Micah - The Prophet Got to the Point

Automated transcript, lightly edited for readability. Scripture appears as spoken; the video is the authoritative teaching.

Shabbat shalom everybody. Kids are the greatest blessing we have at this fellowship and I will never get tired of it. I love the chaos that they bring because it reminds me how blessed we are, and I never want it to go away.

So we've gone through the holidays and you all thought I forgot about the Homewardbound Journey through the prophets. I was honestly maybe going to skip Micah because Amos brings a shotgun to his accusations. It's very broad, very intentional, very detailed, very violent. Micah brings a knife. And the way that Micah is set up and his accusations and who he's accusing—it fits too perfectly to align with American Christianity of who he is condemning. Now granted, he's condemning both Israel and Judah, the two kingdoms. But what he is calling them out for is American Christianity. It's a tough message, and that's the warning. It's one I think that we all need to hear, especially now. And maybe a reminder every once in a while, because that's why God said, "This belongs in my word."

The Prophets Before Micah

We've been through eight sermons so far throughout the Homewardbound series, which started out going over the prophets of the exile, but has since extended outward. We walked with Isaiah, the prophet who walked naked through Jerusalem for three and a half or three years as a living protest sign. We sat with Jeremiah, the man who cursed the day he was born, who told God that he seduced him and overpowered him, who never wanted the job and resented every single minute of it. But he couldn't stop the fire in his bones.

We watched Ezekiel, the ADHD prophet, the priest who lost his mind or maybe found it, depending on who you ask, who lay on his side for 430 days. He cooked his food over dung. He built a toy model of Israel and then Jerusalem and then besieged it in front of everyone. He was the guy that you would cross the street to avoid if you were downtown. His performance art was so unhinged that his neighbors probably crossed the street when they saw him.

We met Daniel who was ripped from his home as a teenager, probably castrated, given a Babylonian name and shoved through imperial re-education. He looked exactly like the empire. He talked like it. He dressed like it. He rose through its ranks and then stood in front of the most powerful man on earth and told him to his face, "You have been weighed. You have been measured and you have been found wanting." That night the king died and Daniel watched four kings fall and two empires collapse. He was still standing. That's not quiet faithfulness. That's an insurgent in the empire's uniform, smiling at kings while he buried them, watching God tear it all apart from the inside out.

We felt Hosea's heartbreak, told by God to marry a woman who'd cheat on him, name his kids after curses, and then buy her back from the slave market after she left it. His marriage was a sermon. Poor guy. The lesson was humiliation. He had to live it in public so Israel could see what they looked like to God. Being a prophet is brutal.

"Burn It All Down"

We've heard Amos, a foreigner from the south. No credentials, no invitation. He crossed the border, walked straight into the king's chapel, and he told the high priest to his face, "Your wife's going to be a prostitute, your kids are going to die, and you're going to die in a foreign land." And when they told him to go back to his own country, he says, "You know what? I'm not even a prophet. I pick figs for a living. So I'll head back. Just needed to tell you that."

Recently, we met Jonah, the prophet who was so angry at the wrong people finding peace that he proved he never had any. The pagans repented and Jonah pouted. The sailors prayed and Jonah sulked in the ship. Everyone in the story finds God except for the man who claimed to know him. And he'd rather die than see the wrong people loved by God. So busy guarding the gate that he never noticed he was actually outside of it.

The prophets—these weren't nice men and they weren't building some big platforms. Their only job was to burn it all down—burn down the empire of Satan, whatever that may be. And so today we meet Micah. And I guarantee you, you already know one of the verses from the book of Micah. It's found in Micah 6:8.

"Do Justice and Love Mercy"

He has told you, oh mortal, what is good? And what does God require of you but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God? We know this verse, right? It's cross-stitched on something at home, bumper sticker, mug. It's one of the good verses that we like. It's a verse we quote when we want to sound prophetic without getting political or edgy.

But here's what you probably didn't know about this verse: it comes from a courtroom drama where God is suing Israel. The mountains are called as witnesses and God is playing both the prosecutor and the plaintiff here. And Micah 6:8 isn't gentle advice about being a nice person. It's the verdict. It's what God demands instead of your religion. Micah is the prophet who cuts through religious performance and gets to the point, and it makes me uncomfortable. So I want company.

