MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(REVISED: 2015)
(Powerpoint slides for this sermon are available at no charge. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #263.)
TEXT: Micah 6:6 8
A. This morning we are going to be looking at a very interesting passage of scripture found in the Old Testament. In it, the prophet Micah is asking, "Just what is it that God really wants from us? What should we be offering to God?"
ILL. There is an old story of a young boy who saw the 3 wise men coming to worship the baby Jesus. He watched in wide eyed wonder as they presented their gifts of gold, frankincense & myrrh.
Oh, how much he wanted to worship the baby, too. But he had nothing to give, no gift worthy of the little king. His eyes filled with tears as he turned & began to walk away.
But just then an angel appeared to him, saying, "Give what is dearest to your heart." The boy thought for a moment, & then following the angel's advice, laid a faded blue bag alongside the gifts of the wise men.
Inside his bag was a butterfly preserved in candle wax, a forked stick used for a slingshot, a ragged rope to help climb high trees, & a seashell that, when held to the ear, echoed the roar of the sea. He gave what was dearest to his heart, & thus was privileged to stand in the presence of the king.
ILL. There is an old proverb which says, "The only gift worth giving is yourself." Maybe Paul said it best in Romans 12:1, "I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy & pleasing to God..."
B. This is the season to give, isn't it? A time of generosity, a time when we often spend more than we can really afford.
But it seems that the custom of giving gifts to Jesus, established by the wise men, has changed. Now we don't bring gifts so much to Jesus as we do to one another.
We think about them. We agonize over them. We spend. We endure almost any inconvenience in order to buy just the right gifts for others.
APPL. I wonder this morning what it would be like if, for just one Christmas, we would make a covenant to spend just as much time & energy & thought in making a gift to Jesus?
C. The prophet Micah must have been going through that same kind of dilemma in the scripture that we will consider this morning. Listen to his words recorded in Micah 6:6-8.
“With what shall I come before the Lord & bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
"Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
“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.”
"What shall I bring to the Lord?" Micah asks. At first, he thinks about such things as: "calves a year old," "thousands of rams," "rivers of oil."
But then Micah realizes, "No, God doesn't really want any of those things. The gifts God wants are 3 in number. He wants you to act justly. He wants you to love mercy. He wants you to walk humbly with your God."
PROP. I wonder what Christmas would be like if all of us would wrap up those 3 gifts, place them under the tree, & present them to our Lord? Let's think about that for a moment.
I. ACT JUSTLY
A. There is so little justice in our world. Almost everything seems to be unfair. The rich get richer & the poor get poorer. The bad seem to succeed, while the good seem to fail. Everything seems to be topsy turvy. It is hard to determine what justice really is.
ILL. For years we have heard the old joke, "Steal $10, & go to jail. Steal a million dollars & be elected to congress."
ILL. I don't think I'll ever be able to understand the justice of what happened out in California a number of years ago. A man abducted a young girl, attacked her, then chopped off her arms & dumped her by the roadside to die. But she lived & identified him & he was sent to prison.
The only remorse that he has ever shown was remorse over the fact that she didn't die, & thus was able to identify him.
He spent only 8 years in prison in California before they released him. And the public wouldn't even have known that he was loose again if it hadn't been for some friends of the victim who protested the injustice of it all.
Juries deliberate for hours, even weeks, & sometimes we wonder how in the world they reached the verdict that they did.
ILL. Some years ago the gory details of an ax murder in McKinney, TX, were aired on TV & radio & published in the newspapers. A woman who went to her lover's house to confront his wife, admitted that she took an ax with her & struck the wife 50 times with it.
She was released scot free. The jury decided that she was "simply defending herself." 50 blows with an axe? Just defending herself?
In my mind that doesn't seem to register as justice at all.
ILL. Or how about the automobile accident in which a father & 3 children were killed? A woman was driving way over the speed limit. She ran a red light & crashed broadside into their car, killing the father & his 3 children instantly.
But the woman driving above the speed limit, running the red light, wasn't even hurt. Somehow that doesn't seem fair, does it?
