Living Without Regrets

Written by Ed Allen
 Saturday, 30 October 1999 19:00

Priorities That Result From Relationship With Go

For the last three weeks, we have been looking at priorities that result from a relationship with God. We have discovered that, if we have a relationship with God:

  1. God Himself will be the organizing principle around which our lives are built.
  2. We will invest our time, energy and money in relationships.
  3. We will build our lives and our futures on God's Word.

Today we will finish off our list by adding 2 new priorities and reviewing one of the first three.

Mary was a beautiful woman. She came from a troubled home with an alcoholic father. She married at a young age to a handsome man named David. David was from a very wealthy family. Over time, David became increasingly inattentive. They had several children, but that did not help inattentiveness. They all learned to live with David's flashes of anger, but mostly with his absence. Mary had to work hard to ignore the extramarital affairs, the flashes of anger, and the isolation.

Did Mary have regrets? You bet she did. So how do we live our lives without regrets? That's the point of one of Jesus' stories. From this story, we learn by inference three life habits, which are themselves based on three priorities that result from relationship with God. These life habits will help us live without regret.

The rich man in Jesus' story had three problems, which haunted him for eternity.

  1. He did not care for the beggar at his door. If we want to live without regret, we will care for the poor and needy that God places before us.
  2. The rich man live his life completely preoccupied with getting the most of this life. If we want to live without regret we will live with eternity in view.
  3. The rich man did not build his life on God's word. If we want to live without regret we will build our lives on God's Word.

LUKE 16:19-31

(19) "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. (20) At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores (21) and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

(22) "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. (23) In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. (24) So he called to him, `Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

(25) "But Abraham replied, `Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. (26) And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

(27) "He answered, `Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, (28) for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

(29) "Abraham replied, `They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

(30) "`No, father Abraham,' he said, `but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

(31) "He said to him, `If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

1. The rich man did not care for the beggar at his door.

A. Why?

  • It was inconvenient
  • Nothing in common with him and didn't know how to relate
  • Did not know how to help
  • Never really noticed him

B. "The parables speak loudly to the extravagant concern Jesus displayed for the depressed classes of the Jewish community." C. H. Dodd

  • "Whenever you have done it unto one of the least of these you've done it unto me."
  • Luke 4:18-19
  • There is nothing particularly noble about living in poverty. Whenever the Bible speaks of the poor it means a special kind of poverty. It is thinking of the beggar, publican and the harlots. When the Bible speaks of poverty it speaks of all those who have not merits and no accomplishments to boast of, people who live on the fringe of life. These are the people to whom Jesus gave his attention.

If our hearts beat in rhythm with Jesus', we will care for such as these.

C.The rich man would feel an ultimate regret for this oversight. Again, if we want to live without regret we will care for the poor and needy before us.

  • We will seek them out ? crisis pregnancy centers.
  • We will pray for God to show us pockets of need.
  • God has placed the poor and needy in our neighborhoods.
  • God has placed them in our home fellowship.
  • For parents, we will model this value for our children.

2. The rich man also lived his life preoccupied with sucking the most luxury, convenience and pleasure out of this life that he could.

A.Why?

  • We know why. It feels good. It dulls the pain, emptiness and doubt that are inevitable parts of the landscape of our lives.
  • We talked last week about our tendency to listen to the voice of our own passions. We said that this was the default setting for our lives. To do what we want. To do what feels good.

B.Jesus' life was remarkable among others things because of its otherworldliness. We find him often in prayer. He said he only did what he saw the Father doing. As a 12 year old boy he claimed to be about his Father's business.

C.The first disciples of Jesus were no different. (See Philippians 3:12-14, 17-20)

D.The rich man would live ultimate and eternal regret because he did not live with eternity in mind.

E.Jesus warns us not to be this way. We are in this parable. Do you know who we are?

F.If we want to live without regret we will live with eternity in view.

3. The rich man did not build his life on God's word. That's what Jesus means when he says, "You have Moses and the Prophets. Listen to them."

A.Isn't it interesting that in Jesus' story Abraham tells the rich man that his brothers will not be convinced by the supernatural if they are not convinced by the testimony of God's word.

B.If we want to live without regret, we will build our lives on God's Word.

If there is any good news to Mary's story, it is that it is not too late for Mary. She has a chance to turn it around for herself and perhaps for those she loves. The startling feature of Jesus' story is that it is too late for the rich man. He is in hell and there is a great chasm between him and heaven. He will spend an eternity in regret.

Website developed by ChurchKatalyst