What Happens One Minute After You Die? | Sunday Message

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All right, well, let's turn in our Bibles to Luke chapter 16. We're in our Gospel of Luke series that we're calling the Gospel. for everyone. And today, our message title is What Happens One Minute. after you die.

Let's pray together. Father, as we Deal with a a serious subject. But one that we don't have to be afraid of. Because we have our hope in you, and we know indeed there's life after death in your presence, but there is also a judgment coming for those that do not know you.

So help us to really pay attention. to what your word says to us. As we study it together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

I heard about a man who lived in Chicago. It gets very cold there. And he decided, I'm going to vacation in Florida with my wife.

So his wife was on a business trip and so he arrived one day ahead of her. And she had just changed her phone number, and he wanted to shoot her a quick text and let her know that he arrived safely, and he had memorized her number, or so he thought. But he punched it in, and as it turns out, he had one digit wrong.

So his message did not go to his wife, but it went to. A woman who had just lost her husband, an elderly woman who was married to a pastor. Her husband had died the day before.

So she gets this text. Which looks like it's from her husband. And she screams and faints. Her family rushes in to see what happened, and they see the text on her phone, and the message went as follows: Dearest wife. just arrived.

Looking forward to your arrival tomorrow. PS, it sure is hot down here. Yeah.

So that's a funny story. But it's a serious subject. Let's talk about the afterlife together. Point number one, the most obvious thing of all. Everyone will die and enter the afterlife.

Now If the rapture happens, that won't be true of followers of Jesus, and the rapture is when the Lord comes to his people. We're caught up to meet the Lord in the air. I would prefer that mode of transportation to heaven over death, personally. But barring that happening in our lifetime, everyone will die. As I've said before, the statistics on death are quite impressive.

One out of every one person will die. No one escapes it. In fact, Ecclesiastes 3 says that there's a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, and a time to die. Hebrews 9:27 says, It's appointed unto a man once to die, and then comes the judgment.

Now, we don't know when this will come. It might come sooner than expected. It might come later than expected, but it's going to come. Every minute, more than a hundred people die. Every day, roughly 175,000 people leave this life for the afterlife.

So, how should we react to that?

Well, we're told in Psalm 90: Teach us to number our days so we will recognize how few they are. Help us to spend them as we should. You've made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you at best. Each of us is but a breath.

It's just a good thing to remember. Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. Hired a servant who had one single job. He was to follow Philip around and remind him every day, Philip, you will die. In ancient documents, they would often write the words memento mori over their bank account.

So, as you're looking at how much money you have saved or put away or whatever, you're just reminded death is going to come. That should not be a morbid thought. It's a sobering thought, it's a realistic thought. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, made this statement, and I quote: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there.

Yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. End quote. If anyone could have invented an app to not die, Steve Jobs would have come up with it. But he didn't.

Even he had to face the reality of it.

Now, question number two. What happens one minute after we die? It depends. If you're a Christian, I'll tell you what happens. You immediately go into the presence of God.

The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The Apostle Paul said, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. And he uses a term that can be translated far, far better. Heaven is way better than earth.

So it's an immediate thing where we go straight into God's presence. The moment you close your eyes on earth, you open them in heaven. When you take your last breath on earth, you take your next breath in heaven. That is the hope of the Christian and only for the Christian. And I'll tell you in a few moments how to be sure that you will go to heaven when you die.

But what about the non-believer? What happens to them? That's what we're going to focus on in this message. We're going to look at the afterlife. You know, most Americans do believe in an afterlife.

Some don't. The famed author Ernest Hemingway had a very bleak look on the afterlife when he wrote, Life is just a dirty trick, a short journey from nothingness. to nothingness, end quote.

Well, that's really not true.

Now maybe his life was nothingness to him. Tragically, Ernest Hemingway took his own life. But you don't enter into nothingness. Even if you're a non-believer, you don't go to nothingness. By the way, that's what I used to believe before I was a Christian.

I thought that when you die, you simply cease to exist. And as a young 17-year-old kid, I found that absolutely terrifying. How could I simply cease to exist? How could I no longer be in any way, shape, or form?

Well, that was a wrong idea because even the non-believer will enter the afterlife. That's for everybody, no matter what. And then you're going to go to one of two destinations according to the Bible. That's heaven or hell.

