But as we begin there in verse 1 of Judges chapter 17, I've entitled this message, Finding Your Place. Finding Your Place, Judges chapter 17. Beginning there in verse 1, finding your place. I think there's a lot of people in the world that are trying to find their place, that are searching, they're looking, trying to find where they need to be, where they belong, what they need to do, where they need to go. many other different things that they're trying to figure out for themselves. As we look here in Judges chapter 17, we begin there in verse 1, we're gonna see how really a lot of confusion that has taken place. And I think there's one of the reasons why there's a lot of people that can't find where they need to go is because they're just very confused. And when you're confused, it's hard to find where you need to be. And we begin Judges chapter one in the first few verses, we definitely see a lot of confusion that's going on. And as we get on following, we're gonna see that the confusion continues to escalate. And it really gets worse and worse and worse as it goes on and on and on. And so let's begin there in verse one, and then we'll see what the Lord has for us today. So begin there in Judges chapter 17, finding your place. Some of you may be wondering, where is my place? What am I doing? Where am I going? You ever asked yourself that? What am I doing? You ever asked yourself that? What am I doing? What am I doing in my life? Where am I going? What exactly? I know we don't know what the future holds, but we have this, all of us, we ask ourselves at some point in our life, we just sit down, whether we're going through or whatever it is, we just have this moment sometimes, I think, we just sit there and we say, all right, what am I doing? What is it that I'm doing? What is it that I need to figure out? Where am I going? Where do I see myself at the end of the year? Where do I see myself in six months? Where do I see myself in a year, five years, ten years, twenty years? What is going on in my life right now and what's to be expected? I think that they're trying to find this place where they're supposed to be, but there's just a lot of confusion, and there's a lot that's just going on. And, you know, the Bible tells us, hey, listen, if we submerse ourselves in the midst of confusion, then what happens is we're never really able to find that place where we're supposed to be. And, you know, the Bible says in His Word, Especially as we look in verse 6 here in just a few moments, the Bible says that there is a place or an understanding where every man thinks he knows where he's supposed to be. He thinks he knows where he's supposed to go. There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the ends are of the ways of death. And so when we don't know where we're supposed to go or where we're supposed to be, we begin to do things our own way. And when we do things our own way, In our own eyes and in the eyes of someone else and not in the eyes of God, we end up going in the wrong direction. Anytime you go in the wrong direction, you're going away from God. And so let's begin there in verse 1 and let's see what the Bible shows us here tonight, this morning, about finding our place. The Bible says, and there was a man of Mount Ephraim whose name was Micah. Now his name means Yahweh, the incomparable. Yahweh the incomparable. You can't compare nobody to God. There's no one that you can compare God to because God has no equal. And the Bible says there in verse 2, the Bible says, And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursest and spakest, have also in mine ears. Behold, the silver is with me. I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the Lord my son, And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated this silver unto the Lord from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten image. Now, therefore, I will restore it in unto thee. Yet he restored the money into his mother and his mother took the hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the founder who made thereof a graven image and a molten image. And they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a house of gods and made an ephod and teraphim and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. And in those days there was no king in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And of course you can understand if every man is going to do what's right in his own eyes there's going to be a lot of confusion. As we get there in verse 1, we see that Micah, his name being John, is incomparable. There's no one that can compare to God. that he admits to his mother that he stole from her. So he says, Mom, he says, listen, I got to confess. I stole the silver from you. I stole this money. And he says, I need to confess it because I want to return it back to you. Because his mom had, in essence, because the money was stolen and she had no idea it was her son that did it, she cursed the thief and cursed the money. And so he was obviously a little upset and he thought, man, my mom's son went and cursed the thief and cursed the money in the name of God. I better give this stuff back or something's going to happen to me. And so he confesses and so he returns the money to his mother. And when he returns the money to his mother, the Bible says that what