Sermon Tone Analysis

A Theology of Wealth

Deuteronomy 8:18

 

You must remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who gives ability to get wealth; if you do this he will confirm his covenant that he made by oath to your ancestors, even as he has to this day.[1],

[2]

 

Events leading to the commitment of my life to Christ included an experience that made a lasting impact on my life.

Whilst engaged in a move from New York City, a trailer containing all our furnishings crashed onto the Washington Beltway, near Oxen Hill, Maryland.

The trailer hitch broke and released the trailer, destroying all our furniture, except for a baby crib.

I was forced to rent a truck to haul the junked furniture so that I would be able to file an insurance claim and recoup at least a little money.

When lying flat on one’s back, there is really only one direction to look, and that is up.

In the interim, we settled in South Houston, Texas, where I obtained work with a construction crew making additions at the Ethyl Corporation on the Texas Ship Channel.

While in Houston, Lynda and I accepted an invitation to attend a revival service at the Pasadena Boulevard Baptist Church in Pasadena.

During that service, Lynda was converted to Christ and I was deeply moved to consider the Faith of Christ the Lord.

In the weeks following Lynda’s conversion, I began to read the Bible seeking peace.

I began reading through the Bible for the first time, and while reading the Book of Ecclesiastes, I read these words, Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in the” [*Ecclesiastes 12:1*].

Those words haunted me; I could not escape them.

During that same week, I received a settlement from the insurance company for the furniture that had been destroyed.

The amount I received was nine hundred dollars.

In 1970, that was a sizeable sum of money for our family, and the more so when one considers that as a graduate student at the Einstein College of Medicine I had received a stipend amounting to $125 per month.

The question weighed on our minds of what we should do with all that money.

Of course, we wanted to replace our furniture, but we knew that we had a series of moves facing us in the immediate future.

I would soon be initiating graduate studies at the University of Texas Health Science Centre in Dallas, and following that, we anticipated moves as I pursued postgraduate studies.

Though I did not really know God, I knew there was a God and I knew that He was worthy of worship; He deserved my best efforts.

Upon consideration, Lynda and I agreed that we would give the entire cheque to the church, and the next Sunday I placed in the offering plate that cheque for $900.

When the average salary was not much more than $1,000 per month, the gift caused more of a stir than I might have imagined.

I received a visit from the Pastor early in the following week.

He was astonished and wondered if we had a special project in mind for such a sizeable gift.

We didn’t know about offering envelopes, nor did we understand how a church distributes the gifts given.

Therefore, when the Pastor asked how we wished the moneys used, we replied that we simply wanted to honour God.

Perhaps you consider our decision to be foolish, but I suggest that as beneficiaries of His grace we learning to worship.

Lynda had received new life, and any expression of gratitude was insufficient to pay for the stirrings in my heart and the life journey I had begun.

What we did, though we could not really understand it, was to acknowledge what to that point had been unacknowledged blessings from God.

The text states, you *shall* remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you *power* to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Reading that same command from the *NET Bible* provides a yet more literal translation.

You *must* remember the Lord your God, for he is the one who gives *ability *to get wealth; if you do this he will confirm his covenant that he made by oath to your ancestors, even as he has to this day.[3]

I am not suggesting that the latter translation is more accurate than the former, but the *NET Bible* seems more emphatic, in my estimate.

I consider that the English noun ability seems to convey more strongly the intent of God’s Word than does our English noun power.

Likewise, the English verb must seems more lively in my estimate than does the English verb shall.

I believe that we need to return to an attitude that takes seriously the commands of God and cease to treat Him as a kindly, though remote, grandfather.

Moses has delivered an imperative and not a suggestion.

There is attached to the admonition a promise, however.

This promise chosen for our message this day is reminiscent of another statement written by Solomon.

Honour the Lord with your possessions

and with the first produce of your entire harvest;

then your barns will be completely filled,

and your vats will overflow with new wine.

[*Proverbs 3:9, 10*] [4]

 

As Canadians, we are privileged to live in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, and we who reside in this Peace Region live in one of the richest regions of this blessed nation.

