But we got BGMC showcase going on today, and I love BGMC showcase. One of my two of my favorite Sundays of the year are BGMC showcase and speed the light showcase because I just love when our students get the hard emissions. And so if you don't know what BGMC showcase is, what is going on is our kids are raising money for missions. And so they've been sacrificing their time and their efforts to be able to make these things, to sell them, to be able to watch this, has got help, some raise the money to be able to give for people in need.
And it's just something cool that happens on here at the church. But I was out there before and I was looking through everything. I'm like, oh man, it worked out perfectly because one thing I love to put the towel on my hands to make them not dry and I walk out there. I ran out like two days ago and I walk out there and I'm like, y'all knew it.
Like you just knew I ran out. And so I got some towel, it was perfect. It was money, but man, I'm super excited to be able to be here with you guys or to be able to share what I believe got to put on my heart today. You guys are stuck with me today because my mom and my dad are both in Africa.
My dad's in South Africa on a trip with some guys from the church and my mom is in Kenya with some people. And so today I'm sharing a message that I believe God has been placing on my heart for a while. This is something that I believe that that man for months, God has been stirring inside of me just this message and what I believe is today God's gonna do something pretty cool. But the title of my message today is ready or not?
Ready or not? You see me my sisters growing up, my sister, both my sisters, we lived in cold spring and my grandparents, they lived in the cities. And so what we do is we oftentimes go down to the cities to hang out with my grandparents, we oftentimes go down to stay at their house and my grandpa, he was the kind of guy where it was like everything that like if it made us happy he wanted to do it. And so it was like days where we come down and be like, man, Makaya, I want to make Donald's but me and Ken, I want to Chipotle.
And so we go to McDonald's first and then go to Chipotle. So we don't have what you want. And he was the kind of grandpa that just wanted us all to be happy, you want us all to have our way. And one of the things that me and my sisters love is we love to play hide and seek.
We love to play hide and seek in my grandpa. So we oftentimes come running in the door and we be like, hey, grandpa, like you want to play hide and seek with us? Like you want to play and seek? And you always say, yeah.
And so we, uh, we play and seek. But I remember going up, I always want to get the best hiding spot. Like any of them know what I mean. Like you want to have the best hiding spot every time.
It's like you got to find a new spot because he knows all the old spots. And so every time you're trying to find the best spot that they're not, you're not going to get found. And so I remember I'm going out and I'm often times looking through the house trying to find the best spot. But what would happen is I would spend so much time trying to find the best spot that by the time my grandpa came to look for us, I don't know.
I'd be like, hold up, I need 30, 30 more seconds. But because of that, I'd be the first one caught. I'd be the first one found because I wasn't ready when I was supposed to be because you get done counting in yellow. Ready or not?
Here I come. And you see today, what I believe is I believe God's placed on my heart to share with you that you and I, we need to get ready. We need to get ready because Jesus is coming back and he's not coming back for the most gifted. He's not coming back for the best preacher.
He's not coming back for those in ministry. He's not coming back for those with the most money. He's not coming back for those who are good people. He's coming back for a bride.
And whether we're ready or not, Jesus is coming back. And I believe that God, it wants us as a church to remember that we need to be ready for the day of his return that we need to be ready. And today, I might say some things that make you guys feel a little bit uncomfortable. I might challenge you guys in some ways that you don't necessarily want to be challenged in.
I might challenge you guys in some ways that might make you feel a little bit uncomfortable in the moment. I might step on your toes a little bit today because I believe God has burdened me with this passion and this desire to make sure as a church we are ready because whether we're ready or not, he's coming back and he's coming back for a bride. If you have your Bibles, you can open up with me to Matthew chapter 25. We're going to be looking at verses 1-13.
While you open up your Bibles, I'm going to be really quick. I'm going to give you a little bit of context of what's going on here. So in the story, it's called the parable of the 10 virgins. And what the virgins represent in this story is they represent bridesmaids.
And so it's a story talking about the wedding period and what would happen during that time back in Jewish culture. And so what oftentimes happens is the two dads, the dad of the bride and the dad of the groom. What they would do is they come together and they make an agreement for the marriage. And then there was, that was called the engagement.
