“Most of us — when we are faced with wrongdoing in our life — we deny, we rationalise, we minimise. … David found that the more he denied, the more he couldn’t escape the condemnation of God.”Dr. Matthew Flannigan
http://www.takaninichurch.org.nz/2015/06/psalm-32-dr-matthew-flannagan/
Takanini Community Church’s identity statement is one of the best that I have ever read.
“We Are: An open family of believers seeking to follow Jesus Christ and live out His teaching while we watch for His return.”
When I was thinking about what the Lord wanted me to share as Penny and I resume our roles here, one of the thoughts I had was to examine some texts that might serve as the scriptural basis for that statement.
Last time, we looked at Ephesians 2, and looked at what it meant for the Ephesians believers and other Christians in Paul’s time to live as a family.
Today’s text serves as a good scriptural basis for the idea of the local church being made up of believers in Jesus Christ.
The New Testament words for believe, trust and faith are all in the same word family. Keep that in mind as you listen to today’s text:
The apostle Peter lived through one of the most difficult and challenging times for the early church – a time when both the Jewish establishment in Palestine and the Roman authorities throughout the Gentile world were turning against Christians, treating them with discrimination and violence, and persecuting them for their faith.
The reason I mention this is that nowadays when some people talk about faith they are referring to something entirely different than what Peter was talking about in this passage. I have heard people describe faith as if it is some magical power that Christians get that they can use to make themselves healthier, wealthier and more intelligent. Some people think of faith as a kind of spiritual strength that can help them get promoted at their workplace, make a million dollars, or raise super-spiritual children without any effort.
Peter lived in a world where true believers did not think like that. They were treated very badly by everyone else, and some were being slaughtered for their faith. They were being set on fire to light Caesar’s parties. They were being beheaded. They were being sent to the arena, to be murdered by gladiators, or eaten by lions. It seems to me that if faith was something that you could use to overcome worldly distractions and be victorious over all your enemies, Peter had the perfect context in which to talk about that kind of faith. He could have told the believers he was writing to that if they wanted to keep from being persecuted and murdered by Jewish fundamentalists and Roman Nazis all they needed was more of this magic faith. Instead, this is the kind of thing we read in this letter:
· “There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while” (1:6).
· “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold– though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honour on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1:7).
· “even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats” (3:14).
· “Remember, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that is what God wants, than to suffer for doing wrong!” (3:17).
· “Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad– for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world” (4:12-13).
· “So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you” (4:19).
My point in bringing this up is that there are all kind of “believers” in this world, and all kinds of “faith.” So, when we say – as a church – that we are a family of believers in Christ, I want to make it absolutely clear what we are not saying. We are not saying that we have found the super-drug that is going to make us impervious to the problems and trials that normal people face in this life. If you’ve found that kind of faith, I’m glad for you, but I haven’t, and neither did Peter. He lived in a real world, where God’s love for him did not mean that he was going to live above its problems. In fact, Peter – and all the other apostles except for John – were executed for their faith. But their faith was real, and I believe it was that real faith that Peter was talking about. It is quite possible that some of the people in this generation who call themselves Christians have never been introduced to that real faith. Today’s text gives the basic defining elements of it. Let’s review them, shall we?
As odd as it may seem, true biblical faith does not begin with the act of believing. It begins with the object of that belief. You can have the strongest faith in the world, but if you put that faith in a rock or a piece of wood, your faith is useless. That’s why Peter begins his faith talk not by asking his readers to look deep inside, but asking them to look up. Faith works only if there is a powerful object of that faith.
The church’s faith-object is its founder: almighty God, who set the processes of our eternal redemption and restoration in place. He did this by choosing his own Son, and sending him to die in our place, as the ransom to buy us back from the consequences of our sin. Biblical faith begins with God.
