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00:00:05 today's scripture reading is from Matthew chapter 21 verse 1-34 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 900 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 wiard and I will pay you whatever is right so they went he went out again about noon and about 3:00 in the afternoon and did the
00:00:49 same thing about 5: in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around 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 when evening came the owner of the vineyard said to his for men 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 5: in the afternoon came and each received a
00:01:32 Denarius so when those came who were hired first they expected to receive more but each one of them also received a Denarius when they received it they begin to Grumble against the landowner these who were hired last work 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 a Denarius take your pay and go I want to give the one who was hired last the same
00:02:18 as I gave you don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money or are you envious because I'm generous so the last will be first and the first will be last now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem on the way he took the TW aside and said to them we are going up to Jerusalem and the son of and the son of man will be delivered over to the chief priest and the teachers of the law they will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified on the
00:02:59 third day he will be raised to life then the mother of zebede son came to Jesus with her sons and kneeling down as a favor of him what is it you want he asked she said grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom you don't know what you are asking Jesus said to them can you drink the cup I'm going to drink drink we can they answered Jesus said to them you will indeed drink from my cup but to sit at my right or left is not for me to Grant these places belong to those for
00:03:45 whom they have been prepared by my father when the 10 heard about this they were indignant with the two brothers Jesus called them together and said you know that the rulers of the G Gentiles Lord it over them and their High officials exercise authority over them not so with you instead whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be your slave just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many as Jesus and his disciples were
00:04:28 leaving Jericho a large crowd followed him two blind men were sitting by the roadside and when they heard that Jesus was going by they shouted Lord son of David have mercy on us the crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet but they shouted all the louder Lord son of David have mercy on us Jesus stopped and called them what do you want me to do for you he asked Lord they answered we want our sight Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes immediately they received their sight and followed him
00:05:15 this is the word of God thank you Karen for reading the word good to see everybody back here again good morning all right hopefully more will be coming in weeks to come let's uh commit the meeting to the Lord father Lord we ask that you fill us with your spirit open up our eyes this morning to understand and more than that to feel what Grace is and how it affects our lives how it transforms Us and how it transforms this world we ask for Jesus sake amen right so we're looking at philli can we fix the
00:06:08 sound testing one two three okay so we're looking at Matthew chapter 20 and we need to understand the context in which this uh chapter occurs we've got the situation with the Rich Young Ruler who came and he wouldn't give up up everything to follow Jesus and then that triggered the response from Jesus saying it's easier for a camel to go to an eye of an needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven then you've got the whole disciples all 12 of them when they say hey but we gave up everything right uh
00:06:51 now the question here is what not what they could do but what God could do because there a paradox of Grace that's being explain here why does Jesus bring this Parable up in response to the disciples saying hey what about us we gave up everything the rich guy didn't give up anything or gave up very little right so U Jesus looked at them and said with man this is impossible but With God all things are possible and he ends that chapter 19 with but many who are first will be last and last be first if we are to
00:07:29 understand this Parable we need to understand in a context of this conversation that happens earlier the rich young man had only one step to go he couldn't give up everything to follow Jesus he didn't have that capacity as it were and the 12 actually had and they were hoping for some reward in the end and Jesus is trying to turn it around because Grace can be so easily misunderstood as what you could do or you could give up and so therefore he tells this parable about the vineyard workers and In this passage
