Five Out of Ten - Josh Gonzalez - GTAN2509

Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, go therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to go teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Josh Gonzalez. We'll get into the Word in a moment. What we'll do first is I just want to as. As kind of like a scripture reading moment. I just want to invite you to open your bibles to Matthew 25, Matthew chapter 25. So we're going to read this, we'll have a prayer and we'll get into the message. Matthew 25, starting at verse one. As you can see on the screen, my sermon title for this morning is 5 out of 10. 5 out of 10. Now, some of you may know already the story that we're going to be getting into this morning. But yeah, let's read Matthew 25 starting at verse one. It says, Then the kingdom of heaven will be like. 10 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 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, must keep watch, for you do not know the day or hour of my return. Let's have a word of prayer, Father in heaven. Lord. We're so grateful, Father, for bringing us here today. We're so grateful for the Sabbath, for this beautiful gift that you've given us every single week. Where we can just take our minds off all the things that we are worried and that preoccupy our mind throughout the week. And we can just have a. A date with you every week, Father, where We can just think about you and grow our relationship with you, Father. And we're so grateful for the Sabbath. And we just pray, Father, as we come together today and we go through this story, that you may bring to our minds, Lord, the important lessons that you have for us here. This is a challenging parable that you told, Lord. And I pray that as we go through this, Lord God, you may speak to us, Father, and do something inside of us, Lord God, that is going to want to make us be closer to youo. So we pray and we ask for this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. So five out of ten, we're looking at the parable of the ten bridesmaids, also known as the parable of the ten virgins. Not virgins. Virgins. Right. It's a solemn parable. And I remember when I first became an Adventist, when God first, you know, brought me into the church and I started getting serious about my walk with the Lord. I remember this was one of the very first sermons that I had heard. And I remember that when I heard it the first time, it really brought to my attention the importance about my relationship with Jesus and what I want to pray that happens today. What I'm praying for is that because most of us may have looked at this story before, maybe even a number of times, I'm praying that maybe we can look at it from a different perspective. Because I always looked at this story from a point of fear. I don't know about you guys, but I always looked at this story from a point of fear. This story scared me. It scared me to think that I could be among the foolish ones. It scared me to think that when Jesus came back, I wouldn't be ready. And because I wouldn't be ready, I would find myself like the foolish virgin. Virgins. Ah, I keep messing that up. Virgins. Bridesmaids. I'm just going to say bridesmaids because that's easier. I would find myself like the foolish ones outside, wanting to be in but not being able to get in because the door had already been shut. But as I've gone over this story again, I've seen this story is not a story of fear. It's actually a story of great encouragement. What I want to do is just share a few things with you before we start getting into the story. Many Christians have a very interesting view on this parable. A lot of Christians out there believe in something called the Rapture. Have you guys heard about that? It's known as the secret Rapture. It's this theory that at some point in time, just before Jesus comes back, those who are in Christ are just going to disappear from the world. And they basically base this off one scripture. That's a misinterpretation that makes them think that at some point Christians are just going to disappear. But the Bible says that when Jesus comes back, every eye will see and every ear will hear. It's like lightning from the east to the west. Everyone will know. When Jesus comes back is not going to be a secret thing. In fact, for those that have studied the Bible and understand the truth about this, they come up with a saying. They say that the secret Rapture is so secret that not even the Bible knows about it because it's not a real thing in Scripture. Now, this story is not about that. It's not about the secret rapture, but it is about the coming of Jesus, the second coming of Jesus. And, you know, as Seventh Day Adventists, we have an interesting history with this. We call ourselves Seventh Day Adventists for two reasons. One, because we believe in the biblical Seventh Day Sabbath, but also the word Adventist, the word Adventist, it means looking forward to the coming of a notable person or figure. That's what Advent means. And so as Adventists, we are looking forward to the advent of Jesus, the second Advent. That's why we're called Seventh Day Adventists. But back in the day, before