Foolish or Faithful

I'm reading this morning a passage from Matthew chapter 25, if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. Jesus had been talking to the twelve that he called, preparing them for the day that he was going to leave. He knew that he would be with them for a while, and then whenever his work on this earth was finished, he'd be taken away, and everything that he'd started would be completed by these twelve people that he had called to learn from him. He taught them about the importance of a commitment to the Father, more than their family or homes or businesses or anything else in the world. He had taught them about how they should think about life and the Beatitudes, and he taught in the Sermon on the Mount how they should treat people around them, and how they should handle money and their marriages and their sex life, and all the things that were important and critical to living in this world. He left them with all of these teachings, and he knew that he'd given them. Now he's getting close to the end of his life. He begins to focus his attention as Matthew draws together the sayings that Jesus gave about what was going to happen after he was gone. Jesus emphasized all the way through this just several things over and over again. He said, I want you to understand that the end of the world, whenever I return, will be a time when no one will really know about or be able to expect. It will be a surprise. It will happen all of a sudden, and you won't be able to prepare for it. So I tell you to watch yourself so that you're living as you ought to every day, and be prepared always for me to return. Jesus wanted his disciples to know the elements about that last time when he would return, and he emphasized over and over again with this thing, watch, be prepared, and be sure because it will be sudden, and you will never be able to prepare for that. Now Jesus turns in a little bit different direction, not changing his message at all, but he tells us a story that emphasizes exactly the elements that he's been trying to teach to them. This is the story that Jesus told. At that time, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps, but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in the jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming. They all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, the cry rang out, here's the bridegroom. Come out to meet him, and all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, give us some of your oil. Our lamps are going out. No, they replied. There may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves, but while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later, the others also came. Sir, sir, they said. Open the door for us. But he replied, I tell you the truth, I don't know you. Therefore, keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Now, Jesus is talking to disciples who knew a lot about weddings because they're a prominent part of any culture. The wedding process was very different in that world than it is in ours. The wedding was described in, had three different levels really. The engagement, which is the first announcement that you intend to marry this person. Then there was a betrothal, which we don't have in our culture. It was a legal commitment to this other person, a moral commitment, and could only be broken by a divorce. But the family, even though they were committed to each other, the couple, they remained with the families of their home. And then there was the final part, which is the wedding. Now that's a description of what we have in this story. This process could take place over several weeks or months from the engagement to the final wedding experience. I read of a man who'd traveled in Israel years ago, and he was talking to someone about the wedding process, knowing the scriptures, and he said, tell me a little bit about how the wedding works out. How do you know when this is all going to take place? And he said, well, they send you an invitation or announce when the wedding's going to be, but they don't really tell you the day or the time. It could be tomorrow. It could be next week. It could be next month, or it could be next year. You don't really know exactly when the wedding is going to take place. They just announce to you that they have the wedding. In this story, it's the final time. The wedding is going to occur. All these other two have passed, and now the wedding has arrived. There seemed to be a custom common in the Israelites for the groom to be able to try to make sure that no one would really know exactly when he was going to come for the wedding ceremony. The wedding ceremony would take place in the house of the bride. The groom would be in his house with his family, and the bride would be in her house with her family, and the wedding would take place at her place. But it couldn't start until the groom came. It was sort of like a game. The groom would try to figure out when it was that no one would be prepared, and to come and surprise them. Now he was required by the customs to make sure that it wasn't a total surprise, so he had to send someone ahead of him to announce to the city, or the crowd, the community, and to the people waiting, that the wedding was soon to take place. So someone would run ahead saying, the bridegroom is coming, the bridegroom is coming, and that was to alert them to prepare their lights or their lamps for what was going to take place. The ladies who are gathered here, the scripture calls them virgins. The word in the Greek language simply refers to someone who is of marriageable age. We would say within the teenage years. They assumed that they were virgins, since that was the proper thing for them to do, and so sometimes the word is translated virgin, sometimes young lady. Here these young ladies gathered had a particular and