Sept26

Wait . . . I’ve changed my mind!

Morning prayer:

We come before you this morning Dear Lord to worship and acknowledge you as our Lord and Savior. To acknowledge that we are lost without You and to ask for Your forgiveness for all that we did this past week, these past years, to go against You. We all try day after day to do what is right, but we are weak and need Your guidance and help. Help us open our ears to hear when you give us the warnings. Help us open our hearts to Your truth. Help us to feel Your presence as we hear your Holy words. We pray to you O Lord as you have taught us. . . . Lord’s Prayer.

Psalm 91:1-6 (NRSV)

You who live in the shelter of the Most High,

who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,

2will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress;

my God, in whom I trust."

3For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler

and from the deadly pestilence;

4he will cover you with his pinions,

and under his wings you will find refuge;

his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

5You will not fear the terror of the night,

or the arrow that flies by day,

6or the pestilence that stalks in darkness,

or the destruction that wastes at noonday.

Luke 16:19-31 (NRSV)

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.' 25But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' 27He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house-- 28for I have five brothers--that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.' 29Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' 30He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' 31He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

When I read over this Scripture, I realized that this was not another of the parables of a rich man and a poor man. This story has little to do with money. It is really a story about a man of faith and a man without faith. Lazarus had faith. He knew his God. He must have lived his life accordingly, despite his station in life. And, when he died, he was whisked away by the angels and was seated with Abraham.

The rich man was not a man of faith and probably paid little or no attention to God. He was satisfied to live a full, comfortable, earthly life with no regard to what happens when you die. He probably never thought about what everlasting life in God would be like.

I can imagine the rich man, sitting there in Hades, tormented and feeling quite lost. I can imagine him sitting there and looking up to see Lazarus living the life of a king. Living without fear, living with all that he needed, comfortable and safe in God’s kingdom. I can imagine this rich man crying out “Wait. . . I’ve changed my mind. I want to do it all over again. I will change. I will do things differently. I will pay attention to those in need and try to help them. I will change. Just give me another chance. I will worship you My God. I’ve changed my mind.”

Then he hears Abraham say, “Sorry, you had your chance. There is no going back. You made your choices and now, you must live in torment because of what you did; because you ignored those that needed help; because you held yourself above others; because you forgot to love your neighbors; because you treated everyone on earth as a way to get power and forgot about the rewards that God promised. And, as much as Lazarus may want to help you now, he cannot. You have chosen your place by the things that you have done. There is no going back. It’s too late. It’s too late to repent.”

Then the rich man shows that he understands all he did on earth and sees that his eternal life will be nothing but torment. He has a clear moment and thinks about his 5 brothers who must have been just like he was. He begs Abraham to let Lazarus go back and warn his brothers. He shows compassion and remorse. He begs for his brothers to have a chance to repent of their wrongdoings before it is too late for them.

Then Abraham speaks a truth that we all must hear. He says that there is no need for Lazarus to go back. They already have everything they need to seek eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. They have the laws of Moses and they have the teachings of Christ. They already know what they should be doing. They have all the chances that Lazarus had. All they have to do is repent and change their lives before it is too late for them.

Then Abraham continued with another truth that we all know. He said, “Even if I were to let Lazarus rise from the dead and go to your brothers, they would not believe. They would not listen to what he said. They would continue to do the things that bring them power and fame on earth and ignore their chance for eternal, peace. They would do just as you did and think there was time to make amends at some later date when it was more convenient and would not interfere with their earthly wealth and comfort. No, they would not listen even to a man who was raised from the dead.”

It’s funny. Most of the time we go on with our lives, not thinking about what would happen if our life were to end tomorrow. We are given no guarantees for tomorrow. Today could be the last day we have to make amends, to repent for all the things we have done. Today could determine what eternity will be for us.

I am a real song buff and have a collection of nearly 1000 Christian songs by various popular and lesser-known artists. There’s one song that says, “There’s not a day that passes by that I don’t think of You and love You.” Is there ever a day that passes by that you don’t think about your Lord and Savior or love Him?

There’s another that says, “Who sees it all? Whose anger burns at what we've done, then bears our sin as if his own? Who will receive us as we are? Whose arms are wide and waiting now? God sees, God knows, God loves the broken heart, And holds, and binds And heals the broken heart.” Do we forget that God sees what we do everyday? Do we forget how God aches when we do something wrong? Do we forget that He waits for us to just come to Him and acknowledge Him and repent for any wrongs we have done?

