Simple Man
Micah 6: 3-8
Intro. A father was talking with his rather rebellious son one day & said, "Every person who lives in the United States is a privileged person." The boy answered, "I disagree." And the father replied, "That’s the privilege."
. We have the privilege to disagree. We have the privilege to speak our mind. We have freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, and the right of petition. We have the freedom to hope & dream & pursue our dreams. We are free in so many ways!
. We have these rights because of what our forefathers have done. You & I didn’t earn the privileges that we enjoy as citizens of this land. But I am thankful for those who did earn them & passed them on to me, & that is what I celebrate on the 4th of July.
. As I think about these men and women who came before us and made it possible for us to enjoy the freedoms that we have, one thing stuck with me this week as I prepared this sermon.
. These people were simple people. While they did extraordinary things , there was nothing extraordinary about them.
. They were simple people just like you and I but driven by a love for God, Family and Country.
. These men and women were much like the gentleman who was featured on the video we showed just a minute ago. They were simple men.
. Let me tell you about one of them.
. Patrick Henry was a famous statesman and orator of colonial Virginia. In 1764 he was elected to the House of Burgesses where he became a champion of the frontier people, supporting their rights against the arrogant exercise of power by the aristocracy.
In 1774 he was a delegate to the First Continental Congress. In 1775, before the Virginia Provincial Convention, which was deeply divided between those who supported England and those who desired freedom, he uttered his most famous words, "Give me liberty or give me death!"
During the Revolutionary War he became commander-in-chief of Virginia’s military forces, a member of the Second Continental Congress, helped draw up the first constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and was largely responsible for drawing up the amendments to our Constitution known as the Bill of Rights.
He became Virginia’s first governor, and was re-elected four times. Then he retired from public life, but despite his strong objections the people went ahead and re-elected him Governor for the 5th time. But he meant what he said, so he refused to take the office.
He was offered a seat in the U.S. Senate, and posts as ambassador to Spain and to France. President George Washington asked him to join his cabinet and become Secretary of State, and later wanted to appoint him the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But he refused all such honors and recognitions.
Listen to these words from him: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians - not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
His Last Will & Testament was filed in the Brookneal County courthouse in Virginia. You read his will and you’ll see that he bequeathed everything to his children, just as most people do. But the last paragraph in his will is especially interesting.
He wrote, "I have now given everything I own to my children. There is one more thing I wish I could give them and that is Christ. Because if they have everything I gave them and don’t have Christ, they have nothing."
. Patrick Henry was a simple man who loved first and foremost, Jesus, but this simple man loved and served his country and he loved his family.
. Back in the seventies there was a band called Lynard Skynard. They were a rock band and they recorded a song called Simple Man. Some of you may remember the song.
. The song is about a mothers advice to her son and she tells him to just be a simple man. She says that he will have all he needs within his soul and that he shouldn’t chase after wealth and fame and riches. This is a little ironic because this song helped him to do just that but she advised him to always remember God in all things that He did.
. Our scripture today is about being a simple man. About remembering God and doing what is right and showing love and mercy to people.
. That’s what God wanted from his people who had wandered away from Him.
. He tells them that what He requires from His people is very simple. God wants us to be simple men and women.
. Let’s read our scripture. Micah 6:3-8
. O my people, what have I done to you?
What have I done to make you tired of me?
Answer me!
4For I brought you out of Egypt
and redeemed you from slavery.
I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to help you.
5Don’t you remember, my people,
how King Balak of Moab tried to have you cursed
and how Balaam son of Beor blessed you instead?
And remember your journey from Acacia Grove to Gilgal,
when I, the LORD, did everything I could
to teach you about my faithfulness.”
6What can we bring to the LORD?
What kind of offerings should we give him?
Should we bow before God
with offerings of yearling calves?
7Should we offer him thousands of rams
and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Should we sacrifice our firstborn children
to pay for our sins?
8No, O people, the LORD has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is eright, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.
. The people of Israel had turned away from God.
. This was God’s indictment of them. He cries out what have I done to you for you to abandon Me like you Have.
. Look back at your history and you can see that I have done nothing but bless you as a nation and you have abandoned me.
. He reminds them of all the things that He has done for them and they ask how can they get back into the relationship that they once had with God.
. What can we do to pay for our sins as a nation and as individuals.
. They suggest sacrifices all the way up to their firstborn children but God says NO, I don’t want your sacrifices, I just want you to live a life that honors Me. Just be simple people.
. We could substitute America for Israel in our scripture this morning.
. It would read something like this:
. O America, what have I done to you? Why have you tired of Me. Why have you abandoned the principles upon which you were founded. Your creeds and governing principles speak of your dependence upon Me but your actions do not follow your creeds.
. Don’t you remember when you were birthed that I was with you and how I blessed you.
. Remember the journey that we have traveled together.
