After The Amen

After The Amen - Ep. 32: "The Parable of Ten Virgins"

• Jordan • Season 1 • Episode 32

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Welcome to “After The Amen” 🙏 
The goal of this podcast is to revisit the message from the previous Sunday in order to unpack the passage even further, ask key questions, and discover how faith can practically move from Sunday morning into every day of the week.


Linked Sunday - May 31, 2026

SPEAKER_02

Welcome to After the Amen. This is our podcast segment here at Frankenmouth Bible Church, where we take the content from Sunday morning sermon and we unpack it later in the week. And I'm joined by Pastor Mark Hazen. Oh Pastor Mark? Oh no, I'm not. No. I'm joined joined by Pastor Jordan Herrera.

SPEAKER_00

That guy's on vacation. He's uh riding bikes currently. Hopefully not getting hit by another goose. Is it goose or geese?

SPEAKER_02

Geese? Goose. Uh it's uh depends if you're gonna be singular or plural.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Just however like one goose, several goose.

SPEAKER_00

Hopefully he's riding well. But yeah, I'm not Mark Hazen. Uh no. I'm Jordan. Yeah. Good to see you, Jordan.

SPEAKER_02

You so we have a question for the people who are listening. If you have a very close friend who has food in his teeth, do you tell him? A hundred percent. Yes. What if you don't know the person? Do you tell them?

SPEAKER_00

Are we gonna talk for a short period of time? Like, am I just like I just greet him or something?

SPEAKER_02

Maybe it's like somebody, yeah, just I'd probably let it go.

SPEAKER_00

I know. That's pretty bad. If they're at church and they're here and they come and I meet them, I'm like, hey, I'll say something like, Hey man, you might even if it's in their teeth, there's something on their face. I would say there's you might soon your teeth. No, but that's because they're like about to go meet and hang out with other people. I don't know. But if it's if it's a quick I'm not I'm not gonna say anything. Okay. I'm gonna be with you for a bit. I'll find a way to say it would you what would you do? I think I would tell them. Yeah. Yeah. You think you would tell them? You think I think it depends on the situation. If it's like right now, I show up to this podcast and I got stuff on the podcast.

SPEAKER_02

Oh I teach. You're good. You have very white teeth, by the way. Thanks. I don't know why we're talking about this, mostly because we were talking about it before the the podcast began. But um, so you're not Mark Hazen, you're Jordan Herrera, but you're gonna be asking the questions today. Yeah, dude, so loved the opening of the series.

SPEAKER_00

Um stoked to to jump into this whole series. And uh yeah, I think of the series. You mean yeah, sorry, ending of the series, yes, not jumping in the series. Sorry, I'm I'm looking ahead in the calendar. Yep. Um I thought Sunday sermon was really unique, super good though. It was really cool, really insightful, like not a typical passage everyone speaks on. Um, they coordinate between Matthew 25 and 24, right? We had a little bit of the inclusion of both of both of those, have a little overlap. Um, but dude, you opened up with a funny story, a little bit of funny story about the school bus stuff. Yeah, everyone's had problems probably waiting, impatience or the wrong thing, did the right thing, didn't even know they're supposed to do the right thing. Like, yeah, what do you feel like um stuck out to you? And like, why'd you pick that story for this parable?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so well, first of all, I think you probably would know this, but anytime anytime I tell a personal story, so usually it's a story of something I've screwed up, just because I think, you know, anytime we preach, the hero needs to be Jesus. So and I've screwed up a lot, which makes it really easy. Um, but the reason I picked the story was because I think it just maps on well with the the focus of the message and that I was waiting. I knew I was supposed to be waiting, but I was not I was not ready for when the thing I was waiting for arrived. I was caught off guard, and it was because I was negligent, not waiting properly, and I think that was like the emphasis of the series. So why there's a few other illustrations I was thinking of throughout the week trying to put together, but that one kind of seemed like it mapped on the most. And um, but yeah, so dude, waiting stories are the worst though.

