Free to Submit to God's Will

Big Idea of the Message: Paul is struggling between resting in his pending death so that he can be with Christ and fighting for another chance to labor with the body of Christ to see fellow believers grow.

Application Point: Submission to God’s will always points us back to his ultimate glory, and we want to bring that to him, no matter the path we must take.

Great to be with

Life update:

I remember praying with .... as they invited Christ into their life. “I feel like the weight of the world was just lifted off my shoulders. I feel so _________!” There is a freedom in Christ that cannot be found anywhere else.

We are born prisoners to sin - with a bent toward ourselves. We honestly have no choice to live in a way that fills selfish desires. But when we meet Jesus and invite him into our chaos, our mess, our life, He sets us free!

He forgives us from our sins (and man does that feel good!). But his salvation goes so much deeper. He sets us free from the guilt and shame of past sin. The enemy of our soul wants us to hang on to everything we have done wrong in the past - all our past sins. But Jesus sets us free from that! We are not bound by what we have done; our identity is no longer sinner, our identity is now Child of God. His Beloved.

As awesome as that is, his saving grace goes even deeper than that! When we come to Christ, he gives us new desires. Desires to live righteously. and he gives us the power to make the right choices that honor him and others. Where we were bound to sin in the past, we now are set free to follow Him and do his will - which is the absolute best plan for our lives!

One of the great hymns of the Nazarene church is Glorious Freedom. Others claim it too, but the author was a Nazarene pastor named Haldor Lillenas. He grew up in a very strict religious home, started writing hymns at a young age, and by all appearances and by most measures was a solid Christian. However, one day, while he was visiting a Rescue Mission in Oregon, a song was being sung “Tell Mother I Will We There.” Holy Spirit started to speak to Lillenas’ heart and he decided to respond to the prevenient grace of God and invite Jesus into his life.

the song Glorious Freedom is a response to what Lillenas experienced from that gift of grace from God.

Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters, Chained like a slave I struggled in vain; But I received a glorious freedom, When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.

Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom, No more in chains of sin I repine! Jesus the glorious Emancipator, Now and forever He shall be mine.

Lillenas used some strong words in this song … “chained like a slave...” “No more in chains of sin....” “Jesus the glorious Emancipator”

some might look at those lyrics today and say, “how dare he compare anything to the chains of slavery?” But if you know, if you have acknowledged how deep sin can take you, how far from living sin can take you, you should have no problem with the comparison.

“Now and forever, He shall be mine. “

What an image.

No matter how empty the bank account - there is freedom in Christ.

No matter what the medical diagnosis - there is freedom in Christ

No matter the temptation that comes your way, there is freedom in Christ.

In our former state, when life would get difficult, when temptations would come our way, we would respond in a self-centered sinful way because we had no choice. But when he broke the fetters of sin, thank God we are free!

John wrote these words in his gospel and they are so true:

John 8:36 NIV

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

But what does he free us to? Freedom in Christ is the freedom and power to do what we ought and not live enslaved to sin.

So what exactly are we free to do? Submit to God’s will.

How do we walk worthy in the midst of the struggles of life?

A few minutes ago we heard Philippians 1:21 -30 read. There are two phrases that Id like us to think about his morning. Paul said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Paul is clearly caught in the tension of knowing his life is in danger. He doesn’t mind that because he knows if he were to die, eternity with Christ is far better - to die is gain!!! But, he also knows that he is an example, an encourager, a model for the Philippian Christians of how to live for Christ.

Thats a tension we can all relate to and Paul ties it in with his statement to them - whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. This Christian life is way more than just receiving the grace of God and continuing to live however. No we are to live as a people who are changed by the grace that set us free from sin and all it’s trappings - So Paul said, “to live is Christ!” Live as Christ lived - empowered by the Spirit of God, in a manner that exemplifies the gospel, the good news of Jesus.

Are you with me so far?

So how do we live a life that is worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ? What does that look like? What does it look like when we live as free people of God and how do we live a life that emulates Jesus and is submitted to God’s will? How do we live in a way that glorifies the one who set us free?

That’s a deep question that needs much more time than we have today. In the next few moments, I want us to look at a story Jesus told that i think will help us see what it takes to live as Christ.