00:08:06 there is a parable The Vineyard workers there's a look at the two James and John whose mother said look you know put me on the right hand left hand and of Jesus when the kingdom comes and and um David Adams and Suzanne so able preached on that we won't be going too much into that and then lastly the last portrait of Grace that we could look at is the two Blind Men Who say look Jesus give us our sight and he did right so let's look off at the first uh the the the structure of the sermon today there are
00:08:36 basically Four Points okay the first is that Grace always seems unfair doesn't it but Grace is only unfair when evaluated along the lines of human effort Grace only makes sense when seen from the perspective of our need and God's generosity and lastly only Grace can induce a genuine spiritual response let's start off Grace always seems unfair this Parable if you were to tell it we were wondering something's gone wrong if I were to run my company like this there would be riots what do we learn from this Parable is it about
00:09:16 human resource management tips never show your pay slip to your other guys the moment you show your pay slip and every every start complain comparing so employers never do that is that what he trying to teach us or the Perils of not having a union a Workers Union in your company or is it about affirmative action you want to help the guy who came in last at 5:00 or is it about jealous workers how you shouldn't be jealous about what other people are being paid you could misinterpret this Parable by
00:09:46 moralizing it but if you look in the context it's not about that what is the parable about for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his Vineyard the Kingdom how the kingdom Works Jesus trying to unpack what how the kingdom works the kingdom is about the king it's about the master of the house that's why it's all about him and if you look and break down the mechanics of this Parable he goes out and at 6:00 a.m. in the morning and he
00:10:20 gets a first group of workers and he tells them look I'm going to give you a Denarius for this day of work and for the Jewish work day it's 6:00 to 6:00 p.m. all right they agreed they followed him back they got stuck into the grapes all right and the work and then the next group of workers he goes out obviously it's not enough probably it's uh Harvest Time and it's the third hour which basically 900 a.m. and he tells that look you by my grips are you know rotting off the vine we need to gather
00:10:52 them today I'll give you a fair wage didn't say a Denarius he says it's just a fair wage and for them well 9:00 we lost 3 hours whatever you decide is good so they left it to the owner then 12:00 3:00 he went to the labor market again and he did the same thing so I assume he tells them I'm going to give you a fair wage and they assume well we work half a day never mind we get half pay it's okay that's fine and the last group of workers is at 5:00 and this is nobody stands in the market 1 hour before closing time hoping
00:11:27 to be hired so you must understand this a parable it's not real life okay nobody does that right but it's just to communicate a point so they stand there and the last at 5:00 and there's no mention of pay at all and and they've been waiting the whole day so they'll be lucky to get whatever they can get right so whatever he's going to give us we'll take and it goes back now you have to understand uh and then when those hired about 11 hour each came and they received a dinar though very generous pay if you look at the Denarius a
00:12:01 Denarius is equal to a single day's pay for a Roman soldier which is actually equivalent to 5 days living wages for a normal worker there's some argument whether it's one day or five days but I would like to assume that it's more generous than that so that's the pay they're going to get and and what's happening is that there's a reversal of orders come payday everybody's excited about payday who here is not excited about payday nobody if you you know you can see all the sales and restaurants go up near the
00:12:37 end of the month everyone's excited and the worst thing about this is that he calls the laborers to pay them beginning with the last up to the first I mean if you were sitting there and you were H at 6:00 and you work the whole day and you're all sweaty and you're like almost dead from exhaustion and he calls the guy who called who will hired at 5 p.m. one hour no sweat and he calls them up to pay them and then what happens there's a natural reaction isn't it now when those who were hired first came
00:13:12 they thought they would receive more you know why 5:00 guys got one Denarius 3:00 guy got one dinar we work 12 hours shouldn't we get more right they thought they were hire first they thought they would receive more but you know what e comes down one Denarius suddenly the deal that look great at 6:00 a.m. doesn't look so good at 6 p.m. why because he's comparing it other people isn't it this is not fair and if you all have children that's the most common phrase in the household depend how many children you got one child you don't
00:13:52 have a problem if you got a couple of children this is the most common refrain and complaint now is it reasonable complaint and on receiving it they grumbled at the Master of the House the last work for only for one hour you've made them equal to us who have borne the burden of day and the scorching heat so this is looks like a reasonable complaint isn't it all right and the issue at hand is perception they thought they would receive more because they just looked at the situation in terms of number hours work right RS why these
