0:07 Uh if we could turn to 1 Corinthians 10. I just want to open with this verse that has been on my mind. In verse 31. It says, "Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God." 0:25 And I've been thinking about what we do. Are we doing it for the glory of God? I wanted to share this morning just a little bit um about a sermon that had a large impact on my life. This would be over 20 years ago. In fact, some of you who 0:41 um who know me and have heard part of my testimony know that as the Lord was calling me out of uh the Baptist at the time, uh the Lord had provided a sermon that had really spoken to my life very, very strongly. Um this was a sermon that was preached back 1:00 in 1965 and some of you may have heard it. It was called 10 Shekels and a Shirt. And the preacher's name was Paris Reidhead who had shared this. And there was a point in my uh as part of my testimony, there was a point in my life 1:16 where uh for the first 20 years or so of my life, I was brought up in the Baptist and then um when I was 21, I was uh then involved with CFSC, but there was a little gap of time in my life that the Lord had to bridge a gap 1:34 there. And he used this sermon to um to bridge that gap as I was searching for God's will in my life. I had met some people who had said, "Hey, why don't you listen to Zac Poonen?" And I said, "Sure, where where's he a pastor at? What what church is he part 1:52 of?" You know, I was thinking, "Oh, he was some man in the Baptist." And they said, "No, no, it is not Baptist and I said oh, I don't know if I could listen to him and then they said um now you if if you listen to him you're 2:06 going to have to get over the fact that you're not hearing from the King James. And I couldn't get over that fact. It just was something that wasn't going to happen back then. So the Lord had provided something else being the sermon that I 2:20 had heard. um And they said okay, why don't you listen to this sermon instead and it was this 10 shekels and a shirt and I didn't know what the reference was. And um it was from the book of Judges and often I think when we think of the 2:36 book of Judges we probably think of maybe Samson or Gideon maybe the story of Deborah or Jephthah one of those more popular stories but um or maybe even that story at the end with the tribe of Benjamin terrible situation where they had nearly 2:55 been wiped out. But there's this one story that appears that I didn't give it much thought um as I was growing up when I had read this story it was just kind of a strange story and it's from chapter 17 and 18 um and that and that's where the the title 3:12 of the sermon had come from 10 shekels and a shirt. It's the story that we'll read it here in just a moment. um It I think it greatly describes the the time period of the book of Judges. The very last verse in Judges says that everyone did 3:29 that which was right in their own eyes. And I think this story more or less um I would say that that it explains it explains that theme of doing what was right in our own eyes. And so let's look at that story as we get into this this 3:44 morning. In Judges chapter 17 and I believe it's just as important today I hear this and we read this as it was years ago when I had first heard this sermon. And I'll tell you when I first listened to it, I knew the Lord was speaking to me, but 4:03 I wasn't quite getting it. I wasn't quite understanding. And I had to keep listening to it over and over again. And perhaps maybe by the 20th time I listened to it, the Lord finally uh it was finally sinking in. I was finally understanding uh what the 4:18 Lord was was trying to speak to me in my in my life. And um And so we'll read I'm going to I'm going to read quite a bit from Judges 17 and 18 here just so that we read this story. It may not be familiar to all of you. Uh but let's read it and we'll we'll see 4:34 what uh what it says here. Judges 17:1 It says, "And there was a man of Mount Ephraim whose name was Micah. And he said unto his mother, the 1,100 shekels of silver that were taken from you, about which you cursed and spake of also 4:48 in my ears, behold, the silver is with me. I took it." And his mother said, "Blessed be thou of the Lord, my son." And when he had restored the 1,100 shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, "I had wholly dedicated the 5:01 silver uh unto the Lord from my hand for my son to make a graven image and a molten image. Now therefore, I will restore it unto thee." Yet he restored the money unto his mother, and his mother took 200 shekels of silver and gave them to the founder 5:18 who made thereof a graven image and a molten image. And they were in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had a house of gods and made an ephod and a teraphim and consecrated one of his sons to become his priest. In those days there was no king in 5:32 Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And there was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah of the family of Judah who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehem Judah to sojourn 5:44 where he could find a place. And he came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah as he journeyed. And Micah said unto him, "Whence comest thou?" And he said unto him, "I am a Levite of Bethlehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a 5:56 place." And Micah said unto him, "Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give you 10 shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals." So the Levite went in, and the Levite 6:08 was content to dwell with the man. And the young man was unto him as one of his sons. And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest as and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, "Now I know that the 6:20 Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest." So before we get into the 18th chapter, if we just summarized what was happening here, um this man Micah, his mother had these goods that were stolen from her, the silver, and she cursed the 6:37 person who did who stole it. But when she found out that it was her son, she said, "Okay, you're blessed." It's kind of it's like it's okay now because you took it. Um and she said, "Blessed are you of the Lord, my son." She said, "Now, you'll 6:53 see here what's happening is that uh what Micah is setting up is he's setting up something that kind of looks like the temple, something that looks like the tabernacle. And uh but it's all it's all a farce. It's all, you know, they're they're making 7:10 graven images here, and um when Micah returns it, she says, "I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord." For what purpose? To make a graven image and a molten image. It was all heresy. It was all apostasy. It was nothing 7:24 nothing righteous about this, but yet this was the plan with the money, and this is what um Micah had Micah and his mother had planned. And so they make the images, and uh it says in verse five that Micah had a house of gods. 7:41 Again, evil, uh effort and teraphim, the images. Um and he uh and then you know, comes this young Levite who comes along and he says he's just he's wandering and he's looking for a place to to dwell and Micah says, "Why don't 7:59 you come with me?" And the deal is that he'll give him 10 shekels and a shirt. Says a suit of apparel, but that it's a shirt. And um and the Levite was content to dwell with Micah as as the Bible says. And Micah was like a father to him and the Levite 8:17 was like one of his sons. And the part that got me probably the first time I had really stopped and thought about this was this very last verse in verse 13. It says, "Now I know the Lord will do me good because I have a Levite to my priest." 8:35 And that was the part that I kept coming back to was thinking, "Wow, all that all this craziness and chaos that's going on here. This the false images and Micah thinks the Lord's going to do him good because he's got a priest and 8:52 he's consecrating these things to the Lord, but of course all of this was false. And so let's continue on in chapter 18 and we'll see about the rest of this this story here. And remember in verse 6 it says there was no king in Israel. Every man did 9:08 that which was right in his own eyes. And then it reminds us again as we open here in 18 verse 1 it says, "In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to 9:20 dwell in. For unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel. And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coast, men of valor from Zorah and from Eshtaol to spy 9:32 out the land and search it. And they said unto them, "Go search the land." Who when they came to Mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there. When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the 9:43 Levite, and they turned in hither, and said unto him, Who brought you hither, and what makest thou in this place, and what hast thou here? And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I 9:55 am his priest. And they said unto him, Ask counsel, we pray you, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous. And the priest said unto them, Go in peace, for the Lord is your way wherein you go. 10:10 And we could jump down to verse 13 now. And they passed thence into Mount Ephraim, and came unto the house of Micah. Then answered the five men that went to spy out the country of Laish, and said unto their brethren, Do you know that 10:21 there is in these houses an ephod and teraphim, and a graven image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do. And they turned thither, and went to the house of the young man the Levite, even unto the house of Micah, and saluted 10:31 him. And the 600 men appointed with their weapons of war, which were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate. And the five men that went to spy out the land went up and came in thither, and took the graven image, and 10:44 the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the 600 men that were appointed with weapons of war. And these went into Micah's house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod and 10:55 the teraphim, and the molten image. Then they said unto the priest, What do you? And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. It is better for you to be a 11:07 priest unto the house of one man, or that you be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel. And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod and the teraphim and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people. 