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Village SDA Church

Ron Kelly

Crisis of the Empty Lamp

Lord, our lives are yours, and this morning we're offering them up again as a living sacrifice.

So we're asking now, Lord, that you would establish us.

May we be indeed a light in a dark world.

I'm praying, Lord, that you'd make us fragrant.

Bless Elder Bradshaw as he breaks the bread of life again this evening with Hope Awakens.

We pray for all their light gatherings around the globe, especially right now in this hemisphere.

We're asking, Lord, that your spirit would be near to each of us and how we're gathered to all of us.

We put our lives in your hands now in Jesus name, amen.

When I was a teenager after giving my heart to Christ I found myself loving the fellowship of God's people.

I didn't realize how much of a love of the outdoors I had in my heart.

I grew up in a little suburb, you could say, of Peoria, Illinois, on a little quarter acre piece of property.

But I joined the Pathfinder Club, and in that experience, I began acquiring confidence to be in the out of doors.

The problem was, was that 1 night, my mom and dad dropped me off at the Pathfinder Club, and we enjoyed our pre-Pathfinder Club meetings, or I should say socializing.

And then the end of the meeting came, and we enjoyed our Post-Pass Finder Club socializing.

And then 1 by 1, all of my friends' parents started pulling up and taking them away.

And I can remember as person by person left where it was only my sister and I.

Now, you have to remember, this has been some 40 years ago, and I did not have the perspective of a parent back then.

You know, the Bible says, Can a mother forget her nursing child?

They may forget, but I won't forget." Now, in my mind at that point in time, I thought it was actually possible that my parents had forgotten me, that I would be spending the night there under the awnings of the Knoxville Avenue Church in Peoria, Illinois, shivering through the cold and worried about what things might come creeping out of the shadows.

I didn't think for a moment that they were on their way anytime soon.

It was in the pre-cellular days, so I had no way of calling up and saying, hey, mom, where are you?

And I thought to myself, I'm going to be totally abandoned here.

Well, fortunately, it's not easy for a parent to forget their child.

And 1 of the staff members lingered behind long enough, but I still remember to where it lingers as a fresh memory in my mind.

I can see the entrance to that church, and that's where a light was.

And I just, when that red Ford pulled up and we got in the car.

I don't think I remonstrated with my father or my mother, but I'll tell you what, being with the ones I felt close to, being secure and cared for, meant a lot to me.

Now, we know there's a famous series of books with that title, and they're built around the teaching of the secret rapture.

And this morning, I'd like to make sure we understand how deadly and dangerous that subject matter is.

The secret rapture is a new theological construct that was developed within the last hundred years or so, and it's built around a wrong understanding of a prophecy in Daniel chapter 9, that somehow God's gonna come take his people away at the beginning of 7 years of tribulation, which the Bible does not talk about, by the way, and at the end of those 7 years all the rest are going to get on board.

So if you're not on for the first trip, you can get on the second trip.

And it's a fatal lulling to sleep of God's people's prerogative to know Him and those who don't know Him to be told they can.

And the idea that somehow God whisking all the faithful ones away and startling and waking up everybody else is not in the scripture.

If you've ever been abandoned, if you've ever been rejected, if you've ever been scorned and sat on a shelf and not knowing where your securities come from, it's a terrible, terrible feeling.

Now, this morning, my message is entitled, The Crisis of the Empty Lamp.

And I want you to think about this in light of a parable that is a response to the signs of the times.

Jesus sat on the Mount of Olivet, looking at the temple, and his disciples said, what a magnificent sight.

The day is coming when it won't be there.

The apostles asked a question that was really 2 questions in 1.

They didn't understand that the sign of the destruction of Jerusalem and the signs of the coming of Christ would represent 2 events, but they asked for and were delivered, yea, we were delivered a knowledge of what these signs would be.

Now it is not my subject matter this morning to look at all the signs, but I want you to show the response to the signs, which are what the 3 parables of Matthew 25 are about.

Take your Bibles and open them to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 24.

And what I want to do today is I want to remind you that while we are secure in a relationship with Jesus Christ, there is a readiness for life eternal, and there is a readiness that the world ought to have for the coming of Christ, and there's a role that we are to play.

Now, just because my life is hidden Christ doesn't mean the journey with Christ is over.

I am to have assurance that I'm a child of God.

Growing up, I was a troublesome child at times, but my parents did not disown me in the midst of my perfidy, in the midst of my rebellion at times.

I always remained a child of Ron and Jettie Ketley.

Their love remained constant for me, and I had the security that I belonged, even when I didn't really behave properly.

God wants His children to have that same sense of security.

But my parents' job, like the job of our Heavenly Father, was to get me ready for a different experience.

The experience my parents got me ready for was adulthood.

To be a happy and faithful husband, to be a productive citizen.

The role that Christ is getting us ready for is to be an ambassador throughout all the universe and all time.

Christ is readying us to live in His home, representing Him in the celestial universe, and there is a readiness for that work.

My life is hidden Christ when I receive Him.

I'm as saved in that relationship as I'll ever be.

And yet each day is a journey with his spirit in which I grow and my readiness and capacity to represent him more fully is growing too.

So getting ready to meet Jesus for some is a statement of fear and trepidation.

That's not my intent, it was never Jesus.

But if my affections are for the world, and someone talks about Jesus, and I experience a type of spiritual uncertainty, then let me take that to Jesus and ask Him why.

And if you need help, come to a pastor, call 1 of our chaplains, and let's talk about why the coming of Jesus and getting ready for Him, ready to meet Him, would create stress in your heart and mind.

Christ came to give us assurance that we could know that we have eternal life according to John in his little epistles.

And this morning I want everything I say to be inside the same context.

But if you don't have assurance in Christ, let's give our hearts to Jesus, receive it, and do what He says to do.

Matthew 24 verse 42, He says, Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know what day your Lord is coming.

But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

For this reason you must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour when you do not think he will." Matthew 24 is a descriptor of how we can know when the time is near.

Matthew 25 is how to wait while we're looking for the day.

Now the good news about Matthew chapter 25, especially the first parable, is it's really a story of celebration.

The bad news about Matthew 25 is that, especially the first 13 verses, is that not everybody is going to participate in the celebration.

I'm here today as an ambassador of Christ to make certain that you don't miss out on the celebration that's coming, the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Matthew chapter 25, verse 1, we want to avoid the crisis of the empty lamp.

Then the kingdom of heaven, verse 1, Matthew 25, will be comparable to 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

5 of them were foolish and 5 were prudent.

For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.

Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.

But at midnight there was a shout, Behold, the bridegroom, come out to meet him.

Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.

The foolish said to the prudent, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.

But the prudent answered, No, there won't be enough for us and for you.

Go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.

While they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut.

Later the other virgins also came, saying, Lord, Lord, open for us.

But he answered, Truly I say unto you, I do not know you.

Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.

Now that sounds an awful lot like the use of the word alert 2 times in Matthew 24 from the 3 verses we read.

Now, if something exciting is gonna happen and it's positive and someone tells me pay attention because you don't wanna miss out, I'm not waiting in stress in a form of spiritual neuroses where I'm uncertain about what's going to happen.

I'm waiting in anticipation of something good.

And by the way, seeing Jesus should be the best thing that could happen to us.

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Crisis of the Empty Lamp

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