The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 6: Laborers in the Vineyard

Episode Date: May 28, 2017

Give glory to God; your joy depends on it. No one can give you what God has not and no one can keep you from what God has for you.

Amen. Amen. Welcome. Welcome. So glad you're here. Hey, as you've just seen, Beach Baptism is right around the corner. It's two weeks away. And if you're here today and you have never taken the step of being baptized as a believer, which means since you've placed your trust in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and put your faith in Him that you have not been baptized, then we would invite you. We would highly encourage you that now is the time to take that step. A few quick reasons why I think Beach Baptist, why, I think getting baptized is the right step for you if you've never done it is, number one, Jesus said so. And anything Jesus said to do is a really good idea. We're super into Jesus here and doing what he said. This is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus, and we do that through obedience. And so Jesus said to do it. And so that would make it a really, really good idea. Number two is do it for us.

Do it for me, man. I mean, there's something encouraging, supernaturally encouraging when we all gather in a place and we watch our brothers and sisters take faithful steps of obedience, making much of Jesus and proclaiming him as ultimate in their lives. It just encourages the church. It encourages the body of Christ in an incredibly unique way. And so do it for us. And the last reason I would give you as to why you should take the step of baptism if you have not is do it for yourself. God has orchestrated things in such a way that your joy is completely married to your obedience. And by being obedient to him, he fills our hearts with joy.

And it's not like we eat spaghetti and we get full. I'm not talking about that kind of full. I'm talking about this supernatural thing that God does and sustains in us as we enjoy him by being obedient to him. So do it for Jesus. He's super into it. He gets a bunch of glory. do it for us. We get encouraged as he gets glory and he takes joy from it and do it for yourself so that your joy can be found in being obedient to Christ. All that to say, baptism, man, is for you. Do it. There's classes at all of our locations available today directly following this service.

You can go to a class and ask all the questions and get all the answers that you want about baptism. Before we dive into our parable or our text for today, I would want to echo something that was said earlier in the service. service, which is if you have served in the military or are serving in the military, or you are a family or have loved ones that have served or are serving, we just want to say thank you. We just want to say thank you. Thanks for what you do, for what you've done, for the sacrifices that you've made. And we remember this weekend those who have made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our freedom.

I mean, honestly, we get to gather and sing songs to Jesus. we get to open up God's word and teach the Bible without fear of persecution or fear of recourse because of the sacrifices so many have made, the ultimate sacrifice, so many have made on our behalf to provide us that freedom. So we just say thank you. Thank you for what you do. If you have your Bible, go ahead and open it to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20.

We are going to be studying the parable of the laborers in the vineyards. today. And so as we dive in, right before we do, there's a couple of things you need to know. When you walked in, you received a worship God or a handout. And inside that God, there is a ton of scripture. I mean a ton. We are going to do a bunch of Bible today. I mean a whole bunch of Bible. And so hopefully, you came to church wanting to learn about God through his word. We're going to spend a ton of time in scripture. The reason we're going to do that is two reasons. One, the primary reason is in order to understand what Jesus is teaching us in this parable, it's going to require of us, specifically of me, to use a whole bunch of Bible in order to explain what Jesus is talking about.

So we are going to use the Bible to explain the Bible, which is far better for you than me trying to explain it on my own. So we're going to go Bible explaining Bible. Secondly, as I was preparing the sermon, I felt like some of these verses that are written on the page right in front of you are verses that God uniquely inspired in my mind and my heart for some of you who need to hear them in special places in your hearts today. day. It may not have anything to do with the content of this sermon, but one of these verses might land on you and mark you in a unique way and be just what you needed to hear from the Lord. And if so, glory to God. So if you will, try to hang with me inside the scripture we are going to get into it pretty good. And right before we dive in, the last thing I'd tell you is this,

hey, I'm going to get after it pretty good today. I'm going to get after it pretty good. And so I just say that to say, look, it's just my face. I'm not mad. I'm not sad. I'm not disappointed or discouraged or anything. This is just my face. This is my lot as given by God. There's not a whole lot I can do about this. I'm just a passionate dude. I am intense. And I'm going to get after it pretty good in the Bible, teaching the Bible today. And that's, it's just my face. We're all in this thing. We're all in this thing together. So I'm excited. There's nothing in the world I'm more passionate about than the topic we're going to talk about today. So let's dive into Matthew chapter 20 The parable of the laborers in the vineyard 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

