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Andy Stanley - The Unsettling Solution for Just About Everything: Don't Do The Math Part 2 · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Speaker 1: Today we're in part two of this series, the Unsettling
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Speaker 1: Solution for just about Everything. And as I said last week,
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Speaker 1: and I'll say it again this week, and I'll say
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Speaker 1: it again next time we gather. And I know this
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Speaker 1: is naive, so you can criticize me for being naive.
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Speaker 1: I get that, But I genuinely don't know why. I
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Speaker 1: genuinely don't know why everybody wouldn't want the message or
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Speaker 1: the story of Christianity, or the message or the story
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Speaker 1: of Jesus to be true. Maybe not the version that
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Speaker 1: you grew up with, maybe not what maybe we've made it,
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Speaker 1: or what your church or your denomination has made it,
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Speaker 1: but the original version, when you track with Jesus through
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Speaker 1: the Gospels and you hear him teach and you see
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Speaker 1: how he treats people. I don't know why everybody wouldn't
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Speaker 1: want that to be true, why they wouldn't want to
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Speaker 1: wish that perhaps Jesus in fact came from God, and
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Speaker 1: there is a God who has invited us to call
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Speaker 1: him father, and that our heavenly Father in some way
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Speaker 1: reflects the personality and the character and the love and
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Speaker 1: the compassion of Jesus. The irresistible version that's the version.
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Speaker 1: I just don't know why everybody wouldn't wish it's And
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Speaker 1: I get this. There's a difference. There's a difference between
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Speaker 1: I don't believe it's true, which I get, and I
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Speaker 1: don't want it to be true. And I understand why
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Speaker 1: you don't believe it's true. If i'd heard what you'd heard,
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Speaker 1: read what you'd read, been to school where you went
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Speaker 1: to school, experience maybe what you experience as a result
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Speaker 1: of church or religious education, I understand why you don't
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Speaker 1: believe it's true. What I don't completely get, and what
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Speaker 1: I want to help you get is I don't know
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Speaker 1: why you wouldn't want it to be true. Because in
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Speaker 1: the first century people all kinds of people, religious and
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Speaker 1: unreligious people, Jews and gentiles, were actually attracted to Jesus.
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Speaker 1: They found Jesus attractive. So consequently, if we get it right,
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Speaker 1: they should find Christianity in modern times attractive. People who
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Speaker 1: were nothing like Jesus. As you've heard me say, people
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Speaker 1: who are nothing like Jesus liked Jesus, and Jesus liked
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Speaker 1: people who were nothing like him. And the reason people
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Speaker 1: were attracted to Jesus was really a single word the
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Speaker 1: word that makes me want it to be true, but
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Speaker 1: perhaps a word that was never in the equation for you,
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Speaker 1: and the word is grace. Grace undeserved, unearned, unearnable favor,
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Speaker 1: favor from God, not based on anything you did. In fact,
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Speaker 1: in spite of everything you've done, it's what you crave,
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Speaker 1: even though you may not have had the word. It's
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Speaker 1: what you crave, and it's what you craved when you
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Speaker 1: hurt someone you love. And it's what you crave when
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Speaker 1: you hurt someone or offend someone that you need because
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Speaker 1: in that moment, you can't take back what you've done,
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Speaker 1: and you can't erase the past. But in that moment,
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Speaker 1: you want them to treat you. You want them to
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Speaker 1: accept you, You want them to feel about you. You
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Speaker 1: want them to see you in a way as if
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Speaker 1: as if whatever you had done, as if it never
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Speaker 1: even happened, that somehow they can remember what you've done,
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Speaker 1: and yet the relationship would be completely restored in spite
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Speaker 1: of what you've done, undeserved, unmerited, undeservable favor. And that's why,
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Speaker 1: as we said last week, and we're really going to
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Speaker 1: dig into this next week, don't miss part three of
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Speaker 1: the series that when correctly applied, When correctly applied, grace
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Speaker 1: really does solve just about everything when it comes to
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Speaker 1: a man and a woman in a relationship, when it
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Speaker 1: comes to parents and their kids, when it comes to
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Speaker 1: kids and their parents, when it comes to what's going
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Speaker 1: on at work, or a broken friendship, or any kind
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Speaker 1: of broken relationship, that grace really is the solution when
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Speaker 1: properly applied, for just about everything. But there's something interesting
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Speaker 1: and mysterious about grace. There's the sense in which grace
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Speaker 1: doesn't even exist until it is first experienced. Grace is
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Speaker 1: just a word until it's experienced. There's no emotion around it,
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Speaker 1: there's no story to tell until it's experienced. Because the experience,
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Speaker 1: the experience of grace requires a relationship. Where there is
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Speaker 1: no relationship, there can be no transfer or experience of grace.
