The Rich man and Lazarus

Welcome brothers and sisters!

Today is a great day to give God thanks, for as we in the United States celebrate the 4th of July in remembrance of our independence as a nation...we should remember even more our freedom from the wages of sin as believers in Jesus Christ our Lord!  We also want to encourage everyone to have a very safe 4th of July, and not to get too carried away out there.  God has given us a great stewardship and we should remember to do everything as unto the Lord :)!

Saturday night we had our brother Jaime, associate pastor, step in for the night to give us what some call a parable, but more likely isn't...rather an actual story.  Pastor Jaime takes us through the words of our Lord Jesus in Luke 16:19-31, as He gives us a great warning indeed in the story of the rich man and Lazarus.  As always we encourage everyone to check all things according to the Word of God and the sermons we share are no different!  It is always good to view everything in our lives through the lens of scripture.   A big thing of note in that story, is the warning that if people don't listen to God's word now...even someone coming back from the dead (referring to Jesus) won't change their mind either.  Below is a synopsis from the passage, and the sources used to be cited are biblegateway.com, Microsoft Bing, Got Questions and biblestudytools.com quick reference dictionary.  There a great many of tools for use out there, Matthew Henry's commentary, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon just to name a few.  In the commentary by Albert Barnes, he notes the name Lazarus means "destitute of help; needy", which is an interesting point as well.  Lazarus in Hebrew also means "God helps" or "Helped by God" in others. We also have many study guides and tools, commentaries, bibles in English, Greek and Hebrew right here at Faith Recovery Fellowship's library, you are welcome to come check them out!

Jesus tells a story of two men who had opposite lives and destinies. The rich man ignored the poor man Lazarus, who suffered at his gate. When they died, Lazarus was comforted by Abraham, while the rich man was tormented in Hades. The rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to help him or warn his brothers, but Abraham refused, saying that they had the word of God (the law and the prophets) to listen to, and that they would not believe even if someone rose from the dead. The story teaches us that God cares for the poor, expects us to use our wealth wisely, reveals His will in His word, offers us salvation through His Son, and will judge us according to our deeds.

There is so much more to dig into with this story, and we encourage you to both watch and share the sermon as well.  There is nothing that can replace individual study of God's word though, and the Holy Spirit makes the very words alive as we are regenerated in Christ.  Let us continue to draw near to God, and He will draw near to us!  Don't forget to share the Gospel with others, it is only by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, how God has revealed in His Word can we come to know God and be forgiven by Him.  Let this story keep us encouraged to share with others, that we would still this story repeat over and over in the lives of those who have the chance to surrender to Christ today.  We love you all and thank everyone for coming Saturday, we hope to see you next week for fellowship, worship and a meal afterward!

Until we meet again, let's go serve our King!

FRF Team