True & False Riches
The other day while driving, I stopped at a traffic light and my attention was drawn to one of these fancy new electronic bill-boards - advertising some lottery where the first prize was going to be a t least $100 million. True to form, the ad was bright, balloons and bunting floating all over the place, with plenty of champagne bursting forth from a bottle. This is the sort of prize money that I am sure creates Lottery Fever in our community, tempting many to give up their hard-earned money to buy tickets or whatever you have to do to be in it, to win it.
I am sure you have heard people - caught up in this gambling fever - excitedly talk about what they are going to do with $100 million, even though the odds of winning are 1 in 150 million! Now of course, some person or persons are going to win the jackpot, and their story will be plastered all over the media. There will be happy, smiling faces, well- wishers shaking their hands and the usual talk of a “well-earned” holiday, the dream house they could never afford etc, etc.
But sadly, so many people who "strike it rich" end up “striking out” afterwards. If you dig deeply enough, you will find story after story of how winners' dreams turned to nightmares: divorce, bankruptcy, deep depression, conflict and court cases as to who really did win the money. It may be great to win that amount of money, but often all it means is that you have more money to lose, to argue over, to waste and to use it to build foundations in your life which sooner or later will crumble. Money may improve your environment for a short time, but it can't do a thing about your invironment - what goes on inside of you.
The Bible contains the following warning in 1 Timothy 6: "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." The Bible does not says that money in itself is wrong. It is the love of money - believing that it will solve all our problems, wanting more than God has graciously and purposefully given to us - which is wrong and which will lead us into all sorts of false hopes, and of course into sin.
But the love of money is not all that people can gamble with. They bet on more things than lotteries. There is the “love lottery”, thinking that finding the right someone to love us will make their dreams come true and solve all their problems. But, as so many have discovered, winning at love doesn't guarantee happiness. And too often, the dream turns out to be a nightmare. Then there is the “success lottery”, or the "be the best lottery”, where you gamble all to get to the top, believing that that will bring happiness or satisfaction, only to discover that it only brings pain, misery and loss.
And what about the “perfection lottery” - perfect home, perfect kids, perfect image - only to find that the more you get, the more you want? For Christians there is the “disobedience lottery” - it doesn’t matter if I miss worship. It’s OK if I skip Bible Reading and Prayer Time. No problem in dabbling in a little bit of the world’s ways - after all I’ll be able to stop in time and no one will know the difference. Not so, our relationship with Jesus will suffer.
The world shouts at us - “Buy lots of tickets, gamble much, use all you have. Sooner or later you will win “big”! When you are unhappy, you believe you are unhappy because you haven’t won. The only problem is that when you do win, you will find that you will still be unhappy.
I was watching a puppy once and she loved to chase bubbles. When the wand of bubble solution was waved about, the bubbles would start descending toward the kitchen floor, and the dog would dance and jump and snap at as many bubbles as she could. But as soon as she got what she was after - pop - it turned out to be nothing.
King Solomon had chased and caught a lot of bubbles in his day: lots of women, fame, historic projects, a buffet of pleasures, incalculable wealth. His return on investment? "I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind" (Ecclesiastes 1:14). Ultimately, this man who had won all the lotteries says: "Here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep His commandments...remember your Creator in the days of your youth" (Ecclesiastes 12:13, 1).
And this is the crux of the matter. Paul reminds us that we were "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16), and we're going to keep coming up empty - unhappy, dissatisfied, guilty - until we experience the Christ-relationship we were made for. The One who made us is the only One big enough to fill that aching void in our life. But while we ignore Him and reject Him, and continue to gamble on things and pay for things which cannot bring one ounce of satisfaction, happiness or freedom, we will never know peace or joy, or deliverance from what is accumulating in our lives - sin.
No matter how much you gamble, you'll never come up with enough to win forgiveness, peace, or eternal life. How sad when the price has already been paid for you on Good Friday, by Jesus when He died on the cross. The Bible makes it very clear: "Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that by His poverty He could make you rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9). Rich in forgiveness, rich in the promise of eternity, rich in love, in peace; rich in serving the Lord of lords. Why gamble away your eternity? Trust in Jesus for all things. Grace and peace....