What Is Good - Micah 6

How do you define what is good? How do you know when something is right or wrong? By what standard do you draw the boundaries of morality in your life? [And for some of you here today - by the end of this I may have an invitation for you to an entirely new standard]. I started reading this book recently called Dominion: how the Christian revolution remade the world, written by an atheist/agonistic historian named Tom Holland. Well - he was an atheist when he started. In fact, he published it while he was still an atheist back in 2019, but then he did an interview last year where he mentioned he’s been attending a church near his home. But as an atheist historian he was trying to figure why do we think the way that we think? Where did we get the rules of good and evil? And in the book, which I’ve only just started - it’s a BIG history book, but in the book he talks about the Roman gods, for example, and how they never laid down any guidance for humans. There was just this sense that they existed, and they were super powerful and they did whatever they wanted. Zeus, and Apollo, and Ares and Athena - there were no rules, just power. Morality was just what you are powerful enough to get away with. And in that religion, there was no sense of a god guiding or teaching or even caring about humanity. They would mess with humans from time to time - almost like pranks. Or give them gifts - like here’s the gift of fire. But there was no concept that the gods cared about how the humans lived their lives. And mostly importantly there was no sense of a god providing a moral code. If you can imagine, there’s no story of Posedian, the god of the ocean, sitting down with all the fishermen and sailors and teaching them, “Okay, now here’s how you live a good life.” Back in those days - custom, or tradition, was where most of the laws came from. Things were right or wrong simply because that’s what people had always done. And when you hold that up against the Jewish people that Jesus came from - they have a very different relationship with God. The Jewish people believe in one God, who made humans and actually cares about them and guides them and gives them a moral code - a way to understand what is right and wrong. And so I go back to my original question - how do you define what is good? How do you know when something is right or wrong? Is it just - what you feel… inside? And what are we supposed to do when what YOU feel is right is different than what other people feel is right? 

Today is the start of a brand new series called the Rebels Guide to goodness. We created this series because more and more we have seen that the world is trying to tell us, “you make your own morality.” Everyone is just sort of out there doing their own thing - and society is dissolving because of it. The world is screaming “do what YOU want. Look out for YOURSELF. Take whatever your power and your circumstance allows you to take.” And in a world like that - to do good, to live right in a world this twisted up, to obey God and go after what is actually good - we have to become rebels. We have to turn our back on society’s obsession with greed and selfishness and step boldly into an upside-down kingdom of mercy and justice. And so we’re going to get into the book of Micah, and I’m just going to lay it out for you at the start of this series - there’s some really important teachings coming down the line - things that will change your life. Micah 6:8 is a pivotal passage that we’re going to pull apart for the next couple of weeks. But no matter how much I dress it up - “rebels guide” trying to make it sound cool - the reality is that following God is hard. And I’m not going to trick you into following Jesus by making it look super cool. Living a moral life, being a good person, a life of holiness, of Christ following - there’s a reason we call it the narrow path. Most people won’t walk it. But it is the only path of growth in this world - and I can’t get to the good stuff, to the hard teachings - until you first understand the authority of the one who is giving the commandment.

And so if you want to open your bibles, we are going to be in Micah, chapter 6. I’m in the New Living Translation - there’s lots of wonderful translations, this one just happens to be my personal favorite. But if you want it to match what I’m saying, make sure you toggle it to NLT. If you’ve never opened a bible before - today is a great day to start. You can find Micah in the table of contents, it’s in the old testament, but it’s more towards the end of the old testament, so it’s in the back half of the book. And while you’re looking it up, I’ll tell you a little bit about this guy. Micah was a prophet in the Old Testament. Now hollywood and movies wants you to believe that prophets are just weirdos who are obsessed with predicting the future. But that’s only half true. They are weirdos, no question. These are some of the strangest people in the bible - but the point of a prophet was never predictions. Prophets are the mouthpiece of God. God would give them messages, and they would give those messages to the people. Usually the message was very simple, God would tell the prophet, “Mr. Prophet, I want you to go to the king or the ruler or into the town square or whatever, and I want you to give them this message, “Knock it off you absolute ragamuffins” Most of the time God’s message through the prophet was, “hey, you’re doing a bad thing and God wants you to stop it.” In fact, the vast majority is, “hey, knock it off or there’s going to be consequences.” It’s kind of like if your kids are tearing around the house - and you give them the warning, “if you keep it up something’s going to get broken.” And then they break something and they turn to you in awe, “wow - you are so good at predicting the future.” And it’s like, “that is not the point you little–” and so that’s what a prophet is, and Micah is no different. The people of Israel are doing bad stuff, and God sends Micah to call them out. 

