Week 36 (1 - 7 Sep): The Best Investment

Pastor Eng Siong (ES) shared an interesting and relevant message on Saturday at YMCA. The main point of the message was drawn from Matthew 19:16–30.

A rich young man asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to keep the commandments. The man replied that he had done so since youth. Jesus then said that if he wanted to be perfect, he should sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow Him. The man couldn’t do it because he was very wealthy; he valued his possessions more than his eternal life.

Through this story, Jesus teaches that we can’t earn eternal life through our own deeds but only through God’s power. Jesus also reveals that it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom if they cling to wealth. When Peter asked what reward the disciples would receive for leaving everything, Jesus promised eternal life and blessings far beyond earthly riches.

ES, who is trained in finance, brought us to the concept of Return on Investment (ROI) as an analogy to Matthew 19:16–30. The rich young man invested his life in earthly wealth, comfort, and security, but his returns were temporary—his riches could not follow him into eternity. Jesus, on the other hand, calls for a new kind of investment that brings an eternal ROI.

ES rightly put up the investment equation to contrast earthly ROI and Kingdom ROI. The upfront cost for kingdom investment is total surrender plus obedience; the net profit includes love, peace, joy, eternal life, heavenly treasure, and transformed lives. We can find God’s promises in seeking His kingdom in Deuteronomy 28:1–6. I pray that the blessings of obedience we read here are enough to stir our hearts in choosing which investment we should follow.

ES also shared that we can look up to the heroes of the faith in the Bible—Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Paul. They received significant blessings from God and left profound generational legacies through their faith and obedience. Esau, on the other hand, portrayed a foolish investor who traded his birthright for a meal. This brought us to the verse in 2 Corinthians 4:18:

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

We don’t need to be financial experts to know which investment gives the best ROI. But we need to reflect: what are the things holding us back from fully surrendering to God? If you find anything too hard to let go, remember Jesus says, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (v.26).

At the end of this investment-themed message, I pray that we are stirred and excited to learn about the eternal ROI, and to respond to Jesus’s calling to invest in His Kingdom.

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