Be Transformed - But How?

Good afternoon, everyone. Happy Sabbath. Good to be here with everyone again today on a beautiful Sabbath day. If you'll all turn to your Bibles, please, are Romans 12. Many of you probably recognize at least part of the phrase above as something that's written in Romans 12 verse 2.

We'll read Romans 12. We'll read verses 1 and 2 just to get a little momentum.

Going into this verse.

Romans 12 verses 1 and 2. Paul writes here, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

So we see here something that Paul tells us we're supposed to do instead of being conformed to the world to transform ourselves by the renewing of our minds. As you see in the title up here today, what I'd like to talk about is how. How do we go about transforming our minds? There are plenty of things that are written in the Bible that are fairly simple in terms of how they're expressed, but get a lot more complicated as you dig into it and try to figure out how to go about putting it into action in your lives.

And we know, as we heard somewhat in the sermonette today, what's happening today in this world is in many ways a battle for our minds. Advertisers, thought leaders of different types, politicians, all kinds of people are battling for space in our minds. Not necessarily to control our thoughts, but to influence our thoughts, to teach us certain ways to think about things, to bring us along in certain paths of thinking and ways of being.

And it's no different with the Bible. If we read the things that are written in the Bible, the things in the Bible are also written as a way to reach towards our minds. Again, not to control our minds, but to have us thinking in a certain way. And so as we think about transforming our minds, we have to think about what is it that we have as the everyday poles of the society that we live in, and what is it that our minds should be transformed towards.

We don't have to turn there, but 2 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 5, is a passage that many of us are familiar with. And it talks about the hallmarks of the world in what is called in the book of Timothy, The Last Days. And it talks about people being lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient, unthankful, unholy, having a form of godliness, but denying its power, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. I think if we look at our world today that we live in, we can see many of the hallmarks of what's written there, exemplified in the world today.

And if we continue to just simply move along in the stream of where the world will take us, it will tend to feed those things, won't it? We're living more and more in a world that's individualistic, a world where we can wall ourselves off from anyone else and simply do and consume and enjoy whatever it is that we want to without regard for other people.

It's interesting, I was listening to a message the other day on my way to work, and minister I was listening to talked about people being these days almost like human ATMs, because we want to have this transactional relationship with other people, right? We drive up to the drive-through window and the clock's ticking, I want to get through it here in 30 seconds and be on my way, and it doesn't really matter who's on the other side of what we're doing.

We simply want our cup of coffee, our hamburger, whatever it is that we're there to get, and we want to move along the way. And that's the world, the way that we're geared if we're flowing along in what our society is doing in the way that we're doing things. If we're not consciously thinking about how we should be thinking and living our lives. What I'd like to do today for the structure of the message is to turn to Micah 6.

And even though Micah was writing at this time to people in an ancient society a couple, three thousand years ago, he was dealing with a similar sort of a situation several thousand years ago as Israel had been given God's way of life, but the way that they were living in their society had begun to devolve. As they had turned to other ways of life, they turned idolatry, they'd turned against the ways that God had shown them.

And Micah was speaking to them about what they needed to do in order to transform their minds, to transform their way of thinking, and to be different from what they saw happening in the society around them. We'll start here in verse 6 to get a little context going into it. Micah 6, verses 6 through 8. Micah writes here, With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give the firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? And so what he's referring to here is ways of worship and sacrifice that the children of Israel were given when he makes references to burnt offerings and calves, rams and oil. Also talks about sacrifices that some of the pagan nations around them were making when he talks about giving a firstborn. We know that there were people in those societies that lived around the children of Israel who were also practicing human sacrifice. And Micah was asking the question, look, all the things that you see around yourselves, the sacrificial system that God gave you, the things that other people do to please their gods, is that what God really wants? And then he comes home to the punch line in verse 8.

