Christ's Object Lessons - Chapter 29: "To Meet the Bridegroom"

Pastor David Asscherick discusses Chapter 29 of Ellen White's Christ's Object Lessons, which examines the parable of the ten virgins from Matthew 25. This final chapter of the book explores the contrast between those who are prepared for Christ's return and those who are not, with the oil representing the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence. David emphasizes Ellen White's powerful insight that we cannot keep Christ apart from our lives here and be fitted for His companionship in heaven. The chapter reveals that the last message of mercy to the world is a revelation of God's character of love, which must shine as light through Spirit-filled believers into a world shrouded in darkness. David explains that following Jesus is a skill that must be learned over time through daily communion with Him, not something that can be acquired at the last moment.

Scripture References: Matthew 25:1-13
Covers: Chapter 29: To Meet the Bridegroom
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jQ2ie3OoAA
Light Bearers

Transcript

Greeting and Announcements

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Greetings everyone and welcome to With DA, the final chapter of our month-long study through the parables of Jesus. It's been amazing, and we are at the very end of it. Welcome to those of you that are watching on YouTube and those of you that are tuning in right now on Instagram for our last chapter. Can you believe it? All right, they're signing on already. There we go. Hello, Tennessee Quiltbug. Hello V Alfaro. Hello, Dashy Dash 707. Hello, Marco. Bless Chuck 7. Schwanties 65. Deb Short 5. Nicholas Smith, Sassy Cassie says, hello, David. Patrice Hummel. Stone Doctor New York City says, good evening, guys. Hope you all had a great Sabbath. Dash Alicia says the final countdown. That's right. That's right. Caledonia Avenue Kids says, I'm going to miss this. Well, you're not the only one. Hello, Jeannie. Hello, Deb. Hello, Brent. Hello, Denise N32. Todd Hathaway says, love with DA, brother, that makes me so happy. Thank you for saying that. Hello, Nixon Giraffe. Succulent living by Marija. Wow, that was a long one. Hello, Cassandra. Hello, Grace, Peace, and Blessings. Reiner and Alice, great to see you both today and your uh lovely new grandchild. And of course, your children as well, and your son-in-law. Hello, Stefan says, can't believe oh, can't believe this is it. Got it. Hello, Avery. Hello, Lisa. Hello, Pac. Hello, Autumn. Hello Cal. Cal? Or Mish Michelle Ann? That's a tough one. Hello, Michelle. She says she's driving, so she can't type. Please don't. Hello, Nika from South Africa. Hello, Mark 740 from Bountiful Utah. Birdgirl89 says, congrats on the grandbaby. Yep, that's right. It was just announced yesterday by my son, my oldest son, Landon, and his wife Salie. They are expecting a baby boy in August, which is absolutely thrilling. My first grandchild cannot wait. Hello, Lynn. Stacy. Band construction. Okay, great. Rich 77. All right. Hello, Ruben. Kay Fischel2 says, so sad. This is the last chapter, but it was awesome. This was an outstanding chapter. So good. Uh let's see. Thank you for your dedicated time. Birdie. I just started watching birds. Greetings from Woodland, California. Okay, good. That's a wise decision. That's a decision you're not going to regret. Learning, learning birds and watching birds, you're gonna love it. Gabby Abbey says, Drive most of the time during our lives, but thank God was able to stay tuned. Love it. Tara Smith, 5694, says, Congrats on the rock climbing. Oh, yeah, that was good. All right, well, welcome everybody. So glad that you are here. We are in our final chapter, chapter 29 of our secondary textbook, Christ's Object Lessons. It has been a wonderful February, February 2026. So for those of you that are watching months or even years later, welcome. We're glad you're here. We are just finishing up live here on Instagram. Those that have been with us night after night after night, uh, many hundreds watch live, and then of course, in the days and months and years to come, thousands. So this is absolutely thrilling. It's great. By the way, I want to start with a polite request for those of you that are tuned in live and those of you that are on YouTube. It would mean the world to me. And I've put a lot of time and energy effort into this, energy and effort. Now I'm just asking if you would do one favor for me. If you haven't already done so. If you're on Instagram and you watch primarily on Instagram, it would be great if you would go on YouTube. And if you already have a YouTube account, please like every one of the videos. Give the thumbs up to every one of the C O L with DA videos. The 20, 30 videos that we've just done. So if you already have an account, go like every one if you haven't already done so. If you do not have an account, please go get a YouTube account. And then go like every one of those videos and subscribe because we're I'm very close to like 20,000 followers. And as you get beyond these kind of milestones, 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, and beyond, you you get prioritized by the algorithm. And I know that many of you that are live, you watch primarily on Instagram, but it would be really great if you could go on YouTube, like every one of the COL with DA videos, the last 30 that we've just done, including this one, and subscribe. And for those of you that are on YouTube right now, if watching on YouTube, if you haven't already done so, please like, share, subscribe, do all the things. It would be really, really great. And so that's a favor that I have to ask of you. Also, I want to start with a few thank yous. Okay, so this is gonna be uh uh just a few thank yous. I promise I won't spend too much time on this because we do have an amazing chapter that I want to get to, and I I'm just so excited about this chapter. It's so rich, there's so many threads, there's so much going on, and at one level, it's really simple. Really simple, really profound, and very beautiful. Okay, but just before we get into that, a few thank yous. So, first and foremost, of course, I want to thank Jesus. I want to thank our Heavenly Father, and I want to thank the Holy Spirit for showing up to each one of these with DAs faithfully in all of the ways. And just things like there really haven't been many technical problems. There were two kinds of technical problems, and both of them were my fault. So the camera that I'm using is like four years old. The lights that I'm using are like four, all of this stuff is not very new, and it all functioned flawlessly. The only thing that didn't function flawlessly was me. And so I just want to give God glory and give him thanks that all of the technical things have gone well. We've lost no audio, we've lost no video. Um so thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Spirit, and thank you, Father, for showing up, for giving me this idea all the way back in 2021 to do DA with DA. And I just feel so honored and blessed to do this. Just today I was in church and I had several people come up to me that I didn't even know were doing with DA. And they were like, I love it. This has been life-changing. This is the first one I've done. And so I'm just so happy with this ministry and with this idea that God gave me. It's really his idea. I can't take any credit. So, first of all, thank you to God. Second of all, uh, thank you to all of you who are tuning in. Those of you that are a part of the with DA community that are here live, I know that many of you are super faithful and you make basically every single one. And then there's others that make whatever live they can, and their schedules are crazy and their lives are crazy, and they have kids or whatever it might be. They can't make every live, but they make a real effort to be on all of the lives. So thank you, thank you, thank you to the with DA Faithful, those of you on Instagram, and those of you that tune in on YouTube. Uh, again, whether it's the next day, the next week, the next month, or the next year or beyond. So thank you. I love doing this. People often thank me for doing these where I travel and they'll be wearing the shirt like I'm wearing tonight, and they'll be like, I love it. It's just been amazing. I've told all my friends about it. It has changed my life, which is great. But let me tell you this: I love doing them at least as much as you love watching them. It is a pure joy, a pure delight, a pure pleasure, and an honor for me to do it, and I love it, and by the grace of God, we're gonna keep doing it. Which brings up this volume right here: Acts of the Apostles. We have two books left in the Conflict Beautiful series, the Conflict of the Ages series. Let's see, is that gonna show up there? There it is. You can see Acts of the Apostles AA. And this one from Titans and Symbols is so fresh, it I haven't even opened it. So this will be the first time I'm opening it, opening it. Look at that. It's even creaking like a new book and no marks at all. It's just brand new, and I can't wait. Now, this is I think 60 chapters. That sounds about right. Let me check. Let's see, 33, 58 chapters. So this is gonna happen next year. Don't ask me exactly when, because I gotta figure that out. It's hard enough to find 30 straight days. It's a totally different thing to find 60 straight days, but we've already done the big ones desire of ages, patriarchs and prophets. So we can do this, and this is gonna happen next year. Acts of the Apostles, if you don't know, is a walk through the book of Acts. The ministry of Peter, the ministry of Paul, the other significant New Testament figures, all of the figures featured in Acts, Stephen, and Philip, and all of them, Barnabas, Silas. Uh, it's gonna be amazing. I cannot wait. And this is happening sometime next year. It's gonna be great. That will be N T with DA, or maybe AA with D A. We'll have to figure it out. Um, okay, so that's happening next year. I can't wait. Now, let me continue with my thank yous. Of course, I've got to thank you all of the thank all of the guests that came on. I'm not gonna name them because I didn't write their names down, and I will invariably forget one or more. So, all of the guests, a big thank you to those of you who came. I'm tempted right now to even try to remember every one of them, but I'm not gonna do it because if I forget somebody, I'll feel terrible and I'll never forgive myself. So, thank you to all of the guests that came. All of you are wonderful, and I am just so blessed that you take time out of your schedule, out of your lives to come sit down at this very desk with me. Uh, really great. Really, really great. And you are all delightful. Uh, from the regulars that we've had on before, people like Nathan and Jennifer, there I go, naming people, to many of our first-time guests. It was great to have Deb and Tanya and Sarah and Brent and Kylie and Kenneth. I there we go. I already started. But those I think are most of our first-time guests. So it was great to have all of you and look forward to who's gonna be our guest for the next book. Who knows? We'll have to wait and see. So thank you for that. Um also, of course, I want to thank Light Bearers, the ministry that I've been affiliated with since 2011. And so I love them, and they're the ones that enable me to be able to do this. Oh, somebody points out Landon, hello, my own son. See, that's why you just don't start naming names. Almost forgot my own son. Wow. Uh Landon, so so great to have had him on. He's so wonderful. I love him so much. And uh, maybe next time around I can get my youngest son on, Jable. Of course, he's at school, so that might be a little tricky, but who knows? We might figure something out. Um, so what was I saying there? I was thinking, oh, light bears, thank you so much to light bears and to types and symbols, the ones that are printed, these amazing books, the light and life collection, which we have now completed almost after tonight. We will have completed the entire light and life collection: Steps to Christ, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, and the now Christ's Object Lessons, the third, final, and longest volume in the set. And so thank you to Types and Symbols, to Mark and his amazing team for printing those books. And of course, The Conflict's Beautiful, which we've already done. Patriarchs and Prophets, Prophets and Kings, Desire of Ages, and This One Awaits, Acts of the Apostles. So thank you to Types and Symbols. Thank you to light bearers. Um, somebody sent me this book as well. This is the book that we talked about while Sarah was here. We mentioned this, Sarah mentioned it, and it's called Divorce, Remarriage, Divorce and Remarriage in the Church by David Instone Brewer, Biblical Solutions for Pastoral Realities. It just came in the mail yesterday from Amazon, and there was no note. I didn't order it. I don't think I ordered this. So this came either from Sarah and Brent. So if it came from you, thank you. Or it came from Ryder and Alice, so if it came from you, thank you. And if it didn't come from either of those, I don't know who it came from, and thank you for sending it. So thank you for that. I think that's all of my thank yous. I think that's pretty much oh, a big shout out to Jim Hunegaard. He is my uh kind of behind the scenes tech guy. Uh, he is amazing. He's amazing. And he, you know, I've had to call him a couple times for troubleshooting things. And uh he's been amazing. He helped me get the audio better and the lighting. And so thank you to Jim uh for really helping me out. He's the one that showed me how to use all of this equipment, how to do the editing, how to do the audio editing, the rendering, the uploading. So thank you, Jim. You're amazing. Um, okay, we're gonna get started here, but just before we do, uh, we just finished Sabbath here, oh, I don't know, maybe a half an hour ago in Colorado. And uh as I try to do on Sabbath, I try to stay as much as possible, unplugged from the wider world. But I just learned that there has been uh what's happened in Iran with the attack in Iran, and I don't know all the details. I literally just glanced at it before I got here. So we're gonna have a special prayer for that situation. Again, I don't know the details, but I know that anytime there's uh military uh intervention, that innocent lives are at risk and innocent lives are almost certain to be lost. And uh it is not at all uh political for us. We're not taking any kind of sides. Uh, you're welcome to have whatever opinion you want to have it, but what I want to pray about is those that are in the midst of it. I have two friends, one close friend uh that are Iranian. Uh, one is kind of an associate, somebody that I'm just getting to know. The other is a close friend, the wife of another dear friend. And uh her mother lives in Tehran. And she's been here in the United States for many years. She's happily married to an American citizen. I think she's now an American citizen, though I could be wrong about that. But uh she I I I reach out to her when I want to get updates about what is happening in Iran. And uh I'll just call her up and say, tell me what's going on. How are you feeling? How's your mom feeling? Is she safe? And, you know, this is just one tiny little example of the many people that are in danger. And so we want to pray for them. Uh, there are many Christians in Iran. It's not a Christian majority nation, of course, but whether they're Christians or Muslim or whatever religious persuasion, we want to pray that the Spirit of God would be close to those that are afraid, those that are injured, those that may die or have already died. We just want to lift the situation. This is one of the signs of the times, of course. Jesus said there will be wars and rumors of wars. And here we are. As Christians, we should not be surprised that there is a continual sort of state of warfare in the world. Um, this is the broken, sad world that we live in, and yet we can pray. We can pray. We can ask for God to show up in ways that he might not otherwise be able to show up. And so we're gonna intercede on behalf of those that are in Iran and those that Iran might be attacking. Again, I know almost nothing. For all I know, they've launched a massive retaliatory strike, and so we're gonna pray for those people, whoever would be on the other end of that strike. Um, okay, I think that is everything. Uh let's start with prayer.