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Speaker 1: And this is why this is so important. This is
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Speaker 1: why God had to show up among us as one
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Speaker 1: of us. This is why God had to show up.
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Speaker 1: We would have never known, we would have never known
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Speaker 1: the grace of God. Without the presence of God, it
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Speaker 1: would have just been a word, a term, a category
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Speaker 1: that nobody experienced until they experienced the presence of God.
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Speaker 1: And this is why what John writes in the Gospel
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Speaker 1: of John that we looked at quickly last weekend. Matthew
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Speaker 1: Mark Luke John John, who is an old man who
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Speaker 1: finally the people around him said, John, we got to
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Speaker 1: get your story. We don't know your story. You know,
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Speaker 1: you were somebody who spent time with Jesus from the
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Speaker 1: moment he stepped onto the banks of the Jordan River
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Speaker 1: as an adult till the time that he was taken
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Speaker 1: up from us. You know, we need to get your story.
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Speaker 1: And so when John begins to dictate his story as
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Speaker 1: an old man, he begins like this, it's so interesting.
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Speaker 1: He gives us sort of the Christian creation account. He
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Speaker 1: says in the beginning, and of course his scribe is thinking,
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Speaker 1: I know in the beginning God created and John says, no, no, no,
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Speaker 1: not that beginning, same beginning, different words. In the beginning
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Speaker 1: was the Word. And instead of saying God, he kind
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Speaker 1: of reaches into this Greek idea to say, the logos,
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Speaker 1: everything that was, everything that existed, everything that was important,
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Speaker 1: all the information in the beginning was the Word. And
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Speaker 1: then he says this, the Word or God became flesh
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Speaker 1: and made his dwelling among us, and I'm sure the
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Speaker 1: scribe and the people around. John went to say, okay,
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Speaker 1: tell us more about that. How in the world, I mean,
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Speaker 1: how in the world did God take on a body?
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Speaker 1: How in the world did God squeeze himself into a body?
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Speaker 1: What do you mean that the word became flesh? And
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Speaker 1: I think John would say, I can't explain it any
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Speaker 1: further than that. All I know is this, after my
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Speaker 1: time with Jesus, I'm convinced of this, that Jesus was
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Speaker 1: God in a body, that somehow God became flesh and
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Speaker 1: he dwelt among us. And we, not you guys, and
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Speaker 1: not us, we have seen his glory, the glory of
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Speaker 1: the one and only son who came from the Father,
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Speaker 1: full of grace and truth. That Jesus was all grace
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Speaker 1: and all truth all all the time. That Jesus was
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Speaker 1: all truth and all grace all the time. He wasn't
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Speaker 1: the balance of that's what we try. He was all
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Speaker 1: grace and all truth all the time. But it was
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Speaker 1: the grace part of Jesus that was so unsettling. For example,
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Speaker 1: one day, Jesus and his guys are traveling and they
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Speaker 1: go into through the city of Jericho. In fact, the
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Speaker 1: text says, this Luke who thoroughly investigated all of these
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Speaker 1: things and talked to eyewitnesses. That's why the Gospel of
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Speaker 1: Luke has so many details, so many names, so many places, tides,
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Speaker 1: you know, all kinds of stuff. Jesus entered Jericho and
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Speaker 1: was passing through, not planning to stay, not planning to
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Speaker 1: stop for a meal, not planning planning to spend the night,
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Speaker 1: just passing through. And a man lived there whose name
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Speaker 1: was Zachias, and he was a chief tax collector, and
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Speaker 1: he was wealthy. And the reason he was wealthy is
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Speaker 1: because he was a chief tax collector. And as a
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Speaker 1: chief tax collector, he had gone to Rome or he'd
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Speaker 1: had contacted around the Roman repas presentative, probably the governor,
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Speaker 1: and he had purchased the right to collect taxes. And
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Speaker 1: as a chief tax collector, he basically had a pyramid scheme.
