When was the last time you had something unexpected
happen to you? Has there been a time when the
way you anticipated something going, it went
very different? About the time I got here this
morning, I had seen a notice that something happened
this morning. Did anybody notice anything maybe
about 9 .05 -ish this morning? Apparently up
near Knoxville there was a little earthquake,
like three and a half or four, and it could be
felt down here in Georgia. Did anybody feel it?
I was on the road driving here at that time.
A few people are claiming that they felt it.
I don't know. So that was unexpected. This is
not a place where we usually have earthquakes.
California? Some of you maybe have experienced
earthquakes in California. Anybody? Been in California
for a bigger earthquake? Many of you have. If
you had been traveling about a week ago, a week
and a half ago, if you had been on your vacation
to Europe, maybe you were in Spain or Portugal,
on a Monday afternoon, oh, about 2 o 'clock,
probably right about the time siesta would be
starting. I don't know. I'm making that up. But
something unexpected happened. The power went
out, not just in a little area, but across almost
all of Spain and Portugal, and even into France,
suddenly there was no power. There was a blackout.
I have a really cool picture of a blackout here,
but you'll just have to use your imagination.
So if you were at work, well, there was no electricity.
If you were at the store, again, no electricity,
so you couldn't buy anything. because you couldn't
use your credit card because that's connected
to the power grid. You couldn't even use cash
because most of the cash registers would use
some sort of electricity. You couldn't, if you
would use public transportation, well, the trains
and stuff were not working because there was
no power. You couldn't call an Uber because you
had to have the internet connection to call an
Uber to get home. And so everything was connected
to the power grid. And so there was no internet.
There was no power. There was no electricity.
Everything was in the dark. You couldn't shop.
You couldn't work. You couldn't travel. I have
a friend who lives in Spain. And the next day
or a day or so after, after all the power had
mostly come back on, he posted a video on social
media. And he was just commenting on, I'm safe,
things are getting back to normal. But then he
said, I'm really kicking myself for not being
prepared. I wasn't totally prepared. And there
was one thing that he said that he wished that
he had through this blackout. He said, I wish
that I had a radio with batteries. Because he
couldn't listen to the news. He couldn't find
out what was going on. He couldn't turn on the
television. There's no power. He couldn't check
the internet. There's no Wi -Fi. There's no internet.
And so he's like, I wish that I had a radio.
with batteries so that I could listen to the
news and find out updates and find out what's
going on. How many of you have a battery -powered
radio somewhere in your house? I went and checked
just to make sure. We do have one. And I turned
it on and it worked. So I did notice that it's
rechargeable. You know, you plug it in. So whether
that would continue for a long time. That's the
question that I'm not sure about. Oh, there's
the blackout there. You can see Spain and Portugal
without any lights on. Sometimes unexpected things
happen. Are we prepared for it? Are we prepared
with something as simple as a radio with batteries?
Are we aware of what might be coming ahead? Here
we sit today in a Seventh -day Adventist church.
We are here on the seventh day of the week. because
we believe the seventh day is the Sabbath. So
we're here on the day that we believe we're called
to worship God, our creator. We're here on this
day. But there's a second part of that name,
seventh day Adventist. That's a word we don't
use quite as often. Maybe at Christmas time,
we talk about being in the Advent season because
we're remembering the first coming. of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. And so as Adventists,
that means we are looking forward to the second
coming, the return of Jesus. And so we are anticipating
that something is going to happen, that there's
going to be events that happen, and Jesus will
return. And sometimes we study different prophecies
like Matthew 24, for instance, and we talk about
wars and rumors of wars and famines and pestilences
and all these things, and we can recognize that
it sure seems like we are getting closer and
closer to Jesus coming again. We expect Jesus
to return and to return fairly soon. But the
question I want to consider today is do we allow
that expectation to impact the way that we live
our life? Does that expectation of Jesus returning,
does it change the way that we go about our daily
living? In other words, are we ready? Are we
prepared? Are we thinking about Jesus coming
again? Here we are in May. And I see several
students out here. How many students do we have
in the room today? Okay, we don't have any students.
