This morning I'm really excited about being here in the Word this morning.
I had the privilege yesterday, or yesterday, today's Sunday, Friday, of overseeing a funeral for someone. And, you know, philosophers tell us that human beings, I don't care where you're born, what you believe, I don't care what faith you may have, what religion you may be involved in, whether you're an atheist, or not, they'll ask themselves four questions about life, about origin, destiny, morality, and meaning. Origin meaning, where did all this come from? Time, space, and matter. What brought it into existence?
Was this some divinely designed thing? People ask that question. They'll ask questions about destiny. What happens when I die?
They'll ask questions about morality. Right and wrong. What is right?
What is wrong? And meaning. What is the meaning and purpose of life? And Jesus did a wonderful job of addressing these questions, and in particular today, and we're going to be in Matthew chapter 20, he deals with the question of destiny.
What happens when we die? Back in the early 90s, and Vivian was this really, I wish y'all could meet her genuinely. She had a great impact on my life, and she genuinely loved the Lord. She had a very hard life. Loved the Lord, started a Christian school. Everybody called her mom.
She just had that kind of influence. And I remember the preacher at her funeral, Reverend Rod, I remember him saying something. He said, if you knew Jesus, this was not goodbye.
You would see Vivian again. But if you didn't know the Lord, this was goodbye. And I don't care what you believe or what you think or what your faith may be, although I know this room is filled with people who are followers of Christ. People want to know what happens when they die. People want to have a sense of how they get to heaven. And common within human thought, because it's how we live and work, is that if I do enough good things, I will be right with whatever God that religion says I'm serving. And that's true in society, right?
You work hard, you get rewards. But Jesus seems to indicate in a story we're going to read here in a moment that God operates a little differently. And this passage, and I'll give you some context, in Matthew 20 is in the third year of Jesus' public ministry. We date Jesus' ministry about three to three and a half years. Some scholars say AD 27 to AD 30. Some say AD 30 to AD 33. I believe this moment was taught somewhere in the winter of AD 30, right at the end of Jesus' public ministry.
He's in Perea, which is on the eastern side of the Jordan River, east of Jerusalem. And he is about to go into his Passion Week, his week of suffering, where he goes and gives his life, as all the pilgrims were coming to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. In fact, Jesus' public ministry was dated by four Passovers, Passover being the Jewish people's way of remembering how God brought them out of Egyptian slavery. And Jesus tells this story, and he tells it to a group of people, and he begins the statement in Matthew 20 verse 1 by saying, the kingdom of heaven is like. And in fact, Matthew, who wrote his gospel to Jewish people, recorded 27 times that Jesus made this statement, the kingdom of heaven is like. And it's like Jesus is trying to say to people, I know how the world works, I know you know how society works, I know you know how culture works, I know how you work with each other, but this is the way God works.
And specifically this story is the way God blesses us, the way God gives eternal rewards, the way God deals with us when it comes to eternity. And in fact, there's an image, and this story is of a vineyard owner, so if you're a teetotaler like I am, you can't relate, but it's a vineyard owner, and in fact there's an image, I'm going to put it behind me now, and it's of a modern day vineyard. And Jesus is telling this parable, this story, of a guy who owns one of these, and in the story, the grapes are ripe, and he therefore has to get workers, and the way you would get workers is you'd go to a marketplace and hire day laborers, and in some parts of the world this is still this way. You would just go get day laborers, and in America we might consider them almost to be like migrant workers, and they would go out and they would pay them a wage, and so they would go out and they would pick grapes that day, and the next image you've got up here is of an ancient wine press, and what they would do is they would gather these grapes, and in the square area up there they would literally step on them with their feet, and they would crush them, and then the juice would run down into that large vat, and then it would ferment. I know nothing about wine.
It would ferment, and then they would store it and use it. In fact, the next imagery is of an artist's rendering of what they were doing, which was treading out the grapes, and the agreement was that they would go and work for a day's wage, and a day's wage was a denarius, and there's an image they're going to put up there of a denarius. In fact, I'm holding an actual denarius right here. I own two Roman coins.
It's my entire collection. It's all I've got right here, and this is actually a denarius. It meant ten of these. I'm not swearing, parents. This was called an ass, A-E-S.
I'm sorry. I have no other word to say. Maybe I just call it a behind. This is a behind. This is a butt.
It's a butt there. I don't know what to say. Very awkward.
