Mortal Lesswons Notes on the Art of Surgerypresence of a God Sermon

Micah 6:6-8

six With what shall I come earlier the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a yr sometime? seven Will the Lord exist pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has told you, O mortal, what is skillful; and what does the Lord require of y'all just to do justice, and to beloved kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

An Epistle to Kewanna

I had trouble deciding what I would preach on today. I had to decide what was essentially going to be my epistle to you. Paul wrote to the churches to which he was going and those which he had already been. Existence that this is my last Sunday as your pastor, that circumstance calls for something unlike than the norm. In that location are plenty of different ways pastors choose to terminate their ministry at a particular church. I am going to look to this familiar passage from Micah for inspiration.

This passage points out three things which God looks for from the Christian. To practice justice. To dear kindness. To walk humbly with your God. That sounds simple plenty, doesn't it? It'southward but three things. We can remember that. We can do that. At to the lowest degree that's what nosotros've been told nosotros can do.

Think almost some mag covers yous take seen lately. What are some of the headlines and stories y'all run across? 5 things every college student NEEDS to know earlier their kickoff day. Seven foods YOU should consume to go your torso ready for the beach. Ten ways your identity can be stolen NOW! Those in the media and marketing industries know that we volition take whatsoever way we tin to simplify or improve our lives. If information technology tin be cleaved down into its basest elements, we like that. If you can put it in a list, that'south even better. If it is easier, more succinct and familiar to the states, we experience we can handle information technology.

Our faith is similar that, as well. If nosotros can pick up a book that promises to increment our faith and make us more devoted disciples, we may just run correct out and go it. If there is someone instruction a faith that is unproblematic, we might be inclined to pay attention.

There was a book that came out a few years ago called Three Simple Rules written by the United Methodist Bishop Ruben Job. It is a commentary on one of John Wesley's teachings. It helps to simplify, for the Christian, the life which Jesus came to show us. The first is practise no harm. The 2nd is do good. The third is stay in love with God. Sounds simple plenty, doesn't information technology? It sounds like ane of those commodity titles from above. It sounds like something that we might but want to check out.

Nosotros do this because living our faith–specially today–is hard. Learning near our faith is even harder. There are so many demands upon our fourth dimension, attending and resource. Given the electric current economic situation about of the states our facing, that only adds to the list of things that take precedent over our faith.

Last semester, my Christian history course covered all the early on church building fathers and their writings. Theologians, pastors and other interested parties expect to these documents because these were the people who idea out and molded the theology by which the church lives today. The simply problem with these things is they are pretty boring and daunting for the average reader. You have to Want to read them, or at to the lowest degree be forced to read them for a course.

I cannot sit down and read the work of a physicist. There are also many technical and field-specific things to know and understand. I oasis't tried, but I am certain that it would be pretty difficult for me to sit downwardly and try to ingest a book written by Stephan Hawking. Conversely, I don't think a physicist could sit down and read the works of Luther, Polycarp or Augustine and be much better off.

Nosotros love the religion. We dearest being Christians. We love Jesus. We merely find the technical stuff a bit hard to empathize.

The good news through all of this is that we don't need to trudge through systematic theology to be faithful. We don't need to have read John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Organized religion to take a handle on what it means to exist a Christian. Micah points to three things which are required of the true-blue person. I would like this to be the lesson I exit with you.

The neat thing–for us as United Methodists–is that Wesley'southward rules sync upwards pretty well with the discussion from the prophet Micah. Wesley's first rule is do no harm, whereas Micah says do justice. Wesley's 2nd rule is do adept, whereas Micah says to beloved kindness. Micah says to walk humbly with your God and Wesley goes a step further with stay in dearest with God. I thought that was pretty neat. Just as a annotation and courtesy, I should say that the correlation between Micah and Wesley is not my own. Bishop Mike Coyner shared that with us during Annual Conference a couple of weeks agone. The remainder is mine–or God's, rather.

The passage from Micah opens with the writer request what things the faithful should do to be considered worthy of God. Everything from rams to ones showtime built-in are mentioned as possible items to be brought before God in order to cleanse ourselves for God. The belief being that these offerings would brand upwardly for the unworthiness of the petitioner–the one who seeks an audience with God. That is some Old Testament thinking, correct there.