And then there was the betrathal. And the betrathal, what happened when that took place is there was a ceremony that was held where there was mutual agreements made. And then the last thing that would happen is after the betrathal, the groom would go out. And what he would do is he would prepare a place for his wife, future wife, to then come and stay.
So he'd build a house so that way when they get married, they could have a place to stay. And that process took usually about a year long. And so he'd go out and he'd come back then at an unexpected time when he got the house finished. He'd come back and when he'd come back, the wedding ceremony would then take place where they would end up getting married.
But while that all happened, while it all happens, there's bridesmaids. And what the bridesmaids would do, they had to be like really committed to this. They had to be really committed to this whole process. What they would do is they would stay and they would make sure that the bride is prepared for the day that the groom comes back.
And so they would stay with the bride and they would be waiting for the groom to come back. And one of the things that the bridesmaids had to do was they had to make sure that they had oil because they had lamps that looked a little bit like this, not quite like this, but a little bit like this. And it needed oil to be able to run. And so they took their lamps and what they do is they take their lamps and they made sure that they had oil because the bridegroom would often come back at a time that was unexpected.
And so when the groom would come back, they would need to have their lamps to be able to last through the whole ceremony, because the ceremony took a while. Like it took a long time. And so they needed light to be able to celebrate throughout the night. And so that's kind of where we pick up here in Matthew chapter 25.
In Matthew chapter 24, we see as Jesus is talking about the end times and the day he comes back. And then that's where we pick up in Matthew 25, where Jesus now tells a parable, explaining to us about the day when he comes back, it reads, at that time the kingdom heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the brag room, five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps, but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones however, took oil in the jars along with their lamps.
The brag room was a long time coming and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, a cry ring out. At midnight, a cry ring out. Here's the brag room, come to meet them.
Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, give us some of your oil, our lamps are going out. No, they replied. There may not be enough oil.
There may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves. But while they were on their way to buy oil, the brag room arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet and the door was shut.
Later, the others also came. Lord, Lord, they said, open the door for us. But he replied, truly, I tell you, I do not know you. Therefore, keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour.
Therefore, keep watch. God, we just pray that today, you help us at the church to get ready. You help us at the church to be people who are ready for the day that you return. You help us to be people that are long from one of you.
God, you help us to be people that don't just look ready, but actually live ready. God, we just ask that today, you have your way. May your words be on my lips this morning. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. Amen. Amen, today. The main point, like the big idea of the whole message this morning is get ready because the cost of failing to do so, it's not worth it.
Get ready. Because the cost of failing to do so, it's not worth it. You see in this moment, the bride, the bridesmaids, what they had is they all had lamps and they all walked around with their lamps and they all walked around looking like they were ready. You wanna know what's crazy about this story?
Is the five that didn't make it in? Before they didn't make it in, they expected to make it in to the wedding. They expected to get in. They were at everything that they need to be at before.
They were at the engagement. They were at the be truffle. They were at all that they needed to be at and they were ready for the wedding. They thought that they were gonna go in.
They just didn't have any oil. And you see my fear is that many of us in the church today are walking around because you see here's the thing. This parable wasn't for the unbelievers. This parable wasn't for people who aren't following Jesus, but this parable is for the church.
Why? Because there's so many people in the church who are walking around holding up their lamps, holding up the things, going to everything that they need to be at, going to the church services, going to the Bible studies, doing everything that they need to do, thinking that's what's saving them. But yet they have no oil in their lamps so their lamps aren't really lit. You see my fear is that in the church today, we have a bunch of people walking around, holding up their lamps.
We have a bunch of people walking around, holding up their lamps, doing everything that they need to do, looking like they're saved, looking like they're ready. But the reality of it is they have no fruit in their life. They have no oil in their life. And because of it, they won't be ready for the day that Christ returns.
But today I came to preach a message to you because I believe Christ is coming back. He's not coming back for people who have it, look like they have it all together. But he's coming back for a bride. He's coming back for people who have oil in their life.
He's coming back for people who personally just want Jesus. The foolish ones appear to be ready. But they weren't. In verse three through four it says, the foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.
The wise ones however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The foolish ones didn't take any oil but the wise ones didn't. And here's the first thing I have for you guys this morning. You either have oil or you don't.