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Speaker 1: He would then hire other tax gatherers, who would hire
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Speaker 1: other tax gatherers. They were called tax farmers, and they
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Speaker 1: would set up at different stations on the river banks
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Speaker 1: and port cities and crossroads, all kinds of places, and
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Speaker 1: they would collect a variety of different kinds of taxes.
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Speaker 1: And it would all funnel up to Zakias, and he
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Speaker 1: was very, very wealthy because the Rome, as long as
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Speaker 1: Rome got their money, they didn't care how much, what
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Speaker 1: kind of surcharge or what kind of extra they charged
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Speaker 1: the tax gatherers charged the people, as long as Rome
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Speaker 1: got what Rome wanted. So Zachias was hated. Everybody in
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Speaker 1: the community knew him, and pretty much everybody hated him.
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Speaker 1: But Luke, who apparently talked to someone who was there
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Speaker 1: that day, perhaps he talked to Zakius, we don't know that.
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Speaker 1: He says that Zakias wanted to see Jesus, see who
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Speaker 1: wanted to see who Jesus was, But because he was short,
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Speaker 1: he could not see over the crowd. Now, he didn't
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Speaker 1: want to meet Jesus, I mean to that word slim. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: he didn't want to get too close. But like a
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Speaker 1: lot of us, he was curious. Besides, Jesus was just
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Speaker 1: passing through. So Luke goes on to tell us, so
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Speaker 1: he ran ahead of Jesus and his posse and he
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Speaker 1: climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him since Jesus
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Speaker 1: was coming that way. So here's a man I don't
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Speaker 1: know men climbing trees. That's awkward, okay, men climbing trees
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Speaker 1: and what they wore back then it was really awkward.
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Speaker 1: But anyway, Zacheus is desperate. He wants to see Jesus,
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Speaker 1: and he knows where the parade's headed. So he goes
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Speaker 1: ahead of the parade, climbs up in a sycamore tree
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Speaker 1: and waits for Jesus to get there so he can
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Speaker 1: see what Jesus look like. And sure enough, when Jesus
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Speaker 1: reached that spot. And by the way, how many of
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Speaker 1: you know the Zacchias song from childhood Zachius was of
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Speaker 1: what we little man? No one would ever write that
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Speaker 1: lyric in modern times, but anyway, yes, Zachius was a
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Speaker 1: wee little man, and a wee little man was. He
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Speaker 1: climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord he
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Speaker 1: wanted to and as the Savior passed that look at
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Speaker 1: you guys. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, our friends in different
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Speaker 1: parts of the country are like, our parts of the
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Speaker 1: world are like, what are they talking about? I know,
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Speaker 1: with strange music, but anyway, we're not gonna sing it.
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Speaker 1: So when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and
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Speaker 1: he said to Zaki has come down immediately. And here's
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Speaker 1: what I think. This is not in the text. Luke
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Speaker 1: doesn't say this. When Jesus stopped and the whole you know,
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Speaker 1: the whole group stops. He turns and there there's a man,
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Speaker 1: a grown man, in a tree, and he says, Zach,
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Speaker 1: he has come down immediately. I think there was a
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Speaker 1: hush that fell over the crowd. And here's what they thought. Finally, finally,
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Speaker 1: finally somebody's gonna call this guy out. Finally somebody has
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Speaker 1: the courage to face this guy down. Finally somebody is
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Speaker 1: not intimidated, and finally he's gonna get what he deserves.
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Speaker 1: And the crowd probably spread out and created a circle
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Speaker 1: and then talk about the most awkward moment of his life.
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Speaker 1: The entire town watches a grown man climb down from
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Speaker 1: a tree awkward moment, and they're thinking, this is it.
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Speaker 1: And as he makes his way down, and as he
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Speaker 1: pushes his way through the crowd, Jesus shocks everybody listening
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Speaker 1: and everybody in the first or second century who would
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Speaker 1: read this story by saying, I mustay at your house
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Speaker 1: today and the disciples grown, can't we just pass through?
