Fire Insurance

Have you made your reservation for eternity? Do you have your fire insurance policy?

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SPEAKER_01 0:33

Good afternoon, good afternoon, and welcome to our noonday service today, July 3rd, 2026. We're so glad that you've joined us today. We know that you could have been doing a whole multitude of things, but you are here with us to worship with us, to praise God with us on today. So let us begin with prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you for how you've kept us and how you've brought us to this point. We thank you, Lord. We praise you for who you are. You are our great I am. You're the beginning and the end, our Alpha and our Maker, our way maker, Lord, our trouble keeper, you're our promise keeper, Lord. You're you're all that we need you to be. And we just say thank you. We thank you. We ask, Lord, that you would forgive us of our sins, clean us up, create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit inside of us that we may hear your word and be changed. Lord, we pray for the sick that are among us. We call the name of Sister Eloise Wilson be with her today, Lord. Please be with Dr. Kara Hubbard as she is recovering, Lord. Be with Kyrie Woodbury. We call his name on today, Lord, and we call the names of the bereaved family of Brother Michael Dawson. That family has suffered so many deaths in the last year. And we just ask you to put your arms of protection around them and cover them. We know you will. We thank you, Lord. We don't know all the names of everyone that's sick to call, but you know who they are. So, Lord, please be with them. We ask on this holiday weekend, Lord, that you would keep us safe. Keep everybody safe as we gather together at beaches and at homes and at parks, Lord. We know that lots of people are traveling. We ask your angels to be dispatched on the highways to protect those that are driving, that are traveling by train, by plane, Lord. Keep everyone's attitude in check so that they can enjoy the holiday. Help us to be respectful of one another. We thank you, Lord, for the celebrations that will take place and we ask that you be in the midst of them. And now, Lord, we just say thank you for all that have gathered, each person who's here, each family, each community that's represented. Lord, speak through me that your people may hear, may be edified and inspired. We thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen today, everybody, and thank you again for joining us. We ask that you turn to the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of Luke, and we're going to be reading one of the parables of Jesus in Luke chapter 16, verses 19 through 31. Luke chapter 16, verses 19 through 31. And I'm reading from the New King James Version. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. 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. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, and being in torments 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 and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am 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 besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us. Then he said, I beg you therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham, but 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, though one rise from the dead. The word of God for the people of God. Our noonday sermon today is entitled Fire Insurance. Fire insurance. I'm sure that many of you have seen all this week that there's a heat wave going through the United States and the Midwest and the Northeast, and people experiencing heat like they've never felt it before. Triple digits in places that usually have calm, calm, much calmer weather during this time of year. And we ourselves have experienced heat in the high 90s. And so we know how hot it can get. And a lot of times we complain about the heat. But don't you know that there's a place that's even hotter than this that people can go to or will go to if they're not careful? In this parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and we know that a parable is a story that's told that's meant to give us instruction. And this is one of the parables of Jesus. And there are six things that we learned from this parable told by Jesus, that we need to take seriously. And if we feel like we know and we're in good shape, we already have our fire insurance, then we need to share it with others. We need to share this parable. Because the first thing we learn in this parable is that hell is a real place. It's a real place. It's not just a figment of someone's imagination. Where some people say, well, God is a merciful God. He would never send people to hell where they would be in constant torment. But God is a just God. He is loving, he is kind, he is merciful, he's gracious, he gives us time after time, but he is also a God of justice. And so if he tells us that if we don't get right with him, and that we don't accept his method of getting right, which is he sent his only begotten son, Jesus, to die on the cross for him, for us, for our sins, that if we don't accept the blood of Jesus, but we trample it underfoot as if it was a common thing, that's in the word, then we will get the judgment we deserve, the judgment that we've been told about. So please know that heaven is a real place, a real place. And the second thing we learn from this parable is that we will be conscious of the discomfort in hell just as we will be conscious of the pleasures in heaven if we go there. So wherever we spend eternity based on our decision, we will be conscious. So if you don't get right and do it now while you're able to do it, you will be conscious of the discomfort that you experience, the torment in hell, just like the rich man who knew that he was there, and it was so hot that he asked Father Abraham to let uh Lazarus come and dip his finger in water and put it on his tongue. But isn't that still just like the rich man? He ignored Lazarus, who was at his gate, who just was asking for a few crumbs from the rich man's table, and he wasn't willing to give him a few crumbs, even though he lived in luxury and riches. And now that he's in torment, he wants that same man who is now in heaven to dip his finger in water and put it on his tongue to help him. Isn't that the way some of us are? That no matter what's going on, we always think of ourselves above others. We never think of other people, we never give them an opportunity to get some of what we have enjoyed. We don't want to share, we want to hoard it all up for ourselves, to think it's all about us. That's why the judgment of God is important, because he shows us that we're all equal in his sight, but no man is above him. There are no big eyes and little you's, but we're all God's children, and we need to treat every person we come in contact with with respect, with love, with kindness, because they are breathing the breath of God. We're all created in His image, the Imago Day, the image of God. So we learn that hell is a real place. We learn that you will be conscious of wherever you go, and if you go to hell, you will be conscious of the discomfort you feel night and day, the torment that you experience. And the third thing we learn in this parable of the rich man of Lazarus is that your placement is permanent. It's permanent. Once you leave this life, you close your eyes, your placement is permanent. You will either spend eternity with God or you will spend it in hell being tormented. It's no changing your mind then and saying, Oh Lord, I meant to serve you. I'm sorry, I didn't believe you. No, it's too late. That's a decision we have to make now because our placement is permanent. Our placement is permanent. So we need to decide today. And tomorrow is not promised. So don't put it off. Make your decision about where you will spend eternity. Make your decision today, this day. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should have, should not perish, but have everlasting life. It's that simple. Believe on Jesus Christ and live. So we see that hell is a real place, that you will be conscious of the discomfort you feel in hell, or the pleasures in heaven, that your placement is permanent, and I don't know how anyway anybody would want to choose to go to torment when they could choose pleasures in heaven as a permanent place in eternity, and number four, you will be judged for what you do here on earth and how you treat your fellow man and what you do with the resources that God gives you. You will be judged for that. Remember, the rich man had more than enough, and the word says that he lived sumptuously every day. He was clothed in purple and fine linen, he dressed well, he ate well, he had much to his under his uh thumb that was in his possession. More than enough. He had more than enough that he could share with someone else, and the beggar was at his gate every day, Lazarus, full of sores, couldn't do any better, only asking for a few crumbs from from the rich man's table, and the rich man stepped over him and kept going each day, thinking nothing of him. Don't you know that the resources that God gives us are for us to share? We are blessed to be a blessing, not for us to hoard up. Whatever gifts and talents God gives us are for the kingdom, the upbuilding of the kingdom of God. And so you will be judged for how you live here on earth, for who you help, for what you do. You know the story where where many it says who think they are going to heaven, they're not gonna go. Because they haven't done what they should have done. Well, Jesus says to them that that you saw me hungry and you fed me not thirsty, and you gave me no drink, that I was outdoors and you didn't give me a place to stay, I didn't have any clothes, and you didn't clothe me. And the people will say, Well, Lord, when did we see you like that? And his answer was that and as much as you've done for the least of these, you've done it unto me. So if you have and you do not serve others with what you have, then you're taking it away from God. We serve others, we serve God by serving others, and so think about that, and then the final thing. Nope, we have two more. Number five, lesson number five that we learn from this story of the rich man and Lazarus is that we have the scriptures, we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, leading and guiding us, and we have the manual of God, our Bible, basic instructions before leaving earth. Remember when in this parable the rich man said to Abraham, Will you send somebody to go to my house to tell my five brothers not to come to this place of torment? And Abraham said, No, that's not gonna happen. And he said, Well, well, maybe if if if um he says maybe if you send someone that's here now to tell them they'll believe it, someone that's from the dead. And Abraham says, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they persuade, though one rise from the dead. We have the Bible, we can read it for ourselves. We know that Jesus lived in history. People saw him walking around after he resurrected from the dead. We know the testimony of those in the Bible, and we know our testimony of how good God has been to us.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

