[TBC: The late Paris Reidhead was a missionary in Africa for many years
and continued his effective ministry in the States pastoring and
preaching. The following excerpt comes from his sermon "Ten Shekels and
a Shirt" (from Judges 17 & 18) and sounds as fresh and pertinent today
as when it was preached in the mid 1960s. Following are exerpts.]
PRAGMATISM
Would I be out of line if I were to talk to you for a little while about
utilitarian religion and expedient Christianity? And a youthful God? I
would like to call attention to the fact that our day is a day which the
ruling philosophy is pragmatism. You understand what I mean by
pragmatism, pragmatism means if it works it's true. If it succeeds it's
good. And the test of all practices, all principles, all truth, so
called all teaching, is do they work? Do they work? Now -according to
pragmatism, the greatest failures of the ages have been some of the men
God has honored most.
For instance, whereas Noah was a mighty good ship builder, his main
occupation wasn't ship building, it was preaching. He was a terrible
failure as a preacher. His wife and three children and their wives are
all he had. Seven converts in 120 years, you wouldn't call that
particularly effective.
And then we come down across the years to another man by the name of
Jeremiah. He was a mighty effective preacher, but ineffective as far as
results were concerned. If you were to measure statistically how
successful Jeremiah was, he would probably get a large cipher. For we
find that he lost out with the people, he lost out with royalty, even
the ministerial association voted against him and wouldn't have anything
to do with him. He had everything fail. The only one he seemed able to
please was.... God, but otherwise he was a distinct failure.
And then we come to another well known person, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was a failure from judging all the standards. He never succeeded in
organizing a church or denomination. He wasn't able to build a school.
He didn't succeed in getting a mission board established. He never had a
book printed.
The question comes then to this, "what is the standard of success and by
what are we going to judge our lives and our ministry?" And the question
that you are going to ask yourself, "Is God an end or is He a means?"
Our generation is prepared to honor successful choices. As long as a
person can get things done or get the job done then our generation is
prepared to say well done.
And so we've got to ask ourselves at the very outset of our ministry,
and our pilgrimage, and our walk, "Are we going to be Levites who serve
God for ten shekels and a shirt?" (Judges 17:7-11), serve men perhaps in
the name of God, rather than God. For though he was a Levite and
performed religious activities, he was looking for a place, which would
give him recognition, a place which would give him acceptance, a place
which would give him security, a place where he could shine in terms of
those values which were important to him. His whole business was serving
in religious activities, so it had to be a religious job. He was very
happy when he found that Micah had an opening. But he had decided that
he was worth ten shekels and a shirt, and he was prepared to sell
himself to anyone that would give that much. If somebody came along and
gave more, he would sell himself to them (Judges 18:18-20). But he put a
value upon himself and he figured then his religious service and his
activities were just a means to an end, and by the same token, God was a
means to an end
Let's be done, once and for all, with utilitarian Christianity that
makes God a means, instead of the glorious END that He is. Let's resign,
let's tell Micah we're through. We're no longer going to be his priests
serving for ten shekels and a shirt. And let's come and cast ourselves
at the feet of the nail pierced Son of God and tell Him that we're going
to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him, as long as we live BECAUSE HE
IS WORTHY!
SermonAudio.com - Ten Shekels and a Shirt
and continued his effective ministry in the States pastoring and
preaching. The following excerpt comes from his sermon "Ten Shekels and
a Shirt" (from Judges 17 & 18) and sounds as fresh and pertinent today
as when it was preached in the mid 1960s. Following are exerpts.]
PRAGMATISM
Would I be out of line if I were to talk to you for a little while about
utilitarian religion and expedient Christianity? And a youthful God? I
would like to call attention to the fact that our day is a day which the
ruling philosophy is pragmatism. You understand what I mean by
pragmatism, pragmatism means if it works it's true. If it succeeds it's
good. And the test of all practices, all principles, all truth, so
called all teaching, is do they work? Do they work? Now -according to
pragmatism, the greatest failures of the ages have been some of the men
God has honored most.
For instance, whereas Noah was a mighty good ship builder, his main
occupation wasn't ship building, it was preaching. He was a terrible
failure as a preacher. His wife and three children and their wives are
all he had. Seven converts in 120 years, you wouldn't call that
particularly effective.
And then we come down across the years to another man by the name of
Jeremiah. He was a mighty effective preacher, but ineffective as far as
results were concerned. If you were to measure statistically how
successful Jeremiah was, he would probably get a large cipher. For we
find that he lost out with the people, he lost out with royalty, even
the ministerial association voted against him and wouldn't have anything
to do with him. He had everything fail. The only one he seemed able to
please was.... God, but otherwise he was a distinct failure.
And then we come to another well known person, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was a failure from judging all the standards. He never succeeded in
organizing a church or denomination. He wasn't able to build a school.
He didn't succeed in getting a mission board established. He never had a
book printed.
The question comes then to this, "what is the standard of success and by
what are we going to judge our lives and our ministry?" And the question
that you are going to ask yourself, "Is God an end or is He a means?"
Our generation is prepared to honor successful choices. As long as a
person can get things done or get the job done then our generation is
prepared to say well done.
And so we've got to ask ourselves at the very outset of our ministry,
and our pilgrimage, and our walk, "Are we going to be Levites who serve
God for ten shekels and a shirt?" (Judges 17:7-11), serve men perhaps in
the name of God, rather than God. For though he was a Levite and
performed religious activities, he was looking for a place, which would
give him recognition, a place which would give him acceptance, a place
which would give him security, a place where he could shine in terms of
those values which were important to him. His whole business was serving
in religious activities, so it had to be a religious job. He was very
happy when he found that Micah had an opening. But he had decided that
he was worth ten shekels and a shirt, and he was prepared to sell
himself to anyone that would give that much. If somebody came along and
gave more, he would sell himself to them (Judges 18:18-20). But he put a
value upon himself and he figured then his religious service and his
activities were just a means to an end, and by the same token, God was a
means to an end
Let's be done, once and for all, with utilitarian Christianity that
makes God a means, instead of the glorious END that He is. Let's resign,
let's tell Micah we're through. We're no longer going to be his priests
serving for ten shekels and a shirt. And let's come and cast ourselves
at the feet of the nail pierced Son of God and tell Him that we're going
to obey Him, and love Him, and serve Him, as long as we live BECAUSE HE
IS WORTHY!
SermonAudio.com - Ten Shekels and a Shirt
