Pastor Dustin…
Welcome to Morning Prayer. Are you excited to be in the house of the Lord this morning? Thanks for joining us online. My name’s Dustin. I’m the youth pastor here at Living Word, and we’re going to pray.
I thought what a better way to start Friday morning than reading 30 verses in Matthew chapter 25. And then we’ll pray. This has been on my heart the past couple weeks. I was going to preach it on Wednesday night and we ended up having kind of like a Holy Ghost revival type service. And it was a wonderful time. Had the gifts of the Spirit in operation and it was good.
Matthew 25:1–13
“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. 6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 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.’ 10 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. 11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ 13 “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
The meaning of the parable of the ten virgins…
This parable is not so much talking about looking for the return of Christ as much as they’re talking about being ready for the return of Christ. And so it’s not saying that we shouldn’t be ignorant of when Jesus is going to return. It’s saying the most important thing isn’t that you know exactly and precisely when the Lord returns. The most important thing is that you’re ready for the Lord’s return. So how much good would it do you to know exactly when He’s going to be back, but then you’re not even ready when He is back?
Be ready for His return…
I was trying to think of an analogy for this and I said, “How do you come up with a parable for a parable?” I was saying it’d be kind of like if my wife called me on her way home and she said, “Dustin, we’re going to have some people over. I need you to get the house ready. I need you to clean, and I need to do all these different…” We have a little kids, so it’s like “I need you to scrape that weird stuff off the wall that we don’t even know what it is or how it got there.” It could be slime, play-doh, food. It’s just there somehow. “I need you to clean the house. I need you to cook the food. I need you to get everything ready. I’m in traffic and I don’t know when I’m going to be home.” Imagine if I just got next to the window and just with my binoculars just waited … and then I see her coming down the street. I’m like, “Sabrina’s home. She’s home. I saw her first. You didn’t see her first. I saw her first. I predicted she’d be here at 6 p.m. and at 6:05. I didn’t get it exactly right. But I’m close.” And then Sabrina walks in and the house is still a mess. None of the food is ready. You missed the whole point. You were supposed to be getting ready. And this is the point that Jesus is making. “Don’t become so obsessed with when My return is that you miss the point of why you’re on the planet in the first place,” which is to get things done. Don’t miss the point… The point is you need to stay ready for the return of Jesus because you don’t know when He is coming back.
Live like He is coming back at any minute…
I was talking to somebody and he said, “Well, I’ve been hearing Jesus is going to come back forever. We don’t know when He is coming back.” And I said, “Well, we know that it’s closer than it’s ever been.” We know that. And so, regardless of when you think He’s coming back, the message of Jesus is clear. You got to stay ready. You’ve got to live like He is coming back. And it could happen any minute.
How do you stay ready?
So then the question is, “Well, how do you stay ready?” Well, the next parable gives us a hint at how we stay ready.
The parable of the talents…
Verse 14 says, “For it will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his own ability. Then he went away. He who had received five talents went at once and he traded with them and made five talents more. So also, he who had two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and he dug it in the ground and he hid his master’s money. Now, after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. He who had received five talents came forward bringing his five talents more saying, “Master, you delivered to me five talents. Here I have five more talents.” Verse 21, “His master said to him, Well done. Good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” Verse 22. “And he also who had two talents came forward saying, “Master, you delivered to me two talents here. I’ve made two talents more. His master said to him, Well done. Good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful.”
Well done, thou good and faithful servant…
I was talking to somebody a few months ago and they said, “What do you want to do with your life? What do you feel called to do?” And I said, “Honestly, at the end of my life, I want the Lord to say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’” What it looks like these few years that we have here on the earth isn’t as important to me as hearing those words. Right? Well done My good and faithful servant. And that’s the same reward that both servants got. Even though they had different giftings and different amounts, they both got the same reward. God just expects us to be faithful with what we have. It’s not about having what other people have. It’s not about being as talented as other people or being what we would consider more successful than other people. It’s just about using what God gave you faithfully.
Parable of the talents continued…
Verse 24, “He also who had one talent came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid. I was scared. And I went and I hid your talent in the ground here have what is yours? But his master answered to him and he said, “It’s okay. Don’t you worry about it. We all get scared sometimes. And you know, I know you’re a nice guy and you did your best. No. It says in verse 26, “The master answered him, You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I had not sewn and gathered where I had not scattered seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers. And at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent away from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents. For everyone who has will more be given. And he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away.”
The messages of the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the talents compared…
The first one is telling us we need to stay ready for the Lord’s return. And the second one is telling us the way that we stay ready is by being faithful with what God gave us. Everybody has varying amounts of gifts and talents and abilities and resources. And it isn’t about what you have in comparison to somebody else. It’s about you being faithful to do what God has called you to do with what He’s given you to do. And so with that in mind, I’m going to begin to pray.
We all have time and money…
There are a number of things that God has entrusted to all of us. He’s entrusted to us time, right? We all have time. That’s what this year, 2023 is. It’s another chance. A chance to do what He’s called us to do. A chance to build the kingdom of God here on this earth and establish the kingdom of God here on this earth. We all have time. We all have an amount of money. We have different amounts, but we all have an amount. We all have giftings and talents and influence and resources, and it’s important that we use what He’s given us faithfully. We aren’t owners. We’re stewards.
We’re all stewards…
Stewarding the time that He’s given us, stewarding the resources that He’s given to us. And I want to just start from that place today of understanding the urgency of the time that we live in. We shouldn’t be just laying back. I’m speaking more figuratively. We shouldn’t just be like laying back, looking at the world, stressing out. There’s no condemnation in Christ. I think we all have a propensity to do this from time to time. But laying back passively stressed out about the condition of the world and just anxiously looking for the return of Jesus. We need to be about our Father’s business.
