So, I need everybody that has had a driver's license or has a driver's license to stand
up.
Stand up.
Don't worry, it's not going to be very long.
Well, for some of you it might be long.
How?
Think about when you first got your driver's license, when you were maybe 16 years old
or 18 years old or somewhere along that range.
Think how much did gas cost, a gallon of gas, when you first started driving.
If gas cost $4 or more, sit down.
Okay, I didn't see anybody sit down.
There was a little while where it was $4 or more.
What about $3 or more?
When you started driving, did gas cost $3 or more?
You can sit down.
What about $2.50, $2.50 for a gallon?
Did gas cost more than that when you started driving?
Okay, we still got lots of people.
What about $2?
Did gas cost $2?
Okay, let's go a little, we'll pick up the pace.
What about $1.50?
If gas cost $1.50 or more when you started driving, you may sit down.
We're getting a little more gray hair as we go down here.
What about $1?
Did gas cost $1 or more when you started driving?
Sit down.
Okay, what about $0.80?
$0.80.
All right, a few more.
$0.60, that would be me.
I would sit down.
It was about $0.59, I think.
$0.50, $0.50.
$0.45, $0.35.
A few more, $0.30, $0.25.
Okay, a bunch sat down then.
$0.20.
Okay, another.
Was it free at one point?
Did they pay you to drive?
Two people, how much did gas cost when you started to drive?
$0.17.
$0.19, all right.
Thank you guys for participating.
We'll give you a free gallon of gas at your original cost there, so $0.19 and $0.17.
We recognize that times change, that anytime there's war in the Middle East or a hurricane
maybe blowing through or a holiday weekend, that that gas price can fluctuate.
It can change.
We recognize that it goes up a lot faster than it comes back down.
It'll go up for no reason, and they'll say it was for something, and it goes up in a
day, and then three weeks later it's trickling back down, but maybe not quite to where it
was at that one point.
Now, there was a time, some of you remember this, I do not.
It was just a little over 50 years ago.
It was in 1973, and there was an oil shortage.
There was an embargo.
Those nations that produce oil and gas, they decided they weren't going to produce as much,
and so that caused lots of challenges and lots of problems in this nation.
Some of you may remember or have heard on the news that the price of gas went up, not
as much as it is today, but it went higher than it was, and there were long lines that
went off the gas station, and you'd be waiting in these gas-guzzling cars waiting to get
in line to get gas, and there was even rationing, so you could only get so many gallons when
you got gas.
There was another thing that was called alternate days, and so depending on what your license
plate ended with, if it was an even number or an odd number, if it was an even number
you could get gas on a certain day, if it was an odd number you could get gas on the
other day, but that was an oil shortage or an oil crisis that was happening, and believe
it or not, that's even when and why they changed the speed limit, they lowered the
speed limit to 55.
It wasn't for safety and for protection.
It was because you got better gas mileage when you went a little bit slower, and so
that's why that speed limit initially went down to 55, because of an oil crisis, because
a shortage of oil.
We're going to look today, we've already seen a little bit about it, about a story
in the Bible when there was an oil shortage, when there was an oil crisis, so we're going
to turn to Matthew chapter 25, and that's where we're going to spend most of our time
today.
We've been looking at the theme all week long during VBS, we've been talking about parables,
we've been looking at different parables, and so today we're going to continue that
thought of looking at a parable.
Now in Matthew 24, Matthew 24, if you were to glance through that, it talks about the
signs of the times, what's going to be happening in the world before Jesus comes, what's going
to be happening in the world before Jesus comes.
But in Matthew chapter 25, it contains three parables about what God's people, what the
church is supposed to be doing while we await that second coming of Jesus.
So Matthew 24 looks at the conditions of the world, but Matthew 25 looks at the conditions
of the heart.
Now if you were to look in Matthew 24 towards the very end, let's see verse 42, it says,
watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
That's Matthew 24 verse 42.
And then verse 44, it says, therefore you also be ready for the Son of Man is coming
at an hour you do not expect.
And then that leads us directly into Matthew 25.
Matthew 24 conditions of the world, Matthew 25 conditions of the heart, conditions of
the church.
So let's dive into Matthew 25 and verse 1.
It says, then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to 10 virgins who took their lamps
and went out to meet the bridegroom.
So we've already heard this story, we've been reminded of this story, but let's look
at it again.
It begins by talking about the kingdom of heaven.
Now there's about 20 different parables which are parables of the kingdom.
And they begin like that, the kingdom of heaven is like this, the kingdom of heaven is like
that.
And so those parables indicate what God's people, what the church will be like as we're
living on this earth.
And so here we have a description of God's people, what God's people will be doing in
the days approaching the second coming.
