Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 17, 2020 | Connor Kraus - Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard

Transcript

May 17, 2020 | Connor Kraus - Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, good morning, everyone.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, my name is Connor Krauss, and I have the pleasure of being the student pastor here at TBC.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but uh recently I have seen a lot more commercials from you know celebrities and Fortune 500 companies saying things like, now more than ever, during this difficult time, uh, we're all in this together.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, as we've kind of kept going further along during this crisis, uh, they're just starting to hit me a little bit different.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because as we're now, you know, two more months into this pandemic, it's really obvious that we're not all experiencing the difficulties equally.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that um enduring this crisis is different for somebody in LA County with enough bedrooms for each day of the week.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I also know that my experience isn't the same as somebody here in Topeka at Stormont Vale who lost their job or got furloughed.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And as we're considering these things, as we're seeing this happen around us, these messages that we're all in the same boat just aren't really hitting true.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I've sometimes struggled with feelings about God's fairness in this world.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And when we see things going on, we can even struggle to think of him as being really good.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not alone either in that.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: There are disciples during Jesus' ministry who questioned that same sort of thing.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And this morning, I'm excited to share with you a parable that Jesus gave in Matthew 20.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's called The Workers in the Vineyard, and it addresses these same kind of questions that we've had about fairness and about goodness.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we talk a lot in the student ministry about context, right?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: The words that are surrounding the passages that we're reading and how important they are to understanding what is going on.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: But for this morning, we're gonna push that down just a little bit and talk about it a bit later.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: See, a parable is something that Jesus would give to the disciples or the crowds around him.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lesson given through a story.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that story, it was usually fairly short, but sometimes a little bit longer, like the one we're looking at this morning.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a way for Jesus to take these extremely complex topics, like what is the kingdom of God like, and explain just a small part of it.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, like a diamond, and when you look at it a little differently, you get to see different facets of the story.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: This morning, the parable that we're looking at helps us to understand how the kingdom of God views fairness and God's goodness.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'd like to read the parable to you, and to do that, I've got a bit of a painting here.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh by a gentleman whose name that I would struggle to pronounce and probably offend his family if I did, but it was painted in the 17th century.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to follow along, I'm gonna be in Matthew 20 here, reading the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them to the vineyard.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when he had agreed with them, he went about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: So they went.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, Why have you been standing idle all day?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: They said to him, Because no one has hired us.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: He said to them, You also go into my vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last, and then going to the first.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And when those and um and when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more, and they likewise each received a denarius.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: But he answered, and one of them said, Friend, I am doing you no wrong.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Did you not agree with me for denarius?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Take what is yours and go your way.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: I wish to give to this last man the same as I gave to you.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things, or is your eye evil because I am good?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the last will be first, and the first will be last, for many are called, but few are chosen.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the parable that we have in Matthew twenty.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And really a better depiction of the scene of this parable than this beautiful painting is this vineyard here in Israel.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And during biblical times, right, a vineyard that was made for producing wine, they only had a few days to gather the grapes.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so a landowner like this one would go out and hire lots of people because they needed to get the harvest finished in a day or two.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so the landowner goes out five different times to hire people throughout the day.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when we're talking about a day of work in ancient Israel, typically it's starting around 6 a.m.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so the first group of workers are called about 6 a.m.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: He goes out into the marketplace, and those who did not already have jobs would be standing there waiting for somebody to ask them to go and labor in their field.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he promises them a denarius.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a denarius, to make a long story short, it represents a healthy day's wage.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Throughout history, it's meant different things based on the purity of the silver and the coin and how much silver was in it.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: But to set that aside, a denarius was a fair wage for a laborer who was going to work all day long.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so he gathers in this first group of workers.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then later on, at nine noon, three o'clock, the uh we'll go ahead and call them the Dolly Parton workers, right?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: They started work between nine and five.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: He brings them in and they start working too.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this second group of workers, he just says that he will pay them what is fair.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't tell them exactly how much they are going to receive.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: The third group of workers gets hired around 5 p.m.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: with really only about one hour left in the workday.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh the landowner doesn't even tell them how much they're going to receive.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: He just says, invites them to come and work in his vineyard.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then a conflict takes place because around 6 p.m., when it's time for everybody to get paid for the day, the landowner speaks to his steward and tells him to start paying those who have worked for the day, starting with the last, those who were hired here at the end.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And they form some kind of line.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And there are probably dozens of workers, if not more, who are waiting in this line to get paid.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the ones who were hired at the end receive a denarius.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: The same thing that the landowner had said those who were uh started work at the beginning would receive as well.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so you can imagine maybe at the back of their minds, those who are way back, the ones who had worked a 12-hour shift, they're saying, okay, these people here at the front, they're getting what we were promised.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna get a pretty big payday.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And as they keep going on and the line gets closer and closer, they see that everybody is getting paid the same amount.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: As they get to the final people in the line, they're frustrated because they only received a denarius.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're indignant and they're charging, they're giving this charge against the landowner that he wasn't fair to them.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because though he had promised a denarius to them, he had given everybody else the exact same wage.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in this moment, it's in this conflict between the landowner and these first workers where we really see the lesson of this parable start to take root.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why Jesus chose to give this lesson through a story.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: See, just in chapter 19, in Matthew 19, the previous chapter, there had been one of the most famous exchanges between Jesus and another individual that we have ever seen.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it is the one where Jesus is speaking to a rich man, and he concludes by saying that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the disciples who are kind of people watching, right?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: They're watching Jesus teach.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: They are astounded at the boldness of this statement.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter asks a very important question.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, We have left everything to follow you.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: What are we going to get in return?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: What then will there be for us?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: Peter is seeing Jesus and how he's interacted with this rich man and how much he is saying that the rich man must give up.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then Peter comes over and is saying, Hey, we've left our jobs, we've left everything that we have, basically all that we know to follow you.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: What are we going to get in return for that?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, looking back on it, hindsight is 2020.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: That seems like quite the bold question for a disciple to ask Jesus, hey, what are we going to get out of this whole thing?
