10.25.26 Josh Thompson: All right, today we're gonna be in Matthew chapter 25, and we're gonna look at one of the most sobering and I believe important parables that Jesus told: the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins. Now, I've taught on this parable before, but I believe it's a message that we need to continually come back to, to hear again and again in this hour. In fact, I was I was sharing with Diego, Pastor Diego. a few days ago and I was like, man, I'm just feeling this parable of of the wise and foolish virgins again. And I said, But I've I've taught on this, and he goes, We should hear that every month. And I thought, you know what? Even you think how many need to be reminded of things? we say something once and then we think we have it. We don't. I believe the Holy Spirit brings us back to things because they're things He wants to highlight. And and that's my sense today for this. So I I would just say this, I need this message. I need this message. While I'm preaching to you today, I'm preaching to me. And this word is is hitting my heart. And I believe it's a word for this moment. In Matthew chapter 24, just the chapter before, the disciples asked Jesus a question about his return. And they they just want to know this. They want to know what will the signs of your coming be? And in Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus actually spends those two chapters beginning to answer that question. And he doesn't just tell them about the signs of his return, he tells them how they're to live in light of his coming return. How we're to live between when he came and when he will come again, and how to prepare, how to remain faithful. How many know that he's looking for faithful ones so that we can be ready? How many know Jesus is coming again? And this is something that in the midst of the busyness of life, in the midst of the pressures of life, it's easy for that reality to fall to the backdrop. But I want to tell you, I believe we're to live with that in the forefront of our minds. He is coming again. And how many want to be ready for his return? I know I do. Here in Matthew 25, there's three things that Jesus reveals himself as. And I think it's important for us to. To see this, he reveals himself as the bridegroom, as king, and his judge. How many know he is all three of those things? He's the bridegroom who longs for deep relationship with us, for intimacy with his bride. That is us. He is coming back for his bride. His bride. He's the king who reigns with all authority and power on his throne, and he is the judge. before whom every life will stand and will give an account one day, every single one of us. I want to encourage you though today, he's after your heart. He's after your love. He's after the real you, not the projected you. He's after the real you. He's after your wholeheartedness for him. And do you? This parable is a, I believe, a powerful invitation and it's a sobering warning about what it means to be ready for his return. So I want to pray, Lord, thank you for your presence that's here with us already. I pray, even right now, for a holy awakening. I pray for hearts and minds that might be tired and wore out. I pray, Holy Spirit, would you come and wake us up? Would you just come awaken us up, awaken hunger in us? I pray you would awaken a longing for Jesus in us today. I pray that you would take us beyond just religious routine, hearing a message, doing the thing. And God, would you go straight to the heart today? I pray that for everyone in this place, I pray that you would go straight to the heart. Some of us might even hear this passage and think, I've heard that, or, or somebody else needs that. No, Lord, I need this today. I pray that there'd be an awakening for all of us in this place, and we welcome you to come and speak to us. Change us in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. If you have your Bibles, you can turn to Matthew 25. This is where we'll be, starting with verse one. Jesus says this. He says, then, then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins. Who took their lambs and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, everybody say, delayed, delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight, There was a cry, Here is the bridegroom. Come out to meet him. And then all of those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready, those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast. And the door was shut. But he answered, Truly I say to you, I do not know you. And then Jesus says this, verse 13: He says, Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the day. Nor the hour. How many say that's a sobering parable? It's a sobering parable. The Apostle Paul he uses this same kind of language when he talks to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 11. He says this, he says this verse 2, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, he says, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. He's talking to the church there. I'll just say this in case this is a new paradigm for you today. If you are a believer, if you are his, you are betrothed to Jesus. That means you're taken. That means you're set apart for him. Turn to somebody and tell them you're taken. Look them in the eyes. Tell them, you're taken. You're taken. In the Jewish world, betrothal, of course, as we know, was. Far more binding than what our concept of engagement is here in America. A betrothed couple had a binding covenant commitment. Breaking a betrothal required a divorce. Think Mary and Joseph, right? You already belong to one another, even though