The Disappointment Of Having Just Missed It
By Rick Gillespie- Mobley
11/18/2018 Eccl 9:11-12 Matthew 24:36-44 Text Matthew 25:1-13
Tyrone was 27 years old and for the first time in his life, he had kept a job for more than six months. He really needed this job, but the words of his boss kept going through his ears. He could still hear him yelling, “You’ve been late to work five times this month alone. The next time you’re late, you’re fired.”
Tyrone knew if he got up an extra half hour early, he would have no problem catching the bus, which would get him at the rapid on time to get to work and have 25 minutes to spare. If he got that extra half hour of sleep that he loved doing, he could catch the express and get to work on time with five minutes to spare.
Now that very same night, he notices there was a good movie that didn’t come on until 10:30pm. Tyrone knew if he set his i-phone alarm, he could get up and catch that last bus that would get him to work on time.
He thoroughly enjoyed the movie. He enjoyed it so much, he forgot to put his phone on his charger. His phone went dead. He woke up and looked at the clock on the wall. It was going to be tough to catch the express bus.
He ran down his street to the main street hoping to get there in time. He got there just in time to see the bus pulling away. He ran behind yelling wait, wait. The driver kept going. He caught the next bus and went on in to work. He knew exactly what he would say to his boss. There was a letter where his time card should have been. It said, “Get your stuff, you are fired. I don’t want to hear it.”
What was it that caused Tyrone to lose his job. Was it the bus, the phone, the charger, the movie he wanted to see, the late scheduling of the movie? Was it the supervisor’s fault for not giving him one more break or the bus driver’s fault for not stopping the bus when he chased after it.
You can blame it on anything you want, but the reality is, he lost his job that he could not afford to lose because he was not ready when it mattered the most.
Jesus talks a lot in the bible about coming back again and encourages us to be ready for his arrival. One day when we least expect it to happen, Jesus is going to come back and take away his followers. It’s going to happen so quickly that most people are going to be caught off guard.
Two men will be walking up a hill talking about t will win the Lakers with LeBron be able to stop the Warriors, when all of a sudden one will be gone. Two women will be at work discussing the latest episode of Empire when one will wonder, what happened to the other woman. Now Jesus teaches, the only people who will go away in that instant will be those who are prepared and ready to leave.
Now most of us plan to be ready when Jesus comes. Now if he came today several of us would not be ready and we will miss out, but we do plan on being ready when he actually comes. The only problem is that like Tyrone, we don’t know when some little change is going to happen in our lives and set us off course.
There is a danger in living for the final dash. The danger is, we don’t know what is going to happen in our lives between now and the dash. We deceive ourselves into thinking we are smarter than we truly are. We want to think we can control the future, but we can’t.
One day we’re walking along with Jesus and enjoying it and we assume it will be like this forever, so we let our guard down. Satan starts to attack the good in our lives, and we forget that God’s word is given to us to protect the good in our lives. Instead of growing in the Lord, we simply start cruising, going where the flow takes us. In our cruising, we start to make a few bad decisions. We’re trying cocaine just to see what if feels like and we’re smoking this weed just to make sure we’re not missing out on anything.
Jesus told us he was going away to heaven to take care of some business. As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace Use what I give to you to get the job done and be ready to give an account to me when I get back. Now I want you to watch until I come so you can be prepared.
We can watch with three different attitudes. The first is, if it happens no big deal, if it doesn’t that’s fine with me. I have other things to do. The second is didn’t he say it might happen. I see something in the sky, could it be him or not. The third is the attitude of a soldier who realizes that if he’s not watching with diligence, it could cost him his life.
Jesus used the term watch to mean pay careful attention to how you are living your life. Your behavior is going to have some unintended consequences regardless of what your intentions may be
When we think of meeting Jesus, do we see it as a lifetime walk or something we can throw together in an instant by saying “oh God forgive me.” If it’s a lifetime walk, we’re watching for Jesus to return by getting our lives in order now.
If we see Jesse’s return as something we can get together with a simple prayer, we’re going to try to wait to the last possible moment to get ready to meet him. Like Tyrone, we are going to want to get in the last ½ hour of sleep instead of doing what’s the most important thing to do now.
In our New Testament reading we find the story of the ten virgins, five of whom were considered wise and five of whom were considered foolish. Their intent was to be ready when the bridegroom came to claim his bride. Now in the first century, the bridegroom would come with his friends to the house of the bride where she would be waiting with her friends.
The two parties would then march through the streets with candles and lamps lit up. The virgins or bridesmaid would be responsible for lighting up the streets so that everyone could see the bride and the groom. Together they would end up at the groom’s house with people cheering the group along. Once at his house, those who had been invited would go into the house and the others would be kept out by locking the door. The true celebration would take place behind the locked doors for the invited guests.
In the story, the ten virgins were all members of the bridal party. Quite often an announcement would come out, here comes the bridegroom and everybody would get ready and start to go out, but it would be a false alarm. Before the groom arrived at the bride’s house there were often delays.
There would be negotiations over what the groom would have to bring as presents and gifts to the bride’s family. Both sides would delay the negotiations to give the appearance of how valuable the bride was. So it was very common for the bridegroom to come much later than he was scheduled to arrive.
Of the 10 women, five of them not only had their lamps to be lit going through the procession, they also had purchased some oil to pour into their lamps. The other five had lamps, but they didn’t have oil. They were ready for the bridegroom to come but they were not really ready. They were dressed properly and had been invited by the bride to be a part of her bridal party.
They were in the right house with the right people. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the five foolish ones had every intention of getting the oil, because they knew they would need oil in the procession. They even had the money on them to purchase the oil.
