Kevin Cooney: We'll be focusing in chapter 25.
Kevin Cooney: You can begin opening in your Bibles to that section.
Kevin Cooney: And just a word for those that may be new here to New Hide Park or maybe you're visiting with us.
Kevin Cooney: What you will notice kind of right away about uh our fellowship here is that we typically preach through entire books of the Bible verse by verse.
Kevin Cooney: And for about the past three years now, uh our church has been studying the gospel of Matthew together.
Kevin Cooney: Specifically over the past couple weeks, we've been looking at uh an extended section in this book which records for us a discourse or a sermon that Jesus spoke to his disciples outside of Jerusalem.
Kevin Cooney: And our particular passage this morning from chapter 25, uh, this is really coming towards the end of that discourse.
Kevin Cooney: And it's a parable, it's a short story which serves as a sort of sermon illustration.
Kevin Cooney: So if you're already there, uh allow me to pray for us once again, and then we will get started into our text this morning.
Kevin Cooney: Heavenly Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus, and we ask that you would have your way with us this morning, Lord.
Kevin Cooney: We ask that you would uh allow the Spirit to move in power and to impress upon us, Lord, to convict us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
Kevin Cooney: Lord, we ask that you would uh direct and motivate us to live more for your glory, Lord.
Kevin Cooney: That we would, having heard the word of God this morning, that we would leave and apply it to our lives, and that we would be that much closer to shining brightly in a world of corruption and sin.
Kevin Cooney: Lord, for those that are faint-hearted, we pray that this word would bring strength and encouragement to them.
Kevin Cooney: Lord, for those uh that that are struggling in an area of their life with sin and discouragement, we ask, Lord, that you would lift them up and that you would make known to them the forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ.
Kevin Cooney: For those, Lord, that that that have difficulty in their witness, I pray, Lord, that today's message would move powerfully in their life and that they would be be drawn into thoughtful self-reflection.
Kevin Cooney: Lord, we ask all of this in Jesus' name, knowing that your word is mighty.
Kevin Cooney: Amen.
Kevin Cooney: I'm gonna give a sort of extended overview of the previous teaching thus far.
Kevin Cooney: And the reason is is because this parable in chapter 25 is serving as a sort of sermon illustration at the end of a longer discourse, I want to have fresh on our minds the main idea of the sermon that we've been hearing for the last couple weeks.
Kevin Cooney: If you remember chapter 24, where the discourse begins, Jesus is answering a question.
Kevin Cooney: His disciples ask him when the temple will be destroyed, what will be the signs of his coming, and what will be the signs of the end of the age.
Kevin Cooney: Now, if you were with us uh over the past previous weeks, you would have heard Pastor Doug and Pastor Micah highlight the fact that Jesus' answer to the disciples' question, it wasn't exactly clear.
Kevin Cooney: Uh, it wasn't direct and to the point, or at least not in a chronological sense.
Kevin Cooney: Jesus' response to the disciples uh follows some of the prophetic style that we see in many other parts of the Old Testament that sort of blends the immediate and the far off.
Kevin Cooney: And his purpose in this was not to give the disciples a timeline of the future, but to help bring their thoughts and their assumptions, their hopes and desires into a greater conformity with the will of God.
Kevin Cooney: And so he gives them both purpose and perspective.
Kevin Cooney: Here's what I mean by perspective.
Kevin Cooney: Jesus tells the disciples that before they die, there will be much deception, false prophets, wars, famines, natural disasters, and persecutions.
Kevin Cooney: We see this in chapter 24, in verses four to seven.
Kevin Cooney: Jesus replied to them, Watch out that no one deceives you.
Kevin Cooney: For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Messiah, and they will deceive many.
Kevin Cooney: You are going to hear of wars and rumors of war.
Kevin Cooney: See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place.
Kevin Cooney: But the end is not yet.
Kevin Cooney: For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Kevin Cooney: And then again in verse 9, he explains, There will be tribulations, betrayals, and some of the disciples will be murdered.
Kevin Cooney: Then they will hand you over to be persecuted, and they will kill you.
Kevin Cooney: You will be hated by all nations because of my name.
Kevin Cooney: How's that for perspective?
