WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.120 Hey, it's really good to see you. 00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:03.759 Grab your Bibles, open them up with me to Luke chapter 16. 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:07.919 Luke chapter 16, let me add my word of greeting uh to Josh's earlier. 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:10.960 My name is Chris Cuba, privilege of being lead pastor here at United City. 00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:20.000 And I do want to take this opportunity to welcome all of those on the other side of the camera, those that may be out of town or maybe joining us through the Pando app at one of our correctional facilities. 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:23.199 Let's give them a hand to celebrate these folks from the other side. 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:27.760 We're really grateful to have the opportunity to bring this message to you. 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:31.679 Last weekend, let's before we get going, let's just celebrate for a second. 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:34.320 Last weekend was absolutely amazing. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:36.399 It was incredible in every single way. 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:44.240 We had over 4,500 people here in attendance, the largest we've ever had at United City Church for Easter weekend. 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:46.079 It was incredible in every way. 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:51.759 We had 149 first-time guest families that came with us, which was incredible. 00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:58.159 Some of you may have been one of those guest families that are now back for a second week, and we're so grateful that that is the case. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:10.319 I don't like the term though, guest, you know, first-time guest, uh, because you know, guests are are typically, you know, like we have guests at our house, for example. 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:19.439 We have folks that come over and they're guests in our house, but like guest implies that we're gonna host you while you're here, but there's a clear moment where you need to go. 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:20.159 You know what I mean? 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:21.439 Like you need to kind of leave. 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:23.760 Uh, I'm an early, I go to bed really, really early. 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:29.519 I get up really early in the mornings, and so therefore, like at 8:30, I'm gonna be kind of fidgeting around to make sure you get the hint. 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:34.000 If you're a guest over at my house, and at nine o'clock, I don't want you at my house, all right? 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:34.879 I want you gone. 00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:38.159 I'm I'm I'm heading to bed and I'm ready to kind of do that kind of a thing. 00:01:38.319 --> 00:01:41.760 That is not how we feel about our guests here at United City Church, okay? 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:46.079 It's maybe better to say we call you as potential family members, all right? 00:01:46.239 --> 00:01:52.640 Because we're just telling you, if you come to United City Church and you're here long enough, it's gonna get on you and it's not gonna get off, all right? 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:53.439 You're gonna love it. 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:56.079 You're gonna love what's going on here, and I hope that that's the case. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:01:58.560 Give us an opportunity to be able to do that. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:06.480 But the most important thing of all was we had 326 people last week that indicated B, they want to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:07.599 Let's celebrate, church. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:08.479 Come on. 00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:28.479 We're in the process of following up with every single person that did that, and just so thankful uh for the way that you as a church mobilized, that you allowed this not just to be a weekend, a lot of people come to church, but that you invited you through your Easter egg hunts and serving, through your serve team, all the things that you did, United City. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:39.520 Thank you from the bottom of my heart just for allowing this to be hopefully a catalyst weekend so that we can continue to reach people in droves in Northeast Houston and beyond going forward. 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:49.680 We are beginning a brand new sermon series today called Invisible, and it's coming out of our Easter survey that we did last week and last year. 00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:56.400 Uh, we basically asked you, the church, to help us determine what you want to hear, what God's word says about. 00:02:56.479 --> 00:03:00.960 And last year, when we did the Easter survey for the very first time, it was overwhelming. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:05.919 The number one topic by far was the unseen world. 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:15.759 What can we learn about what God's word says about things like heaven and hell and Satan and demons and end times and spiritual warfare and all of that? 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:20.719 So this year we knew we already had this series scheduled coming up right after Easter. 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:30.879 And so we decided to take the survey again, but we changed some things, took out all the things related to that topic out of the survey and added some other ones. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:43.840 And the overwhelming number one response that we got last week for the second year in a row from our survey in the other category was we want to learn about Satan and we want to learn about demons and we want to learn about heaven and hell. 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:46.479 And so we hear you loud and clear. 