Whenever You Come, Come To Work
3/21/99 Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 Matthew 20:1-16
Suppose you had hired Jim to come and work for you. During the interview, Jim, told you “I just can’t wait to get in there and work on the job.” Well the first day on the job, the first thing Jim did was to go down to the office to sit and and wait to find out when was the first break, lunch break, and the second break. Jim was able to make it to the bathroom at least three times in between breaks. Jim informed the foreman that he could think of three ways the job could be made easier. None of his ideas were any good. Jim stopped by the office on the way home to let them know he would probably be late coming in tomorrow, and would have to have this Friday off for personal reasons. How long would you put up with Jim?
Suppose you had hired Jan. During the interview, Jan did not show as much enthusiasm but she too wanted the job. On the first day on the job, Jan had to be stopped in order to take her first break. She was the first one back from lunch and was the last one to stop working when it was time to go home. On her way past the office, the foreman said, “Jan, you did a great job today.” How long would you put up with Jan?
The wonderful and amazing thing about our God, is that when God calls us to work, He’s able to love us and to put up with all of us, both the Jims and the Jans in the church. If someone were to do an honest evaluation of your commitment to God’s work in the church, would you be rated closer to a Jim or a Jan. When we think of the ten years of ministry God has given us here at Glenville, we are thankful, because we have discovered more Jans, than Jims in the church.
The parable of the vineyard is not a parable about salvation but a story about our service to God, and why it is that we give it. The context of the story begins in chapter 19. Jesus had run into a young man, who had wanted eternal life and wanted to serve God, but he had a problem. He asked Jesus, what do I need to do to go to heaven.
Jesus told him, “If you want to have eternal life, first obey the commandments. The young man said, “which ones.” Jesus then gave him a list, and the young man had a spark in his eye thinking he qualified, he said, well I’ve kept all those, what else do I still need to do.” Jesus told him, “look right now, I can tell you love your money and your things, far more than love you love God. If you want what you’re looking for, go sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.
Well the young man, went away sad, because in having to choose between his wealth and following Jesus, he chose his wealth. But let’s not to be hard on the young man, because many of us make the same choice with our wealth, only unlike the young man, we tell ourselves, “yes I can love the Lord and not give what he asks me to give.” At least the rich man was honest with Jesus from the start and turned and walked away.
When Peter saw that the young ruler went away, an element of pride came into his life. He said, “Jesus, we have left everything to follow you. What kind of a reward is there going to be for us.” Peter is saying, we have been working with you since you started preaching. It’s not possible for anybody to get more than what we should get. In saying this though, Peter was displaying an attitude that we all must recognize in ourselves as a dangerous one. That attitude is, “Lord, I’m not in this because of who you are and what you’ve done for me. I’m only in it for the money at the end.”
Andre Crouch once wrote in a song, “if heaven, never was promised to me. Neither was there a promise to live eternally. It’s been worth just having the Lord in my life. Living in a world of darkness, he came along and showed me the light.” When I think back over the past ten years together, As pastors we don’t need a reward in heaven to say, Lord it was worth it. We don’t need a jewel for a crown to want to work as hard as we have before. It’s been worth just having the Lord in our lives and seeing what he has done for you.
We rejoice with you when you’ve gotten promotions on your job. We rejoice with you when your children graduated not only from High School but also college and graduate school. When everyone of you have succeeded in something God has called you to do, we feel as though a part of us succeeded with you. We rejoice when seeing how some of you made some major mistakes in your life by going against God’s word, but you hung in there with the Lord and are an example for others today. Yes it’s been worth having the Lord in our lives, because the way he has used you has been a crown of glory for us.
After ten years of ministry, we also know that Glenville will always have room for those who wish to serve. If you come to this particular church, then come ready to work. We do not want you to come to seek a position, but to come to seek to serve. If our motive for service is to get a position, its a bad motive, because if God does not give us the position we will become angry or upset. “How dare they not choose me?”
If our motive for service is to serve Jesus Christ, then it is a good motive, because there will always be a need for those with a serving spirit. It does not matter when you came to Glenville, or instance if you were here when we arrived, if you came five years later, or if you came five days ago. What matters is whenever you came, you should have come ready to work.
Jesus told a story about a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers to go and labor in his field. Now the first thing I want you to know, is there were seven types of workers with various contracts with a landowner. Landowners were not known for being very generous so everything was spelled out in the law. The hired day laborers, were at the bottom of the ranking in the seven types of workers. They were the ones most likely to be cheated by the landowner. They had no guarantee of future work, and they would be paid at the end of the day most of the time.
In our parable the landowner went out looking early in the morning to hire some people to work in his fields. It was about sunrise around six in the morning. These people were standing around, hoping for the chance to get some work. When they negotiated what they thought was an excellent deal, they went to work.