Kevin Cooney: Jesus is telling them that all these things, the deceptions, uh, the false teaching, the wars, the intrigue, the persecutions, this is the context and the setting in which the disciples are to live out their faith until they die.
Kevin Cooney: In verse 34, Jesus tells the disciples, they will experience all these things.
Kevin Cooney: Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place, meaning all these tribulations and sufferings that surround the temple destruction in 70 AD.
Kevin Cooney: Now we understand from history, and even more importantly, we understand from the book of Acts that Jesus was absolutely correct.
Kevin Cooney: All of those things marked the context and the setting by which the disciples lived and eventually died, awaiting Christ's return.
Kevin Cooney: But these same tribulations, these same persecutions, these same earthquakes and famines and wars, those are things that also characterize the time after the disciples.
Kevin Cooney: It characterizes the time beyond the disciples, and it leads many of us to understand that, like much of the Old Testament prophetic literature, there's a bit of an and both in what Jesus is revealing.
Kevin Cooney: And so the context that surrounds the destruction of the temple in 70 AD, it becomes rather emblematic or typological to what would define the ebb and flow of all history before the time of Christ's return.
Kevin Cooney: This means that Jesus was not only offering uh the disciples some needed perspective, but that he was also providing this same perspective for all of his future disciples, including us.
Kevin Cooney: Deception, false teaching, wars, intrigue, famines, natural disasters, persecutions, betrayals, and even the murder of God's people.
Kevin Cooney: This is what defines the environment in which the church will serve out her purpose until the end.
Kevin Cooney: We all need perspective, not chronology.
Kevin Cooney: It's God's will that his people should suffer and endure for his name's sake.
Kevin Cooney: Philippians 1 29.
Kevin Cooney: For it has been granted to you on Christ's behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him?
Kevin Cooney: That's perspective.
Kevin Cooney: And in addition to perspective, we have purpose.
Kevin Cooney: And so we should ask the question: why does Jesus leave his bride, the church, to endure such tribulation and hardship before the end of all things?
Kevin Cooney: Well, why do we have 2,000 years of church history and wave after wave of suffering, martyrdom, tribulation?
Kevin Cooney: What's the purpose of it?
Kevin Cooney: I thought that if you love somebody, that you are supposed to keep them safe, that you're supposed to keep them comfortable, and you're supposed to make sure that they avoid hardship and difficulty and suffering.
Kevin Cooney: Isn't that what love is?
Kevin Cooney: Well, thank God that the father's love is not so narrowly defined.
Kevin Cooney: We are told in a number of scripture passages that the father loves the son.
Kevin Cooney: Yet in love, he sends the son to suffer and die so that rebel sinners might be brought into the father's love.
Kevin Cooney: That's deep.
Kevin Cooney: God also loves his people.
Kevin Cooney: Jesus loves all whom the Father has given to him.
Kevin Cooney: Love is behind the sending of the Son, and love is behind the Son's going to the cross.
Kevin Cooney: And in turn, according to the mystery and infinite wisdom of God, the suffering and death of God's beloved people, it serves a purpose that actually magnifies and deepens their experience of his love.
Kevin Cooney: It does this by joining them to the Son and joining them to the Son's purpose to redeem sinners from every tribe and tongue and nation.
Kevin Cooney: We can see this good purpose of God to manifest his love through suffering, alluded to in chapter 24, verse 13 and 14.
Kevin Cooney: Have a look.
Kevin Cooney: But the one who endures to the end will be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Kevin Cooney: Did you see that?
Kevin Cooney: Did you see the connection that was there?
Kevin Cooney: This gospel will be proclaimed in all the world to all nations.
Kevin Cooney: That's not a command here, that's a fact.
Kevin Cooney: God will do this.
Kevin Cooney: But that gospel proclamation will come through the multitude of God's faithful elect who willingly bear witness to his excellencies and worthiness by holding fast to his word in the face of suffering and tribulation and hardship, even unto death.
Kevin Cooney: The gospel will extend to all peoples and places, and it will be extended through people that look like their savior.
Kevin Cooney: The one who endures to the end will be saved.
Kevin Cooney: What end is that?
Kevin Cooney: He's talking about their death.
Kevin Cooney: Because his people have first received God's love, they hold fast to his word to the end, and this becomes the testimony to the world of God's love.
