For Christ's Sake

I would love for you to open your Bibles today to Matthew, chapter 25. And if you read our reading today, you will know that we've read Matthew, chapter 25 this morning. And if you haven't yet, then we're going to read some of it here together. Thank you so much, worship team. You guys are just the best. Thank you for leading us. There you go. Before we read, have you ever heard of time blindness? Anybody heard of that? I just recently heard of such a thing, and I have never felt so seen. But apparently, it's a symptom of ADHD where, quote unquote, it is not due to laziness, irresponsibility, or lack of motivation. Instead, time blindness results from a genuine disconnect in their brains that makes it difficult to recognize the passage of time. So if you're kind of like, oh, wow, that sounds like me, that sounds like you, that's great. Also, if maybe you're married to someone who sounds like that, I just hope that this is an encouragement to you that it's a thing, but there's things that you can do about it. A few symptoms of time blindness. Making impulsive decisions when feeling like you are losing track of time.

Struggling to develop or adhere to a schedule. Procrastinating or putting off projects until the last minute. Zeroing in on present and short-term gains without thinking long-term. And then struggling to estimate the amount of time needed for a certain task. Kind of gauging, like, how long does it take to get there? You know, that kind of stuff. I do believe that there is such a thing. I have a friend who, when we were talking about it, he was talking to me and his wife. And he's like, are you sure that this wasn't, time blindness wasn't made up so that people like you could just feel good about yourselves, that you're OK? But it is something. I do struggle with it myself. But I also believe that many of us, me included, are just really good at procrastination. And I found that procrastination means the action of delaying or postponing something. And that was interesting to me, because in my mind, procrastination is like, oh, just passive. Like, I'm just going to lay low. But it's an action of delaying or postponing something, which is interesting. It seems like an oxymoron. But if you do struggle with time, like me, maybe you've heard this phrase spoken to you, or maybe spoken to someone else, or maybe you've said it, maybe spoken with frustration or sarcasm.

But this phrase, it's about time, for Christ's sake. Have you ever heard that? Well, in this series, It's About Time, my title today is For Christ's Sake, if you're taking notes. For Christ's sake. We're going to read in Matthew chapter 25, starting in verse 1. Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them 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. But 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 those virgins who 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 other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, assuredly, I say to 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. And Lord, open our eyes to see glorious truths in your word. Teach us, speak to us. We're your servants, and we want to hear from you today. In Jesus' name, amen. So I was studying this passage as what I was going to mainly. dive into this week. But I woke up this past week, one morning, and I was just like, something's missing. I just felt like something, like, I know that I'm going to do this. So then I just kept reading and found, as I was studying it, too, that the next parable that Jesus goes from verse 13 right into verse 14, the parable of the talents, was meant to go together, was meant to complement each other. And it wasn't like Jesus just told this one story, and then, I mean, I'm just guessing. It didn't go, like, have a meal or, like, stop or pause, but it just, like, went together. So it was this thought of these virgins waiting for the bridegroom right into the next parable, which is the parable of the talents. And basically, to sum it up, because if I were to read it all, it would just take a very long time. So basically, and if you did read it this morning, awesome. If you didn't, that's OK, too.

So Jesus is here telling about the parable of the virgins. It then goes right into this parable, saying that the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country. And before he left, he had land, he had goods, he had services, he had servants. So before he leaves, he tells these three servants in particular, I want you to take this and invest it, multiply it, earn more, like, just do something with it so that when I come back, I will have invested well, and I will have more, and then I will reward you when I come back. And so the first servant, he gave five talents. And the second servant, he gave two. And the third servant, he gave one. And it says that right away, after the man left, right away, the man with five talents and the man with two talents went out and doubled what they were given. And again, this was something that was owned, possessed by the man, by the Lord, by the master. And he gave it to them to do something with it. So those two right away doubled. So the five earned five. The two earned two. But then the one, it says that he hid it in the ground. So he didn't do anything with it. He just saved it and put it away. But then the master comes back and is ready to see what his servants did with what they had.

