What I wanna talk about today is “The Return of Kingship.” Amen, the return of the Kingship of God in our lives.

Now we know that this past week was a very tense week for some people, especially in the political world. We’ve come out of the ending of a week of voting. And it gets intense. The reality is it's intense because we’re seriously voting, we’re looking to have somebody and to choose somebody to govern us, to lead over us as a people, as a community, as a nation. And we know that our leadership affects every aspect of our lives. Our children, our families - everything right? And so, of course it's gonna be intense. And we can only hope that every few years, that a good man or good woman is elected that would lead us in good decisions and in a way that would impact our nation, impact our lives and our family in a good way, right?

But God wants us to be reminded of something today: That there is something that is so much greater. There is something bigger than even the leadership of man, it is the Kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And see, God wants to bring us back to the Kingship of His Name, amen.

Psalm 33:12 says this: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance.” See, the biggest difference that we can make in this world, the biggest difference that you and I can make in our nation, in our homes, is to serve God as King. You see Israel, what set them apart, what made them so special - is that they served God as King. Now, only at times when they would sway away from the Lord, only at times where they would begin to follow the world or become mixed, would they be allowed to have their enemies to come in and invade. But when they held to the King. hallelujah, God was with them, amen.

See, our issue today is not a political party. It's not our voting system. It's not a foreign nation. Our issue today is that much of our nation has swayed away from the Kingship of God, and He is calling us back today, church. He is calling us back as individuals. He is calling us back as families to become one under the Kingship and to come back under being under God's leadership and ruling in our lives.

See without God's ruling, man just kinda goes by his own thought process and his own feeling of what is right and wrong, rather than the Word of God. And what is the result? Everybody just goes around doing what they think is right, going and living by what they feel. Instead of walking in the fear of the Lord as King, many live in the fear of man, depending on man for deliverance - man's abilities, man's accomplishments, and man's inventions and ideas. See without God as our King, things get raveled. They get twisted. They get all torn apart, because man decides to choose and to decide who God is and creates in his own mind what God really looks like.

But see church, today all it takes is just one. All it takes is just a few to stop and say, ‘Jesus You are the King. And we are coming back. Lead us - we are Yours. We are Yours God, take these hands, take these feet, take this household, take all that I have God. I’m trusting in You. Lord You are King of all - demonstrate Your power in our lives.’ That's all it takes! Again, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord…” In other words blessed, watched over, kept safe is the nation whose God is the Lord - who serves Him as the King. Is He your King today?

And so what does it look like for God to be King in our lives? I wanna turn to Judges chapter 17. I know that this is probably a less common book, but I find that there's just so many precious things that we can learn here in this chapter. Now we’re gonna be reading all throughout chapter 17, and it's kind of one big story going together, but I wanna begin just reading verse six. Verse six really sums up what this entire chapter is about, really what was happening at that time, and really through the entire book of Judges. And so let’s read together verse six. It says, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

And so we were in a time in Israel right now, where they had judges, right, but they didn't have a king. So these judges God would elect from time to time and every time Israel would find themselves in a bad predicament in their sin and overtaken by the enemy and they cried out to God, and God would send the judge and the judge would deliver the people and kinda lead them through. But ultimately, they didn't have a king, and everybody was just going about their life doing their own thing.

But see the reality is this: They did have a king. It wasn’t an earthly king though - it was God. Yet, they rejected Him. They refused to submit to Him; they refused to come back to the ways of the one true King, the Lord God Almighty. And as bad as this entire situation seems, I think today that we can truly learn something - something so much of what God is calling us to today, back to Kingship. See, in a nation, and really in a world right now in a time where everything seems to be just up in the air - there seems to be no absolute truth. We live in a time where, ‘Listen, if it works for you and it seems right and you can kinda just stack up upon that and you can live the way that you wanna live, that is fine. There is no absolute. However you see fit you do, I will do,’ and God is saying, ‘No, church, I am calling you back to My leadership. I am calling you back to My Kingship. I am calling you back to put on the mind of Christ, to put on the Word of the Lord, to let it be inscribed in your heart, that you would walk and follow in the ways of the King.’ Is there anybody looking to follow the King today?

