I Will Be Who I Am - Micah 7

[00:00:00] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about our church.

[00:00:12] And visit NateHoldridge.com for additional Bible teaching from our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:18] Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:24] All right. Good morning, church.

[00:00:27] Great to see you guys. Let's take out our Bibles today and turn to Micah Chapter 7. Micah Chapter 7.

[00:00:33] We've been studying verse by verse through the book of Micah together.

[00:00:37] And today is our last study of the book of Micah.

[00:00:40] And for that I just want to say congratulations to you because I don't think that there's a...

[00:00:45] I don't think it's a super common thing for a modern Christian to spend a couple of months meditating on the book of Micah.

[00:00:52] So well done. We've done it together going through this beautiful little book.

[00:00:57] And next Sunday, Pastor Manny is going to be sharing the word to encourage and minister to us.

[00:01:03] Give me a brief respite before we jump into a longer study of the book of James.

[00:01:09] And the perspective or the angle that I'm going to be communicating James from is that James is a profile of maturity.

[00:01:18] It's Christian maturity but human maturity. What does God want to produce in our lives?

[00:01:23] We're going to look at that as we move through the book of James together.

[00:01:28] But today we're in Micah Chapter 7, Micah Chapter 7.

[00:01:32] And let's just go to the Lord and pray and ask Him to bless our time in His word as we wrap up our time in this book.

[00:01:39] Lord we thank You for the prophet Micah, the things that You did through him so many years ago.

[00:01:48] Whatever that process was, that still small voice that he heard and received from You,

[00:01:55] that urging and nudging into a really difficult ministry that You gave to him,

[00:02:02] and the fact that he said yes, Lord to You.

[00:02:06] We want to be a people who say yes, Lord to You, to live in the way that You've called us to live.

[00:02:14] And so Lord we thank You, we pray that You'd speak to us from this last chapter in Micah's prophecies this morning.

[00:02:23] In Jesus' name, we pray together. Amen.

[00:02:27] Well the case that I've been trying to build as we've been going through the book of Micah is the case that Micah

[00:02:34] is a man who is both not of this world but is of this world.

[00:02:40] I've been trying to show you that Micah was a man who had one foot in all the chaos and despair and brokenness

[00:02:49] that was among God's people in Israel at the time that he lived, which was about 700 years before Jesus came onto the scene,

[00:02:59] but who had another foot in the glorious future that God promises to establish over and over again all throughout Scripture.

[00:03:11] He both saw clearly the despair and brokenness and atrophy and decay among God's church of that era, the people of Israel.

[00:03:22] But he also saw with hope and clarity this glorious future day that was coming,

[00:03:29] a day where God's mountain would be the epicenter of the whole world and that people would desire longingly to go to God's mountain to hear God's voice.

[00:03:41] Micah saw that future and hope, which is still future to us today, but he saw the reality of God's people in his era.

[00:03:53] But the question that I want to put forth to you today is how could Micah be sure of the future that he envisioned?

[00:04:03] How could he have confidence that what God showed him was coming would actually come to pass?

[00:04:12] How could he be sure that God would one day redeem his people, establish revival conditions on earth and draw all people up to his mountain to hear his law?

[00:04:25] In other words, how could Micah come to the place of saying to himself,

[00:04:30] what I'm seeing is not just a hopeful wish, but a certain reality.

[00:04:37] Because once you get to that point it changes your life.

[00:04:42] But how could Micah get to that place?

[00:04:44] Now to answer that question, I think we need to look at the frame of the whole book of Micah.

[00:04:50] Sometimes when you're moving through Scripture, the Bible will give you clues as to how to understand it by putting frames on certain passages of Scripture.

[00:04:59] And in the book of Micah, the first verse and the first verse of the last phrase provides us with a frame for understanding how Micah came to this determination of hope.

[00:05:13] The first verse, Micah chapter one verse one simply says,

[00:05:17] the word of the Lord that came to Micah.

[00:05:21] This is the only time in the whole book of Micah that Micah's name is mentioned.

[00:05:26] And his name is actually a question.

[00:05:29] We don't pick it up as we read it in English, but the name Micah means who is like Yahweh?

[00:05:36] Who is like the Lord?

[00:05:39] That's the first question of this book.

[00:05:42] What is God like?

[00:05:43] Who is he?

[00:05:44] How is he operating here on earth?

[00:05:48] But the second frame is found at the end of our passage today, chapter seven verse 18, where Micah will conclude all of his oracles with the question,

[00:05:59] who is a God like you?

[00:06:01] Doesn't that sound familiar?

[00:06:02] Micah's name, who is like Yahweh, his concluding question, who is a God like you?

[00:06:08] And Micah is going to answer that question for us today.

[00:06:12] And what he concludes about God is the reason that he is confident in what God is going to do in the future.

[00:06:20] In other words, all the promises that God makes to Micah are sure to Micah because he knows who God is.

[00:06:29] That knowledge of God changes, transforms his life.

[00:06:34] Now, because this is where the book ends,

[00:06:39] I think of this passage that we're going to look at today as Yahweh's voice declaring that he will not defy his very nature.

[00:06:50] All throughout this book, God is pleading with his people and I think by extension pleading with us as his modern day people,

[00:06:58] be who you are.

[00:07:00] If I have redeemed you, if I have called you, if I have chosen you, if the blood of Jesus is upon you,

[00:07:07] if you've placed your faith and trust in me, then be who you are.

[00:07:11] Be the new creature, the new creation that I have reformed you to be.

[00:07:16] But in this concluding chapter, God seems to be saying,

[00:07:21] Regardless of who you are and what you do, I will be who I am.

[00:07:28] As Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 2,

[00:07:31] When we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.

[00:07:38] His very nature cannot be violated and so God says,

[00:07:42] I must be, I will be who I am.

[00:07:46] Alright, so in this passage, I think that Micah, because of who he concludes God is,

[00:07:54] he comes to a very specific landing place in his prophecies.

[00:08:00] And I'm going to put that landing place or that conclusion in sentence form.

