Well, Mercy Hill, from the very beginning, I wanted the first words out of my mouth all weekend long, whether you're here at Regional or at any of the other campuses across the Triad. I wanted you to know how much I love you and how thankful I am for your church, your pastors, your staff. And I know every guest speaker has to say that, right?
You can't just come up here and be like, I really don't care. No, I love Mercy Hill, but I'll prove it. I have never done in my entire life or ministry. I have never preached on Labor Day weekend. I haven't been to church on Labor Day weekend in the last 31 years. Okay, so my family has their tradition. When I was younger, my parents started going to this place called Camp Thunderbird. It's a YMCA camp on Lake Wylie, right outside of Charlotte. We started going there with some friends of our family, the Hewitt family, who my wife was a part of that family. So my wife and I, we grew up as family friends growing up. Her family has been going to Camp Thunderbird since before she was born.
So this is a generational thing. Like it was the non-negotiable. This is what we do on Labor Day weekend. I've taken off every single Labor Day weekend I've been in ministry. But I have this other rule in my life is that anything Mercy Hill asks, I say yes.
Because I love and I'm so grateful for everything they've done for me and my family, ministry, our church, other churches like ours. So when Jonathan called me back in the spring to say, hey, can you come preach on Labor Day weekend? I said, Jonathan, you don't know how this physically hurts me to have to tell you no. But I'm going to be the good husband. I'm going to be the good father.
I'm going to say no to this because we go to Camp Thunderbird every Labor Day weekend. My wife gets home later that night from work and I'm telling her the story and I think, man, I'm going to have ultimate brownie points forever. Because I told Mercy Hill no just to be a good godly husband and father and she was going to be like, oh, Skip, you're so great.
I love you so much. I told her the story. You know what she said?
Are you crazy? Call him back. So I called Jonathan back and said, hey, can we come? My wife is okayed it. I would love to be there and be a part of it because I love this church so much. When I think about Mercy Hill, I think about Paul's words in Ephesians 1 where he says in verse 15, for this reason, because I've heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and I've heard of your love towards all the saints, I do not cease giving thanks for you.
That's my heart. I do not cease giving thanks for your church and your pastors and your leaders, for your faith, being able to see the obedient steps that you have taken. I do not cease to give thanks for you. I have experienced the kingdom impact that you are making. Our church has grown and been blessed and increased in the impact we are able to make in our little corner of the kingdom there in Shelby. And so today, with that in mind, thinking of the kingdom partnership, the kingdom investment, kingdom growth that God is doing through Mercy Hill into other churches all across our state, I want us to look at the kingdom of God. Matthew chapter 20. We're gonna look there as Jesus gives us a parable that starts out with the common phrase, the kingdom of heaven is like.
Matthew uses that terminology 32 times in his gospel. Jesus is wanting us to get and see, hey, this is what the kingdom that you are now a part of is like. And we live differently in this kingdom.
And so I think when we see these essential elements of the kingdom is what I'm calling it, it helps us live and thrive the way we're supposed to in the kingdom that we've been called into. That Jesus, in his goodness and grace as a teacher, is giving us these parables to say, look, you don't understand the kingdom of heaven. You need to understand the kingdom of heaven. So I'm going to give you these pictures in parables.
A parable literally means to cast alongside of. And so what Jesus does is he casts alongside these spiritual truths next to these physical pictures because he says, you don't understand this, but you do understand that. And so if I can show you their connection, then you will understand this is what the kingdom is like. That's what I want us to see today, to move deeper into these truths. When you really get into it, this is what I mean when I say essential elements of the kingdom.
I'm meaning when you get it boiled all the way down. It's as simple as we can get. We see ultimately in this parable that in the kingdom, we have a good and gracious king. That's what I've wanted all weekend long is for everyone to leave here and not go, oh man, that was such a good sermon.
Oh man, that was such a great service. I want us all leaving here fresh and new going, we serve a good and gracious king. To be grateful like never before that man, he has called us into this kingdom and I want to live on mission to see that we have a king worth bowing our lives to. That we have a king that it's easy to sing and say all hail King Jesus.
