October 1, 2010

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Jesus the Way to the Father Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:1-6

If there was ever a person who is qualitifed to comment on how to have a "Happy Ever After" it would be Jesus. He is the Only One Who came from eternity into time and in this text preparing to return.

Because Jesus knows His impending departure will be a serious blow to His disciples He begins preparing them for it, as well as comforting them regarding their "Ever After". Let's listen in and learn.

Here are three hopeful facts that Jesus shares with these followers:

1) The Reality of Hope

There is a life after this life and a place after this place! In fact, the eternal life and the eternal place are actually MORE real than life on this planet!

Jesus assures them that He is returning to this greater reality and will be preparing an "Ever After" place for them. Even though death is real and the pain and despair associated with death can be overwhelming, Jesus reminds them of what IS real - the greater reality of eternal life!

Hope is the result of getting in touch with a greater reality. Jesus is the Way!

2) The Reason For Hope

What is the difference between hope and wishful thinking?

The answer is simple: JESUS!

Because Jesus is the Word, when He says there is an eternal place that He is preparing for us that is a fact! That fact is reason to hope!

But Jesus is not just the Word, He is also the Way to the eternal place. Not only does He tell us about this hope, He provides the hope! He is the Hope because He is the connection between our faith and His Father!

3) The Relationship of Hope

Jesus was facing a very terrible and trying final week of His earthly life. Not only was He teaching about hope He was reaching for some hope Himself. As He reminds His followers of these faith facts, He is reminding Himself.

His hope is found in His knowledge of His Father and His relationship with His Father. And He had this hope because of His obedience to the will of His Father.

That is the key to your hope as well! Hope is found by trusting Jesus and living in obedience to God. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life - the Way to what? He is the Way to the Father. The Truth about what? The Truth of who we are and Who He is and the obedience we need to please God. And, He is the Life, the eternal life that transcends our brief visit to planet earth!

Hope is found in a faith relationship with God through Jesus!

So, as we think about "Happily Ever After", know the reality of hope, the reason for hope and the relationship of hope! And then grab ahold of that hope!

September 30, 2010

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." Jesus the Way to the Father Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:1-6

Jesus was preparing His disciples for his impending death and departure.

First, He wanted to get them focused beyond the grave. Death brings separation and seems very final to those who lose loved ones. Jesus wasn't looking forward to being separated from them and He knew they were not ready to be separated from Him. This was going to be some difficult days. Jesus was about to be arrested and abused and saddistically murdered. If they are not focused beyond death and the grave they will be devastated.

Second, He wanted to give them a big picture idea of where He would be and plant in their spirit the possibility of them being able to come and join Him some day. Just as He would have a safe and serene place to be for eternity, so would they if they will follow Him. Just as they believed in His life they must believe in His death and His "happy ever after".

We are the beneficiaries of this assurance Jesus gave to His disciples. Over the next few days we will learn about this eternal place where Jesus went and where the disciples have subsequently joined Him. Understanding that this place exists, what it is like and how to get there is crucial to having peace when death invades us to steal a loved or when it stares us in the face. When we can look beyond death to a better destination we can take courage to face death.

There is a very real sense in which Jesus came to live to teach us how to live. But He also came to prepare to die. He prepared us to die by assuring us that real life begins on the other side of death. And just as the Father created a beautiful place for us to live our 70 plus years, He also has created an unbelievably incredible place where we can live our eternity.

Don't you want to know about THAT place?

Stay with me the next few days! It will be "Heavenly"!

September 29, 2010

"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.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them." 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "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.' " Luke 16:27-31

For the past few days I have been sharing about the topic of urgency. God has been pushing this button in my heart since I studied this text for my message Sunday. As I prepared for Sunday morning I was moved and challenged by these last four verses of chapter 16 which picture the formerly rich man trapped in hell. It wasn't until he found himself condemned to this horrible fate for eternity. It was almost to unbearable but he was moved with an urgency to reach his loved ones and spare them his terrible fate.

I had to examine my own sense of urgency toward spiritually unprepared people. As I meditated on this condemned man and reflected on my own experience, I realized that the enemy of urgency is complacency. So, I asked myself, "What turns urgency to complacency?" I came up with three attitudes that rob urgency and faster complacency.

The first is success. Being successful can be cause complacency especially when you presume that your success is a direct result of God's blessing you. You reason that since He is blessing you then you must ok spiritually. Once you buy into that thought you begin to become careless.

The second we talked about was excess. Once you get too much "stuff" it distracts you from your primary purpose and passion for living. With all that stuff you have to guard it and grow it and get more of it. If success = blessing and blessing = stuff then the more stuff the bigger the blessing. That happened to the rich man and it can happen to you!

