Changing Lives

This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on July 24th 2022  by Colin D'Cruz. For the audio & video please click here.  To listen to the worship please click here.

CHANGING LIVES

Over the last few weeks, we looked into "Enjoying God" and "Making Friends". That's what is Christian life about. It is about one another. We need one another. We invest time, effort, and money into building relationships. Meeting in GYM groups is very important. Sometimes impromptu meetings are wonderful. The other day, Lasya, Andrew and I decided to go for ice cream. On our way we called up Deepa and then coincidentally met Brian and Michelle. All of us had a lovely time. We need to use opportunities to build relationships with one another. Meeting people during the week could be difficult as we are busy with work. But on Sundays, use lunchtime as an opportunity to build relationships. This is what is investing in God's Kingdom.

Today, we're going to look at "Changing Lives".
Our lives are changed. As we encounter the Word of God, people of God, our lives change. We can never be perfect in this life.

What is God's calling upon you to change lives in this world?

Matthew 4:17-23 - 17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. 23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 

We all love messages about God's love. They are powerful and foundational to all that we do.  There are a lot of things that God does for us every day. Things like protection, provision, healing, health etc. God wants us to respond in a particular way.
From verse 19 - We are called not only to worship, but also hear the Word, serve etc. We are here to save souls.

Here's a question to all of you - Are you a fisher of men?

If we are following Jesus, he will change us, transform us so that our goal becomes to fish for men which means we proclaim Jesus, the good news. We tell people about His love and preach the Gospel. What is the Gospel? If you confess your sins with your mouth and accept Jesus as your one and only Saviour, you are saved.
Let us read a parable - Parable of the Life-Saving Station.

On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, they went out day or night tirelessly searching for the lost. 

Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station so it became famous. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding areas, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews were trained. The little life-saving station grew.

Some of the new members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and so poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge for those saved from the sea.
So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in an enlarged building. Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they re-decorated it beautifully and furnished it as a sort of club.
Less of the members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work.
The mission of life-saving was still given lip service but most were too busy or lacked the necessary commitment to take part in the life-saving activities personally.
About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people.
They were dirty and sick, and some of them had black skin, some spoke a strange language, and the beautiful new club was considerably messed up. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of the shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal life pattern of the club.
But some members insisted that life-saving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the life of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station down the coast. They did.
As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. They evolved into a club and yet another life-saving station was founded.
If you visit the seacoast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, only now most of the people drown.

Does this remind you of anything? Yes, The Church. The purpose of the church is to save lost souls. We are so caught up with our jobs and another routine that we forget our purpose. Saving souls is the purpose given to us by God the Father.

Luke 19:10 - 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” 

Jesus came to seek and save. 

Saving souls is our top priority. Paul was very concerned.

Rom 9:3 - 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race

Moses had the same heart too.

Exo 32:31-32 - 31 So Moses went back to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”

John Knox prayed, "Lord, give me Scotland, ere I die."
George Whitefield prayed, "Lord, give me souls or take my soul."

We need to be clear. The issue here is life or death. Eternal life or eternal death. Our colleagues, friends, family and others don't get saved if they don't hear the Gospel. They will go to eternal hell. We got to see our end goal of ours.

We have a great opportunity on Friendship Sunday. Ask God to touch our hearts to invite people. Ask God to touch their hearts to come here.

Why do people not like evangelism? Fear of failure and many more reasons.

Matt 16:25 - 25 For whoever wants to save their life[f] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 

There is a cost involved in evangelism.
Most of us are from middle-class backgrounds. Our desire is to have a good job, wife, kids, house, go abroad, get a green card etc. That's the dream. There's nothing wrong with that. End of it, what's the point in achieving all that but losing souls given to us? When it comes to us, are we willing to pay the cost?
As we stand for Jesus, Jesus says we'd be rewarded.

John 16:1-2 - “All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

John 15:18 - 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

Evangelism is a sacrifice but the rewards are great. When Jesus comes back, He will reward you.