After agreeing with the laborers for DeNarius a day He sent them into his vineyard And 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 So they went going out again

About the sixth hour and the ninth hour he did the same. 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? They said to him, because no one has hired us. He said to them, you go into the vineyard too. 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.

And when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now, when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving, 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 in the scorching heat? But he, the master, replied to one of them, said, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give

to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? So the last will be first and the first last. For the kingdom of heaven is like a master. The point of this parable is revealed inside the first sentence. It doesn't say the kingdom of heaven is like a time when a master went out early. It says the kingdom of heaven

is like a master. The point of this story is the master, not the laborers or the labor. It's important when we read scripture that we don't go looking to find ourselves. It would be very easy to read this scripture and get very confused by the role of the laborers or the labor, but those things are not primary. They are secondary. And this is important because it is actually a metaphor explaining the nature of God. specifically how God calls people into his kingdom

and what that call results in among his people as well as at the end of this parable Jesus provides us with a pretty clear warning and so we're going to break this parable this story down this way today we're going to look at four things one we're going to look at the master who is representing God the master is a metaphor for God so every time I say the master I mean God we're going to look at the master's call meaning how God calls

people into his kingdom and into his work. Third, we're going to look at the laborers, the role of the laborers in the parable. And then fourth, we're going to take a look at the warning that Jesus gives us. So let's start with the master. When studying the Bible, the most important question anyone can ask when coming to any text is this, what does this passage say about God? So what does this parable tell us about God? not what does this say about us or what help can we get from it or how can this be fruitful in our lives.

You see, all of the help that comes through Scripture and all of the fruitfulness that comes through Scripture is a result of a reality of God's nature. And so when we go to Scripture and we say, what does this teach us about God? It is from God where our help and the fruitfulness comes from. So the most important thing to look at is what does this say about God. So let's answer this question. We know for sure that the master in this story is the one who calls and the one who rewards.

But let's dig a little bit deeper and answer this. What in this story belongs to the master, or what is he ultimately responsible for? As I was reading through this, some things that I thought are important that Jesus implies. Here are a list of things that belong to the master in this parable. Number one, the location of the vineyard. Number two, the contents of the vineyard,

meaning what's in the vineyard? He chose whether it was going to be olives or grapes or wheat. He picked the fields long before he ever chose the workers. He chose the contents. The condition of the vineyard. The size of the vineyard. The time of the harvest. The number of workers needed in order to pull the harvest.

The payment the workers will receive. The time the work begins and ends. The task on which the workers work. The day, the time and the location at which the workers are called and put to work. That's all the stuff that the master belongs to. and that's just, that belongs to the master, and that's just some of it. Ultimately, all that means this. There had to be a tremendous amount of work done on behalf of the master

long before he ever started calling workers. There had to be a tremendous amount of work done long before by the master, meaning that if the master is not faithful in his work, there would be no work for the laborers to do. And so ultimately, this means for us today that God goes first. He goes first. He has gone and is going before us. If you have your worship, God, this verse is in there. Isaiah 452, the Lord says, I will go before you and level the mountains.

That is awesome. I will go before you and level the mountains. in church we spend a lot of time talking about what God has done for us, what God is doing among us, and what we want God to do for us for sure. What we don't spend a lot of time talking about is the things that God is preventing us from on our behalf that we'll never even know about.

This is known as the preemptive grace of God. If we truly have an enemy as revealed in John chapter 10 that wants to steal, to kill, and to destroy us, The only thing of staining, that stealing, that killing and destroying is God's preemptive grace on our behalf. He goes before us and he levels mountains. And Isaiah 45 continues to say that, he says, God says, I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. In Deuteronomy 31.8, it says, the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you. He will not fail.

