[Darris McNeely] How do you feel after a night's sleep? Are you one that bounces out of bed all perky, ready to go and greet the day? You're not. Or are you the opposite, groggy, grumpy, like a bear waking up from hibernation and it just can't wait to get out? You know, you can't get out of bed in that way. And in our family, my wife is the perky one, she's up she's ready to go, she's chirping like a robin out in the backyard looking for worms and ready to go for the day. And I'm the bear, I lag behind a little bit.

You know, sleep is more of a… I think it's such a science. I looked up some articles on sleep and I mean it has been studied and examined as to what happens when we sleep, the best kind of sleep, and there's a lot of information. I mean, there are sleep studies, sleep institutes if you have a problem you can have yourself monitored and it is quite a science. But I have personally come to feel I think that it's probably is more of an art than anything else to just find that right pillow. You know, my pillow, your pillow, their pillow. We got so many different pillows, we have sleep number beds, we have you know, hard and soft. And you know, we have worked and tried to get the right combination of pillow and firmness of mattress and kind of all through our years. And it's still something that we’re… right pillow and get it just right in bed at night takes a while to find it all and get it all done. My point is sleep is a very important part of our life and obviously, it's vital to good health. You can't sleep, you go a long time without it, something will break down.

When we look in the Bible, we see that sleep is used and mentioned and referenced in many different ways, many different circumstances. It talks about in the Bible that we lie down in peace, and we sleep. We have peace of mind when your life is going well, that can certainly aid peace. If there's turmoil and stress, that impacts our sleep as well. It talks about in the Bible, the sluggard is told to rise from his sleep in places as well and so speaking more of a spiritual way. When you come to the Gospels, you find that the disciples actually slept while Jesus went and prayed the night of His arrest there in the garden. And He came and found them asleep and said, "You can't even watch with Me for a short period of time."

And we also see obviously, that when we study what the Bible says about death, we see that death is referred to as a type of sleep from which we awake in the resurrection. And so you see all the various ways by which sleep is used in the Scriptures, it's not always bad, and it can be used in a good way as well as a way that doesn't necessarily give us the best indication there. There's one reference in scripture that tells us… and several actually, but one specifically that tells us the Church could be in danger of sleeping before the return of Jesus Christ. Now, how could that be? How could that be? Makes you ask, could the Church be asleep now, or is it awake and is it alert? What is the condition of the Church? You know in Revelation 3, one of the messages to one of the churches at Sardis says in Revelation 3, Christ says to the church there, "I know all the things that you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive," He says, "but you are dead." Revelation 3:1 to the church at Sardis. He says, "Wake up, Church of God, wake up."

What I'd like to do this afternoon is look at where we are told about the Church sleeping in the parable of the 10 virgins, and examine that today and draw certain lessons from that. One in particular about what happens not so much when the church sleeps but when it wakes. Turn over to Matthew 25, if you will, and we will go through this particular parable, a well-known parable that is actually a part of the Olivet prophecy. Mr. Kubik, in his first message here, talked about the Olivet prophecy that begins in verse 1 of chapter 24. And what isn't always understood is this prophecy that was spoken by Christ on the Mount of Olives continues on into chapter 25 through the end of chapter 25 with several parables. We're going to examine just one of them here today. But it's a complete message that Christ gives, an answer to what the disciples asked about the signs of the coming of the age. But He also gives some very specific instruction to the church here in chapter 25 with three parables. We're not going to have the time to go through all three of them, we'll just look at the one about the parable of the 10 virgins. But it is instruction about the church where, when we dig deep into it, gives us a great deal of instruction.

So here in Matthew 25, let's dive into it. Let me just read through the parable here and then we'll go back and we'll look at it, the individual verses, and explain it. So Christ continues on in this prophecy, verse 1. Then He says, "The kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and… five 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. And 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 the 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 virgins came also, saying, the other virgins, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But He answered, and He said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know 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." A very compact story told in the form of a parable of a well-known occasion and social custom to the hearers not only of Christ's disciples in the first-century church but certainly to us today because it's about a wedding. And it's about a group of people being prepared for a wedding.

