Majors In The Minors - Part 4 - Micah
by Fred Johnson
June 24, 2026 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Micah 1:1, Micah 6:3, Micah 6:4, Micah 6:5, Numbers 22, Numbers 23, Numbers 24, Micah 6:6-7, Micah 6:8, Isaiah 1:17, Matthew 23:23, Luke 6:36, Ephesians 4:32, James 4:6, Philippians 2:3-5, Micah 7:18-20

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/fred-johnson--majors-in-the-minors-part-4-micah
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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And welcome once again to Majors and the Minors. I hope you guys are enjoying this series of lessons focusing on the minor prophets in the Old Testament. And thank you for Pastor for allowing me to be a part of this. Just asking me to come and speak. It's a It's a great joy and I I appreciate it. I love digging in the word of God. As we're getting started and I I want to just ask you a question. Have you think about it? Just just kind of get your brain working a little bit.

Here it is. If someone asked you to summarize what God wants from his people, right? In one sentence. What would you say? What would be your answer? And and just be thinking about that a little bit. We're not going to answer right now. I I can give you some ideas. You know, I think some of us would probably answer something like relationship. Um And I think that's the right answer. God wants relationship. I think he wants faithfulness. I think he wants us to be faithful to him in all that we do.

And maybe it's about service. He He might want us to be of service to others. And that's not wrong, you know, for sure. Maybe it's even just being a witness in this world, right? Shining a light in the darkness. Pointing others back to him. Absolutely. So be thinking about that. If you had to summarize what God wants from his people in one sentence, what would you say? Tonight we're going to be exploring the book of Micah. And this author reveals through prophetic um prayer and through prophetic word uh what really matters to God.

He answers that question a little bit. He gives us a really good insight on that. And so if if I were going to be titling this in any form other than just the book of Micah that we're talking through, I would call it what does God actually want? What does God actually want? Um So if you'll go with me, we're going to be looking into the book of Micah. Um I think it's important as we're getting started to um just understand the context. I'm going to be a little bit transparent.

I know I might look like I have it all together and I might look like I have uh all the knowledge in the world. But when Pastor asked me to to of teach on Micah, I had no reservations cuz I was like, "Oh, good. I don't remember any weird stories in that. I don't remember anything that's like super controversial and hard to talk about. Like, that sounds great. Let's do that one." And then I read the book just cover to cover. I was like, "Hey, that's where I'm going to start.

I'm just read the whole book." And here's the transparent part. I was like, "What in the world is going on here?" >> >> It's It's a complicated book. It's It's not an easy read, right? It's not like a story where it's like a beginning, middle, and end. And there's not like this main character that you're going to see pop up. So, I'm reading through it and like I'm like, "I know I can focus pretty good, but I keep having to go back and read a couple verses before like, okay, why why do you say this?" And that feels like something important, but I don't know where it's coming from.

And so, that's why I think it's probably important that we talk about the context of Micah, where this book comes from, who the author was, and really the audience that he's speaking to at the time. Don't worry. I I studied a lot. I worked hard on this. I'm prepared, I think. I'm prayed over the sermon. I I feel a little bit more confident about what the book of Micah is really about than what I did when I first read through it. So, if you are following along in your Bible tonight and at some point you're kind of like me at just a couple weeks ago, just know you're not alone.

If you're sitting there going like, "What is this guy talking about?" Um hey, we're we're going to get through this and we're going to learn something. I That's my prayer tonight is that that we'll take something from this tonight. That we'll take some some wisdom from the word of God and allow it to grow us further in our walk with him. And so, let's start with just the author. The author's name is Micah. And the pronunciation that is Mika, which is just fun. If you ever had a friend named Micah, I I suggest that you maybe start messing with them a little bit.

Just change their name for them. Tell them they're saying it wrong. Um it's actually, though, Mika. Micah is a contracted form of a longer word, Mikayahu, which means who is like Jehovah. It's a pretty cool name. Who is like Yahweh? Who is like God? So you get a sense from the author at the very start of the book. If you were just picking up the the scroll of Micah and you read the title, which I don't know if they did that back then, but if you read the title you would get this impression if you spoke Hebrew, right?

