Rev. David Holwick
First Baptist Church
West Lafayette, Ohio
July 20, 1986
Private Religion
Judges 17
This sermon is about a very religious man. He stole several thousand dollars worth of silver from his mom - nobody's perfect. She must have suspected he had done it, because she put a curse on the thief in her son's hearing. For good measure, she had also dedicated the whole amount to God.
Micah, the son decided to return the money. (Here, mom) To counteract the curse (so curse wouldn't take effect) she blessed him. And then she fulfilled her vow. She gave all the money to God. Well, at least a fifth of it anyway. It's hard to give everything to God when you've got your hands on it. So a portion of her silver was made into idols.
This is when her son Micah became very religious. He set up a shrine in his house and loaded it with he necessary equipment. In addition to the idols, verse 5 tells us he had an ephod for discovering God's will. He also had teraphim, which were small household idols. The only thing left was a personal priest. He picked out a son. This wasn't the best arrangement, but it had to do.
Then opportunity knocks. A real Levite wanders by. Only a few Levites were actual priests, but all of them did religious functions. Micah arranged to have this Levite become his personal priest. Talk about a preacher who always there when you need him! And cheap, too. All he needed was grub and 10 shekels a year. The amount of money Micah ripped off could have supported the Levite for 110 years.
I am sure that Micah meant well. He was out front about his religion. He invested his time and resources in it. In the very last verse we see what he expects out of it. "I know the Lord will do me good." (His favorite hymn was probably "Showers of Blessings")
Micah was religious. But it was the kind of religion that sends you strait to hell. And I am convinced that there are many Micahs around today. They are very religious in a deep and personal way, but they miss what Christianity is all about.
Believing in Jesus is a very personal commitment. No one else can make the commitment for you. Not your grandmother, or your father or your kids. Just you, yourself. But after you make your personal commitment; you need to have fellowship with other Christians. Or a lot of strange things can happen.
The greatest pitfall for believers who are like Micah is called syncretism. This means that when you're in doubt, you just add on. Micah accumulated idols and ephods and priests so all his bases would be covered.
The same thing happens today. In the Coshocton Tribune, after you read Billy Graham's column you can see what Omar the astrologer has to say. People who consider themselves to be Christians have become involved in spiritism and eastern religious ideas.
A prime example is the actress Shirley MacLaine. I suppose she is a great actress. But have you ever heard what she believes? She believes in Jesus. And she believes that when Jesus was a young man, he traveled to India. The gurus taught him neat things like reincarnation and astral projection. Hinduism and Christianity became the same thing. So Shirley MacLaine is a Christian who can remember back to a number of previous lives she has had. It's too bad she never read Hebrews 9:27 "It us appointed unto man once to die, and then to face judgment."
When people stay away from Christian fellowship, they end up with a lot of weird beliefs. Private religion also leads to ineffectiveness. Micah was concerned about how God was going to bless him. No one else seemed to matter, except maybe his family.
As a pastor, I have met people who knew the Bible forwards and backwards, yet they haven't been to church in 30 years. They say they don't need it because, they can learn on their own, without Sunday school teachers and pastors. It's true that you can learn on your own. But what kind of influence are you going to have on others? Does your private religion make an impact? I find that it usually doesn't.
America has become obsessed with religion that does not go beyond the private. This partly explains the popularity of the TV evangelists. Many of those who watch them are involved in local churches. I have no problem with them. But others watch their favorite preacher and think it's as good as going to church.
There is a big difference. Television doesn't require much effort or commitment. If his sermon gets boring, you can always turn the channel. Maybe Jimmy Swaggart is hitting too close to home. You could try Dr. Scott. Or Falconcrest. Religious programs on TV can be great encouragement to your faith but they can't be a substitute for church.
God has always wanted his followers to band together. The Jews in the Old Testament put a great emphasis on having personal devotions and a religious homelife. But they also gathered at the Temple at least once a year for public worship, no matter how far away they lived. When the Temple was destroyed, they met once a week in a synagogue.
Christians are commanded to continue this. In the book of Hebrews it says: "Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together." Salvation is not just you getting right with God. It's you getting right with God, and joining others who have done the same thing.
Why does God want us to go through all this hassle? For one thing, there is power in numbers. Ecclesiastes says: "Though one may be overpowered two can defend themselves; a cord of 3 strands is not quickly broken."
Along the same lines, Jesus said that wherever 2 or 3 people were gathered in his name, he would be present in the midst of them. When you close yourself off from fellowship, you close yourself off from encouragement too. Each person in a church has something unique to share. Take them away, and the whole church lacks something. Some private Christians say they are that way because other believers have burned them. When they see the hypocrisy in church, they would rather stay home. I call this the "Elijah Complex". Because he came to the point when he said, God I'm the only one you've got left, and I won't last much longer. God told him- Baloney. I've got 5000 others who have stayed true to me. Don't be discouraged by other Christians. For every bad one in a church, there are 2 good ones.
Church gives us power in numbers. It also gives us safety in numbers. The safety is that weird ideas can be brought to light and discussed from a Biblical perspective. Through sermons and Sunday School a person should be able to get a pretty good idea of what basic Christianity is all about.
Finally, the church gives us a mission. We can have an impact on our community and our world that we couldn't have by ourselves. For every dollar you put in the offering plate, a portion goes to missionaries in other countries. André Jean is running a church sponsored school with 700 kids in Haiti. It is the poorest country in our part of the world, but we are having an impact there. Small evangelical churches are being built around the country, and they are filled to overflowing. With only one exception, none of us has been to Haiti. Maybe we never will. But we are making an impact there because we are gathered together here.
By being here, do you feel you are part of something important? Maybe you don't. (Church not important or you're not a part; do something about your level of commitment)
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Single source CHM, PDF, DOC and HTML Help creation