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? He lays out three things here that he says, please God, I'd like to spend the balance of the time today looking at these three things, considering them a little more carefully, because they're applicable to us today, as they were back then, because we know that the mind of God, the same mind of God that laid out the old covenant to the children of Israel, it's the same God that we worship, the same God that gave his Son Jesus Christ to be sacrificed for us and leads us to live in his way. The mindset, the expectations, the ways of doing things, the philosophies of God are the same that underpin the Old Testament law and that underpin the way that we should live our lives today. So I'd like to look today at these three frames of reference and the way that we need to live our lives and think about in terms of transforming our minds in the way that our minds think, when we compare the stream of the world around us and the way that it's pulling us, and how we need to transform that way of thinking into God's way of thinking.

So let's look first at doing justly. And I've kind of formulated this as God's Word within us. That's the way I look at this section as we seek to do justly. And why is it that I think of this as God's Word living within us? We'll have a different element of what we need to take in our lives that's correlated with each of these three things. Psalm 89 verse 14, if you want to turn there with me, talks about justice being a foundation of God. Psalm 89 verse 14 says, righteousness and judgment are the foundation of your throne. So we talk about doing justly. Doing justly means having that foundation of God within us. It's the way that he defines himself. God is a God of justice. And as we'll see here in a few more scriptures that we look at, it is the way that he thinks. It's what his Word defines for us.

Lack of justice is one of the things, if we look especially in the Old Testament prophets, that God shows that really angers him. And I don't know about you, but I certainly try not to be on the side of God being angry with me. We want to avoid those things because there's nothing worse than to fall into the hands of our Creator and have him angry with us in the way that we're doing things. Turn with me, if you will, to Leviticus 19. Leviticus 19. Again, thinking about the fact that God and his words, which we're to have within us, lead to just behavior. Lead us to doing things justly. Leviticus 19 and verse 15. This again is the Old Testament law that was given to the nation of Israel as their civil law in a way that they were to run their affairs as a nation. Leviticus 19 verse 15 says here, "...you shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor." So everything that they were to do as a nation, the way that they ran their affairs, they needed to do by the book.

God laid out the way that they were to live their lives. And it didn't matter if you were rich or poor, if you were a citizen of the country or a stranger who'd come into the country, the expectation that everyone would be, was that everyone would be judged impartially by the just word of the laws that God had laid down for them to keep as a nation.

And when we think about that, again, it's an expression of God's mind, because God is not a capricious God. Not when we look at some of the old myths that might exist out there.

I was recently in Scandinavia, and the Scandinavians had this whole pantheon of gods, not different really from how the Greeks and the Romans had. And those were gods who could become angry, and they would throw down lightning bolts, right, as thunder and storms that would come across the seas. And they viewed these gods through the lens of the nature that was around them. And as these storms would swoop through and sink their ships and kill people, they viewed that as the capricious wrath of their God. And exactly like we read in Micah 6, they would sometimes offer human sacrifices, they would offer animal sacrifices to try to appease their gods, to try to get rid of that anger. But God reveals himself differently, doesn't he? He reveals himself as someone who's laid down his way of being, a god who is consistent, a god who is methodical and has his way of doing things, which he has communicated very clearly to us in terms of how we should live. And so we don't have to worry about God being this capricious God, who will just decide one day, I'm angry and I'm going to throw a lightning bolt your way. Look, if you will, to Isaiah 10, this idea of justice again and how it's consistent with God's mindset. In this case, in Isaiah 10, Isaiah was prophesying and talking about the problems that Israel was having at this point in its history. We all know that as time went on, Israel came into the Promised Land, and the way that they lived their lives, the way they conducted themselves, very quickly started to devolve from what God had asked of them. They started to take on the ways of the nations that lived around them, practicing some of those idolatrous ways. And as we see here, they started departing from a way of doing justly that pleased God, and that was part of his way. Isaiah 10 will read verses 1 through 4. Here Isaiah prophesies, Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed, to rob the needy of justice and to take what is right from the poor of my people. That widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless. What will you do in the day of punishment and in the desolation that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down among the prisoners, and they shall fall among the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. So God, through Isaiah his prophet, was laying out the fact that one of the things that made him unhappy with how Israel was conducting themselves at that time was they departed from justice. He talks about oppressing the poor, hurting the widows, so the most the people in society that were the most vulnerable were being preyed upon. They weren't being cared for, and they weren't benefiting from an impartial system of judgment. And God, if you go on in these passages, talks about the fact that he will withdraw from a nation that's like that. He's not going to help them. He's not going to give them that same level of justice if they're not practicing the same thing with others.