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:58.639 There is clearly an interest in how do we figure out the thing that is mysterious, the thing that is kind of intriguing, but the thing that is also can be very scary. 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:03.360 How can we make the thing that is unseen become seen? 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:12.000 How do we take the things that are invisible and bring clarity on what we're supposed to think about these things? 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:21.439 Last year I took a trip with my youngest son who is turning 13, uh, turned 13 last year, and we we took a trip kind of as an initiation trip. 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:30.720 I've done that with both of my boys, and it was basically a trip kind of signifying the fact that he was he was moving from being a boy to becoming a man. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:34.800 It was a great trip, great opportunity for us uh just to spend some time together. 00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:42.639 I had an opportunity to read a number of different letters that men in his life wrote him as just prayers of blessing over him. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:49.439 I had the opportunity to kind of say, hey, here's some things I see in you, and here's some things that I want to see in you as we move forward. 00:04:49.600 --> 00:05:00.319 I began to outline for him uh this thing called the primal path that I've been doing with my boys to kind of as a way to kind of help walk them through what it looks like to not only be a man, but to be a godly man. 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.920 And it was just an amazing time, really just being together, just me and my son. 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:06.319 It doesn't happen very often, just the two of us. 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:09.120 And so we we did it in Washington, D.C. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:11.600 And the reason why we picked Washington, D.C. 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:17.360 is because he's a big Steph Curry fan, and we decided to catch a game in Washington, D.C. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:18.959 against the Wizards, all right? 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:21.759 And we knew when we went there we could catch all the other stuff. 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:28.720 And so we went to the game, and then we did all the sites that you have there in Washington, D.C., which was so much fun. 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:30.319 I mean, we hit all of them, all right? 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:47.680 We did Lincoln Memorial, we went by the White House, we did a Capitol Tour, we did Ford's Theater, we did all the different places, and of course, the National Mall, if you've been to Washington, D.C., just has museum after museum that you can go into, and they're just all very unique, but very informative. 00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:50.319 I mean, just a really, really great experience. 00:05:50.399 --> 00:05:57.519 And so I was really excited to be able to experience all of these things with my son there in Washington last year at a great time. 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:01.040 And one of the things I was most excited about was the Smithsonians. 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:10.800 There's a bunch of Smithsonian Smithsonian museums, all of them are of different categories, but there was one particular Smithsonian that was exhibit that had presidential artifacts. 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:14.079 I'm a, I'm just, I love anything presidential. 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:17.279 I love leadership, I love the idea of all of that. 00:06:17.439 --> 00:06:34.000 And so you combine that with then things that are unique to those individual presidents, whether it's because of their personality or because of something that was taking place during their time in office, it was just like fascinating for me to be able to experience and to go and to see these things. 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:43.120 And I was amazed in the midst of seeing these presidential artifacts, that one of the artifacts that was featured was the Jefferson Bible. 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:45.600 I'm a pastor, I love presidents. 00:06:45.680 --> 00:07:00.639 This was like a perfect combo for me to wonder why in the world would Thomas Jefferson's Bible be included in the midst of the artifacts that would be worthy of displaying to represent him and his life. 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:13.519 And I was so intrigued to learn that what makes the Jefferson Bible significant is not what is found in it, it's actually what's found out of it. 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:19.519 You see, Thomas Jefferson was somebody who was intrigued by Jesus. 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:27.360 He really liked the ideas of his love, and he liked the idea of who he was, and he liked the idea of what he stood for in his teachings. 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:35.199 But there were certain parts of the story of Jesus, and there were certain parts of the Bible that he just couldn't agree with. 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:38.800 He didn't like, he didn't believe. 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:54.240 So the story goes is that he literally took a razor blade and he went to the Bible and he cut out the parts that he didn't like, or he cut out the parts that he didn't agree with. 00:07:54.800 --> 00:08:04.959 And so now it is displayed for everyone to see as something that highlights not what's in it, but what's excluded from it. 00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:12.560 This morning, as we begin our sermon series called Invisible, I'm gonna be teaching you about the topic of hell. 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:17.920 And my preference would be to take the Thomas Jefferson approach. 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:30.399 I would love nothing more than to basically say, you know, I don't really like this part, and so therefore, I'm gonna take a razor blade and I'm gonna cut it out and remove it. 