Movie - Ultimate Gift
Movie Series – “Ultimate Gift”
Matthew 20:1-16
Introduction
- What impacted you about the movie (explain it)
- Did it make you feel good
Show clip #1 – Start scene 6; stop 23:50 or phrase “You have to work”
Work Ethic
- Mike’s identity was work
- I was not far behind
- Conversation this week with Bill Schuiteman – work hard you made money
- Paul talks about idleness
2 Th 3:10 - For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
- YEA – This is in the Bible
- NW IA; Dutch Culture – this is the right way
- We identify with this – not the snobs who are given everything
- Teaching a work ethic is invaluable
- Give a fish; eat for a day-teach to fish; eat everyday
What happens when it becomes our identity or culture?
- Lose sight of...
- Out of balance...
Show clip #2 – Start scene 26; stop at 1:48 or when Hamilton is finishing announcing the estate to Jason
Eventually we will have a crisis of belief
- Two worlds collide
- Our culture or Americana vs. Kingdom of Heaven
Prior to the text (end of chap 19)
- Jesus encounters the rich young ruler
- Disciples hear and wonder – Peter asks
- Jesus senses a work ethic
- Tells what the Kingdom is like...
Mt 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6 About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
- Workers in the Vineyard
- That’s not fair
- This is the Kingdom – not work hard and it will work out
- Jn 5:6 – Jesus asks an invalid (38 yrs like this)
- Do you want to be healed
- The man’s will to try was obviously gone
- All he had was excuses
- Jesus heals him
Feel good movie is fine as long as it doesn’t feed our culture
- We cannot work for the “Ultimate Gift”
- What do we do when work doesn’t work
- Thea – fight for life
The real tragedy
· Work blinds us from Grace
o Jesus dealing with “working” Jews...
Jn 5:39-40
You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Jesus draws out the same thing at the end of Vs 15
When we are about fairness it’s hard to accept Grace
When we are about work ethic it’s hard to accept Grace
To engage culture you have to fully engage the Kingdom of Heaven