Sorry, Pastor Chad. All right. What did you say? So, the denarius was worth ten of these, and so this was a common day's wage, and what happened is the workday was 12 hours long.
It went from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and these workers were sent out in order to earn a day's wage. But as we read the story in a moment, you'll see that something different happens at the end of the story when they go to get paid, and I want you to pay attention to that, okay? So, would you stand with me for the reading of the Word, and we're going to be in Matthew, chapter 20, verse 1.
I'm reading from the English Standard Version. I encourage you to bring your Bible, whether it's on your phone or your tablet or in person. Have your Bible with you. It's a long passage, so bear with me.
Make sure you shift your legs so nobody passes out while we're reading this, okay? 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 a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard and going about the third hour, so they dated their hours 12 hours.
The first hour would be 6 a.m., so the third hour, do the math, would be, what, 9 a.m., right? He saw others sending idol 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 out. Going again about the sixth hour, noon, in the ninth hour, 3 p.m., he did the same. And about the eleventh hour, 5 p.m., one hour of daylight left, 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, because you see the harvest needed to be picked, so every worker available was needed. 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 so normally what would happen here is if you work half a day, you wouldn't receive denarius, you'd receive about five of these. And so what normally would happen is you would get paid in these, the AESs, right, the buts, right, you'd get paid in these, because you hadn't worked a full day to earn a denarius. And so it says, and when those hired, verse 9, about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, so they didn't work a whole day, but they received a whole day's wage, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it, they grumbled at the mass of the house, saying, these last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heap. But he replied to one of them, friend, I am doing you no wrong.
They were saying, hey, this isn't fair, and they were right, but it wasn't, God was basically cheating himself, it wasn't fair to the vineyard owner. 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 me my generosity? That word generosity is agathos, it means goodness. So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
You may be seated, but God has blessed him through the reading of his word. So some worked an hour, and they received a whole day's wage. And some complained about it and said it's not fair, and they were right, but it wasn't fair to the vineyard owner. It's as if God is cheating himself. I love the way the new century version says this. But the man who owned the vineyard said to one of those workers, friend, I am being fair to you, you agreed to work for one coin, so take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired the last the same pay that I gave you.
I can do what I want with my own money. Are you jealous because I am good to those people? You see, and this is probably the main point of today, God's goodness is not based on our ability to be good. God is good. It's who he is.
It's in his nature. 1 Chronicles 16, 34, O give thanks to the Lord, for he is what? Good. For his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 86, 5, O Lord, you are so what?
Good. So ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. In fact, Jesus said something interesting. Not only does the scripture say that God is good, it also says that we are not good. Mark 10, 17, as Jesus is setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Remember that question of destiny and eternity?
In fact, Matthew records a similar conversation right before this story. And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good, Agathos? No one is Agathos, no one is good, except God alone. Paul wrote in Romans 3, 12, and he said it this way, all, you and me, all of humanity, have turned aside.
Aside from what? From God's standard of perfection. Together, they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. God is good, and we are not. See, the Christian worldview is not that within us is an essential goodness and that we just need to become, that humanity is really good at its core. The scriptural viewpoint is that we're not good. And Pastor Chad says, if you don't believe in original sin, then you've just never had children, right?
Right? So God's goodness is not based on our ability to be good. God is good, it's who he is, it's his nature.
God is good, and we are not. And because God is good, he extends grace to all who would receive it. You remember the story in Exodus, where Moses is trying to talk God out of abandoning the people of Israel because they have begun to worship idols? And Moses asks God, hey, I'd like to see your face. And God says, Moses, no one can see my face and live, but I'll put you in the cleft of a rock, I'll put you in a little cliff, and my presence, my manifestation will pass over you, and you can kind of see me from behind, whatever that is, because God is spirit. And when the spirit of God passes over Moses, he declares, I will have compassion, I'm whom I will have compassion, and I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. It's an interesting statement because it's really as if God is saying, I'm God, and if I want to be compassionate, nobody can stop me. If I want to have mercy, no one can tell me otherwise. The vineyard owner wanted to be generous, and Jesus is saying, this is the way the kingdom of heaven works, this is how God works.
He doesn't work like you and I work. We want people to get what's coming to them. Don't you ever see somebody go flying by you speeding on the highway?
