It’s Not Fair (Robert Madu)

0:05Speaker 1:Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

0:06Speaker 2:I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week. Hope you're blessed today.

0:20Speaker 1:I welcome our EPAM all around the world. Would you help me welcome them?

0:23Speaker 3:Put your hands together.

0:27Speaker 2:And when you're a preacher, but you come to church but you don't preach, you want to make sure that you've got a great preacher somebody you want to listen to, So I do today. My oldest son, Elijah's gonna come tell you who we've got preaching today.

0:41Speaker 1:He's not preaching today. That would be a plot twist. Man, it's us. What would you do if I said, and our preacher for today.

0:49Speaker 4:I'm gonna have to tag in my boy PGF over here, my boy Graham.

0:54Speaker 1:I think you. I love it. Man.

0:56Speaker 4:It's a special day today because we've got a very special guest, Robert mad in the house.

1:02Speaker 1:And yeah, come on, give it up.

1:05Speaker 4:And honestly, it's not really accurate. I know we always say this, but it's not really accurate to call him a guest because he's family. Mister Chunk's actually told me that second to my parents. He's actually preached the second most times out of anyone in.

1:18Speaker 1:This pull pick. Can we give it up for that?

1:20Speaker 4:Come on, but come on, y'all, we got one of the best dressed pastors in the game coming all the way from Dallas, Texas. He's a father of three, a husband to Taylor Madou, and the pastor of Social Dallas Elevation.

1:35Speaker 1:If y'all are not standing up, I need y'all to stand on.

1:37Speaker 5:Y'all speed and help me give a warm welcome the pastor Robert.

1:40Speaker 1:But do somebody give Jesus just the best shout of praise that's your God for them? Come on, don't give a little too golf clasp across every location. If you love Jesus and you're not ashamed about it, come on, would you just take about ten more seconds and give them the place that he's worthy of. Oh, come on, somebody, praise them like you know dead things okay, come alive today. Come on, praise them like you know. Chaine could break today. Anything could happened in this place. How you're feeling elevation?

2:30Speaker 1:Anybody come with some expectancy for what God's gonna do today? Toe you what. I didn't wait to get here to get ready for church. I got ready before I got here, got my faith level up, and I says, God's gonna do something incredible in this house today. Just in case your neighbor didn't have their coffee, would you just elbowed them across every location, say something's gonna happen today, something, Something's gonna happen today. I remain standing because Elijah took the words out of my mouth. I don't consider myself a guest here. I do consider myself family and been coming here for years. But I don't take it lightlying the honor of the privilege to stand on this stage in this house.

3:24Speaker 3:This is not ordinary. This is holy.

3:28Speaker 1:And one of the worst things you can do is to treat something holy ordinary.

3:35Speaker 3:Just get used to it.

3:37Speaker 1:Just get used to pass Stephen my past abridge.

3:41Speaker 3:Get used to that. Oh, that would be crazy.

3:45Speaker 1:And every time I walk in here, I'm reminded of the faithfulness of God and that this did not happen overnight.

3:54Speaker 3:This is decades of faithfulness.

3:58Speaker 1:Decades are saying yes when it was tough, decades of showing up when you didn't feel like two to be specific, two decades. Anybody can be faithful for a day, but be faithful for decades, that's a big deal. And so many times we celebrate what God does through people, but we don't pause to go what did it cost them to do that? And before I say anything, especially because he's here, I want to thank God for the gift that is impastor Stephen Fredick and his wife Hollid for the sacrifice, for what it cost you to do this.

4:38Speaker 1:Come on across every location. I need you to clap through your hands hurt. And I want them to know how much we loved him, the whole Ferdick family, how much we appreciate him. Come on, y'all can do better than that. We are grateful. We don't take you for granted. That's the thing. He can call anybody, literally anybody to preach and so I'm so honored to be here. My wife sends her love again. I'll bring your gredients for the great country of Texas. We passed through a church there, a social Dallas turned five years old this year and.

5:18Speaker 3:Seeing God do awesome things.

5:20Speaker 1:But I always get an excused absence to pull up to elevation. So we're gonna have fun. Are y'all tired of standing. When you word O shoes, that's on you stay standing. I want to jump straight to the Word of God because I do have a word to preach today. There is a story told by the greatest story teller ever that is stuck in my head. And since it's stuck in my head, I want to just preach out what's a been in my mind? Can we thank God for this worship team? Come on, love y'all in the atmosphere, go with me to the Gospel of Matthew chapter number twenty Matthew twenty, and I want to look at verses one through sixteen. Matthew Chapter twenty will start at verse one and we'll land at verse sixteen. Now, some of you all like, ooh, that's a lot of scriptures. We need all of it for you to really feel this story.