Thirdly, complacency can replace urgency because of access. This rich man had access to have compassion and help Lazarus, but he didn't. He remained detached and unaffected by the needs of this desparate man. Because he was unmoved by the needs of the man, he became complacent.

Everyone of us who want to live with passion and urgency need to stay connected with spiritually needy people. We need to have some good friends who are spiritual seekers. We need to befriend those who have an interest in spiritualility but who have not yet been exposed to the gospel. The only way to get an urgency or a burden to reach spiritually lost people is to spend time with them. Make time in your schedule to play golf with them or have coffee with them or go fishing with them or hunting with them, etc. Spend time in their world so you learn how to connect with them and lead them in to our world.

I am glad someone had a sense of urgency about my salvation. I want to be that for others.

How about you? How is your urgency for the lost?

If you don't care enough about lost people, get into a civic club or a golf league or a bowling league, some place where you can spend time with non-believers and begin to reach them for Christ. That will generate a sense of spititual urgency that is healthy and necessary to complete the Great Commission.

Fight complacency. Fuel urgency. Access lost people.

September 28, 2010

"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.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "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.' " Luke 16:27-31

This formerly rich man now found himself in hell tormented by the horrors of the place plus tortured by the regrets he had about not taking advantage of the opportunities to prepare his soul for Heaven. He was eternally lost and he knew it.

He was suddenly urgent about the eternal destiny of his five brothers who were still living. He wanted to save them from a similar fate.

How is your urgency toward the eternal destiny of people you care about?

He became too urgent too late to help the situation. We tend to do the same. Why?

What are some things that cause us to become complacent rather than feeling urgent? What should we look for? What attitudes can we resist?

In our last post we mentioned that success can lead to complacency. Another attitude that can lead to complacency is excess.

This rich man, in his earthly life, had all the necessities and many of the luxuries and he wanted for nothing. Good for him! We should be so lucky!

Unfortunately, that level of comfort can erase our concerns about other people. You can get so busy enjoying yourself that you lose touch with the needs of others. That insulation from the needs and conditions of others can make you complacent.

In addition, when you have all that stuff you have to guard it and maintain it and protect it and secure it and find time to use it and all that takes time, energy and focus.

I have to believe that this rich man's success and his excess causes him to become complacent. Enjoying and caring for his "stuff" robbed him of his urgency toward the needs of others.

It can happen to you as well. Maybe you don't have an excess of stuff but you can spend an excessing amount of time focused on it or working to acquire more stuff.

Understand that I am not anti-success nor am I against having a lot of stuff. What I am concerned about is whether that success or that excess steals your urgency toward the eternal welfare of your own soul and the destiny of others.

Don't be like this guy and become urgent too late. Have as much stuff as you can get but don't allow it to have you.

September 27, 2010

"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.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "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.' " Luke 16:27-31

One of the things that has always plagued the Church is complacency. The Church consists of Christ-followers and Christ-followers are to be about the mission of winning converts and teaching them to follow Christ. There should be a sense of urgency about accomplishing this mission since it is the central reason for the church to exist.

But, it is easy to lose the urgency and fall into complacency. Jesus was speaking about that in this portion of Scripture and told a story about a guy who had done just that. Over the next few posts I want to deal with a few things that cause us to lose our urgency and lead to complacency.

Success can lead to complacency.

In the Jewish mind-set, success was linked to spiritual blessing. That is a mistaken notion but it has also found its way into some Christian thinking as well and it can lead to complacency because we can deceive ourselves into believing that because we are doing well materially we are also doing well spiritually. That may not be true. In the case of this guy it wasn't.

So, living under the impression that he was spiritually blessed had dulled his sense of urgency for reaching others or helping those who could have benefited from his generosity. That was illustrated by Lazarus, the beggar who laid outside his house in desparate need but was ignored and neglected by the rich fellow.

Having wealth and privilege should have increased his urgency to help and reach others but it caused him to be casual about it because he mistook his wealth for God's blessing. The truth is that when God does bless us materially He does it so we can bless others. People who do give to others do so because they have an urgency over the spiritual and material needs of that person. And because they give to those people, their urgency toward them grows.

I know human nature and I know that when I am having success it is easier to become content and complacent. You no doubt have struggled with that. It may be natural but it is not acceptable for believers who are called to do what Christ did and care for others. It may be human nature but it is not what called has called us to do. Our calling is to be Christ-followers who serve as the hands and feet of Jesus doing what He would do were He here.

