Recently I had the privilege of taking some of our young people to Dallas, Texas for the WELS International Youth Rally. It was very cool. But it wasn’t so cool because we were in Dallas. It wasn’t so cool because we were in one of the biggest of hotels in the United States. It wasn’t so cool because the activities and entertainment were so much fun. What made the youth rally so cool was seeing that many young people together completely tuned into the great gospel presentations.

The theme of the rally was LOL – Laugh Out Loud, with theme Bible passage being Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” But the speakers didn’t dwell on how young people have it so great or how much teenagers have to look forward to if they work hard and do the right things. No, the themes for each day were Laugh until it hurts, Laugh When It Hurts, and Laugh When Others Hurt. The basic thrust of the messages was that bad things happen in this life, but we have Christ. We have a Savior who makes all things better because he won salvation for us. That was the message that a couple thousand teenagers were tuned into for four days.

Now I want to ask you a question this today. What is the message that you give our young people here with your words and actions? Is it always a Christ-centered message that points to salvation or is it a message that focuses on the here and now, our life in this world? When we look at the gospel lesson before us today, we see the message that Jesus gave to a man in the crowd. May we follow that message in our lives and model that message to our young people.

Basically, the man who spoke to Jesus was having a disagreement over the family inheritance. This man wanted his brother to split the wealth with him. Jesus response was sharp and critical. He said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Or in other words, Jesus was saying to the man, “Are you serious? This is what you are arguing about, the things of this world. Watch out for your greed. There are much bigger things to be concerned with besides earthly wealth.” And then Jesus spoke a parable to the crowd about a rich man who had been blessed with great wealth. He stored up that wealth and was now going to eat, drink, and be merry. This angered God. And the Lord took his life and gave the man what he deserved. Jesus concluded by saying that would happen to anyone who was not rich toward God.

Now think about the message that you give to our young people. Does it blend well with Jesus’ message? Or does it follow the world’s model of eat, drink, and be merry? I have seen time and again parents who place earthly things over being rich toward God. It is amazing to me how often parents let the things of this world interfere with their children’s growing in faith. We have a lot of kids who go to Sunday school each week. But why aren’t our classrooms full every week? How come our adult Bible studies are not filled up each week? How come so many parents allow their teenagers to decide if they are going to come to church or not? What message are we sending our young people? Is it the message that if we don’t have anything else going on, then we will have time to be rich toward God?

And think about the choices that adults make everyday? As parents, are your choices based on what’s best for the spiritual welfare for your family or what is best for your family in this world? Are you spending your life eating, drinking, and being merry or are you focusing on being rich toward God? Do you model your Christian giving for our young people to see? Do you spend your time and energy doing the Lord’s work? Or are these things afterthoughts that you will get around to when everything else in your life is taken care of?

The dangers are everywhere. Just open your eyes to them. Our young people are bombarded every day with the eat, drink, and be merry philosophy. Our culture makes it really difficult for parents to say that a young person’s catechism instruction should come before a sport’s practice. Our culture makes it really difficult for parents to say that doing a daily devotion with the family around the dinner table is not important because everyone has stuff to do. But what is more important, the things of this world, or being rich toward God.

And what is the result of all this? These temptations lead to sins – sins of neglecting the one thing needful and of wallowing in the ways of this world. The price to be paid for all of this is demanded at death’s door. As the man in Jesus’ parable found out, he got what he deserved for putting God far down his to-do list.

I wonder how many of your parents had a paddle at home. It is becoming a cultural no-no in our society to paddle kids, but my mother had a paddle. As a kid it seemed huge to me. My mother’s paddle even had holes in it so that it would be more aerodynamic. Boy did that thing sting. One day, one of my brothers knew he was in for it. And so he got the bright idea that he would take that paddle out to garage and nail it to the workbench. He must have put 25 to 30 nails in that paddle to make sure that it would not be used that day. It was an attempt to escape my mother’s wrath. Well it didn’t work, he just got it worse.

It is the same with God. The punishment that we deserve for putting him second or third or fourth on list is inescapable. We won’t get away with it. When we give in to the world’s philosophy of eat, drink, and be merry, we deserve God’s punishment. As the man in the parable found out, that punishment is more terrible than words can describe. And the message of that punishment should be part of the message that we share with our young people.

But that is not the entire message that we ought to share. There is also the message of God’s grace. By grace we are saved through faith. It is faith in a Savior that always put the will of God first by obeying his Father perfectly like we cannot do. It is faith in a Savior that willingly took God’s wrath upon himself as he died on the cross for our forgiveness. It faith in a Savior that rose from the dead so that we would not have to suffer what we deserve, but rather receive the gift of eternal life in heaven. It is faith that is given to us by the Holy Spirit, who brought us into God’s family through the gospel.

Yes that is the rest of the message that we are to share with our young people. God loves them so much that he has made us his dear children. And that love is overwhelming. As the pastors at the youth rally told our young people, bad things will happen in this life, but they can laugh out loud because of Jesus Christ, because they are God’s children. What an amazing thing that is!

Over the last five years of preaching here at St. Stephen, I have fought the urge to use too many illustrations that involved my mom. For one, she always finds out. Now don’t get me wrong, she is wonderful woman who raised four boys very well in a Christian home. But one thing that we often joke about is that through the years she has struggled to remember our names. Especially when she gets excited, she will just go down the list of names hoping to get to the right one eventually. “Ty, Scott, Brent, David, or whoever you are,” she says. I was always last. But isn’t amazing that God knows all his children by name. And we are never last on his list. He loves us in so many ways that we are his top priority each and every day.

Now let your response to that love be that you place him at the top of your list every day. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. That means that you will have to put your job, the kids’ sports, your home, and everything else down the list. It is a conscious decision that you will have to make at first, but as you grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will just do it naturally. As you do this the message that you send our young people will be a shining light in this world. It will be filled with Christ and you will be a model to them. Be rich toward God and pass that on to our youth.

Many of you may be familiar with a man named Garrison Keillor. He is baby-boomer who is famous for his radio program, Prairie Home Companion, and his books like Lake Wobegon Days. He also writes an article for newspapers around the country each week. Those articles are in our local paper too. This past week he wrote the difference between his generation and the youth of today. He wrote, “I am of a generation that believes in disaster; the younger generation does not.” He went on to say that they are a generation of youth who believe that they can do anything. In certain respects it is a pie in the sky philosophy that says that eventually in this life they will have a chance to eat, drink, and be merry. They believe this because it seems fair to them.

But the reality of life is that bad things do happen in this life. But that does not mean that it is all doom and gloom. No, our young people can do anything through Christ Jesus, because he made it possible for them and us to go to heaven. May that be the message that we, as adults, give our young people with our words and actions. Amen.