While the rich are building mansions with blood money, while the prophets are selling their words to the highest bidder, while the priests are teaching the Torah for a fee, Micah stands up and says, "None of you even know what worship is." And so let's meet him.

Samaria and Jerusalem

So if you have your Bibles, go ahead and mark it there because I would love to get you excited enough so that when you go home, you just read through the whole thing. But Micah chapter 1. Did I put it up there? Yeah.

Here's how it starts. The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morite, what he saw regarding Samaria and Jerusalem in the days of Jothan, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and the kings of Judah. Notice Samaria and Jerusalem. This is a big deal. Micah is prophesying during a time where there were two kingdoms. Israel had been split. There was a north and a south, right?

In the northern kingdom, the capital was Samaria. The southern kingdom was Jerusalem—DC and Richmond, right? Most Judeans, the guys in the south, thought they were the good guys. Sure, the north had gone bad, right? They had set up two golden calves at Dan and Bethel. They'd abandoned the temple altogether. They were practically Baal worshippers amongst other things. But Judah—well, Judah—they had the temple of God. They had the Davidic dynasty. They were obviously the faithful remnant. And Micah makes it his mission to destroy that illusion.

So if we lived during this time, if we lived in the south like Judah, Judah looked at Samaria and said something like, "Look at those pagan apostates—the golden calves. They're dealing with all these foreign alliances. They've abandoned everything." While those in the north, Samaria, would look down at Jerusalem and say, "Look at those hypocrites. They've got a temple full of corrupt priests that take money and prophets that sell prophecies." They would think that they're more reputable, at least because they're honest about their hypocrisy, you know.

Two Sides, Both Wrong

Does that sound familiar? Having two sides that ignore their own faults but then throw it at the other side. Yeah, well, of course. Every four years we go through it. Half of us are convinced that the other half is destroying America. That's the lie that we buy. Yeah. Democrats look at Republicans and they see corruption, authoritarianism, and abandonment of the vulnerable. Republicans look at Democrats and they see moral decay, godlessness, and a dismantling of just everything that's sacred. Both sides are absolutely certain. When it comes down to it—we're really the more faithful ones.

And Micah walks in and he says, "Yeah, y'all both are wrong. You're both guilty. Samaria and Jerusalem." That's what that phrase right there carries when he makes that accusation. And it's appropriate for today because we all know the truth. We've got Christians right now who will excuse anything as long as whoever their team is wins. And Micah pretty much calls it the way it is. That's called being a traitor to the kingdom. Micah would say to all of us in America, you're building Zion with blood and you're calling it faithfulness.

Thanks for joining me in the discomfort of Micah.

Micah's Wordplay on Cities

And so we'll lighten it up by getting into something nerdy before we jump back into what the book's about. So in chapter 1, you have one of the most elaborate wordplay sequences in all of Hebrew literature. If you want this for Jeopardy later, Micah was an artist. He was a poet. And when you read through chapter one, when he's announcing judgment, he'll start announcing judgment to a series of towns. And each town's name becomes a pun about their destruction. So this is how you troll someone as a prophet. Okay, here are the towns.

We have the first town: Beth-la-Afra. It means like the house of dust, right? And so in Beth-la-Afra: roll yourself in dust. He totally did that like a wink. Right. The next city, Chaphir, means beautiful. Pass by in shameful nakedness, you inhabitants of Chaphir. Zan sounds like "go out". To the inhabitants of Zan: Do not go out. Moroath sounds like bitterness. Pass over, right? The inhabitants of Moroath shall pass over in bitterness.

Lachish. If you went with us in Israel a couple years ago, we went here. We got to walk up the siege ramp that was built by the Assyrians. It was pretty cool. Lachish sounds like a team of horses. So what's he say to them? Harness your steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish. Aczib sounds like deception. The houses of Aczib shall be a deception.

And then Meisha sounds like the possessor. What's he say to them? I will bring a possessor upon you. I love the beauty and the equal level of snark that appears in the text of the word of God.

