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Well, good morning, everybody.
If you've got your Bibles with you, and I hope you do, open them up to Micah chapter 6.
We have this week and next week, and then we'll wrap up in our Micah series.
I know it's really stretched me in my study, in my preaching, and so I hope God's used
this book greatly in your life as well.
As you turn there, I want to remind you, hopefully you're able to see our video that we put out
this past week as we are working toward regathering together as a church body coming back together.
Two things I just want to remind and point out to everyone is that our Celebrate Recovery
will be back meeting on our campuses starting on May the 28th.
And if you've maybe gone through this season of life, and you see where you've got some
struggles with your hurts, habits, and hangups, and want to see the victory of God in those,
it'd be a wonderful opportunity for you to engage in that ministry.
And so feel free to email Pastor Dave to get all of the details for that.
But our Celebrate Recovery ministry will begin back meeting on May 28th.
And then if you haven't seen yet, we will be back meeting together on June the 7th.
Now, I'll say we're going to be back meeting together, both in person, live together, but
as well streaming online.
And so we'll be meeting live services at 9, 11, and 1, and we will have a live stream for
the 11 o'clock service as well.
So, hey, there is no pressure.
We want you to continue to worship the Lord in the way that best suits for you or for your
family during this time period.
And so if that's joining us at one of those hours, we would love to have you with us.
If that's for you saying, hey, right now we're going to continue to worship from home, right?
We trust that God's going to help you make the choice that is best for you and your family.
And if that's the case, you will need to watch the adjustments of the time because we will
start streaming at the 11 o'clock service.
And all of that will start on June the 7th.
Between now and then, we'll continue to roll at 10, 15 together.
So as we start off in Micah chapter 6, this passage is broken up into three different sections.
The first section and the last section, God is going to speak to his people, but he's going
to do so in two different settings.
The first setting is going to be this courtroom setting where God is going to bring the official
allegations before the people.
And so all through this, allegations have been made all through this.
The sin of Israel has been pointed out, but in a formal court styled setting, God is going
to bring the allegations to his people through the prophet Micah.
And so that's where we're going to pick up reading in verses one through five of chapter
six.
It says this, hear what the Lord says.
So now this is Micah relaying God's words directly to the people.
Arise, plead your case before the mountains and let the hills hear your voice.
Hear you mountains, the indictment of the Lord and you enduring foundations of the earth.
For the Lord has an indictment against his people and he will contend with Israel.
Oh, my people, what have I done to you?
How have I wearied you?
Answer me.
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery.
And I sent before you Moses and Aaron and Miriam.
Oh, my people, remember what King Balak of Moab devised and what Balaam, the son of Beor,
answered him.
And what happened from Shethim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.
So God comes in this courtroom setting and he asks two questions.
And what we're going to kind of deal with is the heart of the people of what God begins
to address in blaming God.
God comes to them and he says, look, what have I done to you?
God's appearing before his people.
He's asking them to think back through their lives, to think back through the history of
their nation and for God to say to them, what have I done to you?
But then God also asks another question.
What have I done to cause this?
How have I wearied you is what scripture says.
And so what God is doing is God wants to point them to specifically, what has God done?
So God's saying, think back, because God's going to bring examples of this before them.
So what has God, this is his question, what has God done to cause them to be disobedient?
So this is a dangerous question as Israel is hearing this from the Lord.
So what God is doing in this is he is bringing into their light, his faithfulness.
God's pointing out to them by allowing them to have the opportunity to speak negatively about
him.
But God's going to answer his own question.
God says, look, you've taken a part of social injustice.
You've turned to idolatry.
What have I done to you to deserve this?
What have I done to you to cause this is what God begins to break forward with them.
And so we get this opportunity where we see where it's in the heart of people to blame God.
I want to ask you this question.
Have you ever blamed God for your situation or for your sin?
I imagine as captivity will happen.
I imagine as the struggles will come to God's people, that there's going to be these moments
and instances in their life where they begin to feel that the reason of why they are where
they are is because this is God's fault.
