Linda was on vacation, playing the slot machines. It was her first time in a casino, and she wasn’t sure how the machines operated.
"Excuse me," she said to a casino employee. "How does this work?" The worker showed her how to insert a bill, hit the spin button, and operate the release handle.
"And where does the money come out?" she asked.
He smiled and motioned to a far wall before saying, "Usually at the ATM."
Ever been to a casino – you don’t have to answer that. Maybe you’ve seen one on TV. There are some pitiful people. Hours on end feeding money into a machine and there’s no payoff. It may happen once in a while, but they wouldn’t have casinos if people were walking out with more money than they walk into with.
The world is full of people feeding their money, their time, their talents, their lives into a slot machine that will never pay off. Jesus says, invest in my kingdom and the payoff will be eternal.