They're so tired of school that they don't want
to even... How many students do we have? Young
people, at least. Raise your hands. Are you guys
ready for summer vacation? I would imagine. They're
very quiet. That's good. They're not going to
admit. But students at this time of year are
typically ready. to get to a little bit of a
break at least. And teachers and those that work
at schools, I know from experience that you too,
at this time of the school year, you are ready
for some sort of break, some sort of change because
you just get in your tests and classes and homework
and you're just ready for something new. But
I also know that young people, by the time the
end of July or August rolls around, you're probably
ready to get back to school, to get back to the
routine, to see some of those friends that maybe
you've missed a little bit. And for those of
us that are out of that stage of life where we
have summer vacation and graduations and different
things like that, Maybe we would like some sort
of break. We would like something to break up
the ongoing, you could even call it the monotony
of life, because sometimes it seems like, well,
you wake up, you go to work, you wake up the
next day, you go to work, you go to sleep, and
there's nothing like a summer vacation that we
get to look forward to. And sometimes we can
seem like life gets in our way. And sometimes
we can almost be drowsy or be bored. Now we're
going to turn to Matthew 25. And I know if you
were here last week that Pastor Derek explored
Matthew 25. And we're going to look at the similar
parable, but I think we're going to look at it
from a different aspect. So I was hesitant a
little bit to... You probably don't usually have
two sermons in a row over the same passage, but
we're going to explore this first parable of
Matthew 25. Now, Matthew 24 explores the signs
of the times and the conditions in the world
before Jesus comes, those wars and rumors of
wars. Matthew 25, as was mentioned last week,
has three parables. One is about being... awake,
being prepared, being ready. That's what we're
going to look at today. And then there's one
that talks about using your talents, your gifts
and skills for God. And then there's a third
one that talks about how do we treat other people?
And it even challenges us to think about who
do we like the least? Don't think about that
too hard. Don't name any names. But the way you
treat the person that you like the least, Jesus
says, whatever you've done to the least of these,
you've done to me. So we need to remember that
as we treat others, that's how we treat Jesus.
So Matthew 24 looks at the conditions of the
world, but Matthew 25 looks at the conditions
of the church, the conditions of God's people.
So let's turn to Matthew. 25 and verse 1. And
we're going to spend a little bit of time in
this parable before we go to Romans. And it says,
Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to
ten virgins who took their lamps and went out
to meet the bridegroom. So there's a wedding
taking place. And without taking the time to
explore all of the symbolism, what this picture
is, it's looking forward to this advent, this
return of Jesus. When Jesus comes again. It's
called the wedding of the bridegroom, Jesus.
And there's people that are expecting that. And
it says in verse 2, now five of them were wise
and five were foolish. So there's a difference.
There's people expecting and anticipating and
waiting to meet God. But it says five of them
were wise and five of them were foolish. Now
we have to make it clear here that this is...
talking about God's people. This isn't God's
people versus those who don't follow God. This
isn't Christians versus pagans. These are all
those who are anticipating, expecting something
to come. And it says five were wise and five
were foolish. And it goes on in verse three.
And it says those who were foolish took their
lamps and took no oil with them. but the wise
took oil in their vessels with their lamps. And
so that's what set them apart, whether or not
they had oil in their lamps. Now I have here
a little clay oil lamp. Jolie and I were able
to go over to Israel several years ago, and we
got this little souvenir. This is not a historical
artifact, let me assure you. This is a tourist
artifact. But you would put oil in it, and you
would have a little wick, and you could light
that little wick, and depending on how much oil
you had would determine how long your lamp could
burn. And people didn't typically go out at night
in those days because there weren't street lamps,
there weren't headlights, and so at nighttime
it would be very dark. And it could be very scary
because there could be criminals or potholes
or whatever, and so people didn't go out very
much at night. But if they had a little lamp
with a little bit of oil, it could light their
way. Now, most of us don't carry a little oil
lamp to light our way. What would we do if we
found ourselves in the dark? Maybe a flashlight.
