Sermon "Give Me Oil In My Lamp, Keep Me Burning" Rev. Terry Tamplen

[Music] please remain standing as we go to God's Word in Matthew's Gospel chapter 25 this morning beginning with verse 1 will read the first thirteen verses Jesus telling a parable said then the kingdom of heaven will be like this ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom five of them were foolish and five were wise 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 all of them became drowsy and slept but at midnight there was a shout look here's the bridegroom come out to meet him then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps the foolish said to the wise give us some of your oil for our lamps are going out but the wise replied no there will not be enough for you and for us you'd better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves and while they went to buy it the bridegroom came and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet and the door was shut later the other bridesmaids came also saying Lord Lord opened to us but he replied truly I tell you I do not know you keep awake therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour let us pray God by your grace and by your spirit awaken us to the love and the truth that you have for us today that we might truly live in this world for all the days you've given us in Jesus name Amen you may be seated well this parable is told by Jesus and it's taken right out of the life of that day and age I mean this literally happened this is how weddings took place in the Palestinian villages and one of the components of course was that no white nobody actually knew when the bridegroom would come and and so the bridegroom wanted to come at an unexpected time he wanted to surprise everybody before the announcement behold the bridegroom comes and then when that announcement came that's when it was time for the ceremony for things really to begin at first there was this big procession and they processed through the town and there was dancing and there was blessings and and then came to ceremony and then came listen a week-long celebration before the honeymoon before the couple ever drove off and went to crawl Texas for their honeymoon you know they they had this wonderful week-long celebration I hail from the small town of Crowell so just in case you didn't know that but but there was this big long festivity and all the joy and all the celebration of this couple coming together and being married and so still to this day that's how weddings take place in Palestine so Jesus was drawing from that and he wanted to give a teaching about that now this is one of those parables that you get at it the best by looking and trying to understand that by understanding what it's not saying all right so it's sort of coming in the back door maybe the side door of the parable parable being an earthly story with a heavenly meaning and so we're gonna do that today and talk about a few points from this beautiful parable out of the life and the culture of biblical times and see what we might learn from it that would help us live our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ so first of all it's not talking about it's not really saying good girls win and bad girls lose you sort of get that it's a problematic text in some aspects because you've got these bridesmaids who run out of oil then you have the other ones who have oil but they don't really share it and we'll talk about that in just a moment but it's you notice right off the bat that it's not talking about morality this is not a parable that talks about you know what you do and what you don't do it's not a parable about worthiness or unworthiness this is a parable I'm gonna suggest to you this morning it's about consciousness it's about becoming aware it's about enlightenment anytime you see light in the scripture you're talking about enlightenment you know it's been said that you don't see the world as it is you see it as you are but when you become enlightened when you become aware you become conscious of God's presence in the world and in your life it changes the way you see everything and so this is a parable about these bridesmaids some who had oil which is symbolic of the Enlightenment and some whose oil ran out and we're going to talk about that a little bit this morning because this also is a parable about end times right it's an endtime parable but what we what it's not talking about is we don't see some catastrophic event it's not talking about some that the end of time will will be a catastrophic event it talks about at the end of time as a wedding banquet come on now the end of time as a wedding banquet imagine that a wedding bank at a time of invitation a time of celebration where we're all invited to be a part of something wonderful that's taking place it's also not talking about God as the god of Wrath or a got a judgment but it's talking about God as a bridegroom who comes in an uninspected time who comes and and gets the whole thing going gets things moving in in the terms of peace and and joy and in celebration you know the Apostle Paul said that the kingdom of heaven is righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit that's the kingdom of God and he said the kingdom of heaven is like this wedding banquet and gods like the bridegroom who comes but notice when he comes when is it it's that midnight what's it like outside at midnight it's dark interesting that God shows up in the dark God shows up sometimes in our darkest hour that hour of our suffering that hour when we feel lonely or lost that hour whom we feel broken or are we feel Unforgiven we feel like a failure in some respect or another God shows up and suddenly we see things differently I remember a time in my life it was literally one of the darkest hours of my life I was a pastor and things were happening that I didn't understand I was questioning God where are you why is this happening I I felt inadequate in my own life and I had this habit at the time I would go over the the parsonage was just across the alley from the church where we were serving at the time and I would go over during the lunch hour my wife worked at the school and in she's the school nurse and so I had the house to myself during the noon hour most of the time and I would go over and make a simple meal and then I had the habit of laying down and taking what I call the power and out you don't really go to sleep you don't really stay awake but you're sort of in-between and I could do that for five ten minutes and I would wake up refreshed and ready to get back to work well that day as I was laying there and I sort of drifted in to that place and I was just having conversation it was it was dark in my spirit a dark time and I was just talking to God about it and I remember being in that place of in between and suddenly I heard a little whisper a male voice so real so tangible that I felt the breath on my left ear and it was so real i wakened and I totally expected to see someone standing there but here's the word that I heard I knew it was God I knew it not in my head it was revelation in my soul I knew in that moment suddenly I didn't see the world as I was you know I saw I mean as it is I saw it as I was from a new perspective from God's perspective and I knew that God had not forsaken me God had not left me alone God was with me and God loved me in such a way that I awoke and it truly was a perón app of a spiritual nature that day and here we have the bridegroom coming had meant that in the darkest hour it's also a time of preparation that lifts up that important value in this parable because we have these bridesmaids some withal and some with not the oil represents again that enlightenment that that new way of seeing because we all know right we don't actually see light