Now let's go back up to the first part of it in verse 1 and let's look at this now in detail, and let's learn exactly what is being said here. And I think even perhaps see something perhaps we haven't always seen as we focus on this particular parable. Obviously, Christ says, "The kingdom of heaven is likened to ten virgins." The subject of the kingdom of heaven, or the Kingdom of God, and lamps that are there that go out to meet the bridegroom. And so it is the setting of a wedding. Now, we understand that we have our weddings today, we have our methods by which people come together, get engaged, become married. And by and large, in the Western world today, we have that custom and know-how that happens. But in Christ's day, the custom was a bit different than what we're used to today.

In Christ's day, the parents were more involved, that is different than a lot of times today. Parents aren't always involved. I know mine weren't in my choice of my wedding and my selection to the desire to marry my wife, Debbie. They didn't meet her until the day of the wedding. And we'd already kind of agreed to… she accepted my proposal before I met her parents. I did ask her father for permission but they didn't know me, they didn't know my family, and it didn't work that way. And it's typically what happens a lot today. But in Christ's day, the families knew one another, and the parents were very much involved. And very often, back at that time, there was a dowry. In other words, the groom had to come up with a price to pay for the bride, all right. Think about that if that would have been the case to happen today.

You know, it still goes on in parts of the world, a dowry has to be paid to be able to first marry. A couple of years ago, I was in West Africa, the Ivory Coast, Côte d'Ivoire and we had a couple there who were attending our training session. And they wanted to be married, but they could not and had not been able to be married because the groom had to come up with a dowry. Parts of Africa and Asia today, this is still going on. And so they were there, introduced themselves as kind of an engaged couple, but he hadn't yet paid the dowry price to, in her case, her brother who was the nearest living relative in order to be able to marry her. So it still goes on today and it is still there.

And this was a part of the ritual and the custom in Christ's day. In Christ's day, when the decision to marry was made, there would be then a delay from the time of what we would call engagement or the acceptance of the proposal by the bride to be, there would be a delay. Because once the agreement was made, there would have to be a sealing of the agreement. The interesting part of that was they would drink wine from a common cup. And by the bride drinking of that, she accepted the proposal of the groom of her husband to be. She didn't drink the cup of wine, then it wouldn't go through.

Once the agreement was made, the groom then would go and prepare a place. And a lot of times that was in the home of his father, he would have to add on a room to the father. Think about that today, ladies and gals, if that were the case of how it would be. I mean, sometimes it does go ahead and happen that way today, but not always. But the father of the groom would then pronounce things ready once that house was prepared, and then preparations could then move forward quickly for the wedding. So there's a lot that is involved in the way that weddings took place in the ancient world, especially in the area of Israel, that helps us to understand a lot of different scriptures. Because when it was finished and declared ready, then the groom would go and fetch the bride and the wedding party would be made ready and a feast would take place lasting several days.

Christ did a miracle of turning water into wine at the wedding in Canaan that had been going on for a long time, several days. And that's the way it went, it could go up to a week. And all of this is very important to understand. The groom would go through the streets and an announcement would be made, "The bridegroom is coming, the bridegroom is coming." And the whole village, the whole town would be involved in this.

Now, when we look at some of the other passages and compare it with what is taking place here in this particular parable, we can know very clearly that what we're being told in this parable is that Jesus is the Bridegroom here in this parable. His Father prepares the wedding. And the Church is likened to these 10 virgins. In this case, the 10 virgins are the collective body of the Church for this parable. Paul says in one other place that he has betrothed the church to one husband to present it as a chaste virgin. And so we see that connection there. And in Ephesians 5, the human marriage is compared to the relationship of Christ and the church. And several scriptures help us to understand what exactly we are to learn from here. We have this picture of the kingdom of heaven, and Christ, and the church, through the 10 virgins and getting ready for a marriage to come at the coming of Christ.

