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Well, good morning everyone.

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It's really good to be back here and see all of my friends and family.

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I want to invite you all to turn to Matthew 25, verses 1 through 13.

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And while you turn there, I just want to say thank you to all of you.

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This church has truly been a home to me over the past four or five years.

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I'm really glad this is the place that I kind of got my start.

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I'm sure you guys can think all the way back to my first sermon.

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I remember sitting there just, I've never been more nervous in my entire life.

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Just so incredibly anxious and just to be able to grow here and

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I really felt like I got to do with my family.

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So I just wanted to say thank you for that.

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But we're gonna be in the gospel of Matthew this morning,

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Matthew chapter 25, verses 1 through 13.

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This is the parable of the ten virgins or the ten bridesmaids.

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So, then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and

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went to meet the bridegroom.

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Five of them were foolish and five of them were wise.

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For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them.

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But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.

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As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept.

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But at midnight, there was a cry.

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Here is the bridegroom, come out to meet him.

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Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.

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And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for

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our lamps are going out.

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But the wise answered saying, since there will not be enough for us and for you,

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go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.

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And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came.

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And those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast and

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the door was shut.

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Afterwards, the other virgins came saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

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But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you.

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Watch therefore, for you neither know the day nor the hour.

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Join me in a quick word of prayer.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to hear your word.

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Lord, we trust that now that your word has gone out,

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that it will not return to you empty.

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But that it will accomplish what it means to accomplish.

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Holy Spirit, that you will use it to plant seeds into the hearts of all those who

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listen, that you might gather a harvest for yourself.

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Lord, give us ears to hear, hearts to listen.

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And we pray this in your son's name, amen.

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So church, friends, on this last Sunday of 2023,

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I wanna ask a question, are you ready?

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The summer after I graduated high school, my parents and

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my younger siblings went off on vacation.

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So they went to Maine for a week and a half.

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And that wasn't a problem for me, because that meant I got to stay home and

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kind of do whatever I wanted for a week.

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And so how do you think I handled that freedom and

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responsibility like any 18 year old, right?

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I lived like a slob.

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I had friends over.

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We trashed the house.

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We left pizza boxes and dirty clothes and dishes everywhere but

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the kitchen counter, everywhere but the laundry machine.

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My clothes were just strewn about the house.

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There was garbage everywhere.

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It was an absolute pigsty.

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You kinda get the picture.

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Well, I was a slob, right?

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But I'm not a dummy.

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So I knew they were coming back eventually and

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I had these grand plans of cleaning the house before they got back.

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I even had their return marked on the calendar.

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And so I was planning.

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The day before I was gonna spend the entire day cleaning the house, right?

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So that's what I was ready to do.

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And the morning before I was like, I've got time.

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I'm gonna go hang out with some friends this morning.

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And we went out for breakfast and I got home right around lunch ready to clean

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the house and guess what I saw on our driveway?

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Yep, that's right.

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My parents' van.

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They were back a day early and my house was disgusting.

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And so you can imagine how my parents reacted.

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They were absolutely furious and I'll let you imagine those consequences.

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But I was not ready, right?

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I was not ready for my mom to come back.

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She caught me off guard.

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She caught me in my mess.

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My house was not in order.

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And so I wanna ask again, are you ready?

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And not for the return of some earthly authority like a parent, but

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for the return of the bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

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What if he came back tomorrow?

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Would he find you in your mess?

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Or would he find a house in order?

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If Jesus came back tomorrow,

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would you have time to go out and get more oil?

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Are you ready?

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And so I think this is an appropriate text for New Year's Eve.

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I'm sure there's been a lot of conversations in each of your homes about

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resolutions, right?

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What do we wanna accomplish next year?

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What do we wanna change next year?

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Who do we wanna be next year?

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How do we wanna grow?

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At the heart of all of these resolutions is this sense of expectancy.

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This is how I expect my year to go.

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This is how I expect to change.

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And so I wanna challenge each of us this morning to use these resolutions in

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service of one idea, being ready, being prepared for

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the coming of Christ, for the coming of his kingdom.

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Resolve to be a more prepared person.

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And hopefully we're gonna see what that looks like by the end of our journey

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through this passage.

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But we're working with a parable, right?

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The parable of the bridesmaids.

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So we kind of need to remember something about parables as teaching tools.

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We've got two levels of meaning happening at the same time.

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The first is kind of the obvious message in the story.

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And then the second is the lesson Jesus wants his audience to learn.

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In this case, the audience is the disciples.

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There's also a surprise in this parable.

