Text:\u00a0 Luke 16: 19-31<\/p>\n
I keep reading it in magazines and papers.\u00a0 The question for people my age. Do you have enough for your retirement?\u00a0 Then the ominous warning. \u00a0Will you run out of money?\u00a0 How far will it take you?<\/p>\n
But you don\u2019t have to be my age to wonder about that?\u00a0 If you\u2019re about to go to college, if you\u2019re just starting a new job, you need to think about it.\u00a0 How far will your savings or your salary take you?\u00a0 It only makes sense to think about that and make good plans.<\/p>\n
But the problem comes when we count those things up and give them an inflated value.\u00a0 The problem comes when we give them a place in our hearts and lives far bigger than they\u2019re worth.<\/p>\n
Here Jesus tells us about a man who did just that.\u00a0 He thought he had it all.\u00a0 Then another man who seemed to have nothing.\u00a0 Jesus uses their example to get us to look at our own lives, to look in our own heart and ask:<\/p>\n
How Far will Your Riches take you?
\n<\/b>A very rich man who became a beggar.
\nA desperately poor man richer by far.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 19 <\/sup>\u201cThere was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 <\/sup>At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 <\/sup>and longing to eat what fell from the rich man\u2019s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores<\/span>.\u00a0 Meet these two men.\u00a0 The rich man seems to want for nothing.\u00a0 You had to be wealthy to dress in purple.\u00a0 Purple dye came from a very expensive process.\u00a0 And fine linen was only worn by the elite.\u00a0 So his lifestyle was anything but modest. \u00a0He used his riches to indulge himself and not just on occasion, but every day.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s more to be learned about this man.\u00a0 We learn it when a desperately poor man is placed at his gate.\u00a0 The word means to be thrown, not carefully situated.\u00a0 He\u2019s there in plain sight of the rich man.\u00a0 Every time he comes or goes.\u00a0 Perhaps when the rich man would sit in his courtyard and enjoy a nice meal.\u00a0 There he would be in plain sight.\u00a0 A man desperately poor, his body covered with sores that\u00a0 any one of which would make us miserable.\u00a0 A man so desperately poor that he yearned just to have the scraps that would fall from the rich man\u2019s table.<\/p>\n The Lord knows him as Lazarus. Just like he knows your name.\u00a0 But the rich man pays no attention.\u00a0 He ignores this man so weak that the mangy dogs come and lick his sores.<\/p>\n I want you to realize something about this very rich man.\u00a0 Jesus here makes no mention of his faith or his unbelief.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have to.\u00a0 This man has no compassion.\u00a0 He only cares about himself.\u00a0 And that is telling.\u00a0 For love and compassion are the fruit of faith in our Lord. When it\u2019s not there, something is very wrong.\u00a0 For God is love.\u00a0 And read the psalms.\u00a0 Read it again and again.\u00a0 Our God has a special regard for the poor and the broken.\u00a0 And so those that know him.\u00a0 Those that know his love in Christ, will care, will love, will do what they can to help those in need.<\/p>\n But not this very rich man.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t have taken much for him to help Lazarus.\u00a0 But he didn\u2019t have it in his heart. \u00a0For his heart did not fear God or love him.<\/p>\n And here think of poor Lazarus.\u00a0 I pray that you never find yourself in such desperation.\u00a0 Yet there are no guarantees that very hard times don\u2019t come to us.\u00a0 Some of us have known such times and some of us will.\u00a0 In fact, Jesus says to us, in this world you will have trouble<\/span>.<\/p>\n Well the world looks at a Lazarus and can only see a desperately poor man or woman. \u00a0And maybe that\u2019s what we are tempted to see when we suffer.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s why we need each other.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we need our Lord\u2019s Word and Sacrament.\u00a0 For Jesus shows us different.<\/p>\n 22 <\/sup>\u201cThe time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham\u2019s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 <\/sup>In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side<\/span>\u2026 The rich man had no doubt planned his funeral much like his life. He spared no expense on himself.\u00a0 Lot of mourners.\u00a0 A beautiful gravesite.\u00a0 An eloquent speaker to say nice things about him.\u00a0 All paid for in advance.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s as far as his riches took him.\u00a0 They could not help him now. They could not save him from the wages of his sin.