If not, I invite you to turn with me to the 25th chapter of the book of Matthew, Matthew's gospel in the 25th chapter. Jesus is entered into Jerusalem here. This is the week before his crucifixion. It's a couple of days before he had observed the Passover with his disciples. And he has been doing a number of teaching and has really been active throughout this week and the things that he was sharing with his disciples. And at the end of the 23rd chapter, it tells us how Christ had mourned over Jerusalem, after which he had went out and he had parted from the temple and his disciples that came to him were showing him all of the buildings of the temple. And Jesus begins to tell them that all these things are going to be torn down. He was speaking of the abomination of desolation. And so he was telling them of all the things that are that they were consistently seeing and it's expected that they would always be Jesus began to illustrate to them how that was not so, that these things that are will not always be. And He sits down on the Mount of Olives, and His disciples come up to Him, and they seek privately of what the signs of the end of the world would be, and the signs of Jesus' coming. And I love these pictures that we see in the scriptures and the intimacy between Christ and his disciples, between their lack of understanding and their questions that they have for Jesus and Jesus's kindness and compassion as he looked upon the world, as he looked upon his disciples, as he saw this little flock of people, this early church that he had set up and established of its goings And here he is made to begin to speak to them of warning, of an instruction to prepare them, not because there was some sign that they were to look for, as though it would be something that we could identify, like we identify the weather patterns, but instead that their hearts would be protected and ready, knowing that the hour is at hand when the Son of Man indeed will return. And so He told them, He said, let no man deceive you. And He went through and spoke of the things regarding His return and ultimately comes to tell them that no man, not even the angels in heaven, know the time, know the day, know the hour in which Christ would return except for the Father in heaven. That it is the Father's business alone to know when His Son is going to return when all of this is going to be called to an end. We'll hear the trumpet of Gabriel's sound and Jesus will return in like manner as He ascended, descending now on a cloud to receive His people unto Himself. Praise the Lord. We anxiously look forward to and await that day. And what's noteworthy about that is ever since that Jesus ascended unto the Father, His people have believed that that day is at hand. All these 2,000 years now in His church, His people have consistently believed that His coming is imminent. And I want you to know, even though He has tarried all these years, that behold, His coming is still imminent. Jesus is coming back, and He's coming back very soon. It won't be long now. I expect Him to come at any moment. He is merely tarrying because of His long-suffering and the patience of the Father. He merely is waiting not because of some reason that we have deserved of His waiting, but because of His mercy and because of His long-suffering, that He is not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. If we wonder why Jesus has delayed this long, it's so that more lost people can be saved. So lost friends today, I want to encourage you to recognize that the reason that this world continues to go around, the reason that you continue to have breath filling your lungs this morning is by the mercy of God that you can be spared from everlasting judgment, that you can be saved. It is by the mercies of God that you've not been consumed already today. Behold, His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. And so seeing that He has remained faithful all of these years, it is dependent upon us, of His people, of His church, to live in a state of preparedness and in a state of readiness for His coming. And so I want to look at that today in this 25th chapter. from the book of Matthew, because Jesus, having explained this to his disciples, having instructed them concerning his return and that his return is imminent, and that no man knows the time, no man knows the day, nor the hour, not even the angels, no, only the Father in heaven, he begins to teach them in these parables concerning that they, as his people, they as his church, would be ready for his return. Now, oftentimes, these parables in the 25th chapter of the book of Matthew, they are given as a message to the lost. But I want you to know, when Jesus gave these parables, He was giving them to His disciples. They are teaching for the church. And so when we read this today of this parable of the ten virgins, though certainly it should awaken you from your sleep, my dear lost friend, of concerning the state of your soul, knowing that the hour is at hand when Jesus will come back. And I want to make it very clear today, lost friend, when Jesus comes back, that's it. You don't have some opportunity after that where there might be some exception made for you or you'd have a little bit more time for things to be made right. No one's going to have pity or compassion upon you and say, well, you don't understand this thing and that thing and the other thing prevented me from being saved. So if you could just give me five minutes, Lord, I'll make things right. You're not going to have that. All the compassion, all the mercy that you need to be saved, it's extended to you already. The only issue at hand that is preventing you, my lost friend, from being saved is you. It's a you problem, not a God problem. God's done everything needed for you to be saved. He's waiting only for you to turn to him in full faith and repentance and believing on the name of Jesus Christ. And when you do that, that quick, You'll go from death unto life. You'll go from darkness into light. You'll know that God has saved you and that He has saved