Are You Prepared?

Well, last week I really shared just some of the things I have been processing coming out of the hospital, but really, what I was hoping you grabbed was this fundamental idea that / / God, in His faithfulness toward us, shows us and teaches us how to be faithful ourselves.

God is faithful, regardless of our actions. We sin. We break his laws, his rules, his guidance for our lives. Yet He is faithful. Time and time again I’ve not listened to his word, I’ve not listened to his voice. I’ve done my own thing. And still, He is faithful.

He can’t help it. One of the very natures of God is that He is faithful. Deuteronomy 7:9 says, / / Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.

He is THE FAITHFUL GOD… Now, you bring that into the New Testament, the New Covenant and the salvation of Jesus Christ is the ultimate display of His faithfulness regardless of our actions.

Reading what we just read, the very next verse in Deuteronomy, if you read that whole part in context says very clearly that if you don’t keep the commands of God, if you reject God, then there are consequences to that. Because it is specifically talking to the law given to the people of Israel and the covenant that God was establishing with them to be faithful to each other (the People of Israel & God). God was laying out this extreme blessing that he wanted to pour out on the people of Israel as long as they kept his commands. It was a set of instructions that would lead to blessing if followed. Do this and the benefit is this, don’t do it and the consequence is this.

And the people of Israel entered that covenant with God knowing that He is, as vs 9 says, The Faithful God, He is true to His word, knowing full well there were consequences to not following. How often as parents have we said that? “I told you, if you didn’t follow through with what we agreed that you would lose this privilege...” This is why time and time again throughout the scriptures of the Old Testament you see something to the effect of, “And realizing they had not been following God, they turned BACK to Him.” And the result was always, “And he met them, delivered them, set them free, and blessed them.” Every time. God proved time and time again to be faithful to His word.

But as I said, / / The salvation of Jesus Christ is the ultimate display of His faithfulness because it removes the conditions of following a law and simply invites us to believe.

See, in the Old Covenant the onus was on the Israelites to keep the commands, THEN the blessing would come. This was the law of the Old Covenant. Deuteronomy 7:12, / / If you listen to these regulations and faithfully obey them, the Lord your God will keep his covenant of unfailing love with you, as he promised with an oath to your ancestors.

And the following verses go on to explain HOW and WHAT that blessing is, and it’s pretty amazing.

BUT, the New Covenant is even MORE amazing, because of what Jesus Christ has done, God shows HIS faithfulness FIRST and INVITES US to be faithful in return, but does not REQUIRE our faithfulness for His faithfulness to be proven.

John 3:17, / / God sent his son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

vs 16, of course is / / …so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

to believe. Not to show faithfulness and follow all the rules and get it all right, but to believe.

A total flip on the system! God now shows HIS faithfulness which invites US into an opportunity to be faithful to Him.

And that’s where seeing God’s faithfulness teaches us to be faithful. Jesus Christ was an up front payment, not because we then had to prove being faithful, but simply an up front payment of HIS faithfulness. God is faithful regardless of our actions. Regardless of whether we follow a system or law, and really, that’s kind of the point, the law proved we could never follow it as it was, and grace is the gift we needed to be free, so that we could truly learn to live free. That’s the gift, to be set free to learn how to live free. And by live free I mean live IN that freedom, the freedom from sin, the freedom from our own way, the freedom from fear and burden of our former lives, the freedom to be faithful to Him.

So, in the same way God shows His faithfulness regardless of our actions, we are then invited, or called to be faithful, regardless of HIS actions.

I’m invited to be faithful to God, whether he answers my prayers or not.

I’m invited to be faithful to God, whether he does what I think He should do or not.

I’m invited to be faithful to God in a response to His faithfulness that he’s shown through the gift of Jesus Christ and I choose to dedicate my life to Him.

The invitation from Jesus is to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.

So, today we’re going to continue this line of thinking by looking at one of Jesus parables about the Kingdom of God that poses an important question:/ / Are You Prepared?