[00:08:04] Here it is on the screen for you guys.

[00:08:06] I think that the shepherd king who we've been studying all throughout this book, Yahweh himself,

[00:08:11] he says, I will be who I am.

[00:08:14] So choose a remnant life and trust that remnant's future while delighting in that remnant's God.

[00:08:25] Now I'm going to unpack that sentence as we move through Micah chapter 7.

[00:08:29] But first let me give a little definition of that word remnant,

[00:08:33] because I don't need you guys to be pulling out your dictionary right now

[00:08:37] and trying to figure out what in the world is a remnant.

[00:08:40] A remnant, classically, is like a small leftover portion.

[00:08:44] You know if you were to be sowing a garment or something like that

[00:08:49] and you had a patch or piece of material,

[00:08:52] the part that you cut away that you did not need, that would be the remnant.

[00:08:57] That would be the leftover.

[00:08:58] But in biblical terms, it came to be understood as the small seed

[00:09:05] of those remaining faithful people unto the Lord.

[00:09:09] That even if the majority walked away from God,

[00:09:12] there was a remnant, a small group who was faithful unto the Lord.

[00:09:17] So what I think Micah concludes is because who God is,

[00:09:21] I will choose a remnant life.

[00:09:23] I will trust that remnant's future

[00:09:25] and I will delight in the remnant's God.

[00:09:27] So let's look at the first seven verses today

[00:09:30] to think about choosing a remnant life.

[00:09:35] He starts out in verse one.

[00:09:40] If you just follow along with me on the screen or in your Bibles,

[00:09:43] he says,

[00:09:44] Woe is me, for I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered

[00:09:50] and when the grapes have been gleaned,

[00:09:53] there is no cluster to eat,

[00:09:55] no first ripe fig that my soul desires.

[00:09:59] The godly verse two has perished from the earth

[00:10:03] and there is no one upright among mankind.

[00:10:07] They all lie and wait for blood

[00:10:10] and each hunts the other with a net.

[00:10:13] Their hands are on what is evil to do it well.

[00:10:18] The prince and the judge ask for a bribe

[00:10:21] and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul.

[00:10:25] Thus they weave it together.

[00:10:27] The best of them is like a briar,

[00:10:30] the most upright of them, a thorn hedge.

[00:10:33] The day of your watchmen, of your punishment has come.

[00:10:37] Now their confusion is at hand.

[00:10:40] Verse five, put no trust in a neighbor,

[00:10:42] have no confidence in a friend,

[00:10:44] guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.

[00:10:49] For the son treats the father with contempt.

[00:10:51] The daughter rises up against her mother.

[00:10:55] The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

[00:10:57] A man's enemies are the men of his own house.

[00:11:01] But verse seven, as for me, I will look to the Lord.

[00:11:07] I will wait for the God of my salvation.

[00:11:11] My God will hear me.

[00:11:14] All right, very encouraging little paragraph

[00:11:16] that we just read there from Micah.

[00:11:19] And I told you that what I think that Micah has concluded is

[00:11:23] here's who God is and we're going to get to that portion.

[00:11:26] But because God is saying, I will be who I am,

[00:11:30] Micah is saying to us, so choose a remnant life.

[00:11:35] Where do we get that exhortation from in the seven verses

[00:11:38] that I just read?

[00:11:40] Well, I think we have to begin with what Micah said

[00:11:43] that he saw in these seven verses.

[00:11:46] All throughout his oracles from Micah one

[00:11:49] all the way through to Micah chapter seven.

[00:11:51] Micah has decried the idolatry and the covetousness

[00:11:56] that he saw running rampant throughout ancient Israel

[00:12:00] or God's people at that time.

[00:12:02] The rich were especially predatory during the season

[00:12:06] that Micah lived in.

[00:12:08] And their sins from the capital cities of Samaria

[00:12:12] in the north and Jerusalem in the south

[00:12:14] were having a terrible impact upon the populace

[00:12:19] because their decay was tempting foreign nations

[00:12:24] to come attack Israel.

[00:12:26] Oh, they're weakened.

[00:12:27] So let's invade them.

[00:12:29] They're weakened.

[00:12:30] Let's devour them.

[00:12:31] And Micah, he was from a valley that neighboring armies

[00:12:35] would have to pass through in order to get up to Jerusalem.

[00:12:39] So he's got skin in the game.

[00:12:41] He's like, you guys have been blowing it in the past

[00:12:44] and it has affected my neighborhood.

[00:12:46] And so I'm pleading with you and he's decrying

[00:12:50] what he sees happening there among the leadership

[00:12:53] of God's people in Jerusalem.

[00:12:56] But here we are in Micah chapter seven

[00:12:58] where at the end of his prophecies

[00:13:01] and it kind of sounds like no one has listened

[00:13:03] to what he's had to say.

[00:13:05] And that's very possible.

[00:13:07] In fact, it's probable that hardly anyone

[00:13:10] listened to what Micah said.

[00:13:12] There's some evidence that at least one king,

[00:13:14] Hezekiah listened to Micah for a period of time.

[00:13:18] But for the most part, people ignored this man.

[00:13:21] Now he was a contemporary of Isaiah the prophet

[00:13:24] and you might know about when God called Isaiah

[00:13:27] into his long 40 plus years of prophetic ministry.

[00:13:31] After his like miraculous call, he had this vision.

[00:13:35] He sees the Lord high and lifted up in his throne room

[00:13:40] and he says, here I am, Lord send me.

[00:13:42] It's a powerful moment.

[00:13:43] But then Micah asks the question,

[00:13:45] how long do I need to confront Israel

[00:13:48] for their crimes, for their sins?

[00:13:51] And God basically said to him,

[00:13:53] you keep telling them this.

[00:13:56] They will keep rejecting what you say

[00:13:59] until utter destruction comes

[00:14:02] and no one even lives here anymore.

[00:14:04] That was Micah's ministry just like Isaiah's.

