Micah 6:8
Glove and stones skit, with Kathy’s help. I put five stones, a child’s beach pail and a
glove on the front edge of the pulpit. I told the congregation that the stones
represented an unjust mess that would have to be cleaned up. I then commanded
the empty glove to put the stones back in the bucket. Of course it did nothing.
The point is that the glove is dead and useless unless it is filled with a
living force that moves it. In the same way, a human beings are dead in sin and
useless to God until by faith they let the Holy Spirit in to give a new life.
Then we can obey God.
This healthy missional marker is another one that reminds us that the church does not exist for our sake. We are already saved. We ARE the church, and our job, our mission, our purpose in life is to save others. Just like a glove exists for the work it is called to do and for its usefulness to the owner, we exist to do God’s will for the sake of the lost. We are not an end in ourselves.
The people of God are for fulfilling the purpose of God for God’s world. I heard this quote yesterday in our Veritas seminar: The church doesn’t have a mission. The mission has a church. God’s mission is all that really matters. How is he going to accomplish it? He chooses to use his church to do the work on earth. And as our verse says, “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.
To act justly. What does it mean to act justly? This has to do with behavior. Doing things right. Being holy. Caring about the way God wants things and working to make it look like that. When we act justly, we become part of the answer to the prayer in which we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done one earth. When we act justly we begin to let the people around us see what God’s kingdom would look like in our neighborhood.
On Thursday, Love in the Name of Christ, our local ministry network that unites most of the churches in Cadillac in public services, called me to ask if I knew anyone who could help a guy with some paperwork. His problem is that he has had four mini strokes and one of the effects that resulted from that is that he cannot read. It was interesting, He said that he could write a whole paragraph down, but if he looked away from it for too long, when he looked back at it again he would not be able to read what he had just written. It looked like gibberish to him.
Well as it turns out, I was available, so I spent about two hours helping him fill out paperwork for DHS and applications for apartment housing in Cadillac. He told me that he just recently moved to Cadillac from Oklahoma last week. He is in a wheelchair, totally disabled from injuries he suffered in an accident at the oil rig where he used to work. He moved to Cadillac to be closer to relatives and family.
He was very grateful for the time I spent with him and my ability to get all that paper work done so quickly. I also learned that he is a veteran who used to be a Navy Seal. He has had a lot of suffering in his life. But he is a Christian since the age of six and has tried to realty live for God since his twenties. He reminds me of Job in the Bible, so much stacked against him. But he still gives thanks to God for his blessings, life itself being the main thing.
I was glad to be of service. And I was blessed. That kind of work is justice work, small j. It is a little bit of effort to make the world a better place and reduce the plight of someone suffering in it. It’s also merciful and kind. So when we’re talking about justice in the biblical sense we are really not talking about law enforcement. We are talking about acting on the principles of God’s law in our daily lives, living righteously. Look for ways to do that. Opportunities are all around you.
James 2:13 tells us that, “Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” And God says we should love mercy. Why is mercy so important?
Well, think about it, we might think we love mercy when it is shown to us. But the correct word for that response is that we appreciate mercy when it is shown to us because it makes us feel good as it sets us free from some consequences of justice. But using the correct view of love, that it is other centered or otherish, it is harder to love mercy. The truth is we are not usually as ready to show it to others. Jesus talked about that difference when he told the parable of the unmerciful servant, the guy who was so grateful to be forgiven a great debt that he could not repay, but had very little sympathy toward a man that owed him a few dollars. He showed no mercy! But showing mercy, or being merciful is the kind of mercy God really wants us to love. This text is actually asking us to enjoy being merciful.
Mercy is not a natural human response. It calls for something bigger than us to want to show mercy, especially when we believe that we have been wronged in some way. Mercy is a supernatural response to a situation, yet, it is what the Lord calls us too as followers of Him. When I say supernatural I don’t mean paranormal, I mean more than human. Real mercy is a godly attribute. It is one of those character traits that seem out of the ordinary, above and beyond the call of duty. We mere humans are not likely to be really merciful unless the spirit of God is in us and Jesus is living his life through us, the way this glove only does what I want it to do when I am in there.
