God's Bank

All our regular pastors were away this week at church, so we had a member of our church, Roger, who was a former Church of Christ minister, but has since converted to a Baptist give the sermon. The sermon was based around the idea of money, and how it is presented in the bible and what we should do with it. This was a story that Roger told to our congregation.

There was a rich man, who was considered successful in ever sense of the word by his peers. He was an admired and respected man, and he was well liked. On his way to work one morning, he had a heart attack and passed away. At the gates of heaven, his life was reviewed and he was deemed worthy to enter the Kingdom of God. He was shown to his room, which was nice, nothing like the opulence he was used to, but it would certainly be a comfortable place to stay. The man noticed that there was no food in his room, so he set off to the shops to stock his pantry. He found an adorable little grocery store, and there was a beautiful angel serving at the cash registers. The man finds that the store has all his favourite foods, and he quickly fills his trolley with the food he loves. He then lines up to pay. The line is quite long, but the man doesn't mind. Afterall, this is Heaven! Where else would he rather be? The man is greeted with a smile by the angel as she scans his items. The time comes to pay, and the man pulls out his Visa card and gives it to the angel. The angel scans it, and says with a sad smile, "I'm sorry sir, this card has been declined." No problem, thinks the man, I have plenty of other cards. He pulls out the next card in his wallet, and once again, the card is declined. The man pulls out every one of his credit cards "surely one of these must work?!" he says to the angel. The angel examines all the cards and hands them back to the man, "I'm sorry sir, you do not have the right card to purchase from the Kingdom of God. You need a card from God's Bank, it's white and has a single magnetic strip." The man immediately replies "well where can I get one of these cards?" Again, the angel smiles sadly and says "if you have funds with the bank of God, you would have already been issued with a card." The man now appears angry "Well, where is the Bank of God? I will go and deposit all I have into my account." The angel replies "There is only one way to deposit money into your account. Everytime you give to others on Earth, whether it be your money or your time or your belongings, you invest in the Bank of God, and it is held in trust for you until you arrive in Heaven. The only funds you have in Heaven are the funds you spend on others on Earth."