important role. They were friends of the bride, not bridesmaids, but they were friends of the bride, and their job was to provide the illumination for the wedding event. They were to come and wait, and whenever the bridegroom came and the wedding took place in the bride's house, they were to provide the light for all of the wedding procession to the groom's home. Now we're not talking about a city miles wide, but usually small country places where you could walk across the town with ease, but make sure that everybody was together and had light to be able to walk, and then when they got to the house, they were to provide the light for the banquet and for the dance that would take place. Houses in those days were built usually with a courtyard, kind of in a U-shape with the buildings, and a fence across the front or a wall with a door. They would go in the wall, and the door would be closed, and the wedding festivities would take place in that courtyard. So here are the ladies waiting. They brought their torches, it says lamps here, but it's different than the word where Jesus says you're not to hide your lamp under a basket. It's a different word, and it's sometimes translated torch, and sometimes translated as a lamp into our language. They would put a lamp on a pole maybe to hold it up, and a torch, so it kind of reflects the idea of a light that gave an illumination above rather than one sitting on a table. Their job was to make sure that everyone had enough light to make the wedding procession and the wedding festivities work, so they had an important job. They came prepared with their lamps, but the bridegroom waited and waited. Some of those days got up with the sun and went to bed when the sun went down, and they'd been, I'm sure, up all day long. They got sleepy, went to sleep, and then the news came. The bridegroom is coming. The girls hastily began to get their lamps together and make sure that they would burn as they should, but the foolish girls had only brought the lamp or the torch with the oil on what they had. They didn't have any extra. They had not counted on this long delay that the groom gave to them, and so they began to see that their lamps were burning very dimly. It wouldn't be enough light that they really needed to have, so they turned to the other girls and said, would you give us some out of the jars that you brought of oil? The other girls knew that they had the wedding party watching to the house. They had the banquet. They had the dance. They needed the oil that they had, and so they didn't refuse in an unkind way. The language that's translated here sounds like they were saying, no, we're not going to give you any, but really they were just saying to them, we can't do this for you because if we give you our oil and you have some and we have some, both of our lights are going to go out before the festivities are over. It would be better for us to have five lights than to have none. Run and find you some somewhere else. You can supply. There'll be people up at this time of night because they know about the wedding. You can even get home and get some. You can buy some for your neighbors and friends and then come back and maybe you can make it in time. They weren't being unkind. They were fulfilling the responsibility they had to provide the illumination for the wedding event. While they were gone, the bridegroom comes. The wedding, a short ceremony, takes place. The legal part had already been done at a banquet earlier, and now they begin the procession from their home. People on the route that they're going to take are also there with their lamps or their torches, and they light all the way to the groom's home. All the party goes in. To get to the wedding, you need an invitation that they would give you, and then you need to come with your lamp or your torch. Every guest was required to do that. It was the way by which they participated in what was taking place. If you had an invitation and you had a light, you were welcome. And whenever the festivities started, they closed the door. It was a custom, the way they did it. No one could come late to the wedding event. Even though they weren't warned, they were expected to be on time. So when the girls got there, they knocked on the door. Father, probably, or one of the servants, said, no, all the guests are here. Everyone with their torch and their invitation are here. We don't recognize you as one of the wedding party. That's what he means when he says, I don't know you. It's the same words of judgment Jesus said would be used at the judgment day. I don't have the proper relationship with you. You are not one of the wedding party, or you would be inside. Jesus says that this is the way it is with the kingdom of God. What a startling and shocking thing to say. There will be those who are ready, who know, who believe, who will stand at the door and hear, I don't know you. You don't have the relationship with me that would allow you to enter the kingdom of heaven. In this story, Jesus is emphasizing several things that he's already said to the people. He emphasizes the fact that in the final time when he returns, it will be a time when people will not really expect it. It's like the girls who were asleep. There's nothing wrong with sleeping. Nothing wrong because they were drowsy. It had been a long day. Nothing wrong about that. But it will come at a time whenever we're not prepared and we're not expecting it, and all of a sudden, he will come and the announcement will be made, the bridegroom is here. That's why Jesus kept saying to us, you must be sure that you're prepared. You must watch and prepare. Two key words throughout all chapter 24. What did he mean by the watch? Well, the girls had come prepared to illuminate the wedding party. Some had come prepared for the event, even if it was delayed, with enough oil to make sure