Church Sermon - October 10, 2004

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Amos 6:1-7
Gospel Lesson; Luke 16:19-31
Sermon Text; 1 Timothy 6:6-16

If you were a mouse, and you had some little children mice, and it was your job to teach those little children mice, what would you teach those little children mice about peanut butter and cheese? Would you teach them that peanut butter and cheese are awesome things? Would you teach them that whenever you see peanut butter and cheese, you should make sure to eat them? Would you teach them that peanut butter and cheese are things we need to stay alive, so go after the peanut butter and cheese? Would you teach your little children mice that?

On the other hand, would you teach your children mice that peanut butter and cheese are terrible? Would you teach them that peanut butter and cheese are very dangerous? Would you tell them to never eat peanut butter and cheese, because you could get caught in a trap and then you would die? Is that what you would teach your little children mice?

I think that a parent mouse would want to teach their little children mice, "Peanut butter and cheese are wonderful gifts. They are food. We need those things to stay alive. But, little child mouse, you need to know that peanut butter and cheese can also be bait. They can be used as bait. If you are not careful, if you are not careful, you can wander into a trap. That trap can snap on you and you could lose your life."

Now, what about human parents teaching children about money? As a human parent, would you teach your child that money is an awesome thing? "It is a wonderful thing! Possessions are awesome! We want to go for all the money and all of the possessions that we can! Let’s go for it!" Would that be a safe thing to teach your children?

Or, would it be a safe thing to teach your children that money is awful, sinful, and possessions are wrong? "We don’t want to ever go after those things, because they can be deadly to our soul. We could fall into a trap and lose our spiritual life."

No, that is not what we would want to teach our children about money and possessions. We want to teach our children:

Money and possessions

are an awesome gift

from God.

We need those things. We need money, so that we can buy food to stay alive. We need money, so that we can buy clothes and shelter. We need money, so that we can give it to the work of the church. Those are wonderful blessings that God has given to us.

But, our scripture reading for today also tells us that we need to be careful. It talks about a trap that you can fall into. It can take your life. Literally, it can take your spiritual life away.

And, what is the bait for the trap? Sometimes the bait that Satan puts on that trap is money and possessions. Now in and of themselves, money and possessions are not bad things. But, it is our attitude toward money and possessions that we need to be very careful about, because if we have the wrong attitude toward money and possessions, we can wander toward that trap, sniff, nibble a bit, and start to eat. And all of a sudden, that trap comes down on us and we have lost our life, spiritually.

Our scripture reading says, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap, and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs."

God, who loves us dearly, gives us a huge warning, here in our scripture reading. The warning is to watch your attitude. Watch your attitude toward money. Don’t love money and possessions.

We live in a society where that bait is all over the place, literally all over the place. Satan is laying the bait out, with all kinds of wealth, possessions, and all kinds of things. He is trying to pull us toward a love of money and possessions.

In three different ways Satan tries to use money and possessions to bait us away from Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that ultimately the trap snaps, we lose our faith in Christ, and then we lose our life spiritually.

Let us look at each of those three, just a little bit. One of the ways that Satan tries to bait us with money is to try to get us preoccupied with money and possessions. A number of years ago, when I was at a different church, I was talking to a youth group. I asked the youth, "What is your goal in life, when you are an adult? What is the main thing that you would like to accomplish?"

The hand of one of the young men shot up, so I asked him, "What is your goal?"

He said, "I want to be rich."

I looked at him, a little bit funny, so he asked me, "What, Pastor? It is not a sin to be rich, is it?"

And, that is true. It is not a sin to be rich. But, this passage says,

"Some people,

eager for money,

have wandered from the faith."

What can happen, when we are eager to become rich, eager for possessions? We can become preoccupied. I wonder how many times it has happened, in the history of the world, where someone grew up believing in Jesus as his or her Savior. They trusted in Jesus. They knew He was their Savior. They knew He forgave their sins. They believed in Him. But as they grew, and entered into adulthood, they said, "You know, I would like to have a lot of possessions. I would like to be as well off as my parents, if not better." What does that mean? That means, "I am going to have to get a second job, so I can buy possessions."

That second job means that for a while "I am not going to be able to go to church. So, I will have to miss church, for a while."

Once I get those possessions, "Well, now that I have that boat, I am going to have to use it on Sundays, because there is no other time that I can use it. And, now that I have the home up at the lake, I am going to have to go up there on the weekends, because that is the only time that I can be gone."

Eventually, we become so preoccupied with our money and our possessions, (as well as gaining more money and possessions), that we fall away from the use of Word and Sacraments. Those are the tools that the Holy Spirit uses to keep us in our faith. If we fall away from the use of Word and Sacrament, eventually our faith grows weaker, and weaker, and weaker. And then, that trap could snap. We could lose our spiritual life and not even know it.

The second way that Satan uses money and possessions, as bait to trap us is to get us to feel secure. I wonder how many times, in the history of the world, people have had plenty of possessions, such as a nice house to live in, nice cars to drive, and other wonderful things and felt really secure. How often have people really felt like, "I don’t need Jesus. I don’t need God. I don’t need my faith, because I have what I need."

So, the trap is snapped, their faith in Christ has gone away, and they have died spiritually.

There was once a young lady who grew up in a wealthy home. Her mother bought her everything that she wanted. She bought her beautiful clothes and jewelry. She took her to all of the social gatherings. And, her mother did all that money could buy.

