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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed, human flowers fade, cards get tossed. But a personalized song that lasts forever. Surprise someone you love with a custom song made just for them with Joybox. Visit Joybox Studio to get started on your personalized song today. Don't just say I love you, sing it with Joybox. What's up, y'? All? Summer's got a different tempo. Everything's a little looser, brighter. One plan turns into another. You hear something, you stay a little longer. Next thing you know, you're somewhere you didn't plan to be. It's those in between moments. That's where the ideas hit. Conversations stretch out. Little memories sneak up on you. Sometimes it's just about what's in your hand. That color, that chill. The new Tropical Butterfly refresher from Starbucks. Guava and passion fruit flavors with mango pineapple flavored pearls. Yeah, that feels like summer before you even taste it. Funny how one small stop becomes the best part of the day. Start your summer rhythm with Starbucks. Try the new Tropical Butterfly refresher from Starbucks. If you're feeling off fatigue, mood changes, skin shifts, yet your labs say everything's normal. You're not alone. Meet Oestra from Inner Balance, the first all in one prescription strength bioidentical hormone cream that's natural and effective and only takes one drop, 10 seconds a day. Oestro replaces five to six products women typically use to treat symptoms and is third party tested to ensure the highest quality. Visit innerbalance.com today to start feeling like yourself again. That's innerbalance.com hey, this is Steven Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. I welcome our EFAM all around the world. Would you help me welcome them? Put your hands together. When you're a preacher, but you come to church, but you don't preach, you want to make sure you have a great preacher, somebody you want to listen to. So I do. Today, my oldest son Elijah is going to come tell you who we've got preaching today. He's not preaching today. That would be a plot twist. What would you do if I said, and our preacher for today, I'm gonna have to tag in my boy PGF over here. My boy Graham. I think he's at something for it. I love it, man. It's a special day today because we've got a very special guest Robert Madu in the house. And yeah, come on, give it up. And honestly, it's not really accurate. I know we always say this, but it's not really accurate to call him a guest because he's family. Mr. Chunks actually told me that. Second to my parents, he's actually preached the second most times out of anyone in this pulpit. Can we give it up for that? Come on. But come on, y', all, we got one of the best dressed pastors in the game coming all the way from Dallas, Texas. He's a father of three, a husband to Taylor Madu, and the pastor of Social Dallas, Elevation. If y' all are not standing up, I need y' all to stand on yalls feet and help me give a warm welcome to Pastor Robert Madu. Somebody give Jesus just the best shout of praise that you got today. Oh, come on. Don't give a little cute golf clap across every location. If you love Jesus and you're not ashamed about it. Come on. Would you just take about 10 more seconds and give him the praise that he's worthy of. Oh, come on. Somebody praise him like, you know, dead things can come alive today. Come on, praise him like, you know, chains could break today. Anything could happen in this place. How you feeling? Elevation. Anybody come with some expectancy for what God's going to do today? Tell you what, I. I didn't wait to get here to get ready for church. I. I got ready before I got here. Got my faith level up, and I sense God's gonna do something incredible in this house today. Just in case your neighbor didn't have their coffee, would you just elbow them across every location, say, something's gonna happen today. Something. Something's gonna happen today. I remain standing because Elijah took the words out of my mouth. I don't consider myself a guest here. I do consider myself family and been coming here for years. But I don't take it lightly. The honor, the privilege to stand on this stage in this house, this is not ordinary. This is holy. One of the worst things you can do is to treat something holy ordinary. Just get used to it. Just get used to Pastor Steven, my pastor. He preached. Get used to that. Oh, that would be crazy. And every time I walk in here, I'm reminded of the faithfulness of God and that this did not happen overnight. This is decades of faithfulness. Decades of saying yes when it was tough. Decades of showing up when you didn't feel like Dec.2, to be specific. Two decades. Anybody can be faithful for a day, but be faithful for decades. That's a big deal. And so many times we celebrate what God does through people, but we don't pause to go, what did it cost them to do that? And before I say anything, especially because he's here, I want to thank God for. For the gift that is in Pastor Steven Furtick and his wife Holly. For the sacrifice, for what it cost you to do this. Come on across every location. I need you to clap till