we were even Seventh Day Adventists, there was a group that was starting to get very popular, known as the Millerites. And there was a man by the name of William Miller, who was a Baptist preacher who God had revealed certain truths to him about Bible prophecy. And as he was trying to work it out, he started looking at all these dates and he came up with a date where he believed Jesus was going to come back. And it was in 1843. And so this massive movement formed where people started believing this and they thought that Jesus was going to come back. It was in October, in 1843. I can't remember remember the exact date. October 22nd. That's the one. 1844. Yes, 1844. Sorry, I got confused with the 1843, because in 1843 is when they started preaching and promoting this. So what they did was they thought that Jesus was going to come back. October 22, 1844. That's what they believed. And so a lot of people went out and they sold everything that they had and they got ready for the second coming of Jesus and he didn't come back. And a lot of people kind of look at this and think that, oh, you know, this is some kind of argument against the Seventh Day Adventist Church. And they failed to realise that this wasn't actually the Seventh Day Adventist Church. This was a group known as the Millerites. And William Miller was actually a Baptist preacher. But then from this thing that happened, known as the Great Disappointment. Now, some people left the church for good or the movement for good. Others went back to the scriptures to try to find out what happened. And they came across another beautiful truth that we know as the investigative judgement. We'll talk more about that another day. But then throughout history there's been all of these known kind of predictions that people have come out saying that Jesus is going to come back on certain days or on a certain date. Now this has always been something that's very dangerous because Jesus himself said that no one knows the day nor the hour except for who the father. Right. And so in May 21st of 2011, there was this famous preacher in the States called Harold Camping and he started riling up people. They were going out to the streets and everything. A lot of people was a very similar thing. Probably not as many as what happened back in the 1800s, but a lot of people felt that that was what was going to happen. And as we know now it's 2023 and Jesus still hasn't come back. And so Christians for the last 2000 years have been waiting for the second coming of Jesus. Some of them have thought they figured out the date, put the date out there. Some of them sold everything that they had, getting ready for something to happen on that date and it didn't come to pass. And so what's ended up happening is that there's a lot of people now in the world that believe that Jesus isn't even maybe coming back. Some Christians are even starting to doubt this as well because it's been so long. It's been 2,000 years where we continuously say Jesus is coming back. Jesus is coming back and he hasn't come back. But there are others that study the scriptures and are actually starting to see things happen in this world that we have never seen before. We are experiencing and living things in this world today that we have never experienced or lived through before. And for those that are serious about the Bible and about prophecy, we can actually see that the prophecies of Scripture are telling us now we are closer to the second coming of Jesus than we have ever been before. And Jesus is coming back soon. And this parable of the 10 bridesmaids is within the context of the second coming. You see, we are looking through Matthew 25. But if you are familiar with the previous chapter in Matthew, which is Matthew 24, this is the chapter where we get a belief that we have and we preach on this. Have you guys ever heard a message titled Signs of the Times? It's something, as Adventists, we love to talk about, because in Matthew 24, it goes through all of the signs that are going to take place on earth before Jesus comes back. It was initiated by the disciples when they asked Jesus. They were walking near the temple, and Jesus told them that the temple was going to be destroyed, that not one stone will be left. And then they started asking him, what are the signs? And throughout Matthew 24, Jesus lays out all of the signs of what's going to take place on earth before he comes back. And in the very next chapter, he tells us this parable. Now, we're going to go into the parable, and there's a few things that I just need us to understand because there's some symbolism within this parable. There are things that are mentioned. For example, the kingdom of heaven is mentioned. And we're going to see that the kingdom of heaven is speaking about Christianity. It talks about the bridesmaids. We're going to see that the bridesmaids are referring to Christians. It talks about the bridegroom or the groom. The groom is Jesus Christ. It speaks about lamps. The lamps represent the word of God. And it speaks about oil, which represents the Holy Spirit. Now, knowing that, let's go back into the parable and let's go through it again. So Matthew