Matthew 6: 20-21, “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

In 2012, “The Optimist” magazine published an article that to be in the top one percent of earners globally, one needed to earn about $34,000 annually. I put that into Google to see what that would be in today’s money, and it worked out to be just over $46,000. The average annual income in Canada right now is $54,630. Why, Sean, are you even thinking about this? And, what does it have to do with the rapture and the end? These are all fair questions. I hope to answer them for you and me.

As I have been writing about lately and preaching about as well, the end is near. We who believe in the imminent Rapture are awaiting the trumpet call. But there is a judgment coming to all of us. Over and over in 1 Corinthians and Romans, we are reminded that we will have to give an account of our lives to the Lord after we are saved. How did we conduct the business of the Lord’s Kingdom here on earth while He was away preparing a place for us? John 14:1-6 leaves us with a promise that He will return for us. Are you and I ready to face the Lord?

According to Stats Canada, 53.3% of Canadians identify as Christian; that would add up to over 19,000,000 persons. In the US, about 63% identify as Christian. These numbers are not truly reflective of the saved. Let us be conservative and put Canada at 25% and the US at 30%, roughly half of the official stats. In Canada, we have about 10,000,000, and in the US, about 90,000,000 based on the recent census showing just over 331,000,000 living in the US. That means that we have about 100,000,000 Christians living in North America (US and Canada).

Now with the average tax rate, that $54,000 becomes about $40,000. If the average person were to tithe on their income after taxes, the Lord’s churches would bring in about $400,000,000,000 annually. In the US, the actual giving is about $100,000,000,000 or 30% of what it should be, and, in Canada, we are well under that.

What happens to all of us, me included, is that as the Lord allows us to make more money, we consume more and more of it on ourselves. We get the bigger house, the nicer car, the more luxurious vacations, and on and on. Now, in general, there is nothing wrong with that, but are we truly robbing God?

Malachi 3:8-10 says this – “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

There are many who will argue that tithing is an Old Testament law and that we are no longer under the law, and so we are not compelled to give. This article is not about tithing, so to speak, but I will simply say that Abram paid tithes to Melchizedek in Genesis 14 when God blessed him in war. He paid a tithe of the spoils of war, his profit, and that was made WELL before the law was established. Thus, tithing is NOT a law ritual. But that is a lesson for another day.

Back to where I was going; think of how many more we could reach for the Kingdom if we gave the $400 billion? Imagine what would happen if we kept the older building a bit longer, stayed in the tight little house, got used cars instead of new, settled for local vacations, and wore our clothes a year longer? Imagine how much more we could invest in the Kingdom of God?

Ah, but there is the rub. We want to see progress here in this temporal kingdom. We want the neighbors to know we are doing better, the kids to have better memories, and all of that stuff. But we forget that where our treasures are there will our hearts be as well. We have settled for earthly treasure, and we, for the most part, have not really invested in the heavenly Kingdom. Our hearts are tied to what we can see and not to what we can’t see.

One day, you and I will give an account of how we spent the monies that God gave us and how we re-invested that money in the eternal Kingdom. We cannot take the bigger house with us, the newer car, or the clothes; we can’t even take the vacation memories; we may lose even those in our new bodies. We have invested here in a house of smoke, and our resources are wasted. Most of us, not all, but most of us saved people have more than enough. How many of our churches spend millions on facilities and their upkeep? Do we really need bigger places? Do we need the latest and greatest equipment?

How have we spent the Lord’s money to fulfill the command of Matthew 28:18-20, The Great Commission?

Would you say that the church where you are uses a lot of resources to reach the lost? Is that the primary focus of your church? What percentage of the incoming funds go to missions, outreach and sharing the Gospel? How many churches could afford to adopt many kids, adopt a family, and help them get on their feet? How many churches could open and maintain a kitchen to feed the poor and needy? We would be able to staff with paid workers out of our churches, people ready to share the Gospel.

How many of our churches could help pay a medical bill for someone without insurance? We have church buildings being built in Africa now by churches in the US donating a sum of money, and this pays for the land and the material and affords a group their own place to meet. What if each church offered a Christian school for free so we could teach our neighbors about Jesus? What could happen around the world and here in North America if we gave just the $400 billion we should? How could we change the world for the Gospel?

Where is our treasure? Where are our hearts? Where is my heart? One day all of us will stand and give an account of how we spent the Lord’s money. How will that day go for you and me? Once again, this is not a salvation issue; it is a stewardship issue and a heart issue. As I get closer and closer to the Rapture, these thoughts come to my mind. I hope I am not being a killjoy about the Rapture. I, too, eagerly await the trumpet sound.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

In-person: every Sunday (10:30 am) at Bethany Baptist Church 70 Victoria Street, Elora, ON

Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/

Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca

Join us on Zoom every Sunday (10:30 am) for Sunday Service AND every Tuesday at 8:00 pm for Bible Study: Meeting ID: 700 794 460 Passcode: 032661; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/700794460?pwd=M3NFRG91ZW5Sa2Z3amVyWkFnYXd6QT09

Hebrews 5:7, “He offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue Him from death.”