Not because God caused it.
Not because God purposed it.
But it's God's fault and it's God's failure that got them where they are in life.
And you think, that's crazy.
Why would people do that?
Obviously, it's their idolatry that's brought them there.
Obviously, it's their not caring for the widows and the orphans that we see in the very beginning
of this book that has brought them to this condition of where they are.
And it's easy for us to look back on what happened thousands of years ago and not relate to the blame game
that they would have the tendency to play with God.
Because passively, we do this all the time.
Think about your life in a reference to a sinful tendency that we have in our life.
And we say that we maybe struggle with it, but the truth is that we oftentimes don't struggle with our sinful tendencies.
The truth is that oftentimes we just simply embrace our sinful tendencies.
And we use phrases and maybe they're just cliche to us.
Maybe they're just catchphrases.
But I believe that out of our mouth becomes what we truly believe in our heart.
And so we make statements like, well, God made me this way.
And we see this with lifestyle excuses that people use often, but we also use it to explain away the sinful tendencies
and the sinful patterns of our life.
And we blame God.
Yeah, I know I got a temper, but God made me this way.
You know, I know I'm reckless with my words and I don't think before I speak.
And sometimes my words hurt people, but God just made me this way.
I know that I'm foolish with money and I know that I'm reckless with it, but God just made me this way.
Do you see what we're doing in this is we're not owning our sinful tendencies and our sinful behaviors,
but instead we're blaming God.
Another thing that we do is in the light of a bad decision that we've made,
we will make statements like, well, I don't understand why I am where I am.
You know, I prayed about it.
And why didn't God stop me from doing it?
So instead of looking back and seeing all of the cautionary signs that God gave us as we walked into this situation in life,
instead of seeing in the midst of where we are, what God's trying to teach us in this situation in life,
we begin to set the attitude or the position of the heart that we've done everything correctly
and who has failed us in these moments is not us, but is God.
And when we blame God, what we do is we call into question his faithfulness.
When the truth is, it is not his faithfulness that has failed us or left us.
It is our disobedience that has failed him in every single instance.
It's not that God isn't faithful, church, it's that we're not faithful.
He is always faithful.
He is always just.
He is always right.
But it is us who fails him.
And so what God does as he brings these questions before his people,
God, in a way in which only he can, reminds them of his faithfulness.
The first way is he reminds them of his loving redemption.
He reminds them of Egypt, of the saving love of God,
and that through this saving love, through this salvation from what enslaved them,
God brought them into relationship with his word through Moses and Miriam.
And God brought them into relationship with worship and sacrifice from the priesthood that would come from Aaron.
And it's what we see.
We see God's faithfulness in his redemption, in his saving work as he establishes a relationship.
But we also see it in God's provision.
As it's referenced in here, a story that happens in Numbers 22,
where Balaam's curse of God's people is prevented, not by an army or by a man,
but God himself as God provides for his people,
even when his people are oblivious to the provision that he makes.
And so God reminds his people that this is who he is,
that this is his faithfulness, that this is what he has done to them,
that this is what he has done for them.
And he does all of this, verse 5 tells us,
so that they may know the righteous acts of the Lord.
Now this phrase, righteous acts, it does not simply describe what a person does,
but it describes who a person is.
You see, it would normally be associated with a judge,
that a judge is to be a righteous judge,
meaning that a judge should not just make righteous decisions,
but the only way to make righteous decisions is to be righteous himself.
So righteousness is not a determination of what you do,
but a determination of who you are.
And so God says, look, when you see all of the things that I've done,
when you see all of the things that I'm working in and that I'm doing,
when you see all of the things that I have done for you,
it doesn't just show you what I've done.
God says it shows you who I am.
And that's what we see.
As God stands in a court setting and makes the allegations of what's there.
So let's keep reading in verse 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?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with 10,000 of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has told you, O man, what is good,
and what does the Lord require of you,
but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
So here's interesting of what happens.