6:26Speaker 1:Matthew chapter twenty. Once your God had say yeah, if you need some time to find it, say how long I heard you. I'm gonna wait for you. Thank you so much, declares 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 send them into his vineyard. About nine in the morning, he went out and saw others stand 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 win. 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, and he asked them, why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing? Because no one has hired us.

7:29Speaker 1:They answer, He said to them, you also.

7:33Speaker 3:Go and work in my venue.

7:37Speaker 1:Now that's wild to me, because the workday ends at six o'clock. How are you hiring people at five o'clock to go work for one hour? But the landowner felt that was necessary. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said, no, no, no, look go up, go up. The one hired him says, when Edie came, the only vendor sent to his foreman called 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 humm full days pay for an hour of work.

8:22Speaker 1:So when those who are hired first, they they see, what haven't you expected me to say expected?

8:35Speaker 3:And I expected you to say expected.

8:38Speaker 1:Most of the pain and the frustration in our lives is not from what happened, it's from what we.

8:50Speaker 3:Expected.

8:52Speaker 1:Anybody ever dealt with the pain of unmet sometimes unexpressed expect They expected to receive more. But each one of them also received the 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?

9:24Speaker 1:Take your pay and go. I want to give to 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. What I say to my wife sometimes but I just don't always work out? Or are you envious? Because I am generous? So the last will be first and the first will be last.

9:57Speaker 3:Can you say a man? He man? I want to preach today just using this as a thought.

10:06Speaker 1:It's not fair. It's not fair. Look at your neighbor one more time, whichever one you like the best, and just say neighbor.

10:19Speaker 3:Don't be afraid to talk to him, Say neighbor.

10:22Speaker 1:It's not fair. It is not fair. Father, have your way speak to us today. Amen, you may be seated in the presence of the Lord. It's not fair.

10:46Speaker 3:Elevation fam.

10:49Speaker 1:I started preaching before I had kids, started preaching before I had offspring. And when I was preaching before I had kids, I would listen to other preachers who would always use their kids as an illustration in their messages, and I would secretly and quietly judge them on the inside, thinking to myself, come on, bruh, where is the creativity. Surely you can find another way to illustrate the text besides talking about your kids all the time.

11:20Speaker 3:That's what I said.

11:22Speaker 1:Then I had kids, three of them, and I realized that if you don't talk about your kids while you're preaching, you.

11:29Speaker 3:Ain't doing it right.

11:30Speaker 1:You ain't do it right because from the moment these little humans are conceived, you will be inundated with all kinds of illustrations and moments that just makes you pause and go, oh, I hear you, Lord, I hear you Lord. How mean you know God will use your kids to speak to you?

11:49Speaker 3:Yes, he will.

11:50Speaker 1:He will use your kids to speak to you. As a matter of fact, he will use your kids to show you. You that part at that moment where they are overreacting the smallest thing and they just go off and they're having just this crazy reaction. I'm like, what in the world is wrong with you? And God's like, wrong, question, what's wrong with you? She's eight, you're forty two. What is wrong with you?

12:16Speaker 6:Oh?

12:17Speaker 1:Hell, He'll use your kids to speak to you. So, my wife and I we have three kids, three kids eleven, ten and eight, two girls and one boy. They are distinctly different, unique in their personalities. Yet they are unified in their vision for us as parents. Oh, they got unity in their vision. And here is their vision. Here is their vision statement for us. Here it is keep it fair. That is the vision statement. Not just to my kids, up, every single child around the world. Keep it fair, keep it for Hey, that's not fair. You better keep it fair, y'all. Before there was a laborers union, before there was an HR department, there were kids tell my wait a minut. You can't do that. That's not fair.

13:02Speaker 1:I'm not exaggerating. There is not a week in the Madu household that I don't hear that phrase right there. That's not fair. That's not fair.

13:10Speaker 5:He got to go to Lego Lane. We didn't get to go to Lulu Living. That's not fair, Dad. How much she got to stay up late? How come I don't get to stay up late? That's not fair, dad? He got to stay.

