Act Justly, Love Mercy
And Walk Humbly With Your God
6/19/05
Mic. 6:8 He has showed you, O man, 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.
Religious oppression is nothing but bondage!
Religious oppression destroys your joy!
Religious oppression makes you feel like a
failure!
Religious oppression makes you feel like you are
never good enough!
Religious oppression binds you up with rules
trying to earn God’s favor!
Religious oppression knows nothing about the grace
and mercy of God!
Religious oppression makes you want to quit, but
you are too afraid to!
Mic. 6:8 He has showed you, O man,
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.
Mat. 23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2“The
teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3So you
must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for
they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy loads and
put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a
finger to move them.
5“Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their
phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6they love
the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7they
love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’
(Message Bible) Now Jesus turned to address his disciples, along with the
crowd that had gathered with them. “The religion scholars and Pharisees are
competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their
teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line,
but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in
their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.
“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet
on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack
animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads,
and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual
fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next.
They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most
prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving
honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’
Mat. 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Mic. 6:8 He has showed you, O man,
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.
Do we love mercy?
Mat. 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the
tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and
followed him.
10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax
collectors and “sinners” came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When
the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat
with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
12On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a
doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire
mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Paul constantly confronted religious
oppression.
Col. 2:20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world,
why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21“Do
not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22These are all destined
to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. 23Such
regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed
worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they
lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
(Message Bible) So, then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and
infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it?
“Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this!” Do you think things
that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such
things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the
illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of
showing off, making yourselves look important.
Mic. 6:8 He has showed you, O man,
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.
2 Cor. 11:1 (NAS) I wish that you would bear with me in a little
foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me. 2For I am jealous
for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to
Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. 3But I am afraid
that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be
led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.
Jesus constantly confronted religious
oppression!
Mat. 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath.
His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2When
the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what
is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his
companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God, and he and his
companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but
only for the priests. 5Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the
Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6I
tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 7If you had known
what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have
condemned the innocent. 8For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Let’s look in the Old Testament to what Jesus was referring to...
1 Sam. 21:1 David went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech trembled
when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”
2David answered Ahimelech the priest, “The king charged me with a
certain matter and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about your mission
and your instructions.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain
place. 3Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of
bread, or whatever you can find.”
4But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread
on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here—provided the men have
kept themselves from women.”
5David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual
whenever I set out. The men’s things are holy even on missions that are not
holy. How much more so today!” 6So the priest gave him the
consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the
Presence that had been removed from before the LORD and replaced by hot bread
on the day it was taken away.
Mic. 6:8 He has showed you, O man,
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.
Read 1 Sam 13:23-14:46 - Saul binding the people under this religious curse.
Read Judges 11 - Jephthah’s foolish vow.