Have you allowed yourself to become complacent? Has your comfort level taken the edge off of your urgency to reach others?

That question deserves an honest and urgent response.

September 26,2010

“HAPPILY EVER AFTER?”

Week Two – “One Moment After You Die” Luke 16:19-31

The clock of life is wound but once, And no man has the powerTo tell just when the hands will stop. At late or early hour.To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed. To lose one’s health is more,To lose one’s soul is such a loss. That no man can restore.
Thirty-nine people died while you listened to this short poem. During the time we spend in this service 5,417 will go to meet their Maker. According to the CIA World Factbook, as of July, 2005, there were approximately 6,446,131,400 people on the planet, and the death rate was approximately 8.78 deaths per 1,000 people a year. According to our nifty desktop calculator, that works out to roughly 56,597,034 people leaving us every year. That's about a 155,000 a day.

A middle-aged woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she had a near death experience. Seeing God, she asked "Is my time up?"
God said, "No, you have another 43 years, 2 months and 8 days to live."
Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a facelift, liposuction and a tummy tuck. She even had someone come in and change her hair color. Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it.
After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was hit and killed by an ambulance.
Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I though you said I had another 40 years?"
God replied, "Oh, Sorry, I didn’t recognize you."

A troop of Boy Scouts was being used as "civilian victims” in an emergency services disaster drill. A mock earthquake was staged, and the Scouts impersonated wounded persons who were to be picked up and cared for by the emergency units. One Scout was supposed to lie on the ground and await his rescuers, but the first-aid people got behind schedule, and the Scout lay "wounded" for several hours. When the first-aid squad arrived where the casualty was supposed to be, they found nothing but a brief note: "Have bled to death and gone home..." What happens when we die? Do we go home, home to where?

That IS the question of the day! In this second message of our Fall series, “Happily Ever After?” we will answer the question of what happens after you die?


Jesus once told a story that gives insight to what happens one moment after death. It is found in Luke 16:19-26. Turn in your Bibles to Luke 16, please.

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So 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.' "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. And 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.'"

I. Death Ends Prosperity And Adversity, Vv. 19-25

Would it come as a shock to you if I told you that life is not fair? I am pretty sure you have noticed. I like the way Jesus just addresses that head on. Some people have wealth and live in luxury and others suffer under extreme poverty and adversity. So it is in these two characters in the story Jesus told.

We have no idea how the Rich Man came by his riches and we don’t know how Lazarus fell upon such dire circumstances. But they illustrate that in our world there are people who prosper and others who suffer the adversity of poverty.

One thing we DO know from this parable is that death ended the prosperity of the Rich Man and the Adversity of Lazarus. Death was the great equalizer as the Rich Man left his wealth behind and Lazarus left his suffering.

One moment after death ushers you into eternity all injustice will cease and you will receive justice. LIFE IS NEVER FAIR BUT DEATH ALWAYS IS!

Eternity Brings JUSTICE.

II. Death Begins Eternity, V. 22-23

One thing you need to understand is that life is eternal. For the moment you were conceived you became an eternal being. You begin life in the womb floating around in amniotic fluid attached to your mother via an umbilical cord. That period lasts about nine months. Then you are born into the world and live in a new world in a new form for some 70 years or so. At the end of that phase of life – then what?

Someone has put it like this:

“If you are Christian, eternal life does not simply mean going to heaven for eternity. Eternal life means a never-dying spirit that has already sprung to life in you! In other words, eternal life starts NOW! Your life that lasts eternally in the next world is the same life that begins here in this one. When you die, only your body dies. Your spirit – your eternal spirit that is the essence – the deepest reality – of who you are – never stops existing. Never. You pass from one life into another one, with not a moment’s gap in existence.”

“It does a great disservice to Christian ideas when heaven is simply some abstract place after death where we sit on clouds playing the harp. No my friends, eternal life begins here on this earth when God’s Spirit breathes into our Spirits the breath of life and our spirits spring to life for the first time, suddenly capable of living without sin. At that moment they take on a completely different quality and kind of life. Plants are alive, but not in the way cats are. Cats are alive, but not in the way human beings are. Human beings without Christ are alive, but not in the way human beings with Christ are. There are different levels of life and when Christ comes into our lives, he gives us the best kind of life – one that starts at that moment and never ends!’

Jesus expressed this truth in the form of a story.


It is important to understand why Jesus told the story and what He wanted to communicate:

1) Eternal life had nothing to do with financial statue.
2) The purpose of earthly life is to prepare for eternal life.
3) The preparation we must make is spiritual preparation.

