Using examples from his own life, Clem Walters taught Servant School members to examine their attitudes towards riches and warned of the dangers of trusting in money and possessions.Â
Transcript
This document is a direct transcript of an audio recording, and may contain transcription errors and other minor edits for the sake of clarity.
CLEM: This is servantsâ talk number five. I think it might be well for us, as we lead into talk number five, to recap, at least just for a second, a little bit of where we left off last week. And, that is to recap Satanâs kingdom [sicâshould be âcampâ] as we went through the meditation last week, and Satanâs plan for all mankind. And that is, that he sends out his demons and spirits, inflicting mankind with a desire for riches and for honor, and those things leading to pride.
In fact, you might even recall the mental picture that you had last week, as we entered the camp of Satan with him on his throne. And what you saw on the faces of the people there in his camp, and how it was that he was sending out those demons, and his spirits, to inflict all of us with this desire for wealth, this desire for riches and honor, which leads us to be a very prideful people.
So, I think what we need to do tonight, is to look at our attitudes, then, towards riches, to look at our attitude towards possessions, and things, and money. It might help us to focus on what, in fact, Satan has done, and what he continues to do to us, and what part he may have had in the input into lives to this point.
In addition to being bombarded in the world by an ideal of play and pleasureâand thatâs something that weâll talk about in another talk, weâll take up at another timeâthe whole idealâthe fact that weâre bombarded in the world with an ideal of play and pleasure. But in addition to that, our whole society has been ingrained with a love of things, and weâre a part, unfortunately, of that society. We all have a love of things.
Itâs not an accident that we have this love of things. Industry pays millions of dollars annually to implant in our minds so-called needsâweâll say needsâfor their products. That is, for cars, and motorcycles, and boats, and clothing, furniture, and we can go on and on, and onâtelevision sets and all kinds of things. What theyâre doing is pushing us onward to bigger and better things. So it makes the wheels of industry turn.
Most advertising is geared to our prideful natures. The advertising is geared often to keeping up with the neighbors. âKeeping up with the Jonesesâ is the old cliche. In fact, many ads for the saleâadvertising automobiles, as an example, the ads or even the brochures that you can pick up at an auto agency, puts [sic] us in the position of driving that big new 1973 or â74 Plymouth Fury.
For Donâs sake, my notes did say Chevrolet Impala. [Clem laughs.]
But, the brochure puts us in a position of driving that big new car, down our own block, with all the neighbors outside. Usually, the brochure has a false scene, with a man puffing on a pipe and leaning on a rakeâheâs our neighbor. As we drive this new car down our block, and theyâre all out in their yards, and theyâre noticing us and this big new car. The interesting thing about that brochure is, usually, thereâs a blonde in the car with us, sheâs pictured in the car.
It brings to mind a method that I was taught many years ago. I sold cars in the fiftiesâ1950s for an organization called Hull-Dobbs. Hull-Dobbs was, at one time, the largest Ford companyâthe largest Ford organization in the world. That is, they had Ford agencies all over the United States and in Hawaii.
But, they had it down to a science. And what they trained us to do was to, by all means, get that person that was looking at the new car, into the carâinto the new car. And Iâm sure that any of you that have ever shopped for a new car find that thatâs not an accident, that they really try to get youâeither in a demonstratorâbut in those days, we were trying to get the people in the actual car that they were interested in. If they said they liked a blue car, a blue Fairlane two-door, it was your job to take âem to the lot that had 150 cars, and to put âem in that car, and get âem on the road, get âem out, suggest that they go home. Just let them take the new car and suggest that they take it home and show it to their wife, or suggest they take it home to show it to Grandma or the kids.
Well, the whole prideful nature was involved in that. That is, if youâve gotâif you got that person in the car to go home, down his block, where there, in fact, might have been someone raking leaves, or someone noticed him, it was very difficult for him to say no to the sale. It was very difficult for him to come back after an hour, or three, or four hours, and to return that car. Because, by that time, everyone had noticed that he was driving this nice new car, and the kids had taken a ride in it, and grandma had too, and they all wanted it. So it worked very well. It workâit was just, it worked, and it preyed on human nature and our prideful natures.
Houses, if youâve noticed the ads, especially Place and Company, they haveâthey do a good advertising job in this area, in selling houses. And houses are sold on the basis of gracious living, where space abounds for entertaining friends. And, usually, the ad or the brochure will show a very spacious family room, and someone in a long formal gown serving drinks, or what have you. The idea there, again, is that youâre entertaining friends, that youâre something because of the house that you have and the things that you own.
The point of all this is that advertising agencies and, for that matter, industryâwho pay millions of dollars to the advertising agencies annuallyâhave come to the same proven conclusion as Satan, and that is that we can be reached through our prideful natures. And, in fact, they can get to us, and they can get results through our prideful natures.
We begin to judge our worth by the quality, or the quantity, of our things.
