-Has it ever happened to you?
-Have you ever “lost” something that “belonged” to you?
-I don’t mean “lost” and “belonged” in the same way you are thinking
-I really mean, has somebody ever given something that you thought should be yours to somebody else instead
-How did that feel? Probably about the same as really losing an item
-No, it was probably worse, wasn’t it?
-In my experiences like that, it was always worse
-Last year, at the basic chaplain’s course I thought that I should have won at least one or two of the three awards they give out at the end of the course
-I knew I was in the running for but was not a lock to win the distinguished graduate award for top academic score
-However, I thought for sure I should have either won the athletic award or the award for the top chaplain for our deployment to Tyndall
-I absolutely blew everybody away in the PT tests at the beginning and end of the course. Nobody was even close. However, one guy got a lot of extra points for running gobs of miles every night while I was trying to nurse my Achilles tendons back to health. He ended up winning the award.
-I was the class president for our class so I was in charge of our class. On our exercise day during our deployment to Tyndall, I was in charge of one of the teams until they starting killing people off. With my extensive military background, I was head and shoulders above everybody else in taking care of business during the week and especially during the exercise.
-However, I lost out on my shot at the award when I let it be known that the week long deployment was both a waste of time and money since it was some of the worst training that I had ever been a part of. That’s saying a lot since I’ve served in the National Guard for three years.
-To see less qualified people walk away with hardware that I had worked sufficiently hard for, at least in my mind, and lose it because I had criticized a poor program hurt
-But it did more than hurt, it made me mad
-It was wrong
-I had been robbed
-I’m sure you felt ripped off too
-Why?
-Why did we react that way?
-It never belonged to us. Nobody took it away from us. It never belonged to us. We weren’t even asked to watch it for awhile. {PAUSE}
-You’ve probably seen some video of parents at sporting events (mostly football games) get way too bent out of shape over a meaningless game
-It’s shocking to us. We’d never act that way. But it’s not meaningless to them. See we are capable of the same stupidity that drives them to start fighting with referees or coaches or come out onto the field to hurt a kid that they felt wronged their child
-Think about how silly I got over a couple of pieces of medal and plastic
-I know I’m capable of it and you are too
-But really why do we act that way?
-Because we are selfish
-Because we think that what we have belongs to us
-Because we think that what we have, we have worked for
-We think that we are entitled {PAUSE}
-That’s really the problem that some of the Jewish people of Jesus day had
-It’s really the problem that the religious leaders had
-It probably trickled down to some others as well
-What we see in this parable, as well as the one on either side of it, is a people who are resting on their laurels.
-They are content to be children of Abraham, waiting to inherit the promise of a never-ending kingdom but never having to lift a finger to even keep it going much less extend it’s influence
-What are you doing to extend the influence of Christ in your part of the globe?
-Maybe you are praying for some friends, neighbors, coworkers or family members who don’t know Christ
-That’s good
-Have you ever invited them to come to chapel? More than once? Keep asking them.
-I remember the story about a man in another country who would ask his neighbor to join him for church every week and every week his neighbor would spit in his face. He went on for seventeen years inviting his friend to church. Finally, the neighbor said, “You’ve been coming to my house every week for seventeen years and I’ve spit in your face every week. Why do you keep coming back?” And then the man shared how much God loved him demonstrated by what Jesus Christ has done for us.
-Are you willing to have somebody spit in your face every week for seventeen years? Why not?
-Isn’t the eternal salvation of another person for whom Christ died worth a little disgrace
-Jesus thought so
-That is why He allowed Himself to be arrested
-That is why He allowed Himself to be mocked
-That is why He allowed Himself to be beaten
-That is why He allowed Himself to be spat upon
-That is why He allowed Himself to be struck
-That is why He want to the cross for you
-That is why He took on the weight of your sin
-That is why He was forsaken by God for you
-Jesus loves you and wants to give you a part in His kingdom
-But you have to receive it on His terms
-You can have your cake and eat it too but you have to be willing to share it with those around you
-The Bible clearly tells us that we are either a slave to God or to Satan in this life. Fortunately, you get to choose whom you will serve. But does a slave get to decide what they’ll do? No, they have to do everything the master tells them.
-Do you have a choice in whether you come to chapel every week? No
-Do you have a choice whether you will be involved in Sunday school? No
-Do you have a choice whether you’ll give to support the ministry here? No
-Do you have a choice whether you’ll be involved in bible studies throughout the week? No
-Do you have a choice whether you’ll be involved in some of the outreach-oriented ministries that the chapel runs, like our outreach to single airmen? No
-Not if you are a slave to God
-Jesus parable is a stern warning to us not to get complacent lest our place in heaven be given to somebody else who is doing the work of the kingdom
-Would you like to be happier?
-Would you like to be more fulfilled in life?
-Let me help you out for a second
-Let me spin some things in your head to help you have a much happier and live a more fulfilled life
-Let me answer the question of what the relationship between our work and our pay is
-Everything you have is a gift from God
-That’s so important, I’m going to say it again
-Everything you have is a gift from God
-You’re probably saying “That’s wrong chaplain, as an NCO in the Army would say, ‘I work for a living’”
-No you don’t
-The work that you perform is simply your contribution to society
-It is your tangible love for your neighbors (husband, wife, children, others in the community, and it goes out from there)
-The paycheck that you bring home is not really your wages. It is God’s gift to you in order to provide for your needs and He gives each according to His will.
-Everything you own is not really yours. It belongs to God. You are merely stewards or caretakers of it.
-This information makes all the difference. When we get our relationship to God and to other people right. Everything is right. That way we have nothing to worry about. The vineyard will not be taken away from us and given to