It's probably me. That's why I took the little ichthus fish off the back of my car because I thought, Jesus would never drive how I'm driving, right? So I put a satanic symbol and then people think, oh, those satanic people are awful, I'm going to be a Christian. It's like reverse psychology. But you ever see somebody go speeding and later on they get pulled over and you're like, yeah.
Got what's coming to them, right? There is something about us as human beings, we kind of want people to get what's coming to them, but that's not really how God works, right? God is good and he extends grace to all who would receive it.
Listen to these words because they're important. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, Paul writes, For by grace you have been saved through faith, right? Saved what? From eternal hell, saved from condemnation because of our sins. Through faith.
And this is not your own doing, right? Faith itself, it is the gift of God. So we can't even take credit for faith.
Not a result of works that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, agathos, which God prepared before him that we should walk in them. In fact Hebrews 9-11 said, When Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, it's an analogy to the tabernacle and the temple in Jerusalem, and then it's referring to his body, not made with the hands that is not of this creation, he, Christ, entered once for all, entered where? Into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves as they would do at the temple and do at the tabernacle, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption, right? So Christ paid the price for us. Religion is spelled D-O.
It's about doing all these good things. Christianity is D-O-N-E while Christ has done for us. Think of the thief on the cross, right?
It's recorded that he's next to Jesus and he simply says to him, Would you remember me when you come into your kingdom? And Jesus says to a thief on the cross, condemned to die for his crimes, This day you will be with me in paradise. What good things had the thief done to earn that, right? See, God's goodness is not based on our ability to be good. God is good.
It's who he is. And because God is good, he extends his grace to all who receive it. Let's talk about mercy for a moment.
Mercy is not getting the punishment our sin deserves. Speaking of speeding, a preacher I know was on vacation not long ago and got pulled over. It was me. And I did the typical thing. I started to cry because I think anything can help, right?
Anything can help, right? Yeah. I got pulled over once and the kids were young and they're like, Dad's going to jail. I'm like, I'm not going to jail. And the guy was really nice to me and I was just like, yeah, I was speeding. I'm sorry. I tried to make up something spiritual.
I'm on the way to the hospital to lead someone to Jesus, brother. I didn't do any of that. And the guy was nice and he let me off, honestly. He's like, don't do it again kind of a thing.
And so at least for the next 24 hours I didn't do it again. And I got mercy, right? Mercy is not getting the punishment our sins deserve, right? Luke 6 35 Jesus said, but love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return. And your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High. For He, meaning the Lord, is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.
See, God's not out to get us. Hebrews 4 16, let us stand with confidence drawn near to the throne of grace. The throne of what?
The throne of what? Grace. We may receive mercy and grace to help in time of need.
So mercy is not receiving the punishment we deserve. Grace is receiving the favor we could never earn. Grace is God being unfair to himself as the vineyard owner was. The essential part of the parable of the vineyard owner is that God is like that.
His generosity transcends. It goes beyond human ideas of fairness. In that story, no one receives less than they deserve, but some receive far more. Romans chapter 6 14, Paul writes to the church in Rome and he says, For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, right? What the scripture says about how we should live our lives, but under grace. Romans 11 6, but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of work. So God does not base our value on what we do for him.
Do you base the value of your children on what they do for you? The lesson for Christ's disciples is obvious. We should not serve him because we want to receive an expected reward. And we should not insist on knowing what we will get. God is infinitely generous and gracious and will always give us better than we deserve. Grace equals, you've heard me say this before, God's riches at Christ's expense.
I wrote a little poem, it's terrible, but it goes like this. Grace, it's not a gift we can buy no matter how hard we try. It's not a gift we can buy no matter how hard we try. Grace is received, it's not achieved. So God's goodness is not based on our ability to be good.
God is good, it's who he is, it's his nature. And because God is good, he extends his grace to those who receive it. Grace is God's, which is at Christ's expense. Does grace then give us an excuse to sin? Paul addressed this in Romans 6. If you really want to get theological, read Romans.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound, right? Hey, since God's grace is so abundant, should we just continue and God just keeps pointing out grace?
Paul says, by no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life, a new way of living. Grace does not give us an excuse to sin. But then comes the question, why be good?
It's a good question. What's interesting though, being good is predicated on the belief that some things are right and some things are wrong. There are some in our culture and society that don't believe in right and wrong or absolutes. And even somebody who says there is no such thing as absolute truth is actually making an absolute truth statement when they say that. But all of this is predicated on the fact that instinctually within our human DNA is a consciousness that God put there. I think we can sear it and not listen to it. There's a sense of right and wrong.