The second basic element of biblical faith is also not something that we do, but something that was done for us. Christ’s death on the cross was absolutely essential. We could have had all the faith anyone has ever seen, and it would have been useless to save us. Sin had separated us from God’s favour and condemned us to experience his enmity and wrath. So, God in his love paid the sacrificial price for us. Jesus himself is described here as “the sinless, spotless lamb of God.” Suddenly, all those sacrifices under the old covenant make sense. They make sense not because God could ever really be appeased by an animal sacrifice. They make sense because they were pointing forward to the day when God himself would provide the sacrifice to bring atonement.
So, Peter tells his readers that those former sacrifices were prophecies, and that we have now been shown their fulfilment. Biblical faith can save because God has paid the ransom, “the precious blood of Christ.”
The focus of the Christian faith is Jesus Christ, and he is enough. You haven’t even begun to express that faith if you are still expecting God to do something else for you before you will really commit to him. Satan knows how to push your buttons, and he will keep pushing you as long as he thinks it is working. If you get into despair every time the road gets bumpy, he will keep you travelling on a bumpy road the rest of your life. His goal is to get you to give up.
But what happens when you are travelling that bumpy road, and you look to Jesus? He travelled it first, didn’t he? He came to this planet for the very purpose of suffering, being defeated and killed – for you.
He is the focus of your faith, not your faith. So, it really does not matter how much faith you have. All you need is a little tiny bit of faith – a mustard seed’s worth, because it’s not the quantity of your faith that matters. It’s the sufficiency of the focus of your faith: Jesus Christ. Your weak, small, tiny, diminutive, teensy-weensy faith is enough to save you for eternity if it is focused on the amazing, miraculous grace of God and the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Peter also tells us something about the future expectation of biblical faith. I think this is important for today because even Christians are often caught up in the wrong kind of hope. Listen to what Peter says about the Christian hope:
· “But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it” (3:14-15).
If you ask many average Christians today what their hope is, they will probably say something like “going to heaven when I die.” That would be the natural response that many would have to the question. The problem is, that response has absolutely nothing to do with what Peter had been talking about. Here is what Peter mentioned about the believer’s expectation in today’s text:
· “you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead” (1:21).
The hope that Peter steered his readers to was not a hope of something happening at death. It was a hope of a resurrection. Just as God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, so he will raise us when Jesus returns. Peter told his readers that they can stand firm in their faith because the same God who raised Christ and glorified him also intends to do the same for us. So, even if we do suffer during this life, our destiny is sure. The fact that Jesus suffered and then was raised and glorified is all the proof we need. And, the little faith that we have is all the faith that we need, because it is faith in the God who raises the dead.
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You are invited to join this family of believers seeking to follow Jesus Christ and live out his teaching while we watch for his return. Put your faith in God, focus your faith on Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and trust God to resurrect you and glorify you at his return!
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Today’s Easter message focuses on the text of Romans 5:6-11, from my own translation:
Romans 5:6-11
6 Because while we were still helpless, at just the right time Christ died on behalf of the ungodly. 7 (Because rarely will anyone die even on behalf of a righteous person, though someone might possibly dare to die for a good person, perhaps). 8 But God proves his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 So he did so much more, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved by him from God’s wrath. 10 For if while we were his enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life? 11 Not only this, but we also delight in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation.
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Growing up in Rural Florida, I encountered many symbols of the Easter holiday.
Some of these were symbols which had more to do with the fact that Easter happens in the Spring in the U.S.A. So new clothes and fresh flowers were prominent.
Other symbols had some loose connection to the biblical Easter story, like lambs and palm branches, or maybe a connection to the idea of resurrection, like butterflies.
But mostly as a child I remembered Easter because of Easter bunnies and Easter egg colouring, and Easter egg hunts.
