Micah 4:1-10
December 10, 2023
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Christianity will indeed accomplish many useful things in this world, but if it is accepted in order to accomplish those useful things it is not Christianity …Our Lord said: ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.’ But if you seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in order that all those other things may be added unto you, you will miss both those other things and the Kingdom of God as well.”

~ J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism

“A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all – and more amusing.”

“Indeed the safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”

“And how disastrous for us is the continual remembrance of death which war enforces. One of our best weapons, contented worldliness, is rendered useless. In wartime not even a human can believe that he is going to live forever.”

~ Letters from the senior demon Screwtape to junior tempter Wormwood in The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

“In the locust wind comes a rattle and hum
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome
You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire
See them burning crosses
See the flames higher and higher
Bullet the blue sky.”

~ U2 “Bullet the Blue Sky”

Sermon Passage

Micah 4:1-10 (ESV)

¹ It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the LORD
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
² and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
³ He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall decide disputes
for strong nations far away;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore;
⁴ but they shall sit every man under his vine and
under his fig tree,
and no one shall make them afraid,
for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.
⁵ For all the peoples walk
each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name
of the LORD our God forever and ever.
⁶ In that day, declares the LORD,
I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
and those whom I have afflicted;
⁷ and the lame I will make the remnant,
and those who were cast off, a strong nation;
and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion
from this time forth and forevermore.
⁸ And you, O tower of the flock,
hill of the daughter of Zion,
to you shall it come,
the former dominion shall come,
kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.
⁹ Now why do you cry aloud?
Is there no king in you?
Has your counselor perished,
that pain seized you like a woman in labor?
¹⁰ Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion,
like a woman in labor,
for now you shall go out from the city
and dwell in the open country;
you shall go to Babylon.
There you shall be rescued;
there the LORD will redeem you
from the hand of your enemies.