Today’s Devotion
Topic: The Sermon: Your Lifestyle And Word
Text: Luke 16: 29
_Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ Amen_
Do you remember the parable Jesus said regarding a rich man who died and poor man Lazarus? Well in the story:
_”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 Hades, 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 set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 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.’_ (Like 16: 19- 29).
Now the biggest question is this: if the incidence of this parable was to happen in our day, and God was counting on the sermon of our lives and that of the preachers/ prophets of our time, to convict the rich man’s five brothers of sin, how disappointed will God be? Especially in these days where our personal lives look nothing like Christ and the sermons we preach, far from being SOUL WINNING OR HEAVEN-CENTRED. Rather, it has become a calculated attempt to excite the people with what their ears itch to hear, for selfish gains. But what shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
Dear preacher, brothers and sisters, God is counting on us to help inform the “five brothers” of the “rich man in torment” that there is life after death. What we do with our lives while on earth determines where we will be in the afterlife. The decision to spend eternity either in heaven or hell is always going to be by individual choice. However, _”How, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”_ (Rom 10: 14).
Meditate on this and ask for grace to witness to the world about Christ; starting with those you will call your “five brothers”. We definitely have a role to play in emptying hell to populate heaven. What kind of sermon are you preaching with your life? What kind of sermon are you preaching on the pulpit too? God directs the unbelievers your way so that by the godly life you live and the salvation message you preach, He (God) can convict them of sin. Why should you be redirecting them to hell? That will be very unfortunate.
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