Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Some of you guys, I'm sure, don't. But J and E are actual missional. They're missional partners that we, we brought with us into our plant. They were, they were already one of the missional partners, one of the joining churches had when Emmanuel came into existence. And the reason I say that is because they've been in a really difficult place sharing the gospel for a long time and it's taken a long time time for there to be traction built up in the work they're doing. And I say that because that is a lot more like our context than we want to admit. If you've never, if you've never done so, I'd encourage you to read one of the many really good biographies of Adoniram Judson. He's one of the first Baptist missionaries ever sent. And he went from, I think the colonies still. I don't know if we were a country yet, it was a long time ago. But he went from there to Burma, is that right? Is it Burma? Yeah, Burma. And the thing I remember about his ministry that's so powerful is this. He went in, he went into a community and a culture that was incredibly close to the gospel. And it was seven years of full time ministry before he saw a single convert. Seven years.
[00:01:14] Nuts. I mean, can you imagine just chipping away, preaching the gospel, facing persecution, facing all the difficulties of that and just no fruit for seven whole years. Beloved, I would say that we can take an encouragement from that thinking of our missionary brothers and sisters and just step back for a second and go, that person in your life who you love, who you've been bold and shared the gospel with and they rejected it.
[00:01:40] Your work's not done and God's not done. Right? If there is breath in their lungs, there's breath in their lungs, there's still hope. And you can continue to labor in prayer and you can continue to be faithful in how you share even when they're closed off, right. Sometimes, sometimes it takes years, years for the seed of the gospel to sprout and bear fruit. Good morning church. What a joy to be together. I can't go on without saying that part. Right. We are continuing today our series that we've called the Pursuit of Happy. We've been talking about the various false gospels we hear in our lives that promise us happiness. Right? We've talked about marriage, we've talked about divorce, we talked about singleness, we've talked about wealth, we've talked about religion. And all of these are connected to narratives in our world that promise Us, a good life, right? If you marry the right person, if you just have freedom, if you have a good career, if you build up some wealth, if you're disciplined and spiritual enough. Whatever it is. We hear these narratives that say, just do this and your life will be good. But as we've discussed over these last few weeks, the reality is that we are simply made for more than this world has to offer.
[00:03:00] We will not, we cannot find fulfillment in the things of this world. And hear this, beloved, even the good things of this world. I would take a step beyond that and say, even the best things of this world, the world falls short of the design of your heart, pure and simple. It's not that we can't experience wonderful joys and deep, deep happiness and good things in this life. Of course we can. And those things are worth pursuing. But you will not find your ultimate fulfillment in the best this world has to offer, because this world falls short of what you were designed for as a human being made in God's image. You weren't made for just 70 years on a rock spinning through space. You were built for eternity. You were built for relationship. You were made for intimacy with your creator. You were made for more. And if you aim your life toward the things of this world, you will never find the fulfillment you're looking for. Period.
[00:04:06] That's a heavy way to start off, but it's true, guys. It's just. It's a fundamental truth of who we are and how we're made. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 20 today. If you want to go ahead and turn there in your Bibles, we have house Bibles around the room. If you don't have one with you. We really believe, we're passionate about the importance of access to God's word here at Emmanuel. So if you don't own a physical Bible, I'd strongly encourage you to take one of those home or talk to one of the pastors and we'll get you a nicer one.
[00:04:33] But here's what we're. Here's what we're doing today. In Matthew 20, we're going to talk about these false gospels, these false narratives around luck and justice.
[00:04:43] If you want a good life, you gotta just strike it lucky. You gotta get lucky. Or if you want a good life, you just need things to be fair. You need justice. That would make your life good. Two narratives that folk in Jesus day believe just as thoroughly as we do today. If you're lucky, you'll have a happy life. If justice prevails, if it's all fair, you'll have a happy life. Unfortunately, you can guess where we're going. Neither of these will work. They're not enough.
[00:05:09] Which brings us to our main point today, which is simply this beloved Jesus is enough.
[00:05:15] Jesus is enough for you. Now here's the thing. I think most of us good church people in the room can pretty easily amen that, right? That sounds like a good bridge to put in a worship song. Like right when the guitar part comes in, like Jesus is enough. And we could all just like get a little teary eyed while we'll raise our hands to it. That sounds weird. Wonderful, easy to connect to. But why doesn't that feel true most of the time in your life, right? If Jesus is enough, then why isn't your heart satisfied?