your hands hurt. And I want him to know how much we love them, the whole Furtick family, how much we appreciate him. Come on. Y' all could do better than that. We are grateful. We don't take you for granted. And that's the thing. He can call anybody, literally anybody to preach. And so I'm so honored to be here. My wife sends her love again. I bring you greetings from the great country of Texas. We pastor a church there social. Dallas turned 5 years old this year and seeing God do awesome things. But I always get an excused absence to pull up to elevation. So we gonna have fun. Are y' all tired of standing? Well, you wore those shoes. That's on. You stay standing. I want to jump straight to the word of God because I do have a word to preach today. There is a story told by the greatest storyteller ever that is stuck in my head. Since it's stuck in my head, I want to just preach out what's been in my mind. Can we thank God for this worship team? Come on, love y' all set in the atmosphere. Go with me to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter number 20, Matthew 20. And I want to look at verses one through 16. Matthew, chapter 20. We'll start at verse one and we'll land at verse 16. Now, some of y' all are like, ooh, that's a lot of scriptures. We need all of it for you to really feel this story. Matthew, chapter 20. Want your God to say, yeah. If you need some time to find it, say, how long? I heard you. I'm away for you. Thank you so much. Declares for the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. About 9 in the morning, he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, you also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right. So they went. He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon, he went out and Found still others standing around. And he asked them, why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing? Because no one has hired us, they answered. He said to them, you also go and work in my vineyard. Now, that's wild to me, because the workday ends at 6 o'. Clock. How you hiring people at 5 o' clock to go work for one hour? But the landowner felt that was necessary. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said, no, no, no. Look, go up, go up. No one hired him. Says. When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the workers and pay them their wages. Beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first. The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. Huh? Full day's pay for an hour of work. So when those who are hired first, they. They see what happened. You expected me to say expected, and I expected you to say expected. Most of the pain and the frustration in our lives is not from what happened. It's from what we expected. Anybody ever dealt with the pain of unmet, sometimes unexpressed expectation? They expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. These who were hired last worked only one hour. They said, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them, I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn't you agree to work for denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give to the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? What I say to my wife sometimes, but I just don't always work out. Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first and the first will be last. Can you say Amen? Amen. I want to preach today. Just using this as a thought. It's not fair. It's not fair. Look at your neighbor one more time, whichever one you like the best. And just say neighbor. Don't be afraid to talk to him. Say neighbor. It's not fair. It's is not fair. Father, have your way. Speak to us today. Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. It's not fair. Elevation, fam. I started preaching before I had kids. I started preaching before I had offspring. And when I was preaching before I had kids, I would listen to other preachers who would always use their kids as an illustration in their messages. And I would secretly and quietly judge them on the inside, thinking to myself, come on, bruh, where is the creativity? Surely you can find another way to illustrate the text besides talking about your kids all the time. That's what I said. Then I had kids, three of them. And I realized that if you don't talk about your kids while you preaching, you ain't doing it right. You ain't doing it right because from the moment these little humans are conceived, you will be inundated with all kinds of illustrations and moments that just make you pause and go, oh, I hear you, Lord. I hear you, Lord. How many of you know God will use your kids to speak to you? Yes, he will. He will use your kids to speak to you. As a matter of fact, he will use your kids to show you. You that part. I mean, that moment where they are overreacting the smallest thing, and they just go off and they're having just this crazy reaction. I'm like, what in the world is wrong with you? And God's like, wrong question. What's wrong with you? She's eight. You're 42. What is wrong with you? Oh, he'll use your kids to speak to you. So my wife and I, we have three kids. Three kids. 11, 10 and 