Prepare Before It's Too Late

Transcript

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[0:00] Today we're looking at Matthew 25, verses 1 through 13. This is another parable of Jesus. It's often called the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, or sometimes it's called the parable of the ten virgins. I'm going to use the word maiden more often than virgin. I think that's probably a more accurate word for it, although they mean similar things, of course.

[0:20] And I want to give you a little bit of, oh, by the way, so we're going to ask you to interact, and you might even want to put a comment into the chat log now. I've already salted it with some questions. They're not formatted very well, so you're going to have to look at it very closely. But try putting a few test comments in there if you haven't already, because we want you to type in whatever you think the answers are as we're going to interpret this parable together. And then I want to sort of interact with that. So you can test that out now. Put a test comment in there now. See if that works. Some of you have already done that, obviously.

[0:57] So this is. As I said, this is another parable. And remember that a parable is just a subversive way, subversive in a good way, a subversive way of getting an idea across. One way to think of it is a parable is kind of like a seed that you bury in the ground and you water it. And at first you don't see anything happening. But under the ground something is happening. It's germinating. It's breaking out of the shell of the seed. The fresh growth is coming up towards the surface, and at some point it kind of emerges from the surface. And that's a parable about how parables work, if you like. So it's parable-ception. You know, it's kind of how much deeper can we go inside this. But this idea is that it takes time for parables to work in us. And at the end of the sermon today, I'm going to ask you to take time with this particular sermon that we're looking at today. And I'm going to check back in with you later in the week by email to see what is germinating, what is bursting forth from the ground in growth. So a little backdrop on what's happening when this parable is being delivered, because that has a bearing on how we interpret the parable. Again, and we're really ramping up right to the end of what we call the regular time,

[2:11] the time after, or ordinary time, it's called the time after Pentecost. It ends with Christ the King Sunday, which is next Sunday. And then after that, the church year begins anew, and that's the beginning of Advent. And as we ramp up right to the end of that week, in Matthew's part of the sermon, we're going to see a little bit of a change in the way that we interpret the parable. We're going to get to the end of the sermon, and then we're going to get to the end of the sermon, we have these confrontational moments between Jesus and the crowd of Pharisees and other people who are opposed to him at the Temple Mount, and he's telling parables about them. In some ways, he's telling parables against them.

[2:44] And so he's right in the last few days of his life on earth, and he's in a place of confrontation with authorities, religious and civil authorities. So it's kind of a tense moment, if you think, if you could be there you could really feel the energy in the air. And so Jesus brings parable after parable into this moment. It's really quite dramatic. And so right after, you know, next week we're going to look at one more parable. It's the parable of the sheep and the goats. Then we'll be done with parables for a while. But right after that last parable, they arrange a place to have the Last Supper. He's betrayed by Judas Iscariot. He goes to trial and then he's crucified. So even though we're in November, kind of think of yourself as a little bit right before Easter too. It's right, yeah, right before Good Friday is kind of the time frame that we are in. And some of the parables that have come before this have been about preparation for the end times where things are going to happen. Like there's a sense that for at least for Christianity, time is very linear. It's not cyclical. This isn't all just going to happen again. You're not going to get another chance to try it over again and get it right. There's a beginning of time and there's an end of time.

[3:58] And he's talking about the end is coming and you need to be ready for it. You need to look for it. You need, even though you don't know the exact hour, you need to know what's coming and you need to be prepared for it. And that's a lot about what this parable is today. So he's telling parables a lot to get the point across about this. So today we have the parable of the wise maidens who are waiting for, the wise and the foolish maidens, who are waiting for the bridegroom to appear. And the literal background for this parable is actually a wedding feast. And as you can imagine, just like it is today, I've officiated many weddings and some of them I've been truly amazed at how elaborate they are. Like sometimes like unfortunately elaborate, like you are spending too much time trying to make this perfect and you're stressing yourself out and you're, everybody's going to enjoy this day, but you, but you're the ones that really need to enjoy it. And you know, so weddings are a big deal. And back then there would be a feast. Their wedding is a commitment back then.