![clip_image006[5]](https://jeffersonvann.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/clip_image00652.gif "clip_image006[5]")
As I grew older, I came to see that behind the rituals and the festivities of Easter, there is a story that needs to be told. It is not a story that is tied to any particular season of the year, or any date on the calendar. Easter marks an event of unimaginable significance. So, as the apostle Paul shows in today’s text, Easter is a celebration of something that Christ Jesus did for us. Verse six says that while we were still helpless, Christ died on the cross for the ungodly. Only he could pay the penalty because God required a sinless sacrifice, but none of us qualified. So, God sent his only Son to die on our behalf.
![clip_image008[5]](https://jeffersonvann.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/clip_image00852.gif "clip_image008[5]")
The Easter message is a love story. It is not a story about how much we love God. It is a story about how much God loves us – all of us. So, God did not wait until some of his people started acting more holy, or more mature, or more righteous. He sent his Son into a world that would abuse him, rebel against him, betray him and crucify him. That is love. It is love when you want another person’s welfare so much that you are willing to put your welfare in danger for the person you love. That is what Jesus did for us. It is ironic that most of the world is still looking for proof that God is real and that he loves them. The cross did that.
![clip_image010[5]](https://jeffersonvann.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/clip_image01052.gif "clip_image010[5]")
Easter makes two theological declarations. First, what Jesus did on the cross declares that those putting their trust in him are right now righteous in God’s sight. It does not matter how much we have sinned. It does not matter how much we have rebelled. It does not matter how far we have transgressed. The blood of Christ has cleaned all of that up.
Secondly, what Jesus did on the cross declares that whereas we were once enemies of God, now we are reconciled to him. Our relationship to God has changed. This happened before we came to Christ, or even knew that there was such a person as Christ. It happened at the cross. So, if you are wandering what it would take for God to stop being your enemy, look no further. The cross is all it took, and that happened on the first Easter.
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But the Easter message goes beyond that, because we need more that just forgiveness and reconciliation. Humanity has been cursed with mortality and death, so we need a salvation that overcomes death. That is why it was not just important that Christ die on the cross. He also had to be raised and come out of the tomb. His present immortal life is God’s promise that death will not be the last word in our lives. Easter celebrates the fact that Jesus Christ is the firstfruits. The firstfruits is the first part of the harvest. When the ancient Israelites celebrated the firstfruits, they were declaring that they trusted God for the rest of the harvest. When we celebrate Christ’s resurrection, we are declaring that we trust God for our own resurrection when Christ returns.
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The Easter message also promises a new and different kind of life – a life saved from God’s wrath. It does not promise that we will not die. Jesus died. What it promises is that once we are raised, like Christ was, we will never die again. We are not just saved from the consequences of Adam’s sin. We will also be saved from the consequences of our own sins. Those sins deserve God’s wrath. They deserve the second death in Gehenna hell. But Christ’s resurrection is God’s way of telling us what we have in store. We are going to be raised like Christ was. He was raised immortal, never to die again.
![clip_image016[5]](https://jeffersonvann.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/clip_image01652.gif "clip_image016[5]")
So, join me today in celebrating two symbols of Easter– the symbols of death. That sounds like a strange request, but there is wisdom in it. God took those two symbols, and he gave new meaning to them. The cross was a symbol of cruelty, torture and death. Now it is a symbol of hope and grace. The tomb was a symbol of despair and inevitable disintegration. Jesus changed the tomb’s meaning by getting up on Sunday morning and walking out of it. Now there is hope. Now there is a chance for life after death. Now there is a future beyond the grave for us. That is something worth celebrating.
This message was given by Jefferson Vann on Easter Sunday, 5th of April, 2015 at Parawai Church of Christ, Thames, New Zealand.
Takanini Community Church’s identity statement is one of the best that I have ever read.
We Are: An open family of believers seeking to follow Jesus Christ and live out His teaching while we watch for His return.
When I was thinking about what the Lord wanted me to share as Penny and I resume our roles here, one of the thoughts I had was to go through some texts that serve as the scriptural basis for that statement.
Today’s text serves as a good scriptural basis for the idea of the local church being a family.
