Every once in a while, I come across a sermon that I think everyone should listen too. That’s ironic on one hand because I have said several times during my own sermons that if you think this sermon is for someone else, then chances are that you are the one who needs it the most. I can safely say that the message I have to recommend today definitely applies to me as a minister of the Gospel.
The sermon I want to recommend to you was preached on January 1, 1980 by a man named Paris Reidhead. Mr. Reidhead’s biographical sketch on SermonAudio.com says this, "Paris Reidhead devoted his life to communicating the message of the Gospel in America and throughout the world. A student pastor in the rural Minnesota at age eighteen, Mr. Reidhead felt led of the Lord to overseas mission work. In 1945, Paris Reidhead and Marjorie, his wife of two years, traveled under the auspices of the Sudan Interior Mission to the Sudan-Ethiopia Border where they surveyed and analyzed tribal languages in preparation for evangelism and education in this area."
The title of this sermon is "Ten Shekels and a Shirt," from Judges 17. One person described the sermon this way, "Paris Reidhead preaches what could be called one of the most influntial 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! In Judges 17, the prophet, Micah hires a Levite as his personal priest. The price for the Levite’s services was ten shekels (of silver) and a shirt. The real point of this sermon is an indictment of individuals and organizations practising humanism behind a mask of Christianity!" I believe that you will find this message to be quite challenging.