[5:02] And so you want to make the right decision and you want to spend a lot of energy and time celebrating it. So in that time, and customs may have varied from place to place, but the general sense is that as part of the wedding feast, the groom, the husband to be, will travel between his parents' home and the home of the bride. And his arrival is an important part of the feast. This is kind of scripted. And so the bride and the husband are excited. This is an important, so he's going to make a procession. And then when he gets to the home of the bride, he may take her and go in procession with her and her friends back to his family's house. And that's where the marriage will finally be celebrated in all of its sort of all the celebration will take place. It's possible, even in that culture that he may not show up exactly when he is expected. They may say, I'll try to be there at 8. You know, I'll try to be there at 8. He might text, you know, say, I'm running five minutes late. I'm sorry. He might do that. He might be delayed by another celebration or obligations he has to other family members to visit them first or even a patron of the family, because there was a patronage system back then and you had to pay respect to people who you wanted to

[6:14] honor. And so he would have to make maybe several other stops before he got to the bride's house, right? He might come earlier than expected. He might come right on time. We just don't know. It was it was it was sort of a it was something that you just had to be flexible with at that time. All right. We do know that when he comes, there's a procession from one place to the other. And depending on the customers, it would be with the bride to go to his parents home or maybe with the bride's friends in attendance if they're going from his parents home to the bride's home to pick her up and then come back. So there there were the interpreters are not quite sure exactly what all the customs were, but they imagine that there were that this actually happened.

[7:02] So we're going to go to our reading and we're going to have our reading show up right now. There it is. Good. So our reading goes like this. Matthew 12, verse 1. Matthew 12, verse 1. Matthew 12, verse 1. Matthew 12, verse 1. Matthew 12, verse 1. Matthew 12, verse 1. Matthew 12, verse 1. Matthew 12, verse 1. you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen. So we're going to work together on this parable, and we're going to hide the Bible passage so we can see the chat log there. Perfect. Good. Now, let's see. So begin asking yourself these questions and post your thoughts in the chat, and I'm going to ask you to help me interpret the parable together and sort of ask who or what are these various elements in the parable. So who are the five maidens that are prepared? You could write prepared equals. Who are the five maidens who are not prepared? Not prepared equals. You know, you don't have to put the equal sign. You could put is, you know, or are. I don't want to be too picky. I think I was too picky last time. I'll try. I'll try not to be that way. I'll work on it. I'm working on it. Okay. What is the oil? Oil is or oil equals. Who is the groom? Groom equals. And finally, what is the wedding banquet? What is it? What is the wedding banquet? The banquet

[9:50] equals. And I tried to put some of that in the chat log in this article. I'll goofed up. So, but you get the idea. So I want you to note that this parable begins as many parables do. The kingdom of heaven will be like this thing. And we can add the cultural context from our introduction to maybe make this a little clearer for ourselves. And maybe we could read it like this. The kingdom of heaven will be like 10 maidens who are waiting for the bridegroom to arrive so they can join him in a nighttime procession to the wedding feast. They know that some great great great great great great great flood. This one is, the one we're looking at now is a little more positive. This is about preparation for the coming of the bridegroom, which sounds a lot nicer than a flood that's going to wash away your house. So let's look at who we think the wise and the foolish are. Let's see, what do we have? Craig says, oil can represent the Holy Spirit. Only Craig has put in. Okay, great. Let's get, let's hold on to that. But who, who are the five who are prepared? Who are the five wise ones? And who are the five that are not prepared? Put that in there. I'm going to wait about nine seconds. And so I'm going to tip our hands a little bit while you're doing that. It's possible

[11:33] the wedding feast is the return of the Messiah at the end of time. Remember, time is linear in this sense, right? So the wise on some level would be those who are ready for that end to come, but I don't want to kind of give it away too much. I think we're having a, all right.

[11:53] You guys are, we're not, maybe we're not feeling it today. We're just not feeling it today. We need time. Oh, you know, it is very hard to type on a keyboard, on a, on a phone keyboard, like long thoughts. Oh, Michael Lu, there you go. Prepared are people who are active Christians and practice Jesus' teaching. Yes, that's good. All right. I like this. This is good. Okay. I'm going to wait a few seconds. This takes time. Craig says, who are the wise and the foolish are prepared? Craig says, prepared equals those who walk with God. Good, Craig. Excellent.

[12:29] So again, if you're not live, this isn't going to work very well for you. So you definitely want to be live if you can be. Can't stress that enough. All right. Craig says they are prepared in season and out of season. I like that, Craig. Good. Okay.

[12:51] Oh, Michael. Not prepared equals people who think they can wait until later to commit. For example, I'll just get baptized moments from death. So I'm still saved. Ellen says the groom is Christ. Good. Yes. Good. Okay.