There is so much in this world that doesn't seem fair.
B. I wonder what it would be like if we who are a part of the church would wrap up a little gift called "justice" & bring it to the manger of Christ? "Lord, we don't care what else the world may do, but we, as your people, will be fair with one another. We promise not to cheat."
"We promise to be fair in our business dealings. We promise that we will not lie to our customers. We'll always be honest in the things we say. We'll always be fair & just in the things we do."
"We promise to be fair with people who have a different color of skin. We'll never talk unjustly about them. We won't gossip, we won't complain, we'll not argue or fight with one another. We'll always be fair!" What would it be like if God's people would do that?
SUM. I wonder what it would be like this year if we would wrap up the gift of justice, & bring it to Jesus?
II. LOVE MERCY
God told Micah "to love mercy, to love kindness." The Bible says, "Love is patient & it is kind." (1 Corinthians 13:) It is hard to find kindness today. So many people are unkind.
ILL. Perhaps you have heard about the woman who never swore, but caused everyone around her to swear. We have all known people like that.
Have you ever been treated unkindly? Have you ever had that sinking feeling inside, when you feel that people don't really care about you & that you are being rejected by them?
ILL. Think about the lepers in N.T. times. Wherever they went, they had to announce their coming by shouting "Unclean, unclean!"
How they must have felt when people looked at them, & turned & ran away from them, afraid to touch them, not wanting to be in their presence. They were not even welcome in their own homes, or among their family members.
Yet, when they came to Jesus, He didn't turn & run. He reached out & touched them & healed them! He treated them with kindness, & the result was healing.
ILL. What about the woman that Jesus met at Jacob's well? How many husbands had she had? Was it 5? And the man she was living with now was not her husband. She was branded by the whole community as immoral a prostitute.
When she walked down the street they must have snickered & hurled insulting remarks. They must have been so unkind that she was even afraid to come to the well in the morning or in the evening when everyone else came.
Instead, she came in the heat of noontime to draw her water. And it was then that she found Jesus. What if Jesus had been unkind? What if Jesus had said, "I want nothing to do with you, you immoral woman?"
But He didn't. Rather, He spoke to her in such a way that she ran back to Sychar & told the people to come & meet a man who had told her everything she had ever done a man who had treated her with kindness.
SUM. Kindness is a good gift to bring at Christmas time. Would you make a covenant with me this Christmas to give the gift of kindness? Can we promise that we will try to be kinder to one another? That we will reflect the true spirit of Christ & show the world that He has made a difference & a change in our lives?
I think that the gift of kindness would be a wonderful gift to bring to Jesus at Christmas time.
III. WALK HUMBLY WITH OUR GOD
The Lord told Micah that He wanted one more gift - that we would "walk humbly with our God." Jesus came into a world not greatly impressed with humility. He came into a world influenced by Greek culture & art.
People were arrogant & proud. They thought that if you were important you would have a number of slaves & live among the aristocracy. You would wear lots of jewelry & flash that among the common people.
He came into a world greatly impressed with "Power." Roman officers rode on prancing stallions, with shining armor & plumes in their helmets swords & shields in place giving orders. And people quickly responding to their orders.
Into that kind of world Jesus came, riding not a prancing stallion but seated upon the foal of a donkey. He came with no great possessions, no fancy jewels, no material wealth, & the world was unimpressed! It rejected Him. It mocked Him, & it crucified Him!
Almost 2,000 years have passed since then. Are we any different than the Greeks & the Romans? Now we are impressed with brand names. We still want to wear just the right clothes – be in fashion drive the right automobile & live in the right neighborhood.
Yet, to Micah, the Lord said, "Walk humbly with thy God."
SUM. Three Christmas gifts. Yet, amazingly, we don't have to have money to give them. We don't have to have talent to give them. Everyone here can give them. We can bring them, neatly wrapped, & place them at the feet of Jesus.
I suggest that when we do, it may very well be the best Christmas that we have ever had.
INYITATION
