Justice

Summary of Justice

Preamble

Brent introduces the message series Jesus +Justice. He also does a recap of last week’s message on poverty. Brent also spoke about a guy named Brian Stevenson who has recently started a nonprofit that helps those in prison on death row. Brian said, “the opposite of poverty isn’t wealth it is justice!”

What does justice look like in 2017?

45.8 million people are currently enslaved! There are literally 45.8 million people who are slaves, right now! In 2017. 65.6 million people are currently displaced people — those who can’t return to their homes. In 2016, only 1% of that 65.6 million we’re helped. The viral movement #metoo on Twitter exploded with women admitting to being sexually harassed. We live in a broken world. Justice isn’t rampant, it seems like a luxury!

Our culture is trying to find justice without God

Here’s the problem: there is no chance for justice if you remove the holy and just God from the equation. Our society is attempting to create social justice on it’s own merit. But our society is broken! It’s the blind leading the blind! Look at today: Harvey Weinstein is viewed as disgusting and compare that to the praise Hugh Hephner. How can we praise one man and then vilify another for basically the same actions?

Micah 6:8 – God calls us to do justice

To understand this verse we must have a biblical worldview. Our society tells us that Man is inherently good. Because of this our society minimizes evil. Yet, a biblical worldview contradicts this! Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We are not inherently good, we are fallen and bent away from God.

It is not surprising that injustice occurs

Here is the dilemma: God, while merciful, cannot let injustice go unpunished. God demonstrated how he solved this dilemma by sending Jesus to die for our sins. (Romans 3:25, “ He did this to demonstrate his justice.”)

Proclamation vs. Demonstration

What is better, to speak about God or to demonstrate His message? The answer: the real power of the gospel is both proclaiming God’s message and demonstrating it!

• Proverbs 31:3
• James 1:27

What is our mission as a church?

Love God. Change the world. One life at a time! We must be a church of action.

Moses and God’s justice

Exodus 2:11 provides a great example of God’s justice. Moses gets up from his cushy life in the palace and suddenly becomes concerned with the Israelite slaves. He got up and went to see them in their own workplace. Our desire to help people will increase as our proximity to the people who suffer reduces. We must get proximate with those who suffer.

Being Proximate and being fearful

This means we must get into the lives of those who are suffering. So why do we struggle to get into other people’s lives? Because we don’t want our own lives to be upended! We don’t want to be inconvenienced. We don’t want to be stretched. We want to be kept “safe.” But all of those are excuses. They all stem from one main thing: fear. We are fearful.

Moses and Aaron

When God approached Moses and said that God had chosen him to be the figurehead for a movement to free the Israelite people, Moses’ reaction was to ask God to find someone else. Moses didn’t want to do it! What did God do? He helped Moses and sent Aaron to be his companion and support. God knows our limits, but he knows how capable we are.