[13:10] So, oh good. Anika, foolish those who do not make an effort to abide in the teachings of Christ at all times. Good, Anika. It's funny that most of the people who are responding are actually like five feet away from me. And could have said it, but that's okay. This is good. They're participating in the way I've asked them to. I love it. Good, good, good. Next time I do this, you're going to say to yourself, I want my computer keyboard, right? Actually, if you, and you might be able to talk to your phone, some of you, and it would put something in there for you, but it's challenging. Okay. All right. We're going to move forward. If more come in, we'll read them. Don't worry. So, um, the wise, are those who are ready for that end when Messiah, the Messiah comes at the end of time, the bridegroom comes at the end of time. Jesus comes at the end of the time, the foolish are not ready. And so we, we kind of get the sense that wisdom and foolishness have to do with preparation or not preparation or walking in a way that keeps you ready for the coming of, of Jesus or walk in a way that day in and day out that does not keep you ready for the coming of Messiah.

[14:21] So if you remember some of our end end end end end They weren't just bystanders or spectators. They had a job to do in this procession. They were actually contributing to this feast coming about. And so they were called upon to do that thing where they say, you had one job. You had one job. And your one job was to have light and walk with the groom. That was one job.

[15:01] And five of them were ready for it, and five of them were not, because we don't know when the bridegroom arrives. And that kind of sounds like a lot of things that we hear when we talk about the end of time. So it turns out, though, the foolish did bring some of what was needed, but not enough to last since the bridegroom was delayed.

[15:21] So maybe ask ourselves, what did Jesus mean here? OK, good. We've got a few more answers here. Banquet equals heaven. The rapture could be. Yes, good. The whys are probably. At the time where Jesus is talking, the whys are his disciples and followers who believe in his word. And those who don't do that or can't do that are foolish. They're the Pharisees, the scribes, the Herodians, and so on, a lot of the people he's talking to in this moment. Because you remember that this parable is delivered in a confrontational moment with the authorities. And so then we could say, actually, yes, the Pharisees have some of what we need. They have some of what they need. They have some of it. And Jesus often says this. You have a lot of what you need, but you're missing one other thing. And always that other thing is him. It's himself. So they have the law. They have the prophets. They have the teachings. But they do not have the rest. They don't have the new revelation that's standing right in front of them. And so they have enough oil to get to this point.

[16:37] And so the bridegroom is here. They find that they've run out of oil because they won't accept the bridegroom who's right in front of them. But the ones who do have enough oil are his followers, his disciples. So now we're dancing around this a little bit, but then ask, what is the oil? And go ahead and put that in there. What does the oil represent? What is oil? We know what oil is in general.

[16:56] So we had one answer back here. Craig said the oil can represent the Holy Spirit. I really. That's a very insightful answer, Craig. And I'm not just saying that. I think that is. And that's not something I consider. But as I'm thinking about it now, I think that's very insightful because it really is the Holy Spirit that can guide us in our preparation, our wisdom. And the Spirit is often thought of as the source of wisdom, too. So I really like that answer.

[17:28] Oh, any significance to the number five and five? Yeah, you wonder if it should have been six and six, like to make 12. 10 is the number of completeness. 12 is the number of completeness. Seven is the number of completeness. I wish they would pick. Maybe we should multiply all three of them together and get some crazy number.

[17:46] There are 10 commandments. There's 12 apostles. There's 12 months. You know, you get the idea. But maybe just to half and half. It's easy to divide. Yeah. And yeah, so I'd say half and half. I don't know if we can read much more into it. But probably somebody has. Probably somebody has. So what does the oil represent? Let's have some chat log about that. OK.

[18:13] So Craig thinks it's the Holy Spirit. I'm going to tip my hand a little bit, but not completely. The oil could be faith. The problem with that is if there's a way to quantify faith as enough faith or not enough faith. Like I have half faith or full faith. Faith. Like a tank of gas or a reservoir in an oil lamp, right? So I'm not sure faith is the right answer, although it's sort of getting around the answer. Oil is perseverance, says Ellen. That's good. That's good.

