4, 8, 19, 27, 34, 10. Do those numbers mean anything to you? What about $1.6 billion? Perhaps that one will ring a bell. Those are the winning numbers and the dollar amount for the “Powerball” lottery that have been filling up every news channel this past week. We probably have friends who drove to Georgia in hopes of winning that prize. If only the people in our community and around the country would flock in that manner and with that enthusiasm to a place where there are guaranteed winnings – the kingdom of God!
Speaking of earthly treasures, Solomon said:
I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:8-11).
Solomon had way more riches than what the lottery could offer, and yet, he concluded that it was all vanity. Solomon said this after considering ‘everything under the sun.’ “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).
As Christians, we should understand that we have something better than earthly wealth for which to fight! We should be working every day to obtain the grand prize of heaven. “…having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” (Philippians 1:23). “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Corinthians 5:8-9).
Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
We often say as well, “home is where the heart is.” During this past week, a lot of people’s hearts and homes were not in heaven, but on the earth. Enough about them; where is your home? Are you like Paul whose citizenship was in heaven (Philippians 3:20)? Or, are you more like Demas who had his heart and home in earthy things (2 Timothy 4:10)? “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15,).
Why do I choose to serve God and not my own lusts? Because I am in possession of a deed for a mansion in heaven, and when I put off this body, I will “lay aside [my] battle-scarred armor, and hang [my] sword upon the jasper walls of that eternal city. Then, with palms of victory and [a] crown of glory I will sweep through the gates into the grandeur of our Father’s home, across which no shadows have ever come, wherein [I] can see beautiful sentences of life, punctuated by the stars of eternal glory, enabling [me] to read [my] title clear to [my] mansion over there” (Hardeman-Bogard Debate, 1938).
Jesus said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). The place that Jesus prepared for us is ready for all to enter. There is no lottery, no gambling and no chance. There is only a guarantee.
“Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). If you are not striving as Jesus said you should, then it may be that you will stand before God and hear those unfortunate words, “depart from me.” Where is your heart, and where is your home? Do you strive to enter into a physical mansion or a heavenly one? In order to have your citizenship in heaven, you must obey God’s will. In doing so, you will make your calling and election sure. That is something that the world can never and will never offer you!