[00:05:52] Why do these other gospels feel so real, feel so present, feel so desirable? Why is it so easy to leave Christ behind and chased after the things of this world? Well, we're going to look at a parable that Jesus taught and see how I think it helps answer this question for us. Pray with me. We're going to jump into this. Jesus, we need you this morning.
[00:06:16] We need you to be our teacher, our disciple, our Lord. We need you to encourage us, to challenge us. God, I pray that you would speak through your text clearly, that we would hear from you, we would hear conviction, we would hear encouragement and that ultimately we would be drawn back to the truth of your gospel, to the fundamental truth of who you are and how you view us. And Lord, that would change the way we engage our lives and engage the world around us. We love you, Jesus. We need you to do this work. So we pray it in your name. Amen.
[00:06:47] Okay, Matthew chapter 20. We're going to start in the first verse and we read this for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the workers on one denarius, he sent them into his vineyard for the day. Okay, as we step into this text, let's really quick take a moment to remember this teaching has context. We're reading one of Jesus's parables here, but Jesus is delivering this parable as a direct response to that whole scene with the rich young ruler that we talked about last week. If you weren't here, the story is basically this. This hyper spiritual young man just came to Jesus seeking, he was seeking the kingdom. What must I do to inherit eternal life? But he left grieving as Jesus confronted him with his own inadequacy to save himself. He was confronted with the truth that he was not sufficient to the task of his own salvation that only God can save. And this idea led Peter to remind Jesus how how many major sacrifices the disciples had made for Jesus and his ministry. He wanted to know if their devotion and their sacrifice would be rewarded by Jesus in his kingdom. And Jesus ensures assures them their sacrifice for the kingdom will be seen by God and will be accounted for. But step back really quick and look at verse 30 in chapter 19. This is the very last verse of the chapter. And Jesus says something really important which sparks this parable we're reading. He says, but many who are first will be last and the last first.
[00:08:35] We talked about this last week, but remember, you know, wealth was considered a sign of God's favor to the first century Jews. This rich young ruler was a super believer by most Jewish standards. He's the guy that many would assume would be first in line for his eternity. But he left Jesus grieving while Peter the fisherman was set to receive many great rewards. Many of the first will be last and many of the last will be first. Jesus kingdom, it's upside down. It breaks our expectations. But it doesn't just break the expectations of the rich young ruler. See, Jesus knows that his own followers will struggle with the counterintuitive nature of his kingdom. And so he gives them this warning in the form of this parable. Now we did a whole series on parables way back in Matthew 13, but just in case you don't keep all of my sermons on instant recall in your memory all the time, I know that's not many of you, but just in case you don't, let me give us a couple reminders. Parables are one of Jesus favorite methods of teaching. He uses them a lot. And when I say parable, what I mean here is this. A parable is basically an extended metaphor. Jesus uses these practical and concrete stories of real life to talk about abstract spiritual truths. In Jesus's parables specifically, there are a couple of techniques that Jesus usually uses that can help us get to the core of the meaning. And so when you're reading Jesus's parable, there are two things you should consider. This isn't 100% true, but this is a really good narrative lens to use when you engage Jesus's parables. The first one is this. Start with the assumption that Jesus is the main character of the parable. Again, this isn't always the case. Sometimes he gives very direct parables to other people. But most of the time in Jesus's parables. The first, and I would say primary meaning of the story is found in assuming that Jesus is the main character of the story. A secondary meaning can then often be found by rethinking the story with us, the church, as the main character. Second, the second thing we need to remember when we think about Jesus parables is that he often puts the spiritual meaning of the parable at the intersection of whatever in the story sounds normal and whatever in the story sounds absurd. Jesus's parables are often structured by presenting you with a really normal, relatable, concrete circumstance that his listeners would have understood. He gives a setting that makes total sense to them, that's very normal. And then he throws in some really absurd aspect into the story. And these intersections are usually where we get the insights into the counterintuitive kingdom of God. So with that in mind, let's look at our parable today. The setup is deeply Jewish, and pretty much all of Jesus's listeners probably would have caught this really quickly. The story is that a man who owns a private vineyard goes out to hire some seasonal workers at harvest time. A really normal story.
