THE TOWN OF OVERNIGHT MILLIONAIRES
1 Tim. 6:9
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A crook mistakenly made a counterfeit $8 bill instead of a $10 bill. He decided to try it out anyway. He went to the teller at the local bank and asked for change. The teller looked at the $8 bill and gave the crook two $4 bills as change.
2. My friend has a bad habit of overdrawing her bank account. One day before we went shopping, I complained about my lack of funds and lamented, “Guess I’ll use plastic.” Unconcerned, she whipped out her checkbook: “I’m using rubber.”
3. LATE TO THE GAS STATION
a. Pulling into my service station 45 minutes late one morning, I shouted to the customers, "I’ll turn the pumps on right away!"
b. What I didn’t know was that the night crew had left them on all night. By the time I got to the office, most of the cars had filled up and driven off.
c. Only one customer stayed to pay. My heart sank. Then the customer pulled a wad of cash from his pocket and handed it to me.
d. "We kept passing the money to the last guy," he said. "We figured you’d get here sooner or later." [That restores your faith in humanity!]
B. TEXT
“A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished” Prov. 28:20.
“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Mk. 10:25.
“So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?” Luke 16:11.
“Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction” 1 Tim. 6:9.
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” Rev. 3:17.
C. THESIS
1. The April 2014 edition of Reader’s Digest contains a story (written by Lia Grainger) I want to touch on tonight. It's about a group of people who suddenly became fabulously rich.
2. The title of tonight's message is, "The Town of Overnight Millionaires."
I. THE COMING OF SUDDEN WEALTH
A. A RECENT OCCURANCE
1. The farming village of Sodeto sits perched atop a dusty outcropping of land in northeastern Spain. It has about 240 residents, who live in identical stone houses and barns. It is a place of poor farmland that was underpopulated.
2. Therefore, in 1950, dictator Francisco Franco offered to give peasants a house, a piece of property and a few farm animals if he/she would take up the trade of farming in the poor areas. It was hard going.
3. For the first four years, only seven families worked the land. Eventually more than 65 families settled in the town. But it was always poor.
4. Then, on December 22, 2011, at 9:57 AM, the entire population of Sodeto became winners of the biggest lottery in the world, El Gordo ("The Fat One").
5. Everyone in Sodeto held a portion of the winning number. The prize money was a combined 720 million Euros.
6. What happens when an entire debt-written farming community suddenly becomes incredibly wealthy? In this isolated case, very little.
7. Most of the families were highly indebted before the win, so that one thing that quickly disappeared were all the mortgages.
8. There are no overt signs of wealth in the town today, but if you peeked in the windows of their homes, you would see enormous flat-screen TVs and sleek marble countertops that appear brand new.
9. Perhaps most remarkable is the fact that nobody stopped working -- as farmers, truck drivers, and housewives. As one resident put it, "What we won was peace of mind."
10. Now I’m not encouraging buying lottery tickets. It’s a poor man’s dream, but a false one. Statistically, no one here will ever win a lottery; you’ll simply be throwing away your money & become guilty of bad stewardship before God.
11. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning, but do you really think you will be? No!
B. A REMARKABLE PARALLEL
1. This story caught my attention because it parallels what is going to happen to each one of us. You see, when we accepted Christ, we purchased the winning ticket in God's great lottery.
2. We haven't become instant winners, because there's a delay in the announcement of who the winners are, but you can be sure that God's Son is the winner, and all those who are with Him get portions of the winnings!
3. Just like Sodeto became a city of overnight millionaires, New Jerusalem will be filled with a population of overnight millionaires.
4. So I want us to take a few moments to consider, not a dusty hillside in northeastern Spain, but the gleaming capital -- God's eternal celestial city -- that when we fall asleep in death, we will awake to behold its beauty!
II. THE HEAVENLY SODETO COUNTERPART
A. SCRIPTURE
10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick. 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. 22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there” Rev. 21:10-25.
B. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE CITY
1. The Seven Names of the City of God are: the Holy City (verse 2, 22:19); New Jerusalem (3:12; 21:2); the Tabernacle of God (13:6; 15:5; 21:3); the Bride -- the Lamb's wife (21:2,9); the Holy Jerusalem (21:10); the Heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12); the Father's House (John 14:2).
a. It's called “holy” because there shall never enter into it anything that defiles, that contains abominations or lies (21:27).
b. It's called “new” because of its eternal freshness and newness, not because it is new in existence. It is as old as Heaven and was promised to the earliest saints on earth (Heb. 11:10-16; Ps. 93:2; 103:19).
c. It's called the Tabernacle of God because it is the dwelling place of God.
d. It's called the “Bride,” the Lamb's Wife because it will be the eternal home of the redeemed of all the ages (vs. 9; Heb. 11:10-16; 13:14; Jn. 14:1-3).
e. It’s called the “Heavenly Jerusalem” because it is the Jerusalem in heaven and not the one on Earth.
f. It's called the “Father’s House” because it is the abode of God and His heavenly family (John 14:1-3).
2. It's Origination and Preparation. Abraham looked for this city (Hebrews 11:10, 16). God described its preparation to Isaiah (54:11-13); of laying its foundations, setting its windows in place, and installing its gates. It was still under construction when Jesus returned to heaven (John 14:2-3). It will come down from heaven to be the capital of God on the new Earth.
3. It's Measurements. The city is in the shape of a cube (Rev. 21:16), just over 1400 miles in each direction. With 4 1/2 trillion cubic city blocks in the city and since only 20 billion people have lived since Adam, there should be plenty of room for everyone.
4. Its Materials. This city will be unparalleled by the wealth of any city in history. Instead of being built on native stone or soil, the ground of it is made of gold. Its walls are made of 12 layers of Gem stones, and its 12 gates are made of giant pearls. The gold of its streets and buildings is so pure that they are translucent, like glass (Rev. 21:18-21).
5. It’s Value. The biggest pure gold nugget ever found was found by John Deason and Richard Oates in 1869 near Victoria, Australia. It was 2 feet long and 1 foot wide and weighed 150 pounds. It would be worth 3 1/2 million dollars today. Think of how much more infinite New Jerusalem will be worth than this!
6. God's Dwelling with Men. This is confirmed by the fact that the foundation stones correspond to the High Priest's breastplate (Ex. 28:17-21) and that it’s shaped like the Holy of Holies! Rev. 21:11 describes it as glowing with the radiance of the Shekinah glory of God, so much so, that it needs no lighting system.
7. Some things this city does NOT have: No Temple; no sun or moon, no shutting of the Gates; no vile people will ever enter it (vss. 22-27).
8. What was lost in the Garden of Eden has been regained in the New Jerusalem (22:1-5). The River of Life flows there, the Tree of Life is available; there is no more curse; we see God's face and there will be no more night. Paradise has been restored.
III. REQUIREMENTS TO BE THERE
A. ONLY THE REDEEMED
“Therefore the Redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon [“crown” NIV] their head: they shall obtain ^gladness and joy [will overtake them]; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away” Isa. 51:11.
B. THOSE BORN AGAIN
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
C. THE FAITHFUL
1. A reporter asked the lady mayor of Sodeto, Rosa Serena, "Why did the lottery land here, in Sodeto?” Her answer was a smile and a shrug, and the answer which betrays divine participation, "It was a prize for those who stayed!"
2. “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” Mt. 24:13.
3. “They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.” Rev. 17:14.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A tourist in Switzerland visited a beautiful mansion surrounded by well-kept gardens. “How long have you been the caretaker here?” he asked the gardener. The answer was twenty years.
2. “How often does the owner of this property come here?” The answer was only four times in the twenty years.
3. “And to think,” said the guest, “you keep this property in superb shape just as though he might come tomorrow.”
4. The caretaker replied, “No,Sir! I look after these grounds as if I expected him to come today!”
B. THE CALL
1. Like the citizens of Sodeto, Spain, you will soon inherit a vast fortune – if you fulfill the criteria.
2. Are you one of the Redeemed of the Lord? Have you been “born again?” Are you going to “endure to the end?”
3. You are on the winning side! Those who overcome will inherit all things and enter into the everlasting joy and gladness of God. Make up your mind now to be one of that number!