8. Two girls and one boy. They are distinctly different. Unique in their personalities, yet they are unified in their vision for us as parents. Oh, they got unity in their vision. And here is their vision. Here is their vision statement for us. Here it is. Keep it fair. That is the vision statement. Not just of my kids, of every single child around the world. Keep it fair. Keep it fair. Hey, that's not fair. You better keep it fair, y'. All. Before there was a laborers Union, before there was an HR department, there were kids talking about. Wait a minute. You can't do that. That's not fair. I'm not exaggerating. There is not a week in the Madu household that I don't hear that phrase right there. That's not fair, dad. That's not fair. He got to go to Legoland. We didn't get to go to Lululemon. That's not fair. Dad, how much she got to stay up late? How come I didn't get to stay up late? That's not fair, dad. He got to stay home from school. That's not fair. I'm like, he was sick. He had the flu. You want the flu? Yes. All right, come here. Let me lay hands on you before you get the flu there. That's not fair. How many know kids are born with this innate sensitivity to inequity and disparity they are looking for? They have fairness detectors on the inside of them. It's funny. Researchers even did some research and found out that even as early as infants, they're already able to recognize inequity as early as 12 months old, before they can even have the words to articulate it. There's something in them that's going, mm, mm, uh, this, this. This ain't right. If you don't believe me, do the test after service. Just pass out some cake to some kids and not one of them will just take the cake like this. No, they gonna take it. And. And look, that's not fair. And I share that with you today. Whew. Can I be honest? Because I don't think we outgrow that. I just think we get more subtle and sophisticated in the way we express it with those statements like, mmm, must be nice. It gets. It gets more problematic when you feel like the person who's not being fair is God. Elevation, family. What do you do when you feel like God is not being fair? I know, I know you can't say anything because you want to make everybody think that you walked in here very spiritual, and you just, you know, pray all the time and just lift up your hands. But what do you do when you feel like God, this is not fair. God, I've been coming to church faithfully. Like, I've been doing good this year. Like, I've showed up faithfully and I've been serving any chance that I get. And, God, I've been tithing. I've been tithing this year, and I've been doing good. Lord, I gave him the year end offering. My word of the year was promotion, and I lost my job. That's not fair. God. I've been doing my best. I'm single and I've been trusting you for my spouse, and I've been doing it right, and I've been living holy and I've been being pure and I've been doing the best I can. And I've been really believing that you would bless me with somebody to spend the rest of my life with, and it's not happening. Meanwhile, my co worker who ain't living holy, who been with Ronnie, Donnie and everybody, she gonna walk in talking about, guess what, God, that's not fair. God. My mom, all she does is pray. All she does is read the Word. All she does is help people. And she's going to get breast cancer and I'm going to pray and fast and cry out to you, and she doesn't get healed. God, that's not fair. If you've ever felt like God hasn't been fair, come with me to this story in Matthew, chapter 20. This story that you will only find in Matthew's gospel. Oh, yes, Marky, Mark, don't talk about this, Dr. Luke, don't talk about this. Little John, don't talk about this. Only Matthew. Leave it to the tax collector to find the one story where he said, hold on, the math ain't math in this story right here. Only Matthew gives us this story in Matthew, chapter 20, where Jesus begins to teach as he often did, by giving parables. Jesus would often tell parable stories. It was one of his greatest mediums for articulating how his kingdom works. He would tell these stories, these, these parables. In fact, he would lock in the parable the logic of how his kingdom works. Because you understand that your God is a king and he has a kingdom, and there's a system the way his kingdom works. He didn't get voted in, he didn't get elected in. Your God is sovereign and he's a king. And often his kingdom is completely antithetical to how the system of this world works. So he would hide the logic of his kingdom in the language of these parables. I love parables. Because one of the principles of the parables is you hold on to truth that you discover better than the truth that's just delivered. So often he would give you the parable and wouldn't even give you the explanation. He'd tell the story and then walk off the stage. He who has an ear, let him hear. He just give you the story because he wanted you to meditate on that story. He wanted you to savor the story. He wanted to hit you later. He wanted it to hit you later. He wanted you to be eating hummus and PETA one day and go, oh, my God, I'm the lost