[00:11:49] People with property setting up vineyards would have been incredibly normal in this day. And while a vineyard and wine press would have required a much more like a much more substantial initial financial investment than say, like your average family garden or things like that, it still would have been common enough that pretty much everyone would have instantly recognized this scene. This was a common thing in this day for people who had the money to invest in a vineyard. Many of the men listening there would have likely done this exact kind of work when they were younger and before they were established in their trade. This was a super common way, especially for young men who were still apprenticing, to get extra money to go be day laborers at harvest time. The extra layer of this, though, is that this is a picture of Jewish covenant. Remember, the Jewish people really define their relationship with God by way of covenants. And what? That's just a really fancy Bible word for agreements. God has historically made agreements with the Jewish people. Think of Moses and Israel at Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments, right? Moses goes and talks to God, I'll be your God, you'll be my people. You follow these rules, I'll do this right? Like God makes these covenants with his people. And the Jews understood their relationship to God in light of covenants. And a common poetic picture of the covenant relationship between God and Israel was the image of a vineyard owner, God and the vineyard Israel. The reason for this image is actually really powerful. You see, the reason a vineyard would have been a greater investment and less common than a standard garden in its day is that it would take literal years of tending and care before a vineyard actually bore any fruit, much less bore profit. You see, in first century Palestine, the way they did vine keeping, it would normally take between three and seven years before a planted vineyard produced workable fruit that could be used for wine. And that whole time it had to be watched, it had to be tended, it had to be cared for. All the normal work of farming was happening each season with no payoff, without that vineyard actually contributing anything to the family for years. In the same way, God cares for Israel in spite of their continual struggle to remain faithful to their end of the covenant. So Jesus is telling the story that immediately would have connected his listeners to their covenant relationship with God. In the story, the vineyard owner is hiring some workers. He. He's inviting folk to enter into his vineyard. And so he does what anyone would have done in this day. He heads to the local city market and he starts offering to pay folk to bring in his harvest. He finds a group of laborers and they agree to a wage, one denarius for one day's labor. We've actually talked about this before here. That's the standard. The denarius was measured as a day's wages for a laborer. Like that's how they defined it. And so this would not have been a difficult negotiation. This would have been the standard assumed agreement. I'll come work at your vineyard all day, you'll give me a denarius. And at this point, the story is incredibly normal. Pretty much all the listeners would have known Jesus was making a point about the kingdom and Israel's relationship to God. But the setup of the story is about as vanilla as you can imagine. But look how our story continues. Verse 3.
[00:15:31] When he went up, or when he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He said to them, you also go into my vineyard and I'll give you whatever is right. So off they went about noon, and about three, he went out again and did the same thing. Then about five, he went out and found others standing around and said to them, why have you been standing here all day doing nothing? Because no one hired us. They said to him, you also go into my vineyard. He told them, and now we get this really strange and interesting scene.
[00:16:05] After hiring his workers and heading back to the vineyard to actually work, the owner returns to the market looking for more workers. This is roughly three hours into the workday. The work would have been well underway. And anyone listening would have been wondering why the owner is stepping away from the important work of the harvest to go look for more workers. Perhaps he knows there's bad weather coming in. Perhaps he's, these guys are working faster than he thought. And he thinks maybe he can finish the harvest ahead of schedule. These are conceivable reasons why he might do this. But this would have been strange. Once you got your guys and you're doing your work, you're all about your work. And look how he treats these new workers. He does the same thing. He invites them to enter his vineyard and work. But he does not agree to a price beforehand. Rather, he says, I'll pay you what's right. And these guys listen. They know they're essentially coming to work late, right? They would assume they're going to get less than a denarius because that would be fair. But work is work. So they agree and they go and they hop to it. But then we find out he does it again a couple hours later. And then he does it again a couple hours later. He keeps going back and grabbing more workers. He does it a final time at 5pm it's almost sunset. These guys will maybe get a good hour of work in. This is really strange. And with these ones you notice he has a little extra discussion. He asks why they've been sitting around all day. Well, no one hired us. These guys push it off on others. It's not their fault they didn't get hired. We're good workers. We just didn't get hired today. And honestly, guys, here's the thing. It's harvest season, so that's incredibly doubtful.
[00:18:01] If these men haven't been hired, there's almost certainly a reason they haven't been hired. Either they have a reputation for bad work or they didn't go out early enough to actually get work. Whatever it is, the idea of able bodied men just standing around all day doing nothing during harvest season is ridiculous. It's ridiculous. But he still hires them.