So we jump in with chapter 6, and it says, [read v.1-2]. So God is making a case against the people of Israel. It’s almost like a court case - and the mountains and the hills are witnesses and all of creation is the jury. And God is bringing the case against the people. Now, when we get into it God’s complaint against his people is all about injustice. They’re not playing fair and God is furious about it. Micah describes how the wealthy people are brutally oppressing the poor people. Judges are taking bribes, in the marketplace merchants are cheating people by having scales that don’t balance correctly, church leaders are accepting money to stop telling people the truth and to start telling people what they want to hear. And do you remember how I said prophets are a bunch of weirdos? Let me show you what I mean - look at the colorful language Micah uses back in chapter 3, let’s put that on the screen [read chptr 3:1-4]. Now to clarify, there was no actual canniballism - he’s just using that as a metaphor. And I know what you’re thinking, “that’s a weird metaphor.” Unrelated, my kids had to go to the dentist a couple weeks back - cost me an arm and a leg. [pause]. Moving on. Ah, but here’s the thing - when we read about the bad behavior of people who lived on the other side of the world, thousands of years ago, it’s so easy for us to go tsk, tsk, tsk. That’s terrible, they should be ashamed of themselves! We’ve got no problem with God bringing a court case against those people - judging them, telling them they’re living wrong and they need to change their way. We are tolerant or even EAGER to see God judge THOSE people - THOSE people are bad! The problem comes up when we realize that every complaint God has against the people in the book of Micah applies to you and me in the modern world. The moment the book of Micah punches us in the face is when we realize that Micah is not just talking to them - he’s talking to us too. Walk through it - Do we live in a society where merchants sometimes cheat people by selling products of inferior quality, or misleading us through advertising? Do we live in a society where wealthy people are oppressing the poorest? And as for leaders taking bribes - well, how much do YOU trust politicians? 

You know, Jesus hinted at a similar message with one of his parables. In Luke, chapter 16, Jesus tells a story about a man named Lazarus - a homeless guy who lived outside the gates of a rich man. And the rich man lived every day in luxury, but Lazarus lay outside the gates, wishing he could have scraps from the rich man’s table. And then both guys die and Lazarus goes to heaven, and the rich man goes to that other place. And in his torment, he looks up and sees Lazarus kicking it in heaven with Abraham. And he calls out to Abraham, he says, [read chptr 16:24-31]. The rich man spent his life ignoring the needs of the poor, people right outside his gate. And then the rich man says “well, at least send them to my brothers - because they are on the same path” And Abraham is like, “nah, they’ve got all the warnings they need with Moses and the prophets.” Prophets.. like MICAH. You see what I’m talking about? The warnings of Micah are for us here today. And then there’s this odd little exchange where Abraham says, “they wouldn’t even listen if someone came back from the dead and told them.” Take that little nugget and put it on the shelf - because I promise it’s coming back up. The warnings of Micah…. are the same warnings for the rich man… are the same warnings for you and I in our lives today.

But for some reason - when we bring it into the modern world, it rubs us the wrong way. The idea of a God coming up into our business, and telling us that we’ve got it wrong, telling us that we’re living wrong and that we need to change our ways - that’s what gets our hackles up a bit. That’s when we start to think - who does this guy think he is? Judging me, coming in here trying to tell me how to live my life. I’ll just take the loving God who makes me feel good, thank you very much - I don’t need your judgment or financial advice. 