For an example of the kind of mercy God is looking for, one could think of the way David treated Mephibosheth, Saul’s son. Though Saul, as king of Israel, had mistreated David for years, hoping to kill him, when it was David’s turn to be in power he behaved in a very different manner that really showed mercy. Mephibosheth, being one of Saul’s descendants, was the actual heir to the throne. Back in those days, most kings, including Saul, would seek to eliminate any possible competition for the throne. That is why Saul tried to kill David. But he failed, and David took the throne as God’s anointed king. So it would have been perfectly understandable for David to at least banish Mephibosheth from the land. But David, being merciful as God is merciful, actually adopted Mephibosheth and surprised and pleased everyone around him by having Mephibosheth come to live in the royal palace and eat every day at the king’s table.
That is a picture of how God is merciful to us. In our sins we were the enemies of God. But in his mercy, he offers to adopt us into the royal family, if only we will believe in his son Jesus who made it all possible. Don’t you just love that? No, you appreciate that. You love Jesus, by obeying and serving him as your grateful response to all that he has given you. And the way you love Jesus is by loving the people in his world and wanting what he wants for them, salvation. Acting on that is merciful. And this is the idea we get from the pay it forward concept, because you can’t pay back Jesus.
As a church, can you think of someone to whom we have extended mercy? Is there an opportunity we have missed? Is there anything we can do to correct it? How did our mercy, or lack thereof, affect our relationships? How does it affect our relationships now? How are we doing in the area of mercy?
Finally our text for today asks us to walk humbly. This is so important. The Church people of Jesus’ day were the Pharisees. I think we all know that our picture of the Pharisees doesn’t really include the idea of humble.
What does it mean to walk humbly? It doesn’t mean to refuse to step up to serve the Lord for fear of being in the limelight. It doesn’t mean that you pretend that you have nothing to offer. It doesn’t mean denying the giftedness that others see in you and refusing to appreciate the compliments and encouragement they may be offering. It is too easy to use that kind of false humility as excuses to refuse to obey God’s call to action.
If you want to know humble think of Moses. He was reluctant at first, with that false humility that he exhibited at the burning bush. But God made him into a great leader because he submitted and obeyed God. He had no royal blood in him but he stood up to the powerful Pharaoh with the power of God. He was responsible for caring for millions of people and responsible to lead them faithful in worship, teach them true faith, judge them and set up an effective government and lead them through the wilderness to the Promised Land.
Yet, a commentary tucked into Numbers 12:3 says, “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” What made Moses humble? Hebrews 3:5 explains it this way, “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.
Any Christian can do that. Be faithful as a servant in God’s house and that is how you walk humbly before him, bearing witness to the Word of God. A great description of true humility is also found in Phil. 2:3-4. Paul describes it this way. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” He then goes on to describe Jesus, who had the right more than anyone to Lord it over all of humanity because He was God, yet, laid that claim aside to gain our salvation.
Think about a conflict that you have dealt with in the past year. How might it have gone differently if you had chosen to walk humbly instead of nurse your grudge or demand your rights? Would you be surprised to learn that God would have preferred that you handle it that way than how you chose to handle it? In Romans 12: Paul tells us to “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.” That is walking humbly. How might things have turned out differently if we walked humbly? Why does God ask us to do that? Isn’t it because that is how Jesus himself walked among us? He, as Creator God, hung on a cross for us imperfect, disobedient, rebellious, ungrateful, broken sinners? And if anyone here thinks he or she is not a sinner in need of that grace, you are not walking humbly before God. You sin by proudly refusing to accept his judgment, thinking more highly of yourself than you ought and cutting yourself of from the grace, mercy and forgiveness that you so desperately need.
