6:8 Sunday

6:8 Sunday is about focusing our attention on what God wants and what our neighbors need.

Micah 6:8 (ESV), “8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

This verse outlines what God wants… but before we unpack what God wants lets look back at why the prophet speaks this to the people of God.

Context:

Micah was a prophet who served the Lord during the reign of three different Kings in Israel. (Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah) He served at about the same time as Hosea and Isaiah, but he may have been a little later than those two. He likely served about 25 years, he witnessed the fall of Israel in 722 BC and its reforms under Hezekiah.

Micah witnessed the judgment of God and the forgiveness of God. He was sent to bring the Lord’s “lawsuit” against his people. Micah 3:8 (ESV) “8 But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.”

Micah points out the sins of the people of God throughout the book. It begins with an indictment of the sins of the people of God in Micah 1:1–7 (ESV),

“The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 2 Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. 3 For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 4 And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. 5 All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. 7 All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.”

The sins of Israel include idolatry, stealing property, failure of civil leadership, failure of religious leadership, failure of the prophets, corrupt business practices, violence, and offering sacrifices without truly repenting.

God asks the people of Israel what has He done to deserve the way they are treating Him?

God reminds them of all that He has done for them. He brought them our of Egypt, led them through the wilderness, protected them from their enemies.

When faced with the reality of all God has done for them, the truth of their sin, and the impending judgment that God has promised… the people of God respond in Micah 6:6–7 (ESV) with the following questions:

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”

The people respond by asking if they can make up for their sins and avoid the judgment and consequences by making larger sacrifices?

2 Things that help us understand and apply this to our own lives:

They thought they could buy God’s favor and forgiveness.

In Micah 6:6-7 the people think they can just give God more, or make a more serious sacrifice and then He will be ok with them.

But, this completely ignores the heart, mind, and soul.

Earlier in the life of Israel God gave them the command to love Him with their heart and soul. It says in Deuteronomy 10:12–13 (ESV), 12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?

Israel had forgotten what God said He required of them. He requires that His people live in a way that honors Him.

The people of Israel were going through the religious motions, but they were not loving God with the way that they lived their lives.

They were willing to give God everything but what He was asking for.

The offered to give Him even more of the same sacrifices they had been giving. It was if they thought the problem was the amount… but the problem is that they did not give God what He wants and requires.

So how does this help us?

Well, we are prone to be just like the Israelites and think that we can do for the Lord what we want, but not everything that He is asking for.

In fact, we can go so far as to make being a part of the church about us and not about Him. This is happening more and more in American Christianity.

As the culture changes and churches are shrinking, many churches are focusing on their likes and dislikes as the strategy for keeping their people and growing their churches. This happens when our focus is on doing what it takes for people to want to come to the “event” of worship… and this isn’t because coming to worship is what God wants… but the goal of the church gathering for worship isn’t to do what the people like or will cause them to come back.

God is the goal of our worship because God is the goal of our lives.

Micah 6:8 hits us just right today… at a time when the American church is looking for an answer to the questions: “What do we need to focus our attention on?” What is the strategy that will give our church the best chance at a future?”

Micah 6:8 is as the young kids say, straight fire… this is the “w”, no cap… 100%.

“8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” - Micah 6:8 (ESV)

First: God wants real worshippers

As JM Boice writes, “God answers quietly that he is not asking for anything new. He is not laying down further religious ordinances. All he asks is what has been asked from the beginning. And it is not ritual or routine! It is the reality, not the form. It is: (1) to act justly, (2) to love mercy, and (3) to walk humbly with God.”

“God wants reality, not the form”

The form is the ritual… the activities… the services… the programs… but they can be empty. It doesn’t matter how many sacrifices you make, how often you make them, or how sacrificial they are… if they are disconnected from a true love for God than they are nothing.

Real worshippers love their redeemer with all of their heart

The people of God are a purchased or redeemed people. This is why God constantly reminds Israel of where they have come from and how they got where they are.

He reminds them that they have been redeemed… He has rescued them from the bondage of their oppressors and given them life!

