The Workers in the Vineyard Letting God Choose People Jesus Met, Part 31 Lon Solomon McLean Bible Church March 7, 2010

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1 The Workers in the Vineyard Letting God Choose People Jesus Met, Part 31 Lon Solomon McLean Bible Church March 7, 2010 You know, as we begin today, I have a confession that I want to make. My confession is this, that I like country music. Is that all right? (mild audience applause) Yeah? All right. As a matter of fact, do you know what you get if you play country music backward? Well, you get your wife back, your house back, your dog back, your car back. That s true, yeah. Anyway, one of my favorite country music songs is a song by Garth Brooks. The song is entitled Unanswered Prayers. Here s part of the song. Listen. (music begins) Just the other night, at a hometown football game, my wife and I ran into my old high school flame. And as I introduced them, the past came back to me, and I couldn t help but thinking the way things used to be. She was the one that I d wanted for all time, and each night I d spend praying that God would make her mine, and if He d only grant me this wish I wished back then, I d never ask for anything again. Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers. Remember when you re talking to the man upstairs that just because He doesn t answer doesn t mean He don t care. Some of God s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. (music fades) Now if I understand correctly what Garth Brooks is saying in his song, he s saying that God did a much better job of choosing a wife for him that he would have ever done for himself. This is what we want to talk about today. We want to talk about how God s choices for our lives are always better than our own choices. Remember we re in a series of messages entitled People Jesus Met. Today Jesus tells us about some workers in a vineyard who are not so much people that He met but rather are characters in a story that He told. We want to go back 2000 years and see what the point of His story was, and then we want to reel all of that forward to today and ask, Well, what impact should that make on my life in the twenty-first century?

2 So Matthew chapter 20 is our passage, and we begin at verse 1. Here we go. Jesus said, For the kingdom of heaven is like a land owner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. During harvest season in ancient Israel, men would often stand in the marketplace offering themselves out for daily work, kind of like migrant farm workers. The Bible says that this land owner went to the marketplace first thing in the morning to hire a group of these men. Verse 2, And the land owner agreed to pay them one denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. Now a denarius was a small silver Roman coin. It was a fair wage for a day s work, and with it, a man could feed his entire family for several days. But here s the really important thing I want us to notice from verse 2, and we can t miss this, because this is the key to understanding this story. That is that these first workers haggled with the land owner over their wages before they agreed to go to work. You say, Lon, how do you know that? Well, I know it because of what verse 2 says. Verse 2 says that the land owner agreed to pay them this wage. The Greek word that is used here is the word sumphoneo. We get our word symphony from this word. It literally means to come together in harmony, but at the time of Jesus, this word was a technical business word that meant to come to a business agreement together, to make a business contract together. The point is that these first workers said to the land owner, Hey, we are not working until we have a contract where we have stipulated the terms. Here are the terms: one denarius for one day s work. The land owner agreed, and out they went. Verse 3, And about the third hour stop for a moment. In ancient Israel, the work day was divided into twelve hours; 6 a.m. was the first hour. Quitting time, 6 p.m., was the twelfth hour, so the third hour is 9 a.m. So about 9 a.m., the land owner went back to the marketplace and saw other men standing there doing nothing. Now they weren t standing there doing nothing because they were lazy. It was because no one had hired them yet. So the land owner said to them, You also go and work in my

3 vineyards, and whatever is right, I will pay you, so they went. Do you notice, no contract? Verse 5, Then the land owner went back at the sixth hour noon and the ninth hour 3 p.m. and did the same thing. Around the eleventh hour 5 p.m. the land owner went back to the marketplace and found still others there, so the land owner asked them, Why have you been standing here all day doing nothing? They said, Well, because nobody has hired us, so he said to them, You also go and work in my vineyard. Now here we see that the land owner kept going back to the marketplace and hiring more and more men as the day went on. He hired men at 9 a.m., at noon, at 3 p.m., and at 5 p.m. Notice that in contrast to the 6 a.m. workers, none of these workers haggled with the land owner about their wages. He told each group, in verse 4, whatever is right, I will pay you. Just trust me, and they did. Do we all see that? Yes, okay, that s very important. Verse 8, When evening came, the land owner said to his foreman, Call the workers in and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired the 5 p.m. guys and then moving on to the first ones hired the 6 a.m. people. So the workers who were hired about the eleventh hour 5 p.m. came in, and each received one denarius. Now this is exactly what happened to the 3 p.m. group, the noon group, and the 9 a.m. group. They all got one denarius. Remember we said earlier that a denarius for a day s work was a fair wage, but a denarius for only part of a day s work was more than a fair wage; it was downright magnanimous. I mean, just the pay of the 5 p.m. guys should have been 1/12 of a denarius. The guy should have pro-rated their payment, but the land owner understood that no man could feed his family on 1/12 of a denarius, so in great generosity, he paid every single worker a full day s wage. Verse 10, So when those workers who had been hired first at 6 a.m. came in, they expected to receive more than one denarius, but each one of them also received one denarius. When they received it, they began to murmur against the land owner. They said, These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and yet you

