Sermon Cloud

INTRO: Well, we're a few weeks into the New Year. Did you make any resolutions? How are you doing? I've noticed that the new crowd at the gym has already begun to thin out as more and more people decide to wait until next year. I decided not to make any resolutions this year. New Years Resolutions seem to only add another thing to my "to-do list" and I don't need that. I am praying, however, that 2008 will be a year of growth an change not only for me and mine, but also for our church. We are praying that 2008 will be a year in which we see our hearts - not just our actions - change to reflect his heart more closely.

In order to accomplish this, we have planned a number of sermon series in which we will study God's heart on many issues. With that in mind we are going to begin a series this morning on The Minor Prophets.

The Minor Prophets: A Marriage on the Rocks:

The Minor Prophets come along. They are called the MPs (or the Book of 12) because the shorter lengths of their books not because unimportant. They are also called The Book of 12 because there are 12 Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zepheniah, Haggai, Zechariah, & Malachi).

Have you ever had the unfortunate experience of walking into the middle of couples fight? You arrive at a friends house for a dinner party and realize instantly there is something going on. There's a lot of tension in the air. Every word out of their mouth is pointed. Even the jokes seem more accusatory than funny.

Well you might get a similar feeling when reading the Minor Prophets. In a lot of ways, the Minor Prophets tell the story of a Marriage on the Rocks. The marriage in this case between God and His people. In order to see this we have to go back a ways. We have to go back 900 years. We go back to Exodus.

This story begins with God's people in slavery in Egypt. Then God looks down and has compassion on them. SLIDE: Exodus 3:7-8. Now we need to understand a little of the background to realize how significant this is. The original readers would have immediately realized that the promises that God makes to Israel in this passage is the same language that a Jewish groom makes to his bride. Somebody hearing this story in the original context would have realized that some sort of marriage was about to take place. The next 14 chapters anticipate the coming marriage between these newly liberated Hebrews and this God of the oppressed. Then in chapter 19 the wedding day arrives. SLIDE: Exodus 19:5 - "Do you Israel take the Lord as your lawfully wedded husband?" SLIDE: Exodus 19:8 "We do." A wedding is taking place. If you want a great bible study, take a few days and study this wedding theme in the book of Exodus. In this light our perspective on the 10 Commandments changes a bit. Exodus 20:1-17 Instead of being a random list of rules to obey, the begin to read like wedding vows.

This is significant for us to understand because in order to understand the the Minor Prophets we need to understand what type of relationship that the two parties agreed upon. Like a modern marriage, the two sides made commitments (a covenant) to one another that they swore to honor.

Well for the next 900 years, Israel had good times when they honored their commitments to the Lord and in those periods, the Lord would bless them and they would prosper. Then they had a lot of bad times in which they chose not honor the commitments that they made to the Lord. Eventually in those periods, the Lord would pull back some of his blessings.

In a lot of ways, our situation is very similar to that of Israel during the time of the Minor Prophets. We are the people of God, but for many of us it seems like the great works he has done for us were so long ago they are almost not part of our life anymore. We find ourselves pulled toward other interests and other loves. We find ourselves forgetting God in our everyday life and so we find ourselves deciding for ourselves what is right and wrong and what is best in our own lives.

Ok, let's get a little more specific and turn our attention to the book of Micah.

READ: Micah 6:1-8

Rabbis would often turn to this passage when they were asked the question, "What does the Lord require of us." Its that important. In fact, some scholars go so far to say that Micah 6 verse 8 is the most memorable statement in the OT regarding a proper relationship with God.

So what does this passage teach us about what God requires of us? First is that ...

God is looking for relationship not religion.

In fact the language that God uses in verses 1-2 is legal language. The Lord is bringing his people to court. Divorce Court. The story of the Minor Prophets is the story of a marriage gone bad. And what can we learn about God's heart by reading the Minor Prophets?

The Lord begins his address to the Israelites in a way that we might expect. They've spent several hundred years playing games with him, so we might conclude that he is going to take them to task. What he does next, however, is very surprising. He doesn't open up by telling them they need to bow before him as the creator of the Universe. He doesn't strike fear into their hearts by threatening imminent destruction. What he does do is begin by checking his own heart to see if he has wronged them in some way. READ: "My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you?"