you absolutely. I believe in a no-soul salvation, an experimental knowledge of the saving power of God. Experimental, not in the way that we do science experiments to see what turns out. Experimental, meaning that you experience it for yourself, where you know that you know that you know that you have been changed completely, that your internal nature, your constitution spiritually as a person, it's not the same anymore. You've been made a new creature in Jesus Christ. I believe in that salvation. And if you're holding on to any other salvation by any other name, it ain't going to do. That's the salvation of the Scriptures. That's the same salvation that Nicodemus had inquired upon, and I believe ultimately found when he came unto Jesus Christ by night, being a member of the Sanhedrin, being a well-respected member of the Jews. He came to Jesus trying to understand all of his teachings. Don't you remember what Jesus said to him? He said, marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born again. Lost friend, if you're going to be saved, you must be born again. made a new creature, wrought anew in Christ Jesus. And so, lost friend, as much as my heart is towards you, as much as my thoughts want to preach just gospel to you, until it is that you are able to work out your salvation before the Lord, behold, I am compelled this morning to encourage us as a church that we would have a state of readiness about us. Let's read here in Matthew 25. We're going to read the first 13 verses in this parable of the ten virgins. Jesus speaks, and he says, Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. And while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes. Go you out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said unto the wise, Give us your oil, for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, but go you rather to them that sell, and to buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgin, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. And so we'll stop right there. That is the parable of the 10 virgins as taught by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jewish wedding custom had some curious elements that are quite different than ours, and we understand this through the teachings of Scripture as well as through our historical understanding of of the time in which Jesus lived and the Jewish customs during the day. And one thing that was noteworthy about their marriage is that they had what was known as this betrothal period. In fact, we read of how Joseph and Mary, the earthly parents of Jesus Christ, how it was that they were espoused, but they were not yet married. They were betrothed to one another, but they hadn't married each other yet. We understand that through the scriptures. We understand that through the other places where we see even Paul writing concerning the church, how we are betrothed unto the Lord as a bride for her husband. And so we understand a little bit about that, that this betrothal period, it was unique amongst the Jewish customs because what it was was a signifying in which there was a covenant already made, a ceremony already had taken place in which this man and this woman have pledged to one another to marry, but the marriage had not yet been consummated. It was not yet full. Instead, for some season, the man would return home to prepare a place for his wife. So he would go and make preparations for his wife to come and to live in his home. And after those preparations were made, he would return to get his bride. to return, to take into her as his wife, that she might come and dwell with him and be his companion. And so what took place during that betrothal period is that the bride was preparing herself for her husband. And according to Jewish tradition, you can go and read about this in the book of Ruth, of 10 witnesses. It was oftentimes that there would be these 10, in this case we'd call them maids of honors, or these 10 bridesmaids as we would think about it, who would serve as witnesses to that marriage, who would be with this young lady as she was waiting the return of her groom to come. And so they'd be preparing with her, watching and waiting for the bridegroom to come. And so when the bridegroom would come, they would go out to announce him coming and to a make way for him to come. Oftentimes it was done in the evening and so when Jesus teaching this about their lambs it was a real understanding of what that looked like where these bridesmaids would go out to light the way for the bridegroom to come with great circumstance and pomp to come and to meet his wife where they would then follow him into the marriage supper. So all of this was familiar teaching and I should have said this earlier. When we talk about parables, what we are seeing Jesus do is he's taking real world examples and giving them biblical meaning to help us understand things of his doctrine, of things of teaching, that we might understand them in a better sense. And so When He's using this parable, I don't want you to think that even though it's kind of unfamiliar to us, that it's not some example that we should be able to understand according to the day and age in which He was giving it. This would have been a familiar thing, this parable of the ten virgins, for the disciples to hear. They would have said, oh, okay, I begin to understand what you're talking about, Jesus, concerning this parable of these young ladies who would have went out with their lamps to light the way for the bridegroom to come and take his wife. Isn't that cool? Can't you just begin to picture that and what that might look like? And I'll tell you this, I've shared with you before of how I read the scriptures, I begin to get a picture of these things in my brain and it's probably not always accurate. And I know for sure this isn't accurate because my brain's not able to go all the way back to what houses might have looked like in the first century. They can only go back so far as maybe the late 1700s or early 1800s. So I like to picture a colonial house with lamps