How is God's... how does God define justice? It's through his Word. So if we're going to do justly, we need to understand what's in his Word. Turn with me, if you will, to Deuteronomy 17. Deuteronomy 17 will read verses 18 through 20. Now these are commands, again, that were given to the nation of Israel and anticipating the fact that they would have a king reigning over them. And it was so important to God that the nation of Israel would reflect his view of justice, that he gave a specific injunction that everyone who would be king would have to fulfill. We'll read that here in Deuteronomy 17 verses 18 through 20. It says here, It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, talking about any king that will rule the nation, he shall write for himself a copy of the law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and the statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel. So what he's saying here is, if you're going to be the king and you want to be a successful king, what God wanted that king to do was to have a complete and full understanding of the law of the land which was handed down by God.

Because God gave them, in this case, the civil laws as well as the religious and ceremonial laws to live their lives. It was important to God that whoever was reigning over a physical nation, that was his people, would be completely and fully grounded in the laws that he had laid out.

And we can see here, even in verse 20, that his heart might not be lifted above his brethren. Because one of the things that was inherent in this as well, no preferential treatment in the law.

Just as it applied to the common person, it applied as well to the king.

And the king was to know that. And it was important enough that he was to sit down, he was to write his way through the entirety of the law. And even then, it wasn't finished, was it? Because when we read what's written here, it's also said that he needs to go back and continue to read that law to understand it. So God, what God has written in the Bible for us, expresses that same attitude of justice. And if we're going to do justly, we need to have his word within us in order so we know how to act justly. If you were to walk out on the street and ask people, what is the just way to do X? You know, come up with it. Whatever controversial topic of today, and there's plenty of them to choose from, and you were to ask someone, what is the just answer to this topic? Choose one. Gun control, tariffs, whatever else is coming into play these days, right? How we deal with the economy, immigration. What is the just answer? And you're going to get probably as many answers as there are people. And within our nation, that's the way it's going to be. We have essentially a democracy, a republic that operates now as a democracy, and people are going to vote their preference. But we don't have a lot of unity in what people are thinking, do we? And that's the way it's going to be in any nation that doesn't have a common foundation, as the children of Israel did, where they had a law that God had handed down to them that they all commonly believed in and were led by. But we're to understand the way that we live our lives. If we're going to live our lives justly, we have to have God's word inside of us to direct the decisions that we make and the thoughts that we have. It's not our responsibility to direct or to try to change the way that our nation is living. God hasn't called us to change the government that we have over us. We're supposed to live in peace with it, and then we're supposed to live our individual lives in the way that we see displayed here, living it justly. John 1717 says, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. So God reinforces, again, just as he did in the Old Testament, talking about the kings writing the law and having that embedded in their heart, he reinforces, as John was quoting in fact Jesus Christ saying this, talking to God, that God's word is truth. So if we want to work justly, work according to truth, we need to have it embedded in our hearts. So as we think about and kind of wrap up this portion of what Micah laid out in terms of doing justly, practically speaking, how is it that we do justly? What is it we need to do every day in order to do justly? Turn with me, if you will, to Psalm 119. For those of you who are wondering, we'll finally get to the Scripture that's displayed up here on the screen. Psalm 119 will read verses 9 through 11. I think for any young person, this is a Scripture that would be great to have memorized, a great one to put up on your wall, and for those of us who are older, it's one that we need to keep going back to all the time ourselves. Psalm 119 verses 9 through 11.

How can a young man or young person cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word.