Maybe a flashlight like this. Does anybody carry
a little flashlight with them? Why don't you
pull out your little flashlight? Let's, you know,
this little light of mine, I'm going to let it
shine. Let's see the lights that we have. Sometimes
you'll use this light. Sometimes I'll even just
turn on the screen, you know, and use the light
from there if I don't want to wake up Jolie if
I'm coming to bed or if you're looking for the
plug to plug in your phone, you know, to charge
it at night. Because we don't... worry about
how much oil we have in our lamp, but we do have
to worry about how much battery, how much charge
we have on our phone. And if you don't plug it
in, you know, at least once a day, that little
battery up in the corner, it's going to get less
and less and less, and it's going to say 20 %
battery. And then if it says 10 % battery, maybe
you're starting to panic just a little bit because
I've got an important phone call to make. I've
got to use the GPS, and I forgot the charger.
So we don't need oil, but we do need a certain
kind of cord to plug it in. And it used to be
that my wife and I had the same phone, and so
it used the same cord, but then she got a new
phone, and it uses a totally different cord,
even though it's the same company, and that can
be frustrating if you have one cord but not the
other. And so, in just a small way, this is a
reminder. These guys needed oil for their lamp,
and we have something that we need power for,
that we need to make sure that we charge that.
Now, that oil, of course, as was mentioned last
week, talks about the Holy Spirit. And how we
get that. And if you missed that, you can go
back to last week's sermon and look that. But
I want to go ahead in the story to verse 5. It
says, while the bridegroom was delayed, they,
what's that next word? They all slumbered and
slept. It wasn't just the foolish ones who fell
asleep. All of them. They were all waiting for
the bridegroom to come. But they all, every one
of them, the wise and the foolish, fell asleep.
So could it be that as we're anticipating, as
we're expecting the return of Jesus, the problem
isn't the fact that sometimes we have different
levels of our spiritual excitement, our spiritual
engagement. The challenge would be how we respond
to that when maybe we're in a spiritual rut or
how we prepare for that ahead of time. We're
going to have some natural ebbs and flows in
our spiritual life, but how do we respond or
how do we prepare for that when maybe we're falling
asleep spiritually? Not physically falling asleep
right now. Maybe some are. If that's the case,
I'll take the blame for that. That would be my
fault. But spiritually, falling asleep. Sometimes
maybe we use a word, and there's many words that
could be talked about, but we use a word that
sometimes we are apathetic, or we have spiritual
apathy. Have you heard that word before? Well,
the word apathetic comes from the word pathos.
Pathos. Anybody know what that means? Well, that
comes from that, but pathos really has to do
with showing a feeling, enthusiasm, being excited
about something. You have deep pathos as you
are really engaged in whatever is going on. Now,
in the English language, if you add an A in front
of a word, what does that do? What? It changes
it. It makes it the opposite. So instead of with
feeling, if you say apathetic, that means a definition
of showing or feeling no interest, no enthusiasm,
no concern. And sometimes as we're going through
our life as Christians, as we get in a spiritual
rut, sometimes we can find ourselves apathetic,
not enthusiastic. expecting someone else to fill
our spiritual need and not even having the engagement
to want to go to Jesus. We're just going through
the motions. Now, what are some things that can
cause our spiritual apathy or cause us to fall
asleep spiritually? And there's many, but I just
want to look at a couple this morning. One is
busyness. Not business. Business is something
that... You know, you've got to take care of
your business. A business is your employment,
your livelihood, whatever that is. But busyness,
you ever seem like you're never done with anything?
You're never caught up with anything? Before
you finish the one assignment, the one project,
there's already something else that you're supposed
to be working on, whether it's at home or at
the job, and you're just on this hamster wheel.
You're just going. And you never seem to have
any time to consider who you are, to consider
what place God has in your life, to consider
your place in your family or your church, and
you're just so busy that that church stuff doesn't
have any preference. It doesn't have any place
in your life. We just are going, going, going.
