Luke 16:19-31 (NIV) - The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

²²"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³In hell,[a] where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

²⁵"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

²⁷"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, ²⁸for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

²⁹"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

³⁰" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

³¹"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

Our commission and call is to keep people out of Hell.

1. A spirit of intersession: PRAYER

A. Luke 16:24 - “have pity on me”

(1) On earth, the rich man did not have time for things of God … he waited too long …

(2) Did not have time to pray on earth

(3) Did not want to pray

People cry out to God in hell – He does not hear them but they are crying out.

B. Isaiah 55:6 – “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.”

· If we want revival we must get back to prayer and intersession.

C. James 5:16 – “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

(1) There is power in prayer

(2) TOO OFTEN … We have to get to the place where we get desperate in our prayer lives. Why, should we not continually be desperate for God’s power!

In hell right now there is prayer.

God responds when we pray now … BUT He will not respond to prayers in Hell.

D. We find the rich man (in Hell) praying on behalf of his family: Luke 16:27-28 - "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

· When was the last time that you were pleading desperately for those that you love who are lost?

We need to cry out to God.

We need to cry out…

1. Desperately

1. We need to become desperate For God

2. Get to the place of wanting God more than anything else

3. Putting everything else aside

o When we remove the distractions of this world, we find our relationship with God grows – ie. Mission trips and camp!

In hell they are desperate and are crying out and nothing is more important than the salvation of a lost soul.

2. Deliberately

a) We must become intentional about our prayers

b) We have to begin to pray on purpose, and with intent.

c) We should have a scheduled time of prayer

In hell the people are very deliberate about their prayer they want out, they want their tongues cooled.

3. Determined

a) We must be single minded in our focus

b) Not letting anything get in the way of our prayer life

4. And we must be Broken

· Get to the place to where it breaks our heart to know that there are those who do not know Jesus and are going to hell if we don’t intercede for them.

Brokenness on earth makes openness in Heaven.

I want to be a gap person –

Ezekiel 22:30 - "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.”

Are you willing to stand in the gap for others?

2. A desperate THIRST

A. While serving in Haiti, we came to understanding of what it means to thirst … it is a craving that is deeply instilled in our physical being that let us know we need more water. A craving that is almost uncontrollable until it is fulfilled.

B. Do we as believers ...

(1) Thirst for righteousness

(2) A thirst for worship services

(3) A thirst for a personal quiet time with God

(4) A thirst for a sermon

(5) A thirst for an opportunity to worship God

C. We need to be Desperate for God

John 7:37 – “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”

D. We need a thirst for Holiness and not manmade Holiness full of what you can’t do - A godly holiness (my life verse)

1 Timothy 4:7-8 – “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

In Hell there is unquenchable thirst.

E. Our youth group adopted the phrase “Unquenchable thirst for God” about two years ago …

(1) Do we as a youth group truly have an unquenchable thirst for things of God?

(2) Do we as a church truly have an unquenchable thirst for the things of God?

(3) Do you as a Christian have an unquenchable thirst for God?

3. A burden for the LOST

· Luke 16:25 - "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.”

(1) Hell has Moms and Dads that raised rebellious children that turned their back on God – it is now too late for them to impact their children!

(2) We must have a burden for the lost

(3) “In your life time…”

a) Take time to consider that phrase

b) You have “now” … what are you doing with it?

(4) In Hell they remember. . . when they could have chosen God … there is thought of others who will follow them there!

Luke 16:27-28 - "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

(5) Our mission is not to satisfy church people it is to win the lost.

Psalms 126:6 – “He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.”

a) Weeping for the lost

b) We often spend too much time on “church” people and not enough time reaching the lost!

c) We are not competing w/ other churches.

d) We are here to complete people not compete against them.

e) What a revival we could have if no one cared who got the credit and Christians worked together to win the lost for Jesus Christ.

f) We in churches try to make people happy who have never been happy, and will never be happy.

g) We are to be the salt of the earth, salt makes people thirsty, and do you make people thirsty for Jesus?

Our focus must be on the LOST!

4. A vision for HEAVEN

1) The rich man had a vision for place he could not go

2) How would we live if we had heaven in mind?

3) How would it be If we did everything with heaven in mind?

4) What would it be like if we did church with heaven in mind?

A. It is time for us to put aside our own agendas, time to stop trying to set our own little kingdoms on earth, and get busy working for the kingdom of God.

a) We can’t do things with heaven in mind because we are too busy having our own agenda in mind.

b) We don’t care about how God want our church to operate; We just want to be sure we get recognized for what we do.

B. If we could get SELF out of the way long enough, we might see something accomplished for the Kingdom!

Everyone in hell right now would love to trade places with anyone of us!

a) They would not have to be begged to attend church.

b) They would not have to be begged to pray.

c) They would not have to be begged to seek The Lord.

d) They would not have to be begged to try to win the Lost

e) They would not care who got the credit for the work.

f) They would have a kingdom mindset.

CONCLUSION

4 Things Hell has that the Church needs …

1. Prayer

2. Thirst

3. Burden for the Lost

4. Vision for heaven

They have it in Hell why can’t we have it in CHURCH?

A. If it was in my power I would send some folks to hell this morning;

1) Not to leave you there just so you could see it.

2) I believe Your concerns would change

B. If we were to catch a vision of hell our lives would never be the same.

1) We could no longer be half hearted about our relationship with Jesus.

2) We could no longer be uncaring about the lost.

3) We would have a prayer life like no other.

4) We would be the evangelist God called us to be.

C. Don’t wait my friend until it too late to allow god to work in your life.

· Don’t be in hell on day saying “I remember Pastor Lee preached on this and I paid him no attention”.

DON’T WAIT!!!