Not Adding Up

I don’t know why everybody wouldn’t want Christianity to be true.

I don’t believe it’s true. vs I don’t want it to be true.

Grace - Undeserved, unearned, unearnable, favor.

As if it never even happened...

This is why God had to show up. - We would have never known the grace of God without the presence of God.

John 1:14 NIV

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Luke 19:1 NLT

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town.

Luke 19:2 NLT

There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich.

Luke 19:3 NLT

He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd.

Luke 19:4 NLT

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.

Luke 19:5 NLT

When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”

Luke 19:7 NLT

But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.

Matthew 20:1 NLT

“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

Matthew 20:2 NLT

He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.

Matthew 20:3 NLT

“At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing.

Matthew 20:4–5 NLT

So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing.

Matthew 20:6 NLT

“At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’

Matthew 20:7 NLT

“They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’

Matthew 20:8 NLT

“That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first.

Matthew 20:9 NLT

When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage.

Matthew 20:10 NLT

When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage.

Matthew 20:11 NLT

When they received their pay, they protested to the owner,

Matthew 20:12 NIV

‘These 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.’

Matthew 20:13 NLT

“He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage?

Matthew 20:14 NLT

Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you.

Matthew 20:15 NLT

Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’

Unsettling Generosity

Matthew 20:16 NLT

“So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”

We compare to determine whats fair. - Grace doesn’t compare.

The Kingdom of Heaven - Everybody is invited.

Everybody enters through the same door.

Everybody comes through the same door, the same way.