Bible Time: Judges 17

I don't know how many of you have done this yet, but I just got finished listening to "Ten Shekels and a Shirt," the famous sermon by Paris Reidhead, I think for the fourth time, and it was just as convicting as ever.

For those of you who aren't familiar, this sermon is available at:

http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=282

His text comes from Judges 17 and 18, and he begins with the story of a man named Micah. Micah made himself some idols and an ephod; he made his own little temple. One day he met a Levite man sojourning from Judah and asked him to be his priest, hoping for God's favor for employing a Levite. He offered to pay the man the annual sum of ten shekels of silver and a shirt, a good sum of money. The man accepted, being content to commit idolatry for the wages he would receive.

He challenges by saying that this attitude is adopted by so many "Christians" of the day under the guise of humanism. Humanism says that the happiness of man is the chief goal. So many of us use God as a means to bring about our own happiness, either in this life or the next. We either serve God because we use him to cope or succeed in this life, or because we are scared to suffer in the afterlife.

The reason for salvation, according to Reidhead (and I agree), is that it is the only way God can get glory out a human being. We serve God, not because he can do something for us, but because he is worthy!!!

I have struggled with selfishness in my own Christianity, served God to see what I can get out it, and hearing my sin preached against is always convicting. I shouldn't serve God because of what I can get out of him, it should be what he gets out of me; I should serve God because he is worthy to be served, and though I don't deserve anything from him, he has redeemed me with his precious blood and called me his child. Even if I was sent to hell at the end of my life, because God knows I deserve to be, it does not change the fact that God is holy and sovereign and mighty and deserves the highest praise and adoration. He is worthy!

I encourage you all to listen to this life-changing sermon if you haven't already and even if you have.