2: Walk Humbly with God (MICAH 6:8)

Last week we started a 3-week mini-series in the Old Testament writing called MICAH, an Old Testament prophet who spoke for God, telling the Hebrew people some things they really didn’t want to hear.

They knew how to TALK a good game, but weren’t WALKING out what they said they believed.

The Hebrew people couldn’t pay God off. No amount of sacrifices (Micah 6:6-7) could substitute for their trust & obedience to God, who had been so gracious to them.

What did God want from them?

Micah 6:8 (NIV)

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

We can have all the right beliefs & give our money & possessions to God, but...

HOW we BEHAVE shows WHO we BELIEVE.

If you weren’t here, please go to our website (FOM.life) or download our podcast to listen to what it means to “act justly” and “love mercy”. But TODAY we will spend some time discovering what it looks like to...

WALK HUMBLY WITH GOD.

Walking humbly with God means living like you recognize that He is God and you are not - that He is the authority - not you and me.

But...Walking humbly with God ultimately means:

Living in Obedience & Seeking God’s Presence

The person who walks humbly with God lives like God rewards those who obey Him and punishes those who don’t - in this life and the next.

If Obedience demonstrates TRUST, what does Disobedience demonstrate? = DISTRUST

Further, those who refuse to LIVE IN OBEDIENCE will certainly refuse to SEEK GOD’S PRESENCE. They might talk about God, but their LIVES don’t match their LIPS.

That’s exactly what was happening in Micah’s day. Listen to God’s judgment regarding their arrogance, disobedience, and insincerity.

Micah 3:9–12 (LEB)

[9-11a] Hear this, O rulers of the house of Jacob and leaders of the house of Israel, those detesting justice and perverting all that is right, he who builds Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wickedness. Its rulers judge for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money.

[11b-12] But they lean on Yahweh, saying, “Is not Yahweh in our midst? Disaster will not come upon us.” Therefore on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem will be a heap of rubble, and the temple mount as a high place in a forest.

Because of their arrogance, disobedience, and insincerity, the great city of Jerusalem is going to be totally destroyed, uninhabited, & overgrown.

God communicated the same warnings through Isaiah around the same time, BUT…look at this word of hope from Isaiah (which we will see much more next week in Micah)...

Isaiah 66:2b (NIV)

These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at my word.

These are people who hear God’s warnings and do something about it. They humble themselves and BELIEVE God’s word.

100 years later, Zephaniah encourages the people facing judgment with these words.

Zephaniah 2:3 (NIV)

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the Lord’s anger.

Do you SEE what’s in that text? Walking humbly with God means:

Living in Obedience (doing what He commands) & Seeking God’s Presence (Seeking Yahweh)

In the New Testament writings, James (the half-brother of Jesus) notes and quotes Proverbs 3:34 saying:

James 4:6–10 (NIV)

[6-8]...“God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” [Prov 3:34] Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

[9-10] Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.

This isn’t saying followers of Jesus should walk around with their heads hung, tears flowing, wearing sackcloth, and pouring ashes on their bodies.

It IS saying that those who humble themselves are people who TURN from sin and change their ways. Or, as we have already seen several times...

Walking humbly with God means:

Living in Obedience & Seeking God’s Presence

In just a moment we are going to shift gears and consider some FEET2FAITH challenges, real-life applications we can put into practice.

And in order to do that, I want to give you ONE EXAMPLE for you to follow...the Lord Jesus, Himself.

Unlike anyone here today, Jesus was FULLY GOD,

but just like all of us, Jesus was also FULLY MAN

1 Person with 2 Natures.

We see the significance of this several times in the Scriptures but never more clear than what we are about to read.

John 5:21–23 (NIV)

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

WHAT!!!? Can you imagine ME saying THAT!? “The Father has entrusted all judgment to ME so that all may honor ME just as they honor God the Father.” That’s CRAZY TALK!....unless you are God…in skin.

Jesus continues.

John 5:24–29 (NIV)

[v24-25] Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

[v26-29] For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And He has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.

Jesus is the righteous judge of all people, the One who now raises the spiritually dead and Who will one day raise the physically dead.

And here’s how Jesus - the man - walked humbly with God the Father…by

Living in Obedience & Seeking God’s Presence

Of course, Jesus never once disobeyed what the Father said. He modeled the MOTIVE of what it means to Live in Obedience and spoke about it in this same teaching by saying…

John 5:30 (NIV)

By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me.

What if that was true of US? What if the MOTIVE behind what everything we do and say was to please God?

Jesus is our perfect example of what it means for REAL PEOPLE to walk humbly with God, by LIVING in OBEDIENCE and…SEEKING God’s PRESENCE. Let’s take a peek at what THAT looked like.

Mark 1:35 (NIV)

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.

This certainly wasn’t a one-time thing. Luke notes that even when people came from all over to hear Him teach and watch Him heal (Lk 5:15)...

Luke 5:16 (NIV)

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

In fact, Jesus spent the whole night praying before choosing which of His disciples he would appoint as His apostles (Lk 6:12).

And just look at how the example of Jesus impacted His disciples.

Luke 11:1 (NIV)

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

While Jesus is our ultimate example, John was an example as well. The young disciples asking Jesus to be their prayer professor, knew that Jesus and John were men who were not only living in obedience, but they were men seeking God’s Presence.

Do you take time to pray throughout the day? Do YOU make time to get alone and pray?

Prayer is thanking God for who He is and what He does

& asking God to meet our needs and the needs of others.

Further, these men would also SEEK GOD by meditating on the truths of Scripture that tells us who God is and what He expects of us. This was the practice of the UNAMED AUTHOR of PSALM 119.

Psalm 119:97–105 (NIV)

[97-100] Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.

[101-105] I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey Your word. I have not departed from your laws, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

Does that sound like your appreciation of God’s Scriptures? Does that sound similar to the way you meditate on and obey God’s words found in these precious pages?

IF walking humbly with God means:

Living in Obedience & Seeking God’s Presence...

Are WE walking humbly with our God…or are we more focused on what’s on our phones, what’s on our news, what’s on our calendars, or what’s in our bank accounts?

FEET2FAITH

Start your day Seeking God’s Presence in Prayer & Scripture.

Write down your prayers THANKING GOD and ASKING GOD.

Read 1 chapter a day. Write down insights you gain and questions you have. Then SHARE that with another Christian sometime that week.

If it’s important to you, then Go to bed on time. Set an alarm. Make it happen!

I don’t get to do it very often, but when I get to go salt-water fishing I typically have to get up much earlier than I normally do…and you know what? I FIND A WAY…because I love fishing! (Jesus spent time fishing & I want to be like Jesus)

Finish your day Living in Obedience.

Commit your day to God and keep your eyes open for opportunities to obey God! You’ll be amazed at what you see AND…you’ll be amazed how LIVING like God is with you with help you FEEL like God is with you!

Be an example to others & quit waiting on someone else to lead.

Jonathan Edwards, an American preacher and thoughtful theologian in 18th century, once said, “Resolved: That every man should live to the glory of God. Resolved second: That whether others do this or not, I will.” [Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards on Evangelism, ed. Carl J. C. Wolf (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2013), ix.]

What would it look like if...EVERY PERSON in the room was WALK HUMBLY WITH OUR GOD? WHAT IF every one of us ditched the distractions and started our day meeting with the Lord, praying for others, and then going into our culture to LIVE that out!?

Let’s go find out!

Need to talk with Someone?

STAFF

DEACONS

Related Media

Related Sermons