Show Notes
Are we ready for this ultimate union that scripture says is going to take place?
We are expected to be prepared by living in a state of readiness for Christ’s return.
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Well, this morning, you know, anybody that has been involved in planning a wedding for your kids, or maybe you're a grandparent that has watched your kids preparing a wedding for their kids, knows all the work that goes into making that work, all the organization and everything else. It's a lot of work, and it requires months planning. And, you know, depending on your details, it can take an awful lot of integral, you know, planning of small details. And on the wedding day, there's high anticipation of what's coming. And especially for those that have done all the work, they're just hoping that everything is going to work out. And just a little secret. It always does. It's amazing. It always does.
[00:00:50] After all the planning comes the celebration.
[00:00:53] And last summer, I had the privilege of performing the wedding for my first grandchild, like one out of seven. My oldest granddaughter, Jabin's daughter, who's leading us in worship, married Spencer Purdy, who we claim him now as our grandson.
[00:01:11] And so that was what we did last summer. And, you know, it was fun. It was well organized, and it was just a great time. And it's. You know, I know that I'm biased, but it was one of the best weddings, if not the best wedding I've ever done.
[00:01:26] You know, it's amazing, these two, their heritage down, their lineage of Christianity and the faith and the anointing that was at their wedding. You know, when Nevaeh stepped out of that basement, it was great. I could hear everybody sniffling. And I looked over at Spencer, and he's just fighting, trying not to cry, just hold it together.
[00:01:48] I was a little teared up. And then I thought, okay, we got to get it together here, get it together. But it was the spirit of God that was so powerful at that wedding, and it was just really a great thing. And that was their biggest desire of their heart, was that God would be glorified in that wedding. You know, there's a wedding celebration that's coming that will make every wedding that's ever planned on the planet Earth, no matter how grand it is, it's going to pale in comparison.
[00:02:14] In Revelation 19:7, it speaks of a divine wedding celebration, the marriage of the Lamb and Jesus as a bridegroom.
[00:02:25] Jesus.
[00:02:27] Just as the bride and the groom prepare for their future together, the church is called to be prepared for her bridegroom, Jesus, when he comes, because he's coming again.
[00:02:39] And this passage here in Revelation, it invites us to reflect on our own readiness as we prepare to participate in this heavenly marriage celebration.
[00:02:50] And today we're going to discover what it means to be a part of this great banquet Jesus is talking about here in Revelation and what it means for us as the church to be the bride adorned for her groom and to understand her role, our role in being prepared for the coming of our bridegroom, Jesus.
[00:03:15] So the question we're going to be looking at answering this morning is, are we ready for this ultimate union that Scripture says is going to take place in the parable of the ten bridegrooms in Matthew 25:13, Jesus uses the wedding imagery to teach us about his return.
[00:03:35] And this parable is not about who was invited to this wedding or this wedding reception because everybody was, nobody was excluded, but it was about who was prepared for this celebration.
[00:03:50] And through the scriptures and the Holy Spirit, Jesus wants us to understand that we're expected to be prepared for this ultimate union by living in a state of continual readiness for Christ's return.
[00:04:03] And the reason we're expected to be ready is because it's going to be sudden, it's going to be personal, it's going to, and it's going to be final.
[00:04:12] You know, Peter says that our anticipation of the Lord's return should create in us an excitement.
[00:04:18] And I don't know about you, do you have an excitement about the return of Christ?
[00:04:23] You know, it should be motivating us. Peter says to holy living.
[00:04:29] And so Peter says, and so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
[00:04:42] There are people all around you that would love to have the hope that you have of eternal life.
[00:04:49] You know, majority by far have no hope. Do not have the hope that you have.
[00:04:56] One day you may be asked, and maybe you've already been asked, you know, how is it that you don't worry about the world events that are going on all around the world these days?
[00:05:06] And that in itself, you know, having that peace and seeing all of this stuff, you know, should motivate us to holy living. But these people watching us and seeing, okay, this person is, you know, what's the matter with them? They're not worried, they're not fretting. They see that, they sense that from you and they're asking, you know, like, this should motivate us to holy living. Thinking that people are watching and aware.
[00:05:29] Are you anticipating the coming of the bridegroom or have you moved on and gotten busy with other things?
[00:05:36] You know, maybe you have been distracted by the cares and concerns of the world in the Waiting and, you know, and it's so easy to do.
