I absolutely love being a pastor. But one thing you gotta know is that pastors are people too. And in this particular case, I am a dad and I am an avid sports fan. And so what that means is that when you are watching a sporting event or game, specifically watching your child's game, we tend to get animated and, and we forget our pastoral role from time to time and we shout encouragement and blessings um at the refs and the calls and the things out there. Of course, every fan of their particular sport and their particular team has perfect vision, don't we? We see every call, we see every missed call, every missed play, what the coach should have done. If the fans could coach the games, our teams would be undefeated all the time, right? I, I don't envy the position of a referee though because you go into it knowing that half the crowd is gonna be mad at you for the most part. And if you do your job correctly, you go unnoticed. And so that's a tough job. But we love to shout things and encourage and complain like, oh, that's a foul. That's not fair. Right? And we have this sense of fairness, right? We want it to be equal, both ways, call it both ways. Right? We want, and we shout and we praise and encourage and bless because that's what we do, uh, the word for it. And, um, and so we go and, and this idea of fairness and, and, and justice and wanting something to be fair is something that you don't even have to teach your Children because everything is a battle and everything is mine. And if it's not exactly the same, your child will shout. That's not fair. Right. Well, I wanted the blue straw. I wanted this. His seat is better than mine. I wanted the window. I wanted the middle. I want he got his cake first. Why does he get to stay up later? It's not fair. Right? But the truth is as adults, while we see that in Children, we're just grown Children. And we take this idea of fairness into our lives as well. And so if you are driving on the road or if you're in the supermarket and you pick that checkout line and your line, the person in front of you happens to be one of the coupon people and then you get annoyed at the line. Next, you going, checking through just flying through and you're just standing there and you think to yourself that's not fair. I it's almost to the point where even if we don't utter it out loud when you do say it, it almost feels cathartic. It could almost be like its own game show. Right? Kind of like the price is right. Do, do, do do, except it's called, that's not fair. It's actually a lot of fun to say. So I'm gonna give you a chance right now. Go ahead. Turn to your neighbor with enthusiasm and say that's not fair. All right. for some of you who weren't paying attention and really confused, I'm gonna give you a chance too. So one more time, you can turn to someone else or turn to the same person whoever you want and with, with enthusiasm. Go ahead and say that's not fair. All right now, I'm gonna give you a chance to say that when we're reading our scripture today. So remember verse nine and verse 10, OK, verse nine and verse 10. In our passage today, you're gonna be able to say that phrase, I'm gonna pause and we're gonna say it together. But today's message is entitled when life's not fair because you will go through many experiences in which you think or will utter. Life's not fair. Well, today, we're gonna take a look at a parable of Jesus. Our series Stories of The Kingdom is taking a look at the messages of Jesus who primarily taught through story called Parables. And in fact, a parable is defined this way. A parable is a practical story Jesus tells to illustrate a spiritual truth. The word parable inter interestingly enough comes from a root word that actually means to place alongside. Then interesting. That's what parable means. And so that's what you do when you tell a parable is that you take a unknown topic or spiritual truth and you place it alongside a practical story that people understand and can then associate and connect to a deeper meaning. Now, when Jesus taught through parables, his primary theme of his parables were about the Kingdom of God. And we define the Kingdom of God this way. Last week, the Kingdom of God is the power of God working through the people of God. Another way to think about it is the reign and rule of Jesus that if you have a king, then you have a kingdom. If you have a leader, you have people. And what's confusing about that, especially in America where we are in our context is that we don't tend to think of kingdoms outside of movies and books. But this concept here is really that Jesus is reigning right now and that his kingdom is a spiritual one. It'll it upon his return, the return of Jesus, it will eventually be a physical kingdom. But right now, it is still a spiritual reality. And so when you pray to receive Jesus into your life, you invite Jesus to be the king and ruler and reign in your life that you are ushered into the Kingdom of God. And then you are invited then to live kingdom down versus culture up and you get to bring into your relationships into your workplace and your conversations a little bit of heaven, a little bit of the kingdom into your life. Now, our parable today is one of the least popular ones of Jesus because at the end of it, you're gonna think that's not fair. And so we know that going in. But right now this, I want you to know that this parable is all about focus and perspective and priority. So if you're taking notes, I invite you to write this down, that grace isn't fair, but it's what we need. When we think life isn't fair. The reality is the deeper spiritual meaning is that grace isn't fair, but it's exactly what we need. Our parable is found in Matthew chapter 20 it's entitled the Parable of the Vineyard Workers. But in most cases, a parable is found within a context or an audience. And so you can hear and you can share a parable with others. And so it can stand alone on its own merit. But it helps to read the Bible within the context and to the audience through which the message was originally shared. Now, I love chapters and verses. But we have to know that when the Bible was first written, there were no chapters