You can test it. Just ask somebody, is pedophilia wrong? There's right and wrong. Is the Holocaust wrong? There's right and wrong. Is going nine miles of a speed limit wrong? Nine you're fine, ten you're mine. All right.
That's not true, by the way. But Officer, Pastor Chris said, why be good? In Islam, good deeds are considered to be a way to guarantee a good life and strength for a person. The Quran states that on Judgment Day, Allah will weigh a person's good deeds against their bad deeds to determine if they deserve to enter paradise. If good deeds outweigh the bad deeds and Allah is pleased with the Muslim, then they may be allowed to enter paradise.
However, some say that Allah's will is ultimately what determines salvation and that it is arbitrary at best. The Prophet Muhammad also said that Allah does not accept good deeds unless they are done sincerely in a pursuit of Allah's countenance. So yes, Islam says do good deeds, but Islam also says you'll never really know until Judgment Day whether or not you've done enough good. Hinduism teaches the idea that living beings have a soul and must practice good deeds to develop good karma. Followers of Hinduism believe in a cycle of reincarnation where the physical body dies but the soul is reborn in another physical form. And the more good deeds you do, the better your next life is.
And so if you're living a good life, you've earned it by your former lives. Buddhism, which is very difficult for me to understand, has a third noble truth and it talks about when one has achieved nirvana, which is a transcendent state free from suffering in our worldly cycle of birth and rebirth, spiritual enlightenment has been reached. And the fourth noble truth of Buddhism charts the method for attaining the end of suffering known to Buddhists as the Noble Eightfold Path. The steps of the Noble Eightfold Path are right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
Moreover, there are three themes in which the path is divided, good moral conduct, meditation and mental development, and wisdom or insight. Buddhism says if you want to achieve nirvana, do good things. Atheists, and I'm just going to stop for a moment, atheism is not a lack of faith, it is a faith. So what atheists say is they don't believe there's a God and they put their faith in that reality.
Right, there's nobody who lacks faith, each of us have our world view. Atheists address it in a book by Michael Martin back in the 1990s here with a book called Atheism, a Philosophical Justification and he talks about the atheist wager and how that applies to living a good life and there's several statements, I'll read a few of them. He said the atheist says you may live a good life without believing in a God and if a benevolent God exists, in which case you go to heaven, your gain is infinite. So the atheist says, well, if you live a good life and you don't believe in a God, but there is a God and you're benevolent, then your good deeds will make you right with that God. The atheist says you may live an evil life and believe in a God and a benevolent God exists, in which case you go to hell, so your bad deeds send you to hell.
Your loss is infinite. So even within atheism there is this idea of being good. In some atheism we'll just say, well, just even for leaving a legacy and the problem with atheism then is what's good?
What's the basis of good? Scripture declares that we should be good because God is good and we love God. Lying behind the parable of the vineyard is the thought that we serve in the kingdom of heaven not so much for the reward we receive as for our delight in the service itself. Do we serve willingly and gladly simply because we love our Lord and Master? Do we do good things for our children or our spouse because we have to?
Do we do them because we want to because we love them? Same with being a follower of Christ. This is why we do good. God is good and we love God. Scripture declares that we should be good because we are grateful, right? 1 John 4.19, we love because he first loved us. If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar for he does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. We are grateful. Isn't it good to know that one, we can't earn our way into heaven and be right with God. Two, that God has paid the price for us.
There's no pressure. We are grateful. Scripture says we should be good because we are obedient. Luke 6.35, Jesus said, but love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing and returning. Your reward will be great and you will be sons in the most high. For he, meaning the Lord, is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful even as your father is merciful. Do good. We are obedient. Express another way, one might say that the mature Christian attitude is this. Because of the price Christ paid for me, I have only duties and responsibilities. I have no rights. I have died to myself.
Right? We are obedient. And finally, Scripture says we should be good because we are a reflection of God's grace to others. First Thessalonians 5.15 says, see that no one plays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. I think that in the culture we're in, we really need to be as followers of Christ, harbingers, bringers, carriers of grace to others.
Now, hear me out because I haven't really addressed it. I mean, it's obvious, isn't it, that grace is not this excuse to sin, right? And it doesn't matter how we live our lives. But at the same time, how we live our lives is not how God gives grace to us. God is good. His goodness is not based on our ability to be good. God is good.
