Focus on Yourself

This is another week in which we are in our sermon series “Focus.” We have been having the Gospel of Matthew help us understand that our focus should be on God and what he wants to teach us instead of having our focus on ways of the world.

Today we see why you should choose to “Focus on Yourself.” Our scripture comes from Matthew 20:1-16. The words will be on the screen.

20 “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. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 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.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 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 heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”

Please pray with me…

I am going to begin with a statement today that is probably going to shock many of you. Are you ready? Life is unfair. There I’ve said it and I am sure that none of you have ever believed it or felt that way.

This is where we find some of the workers that the vineyard owner hired in today’s scripture. They have worked all day and received the same pay as someone who only worked a couple of hours.

In our humanness we can understand their frustration. We can get why they reacted the way they did. If life was fair, they would have received a substantial amount more than those that had put in so little work.

This may be why we have Jesus telling this parable to his disciples at this point in his ministry. Just before today’s text he has a rich man come to him and ask what he needed to do to have eternal life.

Jesus at first gives him the answer he expected by listing some of the ten commandments. But as the man was feeling good Jesus told him that if he wanted to really do what he needed to do he would give up all his possessions and begin to follow Jesus.

This was more than the man was willing to give up in order to receive eternal life and it leads to Jesus making a statement on the difficulty it is for a rich man to get into heaven. This is followed by Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, making sure that Jesus remembers that his disciples have given up everything to follow him.

Jesus agrees and then tells this parable. A parable that will eventually remind the disciples that life is not fair, because in God’s eyes the importance is not on how long you followed him but that you are willing to follow him and believe what Jesus did for you.

More than one long time Christian has become frustrated when they read the story of the man on the cross. You know the man I am talking about, the man who went from being a criminal and dying on a cross to having a place with Jesus in Heaven.

More than one long time Christian has pointed out how unfair this is. How they have lived a life following God for their whole life while this criminal will end up receiving the same reward from God as them.

That is why Jesus wants us to focus on ourselves. Jesus wants our focus to be on our own relationship with him instead of worrying about what has happened or may happen with those around us.

Jesus points this out by having the vineyard owner remind those first workers that he gave them what he promised them. He didn’t keep anything he promised them away from them. The vineyard owner continues by pointing out that he can offer generosity if he wants too.

It is true that those that were chosen last by the vineyard owner received the same pay for less work. But what we can often forget is that they were standing there wondering if they were going to be able to put food on the table at all.

They were suffering mentally while those early workers were suffering physically. Those that were day wagers during that time literally needed work to put food on the table. They were at the end of their rope and not being picked meant them and if they had a family, their family was going to go without food unless someone else provided it for them.

Those that end up becoming Christians later in life are under a similar situation. They have not had the advantage of receiving the peace that passes all understanding or the hope in things to come.

They have been living their lives with no knowledge of what it can mean for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and having God within them trying to help them. They are suffering without even realizing it while those that believe are living a life as a child of God.

Our first reading reminds us that we are not the ones who are to be the judges. We are not the ones who get to decide who is good enough and who is not. We are not the ones who should be focusing our attention on what others are doing while ignoring our own faults and failures.

We are to focus on our own relationship with God. We are to be living the best life that we can live as a follower of Jesus and not let what we perceive as the failures and shortcomings of others impact our feelings for them or our relationship with God.

That is what Jesus is saying to his disciples. “There will come a time when I will have people that you do not believe worthy become followers of me and I will leave for them the same promise I leave for you, eternal life and the Holy Spirit.”

This is sometimes a struggle that many long time Christians find themselves in. They want more than that new believer. They struggle with accepting that person who became a follower of Jesus so late in life.

We instead are called to praise and thank God for their deliverance. We should be letting God know how we appreciate his saving grace for everyone that walks the earth. All people are able to receive the saving grace of our God. Thanks be to God.

Our first reading says it this way “God shows no partiality.” Paul says it another way in Galatians chapter 3 when he says that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

There wasa group that would follow behind Paul who wasn’t able to accept this understanding of God. They believed there was only one way that a person could be a Christian and that was by being Jewish.

We have some who may take a similar stance. They maybelieve that if you don’t believe in God the way they do than you can’t really be a Christian. God loves all people and will bring people to him anyway he can.

God makes it easy; do you believe that I am the creator of all things? Do you believe that I died to forgive your sins, and do you want your sins forgiven? A person who answers yes to these questions becomes a child of God.

Let me say it to you another way, if life was fair, we would only call Jesus our Savior. He would be the one who came to earth and died for our sins so that we could have our sins forgiven and have eternal life. We instead are also supposed to call Jesus our Lord.

The term“Lord” refers to someone who is above us. Someone who can command us to do what he wants us to do. If we call Jesus our Lord, we should be focusing on what we can do for him instead of worrying about the actions of those around us.

We do this best when we continue to form and develop our relationship with him. That is why this is a part of our mission statement. We as a church want to help you know how you can become closer to God. Jesus can offer us an example of what that looks like through scripture.

Jesus prayed and listened to his Father. We have Jesus going away from others in the morning to pray. This would show us that Jesus made it a practice to connect with his father daily. We also have the time in the garden just before he is arrested in which he asks for his father to intervene.

He ends that prayer by saying not my will, but your will be done. We should be willing to talk to and listen to God. It is through allowing God to speak into our lives that can help us know how we should be living our lives by following the Lord.

Jesus shows us the importance of reading scripture. We have him numerous times quoting scripture. Letting those around him know what God desires from them. We can learn what God desires from us through regularly reading the word of God.

We should rely on the Holy Spirit. We have Jesus after being baptized being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness for forty days. The Holy Spirit helps us in a number of different ways. We have to be open to how God wants to lead us.

The Holy Spirit may help us become prepared for what he wants us to do. Just like in the case of Jesus we may be led into a time of preparation for serving God. A time that may not be fun but will be fruitful.

The Holy Spirit may give us the words to say. Jesus tells his disciples that there will be a time when they will be in a tough situation. He tells them not to worry about what to say because the Holy Spirit will tell you.

The Holy Spirit will lead us into conversations and the opportunity to serve those around us. We need to be open to where the Holy Spirit desires us to go and to be prepared to serve those he wants us to serve.

That leads us to another way Jesus can be our example. He showed us the importance of giving back to God. This leads us back to Jesus being our Lord. We should desire to serve those that God wants us to serve. We are called to serve those that God places before us.

Another way we serve God is through our financial giving. This is not something that we focus on often, but our giving is us deciding that God is not only worthy of our worship and service, but he is also worthy of the blessings he has given us financially.

There are some that use a set percentage of giving as the standard. I believe that God wants you to give what you feel led to give. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians for us to be cheerful givers. We should give not out of compulsion but out of love for our God.

Jesus uses a parable to point out to us that all is God’s. He sees a widow giving all she has and states that she is the one who has given the most out of all the rich in the synagogue. This should remind us that no matter if we give more or less, we should place our focus on ourselves and what God has asked us to give.

Jesus also told those around him about his Father. We have a God that wants us to not only be a part of the lives of those that believe in him but also in the lives of those around us that need him. They may not know they need him. They may be hurting and looking for something they are missing in their lives.

We are able to be Jesus to those around us when we create relationships with those around us. It is through focusing on ourselves that we can live our lives like Jesus lived his life. A life that leads us to focus on our relationship with God and be willing to help those around us that do not know Jesus discover why they should also want to have a relationship with Jesus.

Let us pray…