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In most of Jesus' parables, he kind of uses the element of surprise to really

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drive home his points.

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Something unexpected or surprising.

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So we're gonna take a look at all of that.

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Now what is going on in this parable?

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I think when we read it, especially from the eyes of Westerners in 2023,

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it can maybe be a little confusing.

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We're not Middle Easterners, but that's okay.

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Here's a little context.

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The scene Jesus paints in this parable is actually still very common today.

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In traditional village life, these weddings would take place kind of in the

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summer months, so it would be warm.

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People would fill the house.

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They would spill out into the street.

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And they would watch as the groom and several of the groom's men, several of his

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best friends, would set off from the groom's house kind of having like a parade.

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They would go across town, they would get the bride, they would put the bride on

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the donkey or on the cart or whatever they had, and then they would parade her

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through the town because the groom wanted the whole town to see his bride,

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how beautiful his bride was, how wonderful his bride was.

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And they would take their time, right?

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They would go down every single street making all kinds of noise,

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having basically a parade, right?

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So that's kind of what's going on here.

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And the groom in this parable, right, is a particularly enthusiastic groom.

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So he's taking extra time.

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And these people at, you know, the groom's house, they're waiting and waiting and

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waiting and finally night falls and they're still waiting and they start to

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fall asleep.

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Among these, among this waiting crowd are the ten bridesmaids.

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So these, this is the bride's half of the wedding party ready to assist the bride.

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They're there waiting in expectation for the bride and groom to come.

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And they would go out and meet the groom and attend to the bride and bring her

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into the groom's house and get the wedding feast started.

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And so here they're, here we see these ten women with their lamps.

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And let's pause here to kind of think about these lamps.

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These lamps are culturally important, particularly to young women as a form of

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identification and security, especially in a time without streetlights.

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So it was actually pretty dark in these towns after the sun went down.

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Now it would be unthinkable for any young woman to wander the streets without her

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lamp.

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For a woman, especially a young woman, reputation was at stake.

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So they wanted to be able to make their faces seen at all times.

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For them to wander around in the dark would cause people to ask questions.

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What are these young women doing and with whom?

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And so these virgins were, these bridesmaids were to go out and to meet the

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procession as it approached the house.

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They had to be known.

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They had to be able to be identified, lest they would have been mistaken for

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wedding crashers or thieves or worse.

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And so we know what happens here, right?

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They doze off and the groom and his bride finally show up and they go in and

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start the party while the foolish virgins are left scrambling for more oil for

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their lamps.

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And this is where we encounter the surprise in the parable.

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When the foolish bridesmaids finally return with their oil, they aren't

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allowed in the house.

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They say, Lord, Lord, open to us, to which the groom responds, truly, I do not

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know you.

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But they were just there.

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They were just standing in the wedding party.

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What does he mean he doesn't know us?

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Doesn't this seem a little harsh?

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And so on a deeper level, what is Jesus saying here?

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What is he getting at here?

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Well, this parable is part of the Olivet Discourses.

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So this is the conversation Jesus had with his disciples just a few hours, a

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few days before the events of the Passion kicked off.

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And so there's a sense of urgency here.

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Jesus is in his endgame.

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In less than two months, he would be crucified.

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He would rise again from the dead and he would ascend to heaven.

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And he would leave his disciples behind to start the church, the earthly kingdom

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of God.

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So he wants his disciples to be wise.

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He wants them to be prepared.

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He wants them to be ready.

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Because Christ would be coming back.

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And when he does, there isn't going to be time for humanity to get their affairs in

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order.

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There won't be time for them to go scrambling for more oil.

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When the end comes, there won't be enough to even share with those who aren't ready

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yet.

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And so we have this kind of sense of ultimacy or this sense of finality.

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And something in our text that really helps us see that is this image of a door.

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This door to the kingdom of heaven.

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It's open to those who are ready to enter, but it's shut firmly to those who aren't.

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And once it's shut, it's not going to open again.

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And so I ask, friends, are you ready for that door to shut?

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As a teenager, I thought I had time to clean up my house before my parents returned.

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I thought they were a long way off.

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That metaphorically, I'd be able to see them coming.

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I think a lot of us today kind of approach the coming of Christ similarly.

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We kind of think to ourselves, we've got plenty of time.

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Because the world still has to get pretty bad.

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It's not as bad as it could be.

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We've still got time.

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Well, what does Jesus tell his disciples just a chapter earlier?

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In Matthew 24, he says, but concerning the day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels

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of heaven nor the sun, but the Father only.

