Speaker 1: The following resource is brought to you by Real Life Community Church in Richmond, Kentucky.
Speaker 1: We hope you're both challenged and encouraged by this message from Pastor Chris May.
Speaker 2: Matthew, chapter 20, beginning in verse one, we are, if you're new here, we're in a verse by verse study through the book of Matthew.
Speaker 2: Matthew, chapter 20, beginning in verse one.
Speaker 2: For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard and, after agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
Speaker 2: Going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace and to them he said you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.
Speaker 2: So they went and, going out, about the sixth hour and the ninth hour he did the same.
Speaker 2: And about the 11th hour he went out and found others standing and he said to them why do you stand here idle all day?
Speaker 2: They said to him, because no one has hired us.
Speaker 2: And he said to them you go to the vineyard too.
Speaker 2: And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first.
Speaker 2: And when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius.
Speaker 2: Now, when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more.
Speaker 2: But each of them also received a denarius and on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house saying these last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.
Speaker 2: But he replied to them friend, I am doing you no wrong.
Speaker 2: Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
Speaker 2: Take what belongs to you and go.
Speaker 2: I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.
Speaker 2: Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me, or do you begrudge my generosity?
Speaker 2: So the last will be first and the first.
Speaker 2: Last is the word of the Lord and you may be seated.
Speaker 2: Well, if you have children or you work with children, there are three words that I can almost guarantee you that you hear.
Speaker 2: Very often.
Speaker 2: Those three words go like this it's not fair.
Speaker 2: Am I telling the truth?
Speaker 2: So in kids church this morning, the teachers have to be very careful to distribute the exact same amount of goldfish crackers to each kid, lest they hear a cry, a shout, a declaration.
Speaker 2: It's not fair.
Speaker 2: I have to eat my vegetables, mom and dad, you're so mean.
Speaker 2: It's not fair.
Speaker 2: At Christmas time one child receives what he deems as a little bit lesser gift than his sibling and he cries.
Speaker 2: It's not fair.
Speaker 2: I've told this story before but I think it's worth telling again.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid, my mother she cooked about every night and at five o'clock we'd have a family dinner around the table and it was always a great experience, except on cornbread night, like she fixed more than cornbread, to be sure, but that was a special side dish.
Speaker 2: But my mom had this cast iron pan that was made especially for cornbread.
Speaker 2: It had these crevices with different shapes.
Speaker 2: So you would pour the batter into each of these crevices and the cornbread would come out different shapes.
Speaker 2: So along the edges of this cast iron pan the shape was like the long oval, standard cornbread shape, you know, but just the row behind that you had circular shapes, pretty standard.
Speaker 2: But in the middle there was one star shape and it was greatly coveted.
Speaker 2: Now, mind you, the star.
Speaker 2: It was not any bigger than the rest of the other shapes of cornbread, matter of fact, it didn't even taste better.
Speaker 2: But there was one issue.
Speaker 2: There was one of them, only one.
Speaker 2: So my brother and I, we just wanted so badly to be the one who received this edible celestial body.
Speaker 2: It was glorious to eat the star piece of cornbread, and so the one who would not receive the cornbread would rob the family of any peace and joy.
Speaker 2: That was to be at the supper table and we would cry.
Speaker 2: It's not fair.
Speaker 2: You know what's so interesting?
Speaker 2: I was thinking about that story.
Speaker 2: My mom and dad never got the star and we did not seem to care so much about that.
Speaker 2: You know, if you have teenagers, you know that that idea of fairness, unfairness, does not go away.
Speaker 2: You don't let them go to a party.
Speaker 2: Mom, a friend's mother, so much cooler than you, she's letting so and so go.
Speaker 2: And I'm a much better kid than her.
Speaker 2: It's so unfair.
Speaker 2: Slam door to bedroom.
Speaker 2: Am I preaching?
Speaker 2: I have to dare.
Speaker 2: It's Saturday.
Speaker 2: You're going to make me help out around the house.
Speaker 2: It's so unfair.
Speaker 2: My life, oh my goodness, come on.
Speaker 2: The shoes are only $200.
Speaker 2: You won't buy them for me.
Speaker 2: It's so unfair.
Speaker 2: Somebody's like you've been listening into my conversations with my kids this week.
Speaker 2: Well, before we judge our teenagers, beloved adults don't?
Speaker 2: We scream this as well?
Speaker 2: Maybe not as explicitly, but in our hearts we feel this sense of injustice quite often.
Speaker 2: Now let me to be sure there are real injustices in the world that we should care about.
Speaker 2: That's not what I'm talking about, but I'm talking about our daily, maybe inconveniences.
Speaker 2: We want something we don't have right?
Speaker 2: Your favorite sports team loses, gentlemen, it's always the ref's fault, it's not the fact that your basketball team shot 20% from outside.
Speaker 2: It's the rest.
Speaker 2: It's not fair.
Speaker 2: And if you were on the other side and that team lost, it would still be the rest and it would be unfair.
Speaker 2: Think about this you apply for a promotion at work, you feel amongst the other.
Speaker 2: You know, compared to the other candidates, you're more educated, you have more experience, you're better looking, you're nicer, more deserving, but somebody else gets the job.
Speaker 2: You're not happy for them at all.
Speaker 2: I mean, you smile oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you, but on the inside you're like I want to cut you right, like you're so mad.
Speaker 2: Hopefully you don't take it that far, but you're screaming inside.
Speaker 2: It's not fair.
Speaker 2: If you've ever been to a restaurant with a friend and the bill, you know you're going, you're each plan to pay for your own food, but the bill comes out and it's all together and you say your friend says something like this you know, just to make it easier so she doesn't have to split all this up.
Speaker 2: And you know, let's just split it, let's just split the bill 50-50 and you go okay.
Speaker 2: But then you think about it and you're like I had a salad and you had a 20 ounce ribeye with lobster and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll split it, and then you're inside, it's not fair.
Speaker 2: Well, those are maybe trivial and humorous examples, but you know that there are times that in our hearts we actually accuse God and maybe, with our words, accuse God of being unfair.
Speaker 2: It's like, lord, I've been saved since I was five years old.
Speaker 2: I've taught Sunday school since I was six years old.
Speaker 2: I pray more than most people.
Speaker 2: I read my Bible more than most people.
Speaker 2: I never miss church.
Speaker 2: But you, lord, I you know I lost my job.
Speaker 2: I was given this particular diagnosis.
Speaker 2: And look at this person over here Didn't even read her Bible daily, never taught Sunday school, comes to church once a month and yet she has perfect health and a great job.
Speaker 2: It's not fair.
Speaker 2: See, many of us beloved, we go through life wearing this, what we might call lens of fairness.
Speaker 2: Lens of fairness, we're always measuring our blessings that God gives against the blessings in other people's lives and when, when, when we don't feel like we get what other people get, we feel that God owes us and we scream it's unfair.
Speaker 2: So the main point of this passage that I want to point out today I think I think this is one of the main points is I think Jesus is calling his disciples and us to take off the lens of fairness and to put on the lens of grace, to start seeing life as a gift from God and every blessing as a gift from God, not just in our lives but in the lives of others.
Speaker 2: And let me add this undeserved gifts from God, gifts of grace.
Speaker 2: You know every spiritual gift you have.
Speaker 2: It's a gift of grace.
Speaker 2: I tell our elders, our co, you know our other pastors here.
Speaker 2: You know who are we to get to?
Speaker 2: Shepherd people, who are we to get to stand up here and preach week after week?
Speaker 2: It's not anything special about me.
Speaker 2: I guarantee you the gift of grace, the greatest gift we've ever been given, is Jesus Christ and I can tell you none of us deserve him, and if he never did another thing for us, we would have way more than we deserve.
Speaker 2: I love Dave Ramsey's answer on his radio show.
Speaker 2: Dave, how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm going to say better than I deserve.
Speaker 2: You look at my life.
Speaker 2: You look at your life.
Speaker 2: How are you?
Speaker 2: It's better than you deserve.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 2: Because of the grace of God.
Speaker 2: Let me just give you some context.
Speaker 2: In the previous chapter of Matthew it was the story, remember last week, of the rich young ruler and Peter, on behalf of the disciples, asked Jesus, hey, we've left, we've given quite a lot to follow you.
Speaker 2: What are we going to get?
Speaker 2: And Jesus says oh, you're going to get eternal life, you get to be part of the kingdom, you get to be brought into the family of God is essentially what Jesus is saying.
Speaker 2: And the disciples?
Speaker 2: I think they start thinking about this and think well, every Christian gets that.
Speaker 2: But, lord, we've given up way more.
Speaker 2: What are we going to get?
Speaker 2: So Jesus ends that conversation by saying you know, the last will be first and the first will be last.
Speaker 2: And then Jesus gives this parable to unpack that statement.
Speaker 2: It's kind of cryptic.
Speaker 2: And then he closes the parable with the same words the last shall be first.
Speaker 2: So here we go, let's unpack this In the parable.
Speaker 2: You have a landowner and he's facing a labor shortage at the time of the great harvest.
Speaker 2: So the landowner goes early to the marketplace or this commons area, and this was very standard in the first century Judaism.
Speaker 2: Here in the Jewish culture you would have men who would be in the commons area.
Speaker 2: They were day laborers, so they didn't know from day to day where they would work or if they would work.
Speaker 2: So they would go to this place and they would stand and you know labor or, excuse me, owners, masters, would come in landowners and they would hire somebody for the day.
Speaker 2: And so this landowner needs workers in the vineyard and so he goes very early in the morning to hire some workers.
Speaker 2: And a normal work day in that culture was actually 12 hours, 12 hours roughly from sun up to sun down, so it would be 6 am to 6 pm.
Speaker 2: So the landowner goes and he hires his first group of laborers about 6 am and he says listen, I will pay you a denarius for a full day of work.
Speaker 2: Now, a denarius is simply a fair day's wage.
Speaker 2: Not everybody paid that, but he got you work a day, you get a day's.
Speaker 2: You know, a fair day's pay.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, right?
Speaker 2: Well then, as the day passes, the landowner realizes listen, I need more workers.
Speaker 2: This job's not getting done quickly enough.
Speaker 2: And so at 9 am he returns and he hires, he summons some additional laborers, but he doesn't tell him what he's gonna pay them.
Speaker 2: He says, listen, I'll give you what's fair, I'll treat you right.
Speaker 2: So they go with him.
Speaker 2: He does the same thing at noon, he goes again at 3 pm and then finally he returns once more to the marketplace at 5 pm.
Speaker 2: These laborers are going to work one hour and they're done.
Speaker 2: And so they joined the other laborers and they work their hour and the job is complete.
Speaker 2: And at the end of the day the master, the landowner, he says to his foreman he says, listen, I want you to pay the laborers because they, you know, in order for them to feed their family the next day, they needed that money.
Speaker 2: There was no waiting, you know a week for the pay.
Speaker 2: And so he says but I want you to do something.
Speaker 2: To his foreman that the landlord says I want you to start by paying the last workers, the one hour workers, and then I want you to move kind of backwards and end with the full day laborers.
Speaker 2: Now what point is Jesus unpacking?
Speaker 2: Remember, the last will be first.
Speaker 2: You see what Jesus is doing here.
Speaker 2: And so he, he does something here.
Speaker 2: That's really crazy.
Speaker 2: He starts with these one hour five o'clock laborers and he pays them a denarius a full day's wage.
Speaker 2: How many of you want a boss like that?
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm just going to work an hour to the oh here, take a full day's pay, right.
Speaker 2: Well, upon hearing this, you know that the full day laborers, they're just the ears shot away and they're they're okay with this because here's what they're, here's their logic.
Speaker 2: He's paying the one hours a full day, oh, and he's saying to his friends that have been there all day we're going to get two weeks of pay.
Speaker 2: Here it's coming.
Speaker 2: This is going to be glorious.
Speaker 2: But the foreman gets to them and he hands them one denarius, the same as he gave the one hour laborers.
Speaker 2: And understandably, these workers are outraged.
Speaker 2: You gave us the same amount that you gave them and they only worked an hour.
Speaker 2: Now, how would you feel if that happened to you at your job?
Speaker 2: You might.
Speaker 2: I mean, you guys are trying to act all spiritual like that.
Speaker 2: You're like, eh, you know it'd be okay.
Speaker 2: No, it wouldn't.
Speaker 2: He would walk out furious and get another job.
Speaker 2: But you know, jesus, this is a parable, remember this.
Speaker 2: Jesus is making a point.
Speaker 2: He's not giving business advice, he's not giving economic advice.
Speaker 2: He's giving us an illustration about the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God does not function like our world functions.
Speaker 2: The kingdom of this world functions.
Speaker 2: No, it's an upside down kingdom.
Speaker 2: And so he's using this outrageous story to teach the disciples something about the kingdom.
Speaker 2: So in the parable, you have the vineyard, and the vineyard represents clearly the kingdom of God.
Speaker 2: Then you have the landowner this very important.
Speaker 2: You get this.
Speaker 2: The landowner represents God the father.
Speaker 2: You with me, you got the kingdom is the vineyard.
Speaker 2: You've got the landowner.
Speaker 2: He owns the kingdom, god the father.
Speaker 2: And then you have the full day laborers, and I think the full day laborers represent the disciples, because they're the ones who have followed Jesus first and they're the ones who are saying Jesus, what are we going to get?
Speaker 2: I know you've got something special for us, because we get where the first into you know, to be invited in this club, or the first to give everything for you, lord, we're going to get something special.
Speaker 2: We've been here all day working, so to speak.
Speaker 2: And then you have the last hour laborers, who I think would be others who have continually come into the kingdom of God, who have followed Jesus, and perhaps they've not had to give up quite as much as the disciples.
Speaker 2: Are.
Speaker 2: You with me, everybody, have the parable.
Speaker 2: I'm going to bring some application out of this that I think is so vital for us.
Speaker 2: So, through the parable, jesus is lovingly correcting the disciples who think that they deserve extra blessings from God.
Speaker 2: You know what I think he's doing.
Speaker 2: He's asking the disciples take off the lens of fairness and put on the lens of grace.
Speaker 2: See that you've gotten already more than you deserve.
Speaker 2: Take off the lens of fairness and put on the lens of grace.
Speaker 2: And so, in the final section of this parable, the landowner.
Speaker 2: He asked the full day laborers three questions and I just want to quickly look at these to give us some application today about the lens of fairness versus the lens of grace.
Speaker 2: Question one look at verses 11 through 13 with me.
Speaker 2: On receiving it, this would be their pay.
Speaker 2: The full day workers grumbled at the master of the house saying these last works only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.
Speaker 2: But the landowner replies to one of them friend, I am doing you no wrong.
Speaker 2: Did you not agree with me, or one, denarius?
Speaker 2: You know what the landowner here is essentially asking.
Speaker 2: Did I not keep my promise to you?
Speaker 2: Why are you concerned with anybody else?
Speaker 2: The full day laborers?
Speaker 2: They've received the check or cash.
Speaker 2: More likely, they've received their payment and they get to feed their families tomorrow.
Speaker 2: The landowner think about this.
Speaker 2: Did he have to hire them in the first place?
Speaker 2: There were many other people there.
Speaker 2: No, he hired them out of grace and he gave them a paycheck and they were able to feed their families one more day.
Speaker 2: And he says to them, as they're grumbling, that they didn't get more than the people had only worked an hour.
Speaker 2: He says did I not give you what I promise?
Speaker 2: You know, here's what the lens of fairness does.
Speaker 2: You know what it does to our lives.
Speaker 2: It produces entitlement when we live in a culture full of entitled people.
Speaker 2: Are you with me?
Speaker 2: See, if you know me, you know that I have conflicting passions in my life.
Speaker 2: Like I love health and fitness on one hand, like I enjoy working out, bike riding, I like to eat healthy because I like to feel good and I believe my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and so I want to take care of it.
Speaker 2: But there's this conflicting interest because, on the other hand, I like pizza a whole lot.
Speaker 2: If you know me, you know I mean Matthew.
Speaker 2: You can attest I'm somewhat cultured.
Speaker 2: We go to Indian and you know Indian food and many others Like.
Speaker 2: I don't want you to think that I only eat like a five year old Okay, like but I love.
Speaker 2: My favorite food, to be honest, is pepperoni pizza, pepperoni pizza, and so I love ordering pizza.
Speaker 2: And I was thinking about this and I think most of us have probably been together with friends or, you know, family members, and you just decide.
Speaker 2: You know everybody gets hungry.
Speaker 2: You're like, hey, let's chip in and get some pizza.
Speaker 2: And some people, like you, give a little more money than some of the other people.
Speaker 2: So so the pizza comes in and I just want to ask you a question If you give more money, if a person gives more money towards the pizza than others, should that person, shouldn't that person get, like, more slices of pizza than other people?
Speaker 2: I'm asking for a friend.
Speaker 2: Shake your head if you agree with me.
Speaker 2: So here's what happens.
Speaker 2: Here's what happens.
Speaker 2: Pizza comes and you've paid more and you love pizza, like I do, and you don't enjoy your pizza at all because what you're doing is you're.
Speaker 2: You're like keeping records of how many pieces everybody else got versus what they owed Anybody ever been there.
Speaker 2: And you're like mad because this one person who's getting multiple slices, he's not eating it's crust.
Speaker 2: And you're like, come on, you're taking more than me and you're not even eating the whole slice of pizza.
Speaker 2: Eat your crust, son.
Speaker 2: And so you feel, because you've paid more, you feel what Entitled more pizza and it just robs you of the blessing of enjoying what you get One or two slices perhaps you know when we are always trying to match up what God gives us versus what he gives other people, we've just become entitled and we forget God.
Speaker 2: You've given me infinitely more than I deserve.
Speaker 2: I don't deserve eternal life, I don't deserve Christ, I don't deserve to be part of your kingdom.
Speaker 2: I deserve judgment.
Speaker 2: And yet when I have on the lens of fairness, all I see is that somebody else has some blessing that I don't have.
Speaker 2: They haven't paid as much as me.
Speaker 2: Lord, have you seen how much I've done for you?
Speaker 2: So, lord, you owe me.
Speaker 2: The lens of fairness produces entitlement, but you know what the lens of grace does.
Speaker 2: It produces humility.
Speaker 2: Paul said these wonderful words in 1 Corinthians 1510,.
Speaker 2: I believe he says I am what I am by the grace of God.
Speaker 2: Paul, an apostle, had many, many hundreds, if not thousands, of people come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: It was ministry.
Speaker 2: God used him to perform many miracles.
Speaker 2: Paul wrote two thirds of what we call our New Testament.
Speaker 2: Pretty accomplished guy.
Speaker 2: But you know what's interesting?
Speaker 2: All of that in Paul did not.
Speaker 2: You know, when we talk about material possessions, paul did not have what many of the Christians had that he ministered to.
Speaker 2: I mean, paul had a tough life.
Speaker 2: He was shipwrecked, snake bitten, stoned, spent tons of time in prison for preaching the gospel.
Speaker 2: He had a thorn in the flesh that would never go away.
Speaker 2: God wouldn't take it away.
Speaker 2: But you know what I love about Paul?
Speaker 2: Paul didn't go around looking at what other believers had, or even unbelievers, and going.
Speaker 2: You know, woe is me, or poor little me.
Speaker 2: Lord, look at me, I'm an apostle, you owe me.
Speaker 2: Paul was not entitled, he just said you know what?
Speaker 2: Everything I have, my apostleship, the miracles, the salvation that have come through my ministry you know I am what I am.
Speaker 2: By grace and God, you've given me way more than what I deserve, because the lens of grace produces humility.
Speaker 2: Let's look at the landowner's second question.
Speaker 2: Do I not get he poses this question to the all day laborers Do I not get to choose what I do with my resources?
Speaker 2: That's first 15.
Speaker 2: See the lens of fairness.
Speaker 2: You know what it does.
Speaker 2: It doesn't just produce entitlement, it produces arrogant, to where you think you know what God should do with his resource.
Speaker 2: Think about that for a moment.
Speaker 2: Have you ever tried to tell God what he should do?
Speaker 2: Lord, if you would just heal my body, many people would come to you.
Speaker 2: What you're saying is I mean, ask God for healing, but don't try to tell him what's best, what's best for his glory.
Speaker 2: How arrogant it is in this story to think that the day laborers could tell the owner of the vineyard they've been there one day working and they're going to have the audacity to tell him what he should do with his money, what he should pay other people when he's been more than fair to them.
Speaker 2: See, if we wear the lens of fairness again, we're always going to be measuring up and if our blessings to others and then if we feel someone less worthy than us has received more than we have.
Speaker 2: We can actually feel that we know better than God.
Speaker 2: It's like we reminding him.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh Lord, you know they're not as spiritual as me.
Speaker 2: Right, like you forgot, like you probably need to give me that blessing.
Speaker 2: You might just consider taking it from them and putting it on my life.
Speaker 2: I love what Kevin DeYoung said.
Speaker 2: Listen to this.
Speaker 2: He said we need to stop trying to figure out if God is doing too much for someone else.
Speaker 2: And I read that again we need to stop trying to figure out if God is doing too much for someone else.
Speaker 2: Can I just get in your business for a moment?
Speaker 2: Do you ever look at anybody who's maybe not living?
Speaker 2: They call themselves a Christian, but they're not near as spiritual as you are.
Speaker 2: And they struggle and you see, and they got the new health, they got the good job.
Speaker 2: Their children are as crazy as mine.
Speaker 2: And you think in your heart why in the world would God give them that?
Speaker 2: Lord, you should have given that to me.
Speaker 2: See, the lens of fairness always produces arrogance, but you know what the lens of grace does?
Speaker 2: It produces humility.
Speaker 2: Because when I began to see the blessings in my life, in the blessings in other people's lives, I realized God does not bless us because of merit.
Speaker 2: He doesn't look and say, oh well, here's how many times Jessica read her Bible this week and here's how many times Stephen and Janet read their Bibles this week.
Speaker 2: So Jessica read it more.
Speaker 2: So we're going to bless Jessica this week a little more and I'm not going to bless Stephen and Janet, sorry, this week as much.
Speaker 2: It's not how he does.
Speaker 2: Every blessing in your life and every blessing in my life, you know what it is.
Speaker 2: Those are undeserved blessings and we need to see those things through a lens of grace.
Speaker 2: Final question, the landowner's third question to the all day laborers.
Speaker 2: Listen to this question Do you begrudge my generosity?
Speaker 2: So, translated literally, verse 15,.
Speaker 2: Here's how it would read if we translated it literally literally is your eye bad because I am good?
Speaker 2: Ron, I saw you rubbing your eyes during that.
Speaker 2: Is your eye bad because I am good?
Speaker 2: So in this culture, actually in both Jewish and Greek culture, to have an evil eye was to be eaten up with jealousy and a kind of a grudging spirit, and so this is verse 15, it's another way of saying do you have an evil eye towards my generosity?
Speaker 2: So they're so angry these day laborers at the landowner's generosity towards the one hour workers that you know what they began to do.
Speaker 2: They began to look at those one hour workers with an evil eye.
Speaker 2: They're jealous, they covet, they're mad at them because the landowner has given them a full day's wage for one hour.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking you don't deserve it.
Speaker 2: You know, I met a pastor.
Speaker 2: I met a pastor who used to be an associate pastor at a large church in town.
Speaker 2: The pastor, this associate pastor, told me no, I've never met the lead pastor of this large church.
Speaker 2: But you know what this associate pastor told me.
Speaker 2: He says to me oh, he says that pastor only puts about 15 minutes to maybe an hour at the most into his Sunday sermon and to study for those, prep, prep for that sermon.
Speaker 2: And I started thinking about that.
Speaker 2: And I started thinking about it when I was like on my eighth to 10th hour in prep for you guys to give you the word.
Speaker 2: And then I started thinking about the size of my church and the size of his church and I started to get resentful.
Speaker 2: I started to think he doesn't deserve that Lord.
Speaker 2: I should have the large church.
Speaker 2: I'm preaching verse by verse, I'm preaching context.
Speaker 2: Now I don't even know this other pastor, but I started to resent him.
Speaker 2: You know why?
Speaker 2: Cause I had on the lens of fairness, not the lens of grace.
Speaker 2: But you know now the Lord's brought me by his grace through this.
Speaker 2: I just don't care anything about having a large church because I have on the lens of grace and I think every week Lord, how in the world do you allow me, as imperfect as I am, the pastor of these wonderful 100 people?
Speaker 2: It's undeserved.
Speaker 2: Who cares about a larger church?
Speaker 2: Lord, I'm just grateful for the grace to pastor these people.
Speaker 2: See the lens of fairness.
Speaker 2: You know what it does.
Speaker 2: It produces resentment towards others.
Speaker 2: But let me tell you, the lens of grace produces the celebration of others.
Speaker 2: To quote Paul again, 1 Corinthians 1.4,.
Speaker 2: He's writing to the church at Corinth.
Speaker 2: Many of them have much more than Paul and you know what he says in this verse.
Speaker 2: He says I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: And you know it is a miserable place to be in when you and I are so entitled and so worried about fairness and what they have and what we don't have, that we cannot celebrate God's victory and blessing upon their life.
Speaker 2: You know what if revival we all want revival.
Speaker 2: What if it starts in first Baptist this morning?
Speaker 2: Lord, you know we're more charismatic.
Speaker 2: Why wouldn't it start here?
Speaker 2: Who cares?
Speaker 2: Revivals come, we ought to go to that church and say hallelujah, we're so grateful revival has come to Richmond.
Speaker 2: Your friend is blessed with a nice house.
Speaker 2: You might be tempted to say, hey, I need a bigger house.
Speaker 2: I mean, I host small groups, I need more room, I want to use my house for the glory of God.
Speaker 2: And if that's your attitude, you will not celebrate that home, your friend's home, you'll just be angry and resentful.
Speaker 2: Put on the lens of grace, you'll realize your maybe 800 square foot apartment is more than you deserve, and there that your friend's house is more than they deserve.
Speaker 2: And both are just gifts of grace, undeserved.
Speaker 2: Jesus closes again with this statement.
Speaker 2: So the last will be first and the first last, because I think what's going on here in the last text and we're going to see this even more in this chapter like the disciples aren't getting it.
Speaker 2: Remember the beginning of chapter 18, which was kind of the beginning of this discourse.
Speaker 2: They were fighting the disciples amongst themselves about who's going to be greatest in the kingdom.
Speaker 2: And Jesus says really, don't even assume you're even in the kingdom at all, because to get in the kingdom requires humility and you are clearly not humble.
Speaker 2: You got to have childlike faith.
Speaker 2: And so the disciples, they're so concerned that you know Jesus has just told them, after the incident with the rich young ruler, he has told them you get eternal life for following me.
Speaker 2: You get to be part of my family, part of my kingdom is essentially what he's teaching.
Speaker 2: But the disciples, they want to know what they're going to get more.
Speaker 2: I believe that's what's going on.
Speaker 2: Hey, lord, we're going to get more than others, right, because you realize what we've done.
Speaker 2: But Jesus is teaching them the last will be paid first, and the first last humble yourself, don't walk around with the lens of fairness.
Speaker 2: Peter, james, john, the rest of you, you don't deserve to be in my inner circle.
Speaker 2: I didn't choose you because you were great.
Speaker 2: I chose you out of love and out of grace, and you may not have a place to lay your head unless you go into somebody else's home.
Speaker 2: But you have me and I'm more than enough.
Speaker 2: Christ is all sufficient.
Speaker 2: You have him, you have more than enough.
Speaker 2: So today, maybe you're here and you're not yet in the family of God, maybe you're kind of on the fence and I would just say to you why don't you come receive God's grace today?
Speaker 2: Maybe you're like the last hour workers.
Speaker 2: You're still standing in the marketplace and you feel like man.
Speaker 2: Other people have rejected me and I don't know if God would even want to hire me.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he would want to bring me into his vineyard, but he's standing there at the 11th hour and he's bidding you to come today.
Speaker 2: Would you come experience his grace?
Speaker 2: If you are here and you're a Christian, do you struggle with this, wearing this, always, this lens of fairness, and just ask the Lord, help me, lord, today, to see every, every blessing in my life is a gift of grace.
Speaker 2: And not help me not to measure my, my blessings against other people's blessings.
Speaker 2: Let me be content with what I have.
Speaker 2: We just walk in gratitude and see life through a lens of grace.
Speaker 2: I'm going to close with this story.
Speaker 2: I want to read it verbatim and I know when I look down I lose some of you, but I want you to hear this.
Speaker 2: It's powerful.
Speaker 2: This story is written by a guy by the name of Roy Borgs, and Roy Borgs when he wrote this and he may still be in prison he was in a prison in Florida, got saved and became just a radical, you know, believer and evangelist there in his prison cell.
Speaker 2: So he writes.
Speaker 2: This life behind prison walls provides many opportunities for me to trust God and to extend his love and his grace to others.
Speaker 2: This happens.
Speaker 2: He writes on a daily basis, which was the case when someone stole my battery operated razor and a bag of coffee from my cell while I was at breakfast.
Speaker 2: It didn't take much detective work to identify the thief.
Speaker 2: So usually he writes when things like this happen.
Speaker 2: I turned them over to God.
Speaker 2: He's always faithful to turn these situations around for my good.
Speaker 2: But this time, he said, part of me wanted to give that thief what he deserved.
Speaker 2: I wanted him to know that he wasn't getting something for nothing.
Speaker 2: He was going to pay what he had done.
Speaker 2: So I confronted the man and I told him I wanted my razor back, but he denied taking it.
Speaker 2: So I looked at him hard and I knew he was lying.
Speaker 2: But I was angry and he knew it too.
Speaker 2: So in the midst of our stare down, I came to my senses and I did the smartest thing I knew to do.
Speaker 2: I turned and walked away.
Speaker 2: I realized I had a choice.
Speaker 2: I could do things my way, listen, or I could do them God's way.
Speaker 2: God's way is a way of grace and love and mercy.
Speaker 2: Grace, love, mercy, he says.
Speaker 2: Talk about getting something for nothing.
Speaker 2: God's grace, his love, his mercy didn't cost me a thing, but they cost God everything.
Speaker 2: They cost him the very life of his son.
Speaker 2: None of us deserve God's grace, love or mercy.
Speaker 2: I sure don't.
Speaker 2: I deserve the opposite.
Speaker 2: I deserve death.
Speaker 2: But God gave me his grace, love and mercy just the same.
Speaker 2: That's his way.
Speaker 2: He gives us something for nothing.
Speaker 2: He writes.
Speaker 2: Later that day I went back to the thief and I just told him I forgive you.
Speaker 2: That's how that thief replied.
Speaker 2: The thief said I didn't take your coffee.
Speaker 2: The man never mentioned the coffee before, he just mentioned the razor.
Speaker 2: He said I hadn't told him my coffee was stolen.
Speaker 2: His denial was actually a mission of the crime.
Speaker 2: I smiled and said I forgive you.
Speaker 2: And with those words I gave to him what God had given to me something for nothing, grace.
Speaker 2: It felt so good.
Speaker 2: Peace beyond my understanding entered my spirit.
Speaker 2: In every bit of anger left he writes this there's always something much more valuable at stake than what I see.
Speaker 2: I just knew God was using the razor in the back of coffee for a greater purpose.
Speaker 2: The following Sunday I was at the chapel when I noticed this man.
Speaker 2: He was listening to the message and then, when the invitation to know Christ was given, he came forward and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Speaker 2: Get G-I-T that's the man's name told me later in the dorm that my response came as a total surprise to him.
Speaker 2: When I said these three words I forgive you he'd immediately felt shame and aggrieved for what he'd done.
Speaker 2: He told me that something had drawn him to the chapel that Sunday morning like a magnet, and then, when the message was shared, he knew God was knocking on the door of his heart, asking to get to let him in, and he received.
Speaker 2: God's grace, my life has been such a mess, get sad.
Speaker 2: I need Jesus to take over my life to forgive me of my sin and change me.
Speaker 2: A tear ran down his cheek, streaming over the tattooed teardrop permanently displayed on his face.
Speaker 2: I gave him a brotherly hug and then, to my amazement, I actually found myself thanking God for letting him steal my razor and my coffee Something for nothing.
Speaker 2: It's God's way, it's God's grace and it's the best way.
Speaker 2: Beloved, would you take off the lens of fairness today and put on the lens of grace, father?
Speaker 2: Wow, how we repent of thinking that we deserve anything from you.
Speaker 2: Lord, forgive us for not being as thankful for the blessings in our life that you have bestowed upon us.
Speaker 2: Every good and perfect gift comes from above, and yet we're like children impetuous, entitled, always screaming.
Speaker 2: It's not fair as we look at somebody who just might have something more than us.
Speaker 2: God, let us take the lens of fairness off today and put on the lens of grace, so that we might see that you have given us infinitely more than we deserve.
Speaker 2: And if you gave us Christ, only the all-sufficient one, you've given us infinitely more than we could ever deserve, and you've given us more than enough to be satisfied.
Speaker 2: Let us be able to celebrate for those who might have something more, a blessing that we don't have something more than we do.
Speaker 2: Let us celebrate to just see it as an act of your grace in their life and let us thank God for them and what you've done in their lives.
Speaker 2: Let us never look at others with the evil eye, the eye of jealousy in resentment because of what they have.
Speaker 2: God, how we love you, how we praise you In Jesus' good name amen.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to know more about how you can have a relationship with Jesus Christ, or if you have questions about our church, you can email us at infoatmyrealchurchorg.
Speaker 1: Real Life Community Church is located at 335 Glendon Avenue in Richmond, kentucky.
Speaker 1: We invite you to join us for worship Sunday at 10.45 am or Wednesday at 7 pm.
Speaker 1: Visit us online at myrealchurchorg.