chapter 25 starts off by saying, then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 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 oil for their lamps, but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. Now, the one who's writing this parable here is Matthew. Interesting that if you look at Matthew and the other gospel writers, Matthew is the only one who refers to it as the kingdom of heaven. The other gospel writers refer to it as the kingdom of God. The reason why we believe Matthew refers to it as the kingdom of heaven. In fact, he uses the phrase kingdom of heaven 32 times, and he's the only gospel writer to use that phrase at all. We believe that he writes it because it is probable that Matthew used kingdom of heaven because it was more understandable to his primarily Jewish readers. You see, Jews didn't like to speak or say the Name of God. And so when the other Gospel writers say the kingdom of God, they're invoking the name of God. Jewish people don't like to invoke the name of God because they believe it is so sacred. And so we understand that Matthew's audience in his gospel was primarily Jewish. And so maybe to avoid issues or the sensitivity of it, he uses kingdom of heaven instead. The kingdom of heaven has two aspects to it. It has the inner aspect and the outer aspect. The outer aspect is about believers who have a faith that is superficial. They believe in God, but they're not really that committed. They come to church, but really they're more worldly than they are Christian. You understand what I'm saying? And this is what's known as the outer part of the kingdom of God. They still belong to the kingdom of God, but they're not that committed to it. Then you have the inner part of the kingdom of God, which are the believers that are committed and devoted. Their whole life is about God. Everything they do, they do with God in mind. Okay? And so when we're looking at the kingdom of heaven, because Jesus says the kingdom of heaven will be like Jesus is telling us, this is going to be a reality within the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is going to be made up of two groups. It's going to be made up of a group that is very devout and committed and another group that is there. And they tag along and they get involved, but they're not that committed. Okay? And what we end up finding out is that it's a dangerous place to be in that other group. That's what this parable is going to bring out for us. Right? The other thing that we need to notice that's really important is that they all had lamps and they all had oil. So what does the lamp represent? The lamp represents the word of God. The oil represents the Holy Spirit. Now, understand that it's interesting that in this context, Jesus isn't saying, for example, some were good and some were bad. He doesn't say that. He says some were wise and some were foolish. Both groups had the lamp. They each had a lamp, meaning they both had an understanding of the word of God. They both knew what the Bible taught. They both understood what the doctrines of scripture were. They had that. The other thing that they had as well was the Holy Spirit. They had a connection to God. They had a relationship with God. They did things through the Holy Spirit. Both groups had that. But Jesus says one group is wise and one group is foolish. And what we need to understand is that in this parable, Jesus is speaking about Christians. He's not talking about people inside the church and people outside of the church. He's talking solely on those that are inside the church. Now he uses the words wise and foolish. There's one other place, and Matthew actually records this, where Jesus mentions wise and foolish. Does anyone know where it is? There's a nice little kid song behind it. Angelina is doing the actions at the back. You heard the story of the wise builder and the foolish builder. The wise man built his house upon the. The foolish man built his house upon the. So a storm was coming and the two builders recognised that the storm was coming and they both decided to build themselves cover. But one of the builders built the COVID on sand. The other one built it on the rock. Jesus said that the one that built it on the sand was foolish. The one that built it on the rock was wise. Why was the one who built the house on the sand foolish? Because it wasn't strong enough. Absolutely. When the storm came, the house came tumbling down because he didn't build his house on a firm foundation. Now we understand that the rock represents who? Jesus Christ. And so Jesus is trying to tell us something. And this is what we need to understand. This is where for me, the encouragement comes. Jesus isn't here trying to rebuke us. He's trying to encourage us. He's trying to make us think. He's trying to, number one, remind us he's coming back soon. Okay? That's the first thing that needs to be in our minds and understanding that Jesus is coming back soon. But you see, the longer that Jesus takes to come back, the more opportunity the devil has to try to deceive and confuse us into believing that we need to somehow try to find our heaven here on this earth, that we need to somehow