You see five of them had oil. Five of them didn't. You either got it or you don't. You either want Jesus or you don't.
You either live for him or you don't. There's no middle ground. You see I recently heard this story. It left me really challenged.
It's not my story. I've other people have preached it before but it's a story that really spoke to me. There's a story of this guy who had a dream. The guy was standing in an open field.
And while he was standing in the open field, there was a fence down the middle of the field. On the left side of the field was Jesus with all of his angels. And on the right side was Satan. And he's sitting there and in this moment, Satan's crying out to him.
Satan's calling out to him. He's saying, what are you gonna choose? You gonna choose to live with Jesus? Or you gonna choose to live with me?
Because I got all these things I can give you. I can give you the money. I can give you the wealth. I can give you the things of the world that you've been longing for.
I can give you all this. But in order to do that, you gotta choose me. And the guy's sitting there in this moment and he's thinking about me. What do I do?
I love the things that I'm doing right now. But I know I also want Jesus. And if I want Jesus, I gotta get rid of those things in my life. There was this tension going on inside trying to figure out what he should do.
And so he was sitting there in this moment and what he'd be gonna do is he'd begin to look back at Jesus, look at Satan, he'd be gonna laugh at them both. He said, you know what? I don't need to make a decision. I can stay in the middle.
You see, I can have both. I don't need to make the decision. And right when he said that, everything turned black and Satan came up from the ground and grabbed him. He goes, whoa, wait, wait, wait.
I didn't choose you. I didn't choose to follow you. And Satan said, because you didn't choose Jesus, your mind. Because you didn't choose to follow Jesus.
You can't be with him. And today, what I believe is I believe that as a church, we need to make a decision. Do we want Jesus or do we want the world? Do we want Jesus or do we want our sin?
Do we want Jesus or do we want our comfortability? Because you see, here's the deal. Jesus is coming back and he's coming back for a bride whether we're ready or not. You either have oil or you don't.
What is your choice to make the decision? You see, I was doing some research and I found some stats that I did my best to get the best stats that, what's the word I'm looking for, that are most accurate. And as I'm looking through research and as I'm going through things, I begin to see some things that really disturbed me. 54% of practicing Christians, people in the church struggle with pornography.
41 to 21, or I meant 14 to 21% of people in the church have cheated on their spouse. 80 to 88% have had sex before marriage. 13% get drunk occasionally. 10 to 12% hardly ever read their Bibles.
60 to 65% of churchgoers do not read their Bible every day. 30% attend work every week, which means 70% of practicing Christians don't attend work every week. And that means the 70% that don't, you wanna know what else is crazy, is that the 70% that don't, they only come to church one to two times in every four weeks. As believers, we gotta make a decision.
Do we want Jesus or do we want the world? Do we want Jesus or do we want our sin? Do we want Jesus or do we wanna say, man, I just need the Lord with all that I got. I need him with everything that I owe, we gotta live in our sin.
Because as believers, we gotta make a decision. We can't live on the fence in John 14, verse 15. It says, if you love me, do what? Obey my commands.
If you love me, Jesus says, obey my commands. And the thing that just breaks my heart is I look at the church and I see so many people stuck in sin, not living the way that God has called them to live. And honestly, I'm sick and tired of watching my friends run from Jesus. I'm sick and tired of watching my friends to sin.
I'm sick and tired of watching people come to church every week, but never leaving change. I'm sick and tired of people coming to church, expecting they have it all together, but yeah, living life and sin. I'm sick and tired of the lack of fear in the church, lack of fear of God, lack of reverence for God. I'm sick and tired of watching a whole generation of people, a whole group of people live in the world, while still trying to choose Jesus, because you can't do both.
And my heart breaks, because there'll be many on the day when Jesus returns that are like the five versions you didn't have any oil. There'll be many on the day that Jesus returns, like the five versions who thought they were saved, who thought they had it all together, but yet didn't have any oil in their limbs. Today I'm preaching with some urgency, because time's running out. You either want Jesus or you don't.
You're not promised tomorrow, but we gotta make a decision this day. When you make a decision this day, who we will serve? Are you gonna choose Jesus? Or are you gonna choose the world?
In verse six, through nine, it says, at midnight, the cry ring out. Here's the prygroom, come to meet him. Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, give us some of your oil, our lamps are going out.