Heb 12:2 - 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

There is going to be rejection and opposition like what Jesus faced and endured.

Pro 11:13 - The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.
Dan 12:3 - Those who are wise[a] will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 

When you turn people to righteousness, one day you will shine.
In 1 Cor 15 there are different types of glory depending on what we've done.

Luke 15:7 - 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

This morning, we had a wonderful time of worship. Jesus said that when one person comes to faith there's more rejoicing than what we all do together. Evangelism pleases God.

Looking at the world, we may feel hopeless. Can we make a difference? If you are able to share the Gospel with one person and that person comes to faith and then you disciple that person. End of it you're just 2 people. If 2 of you share the Gospel then it's 4 and then the next year it's 8 people. I'm 38 years there would be 8 billion people saved. God doesn't want you to share the Gospel with 8 billion people but just one. Bring one person on Friendship Sunday. Pray and ask God for that one person. When Jesus called the disciples, there were just a few. But now, there are so many Christians across the globe.

2 Cor 5:20 - We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 

Sadly, the statistics show that 95% of Christians never led anybody to Jesus. God's Word for you is that he wants you to get yourself involved in evangelism. There needs to be some kind of training for that. But for now, on Friendship Sunday, we have an opportunity to invite one person. We sow somewhere and the fruit shall be reaped somewhere else.
Jesus says, "Come follow me. I will make you fishers of men." What we need to do is, pray, fast, follow, share, meet, invite etc. The greatest thing that you can do for an unbeliever is sharing the Gospel.
Jesus doesn't need PhD people. He takes ordinary people.

Acts 4:13 - 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Application:
1. Let us pray for the lost
Make a list and start praying that God would touch their hearts
2. Do something to interact with them
Invite them for coffee, breakfast, lunch or dinner etc.,
3. Talk about what God is doing in your life
Let it be a natural talk. As you share, they start opening up. When they share their troubles, ask them if you could pray for them.
And then later, invite them to our Friendship Sunday followed by lunch.

This is what it is to follow Jesus. You are here because somebody shared the good news with you long back. Now you have a responsibility.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.  

 

Let's Make History Together

 This message was preached at Word Of Grace Church on Oct 24th 2021 by Nigel P via zoom. For the audio & video please click here.  To listen to the worship please click here.

We are going to look into the book of Jeremiah, chapter 1 and focus on the words, "Word of the Lord came."

Jeremiah 1:1-3 ESV - The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, ² to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ³ It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.

In these verses, we see the following -

Word of the Lord came
It came also

Why does the Word of God come?
When does it come?

Jeremiah 1:2 ESV - ² to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 

In the days of Josiah, 13th year of his reign, days of Jehoiakim, until the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, until the carrying away

We see that it came 4 times again and again. It came at the "Now Moment".

We live by written Word. At times, the Word comes to us at  "Now Moment".

We've been in the pandemic for so long that some started wondering where God is. Some have become comfortable. There's so much happening - trials in families, churches, we got a shock in the beginning.

God has plans. Spirit of God helps us move forward. We pick up something from the Word of Jeremiah.

Why does the Word come? And to whom?

Though the Word had come to Jeremiah, it was for God's people to warn them of the captivity. God's "Now Word" comes because they are God's people. He wants them to be restored. The "Now Word" has the potential to quicken them. When it comes, it has power.

In Bible, when Moses died, Joshua received the Word at the "Now Moment". As God's people, we can be prone to give up or sin and ignore God's call on us.
As a church, we need to think. Do we have a purpose? I believe God has a Word for us.

The "Now Word" is always a part of "Always Word"

Jeremiah 1:4-5 ESV –

The Call of Jeremiah

⁴ Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

 

We begin to see the "Now Word" comes to Jeremiah. It's always in context of God's people. What God says is "always".