It reminds me of an old scene from a classic.
television show, I Love Lucy. Lucy and her friend
Ethel decide that they want to get a job. They
want to get some extra spending money. So they
go down to the candy factory and they get a job
and they bumble around and they get moved around
and before long the two of them find themselves
on the assembly line. Some of you maybe have
seen this scene before. The stern boss comes
in and says, when this assembly line turns on,
you will get the chocolate and you will wrap
it in paper and you will put it back on the assembly
line. And if one chocolate gets through, you
will be fired. Roll the assembly line! And here
come the chocolate. And Ethel's taking the chocolate
very daintily and wrapping it in the paper and
putting it back on. Lucy's doing it a little
faster. And then before you know it, here comes
a few more chocolates. And they're having a hard
time keeping up. And they start putting them
in their mouth. And they move them off the assembly
line. And they're putting them in their hats
and in their shirts. And before long, the picture
looks something like this. Because the chocolates
just keep coming through. And they can't keep
up. They're too busy. And then they hear the
boss coming and the assembly line stops. They
scrape them all off and they put them in their
hat and in their mouth and in their shirt. And
so there's no chocolates on the table, on the
line. And the boss comes in and says, well done,
ladies. Very good. Nothing got through. Speed
it up. And now here come they come even faster.
And sometimes in life, we are so busy, busy,
busy that we don't have time for God. We don't
have time. for what is most important, and we
fall asleep. Another thing that can cause this
spiritual drowsiness is sometimes perhaps we
are unnourished spiritually. We're not taking
the time during the day to feed ourselves, to
spend time in God's Word. to spend time in prayer.
And this can have to do with the busyness because
we just don't have time to it. And maybe our
spiritual life has been relegated to a verse
of the day or a little half -page devotional
that we read. And those are good things. Don't
get me wrong. Those are good things. But we need
more than just one verse a day. It's like trying
to survive on a goldfish. Now, I love goldfish
crackers. I could eat the whole package of goldfish
crackers. But if I was trying to survive on just
one solitary goldfish for each meal, I wouldn't
last very long. And neither would you. And if
we're trying to survive on one solitary little
morsel from the Word of God, what does it say?
Jesus says, man shall not live by bread alone,
by goldfish alone, but by every word that comes.
from the mouth of God. If you just read one verse,
okay, read it, but don't just read it. Write
it down. Memorize it. Think about it as you go
through the day. Put it on your mirror. Put it
on your desk at work and contemplate, how does
this one verse make a difference in my life today?
Because we can't just survive on a tiny little
morsel. We are unnourished. And another thing
that can sometimes put us to sleep is that we
can be spiritually malnourished. Now, what's
the difference? Unnourished means we're not getting
enough. Malnourished would mean, well, we're
getting enough content, we're putting enough
stuff in, but it's not the good stuff. It's not
the healthy stuff. It's not the things that are
going to... draw us to God and the things that
are consuming our time and filling our heads
and our imaginations. It's not just unnourishing,
but it's pushing us away from God. It's malnourishing.
It's causing us to forget about God, to be distracted,
and to not even really care about God. Let's
look at another passage here. Let's go to Romans
chapter 13, our scripture for the day. Riley
did such a great job in reading for us. Romans
13, starting in verse 11. It says, There's a
lot of little statements in there. I want to
examine them kind of one by one. The first one
is, Knowing the time. Do we know what time it
is in our world? We can look at headlines. We
can look at prophecies and different things like
that. Do we pay attention? It's important to
pay attention, but not to get so consumed on
a headline that we're forgetting what is most
important. It's okay to recognize, okay, well,
there's a conflict between... India and Pakistan,
two nuclear powers. It's okay. Let me pay attention
to that. It's okay to realize, okay, there's
a new pope, the first American pope. That's intriguing.
Could that lead to something prophetically? It
might. Could it not lead to something prophetically?
Maybe not. We don't know at this point, but it's
okay to know the time. It's okay to pay attention.