Kevin Cooney: The Lord calls his people to join him in his redemptive work in all the world by demonstrating the power and beauty of his love in the face of suffering and hatred.
Kevin Cooney: And so from the ascension of the Lord to his glorious return, the name of Jesus Christ will be magnified in all the world, but it will be done through a suffering people who bear his image.
Kevin Cooney: I mean, anyone can worship a God who gives you health and wealth and fame and reputation.
Kevin Cooney: That's easy.
Kevin Cooney: Wow, a new car, that million-dollar house.
Kevin Cooney: Thank you.
Kevin Cooney: You're the best God ever.
Kevin Cooney: But the testimony of God's people throughout all of church history is that you can beat us, you can slander us, you can persecute, you can enslave, we can be stripped of everything.
Kevin Cooney: And we will still praise him.
Kevin Cooney: We will still delight in our God who loved us and by his death granted us eternal life in his presence.
Kevin Cooney: That's our testimony, church.
Kevin Cooney: The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ, in him, we have already received something the world and no false God and no false gospel could ever offer.
Kevin Cooney: In Christ, the love of the Father has sent the Son.
Kevin Cooney: The love of the Son took our sins into himself.
Kevin Cooney: The sins that we deserved to experience wrath for.
Kevin Cooney: And he opened our eyes and he made known to us this grace.
Kevin Cooney: And our testimony then on earth is that in Christ alone we already have everything.
Kevin Cooney: That's the gospel.
Kevin Cooney: And it's this gospel that shines brightest in a world where people faithfully endure suffering and hardship and even death with the words on their lips, He is worthy.
Kevin Cooney: Beloved, that's purpose.
Kevin Cooney: His beloved people displaying his glory in all the earth.
Kevin Cooney: And over the past couple weeks, Pastor Doug and Pastor Micah have repeatedly exhorted us to turn our eyes away from seeing this sermon of Jesus as some kind of future prediction to decode and instead to look at it as an application for us to heed.
Kevin Cooney: Last week, Pastor Micah gave three points of application.
Kevin Cooney: They're worth repeating.
Kevin Cooney: As we wait for Christ's return, we are to be anchored in his word.
Kevin Cooney: We are to be alert to his coming and we are to be active in his service.
Kevin Cooney: Now that that's a very long introduction here, but but I think that is going to help us to best feel the kick of this parable from Jesus.
Kevin Cooney: And the parable has one main point.
Kevin Cooney: Christ's return will expose kingdom impostors.
Kevin Cooney: Christ's return will expose kingdom impostors who are not anchored in his word, who are not alert to his coming, and who are not active in his service.
Kevin Cooney: Jesus is informing us through this parable of the reality of the kingdom of God as it exists between his ascension and his return.
Kevin Cooney: That right now there are many who profess to be Christian and are not.
Kevin Cooney: Let's look at our first verse in this text, chapter 25, verse 1.
Kevin Cooney: At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom.
Kevin Cooney: Verse 2 five of them were foolish and five were wise.
Kevin Cooney: Now Jesus is building on his previous statements that we've gone over here.
Kevin Cooney: He's explaining that at that time, at the time of his return, when the Son of Man returns at an hour which you do not respect, this is what the kingdom will be like.
Kevin Cooney: There will be kingdom citizens and there will be kingdom imposters.
Kevin Cooney: Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
Kevin Cooney: And we have here an imagery of a bridal party.
Kevin Cooney: These virgins or bridesmaids, they had a serious responsibility.
Kevin Cooney: They were invited to the wedding and they were given the task of being put on display.
Kevin Cooney: They were to be a beautiful procession.
Kevin Cooney: And so their respect and their honor towards the groom's invitation is going to be revealed by their preparedness for this task.
Kevin Cooney: Their job is to make the wedding celebration known to all the people in the community.
Kevin Cooney: Now, in saying that there's ten of them, there may be some intention here by Jesus to highlight the sense of completeness of this group, right?
Kevin Cooney: Ten can be often be used in scripture in a figurative way.
Kevin Cooney: There's ten commandments, that's sort of uh the the gist of the law.
Kevin Cooney: You have ten plagues in Egypt.