[00:05:44] And to be honest, you know, I've never thought so much about the second coming of Christ before preparing this message. I knew he was coming and I thought, oh, that's great. And I want to hope I'm ready, but never really give a lot of thought to, okay, what's it mean to be ready for Jesus when he returns?
[00:06:00] But I thought, you know, you know, like, I think, okay, I hope I'm ready. It's like, I hope I'm saved. But it's, you know, it's just something I never really thought a lot about before having to do this message here. And I think that we tend to get careless in our walk at times. And I think that that's our human nature and we've got to have grace for that in our lives. But at the same time, being aware of our carelessness and bringing ourselves back into line with our relationship with Jesus and not allowing that to go because you can get to a point where, you know, you think you're doing fine and you're not doing fine at all.
[00:06:34] I have learned in preparing this this morning here that we need to pay attention, that it matters if we are not heavenly minded when Jesus comes back. If our mind's set on the things of this world, it's going to make a difference in our lives.
[00:06:48] There's expectations on God's part for that time towards us.
[00:06:53] And I'm not speaking at you, believe me, I'm speaking with you. You know, like, I get busy, I know what life is like. And you know, Karen and I, with all the stuff that's been last few years for us, you know, we get it. Like, so I'm just, this is what, you know, I'll share at the end, you know, that God really made it very clear for me to share this message. And, you know, and as I've been sharing it, I've learned that we have to keep our mind on Jesus and the fact that he's coming back and that it can happen any moment. Like he can come anytime. When you look at the scriptures, it's going to happen when we least expect it.
[00:07:33] And we look at the big picture of what's going on in our world, we have to remember, you know, that we were a part of this whole mess that's made because we were in Adam and Eve at the beginning.
[00:07:45] And, you know, we can't just say it's not my fault. You know, we're as guilty as Adam and Eve are. We have the Spirit living within us. And it's a fallen world, and we're a broken people. And God's grace is there and sufficiently covers it all.
[00:07:59] Praise God for that. That we can walk in that.
[00:08:03] It's a powerful thing when you really think about it. And God is working a process within us and through us to bring things back into order. He's working it out. And praise God for his grace in the times when we fall short.
[00:08:18] And so, as we approach this parable of the 10 bridesmaids, what we're seeing here is that Jesus is painting a very vivid picture of the kingdom of heaven and how we prepare for his return.
[00:08:31] In Matthew 25:1 13, he says, the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and they went to meet the bridegroom.
[00:08:43] Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The five who were foolish did not take enough olive oil for their lamps, but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy.
[00:08:59] But at midnight there was a shout. Look, here's the bridegroom. Come out and meet him. Then all of those bridesmaids got up. They trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.
[00:09:14] But the wise replied, no, there will not be enough for you and us. You had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.
[00:09:22] And while they were away to buy it, the bridegroom came. And those who were ready went with him to be at the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, lord, Lord, open to us. But he replied, truly, I tell you, I do not know you.
[00:09:41] Keep awake. Therefore, he's speaking to the crowd that's around him right now. And he's telling them, keep awake, therefore, for you know not neither the day nor the hour.
[00:09:54] We see all 10 bridesmaids. They were all invited to the wedding celebration. They all had lamps. They all went out to meet the bridegroom.
[00:10:04] And looking at them, we would see that they all looked the same.
[00:10:08] You know, you couldn't see any difference in them. But there was something that was missing.
[00:10:12] The wise brought extra oil for their lamps. The foolish bridesmaids did not. And when the bridegroom arrived, the foolish did not have enough oil. And the result was that they missed the celebration.
[00:10:25] Things we need to learn from this parable is that the invitation to the kingdom of God is not discriminating.
[00:10:31] Everybody is invited to the kingdom of God, Jesus has got his arms wide open and he's saying, come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened.
[00:10:39] But we also have to understand that the preparation that is required is to each one of us, and it's personal.
[00:10:46] There comes a time in every one of our lives that God brings us to places where we have to make a decision. Are we for him?
[00:10:54] Are we for ourselves? Are we going to do what we sense that God's spirit is telling us to do? Or are we going to do our own thing? Are we for him or are we against him? Like in Scripture, it says, it's two things. Either you're for me or you're against me.
[00:11:07] And we learned that salvation is not transferable.
[00:11:10] You know, just as the foolish bridesmaids couldn't get any oil from the wise bridesmaids, we cannot draw righteousness, righteousness, faith, or spiritual depth from any other person.