I said last week that Kelley and I are convinced that the journey that God’s had me on this year was absolutely critical in the success of my overcoming covid. That me with an extra 100 lbs would have had a much more difficult time coming through this. And I am grateful that I don’t have to know what 100+ lb me would’ve experienced, because that’s not me anymore - because at the beginning of this year I embraced the invitation of God to make some really difficult changes, to deny myself, to take up my cross, to follow Him.

By no means have I done it perfectly. And to this day I have days that are an absolute struggle and a fight to win in this battle of addiction, even more so it seems having been out of my normal routine for 3 weeks of sickness. There is a journey to be had and a continual commitment to be made. It is learning and re-learning and overcoming and relying on God’s faithfulness as He invites me to be faithful. That is being faithful, isn’t it? Not just making a decision today, but waking up everyday and making that same decision.

So, I feel very personally connected to this question and to this invitation, Are You Prepared?

Alright, let’s look at a parable this morning from the book of Matthew chapter 25.

Starting in vs 1 of Matthew 25, / / “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

“At midnight they were roused by the shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!’

“All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’

“But the others replied, ‘We don’t have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.’

“But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’

“But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!’

“So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.”

Alright, first, we’re going to look at what Jesus is specifically talking about here, and then we’re going to look at what God spoke to me about through this parable. As you read through the teachings of Jesus you will begin to notice that not only is He giving foundational spiritual insight, but often times that same insight is incredibly practical and will impact many areas of our lives.

First things first, the most important line in this parable is not even in the parable, it’s what Jesus says in conclusion of the story he’s just told. Matthew 25:13, “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.”

This whole parable is about that very topic. Jesus has had a major theme throughout his ministry, even though the people listening often didn’t understand, they are eventually going to see it all and it will make sense. He’s tried to tell them multiple times, I am going to go away, but don’t worry I am going to return. And this is two-fold, really.

He’s been telling them he’s going to be killed, but he will raise again in three days. But then he’s also been talking about this Kingdom that is here now, at hand, but also, yet to come. And for a bunch of people hoping for a literal king of Israel to deliver them from their Roman oppressors, the way Jesus was talking about these things just didn’t fit their narrative. But this is truly what Jesus is talking about here. He is going to ascend into heaven and at some point, unknown to him even, His father is going to say, “OK, now is the time!” And this is what we call the Second Coming of Christ. He is going to come again.

See, in the previous chapter, in Matthew 24 Jesus is entirely talking about the future, about what is to come, and many bible scholars believe that chapter 24 and 25 go together in timing. Jesus said all of this together. Matthew 24 leads right into Matthew 25. It’s one flow of thoughts.

Now, the End Times, Biblical prophecy, the Second Coming, all of these things are very very big topics, and we’re not going there today, it’s too big of a topic. But there’s a point that Jesus makes in Chapter 24 that is crucial for this parable we’ve just read.

Matthew 24:36-39, Jesus says of all these things, / / “However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be with the Son of Man comes.”

Then comes this parable about these 10 bridesmaids, and the conclusion is almost identical to these verses in Chapter 24 --- 25:13, / / “So you, too, must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.”

Ok, so what’s this story about, what is it that we’re keeping watch for? What is so important that if we read this story and see 5 people got in, 5 people missed it, and if this is something we’re supposed to learn from, what are we potentially going to get, or miss?

This is the first of 3 parables in Matthew 25. Jesus sort of sets the scene in Matthew 24, talking about the future, the end of time, or his return, the Second Coming. And then goes into 3 parables in Matthew 25 explaining three different things. Each parable teaches a different aspect of this overarching theme, which is, you must be prepared.

/ / Are you Prepared?

This first parable about the 10 bridesmaids is about our Spiritual Preparedness, and really explaining that each of us are all individually responsible for our own spiritual condition.

Now, the fact that there’s 10 bridesmaids, that 5 are wise, 5 are foolish. There doesn’t seem to be any significance in the split of 5 / 5, but Jesus does indicate right away WHY there is a split. And this is because of one simple thing, Oil.

The story continues. The bridegroom is taking longer than expected and they all fall asleep. Now, there’s no indication that this is a bad thing. Just that they did, Jesus doesn’t say anything on that, simply that it was a long enough time waiting that they got sleepy, and fell asleep. Which is probably the point he’s trying to make, “I have NO IDEA when I’m coming back, it could be that you get drowsy waiting for me. The potential for you to fall asleep, to become drowsy, to become unaware is going to come. It could be that it takes such a long time that you lose your passion for waiting and watching.”

