Dr. John Perkins has this biographical story that he has written as a forward for a book that I've been reading and I want to read that for us this morning. He says, "I was born on a Mississippi cotton plantation in 1930. My mother died of nutrition deficiency. When I was just seven months old, my big brother, a World War II veteran, was gunned down by a town marshal. When I was 17 years old as a civil rights activist, I was jailed and beaten nearly to death by police. They tortured me without mercy, stuck a fork up my nose and down my throat. then made me mop up my own blood. I have known injustice. These are words from his own life that he shared and we all know that there is such injustice that exists in the world around us. It is not just injustice in societies. There is so much injustice between nations. We know of the wars that are raging right now. Whether it is in the Middle East or Ukraine or Congo, in Africa or as recently in Southeast Asia and Cambodia. Injustices happen not just in nations. They eventually even happen in our own relationships. Isn't it? When there is a fight between a husband and a wife, when you have a conflict, where one person feels they have suffered injustice and need to respond. Where they have faced cruelty, whether it is in the hands of an individual or a collective group of people or a nation, no side wants to let go. There is no humility. And we are always at war, fighting each other, cancelling each other and trying to find our way to experience peace. So I titled my sermon this morning is what does God want from us? Biblical justice, mercy, and humility. As we are journeying through the Bible and we are looking at the prophetic books and we are in the minor prophets. We already did a full series on the book of Jonah, all four chapters some time ago and we are looking at a sprinkling of the other prophets. Though they are minor, the truths that they say are always major. And I gave some helpful principles on how do we study prophetic books in the Bible. We always start with the five W's, right? at the very basics. Now let me hear it. What are the five W's? Who, when, why, where, who, who, to whom, and what. Right? That doesn't change. That's the basics. But you don't have to just stop with that. I know there are massive studies and you can just just do that. It feels great to collect that information, but you need to connect that to God's work in redemptive history, how it ties into God's covenant and how it flows in redemptive history and how Christ fulfills it and how we find ourselves as God's covenant people who are who are there in the Old Testament and as who we are now and see what does it have to say for us. You know, the prophets, as I shared last week, are God's covenant enforcers. God used them all the time to remind God's people of his covenantal demands and when they failed or broke to draw them back into a relationship with him. You know, the book we are studying u is by the prophet Mah. It tends to be overshadowed by other prophets who lived around the same time. you know, Amos and Hosia and especially by his great contemporary prophet Isaiah whose prophetic material has been preserved in much greater quantity. And and who is Mikah? We have a very brief description. He was serving during the reign of three kings including King Hezekiah. And I have a small map here. It's a it's a it's a timeline of um biblical history and also world history. So what you're seeing here in this map is starting from Genesis um it goes all the way till you have the Roman Empire. It covers almost 2,000 years of history. And you can see here right where the nation of Israel gets established in the land of Canaan and all the kings are coming here and uh at at this point it divides into the northern kingdom which is Judah and the southern kingdom which is Israel and first time God's judgment comes upon the northern kingdom who are taken into exile by the Azerian Empire. So this history is the Persian history here and and you have some European history and there's even the history of China. You can trace which dynasties lived around that time. So right so what the prophet we are looking at is prophet Mika. There's a bunch of other prophets in this time period. He starts his ministry before the fall of northern kingdom. He witnesses the fall of Samaria and northern kingdom and he is still ministering to the southern kingdom that is eventually going to fall and be taken into uh by the Persian Empire and the Babylonians. You can take a brief look at it later on, but be a little gentle with it. It's a little old and I'll have it in my office if you guys want to look over it. It just helps to understand what's been going on. when the prophet was writing this. So I want to look at three things from our text today. What does God say? What does God not want us to do? And what does God want us to do? Just three things. So let's begin by looking directly at Mah chapter 6 to see what does God say. You know the in this chapter it begins like a courttoroom drama where Mikah is addressing as a prophet and God is throwing a charge between them. So within these few eight verses there are two interesting dynamics going on. First is a courtroom setting and second is a setting of someone who is going to worship like a psalm