About three hours later around 9:00am, he found some other people standing in the marketplace. He told them, if you go to work in my vineyard, I’ll pay you whatever is right. Now this was a step of faith on there part to go. What did the landowner mean, he would pay them what was right? On the other hand, something was better than nothing, so they went.
He went out again and did the same thing at 12:00 and at 3:00pm. At 5:00pm he went out again, and found some people still standing around doing nothing. He asked them, “why are you wasting time like this.” They said, “look we’d like to work, but nobody has hired us.” He told them, you also go and work in my vineyard and they went.
When we look at you as a congregation, we see you here not by accident, but by the hand and mercy of God. God chose you to be here, just like in the parable the landowner went looking for workers. You may think that you chose God, but Jesus says look, before you get too big of head of thinking how you did God a favor by getting saved, remember this, “You did not choose me, but I chose you that you should go forth and bring forth fruit.”
When we came here ten years ago, some of you had responded to the 6:00am call of Jesus and were already in place when we arrived at 8:00. This church building owes a great debt to what I have often called the three horsemen of Glenville. They were Eugene Thomas, Lloyd Simmons, and Oenver Milan. God used their strength and their energy to rally us together to change this building. I still can’t believe we put this ceiling in the church or how exactly we did it. But I do recall it was the first time many of your women brought food to the church night after night for the men doing the work. It was the first time some of you men came out to do something in the life of the church. It was a cementing of fellowship.
That first major project established the principle, each one can do what he or she can do and together we will get the job done. The painters painted, the cooks cooked, the cleaners cleaned, the givers gave, and the workers worked. Now when we do a job, it does not matter who you are so long as you come to work. The last time we painted the church, and sanded the pews, and varnished the furniture, there were those of you who came at 6, those who Jesus called at 9, at 12, and at 3 all working together to make it happen. There were little kids here painting and varnishing, and there were seasoned adults working side by side as the way it should be. You are never too young and never too old to work in the kingdom of God.
When Jesus sent workers to the church at 9:00, they did not find the same situation as those who had arrived at 6:00. They benefited from the earlier work of the 6:00 people. The 9:00 were coming into a church that was beginning to shift its giving patterns. By 9:00 people were realizing God was calling us to make a difference in the lives of others and in the community. We discovered God did have a financial plan in mind, and He was going to use us to put it into reality.
To the disappointment of some, God did not send us a wealthy person to foot the bills, instead God told us to obey His word and to tithe. To tithe is to simply give God one penny out of a dime every time we get one. To keep tithing all we have to do is to pray for God to keep us from being so greedy that the more dimes He gives to us, the more dimes we will insist we must have for ourselves and ourselves alone. Next time before you cut tithe, make sure you’ve cut the extra premium cable channels, or the call waiting, forwading, and three way calling first.
We did not fold as a church as many predicted we would, because many of you became tithers. It’s been a blessing watching what God did for some of you tithers. Some of you had kids go to college and you did not have to pay a dime for it. Some of you have jobs today, you never thought you would have. Some of you are in homes and cars you did not think you would get and you’re not struggling to pay for them.
Some of you have had God bring you back from near death and healed you of sickness. Some of you have had happier marriages than you ever had. Some of you have had kids but did not go through a lot of the pain and turmoil that other families have endured. God has promised in His word to bless those who will bring the tenth into His house. He does not promise you will have everything go right, and your finances will never be shaky because you tithe. He does promise though that tithing will help us to learn to trust Him rather than our wealth in times of crises.
There are some of you who came at 6, 9, 12, 3, and 5 who are tithing today and affirming that if you have to choose between serving God and serving money, you’ll choose serving God. There are some of you who came at 6, 9, 12, 3, and 5 who have chosen to give your money in other places. I believe you want to love God, but remember until you freely tithe, you will not be able to truly say you’re trusting God. The last thing we give to the Lord is often the control of our wealth, because it is our wealth which determines what kind of life we’re willing to live for God.
We’ve watched some of you become tithers through steady increasing of your offerings over a period of years. Others of you got started by doing it with the Above and Beyond where you give 10% of money you did not expect to give. We watched others of you start by saying, if that’s what God asks, then that’s what I’m going to give. Our church would not be where it is today if we had not taken the vision to tithe. It has been your faithfulness in your giving which has made it possible for us to be here for ten years as your pastors.
It is your tithing which makes it possible for everybody to be treated to the same standard of love and care in times of need. It is your tithing that assures we minister to people in Jesus’ name far beyond the walls of this church. What we give on Sundays, affects people in other countries. The great thing about these past ten years, is that each year, we have been able to give away a little more than the year before. You are going to be surprised at how many people are in heaven because of your giving. Don’t worry about our counters having to stay too long too count your offering. They are one of the most dedicated groups in the church, and they will not mind staying a few more extra minutes.