[00:14:07] I'm gonna preach the truth until the destruction

[00:14:12] inevitably comes and that's what Micah sees.

[00:14:15] He describes here in these first seven verses

[00:14:18] the decay in its full bloom.

[00:14:22] It has fully taken root and has destroyed everything.

[00:14:27] He said in verse one, he said, it's like,

[00:14:29] when I go into Israel, he said,

[00:14:31] it's like going out to an orchard after gathering

[00:14:34] or a vineyard after gleaning.

[00:14:37] There's no more fruit.

[00:14:39] I'm looking for godly people,

[00:14:41] but I can't find them anymore, he's saying.

[00:14:44] He says as much as my soul desired in verse one and two

[00:14:47] to see some godly people in Israel,

[00:14:50] he says they've all perished from the earth.

[00:14:53] They're just not here anymore.

[00:14:55] He was like looking for someone who loved the Lord

[00:14:58] and he just couldn't find anyone.

[00:15:00] And it wasn't only that no one in Israel,

[00:15:03] at the time was, as we saw last week in Micah 6 verse eight,

[00:15:07] doing justice or loving kindness

[00:15:09] or walking humbly with God.

[00:15:11] It's that selfishness had run rampant.

[00:15:14] There was an utter lack of Christ likeness.

[00:15:18] It had turned them, he said in verse two, into monsters.

[00:15:21] He said they're waiting for blood.

[00:15:24] They're hunting other human beings with nets.

[00:15:28] Micah saw in verse three that their hands were evil

[00:15:32] and that they did their evil really well.

[00:15:34] They were good at it.

[00:15:35] They'd gone pro in doing evil.

[00:15:38] Corruption had reached all the way up to the leadership

[00:15:41] in Israel.

[00:15:42] Micah in verse four kept the agricultural terminology going

[00:15:46] when he said that the best of them,

[00:15:48] the holiest of them, the most righteous of them

[00:15:51] are like a briar or a thorn hedge.

[00:15:54] He's just saying it's spiritually bleak

[00:15:58] among God's people at this time.

[00:16:01] And so he announced to them in verse four

[00:16:04] that the day that watchmen like himself and Isaiah

[00:16:07] had predicted a day of punishment by war-induced confusion,

[00:16:13] it had arrived.

[00:16:15] Defeat in war was the only smelling salt

[00:16:18] that could awaken them from their mission destroying slumber.

[00:16:22] It was the only bucket of ice water

[00:16:24] that could awaken them from their nation-harming drunkenness.

[00:16:28] The only way Micah said,

[00:16:29] you're going to wake up is by losing in war to the Assyrians

[00:16:34] and then the Babylonians.

[00:16:35] Micah said it was so bad

[00:16:38] that regular neighbor and family relationships

[00:16:41] had become dangerous.

[00:16:43] That's what he said in verse six.

[00:16:45] He said friends and parents and children and in-laws,

[00:16:48] all of them became a threat.

[00:16:51] There were no happy Thanksgiving dinners.

[00:16:54] To the point he said in verse six

[00:16:56] that a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

[00:17:01] What do you do when you see something like that?

[00:17:04] What do you do when you see that level of brokenness,

[00:17:07] that level of despair?

[00:17:08] Again, Micah is not seeing this

[00:17:11] among the pagan unbelieving nations,

[00:17:13] though he could have found it there.

[00:17:15] He's seeing this among God's church, among God's people.

[00:17:19] Here's what you do.

[00:17:21] Look at what Micah said in verse seven.

[00:17:23] He said, as for me, I will look to the Lord.

[00:17:27] I will wait for the God of my salvation.

[00:17:30] My God will hear me.

[00:17:33] Doesn't that commitment sound a little bit like Joshua

[00:17:36] at the end of the book of Joshua?

[00:17:38] I love that moment.

[00:17:39] Joshua leads the people into the promised land.

[00:17:42] They vanquish their enemies to a degree.

[00:17:45] They are allotted the land according to God's desires

[00:17:50] and design.

[00:17:51] Even when Joshua gets to the end of his life,

[00:17:53] he's about ready to die.

[00:17:54] It's time for him to pass off leadership

[00:17:56] to the next generation and he urges them.

[00:18:00] Keep your covenant with Yahweh.

[00:18:03] Walk with Yahweh.

[00:18:05] But then it's like he looked in their eyes

[00:18:07] and he saw this might not happen.

[00:18:10] So he said, but as for me and my house,

[00:18:14] we will serve the Lord.

[00:18:16] He was making that personal commitment to God.

[00:18:19] And when Micah said this at Queen Joshua,

[00:18:23] Micah represented everyone in his day and in our day

[00:18:27] who decides to choose what I'm calling a remnant life.

[00:18:33] Micah would have agreed with Jesus.

[00:18:35] He would have said,

[00:18:36] I want to enter by the narrow gate that leads to life

[00:18:39] rather than go through the broad way that leads to destruction.

[00:18:45] Micah wanted to be a part of God's remnant people,

[00:18:48] a remnant that he referred to a lot all throughout his oracles.

[00:18:54] Now righteous remnants, they're remnants for a reason.

[00:18:58] They're never big.

[00:19:00] They're always small.

[00:19:02] But Micah would rather stand with the small remnant

[00:19:05] that go along with the spiritual decay

[00:19:08] that he saw among God's people.

[00:19:12] There's a story in the Old Testament

[00:19:14] that really pictures this remnant concept really well.

[00:19:18] It comes from the life of Elijah in the book of First Kings.

[00:19:23] Elijah was sort of that quintessential or first of the prophets.

[00:19:28] And he lived in hiding for a period of time

[00:19:32] because he rebuked King Ahab, the king of Israel at the time

[00:19:36] for introducing along with his wife, Jezebel

[00:19:39] the worship of the false God, Baal, all throughout the land.

[00:19:44] Ahab wanted him dead. Jezebel wanted him dead.

[00:19:47] So he lived in hiding for a time until God told him to come out of hiding

[00:19:51] and challenge the prophets of Baal to a worship contest.