But to live as if that is true. That he is a king worth saying yes to no matter what it may be. That he is a king worth giving it all for. With that in mind, let's look at Matthew chapter 20. We're gonna pick it up in verse 1 and we're gonna read through verse 16. As Jesus shows us, look at what our king begins to say in verse 1.
For the kingdom of heaven is like. It's like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labors for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace and he said to them, you go into the vineyard too.
And whatever is right, I will give you. So they went and going about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others and he said to them, why do you stand here idle all day?
And they said to him, because no one has hired us. And he said, then you go into the vineyard too. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the labors, pay them their wages.
And with the last, up to the first. And when those who were hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those who were hired first came, they thought they would receive more, 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've made them equal to us.
We've borne the burden of the day in the scorching heat. But he replied to them, friend. I'm doing you no wrong.
Did you not agree with me for denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I chose to give to the 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. Let's pray together. Let's pray together as a part of Your kingdom today, praising You, worshiping You, honoring You. We pray that Your Holy Spirit would move and work among us. That we would see fresh and new the blessing that it is to be called and be a part of the kingdom. Father, that eyes and hearts would be opened, that knees would be bowed, that tongues would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That You would be glorified in that, that we would see the gospel's transformational power take root in hearts and minds and lives today. That we would all leave here as an army on mission saying, all hail King Jesus in every area of our lives.
In His glory for the good of others. God, we pray all this in the powerful name of Jesus together. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. So, Lord, there's one person that is in charge in this kingdom. And guess what?
It's not You. That when we come into this kingdom, we take our hands off of our lives and the King begins to call the shots. That word for owner in verse eight. It literally translates to Lord. In the Greek, it means he to whom a person or thing belongs. About which he, the owner, the Lord, the master, he has the power of deciding. That you are no longer your own.
When we come into the kingdom, we've been bought at a price. And now he is the one that is in charge and calling the shots. I know this is the one that we get pushed back on because we like to call the shots. I want to be in control. That so many times people want Jesus to save them, but they don't want him to be Lord.
They want him to get them out of hell and into heaven, but I still want to call the shots in my life. You know how I know that? Because I lived that. That was the way we all kind of rise up against this and so it's essential to understand in the kingdom, you are not the king.
He is. Now how many of you have ever watched a movie called The Western Code? Raise your hand. Perfect. If you're at any of the other campuses, it was crickets. Not a single hand up. I told the first service, if there's a campus pastor, anybody that raised their hand, I want to meet them. Because I've asked this in seven different services at my church and at Mercy Hill and guess what? No one has ever raised their hand. You might say, I thought when you asked questions like that, you want people to respond.
No, not in this point. Because no one has ever seen The Western Code, there's a reason for that. It came out in 1932. It's not on any streaming services. You can find like one really bad version of it on YouTube. The reason I say that is none of us have seen it.
And yet I will bet you that most of us have quoted it. There's a scene in the movie. It's basically the plot of every western movie is what? There are bad guys that are ruining a town. There's a gang of outlaws that are just messing everything up for the good town folk. And so this good law man comes riding into town so often and they're going to clean the place up.
They're going to establish law and order and justice. And how many of you know bad guys don't like when good guys show up? So you have the making of a great conflict in a story for a western. And in The Western Code, apparently Nick Grendel is that bad guy. Tim Barrett is that good guy. And there's this one scene apparently where they have this face to face. And it's finally come to this tense moment where Nick Grendel, the bad guy, looks at Barrett and says this, I'm getting tired of your meddling. I've never seen it. I just assumed that's how you should say it in a western. I'm getting tired of your meddling, but here it is.
You ready? This town ain't big enough for the both of us. You've never seen it, but you all know it. You've probably said it, been there. This town ain't big enough for the both of us. We use that and say that in so many different situations. And can I just take the word town out and I'll exchange it for a throne? And let's just imagine this is the throne of your life and let me tell you, this throne ain't big enough for the both of us. And in yours and my life, it's Jesus or it's me.
It's you or it's him. Another picture that I see when I see this chair, because I know it's not a throne, my mind goes back to school and playing musical chairs. Anybody remember that?
