Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist
Church.
It's great to see everybody here tonight.
If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started.
Once we've found a seat, let's grab a hymnal and go to song
number 125.
Song number 125, the solid rock, song number 125,
and let's all sing it out together real out on that first song, 125.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
we love you. We just thank you so much for this church. Thank you for the
opportunity to be at such a great church and hear such great preaching and sing
such great songs. Lord, we love you and we just ask you to fill this room with
your spirit and bless this church and it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right
for our next song let's go to song number 62.
Song number 62.
Saved by grace song number 62
my ways, someday my...
From day till day, and I'll watch and wait
My land war's written and burning bright
And when my Savior holds the gain
My soul to Him
Thanks for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you didn't already get a bulletin, you'd like one.
Just left over your hand real quick.
I guess I'm not using that anyways.
I'm using this mic, huh?
On our Bible memory passage, we're on Jude 1.
And so verse two, any kids that can quote that
can get an ice cream treat.
On the inside, we have our service.
And so winning times, our church stats.
Also, if you'd be in prayer for all of our
expecting ladies, upcoming events,
we have the Scott Baby Shower on the third.
The Mother's Day brunch, they have to sign up by tonight.
Okay, you need to sign up by tonight,
so that way we can get everything ordered.
And you can do that on the sign up sheet,
or you can do it via the ladies group chat.
If you don't have access to either of those,
you can email, but you gotta do it tonight.
Solwending Marathon, Cleburne, May 24th.
And then Solwending Marathon, Durant, Oklahoma, May 31st.
We'll be having Father's Day Floats on June 15th.
And then the Shreveport is going to be June 28th.
And so I know a lot of people get excited about that one.
It's often very, very receptive.
I believe July we're doing Lancaster.
And we pretty much have like an event almost every month.
And so a lot of different soul winning opportunities.
So if you'd like to go out there with us,
also down below is the baby shower details for the Scots
and their baby boy.
Please RSVP to Miss Milstead if you haven't already.
We didn't have this in Sunday and and I'll I'll put this in Sundays. If you got a new bulletin tonight
you might have it, but it's a newsletter update from
evangelist or bannock in the Philippines
And I just wanted to give you just a little bit of a brief overview of some of the information.
He says for the month of April they had 333 salvations and they got to go into a high school and preach.
He said that he got to present the gospel to around 150 students at one time.
And then on the back, he also talks about their church service.
on April 27th and they had 38 people come for both services and then they ended up having 11 people
go out soul winning and they had 18 salvations for the day on that Sunday. So that was definitely,
that was better than we even expected or anticipated. So definitely continue to pray for
the church planting work that's being done with the evangelist or bannock in the Philippines.
doing just kind of maybe a once a month service or once over a couple of week services and
just kind of test out, see what it's like.
If things continue to go well, we might end up escalating those service times and just
having more and more services.
And so definitely a lot of fun to see those people going out there and working hard.
Make sure you continue to pray for them.
They have some prayer requests down,
soul winning, laborers, pray for good weather,
play for their church planting,
and then also if you could pray
for the health of Archie's mother.
I guess she has stage five kidney disease,
and so that's very sad
if you'd be in prayer for them as well.
We'll pray for them in a minute.
Also, we have our prayer list on the back of our bulletin.
One thing to add, if you would pray for Brother Alberto,
he was having a job interview tomorrow
and just asked that we would pray for him on that.
Continue to pray for the Naeem's.
But they had a praise report, and so it
was great to know that their grandmother had.
recovered and so thank you to those who've been praying for them. Pray for the Carlson's
mother and father health, if you'd pray for the Miller's friend, their mother's cancers, treatments.
Continue to pray for both the Scots for their various health issues and then also if you'd pray
There was another praise report, if you'd been praying for the Goodwin's friend, Ms. Sarah,
she has recovered well from her surgeries and everything, she's cancer-free, so she is returning,
and that's great. Continue to pray for Ms. Larky's arm, if you'd pray for Brother Brad's
father and sister, and then for himself, for his work, pray for Brother Diego's friend, Ms. Morris,
and then we've been praying for Ms. Cindy's friend, Angela.
For her health, also if you could pray for Brother Jimmy's mother, Pat Turner, who has Alzheimer's,
and then if you'd pray for Brother Goodwin for his work.
A lot of prayer requests there. We'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this service.
Thank you so much for all those ladies who are expecting.
I pray that you'd please be with them for their pregnancies.
Please help them with their delivery.
I pray that you would bless those
that have recently given birth.
You'd help them with their children and with recovery.
Please also just help our church family
that's struggling with cancer or illness.
We know that you can heal them and we thank you for those that have had successful healings.
I pray that you would also be gracious under those that are still struggling or still having health concerns.
If it be possible, please just grant them health.
I pray that you would please just be there to comfort them and give them peace during this difficulty.
I pray that you could also just bless our church family that needs favor with their work or with their job.
I pray that you would just help our church with all our upcoming soul-winning events.
I pray that you would bless Avengers or Panic and the work that they're doing in the Philippines.
I pray that you would give them wisdom. Please help bring them more laborers.
Please help their church planning activities. Please be with his mother-in-law and with their
health issues. And I pray that you would just allow us to be a bright and shining light in
such a dark world for the honor and glory of your son and his name we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements, so go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 139, Psalm 139.
Alright, that was Psalm 139.
Psalm 139 in your binders.
Surely thou will slay the wicked, surely thou will slay the wicked, O God.
Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men, depart from me, therefore ye bloody men.
against thee. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that lead me. For they speak against thee wickedly.
Tonight in the new world
Matthew chapter number 20 the Bible reads for the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is
a householder which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard and when he
had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day he sent them into his vineyard and he went out about
the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said unto them go ye also into
the vineyard and whatsoever is right I will give you and they went their way again he went out
about the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise and about the eleventh hour he went out and found
others standing idle and sayeth unto them why stand ye here all the day idle they say unto him
because no man hath hired us he saith unto them go ye also into the vineyard and whatsoever is right
The Lord of the vineyard saith unto the steward call the laborers and give them their hire beginning from the last into the first
And when they came that were hired about the 11th hour they received every man a penny
Well when the first came they supposed that they should have received more and they likewise received every man a penny
And when they had received it they murmured against the good men of the house
Saying these last have wrought but one hour and thou has made them equal unto us
Which have borne the burden and heat of the day
And he answered one of them and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong, didst thou not agree with
me for a penny?
Take that design, and go thy way, I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?
Is thine eye evil because I am good?
So the last shall be first, and the first last, for many be called, but few chosen."
and Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way and said unto them,
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto
the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock,
and to scourge, and to crucify him, and the third day he shall rise again. Then came to him the
mother of Zebedee's children with her sons worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him,
and he said unto her, What wilt thou? She said,
She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand and the other on the left in thy kingdom.
But Jesus answered and said,
You know not what you ask.
Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of
and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
They say unto him, we are able.
And he saith unto them, ye shall drink indeed of my cup
and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.
But to sit on my right hand and on my left
is not mine to give.
But it shall be given to them
for whom it is prepared of my Father.
And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren,
but Jesus called them unto him and said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercised
dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them, but it shall
not be so among you.
But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever will be
chief among you, let him be your servant.
Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him.
And behold, two blind men sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying,
Have mercy on us, O Lord, Thou Son of David, and the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace.
But they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Thou Son of David.
And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye?
that I shall do unto you. They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had
compassion on them, and touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes received sight,
and they followed him." Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank You for allowing us to be in church.
Thank You for said vast Baptist church.
Thank You for all the salvations that we had.
I just pray that You'd bless Pastor Shelley,
fill him with Your Holy Spirit to preach unto us Your Word
and help us to receive it with our heart and make applicable changes.
Praise in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.
Matthew 20, the Bible says in verse 1,
for the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is a householder,
which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.
occupation of work, that the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God is someone going out and hiring
laborers, not hiring people to just lay around and do nothing, not for people to just sleep all day,
but rather getting people to work. And again, the Kingdom of Heaven is kind of a broad term that
can be applied in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it's referring to just being saved,
I typically like to think of it as Christianity, but when we say that like true Christianity,
not what the world deems Christianity, but those who are actually saved in the Kingdom of God,
those are the saved, the believers, and the Kingdom of Heaven is essentially the work of God
that's being accomplished on this earth, so the Christianity that's happening.
Backslidden Christians aren't really accomplishing the Kingdom of God, and God's looking for
get into the vineyard and work.
Now, think about a vineyard.
What is the point of a vineyard?