but it's by light that we see everything light reflects and it shines and it helps us to see a greater reality a greater truth and a greater knowing and that's why Jesus is lifting up and this parable these these bridesmaids who were prepared and think about that in our own lives how do we receive that oil how do we get oil for a lamps even extra oil I'll tell you about a time in my life when you mein may know this but pastor Kevin Deckard and I here at the church we go back a long way we spent a lot of time together and there was a time for many years that we met together with a couple of other pastors Jerry Moore and Thacker Haynes over at McLean and and we would meet out at Thakur's Ranch and Thacker had a little cabin just down away from the house it was very remote and we would go down there as a nice little place and we would spend two or three days together just being with each other being with each other and catching up what's going on what's going well what are your struggles praying for each other encouraging one another and and also having those times of being transparent here's what I'm struggling with right now and I remember as we were there this one time that as we shared through the weekend we came to this place and they they could see that the oil was low in my life and in love they began to share with me and they said here you know what what I think we see in your life is that in your devotional time it seems like you're reading the Bible this way and I was because when I would read my Bible I would think oh this would be good for George this would be good for the congregation this would be good for this person or that person this family member of that family member but what I wasn't doing is reading the Bible this way right I wasn't reading it for me the oil was going this way not this way and when I was praying they said Terry seems like when you're praying you're praying for your church praying for your family that's all good and that's all well and good and it's even okay to read the scripture this way but you got to have this too when you pray you got to pray for that oil you got to pray for your cup to be filled for your lamp for your supply to be restored they saw that I was running dry and I began to to practice that even in worship sometimes I you know focusing outward instead of inward somebody said the grass is not necessarily greener on this side of the fence or that side of the fence the grass is greener for you water at Amen and I was keeping the water hose everywhere but here now that's a discipline and it's a challenge for us this morning to remember that when we practice the spiritual disciplines as disciples who practice disciplines we do things whether we feel like doing it or not we make sure that we do this make sure that we pray this way that we worship this way before we get too over focused this way so these bridesmaids give us a beautiful lesson this morning and they help us to understand that God is generous and God is giving and God has so much for us but we got to talk a little bit also this morning about this last part of the scripture where Jesus said truly I tell you I do not know you they came and they asked to be allowed in and there was no knowing there was no knowing and that seems tragic but it's a opportunity for us to understand you know this word in Scripture is the same word from Genesis where it says Adam knew Eve and where Mary says not known a man it's a word of great intimacy in fact it's it's sexual intimacy that God is saying I want to make love to your soul I want us to have this live relationship and see that's what the virgins teach us is that this walk with God this faith journey that we have it belongs to each of us it belongs to all of us but you know it's been said that God has no grandchildren only children so it's saying that each of us in other words I can't you know I can't awaken you I mean I'm a vessel I'm a spokesperson for the Lord but we're all responsible for our own journey we're all responsible for our own walk with the Lord and so I can't count on what your walk with God to give me what I need now of course as I've already shared we can encourage we can do this with each other but just not for each other you see what I'm saying so this morning we come to this table of the Lord's table and I want to share a story with you that helps us understand what's really happening here and how God wants to enrich us and let this be a time of filling in our own lives this morning and that is as I was growing up I think it was a junior high high school but I was driving a tractor not too far from our home one day and the plow broke down and so since it wasn't far away I knew probably my dad was at the house now mind you we didn't have cell phones it was just right before cell phones came out and so yeah it's about a half mile or more up to the house and so I decided well I don't know fix it just gonna run and get dad and we'll come back and take care of it and so I get to the house now the house that I grew up in had a front door and it had a screen and it was one of those screens maybe you've not seen one but it had a spring on it and when you opened it it would pull itself shut like that but I had been taught to always close the door gently not let it fly back and make a popping noise so I came into the door that day and I opened it up and as I came in let it shut behind me I could hear my mom and dad they were talking just across the living room turned into the kitchen and I could hear that they were in there talking singing at the table and as I began to walk closer I began to hear my dad talking to my mom and what he said was you know honey I'm just so proud of Terry he's really taking the responsibility for learning to drive the tractor and do what I tell him to do and do it like I tell him to do it and he's just growing up to be a such a responsible young man I just feel so happy about that I'll say he didn't know I was there he was saying that just to his wife to my mom but I tell you what I heard him say that and all of a sudden I was filled with oil oil of knowing it didn't matter that my plow was broken I was ham temple and son he was proud of me I tell you I really believe that I could have gone back over that field hooked on to that plow and pulled it myself that's what I'm talking about this morning friends that's what that's the kind of grace that we're being offered here at this table this morning you're you're God's Son you're God's daughter it doesn't matter that your plow might be broken right now it doesn't matter what's going on in your life you may have failed you may have you may be suffering you may be facing a challenge this is a table of grace this is a time to come and be filled with the knowing see that knowing that intimacy that's not head knowledge head knowledge is great the what he's talking about is heart knowledge soul knowledge knowing who you are once you know who you are everything else falls into place so you're invited to come this morning to taste and see that God is good you're invited this wanted to come and say God my cups empty fill me up with that knowing giving all in my lap whatever your need is God's grace is sufficient now I'll just remind you in case you're a guest with us today that this is not a Methodist table but it's a table where you're invited to come all of us everybody to come and to hear that still small voice to hear God whisper into your ear by remembering what God did for us in Jesus Christ we hear that whisper freshen and then make it personal this morning make it personal because truly it is you

Channel: Polk Street United Methodist Church

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Id: PA4qCAba87U

Length: 21min 21sec (1281 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 06 2018