Matthew 20:1–16 NIV

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ “ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ “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.’ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘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.’ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

There are a few of Jesus’ teachings that tend to make me scratch my head. This is one of them. At first reading, if you are anything like me, you are wondering why Jesus seems to be promoting this landowner who pays the workers the same amount for a day’s labor even if they only worked an hour or two. If I were one of the workers who worked all day, I most likely would have been questioning the payments as well. How is it fair that I have been out here working hard from the time the sun came up until the sun went down and received the exact same pay as the guy who has only been here for an hour or two????

this parable is not about any social justice issues of the day. It is, however, about the character of God and His people. what is Jesus trying to tell us about the character of God? and about ourselves?

What Do We Learn About Ourselves, The People of God?

We desire significance in our lives. There was/ and is a pride that we have in the work we do. When we put in a full day’s work, we feel like we accomplish something of importance. We like it when we can see the progress and accomplishment of our job. These workers got to see the grapes left to harvest decrease throughout the day, as row after row, they picked the grapes. In fact, one of the most common questions we tend to ask when we first meet someone is, “What do you do for a living?”

There are some things we are desperate for. These workers showed up as early - first thing in the morning (The typical work day was 6:00 AM til 6:00 PM)- and the fact that there were men still standing there at 5:00 PM, hoping to still get picked up so they could work, even if it was only an hour, is proof that they were desperate for work. Their wage was just enough to live day by day. In other words, they were living paycheck to paycheck and working each and every day was essential for the life of their families.

We like earthly reward. We tend to demand our reward, what we think we have earned. It only makes sense that we get paid according to our work. The harder we work, the more we should make. The better job we do, the more we should earn. We should be be compensated according to the hours we work. In fact, after so many hours, we should get overtime pay. Who doesn't like to look at a paycheck that reflects a good long week of work?

It doesn’t seem that there is anything wrong with these statements, but it is really easy for our mindset about work to get twisted.

1) What we do adds significance to our lives, but we tend to judge people according to what they do as work. In other words, some people are more important than others because of what they do for a career. which means others are less important. We tend to establish a pecking order where those who are good at heir jobs are more significant than those who are not as good as others. The longer you have been at a job the more important you are. We size up our competition based on certain criteria. I work harder than they do. I show up to work early and stay late. I treat my coworkers better than they do.

2) Our work becomes too valuable to us and we forget why we are doing it. We find our value in our career and not in who we are. In fact, if something happens to our job we feel like something was ripped out of us and we aren’t real sure who we are without the “job.” Our jobs can become idols to us.

3) We become obsessed with the reward. We like to be thanked. We like big tips if we are in the service industry. The stories about enormous tips that are given to servers, drivers tend to warm our hearts but also make us a little envious. But again, part of the reason we get obsessed with the reward is because it speaks of our significance. When a co-worker gets a raise and we don’t we do not like that. When a co-worker is promoted over us, we get angry.

In Jesus’ parable, the workers had things skewed. The ones chosen early in the day saw themselves as more important than the ones chosen later in the day. They could look at the vineyard and say, “Look what we did” which would have made them feel good. But it wasn’t fair that the ones who showed up late would be able to claim any glory in picking the field. Certainly when it came to paycheck time, it definitely wasn’t fair that the workers who only worked for an hour were paid the same as those who worked the entire day.

I’m certain that these things don’t happen within the people of God, right?

Unfortunately, Jesus is talking to the people of God. More specifically, he seems to be talking to his disciples, those who are closest to him. those who know him best.

Unfortunately we need to be warned about the same traps as everyone else, both for when we go to work, but also when we are together. the exact same traps happen within the church. We establish a pecking order in the church based on what ministry we are involved in, how long we have been a christian, how many ministries we are part of, etc.

Unfortunately we let our Christian service become valuable to us to the point of it becoming our identity. (personal story). no bible study. no preaching. no pastoral care. feelings of less significant....

Unfortunately in the church, we can become envious of those who seem to get the rewards; the praise. We can even start to look for the praise. We like to praise others for the work they do, thank others for their christian service, and see others get the accolades they do. But inside we are wondering what we have to do to get the same praise or thanks.

We are a selfish people and things tend to tilt toward us.

We learn a lot about the human nature of the people of God (us) in this parable but we also learn a lot about God from jesus’ teaching

What Do We Learn About God?

To answer this we need to look a bit more closely at the last group of workers, the ones who were hired when only one hour of the day was left. It is curious, we may suppose, that they hadn’t been spotted before. Had they not been in the marketplace earlier? The vineyard-owner questions them: why haven’t you been working? Their answer is revealing: “nobody has hired us, nobody has given us a job.”

Nobody, in other words, wanted them. They were, perhaps, the sort of people everybody tried not to hire.

But the vineyard owner hired them. He chose them. God seeks those who are typically picked last.

