Seriously Ridiculous Thought #2 - The Richest Became The Poorest Series

TEXT: 2nd Corinthians 8:9 (also Various chapters in Psalms 24:1; 89:11)

TITLE: Ridiculous thought #2 - The Richest became the Poorest!

SERIES: Seriously Ridiculous

TOPIC: Incarnation; Christmas, giving!

OCCASION: Burnside Christian Church, January 4th, 2008

PROP: Jesus gave up his riches, to make us rich! That’s seriously ridiculous!

INTRODUCTION: GOOD MORNING! You have no doubt heard it said: If at first, you don’t succeed…move on, and try something else. Well, this is the THIRD time I’ve attempted to preach this sermon and between sickness, power outages and furnace trouble…here we are! What started out as a Christmas series…has now turned into a NEW YEARS sermon apparently!

Well…this sermon fits into a series that we started which seems like FOREVER ago called Seriously Ridiculous.

What does this series theme mean? If you remember, we came up with 1st Corinthians 1:27 tells us: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”

God works in some seriously ridiculous ways! I believe we celebrate one the most seriously ridiculous way that God works! Almighty God coming to redeem mankind…to destroy sin and it’s power…to offer hope and life forevermore….as a baby. SERIOUSLY RIDICULOUS!

You may recall the first seriously ridiculous thought we gave you:

“The Most Glorious, became the Most Humble!”

The one who spoke things into existence had to learn to speak.

The one who never changes…had to have his diaper changed.

The one who has no beginning or no end….now had both.

That was the MOST GLORIOUS, BECAME THE MOST HUMBLE…SERIOUSLY RIDICULOUS!

Today, I want to present to you another seriously ridiculous thought:

“The Richest Became the Poorest!”

How much money would you need to have to be considered rich?

Who do you consider wealthy?

I think we can all agree that Bill Gates is someone you and I recognize as someone who is rich. In January 2008, Bill Gates had an estimated net worth of $58 billion.

For those who don’t know how many zeroes that is, here it is. 58 billion.

$58,000,000,000.00

What? What is that? That’s not even a number I can grasp! Well let me help you this way.

Consider being given $5 for every minute from the moment of birth.

Question: How long would it take to acquire $1 billion?

Simple math gives 200 million minutes (1 billion / $5). Then, 200 million minutes is 333,333 hours, which is 13,888 days and 13,888 days is 38-plus years, quite a long time.

Or put it this way. If you had 1 billion dollars and put it in a savings account at your local bank (earning the 0.25% interest)…on a billion dollars, you would earn $2.5 million each year. That means you could spend about $6,800 a day and NOT touch the principle balance!

These figures are just for 1 billion! Now multiply that by 700 and you start to get an idea of how much the government is spending.

And yet, as much money as that may appear to you and me, God has more.

Our text is simply one verse this morning that we will break down.

It is found in 2 Corinthians 8:9

Let’s read:

9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

T.S.: Let’s look at three facts about Christ that gives us reason to celebrate His incarnation!

Reason to celebrate #1 to celebrate Christ‘s first coming…

Our text tell us that Christ was rich.

Indeed he was!

I Christ was rich

A. He is King!

The Bible calls Christ a KING! And not just any king…the Bible calls Jesus the KING of KINGS! That is, Jesus is bigger, better, more powerful than any king who has ever lived!

And as a king, you’d expect God to be

--Rich in Possessions

What is the net worth of God? First of all, God’s not concerned with material stuff! If He was concerned with money and riches, God would sell Eternal Life. I mean He kind of has the market on it. But He’s not interested with dollars or jewels or stocks and bonds.

In Paul’s instruction to - his Son in the Faith - Timothy. Paul gives this charge!

1st Timothy 6:13b - 17

I charge you 14to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

17Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.