and asking some rhetorical questions. So let's look at what God says verses 1 and two. It says here what the Lord says, arise, plead your case. Now the first thing God says is he has a case against this people. He's bringing a direct charge, an indictment against his own covenant people. It's a serious charge. You know, three times he uses the the phrase plead your case in verse one and in verse two hear the indictment of the Lord and verse two again the indictment against his people. Three times he says I have a serious problem with you people. When you say something three times you better take attention. And he's not he's saying he's not going to let this pass. He says, "I will contend with Israel." Wow. Now, here's the courtroom as his covenant people. He says, "You all need to answer me. I'm throwing this charge." And now, he wants to call upon some witnesses. You know, when you have a courtroom situation, when you go to the court, the strength of your case stands or falls based on the witnesses. You know, it's the it's the durability and the credibility of the witness plays a very significant role. Though God does not need any witness, he still wants to tell Israel, I'm going to call upon some very, very reliable witnesses. So whom does he call? He calls the mountains and the hills. He says, plead your case before the mountains. Let the hills hear your voice. Hear you mountains, the indictment of the Lord. and you enduring foundations of the earth. He's basically reminding the Israelites that he's a God who created the mountains and the hills. He actually created them even before he created the nation of Israel. These mountains and the hills have stood the test of time for thousands of years. They have seen centuries and centuries of human civilization, empires rising and falling. and the people of Israel's faithfulness and unfaithfulness. It's like if you've been to Mir Ridge north of San Francisco into this amazing surreal redwood park and and get to witness these gigantic redwoods you have at the entrance of the Mirwoods a cross-section of one redwood tree with its concentric rings spanning supposedly close to 2,000 years. Those trees have stayed for 2,000 years. If those trees and if these mountains and hills it's as if they have eyes and ears and they heard and saw God would was telling them they will tell you what kind of a life you have been living. So what is his charge? So here's the charge. Verse three he says, "Oh my people, what have I done to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me, 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. Oh my people, remember what Baal, king of Moab, devised, and what Balam son of Bayor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord. He's basically asking them, what have I done to you? How have I worried you? Answer me. Because there is a problem. He's is not explicit in this particular text. You know the Israelites whenever they had problems, they had a way of pointing their fingers at God. They were excellent in doing something you and I always do when someone points out our mistakes. Deflection. They had mastered the art of deflection. You know, first response in any conflict is to deflect blame to avoid self-reflection and take ownership of our issues. Isn't it? And even in relationships, whether it's between a husband and a wife or friends or at workplace, we always feel the other person or this other group or this other nation is wrong and they have committed some injustice to us. and we need to fight back. The Israelites were prone to doing that. They complained that they did not have food and water after God rescued them out of Egypt when God was actually providing them heavenly food. You can't go and buy that anywhere. And pure natural water from the rock. They said, "Oh, how great it was in our time of Egypt." He reminds them of how he was present in all the injustices done to them or against them and saved them from it. He reminded them, remember my covenant people, you were people who experienced terrible injustice in the hands of Pharaoh for several hundred years. But I acted for you when you were under slavery. It was I who fought that injustice, not you. You could not do that. Verse four, I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. He said, I heard their cry, your cry. I raised I sent a mediator for you, a prophet and leaders and priests to rescue you from injustice. I acted when you had experienced injustice in your life. Do you remember that? And he reminds them how they experienced cruelty instead of mercy from the kings who are listed here who attempted to thwart their entry into the promised land and waged war and showed no mercy. He says I intervened. Oh, remember he says the Bailac, king of Moab, Balam the son of Beir, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal where all these other people even when they wanted a right of passage just to go there would fight them showed no mercy. So he was telling the Israelites when you experienced injustice I fought for you. When you experienced lack of mercy from others, I fought for you and waged war for you and gave crushing defeat from your hands who are not trained in war. Neither did you have weaponry. You know why? So that he says the end of verse five, you may know the