[00:19:56] It's one of the classic stories of the Old Testament.

[00:19:59] They get all get together and the 450 prophets of Baal,

[00:20:04] Elijah says you guys can go first.

[00:20:07] And so they set up their altar, they set up their sacrifice.

[00:20:10] Keep in mind that their God Baal was supposed to be the God of the weather,

[00:20:13] the God of thunder, the God of lightning.

[00:20:16] And so it should have been no problem for them to cry out to their God

[00:20:19] and have their God consume the sacrifice on the altar.

[00:20:23] And they're dancing around, they're cutting themselves,

[00:20:26] they're crying out to their God for hours.

[00:20:29] And there's of course the classic things that Micah does

[00:20:32] in making fun of them, you know, is your God on vacation?

[00:20:36] Is your God on a distant journey?

[00:20:38] Is your God going to the bathroom right now?

[00:20:40] Maybe he's relieving himself and this is embarrassing for him, you know.

[00:20:44] And eventually they fail and Micah at the time of Yahweh's prescribed evening sacrifice

[00:20:51] sets up a humble, simple altar, stones from the earth,

[00:20:55] wood on the altar, the sacrifice on top of it.

[00:20:59] Then he digs a trench around it and asks them to pour barrels

[00:21:03] and barrels of water on top of the sacrifice

[00:21:06] until the trench around the sacrifice is filled with water.

[00:21:11] And then at the time of the evening sacrifice, he just prays a simple humble prayer

[00:21:15] and the fire of God falls down and consumes the sacrifice,

[00:21:19] the wood, the stones and the water in the trench around the sacrifice.

[00:21:25] And in Elijah, in that moment of victory,

[00:21:29] I mean, talk about like the ultimate high, the ultimate mic drop, you know.

[00:21:34] He just says, will you serve Yahweh or will you serve Baal?

[00:21:42] And immediately as he says this word gets back to Jezebel

[00:21:47] and she begins to desire his death even more fervently.

[00:21:52] And this puts fear and panic in the mighty prophet's heart

[00:21:55] and he goes up into the mountains to be alone with God

[00:21:59] and he says to God, it was a pity party kind of prayer to God.

[00:22:02] He says, God, everybody has denied you

[00:22:06] and I alone am left.

[00:22:09] Like you just don't say that to God.

[00:22:11] But that's what he said.

[00:22:12] I'm the only faithful one.

[00:22:14] Everyone in Israel has bowed the knee to Baal.

[00:22:18] I want out Lord.

[00:22:20] I want to retire because this is too tiresome.

[00:22:25] The Lord said and corrected Elijah and said,

[00:22:29] I reserve 7000 in Israel.

[00:22:33] All whose knees have not bowed down to Baal

[00:22:36] and whose mouths have not kissed him.

[00:22:39] In other words, even in the darkest of spiritual moments,

[00:22:43] God has his remnant that he is reserving for himself.

[00:22:49] We want to be that, don't we?

[00:22:51] We want to be those faithful people

[00:22:53] that even in dark spiritual times,

[00:22:55] we say, Lord, I want to walk with you.

[00:22:57] I want to be different.

[00:23:01] But the reality is that this remnant decision

[00:23:04] is a decision that we must make throughout our lives.

[00:23:09] If you're uncomfortable being in the minority,

[00:23:12] even in the minority within the visible church,

[00:23:16] it'll be hard for you to embrace this remnant life.

[00:23:19] It will be difficult for you to decide,

[00:23:22] along with Micah, to look to the Lord

[00:23:24] and wait for the God of your salvation.

[00:23:27] So that's the first encouragement that Micah gives

[00:23:30] that we need to embrace this remnant life.

[00:23:33] I was trying to think through like,

[00:23:34] how can I illustrate this for you guys?

[00:23:36] And a memory came to me from early on in my life.

[00:23:41] My parents are from Southern California

[00:23:43] and they moved up here in 1978 to start this church.

[00:23:48] And because they were from Southern California

[00:23:51] and because my dad was a big baseball guy,

[00:23:55] he raised me to root for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

[00:23:58] And I thought it was like the most normal thing

[00:24:01] in the world until I went to Forest Grove Elementary School

[00:24:06] and started getting to know other local kids.

[00:24:09] And I started realizing like, you know,

[00:24:11] I'm asking like, who do you root for?

[00:24:13] Well, the San Francisco Giants.

[00:24:14] Who do you root for?

[00:24:15] The San Francisco Giants.

[00:24:16] Who do you root for?

[00:24:17] The San Francisco Giants.

[00:24:18] Who do you hate the most of anyone on earth?

[00:24:21] The Los Angeles Dodgers.

[00:24:23] And I started realizing like, oh man,

[00:24:25] I'm the odd man out here.

[00:24:26] And then I remember he would take me to baseball games

[00:24:29] up at what was then Candlestick Park

[00:24:32] where the Giants played.

[00:24:34] And we would sit in the bleachers

[00:24:36] and it was a little bit scary, you know.

[00:24:39] It's not as scary in the bleachers now

[00:24:41] at their current part because it's hard to be intimidated

[00:24:43] by people with like a glass of wine

[00:24:45] and garlic fries in their hands or whatever.

[00:24:48] But back in the day, it was a little scarier.

[00:24:51] I mean, hey, I put the bleacher creatures in LA

[00:24:54] up against the San Francisco people any day of the week.

[00:24:56] I mean, I've seen Giants fans in the bleachers in LA.

[00:25:01] That's bravery to do that.

[00:25:04] But I remember going to these games

[00:25:07] and just feeling like, man, this is,

[00:25:09] I'm part of a small little group.

[00:25:14] Now all throughout the stadium,

[00:25:15] there were probably thousands of us

[00:25:17] rooting for that team, rooting for the Dodgers.

[00:25:20] But in our experience individually, we fell very alone.

[00:25:25] And you've got to make that choice.

[00:25:28] You've got to say, I am willing to be different.

[00:25:31] Listen, there are some of you here.