You nor forsake you. fear or be dismayed. The point of all of that is this. This parable is ultimately a lesson in God's sovereignty. Now, if you were to look up the word sovereign in any dictionary, you would see descriptors like supreme, most powerful, having all authority, independent of all others, or greatest. So, if you were to put all that together, you could rightly say that God is all powerful in his supremacy, has all the authority as he stands independent of all others in his unmatched greatness. I'm going to repeat that again. I don't know if you heard me. God is all powerful in his supremacy and has all the authority as he stands independent of all others in his unmatched greatness.

He has no equal. He has no equal. He has no. no equal. And here is just what is mind-blowing. The God who is all powerful with all authority in his unmatched greatness, he's into you. He's into you. He loves you like crazy. I mean, you don't go before people and level mountains on their behalf if you don't love them. You don't go before people.

You definitely don't die for people that you are not. in love with. He is into you. He has gone before us. He goes before us. I really believe that God there's some stuff that God has for us that if he were to tell us, I'd minds literally could not comprehend what he has in store for us. The sovereignty of God is fantastic news. I think if life unfolds and we step into eternity that the best news we will have ever heard is our God is sovereign. It's the greatest news in all of the universe. Here are five claims that the Bible makes about God that are all encompassed by his sovereignty. Number one, God is above all things and before all things. Revelation 21 says he is the alpha and the omega. He is immortal and is

present everywhere so that everyone can know him. Romans chapter 1 says the same thing. This is known as the preeminence and the omnipresence of God. Number two, God created all things and he holds all things together, both in heaven and on earth, both visible and invisible. Colossians chapter 1, this is known as God's preservation or the preserving power of God that he holds all things together. Number three, God knows all things, past, present, and future. There is no limit to his knowledge for God knows everything before it happens. This is Romans chapter 11, Psalm 147 and Psalm 139.

Number four, God is supreme in all things. and accomplishes all things, nothing is too difficult for him. This is known as God's providence. Jeremiah, the prophet, in chapter 32, verse 17, says this. Listen to this. Ah, Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens in the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm.

Nothing is too hard for you. There is nothing I will face in my life that is too hard for him. For me, for sure, but not for you. for him. Isaiah 4010 says, do not fear, for I am with you. I will strengthen and I will hold you up with my righteous right hand. Psalm 461 says, God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help and trouble. Psalm

1153 says, our God is in the heavens and listen, he does all that he pleases. Proverbs 16.9, this may be the word you came here today for that the heart of a man plans his steps, plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Genesis 50, 20, Joseph looks at his brothers who sold him into

slavery and left him for dead, and he says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive. And in the same way, we can look at our enemy and we can say, what you have meant for evil in my life, God means for good.

Romans chapter 8, verse 28, says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose, not just the easy things, not just the good things, and not just the things that we can comprehend. All things work together for good

of those who are called according to his purpose. Daniel, chapter 4, verse 34 and 35 says that his rule is an everlasting rule and his kingdom enduers from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing as he does

according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? Isaiah 55, verse 8 and 9 says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts. This is God talking. Neither are your ways, my ways declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways, higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. The fifth thing the Bible claims about God that is all encompassed by His sovereignty is that God rules over all things. He has the power and authority over nature, earthly kings, history, all natural and supernatural things. Psalm 10319 says, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. He holds the kingdoms of this earth in his hand. He rules over all. Now, this reality of God's sovereignty is simply amazing.

Our language is actually too feeble to credit God appropriately for how beautiful his sovereignty really is. I mean, I remember some years ago when I was searching for truth and I was in my 20s and I thought I knew everything about everything, just like everybody does when they're in their 20s. No offense, if you're in your 20s, but give it a minute. Like a decade. And you'll get it. For a long time in my life, I didn't really want to know the God of the Bible. I just wanted to know God how I wanted God to be.