But those of us who believe God’s judgement against us know that we are dead in this flesh, empty and hollow, worthless and powerless to do anything of any use for God, just like this empty glove. However, the moment you repent of such foolish self-sufficiency and believe this gospel, he comes and fills you with his life so that you can truly live, and you will want to live for him!
Of all the figures in history that you could choose, who do you think would best exemplify what it means to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly? You know the answer is Jesus right? Let’s start with humbly. As it says in Phil 2:6-8, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
He humbled himself. He took off his outer garment, wrapped himself in a towel and began to wash their feet. He took the place of the humblest, lowliest servant of the day. He did it because he loved mercy and in his mercy he loved you and me. He knew who he really was. At the beginning of his ministry he even said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
He loved mercy. He loves being merciful. He demonstrates that by loving all of us sinners. The truth is you are a worse sinner than you think you are. The good news is, Jesus loves you more than you can even imagine and he died for you to prove it.
Jesus acted justly when he did that. The world was terribly unjust to Jesus the sinless one, the one they failed to recognize the one they condemned falsely and cruelly. Humans meant it for evil. But God meant it for good so that we get Romans 3:24, “all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Remember the video we watched? That wasn’t just a plug for Operation Christmas Child was it? There is justice, mercy and humility all through the video. Those young ladies have experienced mercy at the hands of humble servants who love them in the name of Christ. They caught the pay it forward spirit and became humble servants themselves enjoying the acts of mercy that they can offer to others. That’s life in the church. We exist to serve others. We are the hands and feet of God. We exist to do his bidding and it is wonderful and beautiful!
But how are we doing? I’m not saying I know. I’m just asking the question. Is there anything we need to repent of here? Are we set free to live this way through faith in Jesus Christ? Are you personally? Do you see how to empty yourself of pride and self-righteousness, accept God’s verdict of guilty and also accept God’s grace mercy and forgiveness so that you can be filled with the Spirit and enjoy being used of God? If you claim you have already done that. Are you really living it out or is there another step you want to take to come alive even more fully in the life of Christ. Don’t keep it to yourself. Don’t be the wrong kind of humble. Come tell me about it. Or even tell everybody during our prayer time, and we will celebrate with great joy! Let’s pray.
This healthy missional marker is another one that reminds us that the church does not exist for our sake. We are already saved. We ARE the church, and our job, our mission, our purpose in life is to save others. Just like a glove exists for the work it is called to do and for its usefulness to the owner, we exist to do God’s will for the sake of the lost. We are not an end in ourselves.
The people of God are for fulfilling the purpose of God for God’s world. I heard this quote yesterday in our Veritas seminar: The church doesn’t have a mission. The mission has a church. God’s mission is all that really matters. How is he going to accomplish it? He chooses to use his church to do the work on earth. And as our verse says, “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.
To act justly. What does it mean to act justly? This has to do with behavior. Doing things right. Being holy. Caring about the way God wants things and working to make it look like that. When we act justly, we become part of the answer to the prayer in which we pray “your kingdom come, your will be done one earth. When we act justly we begin to let the people around us see what God’s kingdom would look like in our neighborhood.
On Thursday, Love in the Name of Christ, our local ministry network that unites most of the churches in Cadillac in public services, called me to ask if I knew anyone who could help a guy with some paperwork. His problem is that he has had four mini strokes and one of the effects that resulted from that is that he cannot read. It was interesting, He said that he could write a whole paragraph down, but if he looked away from it for too long, when he looked back at it again he would not be able to read what he had just written. It looked like gibberish to him.
Well as it turns out, I was available, so I spent about two hours helping him fill out paperwork for DHS and applications for apartment housing in Cadillac. He told me that he just recently moved to Cadillac from Oklahoma last week. He is in a wheelchair, totally disabled from injuries he suffered in an accident at the oil rig where he used to work. He moved to Cadillac to be closer to relatives and family.