[00:18:26] He still draws them into his vineyard for this little snippet at work. And at this point, anyone listening would just be wondering, why the heck would he do this?
[00:18:38] What's the payoff?
[00:18:40] Why would he do this?
[00:18:42] Did he finish his whole harvest in one day? Is this some kind of record for breaking work?
[00:18:48] Why bring these guys in for one hour, right? What does this actually get him? Well, let's look at it in verse 8.
[00:18:57] When evening came the owner of the vineyard Told his foreman, called the workers and given their pay, starting with the last and ending with the first. When those who were hired, about five came, they each received one denarius. So when the first ones came, they assumed they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. When they received it, they began to complain to the landowner. These last men put in one hour, and you've made them equal to us, who bore the burden of the day's work and the burning heat. And he replied to one of them, friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a denarius? Here, take what's yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with what is mine?
[00:19:43] Are you jealous because I'm generous?
[00:19:46] So the last will be first and the first will be last.
[00:19:51] Now we get the payoff of the parable in more than one sense, right? In literal sense. In the story, at the end of the day, after the work is done, the owner gets ready to pay these workers. And this is our first narrative clue here.
[00:20:07] See, the owner's plan with all these strange hires wasn't to accomplish some goal in his actual vineyard. It had to do with the workers.
[00:20:16] And notice that he's intentional about saying, those ones that came in last, let's pay them first. This is your narrative clue. The owner has something in mind here outside of just his harvest. So he lines up the workers, he pays the last workers first, and lo and behold, he gives them a full day's wages.
[00:20:36] Full denarius. Wow, this is great. Everyone would watch him, would go, that's pretty great. What a nice dude. And as he makes his way up the line, paying each of these latecomers their wages, they're all feeling blessed. But now we come back to these first workers.
[00:20:53] These are the men from the beginning of the story. They've watched and seen all these other workers who worked way less than them get a full day's pay. So naturally, they assume, well, we're going to get a special reward, right? We're going to get more.
[00:21:10] And then when the property owner gets to them, he gives them their single denarius.
[00:21:16] Wait, what? Like, I'm guessing most of you had the same reaction here that these workers had, right? That's dirty.
[00:21:27] That's mean. What the heck? And so they complain. Like, by the way, I think all of us would complain. They sat there and watched him give all this generosity to these people who worked Way less than them. And then they get to it and go, what?
[00:21:41] You've made them equal to us. We worked all stinking day. They came out when the sun was already setting. Right.
[00:21:48] It's not fair. And I think for most of us, that feels like a real honest complaint. He has elevated these latecomers, but look how the owner responds to these people.
[00:22:01] I haven't done any wrong about you.
[00:22:04] I didn't wrong you. We talked about this. You agreed to a denarius a day.
[00:22:12] We talked about that. You agreed to that, and you got it. That's what you signed up for. And then he pushes it even further. He says, this is my money.
[00:22:23] It's mine.
[00:22:25] I want to give it to these guys, and I can do that if I want to. Does my generosity offend you? Are you jealous of my generosity?
[00:22:37] And now Jesus finally lets us in on what's going on here. You see, the owner of the vineyard just wanted to be radically generous to some guys who didn't get a job that day.
[00:22:52] He just wanted to do this. This was his plan. Radical generosity, including the excluded, giving them an equal share.
[00:23:02] Whoa.
[00:23:04] Turns out this isn't a story about an industrious vineyard owner who got the right workers to clear the harvest in record time. This is a story about a wealthy vineyard owner who woke up that day and chose radical generosity.
[00:23:18] Who set out with that in mind. And instantly, the listeners know the score. Beloved, we worship a God who chose generosity for us.
[00:23:32] That's what Jesus is getting at here. We worship a God who chose generosity. God's heart is set on generosity.
[00:23:43] You know what's amazing about the Gospel?
[00:23:46] To think about this for a moment. We all get the same redemption of sin.
[00:23:53] We all get it. And in Christ, the difference between us fades away at the foot of the cross. Rich, poor, every color, every language. We're all sinners. And Jesus covers all of us equally in his cleansing blood.