And so I ask again: What does it mean for God to be our King? First off, in this chapter we find that for God to be our King it means that God is King over our home. God is King over our home. Let's look at verses 1 to 3. Follow me here, it's a bit of a story but we're opening up this chapter - kinda setting the scene of where we are. We’re in the house of a man named Micah, okay? Verse one, “Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim said to his mother, ‘The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse - I have that silver with me; I took it.’ Then his mother said, ‘The Lord bless you, my son!’ When he returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, ‘I solemnly consecrate my silver to the Lord for my son to make an image overlaid with silver. I will give it back to you.’”

So as we’re beginning in this home - it's very important to look at this home because that's where we begin in our own lives, right? With the Lord, He wants to begin our homes, to really see where we are. And so for God to be King over our lives, He must be King over our home, and it’s that we fear God in our homes. You see Micah - this man here was an Israelite. In other words he was a believer. Yet, if we really look at this story he stole from his mother. The eleven hundred shekels of silver he took whatever money - she might have had it stashed someplace - but he stole it without her knowing. So we quickly get an idea of the atmosphere here, right? And what happens? Micah returns the money, why? Because he hears his mother going, ‘Whoever stole that money, I’m putting a curse on them.’ Alright, so he returns it, not out of Godly fear, he doesn’t return it because he's convicted in his heart - he’s returning it, he’s like, ‘I don’t wanna get in trouble. I don’t wanna be cursed.’ Just to save himself. But see, if God is King in our lives, I praise God today, it means that we fear Him.

See, the fear of the Lord in our hearts and in our homes, it creates and births a conviction. Not where we move out of fear - to stay out of trouble - but it's where we never want to stop and do anything that would affect our relationship with God. See, the fear of the Lord will cause us to say, ‘I don't wanna be in sin. I don't wanna lie. I don't wanna walk away from God because He is just too precious to me. He is just too wonderful, I never wanna lose His presence.’

"...we can never make a difference in the world until we begin to make a difference in our homes."

See, when we come into the Lord Jesus Christ, He brings and produces a Godly fear to be just that: To be a man or woman who would fear losing His presence, fear ever being without Christ. Are you in Christ today? Who is your King? Is He King of your home? “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,…” amen.

See, we can never make a difference in the world until we begin to make a difference in our homes. Now, when I think about this, I was reading this Word - I was reminded today of something that's really big in our nation and in our culture: Influencers. If you go on the Internet, you can find all sorts of people who take the title of ‘influencer’ on the web and what they do is they go on social media and they look to influence people with their cooking videos, with their beauty with their vanity, and all sorts of things - to influence people, to influence our children, and everybody that's around them to gain that popularity. But I wanna declare today church, the greatest influence that I can have in my life, the greatest influence that you can have is the influence of the fear of the Lord. To influence others to Godliness. To influence somebody to say, ‘God is real.’ To influence somebody to say, ‘Wow, He is King, He is in your life, and He is God over all.’

I ask you today: Do you want to be an influencer? Then fear the Lord. Fear God. Because those who fear the Lord, hallelujah, they are strong. They’re those who cannot be swayed by the left or the right, by any darkness or temptation, but they stand strong and firm in the Word of the Lord. Hallelujah, are we such an influencer in our home? How have we influenced our children? How have we influenced our co-workers and our friends? God is saying today, ‘I want you to be an influencer, but do it by fearing Me,’ beginning right in our home.