But fifty-fifty every bit Micah is in the Onetime Attestation, the author goes on to say those things aren't needed. The laymen would wait at this verse from the Old Testament and think nothing is out of place. We have that mindset nearly what life was like for the Old Attestation faithful. Yet, hither we are, looking at a prepare of three things which are required. If you do these things, you're good. It's simple–and we like uncomplicated.

The first is to do justice. And what is meant by this? Micah is mirroring things said by Jeremiah and Isaiah. Jeremiah vii.5-6 says, "For if you lot truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly deed justly one with another, if you lot do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you exercise not go later other gods to your own injure, and then I will dwell with you in this place…" Isaiah says about the same matter.

What does this accept to do with practice no harm? Bishop Job–recollect him from earlier–says "To exercise no damage means that I will exist on guard then that all my actions and even my silence volition not add injury to another of God's children or to whatever function of God'south creation." When read alongside the words of Jeremiah, it'south pretty obvious what is being said. Jeremiah mentions justice every bit not harming God, His creation or His creatures. Past doing no harm, we follow the same rules. Doing justice and no damage are synonymous terms for the Christian.

The second is love kindness. Once again, Micah is not the only Old Attestation vocalism about kindness. Hosea says. "For I desire steadfast love and non cede, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings (6.6)." Wesley'southward second rule is do good. This should be self-explanatory. In case this isn't enough, Wesley explains it by saying "there is scarce any possible way of doing skillful, for which here is not daily occasion." Nosotros practise good as our cede. We exercise skillful as evidence of our fruit as Christians. When we attempt to use our own efforts equally evidence of our own worthiness, we make ourselves into the deities. To exercise good is to prove ourselves transformed past God's working in our lives through our actions.

This doing of skilful is no small feat–not when we exercise it right. We cannot be only on random acts of kindness. The nitty gritty of doing expert and loving kindness comes in when we interact with the people nosotros know–for better or worse. How practise nosotros treat those who sit beyond the dinner table from us? How practice we care for those with whom we work? How do we care for those who have wronged usa? Those whom we hate or that hate us?

You lot knew I was going to get in that location eventually. Dear your enemies. The most challenging thing Christians experience on a day to day basis. It's hard.

How hard is this loving your enemies thing? Permit me exam you by asking you this: what was your reaction to the decease of Osama bin Laden? You have probably seen thoughts on either side of this. Bin Laden was hated the world over. In that location were celebrations in the streets over his death. Should there have been? Perchance you toasted his decease? That'southward okay. He deserved worse for what he caused our country to endure over the last decade. My point today is that the Christian isn't allowed to practise information technology–at to the lowest degree not according to Jesus. We can take him out and trust the grace of God to be enough to compensate, but we cannot dance on his grave. I think this effect displayed simply how difficult it is to do good, love kindness and follow the commands of Jesus. It doesn't alter the fact that information technology is what we are chosen to do.

Why does Jesus command united states to beloved our enemies? It is difficult, for certain, withal we are commanded to practice information technology. Why is this important? This is my theory. Information technology goes to our understanding of God and homo. At that place is God–he is up here. At that place is homo–nosotros are down here. That is the gist. We exercise not have elbowroom to brand distinctions beyond that fact. We are stuck at this point to draw no further distinctions when information technology comes to our young man person. Nosotros are no lower than the person who purports to know the Bible inside and out. Nosotros are no higher than whatever death-row inmate or child sex offender. It is our humanity which leads us to draw lines betwixt "u.s." and "them." God, on the other hand, is no respecter of persons. Peter says as much in the book of Acts (10.34). Dearest our enemies? In that location is no other determination which the Christian is obliged or allowed to come. Doing good and loving kindness are how we demonstrate to God nosotros are His.

The third rule is the most important–walk humbly with your God. The question that came upwards in my mind as I studied this was equally compared to what? If you are not walking humbly with God, how else are you walking with him? The proverbs speak of a relationship with God that is humble, and not haughty (their discussion). Haughty means "scornfully and condescendingly proud." You lot might also say presumptuous. To walk humbly with God means that we understand that we are who nosotros are because God is as loving as he is–we are entitled to zippo as a event.