Now, most Americans don't think they'll go to hell. Far more Americans believe they'll go to heaven than those that believe they'll go to hell. But according to Jesus, more people are on their way to judgment because he said, broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there are that go that way, but narrow is the way that leads to life and few there are that find it.

So, unfortunately, the vast majority of people today are not headed to heaven, but that is their choice.

Now, I know immediately we think. How could a God of love send people to hell? And I'm gonna get into this a little bit later in the message, but just the quick answer is: God doesn't send anyone to hell. The last thing God wants is for any man or woman uniquely created in His image to spend eternity separated from Him in this horrible place called hell. But even the word hell, we throw it around so much.

I actually had a guy come up to you after a sermon once and say, that was a hell of a sermon, Pastor. Like, it's at whoa. Thank you. I think you meant that as a compliment, but you know, we punctuate our sentences with the word hell. Oh, you men, just give them hell, right?

Or if a situation is bad, we say it's hellish. Or if someone doesn't believe what you say, I'll believe that one. Hell freezes over. And on and on we go. And sometimes people say, go to hell.

And the funny thing is they may not even believe there's a hell. Why don't you just say, go to a place that doesn't even exist? Because it's more powerful to say hell. And I'll tell you why people use that word. They use it because deep down inside, they know it's real.

It's the same reason people punctuate their conversations with Jesus Christ. Even the atheists will say, Jesus Christ. Why do you say Jesus Christ? You hit your thumb with a hammer. Jesus Christ, why don't you say Buddha?

Or I hurry Krishna? No, no. You say Jesus Christ, why? Even the non-believer in their way is acknowledging the power of the name of Jesus Christ. That's why they say it.

And that's why we use the word hell. Deep down inside, we believe it's there. And it's scary.

So this message is going to be a hell of a message. You know what I'm talking about? And I hope it scares the hell out of you.

Now, if you're a kid, don't go home saying hell all the. Mom, the pastor said hell. No, no, I'm just illustrating, all right?

Now, you know, people will sometimes push back and say, oh, I don't know, Greg, I don't like these hellfire and brimstone preachers, and I hear you on that. I remember when I was a young boy And we would go to Big Corona Beach in Newport Beach. And we'd be standing around our little board shorts, you know, getting a hamburger. And there was this preacher that would show up. I don't know where this guy came from.

He was dressed head to toe in black with a broad-brimmed black hat, sweating like crazy, standing out in the blazing sun, telling all of these little grommet surfer kids we're all going to hell. And I looked at this guy and I thought, man, I would never like to do what that guy is doing.

So here I am. I'm not dressed in black, I'm wearing navy. I don't have a hat, but you know, but the thing is. If I really believe this is true and that there really is a hell, it is my responsibility to warn people about it. I'm not saying all the sermons from now on are going to be about hell, but I'm not going to avoid the topic.

You know, I don't like hellfire preachers. Let me just ask you honestly: when's the last time you heard a sermon on hell? Flipping the channels on your TV or looking at what different sermons are about. When's the last time you saw one on hell? There's not a lot of hellfire and brimstone preachers anymore.

Maybe we could use a few more. because it's something we have to talk about. And I know we don't like to talk about it, but I want to point out to you that Jesus Christ spoke more about hell than all the other preachers of the Bible put together. Did you know that?

Well, that's not very loving. Oh, it's extremely loving. If hell is real, which it is, why would you not talk about it and warn people so they don't end up in a place like that?

So we're going to look at Luke chapter 16, which is a behind-the-scenes look at the afterlife. And our tour guide is Jesus himself in a story he told.

Now, this is not a parable. We looked at a parable last time together. Pastor Jonathan talked about the parable of the prodigal son, and I thought. It was a powerful message, didn't you? I thought he would do a better job preaching on that topic than I could because he lived the prodigal life.

as did his brother for a time. But they both return to the Lord. But a parable is like an illustration. It's a heavenly story with an earthly meaning. In other words, it may be based on something that happened sometime, but it's just a story.

This is not a parable. This is an actual event. This is an actual behind-the-scenes look at the afterlife. You say, why do you say that? Because Jesus says there was a certain rich man, he's specific, and he mentioned someone named Lazarus by name.

There's nobody mentioned by name in any parable.

So, this is not a parable, this is an actual glimpse. Behind the veil.

So let's read Luke 16, a few verses, verse 19. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen. I'll explain that to you in a moment. Who fared sumptuously every day. I'm reading from the New King James Version.