try to find our sense of fulfilment and accomplishment here in this life. And sometimes by trying to seek that here on this earth, we miss out. Or we can miss out on what Jesus is offering. Remember when Jesus says, do not store your riches here on earth where the rust and the moth will destroy it, but store your riches where in heaven. Okay, so what Jesus is wanting us to understand is this. He's telling us, I'm coming back soon. Keep your mind focused on that. Keep your mind focused on me and on the fact that I'm coming back soon. Don't get caught up in all the distractions this world is trying to distract you with. Don't get caught up in all of that stuff. Keep your mind focused on me and the fact that I'm coming back soon. Maybe a little bit lower. I think it's a little bit too loud. Thank you. The ones that are wise in this parable are wise because they have extra, what? Oil? So do we then take that and assume they have extra? Holy Spirit, Is that what it's telling us? We're going to get to that in a moment. We'll come back to that. Let's go to verse five. Verse five says, 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. Verse 5 has got an interesting thing that it says there. While they were waiting for the bridegroom to come back, it felt like the bridegroom was delayed. That's what everybody felt. And in waiting for the bridegroom to come back, some of them became drowsy and fell asleep. This is something that we need to really think about. Church. Okay. It is so easy for us to fall asleep on God. It is so easy for us to have. You see. You know what they say. Sometimes when things are going so well, it's easy for us to forget about God. God, out of his mercy, sometimes doesn't allow us to have such easy lives. Because he knows that sometimes by allowing us to go through certain things, that's going to keep our mind focused on him. But this isn't so much talking about that. It's talking about becoming drowsy and falling asleep thinking that the bridegroom is taking too long to come back. And some of us, we love to play footsies with the world. We love to do that. And I say that myself included. It's tempting sometimes to play footsis with the world, right? Because the world seems sometimes to have so much to offer. We need to be careful that we don't keep our mind and our focus fixed on the world and what this world can offer us. We have to keep our minds fixed on what Jesus not just offers us, but promises us. But there's something interesting here. Church. Has anyone been to a wedding before? You've all been to a wedding. Who's the one that's normally late in the wedding? It's not the groom, is it? You see, we often look at this parable that it seems like in this parable, Jesus is the one who's taken his sweet time to come back. But the Bible actually tells us that there's something else going on. It's not actually that the bridegroom is delayed. It's that the bridegroom is actually the one that's waiting for the bride to be ready. If we understand that the reason why Jesus hasn't come back yet, it's not because he's taking his time. We understand that when we suffer in this life, Jesus suffers also. That's something that the Bible teaches us. When we go through pain and suffering, God feels that as well. It doesn't make sense that God will be purposely delaying that. We don't know sometimes the pain that God goes through every single day that we have life on this earth. God is not delaying what God is actually doing. He's waiting for his bride to be ready. And so this is incredible because the bridesmaids are there, the church is there, and the church thinks that the groom is the one that's delayed, not realising that it is them that are actually delaying the return or the coming of the groom. Because he's waiting for his bride to be ready. Remember, we're told in the Book of Revelations that there are four angels that are holding back the four winds of the earth. That tells us that God is waiting for his people to be ready so that he can come back and take them home. And so while they're waiting, at midnight, there's a cry and it says that the groom is coming, the bridegroom is coming. Come out and meet him. We've been saying this for 2000 years. Jesus is coming back soon. I go into the Bible and I read the Apostle Paul. Some of the things that he writes. The Apostle Paul himself speaks in the context of the fact that Jesus is coming back soon. That was 2,000 years ago. For 2,000 years we've been saying the bridegroom is coming. It makes sense that some people, after a while of having heard that for so long, turn around and like, is he really coming? He's taking his time. The lesson with this parable church is that we need to be ready. And we're going to talk about that in a moment. Let's just go to verse 8. 