With my whole heart I have sought you, let me not wander from your commandments. Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. You know, another word for doing justly is to not sin, isn't it? Because if we're doing justly, we're working according to the tenets of God's law. We're not sinning. That's exactly what's being talked about in this psalm. And the key from a practical standpoint, if we want to do justly, just as the kings of ancient Israel were told to go and write down the word of the law, we need to have our minds and our hearts in the Bible. And as written here in Psalm 119 verse 11, hide that word in our hearts.

What is it that's in our hearts? What is it that comes out before we think, right? When we talk figuratively about the heart, it's that gut feeling, that instinct, that reaction that happens in the split second when something happens. What have we hidden in our heart? What is it that comes out before we have a chance to think?

It's the things that we've spent the time cultivating within ourselves. What we see here in Psalm 119 is we need that to be God's word, God's word within us so it animates the things that we do. Let's look as well on this theme at James 1, and we'll read verses 21 through 25 just going on on the same thought. James 1 verses 21 through 25, thinking practically about what we need to do in order to do justly. James 1 21, therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your soul. So talking again about taking in of God's word. Then he goes on to say in verse 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word, not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, he goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. I love this analogy that he gives, right, because he's talking about somebody going and looking in a mirror. You know, how many times do we go before we're going to go out, we're going to go to work, we're going to go out to the store or something. We go and we look in the mirror. If we look in the mirror, we see like we've got this big black smudge on the side of our face because we've been working in the garden. What do we do?

Look in the mirror, put on our nice clothes to go to services. Oh, I've got a big dirty smudge on the side of my face. Okay, time to go to services. Of course not. It'd be ridiculous, right? The whole reason we look in the mirror is to see that reflection back and to fix anything that doesn't look quite right before we present ourselves in public. And God's talking here in the same way about if we're reading his word, okay, I heard it, and we move on, and we don't consider how we're acting according to it. We don't consider the way that we're putting his way of life into action in our own lives. We're like that person who looks in a mirror, sees something completely askew, and decides, well, whatever, I'll move on, and I saw it, and now I'm going to go on and just not change anything. And so if we're going to practically do this, to do justly, we need to not only take in God's word, but we need to consider it. Think about how it's instructing us to live, thinking about the things that it's pushing us to change in our lives as it comes together with God's Spirit and leads us in his way. Let's move on to the second thing that Micah lays out, to love mercy.

To love mercy. And the way I've thought about this is having the heart of God. So if we think about to do justly, we need the word of God. In order to do mercy, we need the heart of God. Why is it that I say that? Turn with me, if you will, to Micah 7. We can find numerous places throughout the Bible. When it talks about God and his approach, that feel in terms of how he does things, the hallmark of that is mercy. Mercy to his people. Micah 7 verse 18 is one place that lays this out.

Micah 7 verse 18. Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in mercy. God delights in mercy. What is it that you delight in?

What is it you delight in? Maybe it's playing music. Maybe it's listening to music. Maybe it's a big bowl of ice cream in the evening. Think of something that is that delights you. What gives you joy? Will you make some special time to set aside to do that thing? Eat a favorite food? Engage in a pastime? Watch a baseball game or a basketball game? What does it tell us about God? God delights in mercy. Think of the feeling that that puts across. He looks for opportunities to have mercy on people. And when we look in the Bible in the way that he dealt with people, we can clearly see that. Think about the things that we delight in. We make time for those things, don't we? We think ahead about those things. We plan for those things. If you love ice cream, maybe before the Sabbath, you're going to go to the grocery store and you're going to make sure you've got some ice cream bars or a half gallon of your favorite flavor sitting in the freezer so you can sit back and relax and have some ice cream or whatever else it is you like to do. You plan for it. You make time for it. You look forward to it. And you tell people how much you enjoy it, don't you? Often as we're having discussions with people, we tell people about things that we've done that we really love. And you can see people's faces light up as they talk about the things that they delight in.

Again, it says here, God delights in mercy. Do we ever think about that? How much God loves to show mercy?