The city of Ephesus was one of the major cities of the Roman empire in Paul’s time. He planted a group of churches there, and wanted to make sure that those churches stayed true to their identity as God’s family. Families do not just happen. Successful families take a lot of hard work. So, Paul spent several months there, teaching them from the word. After he left, he sent Timothy there, to continue establishing the church. Timothy had to train and appoint leaders who would also be responsible to equip the churches. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians helped them to understand what it meant to be a family of believers.
Being a family means sharing a relationship. I am not right now referring to a relationship with each other. That – I’ll talk about next. What I mean by relationship is that all the members of a church have the same Father. Verse 18 talks about the fact that believers have access to God the Father.
Lots of families today are broken and blended, so it is not true that all families have an equal relationship with the same father. But we can all understand what Paul meant, because our church family exists because one God has called us all to himself. In the church, there are no stepfathers. The church never has a deadbeat dad. Each of as an individual is in the family of God because of God. He chose us, and adopted each of us into his royal family. We owe our identity not to something we did, or do, but to the choice of our loving Father to adopt us.
Being in a relationship with God can change our attitude about life. It can take away old fears.
“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” “Romans 8:15 NLT
Being in a relationship with God can also help us to endure the difficulties of our present lives, because we can see beyond them.
“And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.” Romans 8:23 NLT
Being a family means being connected to one another. Paul used words that described the connection that Jewish people in his day felt by virtue of their being both citizens of a nation, and members of a family at the same time. He implied that when people become part of the church, their status changes.
· from strangers to fellow citizens
· from aliens to members of the household
Having just undergone a major ordeal in order to return to New Zealand, I can appreciate what a privilege it is to be reconnected.
The Ephesians also got it. Most of them were Gentiles, and had not known any connection with the family of God. They had been considered outcasts. So, when they came to God through Christ, they had to learn about that new relationship. But they also had to learn what it meant to be part of this new family.
· It meant bearing with each other in love (4:2); not insisting on my own way.
· It meant being truthful with each other (4:25); not putting on a show.
· It meant being kind, and forgiving each other (4:32); not making enemies.
· It meant worshiping with each other (5:19); not insisting on my own preferences.
· It meant submitting to each other (5:21); not establishing myself as the authority.
Being a family means sharing a common purpose.
One of the tricks to become mature as a family member is to stop thinking that everyone else in the family exists for your personal service and enjoyment. That is not how families work.
Paul uses the word picture of building to describe how the family of God exists for a purpose. He is also thinking in Hebrew, so he makes a kind of shift in discussion that seems weird. Notice that in verse 19 he was talking about being members of God’s household, but starting in verse 20 the metaphor shifts and he is talking about being built into God’s holy temple.
No, this does not mean that Paul had lost his concentration. In Hebrew, the same word can be used for both a household and a temple. But another reason Paul shifted metaphors is that he was trying to convey a new reality about the church. The church consists of individual stones which are being fit together to become a holy temple. The purpose of the church today is that God is preparing to come back to earth and dwell upon it. We are being prepared today to be the eternal dwelling place of God.
Now, you probably thought that God wanted you to live in heaven forever. No, he wants to live in us forever. It takes a little reorienting of our thinking to grasp the fact that God does not want to bring us to heaven. He wants to bring heaven to us, in the form of himself. This is the holy city that John saw in Revelation 21. It is God coming down to us, not us going up to him.
The purpose for the church today is to prepare for that eternal reality. Christ himself is the cornerstone because when he walked among us he demonstrated what it means for God to be present among us. He set the pattern. The prophets and apostles are the foundation because the prophets predicted the coming of the church and the apostles planted it.
Now, there is another very important word in this text that we cannot afford to overlook. It is the word together.
· the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple…(21)
· you also are being built together into a dwelling place…(22)
God’s plan is not just to live in me, or you, but to live in us. We are the church together. Individually, we are members, but the members have to cooperate and be built together for the temple to function properly.