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:33.919 And it's not really worth bringing up. 00:08:34.799 --> 00:08:37.519 Some of you are like, what's the big deal talking about hell? 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:40.559 We did this every single week at the church I grew up at. 00:08:40.720 --> 00:08:42.000 That's all we ever talked about. 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:46.720 It didn't matter what the message was on, somehow we beelined it to hell at the end of it. 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:50.559 And so, therefore, this is just normal church for me, all right? 00:08:50.799 --> 00:09:00.480 And so, some of you, you may have had churches that have an imitation like we have at the end of our services, and you know at some point along the way, you were sick and tired of hearing about how bad hell was gonna be. 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:03.600 And so, whether you really made a decision or not, you knew this. 00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:12.480 You wanted the pastor to stop looking at you every time he brought up hell, and so you came forward, signed whatever you needed to sign to say, I'm going to heaven, I'm not going to hell. 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:19.039 Some of you, maybe because you didn't grow up in church, or maybe you grew up in a church, and you never talked about hell. 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:20.480 Why would you talk about hell? 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:22.159 Like, why would you talk about that? 00:09:22.639 --> 00:09:28.879 And it was just assumed that hell, if it is a real place, definitely doesn't have people like us there. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:32.000 It's like the really, really bad people. 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:37.759 But you thought, well, God is loving and God is good, so no one actually goes to hell, right? 00:09:38.320 --> 00:09:46.320 Or maybe your just assumption is this is that essentially it's like heaven is like the top of the mountain, and all of us are gonna end up at the top of the mountain. 00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:56.960 And some people may choose Jesus, and some people may choose over here, and some people may choose something else over here, and it really doesn't matter what you choose, because all it's gonna end up at the same exact place. 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:03.759 And so if hell is real, it's like empty, there's like nobody there, like it can't really be something that's real. 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:12.080 Or maybe you were taught growing up is that there's not actually heaven and hell, you go right whenever you die, you actually go to a place called purgatory. 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:14.879 And purgatory is like the middle ground. 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:23.360 Purgatory is a place that you go and you basically have to pay for your sins, and if you pay for your sins long enough, then you're gonna get allowed to go up into heaven. 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:31.200 Or if you're there in purgatory and you got so many sins that you don't have enough ability and time to be able to pay for those sins, then eventually you go to hell. 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:34.399 But there's this kind of middle ground place that you go there for a while. 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:35.039 Please hear me. 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:37.279 There's no biblical basis for purgatory. 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:42.799 And you can imagine how that's been abused and misused over the course of time. 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:45.919 United City Church, we're Bible people. 00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:48.080 Like we believe the Bible speaks. 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:56.559 So what we want to do is we want to let the Bible speak about a topic that you would be surprised how often it comes up in the Bible. 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:07.039 While we may try to cut it out, if we were gonna cut out the sections on hell, we'd be cutting out a lot of the New Testament and a lot of the teachings of Jesus. 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:11.039 Did you know that Jesus himself talked about hell more than any other person? 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:16.320 Did you know that Jesus talks about hell 13% of the time? 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:19.440 13% of what he says is about hell. 00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:33.360 And if you look at all the parables that Jesus taught, which were stories meant to teach a truth, over half of the parables were about eternal separation, judgment, and hell. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:43.759 Which is what the case is today in Luke chapter 16 and the parable that we're gonna see, and we're gonna see what God's word can teach us about this reality of hell. 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:46.240 Let me just give you a heads up before we get into this, okay? 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:50.960 This is gonna be a way more educational series than anything that we've done before. 00:11:51.120 --> 00:12:00.559 If you're not a note taker, this would be a great opportunity for you to start being a note taker because usually we want to make sure you know what God's word says and then know how you can apply it. 00:12:00.720 --> 00:12:05.120 I'm not gonna give you three ways that you can make hell a bigger reality in your life, okay? 00:12:05.279 --> 00:12:06.320 I'm not doing that. 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:12.399 We're not gonna talk about, hey, here's here's demons, here's what they're all about, and here's how you apply them to your life. 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:13.679 That's not gonna be the case. 00:12:13.919 --> 00:12:32.240 It's gonna be way more educational, but we want to make sure that you have a biblical mindset so that whenever you come across cultural expressions of these things, or you come across these things in natural conversation, you know what God's word say, and how does this shape how I'm supposed to live? 00:12:32.639 --> 00:12:33.759 Luke chapter 16. 