she does is she takes it to the founder, the silversmith. And the silversmith, in essence, takes the silver, takes the money, and he begins to make an image. The Bible says a graven image, which has the idea of something that's maybe perhaps wooded and overlaid with gold. And then there was another image that was made, and this image was a molten image. And this molten image is something that is solid. It's solid silver. And so they took these two images and Micah, he got them and he took them to this place where in essence it was like a shrine. And he put those images, he put them in this shrine and the Bible says that he took one of his sons and he says, alright son, you're going to be the priest of the family. And in the name of the Lord, what we're going to do is we're going to worship these two images, the graven image and the molten image. And the Bible says that he had a house of gods. This was a shrine that he had in essence set up in professing it all to be about the Lord, in professing to honor God, but really in the midst of what they were doing was they were blaspheming God. But there was a lot of confusion that was taking place. They were doing evil things, religious things, in the name of God. We see that all over the world today. I mean, that's happening all across the nation. And so they put these images there. He got his son to be the priest. And the Bible says that he had an ephod, which is a priestly garment, so his son. He had the ephod on. He had the priestly garment. He had the teraphim, which is a place where you put all the false gods and you worship them. It was a house of strands. The Bible shows us there in the text in the latter part of verse 5, I'm sorry, verse 6. The Bible says, In those days there was no king in Israel, for every man did what was right in his own eyes. And I think what we see is, we see here Micah, he's trying to find a place for himself, but yet because he knows some of the right way, he knows what he's supposed to do, but yet he wants to do it his own way. But they want to do everything they can in the name of God because if we do something bad and we put God's stamp of approval, if we do something bad and we put it in the name of Jesus, somehow it just makes it all better, you know. And so that's kind of what they're doing. They were worshiping, they were worshiping and trying to get to this place, spiritually speaking, their own way, trying to get there on their own path. but they were doing it all wrong. I mean, he even got his own son to be the priest. I mean, you're not supposed to do stuff like that. I mean, his son couldn't be the priest because that wasn't how the Mosaic Law had set everything up. But what we see is, was his desire to do it his own way. He was trying to find his own place. He was trying to find, he was trying to do things his own way. And as he began to do things his own way, He was leading his family in a terrible direction, but as he began to do things his own way, the meat of the message comes up in verse 7. We see someone also out here in this world that's trying to find his own place. And as he's trying to find his own place, notice what the Bible says. The Bible says, and there was a young man out of Bethlehem, Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And so there in verse 7 we see another man who is of Bethlehem, Judah. He's a Levite. He is a person that serves the Lord. Now he's not a priest, but he's of the tribe of Levi and he is a young man that is in the service of God. And as he is in the service of God, what we see happening as we read the following verses is, is what happens is, is because, verse 6, because every man's doing what's right in his own eyes, because people are pulling away from the service of God, because people are pulling away from the worship of God, because people are pulling away from the house of God, what ends up happening is, is we find someone here who is a Levite, who has, in essence, his life is dedicated to the service of God. I mean, in the Old Testament, what we see is that all the tribes of Israel, all the other eleven tribes, they took care of the Levites. The Levites, they didn't really possess anything of their own. Everything that they had, everything that they were taken care of, They were taken care of by all of the 11 tribes. But because we see in verse 6 that nobody was really engaged in the service of God anymore, everybody was kind of pulling back, and everybody was backsliding, and everybody was doing things their own way, and they weren't going to the house of God anymore. They, in essence, made their own shrines. They, in essence, had erected their own gods and said, you know what? Well, I don't need to go down to the temple. I can just do it right here. I can tell you how many times I've heard people say, I don't need to go to church, I can do it in my house. Yeah, you can worship God anywhere, and hey, I praise the Lord for that, but if you're not where you're supposed to be, you're in disobedience. You're in disobedience to God. Now, hey, I praise God that we can worship God anywhere, up on top of a mountain, down at the beach, or in your house, at work, in the car, in church, anywhere you can serve and worship the Lord. But when you're not doing the way God said to do it, you're in disobedience. And how can we expect God