[00:25:34] I know you're still making a decision on whether or not

[00:25:38] you're actually going to follow Jesus.

[00:25:41] You might believe in the gospel.

[00:25:43] You might even confess him as the savior of your life,

[00:25:48] but he wants so much more than that.

[00:25:51] He wants to be the Lord of your life.

[00:25:53] But if you're going to embrace that kind of vision

[00:25:56] for yourself, you're going to have to enter

[00:25:59] into saying, I am willing to be part of a small,

[00:26:03] remnant of people here on earth.

[00:26:06] So that's the first thing I want you to see.

[00:26:08] I am who I am, God says, so choose the remnant life.

[00:26:11] The second thing is, and trust that remnant's future.

[00:26:16] Trust that remnant's future.

[00:26:18] Let's read verse eight through 13 together.

[00:26:24] Actually, past verse 13.

[00:26:26] Rejoice not over me, oh my enemy, when I fall.

[00:26:31] I shall rise when I sit in darkness.

[00:26:33] The Lord will be a light to me.

[00:26:35] I will bear the indignation of the Lord

[00:26:38] because I have sinned against him until he pleads my cause

[00:26:41] and executes judgment for me.

[00:26:43] He will bring me out to the light.

[00:26:45] I shall look upon his vindication.

[00:26:47] Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her

[00:26:50] who said to me, where is the Lord your God?

[00:26:53] My eyes will look upon her.

[00:26:55] Now she will be trampled down like the mire

[00:26:59] of the streets.

[00:27:00] A day verse 11, for the building of your walls,

[00:27:03] in that day the boundary shall be far extended.

[00:27:06] In that day they will come to you from Assyria

[00:27:09] and from the cities of Egypt and from Egypt to the river

[00:27:12] from the sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

[00:27:16] But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants

[00:27:19] for the fruit of their deeds.

[00:27:22] Verse 14, shepherd your people with your staff,

[00:27:26] the flock of your inheritance who dwell alone in a forest

[00:27:29] in the midst of a garden land.

[00:27:31] Let them graze and bishon and gilead as in the days of old

[00:27:35] as in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,

[00:27:38] I will show them marvelous things.

[00:27:40] The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might.

[00:27:44] They shall lay their hands on their mouths,

[00:27:47] their ears shall be deaf.

[00:27:49] They shall lick the dust like a serpent,

[00:27:52] like the crawling things of the earth.

[00:27:54] They shall come trembling out of their strongholds.

[00:27:58] They shall turn in dread to the Lord our God

[00:28:01] and they shall be in fear of you.

[00:28:05] Okay, so what I'm saying here in this second movement

[00:28:09] is that the Lord is saying, I will be who I am

[00:28:12] so choose a remnant life and trust that remnant's future.

[00:28:18] Where do we get that from in this passage?

[00:28:21] I think what we have to do is we have to enter into

[00:28:24] what Micah envisioned here in this passage.

[00:28:27] This passage that I just read to you,

[00:28:29] it's like a prayer that Micah prays

[00:28:32] combined with a dream that Micah sees.

[00:28:35] Micah is the one speaking throughout the whole thing

[00:28:39] and his words are both a cry to Yahweh

[00:28:43] but then also he's rebuking or prophesying

[00:28:47] to the nations that had eventually invaded Israel

[00:28:52] and defeated them.

[00:28:54] And as Micah gazed into the future,

[00:28:58] it seems that what he saw was a leveling of everything

[00:29:02] that is anti-Yahweh, anti-God

[00:29:05] and the exaltation also simultaneously

[00:29:10] of Yahweh's remnant.

[00:29:12] In a sense, this is like Holy Spirit inspired

[00:29:17] prophetic trash talk from Micah.

[00:29:20] He's saying this is what the very people that God used

[00:29:25] to discipline Israel, the Babylonians, the Assyrians,

[00:29:29] the Egyptians, this is what those people

[00:29:32] are going to endure in the future

[00:29:34] when God raises up his remnant

[00:29:37] and defeats the enemies of his people.

[00:29:41] What particularly did Micah see?

[00:29:44] Well, in verse eight it says that he saw a day coming

[00:29:47] when those in darkness were brought into the light

[00:29:50] even though the enemy would cause the fall of God's people

[00:29:53] God would one day resurrect and rise up his people,

[00:29:57] raise them up into God's kingdom.

[00:29:59] He saw in verse nine and ten

[00:30:01] that God's people would bear their discipline.

[00:30:03] They would, they would go into captivity

[00:30:05] but then they would be cleansed, he says

[00:30:08] and be vindicated by God

[00:30:10] as he puts down the very enemies that had defeated them.

[00:30:13] In verse 11 through 13 he saw a day

[00:30:17] when peace would be so supreme

[00:30:20] that God's people would expand their boundary peacefully.

[00:30:24] There'd be no pushback

[00:30:26] and they'd become the worship center

[00:30:28] of all the nations of the world

[00:30:30] which I think is a fulfillment of God's promise

[00:30:33] to Abraham way back in Genesis chapter 12

[00:30:36] that through him and his ancestry

[00:30:39] or his descendants all the nations of the earth

[00:30:42] would be blessed.

[00:30:44] And then he in verse 14 and 15

[00:30:47] saw the shepherd king figure arise

[00:30:50] to lead his people into fruitfulness.

[00:30:53] Right now in our modern time

[00:30:56] in invisible Jesus we can't see him

[00:30:59] is leading his people in covert

[00:31:02] and subversive ways

[00:31:04] but on that day, the day that Micah saw

[00:31:07] King Jesus would be visible

[00:31:09] and lead his people in overt and obvious ways.

[00:31:14] And then in verse 16 and 17 Micah saw

[00:31:16] a spirit of repentance would overcome

[00:31:19] even the enemies of God to the point

[00:31:21] that people would crawl to God's house

[00:31:24] if they had to.

[00:31:27] Now all of this should sound familiar to you

[00:31:29] if you've been coming to church

[00:31:31] as we've been going through the book of Micah

[00:31:33] because when we were in Micah chapter 4

[00:31:35] Micah had this kind of vision.