righteous acts of the Lord. You know the Hebrew word for righteous and justice, they can be used interchangeably. In short, God was reminding his covenant children how he acted justly in the face of gross injustice, cruelty, and pride of other nations and caused them to enter into the land of Canaan where they are now living, a land flowing with milk and honey. And what did they do in return? After having experienced God's justice and being freed from injustice and cruelty through the pride of ungodly kings and after settling down in their comfort zones, they started doing the same injustices and cruelty and acted in pride against God and others. How sad is that? That's the charge he's bringing. And there is scripture that tells them what they did. Mikah's generation not only created but they propagated injustice amongst themselves. Every level there was injustice happening. The land owners were stealing from the poor. If you have your Bibles, let's quickly go through some verses. Turn with me to Maha chapter 2 verses 8 and 9. But lately, my people have risen up as an enemy. You strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war. The women of my people, you drive out from their delightful houses, from their young children. You take away my splendor forever. They were doing the same things that were done to them. Not just people who were land owners, their leaders were corrupt and they did not practice justice. They were judging for bribes. If you continue and read that, you can read more about that in Mahap 3 11. Their priests sold their teaching for money. Their prophets preached only when they had food on their tables. You know, Mahap 3:5, he says, "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." Again the same chapter verse 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. Who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. 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 at every level. Injustice has pervaded the entire society. Their leaders failed, their magistrates failed, their prophets failed, their priests failed. And on top of it, their religious leaders were proclaiming prosperity to them. You know why? Only because they thought, "Oh, we are God's chosen people. He's not going to do anything to us." It was a theological problem. They had a very distorted, deficient understanding of their covenantal God. They were being confront comforted by such easy doctrines. Mikah 26 onwards says, "Do not preach. Thus they preach. One should not preach of such things. Disgrace will not overtake us. Should this be said, oh house of Jacob? Has the Lord grown impatient? Are these his deeds? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly, but lately my people have risen up as an army. And then he commends all the injustice that they were doing. That's the charge. So God is asking, you're my covenant people. Your forefathers experienced injustice. I was the one who came and broke through and gave you this land and now you're propagating that. In short, as God's covenant people who are called to reflect God's covenant character, they were doing the exact opposite of that. They were not exhibiting any of the covenantal attributes and characteristics of Yahweh their God. They became covenant breakers. And that tends to happen when life goes great, isn't it? When we live in a land flowing with milk and honey, with wealth and prosperity like it is here in Silicon Valley, slowly somehow we tend to slip into this kind of spiritual situation where we may not be doing gross sins or bad things, but we may stop doing what we sought to be So he says now in the next few verses we're going to look at our second point. What's the response? What God does not want. So now if you're convicted now here is now a prophetic voice through someone who is going to worship God and asking these questions. Verse six to7 with what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high you know they recognize if you recognize you have broken God's covenant says how shall I come before the Lord is Yahweh the name of God of their covenant or bow myself before God on high this is Elohim shall I come before him with burnt offerings offerings with calves a year old. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? There's an escalation of what this person thinks he can do to fix it. Or can I can I do all these good things, these good works? You know, maybe I'll do some religious practices. I'll help the poor people. I love helping poor people. Let me give money. Let me help them find jobs and and get homes and settle. Is that good enough? Maybe I'll show up to church regularly. If I've been not so regular, I'll be there every Sunday. What God is calling out is religious practices or rituals are no substitute. Coming to church, worshiping with songs, prayers, etc. you know, burnt offerings. A one-year calf is one of the most expensive uh sacrifice that can be given. It's very expensive because it's just one year. It has a potential for a lot more. So, if you have to buy that, you need to shell a lot of money. It goes from a one-year calf to thousands of rams to 10 thousands of rivers of oil. It keeps escalating and even and finally even goes, "Should I give my first born for the transgression of my soul?" He says, "No. It's