[18:47] Faith could be good deeds. I mean, sorry, oil could be good deeds. We've kind of been looking at that a bit. As Protestants, though, and if you don't know what a Protestant is, we can talk about that. But as Protestants, we kind of shy away from this idea that our good deeds actually make us fit for the kingdom. But our good deeds kind of flow out of a faith that is deep and dedicated to God. So our good deeds are often a barometer of our faith. And Martin Luther even would say that. So it could be good deeds. It's worth thinking that through.

[19:23] Let's see. In this, the sense of the parable, the oil, think about it this way, the oil is what allows the maidens to do. The part that was assigned to them in this feast. And maybe you want to make a note of that, too. The oil is what allows the maidens to do their part that was assigned to them in this feast. Something was expected of them. They had one job. Something was expected of them. And the oil is what allows them to do that thing. And so the wise ones, think about it this way, the wise ones thought ahead. They kind of put two and two together. They said, the groom might be early. He might be right. He might be late on time. Or he might be late. Well, gosh, if he's late, we better bring some extra. And so it doesn't even sound that complicated, really. Just think ahead a little bit. And we try to do this with our children. Think about what's going to happen in an hour. Think about what's going to happen tomorrow. Think about what, you know. But even for a child, the timeline of what's going to happen in a week is like eternity, right? These people, all they're thinking about is what's going to happen later in the evening. And it's not even that hard. But so it turns out that five of them did it, and five of them did not.

[20:35] The foolish didn't think ahead. They didn't prepare for the possibility that the wait would be longer. And so perhaps the best way to think of the oil is that it really represents wise preparation. And you want to write that down, too, if you're taking notes. The oil really represents wise preparation for what we need to do to participate in the feast. Let's see. Oh, we've got more here. OK. Good. So this is a parable of spiritual practice from Eric. Craig says, we just covered this parable in the Bible Recap, a podcast for daily Bible reading program. I definitely recommend it. Oh, so Craig, you're saying you had the answer key in your pocket, basically. OK. All right. Well, at least you're honest about it. Good.

[21:18] So this makes it actually easier to understand. If we think about oil as wise preparation, that helps us understand a difficulty that people have had with this parable over the years. Just in this room, what difficulty do you have with this parable? Is there anything in this parable that you didn't like?

[21:38] Or on the chat log? Anything? Yes. That it's telling us to prepare another time when there are other parts of the Bible that tell us what we need about. Yes. Good. Annika says that this parable is telling us to think about tomorrow. Other parts of the Bible say, don't worry about tomorrow. Like Jesus. So there's maybe a bit of both. We have to hold these things in tension. That's good. That's not what I was looking for, but I really like that. The thing that troubles some people about this parable, and it should trouble us, is that the foolish people, the foolish maidens asked the wise maidens to share.

[22:18] And they didn't do it. And you might say to yourself, isn't a wise person also a kind person and a generous person? Wouldn't they really want to share so that more people could come in to the parable? To the feast, right? And so some people look at this parable and find it very negative. They say, here are people who have this thing, but they're not willing to share this thing. And we have to decide right now whether this is a parable about evangelism or is it a parable about preparation. Well, it's a parable about preparation.

[22:51] And the wise might have actually thought, and the way we read this parable in its own internal logic, is that there wasn't enough for all of them if they divided it up. If the wise were to share with the foolish, they might have all not made it. And they might have all been out in the dark.

[23:09] And I also like to think that the wise ones were wise enough to have good personal boundaries. I like this idea that they're like, no, this is our stuff. And sometimes you say, no, this is my stuff, and that's your stuff. Not all the time. And we don't want our kids to grow up that way all the time. But there is that sense where you can't share some things with people.

[23:30] And even harder than this, actually, if we read towards the end of the parable, is that the foolish, after they found more oil, they went and bought some more, they arrived late to the banquet and they were left outside. And the words came from the door, I never knew you, which is hard. And we're going to hear that again in other things that Jesus says in other parables. But if we think of the oil as preparation, it makes this problem a little bit easier. And it's more true to the internal logic of the parable. Imagine this. Imagine that you and I are going to train for a marathon. Now, I want you to imagine, this is hard for you to imagine, easy for you to imagine, depending on who you are. Imagine that you and I agree that we're going to train for a marathon that's going to happen in six months' time. We're both going to train for this thing so that when the race comes, we're ready to finish all 26.2 miles of it, right? And every day, you are exercising and taking longer and longer runs and eating healthy and pushing yourself. So your mental and physical endurance improves, or perseverance improves, right? You're working hard at this, and I know you will.