going out in front of it, and that's probably not right. But I want you to begin to understand what's actually taking place here so that we ourselves as a church can understand the instruction to us. that there's a reason and a purpose that Jesus was giving this teaching to his disciples, that they would be prepared and ready and watching for his return. He was putting them and calling them to a state of preparedness and a state of readiness. And he was doing so by saying, you know how those bridesmaids wait? for the bridegroom to come, that they might announce and enlighten his path as he comes to receive his bride. So should my church be watching and waiting for my return to get my bride. We'll talk about that here in a moment. But this context here is a bride anxiously awaiting the coming of her groom with her maidens or her bridesmaids with her. And so there's an expectation of the return of Jesus Christ. And it's imminent, and it's not too long until it is that He will come. Now there's one other thing that we need to understand for us when it comes to understanding the context of this parable, and it's something that I already made mention of, and that is that we, the church, are presented in the scriptures as the Bride of Christ. In fact, you will see this in multiple places that's not limited only to the New Testament. You can go back even to the Old Testament and see this imagery of the prophetic church, the church in prophecy, before being established in the life of Jesus Christ here on earth, that there was prophesied of how, and you can even read this in different places, of the accounts that we see in the Old Testament that are pictures of this, of how Jesus would come and receive his bride, the church, unto himself. In fact, we see in the scriptures in 2 Corinthians, we see Paul teaching that we are betrothed as a church to the husband, Jesus Christ, with the desire that we be presented to him as a pure virgin. that we would be prepared and pure and beautiful in the sight of our groom who is coming to receive us unto himself. We see in the book of Revelations about the marriage supper of the Lamb. We see again and again this context. We see Paul in teaching the Ephesians concerning the love that a man would have for his wife, and he gives it as an example of Jesus Christ and his love for the church. We see scripture using this as a picture between us and Christ as a church. And so I want you to see this then not only as a parable teaching us for understanding to be ready, but a parable teaching us that we here are the bride who are awaiting the coming of our groom to receive him unto himself. Now let me say this because I know some of you have heard a lot of doctrine concerning the doctrine of the bride. And I'll just tell you right up front, I hear all these different things and some of it I agree with, some of it I don't. I'm just here to tell you that Jesus Christ loves his church. And she will be presented to him as a bride adorned for her husband. And he will receive her unto himself, and there will indeed be a great marriage supper as it will be in heaven as that coming together is complete between the Lord Jesus and His church. Now, people get caught up in who's in the bride and who's not in the bride and who are the guests and all of these sorts of things. Listen to me. I think when we get caught up in that, we're missing the primary point that is for us as a church to understand. And that is that we would be ready for the coming of the Lord, preparing ourselves as a bride would prepare herself for her husband, that we would be ready for the bridegroom to come. That is the thing that we must understand. And if we get caught up in trying to understand who's the bride or who's a guest or all these sorts of things, I think we're missing the main thing. And the main thing is that we would live in a state of readiness and preparedness for the coming of the Lord Jesus. We must be ready for his coming. Now, you already heard me say that we'd be prepared as a bride who is adorned for her husband, who is prepared for her husband. If you are married, you probably understand that. Do you remember what it was like as a groom to see your bride for the first time and the fullness of that and all the traditions that we have today, whether it be a veil over her face that you would see her for the first time when the veil is lifted at the altar, that there is no veil and so you just see her for the first time when she starts walking down the aisle or that new thing they do these days where there's that first peak or whatever they call it. I don't know, but you probably know better than I do. But all these things that's done to recognize that first seeing of the bride who's prepared herself for her husband. and if you've ever been engaged for very long you know of how that bride is making everything right and ready for that great day of ceremony when she will be able to be called no longer her name as she has been espoused to someone but now given a new name wherein she is found with her husband to be made one flesh as we see this marriage union coming together and so she goes out and she picks the perfect dress and she picks the right colors that fit her fancy concerning the wedding and they pick a venue and all the things that go into all of that that I'm getting PTSD from thinking about from 12 years or 13 years ago now. But you know all of those things, right, that take place in a wedding. and how careful we are to celebrate this moment of life that sees these two people coming together. How much more so then must we as a church be careful about seeing that we are prepared and ready for our groom to come? He's coming. He's coming to receive us unto himself in the call is for us to be ready. Now, there's a teaching there for the church, and I don't want to stray too far into it, because there's also a teaching here for us individually, but it's actually the primary teaching within this parable. And the reason why is that the parable here focuses not so much on the bride as it focuses on the