What's up guys, Ricky Caruth here. So is it just me or is this the lowest inventory that we've ever seen? This is the toughest I've ever seen in terms of getting new listings and helping buyers buy homes. Today I wanna share with you three things that you should be doing in this low inventory market.  I don't do this very often, but I wanna shout out to Gary because four years ago, when I started watching his content, it really pushed me to start posting content on every single social channel. And it really was the catalyst that got me really jump-started in this career as a real estate coach. So thank you, Gary. And today I also wanna give away free signed copies of my book, List to Last. How to survive every real estate market crash. This is everything I learn through the crash, losing everything, sleeping in my car, and coming back, climbing my way back to the top. So I'm gonna be signing several of these books and mailing them directly to you. All you have to do is like, comment, and subscribe for your chance to win. And also, since all the shutdowns and everything started happening about a year ago, I've been doing so many Zoom meetings with companies and brokerages all over the world. So if you would like me to do a Zoom call with your brokerage and your company or your team, I'm more than willing to do that. At no cost, all you have to do is reach out to me either on Instagram or just email me, ricky at zero to diamond.com. Okay, so let's get into today's video. 2021, what a start it's been. This is one of the craziest markets that I've seen. Definitely different than anything that anyone has seen. It really reminds me of 2003, the beginning of that real estate boom where everything just went sky high out of control and then crashed and burned. Do I see the same scenario and outcome during this market cycle? No, I do not. I think there's a lot of differences. I think we have a much stronger foundation. The fundamentals are really there in our favor. And I think that this thing is gonna take off. I do believe that we're gonna see this thing really take off. I think this is the beginning of a huge run that we're about to see. What happens on the other side of the big run? Nobody knows, but it doesn't matter either way. For us, for you and me, we're real estate agents. We make money on the way up. We make money on the way down. Closings continue to happen every single day regardless of what the market does. We can't let the outside forces, things that we can't control, really dictate our success. So right now you're probably running into several problems. One, you can't get any sellers to really jump off the fence to list their properties because they're scared to list because A, there's nothing to buy. And B, they feel like they might leave money on the table since the market is increasing at such a great rate. They feel like if they sell now, if they wait a couple of months, they could probably get more money, so on and so forth. So it's really tough to get listings right now. What I think this is creating is pent up demand for people to list their properties. You know when the market slows down and there's a lot less buying going on, transaction goes down. What does that do? Every single time it creates pent up demand of buyers. We see pent up demand of buyers. We're very familiar with that. But if you ever thought of pent up demand for sellers, I believe that that's what we're in the middle of right now. Tons of pent up demand, just building and building and building.  Their home is too small, they need to upgrade. Upgrades are happening all the time, but all of a sudden, no one's listing their properties. Which means that people aren't upgrading, which means there's pent up demand building. People that had another child. People that relocate, people that are relocating and doing stuff like that, that's mandatory. So those are the deals we're actually seeing out there, the ones where people have to sell. But the people that just want to sell, it's not a hundred percent necessity. That's the pent up demand that I think that we're in the middle of that's underneath the market, we can't see it. And when it comes out, it's going to swing so hard and so fast that we're not even going to know what to do. We're going to have so many people that want to list their properties, it's going to be insane. That's one thing I'm really excited about moving forward is that I know that day's going to come. So that's something we really need to prepare for. Another thing is buyers. Okay, every buyer is competing against five, 10, 20 buyers. Multiple offers higher than full price and we're having problems getting our buyer to be the one that gets accepted. So we're running into that issue as well. This is a tough market. It's going to continue to be tough as we move forward. But deals are happening, prices are coming up. It is making some sellers come off the fence. Okay, and the buyers that we have, here's what happens. Sometimes your buyers have to lose a few deals to really step up and realize what they need to do to get the next deal. So when your buyer doesn't win the offer, that's okay. Take it as a learning experience for yourself and them for the next property that comes around that they want to make an offer on. We know we need to be aggressive. We know this is how we need to move forward on it because if not, we're going to end up in the same boat as last time. So some buyers are going to catch on to this, a lot of them, most of them, because most of the buyers right now, they have to buy. They wouldn't be competing with five, 10, 20 buyers if they didn't have to buy. Who wants to compete with 20 buyers? So the good thing is that the buyers in this market are super motivated and if you get the listing, you're going to be the one sitting on five, 10, 20 offers. So there's a way to look at this market and you can say to yourself, this is really hard and there's a way to look at this market and say, let's go, this makes me excited. Let's give it everything we got. Let's go all in with this. So the first thing out of the three things that you should do in this low inventory market is be a data collector. Okay, you need to think of your business. The same as these huge corporations think of their business. The Googles, the Facebooks, the Amazons, the Zillows. Why do you think that there's all these acquisitions going on between different companies? It's all a quest after data. When we're building our business, what are we doing as a real estate agent? We're building our database, our base of data. We need more data. So in this low inventory market, where effort per transaction is at an all-time high, the effort you have to put in per transaction, all-time high, but the effort put in towards gaining a new relationship with someone in the market, a future customer, a future client is the same as it's always been. It takes the same amount of effort to reach out to a certain number of people to have those great conversations and those great first impressions to create more friendships and relationships in the market, which is the name of the game. So if you take this opportunity that we have right in front of us, where a lot of agents are slowing down because the effort per transaction is so high, and go all in with trying to grab as much market share as humanly possible, which is friendships with people in our markets, the more friends we have in the market, the larger our business is gonna be. The more people we have in our database, getting our weekly emails, the larger our business is gonna be. It's really black and white. So how do we collect data? There's two ways to collect data. There's voice-to-voice making great first impressions, collecting the data, and there's digital marketing, social media, collecting the data. When you combine voice-to-voice and digital marketing, then you create a very dangerous situation where you can really create something massive. Too many agents are only doing voice-to-voice or they're only doing digital marketing. They're not doing both. They're not time blocking for one and then time blocking for the other. They're not fitting both into their schedule and that's where they're leaving a lot of money on the table. You guys see how I built my business. I canvassed the market with phone calls, creating great first impressions, building those relationships, followed by a weekly email, AKA my digital marketing, on the same day of the week forever. That's how I built my business. There's so many more tools in today's world. So many more tools. You can do 10 times more damage now than I could when I first started in the business. There was no social media, there was no dialers, there was none of this stuff existed.  Our quest is to build the largest database in the area through that process of hard work to do that. We're gonna close so many deals. But keep in mind if you think about your business like this as more of a data collector than a real estate agent and you do a real estate on the side, you're really building your business to the point where at some point in the next three to five years, you don't have to do any more cold calls. You don't have to do any more social media. You don't have to do anything. You can live off of your weekly email and continue producing the same amount of volume. That's where you wanna be. The second thing you need to do in this low inventory market is think about going after listings. Too many of us are still buying leads and we should be going after sellers and creating friendships and relationships with owners in our market who own the exact property that you wanna sell. I just dropped the video. I'm gonna put a link below if you haven't seen it. It's called the five secret ways to close more deals and it goes into depth on several of the secret strategies that I've used over the years that I've never really talked about. But as far as listings go, guys, listen. When you go after listings and you put all of your effort into listings, it's really not listings, it's owners. And owners are the best buyers. They're the highest quality buyers by far. So why would we go after buyer leads or buy buyer leads when we could concentrate on owners who buy and sell? They're the best buyers and their listings. Why not focus everything 100% on this group? Business is unlimited. You can't call every owner. You can't contact every owner. Why not put all your eggs into that basket? So the third thing I'm gonna list today which I think is the most important is stop complaining. What did you sign up for to become a real estate agent so that you didn't have to work as hard? Guys, you need to go all in and put every little last drop of effort into the market right now. It's gonna pay 10 fold over the next two, three years. So just to reiterate, number one is be a data collector. Be a data collector first, be a real estate agent second. Number two is go after listings. Put 100% of your effort into property owners. Number three is stop complaining about the market. I hope you got something out of this video. I hope it got you fired up. I'm fired up. I'm fixing to go get to work right now. Remember, I'm giving away signed copies of my book, list to last. Just like, comment, and subscribe to my channel. Let me know what in the world I can do for you today. We'll talk to you guys on the next video. Let's go.


