God's Requirments for Humanity

What God does not want. Verse 6-7

With what Shall I come? Think about the most valuable thing that you have in your life. is that what you intend to bring before God?

“Look, when you come to Christ, you come as bankrupt sinners. You don’t offer Him anything. You come with nothing. You are beggars. You have nothing; He has everything, and He offers it to you.”

J. Vernon McGee

2. God wants nothing that we have to offer. Why? Because he is greater.

We cannot make God greater or higher than he is; but if we adore him as infinitely great, and higher than the highest, he is pleased to reckon this magnifying and exalting him.

Matthew Henry

3. Micah is constantly making what they could offer more and more expensive.

But God does not need anything, because when you give God anything, you only give what God gave you in the first place.

A. W. Tozer

300 Illustrations for Preachers Content to Leave Apple

Ron Wayne says he is happily living on a retirement pension in a remote Nevada desert town. In the mid-1970s, Wayne had a 10% share of a new computer company startup. He decided that he didn’t want to be a part and sold his 10% for $2,300. His partners’ names were Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and the company was Apple; today the shares would be worth about $35 billion. But Wayne is neither bitter nor sorry. Wayne says that if he would have stayed in the partnership he “was going to wind up the richest man in the cemetery.”

—Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Our Money Means Nothing

What does God require? Verse 8

1 Samuel 15:22 NASB95

Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

Obedience

The answer to Israel’s sin problem was not more numerous or more painful sacrifices. The answer was something much deeper than any religious observance: they needed a change of heart. Without the heart, Israel’s conformity to the Law was nothing more than hypocrisy. Other prophets tried to communicate a similar message (Isaiah 1:14; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21). Unfortunately, God’s people were slow to heed the message (Matthew 12:7). How we think. “Act justly” would have been understood by Micah’s audience as living with a sense of right and wrong. In particular, the judicial courts had a responsibility to provide equity and protect the innocent. Injustice was a problem in Israel at that time (Micah 2:1-2; 3:1-3; 6:11). How we act. “Love mercy” contains the Hebrew word hesed, which means “loyal love” or “loving-kindness.” Along with justice, Israel was to provide mercy. Both justice and mercy are foundational to God’s character (Psalm 89:14). God expected His people to show love to their fellow man and to be loyal in their love toward Him, just as He had been loyal to them (Micah 2:8-9; 3:10-11; 6:12). “Walk humbly” is a description of the heart’s attitude toward God. God’s people depend on Him rather than their own abilities (Micah 2:3). Instead of taking pride in what we bring to God, we humbly recognize that no amount of personal sacrifice can replace a heart committed to justice and love. Israel’s rhetorical questions had a three-part progression, and verse 8 contains a similar progression. The response of a godly heart is outward (do justice), inward (love mercy), and upward (walk humbly).

Gomer Pyle USMC He doesn’t need to be smart he just needs to listen.

Closing

What are you trying to bring to God? is it your tithe? Is it your church attendance? Is it something irrelevant? Or are you going to bring something that really matters?

Walk with God daily

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 5

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 2

6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so bwalk in Him,