I can just imagine the conversation when the last wagon of workers came rolling in. The workers that had been working all day, saying something like, “You must be some kind of worthless worker to get picked up so late in the day. Your pay is not going to be enough to put one meal on your kitchen table. Why would you even bother???”

The worker hangs his head thinking, “You are right. I am worthless.” Then a thought flashes through his brain… and his downcast face starts to turn up as he realized… Finally, with a smile on his face, he says, “I may have been picked late, but the master of the vineyard picked me! I got picked just like you!”

You see,

1) The master of the vineyard is constantly searching and choosing - morning, noon, night - He’s roaming...looking for anyone willing to jump into the wagon with him and serve in his fields. And he picks them. He chooses them.

That’s grace. The owner of the vineyard (Otherwise known as God) is a God of great grace.

2) God is Incredibly Generous. The second thing we learn about God from this passage is that God’s generosity doesn’t look like the justice we expect. His grace is not strictly a reward for work done. He doesn’t make contracts with us where we can bargain with him for a higher wage. Instead, God makes covenants with his people, in which He promises and gives us everything of himself and he asks everything of us in return.

When he keeps his promises, he is not rewarding us for our effort. Instead, he is doing what comes naturally from his extravagantly generous nature.

God is both gracious, and generous, but he is also

3) Just

It may not be just in human, eyes slanted toward ourselves state of being. He doesn’t give bigger prizes to those who serve him longer or those who do what we might consider bigger tasks. He doesn’t reward differently if we pastor a mega church or tell the children next door about him and show them the love of God through kindness. The reward is the same. The reward is the same - it is greater intimacy with Jesus in this life and it is being fully in the presence of Jesus in the life to come.

The reward comes as we accept and live obediently to the will of God.

Consider Job for a moment. WE are told he was a blameless and upright man, yet Everything seemed to go wrong in Job’s life. He lost his property, he lost his family. He lost his health. Others encouraged him to curse and reject God, but Job refused. Instead he made a declaration of his faith in

Job 19:25–27 (NIV)

I know that my redeemer lives,

and that in the end he will stand on the earth.

And after my skin has been destroyed,

yet in my flesh I will see God;

I myself will see him

with my own eyes—I, and not another.

How my heart yearns within me!

Job’s one focus was living as Christ, even through the trials and challenges and hardships and feelings of injustice…

Job lived the will of God, and in his life, we can see what it means to live as Christ. In fact, when most people would find it impossible, Job’s life was a picture of worship. lOkk what he says in

Job 27:3–4 (NIV)

as long as I have life within me,

the breath of God in my nostrils,

my lips will not say anything wicked,

and my tongue will not utter lies.

Job chose to glorify God with his mouth, with his heart, and with his life in the midst of circumstances that we find as unimaginable.

What Is The “To Live is Christ” Lesson In This Parable?

If we aren’t careful, we will miss the lesson of this parable. The parable wasn’t a lesson on injustice. The parable wasn’t even about our pecking orders, or the dangers of over valuing work, or the dangers of seeking the reward or being envious of others who seem to get the reward instead of us.

Yes, Jesus points these things out but it is to serve a larger purpose.

We are caught in between two systems - the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world.

We skew things because we are living in the kingdom of this world. In the kingdom of this world, it is normal for everything to be about me and about fairness (as it is measured through sin-tainted human eyes). This life is all about me.

But as citizens of the kingdom of God, our outlook should be different. In the kingdom of God, it is all about the “owner of the vineyard.” It is all about bringing glory to God.

If the workers in the vineyard had the kingdom of God perspective, they would have worked without complaints for the owner to have a great crop. The”heat” wouldn’t have bothered them.

They would have recognized their day’s wage as a very generous reward.

They wouldn’t have complained that the workers who showed up later in the day were paid the same amount. In fact, they would have celebrated with them.

In the end, this parable is about how the workers failed to honor the vineyard owner, the one that gave them everything. It is our covenant making God’s will that we honor him by giving him our words, our hearts, our actions - by giving Him everything! That is why he sets us free! We are to serve him whether it is for 50 years or for 25 years, or for 2 years. Our wills yield to the will of the “landowner” and our service is to honor him.

Our lives freely given back to Him is holiness.

So how about it?

How are you honoring the owner of the vineyard with your life?

Is your service all about him or is it about you?

Do you celebrate with others when it seems their reward is greater than yours? Or are you envious of others?

Are you serving at work, at home, at church to honor God or or yourself?

When others see your life and hear your words and heart, is it obvious that your life is all about God?

Related Media

Related Sermons