SPEAKER_00

Like waiting in a long lines, like Cedar Point or something like that. Um, I remember having one, I think I told you about this, was I was with my uncle uh down at a Gusmacard down in Detroit, near Detroit. Yep. Thousands of people everywhere, and we're like watching some of my brothers play. We go to, for some reason, my uncle's like wants a corn dog from the street, one of the street vendors, right? This is this is a while back.

SPEAKER_01

Sure.

SPEAKER_00

I was probably eight years old, six, eight, I don't know, six, eight years old. And uh he decides to wait in this long line that's going across the street. People walking through in and out, and I'm like, I don't want to wait. So instead of waiting, instead of waiting patiently with him, I decided to walk off and go back to our car. And he was so rightfully so, so mad, so ticked. And so I go back to our car, he comes back in a rant and is just like, what are you doing? Why aren't you stay with me? I'm like, I'm so sorry, I didn't know, I just didn't want to wait in the line, whatever, right? But I waited wrongly. At least you waited, you know, you were supposed to look out the window, you've always give away, right? Yeah, but I mean, it's again to go to this parable, waiting is difficult, and sometimes we wait wrong in the wrong way. Sometimes we wait, even like uh in your case, what you kind of waited like knowing you had a task to do, but then you forgot, yeah, and you came kind of, you know, was not focused on the task at hand. Waiting rightly, which we should have just waited, you should have waved. I should have just waited in the corndog line, yeah, and I'll be okay. Um, but that's such a good way to connect the dots of this thing. I mean, one of the bigger themes that you had in the sermon, you know, was um why do you think human beings struggle so much with waiting? Like, why do you feel like it's just like a natural thing that we struggle to do?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that's a great question. It's funny because the the previous week's message had a little bit to do with um listening, which we I think we talked about, Mark and I talked about we struggle with listening. There's reasons for that. Waiting is the same thing. Probably one reason that we struggle with it is because um, you know, as humans, I think just in general, we have this expectation, especially in today's culture where we we want things now, we want things right away. We want we're in the generation where increasingly more so waiting, I think, is harder. If you want to get something, you can order it on Amazon and it will be there the next day at your house. Yeah. If you want to watch the next episode of a show, you can binge watch. Right. We didn't have that back when I was commercials, dude.

SPEAKER_00

What are those?

SPEAKER_02

You know, exactly commercials. You can fast forward through the commercials, right?

SPEAKER_00

Right, right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So it's just a unique um generation that we're living in, time that we're living in. I think increasingly more waiting is hard. It's always been hard, but um, obviously Jesus using the illustration or talked about it of something that everybody resonated with then. But you know, it's one of those things that just the human human condition is all is we want stuff bred away. Right, right. We we struggle with that. Yeah, I think it's patience is a virtue.

SPEAKER_00

It's like wait, yeah, waiting in lines. Like you, I've I don't know how many lines I've been in lately, not a ton, but just like grocery stores, it's like how do you go find the one that's the shortest, right? So you're like, no one wants to sit and wait in like the five deep lines because they got stuff they got to go get to or stuff to tend to, right?

SPEAKER_02

So well, I think the other thing too, that's you know, interesting, like the grocery store. It seems like inevitably you try to make the decision of what line will be the fastest, and you usually pick the one that visibly looks the shortest, and that's the one where like the cashier runs out of change and has to go, you know, it's like almost every time. Like it's like you pick the line and then you watch all the other lines go, you know, people go flying by, or you're waiting to get you know, pump your car with gas, and that person like then walks over whatever it is. It's like it's uh is yeah, you seem like you're gonna get ahead, but you definitely waiting is part of life 100%. It's a reality of the world we live in.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, inescapable. Yeah, and I think uh it's just it's a unique thing, but it's uh something obviously in the within this parables that that Jesus really does point to as a almost like a virtue. It's a good thing to to be a good person and wait, but how we wait makes a every bit of difference, right? So before we jump into maybe some of the parable stuff, you had a little bit of uh probably like what five minutes into your sermon, maybe eight minutes of your sermon, um, where you had Matthew 24 and 25. Yeah, the like connection between the two, because we didn't want to just jump in straight to 25. We had to have a little bit of overlap from the Olivet discourse, right? So it's like you'll play off that a little bit. What was the significance of that? Why do we want to make sure that we include that part beforehand?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I I didn't talk about this a whole lot. Yeah, you spent a little bit on it, but a little bit of time. But there what's interesting is you have you have what Jesus says in Matthew 24, it's this Olivet discourse about the things to come. Um the disciples are asking questions, and then what he begins to do is he begins to launch into not just one parable, but actually a series of parables. So that's kind of the portion we're at. We talked about the ten virgins, but if you read the end of the Olivet Discourse, he begins already talking about a parable. Um, and you know, talks about the faithful wise servant, he talks about that. Then we have the parable of the talents. These are all on the heels of what Jesus says in that discourse, and part of it is the fact that he's going to return. We don't know the day nor the hour. And so the way in which we wait, there are different things he draws out in each of those parables. And so, if you were to look through all those parables, they're really all connected. They're all connected to this idea of how we wait. You know, some is how we use our gifts. Uh, the one I talked about was specifically to the, you know, the the ten virgins, and and they're not not being ready for a return. So it's all connected. So the the reason I did that was because we don't want to read, you know, we have a tendency to want to read verses in isolation.