00:14:27 guys who work one hour would get the pay as us see that's the way the world Works isn't it whatever you put in whether you put in Ron 95 or vroom or whatever maybe your car goes faster whatever you put in you get out so we expect God to work in a certain way a certain mechanics that happen in our life the Hindus will call it karma you throw rubbish into your neighbor's house they will throw rubbish into your house you get what goes around comes around that's how the world works that's why you look at the book of Jon
00:14:59 Jonah all right Jonah was asked to go all the way North to to share about the kingdom of God with the Assyrians and the Assyrians were nasty people they would come down and raid northern kingdom and they would kill rape killage they're worse than the war that's going on in Ukraine now and you're asking him to go up and share the gospel so that they would be saved it seemed unfair it was be totally unfair what about the picture The Prodigal Son one son stays at home he's the good boy he puts in his
00:15:37 12h hour work every single day he's loyal he didn't spend his father's money the other guy is a drunken womanizer he goes out and he comes back and he's greeted with a fatted calf you the kingdom of God the picture kingdom of God begins to emerge as if this is not a fair deal if you look at it at a certain way if you look at Psalm 73 underscores our dilemma today the psalmist actually writes truly God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart but the psalmist here is being stumbled because
00:16:13 he stumbled by grace and he says as for me my feet had almost stumbled my steps had nearly slipped for I was envious of the Arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked they have no p hangs until death that means then no pain no hunger their bodies are fat and Sleek still no heart attack don't know why they're not in trouble as others are they're not stricken like the rest of mankind their pride is their necklace the violence covers them as a garment they scoff and speak with malice loftily
00:16:52 they threaten oppression isn't that how you feel when you look at this chap down you know in joho recently he's campaigning and he offers lavish benefits ahead of the Malaysia poll that's coming up within the next 6 months he's walking around and the 1mdb trial is going on and here we have the non-executive director who said no no money went to najib's account and then SRI gopal s Ram gopal showed him the transactions and he had to admit money actually went into najib's account and yet he's walking around free probably
00:17:34 maybe going to be successful next election is that fair while all the way in New York Roger un who only received 30 million pib faces 30 years in jail as he was convicted by New York Court or even the judge that convicted him is now being investigated by the uh MAAC life doesn't seem fair isn't it therefore it people turn back to them and find no fault in them and they say how can God know is as if God is blind nothing's happening right is there knowledge in the most high behold there are these are the wicked always at ease
00:18:12 they increase in riches that means for me in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands inoc sin that is a response to Grace if Grace is shown to the wicked we feel like the people been hired at 6:00 a.m. it ain't Fair what about the thief at the sight of Jesus last minute perfect he admits he's a sinner he he gives his life to Jesus and he goes to heaven today and he's left he's lived his whole life in sin robbery violence and evil it doesn't seem fair grace doesn't seem fair if you are honest with
00:18:50 just with the Lord that will somehow strike a cord in our hearts but Grace is only unfair when evaluated along the lines of human effort so we see we need to look at it with proper glasses I like this picture where the current Ukraine crisis Putin sits on one end the and the UN guy sits way on the other end and there's a Great Divide of separation and the separation is the difference between perception and reality Putin believes that there are no war crimes in Ukraine you know there are no bombs there it's on special military
00:19:30 op Ukraine is part of Russia the Nazis occupy the entire Ukraine uh well else reality is very far so the problem with us is similar to this we're sitting across a long table and one hand is God and one hand is us and we have our perceptions you see we deserve something equivalent to our effort they thought that they would receive more that is the whole problem and they grumbled they got upset because of their perception that they would receive more than the guy who was hired at 5:00 p.m. and so therefore
00:20:05 Psalm 73 says behold these are the wicked always at ease they increased in riches in vain I have kept my heart clean and wash my hands in innocence that is the perceptual issue that we have so we've got the 6 a.m. shift people thinking we deserve more and you notice sir the people who hide at 900 a.m. 12:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. did they complain never isn't it those who receive Grace never complain all right more Grace to You judgment for the other guy all right so apparently it doesn't