and verses that those were put in after the fact so that we could reference them. I mean, can you imagine if it didn't, can you imagine if everyone came in with scrolls this morning? Like, all right, open your scroll to the gospel account from Matthew. And we're like trying to go through and everything. And so I'm very grateful for the, the numbers for the chapters and for the verses, but sometimes where that hurts us is that we miss the context of a story. And in this case, this parable is within a particular context. And so in the chapter before Matthew 20 chapter 19, specifically verses 13 to 14, there is a story, a brief story about where Children with all their snotty noses and dirty fingers are running up to Jesus and the disciples get in the way. Whoa whoa whoa. And they try to push those street kids away and Jesus, no, let the Children come for to these or to those here belong the kingdom of God. And I love that messaging, especially as we head into kids camp in V BS this week that God and Jesus love the little Children and that Children are free to come before God and are accepted within his kingdom. And then right after that, there's a story of this rich young man or other gospel accounts, they call him the rich young ruler. And so by all accounts, this guy had everything that the world wanted. So he was rich, he was young, probably good looking and in good health and he had power and authority and then to top it off, right. Like if you ever see somebody who's good looking in public and you're like, I bet they're a jerk and you just kind of tell yourself that this is just me. Am I the only messed up one that does that? Ok. Anyway, um, you know, and so you go like, uh, they don't, they're not the whole package though, you know, like there's gotta be something off of them. Well, people might be thinking that but then he says, you know, rabbi teach your master, what must I do to inherit the kingdom of God? And he starts rallying off some of the old Testament commandments. And then this guy says, I've actually, I've kept all those. So now this guy is even morally good as well. Like, so now he's even a nice guy. So he's rich. He's young, he's a ruler. He's nice. Oh, I hate those guys. And so then go and like, and then Jesus, 01 more thing. So all you have give to the poor come and follow me. And he said that not because it is a requirement to follow Jesus to sell all of your possessions, but rather he knew the idol in that person's life. And so it's not that Jesus will ask all of us to sell all of our possessions and give everything away. But if he did ask you would you be willing? Because his wealth was his idol. And Jesus knew that. And so this man went away, sad because he had a lot of possessions. So at which point then Jesus says, well, it's tough for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Why? Because they don't understand, they have a need that can only be met and wow, people are like, man, that would be a lot to give up all of my stuff. But think about what that rich young man passed up an internship and and connection with the creator of the world and the savior of the world. And so by comparison, there really is no comparison but the disciples are confused because Jesus lets the kids come the rich, handsome, smart dude with a lot of money while they are a traveling group of uneducated bandits. Basically, he walks away and they're like, well then who can get in if this guy can't get in, who, who makes the team, you know, if this guy gets cut, who makes the team? And Jesus actually confirms, he says, look, I didn't say that he can. I just said it would be tough. He says with man, it's impossible but with God, anything is possible. So then Peter, oh good old Peter come back said, hey, Jesus, you know, you talked about giving up everything we did that. So what am I getting put? I just pictured him putting his hands out like All right, what are we getting then Jesus and Jesus does two things. He actually says, first, you will get 100 fold, 1000 fold of what you, you would even imagine here on earth. So I'm gonna bless you and give you more than you could ever think or imagine in heaven. So yes, you will be rewarded. But second, Peter, your focus is off. It's not the point. And he gives this warning and he gives this phrase that says the first shall be last and the last shall be first. Now that sounds very Yoda like right? And so I imagine the disciples hearing that phrase, give me a little bit of look of doubt like huh, like we just want some stuff and reward and you, and you tell us the last will be first and the first will be last. It's in this, that then he tells a story and the story that we're gonna read today. See our parable today is really based on a principle and that principle is the last shall be first and the first shall be last. And so he tells this story here in Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20. I want you to picture what character would you be in the story. OK. We're gonna come back to that. So verse one for the Kingdom of Heaven, also another gospel to talk about the Kingdom of God. Same thing 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. So you got an owner, you got a master wealthy. When it came time to harvest, they would need day workers. And so they need a lot of people to work in a short amount of time. And so he went to the market and they would see people. So here we go, verse two, after agreeing with the laborers for Daenerys a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Now, they're guessing this is probably about six o'clock in the morning, typically with the Jewish time and calendar. So at six in the morning, you go to the market and let's just think this through for a second. If you are a owner and you're hiring workers who are you most likely to hire, you're gonna hire the young, the in shape the experts and not necessarily, but most likely the fact that we have an agreed upon term is that they probably negotiated, right? Because they're probably getting recruited from different landowners and you want the best for your field and say, whoa, whoa, what are you gonna give me? And so they said Daenerys, ok, I'll take