Micah 6:8 - Part 3 - What the Lord Requires

Go back in time with me, if you will, for a couple thousand years to a land that was oppressed and to a people that had been beaten down and abused. They were tired, dirt poor, and had no one to help them. Yes, their situation was due to poor choices they and their forefathers had made and they reaped what they sowed but it was oppressive. Lives were being lost. Confusion and chaos controlled them. Injustice and poverty were inhaled with every breath.

 

But in the back of their minds there was something else. When they allowed themselves to dream; when they got together as a family, maybe at the supper table, they would talk about it. They would talk about the hope they had. And it wasn’t a false hope or a hope without promise. Their hope came from the Lord. It came from passages like Isaiah 9:6-7 that says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”

 

Oh, that had to bring great peace and joy. A father would come in from a back-breaking day at work or a mother would come from the market without everything she needed and somebody would encourage them with these words. A friend would see another down and out and would say, “Ah, remember the words of the prophet! It’s not always going to be this way.”

 

And generation after generation would encourage each other with the living hope they had that someday soon there would be One who would save them and deliver them from this nasty old world in which they lived. And then just imagine the excitement; imagine the buzz that started in the neighborhood when they heard about Jesus. Could it be? Could He really be the One? Yes, yes, He is and He is coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover with us! And if that’s true, you know what that means. He’s coming to declare his intention of establishing His Kingdom.

 

Let’s go see Him! Let’s put palm branches down and lay our coats out for Him to ride over so He will know we are supporting Him. Where is He? There is so many people here I can’t see Him. Everybody is cheering and crying out “Hosanna” so I know He is close. And there He is.

 

And how does Jesus enter? As He comes into that holy city, the city He had just wept over, he comes declaring He is King. He comes making the bold statement that He is God and He is the Messiah and He is the One for whom they have been waiting and hoping. And how does Jesus enter? Does He come with bodyguards surrounding a golden chariot? Does He come riding a prancing white stallion with trumpets heralding His arrival? This is His big day, this is His party. It is all about Him and how does come?

 

He comes riding the colt of a donkey. He comes lowly and meek. Fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9 that says, “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” He comes to them poor, with only the clothes on His back and no place to call home. He comes afflicted, knowing the cross is just before Him. And He came to show us today a model of what God requires of us, His followers.

 

We conclude our series on what the Lord requires of us by looking at Micah 6:8. We have seen that God requires us to act justly to Him, to others and ourselves. We have seen that we are to love mercy and to show it with strength, steadfastness and love. Today we will see that the other requirement is to walk humbly with our God and this may be the most difficult one yet.

 

Let’s read that verse one more time in Micah 6:8. Micah is between Jonah and Nahum if that helps, in the Old Testament toward the end. “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

 

I have said before that it is my opinion that if God could teach us only would thing about Himself that it would be that He is a God of grace. And if He could only teach us one thing about ourselves it is that we are a prideful people. And the first 2 requirements are primarily focused horizontally towards other people. But this requirement is primarily focused vertically towards God. Psalm 10:4 says, “In his pride the wicked does not seek Him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.”

 

But the word “humble” as Micah uses it here means to be poor, weak, lowly and afflicted. And I want us to see why, how and where we are to be humble because God knows and we should learn that pride keeps us from relationship with Him. But humility enhances our relationship with Him. And that is a big part of why we are to be humble; just because it enhances our relationship with God.

 

If the chief rule of real estate is location, location, location, the chief rule of relationship with God is humility, humility, humility. The problem is humility is like a slippery watermelon seed. Once you get it under your fingers and you think you have it, it slips away from you. Dr. Harry Ironside was once convicted about his lack of humility. A friend recommended as a remedy, that he march through the streets of Chicago wearing a sandwich board, shouting the scripture verses on the board for all to hear. Dr. Ironside agreed to this venture and when he returned to his study and removed the board, he said "I'll bet there's not another man in town who would do that." (sermonillustrations.com)

 

I said that this one may be the most difficult requirement that God expects of us because first, nobody wants to do it or is naturally wired this way. And secondly, once you have it and realize it, then you’ve lost it. But if you are not humble then there is no way you can truly act justly or love mercy. We should be humble because ultimately we see ourselves for who and what we are and we see God for Who and What He is.

 

For some people humility is harder than it is for others. For some people, they feel pretty confident about who they are. They have worked hard and paid the price to get where they are in life and now they are doing pretty well. They like to call themselves self-made men. I understand that a man in the British parliament once said that to Winston Churchill. Churchill replied, “Son, you have given God a great relief.”

 

Acts 17:28 says, “‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.” When we realize that God has given us every single thing including our very breath, the talents we have, our dreams, our passions and even our desire for Him, it is hard to be anything but humble. Paul understood this better than most. In Philippians chapter 3 we find the famous list of all that Paul was. He says, “though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. ⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”

 

See, Paul figured out that God had given him everything and made him into who he was and so Paul had no right to be proud especially since all of that was worthless when it got in the way of having a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. And so when he lost all of that or at least put it all away, his religion became a relationship and changed Paul’s life forever. For Paul, it took being blinded on the road. For me, it took being humiliated at church.