maids, the maids of honor, as we would often call it, but here the bridesmaids, these ten virgins. And Jesus calls five of them foolish, and he calls five of them wise. And the difference that he gives us in denoting the five foolish and the five wise is that the five foolish are those who took their lamps but did not bring an extra vat of oil for them. And he calls the five wise as those who took their lamps and also brought another vessel of oil that they might be kept lit. these ten bridesmaids, these ten virgins, they go and they are waiting and looking for the coming of the bridesgroom because they've heard that he's on his way. And for whatever reason, he's made to tarry and it's taking him a bit longer to get there than they had expected. And so they begin to get sleepy. It says that they began to slumber and to sleep. Other translations will state that as they began to get drowsy. and then to sleep, but it says that all ten of them fell asleep. So the wisdom versus the foolishness of these brides was not concerning whether or not they were able to stay awake. It says they all fell asleep, that there was a commonality amongst them, that they all began to get tired and waiting for the Lord to come and waiting for the bridegroom to come, and so they slept. And then at midnight, there was a cry made that said, behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out to meet him. Now there is clearly an example here for us as a church in this teaching, for us as Christians living today in 2024, that behold, we even in our utmost wisdom concerning the coming of the Lord, we also at times will grow tired and drowsy and we will fall asleep to the things that are going on around us. And we must awaken to recognize that behold, the time is complete and the hour is at hand and that Jesus is coming back. And we must awaken to what's going on around about us and that we are not turning a blind eye to the situations that would draw us and compel us that we might become more determined in our hearts to make ready the preparations of the coming of Christ. Now you heard me last week when we were talking about the unbothered church, that when we hear these things in society, they should not cause us to wring our hands or to doubt or to worry. And I stand on that today. But I do want you to know what they should cause in us is a deeper desire to prepare for the coming of the Lord. That we would orient ourselves in knowing that Jesus is coming back. And when we see around us a society that seems to be deconstructing all around us and decaying, that behold, we would see that as evidence that behold, the day is quickly coming when Jesus is going to come back. I'm satisfied that Jesus is coming back very soon. I just don't think it's going to be too much longer. And I could be wrong. You know how I know I could be wrong? Because Jesus says no man knows the hour, neither the day. I'm sure I'm wrong. But I know it's not going to be too much longer, whether that's in how we measure time or merely in how God measures time, which are very different. I want you to know it's not going to be I'll just tell you how much I believe this. There are some times when I'm outside working or something and I'll hear a noise. I just glance to the sky. Lord, is that you? I don't know what Gabriel's trumpet's going to sound like. And so sometimes when I hear something that startles me, I just think, I wonder if that's him. I say, Derek, that's foolish. I'm just telling you guys, I believe Jesus is coming back. I'm convinced of it in the deepest parts of my mind and the deepest parts of my soul. Jesus is going to be returning very soon. And I want you to know I'm anxiously awaiting his return. I don't know if you've ever been looking ahead to something and you're waiting for maybe some special visitor or some special guest to arrive, but if you're like my children waiting for their grandparents to come and visit with us, they're looking out the window and they're tracking them on GPS and these sorts of things, waiting for them to come. And they get so excited, they're running around, they're thrilled to death because that guest that they were waiting on is here. How much more so should we be watching and expecting with great anxiousness the return of the Lord? I mean, listen, I wish I had a GPS tracker on it. Waiting for the coming of our Lord. I mean, I just get beside myself thinking about. I get to see Jesus. Oh, that he would come back now. Listen, if he comes back right now, I'm satisfied, y'all. No regrets. Let's go. Here he is. Take us home, Lord Jesus. Lost soul, the only pity would be for you. And that's why he's not come back yet. But I want you to know when he comes back, my concern is not going to be you anymore. I won't have to preach anymore. All worry will be gone. We'll just enter into joy and peace before the presence of God amidst His perfection and the glory of His light for all of eternity. Now you might understand why I just look forward. I can't wait. I cannot wait. But While we're tearing, looking forward to it and being anxious about it and not being able to wait for it's one thing, but we're told to prepare for it. And so we must not be likened to these foolish bridesmaids, but likened to the wise. What happened, they all had their lanterns, they all had their lamps burning when they fell asleep. But what happened is because they fell asleep when they woke up, their lamps had all gone out. Now that was okay because they wanted to trim their lamps to make them burn as brightly as possible for the bridegroom as he came to receive the bride. And so that was okay if they had all went out. That wasn't the issue. The issue is that those five foolish virgins, those five foolish bridesmaids, they didn't have oil to refill their lamps that they might be able to go out to meet the bridegroom as he came to receive the bride. And so they asked for these five wise virgins. They said, give to us that we might have some too. And the five wise said, hey, we can't do that. We're not going to have enough for ourselves. Hurry, go