The God of Relationship

Warren Brosi

December 14, 2025 (Third Sunday of Advent)

Dominant Thought: We walk with God by looking to Jesus.

Objectives:

I want my listeners to understand what God seeks.

I want my listeners to feel inspired by the way Jesus lived.

I want my listeners to walk with God through justice, mercy, and humility.

You can tell a lot about a person by the friends they keep.

Do you remember the movie, The Sandlot. Scottie Smalls moves to a new town in 1962. He’s a lonely kid that doesn’t get outside much. His mom challenges him to get outside and get dirty. He finds his way to the neighborhood sandlot. A group of boys is playing baseball. Smalls knows nothing about baseball. He simply peers through the fence watching. Benny Rodriguez, the star player sees him and invites him to play. The other kids are not so sure they want Smalls. They call him names and don’t want him to play. However, Benny Rodriquez give Scottie Smalls a chance and it changes the trajectory of his summer and his life according to the movie.

Our relationships can influence our lives in a positive or negative way.

A 2017 study out of Northwestern University found that sitting within 25 feet of a high performer at work improved an employee’s performance by 15 percent. But sitting within 25 feet of a low performer hurt their performance by 30 percent. [Sources: https://www.inc.com/david-cancel/what-5-people-closest-to-you-say-about-your-future.html and https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/sitting-near-a-high-performer-can-make-you-better-at-your-job]

Micah 6 describes the relationship between God and His people. As we work through Micah 6, we explore two questions before we get to the answer for their relationship.

Question 1: What have I done? The first question, the LORD asks His people in a courtroom type setting before the mountains and the hills. The LORD asks, “What have I done to you? How have I burdened you?” (Micah 6.3).

In Micah 6.4-5, the LORD reminds Micah and his listeners of His faithfulness to His people. He reminds them of his powerful care and miraculous rescue of His people from Egypt. He reminds them of their faithful leaders, three siblings: Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

Then, God reminds them of a lesser known story found in Numbers 22-24. Balak, a king of Moab, one of Israel’s neighbors. Balak hired a soothsayer named Balaam to curse Israel several times. Each time instead of cursing God’s people, Balaam blessed God’s people. The towns of Shittim and Gilgal reminded the people of the last stop before entering the promised land and the first town after the crossed the Jordan River on dry ground. If God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt and protected His people from the curses of their neighbors, then God is strong enough to take care of nations of Assyria and Babylon. “The church fails not because I AM fails in his covenantal commitment but because the church fails to respond properly to its obligations” (Bruce Waltke, A Commentary on Micah, p. 378).

Question 2: What can I give?

Next, Micah asks the the second question, “With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?” (Micah 6.6). That’s a great question for all generations. He gives several unsatisfactory answers before coming to Micah 6.8 for the answer. The questions that expect a negative answer are: burnt offerings, thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of olive oil, my firstborn for my transgression? He starts working from lesser to the greater. He starts to increase the stakes.

Thinking about offering a firstborn child to sacrifice would be something their pagan neighbors were doing. In fact, on the the kings during the ministry of Micah was reported to sacrifice his son in the fire. 2 Kings 16:3, “but he [Ahaz] walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.”

Even the most costly acts of sacrifice do not count without a trusting relationship with our loving and faithful Father. Then, we come to the answer to the question. What does God want?

The Greek translation of Micah 6.8 poses the verse in the form of a question as it reads, “Has it been reported to you, O man what is beautiful, or what the Lord seeks from you, but to make judgment, and to love mercy, and to be prepared to go with the Lord your God?” What’s it look like to be prepared to go with the Lord your God?

As we look at our theme verse of Micah 6.8, we will examine three examples of how to stay in a healthy relationship with Him. As we look at each example, we will explore the do’s and don’ts.

First, The LORD commands us to ACT JUSTLY (Micah 6.8).

Earlier in Micah, he speaks about justice. In Micah 3:8 we read, “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.”

In Micah 6.11, the LORD asks, “Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights?”

In the days of Jesus, he confronts the religious leaders with 7 woes. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus says to the leaders, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

The leaders were experts in the small matters of the law, but forgot the more important matters: justice, mercy, faithfulness.

To act justly is to live in a way with people that you honor them with what is right. You value people and treat them with respect.

Joseph Hellerman in his book, When the Church was a Family Recapturing Jesus' Vision for Authentic Christian Community (p. 123), challenges the “American Christian paradigm that understands salvation to have everything to do with how the individual relates to God and nothing to do with how we relate to one another.” Our faith shows how we treat people. Our faith influences our relationships with our heavenly Father and those we share this world.

Do/Act justly: All four gospels describe Jesus cleansing the temple. He was upset that people were taking advantage of those who had come to worship. He was upset that people erecting barriers for worshipping God. So, Jesus cleaned house. In Mark 11:17, Jesus said, “...Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.””

Jesus challenged the legalism and unfair treatment of women and hurting people. In Mark 3, Jesus heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. He confronts the leaders on whether it is lawful to do good or harm, to save life or kill on the Sabbath. The religious leaders don’t answer. Then, Jesus looks at them with anger and commands the man to stretch out his withered hand and it is restored. Then the Pharisees went out immediately to plot with others how they might destroy Jesus.

Second, The LORD commands us to LOVE MERCY (Micah 6.8).

To love mercy comes from the idea of love kindness or the loyal love of God. It is the faithful loyal love of God. It’s the love a husband pledges to his wife. Love never fails. It is not a feeling it is an action.

In Micah 6:12, we read “Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.” They are not treating people with loyal love and mercy.

Love mercy: We see Jesus eating with tax collectors and sinners, forgiving the sins of a sinful woman in Luke 7.48-50.

In Mark 5, Jesus heals a man full of demons. The restored man wants to follow Jesus, but Jesus gives him this command, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord had done for you and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5.19).

Later in Mark 10, a blind man named Bartimaeus, calls out to Jesus “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10.47-48). Mark tells us how Jesus responds to this request. Mark 10:52, “And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.”

Third, THE LORD commands us to WALK HUMBLY (Micah 6.8).

I have had some memorable walks.  Walking up to the upper deck with my dad at Wrigley Field. Taking my future wife, for a walk at OCC, by the chapel and when I asked her to marry me. Walking with my kids in the Black Hills of South Dakota and talking with my daughter who was preparing for her senior year of high school.

What are some of your memorable walks? The LORD invites us to walk humbly and wisely with Him.

To walk humbly carries the idea to walk wisely or prudently. You walk in such a way that your recognize God’s greatness and care for you and the universe. It is a grateful lifestyle.

Later in Micah 6.16, God accuses the people of following the commands of a former King Omri. Here’s how Omri is described in 1 Kings 16:26, “For he [Omri] walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in the sins that he made Israel to sin, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols.”

Our walk describes the way we live.

Walk humbly: Jesus shows us how to walk humbly with God by the way He welcomed the little children in Mark 10.13-16. Mark records His words in Mark 10:14–15, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Later in Mark 10:45, we hear Jesus say, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

Then, the night of His betrayal, Jesus took the posture of a servant and washed the dirty feet of His disciples in John 13. John records His explanation in John 13:14–16, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.”

Jesus walked the Via Dolorosa--Way of suffering by carrying the cross. The sinless Savior carried a criminal’s cross uphill toward Calvary. That’s a picture of walking humbly.

We walk with God by looking to Jesus.

Saint Teresa or Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love." (Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/quote-of-the-day-by-mother-teresa-not-all-of-us-can-do-great-things-but-we-can-/articleshow/125800167.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst).

What small things will we do this week through the loving relationship we have with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?