that they had enough to do the wedding party on its trip, then for the banquet and then for the dance. They were prepared. They had done their job. They were going to fulfill what was required of them. Jesus is not talking about earning your way into the kingdom of heaven. He's talking about the person who's received their assignment from the boss, from the master, from the Lord, making sure that they fulfill the requirement that God has given to them. Now in the scriptures, Jesus has two primary things that he tells to his disciples. The first is that they are to be holy as he is holy. This is a requirement that he gives to his followers. So if you're going to be prepared to enter the kingdom of heaven, you must set Christ up as the example in your life, and you must compare your own life to his. It doesn't mean that you have to be as perfect as Jesus was, but it does mean that your intention is to say, I want to be like Christ, and this is my goal. This is the aim of my life, to make my character like his, my relationships with other people like his, my relationship with the Father like his, so that I'm listening to the Father, I'm trusting the Father, I'm depending on the Father to provide every need that I have. What Jesus believed was that if he did what the Father told him, no matter what happened, he would always take care of him. He would provide his finances. He would guide him in all the choices he had to make. He would protect him from the things that would hurt him or destroy him, and he would make sure that his life turned out like it was supposed to. Jesus trusted the Father every step of the way. He said, I listen to him, what he tells me I do. I follow his instructions. That's what he was asking of his own disciples. And in the story, it's what the bride had asked of the ten friends of hers, please provide for me the illumination for the wedding processional, the banquet, and the dance. Some of them came prepared, made sure they did exactly what they were asked to do, and some only partially. They both believed, both sides, all ten of them believed that the wedding was going to take place. They believed that it should have light, but five of them were foolish in the sense that they didn't really take seriously the preparation, doing what it would take to make it work. They had opportunity. They were there, and the wedding procession didn't come, and the groom didn't come, and he didn't come. They would have had an opportunity to go back and get some more oil as they saw the time going on, but what happened was it wasn't really important for them to fulfill the job that they'd taken. It only became important to them when it was right there in front of them that they would fail in front of everybody because they didn't have enough oil. We're going to be walking down the street, and our lamps are going to go out, and we're going to look so stupid in front of everyone. We need to go get light, oil for our lamps. Only then did it occur to them that they should have been prepared. You see, whenever the last day when Christ returns, there'll be a lot of people who'll say, yeah, I've heard about heaven. I've heard about hell. I don't want to go to hell. I want to go to heaven, but they have not prepared their lives. They haven't focused on saying, Jesus Christ is my Lord. I trust Him, and I'm going to live in obedience to Him. They have not focused on learning who He was and how He should live. They've not learned how to deal with relationships the way Jesus did. They've not learned how to be able to control themselves, their lives, and their own life to be submissive to Him, and so they will not be prepared. In this story, Jesus is helping us understand the critical nature of what He asked for, developing in our lives His own character and His nature. And the second part is Jesus said to His followers, I want you to make disciples. You saw in the whole mission's video the focus on one. It's not the masses of people in the world that God is concerned about. It's each individual person He's concerned about. There are people around us here that don't know the Bible. They don't know very much about God. I meet people all the time that tell me, I've never read the Bible. I don't know anything about God or the church. And there are people that live around you, people you see. I want you to understand that the North American missionaries are not the people you'll see on this video that we show you. You are North American missionaries. Jesus said to His disciples, I want you to go in all the world and make disciples, and that's your job. You're going to look around you at the people you see, and every day say to God, who is it that you have around me that you want me to help get to know you? You don't need a list of 100 people, but you do need to have a list that doesn't involve your family. Even pagans want to see their family saved. It's a person guided by the Spirit of God who's interested in people who are not your family. It's okay to pray for your family. You should do that. But don't limit it to that. You should have people in your life that you know, and you're trying to make friends with them. You want to be able to help them know you well enough to tell you the needs that they have in your life so you can pray for them. You want to begin to pray for them, and as you pray for them to find out what it is that God wants to do in their life and ask God to show you how you can help them find that and lead them to trust God. That's what our job is in this world. We are to illuminate the lives of people around us with the light of Jesus Christ. He's the light of the world, and we are to be light to the world. That's our job. Jesus even used that as an illustration of what we're to do. I place my light within you, and when you have a lighted lamp, you don't put it under a basket. You put it high in