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:36.480 Let's begin reading in verse 19. 00:12:37.279 --> 00:12:44.639 It says, There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day. 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:53.759 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:56.960 Moreover, even the dogs came and licked the sores. 00:12:57.279 --> 00:13:00.799 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:05.039 The rich man also died and was buried. 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:08.960 Jesus teaches using a contrast between a rich man and a poor man. 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:12.399 What he presents is a have and have not. 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:18.879 What you see is the rich man is presented as very wealthy, he's very uh self-absorbed. 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:20.799 Purple was the color of luxury. 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:25.840 Only kings or royalties had purple, but it says here that he has purple, which means this. 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:26.639 He is loaded. 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:30.960 This guy has a lot of money, he's got some significance and some status. 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:34.480 He ate the finest foods, he was a lover of money. 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:39.519 The rich man dies and he was buried because of his money and his status. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:45.200 He surely had an extravagant burial and a very proper burial at that. 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:49.279 It then mentions that there was another man named Lazarus. 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:53.200 This isn't Lazarus, Jesus' friend, who he later rises from the dead. 00:13:53.279 --> 00:14:01.279 This is just a man that is named in the story, the only one, in fact, of all of Jesus' parables to get a name, that he just gives the name. 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:10.399 Lazarus, though, his name literally means God has helped, which is ironic because it doesn't look like God's helping him a whole lot in the story. 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:15.519 I mean, in fact, what you see is a man who has dire circumstances. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:22.720 He's a beggar, he's nothing to eat, he's hoping to get crumbs from the rich man's table. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:24.080 He's sick. 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:30.639 He's got sores all over his body, he's desperately trying to get relief from his misery. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:44.720 You don't see relief coming to the man, instead, you see relief coming to dogs who basically use his sores as a way to fill their stomachs as they lick his wounds. 00:14:45.039 --> 00:14:54.320 There's no mention of Lazarus' burial, which likely means that he probably wasn't given a proper burial, and no one even cared that he died. 00:14:55.120 --> 00:14:59.840 Two men with two very different ways of living while here on earth. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:10.000 But the parable gives us some insight in that how we live on earth affects what happens to us when we die. 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:15.440 Notice the contrast, it continues with the two men uh in verse 22. 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:19.840 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:22.480 The rich man also died and was buried. 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:29.279 And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. 00:15:29.519 --> 00:15:36.639 And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue. 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:39.759 For I am in anguish in this flame. 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:43.840 Lazarus is immediately taken up to the angels by Abraham's side. 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:47.200 For the Jewish people, Abraham is like the patriarch of the faith. 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:52.480 This represents calm, this represents security, it's the image of intimate rest. 00:15:52.639 --> 00:16:00.720 What this means is, is because we know Jesus was the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecy, is that ultimately Lazarus put his faith and trust in Jesus. 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:04.879 And so therefore, he is now in heaven, is the image that we are seeing. 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:08.879 The contrast is between the rich man and his destination. 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:13.440 Verse 23 says the rich man was taken to Hades or hell. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:15.440 It says he was in torment. 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:19.120 Verse 24 says we see he was in physical pain. 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:21.440 He's asking for mercy. 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:26.879 You see this idea repeated multiple times when hell is mentioned in God's word. 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:30.799 It is a place of intense physical pain. 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:39.840 Matthew chapter 25, verse 31 reads, When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the glorious throne. 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:46.879 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:50.960 And he will place the sheep on his right, both the but the goats on the left. 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:58.480 Then the king will say to those on the right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 00:16:58.639 --> 00:16:59.600 Verse 41. 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:07.920 Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 00:17:08.319 --> 00:17:22.880 Second Thessalonians chapter one, verse seven, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:30.400 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. 00:17:30.640 --> 00:17:37.440 Anytime you see depictions of hell, you see many times fire and images of suffering. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:45.680 But what I want you to see is that it's not just physical pain, it's mental anguish. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:54.160 The word anguish used in verse 24 actually implies not just physical but mental torment. 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:58.640 It's a different word from torment found in verse 23, which is physical pain. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:03.200 This word refers to continual pain and grief, especially mentally. 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:05.119 Verse 25 explains it. 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:13.119 It says, But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner, bad things. 00:18:13.359 --> 00:18:18.960 But now he is comforted here, and you are in, same word, anguish. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:21.519 It's important to note, we gotta stop here for a second. 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:27.119 Abraham is not in, Abraham is not saying that the rich man is in hell because he was rich. 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:37.359 If that's the case, all of us would be in hell because categorically, all of us, no matter where we are, no matter how much money you have in this room and hearing my voice, you are loaded compared to the rest of the world. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:39.440 It's not saying that that is the case. 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:53.200 The context for this parable is found in a larger discussion with the Pharisees over Jesus, where Jesus was trying to show them what they thought made them successful and right with God was actually untrue. 00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:56.000 Go back with me to verse 14. 00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:58.160 Let's see what the context is. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:04.799 It says, The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things and they ridiculed him. 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:09.279 And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men. 00:19:09.599 --> 00:19:11.119 But God knows your hearts. 00:19:11.440 --> 00:19:16.079 For what is exalted among men is abomination in the sight of God. 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:26.079 What this says is that the reason the rich man was in hell was because he loved his riches and he loved his status more than he loved God. 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:31.279 Hear this, and hell was actually his preference. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:34.319 How many of you have ever been in detention before? 00:19:34.559 --> 00:19:35.759 Have you ever had detention before? 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:36.559 Would you raise your hands? 00:19:37.119 --> 00:19:38.160 Raise your hands, proud. 00:19:38.240 --> 00:19:38.720 Come on. 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:40.000 Come on. 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:44.240 Okay, you guys need to live a little, all right? 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:48.319 Um I've been in detention one time in my life. 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:49.839 I was in middle school. 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:51.440 Still really bitter about it. 00:19:51.680 --> 00:19:53.440 Still kind of a sore subject. 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:55.920 I still think that I don't deserve it. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:04.000 The irony of the situation, if it wasn't bad enough that I got detention, is how and who I got detention from. 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:07.279 My mom is a longtime educator. 00:20:07.599 --> 00:20:12.079 My mom taught at the middle school that I attended. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:16.960 And she taught a particular subject and class that only she taught. 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:22.720 And I was taking that class, which meant that I had my mom as a teacher. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:24.960 I would tell you it was not my favorite thing. 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:31.920 She would tell you it was especially not her favorite thing to have me as a student, but I had to call her, I couldn't call her mom, I had to call her Mrs. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:35.519 Cuba and the whole deal, and had to treat her like she wasn't my mom and whatever else. 00:20:35.759 --> 00:20:42.240 I was acting the same way that day that I have every single day, every other time in every other class that I've ever been in. 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:45.039 And I'll be honest, I thought she had a quick trigger that day. 00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:46.640 That's just my opinion. 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:51.119 I think maybe she was carrying some things from home into the work office. 00:20:52.160 --> 00:21:02.640 But she was rather quick, and I was talking, and I wasn't supposed to be, and instead of giving me a friendly warning like everybody else gets, and like I've gotten my whole life, it was an immediate no, you get detention. 00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:12.000 Now, if you get detention in middle school, at least the way whenever I was growing up, the way that it works is that you have to basically go and figure out when you're gonna do the detention, you have to pay your penalty, all right? 00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:16.000 And you don't have to tell your parents that you got detention. 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:23.200 But whenever your mom is the teacher who gives you detention, you can see how that was a weird conversation that night. 00:21:23.519 --> 00:21:24.720 We're at dinner table. 00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:27.519 Chris, do you have anything you'd like to tell your dad? 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:29.599 No. 00:21:31.519 --> 00:21:32.559 I'm just so angry. 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:41.599 I'm just mad because it's like no other kid gets detention and has to go tell their parents at dinner table, but just because you're my mom and you gave me detention, then I've got to go do this. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:48.799 And so you can imagine the shame when I had to go after school to go to detention, and detention's bad enough. 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:54.160 Like, I don't care how big and tough you are, like, I don't care how bad you are, no one likes detention. 00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:58.480 Like, no one likes it because no one wants to go to school more, they want to go less, right? 00:21:58.640 --> 00:21:59.759 And so, therefore, you go to detention. 00:22:00.480 --> 00:22:04.799 You've got the person that's over detention, the teacher, they don't want to be there, right? 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:13.119 And it seems like the entire goal of detention is just to make you feel humiliated so that you never want to do it again. 00:22:13.359 --> 00:22:23.519 But if you try to pull something while you're in detention, that teacher's there to basically get onto you, just looking the whole time, waiting for you to slip up so that you can get more detention. 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:25.680 And so sure enough, I'm in there attention. 00:22:25.759 --> 00:22:27.359 It's bad enough that I'm in it. 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:30.640 It's bad enough that my mom got me in it, you know. 00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:31.680 How'd you get in here? 00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:33.039 Oh, Miss Kuba gave it to me. 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:33.920 Aren't you a Kuba? 00:22:34.160 --> 00:22:34.400 Yes. 00:22:34.480 --> 00:22:35.839 I mean, it's just the worst, right? 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:38.480 So I'm paying my detention and I'm just sitting there. 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:39.920 I can't stand it. 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:46.480 I think a lot of times when we think of hell, we think it's like detention with the fire. 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:51.519 We think that everybody that's there didn't want to be there. 00:22:52.240 --> 00:23:09.599 We think that everybody that's in detention slipped up, feels like they got that they were wronged along the way, and now they're there and they're mad that they're there and they're angry that they're there, and they got this God who put them there, and his whole responsibility is to watch until they mess up again so that he can make it worse for them. 00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:14.559 And the whole assumption is that hell is like detention. 00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:25.279 What we miss in this passage, and what we miss in the story found throughout God's word about hell, is that hell is not a place that anybody's forced to go to. 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:31.440 Hell instead is a place where people choose to go. 00:23:33.279 --> 00:23:37.039 Because they they say that they love God, but but they love other things more. 00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:42.160 They say that they don't really want to follow what God says he's supposed to do. 00:23:42.319 --> 00:23:55.359 They instead want to follow what they want to do, and as a result of following what they want to do, here's what God says I don't like it, and I know you won't either, but I'm gonna let you do what you think is what you think is best. 00:23:57.039 --> 00:24:04.160 You see, we have these images of fire and suffering and horrible, and and this God's up there like, ha ha ha ha ha. 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:06.400 I'm sending you down there where you belong. 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:08.799 And what we miss is this is that please hear me. 00:24:09.039 --> 00:24:15.279 God in no way desires that any perish. 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:31.519 He takes no joy and no pride in allowing people to choose the very thing he knows will lead to anguish and torment and sorrow. 00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:36.160 Romans chapter 1 describes how this works. 00:24:36.319 --> 00:24:38.000 It begins in verse 21. 00:24:38.079 --> 00:24:46.559 It says, For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 00:24:46.640 --> 00:24:49.119 You get rid of God, things start going bad. 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:52.160 Claiming to be wise, they became fools. 00:24:52.319 --> 00:24:53.519 Don't miss this word. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:25:04.559 They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:22.960 Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. 00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:23.759 Amen. 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:30.559 For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. 00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:42.559 What I want you to see, it's so important for you to notice this is that in hell, it's a place where people live for themselves, their pleasure, their plan, their future, and they do so as though God doesn't exist. 00:25:42.799 --> 00:25:53.039 And so, what God does in his mercy and his grace is he allows them to get the full consequences of their choice. 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:54.880 C.S. 00:25:54.960 --> 00:26:00.960 Lewis in his book called The Great Divorce, he says this there are only two kinds of people in the end. 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:09.680 Those who say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says in the end, Thy will be done. 00:26:10.480 --> 00:26:12.400 All that are in hell, choose it. 00:26:12.880 --> 00:26:15.359 Without that self-choice, there could be no hell. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:19.920 No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:21.440 Those who seek, find. 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:24.000 Those who knock, it is open. 00:26:25.599 --> 00:26:26.799 Another place, C.S. 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:32.160 Lewis says hell is a place that has locks from the inside. 00:26:35.920 --> 00:26:37.680 God doesn't send people to hell. 00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:43.680 You may be thinking, I don't understand why a good God, a good gracious God, could ever send anyone to hell. 00:26:43.839 --> 00:26:44.559 He doesn't. 00:26:45.759 --> 00:26:47.519 But he allows you to choose it. 