Kevin Cooney: Uh, that was really their complete undoing.
Kevin Cooney: You have uh Daniel asking the Babylonian captives for 10 days where he'll eat the grain and avoid uh the pagan food, and 10 days is sort of the complete time for which uh that testing would be revealed.
Kevin Cooney: So there may be some intention here to say uh that here is a picture of all the people who appear or claim to be God's people.
Kevin Cooney: Just something to consider.
Kevin Cooney: In our day, there are many people that say they follow Jesus, there are many people that say they follow God.
Kevin Cooney: We have Roman Catholics, Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, Jews, even Muslims, and of course, there are many so-called evangelical Christians.
Kevin Cooney: Are they all God's people?
Kevin Cooney: How do we know who is really in Christ?
Kevin Cooney: How do we know who are the real God followers?
Kevin Cooney: Well, we learn in this parable that it will be revealed in the end that Christ's return will expose kingdom imposters.
Kevin Cooney: Earlier in Matthew's gospel, he records Jesus speaking this phrase in Matthew 11 19 wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.
Kevin Cooney: All will be revealed in the end.
Kevin Cooney: Now we're still in verse 1, and it's important to note here that all ten of these bridesmates are active, they're not just sitting around.
Kevin Cooney: And this is helping to hammer home one of the key points earlier in Jesus' message about being active in service while waiting.
Kevin Cooney: And yet, five of them are imposters.
Kevin Cooney: Don't be deceived.
Kevin Cooney: Not everyone who is active in service are genuine kingdom citizens.
Kevin Cooney: Not everyone who does Christian things are necessarily Christians.
Kevin Cooney: Verse 3.
Kevin Cooney: When the foolish took their lamps, they didn't take oil with them, but the wise ones took oil in their flasks with their lamps.
Kevin Cooney: When the groom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
Kevin Cooney: Jesus has the bird's eye view here.
Kevin Cooney: Jesus knows what's going on.
Kevin Cooney: This is his story.
Kevin Cooney: And he knows right away who the wise ones are and who the foolish ones are.
Kevin Cooney: And yet, within the story itself, there's no hint or suspicion.
Kevin Cooney: The wise bridesmaids are not suspicious.
Kevin Cooney: They're not obviously aware that these other ones are foolish.
Kevin Cooney: It's not clear to them.
Kevin Cooney: Additionally, the big question I think everybody wants to know is what does the oil symbolize?
Kevin Cooney: The difference between the impostors and the genuine bridesmaids is this oil.
Kevin Cooney: The oil burning brightly in the lamps was necessary for the bridal party to be distinct, to be noticeable, to be beautiful.
Kevin Cooney: It was what made them faithful to their responsibility.
Kevin Cooney: They are a procession to be on display and to bear witness to the beauty and the significance of the wedding, as well as the importance of the groom.
Kevin Cooney: So this goes back to the purpose that we spoke of earlier.
Kevin Cooney: True believers not only have a purpose, but they are prepared and they are equipped for that purpose.
Kevin Cooney: They have ample supply.
Kevin Cooney: What do we need to faithfully fulfill our purpose and demonstrate the honor due to our Lord in a corrupt and hostile world?
Kevin Cooney: Well, we need many things.
Kevin Cooney: We need courage, we need boldness, we need patient endurance, we need wisdom.
Kevin Cooney: The list could go on and on.
Kevin Cooney: And the point here is not to try and assign one thing to the oil, but to highlight the fact that the foolish bridesmaids lack.
Kevin Cooney: They are not.
Kevin Cooney: Concerned with the purpose or the honor of the groom.
Kevin Cooney: They're not concerned with endurance.
Kevin Cooney: They're not concerned with extended faithfulness.
Kevin Cooney: And church, we know where to get the kind of courage and strength and endurance that is needed to fulfill our purpose, don't we?
Kevin Cooney: We get it here.
Kevin Cooney: In this word.
Kevin Cooney: This is where we find our strength to fulfill our purpose, to endure to the end.
Kevin Cooney: Amen.
Kevin Cooney: How sad that these five virgins care so little about that purpose given to them.
Kevin Cooney: They sure want to be seen as part of the bridal party, but they want things to be wrapped up quickly.
Kevin Cooney: They don't want to be burdened.