[00:11:22] It's not enough for us to come here Sunday mornings and come to the doors and come to church every Sunday morning. We could sit here and Pastor Paul teaches and preaches the Word and does such a great job with it all. He works at it. He's gifted at it. And then we go home and we don't think about anything until the next week. We come on the Sunday morning. That is not enough. That's not going to cut it. We have to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ ourselves.
[00:11:48] We cannot borrow this from Pastor Paul or anybody else.
[00:11:52] We can be spurred on by one another. It says, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. You know, we can encourage each other that way, but we can't take the Holy Spirit from anybody. Like, we can't receive salvation apart from Jesus and having that one relationship with Him.
[00:12:12] But. And it's not transferable. So we cannot assume because we come to church every Sunday that we're Christian.
[00:12:19] And we cannot assume that because we had Christian parents that we are a Christian.
[00:12:24] We must all have our own personal relationship with Jesus.
[00:12:28] And that's as simple as that. It comes right down to that. Do you know him?
[00:12:35] If you do know him, there should be a certain type of fruit that you're producing. When the pressure's on, what kind of fruit is produced in your life?
[00:12:45] You know, when you're being squeezed, when you're being stressed out of your mind about situations, what's the fruit that's coming out? Because Psalm 1 says that as we keep our. As we meditate on His Word day and night, you know, we'll be like that tree planted by streams of water, bearing its fruit in season. You know, the fruit that you're bearing is the fruit that you should be bearing. It's the fruit of the Spirit. It's talked about in Galatians, chapter five.
[00:13:10] You know, it's a great guide for us. What kind of fruit comes out of me when the pressure's on?
[00:13:16] Is it anger and rage?
[00:13:18] You know, am I.
[00:13:21] You just go on there, just read chapter five, Galatians. It says it all.
[00:13:26] Do not use your freedom to allow you to indulge in your sinful nature. It says, the parable shows us that the outward appearance can be deceiving.
[00:13:36] The oil represents the spirit of preparedness. All tend to looked ready, but only five of them were ready. The oil also represents the Holy Spirit.
[00:13:48] And the message is we must be ready when Jesus returns.
[00:13:54] We have a responsibility to make an effort to grow in our faith and the church.
[00:14:00] It says, boy, there's opportunities in this church to grow in your faith. The classes, the ministries that you can get involved in, there's equipping of the saints that goes on all the time in this church. There is no excuse if you're coming to this church that you're not doing the work of the ministry, not involved in serving the way that Jesus has destined for you to serve before. He laid the foundations of the world that says that he created good works for you to do.
[00:14:28] We have responsibility to make that effort and living with an awareness of the fact that Jesus will return and not worrying about it.
[00:14:39] Now, where am I?
[00:14:48] Okay, wherever I'm at, here we go. This is why we don't get freaked out about what's going on in world events, you know, because Jesus, he's predicted some of these things are going to happen.
[00:15:00] And we're not a. We shouldn't be attached to this planet to the point that the outside world events freak us out because we're to be heavenly minded. We're not to be worrying about the pressures that are coming on the world. Peter says, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief.
[00:15:18] And when the heavens, then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements will be dissolved with fire and the earth and everything that has done on it will be disclosed.
[00:15:30] Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of person ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness? But in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth where righteousness is at home.
[00:15:48] And I'm not walking around worshiping this planet. This is not my home. And it's not something I really get too concerned with. The planet's gonna burn. And we all, you know, agree that our planet needs to be taken care of. Like, I'm not saying you don't care about our planet. It would be pretty upsetting. I think that if we were to go out, you know, drive by somebody and you saw them dumping a barrel of oil in the ditch on the side of the road, that should bug anybody. You know, we should care about this planet and we should take care of things.
[00:16:19] And I went. If I can. See if I can remember this now. I went down to Nashville to a conference. And, you know, I didn't think that I cared that much about the environment. I figured, okay, I care. It bugs me, but not that much. And at the conference, they were loading up this trailer with bags and garbage bags and bags and bags. Just bottles. Like, unbelievable. I said, where are the youth? Why are the youth picking up these bottles? And they said, what for? And I said, well, get the money from them. And they said, they're going to the landfill. They don't have a recycle plan for bottles. I couldn't believe it. I thought I should go down there and set up a recycle place and bring them all back here, because there was a lot of bottles. It was just amazing to me that they didn't care about the environment that much, that they would do that. But just going to the landfill, all the plastic bottles, it was amazing. But, you know, at the same time, I don't get excited when I hear about wars and the rumors of wars, the pandemics or the earthquakes in our world. Like, I don't let that stuff get me down because that stuff's going to happen, and we know the end result.