I can imagine that rich man looking upward and finally realizing what he will miss for the rest of eternity. I don’t want to be in that position. I can also imagine Lazarus. The Bible paints a very clear picture of what he knew about his reward.

In Revelation, New International Version

Chapter 21, it tells us what is waiting.

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They

will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Can you imagine? We will be living side by side with God. We will be His people. There will be no need for tears. There will be no death, no mourning, no crying, and no pain. We will want for nothing and we will have eternal peace. Can you imagine?

That would be my wish for every one of you and for everyone I know; friend, relative or just casual acquaintance. That would be my wish, but there would be nothing I could do about it. It is up to each individual to make the choices that will insure peace or lead to eternal torment.

It’s really a simple choice, peace or torment. Which would you choose? That’s a no-brainer. But, we have to make it difficult. We have to let other things interfere with our decision. We believe we have plenty of time to make amends for the things we have done. There is always tomorrow. But remember, tomorrow is not guaranteed.

We are a nation and people wanting instant gratification. If we see something that will make us happy for the moment, we need to have or do it now. It doesn’t matter that it might be wrong or something that God would not have us do or have. After all, we deserve to be happy. Right? We are so short sighted. How long will that happiness last; a day or two or even a couple of weeks or months? What’s that compared to eternity?

And God has made it so easy for us. All He asks is for us to acknowledge Him as God and repent of our sins and follow His teachings. If we will only do this, He guarantees us salvation. Salvation means to deliver; to be made whole. It means preservation. And part of this gift of salvation is the promise of a new life, a life of eternal peace.

Keely and I are doing a series of Bible studies at our home church. Last week we covered the Christian discipline of confession. We talked about how easy it was to sit in a pew at church or sit with a pastor and say, “I confess that I have sinned.” And then ask for forgiveness of our sins. Similar to what we do when we recite the Lord’s Prayer. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us.

We pile our sins up in the middle of the floor just like dirty laundry. We may separate a few articles from the larger pile, but we still make piles of our sins in broad terms and ask for our laundry to be cleaned. This is a cop out. If we are truly going to repent of our sins, our dirty laundry, then we have to go through the pile, piece by piece, making sure we don’t miss one article. We don’t just pick up a pair of dirty socks and ask them to be cleaned. We must pick up one, dirty, smelly sock, then the other and ask for forgiveness for each one, one at a time. We don’t take the pile of slacks and ask for them to be cleaned. We must pick up each pair, one by one so that we are sure we don’t miss anything.

Most of us go through life thinking we are pretty good at avoiding sin and asking for forgiveness when we do something wrong, but we miss so much laundry. Try this the next time you are feeling close to God and have finally come to a time when you feel it is time to repent. Start off by saying God, forgive me for lying to the boss today. Forgive me for cutting that guy off that was trying to pull out in front of my car. Forgive me for taking the pen from that other person’s desk. Forgive me for using your name in vain. Forgive me for getting angry at that person that was trying to get in line before me. Forgive me for not being more understanding when my child misbehaved in public. Forgive me for not loving enough. Forgive me for yelling at my spouse. Forgive me for not giving that clerk back the extra dollar she gave me by mistake. Forgive me for not taking time to spend with my kids or spouse.

Get the idea? When we lump all our laundry together, it’s pretty easy to walk around thinking we are doing OK. But take each piece of laundry, item by item, and we will begin to realize just how much we mess up during any given day. And when we realize this, we can truly start making amends and correcting our ways. It is too late to repent after death.

Anyone who is familiar with doing the laundry knows that if you try to stuff everything in the washer, nothing gets clean. And, if we’re not careful, some of those dark colored items will bleed into the lighter ones. Our uglier sins tend to spill over into other areas of our lives.

So, let’s all try to sort our laundry, piece by piece when we go to the Lord. This way we will be sure that we can receive His forgiveness and that salvation will be ours. I don’t want to stand there like the rich man and stare at what I might have had. I want to be able to share in what the Lord has in store for all who confess and humble themselves before God. Let me remind you of what that is.

In Revelation, New International Version

Amen.

Benediction:

Let's all go home and do our laundry this week. May the God of peace and the God of love be with every one of you throughout this coming week and throughout your life. . . Amen.