I can't leave on Half-It's Next to Choice. Hi, everyone, Sean with jaspyscasebreaks.com, doing 2020 Panini National Treasures baseball four box case break, pick your team number three on release day. This is my first look, so I'm extremely excited. Here is our list of customers. You're gonna see there's a random number block in here that covers nine different teams, including Chicago White Sox, big team, Dodgers, World Series champions in a shortened season, I guess it still counts, the New York Yankees and six other teams. So here's the list, Last Spot Mojo, Patrick, Arizona Dimebacks and our random number block, Randomizer, Carlos Last Spot Mojo with the redemption spot, zero. So let's set this up. I didn't say asterisk, Oliver, I just said, I guess it counts. I didn't say it didn't count. Still counts with an asterisk. Maybe only half an asterisk, Oliver. Cool, here's our case, half a season, half an asterisk. I liked the idea of a shortened World Series trophy. Not the full thing. How have the boxes been on this, getting the cards out? Pretty easy. I know sometimes they can be a little bit tough. I'm just joking, Oliver. I'm just joking. I don't know, Matt. Oh, now Oliver's getting defensive. Boom, look at these beauties. Oh, Carlos, let's get it. This might be a real good first break for you, that I've seen this. Have people been, have people give you a hard time, Carlos, Oliver? Listen, it counts, no matter what. At this point, I'll take a playoff series when, I'll take a playoff series loss, Oliver. I'm just jealous. You didn't have to, Oliver. Everything's been said. No, I'm happy for Clayton Kershaw. But that was last year, Oliver. What have the Dodgers done next year? Nothing. Living in the past, Oliver, living in the past. Season's over, man. It came out pretty clean, I like that. I'll take it. Oh my God, Oliver. Is that really his, is that his saying, or did you just make that up? Cause he's coming to the Angels. And if that's, if you just made that up, I'm gonna take, I'm gonna steal that saying, and I'm gonna use it for myself. Very first one. Nice seven-way relic, Jason Dominguez. For the New York Yankees, part of that random number block randomizer. Very first card out. Not too bad. Uh, that's number 55 out of 99. Mr. Jason Dominguez, the Martian himself. Spot five, Aaron Pettit. There you go, Aaron. Right, Carlos. Bubba Starling, colossal relic, 26 out of 99. For the Kansas City Royals, and Eric Leal. Bauer uses it. I really like that stamp. I don't know why I've never heard that for his name, but that is so cool. But yes, he's coming to the Angels. Fernando Tattis Jr., one out of 99, eight-way relic. Going to the San Diego Padres, and Alex Valesacos. I'll figure it out. George Brett, game gear materials, 14 out of 99. Also going to Kansas City. Eric Leal. Angels definitely need Bauer. Angels need a lot of stuff, Oliver. We need him, we need a lot of other pitching too. Not yet, Matt. Not yet.  JD Davis, I like that auto. Triple Js, looks like, JJJ. Five out of 99, for the New York Mets. Where's that jersey from, though? Colossal, relic, and auto. New York Mets, random number block. Spot five, again, Aaron Pettit. Maybe? Yeah, I would have to say, it's gotta be Astros, right? It's pretty cool. I like the colors. I like that auto, too. Yoshi Tomo, Tsutsugo. Auto and relic, 90 out of 99. Tampa Bay Rays, random number block. Spot zero on the 90. Going to Carlos Kutnack, my spot mojo. I love me some Yoshi. It's just such a fun name to say. They do call him that, Pat. That is actually really cool. I might, I can't do it. I couldn't do it to myself. Tyron Taylor, rookie patch auto. Look at the patch on that thing. 39 out of 49, for the Milwaukee Brewers. Also part of the random number block. Spot nine, going to Aaron Pettit. Don't have to wait to call this guy, rookie of the year.  Houston Astros, Michael Craig. That's Michael. They're nice, I'm at. Jordan. I like it, Pat. I'm only gonna keep delivering it. And our first booklet, cut signatures material. Mr. Tiger, RIP, Al Kaline. Detroit Tigers, Logan Callister. Beautiful cut auto there. Some of these don't look that great, but this one, that's a beauty. With a jumbo patch. There you go. Mr. Tiger booklet. Awesome card there. I needed some booklet. Panic ensues. I don't have them. I will get them. And I will make sure to take care of that expedited. You're gonna take some special care right there, Mr. Al Kaline. That's what you were chasing, Matt. She's a butte, that's for sure. Good night, guys. You had a one and two, Matt. Cool, good luck, guys. Booklet on the bottom. First up, Colossal Relic. Dustin May, World Series Champion, 15 out of 25. For the Los Angeles Dodgers, random number block, spot five. Aaron Pettit, this is true, Matt. Another nice jumbo relic. Three colors, 25 out of 25. Zap Collins for the Chicago White Sox. Also random number block. Also spot five. Aaron Pettit. Ginger guard, if that's not his nickname, it should be. Juan Soto, Game Gear Materials, 23 out of 25. Washington Nationals, random number block, spot three, Nick Stover. Randy Johnson, Retro Relic, 24 out of 25. Seattle Mariners, Aaron Pettit. Ooh, Oliver Rex is trying to fight you. See you guys, have a good night. Fight, fight, fight, fight. Taylor Trammel, 24 out of 25. San Diego Padres, Treasured Materials, Relic and Auto. Padres, Alex, Volosacos. Yeah, that's right, Sam. If we chant long enough, they'll have to fight.  I don't know about the middle part, but I don't wanna try to mess that up. It looks like it's on its last limb already. 