If you were to go back to the 1960s, I see a
few people who might have been alive here. Kennedy
became the very first Catholic president in the
United States. And people were like, well, this
is it. And here we are a long time later. And
so it's okay to know the time. It's okay to pay
attention. We need to pay attention. But we also
have to make sure that we're focusing. on the
things that are most important. Because notice
the next phrase. It says, knowing the time, now
it is high time to wake up out of our sleep.
Wake up. It's time to wake up. Paul wrote this
a long time ago. It was time to wake up for the
people in Rome, and it's time to wake up for
the people in Ringgold. It's time to wake up
now. What do you use to wake up? How many of
you use the alarm on your phone? Anybody set
your alarm on your phone? How many of you have
another kind of alarm, maybe a clock that sits
next to your bed? Anybody have a clock next to
your bed? Okay. Anybody have a, maybe the kids,
your mom come and wake you up because it's time
to go to school. How many of your mom comes in?
That's good. I don't see any hands up. A couple
people there. That's good to be able to be there.
How many? You just wake up on your own naturally.
You just wake up and it's always the right time.
Very good. Biological clock. How many of you,
maybe your pet, your dog or your cat, jump on
your head and say, okay, it's time to get up.
You've got to take me out. A few people there.
So there's different things that we have to wake
us up. When I was a student at Georgia Cumberland
Academy back in the 80s, believe it or not, They
had lights out, and you didn't just have to turn
off the light, but they would actually flip the
breaker so there was no power in your room. So
you couldn't listen to that secret radio that
you weren't supposed to have. So you couldn't
have a clock that plugged in. You had to have
either a battery -powered clock or a clock that
wound up. We use different things to wake us
up, but it says now is the time. to wake up out
of sleep. And then it says, for now our salvation
is nearer than when we first believed. We don't
know when Jesus is going to come. The Bible says
no one knows the day or the hour. We can look
at headlines, we can look at prophecies, but
we don't know when Jesus is going to come. But
we can know for a fact that it is nearer than
it used to be. Believe it or not, I've been a
pastor of this church now for about a year and
a half. And guess what? We are a year and a half
closer to when Jesus is coming than when I started.
We've got some students here. If you're, say,
18 years old, well, guess what? We're 18 years
closer than when you were born. We've got some
retirees here. You're at least 65. We won't go
into any more numbers than that. But guess what?
we're 65 years closer than when you were born.
Whatever starting date you want to put on it,
we are that much closer. If you want to say yesterday,
well, guess what? We are one day closer to when
Jesus comes. So it is high time to wake up for
our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
So I can guarantee that we are closer than we
used to be. And a second thing I can guarantee
is that we are no longer than one lifetime away.
Whatever lifespan that may be, when someone passes
away, their next thing they're going to know
is Jesus coming again. And we don't know when
our life is going to end. So we need to know
the time. We need to wake up out of our sleep
because we are nearer than when we first begun.
And notice verse 12. It says, the night is far
spent. The day is at hand. Therefore, let us
cast off the works of darkness and let us put
on the armor of light. We've got to take away
those things which are causing us to be too busy,
which are causing us to be unnourished or malnourished.
And it says we've got to cast off those works
of darkness. And then in verse 14, it says, put
on the Lord Jesus Christ. and make no provision
for the flesh to fulfill its lust. So we've got
to set aside those things that cause our spiritual
apathy, and we've got to put on Jesus. We've
got to focus on his total, inconceivable love,
and the hope, and the guidance, and the forgiveness
that he has. That's what we have to put on as
we're waking up. We have to keep our attention
not on who the Pope is, but on who Jesus is.
Not on what conflict is happening in the world,
but on what the Prince of Peace is doing in our
life. I saw a statement just yesterday that said
if we're more concerned about Popes than about
saving other people, then probably we don't need
to look any further than our own reflection to
see the spirit of Antichrist. Have mercy. We
need to care about the people that we know, the
people that are in our sphere of influence. And
we can know the time and we can pay attention
to things, but let us put on Jesus Christ. Now
we've got to go back because we left 10 people
sleeping on the side of the road. We don't want
to leave them there. Matthew 25, let's go back
there briefly. It says, and at midnight, A cry
was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming.