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. These wise bridesmaids sound a little selfish here, don't they? The other ones are like, give us some oil. Obviously the wise ones have extra oil. And as Christians, you know we're taught to be kind to others, right? We're taught to share with others. If people are without, we should be giving them if we have extra to spare. But there's a reason why these other bridesmaids cannot give the oil to them. Because the oil is not talking about literal oil. It's being symbolic of something that you cannot give to somebody else. It's something that you must attain for yourself. You can't share the portion of the Holy Spirit you have with someone else. Do you understand what I'm saying? And what this really comes down to, and this is what we're going to really bring out in this message this morning, is what the extra oil really represents is our relationship with Jesus. We can't share that relationship, personal relationship with others. We can share with others what that personal relationship means to us. We can share with others what that personal relationship does for us. We can share with others how our relationship with Jesus has changed our life. And we can share the message of the relationship that we have with Jesus with others, but we cannot share our relationship with Jesus with others. Everyone needs to have their own relationship with God for themselves. And what happens is it comes a point when the groom is about to come back that something starts to become very evident and obvious. What's the most important thing right now at this moment? Church. It's not how good our attendance has been at Sabbath school. It's not our perfect tithe paying record. It's not if we were actually being able to keep the vegetarian diet and not four or not. It's not, you know, any of those things. What it comes down to at this point when the groom is about to come back. It's not the list of all the things we've ticked off to say we've been a really good Adventist. Those things don't matter. What matters at the end of the day is our connection to Jesus Christ. That is what is represented really by the oil here. And this is something that you cannot give someone else. It says, but while they were going to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast. And the door was locked. The door was locked. Now they come back and we see in the story that they come back, they're like, let us in, right? These foolish bridesmaids who were Christians, they participated in church, they came along, they got involved, but they never really made a commitment to accept Jesus completely in their hearts. They never made a commitment to truly dedicate themselves to God. And out of nowhere, the Bridegroom comes and now they find it's too late. It's too late. You see, Jesus himself told us that he's going to come like a thief in the night. And what he was trying to tell us with that was that we don't know when the thief is going to come. In fact, when a thief does come, it's a terrible surprise, isn't it? If anyone's ever been robbed. It's a horrible, terrible surprise to find out that you've been robbed. You had no idea that they were going to get in. You had no idea that they were going to take what they took. It happened. And the thing about it is, once it's happened, there's nothing you can do about it. It's done. They went out to try to get more oil, but they did it too late. And this is not something that we need to. We can't look at this as like this is God just trying to be mean now and he's like, you know, no, it's just that we need to understand that everything has a point in which things have to end, right? Everything I remember, like I love sports and sometimes I love a good soccer game and it's going so well. But there has to come a point where that whistle is blown at the end, everything comes to a finish. And God, out of his mercy, has given us all the time that he can to help us to focus on our relationship with him. But there will be a time when it's going to be too late. And we don't want to get caught up in that group. That was foolish that we were playing. You know, we were with God and we were in the world and we were kind of tippy toeing about our commitment to God. And then it comes a time where it's too late. It says in verse 11, 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 watching, for you do not know the day or the hour of my return. These seem like harsh words from Jesus. And these words have always bothered me because these words remind me of another thing that was written by Matthew in Matthew chapter seven, actually something that was said by Jesus just before he told them the story of the foolish and the wise builders remember the house on the sand and the house on the rock. Just before he told them that in Matthew 7, if you go to 21, 23, Jesus said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers. These words. I don't know about you, but these words troubled me for many years. They troubled me for many years because I didn't understand what was happening here, the way that I would often read this. And I'm connecting these verses in Matthew 7 to the end of this parable here of the ten bridesmaids. It troubled me because I would always look at it, that it was like I had to do everything right. Everything had to be perfect. And if I wasn't a perfect Christian, that always did the right thing. One day Jesus is going to say to me, I didn't know you. That terrified me. That made me scared. You know why? Because I don't know about you, I've tried to be perfect. Anyone