And so for God to be King in our lives - He is King of our home and in our home - not only are we fearing God, but we are consistent. Back to the story, Micah's mother, she sounded so Godly. Her response to his sin was this: “‘The Lord bless you…’” Imagine that! He just came up to her and said, ‘Listen I stole your money, and it’s not ‘cuz I really feel bad I just really don't want to be cursed.’ But her response is, you know, “‘The Lord bless you…’” In other words, ‘It's okay. We’ll kinda sweep that under the rug. We don't really need to deal with it.’ And what does she do? She makes an idol. She forms an idol with the money and you know the scary part about it? I truly believe that if we were to step into that household to look at her and say, ‘Listen, do you understand this is wrong?’, she would hundred percent believe that what she's doing is right.

That's how it is when we don't have God as our King, right? Just going about, not being consistent, see, her words weren’t consistent with her living. She spoke about God, but she didn't follow Him as King.

See, when God's presence is truly powerful in our life, it is shown by our consistency in the Lord Jesus Christ. How warped was it - what she was teaching her son Micah - what did she pass on to her son? See she spoke about God, but her heart was so far from following Him as King. See God is looking for somebody today not to just have a small family devotion where we kinda talk about the Lord and then go about our business. God is looking for one today who would teach and be consistent in what we proclaim, who would be consistent in the Word that we speak. Who would be consistent in the God that we sing of, so that our household and our foundation, our homes, would be set on the King in no other. Are we consistent in the Lord?

See I’ve learned in my own life that I could never impact anyone until I learned to make an impact in my own household. But that would be me being and finally choosing that I would serve the Lord and no longer serve myself. There had to come a decision in my life, ‘Am I gonna be consistent with the world? Am I gonna be consistent with God? Who is the King?’

Now listen: Consistency doesn't mean that we don't falter at times, that there's no mistakes, but listen, consistency does mean this; when God is King your entire family knows that even if you fall and stumble for a moment, oh God, you are about to get back up. ‘Trust me I'm not staying down. Trust me I will repent. Trust me I will seek the Lord and come back. Trust me I will keep going and cry out until God breaks through.’

But is He King of our home, and does it show in our consistency? See when God is King in our home, it shows also by the standard in our home. You see, the standard of Micah's house was not the standard of God. He and his mother - they claimed faith but the standard was actually flesh. We know that the world will live that way, listen, but as Christians we are called to the standard of the Word of the Lord. That is to be our standard. Now what does that look like? What does that mean? It means this: “‘Be holy as I am holy.’” That is the standard of the Word of the Lord, and to set that standard it means you don't belong to you. It means we are holy, we are called to be set apart. ‘I don't belong to myself. Listen son, listen daughter, I know that you thought that everything was given and done according to your accomplishment or who you think you are, or an entitlement - no. But it is given by God. You belong to the Lord and no other. Wake up today, understand that the standard in this place is that there is holiness.’ There is to be holiness in the house of the Lord, meaning that, ‘We belong to You.’

See, when we turn to Christ - hallelujah - when you trust in the mighty Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, something will happen in you. All of a sudden the standard is risen up. I have to thank God today, from the depth of my heart I praise God for my mother, who was one who set the standard because she trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as her King, because the Lord Jesus Christ was gonna be the foundation in her home, hallelujah there was a standard. Listen, I grew up every day knowing that that standard could not be budged. I tried the budge it. I tried to push it, right? But I remember just how strong and sturdy because of the Lord Jesus Christ being her King, there was a standard that could not be budged and moved. It was real, and I was so influenced, I was so touched by the consistency, so touched by that standard, it caused something in me to go, ‘God I want that. I wanna be like mom I wanna be like dad. Oh they are consistent they are strong they actually believe in this King. You really are their King. Father, I wanna serve You, I wanna be with You in the same way.’

Is He our King? Has a standard been set in our homes? You see people set a lot of standards in their homes. There’s a standard for the way to cook. There’s a standard for the way to clean and to take out the trash every week, right? And I’ve met people with such a standard on the lawn: don't cut it an inch too short, don't go an inch too high - trust me ‘cuz you will hear it. There is the standard set. There’s a standard for that curfew, and listen, we keep those standards so strict because we want our house in order. But God is looking today, who will raise up a standard for God? Who will raise up a standard for the King in their home? Who will stop and say, ‘Lord Jesus, I'm lookin’ for a change today. I'm lookin’ for a transformation Father forgive me, ‘cuz I’ve raised a standard for everything else in my house, but God I have failed to raise a standard for You.’ But there is hope today, church. I believe there is hope for us, that God wants to raise a standard in me. He wants to raise a standard in you. He wants to do something so powerful to demonstrate in this nation, in this place, in this community that the Lord is King!

