This Is Not a Place You Want to Go

This break that I hold, pushed the burning of the thirst I felt within. Hallelujah! Jesus said, “This was my longing.” Through His blood I now am saved. From the water ever springing, bread of life so rich and free, until wealth that never fails, Redeemer is to me. Hallelujah! I saw His praise that satisfies my longest blood, I now am saved.

Welcome, good morning. We’re going to kick things off by singing number 12, “Great Is the Lord.” So, words are on your screen. If you stand, we’ll sing.

The power He trusts in His blood, the Lord has mercy, He proves His blood. Great is the Lord, worthy of glory. Great is the Lord, and worthy of grace. Great is the Lord, now lift up your voice. Now lift up your voice, great is the Lord. Now lift up your voice.

Go over some quick announcements. Of course, don’t forget, next week is Mother’s Day, so just do what’s necessary and keep the little lady happy. But also, we’ll be having—it’ll be our second Sunday, so we’ll be having breakfast prior to Sunday school, and that starts at nine, and men will be doing. So ladies, you kind of come on in for a free breakfast, and then we’ll have Sunday school afterwards, and it’ll be awesome.

Okay, couple things to remember too. Fish fry on the 20th. I don’t think there shouldn’t be anybody here that wouldn’t come to a fish fry, so that’s going to be pretty awesome. And then the next day, the next morning, we’re going to have—it’s going to be Gideon Sunday, and we are honored to have Major General John Reynolds is going to be our speaker. He’s a Gideon. He—I don’t know if you’ve ever seen his resume. I got a little bit of it on here. He is amazing. West Point, but went into the—I think he was the first graduate from West Point to go into the Marine Corps. Don’t understand that at all, but that’s what he did. Became a two-star general, was a Rhodes Scholar, a guy smart as a whip, Rhodes Scholar, got his MBA at Harvard, was a White House fellow, worked in the White House, winner of the Bronze Star—that’s right below the Medal of Honor—got that in Vietnam, and is probably the guy responsible for Oliver North coming out to Christ. That is an amazing—you need to Google that up and see Oliver North’s testimony on that. It is—it’s amazing. But he’s going to be here to share his testimony, how he came to Christ, and about the Gideons and what they’re doing around the world, and it’ll be a treat to have him. He is a—that will be a wonderful testimony. So let me encourage you to be part of that.

Also you see on here, Vacation Bible School. I’ll be in July 17th through the 21st. If you can help with that, just get with Caroline. I’m sure she’s got a place for you, and it’ll be awesome. Also, we’ve been talking about helping out. I know Becky and Kristen with the summers on Wednesdays. If you can do that, we need—we’ve got about seven Wednesdays that we need some folks to kind of plug in on, and if you can help, that gives them a little break. So when the fall starts, they’re kind of ready to go. Really, middle of August starts, they’re ready to go. But we’re trying to give them a little bit of a break, and if you can help out with that, in the foyer is a yellow sheet with the seven day. In fact, Buck’s got it right there, and turn around and see that wonderful sheet. And if you can, that way you’ll—and all you’ve got to do, just do one Wednesday. You know, if we’ve got 14 people, you know, two per Wednesday, it’s for an hour, it would help them, and then you do your Wednesday, and we’ll appreciate that. So those are some things that are coming up, and remember, it’s not your church unless you get involved.

On the end, if you’re a guest with us today, on the end of your bulletin, a little tear-off sheet. If you wouldn’t mind filling that out and just leave it in your seat, or put it in the offering plate, or whatever, we would love to just may visit with you and tell you a little bit about this sweet church and just talk with you. So also, if you have any kind of prayer request, if you noticed, Angela is doing—the prayer sheet’s a little bit different. They’re inserts, and we’ve got shut-ins, active military, but You see on there a phone number or an email, and just put that on there, and she’ll get that. And take this home and just pray for it during the weekend. I know a lot of folks will appreciate that.

So what we’re going to do now is we’re going to just kind of, kind of welcome each other kind of quickly. We’re not having dinner, just welcome each other. Turn around, see an unfamiliar face, get on over to them, and let them know that you’re glad, and just say, “You look great today.” So let’s stand and welcome each other in the name of Jesus.

Great today. Most of you are standing. We’re going to turn back this way, and we’re going to keep singing. So our next hymn is number 52, “He Leadeth Me, O Blessed Thought.” So if you’ll stand, we’ll sing—or keep standing, we’ll sing. We’ll sing. Good job. Thank you, Lily Fran.