I wanted to create God in my image instead of understand what the God of the Bible was really like. But God wanted me to know him. And so he began to draw me into himself and teach me who he really is through his word. And in that process, I began to learn about God's sovereignty. And I got completely enamored. I mean completely floored with this reality that God has said. sovereign. It is truly the greatest news that I have ever heard. The fact that God is sovereign has proven to me to be the single greatest truth I have ever encountered in my life.

I mean, what's the best news you've ever heard in your life? When I think about fantastic news, I think about the times where my wife came to me to tell me that she was pregnant with our beautiful daughters the first time I was in the shower. And I'm in there, just clean it up, getting ready to go to church. It was a Sunday. and I look around and here around the curtain comes this pea stick. And she hands it to me and I grab it and I look at it. And at first I thought it was a thermometer. I was like, are you sick or what?

You know, is this like a new thing? And she's like, no, I was like, what does this mean? She's like, I'm pregnant. I was like, oh, this is so great. Praise the Lord. Let me finish washing my pits and then I'll hug you and we'll celebrate, you know. Too much information. My bad, gas.

Kid number two, she's the same thing. She takes a stick. She puts it in a bag. She doesn't even put, like, paper in it and, like, pretty the bag of. It's just a gift bag with a stick in it, you know? And she hands it to me, and I look at it, and I'm like, oh, this is great. Man, praise the Lord, we're pregnant again. And then immediately I thought, did she watch this thing before she put it in the bag?

Another piece of fantastic news that came in my life was one day on a grand weekend in April. A few years back, a friend of mine calls me and says, hey, man, I just got tickets to the masters. Do you want to go? Let me pray about it. Yes. Yes. That totally would make my top five. Another piece of great news I got just recently.

I went in for some tests that I have to get every so often based on my family history, and they have to run some procedures on us, and just to make sure that everything's okay. And if you were here last time that I shared, you'll understand all the more why this mattered so much. But I went in for a procedure, and in the middle of the procedure, so things started to go wrong. My airway collapses, my lungs. fill up with fluid. They have to bail out of the procedure

and I get rapid onset pneumonia. And they start running all these scans of my chest. And in these scans, they find some abnormalities in my lymph nodes, in my lungs. And they didn't really know exactly what that meant. Side note, in that process, they found out that I only have one kidney.

I mean, who doesn't know? You only have one kidney? I didn't know. Now you know that I only have one kidney. We'll just share that information together. Why do people only have one kidney? I don't know. God's sovereign. What do you mean to say? But all that is to say, they found these things and as I'm coming in recovery

I'm asking the doctor I'm like what does this mean and the first thing he says to me is possibly this could be lymphoma now for a guy who watched his mom die cancer I immediately went to fear and trepidation just mortified I did not go to faith I went to fear that is for sure and I was worried like crazy

and I'm sitting on these tests for weeks and even months and I had to wait to have the tests again to have comparative results. And after we run the test again, on a few months later, just sitting and worry. And one morning, my doctor calls me on the phone. And he's also my friend. He says, hey, I've sent your test out.

We've compared all the results. Good news you don't have cancer. Everything's okay. Amen. Now, that's fantastic news to me. But all of that good news, as good as it is, it pales in comparison to the news that God is Here are four reasons why God being sovereign is the greatest news I've ever heard.

Number one, if God is sovereign, that means I'm not. And can I just say hallelujah? Look, I can't even manage my bank account without making a mistake. I promise you this, I lose my sunglasses every day. I lose them every day. It is by God's grace that he does not leave me sovereign over me. that he gently calls me into his control and into his sovereignty and shows me that he is sovereign and is there where I find rest and peace and joy. If God's sovereign, I am not. Hallelujah.

