Five Were Wise And Five Were Foolish

INTRO.- ILL.- A black American Baptist preacher from Richmond was attending a Baptist convention in Mississippi. A Mississippi preacher, reading the Scripture lesson for a morning session, read: “Now the Kingdom of Heaven was likened unto ten Virginians which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise and five were foolish.” (Matthew 25:1)

Then the Richmond preacher said, “Brother, would you be so good as to recapitulate. That Scripture lesson do sound familiar, and I don’t want you to think that I question what the Good Book says, but it did seem to me that the percentage of foolish Virginians was too high.”

Brothers and sisters, the percentage of foolish Virginians or foolish virgins probably wouldn’t be any higher than the foolish Arkansans or foolish Missourians!

This parable of Jesus is about foolishness, wisdom and preparation.

I. THIS PARABLE IS ABOUT FOOLISHNESS

Matt. 25:1-3 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.” Five virgins were foolish simply because they did not take enough oil for their lamps.

ILL.- A Sunday school class was discussing King Solomon. People pointed out that though Solomon had been so wise, he made some foolish choices. Finally, the teacher asked, "Are we picking too much on Solomon?" One older saint replied, "Ah, with all those wives, he was used to it!"

ILL.- Someone said, “A foolish man tells a woman to stop talking, but a wise man tells her that her mouth is extremely beautiful when her lips are closed.” I wouldn’t bet on it!

ILL.- Another reads: “A fool may be known by six things: anger without cause; speech without profit; change without progress; inquiry without object; putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends.” That’s quite a list. And some more could be added.

Most everyone makes some foolish decisions in life but some worse than others.

ILL.- Is 20 year old actress and pop star, Lindsay Lohan up to her old ways? Lohan star has cut back on her partying since leaving rehab last month, but an insider on the set of her new flick says she is still displaying some of the unpredictability that upset her co-workers recently. Lohan kept crew members waiting for hours on the set of “I Know Who Killed Me” on Feb. 21, a source told In Touch Weekly.

“When she finally arrived, she said that she needed to take a nap,” the source told the mag. But Lohan didn’t emerge from her trailer for five hours, and then threw up and immediately went home, says the insider, leaving those left behind to speculate as to what ailed her.

Brothers and sisters, I don’t think Lindsay Lohan is a very wise girl. She’s only 20 years old and if she keeps doing what she’s been doing; drinking, carousing, etc. she’s heading for even more trouble!

The problem with this rebel rouser kind of life is that some day will be payday. And those who play will pay!

Brothers and sisters, we all make foolish decisions and foolish mistakes in life. Hopefully, we get over them quickly and gain some wisdom. Of course, if, in the first place, we’d listened to those who truly loved us we might not have made some foolish mistakes.

ILL.- There was a king who had all his world could afford. The thing he loved most, however, was to laugh. Once while being entertained a jester came along wishing to join in the festival of activities and also wishing to perform for him. His opportunity came and he put the best comical show together he had ever done and the king never laughed so hard.

Once the activity was all over the king wanted to hire this jester to be his personal jester. Once hired the king in humor handed him a small stick and said, "You are the most foolish man alive. When you find someone more foolish than you, then you give them this stick," and the king laughed heartily.

After many years had passed by the king lay sick on his death bed ready to go at any moment. He called for his jester, for he wanted to laugh one more time before he died. When the jester was through he asked to speak to the king personally.

Once alone with the king the jester asked, "King, where are you going?" The king responded, "on a far journey." The jester asked again, "and how do you plan to get there?" Again the king responded, "I don’t know." Then the jester pulled the stick from his back pocket and handed it to the king. The king was stunned and asked why he had given him the stick. The jester replied, "King, today I have found a more foolish man than I. For you see, I only trifled with the things of life, but you have trifled with things of eternity!"