The point of a vineyard is typically to gather the grapes from the vineyard now
The grapes could be consumed on their own the grapes could be turned into raisins yuck
I'm just kidding. I actually don't mind raisins that much, but it's just kind of weird
You have a grape and it's like of all the things you could do with that you turn it into a raisin
But but you know the beauty of raisins and the reason why raisins are important is because a grape isn't see is seasonal and
raisins not
And because we live in America, we've been spoiled.
We think that everything's in season all the time,
but especially throughout history,
you don't have the luxury of just having grapes
whenever you want.
And so having raisins and other food
that can be preserved for a long period of time
is really important, especially in those days.
So they have different foods
that can be used throughout the year.
Obviously grain is also super important
so that you can make bread throughout the entire year
and you can store grain.
This is what Joseph had the Egyptian store
so that people could have bread
and could have food for the entire year.
And so the vineyard is gathering grapes for
just enjoyment because grapes are really wonderful to eat,
then there's raisins, then of course there's wine,
which is another application of grapes and wine is often going to be stored also
for the whole year or longer potentially, and then mixed in with water,
so that you can have some kind of a juice beverage whenever you want.
It can be boiled into like a sap, it can be preserved in some kind of a cool atmosphere,
and some people have thought like, oh, fruit juice didn't exist until the modern day or modern era,
but that's just insane. Okay, that's insane. It's a bad view of history. Of course, juice has
Obviously, those methods have changed a little bit over time, but even preserving wine is
always been possible.
Of course, not preserving wine correctly or not preserving wine well can lead it to...
Decay, decompose, and then turn into an alcoholic beverage,
which we would know as what we think of when we hear wine as an alcoholic beverage.
And of course, people have had a lot of uses for that,
but it's not really a biblical use because the Bible says to not look upon the wine
when they give it this color in the cup, when it move it itself right.
And so...
We don't want to drink fermented wine.
We don't want that yeast to get in there and leaven the wine and then turn it into an alcoholic,
toxic beverage and drink it.
In the same way, I don't eat green bread.
Why do you eat green bread?
Hey, if you just leave bread out on the counter pretty soon, it'll turn green.
And that's not cool.
I like green, green school color,
but not on my bread, all right?
And so, you know, somebody is thinking like Italian bread,
they've got those little flakes,
but that's not what we're talking about.
Obviously, moldy bread wouldn't make sense to eat,
and if you eat a lot of moldy bread, you'll get sick.
Same way, if you're drinking intoxicating beverage,
you'll get sick.
And it's not cool, it's not fun.
It's just it's it's in our society is presented as like it's cool. It's crisp. It's fresh.
But you know what alcohol is not cool kids. It tastes bad. It does not taste good. They try
everything they can do to make it not taste bad and it still tastes bad. They mix it in with all
kinds of other fruits and sugary drinks and carbonated beverages and sprite and everything
to try and mask the fact that it tastes so bad because it tastes terrible.
Alcohol is not something that you would even smell naturally speaking and then think oh that's something I want to consume.
Often the smell of alcohol it reeks. It has a terrible odor and you know you go to restaurants or you go to event venues perhaps a sporting event and you can smell the alcohol and it smells bad.
Bars reek from the smell of alcohol, and of course, alcohol is so damaging that it can ruin virtually every organ of your body.
Alcoholism will destroy every organ of your body. It'll cause you to lose good judgment.
It'll cause you to not be able to walk and talk. You basically reverse age to a toddler.
and you end up vomiting all over yourself,
using the bathroom all over yourself,
making terrible decisions.
And of course, a lot of fornication and adultery
is a result of alcohol.
So, yeah, some people would say,
well, God created wine.
That would be like saying God created moldy bread.
And just because God created something
doesn't even mean that it's supposed to be eaten or consumed.
Yeah, God created rocks.
Does that now mean we get to eat rocks?
God, God created all kinds of different things.
That doesn't mean it's food necessarily.
There's plenty of trees that are non-fruit bearing.
They're not stuff you want to eat.
And if you know anything about smoking,
you don't even want to smoke meat on every kind of wood.
Not every kind of wood actually admits a pleasant odor and different kinds of wood actually admit better odors than others.
And so, you know, don't get this lame, lame argument for drinking alcohol from your beer church and say, like, oh, no, we drink because God created one man and makes man's hearts, you know, cheerful.
You know, that's a lie.
No, you know what makes man's hearts cheerful?
Great.
grapes, raisins when you're about to starve, all right, and fruit juice when you can have
that, you know, as like a specialty thing at a wedding or whatever.
Of course, they had wine at the wedding and Jesus made wine.
He did not make alcohol.
He made fresh wine.
And of course, Jesus drank of the fruit of the vine, but you know, when you squeeze grapes
into a cup, you don't get alcohol, you just get fruit juice.
And of course, that is what Jesus Christ drank.
Why do we have this carnal truth of vineyard?
Why are we gathering grapes?
Why is that used as a kingdom of God?
Does God just really want some extra great gatherers?
No, it's a symbol of what the kingdom of God is like
that we're supposed to be gathering fruit.
That's the process of what we do we gather grapes to be used in some kind of a purpose for our life and making it better
But you know we gather spiritual fruits spiritual grapes by going out and preaching the gospel and getting someone saved
And if you actually go up and down a vineyard, you'll notice that a lot of grapes
have just fallen off of the cluster or they've fallen off of the branches or they're just
low hanging fruit as it were and you can pretty much just pick it up off the ground and just
put it in your basket.
I mean there's going to be grapes, if you go up and down the vineyard, there's going
to be some grapes that are really easy to get.
You can just pick them up right off the ground, you're just putting them in your basket.
But after you go through the rows and you do all that, now you actually have to go and
kind of pluck and there's going to be a little bit more effort.
And basically everybody's going to go down and they're just going to pluck all the different
branches.
where somebody, oh, they missed a few or they didn't quite get all of the different grapes.
And so you have this different process where you're going out and getting the easy,
then you're getting a little bit more difficult, then you're getting the really difficult.
And, you know, when we go into neighborhoods, it's the same way.
You go to apartment complexes, you go to cities, you go to towns, states, countries.
When you first go there, many times you're going to get those low-hanging fruits.
You're going to get the ones off the ground that are just so easy to get, and it's kind
of an extra blessing.
Then after you've done that, hey, now we'll go on the branch, and then eventually you're
kind of getting the gleanings.
And of course, in America, you can really observe this in lots of different ways.
It's right off the ground, Shreveport.
Shreveport's a place where you can just get lots of people.
And even in Texas, I think there's still areas
and neighborhoods where it's just kind of picking up
grapes off of the ground.
Houston is really receptive to the gospel.
There's a lot of areas that are pretty receptive
to the gospel.
Whereas, you know, go to a little bit nicer neighborhood
or go to some other parts of the country
and it's on the branch and you have to do
a little bit more work.
And then you go to some places, and boy, it is picked over.
And it's hard to find, it's hard to get some of the grapes there.
But we have to understand that that is our job, that is what God wants us to do.
What is the kingdom of God? It's gathering fruit.
There's not something else. There's not this hidden agenda.
There's not this secret will of God, this mysterious will of God,
that, oh, I don't know what God wants me to do with my life.
But I don't I mean that's for you. You're a great gather. I just I just you figure out what God wants me to do gather grapes
And you say what do you mean gather grapes go soul wedding?
What is that? What is the miss? What's the big mystery? What does God's call on your life? It's to get people saved
That is the it's the big mystery revealed
It's not even a mystery it's it's just that people don't want that to be the answer so then they go into a mystery box
No, I think it's something else
No, that's for you. That's not for me or I'm a quote lifestyle evangelist
Imagine if someone said like what do you do for work? Well, I'm a I'm a lifestyle grapegatherer
Anytime I'm just you know living my life and I see some grapes. I try to get some
I mean, how much just during the day when you're walking around, driving, at home,
or you're just plucking grapes off of the vineyard?
Oh, never?
In the same way that if you're just doing lifestyle evangelism,
you're also never getting people saved.
You know, you actually go into the vineyard
and you actually have to get your basket and actually get the grapes, where the grapes are at.
You can't just expect to just get people saved, just living your life.
No, you have to go into the vineyard,
you have to go in the neighborhoods,
you have to knock on the doors,
you have to find people and preach the gospel to them.
And you know what? Some vineyards are better than others.
Obviously, the Jewish vineyard looks, you know, decaying and rotten,
and you go to the Bahamas vineyard and that thing is just like tons on the ground.
but make no mistake, after everybody's gathered all the stuff on the ground, it's going to get harder in those areas.
You know, the Bahamas is super receptive right now, really easy to get a lot of people saved.
