How Hot?

TITLE: How Hot?
DATE:  August 13, 2019
TEXT: Luke 16: 27-30 – ESV - 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.

Well, down in Texas we’ve reached that time of year which the locals like to call, “Hot.”
The rest of us? Well, the rest of us are practicing our comedy routine of “How hot is it?” jokes. You know...It’s so hot...

• It’s so hot that you can’t make a chili dog.It’s so hot that my kite crashed and burned.
• It’s so hot that my campfire lit itself.
• It’s so hot that cows are giving evaporated milk.
• It’s so hot that robins are using potholders to pull worms from the ground.

How hot is it? It’s so hot the officers at Braintree, Mass., confessed it was so hot they really didn’t feel like” dealing with your criminal shenanigans until Monday when it's cooler."

How hot is it? The officers continued on Facebook saying, It’s so hot “anyone thinking of doing criminal activity to hold off until Monday," as it's "straight up hot as soccer balls out there."

How hot is it? The Police Department gave some helpful advice. They said it’s so hot potential criminals should "Stay home, blast the AC, binge Stranger Things season 3, play with the face app, practice karate in your basement." So far their post has more than 124,000 likes and 16,000 shares.
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So how hot is it? It’s so hot, Jesus told a parable which has a rich man in hell petitioning to have a resurrected soul return to earth and scare his brothers out of going to hell.

I can almost hear you saying, “While Jesus’ parable is really entertaining, and it is the kind of story which keeps people’s attention, I have to confess, “It’s not very funny.”

You’re absolutely right. It isn’t funny. It was never meant to be funny.

In His parable Jesus was giving a serious warning.

1.  He warned that hell is the kind of place any sensible person would try to avoid
2. AND He warned that the only notice people were going to get would be found in Moses, the prophets
3. And by taking a look at a borrowed and empty tomb.  

There, at the tomb, we will find the Triune God’s notice that the gate to hell is not the only destination for sinners. Jesus Christ, true God and true Man has done that which was necessary to rescue all those who would be brought to heartfelt repentance and saving faith by the power of the Holy Spirit.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, I give thanks that You, in Your grace have seen the fires of hell and had mercy upon sinful humanity. May all the world be glad that they don’t have to spend eternity in the one place they truly don’t want to go. In Jesus’ Name I give thanks. Amen.

The devotion for today was inspired by various recent news articles. For further reading you may wish to go to this address: https://www.newser.com/story/278090/cops-its-too-hot-to-commit-crime.html and the article written by Polly Davis Doig .
The music which introduces and concludes our devotions was written by Guy Baumann. He along with three of his brothers perform on the album: The Baumann Brothers which may be ordered here: http://thebaumannbrothers.com/index.html