Matthew 25:1-13
Readiness and Stewardship.
We need to be ready because one day God is going to have enough and say, "call my people home." And the dead in Christ shall rise. I'd rather go with the rapture, but either way we'll be with the Lord. I thought we'd look at one of Jesus' parables and continue with His parables as we've been doing in the eveing.
Readiness and Stewardship is what we're talking about this evening. We don't know when Jesus is coming. We might have some good indications based on the Bible but no one knows the day or the hour. We are the bride of Christ but we don't know when He will come. But when the holy spirit takes us to Jesus, that's when the world will be gettin bad.
When we're talking about the bridegroom in this parable in this story, who are we talking about? JESUS. Of the 10 virgins, only 5 were prepared and brought the oil for their lamps ahead of time. We need to be prepared like the 5 wise virgins, not like the 5 foolish virgins. We have to be prepared.
5 were wise, what makes us wise is not how educated we are, we're talking about the spiritual smarts we have to pray to the Lord every day and call upon His name. The story has never changed. John the Baptist preached, "repent the kingdom of God is at hand." Jesus preached, "Repent the kingdom of God is at hand." It's over 2, 000 years later and we still need to preach that the kingdom of God is at hand.
There's so many who dying and going to hell and they don't care. They were like the 5 virgins who were foolish.
The oil represents our faith. If we let our faith drip away, our light won't shine bright. It's up to us to bring our own oil and represent our faith in God. The devil will do all to make your oil drip away, but I charge you today to let your light shine. Show the devil how full your oil well is.
Be like the 5 wise virgins and bring your oil with your lamp so your light will shine bright. Get prepared now. Because when you start thinking you can get prepared another day, that's when He'll come and your lamp will be without oil.
Even the wise virgins slept, that means they slacked off in their faith, but they renewed their faith. We have to renew our faith every day. If you're not saved now, you will have to fight hard during the tribulation to try to be saved.
God waits for that one more soul to come into the kingdom. That soul could have been you. I'm glad He's waiting because I've got family that aren't saved and I pray for them every day. Be prepared. Get saved today.
When God calls us, it's not like He'll call from heaven. He's going to meet us in the air. He's going to take us to His home.
Jesus is preparing us a home with Him. When He takes us home and creats the new heaven and new earth, that's when we'll have our glorified bodies. No more pain or suffering.
When God calls you to come to the other, He's telling you to get ready now and to not wait till the last minute. The 5 foolish virgins waiting till the last minute to get prepared. What kind of excuse will the folks give that are left behind? Because we didn't shaire our oil?
Matthew 25:12; 7:22-23
We don't need to sit on our lorals, we need to get prepared for the coming of Jesus. We don't know when the Son of Man is coming, but if we're shining our lights like we should, then it doesn't matter when He comes.