Putting Brother Wesley's Preaching Into Practice

Our Thursday morning group began reading "Sermon #28: Upon Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount Discourse 8" by John Wesley yesterday morning. We were very put off by some of the language in this particular sermon.

For example:

"If a man pursues his business that he may raise himself to a state of honour and riches in the world, he is no longer serving God in his employment, and has no more title to a reward from God than he who gives alms that he may be seen, or prays that he may be heard of men."

and:

"Consequently, whoever owes no debts, has food and clothing for himself and his household, and possesses enough money to carry on his earthly business, but still seeks an even greater amount of wealth, is one who habitually lives in the open denial of the Lord that brought him. In effect, that one "has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever."

Wesley is preaching from Matthew 6:19-23:


"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"

Well let me tell what happened this morning.

I am an electrical contractor. This morning I was buying some materials for a job that we are going to start Monday morning. After determining that the best price for the stuff I needed was at Lowes, I went to make the purchase. When I got back to my shop and reviewed the reciept, I realized that the cashier had made a mistake and undercharged me. I had purchased 24 recessed light housings @ $6.97 each. She had only entered a quantitiy of 4.

As I see it, I had two choices:

1. Celebrate the extra $140 profit that I will now make off of this job by taking the family out for a meal and a movie.

or..

2. Go back to the store and pay for the other 20 fixtures.

Oh, one more thing to consider: This store is 35 miles one-way from my shop.

What would you do?

I thought it was bad when Brother Wesley kept pointing his finger at me as we read that sermon yesterday. Now he's following me around and shouting at me.