WHEN LIFE DOESN’T SEEM FAIR

Your Kingdom Come, Pt. 3 | January 19, 2025
Pastor Wes Morris

Matthew 20:1-16 (NLT) “For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.

“At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing.

“At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’

“They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’  The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’

“That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage.

"When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’

“He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’

“So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”


✓ We are here because of the mercy and grace of Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT) God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

✓ God will choose anyone at any time.

✓ Envy begins when I resent God's goodness in the lives of others, and ignore God's goodness in my own.

✓ God’s blessings aren’t contingent on our work, but on His goodness.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT) God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.


WHEN LIFE DOESN’T SEEM FAIR
 

I. DEVELOP A HEART OF GRATITUDE. 

Philippians 4:11-13 (MSG) I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.


II. DON’T ALLOW COMPARISON TO STEAL YOUR JOY. 

Philippians 2:5-6 (NLT) You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.

III. TRUST THAT GOD’S PLAN IS BEST FOR MY LIFE.

Proverbs 19:21 (GNT) People may plan all kinds of things, but the Lord's will is going to be done.