Passing through a country graveyard, a man was struck by the inscription on a tombstone. The stone was by the side of the path where everyone could see it. It had been placed there in memory of a young man who died at the age of seventeen. It was, "Reader, stop and think; I am in eternity! and you are on the brink."

Eternity Brings JOY! ETERNAL JOY - OR ETERNAL JEOPARDY!

III. Death Ends Opportunity, V. 26

Wow! This is tough! This is definitely NOT a happy ending for this Rich Man. His destination was not happy and his fate was sealed. He had an opportunity to prepare for eternity but that opportunity was now gone –FOREVER.

By the time Abraham broke that awful news to him it was too lake to do anything about it.

Now, here is the Rich Man facing the horrible realization that he is forever damned in the torment of hell. What could be worse than that?

Here’s what could be worse – realizing that you will be in hell for EVER and remembering ALL THE OPPORTUNITES you had to miss hell and make Heaven. Add eternal regret to eternal suffering!

This part of the story is heart-breaking. THINK ABOUT IT – your eternity never ends but your opportunity does! When your earthly life ends your opportunity to choose your eternity ends.

(NOAH AND THE ARK)

In his book, Thirteen Days to Glory, author Lon Tinkle tells about Colonel Jim Bowie and the brave defenders of the Alamo. That sacred Texas shrine had only 183 defenders against a huge army led by Santa Anna. On March 3, 1836, two hours before dusk, the Mexican guns quit firing. William Travis lined his men up in a single line inside the Alamo. He told them no reinforcements were coming and that their destiny was sealed. "Our doom is certain," Travis told the weary men. Travis then pulled his sword from its sheath and drew a line in the dirt floor in front of them and asked every man who was determined to stay in the Alamo and die to cross the line. Topley Holland was the first man across the line. Others quickly followed--Daniel Cloud, Micajah Utry, Davy Crockett. Colonel Jim Bowie was sick and unable to cross the line so he called for help and four men sprang to the side of his cot and lifted him over the line as the other men cheered. On March 6, the Alamo fell and the brave defenders within her walls died. They made the choice that counted most and the Republic of Texas was born out of their shed blood.

Eternity Is No JOKE!

LIFE IS REAL – AND SO IS DEATH! GOD EXPECTS US TO TAKE THE OPPORTUNITIES OF LIFE TO PREPARE FOR DEATH.

In Jesus’ story one man did seize the opportunity and the other squandered it.

Meditate on this:

"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.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "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.' " Luke 16:27-31

Let me ask you this – HOW CAN WE KNOW THIS TRUTH AND NOT FEEL A STRONG UGENCY TO GET RIGHT WITH GOD AND PLEAD WITH OTHERS TO DO THE SAME?
WHY DON”T YOU HAVE THIS URGENCY?

September 25, 2010

"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.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "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.' " Luke 16:17-31

What is there about human nature that has a tendency to get distracted from the truly urgent to the immediately important?

That is precisely what set the occasion for Jesus' teaching. While He was lecturing His disciples about proper priorities and values of His Kingdom, some religious teachers were eavesdropping so He turned the focus of the teaching on them.

Long ago the Jewish religious leaders had lost sight of what was most spiritually urgent for them to be teaching and living. Like many today, they were lured into a focus on power and wealth believing that those were the ultimate indication of God's blessing.

No wonder Jesus flipped the paradigm on them by having the poor beggar being the more spiritual and the Rich Man as evidenced by where they ended up in eternity. This concept rocked the world of these religious leaders.

Only when the Rich Man awoke in Hell did he finally develop an urgency about the eternal destination of others. Unfortunately, he had presumed that he was fine spiritually because of his wealth and his status as a Jew, one of God's chosen. That false belief caused his to spend his earthly life pursuing the wrong things - temporary material things. It turned out to be a fatal error.

Once his fate was sealed did he suddenly become concerned for the eternal spiritual condition of his loved ones. He called out for Father Abraham to intercede for them so they would not end up in the miserable destination he found himself. By the time he cared about the right things it was too late.

We would do well to hear the admonition Jesus is giving to these Jewish leaders. Like the Rich Man, we so easily get distracted by the temporary and lose sight of the eternal, for ourselves and for those we love.

How tragic to wait until it is too late to become urgent about eternal matters.

God, help us to live with eternity's values in mind! Holy Spirit, help stay focused on the things that matter while there is time to make a difference.

Are you sure you are ready for eternity? Have you prepared yourself to live forever in God's Kingdom? If you were to find yourself in eternity before the end of this day, would you see Lazarus or would you be with the Rich Man?

If you are certain of your eternal destiny, what are you doing to reach others?