[24:34] And here's the part that's not hard to imagine, is I prepare too, but I don't prepare as well as you. Because I have a lot of cheap days. This is Hans-Erik talking. I eat a lot of ice cream. I work out some days, but I overdo it because I'm like, oh, I've got to catch up. And then I'm sore so that I don't do anything the next day because it hurts too much, when actually you should exercise when you're sore. It actually helps your sore throat. It helps your legs and muscles. I learned this. I let other things in my life intrude, and I don't treat the training as a priority. Other things come in and distract me, and I treat them as more important. And now imagine that the day of the race is here. And we both start, right? And we're running together. And I'm keeping up because I have trained a bit, right? And so for the first 13 miles, we're side by side. But at that 13-mile mark, my 10-mile mark is almost empty. And your tank is still half full. You've got enough to finish the race.

[25:32] And I know I can't finish. I'm looking at what I have. And I say, give me some of your endurance. Maybe if you share with me, we can both finish. Now you get the idea of how absurd this question is, me asking you for some of your endurance. Because how do you quantify that? How do you chop up what's inside you like that? You can't share endurance. You can't share endurance with somebody else. And I think that's kind of where this parable is, that in the internal logic of the parable, there really is no sharing of the oil, even though real oil can be shared, absolutely. In this case, wise preparation cannot be shared. You've either done it or you haven't done it. Your tank is full of it or your tank is only half full of it or your tank is completely empty. And the ones who have it full really can't do anything to help those who are not full. All that you could say to me in that race is, well, as much as I would like to help, that's impossible. I can't reach into that and give you some. The time to have this conversation was months ago when we were training and preparing. That was the time to try to do this.

[26:43] So the foolish don't have enough, but it turns out they're sent to go get some. So they are sent. There is this warning. The bridegroom is almost here. The word comes out. The groom is about to go. And they try to do that in a short order. They try to do that preparation. They try to buy the oil. And in this case, in the parable, it says, by the time they get back from the merchant who sells them the oil, it's too late. They weren't able to participate in the procession. They follow at a distance. They get to the groom's house, the banquet, and the door is closed to them.

[27:19] I'm going to look at see. Oh, here we go. We have a few more chat logs here. So if you remember some great great great great great great great great kind of working through this together. I really appreciate that. That's good. Okay. Thank you, Kathleen. Good. So here the message is beginning to take shape, and we're going to try to start summarizing it now. There's a warning that the bridegroom is about to come, and in this parable that does not leave enough time for the foolish to go and do the wise preparation that is needed to do their part in the feast. And when the doors are closed, that is the cutoff. Anyone who arrives after that cannot get in. And this brings us to who is the bridegroom and what is the wedding feast, right? And we've had a few of those, and I think we're not going to spend too much time on those because all those answers are probably right on. We have a good sense from the rest of scripture that Jesus is the bridegroom, and that the feast is the end of time when those who are prepared will enter heaven, and those who are unprepared will not, whether it's because they have the Holy Spirit or faith or wise preparation, they've been preparing for the day and some have not. And next week, we're going to see this made much more explicit when we look at the

[28:55] parable of the sheep and the goats. The end has come, and the people are divided into two groups, on the left and on the right. And it's really chilling. It's a very difficult parable, but it's a very kind of interesting parable. So I hope you can look forward to the parable of the sheep and the goats next week. But there's this sense that at the end of time, there's a division. And after that point, it really is too late. And God has to do with this way, I think, because otherwise, nothing that he says really, you know, he's like, I meant it, like, I keep coming back to my children. But if you keep telling your children, okay, three more minutes, five more minutes, 10 more minutes, then after a while, there's no, there's no security in that, right? There's no reliability in that. And so God says, you don't know when he's coming. There's going to be some signs, you need to pay attention, and you need to be ready. But when that finally happens, and when you get that last warning, there really isn't that much more time. And then the end will come. And then the division will occur. So be ready for heaven's sakes, literally for heaven's sake, be ready, right? So I want, as I said, I want us to let this parable