And then the shout goes out, the bridegroom is coming. And these bridesmaids, this is what they’ve been waiting for, they are part of the procession, they are lamp holders for when the bridegroom arrives. And this is where the preparation of the five wise and five foolish bridesmaids comes out. Vs 8 says, / / Then the five foolish ones asked the others, ‘Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’

Not going to go out, not we are afraid we might not have enough, but they are already going out. What is a lamp carrier with a dead lamp? You’re there to bring the light, but you have no light to bring. So they are begging the others, please, let us have some of the oil you brought.

Now, you can look at this story and ask, what is this oil? Is that important. And you could surely make a case for the fact that often times the bible references the Holy Spirit as oil. And we can easily ask the question, are we filled with the Holy Spirit? Do we spend time in His presence? Do we invite Him into our lives? Many have made a case for it to be good works, or faith, love, or almost any of the Christian virtues, but I think we would be missing the point of the story if we tied a particular meaning to it.

Because at the heart of this story is the simple question, / / is your life prepared?

And there are three things that Jesus is teaching through this parable from that question:

/ / You need to be prepared.

Prepared for what? For His return. But what does that mean? It means live today like tomorrow may not come! Live like the end is near. There’s this tension that exists in our walk with God, that we are living in the moment, we live in this time, but we also live knowing that Jesus may return at any time, and we believe that when He returns we will all stand before Him as He takes his place as King of this world.

So, Jesus is saying, Your life, and how you live today matters. Don’t live like today doesn’t matter. It does, and every day is important. So, are you ready? prepared, are you being wise, thinking ahead?

Think of our look at faithfulness last week. This is it right here. Jesus is saying that faithfulness is that daily preparation, understanding that there is no ON day and OFF day. That every day matters and is important. God doesn’t take days off, the devil doesn’t take days off, we can’t take days off.

Our Christianity isn’t about Sunday mornings, it isn’t about when we are at church, / / it is to live a life aware of what God has called us to all the time. This is truly being faithful.

/ / Only You can prepare yourself.

The second thing Jesus is teaching here is that your preparedness is 100% dependent on you. You can’t rely on others for what you are called to do.

This has layers to it.

First, you can’t rely on the relationship that someone else has with God for your life. You can’t rely on the connection of your family, friends, pastor, that doesn’t matter, what matters is YOUR connection to God, YOUR relationship with Him.

Second, you can’t rely on the wisdom and understanding of others MORE than your own pursuit of wisdom & understanding. Every aspect of our Christian life is a call to a personal connection to God. That’s understanding His word, reading the bible, praying, worship, each part of what we do as Christians is an invitation for personal connection to God.

Yes, we gather corporately, yes, we are the church, the body of Christ, and yes, we all play different parts, and of course as we’ve recently looked at we all have different gifts we bring to the table. You have special, particular things you can and should do that the rest of us don’t, and we need you to fulfill those particular things to truly fulfill being the church. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. There are things, and I think we all know this, that define our Christian walk with Christ that are all on us, individually. I can pray FOR you, but I can’t ever replace YOUR prayer life. I can teach you the word of God, but I’ll never replace the connection you will receive with God as you read the bible yourself. We can worship together, Kelley has an anointing for leading us and creating an atmosphere of worship, and the presence of God shows up, but that can never replace God’s desire to connect with you personally.

Jesus is teaching us here that Spiritual Preparedness can’t be transferred from one individual to another. Everyone is responsible for their own relationship with God.

/ / Prepared is BEFORE!

Another important thing here to understand is the importance of what being prepared means. Just the nature and meaning of that.

Prepared is not something that happens when it’s time, it’s something that happens BEFORE it’s time. It’s something that happens before you think you need it.

We could almost ask, can we even fault these five bridesmaids for not having enough oil? The groom is late. vs 6 says At midnight they were woken up because the Bridegroom was finally coming! But that’s the whole point here, the whole story is about being prepared in advance. Do you live ready, or are you living looking for a moment to get ready, because if you are doing that, you’re too late.