One day that girl was in a terrible car accident, and ended up in the hospital. She was only going to live for a very brief time. Her mother raced down to the hospital, and ran into the room where her daughter was, to see her daughter for one last time.

Her daughter looked at her mom and said, "Mom. You taught me how to spend money. You taught me how to wear jewelry. You taught me how to go to all of the fine social functions. But, Mom, you never taught me how to die."

You see, they had become complacent. There was no room for faith in Jesus Christ. Satan can use money, as a bait to get us to feel secure.

The other way that Satan can use money as bait is to get us to fall into some other sin, which can cause us to despair. That happened to Judas. Judas had a love of money. For thirty stinking pieces of silver, he did something awful. He betrayed Jesus. When Judas did that, he realized that he had done something awful. He became remorseful. He threw that filthy money back into the temple. But, he knew that he could not undo what had happened. He knew that Jesus was going to lose His life, because of his stinking love of money. What did Judas do? Judas went out and hung himself. He did not believe that God could love him anymore, and forgive him. And, that awful trap snapped, and he lost eternal life. He lost his eternal life, because of what that bait of money had done.

So our scripture warns us. It warns us about our attitude toward money. As we sit here, we may think to ourselves, "I don’t have a love of money. I don’t have some eagerness to get rich. I don’t have anything to be worried about."

But I want you to think about something. You remember the young man, the young, rich man who came to Jesus? The Bible tells us that Jesus’ heart went out to that young man. He loved that young man. This young man thought that he could get to Heaven by doing good deeds. So he asked Jesus, "How can I inherit the Kingdom of Heaven?"

Jesus, knowing that this young thought that he would get to Heaven by doing good deeds, played along with the young man and said, "You know the commandments. Honor your father and mother. Don’t kill. Don’t steal. Don’t bear false witness against your neighbor."

The young man looked at Jesus and said, "Well, Jesus, I have kept all of those." In other words, "I have been perfect. So, does that mean that I am going to go to Heaven?"

Jesus looked at the young man and said, "There is just one thing that you lack. Just one thing. Go and sell everything that you have, and give it to poor. And then come and follow me."

The Bible says that young man went away very sad, because he had great riches. Jesus really got to the heart and core of something. What He was showing that young man was that he was not perfect. He had broken the very First Commandment, which says, "You shall have no other Gods." That young man loved his wealth, more than he loved Jesus, more than he loved God. He couldn’t get to Heaven by being perfect.

Now, if Jesus were to stand up here today and say to you, "Go and sell everything that you have. Give it to the poor and come and follow me." What would go on in your heart? We all know that our sinful nature would struggle with that.

Our sinful nature would say, "You mean, Jesus, that I have to give up my nice home that I have worked so hard for, that I am so happy with? You mean that those cars that I have worked on so much, and are so dear to me, that I need to give those up? You mean that I need to liquidate my savings account and give it to the poor? I have been trusting on that for my security. You want me to give those all up and follow you?"

We all have to admit that we have sinful nature, a sinful nature that often finds its comfort, its security, its peace, its rest, its contentment in the possessions and things of this life. And, we all deserve, because of that, because God has not always been number one in our lives, to be condemned for all eternity. That is why we need Jesus more than anything else in the world, more than any money, any possession, because only Jesus can save us for all eternity, from our sins.

And, think how much Jesus loves us! What an awesome Savior we have! Think about a mouse going into a trap and that trap snapping. That mouse loses its life. Jesus left His throne in Heaven and became one of us. He became a human being. He took our sins, as if they were His own. In a sense, He went into the trap that we deserved to go into. It snapped on Him. And, Jesus lost His life, on the cross, on the cross, as your substitute, in payment for your sins. He loved you so dearly! All of your sins were paid for, when Jesus died. He died. Your sins are forgiven. They are gone. God will never hold them against us, again. God sees us, for Jesus’ sake, as if we are holy, perfect people, even though we are not. Eternal life is ours, because of what Jesus did!

He is the greatest need that we have. It far surpasses anything else in this life. That is why St. Paul says to Timothy, "Flee from all this, (talking about the love of money, eagerness to get rich, and eagerness for possessions) and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called."

There is nothing more important, even by a long shot, than the eternal life that Jesus gives us.

And so, we go to the beginning of our scripture reading, which says,

"Godliness

with contentment

is great gain."

And then it says why.

"For we brought nothing into the world,

and we can take nothing out of it."

A Christian is someone who understands, "I am in this for the long term. I am in this not for the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty, or ninety years. I am in this for eternity. And the next ninety years, will be but a brief moment and then they will be gone. Then comes eternity."

When considering how we came into this world, when we were born, Job says,

"Naked I come into this world,

and naked I leave."

I didn’t bring a penny with me, not a stitch of clothes, not a possession. And on the day I die, I won’t be able to take a penny with me, nor a possession I have. They are only here for a brief time. Eternity is far more important.

The scripture reading goes on and says, "But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." Why am I still here, as a Christian? I am here for one reason. One reason. I am here to live for my Savior and spread the faith of Jesus Christ. What earthly possessions do I need to live for my Savior and spread the faith in Jesus Christ? The only things that I need are food and clothes. That keeps me alive. That is all I need. That keeps me alive so I can go about my business of telling the Good News

And so a Christian says, "If I have food, and I have clothing, I will be content. That’s all I need. Anything above and beyond that is simply a wonderful gift from God, to be used in His service."

And so, how true it is our scripture reading says, "Godliness with contentment is great gain."

These are your words Heavenly Father. We thank you and praise you that you have given us Jesus. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

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