4 have made them equal with us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day? They said, Look, this is not right. This is not fair. I mean, how could you pay those guys who worked one hour or three hours the same amount as you re paying us? But the land owner said to them, Friends, I m not being unfair to you watch didn t you make an agreement aha, look! to work for one denarius? The land owner says, Hey, you guys insisted on what your pay was going to be. You insisted that you were going to get one denarius. I haven t been unfair to you. I gave you the one denarius that you insisted on to begin with. Verse 14, And then the land owner said to them, Take your pay and go. If I want to give the men who were hired last the same as I gave you, don t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Why are you jealous that I am being generous? In other words, to the 6 a.m. guys, he said, Hey, in contrast to you guys, all these other workers left the terms up to me. All the other workers just went out to the field and trusted that I would do right by them, and I decided to be amazingly generous with them, but that s none of your business. You didn t go out in the field under that agreement, under that contract, under that circumstance. I think the implication here is crystal clear. He says to these 6 a.m. guys, If you had gone out in the fields without stipulating your own terms and just left it up to me, I would have been more generous with you, but you got exactly what you asked for. Now that s as far as we want to go in our passage, because it s time to ask our most important questions. You all know what it is, so all of you folks at our campuses and on the Internet or down in The Edge, I want to hear you yell right along with us. Are we ready? Are you sure? All right, take a deep breath. Here we go. One, two, three SO WHAT? Ah, how good does that feel? You say, Lon, so what? I mean, it s a nice story. I understand it, but do you know what? I don t see how this is relevant to me. I mean, I ve never even seen a denarius, so what difference does any of this make to me? Well, let s talk about that. To begin, I think we ought to first figure out who is who in this story, don t you? All right, who do you think was the land owner who was hiring everybody to go out in

5 the field? That s God, okay. And who do you think are the workers who were being hired to go out into the field? Well, that s us, followers of Christ. And what was the key difference between the workers? Well, we ve already said it. We said the 6 a.m. group insisted on dictating their own terms to God, while all the other workers let God dictate the terms. What was the result? Well, the result was that God gave the 6 a.m. workers exactly what they asked for, but God gave all the others far more than any of them would have dared ask for. He gave them more than human logic would have ever expected. Now friends, understanding this means that we understand something very important about God, something very important about who God is, about how God acts, about the ways of God, namely that God loves to be overly generous to His people. Listen to these verses from the Bible. Psalm 35:27 says, God delights in the prosperity of His servant. Psalm 31:19 says, How great is God s goodness that He has stored up for those who trust Him. Psalm 23 says, My cup runneth over. David didn t say, My cup is half full, or three-quarters full or even full to the brim. David said, My cup is just overflowing with the goodness and the mercy of God. What is God saying in all of these verses? He is saying, Hey, if you will allow Me to make the choices for your life, like all of the workers except the 6 a.m. guys did, I will be more magnanimous to you than you can ever dream. I will give you blessing that defies human logic. I will lead you down paths oozing with the goodness and the mercy of God, and I will see to it that your cup runneth over also. God says, Hey, trust Me with the choices in your life, and you will never be sorry. Now all of this reminds me of a story from the Old Testament in the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 11. In Numbers 11, the Israelites have left Egypt in the exodus through the Red Sea. They have been camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai for a year. While they have been camped there, they have been eating supernatural food called manna that falls from heaven every morning, and they pick it up off the ground and eat it. Numbers 11:4 says, The Israelites began to wail and say, If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we had to eat in Egypt, but now we have lost our