13:22Speaker 1:Home from school? That's not fair. I'm like he was sick, he had the flu. You want the flu? Yes, all right, come in, let me lay hands on you for you get the flu? Fair that that's not fair. How many know kids are born with this innate sensitivity to an equity and disparity. They are looking forward, they have fairness detectors on the inside of them. It's funny. Researchers even did some research and found out that even as early as infants, they're already able to recognize inequity, as early as twelve months old, before they can even have the words to articulate it. There's some an end then that's going, ah, this, this, this hain't right. If you don't believe me do the test out the service. Just pass out some cake to some kids and not one of them will just take the cake like this. No, they're gonna take it and go and look, that's not fair. And I share that with you today. Who can I be honest, because I don't think we outgrow that. I just think we get more subtle and sophisticated in the way we express it.

14:34Speaker 1:Were little statements like must be nice. It gets it gets more problematic when you feel like the person who's not being fair is God. Elevation family, what do you do when you feel like God is not being fair? I know you can't say anything because you want to make everybody think that you walked in here very spiritual and you just you know, pray all the time and just lift up your hands.

15:09Speaker 3:But what do you do when you feel like God, this is not fair.

15:17Speaker 1:God, I've been coming to church faithfully, like I've been doing good this year, Like I've showed up faithfully, and I've been serving any chance that I get. And God, I've been tithed and I've been tithing this year and I've been doing good. Lord. I gave him the year in offering my word of the Year was promotion and I lost my job. That's not fair. God. I've been doing my best. I'm single, and I've been trusting you for my spouse, and I've been doing it right, and I've been living holy, and I've been being pure and i've been I've been doing the best I can. And I've been really believing that you would blessed me with somebody to spend the rest of my life with. And it's not happening. Meanwhile, my coworker, I ain't living holy.

16:05Speaker 1:Who've been with Ronnie? Donnie and everybody she gonna walk in talk about Guess what? God, That's not fair. God, My mom. All she does is pray. All she does is read the word. All she does is help people. And she's gonna get breast cancer and I'm gonna pray and fast and cry out to you and she doesn't get healed. God, that's not fair. If you've ever felt like God hasn't been fair, come with me to this story in Matthew Chapter twenty, This story that you will only find in Matthew's Gospel. Oh yes, Marky Mark, don't talk about this, Doctor Luke, don't talk about this. Loved John, don't talk about this, Only Matthew leave it to the tax collector to find the one story where he said, hold on the Matthew and Matthew in this story right here.

17:13Speaker 1:Only Matthew gives us this story in Matthew Chapter twenty, where Jesus begins to teach, as he often did by giving parables. Jesus would often tell parable stories. It was one of his greatest mediums for articulating how his kingdom works. He would tell these stories, these parables. In fact, he would lock in the parable the logic of how his kingdom works. Because you understand that your God is a king, and he has a kingdom, and there's a system the way his kingdom works. He didn't get voted in, he didn't get elected in. Your God is sovereign and he's a king, and often his kingdom is completely antithetical to how the system of this world works. So he would hide the logic of his kingdom him in the language of these parables. I love parables because one of the principles of the parables is you hold on to truth that you discover better than the truth that's just delivered.

18:13Speaker 1:So often he would give you the parable and wouldn't even give you the explanation. He tell the story and then walk on the stage. He who has an ear let him hear. He just give you the story because he wanted you to meditate on that story. He wanted you to savor the story. He wanted to hit you later. He wanted it to hit you later. He wanted you to be eating hummus and peda one day and go I'm the lost sheep. He left the knighted out the day. He would do that on purpose. That that's the power of the story. And so he tells the story in Matthew chapter twenty. But anytime you're looking at a Jesus story, you got to ask yourself what made him tell the story.

18:57Speaker 1:In order to find out what made him tell this story, we got to back that thing up biblically to Matthew chapter nineteen. Matthew chapter nineteen, something interesting happens. Jesus is Chillaxon and this rich young ruler, this rich young ruler comes up to Jesus. He's a baller, he's a shock callar, he's doing a well, he's an influencer, he's got money.

19:19Speaker 3:And he walks up to Jesus and he says.

19:21Speaker 1:Hey, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must AH do? See this is a business dude, so he thinks transactionally, that's his logic. He's hey, I got to do something to get something? So what must I do to inherit eternal life? And I love it? Because Jesus goes, all right, you want to play this game? What must I do to get?

19:45Speaker 3:Never?