[30:04] do its work in us. I want to plant a seed this morning. And this one is, you know, interpreting it is kind of simple. But the next step, I think, is difficult. So I would say that we are, if we want to put ourselves, if we want to put ourselves into the parable, we are the maidens. And whether we are wise or whether we are foolish becomes apparent when the bridegroom appears. That's when you dig into your reserves and see what you have left. And the goal here is to have enough in reserve, have enough preparation, endurance, faith, Holy Spirit, all those things are good to, to be ready when the bridegroom appears so that we can do our part in the procession and what's expected of us. And so, I want you to start thinking, and this is the parable working in you, I hope, this week, is to keep thinking, what is your oil? What is the oil for you? How would you consider oil for you? And you could say Holy Spirit, faith, works, all those things. If you have a quick thought, you can put that in the log right now, because sometimes it's good to pay attention to your very first idea, right? So you could write my oil equals, and put that in the chat log. Go ahead and do that if you feel like sharing. I would love for you to do that. What is it that I need to do

[31:25] to prepare, to train for the race? What is the solid foundation I need to build on? And I'm going to start by sharing with you, and I could even type it here. I'm going to type it real quick here, and it's going to be this. I'm going to type it in right now, because I can do that too. I can, I should have been doing this all along. So I put the word listening into the chat log right now, and I'm going to ask you to do that. I am hearing from the Spirit that my oil needs to be listening more and talking less, which is very ironic, because I'm talking nonstop right now, and I will soon stop, promise. I will soon stop. Part of my job is talking, but an equally big part of my job is listening. But this isn't only about my work as your pastor. I also need to listen to the world. I think I've been saying this. I need to engage with it in an incarnational way. I need to enter into the world, into the brokenness of the world, and come with Christ into the world, but also be affected by the world, to not insulate myself from the world, hold it at a distance, cover my ears, or cover my eyes from what I see, but let the world sort of be the real world to me. And if that doesn't make sense, I don't know how to make it more make sense,

[32:40] but that's what I need to do. I need to see people with God's eyes. I need to hear people. With God's ears. Eyes and ears that are in tune with what they're experiencing. Okay, Michael said, my oil is observing Sabbaths and a renewed relationship with God. That's, see, that's brilliant. That's really right. It's a good spiritual practice is to take care of yourself that way. Yes. So you need to be ready, and I need to be ready. We need to commit to wise preparation for the coming of Jesus at the end, and the coming of Jesus every day into our lives. Just think, every day, every morning you start the new day, and the bridegroom comes in one sense. And when your alarm clock goes off, maybe it's saying the bridegroom's almost here. And then in those sleepy minutes between your alarm clock going off and you rolling out of bed, that's your moment to check your reserves and say, am I ready for this day? Am I ready to be engaged to do the part that I'm called to do this day? To be in the procession, to listen to people, to keep my Sabbath, to do the things that I need to do.

[33:45] So it takes discipline, which I hate that word. It takes planning. I also hate that word. There's a bunch of words I'm saying here that I don't like. Is there something that you're putting off, right? Is there a relationship that needs healing? Is there a book you need to read? Is there a friend that you need to call? I'm going to ask you about this in the middle of the week. I'm going to ask you what your oil is. And what you need to do, actually, is you need to make a plan. You need to make a plan. You got to put it in your calendar. I think if you put something in your calendar, like the channel, or the book, chances of it happening are like 100% more. That's true for me, at least. Put it in your calendar. Prepare for yourself. Store up your oil. But then also remember that the feast is great. What you're preparing for is a good thing. It's a wonderful thing. Only you can prepare for it, though. Nobody else can give it to you. You can't give it to anyone else. Only you can do it for you. Store up your oil. Make a plan. Put it in your calendar. Prepare yourself. And the feast is great. You know, crossing, I've never done it, but I'm going to, I've run shorter races. Crossing the finish line in a foot race is great. It is such a good feeling.

[34:53] It is such an amazing feeling to finish. It's so great. A reconciled relationship is great. It is so good. It is so right. You know when it's happened, right? A connection with the hurting people in this world is heartbreaking and it's discouraging, but it's also great. It is so great. Great to take myself out of isolation, and really live as God calls me to do. To see people with his eyes, to hear people with his ears. That is great. So I'm going to send an email reminder Wednesday this week, and I'm going to ask you if you found your oil.

[35:32] Have you found your oil? This is the parable working in you this week. Have you made a plan? And have you put it on your calendar? I'm just going to ask you three questions. Have you found your oil? Have you made a plan? Have you put it on your calendar? Get ready and stay ready because the feast is great. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you again for your word. Help us to get ready and to make a plan. Thank you that you come at the end of time to save us. We ask all this in Jesus name.