The Rich Man and Lazarus: Part 2 - Richard E. Simmons III

Today's podcast is the second part of my Bible Study series on Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus. This parable is found in Luke 16:19-31. Last week, we considered what the Bible tells us about hell. Hell is a real place - a place of agony, a place of torment, and it’s a place that no one really would ever want to end up. If hell is real, what should our lives be about, particularly as we consider people in our lives who may not have a relationship with Christ? Today our focus is on the rich man in the parable. Did the rich man go to hell because he was indifferent to the poor? No. Did he go to hell because he was rich? No. Or did the poor man go to heaven because he was humble and poor? And the answer is no. Mark 8:36-37 tells us, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”Tim Keller says if you build your identity on anything but God and then something jeopardizes that thing or something goes wrong in that area, you’re not just unhappy, there’s no you left. That means you don’t feel viable and you don’t know what you’re living for. You don’t even know who you are because of what's happening in your life. There is an identity meltdown. Does this describe what you're experiencing right now in your life?