19:45Speaker 1:Mind has to be given. It's just grace you but never Okay, you want to play this game? He goes, all right, well, just keep all keep all the commandments. He can keep the keep the commandments. He says, what well I've done that? Oh wow, okay, you've done all that. He goes, all one thing you lack, Sell everything you got, give it to the poor, and then you'll have treasure in heaven. And I want you to come follow me. Can you imagine that that's a big invitation right there?

20:15Speaker 1:The fact that Jesus even gave him the opportunity to follow him. This rich young ruler, y'all could have been the thirteenth Disciple. Ooh, Jesus, give everybody the opportunity. He did not remember one dude was possessed by a demon. Jesus cast it out, and the gy was like, can I go with y'all? And Jesus like, Northam, no, we goodness, just go back and tell everybody what I did for you. But this rich young ruler, he gets the invitation of a lifetime. You're gonna get the greatest apprenticeship of a lifetime.

20:47Speaker 1:You'll get to roll with Jesus. Just sell everything you have. And the Bible says that he walked away bitterly because he had a lot of positions. But the real thing is his possess has had him. Oh.

21:03Speaker 3:I don't want to go there because this is not my sermon.

21:05Speaker 1:But it's scary when idols form in your heart because sometimes you don't even know it's an idol until God goes, can I have it? This man didn't know that his possessions had him until God said can I have it? And he walked away. Meanwhile, Peter is watching the whole thing. Oh, you need a Peter. You need a Peter to say the thing that nobody else will say.

21:34Speaker 3:They thinking that, and.

21:35Speaker 1:Peter walks this watches this guy walk away, and Peter goes, hold on and head, we gave we left everything to follow you. Jesus, hold on, we did what this brother could not do. So since we left everything, what do we get And Jesus goes, oh, Peter, you get a story. You get a story. There was a landowner that had a vineyard and had workers in his vinyard. And this landowner started looking for workers in his vineyard. I like this landowner. He's got a big vineyard and he's looking for workers in his vineyard. In that time period, you would not have people that were on your payroll working in your vineyard.

22:31Speaker 3:That was not the culture of the day.

22:33Speaker 1:You often would go to the marketplace and you would hire people for the day. So the very fact that this landowner is going out and it's looking for workers is letting us know what season it is. Yeah, it's letting us know the season. Because you didn't need a lot of workers for the planting season. You certainly didn't need no workers for the waiting season. But when the harvest hit, you needed all the help you could get, y'all. When the harvest hit, you needed as many hands as you could get because how many No, you didn't have all day to get the harvest. There was a season there was a window that you had to get the harvest.

23:11Speaker 1:So I'm talking about landowners would be like, hey, come on, you can work. You can work. What you got two hands? Come oh you go only got one, But that's cool. Come on, you can work too, because when the harvest hit, you needed as many workers, as many hands as you could get. The landowner was not looking for spectators. He was looking for workers. He was looking for somebody that would roll up their sleeves and say, I realized that there's a harvest that is ripe, and we got to get this harvest in. And how many No, the bigger the harvest, the more hands you need to pull in the harvest. Let me tell you why some of y'all ain't shouted because you think God called you to just come to church and sit on your blessed assurance and hear a cute little message and go home. No, no, no, no, we need workers in the Kingdom of God because there is a harvest that is plentiful. There is a harvest that is already and we need people to say I'll do whatever it takes to get the harvest in. Can I just stop right here and thank God for the workers at elevation church that help bring in the harvest and eat kids right now, saying I gotta be here

24:16Speaker 1:because the harvest is here in the parking lot, saying, come on this way. You know what some of y'all are like in the parking lot, Come on this way. It's okay. Why because the harvest, when the harvest hits, you need all the help you can get. Asked me how I know our church has been in fourteen different venues since we started sitting up and tearing down God blessed us with a building or believing God to raise the money to renovate the building. Ooh, but let me tell you we still setting up pipe and trade every single Sunday. And why are we doing it? Because the harvest hit. And when the harvest hits, you need all the help you can get. I wonder if God is waiting for you to put your hand to the plow or have you gotten so use to just come to church and receive Him like us a buffet saying that was good this week, bless God, come back next.

25:11Speaker 3:Week for some more.

25:13Speaker 1:No, no, no, no, he wasn't looking for spectators, he was looking for workers. It's interesting because I like this landowner because later we will find out in the text that he has somebody that can pay these workers.

25:27Speaker 3:He's got a forman that can pay him.

25:29Speaker 1:And I'm thinking, if you got somebody that can pay him, surely you got somebody that can pick them.

25:35Speaker 3:But the landowner doesn't like that.

