Order, Words, & Voices
The Matter of Enough, Matthew 20:1-16
Order
Pre Worship Music
Opening Song Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus Isaiah
I Stand Amazed
Call to Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer ?
Reading Matthew 20:1-16 Musgrove
Songs Give Me Jesus Isaiah
Message The Matter of Enough Rick
Music Give Me Jesus Isaiah
Community/Closing Peace Rick
Benediction Rick
Post Worship Music
Music (slides)
‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus
Verse 1
‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to take Him at His word
Just to rest upon His promise
Just to know thus saith the Lord
Chorus
Jesus Jesus how I trust Him
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus
O for grace to trust Him more
Verse 2
O how sweet to trust in Jesus
Just to trust His cleansing blood
Just in simple faith to plunge me
‘Neath the healing cleansing flood
Chorus
Jesus Jesus how I trust Him
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus
O for grace to trust Him more
Verse 4
I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee
Precious Jesus Savior Friend
And I know that Thou art with me
Wilt be with me to the end
Chorus
Jesus Jesus how I trust Him
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus Jesus precious Jesus
O for grace to trust Him more
I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous)
Verse 1
I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me
A sinner condemned unclean
Chorus
How marvelous how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous how wonderful
Is my Savior’s love for me
Verse 2
He took my sins and my sorrows
He made them His very own
(And) He bore the burden to Calvary
And suffered and died alone
Chorus
How marvelous how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous how wonderful
Is my Savior’s love for me
Verse 3
And with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see
It will be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me
Chorus
How marvelous how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous how wonderful
Is my Savior’s love for me
Call to Worship/Lord’s Prayer (Slides)
Leader: Mary said, “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bond-servant; from now on all generations will call me blessed.”
Response: “The Mighty One has done great things for me; holy is His name. His mercy is to all generations.”
Leader: As John the Baptizer stood with two of his disciples, he pointed to Jesus and proclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Response: The two disciples followed Jesus.
Leader: Jesus said to those who were following him, “Follow me, and you will see.”
Response: The followers stayed with Jesus.
Leader: When Andrew was seen by Jesus, Andrew ran to find his brother.
Response: “We have found the Messiah!”
Leader: Jesus found Philip in Galilee and Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.”
Response: Philip found Nathanael and said, “We found Him!”
Leader: Hanging on the cross next to Jesus, the criminal said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!”
Response: Jesus said, “Today you will be with me.”
Leader: Jesus said to his followers, “make disciples in all the nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and, Spirit, teach them to follow all that I commanded you.
Response: “Never forget I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Lord’s Prayer (Slides) ‘Join me in the prayer of Jesus’
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.
And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Reading (Slides) Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.
And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and to those he said, ‘You go into the vineyard also, and whatever is right, I will give you.’ And so they went.
Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ They *said to him, ‘No one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, starting with the last group first.’ When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. And so when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius.
When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day’s work and the scorching heat.’
But he answered and said to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go; but I want to give to this last person the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?’ So the last shall be first, and the first, last.”
Matthew 20:1-16
Music (Slides)
Give Me Jesus
Chorus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus
Verse 1
In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
In the morning when I rise
Give me Jesus
Chorus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus
Verse 2
When I am alone
When I am alone
Oh when I am alone
Give me Jesus
Chorus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus
Message – A Matter of Enough (Slides)
[Slide displayed as Rick steps up to speak] “For the kingdom of heaven is like…”
[End Screen Share]
I walked into the hospital room of a lady who had just received some devastating health news. Her adult children were in the room and were in the obvious process of processing the news themself, one showed the emotions of anger and another seemed to have jumped to denial. Their words were not particularly helpful for their mother who was attempting to process her own grief. “What is heaven like?” the ill woman asked. It was an obvious attempt on her part to calm her two children down, and possibly to comfort herself. She then altered the question a bit, making it more personal for her and her situation, “What is heaven going to be like?” I paused for a moment because answering a weighted question such as this is not really about words. The human writers of the Bible attempted to convey eternal questions, such as questions about eternity, in ways, and with words that are familiar. Truth is, we do not have the correct words to describe such lofty unearthly truths so the writers used earthly concepts that come nowhere near the eternal truths. I knew this lady would be expecting words like jeweled gates and golden streets along with concepts such as peace and hope. Instead of telling her my thoughts, I asked her to tell me her thoughts, which included more concept words like peace, presence, and hope, words that seemed to comfort and calm.