Okay, good. Man, you all look awesome. Okay, I’ve got a picture. I brought back a number of you. Anybody know what this is? What? You have no idea. Okay. Anybody? Anybody want to guess? What? It’s not an igloo. Close, but not. What? It’s a tomb. Any particular whose tomb? It’s actually, it’s what they believe actually would be Jesus’ tomb. This is in Jerusalem. A number of years ago, I was there. I actually went in that little place. And there was an interesting story about a lady that went in there and came out and goes, “Well, there’s nothing in there. And it is empty.” And the guy looked at her and goes, “Well, that’s the point. We don’t want anything in there.”

So why is this important? Anybody know? Well, that is where Jesus died. They laid Him. The fact that He’s not there anymore means what? He rose from the dead. So this is, this actually means, this is probably the great, when this happened, this is the greatest day in all of Christian history. This is a day that everything points to. And from us, everything points back to what happened on this day and that this place is empty.

See, Christmas is a neat thing because Jesus was born on Christmas. That’s His birthday, right? But if there’s not this, then it’s just another baby being born. And it’s just another birthday. If there’s not this, even with Him being crucified and dying for our sins, it’s just another guy dying on a cross. But with this, this is the most important day in the history of the world. Because Jesus didn’t stay in the tomb, did He? No. What did He do, little friend? He rose from the dead. Exactly right. He rose from the dead. And when He rose from the dead, that means He won over death and He won over sin, all the bad things we do. He won over all that stuff. And because He’s now bigger than all that stuff, we don’t have to worry about that. And when we love Him, then we don’t stay in tombs either. Our bodies, you know. But even His body came out of this thing, which is amazing to me, and walked around.

So I want you to always remember this. And it really is a neat place. And we actually did the Lord’s Supper at this place. So just always remember, the most important day in the history of the world is this day. Okay?

Okay. Well, let’s pray. Father, thank You for this day. Thank You for the fact that You beat up sin and You beat up death. And You did it for us. So that even if we die, we go to an incredible place. And we get to go there. And we get a second chance at that. And so thank You for doing that and loving us that much. And I thank You for these children and all the day. I know how much they mean to You. You just love kids. And so let them go have a good children’s church and be with Ms. Becky and just watch out over them. Amen.

Thanks, guys. Continue to worship in song number 290, “I Am Thine, O Lord,” is our offertory. So if you stand, we’ll sing.

Oh, bring me closer to Thee. Bring me to the cross where Thou hast died. Now we need us in long service, Lord. By the power of grace divine. Let my soul agree with a steadfast hope. And my will all still not swear.

Next time the choir is going to sing a newer tune, “Shout to the Lord.” So if you know it, please feel free to sing along. If not, listen. She is home. She fell. She broke her shoulder in three places. Had surgery. They didn’t put a plate, but they did, I think, rod and some screws. But she is home. And so just keep her in your prayers and everything will go with that. Keep Jane Sports in your prayers. Kathy.

And then I got a call this morning from Doris about Mithruth Christie’s husband, that he is, they don’t feel is very long for this world. So she was there with them all night. And so his name is George Vanderlip. And just keep them in your prayers also. And then you see those that are on the list here. So we want to keep them in our prayers.

And I want to do something a little bit different this morning. If I was to ask you just to not ask God for anything, I mean, do this later, but not ask God for anything, not thank Him for anything, not confess anything, just praising. You know, the Bible says He inhabits the praise of His people. It’s the one part of the prayer that we know that He’s going to be right in the middle of. And if I asked you to do that, how long do you think you could just praise God? We think we could do that for a while, but sometimes we confuse praise with thanksgiving. You know, we thank Him for things, but that’s different. Just praising is acknowledging who He is.

So here’s what I want you to do. We’re just going to take a little bit of time. I want you to, if you’ve got your Bibles, open them to Psalms 145. Psalms 145 to 150 is nothing but praise Psalms. You know, when Israel would want to just praise God, they just would sing praises. Well, they actually wrote them in the Bible. So Psalms 145 to Psalms 150 are nothing but praise hymns. And when you start, so I want you to do this for praise this morning. I want you to just read to yourself Psalms 145.

Another thing you can do is if you notice, many of our hymns are praise hymns. Now, if you can think of a praise hymn, you know, kind of a newer praise song that you want to sing in your head, that’s fine. But a great one is just number 10. Pick your hymn book out and do number 10, which is How Great Thou Art. That is nothing but a praise song.