sheep. He left the 99 for me. I didn't even. He would do that on purpose. That's the power of the story. And so he tells the story in Matthew chapter 20. But anytime you're looking at a Jesus story, you gotta ask yourself, what made him tell the story? In order to find out what made him tell this story, we gotta back that thing up biblically to Matthew, chapter 19, Matthew, chapter 19. Something interesting happens. Jesus is chillaxin. And this rich young ruler, this rich young ruler comes up to Jesus, he's a baller. He's a shot caller. He's doing a. Well, he's an influencer. He's got money. And he walks up to Jesus and he says, hey, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What must I do? See, this is a business, dude. So he thinks transactionally. That's his logic. I gotta do something to get something. So what must I do to inherit eternal life? And I love it, because Jesus goes, all right, you want to play this game? What must I do to get. Never mind. It has to be given. It's just grace, but never mind. Okay, you want to play this game? He goes, all right, well, just keep all. Keep all the commandments. Keep the commandments. He says, well, I've done that. Oh, wow. Okay, you've done all that. He goes, all right, one thing you lack. Sell everything you got. Give it to the poor, and then you'll have treasure in heaven. And I want you to come follow me. Can you imagine that? That's a big invitation right there. The fact that Jesus even gave him the opportunity to follow him. This rich young ruler, y' all could have been the 13th disciple. Woo. Jesus didn't give everybody the opportunity. He did not remember one dude was possessed by a demon. Jesus cast it out, and the guy was like, can I go with y'? All? And Jesus, like, no, fam, no, we good. Just go back and tell everybody what I did for you. But this rich young ruler, he gets the invitation of a lifetime. You're going to get the greatest apprenticeship of a lifetime. You get to roll with Jesus. Just sell everything you have. And the Bible says that he walked away bitterly because he had a lot of possessions. But the real thing is his possessions had him. Oh, I don't want to go there because this is not my sermon. But it's scary when idols form in your heart because sometimes you don't even know it's an idol until God goes, can I have it? This man didn't know that his possessions had him until God said, can I have it? And he walked away. Meanwhile, Peter is watching the whole thing. Oh, you need a Peter. You need a Peter to say the thing that nobody else will say. They think of that. And Peter walks. This watches this guy walk away. And Peter goes, hold up in his head. We gave. We left. We left everything to follow you, Jesus. Hold on. We did what this brother could not do. So since we left everything, what do we get? And Jesus goes, oh, Peter, you get a story. You get a story. There was a Landowner that had a vineyard and had workers in his vineyard. And this landowner started looking for workers in his vineyard. I like this landowner. He's got a big vineyard, and he's looking for workers in his vineyard. In that time period, you would not have people that were on your payroll working in your vineyard. That was not the culture of the day. You often would go to the marketplace and you would hire people for the day. So the very fact that this landowner is going out and is looking for workers is letting us know what season it is. Yeah, it's letting us know the season. Because you didn't need a lot of workers for the planting season. You certainly didn't need no workers for the waiting season. But when the harvest hit, you needed all the help you could get. Y', all. When the harvest hit, you needed as many hands as you could get. Because how many know you didn't have all day to get the harvest? There was a season, there was a window that you had to get the harvest. So I'm talking about landowners to be like, hey, come on, you can work. You can work. What? You got two hands. Come on. Oh, you only got one. Well, that's cool. Come on, you. You can work, too. Because when the harvest hit, you needed as many workers, as many hands as you could get. The landowner was not looking for spectators. He was looking for workers. He was looking for somebody that would roll up their sleeves and say, I realize that there's a harvest that is ripe, and we got to get this harvest. Harvest in. And how many know the bigger the harvest, the more hands you need to pull in the harvest. Let me tell you why some of y' all ain't shouting. Because you think God called you to just come to church and sit on your blessed assurance and hear a cute little message and go home? No, no, no, no. We need workers in the kingdom of God because there is a harvest that is plentiful. There is a harvest that is ready. And we need people to say, I'll do whatever it takes to get the harvest in. Can I just stop right here and thank God for the workers at Elevation Church that help bring in the harvest in Ekids right now, saying, I gotta be here. Cause the harvest is here in the parking lot, saying, come on this way. You know what some of y' all are like in the parking lot. Come on this