And the five and the two, they're like, look what we did. This was so awesome. We doubled what you gave us. And the master to them says, well done, good and faithful servants. You have been faithful with little. I'm going to make you ruler over much. And so he says that to the two. And then to the one that did nothing, absolutely nothing, the only thing he did was dig a hole, the master calls him lazy and wicked and more about weeping and gnashing of teeth. But these two did what they were called to do. And the one did not. We've been learning in this series, in this It's About Time series, that it's about time to get past what's holding us back from living the life that Jesus died and rose again for us to live, this abundant, flourishing, full, bigger than our own selves kind of life. In his message two weeks ago called Maybe This Morning, my husband talked all about living in light of the Lord's return. And what does this look like as we're waiting for Jesus to come back? What does it look like to live in light of his return? And that's kind of the vein that I want to focus in on today and kind of take the baton and keep going in that of time, living our time in light of the Lord's return. It is about time.

How do we see time? How do we see our time, the time that we have? J.R.R. Tolkien said, all we have to decide is what to do with the time. that is given to us. And it's so interesting to me. In this passage that we just read, in before chapter 24, the disciples come to Jesus. They're sitting on the Mount of Olives. And he comes to Jesus. They come to Jesus and ask him, tell us when will these things be? The end times, the what's what? Tell us when will these things be. And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus, tell us. We don't understand. What is this going to look like? What do we need to do? Where are you going to be in all this? And then Jesus proceeds to answer their questions in chapter 24, chapter 25. But then in chapter 26, spoiler alert for tomorrow, Jesus tells them, for you know that after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. So this is just moments before the cross. This is days before Jesus does what he came to do. And here he is speaking about what the kingdom of heaven

coming will look like. And I love it. These are some of his last words. And what do we do with last words? We lean in. We listen. We maybe be quiet a little bit more and listen in to what is being said. These two parables actually go together. They have everything to do with each other. The parable of the 10 virgins speaks to the urgency of being ready for Jesus's return, having surrendered and given your life to Christ. And on the other side of the same coin is this parable of the talents, emphasizing the importance of stewardship, the importance of working to build the kingdom, to walk in obedience with the Lord. Jesus is specifically speaking to the disciples about what the end of the time will look like. And this sets the tension for what our lives are meant to be, being ready with the Holy Spirit living in us, on us, empowering us for the work that he's called us to do, while also being ready to work hard for his glory, for his kingdom. The virgin, the virgins, speak to inward character, our responsibility to keep oil in our lamp, our responsibility to believe in Jesus, our choice to ask the Holy Spirit to indwell us, to come upon us, and give us the power that we need to do what he's called us to do.

The talents speak to outward exertion. What does it look like to do something with the things, with the ability, with the capacity, with the gifts that God's given us to steward? What are we doing with those things? Waiting on him and working hard. The tension here is necessary. And it's interesting to me, because it seems with these virgins here, which basically in that time, a wedding would mean that the bridegroom, the groom, would go to the bride's house and pick her up. Well, not pick her up, but get her. And then they would go back to the marriage feast. And along the way, their friends would join them. So these virgins, or bridesmaids, or friends of the bride and the groom, they were ready, or getting ready, to go with the bride and the groom to the marriage feast. And so for them to be ready for whenever that comes, that could be earlier or later. They would maybe need to wait longer. And it's interesting, because in this text, it doesn't include the bride, but I was reading that it's implied that the bride is there, because the bridegroom, if there's no bride, there's no wedding. And so I guess in older manuscripts, it included that they were waiting for the bride and the groom. But here they are.

They're waiting. They have their lamps. They have the wick that they will light and the oil ready to go. But the foolish virgins weren't. not ready with that. And it kind of feels like the wise versions were being kind of selfish and rude. Like, can't you just give them a little bit of your oil? Like, that just seems kind of unkind. But they were indeed wise, because if they were to give even some of their oil to these other girls, they wouldn't have enough and no one would have enough. Plus, the oil speaks of the Holy Spirit. So as Jesus is telling this parable, the oil represents the Holy Spirit and no one can give salvation or the Holy Spirit to someone else. That's only what God can do. And so even if they could, even if they would, they couldn't, because that's not something that was for them to give. It was something that these foolish virgins needed to do on their own, was to be prepared on their own, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to allow the Holy Spirit to fill them and to use them. William MacDonald said, "'The lesson,' Jesus said, was to watch,