 

1. Prophet to nations, ordained for the nations

God gave a promise in the garden of Eden. He promised a seed which is Jesus, that would effect the nations. It started right at the beginning. In Genesis 12, Abraham was called the Father of Nations. Now after 1500 years, Jeremiah got that same Word. It came as "Now Word". It's not new. It has always been there.
Who are you? You, I, the church. You are ordained. The church is for the nations. We are not to be survivors but influencers. Hey Church! Wake up! God has ordained you.

Though the pandemic is not over, God wants you to pick up something. Something about the church is going to change. What are we doing about our neighbours, colleagues, friends etc. God is reminding us that we are ordained.
So, God's first reminder to us is that we are ordained for the nations to bring life, hope to the people in the city.

 

2. Formed... Known by God

Jeremiah is about to be called prophet to the nations. To him, God says, "I formed you, chose you, picked you for a purpose.
Once I heard a prophetic song which I still remember. It goes  like this - I know you, you know me, let's make history together.
God is reminding us like Jeremiah - " I chose you to make history"

1 Peter 2:9 ESV - But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

The word "formed" is very important.

In the most powerful nation, Egypt, the Israelites were formed as a nation out of slavery. How can that be? It is only possible through God. Not just formed them, but God also delivered them and made them leave with gold, silver and many other riches.
We must understand that God's people just can't come into existence. God forms people. Word of Grace church didn't come into existence but God formed you.

When you read Psalm 139, you will know that each of you was formed for a unique role to play.

The word "knew" - long before you existed, I knew you Jeremiah.
What does that even mean?

It is an element of God knowing us intimately and choosing us to have a relationship with us. Your DNA is changed. It is of God's DNA.
He knows how to shape us. In some versions of the Bible, it is written as "Adam lay with Eve" This is about the intimate sexual relationship. In some other version, it is written as "Adam knew Eve".
So, knowing is a very deep and intimate thing. It is not just for purpose but to be known inside out.
There is something different about Christians. God knows us. And we must know Him. Know that He loves us and knows every flaw of ours.
Though Peter denies Jesus, He reinstates him.
God knows you. He wants to make history along with you.

3. Set you apart

Jeremiah 1:5c - before you were born I consecrated you;

I have set you apart before you were born. He sanctified you. Set apart for not anything else but for God's purpose.
Church, you are set apart. You may come and love this church but not just that. Every member of the church, every believer is set apart for God, for nations and for people around us.
We need to relate to people with reference to God. Saying sorry to people, being angry or taking revenge, everything must be in reference to God.
Many people don't like to consistently move ahead. The "Now Word" is for greater numbers and for greater fruitfulness. In Acts, the believers met everyday and broke bread together everyday. God wants us to get back on track because -

He has ordained you, ordained for nations - your neighbors, colleagues, friends

He formed you and knew you

He set you apart for His purpose - for nations, people around you

 

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org. 

The Church Of Christ Was Born

This message was shared by Lasya D'Cruz on 19th March 2020. It answers the question why should we do church and what should life be post resurrection. Life just begins at the cross, it does not halt there.

1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

4 And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

When you say what were the last words of Jesus on the earth, many think about His words on the cross. But if “it is finished” are the last words of Jesus, we have no reason to continue meeting like this. The reason we do what we do today is that he did rise again on the third day and appeared to many people over a course of 40 days.

The passage we will be looking at today is from a book which has historically been the most relied on for strategies on how to do church. Bill Hybels said the local church is the hope of the world. The book of Acts is a blueprint – it is both prescriptive and descriptive because there were some things in this book that are not going to happen again, like the Ascension of Jesus. But most of it is prescriptive. The book is written by Dr. Luke as an extension of the gospel of Luke.

These are the beginnings - of the birth of the body of Christ – the church. So what in fact were the last words of Jesus?

4 things Jesus addressed in his last few days with the disciples- these are the 4 P’s:

1. The proof

a. Why did Jesus bother proving that it was Him and that he was indeed alive? Think about how the disciples were behind closed doors, afraid and self-arrested. Jesus, in his kindness gave them these proofs – to give them sufficient confidence. He entered a locked room, he showed them His wounds, he ate and drank with them.