It's who He is. And because God is good, He gives grace. He extends grace. He offers grace to all who would receive it.
And grace is God's riches at Christ's expense. And as followers of Christ, we are called to be good out of so many reasons, many of them in gratitude and obedience and being a reflection of who He is. Some people would say, well, Chris, if God is so good, what about moral evil in the world? What about bad things that happen to good people? Some would argue there are no good people, according to the Scriptures.
And that's a great conversation for another sermon, but in Unshakable Foundations by Gaisler Boccino on this question of moral evil. If God is so good, why does He allow evil? Why does He allow bad things to happen? Why does the Holocaust happen? Why do wars happen?
Why do all these terrible things happen? Well, a lot of it lies in the free will of man. You see, love is the greatest good, God's love. And that requires free choice. And free choice implies the possibility of the opposite choice. God alone is love, and God's love is the greatest good. And the greatest good for humanity is God's love, and the greatest evil for humanity is to reject God. And to stop evil is to stop free choices. And to stop free choices is to stop love, God's love. And to stop love is to stop the greatest good. And to stop the greatest good would be the greatest evil.
You can't have free will without the opportunity to choose poorly. So, what do we do? As followers of Christ, if we know that God's good news, his goodness, pardon me, is not based on our ability to be good, what do we do? In Matthew 24, 14, Jesus said, And this gospel, gospel euangelion, which meant, literally, good news, the message of God's salvation, will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testament to all nations, and then the end will come. The one thing the church has that nobody else has is grace.
What do I mean by that? Should we help the poor? Absolutely. Should we invest in widows and orphans? Absolutely. Why do we do things we're often at kids camp? Because we should extend God's love, especially to those who are the most vulnerable.
Of course. But the reality is that lots of groups of people on our planet do lots of good things to other people and do charity work. The church should excel at that. But the one thing the church has that nobody else has is the gospel is the good news of Christ. A counselor once said, he was a professional counselor, and he said, in my 30 years of counseling with Christians, he said, most problems came down to either this, the failure to receive grace, or the failure to give grace. I don't know about you, it's a little challenging to offer grace in our current culture.
I don't like what's happening in our culture. And grace does not require that I like my culture, or my neighbor, or their choices, right? It doesn't require that. It does require, since I've received God's grace, that I find ways to communicate the good news of God's grace to others around me. The gospel is good news. Have you received the gift of God's grace? Being a follower of Jesus is not easy. I have found it to be one of the hardest things that I've ever done, and it's the hardest. And then you say, well, why do it?
Well, just because something is hard doesn't mean it's not right, right? Being a follower of Jesus means that I've received God's grace, and how have I received it? Well, one, I have put my faith in Christ, my trust in Christ for the forgiveness of my sins. He is the forgiver, the savior of my life. But to receive God's grace, I must also submit to his lordship, to his leadership, to his kingship. He is my master.
He is my overseer. In fact, one of the most common words for being a follower of Christ in the New Testament, particularly in Paul's writings, is doulos, which was a word for slave. So receiving God's grace is not simply getting a get-out-of-jail-free card, and it's not like getting a Costco membership. It is submitting to God's authority for my life and knowing that God is not expecting me to be perfect. And then what happens as a follower of Christ is I begin to read the Bible and pray and spend time with other believers, and I learn God's will, what's right for my life.
Romans 12, 1, and 2, right? That we can be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we can prove what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and acceptable. So if you've never received the gift of God's grace, it's been there since the moment you were born, and it'll be there to the moment you die. And some people receive it at a young age. Some never receive it. Some, like my grandfather, received it a month before he died at 94 years old. But it's a gift you can never earn.
You cannot buy it even if you try it. But it will cost you this, the death of yourself, because what Scripture seems to indicate to us is this, is that you and I don't know what we're doing, that we literally don't know what's best for our lives, because sin has tainted us, and that we need to be renewed and changed in the way we think and act. And that comes by God's Spirit, and God's Holy Spirit, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the triune God, His Holy Spirit literally just comes to live inside of us and empower us to be the Father has called us to be. Have you ever received God's grace?
Have you submitted to Him as the leader of your life, accepted Him as the forgiver of your sins? That is a lifelong commitment. I don't know, maybe you've got some really hard questions. Maybe you've had a hard life.