These aren't random towns, of course. These are the towns that are in the path of the oncoming Assyrian invasion, this big empire that's going to come in and wipe them out, especially the north. And Micah is watching the army that destroyed the northern kingdom. And now they're coming through Judah. And he's turning their names into funeral laments. It's very dark.

This is like a prophet today saying, "Washington, you shall be washed. Atlanta, you shall be at an inn, or I don't know, Portland, you'll be like Portland, I don't know it." Micah is performing in a very similar way that Ezekiel did. He's performing the destruction through words, through language. He's not simply predicting it.

And when we continue reading through Micah, we get to chapter 3, which has some of the most visual imagery in scripture. This is the accusation. He's talking to the leaders and he says, "You hate good and love evil. You tear off people's skin and strip their flesh from their bones. You eat the flesh of my people after you strip their skin from them and break their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron."

The Royal Consciousness

The leaders are eating the people. And it's not literally, but Micah uses covenant curse language from Deuteronomy 28 here. Moses warned that covenant breakers would be reduced to cannibalism. Things would get so bad for you if you stray from the justice of the law and God that this is who you will become.

And Micah says, "Your economic exploitation accomplishes the same thing. You're doing the same thing." This is what Old Testament scholar Walter Bugermanman calls the royal consciousness. It's the elite convincing themselves their prosperity is blessed when they're actually consuming the vulnerable. It's a very similar accusation that Amos gave.

And I feel like that is something that we should sit on, this verse, because how easy is it—how easy is it to feel like you're safe as long as you're part of the in crowd, and how easy is it to ignore the suffering of other people that are in the out crowd, outside of your circle?

The Test of Tribalism

Oh, let's go back to every four years, right? And let's say that the other team—whoever that would be—has something devastating that happens to one of their leaders. Could be a medical diagnosis, cancer, I don't know. Would you feel the same way about that person as a human being if they were on your side or your team? Does that make sense?

It's so amazing to me how we can sacrifice our humanity and turn our backs to the teachings of Jesus so quickly. And we all have a threshold—certain triggers, certain levels of anger where we would pause Jesus for a minute. But it's easy to do because we practice it in this country. We practice looking at someone else that might need help or is being oppressed or is going through something and being like, "Well, guess they should have been on my team."

And your team doesn't have to be a political team. We have our labels. Do we do this as Christians? I know I've gotten a glimpse in some prosperity gospel circles, and what's dangerous about some of those circles is the idea of money being equated to God's blessing on you becomes dangerous because when you invert it—whenever you see someone who's poor, it's obvious, it's obviously because they didn't obey God. And we have this desensitization that takes place when we view and look at other people. It's very easy to do, and we all have our own little poison stain in our own denominational circles.

Right now, there are churches in America building massive campuses while their communities are in food deserts. There's, of course, the stereotype—well deserved—of pastors with private jets telling people that God wants them wealthy while their own congregation members can't afford insulin. Especially now, there are denominations that covered up decades of abuse to protect their own brand.

The Devouring of the Vulnerable

And politically, we've got leaders on both sides who've made careers out of devouring the vulnerable by wrapping themselves in flags and crosses. What would Micah say to them? What cringe act would Ezekiel perform today? And where would Daniel be? That's an interesting question.

Pick any conflict in the last 50 years. We Christians are screaming at each other about which side is more righteous, which side is the real victim, who deserves support, who deserves condemnation. And meanwhile, image bearers of God are being slaughtered within and outside this country—children, families. And we're too busy trying to be right to notice the blood.

And you know what Micah would say? He'd say what he said to both Samaria and Jerusalem: "You're building Zion with blood." Micah chapter 3, verse 5.

This is what the Lord says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who claim peace when they have food to sink their teeth into, but declare war against the one who puts nothing in their mouths. Pay the prophets and they prophesy peace. Don't pay them and judgment will come.

When Prophets Get Book Deals

So let me translate that today. When a celebrity convert shows up, it's awesome. We platform them immediately. But when abuse survivors come forward, we run them through months of biblical reconciliation process designed to exhaust them into silence. That's what churches do. We've seen it. It's in the news constantly. Yeah, but they're on our side, so it's kind of not that big of a deal.

