2020-10-11 Judges 17
Notes
Transcript
1 Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.
2 He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.”
3 He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return them to you.”
4 So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah.
5 And the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and household idols and consecrated one of his sons, that he might become his priest.
6 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
7 Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was staying there.
8 Then the man departed from the city, from Bethlehem in Judah, to stay wherever he might find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah.
9 Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to stay wherever I may find a place.”
10 Micah then said to him, “Dwell with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes, and your maintenance.” So the Levite went in.
11 The Levite agreed to live with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.
12 So Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah.
13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as priest.”
I. Where God is not king, people make us their own religion. (1-5)
I. Where God is not king, people make us their own religion. (1-5)
We all worship something, when God is not king, we make our own.
We all worship something, when God is not king, we make our own.
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
Don’t use God to worship a godless idol.
Don’t use God to worship a godless idol.
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
II. Personalized religion is godless. (5-12)
II. Personalized religion is godless. (5-12)
When faith is all about you, it is a godless faith.
When faith is all about you, it is a godless faith.
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
It has never been easier to design a church/faith for yourself.
It has never been easier to design a church/faith for yourself.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,
4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
III. Is church all about you? (13)
III. Is church all about you? (13)
Who is the center of your worship/religion? God or you?
Who is the center of your worship/religion? God or you?
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’