That God is to be revered. Right? And God is unlike any other. There's nobody comparing on the scale of who God is and what he is. And so that's exciting. I like whenever books tell me what it's about. Uh I love whenever a storybook has like the main point in the title and I don't have to go figure out what in the world's going on, you know? Um there's lots of books out there the title just throws me off cuz I'm expecting a story about a red fern or maybe a a mockingbird and it's not that at all, you know?

It's something completely different. Um but our God is unlike any other, right? No one compares to him. And Micah's name reflects that. And Micah came from the town named Moresheth. In um Micah chapter 1 verse 1 it says, "The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the kings of Judah." Um Moresheth is this little rural town about 25 miles in the foothills of Jerusalem, um closer to the Palestine and uh and and border there. Um he was a country boy.

He was down-to-earth. Uh he was probably a lot unlike the the city prophets who were intertwined in politics and the royal courts and things like that. He was speaking from the perspective of a common person to the smaller communities where they were most being affected by the polit- political and religious um corruption. So he's what we'd refer to as that down-to-earth kind of guy. I'd like to think that Micah was probably a little bit of a country boy. He probably enjoyed the outdoors. He probably did a lot of cool things.

Um but this rural background matters because Micah repeatedly condemns, like other prophets have, the wealthy elites, right? The those who were gaining power at the expense of the the the more ordinary families, the maybe perhaps less economically inclined. Um and he speaks against these things in a way that people reading it and doing these things, they don't they probably don't want to hear it, right? But he is straightforward and he gives things in such a beautiful manner. Um and the date and historical setting of this is important as well because Micah ministered through those three kings, Jotham, right?

So he's a pretty good king, did good things. Ahaz, which is a pretty bad king, didn't do great things, he's on the bad list. Um and Hezekiah, who is mostly good. Um and it places Micah's ministry somewhere around 750 to 700 BC, which happy birthday to America for being 250 years old, that's awesome. Just another week or two away, we can halfway. We're almost a, you know, just a third of the distance between Micah and Jesus being born, which is just fun uh to think about.

Like all that we are is just like a just getting started in the history um that we're looking at here tonight. Um I actually traveled to Israel when I was 17 and was lucky enough to get to walk through Hezekiah's tunnel. And I remember we we packed specifically sandals and clothes that would dry quickly or we could just toss them once we're done because when you walk that tunnel, you're still walking through the waterway, so right? It's built as a way to keep the city alive and and um keep everybody with water during a siege.

And it's an incredible feat. And I just remember walking through it, you know, there's a lot of places in Israel that have been um touristified, if that's a word. They've been kind of enhanced so that people can enjoy the experience of walking in the holy land. But when you walk through a tunnel that was, you know, dug thousands of years ago and it's hewn out of rocks, uh it's really hard to deny there were guys down here digging this rock out and making a way to live.

And just incredible. And that's the time of Micah's ministry, right? That's when Micah is is writing and and ministering to his area. Um he was a contemporary of Isaiah. Isaiah, uh obviously one of the major prophets. He was a contemporary of Hosea, which you've already heard about from Brother Hank a couple weeks ago. Um and also Amos um most likely overlapped as well. These prophets all address similar issues. You know, they're they're all addressing corruption, and they're all addressing the sin that has taken over the country and the people's hearts that have turned away from God.

Um but Micah writes towards both kingdoms. Uh he gives them both barrels, right? He comes out and says, "North and the South, I'm just going to tell you how it is. Here's what's going on." Um one of you know, as most of our incredible teachers have pointed out over the past several weeks, the social and political landscape had just deteriorated, right? It's just becoming increasingly corrupt. Um during Micah's ministry alone, um Israel had become spiritually um politically compromised. Um their leaders had trusted in allies more than their and their military solutions more than God.

You know, they turned to like, "We got friends. We we'll be okay. We don't need God necessarily. We can keep him on the back burner." Economics had grown just hugely in inequality, right? And it's one of the things if you look back into the original Torah and the law of Moses, there's a lot of protection in the social structure. God wanted people to thrive. He didn't want to see massive swings between the rich and poor. He wanted the whole country to thrive and be blessed under his name.