not going to fix this. Basically, they're asking the fundamental question. Will these be enough to satisfy the injustice that has been committed in my relationship in my life? Will all these good things nullify the bad I have done? That's how most religions tend to operate. You know, you do bad, you do some good. And sadly many Christians live in that mode for a very long time except that they don't think they don't know that they are not really Christians yet because they are living in that same mindset. That is the trap of religion without repentance. Thinking rituals can cover a covenantal rebellion. It's like coming to church and doing all these things but living with unrepentant pride, selfishness or indifference to the vulnerable. God says he rejects worship that masks injustice. And then he goes on to say third point, we'll spend a little longer here. what God really wants. Says, "He has told you, oh 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. You know, if the God of their covenant has demonstrated justice to them, if they have experienced God's kindness and mercy, and if he has walked with them, he wants them to practice the same with one another in their society, in their country, and in the world, and in their daily life. So I want to take a brief moment to talk and contrast between what is biblical justice and worldly justice. What is biblical mercy and worldly wrath and anger? And what is biblical humility and worldly pride? You know whenever there is a conflict let's start with it at a very personal level so it will hit home for some of us whether it's in a relationship between two people the first thing we do is the same thing the nation of people uh Israel did to God deflect babe we try to create categories I am right he was wrong or she was wrong I am oppressed and she or he is oppressing me the oppressor We try to depersonalize and disconnect any sense of personal responsibility by deflecting the blame and throwing it either somewhere out to the person opposite to us or or form a collective group and assign it to them or even call it against a nation and systems. You know recently there was been a big emergence of what is called the critical race theory. The fundamental premise of critical race theory is absolutely unbiblical. It talks about there being an oppressor and an oppressed. It has a presupposition that man is basically good. You and I, we don't have a problem. It's these systems out there that are doing this or these nations out there that are doing this. And you know what you have to do? Fight back. Whether it's a relationship, if your spouse is doing it to you, fight socially. If one group you perceive is doing it to you, fight. If a nation is doing it to you, fight because the hidden presupposition is man is good. Got to fight all these external systems. So let's name them, group them together and give them a name. White people, black people, brown people, government system, nation. Let's make them the problem so you can fight. And if you and and and if you change them, you can make laws, the world is going to be a better place. You know who are some of the biggest proponents of this? Carl Marx and Lenon. Marxism and communism came right out of this ideology and Christians drank the Kool-Aid in the fight against justice. So we are told fight back. Fight back. It completely leaves us off the hook. It makes us feel good because nobody is bad here, isn't it? The problem with injustice, even if you take racism, is not the color of our skin, but the problem is the depth of our sin. No matter what is the color of our skin, you and I are all equally sinful at the foot of the cross. For the word Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And we all need the same amount of grace and mercy that flows from the cross. Own up, take up responsibility. Jesus said, "Look at the speck in your own eye before you can point at the log in the other person's eyes." And it's easier to do that when you when you do that, you feel great because you're basically telling yourself, "I've been good. You know, recently I had a fight with my wife. Some confession time here. It's very recent like last night. I'm a very good fighter. You know, I'm a preacher. That's my profession. I can craft watertight arguments. I don't have to raise my voice. It'll be impossible to break my arguments. And there's no chance for her to beat me in that. And she knows that. And I'm so thankful for my wife. She'll always end a fight with, "Have you prayed about that? Is that what God is telling you?" It's so hard to breach that right. That's like the She throws that nuclear bomb at the end. And then I have to realize I have actually bought into this. I feel that oh she's oppressing me and actually it was some very trivial thing. Maybe my ego was hurt or my pride was hurt. I don't know. But I felt oh she's the oppressor and I'm the oppressed. Think I'm thinking I'm the oppressed in my home. See how many of you are laughing at that. So silly, isn't it? So let me fight her. And and I realize in my own life because of some of my past baggages, I've experienced a lot of injustice in my life. I have realized when I sense a threat that's coming towards me, all my alarm bells go off and I'll take out all my guns and barrels and I'll be ready to