But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores, and so it was the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. I'll stop there.

So, this is an actual story. This really happened. It's a glimpse into the invisible world. It's a story of two men, one owned everything and possessed nothing. The other owned nothing and inherited everything.

One went to comfort and the other went to torment.

Okay, so. In the Old Testament, before Jesus came, when you died as a believer in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, you died in faith. Waiting for your Messiah to come, you went to this place we're going to read more about called Hades, it had two sections. A section of comfort. Abraham's bosom and the embrace of Abraham, and a section of torment.

So, smoking and non-smoking.

Okay, bad joke.

Okay, so, but so. When you died as an Old Testament believer, you went to the comfort section, and then when Jesus came. was born, died, rose again from the dead.

Now all believers go straight into heaven.

So remember when Jesus died on the cross and he was crucified between two criminals? And one turned to him and said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Remember what Jesus said? Truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in what? Very good.

Paradise.

So that's where you went? You went to paradise. And by the way, I bring this up because, you know, We have loved ones that die. And Maybe they never profess Christ. Uh before They died and we say they're in hell.

I never say someone's in hell. I don't know who's in hell. I believe that is literally a violation of what Jesus said when he said, Judge not, lest you be judged. It means condemn not. They're in hell.

Were you with them at the last moment of their life on earth? You weren't, then you don't know what happened. It is possible, and then when you give false hope. But I want to say it is possible that in their last moments they called out to Jesus. And if they did, just like the thief on the cross, they're in heaven.

As I've said before, there'll be three surprises when we get to heaven. Number one, some of the people we thought would be there won't be there. Number two, some of the people we never thought would be there will be there. Surprise number three, we'll be there.

Now I say that as a joke. Because I fully expect to be there. But the point of it is You never know. If you call out to the Lord, even at the last moments of your life, He will hear your prayer. And so now we see What Jesus has to say about this, and we're going to read a large chunk of scripture together.

Go back to Luke 16, verse 22. This is what happened to the other guy. The man who had no place for God. The rich man also died and was buried. Verse 23, and being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom.

Then he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I'm tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and you are tormented. And beside all of this between us, there is a great gulf fixed, and those who want to pass from here to you cannot.

Nor can those from there pass to us.

Well, I beg you, therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house. I have five brothers, and he may testify to them that they won't come to this place of torment. Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. He said, No, Father Abraham, if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded the one rise from the dead.

We'll stop there. Heavy stuff, right?

Okay, so This rich man, let's understand, his sin was not in being rich. His sin was that he lived a life That had no place for God. He was godless. And not only was he godless, but he was heartless, especially in the way that he treated Lazarus. It says in verse 19: he was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.

To be clothed in purple and fine linen means he dressed in the most luxurious clothing possible. And more than that, he flaunted it. And he had no heart or compassion for anybody else less fortunate than him. If he was alive today, you know, he'd be photographed lying on piles of money and posted on Instagram. This guy was living large, and he wanted everyone to know it.

And then it also says that he fared sumptuously, which means he had parties. The guy was a party animal. It was non-stop parties from morning to evening. And he lived a pretty wonderful life, or people would have thought, but then comes the afterlife, and then comes the consequences of your decisions. Let me say something you don't hear preachers usually say.

You ready for it? I'm the most handsome preacher. No, I would never say that. Because that's wrong. But Here's what I really want to say: sin is.

can be fun. Right? How many of you have ever sinned? Raise your hand. You've sinned.

Okay. Whoa. You are a sinful bunch of people. All right, now. How many of you have ever had fun sinning?

Raise your hand up. You better all put them up. Why else would we do it? Why else would we? Give in to temptation because it's alluring.

It draws us in. And the Bible even says sin is pleasurable for a season. There's that initial rush, that excitement. Oh, this is so this is wonderful, the release of endorphins, but then the consequences happen. If your conscience is working, there's something called guilt that kicks in.

And you have remorse over your actions, and then sometimes there are actual consequences, depending on what sin you may have committed. Because the Bible also warns the wages of sin are death.

So sin is pleasurable for a season, but the results of sin lead to death. Sin, when it is fully conceived, says James. leads to death. It's sort of like a snail. You know, snails just oozing along ever so slowly.

And they see a sign, free food, awesome. And then I'm going to go there. And a month later, they're there. And then, you know, they start eating the food.