00:20:44 look Fair because one hour gets the same pay as 12 hours and sometimes we think God we we decide we judge God and evaluate God what and we what based on what we think think he should do if God is so good and so powerful and so loving why does he allow innocent people to suffer why do we have War why do we have illness why have I lost my job or my spouse and other people have not and this is a very important problem that that that actually IR us as it were if you look in in Samuel 2 Samuel we have a situation where the Ark of the
00:21:24 Covenant was actually U stolen by the Philistines and Israel's isra recovered it and then you've got it put on the back of a ox cart and it's being trundled along and what happens was there was a bit of a slip and this chap called Aken moved to stop AR from sliding off and crashing and immediately he was struck by God and died on the spot now you have to understand a couple of things there's a long table on one hand is seated David on the other hand is God that's a huge perceptual difference why
00:22:01 you see David was upset because the Lord had killed usza all of us to think God is really unreasonable isn't it I mean secretly in your heart this this story will sort of bug you a lot it it for a long time it does bug me until I realize that you actually if you look in numbers the AR can only be moved by Levites and even then it's carried by polls on the the shoulder it is never put on a back of a PO cart the Philistines will treat it like this a piece of treasure or trash they put a back of the bouetard back of the pickup
00:22:40 truck and you do what you like with it and you cannot even the Levites cannot even touch this Ark it's specifically laid out in the book of numbers and aen actually disobeyed that long table on one side is David on one side God our perception because we determine what God should be like we take credit this is a picture of a beautiful actress by name of Angela baby you know what she did recently in October 2015 she actually there was a Plastic Surgery Clinic in China that claimed that what you can't be that
00:23:17 beautiful isn't it you must have had plastic surgery so every woman that walks around town when you very beautiful everybody said I want plastic surgery from Korea so that's the perils if you're too pretty right she actually took the plastic surgery the the the clinic to court and in court they had doctors examine her face this is authentic Angela baby she's worth every cent we pay her she takes credit for what God gave her these looks a plastic surgeon didn't add to this looks but she was certainly some people are just born
00:23:57 beautiful and that that's it isn't it how can you take credit for that and sue people who malign your beauty as it were we overestimate our own value you see and and and the owner of the binyard said to the workers friend I'm doing you no wrong did you not agree with me for a Denarius take what belongs to you and I and go I chose to give you to give this last worker as I give to you that's the prerogative of the owner but as far as our deal is concerned God has no Injustice we overestimate our value we have a
00:24:38 perverted sense of justice this is a picture on the very famous serial killer called Jeffrey Dharma whose favorite pastime was to capture young men take back to his home and kill them and then chop them up and eat them 17 young men he actually killed and um he was put in prison thank God and in prison there was a chap one day they were left alone there another felon called Christopher scava who was convicted of murdering his boss and he was put into prison as well and while they were doing some duties
00:25:14 together he actually took a weight a bar from the gym the one that holds the weights of the sides he took that and smashed into Jeffrey dh's head twice so Jeffrey dhama actually died and they asked why did you do this and this is what he said I asked him if he did those things which mean did you kill 17 people and eat them because I was fiercely disgusted here is one murderer disgusted with another murderer I mean how do you figure that out I mean this is taking it to a perverse extent isn't it our own sense
00:25:51 of justice is perverted so this guy gets another life sentence on top of the three life sentences he got what difference does it make but the point is to underscore that when we look it look at things from our human perspective we can come with all sorts of standards in it if you let you look at various uh episodes in the gospels woman comes to Jesus she cries she puts her alabaster jar worth 800 eight eight eight months worth of pay and she actually you know cries over Jesus washes his feet puts perfume and
00:26:22 the only thing the Pharisees could say if this woman if this man was a prophet he would have known who and what sort of woman this is touching him for she is a c that's all they were interested in we evaluate people according to our horizontal status we look down on them what about the children in Mark in Matthew 19 who were coming to Jesus and they were disciples actually stop them don't come to Jesus why because you're not worth worthy we look at people what about when Jesus was eating with tax