SPEAKER_00

Sections, yeah, or pieces, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Matthew is a gospel that was it's one work, one it's it's one, it's one piece. And so we want to read it in units that are connected. And so the way to rightly understand the parable in the beginning of Matthew 25 is to know what Jesus was sharing in Matthew 24. So it just it just connects those dots. Gains a full picture, yeah. And um, and it's interesting, and even Matthew 24 comes, you know, on the on the heels of him making his way into Jerusalem and lamenting over that, and so it's all it's all part of the unfolding story that leads, you know, ultimately to Jesus and his death and burial and resurrection, and then ultimately his return. Ultimately his return.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, which is so uh that's part of the waiting that we're going to already and then not yet, correct? Right? So we're like we're we're hanging out, but we're also being diligent. You're being intentional with your time. Sure. YOLO, right? You only live once, like you're gonna make the best count for this thing. Um, so there's obviously dangers on both sides. So that's the big thing. I mean, we know that Jesus is returning, right? Yes. Um, but then I'll just read this one because I thought this one was really healthy to think through a little bit. Um, you talked about the two dangers, right? Seeing the world event as proof that Jesus is returning tomorrow, right? And becoming complacent. Um, and uh because he hasn't returned yet. Which of like those two dangers do you think the Christians are most susceptible to right now? Like what do you feel like, maybe even personally, that we could talk about for a second, but more or less the Christian that we see, every Christian, which one do you feel like they fall into more?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you're talking about people who falsely what I kind of unpacked a little bit about people who in the um Olivet discourse who maybe are deceived into thinking like, oh man, Jesus is is here right now, and it's yep. Or those who it's not even on the horizon. So yeah. I think you know it's interesting. There's probably an ebb and a flow, and maybe everyone's different in that sense. I think well, I'll affirm a few things. I think Jesus is returning. I believe that wholeheartedly. I think he's coming soon. I think we should be we should eagerly await that, and I think we should be Jesus doesn't give the Olivet discourse for no reason. There should be things that we see and discern as we're looking toward his return and be aware of. So it's just living within that healthy balance. So I think maybe certain people could fall into other traps. I think in our culture today, especially just the era that we're in right now, I think what I preached on was the bigger thing. I think most people don't even really give a second thought, even Christians, to the fact that Christ could return at any point. And if he does return, you know, and it when he does return, like we only have so much time. I think there are a lot of people who are not have not lived their life as if Christ could could return tomorrow. For sure. So I think that that's probably the the area we would air the most. You know, that's one of the reasons I preached that passage in particular. And because it's just one of those things that's like we we we need to live in light of his return. And the you know, in scripture we're we're encouraged to do so. You know, we're we're commended that those who are awaiting his return, they'll have this you know crown. Like it's like that the God uh desires for us to live with the expectancy that he's coming back, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So it's also like the uh our community group kind of talked about this a little bit, but the idea that like heaven is almost feels mystical. You touched based on that, I think a week or two ago, about just like the idea of like we can't just be like we're like floating up in a cloud, yeah, playing the harps and doing things that yeah, right? It's just like almost seems boring. Like it's just such a and that's such a weird concept because this is where we're gonna spend eternity in.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Um well, and then one of the things I'll I'll just say about that, right? Heaven is is God's space, right? So that it's the place where there is a present heaven where the Lord is, and we go, and if we die, we go to be with him. But if we're in the presence of Jesus right now, those who are in the presence of Jesus right now, they're they've been separated from their bodies. So there's like a present heaven. The Bible gives such a robust picture of like God's plan is not ultimately for people to be disembodied and just be floating around with the Lord, right? It's it's new heaven, new earth, right? And so there's a part of this unfolding plan that God has for his creation, where he is redeeming and resurrecting and restoring and completing all these initial plans. We we kind of live within the framework of what we see now, and like it's you know, we're here and then we only have so much time and then we die. But like part of what I think it's healthy for Christians today, we probably don't have enough of this, is understanding that God began a work in his sending of Jesus, in uh say saving us through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, redeeming us, uh opening the door for us to enter into relationship with him, experiencing forgiveness, all those things. We are saved, but the fullness of that saving work of God is something that you know we're still awaiting the completion of all that. And that's gonna be in the age to come. And so Christ will come back and uh ultimately he'll bring about the the fulfillment of all his purposes for creation. Right. And so we should long for look forward to it. I was gonna say yeah, you're and live in light of that.

