Are You Really Ready?
Eccl 9:11-12 Matthew 25:1-13 Text Matthew 25:1-13
Sometimes in life we live for the deadline, and don’t take advantage of the present time. How many of you have had teachers who told you this assignment is due in three weeks so start working on it now? You spent the first week saying, ’I still have two weeks to get it done’. You spent the second week saying, "next week, I’m really going to get started." You then spent the day before the assignment due working at lightning speed to get it done, complaining the teacher gave you too much work to do.
There is a danger in living for the deadline. The danger is, we don’t know what is going to happen in our lives between now and the deadline. 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 a fish is swimming along in the ocean just minding his own business, when out of nowhere a net comes up and before long he’s being served at Red Lobster. The bible teaches us the same thing can happen in our lives.
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. In our cruising instead of growing in the Lord, we make a few bad decisions on our parts and we’re trying cocaine just to see what if feels like. or we’ve gotten pregnant or gotten somebody pregnant in a relationship which is going nowhere or we’ve become addicted to something else in our lives and we can’t break free of it. We were not ready when the deadline or moment of decision came, and the result being we yeilded to things we should have resisted.
Jesus told us he was going away to heaven to take care of some business. He said in the meantime, I’ve got a job for you to do. I want you to tell everybody you can about me, I want you to make disciples of them and teach them my commandments. I also want you to start living a holy life. 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.
Now many people in the church have completely misunderstood what Jesus meant when He said watch. When you were a kid, did your mother ever leave on a Saturday and tell you, "I want this house completely cleaned when I get back." You intended to clean the house, but there was something you wanted to watch or some game you wanted to play, or somebody you wanted to talk to on the phone, so you did those things instead.
But every now and then, you’d look out the window to see if she was coming up the street. The moment you got news she was coming you got busy and cleaned, but your final result showed, you hadn’t been cleaning too long. You can’t do the amount of cleaning in 5 minutes which should have taken a few hours to get done. Now you were watching for your mother, but that’s not the kind of watching Jesus was talking about.
Jesus used the term watch to mean pay careful attention to how you’re cleaning each room of the house. Watch it, don’t sweep the dirt under the rug. Watch, Don’t let anything distract you from getting the house in order. Watch, Keep in mind your mother is coming and she has a certain standard she’s expecting to find when she opens the door. So to watch means to literally take action now, so you won’t be caught when your job left undone.
When your mother comes through the door you’re going to want to be prepared. You ought to want to see the delight on her face from you job well done. You ought to feel proud inside with a yes, I got the job done. Or else you ought to fear her anger and disappointment at your disobedience.
I can tell you now, your mother is not going to be happy with the fact, you did a little of something in each room, but didn’t clean any room well. Nor is she going to be thrilled to know you were intending to get around to it. She’s not going to be snowed by you telling her how much you love her the moment she hits the door, if you didn’t do the work. The bottom line is, were you really ready when she came home.
When we think of meeting Jesus, do we see it as a lifetime walk or a deadline to meet. If its a lifetime walk, we’re watching for Jesus to return by gettin our live in order now.. If we see Jesse’s return as simply a deadline, we’re going to try to wait to the last possible moment to get ready to meet him. But my friends there are no one day cramming sessions to get enough Jesus in us to make us mature believers in Christ. We can not do spiritually in one week what the Lord has been calling us to become for years .There is no single event we can be a part of which will transform us from a worldly Christian to mature believers. Are we really ready to have Jesus come back?
Maturity comes from overcoming obstacles one day at a time as they come up. You may receive the tools necessary to grow and become a mature believer at a Promise Keepers event or A Women’s Conference, but its the change one sees in one’s life after the event which determines whether one has been lifted to a new spiritual dimension. Peter James and John had a mountain top experience with Jesus, Moses and Elijah.