Prayer

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Father in heaven, thank you for your love. Thank you for your mercy. Thank you for your Sabbath, Lord, here in Colorado. We've just finished your Sabbath. And what a joy it is to have a weekly reminder that you are creator and you are redeemer. Father, help us to not just keep the Sabbath, but to have the Sabbath be a part of our lives, our psyche, our psychology, our theology, that we might lean into the great truth of the Sabbath. You are God, the creator. You are God, the Savior and Redeemer. And Father, we rest in your created work and we rest in your redemptive work. Father, we want to pray a special prayer for the situation in Iran and in the Middle East. We don't know what's going on exactly. The fog of war, no doubt, has already started to settle in. But Father, you know it. You see it, you understand all of it perfectly. And Father, not just the geopolitical aspects, but you see each name, each person, each home, each tear, each cry, each uh uncertainty about the future. And so, Father, we want to lift these people to you. Those that are in Iran and those that might be on the end of Iran's retaliatory attacks. Father, be close, be what you promised to be in Psalm 46, verse 1, a very present help in times of trouble. Father, we're interceding right now. We are asking and pleading that people that are afraid, that in their fear and anxiety and terror, they would turn to you, that they would call on your name, and we claim the promise on their behalf. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And Father, we are asking that in this time of terror and fear and uncertainty, that hearts would be turning increasingly to you and urgently to you. And Father, help those of us that seem safe from this world to remember that Scripture says there will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. And while we might be safe right now, our time is coming, and this world's time is coming. Lord, this last chapter talks a lot about the second coming. And it will be simultaneously a very dark time and a very bright time. And Father, we want to live on the light side of that. We want to be children of the light on whom the sun of righteousness is shining. And so, Father, even if we don't live personally to see the second coming of Jesus, help us to remember that we will have our own personal second coming when we breathe our last breath. And so may we be ready every day, serving you, loving you, praying to you, repenting, confessing, telling others about you. Father, may we live in a state of expectancy, of security, of assurance, of readiness, of joy, of enthusiasm, and an awareness of the sober responsibility that rests upon us that know you and know your love to share it with those around us. Father, be with us now as we look at this final chapter, the 29th chapter, in this remarkable volume. Lord, we have been sitting for a month at the feet of Jesus, Christ's object lessons, learning from his stories, learning from his parables. And Father, we're the better for it. We've learned a lot. We've been challenged, we've been transformed. Uh, Lord, as you know, many of these chapters came at just the right time. Paragraphs that that struck just the right note in just a specific situation for me, and I know that's happened for many hundreds and thousands of others. So, Father, be with us now. Uh, this final chapter, don't let us down. You've been with us all the way through. We believe you're gonna be with us now, and we pray all of this in the saving, powerful name of Jesus Christ.