[00:24:07] Those who worked all day and those who got in at the last minute, those who faithfully follow God their whole lives and those who turn to him on their deathbed, those who continually grow in holiness and engage in wonderful kingdom work. And those who struggle and wrestle with their flesh and their sin patterns their whole life. Those who read and memorize and teach Bible studies, and those who are spiritually lazy because it's not about how much work you put in or the quality of your spiritual work. Beloved, no, the blessing of the Gospel is that it was given to you. Because God is generous.
[00:24:42] He's extravagant, and his heart leads sinful us from the curse to life, not because of the quality of our spirituality, but because of the extravagance of his heart. Come on, church. Ephesians 2 says it like this. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked, according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts. We were by nature children under wrath, as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in our trespasses. You are saved by grace.
[00:25:38] He also raised us up with him. He seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. You are saved by grace, through faith. And this is not of yourselves. It is God's gift. Not from works, so that none of us can boast. Whoo.
[00:26:02] It's not about how much you contributed to the vineyard. It's not about how good you are at this. It's not about how much work you got in. It's about his generosity.
[00:26:14] It's about his love. It's about the choice he made to be radically generous.
[00:26:20] Which leads us to an incredibly important question.
[00:26:26] If it's all God and His grace, regardless of your weak, sinful self, couldn't you take advantage of the system?
[00:26:34] Right? Couldn't you choose to be spiritually lazy and just rely on God's grace? Couldn't you live in your flesh, not really seek to repent, not really seek to grow in holiness and then just turn to God on your deathbed and get the same heaven as Pastor Craig?
[00:26:52] Couldn't we all do that?
[00:26:55] Here's the thing. And here's where, honestly, guys, it gets really weird.
[00:26:58] Yes.
[00:27:00] Yeah.
[00:27:02] Yeah. If you repent and turn to Jesus, it matters not what sin came before.
[00:27:10] Doesn't matter if you're 8 or you're 80. Jesus forgives sinners by his grace and his love. And if you don't take a moment to consider the possibility of abusing that grace to try and milk more pleasure out of this life, I would argue that you might not have fully considered how wide and huge and lavish and amazing the grace of God is if you haven't sat down for a minute and let that selfish, evil part of your flesh go oh, shoot. I can work this system. That's how the rules work. I can get the best of both worlds. I can live for myself this entire life and then at the last second be like, oh, I repent, and I can get all the goods at the end? Heck yes.
[00:27:52] If you never thought about that, beloved, I would argue that you may not understand the gospel invitation Jesus is making to you.
[00:28:01] It is his grace, not your works. You are dead in your trespasses. He's the one who offers grace. It's not by your works, so that you can't boast.
[00:28:13] Beloved, the Gospel of Jesus is radically good news.
[00:28:19] It's radical good news.
[00:28:21] The early Christians thought about this. They considered this idea of abusing the grace of God. Paul talks about it in Romans and First Corinthians. He says he asks bluntly in Romans 6, if this grace is so wonderful, if it's so free, if it's through our sin the grace of God is shown. So should I go on sinning, then that grace may abound.
[00:28:44] In other words, should I do whatever I want? Because Jesus will forgive all sins when he responds to his own question, by no means, no. Of course not. Because Jesus has made us dead to sin, the gospel changes our hearts over time so that sin no longer seems like a prize to hold onto, but rather trash to dispose of. In 1 Corinthians 3, he says that our spiritual lives will be tested and that if we're phoning in our faith, it will burn to the ground when tested.
[00:29:19] But then he's really clear to say, you'll still enter into Jesus, perfect eternity, but only as one barely escaping the flames with nothing to show for it.
[00:29:30] Beloved, the Gospel of Jesus is radically generous good news.
[00:29:35] You would be a fool not to consider taking advantage of it. But the reality is the gospel itself is the solution to this problem. You see, Jesus himself is so satisfying that to abuse his grace that you might sin more.
[00:29:54] You gotta know something. As you live with Christ that will just become increasingly distasteful to you.
[00:30:01] That may seem like a really good deal when you listen to your flesh, but you walk with Jesus for a few weeks, months, years, decades, and you realize that your heart was made for connection with him and that the littlest bit of intimacy with Christ is better than the greatest riches on earth. And the thought of abusing his love and his grace, that you might inch out more sinful pleasures, will just feel as distasteful as you know in your head that it is.
[00:30:33] You'll move past it.
[00:30:36] Guys, why push Jesus Away to get more time to sin, when the whole time you can have Jesus and he's better.