As Matthew takes us to Jesus’ journey, just a breath away from Jesus’ final entry into Jerusalem, the gospel writer tells a parable intended to address the same question of the lady in the hospital, “What is heaven like?” However, Jesus’ answer is purposely much more deep and intentionally more wide than we expect, for he does not just describe the future but also the intended present, and, he does not just describe the God of the Kingdom of Heaven, but he also describes the God that is with us now, that God is, for us, the God of our present.
[Slide – Leave Screen Share up for the Following Slides]
The term, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven’ is an unsual choice, most of the writers of the Bible use the term ‘The Kingdom of God’, but Matthew chose a different label. Nineteenth century theologian, Albert Barnes, described the motivation for Matthew’s choice of titles,
“The Jews expected a great national deliverer. They supposed that when the Messiah should appear, all the dead would be raised; that the judgment would take place; and that the enemies of the Jews would be destroyed, and that they themselves would be advanced to great national dignity and honor…John, the baptizer, in preaching repentance had attempted to confront this false narrative in his preaching. Instead of summoning them to military exercises, and collecting an army, which would have been in accordance with the expectations of the nation, John called them to a change of life; to the doctrine of repentance—a state of things far more accordant with the approach of a kingdom of purity”
‘Kingdom of Heaven’ was Matthew’s effort to move the thought of God being an earthly King to God being the eternal King.
[Slide] “For the kingdom of heaven is like…”
[End Screen Share]
So, to finish that sentence, Jesus tells a parable.
A man who owns a vineyard, does out one morning and sees a group of men, standing on a corner when men unusually stand hoping to be hired for a day. The vineyard owner and the workers agrees on a fair rate, which is the fair rate in the time. It is a rate that is probably higher than most of the workers hired as day workers. They are to be paid very generously.
A couple of hours later the owner again goes into town and sees another group of men just standing waiting for work. “Why are you not working” the owner asks. “Because no one has hired us,” the men reply. The vineyard owner promise to pay them a fair rate if they will come and work for him, the men take
the job.
A third, fourth, and fifth time the owner goes back into the community, the last trip was only a couple of hours before sunset. Each of these times the story is the same with the owner asking why they are not working and the men saying they have been given no jobs and then the men join the work in the man’s vineyard. The only difference in these last three times is that the man offered them work with any promise of compensation. Yet, still, the men accept the offer of work.
At the end of the day, to the surprise of the men who were the first to begin work, all the workers are paid the same which is what the first group of men were paid. The first group were upset that they were paid the same as those who worked less hours.
The owner asks the complaining men, “Are you angry because I am generous?”
If I had been in the first group, to be honest, if I had been in the second, third, or even the fourth group, I would be joining the chorus of complaints. From an earthly perspective, it was not fair.
There are a lot of questions in this story:
- Why were all the workers not waiting for work with the first group?
- Had the later workers already worked another job and desired to work the rest of the day or were they just lazy?
- Is it possible that with the arrival of each group of workers, the workers who had already been working began to slow down their work, figuring that there was not enough work for everyone so the new guys could handle the rest of the load?
- Did the owner of the vineyard have a proverbial screw loose, not even even considering the fact that some of the workers did more work, or time, than the others?
- Did the owner just not have any way to break down the denarius and only had enough for everyone to receive one denarius?
- Or, was it a case of nepotism and the owner was increasingly related to each of the men in the later groups?
- Did the owner know that a denarius was enough for each man to provide shelter and food for his family?
The kingdom of Heaven is like a vineyard owner that strives to provide for everyone to have enough – enough to live, enough to exist, enough to thrive, enough to hope, enough to live in peace, enough to serve, enough to remember mercy, enough to consider compassion, enough to trust, enough to follow, enough to receive grace.