So I want you to bow your heads, but I don’t want you to close your eyes because I want you to read. And all I want you to do is just use it to just praise God this morning and do something just a little bit different than just asking Him or confessing or thanking Him. Just praise Him. So let’s just do that in the quiet of the moment. Father, thank You. Just be who You are. All God’s people said. Amen.

A little exercise maybe you can do before you go to bed at night. Just pull out your Bible, go to the back of the book of Psalms, and just read one of those last six chapters. And just honor God for just who He is.

Got your Bibles. I’d like you to turn with me to the book of Luke, chapter 16. I’m going to start a little series called Let Me Tell You a Story. It’s on the parables of Jesus. I love just sometimes just opening the Word of God and just reading Jesus. I’m a story guy. I love stories. I love when preachers tell stories. All my heroes of preaching are great or storytellers, which probably is why I do what I do. It influenced me greatly. So I’m always amazed when people go, oh, I don’t want to. I don’t need to hear all those stories, all those illustrations. Just give me the Bible. I’m thinking, well, you probably wouldn’t like Jesus’ preaching because if there was anybody in Scripture that loved to tell stories, it was Jesus. I mean, He would look at the common person and just say, let me see if I can relate to that person and make something deeper a little bit easier to understand.

My preaching professor, Dr. Joel Gregory in seminary, used to say that the stories or illustrations are like windows to the text. And he’s right. Gives us sometimes a really neat perspective of God’s Word.

So we’re going to be in Luke chapter 16. We’re going to be looking at verses 19 through 31. If you’ll stand with me for the reading of God’s Word, we’ll read this together. If you’ll just follow along.

Now there was a rich man and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyfully living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. Not a very appealing picture.

Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.”

But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your life you received your good things and Lazarus his bad things. But now he is being comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.”

And he said, “Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, in order that he may warn them so that they may not also come to this place of torment.”

Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.”

But he said, “No, Father Abraham. But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”

But he said to them, “Well, if they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if somebody rises from the dead.”

Please be seated and thank you for standing in honor of God’s Word. I want to show you a picture. Morgan, can you throw that picture up? On 61, Live Oak Cemetery is just down the street from the road from my house. This sign was actually in the cemetery yard, which I thought was kind of an interesting sign. You know, “Property owners, please call 843-766-2391.” You think they can make any phone calls? Yeah, I bet they wish they could. Yeah, absolutely.

I thought this was interesting. You know, two things are certain in life. Death, we all die. Last time I checked, 100%. 10 out of 10 die. The other thing is this, and we’ll see it in this passage. You go to one or two places. You know, one neighborhood or the other. And usually that’s your choice. I believe it’s your choice.

So we’re going to get a perspective of Jesus telling this story. Now, I want you to understand this about parables. Number one, they’re stories, okay? Jesus is expressing eternal things in the confines of time. So for this reason, so you and I can understand them. He’s also doing it so these people can understand what He’s talking about. It’s an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. That’s what a parable is. And what Jesus is trying to do… He’s trying to take many times incomprehensible things and put them in comprehensible language. I just think that’s important.

So to look at this particular parable and sit there and say, well, you know, and we’ll talk about it in a little bit where the guy in hell can look up to the guy that’s in Abraham’s bosom or basically heaven and see, you know, Lazarus and Abraham up there. He’s just trying to create a picture so that you understand the bigger picture, okay? That’s what He’s trying to do. Again, it’s a parable. It’s a story. So that’s what we’re going to be looking at.

Now, with non-Christians, one of their biggest objections to Jesus many times is the concept of hell. They don’t like it. How can a loving God ever send anybody to a place like that? And not just do that, but do it forever. We’re going to discuss some of those perspectives this morning. I just think it’s because Jesus talked. Jesus talked more about hell than any other person. In fact, all other people in all of Scripture combined. And He probably talked more about hell than He did heaven. And there’s a reason because He didn’t want you to go there. I mean, Jesus literally gives us a second chance. And here He talks about this. And we’re going to talk about it too.

So as we look at Jesus’ description of hell, we’re going to see what I think are four descriptions of a place where you don’t want to go. And if you care about anybody, you don’t want them to go there either, okay? Now, the interesting thing about this particular parable is the contrast. There are so many different kind of contrasts in this parable. We’ll look at the different characters that are in this parable and how they contrast to each other. And then we’ll look about the different places with one in particular.