79, 78 out of 99. Detroit Tigers, Relic and Auto, Logan Callister. 330 by the bike rack. Don't be late.  Oh, I love these. Acetate Auto, Tony Gonsolin, six out of 25. Another World Series champion. Los Angeles Dodgers, random number block. I forgot what number was. Six out of 25, the Catman. Sean Maddock, got Sean from one Sean to another. Congratulations. Not too bad, huh? Black Acetate with the blue border. Pretty, pretty, pretty nice. And how about a nice dual auto for the Tampa Bay Rays? Random number block team, numbered one out of five. Yoshi Tomo Sutsugo and Brendan McKay. Spot one, Matt McLaughlin. Nice dual rookie auto there. Yeah, the straight lines on them look really good, Rex. Straight, clear, clean, R Relic. Sheldon Neuse, one out of 99. Rookie signature jumbo material. Got a nice little yellow napkin there. On-card auto, Sheldon Neuse for the Oakland A's and Joe Maderos. First one off the production line. Congrats, Joe. Oh, yeah, yeah, I know what you're saying. There's always gotta be one, Pat. Always gotta be one. That is a B-Bay one-of-one. First one off the production line. They broke the mold, oh wait, they didn't break the mold with that. Last one off the production line is when they break the mold, right? You got a thick one. Can we get something special? It's real thick, bulging at the seams. Sticker barely goes over there. Let's see, that's how thick it is. I think it's barely sealed. 32 player auto? God, no, Oliver, please don't do that. I mean, I'd love to see it. I just don't want to have to randomize that to somebody.  It's a real thick booklet. No, why are you doing this to me? That thing is huge. Let's get a little side picture of that again. Yikes. Okay, well, that awaits. In the meantime, Gavin Lux, rookie colossal relic for the Dodgers. That is random number block. Spot six, 56 out of 99. Spot six, Sean Maddock. Same pad, it's huge. It's a big booklet. We might have a big randomizer, guys. Kirby signed it 32 times. 38 out of 99, Anthony Kay, colossal relic. Toronto Blue Jays, Levi Johnson. Game gear material, George Springer for the Houston Astros. Nine out of 99, Michael Craig and the Astros. Congrats. Joe Jackson, little shoeless Joe. That's kind of cool. Played for the White Sox. Better known for playing for the Black Sox, apparently. Joe Jackson, bat relic, four out of 10. Chicago White Sox, random number block. Spot four, Jack Vaz Majin. Nice little shoeless Joe bat relic there, man. Four out of 10 for you. Jesus Lizard, 74 out of 99, rookie auto. Social signatures. I believe this is where they're supposed to put their Instagram or Twitter or something like that. Didn't really play by the rules, just put his signature, but that's a nice one. Oakland A's, Joe Medeiros. Can you, Sam? Sam's saying you can see patches. Nice, Brewstar, Gradarol, 73 out of 99. This is Minnesota Twins, Brewstar, Gradarol. Matthew Stubblefield. Is that his Twitter, Oliver? I kind of hope it is. Oh, I love this. Look at the auto on that one. Quang Hyun Kim. Nice patch, even better auto. 44 out of 99, St. Louis Cardinals, random number block. Spot four, Jack Vaz Majin. Easily could, Rex, easily could. I love his signature. With the, I believe it's, is it Kanji? Anybody familiar? Is that Kanji? One more card and then our booklet of all booklets. Paul Molitor, seven out of 25. Little retro signatures. For the Milwaukee Brewers, random number block. Spot seven, Kang Tang. It is Kanji? It is pretty cool. Lovin' it. K-A-N-G-I, Brad. Kanji. Treasure Chest, 32 spots. Nine out of 25. Oh my God. Look at the patches on this. Oh, that's gonna be a big randomizer. Oh my God. So, starting here on the left, Dalton Varshow. On top on the left, bottom, Braylon Marquez. Top, Drew Waters. Under that, Andrew Vaughn. Then, Adley Rushman. Under that, Jonathan India. Then, Tristan Casas. Under that, Ryan Mountcastle. Colton Walker, Joe Adele, Casey Meyes, Keebert Ruiz, Freudus Nova, Sixto Sanchez. Bobby Whit Jr., Tristan Lutz. Alex Kirloff, Alec Baum. Andres Jimenez, K. Brian Hayes. Jason Dominguez, Taylor Trammell. Robert Poisson, Jared Kalanick. Joey Bart, Nate Pearson, Dylan Carlson. Luis Garcia, Wanderfranco, Royce Lewis. Josh Jung, Luis Garcia. That's a beauty. Somewhere, maybe. Okay, well, that's gonna be a randomizer, guys. Stick around for that. Were you mad? No. I mean, there's a lot of big names in there. No, no. I don't think it's one from each team, because there was Adley Rushman and Ryan Mountcastle in there. So obviously, those are both from the Orioles. I think there was only one angel on there, Joe Adele. And, last box. We'll check that. Is it all first round picks? It's definitely, I mean, well, I guess, yeah, it would still be considered a prospect. Joe Adele and Alec Baum still aren't rookies. Ryan Mountcastle, is he still? He hasn't come up yet, right? At all, or has he not used his rookie eligibility? So he did play in the bubble. I don't know. We'll find out. I'll read about it once we go to the randomizer. That's gonna be fun and sad, but really fun. Dylan Cease, eight-way relic, two out of 25. Chicago White Sox, random number block, spot two. Eric Jock. I'd like, I really hope, oh wait, no, I'm thinking Michael Kopeck. Is he, Brian? I didn't see that last, actually.  