Kevin Cooney: They want to avoid inconvenience.
Kevin Cooney: They just think too little of the groom.
Kevin Cooney: They have some oil.
Kevin Cooney: They would rather masquerade and look the part for a short time than to confess their true lack and go back to the source.
Kevin Cooney: Friends, this book will mess you up.
Kevin Cooney: This will mess up your life.
Kevin Cooney: Many people who claim to be Christians or claim to have God in their life, they don't understand this book.
Kevin Cooney: You can twist it, you can bend it, you can make the Bible say just about anything you want it to say.
Kevin Cooney: But to go back and to humbly read it, to apply yourself to understand it and to sit under its authority is uncomfortable.
Kevin Cooney: It will shipwreck all the lovely dreams and plans that you had for an easy and comfortable life and wonderful retirement.
Kevin Cooney: Because this book is primarily not about us.
Kevin Cooney: It's about Christ, it's about his glory, it's about his majesty, not ours.
Kevin Cooney: And when we are gripped by this word, when we have been so humbled by it that it drives us to not just live for ourselves, but to live for this purpose that He has given us, that He has given us His life and blood in order that we should fulfill this purpose.
Kevin Cooney: And when we humbly submit ourselves to this word, we accept that purpose and we joyfully endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they too may know Christ, that they may see the glory of the groom in our lives.
Kevin Cooney: But that's a stumbling block for many, isn't it?
Kevin Cooney: Because we live in an age where many would rather wear the name of Christ, but flee from any chance for bearing the stars and the sufferings which conform us to his image.
Kevin Cooney: Imposters have no courage, no boldness, no seriousness to the call to shine brightly in a fallen world and to put themselves on display.
Kevin Cooney: Many take the passive view of what it is to be a witness for Jesus.
Kevin Cooney: You'll hear things like, well, you know, if the Lord brings suffering, I hope to endure it.
Kevin Cooney: Is that our approach?
Kevin Cooney: To pursue comfort?
Kevin Cooney: But if consider Paul's command to Timothy as an example for the community in Ephesus, he writes this in 2 Timothy 1.8 don't be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, his prisoner.
Kevin Cooney: Instead, share in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God.
Kevin Cooney: Share in the suffering.
Kevin Cooney: He's not suggesting that Timothy go off and do street preaching in Saudi Arabia.
Kevin Cooney: That's the extreme.
Kevin Cooney: But he's not suggesting the passive approach where you just sit back and pursue comfort.
Kevin Cooney: And maybe if suffering walks through the door, we address it.
Kevin Cooney: He's talking about being intentional in ordering our lives in such a way that our witness bearing results in some degree or another of backlash.
Kevin Cooney: Let me say it another way.
Kevin Cooney: If the choices that we are making with our lives, where we invest our time, our money, our energy, if those choices don't distinguish us from the world in such a way that outsiders take notice and maybe even offense, then we are not part of the bridal procession.
Kevin Cooney: There's a point at which we can know great theology and we can recite wonderful confessions of the faith, and we can call ourselves by his name and yet be about ourselves, our image, our comfort.
Kevin Cooney: Brothers and sisters, the true Christian is not suffering averse and comfort-oriented.
Kevin Cooney: The only distinction that we see here between the wise and the foolish are that the wise ones take oil.
Kevin Cooney: They are taking the groom and their purpose seriously.
Kevin Cooney: Verses 6 to 8.
Kevin Cooney: In the middle of the night there was a shout.
Kevin Cooney: Come out to meet him.
Kevin Cooney: Then all the virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
Kevin Cooney: The foolish ones said to the wise ones, Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are going out.
Kevin Cooney: The wise ones answered, No, there won't be enough for us and for you.
Kevin Cooney: Go instead to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.
Kevin Cooney: The groom appears, and all is revealed.
Kevin Cooney: Christ's return will expose kingdom impostors.
Kevin Cooney: The wise virgins cannot help.
Kevin Cooney: It's not that they're unwilling or that they're stingy.
Kevin Cooney: The point is that it's too late.
Kevin Cooney: You can't give away what you need in order to be faithful and remain faithful.
Kevin Cooney: We can't remain faithful if we give away the very essence of that faithfulness.