[00:17:25] And you know that when that kind of stuff is happening, that people are looking and it's. They're going to. They want to. It's us they should be noticing.
[00:17:34] And, you know, sin will be rampant everywhere, and love for many will grow cold in those last days.
[00:17:42] All these things are spelled out in Matthew, chapter 24.
[00:17:45] And, you know, there's more than what's brought out here by quite a bit. And Jesus says this stuff's going to happen. And so when we see and you hear about these things, I know that through the lens of scripture that I'm not going to worry about them. I refuse to worry about them. And so we just need to be ready, and we don't need to be obsessed with this physical world, in a world where people don't know Jesus, what else are they going to focus on? They're going to focus on this kind of thing, and we can't fault them for doing that. They've got to focus on something.
[00:18:16] And this is what's in the media. And the media just has a. It's just a powerful thing. But we're not like people who have no hope.
[00:18:24] And you know, we are expected by Jesus to be prepared by living in a state of constant readiness for Christ's return.
[00:18:34] Our eyes fixed on heavenly things. Colossians says it so good. Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand.
[00:18:51] Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.
[00:19:01] We think of heavenly things because that's what Jesus says we're to think about.
[00:19:06] And Luke 21:28 says, so when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation draws near.
[00:19:14] And you know, our salvation is drawing near.
[00:19:17] And you know, I believe that the Holy Spirit really has spoken to me about preaching this Word, and I'm going to share that a little later on. Why I believe that while the rest of the world is looking down, we are to be looking up because our hope is in Jesus coming again.
[00:19:34] And this is even understood by Job. Like, this is really great Job. It's supposedly like they're talking about that they think that it's probably one of the oldest books in the Bible.
[00:19:45] And Job had an understanding of the Messiah, of Jesus, of the one coming. He says, but as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.
[00:19:54] And I will stand upon the earth at last.
[00:19:58] He will stand on the earth at last. And after my body is decayed, yet in my body I will see God.
[00:20:05] I will see him for myself. I will see him with my own eyes. For I am overwhelmed at the thought.
[00:20:12] You know, it's amazing. That's Job. And he had an understanding that God was going to be coming in the flesh. He was going to be standing on the earth. He was going to see him face to face. The Gospel of the Messiah, it's all through the Bible. You know, I've been reading a lot in the book of Ecclesiastes this last month, a lot in there. And that whole Bible is in the book of Ecclesiastes.
[00:20:33] It's a great book.
[00:20:35] And God has made it Clear to us, to the seeker that Jesus is coming back and it is real. He says, I know that my redeemer lives and in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, meaning at the resurrection from the grave, yet my flesh shall see him. Because he understood the resurrection from the dead with a glorified body through faith in the living Lord, he says, I shall see him with my own eyes.
[00:21:05] And oh my, how my heart yearns within me. You know, that just was just encouraging for me when I was reading and meditating on those scriptures, thinking, wow, like Job knew it. How much more should we knew it? We have the Holy Spirit living within us. And it says, you know, in the New Testament, Jesus says that the prophets of old long to see the things that you see to the disciples then. And then 2,000 years later, you know, the things that we have matured as the church and where we're going, the prophets of old long to see and experience the things that we are experiencing. It's amazing.
[00:21:40] And so we should have this joyful anticipation of Jesus return and it should be what motivates us to holy live in and it should be shaping our perspective on life and these world events.
[00:21:53] And now when Jesus, he teaches this parable in Matthew 25, he's using wedding terminology. And it's amazing parallels here about the Jewish wedding, what Jesus was talking about and the second coming of Christ. And that's what Jesus is trying to get across here.
[00:22:09] First we see that there's a betrothal. The betrothal is more than an engagement. You know, today we get engaged and we give a ring and then we plan a wedding and then we have the wedding.
[00:22:18] But this is far more than that, its betrothals. It's way more serious than an engagement. It was a legal binding contract.
[00:22:27] And this was an arranged marriage. And there was in the culture there was a betrothal and there would be a bride price for the dowry paid by the family of the groom to the family of the bride. And so they would make a contract up with that and seal it with a contract.