But then listen to the next verse, back in Micah chapter 6 [read v.3-5]. Now even if you don’t know those stories - do you hear the tone? I’ll be the first to admit, I had to go look up who the heck “King Balak of Moab” even was - that’s not a story I’ve got off the tip of my head. But the specific references almost don’t even matter - what matters is that God is pointing at the past, at his actions in the past to show how much he cares. And what we see here is that what God has done for his people, gives him authority in their lives. The God we are presented with here is not a distant and uncaring God who passes moral codes on a whim because he feels like it. The narrative we are confronted with is a God who has walked with his people every step of the way. And that closeness gives him authority in his people’s lives. Imagine it like this. Let’s imagine I have a very specific sin in my life. And I’m driving to work and there’s a guy. A stranger on the side of the road holding a sign that says, “stop doing that thing.” Now I might pause to reflect because that’s crazy how the sign mentions the thing I’m struggling with - but that’s easy to dismiss because it’s just some stranger, right? That person’s opinion doesn’t matter to me - that’s not an effective strategy to reach me - because I don’t know them and so I don’t care very much about their opinion. But then let’s say it’s my wife - sitting in the car next to me, who calls me out. We’ve been married 14 years - we’ve been through a lot together. Good days and bad days - she knows me better than any human being on this planet. When SHE speaks truth into my life. I might still want to reject it. I might still not want to hear it - but the people who are closest to you are authorities in your life. God has every right to slap Israel upside the head and shout angry things, “You should obey me because I’m God. Because I’m holy and perfect, and I know more than you. Darn it, I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it” - but instead of all that, God says, “don’t you remember that I have been with you every step of the way? What have I done to make you tired of me?”

So then in the next verse, verse 6 - the people respond. God presents his case: you guys are doing bad stuff, why aren’t you listening to me, I’ve been with you all along - and then the people respond. And they’re a little sassy at first. They say, [read v.6-7]. Do you hear how it gets more and more ridiculous? Regular people can’t offer thousands of rams, maybe a king can - but no normal person has that. Ten Thousand RIVERS of olive oil - “rivers” are not a standard measurement unit, this just doesn’t even make sense. Best way I can explain it - parents of teenagers, you’ll appreciate this. God has made his case and he is right, the people don’t want to listen to him - but they know they have to listen to him, and so they exaggerate. It’s like when you ask your kid to clean his room, and he’s like “I’m going! You don’t have to be such a slave driver! After this I’m sure you want me to mow the lawn with a pair of scissors and scrub the baseboards with my toothbrush. Ugh, you’re so unfair.” What do you want from me God? Thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, why don’t I just sacrifice my firstborn child…Ope. [pause]

Now I know I’m making fun of teenagers, but the truth is - we all do this in our lives to some extent. God asks something from us, and we exaggerate to make ourselves feel better, to make it feel like God is being unreasonable. What do you want from me God? God says, “I want you to care about the poor in society.” Ugh, you’re so unreasonable - what do you want me to do - empty my bank account every time I see a guy with a cardboard sign? Do you want me to starve my children? Gosh!” God says, “I want you to save sexual relationships for marriage and honor your wife by not lusting after other people.” Ugh, you’re so unreasonable God - what do you want me to do - wear blinders on my face and never look at women? Can’t watch half the stuff on tv if that was my standard - it’s not my fault the algorithm showed it to me. You’re so controlling! God says, “I want you to use your words to encourage and build people up - don’t slander or gossip about other people.” Ugh, this guy! What are we supposed to do - can’t even share a prayer request now, better not tell anyone anything because I might be gossiping!” When we are confronted with a standard for the moral life that we don’t like - for a lot of us, we have this internal exaggerator who comes out to complain. Here’s my point - we rebel against God by acting like he’s being ridiculous when he tells us what is good, but the truth is that God is the only one who knows what is good, and it is his proven desire to lead us to it. 

And Micah speaks into this. The people say, “what are we supposed to do - sacrifice thousands of rams or ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?” and then verse 8, [read v.8]. That phrase - “do what is right” some translations call that justice and so Micah 6:8 says, “Do justice, love mercy, and Walk humbly with your God.” This is what God requires of us - and we’re going to get into the specifics of that in the coming weeks, but for today I have one more thing to show you - and if you’ve been paying attention you might know what I’m about to say, we’ve been hinting at it all along. The rich man and lazarus - he calls out to Abraham, and he’s talking about warning his brothers - he’s being tormented in hell for the way he treated poor people - and he wants to warn his brothers and he says, “if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.”  If only someone could rise from the dead - I would listen to that guy. [Luke 24:6-7] The people in Micah’s time: what do you want from us? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?” [Romans 8:3b] God, making his case to the people, looks back over their history and says, “I have been there with you all along, I did everything I could to teach you about my faithfulness.” [video of the cross slowly being revealed]. Jesus said - [read John 15:9-13]. Jesus… laid down his life for you.