Is Crookshank, he's one of the finalists, right, Brian? I think it's gotta be him, right? Mark McGuire, 41 out of 70 for the Oakland A's. Cronenworth, that is the one. I don't know why I thought Crookshank, but Cronenworth, that's the one. For the Oakland A's, Joe Medeiros. Cronenworth, Crookshank, same thing. Oh, here comes Oliver with his Dodgers. We got a World Series. Walker Bueller, 10 out of 21. Relic for the Dodgers, speaking of them. Random number block, spot zero. Carlos. Does he, Carlos? I knew he came on really hot, but I don't wanna look at the stats, Oliver, because then I have to look at how well the Dodgers did this year, and then I have to understand that the Dodgers are a great team, and they just suck, and I don't wanna have to go through that reality lesson for myself. So I refuse. Lefty Williams, 17 out of 25. Which Chicago did Lefty play for? Apparently he's not the only Lefty in here. The White Sox. So that's going to spot seven on the random number block. Kang Tang. I'm gonna need a little bit thicker populars than that. I'm not gonna try to force it. Donnie Walton, rookie patch auto. Very nice patch here too. 42 out of 99. Seattle Mariners, Aaron Pettit. He only won two games, Oliver, and lost two games. That's not rookie of the year material there. He should win non-rookie of the year. Got him. Sheldon Neuse, 22 out of 49 for the Oakland A's. Joe Medeiros. Nice little auto, a relic and auto there. Nice one of one. Rico Garcia. Nice little laundry tag and auto. San Francisco Giants. I, Coppola. Another knock, Oliver. Can't go the distance. Apparently he's not good at anything. And we got a plate auto. Billy Williams. Billy Williams. Chicago Cubs, one of one. Plate auto. Cubbies, Nick Stober. Back to back, one of ones. Nice box to finish it off. Our last card before we go to the randomizers is a cut signature booklet of the Wizard of Oz himself, Mr. Ozzie Smith. St. Louis Cardinals, random number block. 13 out of 15. Spot three, Nick Stober. Very nice break. Congrats, Nick. I'm gonna get a booklet for that as well. Okay guys, randomizer time for this 32 relic booklet. Really nice case, huh, Matt? So, Treasure Chest, 32 relics, national treasures. Considered big league front office minors, young baseball players, hidden gold nuggets when scouts unearth one. It's a euphoric Eureka moment. Teams have hope of psyching it rich by loading up on prospects that have a golden glow about them. They're tough to find, but easy to appreciate. So it is a prospect booklet. I know, Carlos, that's actually kind of crazy. So, one more time. And then, we'll do the randomizer. But, good news, Matt Stubblefield. I do see that there's a Minnesota twin, Alex Kierloch. So, we've got a lot of teams in this. I'm gonna pause the video, set up the randomizer, then we'll come back. One really, really happy person. Lots of really sad people. We'll be right back. Okay, we're back. Got the randomizer ready? We put the randomizer teams in exactly in this order. Just to have it on video. 32 players on this nice, beautiful relic. And, over here to the randomizer. Let's stretch this out so we can see all 32 spots in here. I did one test on the randomizer just to make sure there is 32 spots represented. But, there you go. So, Arizona, Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cubs, White Sox, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Angels, Dodgers, Marlins, Brewers, Twins, Mets, Yankees, A's, Phillies, Pirates, Padres, Mariners, Giants, Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Rangers, Blue Jays, Nationals, Twins, and Philadelphia Phillies again. So, are there two twins? Well, there you go. Now, time for the randomizer itself. Dice roll. Team on top after three and a five, eight times. And, if it's a random number block, I believe this is card nine. It is nine out of 25. So, if it's a random number block team, it goes to spot nine. So, good luck. Eight times on the randomizer. One, eighth and final time. Congratulations to Philadelphia Phillies, who is a random number block. Spot nine random number block, Aaron Pettit. Congratulations. Philadelphia Phillies represented on the card by potential NL Rookie of the Year, Alec Baum and Luis Garcia. Congrats, Ryan. Sorry, Aaron, congrats, man. Let's take a look at this one more time. 32 relics. They're not just single color patches either. You got a lot of nice color in there for you. Some ridiculous names, including Jason Dominguez, Bobby Whit Jr., Wander Franco, Alec Baum. Crazy stuff, man. There you go. Just so you can see, spot nine. Congratulations. That was National Treasures. Baseball, four box case break. Pick your team number three. Pick your team fours in the store now. I'm Sean, jaspyscasebreaks.com. Thanks for hanging out, and I'll see you next time.


Instagram is changing and you could probably already tell by just looking at your feed how it's shifting its focus towards video. There are quite a lot of people who are pretty angry about it and people saying it's the death of photography with Instagram and TikTok only being about videos and Facebook being practically dead. It seems like there's nowhere to post photos anymore but I want to suggest a different idea. You can post your photos but you just need to adapt to this new video medium and there are all kinds of different examples for that. You can cut a few photos together and mix them and show the world your last film role or you can show the behind the scenes versus the actual photo. There are plenty of ways to get creative with it. I like the fact that videos cover your entire screen to make some frames just pop out. The option of adding music can give a lot more context and depth to your photos. What do you think about these changes? Let us know in the comments and make sure to like and follow.


