#8 What is the Essential Duty of Man?

What is the Essential Duty of Man?

Through the years, many, many people have tried to figure out the purpose of life or whether there is purpose in life. Long ago, Aristotle said, “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim of human existence.” Frederick Nietzsche held to an existentialistic view, which is the view that there is no objective truth. He said this, “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only, it does not exist.” Michael Jackson once said, “The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation.” I not even sure what this means! Groucho Marx who was a Hollywood comedian said, “Life is a whim of several billion cells to be you for a while.” All of these quotes have one thing in common: worldly wisdom about life. When it comes to godly wisdom, we must turn to God’s Word… So, what does God require us to do? Today, I will be answering the following question: What is the essential duty of man?

1. Outline
------a. Micah 6:8 “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
------------i. Do justly
-----------ii. Love mercy
-----------iii. Walk humbly with God
2. Do Justly
------a. Definition + what it means
-----------i. Just behavior or treatment: a concern for justice, peace, and genuine respect for people.
------b. Deuteronomy 16:20 – “Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
c. Fairness
-----------i. Colossians 4:1 – “Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”
------d. Honesty
-----------i. Deuteronomy 25:15 – “You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
------e. Righteousness
------------i. In conformity to God’s rule
-----------ii. Leviticus 19:15 – “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
3. Love Mercy
------a. Definition + what it means
------------i. Simple Definition of Mercy: Not getting what you deserve
-----------ii. Delighting in showing compassion and forgiveness not only upon your friends, but also your enemies.
------b. Scriptures
------------i. Micah 7:18 – “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.”
-----------ii. Matthew 18:33 – “Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” – PARABLE OF THE UNMERCIFUL SProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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4. Walk Humbly with God
------a. Definition + what it means
------------i. Seeing yourself as a forgiven sinner in the eyes of God
-----------ii. Walking in honor and reverence with a lowly spirit in the eyes of God
------b. Scriptures
------------i. Deuteronomy 30:9-10 – “9Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, 10if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
5. Summary
------a. If we asked many people about the meaning of life, we would get very many different answers some of which would be hard to understand. However, when we look to the Word of God, the answer is much more straightforward. Therefore, I challenge you not to follow the worldly wisdom, but rather follow the timeless principles of an omniscient God.
------b. Micah 6:8 “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
------------i. Do justly
------------ii. Love mercy
------------iii. Walk humbly with God

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Whenever you can find and use one text that serves as an outline, it is very helpful. Going down the past of "Here is how God answers this question" makes it very hard to argue with!

Excellent!

Christian, I chuckled to myself because I could just imagine you delivering the introduction to this speech. I love your use of humor in the introduction and hope you use your great facial expressions and purposeful pausing to make this come alive. Is this one of the Speeches you delivered with Chap. If yes could you tell me which week because I would love to view it. Either that or I would love to make time for you to deliver it for me. (smile)

Christian, Thanks for sharing your video. I enjoyed watching it. A few things I noticed that I'd like you to work on....
1. Your introduction has some great humor in it....I would love to see some added facial expressions and creative pausing to help you emphasize this. For example you say Michael Jackson once said...

You could pause... then deliver his quote very respectfully.... then pause again and with a perplexed look on your face explain.... I don't even know what this means. (Pause again for laughter....)

Doing this successfully will do a lot to endear your listeners to this speech.

2. At this point we are all dependent on our cards when we deliver. Ideally we want to practice, practice, practice, so that we can be less dependent on our notes. The more we familiarize ourselves with our written speeches the more comfortable we will be in putting cards down. With this said, if you do read from a card, it is essential that you don't read too quickly. When you watch yourself on this video, you will notice how your rate of delivery becomes much quicker when you are reading from the cards. On the other hand, when ever you feel comfortable just talking about your points, or listing your points as you did in the introduction, your speed slows down considerably. Watch your speed of delivery and make sure you don't smudge your phrases/ sentences together.

3. Much related to suggestion two, but with different emphasis... When ever we read from our cards we tend to neglect our genuine eye contact with the judges. When possible you must show your judges "love" by delivering a complete "thought" / "Sentence" to a set of eyes. I recognize that this becomes difficult when you are reading but if you make room in your speech for pausing and practice the art of looking down at your cards only to refresh your memory vrs. reading word for word, this becomes increasingly "Possible"
The skill we are looking for here is: look down and read/ refresh your memory by glancing at a complete sentence, then trust that you can look up and deliver that sentence to the judge while giving genuine eye contact.

4. Your timing is really close on this speech so some effort may need to be made to shorten it a bit to allow pausing and add additional emotion to your delivery. Simple changes to make your speech more direct for example here is my quick rewrite of your intro: ( I hated to cut Groucho but for time sake it might be necessary)

Through the years many people have articulated what they believe is the purpose and meaning of life. Aristotle once said, “Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim of human existence.” Frederick Nietzsche believed that there is no objective truth. “You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only, it does not exist.” And finally the great philosopher ”Michael Jackson once said, “The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation.” I'm not even sure what this means but I am sure that all these quotes have one thing in common: worldly wisdom. When it comes to godly wisdom, we must turn to the truth of God’s Word… So what is the purpose of life according to God. What is the essential duty of man? He gives us the perfect answer and outline in Micah 6:8 " "


I love the work you've put into this speech and the support you've given to your points is GREAT.
Look forward to seeing you Wednesday!

Thank you for the comments!