Prophets stood on stages and told millions of people exactly what God was about to do in previous elections. It's nothing new. Every four years they invoke his name. They're very specific and they're wrong many times and they just keep going. They just rebrand the next revival, the next prediction, the next book, the next offering plate as if there's no consequences for leveraging the name of God and weaponizing it against other people for some type of superficial political gain.

In Micah's day, that got you called a false prophet. And today, it gets you a book deal.

Then Micah makes an extraordinary claim about himself in verse 8. He says, "As for me, however, I am filled with power by the spirit of the Lord, with justice and courage to proclaim to Jacob his rebellion and to Israel his sin." Notice what Micah is filled with. It's the spirit of God and justice and might. The spirit is not separate from justice. You cannot claim to be spirit-filled while ignoring injustice.

Micah would say if someone is doing that, Micah would say that's not the spirit. That's a performer. That's a performer—someone who looks like they're a follower of God, but when injustice comes about, it's kind of they should have been on the right side.

The King from Bethlehem

Micah is where we have the verse that's quoted in Matthew at the Magi's arrival during the nativity story. Micah 5:2, it says, "Bethlehem Ephtha, you are small among the clans of Judah. One will come from you to be a ruler over Israel, for me. His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times."

Look what Bethlehem's called. It's called little. In Hebrew, it's too little. Actually, the smallest. God consistently chooses the small, the overlooked, right? David was the youngest son from his insignificant village. And now the ultimate king comes from the same place.

And second, look at what comes right before this, in verse 1. If you go back a verse, it says, "With a rod, they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek." The current king is humiliated, besieged, and then Micah says, "But you, oh Bethlehem." It's a prophecy responding to royal failure. When Jerusalem's kings prove faithless, God raises up a new king from David's hometown to start over, if you will.

And third, what will the ruler do? "He shall stand and shepherd his flocks with the strength of Yahweh. He will be their peace. He shepherds and he is their shalom." When Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd," he's claiming this text. When angels announce peace on earth, they're declaring Micah 5 fulfilled.

Right now, we American Christians are obsessed with power and political power. We're obsessed with cultural influence. We're obsessed with Supreme Court seats. We're obsessed with congressional caucuses. We're watching Jerusalem. And the spirit is probably actually moving in places we'd never think to look: house churches in Iran, believers in China, a teenager in the youth group that maybe no one takes seriously, a bunch of guys taking a walk and calling attention to something that we reject—peace.

Bethlehem is always too small to be among the clans. That's the point. That's the point. Can you imagine the weight of the words of Micah when it hit the ears of the accused?

The Courtroom

Chapter 6 in Micah, when you go home and read the whole thing, chapter 6 is like a courtroom drama. It opens up, and in Micah chapter 6, verse 2, it says, "Listen to the Lord's lawsuit. You mountains and enduring foundations of the earth, because the Lord has a case against his people and he will argue it against Israel." Mountains are called as witnesses. They've been around since creation. They saw the covenant being made.

Then God's opening remark: "Oh my people, what have I done to you? How have I worried you? Answer me."

Then the defendant tries to respond, and that's what verses 6 and 7 are about. And here's what verse 7 is: "Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousand streams of oil? We can do that. Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the offspring of my body for my own sin?"

Right now, the record is part of the accusation. That's how the prophet—that's how this is recorded. So notice the escalation of the defense: standard offerings, then expensive, extravagant offerings.

The Escalating Logic of Religious Negotiation

Maybe more extravagant stuff. Even the impossible, my own child. This is what religion looks like when it's completely disconnected from an actual relationship. What's the price, God? What will make him stop? That is how we as American Christians, I believe, have tried to negotiate with God. And we've practiced it so many times. What if we get prayer back in schools? That'll do it. What if we put the Ten Commandments in all the courouses? Remember the 90s? What if we say Merry Christmas loud enough? No one else still thinks that's funny. Because that was a big deal. Like, got to say Merry—okay, happy holidays. You're going to—okay, that must be an old person thing now. That's good. I'm glad. But it's the same escalating logic. What religious performance will satisfy God so that I can get back to my business as usual? And God speaks through Micah and he says, "I never asked for any of that. All I asked for was justice. All I asked for was covenant faithfulness. I asked for you to walk humbly instead of marching arrogantly into culture wars convinced of your own righteousness."