Hey man, Judges chapter 17. So we're entering the part of Judges where we're getting into, you know, the really messed up stories in the Bible. If I was going to preach a sermon series on messed up stories in the Bible, I'd spend most of my time at the last, the latter part of Judges. Okay, and this is where it kind of, we're done with Samson, we're done with Gideon, a lot of the stories of the Judges in the Bible, and we're getting to these stories in Judges where you just like, you're reading these stories and it's funny because this particular story here, I can, when I read this story I still remember how I felt the very first time I read this story, and I don't know if you you have that feeling where you've read something several times, but I can still remember reading this story for the first time and like almost every single verse in Judges chapter 17, you read it and you're just like, what in the world? What's going on here? So let's go ahead and look at Judges chapter 17 and get into this story and as we as we go through these stories in the last part of the book of Judges, we are going to look at the parallels in these stories to what's happening with us today and our lives today. Okay, and you know, you may be shocked at how many parallels there actually are. You know, so when you read something like this, you know, you're typically like, well, you know, what's going on here, but you may be shocked at how it's not really that new even compared to what you're dealing with today in the world around you. Look at Judges chapter 17. It's a short chapter, but there's a lot here. Okay, look at Judges 17 verse 1. The Bible says, and there was a man of Mount Ephraim whose name was Micah. Oh, that sounds nice. This is a nice story. Let's see what Micah is up to. Okay, verse 2, and he said unto his mother the eleven hundred shekels that were taken from thee about which thou cursest and spakest of also in mine ears. Behold, the silver's with me, and I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son. What in the world's going on here? What? I mean, I'm done with this chapter. Just close the Bible. This makes no sense. You know, what?  We won't be done. We'll finish.  Okay?  And you just swore up and down, and you were cursing everybody and everybody, and, and you couldn't find it.  Hey, Mom, it was me. I stole it. And she's like, Blessed be the Lord. So that's what's happening here. Okay? That's what we just read. Okay? He's like, I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son.  You know? I mean, so look, first of all, it gives you kind of an idea of the kind of guy that we're dealing with right here. All right? Right off the bat. We get kind of an idea of the character of Micah. And probably that Micah probably didn't have the best start in life. He probably wasn't, he just, the boy wasn't raised right. It was basically what you can say. Okay? Look at verse number three. So let's see if it makes more sense. Maybe I just took one verse out of context. Verse number three. And when he had restored the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, well, at least he gave it back. At least he gave it back to his mother so there's hope for Micah. Okay? His mother said, I had whole, holy dedicated the silver unto the Lord from my hand from my son to make a graven image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it unto thee. You're like, what in the world? Look at verse four. Yet he restored the money unto his mother and his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the founder, meaning, you know, the person that runs the foundry that makes stuff out of metal, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image and they were in the house of Micah. So first of all, the mom says, I've dedicated this money to the Lord. I dedicated it to the Lord for you to make a molten image for you. And you're like, what? What's going on here? So she wants to make a molten image to dedicate the money to the Lord. It's kind of like saying, hey, let's take a special offering in the church.  You know, that's basically what she said, right? So there, she's got, she's got, they're all mixed up here, okay? They're all backwards and mixed up and then he gives her the money back and that's exactly what she does with it. She goes and she makes a molten image. She literally makes her son an idol. She doesn't make an idol of him. I think she probably has already done that from reading these first few verses, but she makes him a literal idol. Look at verse number five. And the man Micah had an house of gods. So he already had several idols. This man, he was a collector of gods. He already had a temple or whatever you want to call it, of false gods, of gods, of idols or whatever. And he made an ephod and a tariff him and consecrated one of his sons who became his priest. So, I mean, it makes perfect sense, right?  He's got all these false idols in it. He's like, we've got to get me a priest. You're going to get me a priest to run this place. So he's like, uh, Jacob, you're going to be my priest.  Look at verse number six. In those days there, and now we make, now we see. In verse number six, we get to see what's happening here. It kind of wraps it up. In those days, there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. You think? It's exactly what's going on here. Micah's doing what's right in his own eyes. His mom has raised him in the way that is right in her own eyes.   He took it. She saw some money. She got it back and she went and she bought it.   There was no, you know, there was no law that anyone was following. So we get some clarity on at least why things are so backwards and so mixed up in the first few verses here.  You know, what they felt was spiritual.  He felt like that would make him spiritual. He needed a priest. So he just went and he made his son a priest. You know, he just made anybody a priest. Here's my son. Sounds good. He's right there. He can be the priest. Look at verse number seven. And then it gets even better for Micah because, I mean, he had his son as a priest. But now, I mean, we have a chance to get even more godly here. Look at verse number seven. And there was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite. Whoa! This guy's a Levite. And he's sojourned there. He stayed there. And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehem Judah to Sojourn where he could find a place. And he came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah as he journeyed. And Micah said unto him, Where com, 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. He's like, I'm just traveling around looking for a place. I have nowhere. He's not really going anywhere. And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me. He said, Be unto me a father and a priest. And I will give thee ten shackles of silver by the year and a suit of apparel and thy victuals. So the Levite went in. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man. And the young man was unto him as one of his sons. And Micah consecrated the Levite. And the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, Now I know that the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my priest. So Micah sees this guy that's a Levite and he's like, Hey, I mean look, he obviously doesn't know a lot about the Bible. But he knows enough to know that the Levites are supposed to be the priests in the house of God. He doesn't know obviously that you're not supposed to worship false gods. You're not supposed to have idols in the first place. Or he doesn't seem to care. But he's like, Hey, I'm going to get me a Levite. Now I got a real priest even though he's got false gods and still all these things. So basically, you know, I don't even know where to begin.  You're like, Where do we even begin here? This is so messed up. But look, first of all, I want to point out the parallels. When we talk about Judges 17, Judges 18, Judges 19, and the end of the book of Judges, there's a lot of parallels to what we're dealing with today. Okay. And you know, don't just sit there and think that, Hey, that's messed up because I want to show you tonight how what's happening in Judges 17 is happening today. The exact same thing is happening in our country today. You say, explain that. We'll turn to Ephesians chapter six. Let me give you a few points just to show you how Judges 17 is applicable to exactly what we're seeing in our world, even in our country, even in our city today. Look at Ephesians chapter six. First of all, just this disrespecting of parents. Okay. This idea that we're going to be disrespectful to our parents is extremely common today. Look at Ephesians chapter six. And we can't look, we can't even read all the chapters or all the verses in the Bible for sake of time that talk about being respectful to your parents. But Ephesians chapter six and verse number one is one, children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise. What's the promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth?  