We need to have both hands to the plow…
Jesus is coming back for a glorious church. Meaning I think there’s a lot of things that He wants to do in this earth and in and through us before He returns. And that doesn’t mean that we have to do it in our own strength. We can’t. But it means that we need to cooperate with Him. We need to have both hands to the plow, trusting in the grace that He’s given to us and getting on with the job, so to speak.
Resist the temptation…
I know for myself there’s been a temptation at times, you know, it’s like, I better open up the news here and see what’s going on in the world. And you just kind of brace yourself a little bit. And it’s just like, whew, okay, nothing good. And you just kind of go through and you start reading it and reading it and reading it. And there’s almost like this… There can be this feeling if you allow it of like hopelessness to set in. And it’s like, “Okay, God, I just need you to come back and I’m just going to sit here and I’m going to try to keep surviving until you get back. It’s all hopeless and I need you to come back.”
We need to be working with God…
We need to be, by the grace of God, working with God, allowing Him to work in us and through us to be establishing His kingdom on the earth. And I know that none of this is new, but I think it’s just such an important reminder. And so one of the ways that we do that is through prayer. One of the ways that we use the time that God’s given us well and we’re about His business is by taking time to pray like we’re doing this morning, declaring that His Word and His promises and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us as we pray, praying things out. I don’t mean just praying out words. I mean like birthing things in our lives, birthing things in the plan and purposes of God, praying protection over things.
Everything God wants done in the earth starts with prayer…
I’ve heard a number of people say everything that God does in the earth or wants done in the earth, it starts with prayer. It’s sustained with prayer. So prayer is a vital, vital part of what God wants to do in this earth. And it’s important that we yield ourselves over to the Holy Spirit and we take time and we allow Him to pray through us and we declare the things that need to be declared. That we take time in the presence of God, and we allow Him to speak to us and give us our marching orders.
And we’re not to be moved by fear…
The third servant in this story, when the master asked him what he did and accomplished. He said, “I was afraid, so I hid.” He didn’t understand the intention of the master. And he had a wrong understanding of the master’s character.
We need to remember that God is for us. He’s not against us. We need to remember that God loves us. And what caused this servant to fail was he misunderstood the master’s intention. But he also had a wrong understanding of the master’s character. And it caused him to be afraid. Afraid of failure. And the irony is, he was so afraid of doing something wrong that he finished by doing nothing right. The only way to guarantee failure by is by not doing anything. And that was the case for him.
A word of knowledge…
And I believe that God wants to set somebody free this morning from that fear of failure. You’re so afraid of doing something wrong. You’re so afraid of, what if I miss God? What if I thought this was God and it’s not God? What if I take a step of faith and I fall on my face. Because I believe sometimes, we say we don’t know what to do, but we actually do know what we’re supposed to do, but we don’t want to do that.
Sometimes God will deal with us about taking a step or making a change and it’s uncomfortable or it seems like there’s risk involved or something like that. And so we’ll ignore that. Look for a new word. And when a new word doesn’t come, because God doesn’t get better ideas. You know when a new word doesn’t come, sometimes we just start, “Well I’m stuck and I don’t know what to do.”
And sometimes you just got to go… What did He tell you? What was the last thing that He told you to do? Are you doing that? Or did you come up with a replacement for that. And you’re bothered that the replacement isn’t working. Sometimes how we make a deal with the Lord, He tells us to do something and it’s like, “Well, I’m not going to do all that, but I’ll do this instead.”
Personal testimony…
I remember when the Lord told me to do the internship. In order for me to do the internship that meant I had to stop going to college, which means I had to tell my parents after three years of going to college, “Hey, I’m going to stop a few credits short of my degree, but I’ll keep all the debt. How’s that sound?” But I felt like there was a timing to it. And so I said, “So the Lord told me to do the internship. And I just thought, what if instead I just went to morning prayer every day and I did evangelism three times a week. And I went to church four times a week. I found out what they did in the internship and I tried to do my own version of that. And it’s like, “Well, Lord, it’s not what you told me to do, but it’s pretty close. It’s good stuff.”
And looking back, I can see why that didn’t work. But the more I did that… and they’re all good things, obviously. But it wasn’t what He told me to do. And there’s a difference between doing some good stuff and doing what you’re told to do. If you’re a parent and you have kids, you know what I’m saying. It’s important that we do what He tells us to do because He has a plan and knows what’s next and knows what everyone else is doing. He’s got a plan that involves you and your life, but He’s got a plan that involves everybody in the world and you have a part in that. And so it isn’t just about doing good stuff, it’s about doing what He told you to do when He told you to do it.
It’s an adventure when you follow God…
I was reading a commentary on Matthew 25 and it was saying that God expects us to be creative in how we use our giftings, and He expects us to live adventurously. Not recklessly, but adventurously. And I liked that because I thought it is such an adventure when you follow God. It is such an adventure when you do what God’s telling you to do. And it’s so exciting living by faith. The Bible says that God expects us to live by faith. Living by faith doesn’t mean you only do what makes sense to you. It doesn’t mean you only do what you can figure out, what you can comprehend. It means you do what God tells you to do, even when it doesn’t make sense. Even when you can’t understand how it all works together. You trust that He’s going to enable you and empower you and help you do it. And you trust that He’s going to bring the right outcome. So the time is short.