We, at Takanini call ourselves an open family. Anyone who wants to can join this family. You do not have to come from a certain race or ethnic group. You do not have to have the same social status. You do not have to be like the rest of us. But, as a member of our family you do have to have a relationship with our mutual Father. And, you will be expected to stay connected to the rest of us. And, you will have to want to make yourself fit for our purpose – to welcome and enjoy the presence of God for eternity. If that is your heart, welcome home.
This post contains the manuscript I was attempting to follow yesterday as I preached at Relevant Church in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Matthew 25:1-13
1 “At that time the kingdom from the sky will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were thoughtless, and five were intelligent. 3 Because when the thoughtless took their lamps, they took no oil for them, 4 but the intelligent took flasks of oil for their lamps. 5 Since the bridegroom was overdue, they all became sleepy and dozed off. 6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the thoughtless said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the intelligent answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go instead to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he answered, ‘Honestly I am telling you, I do not know you.’ 13 So keep alert, because you know neither the day nor the hour.”
The elders here at Relevant Church have been sharing a series of sermons based on the story parables taught by Jesus as recorded in the Gospels.
FIRST, I WANT TO EXPLAIN WHY JESUS USED PARABLES LIKE THIS.
THEN, I WANT TO SUMMARIZE WHAT JESUS HAD ALREADY TAUGHT ABOUT HIS SECOND COMING.
THEN, I WANT TO SHOW HOW THIS PARABLE EXPLAINED WHAT IT MEANS TO LIVE READY.
FINALLY, I WANT TO GIVE SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR LIVING READY TODAY.
WHY JESUS USED PARABLES LIKE THIS.
· Parables are not a topic themselves. They were used to illustrate and explain something that had already been taught. John mentioned this when he introduced the series a few weeks ago.
· The word parable means something placed alongside to explain. It is based on the combination of the Greek verb ballō, which means to place or through something, and the preposition para, which means alongside.
· When I was in Africa, I used a photo of my family as a parable. I showed my students the photo, and then shared how the quality of my family has served to testify of the authenticity of my ministry. Some of the men said that their wives and families were actually opposed to their ministry, so we all surrounded them and prayed that God would change that.
WHAT JESUS HAD ALREADY TAUGHT ABOUT HIS SECOND COMING.
· He had taught that his coming would bring judgment on some, rescue for others. He said “The harvest is the conclusion of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned up with fire, so will it be at the conclusion of the age. … The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous.” (Matthew 13:39-40, 49). This judgment is real, and we don’t do anyone a favor if we fail to warn them. But the good news is that the rescue we look forward to is real too.
· He had commanded his disciples to be ready for his coming. He commanded them (and us) to “stay alert, because you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But be aware of this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed alert and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:42-44).
· He had answered his disciples’ three questions in detail about the timing of his coming (Matthew 24:3).
o They asked when the Jerusalem temple would be destroyed. Jesus had told them that the temple would be destroyed, and that not one stone would be left upon another. The disciples could not imagine that happening. They asked him when these things would happen. He told them exactly when. He said they would happen within one generation. This could mean within the lifetimes of those who were listening to him, or it could be more specific – a 40 year period. Jesus predicted that in AD 30, and the Roman attack under General Titus began in 66 AD, and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD: exactly 40 years from Jesus’ prediction. Prophecy fulfilled.
o They asked what his second coming would be like. They asked him what the sign of his coming would be. He didn’t avoid that question either. He told them his coming would not be gradual, or symbolic. It would be sudden and unmistakable. It would be like lightning flashing across the sky. Nobody misses lightning. He also used buzzards as an illustration. I was riding my bike on the Colonial Parkway this week, and I noticed a group of about seven buzzards in the woods just on the side of the road. I didn’t see a dead animal, but I knew it was there. The buzzards were visible signs. Sun darkened, stars shaking, Christ appearing in the sky, some people taken, others left – it will be obvious. He said it would be like Noah’s flood. Nobody is going to sleep through that.
o They also asked how long the age would last between his first and second comings. Jesus did not give them a specific answer to that question. Instead, he explained that there would be a lot of signs to show people that they are still in that age between the advents. He called these the birth pangs. Birth pangs are signs that the baby is on his way, but they can last a long time. That was the point. Here is a list of birth pang signs taken from Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21:
Not one of these is a sign of the immediate end of the age. Instead all the signs show that we are still living in that age. Jesus wanted his disciples – and we are also living in that age – to live ready for its end.