Discussion

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Amen. All right, long prayer. Long prayer, long introduction, great chapter. By the way, if you could say a little prayer for me, that would be great. I don't know what it is, it's a small thing in light of some of the larger things we've been talking about. Uh, but I have had the most terrible kink in my neck for like three days, and I just can't figure it out. Something is quite not okay in my neck. I thought maybe I just slept on it wrong, but my wife thought maybe it was the draft. We had the window open. When we sleep, we typically do that. Something is going on in my neck, and my wife has been so wonderful and so kind. She's massaged me, she's taken care of me. I've taken more hot baths than I know what to do with. Uh, my wife has this like buckwheat thing that you put in the microwave and heat up and you put it around your neck. Uh, but I'm, it's really driving me crazy. It's a small thing, but if you could just whisper a little prayer for your boy David, uh, that my neck would stop being a pain in the neck. That my neck would stop being a pain in the neck. That would be really great. All right. Um, I preached today, thoroughly enjoyed it, preached on John chapter six at the New Day Seventh day Adventist Church. It was a real delight, and I think the sermon went pretty well. Um I I was happy with it. I mean, it wasn't it wasn't My best sermon I've ever preached, but the message came across. I was very happy with some of the insights. Looking back, there's a couple things I wish I would have said that I didn't, and a few things that I probably could have left out to streamline the message, but this always happens. This always happens, and it was a real privilege and a delight to speak there. And interestingly, last Sabbath when I spoke at the Littleton Church, spoke on Acts chapter 2 and the outpouring of the Spirit, the final song was I Trust in God. I trust in God, my Savior, the one. I love it, who will never fail. That one. Right? And and there was it wasn't a plan. There was no collusion. There was no plan. It was the closing song, and uh it was just great, absolutely great. Today I preached on John chapter 6, and so that song is in my head right now. It's been in my head all week, and now it's going to be in my head for the next week. I think it's actually driving Violetta a little crazy because I I won't stop singing it. And then I play it on my Bluetooth speaker at like top volume. So I think she's ready to move past that song for a while, but here it is. It's here to stay. All right, chapter 29. Chapter 29, To Meet the Bridegroom, based on the parable of the 10 virgins. And we're gonna read this in the NIV. We'll also read it in NT Rights Translation. Here we go. Let's read it in the NIV. Matthew chapter 25. Now, just to quickly throw this out there, we've jumped well ahead, right? Like now we're in Matthew chapter 25, which is after Matthew chapter 21, which is the triumphal entry. We've spent we talked about that a little bit. Uh, then Matthew chapter 22, which we didn't really spend any time on. I mentioned it a couple times. Then Matthew chapter 23, we've said almost nothing about, I don't think, over the last month. Matthew 24 is the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus announces and predicts uh in concert with the prophecies of Daniel, the destruction of Jerusalem. And then Matthew chapter 25 comes hard on the heels of that. So this is at the very, very, very end of Jesus' ministry. I mean, in chapter 26, Jesus will be arrested. In chapter 27, he will be crucified. In chapter 28 of Matthew, he will be resurrected. So this is way down at the end. And Jesus tells this parable because he is anticipating after the in chapter 24, he kind of ties together the destruction of Jerusalem with the return of Jesus at the second coming. And then this parable comes hard after that, right on the heels of this talk about the destruction of Jerusalem, the return of Jesus, the second coming. And so that's the context. And Ellen White eschatology is what we're talking about here, the end time. And uh Ellen White does, I think, a masterful job in this chapter. It was great. I got a text from Brent Lane, who I saw is on here. I put it on my Instagram account. I asked his permission to share it. He said, This is his favorite chapter yet, best chapter. And uh I received his text this morning early before I read the chapter. So I went in with all the expectations. Of course, I've read it many times before, but it's been a while since I read it. And I went in with all the expectations. Like Brent loved this chapter. I got a lot of time for Brent, I got a lot of respect for Brent. And he was right. I mean, I don't know if it's my favorite chapter, but it's among my favorite chapters, and I think it's the perfect ending to the book. All right, that's enough preamble. Let's read this. Matthew chapter 25, beginning in verse 1. At that time, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps, but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming. And they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out, Here's the bridegroom, come out to meet him. Then all the virgins woke up, trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, Oh, give us some of your oil. Our lamps are going out. No, they replied, There may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves. But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut. Later the others also came. Lord, Lord, they said, Open the door for us. But he replied, Truly I tell you, I don't know you. Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Now, if you're thinking to yourself, that sounds a lot like something Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, you would be correct. Listen to the similarities here. Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 to 23. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, notice that that is exactly what the young girls in the parable say. Lord, Lord. Lord, Lord, they said, open the door to us. Back to Matthew chapter 7. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who was in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name drive out demons, and in your name perform any miracles. I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers. And here in Matthew chapter 25, listen to the language. Truly I tell you, I don't know you. So you see the two elements here are the same. Lord, Lord, I don't know you. Now I'm just going to say this real quick. Many of you might have heard me say before, or perhaps you've heard from someone else, that when you see in the Bible this repetition of the name, it appears to almost always and perhaps always mean the same basic thing. And that is that the person that is using this or being thus addressed is in the midst of a major misunderstanding about the nature of the situation. And there are many examples. For example, in Matthew chapter 23, just a two chapters before Matthew 25. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, right? The one that kills the prophets and stones those that are sent to her. I wanted to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. Jerusalem, Jerusalem. When Jesus was speaking to Peter, he said, Simon, Simon, because remember, Peter had said, though all men will deny you, I will not. When Abraham was about to slay his son Isaac atop Mount Moriah, in fact, this is the first time we see this repetition of the name, God said to him, Abraham, Abraham, do not harm the boy. Abraham, Abraham, and there are many others, Martha, Martha, Moses, Moses, Saul, Saul. Many of these, and it appears that in each case, that when someone is either using this title or being thus addressed, that the person is in the midst of a major misunderstanding about the situation. And Lord, Lord appears to qualify. These are people that are just sure. They're just sure they're going to be led into the banquet. They're going to just say, Hey, Jesus, we know you. You know us, we know you. And they are in the midst of a major misunderstanding. In both accounts, Matthew 7 and Matthew 25, Jesus says, I don't know you. What they thought was the case was not the case. And when we see this repetition of the name, the thing that people think are happening is the opposite of what's happening in basically every single case. And we see it here. Lord, Lord, please open the door. I'm sorry, I don't know you. Now we'll get to the meaning of the parable here in just a little bit, but let's read now from Wright's translation. Matthew 25, beginning in verse 1. Then continued Jesus, the kingdom of heaven will be like ten girls who each took their own torches and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were silly, and five were sensible. The silly ones took their torches, but didn't take oil with them. The sensible ones took oil in flasks along with their torches. The bridegroom took his time coming, and they all nodded off and went to sleep. In the middle of the night a shout went up, Here's the bridegroom! Come and meet him. Then all the girls got up and trimmed the wicks of their torches. The silly ones said to the sensible ones, Give us some of your oil, our torches are going out. But the sensible one the sensible ones answered, No, if we do that, there won't be enough for all of us together. You better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves. So off they went to buy oil. But while they were gone, the bridegroom arrived. The ones who were ready went in with him to the wedding party, and the door was shut. Later on the other girls came back. Master, master, they said, Open the door for us. I'm telling you the truth, he said, I do not know you. So keep awake. You do not know the day or the hour. Okay, so we've had a lot of different kinds of parables, and as we've mentioned before, some of Jesus' parables are very easy to understand, right? The meaning is right on the surface. The Good Samaritan, for example, the two worshippers, very simple, very easy to access and understand. Other parables are more abstract and require quite a little bit of unpacking and scrutinizing. For example, the unjust steward or the rich man in Lazarus, or even some of the parables in Matthew 13, like the kingdom of heaven is like yeast. This requires some unpacking. I would say that Matthew chapter 25, the parable of the ten virgins or ten girls, is kind of halfway between the two. At one level, it's pretty straightforward what this is about. Be sensible, not silly, to use Wright's translation. Be prepared, be alert, be awake. But then at another level, there are some details here that need to be understood if we want to get all of the goods out of the parable. We're going to try and do that as we look at Matthew chapter 29. Matthew chapter 29 in our secondary textbook, Christ's Object Lessons. Can you believe it? Our last chapter. Our last chapter in this book, more than 500 pages in the types and symbols version. What a ride, what a journey, what a month it's been. And here we are in Matthew chapter 25. All right. So now I'm just going to point out a couple things here that I thought were very interesting that you might have also noticed. Did you notice that the chapter opens with darkness and closes with brightness or light? So, for example, let's just look here at paragraph one. Christ with his disciples is seated upon the Mount of Olives. The sun has set behind the mountains. There it is. And the heavens are curtained with the shades of evening. First of all, that's very beautiful. It's excellent writing, very picturesque. So it's dark. It's not yet midnight dark, but it's dark. The sun is behind the mountains. The shades, the the the the shades of evening are all over the sky. And the chapter ends. Let me just read you this. Let me read you the second to the last paragraph. With uplifted heads, the bright beams of the sun of righteousness shining upon them, with rejoicing that their redemption draws near, they go forth to meet the bridegroom, saying, Behold, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us. So the chapter opens in darkness and closes in brightness, and that's a purposeful move. And the whole chapter, as you would have noticed, is all about these twin themes of darkness and light, light and darkness. Another similarity, did you pick this up? That both the chapter both begins and ends with a dark scene, but with houses that are lightened up. Houses that are lightened up. Let's keep reading there from paragraph one. In full view is a dwelling house lighted up brilliantly, as if for some festive scene. The light streams from the openings, and an expectant company wait around, indicating that a marriage procession is soon to appear. In many parts of the East, wedding festivities are held in the evening. The bridegroom goes forth to meet his bride and bring her to his home. By torchlight, the bridal party proceeded from her father's house to his own, where a feast is provided for the invited guests. In the scene upon which Christ looks, a company are awaiting the appearance of the bridal party, intending to join the procession. Now, let me just go back here to the end chapter here. Let me see if I can find this here, just quickly. It says, um, where is it here? Okay, listen to this. Listen to this. This is like on like the second to the last page, page 509 or 420, and there's a paragraph that begins, Arise, shine, for your light has come, quoting from Isaiah 60, verse 1. Listen to this. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. To those who go out to meet the bridegroom is this message given. Christ is coming with power and great glory. He is coming with his own glory and with the glory of the Father. He is coming with all the holy angels with him. While all the world is plunged in darkness, listen to this, there will be light in every dwelling of the saints. They will catch the first light of his second appearing, the unsullied light will shine from his splendor, and Christ the Redeemer will be admired by all who have served him. So it's quite interesting. In both the beginning and the end of the chapter, there's a scene where it's ambient darkness, like atmospheric darkness, but there are these homes, and I can see it in my mind's eye. Can't you see it? These homes. And in the case of the beginning of the chapter, it's a home where a bridal procession is about to take place. And she does a great job of describing how the light is shooting through the openings in the home, through the windows, through the cracks, right? Darkness, but then a home, a dwelling place where light prevails. And that's exactly how the chapter ends. Prevailing atmospheric, even global darkness. But then she says, But those that are followers of Jesus, all of their dwellings, there's light shining out. And the reason for the light is the same in both cases. They are getting ready for a wedding. The bridegroom is coming. Now, in the opening bit, it's because a literal bridal party is going out. And Jesus uses this as an illustration. But at the end, it's because those that have longed for and looked for and prayed for and hoped for the coming of the bridegroom, they're going out to meet the bridegroom Jesus in their homes amidst the canvas of blackness that is this world, their homes and their faces are shining, illuminated by his glory and by his grace. And so very, very cool. Very, very cool. And I like the structure of that. Okay, so then she goes on to talk about the bridal party. And she spends the first couple pages uh sort of talking about this and telling the story. It's a fairly straightforward story. There were 10 wise and 10 foolish, or 10 sensible and 10 silly, as N.T. Wright translates it. And the the conversation after the bridegroom, after a long delay, finally arrives is hey, we need some oil. We have insufficient oil. And they say, Oh, well, if we share with you, we're not going to have enough. And it's a fairly, again, straightforward parable about readiness, about preparation, about expectancy, about urgency, about planning. Right? It's it's about all of those things being ready, being expectant. And the silly are essentially saying, you know, this world is kind of our home. We're not super interested in the arrival of the bridegroom. I mean, not so interested that we made preparation, that we were ready if he delayed. And I was actually thinking about this today. It has been a long delay. I mean, Jesus conquered sin and death 2,000 years ago. It's been a long delay. And if you think about the sort of, and we've talked a little bit about this, the trajectory of church history from formation to deformation to reformation to restoration, it has been centuries upon centuries upon centuries of what appears to be delay. And at some point Jesus is going to return. Now, I'm very much of the opinion that the prophetic timeline is largely complete. The Greek prophecies of Daniel and Revelation are largely complete, and that we are living at the very end of time. The prophecies of Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Daniel 8, Daniel 9, Daniel 11 all indicate to me, in addition to the prophecies of Matthew 24, the various prophecies of Paul, and of course of Revelation, all indicate to me that we must be living near the return of Jesus. Now, I don't know what that means. I don't know exactly what near means, but I am an Adventist, which means I'm looking forward to the return of Jesus, the Advent of Jesus. Do I hope that will occur in my lifetime? I do. Do I think that will occur in my lifetime? I don't know. I hope so. I believe that it would definitely occur in my lifetime when I was 26 and freshly converted. And then when I was married at 29, I was absolutely sure that Jesus would come in my lifetime. And I still remain convinced that it's quite possible. I'm open to it. I hope it happens. But the truth is, I'm 53 years old now, and whether or not I personally live to see the second coming of Jesus, I know that I will see him in glory because I've put my faith in him, I've put my trust in him. I'm an Adventist. I want to be not the silly, but the sensible, not the unprepared, but the prepared. Right? And so that's really what the parable is about, and it's fairly straightforward. Now I'm going to turn the page here from 495 over to 496, kind of motoring along here. Um, she says that this parable describes the church that shall live just before his second coming. And then she kind of unpacks the meaning or the symbols of the parable. Go to the paragraph on page 496, page 406 of the original, the two classes. Find that if you can, the two classes. It says, the two classes of watchers represent the two classes who profess to be waiting for their Lord. They are called virgins because they profess a pure faith. By the lamp is represented the word of God. The psalmist says, Your lamp, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119, 105. The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Spirit is represented in the prophecy of Zechariah. And then she quotes Zachariah 4 at length. And so we have the ladies representing churches, which is actually a consistent theme in Scripture, where a woman represents a church, especially in prophecy. Uh, we have the lamp, we have the oil. Well, it's all kind of there. The bridegroom is Jesus. And we should say that most, in fact, basically all Christians are Adventists. Now hear me out on this. If you go to your local Baptist friend or Pentecostal friend or just evangelical friend or even your Catholic friends, and you ask them, Do you believe Jesus will return to this earth? 90% or more will say yes, maybe 100%. That means they're Adventists. They are Adventists. They believe that Jesus will return. There's been the first Advent in Bethlehem's manger, and he will return. They are Adventists. Okay, now if you ask them a follow-up question, do you believe Jesus will return soon? Well, now the answers are going to be quite different. Now maybe some are going to say yes, some are going to say they're not sure. Some are going to say no. There's this kind of really well-known Christian musician that's taken off over the last few years. His name is Forrest Frank. And uh he became, I think, most famous for the song uh Good Day, which I will sometimes use on my Instagram videos, particularly when I'm making pizza. I think I even used it today when I was getting a massage from my wife. It's the uh I'm about to have a good day in every single way. Anyway, you know the song. I'm not going to try to sing it, but I guess I did try to sing it. But anyway, he has a recent song that just came out. And I think the title of the song is Jesus is coming soon. Now, it wasn't as wildly popular as Good Day, but it was popular. I have it on my iPad uh iPhone. I've listened to it. It's not just, it doesn't just say Jesus is coming, it says, Jesus is coming soon.