Our favorite verse is the accusation. Like that's the verdict. And this should terrify me. Here's what terrifies me. Because I've watched myself grow as a believer and I've watched myself grow as a human and I've totally done this. I'll admit it. Here's what's terrifying. The people offering thousands of rams, rivers of oil, thought they were the faithful ones. They weren't trying to be hypocrites. They genuinely believed the more religion that I put on and show off, that's the answer. I just need to show God I can be more of what I want him to have me be. And he looks at us and says, "You've missed everything completely." Entirely. That's literally Satan's blueprint of selfdeception that Jesus spent his entire ministry calling out.

The Only Ones Jesus Condemned

The only people that Jesus condemned in the Gospels were these people in Matthew 23. He built up all of that across all four gospels. Those are the people—not the ones they looked down on. Not all of the sinners, not all of the really bad, horrible people in the world. There's a lot of bad people in the world. And who does he choose to spend a whole chapter berating with sandpaper? The Pharisees and the Sadducees and the people who knew better and the people that were teaching and the people that were leading this faux example. Just a bunch of corpses that are clean. It's what he calls them. And it's frustrating how easy it is to ignore that. It's frustrating how easy it is to measure our relationship with God based on what I'm doing.

But then comes the verdict and that's in the next verse here. "He has told each of you what is good and what it is that the Lord requires of you. To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

The Textual Precision of Micah's Words

My friend Dr. Matt Napper wrote his dissertation on the textual variance in Micah. And I want to get nerdy with this because it was an impressive feat or project that he took on. So he translated Micah from the Meseretic text—from the Hebrew text. And then he took the very authoritative Greek copy of the Old Testament, the Septuagent, and he translated them both. And then his dissertation was on the variance, where they didn't match up, where other words were used to describe situations, and why the different authors chose different ways to word things, right? I'm nerdy to a certain extent, but there is a threshold of headaches that comes when you pass by that. And one thing that he points out is that the ancient translators worked carefully to preserve the force of these Hebrew terms because they understood how theologically loaded they were specifically in this verse. These are not throwaway words to do justice.

Right? Mishpot. I said mishpot. When you see the word justice in the Bible, we think of like a courthouse or police got to arrest, got to pay a fine. No, biblical justice isn't just being fair in some nuanced abstract sense. Mishpot in the prophets almost always refers to defending the vulnerable people, defending the people that are getting bullied by someone, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, the poor. To do mishpot is to actively work for the protection of those who cannot protect themselves. That's the biggest thing that Israel failed at as they went into the land and they had everything handed to them and instead of choosing to build a kingdom, they chose to build an empire. Injustice is a requirement to build an empire. History speaks.

Love mercy. Hesed is covenantal love. The loyal, steadfast love that keeps promises even when other people don't keep theirs. To love isn't being nice to people. It's to delight in covenant faithfulness and that fidelity. Walk humbly. The word there suggests attentiveness, carefulness, and modesty. It's the opposite of striding arrogantly ahead with your own agenda. It's walking attentively with God, paying attention to where he's leading you, not trying to take the fruit and take control. Again, this is not the suggestion that God gives in the courtroom. It is the verdict.

The Two Capitals Test

And so I struggled with how I would give some type of application to this message besides the obvious. So I call it the two capitals test. Samaria or Jerusalem, right? Can you dare to ask yourself if you can see corruption on whatever team you play for? That doesn't mean political there. Some people are apolitical, don't care. Can you see the corruption on whatever tribal groups you put labels on? If you can catalog every failure of the other party, but you can't name three serious problems with your own, you're not a prophet. You're a partisan.

Micah condemned Samaria and Jerusalem. There was no safe place to hide from God's eyes. Not one more than the other. It's both. The test of prophetic integrity isn't whether you can critique your enemies or not. Anyone can do that. The test is whether you can see the sin in your own house and you can recognize it and you can name it because only then can you address it. And maybe some things can't be addressed immediately. Sometimes we have big problems in our personal lives, in our households, in our political parties, in our country. But if we don't name them, there'll never be a problem that gets solved.