Lamps are a part of this. A lamp in that day was typically a small clay lamp with a spout and a handle and a reservoir for the oil and a wick in it. And I think most of us know that that lamp would provide light, it would provide heat, perhaps some small heat as well, but primarily the light. And when we understand that from other scriptures, we as Christians are to be the light of the world or the light of God's Word guiding our path. And all of that is a part of what… is in this imagery as well. The oil is the fuel that burns and produces the light. Typically olive oil at this particular time. And that is also a type of God's Holy Spirit as we understand from other scriptures as well. And so here's the setting for this in verse 1. Now in verse 2, let's move on, it says then, "The five were wise, and five were foolish." Fifty-fifty, five wise, five foolish. Keep in mind, these 10 represent collectively the Church. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

Now, let's pause for a moment. You know, there's always a big mixture of people in God's Church of different types and different reasons for being there. The Parable of the Sower and the Seed tells us how some people can have very deep-rooted structures, spiritual structures, to be a part of the church that endures the heat of the day or persecution. While others might not have the deep roots, and they might fade after a period of time when trial or tribulation comes. So those help us to understand that the mixture of people that some are wise, some are foolish. Some are in the Church for all of the right scriptural reasons while some may not be and may not have that full depth. As many of us have been, being among the church of God for any length of time, and you see that this is very true, always a mixture. It's been said in the past sometimes that, you know, half the church was understanding and faithful while the other half wasn't. And in some of our past episodes, we've seen that 50-50 would be a very generous division of that particular situation.

But I think for this purpose, the different mixtures of people, it says five wise, five foolish, the reality is all seem to have God's Spirit, the problem is just not enough. Just not enough. Here in this parable, foolishness is defined by the lack of enough oil, not by the absence of oil, or the Spirit, but not having enough. They had some oil, the foolish did, they had it in their lamps but what you see when you look at this is the foolish didn't have extra beyond enough to keep the light burning in the lamp. Once it

all ran out of the lamp, it was gone. The “wise took oil in their vessels,” it says in verse 4, “with their lamps.” They had oil in a separate vessel as well as what they entered into with a full lamp. In other words, they could replenish it. They had an abundance of supply. And we'll see this further as we along here. So the wise had extra but all of them had some.

Verse 5, "While the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept." If that's the church, then the entire church slumbers and sleeps. Now, keep in mind, there's a delay built into the actual custom of marriage in that day. That delay could be many months, maybe up to a year or even more from the time of engagement to the actual marriage ceremony. Typically may not go that long, although I've known of cases where engagement periods may go beyond a year. And that's typically not recommended but sometimes it does happen because of certain circumstances that go on. In this particular setting, they could not have the marriage event until the place was prepared for which the groom could then take his bride, and then he could go and make the announcement that he was coming. So there's a delay, and we all know what happens when there is a delay, distractions, time goes by. And in this case, leading to the fact that all slumbered and slept.

Now, keep in mind what I said at the beginning, the Bible tells us a lot of things about sleep and how it is used to describe certain things. And from all of that, I don't think that we should take the sleep here even is all bad if we recognize that they all slept. Sleeping by itself is not the bad part. What I take from this parable is what was wrong is that five had not prepared enough. They didn't have a supply, extra supply of the Spirit. They didn't have a reserve reservoir to draw from after a period of time. And that then sets up the problem. We talked about a delay here. Now, the parables… in fact, the parable following this, the parable of the talents that begins in verse 14 talks about that delay whereby talents are given and then the good man leaves, and those that are given five talents are expected to grow those talents. And then there's a time of accounting.

So there was a delay in that. Christ says, "Do business until I come," in one of these parables. A delay from the time of one's calling, from one's entry into the Church, when one receives the Holy Spirit through baptism and repentance, the laying on of hands. And as the other parables tell us, it's all a matter of using that time well during that intervening period. And that time can be the times of our life as we are all in the midst of that right now. Remember, the engagement occurred and then the wedding could be delayed for a long period of time while a place was being prepared. Christ said, "I go and prepare a place for you." And so we're in that, we're involved in that, and we understand how the plan of God works. It says, "They all slept," but keep in mind, the Church here is represented by all of the 10 virgins and sleep can have multiple applications in this way. It can mean that they went to sleep spiritually, some did.