the room so everyone can see it. Everywhere you go, you are to be a light to the people around you. You are to show them the nature of Christ. You are to show them the nature of godly living, and you are to show them the nature of God's love. Because every person that you know, God is in their lives working to help them to find life in its fullness. And because you know Christ, you can show them that this is the person who's taught me how to live, and he can teach you how to live too. That's our preparation, and that's our job. We are to be a light to the world, as these young girls were to be a light to the wedding. We are to be the one that shows the way. There are a lot of people that start out in the Christian life. They believe in God. They believe in the Bible. As time goes on, a lot of things distract us. We sort of fall asleep at the wheel, and the passion of our love for Christ that we had in the beginning days begins to fade, and soon the things of this world attract us and distract us away from the mission that God has given us. But it doesn't mean that God has changed his mission. He still has that mission for you, and when he returns, there'll be an accounting for each of us as to whether or not we have fulfilled what he asked us to do. The requirement that God made was simple. Listen to me, do what I tell you, and do it as long as you live. Working in the kingdom of God is different than other kinds of jobs. You go down to the company you work for, and they have an eight o'clock to five o'clock time for you to work. You get a vacation. You work until you're ready to retire, and you quit that job, and you don't do it anymore. The kingdom of God is more like a marriage. It's not eight to five. It's 24 hours a day. It's not for 10 years or for until retirement, and then you quit. It's from the day you're married until the day you die. There is no retirement in the kingdom of heaven. From the day you enter the kingdom, you are to focus on becoming like Christ until the day that you die. When you enter the kingdom of heaven, you are a missionary to the world to proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ, and you do that from the day you start until the day you die. The work of the kingdom in Jesus' life was from the time he was born until the time he died, and that's hours. It's not that we work a little while until we've done what we think's enough, and then we quit. That's what the foolish girls did. They just did part of the job. If you signed up to become a part of God's family, he has a job for you to do from that day until the day he returns or you die. If you look back on your life and you say, well, there was 20 years when I was really involved in being obedient to God and doing his work, but now I can rest and coast, you're one of the foolish girls who didn't think it was important to finish the job. When it came time to enter the kingdom of heaven, the door was closed in their face. That sounds a little harsh to you. Let's put it in this term. You get married, a beautiful young lady, you pledge to her your love for her, and then when you get to be 45, you say, I've been married to you for 25 years. I think that's enough. I'm going to go off and do whatever I want, and I hope you have a good time. I don't hate you, but I just don't want to be a part of this and work at it anymore. I think the person you're married to would think maybe you really weren't married correctly. If you made a pledge to Jesus Christ to say, I give my life to you, and you think that there's some point at which you don't have to do anything anymore, just coast. You're mistaken. A commitment to Jesus Christ is a lifelong event. That's what this story is about. He who endures to the end will be saved. That's what Jesus said. Now, what Jesus is warning us about is the delay will cause you to think it's not important, but don't be deceived by that. He wants us at the end of our lives to be as passionate for him as we were the first day, and we can only do that if his presence in our lives becomes important to us day after day. Begin your day by saying to God, what do you have me to do for you today? Open my eyes to someone that I can show your love to, and you try to be conscious of that all day long. The end of your day before you go to sleep, you say to God, did I fulfill the things today that you wanted me to do? As you think about this a minute, God's Holy Spirit will both tell you the things you did right and the things you missed, and you'll learn by this. If you do this day after day after day, when the Lord returns for the day of your death, you will find yourself prepared to meet him. But if you go for days without ever thinking about this, for days without ever asking those questions, you may find yourself one of those foolish people who have thought you were prepared, but were not. You see, trusting Christ is a critical issue in our lives, and it is not a part-time job. It is a job every day that we live. Would you bow your heads please for a moment? I'd like you to think about your own commitment to Christ. How did it happen for you? Do you remember the time that you realized that you needed Christ more than anything in the world? Maybe you thought about hell. Maybe you were in a deep, desperate situation, and you turned to him and said, please help me. And you found the joy of walking with him day by day. Is it still there? This story is about people who have made a promise and a commitment to God that was lifelong. He tells us that this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. That's our warning. You might need to come back and say to God, I meant that when I said that to you, and I'm going to keep doing it from now on. If you've turned aside from that, I'm going to ask you today to renew your vow to him. I'm going to ask you today to say, okay, God, I'm going to be looking