Through all of this, and as that begins to happen or has happened, thereâs another sin which begins to emerge. And that is that, as we begin to acquire more and more things, we begin to develop a worship of idols. We begin to worship false gods. And those false gods, and those idols, are our possessions. That, in fact, in a very subtle way, we begin to love, and cherish, and adore, and serve our possessions and things.
The more things that we acquire, more and more of our time. and energy, and thought processes are required to maintain, and preserve, and service those things that weâve acquired. In a very real way, we begin to serve our things, and through that we begin to worship our things. It begins to creep into that whole process. We begin to spend energy and time in maintaining, preserving, and servicing the things and possessions that we have.
About the best example that I have in my own life of that is the fact that I used to buy a new car every six months. That went on for many, many years. It really didnât make any difference that I could buy the car at cost, at near the dealerâs cost, and that every time I bought one, and sold it, I made a profit. In fact, I would order cars that I knew someone wanted. In fact, oftentimes, they were sold as I bought them. I would drive them for six months and sell them.
But the difficulty with that was that I really took care of those cars, not only because I might have a sale for them, or I did have a sale for them, but, as I bought these new carsâand each time I bought one, it seemed to be larger, and bigger, and better than the one before, with more accessories.
So what began to happen is, that I was so careful, and I preserved that thing, those cars, to the degree that I wouldnât allow my children to eat an ice cream cone in my new Country Squire with air conditioning and stereotape [A device for playback of recorded music using a magnetic tape]. That, as we took a Sunday drive, that I was really concerned about them keeping their feet, even when they were little, off the seats, or off of the side panels, or they couldnât bring crackers, cookies, or anything with them. It was okay if we stopped at a park along the way and we ate, but we didnât eat in the car, because I was really wanting to preserve and to care for that thing.
And it wasnât that the kids were going to destroy it. Itâs just that, in fact, many of those cars had the type of upholstery that would have washed off had an ice cream cone been spilled on it. The point was that I began to serve and, in fact, worship thatâthose things that I had.
Hereâs several other examples. Iâin 1969, we decided to buy a travel trailer and go camping. At that time, the kids were the age that it would be good to just go, and to camp, and to travel. So we bought a brand newâa 22-foot travel trailer. Well the problem with itâwe had a great time, by the way, I really enjoy camping. We, as a family, grew a great deal together by just camping in the wilderness and being together.
But the difficulty with that travel trailer was that, I would not just allow it to be a travel trailer, that I had to maintain it, that I had to see that there was no rust, that it was waxed, that we maintained and cared for the inside so that it was in perfect order and condition. And I spent untold hours every year getting it ready to go, for camping that season. And I wouldnât let it go until, in fact, it was really waxed and clean after storing it over the winter in the fairgrounds, in a building. Or, seeing that it had red lead, as I recall, was the anti-rust type material that I put on the frame and the undercarriage. Even the areas that you couldnât see were really well cared for. Well the problem was thatâand I expected Julie and the kids to keep the inside in the same wayâthe problem was that we began to worship, and that thing began to become an idol, because we spent untold hours, and time, and energy in serving that thing, that travel trailer.
I would imagine, if I thought about it, there would be many other examples that I could give of how it is that, as we acquire more and more things, that we begin to, if weâre not careful, begin to serve those things.
Another word for riches can easily be money. We talk about richesâmaybe the first thing we think about, rather than things, would be money or wealth. And Satan can certainly reach us in our attitudes towards money. In fact, itâs been said that money is the root of all evil. And, I donât think thatâs too far off the mark.
Iâd like to read from 1 Timothy regarding the statement that money is theâor could be, the root of all evil. Paul says to Timothy:
But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull men down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.
In fact, many of you have either read in the newspaper, or have heard of, people being murdered for less than a dollar. In fact, thatâsâevery time that happens, thereâs usually a picture in the paper about someone that was murdered, and they only got 72 cents, or some ridiculous thing. In fact, it wasnât too long ago in South Bend, that a man was shotâI think it was on West Washington Street, just arguing over money. It was in broad daylight, many people around, and they were outside where they could be seen. They were arguing over money. And one of the persons wasâpulled a gun and shot the other man. Thereâsâthatâs just a minor example of whatâs going on all over the world.
Iâve also had several personal experiences with money that Iâd like to share, and the purpose of sharing is possibly to arouse in you, maybe an examination of yourself and your attitudes towards things and towards money.
I think my attitude towards money goes back toâoh, maybe to my very early childhood. And that was that I came from basically a veryâa working class, and a poor working class, at that, family. And, I can recall as a small boy, renting. In fact, I can recall going from place to place, never really livingâleaving this area. But always we were renting, and usually it was apartments. And, I can recall feeling very insecure during a lot of that. And I can also recall, as I was getting older, my determination to make a lot of money, and to really make it big, and to have a lot of money.
And myâI think theâmy thought during those years was that I, in some way, could be secure if I had a lot of money. And the first thing that I was going to do with that money was buy a house, you know, just a house. But it was a house that would be my house.