the wedding celebration was still to come. Okay? And Paul says that's the picture of our relationship with Jesus Christ. We're his now. And we are waiting the day when we're gonna be with him in the very fullness of everything. This is why, this is why our faithfulness to him matters right now. This is why our our our devotion to him matters right now. This is why our purity to Jesus matters right now. This is why our loyalty to him matters. Our our our our longing for him matters right now because guess what? We're engaged to Jesus. Men as weird as that may feel or sound to you, you are engaged to Jesus. In a very rio sens. The church is engaged to be married to Jesus, and that wedding day is coming. Revelation 19:7 says this. It says, let this is this is the unfolding of all of this in Revelation that we get a glimpse of this. Says, let us rejoice and exalt and give him glory. For the marriage supper of the Lamb has come, and his bride, get this, has made herself ready. Has made herself ready. And here's what we need to see. We're not just waiting for an event that's gonna happen one day. We're actually waiting to be with a person. We're waiting to be with Jesus. We're living in the time between the betrothal and the wedding. And it's not just a time of waiting, it's a time of preparation. Making ourselves ready for that day. This is what we see in this parable. So as we look at this, it's really safe to assume. That the bridesmaids in this parable are believers. They represent believers. Why? There's ten of them, and Jesus distinguishes the group of ten into two groups: five wise, five foolish. How many wanna be the foolish? Good, you're smart people. That's good. So five wise, five foolish all have lamps, all have, we could say, spheres of influence, all have ministries. Assignments, all were bringing light where they went, right? They all came out of the same group. They all have, they all have lamps, they all have a measure of oil. And we see this all through scripture. What is oil? All through scripture, oil represents the Holy Spirit, represents the presence of God. And here, oil is the presence of God. It is intimacy. Oil is istimacy. relationship with the Holy Spirit, with Jesus. Oil represents power too. The oil is the power source of the flame. You think about this though, they all start out with oil. They all start out going after Jesus. They're all excited about meeting the bridegroom. They're all excited to light the pla the path for the bridegroom, you know, to come and to make it to make it lit up. They all seemingly look the same. But church, they are not the same. They're not the same. And what Jesus is doing here through this parable is he is. He's making it clear that there's a difference between wise and foolish people. There's a difference between wise and foolish believers. And here's what defines the difference: the oil. The oil. The oil, the oil levels, the wives not only had oil in their lamps, the wives had extra oil for their lamps. They had reserves of oil. Are you guys with me today? Okay, they had. They had reserves of oil with them. a picture for us today might be like, hey, if we were trying to to light something up with our iPhones and there we are with our light on. These guys not only had their iPhone charged, they had a battery pack with them. They had they had an extra source of power. They had additional resources of power. The wise head prepared. Beyond just for beyond just the mediate. They they planned beyond just today. They didn't just have enough oil to get by through the day. They had reserves of oil so that their lamp could continue, hear this, to shine however long the night lasted. They weren't just focused on their lamp. They weren't just focused on the flame. They focused on the oil. They wanted enough oil. To make it through the long night, to make it through the delay. They understood that it was the oil that sustained the flame. They paid attention to their oil levels. They prioritized getting oil. Can I ask you a question? How are your oil levels? How are your oil levels? Because that's what the parable's about. It's about oil. About oil, it's about the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. It's about knowing Jesus. It's about intimacy with Jesus. It's about preparation. It's about cultivating a life in him and with him that is ready and is longing for his return. The wise had oil reserves, the foolish ran out. The wise represented those who truly knew him, they had cultivated. Deep relationship with him over time. They had a life of continuing with him, abiding with him, living in the realities of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord. The realities of John 15. You remember what Jesus said in John 15? He said, Abide in me, and I'll abide in you. He said, I'm the vine, you're the branch. He said, Apart from me, you can do what? Nothing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Apart from me, you shrivel up and die. Apart from me, you can do all the things that you do, but apart from me, eventually your light will go out and you'll shrivel. Getting oil is about cultivating a secret life of intimacy with the Lord. It's about continually being filled with the Holy Spirit. They they they had reserves. There were reserves. There was an overflow in the wise. There was extra, not just enough to get by, but they had a supply that was gonna see them through the dark nights, the unexpected things. Have you ever had some unexpected things happen in your life that you thought this wasn't going that way? Where's the one place you turn to? Him. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. So the foolish, the foolish had lamps. Okay. But the only oil that they had was was the little bit that they had in their lamp. They they they looked like the why get this, they looked like the wise on the outside. They weren't. They looked like they had enough to get by until the delay came. Jesus is saying the the foolish had no reserves. What does this mean? Well, we could say they were living for right now. We could say they they were they were living from assignment to assignment. Could we say it like this? They were living from worship service to worship service. They lived on the edge of burning out literally. And they did. I'd like to suggest that I think in church, and I've witnessed so much of this over 30 years, that so many start well. So many start excited. Yay, Jesus. But die out. Flame out. Why? Because they just had enough oil for the day. They didn't learn to continually go and get oil. Get the oil. Get the oil. In Ephesians 5:18, Paul says this: He says, Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. I think sometimes we emphasize the negative of that. Don't be drunk. Okay, turn to tell your neighbor, don't be drunk. Yeah. Okay. We focus on that. Some of you are like, I am not telling my neighbor that. Your neighbor might need to hear that. But be filled. With the Holy Spirit. This is the emphasis to do. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, here's what we have to understand this isn't a one time filling. This isn't a one time filling that happened 10 years ago. Okay, and this is or 20 years ago, or when you were at youth camp or at a time at the altar. That's not what this is. This this is be filled, be filled, be filling, be filled. It is continual. Filling of the Holy Spirit. Church, we need this. I want to tell you, every day, the Holy Spirit wants to fill you up for the day. It doesn't mean that you're you don't have him in you. It means that you're gonna need more for today if we're doing this right. You're going to need him. And and and if you don't sense that, then probably you think apart from him, you can do something. But if it's true, apart from him, I can do nothing, that means we have a reliance on the Holy Spirit in us. That we live in a state of like, Lord, I need you for today. I need more of you for today. Be filled. They did not prioritize, the foolish did not prioritize being filled. They did not prioritize intimacy with Jesus for Jesus, not for ministry or even accomplishing things for him. See, many people pursue Jesus so they can do things for Jesus. I think it's one of the things as pastors we have to be really careful about. I don't want to read the Word of God so I can get a sermon. I want to read the Word of God so I can get Him. Right? Like I wanna be with Him, not for some outcome, although outcomes come. Our our our the call is intimacy. It's I want to know you for you. I want to know you for you. And if the pursuit of loving him and knowing him isn't the isn't the first thing, it isn't the the one thing, as David says, it will end in burnout. Proximity does not equal intimacy. Being around the things of God does not equal intimacy. You can be in church. You can be around Christians and not know him. You could say Amen if you want. Are you awake today? Okay. You're like, we've heard this message. Guess what? You're hearing it again. You can be around the things of God, but that does not mean that you have surrendered to the rule of God in your life. They had the form, but they didn't have the flame. The flame went out. They didn't have oil. In other words, it started off well, but as time went on, they lost focus. The foolish versions, they got distracted. We could say maybe they they they got busy, they got in a hurry, they got off track. Whatever. If you light a wick, it will burn for a bit. It's like lighting a rope if you've ever done that. But guess what? It burns out fast. It burns out fast. You you can count on this. When people burn out, it's because you had no oil to sustain you. had no oil to sustain you. bridegroom was delayed. What does that mean? It means it took longer than they expected. How many know sometimes God feels like he takes longer than we expected? And their lamps were going out. I think there's this continual theme here. His message here is there's unexpected delays gonna come. There are delays gonna come. And to be able to sustain in the delay, in the difficulties, in the in the trials, the pressures that we're gonna face, guess what? We're gonna need oil. We're gonna need oil, we're gonna need his presence. Understand this, they had they had failed to appropriately invest. They weren't prudent in preparation. It says they all became drowsy and fell asleep. They all slept. All the believers slept. But at midnight there's this cry, He's here. The bridegroom's here. Jesus is here. He's come, His return. Grab your lamp. Get ready to light the path. And all the virgins rose and they began trimming their wicks to light them. Can you imagine? so excited, they're trimming their wicks. Can you imagine the foolish virgins as they're like, they're like trying to trim that wick and get it started? They they're trying, but the foolish virgins' lamps won't light. Because there was no oil. No oil, no flame, no flame, no light. They try to light the wick, but it would not light. Do you feel this? I I feel this as I've been in this this last week. I as I've been reading over this again, I read over this part, and I'll tell you what, it breaks my heart. Because you know what I imagine? I imagine the people around me. I imagine the people that I'm pastoring, and I imagine that