No, they replied, there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves. My second thing for you guys this morning is, you can't live off somebody else's oil. You can't live off somebody else's oil.
What can happen a lot of times in the church is people come to church and they hear a pastor get up and preach a message and expect them to be able to survive off that oil. You can't live off somebody else's oil. You can't live off your mom's oil. You can't live off your dad's oil.
You can't live off your grandma's oil. What we gotta do is we need oil for ourselves. We need to desire Jesus for ourselves. You see, I remember when I was in high school, I did PSEL.
And so I had a college through a university and I got dual credits, it was awesome. And I remember I was doing it. When I was going through school, I was doing school. And there was one night where I had this paper to do for my class.
And this paper, I really did not want to do it. But I knew this girl in my class. And so I was like, hey, you writing your paper? And so she's like, yeah, we gotta get in tonight.
And so I'm like, all right, let's do it. So we both started writing our papers together. And I get done with my paper and I'm like, bro, I don't even have enough words yet. Like I still need more words.
And she's looking at her paper and she's like, I'm done. And I'm reading through her paper and I'm like, you know what, your paper is very good. And I saw one of her paragraphs. And I'm like, that's the paragraph that I need.
That's the thing that I'm missing. I'm missing this in my paper. Like if I had this in my paper, it would sum up everything I'm trying to say. And so I did, I took her paragraph.
I copied it and I pasted it in the mind. Thinking nothing of it, thinking, this will just help support my paper. This will be good. And I had it submitted.
I had it submitted for a week, thinking I was good. But then after the week, I got an email from my professor that said, you have 36% plagiarism on your paper. And I'm like, what? I'm like, this is not good.
And he's like, walking me through all these things. Like if it happens again, you're gonna kick that school. I got into zero on the assignment, the biggest assignment of the year. And I'm like, what did I do?
But here's the thing, for a week, I thought I was good. Off of living off of somebody else's paper. And here's the thing that we gotta be careful of as believers. If we're not careful, we can live off somebody's else's oil for a while.
We can live off somebody else's anointing for a while. We can live off somebody else's time spent in the presence of God for a while. But over time, it begins to catch up to us. Over time, it catches up to us to the point where we're living a life that's not really our own.
We're living a life where we're walking in a way that we shouldn't be walking in. It looks good for a while but eventually you get caught. We need to get ready. You wanna know what my fear is?
My fear is so many people come into church living off the pastors' anointing and the pastors' oil. They don't even have a relationship with Jesus for themselves. And my fear is that in the church today, we made the church so comfortable. And we made it so comfortable where people can come in to church and you grab your coffee and you sit down and you hear a message and if the message is a little bit long, you start to get mad.
If the worship's a little bit loud, you complain about it. If the mic's not working how you want, if you're sitting there and not everything's done to the way that you want, we start to get mad. But the thing is, it was never about us. It was never about what we wanted to do.
We thought we don't come to church for ourselves. We come to church because we desperately need more of Jesus. In Mark chapter seven, verse eight. In Mark chapter seven, verse eight, it says you have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to mere and you're holding on to human traditions.
You have let go of the commands of God and we're holding on to human traditions. If we're not careful, we need to get so comfortable coming to church that we don't come to church for God, but we come to church because it's the popular thing to do. We don't come to church because we want Jesus. And my question is, if we took all the chairs out of the room today, how many would be here?
If every week we had to come and we had to sit on the ground and there was no microphone, but I had to talk to you without a microphone, how many of us would still be here today? Because you following Jesus, it was never meant to be comfortable. I was at a church a while back and these pastors begin to say something that struck me and hit me. They went on a missions trip as a youth group and they went over to another country.
And while they're over at this other country, this mission trip was probably two to three years, or probably three to five years ago. And they go over to this other country and as they're over there, they're looking at all these slaves. There's all these slaves that they were working with. And the slaves in this country, it was a Muslim country.
And in this country, you couldn't have Christian slaves. So you couldn't have Muslim slaves. All the slaves were Christian. And so they're sitting there in this moment they're working with the slaves.
And one of these pastors looks over at the slaves. He says, why don't you guys just say that you're not Christian? You can walk out and you can walk out free. You can walk out and you can live your life while still be in a Christian afterwards.