00:26:55 collectors and the Pharisees grumbled why why do you eat with people who are lower status there a compounding feature of Grace when we look at it from the human perspective but the reality is Matthew 20:15 am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me God is saying this Vineyard belongs to me I get to do whatever I want to do or do you be grudged by generosity so the last will become first and the first last so the matter is not what you did but what God gave so we're always looking at things from perception of
00:27:35 what we did rather than what God gave da Carson said do you really want nothing but total effective instantaneous Justice when you look at the evil campaigning down in joho and you said to God I want instant Justice you know what happens the cousin says then you have to go to hell because all of us if we were to receive equal instantaneous Justice would have not a leg to stand on and so therefore God's reality he's sitting on the other side of the bench like Putin and the un uh director Matthew 1930 the first will be
00:28:15 last and the last be first Matthew 16 2016 the last will be first and the first will be last so the parable of the vineyard workers is told to tell tell you that reality God's reality not your reality God's reality is completely different from yours it has a reversal of orders the reason why this Parable is told to you it's it's actually hyperbole but it's actually a reversal of what our perceptual uh uh idea of what Justice is and it goes back to Genesis chapter 3 everything goes back to Genesis chapter
00:28:51 3 when the woman was tempted he says the the serpent says to the woman for God knows that if you eat of but your eyes will be open and you'll be like God knowing good and evil knowing good and evil means determining what is right what is fair so which means you will be like the 6 a.m workers and you get to decide that you don't you deserve more than one Denarius even though you agreed that it'll be one Denarius when you look at the 500 PM people getting one dinar you are saying uh in my estimation I
00:29:26 should be getting 12 dinis that's exactly what it is when man becomes God you get to decide what is actually Fair which is the main problem that actually plagues all the Pharisees and and the Sadducees at that time they thought they were actually obeying the law but what they actually do is actually they lower the standards of the law there a there's a a theologian called gram M actually wrote the low view of the law always produces legalism the high view of the law makes a person a Seeker after Grace
00:30:03 you see the typical Story the tax collector and the Pharisee both go to the temple and the guy the Pharisee actually has a low view of the law because he thinks just because I tith just because I do this and that means I'm obeying the law he wasn't obeying the law he couldn't see his pain he he his sin the tax collector could actually see his sin more vividly and feel it more why because he had a very high view of the law uh you have Matthew Chapter 5 Jesus say you heard that it was said You shall not
00:30:37 commit adultery but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart so that Jesus actually raises the bar the true intent in the spirit of the law is actually further if you're going to hide you the law then you will not be a legalist you will actually go after Grace and the reaction to Grace is they Grumble because they brought the level down to what they perceive now the third point is the grace only makes sense when seen
00:31:08 from the perspective of our need and God's generosity here you have a picture of Jesus with the children whom the disciples tried to stop and Jesus said let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven the issue is not the status the horizontal status of the children the issue is their need the children need the kingdom of God just like the disciples need the kingdom of God when Jesus had the rich young man coming to him telling him that he obeyed
00:31:43 all the law you know what Jesus saw Jesus saw his need and his need was a relationship of total surrender with Jesus he would not give up everything you see grace is God's prerogative not our right when Jesus looked at them he says with man this is impossible but With God all things are possible the disciples must have felt they gave up everything the rich man couldn't give up everything so therefore they deserve more just like the 6 a.m. workers but Jesus is actually illustrating to them through this Parable that With God all
00:32:18 things are possible man whatever however hard you work you don't deserve it all right Matthew 20:15 am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me the whole issues that we see God from our lens it's always a man centered view of life so therefore when God actually exercises Sovereign right we Rebel we feel this unfair why because we're sitting on the other end of the table right for the Kingdom of Heaven is like a master the kingom of Heaven is about God it ain't about you it's about God
00:32:52 it's not about you all right Romans chapter 9: 20 who who are you oh man to answer back to God will what is molded say to its molder why have you made me like this has the poter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel of Honor honorable use and the other of dishonorable youth God has that ability because he created the world now you look back at all the workers if you go back to Deuteronomy 24:15 you shall give to him his wages on the same day before the sun sets for he is poor and counts on it lest he cry