[00:30:47] The vineyard owner is so radically generous, he's so kind. He sets out to bless us and we all get the same kingdom. And you may think to yourself, yeah, but like the special Christians, they'll get an extra measure, right? The bigger mansion, right? Beloved, this actually misses the point. Scripture actually does clearly say that God will reward you in heaven for the way that you seek him and work for his kingdom. Now that's real. Scripture talks about that. John describes those entering heaven in the revelation as being bestrewn in jewelry, connected to their good deeds and their holiness. That's wonderful. Like Jesus said to Peter, the sacrifices made here on earth, they will be repaid a hundredfold in eternity. That's real. But don't get it twisted, beloved, because John also describes in his revelation what we do with those rewards in heaven. You don't take those jewels and take them to the heaven bank and cash them in so that you can start pulling out with interest to fund your heaven life. That's not how it works. No? No. We drop those treasures at the feet of Jesus in gratitude and worship. We pile them around him, saying, you alone are worthy of honor and praise. I don't need this. You. You should have this for what you have done. Because the reward of heaven, beloved, is not a cool mansion, and it's not some treasure that you're storing up that doesn't rust. The reward of heaven, beloved, is Jesus.
[00:32:15] You get Jesus, and Jesus is enough.
[00:32:22] Jesus is the treasure.
[00:32:25] He is the treasure. And in his generosity, he gives himself to all of us, even the late comers, even the spiritually lazy. He sets out to be generous, and he gets to be generous because it's his to give.
[00:32:42] So what do we even do with a text like this?
[00:32:45] I think this story points to some actual real, false gospels. We believe in our life, right? Like, where does the good life come from? Well, you live a good life, you strike it lucky, right?
[00:32:57] Those late comers, they. They thought they were just unlucky. They could have gotten hired earlier in the day and it all would have worked out, but they didn't.
[00:33:04] They were unlucky. And those workers who were hired early in the day, they wanted justice, right? We worked more. We should get paid more. If things were fair in this world, then we'd be okay. We'd be happy. But the reality is, both of these things fall short. You don't need luck and you don't need justice. You need Jesus.
[00:33:21] And beloved, he gives himself radically to you.
[00:33:25] He set out to be generous to you and he was generous to you. He is generous to you. If you want him church, you get Him.
[00:33:35] He does not withhold himself from you.
[00:33:39] But remember, the parable doesn't end with us. Just considering this from the perspective of Jesus, you do need to take a second and think about what it means if you are the main character.
[00:33:49] You see, beloved, when you are living in the radical generosity of Jesus yourself, knowing and experiencing his joyful giving of himself to those who aren't worthy of the gift. When you receive and live within this wonderful gospel of Jesus, it frees you.
[00:34:11] Frees you from the hamster wheel of trying to earn your own happiness and your own fulfillment, trying to work your way into heaven. It frees you to live your life with the same radical generosity that Christ poured out on you.
[00:34:28] We, beloved, get to set our hearts on generosity. We get to, because we don't have to keep score of how well things are going and whether or not we're bad luck or whether or not things are unfair. Because we can trust in the generosity of Christ to fulfill every need we have and to bring into his good design for us. We can choose. We can set out to be radically generous. We can give ourselves and our Jesus freely to anyone and everyone, those who are spiritually prepared for it and those who aren't. Because there's enough Jesus to go around, there's enough grace for everyone.
[00:35:12] He freely gives Himself to fill you to the brim. And when you live like this, you will find there is enough extra for you to freely share him with everyone.
[00:35:23] This means you can approach your lost and unbelieving friends and family not with judgment. Can't believe you live like that. You grew up in church. I was there when you were baptized. I can't believe you're making these choices. You're doing what you believe. What? I can't believe you. You don't have to.
[00:35:38] You don't have to. You know why? Because you're right.
[00:35:42] They're not worthy, but neither are you. And look how generous Jesus has been with you. And so instead of standing there in the judgment, just go, wow, you're jacked up. I'm also jacked up. Let me tell you about Jesus who loves the jacked up, right, guys? You can have generosity instead of judgment. You can love and you can give to these people with no agenda, not trying to check off a box or show how spiritual you are, prove to God that you're holy enough to be one of those few Christians who's actually evangelistic. No, you can just love and serve and give yourself to the people around you because they're precious.
[00:36:24] Because you set out to be generous, trusting that God will give his eternal wages to the early and the late.