And they look back at them, living a life of slavery. They look back and say, how dare you say that? That's a disgrace to our God. But as I began to listen to that, I was challenged.
Because I was thinking, what would I have done? If I was sitting there, I was living a life of slavery. If I was sitting there, I was stuck in slavery. And all I had to say was that I wasn't a Christian and I could walk free.
What would I have done? What would we do as a church? If we were sitting there in that moment, we had to make the decision. Do we want Jesus or not?
We had to make the decision on what we want to do. What would we do? And that would be going to be challenging that moment because I was reminded, we either want Jesus or we don't. We either live for him or we don't.
It might cost us something. It might cost us our desires. It might cost us our wants. It might cost us our needs.
But the cost is so worth it. Because Jesus is coming back for a bride. Whether we're ready or not. In verse seven through nine, it says, then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones went to the wise and said, give us some of your oil or lamps are going out. No, they replied, there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves. See, you want to know what's interesting about this?
They said no, partly because they needed enough for themselves. The wise ones, they brought extra. And my third point for you tonight or this morning is, you can't live off yesterday's oil. You see, they needed enough to last the whole time.
The problem is what happens in our life is we come to church on Sunday and we expect that oil to last us the rest of the week. We come to church, we go to Bible studies and we expect that to be the thing that lasts us all the way through. But the reality of it is in order to make it tomorrow, you need the presence of God. In order to follow Jesus tomorrow, you need the presence of God because we can't live off oil, but we continually need the fresh anointing.
We continually need fresh presence. We continually need to follow Jesus with all that we have. That's why every day, you want to know I've started doing, I hate the mornings, more than anything. I hate the mornings and I'd rather sleep in, tell new and every day, but you want to know I've been doing, I've been getting up early every morning.
Why? So now I can get into the presence of God and get everything I need to get done before I need to be at work. So I can open up my Bible because I know in order to follow the way they got to call me to do, I desperately need new oil. Every night before I go to bed, I get down on my knees and I ask that God would forgive me for the places that I've sinned and he'd teach me how to repent from the sins that I've committed.
Why? Because I desperately need new oil. I know I can't make it on my own. And if I try, I'm gonna fail.
We desperately need new oil. You see, I think our relationship with our spouse, our relationship with our friends, our relationship with those in our lives look a lot more like our relationship with Jesus than we think. I had this friend in high school, his name was Marcus. Me and Marcus, we were good buddies and Marcus, he was probably my best friend in high school.
He'd come over every day, my parents probably thought he was like the second child because literally he'd come over and hang out even when I wasn't home. And Marcus would come over and he'd hang out and we were really close in high school. Like in fact, sometimes like I remember this one time, I was, we were on vacation as a family and Marcus knew the codes to get into our house and everything and one day Marcus sent me a video on vacation. He's like, bro, I had no food in my fridge.
I need to see what you had. And so he came over and he's eating food out of our fridge in the video on vacation. Like he was my best friend. We were that close where he just felt comfortable to be able to do that.
But after high school ended, he went and I was playing hockey in Colorado. I went and I went to school. Now I'm here at the church and I realize that over time, I stopped communicating with Marcus. And because I stopped communicating with Marcus, I now really know nothing about him.
Because in order for a relationship to be sustainable, in order for a relationship to work, you need to be in communication with each other. I can only so go so long without talking to Marcus and expect to know everything about him. And the same thing goes in our relationship with the Lord. We can only expect to last so long before we run out of oil.
We can only expect to last so long before we knew more of his presence. That's why every single day, we need the presence of the Lord. I love what it says in Psalms 27, 4. What does it say?
This one thing I ask of the Lord. This only do I see that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. You see, I want that to be our desire as a church. I want that to be our desire as Christians.
Where we say, man, this only do I see. This only do I ask God, man, dwell in your house today. God, I want to dwell in the house of the Lord. Tomorrow we wake up, our money morning, we say, God, I want to dwell in your house Tuesday.
We wake up, we say, God, I want to dwell in your house. Because I know I desperately need new oil. We can't live off the fresh and old anointing. There's a song by S.U.
worship. It says, hell's not scared of a Sunday face. Hell's not scared of people that come to church on Sunday, but don't live anything like Jesus the rest of the week. In fact, I think that's where hell would want you.
