Scripture: Isaiah 55:1-2; John 6:24-27.
Text: "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not..." - Isaiah 55:2.
The Friday evening news on television had a story about a man who apparently did not know too much about the value of rabbits. He paid $500.00 apiece for seven rabbits to get started in the rabbit business, a total of $3,500.00, and wound up getting 64 cents a pound for the rabbit meat and with a bunch of rabbits on his hands probably worth only about three to five dollars apiece. He had been ripped off because he did not know the value of what he bought.
How much is the state of Alaska worth, with all of its forests, its oil fields, its rich deposits of gold, platinum, tin and other metals, its furs, fish and many other natural resources? Perhaps eighty percent of the salmon on grocery store shelves in the United States comes from Alaska. Billions of dollars worth of minerals and oil have been taken out of Alaska's storehouse of natural resources. Huge quantities of lumber and pulpwood have been produced by Alaska's forests. With an area twice the size of Texas, Alaska is a treasure chest of natural resources, an area of incomparable natural beauty, and a place of tremendous scientific and strategic importance. What is its value?
France sold Alaska to the United States in 1867 for $7,200,000.00. At the time, many Americans believed it to be worthless. It was referred to as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Frog Pond" since Secretary of State William H. Seward was the one who arranged for the purchase of it from France. Most Americans had little idea of its true worth.
How much is Manhattan Island, which makes up a large part of New York City, worth? It is the home of Wall Street, the Empire State Building, Broadway and the Rockefeller Center, and has a population of probably something over two million people.
The Manhattan Indians who owned the island many years ago apparently did not know much about the value of it. They sold the island to the colonists for some trinkets, beads and the like which had a value of around $24.00.
How much is a meal of bean soup or pottage and bread worth?
Esau, as the eldest son in the family, was in line to receive the major portion of the inheritance when his father, Isaac, passed on. Yet he valued a meal of pottage and bread so highly that he traded his birthright to his brother Jacob for it. Later he realized his great mistake, but it was too late to do anything much about it except regret it and shed a few tears because of it.
Back some years ago, when the ship, Titanic, hit an iceberg in the Atlantic and quickly sank, some of the passengers apparently lost their lives because they went back to their cabins to get their money and jewels rather than heading directly for the lifeboats.
How much is eternal life worth? Jesus raised the question as to what it would profit a person to gain the whole world if, in the gaining of it, he or she should lose his or her Immortal soul. Yet, you remember the story He told of the rich young ruler who turned away sorrowfully because he apparently valued worldly wealth more than he did eternal life.
A wrong sense of values has been one of the great problems of mankind down across the centuries of time. Placing the wrong value on things has brought more tragedy and heartache to people in every generation than can be described in words. It has resulted in irreparable loss and in the missing of great, and sometimes eternally valuable, opportunities that have never returned again.
Some of you may remember an experience John Hamilton related when he was with us in revival services last year. He told of coming home one day at noon and asking his wife if dinner was about ready. It was a few minutes before it was ready so he turned on the radio. A quiz show was on. The scores of the contestants were given. Then the MC said, "Now, this next question is worth 30 points. The one who answers it will go ahead of all the others."
A teen-aged girl answered correctly and won the contest.
"Now listen carefully," the Master of Ceremonies said. "You will have a choice as to your prize. You may select any one of the following that you want. I will list them, and then, after a word from the sponsor, you must make your selection. You may have a four-year college education fully paid for; or you may have a $20,000 house fully paid for (that was back when $20,000 would buy a fine house); or you may have - and he listed some other things - ; or you may have a tee-shirt with the name of (and he listed the name of a famous movie star) imprinted on it. You have sixty seconds to think it over and make your choice."
The sponsor came on with his advertisement.
"What is your choice?" the MC asked.
"I'll take the tee-shirt," the teen-ager replied.
John said her reply so upset him that when his wife called him to dinner he couldn't tell whether he was eating collards or cabbage.
A wrong sense of values can result in some extremely stupid and short-sighted choices.