Like that's the closest thing to a western showdown we're ever going to get to, isn't it? Alright, the music is playing, we're all jumping and fidgety, just ready because what happens in the game, the moment the music stops playing, whoever's in the chair wins. I know you all talk about strengths finder a lot here at Mercy Hill. My top two strengths are achiever and competition. I was built to play musical chairs. I'm going to break a bone or break this chair trying to get in this spot before you do because I want to win.
I want to be in control. And so many times we live our lives that way, but can I tell you for every single one of us, sooner or later, the music's going to turn off in your life. And in that moment, if you're still sitting on the throne of your life, you don't win, you lose for all eternity. So I'm so thankful to see how God just orchestrated and planned this day, singing songs like All Hail King Jesus. Quoting truths like every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And I pray that every single one of us this weekend, we do, we bow our lives to King Jesus, that you get off the throne of your heart, you bow before him and put him in that right place in every area of your life, not just in the area of salvation. Like I mentioned earlier, we want Jesus to save us. We don't want to go to hell. We want to be in heaven.
But how many of us are still holding on to control in so many other areas? I remember for years sitting in a chair like that, but still holding on the chair like this because you know what? I was going to be Dr.
Skip Allen. I went to college as a pre-med major. I had my life planned out, God, and I'm going to hold on to this. Praise God. He didn't give up.
Kept working and moving in my freshman year. I bowed my knee to Him and said, if you're calling me to preach, then I'll preach. If you're calling me to go, then I'll go. You know why? Because He's the King and I'm not. A kingdom has a ruler. Number two, we see a kingdom has a race. A kingdom has a race. It has a people.
It has subjects. Here in the parable, we see that it's laborers who are called into the kingdom. Not everybody was in there.
They weren't just grandfathered in. What we see is we see this good and gracious King and Master doing what? He was doing the seeking. He was going out and finding. He was calling. And they were responding. We see that truth being played out that ultimately these laborers were lost and hopeless and in need of the Master to come and get them. Did you pick up on what he said? When he goes out at the eleventh hour and he looks at the last group and he says, why have you stood here idle all day long?
What did they say? Because nobody else has come. Nobody else has come to hire us.
Guess what? Nobody else has come to save you. Nobody else got off of heaven's throne and came and put on flesh and dwelt among us.
Nobody else lived a perfect life. Nobody else went to the cross in your place. Nobody else went into a tomb and rose again three days later like they said they would other than our King Jesus. And have you heard his call? And have you responded and come into the kingdom?
Peter agrees with this idea when he wrote in 1 Peter 2-9, speaking to believers now in the kingdom. And he says this, but you are a chosen race. You are now a royal priesthood. We are a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
He owns it because he's the king. That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Once you were not his people. But now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, Mercy Hill, but now you have received his mercy.
We should praise God for that truth. The fact and the reality he has brought us in, that should create hearts of gratitude in us praising our king that we were in darkness and he caught us in the light. Do you remember when you were still in that marketplace hopeless and how he called you in? Changed you, shaped you, fixed you up.
Now we are his people. I was taking a trip down memory lane recently with this thing. How many of you know these things are blessings and curses?
They are bitter and they are sweet. That is so awesome that I can, you know, just a couple buttons I can teleport 10 years back and I can look at pictures and videos of my kids. I can remember back to these incredible times. That's so sweet but then it's bitter because then you look and you're like, where did this beautiful little baby boy go? Now he has armpit hair and he stinks.
He just walks around just saying, bruh, all the time, bruh, bruh, bruh. But it's so sweet to be able to look back and remember. See what God has done, how good he's been. And in this video, you're going to see my second oldest son. My wife and I, we've been married for almost 15 years. We have five kids. Hayden is our oldest, he's 13. Harrison's next, he's 11. Hadley Joy is 9. Hayes Asher is 7. And Hallie Rose is our baby girl, she's 4. But I want to show you just a short little video that I found on my phone.
It's from about five or six years ago with my second oldest son, Harrison. He's sitting on the counter in our kitchen and he's quoting his Bible verses for that month. Check this out and then we'll wrap it up with the piano. It's people that she bought his crackers. Enter his gates of thanksgiving and his horse with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. Praise God. If you were wondering if Shelby's in the country, did you hear that twang? Psalm 100.