Because you think you have your life all together. You're like the 10 versions. You have the lamp. I go to church.
I'm good. But yet you're stuck in sin. It says, hell's not scared of a Sunday face. But what really makes darkness run is when the saints arise in praise and choir on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to know you, to love you, to choose you first on Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
You see, this is a thing. Well, we as believers need to make a decision whether we want Jesus or not. In order to want Jesus, we need fresh oil. Your daily decisions, they matter.
It's why in Luke chapter 9, 23, it says, pick up your cross and follow me. Every day, we need to make a decision to pick up our cross daily and choose the Lord. To lay down our wants and our desires. Because you want to know what?
There's a lot of days where I get up and I don't feel like doing what God's called me to do. I don't feel like living the way that God's called me to live. But it was never whether we felt like it or not. It was all about whether or not we're going to be obedient to who God's called us to be.
We desperately need new oil. And now this morning, I know it's kind of felt like I've been coming at you a little bit. It's felt like I've been saying some things that are a little bit tough. But I want to point something out to you guys.
In this passage, there's actually so much hope. There's so much hope in this passage. Because today, what we've been doing is we've been focusing on the five virgins that didn't make it. But you want to know what?
There was five that made it. There's so much hope because we know that we can make it. In verse 10, it says, but while they were on their way to buy oil, the Braggum arrived, the virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding make with him. The door was shut.
We know my last point for you this morning is readiness is achievable. We know it's achievable because five went in. And so you can have hope today. Some of you you walked in here, struggled with sin.
You walked in here, struggled with addiction. Well, I got good news for you. Romans 10, 9 says, if you just confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. And if you believe it in your heart, they got raised up from the dead, you'll be saved.
Romans 5, 8 says, but Christ demonstrates his love for us in this that while you and I were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so there's hope for you in the room today. If you're sitting there struggling with sin, struggling with addiction, then you need Jesus. And so there is hope.
And so now with every head bowed and every eye closed in the room. If you're sitting there this morning and you're saying, Kaden, I've never given my life to Jesus before, but this morning I'd like to make that decision or you're saying, Kaden, I've walked far away. And this morning I need to come home. Would you just write your hand?
No one looking around just so I can see. If you're in the room, so cool, so cool, so cool. Anybody else, anybody else? It's the best decision you could ever make in your entire life.
If everyone in the room would just pray this prayer after me, dear Jesus, we thank you. God, we ask that you help us to live for you. For all my days, I believe that you are who you say you are. And I choose to live for you from this day forward.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen, amen, amen. Can we just take a second and can we give it up for all the people that gave it up to Jesus this morning? Come on, come on, come on.
If you made that decision this morning, it's the best decision you could ever make. It's the best decision that you could ever make in your entire life. And the reason why we get so excited about it as a church is because it says in scripture every time one person comes to repentance all of heaven's own party. And so we're excited that you made that decision this morning.
We're excited that you made the decision to follow Jesus because now we get to run after Jesus together as the body of Christ. And so now you guys can all stand in the room as we get ready to close. But one thing I wanna share with you as we're getting ready to close, you can stand, you can stand. Is in John 14, yes, Jesus covers our stand.
Yes, Jesus paid the price for you and I, but there also is a cost and the cost is worth it. In John 14, 15, it says, if you love me, I know we talked about it early, but if you love me, obey my commands. In 1 John, five or three, verse three, it says, but this is love for God to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.
Like his commands as follows Jesus is not a burden. We get to follow Jesus, we get to do this. Like as believers, we need to make a decision. Yes, Christ paid it while we were still sinners, he paid it, but now that he paid the price, now that we're following him, we need to make a decision.
Do we wanna follow Jesus or do we wanna live in our sin? It's a decision that we need to make. And you see, recently over the last couple of years, I've gotten the opportunity to travel with the Traveling of Manos and speak across the nation. And I remember about a year ago or two years ago or so, I was flying with him to Ohio and we're getting ready to preach this event.
And as I was getting ready and as we're getting onto the plane, I had to stop. Like in order for me to get onto the airplane, there are some things that I can't bring with me. In order for me to get to Ohio, in order for me to get to the place that I wanna go, I can't bring something to me that I have to go to the security check at the airport so that way I can get onto the plane. I have to go through security check to make sure I'm not bringing anything I shouldn't bring to get to the place that I wanna go.