God speaks, and in the middle of God speaking, Micah speaks.
So what we see here is a very interesting part that as Micah is relaying to God's people,
the words of God, the weight and the majesty of them hit Micah.
And so now what Micah does is Micah responds back to God.
It's like God's faithfulness that Micah knows, that Micah has experienced, has hit Micah,
and now he is reminding everyone else and even reminding himself through his testimony of the goodness and the faithfulness of God.
And so in doing so, he asks a very important question that he, like God, is going to answer himself.
He says, what does God require?
Now this is an interesting piece about true Christianity.
An interesting piece about the true faith is that we come to understand that the gracious love of God,
and who God is, what that brings forth in our life, and what that calls us to is a deep, deep layer of obedience.
Now, here's what I know about obedience.
Parenting has taught me a lot, a lot of things about life, about myself, about relationships.
But parenting, I think, has taught me a lot about human nature.
And what I've learned in being a parent, I can take and I can apply to my life and apply to the lives of so many.
And what I found is what I believe there are two types of obedience that I've learned.
The first is a forced obedience.
And the forced obedience is this, that you obey because of the consequences.
And so it's what you have to think and you have to choose to do.
So you have a young child and you tell them, if you don't clean your room, then you are not going to be allowed to watch TV.
And so they have to make the choice to clean their room out of the fear of losing the, watching TV.
If they don't clean the room, then they face the consequences.
And so what you do in that is your kids aren't cleaning their room because they want to, but they're forced into obedience.
And so trust me, as parents, I'm like, I'll take any kind of obedience we can get, right?
But what God's working toward, and us as parents, even what we desire, is a deeper layer of obedience than forced obedience.
And what we want is we want heart obedience, that you obey because not that you have to, but because you desire to please.
It's what you want to do.
And in this level of obedience, it is no longer a choice.
It's an instant reaction to what is happening and what is taking place.
And that's what Micah is pointing the people to.
That's what God longs for, a heart obedience.
Not a forced obedience.
Not an obedience simply because I know that judgment's coming.
But an obedience because of who I am and what my heart longs for.
So what are we to do?
When verse 6 and 7, Micah talks about making sacrifices.
All different kinds and different depths of sacrifices.
Elaborate, costly sacrifices.
And while this is good, Micah says, but it's not good enough.
It's not what God desires.
You see, because anyone can go out and do these things, but it doesn't speak to the nature of who you are.
It just speaks to the nature of what you've done.
And so Micah says, there's more to that.
He says, what we're to do is the first thing is we're to act justly.
That we're to respond to God's love in a social way.
Meaning this, that the love of God so penetrates us that it affects every aspect of who we are
and how we live our life, both with people and away from people.
That in every aspect of my life that I'm to act in what is justly into what is right.
But then it continues on and to build on that.
And it's going to cause me to not just act kindly, but to love kindness is what God's word points us to.
And this is simply how we treat others.
Not based on who they are and what they've done, but my love of kindness causes me to treat everyone in the same way.
With the same depth of kindness, regardless of who they are or what they've done for me.
And then the third way Micah points to of what God longs for us is that we walk humbly.
Now walking humbly does not just simply mean that we live our lives in humility.
But what we've learned from all the way back to looking at our study in Galatians to this with Micah
is that when we see the word walk, oftentimes it is associated with our relationship with the Lord.
And so what Micah is saying here is that we are to walk in humble fellowship with God.
So that in there, there's a beauty of the contrast of the relationship that is there.
Yes, I'm in an intimate fellowship with God, that I am his and that he is mine,
but I do so in a humble, reverent way of great fear for the Lord.
It's the balance of the loving relationship that is there.
So Micah is not saying in this that your sacrifices do not matter or that your works do not matter.
He's saying that it begins with who you are and that we must deal with who you are before we deal with what you do.
You see, because your religious works, none of them matter if you're not his.
None of them are going to save you.