to honor a life of disobedience? And the Bible says there, and so the Bible continues to show us that this man who had erected this house of gods, he had decided he was going to do it his own way. He had decided that in essence he knew better than God did. And so he didn't really need to go. He was going to have his own priest. He was going to erect these gods up in his own house. Symbols, symbols in essence. You can even make idols of figures that are well known, such as make a huge statue of a great person. Hey, make a huge statue of a great man of God or a great woman of God. We see a lot of that in Catholicism, and they talk to these statues, and they worship these statues, and they feel like that these statues can have some influence and some power in their life in some way, shape, or another. And so we see that he has, in essence, adopted this philosophy of creating his own religion, doing it his own way. And so he's trying to find his own path, but his own path, because he's doing it his own way, is going to take him to a place And not only just him, but his family. It's going to take him to a place that's going to be far from God. But yet, in the midst of it all, he's going to expect God to bless. He's going to expect God to do something. He's going to expect God to move in his life. And I think there's a lot of people, even Christian people, that are doing things their own way and not the way God said to do it, and they're asking for God's blessing upon it as they continue to walk further away from God. And they had this idea, well, if I just do it in the name of the Lord, well, then it's all okay when it's not. The Bible shows us right there in verse 7 that we had this young man who had come out of Bethlehem, Judah. He was of the family of Judah. He was a Levite. He wasn't a priest. But the Bible says he was sojourning there. He was searching. He was looking. The Bible says there in verse 8 that the man departed out of the city from Bethlehem, Judah to Sojon, where he could find a place. And so because the people had in essence backslid on God, and because they were no longer given to supply the needs of the Levites, because they were no longer attending to the temple and participating in all the godly things that they were supposed to be doing because the nation had backslid. What had happened was that now we see a Levite who's standing there saying, well, I don't have a job anymore. I don't have a job anymore. I mean, everybody was serving God. I mean, back in the heyday, everybody was serving God, and everybody was on fire for the Lord, but then everybody backslid from God, started doing things their own way, and thinking that they can get to God by their own direction, their own design, and now they're not attending anymore, they're not giving anymore. And here they are, they've erected these things in their own house, they're making their own tabernacles, they're becoming their own priests, and they're not obeying the laws of God. And so we find a Levite who is dedicated to serving God, finding himself, well, what am I supposed to do? I'm kind of out of a job. The people put him out of a job. And so now we find a Levite, he's like, well, now I need to find me a place. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? And notice what happens. The Bible says, And the man departed out of the city, verse 8, from Bethlehem, Judah to Sojon, where he could find a place. And I think there's a lot of people today that are looking for a place. We see Micah was trying to find a place. It was the wrong place because he was going further away from God. And he was bringing his family further away from God by teaching them the wrong things. But now we see here a Levite who is now looking for a place himself. And he's looking for a place because nobody else can find their place. And so he's looking for his place and he is doing everything he can to figure out where he's supposed to go and where he's supposed to be. And I think there's a lot of people in this world that are trying to find their place. What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed to become? I think there's a lot of people today that they're looking for a place to belong, they're looking for a place to matter, they're looking for a place to serve, looking for a place to live, looking for a place to worship, a place to work, a place to fellowship. They're looking for all different kinds of things. I think there's a lot of people out here this morning that are engulfed in sin, that are looking for a place where they can find comfort, looking for a place they can find refuge, looking for a place that they can find love. They're looking for all different kinds of things. The Bible says right here that we have a Levite who's now looking for a place. He's out of a job. The Bible says there in verse 8, He was sojourning where he could find a place. And he came to Mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. Verse 9, And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place. And so he comes across Micah, who has already gotten away from the Lord and already doing things he ought not be doing. And so he comes across Micah, and Micah says, hey, who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing? And he says, hey, you know what? I'm out of a job, and I'm just looking for