25:37Speaker 1:The landowner is so obsessed with going out and picking them. He wants to because I can't get anybody to pay you. You can get reward from other people, but when it comes to calling, when it comes to picking, I want to do that because you will never forget the day that you were standing in the marketplace desperate, knowing that you wouldn't be able to eat that day if you didn't find work. And I don't want you to forget the moment when I came out to the marketplace and said you you, oh, right here you. I want you to feel the joy of being chosen, of being picked. Oh.

26:22Speaker 1:I like this land owner because he likes to pick his people. Help other person next to you, just in case they're falling asleep, and say, he chose me, he chose me, he chose me. He goes out and he picks each and every one of them. Tex says, he goes out at six am, He goes out again at nine, He goes out again at noon, He goes out again at three, and goes out again at five. Five times he goes out to pick. Now that confused me, because.

26:56Speaker 7:I'm like landold a, Are you confused?

26:59Speaker 3:Why you keep on out to pick people?

27:02Speaker 1:Seems like to me, if you know your land, you should just go out once at six am and say, hey, I'm hiring y'all. Come on, Why does the landowner keep going out five times he goes out to pick people? First of all, lets us know he's got land big enough that he needs a lot of workers. But he keeps going out because maybe the Texas letting us know. That's exactly what Grace does. How many are thankful for God's grace that'll keep going out and keep reaching out for you. Come on, even when you think that Grace should have just said that's enough. I already went out once. No, I'm gonna go out again, and I'm gonna pick you, and I'm gonna choose you. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful for the grace of God that keeps pursuing me, that keeps chasing after me. He says, I'm will keep going out, and he goes out five times, which made me think she said, went out five times?

27:51Speaker 1:Do we have five categories of workers? He went out of six nine, now three and five, So we got five categories of workers? Right? Wrong, We don't have five categories of workers. Because you'll notice that there's something distinctly different about the six am crew. The people that got picked first, they had a different arrangement than the rest of the workers. So really we got different times. But it's really only two categories of workers. The six am crew is distinctly different from the rest.

28:25Speaker 3:For I tell you how the different.

28:26Speaker 1:Let's just talk about these six am thief They got picked first. Doesn't it feel good to get picked first? Six am people? You know they weren't there at six o'clock. You know they were there at like five forty. Those six am people, they're like, you know, to be on time is to be late. To be early is to be on time, and to be late is unacceptable. I'm going to be here at five forty five and I've already got my resume. Yes, have how many vineyards I've worked at? Yes, I'm very good, I'm very talented and they were there, and they were they had their resumes.

29:01Speaker 1:Can you see them? You know those six am people, they're here in the room today. The six am people are the people back in school when you wanted to cheat on their test and they see you trying to cheat and they'll be like, well six am people, six am people, Oh you got it together. You got your resume. So you know, the six am people were there and they were looking to get hired. They're like, oh, we got it, we got it. We know we gonna get picked. Oh.

29:24Speaker 1:Here comes to landowner and in my mind, the landowner pulls up in this one fifteen and he says, hey, y'all looking for some work. They're like, of course, been here early. You saw a resume on LinkedIn, right, Yeah, okay, so leanolds I I'm hiring. Getting the truck. They're like, yeah, okay, well we will, but put put one second. One second, Hey, come on, get in the truck. No, no, we we want to. But just we you discussed compensation. Compensation, man, come on, man, don't you want to look Look, I'll pay you whatever's right, whatever's right. Yeah, right, we need to know what are we going to get before we go to work.

30:12Speaker 3:And then I was like, all right, how about a denarius.

30:16Speaker 1:Full day's work, full days pay denarious bed Now let's get in the truck.

30:22Speaker 3:Someony are like, I didn't see that. In the text, it's in verse number two.

30:26Speaker 1:In verse number two, it says on Matthew, Chapter twenty, it says that he agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. He agreed that That word agreed in the original language is the word SYMPHONYO is where we get this word symphony. It means that they had to go back and forth between until they got to an agreement, that there was a bargaining, and then finally they said they said, good, all right, we'll go now that we know what we get.

31:01Speaker 1:The rest of the crew had a different set up. Let me show you this set up is in verse four and five. It says he told them, that's the rest of the workers. You also go work in my finger and I will pay you whatever's right. So they went, no.

31:21Speaker 5:Going back and forth, no negotiation, whatever you think is right, cool, we just want to work.