How much of that is in our own hearts? Do we delight in having mercy, showing mercy to others, seeing other people granted mercy? If you'll turn to 2 Samuel 24, we won't read this whole account, but 2 Samuel 24 verses 11 through 14, talking about David as king of Israel. And as we know, David was talked about as a man after God's own heart. And if we read the accounts that are written in the Bible about David, David did a lot of sinful things, grievous things, that displeased God. This is one episode like that, and David had gone out, and he wanted to see what strength he had, and he'd sort of gotten sidetracked and not thought about the fact that God was the one who's protecting Israel. God was caring for Israel and would be the one defending it. And he went out, and he numbered his people. Now, it seems like a trivial thing to go out and count, right? But the reason he was numbering his people was he wanted to see what kind of army could he muster.

Perhaps he had some thoughts about, you know, look how powerful I've become. Look how many fighting men I have. Look how powerful I am. And that started to turn against what God wanted. And God sent a prophet to David to say that he was displeased, and he was going to punish David because of it. It's a really interesting passage because he takes this prophet, Gadd, in verse 11, and says in verse 12, "'Tell David, thus says the Lord, I offer you three things. Choose one for yourself, and I'm going to do it.'" So he basically told David, pick your poison, pick your punishment. It's going to be one of these three. So Gadd came to David and told him, he said, "'Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or shall you flee three months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should take back to him who sent me.'" Referring to God. Very unique situation here. God lays out to David and says, look, I'm going to punish you, but you pick. It's going to be one of these. And I find David's response to this fantastic. And David said to Gadd, in verse 14, I'm in great distress. That's probably an understatement when you know one of these three things is going to happen. But I love these words that come after this. "'Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercies are great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.'" God understood how much, sorry, David understood how much God delights in mercy. And if he was going to be punished, he wanted that punishment to be coming directly from God because he knew in the end that God would do it in mercy. He would do it for his good. It was going to hurt him. It was going to exact a toll. But he would rather count on the mercy of God at the core of whatever punishment that was going to come than his physical enemies or anything else that was, you know, who knows what they would do. And so if we read on the account, it shows that God did come. He did exact a penalty, but he cut it short out of mercy for David. Mercy is in God's heart. But what does mercy mean? What does mercy mean?

Turn with me, if you will, to Luke 6. Let's see how it's defined as we read this account in the Gospels. Because having mercy, knowing that we should love mercy is one thing, but we kind of know what it is, don't we? What exactly is it that we're supposed to do? What are the hallmarks of being a merciful person? Luke 6, and we'll start in verse 32.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies. Do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the most high. For he is kind to the unthankful and the evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your father also is merciful. So did we catch the definition of mercy that's laid out in this passage in Luke?

Comes right before the word therefore, right? Because he's leading up, he's defining as Jesus Christ is talking here what it means to be merciful. And he talks about the fact that God is kind to the unthankful and the evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your father is merciful. That's how he's defining it as we go through this passage because he says, look, if you're doing good things for people who are going to do something back for you, everyone does that. If you're lending money from a business point of view and you're getting interest in return, that's great. You've made a wise business decision.

But the act of mercy is one of extending yourself in a way where you're not going to receive anything back in return, and you're doing it because of it's intrinsically right and the good thing to do. And I think what's incredibly important to focus on here is the word the unthankful and the evil.

Because you see, mercy is something that's extended to somebody regardless of whether they deserve it or not. Do we delight when we see mercy shown? Think about situations we might have had in life when perhaps there's somebody who's been with us even in a congregation in church, that we see doing things that don't seem right, don't seem to be acting right, but as we watch their lives long term, we see that God has mercy on them. Things change and they're blessed. Do we delight in that? We see people who are called into a knowledge of God who might have had incredible difficulties in their lives before they came into the church. And God has mercy on them, brings them in, gives them an understanding of his way of life, and blesses them. How fantastic is that? Do we see it that way? Or do we believe they've deserved something different? It's a difference in how people approach life. We probably all know people who are just waiting to see people get what's coming to them, right? I can't wait to see it. That person cut me off in traffic, I can't wait to see him go down the road, I hope somebody hits him head-on, right? All these thoughts that we have, right? These things, these discussions that we have with people. I've seen this person, they're slacking off at work, I can't wait to see him get in trouble and get fired. Is that what we delight in? Or do we delight in mercy? Now we know we need to do what's right, we know there are consequences for sinful actions. And even when God extends his mercy, there are often physical results of sin that will linger and come along. But God does extend mercy from a spiritual point of view, and sometimes even from a physical point of view, taking away some of those consequences. And he delights in doing that. So the key here, in terms of understanding, what does mercy mean? Mercy means extending something to someone who is unthankful and evil, somebody who doesn't deserve necessarily to have that mercy extended to them. It is a gracious gesture that's made with outward concern, expecting nothing back in return for it.

