God's Expecations
Notes
Transcript
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Intro:
Intro:
AG: Clear Communication
TS: Micah is similar to other prophets. He was a contemporary of Isaiah and declared God’s coming judgment on Judah. In Micah 6, we have a clear picture of the error of Judah’s ways. They had assumed
RS: We are often like Judah and try to please God on our terms rather than HIS.
1. What We Assume God Wants
1. What We Assume God Wants
“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?
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?”
EX: Judah tried to approach God on their terms.
Notice Micah’s questioning
He takes on the role of advocate for the people
He mentions practices which Judah had borrowed from surrounding cultures mixed with God’s Law
Burnt offerings
thousands of rams
rivers of oil
1st born child
The tone implies Judah wanted to “buy” off their sin debt through ritual and live however they wanted.
“God, aren’t you happy with the thousands of animals I’ve brought? Isn’t that enough? Can’t You stop meddling in how I treat my neighbor?”
They wanted to broker a deal:
Let me live like I want and I will give you:
5 bulls? 10? How about 100 gallons of oil?
Well..... what if I sacrifice my firstborn?Surely that will appease you!
God didn’t WANT all of those things. He wanted them!
He wanted a relationship and to transform them into what He had intended all along!
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
They assumed God was all about the sacrifice and that their daily obedience wasn’t important!
Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand.
They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
They were oppressing each other
They were willfully sinning
They lived their lives anyway they wanted with no regard to God’s requirements
THEN, they offered more sacrifices to smooth things over!
AP: We often make the same mistake
Today, there is a large movement to compartmentalize our lives.
We have our church self and our every other place selves
Church:
We sing and praise the Lord
(often the way we feel best doing)
We want to hear encouraging words but don’t meddle too much
We drop money in the offering plate, bow our heads and stand and sit at the right times
Every other day:
We live like the rest of the world
We lie, cheat, lust, steal, hate, covet...
Then we think, well, I went to church so I’m good with God!
When we mere mortals think up a faith, it all looks the same
We get to do what we want
We decide what we give/do for God to pay Him off
We get what want out of the whole deal!
What a WIN WIN!
BUT that is not what God wants!!!!
2. What God Actually Wants
2. What God Actually Wants
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?
God declared what He required of His people with 3 specific actions
God had previously told them what is good and what He requires
Much of the law was detailing how to live a life which glorified Him
His had spoken plainly in the word and through prophets
God wants the same 3 things of His people then and now
The bluntness of God’s response demonstrated that they should have already known this.
Their spiritual blindness had led them to offer everything except the one thing He wanted—a spiritual commitment of the heart from which right behavior would ensue.
“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,
and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.
Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
In MT 22, Jesus summarized the entire Law and Prophets in 2 commands:
1 Love God
2 Love your neighbor as yourselves.
God cares how we live our lives! He sets the standard and holds us accountable.
a. Do justice
a. Do justice
Some translate this as live justly.
It means to act with fairness, honesty, and integrity.
We are to live our lives honestly treating others with the dignity and respect due to our fellow image bearers of God
The Human Race was created in the image of God
Sin has corrupted and altered that image, but our fellow humans still bear that image
They ALL deserve dignity and respect and NEED the gospel
As children of God, we should walk justly
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
To the very core of our soul, we must embody and exemplify right behavior
One of the things I love about Joshua and I being involved in scouts is the scout law. Though not endorsing a specific faith, the Law grows from Biblical morality
It states:
TRUSTWORTHY. Tell the truth and keep promises. People can depend on you.
LOYAL. Show that you care about your family, friends, Scout leaders, school, and country.
HELPFUL. Volunteer to help others without expecting a reward.
FRIENDLY. Be a friend to everyone, even people who are very different from you.
COURTEOUS. Be polite to everyone and always use good manners.
KIND. Treat others as you want to be treated. Never harm or kill any living thing without good reason.
OBEDIENT. Follow the rules of your family, school, and pack. Obey the laws of your community and country.
CHEERFUL. Look for the bright side of life. Cheerfully do tasks that come your way. Try to help others be happy.
THRIFTY. Work to pay your own way. Try not to be wasteful. Use time, food, supplies, and natural resources wisely.
BRAVE. Face difficult situations even when you feel afraid. Do what you think is right despite what others might be doing or saying.
CLEAN. Keep your body and mind fit. Help keep your home and community clean.
REVERENT.Be reverent toward God. Be faithful in your religious duties. Respect the beliefs of others.
As a scout advances, they have to discuss how they are living that law before attaining the next rank.
That is the type of faith and dedication we should embody for God’ benefit!
We should do justice
b. Love Kindness
b. Love Kindness
We are also to fill our hearts with compassion and kindness toward one another.
The Hebrew word “hesed,” is a rich one, used variously as mercy, tender mercies, loving kindness, and steadfast love. It is most often used in a covenant sense, involving the attitude of two parties who are in covenantal relationship with one another.
In relation to God’s mercy, it is used most often of His grace, or of UNEXPECTED kindness. Notice also that the requirement here is not that we HAVE mercy, but that we are to LOVE mercy. There is a big difference between the two.
One way of describing the difference is to say that we don’t just do acts of kindness from a sense of obedience or compulsion, but we do them out of love.
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
If we love kindness:
we “feel” for each other
we act on that feeling and serve each other
In doing so, we serve God!
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’
They will question when? and He will reply:
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Loving service the people around us IS serving God
It is important to never loose sight of that profound truth!
We have the ability to lighten someone’s load
It comes in many forms
money, time, listening, holding a hand, cutting trees, babysitting, giving rides, loaning cars/equipment,
Churches should lead the way in our communities to demonstrate loving kindness.
Churches should lead the way in our communities to demonstrate loving kindness.
c. Walk humbly
c. Walk humbly
This is the basis for doing justice and loving kindness!
The adverb “humbly” moves us away from arrogance and the egocentric need to always be better than others, to the simple acceptance of the gifts that God has placed within us.
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
We must view ourselves correctly!
God is king, we are His servants
among each other, we are equals
We are fellow image bearers and co-laborers
We must walk with Him all the days we have on Earth
We must walk in obedience
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!
We must walk in good works
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We must walk in wisdom
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.
We must walk in love
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Don’t try to make up a religion!
Our ideas will fall far short of God’s expectations
Do what He requires:
Make a spiritual commitment of the heart from which right behavior would ensue.
Do justly
Love Kindness
Walk humbly
