Heed The Word

Two Lives, Two Deaths, Two Destinies In Luke 16

• Pastor Ken Davis • Season 2026 • Episode 1

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Why do some people who seem far from God thrive while faithful people struggle? We sat with Luke 16 and the story of the rich man and Lazarus to face that question without flinching. What looks like favor at the feast can hide a famine of the soul, and what looks like lack at the gate can be kept by God’s quiet care. We pressed beyond the surface to examine how Jesus dismantles the idea that prosperity proves righteousness and instead points us toward a different treasure: the abundance of peace.

Walking through Psalm 37, we unpack the pull of envy and the power of trust. “Delight yourself in the Lord” is not a trick to get more stuff; it’s the path that reshapes what we want. As delight grows, God plants new desires—holiness, deeper fellowship, freedom from sin, and a hunger for his kingdom. We trace how those desires change daily choices, quiet anxious comparison, and free us to see people at our gates with compassion rather than suspicion.

The turning point comes with death, where illusions end. Lazarus is carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom, while the rich man wakes in torment, fully conscious and painfully aware. We talk candidly about Hades, judgment, and why Jesus’ exclusive claim—“I am the way, the truth, and the life”—is not narrow cruelty but rescuing clarity. This conversation invites you to trade the fragile currency of status for the lasting wealth of peace, to let God rewrite your desires, and to measure success by eternity, not the moment.

If this message moved you, share it with a friend, subscribe for future teachings, and leave a review to help others find the show. What desire is God reshaping in your heart today?

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SPEAKER_00:

You are listening to Heat the Word with our pastor and teacher Ken Davis. Pastor Ken is the senior pastor at Calvary Chapel Southwest Metro in Burleson, Texas. Please join us as we study the Gospel of Luke verse by verse.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, you ever wonder why the Wicked Prosper? Does that confuse you, anybody? It confuses me. Why do the Wicked Prosper? You look at these people who have just millions and billions of dollars and spent it so frivolously, and you think to yourself, Lord, if you give me some of that, I'd do a much better job with it. Come on, guys, let me win the lottery, or what have you. We think that, don't we? And we think, boy, you know, if I were a rich man, I would do this and this and this and all these good things. So why doesn't the Lord bless me that way?

SPEAKER_00:

The Gospel of Luke is the third account in the Gospels of the life and teachings of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As believers, there are few studies that will benefit us more spiritually than studying the life and teachings of the Master. In the Bible, we see Jeremiah asking the Lord why the wicked prosper. As believers today, we often ask the same thing. You see, on this side of eternity, we may never understand why the Lord does some of the things that he does. However, we know that we're not to focus on living prosperous, but we're to focus on storing up treasures in heaven. Don't forget to stay with us after today's message to hear more information about He the Word, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16, verse 19, as we join Pastor Ken.

SPEAKER_01:

We're gonna be looking at two lives, two deaths, and two destinies. That's how I would sum this up two lives, two deaths, and two destinies. Jesus has been teaching over the previous verses regarding finances, regarding money. The last verse, which we spent our entire teaching time on, was regarding divorce. And it's about as that division takes place, how a separation occurs. You remember that Jesus had said, What God has joined together, let no man put asunder, as we studied throughout the scriptures last week. We come now to a story that Jesus is going to tell the disciples. Not the disciples, excuse me, the well, the disciples, they were there, right? The Pharisees and everyone. He's going to tell them this story about a rich man whose name we do not know, and a very poor man named Lazarus. So it's very fitting that this story should come after a teaching on wealth and on finances and how to manage those. Because you see, in this day, wealth was seen as the evidence of a righteous life, you see. Because if you were someone who loved God and served God, then God would therefore bless you with material goods. And so the Pharisees of that day believed that if someone was wealthy and they were prosperous, it was a sign of God's favor in their lives. Sound familiar? I think we hear a lot of that today, don't we? Well, Jesus is about to turn that idea on its head. Let's read together, starting in verse 19. 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 we have here two lives. Two lives that could not be more different, could they? You know, sometimes this is referred to as a parable, can I tell you? I don't think it is. For one, Luke doesn't say that it's a parable. And usually he does, right? He says he told them this parable or something to that effect. Not only that, there isn't any other parable that ever uses a proper name. But in this instance, Jesus does give a proper name. He's telling a story about a rich man who goes unnamed and about a poor man named Lazarus. And as we examine these two lives, we see some pretty telling signs. First of all, the rich man wore designer labels of the day, right? He was clothed in purple. That was the sign of wealth and royalty. He was dressed stylishly. And he wore fine linen that was worn as an undergarment underneath the purple robes that they would wear. And both of these were very costly. It would be as though we were to say in the modern vernacular, there is this man who, you know, wore Calvin Klein and Gucci and all this other stuff, right? And wore a Rolex watch and drove a Mercedes, and all down the line, there was this man who was just incredibly wealthy. And it says that he dined sumptuously every day. This guy's table was filled with the best foods money could buy. I mean, it was packed. It was like every day was Thanksgiving at this guy's house, you know? Man, he had anything he wanted. He was living like a king. And he knew it. And yet, on the other end of the spectrum, we have Lazarus. This man was so broke, he had nothing. He was taken and laid at the gate of this rich man's house every day, and he would beg just for some of the crumbs that would fall from this man's table. And Lazarus was covered in sores. So not only was he poor, but he was sick. And then not only was he laying there begging for food, covered with sores, but then to make matters worse, to add if it were insult to injury, the dogs, these unclean animals, would come and would lick his sores. So here we have a man who has nothing, who begs for a living, who's covered in sores, and is hounded by dogs, persecuted, if you will. And there he sits at the gate of this rich man. So not only does he have nothing, but every day he sees all around him those who have everything. Now, would we look at this man, this Lazarus, and say, well, obviously his problem is that he has no faith. Or he certainly would not be in this condition, would he? Or perhaps we would look at this man and we would say, God is obviously judging him for some sin that he has committed in his life, right? That's why he has fallen on such desperate straits. Don't we have a tendency to do that when we're driving down the road and we see this guy standing on the corner with the sign that says, We'll work for food, right? And we think to ourselves, let's be honest, I wonder what that guy did to end up in this situation. Because obviously he must have done something, right? I mean, don't we think that? We try to find some fault or some blame, and perhaps there is blame to be born. I mean, each of us is responsible for what we do with our lives, aren't we? And yet, as we look at these two men, it would be very easy for us to look at the rich man and say how successful he is, how blessed he is, how wonderfully happy he must be. And by all accounts, from what we see here, he seemed to be happy, right? He certainly wasn't complaining about his situation, was he? You know, you ever wonder why the wicked prosper? Does that confuse you, anybody? It confuses me. Why do the wicked prosper? You look at these people who have just millions and billions of dollars and spend it so frivolously, and you think to yourself, Lord, if you'd give me some of that, I'd do a much better job with it. Come on, God, just let me win the lottery or what have you. We think that, don't we? And we think, boy, you know, if I were a rich man, I would do this and this and this and all these good things. So why doesn't the Lord bless me that way? Why does he bless them? The Psalms have a lot to say about that question. Turn to Psalm 37, if you will. Psalm 37 says this, starting in verse 1 Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Now you see, God says soon, and he could mean at the end of their life, right? 