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#992 - Sermon - Not Those Guys · The Bible Study Podcast

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  Speaker 1: The Bible Study Podcast, episode 992. Today, the Bible Study
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  Speaker 1: Podcast is going to have a sermon that I gave
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  Speaker 1: recently at Bethel Lutheran Church in Cupertino, California. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the Bible Study Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. The
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  Speaker 1: sermon that I gave was based on two texts. One
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  Speaker 1: was Jonah chapter 3, verse 10. My name is Chris Christensen,
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  Speaker 1: for those of you who don't know me, and for
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  Speaker 1: those who do. I am not a pastor. I have
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  Speaker 1: been going to Bethel for 42 years, since we're keeping
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  Speaker 1: track this morning, apparently. And I am, these days, a
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  Speaker 1: full-time travel journalist and podcaster. But when I am in
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  Speaker 1: the town, I am occasionally asked to preach, and I
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  Speaker 1: thank you for the opportunity this morning. But we have
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  Speaker 1: a lot to cover, so let's jump into our Old
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  Speaker 1: Testament lesson first, which is this unfamiliar chapter of a
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  Speaker 1: very familiar story, the story of Jonah. Now, some of
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  Speaker 1: you may have learned this as I did in Sunday
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  Speaker 1: school years ago, and so let me see if I
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  Speaker 1: can tell you the rest of the story that we
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  Speaker 1: didn't hear this morning from memory. Here, Jonah is a
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  Speaker 1: prophet who is sent by God to the city of
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  Speaker 1: Nineveh to tell them to repent or he's going to
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  Speaker 1: destroy the city. Jonah doesn't want to. He's afraid. And
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  Speaker 1: so he runs away, grabs a ship heading to the
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  Speaker 1: far corners of the world. God sends a storm that
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  Speaker 1: tosses this tiny ship. The people on the ship say, oh,
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  Speaker 1: somebody must have really offended the gods. Jonah says, yep,
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  Speaker 1: it's me. And they try and get out of it.
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  Speaker 1: They try and row. But finally, they have to throw
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  Speaker 1: him over the side. for the storm to stop, and
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  Speaker 1: he is swallowed by a whale. He sits inside the
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  Speaker 1: whale for three long days and nights until he changes
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  Speaker 1: his mind. He's spewed up on the land. He runs
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  Speaker 1: to Nineveh. He preaches for a few days, and they
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  Speaker 1: all repent, and everybody lives happily ever after. That is
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  Speaker 1: the story I learned in Sunday school. I got at
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  Speaker 1: least two things wrong from the biblical account. Can you
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  Speaker 1: tell me what two things I got wrong in the
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  Speaker 1: story of Jonah? First of all, it wasn't a whale.
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  Speaker 1: It was a fish. But more importantly, the Bible never
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  Speaker 1: says that Jonah was afraid, which was why he ran away.
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  Speaker 1: But that was what we always assumed. Because if you
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  Speaker 1: asked me, Chris, I want you to go preach in
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  Speaker 1: San Francisco. I want you to be a street preacher.
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  Speaker 1: I want you to tell everybody to repent or I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to destroy the city. I would be afraid. I'd
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  Speaker 1: be afraid I would not be received well. And so
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  Speaker 1: we always assume that that's the reason why Jonah didn't go.
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  Speaker 1: But then we get to chapter 4 and find out, no,
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  Speaker 1: Jonah was afraid he would be successful. That he would preach,
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  Speaker 1: that they would repent, and that God would relent. And
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  Speaker 1: he is angry at God that God is a merciful God.