SPEAKER_00

100% because you're longing, the the waiting is the longing. It's almost like you're yeah, intentionally living, knowing that this could be the last, but at the same time, you have something to look forward to. Like it's not just floating up in the air. Yeah. I uh started reading a book again. I read it like a while back, probably like a like eight years ago, 10 years ago, um, just called Heaven by Randy Alcorn. And it just has so many good, um, almost like QA style of questions just of what heaven will look like, what we can anticipate, and why that longing um and and that that thought to be in heaven should just like affect our everyday today, right? So it's a good book. Um, love that book. Love the thought of that. So, delay of the bridegroom seems to be one of the most important details in the story, right? So, like Jesus makes an emphasis on that. Why do you feel like Jesus um gets into some of those details? Why do you feel like he makes the emphasis about that?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, well, what this is the cool thing about the Bible is that there's a part of our experience today, if you're a follower of Jesus, and Jesus, you know, we we again, I mentioned we have the vantage point of history. We unlike the people in the old testament who were hearing God's promises and looking forward to a day that God would fulfill his promises and not seeing clearly what what the there's a mystery, you know, all of this unfolding plan of God to rescue his people, they were looking ahead, and I would suggest that the people in the Old Testament are saved by Jesus through their trust and the fulfillment of God's promises. Faith has always been God's plan for his people to trust him. Yeah. So he made these promises. Well, the arrival of Jesus, you know, that's something that we now have the ability to look back at and say, Man, I'm so thankful that Jesus is the one who was promised, who came, who came to rescue us. But what's interesting is that we're 2,000 years removed from the first coming of Jesus. And I think there are times, you even read in the New Testament, I think the uh some of the people you you seem to read some of the letters even of Paul. It's like I think there's a sense in which some of those people were believing, hey, Jesus could could come back at any point.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And the further that time goes on, if Jesus doesn't give us some of these things like this parable, I think it would I think as followers of of Christ, it would be hard to think that these promises are actually true. But but Jesus already gave us a framework that there is a delay, you know, that the the process of waiting, we don't know how long that is. It's been two thousand years. Now we know that scripture is really clear that for us, you know, uh thousands of years is a long time. Our span of life is fits within a century, typically. But for the Lord, you know, a day is a thousand years, a thousand years is a day. I mean, time, God is not bound by time. Right. And so our vantage point that's for our benefit. He says, hey, you know, the the bridegroom was delayed, and yet you should be watchful and ready and prepared for that, for that delay. And for us, it's this sense of going, hey, we want to live in in light of the fact that Christ could return, be ready for that. Um, but we could be waiting. And the way that we wait is watchful and prepared. That's that's the illustration that he uses, and I think that's the point he's trying to drive home is that there is a time where where Christ is planning to come back, but there's a delay. We should be ready for that and not caught off guard by that delay. It shouldn't cast doubt in our minds because he was clear about it. And so that's why I think that that's um mentioned there, you know, just living, living, eagerly awaiting his return. And there's also a sense in which if you've been with around somebody who had like a near-death experience, there's a sober-mindedness to those people, right? If you like came out of a car accident and you should have been dead, you begin to then think about the way that you use your time. Because now you know that you've you've come face to face with your finitude and that you only have so much time. Absolutely. And there's a part of what God wants us to think through is that nobody knows the day nor the hour. You know, tomorrow I could drop dead. Have I lived my life the way that God has called me to? If you know, if tomorrow I if I knew it was my last day, I would do a whole bunch of things, right? Some of those things would be spending time with certain people, it might even be apologizing, yeah, seeking restoration, restoration. Yep. It would be putting certain things in order. You know, there's a sense in which every day we should live as if it could be our last. Yeah. And scripture makes this a great example here. Like Christ could return. Are we ready for that return?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um because who knows how long the delay truly is, right? Absolutely. And I think for some people it's that complacency of saying, hey, I've got time to get my life in order with God.

