AF-S78-071005 Choices
Last week we talked about the dude who had been invited to the wedding and was wearing the wrong clothes.
It's all about the heart and this guys clothes demonstrated his heart. It was the external evidence or work for all to see that he had a particular attitude.
His attitude is based on his perspective which in turn is reflective of his heart, that which he holds to be the way it is.
God continually provides opportunities and we act on those opportunities, wearing the clothes we choose based on what we think of the opportunity.
Where our heart is will determine how we act upon the opportunity presented and how we react to the consequences.
God gives a person an opportunity to start our day with prayer, we're too busy. He gives us an opportunity listen to a Christian cd, but Van Halen fits our mood. He gives us an opportunity to overlook a rude driver who has just cut us off and we elect to get angry instead. God gives an opportunity to be His hand when a non-Christian co-worker asks for help, but we show our frustration and displeasure. Later, when we're alone God gives an opportunity to repent and start over, but we feel too guilty….
God gives us the opportunity to accept Him through Jesus or to reject His offer, in effect spitting in His face.
Life is nothing more than making choices as opportunities are presented and the smart person realizes that these decisions, even the ones where we decide not to decide, have far reaching and often eternal consequenses.
We can stand up and take responsibility for our choices, actions and reactions, learn from the past, ajust our thinking and do better in the future or we can choose to languish in our bad decisions and their consequences.
Matthew 20:1-16 NLT
“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of an estate who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay the normal daily wage (denarius) and sent them out to work. “At nine o’clock in the morning (third hour) he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. At noon and again around three o’clock he did the same thing. At five o’clock that evening he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’ “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’” The owner of the estate told them, ‘then go on out and join the others in my vineyard.’
“That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. When those hired earlier came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. When they received their pay, they protested, ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’ “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take it and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be angry because I am kind?’ Or is your eye envious because I am generous? “And so it is, that many who are first now will be last then; and those who are last now will be first then.” “So the last shall be first, and the first last.”
KJV adds: "for many be called, but few chosen." Certainly carried over from the Wedding story in Chapter 22.
Matthew 19 29And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will have eternal life. 30But many who seem to be important now will be the least important then, and those who are considered least here will be the greatest then.
Denarius, Roman silver coin roughly equal to a Greek Drachma.
Evil eye is a covetous eye filled with envy.
1- Uptight religious people as opposed to tax collectors.
2- Rich versus poor
3- Jew verses Gentile
4- Those who work for profit and those who trust
Mt 19:14, the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to children not religious Pharisees. It isn't effort or position, it is grace from God and the reward is to the trusting.
Rich young ruler & Camel and needle.
The point I want to make is with the angry workers. These are people who compare themselves with others and then are mad at God because life is not fair.
We're good people and we serve God, but we never get ahead while dirtbags win the lottery.
I've worked so hard for God and given up so much to serve and some guy who has thumbed his nose at God his whole life accepts Jesus on his death bed and he gets the same reward, if not a better reward!
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned….
If you want more than you contracted for…don't contract, but rather trust.
God is Just - So trust Him
God is sovereign - He can do whatever He wants, Trust Him
God is generous - How can you boast or judge?