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Speaker 1: Are you not even paying attention to your own story. Jesus,
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Speaker 1: we are passing through, and now you want to stop
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Speaker 1: and have lunch. And all the people, all the people
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Speaker 1: who are on this parade side, saw this and began
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Speaker 1: to mutter, which is a word we should bring back? Right?
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Speaker 1: They begin to mutter, he is gone to be the
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Speaker 1: guest of the sinner. It's like, what I mean, This
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Speaker 1: isn't how it works, right. We got here early, we
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Speaker 1: got the curb right, I got the kids up and
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Speaker 1: dressed early. We got here, We made signs I love Jesus, Yes,
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Speaker 1: I do. I love Jesus. On the other side of
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Speaker 1: the street says, how about you. I mean we're we
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Speaker 1: got a chant, we got songs, we had t shirts printed. Okay,
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Speaker 1: we got here early. We're prepared. We are Jesus fans.
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Speaker 1: And then this, basically, this traitor to the nation, an
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Speaker 1: outcast from society who has ripped all of us off,
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Speaker 1: gets to meet him. We didn't even get to meet him,
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Speaker 1: and zach Chias gets to have a meal with him.
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Speaker 1: So unsettling, so upside down, so backward, so unexpected. Everything
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Speaker 1: about it's wrong, and it was unsettling to Jesus' original audience.
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Speaker 1: And it was unsettling to people for the next several
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Speaker 1: hundred years who would read this account. And it's unsettling
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Speaker 1: to you to the degree that you understand the context
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Speaker 1: of the story, because they and because we don't necessarily
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Speaker 1: understand the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, God's economy,
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Speaker 1: the way that God sees the world, the way that
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Speaker 1: God sees you, the way that God sees me. So
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Speaker 1: over and over, in the form of parables, Jesus would
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Speaker 1: try to explain this upside down kingdom that he had
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Speaker 1: come to inaugurate, this brand new set of ethics, this
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Speaker 1: brand new way of seeing the world. So on one
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Speaker 1: particular occasion, he attempted to explain this upside down kingdom,
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Speaker 1: this new value system, this grace that people seem to
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Speaker 1: be so unfamiliar with in the ancient world and in
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Speaker 1: the world today. In front of another crowd, he said,
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Speaker 1: let me try to explain it to you this way,
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Speaker 1: for the Kingdom of Heaven is like, which meant he
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Speaker 1: was about to tell a fictitious story in order to
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Speaker 1: make a true point. This is what parable and in
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Speaker 1: every parable. Anybody who followed Jesus knew this, and every
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Speaker 1: parable there are two things to look for. There's the
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Speaker 1: God figure and there's the you figure. Somewhere in the
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Speaker 1: parables you find yourself, and somewhere in the parables you
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Speaker 1: find God. So they're all excited. It's like another story
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Speaker 1: that we won't understand. But they're interesting, right, another story
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Speaker 1: that's going to leave us scratching our heads and wondering
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Speaker 1: why he doesn't just answer questions directly. But they're always
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Speaker 1: so fascinating. So Jesus says, to the best of my ability,
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Speaker 1: let me try to explain what the Kingdom of Heaven,
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Speaker 1: what the Kingdom of God is like, this kingdom that
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Speaker 1: you've been invited to step into, this new way of
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Speaker 1: living that I'm inviting you to. The Kingdom of Heaven
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Speaker 1: is like a landowner, rich guy who went out early
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Speaker 1: in the morning, about six am to hire workers for
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Speaker 1: his vineyard. So the rich landowner would go to the
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Speaker 1: public square where the day laborers gathered, hoping to be
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Speaker 1: chosen in order to have a job for the day.
