How do you please God?

Listen to what the LORD says:

"Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, O mountains, the LORD's accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel.

"My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD."

With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:1-8).

Children often do things that make their parents unhappy. Think back to a time when you caused a parent disappointment. I’d imagine that you tried to do something to make it up to them. Perhaps you made a card in which you said "I’m sorry" or "I love you." Maybe you offered to vacuum the living room or wash the dishes. Maybe you even offered to punish yourself in some way. Whatever it was, I am sure that it was a struggle for you, trying to figure out what you could do to make things better.

We tend to treat God the same way. We know when we’ve done something wrong, something that God doesn't approve of. And we know that having God mad at us is not a good thing. And so we try to figure out how to make things up to Him. Maybe you decide to come to church on Sunday instead of sleeping late like you had planned. Perhaps you put a little something extra into the offering plate. You might even wipe the dust off of your family Bible and read from it for a few days. Whatever it is that you choose to do, your reason is to try and get God to not be angry with you any more.

But what does God expect from us? How can we make Him happy, especially when we know that we anger Him every day with our sins? In today’s Old Testament lesson, the prophet Micah tells us the three things that make God happy: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

To act justly. All right, so what does that mean? Let’s consider the word "just." "Just" is the root word for justice; it refers to obeying the law. To act justly is to make the choice to obey the law. But what laws are we talking about? God’s laws, obviously. One of the reasons that God gave us His Bible was so that we would know what His laws are. The Bible is filled with laws, although there are two places where God boils them down into short lists for us. The first summary was given on Mount Sinai (Exodus chapter 20): "You shall have no other gods before me…You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God…Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy…Honor your father and your mother…You shall not murder…You shall not commit adultery…You shall not steal…You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor…You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor's house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." In the New Testament, Jesus boiled these commandments down even further, showing us the essence of God’s Law (Matthew chapter 22): `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. What is the law of God? That we love. Romans 13 says, love is the fulfillment of the law.

As laws go, that doesn’t sound particularly hard. After all, isn’t love what makes the world go 'round? Isn’t love the focus of most poetry and popular music? Isn’t love the basis of all relationships, and by extension the foundation of human society? How could it be hard to obey God’s law of love?

And yet it is hard. We don’t know how to love correctly. Perfect love is defined by Paul in 1st Corinthians chapter 13: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. How well do you love? Are you always patient, always kind? Are you ever guilty of being jealous, or of bragging, or acting superior to others? Are you ever rude or selfish? Do you have a hot temper or hold grudges? Do you ever take pleasure in another person’s pain? Are you always protective of others, always trusting of others, always hopeful, never giving up?

Is it easy to love as God expects? How are you doing when it comes to "acting justly"?

To love mercy. Once again, let us examine the word. "Mercy" is best understood in legal terms. When you have been the victim of a crime, justice requires that you receive satisfaction from the person who hurt you. If you were shot and left paralyzed, the criminal is expected to pay for your loss of mobility by losing his own freedom. That is justice. But suppose that the shooter told you that he was genuinely sorry, and desperately wanted to have another chance at living life right. You could demand that he be convicted and sent to prison; justice would be done. Or you could waive your right to justice; if you believed that the man genuinely wanted to change his life, you could have mercy on him and drop the charges. That’s what mercy is—dropping the charges, letting the wrongdoer escape without punishment due to your own generosity.

As we have seen, no 0ne has loved as God expects; we have broken God’s law, we have not acted justly. But our God has shown us mercy; he does not treat us as our sins deserve (Psalm 103:10). Out of His unimaginable generosity, God has exempted us from giving Him satisfaction for all our failures; instead, He sent His Son Jesus to make restitution for us. The price for disobeying God is to be rejected by Him, resulting in suffering the loss of all love from our lives forever. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). On the cross, Jesus suffered all of God’s punishment that our mistakes had earned; because He was tormented, we are freed of fearing God’s wrath. In no way did we deserve to be let off the hook; it was God’s choice, acting out of His generosity, to show us mercy.

And so God expects us to love mercy. We are to treasure His mercy given us through Jesus, and we are to extend that mercy to others as well, forgiving them just as God forgives us. In Colossians 3:13 Paul writes, bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. This is why Jesus taught us to pray, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us (Matthew 6:12). This is another reason why the Lord gave us His Bible: that we might know who He is, what He has done for us, and why He chose to do it at all.

To walk humbly with your God. Pride has been our downfall since the beginning. Remember how Satan enticed Eve into disobeying God? He claimed, you will be like God (Genesis 3:5). That’s why Eve disobeyed; she was not content to merely be God’s humble servant, she wanted to be His equal! Human history is littered with the corpses of men and women who wanted to be at the top—but notice Jesus’ words to His disciples: Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must become your slave. For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:26-28). In Philippians chapter 2 Paul says, Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross.

To be humble is to reveal an accurate assessment of your worth. We are not humble by nature; no one wants to admit to making mistakes or needing help from someone else. But unless we humbly admit to our shortcomings, it is impossible for us to call out to God for mercy; this is why God despises pride. Pride causes us to reject God’s offer of mercy as unnecessary. This is another reason why the Lord gave us His Bible; it models humility for us. David was king of God’s own nation of Israel, yet listen to his humble confession in Psalm 51: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love…cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…wash me, and I will be whiter than snow…Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. So speaks a king appointed to power by God Himself; this is what humility sounds like.

Humility leads us to admit our shortcomings so that we may receive God’s mercy; humility also enables us to serve others in love. When we let go of the false claims of pride, we find that we are not "too good" to lend a helping hand to others. When we admit that we are no better at keeping God’s Law of love than the other sinners who surround us, we find that we are just as capable of doing unappealing, humble duties as anyone else. When we walk humbly with our God, We can serve the needs of others without complaint, because we realize that no one has suffered so much in humble service as our Savior has for us.

What does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. If you want to please God, you must sincerely try to act justly, obeying His law of love; and because we all constantly fail in this, you must love our Savior Jesus for the heavenly mercy He has offered to us purely out of the generosity of His love. If you want to please God, you are to forgive others just as we have been forgiven by the Lord, and you are to rededicate yourself to loving them as God first loved us, helping them to experience God’s caring love through your hands and voice. But most importantly, if you want to please God, you must love Him who first loved us; heed the words of Moses, who said: Choose to love the LORD your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life (Deuteronomy chapter 30).