Number one, let’s look what it says. Now, there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor or luxury every day. Now, we get this guy who’s just referred to as a rich man. The Bible says that he dressed in purple. If you know anything about biblical times, you understand that the color purple or any dye, any piece of cloth that was dyed purple was pretty opulent. I mean, it cost a lot of money. It really was worn more by royalty than anybody else. And the fact that he wore this all the time even says something about his living conditions and who he was. He was somebody pretty special.

The problem was, as it just says, but there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple. Listen to this. And fine linen, and he joyously lived in splendor every day. Didn’t say he had occasional parties. This was a lifestyle for him. This was something he did all the time. This is a guy who not only dressed, you know, more than Ralph Lauren or any of those guys, but this was a guy that had it all. I mean, the big house, you know, the big car. He went where he wanted to, when he wanted to. And I want to tell you, if something was going on big, if there was an after party somewhere, this was the ticket to have. This guy had anything he wanted.

The problem with this guy, and I want to share this, too, with you. Being rich is not a bad thing, okay? Having money is not an issue. Money is, you know, is not the root of all evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. And this guy apparently loved money. In fact, as we look at this story, you know, we’re known in life for a lot of things. We’re known for our character. We’re known for some wonderful things we may or may not have done. All those things. This guy was known for one thing. At least in this passage. This guy was known for being a rich guy. But that was all he was known for. And if that’s all you’re known for, like I said, this isn’t like some Robin Hood thing. Where the rich guys get it. You know, they get their dealings in the end. The poor guy, you know, gets something good. It’s not like a spiritual Robin Hood story. Because being rich is not a bad thing.

One of the other characters in this story is a guy named Abraham. And if anybody had a lot, it was Abraham. Abraham owned a ton. But Abraham was a great man of faith. In fact, he’s in the hall of fame of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. Abraham was also known as a friend of God. He’s the only guy in all scripture that gets that title. So it’s not about being rich. Rich is not a bad thing. But if that’s the only thing in your life that defines you, if it’s the only thing in your life that is important to you, then we’ve got a problem. And the Lord has a problem with that.

So he’s rich. He’s rich and rich. He has luxury every day. And again, luxury means how he spent his time, his meals, his feasting. It was a picture of lazy self-indulgence. It was a picture of ultimate world security. I can buy my way out of anything. I can buy my way into anything. And that’s where this guy was.

Well, there’s a guy. Let’s talk about the contrast. The next verse, and a poor man named Lazarus. He was laid at his gate, covered with sores, longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sore. The other complete end of the spectrum.

Now, what is interesting about this is this is the only parable Jesus will tell that actually has a guy’s name in it. What Smith says, that’s pretty important. Nowhere else does Jesus’ name a character. His name is Lazarus. Now, what does Lazarus mean? Well, Lazarus mean is the Hebrew is Eleazar, which means God has helped. Well, you kind of go, well, where Did God help this guy? I mean, He can’t even get to the guy’s gate. And I want to tell you, when we’re talking gates here, we’re not talking some wooden gates and some wooden fence. We’re talking, when you look at the, you know, the lifestyles of the rich and famous, and they got those magnificent gates. This is the kind of gate this guy had outside his house. And they would come, this guy couldn’t even get to those gates, but they would bring this guy and lay him at the gate. And what this guy looked forward to is if he had a party the night before, and they threw away all the food and the crumbs that fell on the floor, this guy was probably going, you know, I might eat a little bit better than I normally do. I’ll get some crumbs from that. There’s nothing more than out of the trash bin. And that’s the picture of this guy. He can’t even get himself there. And he’s alone. He longed for the crumbs of the good food.

And here’s the other thing. Well, who’s his company? His company are the dogs. And if you know anything about dogs, in Hebrew times, they were, you know, wild. And people didn’t keep dogs. And they were always looking for trash. But the dogs were his only company. And the Bible says the only relief this guy gets while he’s here on earth is when the dogs lick his sores. What a picture. You’ve got the rich man who’s got everything. You’ve got a picture of Lazarus the beggar, which means what? Misery, suffering, pain. Can’t have two different ones. But I want to share something with you, folks. We’ve got Lazaruses everywhere. We’ve got Lazaruses all around us. We’ve got Lazaruses. Every church I’ve ever served in, we’ve got Lazaruses. And sometimes God kind of looks at us and says, what are you going to do with those Lazaruses? Yeah, they’re a pain. Yeah, they take up time. Yeah, they’re all kind of things. What are you going to do with them? Well, apparently this guy didn’t do anything with them. He was right out his gate.