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Speaker 1: And you usually hired everybody you needed for the day,
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Speaker 1: all at once. And the primary concern of a landowner
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Speaker 1: was getting the work done, not the ones that did
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Speaker 1: the work. The primary concern of the landowner was getting
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Speaker 1: the work done, not the men who did the work,
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Speaker 1: So as they would expect, he agreed to pay them
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Speaker 1: a denarius for the day, and then he sent them
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Speaker 1: into his vineyard. He said, okay, this is the day
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Speaker 1: your day, laborers, and everybody knows what you get paid
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Speaker 1: for a day's wages. It's one denario. So i'm you U,
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Speaker 1: you you you you. You take off and you know
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Speaker 1: where my vineyard is. Go work for me. Then about
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Speaker 1: three hours later, about nine in the morning, he went
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Speaker 1: out and saw they're standing in the marketplace doing nothing.
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Speaker 1: He told them, you also go and work in my
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Speaker 1: vineyard and I will pay you whatever is right. We'll
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Speaker 1: figure it out at the end of the day. So
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Speaker 1: they went, Now, maybe you've heard this one before, and
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Speaker 1: maybe you haven't, but if you've heard this parable before,
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Speaker 1: you already know where this goes. And it's so it's
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Speaker 1: so unsettling. It's unsettling because it seems so unfair. And
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Speaker 1: one of the reasons that I believe that these are
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Speaker 1: the actual words of Jesus and that these weren't written,
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Speaker 1: you know, decades later by the church, is because they're
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Speaker 1: so brilliant they hold together so well. And besides, anybody
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Speaker 1: who could write this well would have taken credit for it.
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Speaker 1: They wouldn't have put it in the mouth of Jesus. Besides,
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Speaker 1: Paul didn't write this way, Peter didn't write this way.
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Speaker 1: The church fathers didn't write this way. This is so extraordinarily,
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Speaker 1: extraordinarily unique and brilliant. And the other reason I think
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Speaker 1: this is genuine is is we're about to discover what
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Speaker 1: Jesus is about to say. This isn't how you build
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Speaker 1: a following. This is is that how you build a movement.
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Speaker 1: It's the opposite of everything that everybody grew up with
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Speaker 1: and everybody'd experience, But it is the way you introduce
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Speaker 1: the upside down Kingdom of God. So this fictitious landowner
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Speaker 1: who owned this vineyard that he'd sent these fictitious workers
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Speaker 1: to work in the tech says he went out again
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Speaker 1: about noon, so it's lunchtime. He goes back out to
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Speaker 1: the marketplace to the square, and he found some other
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Speaker 1: people standing around. He said, hey, I want you to
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Speaker 1: go work in my vineyard. Then he came back at
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Speaker 1: three in the afternoon and he said, hey, I've I've
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Speaker 1: found some other folks I want you to go work
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Speaker 1: in my vineyard. Now. One of the things that Jesus did,
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Speaker 1: because he was the most brilliant storyteller, is he always
15:40
Speaker 1: took things to an extreme. He took things to such
15:43
Speaker 1: an extreme that everybody in his audience would lean in
15:45
Speaker 1: and try to imagine where in the world is he
15:48
Speaker 1: going with this. Nobody would do this, and they're thinking, Okay,
15:52
Speaker 1: which one's God, which one's me, which one's God, which
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Speaker 1: one's me? And then Jesus takes it to the extreme
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Speaker 1: about five, about five in the afternoon, there's only one
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Speaker 1: hour of you know, daylight working daylight left. Basically about
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Speaker 1: five in the afternoon, he goes out to the marketplace
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Speaker 1: again and he found still others standing around me and asked him,
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Speaker 1: why have you been standing here all day long? Doing nothing?
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Speaker 1: And he knows the answer to this, And everybody in
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Speaker 1: jesus audience knows the answer to this because no one
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Speaker 1: has hired us, they answered, and he says to them,
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Speaker 1: at five pm, you also go and work in my vineyard.
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Speaker 1: And then I think Jesus pauses to let this settle
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Speaker 1: in on his audience because they're thinking this is gonna
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Speaker 1: be a disaster. How are you gonna sort all this out?
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Speaker 1: What happens when all these people come back and expect
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Speaker 1: to get paid. I mean, okay, we need all the
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Speaker 1: twelve hour guys and all the nine hour' go. I mean,
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Speaker 1: how is this gonna work? So Jesus builds it even more.