Now that's why a church exists, that's why this church exists, to help people be ready
for that second coming.
That's why we come and sing songs together.
That's why we come and worship and pray and have fellowship dinners.
Not just to be friendly with each other, but to prepare each one of us to know that Jesus
is coming soon.
And then here in verse 25, chapter one, excuse me, chapter 25 verse one, it says the kingdom
of heaven shall be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Now in scripture in several different places, when it talks about a woman, it often refers
to a body of believers, a group of people, a church.
In Revelation, for instance, there's two different women that are included there.
There's an unfaithful woman, a harlot woman, and that represents those who are chasing
after things that are leading them away from God, a false system of belief.
And then in Revelation 12, there's a pure woman that represents God's people down through
the ages.
And so here we have a description of this group of people, these women who are awaiting
the coming of the bridegroom, awaiting the coming of Jesus.
That's who the bridegroom represents.
And it says as it goes on in verse two, that five of them were wise and five were foolish.
Now there's something that sets these two groups apart.
There's ten, there's five that are wise, and five that are foolish.
And the next verse tells us what the difference is.
Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil
in their vessels with their lamps.
So this is a little clay lamp that Jolie and I got when we were over in Israel a few years
ago.
And so their lamp may look something like this.
You put oil in it, maybe there's a little wick in the hole there, and you have a little
lamp that gives you a little bit of light.
Now there's not a lot of volume in there for oil.
And so it says the wise virgins, hello, the wise virgins took their oil and they had some
extra oil, and they carried extra with them.
But the foolish ones, they only had this little amount.
So they had oil, but it was not enough.
It was only a small amount.
So we've got these two groups of people, and what set them apart was how much oil they
had with them.
Now what does oil represent in Scripture?
Holy Spirit, all right, very good.
Keep your finger in Matthew 25.
We're going to turn over to Psalm 119, the longest chapter in all of the Bible.
Psalm 119 verse 105, some of you may be able to sing a little song that goes along with
this.
Psalm 119, 105, it says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my path.
And so as we are walking with God, we want to have our way illuminated.
We want God's word, God's truth to guide us on our way.
And as we already heard mentioned, the Holy Spirit, or excuse me, oil represents the Holy
Spirit.
Now why is that?
Oil is used in a lot of different ways in the Bible.
If you look in the Old Testament when they talk about the sanctuary service, they use
oil there, and it is often used to consecrate.
So the priest, or the priest, they would put oil on their head.
They would drip oil upon them.
The furniture that was used, they would anoint that with oil, and that was consecrating it,
setting it apart for holy use.
That's what that oil was used for, to set apart for holy use.
It was consecrating.
Oil in the Bible is also used for healing.
Earlier this week, we talked about, let's see if the young people remember, there was
a story where someone was walking along a path and he got beat up by some other people.
Do you remember what that story was called?
The Good Samaritan.
In that story, as the one gentleman is beat up by the robbers, when the Good Samaritan
comes along, it says he put oil on his wounds, and that oil would cleanse the wounds, or
wash the dirt out, or disinfect the things that were in there, or seal it off to keep
it clean so that it wouldn't get infected.
So oil was for consecration and also for healing, but as we see, it's also for illumination.
In the Old Testament sanctuary, one of the articles of furniture was a candlestick, and
that candlestick would burn oil and it would tell you exactly what kind of oil to put in
there, and it was supposed to remain burning at all times.
So in this parable, we have a picture of a people who are consecrated, who are set apart,
a people who are healed because the oil has been applied, a people who are supposed to
hold a torch of truth high to illuminate the world before Jesus comes.
Someone already mentioned it during the skit, you know, this little light of mine, I'm going
to let it shine.
Don't let Satan, oh that was loud, don't let Satan blow it out.
We got to let it shine.
We got to illuminate the world.
But then as we go back to Matthew chapter 25, if we go back to this parable that we're
looking at today, it says, the foolish took their lamps but took no oil, the wise took
oil in their vessels with their lamps, but verse 5, it says, while the bridegroom was
delayed, they all slumbered.
How many people slumbered?
All, all ten of these young ladies fell asleep.
They all fell asleep.
You know, sometimes in life we do strange things when we're asleep.
Some people don't raise your hands, some people maybe talk in their sleep and they say things
that are not always coherent when they're talking in their sleep.
Some people maybe get up at night and walk through the house.
They walk in their sleep.
I remember one time when I was in Pathfinders years ago, we were on a late night drive,
we'd been camping or something and I was sitting in the back of a car, there were several cars,
and I remember this distinctly, that there's several of us sleeping in the back of this
car.
The guy next to me was not asleep.
His eyes were open.
He was leaning forward like this, looking out the front window.
And I remember in my sleep that I started to do this.