So, you see this happening where economics is falling apart and there's a lot of division, literally split in half, north and south. Um and eventually Samaria falls to Assyria in 722 BC. And Micah warns throughout the book that Judah should not assume that they're safe. He gives prophecy that it would be turned over. Um and I just I'd remind us the whole context of this book is written to a nation, right? It's not written to foreign people. It's not written to sinners that are are outside of the borders.

He's not necessarily evangelizing. He's not trying to bring in newcomers and say you should come to know our God. Our God is like no one else. Like like his name implies, right? He's speaking to the people called to be separate. He's speaking to a nation who've been set aside as God's chosen people. That's all everything you read. Remember, it's not to the world. It's not to a bunch of heathens. It's not to a bunch of people who don't know right from wrong or don't know God.

It's written to people who are raised and brought up in a whole society and nation of culture that was supposed to be separate unto God. And so this book follows a major theme that the other prophets of the era also followed. And and some of our speakers have our our our teachers have pointed out. And that's of judgment and hope, right? This repeating theme throughout the book. Um one thing about this book that I found interesting and I I kind of realized why it was so hard to read because the whole thing's written in like poetic form that doesn't translate well to the English language.

Like we we try to like get the grasp of what's happening, but it just doesn't compute the same. We get the same words, but the the spacing and the lining up doesn't always translate over. So if you were reading this as a Hebrew, it would it would read differently. It would feel differently. It would be personal. It would come at you where you live and point out the things. I am going to walk through just a quick book outline. Just give you an overview of the book because there's I didn't I didn't feel led to teach like as many scriptures as possible out of the book just in a row.

Um but I did think it was important to go over just the basic outline. And the first section, which is chapters 1 and 2, really just speaks of an impending doom of impending judgment, right? And it's it's scary, right? God appears in the first chapter over this mountain, not unlike Mount Sinai, but instead of a covenant coming down, it's judgment coming down. He's coming down with destruction for 500 plus years of rebellion in the hearts of the people. And thankfully, there's a future restoration coming, right?

He called the author calls out the oppression of the the weak and the the rulers who are corrupt and the false prophets who speak anything that you that you'll pay them to say. But in chapter 2, he talks about the restoration of a remnant. And he gives the image of a shepherd king, which is really cool, right? He talks a little bit about um this shepherd king who's going to come in and restore the people, rescue them, uh those that are faithful. And that's a good section, but then it jumps into chapter 3 through 5, a whole 'nother section where the indictment against Judah's leaders and it gives a promise of divine redemption, right?

So, the the rulers run on bribery, favors, you know, and vile hatred of the people. It starts out in chapter 3 with some really graphic descriptions. If you go back and read chapter 3 verses 1 through 8, I mean, it's talking about ripping flesh from the bones. That's That's how Micah describes the leader of the people, how they're consuming their own people and evil hatred, right? And it's it's Like I said, it's graphic. If you're a little bit squeamish about that sort of thing, maybe get the message and read that part.

It might be easier. But, it's it's disasters coming, right? He speaks of disaster coming to Jerusalem that that God would once again, someday restore Jerusalem. And he promises to restore the faithful once more. But, in chapter 5, he gives this beautiful prophecy, right? Of a baby being born in this little place called Bethlehem, who would cleanse the world, who would do this amazing work. And it's one of the first times we get the specific birthplace. It's often quoted during Christmas time because he talks about Bethlehem, right?

And that's where Jesus is coming from. It's a beautiful thing of like there is judgment coming. You you've got problems, but God is willing to redeem, right? God is willing to do things to make things right. And the last section brings up God's grievance with Israel and the ultimate victory of the kingdom of God. So, once again, returning to calling out unjust practices of the leaders and how it destroys the land and people, but instead of just the leaders on direct trial, this this chapter in chapter 6, the tone shifts just a little bit.

Um and this where we're going to actually dig in a little bit deeper and go into our lesson um because instead of calling out all the faults of the people, right? Um the prophet speaks on God's behalf and poses questions and says some things. We're going to look into that. I'm going to and I'm I'm kind of giving this big background to kind of help you understand why I asked that question. What does God really want? Right? Why why what would we say God really wants out of his people?