way. It's okay. Why? Because the harvest. When the harvest hits, you need all the help you can get. Ask me how I know. Our church has been in 14 different venues since we started setting up and tearing down. God's blessed us with a building. We're believing God to raise the money to renovate the building. Oh. But let me tell you, we still setting up piping drape every single Sunday. And why are we doing it? Because the harvest hit. When the harvest hits, you need all the help you can get. I wonder if God is waiting for you to put your hand to the plow. Or have you gotten so used to just coming to church and receiving like it's a buffet, saying, I was good this week. Bless God, come back next week for some more. No, no, no, no. He wasn't looking for spectators, he was looking for workers. It's interesting because I like this landowner because later we will find out in the text that he has somebody that can pay these workers. He's got a farmer that can pay them. And I'm thinking, if you got somebody that can pay them, surely you got somebody that can pick them. But the landowner doesn't like that. The landowner is so obsessed with going out and picking them, he wants to. Because I can get anybody to pay you. You can get reward from other people. But when it comes to calling, when it comes to picking, I want to do that because you will never forget the day that you were standing in the marketplace desperate, knowing that you wouldn't be able to eat that day if you didn't find work. And I don't want you to forget the moment when I came out to the marketplace and said, you, you. Ooh, right here, you, you. I want you to feel the joy of being chosen, of being picked. Ooh. I like this landowner because he likes to pick his people. Elbow the person next to you, just in case they're falling asleep and say, he chose me. He chose me. He chose me. He goes out and he picks each and every one of them. Text says he goes out at 6am, he goes out again at 9. He goes out again at noon. He goes out again at three and goes out again at five. Five times he goes out to pick. Now, that confused me because I'm like, landowner. Are you confused why you keep going out to pick people? Seems like to me, if you know your land, you should just go out once at 6am and say, hey, I'm hiring y'. All. Come on. Why does the landowner keep going out five times? He goes out to pick people. First of all, it lets us know he's got land big enough that he needs a lot of workers. But he keeps going out because maybe the text is letting us know. That's exactly what grace does. How many are thankful for God's grace that'll keep going out and keep reaching? Come on. Even when you think that grace should have just said, that's enough. I already went out once. No, I'm gonna go out again, and I'm gonna pick you, and I'm gonna choose you. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful for the grace of God that keeps pursuing me, that keeps chasing after me. He says, I'm gonna keep going out. And he goes out five times, which made me think, since he went out five times, do we have five categories of workers? He went out of six, nine, New three and five. So we got five categories of workers, right? Wrong, we don't have five categories of workers. Because you'll notice that there's something distinctly different about the 6am crew. The people that got picked first, they had a different arrangement than the rest of the workers. So really, we got different times, but it's really only two categories of workers. The 6am Crew is distinctly different from the rest. Before I tell you how they're different, let's just talk about these 6am people that got picked first. Doesn't it feel good to get picked first? 6:00am People, you know, they weren't there at 6:00 o'. Clock. You know, they were there at like 5:40. Those 6:00am people, they're like, you know, to be on time is to be late. To be early is to be on time. And to be late is unacceptable. I'm gonna be here at 5:45. And I've already got my resume. Yes, I have. How many vineyards I've worked in? Yes, I'm very good, I'm very talented. And they were there and they were prepared. They had their resumes. Can you see them? You know those 6am people? They're here in the room today. The 6am people are the people back in school when you wanted to cheat on their test and they see you trying to cheat and they'd be like, 6am people. 6am people. Oh, you got it together. You got your resume. So, you know, the 6am people were there and they were looking to get hired. They're like, oh, we got it, we got it. We know we gonna get picked. Oh, here comes the landowner. And in my mind, the landowner pulls up in his F150 and he says, hey, y' all looking for some work? They're like, of course. Been here early. You saw a resume on LinkedIn, right? Yeah. Okay, so landlord was all right, I'm hiring. Get in the Truck. They're like, yeah, okay, we will, but one second, one second. Come on, get in the truck. No, no, we want to, but just. We discuss compensation. Compensate, man. Come on, man. Don't you want to work? I'll pay you whatever's right. Whatever's right. Yeah, right. We need to know what are we going to get before we go to