It won't last like that forever.
The Philippines is really receptive, really easy to get a lot of people saved right now.
It won't be like that forever.
Pretty soon, Pastor Stuckey and Evangelist Urbanik are going to get all of that.
I mean, they're getting thousands and thousands of people saved.
I mean, eventually, things are going to change.
You know, America, I think, at different times in history,
were pretty easy to get a lot of people saved.
You know, they talk about the 60s, 70s, 80s, it was a lot easier to build a church.
Okay, well, in 2025 America, it's not exactly the same.
But at the same time, we're still supposed to go out there and gather the fruit.
It's not necessarily my fault someone already gathered all the good fruit or gathered all the easy fruit.
But you know what? We need to keep going out there and gathering fruit.
In the hard places, we need to glean some fields.
Some fields, we can just grab them off the branch.
Some, hey, we're just trying to get as much as we can into the basket.
But you know what? The kingdom of heaven is gathering fruit.
It's laboring in the vineyard.
That is what it is.
How dare you just say that if a church isn't going soul-winning, they're not really serving God.
How...
The guy that's not in the vineyard is not serving this guy.
Okay, and again, parables aren't perfect, and I get that,
and parables don't necessarily encompass everything.
But let me tell you something.
This parable is exactly dead on what the Kingdom of God is like and it's soul-winning.
It's going in the vineyard and preaching the gospel and getting people saved.
Now, it says in verse 1, early in the morning,
This would be presumably 6 a.m.
Because typically a day is 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Okay?
So 6 a.m. he goes out, hires people to work in the field.
He says, hey, you work all day, I'll give you a penny.
Now, a penny in our mind is the least of all money.
It's essentially the least amount of money you can have.
It's a penny.
But in this context, it's really about a day's wage.
There's some other places we could go to prove that, but just to give you an idea, it's about a day's wage.
The Bible says whenever there was Jesus going to do the miracle of the 5,000, feeding the 5,000,
they say 200 penny worth would not be enough to feed all these people just a little.
Now, if you do some quick, easy math...
If you just say a day's wage is about $100 and I'm using simple math today, that would
be if you worked for an eight hour shift or something like that, that'd be like 12, 15
hour.
If it was a full day, obviously 12 hour shift, it'd be a little bit less.
It'd be like eight bucks an hour or something like that.
So it's probably a little bit more, but just for simple math, let's just say it's $100.
A penny's about $100 wage today.
If you think about how many people he fed, it said 5,000 men, so $20,000, 5,000 men, that's four bucks a person.
How many of you can feed people for four bucks a person today? That's pretty rough, isn't it?
Plus then it said besides women and children. So if you had to feed
that many people with only twenty thousand dollars, you wouldn't even be able to buy enough for everybody to just have but a little.
But that gives us an idea of about in the ballpark of what these numbers look like.
So if you ever want to understand what a penny is, it's about a day's wage. I say it's about a hundred bucks.
It could be a little bit more because inflation, you know, obviously inflation is constantly escalating,
but that's just to give you an idea of what a penny is.
Don't get confused and think that it's a literal penny.
Their money is different than our money, even though it uses that same terminology.
So he says, hey, for about a hundred bucks, work in the field.
I'll give you a hundred bucks today.
Day laborer, right?
Verse two.
And when he agreed with the laborers for a penny a day,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Now, notice they agreed to this.
They said, yeah, we'll work all day for $100.
Verse 3.
And he went out about the third hour
and saw other standing idol in the marketplace.
Now, the third hour would be 9 a.m.
So you have 6 a.m. is very early in the morning.
9 a.m. would be the third hour.
So you have to understand how they're counting.
They're counting from the point that they started.
So the third hour end of the day would be about 9 a.m.
This also helps you when you want to understand
the timing of the crucifixion
and other events that are happening in the Bible.
So the third hour, 9 a.m., he goes and gets some more labors.
It says in verse number 4,
and said unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, I will give you, and they went their way."
Now, when he hires the second group, he doesn't even tell them how much.
He just says, Hey, go work. I'll make sure to pay you whatever is right. I'll take care of you.
And they're like, fine.
Verse 5, again, he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did likewise.
So the sixth hour, what time would that be?
Noon, exactly. So it'd be noon, ninth hour.
3 p.m. Yeah, so we're getting closer and closer to the end of the work day now
It says in verse 6 and about the 11th hour
He went out and found others standing idle and say one of them why stand ye here all the day idle
So they've been here virtually the entire day because you have approximately 12 hours in the day
For the first 11 hours, they've done nothing.
And then just this last hour,
he's coming under them to hire them to go work in his vineyard.
He says in verse 8,
So when even was come the Lord of the vineyard,
I'm sorry, verse 7,
they say unto him, because no man hath hired us,
he sayeth unto them, go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right that shall ye receive.
So,
This guy's going out and he's just hiring like crazy. He's hiring people at 6 a.m.
He's hiring people at 9 a.m. He's hiring people at noon. He's hiring people at 3. He's hiring people at
5 p.m.
Essentially almost just like one hour left in the day approximately to do some work
Now why why is this guy doing this?
Because he wants to maximize the amount of fruit that he can get
He's going out, he has plenty of money, but he just needs someone to gather the fruit, so he's a hiring frenzy.
He's like, anybody and everybody that wants to work, I mean, I just need the help, and he's going to pay them whatever is right.
He's not so much concerned about paying them, he's more concerned about the work getting done.
And I think another aspect of this parable we can understand is that God just really cares about the work getting done.
And he's out there and he's constantly just trying to get more and more laborers into the work.
And of course, some people have been at it for a while.
But you know what? There's never a bad time to join the work of God.
You know, whether you got saved as a child and started going soul-winning as a child with your parents,
or if you're older and you've never been soul-winning, but you want to get plugged into the 11-hour,
God is calling for you to get plugged in and go soul-winning wherever and whenever you're at.
At any point in life, God is saying, you know what?
Hey, I know you didn't necessarily do anything for the first 11 hours, but go ahead and get in now.
Go ahead and start serving God now, get soul-winning now.
It doesn't matter what age you start soul-winning,
just start going out soul-winning and start gathering what you have.
And you know what? How many Christians are idle today?
Why? Because no one's hired them.
Because it's not a church that's actually sending people out to go and preach the gospel.
How many Christians today are just idly sitting in some church
doing nothing for the kingdom of God because no one will hire them?
You know what, this is not a church like that.
We'll put you to work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
We'll put you out there into the vineyard.
We'll hire you.
Why?
Because that's what God wants.
The will of God is that he would have more laborers.
The Bible says that we're supposed to pray for more laborers.
You know, we're not supposed to pray for more seats to be taken.
We're supposed to pray for more laborers.
And you know what, I want in this church to maximize our labor effort, not our attendance
effort.
Now again, obviously there's a correlation there, but at the end of the day, there's
no point in just wasting seats on people that hate our church, hate me and don't want to
do the work.
And what I've even noticed is over the years,
the people that are really into soul winning stick around
and the people that weren't going soul winning and don't care about soul winning
are usually the people that get disgruntled and hit the road.
Now, of course, there's always exceptions.
There have been some people that were very zealous for soul winning
and then it didn't pan out as well.
But just generally speaking,
you kind of notice a pattern that the people that were most into soul winning
are the ones that stick it out.
And that's just going to be life
because at the end of the day, it's work.
I'm sure going out into the vineyard, there's the sun, there's the heat, there's the weather.
Maybe you got plucked by a thorn when you're going out there.
And you know, you stick around in this church,
eventually, you know, the sun will burn down on you a little bit.
Eventually, the weather will get you.
Eventually, you'll get pricked by a thorn.
But, you know, at the end of the day, you're like,
yeah, but I'm still here to gather the fruit and you just get over it.
Whereas the guy that's just doing nothing, you know, he just ends up burning out anyways, you know,
nothing's gonna be perfect, but at the end of the day, it's work.
God's put his work, and you know, giving, being given a job is a blessing.
It's a blessing to have a job, it's a blessing to have an opportunity, it's a blessing to
receive wages by going out and serving God.
And so God wants to put us into the labor force, God wants us to be soul winners, God
wants us to get more fruit, God wants us to get more people saved, and He wants us to
turn more people to righteousness.
Now of course we don't receive these wages in this life.
We will be rewarded after we're done.
and then they get paid.
In the same way, we work our whole life,
and then we get paid.
You don't get paid for every grape that you pluck,
right then and there.
You get paid when you're at the end,
and then you get paid for working in the vineyard, okay?
Now, it says in verse number 8,
so when even has come, the Lord of the vineyard said in assert,
call the laborers and give them their hire beginning from the last unto the first.