[00:22:44] And then because there was a dowry price for the bride that was given for this marriage. So it was legal, legally binding contract that was entered into and you could get out of them. You can't get out of the marriage outside of marital unfaithfulness.
[00:23:01] And the only reason for that divorce was that. And I think that by either the bride or the groom. Remember when Mary was conceived of Jesus and Joseph was wanting to give her divorce her quietly and privately. And then he had a dream with an angel. And he said, do not be afraid to take Mary home for your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And so then he didn't divorce her. He walked it out with her.
[00:23:30] But that's how serious this betrothal is. It's a legal binding contract that cannot be separated other than by divorce. And the couple exchanged the bride price and the vows and the contract was entered into. And in this arranged marriage, then the groom would go, he would. That would all be sealed. He would go home, back to his, generally speaking, to his parents home. And he would build onto their home, a home for him and his bride.
[00:23:57] And he was usually gone for an entire year. And during this year he was exempt from taxes and other obligations, including military service.
[00:24:07] And that was it. And at the end of the year, he would return for his bride.
[00:24:12] And when he would return, it would be announced that the bridegroom is coming.
[00:24:18] He's coming back. Like I'm announcing to you, he's coming back. And there was an anticipation from everybody who knew it. It would be soon, but they didn't know exactly when. But the bridal party would get ready and the bridegroom would return and the bridal party would arise and it was usually at night. And so they would have lamps or torches.
[00:24:38] And Jesus, he's using this terminology in this parable to show us and show the people he was speaking to. This is what it's going to be like when the Son of Man returns.
[00:24:55] Jesus is the groom.
[00:24:57] Here's the parallels. He's the groom and we're the bride. We enter into this relationship with him and the bride price is paid by the groom, which was his blood on the cross.
[00:25:08] We're living right now in the betrothal.
[00:25:11] Jesus has purchased us from sin and death and he's secured us because he loves us.
[00:25:17] And the Bible, you know, it often uses the analogy of the bridegroom and the church, the church being the bride. And so we're living right now. The time we're living in this is the betrothal.
[00:25:29] He's coming again because he's presently gone away to prepare a place for us.
[00:25:33] And this upsets like the disciples. Jesus was talking to those guys just before he was crucified. And he says that he's telling them he's going to go away. And this really bugs them because they have no security outside of Jesus and all that he's been doing. The miracles and signs and wonders. They have no idea what's going on. They still think he's going to set up his kingdom here on Earth. And he says he's going away. And so this gets them upset. And Jesus sees that, and he says to them, don't let your hearts be troubled.
[00:26:00] Trust in God. Trust also in me. There are many more than enough rooms in my Father's house. If this were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to prepare a place for you. When everything is ready, I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am.
[00:26:17] He's referring to the fact that there's a time he has gone away. And that's like, right now. That's what we're living. And he's presently still gone away.
[00:26:26] He's delayed in coming. But Jesus is coming again for his bride.
[00:26:31] It's you and me.
[00:26:32] And living life, you know, is the responsible thing that we have to do. And that's, you know, we're not saying run and run to the hills and wait for the coming of Jesus. We all have responsibilities to live.
[00:26:45] And we must be, you know, in the midst of all our responsibilities, walking the walk, not just talking to talk.
[00:26:54] Jesus. In scripture, it says that he comes in the clouds and a miraculous event takes place where he snatches the Christians off the planet and up to heaven. We go for a time, for it says in Thessalonians, here it says, for the Lord himself with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of God's trumpet will descend from heaven. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
[00:27:22] And then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
[00:27:33] So he comes for his bride. He comes to rescue us from this broken life and take us to be home with him. So salvation is like the betrothal that we enter into if we have surrendered our life to Jesus Christ as Lord.
[00:27:47] It's a relationship of love.
[00:27:50] Jesus paid the price.
[00:27:52] He shed his blood on the cross for each one of us. He comes again to get his bride.
[00:27:58] The parable teaches that in chapter 25 has more to do with the Rapture than anything else. And the tragic thing is, in the parable, there were 10 bridesmaids, but only five of them made it to the banquet.
[00:28:12] The five who were wise had the extra oil for their lambs. The five who did not, did not weren't able to get in.
[00:28:20] They were all watching. They all fell asleep, which was not necessarily bad. They were living life.
