Is Being a Christian Easy?
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Is Being a Christian Easy?
Is Being a Christian Easy?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
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?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly j with your God.
I pray a lot of the time about the will of God over my life.
The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
We all ask God what do you want me to do?
There is only one place in the bible where this is laid out and thats is in
Micah is Prophesying in the Temple in Judah
One of Micahs Prophecies come true and that is the one were northan israel will fall.
Around this time the Assyrian army were strong in number and had tried a few times to take northen israel but failed because God had protected them.
Now Micah six chapters later is now giving another prophecy or completing his whole prohecy that means, if you do not walk with God and obey him we will lose Judah and Jerusalem will be in ruins.
This later did happen
He also mentions that a messiah will come but later in Chapter seven.
Today I want us to look at
This will be chalenging to you I need to warn you that what you will hear today will challenge you. It will make you change a few things, repent a few things you may go home today feeling that you may not be good enough to be a Christian or your not right with God.
Remember though we serve a God who loves us and planned for us to be here, he has plans and purposes he wants to put through our lives, that are good for us.
This verse did challenge me when I was putting this together and I repented of a few things, that I have fallen short of.
I remember this verse though, that paul wrote to the romans.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
We may fall short but because of Jesus we are still right before God.
To Do Justice
To Do Justice
I am a big advocate for Justice
We run a foodbank here and it pushes me to do more
I have said many times its the Churches Job to fill the gap so that we may show people Justice.
This is because we must first love God with all our heart and this in turn will spur us on to do Justice.
To be there for the poor
To be there for the needy
To be there for the people that do not have a voice
To be there for the people that do not have a position of influence
To be there for the family member that is always left out.
To be there for the kid in school that is always picked on
We must also Act Justly towards each other
To love each other
To have mutal respect for one another
To have right relationships with people in and outside of the Church community
Hows your home relationships?
The Israelites were commanded to Protect the foreigners, to look after the poor, to look after the orphans and the widows
Justice as a christian prohibits acts of physical abuse or any kinds of behaviour that attemtps to take something that belongs to someone else.
We must relate to the people that are less fortunate than us, we must be there for them
The Church must be there to fill in the Gap to be the voice of the people that have had injustice against them
To Love Kindness
To Love Kindness
We are in a covenant life with the Father
When are Christians or become Christians we enter into the covernant that Jesus Died for
One big part of that is Love
We must deeply love being in relationship with the Father
How much time do you give to God each day?
How much time do you spend talking to the father?
How much time do you spend talking to others?
Giving up your time for others, maybe the poor, or family members you dont want to spend time with or maybe people in your work place that you struggle to be around, or someone at school that you dont like to play with?
To be a Christian in covenant with God is to Love whole heartedly God the father and then other people unconditionally
This means to love people no matter what they do to you.
To Love your husband or wife no matter how much they tick you off?
To love your children no matter how much they drive you crazy.
To love your brother or sister no matter how much they annoy you.
Now here came the hard part to this command for me.
Its a subject that I dont like to talk about as it makes me uncomftable but in studying this verse it really challenged me.
The Israelites were asked to bring a tithe every year into the store house.
To give 10% of their yearly earnings.
This is how this worked...
Two of these firstfruit offerings were public and national; viz. the first omer, on the second day of the Passover, and the wave-loaves at Pentecost. The other two kinds of ‘firstfruits’—or Reshith,‘the first, the beginning’—were offered on the part of each family and of every individual who had possession in Israel, according to the Divine directions in ; ; ; , ; , ; ; and , where the ceremonial to be observed in the Sanctuary is also described. Authorities distinguish between the Biccurim (primitiva), or firstfruits offered in their natural state, and the Terumoth (primitae), brought not as raw products, but in a prepared state,—as flour, oil, wine,
Flour Oil and Wine was the currency of the time.
I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’
Luke
Tithing was a thing that was ingrained in the people to do.
Im sure you have all heard of its the churches favourite verse for tithing. Yet it does show what was expected of the Israelites.
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
It was never Give to recieve but to Give because it was part of the convernant with God.
Malachi 3:10
In loving God you were giving him the first fruits of what you were harvesting the best part of the harvest is the first part.
In our context today it should be the first part you recieve in Pay. The part before tax and I say before tax because of this verse in the bible.
Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.
Jesus said to them give to Ceasur what is Caeasurs but Gods what is Gods.
A denerus was a common Coin of the time for a labrourers days work
The thing the church misses in this verse is to say that what belongs to God is probably more than what you are giving to the tax man.
So here was my problem in following
I am short on my yearly tithe by about £1,400 I give £40 a month and I thought that was enough yet clearly here it isnt.
So I ask you how much of your yearly recievings be it wages, pension or benifits in kind do you give and is it a tenth?
Should you be giving more?
The thing is only you and God know how much you earn and therefore I ask you to go home tonight and pray and ask God how much your meant to be giving.
When I found I was short I went before the lord and repented and that verse that I started with is something that I remembered.
To walk Humbly with your God
To walk Humbly with your God
Are your actions pleasing to God?
Is your advice right before God, does your advice give gain to someone and lost to another?
Have you ever thought well if I dont do this I might get away with it?
I know once again I have not walked humbly with God.
I have done it this year on many occasions thought of my self first before others.
I have given advice to a person to disregard certain rules around finances
I said to them think about yourself first and the food on the table
This was all in the name of what I thought was Justice
That was wrong advice and was not pleasing to God.
I forgot totally the verse give to ceasur what is cesurs and God what is Gods.
To walk humbly with God, makes you think is what I am about to do pleasing to God.
Are my plans in line with Gods will.
Walking through life are you putting God first?
Are you putting yourself second and him first?
When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
but with the humble is wisdom.
When you start putting God first and thinking about your actions, thoughts, and your advice before giving it out freely you have a different way of seeing things.
You have a Godly wisdom because you are walking humbly with your God.
Walking humbly means not to show how great you are but how Close you are to God.
To show others not by words but by actions that you have a relationship with God that requires you to act totally different in every way of your life.
Is being a Christian Easy?
Is being a Christian Easy?
What Micah was saying to the israelites here is If one does Do Justice, To Love Kindess, and Walk Humbly with your God. Then one will certainly treat others differently, they would treat them justfully, and act faithfully and maintain covenant relationships.
He was saying that it doesnt matter how much sacrifice you give or what sacrafice it is.
Doesnt matter what burnt offerings you give
Or how much Gold you can drop in
What God is concerned about is your heart and your character.
Once you know this you will stop trying to manipulate God with your prayers of if you do this lord I will do this.
I again did this this week. With Sarah and I current situation of Money and Debt, I entered a competition on the radio where they were giving away 18K. I said to God if I win this I will pay off our debt and setup a charity to feed people.
Do you think I won?
I did exactly the oposite to this
How churches are displaying religion makes it sound easy to be a christian.
Turn up for an hour on Sunday put some coins in the offering say a few prayers then be on your way and all will be well
Yet to be a christian means to live this everyday.
To think about your actions before you do them
To think of others before yourself
To give more of your wages than you would intend to
To put yourself second before everyone else
And to have the character and heart that God Desires
So is being a christian easy? No
Yet we have Jesus to help us, Gods grace there for when we fall short
God loves you so much that he wants you to try and do these things so that he may be glorified but also so that he may give you everything your heart desires.
Yet remember
We are always right before God no matter what and at the end of the day our actions dont mean much but our heart to God means everything.