Go out to meet him. And then all the virgins
arose and trimmed their lamps. And it goes on
and says, they trimmed their lamps and the foolish
said to the wise, give us some of your oil for
our lamps are going out. But the wise answered
saying, no, lest there should not be enough for
us and you, but you go and gather from those
who sell and buy for yourself. said, wait, we
have this. We prepared. We had woken up. We had
expected something. But sometimes even the expected
thing happens at an unexpected time. And these
foolish young ladies, they were anticipating,
expecting Jesus to come, but they still missed
out. Notice this next verse, verse 10. While
they went to buy, The bridegroom came and those
who were ready went in with him to the wedding,
but the door was shut. They were expecting the
bridegroom to come, but they missed it. They
were anticipating it, but they weren't ready.
They hadn't prepared. They hadn't been filled
with that oil of the Holy Spirit. They hadn't
spent that time focusing on what God is, but
they had been tied down and they had gone to
sleep. spiritually, and they hadn't prepared
for how they were going to interact with that.
And so just a few verses later, verse 13, notice
what it says, Watch therefore, for you know neither
the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man
is coming. We've got to keep watch. We've got
to wake up, because we don't know exactly when
Jesus is coming, but we know he's coming soon,
and each day we go by, He's coming that much
sooner. There's a story from a few years ago
about a gentleman, James Shaw. He was hungry,
and he wanted to go eat somewhere, and it was
the middle of the night, like 2 o 'clock in the
morning. Now, there's not a lot of places you
can go find some food at 2 o 'clock in the morning,
but in Nashville and many other places, there's
at least one, and that's Waffle House. Open 24
hours. So James Shaw was at the Waffle House.
probably eating a waffle, maybe some hash browns,
covered, smothered, I don't know how he liked
them, when suddenly there was an unexpected noise
of gunfire and windows shattering, and someone
begun shooting into the Waffle House and came
into the door. And as you might imagine, everyone
in that facility scattered and tried to find
a place to hide, and James found himself with
others. down the little hallway that goes back
towards the restrooms. But that door doesn't
lock. And so they could hear and sense that that
person was coming closer. And James already had
a graze of a bullet on his arm. And as that gunman
was getting closer, they could tell he was reloading.
fixing a jam or something. And James jumped out
and he grabbed the barrel of the gun and it burned
his hand, the hot barrel. He wrenched the gun
away from the gunman. He threw it over the counter
back to where the cooks are. And that gunman,
without his weapon, he ran away and later was
arrested. Now, four people died in that shooting.
Tragically, four people died. But how many more
might have died? This is what James said when
they interviewed him later. He said, I was completely
doing it just to save myself. Now, me doing that,
I did save other people. But I don't want people
to think that I was the Terminator or Superman
or anybody like that. It was just, I figured
if I was going to die, he was going to have to
work for it. And so he did that to save himself.
But in the process of saving himself, he saved
the lives of many other people. It was an unexpected
situation, but he responded in a positive way
and made a difference. And as we find ourselves
in unexpected situations, as we are waiting for
Jesus to come, how will we respond? If we respond
in a way to save ourselves, to wake ourselves
up, to make sure that we are focusing on Jesus,
that we're putting on the Lord Jesus, well, guess
what? There's a good chance that by saving yourself,
you're going to save somebody else. You're going
to influence somebody else. You're going to bring
somebody else along with you. So let's make sure
that as we expect Jesus to come soon, that no
matter what comes along that is unexpected, that
we will keep our attention and we will keep our
focus upon Jesus. And in all that we do, we will
let our light shine for him. Let's bow our heads
for prayer. Dear God, we thank you so much that
you love us enough to care about us. You love
us enough to give us clues and hints and a promise
that you are coming again. And Lord, forgive
us for times that we have gotten spiritually
drowsy when we have fallen asleep. But Lord,
help us in all that we do to focus on you, to
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, to know the time
that we live in, to awake out of our sleep, and
to keep our eyes on you. In your name we pray.
Amen.