work? And the landlord's like, all right, how about a denarius? Full day's work, full day's pay. Denarius. Bet. Now, let's get in the truck. Some of you are like, I didn't see that in the text. It's in verse number two. In verse number two, it says, in Matthew, chapter 20, it says that he agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. He agreed that that word agreed in the original language is the word symphonio is where we get this word symphony. It means that they had to go back and forth between. Until they got to an agreement, that there was a bargaining. And then finally they said, Darius, they said, good, all right, we'll go now that we know what we gonna get. The rest of the crew had a different setup. Let me show you their setup. It's in verse 4 and 5. It says. He told them, that's the rest of the workers. You also go work in my vineyard and I will pay you whatever's right. So they went, no going back and forth, no negotiation. Whatever you think is right. Cool. We just want to work. Do you see the difference? So one group has a contract, the other group has trust. One group is trusting the compensation. The other group says, I just trust the consistent character of the landowner. And whatever the landowner thinks is right, I'm cool with that right there. One group walking by agreement. The other group said, I'm walking by faith. I just trust that the landowner is going to do whatever is right and he will determine what the pay is. Do you see the difference between the 6am people and the rest? One said, I want to make sure I get what I deserve. The other group said, I'm just going to trust the consistent character of the landowner. And whatever you think is right, I'll go with that. I love this 5pm crew. When I get to heaven, I want to talk to them. I do, because I want to ask them, what made you stay at the marketplace all day when you weren't picked? What made you sit there watching people pass you by, watching other people get noticed before you? Why would you stay there till 5 o' clock when you know, there was only going to be an hour left of work. What would make you say, that's my question for them. And then I want to thank God for the landowner who says that even at 5 o' clock, I'll still go out. Just in case there's some people who have been overlooked. Just in case there's some people that didn't look like they were going to be the best, I'm going to keep going out for them. I don't know about you, maybe you had the best resume, maybe you were one of ones that were picked first. But I want to thank God that he still goes out for the 5pm people. I want to thank God that even when I've been overlooked, that even when, even when nobody said, oh, he doesn't look like he got what it takes, there's a God who says, no, you don't know what I can do with him. You don't know how I can change her life. Give me her. He went out and he picked the 5pm people. Now these 5pm people, we got to talk about them. Because that's why the text wants us to talk about them. The ones in the middle are just filling in the story. He wants us to look at the 6am and the 5pm how you know? Because he says the last shall be first and the first shall be like. He's pointing us to the extremes. That's why he had them go. So these 5pm People, they're funny because if there's only a workday that ends at 6:00 and I got hired at 5. Okay, here's my question. How far is the vineyard from the market blade? 15 minutes. Okay? You get to work at 5. 15. Workday ends at 6. You got orientation. Now we have 5:35. You gotta get your badge, take your picture, get your bag and go down to the vineyard. By the time you get down to the vineyard, y', all, it's 550. How many grapes you picking up in 10 minutes? Can you imagine? You picked up three grapes, the whistle's blown and your shift is over. And now it's time for everybody to get paid. And the landowner calls his foreman over and says, hey, come here real quick. He's like, what's up? Said, hey, man, I know you about to pay him, but I want to do something different this time. Like, something different. You always want to do something different. Oh, Lord. And he goes, okay, here's what I want to do. Let's pay the 5pm workers first and then let's play pay the 6am workers last and pay them all the same. The foreman's like, you trying to get me shot. Okay, so can you see them? You gotta see it. Can you see them lined up? Can you see the 5pm people? They're down here. Can you see the 6am people, y'? All? They've been working since 6am Their hands have blood and calluses on it. They're sweaty. They're bent over. God, I can't believe it was this hot. It always gets hot during this time of the. Can you see them? They smell like outside. Meanwhile, the 5pm People smell like Le Labo and look so fresh and so clean. And here comes the Foreman to the 5:00pm People first denarius. No, no, no. Are you serious? A full day's pay? I didn't do anything. Look, I got three grapes in my bag. I didn't. No, no, no, no. I can't take this. I can't take this. No, I didn't do anything. Let me go pick some more grapes. No, this is the will of the landowner to take it. This is too much. I can't take it. Let