fire and decimate even before that threat enters a mile of my vicinity. and then feel great about it. God has shown me and convicted me of my own sinfulness because it fails to help me deal with my own heart. And when I pray and ask God and listen to my wife, men, you need to listen to your wives and women, I gave you a nice argument to use against your husbands. God will show us our pride which is at the root, isn't it? At all time. I had to confess to her and confess to God and ask for forgiveness. And all this I'm doing while I'm preparing a sermon on injustice, isn't it? Which made me help me understand this whole thing so much better. You know, injustice has a name. The Bible calls it sin. Absolute self-centeredness. These are the repercussions to sin. But often times the ones who are affected as a result of such injustice whether it's about an individual in a relationship or a family or a society or a nation or those who are marginalized and vulnerable. And that's why throughout the Bible you can see God didn't just take care of his covenant people Israel. He took care of everyone who faces injustice especially the most vulnerable. Again and again and again you will see one thing that is being described by God as he's a God of the fatherless and the defender of widows and the poor keeps repeatedly coming throughout the Bible. The way God fights injustice is by helping you and me to have a new and a changed and a renewed heart and by showing mercy and compassion to those who have been victims of such injustice. Not even necessarily because of us but because of the others. That's the role of our church. Biblical justice does not call us to arm and fight systems and cancel each other out. Like I said, that's the root of communism and Marxism. It calls us to fight our own sin through radical disciplehip, a daily disciplehip, and extend God's kindness and mercy to those who need it in the world around us. You and I, our first and primary response and help to fight this injustice or rather our sinful whole heart is daily disciplehip. I'm really thankful and excited we are launching life on life disciplehip groups. Um you know we've been joining the past three years. Every week I've invested more than six hours in discipling four or five men and same with women too. and they are reaching out and we are inviting others to join those disciplehip groups and I'm so excited for those who have joined and some of you said no you don't want to and I'm like you know Randy Pope he's the one who came up with this he say oh they're a bunch of losers they just lost a god-given opportunity you need this daily disciplehip I need this you need this to explore our own hearts every day and to grow in spiritual covenant likeness of Christ's character. And as a church, we are called to demonstrate a covenantal God's justice by caring for the vulnerable in our society. You know, you can see this picture up here. This is a house in Oakland. It's one of my favorite houses in the entire Bay Area. Uh if a proenter team can throw that picture out there. Um, it looks like this from the outside. It's gated. There's a beautiful lot of graffiti on it. When you look outside, you don't know what's going on inside this house. Now, this is in the heart of Oakland. You know, Oakland um is or was probably called the gun capital or crime capital of the world. There's so much crime that goes around in that city. But what was happening in this house was something special. They had repurposed this house and we all know I can show the next picture. Um, Pastor Bernard who's one of our friends and u pastors Tapestry Church. Do you have the next picture on there? And Kyle, you know what Pastor Bernard and Kyle did was they merged their churches together in Oakland. You know, Pastor Bernard's church had people who are African-American and um who are a little older and some of them come from socioeconomically challenged situations. And Kyle was planting a church that was uh young millennial little affluent tech guys. God brought them together and had their church merge and they called it Tapestry Church. You know, that made the front pages of San Francisco Chronicle. But that was not cool. By the way, they this picture you'll see in a lot of ads. We became like the stock picture, right? A white guy, a brown guy, and a black guy. So I I'm I'm I heard I'm very famous. A lot of people know this. But we are just great friends. We don't see ourselves as white, brown, or black. We're just brothers. We are pastors and we love our cities and care. What Bernard did, Pastor Bernard for a long time was ministering in um what is the prison up there by Richmond? um I forget is it Santaita or there's no Quentyn prison inmates and he was ministering and and through his disciplehip inside some men had come to know the Lord but the challenge was when they get released from the prison it's very hard for them to find an employment and then they tend to go back to doing the things they did so he got this house and both of them Kyle spent personal time renovating the house and they were seating, welcoming their first released inmates, setting up studios and training them in sound engineering and music so they can have a career and get reintegrated into the world. That is social justice. Beautiful, isn't