6 appetites. We never see anything but this manna. Manna, manna, manna, we re sick of manna! Now you say, Lon, what was so wrong with manna? Well, there was nothing wrong with it. The Bible says in Exodus 16 that it tasted like honey. Right here in Numbers 11:8, the Bible tells us that the Hebrew women cooked it with great ingenuity to keep it from becoming boring. I mean, they made baked manna, broiled manna, fried manna, stewed manna, and fricasseed manna. They had scrambled manna, sunny side up manna, and over easy manna. They had manna cakes, manna pies, manna rolls, manna burgers, and manna-cotti! (laughter) They had it all. The key point is that God had chosen for the Israelites to eat manna. He knew it was best for them, and that s what He wanted for them, but the Israelites were sure that they knew what was better for themselves than God did. They began weeping, praying, and begging God, insisting that God give them something different than He had chosen for them. Numbers 11:31 says, So a wind went out from the Lord and brought quail down all around the camp to a depth of 3 feet above the ground. Hey, you think the snowstorm here was bad? How would you like to dig out of this, huh? Verse 32 says, And all day and night, the people went out and gathered quail, but while the meat was still between their teeth, the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and He struck them with a severe plague. It s very interesting that in Psalm 106, which gives us a commentary on this event in the Bible, I love the commentary of verse 15. It says, God gave them what they asked for, but He sent leanness into their souls. In other words, that which the Israelites were sure would bring them a blessing actually ended up bringing them a curse. Now let s stop for a moment and be honest. Can we be honest here and admit that so often as followers of Christ, we re just like these Israelites in Numbers 11? We re just like the 6 a.m. workers. You say, What do you mean by that? I mean, we survey our lives and cleverly figure out exactly what we think is best for us, exactly what we think we need. If we re sick, we re sure we need complete healing. If we re poor, we re sure we need more money. If we re single, we re sure we need to get

7 married. If we re childless, we re sure we need to have children. If we re having trouble at work, we re sure we need a new job. If we re having some tough circumstances, we re sure we need the irritants taken away immediately out of our lives. Then what do we do? We go to God and begin lobbying for this, asking God for this, begging God for this, insisting God do this for us, just like Garth Brooks did with his old girlfriend. It reminds me of a time I got a burr under my saddle a few years ago to buy one of those high-top conversion vans. Do you know what I m talking about? I prayed for this. I bargained with God about this. I pleaded with God about this, and finally I got my conversion van. It was big, and it was bulky, and with the high top on it, it wouldn t fit into parking garages, so we always had to look for a parking spot on the street. I got five miles a gallon in town. Hey, but on the road, I got eight miles a gallon! Yeah! I m telling you that I had a car payment on this thing about the size of the national debt. We had a nickname that we came up with in my family for this car. We affectionately refer to it as The Black Hole, because it sucked in every dollar we had. Two years later, I was finally able to advertise it. I bought it new, but I was able to advertise it in the paper and sell it, but I had to put thousands of dollars in to make the sale work. It took me two years, literally, to financially recover from The Black Hole. Really! Friends, do you know the most dangerous thing is about dictating to God and insisting on God giving you what you re sure is best for you? The answer is that God just might give it to you, just like He did me! See, Proverbs 12:15 says, The way of a fool always seems right to him. I honestly think this might be my life verse here, but the truth is that this is everybody s life verse, friends. We re always so sure that we know exactly what s best for us, and we have to be careful that we re not like the 6 a.m. workers, that we re not like the Israelites in Numbers chapter 11. I mean, they were absolutely certain they knew what was best for them too, and they insisted that God give it to them. God gave them what they wanted, and then afterward, they were really unhappy they got it.

8 The so what of the message today, my friends, is that I believe many of us here may need to change some of our prayers from, Hey, God, do this the way I want You to do it to God, I m not sure what s best for me. Do it the way that You know is best for me. You say, Well, Lon, does this mean that it s wrong to ask God for specific things in prayer that you do think are best for you? No, not at all, so long as we leave the final choice, the final decision to God. We need to pray, God, here s my situation, and I think that this or that is what is best for me, but you know, God, You know what is best for me better than I do, so if I discern correctly and this is really what is best for me, then I m asking You to do it. But Lord, if I ve discerned incorrectly and this is not really what s best for me, please don t You dare do it for me! You do for me what You know is best for me. Either way, Lord, I will receive it with joy, and I will embrace it and trust that You know better than I do. Friends, this is not a weak prayer. This is not an unbelieving prayer. This is a prayer that honors the sovereignty of God, the wisdom of God and the benevolence of God. This is actually a very wise prayer. You say, Well, Lon, I ve got to know honestly. Do you really live like this? I mean, I ve heard you say things like praying for parking spaces and not letting go of God, that when this building was up for sale, you prayed for this building and wouldn t let go of God until He gave it to us. You prayed for your son to be able to go right into his residency from his internship in the Navy and all these other things, so which one is right? Well, friends, they re both right. You say, Ah, you ve been living in Washington too long, Lon! No, no, they re both right, and I ll tell you why. Folks, there are times in our walk with God that God gives us an absolute confirmation in our spirit of what is best and what is right and what He is planning to do. As a result, God gives us total liberty to pray those things and be like Jacob and hold onto God and refuse to let go until He gives them to us. There are those times. Now at least for me, they aren t often, but they do happen. When God gives you one of those times and that liberty, then yes, we become persistent. We become incorrigible, and we hold onto God, but in

