Episode 1617: What is Good

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Speaker: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 1,617 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. My name is Michael Gro. Do you agree that our existence is the proof that we are worthy?

Yes. We wanna bargain with God. We want to earn. A little less pain, a little less hurt, a little bit more justice. But the truth is God says, just be present. Do justice, love, kindness. And walk humbly with your God. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures [00:01:00] for your true calling.

In the Inspired Stewardship podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Micah chapter six, verses one through eight. I share how remembering these three pillars can help us. Know how to be present with others and with God. And I also share how they remind us that we can't earn God's grace. Micah chapter six, verses one through eight says, hear what the Lord says.

Rise please your plead your case before the mountains and let the hills hear your voice. Hear you. Mountains the case of the Lord and you enduring foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people and he will contend with Israel. Oh my people. What have I done to [00:02:00] you and what have I weed you?

Answer me for? I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I set you before Moses Ara and Miriam. Oh my People remember now what King Baek of Moab devised what? Balam son of Baar answered him. And what happened from she, Tim. To Gilga that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.

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? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the freedom of my body, for the sin of my soul?

He has told you immortal 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. I don't know if you've ever had a situation where a friend or a family member, maybe [00:03:00] somebody who you know well, but they're distant now distant in terms of physical space.

And they have a situation come up a problem, maybe an illness, maybe some sort of emergency, and you are there farther away from them than you want to be, not unable to help at a distance and maybe, maybe you decide you need to go and see what's going on. To pour oil on troubled waters, so to speak.

I dunno if you've ever heard that phrase or that idiom. It's a expression, and I've seen oil spills and I don't know about you. Those don't seem to calm the water. If anything, they rile things up. But that idea that a small vial of oil could help bring smoother waters for sailing is actually. An old [00:04:00] belief.

It goes back to ancient times and many ancient ships. Captains would carry a small vial of oil, hoping not to have to use it, but having that belief that if needed, the vial would help calm the seas. Ben Franklin conducted a series of tests and he decided that there was really nothing to it, but other people have done tests.

Seeing what they feel is the effect of a small amount of oil on a large expanse of water and seeming to calm some of the ripples and smooth things out. Maybe there was too much trouble or not enough oil and some of the experiences, or maybe there was too much oil. Who knows how much oil is enough. And Micah, there's a long passage about how, what should I do when I come before the Lord?

Should I bow? Should I offer burnt offerings? [00:05:00] Should I give 10,000 rams and rivers of oil? How much would it take to buy off God to bargain your way into smoother times and smoother waters? And of course, we know better. God isn't bought off by promises, by devotion, by overwhelming devotion, by hours of prayer.

By the amount of time we spend in church, we know that, but when the waters of our lives are troubled, we often turn to bargaining. I'll do this. God, I promise to do this. If you'll do that. I offer this and I ante up. I'll offer more and more and more, hoping God will be so impressed that my desire, my hope, my desperate plea will be granted by God.

But Micah here is saying, don't be ridiculous. You can't impress God. You [00:06:00] can't out give God. You can't even come up with an amount that will pay off the debt that you already owe. 10,000 rivers of oil drop in the bucket. Thousands of rams. God already owns the sheep on a thousand hills. Your own child, your flesh and blood, they were already gods.

They're already ransomed and they're already forgiven. It's done and done. You can't buy off God because God has already given you what is good. You can't get in God's good graces because you never left God's good graces. You don't have to earn your way back in. You can't bargain with God to bend the laws of time and space because God is already doing that for you.

And yet, I don't know about you, but I still have times when I want. I want more. I want so much. I want more than I deserve, more than I can imagine. I want that friend [00:07:00] who's sick to be healed. I want that family member that's hurting to not hurt anymore, and what God and Micah are saying is that's already done, but I don't know about you.

If you've said at the bedside of somebody who's broken and lost, confused, and unable to function, it doesn't feel done. It doesn't feel good. We don't care about what happens later. We care about what happens now and we want God to fix this. What God says is, I already have. I've told you what is good. What God wants is good.

It is right. It is fair and but this doesn't feel fair. This doesn't feel right. This doesn't feel good. When that person that we care about is hurting. [00:08:00] But listen, again, God has told you what is good. Do justice, love kindness while humbly with God. These three actions, these three poles around which life revolves.

These are the behaviors that can send us into community ski. Send us out around the world, out around the room, and to sit at the bedside of that person that's hurting. We go in to do justice, to make things better, to fix things, but sometimes all we need to do is be present. We discover that there's nothing to fix.

There's nothing being done wrong. There's no thing that is not good here. There's already justice. There's already [00:09:00] kindness. There's already love, but we need to be there and be present to lean in sometimes That is the best kindness. Even in a situation where it feels helpless, oftentimes in those situations, if you really lean in, you can feel the presence of God in that room.

With that person, you can spread a little oil and it begins to counteract the ripples and smooth the troubled waters. It becomes the holding of hands, the giving of hugs, the just being present that allows the agitation to calm, the hurt to hurt a little less. That's being the hands and feet of [00:10:00] Christ, that's being Christ with skin on.

When we show up and remember that. We don't have to fix it. God already has. We haven't seen it in that moment, but God already has. We need to lean in and see God in each and every person, in each and every moment, no matter what. And yes, yes, we wanna bargain with God. We wanna earn a little less pain, a little less hurt, a little bit more justice.

But the truth is God says, just be present, do justice, love, kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Thanks for listening.

I.