unknown 43:59

So

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Again, if you ask any of your Christian friends, do you believe Jesus will return to the earth? Something close to 100% will say yes. If you say, Do you think he's coming soon? a high percentage will say yes. I mean, it's pretty obvious to everybody this world is in trouble. I mean, in all kinds of ways. People are worried about war. People are very worried about AI. I mean, what does the future look like with AI? I mean, who knows? I myself am dead set against AI. I have never voluntarily used AI. I have no plans to use AI. I've lived five decades of my life without it. I don't need it. I don't want it. I have a lot of friends who love it. They swear by ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini or whatever, I've never used it. I don't want to use it. By the grace of God, I never will use it. I think it's fundamentally anti-human. I've listened to a number of interviews about it, and I think it is bad. Now, I don't know how bad because I'm not initiated enough to see deep into the technology, but there are people who do see deep into the technology who are saying there's a greater than 0% chance that this is going to bring about the end of the world as we know it, as we understand it, and that jobs are going to start disappearing and people are not going to be thinking. And I mean, it just is going to cascade. And I could spend time here sort of rehashing uh my own perspective and communicating my own perspective about AI, but I'm simply here saying, I've already made it pretty clear, I'm totally pessimistic, not a fan at all. I think the technologists of the world were far too busy asking if they can and not if they should. But that's another conversation, perhaps, for a different day. My point is the future is uncertain. Right? People are looking around and they're kind of freaking out. The world is wild, conspiracy theories abound, right? Wars and rumors of wars, all of this is sort of swirling. And I think a high percentage of Christian people, if you ask them, do you believe Jesus is coming soon? They would say the same thing that I would say, and probably that you would say, and that is yes. Now, if you ask them what does soon look like, well, who knows? We don't know exactly, but it's not a thousand years. Right? I mean, we are living here toward the end of the prophetic timeline. And so I am unashamedly, unapologetically, and enthusiastically an Adventist. I am one of the virgins. I am one of the young girls. Now, I hope, and I believe, and I'm praying that I'm the sensible and not the silly. But she here says pretty plainly this parable of the ten, which ten is a sign or a symbol of completion, symbolizes those that are professing their expectation and their anticipation of the arrival of their Lord Jesus. The problem is five are silly and five are sensible. Five are foolish and five are wise. Now, let's keep going here. Um, after quoting from Zechariah 4, she actually talks a lot about Zechariah. I'm going to skip through that. Jump down to bottom of page 497, 408 in the parable, all the ten virgins. Let's read that paragraph. In the parable, all the ten virgins went out to meet the bridegroom. All had lamps. Notice the emphasis here on all. All went out, all had lamps, and vessels for oil. For a time, excuse me, there was seen no difference between them. So with the church that lives before Christ's second coming, all have a knowledge of the scriptures, right? We have Bibles. Bibles are plenty. I've got probably a dozen Bibles on the shelf behind me. So everybody's got access to the scriptures now. I mean, it's online, it's on your phone, it's everywhere. All have a knowledge of the scriptures, all have heard the message of Christ's near approach, right? Looking at the signs of the times, some of the things that we've been describing, they're like, man, this world seems to be wrapping up. And they confidently expect his appearing. But as in the parable, so it is now. A time of waiting intervenes. Faith is tried, and when the cry is heard, behold, the bridegroom is coming, go out to meet him. Many are unready. They have no oil in their vessels with their lamps, and they are destitute of the Holy Spirit. All right, so so the whole parable turns on the oil. Right? It doesn't turn there. There's ten virgins, there's ten lamps, there's one call, they all hear the call, they all respond to the call. Everything turns on the oil. Okay, whatever the oil is, and she has said here expressly uh that it's the Holy Spirit. And that's consistent. That's consistent in Scripture that the oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the priests and the kings were anointed with oil as a symbol that they were set apart by God's Spirit to a task. It's what the word Messiah means, the anointed, set aside for a task. The kings were anointed, the kings of Israel and of Judah. The high priest was anointed. Okay, so we're not reaching too far afield here to say that the oil represents the Holy Spirit. Okay, now with that in mind. I'm extremely thirsty. I guess I didn't drink enough water today. The next two paragraphs, page 498, talk about the importance, the inestimable, irreplaceable importance of the Holy Spirit. And this really ties in well with what I preached today. And so I might bring a little bit of my sermon in today to bear on these two paragraphs. We're going to read both of them. Without the Spirit of God, a knowledge, that's where we're going to start. Everybody together? Without the Spirit of God, a knowledge of his word is of no avail. So notice the Spirit, number one. The theory of truth, unaccompanied by two, the Holy Spirit, cannot quicken the soul or sanctify the heart. One may be familiar with the commands and promises of the Bible, but unless three, the Spirit of God, sets the truth home, the character will not be transformed. Without the enlightenment of four, the Spirit, men will not be able to distinguish truth from error, and they will fall under the masterful temptations of Satan. Okay, so here in this paragraph, she makes it abundantly clear the spirit is essential. The spirit is not something that you can take or not, you can keep or pass. No, it's essential, absolutely essential, because the spirit, we believe, is the third person of the Godhead. It's the presence of God on earth. There's the Father, there's the Son. The Son came to earth in the incarnation. The Son lived and taught, and we're learning about Jesus here. He died, he was crucified, he was buried, he rose again. He said, I'm gonna leave, and then I'm gonna send you another comforter. That comforter is the spirit, the parakletos. And so it's essential that the Holy Spirit is a part of our life, not just adjacency to the Bible or awareness of the Bible or what she calls a theory of the truth, but the spirit taking root in the hearts of people. Let's read the next paragraph, the class represented. The class represented by the foolish virgins are not hypocrites. Okay, that's helpful. They have a regard for the truth. They have advocated the truth, they are attracted to those who believe the truth, but they have not yielded themselves to, here it is, a fifth time, the Holy Spirit's working. And this is what's meant by the oil. They've not yielded themselves to the working of the Holy Spirit. And this is why you get this kind of frustrating little detail in the in the parable. The frustrating detail is that when they want to receive the oil from the sensible, the sensible are like, there's no time for that now. I mean, we don't have enough to give to you and for us. So you have to go to the cellar and you can just feel the clock is ticking. It's like, uh, when I read the parable, every time I read the parable, I get like a low-grade anxiety. Like, you got to get over there. You got to go get your oil. Well, the whole idea behind it is that there's not time now to get the oil. The time for getting the oil has passed, and their futile efforts to go and try in the last minute, in the zero hour, to get the oil. It doesn't work that way. Why? Because the working of the Holy Spirit abiding in the heart, planted in the heart, dwelling in the heart is not something that happens in a moment or in a minute. It happens over the course of one's Christian experience. And that's what she's saying. And that's the analogy of there's no time. There's no time. You have to try and go get an experience in the last moments of Earth's history that you had time to get and could have gotten years or decades before this. But you were too busy having the veneer or the costume or just the vocabulary of Christianity. You were adjacent to Christianity, but Christ's spirit was not abiding in your heart. Okay, let's keep reading here. They have not fallen upon the rock, Christ Jesus, and permitted their old nature to be broken up. That falling upon the rock is straight out of Matthew chapter 21, verse 43. You'll remember this. The parable of the tenants, where Jesus says, Whoever falls on this rock will be broken, but on whomsoever it falls, it will grind them to powder. This is straight out of Daniel 2. Right? The stone that strikes the image and grinds it to powder. They have not in their lives had those nights of tears running down their cheeks, repenting of sin, calling out to God and pleading for victory over sin and for transformation and asking forgiveness for character flaws and for saying the wrong thing, thinking the wrong thing, doing the wrong thing. I mean, you can't just go get that experience of nights and years and decades of walking with God in joy and enthusiasm and in nights of anguish and repentance. You can't recreate that in a moment's notice. They have not fallen upon the rock Christ Jesus and permitted their old nature to be broken up like the soil. This class is represented also by the stony ground hearers. Remember, the stony ground hearers, the seed falls, they spring up quickly, but there's no root. They receive the word with readiness, but they fail of assimilating its principles. Its influence is not abiding. The Spirit, here it is a sixth time, works upon man's heart according to his desire and consent, implanting in him a new nature. Because remember, the old nature's been broken up by the rock of Christ. But the class represented by the foolish virgins have been content with a superficial work, not a deep work, not a thorough work. They do not know God. I mean, that's literally what he says in the parable. I don't know you. They have not studied his character, they have not held communion with him. And this is fascinating here. Therefore, they do not know how to trust, how to look and live. Notice this. It doesn't say that they don't trust. Make a note of this if you didn't do so. I'm at the top of page 499, 411. It does not say they don't trust. It does not say that they don't look and live. Look at what it says. It's actually very important. It says they don't know how to trust. They don't know how to look and live. Okay, we gotta we gotta dwell on this. When somebody doesn't know how to do something, another way to say that would be is they don't have the skill. For example, I don't know how to ride a unicycle. I can do other things that require skill, like rock climbing or swimming or fly fishing. I mean, I can do some things that require skill. And some of those things, in the case of rock climbing and fly fishing, uh took me decades to get good at. So if you don't know how to do something, it's because of a lack of skill. And it implies that it's something that has to be learned over time, trial and error, learning how not to do it so that you can, by extension, learn how to do it. So it doesn't just say that they don't trust or that they don't look, they don't know how to trust. They don't know how to look. And the only way that can be learned, the skill, we might say, of following Jesus, is it takes time. Just like learning to ride a unison. If you came to me and said, hey, in fact, I'll tell you a little story. Need another drink. This time my sparkling water. So I have been a fly fisherman. I don't know if you know anything about fly fishing. Just bear with me here for a moment. So I've been a fly fisherman since I was young. I got my first fly rod when I was, I don't know, 12 or something. And there's fishing, like with a spin rod or a bait caster. If you know anything about fishing, these are different kinds of rod and reel combinations. And some kinds of fishing are kind of easy. I mean, like very easy. You just you you get a line, you get a reel. Sometimes you don't even need a reel or a rod. You can just throw a line with a bobber and a hook and a worm. It's pretty straightforward. But so you're gonna use a rod and a reel, you can get like a spinning reel, and I could teach you to cast a spinning reel in maybe 10 minutes. Right? It's easy. And you can learn how to cast a spinning reel efficiently in a day or two. I mean, before you know it, you're flicking that thing around. You can get very comfortable learning how to cast with a