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  Speaker 1: Did you catch that in our lesson today? He is
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  Speaker 1: angry at God that God is a merciful God. We
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  Speaker 1: need some context here because that's a little weird if
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  Speaker 1: you're a prophet. The city of Nineveh is the capital
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  Speaker 1: of the Assyrian Empire. And if you've read anything from
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  Speaker 1: the Old Testament, if the Assyrians come up in the story,
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  Speaker 1: they are the bad guys. At one point in the
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  Speaker 1: time of the divided kingdom, the kingdom of Judah and Israel,
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  Speaker 1: Assyria will sweep down and they will take all of
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  Speaker 1: the people of Israel away. They will capture that part
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  Speaker 1: of Palestine, and those lost ten tribes will never be
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  Speaker 1: heard from again. During the time of King Hezekiah, they
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  Speaker 1: come and they take all of Judah, the rest that
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  Speaker 1: are left, away. except for the city of Jerusalem, they
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  Speaker 1: pen the people up in Jerusalem, and they're taunting them
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  Speaker 1: on the walls of Jerusalem, saying, what makes you think
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  Speaker 1: your God will save you? Did the gods of any
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  Speaker 1: of those other places we have captured save them? Now, fortunately,
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  Speaker 1: God saves them. But to Jonah, the people of Assyria
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  Speaker 1: are his enemy. So it's not like being asked to
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  Speaker 1: preach in San Francisco. It's maybe closer to being asked
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  Speaker 1: to preach in Tehran. or someplace that you don't want
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  Speaker 1: those people, not those guys, to receive the mercy of God.
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  Speaker 1: So Jonah is pissed off that God does not destroy
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  Speaker 1: the city. And so like a petulant child, he goes
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  Speaker 1: and sits on a hill next to Nineveh. Why is
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  Speaker 1: he sitting on the hill? He is hoping that either
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  Speaker 1: they will screw up, and that God will destroy them,
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  Speaker 1: or God will change his mind, and that God will
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  Speaker 1: destroy them. He is on smite watch. He is basically
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  Speaker 1: hoping that God will smite them, that there will be
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  Speaker 1: some good Old Testament wrath of God, destruction of the
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  Speaker 1: city of Nineveh. And while he is there, sitting in
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  Speaker 1: the hot sun, it is uncomfortable, so God sends a plant.
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  Speaker 1: It's a cute little part of the story. God sends
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  Speaker 1: a plant, grows up in a single day, he's now
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  Speaker 1: got shade. In case you like your prophets like you
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  Speaker 1: like your coffee, hot and bitter, now we have Jonah,
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  Speaker 1: who is at least not as hot. And then God
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  Speaker 1: the next day sends a worm to destroy the plant.
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  Speaker 1: And Jonah is ready to die. I just spent some
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  Speaker 1: time with our four-year-old grandson, and sometimes he might take
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  Speaker 1: things very seriously. that you think shouldn't be taken so seriously.
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  Speaker 1: And God says to Jonah, Jonah, it's a plant. Do
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  Speaker 1: you really have such cause to be upset? And Jonah says, yes. Oh, yes.
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  Speaker 1: I wish I could die because this plant died. And
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  Speaker 1: God says, do you think that I should have more
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  Speaker 1: compassion for this city of 120,000 people than you have
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  Speaker 1: for the plant. That is unfortunately where the story of
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  Speaker 1: Jonah ends. We don't know what Jonah says next or
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  Speaker 1: what he thinks or does. Jonah doesn't want God to
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  Speaker 1: be merciful to the city of Nineveh, to the people
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  Speaker 1: of the Assyrian Empire. And he's right. He is absolutely right.
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  Speaker 1: They have not, they do not deserve mercy. the mercy
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  Speaker 1: of God, not those guys. And that is why it's mercy.
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  Speaker 1: Mercy is when we don't get from God the punishment
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  Speaker 1: we do deserve. And grace is its flip side. Grace
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  Speaker 1: is when we get something wonderful from God that we
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  Speaker 1: also do not deserve. What Jonah got wrong is Jonah
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  Speaker 1: thinks that he and his people do deserve the grace
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  Speaker 1: and mercy of God, and none of us do. That's
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  Speaker 1: why they're grace. That's why it's mercy. Now, I've been
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  Speaker 1: coming to Bethel, as I said, for 42 years. Right now,
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  Speaker 1: we're in a situation where we're calling a pastor. We
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  Speaker 1: have been there many times before, eight, ten times since
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  Speaker 1: I've been here. I'm not really sure. We'll be here again.
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  Speaker 1: But twice during the time that I've been here, I've
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  Speaker 1: had the opportunity, the privilege to be on a call
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  Speaker 1: committee for Pastor Jim and then also for Pastor Rick.