me go. Try to earn it and do something. No, this is what he wants. And all of a sudden they are standing there with gratitude, knowing they shouldn't even have been picked in the first place. They only got five grapes and yet they got paid a full day's work. Meanwhile, the 6am People are watching the whole thing. Must be nice. Are you serious? Did you see what I see? They just paid him for a whole day's work. I saw they picked five grapes. Oh, I cannot believe it. But then it hits him. Oh, wait a minute. If they got. If they got a full day's pay for only an hour, we about. Ooh, we about to get paid. Oh, can you see I'm getting excited? That's just a matter of that. A Danery's is like $200. You know how you start doing? You start doing the map. They God damn 200. Oh, we about to get $2,400. The Amazon cart is full. Oh, they planning a trip to the Bahamas. They are so excited. And then the foreman comes up and goes, daenerys. What? And all hell breaks loose. And they can't stand it and they crumbled against the landowner. That's not fair. What's wild is the landowner kept his word. You negotiated. He didn't cheat you. You said you wanted denarius. That's what you got. Why would the landowner do that? Why would the landowner make them watch everybody else get paid. Because there's something God will always do in you. He wants you to see other people get blessed. He wants you to see other people that you don't think deserve the grace of God. He will bless them right in front of you because that's actually good for you. Your little soul. He wants to know, can you still trust me? When you see somebody get something that you don't think they deserve, this is their issue. It's not what they got paid. It's what somebody they thought didn't deserve it got paid and they grumbled against them. Okay, all of that was my intro to get you to this point. In every Jesus parable, you got to ask yourself this. Who are you in the story? Who are you in this story? While you're thinking about it? The landowner is taken. I know, I know. Because you're like, well, I do have some properties. And I just said, landowner's taken. Landowner's God. So are you the 5pm marker just grateful that he called you? Just thankful to be in the vineyard, or you, the 6am Worker? Always got your hand out. Stay in. Who are you? Now, before you say you're a 5pm person, let's be honest. We all got some 6am in us. As I lay on the plane, I want to give you some blues clues of how you can know you got some 6:00am in you. You know you're a 6:00am worker. Hear me? You know you're a 6am worker when you always have a grumble. A grumble. They grumbled against the land on the ground. See that, that word grumble is interesting because it's not like a loud, defiant fist saying, I can't believe this is actually just under your breath. It's bitterness under your breath. I can't believe I've been coming to this church for a long time. They still haven't done anything to bless me, always honor other people. I've been here 20 years, you know, doing nothing for me. It's, it's. It's a. It's a grumble. Are your complaints louder than your praise? You do know that God does not inhabit the complaints of his people. He inhabits the. The praises of his people. And one of the ways you know you got some 6am in you is when you always got a grumble. Always complaining. He said the average person complains 15 to 20 times a day. Let's be honest, there's rookie numbers for some of us. You always have a grumble. Number two. You know, you got some 6am in your system when you expect what was never promised, why do you have an expectation for more? You negotiated the contract. Many of us are mad at God because we're expecting something from him that he actually never promised you at all. That was something that you came up with, that was something that was in your own mind. Are you mad at God because you're expecting something from him that he never promised you? You know you got some 6am in your system. When you struggle to celebrate other people, when God blesses somebody else, your immediate reaction is them, Lord, are you for real? They don't deserve that. I've been, I've been saved way longer than them. Do you celebrate other people? That that's one of the signs. You got some 6am in you last one. You know you got some 6am in your system. When you think God owes. You hear me, this is often one of the casualties of faithfulness. It's entitlement is you think, well, because I have been serving, because I have been doing this, God, you must perform this way. God, because I did show up, you must heal. And God, because I did give in the offering, you better open up the window of heaven. What is going on, God? Have you been shaking your fist at God thinking that he owes you something? This text is a warning to all of us that don't let your faithfulness become entitlement to where you start looking up to God thinking He owes you something. Can I tell you something? God doesn't owe you anything because he already gave you everything. If he never gave you another dollar, if he never opened up another door, if he didn't do anything but sin his only son to die on a cross for your sins, wouldn't that be enough? And I'm looking Forward to some 5pm people who say, I'm not gonna have my hands out going, God, you owe me more. I'm gonna have my hands up going, God, I thank you for what you've done. God, thank you for saving me. God, thank you. I could have been stuck in my sins. But thanks be unto God for your faithfulness, for your kindness, for your goodness. Oh God, you don't owe me anything. I owe you everything. Everything. You want to know if you're a 6am person or a 5pm person. Watch this. Check your hands, check your hands. 