spinning reel quickly. Okay, now here's something interesting. When people over the years, this has happened many, many, many times. Um, I have in my life at times been a very, very avid fly fisherman. I don't do it quite as much as I used to because um that's another story. But the short version is I've just caught so many fish, so many big fish, and I've just had so many amazing experiences. And one of my closest fishing friends in my whole life died. And it's actually been hard for me to get back into fishing because my so much of my fishing life and it was wrapped around my good friend Martin. And when I in fact, I have his reel right here. This is the reel that my good friend Martin, who passed away in 2016, this was the reel that he was, the fly reel that he was given as a child. He fished this reel his entire fishing life. And after he died, he told his wife, because he knew that I always loved this reel. It's an old scientific anglers reel made in England. I mean, the thing is, as beat up as can be, it's probably 40 years old or something. And it's still got tape on it that Martin had on there. Dropping it. It's got this tape on it. And uh maybe you can see it there. Can see the reel. Really cool. There it is. So, so Martin told Penny, his wife, that uh he said, after I die, give this reel to David. And I have fished with this reel, and I've caught a lot of fish with this reel, but now I just put it on my shelf, and even holding it right now just gets me choked up. I mean, uh anyway, I can spend a long time talking about my relationship with Martin. And anyway, I don't fish as much as I used to. And here's the here's the punchline. When people find out that I'm quite a capable fly fisherman, I've been doing it since I was a child, it is hard to learn. Okay, it's not like spin fishing, it's hard. And over the years I've had a number of well-meaning people that have come to me and said, Hey, you're a fly fisherman. Would you teach me how to fly fish? You know what I tell them? No. No, I won't. I I I no, I won't. It's just too hard. I mean, it's just there's just too much. I mean, maybe in the right circumstances, if we lived right next to a river and you were really devoted, maybe. But uh no way. It just takes I mean, you're talking, if you start fly fishing, before you get good at it, you're talking like five years to get and to get really good ten years. So my point is simply this. When people sometimes are like, hey, would you teach me how to fly fish? I just say, no, it's too hard. And they're like, what do you mean? You can do it. It's like, yeah, I started doing it when I was a kid. And it's not just the mechanics of it, it's learning where the fish are and how to catch the fish and how to, it's it's a thousand things that I'm not gonna go into right now. But the point is, is it's a skill. It's a difficult skill. And following Jesus is a skill. We have to learn how to repent, how to witness, how to pray, how to minister. And we do it wrong, and then we learn how to do it right, and we do it wrong again, and we learn how to do it right. It takes time, and so it's not the kind of thing that you can just in a moment be like, hey, we need some oil. And to me, it is so telling that she doesn't merely say, and I know I'm driving this point, she doesn't say they don't trust. She says they don't know how to trust. She doesn't say they don't look and live, she says they don't know how to look and live. Friends, walking with Jesus is awesome and it's amazing. And the experience that you gain, whether you've walked with him for one month or one year or one decade or one lifetime, the skills that you acquire take time. And only the Holy Spirit can teach those skills. Now, we try to teach some of them at a rise and in your local church. We do our best, but it's only the Holy Spirit that can teach those skills. These ideas have to be, as she says, assimilated. They have to be taken into the life. And I want to speak briefly about that sentence. They receive the word with readiness, but they fail of assimilating its principles. This is what I preached on today, where Jesus in John chapter 6 says, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Jesus here is saying, you have to ingest, you have to imbibe, you have to take into yourself my teachings, who I am, my identity. It can't be external to you. The bread that's external to you does you no good. It has to come inside of you, it has to become a part of you. And that's the whole idea of assimilating. So when Jesus uses this language in the point I preached today is he just drives it home in John chapter 6, he just keeps intensifying it and turning up the volume. And this, of course, was hugely offensive to his Jewish audience, who wouldn't even eat animal blood, much less human blood and flesh. And people were turned off by it. But what Jesus was trying to do here was get across to them to inculcate into their minds I'm not just some fly by the seat of the pants Messiah figure that you can just align yourself with, and then it doesn't work out, and you can realign yourself with the next Messiah figure. And if it doesn't work out, you can realign yourself. I mean, there was no shortage of messiahs in the first century. Jesus is like, I'm the Son of God, I'm the living bread. If you want to live, you have to take this bread inside of you, or you're gonna die. And then he even says, Moses fed your ancestors in the wilderness with the manna, and they all died. But I'm the living bread. And if you take this bread, the son of man that has come down from heaven, you will not die. And all of this is about a deep, habitual, lifelong assimilation of Jesus by the Spirit into the life. And this cannot happen. This cannot happen in a moment. Now somebody's gonna protest and say, but wait a minute, wait a minute, what about the thief on the cross? Well, what about the thief on the cross? Praise God for the thief on the cross. We spent time about that. But the thief on the cross was, you know, moments or hours away from dying. So it's not like he didn't have time to go develop the skill of following Jesus. He didn't have time. He said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom, and Jesus said, I'm telling you the truth today, you will be with me in paradise. Okay, but that's not the condition of the ten virgins. The ten virgins are those churches at the end of time, as she says, that profess to be ready, that profess to have oil in their lamps, that profess to have the word. This is why she says there is no difference. They all look the same. And Jesus here in an eschatological setting is saying if you're going to have the oil in the lamp, the assimilation of the life of Jesus by the Spirit into you, that's something that doesn't happen in a moment. When you see Jesus coming in the clouds of glory, you can't quickly figure out how to trust him and how to serve him. Okay, this is really important, and I'm so glad she said it in exactly that way. Um jumping down to the bottom of page 499, there's this great section here, page 411. This is the paragraph that begins this is the class that entitled. Of peril, peril are found crying, peace, and safety. Jump down to the bottom of that. She says, in spirit, not the bottom, but just a few sentences down, in spiritual things, no man can make up another's deficiency. The grace of God has been freely offered to every soul. The message of the gospel has been heralded. Let him who thirst come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely, Revelation 22, 17. Now watch this. But character is not transferable. Just like skill is not transferable. My ability to fly fish or my ability to rock climb is not immediately transferable to you in some magical way. It would take time. Now, could I help you? You know what took me 10 years to learn? Could you learn in maybe five years because I could help you with mistakes? Yeah, probably. And this is why mentorship is so important in the Christian life. People can come around us and say, hey, you don't want to do that. In fact, I'm so glad I had some great mentors early in my Christian experience that kept me from going into certain pitfalls and dangers that could have been catastrophic for me. So praise God. They saved me time, they saved me energy, they saved me effort, they saved me unnecessarily falling. But they couldn't transfer their experience to me. They couldn't transfer their character to me. I had to learn. I had to grow. I had to repent. I had to weep at the foot of the cross. I had to sing the songs of joy. I had to make a fool out of myself trying to witness to my friends. I had to learn. I had to do that. And so she says, character is not transferable. No man can believe for another. No man can receive the spirit for another. No man can impart to another the character which is the fruit of the spirit's working. That's the point about the oil. Now let's go to the next page, page 500. Can you believe I'm even saying that? Page 500. Um there's a paragraph here that begins, the ten virgins down toward the bottom of page 500, 412. The ten virgins are watching in the evening of this earth's history. All, she's going to do the same thing here again, all claim to be Christians. All have a call, a name, a lamp, and all profess to be doing God's service. All apparently wait for Christ's appearing, but five are unready. Five will be found surprised, dismayed outside the banquet hall. And then in the next paragraph, she says they go and say, Lord, Lord, which, as we've mentioned, this means that they are in the midst of a major misunderstanding about the nature of the situation. And they are going to hear what she says on page 501 are, and I'm quoting now page 414 of the original, the saddest of all words that ever fell on mortal ears are those words of doom. I do not know you. Now, the next paragraph holds the key. For me, the key to the whole chapter is in the next paragraph, and it's a short paragraph, and you've got to pay attention here. Go to the paragraph that begins, we cannot be ready to meet the Lord. Okay, go to that paragraph. Find it, because I'm going to show you something here that's crucial, absolutely crucial. You might have spotted it or you might have missed it. Here it is. We cannot be ready to meet the Lord by waking when the cry is heard. It's too late. Behold the bridegroom. And then gathering up our empty lamps to have them replenished. And then this sentence, I think this is maybe the most important sentence in the whole chapter, or at least it's a key that unlocks the chapter. Underline this. And she summarizes it very succinctly. Keeping Christ apart from our lives. That's what it means to be oil-less. Keeping Christ apart from the life. Okay, now let's just talk again about this idea of the infilling of the Holy Spirit, the assimilation of the teachings of Jesus, the character of Jesus, the nature of Jesus, the person of Jesus. In other words, as I've mentioned before, we don't just add Jesus on to an otherwise well put together life. No, we are broken on the rock, and Jesus seeps into every nook and cranny and corner of our life. Jesus is not only a part of our life, he is our life. We say with the Apostle Paul, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. The secret here is to not try and live your life apart from the giver of life. He who is himself life. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. That's the secret. You're like, man, I wonder, I'm I'm I'm I'm having anxiety. I'm wondering, am I a foolish virgin? Am I one of the silly girls that wasn't ready? Well, here's the simple, single, diagnostic question. Are you living your life right now apart from Christ? If the answer is no, if you're like, no, Jesus is in my life, Jesus is in the way I treat people, in the way I spend my money, in the way I think about my future, Jesus is in the way I raise my children, Jesus is in my relationships, Jesus is in my refrigerator, Jesus is in my bedroom, Jesus is on my computer. Not only am I not living life without Jesus, I can't find any places where Jesus isn't. If that's the case, then you're one of the wise. And you are fine, you are safe. Stay that way. Keep it that way. But if Jesus is kind of something that you do on Saturday morning, and you know, occasionally when a week of prayer comes around or a with DA comes and he just makes these kinds of episodic appearances in your otherwise well put together life, now you're in danger. But fortunately for you, if you're in danger, you have plenty of time to get oil. You got plenty of time to get oil right now. Start getting oil today, and you're gonna be okay. But the people that will not be okay are those that put off, put off, put off assimilating Jesus into the life, the actual life, the daily life, all of your life until the very end. Right? The people that are like, you know, I'll do that in the future. At some opportune time, I will incorporate Jesus into my finances, into my relationships, into my life, into my home, into my workplace. Well, I mean, I would not delay. First of all, it's this is the way to live. It's a much better, more delightful, more joyful, more wonderful way to live. I mean, this is what it means to truly be human, to be living the life that God made us to live. That's what's going on with the virgins. Or the point is basically this, and she's been making this point all along. Having the name, having the costume, having the vocabulary, none of those things make us a Christian. Having a faith connection with Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a habitual part of our life, that's what makes us a Christian. Jesus said, Follow me and I will make you fishes of men. Remember the rich young ruler? He was interested. He was going to follow. He just didn't want to give up everything. And Jesus is like, yeah, no. No, again, we hope that the rich young ruler changed his mind. But everything boils down to that sentence there. We cannot keep Christ apart from our lives here and be fitted for his companionship in heaven. In other words, if you think you want to spend eternity with Jesus, start spending time with him today. Start spending time with him now. Then we get into this great section, which is probably the best section, I would say, on the character of God. And she comes at this in a lot of different ways, but she mostly just hits it straight on and says, the character, the character, the character, the character. Sometimes she uses the word glory as a synonym for character, but we're going to read this. So go to page 502. 