How has God acted out his mercy on us? It's turned to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2.

When we think about our own lives, I know when I think about mine, we know that God has extended great mercy to us. How has he done that? Ephesians 2. We'll start in verse 1. You he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, and which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. So he's saying, look, you know God today. Fact is, you were just like everybody else before you knew God.

And in verse 4, God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace you've been saved, and he raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Jesus Christ. Verse 4 is really the key of this, isn't it? Just like we read about earlier in this passage in Luke, how God is kind to the unthankful and evil, here in Ephesians 2 verse 4, when he's talking to people called out by God, talking to us, he said, God, who is rich in his mercy, even when we are dead in trespasses, verse 5, even when we are dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. So God calls us, he takes us in a situation where we don't have anything to offer him, we're pursuing our own ways, we're doing what we feel like doing and not following him, and he gives mercy by extending the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to us, calling us, forgiving us of our sins. That's how God has acted out his mercy in our lives. And as we realize that, as we start to let that soak into our hearts and really embed itself into us, it also needs to drive the way that we act out towards other people. Those of us we've been given mercy, we extend that mercy again on to other people. We're not going to read through it in detail, but if you're interested on your own time, maybe go back and read Matthew 18, verses 21 through 35. Matthew 18 verses 21 through 35. This is a parable, it's a parable of the unjust servant. And some of you might remember this parable. You have a servant, he owes this huge amount of money, and he's forgiven that debt. And then there's somebody else that he works with, one of his colleagues, a fellow servant, who owes just a small amount of money to him, and he refuses to forgive that debt, even after he's been forgiven this monstrous debt by somebody else. And that's given as a parable for all of us to think about as well. The fact that we've been forgiven of all of our sins, of everything. What are we like in terms of extending mercy to anybody else? Whatever it is. Somebody who wrongs us in some way.

Somebody who hurts us in some way. Do we extend that same type of mercy that we've been given onto the next person? Practically speaking, how do we love mercy? A few thoughts on this to consider. First of all, understand what it means. We talked a bit about what mercy means. Luke 635 is where we were earlier. Talking about the fact that God is kind to the unthankful and the evil.

Think about what mercy really means and what it is. In the way that we should be living our lives towards other people. Willing to take wrongs. Willing to allow things to happen. Even though, and extending mercy, even though those things are going on. Understand, secondly, that you've received mercy. So as we think in practical terms of things going on in our lives, understand that we have received mercy from God. As we just talked about in that parable. The fact that he forgave us of our sins. We do this every year at the Passover as well, don't we? We think back about where we came from. The fact that God gave his son to sacrifice his life for our sins. And it's important that we do think about that. We don't dwell on it. We don't obsess over it. But we do recognize the fact that God led us out of our sins. And that, again, comes into the way that we live our lives in the way that we act towards other people. And the other thing I would say from a practical standpoint, as we think about ways to love mercy or to have a merciful heart, is ask God to put this heart inside of you. Come before God in prayer. Talk to him about his mercy, how you see it exemplified in the Bible, how you've experienced it in your own life. And ask God to build within your own heart that same heart of mercy, that delightfulness to really delight in showing mercy to other people. Those are ways that we can put the heart of God inside of us and really love mercy. Let's go up to the last thing that Micah lays out, and that is to walk humbly in God's sight.

Now, I've correlated this with the mind of God, the mind of God, or putting his mind within us.