Will you cry out to God today? Will you cry out to Him to come back to the standard of this Word? Will you cry out to the Lord with me? Will you cry out and say, ‘Jesus, come and be our King once again?’ To come back to the Kingship of God?

And so for God to be King in our lives it means that He is King of our home. Secondly, if God is King of our lives it means that He is also King of our heart. Let's look at the story again in verses four through five. “So after he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to [the] silversmith, who used them to make [the] idol. And it was put in Micah's house. Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household gods and installed one of his sons as his priest. In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” We see that verse again.

So just like today, much of our nation, everyone was doing whatever they thought was right and wrong. They were, you know, living according to how they thought they should live, calling God what they thought God should be, and kinda forming everything in their own wicked evil mindset. But see if God is King of our lives, it means that He is King of our heart, and our heart is centered on the Lord.

See Micah welcomed his mother's idols. Think about it - those idols that were formed were placed in the center of his house. He inherited the same heart as his mother - an idolatrous heart. A heart so far from God. See, the reality is we pass on what we center our lives on. We pass it on to our children, we pass it on to those who follow us. And I ask today, is it the King - the Kingship of God - that we are passing on?

See, God was not the center of Micah's mother's heart, nor was it the center for Micah. And this was manifested in their home. How was it shown? Because they had a form of Godliness, but denied its power. They had all these wonderful things I imagine, I think we could’ve went there, and we woulda looked at their home and probably saw all sorts of beautiful sculptures and all sorts of, you know, jeweled things made for God, so to say. But out of all the so-called ‘Godliness’ that they showed, they yet had no power to overcome their sin. They yet had no power to overcome their idolatry and their mixing with the world.

You see, there is hope for us today, church. I truly believe it, that through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ we don’t have to have a form of Godliness but deny its power. See, through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can be transformed from a man or woman who was so centered on myself, so centered on the money, so centered on the world and everything else - and not only that, really believing that God is okay with it. But when Christ comes in we can turn to Him, and He can transform us to be centered on Christ and on Christ alone!

But will you call upon the Lord today? Is He our King? Is He King over our hearts? If not, I pray that we would say, ‘Lord You have not been the center of this heart. Father forgive me, but Lord I know that You are able to touch the heart of man. I know that You can touch the darkest, the most wicked of hearts, and You can inscribe Your Word, that You can do something miraculous today! Father would You please have mercy!’

See if God be King, our heart will be centered on, “‘“Love the Lord your God with all [of] your heart …all [of] your soul…all your [mind] and all [of] your [strength]...”’” Our prayer becomes, ‘God, wherever You go, I will go. Father if I am in the car by myself and I just need to drive around and find You, then God I will go in that car, and I will drive and I will drive and cry out. Father, if You are in the wee hours of the morning before I go to work, before I go to my job, Father then I will meet You there in the wee hours of the morning. I just need to be with You Father, I just need to be centered on You. I just need to be centered on the King.’ Is He your King today, and is your heart centered on Him?

See, God is calling us to not be a people who say that we want the Lord, yet not go after Him as the center of our lives. But He’s saying, ‘Wake up church.’ If He is not your center, now is the time today is the day. Is He King of your heart today?

See if He is King of our heart, our heart is centered on His Kingdom. See Micah, if we look at this story, he created a shrine. Imagine that - a shrine! And he had all sorts of priestly possessions and things that he set up, but notice this, if you read the story again, he didn’t set up a shrine for God, G O D capital G - he set up a shrine for gods. He was mixed!