But think about how sleep works in your life, works in my life. You know, we sleep to rest. Hard day of work we're fatigued, we go to bed. Hopefully, we go to bed fairly quickly, we don't toss and turn through the night, we don't have to count sheep, we don't have to, you know, pop some type of other drug or whatever as a sleep aid to help us. We can sleep the sleep of peace and then wake up after several hours, five hours, seven hours, whatever is your optimum time. And you're ready to go for the next day because the type of sleep that we get is restful and it restores us to wake up to the work of a new day. And I think that that also has to be factored into this parable because they all slept, even the wise slept. We want to be and should be endeavoring to be a part of the wise because when we wake up, then we're energized and we are ready then to continue the work.

In this case, in the parable, going to the marriage ceremony because of the announcement that comes. Because verse 6 then tells us "At midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’” Typically, the way this actually worked is the bridegroom would go through the streets with his party and his friends in a typical small village of the time, in Israel and in Judah here, they would have gone through making noise. And it would have been at night and they would have gone through announcing, "The bridegroom is coming, the bridegroom is coming." And people would have come out of their homes and that would have become a parade, and the bride would be collected, the party would come out, they would all meet, and then they would go to the wedding and begin the festivity of the wedding. And this is literally how it happens. The bridegroom is coming, the virgins arose in verse 7, they go out to meet him, they're ready and they begin to take action.

Now, notice something here that I think is a very important takeaway for us. "At midnight a cry was heard: ‘The bridegroom is coming.’" A lot of people have appropriated this particular verse and passage in their prophetic ministries through the years. I remember seeing one years ago called the midnight cry, a prophecy newsletter that was put out by a particular ministry. And so it is talking about the time of Christ's return, that's the lesson we draw. And I think a big takeaway for us here is that we're going to see the announcement, the preparation finished now, and the knowledge that Christ is coming. The alarm, the notice will take place at a moment of greatest spiritual darkness in all time. That's what we must conclude from the Scriptures that speak to the timing and the days and that age before Christ's return. That's just what we went through, Mr. Kubik's message, and what Matthew 24… all the different signs Christ gave to that. Christ is going to come at the moment of greatest spiritual darkness in all of history. I'll have more to say about that in a minute.

It says in verse 7 then the “virgins arose,” and notice what they did, they “trimmed their lamps.” They trimmed their lamps. Now, when we get up, what do we do? We flick a switch on, don't we? We don't trim our lamps because that's something that's not part of our life today. But here's what the trimming of the lamp did if you've ever done that with one of these old hurricane oil lamps. We have a small one in our home and thinking about it, it needs to be trimmed sometime soon, cleaned up a bit to give off more light. You trim away the burnt-off portion of the wick, get it positioned just right in order to be drawing the right amount of oil to oxygen to give the maximum amount of light. Let it go and it's not doing its job, it's sluggish, it's not functioning. To trim the wick is what it means to, you know, bring forth more light, more of the effect of the oil, in this case, the Spirit of God by clipping it, smoothing it, even pruning it.

That phrase carries over into other areas. If you've ever done any sailing or read about sailing, there is a phrase, "To trim the sails." If you're on a boat, and you adjust your sails according to the wind and the weather, you do it so that the sail then captures the maximum amount of wind from the direction that it is going at that time in order to propel the boat forward. You trim your sails, they say in a boat And so it's just used like that. There's a phrase from a Shakespeare play Henry V, where the King Henry is rallying his troops at the Battle of Agincourt, to go out to meet the French. British against the French in that one. The Kenneth Branagh version of this speech is the best one if you ever want to look it up later where he goes through this. It's a stirring, powerful, passionate speech and it has this line as the king comes down to his final clinching argument for his troops that he says, "Our hearts are in the trim." Meaning that his troops are ready to go. They're straining at the reins ready to go out and engage the enemy in battle. "Our hearts are in the trim."

I've listened to it many, many times through the years and there's a spiritual application there for every one of us that our hearts must be in the trim, ready to engage spiritually. And that's the application here with this parable. When they woke to the sound of the bridegroom coming, knowing that the time is near, knowing that the movement has begun of the bridegroom from his home to the streets directly, figurative, however, we can apply that today, we wake up. The virgins all woke and they trimmed their lamps. All of the church must be awake and ready when Christ returns, and when the call even comes out to know that time is impending and is very, very near. Why? I think a big takeaway, again, for us out of this is to be able to finish the work that has to be done because they're not quite yet to the marriage supper. They have to yet respond, they have to trim their lamps.