Number two, if God is perfect, he can't make a mistake. That means you are not a mistake. Your past is not a mistake. Your future is not by accident. I am not saying that God's sovereignty makes our lives experientially okay. hey, I'm just saying that he is perfect and he cannot make a mistake. I mean, let's just assume that your life has been terrible and that somehow, by the grace of God,

you were able to place your trust in Jesus and you put your faith in Him as your Lord, but yet you still go through life, and life is hard, and life is full of suffering, and then one day you die, and you pass through the gase of glory into the presence of God. God's perfection guarantees you this. When you pass from this life to the next, all the suffering you have endured in the God,

this life will make the glory you taste and see all the much more sweeter when you get there. I'm saying that the cold of this life that we walk through, when we pass into the warmth of his eternal embrace, it will be all the much more sweeter because he is perfect. I'm not saying that makes all kinds of sense to us right now. I'm just saying one day it will. One day it will. Number three. Because God is sovereign, then you don't have to pretend.

You don't have to live a lie. We say all the time that the fake you is doing just fine. Pastor Jobi said a few weeks ago that your relationship with God is the only relationship you will ever have where there are no secrets. He knows everything. He is everywhere because God is sovereign. You don't have to pretend.

Number four, because God is sovereign, salvation belongs to him. salvation belongs to him and this is this means many things but two that i'm going to focus on number one is that you can't earn it so you can't lose it you can't earn it so you can't lose it Ephesians 2 4 through 10 says but god being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even where we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together in christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith.

This is not your doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, any works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which, God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You're going to want to remember that part. Psalms 3, 8 says, salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. Here's a truth for you.

You can resist God's gifts. You just can't return them. You can resist them. You just cannot return them. Once you respond to God's generous offer of salvation by accepting the revelation of truth that he provides and believing in God's activity on your behalf, which is best realized in the life, death, and resurrection of his son, Jesus,

once you place your trust in that as your Lord and as your salvation, then you are in like Flynn, my friend. Once you put your trust in Jesus, you are a part of the family of God forever. What God does, he does with finality. That is the whole idea of it is finished. It also means he isn't done with you yet. Hebrews 12 1 and 2 says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,

let us also lay aside every weight and sin, which cling so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to who? Looking to Jesus. The founder, the author and perfector of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God? If he truly is the author, the founder and the perfector of your faith, then he isn't done with you yet.

He is like a potter sculpting a piece of clay into a masterpiece. You are his masterpiece, his workmanship, and you are a work in progress. So when Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like a master to help us better understand, who God is and how he works, that's what he's talking about. Now that we have that small detail out of the way, let's continue with the rest of the parable. Look, I just gave you all an 11-point sermon on half a sentence. I could be up in here for a long time.

We could just keep on going, but we're working on it. That is what the master is. We've looked at that. Let's look at the master's call in this parable. The master calls workers four or five different times. He calls one group early. two more groups, a group at the third hour, two groups at the sixth, and then the ninth hour. And then he calls group four at the 11th hour. Here's what that means, that as the day progresses, as time as we experience it, progresses,

that God calls different people at different points with the same call to the same work. So what is the call? It is a call into the master's kingdom, which is a call into the master's kingdom, which is a call into the master's service. So what is the master's work? What is God working on in creation? It's best stated God's eternal purpose in creation is to gather a people for himself that he can show his glory to and he can show his glory through. That is what God has been up to since the beginning of time. Since he began creating, it was to gather for himself a people that he could show his glory to and show his glory through. God is gathering for his glory, and he does this through the revelation or through the proclamation of the gospel,

which is plainly stated in this that God, in his love, sent his son Jesus to earth to redeem sinners and restore them into a relationship with him. And by doing this, the redeemed can be completely and utterly enthralled with him and enjoy him as sovereign for all of eternity. The call of God on sinners has never changed. It has always been, I will be your God and you will be my people. Romans 116 says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it, the gospel, is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who hears and believes. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. It is through the heralding, the revelation of God. of truth, the proclamation of the gospel that sinners turn from their sin and repent unto a holy God and he welcomes them in his embrace by adopting them with his spirit. Some of us are called by the gospel early in life. Glory to God. Some of us are called later and still some later and still some even later. Glory to God. Here's what the sixth hour, ninth hour, 11th hour. Here's what that means. That no matter what season of life you're in, no matter what you've done, no matter how long you've lived without God, no matter how long you've lived

