Joyce Meyer - The Laborers In The Vineyard (08/24/2019)
Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard workers in Matthew 20:1-16, hiring them at different hours yet paying everyone the same denarius. It reveals that God's kingdom operates on grace and generosity, not human merit or fairness. We must abandon comparison, jealousy, and entitlement, accepting that none of us deserve His blessings.
The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard
Today I want to talk about the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. And boy, does this ever teach us a lesson. Beginning in Matthew chapter 20, verses 1 through 16.
"Father, help us with your word today to make it plain and clear. And let us all grow spiritually as a result of your word."
The kingdom of heaven is like an owner of an estate who went out in the morning along with the dawn to hire workmen for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace.
Hiring Throughout the Day
And he said to them, You go also into the vineyard, and whatever is right, I will pay you. And they went. He went again at the sixth hour. And he went again at the ninth hour.
And the way this worked was people who did not have jobs would go out and they would stand in this certain place waiting for somebody to come along and hire them to do a day's labor. So, some got hired real early in the morning. Some got hired at nine o'clock. Some got hired at noon. Some got hired at three o'clock.
So, you would automatically think that those who worked the longest got the most, wouldn't you? Well, things are not always the way we think they should be in God's kingdom. He actually likes to do things that nobody really understands.
The Eleventh-Hour Workers
So, at the eleventh hour, one hour before quitting time, he went out and he found still others standing around. And he said to them, Why do you stand here idle all day? And they said, Because nobody has hired us.
Now, something that kind of came to my heart that I think is interesting about this parable is, I think that maybe the master was really pleased because at least they did not give up. They stood there all day. And I think sometimes the one thing that God is waiting for us to do is just not give up. And you might be surprised what God can do for you even in the eleventh hour if you just will not give up.
Because nobody has hired us. And he said, Well, you go out into the vineyard and I will give you whatever is just and fair.
Paying the Wages Backward
Now, the only group that he told them what he would give them was the first group. The rest of them, he said, I will give you whatever is just and right and fair.
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, Call the workmen down and pay them their wages, beginning with the last and ending with the first. Which, that is also interesting. You would have thought he would have begun with the first and ended with the last.
But he started with the last because he was about to do something that was going to aggravate all the rest of these people. And he did it on purpose.
The Grumbling of the Early Workers
And those who had been hired at the eleventh hour came and they received a denarius each. Now, when the first came, they supposed they would get more. But each of them only received a denarius.
By the way, I tried to find out what a denarius was, but on our beautiful internet, I found three different amounts ranging from $3.62 all the way up to like a couple of hundred dollars. And I thought, well, nobody knows what they are talking about. But anyway, it was an amount of money.
And so they got the denarius that had been agreed upon. But they had stood there and watched all these other people get just as much as they got, even though they did not work as hard or as long.
And when they received it, they grumbled at the owner of the estate, saying, Well, these men who came and worked last, no more than an hour, and yet you made them rank with us, and we have been the ones that have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.
God's Right to Be Generous
But he answered one of them, Friend, I am doing you no injustice. Did I not give you what I agreed to give you? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to that man I hired last the same as I gave you.
Okay, now we have got to watch verse 15. Am I not permitted to do what I choose with what is mine?
Okay, let me just get real plain, because we have only got a certain amount of time. What God gives other people is none of our business.
Letting Go of Comparison
Boy, if we could ever learn to just stay out of everybody else's business and not have opinions about what they get compared to what we get, and whether or not they deserve it, and I deserve more, and why are you getting what I am believing for when I am the one that should have it?
I am sure none of you are like that, but I do occasionally have problems in that area. And so, here again, I will preach to myself, and if you need it, you can listen.
Do you begrudge me being generous? Is your eye evil because I am good?
The Upside-Down Kingdom
So those who now are last will be first, and those who now are first will be last. That is interesting. Do you know that we kind of live in the kingdom of God? It is kind of like an upside-down kingdom that is right-side up.
In other words, the way God does things is really the right way, but compared to the way things are done in the world, it really seems like it is the total opposite of what it should be.
If you want more, you have got to give away some of what you have got. That is the only way that you get more in the kingdom—by giving some of what you have, but the world says if you want to have more, you have got to be greedy and save everything you get your hands on.
We would think that the one that was first would get the most.
Avoid Comparison and Entitlement
Now, what is the message in some of these parables? Well, several different messages in this one. One is, do not compare yourself with other people. Do not look at what they are getting and wonder why you are not getting the same.