But I love it because every time I watch that video, it reminds me how grateful I am that I serve a great Creator God and King. Because when my wife was pregnant with Harrison, we went to the anatomy scan. They noticed that there were several issues in utero. He had only a two vessel cord, he had bilateral cysts on his brain, he only had one kidney. They told us, you've got to go to a specialist in Charlotte every single week for the remainder of this pregnancy. And when we walked in the very first day with that specialist, I'm talking world renowned OBGYN for this. She looks at us, she says, look, two vessel cord, bilateral cysts on his brain, one kidney. Everything points to he's either got Edwards syndrome or he has Down syndrome.
And either way, I'm going to encourage you today to terminate this pregnancy. If we would have listened to earthly kings, he wouldn't be here. But in that moment, that wasn't an option. You know why? Because we serve a greater king. We serve a king who says he has knit him together in his mother's womb. Well, we serve a king who said he's made in his image, fearfully and wonderfully made. A king who says, before you were in your mother's womb, I knew you and I appointed you for my purposes.
And so we said, no, we're not going to believe that. Here's the deal. If our king wants him to be born with Edwards syndrome, then so be it. We will serve gladly at the pleasure of our king. If it's Down syndrome, we will serve gladly at the pleasure of our king. If he has no syndrome, then we will serve gladly.
But here's the thing. We're going to trust our king. And praise God, we did. Did you hear his words in Psalm 100 that Harrison was quoting? He made us. We are his, his people, his sheep, his pasture, his gates. It's his courts.
You know why? Because he's the king and we are not. And that is a good thing.
We should take joy and gratitude in that. A kingdom has a race. It has a ruler. Number three, we see a kingdom has a realm. A kingdom has a territory. A kingdom has a domain, a country, an area of authority. Our king ultimately, we're going to know, owns it all. That he calls them in and he sends them into his vineyard, it says in the parable. Our king owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He owns all the hills.
Guess what? He's going to rule and reign the universe for all of eternity. It was Abraham Kuyper who once said this, There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence, over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry mine. And we've all probably experienced a little toddler when their favorite words are mine.
Mine, mine, mine. And they don't really mean it. It's not really true. Jesus is the only one who can yell out mine about everything and it is absolutely true because he created it. He holds it together by the word of his power. He's the king. Are you in his kingdom? Have you heard him calling and bringing you in?
Has he transformed your life? Colossians 1. Paul talks about this, talking about different kingdoms. That we are not all in the kingdom automatically. You see the same thing earlier, but in Colossians 1 Paul said this, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness. There's another realm. He has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
Have you been transferred? Has your spiritual citizenship been changed from the domain of darkness and been brought into the kingdom of life? As you've bowed your life to the king, James Montgomery Boice has, it's a longer quote, but he wrote it in response to the kingdom parables in Matthew chapter 13. There's seven or eight parables in that chapter that all start with the kingdom of heaven is like, the kingdom of heaven is like, the kingdom of heaven is like, and he says this.
I think it wraps up this point well for us. He said, so I ask, in which camp are you? If you are not with Christ now, you will be without Christ then. If you are with Him now, you will be with Him in the day of judgment, and it is permanent.
Nothing could be more permanent than the collecting of good fish and the discarding of bad, or throwing the tears into the fire to be burned. In that day, the opportunity for repentance will be over. The day for trusting in Jesus Christ will be past. I wish I could say that the reality will be different, but I cannot, for Jesus Himself does not.
There's only one person who will tell you that. He is the devil. Do not listen to the devil's lies. Instead, listen to the Lord Jesus, who speaks truth, who speaks it in this parable, so that we can know that judgment is real. Separation is coming, and the time for repentance is now. Hear Him.
Believe Him. Turn from anything that would keep you from Jesus, and throw yourself upon Him and His work only. The kingdom has a ruler. It has a race. It has a realm. Finally, we see the fourth essential element of the kingdom is that a kingdom has a rule. The kingdom has a rule. There's a way of life in any kingdom that you are in.
There are codes. There are laws. There are decrees from the king that dictate, this is the way life is lived in our kingdom, because this is the way the king is spoken. And I think if we take this parable in Matthew 20 and and sum it all up, get to the essential element of the rule that it's teaching. I think it would show us that our kingdom is ruled by one thing, and it's one word, grace. Grace.