Because he's he's gone through this cycle of, you know, destruction and restoration, judgment and hope, and now there's this problem and and God begins to speak through Micah as he writes it down. We're we near the end of the book um and it's like in verse 3, we're going to be looking there if you're looking in your Bible, chapter 6 verse 3. He speaks to the people and he says, "Oh my people, what have I done to you? Right? And how have I wearied you? Testify against me." Now, if you've ever had littles or maybe kids or maybe preteens or and maybe above preteens, which I don't have thankfully yet, but I guarantee at some point in your parenting career, you have stopped and said, "What have I done to you?

How have I put such a burden on your life? You know, tell me where I went wrong. Okay, maybe maybe I'm just telling myself that's fine. I've been there. I've been like, what? What have I not done in your life, right? And I believe that's kind of what the the message is here. God's literally saying, what have I done? Right? Where did I step out of line? He says, verse 4, he goes on. Says, "For I brought you out of the land of Egypt." Right? You were in slavery.

You were we were people oppressed, beaten, couldn't leave. I brought you out of that. I redeemed you from the house of bondage. Literally, I paid your way to get out of there. I brought you out richer than you went in. And they did. And he goes And then he says, "And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam." I like to think that is the best of the best. Like, when you're thinking about leaders, right? Moses is up there. I mean, you're just not going to find much better examples of a leader because he took millions of people out of slavery and brought them out and didn't lose his mind completely.

I mean, that's that's incredible. He had some testing moments, but incredible, best of the best. Reading on verse 5, he says, "Oh my people, remember now." All right? So, interesting. I asked this question, what have I done? Here's what I've done. Now, remember further what I've done, right? All of my life, right? We sing about it, but here it is in the scripture where God is saying, "Oh my people, if you're reading this, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, counseled." And it's just like, if you're reading that, you don't know what that story is, it's just out of nowhere, right?

He's talking about approximately 700 years prior to this date. That's wild, isn't it? That's a long time before. He says, "Remember what Balak, king of Moab, counseled." And if you don't know that story, I'm going to go through it because it's it's kind of important. He says basically there as they're coming out of the land of Egypt, right? They're they're coming out into freedom. An oppressive king of the Moabites stands to gain by their destruction, right? He he wants to make sure the Israelites don't get a foothold.

He wants to make sure they don't take over the land. And this is what the heathen king says in in chapter 22 of Numbers. He essentially calls for Balaam to come and curse the people, right? And this is a this is a man who I don't know how he learned about the Israelites, you know? I'm sure it was passed down. It was a different time then. But in my mind, he just sees a he hears of a a crowd of people coming. But this is what he says.

He says, "Come and curse these people because they are too powerful for me, right? Perhaps then I'll be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land." So this man's scared because he knows these people are powerful, but also "I know that whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed." So even the Moabite king knows Israel is a blessed nation. There's something different about them. So God is calling their attention back to that that since you left your slavery, even your enemies have feared you.

Since you left your slavery, the world has known of your blessing. And that's brings us to the next part of chapter chapter 6 verse 5 in Micah says, "And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him." Crazy story. Numbers 23 and 24 goes over this in detail if you want to read that later. I'm going to summarize for time's sake, but basically Balaam refuses to go with Balak at first um because God says don't and so he doesn't. And then the next time that the Balak Balak sends a messenger, God says, "Okay, go with him, but only speak what I'm going to tell you to speak." And for whatever reason between getting there to the place he was supposed to speak, um you know, God sent an angel because Balaam's heart had changed and so donkey speaks up.

I you know, I feel like everybody knows that story, but if not, I don't want to spoil it, but a a donkey speaks and saves this man's life and he shows up to curse the nation under the instructions of Balak and an interesting thing happens and I think this is why God speaks to his people to remind them that uh because as he gets up it's this whole long ordeal of sacrifices by Balak, the king of Moabites, sacrifices made. All right, get up and curse them.