I mean that's, I mean that's a promise. So I mean here you have an adult son literally stealing from his mother. He's stealing from his mother. I mean that's the opposite of obeying and being respectful to your parents. Now the parallels to this today turn to Second Timothy chapter three is we actually see an entire generation today I would say being raised with absolutely no respect for their parents. An entire generation. I mean if you don't recognize that pattern, you know, if as you're out in the world, as you're soul winning, as you're doing everything else, you know, you're not paying attention. Look at Second Timothy chapter three. That's why when we teach about, you know, discipline from the Bible and all these different things, you know, people that first come into this church from outside into a Bible preaching church and they hear sermons on how you're supposed to raise your kids and how you're supposed to discipline your kids and how you're supposed to chastise your children if you love them, you know, that may be hard to hear for people coming from the outside world to hear or coming from some, you know, liberal church that says nothing to hear. That may be a difficult message to swallow because it's not what's being teach anywhere today. Okay, which is why we're seeing what we're seeing today. Look at Second Timothy chapter three. It's also a sign by the way of the end times. It's also a sign of the end times. Look at Second Timothy chapter three verse one. The Bible says this know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, and it goes on and on. But look, this is, remember the clues in the milestones? This is a clue. Okay, because look, it was happening in Judges chapter 17. That obviously wasn't the end of the world. Okay, that obviously wasn't the end times. It's happening today. Could it be the end times? We don't know. But it could just be, look, it's a sign of a declining civilization for sure. I mean, this civilization in the end of the book of Judges here that we're seeing in Judges, it was reaching a breaking point. It was reaching a breaking point where civilization had broken down, where morality had broken down to the point where God had to just, he had to reset things. He had to reset things. He had to give them a king. He had to put in, you know, a new leadership structure because things were just completely out of control. Things were just completely out of control. So look, we see that there's parallels to even just the first couple of verses here where Micah is just completely disrespectful to his mom and she's okay with it. She's okay with it. He stole from her. She's like, oh, blessed be my son. You know, she wishes a blessing on him after he admits that he stole from her after she was even upset that she had this money stolen from her. But the main point that I want to make this evening is this. So that's just a kind of a side note. This disobedience to parents. Look back at verse number seven. The main point I want to make and the main parallel that I want to make with Judges chapter 17 with our society today is this. And that is this. It is doing things our own way. So if there was a title to this sermon, it would be our own way. Our own way. That is the story. That is the real, the heart of the lesson of Judges chapter 17 is our own way. Look at verse number six. In those days, there was no king in Israel, but every man. So it says there was no king in Israel, meaning, look, there was just no leader. There was no leader in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. You know, the Bible teaches this philosophy that as a society gets more and more and more immoral, that you will need more and more and more worldly leaders over you. You know, the founders of this country knew the same thing. They knew that as, you know, we're not a religious people anymore and as our morality declines, is like your freedom is just going to be inversely proportional to that. As your morality goes down, you know, well it's directly proportional. As your morality goes down, your freedom is going to go down. Because you have to be controlled by something. That's just the way it works. So look, our own way is what was going on in Judges 17 and look, I'm telling you, it's what's going on today. It's what's going on today. Micah was a man going his own way. Micah was a man doing things the way he thought they should be done just out of his own, just how he wanted. He wanted a house of gods. He made a house of gods. He wanted a priest. He made his son a priest. He made an ephod for him to make him look like a priest. He gave him all the stuff that a priest would have. He made him a priest and then a Levite came along. He's like, oh, now I got a real priest. He's a Levite. So Micah was a man that was just, he was just making it up as he went and he was doing things how he wanted. Now look, the first thing I want to point out about our own way is how we worship God actually matters. Did you know that? Turn to Exodus chapter 20. Knowing the law matters. Clearly people were not reading the Bible in Micah's time and place. Turn to Exodus chapter 20 just for a simple example. Look, it's part of, it's one of the 10 commandments. You know there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of commandments in the Bible. This is one of the main 10. Okay? Look at Exodus chapter 20 and look at verse number 4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any lightness of anything that is in heaven above, that is in the earth beneath, that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. So look, God here is saying, don't make a graven image. Why? Because you're going to worship it.  I mean how many Buddha temples have you ever seen? How many little Buddha statues do people in this city probably have in their house?  Look, God says don't do that. He says I'm a jealous God. He's like I'm the God, not these idols, these dumb idols of stone and wood and iron or whatever else. He's like I'm a jealous God. The parallels, I mean the parallels today, so I mean Micah, he was just worshiping God in a completely, he wasn't even worshiping God. He was worshiping different gods but he was worshiping, he was getting his spiritual fix in a completely unacceptable way, completely unacceptable.  Look at what's going on today. Look at the churches today that are popular even in our own city. You know look at you know these mega churches. How are they worshiping the Lord?  As you know they have these you know the rock concerts and the music that you know it sounds no different than the music somebody is driving down the street in Fresno blaring in their car. It sounds the exact same as that in a church. I mean look these people I mean their music mimics the world. You know we'll turn to Romans chapter 12.  As long as we make Christian lyrics and we talk about Jesus what does it matter what the tune of the music is? Well it does matter because the Bible says it matters. That's why. Look at Romans chapter 12. You say I mean man you're getting really specific but the Bible tells us that we should not be doing this. What do you mean? We should not be looking, we should not be trying to turn this church into what the world looks like. Because the why? Because me know because the Bible says this in Romans 12 too. It says and be not conformed to this world. Is that hard to understand? It says hey don't try to go out and look like the world looks like. But you know what? You know what? You know what's funny? You know there's a reason they do it. They don't do it just because you know they like the tune. They do it because that's what people want. They do it because people look it's almost like God when he wrote Romans 12 too. It's almost like he knew what would happen. He did know what would happen. He said be not conformed to this world but what's the opposite of that? But be transformed. Be transformed. That means that means you know what that means? You know when you transform something you know what you do? You know when you transform when you take when you have a transformer for electricity you know what you're doing? You're changing it in some way. You're taking something in and you're sending it out and it's different. You're making it different for a different use. And look it says be transformed by what? The renewing of your mind. It's saying your your mind should be transformed. It should be changed. That you may prove that what is that good acceptable and perfect will of God. Look it is it is God's will. It is God's perfect will that when you go to church and you study his word and you listen to what the Bible has to say for you. Look the Bible has a lot to say for you. Does it not? I mean how in the world can I get up here? I'm not that interesting. How can I get up here and preach so much? How can I get up here and preach so many messages that aren't exactly the same? It's because the Bible has so much to say for your life. It has so much to say on what this transformation is about. And look you're to be and that that transformation is the perfect will of God. Is what Romans 12-2 is saying. It is God's perfect will. It's not just it's not just his his thoughts his idea that he had one day. It's his perfect will that you be transformed and that you be transformed according to this. There's a lot here. Look you're going to come here for a year and you're not going to hear everything that's here.  You're not going to hear everything that's in here. That's how much transforming needs to be done. That's the perfect will of God that you would be transformed. Not that you would go somewhere so you could just be the same. But you know what it's easier. It's easier to go somewhere we can just be the same. We're going to have to transform anything.   Be the same. No but if I get up here and I read what the Bible says and I say look no this one thing right here that's got to change. This thing over here it's got to change. If you don't change this it's going to be a disaster. If you don't change here you're going to wreck everything. Look that's not that great to hear sometimes because change is hard. It's difficult.  