Walk Hard

Series: Connections Gives Back
May 25, 2008

Last Sunday we started our mini-series on Connections Gives Back. We began looking at this foundational passage for the church, and for Christ-followers, Micah 6:8, “What does the Lord require of you? To do justly, to love mercy, to walk humble with you God.” A mission for all the people of God to guide and direct our lives- corporately as the church and individually as brothers and sisters in Christ. We got started on the first part- do justly (Notice I didn’t say we finished, because really, we’ve only scratched the surface in looking at the call to justice). Today we move on to mercy and walking with God.

Last Sunday I would have never guessed that I would be faced with one of my greatest justice issue challenges just this past week. My bike was stolen. I went out to lunch, came back, and discovered that someone cut my lock and took off with my bike. I’m not going to say I loved that bike, it was just a bike, but I REALLY liked that bike. I felt violated. I did not want to forgive this person. I wanted justice. I wanted retribution. I wanted vengeance. But of course I remembered that the bible teaches us, vengeance is mine says the Lord. SO I prayed God would take vengeance. I prayed the person would wreck and get mangled. I prayed they would get skin disease and go bald (not that there’s anything wrong with balding, I just don’t know anyone who actually wants to go bald). I prayed they would be plagued with digestive ailments. And I’m pretty much still praying this upon the person. Why, because I just preached on justice last week, and this person broke a command of God, and I think this is a situation where there has been a great injustice against me.

But I also prayed for mercy on the thief. If I meet this person today I would love to take the opportunity to tell them about Jesus. To talk to them about justice. To find out what injustices maybe had been done to them, what put them on a path of doing injustice against others. I’d love to tell them about the free offer of grace and mercy extended to us in Jesus Christ. I would love to tell them that in the big picture the bike doesn’t really matter. What does matter is justice. What does matter is that they know the mercy of God. What does matter is walking with God.

Here’s where we go from last week- we can only do justice correctly when we love mercy. Justice is really about getting what we deserve, or giving others what they deserve. And like we said last week, we really do crave and desire justice- but only when we have been treated unjustly. When we have done something in just, and been busted, we never say, oh great, you caught me, now please show me justice. No, we beg for mercy. Please please please forgive me! I’ve learned my lesson. I can see the error of my ways, so me mercy! That’s so human! It’s our gut response- mercy for me, justice for everyone else. What Micah does so masterfully is bring the two together, to begin teaching us that the two are really hand in glove- we need both. Micah taught it, but Jesus embodies it.

Case study. A group of religious leaders brings a woman caught in adultery to Jesus. They quote the bible to say that the woman should be stoned. What do you say Jesus? They’ve set him up. If he says stone her he breaks the law of Rome and they have him. If he says let her go he disregards the Law of Moses and they have him. Talk about a sticky situation. What does he do? Nothing. Actually, he does what we should do more often- he keeps his mouth shut for a while, and it appears that he stops to think, and kneels down, and begins doodling in the sand. The religious leaders keep pressing him, and finally Jesus straightens up and says, “OK, whoever has not ever sinned, you go ahead and throw the first stone.” First the old men drop their stones, and then the young ones, and soon not one is left. Only the woman and Jesus are left. “Woman, where are your accusers? The ones that wanted to condemn you?” “They’re gone.” And listen to what Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you, now go and leave your life of sin.”

That is awesome! Jesus has done justly by loving mercy. To truly appreciate and understand mercy, we must first be confronted with justice. That’s what Jesus does so well here. That is what is always so hard- how to find the balance between justice and mercy? It's difficult. Nay, impossible, unless we can be guided through these difficult situations. Jesus was able to navigate justice and mercy because he walked with God. And likewise, we can only hope to navigate this requirement by walking humbly with God. We have to start thinking and living like Jesus, the perfect fulfillment of acting justly and loving mercy.

If we are to become the people God requires us to be we must walk with Him. How awesome that God doesn’t just want us to serve Him, but to walk along side of him. What God actually wants, what God actually requires, is for us to live in relationship with him. This is so awesome because if we only had the first two- do justice and love mercy, we would be left with a religion of works. What does God require? He requires you do these things, he requires a works righteousness, he requires a religion. But this final requirement changes the whole dynamic. The final requirement highlights the wonderful truth that ultimately God requires, God desires, that we enter into a living relationship with Him. He wants us to walk together, to walk humbly with him.