11:19 So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them. And when they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the 11:29 children of Dan. And they cried unto the children of Dan, and they turned their faces and said unto Micah, "What ails you and that you come with such a company?" And he said, "You have taken away my gods which I made and the 11:41 priest, and you are gone away, and what have I more? And what is this that you say to me, what ails me?" And the children of Dan said unto him, "Do not let your voice be heard among us, lest angry people run upon you and 11:53 you lose your life with the lives of your household." And the children of Dan went their way, and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house. And they took the things which Micah had 12:04 made and the priest which he had and came unto Laish and to her people that were at quiet and secure, and they smote them with the edge of the sword and burnt the city with fire. And there was no deliverer because it was far from Zidon, and they had no 12:17 business with any man, and it was in the valley that lied by Beth-rehob. And they built a city and dwelt therein, and they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel. Howbeit the name of 12:28 the city was Laish at the first. And the children of Dan set up on the graven image, and Jonathan the son of Gershom the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. 12:39 And they set them up Micah's graven image, which he had made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. So, there's the full story of what happened there. So, we chapter 17 had ended with the Levite becoming the priest to Micah. 12:56 And now, if we just summarize chapter 18, the tribe of Dan um they were they couldn't overcome the the Amorites, so the tribe of Dan stumbles upon Micah's house, and they said to their their comrades, they said, "Did you not Did you know that there was 13:14 these graven images and there's a priest here?" And they come and question the Levite, and they say, "Is it better for you to be a priest to just this one man, Micah? Isn't it better to be a priest to the entire tribe of Dan and you could be a 13:30 father to us. You could serve us rather than just one person. And um and it says in verse 20, it says the priest's heart was glad and he was glad that he said this made sense to him that he could he could be a priest and he could have a 13:46 larger ministry and he could um he could minister to so many more people. And so he goes off with them and Micah being angry goes after them and says uh what you know, why'd you do this and they said don't get angry with us or 14:01 we'll kill you. And the tribe of Dan takes takes off with the priest. They burn down a city, they rename it and there they set up those same graven images and um and they were ministering to the him and his sons were ministering and 14:19 says until the captivity of the land. They set up this um this false tabernacle if you would, this false place of worship. And meanwhile, of course it says in Shiloh that's where the house of God was. That's where the real worship was but 14:36 um uh but they decided to have their own their own thing going. And so this story as I mentioned had an enormous impact in my life some years ago because I it it brought me to a realization what 14:55 was going on here is that people were just uh even in my own life, people myself, we were serving in the name of God. We were doing things in the name of God. We we had ministry in the name of God. We had church in the name of God. 15:10 um but it wasn't serving God himself. It was there was something more that uh that was happening behind the scenes. There were the more something more core to it than just I'm going to serve God. Um you look at the Levite and he was just a 15:28 man looking for a place of recognition. He was looking for a place to serve where he could be accepted. Um and the values that he held so dear to him, he found a place and now Micah could provide that place for him. And there was a reference in the sermon 15:46 that um I um I'll probably mention more than one uh where they say that the core deception of what was happening here was the spirit of humanism. And he says humanism is the end of all being is the happiness of man. And so what we 16:02 really what we see here when people are doing what's right in their own eyes is we just see um you know, what what makes Micah happy? What makes the Levite happy? What makes his mother happy? What makes the tribe of Dan happy? And 16:17 everything that's being done is just for each individ- individual's joy and um what's going to what's going to what are we going to get out of it? What is um Micah going to get out of it? He's he's going to be happy if he gets the 16:32 Levite. The Levite's going to be happy if he gets a place to serve. The tribe of Dan, they're going to be happy if they could get a Levite. They're going to be happy if they could have another place to worship. None of it is for God, keep in mind. But it's 16:44 all in how they perceive their uh their their calling in life if you if you want to call it that. And so how does this apply to us even for myself today? Um do I just want a place for my children to have friends? You know, I 17:03 hear that with people they they say come join this church because it's got a good children's ministry. Come join over here it's got a good brothers uh Bible study, whatever it may be. Um and you know, we I I hear this all the time where people 17:20 say, "I've I'm so happy at this church." And again, you know, they they kind of make excuses. Well, you know, the joy love, joy, peace, you know, this is part of the fruit of the spirit is being happy and being joyful and having all these 17:34 blessings from the Lord. And I think you know, we can come to church on Sunday. We could join the midweek meetings. Um we could hear good sermons. But is it just to be happy? Is it just to hear, "Okay, this is a good sermon. 