Then we get a whole different picture here. Everything changes. Look what it says. Verse 22. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died and was buried. Well, apparently they both died about the same time. The Bible says that Lazarus is lifted up. Now, nowhere else in Scripture is this mentioned. But what we see is, if you go back to Jewish rabbinical writings, this is a pretty popular topic. And their perspective of going to heaven was the angels would come and get you. You see it in European artwork where the angels come and get you and they take you to heaven. Doesn’t quite get that picture with the rich guy. What’s it say about the rich guy? And the rich man also died and was buried. Doesn’t talk about angels taking him off. But it does talk about he got a funeral. I don’t know if Lazarus got a funeral. The rich guy probably had a great funeral. I bet a ton of people showed. I bet a lot of people got up and said, well, you know, gosh, he was a rich guy. Man, we had some great parties together. I’m sure he’s up there having a party. I’ve been to a few funerals where people I know probably didn’t know the Lord made some interesting comments. Well, they’re up there partying now. They’re with their buddies. Timothy McVeigh, who was responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing right before he went to the chair, pretty much said, well, I got nothing, no regrets. At least I’ll be in a lot of company when I get to where I’m going. No, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Death, the great equalizer. Last time I checked, there’s no U-Haul trailer behind the hearse. It’s pretty empty. You come into the world with nothing. You know what you leave with? Nothing. Then we stand before the Lord. And I want to share something to you. When we look at this passage, there’s no annihilationism, which is basically when you die, you cease to exist. There’s no oblivion. There’s no reincarnation. There’s no one with the force. There’s none of that. None of that is there. And so that’s what we get. Story of incredible contrast. It’s also a story of incredible dialogue. Now, we’re going to get a couple things. I want to go through four things here. Number one is this. Hell is a place of eternal physical. Look what it says here. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. Now, again, I want you to tell this. This is a parable. So this is a story. It’s not like if you’re going to go to hell, you’re going to look up and you’re going to see people in heaven. Be far from that.

My perspective of hell is this. It’s everything heaven is not. Everything heaven is, hell is not. Hell is a place of light. I believe hell is a place of darkness. Heaven is a place where you’ve got, I always tell folks this, when I know, when I bury a Christian, it’s a place where you have a perfect body, perfect mind. It’s in a perfect place because you’re a perfect Lord. Hell is just the opposite. You don’t have a perfect body in hell. You have a body of torment. When I think of heaven, I think of a massive family reunion, people waiting for you to come in and welcome you home. Hell is a place of loneliness, a place of eternal physical pain.

Look what he says here. He looks at him, he sees him there, and in 24 he cries out and says, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.” He’s still barking orders. Can you believe that? He’s still, he’s still barking orders.

Now what’s interesting about being a rich man is the Pharisees wouldn’t have liked this story because in Jewish thought, the only reason you were a rich man is because God blessed you. See, the reason you had all that you had is you must have done something good and God decided He wanted to bless it. Where Lazarus, on the other hand, the reason he was that way was because he must have done something bad and there must have been sin in his parents’ life and God didn’t bless him. So everybody would want to be a part of the rich guy.

In 1966, Simon Garfunkel came out with a song. Now it never made the charts, but it was on their Sounds of Silence album. It was called Richard Corey. Anybody ever remember that? Listen to the words. They say that Richard Corey owns one half of this whole town with political connections to spread his wealth around. Born into society, a banker’s only child. He had everything a man could want. Power, grace, and style. The papers print his pictures almost everywhere he goes. And Richard Corey at the opera, Richard Corey at the show. And on the rumor of his parties and the orgies of his yacht, oh, he surely must be happy with everything he’s got. He freely gave to charity. He had the common touch and they were grateful for his patronage. And they thanked him very much. So my mind was filled with wonder when the evening headlines read, Richard Corey went home last night and put a bullet through his head.

Of course, it’s kind of interesting. Listen, but I, I work in the factory. I curse the life I’m living. I curse my poverty. I wish that I could be, oh, I wish that I could be, oh, I wish that I could be, Richard Corey. Isn’t that how life is? We look at it and say, oh, they must have everything. Everything’s going great.