31:29Speaker 1:Do you see the difference. So one group has a contract, the other group has trust. One group is trusting the compensation. The other group says, I just trust the consistent character of the landowner, and whatever the landowner thinks say is right. I'm cool with that. Right there, one group is walking by agreement. The other group said, I'm walking by faith. I just trust that the landowner is gonna do whatever is right and he will determine what the pay is.

32:03Speaker 1:Do you see the difference between the six AM people and the rest.

32:09Speaker 7:One said I want to make sure I get what I deserve, and the.

32:15Speaker 1:Other group said, I'm just gonna trust the consistent character of the landowner and whatever you think is right, I'll go with that. I love this five PM crew. When I get to Heaven, I want to talk to them. I do because I want to ask them what made you stay at the marketplace all day when you weren't picked. What made you sit there watching people pass you by, watching other people get noticed before you. Why would you stay there till five a clock when you know there was only gonna be an hour lift of wood? What would make you say? That's my question for them, And then I want to thank God for the landowner who says that even at five o'clock, I'll still go out just in case there's some people who have been overlooked.

33:16Speaker 3:Just in case, there's some people.

33:18Speaker 1:That didn't look like they were gonna be the best, I'm gonna keep going out for them. I don't know about you. Maybe you had the best resume, maybe you were one of the ones that were picked first. But I want to thank God that he still goes out for the five PM people. I want to thank God that, even when I've been overlooked, that even when nobody said, oh, you don looked like he got what it takes. There's a god who says, no, you don't know what I can do with him. You don't know how it can change her life. Give me her. He went out and he picked the five PM people. Now, these five PM people, we got to talk about him, because that's why the text wants us to talk about them. The ones in the middle are just feeling in the story. He wants us to look at the six al in the five pl.

34:03Speaker 7:How you know, because he says the last shall be first and the first.

34:10Speaker 1:He's pulling us to the extremes. That's why he had them go. So these five PM people, they're funny because if there's only a work day that ends at six o'clock and I got hired at five. Okay, here's my question. How far is the vineyard from the market blaze? Fifteen minutes? Okay, you get to work at five fifteen, work day ends at six. You got orientation. Now we have five thirty five. You gotta get your badge, take your picture, get your bag and go down to the vineyard. By the time you get down to the vineyard, y'all's five point fifty.

34:56Speaker 1:How many grapes you picking up? And ten minutes can you imagine you picked up three? Great birth The whistles blow and your shift is over, and now it's time for everybody to get paid. And the landowner calls this form an open and says, ain't coming real quick.

35:15Speaker 3:It's like, what's up?

35:16Speaker 1:He said, Hey man, I know you're about to pay him, but I want to do something different this time.

35:21Speaker 3:It's like something different. You always want to do something.

35:23Speaker 6:Different, oh lord, And and he goes, okay, here's what I want to do. Let's pay the five PM workers first, and then let's plan he pay the six AM workers last, and pay them.

35:44Speaker 1:All the same. The four foreman's like, you're trying to get me a shot okay, So can you see him? You got to see it. Can you see them lined up? Can you see the five pm people? They're down here? Can you see the six am people, y'all they've been working since six a m. Their hands have blood and callouses on it. They're sweating, they're bent over. God, I can't believe it was this hot.

36:13Speaker 3:It always gets hot during this time.

36:15Speaker 1:They Can you see them? They smell like outside. Meanwhile, the five pm people smell like lelavo and look so fresh and so clean. And here comes the foreman to the five pm people. First, Denarius, No, no, no, you're you serious of a four days path.

36:43Speaker 5:I didn't do anything. Look I got three grapes in my bag and I didn't No, no, no, no, I can't take this.

36:47Speaker 1:I can't take this. No I didn't do anything. Let me go pick some more grapes.

36:51Speaker 3:No, this is the will of the landowner.

36:58Speaker 1:Take it. There's too much. I can't take it. Let me let me go try to arn it and do something. No, this is what he wants. And all of a sudden they are standing there with gratitude, knowing they shouldn't even been picked in the first place.

37:17Speaker 8:They only got five grapes, and yet they got paid a full day's work. Meanwhile, the six am people are watching.

37:29Speaker 1:The whole thing must be nice? Are you serioh?

37:39Speaker 3:Did did you see what I see?

37:40Speaker 1:They just paid them for a whole day's work.

37:42Speaker 3:You think they picked five grapes or I cannot believe.

37:45Speaker 1:But then it hits them. Oh wait a.