else tried? How'd you go? Right, we can't be perfect because we have a sinful nature. That's why we follow the One who is perfect. We can't be righteous. The Bible says that none of us are righteous. In fact, the Bible says that our greatest attempts of righteousness is what, filthy rags. That's why we follow the One who is righteous. So if I'm looking at in the context where I need to be perfect, I need to be righteous, man, I'm just discouraged because I'm like, I'm scared. I'm scared now that Jesus is going to come back and he's going to say to me, I never knew you. But I started to understand that's not what this is actually teaching. Because it didn't make sense to me that Jesus would tell anyone, I never knew you. When the Bible says to me that he formed me already from the womb of my mother, that he knows me so intimately, he knows how many hairs I have on my head. So what do you mean, I never knew you? It doesn't make sense until we realise what he's actually speaking of. When Jesus is saying, I never knew you, he's not saying, I don't know who you are. He's saying, I never knew you because you never made a decision to actually have a relationship with me. How is it that you get to know someone? You get to know someone by spending time with them. That's how you know anyone. And you know how it is when you're young and even older. But when you fall in love and you really like someone, all you want to do is spend time with that person. And by spending time with that person, that's how you get to know them. That's how your relationship grows. When Jesus says, I never knew you, he's not saying, you messed up, you weren't perfect, you didn't keep the commandments perfectly. No, he's not saying that. He's saying, I never knew you because you never made a decision to actually live your life in a way where I was that important to you, where I and you had a relationship. That's why he says, I don't know you. You see, I have people come up to me all the time because they've heard me preach here or they've heard me preach there. And the reality is, it's like, I don't know you, right? I don't know you because I don't know you. I'm meeting you for the first time. I don't know you. We have no relationship. We haven't spent time together. I don't know anything about you, therefore I don't know you. But if we did spend time together, if we did have a relationship, if we did be intentional about getting to know each other, now I know you. And so I'm looking at this and I'm looking at it from this perspective. Jesus is telling us, I'm coming back soon. And you see, in Matthew 7, we're talking in the context of Christians, not just Christians, but Christians that did many things in the name of Jesus. Christians that lived, on paper, a good Christian life. That's why I'm saying we cannot be fooled, church, into thinking that what's going to save us at the end of the day is the things that we've done. We can't come to Jesus with a list of accomplishments to say, look how good of a savvy I am. I did it all. There are some people that when Jesus comes back, are going to say to Jesus, jesus, I always kept the Sabbath. Jesus always did this, Jesus always that. And for some of them, Jesus is going to say, I never knew you. And then we're going to be confused because Jesus is going to say, depart from me. Those that practise lawlessness, right? And we're going to be but God. But I always kept the commandments. Well, you see, so did the Pharisees. And Jesus made it very clear that they weren't saved because of their commandment keeping. Because at the end of the day, lawlessness isn't, you know, we need to understand when the Bible says that sin is transgression of the law, we need to be very careful how we interpret that. Because if we interpret that to be just following the law without understanding what the very essence of that law is, what's the essence of the law of God? What were the Ten Commandments summed up into Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and love your neighbour as yourself. The very essence of God's law is love. Love for God and love for others. So you can keep those commandments as good as you want, but if you're not keeping them by loving God and by loving others, you are practising lawlessness. That's why there's going to be so many, you know, perfect Seventh Day Adventists at the end of the day in their minds, those self righteous ones that love to judge and condemn others. Sadly there's a few of them, you know, sometimes around, they're going to come very proudly, but I did all of this and they're going to be called practises of lawlessness. Not because they didn't keep the commandments, but because they didn't keep them out of love. Remember Jesus said in John 14:15, he said, if you love me, do what? Keep my commandments. Jesus is telling us with that verse there, if we keep the commandments for any other reason besides love, we're practising legalism, that's what that is. Keep the commandments for any other motive except for love. That's legalism. Jesus says, no, no, you need to love me. And through that love, you do this. And when we love God and we truly love God and we're connected to God and we have