00:33:33 against you to the Lord and you be guilty of the reason why that money was given at 5:00 was because the only reason why you're at the day labor market is because you're dirt poor these people didn't have regular income these people didn't have regular jobs they were day laborers and these guys will hang around the whole day praying oh my God I hope I get a job and it 9:00 tis pass 12:00 ticks pass 3:00 ticks pass and they got nothing and if they had not received any pay they would have gone home hungry and
00:34:09 that's why Deuteronomy says you got to pay them not based on what is worth but what he is basically needs it is his needs what you know to illustrate the point it's harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God then um camel to an eyeon needle which here is seated over there you can see the richest man in in the world I think a more most powerful man in the world uh Elon Musk who now owns Twitter owns your conversations um he was having a conversation with a Christian group called Babylon be.com and the end of the conversation
00:34:45 since he got it there one of the uh commentators took an opportunity says Elon I wonder if you could do this a quick solid and accept Jesus Christ as your lord and savior personal Lord and Savior it's just a quick prayer that's American version of evangelism very odd isn't it at the end of you know just do us a favor you know accept Jesus Christ Lord and Savior I don't think many of us would do that way but you know that's his attempt at the gospel and this is what Elon Musk said I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in an
00:35:18 orderly Harmony of what exists not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings must added but hey if Jesus is saving people I mean I won't stand in this way sure I'll be saved why not can you see the problem about rich people Elon Musk believes in a god of Spinosa who is actually a Dutch philosopher who believes that God is in everything there God is not personal God just sets the world running off automatically and he doesn't really intervene or interfere at all his
00:35:54 concept of God is completely off but he's not going to stand stand in the way if Jesus wants to save people and heck he's going to be saved anyway Elon must does not canot see his need and once he said that you know what happened to the Christian group they said that I think he just said yes we got him we got Elon Musk here's the Tiding coming in kaching kaching kaching bt76 hello how could you share the gospel in this way the problem here is he doesn't see his need he doesn't see his need at all when God looks at us
00:36:36 he looks at us from the Vantage Point what we need not what you have am I not allowed to do what I choose do you begrudge my generosity now this this begrudge by generosity is a dynamic equivalent translation the actual Greek says is your eye evil if I am good as if there are two kinds of ey eye there's the good eye and there's the evil eye and where did we hear this before it's actually a Jewish uh idiom and it's actually going back to Matthew chapter 6 the eye is the lamp of the body if your eye is healthy or good all right your
00:37:16 whole body will be full of light if your eye is bad then your whole body will be full of Darkness so therefore there is a issue here where if you are stingy which mean you look at the word World from the Viewpoint of perception of what you can get or what you can gain a materialistic eyes therefore everything is going to be colored by that you see and Jesus said where your treasure is that's where your heart is your perception of the world your perception other people's entirely driven by your world view which is
00:37:48 driven by what you actually value in your heart and if you value these things above people then you would actually see things in a rather dim light for example this chap we're all wearing n95 and I'm wearing my special device to pump more air in he puts a gold mask up there to suffocate himself to show you that he can afford a gold mask he rather suffocate in his gold you know than to breathe in Air that's a picture of what the world's going to be like because he got an evil eye you know Jonah actually was then
00:38:27 sitting out side nve the capital of Assyria and he's you know just just you know to share the gospel with them and this is what he actually said you know why I ran away Lord and I didn't want to share the gospel with the people of n is this is why I made haste to flee to tashes for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful slow to anger abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster you see he according to no Jonah the people in nineve didn't deserve salvation they didn't deserve the kingdom of God they
00:39:04 didn't deserve to be saved because they're horrible people they're horrible horrible people but that's why he didn't want to share with them and he realized that if you share with them they may come to Salvation because God is a gracious God so Grace only makes sense when you look from the perspective people's need and God's character how beautiful and gracious and good that he is so he's sitting under the the the the the tree I think it's juniper tree or something outside the capital of Assyria and he's