And when they came,
that were hired about the 11th hour, they received every man a penny.
But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more,
and they likewise received every man a penny.
And when they had received it, they murmured against the good men of the house, saying,
These last have wrought but one hour,
and thou hast made them equal unto us,
which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
So, notice again, in confirmation with their timeline, notice those people that were hired
in the 11th hour, like 5 p.m., they only worked one hour.
They worked from 5 to 6, and they got 100 bucks, whereas the guy that got hired at the
beginning of the day, at 6 a.m., so some guy worked from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., he got 100 bucks.
Another guy worked from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., he got 100 bucks.
I'm getting ripped off. I mean, I had to work in the burden of the day
Because at five it's not necessarily as hard of work between noon and three
That's kind of really where the heat comes in and where it's kind of the most unpleasant the most sweat the most difficulty
He's like they didn't have to go through the most difficulty and look they're receiving the same as we did
This is their this is their mindset
Now, it says in verse number 13, but he answered one of them and said,
Friend, I do thee no wrong.
Didst thou not agree with me for a penny?
And he's thinking like, OK, let's just ignore everybody else.
I came to you and said, will you work in my yard vineyard for $100?
You said yes, you worked and I gave you $100.
How did he do him wrong?
He did that guy zero wrong.
He didn't hurt him. He didn't harm him. He did exactly. In fact, he blessed him.
He did good on it. He gave him a job. He gave him money. He helped him, okay?
But his perception
causes him to have a bad attitude about the blessing that he received.
He's actually mad at the guy for doing good unto him
because in his mind, he thinks it's unfair that somebody else got a better deal.
But at the end of the day, it's not necessarily that that guy got a better deal.
It's just different timing.
Because the guy that worked from five to six,
it doesn't say in the story that the husband came to him and said,
hey, will you work on my vineyard? He said, no.
And then later he came back at five.
That guy probably would have worked the whole day too if given the opportunity.
He just wasn't given the opportunity and then is it really his fault that he didn't get hired and he missed out on wages for the day
He wanted to work. He was willing to work, but he just didn't he didn't have the knowledge
He didn't have the opportunity no one came along and as soon as he got the opportunity he got plugged in there
So from the husbandman's perspective, he's saying hey, why should this guy miss out on wages just because I didn't find them early enough
And he's going to be extra generous, extra nice to that guy,
and give him above what he technically deserves, perhaps,
above what he did as far as physical labor.
But at the end of the day, it's just an agreement between him and them anyways.
Those guys worked in the field not even knowing what they were going to get.
The Good Men of Alaska gave them one hundredth of what they paid this other guy.
He could have given them 10 bucks.
He could have given them 5 bucks.
It may have been a less or worse deal than them.
They didn't even know. They just got to work.
They just said, yep, we want to work.
I'll pay you what's right.
And then they ended up getting a special blessing
of an entire day's work,
even though they only worked one hour.
And at the end of the day, you know,
God is going to reward us how He sees fit.
It's not for us to judge.
But you know, what a bad attitude
to allow circumstance to cause you
to then have a bad attitude.
You know what I've noticed in Christianity is that people always allow circumstances to dictate how they feel about a situation.
They always let circumstance dictate their situation.
Let's talk about church for a second.
You know, let's say you came to church and there was 50 people in the room.
Somebody could have a bad attitude about that and say like,
well, there's been like over 200 in our church lately.
Now I'm kind of upset because there's less people here.
Whereas what if church was running 10 and then all of a sudden 50 people were there?
You'd be like, oh, this is great, church is going well.
We have 50 people now.
It's the exact same number, but just based on the circumstance, you change your opinion
about everything and get disgruntled or get mad or whatever.
What if the sermon is the exact same sermon?
It's the exact same number of people, but for some reason people get a bad attitude based
on other circumstances they have no control over.
You know what?
That's weird.
It's weird to care about these outward circumstances.
People that would move across the country to come to a church like ours,
they might go 1,400 miles.
1,400 miles that they travel to come to church.
And if they had a church within an hour of where they used to live,
they would have driven there.
And they would have been so happy and so excited to have it.
But they move to the church about 10 minutes away,
then the church is going to move now 20 minutes away,
and they're going to leave because that's too far.
And you're thinking like, wow, you would have driven an hour where you were.
You left 1,400 miles to come here, and now that it's just moving a little bit further,
you can't even come to the church room.
It's just insane!
Like, if it was on the table of like, hey, 20 minutes away church, you'd have been like,
I'm excited, I can't wait.
But because the circumstances changed now, all of a sudden you have a bad attitude.
And we constantly allow ourselves to have these weird bad attitudes.
You know, what if you got hired at a job
and they offer to pay you something really good?
I don't know what it is.
A couple hundred thousand dollars or something to get this job.
But then the next guy that comes around,
he gets double what you're paid for doing the same job.
Don't get mad at your boss just because he pays somebody else more money.
You know, we can allow the circumstances of somebody being generous or doing good
to cause us to have an evil eye or a bad attitude,
but you know what? That's our fault.
We should not have this bad attitude.
Or, you know, in Christianity, you could have this attitude towards other Christians of,
oh, well, I've been here in this church for 10 years.
I've been serving. I've been faithful.
And...
This new guy comes in, and boy, Pastor Shelley gives him the same amount of time and attention as he gives me,
but I've been here for 10 years.
or how come they get to serve in the church in this way, and I don't?
Or whatever it is, you could just get this bad attitude,
even though nothing's been bad up into you,
you just get an evil eye because you get mad at somebody else
getting in at the last minute.
But you know what's cool about this is the fact that
God is encouraging people to get into the workforce
even last minute, because many times you get to catch up.
I like this.
You know, why would I read this story and then be mad at God?
What I'm reading is I'm thinking like, wow, this is awesome.
We could think about it this way, you know, from a historical perspective,
many people have worked way harder than us in times past.
They had to work way harder to build houses, to build civilization,
to give us the King James Bible, to give us all this stuff.
And what if they, they're not in their flesh right now,
but if they were in their flesh, they could look down and say like,
You know apostle Paul's looking down is like cruise mission strips
Have you have you read axe?
You know have you read when I was shipwrecked a day and a night in the deep, you know
I'm over here after talking to barbarous people
He's like man when I didn't understand what they said. I didn't have Google translate. I didn't have the internet
I didn't have a map. I didn't have a lawyer
You know, the defending me when I had to go to court and I had to answer all these different questions
I mean it'd be pretty easy for them to look down and get mad
But at the end of the day like it's not my fault that I was born in this era
It's not my fault that I have technology that I can use that you didn't have
And so, hey, we shouldn't get mad at people
if they get to do stuff that we don't, or vice versa.
You know what, we should just say,
hey, I'm the Lord's servant,
this is the job he's given me to do,
I'm gonna do it, and I'm gonna thank him
for whatever he gives me.
And not get bitter that I had to work a little harder
than somebody else, even if I got the same thing.
You know, you could look at somebody
that perhaps didn't sacrifice the way you did
to have money.
and then someone just gets money
and you can just be mad at that person
because of some circumstance that happens,
is out of your control.
But you know what, if God blessed you with money
working hard, and then another guy just gets
a special donation from his parents
or something happens and they catch up,
it's like, you know what, don't get mad at that guy.
Be pleased that God's blessed you be pleased with God has blessed you with the children that you've had the wife
Do you have the ministry you've had? You know if someone lived a
Sinful life, but they get plugged in at church and they start serving God don't get mad at him thinking like well
I've been in church my whole life
Here's this Johnny come lately who got to live it up and now he's here serving God. That's not fair
No, no, no, it is fair according to God's economy
Don't worry about our economy, worry about God's economy.
Obviously, in our economy, people would never pay somebody,
you know, all of this money just for working one hour.
But you know what? God is generous.
Did you see what he says? Look what it says in, uh, let's keep reading.
Take that as thine, go thy way.
I will give unto this last, even as I unto thee.
Verse 15, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?
Is thine eye evil?
because I am good.
This is what's so funny.
They're murmuring against him
because he gave money to somebody.
Hey, I helped this person.
Well, you're a terrible person.
What?
How is he a terrible person
if he blesses one person and not enough?
Like he's not, he doesn't have to bless everybody.
He doesn't have to give extra money to everybody.
He's just blessing these other people
because he's good.
And you know what you get mad at him?
Because he's good.
Verse 16, so the last shall be first and the first last, for many be called, but few chosen.
So now, he kind of gives us another idea here about this attitude.
And again, we can have an entitled attitude in our lives where we feel like we deserve things that we don't.