I understand. I've stood bedside and watched an eight-year-old die in a hospital bed and not understand it. I've watched good people suffer. Life can be really hard. Sometimes when life gets difficult and life isn't good, we think God's not good. It's a logical conclusion, I get it, but God's got purposes behind the way this world is beyond our understanding, and this world is tainted by sin, and it's not as God intended it to be.
And that's why Scripture declares one day God will bring a whole new creation where all of this mess is gone. Have you received God's grace? Scripture indicates it is appointed on a man once to die and then comes judgment. How long do you have to receive God's grace? To your last breath. When is your last breath? Today? Tomorrow?
Twenty years from now? When is your last breath? So as a preacher of the gospel, here's what I would say to you. And within the sound of my voice, when you're here in North Raleigh online, Benson, if you've never received God's grace, you need to take it very seriously because Jesus said you're either with me or you're against me. And you need to decide for yourself who is Jesus. Is He who He said He was? Did He rise from the dead? There's lots of evidence that He did. Is He who He said He was? What are you basing your life on? Because an identity in Christ is not one you can achieve.
It's only one you can receive. So God's goodness is not based on our ability to be good. God is good.
It's who He is. And because God is good, He extends grace to all who would receive. And grace is God's riches at Christ's expense.
And we are good out of so many reasons, including gratefulness and obedience, reflecting God's goodness to others. Have you received God's grace? And finally, are you sharing God's grace with others? I'm very embedded in the church world. It's honestly very difficult for me as a follower of Christ and as a pastor to win people to the Lord individually because I'm hanging around you guys all the time. And you guys are sick and tired of me trying to get you saved. You're like, Pastor, I'm already saved.
But are you sharing God's grace with others? There is an urgency in the harvest. The laborers that were hired for only a single hour of work were only hired for a single hour, but the harvest must be gathered in quickly before the day ends and the work is not yet done. These verses express the typical urgency surrounding the harvest in ancient times. The harvest is ripe right now.
It must be done so quickly because time is of the essence. Would you please stand with me? Worship is going to lead us out on a song called The Blessing because I wanted to sing this song because it feels a reflection of God's grace.
While they're singing this song, if you've never received Christ's gift of grace, all you have to do right where you are is talk to him and say, Jesus, I'm a sinner. I ask you to forgive me. I want you to come into my life and take over. Forgive me of my sin. Fill me with your spirit. Take me to heaven to be with you when I die.
Make yourself real to me. Just talk to Jesus and invite him in. And then when we have our next water baptism Sunday, you get water baptized and tell the world, I now follow Jesus.
Amen. For the rest of you, I want to encourage you to receive God's grace because some of you are going through a difficult season. And I want you to know that God's grace is not just his goodness over sin. God's grace is his ability to give you strength in difficult seasons. So I want you to receive God's grace today for whatever you may be facing, whatever situation, whatever financial difficulty, whatever relational challenge you may be in, whatever career disaster you may be in or not in, whatever you may be facing, I want you to receive God's grace for now, for today. And then I'll come back up and close us out.
Let's sing together. May his favor be upon you in a thousand generations. And your family and your children and their children and their children. May his favor be upon you in a thousand generations. And your family and their children and their children and their children. May his favor be upon you in a thousand generations.
And your family and their children and their children and their children. May his favor be upon you, and a thousand generations, and your family, and your children, and their children, and their children. May his presence go before you, and its faith you, and the signs you, or throughout you, and will fill in you. He is for you, he is with you, in the morning, in the evening, in the coming, and in going, on your evening, and rejoicing.
He is for you, he is for you, he is for you, he is for you, he is for you, he is for you, he is for you, he is for you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Isn't it good to know? Isn't it good to know that He is for us? It's good to know that, you know, there's a promise in Philippians chapter 1 that says, and I'm sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. He has begun a good work in you, and He is going to finish it, and He is for you, and He is not against you, and wherever you are, and whatever you're going through, He knows exactly where you are, and He died for you because He wanted to, because He wants to bless you and give you a heritage that can never die and never pass away. Receive this blessing from the Lord today. Father, I pray in this church's behalf that out of and according to the glorious riches of Christ Jesus, that you would strengthen them with power through your spirit and their inner being, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith, and they being rooted and established in love would have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Jesus. Amen. God bless you guys. He is for you. Amen.