502 paragraph begins, so the followers of Christ. So the followers of Christ are to shed light into the darkness of the world through the Holy Spirit. There it is again. God's word is a light as it becomes a transforming power in the life of the receiver. Transforming power in the life. You see it? By implanting, earlier she used the word assimilating, now implanting. By implanting in their hearts the principles of his word, the Holy Spirit develops in men the attributes of God, the light of his glory, his character. And you want to underline that if you didn't already do so. His character is to shine forth in his followers. Thus they are to glorify God, to lighten the path to the bridegroom's home, to the city of God, to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then the next paragraph is actually the next two paragraphs are long paragraphs about how dark this world is. I'm not going to read them, but she says, midnight, the darkest hour, the darkest period of Earth's history, rapidly increasing darkness, darkness as deep as midnight, impenetrable as sackcloth of hair, night, night, night, darkness, spiritual darkness, darkness, darkness. Okay, so there's no question what's going on there. And she's quoting Isaiah 60 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee. Behold, darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the Lord will arise upon thee, and his glory will be seen upon thee. So contrasting the bright and beautiful glory of God as seen in his people, and the gross spiritual darkness, the misapprehension of God's character, as she calls it, in the wider world. And then this paragraph, it is the darkness. Bottom of page 415. It is the darkness of misapprehension of God. The word misapprehension means misunderstanding. They don't know the true character of God, they don't know who he truly is. By the way, you might remember a very similar paragraph in the Desire of Ages. I think it's page 25. The earth was dark through a misapprehension of God. Same language. That's the opening chapter of the Desire of Ages. Let's read it. It is the darkness of misapprehension of God that is enshrouding the world, all these different versions and variations and permutations of God, even the Christian God. And none of the non-Christian versions of God are good news. And even some of the versions of Christ are not good news. It's a mess out there, ladies and gentlemen. It's a jungle out there. It's a wild world out there. A high percentage of the God, well, 99.999% of all gods are bad news. There's only one God in the whole of human history that's good news, and that's the God revealed in Scripture. The gods of human invention and human creation and human imagination are never good news. They're just reflections, anthropomorphic reflections of ourselves. There is one God and one God alone that is good news, and that is the God that Jesus came to show us who He is. Because if God, the true God, the Creator God, looks like the God, the guy that we see in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Jesus of the Gospels, there is no greater good news. This is the greatest conceivable good news. But even some versions of the Christian God are, they don't sound like good news to me at all. So let's let's read this here. It is the darkness of misapprehension of God that is enshrouding the world. Men are losing their knowledge of his character. There it is again. It has been misunderstood and misinterpreted. At this time, a message from God is to be proclaimed, a message illuminating in its influence and saving in its power. His character, there it is again, is to be made known. Into the darkness of the world is to be shed the light of his glory, the light of his goodness, his mercy, and his truth. Jumping over to the next page, this is the work outlined by the prophet Isaiah in the words, O Jerusalem, you who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, don't be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, look, your God, look, the Lord your God shall come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him. Isaiah 40, 9 and 10. Then this paragraph. This might be the best paragraph in the whole book. All 500 pages, this might be my favorite paragraph in the whole book. It definitely is in consideration. Those who wait for the bridegroom's coming are to say to the people, Behold your God. That's what an Adventist does. It says, Jesus is coming and he's coming soon. But it's not just that he's coming soon, it's that he's awesome. It's that he's beautiful, it's that he's merciful, it's that he's loving and lovable, it's that he is the most beautiful conceivable being in all the universe. And that's the message. Behold your God. And then this the last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world is a revelation of his character of love. And ladies and gentlemen, that is the greatest conceivable good news. The thing that God is getting across to the world in the midst of pitch black darkness is that he is a God of love. God is love, and in him is no darkness at all. I'm gonna read it again. The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy. Notice she can't stop saying the word mercy, merciful light, message of mercy, is to be given to the world. To be given to the world is a revelation of his character of love. The children of God, us, the virgins, the girls, are to manifest his glory. We're to show his character of love to the world in their own life and character. They are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them. This again is not just an abstract idea. It's living the life of Christ, Christ in the life, Christ in the home, Christ in the prayers, Christ in the repentance, Christ everywhere, Christ, Christ everywhere, Jesus in our innermost sanctums, in our hearts, everywhere. His character of love. And then she goes on to quote the Son of Righteousness, which is a prophecy of Malachi. And then she just starts quoting scripture upon scripture. Luke 4, Matthew 5, Isaiah 58. She talks about spiritual darkness clouding the world. I'm turning to page 506 here. She talks about even the importance of touch, learning how to touch people. Look at that at the top of page 506, 418. Paragraph begins: God calls not only, God calls not only for our gifts for the needy, but for our cheerful countenance, our hopeful words, our kindly hand clasp. When Christ healed the sick, he laid hands, his hands upon them. So should we come in close touch with those whom we seek to benefit. So touch is an important part of our ministry. Putting your arm around somebody, touching them, holding their hand, praying for them, lifting them up, not literally lifting them up, though I suppose there could be some circumstance for that, but figuratively coming close to the people, touching them. There's power in touch. Jesus touched people. And we can, of course, in situationally appropriate ways, touch people. And when we touch people, Christ is touching them through us. Then she's got this great section. Let's just read it here on ministry, the very next paragraph. There are many from whom hope has departed. We live in a world where people are helpless and hopeless and sad and discouraged and depressed and on drugs, both legal and illegal, trying to medicate themselves away from this fallen dark world. We are so surrounded by sin, we are so surrounded by death and darkness that we don't even know it. We don't even know what we don't know. Even the beauty that we see is filtered through sin and death and disease. We have no idea what heaven and the new heaven and the new earth will look like. We get glimpses and glimmers of it here, but we're so steeped in death, we're so steeped in darkness, we're so steeped in pain and disease and sin. We have no idea. It's like we're dead. I mean, Jesus literally used the analogy, and so did Paul, that we are dead in trespasses and sins, people that were biologically alive. We're surrounded by dead people. It's like a zombie movie, but it's the truth. People living but not really living, not living like God intended. A world that is broken, a world that is falling apart environmentally and socially and nationally. There are many from whom hope has departed. Bring back the sunshine to them. Underline it. Bring back the sunshine to them. What a line. Many have lost their courage. Speak to them words of cheer. Pray for them. There are those who need, and this is what I preached on today, the bread of life. It has to be taken into the mouth and into the body, assimilated, implanted, incorporated, to become a part of us. Read to them from the Word of God, upon many a soul's sickness, which no earthly balm can reach, nor physician heal, upon many is. Pray for these souls, bring them to Jesus. Tell them that there is a balm in Gilead, and there is a capital P physician there. Light is a blessing, a universal blessing, pouring forth its treasures on a world unthankful, unholy, corrupted. That's what I mean by dark. Darkness covers the earth, said Isaiah, and gross darkness the people. So it is with the light of the sun of righteousness. She quotes Malachi there again. The whole earth, wrapped as it is in the darkness of sin and sorrow and pain, is to be lighted with what? To be light, lighted with what? The knowledge of God's love. Or we could easily say what? The knowledge of God's character. Because God's character is, of course, a character of love, for God is love. The message is a message of who God is, and then, of course, by extension and by contrast, who God is not. And we have a lot of preaching and teaching and announcing to do about who God isn't. Continuing on to the next paragraph, jump down to the middle of it. No longer are the heathen to be wrapped in midnight darkness. The gloom is to disappear before the bright beams of the sun of righteousness. She keeps quoting that passage there from Malachi, the Son of Righteousness, the Son of Righteousness. I mean, she does it at least three times in this chapter. In the next paragraph, she says that uh the bright beams of the sun of righteousness, the power of hell has been overcome. Woo! Come on now. The power of sin conquered the power of death, conquered the power of hell, conquered. Oh, it's all such good news. She talks about in the next paragraph how we can be light bearers, bright and shining. She talks about light, light, shining, light. Next paragraph is good. Go to the bottom of page 507. It is the privilege of every soul. We're almost at the end of this book, ladies and gentlemen. Go to the bottom of page 507, 419. It is the privilege of every soul to be a living channel. And you probably notice she uses the word channel a lot here. I'm imagining that some people have that as their word. It is the privilege of every soul to be a living channel through which Christ can communicate to the world the treasures of his grace, the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is nothing that Christ desires so much as agents who will represent to the world his spirit and character. His character, his character, his character, his character, his character, his love. There is nothing that the world needs so much as the manifestation through humanity of the Savior's love. All heaven is waiting for channels through which can be poured the holy oil to be a joy and a blessing to human hearts. Then she quotes the Son of Righteousness again on page 508. Man, she just loves it. Malachi 4.2, the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. When Christ reigns in the soul, there is purity, freedom from sin.