Humility is shown in the Bible as the very essence of Jesus Christ's mind, the way that he thought. Philippians 2, let's read the passage in Philippians 2 verses 3 through 11.

Philippians 2 verses 3 through 11.

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. And let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. If we read other translations, it's a little clumsy in the translation the way it's written, but essentially what it means was having full divinity, being part of the Godhead, he didn't consider it a loss to come down to earth, to leave all that behind, and to become a human being. He made himself of no reputation, verse 7, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has also exalted him highly and given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So the very mind of Jesus Christ we're told here was a mind, a mindset of humility. And similar to these other things that we've seen, justice and mercy, it's a hallmark of the way that God thinks. Turn with me, if you will, to James 4.

Again, we talked a bit in terms of doing justly that one of the things that really angers God is injustice, especially to the helpless. And we see a similar thing here related to humility, and the opposite of humility, which is pridefulness or pride. James 4 verses 6 through 10.

Here James writes, he gives us more grace and therefore he said, God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Now I know which category I want to be in. I don't want to be in the category of the ones that God is resisting. I want to be a recipient of his grace. Therefore, in verse 7, submit to God, resist the devil, and he'll flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, your sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the slight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. How often is it that we need to be lifted up? You know, we look in our lives, the things that we deal with, the things that we suffer with, things that we try to work our way through. Life is difficult. It's not always going to be easy, and we often need to be lifted up. I don't know about you, but I often pray to God just simply for encouragement, especially when things are going on, whether it's in the family, whether it's at work, whether it's here in the congregation, and I simply ask God for encouragement. Lift me up.

Don't we all want that from God? Don't we all need that from time to time in our lives, simply to be lifted up, to be encouraged, to be given that hope, and to have that really strongly within us and realize we need to just be set back on our feet and keep going forward. God says the humble will be lifted up. If we can humble ourselves before Him, then He will lift us up. How fantastic is that, and how often do we need that? So, similar to our thoughts about mercy, I'll ask the question, what is humility? What is godly humility? How would you define it for yourself?

Let's turn to Philippians 3 again, and we'll read verses 4 through 11.

Philippians 3 verses 4 through 11. Hear Paul writing on this topic, and he's talking about himself in this case, starting Philippians 3 in the latter part of verse 4. Paul writes, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so, circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, considering the righteousness which is in the law blameless. So Paul's saying, hey look, if you look at this from a physical point of view, I have it all.

All of these hallmarks of what within his community made him something. He had all of it.

Circumcised the eighth day, Benjamite, Hebrew, Pharisee, zealous for God, and righteous within the definition of the law that they followed. But what does he say in verse 7? What these things, what things were gained to me, all of these things that he had physically, these I've counted lost for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead.

So what he's saying is all of these things that existed externally from God, all of these things that he and anyone in his walk of life would have relied on for position, for status, for being something, he said, you know what, I came to realize that none of these things really mattered. What really mattered was I knew God through Jesus Christ and his sacrifice was given to me. And that is the hallmark of true Christian humility. You know, as human beings, we always pull on different things to be a hallmark of status. We size people up very quickly, and we make judgments on what people are and even what they're worth based on the things that we see outwardly. And true Christian humility, as we see laid out here by Paul, is something different, because he says all of those things are garbage. That's what he's saying. And it's understanding God and knowing him that really means something. As we have that attitude towards our own lives, as we have that attitude towards others, we realize that we're all created as human beings in the image of God. And we all, in that sense, have equal worth before God. And he wants each and every one of us, all of the humans that he's created, to come into a relationship with him, whether that's now, whether it's later in the resurrection, to have an opportunity to have that full relationship with him. So humility is really that proper view of where we stand in relation to God and to other people. It has to be balanced in perspective, though, as well, because, first of all, we don't have confidence in the flesh, as Paul says, and so we know that everything comes through Jesus Christ and through his sacrifice, and those are the things that are worth to us. At the same time, though, as we balance that out, we don't continue to just view ourselves as worthless. So I'm humble, so I'm worthless, I have nothing to offer. Thank goodness I was called through Jesus Christ, my sins were forgiven, and now I'm just this worthless thing and I'm going to sit here.