AW Tozer says “If you have to be reasoned into Christianity, some wise fellow can reason you out of it!

 If you come to Christ by a flash of the Holy Spirit so that by intuition you know that you are God's child, you know it by the text but you also know it by the inner light, the inner illumination of the Spirit, and no one can ever reason you out of it.”

Proof is for the purpose of witnessing whereas communion is to build faith.

b. Communion with Jesus is the only way we will build faith. There is no counterfeit to the confidence we gain from simply communing with Jesus. “When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.”

Luke 24:30-31 ESV

2. The Promise –

a. Jesus mentioned numerous times about this helper, comforter who will be given to us and his command was to wait for the promise.

b. Gal 3:18 and 29 talk about the promise of inheritance.

c. Matthew Henry says it like this – “Temporal good things are given by Providence, but the spirit and spiritual blessings are given by promise”.

d. The Father gives the gift, but Jesus is the baptiser, he executes it and the Holy spirit himself is the gift. So if you have not received the holy spirit, let this be your time of waiting on God. All his promises are yes and amen.

e. What does waiting look like? Acts 1:14 – they continued in one accord to pray. My experience of receiving the Holy Spirit.

3. The power

a. What is peculiar about this promise is that it gives us power. Do we really need it? I am convinced that Jesus is Lord.

b. Imagine you walk into an antique shop and spot a 100 year old beautiful lamp. You bring it home and it doesn’t work, you get a bulb, rewire it and set it up on a coffee table. It is still not working. Why is that? It needs power. That is how important the power of the Holy Spirit is for us to reflect Christ.

c. IS the Holy Spirit relevant for today?

i. John 14:26 – He brings to remembrance everything that Jesus taught

ii. John 16:13-14 – glorify Jesus by taking what is Jesus’ and declaring it to us

iii. John 16:13 – Tell us what is to come.

So he has the past, present and future covered. The Holy Spirit is always going to be relevant!

4. The purpose

a. What qualifies us to do ministry? I am no theologian or pastor, can I share the gospel?  Yes, because I have tasted and seen! I am a witness. The power comes with a purpose and the purpose is always to glorify Christ because the Holy spirit glorifies Him.

b. The choosing of Christ is always followed by his charge. Mark 13:34-35 “It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—”

c. If you do not know what your calling is, go back to the last assignment Jesus has given every believer- ends of the earth have not yet been reached. So that’s a great place to start!

So in these confusing times, what can we really rely on? Our jobs, our health, our finances, or the Promise of the Father? Let us use this time to really wait well and apprehend the promises of God in our life and be witnesses.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org. 

The Great Exchange

This message was preached by  AustinWord of Grace Church on October  20th , 2019. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and propheticcontributions please click here

If you focus on multitudes, you will keep waiting for big opportunities and won’t even reach one. If you focus on one, you have a chance of reaching the multitudes thru that one.

The Great Exchange

Luke 16:19-31 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.^[a] The rich man also died and was buried, ²³ and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. ²⁴ 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, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ ²⁹ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹ 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.’”

3)  ¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. ²⁰ And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹ who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.^[a] The rich man also died and was buried,

NOW BOTH THE MEN HAVE DIED, LET’S SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

Now Lazarus, the unimpressive man who did nothing in this story was carried by angels to heaven but the rich man who knew the scripture and got a proper burial went to hell.

v The separation of the rich and poor that had been so much part of their life continued into the afterlife, but with a great reversal of the circumstances.

Now the rich man will spend his eternity in hell.

What did Jesus describe Hell as?Can you imagine the intensity and weight of this verse?

So Jesus describes Hell as a place of Torment.

·       Place of No mercy

·       Place of No water

·       Place of Fire

·       Place of Anguish

In hell the rich man’s senses were all active, He was conscious, He could see, feel, touch, talk, and also remember.

Vs 26  says And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.

Life in heaven or hell begins the instant we die. It does not wait for a burial (Lazarus was not buried) nor is there a middle place that some believe is purgatory. 