I kind of preached a whole sermon on that, so I'm not going to necessarily continue with that as much,
but, you know, I like this verse 16, the last shall be first and the first last.
You know,
Again, talking about the history, the timeline of history,
I don't think that necessarily just because we aren't in some of these biblical eras
where the Bible was a timeline,
just because we weren't in the time of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and just because we weren't in the time of Moses
and just because we weren't in the time of the disciples,
that we somehow can't be greatly rewarded by God.
In many cases, the Bible says that the last can be first.
And, in some cases, the first will be last.
Who are some people that were first that are going to be last?
I don't know, how about Lot?
You know, in the timeline of history, Lot was one of the first people,
but I don't know that that guy's going to get a lot of rewards.
Now, I can be wrong, I just don't really see it in the text, okay?
It seems like Lot was saved by the skin of his teeth in many ways, okay?
Yet, I still obviously believe people like Abraham and Moses are going to be some of the most greatly rewarded people in the Bible,
but he's saying many, in some cases, a lot of times, the people that are in a modern era still have opportunity
to get way ahead of line of people in the past, of the works that have been done in the past.
And to me, that makes a lot of sense because think about it, we have a capability of getting so many people saved right now.
We have the capability of doing so many works and yet do we have a lot of conveniences sure, but that's also a lot of distraction
Money, wealth, and entertainment and all the stuff that comes with it,
while it's nice to have, it's also a major, major distraction
and causes a lot of people to not want to serve God
because they have all these other options.
They have so much opportunity to be covetous
and just spend all their life consuming it on just the pleasures of this life,
the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches.
So, while we have great opportunity, we also have great temptation and great distraction.
The internet is a great tool, but boy, man, is that a portal to sin, isn't it?
And we can always look at these things as like, oh, wow,
I wish I lived back in a time when they didn't have these tools because then I wouldn't be as tempted with sin or evil.
But at the same time,
it's also an opportunity to get a lot more people saved and do good for the kingdom of God and for the kingdom of Christ.
And so we have opportunity
I believe to skip the line a little bit,
and even if we're kind of late to the party,
to still be greatly awarded by God.
And that motivates me to work really hard.
We should be motivated to work super, super hard.
Now, in another context, he says,
for many be called, but few chosen.
He went out and specifically picked people to go and do the work.
Okay? And in a sense, you could think of this as like being in the ministry.
Now, I want to go to a couple of verses, go to 1 Timothy chapter 1, go to 1 Timothy chapter 1.
I believe that, you know, depending on how we want to use this word, it can apply to all of us or it can apply to just some of us.
Sometimes when we talk about the ministry, we think of people that are like, quote,
on staff or being hired or being paid for some kind of Christian work.
But I don't think the Bible really makes that distinction.
I think that the Bible says that we're all in the ministry in one context.
And then I think that the Bible has Pacific offices or Pacific roles
that you could say maybe people are in the ministry in that context.
But whether you're paid or not doesn't really necessarily matter,
but that's what a lot of people think.
They think that just because they're being paid, they're now in the ministry.
Well, to me, it's either have a biblical role
or you're saved Christian doing ministry in some kind of way.
You're in the ministry, you're in the army, you're a soldier,
and whether you're paid or not, doesn't really matter.
It's not like God is looking down from heaven and it's like,
you get extra bonus soul-winning tokens because you're paid.
In fact, I would personally think it would be the opposite in a sense.
If you're making a more sacrifice of your time and effort to go soul-winning when you're not being paid,
you're probably going to be rewarded greater than the guy that's paid full-time to go out and do that kind of a work.
But when it comes to the work, obviously God is not putting everybody in there.
Many are called. Everybody that's saved is called to go out and gather fruit.
Now, it says in verse Timothy, chapter number 1,
look what it says in verse number 12,
and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord,
who have enabled me for that economy faithful,
putting me into the ministry.
So, the apostle Paul is put into the ministry,
he becomes an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and he's very thankful for that opportunity.
And if someone was ever put in a position where they do get to do
more Christian ministry or they're paid to do Christian ministry,
that is a great honor and a great privilege that someone should take with great humility.
And he's saying he's very thankful that God enabled him and put him in there.
Verse 13, why?
Who is before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy
because I did it ignorantly and unbelief and the grace of our Lord is exceeding abundant with faith and love,
which is in Christ Jesus.
So, the Apostle Paul realizes he was put into the ministry
What does it mean when we say, put in, he was chosen?
Who was the apostle Paul chosen by?
He was handpicked by Jesus Christ himself.
Now, I believe when it comes to the ministry,
obviously not everybody's going to be handpicked by Jesus Christ himself
because that's the disciples and the apostles.
But then we see those men picking people.
We see Timothy getting him laid on.
Look at chapter 4.
Teen, I'm sorry, neglect not the gift that is in thee,
which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
Now, presbytery is only used one time.
If you look it up in a dictionary, I think it matches the context here.
It just says a group of elders.
So basically the clergy, the staff, the leaders.
And so,
Timothy is laid on the hands of the Presbytery,
the Apostle Paul and the other disciples that were apostles,
and they're basically ordaining people and they're putting them into the ministry.
You have in the book of Acts where they pick seven men.
They're going to be ordained and then they're put into the ministry.
So I believe that the ministry, when we talk about the offices of Christianity,
that that is something that people should be chosen.
Not this.
All right, walk down the aisle if you feel called.
Because, you know, I can't imagine a kid in our church being raised in a new IV style church for 16, 17, 18 years.
If every service, I'm like, alright, if you feel any kind of tug on your heart, if God's kind of calling you,
do you feel like you need to be in Christian ministry, you need to come down and you have a call in your life to preach,
you're a preacher man.
and then just convincing all these kids that there's somehow this special called preacher
and they can never walk away from that gift or something.
I don't believe that that's how it works.
I don't really like that, and I think it's false advertising.
I think it's a false prompting,
because I think a lot of kids that just love Jesus and want to be a soul winner
would probably feel that way at some moment
and then end up getting this false idea like you have to be a pastor or something.
It could be a 16-year-old kid that's obviously not married or has kids or any of these things.
And then, of course, what ends up happening?
This is the old IVB, this 16-year-old kid,
because he has a call on his life to be a pastor,
he's gonna end up becoming a pastor
whether he meets the qualifications or not.
Whether he even gets married,
whether he knows how to having kids,
whether he even has app to teach,
any of those different things
because he had a quote call on his life.
You go to the Pentecostals, same way.
Pentecostals, you have a 17-year-old kid come down
and say, I have a call in my life to be a preacher,
they'll push you by the pulpit.
They'll give you a church right away.
They'll put you in the ministry right away.
Now, look, I think that there should be a desire to be in the ministry.
And many are called.
Hey, let's put the call out.
Hey, we want young people to enter the ministry.
But you know what?
In this church, and our doctrine is that you're chosen
and that it's few.
Now, over the years, I...
I've had a lot of different ideas when it comes to these things,
but one thing that I've pretty much always been consistent on
is that very few people will be chosen.
And if the last year or so has taught me anything,
I'm going to be even pickier than I have been, okay?
And I don't know if that's fair or not.
But at the end of the day, like I'm just not looking to
I'm not really a quantity type of person. I'm more of a quality type of person by it by enlarge
Obviously when you kind of have a situation where a bunch of churches are dumped in your lap
You might be a little bit more likely to just kind of just get some things going
But generally speaking I'm not like that. I want people to be high quality and high caliber
Because to me it's more important to have a high quality
in the ministry than it is to have a high-quantity.
And so, you know, if someone wants to go into the ministry,
you know what? It is going to be a chosen thing.
There's no guarantee. There's no locked in.
If you come up to me and say, like, I want to be a pastor
and I don't think it's going to be a good fit,
I'm not going to ordain you just because you want to.
and you can cry and moan about it,
and you can go find somebody that'll ordain you overnight,
somewhere else, but I just won't do it.
And you know what? I think that God,
you're going to see who God approves over time anyways.
The guy that just goes and gets a 24-hour ordination,
I guarantee he's not going to pan out
the same way as the guy that's patient and humble
and just allows God to put him in the ministry
if that's what his calling is.
And you know what? If you're not called to be in the ministry, it's okay.
Because we're all in the ministry as far as getting people saved and being a soul winner.
And, you know, being a pastor, being a deacon, being an evangelist,
it doesn't necessarily make you just a better Christian than other people.
And in fact, some offices in the Bible are just being a teacher.
