Micah 2:6-13, 3:5-8
December 3, 2023
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Time cuts down all, both great and small.”

“Xerxes the great did die, and so must you and I.”

~New England Primer (1687), the first reading primer designed for the American colonies

“Well, at any rate there’s no Humbug here. We haven’t let anyone take us in. The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs.”

“You see,” said Aslan. “They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”

~The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

Lucy Van Pelt: I know how you feel about all this Christmas business, getting depressed and all that. It happens to me every year. I never get what I really want. I always get a lot of stupid toys or a bicycle or clothes or something like that.

Charlie Brown: What is it you want?

Lucy Van Pelt: Real estate.

~A Charlie Brown Christmas

Sermon Passage

Micah 2:6-13, 3:5-8 (ESV)

Micah 2

⁶ “Do not preach”—thus they preach—
“one should not preach of such things;
disgrace will not overtake us.”
⁷ Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
Has the LORD grown impatient?
Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
to him who walks uprightly?
⁸ But lately my people have risen up as an enemy;
you strip the rich robe from those
who pass by trustingly
with no thought of war.
⁹ The women of my people you drive out
from their delightful houses;
from their young children you take away
my splendor forever.
¹⁰ Arise and go,
for this is no place to rest,
because of uncleanness that destroys
with a grievous destruction.
¹¹ If a man should go about and utter wind and lies,
saying, “I will preach to you of wine
and strong drink,”
he would be the preacher for this people!
¹² I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob;
I will gather the remnant of Israel;
I will set them together
like sheep in a fold,
like a flock in its pasture,
a noisy multitude of men.
¹³ He who opens the breach goes up before them;
they break through and pass the gate,
going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
the LORD at their head.

Micah 3

⁵ Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets
who lead my people astray,
who cry “Peace”
when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
who puts nothing into their mouths.
⁶ Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
The sun shall go down on the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
⁷ the seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
they shall all cover their lips,
for there is no answer from God.
⁸ But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the LORD,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
and to Israel his sin.