unknown 1:27:39

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 1:27:40

The glory, the fullness, the completeness of the gospel plan is fulfilled in the life. The acceptance of the Savior brings a glow of perfect peace, perfect love, perfect assurance. Page 509, paragraph begins Christ does not bid, Christ does not bid his followers strive to shine. He says, Let your light shine. If you have received the grace of God, the light is in you. Woo! Remove the obstructions, and the Lord's glory will be revealed. Father, show me my obstructions. Reveal to me my obstructions. I want the light to shine out of all of my dark places and into all of my dark places. And then she just goes on and on about the glory, the glory, the glory, the glory, the glory. She talks about the houses. That's where we started the chapter. The houses is a canvas of black. But then the houses with light shining out. These are Adventists. And not just Seventh-day Adventists, by the way, all kinds of Adventists. People that are longing for, looking for, hoping for. Baptists and Pentecostals and Catholics and all of it. Methodists and Presbyterians and Puritans and Quakers and Amish Adventists. People of every nation, kindred, tribe, tongue, and people. Waiting, longing, looking for the return of Jesus. And when the message comes, they go out. They go out. Turn the page, if you would, page 510. Right in the middle of that page 421. I'm going to go down to the bottom of that long paragraph. Upon them the glory of the Lord has risen. In them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is shining in the face of Jesus Christ. She's quoting 2 Corinthians 4, 5 to 7 there. Now they rejoice in the undimmed rays of the brightness of his glory, of the king of his in his majesty. They are prepared for the communion of heaven, for they have heaven in their hearts. Oh, that's good. They're prepared for the communion of heaven because they have heaven in their hearts, with uplifted heads, with bright beams of the Son of Righteousness. She just keeps quoting it. She just keeps quoting it. She can't stop quoting Malachi 4, too. The Son of Righteousness shining upon them, with rejoicing that their redemption draws near, they go forth to meet the bridegroom, saying, Behold, this is our God. We have waited for him, and he will save us. And then she quotes from Revelation 19 and 17. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Woo! Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. Then he said to me, Write, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. He is Lord of Lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are called and chosen and faithful, called by his grace, chosen by his grace, faithful by his grace. Ladies and gentlemen, that is Christ's object lessons, and we have been sitting dutifully, consistently at the feet of Jesus, learning from these marvelous parables, letting the light of these stories and these parables and these object lessons shine into our hearts. And Lord, we want the light to shine not only into us, not just to us, but to shine through us and out to the world around us. Our family, our friends, our neighbors, our children, our parents, our siblings, our co-workers, all the people with whom we come in contact, we want them to know that we believe God is love and he is coming soon. And some, I believe many, will respond to that message. Two things. God is love and he is coming soon. God is love and he is coming soon. God