When Beth and I were in seminary, she worked for a large interior design firm. And two guys owned it. And they, I mean, they did all the big jobs. They did, they worked for multi, multi-millionaires. And she would, she said, I was just one of the little folks that did a lot of the, you know, the basic work and basic drafting and all those kinds of things. And she would sit there and say, but she, but she learned a ton, but she, she’s there once while they’d go out and they would go to a part of Fort Worth where all the wealthy lived, all the oil barons. And the guy could almost say, let me tell you what’s going on in that house, in that house, in that house, in that house.

When that defines you, and that’s what Jesus is saying here. He’s saying, He said, when that defines you and that’s all there is, there’s nothing else. It doesn’t impress God. And you end up in a place of eternal physical pain. I mean, this guy says, he says, can you get Lazarus? Look, I can just have a moment of just relief. I’m not asking Him to do much. Just put his finger in some water and take his fingertip and put that on my tongue. If I can just get a second of relief, I’ll take that. Do you imagine what kind of place that would be like? It’s not like it ever ends. It’s forever.

It’s not only a place of eternal physical pain. It’s a place of eternal memory. Look what he says here. Abraham looks at him. He’s still arguing with Abraham. He says, but Abraham said, child, remember, remember that during your life, you received your good things and likewise, Lazarus, his bad things, but now he is being comforted here and you are in agony. Remember, remember when you had opportunity. Remember when someone shared the gospel with you. Remember when you could have helped folks.

And I just want to share this too. Deal here is not so much that our good works, you know, talk about the great things of God, but it’s the great things of God that causes us to do the good works. God was all about Himself.Instead of looking up the Lord and say, Thy will be done, God ended up looking down at Him and said, Thy will be done. But you want it? It’s a place of eternal memory.

I want to tell you, people in hell will remember every opportunity they had to come to Christ and said, you know what? I’ll just do it later. No, I don’t need that right now. I’ll just, I’ll just go through this life, enjoy what I can, do all I can with all I can. And maybe when I get near my deathbed, I’ll come to Christ. It doesn’t quite work that way. We’re not guaranteed another moment. We’re not guaranteed the rest of this day. We’re not guaranteed tomorrow. That’s why in the Lord’s prayer, what does He say? Give us this day our daily bread. Can’t relive, you can’t relive yesterday. Yesterday’s done. And we spent so much time worrying about tomorrow. We don’t even enjoy today. So I’m just enjoying what the Lord has given us today. God wasn’t about that. He’s going to remember all those times.

It’s not only a place of eternal memory, it’s a place of eternal, utter hopelessness. Look what Abraham says. And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great chasm, listen to the word, fixed. So that those who wish to come over from here to you, they’re not going to be able to. And that none may cross over from there to us. It’s a place reconcilable. Once you’re there, you’re there.

I was listening to a sermon this week from a guy and he said at the end of his service, a Jewish guy came to him and said, Well, I’m one of God’s chosen. Are you telling me I’m not going to be able to go to heaven if I don’t accept Jesus? He said, pretty much. He said, well, my wife’s Catholic. She says, I’m going to have a second chance. I go to a place called purgatory. And he said, well, you’re both wrong. Folks, once we’re standing in the prison, it’s too late. It’s too late.

And what’s interesting here is what it says the rich man wants. He wants mercy. He says, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Place of eternal memory, place of utter hopelessness. You can’t cross that chasm. It’s irreversible.

T.S. Eliot said this. What is hell? Well, hell is oneself. Hell is alone. The other figure and all the figures in it. They’re merely projections. There’s nothing to escape from. There’s nothing to escape to. One is always alone.

Let me ask you this. When you’re alone, are you thinking about anybody else? Or when you’re alone or you’re in pain, are you thinking about anybody? I tell you, when I’m in pain, when I’m hurting, I’m thinking about Al. I don’t like to be. I don’t like to be hurting. I’m thinking about my pain. You ever been in bed at night and something’s bothering you? You did something to your foot or your arm or something. You’re just laying there. What’s on your brain? It’s you. You want to think about you? You’ve got eternity to think about you in a place called hell.

Last thing is this. It’s a place so horrible that you don’t want anybody else to go there. Wow. Look what he says here. Verse 27. He says, then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father’s house. For I have five brothers in order that he may warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment. I’m telling you, when you don’t want company, even, You know, be with you because of the pain you’re in, you don’t want them to experience it. You know it’s bad. He was so bad, he didn’t want anybody else to go through what he’s going through.