[00:28:26] And it says in Matthew, it says about the day and hour, no one knows, neither the angels nor heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. And I just shared the first service. You know, I just heard a flicker of somebody in India predicting that Jesus is coming back on a certain day.
[00:28:47] I don't know. You know, you think we'd get over that because it never works out.
[00:28:52] And someone come up to me afterwards and talk to me about that, but it's amazing. For as the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
[00:29:04] For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. Until Noah entered the ark.
[00:29:11] They were just living life.
[00:29:14] Oops.
[00:29:16] But when they awakened, because they heard that he had arrived, five were not ready. And in this story, Jesus is the bridegroom.
[00:29:26] He's the one that's coming again. And the bigger picture here is that Jesus is painting that not all were Christians. Not everybody that's in the church is Christian, because, you know, it's a sobering thought of that, but it is what Jesus is teaching here, and he's through the scripture. You know, we have the oil as the symbol of the Holy Spirit. And this is how we know that this is what Jesus is talking about. The Old Testament prophets would be anointing kings with olive oil, drenching them with oil, and it was symbolic of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and God's anointing on them for being king.
[00:30:07] And, you know, like, it's so sad when you think about it. You know, that's how these kings, in their corrupt mindset and not knowing the law, because, you know, for as after Solomon, the law had been buried, it had been lost, and these kings would be anointed with oil. And everything they would do, they would do in the name of God, thinking that they were doing right.
[00:30:27] But it was just. It was a symbolic outpouring of God's spirit.
[00:30:32] And in the New Testament, we see that Jesus is meeting his disciples behind locked doors for fear of the Jews after he had died and he had resurrected and he was just showing himself to them, and he popped into the room and in that event, he breathed on them, said, receive the Holy Spirit.
[00:30:51] And when they.
[00:30:53] When we see at Pentecost the outpouring of the Spirit, at that overflow of work of God's Spirit at the baptism of the Spirit, you know, in other words, the Holy Spirit represents both the indwelling and the empowering of God's spirit in our lives.
[00:31:09] And when we read this parable, you see the symbolism of the oil that the 5 had and the oil that the 5 didn't have. And when Jesus simply saying to us, as tragic as it is, the five were born again and the five were not. They look the same and they were going through the same motions, but only five of them were saved.
[00:31:30] And so we need to understand, wrapping this up, that the bridegroom will come and he'll come suddenly.
[00:31:37] At midnight, the cry rang out. There was no time left to prepare. The wise entered the feast and the foolish were shut out.
[00:31:45] Jesus return will be sudden and it'll be final.
[00:31:49] We must be ready ahead of time.
[00:31:52] You're not going to think you can get ready later. You'll worry about that when the time comes.
[00:31:57] The door will not stay open forever.
[00:32:00] The tragic thing is, you know, is to hear the words, I don't know you. I don't want to hear those words, I don't know you. This is not about harshness, but it's about reality.
[00:32:12] And there comes a point and an opportunity when it's gone.
[00:32:17] Grace is available right now, but it's not guaranteed tomorrow.
[00:32:22] And, you know, like, I was doing this, working on this message here, and I didn't want to do this message because the last time I preached, it was like before I was even done preparing that message. I felt like this Holy Spirit was telling me, the next one is going to be on the ten bridesmaids.
[00:32:40] And I thought, I don't want to preach on the 10 bridesmaids.
[00:32:43] So I just ignored it. And that's why I have been spending so much time this last month in the book of Ecclesiastes, because I was going to preach something out of Ecclesiastes because it's such a good book. But I felt like the Spirit was saying, no, this is what I want you to preach out of. I want you to say, so, okay, I'll do that. And then preparing it wasn't any easier. There's just a struggle to do this. But this is what I feel like God was saying.
[00:33:07] He wanted me to speak on. He wanted his church to hear that they must be ready.
[00:33:13] And, you know, so how can we be sure that we're ready?
[00:33:18] You know, how can we be sure? How can we make sure we have oil in our lamps all the time?
[00:33:24] You know, number one, Jesus won't take second place in our lives.
[00:33:29] Nothing can be between us and Him. Our relationship with Him. He's number one.
[00:33:34] Like, I was Saying, you know, he's come. He's come to give us life and life to the full. You know, we've got. We have life to the full. You know, like, we just. Where we live and our culture and our location, you know, we're blessed people.