Well, the problem is. They didn't notice this thing that said sluggo. That's what they're eating. That's something designed to kill snails. And you know, I'm told that there's molasses in sluggo that attracts a snail, so they're enjoying the molasses, and then the poison kicks in.

That's it. You take that first bite, like Eve with the fruit in the Garden of Eden, and now there are the results of sin.

So, this guy was living this luxurious life. But now he has to face the consequences of it.

Meanwhile, outside of his estate was a starving man named Lazarus. He actually ate the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Because in this culture, instead of using napkins, which they did not have yet, They used bread.

So when you ate some food, you would wipe your fingers on bread and throw it on the ground, and the dogs would be waiting, very excited about that. But that's what Lazarus ate. He lived off the scraps of the rich man's table. Couldn't the rich man take him a little meal? Hey, you know that poor guy that sits outside of my estate at the gate?

Because it appears from the text that Lazarus may have been disabled as well. You know, that guy covered in sores at the dog's leg. Yeah, I kind of feeling bad for that guy. Give him a plate of food. Better yet, invite him in and let him have a meal here.

Something. The guy does nothing, he just gets the bread that falls from his table. And then death comes. Death is the great equalizer. It's no respecter of persons.

And the angels carry Lazarus to heaven.

So look. We have angels actively involved in our life. I believe there are angels in this room right now. Why do I say that? Because the Bible says the angel of the Lord encamps around those that fear him.

The Bible tells us that angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who are the heirs of salvation. That's us.

So we have angelic activity around us all the time. And one day, when it's time for us to leave this life for the afterlife, we will have an angelic escort into heaven. How wonderful that will be. That brings me comfort because when I think about my son Christopher, dying in an automobile accident. It breaks my heart that I couldn't do anything.

You know, dads, we like to fix things, or at least we like to think we fix things. But we step in, I'll fix it, I'll sort it out, I'll resolve it, let dad deal with it. And there was nothing I could do. Not only could I not fix it, but I needed to be fixed myself. because it was so devastating.

And people would ask me, Greg, are you mad at God? I was never mad at God. Sad? Yes. Very sad?

Again, yes. Mad? No. How could I be mad at a God who held my son? safely in his arms in heaven.

Right? That doesn't mean that I don't didn't grieve. or even still grieve. But I don't grieve hopelessly, I grieve hopefully, because I know that I will see my son again. But he was carried by the angels into the presence of God, and you will be as well.

That does not happen for the non-believer. The rich man was not ushered. into glory like Lazarus was. Again, I want to emphasize the rich man's sin was not his wealth. His sin was a disregard for the spiritual, which revealed itself in his prideful flaunting of resources and his neglect of a starving, disabled man sitting at his very door.

And they both faced death, and I'm sure that rich dude had a lavish funeral. The flower arrangements alone would have gone viral. Everyone was talking about the service and all the important people that went to the service, but then they enter into the afterlife and everything changes because the next stop is not so glamorous. One of the world's wealthiest men, Malcolm Forbes, said shortly before his death, and I quote, the thing I dread most about death is that I know I will not be as comfortable in the next life as I was in this one, end quote. That's an understatement.

But listen, the Christian will be more comfortable in the next life because you'll be in the presence of God.

So this man enters into the next life. And here are some sobering thoughts. According to what Jesus says, here, people in hell suffer. The fact that the rich man spoke of torment indicates that suffering is a very real thing in the hereafter. The word torment is used four times in the text of this story.

Now, this is important to remember because You see, When you go into the afterlife, there are no stopovers. There's no purgatory. Purgatory is not found in the Bible. Nor is there a state of soul sleep, as some have said, where you go into sort of a suspended animation. No, there's no soul sleep, there's no purgatory, nor is there reincarnation.

Where you will come back as a lower or higher life form in the next life, depending on how you lived in this life. No, you go immediately into the afterlife, as I said earlier, into heaven or hell. No stopovers. And so, you know, when I travel, I try to avoid stopovers. And I'll tell you why.

I've I've been stuck in airports. You know, I'm going somewhere and I stop in Chicago. And all of a sudden, there's a delay, or there's some weather, and I can't get out of Chicago, right? There's no stopper. You go straight into the afterlife.

No, I know. We think, but how could a God of love? Send someone to hell. Isn't that an inconsistency on God's part? The fact is, because he is a God of love and justice, he invented hell.