Think about it! When God isn’t King of our heart we become so mixed with the world. Michah wanted to be in the Kingdom of God, but he also wanted to keep his own kingdom - he also still wanted to be in and have the kingdom of the world. See God was not King of his heart.

Today we have such mixing! In the church of America there are so many Christians that have just been mixed - walking around so powerless in wickedness! Wanting to serve God, knowing that God is good, but you know not being able to come to God and say, ‘God I know that You're great. I know You're strong but I don't really wanna let go fully. I don’t wanna let go of myself. Father I know that it is good to worship You, but God, come on, I mean life is kinda good here I’m young!’ And in the middle of all of it, it is just godless - God is not there! Just as with Micah!

God is calling us to look today. To ask: Is He King of our heart? See, the Lord Jesus Christ, I truly believe, gives an invitation. He says, ‘Come to Me. Repent! Turn back to Me!’ For those in Christ, hallelujah, they overcome the idols that they once could not let go of. They overcome that indecisive heart that can’t choose between the world and God and hallelujah, by the power of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ we are made pure for God. We are made pure for His Kingdom. We are made pure to be used, to be honorable unto the Lord - to make a difference in our nation, to make a difference in the world - but it begins as He is King of our heart and our heart is set and centered upon the Kingdom. Are our hearts centered upon Him? Is He King of our heart?

See Micah's heart? It was given to convenience of the flesh. It was just twisted and warped. It was a twisted warped idea of the Kingdom of the Lord. It's where we find so much preaching today - preaching from the pulpits - that are speaking about a ‘Kingdom of God’ that has nothing to do truly with the true message of the Gospel. It’s where we find so many books that are written that just have a mixed up idea of what the Kingdom is all about. Teaching that God's Kingdom is about you and I just living happy and comfortable lives. No message of repentance. No message of the need to turn back to God. to come against the flesh - no understanding that we are set apart and we are to be set apart from this world, and that there is a call to pick up our cross and to follow Him.

But I believe truly church, that there is somebody today - hallelujah - that has set their heart on the Kingdom of God. I believe there might be somebody here today. I don't know if you’re hearing me right now - that the Lord Jesus has touched you to no longer live so excessively for your own things, for your own ways in your own kingdom, but to have a heart for the Kingdom of God. To say, ‘Father here are these hands. Listen I know they’ve been dirtied in the past, but here I am Father. My heart is set upon Your Kingdom. Touch these hands, touch this heart God. Let me make a difference with the years that I have for Your Kingdom. I don't know what it’s gonna look like Lord, but I know one thing - that it looks like Christ in me, the hope and glory. I know one thing - that it looks like calling upon Your powerful Name. Calling upon You to come and to serve in Your Kingdom.’

"What have we worked hard for? Does it honor God and God alone?"

See, when God is King of our heart, our heart is centered on honor. Look again at verse five. It says that Micah, “...installed one of his sons as his priest.” Now we look at this, we’re really seeing Micah here. I mean he's really putting his stuff together. He's really working hard to do his own thing and to kinda get every corner filled and to really have his house the way that he wanted it to be. But listen, there was no honor in the fact that he chose his son to be a priest. He shoulda never done it. He had no right to do it nor did he have the authority, but isn’t that man when God isn’t King? Loving to take up honor for themselves, right? See Micah would now have a complete package. He had like, a mini temple - he had a shrine, he had his own priest - and now, he was satisfied and happy. But see, none of it was centered on honoring God - it was all centered to honor himself.

How was that? Because it was about what he had accomplished for himself. It was about what his money can buy him. It was about his abilities. It was about his ideas. It was about, ‘This is the way I think it should go,’ - and it all had to do nothing with God, and therefore God was not present with them. See the problem is this: It was all out of order. It wasn't a work of God. See, how do you know something is truly a work of God? Because it honors God and God alone. Is He our King today? What have we centered our honor on? Is it the Lord? What have we put our hands to, what have we worked hard for? Does it honor God and God alone? See, we dishonor God when we don't follow His order and ways of doing things.