in open rebellion toward God. It does not matter what stage of life you're in. It is never too late to respond to God's call. It is never too late to respond to God's call. This is why Beach baptism is such a big deal. It is thousands of people gathering on the beach saying, he is our God, and we are his people. And God comes in that, and he makes himself present among us. And it is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Honestly, it does not matter. when you were called, it just matters that God loves you so much that he calls. It doesn't matter when. It just matters that he loves you so much that he calls.

I love that this parable ends the way that it does. At the end of this parable, the master gives zero regard for when the worker started working. And even more importantly, he gives zero regard for how much work they did. Psalm 16, verses 5 and 6 says, the Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines, listen to this, the lines have fallen for me. The lines, as drawn by God, have fallen for me in pleasant places.

Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. You see, in this parable, the master agrees with the workers beforehand on what their reward would be. And in the same way, God has settled for his lovers. He is settled for the faith field, a beautiful inheritance. in his kingdom. The workers didn't negotiate a better rate or a per pound payment system. They didn't earn more or less based on how much harvest they brought in.

You see, if you take this parable as truth, it explains like 10 million other things in Scripture. For example, there are plenty of places in Scripture that speak of a day of judgment in which God rewards people based on their works. Scriptures like Romans chapter 2, 6 through 10 where it says, He, God will render to each one according to his works. To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,

he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey truth, but obey in righteousness, there will be wrath and fury. In verse 10, he ends it saying, for God shows no partiality. In Romans 1412, it says that each one of us will give an account of

himself to God. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, says, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one us may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Now, it is always best to let the Bible interpret the Bible. This is why it is super important to be a student of the word. In this case, if we let the Bible interpret the Bible, then we see that we will be judged

based on our good works and that our good works were prepared for us by God beforehand. Ephesians 2 says, we are His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we might walk in them. Not might, that we should walk in them. So in regards to the reward for the laborers, this is what that means. That the call to the master's work and the reward for that work was set by the master long before the workers ever received the call. Here is how the apostle Paul explains this truth in the book of Ephesians.

Just let this scripture happen to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as he chose us in him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption. Now, that term, people get a little wonky on it. Do you think God has a plan?

God has a plan. So the word predestined means that God has a plan. In love, he predestined us for adoption. adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which

he set forth in Christ as a what? Plan for the fullness of time to unite, to gather all things in Him, things in heaven and on earth. In Him, we have obtained an inheritance. Psalm says it is a beautiful inheritance. Having been predestined according to the purpose of Him

who works all things according to the Council of His will so that we, who were the first hope in Christ, might be to the praise of His glory, in him, you also, when you heard the truth, the revelation of the gospel of your salvation and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. This means your reward, just like your call, does not depend on you. It depends on God and he is ever faithful to his promise.

we say all the time that you are not saved by works. What we mean is you are not saved by your works. You were completely saved by works by God's work on your behalf. God has done all the work. God is the one who calls and God is the one who rewards. He has bought you at a price. He has sealed you with his spirit and he will deliver you into an eternal inheritance. By faith, by his will.

And all of this is done and is being done by God's grace. and for His glory alone. So for us, the laborers, the workers, the believers, the called, the redeemed, here's the confidence that we can take from this parable. The confidence we take away is this, is that we are working with God according to his plan as he is working on us according to his purpose. We work with the master. These laborers weren't working for the master.

They were joining in the work. The master had been doing all. along. When they agreed to work for Denarius, they joyfully did so to join in the master's work. It is in this work where we find our joy, our purpose in life. And as I was writing the sermon, I was on a trip in Brazil just a few days ago, and I wrote this note. As I write this sermon, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Brazil, having spent two days hanging with pastors from all over the United States. As we learn what it means to be a part of God's work, to see every tribe, tongue, and nation

surrender to Him as Lord. I'm sitting here waiting to go to the airport so that I can train hundreds of pastors at a conference on how to plant churches and expand God's kingdom. I sit amazed that God would choose someone like me for this work. Someone so selfish and sinful and guilty and damaged. And he would choose me for such a task as this. Who am I?