. Some are trying to bring you back but they are trying to do this through laws and regulations.
. Don’t you remember that Jesus came to set you free from all these rules and regulations.
. You can’t correct your problems and idolatry through legislation.
. Here is how you can reconcile yourselves and your country to Me.
. Here are three simple steps to reconciliation both for you and your nation.
. Be simple men, simple people. Here is how you are to act.
.Look at verse 8 again
. O people, the LORD has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is eright, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.
. First He says Do What Is right.
. What God requires of us is that we do what is right and fair in our relationships with other people.
Justice involves the sense of a standard of equality among people. It can be as simple as being honest in even the smallest routine business transaction. On over in verse 11 here, the prophet complained about the person who uses “dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights.” (Micah 6:11)
. There is an old saying, “honesty is the best policy.” But for the Christian, that slogan should be, “honesty is the ONLY policy.” Because this is a consistent theme in all of Scripture -- that we are called to be people of fairness and integrity in all our dealings.
. In Psalm 51:6 we read, “ But you desire honesty from the womb…”
.In Proverbs 4:23 we read, 23 “Guard your heart above all else,
for it determines the course of your life.”
.We must settle it deep in our hearts to be a people of integrity, and be on guard in the battle to do what is right.
. Micah tells us three things God requires of us. One is to do what is right. Easy task. But it is hard to make a reality.
.We are a nation of Enrons – and they are not all on a large scale.
.We do the cheating on small scales that never make the headlines.
.Some cheat their neighbors.
.If some can find a way to swindle an employee, or steal from our employer, they will do it.
.But God requires all of us – Enron or simple individual to do what is right.
.To be a simple man or woman, Do What is Right.
. Next God says to love mercy.
. A businessman needed to have a professional photo taken. When the photographer was done, the man looked at his photo and complained, “This doesn’t do me justice.” The photographer responded, “With a face like yours you don’t need justice—you need mercy.”
. We all need mercy, and we need to offer it. We are compelled by Christ to offer unconditional acceptance of others, in spite of their faults, idiosyncrasies, sins and shortcomings.
. The story is told of a young man named John Gilbert who lived in a California town called Paradise. When he was 5 years old, John was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. He was told it would eventually destroy every muscle and finally, in a space of 10 years or so, take his life. John Gilbert passed away a few yeas ago at the age of 25. While alive John experienced a lot of exclusion and cruelty from his peers growing up. But at one point he was named the representative for everyone with his condition in the state of California. He was flown to Sacramento and was ushered with mother into the governor’s office for a private meeting.
That night the National Football League sponsored a fund-raising auction and dinner at which John was a guest. The players let him hold their huge Super Bowl rings, which almost extended to John’s wrist. When the auction began, one particular item caught John’s attention: a basketball signed by the players of the Sacramento Kings. John got a little carried away, because when the ball was up for bids, he raised his hand. As soon as his hand went up,
John’s mother pulled it down. In John’s words, “Astronauts never felt as many G’s as my wrist did that night.”
The bidding for the basketball rose to an astounding amount for an item that was not the most valuable treasure on the docket. Eventually, one man named a figure that shocked the room and the no one else could match. The man went to the front and collected his prize. But instead of returning to his seat, the man walked across the room and placed it in the thin, small hands of the boy who had admired it so intently. The man placed the ball in hands that would never dribble it down a court, never throw it to a teammate on a fast break, never fire it from 3-point range. But those hands would cherish it.
Have you bought a basketball for anybody lately? To love mercy is to love others with God’s heart. And to love others that’s a nice way of saying, “love everybody with the heart of God”
. Being a simple man means to show God’s mercy.
. We do this by sharing His grace, not judgment.
. We do this by sharing His forgiveness, not blame.
. We do this by sharing His patience, not irritations .
. We do this by sharing His kindness, not our harshness
. Lastly, Micah writes that we are to walk Humbly with God.
. Walk Humbly With God
. Basically this means to accept God as who He is.
. Your King, Your Savior, Your Redeemer, Your Creator.
. Realize who is in control and humble yourself before Him.
. Simply Love God.
. Give Him the prominence in your life that He deserves.
. As I was finishing this sermon God impressed upon me that the three things He wants from us as individuals and as a nation are basically the two commands of Jesus that we are to follow.
., When we do what is right and show mercy, this is the relationship that God wants us to have with our fellow man.
. To walk humbly with God is the relationship that He wants to have with us.
. It all goes back to Jesus’ two commands.
. Love God, Love each other.
. Folks if we are to turn our country back to God, it will not start in the legislature, It will start in the hearts of individuals using these simple commands.
. Be Simple people. Love God, Love your family and Love Jesus.
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources:
The Holy Bible, NLT
What Does God Want From Me????, W. Maynard Pittendreigh
God Bless America, Land That I Love, Melvin Newland
