FBC Daily Devotional – March 17, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Wednesday to you. Middle of the week, and St. Patrick's Day. Are you one of those who celebrates

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St. Patrick's Day by wearing of the green, or are you more ardent

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Protestant in the wearing of the orange? Well, whatever the case may be, it is the day today,

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St. Patrick's Day, and I'll say more about that as we close this morning. But in our

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Bible reading today, we're in Matthew chapter 25, which follows right after 24. You realize that, didn't you?

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Well, remember how chapter 24 ended? In chapter 24, Jesus was saying, you don't know the time or the hour, the day or the hour in which he is going to return.

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And so the emphasis is on being ready, because he's going to come back, and it's going to be as unexpected as the rain was in the days of Noah.

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Well, then he follows up on that with two parables in Matthew chapter 25, and both of these parables are emphasizing the need to be ready for his imminent, that is, at any time, his imminent unknown return.

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So the first parable is that parable of the ten virgins, and you remember that one where five of them, they're getting ready for a wedding celebration, a marriage celebration, and when the bridegroom comes, they need to be ready to go to the wedding celebration, the wedding feast.

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So this is a story, and so in the story, the ten virgins, five of them have plenty of oil for their lamps.

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The other five, well, they don't. They went to sleep, went to lie down, had their oil lamps burning, but they didn't have any extra oil.

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They didn't have enough if he were to come in the middle of the night to get them to their destination. So sure enough, the groom comes in the middle of the night to fetch the the wedding party to go to the wedding celebration, and the five virgins who had, didn't have enough oil, they asked the others who had plenty if they would share, and he said, oh no, we can't, you know, if we give you, then we don't have enough ourselves, so, you know, you need to go buy some more.

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While they were gone, the bridegroom actually came, and the five who had plenty of oil in their lamps, they went on to the wedding celebration.

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The other five, they got left out because they weren't able to make it. And so the point there is, be ready.

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Be ready, because you don't know when the groom is going to return for his bride.

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And the bride, of course, is the church. The groom, of course, is the Lord Jesus. So we need to be watchful and ready, because we don't know the time of his coming.

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I do need to live with the awareness that that could be today. There's not a reason in the world why

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Jesus can't come today. In fact, I'm recording this devotional a few days before it is actually going to air.

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And when I get finished recording it, I will schedule it, I'll get it scheduled with our provider, so that it will broadcast on Wednesday, March 17th,

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St. Patrick's Day, 2021. But you know what? May not be here.

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The Lord may return before this thing actually airs. And so people will be watching this thing and say, man, you know, what happened here?

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So it could happen. It could be before this devotional actually broadcasts and airs over the internet.

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So that's the emphasis of the first parable. The second parable offers a bit of a corrective.

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In case you hear the first parable and think, oh, well, you know, all I need to do is just kind of sit back and make sure

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I have plenty of oil, and then, you know, I'll be ready when the Lord comes. And so you stock up on olive oil and sit and wait.

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Well, the second parable he tells is the parable of the talents, and that parable emphasizes the fact that, no, we're not waiting passively.

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We're not sitting on our hands, passively waiting, looking to the eastern sky, waiting for the

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Lord to come. Watchfulness for the coming of the Lord involves being active.

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It means being faithfully employed in what the Lord has given me to do. And that differs from person to person, from follower of Christ to another.

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So some of you watching, you know, your calling may be to be a housewife who's a homemaker, and you don't go out somewhere in the workplace and work.

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Your work is at home. And you may feel undervalued sometimes in that capacity.

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Don't feel that way. This is a wonderful privilege that God has given you to serve him in that way.

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Just, you know, be faithful in the doing of it, and that faithfulness is part of your watchfulness for the

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Lord's coming. There are others who have to watch this late in the evening because you've been gone since early morning and getting home, getting dinner, finally settled down for the evening, and you're able to...

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But whatever that was you were doing all day, if it's a noble occupation, then it's a faithful way of serving the

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Lord until he comes. So the emphasis of that parable is that we use the gifts that God has given to us in the faithful implementation of those gifts, day after day after day.

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We don't sit on our hands passively waiting for God to do something to us. We are actively engaged investing our gifts that God has given to make some kind of a difference, some kind of an impact for his glory.

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Again, that impact will vary from person to person. The point is not how great, quote -unquote, the impact.

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The question is how faithfully we use our gifts and serve the one who's gifted us until he comes, whenever that may be.

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So let's be faithful in those gifts that God has given to us.

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All right. Well, I wanted to close today with what's been called St. Patrick's Prayer.

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And, you know, some might think, well, you know, this is just some

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Catholic prayer. You know, we shouldn't pray, but listen to it. Listen to it. I think it's very—I've heard this quoted by, you know, many godly people who love

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Christ and for good reason, because here's the prayer. May Christ be with me,

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Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me,

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Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me,

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Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet,

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Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me,

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Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. So, may

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Christ be with you today. May you sense his presence as you walk with him.