He was very grateful for the time I spent with him and my ability to get all that paper work done so quickly. I also learned that he is a veteran who used to be a Navy Seal. He has had a lot of suffering in his life. But he is a Christian since the age of six and has tried to realty live for God since his twenties. He reminds me of Job in the Bible, so much stacked against him. But he still gives thanks to God for his blessings, life itself being the main thing.
I was glad to be of service. And I was blessed. That kind of work is justice work, small j. It is a little bit of effort to make the world a better place and reduce the plight of someone suffering in it. It’s also merciful and kind. So when we’re talking about justice in the biblical sense we are really not talking about law enforcement. We are talking about acting on the principles of God’s law in our daily lives, living righteously. Look for ways to do that. Opportunities are all around you.
James 2:13 tells us that, “Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!” And God says we should love mercy. Why is mercy so important?
Well, think about it, we might think we love mercy when it is shown to us. But the correct word for that response is that we appreciate mercy when it is shown to us because it makes us feel good as it sets us free from some consequences of justice. But using the correct view of love, that it is other centered or otherish, it is harder to love mercy. The truth is we are not usually as ready to show it to others. Jesus talked about that difference when he told the parable of the unmerciful servant, the guy who was so grateful to be forgiven a great debt that he could not repay, but had very little sympathy toward a man that owed him a few dollars. He showed no mercy! But showing mercy, or being merciful is the kind of mercy God really wants us to love. This text is actually asking us to enjoy being merciful.
Mercy is not a natural human response. It calls for something bigger than us to want to show mercy, especially when we believe that we have been wronged in some way. Mercy is a supernatural response to a situation, yet, it is what the Lord calls us too as followers of Him. When I say supernatural I don’t mean paranormal, I mean more than human. Real mercy is a godly attribute. It is one of those character traits that seem out of the ordinary, above and beyond the call of duty. We mere humans are not likely to be really merciful unless the spirit of God is in us and Jesus is living his life through us, the way this glove only does what I want it to do when I am in there.
For an example of the kind of mercy God is looking for, one could think of the way David treated Mephibosheth, Saul’s son. Though Saul, as king of Israel, had mistreated David for years, hoping to kill him, when it was David’s turn to be in power he behaved in a very different manner that really showed mercy. Mephibosheth, being one of Saul’s descendants, was the actual heir to the throne. Back in those days, most kings, including Saul, would seek to eliminate any possible competition for the throne. That is why Saul tried to kill David. But he failed, and David took the throne as God’s anointed king. So it would have been perfectly understandable for David to at least banish Mephibosheth from the land. But David, being merciful as God is merciful, actually adopted Mephibosheth and surprised and pleased everyone around him by having Mephibosheth come to live in the royal palace and eat every day at the king’s table.
That is a picture of how God is merciful to us. In our sins we were the enemies of God. But in his mercy, he offers to adopt us into the royal family, if only we will believe in his son Jesus who made it all possible. Don’t you just love that? No, you appreciate that. You love Jesus, by obeying and serving him as your grateful response to all that he has given you. And the way you love Jesus is by loving the people in his world and wanting what he wants for them, salvation. Acting on that is merciful. And this is the idea we get from the pay it forward concept, because you can’t pay back Jesus.
As a church, can you think of someone to whom we have extended mercy? Is there an opportunity we have missed? Is there anything we can do to correct it? How did our mercy, or lack thereof, affect our relationships? How does it affect our relationships now? How are we doing in the area of mercy?
Finally our text for today asks us to walk humbly. This is so important. The Church people of Jesus’ day were the Pharisees. I think we all know that our picture of the Pharisees doesn’t really include the idea of humble.
What does it mean to walk humbly? It doesn’t mean to refuse to step up to serve the Lord for fear of being in the limelight. It doesn’t mean that you pretend that you have nothing to offer. It doesn’t mean denying the giftedness that others see in you and refusing to appreciate the compliments and encouragement they may be offering. It is too easy to use that kind of false humility as excuses to refuse to obey God’s call to action.