37:47Speaker 3:Minute, if they got.

37:52Speaker 1:If they got a full days paid for only an hour, weapout. Oh can you see I'm getting excited. Let's just imagine that these nears is like two hundred dollars. You know how you start doing You start doing that and the thing gone, damn, two hundred und dollars. The Amazon cart is full. Oh they're planning a trip to the Bahamas. They are so excited. And then the four men comes home and goes Denarius what and all hell breaks loose and they can't stand it, and they crumbled against the landowner.

38:39Speaker 1:That's not fair. What's wild is the landowner kept his word. You negotiated, he didn't cheat you. You said you wanted the Narius. That's what you got.

39:00Speaker 5:Why would the land owner do the Why would the land owner make them watch everybody.

39:05Speaker 1:Else get paid? Because there's something God will always do in you. He wants you to see other people get blessed. He wants you to see other people that you don't think deserve the grace of God. He will bless them right in front of you, because that's actually good for your little soul.

39:21Speaker 5:He wants to say, ok, can you still trust me when you see.

39:27Speaker 1:Somebody get something that you don't think they deserve. This is their issue. It's not what they got paid. It's what somebody they thought didn't.

39:39Speaker 6:Deserve it God paid and they grumbled against them.

39:47Speaker 1:Okay. Hold, that was my intro to get you to this point. In every Jesus parable, you got to ask yourself this, who are you in the story? Who are you in this story? Why are you thinking about it? The landowner is taken? I know, I know because you're like, well, I do have some properties, and I just say, landowner's taken. That's it, landowner's God. So are you the five PM worker just grateful and he called you just thankful to be in the vineyard? Or you the six a m worker always got your hand down? Stand? Who are you now?

40:52Speaker 1:Before you say you're a five PM person, Let's be honest. We all got some six am. And as I land in the plane, I want to give you some blues clues of how you can know you got some six a M in you. You know you're a six a M worker. Hear me? You know you're a six am worker when you always have a grumble, a grumble. They grumbled against the land on the m grumble. See that that word grumble is interesting because it's not like a loud, defiant fist saying I can't believe this. It's actually just under your breath. It's bitterness under your breath. Believe I'm coming to this church. For a long time, I've been doing anything to bless me always all the other people I've her twenty years doing nothing. It's it's it's a it's a grumble. Are your complaints louder than your praise?

41:56Speaker 1:You do know that God does not inhabit the complaints of his people. He inhabit it's the praises of his people.

42:02Speaker 3:And one of the.

42:02Speaker 1:Ways you know you got some six AM in you is when you always got a grumble, always complaining. You said, the average person complains fifteen to twenty times a day. Let's be honest. There's Rookie numbers. For some of us, you always have a grumble Number two. You know you got some six AM in your system when you expect what was never promised? Why do you have an expectation for more? You negotiated the contract. Many of us are mad at God because we're expecting something from him that he actually never promised you at all. That was something that you came up with, That was something that was in your own mind. Are you mad at God because you're expecting something from him that he never promised you?

42:55Speaker 1:You know you got some six AM in your system. When you struggle to celebrate other people, when God blesses somebody else, your immediate reaction is them, Are you for real? They don't deserve that. I've been saved way longer than them. Do you celebrate other people that? That's one of the signs you got some six AM in you last one, you know you got some six AM in your system.

43:32Speaker 3:When you think God owes.

43:34Speaker 1:You hear me, this is often one of the casualties of faithfulness. It's entitlements. You think, well, because I have been serving it, because I have been doing this, God, you must perform this way God, because I did show up. You must heal and God, because I did get in the offering, you better open up the window of heaven.

43:59Speaker 3:What is going on?

44:00Speaker 1:God?

44:00Speaker 5:Have you been shaking your fist at God thinking that he owes you something.

44:06Speaker 1:This text is a warning to all of us that don't let your faithfulness become entitlement to where you.

44:12Speaker 5:Start looking up to God thinking he owes you something. Can I tell you something? God doesn't owe you anything because He already gave you everything. If he never gave you another dollar, if he never opened up another door, if he didn't do anything but sin, his only son to die on a cross for your.

44:32Speaker 1:Sins, wouldn't that be enough?

44:34Speaker 5:And I'm looking for some five pm people who.

44:37Speaker 1:Say I'm not gonna have my hands out.

44:39Speaker 5:Going God, you owe me more. I'm gonna have my hands up going God.

44:43Speaker 1:I thank you for what you've done.