a place I can settle down. I mean, I need provisions. I got to find somewhere to take care of myself and somewhere where I belong. You know of any place like that? Micah's thinking in his mind, yeah, you know what? I think I might be able to find a place for you. Hey, you know what, if you're looking for a place, understand the devil's looking for a place for you to go. Because the devil knows you're looking, the devil knows you're searching, he'll do everything he can to steer you in the wrong place. He'll do everything he can to make you trust in yourself. As we already recited the verse, that there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the way is a death. He can make us think that we know better ourselves, that we know better than God. and he'll do everything he can to steer us in the wrong direction. And this Levite, this one that was serving God, now finds himself on the outskirts of town trying to find wherever that he can go where he can belong. The Bible says there in verse 10, he says, And I said unto him, dwell with me. He says, I tell you what, if you're looking for somewhere, why don't you come and stay with me? Why don't you come and dwell with me? Because, listen, I've been looking for someone like you as well. Notice what he offers the Levite. Notice he says, Micah said, dwell with me. He says, be unto me a father and a priest. Well, now he has a position that's offered to him that's not really his to take. I mean, he is a Levite and he is a servant of God, but the priesthood was only to be for Aaron and his sons and his son's sons and so forth and so on. But there were many Levites and folks that were of the tribe of Levi that served God. But he wasn't necessarily supposed to be a priest in essence. So he's sitting there looking around and thinking, well, I don't have a job. You want me to be a preacher? Hey, I'll be a preacher. But it ain't even supposed to be. I'm not even supposed to be this, but I tell you what, I ain't got nothing else to do, so hey, I'll do it. Notice what happens, he says, I go to Sojourn where I may find the place, verse 10, and Micah said, dwell with me and be unto me a father and a priest. I'll give thee 10 shekels of silver by the year. He says, I tell you what, I'll pay you. You won't have to worry about nothing. He says, I'll pay you. He says, in a suit of apparel, he says, I'll pay you and I'll clothe you. And thy victuals. He says, I'll pay you, I'll clothe you, I'll feed you, and give you a place to stay. What else could you ask? What more could you ask for? And so the Levite, looking at himself, he's thinking, well, you know what? I'm not supposed to really do this, but you know, because I can't really find my place, and hey, this just happened to stumble upon me, and hey, you know what? Maybe this is a place where God needs me to be. Or was it the fact that he knew what he shouldn't have been doing, but he just kind of gave in? Gave in to the temptation because he couldn't find it anywhere else. I mean God's people weren't doing what they were doing so now he finds himself on the outside on the outside and so now he finds himself out in the world doing it the worldly way. The Bible says there in verse 10. He says you being to me the father and a priest I'll give you 10 shekels of silver by the year a suit of apparel not victuals so the Levite went in. I mean, he was more than happy to go. He says, hey, I tell you what, you're going to pay me, and you're going to clothe me, and you're going to feed me, and you're going to give me a place to stay. I tell you what, I can't ask for any more than that. Man, I would gladly do what I'm not supposed to be doing. You know, I think we also got to be careful as God's people and understand that As the devil does everything he can to distort our direction in life. As the devil does everything he can to distract our direction, distort our direction, that he will use any means necessary and sometimes it may be a position, sometimes it may be through money, sometimes it may be through other things that appeal to us, whether it's clothes, food, whatever. But the devil will use anything he can to distract God's people, and not just for him to stay for momentarily, but to keep them there as long as he can. He says, listen, dwell with me. Stay here. Just stay with me. Oh, you don't need to go back to that stuff anyways. I mean, just look what happened over there. I mean, that whole thing just fell apart anyway. You don't even need to go. Just come over here and stay with me. Just dwell with me. I'll provide you everything that you need. There's no use even going back. The Bible says, there in verse 11, that the Levite was content. Well, of course he was. I mean, he just had the world fall in his laps. I mean, he was looking, he was searching, he was searching for a place. And it seemed like, man, this whole thing just fell in his lap. And I tell you what, the modern day man would say, this must be God's will. Right? Let's think about it. The modern-day man will look at this, today's man will look at this and say, well, this must be God's will, this must be God's direction, because look what all is given to me, look what all is provided to me. Not everything that glistens is gold. And just because you are getting everything that you desire doesn't mean it always just came