Hear me out on this. Hell was not made for people. Hell was made for the devil and his angels. God is simply giving people what they really wanted. It was C.S.

Lewis who said, quote, there are only two kinds of people in the end, those who say to God, thy will be done, and those to whom God says in the end, thy will be done. All that are in hell choose it. Without that self-choice, there could be no hell, end quote. People only get in the afterlife what they most want it. You wanted to be away from God.

You had no place for God.

Now God in His infinite justice sends you where you wanted to go. You see, and so. God doesn't send people to hell. We send ourselves there. And once you enter the afterlife, you cannot change your location.

You can't go from this place to that place. It'd be like boarding a flight. Destination, New York. and the flight takes off. And all of a sudden, you realize, why am I going to New York?

It's January. It's going to be freezing. I want to go to Maui.

So you hit your little light for the flight attendant. I want to go to Maui instead. Could you turn the plane around or take me back? Let me get another plane. Sir, sorry, stay in your seat.

They don't say it that way, but some do. But you know, you can't change once you've taken off. And once you leave this life, you're going to go to where you're going to go. You decide in this life where you will spend the afterlife. There are no chances after death.

But millions before.

Now the non-believer goes to this place. Hades You're conscious and fully aware of where you are. This guy. Recognize, he remembers that he has brothers, five brothers, oh man. I don't want my brothers to end up in this place.

It's interesting that he doesn't take responsibility for ending up in this place himself. And it's also interesting that he doesn't appear to be partying, does he? Because people say, Oh, I'm looking forward to going to hell. I'll party with all of my friends. Will you?

No, you won't. Yeah.

There's no partying in hell. This guy is in misery, and he wants to warn his brothers. And this is a reminder of how horrible of a place this actually is. You see, You go to hell and it's kind of a temporary place. Ultimately, leading to the lake of fire.

So, here's how it works. If you're a Christian, You used to, in the Old Covenant, go to the comfort of Abraham and then to heaven.

Now that Jesus has died, risen. We go straight to heaven. That's it. Now, non-Christian, they go to this place of torment, and then ultimately, Hades empties its. Oh.

The occupants of Hades come out and they appear at what the Bible calls the great white throne judgment, spoken of in the book of Revelation. It says, Death in Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and everyone was judged according to their works. And I saw a great white throne, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life.

Now, look, if you end up here, it's too late. There's no getting out of this.

So the books are open. What's written in the books? I don't know. I'll take an educated guess based on scripture. Maybe one of those books is the book of the law, the Mosaic law, the commandments of God.

And all the times you broke them, because there'll be those that might say, I lived a good life, kind of say, actually, you didn't. And here's a record of it: all the commandments you broke. And by the way, the Bible says if you offend in one point of the law, you're guilty of all of it.

So maybe one of those books is the book of the law. Maybe another book is a record of every time you heard the gospel and rejected it. Because someone might say, I never heard this. No one ever told me I needed Jesus and I needed to repent of my sins to get into heaven. No, actually, you've been hearing it for your whole life.

Here you go. And there'd be a record of all of it, but if your name is not written in the book of life, You're cast into the lake of fire.

Now prepared for the devil and his angel, say I.

So, what is the book of life? That's where your name is written when you believe in Jesus Christ.

So, you have to be born again to have your name written in the book of life. And if your name is not written in the book of life, you face judgment, and then the Bible says this is the second death.

Okay, so let me sum it up this way. If you're born once, you will die twice, and if you're born twice, you will die once. Does that make sense? If you're born once, you'll die twice.

So you're born once physically.

Now you're going to die physically and you're going to die spiritually in what the Bible calls a second death.

However, if you're born twice physically and then you're born again by believing in Jesus, you'll die once. Oh yeah, you'll die physically, but then you live on in the presence of God.

So, I know this is not a comfortable subject to talk about or hear a sermon about. But if I don't tell you this, I'm not telling you the whole gospel truth. I mean, the word gospel means good news, and the best news of the gospel is I don't have to go to hell. I'm not going to hell and you aren't going to hell either. Right?

Is that based on what I've done for God? No, it's based on what God did for me in sending this Son. to die on the cross to atone for my sins. As I've told you before, heaven is not for good people, heaven is for forgiven people.

So I know I'm going to heaven. 1 John 5 says, We write these things to you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Not think. No, I know it. I know I'm going to heaven, and you should know that as well.

And if you don't, I'll give you a chance to be more certain of it.