So he looks at, now, you’ve got to remember too, this is called Abraham’s bosom. This is what, in Jewish rabbinical writings, they would call heaven. Abraham was known as the father of faith. So Jesus is, again, telling them stories and things that they could relate to.

And Abraham sits there and says, nope, that’s not going to happen either. And he argues with him. He says, I’m not going to send him. They got Moses and the prophet. And do you remember what he says? He looks at him and he says, no, no, he argues with him again. This guy’s amazing. He said, no, no, they need somebody to come that’s risen from the dead. Send Lazarus. If they see someone who’s risen from the dead, they’ll respond.

Really? You know, there was a guy, another guy named Lazarus who rose from the dead. How’d they respond? Lazarus was walking around. They just wanted to kill Jesus more. And then when the ultimate person rose from the dead in bodily resurrection, in the name of Jesus, how’d they respond? How has the world responded?

See, Abraham says, let me tell you what they got that explains it all. They got Moses and the prophets. It’s called the word of God. And if people won’t respond to knowing who God is and how much He loves them and what He was willing to do for them, they’re not going to respond to some miracle because then they’ll just want another miracle.

When Jesus is up in Galilee and He’s doing all those incredible miracles, feeding the 5,000, walking on the water, raising people from the dead, doing all those things. Do you remember at the end what He does? He makes His turn back to Jerusalem because He’s heading to the cross. He doesn’t do as many miracles. And what happens? Everybody starts falling away. In fact, He even looks at the disciples. You going to leave Me too? See, people just wanted His miracles. It’s not about the miracles. It’s about Jesus. It’s wanting Jesus. And the main thing that’s so amazing here is what He did on the cross for us. And it’s all right here.

The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 3 that Jesus descends into hell. I think there’s two ways to look at that. Number one is this. I think He physically descended down there just to let all those demons know. I’m defeating sin or death. It’s coming true. It’s happening right now. And I am bigger than that. Jesus also descended into hell on the cross. Because here’s where I believe the hell of hell is. The hell of hell is being where you look at the backside of God forever. And you don’t get a second chance. You will never know His love to hell. Hell.

You know, when people import and die in our life, the closer the relationship, the bigger the pain. You lose a child or you lose a parent. You lose a sibling. You lose a best friend. You lose a spouse. Closer the relationship, the tougher the pain.

Imagine Jesus on the cross. Before time began, He was part of the Trinity. Jesus was part of the Father. He on the cross is not experiencing just the most incredible, crucial, physical pain. Jesus now looks at the backside of God like lost people will look at the backside of God. Out of His mouth comes these words. Remember them? My God, my God. Eloi, Eloi. Lama sabachthani. Why hast thou forsaken me? Broke His heart. Pour Him up.

Folks, you can never look at Jesus and say, you don’t know how I feel. Because He knows exactly how you feel. See, when you believe in the concept of hell, you believe in the concept of the love of God. Because you know what He did for you. The depths He went for you. The places He was willing to go for you. Because He loves you that much. You couldn’t do it, He did it.

I know it sounds like I’m doing rock and roll this morning, but here’s a song I thought was kind of interesting. It’s won one of the Grammys in 1970 by a guy named Joe South. Whoa, the games people play now, every night and every day now, never meaning what they say now, and never saying what they mean. While they wild away the hours in their ivory towers, till they’re covered up with flowers in the back of a black limousine. La-da, la-da-da-da-da-da-da, la-da-da-da-da-da-da-dee. Talking about you and me, games people play. Games are we playing, folks? I mean, what are we doing? Let me just kind of wind it up with this.

Imagine someone somehow gets your mail. Somehow it’s open and they kind of look at it. And then they come to you and say, “I’m sorry, this guy was thrown in my mailbox, but it was open and I just kind of glanced and I saw that you owed something, so I just went ahead and paid it.” You don’t know how to react to that, do you? I mean, I’m thinking, how would you react to that? Well, it depends on what they paid. I mean, if he looked at it and said that you just, you know, you needed some extra postage, and he popped on there an extra stamp, what would you say? Well, thanks. But what if it was a letter from the IRS and you owed about 10 years’ worth of back taxes, and he paid it? Probably fall down on your knees and kiss their feet. That’s what I’d probably be doing.