In Micah God reminded them of when He brought them out of Egypt… when He gathered them to Himself. But, in the book of Micah God also told them that He was going to scatter them because of their sin and rebellion. They deserved His wrath and He was going to deliver it through the Assyrians.

But, this is not the way it would stay. In the same way that God gathered Israel from Egypt and put them in the promised land, God promises to gather them again through a future King. And the King is described like a Shepherd…

Micah 2:12–13 (ESV) says, “12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men. 13 He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head.”

Micah declares at the end of the book that there is no one like God… there is no one like God who forgives and delights in his steadfast love. Micah 7:18 (ESV) says, “18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.”

The love and forgiveness of God is what is behind the promise of the Shepherd King.

God promises that He will gather them through a Shepherd King. Micah 5:4 (ESV) says, “4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord.” in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth."

Jesus is the Shepherd King that God promised through Micah. Jesus is the Shepherd King who reigns with superiority while at the same time caring for the needs of His flock. The love that Jesus shows to His sheep impacts their lives. As Micah

They respond with a willing obedience and are filled with joy. In fact, as Alistair Begg points out, Jesus “rules by the force of love and the energy of goodness.”

And so it should be no surprise that the God who rules by the force of his love and the energy of his goodness demands that His people embody and demonstrate their love for Him.

Those who have been rescued and redeemed by the Shepherd King love Him with their whole heart and soul. It’s only natural then that their love for God is demonstrated through the way they live their lives.

Real worshippers demonstrate their love and faith in God

Walter C Kaiser wrote that this verse was “a call for the natural consequence of truly forgiven men and women to demonstrate the reality of their faith by living it out in the marketplace. Such living would be accompanied with acts and deeds of mercy, justice and giving of oneself for the orphan, the widow and the poor.”

The natural consequence of truly forgiven men and women is the demonstration of their faith.

This is why James wrote about faith in works in his letter. James 2:14–18 (ESV), “14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Through Micah God tells His people that He requires the alignment of heart and action. And, if our hearts belong to Him then our actions will fall in line with His Words…. don’t forget that His words come from His heart. So, ultimately if we love Him then we will love His Words and His Ways.

So, God says in Micah 6:8 that true worshippers will demonstrate their love and faith in God by doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.

Second: Real worship is not about you

New International Readers Version says it this way:

“People of Israel, the Lord has shown you what is good. / He has told you what he requires of you. / You must treat people fairly. / You must love others faithfully. / And you must be very careful to live / the way your God wants you to.”

Doing Justice =’s Love your neighbor more than yourself

This means that you act… loving your neighbor more than yourself requires action… Justice doesn’t exist in thought, it exist in a person. Ultimately in God… but justice is demonstrated and carried out…

And your neighbor is the person in front of you. This means you cannot simply ignore what is happening in the world round you and busy yourself with the things on your to do list. We must care about what is happening in other people’s lives, we must care about other people.

Loving Kindness =’s Showing and growing in mercy

The word that is translated kindness in the ESV can also be translated as mercy, or even faithful/ covenantal love.

So “walk humbly” would be better rendered “walk carefully (with your God),” which ultimately means “be careful to live the way your God wants you to.”

Walking Humbly =’s Living with and for God in the ways that He wants you too.

Humility is expressed in obedience… and humility grows by your time with God. This verse is not just saying that you fight the sin of pride… This verse is calling those who belong to the Lord… those who love the Lord to live in ways that are pleasing to God.

The people who sacrifice and make offerings to the Lord, must be people who live in ways that are pleasing and consistent with the Lord. This is really simple. God requires what Israel was not giving to Him… their hearts and their lives. (God rejects false worship.)

6:8 Sunday is a reminder of what God wants, with a push toward what our neighbors need.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “The church is the church when it exists for others.” - D. Bonheoffer

You cannot do the Christian life without others… and you cannot do what God commands without neighbors to love!

People used to ask me what my vision for our church was… and for a long time I wasn’t sure exactly how to frame it for us here in Tupelo. But, I heard a pastor talking one time about the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England circa. 1861 and their pastor, Charles Spurgeon.