Started to reach.
And my hand went across his face.
I was just going like this.
And he whipped his head around like what in the world and stared at me.
And I remember saying this.
I said, don't look at me.
I don't know what I'm doing.
And I went back to sleep.
But I woke up and I remembered doing that strange, weird, odd thing.
Because sometimes when we're asleep, we do strange things.
And sometimes we misunderstand this part of the parable because it says they all fell
asleep.
All ten of these young ladies which represent God's church, all of them fell asleep.
And so here we have a church on the verge of the second coming.
And yet sometimes there's a spiritual drowsiness.
There's a church raised up as a people to shine a light to the world.
And yet sometimes we're sleeping instead of proclaiming.
Now verse five it says, while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
Why a delay?
Now we know Jesus walked on this earth like 2,000 years ago.
Why a delay?
We talked a few weeks ago about what Jesus is doing now that Jesus always lives to intercede
for us as it says in Hebrews chapter seven.
But what else is going on?
Let's turn over to 2 Peter for a moment.
2 Peter chapter three.
That's way back towards Revelation.
2 Peter chapter three and verse nine.
It says in 2 Peter three verse nine, it says the Lord is not slack or the Lord is not lazy.
The Lord is not unfaithful concerning his promise as some count slackness.
But the Lord is long suffering.
The Lord is patient toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance.
Why a delay?
There's a delay in love because God wants each one of us, God wants the entire world
to have the opportunity to hear the message of grace, to hear the message of truth.
But soon as in this story, time is going to run out.
The time will come and Jesus will return.
Let's go back there to Matthew chapter 25.
Matthew chapter 25.
How did that next verse go?
Verse six.
It says they all slumbered and slept.
Verse six says, and at midnight a cry was heard, behold the bridegroom is coming, go
out to meet him.
At midnight, in the middle of the night, perhaps the darkest part of the night.
Was anybody awake at midnight last night?
I was awake at midnight.
Did you see outside at midnight last night?
There was a bright full moon that was shining on this second day of summer.
But most often at midnight, it's not a bright full moon.
Usually it's dark because that's the darkest part of the night.
And it's at midnight when the world is full of turmoil and spiritual confusion that that
is when Jesus is going to come.
And it goes on in verse seven and says, then they heard the voice.
He's coming.
Get up.
Go out to meet him.
And it says then in verse seven, all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.
They got their little lamps ready.
They worked on the wick.
They made sure it was burning the proper brightness and it wasn't smoking too much.
They got their little lamp to shine perfectly.
In verse eight, it says the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil for our
lamp is going out.
But the wise answered saying, no, lest there should not be enough for us and you.
But go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves.
Did everybody have oil?
Everybody at the beginning had a little bit of oil.
But half of them did not have enough.
And they were told go and buy oil.
What time was it?
Midnight.
Do you think any place is open to buy oil?
If you're selling something that is used to make things bright, are you going to stay
open all night?
Probably not because you're going to be using up all of your product.
So that was a fruitless search for them to go and hopefully find something.
All of them brought some oil, but the foolish did not bring enough.
And I think maybe we can recognize that a superficial relationship with Jesus is not
enough.
We can't just show up in this building or in some other church for one or two hours
a week, sing songs and think that's enough.
Now let me be clear, that's good to show up and to sing songs.
That's a beautiful, wonderful start to either show up here or to some other church each
and every week.
But if you think that's enough, it's not because that's just superficial.
If you walk out these doors and forget about Jesus, then you're forgetting what is most
important.
It's also not enough to count on someone else's relationship, whether it's your parents, your
spouse, your grandparents.
That's not enough.
You cannot use someone else's oil.
You have to have this Holy Spirit, this connection on your own.
You can't depend on an experience you've had in the past.
You can't depend on someone else's experience.
And so in this story, how many are wise?
Five.
How many are foolish?
Five.
What percentage is that?
50%.
Now I don't know if we can't, you guys are good at math.
I don't know if we can use a parable to draw conclusions totally and completely, because
the next parable, there's three and one of them, so that would be a third, that would
be 33%.
One of them is not doing good things.
So whether it's 50% or 33%, neither of those numbers is good.
Because look around.
I don't want 50% to say, oh, sorry.
We weren't ready.
No, I hope that each one of us here, that each family that's here, that each family
that we represent will commit themselves saying, God, I need to serve you.
God, I need your Holy Spirit in my life.
God, I want to be ready when you come.
We can read that there's a group that has a regard for the truth, but they have not
yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit.
Is your spiritual life stale?
Is it superficial?
Are you not letting the power of God change your life?
We go on in verse 10, and it says, while they went to buy, so these foolish ones went to
try to find somewhere to knock on a door, try to find some oil, while they were gone,
the bridegroom came and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding and the door
was shut.