a relationship and a connection with Jes, then we love others. You know, we've got a sign at the front of the church, one of the signs that's on rotation there. I don't know if you've seen it, it says you cannot call yourself a Christian while at the same time treating people like garbage. Sadly, many of us do. That's the heart of what Jesus is getting to in this parable and it really encourages me to understand this. What are we being told here? We're being told here that there's going to be two groups, all right? Two groups found. There's going to be the wise and the foolish. The wise and the foolish. Those are the two groups that Jesus is going to find within his body when he comes back. One group is focused and dependent on their works. This group is the what the foolish ones. The second group is their salvation is focused and dependent on their relationship with Jesus. Those are the wise ones. Those are the ones that have the oil because they are connected to Jesus. Because Jesus is a priority for them in their life. They are intentional about their relationship with Jesus. They make a point to go through life with Jesus, not without Jesus. They seek first the kingdom of God. These are the people that have the extra oil. They're not perfect, they still have struggles, they still mess up at times, but they are connected to Jesus. If they fall, they hold on to the promises of God and they get back up and they keep walking with the Lord. These are the ones that are the wise ones. They're not wise because they have wisdom in themselves. They're wise because they put their focus, their trust, their dependence, everything solely on Jesus Christ. When he comes back, Jesus is going to be, yeah, I know you, I know you. You're the one that has the struggle. But every time you're struggling, you're coming to me for help. Every time you fall, you come to me to help you pick you back up. Every time you're facing a trial, you come to me first. Every time you go through something, you're with me, Jesus, like I know you. These are the two groups that Jesus is going to find at the end of time. We need to ask ourselves, which group are we going to be in? Now I want to ask you this question and we're going to finish up. This is the last slide that I'm sharing. Are you ready for the soon return of Jesus? Now I remember getting asked this question in my, in my early Adventist experience and I remember it being asked in a really toxic context, are you ready for Jesus to come back? And always looking at that question, thinking about my works. Have you ever been caught up in that, thinking about your works? Are you ready for Jesus to come back? Well, I don't know. I've got the list of everything I need to be a good Seventh Day Adventist. So I've got to tick all the boxes and thinking in my mind that if I do that then that makes me ready. I want you to understand church. You know, sometimes when people ask me that question now, are you ready for the return of Jesus? I go, what do you mean by ready? Please explain it to me. More often than not, sadly, the explanation comes out to be a works based thing. To be ready for the return of Jesus means that you have made a commitment to follow Jesus. It means that you have made a commitment to make Jesus number one. It means that even though you may struggle, even though you go through things, you are doing all of that. You're going through that experience with Jesus. You do life with Jesus. Jesus is your number one. When people meet you, they know you're connected to Jesus because it's obvious that you have a relationship with Him. This is what it means to be ready for the return of Jesus now, through that relationship, through that connection, yes, God gives us the power to overcome things. God gives us the power to be able to do the things that he convicts us in His Word. We need to do and live the way we should live. But our focus can't be on the things we need to do. Our focus always has to be on Jesus. And it's through that that the rest will happen. So I want to ask you this morning, Church, are you ready for the return of Jesus? He's coming back soon. Are you going to be in one group that when he comes back, you're going to realise that your whole focus and dependence was on what you needed to do, or are you going to be on that group? Remember, Jesus tells this powerful story. He Sundays, there were two men praying in a temple one day. He said there was a tax collector and a Pharisee. The Pharisee always did the right thing on paper. Even though the heart was messed up, the Pharisee always did the right thing. The Pharisee kept the law to the letter. And you have the tax collector, who was a known and obvious sinner. Jesus says, the two of them are praying in a temple one day. The tax collector comes up and he just says, lord, I need you. I struggle, Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm messed up, Lord, I need you. That was the prayer of the tax collector. He says. Then the Pharisee comes up and he goes to pray. You know what he says? He says, thank you, Lord, that I'm not like this tax collector. And Jesus says, which one of those two do you think was justified? Which one? The