We started this message with the question, “How do you define what is good?” And I could get up here and give an argument that you should follow God because he’s powerful and you’re not. You can’t argue with him because he’s so much bigger than you. He could rip you apart molecule by molecule in an instant - what, are you going to argue with him? Or I could get up here and try to persuade you - follow God’s definition of goodness because secretly that’s the path that will benefit you. Be good - cuz.. karma, right? Generosity - we just do that because it’s going to come back twice as much, or something like that. I could try and convince you to take care of the poor and be generous - because, you know - think of the tax breaks. [Point at the cross video] But the real reason we use God’s definition of what is good is that. In the book of Micah - what God had done for his people gave him the authority to call them out. Not because he was threatening them with his power, not because he was bribing them with benefits, but because he loved them. In your life, right here and now - What God has done for you gives him authority to tell you what is good. 

The big thing that I want you to hang onto today is that the definition of what is good comes from God. Not just because God is all powerful, and not just because following God’s way often leads to a good and flourishing life - but because God loves you. The creator of the universe - who made you and has a plan for your life, who came and took the punishment for your sins on the cross and then died for you, and then rose from the dead, defeating sin and death - he has asked you to live this way, and that’s why we do it. More than anything else, love is our motivation. The Lord has told you what is good - and we listen to him, because of his unfailing love.

This is the foundation of everything we’re going to talk about in this series. Our world has a set of values - how we make money, how we treat others, how we deal with betrayal, how we look out for ourselves first - but the boundary lines of morality given to us from modern society is not the way God has taught us to be. Living a life where we pick our own morality has led to spiritual decay and social harm. Sometimes it feels like the fabric of society is pulling apart because we have forgotten the face of our father in heaven. In Micah and with Lazarus and the Rich man - most of their story centers on finances and how to use it God’s way. And it wasn’t just bad money habits - it was part of a larger moral problem when we profit at the expense of others. 

And so coming out of this, I just have one challenge for you to take with you this week: it’s three words. I want you to ask yourself - By what Standard? Take some time this week, pray and reflect - where are you getting your standard for what is good? Is it logic? A gut feeling? Peer pressure? Is it from a sitcom? Is it the law? Is it from your friend group? Your co-workers? How do you decide what is good in your life? And do you need to make a change to make God the foundation of your moral life? In order to do what Micah challenges us to do - to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God - the first thing we have to do is make God the authority in our life on what is good. 

Now the rest of this series is going to be all about what it looks like in our life - justice and mercy, walking humbly with God. And I’m so excited for to get into all that. But today is a day for a decision. A day to say “God, I see what you have done for me - and because of your love, because of your forgiveness - I will make a decision to follow you.” And one of the things we teach in this church is that once you have made the decision to follow Jesus - to submit to him on the authority of what is good and evil - the next step that we encourage and challenge you to take is baptism. This water is not magic - it doesn’t solve all your problems, it doesn’t make you perfect, it is a statement that God is perfect and you’re putting your trust in him. A public profession of faith. And maybe today you weren’t planning on getting baptized - but you’ve seen the crumbling effects of a life built on trying to do it all yourself, and God has been nudging and pulling on your heart and so today is your day. Some of you were here a couple of weeks ago, and God was pulling on your heart then - but you resisted. Nah, I’m not going to do it - but you’ve been regretting missing that chance. I know some people, they chose not to be baptized, even though God was pulling on their heart - but then they went home and put a change of clothes in their car. Because next time they weren’t going to miss it. 

We have people who are planning to get baptized today (why don’t you guys come on up), that’s why we set up the tub - but the invitation is for anyone who is ready to claim Jesus as their lord and savior. And so if that’s you today, while I’m talking to these other folks, I want to invite you - Pastor Josh is in the back, and I want to encourage you to go talk to him. 

[have baptisms]