9 the normal, everyday affair things, this doesn t happen that much. In our normal, everyday affairs, without that kind of liberty, then we need to pray and say, Lord, this is what I think would be good, but you know what? I m not 100% sure. God, You make the choice here. They re both right, and yes, I do live this way. Friday, two days ago, I was scheduled to attend a Jews For Jesus board meeting in San Francisco that was extremely important. But on Monday, I developed a clogged ear, my left one, if you care. (laughter) So I went to see my good friend and doctor who has been my doctor for thirty years. He looked in my ear and said, You ve got a blocked Eustachian tube. I said, Oh, that doesn t sound good. I said, Can I fly like this? He goes, Are you kidding? Of course you can t fly. You ll hurt yourself! So he gave me some medicine, and I said, Well, will this clear by Thursday? Doc, I ve got a really important meeting, and I need to fly Thursday. He said, I don t know. We ll see. I went home and prayed, and I said, Now Lord, this is a really important board meeting, not that I need to tell You that, but Lord, maybe You don t want me to go. I mean, maybe it s not the best thing for me to go. So here I am, God. Here s the deal. If You clear my ear by Thursday, I ll take that as a sign from You that I m supposed to go, and I ll go. Lord, if You don t clear my ear by Thursday, I will take that as a sign from You that You don t want me to go, and I will not go. And God, You need to know that either way, I m good. Either way, I will embrace this, because You know more than I know about this, Lord. Maybe I would get on the plane and it would go down or something. I mean, honestly, I would like to go in a plane crash. That s okay. Two minutes, boom, you re gone! (laughter) This is why my wife doesn t like to fly with me. (laughter) That s okay with me. I could go that way, but you never know. Well, my ear cleared, praise the Lord! I went to the meeting, praise the Lord, and the plane obviously didn t crash, because I m here, praise the Lord! But you know what? I honestly would have been okay if it hadn t cleared. Do you know why? It s very simple, friends. Let me just tell you. I gave up years ago the notion that I m smart enough to run my own life, and if you re wise, you ll give that notion up too.

10 Now let me conclude by giving you two pieces of great news. Number one is that God will direct our lives if we ll just let Him. Proverbs 3:5 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him watch and He will direct your paths. He will use circumstances. He will use events like clogged ears. He will use people. He will use the internal witness of the Holy Spirit. In Psalm 32:8, God says, I will instruct you, and I will teach you in the way you should go, if you ll just get out of the way and let Me. And my second piece of good news is to remind you that God will always direct our lives with amazing, undeserved, and staggering generosity, unless we get in the way by demanding our own choices in life, by demanding our own options and terms in life. So many times when we do that, we re like the 6 a.m. workers who got what they wanted but missed a lot more than God would have given them. Years ago when I was a brand-new believer, I heard a pastor recite this little poem, and I ve never forgotten it. It s kind of formed a template for how I ve tried to live my life. Here s how it goes. It says, God knows. He loves. He cares. Nothing this truth can dim. God gives the very best to those who leave the choice to Him. The bottom line here is, as a follower of Jesus, if you re here today and have been begging God to do something for you, if you ve been insisting that God do something for you, if you ve been dictating to God what He must do, if you re doing that without the liberty of the Spirit that you are 100% sure that this is the will of God for your life, if you re doing it without that liberty, then I m here to warn you to watch out. The 6 a.m. group did the same thing. They insisted on their own way, and they weren t happy when they got it. The Israelites in Numbers 11 insisted on what they wanted, and they weren t happy when they got it. Friends, unless you re 100% sure that this is from God, I advise you to leave room for God in this prayer, to leave room for God to make the final choice, to leave room for God to decide which way this is going to go, to leave room for God not to answer your prayer but to actually give you something better. Remember what Garth Brooks said. He may not be a theologian, but he got this right. Some of God s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers. Let s pray together.

11 Heavenly Father, I thank You for reminding us today about our limitations. A person has got to know their limitations, and one of our limitations is that we re not smart enough to run our own lives. The Bible is clear about that, and at least in my personal experience, I have proven that to be a fact in my life. So Lord Jesus, instead help us come to You and acknowledge You in all of our ways, as the book of Proverbs says, and trust You to direct our paths in ways that maybe we would never have chosen, in ways that at first we don t even want to go. But Lord, help us to trust You to lead our lives in paths that, when it s all over, we look back and say with Fanny Crosby, Wow, Jesus led me all the way, and He did it better than I would have ever done it. Give us the humility and the wisdom to bow before You and let You direct our paths. We thank You for the liberty and the spirit that sometimes gives us the freedom to pray with absolute and complete intractability, but Lord, in the times that those things are not true, which is most of the time, help us to pray with humility that leaves the choice with You. Help us be okay with unanswered prayers, because You give us something better instead. We pray these things in Jesus name, and what did all God s people say? Amen.

The Upside Down Logic of Jesus

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