And I can recall that that began very early. And I can recall then, the summer after graduating from high schoolâin fact, maybe even in between that time, before I got to graduate from high school, I started to work very early. Andâbut work wasnât just for the sake of making money to buy things. I was socking that money away. I mean, from paper route to a lot of other enterprises. They were all legitimate enterprises, by the way.
But the difficulty was that I wasnât buying things, or giving the money possibly to my parents, who needed it. But I was putting it away in my own bank account.
I recall graduating from high school and thinkingâeveryone directing me to college sayingâalthough no one in our family had ever gone on to college, that it was really a good thing to do. And, I really didnât have any idea what Iâd do in college, but I agreed that I would go on to college. And I had the money to go to college by that time. At least, I had enough to get me through for a while.
But the interesting thing happened. First of all, I donât think I really wanted to spend that money to go to school. But that summer, I latched on to a fantastic job. And my reason for taking it was that I needed more money so that I could go on to school. I latched on to a sales job selling cars for Hull-Dobbs, the company that I had mentioned, and I made a lot of money that summer. And, by the time fall came and it was time for me to leave that job to go on to school, I didnât. I didnât go on to school. I stayed at that job. And I kept piling away the money.
Well, I never did go back to school. I just kept piling away the money, and I kept amassing more and more money, and I would do that in a variety of ways. I would not only work very hardâI worked long hours because I was single and I didnât reallyâit wasâin a sales job, the more you work, the more you make. So, I stayed with it and I worked many long hours during the week, and I worked weekends, too. And I would skip lunch, as an example. That was a prime way to save money. I could skip lunch. Or, during those years I can remember figuring out where I could go for a free lunch. I wasâI became a first class freeloader in that regard.
So the whole thing began to be a disease. I began to love money. By the time I was 20, I had a net worth of well over $10,000, and the bulk of it was in cash. But, I can honestly say, that I wasnât happy. It was a good way to start out a married life with a lot of money, but I wasnât really happy.
I donât think thereâs any need to go on beyond that. The point isâoh, by the way, I did spend a lot of that money at one time, too. I went into business and I lost a lot of it. The point was that the whole thing began to be a disease, and I wasnât interested in just making money so that I could share it, or I could spend it on my family, who certainly needed it during those years. But I wanted to make that money for the sake of making more money and seeing the balance grow.
Iâd like to share with you from Mark:
How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
Again, speaking to the sameâour attitudes towards money, from Matthew 6:
No one can be a slave to two masters. He will either hate the first and love the second or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. For you canât be a slave of God and money.
What happensâand through my own experienceâas we amass riches and money, is that we begin to rely and depend on our money rather than God, in fact, we begin to depend and rely on our money rather than anyone. Our security becomesâour security is our money, rather than God. We tend to then place ourself [sic]âonce weâve amassed money, we tend to place ourselves mentally in a superior position based on the money we have, or the quality of our things, that is, our riches. And all of this separates us from our brothers and sisters. Weâve placed ourself in a very superior position because of the quality, or the quantity, of our things.
And in fact, from this very superior position that we place ourself, we tend to judge others from that position, from our pintacle [sic, likely pinnacle]. We begin to look down on anyone that has less money or whose things, whether it be cars or homes, donât quite measure up to what we have.
Paul told Timothy, in 1 Timothy:
Warn those people who are rich in this worldâs goods that they are not to look down on the other people and not to set their hopes on money, which is untrustworthy, but on God, who out of his riches gives all that we need for happiness. Tell them that they are to do good and be rich and good works, to be generous and willing to share. This is the way they can save up a good capital sum in heaven.
From Proverbs weâre told:
Give me neither poverty nor riches. Grant me only my share of bread to eat, for fear that surrounded by plenty, I should fall away and say, âYahweh? Who is Yahweh?â Or else in dissolution, take to stealing and profane the name of my God.
I see it, that weâre called neither to desire poverty or riches, but only desire our fair share of bread to eat. Thatâs really what weâre called to do.
Jesus taught us in the Lordâs Prayer, âGive us this day our daily bread.â He didnât say, if you think about it and look at that, he didnât say, âGive us this day our monthly or yearly bread.â He said, âGive us this day our daily bread.â
Again, Paul spoke to Timothy. In 1 Timothy, he said:
Well, religion does make a man very rich if he is satisfied with what he has. What did we bring into this world? Nothing! . . . So then if we have food and clothes, that should be enough for us.
I think looking at that realistically, in this day and age we have to try to strike that happy ground, that happy medium. That, in fact, we have to have a certain amount of money to buy our daily bread. We have to have a certain amount of things to exist today.
I think we need to all pray and ask the Lord to show us what our true wants are and what our true needs are. There is a difference between wants and between needs. That, in fact, we can learn to separate things that we merely are longing after and want, and the things that we need to sustain our daily life and to live the life that heâs calling us to live.
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