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For as it was in the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man.

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For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving

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in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark.

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And they were unaware when the flood came and swept them all away.

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So will be the coming of the Son of man.

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And so that tells us that Jesus is going to come as we live our regular daily lives.

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And for many, he's going to catch them off guard.

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Warren Wiersbie writes, the church has known for 2000 years that Jesus is coming again.

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And yet many believers have become lethargic and drowsy.

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They are no longer excited about the soon coming of the Lord.

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And so as a result, there is a little effective witness that the Lord is returning.

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And you might say, well, if the return is imminent, why have we been waiting so long?

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Of course, Christians are going to become apathetic.

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So many tire of waiting and their love for God grows cold.

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They wander off in pursuit of more immediate, more tangible answers.

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They look to politics or social reforms or self-help ideologies.

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And they cease to be a people who focus all of their praise and adoration and thanksgiving

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on God, turning instead to more pragmatic things.

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All of that stuff is absolutely meaningless if it's not made accountable to Christ and

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used to prepare people for his kingdom.

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And so I think we can look out into the Church of America today and see a lot of nominalism,

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a lot of apathy.

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We are the bridesmaids, right?

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That's the church.

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Christ seems to be suggesting that there's actually a large number of people who confess

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to be Christians that aren't going to make it through the door.

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There are some foolish, unprepared disciples out there.

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Think of a wave approaching the shore.

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As it travels, it picks up driftwood, seaweed, maybe a discarded beach ball or two.

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The objects that are firmly caught in the body of the wave will make it to the shore,

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but things that are kind of riding along on the edges, well, they're eventually going

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to fall out.

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I think it's the same with the church.

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At a glance, it seems like we're all being kind of carried forward by the wave of the

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kingdom, but not everyone remains firmly in this wave.

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Your attendance on a Sunday, the company of believers you keep, the amount you tithe,

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none of that means a thing unless you are ready.

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This parable suggests that not every self-proclaimed Christian will enter heaven, for some have

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not trusted Jesus sincerely.

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Some have confessed with lips, but not with heart.

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Jesus himself says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom

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of heaven.

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You've got to actually show it.

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Your actions betray your heart.

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And so once more, what does it look like to be ready?

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Well, let's consider the answer presented in our text first.

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The bridesmaids, they had enough time.

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These foolish bridesmaids expected the groom to arrive rapidly while the wives were prepared

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for a delay.

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And so there's a subtext here.

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Remember, Jesus is talking to his disciples.

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They were the recipients of this message, this exhortation to be ready.

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Christ was cautioning them to be prepared, to bring extra oil, because Christ was leaving

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and it was going to be a while.

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And there was actually some confusion here.

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After the ascension, some Christ followers believed that Jesus would just be right back

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within a matter of months or even years within their lifetimes.

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Jesus wanted his 12 to be ready for the long haul.

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He wants us to be ready for the long haul.

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What would our faith look like if the apostles had only planned for the right now and not

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the future?

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Would Paul have gone on his many missionary journeys?

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Would the gospel have spread like wildfire with such urgency?

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Would the Gentiles have been brought in?

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Would we be believers today?

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No.

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The disciples didn't hunker down to wait for the apocalypse.

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They planned for the future.

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Jesus wanted them to be prepared and he wanted them to help others prepare.

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A chapter earlier, he cautions them that false teachers would come, that there would be competing

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claims for Messiahship.

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Things would start to get bad.

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There would be wars.

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There would be famines, political upheavals and earthquakes.

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Nations would face tribulation, trial and death.

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They would be hated by the nations.

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Many would fall away, unable to take the pressure.

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Brother would turn on brother.

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Christian would stab.

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Christian in the back.

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Many would be led astray.

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Many more would feel their hearts grow cold.

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And yet the gospel of the kingdom would be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a

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testimony to all the nations.

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And so the lamp of the gospel carried by those who are truly ready cannot be snuffed out

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no matter what the powers of hell throw at it.

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And so by grace, the disciples were prepared.

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And by grace, we are today blessed by their preparedness.

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They brought enough oil and everyone who came after them had enough oil.

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And I'd like to suggest this morning that their preparedness had everything to do with

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their level of resolve.

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Paul writes this to the church in Thessalonica.

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Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will

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for you in Christ Jesus.

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In Acts 5, we read that the apostles rejoiced when they were persecuted because they had

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been regarded as worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.

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What a thing to rejoice over.

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But they knew what to expect.

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They were ready.

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They were resolved to this journey no matter the cost.