The bible is replete with the language of walking with God. From Adam and Eve walking in the garden with God in the cool of the evening, to walking the streets of God in the kingdom of Heaven. From the metaphor of walking in obedience to God, to the disciples literally walking with their teacher Jesus, to us, to the body of Christ, called to walk in step with the Holy Spirit guiding our path. What does that look like? How do we walk humbly with God? Four observations from the bible:

One, to walk humbly with God we must first acknowledge that God is in the lead. This is where it starts. You can’t even really actively walk with God until you come that that starting place to say God, I want to walk with you, and that means I’m going to follow you. Jesus, take the wheel! Take the lead.

Easily said, more difficult to do. Nearly everyone who says they are a Christian, a Christ follower, by definition recognizes that they are saying Jesus is in the lead of my life. But you know what, we say a lot of things we don’t do or believe, right. We talk a big talk all the time about a lot of things. Perhaps this is the biggest talk any of us ever say, that we’re actually going to follow Jesus. I think I can say that with some confidence because if all of us who say we are following Jesus, walking with him, were really walking with him a lot more actively, intentionally, humbly, a lot of people would live a very different life than they do today, and the world would be a lot better place than it is. Perhaps it’s time we go back to the start, back to humility, to say Jesus, God, you’re in the lead. I’ll go where you go, do what you do, be who you want me to be.

Two, to walk humbly with God, to put him in the lead, we must go in the direction he is going. This may mean changing course on our part, and we must be willing to do that. And when I say the direction God is going, I mean we have to get it aligned. You start out on a line, and say I’m going to go in the general direction of this line, but you start a just a fraction of an angle off, then you walk a few minutes, a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, and that line is no longer anywhere in sight. That’s the thing about direction- we have to get it right, because over the haul, a little off or a lot off makes no real difference, it’s just off. God is the leader, God sets the direction. We may not like it- so what. That’s why this takes humility.

In our lives we are confronted with this almost daily. But we get a lot of practice. We follow the direction of our parents when we’re young, of teachers as we grow, of bosses as we enter the work force. We even follow people in really stupid directions. WE follow people to the dumbest places in our lives, don’t we? When we think about some of the things we’ve done, the places we’ve gone, the trouble we’ve gotten ourselves into… what were we thinking? We’ll we weren’t putting Jesus in the lead, and weren’t going in his direction, because the awesome thing about the direction of Jesus, is that it will always take us to God. Always. It will take us to a cross mine you. It will take us to sacrifice, to some suffering, to giving until it cost us something. But simultaneously it will take us to joy, abundance, freedom, life. That’s just like a teaser for our Breakout series and what we’re going t be going into in-depth.

Three, to walk humbly with God we must go at God’s pace. My mom used to always complain that I would walk ahead of her, and she wanted me with her. To this day, Robin still tells me I walk too fast. If we are going on a walk, she wants to walk together. I must change my pace if I want to be with her. And so we must go with God’s pace. I know I find myself way out in front of the church, and I must stop, slow down, and pace myself with God. We may want the answer now, but it may be weeks, months, or years down the path. Of course there are times when I want to drag my heels through times of change, discomfort and disagreement. To pace ourselves with God means we move when he moves, and wait when he waits. But to get there, we must go together.

Four, to walk humbly with God we must look to the same destination. We will argue, we will fight, we will eventually split our ways if we are not agreed on the same destination. Humility says we’ll go to God’s destination for our lives. Of course, it doesn’t take much foresight to see God has a great destination- plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future. God’s destination, let us never forget, is his kingdom, a perfect kingdom where the streets are gold, the crops are always ripe, and no one will shed any tears. It’s an awesome destination. And that’s what gets us through the walk- because as sure as the destination is wonderful, there will be times in walk that will be difficult. There will be struggles, trials and temptations. There will be persecution. There will be sacrifice. Some will even pay the ultimate price. Never forget that Jesus path to the kingdom, to his fathers right side, took him to firs to the cross and the grave.

Micah 6:8 is for us a rubric to approach life. A rubric in literature is a heading or direction or even a rule. And that’s what God gives us in this verse. What is our heading, our direction, our rule for living? What is good and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy, and walk humble with God. God has rubric for what we are to do, to be, and to become. Live by a verse like this and you will never go wrong- for who can argue against God’s justice, mercy and path for our lives?

So how will you live this out this week? Before you leave here today you must decide how you will obey this requirement. Where will you do justice today? Who needs to be shown mercy in your life? What direction will you change so you can walk humbly with God?

So I ask you, what does the Lord require of you? Say it with me and live it everyday….