17:48 Now I feel spiritual." Um I- if this is your if this is your attitude to just be like Micah and whatever I whatever the cost is, I want I want the Lord to do something good in my life. I mean, God has nothing to do with that. 18:04 If all you're get all all you're doing is going to God and saying, "Well, I just want to be I want to be successful. I know the Lord's going to do something good for me because God's going to honor me and I want to do this because I'm going to get 18:17 something out of it." And I think back in my life, you know, I was I grew up uh you would say a fundamentalist conservative Baptist in my upbringing. And I remember at the at the young age, even as some of the teenagers here, cuz 18:35 they start you very early, um knocking on doors and such. And I remember it'd be a freezing day outside and you'd be knocking on doors until our hands were so cold and our our knuckles were frozen. But we but we wanted to tell 18:49 people about the Lord. And it seems like such a great thing is to tell people about the Lord. But the motive behind it was I wanted to tell people, "Look, this is how you get to go to heaven." And so um and so the message that I would give 19:04 back then is and maybe some of you have heard this uh it's called the Romans Road. And so I'd knock on doors and I'd say, "Hey, don't you want go to heaven? Can I tell you about Can I tell you about Jesus? Because this is what Jesus can do for 19:17 you. Jesus can take you to heaven." And I would say Romans 3:10, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one." And Romans 3:23, "We've all come short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23, Romans 5:8, Romans 10:9, Romans 10:13. You 19:32 know, we go through Romans and we have this set of passages because, you know, after all, who doesn't want to go to heaven? You don't want to go to hell, you want to go to heaven. And um And the Lord And for years I was doing 19:48 this. For years I was I would knock on doors and tell people And I'd say, "Okay, now come to church, get baptized because the Lord has all these riches in store for you. Look at all these blessings. You know, he that overcomes inherits all things. See, the 20:03 Lord has everything planned for you. He has all these good things in store for you." You know, you the verses of you know, we we can't even imagine what God has in store for us from Ephesians, right? And And so this was the message that was 20:17 coming across. Um It was you know It's like what What are we going to get? What is that something we're going to get out of God? Not what not not about following the Lord. See, we would tell people to follow the Lord, but it was because we could go to 20:35 heaven. We would tell people to follow the Lord it was because the Lord will give us victory. The Lord will give us new a new life. I think other Christians perhaps might say, and I I realized this as as a young man, and I realized this 20:55 even now, other Christians might say And that the sermon references this, that if you're a conservative Christian, you might say, "Well, you're going to suffer while you're alive. You're going to have all these hardships. Look at what Paul said, you 21:08 know, we we have a lot of tribulation to go through before we enter in into the his kingdom. And so you might say that we'll have a hard time while we are alive. But when we die, we're going to be happy because we're going to be in heaven. 21:22 The other side, there's other Christians that would say, "Well, the Bible doesn't talk a whole lot about heaven. We don't really know that much about it. There's some passages, but we don't know a whole lot. But what we will say is that you could 21:33 be happy right now. And if you listen to both of those, one is you're going to be happy when you die. The other one says, "You're going to be happy when you're alive." And both of those things lead to our happiness, not God's glory. 21:53 And so it's a very subtle thing that I had to come to realize in my life was, "Why am I Why am I knocking on doors? Why am I telling people to get baptized? Why am I sharing the word? Why Why this ministry? Why that ministry? Why do we 22:06 meet on Sunday?" You know, it really it really started getting to me thinking, "What is What What was I doing with with the Lord? And um And after a while, you realize and and there's a there's a part in this sermon where he says, "It's not after long that 22:25 God reigns in heaven for the happiness of man. And Jesus Christ was incarnate for the happiness of man. And all the angels exist in the whole universe for the happiness of men." Because the message that is in our minds is what what is God going to do for us? 22:41 Not about the glory that we're going to give to him, but what God's going to do for us. So, I think that as I was realizing this, it was sort of like uh sort of like Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 when he has that revelation. In a small 22:58 way, it was like that where I realized how wicked that thinking was and how wicked it is to say, "Well, I'm going to study the Bible because I want something out of it." Not to be a blessing to others. We hear that often about being a blessing to 23:12 others. Now, the Lord has since radically changed my mind and how I approach the scriptures. But, I remember this that this attitude that we must have that Jesus had. If you turn to John chapter 8, if Jesus can say this, 23:33 being the only begotten Son of God, this should certainly be true for each for each one of us. In John chapter 8, verse 28, it says, "Jesus said unto them, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know that I am he." 23:51 And and this is what I'm getting at right here, that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things. See, if Jesus could say, "I do nothing of myself." We know he came to do the will of the Father. 