There's men in our church that'll probably never be a pastor never be an evangelist
But you know what when I miss when I'm not here or other times and we need someone just get up and teach the Bible
They come up and they're a gift from God is what the Bible says
teachers teachers of the word of God, okay, and so we should recognize this this role go to 1st Corinthians chapter 9
Hey, many are called but if you're chosen it's it's not so much that
I or God wants to limit the number of people.
It's more that we want to have a standard to where
we're not just laying hands on anything and everything.
So there's a standard and then what happens, few are being chosen.
And that's okay.
Because again, it's just, it's not necessarily always God's will for every single person to be a pastor
and every single person to be an evangelist and every single person to be one of these things.
God picks certain people and think about it in the Old Testament.
In the priesthood, if you weren't born in a specific family, you didn't even have an option.
There was no such thing as just like, I want to transfer from naftali onto the Aaronic priesthood.
And some people tried this.
Some people tried to put themselves in the priesthood,
and every time they did, it failed.
Every time someone tried to put themselves in the priesthood,
failed, horrible, God doesn't approve, destruction,
false God, false religion, evil.
Like, don't try to put yourself in the ministry.
Even when the king wants to go in and offer incense,
boy, it just turns out bad for him.
He gets leprosy.
You know, you should stay away from the ministry
if God's saying no.
But there's many people that just, they just have to be a teacher.
They just have to be in a position of authority.
And really, you're going to see the fruit of that.
That church is going to be a very self-willed, prideful type church.
And it's going to attract self-willed, prideful, weirdos and freaks and all kinds of stuff
that are going to come to a church like that.
Whereas you want somebody that is like Moses that doesn't even necessarily want to go in,
but then he's hand-picked, he's told, hey, get in there.
And, you know, that's the type of ministry you want to follow that's kind of leader you want to follow.
1 Corinthians chapter 9, and really when you talk about ministry, this is what you're looking for anyways.
Look at verse 19,
For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant and all that I might gain the more.
Being a pastor, in my opinion, is just helping others serve Christ better.
Being an evangelist, being a deacon, being anything, being a so-and-so kind,
it's just serving other people.
You know, you don't have to be a pastor to serve other people.
You can just serve people.
In fact, the word deacon is pretty much just synonymous with the word servant.
I mean, it's just what deacon means is serve.
And at the end of the day, Christ did not come here to be ministered unto,
but to minister and to give His life a ransom.
You know the Christian life is one of ministering under the other people serving other people
That's why someone that's self-willed is like the exact opposite of what you should be looking for in a pastor
Is is because the person that's a good pastor is the one that's wanting to serve other people
Help other people give of his time his money his effort his energy make sacrifices for other people
Not the guy that's willing to step on top of people to get to the top
not someone that's willing to overlook commandments in the Bible
just so they can be in a position of power and authority.
But rather the person that looks to the Bible and says,
wow, if that's what God's saying, then I need to humble myself
and I need to submit to the Bible and do whatever the Bible's saying.
That's the type of person that we're supposed to be looking for anyways.
Go back to Matthew chapter 20.
Yeah, hey, being a pastor is a big deal
and I look at it as being very important.
And, you know, I'm sure I'm going to make mistakes.
And virtually every pastor I know,
you know, not all their ordination is going to pan out.
We try really hard.
We want to do what's right.
And it's not going to always work out.
But at the end of the day, like, I'm not thinking like,
man, let's make this stuff easier.
I'm thinking like, let's make this stuff harder.
Because you know what, it's really embarrassing
when you're Dana Bozo.
It's really embarrassing.
It's really frustrating.
And you know what? I do have to answer to God for those type of things.
So the last thing I want to do is do that again.
But at the end of the day, obviously, I'm not going to be perfect.
I can't promise you and say, like, that's never going to happen again.
What I can say is I could try to do better.
And at the end of the day, few will be chosen.
Now, again, if you want to be put in the ministry,
if you want to be doing something, just serve now.
Just serve where you're at.
You want to be a pastor someday?
Get married, have a couple kids, then talk to me about it.
I'm not I'm not really even gonna want to talk to somebody about it until they even get to that stage because otherwise
This is a waste of time and a lot of people even change their opinion
I've met so many people that they're so dedicated and want to serve and want to be a pastor or whatever
Then they have a couple kids and they're just trying to hang on for life. You know what I mean?
Look at verse 17 and Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way and said and to them behold
We go up to Jerusalem the Son of Man shall be betrayed and of the chief priests and of the scribes
And they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify him and the third day
He shall rise again. Here's a clear example Jesus Christ preaching the gospel before it ever happened
Some people say oh the Old Testament they didn't have the gospel in the Old Testament. Here's Jesus
In the timeline of the Old Testament, I know this is a New Testament scripture,
but you have to understand this is prior to the gospel being fulfilled.
This is, quote, Old Testament era.
He's preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament era.
And he got every detail right, didn't he?
They're going to Jerusalem.
He's the son of man. He's going to be a trait under the chief priests.
They condemned him to death.
Then they delivered him to the Gentiles, which was the Romans and the Pilate.
They mocked him, they scourged him, and they crucified him.
And then the third day he rose again.
Boy, that's a lot of prophecies all in one.
He called it, didn't he?
Must be the Son of God, huh?
Then he says in verse 20,
Then came to the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons worshiping him and desiring a certain thing of him and he said in her
What wilt thou she said unto him grant that these my two sons may sit the one on my right hand and the other on thy left in thy
kingdom
But Jesus answered and said,
You know not what you ask.
Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?
And if you baptize with the baptism that I am baptized with,
they say unto him, We are able.
Now, you read this in other Gospels,
and it doesn't say just the mother asked.
It says also the disciples asked.
So it's not just the mom saying this.
It's kind of like all of them saying this.
That's why it responds to you in verse 22,
is they say unto him, We are able.
Because it's the mom asking,
and then it's like the sons, the brothers.
They're saying, yeah, we are able.
And it's always easier to say it than to do it.
It's always easier to, you know, think about Peter.
He's like, hey, I'll die with you.
And then like a little girl's like, don't you know Jesus?
And he's like, I know not the man, right?
So it's a lot easier to say something than actually do it.
Just like these single guys think they're the greatest husbands that have ever lived.
That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, so you know a lot of times it's it's really easy to think that you're great at something until you actually do it
A lot of guys that think they're so awesome at sports until they actually have to go out and prove it
They're they can lift all kinds of weight. Then you put them in the gym
And it's like oh, these are these are different kind of weights
Or they actually match the amount of weight on the on the you know dumbbell
You know people always love to talk a big talk, but then it's like can you really do it?
Now, what is he asking them to do? You know not what you ask.
Are you able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?
Think about the cup.
Later, in Matthew 26, he asked Jesus to not have to drink that cup.
What is that talking about? That's talking about his sacrifice and his death.
So I think that this cup and this baptism is just alluding to, you know, dying a martyr's death,
dying and suffering for the cause of Christ.
And he's saying, hey, you want to be my disciple, you want to be an apostle,
you want to have a high position in Christianity, well, you're going to have to be willing to suffer.
suffer in a great way.
You're going to have to drink of that cup of persecution.
Yea, and all that will of Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Now, we don't necessarily get to pick what that is.
Some people are thrown into the fiery furnace.
Some people are thrown into the lion's den.
Some people are thrown into the dung pit like Jeremiah was.
Some people have to marry a whore like Isaiah had to.
I mean, who knows what persecution you're going to get.
John is exiled to the island of Patmos and
Constantly we want to be like Peter and be like hey, what's gonna happen to him?
What's gonna happen to John? What's gonna happen to this? We don't know what's gonna happen to them and we don't even know
What's gonna happen to us?
He tells some people in the church in in revelation
Be thou faithful in the death and I'll give thee a cry of life then he tells Philadelphia. Hey, you guys are gonna escape
I think a lot of us would be like,
can I press the Philadelphia door?
Like, I like this plan.
I like this opportunity.
You know, some people were sawing a thunder.
I'm just saying like,
I don't really want to press that button.
But you know what, we're not,
we don't get to pick which button we press.
All we have, all we get to say is like,
hey, will I actually do what God wants me to do?
Will I drink the cup that God wants me to drink?
But you know what, if you actually think,
like that's easy, it's not easy.
That's what Jesus is saying.
Serving Christ to the end as a dedicated disciple is not something that's taken lightly.
It is a serious cup.
It is a serious baptism, in a sense.
Now,
he continues in verse 23,
and he said unto them,
You shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I'm baptized with,
but to sit on my right hand on my left is not mine to give,
but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.
You know all these weird Trinity doctrines. I don't understand how they would interpret this verse
Like oneness or something like how do you even interpret this if you don't have the Trinity? I?
