean, the sea is really deep. It's gone. It's done for. And it's such a beautiful picture of hope that it's like, "Oh my goodness. You mean I can get rid of this burden?"

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I can be done with it. You mean Jesus is gonna take it? Yeah, yeah. It just ends with so much hope. The whole,(...) most of these minor prophets are like, that you can read them and just get, "Oh, so heavy." It's like, "Oh, it's all about calling on judgment, judgment, judgment." But there's so much hope in here too. And that just ends with all that hope. So it's so beautiful.

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Good.

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All right, well, we'll wrap up there, but thanks guys. Thanks for your work this week. And if you guys have any questions at home, ask for their podcast.com. And we'll talk to you next week.

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