The Kingdom Payout

Matthew 19:23-30

 The richest man in the world is Carlos Slim Helu from Mexico. He has $53.5 billion. This is what one billion looks like in one hundred dollar bills. It would take 255 thousand people making $200,000 a year to equal an income of $53 billion or a million people make $53,000 a year.

When Billionaire H. L. Hunt was alive he had an income of over $5 million a day.

Billionaire Karl Albrecht, the richest man in Germany and 10^th richest man in the world, made his fortune out of the cash registers of 8,000 Aldi stores.

Billionaire Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Hong Kong, is a high school drop out.

Billionaire Americo Amorim, the richest man in Portuagal, made his fortune from cork.

The two richest woman in the world are Christy Walton, Sam’s daughter-in-law and his daughter Alice. 

The youngest billionaire is Mark Zuckerberg. He’s 25, single and the founder of Facebook.

When I think about people making billions from fertilizer or M&Ms or tic tacs or gas stations or Red Bull, I ask, “Why not me?”

***Matthew 19:16-22. 

  16 Once a man came to Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what good thing must I do to receive eternal life?” 

17 “Why do you ask me concerning what is good?” answered Jesus. “There is only One who is good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life.” 

18 “What commandments?” he asked.

Jesus answered, “Do not commit murder; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not accuse anyone falsely; 19 respect your father and your mother; and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” 

20 “I have obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else do I need to do?” 

21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.” 

22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he was very rich.

***Matthew 19:23-30. 

  23 Jesus then said to his disciples, “I assure you: it will be very hard for rich people to enter the Kingdom of heaven. 24 I repeat: it is much harder for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” 

25 When the disciples heard this, they were completely amazed. “Who, then, can be saved?” they asked. 

26 Jesus looked straight at them and answered, “This is impossible for human beings, but for God everything is possible.” 

27 Then Peter spoke up. “Look,” he said, “we have left everything and followed you. What will we have?” 

28 Jesus said to them, “You can be sure that when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne in the New Age, then you twelve followers of mine will also sit on thrones, to rule the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake, will receive a hundred times more and will be given eternal life. 30 But many who now are first will be last, and many who now are last will be first.

The deceitfulness of riches and false religions go hand in hand. At their foundation is pride in human ability. We tend to see wealth and religious goodness as signs that someone has done better, is better off and has a better future than we do.

Every religion and every bit of greed is founded on the assumption that people need something extra:

· A way to appease the gods

· A way to find peace

· To escape the negative aspects of the world

· To avoid or postpone death as long as possible

· To improve the after death experience

Religious systems around the world are trying to accomplish their own form of nirvana. For simplicity’s sake we’ll lump everything they hope for and call it salvation.

Jesus said people couldn’t get there from here. In fact, he said it was impossible. That means that religions are trying to pull off the impossible. Rich people are doing the same thing.

 Jesus said it would be easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.  So no matter how rich or religious you are you can’t get buy salvation or earn it. It’s impossible.

Impossible.

The disciples were shocked. They were still of the good works school of salvation. “If the rich who must be highly blessed to have so much; if they can’t be saved, who can?”

The picture of a camel trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle says it all. It’s impossible.

And then Jesus said something we should remember every time we pray. In fact, it’s the reason we pray.  He looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible (26).”

That’s good news. It’s simple. We can’t save ourselves but God can. Religions don’t work, but God does? Salvation is something mankind cannot do. Try as we might. It’s impossible. There isn’t enough money to buy salvation and all the good stuff that comes with it, but God gives it freely.

With Him the impossible becomes possible. We know it theoretically, but let it sink into your every day thinking. Jack Hayford called prayer invading the impossible.

What percentage of things we should be praying about do we not pray about because we think it’s impossible? Has the impossible stopped you from dreaming? From hoping? From praying? Please, pick one thing off your impossible dreams list to start praying about.

What Jesus said got Peter’s attention. The gears were turning. The rich guy had turned down his opportunity to sell all he had and give to the poor. Peter probably didn’t have much worth selling. But he had left everything to follow Jesus.

This wasn’t all sinking in and at least part of him was wondering if he’d made a mistake. Suppose you quit your job to work at a high level in a politicians campaign. It’s reasonable to expect you’d be taken care of when your candidate is elected. If at some point you begin to think otherwise, even if you still believed in the candidate, you’d be a little disconcerted.  

Rewards are part of the kingdom. There’s nothing wrong with expecting them or modifying behavior with rewards in mind. Three examples.

We can list things we left behind. When we’re honest about our taxes, we leave a chance for extra money behind. When it costs us to be good neighbors, we leave emotional energy behind. When we make peace, we leave our pride behind. When we tithe, we leave a lot on the store shelves or maybe in the show room. We are all tempted to look at someone with more money and wonder where we went wrong. Like Peter we want to know, “What then will be have (27)?” What’s in it for us? Judging from Jesus direct answer, it’s a legitimate question.

And Jesus gave him an exciting answer. First, he had something special just for his disciples. They would sit on thrones with him to judge the rest of Israel for their unbelief. Probably not what they were expecting. But collectively they would represent every excuse that could be given for unbelief. “You were confused? Talk to Peter.” “You had serious doubts? Talk to Thomas.” “You were too emotional? Talk to James or John.” “You were too busy? Talk to Matthew.”

And for the rest of us, Jesus promised something greater. Whatever it is that we’ve given up or left behind in order to follow him, he promises that he’ll reward us a hundred fold. The Kingdom Payout will be worth the wait and the sacrifice

There have been some very large payouts.  This teenager inherited almost $3 billion. A 25-year-old won $39 million at the slots in Los Vegas. And the largest Powerball Payout was almost $315 million.

But these payouts pale compared to the payout we can expect in heaven. These payouts couldn’t even buy one minute of eternal life. You know about the rich man who begged to take his riches with him to heaven. So when St. Peter opens his bag and sees his gold bouillon, he asks, “Why did you bring paving bricks.”

We tend to look at the rich and feel like they have an unfair advantage.  But Jesus said, many who now are first will be last, and many who now are last will be first. The only currency that counts in the Kingdom of God is humility.

I like what my professor D.A. Carson said: (Jesus was) setting forth God’s grace over against all notions that the rich, powerful, great, and prominent will continue so in the kingdom. Those who approach God in childlike trust will be received and advanced in the kingdom beyond those who, from the world’s perspective, enjoy prominence now.

The bottom line is when we decide to follow Jesus we can trust him to take care of us. He knows how to keep everything and everyone in balance – with complete justice for all.

Youth Message

Make a SFGTD Box.

 Do you have a chart of all your jobs?

Someday when you’re older you may have an inbox on your desk. The things you need to do are in there: Mail to look at, reports to read, documents to file. Stuff like that.

But here is an even more important box. It’s a SFGTD box. SFGTD stands for Something for God to do. Those are jobs that are too difficult for us. Instead of trying to do them ourselves, we pray and ask God to do them.

God says, “If something happens you can’t take care of, put it in my box. I’ll take care of everything when and in the way I think best.”

Sometimes we try to do things that we should put in the SFGTD box. 

Maybe we’re not winning a game so instead of putting it in the SFGTD box, we cheat.

Maybe we don’t want to get in trouble so instead of putting it in the SFGTD box, we lie.

Maybe we don’t want our brother/sister to get away with something so instead of putting it in the SFGTD box, we hit him/her or tattle.

It’s better wear out the lid on the SFGTD box.