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus responds with grace and truth.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: But before we get to his response in Matthew 19, I want to flip back now to Matthew 20.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to see that it's sort of like a ping-pong ball that they go back and forth with each other.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think that this parable in Matthew 20 was a response to Peter's question in Matthew 19.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Peter here is being set up as the workers in the vineyard.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter asks this question, he says, What then will there be for us?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now we go back to Matthew 20 and see how the landowner responded to that first worker.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you envious because I am being generous?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: See, the problem that Peter had was with his attitude.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: The way that Peter was coming to Jesus and viewing his role within the gospel, within the kingdom of God, it wasn't right.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there is a real answer to Peter's question, because there will be a reward for Christians in this life, as well as a greater reward for the disciples back then.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so what we need to understand here is that Jesus is responding to Peter's attitude.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: His attitude wasn't correct.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: When he says, What am I going to get out of all of this and all of the sacrifices that I have made, what are they going to get me?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: So here was Jesus' response to Peter's question in Matthew 19.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the first part of it is relating directly to the disciples.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can imagine this exchange, Peter asking this question, and then Jesus responding by saying, Well, Peter, you and the other disciples, you have a really special job.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: When I return and when my kingdom is made new, you're actually going to sit in judgment over the nation of Israel.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is one of the things that you will receive for being my follower and all of the things that you've given up.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus goes on to wrap up the Matthew 19, and it's something that relates to all of us now.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So before we move on, we do need to understand that the answer to Peter's question of what will I receive has a true response.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: And that is that Christians will receive to some degree based upon their obedience in this life, they will receive rewards in heaven.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the key to understanding the parable in Matthew 20 is found at the end of Matthew 19, where Jesus says, Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: That is the thing that Peter missed.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: That is the thing which he failed to understand.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so then Jesus goes into this parable, which explains it clearly to him.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we go into that, we have to see, okay, well, what was Jesus trying to help Peter understand?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: How did this parable, with the rest of the disciples watching, and to be honest, they probably had some sort of similar question.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: How did this parable correct Peter?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: And how can it help us today?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the first thing that we see in this parable is that God doesn't play favorites.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: There is no situation where God is picking his favorites in this world.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: The love of God that you and I have received from him is the same for every person.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: He does not love one more than he loves another person.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the forgiveness that we have found through Jesus Christ to anybody who receives it is the same.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: It forgives the sins that we have committed, the sins that we have committed today and tomorrow, and the sins that we will commit in the future.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: God is not handing out forgiveness and salvation to people in unequal measure.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the lesson that we see between these vineyard workers.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: This rich and wealthy landowner is excited to hand out his gifts to the people who have worked in his vineyard.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And somebody who had grown up with Jesus, maybe his brother James, who saw Jesus in his ministry for his entire life, and who was there watching him deal without bias towards those who are around him, the poor, the sick, the rich, those who were outcasts in the community.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: James would have seen Jesus deal without favoritism to the people during his ministry.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why when we find in the book of James some really interesting lessons about favoritism.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in James chapter 2, verse 1, we get this, where he says, My brothers, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is detestable to God that we would view others within the Christian community with some level of favoritism, or those outside thinking that God is dispensing his love in a way that is anything but equal.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have to understand that at some point this lesson of rewards does get wrapped up into this.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: But Peter's question here, what he needed to learn was that fairness was something that was distributed to all.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so the the verse that finished up Matthew 19, that the first will be last, it's flipped in chapter 20.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's how Matthew 19 ends.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the parable, Jesus said, So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Peter, this is how you understand life as it is, and this is how you understand apparently our relationship.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let me show you what it's really like.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And as the parable begins, this is what the kingdom of God is.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is how I view the kingdom of God.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's a value statement for how God views those in his kingdom.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about who has the most stuff, it's not about who has volunteered for the church the most.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about those who have volunteered in the student ministry, which, by the way, you're the real champions.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not about those who have gone to church 50 weeks out of the year or something like that.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not those who volunteer in the soup kitchen necessarily that say how much God appreciates those in his kingdom.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's a value statement for the heart.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's a value statement for what God looks at on the inside.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: And not when we try and do things to gain God's favor, but rather when we do things because we want to follow him.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: That is the attitude that he is reaching at here.