I'm reminded of Saul, right? God had looked at Saul and said, ‘Listen: I'm looking for you to honor Me. I want you to overtake this land. I want you to devour the land, the people, the sheep, the cattle, everything! Don't plunder anything for yourself!’ But what does Saul do? Rather than honoring the Lord he decides to honor man! He decided to honor himself and he lost the presence of God. But there is hope. 2 Timothy 2:21 it says this, “Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use…if anyone cleanses himself from that which is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use…” Some have made some changes here today. Some of you have made some changes to say, ‘God I'm done honoring myself. I'm done honoring money, the world and everything else Father, I wanna honor You.’ And what a blessing God has brought into your life. He might have blessed you with His presence as you begin to call upon His Name. You’ve received the blessing of hearing His voice. God has helped you through so much, praise God, keep going! As you have honored Him, He shall honor you. But there may be some here today that are thinking, ‘I have not honored the Lord. Rather than honoring You God I have honored my children above You. Rather than honoring You God I’ve honored my boss, my job, and everything else.’ then God is saying today, ‘Come and be cleansed. Repent and be cleansed from that which is dishonorable and let Me do a new work. Let me bring you into something new, that you would honor the Lord Jesus and no other!’ But is He your King? Will you bow before God today?

So He must be King of our hearts. God must be at the center of our honor. He must be in the center of our lives. Will you join with me today? Will you join with my family, church? Will you join church, with the church as a whole, with one another in centering our hearts on honoring the King? That God will be the King of our hearts?

And so, for God to be King in our lives we know that He must be King of our home. For God to be King of our lives we know that He must be King of our hearts. And lastly, for God to be King in our lives He must be the King of literally our entire life. Let's look at verses 7 to 13. Now here we’re being introduced - another character. We’re gonna see a Levite introduced into the story. We had Micah and his mother, but now we see another person coming in and it says, “A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living [within] the clan of Judah, left that town in search of some other place to stay. On his way he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim. Micah asked [him], ‘Where are you from?’ ‘I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah,’ he said, ‘and I’m looking for a place to stay.’ Then Micah said to him, ‘Live with me and be my father and priest, and I'll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your food.’” But let’s stop there for a second. Remember, Micah put his son at the duty of being a priest. But isn't it funny when God isn’t our King - we don’t remain committed or loyal to anybody but ourselves. Right? So we see here, him looking at the Levite going, ‘Alright.’ He must’ve looked at his son and said, ‘Listen son: I know you tried hard, but there's somebody that can do this a little bit better.’ Can you imagine just the turmoil and the craziness and verse 11, “So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man became like one of his sons to him. [Then] Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in his house. And Micah said, ‘Now I know the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.’”

Now listen: For God to be King of our lives it means that we live committed to God. Looking at this Levite, it says that he left Bethlehem. He was a Levite! If you understand anything about this man today - if you were a Levite, you had one job, one duty: to minister in the house of God. Your one job and duty was to be in the temple. In other words, you're supposed to be in church. You're supposed to be with God, not out and about with everybody else doing everything else - you belong to God! He belonged in the temple in Jerusalem! Now listen, why did he leave? He probably left because he thought that he had a better idea and way of going about his life. And so he sold out to Micah. He sold out, God could've taken care of this Levite. I imagine God kinda just surrounded him and blessed him, but that was not good enough for him. He saw his priestly duty as just a job. He was a hireling. He didn't see his priestly duty as, ‘Wow! I get to serve the King!’ See Christianity isn't just like a side job for us. Christianity isn't just a thing. To be a Christian - to walk with God - is to recognize today that we are to be committed to the King - this great, awesome, mighty King! Who at the snap of a finger can change our lives. He can destroy us or build us up, but I wanna be those who are reminded that if you are committed to Him, that if you stick with God, He will bless you! He will lift you up and He will take care of you!