Also would say like I don't even understand how people could
Genuinely explain this without the fact that the father and the son have a separate will
or a separate mind.
Now, some people get really mad at me for saying that,
but, you know, Jesus said,
not my will, but thine be done.
You know, that's Jesus. That's red letters.
Are you going to get mad at me for believing the red letters?
Oh, well, you just don't understand, Pastor,
that's just human will versus his own divine will,
and you just don't understand all this fancy theology.
Well, if God wanted me to understand that,
why didn't he put it in the Bible?
You know, why did God cause it to where I have to go listen to a bunch of unsaved Catholic theologians to really understand the Bible?
And I can't just actually read it in the Bible.
Right?
I mean, if God really wanted me to understand that verse, he had to go hide it in St. Augustine's commentary, which isn't even in English.
Mind you, that's how buried it is, that's where I have to go and find how to really
understand the Bible.
I can't just read the Bible and then understand it.
You know when Jesus Christ is saying in John chapter number six that he came down from
heaven, not to do his own will.
But the will of him that sent me, again, that's just not talking about Jesus having a separate will.
And then people say like, oh, you just don't understand the Bible, you don't understand the Trinity.
Go listen to all these theologians, go listen to all these dead church fathers.
Go listen to these baby baptizing weirdos.
No, I won't.
No, I'm going to listen to this.
Explain to me that verse and be sincere. You can't do that.
Yeah, the father is the one who's prepared a place for people to sit,
and Jesus is saying, look, it's not even mine to give.
That sounds like separate persons.
I don't know how else you would argue that.
I'm willing for someone to give me an opportunity.
I just was trying to play devil's advocate with myself because I do that.
I'm trying to think like, even if I was them, how would I argue this?
And I was like, I can't even figure it out.
This is case closed, buddy.
And notice, though, that there's also a position.
There's a status.
There's a reward to serving God.
Somebody gets to sit on the left hand.
Somebody gets to sit on the right hand.
And it's not everybody.
Not everybody is going to be in the same position in heaven.
I don't know why this seems like a novel idea,
but some people can't figure it out.
Go to Matthew chapter 5. Go to Matthew chapter 5.
Look, there is a reward to serving God.
Some people will be in a higher status and higher ranking in heaven than others.
I don't understand all that.
I'm not one of these Mormons that thinks there's three versions of heaven or something.
There's a lower, middle, and higher heaven.
All of that stuff's not in the Bible.
But what the Bible does teach is that some people will be greater and some people will be lesser.
Matthew 5 verse 19.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so,
he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
That's called status.
Some people are greater than others in the kingdom of heaven.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 3.
Let's look at the, let's get this drilled in because this is important.
Yes, how you live your life matters.
The kingdom of heaven matters.
Serving in the vineyard matters.
Gathering fruit matters.
And I'll just be honest with you,
even if, even if I got no reward in heaven,
if I got no status improvement,
if I got no extra mansion, no extra bedroom,
no extra award, no thank you, nothing.
The only thing I get is when I preach the gospel and got someone saved is that person doesn't go to the hell. It's worth it
I mean, how could you sit here and act like pulling people out of the fire doesn't matter
Well, I know somebody and they can't go so wanting as much as you okay
But I can and I'm gonna go out there and try to go so many as much as I can
I hate the wet blanket on soul winning because some people are going to hell because you won't go out there and preach the gospel
People are gonna spend all of eternity in hell if you don't go out there and preach the gospel to them and look
I am motivated by reward. I am motivated to be pleasing unto God
But let me tell you something people dying and going to hell should be the main
Motivator of why soul winning matters because that fruit on that vine if it doesn't get plucked will just end up
Perishing will end up turning into nothing and having no use
It's us that go out there and make a difference.
If our gospel we hid, it's hid to them that are lost,
is what the Bible says.
Someone needs to go out there and get someone saved.
Someone needs to go out there and do something
for the kingdom of God.
We don't have some kind of a fake weak warm lukewarm Christianity
We have a real spirit-filled type Christianity that actually pulls people out of the fire and gets them saved
Don't let anybody convince you of otherwise. Oh, you guys are just emphasizing so many. Yeah getting people out of hell
Getting people out of hell, what are you doing? What are you emphasizing?
Preaching lame sermons. What is that accomplishing?
What does that do?
Oh, you think you preach better sermons. It doesn't matter if I preach better sermons. I just want people to go out and go soul-winning.
You know, I measure the sermons. Are we increasing soul-winning?
Hey, are we getting more people going soul-winning? Are we getting more soul-winners and are we doing better soul-winning? Well, then preaching is working.
Hey, whenever the preaching is causing us to have less soul-winning and less soul-winners, then I'll fix the preaching.
But considering the fact that we keep getting more soul winners
and we keep getting more soul winning,
the sermons are not getting fixed, okay?
Sorry.
We're not going to be fixing anything around here.
We're not going to break something that's not broken.
1 Corinthians chapter 3, look at verse 14.
If any man's work abide,
which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward.
Boy, it sounds like somebody's going to get rewarded.
Go if you went to 2nd Corinthians chapter number five.
I'm just going to read for you.
I have a lot more verses on this, but I'm just going to read them.
Luke chapter 12 says in verse number 19,
Saying what is the point of me spending all of my labor all of my time all of my effort all of my energy on
Just having more money more goods nicer house nicer car nicer things if I end up doing nothing for God
What's the point?
Because then I'm just giving it to somebody else that's gonna all perish and waste away and corrupt and rot and have no meaning
He's saying, look, you need to be rich toward God, and if you're not, you're a fool.
The Bible doesn't even talk nicely about you.
It says you're an idiot.
It says you're stupid.
If you're saved and you're not laying up treasure in heaven, you're a fool!
You're stupid!
You're an idiot!
You're walking up and down the vineyard, doing nothing!
What is the point?
You should go out there and preach the gospel and get someone saved!
Now, what does it say in 2 Corinthians chapter number five?
You you seem a little bit over the top. I can't be over the top enough
2nd Corinthians chapter number five look at verse nine
Wherefore we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him
You know why I work so that God will be pleased with me. Oh, there are these Christians that think if you work
That's how you get accepted of God. Yes, it is
That's not my opinion. That's the Bible's opinion. The Bible says that we're accepted of him when we labor. We labor that we may
be accepted. That's not a guarantee.
Look at this, there's ten.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things done in his body
according to that he have done whether it be good or bad.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
But we are made manifest unto God,
and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
Notice, the terror of the Lord,
it is gonna be terrifying to stand before God
and to be judged according to the works
that you did in this life.
It's gonna be intense.
It's just, I mean, just think about if your boss just said,
all right, come in tomorrow.
We have on tape everything you've ever done
And we're going to watch all of it.
Every break, everything you were doing, every website you went to, every time you got on
your phone, just every single thing you've done on the work, everything you've ever
said about the boss, we have it printed out, we're going to review it.
Wouldn't you be a little bit scared?
Now some of you are like, oh, I've never done anything wrong.
Okay, some of you are thinking like, wow,
I said some things about my boss the other day,
or I was lazy the other day,
or I skipped something the other day.
I mean, as terrifying as that is, it's way worse.
We're gonna stand there before the Lord Jesus Christ
and everything done in your body is gonna be judged
whether it was good or whether it was bad.
That's what I'm trying to persuade you of,
to say, hey, this is important.
He's gonna say like hey, you got out there and preach the gospel. Good job. Hey, you did nothing not good again
Meaningless worthless all your wood a and stubble just burned up and the Bible says you're gonna suffer loss
It'll be embarrassing. I mean think about it this way. What if this guy that hired all the labors?
He goes to the guys at 6 a.m. Show me your basket
And they have nothing in it
Don't you think they'd be a little bit like you don't look don't look at it
Wouldn't that be embarrassing if you had a basket from 6 a.m. To 6 p.m. And he looks and there's no grapes in it
There's nothing
Wouldn't that just be super embarrassing isn't embarrassing if your parents say hey clean your room and then you just play
Kids and then they come and they open the door and there's just like a huge mess everywhere. That's embarrassing
It's super duper embarrassing and the same way that if you stand before the Lord Jesus Christ
You're like I was saved since I was five years old and I lived to be 80
Okay, let's see how many how many grapes do you have in the basket?
None
That's gonna be really embarrassing
That's gonna be super duper embarrassing to stay in there and be like what did you do with it?
What'd you at the gospel that I gave you nothing?
And look, all of the stuff that you did in your life in that moment, you don't even care at all.
You don't care if you got second place in your third grade soccer team match or something.
It doesn't matter how many times you could bounce a ball on a ping-pong paddle.