SPEAKER_00

And um, so why not focus on like the 401ks of life or the you know, the the yeah, and that's not even a that's it's wise, right? But I'm just I'm just saying the focus goes from the shift of like, how do I intentionally live in the sake of placing my faith, the trust in Jesus, allowing him to lead my life, then what takes his primaries, all the other things, right? So that's good. Yep. I mean, yeah, that's a crazy passage and crazy thought is just the the thought that like Jesus acknowledges he doesn't know the hour. It's just such a I know we don't want to get into much in the weeds and that, but we can if you want. Jesus acknowledges the Father knows, but I don't, right? Yeah, but yet hold on, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all three in one and the same. Um distinctively different. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So for for clarity, um yeah, bring some clarity.

SPEAKER_00

How about that?

SPEAKER_02

So so yeah, so we're talking about the trinit trinity here. You have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are all, they're the members of the Godhead, they're all God, and they're there's they're one uh in essence, but distinct in personhood. So you have the Father, the Father is not the same person as the Son, right? And so you have distinction and personhood, one in essence. So what makes it unique about that is that Jesus, when he took on flesh, he embraced the full role of humanity. And uh while he never ceased to be God, there are elements of his of what it means to be God that he didn't employ, right? So it's like Jesus, God doesn't have to sleep, but Jesus had to sleep, right, because he was fully man. So he embraced those things. There's this kind of self-limitation, right? It's it's it's clothing himself in humanity, right? Embrace the role of being a human because he had to be our our substitute sacrifice. He was the one he had to be fully man and fully God to save us. So there's a there's uh an embracing of that humanity. That means there's a there's a imposing of self-limitation for the sake of his mission. And so he had to eat, he had to sleep, you know, he was exhausted at times, he could be overwhelmed by things. Um and yet the same thing is true with certain things, knowing his day or nor hour, right? No, knowing the time of his return. There was a I would view it as a willful setting aside. of that um in order to embrace his role as human is is Jesus yeah and so um so yeah so there's a sense in which now again we know also Jesus being fully God he could he could he could take upon himself any of those those qualities attributes um yeah he never he never yeah I gotta be careful because we wanna we always be really faithful to how we're how we're uh explaining who Jesus is always maintained fully God but in terms of just employing those things it's just not um that was not the task he had you know he he humbled himself and took on the nature of a servant and being found in human likeness he became obedient to death even death on the cross so that's part of how we understand um those things and the role of Jesus well it's really interesting to think about um is creation happens how many years do they I mean that there's different views right but yeah yeah 100% different views but you're thinking bare minimum thousands of years correct before Jesus enters oh you have yeah you have thousands of years yes right thousands of years so it's just kind of interesting to think about like the fact that God created um created Adam and Eve create you know puts all creation into into existence within a week right and then you have thousands of years that rest in between to where Jesus actually shows up in the flesh of all these different snares that go down so it's like it just gives a little bit of like the picture of like hey if it took him if it took God because again uh one day and and God's it's about a thousand years it's funny I think we're like oh yeah we for sure know because of what's going on over overseas or over the pond right it's like you're you're just like that's coming. And what's cool too is just you know God's plan and God's timing is perfect. And so what you read through the unfolding of scripture and that storyline you know so Jesus has always existed but he's not he's not always existed in in the flesh his incarnate there was a moment fixed moment in history where Jesus took on flesh. Right and uh and now in his resurrected body he will always exist bodily but the the unfolding plan of God you know Jesus was there in creation all things were made through him but God's purposes and plans for creation he he you know he entered into a covenant with Abraham and his family with the intention of always bringing about the salvation of his people and um and Jesus is that ultimately the true and better Israel who fulfills those promises and so his plan unfolded according to his timing and his way it's perfect. But we get the blessing of saying hey we get to see the revelation of who Jesus is God sent him. We're aware of who Jesus is and we have the promises now of his return and so we we also have an element of looking ahead trusting in the promises of God and just like the people of the Old Testament who are waiting for the fulfillment of that promise of sending the Messiah and the first coming of Jesus we're we're waiting for the fulfillment of his return.

