in a world of conflicting values, when questions are more common than answers. God's Word provides everything we need to live a God-centered, truth-driven life. Now, here's the Word for Life broadcast, brought to you by Brookside Baptist Church. Good morning, I'm Mark Woodmer and joining Pastor Ken Keltner on The Word for Life. We're excited to be able to talk of God's Word here together. A couple reminders of some things coming at Brookside in the next three weeks. This Sunday evening we have our children's program at 6 p.m. and it's going to be a great, great night together. If you're free, come and enjoy it with us. On the 17th at night will be our adult cantata at 6 p.m. Then on the 24th, Christmas Eve service at 4 o'clock during the, kind of help us understand what's going on in the morning, Pastor Mark. Mark Our two normal services, 9 o'clock, 10, 15. The difference is, though, there won't be any Sunday school program or Bible classes that morning because we come back in the afternoon for our 4 o'clock Christmas Eve service. It'll be a candlelight service and be very special. It's always a highlight of the year. I hope that if you don't have a church home, you come over and be with us and enjoy our time together to celebrate, again, Christ Jesus humbling himself, being willing to come to this earth to not just be born, but to live a perfect life and give his life as a ransom for us that we might be able to know that we have life eternal because of our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. So, we're going through judges here, we're looking at the Danites, or the Danites, rather, and the Danites were not a happy people because they didn't do what God said, what He wanted them to do, what He gave them, they weren't content with what He gave them. And we talked a little bit about contentment last week. Yeah, our sinful hearts, we are anything but contented. And I think, you know, Paul in Philippians 4, he said, I have learned. in whatever case I'm in to be content, but even for Paul, it is something he had to learn, the same for us. Yeah, and then he went on and told some of the things that he, scenarios that he had to be content in, you know, when he's floating around on a board and the, you know, when the ship broke up and he was hungry, he was cold. And there were times he was well-fed, but he said, I got to be content. And the Danites, they didn't want to trust God, and this great battle, they just abandoned. They were supposed to be led by God and to take out the Amorites, but no, the Amorites ran them right out of Dodge up into the hill country, and they were kind of semi-nomadic there in the hill country. In the last broadcast, you actually read verse two where they sent out, the Danites sent out five spies that are men of valor. Or in other words, they're valiant men, not wimpy guys. They got character to them, they're going to do the job right, but they were still looking for an easy task. Instead of rising up to meet the job, they lowered the job to meet their desires. And so we saw right up in the first two verses, they're covetous. But let's look at the ungodly counsel that they receive in verses 3-6. So, Pastor Mark, if you would read that for us. While they were at the house of Micah, they recognized the voice of the young Levite. They turned aside and said to him, Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here? He said to them, Thus and so Micah did for me. He has hired me, and I have become his priest. So they said to him, Please inquire of God that we may know whether the journey on which we will go will be prosperous. And the priest said to them, Go in peace. The presence of the Lord will be with you on your way. You know, what's interesting about this, Pastor Mark, is these five Danites, they end up there in the hills of Ephraim at the home of Micah. And what catches their attention is his southern dialect. We've heard that before. Oh, yes. I remember, I've got to tell you. We had an opportunity to go down to Indiana and do kind of an evangelism couples conference with the church. And the fellow who was the associate pastor there, I knew pretty well he had been pastoring in Texas, in Dallas. And we had, Kathy and I had grown up in Tulsa, and there was a family there that had four boys in our church that we just really loved, and they moved down to Dallas. But they kind of have that accent, you know, you get that accent. And as I'm visiting with him before the evening service, I'm like, I start talking like that. And I get into giving the challenge. And my wife's out there, and she thought, does he think this is a skit or what? Because I'm up there, and I'm just going, and I tell you, Pastor Mark, I can't cut it out. I mean, I got it going, and I got it going good. And when I finish that first session, Kathy comes to me, and she goes, what are you doing? I go, you know, I got around Mr. Lee there, and we got talking, and I just can't break it, honey. And went to bed that night, never could break it that night. But I went to bed that night, and here I'm gonna get caught with it here, and I won't be able to get rid of it right here. And ended up, the next day I came in, I had my normal voice. And Kathy goes, these people gotta be thinking you're crazy. What are you trying to do? So, I mean, they pick up here his Southern dialect and they know he's this Levite. And so, verse 30 of this chapter tells us that his name is Jonathan. And when they heard Jonathan or the Levite speak, they knew he was not an Ephraimite. Remember, the Ephraimites, remember, they had the inability to say Shibboleth. And that cost them their life. They would say Sibboleth. And Sibyleth was going to get them killed and it sealed their doom. The spies here barraged this Levite with questions. Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here? The reason they asked him these questions is because the situation was somewhat confusing because there had been a departure from the Levite law. The Levites were to reside in certain cities in order to enforce God's, enforce the Word of God to help aid the priests, so they were the teachers of the law. I mean, even those that are supposed to be teaching the Word can fall by the wayside and get corralled into all of this kind of mess. three times a year, all Jewish men would go to the tabernacle and offer sacrifices. So, as a side note, God required this to unite all Jewish men in their worship and to trust God with their livelihood while they were on this pilgrimage. So, they notice here that this priest, Jonathan, that has been employed is just with one family, so they ask, what is going on here? This Levite, again, Jonathan, truthfully answers their questions. It's incredible. He says, Mike has hired me. Hold on a second. Are you ordained of God to do God's work? Well, but no, this family hired me. I'm meant to be this family's priest. I mean, that just sounds so odd. That'd be like you coming to me, Pastor Martin, going, hey, listen. Jimmy and Carolyn Coulterman in our church, I'm going to be their pastor, and it's just going to be us and them. I mean, that sounds odd. Wouldn't it? Yeah. I believe the narrator of this passage wants that verse to stand out to us. A priest was to be over the people and to give them the word. Here you have a people who are over this Levite. He's not a spiritual father necessarily giving out truth, because he's not even right with God. He's in the employment status of someone who is telling him what to do. I mean, it's so backward, so backward, but they still, the Danites still ask Him for counsel. And so, the spies are seeking this counsel from the Levite. They don't go to Shiloh to discover the will of God. They go to Micah's shrine and they hire a priest. Basically, they're saying, okay, hey, buddy, we really love it. Since you're a priest, could you let us know whether or not we're going to be prosperous? I mean, you see right away what their goal is. It's success. It's success. Money, fame, fortune. Duty is not their interest. Our duty, my friends, is found for us in Matthew 6, 33. But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. My friends, out of all the options that we have, out of all the things we can seek for to be occupied with, we're told here to seek first the things of the one to whom we belong. I mean, this is really, I would say, Pastor Mark, the Christian's priority of priorities. Seeking God's kingdom is really losing ourselves in obedience to the Lord and really just pouring our lives into the eternal work of our Heavenly Father. I'm amazed It's just, we don't even want to pour an all-day Sunday into God. We'll give Him, you know, the Lord's morning, but not the Lord's day. Often, whenever Samuel would come into a city, the people would say to Samuel, it's all well? In other words, are you pleased with what you see? You see that in 1 Samuel chapter 9. This is precisely the way that you and I should approach God. Father, are you pleased with what you see in my life? I mean, you just meditate on that for a little bit. I don't know, you might be driving along or just waking up this morning, and you might be willing to say, God, are you pleased with my life, with what you see in my life right now? Don't you think we're going to have an answer for that? I'm not real sure. Maybe God might be pleased with me. I don't think so, friends. You're going to either know it or I don't really want to ask that question. These spies are not concerned about duty to God. They're all about personal success. The spies are looking for a home. They're not concerned with righteousness. They're not concerned with holiness. They are not fighting great battles for God in order to establish his kingdom in the land of Canaan. I mean, really, they're not even concerned with the privileges of being God's people. I mean, what? What a remarkable selection God has chosen them as His people and they're not really even excited about that. I mean, does it sound to you like dads and moms today, or how about a teenager you know, that the things of God don't really concern them? Not concerned about what God thinks. I don't think anything, Pastor Mark, will break our hearts as pastors more than that attitude. That people are just cold and complacent and have apathy, you know, towards the Lord. Seeing people who are not concerned about the things of God can just break your heart. You see it in their attitude, their body language. You know, I've always said you can always wake a sleeper up in church by saying, I'd like everyone to bow your head and please close your eyes. And they do the exact opposite. It's their body language. You see it in their clothing, often in their speech and how they speak and how they talk to people. All the spies here are concerned with is about a wave of prosperity in their day, and this little Levite has picked up on it. He's become just like his generation. So men are not using God as a moral standard of living. No. God is not a God to be worshipped and obeyed. He is now a charm, you know, a little rabbit's foot to pull out, to be sought for a blessing in financial and personal ambitions. Now, I'll close with this. Is it possible for a culture today to live the same way, only looking how to be successful? Is it possible that you're not concerned about holy living, but you're concerned about success? And thus, God is ignored and God is rejected. Friends, if God's working and speaking to your heart, I trust that you will do business with the Lord. And so thank you for joining Pastor Mark and I today on The Word for Life. We hope you enjoyed today's program. If you have a question we can answer, or would like information on The Word for Life, would like to donate to continue to produce this broadcast, or need resources for your Christian walk, Contact us at Brookside Baptist Church, 4470 North Pilgrim Road, Brookfield, Wisconsin, 53005. You can also visit us at brooksidebc.org. That's brooksidebc.org. Or call us at 262-783-6180. That's 262-783-6180. Thanks for listening today, and please tune in again as we bring the Word of God to your life.