It doesn't matter how many mission trips you've gone on, how much money you've given,
how many times you've read the Bible through, how many prayers you pray,
how many church services you attend.
It doesn't matter.
However, you can stack them all up.
If you're not his, none of it matters.
And so it begins in who you are.
I cannot emphasize this enough, that obedience is never just an action,
that an obedience is who we are first, and then what comes from that is the action.
That's the process of what we see.
Hebrews 10, starting in verse 14, it says,
For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying,
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord.
I will put my law on their hearts and write them on their minds.
Do you see where our obedience comes from?
God giving it to us.
And we don't have it if we're not his.
Let's finish reading chapter 6 in Micah, verse 9.
And the voice of the Lord cries to the city.
And it is sound wisdom to fear your name.
Hear of the rod of him who appointed it.
Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and the scant measure that is accursed?
Shall I equip the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?
Your rich men are full of violence.
Your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
Therefore, I will strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins.
You shall eat, but not be satisfied.
And there shall be hunger within you.
And you shall put away, but not preserve.
And what you preserve, I will give to the sword.
You shall sow, but not reap.
You shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil.
You shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
For you have kept the structures of Amra and all the works of the house of Ahab.
And you have walked in their councils that I may make you a desolation and your inhabitants a hissing.
So you shall bear the scorn of my people.
So God this time doesn't speak in a courtroom setting.
But this time God speaks to them as an alarm warning of a disaster.
He says, look, this is what's coming.
So imagine you're out and there's a storm far away and it begins to come closer and closer and closer.
And there's a siren that begins to blow.
That says, look, here's what's about to happen.
This destruction is about to come into play.
And what we see in here is God describing his judgment.
Several things that we can understand about God's judgment is this.
God's judgment is merited and it is certain.
I want to tell you this.
God's judgment, it's coming.
And we deserve it.
We don't know when it's coming.
We don't know how it will come.
But we can hold for sure that God's judgment is merited and it is certain.
We've caused it.
We've been caught.
We can't hide it.
And it will come.
Verse 11, God says, shall I quit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?
God says, he's guilty.
I can't just ignore it.
There has to be punishment for this.
And so my judgment, it is merited, it is deserved, it is righteous, and it is certain.
But God's judgment will also show the foolishness of our actions.
God gives a list of all of the accomplishments.
But says they will not leave us satisfied.
They will not save us.
That God's judgment will show the foolishness of all that we've tried to hang our hats on,
of all of the accomplishments that we've tried to have.
And that God's judgment, the third is that God's judgment is coming because of our sin.
God gives them a reference to Amari, who was a king and whose son was Ahab,
and who would marry a woman named Jezebel.
Jezebel and Ahab would allow the worship of the false god Baal,
and through this sin, idolatry would lay a stronghold,
and from that would become the accountability.
And so we begin to continue to see the sin pattern of what's there,
the sin pattern of man, the deceitfulness of his heart, the idolatry that's there.
And that's why the judgment will come.
But that's not only why judgment will come.
That's why Jesus came.
So that Jesus comes to save us.
Jesus comes not to save us from God.
Jesus comes to save us from ourselves.
Jesus comes to save us from our sin.
Because we're like the wicked man with the scales.
We're like Jezebel.
It is our sin that merits God's wrath.
And we can be certain.
And without Christ, we stand in the full weight of God's judgment.
You know, every religion of the world, every single one of them, says come and do this.
Come and give me your works.
Come and earn your salvation.
But Christianity says Jesus came.
Becoming like him.
Would you pray with me?
God, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for your kindness and for your mercy.
Lord, I pray as your judgment will come.
Lord, I pray that we would be a people who in who we are, act justly, love kindness, and walk humbly.
Lord, be with all of us today.
Lord, I pray if there's anyone here who does not know you, today would be the day that they find salvation in you and in you alone through the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary.
Jesus, we love you.
We worship you.
We praise you.
And it's in your name we pray.
Amen.
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