But something happened to them they had not planned on happening. They got to talking with each other and carrying on having such a good time, nobody was watching the clock. The bridegroom and his party hadn’t come yet, and they fell asleep. Now there’s nothing wrong with falling asleep, except it’s hard to watch and to be asleep at the same time.
Do you know that if you had of been there to see those ten virgins, if you had not of seen those five little jars with some oil in it, you would not have been able to tell them apart. The lamps even looked the same. They could all be used to turn on some light. Jesus is giving this story as a warning to us in the church. He’s letting us know that some of us are here in the church and have said, “we are living for the Lord,” but we really are not. If Jesus came today, and took away the church, this place would not be empty.
Postponed good intentions will cause a lot of people to miss out on the good wants to do in their lives. It’s going to cause a lot of us as Christians, great shame and embarrassment when we stand before Jesus Christ to give an account for what we have done with our lives. Those five foolish virgins looked like they were ready. They looked like they were really ready. The reality is, they were headed for a big disappointment. They were going through the motions, but they did not have what was required.
But then the real thing came. The negotiations were over. The word came out, the bridegroom is leaving his house and coming to claim his bride. Well the bride and the bridal party were running around trying to get everything in order. At this point the five with no oil realized, they had slept through their opportunity to get the oil they knew they needed. So they told the others, quick give us some of your oil.
But the other five were not 100% sure they had enough oil for themselves. What if this was one more false alarm. Then if the real call came later, they wouldn’t be able to march with their lamps lit. Light was a symbol of happiness, therefore candles and oil lamps were essential equipment for the wedding party.
The five wise were unwilling to risk being unprepared because of the actions of the other five. They told them, go as quickly as you can and buy some oil and get back here before the groom’s party reaches the house.
You see we cannot go to heaven based on what our mother or father, or grandfather believed. We’ve got to have the relationship with God ourselves. Without a living relationship to Jesus Christ, we have no oil in our lamps.
The five women dashed off into the darkness in order to get the oil in time. They had known for weeks the bride was going to get married. They had known for weeks the bridegroom would come. They had known for years the bride’s party was to have lit lamps to march through the streets with the groom’s party. They had known all of this and yet when the most important event starts to happen, they were not ready for it.
We have known all of our lives from the moment we entered the church, Our God wants us to live holy lives. We have known God says to seek Him first. We have known God says to study His word and to be faithful in service. Yet if Jesus came back right now, would he find us a different person than we He first called us into service.
You know if I got up here and preached a sermon and used profanity throughout the sermon, many of you would talk about me like a dog. What kind of pastor would preach a message like that? No, the real issue is what kind of congregation would come time and time again to hear a message filled with that language. You know it’s sad, but some of us will pay far more to here that kind of a sermon, than we will one pointing us to God.
How do I know, because we do it without thinking. Every movie we go to see is a sermon. It’s trying to get you to think a certain way. Every song you listen is a sermon. It’s trying to get you think a certain way. You know if a preacher was cussing and swearing, you’d say, I’ve got to go find me another church.
But if our favorite singer does it, you say, “well I’m just listening to the beat.” Just like you should want to go find you a new preacher, you need to go and find you an new rapper.
One of the great tragedies in the Church today is we have forgotten the fear of the Lord. All the messages from the world about God is love and we are all His children, all the songs about having a little talk with Jesus, and he’s my friend has caused us to forget that our God is also a consuming fire. No sin will be allowed in His presence.
What in your life indicates a fear of the Lord?
What indicates a lack of fear of the Lord?
Part of being ready when Jesus comes is having a healthy dose of fear of the Lord. The same Jesus who tells us just how much the father loves us also says, Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
How many of us want God to be fair? With all the evil that’s been done in this world. People killing people for no reason and then killing themselves. We want God to deal with all those people who did a lot of wicked things to finally get paid for what they did. There is something in us that demands justice.
That something was put there by God because God is a God of justice and we are created in God’s image. What’s so hard for us to understand is that God is a God of Compassion. That’s why he sent Jesus Christ into this world. God’s justice and God’s mercy meet in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The penalty for our sin is paid and mercy gives us life that we never could have deserved on our own. There is nobody in all of the universe that does not want to see you in heaven more than God. God has done everything necessary so that not a single one of us would have the testimony in eternity that I just missed out on eternal life.
Jesus is coming back from heaven to claim the church as his bride. Each Sunday two churches gather here in this building. First, there is the professing church made up of people who claim to know Jesus Christ. Second, there is the true church which is made up of people who are actually living for Jesus Christ and putting Him first in their lives. Only you and God know which church you’re actually in. Simply making a confession of Jesus Christ as the Son Of God is not enough. Even the devil makes that Confession.
The Bible speaks of a rapture taking place in the world. The rapture is when in an instant all remaining true believers will be taken out of the world. God Himself is going to make the distinction among people so there will be no mistakes made as to who is taken and who is left.
There’s not a single reason we can’t get ready to meet Jesus Christ whether He returns unexpectedly to us or we go directly to Him. The door has not yet been shut. There is still time to buy some oil. God loves us so much He’s given us one more opportunity to change.
Today might be your last opportunity. Jesus died for you so you can be brought back into a right relationship with God. Without that relationship, you will never be ready to meet God. God has done all He’s going to do to save your soul. The rest of the decision has been left up to you. Tyrone’s disappointment of having just missed the bus, will be nothing compared to the feeling of knowing you just missed heaven.
Jesus didn’t just miss dying on the cross. He died. He didn’t Just miss rising from the dead he rose. Because He did His part, we need not be disappointed.
We serve a loving God who wants to remove the disappointment of having just missed a relationship with Him. He stands with His arms open. Won’t you please embrace Him and His plan for your life.