day coming, and they'll be like, I don't have oil. And that hurts inside because I want you to have oil. I want to pastor you in a way that we're pursuing oil above doing things because it's out of the oil and it's out of the presence that we actually can even do anything effective. And I I want I'm clear when I read these parables, they're not just a good story. I imagine that day and I imagine you. And I want you ready. I don't want you lighting your You're wicked and not starting. I want you to have reserves of oil that you knew how to go and be with God and dig into God. Are you awake? What is he showing us with this? I think he's showing us that the foolish could actually see at one time. But now they can't see. Because they were they were not prepared. They did not have resources and reserves of oil. They had not cultivated oil. They had not learned to abide. Jesus says, this is what's gonna happen. And do you know why he's telling them and he's telling us? Because he loves us. He's like, hey, I want you to be prepared. I want you to be warned. So you're ready. Verse 8, the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise say, No, no, no, no, no. You gotta go get your own. You have to you have to go buy your own. I can't give you mine. I need mine. Now you might be here and you might think, well, that's not very kind. That's not very sharing, Jesus. But I think what we what we see here. That Jesus is showing us is that intimacy with with him is not transferable. Right? you can't you can't get intimacy and oil from someone else. You can't you can't get this kind of oil during ministry time. Those times are important. Impartation is important. Encouragement, prayer. We we see miracles happen. It's it's amazing. But spiritual preparedness is not transferable. I can't give it to you. I can lead you to water. You have to drink. Right? I want to force you to drink. I will hold your head under the water until you drink. I want to do that for people sometimes. here, come back, come back to the baptismal. Ur, you need to stay under a little longer. Drink, I command you. It doesn't work that way. It's like a parent, you know, we're trying to tell our kids what to do, and and they they're not taking it. You're like, I could save you. Such heartache. Got a little off there. I don't even know where I was going, but I can't give you my oil and you can't give me yours. I can shine my light, you can shine your light, but that's different from oil. The light is the product of the oil. Right? You have to get the oil for yourself. Sometimes in the church, because of our corporate experience, that the corporate light, while we're worshiping, it's like, we feel Jesus, we feel close to him, and that's so good. And I'm so thankful for those corporate times, aren't you? It's like such a gift. But but what can happen is that in those times you actually don't realize that you yourself are actually out of oil and no longer burning. But you feel something and so you think you're burning, but you're actually just feeling the burning of others. Yeah. And so Jesus is warning us, he's like, hey, wake up to this. Get oiled. Get oil. I wonder if some of us have been trying to live off of other people's light and other people's oil. And what Jesus is so lovingly warning us with is that that hour is actually going to really reveal it. The foolish couldn't see it until the season of pressure came. And the wise say, Hey guys, you gotta go buy your own. Go, go get it. Get your own. The wise are like, I've been living for this day. I'm oiled up. I focused my life waiting for this day. I've been storing up oil. I've been I've been going deep with the Lord. I've been walking. I have a history in God. The wells are deep. I've been investing, I've been abiding in Him. I've been walking with Him. I've been being filled by him. I'm ready. You gotta go get your own. And so the foolish go. They go. And while they're gone, the bridegroom comes. And when they they come back to where they were, they they come back and they knock on the door. But the bridegroom says to the foolish virgins, I don't know you. I don't know you. You know what? Jesus put so much weight on knowing him. He's not talking about awareness here, aware of I know who that person is. He he knows every person, right? He knows every hair on your head. He's talking about deep relational knowing. I don't know you like that. We see this all over scripture. Matthew 7 says something similar. Verse 22 On that day many will say, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name? And Jesus says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. This goes to the list of things I wish Jesus hadn't said. But you think about this, think about this prophecy, deliverance, mighty works. On the outside, it looked like they had it all together spiritually. But Jesus says, I never knew you. I never knew you. This is incredibly sobering. He he doesn't say it's gonna be a handful of people. That are gonna be foolish. He's saying, many will say. He's not saying a handful of people aren't gonna know him. He says, many will say. You know what many means? A lot. There's gonna be a lot of people who say they profess to be his, but he did not know them. I'd like to suggest it's not how flashy your flame is. It's not how spectacular your ministry is, how powerful your gifting is. The question is, do you know him? The question is, do you know him? The question isn't, did you sit in church your whole life? The question is, do you know him? And then the question is, do you have oil? Do you have oil? Because at the end of it all, and there is coming an end to it