Do you see a pattern in the good news of Matthew? We started with the first sermon of Jesus where he challenged the normative thinking of society while turning upside down the thinking of who is valuable and what character traits are holy. Jesus stood before the crowd of outcasts, oppressed, and marginal people, a people yearning for something more and he said ‘Happy are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are gentle, those who hunger and thirst, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who have been persecuted. Jesus challenged the people to see through the eyes of God, how God, from heaven, sees us – Jesus said, this is how God wants you to see now, here on earth! Jesus explained that evil does exist among us here on earth but that only God can differentiate that evil from the good – that we are fully incapable of discerning what is, and who are, evil. That we are easily fooled by evil disguised as good and good reframed as evil. He gave a visual of this as a defiant gentile woman was described as being holy while his own followers were revealed as lacking in their faith. Jesus declared that evil does not come from what is outside of us but what is inside of us. Jesus confounded his disciples when he said that life could only come from death and that forgiveness was only truly received when forgiveness is first fully given. And he pointed to children to explain the condition of the heart that is able to receive and follow God.
Remember taking geometry? For me it was in tenth grade with a teacher who demanded a level of understanding that was unheard of for a tenth grader, at least that was the thought of my fellow tenth graders. We learned to prove mathematical equations by first remembering mathematical facts or theorems. This would be done through the use of a hypothesis – an ‘if’ statement that would add up those theorems – “If all Americans are people and all people live on Earth, then all Americans live on Earth.”
[Slide]
- If, God is generous and, through the Sacrifice of Jesus, gives us the gift of reconciliation with God, then, God wants all humans to receive the gift of an eternal relationship with God (The Kingdom of Heaven).
[Slide]
- If, Jesus is God, and Jesus in the flesh reflected the heart and mind of God, then, Jesus showed us God’s grace, mercy, compasion, and love through his teachings, his life, and his death.
[Slide – leave slide & screen share through final slides at end of message]
- AND, If, God’s will is complete and perfect in heaven and Jesus said that we are to pray with our feet, hands, and minds, that God’s will will also be done on earth, then, we are to live in the Kingdom of heaven generously (God’s type of generosity) even while we are on earth.
Why does Jesus use a parable to describe eternity to explain how we are called to live here on earth? God calls on us to live now as if we were living in Heaven – to live in and reflect the Kingdom of Heaven life to others while we are here on earth. We are called to live in God’s generosity and we are called to extend God’s generosity to our world.
- [Slide] So, when we live as if we are living in the Kingdom of heaven, we will have a desire for all others to live in the Kingdom of Heaven as well, regardless of how long they have been working in the field.
- [Slide] When we live as if we are living in the Kingdom of heaven, we will have a desire that all others to live in the Kingdom of Heaven as well, regardless of how they look, how they live, how they interpret truth, how they work, how they play, the language they speak, the people they associate with, how they worship, how they practice their faith, regardless of their gender, regardless of their labels.
- [Slide] When we live as if we are living in the Kingdom of heaven, we will have a desire that all others also live in the Kingdom of Heaven as we desire that all people live in justice, all people are allowed to be healthy and educated, all people are fed, and sheltered, supported and loved.
- [Slide] When we live as if we are living in the Kingdom of heaven, we will have a desire that all others experience the generosity and hope in life and in eternity that flows from God through us.
[Slide] First Presbyterian Church here in Norman has a sign on the front of their building that really sums Jesus’ message perfectly. ‘Making our corner of the world more like the Kingdom of God.’
Music
Give Me Jesus
Chorus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus
Verse 3
When I come to die
When I come to die
Oh when I come to die
Give me Jesus
Chorus
Give me Jesus
Give me Jesus
You can have all this world
Just give me Jesus
Community
- Next Sunday, Matthew 22:1-14 , Poor Etiquette and Bad Manners
- Wednesdays Noon Bible Study, begins March 15, Matthew 16:13-28 & Matthew 21, March 15-April 5, Wednesdays at noon
- Spring Gathering, March 26
- San Francisco Immersion Trip, May 17-22, if interested speak w/Rick
- Prayer Ukraine, Prayer for Turkey and Syria after earthquake, prayers for our community and our world
Benediction (Blank Slide)
May we go with Jesus’ radical words ‘Happy are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are gentle, those who hunger and thirst, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and those who have been persecuted. May we go, with the challenge to be salt and light, to be a light shining before others and in so doing, may we see with God’s eyes and glorify God.
Closing Peace
Leader: May the Peace of the Lord go with you.
Response: And also with you.
Order, Words, & Voices 