SPEAKER_00

And so that's where we live it correlates they both correlate the same type of waiting eagerness not just like oh like I wish you know I wish you'd it's like trust yeah it's trust and believing his faithfulness in the past and yeah trust that doesn't blow your mind uh I guess if you're watching this online you want to drop a little mind blown thing for me thing thing for me in the in the in the comments because I'm actually mind blown right now so it doesn't take much for that though for me. No man it's uh it blows my mind and I'm and again we're talking about the mystery of the Trinity so I'm yeah and it's such a actually like uh that's what's really cool and fun just is that it it's the thing that you can be curious about but actually have so much joy in like you can you can look at it as like this is annoying it has to be false because there's no way it's like no like I'm gonna see the joy and goodness of this because God's coming back again and what I could anticipate of that is just yeah um I think I I really want to get into that um this question we had the ending of the parable can can feel unsettling right it's like it's yes so the foolish versions say Lord Lord and yet they're left outside like what on earth right how should Christians understand that warning without falling into fear or constantly questioning their salvation because like yeah dude I grew up in you know Baptisty circle where we probably professed our salvation I don't know how many times I even read a book uh called Stop asking Jesus in your heart by JD Greer I don't know if you ever heard that book before I'm familiar tiny little book yeah um but yeah when it comes to this part in the parable it leaves you like huh yeah do I actually know Jesus am I gonna be said yes into the kingdom of heaven yeah I guess just thoughts broad view broad scope what your point was and what the thoughts are here on this um and in that parable.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah we it's uh pressing into a little bit I mean I we talked quite a bit about this in the one of the last podcast was it the last one I'm trying to think. Yep. Um Mark and I kind of pressed into this a little bit and so yeah it was the previous week. So um you know to to flesh it out a little further what I would say is those in the pair and the parable who are unprepared are not believers, right? I'm very familiar with the environment where you know you question your salvation and those moments where you kind of maybe rededicate or recommit. And I think that that comes from a really wonderful place in a heart that wants to um really pursue the Lord and even a heart that's like you know recognizes our fallenness. You know what I'm saying? So I I don't I don't want to be overly diminishing of that. There's a sense in which though there's a part of believing the gospel and believing Jesus where it's like I know like I'm not full of faith all the time. Doubt is part of the Christian experience. We struggle with some of those things. The question isn't is never do I believe enough it's always is Jesus enough it just really is and so it redirects the focus a little bit so it's like when we keep going you know man I you know how did I believe enough do I believe enough do I believe enough and it's like well we're we're making ourselves the center of our salvation when we continually do that. And it's like whoa whoa Jesus is enough he's enough he is sufficient and he is the object of our faith he the our salvation is contingent not on us or even our ability to whatever do anything to muster up the belief right it's on him. Yeah. And so I always just try to encourage people and and the other part of it I would say is if you're really like living with this man I just you know like that's usually a sign of conviction. That's a good thing. That's a sign the spirit's working in us. So um we can take comfort in some of that. At the same time these are real warnings that we should heed. That's what we talked about a little bit last last week in the podcast. So for people who are listening to this parable if they are living however they please and doing whatever they want and kind of don't give a second thought or maybe even a consideration to like what God says and the promises he made hopefully as we hear this we should go oh man I need to trust in Jesus. Yeah yeah yeah so so those who are prepared are are believers.