So soon after Christmas, there are perhaps some among us who doubt this statement, especially as Christmas bills come due; but remember that we actually had the ability to give gifts—expensive gifts that were not necessarily needed, but which were nonetheless desirable.

Wealth as our due has been commonly accepted in society throughout the lifespan of most of us sharing this service.

It is almost impossible to imagine living without enough money for our needs, even if our wants are unmet.

God has blessed us.

This wealth, this plenty that we enjoy, is not because we are strong and deserving.

Do we actually imagine that we deserve this grace more than do people living in the Sahel Region of Africa?

The Steppes of Ukraine are even richer than are the Prairies of Canada, and yet that nation is impoverished and barely able to feed its own people.

The potential mineral wealth of the Congo exceeds that of all Canada, and yet that nation seems mired in a perpetual civil war and the people live in abject poverty.

Surely, God has blessed us, though the most of our nation has forgotten who gives us the ability to get wealth.

Therefore, we need to remember the Lord who has blessed us.

During the days immediately following the catastrophic Asian tsunami, Canadians again proved their generosity, and I am not speaking of the moneys siphoned out of our pockets by coercive government social policy.

Canadians proved to be generous, despite the plundering of their earnings by parliamentarians intent on redistributing Canadian wealth.

God has blessed Canadians, in spite of our refusal to acknowledge His goodness.

We are Obligated to Remember the Lord our God — The text begins with the admonition to */remember/* the Lord God.

There are many truths we do well to remember.

A husband is well advised to remember his anniversary and his wife’s birthday.

Such events are important for a man to remember.

It is a good thing to remember assignments and responsibilities at work.

Bosses are pleased when we keep them from looking bad by fulfilling assigned tasks.

Similarly, it is a good thing to remember the Lord.

But what does it mean to remember the Lord our God?

Surely one cannot forget that God exists?

In order to answer this question, review the verses preceding our text.

Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.

Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth” [*Deuteronomy 8:11-17*].

To forget God, then, is to neglect His commandments, His rules and His statutes.

Forgetfulness results when people assume that it is by their own power and through their own abilities that the blessings enjoyed have been secured.

At first, those blessed by God appear to have drunk from the waters of Lethe, and then they enter a state of intellectual oblivion to the goodness of God.

At last, they begin to assume that their own abilities secure the blessings they enjoy.

They situate themselves at the centre of their own little universe, stealing from God the praise that is due His Name.

According to Scripture, this is the genesis of the present condition witnessed throughout contemporary society.

Paul reviewed society as it existed at that time, and we must conclude that he approximates society of this day.

Listen to how it all began.

Although [the people] knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!

Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonourable passions.

For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done [*Romans 1:21-28*].

The Apostle teaches us that failure to remember God and His goodness leads to a progressive amnesia that afflicts the one so affected with a form of spiritual Alzheimer Disease.

The afflicted individual demonstrates a progressively atrophied moral fibre and the conscience grows progressively dulled.

Ultimately, evil begins to reign among these moral pygmies because they have forgotten God’s goodness, and they not only do what displeases God, but they seek approval of their moral poverty.

The more they forget God, the more God surrenders them to the consequences of their actions.

This tragic condition, unfortunately, can afflict professing Christians to an astonishing degree, for it is possession of Christ and not mere profession of the Faith that transforms the soul.

Remembering God—keeping His commandments, His rules and His statutes—is the way we are taught to express our gratitude.

Think for a moment of how one expresses gratitude.

We express gratitude by saying “Thank you.”

Each cook appreciates thanks for preparing a fine meal.

As I prepared this message, I recalled an incident when Lynda had prepared a favourite dessert for our enjoyment, but I was distracted by the pressures of the day.

I forgot to say “Thank you.”

It took her two days to express her disappointment, but she was clearly disappointed that I had not been openly grateful.

She was right, and she was right to call me to account for my oversight.

Similarly, God expects us to express our gratitude for His goodness to us.