Emphasis Preaching Journal

Some treat this text as if it denounced wealth and wealthy people. Not so! John Wesley used to preach a sermon about wealth with three points: make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can. This Sunday's Gospel reading speaks to the third of Wesley's admonitions. Once a year the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon would deliver an impassioned appeal for donations to his orphanage. It is said that after one such event a penurious individual accosted him and said, "Why, Mr. Spurgeon, I thought you preached for souls and not for money!" Spurgeon replied gravely, "Why, Mr.