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  Speaker 1: And for Pastor Rick, I had the opportunity to be
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  Speaker 1: the chairman of the call committee. And I bring that
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  Speaker 1: up because as the chairman, it was my responsibility to
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  Speaker 1: introduce Rick to the congregation. I don't know if anybody
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  Speaker 1: was here or anybody remembers how I introduced him. I
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  Speaker 1: know what you're supposed to say. For the record, I
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  Speaker 1: know what you're supposed to say. You're supposed to say,
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to introduce you to Rick Sherrill. He's a
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  Speaker 1: man of God. He's got wonderful gifts. He's a good preacher.
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  Speaker 1: He's got a sense of humor. He's going to be
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  Speaker 1: a blessing to this church. And all of those things
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  Speaker 1: would have been true. That wasn't what I said. Does
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  Speaker 1: anybody remember? Do you actually? He's very young. Rick is
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  Speaker 1: a sinner who does not deserve the grace of God.
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  Speaker 1: which I'm told is not how you're supposed to introduce
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  Speaker 1: a pastor. But it is theologically accurate for every pastor
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  Speaker 1: we've ever called, every pastor we will ever call, and
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  Speaker 1: for all of us. For you and me also, that
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  Speaker 1: we are sinners that don't deserve the grace of God.
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  Speaker 1: And that is why it's grace. And we get to
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  Speaker 1: the next lesson, the gospel lesson today. and we have
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  Speaker 1: a man who has a vineyard. And we assume some
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  Speaker 1: things about him. We assume he is a rich man,
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  Speaker 1: because he's certainly paying a lot of people in this story,
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  Speaker 1: and he has this vineyard, and he has people who
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  Speaker 1: work for him, we're told. And we assume he has
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  Speaker 1: some work he wants done in the vineyard. Granted, it
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  Speaker 1: never says that, but we assume that. And so he
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  Speaker 1: does what you do if you need some temporary labor.
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  Speaker 1: he goes down to what in those days was the
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  Speaker 1: place you would find a day laborer, which is the
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  Speaker 1: town square. Now these days we might go to the
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  Speaker 1: Home Depot parking lot. But he basically goes to the
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  Speaker 1: Home Depot parking lot and he goes down there multiple times,
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  Speaker 1: starting at the very first when the sun comes up.
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  Speaker 1: So he starts at about 6 o'clock in the morning
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  Speaker 1: and And he hires some people and he says, come
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  Speaker 1: work in my vineyard and I will pay you a denarius.
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  Speaker 1: And then we're told he keeps going back, 9 o'clock, noon,
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  Speaker 1: 3 o'clock, and then an hour before closing at 5 o'clock.
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  Speaker 1: And says, each of those times, come work in my
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  Speaker 1: vineyard and I'll pay you what you deserve. Doesn't make
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  Speaker 1: a specific verbal contract with them. And We need to
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  Speaker 1: understand a few things about this situation here. So I
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  Speaker 1: was recently in the Peruvian Amazon, as one does if
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  Speaker 1: you do what I do, and we were walking through
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  Speaker 1: the marketplace and we were seeing all the different things
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  Speaker 1: they were selling there. And our guide says a lot
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  Speaker 1: of the people who are shopping in this marketplace are
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  Speaker 1: day laborers. And the way it works there is if
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  Speaker 1: you don't work today... You don't eat today. And that
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  Speaker 1: is true in our day and age as well. It's
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  Speaker 1: true for some of the people in the Home Depot
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  Speaker 1: parking lot, and it was certainly true of the people
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  Speaker 1: in first century Israel. And you need to understand, for
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  Speaker 1: those of you who are not familiar with First Testament money,
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  Speaker 1: what a denarius is. A denarius is a decent day's
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  Speaker 1: wage for a laborer. If you get paid a denarius,
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  Speaker 1: you and your family can eat. And so the people
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  Speaker 1: who he hires early in the morning are pleased to
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  Speaker 1: be hired. They know they've got a lot of work
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  Speaker 1: ahead of them, but they're going to eat today. They're
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  Speaker 1: going to get a decent wage for what they're doing. Okay?
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  Speaker 1: Follow me so far? So he comes to pay them
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  Speaker 1: at night, and he pays them in reverse order. He
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  Speaker 1: starts with the people who just showed up an hour
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  Speaker 1: before closing, and he pays them a denarius. And then
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  Speaker 1: through on through the day, he pays people the same
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  Speaker 1: amount is what we're assuming here. And at first, probably
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  Speaker 1: the people who started at the beginning of the day,
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  Speaker 1: when they hear that the people who got just worked
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  Speaker 1: for an hour get paid a denarius, they're probably thrilled. Right?