And he gets up and he speaks blessings. And he speaks four distinct blessings over the period of time that he's there. They move around like, "Well, well, curse him from this side. Maybe it'll work over here. I don't know. Let's move over here. Try this spot. Curse him." But Balaam speaks and answers and says Israel is a distinct and blessed people, right? And this blessing, the next blessing he speaks says the blessing won't be reversed. Not because of anything they did, but because of God, right?

The next thing he says is that Israel will flourish in God's presence. And the last thing that he speaks of is that a mighty king would arise. That he he prophesies towards a king that would come up and conquer the lands. And which to me is just one of those situations when you're getting paid to to speak and you basically tell the guy that hired you on, "I don't know. They're going to There is a king coming that is going to destroy and be a conqueror and settle this land for the chosen people." That's pretty brave.

I I would have a I'd be a little scared of that, but Balaam did it and God reminds us of that. Thankfully. And then he says one more thing here, Micah does. He says, "From Acacia Grove to Gilgal." In verse five. He says, "From Acacia Grove to Gilgal." And what that really represents because I had to Google that. I had to go like, "What is that about?" What is that phrase? Um and it means that it signifies from leaving the wilderness, right? From their wilderness testing when they cross over Jordan and then they camp in Gilgal for the first time.

God is reminding them from the moment that you stepped across into the promised land and he says that you may know the righteousness of God that not a step has been misplaced. I brought you all this way. Remember these things. Then it brings us here to this point in the chapter because God has basically asked this big question, "What have I done? When have I never showed up for you? When have I abandoned you? I I've been faithful." And then Micah answers from his perspective as a man speaking to the nation, not from God's perspective.

Verse six. This is actually our key text for the night. It says this, "With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? Right? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings? With calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams? 10,000 rivers of oil? Right? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" And such a powerful progression in those scriptures. When you really think about it, he he's saying, "Okay, God just made a question in a statement in of itself." And our response should be humility, right?

He's he's saying, "How can we stand before such a God? How can we stand before a God who's done all these things? Should we bring the normal burnt offerings that we normally bring? Or should we bring a little bit special calves, the yearling calves? Should we do you know, that's a little extra. We're going to spice it up for God. We're going to do this extra thing. You know what? In fact, what if we brought thousands of rams, which isn't unheard of, but that is definitely like kingly level extravagance.

That's that's a lot of money to throw down on a sacrifice for an offering before God?" And then he goes beyond that to say, "Should we just bring rivers of oil? Like should we just make aqueducts off the olive fields and That it's impossible." is what he's trying to get across. He's not saying it's a impossible. He's like, "What can I do to please God?" And then he gets into their business a little bit. He says, "Should I sacrifice my firstborn son? Should I firstborn child?

Should we follow the pagan practices to get to God? Should we do the things of the world to get to God?" And that's what he's saying there. But Micah then answers, and he speaks this prophetic word. He says, "He, verse six, says, he has shown you, oh man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" Period. That's it. He said he's already given us the answer. All the things that we think we might be able to do to please God, right?

Is not what he really wants. Right? That the the Micah 6:8 becomes the summary of biblical discipleship. To walk justly, to love mercy, and to and and um to walk humbly with your God. That's what God really wants, but I think those three things are powerful. They carry loaded messages. There's a lot behind those three things. They're not just simply walk justly, or do justly. So, I want to take a few minutes to break those down and kind of walk through them. Not that that we don't understand the basic part of it.

I think there's a lot to glean. Number one is to do justly. And this is is Hebrew word of mishpat. I I think I think that's it, perhaps. Um I don't care how many times I try to practice a Hebrew word before I come here and say it. It always comes out a little bit not like it's supposed to be, I'm sure. Um But this word, to do justly, justice, means to act according to God's standard of right and wrong. That we as humans act according to God's standard of right and wrong, to treat people fairly, defend the vulnerable, and make decisions that reflect God's righteousness.

Right? What a powerful command. To reflect God's righteousness, to reflect God's heart in our decisions. Justice in scripture is not merely the punishment of evil, it's actively doing what is right towards others. Actively doing what's right towards others. It looks like being honest in our business and in relationships. All right, if I can kind of just bring it down to like real world stuff, it's it's refusing favoritism. It's refusing to be in a in a in a drama of sorts. It's defending those without power. It's seeing the right thing and acting upon it.