00:39:38 watching the city Waiting for God to destroy them and then he's got this big plant has grown up and provide him shed he loves this plant and later on God sends a scorching sun and destroys the plant he gets really upset and this what he says and the Lord said you pity the plant for which you did not labor nor did you make grow which came into being in the night and perished in the night and should I not pity n that great City in which there are more than 120,000 people who do not know their right hand
00:40:10 from their left and also much cattle so it's God is trying to show him it's not about what you value you value this plant this grew up last night and got scorched and died don't you think I should value more than 120,000 people at the cattle so see our perception is different God sees people's needs was a church in England many years ago uh that had great Outreach of missions even to the slum districts maybe the East End of London and all that and uh many people came to know the Lord and and then once
00:40:45 a year they would have a big mission uh worship meeting together and then they would receive the Lord's Supper of communion and at that communion you actually saw the Supreme Court Justice okay kneeling down having his Communion next to him was the actual criminal whom he sentenced to jail for seven years because of burglary it was ironic they're sitting down next to each other kneeling down receiving communion right and then after the service he was walking out the Lord Justice with the pastor and and the Lord Justice says
00:41:22 what a miracle of grace and the pastor says what a marvelous Miracle of Grace gra and the Lord Justice turned to the Pastor said what do you mean by Miracle of grace and the Pastor said well sitting next to you kneeling next to you is a absolute criminal and you sentenced him to seven years in jail and he now he winds up next to you receiving communion and Lord Justice turned to the pastor says that's not what I mean the burglar was at the end of his rope he nowh where to go he came out of prison destitute he saw his need he
00:42:03 accepted Jesus Lord and Savior I was brought up all my life as a gentleman my word is my bond I followed God's law I went to church I took communion I went to Oxford I got qualified I was called to bar I worked hard and I became a judge Supreme Court you know how difficult it was for me to see that I a sinner so therefore when we're kneeling side by side the greater work of Grace is actually God to me not to the burglar see grace is funny that way isn't it evaluates you on what you need and God's
00:42:43 generosity rather than what you are lastly Grace can induce only Grace can induce a spiritual response I want you to imagine this situation it's 7:30 in the evening and the guy who was hired at 5:00 that day has taken home one dinus which is 5 days worth of money and he's sitting down with his family and they have Rose Pig can I have Rose P this is Jewish it's Rose lamb sorry they have Rose lamb wow fantastic you know what he's talking about with his children he's you think he'd be sitting there and
00:43:24 say Hey you know Papa work so hard man I lifted the 50 lb weight 1 hour 60 Minutes how many seconds W I really did great work you think that would be what he was telling his children no he would go in and say I waited the whole day it was a disaster nobody wanted me I'm horrible but this guy he hired me last minute and he gave me equal pay to the guy 6:00 and the conversation will be all about this Vineyard work tomorrow thousands of workers will be running at 5:00 to this Vineyard work uh Master you
00:44:07 see that is the picture of Grace that would be what that 5:00 worker will be talking about with his family his family talking to other friends about that's what Grace does Grace transforms sometime ago there was a French philosopher by name of Simone wheel and she wrote a very interesting book it's called gravity and Grace you see she says that the world runs on two sets of laws one set of law is gravity Isaac Newton action equals opposite and equal reaction law of physics you bomb my city I bomb yours
00:44:45 you hit me once I whack you back if you don't pay your mortgage I take your house away that's how the world works but Grace is completely different you deserve punishment God gives you love you deserve to go to hell God takes you to heaven so the two paradigms that and and the other Paradigm which is a spiritual Paradigm is so alien to us that when it actually comes into our hearts it transforms it actually trans is the most powerful thing that's why you if you watch that uh lay is rub if you ever
00:45:19 have a chance to watch this uh on stage is even better we've got uh Jean Valen who basically is a criminal and he was actually captured by the French jams some time ago and they found two candlesticks which had stolen from The Bishop's house from which he had actually taken refuge and they were going to charge him and the bishop came in and he said oh these two candles I gave it to him I gave it to him as John Jam actually stole it but actually gave it to him and and that act singular Act of Grace melted the