From this passage,we see there are only 2 places that we go to after we die,  heaven or hell.  There is a great chasm that separates the two which means that no good deeds, offering or prayer will create an escape nor return.  Life in heaven or hell is permanent and eternal. .

Q) Do you think this story teaches that rich people go to hell and poor people go to heaven? NO

There’s a reason why Jesus told this story and the context of this passage was that Jesus was addressing the love of money to the Pharisees and he was mocked by them.

Abraham was a rich man, so this story clearly isn’t teaching that wealth is evil and poverty is good.

Q) Who was the Rich man? Why did he end up in hell?

The fact that the rich man calls him “Father Abraham” is a sign that this man was a Jew and so Jesus was likening him to the Pharisees. His parents raised him and his brothers to go to synagogue every week. They would have heard the words of Moses and the prophets saying things like:

Deuteronomy 15:7-8 (ESV)

⁷ “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, ⁸ but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it maybe.

There is no indication in this passage that the rich man was rude or bad to the poor man, neither did he mistreat him, abuse him or drive him out from the gate. He didn’t move with compassion when he saw Lazarus at his gate.

Although the Rich Man knew the scriptures, and the prophets he didn’t allow his heart and life to be transformed by the Word of God.

We have the gospel and the Word and we got to let it transform our lives.

Q) What is the gospel?

Ephesians 2:1-10 English Standard Version (ESV)

We were all enemies of God and the “wages of our sin was death” but God demonstrated his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So Jesus lived full of grace and truth and led a perfect, sinless life so that he could pay the price of all our sin past, present and future by dying on the cross and accepting the punishment of our sin which gave us the gift of eternal life.

On the third day Jesus rose from the grave and there he defeated sin and death and to those who believe in him and confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord – they will be saved.

The key to Heaven is believing in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

So what does this story mean for us? There are 3 calls that I would like to highlight today.

1)     The call to respond to the Gospel.

2)     The call to preach the Gospel.

3)     The call to care for our community

The call to respond to the Gospel

 The reason why the rich man was in hell is that he didn’t repent. He knew that his family needed repentance, which implies that he didn’t do the same that’s why he landed up in hell.

Q) What is repentance?

Seeking forgiveness for your sins and making conscious decision to do what is right.

This transformation does not happen overnight but for the rest of our lives as we allow the word to marinate our heart and minds, the transformation takes place. This is a process we will go through for the rest of our time on Earth. Knowledge of the Word alone won’t save us.

This brings me to the second call.

The call to preach the Gospel.

We saw earlier how life in Hell is eternal and full of agony. There is no escape from it.

There was a genuine concern from the rich man for his family. Lazarus and the Rich Man’s family are not here. But we are and our friends, family and community are still here. We know the reality of what life after death looks like and we got to preach the Gospel and tell them the Good News.

Our responsibility is to only tell them the Gospel and it is their responsibility to accept or reject it

Lastly, the third call is to

Care for our community

The rich man neglected, ignored and showed no compassion towards Lazarus. He didn’t bother to offer him even crumbs. Like Lazarus there are many people in our lives. We need to identify who they are.

The ‘Lazarus’ may not be a person physically sitting at your gate and caring for our community is not necessarily always giving money or things.

It can mean acknowledging and appreciating the security guards or watchmen who open the gate for you to enter your society. No matter the weather conditions they get up each time to let you exit or enter and keep your society safe.

It can mean being kind to the person who daily picks your garbage. Offering thanks or a cup of tea or water or even having a quick conversation.

Caring for our community can be done in many different ways.

Ø If you focus on multitudes, you will keep waiting for big opportunities and won’t even reach one. If you focus on one, you have a chance of reaching the multitudes thru that one.

So today’s takeaway is:

The rich man had all the wealth, knowledge, scripture and proper burial but it wasn’t enough. We’ve got to be people who respond to the gospel, preach the gospel and care for our community.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit-filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that has people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service.  Word of Grace is a part of a wider international family of Churches called RegionsBeyond.To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.