Standing up for the truth. Treating people with dignity because they bear God's image. Not because I like them. Not because they're cool. And not because I don't like them, but because they bear God's image. But we see people as he sees them, right? The Old Testament gives an example of this. Isaiah 1:17 says, "Learn to do good, right?" Which really important there. Learn to do good. I don't know if y'all know this or not, but I didn't come out of the womb knowing how to do good.

I had to learn somewhere along the way to do good. And he says in Isaiah 1:17, he says, "Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow." Justice is not passive, right? I can say I'm just, but if I don't ever do anything with that, I'm not following the word. I'm not following the the spirit of the word. Justice seeks the good of those being mistreated. Justice works to help people along the way. Matthew 23:23, Jesus speaking, says this. He's speaking to some of the religious religious figures, the Pharisees.

He says, "You have neglected the weightier matters of the law." And as if he's almost quoting Micah, he says justice, mercy, and faith. Right? What powerful tie-in. He Jesus affirms that justice is one of God's highest priorities. One, but also that there's more to it than just justice. We want to do good for others. One of the things that I think we've all probably heard in our lives is the expression do the right thing even when no one is watching. Right? Do the right thing even no one is watching.

That's when it matters. But I think when it comes to people watching, we should still do the right thing. And the right thing needs to be according to God's heart, according to God's law, according to his spirit. Number two, love mercy. This word is he said um and the definition simply is steadfast love, kindness, compassion, covenant loyalty, and faithful love towards others. Right? That I am faithfully loving others. And I love that word covenant loyalty. Like that takes it to another level, right? Mercy is more than occasional showing kindness, right?

Micah says to love mercy. Right? To delight in giving people grace. That's that's wonderful. I I I need mercy, right? What it looks like in my life, right, is is forgiving other people most often and showing compassion to those who fail. Not throwing condemnation, not throwing a a a downward look on someone and go like, "Well, you know, they probably had that coming." Or "I remember the time when they said that to me." But showing compassion when someone fails. Being patient with people's weaknesses. Lord, help us.

Helping people who cannot repay you. Right? Choosing grace over revenge. Those are tall orders, right? It sounds easy to love mercy cuz I love mercy, but if I'm supposed to be the one showing mercy, it becomes a little bit different. When I have to treat others the way that God has treated me. All right? When I have to love people the way God has loved me, that's not in my flesh. Again, if you were born with that, that's amazing. You're a great person. I love you.

But God had to work on me a little bit. >> >> And and he's still working on me quite a bit, right? Like it's this ongoing I bet if there was road traffic around me, people would be so annoyed. They'd be like, "This guy, when is he ever going to get done? He's been at it for a while." They got the excavators out now doing more work. I thought they were almost finished. God is working on it. I'm not getting any chuckles off that. That was a tough sell.

I thought for sure somebody would really enjoy that. Murfreesboro traffic. Ah, there we go. Okay, so um mercy in the scriptures, right? Jesus says this in Luke 6 and 36. Be merciful, just as your father is also merciful. I don't know that it gets more clearer clearer than that. Right? God becomes the model for our mercy. God becomes the model of our mercy. And if we if we honestly focus on that, it makes it a little bit easier to love mercy. All right? We have all needed mercy.

I promise you we've all needed this kindness and compassion. I I promise we've all needed somebody in our life to say, "It doesn't matter who you are, what you've done, where you came from. I still love you." Right? And and some of us listening tonight may say, "Well, I don't I don't know if I've ever had anybody say that to me." Right? Well, I I can introduce you to a God who will say over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, "He loves you." Right?

And we are called to love each other in that way. Be merciful as your father is merciful. Ephesians chapter 4:32 says it like this, "Be kind to one another." I've heard that many times quoted by my parents. Um but mostly they were just talking to me and my sister. I don't know. But I got the message, right? Be kind to one another. "Tenderhearted." Um "Forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." Mercy grows from from remembering how much mercy we have received. Right? When I feel like I got a little bit of right to be upset and have my feelings hurt or maybe be a little bit vindictive, I need to remember that there's a long list of things that God has already cast away.

