Ten Shekels and a Shirt

Ten Shekels and a Shirt by Paris Reidhead is a compelling message. I've had the message recommended to me in the past and have never taken the time to listen to it... until today. A friend recently posted a link to the message to my Facebook page, and so today as I mowed the lawns at Arrowhead I listened to it. I will listen to it again. And I highly recommend it to you as well.

There is a sickness that is plaguing the would be church in the Western world, humanism has reared it's head and become an understood norm in evangelism, worship, and lifestyle. This message, an exposition of a passage of scripture (Judges 17) and challenge of worldview with Biblical Truth.

I've had Christian people look me in the eye and tell me that humanism, the idea and reality of it, is a myth invented by those who would cling to legalism. This I'm afraid, as Paris Reidhead draws into rather stark clarity, is the deception, clung to by those who would revel in the world and live to satisfy selfish ambition all in the name of a false understanding of God's Grace, all the while serving self in a socially accepted, expected idolatry.

This message is described on SermonIndex.net as follows:

"Paris Reidhead preaches what could be called one of the most influential sermons of the 20th century. The real point of this sermon is an indictment of individuals and organizations practising humanism behind a mask of Christianity! "This sermon should be preached on a regular basis in every church in America!"

You can download and listen to this message by clicking HERE or by visiting this link:
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=282

 "Humanism is, I believe, the most deadly and disastrous of all the philosophical stenches that’s crept up through the grating over the pit of Hell. It has penetrated so much of our religion. AND IT IS UTTER AND TOTAL CONTRAST WITH CHRISTIANITY! Unfortunately it’s seldom seen. And here we find Micah, wants to have a little chapel, and he wants to have a priest, and he wants to have prayer, and he wants to have devotion, because “I KNOW THE LORD WILL DO ME GOOD!” AND THIS IS SELFISHNESS!!! AND THIS IS SIN!!! And the Levite comes along and falls right in with it! Because he wants a place! He wants ten shekels and a shirt and his food! And so in order that he can have what he wants, and Micah can have what he wants, THEY SELL OUT GOD! For ten shekels and a shirt. AND THIS IS THE BETRAYAL OF THE AGES!!! And it is the betrayal in which we live. And I don’t see HOW GOD CAN REVIVE IT! Until we come back to Christianity, as in DIRECT AND TOTAL CONTRAST WITH THE STENCHFUL HUMANISM that’s perpetrated in our generation in the name of Christ.
I’m afraid that it’s become so subtle that it goes everywhere. What is it? In essence it’s this! That this philosophical postulate that the end of all being is the happiness of man, has been sort of covered over with evangelical terms and Biblical doctrine until God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man, Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man, all the angels exist for the happiness of man…, Everything is for the happiness of man! AND I SUBMIT TO YOU THAT THIS IS UNCHRISTIAN!!! Isn’t man happy? Didn’t God intend to make man happy? Yes. But as a by-product and not a prime-product!"  ~ Paris Reidhead, Ten Shekels and a Shirt