[00:31:37] He saw a day when God would rise up

[00:31:41] there in Jerusalem and all the nations

[00:31:43] of the world would flow to God

[00:31:45] as the center of all things.

[00:31:47] And as I said when we were there

[00:31:49] in Micah chapter 4, Micah is not the only one

[00:31:51] to have that prediction.

[00:31:53] Isaiah gives a replicate or duplicate

[00:31:56] description of that very same thing

[00:31:58] in Isaiah chapter 2.

[00:31:59] It's as if God is saying on repeat

[00:32:03] this is what I am going to do in the future.

[00:32:06] Do you believe it?

[00:32:09] And because Micah believed it,

[00:32:11] it changed his life.

[00:32:13] Listen, what we think about

[00:32:16] what is going to happen,

[00:32:18] it has a major impact on our behavior today.

[00:32:23] I was envisioning or thinking of a way

[00:32:25] to try to illustrate this

[00:32:27] and I was thinking of a young teenage boy

[00:32:30] who has not spent even a minute

[00:32:33] in the weight room in his entire life.

[00:32:36] And he's getting ready to try out

[00:32:39] for a sport or something like that

[00:32:41] and the coach says, hey, you know,

[00:32:43] it really helped you to add some muscle

[00:32:45] to this skeleton that I see in front of me.

[00:32:48] And so what you need to do is hook up

[00:32:51] with our trainer and you need to go

[00:32:53] to the gym because if you do

[00:32:55] and if you follow the plan

[00:32:58] that this trainer lays out for you,

[00:33:00] here's what will happen

[00:33:02] and kind of giving them a vision

[00:33:05] for what will occur.

[00:33:07] How will that young man return

[00:33:10] to the gym day after day?

[00:33:13] Well, he'll only go if he believes

[00:33:16] that by behaving in this way

[00:33:18] there is an outcome

[00:33:20] that is going to happen in my life.

[00:33:23] He might even struggle to go

[00:33:25] if he believes that vision

[00:33:27] but he definitely will not go

[00:33:29] if he doesn't believe that vision.

[00:33:32] Micah here believes in the vision

[00:33:35] that he has seen

[00:33:37] and I think the question is,

[00:33:39] do we believe?

[00:33:41] Now Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 11 verse 1

[00:33:44] that faith is the assurance

[00:33:46] of things hoped for.

[00:33:48] A conviction about unseen realities.

[00:33:52] Micah is showing us

[00:33:54] an unseen future reality

[00:33:58] that we should have faith in,

[00:34:00] believe in and trust in.

[00:34:05] This future is what will happen

[00:34:08] to God's remnant.

[00:34:11] Now because Micah believed this

[00:34:14] about the remnant,

[00:34:15] it's why he had such incredible hope.

[00:34:18] It's like Micah saw the remnant

[00:34:20] of God's people and he talked about them

[00:34:22] in chapter 2 and 4 and 5

[00:34:24] and now here in chapter 7.

[00:34:26] Because Micah thought this

[00:34:28] about the remnant,

[00:34:29] it's like he saw the remnant

[00:34:31] of God's people like a small seed

[00:34:33] that would break up the earth

[00:34:35] to become a full-grown tree.

[00:34:38] In other words, for Micah,

[00:34:40] physical force was not going to produce

[00:34:42] the kingdom of God,

[00:34:43] but a ruler from Bethlehem

[00:34:45] would come to bring a deliverance

[00:34:47] to his people.

[00:34:48] And I want you to think about

[00:34:50] being part of God's remnant in that way.

[00:34:52] It doesn't just mean smallness,

[00:34:54] it means a slow, long process

[00:34:58] where God is going to produce

[00:35:00] his ultimate work.

[00:35:02] One scholar said it like this,

[00:35:04] the remnant is a force in the world.

[00:35:07] Not simply a residue of people

[00:35:10] or a small group of people

[00:35:12] as the word remnant may seem to imply.

[00:35:14] In the Bible, it's a force

[00:35:16] that will ultimately conquer

[00:35:18] or overcome the world.

[00:35:21] I think that this is part of the reason

[00:35:23] why Jesus loved seed imagery

[00:35:25] so much in his parables.

[00:35:28] He often told parables about

[00:35:30] the power of a seed.

[00:35:32] Small and slow,

[00:35:34] a seed can grow

[00:35:37] into a mighty forest

[00:35:39] in the right conditions.

[00:35:40] And Micah sees this seed-like remnant

[00:35:43] by the resurrection power

[00:35:44] and eventual presence of Christ

[00:35:46] blossoming into a forest of righteousness.

[00:35:50] Remember when Jesus answered

[00:35:52] his disciples' question

[00:35:53] when they said,

[00:35:54] teach us how to pray?

[00:35:55] I just think that they were watching

[00:35:57] Jesus' prayer life

[00:35:58] and they're like,

[00:35:59] we thought we knew how to pray,

[00:36:00] but now we're watching him

[00:36:01] and we realize we have no idea

[00:36:03] how to pray.

[00:36:04] And so they said,

[00:36:05] teach us to pray.

[00:36:06] And one of the things that Jesus said

[00:36:08] in his model template prayer

[00:36:10] for us is pray your kingdom come,

[00:36:13] your will be done on earth

[00:36:16] as it is in heaven.

[00:36:18] I think in a sense

[00:36:19] what Micah is saying to us here

[00:36:21] is that we need to believe

[00:36:24] that Jesus' prayer will come to pass,

[00:36:28] that those prayers are like seeds

[00:36:30] that have gone into the ground

[00:36:32] and will grow into a strong tree

[00:36:35] of God's kingdom,

[00:36:37] God's will being done on earth

[00:36:40] as it is in heaven when the time comes.

[00:36:43] So here's my question.

[00:36:44] Can you choose the remnant life

[00:36:47] while trusting God's plan

[00:36:49] for his remnant future?

[00:36:51] Can you do that?