all, there's coming an end to this age. That's what matters most to Jesus. How many know it's important to know what actually matters to him most? This is what matters. This word no, this Greek word no, it means personal, it means relational, it means knowing relationally. It's not casual, it's not a shallow knowing, it's an intimate knowing. He's looking for a bride who knows him. Who knows him, who loves him with everything heart, soul, mind, strength. Philippians 3, Paul's talking to the church there, and he he says something that's so powerful. He says, I consider everything, I think we have it. I consider maybe we don't. I have everything I consider everything a loss compared, get this, to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. A man who preached the gospel, who planted church, churches all over, saw extraordinary miracles, was powerfully used by God. He says, nothing is more valuable than knowing him. Nothing is more valuable. Not any of those things that I do. He says, I consider them all rubbish. I consider it all garbage compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. Jesus said something similar to a church in Revelation 3, the church of Laodicea. Verse 17, he said this: He said, For you say, I'm rich, I have prospered, I need nothing, not realizing that you are, get this, wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. This church, along with the foolish virgins, they'd completely misjudge their own spiritual condition. How many know that's easy to do? I think I'm great. I think everything's wonderful. They thought they were rich, but Jesus says, You're poor. They looked at the outward condition and assumed everything was fine on the inside, but they had no idea how far they were from him. I feel like there's a lot of that in the Church of America. And I don't say that to get amens and get people riled. I just know it's true. I know it's true, and I don't want that to be true of us. Jesus says, verse 18, he gives another loving warning. He says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire. What is he talking about? He's saying, I I want you to go after true spiritual riches. Go buy that. The gold he's he's talking about buying here is deep relationship with him. Investing ourselves in a way That that d that does cost us to receive the gold. You say, well, what I thought we don't earn it. We don't. We don't earn it. But we have to go after it. We have to go after it. There's a cost in following Jesus, in pursuing Jesus. Salvation is a gift. Following Him costs us our lives. Holy Spirit is a gift. If you want to remain filled, there is a price to pay. If you want what God has for you, you're gonna have to fight for it, not fight God for it. He's given it. I'm talking about fighting against everything that wars for your attention. Everything that that wars for your affection. Are you with me, church? Everything that would try and distract your heart and wants to pull you away from Jesus. Just before this parable in Matthew 24, Jesus warned, it's where he said this in the last days: the love of many will grow cold. Again, he uses the word many. That means lots, lots of Christians, their love is gonna grow cold. Now I don't, I'm not. Trying to build that up. I think he says it all because he's warning us so that we'll we'll heed his warning and respond to it. This warning is what makes us so urgent. If we're not intentional, guess what happens? Our heart drifts. Our heart grows cold without even realizing it. I believe here the currency that he's talking about buying is actually time with God. The currency is your attention. The battle is always for our attention. Because where attention is, is what will get our affection. And what is our affection? Our love. And what does God require of us? What is all of it what does all of it come down to? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. The battle is always for our attention and our affection. It's gonna cost you to say no when everyone else is saying yes. When you choose and you say, No, you know what, I'm not gonna do that because this is more important. It's gonna cost you to follow when everyone else is going their own way. It's gonna cost you to turn off the noise. It's gonna cost you to put away the distractions and give them your undivided attention. But here's the truth what you give your attention to will eventually become your love. It'll become your love. What you look at will become what you love. Psalm 34, 5, David says this. He says, Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces shall never be put to shame. And that's a good word. Worship Him. Look to him. Be with him. In his word, his presence is where the oil comes. Have you ever been with God and you're like, I feel the oil flowing? With him is where the oil comes. And most of the time you don't even know that it's happening. But as you abide and as you're dwelling with him, the oil begins to flow. And all of a sudden you become overflowing. I'm not talking about feelings here. Many times you feel it, many times you don't. Some people say, I don't feel it. That's okay. I didn't feel like taking my vitamins this morning. Guess what? I'm glad I did. over time my my lots of good things have happened. Jesus is much better than vitamins. Terrible analogy. Strike that from the record. You know what you're doing is you're getting oil? You're cultivating a history with God that will sustain you. In the days of that are ahead, in the days of delay. In the midnight hour, the wise had oil. I don't know what hour we're in. Everybody says it's like 11:59. I don't know. People said it was 1159, 300 