Can you name the injustices of your political, tribal excuses? Can you name the harm we have learned to excuse in the name of God? Can you name the blood on the stones of your Zion? If not, you might be more of a prophet for hire according to Micah. You just work for a different client than you think.

Measuring Your Christianity

And here's the question I'd love for everybody to ask themselves because I try to make a habit of asking myself these types of auditing questions about where I'm going and what direction, where am I at. How much of your Christianity is actual mishpot and humble walking? How much of your relationship with God that is seen by your kids, your family, your spouse, the world—how much of it is actual mishpot and hesed and humble walking? How much of it is that? And how much is just making sure your people know that you're one of them?

Posting Bible verses isn't justice. Voting for candidates who say the right things, that's not mercy. Attending church isn't walking humbly with God. Micah 6:8 is not asking, "Do you have the correct theology?" It's asking, "Is there a widow in your community who has food because of you? Is there an immigrant who felt welcomed because of you? Is there someone who experienced covenant faithfulness from you when they deserved to be abandoned?"

The watching world doesn't care about our worship songs, even though they're fabulous. They're watching how we treat the server at the Cracker Barrel after we publicly bless our food.

Maybe Exile Is Not a Tragedy

And I hear a lot from peers and other believers going to church. It feels like we're losing some kind of ground right now in our country. Things just aren't like they used to be, right? All the young people, what's going on? And it does. And if that's the case, maybe it's not a tragedy. At least the tragedy we think it might be. Exile is where Israel finally learned that the temple wasn't the point. God was the point. Sometimes things have to fall apart before we remember what actually matters.

Micah promised that Zion would be plowed like a field. And maybe if we're losing so much ground, maybe that's what God is doing here. Sounds like destruction. But farmers know what plowing is for. You tear up the ground so that something new can grow bigger and stronger, more bounty. Because the same God who plows the field also casts sin into the depths of the sea. The same God who sends exile also brings the remnant home. The same prophet who announces destruction announces a shepherd is coming from Bethlehem. And depending on how you look at this, that's hope. That's encouraging because that means that God is not done yet.

Prophetic Integrity Starts With Confession

We're living in a moment when everyone is convinced that they're the righteous remnant. It's easy to do because who else would it be? Democrats think they're saving democracy. Republicans think they're saving civilization. Both are certain in our country that the other side is Babylon. And Micah would say, "You need to look in the mirror." Not because both sides are equally bad. That's lazy. But because prophetic integrity starts with confession and not accusation, it starts with we have sinned, not that they have sinned.

Who is God like? Yahweh. A God who doesn't take sides in our culture wars or who always takes the side of the vulnerable that we're devouring while we fight each other. God is not a Republican. God is not a Democrat. Stop that. Please don't say things like that. Heard a lot of that. That went around in the early 2000s. That was the thing to do. You never say that God was like on your political trial, but you would always say, "Well, he would never be one of them." Right?

The Shepherd from Bethlehem

There's a story in the Bible about that. It's about a guy who comes and thanks God that he's not like other men. He's the shepherd from Bethlehem who got struck in the cheek by every single empire that thought it spoke for God. And he invites us not to more religion or faithful paraphernalia. He doesn't invite us to a political victory. He doesn't invite us to have cultural dominance, but to do justice, to covenant love, and to walk humbly alongside him on the way home. And so, I don't know where you're at today, but I know you're in America. And if we truly are the people that we claim to be, if we truly do have this Holy Spirit that has all this power and authority that we claim to believe, maybe we'll stick out more.

Maybe. Yes. We're going to have one more song as we always do. And while we do it, you have options. I'd ask you to stand as we conclude worship. You can stand and just let all this settle. You can worship. Sometimes you may need to sit. If you need prayer, guys, we're going to have prayer partners on either side of the stage. No agenda there, no awkward questions, just come up and get prayer. If there's something that you need to let go of, guys, the altar is open. You can come down and leave it here. Not so people can see you, but because you've been carrying something that was never yours to continue carrying.

