We Need To Claim Our Prize

I don’t know about anyone else, but there’s always been that thought inside my head that says, “If I won the lottery, what would I do with the earnings?” Imagine winning the Powerball jackpot. Suddenly, you go from making thousands of dollars to possibly over $1 billion. That kind of money isn’t just life-altering; it’s a generational shift. Your family, for generations, is now set up to be financially stable. Having the winning ticket could change everything. Even if it was a “lower-tier” winner, like the $1 million prize, how incredibly huge could that be? Could you imagine having the winning ticket in your hands? I couldn’t get it to the ticket office quickly enough to get that money. Now, I’m not saying you should go out and start playing the lottery, but could you imagine not redeeming it?

Believe it or not, just a few months ago, two $1 million winning tickets were left unredeemed in Kentucky and Texas. Each ticket was for the same amount and was won on the same day, July 19, 2023. If the ticket from KY goes unclaimed, that money will go to the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship through the Unclaimed Prize Fund. If the ticket from Texas remains unclaimed, the money will go to state programs authorized by the Texas Legislature. In other words, if they don’t claim their prize, someone else will reap the benefits.

On the same day that those tickets were purchased, someone in California purchased a winning Powerball ticket that won the Powerball jackpot worth $1.08 billion. As of January 9th, that still hadn’t been redeemed. I can’t fathom having that ticket in my possession and not cashing it in. How could anyone be promised something that incredible and not accept their winnings? Who would ever win that kind of jackpot and just ignore or blow it off? The truth is, most people do that every day.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:20–23

We are all promised one amazing gift: eternal life with God through Jesus. It’s the greatest lottery ticket anyone could win, and everyone has the ticket. The insane thing is that most will never cash that ticket in. God sent Jesus for redemption or the buy-back of our sins, and most will never accept that redemption and will choose to continue living in it. They will continue to let sin reign in their lives, ignoring the amazing gift that is offered to them. This is not why God let His Son die on a cross. He desperately wants us all to cash in.

One of my favorite parables is the Parable of the Banquet Feast. In Bible times, weddings were celebrated with elaborate feasts that everyone in town would attend. People would celebrate for days on end and would relish the opportunity to be in attendance. It was a true celebration of two families coming together and the union of two people as one. It would have been considered horribly rude not to attend a wedding feast you were invited to, yet this is the very thing Jesus talks about in this parable.

“A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”
Luke 14:16–24

God has prepared a place for us, and we NEED to accept the invitation. He wants His house full, but he wants it full of people who want to be there. When I read that parable, I begin to realize that Jesus isn’t talking about people outside of the faith. He’s talking about believers. The Jewish people. The people who should be in already are the ones that are denying Him. This is why Christ had to come.

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:10

We have the winning lottery ticket. We have a grand prize that trumps any monetary award we could ever receive because our prize is eternal. How could we possibly have that kind of prize in our hands but just never claim it? I can’t think of anything more insane than that. Why does this happen? We don’t think eternally. 

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
James 4:13–14

Christ’s sacrifice redeemed us so that we could have an eternal reward. Our only job is to give him our lives and claim that prize. That’s one heck of a winning lottery ticket.