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  Speaker 1: Because if he's paying them a denarius for an hour's work,
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  Speaker 1: we worked 12 hours. How much are we going to
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  Speaker 1: get paid? And he comes to them and he pays
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  Speaker 1: them what he agreed on, a denarius. Now, when he
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  Speaker 1: paid the people that worked one hour, a day's wage,
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  Speaker 1: the people from finance came down and they said, boss,
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  Speaker 1: this is not a good idea because this is a
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  Speaker 1: very poor return on your investment. This is not the
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  Speaker 1: way you should run your business. This is bad ROI.
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  Speaker 1: When he goes down and he pays the people who
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  Speaker 1: worked there all day the same amount, now the HR
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  Speaker 1: people are involved. There are some complaints. There are, you know,
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  Speaker 1: did you think about what's going to happen tomorrow? Is
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  Speaker 1: anybody going to show up at 6 o'clock? They're not
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  Speaker 1: going to go down until 4. You know, this is
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  Speaker 1: not the way you want to run your vineyard. This
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  Speaker 1: is not, help me finish this, this is not fair.
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  Speaker 1: It's not. It's not fair. They worked a lot harder.
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  Speaker 1: As they point out, they worked through the heat of
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  Speaker 1: the day, and those other people just showed up. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I do have to wonder at this point in the story,
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  Speaker 1: I said we assumed that the man was hiring people
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  Speaker 1: because he had work he needed to get done in
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  Speaker 1: the vineyard. That may not have been his motivation. The
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  Speaker 1: most important words understanding the story are the very first words.
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  Speaker 1: What are the very first words in the story? the
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  Speaker 1: kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of God is like.
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  Speaker 1: So there were no finance people, there were no HR
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  Speaker 1: people who were complaining. And the person who owns the
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  Speaker 1: vineyard in this story represents God. I think we all
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  Speaker 1: got that, right? Now, the people who were hired the
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  Speaker 1: first thing in the morning, if they had been paid
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  Speaker 1: a denarius, and the people who got there at noon...
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  Speaker 1: would have been paid half a denarius, and the people
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  Speaker 1: who got there at, say, 5 o'clock, would have been
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  Speaker 1: paid a twelfth of the denarius. Do you think they
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  Speaker 1: would have complained? No, that would have been fair, right?
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  Speaker 1: Everybody earns basically what you've done based on how many
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  Speaker 1: hours you work. That would have been fair. They would
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  Speaker 1: have been okay with that. Now, we have to understand, though,
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  Speaker 1: that what they're saying is... I would be okay if
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  Speaker 1: you and your families went hungry as long as I
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  Speaker 1: get what I'm due. If I get paid what I'm
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  Speaker 1: supposed to get paid, you and your family can go
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  Speaker 1: to hell. But this is a story about the kingdom
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  Speaker 1: of God, and God's standards are higher than fair God's
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  Speaker 1: standards are love and grace and mercy. And he points out,
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  Speaker 1: this rich man points out, I can do what I
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  Speaker 1: want with what I have. Who are you to say
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  Speaker 1: that I can't be generous? Now, usually when a rich
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  Speaker 1: man is complaining, I can do what I want with
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  Speaker 1: my money, they're not complaining because people, people aren't complaining
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  Speaker 1: because they're too generous. Is that fair to say? But
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  Speaker 1: in this story, that's the complaint is you're too generous.
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  Speaker 1: It's not fair. But God's standards are higher than fair.
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  Speaker 1: The cross is not fair. We don't deserve the grace
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  Speaker 1: and mercy of God. No more so than the people
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  Speaker 1: of Nineveh. No more so than the people who only
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  Speaker 1: worked an hour. But thanks be to God that his
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  Speaker 1: standards are higher and they're based on love and grace
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  Speaker 1: and mercy. And the question we have to ask then is,
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  Speaker 1: if that's God's standards, how should we then live? And
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  Speaker 1: I will leave that question with you to think about
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  Speaker 1: this week. And with that, amen. I want to take
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  Speaker 1: just a second to thank the team at Life Audio
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  Speaker 1: for their partnership with us on this podcast. If you
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  Speaker 1: go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts
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  Speaker 1: in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
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  Speaker 1: and more.