one who did all the right things on paper? Or the one who understood his brokenness and his need of Jesus, that even though he was the way he was, he realised that that is why he needed Jesus. And because of that, he made a decision and a commitment to do life with Jesus, to have a relationship with Jesus. I want to ask you, Church, how important is Jesus in your life? Is Jesus truly your number one priority in life, or is your priority on other things? Is your mind elsewhere? Because if your priority and focus is not Jesus. It could be, brothers and sisters, that when he comes back, you may find yourself in a group that you're not happy being in. And when he comes back, it's too late. Jesus has given us another opportunity today to fix that. Come to him and ask him to help you. Come to him and ask him, Lord, please help me. I struggle. I don't desire you the way that I should. Lord, please put that desire inside of my heart for you. Lord. I get so easily distracted by things of the world. Lord, help me with that. Lord, I'm caught up in all of this other stuff, but I want you to be my number one. Please, can you help me? Do you think if you come to Jesus today with that kind of and see prayer, he's not going to answer it? You have the opportunity today, brethren, to make Jesus your number one. You have the opportunity today to start working on that relationship so that it is so strong, so that when he comes back, he sees you, he calls you by name, he says, I know you. Let's go, let's go to the, let's go to the party. You want to know the ticket? To get you in, you need to know the bouncer. I don't know about. I know some of you never did that. I used to go to clubs and sometimes there are bouncers, they're going to let you in or not. If you know the bouncer, door's open. Think of it that way. You need to know the one who opens the door to get in. That's what it's all about. We get so caught up in the things we need to do and we forget that. Jesus tells us, follow me and let me do in and through you what you cannot do for yourself. We have no natural power or ability to do those things. But what we need to do is focus on Christ. And through that, through our relationship, the rest will happen. Amen. God bless you. Let's bow our heads, let's have a word of prayer. As we're about to pray. Just as every head is bowed and every eye is closed, just want to make an invitation. If today you just, in your heart, you just want to come to Jesus, Maybe you feel like you've been playing footsies with the world, tippy toeing, haven't made a commitment, but you want to change that. You want to make Jesus your priority. You want your relationship with him to be the most important thing in your life. Understanding that through and from that, everything else will flow. Maybe you've been caught up in this group that is focused and dependent on works. And you've realised today that that's not how it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be based on your relationship and your love for Jesus. If this morning you just, in your heart you just want to say, God, help me, please help me, help me to, to desire you more, help me, Father, to do what I can to grow my relationship with you. If that's in your heart. I just want to pray and ask that you just raise your hands as we pray, saying to Jesus, lord, help me, I want my relationship with you to be the most important thing in my life. Father in heaven. Lord, as we come to you this morning, you see these hands that are raised? These hands are raised, Father, because we recognise, Lord, that we need you and we need to be closer to you and we need our relationship with you to be our number one priority in our life. We know Jesus is coming back. We know that the world and the things that are happening when we see the prophecies, we know that the Bible is screaming at us that Jesus is coming back. And maybe because it's been so long, some of us maybe have been falling asleep a little, we've been getting drowsy. Help us to be wide awake. Help us to be focused so much on Jesus that when he comes back we're ready and we have extra oil because we spend extra time in our life trying to make our relationship with Jesus grow and to be stronger. Help us, Lord. Father, if we've been getting caught up in works based salvation, please save us from that. Get it out of our minds, Lord. For some of us it's so ingrained, Lord, that it's hard to break out of that mindset. Lord, we need your power to break out of that mindset. So Lord, we just want to thank you for this morning. Want to thank you for this reminder. Help us to live encouraged, knowing that when you come back you're going to say to us, I know you because of the relationship we have with you. And if for whatever reason we know that that's not where it should be, help us to leave encouraged today, knowing that today you're giving us another opportunity to make that right. We thank you and we ask for this in Jesus name. Amen. This message was made available by the Ryde Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their YouTube 3amryde Seventh Day Adventist Church. This programme has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia radio.