to make sure that my life is growing to be more and more like yours. I'm going to open my eyes and my life to the people around me who need you. You don't know what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God. God wants you to know that. What he says is, if you will give me your life, tell me that you trust me with everything that you have. I will promise you. I'll guide you in all your decisions. I'll provide financially all the resources you need to live. I will protect you from the things that would hurt you or destroy you, and I'll make your life full and meaningful. He will do all of that for you, but he must have control of your life. That means you must read the Bible. You must be active and faithful in attending church. You must bring him all the problems that you have and ask him for the answers and follow them, and you will find life in its fullness. The love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, and gentleness will come to your life. God will give it. This is life in its fullness. In a moment, we're going to sing an invitation to him, and I'm going to be at the front. Kathy will be here. If you know God's talking to you, we want you just to step out and come and say, here's what God's telling me. I want to make this promise to him. I want to ask you to hold me accountable for this from now until the day I die. Whatever it is God's said to you, he's expecting you to answer him. So Lord, I ask that every person here, you would let us know for sure what you want from us. Give us the trust in you to do what you tell us, believing, even though we don't know how, that you're going to make this work for us. In this moment, may your voice and your presence be more powerful than anything in our lives. In Jesus' name, we ask it. Amen. Would you stand, please, while we sing this song? God has spoken to you. Just step out where you are. Come and share with us the promise you want to make to him. Without him, I could do nothing. Without him, I'd surely fail. Without him, I would be drifting like a ship without a sail. Jesus, oh Jesus, do you know him today? Did it turn him away? Oh Jesus, oh Jesus, without him how lost I would be. Without him, I would be dying. Without him, I'd be enslaved. Without him, life would be hopeless. But with Jesus, thank God, I'm saved. Jesus, oh Jesus, do you know him today? You can turn him away. Oh Jesus, oh Jesus, without him how lost I would be. Without him, I could do nothing. Without him, I'd surely fail. Without him, I would be drifting like a ship without a sail. Jesus, oh Jesus, do you know him today? You can turn him away. Oh Jesus, oh Jesus, without him how lost I would be. Seated, please, just a moment. You have something to share? Either way. Alicia DeHaan works with the youth, and she came forward today and said that she just really felt that she wasn't giving it all that God would want her to give, and she just asked our prayers that she would help do that and do what God wants her to do with the youth. Jack Chisholm came a week or two ago and wants to commit his life to Christ and follow in baptism. He said before he'd already committed his life to Christ, we promised him at that time that I'd talk to his father, Albert, and he'd have a visit with Jack and want to make sure that his dad's with us on it. So his dad said he'd talk to him the next couple weeks, and Jack said today he hadn't talked to him yet, so that's what he's just concerned about, making sure that all that got done. And so I told that to him, and when his father visits with him, we'll sit down and then visit with Jack so that we'll be able to help him to take this next step in his walk with the Lord. Sometimes life brings us difficult things. Isn't that right? And sometimes it means that when we're surrounded by people who are part of our church family that we feel loved and cared about. You came today and said you wanted me to share with the people your appreciation for their prayer for you, and so I want to express to you your appreciation for praying for people that need help. You have expressed to me that you know that God has been with you and guided you through this, and so we want to also pray that God would continue to be with you in this time. I'm glad to see you back, at least up and around a little bit, and we thank God for your faithfulness to him, and we'll continue to pray for you. And I appreciate you're remembering people in our prayer ministry. It means a lot to them to be able to know that someone cares about them. Would you stand, please, for a moment of prayer together? Tonight in the service that we're looking at in Romans chapter 8, Paul tells us the secret of living this life faithfully, and the secret is the presence of his Spirit in our lives. So he shows us the connection between our faithful Christian living and the presence of his Spirit and how that works together. Six o'clock, unless it's two feet more of snow. Let's pray. We're thankful, Father, that you've given us the ministry of love both for you and for each other. We ask, Father, that each person who's been here today has heard you speak to them, and they've said yes to you, that you would empower them to live in obedience to you. We ask, Father, for these who publicly come to say they know what you want, that you would be with them in a way that's special to them, that your power and your presence would carry them through the times of difficulty they face. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever I will sing, I will sing I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever I will sing of the mercies of the Lord With my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness With my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever I will sing, I will sing I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever I will sing of the mercies of the Lord