Who am I that God would call me and choose me? Who am I that he would be so generous to me? I am no one. I have done nothing to deserve this. I have nothing to offer him except for my filthy rags and my broken dependencies. In and of myself, I am nothing and I have nothing, but because of God's work in Christ that he is so graciously revealed to me, I am a son of the most high God and I have everything according to the riches of his grace. My master does not need me to do this work. He gave me this work as a gift. Why? Because he loves me. And what other reason do I need? So you see when we see God's call and God's work as a gift,

it is then and only then that we can have joy. Joy is not rooted in activity. It is rooted in identity. We are not laborers in a field spinning our wills to an end. We don't understand. We are called out workers, joyfully spending our time. We are a royal priesthood set apart in holiness by God. and we joyfully spend our time, our energy, our resources on the master's agenda, on his work.

We do not do the work for the work or for the reward. We work with the master who gave us the work and will give us the reward. The parable ends this way. When evening came, the owner of the vineyards said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them, beginning with the first up to the last. and those who he hired about the 11th hour each of them received a denarius now when those hired first came

they thought that's key they thought they would receive more but each of them also received a denarius and on receiving 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 in the scorching heat but he replied to them friend

I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I chose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? So the last will be first in the first life. I think the warning Jesus gives us is this.

Christian, be careful not to judge God in his. activity. I have seen this many times in my life and honestly at times I've been guilty of it myself. There are times when God does things in other people's lives and not in mine and I get jealous. I get entitled and this is a scary thing.

The truth is that God chooses his servants for various tasks and various ways at various times. You and I may very well bear the heat of the day. We may well have worked in God's vineyards for years and years and then some unknown person turns up and God uses them

for what seems to be a more prestigious task than Ires. God can do that. I mean, think of Saul of Tarsus. Imagine how sore Peter, James, and John must have been at this Pharisee who was chasing them, terrorizing them, trying to kill them. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He sat at the feet of the greatest teachers in all of the Pharisee teachings. He sat at their feet.

And then one day he is radically saved. And almost overnight he rises. to international fame and to the highest points of prestige in the church, don't you know that those disciples were sore at that? And that they had to gospel themselves and humble themselves before a sovereign God. Those of us who have labored for years need to be aware that God could raise up somebody else for whatever task he has in mind and he gives as he sees fit. The laborers did not complain about the deal they made.

They agreed to work for a denarius and they were blessed to get it, until they saw that other people were getting the same as them, and then they thought it unfair. Imagine you get a raise at work for 10% and you are pumped. You walk in your boss's office, and he goes, I just want to give you a 10% raise today. And then you're hanging out by the water cooler, and one of your co-workers walks over, and she says,

hey, guess what? I just got a 50% raise. Will you still be so excited about the 10%? See how that works? Friends, when we start comparing blessings and debating with God on what is fair or not, we are stepping into a conversation we most certainly do not want to have. Maybe it's not just a warning to individuals, but also to churches. Maybe our church.

I mean, just imagine that you've been praying for God to move in your city, in this city, in powerful ways for years. And then one day it happens. People start to flock to your church, and people are drawn into this thing that God is doing for no apparent reason. They just continue to flock and flock and lives continue to be changed by the hundreds. You ever heard anything like that? More than 4,000 people have surrendered to Jesus since this thing started a little more than four years ago. If that doesn't qualify as a move of God, I don't know what does. But it would be easy for us to look at and look at all the

people that God is drawing and say they didn't labor in prayer. They didn't show up and serve every weekend. They didn't give their money or time, but nevertheless, they're getting all the benefit of the move of God. It is tempting for any long-standing person in church to think, who are these people? They don't deserve this. We're the ones who waited. We're the ones who gave. We're the ones who worked for this. And to that, God says, am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? I'm going to be honest with you. Of all the conversations I want to have with God, I do not want to hear the question.