SPEAKER_00

And they're eagerly waiting. And they're waiting.

SPEAKER_02

That's it that's that that's exactly that's the funny thing about it is they have faith in Greek Christ and his promises they're trusting in him. That doesn't mean they have all their things always together perfectly I do not believe that well personally I don't think I can lose my salvation I don't think it's mine to lose salvation belongs to the Lord. Yeah so um by God's grace I've been saved through faith Jesus is the one who does the saving I'm trusting in him and as I now believe in the promises of God I await his return and and he's working in me and I'm working also in my growth and sanctification of you know beginning to to put to death those things that belong to my former nature and you know God's working in me and sanctifying me. That's just part of the Christian experience. But you know we're not going to arrive on this side of heaven but we should be prepared in that we believe the gospel and trust his promises.

SPEAKER_00

That's so funny the way you say that because that's actually the argument that JD Greer makes in that case is that if you're thinking about your walk with Jesus, if you're actually thinking about anticipating heaven and Christ's return and that are you found in him you can stop asking Jesus in your heart because you because you do because if you don't if you don't truly believe right you are uh again not to muster your belief but if you don't you're not you're not wondering when Jesus is coming back you're not wondering if this if the Bible right and so last week was the parable of the soils that's why I mentioned that because we talked about the various soils right and it's like there are some people who have like a momentary reception but they don't it's like it's not deep root.

SPEAKER_02

It's not yeah and it's so I think there's a place for endurance and continue you know continued faith and trusting and I talked about that last week about you know let's not just say have I trust in the Lord but like am I trusting him and do I do I believe him and that's how we want to focus on you know that that relationship with the Lord. But um ultimately yes I don't think it's meant to strike fear in people's hearts um I think it's just meant to remind us that hey we can believe God's promises and we should have we should believe the gospel. Those are the ones who are already you know when Jesus in Matthew 7 says those same words when they say Lord Lord and he said didn't we do all these things in your name or whatever he says depart from you who practice lawlessness I never knew you so they're they're not it's not a genuine relationship with the Lord that we're talking about there's somebody who's an unbeliever.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And that's who he's referring to there when he says you know I don't know you.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah and it's a really good thoughts to think through really the good things to even pray over think through but like yeah I think the good thing that you've mentioned I think is really helpful for at least my background maybe some religiosity there is like I can't muster up enough belief and to just simply sit there and pray and go, God like nothing bad what's saying help my own belief strengthen my belief in you should do that yeah open my blind eyes right um but to not but stuck thinking that you're the one that's creating that in you. It's the spirit that's yeah so um you want to go last one let's go last one here big idea ready or not Jesus is coming right Hillsong wrote a really good song called Ready or not as like about six six to eight years six to seven I guess whatever next well played no it wasn't pretty actually not so much uh it just talks so much about the some of these things are these thoughts that just he's already won the battle he's already won the war he's already won these things I mean if someone remembers something six months from now from this message that you gave or just that this this parable and the long and the what Jesus is trying to teach here what is it that you feel like you want them to walk away with what what would you want them to remember if it was six months post from now well um so I do big idea preaching it's kind of my approach because I think what I what I would say about preaching is that if you're trying to say multiple things, that's multiple sermons, you want we want to primarily say one thing that's kind of the goal of preaching.