Luke 22:44, “And being in anguish, He prayed more fervently, and His sweat was like drops of blood, falling to the ground.”

Hebrews 2:9, “But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

Pain – no one likes it. We often hear the phrase ‘No pain, no gain’ in reference to any kind of advancement in life. But in this case, only Jesus’ pain was of any significance to our eternity. If Jesus had not suffered pain, we would have no gain.

Of course, long before we get to the cross, Jesus suffered a lot of pain. He was betrayed by a friend, denied by His followers, and abandoned by them as well. He was tried before a sham court of jealous men who feared His popularity more than His doctrine, and eventually, He was sentenced to die in the place of a known dissenter who was guilty of the real crime of murder.

In Luke, we see Jesus in the garden sweating drops of blood. This was the result of a medical condition called hematidrosis or hematohidrosis, which is a very rare medical condition that causes you to ooze or sweat blood from your skin when you’re not cut or injured. This illness is a reaction to severe stress and emotional pain.

One of the hardest things to get into our heads (well, my head) is that Jesus, as a human, experienced things that God could not and did not experience. He became hungry, He got tired, He had to relieve himself as we do, He got thirsty, and He could feel pain. Up to this point, Jesus had never felt pain in a physical sense. He was spiritually perfect, and as such, His body did not suffer the breakdowns that we experience as we get older. Jesus had been pain-free for His entire life. He was never sick; remember, He could touch people with leprosy and not have to worry about them getting Him sick; rather, He got them well. So, this journey to the cross was about to be an experience that Jesus had never experienced.

Jesus’ pain began in the form of being hit in the face and slapped. He went from there to being beaten, had His beard ripped from His face, and had the famous crown of thorns placed on His head. In Isaiah, we see this prophecy about His face (Isaiah 52:14). But many were amazed when they saw Him. His face was so disfigured, He seemed hardly human, and from His appearance, one would scarcely know He was a man. The beautiful Son of God disfigured by His creation. The very men that He had fearfully and wonderfully made disfigured Him with their fists. His love for them kept Him there, submissive to the will of His Father and to the plan to offer redemption to the world. Yes, even to the men who abused Him.

But the pain was just beginning; once this beating was finished, He would be placed on a cross and nails driven into His hands and feet. I cannot imagine the sheer fear in His eyes as He sees the spike placed on His flesh and the hammer raised; the first hit and the pain that came must have drowned out the noise in Heaven for a while. I can see God the Father restraining Michael the Archangel from killing everybody (added by me). Jesus screamed in pain, and then the hitting went on and on, then the other hand and the feet. Once He was secured to the wood, the post was raised and dropped into a hole; it was here that this Psalm could have been fulfilled: Ps 22:14, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.”

The drop had the potential to dislocate His already extended arms and cause even more pain. Jesus stayed on the cross because He wanted to. In Hebrews 12:2, we see this awesome verse about His love and attitude, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

For the next 6 hours, from 9 am to 3 pm, Jesus would experience pain with every breath as He struggled to breathe. Death came slowly on the cross; it took forever to die, and that was the point. Your brain forced you to pull up to breathe, and it hurt, and then the drop-down after each breath hurt as well. There were no breaks as well; every time He pushed up to breathe, His raw back scraped against the wood of the cross and thus added another layer of pain. Those few hours must have felt like an eternity to someone who had never been in pain.

You and I live in pain from the time we are born. We hunger, we get too cold, too hot, we get sick, colds, the flu, fevers, and the like. We fall and scrape our knees, break bones, split a lip, etc. As we get older, the pain of getting older, like heart disease, cancer, and other things that happen to our bodies, get us accustomed to pain. It is simply a part of life. Jesus had no such experiences. His perfect, sinless body simply had not suffered up until now. Jesus went from no pain to the most excruciating pain ever experienced in a matter of hours.

Jesus stayed there to be obedient to God the Father. John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.” And because He knew this was the only way to redeem us from sin and Hell. In Ephesians 1:4-5, we see this: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

Jesus’ pain is our gain. As we approach the end of the age and the world around us turns more and more hostile to the Lord Jesus and us, His people, it may be that we will have to suffer some pains before He comes to get us. I think about this: how will I react? What will I do? Will I be a Peter or a Daniel? Will I sing in prison like Paul and Silas or cower in the shadows like Nicodemus? We in North America have not had to suffer much for the cause of the Cross. What happens when we are called upon to suffer the pain for Him?

One day soon, we will see the scars on His hands and feet; we will see the scar on His side from the spear that a soldier thrust into Him, and one day, we will see the One who suffered pain so that one day He could take away pain forever. What a day that will be…

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

In-person: every Sunday (10:30 am) at Bethany Baptist Church 70 Victoria Street, Elora, ON

Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/

Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca

Join us on Zoom every Sunday (10:30 am) for Sunday Service AND every Tuesday at 8:00 pm for Bible Study: Meeting ID: 700 794 460 Passcode: 032661; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/700794460?pwd=M3NFRG91ZW5Sa2Z3amVyWkFnYXd6QT09