it, I'll come work for you. And so they agree upon a price and they start working. Now that's 6 a.m. verse three and going out about the third hour. So now it's nine o'clock in the morning. He saw others standing idle in the marketplace. Why would he get more workers simply put, because there's more work needed, there's more work needed to be done. OK. 9 a.m. He goes and says in verse four, you go into the vineyard too and whatever is right, I will give you. So they went, they, they don't even need to negotiate at this point. They're just happy to have a job. Hey, whatever's right. I'm gonna pay you done. I already got passed over at six AMI missed the first round but you know, it's not bad being a second round draft pick. You know what I mean? Like second round, you still get some guaranteed money in there, right? I'll take it. Ok. So they went, going out and said going out again about the sixth hour. So now we're at noon and the ninth hour. So three o'clock, he did the same verse six in about the 11th hour. So we're talking about 5 p.m. Workers started at 6 a.m. Been working all day. Ok. And then now we're at 5 p.m. we got one hour left. The day is almost done. He went out and he found others standing and he said to them, why do you stand here idle all day? And they said to him because no one has hired us. Now think about the crop of people still in the marketplace at this time. They're probably not your top notch people, right? Maybe they're lazy and they slept in. Although it says they've been standing there all day, like, wouldn't you at some point? Call it a day? Like I'll try again the next day. Most likely these people would have been standing there day after day after day, being overlooked, being passed over. And they, these are the people that you pick last for kickball. These are the people that you would not want in the group project. These are the people that would not get the job that are bouncing around from one to the next. And these are the overlooked. These are the least the last and the lost. And he says, hey, I need you. He said, go into the Vineyard two verse eight. 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. Now, why would you pay the the last workers first? Well, because you know, the first workers are gonna wait, right? And again, this is a parable. It's to teach us the last will be first verse will be last, right? So you see this imagery lining up here for this principle. And so here we go, verse nine. Remember what we, we're gonna say here at the end of this verse, this and when those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received a daenerys into which all of us say that's not fair when they come in with an hour to go and they get a daenerys. Now, you know, the workers are like, wait a second, if they're getting one, does that mean we're getting 12? We picked the right owner today, right? But then verse 10 and now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received daenerys to which we all say that's not fair. And how do they respond? Verse 11, just like we all probably would. And upon receiving it, they grumbled. Now again, they received the agreed amount they negotiated, they got what they asked for. They, it wasn't like he took theirs and gave it to the other people. They still got what they asked for. They grumbled at the master of the house. Now as a principal, it's not good to yell at your employer, right? Like it's not good to shout at the person giving you a paycheck. But this is exactly what they do say in verse 12. These um saying here in verse 12, in here, it says that these last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day in the scorching Arizona heat. Ok? I might have added a word but we understand he's like hold up, we worked the heat. But notice the owner's response he says, but he replied to one of them friend. See, even in his rebuke, he still was gentle with them and called them friend. He didn't call him servant, he didn't call him slave. He didn't call him day worker. He called him friend. He says, friend. Am I doing you? No wrong. Did you not agree with me? For Daenerys? Take what belongs to you and go? I choose to give this uh I choose to give this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity? We, in the ESV version, the Niv, I love their phrase and it says, are you envious? Because I'm generous. And then it says verse 16. And so the last will be first and the first will be last. And that's a cool story. But isn't there a little bit of you? Like, I don't know Jesus, I, I'd be pretty mad if I was at 6 a.m. work or right? And we started thinking about times where we didn't get what we thought we should get. Here's the thing is that those first workers, they had the wrong attitude, both the owner and to others. See, their focus was on fairness and not on freedom. You don't get to be a day worker unless you are in some pretty significant need. And they were blessed with a job with an owner that called them friend and with respect to which then they were paid for the job they did. And so they didn't have respect to the owner and really they focused on their fairness, not on their freedom. Another way to think of it is they focus on their expectation and not their experience. I wonder how many of us come to God and worship God with our expectations, right? When we get the promotion, we're like Jesus, you reign above it all. You are the same God, right? Then you lose that job. Are you still singing that song? Right? Are you still singing it? When the it doesn't go your way? Are you worshiping based on what you get or worshiping based on your expectation versus the experience and on who God is and what he's already done. Here's the other thing is that when we read the story, we tend to focus on the workers. Remember what I said a parable. So the place alongside takes a practical story to reveal a spiritual truth. The very first phrase of the parable is that the Kingdom of God is like a master. This means that the main character of the story is not the worker, but the master. You know, some people say this parable is about salvation because whether you get saved when you're young and you live all your life saved or in