"'because the day and hour of his coming are unknown. "'Believers should live as if the Lord might come "'at any moment.'" Are our lamps trimmed and filled with oil? It's a good question. John 2, 28 says, oh, 1 John 2, 28, says, "'Little children, abide in him, "'that when he appears, we may have confidence "'and not be ashamed before him at his coming.'" Now, back to time blindness. If this is something that you struggle with, which I do, and maybe you have someone in your life who does, there are ways to manage it and to figure it out, which is helpful. You're not just like, I'm time blind, and then that's all, but you can admit it, but then you can work to not be it. And these were a few ways to manage time blindness that I found. Number one, use reminders and alarms. So you can set timers to prepare for an activity or a meeting, giving yourself buffer to account for delays, if it takes you longer to get ready, if it takes you longer to drive to where you need to go, buffer, which is helpful. I've found that that's helpful for me. Number two, listen to music. When you're working, if you're just, if you're driving or whatever, instrumental music,

music that can help you focus. I found this one that's like, it's called Beats Focus or something, but it's not like instrumental in the way you might think it is, like kind of super calm, but it has just a beat to it. That's really helpful for me. I need a beat, apparently. Number three, help your brain recognize time. So when you set alarms, timers at fixed intervals, you can help yourself gauge how much time it takes to do something. So let's say you sit down to work, to do homework, to do something. If you set a timer for 30 minutes, and then it goes off and you realize, oh, that's how long it took for me to get this done. It's just something that can help your brain recognize time that it doesn't naturally find on its own. And then number four, seek support. It can be helpful to work with a coach or professional to help you manage your time. We need help. I need help, and it's gonna be okay. So whether you are good at time or not, we can all fall into spiritual time blindness. And this is so huge. We can get comfortable with our lives. We can get comfortable and not push ourselves to obedience to God, to step out in faith.

We can forget that we're heading to heaven, and that there's an urgency to give our lives fully to him, to love what he loves, to hate what he hates, to give how he gives, to telling the world about his goodness and his kindness and his love, and that he is the answer to the ache within. We can forget, we can be blind to his timing. What has God given you? Think about it for a moment. What has God given you? Well, the Bible says in 2 Peter chapter one, that he's given us everything. It says, his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, giving all diligence. Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness love. And then it goes on to say, for he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. I don't want to be a person that forgets. I don't want to be a person that is unaware of the time, unaware of the fact that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus said that so often. And I didn't look it up, so I don't know the exact number. But Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's here. What are you going to do about it? How can we manage spiritual time blindness? Well, I think these are a few things that we could do, things that came to my mind. Number one, repent. Repent of your time blindness. But it's not intentional. It's not purposeful. I just forget. Well, whether it's purposeful or not, we need to come to a place where we realize that we have been blind to the time, that we've been blind to the time that God's given us, that we have right now, to the fact that Jesus is coming quickly, the fact that our lives are a gift, our breath is a gift. And what are we doing with the talents, with the goods, with the services, with the gifts that God has given to us? Repent. Repent. And what that word means is you're going in one direction, and you stop. And you realize that that's not the direction that you want to go. And so you turn in the other direction. And then you go that way. And that's what we want to do. We want to be quick to repent of our sins.

We want to be quick to repent of where we've got it wrong, of where we've been unaware, of where we've been time blind, of where we've been spiritually unaware of what God is doing. And that is beautiful. Repenting is not bad. It's necessary. Number two, re-engage with his time zone. Re-engage. What does that look like? Being aware of, OK, here's God. He's outside of time. He's not limited to our time frame. The only time that God was limited to our time zone is when God sent Jesus to be human. He inserted him into time to tell us that he loves us and that there was one way to be with him forever, and that was his son Jesus. But re-engage with his time zone. I think we can so often just get stuck in our life and what we are doing and what we're deciding and what we're choosing, but to remember that it's all been given to us as a gift. How are we being good stewards with the time that he has entrusted to us? I want to be found faithful, and I want you to be found faithful. Number three, renew your trust in him daily. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will direct your path. When we give our lives to Christ, it's not just one and done. It's one and daily. It's walking with Jesus. It's talking with Jesus. It's showing up at church. It's showing up in your small group. It's giving. It's serving. It's loving. It's daily. It's a daily desperation. Renew your trust in him daily. Number four, restore. Restore. Let him restore you. Let him restore to you the joy of your salvation. When did you give your heart to Jesus? And if you haven't, when did you give your heart to Jesus? I'm going to give you an opportunity to in just a moment. But we need to remember that our salvation isn't based on us. It's placed on us. And also, there's a joy to it. And sometimes we can let it fade. Sometimes we can let it just kind of be like, oh, yeah. I love God. But Lord, would you restore the joy of our salvation? But the joy of the Lord would be our strength every single day. Number five, rest.

