Gathering Your Supplies

by Rev. Gina Johnson

So here we are in our third week of painting prosperity, the art of abundance. I'm going to start off by reading the scripture this morning. But before I jump into that, I want to talk to you all about, I know we're not in November yet, but I'm going to talk to you all about thanksgiving and a problem that you don't want to have.

So how many of you all have been preparing for Thanksgiving dinner, and on Thanksgiving Day have discovered you don't have something you need? There are just so many times that Thanksgiving comes, and I'm a list person, and I know all the things we like to make. So you've got to get everything you need to get through that time. Or it's like, “Ah! We don't have everything we need.”

And you know how fun it is to try to go out to a gas station, depending on which one is going to be open, because nowadays we have gas stations that are like mini-malls, you know, it's like, this is the gas station grocery store. But on Thanksgiving, you know, those owners tend to be a little wise and take the day to celebrate Thanksgiving. So instead, you go into a little hole-in-the-wall gas station, still wonderful and serves its purpose, but dang it, on Thanksgiving Day, it doesn't have what you're looking for.

And sometimes it can be the silliest thing. So, you know, I grew up a girl who ate jelly cranberry sauce out of the can. That is my absolute favorite. It's just like, just dump that lump out, and I'm just going to like just eat that little log all by myself. It's good to go. I had a Thanksgiving where I didn't have my jelly cranberry sauce. What are the chances? I didn't find that at the gas station. You know, it's like no big deal. That's not the thing that you need. They have the turkey and everything else.

But what about when you're trying to bake a pie, and you're missing an ingredient for the pie? Or what about when you had milk in the fridge, but then when you went in there and you pulled it out and there’s only a little left? What an inconvenience when we recognize that we are not prepared. My friend Travis's father has always been great about making sure whatever you do when it comes to driving and traveling, you have an emergency kit in the back of your car. That was something very important.

You know, when you live in North Dakota, you better have not only the emergency kit, but you need to have the blanket, the change of clothes. I mean, you name it, it needs to be in the back of your car. And I remember those times where I had to look within my car and I'm like, you know what? I don't even have a jack back here. I do not have anything. And if I were to get a flat tire, I would not be in such good shape.

And so now maybe it's that idea that we have cell phones, and we need to call someone to come and rescue us. Most of our insurance packages come with a tow. But what about when you break down in one of those fun little off places where all you see around you is land and some birds and some roadkill, and you might see one car every 20 minutes or maybe an hour, depending on the time of day? What do you do in those cases?

So today we are going to talk about how important it is to be prepared so we can truly receive the prosperity that is already ours.

Let's take a look at this scripture passage in Matthew 25: 1-13.

At the time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lambs and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lambs but did not take any oil with them.

The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lambs. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out, Here's the bridegroom, come out 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 lambs 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. But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.

Later, the others also came. Sir, sir, they said, open the door for us. But he replied, I tell you the truth.

I don't know you. Therefore, keep watch because you do not know the day or the hour. And that concludes the reading of the Word.

We have a small village nestled in the lush fields with sparkling streams, and there are ten virgins who are selected, and they are eagerly awaiting the bridegroom's arrival. This is a joyful occasion, and it's meant to symbolize the manifestation of their deepest desires and abundance of their seeing love and celebration, a wedding feast. You know, we're going to go ahead and we're going to name these five virgins.

There are the five wise virgins, but let's call them prudence and serenity and vitality and harmony and gratitude, and they prepared diligently for this wonderful opportunity, this beautiful feast, this opportunity to meet the bridegroom. And then there were the five foolish virgins, and, you know, we'll name them apathy, doubt, fear, bitterness, and complacency. And they neglected their preparation.

And so as the night descended and the bridegroom was delayed in his arrival, these virgins, they grew weary, tired. They were weary, and they fell asleep. And as they heard that shout, the bridegroom is coming, they frantically sought the oil, but it was too late.

The wise virgins, they had their lamps and they were shining brightly, but the foolish virgins were scrambling, and they had to go and try and find some oil just in order to stay awake and keep their life going. But by the time they returned, it was too late.