24:04 He didn't come to do his own will. And even then, here, he can do nothing of myself. This is the attitude that we must have um in in relation to what we are doing with the truth that the Lord reveals to us. The point of coming to the cross isn't 24:25 so that we just have joy and victory. I believe those are promises of those are tremendous promises of scripture. Um again, you read that as part of the part of the fruit of the Spirit. We read that as part of a wonderful uh promise in 1 John chapter 24:40 5 that faith is the victory that overcomes the world. In John 16, um you know, Jesus says, "Fear not because I've overcome the world." These are promises, but it's not it's not the most root thing. That's a it's a byproduct of 24:56 of something else. It's not I'm going to go to heaven because I believe in Jesus and I've asked him into my heart and I'm following him in baptism. There's something more root rudimentary than that. Even heaven knows that there's 25:09 something more more foundational than going to heaven. The turn to Revelation chapter 5 and you'll see what I mean. We see in Revelation chapter 5 verse 12. 25:32 I believe this is much more foundational than even receiving victory, receiving joy, receiving any of the wonderful promises that we read of. Verse 12 it says, "Saying with a loud voice uh this is all the angels around the 25:45 throne and such and the the elders that we read about. It says, "Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven 25:57 and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them I heard saying, "Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever." 26:09 I think that's the foundation right there. I think victory and joy, heaven, all of those things comes out of this right here is giving glory to the Lord. If you turn to John 17 we read this 26:29 passage from the Lord. This is the night that he was betrayed and he prays to the Father. John 17 verse 1 26:49 the very first thing that he says here as he starts to pray he says, "Father, the hour is come. Glorify your son. Why? So that your son may also glorify you." That's the point of the Lord doing what he's doing in our lives, is that we can any glory that may 27:08 come our way, we turn around and we glorify the Father with that glory. Look down on verse 4. This is again the calling in our life, the same as the Lord. "I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you gave 27:26 me to do." That should be the testimony, that should be the goal. Not thinking, "Okay, Lord, you have to honor me. You have to do something for me. I worked so hard in studying. I worked so hard on this word that I've given 27:39 and I've tried to teach people." You know, we read about that in Matthew, teaching people in the streets and saying, "Lord, Lord." Not about any of that. It's about glorifying the Lord while we're while we're here on earth. 27:53 And even as we say, "Why do we seek the filling of the Holy Spirit? What are we trying to get out of the filling of the Holy Spirit?" We pray that prayer so often. And I don't think any of us I I I hope none of us here are guilty of this, but if 28:09 you look in Acts chapter 8, I've thought about this as as a caution as we pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit. You read about this uh this 28:30 uh Philip in verse 5, he went down to the to a city in Samaria. And they come across this man, Simon. In verse 9, he was bewitching people and um if they they thought verse 10 that this man had the great power of God. 28:48 And you get down to verse 13 after Philip is preaching the the kingdom of God and look at look at this. Simon himself believed also. So a miraculous transformation that happened there that Simon had believed. Uh and he was even baptized. He 29:06 continued with Philip verse 13 and wondered beholding the miracles and signs which were done. So the Lord had begun to do something there, had begun to do something with this man, Simon. Uh and it says that uh verse 14, when 29:20 the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John who, when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen 29:30 upon none of them. Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was 29:42 given, he offered them money. Saying, "Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost." But Peter said unto him, "Your money perishes with you because you thought that the gift of God 29:54 may be purchased with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent of your wickedness and pray to God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 30:06 For I perceive that you're in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." Then answered Simon and said, "Pray to the Lord for me that none of these things which have uh which you spoke of come upon me." And I mentioned this in relation to again 30:23 even us as we pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit, why do we do that? And if there's any I I really believe this, if