your last moments in life, you get saved that we all get eternal life. And that makes sense. It does. It's not quite a parable about salvation because it's about work. And there's nothing you can do. You don't work for your salvation. So it's not a parable about salvation. However, it is a parable that reveals the character of the God who saves you. It is a glimpse of the heart of Jesus and the heart of God. There's that show undercover boss, right? Where the CEO goes and works among the employees for a week or so and sees what life is like. This story is like an undercover God. We get a glimpse into the heart and mindset of God. Now reading this story through that lens starts to make a little more sense because we see Him saying God saying like, do I not get to give what I want to whom I want? I'm God. Yeah. Right. He owns all things. He's all knowing, all present, all powerful. And so when you think about that, that really this parable is about the grace and the generosity of the owner and it's about the perspective of the workers. See this principle about humility coming before our heavenly Father, coming before our savior rings throughout scripture. For example, Matthew 2312 says, whoever exalts himself will be humble, whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Paul writes to Ephesus in Ephesians 47, he says, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gifts. Now, the author of that, his name was Paul. Now, Paul would really be seen as like the Mount Rushmore of believers and church leaders. In fact, he wrote a good percentage of The New Testament. And so the question is, how did Paul view himself? So he had Roman background, he had Greek ties, he was educated, he memorized the early books of the Old Testament known as the Torah. He was a teacher, he was, he was smart. And then when he became a Christian, now he's planting churches, developing leaders. And so he is a baller like he, if there is world rankings, he is going first, if there is a draft of Christians, right? You're coming up, right? There's all this talk in the NBA that there was one clear number one draft pick. In this case, you're going one pick, you're going Paul, right? He's the number one pick. He's he if you wrote most of the New Testament, that's, that's a pretty good resume builder, right? And so you would think he would get more reward than most. But how did Paul view himself? How did Paul view himself? He tells us in a few places. I'm gonna share two with you 1st and 1st Timothy one. Paul's writing to his godson here, Timothy verse 15 to 17. He says, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. He says, but I receive mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life, to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever amen. Who was the main character of Paul's story, Jesus to the point where every chance he got, he elevated Jesus and said, I am a sinner saved by grace and I am the worst of the worst and I do not deserve anything. And that's what it is to receive a gift of grace. If grace is deserved, it's not grace. Paul, another letter to the church in Corinth, first Corinthians 15 verses nine and 10. It says for I am the least of the apostles unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace to me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. I love that because he didn't just receive his grace and sit back rather, he used his grace as motivation to live differently. But then he even clarified that it's like whoa, whoa whoa, just to clarify. I didn't receive grace worked really hard and that was it. But even my work, he says though it was not I but the grace of God that is in me, even the work I do now, every single day I live by grace, it is grace. That sets me free. It is grace that gives me joy. It is grace that gives me love. I don't deserve any of it, but I graciously receive his generosity and I want to pass that through to everyone else that I can. So here's the thing. We're not in this story. But if we were in the story of the parable, we would be the 11th hour workers. Think about it for a second. Many of us in this room, the hardest thing we had to battle today was our snooze button to which then we entered a vehicle and we bypassed some of the heat and came into an air conditioned space in a country where we are free to gather, to open up our Bible. And if we forgot our Bible, we have it on a smart device here and if we're and we can't even make it, we, we hit our snooze button too many times. We're now tuning in online. Think about the early church and the persecution without written scriptures, knowing that their lives were at stake where they would go and they would struggle and they didn't have it. So now we can freely gather, freely worship, access to scripture and teaching and preaching and worship more than ever before connecting with the global world as we know it along with 2000 years of proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And there are more believers today than any time in history. Church. We are the 11th hour workers. We just are that, here's the, here's the thing. We gotta remember that we have a God. We have an owner. We have a master who keeps searching. He keeps going out and finding more people, people that are overlooked. People that are bypassed people that think that they're not worthy people that have a past people that have doubts and struggles and issues and battles. And God comes to him and says, I need you. We got work to do. Amen. Grace isn't fair, but it's exactly what we need. You wanna talk about fairness. If God were fair, all of us would deserve help. It was. And here's the thing, God is a God of justice. God is a God who rescues and Satan's getting his and evil will be taken care of hell. I understand this hell is an example of God's justice. Let's not forget that. But out of that is pull those who receive Him as a marking of grace. We are the least the last and the lost and God looks down and says you are worthy. You are mine. I need you. This means that if you've messed up relationships, if you've messed up things in the past, there might be earthly consequences, understand that, but it's not too late. And so