somewhere where you can buy some before he comes. Now we need to talk about who these five wise virgins are and who these five foolish virgins are. Because I want you to know that it's necessary for us to understand the both of them. The five wise virgins are those who are truly saved, those who are found certain in their faithfulness of the Lord. They are true, genuine servants of the Most High God. These five foolish virgins, they are hypocrites. They are those who would have some form of godliness, but would have nothing that is lasting within them. They would have no sure assurance of salvation. They would have a face of Christianity, but they would only be at the surface. It would not be grounded in the good dirt. It would be likened to those who had planted upon the rocky ground where there was not able to take hold of anything, and instead it would be burnt right up. These were those who were false converts and hypocrites compared to the five wives. They had a form in that they had a lantern, but when the lantern went out, they had nothing that was lasting within it that would keep the flame alive. They were hypocrites. They were foolish. They were not true and genuine converts. And so what happened was that when they went out to buy for their lanterns that had gone out because they did not have that oil that would last for the coming of the bridegroom, behold, while they were out to buy, behold, the bridegroom had came and he had taken in the bridesmaids in to receive his wife into the marriage supper and the door was shut. And so that when these five foolish virgins came that they might take part in this marriage feast, behold, they knocked on the door and said, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Bailey, I say unto you, I knew you not. You weren't here when I came. You were not making ready for me that when I came that there would be that which would triumph or would mark my entrance, not there would be that which would light my path as I came to receive my bride unto myself and you were not here. I don't know who you are. You are a stranger to me for you were not found where you were purposed to be. Because in your foolishness, in your full heartiness, behold, you had not made the right preparations for the bridegroom to come. So he said, I know you not. You have knocked at the door, but I do not know whether or not you are truly, indeed, one who knows the bridegroom. And so he said to part. I know you not. And then Jesus concludes and he says, Watch therefore, for you do not know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh. We are to live in a state of readiness. You have heard it spoken before, the teachings of Jesus Christ, where he instructs us that we're not to be concerned only with the appearance of the outside of the cup, but the cup must also be washed within us. And he's speaking to the reality that true conversion is beauty on the inside. Did you know that? That's how God has made us and has purposed us. His desire for the church is that we would be plain on the outside and beautiful on the inside. Isn't that cool? That's how he's designed us to be individually. Plain on the outside and beautiful on the inside. We're not to be those that would go about fashioning themselves according to the world's standards that we might make a show of ourselves. But instead, we are to fashion ourselves in a way that would reflect the true beauty that is within us, that which Jesus has made beautiful. You see, there are many who spend all sorts of money trying to make the outside appearance beautiful. But that which Jesus cleanses internally, it is made beautiful without cost through the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's far better. Isn't that cool? And so that is the concern that he has for us, is that we would not be these whitewashed sepulchers or these cups that are polished only on the outside. but that our readiness would be seen as being ready within us, that we have made preparations for the coming of the Bridegroom. Obviously, we are entering into a week of revival, and we have encouraged us to make right preparations for that in prayer and in supplication before the Lord and devoting ourselves to His service and all of these preparations that are made for this special effort meeting. But the teaching of Christ here was not preceding a revival. It was not preceding some time that would be some limited course of action in which he would tell his disciples to be ready. In fact, it was a much more severe moment of history. He's giving this teaching to the disciples just days before he'd be uplifted on the cross at Calvary. Just days before. He would have been scourged and mocked and put to death just days before He would defeat death in His resurrection. He was teaching this just before, just a few weeks before He would go away to the Father and leave His disciples to go and evangelize the world. And so when he's giving this teaching to them, it is that it would take deep root, that they would be ready, not just for a moment of time when they would face some intense persecution, but they would be ready always, hastening and awaiting the return of the Lord. Let's talk about that word for a second as we start to close. That word, hastening. It's not a word we use very much anymore. In fact, I think the only time I ever hear it is in a sermon. So what's it mean to hasten something? It means to make it happen more quickly. That's Derrick's 2024 definition anyway. It's to hurry it up. To make it faster. And that should be the nature and attitude of the Lord concerning the return of Jesus Christ. that we should have an attitude, Jesus, hurry up and come back. Now that can only happen if we're ready for his return. We can't have that attitude while it is that we're busy, concerned with everything else. You know, when I'm running late for something, you know what makes me the happiest? When my wife is running late too. You know why that makes me the happiest? Because I'm not to blame for us being late. I passed the buck, right? Let us not have that same