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And so I ask again, friends, are you ready?

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Do you have enough oil?

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And we find ourselves in tension, right?

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This return of Christ is imminent, yet it's still far off.

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One theologian writes, why then should we plan?

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Well, Christians must expect Jesus constantly, yet at the same time they must persevere and

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plan for future ministry in case His coming is delayed.

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These two duties must be held in dynamic tension if the church is to be faithful to the teaching

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of its master.

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The kingdom of God is at hand, but it is not yet here.

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And so us too, we aren't just hunkering down.

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We're picking up the lamp that's been passed from the apostles 2,000 years ago to saint

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after saint after saint and carrying it forward.

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Because if you're living like the kingdom of God is at hand, then you're living a very

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specific kind of life.

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A deep love for Christ and for His people should be blossoming within you.

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You should be eagerly looking forward to His coming.

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It should define your walk with Him.

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All of this should be propelling you towards His great commission, making the world ready

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for the coming kingdom, no matter what, no matter what highs or lows you face in life.

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Are you eager to serve the kingdom of God?

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Are you holding that lamp up near your face so that you can be identified as a Christian?

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Are you letting this light of Christ illuminate your whole life, letting others see that there

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is something different about you, something of the light?

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Are you distinguishable from the world?

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Or do you fit right in?

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If you can go along lurking in the darkness, taking the path of least resistance, what

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does that say about your place in God's kingdom?

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And so at the heart of this discussion about preparedness is an important question.

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Who are you serving?

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Are you in service to yourself or are you in service to God?

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What you resolve to do and who you resolve to be in the new year has everything to say

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about who you serve.

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And so back to kind of that idea of our resolutions.

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Are your plans in service of God's kingdom?

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Do you want to change more into Christ's likeness?

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Do your resolutions involve growing in the fruits of the Spirit in love, joy, peace,

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patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control?

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Or are you focused on yourself?

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Do you want to lose weight, exercise more, be more healthy, make more money, quit smoking,

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swear less?

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These aren't bad things, but the sum total of our lives should be God's glory.

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Yes, being prepared for God's kingdom involves living a healthier lifestyle, but pursue that

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goal for God's glory, not yours.

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Don't go into this new year to serve yourself or you'll end up going absolutely nowhere.

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Go into the new year with a sense of anticipation.

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Work towards the coming of God's kingdom.

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It will allow us to weather the storms of persecution that Christ promises his people

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will experience.

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The saints who came before us weathered false teachings, violence, discrimination, persecution

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unto death, and the temptation to simply give up, to let their love for God grow cold.

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I think that last one is kind of big for Christians in the West.

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Prosperity has given us a false sense of security.

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There is little urgency.

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What do we need to be ready for?

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We have our best lives now.

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And so it's no wonder many of our resolutions have to deal with handling excess, excess

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food, excess entertainment, excess time.

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We're preoccupied with the excesses of life.

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And all the while our spiritual lamps are flickering.

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They're sputtering.

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They're growing cold.

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What if we asked God for less?

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What if we asked God for reasons to rely on him more?

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What if we embraced times of hardship, times of want, times when we are down to nothing

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facing loss or grief?

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Can you sit here this morning and thank God for the difficulties in life?

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For the way he's used them to draw you closer to himself?

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Are you okay with daily bread and nothing more?

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I hope so.

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A heart that is able to rejoice, always pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances

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is a heart that is both changed by Christ and ready for Christ.

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And so if this can be said of you, I'd say you have enough oil for the long haul.

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Let's bring this full circle.

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If I had been a responsible teenager, if I had been truly grateful for my parents and

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for the trust they placed in me, letting me stay home for a week and a half, it would

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have reflected in my actions.

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My house would have stayed clean out of love, out of appreciation, out of respect for them.

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I would have resolved to be ready for their return.

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Are you living in a similar way?

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Do you have a love, appreciation, and respect for God and the coming kingdom?

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Are you prepared for the future?

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Teaching in the lives of those who will come after you and your children and the covenant

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children of this church, the next generation, laying the groundwork for the future of the

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kingdom come?

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Are you teaching others to fill their lamps as we wait with loving anticipation for the

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imminent arrival of the bridegroom?

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Is that what you resolve your entire life to be?

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The whole outcome of your life?

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Will you be ready or will Christ find you in your mess?

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You have a choice.

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Choose to live your life for what matters now because one day there won't be enough

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time to pick up the house.

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There won't be enough time to get oil.

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It will be too late and the door will shut and it won't open again.

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So church, I ask you, are you ready?