HOW THIS PARABLE EXPLAINED WHAT IT MEANS TO LIVE READY.
· Not everyone is as ready as she thinks she is (2). All of the young ladies thought that they were ready for the big party, but only some of them were. For parties, that does not really matter. But for the second coming, it matters. We cannot afford to be unprepared for that.
· The real difference is not the oil, but the relationship (12). Some people get hung up on the symbol. I’ve been taught all my life that the oil was a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and it was. But in this parable, the oil stands for the preparation itself. When the bridegroom explain why he was denying them entrance, he didn’t blame it on their lack of oil. He said he didn’t know them. The question we should be asking is not what we can bring to the party. The question is will the host recognize us?
· The thoughtless had lamps, but they started going out (8). Some people are trusting in their ministries to get them into the party. Jesus had told his disciples that they are the light of the world. The lamps seem to speak to that reality. But sharing God’s glory by influencing the world around us is not our qualification. Nobody does enough for their works to count toward their eternal destiny.
· Those who were ready went in, and the door was shut (10). This tells me that the grace that the LORD offers us today to come to him is a limited time offer. If we fail to respond to his invitation today, we will not get a second chance on the coming day.
· The Christian life is a marathon, not a short sprint (5). We all know people who make great starts in their attempts to live the Christian life, but then get sidetracked by some failure. The intelligent virgins in Jesus’ story were ready to wait for as long as it took. They did not have a plan B. The thoughtless virgins were OK with waiting for a while, but if the party were delayed too long, they would think of other options. Like Sarah, in the Old Testament, when the promised baby did not come, she introduced her maid, Hagar, into the picture. Bad choice. We need to stick with plan A, no matter how long it takes.
SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS FOR LIVING READY TODAY.
· Invest yourself in the coming kingdom . Jesus gave another parable – that of the talents — to encourage us to invest ourselves in the kingdom that will appear when the king does.
o We invest in the kingdom by getting into the word of God, which describes it.
o We invest in the kingdom by fellowshipping with the King.
o We invest in the kingdom by fellowshipping with other kingdom citizens.
· Serve Christ by serving others. Both the parable of the talents, and that of the sheep & goats encourage us to serve others and meet other people’s needs. That is one way to prepare for eternity. The light shining from our lamps is light that helps other to see the God we belong to.
· Resist shortcuts to righteousness. The intelligent virgins were willing to pay the full price of admission. They knew that they would only have one chance of joining the party, so they invested in the extra oil that they would need in order to be ready when the bridegroom made his appearance.
· Eliminate distractions. Jesus had taught in the parable of the soils that some people would make a good start in the kingdom, but then would be sidetracked by other desires and worries. The intelligent virgins stayed on target.
· Be real. The parable of the sheep & goats shows us that not everyone who looks and sounds like an authentic Christian is really an authentic Christian. In fact, there was a long period of time when all ten virgins appeared to be ready for the party.
Sometimes the words of Jesus are designed to comfort the troubled, and sometimes they are designed to trouble the comfortable. I hope you have been troubled this morning; I know I have. I’ve asked some of our church leaders to come forward and be available to you if you feel like this message has challenged you in your Christian walk. Let’s take advantage of this time to recommit ourselves to living ready for our Lord’s return.
LORD, we are in this for as long as it takes. We commit ourselves to living ready today and every day until you burst through the clouds. Show us how to make ourselves ready for your coming kingdom.
Jefferson Vann
jeffersonvann 