"You have shown me the path of life."

The Eleventh Hour

10:01 AM, Feb. 2, 2009 .. 0 comments .. Link

My pastor gave an awesome sermon yesterday and I wanted to share it all with you:
You can listen at Generations Church

Or you can read it here:
Are we in the Eleventh Hour?
Matthew 25:13
"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour."

The Eleventh Hour
The Ten Virgins
Matthew 25:1-13

Can you believe the price of gas? For a while there gas was getting close to five bucks a gallon. It became more and more costly to go to the gas station. So much so that many times I would delay buying gas, even when running low, and then I sometimes would buy only part of a tank because of the cost to fill up. As a matter of fact, one time it cost me $80 to fill our SUV.

When I am low of gas a little gas pump appears and stays lit until you get gas. Usually you can go 30 or 40 more miles when this happens. Yes, I’ve tested it!

In fact, I can go to my navigation screen and hit a button that will tell me how many miles I can go before I run out of gas.

To be honest, I have gone to zero a number of times and still seemed to have a few miles or so of gas. I think I have gotten pretty close, but I have not run out of gas yet. Kellee always tells me how bad it is to run it to nothing because of the sediment and debris that is in the bottom of the tank.

I want you to imagine the story of a college kid coming home from school who was not as fortunate.

He made it as far as 25 miles out of town when his gas light came on. If he made it home, his parents would buy the gas and he could use his money to go out for the weekend. He figured he could make it.

He had the radio in his car cranking some awesome tunes and forgot about the gas situation. However, with about 8 miles to go, he ran out of gas.

It was about 1 in the morning and the road was dark. He figured he would flag down a car and get a ride. But a car coming by didn’t see him and side swiped him and killed him.

Ultimately, all this happened because he did not heed the warnings that he was low on fuel. Unfortunately the story is true. Unfortunately the story is also way too true of our spiritual state in the church today.

Matthew 25:1-13.

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”
The Context
Now it is important that we understand the context for Jesus telling this story.

Jesus is in the midst of speaking to the disciples privately on matters concerning the end times in what is commonly known as the Olivet Discourse. It begins back at the beginning of Matthew 24.

In this discourse Jesus talks about some of the signs that the end is approaching. He speaks of wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes which are birth pangs. And he tells us that while we should be able to recognize the season of His coming, the day and the hour of Christ’s return is unknown. So he goes on to tell several different parables warning the disciples and us to watch and be ready.

Now each of these parables have a few things in common. They all were written to encourage the listeners to be ready for the kingdom of heaven and warn them of consequences of not being ready. They all distinguish one group of people from another, the faithful or wise from the lazy or foolish.

So Jesus tells several different stories to illustrate different aspects about how the kingdom of heaven will be for those who gain entrance and those who don’t. This is so important that He emphasizes this in 3 different stories.

It is important because of what being in the kingdom of heaven and being out of the kingdom of heaven means.

Being in the kingdom means being with Jesus for eternity. Being excluded from the kingdom means being eternally separated from Jesus in a place of outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

There are only 2 options, in or out.

We need to be ready so that we can go in and not be left out like the 5 foolish virgins.

So let’s take a look at this story and see what we might learn so that we are found ready and waiting when Jesus comes for us.
In the first verse we are introduced to the main characters of this story. The ten virgins and the bridegroom.

The Bridegroom represents Jesus.
Throughout Scripture, we see Jesus described as a bridegroom. We see him describe himself that way in Matthew 9:14-15:
“Then John’s disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”

And even John the Baptist uses this imagery
John 3:28-29
“You yourselves can testify that I said, ’I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.”

In our story, the bridegroom is the central focus even though he is not there a lot.
It is him who people are waiting for.
It is Him who was a longtime in coming.
It was him who the virgins were able to enter with.
For us today, Jesus should be our central focus.

We should be waiting for Him.
We should be living our lives for Him.
We should be longing to be found faithful when He arrives.
Jesus should be the central focus of the church and of the people of the church.

In this section, Jesus is not speaking to the crowds or the religious leaders. He is speaking to the disciples, and to His church.

This is a warning for those who are in the church and I believe it is a picture of where we stand today in this eleventh hour.

The Virgins represent Professing Christians
Notice that outwardly, all of these virgins look alike. There is nothing in their appearance that you could tell them apart by.

But in the next verse we do find there is a difference. We find that 5 were wise and 5 were foolish.