Over this past couple weeks, we've been talking about prosperity, and as we get started today, I just want to ask you a couple questions around prosperity.

The first question I want to ask you is what does prosperity mean to me? What does abundance mean to me? Where do I see myself challenged in the recognition of the abundance and prosperity in my life?

I just want you to sit with those as we continue in the message.

It's very easy to look at the wise virgins in this story and realize, you know, prosperity is not just about money. As we had Bible study this past Wednesday, we were talking about prosperity, and for a lot of people that hear prosperity they think of televangelists. I used to be there, too. For whatever reason, whenever I thought of prosperity, it didn't sit well with me. It made me think of these large television churches, and these messages that were put out there, and we talked about this when I talked about myths. But it wasn't just like, you name it and you claim it, because I hope that I stripped away the myth behind that.

But it was more like, “If God wants you to have this, it is right there, you can be abundant, you can feel it, just dial that 1-800 number down here and make your donation to the Lord, and then you will be prosperous.” Now, I'm not stereotyping that all of them were like that. But, no show of hands, how many of you all felt that feeling? I remember thinking to myself in watching these, like, “Gosh, I don't know. Are you selling me God's love? Are you selling me God's healing? Are you selling me God's protection and provision?” It left a funny taste in my mouth.

And I remember when I was a young girl, I really couldn't understand why, you know, when you went to church, I would see these different vehicles. I can just remember, like, the minister was always dressed one way and always had a nice car. The minister's family always looked a certain way. But the thing about it is I just remember feeling like, “Gosh, is that really how it works? Like, you have to give your money in order to be blessed? And, you know, are the ministers, are these guys on television, are they really about spreading the good news? Are they really about teaching us how to find the prosperity that we already have within us? Are they really like that? Or are they just looking to make money?” So I had a very confused idea around church and ministers.

I wasn't raised in the church like many of you were. I was just kind of grabbing at what I could. I remember studying my little Precious Moments Bible at a young age and not really having much direction to guide me through it. And I'm so thankful that everything worked out perfectly and here I am. But I do know that in those early days, prosperity was very confusing in my mind. I bought into the idea that you have to do these things, check these boxes, and be this kind of person and look a certain way in order to be prosperous.

And that is not the case. The truth of the matter is prosperity is far beyond financial wealth. It is also about having vibrant health and inner peace.

And one of the keys to having that, there is a level of preparedness, but not in a way of status. Not in a way of hanging your way into prosperity. Not in a way of just speaking and speaking and it's going to come before you.

But it's in a way of cultivating. Being sure that you're cultivating the understanding of what it means to have financial wisdom, what it means to see your abundance and to share it with others.

My friend Jason told me a story about missing an opportunity to share his leftovers with someone because he didn’t recognize the blessing it could have been, and how much he hated that when he looked back on it now. It was absolutely perfect. Sometimes we miss how prosperous we are because we are so focused on our life. We miss what we have to give because we are so concerned that what we have is going to run out.

And so we have to cultivate a mental attitude of financial wisdom that starts with abundance. Recognizing that we will always have enough. And that what we have, we should share and trust. It is that law of circulation. As you have, you give and trust that it will come back to you.

Another thing around recognizing the preparedness of prosperity is nurturing your physical and your mental well-being. You know, we have all been given this vehicle for spirit to abide. We've all been given this temple. We've all been blessed with our physical health. And it's up to us to do the things that are necessary to live in that abundance. It's up to us to take good care of ourselves. Yes, there's the eating healthy, there's the exercise, there's the drinking water, and there's the sleeping, but there's also just that mental mindset of being grateful for the body that you've been blessed with and taking care of it.

We're all taught this response when we get bad news around our health. Whether it's a diagnosis as small as a cold or whether it's something large like cancer, we automatically are taught to go back into that place of, “Great, now what do I do? What am I going to do from here on?” You know, the doctor comes into the office and he says to you, “Well, I'm glad you're sitting down. You know, it's going to be time for you to start getting your affairs in order. It's going to be time for you to start contacting your friends and family. And we're going to give this our best shot, but there's no guarantees.” That is not how you prepare your attitude.