People they just want to be entertained you know there's a they just want to like go to you know they just want to go well let's turn let's turn the pulpit into a clown show. Hey kids how about that how about to get up here in a clown outfit big red shoes and we just have a clown show every day. You come to church we have a clown show. It's funny for five minutes until everybody ruins everyone's lives and nobody gets transformed nobody changes anything and but look people want to be entertained. That's why people go to movies.  They just want entertainment that's it. Look I don't want to be boring. I mean the Bible's not really boring I'm like you're gonna hear stuff that you don't necessarily want to hear. It's not just pure cheap entertainment but people don't want to hear what the Bible has to say. That's why they go to these other places and that look they want to have that spiritual feeling right they don't want to go to a rock concert. You know they want to go to the rock concert on Saturday night and then they want to go to the rock concert on Sunday morning to you know get that spiritual fix. I went to church that was Micah. I went to church and worshiped a bunch of false gods. I went to church you know with a real priest he's a Levite. You know I had a real lie priest look at him he looks like a priest see all that gold and stuff I put on him. So look he wanted to get that spiritual feeling but he wasn't doing it the right way. Look that's why these churches have hundreds and thousands of people. It's very easy to understand because they're conforming to the world and they have a bunch of people because look I mean I'm telling you I mean if I know anything after a year and a half of doing this it's hard to get people to conform.  People don't want to do it. The message the message so you got the entertainment you got the light shows you got the music it's all conformed to the world so what's the message at that point? So you got this church full of worldly people you got this church full I'm not even talking about salvation or not you got a church full of worldly people you know most I mean most of the gospels are not correct okay but I don't even have to go there let me just give you an example you got a church full of worldly people that they don't want to conform to anything they want to sing the rock music they don't want they want the light shows they want it to look like the nightclub they you know what's the message they got the nice building you know the big arena or whatever it is look the message is this the message and it has to be this it's nothing it can be nothing it can be nothing turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 1 because once you have a bunch of people that you're not preaching that they need to be conformed and you filled your church that way you can say nothing in the bible why why because here's why because the bible says this it says 1st Corinthians 118 for the preaching of the cross cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of god they would hear the preaching of the word of god and we saw again turn to john chapter 8 turn to john chapter 8 we saw again look the word of god offends remember it cuts to the heart it cuts to the heart so you can have this church full of people that you're just trying to you know get them to just be the same as the world and you're trying to make that your church like the world and you're trying to make everything look no different than the world and then you're going to preach the bible well that's not going to work at all that's not going to work at all look at look this has been the tactic of satan from the beginning the word of god offends people the word of god offends people look at john 844 the bible says this you are of your father the devil and the lust of your father you will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there's no truth in him when he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own for he's a liar and the father of it look he's been trying to get people to doubt god's word from the very beginning and all those people that are conformed to the world to the world that are sitting in those churches they all doubt god's word they would hear god's word and they would just sting their ears and they would be like ah what's that all about turn to john chapter 3 genesis chapter 3 and verse 1 the bible says i'll just read for you now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said out of the woman yay hath god said that's the first tactic that he uses and it's the main tactic that he uses today he's like hey did god really say that he said to eve are you sure did he really mean it that way he's trying to plant seeds of doubt he's trying to take away the absolutism of the word of god is what he's trying to do and that's what's happened today which is why people can sit in these churches and why you can't preach the word of god to those people you can't do it it won't work it's like oil and water look at john chapter 3 and verse 19 and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil for everyone that do with evil hate at the light neither cometh to the light last what his deeds should be reproved you can't have a bunch of people conform to the world and start preaching the word of god to them it something's got to give something's gonna give they're either they're either gonna give or they're gonna they're they're gonna leave is what's gonna happen so you have a church if i had you know if we started verity baptist church fresno and we just like we're just rocking this thing out up here rotten you know we just left the old hymns and we left all the you know the principled stands on the bible and we just had this smoke show up here and all this stuff look i couldn't preach the bible if i built the church that way i couldn't preach the bible or i'd be preaching to a bunch of empty chairs because all those people would leave if that's what they came for look bible preaching cuts to the heart and a man that is in the world is not going to like it it's it's very simple you know what a cool experiment would be would be to take some you know like take joel ostin's church i don't even know what it's called take this big mega church and just put some fire breathing baptist preacher in there and just do like a just do an experiment for like i don't probably only take about a week you need to have a church about like this people i mean you know a handful of people probably get saved you know people probably get saved that's the first thing but the vast majority of people they'd hit the door they hit it fast as soon as that first time that that bible started getting preached people would be their ears would just ah maybe out the door but it'd be cool to watch the filter of god's word work an experiment like that but what people in the world folks they don't want to hear you know the world preached against it's like you're preaching against you know they're you know you're basically you're gonna you're gonna expose their sins that's what the bible says it's not comfortable but this is religion today this is religion your own way this is religion when you do it your way and and not god's way but we'll still call it church we'll still you know we'll still have a pulpit we'll still put a cross on the building we'll give the priest an ephod maybe we can get a levite you know how many times have you been to the door and you ask somebody if they're going to heaven and they're like yeah i'm going to heaven well how do you know that well my dad's a pastor my my mom's a deacon my mom's a deacon so i'm going to heaven or you know my wife is a pastor of the church i'm good thank you son for stopping by you know i mean look it's the same thing is hey we got a levite here it's making the priest it's the same thing you know calling it church calling it worship doesn't make it so doesn't make it so turn to second timothy chapter four especially when they're preaching the wrong message turn to second timothy chapter four look what the bible says in second timothy chapter four and verse number three the bible says this tell me there's not parallels here for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine i think mica needed some sound doctrine is what mica needed mica's priest needed some sound doctrine i mean think about this levite i mean was this guy a levite coming right out of the temple i mean this guy was this guy i mean the temple wasn't even around but i mean my point is that this guy he was you know a levite this guy came in and he decided he's like i'll take the job of a priest of all these false gods i mean some spiritual guy this was for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers there's mica right here he's just bringing himself in a priest he's like he probably told the guy what to say he's like here's how you run this place and here's what i want you to say having itching ears that they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned onto fables they have itching ears they want to hear the things that they that they want to hear they want to do it their way so they're going to get themselves priests i mean that's what people are doing today they went out they went out and you know the joe ostens and all these people they got themselves some priests to tell them some fables that's what they're doing you ever listen to the messages of these people that's what they're doing they're telling fables they're telling fables they're telling they'll tell some story there's nothing to do with the bible that's usually an entertaining story maybe even it has lessons