My prayer is that one day our church, Harrisburg Baptist Church would be like the Metropolitan Tab. Now, many would immediately say that I am aiming for massive church, because the church grew to seat 6,000 people. But, the focus of the Metropolitan Tabernacle was never about attendance. People were definitely drawn to what the Lord was doing there… but the reason they were drawn there is the thing that I pray for us… Spurgeon said of churches…

“Churches are not made that men of ready speech may stand up on Sundays and talk, and so win daily bread from their admirers.  No, there is another end and aim for this.  These places of worship are not built that you may sit comfortably and hear something that shall make you pass away your Sundays with pleasure.  A church which does not exist to do good in the slums, and dens, and kennels of the city, is a church that has no reason to justify its longer existing.  A church that does not exist to reclaim heathenism, to fight with evil, to destroy error, to put down falsehood, a church that does not exist to take the side of the poor, to denounce injustice and to hold up righteousness, is a church that has no right to be.  Not for yourself, O church, do you exist, any more than Christ existed for Himself.  His glory was that He laid aside His glory, and the glory of the church is when she lays aside he respectability and her dignity, and counts it to be her glory to gather together the outcasts, and her highest honor to seek amid the foulest mire the priceless jewels for which Jesus shed His blood.  To rescue souls from hell and lead to God, to hope, to heaven, this is her heavenly occupation.  O that the church would always feel this!” - Charles Spurgeon (Spurgeon, Christ’s Words from the Cross, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1986, p. 24-25).

During his time as a pastor they founded a ministerial college, an orphanage, homes to care for the elderly, food kitchens, clothes closets, and more. The Metropolitan Tabernacle became a church that existed for God and their neighbors.

The goal of 6:8 Sunday is that we would focus our attention on being a church that exists for God and our neighbors.

So, how can we do that? Well, even though we are aiming the whole church in God’s direction, some of the ways that we love God and love our neighbors will be different. What I mean is that we may not all do the same things while we are all aiming to do the same thing.

“8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” - Micah 6:8 (ESV)

3 Ways to “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”

Give Sacrificially

If you are a follower of Christ, then you should be giving to the local church. There are lots of organizations, people, and ministries to give too… but each of those should be after sacrificially giving to your local church. In fact, I am convinced we would’t have as much individual support needed if more was given to the local churches- and that would require that the local churches are also focused on the right things…

But giving to the Lord through your church is done from a cheerful heart- and if you are benefiting from the Lord’s work here at HBC, then you should be giving to support the work, and even giving to the degree that the work can grow.

This is absolutely a part of walking humbly with God… or giving to the Lord is directly related to our hearts and humility… and you may not have been encouraged to prioritize giving to the local church before… and I get that might be new to your ears. Especially with large number of opportunities to give that exist in addition to the church. But, the local church is the family of faith that God is growing you in… and more and more the local church is the missionary outpost of America… and to do more than we have done in the past, to reach people in ways we haven’t before, we are going to have to do ministry with a sensitivity to the Spirit and a willingness to support the work.

The local church is no longer in maintenance mode… we are mobilizing and going, and it requires funding.

Grow in your Faith

Do Good

It’s a little bit of a conundrum that the people who cannot be good, are called to do what is good. And, I would encourage you to hold on to that little nugget for the rest of your life. You cannot be good in the sense of your righteousness. But, through the work of God and the transformation of your heart you are called to do good.

There are many ways to do good, and today we are focusing our attention on opportunities that aren’t about us:

Fostercare

Adoption

CASA of North MS

(Court Appointed Special Advocate)CASA of North Mississippi advocates for the best interests of abused and neglected children through the service of trained, court-appointedcommunity volunteers.

Cancer Care Ministry

Food Drive & 5/2

Parkgate Pregnancy Clinic & One by One Mentoring

Recovery & Hope Ministry

There are many other ways to engage in doing good for our neighbors. And we hope to mobilize as a church to more and more of them. These areas that we will hear about tonight are happening in our church and are the result of what God is doing in us. He’s not done with these, and there will be more!

My hope is that God grows our church in ways that our neighbors notice. Not in size or in volume, but in our doing good.

Will you join me in praying that we will be the church that God desires and the church that our neighbors need?

Will you commit to being the Christian God desires and that your family and neighbors need?