[00:36:33] That even if you're not the one who gets to be there when they come to know Christ, even if it's late, even if they waste their entire life and in the last moments in a hospital bed, they give themselves to Christ, they still receive his wages.
[00:36:47] You can just not worry about it. You can just give and be generous and be kind. Come on, Church.
[00:36:57] My kids are at the stage in life where they're incredibly consumed with fairness. And you guys know, my three Littles are very close in age. My two boys are 48 hours apart. They're very consumed with fairness. It makes Christmas incredibly difficult because if they have two different toys to fight, if they have the same toy, it's a fight. Because they have to know which one belongs to which person. You guys know what I'm talking about. It's rough. It's rough.
[00:37:23] We've had to make a new rule in our house.
[00:37:27] It's been a really hard lesson that we're trying to teach our little ones and ourselves, but a necessary one, and it's this. Life isn't fair.
[00:37:35] That's not how it works. Life isn't fair. Sorry, bud. I know that feels unfair. It's because it is. Yeah, sorry about that. That's not how life works. That's not how our family works. Beloved, that's not how the kingdom of God works.
[00:37:49] Jesus. Kingdom is not fair.
[00:37:52] It isn't.
[00:37:53] And hear this, Church. You would not want it to be fair.
[00:37:58] That would be terrible. Fair means equal judgment for every rebellion and sin in this cursed and broken world.
[00:38:06] Fair means destruction. Fair means hell.
[00:38:10] Fair means justice for the sin wrought against a holy and righteous God.
[00:38:17] But Jesus, if you want to come back up, band, I'm going to land out as Jesus is better than fair.
[00:38:25] He's generous.
[00:38:27] Generosity is so much better than fair. It's so much better because he's enough.
[00:38:35] Jesus is enough. When I said at the very beginning, like, man, why don't we. Why doesn't that seem real? Why don't we believe that?
[00:38:43] I would say, church, the answer is this simple. If Jesus doesn't feel like enough in your life, it's probably because you're not actually experiencing him.
[00:38:53] Probably put blocks between you and him. You're probably making choices to experience and dive into the things of this world rather than Him.
[00:39:02] Because the reality is he is enough.
[00:39:05] And when you taste and see that God is good, the pleasures of this world are not as appealing.
[00:39:13] They fall away on their own.
[00:39:16] Jesus is enough. He's enough for you. He's enough for everyone you love and care about, everyone you're concerned about, that you pray for, that this would change in their life, that they would make this choice. Jesus is enough for them as well, just like he's enough for you.
[00:39:34] That's something that's worth remembering.
[00:39:37] It's also something that's worth celebrating.
[00:39:40] I want to invite us church to take a few minutes to respond in prayer. And you can do that however, your however works well for your heart. If you can sit in your seat and do that, that's awesome. If you want to get on your knees, if you want to come up front, pray at the altar, one of our pastors would love to sit with you and pray and do that. If you want to grab one of our pastors and pray after the side, whatever it looks like. If you want to grab one of the cards in the back and write down a prayer.
[00:40:07] I just want to invite you to connect with God for a minute. And there are two things I want you to consider.
[00:40:12] The first one is just this.
[00:40:16] If Christ doesn't seem satisfying to you, if that very first question I asked, if that locked into your heart and you just go, yeah, I just. I don't know. I can amen that stuff, but at the end of the day, I'm gonna leave here and my life's going on. I'm not gonna think about that again until next Sunday when I come here.
[00:40:32] If that's you, I'd encourage you to talk to Jesus about that.
[00:40:37] Where are you finding satisfaction apart from Christ? And is it actually working for you?
[00:40:42] Is it actually leaving your heart and your life fulfilled?
[00:40:46] Consider what it might look like today for you to maybe let go of some of the weight of those false gospels to receive Christ.
[00:40:58] Secondly, I want you to think about the people in your life who you really care about, their eternity. Maybe the people you put on your prayer list 10 years ago and there's just no movement.
[00:41:10] You just feel like that battle for you was lost.
[00:41:13] I'd encourage you to talk to Christ about them.
[00:41:17] Bring that face, that name, that heart for them to him fresh.
[00:41:21] Ask him to remind you of your own story, his radical generosity to you.
[00:41:28] Talk to him about what it might look like for you to overflow that generosity to the people you love. Let's take a few minutes and respond, and then we'll continue with communion.