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:57.599 Because he's not gonna force himself on you, he's not gonna make you follow him or love him, but instead, he's gonna give you the choice. 00:26:58.559 --> 00:26:59.759 This is what you choose. 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:02.240 Here's what I want you to make sure you understand. 00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:04.960 There is no second chance. 00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:07.759 Look with me in verse 26. 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:12.559 Besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed. 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:19.440 In order that those who had passed from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us, there's a permanence. 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:24.559 There's no second chance, there's no turning back. 00:27:25.359 --> 00:27:28.559 There's no well, I was going to moments. 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:30.799 There's no, well, I didn't have time. 00:27:30.880 --> 00:27:33.279 I was I was so busy, I was doing all this stuff. 00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:34.559 There's none of that. 00:27:35.440 --> 00:27:40.960 There was no, well, if I known I had I was gonna die then, as early as I did, I would have been more serious. 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:43.839 You don't get to say that. 00:27:45.519 --> 00:27:50.720 The decision that you make in this life are gonna have permanent, eternal consequences in the life to come. 00:27:51.839 --> 00:28:05.680 Look at the excuse of the rich man who uses in defense of his family, beginning in verse 27, and he said, This, then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment. 00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:09.440 But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:14.160 And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. 00:28:14.480 --> 00:28:20.160 He said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. 00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:23.440 We use the same excuses now, we just tease a request. 00:28:24.079 --> 00:28:27.839 God, if you'll heal my family member, then I will believe in you. 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:31.759 God, if you'll do this, then I will be serious about you. 00:28:31.839 --> 00:28:33.680 And we're trying to make deals with God. 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:35.279 And here's what he's trying to say. 00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:37.759 Hebrews chapter 3, verse 7 and 8. 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:45.440 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. 00:28:46.880 --> 00:28:48.480 I hear people all the time. 00:28:49.119 --> 00:28:51.359 I'll get serious about God whenever I'm older. 00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:54.079 You have no idea how long your life's gonna be. 00:28:55.680 --> 00:29:05.279 Some of you are thinking this, you know, well, that's look, I I I just got some things that I want to do, or some things I need to work out, or or I just want to think about it some more and consider it some more. 00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:09.839 And look, that's totally fine for you to take your questions and for you to go and consider it. 00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:13.759 But acting like you're considering it when you're not is a choice. 00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:22.480 And what God is very clear is this is that your time is gonna come and you're gonna stand before him, and you're gonna have to give an account. 00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:26.799 And please hear me, to make no choice is to make the wrong choice. 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:31.839 Instead, we've got to be honest. 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:36.480 And we've got to see that he says, if you have Moses and the prophets, you've got everything you need. 00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:37.279 What does this mean? 00:29:37.440 --> 00:29:39.200 Moses and the prophets means the scriptures. 00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:44.480 Folks, the fact that you have the scriptures in front of you, the fact that you're hearing my voice, you are accountable before God. 00:29:44.559 --> 00:29:45.279 But please hear me. 00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:47.279 Don't hear that as a theme of judgment. 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:49.599 Hear that instead as an invitation. 00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:57.359 You have an opportunity to avoid the torment and the anguish of hell. 00:29:58.319 --> 00:30:02.640 But it only comes through relationship with Jesus. 00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:07.200 I want to speak to two different groups in closing in this room. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:12.799 First group of people are believers in Jesus Christ. 00:30:14.400 --> 00:30:22.160 Those who have, like Lazarus in this story, come to the realization of your desperate condition and your need based upon your sin. 00:30:22.319 --> 00:30:25.920 You've confessed Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life. 00:30:26.079 --> 00:30:32.079 When you die, you know you're going to experience the joy of heaven instead of the horror of hell. 00:30:33.279 --> 00:30:47.759 So my challenge to you is to use every bit of your time and your energy and your money and your talents and your very life to ensure that the reality of hell is true for as few people as possible. 00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:54.799 You have no power in and of yourself to make a choice for somebody else, but you can absolutely let them know about their choice. 00:30:56.480 --> 00:31:10.720 And we must allow the doctrine and the reality of hell not to make us feel real good about ourselves because we're not going, but instead, let it cause us to have a burden for our neighbor across the street. 00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:15.279 Let it cause us to begin to pray. 00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:20.640 As far as it depends upon me, I'm gonna pray my coworker into heaven. 