That God's already washed away. As far as the east is from the west, I I need to remember that that there's a God has has forgiven me in the ultimate way. That he wrapped himself in flesh. He suffered on my behalf, right? I I've got to remember that. Everyone you meet is fighting a battle that you know nothing about. Amen. Everyone you meet. And it may not be it may not be a battle like yours. It may not be an extreme one, but it may be way worse.

Mercy allows us to to bridge that gap for people, right? To show them the kindness that that we needed at one point. And we probably still need today. "Walk humbly with your God." Number three. The third instruction. Walk humbly with your God. Hebrew word here is tsana. It means to live in humble dependence upon God. Recognizing that he is God and we are not. The phrase "walk with God," right? Implies a daily relationship, not occasional religious activity. Right? To walk humbly with your God. I like to notice that although the author was speaking a long long time ago, he said, "Your God." Right?

And it's something that I think we have to like humbly kind of recognize I have a relationship with the almighty. He is the one that I am serving. He is the one that I talk to daily. Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It is thinking of yourself correctly in relation to God. Right? When I when I have a self deprecating a negative thought about me, when I put myself down, who have I insulted? Whose creation have I talked bad about? Who have I decided is is the authority in my life at that moment?

If I can encourage you, walking humbly with your God is is submitting your plans to God, being teachable, depending on God's wisdom rather than your own, which is sometimes harder than it looks, but giving God the glory in all things, obeying him even when you don't understand. That's humility. And that's a lot harder than it sounds. Say, "I don't get it, but I'm doing it. I don't understand, but I'm going to try. My pastor preached it, the word of God says it. I'm going to follow it.

And I'm going to grow confident in it. I'm going to obey him. James 4:6 says resist God resist the proud, but gives grace to the humble. I think when I try to do things on my own, I'm getting a little prideful. I'll be honest. When I decide I'm like, I got this, pick up my burdens, I carry them as far as I can, and I struggle through for a little while, and at some point I have to realize, I don't have this. I never had this.

And God gives grace to the humble because I know he has it. Whatever it is I'm carrying, whatever it is I'm facing in life, I know God has it. Humility positions us to receive God's grace, right? Philippians chapter 2:3-5 says it like this, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit. That rules out a lot of people's motivation right there. Let's be honest. You know, there's there's sometimes that is two big motivating factors, but he says, "Let things be done in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than himself.

Let each of you look out not only for your his own interest, but also for the interest of others." Right? Now, that's a like it almost sounds contradictory, right? We're talking about humility, being confident in God, knowing who you are in relation to God. And then, you know, Philippians says it like that, right? Oh, yeah, don't don't think in lowliness of mind esteeming others better than yourself. But, here's here's how that works. If I'm doing that for people around me, and they're doing it for me, right?

We're all lifted up. Amen? Yeah. By myself, right? I it might get a little lonely, but we're not called to walk this Christian faith alone. We have assemblies. We have services. We have wonderful connect groups where you can do life together. Free plug. And I want to encourage you. Um we're going to be talking more about that on Sunday. But, let this mind The last part of Philippians chapter 2, verse 3 through 5 says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Right?

Jesus himself becomes the model of humility, right? He had every right. If anybody here had right to assert themselves on Earth as something or someone, he had the right. Right? He could be the God king walking on Earth. He had every power and authority and and and and ability to say, "I am important." But, in every instance, right? Humility comes out. He serves others. And perhaps the most pinnacle form of this, he washes the feet of his disciples. One by one, all the way down the row, one after another.

Humility, that is the mind of Christ. It's not what I can do for me, what can you do for me, what can the church do for me. It's The mind of Christ is how can I serve? How can I show up and use my talents for God's purpose? How can I fulfill a serving role in this community and help someone else along the way? Cuz that's what Jesus does. A favorite quote of mine is C.S. Lewis when he says, "Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less." And that sums it up because I think many people, right?