 

Some years ago at another church, I first started teaching Sunday School. I had never done it before but I had some help getting started and I had been doing it for a few months when I started to think I was doing this pretty well. I never actually thought it in those words and certainly never said it but somewhere in the back of my mind was the thought, “I’m doing pretty well at this whole SS thing. They’re lucky to have me.” Haha! I’ll give you one guess what happened.

We were studying the passage where Paul was shipwrecked and I had studied it and had made notes and I was prepared. Or so I thought. I got up to speak and I might as well have been reading Greek. It didn’t make sense and it was not in order and I found myself stuttering and stammering and totally lost and starting to panic. Then someone over here stood up and said what the passage meant to them. And then another stood up and said what they got out of it. And then another and another and pretty soon I just sat down behind the podium where they couldn’t even see me and I just listened to them.

 

And there behind that podium it was as if God lovingly whispered to me, “I don’t need you. I love you so much I gave my only Son for you but I do not need you. I can make the rocks cry out, for Pete’s sake. I can certainly handle a SS class without your help.” And every day after that and even today I pray, “Lord, I pray that what you want said gets said by somebody. If it’s me then you say it through me. If it’s somebody else, then it’s to your glory.”

 

Why should we be humble? Because if you don’t humble yourself God will humble you! Luke 14:11 says, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” God knows pride hinders our relationship with Him and He will not tolerate it from His children. I always need motivation for doing something. I always factor in what it is going to mean for me. And that should be our motivation; enhancing our relationship with Him. After being motivated (why), I want to know how to do something so let’s talk about how to be humble.

 

Those of you with glasses, have you ever realized that you were having a hard time seeing?  It wasn’t because your eyes were getting any worse but you found yourself squinting and trying to see something that wasn’t clear.  And then you took your glasses off and realized they were filthy.  Smudges, dirt and all kinds of junk were on there and had built up so bad that you were having a hard time seeing things correctly.

 

Well, the same thing can happen to us spiritually.  We start seeing things incorrectly but it’s not dirt and grime that cloud our vision.  It is ourselves.  We start to see everything as it pertains to us.  That blessing I got was because I was faithful.  That trial I am going through is unfair because I don’t deserve that.  What can you do for me?  What can God do for me?  What can I get out of this worship service?  It’s hard to be humble when our glasses are so filthy they start to reflect back.

 

But when you clean off all that ugly self and start to see clearly, you start to focus, not on yourself, but on the Savior.  You start to see that blessing as not something just for you to enjoy but something that you can use to bless others.  You start to see that trial not as punishment but as a way you can help somebody else when they go through something similar.  You start to think about what you can do for somebody else and you most certainly see worship as your gift to God, not His gift to you.

 

And when you start to see things clearly, you know what happens?  You won’t even notice it but you will be humble.  You will see everything, from the smallest flower to the greatest sunset, as being God’s handiwork.  You will see that person in line in front of you, not as a hindrance to getting out of Walmart but as a soul who needs to know Jesus.  You will stop thinking you don’t have enough money for that new TV and start to realize how much stuff you can buy to put in an Operation Christmas Child shoebox. 

 

In other words you will quit thinking about yourself so much and will start thinking of others more.  You may have heard the saying that humility is not thinking less of yourself.  It is just thinking of yourself less.  You are still that wonderfully talented person Jesus died for.  You are just humble enough to realize that you are nothing without Him.  That is seeing life correctly and that is how you are to be humble.

 

Lastly, I want to see when we are to be humble.  We have seen why and how.  But there is a time and place for humility and that is, as it says at the end of the verse, when you walk with your God.  When you walk with your God you are to be humble.  But what does that mean?  Well, the phrase “walk with God” simply means to have a relationship with Him.  When you live your life conscious of God, communicating with God and listening to God, you are walking with Him.

Can you think of anybody in the Bible who was said to have walked with God?   3 men are spoken of as having walked with God.  They were Enoch, Abraham and Moses.  That’s it.  There may have been others but only those three are spoken of having walked with God.  But that is what God requires.  He requires us to walk humbly with Him.  That’s pretty small company.  But notice that God does not say walk humbly with this world.  He doesn’t say walk humbly compared to this world.  He expects you to live according to His standards, not the world’s.

 

Some of us are guilty of comparing ourselves to the world and we start to look pretty good, right?  I don’t drink near as much as some people.  I don’t cuss near as bad as that guy over there.  I go to church a lot more than the average person.  I’m considerably more humble than the lady at the end of the aisle.  Did you hear what she said the other day?

 

Do you know what Satan does when he sees and hears that?  He puts another mark in the win column, baby.  God expects you to live according to what He says not what the world thinks is moral.  He expects you to act justly.  He expects you to love mercy.  And He expects you to walk humbly with Him.

 

Walk humbly with Him and you will see God as He truly is and you will see yourself as you truly are.  Walk humbly with Him and you will see less of you.  Walk humbly with Him and you will not walk with the world.

 

Psalm 25:9 says, “He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.”  Aren’t you glad we have His Word to know what is required of us?  Thank you, Lord!