Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sermon for 1/30/11 - What Does the Lord Require of You?

Sermon "What Does the Lord Require of You?"

Blessed be the Name of the Lord Most High, who has himself provided all we need, by his grace and for his glory. Amen.

How has the Lord wearied you? This is the question our God asks through the prophet Micah. Why do we so despise our Lord? Why, when the Lord our God grants us all his blessings through Jesus Christ, do we pursue our own way, our own wisdom, our own ideas of what might be righteous? The fact is, every last one of us acts as if we don't like God very much. We don't seem to value what he has said to us. We don't seem to think he really has authority. We might not think he's very smart. We may even look at the world and think that God isn't very good. Maybe we're angry with God, even though most of us wouldn't want to admit it. So our Lord asks how he has worn us out. What has he done to incur our wrath? He's delivered his people out of the land of bondage. In Christ he has delivered us from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of life. He has taken all our sin and shame upon himself. How is this offensive to us?

Am I being too harsh? Maybe you think I must have forgotten who's sitting there in the pews. After all, I've had the opportunity to watch you. I know that as a whole you are faithful members of this congregation. You value God's Word. You believe in Jesus. Most of the time you aren't ashamed to confess that before the world. When push comes to shove, you are ready to live for Jesus no matter the cost. I'm aware of that. No doubt about it.

So what am I talking about? Let me give you a brief anecdote. I've engaged in a little bit of Christian counseling for years. Usually it isn't for too many people, but it isn't uncommon for people to come to me for counsel. Here's one of the situations that has come up time and time again. It won't betray any confidential situation because it is so common. Here's how it works.

A person comes to me with a problem. Something is causing strife. It may be a substance abuse problem, unemployment, hostility within the family, a medical issue, you name it. The presenting issue doesn't actually matter to the illustration. We start getting together to look at what God's Word says about living and dealing with the situation. And God's Word is not at all silent about suffering, temptation, or communication. We find the Scripture rich with help and encouragement. I spend a lot of time asking questions and listening at first. We look at some Scriptures together. I usually assign some sort of passage to memorize and maybe some sort of activity assignment as homework. We pray and continue meeting, praying, studying, and hearing how the situation is developing. We strive to bring Christ and his answers into the troubling situation.

About the third or fourth session, the person who has been coming to me often tells me something. If it's a female, she leans forward and her eyes get big. If it's a male, he usually leans back and mumbles. Know what comes out? "This just makes me feel terrible. But I've got to admit it. Sometimes . . . sometimes I'm angry with God. And I know that's just awful. I don't know what to do."

Now don't worry. I don't leave the counselee there. It's such a hard thing to admit. But the fact is, I've heard it enough times from enough people that I've come to the conclusion that this is one of the more common sins we commit. And we read here in Micah that even God thinks it is a real problem. And yes, it is bad. It's essentially saying that our Lord is not who he has said he is. It's making God a liar. It's denying our Lord.

Know what? God doesn't beat us up about it. He sees it is real. He sees it is sin. He confronts us with that sin. And then he suggests some of the solutions we might have come up with. We might want to make more offerings. We might want to reform ourselves and live a perfectly holy life before him to atone for our sin. We might want to change our mind and actually trust God for a change. We might want to sell all we have and give to the poor so that we will earn his forgiveness. But, as our Lord says here in Micah six, all that we can do will not accomplish anything.

Here's the good news. We don't earn that forgiveness. We have sinned against our Lord. We don't trust him. We are angry at him. And since we wouldn't really go to the effort God would require to earn our forgiveness, and even if we wanted to we couldn't, because of God's great love for us, he came in the person of Jesus, Immanuel, God with Us, in order to live that perfect life of love for the Father then to suffer condemnation on our behalf. God the Son has purchased our forgiveness. He has done what we couldn't and wouldn't do. He has died to take upon himself the enmity that the Father had against sinful man. He has died to secure our lives. He has done all that we need for holiness. And he's done it on our behalf. Jesus' perfect righteousness is right there, staring us in the face, just waiting for us to believe it. Jesus' forgiveness is right there, proclaiming us forgiven. Jesus has given himself to accomplish what all our offerings, all our prayers, all our works of righteousness could never do.

So what does the Lord require of us? What shall we render to the Lord for all his benefits for us? We offer the cup of thanksgiving. That's a quote, by the way, from the offertory that we don't seem to sing. Maybe we ought to try it. We wouldn't sing it too well the first couple of times, but we'd get over it. What does our Lord tell us to do? We see it in verse 8 of Micah 6.

Micah 6.8 (ESV) 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?

How are we going to do this? We can't do it by offering sacrifices. We can't do it by changing our behavior. We can't do it by enforcing a change of behavior on other people. We can't do it by exalting ourselves in any way. In fact, all that our Lord leaves us with is to look at his own perfect love, his own character, his own work on our behalf, and to rejoice in what he has done.

Salvation is of the Lord. It is not our doing. Let us look to our Lord in faith and trust.

Lord God, heavenly father, you have seen us act in anger toward you. You see and know all manner of sin that we would like to deny and to hide. And yet, though we treat you like we despise you, you have remained faithful to love and cherish your people. We thank you for your merciful gift to us, lavishing upon us hope and salvation. We thank you that you responded to our anger with your love. Commit our hearts today to walk in the light of your loving kindness, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. 


--
Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com


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