Struggle with that. But if I can encourage you, I know a lot of people who perhaps don't. In fact, I I wanted to include names. And then I realized really quickly it was going to get hard to perhaps say some and not others and then I got in my head about it and I just gave it up. But let me just say, there are many many many many people in this church and in the in the entire kingdom of God who follow these steps, right? They do justice.

They do right for others. They're selfless. They they love continually. They show mercy time and time again. But especially there are those who come to my mind and I'm sure you do too who as I've talked through humility a little bit, you thought, "Hmm, that's sister so-and-so." Or that's brother so-and-so. Man, that's so right. Like they're such an incredible person, but every time they see me, they wrap me up in a big hug. They say, "I love you." They they act like I'm the most important person in the room, right?

That's humility. And I love it. I know people like that. I know you do, too. As we kind of come to a a close here, we all get busy, right? Life happens. We mess up. And then we repent, hopefully. Hope you do. If not, let me introduce you to that real quick. It's this really cool amazing thing that God made possible on the cross, right? That we can say, "God, I messed up." And And guess what? It's washed away. We try again. And then we probably do that whole system again every so often, right?

You could summarize it like this when you read Micah 6:8 that Micah 6:8 is the heart of the law, but Jesus embodies it. He embodies the law. He fulfills the law. He shows you what it looks like on a daily basis. Micah is Micah is speaking to the cycle that we live day by day. We try, we fail, we try again. We're not perfect, but God is. And the further we let that deep into our heart dig into our hearts and our minds, the further we trust him with it.

The further we allow to go into that system of living for him. I want to point us to the end of Micah chapter 7. Now, it's a beautiful There are some powerful And by the way, if you want some powerful quotes, like go look at like just Google powerful quotes from the book of Micah. There are some real good zingers throughout this book. But at the end of of Micah, he ends the whole book in the same manner that he begins, right? Because his name means who is like God.

In the In the Jewish tradition, there's a ritual an annual um ritual performed during the Rosh Hash Rosh Hashanah. That's hard to say. Um where people symbolically cast their sins, their mistakes, and burdens from the past year into water. They use bread typically or or biodegradable substance. Um The The term is the Tashlich The Tashlich. That's hard to say, too. Um And it happens at the new year, right? So, people come together and they reflect upon all the things that they've done. They think about their wrongdoings.

They think about their failures. And And those that are devout really spend some time bringing that up in front of the water that's moving. And then they begin to read from Micah chapter 7 verses 18 and 19. He says this, "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us and subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

And you will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which you have sworn to our fathers from days of old." Such a powerful passage of scripture that God takes his character. He says, "Who is like you?" It's it's it's God's character. And he takes his promise from so long ago and washes away. And so as as the Jewish people do this ritual, they will throw bread upon the water. And as it floats away or disintegrates, it's symbolic of their sin for the year flowing away and being washed away into the sea as far as you can imagine.

But we have a high priest. We have a fulfilled sacrifice. We walk each day in the justice of God. We walk each day in the mercy of God. And I hope tonight as I've encouraged you to walk humbly in God, with him, day by day. Would you mind standing and praying with me as we wrap things up? Lord Jesus, I know that we are not perfect. God, I know that we so badly want to be. But But life happens. We find ourselves in places where our flesh rises up, our anger is stirred, our our our our our temptations are caught off guard.

And God, I'm so thankful, Lord, that you are God that cast our sins away, whose faithfulness doesn't fail. God, I'm so thankful, Lord, that your mercy is new every day. God, today I just pray that you would continue to encourage us, God, in doing justice for others, that you will stir in our hearts a ministry right now that will go out into our communities, reach out amongst our neighbors, reach out amongst this church, God, do the right thing according to your will. Do the right thing according to your heart and to according to your word.

God, I pray right now that mercy would be renewed in our minds. That, Lord, we would begin to see people through your eyes, God. That we begin to see them in the wonderful creation that you made them, that you would allow us to see what you want them to become when we see people around us, God. And Lord, I just pray, Lord, that every moment of our day, the words that we speak, the meditation of our hearts, and the the things that we do in our lives would reflect you in a way that invites people to you, God.

Jesus, I thank you for this word tonight. I thank you for your love. God, I pray that you be with us this week and as we celebrate the holidays, God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for coming.