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when we're discussing things like fairness and the goodness of God, these are the things that should make us find comfort because God is perfectly fair with how he deals with the heart.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: He's perfectly good and the way that he is giving out his gifts to people.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the first lesson that Peter needed to understand was that some people see themselves in the kingdom of God as favorites.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And some people who have heard their entire lives that Jesus deeply loves them and cares for them and wants to have a relationship with them, that the love of God has felt so far and distant from them.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: There are people who feel like they are righteous and people who feel like they are worthless, and both of those attitudes need to be gently corrected.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't play favorites, and he loves you more than you could ever know.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: No matter how much we read the Bible and we listen to God's love for us, and we read through the gospel accounts and see that he died to have a relationship with us, I don't think we will ever truly understand the immeasurable love of God that he has for his children.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so for you this morning, I hope that you can see that whether it was David, a man after God's own heart, a man who also failed miserably, whether it is Moses, the most humble man that we hear in the Bible, whether it's you and me, that God doesn't play favorites because of the way that we try and portray ourselves to those around us.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: But rather he looks at the heart and he says that the last will be first.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: The second thing that we need to see from this parable, and I think the true adjustment that Peter needed to make was that we need to watch out for envy.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually the attitude and the exact words that the landowner gives to the first worker when he says, Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you envious because I am generous?
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, man, this last sentence here just hits me really hard.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've struggled with comparison a lot.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that comparison is the thing which oftentimes brings out an envious nature and myself.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, who hasn't compared to somebody else at some point?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody who's got the family, the job, the house, the money, the life that we want to live.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as much as we try and avoid it, social media and everything else, the news has forced us to look across the aisle and say, why don't I have what they have?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why hasn't my experience during the pandemic been the same as theirs?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Why has it been so unfair to me and so apparently kind to that person?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I think this is a real human moment here.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Peter, what he's struggling with, is he has compared himself to the rich man, right?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: He has seen Jesus interact with this guy who apparently has everything.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus sort of dismisses him.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's obvious that the man does not have a heart for the Lord because when he is told that the last thing that he can do is give up all of his wealth, it says that he goes away discouraged.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe Peter was looking at this man who was told that, and he's saying, Man, I've given up everything.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: What am I going to get?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's comparing himself.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if any of you have ever gone to a Chuck E.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Cheese or a place that hands out those tickets at the games, maybe you can actually relate to this sort of thing as well.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: You've you've maybe gone to the counter having spent two hours at the skee ball machine, and you've got this like, you know, whole roll of red tickets there that you've won, and you bring it up to the counter ready to exchange it for some kind of gift, and the guy behind it sort of hands you a plastic spider ring and a sticker.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, well, that doesn't really seem like an equal trade here.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: They spent$40 on tickets.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we can go into this situation and be so dismayed seeing all the Things behind the counter, desiring all of them, and then getting something in return that we aren't happy with.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is a transactional nature and a relationship that we have to be careful to avoid with the creator of the universe.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: See, a transactional relationship with God says, I have done this, therefore I'm expecting this in return.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I have done these things for you.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've prayed every single day.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have given to the church.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: I have raised my children up in the ways of the Lord.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I have done X, Y, and Z.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And because I see your promises and your goodness given to people in the Bible, therefore I am angry and I am dismayed because that is not what I'm seeing in my own life.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: The question that we can that usually comes out of this is why isn't my life going the way that I want it to?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Why isn't my life like theirs?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why isn't my experience like theirs?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're really struggling with it, it can be something like, I'm a Christian.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this person who is outside of the church and doesn't even believe in Jesus, why are they not struggling like I am?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: In those moments, we become like the first worker in the vineyard.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: We say, I have done this thing, this Christian thing my whole life, and yet I don't feel like I am getting what they got.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: That person who maybe just came to faith in Christ.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why isn't their relative sick with cancer?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's none of you, or maybe that's a lot of you, but I think it's a more human element than we like to realize.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Jesus handles that sort of thought with a lot of grace and truth.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I think at the end of Matthew 19, he gave Peter this great answer, which he says, Peter, look, at the end of this world, when all things are made new, those who have sacrificed for my kingdom, those who have left family members or been disowned because of their faith in Christ, they are going to experience rewards.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: More than they could ever even imagine when they get into my kingdom.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Not only do they get to spend eternity with me, but it is life and it is life to the fullest forever.