[00:33:50] But Jesus wants to be number one in the midst of all of that. You know, I've heard it said from people that have come into Canada as refugees and they're settling in here that it is hard to live in Canada because there's so much to distract you to go after, and we can't allow that to happen in our lives. If we're going to be ready for Jesus, he has to be number one in our lives.
[00:34:15] And, you know, like, when I first gave my life to Christ back in the 80s, I believe it was maybe early 90s, but I gave my life to Christ. But they used to always do altar calls. And I felt like today I felt like God is saying he wants me to do an altar call and that kind of thing. I. Oh, that makes me nervous for it. But then I felt like God said to me, okay, he says, when they, you know, if they're not responding, it's not that they're not responding to you, they're not responding to me. And so it's got nothing to do with me. Praise God for that, you know, so if we would stand, you know, like, when I first gave my life to Christ, we were at an evangelistic crusade, and the evangelist was preaching and got to the end of his message. And he says, if you died tonight, do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you'd be going to heaven?
[00:35:08] And I. Well, first of all, he says, are you a Christian? I said, yeah, because I believed in God. And then he says, if you died tonight, do you know that you would be going to heaven beyond a shadow of a doubt? And then I thought, boy, I don't know that answer to that question.
[00:35:21] And then I thought, you know, I want to go up there and I want to make sure that if I died tonight, I'd be going to heaven. But we were sitting right at the very back of a room over at the.
[00:35:30] It's now a casino over here.
[00:35:32] We're sitting at the back of the room. So I thought, okay, I'm going to get closer tomorrow night, and then I'm going to go up. So we got to worry about the middle. I don't know why we sat in the middle. Well, we sat in the middle, and then I had the people to go through that way and then down. And I thought, that's it. The next night, we're sitting right up front.
[00:35:46] So we went in and we sat right at the front. When he gave the call, he didn't hardly get started. And I stood up and Karen and I went up and we give it. And we surrendered our life to Christ because God was calling us and speaking to us and stirring us to come up. He says, you know that if your heart is pounding, he says, if your heart feels like it's going to jump out of your chest, that's the Holy Spirit that's speaking to you.
[00:36:10] And so I'm going to give that opportunity to you this morning that if you've never made a commitment to Jesus, I want to give you a chance to do that. And, you know, I say, like, wait, it's amazing how we do this. We don't do altar calls anymore. We don't ask people to come to the front. But Jesus, when he called people, he called them publicly, he called them. You know, it was right out there. And there's something about that coming to the front. When you're going to give your life to Christ, there's a boldness that gets imparted into you that you're not going to allow the enemy to intimidate you. You're not going to allow the enemy to hold you back and hold you down anymore. You're going to come forward. You're going to give your life to Christ. You know, that's up to you whether you do or not. But, you know, the Word says that today is the day of salvation.
[00:36:56] And if you're hearing God speaking to you and you feel like the Holy Spirit's wanting you to come forward, but you say, there's no way I'm going up front there. I want to encourage you that, you know, the believers in here have committed their lives to Christ and they've got nothing but support for you.
[00:37:13] Today is the day of salvation. The Spirit is speaking to you. And if you're hearing the Spirit speaking to you and you feel like he wants you to commit your life to Christ, I want to encourage you to do it. Because you don't know if you have tomorrow.
[00:37:27] You know, like Donovan in our church, he would sit down right down here. He was at Christmas in Calgary with his family. They went to get him in the morning and he was gone.
[00:37:37] You know, we don't know what's gonna happen.
[00:37:40] And so that's just a warning or a caution to you.
[00:37:46] But I want to invite you. I'd like to have our altar workers come forward, like to have you guys to come forward if you want to give your life to Christ. I want to have you come forward if you want to recommit your life to Christ and be ready for his second coming.
[00:37:58] And whether you come or not, that's between you and the Lord. And I just pray that you will be bold and let the Holy Spirit have his way in your lives.
[00:38:07] And so, Lord, we pray, Father, that you would give that Holy Ghost boldness to your people, Lord. That we would be a people, Lord, to be willing, Father, to do everything that you tell us to do, Lord God. And so we commit ourselves to you. And I pray for your church. I just pray, Lord, as they go, that they would just think about their readiness of their heart. Are they ready, Lord, for your return?
[00:38:30] And if they're not sure, I pray that you would stir their hearts until they do. They know. Bless your people. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. You're dismissed. If you want to come forward, it's a good time to do it.