They saw something nobody else had the privilege of seeing, and they didn’t want to leave it. But the experience and the event itself did not transform them into mature believers or lifted them to a higher spiritual plane than the other disciples were on. In a few weeks all three of them left Jesus alone to pray in the garden so they could fall asleep. All three of the them deserted him when he was arrested. To watch means to give very careful consideration to one’s life at all times in the everday valley experiences of life.
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. 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 high 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 its hard to watch and to be asleep at the same time. The women didn’t intend to sleep through their opportunity to be prepared for the bridegroom. No doubt they planned just a little cat nap, and they would hustle to the store to get what was needed.
Can I tell you something. The problem for most Christians is not we do not know what God wants us to do with our lives. The problem is we want to postpone what God has already told us to do. Obeying God always carries a price tag. But think we can avoid paying the price and still have time to get ready to meet Jesus. Postponed good intentions will cause a lot of people to end up in hell. 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 virgins looked like they were ready. They looked like they were really ready.
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 know 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.
The five women dashed off 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, He wouldn’t find some of us much different than we He first called us into service.
We still are lying, cheating, stealing, envying, hating and being disobedient to the word of God with boldness. We are still putting things ahead of the kingdom of God with our money. We want nothing but the very best in taste for ourselves, but we throw God just any kind of an offering and try to call it a tithe. We know about Days of Our Lives, Another World, and all the talk shows, but we couldn’t find Zechariah, Zephaniah, or Haggai in the Bible if our lives depended on it. We think reading two verses a day is sufficient Bible Study. My friends do we want to change.
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. God is going to hold us accountable for not living the lives and growing in Him in the way we should be. We can preach a great eulogy for you but it will not make up for what you should be doing with your lives. Are you ready for Jesus to come and get you just as you are, or do you know you’ve got some priorities out of whack.
Listen to what God’s word says about the fear of the Lord
. (Prov 1:7 NIV) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
(Prov 9:10 NIV) "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
(Prov 10:27 NIV) The fear of the LORD adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.
(Prov 14:27 NIV) The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death.
(Prov 15:16 NIV) Better a little with the fear of the LORD than great wealth with turmoil.
(Prov 15:33 NIV) The fear of the LORD teaches a person, and humility comes before honor.
(Prov 16:6 NIV) Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for; through the fear of the LORD a person avoids evil.
(Prov 19:23 NIV) The fear of the LORD leads to life: Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.
(Prov 22:4 NIV) Humility and the fear of the LORD bring wealth and honor and life.
(Prov 23:17 NIV) Do not let your heart envy sinners, but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
Today is as good a day as any for us to begin to fear the Lord. Then like the five foolish virgins maybe we will take actions to correct our behavior. They did go quickly to get some more oil, but they waited just a little too long to act upon their decision. While they were on their way to buy oil, the bridegroom arrived. The parties got together and marched through the streets. When they arrived at the groom’s house, the virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet and the door was shut.
Can you imagine how disappointed the five were to get back and discover the party had come and gone on without them. They were determined however and followed along the streets to the bridegroom’s house, looking somewhat out of place. Five women with lit candles at 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning without a wedding party. When they arrived they beat on the door, thinking it would be a simple manner for the door to be opened and for them to be invited in.
But whoever was guarding the door was under strict orders to close the doors once all the guests were in. They were heard knocking, but the one on the other side of the door replied, " I tell you the truth, I don’t know you." The only ones the speaker recognized were those who had come in with the bridegroom.
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.
Does your life indicate you have been touched by God? Are you really living the type of moral lifestyle which is worthy of a Christian. Can you say with honesty, I love God more than I love things and my actions demonstrate it including my giving to the kingdom? Jesus said, not everyone who calls me Lord is going to enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s only those who do My Will.
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. Two people will be walking together, bing one of them is gone. Two people in bed together, bing one of them is gone. People traveling on an airplane, bing the pilot and co pilot and many of the passengers are gone. At that moment many people will be like the foolish virgins trying to get ready to meet God, but it will be too late.
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.