Without a proper sense of the value of things, we may put forth great effort and go to great expense to obtain things that have very little real or lasting value, and we may pass right over things of tremendous worth.
In our Scripture lesson this morning, Isaiah points out to the people of Israel that they are spending their money for that which does not meet their real needs, and are working to obtain that which, when they get it, will not satisfy them. "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" he asks.
Jesus likewise warns the people of another day not to labour for that which perishes, which does not last, but to put forth their efforts to obtain that which endures. "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life," He says.
All of us have a tendency to value too highly things which have little lasting value or which do not satisfy when they are obtained and to fail to put forth sufficient effort to obtain the things which are of eternal worth.
It is a common thing to value material things too highly and fail to value spiritual things highly enough.
It is a common thing to value too highly the things of time and fail to value highly enough the things of eternity.
It is a common thing to value too highly the approval of people and to fail to seek the approval of God.
It is a common thing to value too highly the social graces and fail to value highly enough the grace of God.
If we would study more carefully and pay proper heed to God's Word, we would not make as many mistakes in placing the proper value on things as we do.
We read in God's Word that a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.
We live in a day, however, when it seems that every day brings new accounts of people who are in effect selling their characters for the sake of financial profit, a day when vast numbers of apparently highly respectable people are willing to engage in questionable practices for the sake of larger profits.
It disturbs us when we hear of government contractors selling $15 or $16 hammers to the government for over $400 and army procurement officials paying dozens of times the normal price for vast numbers of items.
It disturbs us when we read of elected government officials taking bribes and engaging in questionable practices for the sake of personal gain.
It disturbs us when we read of the tremendous number of otherwise respectable people who have gotten involved in the drug traffic simply for the sake of the tremendous profits to be made therein.
But in the business world the temptation to cut corners or to do questionable things for the sake of a little additional income filters all the way down to the smallest person on the totem pole.
In every area of life - business, social, ethical, moral, recreational or religious - too little value is placed on keeping a good name and too great a value is placed upon money or pleasure or pleasing the crowd.
The Biblical admonition to abstain from all appearance of evil is taken too lightly in modern society, and maintaining one's honesty and integrity and one's good name are not taken seriously enough.
Yet, there is little satisfaction in life if we cannot look in the mirror and have respect for the person whose face we see reflected there.
Nor is there much future for us without a good name.
The story is told of a man who was caught picking the pocket of another man. The thief tried to excuse himself by saying that because he had served a term in prison, no one would hire him and he was out of work and starving.
"Well," said the man whose pocket he had tried to pick, "take my name. It has never yet been tarnished. I give it to you. Take it and keep it clean."
He then helped the man to find work using his new name.
Some fifteen or so years later the man who had given his name to another was told that someone was waiting outside his office to see him. He looked at the man's card which had been sent in to him and saw that it had on it the same name as his own. On going out to see the man, he found an outstanding-looking gentleman waiting for him - the same man who years before had tried to pick his pocket.
"I have called to tell you," he said, "that today I have been made a partner in the firm to which you recommended me fifteen years ago, and all you see me to be, I owe above all to the gift of your name which is still untarnished."
We ought never to underestimate the value of having a good name, of living in such a way that when our names are mentioned, people think of honesty and integrity and high moral character and Christlikeness in relationship to them.
Parents who leave a good name to their children are leaving them something far more precious than a large material inheritance.
Some of you heard Dr. Ernest Fitzgerald's address at the Masonic picnic last Thursday. If you did you remember him telling of driving home one night after speaking or preaching at a service in a distant place. It was late at night, and as he was passing through an area where his father had pastored some forty or so years ago, his car ran out of gas. He remembered a little country gas station that he had passed a half-mile to a mile back up the road that was still open, so he got out of his car and walked back to it to get some gas.