Ryan, do you begrudge my generosity? That's just not something I want to do. The truth is the master never quits calling. He will quit one day that he has decided, but it is not today. The master never quits calling. Churches, Christians, stop joining the master. Church is Christians. Stop joining the master in his work because it gets complicated.

It gets hard. The labor ain't easy. Jesus says, the harvest is here, it is the 11th hour, and he is calling people to himself all over the world. Jesus is super busy doing the Father's work.

And this church, we are going to go to heaven sweating because we are in the Father's business. We are in his vineyards. We are planting churches. We are sending missionaries. We are boldly proclaiming the gospel. We are baptizing people. We are sending mission teams. We want every tribe, tongue, and nation to

know that he is our God, and we are his people. We are going to join him in his work and we are not going to do so in arrogance. We are not going to do so with entitlement. We are going to act like we are grateful because we are grateful that God has invited us into his work and with joy in our hearts, with Thanksgiving in our mouths and with this prayer marked on our souls, we look to God and we say, God, please use us for your work. Please use us. 1 Timothy 6.6 says, Godliness with contentment is great gain. if I could go back in time and fix one thing

in my ministry and in my career, it is this. I would accept myself as God made me and I would be content in his provisions in my life instead of being addicted to more and being miserable when I didn't have what I thought I was supposed to. If God is sovereign, the truth is this, my friends. Nobody can give you what God has not.

And nobody can keep you from what God has for you. nobody can give you what God has not and no one can keep you from what God has for you. So we're going to end a little differently today at this message of sovereignty. You see the message of sovereignty, there's only one right response to the news that God is sovereign, and that is worship. That is to worship him in his sovereignty. And so I've asked for all the bands to come out at all of our locations here at San Pablo, at Bay Meadows and Mandarin. All of our bands have come out, and we're going to end a little differently than normal. we are going to respond to God in worship a little bit longer than we normally would at the news of his sovereign need.

So if you will, at all of our campuses, stand with me. And we are going to worship God. We are going to ascribe to him with our best attempts in our language what he is worth. We are going to give him glory. We respond in worship by singing, by raising our hands, by lifting our voices. Our language may be too feeble, but I can tell you what we can do. We can turn the volume up. we can turn the volume up and so we're going to we're going to sing this is not your opportunity

to be first to your car this is not your opportunity to be first to pick up your children it is your opportunity to prioritize God as first in worship because he is worth it so we're going to give him glory for the next few minutes and I challenge you I encourage you I ask you give God glory for what he's done in your life Give God glory for the salvation that he provides. Give God glory for his call on you. Give God glory that he has given you a new name under heaven by which you can be known. Give God glory that your identity is not in activity, but it is rooted in his work.

Give God glory that he calls and that he rewards. Give God glory for the answered prayers that he's answered in your life. Give God glory for the unanswered prayers that he's trusted you to pray. If you want to come to our altars and respond to him and all of our campuses come. and pray lay prostrate before the Lord as an act of surrender unto his sovereignty because he is sovereign. And it is by his sovereign right hand that he upholds the universe. It is by his good measure and his grace and his mercy alone that he preemptively goes before us. It is his voice that we hear behind us saying, this is the way walk in it, whether you turn to the right or the left.

It is he who goes before us in levels, mountains. He makes a highway of holiness. He has created a path of righteousness. It is his son whose name is above every name. His name is higher. His name is greater. His name is stronger. He has no equal.

He has no rival. He is sovereign over all things. He put the stars in the sky and he knows them by name. He counts the hairs on your head. And in your death, he draws something out of nothing. He is who calls life out of death and brings light out of darkness. He is sovereign. And so we worship him.

And he's so good to us that when we give him glory, he gives us joy. And so we're going to worship God. We're going to give him glory because church, our joy depends on it.