Those of you who Jesus sent to the church in the 12:00 hour have benefited greatly from those who were here at 6 and at 9. For it was the 6 and 9 group of workers who grabbed a vision to want to know God even more intently. That’s why the one bible study formed by the earlier workers has now grown into eight bible studies in which you can learn the word of God. That’s why you find lay pastors who can both preach, counsel, and teach the word of God. That’s why you have workers willing to teach in youth worship and Pioneers. That’s why our elders and deacons are effective in leading us for the Lord. The more of the word of God we have place in our hearts, the more capable we become in being a blessing to others.
Those of you who Jesus sent to the church in the 3:00 hour have benefited again greatly from those who were here at 6, 9, and 12. There was a time when we were Glenville Presbyterian Church and we were traditional Presbyterian in our worship. You start at 11 and get out by 12. We were much quieter in those days. But God started a change before we got here in bringing in the Gospel Gems.
Then came the Angelic Voices, The Praise Choir, and Last God’s Chosen Generation. The introduction of various musicians, Synthia, the CD Player, The Tape Player, and The Computer, opened up a huge variety of worship and praise songs. Glenville New Life Community Church really did have some New Life poured into it, because the congregation wanted to know God as deeply as possible in praise as in the Word. We have learned to appreciate God in all kinds of music, from Praise To The Lord The Almighty, The King of Creation, to Can’t Stop Praising His Name and all which is in between and out beside.
Those of you who have come in at 5:00, you too have benefited from the 6, the 9, the 12, and the 3:00 groups. You would not see a handicap access ramp without them. You would not be in padded pews and carpeted floors without them. You would not have heard our radio broadcast or received our newspaper without them. You would not know of the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, The Singles, The Ushers, The Greeters, The Coffee Hour Workers, The Nursery, The Men and Women’s Organization without them.
There would not be signs outside, fenced parking lots, or copiers to make your bulletin. There would not be the love which you have felt in this church without them. All 5 o’clock should know, when we invite you into the family, we invite you into the whole family at Glenville. You can very quickly become one of our equals if you’re willing to work where God has called you.
In the story with the workers, we are not told why all of them were not present at 6:00 when the landowner first arrived. One thing for sure, those who were hired at 6 were going to need more help if the job for the landowner was to be completed by the end of the day. The landowner wanted to get the job done.
Landowners as I told you earlier, were not known for being generous. But for some reason this one was. He called in the five o’clock workers first and paid them a full day’s pay. Well the moment the six am workers saw this, they knew they were going to get more. Their reasoning was simple, we worked longer and harder therefore we should get more. Boy were they shocked and upset when they got what they earlier negotiated for before doing the work. “Man I know you are going to give me more than this.”
The landowner said look, “you agreed to work for a $100 today, here’s the hundred so take your money and go.” Why should I have to pay you more, for the privilege of being generous with my money to someone else who has a need. Why should you get angry or jealous because somebody else got a blessing.
None of us, whether we came at 6, 9, 12, 3, or 5, have to be afraid of being short changed by God. Sometimes we are blessed and do not know it. How many of you know it was a blessing to have been hired at 6. You were not worried about how you would eat or pay your bill that was due or whether or not your kids would be disappointed that night. That person hired at 5 had 11 hours with no peace of mind, knowing that with each passing moment the chances of getting money were growing dim. By the time the landowner say him, he was really looking down.
God will always reserve for Himself the right to treat each one of us in the way which is best suited for His plans for us. If our motive is to serve God, we can always accept this. If our motive is to demonstrate how much better we are than others, or how God should place us above others, then we do not understand God. The right work done with the wrong motives dishonors God and robs us of our blessing.
This parable is not teaching that in the end, we will all receive the same reward. It’s message is that our service to God is equally important, no matter when it is we get saved. Therefore none of us, can look down upon the work of another as being less spiritual or less important. Being faithful in picking up the trash in front of the church is just as much a way of saying thank you to God as singing the finest solo, or preaching the greatest sermon. It is the same God who gives the ability to do all three. God does not judge us all the time by the work we do, but rather the reason for why we did the work.
God calls everybody to come and to work in the fields. Until we give our lives to him, we are like the potential workers who are just standing around doing nothing. Jesus said, “many are called, but few are chosen.” We choose to be chosen by coming with a mind to work for the Lord. Please don’t come with idea that somehow God is going to owe you something for all you do for Him. Come knowing that what God has done for you is already for more than you can repay. If we could just spend two seconds in hell, we’d never have to worry about being motivated to do all we can to make a difference for Christ in this life.