He told the man who was there his plight, and the man filled up a can with some gas for him. He reached into his pocket to get the money to pay for it and discovered that he did not have any money with him. He told the man who he was and that he was the pastor of Centenary Methodist Church in Winston-Salem. Evidently the man had been taken in before and he sat down the gas can. "No money - no gas," he said.
As Ernest started out the little store to go back to his car and wait for morning or to seek help elsewhere, the man said, "What did you say your name was?" "Fitzgerald," he replied.
"Did you ever know Jim Fitzgerald?" the man asked.
"He was my father," Ernest replied.
Picking up the gas can again, the man said, "You can take the gas. If you are Jim Fitzgerald's son, you'll be back."
A good name is a precious thing! It follows a person down across the years and blesses the lives of others long after we are gone.
Following the Civil War General Robert E. Lee was left with very little of this world's goods. Today the government would say that he was living below the poverty line.
A firm that manufactured alcoholic drink, it is said, sent a representative to see him, wanting to use his name on one of its products and offering to pay him well for the privilege of doing so.
His reply was simple and to the point: "My good name is about all I have left, and it is not for sale."
A good name is one of the most precious things a person can possess.
As a general rule most people tend to consider the things of this world of perhaps greater importance than they really are once they have enough of them to meet their physical needs. And no matter how much of the things of this world we may have we may, like King Solomon, treasure them so much that we always try to acquire more of them.
Yet treasures in Heaven are far more important than treasures of earth!
In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us to "lay not for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but to lay up for ourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."
It would seem that the struggle to lay up treasures here on earth is an almost universal characteristic of human nature, but no matter how much of this world's wealth one may accumulate, eventually he or she must either lose it or leave it.
Since I became a pastor in 1949 I have participated in many, many funeral services, some of people who accumulated a large amount of earthly wealth while here on earth, but I have never yet seen a funeral hearse on the way to a cemetery pulling a U-Haul-It with earthly treasures in it that belonged to the deceased! Nor have I ever seen a truck coming back from Heaven loaded with treasures that someone had sent on to Heaven through good works one had done for the Lord while here on earth!
Think it over: treasures in Heaven are more important than treasures here on earth!
A home is more important than a house!
The story is told of how some years ago a family lost their house to fire. As they stood outside the burning house watching while it burned, someone said to a small boy who was a member of the family: "I'm so sorry that you have lost your home!"
"Oh, we haven't lost our home!" he was quoted as replying. "We still have our home. We just need a house to put it in!"
A house without a home in it is a lonely sight!
Some years ago I heard a speaker tell of what he said was one of the most beautiful houses in a certain state. It had been built for a lovely young couple from some very wealthy families who were getting married. The furnishings in the house were some of the finest that money could buy, and the grounds around the house had been made beautiful with flowers, shrubbery and a fine lawn.
But not very long after the young couple moved in, the house stood empty. There was no echo of happy voices heard in the empty rooms and hallways. The once beautiful lawn was giving way to weeds as the wind rustled the brown leaves lying on the ground.
Henry Ware, Jr., in his hymn, "Happy the Home When God Is There", wrote, "Happy the home when God is there, and love fills every breast; when one their wish and one their prayer, and one their heavenly rest..."
But the young couple had not made a place for God in their marriage and lives, and had not put a home built on love and caring in their mansion! Their marriage had not lasted, and as a result the beautiful mansion stood empty and lonely and deserted!
A home is more important than a house. A cottage with a home in it is filled with more happiness than the finest mansion where there is no love and God is not welcome!
The soul is more important that the body!
Each one of us has a physical body. Much, much attention is given to keep our bodies in good physical health. Yet, no matter how carefully we take care of our health and no matter how much money we may spend on the medicines and medical attention we need, the time will come when our bodies will die. Our souls, however, are immortal and live on forever! Thus, the welfare of the soul is as much more important than the health of the body as eternity is longer than time!
Therefore Jesus asks the question: "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26.) The eternal destiny of the soul is more important than our present dwelling place!
Having a right sense of values is tremendously important to both our happiness and welfare here below and our destiny and welfare in the world to come! Let us pray...