Rubric

SPEAKER_00 1:32:01

is love and he is coming soon. That is our message. Ladies and gentlemen, let's do our rubric one final time in Christ's object lessons. The point, the person, the prayer, the practice, and the promise. Well, it hurts my neck when I drink. Wow, my neck is so sore. Father, please have mercy on me. Okay, what's the point of this chapter? God's glory has already lightened the earth in the incarnation of Jesus. But the world's but as the world's darkness deepens, God's glory, that is his character, will shine brighter and brighter through his spirit-filled, gospel-believing, and loving people. That's the point for me. The person. Well, the message of salvation is simple. God's loving character revealed in Jesus Christ and made manifest by his spirit through his people. That's what we learned about Jesus. Jesus came to show us that God is love, he revealed that persuasively and profoundly, and now he longs for that love to shine out of his people to the world, the unconvinced, cynical, hostile world. They need to hear about Jesus. God is love, and he's coming soon. That's our message in a nutshell. It's what it means to be an Adventist. The prayer, how about this? This is so easy. Father, make me a light bearer. She actually uses that phrase in here, light bearer. That is to say, one that reflects light. And not just a light bearer, but I put here and a wise virgin. I want to be a light bearer and a wise virgin. I don't want to be a silly girl, as N. T. Wright says in his translation. I want to be a sensible girl. I want to be one of those that has the oil, that has Jesus in my life, that's walking day by day with him, learning the skills of being a follower of Jesus and a witness for Jesus. So that's my prayer. Father, make me a light bearer. The practice. Well, my practice comes straight from that line that I spoke so much about on page 501, 414. The punchline, which is the foolish virgins tried to live their life apart from Christ. And so my prayer is, Father, or my practice is do not live my life apart from Christ. Do not live my life apart from Christ. I say no to that. And then the promise. For me, the promise is the other passage that I really dwelt on on page 504. The great line about the last message of mercy. I mean, talk about a promise. I cling to this promise. The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world is a revelation of his character of love. The children of God are to manifest his glory in their own life and character. They are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them. That is a promise. God is going to lighten the earth with his character, with that last message of mercy, and he's going to do it through the church. Through the church. I mean, Paul makes this point in the book of Ephesians that God, through the church, is showing off who he is to the principalities and powers in heavenly places. God is working through his church. And I'm a member of the church, and you're a member of the church, and so God shine through me. Complete that promise through me. What a promise. All right, ladies and gentlemen. What was your word? What was your word? All right, Tennessee Quillbug says, what page was that on in the original? Let me look it up here. Looks like in the original page 416. 416. Okay, let's see. Stefan says heaven is transformed and integrated into our life and character. Amen, brother. All right, here we go. Arise. Glow. Light, says Deb. Implant, says Reiner andor Alice. Sassy Cassie says oil. Cassandra says light. Kendra says B. Earl, I love you, brother. Been praying for you, says light. Healthy cells says shine. Laurie Hathaway says shine. Uh glory, light bearer and torch carrier. Ooh, I like it. How? Good question, Avery. Uh character. Brent says raise. Oh, I like that. How we are raised. Enlightenment. Shrewd. Oh, back to shrewd. Uh, shine. Um, Stefan says Penuma, illumination, and assimilation. Oh, I love every one of those, brother. Oil, spirit, prepared, character. Uh, light, advent, says dashy-707. You know I'm on board with that. Um, be ready. Character, character, arise. Character. Filled. Ready. King, says Wagner Unlimited. Who I like that too. Be wise. Earl says, Thank you, David. Love you. I'm praying for you too. Thanks, man. Pray that my neck feels better. It's just driving me crazy. Uh, ever burn. Well, that's kind of cool. Attentive. Prepare. Prepared. Channel. There it is. I knew some Maria, I knew somebody would have it. Through which God can communicate his love, grace, and glory to others, which is so captivating that none will want to change the channel. Oh, that's hot. Enlightened. Sunshine. Play on the sun of righteousness. Yeah, great. Fragrance chosen. Oh, bioluminescence, living light. Oh, that is good. Terrible Terry says, Dawn, rejoice, and illum. Reveal, illuminate. I feel you on the neck, David. Mine is killing me too. I'm so sorry about that, says that, Stefan. Let's pray for one another. Uh, Elsa says, Abba, Father who art in heaven, please heal David Ashtrick's neck. Oh, please, Lord. And Stefan's too. Please do one more night for a wrap-up. Yeah, maybe. I don't know if this is the last night or not. I'll let you know tomorrow morning. Keep an eye out on Instagram. We might do a wrap-up. Convey bioluminescence. Stefan likes it. I agree. Arlene says, Thank you, David, for these sessions. We really appreciate this. Praying for your neck. You guys are the best. Remember what you're going to do. Oh my God. Show. Wesley Dabb says, AA with DA starting tomorrow. Wouldn't that be great? Happen to be on a plane to Australia in two days. Prayers for you, David. Maybe I should see a chiropractor. Oh man, chiropractors make me nervous. I'm not going to lie. I've only been to one a couple times and I did not let them get anywhere near my neck. By the way, if you are a chiropractor, it's just me. It's not about you, it's about me. Somebody's asking if we're going to do a summary tomorrow. Maybe. We'll see. Just depends on how I feel, and I've got a lot to get done. If I get a bunch done, we'll do a recap tomorrow. Yes, that's what I was going to say. Out to chat. Please go like the YouTube videos. Tanya says these sessions have been such a blessing. Thank you, Tanya. It was so great to have you here. Tennessee Quiltbug, thank you very much for doing these. Amen. Praying for you and Stefan, thank you. Marco says, we love you, David. Thank you. Sprinter Nation says, this has been a blessing, David. We'll be praying for you. Sapria Star says, thank you, David. Tennessee Quiltbug says, can we vote on a summary? It really just comes down to my schedule. I've just got so much to get done. Deb says, Thank you, David. I learned a lot. Okay, uh, my word, man, I went I went back and forth on a lot of different words. I love the word glory. I love the word light. I love the word character. I really like the word bioluminescence. Ah, I'm undecided. I will say, I'm gonna go with light. I've got to go with light just because 2 Corinthians 4, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so light means glory. Light means character. And so in choosing light, I get all the words. I get rays, I get glory, I get character, I get bioluminescence. I'm gonna go with the word light. And what a light-filled month this has been. There is a chance we will do a session tomorrow night. Stay tuned to my Instagram. I'll let you know. Um, I love you. It'll just be a wrap-up. Maybe do some QAs. And it probably if we do one, it won't be long, but we'll just we'll just do it so we can have one last session together. I'm leaning that way, but I've got a lot of things I've got to get done before I leave for Australia, including, and please pray for me on this, I've got to edit my sister's wedding photos. I married her in the summer, her and her husband Ben, and her fiance Ben, now her husband, and I have been telling them the photos are coming, the photos are coming, the photos are coming, and I've just been so busy, and I promised that I would get them done before I leave on Wednesday. It's a big task. I love shooting weddings for my friends and family. I love photography. Uh, speaking of light, photography is great, but uh this is a big one. It's gonna take me a while, and so please pray for me. God bless you all. I love you so much. There's a chance we will see you tomorrow night. Remember, go on YouTube, do the like thing, do the share thing, do the subscribe thing. We will be back next year or maybe late this year. We could even start in December. There's a chance we gotta roll right through December and January, that those are the best months. We'll have to wait and see. But Acts of the Apostles coming soon by God's grace, God willing. All right, I love you all so much. Let's close with prayer. Father in heaven, we love you and thank you. We praise you. We want the light of the knowledge of the glory of God that shone in the face of Jesus to now shine through our faces. Father, as we live the Christ life, the Christian life, the spirit-filled life. Father, may we be lights in the world. Uh, the world is dark, and we pray again for Iran. What's happening there? We don't know all the details, but we just lift that situation up to you. Father, be with each person as they cry out to you, as they call out to you. You you hear each cry, you see each tear. You are intimately familiar with each pain, with all the pain, with each uh moment of heartbreak. Lord, we just we don't even know how to pray. We're just asking, we're interceding. And Lord, we we just lift all of this to you. We love you. We want to be lights shining in a dark place. And so, Father, may we not try and be Christians apart from Christ as if there is such a thing. May Jesus be in our hearts and in our lives and in our day-to-day experience. Father, give us the skill, teach us how to have the skill of following Jesus, of teaching others about Jesus, of making this wonderful announcement that God is love and he is coming soon. Father, help us to keep it simple, just that simple. That you are love and you are coming soon. That you are love and you are coming soon. And it is our great privilege to know you and to love you and to pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen and amen.