6am People always have their hands out, looking to the right and the left. I can't believe I didn't get that. I can't believe they got blessed. I can't believe they got more opportunity. They always have Their hands out, looking to the left in the right. But 5pm people always have their hands up. They just can't believe that God called them. They just can't believe that God chose them. I don't know about you, but I'm going to spend all of my life being a 5pm person. I know where I could be. I know where I should be if it had not been for the grace of God. I'm going to lift. Here it is. Both of my hands. Who am I that you are thinking? Think about me. Who am I that you would choose me? Come on. I want all the 5pm people. Would you open up your mouth and give God some praise and just thank him? Thank him for his salvation. Thank him for his mercy. Thank him for his goodness. Thank him for blessing you when you didn't deserve it. Matter of fact, I don't deserve anything. I'm lifting both of my hands. Telling you the casualty of faithfulness sometimes is entitlement. Thinking that because I've been showing up, because I've been doing this, God, you owe me. When God doesn't owe you anything, look at his grace. Even to the Sixan people. Not being unfair to you. Friend, friend, I kept my word. You wanted a contract instead of just trusting my character. But it's not fair. Yeah, thank God it's not fair because grace is not fair. Fair as I spent an eternity in hell. Fair because it should have been me on the cross. That's fair. Thank God it ain't fair. Grace is not fair. I'm gonna ask every head be bowed and eyes be closed. Today I really felt like this message was for today. Somebody who's been maybe shaking your fist at God, and I'm begging you to turn your entitlement into gratitude. Gratitude is the antidote for complaining, for bitterness, for being stuck. Just to say, God, I thank you. Thank you. If you're here today and you'd be so honest to say, you know what? There's a lot of 6am has been creeping in. My complaints have outweighed my praise and my Thanksgiving today. You need to turn from being a 5pm person to a 6am person. If that's you and you know this word was for you, would you just lift up your hand just as the sign and say, lord, I hear you. I hear you. You don't owe me anything. I'm gonna start with gratitude. I see those hands. Anybody else? Across every location. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Grace is not there. Thank God we don't get what we deserve. Heads to Bowed, eyes still closed across every location in this room. If you've never taken that first step just to say, jesus, my life is yours. Some of you, maybe you've been trying to earn salvation, thinking, well, I'll come to God when I get my life together. I'll come to God when I do more. It's not about doing, is about receiving what was already done for you. He's a good landowner. He loves you. He's the landowner that keeps going out. He'll wait till 5 o' clock if he has to, looking for you. So if you're here today, I don't care if it's one person, you're worth it to say, today's the day I need to give Jesus my life. Would you just lift up your hand as a sign to say, I'm coming home. I'm giving him my heart today. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Yeah. See those hands? Yeah. Somebody lifting up both of their hands. Absolutely. That's what 5pm People do. They lift up both of them. Anybody else? Come on. I want to lead you in this prayer just before pastor comes. I'm going to give you the words, but you just say it from your heart. Say, jesus, I believe that you are the son of God. Jesus, I believe that you live the life that I was supposed to live and you died the death that I was supposed to die. You took my place. So my response is to give you everything. Come into my life. Forgive me me of my sins. Make me brand new. From this moment forward, I'm walking with you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come on, give God one more hand clap of praise elevation. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. It's because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now or visit elevationchurch.orgpodcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us LevationChurch. Thanks again for listening. God bless you. Flowers fade, cards get tossed. But a personalized song that lasts forever. Surprise someone you love with a custom song made just for them with Joybox. Visit Joybox Studio to get started on your personalized song today. Don't just say I love you. Sing it with Joybox. 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