God is looking for those who would be committed to God and remain with Him, who would recognize that He is King. Where we trust God not to make a move without His instruction, where, listen you might be committed to a whole lot of things - that's fine - but above all things, it would not shift one thing - that He is the King. See, we have to ask ourselves, like this Levite have we sold out in our lives? I'm not just talking about for money, but have we sold out to our flesh? Where rather than waiting upon the Lord for an answer of our next move or what we should do, we decide not to be patient and wander off like this Levite, we decide not to be patient and just go about our own way and our own decision, and at the cost of it, losing our commitment to God.

See, I ask again: Is He king of your life? If so then we must remain committed to God. If God is King of our life it means that God is King and we remain loyal to Him. Even when our flesh fights against us and says, ‘Listen, move on that offer.’ Even when the flesh is going’, ‘Listen, look what everybody else is doing. Who cares, just go about. You’ve got to take care of you.’ But see, the Spirit of God for those in Christ, hallelujah, reminds us of 1 Peter. What does it say? And I love how Luke had read this earlier, I didn’t tell Luke about this Scripture, but he opened up saying, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession…”

See I remember when my parents first began to teach me about commitment to God. They said, ‘Jeff you are priest in the house of the Lord,’ - not just because I was a pastor, but as a priest, meaning I belong in the house of the Lord no matter what. No matter what else I do, no matter what else I get into, I come back home every time. God will be the King of my life, to be committed to Him and no other to live by that commitment.

See we live in a time and in a culture where commitment is just so unheard of. If you don't like it just go to the next channel. If you don't like it just get another job, there's plenty out there. If you don’t like it just go to the next, but God is saying, ‘Will you allow Me to be King? Will you submit to Me and become strong, become stable, to be those who are committed, those will not move, those who will stand on the Word of the Lord and not be shifted by the flesh? Not be shifted by this and that, and the shifting sands of this world, but to remain in Christ?’

See when God is King of our life, we live uncompromised. Micah, he told the Levite, he said, “‘Live with me and be my father and [my] priest…’” Now, when you look at the translation of when he said “my priest” the true translation actually means “personal priest.” He’s not saying just “be my priest” he’s saying, ‘Listen, I want you to be my personal priest.’ See the Levite shoulda never been able to do that. The Levite was to serve the Lord. He was to serve the nation of Israel not just some singled out man that had a bunch of money and a little bit of opportunity. See the Levite, he took it better to serve man rather than to serve God. No different than many churches of America today. No different of many who look to compromise in the same way for man, ‘In order to get people in the door, you know, let's make the message not so harsh. Let's not make it so convicting and so heavy. Let's not make it uncomfortable, and rather than being so concerned for the soul, more concerned for man and his flesh and what he wants.’ Looking to, you know, serve and to scratch and to speak what those itchy ears want to hear and calling it ‘good.’ But see, I'm looking to come to God today. I'm looking for others to join again, and I pray that you would join with me. That we would begin to come before God, hallelujah, and say, ‘Father, listen I’ve compromised in my life, but today Father I am coming to You. No longer to compromise Lord Jesus. Will You come and touch me with Your Spirit?’ I pray today that we would be those who serve the King uncompromising, not looking in any other direction but in God and God alone God.

"Is He King of your life? If so, it means that we are uncompromised."

God can do it, church. He can cause one who had been so just tossed left and right by temptation. So tossed left and right by the emotion - the feeling - and cause us to be strong, to be uncompromised because we serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and we serve the Almighty God and King.

See, if the Levite - if he just served God as King, listen, he would’ve never compromised. But he allowed Micah to actually believe that he was doing the right thing. Have we compromised in our lives, in our flesh in the same way? Have we compromised with man where listen, maybe in a moment or in a time we knew we were supposed to speak a Word of truth, rather than doing it we didn’t wanna disturb the peace. Rather than doing it and being uncompromised we kinda just let it go to deal with it for another day that we don't even know may come again. Have we compromised where rather than calling sin “sin” we look to justify it, or to make excuses or something else - listen if that be us, God is calling us to come back to true Christianity. To trust God, and to be those who aren’t willing to compromise for any man - including ourself - and to live our lives for the King. I ask again: Is He King of your life? If so, it means that we are uncompromised.