years ago. I don't say that to make be casual about it. Jesus could come next week. I don't know when this moment is, but the point is. Get to the heart of what he's saying. Get oil. When everybody was freaking out and everybody couldn't see, the wise had clarity. One of the surest things I've noticed in my life is when I freak out about something or I'm I'm I'm worried at a whatever and I don't have clarity, it's almost always a sign, Josh, go back, be with him, get oil. Get oil. They weren't freaking out. Why? Because they had oil. And because they had oil, guess what? They had flame, they had light. They prioritized getting oil. They prioritized his presence. They had power and they had backup power. It's the difference between the wise and the foolish. It's the simplicity of that. The foolish lost sight. They lost focus. They were distracted from what was needed most. I've never known anybody that says, you know, I think I'll lose focus today. I think I'll get distracted today. Never known anybody that's done that. We lose focus when days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into months, months turn into years of pursuing lesser things instead of the pursuit of knowing him. See, he doesn't call them evil virgins, he calls them foolish virgins. Remember the end result. I don't know you. How do you know someone? Time with them. If you want oil, the oil the cost of the oil is time. It's time with him. It's it's sacrifice, it's building an altar before him. Turning our attention and our affection to him. This is where we get that holy heavenly oil. All week I've just sensed this so strongly, guys, that Jesus is calling us, he's warning us, he's drawing us. He's like, Come to me. I want to fill you up like you never knew you could be filled. Revelation three twenty, the church there he says this, Behold I stand at the door knock. He says, If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. You know what's wild? He's saying this to the church. There are forces of darkness. Hear me on this. I'm gonna close in just a minute, that are wanting to war for our heart and for our attention. And I've said it three times: what gets our attention, gets our affection, and gets our heart. I believe one of the greatest tactics of the enemy is simply to keep us so busy, so distracted that we neglect him and we neglect our relationship with him. Before you knew it, you know it, you're on fumes. Before you know it, you have no oil, you have no flame, you have no light. And the enemy wants your heart weighed down and distracted and offended and checked out, going through the motions of religious activity. But you know what Jesus just said? He said, I want to eat with you. He said, I want to eat with you. He's knocking on the door of his church. Why is Jesus knocking on the door of his church? Jesus should be right in the middle of his church. And yet he's knocking on the door saying, If you'll open it, I'll come in. I'll eat with you. This is the promise. It's an invitation to anyone and everyone. Fellowship that tenderizes the heart. Are you with me? The foolish had lamps, they had the outward structure, but when the midnight hour came they didn't have the oil to sustain the flame. They had the appearance of readiness without the reality of preparation. They had appearance of readiness. I believe there's so many in the church at large in this condition, and I believe Jesus is lovingly warning us not to make the same mistake. I believe he's saying, focus on getting oil. Think about it. Think about it. Both wisdom and foolishness in this parable come down to preparation. Or lack thereof. Focus on your inner life. Focus on knowing Jesus. Focus on his presence. Because the oil you cultivate in the secret place keeps you burning in the midnight hour. Come on, stand with me this morning. My prayer was I did not want to just. I I don't wanna just preach a message. I I believe that it's an invitation into an encounter with God. You know, what's wild is how the parable ends. Parable ends. With the door being closed. And do you know what that means? That means there's coming a day when there is a too late in God's timetable. But that day is not today. Do you know what today is? Today's the day of salvation. Today, today is the day of be filled with the Spirit of God. Today is turn to me. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest. Come to me, and out of you will flow a river of living water. That's what today is, church. How many say, I need more oil? I want more oil. Here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna open up the front of this room right now. And and I don't care if there's two people or 200 people that come. But if you want more oil, I want you just to come lift your hands at the front of this room. Just come, you can start coming right now. And we're gonna respond to the Lord and we're just gonna say, Give me oil in my lamp. Keep me burning. Give me oil in my lamp. Come on, just start praying in the spirit. I believe people are gonna be filled in the spirit, a fresh filling this morning. Come on, church. Just come. Just come. If you pray in tongues, begin to pray in tongues. Come on, just let's go for God right now and just say, fill us up. Fill us up. I pray for fresh oil all over this room this morning. I pray for a fresh oil this morning. Fill the church with oil. Fill the church with oil. Kura mama reborama repa mama. Come on, just ask him. You can't get this from me, from anyone else. This is you saying, God, fill me up. Fill me up. Some of you have been so dry today. The Lord says, I'm doing a new thing in you. I'm filling you up today.