Plans Of The Lord Against Squatters

I. EXORDIUM:

Are you a squatter?

II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Believers

III. OBJECTIVES:

To know that owning properties and benefiting from them but but you have not paid for it will yield greater and heavier punishment for you.

IV. TEXT:

Micah 2:2-3 (Amplified Bible)

2:2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away; they oppress and crush a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.

2:3 Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, against this family I am planning a disaster from which you cannot remove your necks, nor will you be able to walk erect; for it will be an evil time.

V. THESIS:

Praise, worship and thank You very much LORD JESUS, for You are my Only Delight and Desire, You have already blessed me with everything I need even before I ask.

VI. TITLE:

Plans of the LORD against squatters

VII. EXPLICATION:

A. Author: Micah, a native of Moresheth in Judah

B. Date written: Sometime between 739 and 686 B.C.

C. Purpose: To warn GOD's people of coming judgement for sin and to offer hope from GOD's mercies.

D. To whom written: North Kingdom (Israel) and South Kingdom (Judah)

E. Main Themes: Sin is exposed. GOD's justice is required. Mercy is offered to those of humble and repentant hearts.

VIII. MAIN BODY:

A. Different types of squatters

"They covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away; they oppress and crush a man and his house, a man and his inheritance."

1. They covet and seize fields

2. They take houses

3. They oppress, crush a man and his house

4. They oppress, crush a man and his inheritance

The squatters have violated and disobeyed the tenth commandment of GOD.

Exodus 20:17 (Amplified Bible)

20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Luke 12:15 (Amplified Bible)

12:15 And He said to them, Guard yourselves and keep free from all covetousness (the immoderate desire for wealth, the greedy longing to have more); for a man’s life does not consist in and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance or that which is over and above his needs.

Colossians 3:5 (Amplified Bible)

3:5 So kill (deaden, deprive of power) the evil desire lurking in your members [those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin]: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry (the deifying of self and other created things instead of God).

Matthew 22:37-40 (Amplified Bible)

22:37 And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).

22:38 This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.

22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.

22:40 These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets.

Covet or "chamad" in Hebrew meaning:

1. to delight in

2. greatly beloved

3. delectable thing

4. to lust

5. to consider them pleasant and precious

All their delight is not in GOD, while GOD taught us to delight in Himself. GOD knows as human beings we have tendencies like this and we're not exempted from this 10th commandment but the secret is "delight" first in the LORD, and all these delectable things will be granted to you. But first you need to "covet" JESUS.

Psalms 37:4 (Amplified Bible)

37:4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.

One example is King Ahab who coveted Naboth's vineyard, he ended up murdering Naboth.

1 Kings 21:15 (Amplified Bible)

21:15 Then Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite which he refused to sell you, for Naboth is not alive, but dead.

There are warnings against these type of people:

- The land cries against them, it even complained with tears because they have no right in owning these land.

Job 31:38 (Amplified Bible)

31:38 For if my land has cried out against me and its furrows have complained together with tears [that I have no right to them],

- They buy houses and lots until there's no one left for others to live.

Isaiah 5:8 (Amplified Bible)

5:8 Woe to those who join house to house [and by violently expelling the poorer occupants enclose large acreage] and join field to field until there is no place for others and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land!

- Their eyes and heart can't be fixed on the LORD, instead it's fixed on (1) covetousness and dishonest gain, (2) shedding innocent blood, (3) oppression and doing violence