Preach "The King Has Come" 3-Part Series this week!
Preach Christmas week

Sermon Illustrations

The rich man had no excuse as Lazarus sat right outside his gate. He can’t claim that he didn’t know or didn’t see the poor. Sound familiar? “I don’t know any poor.” We live in the suburbs so we don’t have to see the poor. We applaud laws that keep the homeless from sleeping where we can see them like in the parks. We pay our taxes declaring that it is the government’s problem and I’ve done my part. We might even donate fifty bucks here and there to the City Mission believing that we are not like this rich man who did nothing.

In centuries past, people could honestly claim that they did not know the suffering of people in Third World countries. But with the technology of TV, satellite, and the Internet, the poor literally are sleeping at our gates.

Claims of ignorance by the rich man and for his brothers are rejected. God has given all of us the information that we need, we can’t even blame Him. God has given us the warnings that we need. Will the five brothers repent? While we are not sure, the flavor of the words seem to imply that there is a good chance they might not. But ultimately Jesus is still speaking to us, you and I, and asking if we will repent?

Related Sermon Illustrations

Related Sermons

  • Do Something: Be The Hands And Feet Of Jesus

    Contributed by Chris Jordan on Jan 30, 2015
    based on 3 ratings
     | 48,897 views

    God has called us, His church, to be the hands and feet of Jesus to take His justice and mercy into the world, to minister to the lost, the poor and the broken.

  • The Poverty Mindset

    Contributed by Jeff Van Wyk on Apr 13, 2013
    based on 4 ratings
     | 40,643 views

    One false concept is that poverty has some mysterious refining qualities. Some believe that it is spiritual to be poor. That is not the way God lives and neither does He want us to live that way. Just look how He blessed Abraham. The Bible teaches us that

  • I’m Gone Get To My Better Series

    Contributed by Charles Jones on Jun 30, 2012
    based on 1 rating
     | 28,685 views

    You may know that God wants to save you. You may know that God wants to heal you. But do you also know that God wants to prosper you?

  • Lazarus And The Rich Man

    Contributed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer on Aug 2, 2012
    based on 4 ratings
     | 18,822 views

    It has become common practice to see as the whole meaning of this story that the rich should help the poor... But this particular story especially, if one allows oneself to be affected fully by its original meaning, is a very concrete proclamation of the

  • The Rich Man And Lazarus

    Contributed by Christopher Holdsworth on Sep 14, 2013
    based on 7 ratings
     | 16,280 views

    Death is the great leveler. Not all rich men go to hell, nor do all poor men go to heaven. It was how Lazarus lived his life before God, and how the rich man squandered his opportunities, that determined their differing destinies.