how do we respond to the grace of God? And we do three things? Number one first. Praise him. Do you grumble to God? Based on fairness and your expectations or do you praise God for the freedom that He's given you in the grace? That's not deserved. Second thing when you praise God, then you celebrate others. OK? I think we're going to be surprised at some of the people who make it into heaven. Right? We're gonna be up there like whoa streets of gold. Let's go. You're here. She's here. Some people will be like you're here. We also might be surprised that some of the people who don't make it. I look, pastors aren't immune to this. We pray for revival. We work, we preach, we want decisions, we want baptisms, right? For a pastor. The challenge is like you're praying, you're preaching and then you hear the street, you know, you've been preaching for years doing all this stuff and then the person down the street like fumbles and bumbles and doesn't have anything and just says uh Jesus and 1000 people get saved. You're like, wait, what? Even as a pastor, we go, that's not fair, right? So even the check of my own spirit, do I want revival here? Yes, I do. But can I do? I just want revival? See the difference like you can celebrate the grace on somebody else and that doesn't diminish the work in your life. How about the fact that if you do consider yourself to be the early worker? What if you flip the script instead of saying it as a burden. You think of it as a blessing. In other words, you're walking through a tough situation, but you know what God knew you could handle it. You have the strength to battle something that maybe the person next to you couldn't. There is grace in all of that. So the first thing we do is we praise God. The second thing we do is we celebrate others. We celebrate when someone is saved. When someone's life is turned around, when God uses them, when they are blessed. When they can you celebrate when that person gets the promotion? Can you celebrate when others around you celebrate? You don't have to lose in order for somebody else to win. Can you just celebrate others that we have a good and gracious and generous God who has already given us the goodness and grace that we needed. Because again, we view ourselves as the 11th hour worker so that we can turn around and say, hey, God's not done. And then the last thing that we do then is that we get to work. He calls us into the harvest season and says, let's go. I believe we're in the last hour of history here, metaphorically here. I don't know when God's going to return, but I think it's coming soon and we have all the tools and the resources to go and reach this world with the gospel. And so it's time to get to work. It's time to go out and tell others about the good news of Jesus and saying, hey, you may think you've missed your opportunity but you haven't. It's not too late. God's not done. You're not dead. God's right here. He's right here. He's right now. He's available and you don't deserve it. I didn't deserve it. But what was given to me is available to you. Let's go. How do I know this to be true? Because we shared the earlier context that the first will be last, the last will be first that it's about humbly coming before a gracious owner who gives freely to those who wants to. But the very next verse after this parable verse 17 to 20 reads this and Jesus was going up to Jerusalem and he took the 12 disciples aside and on the way, he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified and he will be raised on the third day, Jesus can freely give because he took on the wrath of God. He took on the justice of God so that he can freely give to us. He is the master, he is the owner. He's the one that reigns and rules and he used his power to sacrifice his life for the least, the last, the last you and I the 11th hour workers so that we can respond to this grace. You know, we sing of amazing grace. You know, we don't think of it's about time. Grace. I expected grace like average grace. The whole reason it's amazing is because we don't deserve it. We don't say regular grace. It's about time, you know, to give someone awesome like me, you are welcome, God, You're welcome everyone else. You're blessed to even call me friend. Like like think about the attitude, right? No, it's, it's not. It's the way to come before God is just the complete utter humility at his feet. To where the author of that hymn that we sing. John Newton on his epitaph. He viewed himself as that 11th hour worker. That's why he could sing. Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. He wrote these words on his tombstone. He said, John Newton clerk once an infidel in Libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa. He was a slave trader. Do you know that? The Amazing Grace song of the most sung song in the world written by a slave trader who gets saved changes his life says but was the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, persevered, restored pardon and appointed to preach the faith that he had long labored to destroy. Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind. But now I see this is the parable. Our God is gracious. Our God is generous. Let's receive that. Now, dear father, we come before you as we get ready to take communion. God, we reflect on what you did that you gave your life for us, that you give freely to whom you want when you want, how you want because you are God. And so we received your gift. We believe that you are Lord, we believe that you are a savior. We praise you for who you are, what you've done. We celebrate when others are used by you and God, it's time to get to work. It is an honor and a privilege to work in your fields during this harvest season. Maybe we have that perspective of not what is expected but what we experience that you give far beyond because if you were fair, God, all of us would deserve hell. But because you are gracious and generous, you save some and God, we save those who call upon your name. And so we call upon your name now. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for saving us. We reflect on this time now and this grace that is so amazing. He says, let me pray. Amen.