If someone took all your sin, it’s not whether you’re rich. It’s what you do with Jesus. Jesus says that’s what gets you into heaven. It’s not what you do, don’t do. You can’t impress God who you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich. You live in purple. You have luxury every day. What do you do with Jesus? What are you doing with Jesus? See, when we stand before the Father, He’s going to sit there and go, “What did you do with my son?” I sit there and say, “Well, that really wasn’t that important.” Okay, you’ve made your choice. Here’s the contrast. This is where you go for eternity with Jesus. This is where you go with eternity. You don’t want Jesus, then thy will be done.

Right now, you can probably think of someone in your mind who doesn’t know Jesus. If you’re here this morning and you don’t know Jesus, you’re not guaranteed anything. And I would love to sit and talk with you and tell you about and just say, let me tell you how He fulfills you, how He gives you purpose and meaning. He has a plan for your life. And all of a sudden, and even if you were like Lazarus at the rich man’s gate, let me tell you what awaits you forever. See, if forever is true, if eternity is really true, then really what we do here matters pretty much because of that.

So what are you going to do? I mean, what is, say you live to be nine, you live to be a hundred, what is a hundred years compared to eternity? Think about people that are closest to you. Do you want them to go there? Even if you go there, you want someone else to go there? And I don’t. I share that. I can remember, like I said, you’ve heard me talk about like when I was witnessing to my dad, “Dad, I want you to spend eternity where I’m spending eternity. Just wants that for you.” Firehands.

Father, tough parable. Wow. Spend and talk so much about hell that often. But if Your son did it, then I think it’s pretty important. If it was important to Jesus, it ought to be important to us. And Jesus came for that reason so that we wouldn’t have to spend an eternity in a place like that. A place of eternal physical pain. A place of eternal memory. A place of eternal utter hopelessness. And a place so horrible that we don’t want anyone else to go there. And you don’t want anybody to go there. You came that no one should perish but have eternal life. Make some stupid choices. Lord, help us to make a smart choice. Help us as we look at the world to sit there and say, let me tell you about what Jesus has not only can do for you, but what He has already done for me. Help us to do that. Help us to see the world as You see the world. They’re either a rich man or they’re Lazarus. They’re either lost or they’re saved. Help us to see the world is not our enemy, but the evil one is our enemy. Help us to do that today. In Your son’s name we pray. Amen.

Donnie, our hymn? Close this morning with number 448, “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” So your stand will sing. Some week this week. Don’t forget Wednesday nights. I’m going through to warfare with Jim Cimbala. And then we have, we usually have some great discussions.

So be part of that. And a meal. We always get a meal too. So Dan, what we got? Okay. You can’t go wrong with Baptist potluck, folks. I just want to be here. And Wednesday night’s just fun. We got kids and we got adults. It’s just, it’s just a great time. So be here. And that starts at 5:30, and then the Bible story starts at 6 with the kids. So again, Wednesday nights are just special, special.

Now don’t forget, guys, Mama’s Day next Sunday. Don’t mess that up. Okay. My wife does point systems for me. You know, you just lost a ton of points. So, so on. And just remember this again: you may be the only Jesus someone sees. You know, tell them not only what He’s done for you, but, or what He can do for them, what He’s done for you. You know, when you witness to someone, they can tell pretty much right off the bat if you’re just trying to get another notch on your gospel gun belt. You know what, what they usually, they just want to know you care.

Folks, if you give a, if you look at someone and said, “Look, I, I don’t want you, I believe that stuff. I, I, I want, don’t, I don’t want you to go there. I love you that much.” They’ll probably listen to you. And I think, I think just about everybody here had somebody in their brain going, “Man, I got it. There’s someone I know that if they died tomorrow, they, they, or tonight, they, they wouldn’t end up in heaven.” And that means something to you. So maybe do something a little bit about it this week. Maybe make a phone call or write a letter. You know, a lot of times when you write a letter, you can put down what you want to say. So let me encourage you to do that.

Let’s go to the Lord in prayer as we’re dismissed. Father, tough, tough parable. My son, what a one that started out a new series. I want to think called hell. But Lord, we don’t want to go there. And we want, we don’t want people we care about to go there. They just understood the importance and the duration and what it’s about. They don’t want to go there, especially with what the contrast of what they could have to help us. Maybe just give us wisdom this week, that Your Holy Spirit go before us, that You hear Your Holy Spirit inside of us. Give us the words and the wisdom to say the right thing in the right way at the right time. Be with us, Lord, till we gather again. We ask this in the name that’s above every name, the awesome name of Jesus, and all God’s people said, amen. Thank you, folks.