it? And we all remember our Creed boys home. We God enabled us to adopt a few boys who are semi-orphans or orphaned and we journeyed through them and got them into college as a church. That is what we need to be doing more of and how you and I can be involved in displaying God's justice. Foster care is a big need especially in the Bay Area. You know, the organization that we've tried to work with, Foster the City, they tell us if every church in San Francisco Bay area fosters one child, there will not be any more foster children in the foster homes. And almost 60% of churches have stepped up right now. And that has in the last 5 years or 10 years since they started. That, my friends, is social justice. And that's something I've been encouraging some of us, too. You know, it's easy to give money to an orphanage. It's easy to give money to a poor person or have them home and give them some meal or do a little help, but you got to get your skin in the game. Is go adopt a foster child. Bring them home. You can be a father or mother to them. That my friends is costly disciplehip, costly social justice. We've had our kids club, isn't it? And it's been wonderful to see partnering with this elementary school and and several of you stepped up and and I could see the joy in your faces when some of those children respond to your love. It's delightful, isn't it? We are I'm talking to Bev and we are hoping to start our second kids club. Monoj was missing in action. He's back in Newark. I've been coaching little league and I've come to love those kids. And I was telling we need this more here. And sometimes it's again we have only more men women who show up. Men feel they're all very busy at work. Well, let me remind you brothers. Whatever you accomplish in your work may or may not matter in five years once you leave or you get laid off or or change jobs. But what you do to touch the lives of even one single child will stay for eternity and is worth the cost. And and speaking up and taking time off to invest that is social justice. I didn't finish the story of Dr. John Perkins, you know, after he says what happened to him, this is what he writes. He says, "I have known injustice. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for me to answer hate with hate. But God had another plan for my life, a redemptive plan. Jesus saved me. He saved me from my sin. He saved me from what could have easily become a life of hatred and resentment. He saved me by his amazing grace. And it's by that same grace I have spent the last 60 years with my wife Vera May confronting injustice. We have literally poured blood, sweat, and tears into the causes of civil rights, multithnic reconciliation, community development, building good relationships between urban communities and the police education, teaching the gospel and holistic ministry. I have labored not by my strength, but by his strength that works powerfully in me, as Paul said. And God has been faithful. Through my 60 years of working for justice, I offer four admonitions to the next generation of justice seekers. First, start with God. God is bigger than we can imagine. Second, be one in Christ. Christian brothers, black, white, brown, rich, and poor, we are family. We are one blood. Third, preach the gospel. The gospel of Jesus's incarnation, his perfect life is death as our substitute and his triumph over sin and death is good news for everyone. Fourth and finally, teach truth. Without truth, there can be no justice. And what is the ultimate standard of truth? It's not our feelings. It is not popular opinion. It is not what presidents or politicians say. God's word is the standard of truth. If we are trying harder to align with the rising opinions of our day than with the Bible, then we ain't doing real justice. The greatest injustice in the world was what happened to Jesus Christ on the cross. And you know how did he respond to it? He prayed for forgiveness for the very ones who put him on the cross. He assured a fellow criminal who lived a life of injustice and violence and repented that he will be with him in paradise. He made sure his mother will never be alone even while he was on the cross and and asked his disciple to adopt her. That my dear friends is what biblical justice looks like. That is what biblical mercy looks like. And that's why we call all these ministries we do in our church as mercy ministries. And the one thing that can stop you from being part of that is your own pride. And that's why he finishes it by saying, "Walk humbly before God." It's our pride that very often prevents us from acknowledging our sinfulness before God. It's our pride that prevents us from wanting to be discipled by one another. It is our pride that prevents us from owning up in our relational challenges and seeking reconciliation. But God has beautifully demonstrated his love on the cross and invites you and I to be part of it. So as we leave, may I encourage you, brothers and sisters, seek disciplehip. If someone's reached out to you, be thankful that they they they care and love about you to want to disciple you and seek justice in ways that will demonstrate love so you can have your skin in the game, not by just throwing money at it. And above all, walk humbly before God and one another. Let's pray.