00:31:20.960 --> 00:31:25.759 I can't make them choose, but I'm telling you, I'm gonna go to battle for their souls. 00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:49.599 May it allow us to go to places like Las Vegas and Los Angeles and Fort Worth and Colorado and Baltimore and India and Peru, the uttermost parts of the earth, making sure that as few people as possible end up in the reality of a place called hell. 00:31:51.680 --> 00:32:01.680 Folks, I pray that this doctrine and this unseen world, as we begin to see the things that are mysterious, it would motivate us to action. 00:32:03.519 --> 00:32:09.440 There are other people that are here today, the second group, or those who do not have a relationship with Jesus. 00:32:10.160 --> 00:32:21.519 I wish so badly that I could tell you that, hey, if you just do enough good things, you can avoid this torment, you can avoid this anguish, but it's just not true. 00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:28.240 But I do want to tell you about a way that you can avoid hell. 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:33.440 You may look at your life and you may say, Well, man, I'm I feel like I'm pretty successful. 00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:41.119 I don't really know if I have anything else that I need, and I would simply tell you, you know for sure that that success is only fleeting and temporary. 00:32:41.440 --> 00:32:43.519 It doesn't satisfy there's something more. 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:46.000 Some of you may be religious. 00:32:46.160 --> 00:32:57.359 You've done the church thing, and you've kind of done the whole treadmill deal of doing all the various good deeds along the way, and you just assume whenever you die, you're gonna stand before God, and God's gonna be like, Man, I've been waiting for you. 00:32:57.519 --> 00:33:01.599 Come on on to my team, and I would simply tell you this: no, your debt is too great. 00:33:02.160 --> 00:33:04.319 Never be able to do enough to pay it off. 00:33:05.599 --> 00:33:06.960 But I do want you to know this. 00:33:07.119 --> 00:33:15.519 John chapter 5, verse 24 says, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who has sent me has eternal life. 00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:20.000 He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. 00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:35.279 My desire and my goal for you is not just that you would avoid the torment and the anguish of hell, but that you instead would move from death to experience the eternal life promised in the future and the abundant life that can be available to you in the present. 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:58.000 But the only way you can do that is through Jesus by coming to the end of yourself, confessing your sins, asking Jesus to forgive you of all of your sins, to come live and move into your life and to save you and give you the promise of his eternal inheritance one day in the future. 00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:00.720 Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes? 00:34:05.440 --> 00:34:07.119 Do you know Jesus? 00:34:09.360 --> 00:34:14.079 Do you know where you will go and spend eternity if you were to die today? 00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:19.599 If the answer isn't heaven, you need to know this. 00:34:19.920 --> 00:34:23.440 Sadly, the answer's hell. 00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:27.039 Would you come to Jesus today? 00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:31.119 Did you pray the simple prayer faith? 00:34:32.559 --> 00:34:36.719 Dear God, I want to spend eternity in heaven with you. 00:34:38.639 --> 00:34:41.039 Today I admit that I am a sinner. 00:34:42.320 --> 00:34:56.880 I believe that you sent your son Jesus to die on a cross, that he rose from the dead, and I receive to my life. 00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:03.199 I confess that is my Lord, that's my Savior. 00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:06.320 In Jesus' name I pray. 00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:07.199 Amen. 00:35:07.280 --> 00:35:08.480 Would you look up here? 00:35:09.440 --> 00:35:10.320 Well, you know this. 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:16.800 The Bible says that right now, if you just prayed that prayer faith with me, there's a party going on in heaven. 00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:18.000 You want to know why? 00:35:18.320 --> 00:35:20.320 Because hell lost another one. 00:35:20.960 --> 00:35:22.480 And I am free. 00:35:23.599 --> 00:35:25.119 That's your story. 00:35:25.519 --> 00:35:28.400 So, what we want to do is we want to celebrate with you today. 00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:32.880 So, in just a moment, we're all gonna stand up and look, last thing I want to do is scare you out of hell. 00:35:32.960 --> 00:35:36.480 On the other hand, I'll gladly invite you to receive heaven. 00:35:36.800 --> 00:35:38.639 Maybe you still have questions today. 00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:40.800 What I want you to do is you've just prayed that prayer with me. 00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:43.199 I want you to come forward to the bottom of these steps. 00:35:43.440 --> 00:35:44.960 You can come down to the front. 00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:48.000 Maybe you have some questions and you still want to talk about it some more. 00:35:48.159 --> 00:35:50.639 Would you would you come and let us have the opportunity today? 00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:52.639 You don't want to risk it. 00:35:53.199 --> 00:35:57.039 You want to know for sure where you're gonna go when you die. 00:35:57.360 --> 00:36:07.679 Others, if you need to come and join United City, we're gonna be a church that's gonna do everything in our power to ensure that the people of Northeast Houston and beyond know about heaven and their opportunity to go. 00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:10.000 That's the kind of church you wanna be a part of when you come. 00:36:10.159 --> 00:36:10.960 Would you lead the way? 00:36:11.119 --> 00:36:14.320 Others, if you need to be baptized, like these five that we saw today. 00:36:14.639 --> 00:36:16.159 Come and let us schedule your baptism. 00:36:16.239 --> 00:36:17.679 Maybe you need prayer today. 00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:21.599