you know jack in the beanstalk had a lesson a couple lessons in it no seriously jack in the beanstalk you remember this i mean lessons like don't be greedy listen to your parents that's great let's tell jack in the beanstalk next sunday morning that's the sermon jack in the beanstalk but no it's not in the bible it's an interesting story there might be some neat little lessons we can learn there but it's fake it's not real i mean they're not the truth is the problem with these fables so the lesson here with mica is that first of all with church with church with worship with spiritual things for look we must do church god's way we must do church god's way that's why there's so many specific things that are done specifically everything's done specifically around here there's not anything that i can really think of that's done on accident around here but look here's the thing a church that operates in the right way that it operates god's way is going to offend people it's going to offend people it's look maybe what you hear every sunday every sunday night every wednesday maybe what you hear is not what you wanted to hear when you came but it surely every single time what you need to hear because we're doing church god's way here we're not doing church your way we're not doing church my way we're doing church you know god's way we're going to offend some people homosexuals or unnatural people that's going to offend people i mean the fact that they've been given over to this oh i mean the bible explains exactly about it everyone's so confused the bible explains how it happened what it means what it means for us they can't be saved which means they can't come to church here that people aren't going to like that people aren't going to you know but all the answers are there all the answers are there i mean not just homosexuals all unnatural things all unnatural things i'm not even going to name we know how it happened the bible tells us but that offends people today people don't want to hear that today you're not going to grow a church wait maybe you will maybe you will grow a church that way i mean i'm optimistic but you'll grow a church with the right type of people that want to hear the truth if we're going to preach the whole thing even the stuff that offends people i don't care what the world accepts i could care less like i could it's on the negative scale of what the world accepts and what they don't i could care less and that's where you need to be abortion we will always preach against that here we will always defend every single human life here born or unborn i mean abortion is murder you know i don't care if 80 percent of the country gets to the point where they accept abortion i could care less i could care less we're going to preach the truth here we're going to preach what the bible says here fornication we're going to take that so seriously that if you're in fornication you could literally be i mean i hope not but i mean you could literally be thrown out of a church for that that's how serious that we take that sin i mean look not just church but just the overall point here is this folks your life your life must be done god's way and look you listen up listen up because everyone's like oh yeah i knew that no you don't because i mean every single person has times in their life look you hear a lot of practical preaching here turn to matthew 12 you hear a lot of practical preaching here you're going to hear you're going to see a lot of you're going to see a lot of it look because i mean is are all the things that we're seeing in the world today specifically detailed out in the bible no but we're going to hear preaching that applies the bible to every single detail of the things that you're dealing with in your life that's practical preaching look but your life according to all this practical preaching your life must be done god's way but because here's the thing folks look at matthew chapter 12 verse number 30 i mean i hate to break it to you but here's the reason that your life needs to be done god's way because god god is an absolutist he's into absolutism he's he's all one way and none the other way that's how god operates and you better understand that i mean just look at matthew 12 30 the bible says he that is with me is again he that is not with me is against me i mean that's extreme but it gets even worse it says and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad i mean that that basically could be interpreted like look if you don't go soul winning if you're saved and you don't go and get other people saved and gather with jesus you're scattering people i mean if you are not a soul winner if you are not out there spending your life opening the bible and giving the gospel to people to get people to believe on the lord jesus christ you're scattering people you're like that is extreme you're gonna stand up here and you're gonna tell me that if i don't go soul winning and i don't go out and preach the word of god to people that i'm literally sending people to hell yes why because that's what the bible says well look you get it you get a church where 80 percent of the people don't go soul winning or you have a bunch of people in the church who just they don't want to throw in they don't i want to well if if 80 percent of your church is like that and you preach this type of message those people are either gonna get right or they're gonna get out and you probably have a lot smaller church you keep preaching messages like that but the people that stay are gonna be right that's why we preach that you should look different i mean what what is it separation that's why we preach that you need to separate from the world you're not conformed but you separate you should look different that's the bible applied to how you dress you should look different you should act different this is why you know this is why we preach we push so hard homeschooling here because i mean that's the bible applied to how you raise your children Deuteronomy chapter six i mean that's the bible put on all these things that's why we preach that you should raise your own children that's the bible applied to that look that's god's way and i mean look it would not only keep the church right but it'll keep you right you keep your family right and i mean this is the difference look you get outside god's way you know i mean mica he wasn't even in the same he wasn't even in the same district but you get outside god's way i mean i hope you don't but if you do you know there's gonna be consequences to that so that's why look that's why it's it's way more important than how many people come here but it's more important what's way more important than the numbers here is how we're doing things here what's way what's the most important in your life is is how are you doing your life because here's what people will do by the way here's what people will do they'll sit here and they'll listen you want to waste your life coming to church here you want to waste your time here here's how you waste your time and if you do this i mean i mean i'm glad that you come here and have friends and stuff but you're wasting your time you're not getting what you could out of this if you take practical preaching and you listen to it and you're like yeah yeah i know yeah but but for me but for me you know i have these stimulating circumstances and things um yeah so god's way is here and but for me i'm gonna go over here you know i'm not going to pay for that i'm not going to pay for that that's judge 17 you see you want to see you say oh but Michael he's just some goofy guy oh yeah let's wait and see what happens let's wait and see the consequences of getting outside god's way and i'm telling you there's major consequences you get outside god's way of doing things there's major consequences this silly little story costs countless people their lives there's silly little story you will lose people people will die people will go to hell you will scatter people abroad people that you love if you get outside god's way like scary i'm trying to scare you because i don't want you outside god's way you go and you leave here and you do what you want you go you live your life how you think that you should live your life i'm trying to teach you what god's way is i'm trying to spend my life showing you what god's way is and trying to just beg and plead for you to listen to what god's way is because i don't want to see anybody suffer consequences i don't want to suffer consequences i don't want my kids to suffer consequences just just stick to god's way look here's the thing it's not complicated the gospel's simple god's way simple but you got to just shut your own way off you got to shut your own way off you got to shut this wicked world off because satan is out there just like he was doing to eve in genesis chapter three saying really just god really want that really for you i think it's different no it's not different for you it's the same it's god's way it's simple and it's the same for you and it's the same for your children and it's the same bible and it's always going to be the same and that's why look this is why this is not a mega church because people want to be conformed to that and they don't want to hear this type of thing it's why mica wanted to do things his own way and we'll see next week we'll see the consequences and you'll see if the consequences weren't necessarily for mica but the consequences were for other people and that's a really sad thing about getting outside of god's way let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer