Elevation with Steven Furtick - It’s Not Fair (Robert Madu)

Episode Date: June 7, 2026

Are you disappointed because of what happened… or because of what you expected would happen? When life feels unfair, it’s easy to compare your story to someone else’s and wonder why things worked out differently. But peace comes when you stop measuring your life against other people and start trusting the character of God. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr  Scriptures Referenced:Matthew 20, verses 1-16 – God's grace isn't bound by what you've earned or how long you've servedMatthew 19 – The rich young ruler's encounter with Jesus reveals what it actually costs to follow HimSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. I welcome our eFAM all around the world. Would you help me welcome them, put your hands together? And when you're a preacher, but you come to church, but you don't preach, you want to make sure that you got a great preacher, somebody you want to listen to. So I do today. My oldest son Elijah is going to come tell you who we've got preaching today. He's not preaching today. That would be a plot twist. Man, it's a... What would you do if I said, and our preacher for today? I'm going to have to tag in my boy PGF over here, my boy Graham. I think he'd have something for it. I love it.

Man, it's a special day today because we've got a very special guest, Robert Madew, in the house. And yeah, come on, give it up. And honestly, it's not really accurate. I know we always say this, but it's not really accurate to call him a guest because he's family. Mr. Chunks actually told me that second to my parents, he's actually preached the second most times out of anyone in this pulpit. Can we give it up for that? Come on. But come on, y'all.

We got one of the best dressed pastors in the game coming all the way from Dallas, Texas. He's a father of three, a husband to Taylor Madoo. and the pastor of Social Dallas. Elevation, if y'all are not standing up, I need y'all to stand on y'all's feet and help me give a warm welcome to Pastor Robert Madhue. Somebody give Jesus just the best shout of praise that you got to know. Oh, come on, don't give a little cute golf clap.

Across every location, if you love Jesus and you're not ashamed about it, come on, would you just take about 10 more seconds and give them the praise that he's worthy of? Oh, come on, somebody. Praise them like you know, dead things can come alive today. Come on, praise them like you know, chains could break today. Anything could happen in this place.

How you feel in elevation? Anybody come with some expectancy for what God's going to do today? Tell you what, I didn't wait to get here to get ready for church. I got ready before I got here, got my faith level up, And I sense God's going to do something incredible in this house today. Just in case your neighbor didn't have their coffee, would you just elbow them across every location? Say something's going to happen today.

Something's going to happen today. I remain standing because Elijah took the words out of my mouth. I don't consider myself a guest here. I do consider myself family. And I've been coming here. for years, but I don't take it lightly, the honor, the privilege to stand on this stage in this house. This is not ordinary.

This is holy. One of the worst things you can do is to treat something holy ordinary. Just get used to it. Just get used to Pastor Stephen. My pastor he preached, get used to that. And every time I walk in here, I'm reminded of the faithfulness of God and that this did not happen overnight.

This is decades of faithfulness. Decades are saying yes when it was tough. Decades of showing up when you didn't feel like. Two, to be specific. Two decades. Anybody can be faithful for a day, but be faithful for decades. That's a big deal.

and so many times we celebrate what God does through people, but we don't pause to go, what did it to do that? And before I say anything, especially because he's here, I want to thank God for the gift that is in Pastor Stephen Ferdick and his wife Howell for the sacrifice, for what it cost you to do this. Come on across every location. I need you to clap to your hands hurt.

And I want them to know how much we love them. The whole Ferdick family, how much we appreciate him. Come on, y'all could do better than that. We are grateful. We don't take you for granted. That's the thing. He can call anybody, literally, anybody to preach.

And so I'm so honored to be here. My wife sends her love. Again, I bring you greetings for the great country of Texas. We pastor a church there, Social Dallas, turned five years old this year. And seeing God do awesome things. but I always get an excused absence to pull up to elevation. So we're going to have fun. Are y'all tired of standing?

Well, you wore those shoes. That's on you. Stay standing. I want to jump straight to the Word of God because I do have a word to preach today. There is a story told by the greatest storyteller ever that is stuck in my head. This is stuck in my head.

I want to just preach out what's been in my mind. Can we thank God for this worship team? Come on, love y'all. Set in the atmosphere. Go with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter number 20. Matthew 20. And I want to look at verses 1 through 16. Matthew chapter 20.

We'll start at verse 1 and will land at verse 16. Now some of y'all are like, oh, that's a lot of scriptures. We need all of it for you to really feel this story. Matthew chapter 20. Once you got it, say yeah. If you need some time to find it, say, how long? I heard you. I'm going to wait for you.

Thank you so much. It declares, for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About nine in the morning, he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, you also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right. So they win. He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing.

About five in the afternoon, he went out and found still others standing around. And he asked them, why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing? Because no one has hired us, they answer. He said to them, you also go and work in my vineyard. Now, that's wild to me, because the work day ends at 6 o'clock. How are you hiring people at 5 o'clock to go work for one hour? but the landowner felt that was necessary. When evening came, the owner of the vineyards said,

no, no, no, let go up, go up. No, one hired him. He says, when evening came, the owner the vineyard said to his foreman, call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first. The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. Huh. Full days pay.

for an hour of work. So when those who are hired first, they, they, see what happened? You expected me to say expected. And I expected you to say expected. Most of the pain and the frustration in our lives is not from what happened. It's from what we expected. Anybody ever dealt with the pain of unmet, sometimes unexpressed, expectation? They expected to receive more.

But each one of them also received the denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. These who were hired last worked only one hour, they said, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work in the heat of the day. But he answered one of them, I am not being unfair to you, friend. didn't you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give to the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?

What I say to my wife sometimes, but it don't always work out. Are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first. and the first will be last. Can you say amen? Amen. I want to preach today just using this as a thought. It's not, it's not fair. Look at your neighbor one more time, whichever one you like the best and just say neighbor. Don't be afraid to talk to him. Say neighbor. It's not fair. It's not fair. It's not fair. Father, Have your way. Speak to us today.

Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. It's not fair. Elevation fam, I started preaching before I had kids. I started preaching before I had offspring. And when I was preaching before I had kids, I would listen to other preachers. who would always use their kids as an illustration in their messages,

and I would secretly and quietly judge them on the inside, thinking to myself, come on, bro, where is the creativity? Surely you can find another way to illustrate the text besides talking about your kids all the time. That's what I said. Then I had kids, three of them. And I realized that if you don't talk about your kids while you're preaching, you ain't doing it right.

you ain't doing it right because from the moment these little humans are conceived you will be inundated with all kinds of illustrations and moments that just make you pause and go oh i hear you lord i hear you lord how many you know god will use your kids to speak to you yes he will he will use your kids to speak to you as a matter of fact he will use your kids to show you you that part i mean this that moment where they are overreacting, the smallest thing, and they just go off and they're having just this crazy reaction. I'm like, what in the world is wrong with you? And God's like, wrong question. What's wrong with you? She's eight. You're 42. What is wrong with you? Oh, he'll use your kids to speak to you. So my wife and I, we have three kids, three kids, 11, 10, and 8. Two girls and one boy.

They are distinctly different, unique in their personalities, yet they are unified in their vision for us as parents. Oh, they got unity in their vision. And here is their vision statement for us. Here it is. Keep it fair. That is the vision statement. Not just the my kids. Every single child around the world, keep it fair.

Hey, that's not fair. You better keep it fair. y'all before there was a laborers union before there was an HR department there were kids talking about wait a minute you can't do that that that's not fair i'm not exaggerating there is not a week in the medu household that i don't hear that phrase right there that's not fair dad that's not fair he got to go to legoland we didn't get to go to lulu lemon that's not fair dad how much she got to stay up late how come i didn't get to stay up late that's not fair dad he got to stay home from school that's not fair like he was sick, he had the flu. You want the flu? Yes. All right, come here. Let me lay hands on you before you get the flu there.

That's not fair. How many, you know, kids are born with this innate sensitivity to an equity and disparity. They are looking for it. They have fairness detectors on the inside of them. It's funny, researchers even did some research and found out that even as early as infants, they're already able to recognize inequity. As early as 12 months old, before they can even have the words to articulate it, there's something in them that's going, mm-mm, uh-uh, this, this ain't right. If you don't believe me, do the test after service, just pass out some cake to some kids, and not one of them will just take the cake like this.

No, they're going to take it and go. And look, that's not fair. And I share that with you today. who, can I be honest? Because I don't think we outgrow that. I just think we get more subtle and sophisticated in the way we express it. With a little statement's like,

must be nice. It gets more problematic when you feel like the person who's not being fair is God. Elevation family. What do you do when you feel like God is not being fair. I know I know you can't say anything because you want to make everybody think that you walked in here very spiritual

and you just pray all the time and just lift up your hands. But what do you do when you feel like God, this is not fair? God, I've been coming to church faithfully. Like I've been doing good this year. Like I've showed up faithfully and I've been serving any chance that I get. And God, I've been tithing. I've been tithing this year and I've been doing good Lord. I gave in the year in offering.

My word of the year was promotion. And I lost my job. That's not fair. God, I've been doing my best. I'm single and I've been trusting you for my spouse. And I've been doing it right and I've been living holy and I've been being pure and I've been doing the best I can. And I've been really believing that you're blessed me with somebody to spend the rest of my life with. And it's not happening.

Meanwhile, my coworker. Who ain't living holy? Who's been with Ronnie, Donnie, and everybody? She's going to walk in time about guess what? That's not fair. God, my mom, all she does is pray. All she does is read the word. All she does is help people.

And she's going to get breast cancer. And I'm going to pray and fast and cry out to you. she doesn't get healed. God, that's not. If you've ever felt like God hasn't been fair, come with me to this story in Matthew chapter 20.

This story that you will only find in Matthew's gospel. Oh yes, Mark and Mark don't talk about this. Dr. Luke don't talk about this. Little John don't talk about this. Only Matthew. Leave it to the tax collector. To find the one story. where he said, hold on, the math ain't math in this story right here. Only Matthew gives us this story

in Matthew chapter 20 where Jesus begins to teach as he often did by giving parables. Jesus would often tell parables stories. It was one of his greatest mediums for articulating how his kingdom works. He would tell these stories, these parables. In fact, he would lock in the parable, the logic of how his kingdom works. because you understand that your God is a king and he has a kingdom and there's a system the way his kingdom works. He didn't get voted in. He didn't get elected in. Your God is sovereign and he's a king. And often his kingdom is completely antithetical to how the system of this world works. So he would hide the logic of his kingdom in the language of these parables. I love parables because one of the principles of the parables is you hold on to truth that you discover.

better than the truth that's just delivered. So often he would give you the parable and wouldn't even give you the explanation. He'd tell the story and then walk on the stage. He who has an ear, let him hear. He just give you the story because he wanted you to meditate on that story. He wanted you to savor the story.

He wanted to hit you later. He wanted it to hit you later. He wanted you to be eating hummus and peter one day and go, he would do that on purpose. that that's the power of the story. And so he tells the story in Matthew chapter 20. But anytime you're looking at a Jesus story, you've got to ask yourself, what made him tell the story?

In order to find out what made him tell this story, we've got to back that thing up biblically. To Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19, something interesting happens. Jesus is chillaxon. And this rich young ruler, this rich young ruler comes up to Jesus. He's a baller.

He's a shock caller. He's doing a whale. He's a little. an influencer, he's got money, and he walks up to Jesus, and he says, hey, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do? See, this is a business dude, so he thinks transactionally. That's his logic. Hey, I've got to do something to get something. So what must I do to inherit eternal life? And I love it, because Jesus goes, all right, you want to play this game? What must I do? Dig it. Never mind. It has to be given. It's just grace.

you get, but never, okay, you want to play this game. He goes, all right, well, just keep all the commandments. Keep all the commandments. He says, well, I've done that. Okay, you've done all that. He goes, all right, one thing you lack. Sell everything you got. Give it to the poor. And then you'll have treasure in heaven, and I want you to come follow me. Can you imagine that? That's a big invitation right there. The fact that Jesus even gave him the opportunity to follow. Him, this rich young ruler, y'all, could have been the 13th disciple. Jesus didn't give everybody the opportunity. He did not.

Remember, one dude was possessed by a demon. Jesus cast it out, and the guy was like, can I go with y'all? And Jesus was like, no, fam. No, we're good. Just go back and tell everybody what I did for you. But this rich young ruler, he gets the invitation of a lifetime. You're going to get the greatest apprenticeship of a lifetime. You get to roll with Jesus.

sell everything you have. And the Bible says that he walked away bitterly because he had a lot of possessions. But the real thing is his possessions had him. Oh, I don't want to go there because this is not my sermon. But it's scary when idols form in your heart. Because sometimes you don't even know it's an idol until God goes, can I have it? This man didn't know that his possessions had him until God said, can I have it and he walked away. Meanwhile, Peter is watching the whole thing. Oh, you need a Peter. You need a Peter to say the thing that nobody else will say.

They think of it. And Peter watches this guy walk away. And Peter goes, hold up. And he's saying, we gave, we left everything to follow you, Jesus. Hold on. We did what this brother could not do. So since we left everything, what do we get? And Jesus goes, oh, Peter, you get a story.

You get a story. There was a landowner that had a vineyard and had workers in his vineyard. And this landowner started looking for workers in his vineyard. I like this landowner. He's got a big vineyard. And he's looking for workers. in his vineyard. In that time period, you would not have people that were on your payroll working in your vineyard. That was not the culture of the day. You often would go to the marketplace and you would

hire people for the day. So the very fact that this landowner is going out and is looking for workers is letting us know what season it is. Yeah. It's letting us know the season because you didn't need a lot of workers for the planting season. You certainly didn't need no workers for the waiting season. but when the harvest hit you needed all the help you could get y'all when the harvest hit you needed as many hands as you could get because how many know you didn't have all day to get the harvest

there was a season there was a window that you had to get the harvest so i'm talking about landowners would be like hey come on you can work you can work what you got two hands come on oh you only got one but that's cool come on you can work too because when the harvest hit you needed as many workers as many hands as you could get. The landowner was not looking for spectators. He was looking for workers. He was looking for somebody that would roll up their sleeves and say, I realize that there's a harvest that is ripe, and we got to get this harvest in. And how many know, the bigger the harvest, the more hands you need to pull in the harvest. Let me tell you why some of y'all ain't shouted,

because you think God called you to just come to church and sit on your blessed assurance and hear a cute little message and go home. No, no, no, no. We need workers in the kingdom of God because there is a harvest that is plentiful. There is a harvest that is ready. And we need people to say, I'll do whatever it takes to get the harvest in. Can I just stop right here and thank God for the workers at Elevation Church that help bring in the harvest in E-Kids right now saying, I got to be here because the harvest is here in the parking lot saying, come on this way.

You know what some of y'all are like in the parking lot. Come on this way. It's okay. Why, because the harvest. When the harvest hits, you need all the help you can get. Ask me how I know. Our church has been in 14 different venues since we started, setting up and tearing down. God's blessed us with a building or believing God to raise the money to renovate the building. But let me tell you, we still setting up pipe and drape every single Sunday. And why are we doing it? Because the harvest hit. And when the harvest hits, you need all the help you can get. I wonder if God is waiting for you to put your hand to the plow. Or have you gotten so used to just come to church and receive me like it's above? I said, yeah, it was good this week.

Bless God. Come back next week for some more. No, no, no, no. He wasn't looking for spectators. He was looking for workers. It's interesting because I like this. landowner, because later we will find out in the text that he has somebody that can pay these workers. He's got a former that can pay him. And I'm thinking, if you got somebody that can pay him,

surely you got somebody that can pick them. But the landowner doesn't like that. The landowner is so obsessed with going out and picking them. He wants to. Because I can get anybody to pay you. You can get reward from other people, but when it comes to calling, when it comes to picking, I want to do that because you will never forget the day that you were standing in the marketplace, desperate, knowing that you wouldn't be able to eat that day if you didn't find work. And I don't want you to forget the moment when I came out to the marketplace and said, you, you, you, right here, you, I want you to feel the joy of being chosen. of being picked.

Ooh, I like this landowner. Because he likes to pick his people. Elbow the person next to you, just in case they're falling asleep and say, he chose me, he chose me, he chose me. He goes out and he picks each and every one of them. The text says he goes out at 6 a.m. He goes out again at 9.

He goes out again at noon. He goes out again at 3 and goes out again at 5. Five times he goes out to pick. Now that confused me because I'm like landowner, are you confused? Why you keep going out to pick people? Seems like to me if you know your land, you should just go out once at 6 a.m.

And say, hey, hey, I'm hiring. Y'all, come on. Why does the landowner keep going out? Five times he goes out to pick people. First of all, let us know he's got land big enough that he needs a lot of workers. But he keeps going out, because maybe the text is letting us know that's exactly what grace does.

How many are thankful for God's grace that will keep going out and keep reaching out for you? Come on, even when you think that grace should have just said, that's enough, I already went out once. No, I'm going to go out again and I'm going to pick you and I'm going to choose you. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful for the grace of God that keeps pursuing me, that keeps chasing after me. He says, I'm going out. And he goes out five times, which made me think, since he went out five times. Do we have five categories of workers?

He went out of six, nine, noon, three, and five. So we got five categories of workers, right? Wrong. We don't have five categories of workers, because you'll notice that there's something distinctly different about the 6 AM crew, the people that got picked first. They had a different arrangement than the rest of the workers. So really, we got different times,

but it's really only two categories of workers. The 6 a.m. crew is distinctly different from the rest. Before I tell you how they're different, let's just talk about these 6 a.m. people that got picked first. Doesn't it feel good to get picked first? Oh, 6 a.m. people. You know they weren't there at 6 o'clock. You know they were there at like 5.40. Those 6 a.m. people. They're like, you know, to be on time is to be late. To be early is to be on time. And to be late is unacceptable. I'm going to be here at 545, and I've already got my resume.

Yes, I have how many vineyards I've worked in. Yes, I'm very good. I'm very talented. And they were there and they were prepared. They had their resumes. Can you see them? You know those 6 a.m. people. They're here in the room today.

The 6 a.m. people are the people back in school when you wanted to cheat on their test. And they see you trying to cheat and they'd be like, 6 a.m. people. 6 a.m. people. Oh, you got it together. You got your resume. So you know the six-hand people were there and they were looking to get hired. They're like, oh, we got it, we got it. We know we're going to get picked.

Oh, here comes the landowner. And in my mind, the landowner pulls up in his F-150. And he says, hey, y'all looking for some work? They're like, of course. Did here early. You saw a resume on LinkedIn, right? Yeah, okay. So Landowners is all right, I'm hiring.

Get in the truck. They're like, yeah, okay, we will, but put one second. One second. Hey, come on, get in the truck. No, no, we want to, but just we, you discuss compensation? Compensation, man, come on, man, don't you want to work? Look, look, I'll pay you whatever's right. Whatever's right.

Yeah, right. We need to know, what are we going to get before we go to work? And then I was like, all right, how about a denarius? Full days work, full days pay. Denarius, bed. Now, let's get in the truck. Somebody are like, I didn't see that in the text. It's in verse number two. In verse number two, it says, Matthew chapter 20, it says that he agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. He agreed. That word agreed in the

original language is the word symphonyo. It's where we get this word symphony. It means that They had to go back and forth until they got to an agreement. There was a bargaining. And then finally they said, in there's, they said, good, all right. We'll go now that we know what we're going to get. The rest of the crew had a different setup. Let me show you their setup is in verse 4 and 5. It says, he told them, that's the rest of the workers.

You'll also go work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever's right. So they went. Going back and forth. No negotiation. Whatever you think is right. Cool. We just want to work. Do you see the difference? So one group has a contract. The other group has trust. One group is trusting the compensation. The other group says, I just trust the consistent character of the landowner. And whatever the landowner thinks is right, I'm cool with that right there. One group, is walking by agreement. The other group said, I'm walking by faith. I just trust that the landowner is going to do whatever is right, and he will determine

what the pay is. Do you see the difference between the 6 a.m. people and the rest? One said, I want to make sure I get what I deserve. And the other group said, I'm just going to trust

the consistent character of the land. owner and whatever you think is right, I'll go with that. I love this 5 p.m. crew. When I get to heaven, I want to talk to them. I do. Because I want to ask them, what made you stay at the marketplace all day when you weren't picked? What made you sit there watching people pass you by? Watching other people get noticed. before you, why would you stay there till five o'clock when you know there was only going to be an hour left of work? What would make you say? That's my question for them. And then I want to thank God

for the landowner who says that even at five o'clock, I'll still go out just in case there's some people who have been overlooked, just in case there's some people that didn't look like they were going to be the best. I'm going to keep going out for them. I don't know about you. Maybe you had the best resume. Maybe you were one of the ones that were picked first. But I want to thank God that he still goes out for the 5 p.m. people. I want to thank God that even when I've been overlooked, that even when nobody said, oh, he doesn't look like he got what it takes, there's a God who says, no, you don't know what I can do with him. You don't know how I can change her life. Give me her. He went out and he picked the 5 p.m. people. Now, these 5 p.m. people, we've got to talk about them.

because that's why the text wants us to talk about them. The ones in the middle are just filling in the story. He wants us to look at the 6 a.m. and the 5 p.m. How you know? Because he says the last shall be first and the first shall be like, he's pointing us to the extremes. That's why he had them go. So these 5 p.m. people, they're funny because if there's only a workday that ends

at 6 o'clock, and I got hired at 5. Okay, here's my question. How far is the vineyard from the Market Blade? Fifteen minutes? Okay. You get to work at 5.15. Work day ends at 6. You got orientation. Now we have 535. You got to get your badge, take your picture, get your bag, and go down to the vineyard. By the time you get down to the vineyard, y'all, It's $5.50. How many grapes you're picking up in 10 minutes? Can you imagine you picked up three grapes? The whistle's blown.

And your shift is over. And now it's time for everybody to get paid. And the landowner calls his foreman over and says, hey, come here real quick. It's like, what's up? He said, hey, man, I know you're about to pay them. But I want to do something different this time. It's like something different. You always want to do something different.

Oh, love. Lord. He goes, okay, here's what I want to do. Let's pay the 5 p.m. workers first, and then let's pay the 6 a.m. workers last and pay them all the same. The former is like, you're trying to get me shot. Okay. So can you see them? You got to see it. Can you see them lined up? Can you see the 5 p.m. people? They're down here. Can you see the 6 a.m. people? Y'all, They've been working since 6 a.m. Their hands have blood and calluses on it. They're sweaty.

They're bent over. God, I can't believe it was this hot. It always gets hot during this time. Can you see them? They smell like outside. Meanwhile, the 5 p.m. people smell like La Labo and look so fresh and so clean. And here comes the foreman to the 5 p.m. people first. No, no, are you serious?

I'm a full day's pay. I didn't do anything. Look, I got three grapes in my bag. No, no, no, no, I can't take this. I can't take this. No, I didn't do anything. Let me go pick some more grapes. No, this is the will of the landowner.

No, this is too much. I can't take it. Let me go try to earn it and do something. No. This is what he wants. And all of a sudden, they are standing there with gratitude. dude, knowing they shouldn't even been picked in the first place. They only got five grapes.

And yet, they got paid a full day's work. Meanwhile, the 6 a.m. people are watching the whole thing. Must be nice. Do you see what I see? They just paid them for a whole day's work. You think I saw them they picked five grapes? I cannot believe it. But then it hits them a full day.

Just pay for only an hour. We about, oh, can you see them getting excited? Let's just imagine that the Nairis is like $200. You know how you start doing it. You start doing the map. They got $200,000. Yeah, $200,000. Oh, we don't get $25.

The Amazon cart is full. Oh, they plan on a trip to the Bahamas. They are so excited. And then the four men comes up and goes Dinerius. Breaks loose and standing. And they crumbled against, kept his word. You negotiated.

He didn't cheat you. You said you wanted the denarius. That's what you got. Why would the landowner do the, why would the landowner make them watch everybody else get paid? Because there's something God will always do in you. He wants you to see other people get blessed. He wants you to see other people that you don't think deserve the grace of God.

He will bless them right in front of you. because that's actually good for your little soul. He wants to know, can you still? Trust me, when you see somebody get something that you don't think they deserve, this is their issue. It's not what they got paid. It's what somebody they thought didn't deserve it, got paid, and they grumbled. Okay, all of that was my intro to get you to this point.

In every Jesus parable, you got to ask yourself this, who are you in the story? Are you in this story? Why are you thinking about it? The landowner is taken. I know, I know. Because you're like, well, I do have some properties. And I just say, landowner's taken. Landowner's God.

So are you 5 p.m. worker just cross. grateful that he called you, just thankful to be in the vineyard, or you'd a 6 a.m. worker, always got your hand out. Now, before you say you were 5 p.m. person, let's be honest, we all got some 6 a.m. in us. As I land the plane, I want to give you some blues clues of how you can know you got some 6 a.m. in you. you know you're a 6 a.m. worker hear me you know you're a 6 a.m. worker when you always have a grumble

a grumble they grumbled against the land on the grumble see that that word grumble is interesting because it's not like a loud, defiant fist saying I can't believe this, it's actually just under your breath it's bitterness under your breath I can't believe this I'm coming to this church for a long time I mean, they still haven't done anything to bless me.

I've always honored other people. I've been here 20 years. You know, they didn't do nothing for me. It's, it's a grumble. Are your complaints louder than your praise? You do know that God does not inhabit the complaints of his people. He inhabits the praises of his people. And one of the ways you know, you got some 6 a.m. in you,

is when you always got a grumble. Always complaining. He said, the average person complains 15 to 20 times a day. Let's be honest, there's rookie numbers for some of us. You always have a grumble. Number two, you know you got some 6 a.m. in your system when you expect what was never promised. Why do you have an expectation for more?

You negotiated the contract. Many of us are mad at God because we're expecting something from him that he actually never promised you at all. That was something that you came up with. That was something that was in your own mind. Are you mad at God? Because you're expecting something from him that he never promised you.

You know, you got some 6 a.m. in your system when you struggle to celebrate other people. When God blesses somebody else, your immediate reaction is them, Lord. Are you for real? They don't deserve them. That I've been saved way longer than now. Do you celebrate other people? That's one of the signs you got some 6 a.m. in you. Last one, you know you got some 6 a.m. in your system.

When you think God owes you. Hear me, this is often one of the casualties of faithfulness. It's entitlement. As you think, well, because I have been serving, because I have been doing this. God, you must perform this way. God, because I did show up, you must heal. And God, because I did give in the offering,

you better open up the window of heaven. What is going on? God, have you been shaking your fist at God thinking that he owes you something? This text is a warning to all of us that don't let your faithfulness become entitlement to where you start looking up to God thinking he owes you something.

Can I tell you something? God doesn't owe you anything because he already gave you everything. If he never gave you another dollar, if he never opened up another door, if he didn't do anything but sin, his only son, to die on a cross for your sins, wouldn't that be enough? And I'm looking for some 5 p.m. people who say, I'm not going, God, you owe me more. I'm going, God, I'll thank you for what you've done. God, thank you for saving me.

I thank you. I could have been stuck in my sins, but thanks be unto God for your faithfulness, for your kindness, for your goodness. Oh God, you don't owe me anything. I owe you everything. You're a 6 a.m. person or a 5 p.m. person. Watch this. Check your hands. Check your hands. 6 a.m. people always have their hands out. looking to the right and the left, I can't believe I didn't get that. I can't believe they got blessed. I can't believe they got more opportunity. They always have their hands out looking to the left and the right.

But 5 p.m. people always have their hands up. They just can't believe that God called them. They just can't believe that God chose them. I don't know about you, but I'm going to spend all in my life being a 5 p.m. person. I know where I could be. I know where I should be. If it had not been for the grace of God, I'm going to lift, here it is, both of my hands. Who am I that you would think about me?

Who am I that you would choose me? Come on, I want all the 5 p.m. people. Would you open up your mouth and give God some praise and just thank him? Thank him for his salvation. Thank him for his mercy. Thank him for his goodness. Thank him for blessing you when you didn't deserve it. Matter of fact, I don't deserve anything.

I'm lifting both of my hands. I'm telling you, the casualty of faithfulness sometimes is entitlement. Thinking that because I've been showing up, because I've been doing this, God, you owe me. God doesn't owe you anything. Look at his grace, even to the 6'am people. I'm not being unfair to you, friend. Kept my word. you wanted a contract

instead of just trusting my character but it's not fair yeah because grace is not fair fair is I spend an eternity in hell fair because it should have been me on the cross that's fair thank God

it ain't fair I'm gonna ask every head be bowed and eyes be closed today I really felt like this message was for today somebody who's been maybe shaking your fist at God and I'm begging you

to turn your entitlement into gratitude. Gratitude is the antidote for complaining, for bitterness, for being stuck just to say, God, I thank you. Thank you. If you're here today and you'd be so honest

to say, you know what, there's a lot of 6 a.m. It's been creeping in. My complaints have out, outweighed my praise and my Thanksgiving. Today you need to turn from being a 5 p.m. person to a.m. person. If that's you and you know this word was for you, would you just lift up your hand?

Just as a sign to say, Lord, I hear you. I hear you. You don't know me anything. I'm going to start with gratitude. I see those hands. Anybody else across every location? Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Grace is not there. Thank God we don't get what we deserve. Heads to about.

I still closed. across every location in this room, if you've never taken that first step. It's just to say, Jesus, my life is yours. Some of you, maybe you've been trying to earn salvation thinking, well, I'll come to God when I get my life together. I'll come to God when I do more. It's not about doing. It's about receiving what was already done for you. He's a good landowner.

He's a landowner that keeps going out. He'll wait until 5 o'clock if he has to. looking for you. So if you're here today, I don't care if there's one person, you're worth it. Say today, I need to give Jesus my life. Would you just lift up your hand as a sign to say, I'm coming home. I'm giving him my heart today. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Yeah. See those hands? Yeah. Somebody lifting up both of their hands. Absolutely. That's what 5 p.m. people do.

They lift up both of their hands. Anybody else? Come on, I want to lead you in this prayer just before pastor comes. I'm going to give you the words, but you just say it from your heart, say, Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. Jesus, I believe that you lived the life that I was supposed to live. And you died the death that I was supposed to die. You took my place.

So my response is to give you everything. coming to my life, forgive me of my sins, make me brand new. From this moment forward, I'm walking with you. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. Come on, give God one more hand clap of praise, Elevation, thank you. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible.

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