So I have to tell people the truth. Imagine someone going into a doctor and they have some kind of a spot in their head, and maybe he's a dermatologist, and they say, Doc, We're going on vacation to A very warm climate, lots of sunshine. Am I good to go? Check this out. And he looks at me, oh, it's cancer.

He goes, he says, you're fine, go. Don't even use sunscreen, man. Just enjoy what kind of a doctor is that? That's malpractice. You have to tell them the truth.

That's not enjoyable to say, I'm really sorry to tell you that's a cancerous growth, a cancerous growth. And I strongly suggest we do surgery and remove it and do not go out in the sun right now. But if he doesn't tell you that, he's not doing his job. And the same is true of us. It would be like a line of people walking into a burning house.

And you're like, wait, wait, what are you guys doing? That's a burning house. If you walk in there, you'll die. Don't go into the burning house. They just look past you and keep walking.

No, no, don't go into the burning house. In fact, we have a banquet here, we have a feast with the best food ever. We've got In-N-Out Burger, we've got Chick-fil-A. We've got Taco Bell.

Sorry, I like Taco Bell. I was talking to someone the other day. I love dull taco. No, I said, you're dead to me. Taco Bell, not Dell Taco.

I'm kidding. But we've got pizza, we've got pasta. I'm naming basically all my favorite foods, okay? Yeah, I mean you might put other foods. We've got tofu and vegetables and...

I don't know. But Whatever. We've got a royal banquet over here. Come here and said, No, we're going to go into the burning building. But why?

Because everybody's going into the burning building. Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many there are that go that way. Narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there are that find it. I'm going to try to stop you. I'm going to warn you.

I'm going to get in the way. Of you, and you may push me down and climb over me to get into hell. If that happens, buddy. That's on you. But Jesus basically did that.

He died on the cross. He's done everything to make your salvation possible. If you end up in hell, you have to practically climb over Jesus to get there. But if you're bound and determined, I suppose that's where you will end up.

So don't say God sent you there. You sent yourself there. And we need to warn people. Jude 1:22 says, Show mercy to those who have wavering faith and rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment.

Now, this guy wants to warn his brothers. But Abraham says the scriptures have warned them again and again. Your brothers can read them anytime they want to. In verse 29, the rich man replied, No, Father Abraham, they won't bother to read them, and that's so true. God's given us the Bible.

How many people read it? They don't even want to open it. They don't even want to see it. If you don't believe me, pull a Bible out in a public place. Like in an airplane.

Let's say you're in the middle seat. And then the guy in front always reclines all the way. I always get behind that guy. My wife, who's smaller than me, doesn't need all the room. Her person never reclines.

My person is the recliner.

So you're in the middle seat and you reach into your backpack and you pull out your Bible and you pull your little jake down and you set your Bible. You watch a reaction of the people around you. It's like you pulled a rattlesnake out of your backpack. People sometimes physically recoil from just seeing this book, right? But this book tells us how to get into heaven.

This book tells us how to have a relationship with God.

So read this book. I encourage you to mark your Bible up.

Some people say never put another book on top of the Bible. I would rather see a beat-up Bible because when it comes down to this, a Bible that is marked up is a good indication of a life that isn't all messed up. Mark up your Bible. Use your Bible, but most importantly, read your Bible. But oh, if a miracle was done, he says, verse 30, if someone is sent to them from the dead, they'll turn from their sins.

Abraham says, if they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, They won't listen, even if someone rises from the dead. Case in point, a man did rise from the dead. And interestingly, his name was also Lazarus. Different guy. Than the one in her story.

Remember, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. And then they had a dinner party that night. There's Lazarus, a man that went into the afterlife and returned. And the religious leaders were plotting on how they could kill him. What?

Poor Lazarus. He had to die twice. Once isn't bad enough. Listen. If I die, don't you dare pray for me to be raised from the dead.

I will assault you. Mm-hmm. No person in heaven would ever, if given the choice, want to come back to earth again. But Lazarus, you know, he was raised. They wanted to kill him.

Oh, but miracles. If I could do miracles, people would believe.

Well, some might. God sends miracles. We love miracles. We love to see people healed. We love to see answers to our prayers.

But that is not what is going to be the primary way that causes a person to come to Christ. Jesus said, A wicked and an adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to them, but that of the prophet Jonah. And as Jonah was three days and three nights, and the. Fish or the whale or whatever the creature was, so will the Son of Man, speaking of himself, be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Let me loosely paraphrase that.