And especially the message is, whatever it is that God is doing for you, do not ever make the mistake of thinking that you deserve it.
I will go slow, because, you know, honestly, when we talk about things like this, we are talking about heart motives. Things that are buried deep down in people that many of us never, ever, ever even get around to dealing with.
None of Us Deserve God's Blessings
You would have to be one super-duper Christian if you could sit there this morning and tell me that you never feel jealous of other people—when somebody that you think is not nearly as spiritual as you gets blessed more than you. Oh, man. Do not act like that does not tick you off, because it does. Amen?
Well, God, I get up every morning and pray three hours before I go to work, and I do not even know if they know how to pray, and, you know. Well, I have been in church all my life. Blah, blah, blah.
A Personal Story of Jealousy
I so remember a situation in my own life over 40 years ago. And, you know, so often when things happen and we do not understand why they happen, God is letting things happen because there is a lesson that He wants to teach us.
And I had a friend—maybe you have heard me tell this story—I had a friend, and, you know, it was... I mean, I really did love the girl, but there was a lot about her personality that I did not like. I was real disciplined, she was not so disciplined. I had a plan for every moment of every day. You know, she was just real like, whatever.
Do you realize how hard it is to let other people be the way they are, even if they are different than you, and not resent them for being that way? And to be honest, she enjoyed her life a whole lot more than I did. And I think that made me mad too.
Well, anyway, I was believing God for a certain thing, and was not getting it, was not getting it, was not getting it. And all of a sudden, God gave her what it was that I wanted.
Hypocrisy and Hidden Resentment
And when she came over, oh, you are not going to believe what God did for me. And she was all excited, and I was trying to be the proper Christian. Oh, praise the Lord. Oh, awesome! Wow! And you know, inside I am thinking, God, get her out of my house before I absolutely have a screaming fit.
I did not think that she deserved it. I should have gotten it because I deserved it. I gave more to the kingdom than she did. I prayed longer than she did. I taught the Bible.
You know what a hypocrite is? We are going to talk about hypocrites today. Because you know what, if the church was not full of hypocrites, the rest of the world would already be saved. Right?
I mean, honestly and truly, that is the biggest problem that they have—is we are good at telling people what to do, but then not doing it ourselves. Ooh, we are going to have so much fun today. Actually, this afternoon may be easy compared to this morning, I do not know.
The Truth About Grace
And so, the thing that I realized, you know, I mean, I got mad at God. I was mad because He was generous to this person that I did not think deserved it.
And see, the point is, not one of us deserves anything that God does for us. Did you hear me? Not one of us deserves one thing that God does for us.
And until we know that, we will never be really, truly grateful in the way that God wants us to be grateful.
Because the minute that we start thinking that God owes us something because of our good works... Well, I do not understand why that happened to me. I mean, I go to church. I tithe. I serve at church. Why did I get sick? Why did my child get sick?
Exposing Religious Pride
I mean, this unbeliever over here, they did not get the flu. And here, I got the flu, and I am... I do. I do. I do. I do this. I do that.
And many times God lets those things happen just so He can get to the root of this attitude, this religious attitude that gets down on the inside of us that we deserve God's blessings because we are doing all the right things.
Does anybody need this today? Yes. You are not sure yet? Okay.
Well, I realized later that I was being so phony. I was pretending like I was happy for her. And I was not happy. I was envious. I was jealous. And not only that, I was mad at God for blessing her.
The Church Face We All Wear
And I mean the stuff that was coming out of me. You know what? We need to pay more attention to what is going on in our hearts and not just put on this Christian show for everybody. Oh, praise the Lord. I am so happy for you. Oh, bless you, bless you.
We have all got a church face, do we not? And some of you put yours on this morning before you walked in the building.
I will remember when Dave and I would fight and argue all the way to church. But let me tell you, when we got to the church door, praise the Lord. All right.
Comparison Starts Early
Comparison. You know, this thing about comparing ourselves with other people and comparing our blessings with others... Or comparing your trials. Sometimes we wonder, why do we have so many trials and this person over here does not seem to have any?
Well, let me tell you something. Everybody goes through stuff. Everybody goes through things. It may not be what you are going through. It may not be something that would even bother you. But everybody goes through difficulties in their life.
So we start all the way over in Genesis, when Cain ended up being so jealous of Abel that he killed him. And so in Genesis chapter 4, beginning in verse 3, it says, And in the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock and of the fat portions. And the Lord had respect and regard for Abel and for his offering. But for Cain and his offering, He had no respect or regard.