Our hearts will have to be on the trim. Are we asleep? Are you asleep? Am I asleep? Do I need a little bit more waking up you? Do you? That's where we have to put ourselves in this parable and ask that question. And if our wick needs to be trimmed just a bit in order to let the flow of God's Spirit move through us more to finish the work, then we're right there and we're among the wise. Notice in verse 8, "The foolish then said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out,'" which tells you they had oil even through the time they slept, they just didn't take enough to finish the job in a separate vessel. Our light is going out, our lamps are running low, “Give us some of your oil,” so they still had some, but not enough. What did the wise say? "No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’" They couldn't, they wouldn't. Was that harsh? Was that cruel? No, it's the way it worked.

Salvation is a personal matter, nobody can repent for us. When it comes to the time of our commitment to God and accepting the blood of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, nobody can do that for us. If anyone ever makes the decision to do that, for pressure to conform, to be a part of the Church or to please someone else, it's not the right reason. Salvation is a personal matter. You can't borrow a relationship with God. You can't borrow a relationship with God. Each of us has to develop that ourselves through time, through prayer, through the study of the Word. No one can develop it for us. You can't borrow a relationship with God. The power of the Spirit must be at work within us individually.

Now, verse 10, "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." Shutting of a door. It's a note of finality. There are certain things at times, as Jesus gives instruction through the Gospel accounts, that indicate there will be a time when the door will be shut, there will be a final and it's done. Now, how this applies for the foolish, I don't think it gives us exactly other than, as we'll see, they do come knocking on the door. But I think all of us should recognize that there is a finality in our life and we should be prepared for that by being awake, by being close to God, by using God's Holy Spirit. Verse 11 says, "Afterward the other virgins came also saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us! Lord, Lord, open to us!’ And He answered He said, ‘I say to you, assuredly, I do not know you.’" Again, a very ominous tone of finality. This is quite a contrast.

Some of you may already be thinking ahead of me and hope with me that there is another message to the church in Revelation 3, the Laodicean church. The church at Laodicea, where Jesus stands outside the door knocking and saying, "Let Me come in to dine with you." And part of the problem of the church of Laodicea was that they had a deficiency in their relationship with Christ, but He was outside the door and wanted to come in. Now, it's kind of reversed here in this parable because Christ is at the wedding and the five foolish are knocking, wanting to come in, "Please open to us, Lord." And He says, "No, I don't know you." And on that note of ominous, dark thought, He concludes in verse 13 "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming." Watch, you don't know. They didn't know exactly when the bridegroom would be coming, and we don't know when the Son of Man is coming. But Christ had given us signs to look for in chapter 24, correct?

And that's His teaching, that's His words. Words of red in your Bible and in my Bible, which means it comes from our Lord, and it means listen up, it means pay attention, it means think deeply about it. Because this comes from the head of the Church, this comes from our Lord and the one to whom we will marry. Now, what do we learn? Well, while it's not good to slumber spiritually, we should never want to be engaged in that, is what happens when we wake up that's critical, I think. A critical takeaway from this. And so for the sake of discussion, if we are asleep, if you're asleep if I'm a little bit sluggish, what do we do? Well, we have the time to wake up right now, we have the time to trim our lives and our heart, trim the wick if you will. Ask some deep and hard questions at this moment in our church experience. Are we in a time of slumber? Could some part of the church be asleep or not quite using the Spirit enough?

