What does God Require?
Sunday Sermon / Missions month conclusion
November 4th, 2007
Intro: we have had a wonderful month of missions. I was nervous stepping aside from the pulpit this month. I wondered if you wound not continue to come. I trust that you have been blessed in hearing and visiting with a few of the missionaries support through KVAG. I want to give another big thanks to Sherree for all her work in presenting to us.
Vision – just how important is it that we take an active role in spreading the gospel? Its life and death. Isn’t it? When a church ceases to care primarily about the Great Commission that church has lost is way.
Our vision statement is presented to you on everything. We exist as a church to, ‘Connect people to the life changing power of God.’
So I ask, what do those ‘people’ look like? They are every shade of skin imaginable.
Where do those ‘people’ live? They live in every country and on every continent.
What lifeless god do they now worship? Allah, Nature or materialism. Or possibly they worship God, but aren’t truly connected to Him, because they haven’t yet accepted Jesus.
Text: Micah
God’s Prophet, Micah was called to bring God’s people back around to God and His heart. They had lost their way. They became distracted and as a result of there wandering away, they were completely missing God. So, Micah preached and called to people to return.
How many would agree,
I. God gets in your face until He gets your heart
a. These people truly needed God to get into their faces.
b. They had allowed greed to creep into their hearts and it began to consume their lives. These things start off small, a little bit of compromise, a little here and a little there.
c. They mixed worship of Jehovah with worship for Baal.
Baal was considered the fertility god. They worshipped Baal, so that they would prosper. So, the crops and animals would multiply. They compromised their worship of God so they could have easier lives.
d. Furthermore, their hearts hardened towards each other and they started stealing and swindling each other out of their land. The rich Lorded over the poor
I had a conversation with Pastor Babu Friday night on the way home from a Church service. I asked him, what do people in India think about America? Because many people in the world truly despise us. So I asked him. He said, “People in India think America is heaven on the Earth.” Wow, what an indictment, I thought. They look at us and see all that we have, all our security, all our wealth. If this is heaven, I’m a more than a little disappointed. The poorest of our citizens is still in the top 10% wealthiest people in the world. They look at us and think I want to be an American. Babu, then told me about a Indian missionary who wrote, “I’d rather be in Hell with Jesus, than Heaven without Jesus.”
e. If this is heaven, its heaven without Jesus.
f. And why are we lacking Jesus in America? We see no real need for Him. If Jesus can make me more happy then sure, I’ll be a Christian.
II. The Cure
In our insatiable pursuit for acquisition more things, we forget to ask the question that once answered will cure our hearts and satisfy our souls.
What does the Lord Require of me?
Micah 6:6-8 "With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
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.
God’s goodness is the fundamental standard for what God desires, and we are pleasing to him only inasmuch as we resemble the goodness he has “showed”
a. God will always point us back to our hearts
• Our heart is paramount in our response to God.
• Sacrifices are only as valuable as the heart change they must represent
For Micah, justice, mercy and humility would have been understood in a financial and economic context, especially in light of the fact that the antithesis of these virtues was the economic sins which he condemned…Thus, when Micah describes what God wants, he is describing obedience that must be understood in the context of stewardship, generosity, and financial faithfulness.
• From our heart, we are called to hunger and thirst for Righteousness.
• From our heart we are called to LOVE MERCY
• From our heart we are called to walk humbly (stiff necked / potter’s hand)
b. Let Mercy Lead
Matthew 9:12 “…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."
• Jesus not only wants mercy FOR us he wants mercy FROM us.
• I must admit, we have not truly “gone and learned” the meaning, but over the last month they have come to teach us what it means. And to ask us to take action.
Look at the people groups being reached: Missions PowerPoint show
• Scott Bush = U.S. Bikers
• McKims = U.S. College students
• Folks = College students in Spain
• ____ = Muslims
• Sweetens = Jews
• Erickson = Native American
• Babu = Hindu (orphans, widow, or pastor family.)
The problem is too big; what can I do? “Nothing” is usually the answer we give ourselves.
We feel overwhelmed and we shut down.
What do you do when your mountain is bigger than your shovel? You take one shovel at a time for the rest of your life and hopefully we make a dent or we can multiply the shovels. What if we can have many people, with many shovels all coming at the same problem from different angles. You take care of the mound in front of you; I’ll take care of the mound in front of me. And together, we can make a difference.
When it comes to missions, dollars really do equal souls.
There isn’t any other way for the ministers to go. They must be sent, they must be supported, and they must be encouraged in their work.
2 Corinthians 9:10 “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”
Each and every one of us must ask the question; Lord what do you want ME to do?
• Not, “Lord, who in our church can meet this need? Lord put it on their heart.”
• Not, “Lord, what’s the least I can give without feeling guilty.”
• But, “Lord, what is the most I can accomplish for you?”
• Which of these minister/ministries tugs at your heart? It may be several, or all combined.
“I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures excludes them.” — C.S. Lewis
I have three goals this morning.
Goal #1: Double the number of givers in our church through faith promises
In fact, I would like to see 100% participation here. There isn’t any good reason not to. Everyone can spare at least a dollar per month. Start with a dollar and work up from there.
My other two goals deal specifically with Babu.
Babu Video:
Goal #2: Advocate team
I have learned that only one other church and one couple regularly support him. Therefore, what we do for him in this next year is very significant. None of the orphans and none of the pastor families have been sponsored. I realize that we need many more shovels working on this mound. Therefore, I am asking for 3-4 savvy people to work as his advocates here in the states. Reaching other churches, organizations and foundations etc.
Goal #3: Emergency relief
When eternity drives your now, you will have an unwavering conviction that: “No Cost is too great”
Jesus assured us a reward in heaven for our giving now.
Psalm 82:3-4 “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."
Conclusion:
1 Corinthians 11:20 “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, 21for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing?”
Not only is this true within the local church. We see “His Body” manifest within each congregation. But the meaning is much deeper and much more broad. Much more rewarding. Does it matter that our brothers and sisters in the Lord live 8000 miles away?