That is not how you practice gratitude for your body. Though we know that illness, disease, is challenging and difficult, when you are prepared to experience healing, when you are prepared to recognize that we are not our body, we are spirit, and we have the abundance to live into, and everything that we have is a gift we can stop worrying about what's out there and how soon it's going to come to an end, and be present right here and now and take advantage of what we've been given.

You know, I was in physical therapy the other day, and I'm so grateful that Michael, he's wonderful over at Brain Physical Therapy, is able to help me with these impingements I have on my shoulder, and I can already feel a huge difference. You know, when I started experiencing this numbing down my arm, I started stretching more. I went on YouTube and looked up ways to treat what I was describing as my symptoms. I talked to my friend, I talked to my trainer, and then eventually I set up my appointment, because that's part of being prepared. That's part of recognizing that I've been given this beautiful temple, and I need to take good care of it. Why? Because the Lord has great plans for me.

I am more than just the person who's going to say, “You know what? I got a sore back or I got a bad shoulder, and you know, at least I got up this morning.” No way. I am an ambassador of God. I am a representation of Christ Jesus, and we know that in order to fully live into that, we need to take care of everything we have, including our lives. What are you doing to make sure that your temple is great? If your temple embodies the Holy Spirit, then my question is, what are you doing to keep the sanctuary in good order? And that's part of being prepared for all that's to come.

And then there's the personal throw. There's that prioritizing the personal throw. Those wise virgins, they recognized they had a beautiful opportunity before them. So they made sure to check their oil levels, made sure that they had everything they needed.

You can equate that to having that financial wisdom, to having that help, and to having that inner peace. What did they do as they were getting ready for this day to prepare for it? That's something that we need to do. Are we studying? Are we in the Bible? Are we looking at other resources? Are we praying? Are we engaging in small groups? What things are we doing to continue in our personal spiritual growth so that we can be ready? There's going to come an opportunity, and someone is going to come up to you, and they're going to need you to be that face, to be that representation of Christ Jesus for them.

Are you prepared? Are you prepared when you happen to run into someone who just seems down and out, who is in a place of being challenged? And no, I'm not asking you, do you have the Bible memorized so you can throw a scripture at them, tell them you’ll pray for them and walk away. Have you been doing enough personal and spiritual growth that you can hear their situation and not get pulled into their story, but offer them the light, offer them hope, offer them a message of love and truth that might just be that thing that changes their entire day?

Another thing that we talked about in Bible study was what are ways that we live out our prosperity in abundance? Remember, not just financially, but what are ways that we do that? And one of the things that I mentioned is some of the ways that I live out my abundance, is just by checking in on people. It's just by approaching that stranger, that person who's checking you out at the grocery store, the person that you see all the time but you never talk to and just say, “Hey, what's stirring you today? What's grabbing you today?” Not just “How are you?”, so you get the, “Oh, fine, how are you? Good, good, thanks for asking,” and you go your separate ways, but really investing.

Because the abundance that I have is that abundance of love, that abundance of kindness, that abundance of peace, and who would I be to not share that with others? And so those are those five virgins who recognize that it was about cultivating their wisdom. It was about nurturing their physical body, taking care of their mental health. It was about that spiritual growth, recognizing an opportunity is coming our way. We are not going to get crushed out. We are going to be prepared and we are going to be ready.

Now I bring you to the foolish virgins. The foolish virgins, when we think about that, what exactly does it mean? How many times have you found yourself in that place of locking yourself out of your abundance? You hear the end of that story and the doors are closed and you think, “Gosh, does that mean that God locked them out? Did God lock them out of a great opportunity? Did God lock them out of their abundance?” No. They did that to themselves.

The door is always there. The opportunity to walk through the door is always there. They are already standing in the midst of their prosperity, but they chose to not be prepared to partake of it.