Let's think about the times in which we're living. I came to the conclusion a few weeks ago, I think I wrote this somewhere to somebody in a message, that we're in a COVID-induced sleep, have been for about a year now. A COVID-induced sleep. The world, the nation, could some part of us in the Church be in a COVID-induced sleep? The last year has had consequences. The impact of shutting down, disrupting. It disrupted the life of the church. Think about no camps last year, no summer camps. Feast of Tabernacles was a different experience, the way we kept it, wasn't it? And we just made a decision this week that we can't hold our general conference of elders meeting and May in person, it'll be a virtual conference again, second year in a row to conduct the business of the church because of what we're dealing with. And we are making plans for the camps and I think they're going to be able to go and certainly the Feast as well, but there'll still be certain restrictions and the temperature check and all the other matter. But look at all the has happened in the consequences of shutting down during the last year.

Christ had to watch, you don't know the day or the hour which the Son of Man is coming. A year ago when all this began to erupt, in March now of 2020, I remember that we said, as we were responding to questions from people in the Church, is this the ride of the fourth horsemen of Revelation 6? And of course, you know, what the fourth horseman is, right? It's that of pandemic. Is this what's happening? And I remember saying, and I think we wrote it as well, no, this is not the fourth horseman riding right now. A lot of other things have to take place prophetically before that. But you know what? A lot has happened since then. A lot has happened. It's very clear that we are in a time of growing spiritual darkness. The spiritual forces are gathering at this point to create a world that the Bible calls Babylon. I firmly believe that and a year ago, I couldn't see that. But circumstances are showing something different, we're slouching toward Babylon. This world is slouching toward Babylon day by day at a rapid rate.

Just this past week, through the Congress of the United States, the House of Representatives, a law was passed, or they passed a version of a law called the Equality Act. It's now in the Senate, if the Senate approves it, it will become law and it will change a lot. It will change many things. It could change everything when it comes to what we do in the church, other churches, and the world. And it's going to be very interesting to watch that. An act that essentially, not going into all the details, seeks to codify… seeks to codify sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under civil rights law. It will have the effect of amending the Civil Rights Law of 1965 in unprecedented ways that will impact churches, the United Church of God, the Southern Baptist Church, hospitals, organizations, and associations of faith by the way it uses language to redefine what in a sense we are as a church to then require that no discrimination based on gender and sexual identity can be made. And with that in hand, it will alter everything.

What is being done is the effort to overturn the created order set by God in Scripture, this is what is taking place. And this particular one is big, it is threatening the religious liberty of every church and faith organization in America. We are watching the nations with the Abrahamic blessings rushing madly to discard those blessings and to cast them off in unprecedented actions and issues that are taking place. Already we have seen freedom of speech impact many other ministries, bigger ministries than the United Church of God, big names have had to apologize, have had their programming ripped off… and I'm talking ministries. I'm not talking about politicians, I'm not talking about authors, I'm talking about big evangelical ministries in the United States have already begun to be canceled. They haven't come to our door yet and we can thank God that they haven't.

But we've already begun to talk about what would happen should some morning we wake up and you cannot find ucg.org, the switch has been flipped and we are off. What do we do? We've spent an hour-and-a-half talking about that in our council meetings this past week. Freedom of speech is being impacted through this cancel culture and it will impact our ability to preach the gospel. We're watching it very carefully, we should, they are real, and that it is threatening. Return to normal, I don't think so. I think that if… a year ago I was saying like, "Oh, well, you know, it's going to get back, we'll be okay." Like I said, a lot of things have happened since then. If we believe that life is going to return to normal, I think we misunderstand the serious nature of the times that we're living through, and what has happened. There is a spiritual evil driving the cultural, moral, and social issues that put people into the streets and seeks to overturn all remaining godly norms. Spiritual evil is behind this.

Evil is driving policies and actions of the headlines that we see in our world today and we have to get beyond everything else and understand that. It takes the Spirit of God to discern that. I truly believe that. That it takes understanding what the Scriptures are telling us to understand the spiritual evil that is behind these issues, and see that as a people of God, and understand it. Regardless of where we are in the timeline of prophecy, we've got to be awake and spiritually alert to that. It is here and we're not going back to what it was before. And we need to watch with the Spirit, discern with the Spirit, it is the Spirit that gives life. And that's where this parable I think has instruction for us, as we want to classify ourselves among the wise that have enough of that Spirit who when that cry comes… and I began to personally wonder, are we not hearing that cry already being echoed? And we should certainly take it very seriously.

