POLLUTED MINISTRY
Notes
Transcript
Micah 3:5-12
Priest & Levites
All Priest were Levites, but not all Levites were called to be Priest
Both Priest and Levites brought the peoples worship and sacrifices before God, Priest offered the sacrifice while Levites prepared the house of the Lord and assisted with the teaching of scripture
Prophets
Prophets brought God’s word to the people, while Priest and Levite help facilitate the peoples worship towards God
The greed and power had corrupted the political and legal systems. Since Israel and Judah where suppose to be Godly communities, these leaders needed the spiritual leaders to support their endeavors and so many of the priest/Levites and Prophets themselves had fallen to the enticement of greed, wealth and power.
So, in essence they became hired spiritual leaders
There labor and messages where no longer driven by the anointing of God, they were driven by the commandments of men and the desires for wealth and power
· I Chron 23:1-6 (Levites)
o Teaching
o Serving
o Worship & music ministry
· I Timothy 6:3-10
· Jeremiah 23:9-40
vs 11-16;28-33
· The good shepherd John 10:11-13
The spiritual leaders where to look for the blessings of success that came from God through obedience to his word
Instead they were looking for the blessings and recognition that came from the world and were received through worldly methods ill-gotten gain.
We have made the mistake of equating that there is a direct causation between spiritual obedience to God and his Word to natural prosperity in this life.
What does this do?
· It fosters a consumerism worship society
· It leads to individuals looking for what they can get from the house of the Lord like a supermarket vs coming to give worship and receive a Word from the Lord
· It always must bigger and better or more experiential than before.
· We become addicted with out knowing it to the seductive power of wealth and all its glamour
· Gods Word becomes boring, Holy worship becomes bland, unexciting!
· You are never satisfied, its never good enough.
We want to go the Walmart Store of Christian Religious Experience and be able to pick from the self what we want, because the power of Gods word has been so distorted by the false prophets of the day, and we are practicing what we verbally condemn, we become those who listen with itching ears.