And so to live with God as King of our lives, lastly, it means that we live in the ways of the King. You see, the Levite, he should've never been away from Bethlehem. He should’ve never left that tribe of Judah - he should've stayed in the exact place that he was assigned. He went off course. He decided that his way and his path was gonna be a little bit better. And I had to think about this for a moment - I wondered why would he ever leave that place? Was it that it was boring? Did he find that he just wanted to go off and kinda ‘find himself’ right, we've heard that before, ‘I just wanna kinda find myself away from the Lord’? Was he not taken care of - listen whatever it be, nothing should ever move us away from the ways of God. Nothing should ever steer us away from the path that the Lord Jesus Christ has laid!

The most dangerous thing in the world happened to this Levite - he settled in. He was welcomed by Micah. He got all that he set his heart on. But see the thing was God was not there. Got everything he was searching for. Got the money, got the clothes, got a nice place for himself to live in. He had, you know, a nice foundation - I mean things were all put together but God was not there. I don't know about you, but take the house, take the kids, take everything. If God's not there I don't want it! If God isn’t there I don’t need it!

See, the world will very quickly welcome you. Don't be surprised when you go another way besides the way of the Lord when the world says, ‘Come on in! We’ll give you everything. We've got it for you.’ And the world is so quick to do so do, not be fooled today, church. But see I learned something’ when I was young, and I'll never forget this. I remember this being instilled in me from my parents, ‘Listen Jeffrey everything that glitters is not gold. There's a way that seems right to a man but in the end, it leads to death.’

Have you lost your way today? Have you lost your way? Maybe there's somebody here, maybe there's someone here that has been like this Levite - God has set the course for you. He put you in the place where you needed to be! He rescued you! He’s done things in your life that you know not many people can attest to, that not many people can testify, but you decided, ‘God there's something bigger, there's something better! There’s another way!’ And we’ve walked away, going off to live our own way, finding for ourself that it's not God, and God is not there! Where our eyes are being opened to say, ‘Father You have not been with me, and it’s been my own wickedness. I’ve gone my own route.’ But will you come back to His Kingship today? Will you return to the Lord Jesus? He says, ‘Turn ye and repent!’ He says, ‘Come back!’ If you have been wayward, if you have gone away, if you have been lost and mixed He says, ‘Turn and come into Christ!’ He is able to destroy the wickedness. He is able to overcome but will you let Him?

"For God to be King in our lives, He must be King over everything."

Listen I know that there are also some today that have said, ‘Father, I’m done with my way.’ I know that there is somebody today that said, ‘Father that old way, oh, no longer. Father have Your way. You are King.’ I just declare to you today you hold on, you hold on strong even if you’d be the only one in your house, even if you’d be the only one at work, even if you seem to be the only one, hold strong, because listen, because you have chosen His way He is going to make a way.

And so for God to be King in our lives, He must be King over everything. He must be King over everything. Back to verse six of this chapter: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” Church today, we again look at much of the American church and America as a nation. We cannot deny - whatever angle we look at it - that we have lost our way as a nation. We have lost our way toward God as our King. We have lost our way in so many ways as a church of America because we’ve decided to go about. Listen, we’ve strayed from the King. Now when I really look at this, when I really look at this situation, the only reason God would not be our King is because we have rejected Him as such. The only reason God would not be king of our lives is because we’ve said, ‘God I am king.’ Because we’ve said, ‘God there's something better. Because there's something bigger.’ And God is saying today, ‘Will you wake up and come back to My Kingship? Will you repent for the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you repent for the rejection of the Gospel which is able to set you free today?’ Rather than being a slave to our evil, rather than being enslaved to our flesh like Micah, like his mother - so twisted and just so far gone - God says, ‘Will you come back to the standard of my Word? Will you come back to the King?’