And guess what? Today you can stop. Maybe it's the team jersey you've been wearing instead of the kingdom. Maybe it's the grudge that you've been calling discernment. Maybe it's the religion you've been offering instead of the relationship that you've always been called to be a part of.

What God Requires

Micah said, "God told us what's required. It's not more. It's not louder. It's not winning. It's justice and mercy and humility. And so, I think that this is a calling for us to just lay down whatever is getting in the way of any of that. So, please join me as we pray and please stand. Avinu Malkeinu, our father and our king. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to dive into your word and be reminded of how serious you are when it comes to how we act as people who carry your name. That you bring attention to what it means to take the Lord's name in vain. That it has nothing to do with saying something, but it has everything to do with wearing the name while doing the things that people wearing the name ought not do.

Father, I ask that the Holy Spirit, the life force that we believe is within us even now as believers, the same spirit that raised Yeshua from the dead, that you would allow it to do its work on our hearts now. That that's where we would find peace first and it would go outward. That that's where we would find forgiveness. That that is where we would have love and mercy and humility so that we could walk it out and make it contagious like Jesus did. We thank you, Father, for reminding us who our king is and how they act. And we thank you in the name of Yeshua, our King. We pray. Amen.

Awakening Our Souls

Awake my soul come awake to hunger to [singing] seek to thirst. First [singing] awake and first long come awake [singing] and do as [singing] you did at first. Spirit [singing] of the living God, come on [singing] me. Come and wake me from my sleep and blow through the [singing] caverns of my soul. Pour in me to overflow. And my soul [singing] come awake to [singing] worship with all your strength. [singing] Spirit of the living [singing and music] God, come afresh on me. Come and wake me from [singing] my sleep and flow through the caverns of my soul. [singing] Pour in me to overflow. [gasps] to overflow.

Spirit come. Spirit [singing] come and fill this [singing] place. Let your glory [singing] in vain. Spirit come now in [singing] vain. Spirit come [singing] and fill this place. [singing] in [singing] your miracle spirit come in place. Let your glory [screaming] fill us up. Fill us up. Fill [singing] us up. Fill us [singing] up. Spirit of the living God. [singing] Come afresh on me. Come and wake me from my sleep. [singing and music] And oh through the caverns of my soul pouring sweet spirit of the [singing] living God, come afresh on me. Come and wake me from my sleep. Oh, through the caverns [singing] of my soul warning me to overflow overflow.

Oh, pouring love to [singing] overflow. Make us of God [singing] first. Spirit [singing] my sleep and blow through the caverns of [singing] my soul. Pour me to overflow. To overflow. To overflow, come overflow. [singing] First love, first love. First love return. Overflow. Fill us out. Oh, thank you, Father. Have your way in the depths of my heart. Have your way in my mind. Have your way with my actions and reactions. Have your way. May I love what you love. May I seek what you seek. May I cry for what you cry for. Shift our perspective, God. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. But your heart loves mercy.

Your heart loves justice. Your heart loves those who walk humbly before you and before others. Help us to align ourselves fully with you, Father, and not just the religious spirit that we are prone to follow. God, we want the true. We want the real. We reject the counterfeit. Father, we repent before you this morning for agreeing with counterfeit things. Would you divide it rightly for us this week, Father? Would you help us to see plainly and clearly the things we need to separate ourselves from and the things we need to hold tightly to because they are the truth of your word, the truth of your spirit alive and active within us.

Help us, Father. And we thank you, God, because you are a loving God. You are a merciful God. You are slow to anger, abounding in love, rich, rich, rich in mercy. Father, as it is on us, may it be through us, in Yeshua's name. Amen. And amen. Thank you, Aba. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is one. And blessed is the name of his glorious kingdom for all eternity. Now, may the Lord also cause you to increase and overflow in love for one another and for all people in order to strengthen your hearts as blameless and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Yeshua with all of his holy ones.

And may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you his shalom. In the name of our Sar Shalom, our prince of peace Yeshua Hamashiach, we pray. Amen. And amen. Shabbat shalom family.