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: But Peter, I want you to understand that that isn't why you should be following me.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to understand, Peter, that the rewards that you get, they might be a motivation, but that's not why we're doing ministry.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so then we are brought back to the words of the vineyard owner, and he says, Are you envious because I am generous?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when comparison becomes our main lens for viewing the world around us, when that's the only thing that we can see through, then we become really dissatisfied with the blessings that we've received in this life.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: We only start to look at the things that we don't have and become dissatisfied with the things that we do have, the amazing blessings that God has already given to us.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just remember to go back one more time, the workers in the vineyard, they were promised a denarius when they started their wage.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was more than fair.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of the day, it was them watching everybody go through this line that made them say, you know what?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like this anymore.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, friends, if if there is any charge of unfairness between us and God, it is because he is so gracious to us that we don't get what we deserve.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: The landowner gave out more than was warranted when he was paying his workers.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: Those who had only worked an hour during the day had no right to claim the wage that he gave them.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that is really how we should view ourselves every single day.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: We are those who don't deserve the salvation that we have been given.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: We are those who don't deserve the grace that God has given to us.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: The many blessings that sometimes we overlook in our lives, we don't deserve them.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so we become dissatisfied because we see somebody who has something that we think that we want.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: When in reality, the joy in this life is found in a true and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think the correction for us is that we view ourselves as these workers who were hired at the end, not at the ones who were hired at the beginning, but saying every single time that we receive something from the Lord, thank you, God, because I know I don't deserve this, but I am thankful that I have it and have had the opportunity to work in your kingdom.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: So how do we balance these two things?
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: How do we balance Matthew 19 and Matthew 20?
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because if we're not careful, they can seem like two sides of a different coin.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because Peter is asking this question in Matthew 19, saying, What am I going to get?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus responds with this really interesting verses about rewards in heaven.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then immediately he goes into Matthew 20 and says, Yeah, but are you being envious because I am generous?
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, throughout the years there have been some who have taken Matthew 20 out of context and have said that it represents an absolute equality once we get to heaven, that every single person will be the exact same.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And Matthew 19 corrects that, right?
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: We understand that those who have sacrificed, the martyrs in the Middle East who have died because of their faith, hey, they're going to be rewarded in heaven for the sacrifices they have made for God's kingdom.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I, we are going to be rewarded as well when we are in heaven and God comes to us and he will give us more than we deserve for the sacrifices that we have made.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I think our lesson today in balance is that God doesn't play favorites.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And some of us, kind of like Peter was, view ourselves as God's favorites.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when we view ourselves that way, sometimes we can become envious when we think that we have received something that we don't think we deserve.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or somebody else has received something that we want.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Friends, God has given us more than we could ever hope to imagine.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: His love for you is unfathomable.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And as we sort of wrestle with that, trying to comprehend the love of God that we will never be able to fully understand, I think in that vein we can find peace with our own situation.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your situation during the coronavirus might not be the same as those around you.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your situation with your job, with your family, with your kids schooling, with the health of your family members might not be the same as other people around you.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's difficult.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: But it's okay.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it will be okay.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because God wants you to remember that He has given us more than we can ever imagine.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can focus on that rather than the things that we don't have, we will find ourselves being able to walk through difficulty with a whole lot more joy.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's my prayer for us this morning.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you would, would you bow your heads as we pray to God and thank him for his goodness and his fairness?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you today, and Lord, we are so thankful for what you have given us.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, most of all, we are thankful that you died on a cross for us, for our sins, past, present, and future.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, as we look towards a future where we get to be with you in eternity, where there will be no more crying, where there will be no more pain.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: God, that it doesn't always absolve us of the pain in this life.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And God, as we try and walk through the pain in this life, please help us to remember what we are going towards.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: The love that we have and can be found in you and through a deep and abiding relationship with you.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray by the power of your spirit that you would help us to find that relationship.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: And if we are really struggling right now, Lord, as I know so many of us are, to see your goodness or to see your fairness, that you would help us to not compare with others, but to remind ourselves how much you love us individually.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we look to these things and we pray that you would help us to walk forward with joy during life's most difficult circumstances.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in his name that we pray.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you would like to, if you haven't emailed Teresa already for the code for our after party, I'm going to be on there here in a second, and we would love to see you guys there.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.