Kevin Cooney: But we can tell people where to go.
Kevin Cooney: And I'm just gonna add this here.
Kevin Cooney: Brothers and sisters, we need to keep telling people where to go.
Kevin Cooney: We need to keep telling everyone that we love, whether they're Christian or non-Christian, that they need to go to God's word.
Kevin Cooney: They need to go to Christ, they need to trust in this word and this word alone.
Kevin Cooney: And please don't ever give up letting them know where the source is.
Kevin Cooney: Verse 10.
Kevin Cooney: When they had gone to buy some, the groom arrived, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.
Kevin Cooney: Later, the rest of the virgins also came and said, Master, Master, open for us.
Kevin Cooney: He replied, Truly I tell you, I don't know you.
Kevin Cooney: That's the kick, isn't it?
Kevin Cooney: The permanence of this parable is meant to be shocking.
Kevin Cooney: The time for the foolish ones to go and buy oil and to be anchored in God's word, to confess their sin, to repent, that time for them has finished.
Kevin Cooney: It's past.
Kevin Cooney: Now we don't know how long this bridal procession was walking and how long they were sleeping, but it gives us an indication that there was time.
Kevin Cooney: There was time for them to go back.
Kevin Cooney: But they pressed on.
Kevin Cooney: They just pressed on.
Kevin Cooney: Maybe they they were hoping that no one would notice.
Kevin Cooney: Maybe they felt embarrassed.
Kevin Cooney: Maybe it was pride that destroyed them.
Kevin Cooney: I don't know.
Kevin Cooney: I imagine it's not easy to stand up and say to a congregation, you know, I've been coming to church for 20 years, or I've been volunteering and helping out in ministry my whole life, but you know what?
Kevin Cooney: I don't really take God's word that seriously.
Kevin Cooney: I'm just kind of living for myself.
Kevin Cooney: I'm checking a few boxes.
Kevin Cooney: That's not easy.
Kevin Cooney: Or maybe they had the feeling of, you know, I'm just not really looking to suffer and do this whole enduring witness thing.
Kevin Cooney: I like Jesus.
Kevin Cooney: I don't want to go to hell, but I'm not willing to make my whole life about it.
Kevin Cooney: Every part of my life.
Kevin Cooney: But this is certain Christ's return will expose kingdom impostors.
Kevin Cooney: This message is for those who sit in churches.
Kevin Cooney: Right now, there are many who profess to be Christians and yet are not known by Christ.
Kevin Cooney: This isn't a message for those outside of the church.
Kevin Cooney: There are those that claim to know the groom, but the groom doesn't know them.
Kevin Cooney: These foolish virgins, uh they're not unbelievers outside of the church.
Kevin Cooney: They look like Christians, they talk like Christians, they may even serve in ministry.
Kevin Cooney: They have some oil.
Kevin Cooney: You want to know how far you can get in looking like a Christian and yet be unconverted and be unsaved and unknown by the groom?
Kevin Cooney: You need look no further than Judas.
Kevin Cooney: On the night he was betrayed, Jesus said, One of you will betray me.
Kevin Cooney: Not a single disciple was like Judas, totally Judas.
Kevin Cooney: They went around one by one.
Kevin Cooney: Surely not I.
Kevin Cooney: Judas was among those, if you remember, who Jesus sent out to preach the gospel, to heal the sick, and to cast out demons.
Kevin Cooney: On that day, many, many will say, Lord, did we not proclaim the gospel and cast out many demons?
Kevin Cooney: And Jesus will say, I never knew you.
Kevin Cooney: Depart from me, you doers of iniquity.
Kevin Cooney: That's heavy.
Kevin Cooney: Let me close with this.
Kevin Cooney: To those of us who profess to be Christian, are you in Christ?
Kevin Cooney: Are you in Christ?
Kevin Cooney: Are you prepared for his coming in that you take seriously the honor of the bridegroom and the purpose with which you have been entrusted?
Kevin Cooney: On the day of his return, will you, as a result of your faithful witness, have endured suffering and tribulation of some degree or another for his name's sake?
Kevin Cooney: Now again, I'm not saying everyone needs to be a blood martyr.
Kevin Cooney: Some will endure more, some will endure less.
