Are You Ready Yet?

Are You Dressed Yet?

By Pastor Jim May

Jesus taught very often through the use of parables, or stories that made a point, because we are often too earthly-minded to grasp the spiritual truths that He tried to present. Though we might look at the Jews and think of them as a rebellious people who rejected the Messiah, let us never forget that they are still God’s chosen nation on the earth. The fact is that while the Jews are guilty of rejecting Jesus as their Messiah, are we, the Gentile world, and even many who claim to be followers of Jesus any different?

I hope that before this message is over, none of us, sitting here today, will be left out when the wedding of the Son of God and His Bride take place. I hope that all of us will have on our wedding garments when that time comes.

But the only way to be sure that you will be ready is to stay dressed all of the time. You can’t afford to relax. You can’t take the chance of missing out just because it’s a little uncomfortable to stay prepared.

I have performed a few wedding ceremonies in recent days and I began to think of the people who were involved in those weddings, especially the bride and groom.

I can just imagine how many times the question was asked while the wedding party was preparing for the ceremony, “Are you ready yet?”

I think that all of us have heard, and asked that question, many times. We started out our wedding with that question, and I know, from experience, that it still rings out just about every time we are trying to be on time for any event right now. It seems we are always trying to get ready for something, whether its to attend church, go to work, go on vacation or even going to sleep. There’s always a preparation time before we do anything or go anywhere.

That’s what we are in right now; a preparation time. We are preparing for the soon coming wedding of the Bride and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We can’t wait until the ceremony begins. The time for getting ready is before the wedding, not at the wedding.

We will see, later in Jesus’ parable, that there are some who will still trying to get ready even after the wedding has taken place.

I’ve seen some of these folks in the church, have you? I can recall a number of times, when I attended a large church, when we would be coming out of the church after the service had ended, and there would be a few people just getting there for church. I don’t know why they bothered to come that late. They missed the worship. They missed the message. They missed the call to the altar. But I suppose they could ease their conscience by saying that they did make it to church on Sunday. I am convinced that that’s the way a lot of people will be when Jesus comes; just in time to see that the Lord is there and that there was a great reception, but too late to get a bite of the cake.

Is it uncomfortable to stay prepared for a wedding all the time. I think it all depends upon whether you get used to wearing the wedding garments or not. For some of us the thought of wearing a Tuxedo, or a dress suit, all the time is something that we can’t imagine. All we can think about is the heavy coat, the cumber bun, the long sleeve shirt, the uncomfortable shoes and that most treasured of all possessions, the bow tie that chokes you the whole time you have it on.

In a day and age when people are all about being comfortable and dressing down, the thought of having to wear a tuxedo all the time, is out of the question. In fact, in many of our churches today, you won’t even find the preacher without asking, because many of them don’t even dress their best to stand in the pulpit. I wonder what kind of message we are sending to the Lord, and to our congregations, when we don’t even reverence God’s House, or have enough respect for the calling of God, and the presence of God, to make ourselves as presentable as we can be. After all, when I stand in this pulpit, I am representing my King and Lord to you, His people, and I am representing you, the Princes and Princesses of Heaven, to the King of Heaven.

Would I go to the White House in Washington D. C. with a T-Shirt that says, “Leave Me Alone. I Don’t Associate with Stupid People”? Would I walk into those hallowed halls, on my way to meet the President, as a representative of the people of the State of Louisiana, with flip-flop shoes, cut-offs, uncombed hair, and looking like I was drug behind the pumpkin truck all the way there? I doubt seriously if anyone, other than his own family, ever gets near our President in the Oval Office without dressing to the 9’s for the occasion.