[00:36:52] Or do you need to have it all

[00:36:55] right now?

[00:36:57] When Christians get into that mentality

[00:36:59] we've got to have all of it now.

[00:37:01] We've got to have the power now.

[00:37:02] We've got to have the stuff now.

[00:37:04] We've got to have it all now.

[00:37:05] We really get weird.

[00:37:07] But James, he gives us a template to follow.

[00:37:11] He said be patient there for brothers

[00:37:14] until the coming of the Lord.

[00:37:16] See how the farmer waits

[00:37:18] for the precious fruit of the earth,

[00:37:20] being patient about it

[00:37:21] until it receives the early and the late rains.

[00:37:25] You also be patient.

[00:37:26] Establish your hearts

[00:37:28] for the coming of the Lord as at hand.

[00:37:31] A farmer puts the seed into the ground

[00:37:34] and does not expect fruit the next day.

[00:37:38] We put our kingdom come,

[00:37:39] your will be done prayers into heaven

[00:37:42] and we do not expect

[00:37:44] the full bloom of that the next day.

[00:37:46] We're willing to wait

[00:37:48] and that's what Micah embraced

[00:37:50] and I think we should embrace as well.

[00:37:53] Okay, in our last little movement

[00:37:55] three short verses

[00:37:57] I think we should say it like this.

[00:37:58] We also then need to delight

[00:38:00] in the remnant's God.

[00:38:01] He says in verse 18

[00:38:02] who is a God like you?

[00:38:04] Pardoning, iniquity

[00:38:06] and passing over transgression

[00:38:08] for the remnant of his inheritance does.

[00:38:11] He does not retain his anger forever

[00:38:13] because he delights instead fast love.

[00:38:15] He will again have compassion on us.

[00:38:17] He will tread our iniquities under foot.

[00:38:19] You will cast all our sins

[00:38:21] into the depths of the sea.

[00:38:23] You will show faithfulness to Jacob

[00:38:26] and steadfast love to Abraham

[00:38:29] as you have sworn to our fathers

[00:38:31] from the days of old.

[00:38:38] Okay, I've said to you

[00:38:40] this is Yahweh saying

[00:38:41] I will be who I am

[00:38:42] so choose a remnant life

[00:38:43] trust that remnant's future

[00:38:45] and this last thing

[00:38:46] well delighting in the remnant's God.

[00:38:48] Where do I get that from?

[00:38:49] Well like I said already

[00:38:51] this is where Micah ends his oracles

[00:38:52] with the question

[00:38:53] who is a God like ours?

[00:38:58] Micah chose this remnant life

[00:38:59] trusted in the remnant future

[00:39:01] but he only did that

[00:39:03] because he delighted in the God

[00:39:05] of that remnant.

[00:39:07] It seems to me that what's happening here

[00:39:09] is that Micah, he's like

[00:39:11] studying his own oracles.

[00:39:14] He's like these people are terrible

[00:39:18] you know and he's getting all these visions

[00:39:20] from God that decry the wretchedness

[00:39:24] that he's seeing in Israel at that time

[00:39:27] but then he's also seeing that God is going to take

[00:39:29] a remnant of those wretched people

[00:39:32] and do this glorious, beautiful

[00:39:35] work in the future

[00:39:37] and he's kind of asking the question

[00:39:39] how could Yahweh

[00:39:41] take a people so full

[00:39:43] for so long of spiritual adultery

[00:39:45] and community brutality

[00:39:47] discipline them with as much severity

[00:39:50] as he and they could handle

[00:39:53] and remake them into the glorious epicenter

[00:39:57] of his forever kingdom some day.

[00:40:01] That's what Micah is asking

[00:40:03] what kind of God does that?

[00:40:06] Who is this God?

[00:40:09] And as Micah is like studying

[00:40:11] his own oracles thinking about

[00:40:14] how and who is this God

[00:40:17] he starts thinking I think

[00:40:19] of one of the classic episodes

[00:40:22] in the book of Exodus.

[00:40:24] He thinks about this time where the people of Israel

[00:40:26] were confronted by God after they've been delivered

[00:40:28] from their captivity in Egypt

[00:40:30] there at Mount Sinai and God invites them

[00:40:33] to be his people and they say

[00:40:35] yes we want to be your people

[00:40:37] we're all in whatever you say we will do

[00:40:39] he gives them the ten commandments

[00:40:40] we love it, we're in

[00:40:42] he gives them the law, they say

[00:40:43] we love it, we're in

[00:40:45] he gives them the sacrificial system

[00:40:47] and they say we love it, we're in

[00:40:49] and then Moses goes up to the mountain

[00:40:51] to worship God a little bit more

[00:40:53] and get the ten commandments written on stones

[00:40:56] so that they can have a copy for themselves

[00:40:59] and while they're doing that

[00:41:01] they make a golden calf in the valley below

[00:41:03] and begin worshiping it and saying

[00:41:05] this is the God who delivered us

[00:41:07] from our slavery in Egypt

[00:41:09] and how does God respond?