from God, because the devil's doing everything he can to throw his breadcrumbs out there to lead you in the wrong direction. So when we follow God, when we follow the Lord, we do it as we spend time with God, as we read God's word, allow God to speak to our hearts, and as we understand God's word and grow in God's word, we can see how God leads us and guides us and directs us through his word. This Levite right here, I would about guarantee you, I know he was a young man, but this Levite, He was of the tribe of Levi, so he would have grew up knowing what all this was all about. He knew what he was doing. He knew that he shouldn't have been doing it, but because the world became so appealing and because God's people weren't doing what they were supposed to do, he just left, and he says, well, you know what? There's a world out here that'll take care of me if they won't. And he misplaced his faith, and he took it away from God, put it in the world. And hey, that can be easy to do when we're trying to find a place. Because we, as I said, modern man will look at this situation and say, well man, I tell you what, this must be divine appointment. I mean, what's happened right here, it just must be the way. I mean, I was searching and I was looking. for a job, I was searching and I was looking, I need to be provided for, and all this stuff just fell in his lap right when he needed it. And he said, this must be God's will. When in all reality, it couldn't have been further from the truth. But the devil every day, every single one of us, doing everything he can to throw breadcrumbs down, lead us in the wrong direction. That's why it's so important as God's people that we make sure that we're following close to the Lord. The Bible says broad is the way that leads to destruction. Many of you that go in there narrows the way that leads to life and few there be that find it. And because few there be that find it and the devil knows that he's going to do everything he can to throw those breadcrumbs down to lead you further down the broad road and away from the narrow way. And so we see here in the text, this man, the Bible says that he was content there in verse 11. The Levi was content to dwell with the man. And the young man was unto him as one of his sons. And so we see a number of different things that's been compromised here. There in verses 1 and 2, we see a compromised man. In verse 4, we see a compromised mother. In verse 5, we see a compromised priest. In verse 6, we see a compromised religion. In verse 7, we see a compromised Levite. In verse 8, we see a compromised place. There in verse 10 we see a compromised life. There in verse 11 we see a compromised contentment. He was content on the things of the world and allowed the things of the world to have a place of contentment in his life. When really our contentment should be based solely on God. Now I know that God provides worldly things for our leisure and to take care of us and I get that, I understand that. But his faith was no longer placed in a God that would take care of him, it was now placed in the world that would do so. And the devil is doing everything he can to get Christians to see that I can take care of you better than God can. And so we see here in the text, The Bible says in verse 12 that Micah consecrated the Levite and he set him apart for that service and the young man became his priest and he was in the house of Micah. And so now we see this compromised Levite who has become a priest in a position that he shouldn't even be in, in the house of Micah's gods where this is really, he's going to this place that he has built And he is putting shrines in there. He's got the molten image in there. He's got the graven image in there. And he's acting as a priest and going before these images in the name of the Lord on the family's behalf. Now, doesn't that sound ridiculous? You can see the confusion that has taken place. And while everybody's looking for their place, while everybody's trying to find out what am I supposed to do, and where am I supposed to go, and how am I supposed to serve, and while people are trying to figure these things out in life, the devil's throwing these breadcrumbs down and saying, hey, just follow me. Just follow me. Just follow me. But what does the Bible tell us? The Bible tells us that his word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. So instead of following the lamp of God to be the direction of our life, he looked to the world. He didn't ask God a thing. The Levite never said nothing to God about nothing. He just heard what Micah said. He saw what the world would offer him. He saw a corrupted religious system that he can be the head of. And he says, hey, I'm game. I'm for it. I'm here. And he allowed himself to be compromised. And so as Christians, we look at ourselves and we say, okay, am I going to allow that compromise into my life? Hey, because we understand that every single day we need guidance and direction in our life. Do you know that every single day we need God's guidance and direction? And listen, the devil knows that too. He's not an idiot. And so as every day we ask for God's guidance and direction, the devil's trying to throw these breadcrumbs to steer us further away from God. And some people, they'll just follow those breadcrumbs right down the