Here's my point. When the shout of the bridegroom comes, it says, "The virgins wake, trim their lamps, and those with enough oil will be strong." Strong to the finish. So the question is for us all, are we awake? Are we prepared? Is our wick trimmed? Are our hearts in the trim? Now, to get specific to I think a takeaway for us is we're dealing with the Spirit of God, the oil in the lamp, the light. We have to have enough of the Spirit of God to finish strong. Ask yourself, what feeds you spiritually? What feeds you spiritually right now? I'm not talking about what we like or what is our interest but what does feed you deep down in a relationship with God? Because that's what we need to engage in that. That which feeds us spiritually for a long, long time. We're in a moment where this is not instant recipes that we need. We don't need spiritual ramen noodles right now. We need something of substance that feeds us spiritually for a long time to spend our mind, our life, and our time, and our focus, on to make sure that we are strong.

Think about the gifts of the Spirit if you will for a moment. The Bible talks about the gifts of the Spirit, the manifest expression of the Holy Spirit, the oil in the lamp. What is your gift? Find your gift. Find your gift, and do it. Make sure you know what God has given to you as a gift. Don't worry about somebody else's gift, it's theirs, find yours. Find your niche, find what flips your switch, what interests you when it comes to God, His church, His work. Some feel a great need to go and do good works, I say do it. Do those good works. We have a fabulous opportunity right now for a moment here in Cincinnati with the farmers to families food trucks that are rolling in here every week right now for the next few weeks and have been for some time back. To be a conduit, if you will, in this program that sends food out to people. There are other areas of good works. Even our Good Works program in the Church has had to be sidelined because of COVID. But I think there'll be a time when we'll probably be able to restart some of those, hopefully, sooner rather than later. But if that's your gift, if that's your passion, then do it.

Is your gift to encourage? Then do it with a phone call, then do it with a kind word, do it with a card or a letter. Barnabas in the Book of Acts, whose name means son of courage, he liked the unlikable. He liked a man named Saul, who when Saul came through the Church in Jerusalem everybody fled from him because he was a fearsome, fire-breathing, Saul. And Barnabas went across the room and took him in, introduced him, and then mentored him, son of encouragement.

Is your gift that of service? Quietly in the background perhaps, that's a gift. Dorcas in the book of Acts gathered the widows with her works, her good works. Cornelius the centurion was known for giving alms to the poor. And he did it on a centurion salary, which was a pittance. My wife loves to gather people at our dinner table and share stories and hear theirs. I love to preach the gospel, that was bred into me from the very beginning days as a 12-year-old in the Church of God. Go to do the work, the work, the work here, the work of preaching the gospel. I love to preach the gospel. And I love to teach the next generation.

Find your gift because that gift is the express manifestation of the Holy Spirit and that's what we are going to need to draw ourselves together. Find your gift and do it with joy. Don't judge others harshly if they don't share your passion for your gift. Just recognize that your gift, somebody else's gift is what knits the Church together with every joint supplying something that's how it works. Find your gift and appreciate the gift of others.

In 1 Corinthians 12, let's turn over and read this. 1 Corinthians 12 is the gift chapter, spiritual gifts. And three verses I think can help us sum this up. 1 Corinthians 12:4, Paul says, "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts," like I said, to encourage, to serve, to do good works, to preach the gospel, to teach. Find your gift, appreciate the gifts of others. There are different kinds but he says, "the same Spirit is the source of them all." That Spirit that must be strong and we must have the ample supply of it in our lamps to be among the wise of the parable. Verse 5 says, "There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord.” And it is that Lord to whom we anticipate His coming." And maybe even hearing some of the faint echoes of that now. Verse 6, "God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us by His Spirit." God works in different ways but it's the same God that works by His Spirit in all of us.

Now, before the coming of the Bridegroom is when we should be filling up our vessel, our lives with the oil of God's Spirit, the visible, tangible, expression of God in us, of Christ in us. So that when we wake or we begin to move at the voice of the coming Bridegroom, we have enough oil to finish and to go into the marriage supper. So what is your gift? What has God given to you? Find it, do it, and fill your vessel.