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The Good Life according to Micah

Bible Text: Micah 6:1-8 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Micah

Because our liturgy and life are connected, for our worship to be authentic it must be reflected in neighbor-love.
Micah 6:1-8

Hear what the LORD says:
      Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
      and let the hills hear your voice.
      2 Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the LORD,
      and you enduring foundations of the earth,
      for the LORD has an indictment against his people,
      and he will contend with Israel. 

      3 “O my people, what have I done to you?
      How have I wearied you? Answer me!
      4 For I brought you up from the land of Egypt
      and redeemed you from the house of slavery,
      and I sent before you Moses,
      Aaron, and Miriam.
      5 O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,
      and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
      and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
      that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.”
      6 “With what shall I come before the LORD,
      and bow myself before God on high?
      Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
      with calves a year old?
      7 Will the LORD be 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 man, what is good;
      and what does the LORD require of you
      but to do justice, and to love kindness,
      and to walk humbly with your God?

The Leaders we Deserve and the Leaders we Need

Bible Text: Micah 3 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: Micah

Because we need just leaders, we must be willing to hear the truth
Micah 3:1-2a; 4-7; 9-12

1  And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob

    and rulers of the house of Israel!

Is it not for you to know justice?—

   2  you who hate the good and love the evil,

 

4  … they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them;

he will hide his face from them at that time,

    because they have made their deeds evil.

 

5  Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets

    who lead my people astray,

who cry “Peace” when they have something to eat,

but declare war against him

    who puts nothing into their mouths.

 

6  Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision,

    and darkness to you, without divination.

The sun shall go down on the prophets,

    and the day shall be black over them;

 

7  the seers shall be disgraced,

    and the diviners put to shame;

they shall all cover their lips,

    for there is no answer from God.

 

9  Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob

    and rulers of the house of Israel,

who detest justice

    and make crooked all that is straight,

10  who build Zion with blood

    and Jerusalem with iniquity.

 

11  Its heads give judgment for a bribe;

    its priests teach for a price;

    its prophets practice divination for money;

yet they lean on the Lord and say,

    “Is not the Lord in the midst of us?

    No disaster shall come upon us.”

 

12  Therefore because of you

    Zion shall be plowed as a field;

Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,

    and the mountain of the house a wooded height.

The Cry For Justice

Bible Text: Psalm 7 | Preacher: Derek Rishmawy | Series: Psalms

The gospel points us to the justice of God in Christ, which both affirms our heart’s cry for justice, tempers our unjust ways of seeking it, and justifies even unjust sinners such as ourselves.

Psalm 7
A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.

 O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge;

    save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,

lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,

    rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.

O Lord my God, if I have done this,

    if there is wrong in my hands,

if I have repaid my friend with evil

    or plundered my enemy without cause,

let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,

    and let him trample my life to the ground

    and lay my glory in the dust. Selah

Arise, O Lord, in your anger;

    lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;

    awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.

Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;

    over it return on high.

The Lord judges the peoples;

    judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness

    and according to the integrity that is in me.

Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,

    and may you establish the righteous—

you who test the minds and hearts,

    O righteous God!

My shield is with God,

    who saves the upright in heart.

God is a righteous judge,

    and a God who feels indignation every day.

If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;

    he has bent and readied his bow;

he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,

    making his arrows fiery shafts.

Behold, the wicked man conceives evil

    and is pregnant with mischief

    and gives birth to lies.

He makes a pit, digging it out,

    and falls into the hole that he has made.

His mischief returns upon his own head,

    and on his own skull his violence descends.

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,

    and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

 

Let Justice Roll

Bible Text: Exodus 2:11-25 | Preacher: Kyle Wells | Series: The Story of the Exodus

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