By looking at them, we could not necessarily tell which were the wise ones and which were the foolish ones.
All ten of these virgins were waiting for the bridegroom.
All ten of these virgins had lamps
All ten of these virgins looked like they were ready for the bridegroom to appear.
But 5 of them were really not ready. Jesus calls them foolish. What is it that determined if these virgins were wise or foolish?

It was the possession of oil for their lamps that determined if they were wise or foolish. What does the oil represent in this story?

The Oil represents the Holy Spirit
And it was their lack of oil when the bridegroom came that excluded them from entering into the wedding banquet.

There are professing Christians today
who go to church,
who give,
who look just like other Christians,

Yet they are not real Christians because they do not have the Holy Spirit; they are not filled with the Holy Spirit.

These last words that the 5 foolish virgins spoke are eerily reminiscent of a story Jesus told in Matthew 7:21-23:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

In our story the foolish virgins arrive after the bridegroom has already come and say
‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

Application
There are people today who are thinking, just like then, I have been pretty good, good enough to at least make it to the end.
And even if I don’t, I still have time to really get serious about my relationship with the Lord.

Getting serious about my relationship with Jesus can wait until I live life some more. Sure, I will
go to church and give a little something, be a good person, sing some songs about Jesus, but I sure don’t want to go overboard with this religion thing.

It might cost me by having to change my lifestyle.
It might cost me my weekends by having to go be with God’s people instead of sleeping in or doing what I want.
It might cost me my place on the throne of my own life.

No, I don’t want to fill my tank with Jesus. I’ll just take $10 bucks worth and hope that gets me to the time where I can get serious. After all, there’s plenty of time because people have been saying He’s coming back for years and we’re still here.
Notice this was the attitude of the 5 virgins. “We will have time in the morning to get oil if we really need it.” “He has been away a long time already. What are the chances he will come back during the night?”

I am sure that every one of us have felt like it is taking Jesus a long time to return. Why is it taking so long? There were those even in the days of the Apostles who wondered that. Peter warns in 2 Peter 3:3-4, 9-10:
“…knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation… The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.”

We need to realize that the day of the Lord is going to come unexpectedly and we must be ready in this Eleventh Hour.

None of the virgins knew for sure when the bridegroom would come. None of us know for sure when Jesus will return. But Jesus tells us in
Matthew 24:36:

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.”

It is not about knowing the day or the hour, but being ready when He does come,

If Jesus came for you right now, would you be ready? Would you be able to enter with Him into the wedding banquet? Or would you be trying to scramble to fill your lamp?
We are closer to his arrival today than we were yesterday. It is the eleventh hour. The time to get ready is Now!

There is going to come a point where it is too late. There is going to come a time that you run out of gas. Don’t delay.

Listen to what it says in
Revelation 19:5-9

“Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!” And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.”

Are you on the guest list? You have only this lifetime before Jesus returns to make arrangements for this eternal celebration.
As I look around, I see birth pangs. I see wars and rumors of wars, I see famines across the world and earthquakes and natural disasters. I do not know the exact moment of His coming, but it would seem that we are in the 11th hour, and that the season is upon us.

Nobody can do this for you, though.
Your parents can’t believe for you
Your friends can’t believe for you
Your pastor can’t believe for you

John 1:12
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:”
Believing is more than just acknowledging facts.
It is a complete giving of one’s self to the Person of Christ. It is acting upon what we believe.

If you have not received Christ as your Savior, or if you have been thinking I just need a little Jesus, understand there is no “just a little Jesus.”

There is a little bit of religion, but religion never saved anyone. Jesus is an all or none proposition. You are in relationship with Him or you are not.

The gas light is on.
Will you heed the warnings?

The leaves are turning.
Will you heed the warnings?

The clock is ticking.
Will you heed the warnings?

About Me

Loving God with all my heart! I am a Homeschooling mom of 5 wonderful children. I am the wife of a very successful, handsome, wonderful husband who loves God with all his heart. I love to travel. Our Favorite place: Hawaii!!!! I love to read. My Favorite books: God's Word, Family Driven Faith, Passionate Housewives Desperate for God, and Created to Be His Helpmeet. I have started this blog in hopes of meeting other like-minded homeschooling families. It is also my desire to use this blog to minister to others as God places things in my heart for me to share with you all. Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by! Check out my other Blogs Below: Keepers At Home