If you want to know humble think of Moses. He was reluctant at first, with that false humility that he exhibited at the burning bush. But God made him into a great leader because he submitted and obeyed God. He had no royal blood in him but he stood up to the powerful Pharaoh with the power of God. He was responsible for caring for millions of people and responsible to lead them faithful in worship, teach them true faith, judge them and set up an effective government and lead them through the wilderness to the Promised Land.
Yet, a commentary tucked into Numbers 12:3 says, “Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.” What made Moses humble? Hebrews 3:5 explains it this way, “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future.
Any Christian can do that. Be faithful as a servant in God’s house and that is how you walk humbly before him, bearing witness to the Word of God. A great description of true humility is also found in Phil. 2:3-4. Paul describes it this way. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” He then goes on to describe Jesus, who had the right more than anyone to Lord it over all of humanity because He was God, yet, laid that claim aside to gain our salvation.
Think about a conflict that you have dealt with in the past year. How might it have gone differently if you had chosen to walk humbly instead of nurse your grudge or demand your rights? Would you be surprised to learn that God would have preferred that you handle it that way than how you chose to handle it? In Romans 12: Paul tells us to “love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.” That is walking humbly. How might things have turned out differently if we walked humbly? Why does God ask us to do that? Isn’t it because that is how Jesus himself walked among us? He, as Creator God, hung on a cross for us imperfect, disobedient, rebellious, ungrateful, broken sinners? And if anyone here thinks he or she is not a sinner in need of that grace, you are not walking humbly before God. You sin by proudly refusing to accept his judgment, thinking more highly of yourself than you ought and cutting yourself of from the grace, mercy and forgiveness that you so desperately need.
But those of us who believe God’s judgement against us know that we are dead in this flesh, empty and hollow, worthless and powerless to do anything of any use for God, just like this empty glove. However, the moment you repent of such foolish self-sufficiency and believe this gospel, he comes and fills you with his life so that you can truly live, and you will want to live for him!
Of all the figures in history that you could choose, who do you think would best exemplify what it means to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly? You know the answer is Jesus right? Let’s start with humbly. As it says in Phil 2:6-8, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!”
He humbled himself. He took off his outer garment, wrapped himself in a towel and began to wash their feet. He took the place of the humblest, lowliest servant of the day. He did it because he loved mercy and in his mercy he loved you and me. He knew who he really was. At the beginning of his ministry he even said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
He loved mercy. He loves being merciful. He demonstrates that by loving all of us sinners. The truth is you are a worse sinner than you think you are. The good news is, Jesus loves you more than you can even imagine and he died for you to prove it.
Jesus acted justly when he did that. The world was terribly unjust to Jesus the sinless one, the one they failed to recognize the one they condemned falsely and cruelly. Humans meant it for evil. But God meant it for good so that we get Romans 3:24, “all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Remember the video we watched? That wasn’t just a plug for Operation Christmas Child was it? There is justice, mercy and humility all through the video. Those young ladies have experienced mercy at the hands of humble servants who love them in the name of Christ. They caught the pay it forward spirit and became humble servants themselves enjoying the acts of mercy that they can offer to others. That’s life in the church. We exist to serve others. We are the hands and feet of God. We exist to do his bidding and it is wonderful and beautiful!
But how are we doing? I’m not saying I know. I’m just asking the question. Is there anything we need to repent of here? Are we set free to live this way through faith in Jesus Christ? Are you personally? Do you see how to empty yourself of pride and self-righteousness, accept God’s verdict of guilty and also accept God’s grace mercy and forgiveness so that you can be filled with the Spirit and enjoy being used of God? If you claim you have already done that. Are you really living it out or is there another step you want to take to come alive even more fully in the life of Christ. Don’t keep it to yourself. Don’t be the wrong kind of humble. Come tell me about it. Or even tell everybody during our prayer time, and we will celebrate with great joy! Let’s pray.
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