The Generous Boss

You know I was listening to another pastor this past week and he was telling a story about how there was a man who had the worlds best boss.

And there was this one day where his wife wanted to him to take off work to help with cleaning up the house for a party that night and working on a few other projects

and so the man came into work the next day and he explained the situation to his boss about how his wife wanted some help with projects and asked for this day off.

and the boss actually looked at him and said absolutely not.

To which the man replied “Thanks boss, I knew I could count on you”

Because his boss got him out of working at home.

It was all about perspective.

But you know the story we are looking at today its a story about a boss and his workers and based on your perspective you either think this boss is the best boss in the world or the worse.

So we are in Matthew 20:1-16 and this is actually our last week in the series we have been in called Kingdom living where we have been talking about how we live as citizens in the kingdom of heaven here and now.

and what I love is we are ending our series with this passage with a parable.

And if you are unformilure with what a parable is basically it is a simple or ordinary story that Jesus will tell, but the story is used to communicate a spiritual message that tells us about God and ourselves.

And so really we are going to be disencting this ordinary story to see what it says about our God but also ourselves.

So once again turn with me to Matthew 20:1-16 and we will actually be starting with the first 7 verses. It says:

Matthew 20:1–7 NIV

1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning 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 noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 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?’ 7 “ ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

So this Parable starts out with a landowner who owns a vineyard and what was common in this culture was land owners would go out and look for workers to hire for the day to help with their land.

And so we do not know what the exact project is, but it looks like this landowner wants as many people as possible to help.

Because he goes their early in the morning (Probably around 6:00AM)

and he gets these awesome workers

He comes back later at 9:00 to get more

Then at 12,

Then at 3:00

And then finally at 5:00

And we do not know the exact reason why these workers were not hired earlier.

They might not of been their that early in the morning and slept in

They might have not liked the wages that the landowner was offering, and passed the firs time,

But regardless they are now needing work and so they end up going with this landowner.

So their are a couple things I want us to get so far.

The first is that the Landowner in this story represents God and He is actively looking for workers.

and there are two levels of that, he is looking for people to follow Him and He is looking for people to serve Him.

And some of us might be thinking well wait a minute why would I follow a God that wants me to serve Him. That doesn’t sound fun...

But what is amazing is God created us to serve Him.

If you look at Genesis God created this beautiful garden and He creates Adam and Eve and He tells them to tend the land.

I mean we are created to work.

Think about days where you do nothing and just binge watch Netflix. It feel good occasionally, but after awhile you feel like garbage

Because God created you to work and more specifically God created us to serve Him.

And what is so cool about this story is it seems like God wants as many as possible.

It does not have the land owner asking for resumes or qualifications, but He keeps coming and picking up the workers.

And really thats what God is doing for us. He does not make sure we are qualified to be in a relationship with Him but He just says follow me

I want you on my team, because I know just what your capable of and I created you.

So are you ready for the next thing I want you to get?

Because the next thing I want you to notice is the workers need faith to say yes to the landowner.

because the first people agreed with him that they would get paid a denarius, which was about a days pay in that time

And then the people after that just agreed they would get paid what was right, not even know exactly how much they would get.

But regardless they do not get paid to until the end of the day, so they have to have faith that they will get paid, but some of them have to have faith that “what is right” is a good payment

And this is what I want you to get from this: That it takes faith to say yes to follow Christ.

Because the truth is we get a taste of heaven when we accept Christ but we do not get to experience the full thing until we are heaven.

And so we have to have faith that we will see that day where we get to dwell in God’s presence eternally without the presence of sin.

And it will be awesome!

But there has to be some level of faith to say yes God I want to follow you.

Think of it like this: The past few months I have gotten way to formilure with Facebook market place.

Because I have been selling things non-stop but the thing with Facebook Marketplace is that when you sell something what happens is you will agree to meet somewhere and you have to trust that the other person will actually show up.

Because if you do not trust that the person will actually show up then you probably are not going to meet them there right?

and if that happens you don’t sell the thing you were selling and they don’t get it.

And it would be a huge issue.

But that is the barrier that our lack of faith can cause. because first off we need it to be in a relationship with Christ, but when we have faith in God it allows His kingdom to be built and it is powerful.

It is so important for us to have faith in our walk with God.

But here the other part I want you to understand, because their may be some of us here who may say “well I am not really ready to put my faith in Christ where I will follow Him.

And if thats you I really want you to understand this that the landowner does not just say “Okay, I don’t need you anyway, but this passage says He keeps coming back.

And He even comes back when there is only one hour left to work.

And I just want you to understand that God will not give up on you.

He will be their pursuing you to that very moment you take your last breath, but you need to have the faith to say yes.

And look at the second half of this passage because it tells what happens to these workers who follow the land owner.

So this is starting in verse 8 it says:

Matthew 20:8–16 (NIV)

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 five in the afternoon 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 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, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one 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.”

So this is the part of the passage we get frustrated with, because like we just read its the end of the day and the Land owner calls in the people He actually just hired an hour ago and He pays them

And so pays them and them one denarius which is really generous for an hours work.

He basically paid them a full days wage

So then he begins to call all of the other workers in and keep in mind these are the ones who have been working outside all day since 6 in the morning and working hard.

And so you can imagine they are thinking if He paid them a danarius, how much more are we going to get for a 12 hour day?!

But they only get 1 Denarius.

And basically if you are the 1 hour worker you think you have the best boss ever, if you are the 12 hour worker you think he is the worse.

And for a lot of us this passage is probably difficult because we are going this is not fair.

This is wrong.

Those people should have gotten what they deserved!

But here is what I want you to get because as we look at our lives and where God has called us, every single one of us has messed up and is deserving of Judgement.

The Bible says “All have fallen short of where God has called them and the punishment is death.”

But here is the deal because when you accept Christ and follow Him like we were talking about, the sin in your life is wiped clean and washed in the blood of Christ.

And so often in this story we focus on the amount that the people worked and we think its unfair, but what we do not focus on is the generosity of God.

Because the reason they all make the same is not because of what the workers do but its because of what God does.

Because when God washes you clean you are made clean.

You are made right before God and all the things separating you from Him have been washed away in the sea of forgetfulness.

And this morning as we close I just want you to know God desires that for our lives.

He desires for us to be made right with Him.

But we need to say yes to Him as well.

And today as we finish I want to give you an opritunity to do that.

Because we will be closing by receiving communion and its so powerful because these elements we receive together represent God’s grace being poured out for you.

And its one of the most generous things that has ever been done.

But we need to respond

And as we receive these elements it is our way of saying yes. I want to receive your grace.

And so we will be ending on a song called scandal of grace and really this song tells us about the scandal that takes place in this story.

A scandal that makes us yell “Thats not fair!”

And we are right, its not because we do not deserve it.

So I would invite you to stand as we close and sing about the grace we have been given

And I would invite you to prepare your heart during this time.