That has been experienced by every single person in this parable. Why did he call them in in the first place? I think it was grace. Why did the master get up and leave his vineyard at the crack of dawn to go and to bring people in? Grace. Why did he go back out at 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. and 3 p.m.?
Why would you go at 5 p.m., bring someone in for the last hour, pay them the same as the first? Grace. Complete and utter, unmerited favor of the king. Have you experienced that?
Are you living in that and responding with that? Because he who's been forgiven little loves little, but he who's been forgiven much loved much. When you realize how much grace has been poured out from the king into your life, guess what? You are more likely to live in grace in the kingdom.
Knowing what he has done, how he has responded, John said in John 1 17, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus. Grace and truth. In the last couple of minutes that we have, can I just leave you with some truths about grace to go with? To hopefully allow us to live differently in the kingdom when we understand. Here's some truths about grace in the context of the kingdom.
First, we need to understand and never forget grace found us. Were they standing at the gate of the vineyard knocking and begging to come in? No, they were standing hopeless in the marketplace and what did the master do?
The master went and found them. Our king said he came to seek and to save that which was lost. To leave the 99 and go for the one, grace found you. It brought you in and we see another truth, grace isn't fair.
This one should wreck us over and over and over again. When we really think about grace and how we've experienced to understand it is not fair. That the workers at the beginning are right. When they look and say, look these people only worked one hour and you're paying them the same as us, that's not fair. You're right, it isn't fair, but me calling you in to start with and paying you wasn't fair. You didn't deserve it, but I called you in to my grace.
I love the way David Platt puts it in his Matthew commentary talking about grace. He said it's not fair and that's the point. God's grace in salvation is by definition not fair.
D.A. Carson has put it rather candidly when he said, do you really want nothing but totally effective instantaneous justice? If that's what you want then go to hell because that's what's fair. But gratefully God surprises us with his mercy. He does what we would never expect according to what we could never earn. Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy grace Lord like a fetter bind my wandering heart to be.
To know where I was. Do you ever think back to where you were apart from grace? We can forget how messed up we were.
We can forget how hopeless we were. Or if you've ever done the flip side and just play out your life, where would you be without grace? I wouldn't be on this stage. I would not be married to my wife for 15 years.
I would not be in my children's life the way I am because I was a selfish jerk that would be out living for myself. Hurting everyone in my path. Oh but for grace. With Soren Kierkegaard who said, I am just a poor wretch whom God took charge of and for whom he has done so indescribably much more than I ever expected. That I only long for a piece of eternity in order to do nothing but thank Him. That's the right response to grace.
Just an attitude of gratitude. Thank you. Thank you for finding me.
Thank you for saving me. The final truth about grace, grace isn't finished. Praise God. It wasn't finished in the parable going out to call others in. It's not finished today calling others in.
The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. That's why we need to be living our lives on mission going. Whatever the cost, we'll go. The yeses are on the table because we want to see others be brought in.
We want to live out the model that our king has laid out. Where he went time after time after time. I'm not finished calling others in but here's another truth I think we need to know. He isn't finished fixing us up. Anybody thankful for grace's ongoing work in their life today?
That yeah, I'm not where I'm going to be but I know I'm not where I was. That he's going to finish what he started. That good work. That his grace is working. Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace. Freely bestowed upon all who believe.
All who are longing to see his face. Will you this moment, his grace receive? Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all my sin.
Your heads bowed, eyes closed, and a posture of response. Time to reflect. Maybe for some of you, you've seen God's grace for the first time today. What Jesus Christ did on your behalf. That the king of the universe would come and die to redeem you. To pay the price that your sin owed. And today you need to bow your life before him.
Cry out and call to him to save you and he will. To fill your life and he will to call you to his plans and purposes. Maybe for others you've been in the kingdom but you just needed a fresh and new view of grace. To respond in a heart of gratitude. Worshipping and praising him like never before. Whatever it is that his spirit is doing, let's be obedient. Knees bowed, hearts open, hands high to our king who is so good and so gracious. Father, we thank you for this time. What you're doing in and among us, have your way. I pray that we would leave here bowed and healing Jesus as king. So grateful for the grace and living on mission to point others to him. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