And that's what happens when we have an unprepared heart. When we don't take the time to practice gratitude. Gratitude is so important. When you think about an empty lamp, what can it symbolize? Your light.

When you don't practice gratitude and you don't continue to cultivate your faith, to pour into your faith, then yes, your lamp is going to go out. Your light is going to flicker. It's not going to shine as brightly.

It's so important that you recognize that as a foolish virgin, they didn't have that mindset of great things are coming. Something new is on the horizon. This is an opportunity unlike any other.

How many of us are looking out at our present circumstance and locking ourselves into that same place? I have to tell you that I'm always very transparent with you all. I'm not going to stop today. In worship we were singing 10,000 Reasons. And one of the chorus verses just grabbed me. And I got tears in my eyes right.

I shook my head and said, “Gina, Gina, Gina.”

And I have to kind of really be firm with myself. So I reminded myself that no matter what, when the sun goes down, when I rise in the morning, whatever may come before me, whatever's going to pass, I will take faith and I will hold strong in the power of God, in the love of Christ Jesus, in the truth of who I am. But boy, in that moment as I was singing those words out and feeling them in every part of me, I kept getting drawn into the emptiness of that sanctuary on that day. And I get it.

Because I, too, see the numbers. And I, too, see the empty pews. But...

There is a banquet coming our way, folks. Okay? There is a banquet coming our way. And at that banquet, we are going to feast and we are going to celebrate. We are going to have an opportunity unlike any other. And there are going to be people there we know and people there we don't know. But it's going to be an opportunity to get caught up in the spirit.

It's going to be an opportunity to plant new seeds and to harvest ones that have come to fruition. And you're all invited. You are all invited to be those ten maidens, those ten who are preparing. And I'm asking you, what are you going to do to prepare for that banquet?

And those of you who have already decided how the banquet is not taking place, so be it. But to those of you in this small congregation, if you even have a tiny amount of curiosity, “What the heck could Pastor Gina be talking about? Does she really believe that these pews are going to fill up? Does she really believe that children are going to run through the halls with laughter? Does she really believe that we are going to have ministries that are going to fill our calendar? We're going to have to start talking to our outside groups and say, “Guys, I know you've been with us forever, but we have so much going on. We're going to have to do a whole re-arrangement.’”

Yes, I really believe that. Yes, I really believe that. And I just want you all to know that you have a choice to make each and every moment.

Are you going to be wise and are you going to function from that place of spirit where no matter what it looks like now, you keep going. You keep going forward.

You know, I don't like that phrase, you give until you hurt. Because when you give reluctantly, it doesn't feel good. When you give with fear, it doesn't feel good. When you give because you feel like, “Oh, I don't really want to give it,” that doesn't feel good.

How about you give until it feels good? If you give with generosity, if you spill that light full and light that lamp on fire, man, that feels amazing. So give with a smile. Give with all that you've got and all that you have and trust that because you lit your lamp, because you filled that oil and you brought a jar to spare, that your light is not going to go out and you will be blessed in abundance.

Or we can just continue on the path we're on. But if you choose that path, recognize that the door does close. And we all don't like to talk about that. Could you imagine if those doors were to close? Why would you ever even want to spend time imagining that? Because if these doors close, it's not on me. It's on you.

We are in this together. We all have the oil. We have the lamp. We have the fire. It's just up to us to recognize that and to not be afraid to show up prepared and ready for the abundance and prosperity that we are already standing in.

Please pray with me. Our most gracious, our most loving God, our God of abundance, our God of grace, we thank you for your word. And God, we know that you are a God of endless provision, so help us to recognize that we are the children of a God of endless provision.

We know that you are a God of abundant love, so help us to recognize that we, too, are children who walk and live and act in abundant love. Help us, God, to look past what we may see right in front of us and see the kingdom. Help us to recognize that when we see the door close, it's because we chose to let it close.

And so, God, renew our fire, fill us with the endless oil, and help us to be the light of love, truth, abundance, and prosperity. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.