Keep Your Oil Filled

Veterans Day:

Honor those who have served in the military!!!

Introduction:

The Last few weeks we have been looking at the signs of the times that we are living in.

I have mentioned many times that we, as born-again believers, can live free from the fear that cripples so many in the world today.

As things get worse and more darker, many people in the world will be consumed with an undeniable spirit of fear, but we can trade the fear for peace and excitement because we know that things are not falling apart but into place.

I’m not saying that we are excited about bad things happening, but we can rejoice knowing that things are happening exactly how God said they would.

God’s Word will continue to be what happens until the rapture of the church, the marriage, supper of the Lamb, the Millennial reign, Satan and the Anti-Christ being thrown into eternal hell forever, and Christians living eternally in the very presence of God Himself.

I don’t know about you, but I am excited to take part in a great wedding that is about to take place with the Bride of Christ, which is the Church, is brought together in union with the Lord.

Then, we will be attending the greatest meal that we have ever taken part in.

We are all excited about this, so we need to make sure that we are ready.

Amen???

Open to Matthew 25:1–13“1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ 7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ 9 “ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ 10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. 11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for…”

Point 1: Background

Jesus teaches about the signs of His coming in Matthew 24, and then He begins to teach on what His coming will look like.

The main point of this teaching of Jesus is easy to pick up on when reading this.

It is quit easy to see that the Lord is warning His believers to be ready because we do not know when His coming will take place.

Do we believe that it is important to be ready?

If we do not understand the background of the culture back then it is easy to miss some things that really makes this even more significant.

In Bible times, a wedding ceremony looked a bit different than what we are used to in our culture today.

The entire wedding would last 7 days with dancing and celebrations leading up to the ceremony itself.

On the final day, after a day of dancing and celebration, the Bridesmaids would have torches lite that would look like clothes that were soaked in oil and lite of fire to produce light.

The Bridesmaids would either go out and get the Bridegroom or wait for him to arrive to get is bride.

The Bridesmaids would need to have enough oil to keep their flame going to light the way.

It was a common thing for the Bridegroom to be delayed because of possibly last minute conversations with the Bride’s father or other circumstances.

They would need to make sure that their lights remained burning.

Once the Bridegroom was united with the Bride, the Bridesmaids would lead the way back to the Bridegroom’s Father’s house where the ceremony and the meal would take place.

Point 2: How this relates to us today?

The last few weeks we have been looking at the Biblical prophecy events unfolding before us.

As we see the nations surrounding Israel calling for the destruction of God’s chosen people, we recognize that the coming of Jesus could be very near.

If you are familiar at all with Bible prophecy you know that nothing really needs to happen before the rapture of the Church.

Before I finish my sermon trumpet could blow and believers may be swept away.

If this is new to you and you may have questions regarding the rapture of the church or even current events, please feel free to reach out to me.

Jesus teaches with these parables to explain different things and to get certain points across.

A parable is a short story used to illustrate a teaching.

I love that Jesus knew His audience and did not speak with big, fancy words, but he spoke in ways the people could understand.

He brought it down to their level so that they can understand.

I can relate to stories!!!

Some of Jesus’ parables are:

The Sower

The Prodigal Son

The Mustard Seed

The Good Samaritan

In our passage today, “The Parable of the Ten Virgins”, Jesus uses this illustration of a wedding to teach on the importance of being ready for His coming.

How many of you enjoy weddings?

How many of you don’t like them and think the are a big hassle?

I have noticed that the older I get I enjoy them but often question the money that goes into a wedding—not just the Bride and Groom but also so many others who are involved.

It’s expensive to even rent a tuxedo for a wedding.

As many of you know, I have a younger brother who just got married about a month ago, so a lot of my family was in the wedding.

The wedding looked like many of the weddings look like in our culture:

It began with all of the planning.

The night before the wedding, we had the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner followed by my brother sleeping at my family’s house, so that he did not see his soon to be wife because I guess it’s bad luck if they see the night before.

The wedding day began with everyone getting to the church a few hours before it began to get dressed and to take a few pictures.

I will not forget this because at this time I was trying to watch the news, looking for the latest updates from the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, and on my phone talking with people trying to figure out if we were leaving on our plane in 2 days for our Israel trip.

We then took our places in the front of the church as the wedding started.

My brother stood at the front in excitement as he watched the Bridesmaids, one by one, walk down the aisle.

Their presence meant that the bride was about to come.

They were making the way for the bride.

His excitement turned to tears as the music changed to “Hear Comes the Bride”, the doors swung open in the back of the beautiful old Catholic church, and there stood his Bride as she began to walk to him.

After the service was over and the MANY pictures were taken, we then moved to the final part of the wedding which was the reception dinner and celebrations.

As I was preparing this message and thinking about the details, I couldn’t help to think about the similarities between the weddings we are accustomed to and the Church’s union with the Lord.

In Ephesians 5, Paul makes this connection with Jesus as the groom and the Church as His Bride.

Ephesians 5:31–32“31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the Church.”

God uses illustrations like this for our finite minds to try to grasp the relationship between us and Him.

As my brother had tears running down His face because of his excitement to be united with his bride, Jesus feels the exact way about us.

I truly believe that since we were created in the image of God, the things that move our hearts move the heart of God.

When we see a beautiful sunrise or sunset that catches our eye, The Lord sees it as beautiful just like we do.

When we drive through the Appalachian mountains in central, Pennsylvania or the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and are memorized by the majesty and beauty of them, remember that God created them because He feels the same way.

When we stand at the next wedding we attend and hear the music change to “Here Comes the Bride”, and are moved with tears, think about the fact that maybe you feel this way because this is how God feels about our union with Him.

Just as many things in the Bible are a picture of things to come, the union of a Bride and Groom is a perfect picture of the Church and Jesus.

Just like in our passage with the 10 virgins, we are waiting for the Lord knowing that He is about to come for His bride.

We need to make sure that we are like the 5 wise ones that had plenty of oil instead of the ones that ran out of oil.

Oil in the Bible is often a picture of the Holy Spirit or God’s presence.

Exodus 30:30–32“30 “Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve me as priests. 31 Say to the Israelites, ‘This is to be my sacred anointing oil for the generations to come. 32 Do not pour it on anyone else’s body and do not make any other oil using the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred.”

Luke 4:18 “18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”

Acts 10:38 “38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”

1 John 2:20 “20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.”

The more we spend time with the Lord we keep our oil filled up.

The more we spend time with Him we become like the 5 wise bridesmaids who knew that the Lord was coming at some point and had enough oil for when He tarried.

This is also a picture that many in the Church will miss the coming of the Groom.

It is interesting that bot the wise and foolish ones both fell asleep.

They both seem to have been at some point struggling with the Groom’s delay.

What set them apart as wise and foolish are the ones that lacked the Oil or the presence of the Lord.

When we are waiting for the Lord we also need to be sure that we are not distracted by the world and we stay pure to Him.

2 Corinthians 11:2 “2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.”

Conclusion:

We would be foolish to not be watching and waiting for the Lord’s return because Jesus Himself said to be aware of the signs of the times we are living in.

Please be like the wise virgins who even though they may have fallen asleep they were ready when the Groom did finally come.

Keep your life filled with the Lord’s presence so you will not miss the great wedding that's about to take place!!!

Revelation 19:7–9“7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) 9 Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.””