But he doesn't stop there, God begins his defense by showing not how he is the Lord of Hosts or the Rightful Ruler of All the Earth. He instead begins his defense by showing how he has kept his marriage covenant with Israel. READ: Vs. 4-5. Each one of the points that God makes in this passage correlates to one of the promises that a Jewish groom makes to a Jewish bride.

Think about what this means. The God of the Universe is rightfully angry at His people because they have not followed him that well, yet he doesn't appeal to them or judge them on the basis of religious propriety. He comes to them with an appeal of relationship. Do you know how rare this is? A friend of mine is doing a personal study of Islam and she said to me this week that she can't imagine serving a God like Allah. He has no personal care for his people. He only demands that they obey him and all of his commands. Even his greatest prophet had no assurance that Allah was for him and not against him. That is what religion is. Religion

TRANS: So how do honor God's desire for relationship and not religion? How do we hold up our end of the bargain?

Move Beyond Passive Worship

After the Lord grabs His peoples' attention in the first 5 verses in the chapter they attempt to respond in a way that they believe will please Him. Read vs. 6-7.

They respond with a series of rhetorical questions that match the questions that God asked earlier, but with a slight twist. These questions are not based in relationship, rather they point toward religious ritual that can be compartmentalized in life.

They focus on excessive giving, as if God is primarily concerned with the size or cost of their gifts. The nonsensical extremes (a thousand, ten thousand, a precious child!) are absurd and reveal their hearts. They believe that God is looking for more and better religious practices.

We do this don't we? We live our lives however we want Monday through Saturday and try to balance that out by keeping strict religious practices (coming to church every week, going to home group every week, a regular devotion life - all of which are good) and then when we feel His conviction on our lifestyle outside of that religious compartment, we attempt to placate him by offering him greater and greater sacrifice in those areas. "God I will go to BOTH services on Sunday morning. Better yet, I will find a church with THREE Sunday services and a Wednesday service and go to all of them! I will read the bible for TWO hours every day!"

But when they (and we) engage in this sort of behavior they were attempting to bribe God by giving him enormous gifts and gestures. But these rituals and gifts were not meant as religious bribes. They were outward signs to our inner devotion to our relationship with God. God is not impressed with the size or number of our gifts, but the quality of our relationship with him.

If we stick with this idea of a marriage, that makes a lot of sense doesn't it? Husbands you know that flowers or a great date night really isn't going to cut it if you spend the rest of the week ignoring your wife. The same principal works with God.

He longs for us to move beyond this passive worship and to embrace whole-hearted partnership with Him!

Read vs. 8. Where the Israelites questions in verses 6-7 are focused on external things, God redirects the focus to the person, on the quality of their heart and life. Each of the three things that God mentions in this verse are too great for any person to accomplish with a religious ritual or discipline. They will require a full-time, whole-hearted partnership with God to make it work. And that's what he's after.

Act Justly: The first thing that God tells his people to do when they partner with Him is to "act justly". "Justice" describes right social relationships between people based on God's view of what is appropriate. God is saying that if we want to partner with Him we must choose to do the right thing in regards to the people around us. We must learn to treat them the way that He treats them. The Apostle John will later write that if any man says he loves God, but hates his brother he is a liar.

Love Mercy: If God calls us to first to choose to act justly, he asks us second to begin to love doing so. Here again is the rub. God isn't just asking us to do the right thing, he is asking us to open our hearts to love what He loves. Mercy may also refer to offering justice to people who do not deserve it. This word "mercy" is what God had on us. He had mercy on us although we repeatedly break his heart. He has mercy on us although we repeatedly mess up. He has mercy on us although we repeatedly choose to defy him. He asks us to love that same attitude in our own lives. How might you love mercy? How might you be able to have a merciful

Walk humbly WITH your God: This is simply living your life in a way that takes God and his desires seriously. You walk humbly with God in the same way you live lovingly with a spouse. You pay attention to them, their needs and their wishes.