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Jul 28, 2019

God's Uncomfortable Generosity

Passage: Matthew 20:1-16

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: The Parables of Jesus

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: work, grace, gratitude, reward, fair, generous, earn

We are infected with the debilitating disease of envy, comparing what we have and how we’ve been treated with those around us, and then begrudging God for the inevitable gaps we find. This parable reveals that it isn’t that we are being deprived of anything good, but that others are getting more than we (in our great wisdom) think they deserve. We love God’s generosity, as long as it is primarily poured out on us. Ultimately this parable is about salvation and how those who have given so much of their resources (time, talent and treasure) are given the exact same eternal reward as the person who comes to faith at the end of their life and (seemingly) has given God virtually nothing. It feels incredibly unfair. But this “unfairness” assumes that the payment God gives us is somehow correlated with our work. When this happens, we aren’t working for God, we are actually working for ourselves; we don’t want Him, just what he gives. We don’t love others, just what they can do for us. While God, as we see him hire the un-hireable at the end of the day, loves and blesses us regardless of what we can “do for him.”

Order of Worship

PRELUDE: Trust You

  • Band: Lead Guitar & Vocals: Kelsey Reed, Vocals - Heather Compton, Guitar & Vocals - Jeff Whisenant, Violin - McKenna Reed, Cajon: Ethan Reed

CALL TO WORSHIP: Revelation 4:8b-11

SONG: Glorious & Mighty / Holy, Holy, Holy

READING:  John 6:28-29 & Colossians 3:17

SONG: Come, ye Sinners

The Apostle’s Creed

SONG: What Wondrous Love is This

CARE / GRATITUDE / MISSIONAL LIVING: Chip Reed

  • Childcare 
  • Community Groups
  • Members

MESSAGE: God’s Uncomfortable Generosity

CENTRAL TEXT: Matthew 20:1-16

“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. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 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.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.” 

Drama: Keeping Score

RESPONSE:  TBD

SONG: Be Thou My Vision

BENEDICTION: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Matthew 23:12
  • Philippians 2:8-9
  • Jonah 3:10-4:4
  • Luke 23:39
  • Romans 4:1-4
  • Luke 10:25-28
  • Colossians 3:23 

MEDIA:

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. How do you feel when somebody that appears to be unworthy (lazy, unskilled, rude etc) gets a big blessing (money, love, promotion etc)? What are real-life examples of this?
  2. How and why do we compare what others get with what we get?
  3. Why were the “early workers” upset if they still got what was promised? Why did they feel entitled to get more than what was promised?
  4. How did the early workers view the boss? How might have the late workers viewed him?
  5. How can a sense of entitlement prevent gratitude?
  6. This parable, as Jesus says at the onset, is about the Kingdom of Heaven, about the eternal reward we have in Christ. Does it feel unfair that a person who has been “idle” (v. 6) his whole life gets the same “wage” as the person who has served Jesus his whole life?
    1. When I have this thought, then who have I REALLY been serving?
  7. Am I more in love with God, or what he will give me?
  8. Am I more concerned with others, or what others can give me?
  9. Why is it that I am uncomfortable with the outrageous generosity of God?
  10. Reflect on how the Master was more concerned with the workers themselves than the “work” they accomplished. What does that say about God, and his view of us, and our “work”? What is our “work” (John 6:28-29; Luke 10:25-28)?
  11. In reality it is Jesus’ work (his life, death, resurrection and ascension) that earns my wages, my salvation. If I can grow in my belief and appreciation of this, how would it change:
  12. How I see and treat others?
  13. How I see and treat God?
  14. How I see and treat myself? 

QUOTES:

  • “We cannot be satisfied with our goodness after beholding the holiness of God” - Billy Graham

  • “How easily I forget how great a privilege it is to spend a full day with my brothers and sisters doing what I was asked to do by the One who loves me most. What prevents me from rejoicing in the landowner’s generosity to others? Why am I not grateful for what I received? And for what they received? The movement to be grateful rather than judgmental of others constitutes a profound conversion.” - Henri Nouwen

  • “God does not want to deal with us according to work, according to deserving, but according to grace.” - Martin Luther

  • “The gospel also gives us new power for work by supplying us with a new passion and a deeper kind of rest.” -  Timothy J. Keller (Every Good Endeavor)

BOOKS / ARTICLES 

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