So we have no excuse, no excuse, and even then we have nature.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

We can look at the sky, the stars, the sun, and the moon, and we know that no man placed those there, that it had to be a God in heaven, the seasons change, we see the birds in the air flying, we see the animals, we see the sea, the ocean, how far it comes, and then the waves go back. We know no man could do any of that. We know there is a God, and we know that we need to serve Him. So the final thing that we learn today from this parable of the rich man and Lazarus is that it's time now to make our reservations. Our reservation to be in heaven. When you're going on a trip, sometimes we make reservations a year in advance for where we're gonna be and for what we're gonna do. Making reservations for uh flights and for uh sea travel, even restaurants. We do it ahead of time, we don't wait till the last minute. So for our soul, our spirit, why do we wait? We should not wait, but we should be accepting the Lord Jesus Christ today, this day, so that we can be covered with the blood of Jesus and made right with the Father. The song says, get right with God and do it now. Right with God and do it now. We thank you for listening to this sermon entitled Fire Insurance from Luke chapter 16 verses 19 through 31 that teach us that hell is a real place, that we will be conscious of hell if we go there, that our placement is permanent, and that we will be judged for the things we do right here on earth. We will be judged for how we treat our fellow man. We will be judged for the resources that we have and how we use them. That we have everything we need to make a good decision. We have the sufficiency of the scriptures, we have nature, we have everything, we have the Spirit of God living inside of us to show us, to tell us that we need to choose God and we need to do it now. We need to make our reservations today. We need to take out our fire insurance. This is the word for today. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for your word that teaches us, that inspires us, that gives us knowledge that we may make good decisions about life each and every day. We thank you, Lord, for the plainness of your word and how you put it right where we live so that we can understand it and follow it. We thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ that covers us. We thank you for who you are in our lives, able to supply all that we need. We thank you, Lord, that even if we don't have riches here on earth, that if we live right, that if we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a mansion waiting for us, streets paved with gold, and a life of pleasure in eternity. Help us to make the right decisions, Lord. Help us to be salt and light to others that we come in contact with, to be witnesses to those in our family, in our own household, to those we meet in church as we run errands on the street corners, in the by and by. Help us, Lord, to be salt and light in your world, to be your hands and feet, to be intercessors, to stand in the gap for others. We thank you for all that you're doing, all that you have done, and what you will do for us in our future. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen, everybody, amen. And we thank you for joining us. We thank you for your faith and your commitment for everything you're doing to be an uplift to the kingdom of God. Now, enjoy your weekend, enjoy your 4th of July on tomorrow. We pray that you will be safe, and we pray that you will enjoy yourself. Now, unto him who's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only one's God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forevermore. Let us all say, Amen. Go and be great for God and go to church on Sunday. God bless you.