And that's not what godly humility is either, right? So we realize where we come from, and we realize that it's only through God that we have what we have, but then he also gives us gifts, doesn't he? It's written in the Bible in all kinds of places. God gives us spiritual gifts. We look at the parable of the talents. We know that God has given us resources to work with, things of value that we can put to use and to multiply, and a humble person is going to recognize that those things were given by God, and those things can and should be put to use.

So godly humility is not a passive sitting there and wallowing in how awful we are.

It's knowing that we had to be taken from what we were as human beings, but also that we've been taken to a new place, as called out children of God, and that we're here to work out his way, to contribute to what he's doing on this earth, to be active as Christians. Just as we were talking about in this first section of the message, to do, to do, not only to read and to listen and to think about things, but to actually do things. So practically speaking, as we wrap up this section, how do we walk humbly with our God? How is it that we walk humbly with our God? First of all, acknowledge daily your need for him. Come before him in prayer, in Bible study, ask for forgiveness, and acknowledge that we need him, and that it's not by our own strength that we do things. You know, when we read some of the passages in the Bible where God reacts to proud people, one of the ones I think about a lot is Nebuchadnezzar, and he gave Nebuchadnezzar several warnings as the king of Babylon, and then he finally struck him down. He basically turned him into a cow for seven years, right? He lived out in the field. He took his senses away from him. But what is it that he elicited that? It was the attitude of, look at everything that I've done. If we read back to that passage in Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar, after a couple of warnings from God, is walking around Babylon, and again he says, look at what I have done. Look at the things that I have created. Look at the strength and the power and the might that I have. And that was the point of pride where God struck him down. A lot of ways, the example that we talked about with David a short time ago as well, how he took the punishment from God, he was doing the same thing. He was acting out in pride as he was counting his fighting men. He was counting the strength that he had physically and forgetting that it was God who was the real protector of Israel and God that would decide the fate of where things went. And as soon as he walked outside of that sphere of being humble and realizing it was God's blessing that really meant something and started to look at the physical things that he had around him, that was when God began to resist him. So daily, we need to think about that. We need to acknowledge the blessings that we've been given from God and acknowledge the fact that they come from them. At the same time, though, on a regular basis, we need to think about what is it that we can do? What has God enabled each and every one of us to do? And we need to remove the barriers that stop us from doing those things. And that's a part of humility as well. Reaching out to help another person can sometimes be an uncomfortable thing to do.

You have to make yourself vulnerable to call somebody or visit them and check on how they're doing. Sometimes you share things that are personal about yourself with those people. Again, you're making yourself vulnerable, but you have to step through those barriers, put God's spirit to use, have it active in your life, because the true humility doesn't stop at realizing that it's God's strength, not our own. It's taking that strength of God and then using it. If we look at the life of the Apostle Paul, for example, you see the things that he did. He was willing to lay everything on the line, putting God's spirit to use and pushing his word forward. And so as we think about walking humbly in God's sight, you should think about that as well. How are we putting the power of his spirit to use in our lives? So in conclusion, like the people of Micah's time, we're living in a world that's not moving along the way of God. And there's a pull every day of our lives as we make decisions, as we think about things, as we take things into our minds that are taking us down different types of paths and trying to pull us in one direction or the other. What is it? What are the pulls? What are the directions that we're responding to? We have to transform our minds daily, because if we don't, if we don't think about what we're doing, we will fall naturally into the stream of the world that's going on around us.

But what we've read in Romans 12 is the fact that we are to transform our minds on a daily basis. And if we use this template that we see in Micah 6, looking at the ways that we should do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly in our sight, in God's sight, then we'll be able to transform ourselves. We'll be walking down God's path, and we'll be able to continue to live productive and growing Christian lives. So I wish you all a happy rest of the Sabbath, and hope that you'll enjoy time fellowshiping together after services. Thank you.