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Speaker 1: He says when evening came, When evening came, and his
16:54
Speaker 1: audience is thinking, yeah, this is gonna be interesting. When
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Speaker 1: evening came, he Luke tells us that Jesus said, when
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Speaker 1: even came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
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Speaker 1: call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with
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Speaker 1: the last ones hired and going to the first. So
17:10
Speaker 1: start with the people who basically worked an hour. They
17:14
Speaker 1: probably even worked that long. By the time they got
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Speaker 1: to the vineyard, it was time to come back and
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Speaker 1: get paid. So start with the folks who maybe work
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Speaker 1: thirty forty five minutes. And here's the twist, and here's
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Speaker 1: the gist, and here's the value system that Jesus is
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Speaker 1: trying to introduce to the world. Here is Jesus's way
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Speaker 1: of saying, this is what God is like and what
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Speaker 1: is about to unfold. If you don't know where this
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Speaker 1: parable goes is so unsettling to some people, but it
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Speaker 1: is so hopeful for others. And I'll be honest, the
17:49
Speaker 1: way this parable ends is unsettling for people like me.
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Speaker 1: So perhaps Jesus was addressing people like me. The early
17:58
Speaker 1: birds got there first. I made the T shirt and
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Speaker 1: I made the sign. I got there at five point
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Speaker 1: thirty zine. I wouldn't be hired till six, but that's okay.
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Speaker 1: And when Quentin time came, I stayed fifteen minutes later.
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Speaker 1: I'm the person that grew up and tried to do
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Speaker 1: it right from the very beginning. And no, I'm not perfect,
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Speaker 1: but I mean I tried to stay on the straight
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Speaker 1: and narrow. I mean, God, if you if you're watching me,
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Speaker 1: I've been read my Bible since I was about fifteen
18:23
Speaker 1: years old. I used to have a quiet time. I
18:25
Speaker 1: used to skip pe in high school to have my
18:27
Speaker 1: quiet time. Now I shouldn't have skipped class, but I
18:29
Speaker 1: was having my quiet time. I mean, come on right,
18:33
Speaker 1: I'm the God there first. I'm to behave myself. I'm
18:35
Speaker 1: the did my part people. The text goes on. The
18:39
Speaker 1: story goes on. The workers who were hired about five
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Speaker 1: in the afternoon, came and each of these men, these
18:45
Speaker 1: were all men, received denarius. They received what the original
18:50
Speaker 1: group was promised, and everybody in line behind them went
18:54
Speaker 1: wild with joy. Why because this can only mean one thing.
18:58
Speaker 1: We're not getting paid to denarius a day. We're getting
19:02
Speaker 1: paid a denarius an hour. Right, So when those came
19:09
Speaker 1: who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But
19:16
Speaker 1: each one of them actually also received a denarius. And
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Speaker 1: what did they do when they received exactly what they
19:23
Speaker 1: had agreed to receive based on the number of hours
19:26
Speaker 1: they agreed to work. When they received it, they began
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Speaker 1: to grumble against the landowner, just like the religious people
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Speaker 1: outside of Matthew's house that we talked about last week,
19:37
Speaker 1: Just like the people in Jericho who got there early
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Speaker 1: for the parade and didn't get to meet Jesus because
19:42
Speaker 1: he put his arm around Zachias and headed to Zachieas home.
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Speaker 1: And so the laborers in the parable respond to the
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Speaker 1: man who hired him. They said this, these who were
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Speaker 1: hired last worked only one hour, and you have made
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Speaker 1: them equal to us, and they are not equal to us.
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Speaker 1: They are, well, they're not equal to us. I'll just
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Speaker 1: leave it at that, right, Not by our standards. They're
20:15
Speaker 1: not equal to us. By our standards. We spent more hours,
20:18
Speaker 1: we worked right through lunch, we worked through the hottest
20:20
Speaker 1: part of the day. We got there early, we stayed late.
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Speaker 1: We exerted more energy, more time, and more effort, and
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Speaker 1: they are not equal to us. But the landowner answered
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Speaker 1: one of them, and he said, I'm not being unfair
20:38
Speaker 1: to you, friend, to which everybody in Jesus audience because
20:42
Speaker 1: they could so identify with the twelve hour work day. Guys,
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Speaker 1: what do you mean not fair? I mean bye bye?
20:48
Speaker 1: What standard is that fair? And the vineyard owner says,
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Speaker 1: didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your
20:55
Speaker 1: pay and go? And then g Jesus through the voice
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Speaker 1: in the words of the vineyard owner, gives us a
21:05
Speaker 1: really big clue about the way of life that we
21:09
Speaker 1: are invited in. Two Ready for this, I want, says
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Speaker 1: the vineyard owner. I want. Oh, so this is about
21:20
Speaker 1: what you want, not what we want. Right. I want
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Speaker 1: to give the one who was hired last. Well, it's
21:28
Speaker 1: a gift, all right, because they certainly didn't earn it.
21:32
Speaker 1: I want to give the one who was hired last
21:35
Speaker 1: the same as I gave you. You didn't give us anything.
21:42
Speaker 1: We got out there and earned it. You didn't give
21:46
Speaker 1: us anything. We worked for it. You didn't give us anything.
21:50
Speaker 1: We earned it right after you gave us a job. Well,
21:59
Speaker 1: there is that. This is so brilliant. Still in the parable,
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Speaker 1: don't I have the right to do what I want
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Speaker 1: with my own money? And then this, this is the punchline.
22:17
Speaker 1: This is the crowd goes silent. This is the convicting part.
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Speaker 1: This is the moment that if nobody had figured out
22:24
Speaker 1: who they were in the parable, they're about to figure
22:26
Speaker 1: it out. This is so amazing. In this next statement,
22:30
Speaker 1: Jesus illustrates, or Jesus really the better word. Jesus illuminates
22:34
Speaker 1: the absurdity of my resistance to grace. In this next statement,
22:39
Speaker 1: Jesus illuminates the absurdity of your resistance to grace, either
22:45
Speaker 1: extending grace or your willingness to receive it. In this
22:49
Speaker 1: next instant, with a single line, Jesus puts the spotlight
22:53
Speaker 1: right on my hypocrisy when it comes to the subject
22:56
Speaker 1: and the nature of grace. You ready for this? Still
22:59
Speaker 1: in the ar or, he says through the vineyard owner
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Speaker 1: to the fictitious person in the vineyard and through that
23:05
Speaker 1: person to us, Or are you resentful because I am generous? Oh?
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Speaker 1: Wait wait wait, hang on, hang on wait resentful of generosity?
23:18
Speaker 1: I mean I mean who would be resentful of generosity?
23:22
Speaker 1: I mean I mean how childish, how immature, how narrow minded? Well, no,
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Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not resentful of your generosity. I just
23:30
Speaker 1: think since I work harder, you're You're not resentful because
23:37
Speaker 1: of my generosity? Are you? It's so brilliant And in
23:42
Speaker 1: this moment, Jesus kind of outs all of us because
23:45
Speaker 1: we see the way the twelve hour Laborers see the
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Speaker 1: world right and in this parable and through many other
23:52
Speaker 1: parables and throughout his ministry, Jesus invites you, and Jesus
23:55
Speaker 1: invites me. Jesus invites all of us to see the
23:58
Speaker 1: world differently, see people differently, and to see the people
24:02
Speaker 1: around us differently, and to see our relationship to God differently,
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Speaker 1: because the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, is
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Speaker 1: characterized by unsettling generosity. And Jesus, through this parable is
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Speaker 1: asking me, and Jesus through this parable is asking you,
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Speaker 1: can you handle that? Can you handle that? Will you
24:28
Speaker 1: participate in that? Will you step into a system where
24:33
Speaker 1: the undeserving get exactly what they don't deserve. Would you
24:37
Speaker 1: be willing to extend to others exactly what they don't deserve?
24:40
Speaker 1: Because my heavenly Father has extended to you exactly what
24:45
Speaker 1: you don't deserve. Will you participate? And of course all
24:50
Speaker 1: the prodigal sons go hallelujah yes right, And all the
24:54
Speaker 1: prodigal daughters are like, hallelujah yes. And all the prodigal
24:59
Speaker 1: husbands who blew up their marriages and blew up their
25:02
Speaker 1: families and thought God's never going to hear another prayer
25:04
Speaker 1: of mine says absolutely yes. And all the prodigal wives
25:08
Speaker 1: and mothers who just ditched their responsibility and ran off
25:10
Speaker 1: and did something irresponsible and woke up three or four
25:13
Speaker 1: years later thinking I'll never put my family back together,
25:15
Speaker 1: and I can't imagine that God wouldever hear my prayer
25:18
Speaker 1: says absolutely yes. But what about people like me? And
25:25
Speaker 1: if you're like me, what about people like you? The
25:27
Speaker 1: early to the parade people, what do we say? So
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Speaker 1: Jesus pulls out of the parable and he says, to
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Speaker 1: people like me, and he says to people like you.
25:37
Speaker 1: He says to everybody. He says, Look, when you begin
25:41
Speaker 1: to understand what my father's kingdom is like, when you
25:44
Speaker 1: begin to understand the value system I've come to introduce
25:47
Speaker 1: to the world, when you step into this and fully
25:51
Speaker 1: embrace it every single day of your life, it may
25:54
Speaker 1: feel like that the last are actually first and the
25:57
Speaker 1: first are actually last, and it will feel unfair because
26:04
Speaker 1: of how you were raised to measure fair and how
26:08
Speaker 1: do we measure fair. We compare to determine what's fair.
26:15
Speaker 1: And here's the takeaway, maybe for somebody who's listening or watching,
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Speaker 1: Grace doesn't compare. Grace doesn't compare because grace in Jesus
26:30
Speaker 1: is always married to truth, and the truth is we
26:35
Speaker 1: have all fallen short of God's standard. Now, the amazing
26:42
Speaker 1: thing this is why again I can understand why you
26:45
Speaker 1: may not believe this is true. But this is the
26:47
Speaker 1: part where I just think, surely there's something on the
26:49
Speaker 1: inside of you that thinks, what if that were true?
26:53
Speaker 1: Because the system that Jesus leaves us with at the
26:56
Speaker 1: end of his ministry, the system that the apostle Paul
26:58
Speaker 1: and Peter and others would come along behind Jesus and
27:01
Speaker 1: kind of tease out and explain and document for us
27:04
Speaker 1: is fairer than fair. It's beyond fair, because and the
27:08
Speaker 1: Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God. Over and
27:12
Speaker 1: over Jesus emphasized this. Everybody is invited. Everybody, the people
27:18
Speaker 1: who showed up at six, the people who showed up
27:21
Speaker 1: at noon, the people who showed up at three, the
27:23
Speaker 1: people who showed up at five. Everybody's invited. The no
27:27
Speaker 1: betters and did betters, maybe like people a little bit
27:30
Speaker 1: like me, you know, the didn't know betters, so I
27:33
Speaker 1: didn't know to do different than I did. Maybe people
27:36
Speaker 1: like you and even the new betters. But did it anyway? People,
27:39
Speaker 1: I won't ask you to raise your hand, why because
27:41
Speaker 1: we're we've all done that. I know what's right. I'm
27:44
Speaker 1: just not gonna do it. I know it's not best
27:45
Speaker 1: for her, but I think it's best for me. I'm
27:47
Speaker 1: gonna do it anyway. All those people. Everybody's invited, the
27:51
Speaker 1: people with baggage, the people with regret, the people with
27:55
Speaker 1: a past, along with and this is the kicker, along
27:59
Speaker 1: with all the arrogant people who judge people with a
28:03
Speaker 1: past and with baggage and regret. Everybody, Everybody is invited
28:10
Speaker 1: to the Kingdom of God, and everybody gets sin through
28:16
Speaker 1: the same door Jesus, Jesus Grace and truth personified. Jesus
28:24
Speaker 1: who called sin sin, called sinners sinners, and then died
28:29
Speaker 1: for all the sinners. Jesus who called sin a sin,
28:32
Speaker 1: he never back down, sinners sinners, and then laid down
28:35
Speaker 1: his life for the sin of the sinners. And everybody
28:41
Speaker 1: comes through the same door the same way, by placing
28:45
Speaker 1: their personal faith in Christ as their savior, trusting this
28:49
Speaker 1: is it ready, trusting that what He did on our
28:53
Speaker 1: behalf made us right with God, regardless of how unright
28:57
Speaker 1: we've been, and regardless of how unsettling that might sound.