Community Family Fellowship
This week’s Readings
September 24, 2017
I hope and pray that you continue to pray and extend a hand to every victim of these past Hurricanes that have left so many victims with great loss in their wake.
Sunday Reading and Message Overview
Matthew 20:1-16
This reading is a parable mind you. This parable magnifies our human weakness and our pride to the utmost.
In the reading a landowner goes out in the early morning and recruits workers to work his vineyard for a rate of a denarius for the day’s work. Today, that would equal between $3.50 and $4.00. A few hours later, the landowner went out and hired several more to work in the vineyard for the day saying that he would pay them “whatever is right”. He repeated that hiring process every three hours promising to pay the laborers “whatever is right”.
So, when evening came and it was time to knock off for the day, he had his steward gather the laborers and pay them for their work. He began by paying the laborers who had only worked about an hour a denarius and likewise to each laborer without regard to the number of hours that they worked.
Well, well, well! The guys that worked from early dawn until quitting time were a little ticked off. They assumed that they would be paid more for the greater number of hours that they worked. They complained to the landowner who responded: “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way.”
Many, many years ago, I was the union rep for my police department. One of the things that I did was negotiate our annual pay raise. Our city had experienced a real commercial and industrial growth spurt which impacted the tax base tremendously. Realizing this, I went in to negotiations and came away with a ten per cent raise across the board. Believe me, I got some real pats on the back from fellow officers for that one.
But then the mood turned very sour, very fast. The rank and file discovered that the public works department rode in on our coat tails and also received a ten per cent raise. The prevailing attitude was that they were inferior in some way and didn’t deserve to receive the same pay raise as the police department.
When I explained that whatever any other employees received did not come out of our raises or budget so why would it make any difference to us. It all boiled down to pride and that “me first” attitude.
Beloved, what Jesus is trying to teach us here is that the Kingdom of Heaven-Our Salvation and Eternal Life is just as the vineyard that the laborers toiled in.
Some come to Christ and receive salvation early in life – childhood and in their teens. However, there are many that for whatever reason come to the Lord very late in life. “Johnny come lately” as it were. They are received into glory with the very same grace and welcome as any and every other who crosses over into the Glorious Realm of Heaven. Who would not rejoice in their victory? Who would resent their entry into the Kingdom?
God never shows partiality. Read:
Acts 15:8-9New King James Version (NKJV)
8 So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 9 and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Acts 15:11New King James Version (NKJV)
11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ[a] we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”
It would be a very small-minded person, now wouldn’t it?
Let us rejoice in every single victory! Let us do everything we can to bring others to that saving grace. Amen? AMEN!
Let us pray.
We love and serve God by loving and serving each other!
~~~***~~~
Here at Community Family Fellowship, you are welcome any and every Sunday. You are welcome here without regard to how you dress, the color of your skin, the culture you were raised in, whether you have a past that plagues you, whether you have been hurt by churches and church people in the past, whether you feel worthy or unworthy. Please believe me: GOD LOVES YOU and will receive you. Our mission is to help you connect or reconnect with HIM. It is about Him and it is about You - not us. We love and serve God by loving and serving each other - EVERY each other (that would be you).
~~*~~