I’ve this this story before, but it definitely brings the point home here, two young guys working at an auto mechanics shop, both making the same amount, both working the same, equally talented. But one is really enjoying his life now by spending his money on going out and buying what he wants. He gets the new car, big payment. Going out all the time. But the other guy, he’s driving the ol’ beater, when they ask him to go out he consistently says no. The young spender is always trying to get him to go out, but time after time he says no. He would say he was “saving for a moment.”

After a few years the old man who had been mentoring them was ready to retire and he offered to sell them his shop, which had become quite successful because it had a great mechanic and two great apprentices. Both young men jumped at the opportunity....only one was prepared and able to take advantage of that opportunity.

And that’s the whole point of this story that Jesus is sharing. I want to switch gears here a little bit because I shared this last week a bit, but I believe there is such a deep truth to this. Yes, Jesus is talking about our spiritual preparedness, but in many ways he’s giving some of the most practical and natural advice he could give when it comes to opportunity in our lives.

/ / What we do TODAY will determine what we CAN do tomorrow!

Just like these five foolish bridesmaids that were unprepared, there comes a time where you are either prepared or not and if you are not prepared, you miss in the moment what you were meant to be prepared for.

Whether that is because you are sitting in the dark with no oil, you just simply are not prepared, or that you rush at the last minute to try and prepare yourself, the result is the same, you miss it.

I shared this last week, but when I came home from the hospital, in reflection of what I’d been through, Kelley and I both recognized that my decision in January to prepare myself, to change my life, was a very huge contributing factor to how my body was able to cope with what I went through in the hospital. I received incredible medical care at the hospital from the Drs & nurses, and I have zero doubt that my life was preserved by God, I know this, but I also know that my physical preparation over the last 8 months was a crucial factor.

What do you need to make the decision about today that may not pay off for days, months or even years from now? And that is because the decision needs to be made today, not in the moment you have the opportunity. That is the very definition of being prepared and the very purpose of this parable that Jesus shares, / / You can’t prepare when the moment comes, you MUST prepare NOW for the future!

There’s also a level of discernment and wisdom that we need to ask for. The last thing in this story I want to pull from is the fact that when the bridegroom WAS finally coming, and the five foolish bridesmaids asked the wise ones for just some of their oil, the wise says, “Sorry, no, we won’t have enough for all fo us...” As much as they might have wanted to help them, there’s nothing they could do - they prepared their lives, and that’s not something you can do for someone else. We are each responsible for our own preparedness. We are all responsible to ensure that we are ready when the time comes.

So, today I want to encourage you in this:

/ / Are you Prepared Spiritually?

Jesus was clear, this is about our eternal destiny. He will come again, and in Luke 18:8 Jesus says, / / “When the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

We must put time and effort into growing spiritually, in our relationship with God.

We must make our relationship with God a priority. There is nothing in this world that is more important.

/ / Are you Prepared for Life?

Jesus says in John 10:10 that his purpose is to give us a rich and satisfying life, but this takes being prepared. It takes recognizing the season we are in, the moment we are in and deciding that if we want something some day we MUST act differently today.

There’s a saying: / / The best time to start was yesterday, the next best time is NOW!

This isn’t easy. It’s a daily fight. I’m amazed how many times Jesus teaches something so fundamentally spiritual, and yet, in the midst of it, he’s giving us the very method to find this rich and satisfying life he talked about. When he says deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow him, you can hear in his words this same directive, if you want life, deny yourself, deny your selfish desires, your impulses, pick up a life of self-denial, and commit your life to what God is showing you to do…

Y’all know that’s been the last 8 months of my life, and more specifically the last 5 months of actually focusing on the physical changes I needed to make. My life has been very controlled, very prepared when it comes to food. Realizing that my body treats certain foods differently than most people has made me have to focus on this in my life. I can’t just do what other people do. I can’t just have what other people have. I have to be really particular, I have to avoid a lot of things and I have to be very planned.

And you may run into road blocks. You may run into car trouble on this road. This is something I’ve experienced in the last 3 weeks, in the midst of all this gratitude and blessing I’ve been talking about.