And afterward, the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But he answered and said, assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.
That was our scripture, but that was my mistake.
I wanted our scripture to be verse 13, the very next verse, because verse 12 can sound
a little depressing.
Sorry, I didn't know you.
But that's the danger.
That's the concern.
But verse 13 says, watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which
the Son of Man is coming.
We have an assurance, we have a promise that there's a warning.
Jesus is coming.
Are we ready?
Are we going to be ready?
It can't be somebody else's oil.
It's got to be your own.
Jesus is coming and we need to wake up.
Now this week, we've been having VBS as we've mentioned numerous times.
Thanks again to the volunteers.
And we've been reminding ourselves, kids, let's see.
The first night was about a lost sheep.
What was the lesson you were supposed to learn?
That you are, a few of you got it.
You are important that Jesus was willing to leave everyone to come and find one person
to find you.
The second night we looked at a prodigal son.
And the lesson was that you are forgiven.
I heard it over there that no matter what we've done in the past, that Jesus was willing
to come for you.
That Jesus loves each and every one of us.
And then we looked at the story of the Good Samaritan and we were reminded that we need
to be friends.
We need to treat everybody with love and respect just as God did for us.
And then Thursday night we looked at two different people who were building a house, one on a
rock and one on the sand, the wise and the foolish.
And what are we supposed to be?
Wise.
Thank you.
We're supposed to be wise as we hear the words of God and to do them.
And today as we look at this parable of these young ladies, we need to be ready for Jesus
to come.
I want to look at one more passage here from 2 Timothy chapter 3.
Second Timothy chapter 3.
Second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 1.
It says, but know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.
You think we're living in the last days?
As we look at headlines, as we look at news, as we look at troubles and trials in this
world, do you think we're living in the last days?
In the last days perilous times will come.
And then the next couple of verses, as we read them, you can picture headlines, you
can picture stories.
It says, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemous,
disobedient to parents, have mercy, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers,
without self-control, brutal, despisers of good.
Does this sound like a newscast?
Traders, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
And then verse 5 kind of sums it up.
It says, having a form of godliness but denying its power from such people turn away.
Having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Those five foolish girls, they had a form of godliness.
They had a little bit of oil.
They had enough to get started.
They had enough to know that they needed a little bit more.
But they chose not to.
They chose to go along.
They chose to be distracted.
They chose to do their own thing.
We as a church should not be asleep.
We have a message to share to this world.
A message of the character of Jesus' love.
A message that that loving creator Jesus is coming again very, very soon.
There's a story I heard not long ago about a couple that lives in the hills of Southern
California.
If you've ever seen the news or lived in California, I know as few people here have, oftentimes,
including now, there's forest fires raging across those mountains of California.
And this couple, in this story, it was one of those times when the fires were burning.
And they could see it over the ridge, the smoke, the glow.
And it was getting closer and closer.
They could see it go up the next ridge and come down.
But they weren't too concerned because the firefighters were in place.
They were putting the fire lines out where they needed to be.
They were putting out the brush fires that were kicking up.
They could see the planes swooping in and dropping that retardant onto the fire.
And the husband was just enthralled by this, seeing the glow of the fire, seeing the planes
as the flames got closer and closer and closer.
That's what the man was doing.
The woman was not watching.
She was in the house.
And she was gathering up important papers and photo albums and putting them in the trunk
of the car.
She was getting changes of clothes and putting them in the car.
She was making sure that all was ready in case an evacuation was needed.
She was preparing while the husband, the man, was distracted, was looking at what was going
on but was not getting ready.
We need to make sure that in all that we are doing, we are letting our light shine.
And not just a little bit, but we need to be praying each and every day, Lord, pour
out your Spirit upon me.
Jesus says that God desires to give the Holy Spirit more than we desire to give a gift
to the people that we love.
That's what God wants to do for us.
We need to pray.
God, help me to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Help me to want to get into your word just a little bit.
Five minutes more than you're doing.
If you're doing zero, then five minutes is amazing.
Just God, give me a passion to learn more about you.
Help me to wake up and to recognize that you're coming soon.
You want to be ready when Jesus comes?
I think Jesus wants each one of us there, and all we have to do is say, Lord, save me.
Lord, fill me with your Spirit.
Lord, wake me up.
Let's bow our heads for a prayer.
Dear God, thank you so much for promises.
Thank you for all that you do for us.
And Lord, forgive us.
Forgive me for times when I've been distracted, when I've been sleeping, when I've failed
to share with somebody else.
But Lord, help me today and every day to want to stand fully and totally for you.
Be with each one of us here today.
In your name we pray.
Amen.