Kevin Cooney: But will you have testified to the magnificent love of God by holding to his word in a fallen and corrupted world to such a degree that persecution, slander, mockery, and evil of some kind has entered into your life because you have followed Christ.
Kevin Cooney: Throughout the New Testament, faithfulness to God's word is inseparably tied to suffering.
Kevin Cooney: Second Timothy 3:12.
Kevin Cooney: In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Kevin Cooney: So I asked you again: are you in Christ?
Kevin Cooney: What occupies and defines your whole life?
Kevin Cooney: Are you caught up in the deceptions of the age, the culture wars, the conspiracies, the false hopes, the messiahs, the politics?
Kevin Cooney: Is that what you're about?
Kevin Cooney: Or are you equipped by and anchored in his word and active in the purpose so that by your death or at his return, you will be found shining brightly and on display in the procession?
Kevin Cooney: Are you anchored in his word?
Kevin Cooney: Are you active in his service?
Kevin Cooney: Are you awaiting his return?
Kevin Cooney: Are you shining brightly in the procession, beloved?
Kevin Cooney: And I know many of you, and you are doing exactly that.
Kevin Cooney: You shine brightly.
Kevin Cooney: Thank you for that.
Kevin Cooney: Thank you that we come home and we can see the procession here.
Kevin Cooney: You keep going because you are beautiful, and Christ sees you, and the groom is honored, and they mock you, and and your and your marriage suffers, and it's hard.
Kevin Cooney: And there are hardships that you endure in order to be faithful and anchored in His Word, in this culture, in this place, and beloved, you are beautiful for that.
Kevin Cooney: It takes wisdom to shine, the wisdom to see before us in all of the options and choices of our life.
Kevin Cooney: How can we use everything that we have to make the groom known and to make the glory of the wedding known to all around us?
Kevin Cooney: It takes wisdom.
Kevin Cooney: It's hard.
Kevin Cooney: How do we use our money and our time?
Kevin Cooney: Where do we choose to live?
Kevin Cooney: What do we choose to do for recreation?
Kevin Cooney: It takes wisdom to know of all of our life's choices and all of the options before us, which of those will bring most maximum glory to Jesus Christ?
Kevin Cooney: Which of those will put us on display as those who can say he is worthy of all things?
Kevin Cooney: And here's a good test for us.
Kevin Cooney: Somewhere between those two extremes I talked about, right?
Kevin Cooney: Right, we're gonna go and street preach in Saudi Arabia.
Kevin Cooney: Don't do that.
Kevin Cooney: And somewhere between, I'm gonna I'm gonna sit and I'm gonna be comfortable and I'm gonna pursue comfort and I'm just gonna wait for suffering to come battering down my door.
Kevin Cooney: Somewhere between those two extremes, we are to live.
Kevin Cooney: And here's the test if in your witnessing for Christ you are pursuing self-promotion or attention, your lamp is not shining.
Kevin Cooney: And on the other hand, if self-preservation and comfort is what's driving your lifestyle choices, friend, you ain't shining.
Kevin Cooney: Now I I'm I'm struggling for illustration here.
Kevin Cooney: Because I don't want anybody to think that that that Pac Kevin, sorry, that's what they call me in Indonesia, Pat Kevin, Pat Kevin is not judging anybody here.
Kevin Cooney: But I'm picking an illustration here.
Kevin Cooney: If you have the means to buy a brand new car and you have a choice between, you know, the souped up, super safe, you know, expensive $70,000 car or the beater, what's driving your decision between the two?
Kevin Cooney: Is Christ part of that?
Kevin Cooney: Is the honor of the bridegroom part of that decision making?
Kevin Cooney: Is his desire that you would shine brightly in this world part of that decision-making process in your life?
Kevin Cooney: Because I can tell you, as one who grew up in this culture, the top of the list for my decision making for many years was what's most comfortable, most efficient, and safest.
Kevin Cooney: Friends, those are anti-gospel categories.
Kevin Cooney: What would it look like if we called one of the elders to sit down with us and have us walk through our personal budgets and finance in order that our financial lives would be better aligned with a kingdom focus?
Kevin Cooney: Ooh.
Kevin Cooney: Kevin, you're crazy.