broadway, right to a devil's hell. The Bible says there in verse 12 that Micah consecrated the Levite and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, watch what happens, look how confused he is. The Bible says, then said Micah, now know I that the Lord will do me good. I mean, he has confidence in his life. that what he is doing is right in the sight of God, and that now God's going to bless him. And he has confidence in that. And listen, there's a lot of people today that are far away from God, and they're doing evil, wicked things, or they're doing religious activities, but not in the name of the Lord, and they're expecting God to bless them, and they think they're right with God, and they're not. And all they've done is they followed the devil's breadcrumbs. The Bible says right here, In verse 13 he says, now know I that the Lord will do me good. And that's false. I guess it's true in the sense that the Lord will do him good, the fact that God still kept him alive. Hey, in that sense, hey, God's good to us every day, right? But here we see a man that is going in the complete wrong direction, taking his family in the complete wrong direction. No longer serving at the house of God, but serving his own self and doing it his own way. I'll have, I'll tell you what, I'll have my own priest and I'll just, well, I'll just do this, we'll worship my way and I'll have the priest do, I'll even come up with my own priestly garments. Instead of that old ephod, that priestly garment that they wore, we'll come up with our own, and I'll just make a priestly garment there, and instead of going to the temple, we'll just build us a shrine, and instead of worshiping God, we'll just put these two idols in there, and then I'll find me a priest, and then he finds this guy, this Levite, and he says, oh, man, I tell you what, this one right here, he used to serve God himself. What better person could I have on my side? than a compromised Christian. That's his thinking. And so he brings this compromised Christian into his family and says, be my priest. Go to God before us. And the Levite, perhaps thinking the whole time, man, look how God's blessed. Look what God's done. I mean, just look how God just laid this whole thing out for me. Deceived. Deceived. When we get into the next text, notice what the Bible says, and we look at verse, as we look at verse 13, he says, Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing that I have a Levite to my priest. Here we see compromise wisdom, we see compromise understanding. So what's supposed to happen now? What are we supposed to do? I mean, we have all these people that are trying to find this place. They're trying to find out where they belong. They're trying to find out what they're supposed to do, where they're supposed to live. They're trying to find out all these things about themselves and about where they need to be. And we are living in a world today of people that are trying to find their place. And as people are trying to find their place, the devil's doing everything he can to lead them in the wrong direction, throwing his breadcrumbs down, and getting us to believe and think hook, line, and sinker that just because something good happened. Hey, we know that God's good to us all the time, right? But just because we see this right here come into our life, that it must be a blessing from God. Hey, listen, we got to be careful, people. We got to be careful. Hey, when you go fishing, when you go fishing, you throw, how many of you like fishing? Like fishing? Now, when you go fishing, whether it's bass fishing or whether you're brim fishing or catfishing, whatever it is that you're doing, you think to yourself, wonder what the fish are biting today. What are they gonna grab ahold of today? How clear is the water? I mean, can they see good? I mean, if they can't see good, then I can use a different kind of bait. And listen, there's a lot of Christians out there that can't see good. Their vision's blurred. Their spiritual vision's blurred. They have hardly no spiritual understanding. And the devil's saying, OK, I need to catch me one today. I need to veer them as far off the passive as I can. But I need to offer them something good, something that they're going to take. And so the devil goes down there and he finds out what he's going to catch his fish with. And he throws it out there and all the fish are just sitting there. And they see this big ol' fat juicy worm plop right down there in front of them. And that fish is looking at it and he's thinking, man, that's exactly what I needed. It just fell straight from heaven. I think I'm going to bite it. Was it good for the fish? Yes. Would it provide for the fish? Sure it would. Is it what the fish wanted? Sure. Was it what the fish was looking for? More than likely. And it fell straight from the sky, just right there in my lap. How can it get any better than this? And that fish, he swims up to that worm, and he grabs a hold of it, and that fisherman yanks his rod, and the devil reels him in and throws him in the frying pan. He says, wow, fish are biting today. I think I'll do it again, and I'll do it again, and I'll do it again. How many can I catch today off these breadcrumbs? How many people can I divert from the path of God? How many people can I divert the place where they're