SPEAKER_02

And so um again when we're preaching through text there are many things that are communicated but we try to distill kind of one overarching message and I try to usually have that be centered around the big idea.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So the big idea would be the thing I hope that people will remember um not necessarily the verbiage but the point right is that we can be ready or we can not be ready. It doesn't ultimately like that's not going to change the truth that Jesus is coming back. So my hope is that in six months if anybody thinks back to this time it's a moment where they're challenged to be reminded that God has made promises and God will deliver those promises and we should be expectant and that expectation of his delivery on that promise should impact the way that we live and who we are and what we believe. And I think it's a comfort too for those who are saying hey if Jesus is coming back like that's that's a good thing. It's a whole separate thing I don't it's not connected to your question, but I'm gonna digress for a second. There's a part of it you mentioned this earlier where like this is an interesting topic but we might as well just chat about it for a second. There are people and I know this because I've experienced this myself in certain ways as a young man I remember hearing about the return of Jesus but I remember hoping that I could experience certain things before he came back. Maybe getting getting married maybe right 100% or having kids or you know now I'm at a phase of life like you know I want to see my kids get graduate or graduate or whatever. Like you want to see these moments where you you there's things about earth that are so cool right this world is screwed up we know that ecclesiastes talk about that but this world is also a gift and there's things about this experience here that we should crave and I don't think that's a bad impulse wanting to get married or wanting to see certain like certain we have these desires and and interests because we're earthlings. Yeah. So there's a part of it where it's like I I I you know I want him to come back but I want to experience this first. Part of what this parable reminds us of also is that like when the groom comes back it's a party like the best of what we experience here is a foretaste of what's to come. In fact the the the world that we live in has been designed I think to give us this deeper longing for a more perfect version of what we experience now. Yeah and that is the ultimate destination of God's saving purposes. It's new creation so like the best day you've ever had is like a little hint of a flavor of what God has in store for us for all creation. So it's it's it's it's a comfort to know that his return is something that's good. Yeah those impulses that we I remember having as a young person, those are great because that means that they're that that we we've experienced something of the blessing that God gives here and now this is nothing in comparison to what he has ahead. And so heaven is unfathomably better and the new creation is going to be the the perfect version of us and the world and um that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah and it creates a sense of longing all of that.

SPEAKER_02

And so we have Lewis talks about that you know those people the illustrate our illustration of us being far too easily pleased that we would you know we want to settle for making mud pies as opposed to knowing what a holiday at the sea would be that's a good that's a good word for us. Like we we have no clue how great the return of Christ will be 100%. And to remind ourselves that the best of what we experience is yet to come that's awesome. And it's but a shadow it's just such but a and while we wait if we get the blessings of some of these things that we can experience now wonderful it's a foretaste of what's to come it's gonna be far better and the A love the message love the sermon of closing sorry because I got a little too head earlier but the closing of this jumping into a new series though right we are jumping into a new series what is the new series the new series is called Digging Deep. So the new series will be to take some of your favorite verses and to just mine them for a little more than what you you know would typically get on the surface. And so some John 316 some Ephesians 2.

SPEAKER_00

We got we got some really popular verses that people really would know quite a bit of Philippians 4 13 I think is one of them.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah um but just uh excited to dig into that because it almost feels a little bit of like the straight out of context but there's a little bit of a um a different feel for it digging deeper into the water I think the difference I mean the I've had check you're probably the third person who's mentioned that there's probably elements of that that will come out from the series um and maybe even some some overlap from some of the the verses but one of the things is it's not necessarily we're it's not that we're just picking verses there are some verses that people regularly take out of context that might find their way in here but there's a lot of verses that are just beloved but there's things about them that maybe we can expand on yes yeah and if you've hidden God's word in your heart how cool is that but then if you can take time to reflect on that word you've hidden in your heart because a lot of people know for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, right? But if they understand what that means in a deeper way I think it can be that more much more meaningful. We want to make sure that we're we're highlighting the richness of what God's word says for some of the most beloved passages or purposes.

SPEAKER_00

Love it. Yep well um yeah we want to just wrap it up a little bit the big takeaway the big takeaway for today's thing we're waiting back we're waiting eagerly we're not getting to the blinds and just hopefully waving we're like anticipating we're working hard we're looking to he's coming I think he's coming soon we need to be ready for it which is awesome.

SPEAKER_02

So with that are we done? We're done guys thanks again for joining us for After the Amen. I hope that you join us next week I have no idea who our hosts will be. Maybe it will be you again maybe it will be Mark it's great. Maybe it'll be mystery guest. We don't know who knows but we hope that you guys join us either way thanks so much for for taking time to listen or watch