Kevin Cooney: That's private.
Kevin Cooney: What are you asking us to do?
Kevin Cooney: Uh sort of act like children and call an elder and go through our finances?
Kevin Cooney: Maybe.
Kevin Cooney: But maybe that's an expression, a way in which we take serious our purpose to glorify the groom.
Kevin Cooney: Maybe we need outside eyes to help us, to guide us, to put their finger on things in our life and say, hey, have you considered this?
Kevin Cooney: Hey, maybe this.
Kevin Cooney: That takes real humility.
Kevin Cooney: And we live in a culture that seeps its way into our thinking and doing at every turn.
Kevin Cooney: We need help, brothers and sisters, from one another because the culture around us is constantly trying to get us to be more like them.
Kevin Cooney: But he has appointed us to be on display.
Kevin Cooney: Are you in Christ?
Kevin Cooney: And look, maybe some of us here, uh, you're not in Christ.
Kevin Cooney: And you're here this morning and you don't claim to be a Christian.
Kevin Cooney: First of all, I'm so glad you came.
Kevin Cooney: And I want to point you to Jesus.
Kevin Cooney: I want you to know that following Jesus is really hard, but it's worth it.
Kevin Cooney: And you can experience in Christ a love and a peace that is beyond anything that this world can offer you.
Kevin Cooney: So come and talk to me or pull aside one of the elders of the church after service.
Kevin Cooney: Let us share with you more about what it means to repent from your sins and to trust in Jesus Christ.
Kevin Cooney: I promise you it is glorious and it is painful.
Kevin Cooney: Or maybe there's some sitting here today that profess to be Christian.
Kevin Cooney: But in the hearing of this message, in the hearing of these words from Jesus, it's got you thinking, maybe I'm the foolish virgin.
Kevin Cooney: Maybe that's me.
Kevin Cooney: If I'm being totally honest, maybe I'm not all that serious about Jesus or the calling of a disciple.
Kevin Cooney: Look, I want you to know something.
Kevin Cooney: No one in this building will condemn you.
Kevin Cooney: You will not be ashamed.
Kevin Cooney: You will be lifted up, you will be loved.
Kevin Cooney: You can expect to be surrounded by people that love you and want to point you to Christ and want to celebrate your confession.
Kevin Cooney: Don't wait until Christ returns to examine and to confess the condition of your heart.
Kevin Cooney: Don't wait until it's too late.
Kevin Cooney: Christ's return will expose kingdom impostors.
Kevin Cooney: Brothers and sisters, God has ordained that his church endure and await for his coming in a world full of corruption and hardship.
Kevin Cooney: If we are truly in Christ, we will share in those sufferings to some degree or another.
Kevin Cooney: And if we are faithful to his word, we will be moving in that direction.
Kevin Cooney: And so we wait.
Kevin Cooney: And while we wait, we are to be anchored in his word.
Kevin Cooney: We are to be alert to his coming and we are to be active in his service.
Kevin Cooney: I'm going to pray for us in just a moment, but I want to read for us this verse 13.
Kevin Cooney: And I want us to listen carefully to the final words of this parable.
Kevin Cooney: Therefore, be alert because you don't know either the day or the hour.
Kevin Cooney: Let's pray.
Kevin Cooney: Lord, your word is powerful, and your spirit does bring conviction of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
Kevin Cooney: Thank you for Jesus.
Kevin Cooney: Lord, I pray that you would take this word this morning and that you would seal it on our hearts.
Kevin Cooney: That we would not be the same, Lord, that we would desire to move in the direction of more brightly shining for your glory.
Kevin Cooney: I pray, Lord, that we would move into the direction of displaying.
Kevin Cooney: The riches and glory of the sun all around us, that we would take seriously, Lord, our calling as witnesses, and that we would take seriously that we shine brightest when we are being pressed and stripped and harassed.
Kevin Cooney: And yet we still cry, worthy is the Lamb.
Kevin Cooney: Create in us, Lord, hearts that are pure.
Kevin Cooney: Show us the power of the resurrection.
Kevin Cooney: Allow us, Lord, to enter into the fellowship of his sufferings.
Kevin Cooney: Do this for your glory in Jesus' name.
Kevin Cooney: Amen.