attitude as a church and saying, hey, actually, Lord, if you could take a little longer because we have more to do, we're not where we need to be. We've not done the things that you've called us to do. We just need a little longer first that we might go and take care of this other thing. Then we can get to that and then you can come. You know what Jesus said to that man who he called to follow him? He said that he had to return first to bury his father. You know what Jesus said to him? He said, go your way and let the dead bury their dead. When Jesus calls us to follow him, it is an absolute calling on our lives to follow Jesus. It is not an exceptional calling wherein we can make certain exceptions of when and where and how and why we follow him. It's not that we might be able to make substitutions according to our conveniences or find replacements when we don't want to do the job or only pick and choose what we want to do in his service. That's not the calling that we received. We've received the absolute calling to follow Jesus Christ wherever he would lead us. If you've been saved by God's grace, you have inherited that calling. Sometimes I think we just kind of wipe our hands of that and say, well, that's just the preachers that got to worry about that. No, it has been received by all of us. What I have found in that calling is that there is an exceptional few who are actually willing to submit themselves to that calling. I think of the near sister from Missouri who just upended her life to go to Africa to teach in a school, in a place where she was the foreigner, where she didn't understand the language, didn't look like the people, but her heart was burning within her according to the call of the Lord to go. Not a minister, not a preacher. but a saint of God who had inherited His calling to follow Him wherever He goes. Let me say this, whatever calling God has placed on your life, if you have not surrendered yourself to His calling, I want you to know you are living in abandonment of His calling, you are living in rebellion to Him, and you need to repent of that and surrender yourself to the calling that He has placed on your life. And if you do not do that, woe unto you. There's a warning that is given unto you if you are living away and against the calling that God has placed on your life. Be careful. Surrender and submit yourself to the calling of God. Now, why is all this matter? I told you we were starting to close. Well, why is it necessary for us to live according to this way that we would even hasten the day? In the book of Revelation, as John is beginning to conclude the revelation, or I should say as Jesus is beginning to conclude His revelation to John that He gave him there on the Isle of Patmos, He begins to show this consummation of this marriage between the Lamb and the Bride. And He brings them together in this marriage supper. And then it begins to conclude, and he is writing as things end in this revelation of the return of the Lamb, of the return of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 22, verse 17, it says this, The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who is thirsty come. And let the one who wishes to take the water of life without cost. the spirit and the bride say come and then john writing says in verse 20 he who testifies to these things says yes i am coming quickly and john concludes amen come lord jesus we have been called to make preparations in which we are able to say just the same, where we say, come, Lord Jesus, and hasten your coming, that behold, you will come and receive victory unto yourself, and that you might be championed as the savior of the world. Or as the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 62 verse 5, it says, for as a young man marries a virgin, so your sons will marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So your God will rejoice over you. It has delighted the Father to give the church as a bride to His Son. And the bridegroom is coming. And we, His people, we as Christians, we as His church, have been called to live in a state of preparation and in a state of readiness, not merely looking forward to or expecting his coming, but hastening it along where we say with John the Revelator, even so come Lord Jesus. Let's be a church waiting for the Lord. Let's be a church expecting his coming. Let's be a church ready for his coming that is making preparations with our lamps ready to light the way for the return of the Lord. I don't know if you've ever driven by an airport late at night. If you've ever been down to Columbus, I used to go and go down to Brother John's house when they were living down in Columbus. The route that I would take would take me right by Columbus's airport. And I don't know if you've ever been by an airport late at night, but that thing's lit up like the 4th of July. There's all sorts of beacons and lights to mark the airport. And then on the runway, there are lights down each side to illuminate the path for those planes who are coming in at night to be able to land. our light should shine just the same, illuminating that, behold, the Lord is coming, and He's coming back soon, and here He is coming back to take His church unto Himself. And here are the lights to light the way for the coming of the Lord. And these lights then burn brightly as beacons to a lost and dying world, saying to ready yourselves, for behold, the Lord is coming back, and herein is His house, wherein you can come and you can find safe harbor for your souls to hear the light and see the light of his glorious gospel, that you too, lost sinner, might be ready for his return. So let us then make ready, make straight and prepare the way of the Lord by letting our light shine brightly against the darkness of this world. I'm ready. I'm ready for revival. I'm ready to worship the Lord. I'm ready for him to come back and really worship the Lord. I'm hastening his return and I hope you are too. Thank you for listening to me. May the Lord bless his message. Something on your heart. God wants you to say or do.