It doesn't matter how many secular songs you've memorized in your life.
It doesn't matter what kind of house you lived in. You don't even care.
It'll be meaningless to you.
You're not going to care what clothes you wore.
You're not going to care about all of this carnival.
You're not going to care about what meals you had.
You're not going to care about how many times
you got your hair cut in a special way.
You're not going to care about all of the stupid
carnal things of this life.
You're going to be like thinking, man, I wish I had
a little bit more grapes in this basket.
Go to Hebrews chapter six, go to Hebrews chapter six.
Someone needs to get serious about the things of God.
Because you know what the world's trying to do?
Making more covetous, covetous, covetous, covetous, covetous, covetous.
And you know what the Bible's trying to say?
Quit worrying about all that stuff and go work.
Go work in my labor. Go work.
And look, you think that it's just for...
The carnal Christians, no, no, no, people in this room, people in our church, they can get this covetous bug.
They can start working for the flesh. They can start getting backslidden. They can stop doing the labor.
But you know what? You don't stop doing the labor. Hey, we're here on Wednesday night. You stay in Wednesday night.
Hebrews 6, look at verse 9.
But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
You know, there's things that accompany salvation. Not everything's about salvation in the Bible.
Some things are accompanying salvation.
Hebrews 6 is telling us to go under perfection.
Why? Because we need things that accompany salvation, not just salvation.
What does it say? Verse 10,
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love,
which you have showed toward His name,
and that you have ministered to the saints and to minister.
You know, some preachers would say,
Oh, the works that we do don't have any impact.
You know what? They're calling God unrighteous.
They're calling God unrighteous by saying that he's forgetting your work and labor and love that which you do show
Verse 11 we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of the hope under the end
They be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience
Inherit the promises notice the promises is plural because there's more than just salvation. There's other promises
Go to chapter 11 verse 6 chapter 11 verse 6
But without faith, it's impossible to please him for he that come at the God must believe that he is and that he is a
Rewarder of them that diligently seek him. We need to realize that God is going to reward us
Think about it. Those a lot of those people in the vineyard, they just went out
They didn't know what they were gonna get but they knew they would be rewarded
They knew they were gonna get that which was right. None of us have any idea how the reward system is gonna work
If anybody says like I have a chart. Here's the reward system in heaven. They're a liar
None of us have any idea, but you know what I do know is that God is not unrighteous to forget my work and labor of love which I do show towards His name.
You know what I do know is that all of the wood-hate and stubble I have is going to be meaningless and that the gold, silver and precious stone that I have is actually going to give me a reward.
And I have to do it by faith. I have to just believe that He's a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Seeking God has a reward.
Seeking God is going to have blessing in this life and in the next.
Go over to 2 Timothy chapter 4, go backwards with the hair.
2 Timothy chapter number 4.
I'm not going to finish this whole chapter, I'm just going to finish on this point, alright?
Don't get too nervous.
2 Timothy chapter number 4, look at verse 7.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day,
and not to me only, but unto all them also, that love is appearing."
You know, that should be a comforting verse to everybody because
you don't have to be an apostle to get this crown.
You don't have to be the Apostle Paul. You don't have to be during his era.
You don't have to do something specific to the Apostle Paul.
Notice it says,
Everybody that is working diligently, where God has placed them to serve the Lord Jesus Christ,
that finishes their course, there is a crown laid up for them.
But you know what? Some people are going to lose that crown. Go to Revelation chapter 3.
You know, the Bible warns in Second John chapter 8.
It says,
Look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought,
but that we receive a full reward.
Not everybody's going to be fully rewarded.
Some people are going to lose their rewards.
Now, again, I want to make it clear what I'm saying.
I do not believe you can lose a reward you've earned.
If you've already earned the reward, that can't be taken from you.
But there are some rewards that we're working towards
that we would get that we could end up losing out on and not get that full reward.
Or we could have that crown of righteousness that is taken from us as the Bible says.
Look what it says in Revelation chapter 3 verse 11.
Behold I come quickly, hold that fast which thou hast,
that no man take thy crown.
Hey, there's a crown up there, not everybody gets it.
Not everybody gets the crown in heaven.
Not everybody gets the same rewards.
Not everybody has the same position.
Not everybody has the same status.
There is a crown laid up there for all of us that are saved.
Don't let any men take your crown.
Don't let some stupid preacher come around and convince you to stop serving God
so that you lose your crown.
Don't let some other man take your crown.
You stay steadfast.
You stay dedicated towards the things of God.
You say, hey, that's my crown and I want to get it.
That's my mountain. I'm going to go take it and
You know what you got to just believe that God is a diligent rewarder of them that or a rewarder of them that diligently seek him
Now we'll finish this later the rest of this chapter
But the main emphasis of this in my opinion of this whole chapter is just being a laborer
Be a laborer and God will reward you and we need to make sure that we're working for the master
You know if you if you haven't gone soul-winning
There's a great opportunity to start right now.
Hey, I haven't been doing it for the last 11 hours.
Okay, there's still an hour left.
Just get in there.
Hey, you know what?
Being a silent partner, I still believe
you're gonna be rewarded.
I don't think that silent partners
aren't rewarded or something.
Get out there, just join.
Like, how hard is it to just be alive?
I mean, that's pretty much,
I mean, as long as you have a heartbeat,
You can pretty much just go out with somebody,
find somebody that can preach the gospel and just go with them.
You know, our ladies' times have been really kicking up.
A lot of ladies have been going soul-winning,
and there's a great opportunity to go out with some of the ladies.
Ladies, just ask your husband to take you out soul-winning sometime
if you feel like you're not getting an opportunity.
I'm sure many of them will try to make opportunity.
You men, lead by example, go out there and preach the gospel.
If you have opportunity to do it more, do it more.
If you can only do what you can do what you can but you know what?
I'm never gonna tell someone that soul winning is not important just because they can't go as much as other people
Well, then figure out a way to go more
Right, I mean, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like it's not important to gather fruit
You know figure out a way to strategically plan your life around soul winning
You know my life is not planned around making money
My my life is evolving around making spiritual money
Most people evolve their lives around their job.
You know what? We should do that with our spiritual job.
We should evolve our lives around that.
And you know when something's interfering with me getting wages with God, it needs to go.
Because I don't want to miss out on wages.
You know isn't it annoying when you have to miss work and it's not paid time off?
And you feel that pinch of your paycheck getting deducted?
I don't want my paycheck to get deducted spiritually
because of some carnal, stupid thing that doesn't matter.
I want to make sure I'm out there earning wards every single day,
every single week, every single year,
until I get called back up into heaven.
And then God can look at me and say,
well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Thou hast been faithful over thou which is little.
Be thou faithful over thou which is much.
Be over much, be over ten cities, be over five cities, be over one city.
You know, have a crown.
That's going to matter, and then you know how long you get that forever.
You get a new car, and then your kids vomit in it.
You get a new couch, and your kids rip it in half, and draw all over it.
Get married to some handsome dude, and then he gets a dad bod, you know?
I mean, you get a brand new house.
Next year, it's not a brand new house.
You know what I mean?
I mean, everything in this life, it's just corruptible.
You know, you win the Super Bowl.
Next year, nobody can remember who won the Super Bowl.
But guess what?
That reward you have in heaven, it'll be there forever.
forever. Let us labor for the meat that doesn't perish but for the meat that is
forever. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us an
opportunity to serve. Thank you for giving us a job in your kingdom. I pray
that we would take it seriously, that we'd have spiritual eyes, that we would
realize the tear of the Lord that's coming one day.
I pray that you would help motivate us to serve you and to gather as much fruit as we can.
I pray that you would help motivate our church to look through spiritual eyes
and that we could continue to get many people saved.
I pray that you would help bless our evangelists as he gathers fruit.
And I pray that in this church that you would just help give us more labors.
Bring us more people that want to go out and preach the gospel.
Bring us more people that have a heart for the loss.
Bring us more people that want to work really hard.
And bring us more people that want to serve, not to be served.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Alright, for our last song, let's go to song number 162.
Song number 162 to God be the glory
Song number
You
We have two baptisms this evening.
Mercy, have you trusted Christ as your savior?
I'm faith.
I'm sorry, your faith.
Faith, have you trusted Christ as your savior?
Yes.
Then I baptize you in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost.
Buried in the likeness of his death,
raised to walk in newness of life.
We also have mercy coming for baptism.
Mercy, have you trust a Christ your Savior?
Yes.
Then I baptize your name with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Buried in the lightness of His death,
raised to walk in newness of life.
Make sure to congratulate both our baptisms.
God bless your dismissed.