[00:41:11] God calls Moses up to the mountain

[00:41:13] after a moment of Moses interceding for them

[00:41:16] and God announces to Moses

[00:41:19] this is who I am

[00:41:21] I am a God gracious and merciful

[00:41:23] and slow to anger and abounding and loving kindness

[00:41:25] I am doing these things

[00:41:27] I am these things for a

[00:41:29] bail, worshiping, golden calf

[00:41:32] worshiping people

[00:41:34] that's who God is like

[00:41:35] like I said he pardons iniquity

[00:41:37] he passes over transgression for the remnant

[00:41:39] he does not retain his anger forever

[00:41:41] he delights instead fast love

[00:41:43] it's his only conclusion

[00:41:45] in verse 19 his compassion

[00:41:47] drives him to tread our iniquities under foot

[00:41:49] and cast them into the depths

[00:41:51] of the sea like he cast

[00:41:53] the Egyptian chariots

[00:41:55] so many centuries earlier

[00:41:57] and he will demonstrate faithfulness

[00:41:59] and covenant love to the physical

[00:42:01] and spiritual descendants of Abraham

[00:42:03] Isaac and Jacob that's who God is

[00:42:06] I think in a sense you could say

[00:42:08] that the God who

[00:42:10] as we saw last week in Micah 6

[00:42:12] 8 invites us to be a people who

[00:42:15] do justice

[00:42:17] love kindness

[00:42:19] and walk humbly with him

[00:42:22] you could say that God did all those things before

[00:42:25] we did

[00:42:27] he does justice and that he does not merely

[00:42:29] overlook sin and pretend it doesn't exist

[00:42:32] but consumes the judgment within himself

[00:42:35] the shepherd king substituted himself

[00:42:38] for us on the cross he loves kindness

[00:42:41] and that he delights Micah says instead

[00:42:44] fast love he's loyal in other words

[00:42:46] to all those who have turned to and trusted him

[00:42:49] and he walks humbly with us

[00:42:52] so humbly with us that he shares

[00:42:54] in our weaknesses the New Testament telling us

[00:42:57] that the son of God emptied himself

[00:43:00] to become as we are

[00:43:02] who Micah would ask is a God like that

[00:43:06] there is no God who compares

[00:43:08] only our God is like that

[00:43:10] we are our most privileged people

[00:43:12] as the psalmist says

[00:43:14] blessed are the people whose God is the Lord

[00:43:18] I want to wrap up our whole time in Micah

[00:43:20] with a brief story for you guys

[00:43:22] you guys know that each summer

[00:43:24] I like to take my family up to Lake Tahoe

[00:43:26] for a couple of weeks of just like rest

[00:43:28] and being in the sun and all of that

[00:43:30] and you also know that one of my favorite places

[00:43:33] on earth is Costco

[00:43:35] and someone even gave me for Christmas

[00:43:38] Kirkland signature hats

[00:43:42] plural because you can't buy one it's a two pack

[00:43:45] and so that means anything I need to buy

[00:43:51] for Tahoe, for beach or whatever

[00:43:53] I get it at Costco because the return policy

[00:43:56] is out of this world if it breaks

[00:43:58] I just bring it right back

[00:44:00] so I've got a couple of stand up paddle boards

[00:44:02] inflatable stand up paddle boards

[00:44:04] that we got at Costco

[00:44:06] and I've got some chairs that we got at Costco

[00:44:08] I think even an umbrella that we got at Costco

[00:44:10] and there was this one little moment this last year

[00:44:12] where we were leaving the beach

[00:44:14] and we kind of have like our Holdridge family system

[00:44:17] you guys are on the paddle boards

[00:44:19] you guys are on the blankets

[00:44:21] and the beach bag, dad's on the cooler

[00:44:23] and just all this stuff

[00:44:25] and we're like trekking out

[00:44:27] and this young guy sees us

[00:44:30] and he comes running up

[00:44:32] and I think he threw out a bro

[00:44:34] and I kind of turn and like pay attention

[00:44:39] and he's like that's our stuff

[00:44:42] you're stealing our stuff

[00:44:44] I'm just like yeah my little family of five

[00:44:47] we concocted this incredible plan

[00:44:50] to come steal your stuff here in Lake Tahoe

[00:44:53] and I'm like hey we shop at Costco

[00:44:57] just like you okay

[00:44:59] go look at the beach

[00:45:01] there's a lot of these around there

[00:45:03] this is our stuff

[00:45:05] but you know he was trying to be like a little threatening

[00:45:08] or whatever and I wasn't worried about it alright

[00:45:11] I had this guy like no problem

[00:45:16] but he was like closer to my daughters

[00:45:18] and my wife than he was to me

[00:45:20] and I'm just like kind of like thinking

[00:45:22] like how quick am I going to have to be

[00:45:26] to get up on this guy

[00:45:27] I don't know what I was thinking

[00:45:28] like he's going to jump Christina or something

[00:45:30] but that's what I like had in my head

[00:45:33] I'm like immediately I'm just like

[00:45:35] I'm ready to throw down with this dude

[00:45:38] and he ended up walking away

[00:45:40] and we're like loading up the car

[00:45:42] and then you know as we're pulling out

[00:45:44] I see him running back down to the beach

[00:45:46] with some really big dudes

[00:45:48] so I'm glad that we got out of there

[00:45:50] before that moment

[00:45:52] okay that instinct in me

[00:45:55] that instinct to just like

[00:45:57] of course I'll protect my bride

[00:45:59] of course I'd protect my family

[00:46:01] that instinct

[00:46:04] this is where we want to get to

[00:46:06] in our walk with God

[00:46:09] Micah because he meditated on who God is

[00:46:14] because he had a relationship with God

[00:46:17] the whole Micah 6-8 thing

[00:46:19] do justice, love, kindness, walk humbly with God

[00:46:21] it was second nature

[00:46:23] he didn't have to think long and hard

[00:46:27] about doing those things

[00:46:31] it had become who he was

[00:46:34] because of his attachment

[00:46:37] or his connection to Yahweh

[00:46:41] and this is where the Lord wants to take our lives

[00:46:44] he wants to get us into the Micah sphere

[00:46:47] he wants us to be these types of people

[00:46:51] but it will not happen

[00:46:53] if all we're doing

[00:46:55] is just trying to think through how to get there

[00:46:59] it'll happen more and more

[00:47:01] as we think about who God is

[00:47:03] and spend time and relationship with him

[00:47:06] he then transforms us to become

[00:47:09] more like himself

[00:47:11] to where it becomes second nature to us

[00:47:14] rather than something we have to think through

[00:47:17] every single moment

[00:47:19] Thank you for listening

[00:47:21] If you would like more teachings and information about Calvary Monterey

[00:47:25] please visit Calvary.com

[00:47:27] You can also find books, teachings through the Bible

[00:47:30] and articles from our lead pastor at NateHoldrich.com

[00:47:34] Thanks again for tuning in

[00:47:36] See you next week