And in the same thing, what I think some of us might need to do today is we might need to do a personal security check because if you wanna follow Jesus, if you wanna get to the place that he's called you to be, if you wanna dwell in the house of the Lord, if you wanna have fresh oil, if you wanna be ready for the day that he returns, there are some things that you can't bring with you. And this morning what I believe is I believe God wants to move and God wants to work in some of your lives where he pulls out some things so that way you can follow him in the way that he's called you to follow him. And so this morning the band's gonna sing and the band's gonna go in your song, we're gonna just spend a couple minutes and worship before we head out. But this morning what I wanna do is I wanna do two ultra-colors, one, if you need new oil, you wanna know what I need new oil every day.
If you need new oil, I want you to come to the altar. And the second one is if you're sitting there and you're saying man, there's some sin in my life that I need to get rid of. There's some sin in my life that I need to deal with with the Lord. I want you to come forward but here's the thing, this morning I know I would be the first one at the altar, why?
Because I desperately know that I need to cleanse me of sin and I desperately know that I need new oil every single day. You wanna know I never understood? Is why every week I come to church and there's an altar called but no one responds. I've never understood that.
What I know is I desperately need prayer. I desperately need Jesus. I desperately need to get to the altar of God. I desperately need his presence because without him I'm not making it.
Without him I'm living in sin. Without him I'm living in a life that God has not called me to live. This morning I wanna see the altars packed with people. From here on out I wanna see the altars packed with people.
You see here's the thing, I'm on staff here at the church and oftentimes what I do is I'm one of the only ones that the altar but I respond almost every week. Why? Because I know that I desperately need the presence of God. I can't make it without him.
And as believers we can't make it without him. And so today as the band gets ready to sing what I want you to do is I want you guys to just make your way forward. If you need new oil, if you need fresh annoying thing and if there's some sin in your life that you need God to deal with I want you to just make your way forward and just encounter the Prince of God for a couple minutes. Come on, what'd you begin to sing?
What'd you begin to sing? Mm. Who, your name is the highest? Your name is the greatest.
Your name stands above them all. And all problems and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name stands above them all. Your name is the highest.
Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all. And all problems and dominions, all powers. Stop and be the Lord, it's your name.
Your name stands above them all. It's the highest. Your name is the greatest. Your name stands above them all.
All problems and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name stands above them all. We sing again our prose and dominions, all powers and dominions, all powers and positions. Your name, over time in this place, we can't go to worship.
All pros and ayes. Ooh, say the name, yes, all powers and positions. Your name stands above them all. God, this morning, I'm thankful.
And I'm humbled knowing your name stands above them all. Your name stands above every sin. Your name stands above every addiction. Your name stands above everything that's keeping us captive.
God, your name stands above where we are. Your name stands above all of it. God, who we think we are, what we want. The name of Jesus, it stands above them all.
So God, we worship you this morning. And we thank you for who you are. I pray that you'd help us to be a church who's ready for the day that you come back. You'd help us to be a church who's not just look ready, but lives ready.
You'd help us to be people who live our lives on mission, saying, man, this one thing I ask this only do I see? They got to make dwell in your presence. It's got to just pray right now, I'm remembering personally. They got you to help lead.
You'd help guide. You'd help direct them. You'd help carry them in your presence. And God, I pray that as we go out of here, we remember to keep the main thing, the main thing.
We remember that God was a church. We need to choose you as a church. We need to run to you. And we cannot live up, oh, oil.
Help us as a church, God. Do you remember that tomorrow morning we need your presence? Help us to remember that Friday morning we need your presence. Help us to remember that Friday evening.
We need your presence. Help us to remember that God all throughout our entire day, through our entire life. We desperately need the presence of God. We cannot pray that today.
You just help us to continue to walk in and carry out and be the people that you call this to be. In your name we pray. Amen, amen, amen. It was so much fun getting to hang in worship with you guys this morning.
If you guys feel like you need to spend some more time in the presence of God, the worst team will maybe stay up for another minute or two. And you guys can just linger at the altar of otherwise, go out, have some fun, add the speed of life, showcase.