How, then, does that sync with Wesley'south tertiary dominion to stay in beloved with God? When Wesley speaks of staying in love with God, he means to be engaged in worship of, in knowledge of and in service to God. Can one testify humility and still display their love for God? I think Colossians can help us understand how these two things are related.

The author wrote, "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, go along to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the religion, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving (2.6-vii)." The Christian is to live rooted in Him and established in the faith–humble (v.six). The Christian is as well to be "abounding in thanksgiving" (v.7)–in love with God. If the early church fathers believe it to exist truthful, and if John Wesley believes it to be true, it behooves the listener to hear.

John Wesley says doing no damage, doing good and staying in dear with God are the iii rules a Christian should live past. Micah says doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God are the only things required of us past God. Of grade, we know that the Christian life cannot exist summed up in total by these rules. It is a template. A manner forward. Three things yous can do to make sure yous are a faithful child of God.

And so, allow us exercise no harm! Hopefully, this is something into which I do not take to go into much item. This is an attainable goal–though not entirely like shooting fish in a barrel. This isn't just a call to exist prissy to others–though information technology is a part of it. It also isn't just a call to love your neighbor as yourself. To do no harm also means to exist aware of what we are doing by all our actions. It means existence engaged in our lives, aware of what we are doing and the consequences of that doing.

How many of you know someone who is happy to alive as the victim of life's circumstances? Maybe y'all are that person. These people will picket themselves fall into the same patterns they ever exercise. They become to the same people in order to help bail them out. They look for anyone else to arraign but themselves. The gift of life which nosotros take all been given is something they take for granted–or even waste. Talk about being presumptuous with God!

Let us also practice good! Doing good is, once again, a whole other brute. Whereas doing no harm tin can actually exist something done independent of others, doing proficient is something you must engage with others to do. This makes information technology uniquely Christian. Christianity–the church–is a customs. Jesus gathered disciples. Those disciples traveled the Mediterranean to begin and abound churches full of people seeking God.

The Barnabas Fund is a slap-up ministry of the Kewanna United Methodist Church. For those who may not know, it is a fund from which the pastor writes checks to those with immediate needs. Anyone know why information technology is called the Barnabas Fund? Acts 4.32-37 recounts the nature of the early church. No one held private property. Anybody put what they had into a common treasury and Barnabas was the campaigner who handed the proceeds out as in that location was need. It was a truthful community.

You may have noticed I utilize that word–customs–a lot. The church building is supposed to be a community. Doing good is important in a customs, and therefore of import for the Christian.

And what of staying in love with God? This is, past far, the most important of all the rules. If we do non keep this rule, why are we hither? We must accept care to give God our all in everything nosotros do. Information technology begins with worship. Are nosotros actually here when we are hither? Do we really worship or just go along with the motions? Do we respect the communal nature of the act past insuring what we are doing does not disrupt the congregation–remembering the community aspect? If nosotros are to stay in love with God, we need to worship Him every bit if we are.

I speak about worship, simply that is not all. Do nosotros study His word? Do we spend time with Him in devotion and prayer? It certainly is of import to listen for His vocalism. When was the last time you listened to God? When we practice pray, are we truly communing with Him or marking it off our checklist? We could not develop a loving and lasting relationship with our significant other based upon a few brief encounters each calendar week, could we? How do we expect to build a humble, dependent, loving and lasting human relationship when nosotros give the same treatment to God? Staying in dear with God is a full listen, torso and spirit try which nosotros need to undertake daily. Every. Unmarried. Day.

Practise no damage. Practise good. Stay in love with God. These 3 rules exercise not encompass all that it means to be a Christian. Just I hope you that if you follow them, you will do well.

With that, I shall say goodbye. You must know it has been an honor to serve y'all this past year. You have shown my family unit and I such gracious hospitality and Christian beloved. Our thoughts and prayers will exist with yous constantly and we hope yours volition be with us.

So, equally with any epistle, there should exist a benediction; something to depict the alphabetic character to a close. Then I volition say: may the life of Christ guide you, may the peace of God abide with y'all, may the grace of God sustain you until we shall run into once more. AMEN

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Source: https://notesfromthepastorsoffice.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/sermon-from-6-26-11-three-simple-rules-an-epistle-to-kewanna-united-methodist-church/

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