Rest. Psalm 23 says that He makes us lie down in green pastures. And I love that so much, because so many of us need to be made to lie down, right? Because it's so easy just to keep going, running, doing all the things. But we need to rest. We are human. We are not more than human. We are human, and we need rest. So let Him make us lie down in green pastures. Rest in His word. Soak it up. Memorize it. It's Him speaking to us. It's Him directing us. It's Him guiding us. Rest in worship. I don't know about you, but in times of worship, as we worship together as a church, are the sweetest. Sometimes I'm singing loud. Probably people in the back can hear me, and just wild. And then sometimes it's just on my knees, and sometimes it's praying for others. That's been such a sweet thing recently, of when I know that people are hurting. Praying, coming before God in worship, and praying for the people who I know need a touch from Him. Rest. We need a rest in Him.

Number six, reactivate. Reactivate your commitment. Reactivate your commitment to gather with the church. Reactivate your commitment to gather with the church and to serve and to give. These are the basics. These are the fundamentals. These are the things that we get to do daily that tune our hearts to Him, that tune our hearts to His time frame, so that we're not blind to Him, to His time zone. Prioritize gathering with the church. It has been found recently that people come usually 1.9 times a month to church, which I don't know how exactly that works. But I just want to encourage you, just keep coming. Keep showing up. Don't stop. Just keep going. When you go in the airport and the little door thing says you're supposed to go through and you can't go back out because you'll go, you know? And so they say, don't stop. Keep walking. Don't stop. Keep walking. Don't stop. Keep walking. Don't stop. So just don't stop showing up. Just keep showing up, because you never

know what God has for you. You never know what He has to speak to you, to speak to your situation, to give you for the week ahead where you don't know what is to come. Yes, you've scheduled all the meetings, and the babysitters, and the dates, and all the things. But you don't know the things that God has scheduled secretly that are not on your schedule but that He has put there for you. And when you come to church, when you gather, when you worship, when you learn, when you lean in, when you take the rows and turn them into circles in your Fresh Life groups, and you're talking about what you're reading in the morning in the Gospels, when you're talking about what God has spoken to you on the weekend through our pastors, through their preaching of His word, the things that you're growing in, that you're learning in, we need each other. And I feel like I say that every time I speak, but we need each other. Don't stop showing up. Do keep showing up. Reactivate your commitment to gather. Don't let it just be once a month. Reactivate your commitment to give generously, to serve, to be a part of what we're doing, of what God has us doing. And then number seven, repeat.

Repeat. Repent. Re-engage, renew, restore, rest, reactivate, repeat, and on and on and on. Jesus calls us to watch. And it seems that watching implies a constant supply of oil. When we're just watching, when we're expectant, when we come into any situation just thinking, OK, God, maybe this morning, what do you have for me this morning? God, what do you want for me in this meeting? What do you want for me to give and to express and to share and to shine out of the light of my eyes? What do you have for me in this moment? Watching and allowing the Holy Spirit to fill you and to come upon you and to refresh you and to empower you for what He's called you to do. Jesus has called us to watch, running to Him for a constant supply of the Holy Spirit, living our lives submitted to and in relationship with the Holy Spirit. There will always be oil to allow us to burn bright and to shine in every little thing. Always fresh oil. Always fresh oil. There's always fresh oil for us. We don't have to come up with our own, but we do need to be prepared. We do need to be ready with the Holy Spirit leading us. Love the Lord your God with what?

All your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. That is action. That is work. That is doing life with your abs. Yes. I just did it just now. I just strengthened my abs a little bit more. Like Levi taught us a few weeks ago, what do we do in the waiting? We work hard. We do good. We enjoy life. And we be patient. Every moment counts in this life. Every second counts. Matthew 10, 38 through 39, Jesus is saying, he who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake will find it. We can try to hold on to what we have. We can try to grit it out and figure out what we need to do, what we have. But if we just open up our lives and let it go to him, surrender to him for Christ's sake, then we'll find true life. C.T. Studd said, only one life will soon be passed, and only what's done for Christ will last. Only one life.