You want a sign? You want a miracle? Here it is. I died, I paid for the sin of the world, I rose again from the dead. That's my sign.

That's what you get. Take it or leave it. That's our message. That's it. Oh, but if I could do a miracle, you know, maybe we're having a barbecue in the backyard, and I call fire down from heaven on the steak.

That'd make my friend believe. No, probably not. See, the thing is, it's believing in Jesus Christ.

So, this guy's offering up all these ideas, and basically, he's been put in his place because it's really the message of Jesus rising from the dead.

So, let's think about this as we bring this to a close. We need to proclaim the message of the good news of Jesus Christ. And the gospel is a universal declaration that hell is not God's desire. for anyone. The road to hell is paved with excuses.

Hell is therefore a prison in which the doors are first locked from the outside by us. Excuse me. Hell is therefore a prison in which the doors are first locked from the inside by us, and therefore are locked from the outside by God. Let me say that again. Hell is a prison.

in which the doors are first locked from the inside by us. and then they are locked by the outside. by God. See, this is our choice. fully realized.

God wants you to go to heaven. Jesus effectively faced hell for you 2,000 years ago when he died on the cross. And when the sin of the world was poured upon him, he cried out. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He did this so you don't have to go to hell.

So what happens one minute after you die? If you're a Christian, you go straight to heaven. If you reject his offer, you send yourself to hell. The rich man wanted to make one phone call, just one. He wanted to warn his brothers, and God sent a phone call to you.

God's calling you. You got that unknown number. The Lord's in. Go to heaven. Don't go to hell.

Here's my offer, but you have to take the call and you have to respond. and you decide in this life where you will spend the afterlife.

So we're going to close now in prayer. And I want to extend an invitation to someone here that does not have the hope of heaven because I know. I'm talking to someone. It is not sure about this. And it wait keeps you up at night.

Doesn't it? You're afraid. And so I want you. to receive the assurance that only God can give.

So, you will know that you will go to heaven when you die. Again, let me summarize: how do you know? by putting your faith in Jesus Christ. By asking him to come into your life. And we're gonna pray, and I'm gonna give you an opportunity to do that right here, right now.

So if you're not sure, about Going to heaven. Let's get this resolved now. Let's all pray together. Father, thank you for your love for us. Thank you for your word to us.

And I pray, Lord. for any person that does not yet know you. Help them to see their need for you. I pray that your Holy Spirit will convict them and convince them of their sin and help them to come to Jesus right now.

Now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying. If you're not sure that you'll go to heaven when you die. If you want to have your sin forgiven, If you want to have a new beginning, If you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, I want you to raise your hand wherever you are, and I want to pray for you. Raise your hand up, saying, I need Jesus today. God bless you.

God bless you. Raise your hand up high where I can see it, please. Mm-hmm. What if this were the last sermon you ever heard? You were given this opportunity, and you let it slip by.

Don't. Anybody else? You want Christ in your life? Let me pray for you. Raise your hand up.

I'll pray for you. God bless you. God bless you and you.

Now, some of you are watching the screen. I can't see you, that doesn't really matter, does it? The Lord sees you. You raise your hand up as well, wherever you are, wherever you're sitting. I need Jesus.

Anybody else, raise your hand up now. God bless.

Now, I'm going to ask every one of you that has raised your hand. I want you to stand to your feet, and I'm going to lead you in a prayer. That's right. Stand to your feet. Stand up if you raise your hand, even if you did not, but you want Christ to come into your life today.

Let me lead you in this prayer. Stand up, and we're going to pray together. He will not regret this. And by the way, You're not the only one standing. Others are, too.

Anybody else stand up now? There might be a few more. Let's pray together. Anybody else? Stand now.

And ask Christ to come into your life. I'll wait one more moment. Stand now. All right, you that are standing, and I want to lead you in this prayer, and I'd like you to pray it out loud after me again as I pray. Pray this out loud after me, okay?

Pray these words now. Lord Jesus. I know that I'm a sinner. But I know that you're the Savior. Who died on the cross for my sin.

and rose again from the dead. I turn from my sin now. And they ask you. to be my Saviour and my Lord. My God and my friend.

Thank you for hearing this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen God bless each one of you. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it, just go to harvest.org.

And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on know God. Mm-hmm.