50, 60, 70 years. We see soon and we think tomorrow, you know? Our soon and God's soon are not always the same soon, if you know what I mean. But he says they wither as the green herb. Verse three, trust in the Lord and do good. Don't worry about what this other person has and about what you don't have, but trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Now, you know what's amazing to me is Lazarus had to beg for bread, didn't he? He had to beg for even crumbs. But wait a minute, did he starve to death? We're not told that he did. So obviously the Lord fed him. Obviously, the Lord cared for him. It says, dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Now, I believe that verse is twofold, and it is a promise that is qualified upon an action on our part. First of all, in order for us to look at this verse and to claim that verse for our own, we have to do what? Delight ourselves in the Lord. Well, how do you delight yourself in the Lord? You say, I'm gonna delight in the Lord no matter how much it hurts. I'm gonna delight in the Lord if it kills me. I'm delighting in the Lord, Lord, I'm delighted in you. Oh boy, I gotta go to church today because I'm I'm gonna be delighted in the Lord. To be delighted in the Lord is to say, I take pleasure in being in the presence of God. I take pleasure in being in fellowship with his people. I enjoy being alone with him and talking to him and singing songs to him, however silly it may sound to everybody else. Delighting yourself in the Lord is finding true satisfaction and joy in life. Not in what God can give you, but in God. You see, not in the gifts that we receive, but in the giver of those gifts. Not in the healing, but in the healer. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Does that mean that if I delight myself in the Lord, that God will give me whatever I desire? Lord, I desire Alexis. If I delight myself in the Lord, I'm not gonna give two cents about Alexis, am I? Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. I believe that's a twofold meaning there. The first being this: if you are delighting yourself in the Lord, the Lord will put in your heart the desires he wants you to have. You see, I don't need to delight myself in the Lord to have all kinds of fleshly desires, do I? There's lots of stuff that my flesh wants. My flesh would like to be clothed in purple and wear linen in that day or the modern equivalent thereof. My flesh would really like to dine sumptuously every day. I have to admit, I'm probably guilty of a little of that. That's what my flesh desires. I don't need to delight myself in the Lord to have those desires put in my heart. They're already there. But if I delight myself in the Lord, he will give me the desires that he wants me to have. Desire to know him better. Desire to walk in closer fellowship with him. Desire to live a holy. Did I just say the word holy? Yes, I said the word holy life. A desire to walk free from the bondage of sin. Those are the desires that he'll put in my heart. Desire to see souls one for Jesus. A desire to see his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Those are the desires that God longs to fulfill in your life. And if he puts those desires in your heart, won't he also satisfy those desires? As we delight ourselves in him, he promises that he will. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, not the Lord's way, but in his own way, it's saying, or because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall be no more. Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more, but the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of material goods, in the abundance of money, in the abundance of sports cars? No. In the abundance of relationships, in the abundance of fill in the blank with whatever your flesh desires, in that kind of abundance? Is that what he's talking about? No. He says they will delight themselves in the abundance of peace. You see, peace is something that money cannot buy. Peace is something that you cannot achieve through your own efforts. Peace is something that cannot be found in a self-help book or in the power of positive thinking. Peace can only be found in the Prince of Peace. It can only be found in Jesus. And if we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our heart. He will give us peace with God. So, yes, rich people seem for a time to prosper, but we're going to see in a moment what their end is. Now, Lazarus, on the other hand. He's poor, he's destitute, he's sick. What about Lazarus? What do we know about him? Well, certainly we know one thing. He was a believer. We know that from his end. We could also derive it from his name. Jesus didn't provide the name of the rich man, but he did provide the name for Lazarus. And the name Lazarus literally means whom God helps. So we see that Lazarus was he whom God helps. We say, well, how did God help him? He's got sores, he's being licked by dogs, he's begging for bread. Gee, thanks for the help, Lord. Can I tell you that I would rather be Lazarus and end up where Lazarus ended up than be the rich man and have my end be his. You see, we look at today. We look at this life, these moments that we spend between the year we were born and the year we die, and we sum up our lives and determine and evaluate our success by what we have accomplished or accumulated within that time span. But God judges differently. You see, this life is temporary. It's a moment. It's like the grass which grows up today and is gone tomorrow. But life, eternal life, never ends. So we see two lives. Now let's take a look at two different deaths. Verse 22 of Luke 16. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. Angels are ministering spirits, messengers of God. And they are sent oftentimes to minister to us. The Bible says that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. My mom was sharing a story with me about my grandmother. My grandmother had a very long and a very painful battle with cancer. And toward the very, very end of her life, there was a period of time where she did not speak at all for several weeks. Three months, excuse me, thank you, mom. For about three months, she didn't speak at all. Now, my grandmother was a believer. She knew the Lord. She wasn't a perfect woman by any means, but she believed in Jesus with all of her heart. And my mom took care of her through much of her sickness and was there with her up till the very end. And one day, when they were in the house, just the two of them, my mom heard my grandmother speak in her natural voice. You see, when a believer dies, when someone who knows Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior dies, and they depart this earth, they are ushered in by the angels of God to his very presence. They are ushered into glory. What is it that Jesus said to the thief on the cross who said, Remember me when you come into your kingdom? Jesus said, This day I say to you, you will be with me in paradise. And so here's Lazarus, this man who had nothing in his life, who had not two pennies to rub together. And yet when he dies, angels carry him to Abraham's bosom, to paradise. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich men also died. And was buried. He was buried. C. S. Lewis was once told about an atheist who had died and was buried, and on that atheist's tombstone were engraved these words. Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go. And C. S. Lewis replied, I'm sure he wishes that were so. Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and no place to go. I'm sure he wishes that were so. Because the fact of the matter is, apart from Jesus Christ and his shed blood upon the cross, there is one destination for the immortal soul of man, and that is hell. Did I say hell? Yes, I said hell. Because apart from Jesus Christ, apart from that name which is above every name, there is no salvation. The Bible tells us that there is no name, no other name under heaven by which man may be saved, but by the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. And anyone who would deny that is no minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, regardless of what his title may say. Now I'm not casting stones, nor am I passing judgment. I'm just telling you what the Bible says. Those words are not mine, they belong to our God. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by 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. This tells us something that after death there is a consciousness, there is an awareness of our surroundings. There is a recognition of not only who we are and where we are, but also of those whom we knew and even of those whom we did not know. This rich man had never seen Abraham, and yet he saw that there was Lazarus, and there was Abraham, and he knew who they both were. He knew who they were. You see, when we pass from this life into the next, we will know a whole lot more than we know today. We will see a whole lot more than we see right now. We will be conscious. You know, there are those who teach the doctrine of soul sleep. And I don't think they'll lose their salvation for believing it, but they're wrong. You see, they look at it and they say, when we die, we just go to sleep and we're buried in the ground, and our soul is asleep, and that's it. That's all that happens to us until the day of the resurrection. And then we're raised from the dead and we're with Christ or we're cast into hell, whichever the case may be. But the Bible doesn't teach soul sleep. The Bible teaches that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And we see from this story, from these words, that whether we believe in Jesus or not, we will be conscious after death. And I would not want to be there without him. Because it says here that he was in torment in Hades, in the grave, in shell. Now, this place, Hades, that's being spoken of here, is not hell as we think of it, that great lake of fire. But this is a place where the dead await the final judgment. And this is where this rich man found himself. 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. Does that sound like a pleasant place to be?

SPEAKER_00:

For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. That's chapter 11, verse 10 of the book we are currently studying here on Heed the Word, Luke. Luke's gospel account of the life of Jesus is an invaluable study that we know God will use in your life. We do thank you for joining us today. This has been another edition of Heed the Word with our pastor and teacher, Ken Davis. As you likely heard at the beginning of today's program, this message is available free of charge on our website. Simply log on to www.heedtheword.org. That's heedtheword.org. Once you're there, select the Listen Online page. There you'll find the Heed the Word Media Player. For your convenience, today's message is available in MP3 podcast and mobile formats. By far, the best way to stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Ken is to subscribe to the Heatheword Podcast. So log on to Heatheword.org and continue studying with us today. If today's message has ministered to you and you live in the Burleson, Texas area, or we'll be passing through, we'd like to invite you to join us for worship. We meet each Sunday morning at 10.30 a.m. and Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. You can log on to HeatheWord.org for driving directions and more information. So please stop by and visit us. Well, that's all the time we have for today. We encourage you to join us next time as Pastor Ken continues teaching through the Gospel of Luke on the next edition of Heathe Word.