We have one life. Are we going to live it for Christ? What if we haven't got it right? And that's all of us, right? We haven't got it right. We've been time blind. We've been spiritually time blind. We've been so unaware. We've probably passed by so many moments that God's like, hey, that was something that I wanted you to do. And we're just living our life carefree and not even aware of what he's doing around us. But C.S. Lewis said something super encouraging. You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. So no matter what it's been like for you, right now, you can start wherever you are right now and change the ending as you just walk with Jesus. What is our life about? Well, it's about time for Christ's sake. It's about time for his sake. It's about time for his sake. It's about living with the time that we have for his sake. It's about time and not the time that we don't know, but the time that we do know, which is today. We can't change yesterday. We can't worry about tomorrow. But right now, we can live in light of his coming today. After Jesus rose from the dead, which, hello.

Jesus died for our sins, and then he rose from the dead. In Acts 1.6, it says, when they, so his disciples and Jesus, he's just hanging out with his disciples. Resurrected body, they're eating. It says, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And I love this so much, because the whole time Jesus was with them before he died, that's what they wanted. Jesus, you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel. You're going to be our king, and we're going to kill everybody who's bad. And here they are again. Are you going to, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel? Now that you're here again, which that's awesome, you're here, but are you now going to do what you were going to do before, but you didn't do, but now you're back, and so maybe you could do it now? Acts 1-7, Jesus said to them, it is not for you to know. It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Lord has put in his own authority. But, because that was kind of harsh, you know? It's like, well, that's not for you to know. But you shall receive power. That's good news. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. You're not going to know the time. You're not going to know the day.

You're not going to know the times and seasons that you don't need to know, because that's just for God to know, his authority. But here's what you can know. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses. And you will be faithful with what I give you, because that's what I've called you to do. And then Jesus' final words in the Bible, he repeats three times. So you go back to the very end, Revelation, and Jesus says three things, which are his last things he says. Actually, there's another thing, but these are the three things that he repeats. Revelation 22, 7, behold, this is Jesus speaking, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Revelation 22, 12 through 13, he says, Jesus says, and behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. That parable of the man with the talents, it's speaking of Jesus coming back and giving to people according to their work, according to how they did what they did with what they were given. He says, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. And then Revelation 22, 20, he says, he who testifies to these things says, surely,

I am coming quickly. So he's serious. He repeated this three times. He's coming quickly. He's coming quickly. He's coming quickly. And our response, what did the author say after that in Revelation After that, it says, amen, which means let it be. So be it. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. Even so come, Lord Jesus. We want to be living our lives in light of his coming. We want to be living our lives on our toes, with our abs leaned in, ready for Jesus coming back. And he's coming quickly. He's coming quickly. How is that going to change the way we live our lives? Are we praying? Is the cry of our heart, even so come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. And I want to just pray for those who maybe haven't made that decision yet to follow Jesus. And today is the day. Now is the time. Today is the day of salvation. And if that's you, maybe you've been coming for a little while

and you just haven't stepped all the way in and said, yes, Jesus, I surrender to you. I just want to tell you. That God so loved the world. Outside of time, He loved the world inside of time. He loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, Jesus, inserted Him into our time zone. He gave His one and only Son that whoever, whoever, whosoever, in some, in some Bibles, whoever, whoever believes in Him, that's you, that's you, that's you, that's everyone. Anyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have ever-lasting life. And if that's not good news, I don't know what is. And that good news is for you. That good news is for me. And all you have to do is believe. Believe and receive it. And so if that's you today, and you're just saying, yes, I'm okay, I'm all in. I want to give my life to Jesus. I want to live this life, praying, even so come Lord Jesus. I want to live every day with Jesus as my Lord, as my Savior, as my King. And if that's you, I want to pray with you. And I'm going to ask the whole church to pray with us, leading you in a relationship with Jesus. And you don't have to get cleaned up before you come to Him. It's you, your mess and all. And Jesus looks at you and says, but you're my mess. Come to me. Just come on. We'll deal with that. We'll deal with that. We'll deal with that. But you just come to me. So if that's you today, let's pray. You can say, dear God, I know that I'm far from you. I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that I need your grace. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your kindness.

Thank you that you call me yours. I give you my life. I surrender to you. Take my life and let it be yours. In Jesus name.