\u00a0 They could not keep him from the hell it deserves.\u00a0 And nothing can. Only the one who spoke these words.\u00a0 Only the one who would be crushed for our iniquities, whose wounds can heal our festering sores of guilt.<\/p>\n Lazarus had nothing in this world except this faith in his heart.\u00a0 A faith that God would send such a one just as he promised, the Messiah, the Christ, his Savior and ours.\u00a0 How far did Lazarus\u2019 riches take him?\u00a0 Listen to these precious words.\u00a0 The beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham\u2019s side<\/span>.<\/p>\n How many times have I come to a room where a Christian has just closed his\/her eyes in death? \u00a0I look around and I see eyes full of tears. I see people hugging one another and holding one another\u2019s hands.\u00a0 I see a body once so full of life but now strangely still and silent.\u00a0 But there\u2019s something none of us saw.\u00a0 The angels.\u00a0 God\u2019s angels who tenderly, lovingly took a blessed soul to heaven just like Lazarus.<\/p>\n But the rich man has become a beggar.\u00a0\u00a0 He looks up from his misery to see Abraham, the father of his people and Lazarus in heaven.\u00a0 His life of luxury is no more.\u00a0 He\u2019s in hell.\u00a0 He begs for the smallest relief.\u00a0 That Abraham send Lazarus to wet his finger and\u00a0 touch his tongue.<\/p>\n But here we learn something so tragically true.\u00a0 Once a person is in hell, nothing can change.\u00a0 Their time of grace is over and done.\u00a0 The invitation to believe has expired.<\/p>\n The rich man realizes that. But then another terrible thought comes to mind.\u00a0 What about my five brothers?<\/i>\u00a0 They were following in his footsteps.\u00a0 Who do you know that is doing the same?<\/p>\n So the rich man again becomes a beggar.\u00a0 Send Lazarus back to warn my brothers so that they will not come to this place of torment.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0Now listen to what Abraham tells him.\u00a0 It\u2019s important.\u00a0 They have Moses and the prophets.<\/span> \u00a0That\u2019s what we call the Old Testament.\u00a0 They have Moses and the prophets.\u00a0 In other words, they have God\u2019s Word. \u00a0Let them listen to what God says.<\/p>\n But once more we see the rich man\u2019s unbelief.\u00a0 No Abraham.<\/i>\u00a0 In other words, that Bible stuff will not do.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t do anything for me.\u00a0 What my brothers need is something that will really bring them around.<\/i>\u00a0 A miracle, someone back from the dead. <\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/i>Maybe there have been times when you have wished the same.\u00a0 If only God would give us something more.\u00a0 But what does Jesus teach us here?\u00a0 This is where his true riches are to be found.\u00a0 In his Word spoken and read.\u00a0 In his Word, connected to the water of our baptism.\u00a0 In his Word, connected to the bread and wine, where he comes to us with his true body and blood.\u00a0 This is where true riches are to be found.\u00a0 So Abraham said to rich man now a beggar, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.<\/span><\/p>\n For these are the Scriptures that tell us of our Savior from sin and death.\u00a0 In hundreds of prophecies and promises of God that pointed a steady, sure finger to his coming.\u00a0 In Gospel and epistle, where we learn of our God\u2019s amazing grace.\u00a0 How he sent us his one and only Son and did not spare him, but gave him up for us all.\u00a0 So that now we who once were beggars without hope and without God, we are rich.\u00a0 We are rich because God\u2019s own Son became poor for us. He took our debt of guilt and sentence of death on himself. \u00a0And now we are forgiven.\u00a0 Debt free.\u00a0 We have peace with God through Jesus Christ and a rich hope beyond all measure.<\/p>\n So how far will your riches take you?\u00a0 No matter what is in your 401k, no matter what success you have achieved in this life, not very far.\u00a0 In fact, if we let them, they will drag us down like a weight belt in the ocean.<\/p>\n Instead look at a desperately poor beggar, cast off and despised by the world, yet richer by far.\u00a0 Richer by far.\u00a0 Like you.\u00a0 Like you, who trust in Christ.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Luke 16: 19-31 I keep reading it in magazines and papers.\u00a0 The question for people my age. Do you have enough for your retirement?\u00a0 Then the ominous warning. \u00a0Will you run out of money?\u00a0 How far will it take you? But you don\u2019t have to be my age to wonder about that?\u00a0 If you\u2019re about to go to college, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.livingwordpetaluma.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}