44:45Speaker 5:God, Thank you for saving me.

44:47Speaker 1:God, Thank you. I could have been stuck in my sins.

44:50Speaker 5:But thanks be unto God for your faithfulness, for your kindness, for your goodness. Oh God, you don't owe me anything.

45:00Speaker 1:Oh you everything you want to know. If you're six am person or a five pm person, watch this. Check your hands, Check your hands. Six am people always have their hands out looking to the right and the left.

45:21Speaker 3:I can't believe I didn't get them. I can't believe they God blessed.

45:25Speaker 1:I can't believe they got more opportunity. They always have their hands out looking to the left and the right. But five PM people always have their hands up. They just can't believe that God called them. They just can't believe that God chose them. I don't know about you, but I'm gonna spend all of my life being a five PM person. I know where I could be, I know where I should be if it had not been for the grace of God. I'm gonna left here. It is both of my hands. Who am I that you would.

45:56Speaker 5:Think about me? Who am I that you would choose me? Come on, I want all the five PM people. Would you open up your mouth and give God some praise and just thank him.

46:06Speaker 1:Thank him for his salvation, thank him for his mercy, thank him for his goodness, thank Him for blessing you when you didn't deserve it.

46:13Speaker 5:None of that. I don't deserve anything. I'm lifting both on my hands.

46:24Speaker 1:I'm telling you the casualty of faithfulness. Sometimes his entitlement, thinking that because I've been showing up. Because I've been doing this. God, you owe me when God doesn't owe you anything. Look at his grace even to the six am people. I'm not being unfair to you, friend, Friend, I kept my word. You wanted a contract instead of just trusting my character. But it's not fair. Yeah, thank God. It's not fair because grace is not fair. Fair because I spend an eternity in hell. Fair because this should have been k me on the cross. That's fair, thank God, he ah, fair, Grace. It's not fair. I'm gonna ask every head be bowed and I'll be closed today. I really felt like this message was for today somebody who's been maybe shaking your fist at God, and I'm begging you to turn your entitlement into gratitude. Gratitude is the antidote for complaining, for bitterness, for being stuck, just to say God, I thank you, thank you if you're here today, and you be so honest to say you know what, there's a lot of six am. It's been creeping in.

48:11Speaker 1:My complaints have outweighed my outweighed my praise and my thanksgiving. And today you need to turn from being a five PM person to a six am person. If that's you and you know this word was for you, would you just lift up your hand just as the sign to say.

48:26Speaker 3:Lord, I hear you, I hear you. You don't know me anything.

48:30Speaker 1:I'm gonna start with gratitude. I see those hands. Anybody else cross every location, thank you God, thank you, Jesus. Chrace is not there. Thank God. We don't get what did we deserve heads to about. I'll still closed across every location in this room. If you've never taken that first step is just to say, Jesus, my life is yours. Some of you maybe eve been trying to earn salvation, thinking well, I'll come to God when I get my life together. I'll come to God when I do more.

48:58Speaker 1:It's not about doing it, it's about receiving what was already done for you.

49:05Speaker 3:He's a good landowner.

49:08Speaker 1:He loves you. He's a landowner that keeps going out. He'll wait till five o'clock if he has to looking for you. So if you're here today, I don't care if it's one person, You're worth it. Say today's day. I need to give Jesus my life. Would you just lift up your hand as a sign to say I'm coming home. I'm giving him my heart today. Thank you Jesus, Thank you God, Thank you God.

49:31Speaker 3:Yeah.

49:32Speaker 1:See those hands, Yeah, somebody lifting up both of their hands. Absolutely, that's what five PM people do. They lift up both of their hands. Anybody else, come on, I want to lead you in this prayer just before a pastor comes. I'm going to give you the words, but you just say it from your heart. Say Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. Jesus, I believe. Did you live the life that I was supposed to live and you died the death that I was supposed to die.

50:09Speaker 1:You took my place. So my response is to give you everything. Come into my life, forgive me of my sins, make me brand new. From this moment forward, I'm walking with you in Jesus' name. Amen a man, Amen, Amen, Come on, give God one more hand? Can I'm afraidse elevation? Man.

50:36Speaker 2:Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did, make sure to share it and subscribe so we can get you all of these new messages as soon as they're available. I also want to take a moment and thank all of you who are a part of Elevation. Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or just share these messages, it's because of you that we're able to reach people all around the world. And if you want more and from on how to be a part of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message and subscribe.

51:09Speaker 1:God bless you.