The Fire Fighters, Victums And Heros

The firefighters Luke 16:19-26

First of all the Rich Man was immune to the need.

Notice (v.20) that Lazarus sat at the rich man’s gate. Now what do you do with a gate. Yup, you go in and out. Thus the rich man would have passed by Lazarus everyday. He saw him. He got used to seeing him. Now Lazarus would have been hard not to notice. He has dogs licking his sores; he is covered in shores from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head.

The rich man had to have saw him. Yet, he became used to what he saw.

At first he was just repulsed till slowly Lazarus became invisible.

Church we are doing the same. We see people all the time that are in need. Yet, we have become immune. We have just become used to the fact the people are headed for a Christ-less eternity. We see them. Those people over there. They have huge gapping holes in their hearts and lives yet we have become used to that fact. Oh, but that too hard. It takes too much time. I am not a good speaker, I don’t know my Bible enough.

Who cares meet the need. When you signed on to this Jesus thing you signed up to snatch people from the fire.

The second thing the rich man did was to ignore the need.

Scripture tells us that Lazarus begged for a crumb. Just a crumb from the rich man’s table. All Lazarus needed was for his need to be meet. Yet, the Rich man chose to ignore his need and walked on.

Church that has become our mindset. We ignore the need. And let us not kid ourself it is a conscience disision. The Rich man did not even acknowledge Lazarus.

Church have we turned into a Holy Huddle! Oh, we have of hymns, our bumper stickers, T-Shirts and kinds of other stuff all the way down to “Christian” breath mints. All that is great. But it is not going to save a soul until we break the huddle and go into action tell the good news. The Rich man was comfortable. Church have we become so comfortable that we will not become un comfortable (yes, that mean change) to reach the lost.

Recently I have made myself uncomfortable. I went to a 2 day training session for the Ok. KEEP program. Explain KEEP. I now teach at that Hardor House. It is a place for kids with special learning needs. Out of the 18 there are 2 or 3 “church” type teens. When I have conversations with the other teens I can tell that they need the love of God. They need some forgiveness, purpose and direction in their lives. And as soon as I am done with that in the next few weeks I will start work on getting myself into the Choctaw High School or another receptive place.

1 other quick example. One is Barry McMerty he is the Sr. minister at Southland Christian Church. There attendance in the several thounsands. He is from Australia were he worked with churches that had 30 or 20 in attendance. At the church he now attends he hates the music. Is it up beat and contempry. He grew up singing hymns. Yet, he says the reason he sings the chorces is because he knows that his kids, and grandkids like and will come to worship there because of it. So he puts up with it. Besides the teenagers time is come. There kids won’t like there music either.

Church we can not longer ignore the need of others around us. That need is Jesus.

The third thing that the rich man failed to see was the need in his own soul.

The Rich man forgot “Don’t just attend to your own affairs.” He fail to recognize that in by becoming immune to Lazarus by ignoring him that his own soul was affected. He had let his heart become jade by the world.

All the Rich was concerned about was himself. I don’t know maybe because he was rich people were constantly asking for money from me. Maybe. But here is a guy right by his front gate, wanting just a crumb from the table and even that seems a bit much for the Rich man to consider. Are you at bit jaded or is you heart still soft enough for God to use?

Because the rich man failed to see that need of his own soul that are consequences.

1st consequence – Hell is a world of extremes. V.24

Hell is a world of extreme suffering. The Rich man says “I’m in pain, agony. I want some relief. Notice also that Hell is a physical place. The Rich man says “I want water” and “I suffer” both physical.