What do you think happens when suddenly I spent 8 days of hardly having an appetite as we went through covid at home, and then 9 days in the hospital where I was unable to fully control the food that was coming to me - After 5 months of solid no sugar, no carbs and the first day in the hospital they bring me the standard diabetic hospital diet, which consisted of 60g of carbohydrates PER MEAL! I don’t have 60g of carbs in 2 days let alone 3 times in ONE day!

Thankfully the kitchen staff were very accommodating when I said, “I can’t eat this...”, but I couldn’t control what they cooked things in or that they added sauces, or what they put on things. Thankfully they were able to bring me eggs and berries in the morning, and meat and veggies for lunch and dinner. And again, for the first few days in the hospital where I was really fighting I didn’t have much of an appetite anyways, let alone it being really difficult to eat when you’re struggling to breath.

But this critically important issue in my life, even to the point of me identifying that this was a major factor in me surviving in the hospital, now is upended, turned around, thrown out of wack completely.

And let me tell you, sitting at home, unable to do much, healing, recovering, is a terrible way to avoid eating. We all know sitting around not doing much is just an invitation to munch… So, even when we are prepared, we experience opportunity to lose site of why we do what we do. The parable Jesus shares even warns us of this. You may be prepared, and it may take longer than you thought, and you might doze off. Be watchful!

So, this is that last little part, when the five wise bridesmaids say to the five foolish, “No, sorry, we won’t have enough if we compromise what we have prepared for...”

Being prepared is a daily journey:

I don’t know what you want in life.

I don’t know what you’re hoping will change.

I don’t know what you’ve been dreaming about, asking God for, believing for a door to appear in your life.

But what I do know is that whatever that thing is, you’re being called to be prepared now. Don’t wait until opportunity is in front of you, and you realize you didn’t prepare, and you can’t take advantage of it. In my case I believe that was a matter of life and death, and in many of our cases it will be the difference between experiencing this rich and satisfying life that Jesus talks about and missing an opportunity.

Jesus said in talking about this rich and satisfying life that it’s found because we recognize that we are his sheep, and that He is the Good Shepherd, and we KNOW HIS VOICE, and we FOLLOW HIM.

Prepared. Do we know the voice of God? Do we follow His voice? Do we prepare for what he wants to do in our lives?

I am amazed in my own life at how He has led me. Sometimes people get confused over the will of God and their own desires, where is the line? But this is the reality, when you commit your way to God, and are willing to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, and follow His lead, they become one in the same. I wanted to lose weight, but I was terrified, I was at the end of myself. 38 years old and struggled with my weight for 25 years, up and down, I had tried everything I knew to try, nothing worked, every time I failed, and I was locked in a position in my life of just feeling like I would always fail.

Then the Good Shepherd led me to a conversation with an addiction counselor.

Then the Good Shepherd led me to a decision to begin to prepare my life.

The Good Shepherd led me to a moment where the ultimatum was given: choose life, or choose death.

And the outplay of that wasn’t for another 8 months. Listen I am not trying to be dramatic here. I’m not trying to oversell anything. But if I’m 100% honest the more I look back the more I recognize how deeply God preserved my life. I have a cousin who works in a hospital and has been working with covid patients and when they made the decision to move me from regular oxygen to the high flow oxygen, my mom was having a conversation with her and mentioned that, she didn’t say much, just ok. After, when I was home and safe, she told my mom how much that had worried her for me, because that was such a close step towards being put on a ventilator, which means put into a medically induced coma and hoping your body responds enough to heal - and that’s not a death sentence, people do pull through that as well, but it was scary, that’s for sure.

/ / You may not be faced with a life or death choice, but you are faced with choices that will produce life, or death, in your life.

Whether that’s how we handle our finances.

Or maybe like me, it’s your health.

Or how you treat those you are in relationship with.

Maybe it’s your career.

And of course, all of us are called to be prepared spiritually which is the most important decision we can make, to decide that every day, we choose life. To decide that we will be as prepared as possible. We will pray, read the word of God, surround ourselves with those who are on the same journey, worship, seek God’s presence…

The question today is, Are You Prepared? And what is the Good Shepherd leading you toward to bring life to you?