supposed to be by offering them this, and offering them this, and offering them this, and offering them this, until I get them far, far away where they need to be. So far away, in essence, that whenever God tries to offer them anything else, they'll say, what is that? Snub their nose up at God. There's a lot of people in that boat today, in that ship, in that boat. And so what we as Christians, what we have to do is we have to say, you know what? We have to make sure that we are discerning of everything that's taking place in our life. Because does God bless? Yes. Does God bring things straight down to us from heaven? Yes, he does. Just understand this, while you're picking up those breadcrumbs, while you're picking up the breadcrumbs, You keep asking God, Lord, did this come from you? If it did, I thank you. But Lord, I picked this one up, what's the next step? What's the next step? Asking God's direction for the next step to take. Because I tell you what, if you just get so busy used to picking up breadcrumbs, you'll no longer care about where they're coming from. It won't make no difference. You'll just keep following and keep following and keep following. The devil will keep fattening you up and fattening you up and fattening you up until he gets you right where he wants you. As far away from God as you can be. And that's what happened to this Levite. And that's what happened to Micah. And that's what's happening every day to God's people. Let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning. Father, as we come before you today, we ask that you would help us this morning. Lord, we're praying that you would speak to our hearts through your word and you'd help us to see and understand the things that you need us to see. Lord, we're so thankful and so grateful about all the blessings that come from heaven. But Lord, help us also to know that as we live our Christian life and on this path that we're on, that we always need to make sure that we have discerning hearts. And that we are a people that is following You through Your Word through obedience to You. Because we know, God, that anything that is contrary to Your Word is not going to be a blessing from You. But the devil will do all he can. to throw all these breadcrumbs out in our life, to direct our path away from where you need us to be. Lord, even though we're so thankful and grateful for your blessings, Lord, just help us to have a discerning heart, to know that every time we see something that comes into our life, that even though it may even be something that we're needing and looking for, that it may not always have had come from you. Lord, just help us to be discerning of it. As the piano plays this morning, there could be folks today that are just looking for God's direction. Looking to see what the Lord wants them to do in their life. Could be that they've gotten away from God and they're trying to get back to the Lord and the devil the whole time is trying to, as they're trying to get back to the Lord, the devil is trying to lead them further down the road. I don't know what your situation in life is, but I do know this, I know that God loves you and God cares about you. And I believe if you're searching and you're looking, and you're doing what you can to walk with God, God's not just going to leave you out there to figure it all out on your own. God's going to help you. The problem is is we get so used to picking up these breadcrumbs that we fail to see whose hand the breadcrumbs are falling from. And we have to make sure in our life that we know where these breadcrumbs are coming from. Because we don't want to be led astray. We don't want to get further away from God. We want to end up in the right place. We want to be where God needs us to be. It could be that you're here this morning and you're just praying for wisdom, praying for understanding. I pray that God gives it to you today. It could be that you're here today and maybe it's about salvation. You need to get saved. You've been out in the world looking for a place and you've been trying to find comfort, been trying to find forgiveness, trying to find love, but you can't find it out there. Because listen, the devil isn't interested in giving you that stuff from the world, but God is. The devil's interested in giving you tangible things, pleasurable things. And God wants us to enjoy life. God wants us to enjoy the pleasures of the work of our hands as well. But God offers us a whole lot more than what the devil ever can. And it could be here this morning that you're looking for that place where you belong. I want you to know this morning that Jesus loves you. The Bible says that He died for you. And because He died for you, there's a place for you in His kingdom. And if you're ready to accept it this morning and ask Him to save you, you can fill that seat at the Lord's table. Is there anyone here this morning that's not saved, never asked to Christ to be a Savior, never trusted the Lord. Nobody's looking but me and God. Would you slip your hand up so I can see? Anybody anywhere like that? Gonna be here this morning just praying for wisdom, asking for direction. For everyone standing at the feet, every head bowed and every eye closed. As we open up the altar this morning, if you want to come and pray, you're more than welcome to do so.