there's any part of that that want and that desire as as Simon had, if there's any part of that as we 30:38 pray for the Holy Ghost, I believe we're just as guilty as Simon. I mean that. I think we're just as guilty as him if we're just looking for some power from God, something to um something that we think, okay, I'm going to Now I'm going to do it. Now I'm going 30:53 to have a ministry. Now I'm I'm going to lay hands on people and I'm going to be something and getting a name for ourselves. And that's what I mean. None of this None of this ministry None of this truth that we hear it's not 31:05 it's not so that we say at the end of it, okay, look, the Lord's going to do me good. And again, I told you that's the part that got to me in that sermon was thinking about that that even in this in the in the middle of this false religion, this false 31:18 temple that was built that this man had the audacity to say, The Lord's going to do something very good for me now. I'll read a small portion of this story of this sermon. It's at the very end of it as he's 31:37 explaining I just want to read this little bit um about the the purpose of why we why we do what we do, why we serve the Lord. Um he is talking about the repenting of this and of all being is 31:56 the happiness of man and seeing people come to the Lord and he's talking about these things and he starts to mention this story that I'm going to read here. Um um It says, Two young Moravians heard of an island in the West Indies where an 32:12 atheist British owner had 2,000 to 3,000 slaves. And the owner had said, No preacher, no clergyman will ever stay on this island. If he's shipwrecked, we'll keep him in a separate house until he has to leave, but he's never going to talk to any of 32:24 us about God. I'm through with all that nonsense. 3,000 slaves from the jungles of Africa brought to an island in the Atlantic and there to live and die without hearing of Christ. In the late 1700s, a British planter owned an entire island in the West 32:39 Indies off the coast of South America. Several thousand slaves toiled in the sugarcane fields under the burning sun. The atheist planter vowed that no missionary would ever set foot on the island to talk about God. 3,000 slaves 32:51 were doomed to live and die without hearing of Christ. Two young Germans in their 20s from the Moravian sect heard about their plight. And this is what they did here. They sold themselves to the British planter for the standard price for a male slave 33:05 and used the money they received for their sale to purchase passage to the West Indies. The miserly atheist planter would not even transport them. The Moravian community from Herrnhut came to see the two lads off who would never return again having 33:20 freely sold themselves into a lifetime of slavery. As a member of the slave community, they would witness as Christians to the love of God. Family members were emotional. They were weeping. Was their extreme sacrifice wise? Was it 33:34 necessary? As the ship slipped away with the tide and the gap widened, the housings had been cast off and were curled up on the pier. The young men saw the widening gap. They linked arms, raised their hands, and shouted across the spreading gap, "May 33:49 the lamb that was received that was slain receive the reward of his suffering." And this became the call of Moravian missions. And this is our only reason for being that the lamb that was slain may receive the reward of his suffering. 34:03 You know, most people when they would hear of perhaps this island with 3,000 slaves, they would say, "But they don't have a chance to get to heaven." I believe a lot of people in Christianity would say that. A lot of people would say, "We have to tell them 34:16 because they don't want to I don't want them to go to hell." And it's a human sympathy. But the core reason why these guys went was because of what we read before in Revelation 5. They knew that it was about God's glory. They knew 34:32 that it was because Jesus Christ was worthy. He was the lamb who was slain. He's worthy. They will suffer for him. It wasn't about anything that they were going to get out of it. I mean, what were they going to get out of it? 34:46 They sold themselves into slavery. And I don't know that the Lord has called any of us to do that, but um but most I I believe most people that just have a human human understanding or think that they're doing something 35:01 good for God would say, "Well, we have to get them to heaven. We have to do something for them." But yet, these guys said, "No." They knew They knew what they were doing. They knew that they would never return again. Moravians had a powerful ministry if you 35:15 have read any um any of their missionary stories, any of their any of their books, um any stories about them. It's really amazing. And again, this was their call. Just simply that God would get glory. That's why I take you back to the that 35:30 first passage passage that I showed you. Whatever we do, do to the glory of God. Don't think of it as anything that we're going to get out of God. Don't think of it as anything that is going to empower our ministry here at River of Life. 35:42 Don't think of it as anything that as Micah and the tribe of Dan, the Levites, those people that we read about they were going to conjure up something for the Lord and now the Lord had to honor them. It was about the Lord receiving glory 35:56 and may that be true in our lives as well. Amen.