Obedience, Not Works
Now, why was that? They both brought an offering. Why was God pleased with one and not with the other?
Because if you understand the principle here, actually, what Cain brought was the work of his own hands. He brought the fruit of the ground. But Abel brought the first fruit of his flocks. And God is not asking for our works. He is asking for obedience.
We really have to understand that we cannot earn anything from God based on works of the flesh. God wants us to work, but there is a difference in works of the flesh and work. Works of the flesh is my effort trying to earn God's goodness. But my work that I do for God is something that I do because of His goodness, not to get His goodness.
Only Accountable for Yourself
How many of you understand that? I do not get up and pray to get my little check mark on my God calendar. I do not read the word every day or study the word because now I am putting in my time with God. And so now He is going to owe me something because I do that.
We do those things because we love God, not to get Him to love us.
So it ended up Cain got so jealous of Abel that he killed him. And what He said to Cain was, Why are you angry and displeased? If you do the right thing, will you not be blessed?
So one of the messages I want to get across this morning is each one of us is only accountable for ourselves. We do not ever need to look at somebody else, care about what God is doing with them. Each one of us needs to realize we are only responsible to do what God is asking us to do. And if we do the part that God gives us to do, we will always be blessed and be taken care of. Amen?
Dave and My Roles
You know, people ask sometimes, maybe not so much anymore, but in the past, they have asked a lot, well, how does this thing work with Dave and me? You know, with me being the one that is more out in front of the people. And, you know, Dave sits there and is a support. And, of course, there is a lot of things that Dave has done that nobody even knows about. He has been a very integral part of everything that we do.
But, the point is, back when I started doing what I am doing, it was very unusual for a woman to do what I am doing while the man did what Dave is doing.
And so, people have asked us, was not that hard? Well, you know, my husband is so great. He got over the whole problem in about three weeks. It does not take him long to get over problems. Now, me, it might have taken 30 years, but he got over it in three weeks.
God Does Things Differently
And, at first, it was hard for him. God, why did You call her? Why did You not call me? Normally, the man does this.
Can I tell you something? God does not always do things normally. He does not always do things based on the way we think that He should do them. Matter of fact, He loves to do things kind of upside down.
And so, in talking to God about this, God basically showed Dave, that is what I have anointed her to do, and I have anointed you to do other things. If you try to do what she is doing, you are going to be miserable, and so is she. But if you do the part—now, listen to me—if you do the part that I am giving you to do, without having any kind of a competitive spirit toward her, I will always give you joy, and you will always have a good life.
Joy in Your Assigned Part
How many people ruin their life because they spend their life being jealous of what God is using somebody else for, instead of just doing the part that God has given them to do?
So, Dave does the part that God has given him to do, and to be very honest with you, I would imagine that sitting there listening to me for 40-some-odd years is much harder than being up here doing it. I do not know how the man does it.
He laughs at everything I say. I mean, he actually appears to be interested in everything I say. And I have asked him sometimes, you know, are you really that interested? And he is like, yeah, I love it. I love it.
And so... Yeah, we love you, Dave.
So, let me just say something to any man who would be man enough to listen. If God is trying to use your wife, do not just get all... Just do the part that God is giving you to do, and God will bless you.
The Root of Unhappiness
So many people are not happy because they are trying to do what God has given somebody else to do. And you know what all that comes from? Insecurity.
You see, Dave is a great man. He obviously knows who he is in Christ.
So let me say again, if I do what is right that God has given me to do, if you do what God has given you to do, we are all going to be happy, we are all going to be blessed, and God is going to take care of us.
But if Dave was trying to do what I am doing... I mean, we tried it for a couple of weeks because a pastor said, Brother, you should be teaching that Bible study in your home.
And so Dave thought, oh, okay, I guess I should try. Well, he tried to teach, and I tried to shut up, and neither one of them worked very good.
Grace for Your Assignment
I wonder how many people might be here today or might even be listening that you are unhappy because you are trying to be something you are not. Because you are trying to do somebody else's assignment.
You know, what God orders, He supplies the grace for. But if you are trying to do something just because somebody else is doing it, and God is not in it for you, it is not going to work.
Do not be jealous of what God does for anybody else, because what God wants to do through you is just as great as what He does for anybody else. It does not matter how the world looks at it.
The only thing that matters is, are you doing your assignment from God?
You can go clean the bathrooms when this meeting is over and be just as important as anybody up here on the platform as long as you are doing the part that God has given you to do.