00:45:57 heart of a tortured malign Soul you wrongly put in prison in the first place hardened by years of gravity rather than Grace we live in a world where it's either gravity or Grace and when Grace comes into your life it transforms you it's powerful but sometimes Grace is misunderstood isn't it here you actually have the mother of the James and John and they were given a promise by our Lord Lord Jesus Christ Jesus said to them truly I say to you in the New World when the son of man will sit on his glorious Throne you who have
00:46:34 followed me will also sit on 12 Thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel he's already told them you know 12 Thrones you guys going to be sitting next to me not enough I want to sit right next to you left and right Grace is so easily misunderstood because they felt that they deserve more than anybody else to sit to the right hand of Jesus and the left hand of Jesus Grace is misunderstood they came to Jesus and and Mark Chronicles the same event by the James and John coming up to Jesus say teacher we want you to do for us
00:47:10 whatever we ask of you isn't that much like many of us being shown the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and yet we come to Jesus every day and we demanding and asking him to do what we want to fit into our agenda in our world in our time Grace is often misunderstood recent Netflix interview of Viola Davis is very famous uh Black American actress with Oprah Winfrey and she was actually extoling the virtues of can you imagine prayer and she's saying you know years ago you know prayer is powerful I got on my
00:47:52 knees one day and I said you know Lord I want I want a big black man from the south preferably kids so that I won't be pressured in that area I don't to give him kids right I want him to be going to church I want him to come from the artistic community so that you know he'll understand my work and my difficulties as well and three weeks after the prayer woo a man turned up big black man from the south you know they got together and VI D said if God answered this prayer I'll go to church every day I'll go to
00:48:32 church they have a child he's got two children of his own but you see you look at the interview it's always cast in the perspective prayer is powerful you know why it's like a tool which I could use so the focus is not what God gives but actually what I can do to release that treasure that's what Prosperity Gospel I say the right words do the right things and God will have no choice he has to release it all so Violet Davis is telling OA this is the way you pray man and actually that's Grace misunderstood
00:49:01 as if it's something transactional if I can do something God will then release that's not what Grace is about all right it's and Grace is risky I remember this airport one of the worst airport in the world never go to Milan if you go to Milan as you're lining up to check into the immigration a couple will come up British couple and then they're making a way past everybody you know excuse us excuse us why oh you know uh our flight is going to leave we're late can you let us go past otherwise we miss our flight
00:49:35 so everybody lets them go across another 10 minutes another couple start coming another couple five six couples they all Crossing through and I I was a bit upset I mean this is not fair isn't it but it only happens in Milan I've been to many airports in the world but it only happens in Milan and I later I go on and I see at the business class Lounge they have having makan you know this couple having makan enjoying their lives I thought we did them a favor because they were in such need right so you know what I felt
00:50:07 cheated right so sometimes we can feel cheated because people at the 6:00 have worked so hard and people 5:00 come in and we feel that we're cheated but the word says and whoever would be first among you must be your slave even as the son of man came not to be served but to serve to give his life as a ransom for one for for for many see grace is unmar it's not deserved but it's not free and the only way it's going to make sense is that the price has already been paid it only makes sense because Grace
00:50:47 equals Mercy plus Justice someone else has paid when Grace equals to Mercy and Justice then it becomes Fair because someone else paid the price so therefore Grace defies comparison you can't stand next to someone else and and look at what God has done in his life and say why doesn't God do this for my life why is he healed of illness of cancer and I'm struggling with stage four why is God so unfair why should i serve one Peter four says as each has received a gift use it to serve one another as the good
00:51:33 stewards of God's VAR Grace what whoever speaks as one who speaks of the Oracles of God whoever serves as one who serves by the strength God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to him be the glory and Dominion forever and ever amen this this passage underscores the utility of Grace our gifts are describe as what Grace stuff that we receive from God that we never deserved and if we didn't deserve what we get then we pass that on because as freely as we are given we
00:52:11 actually give the whole concept is that Grace must transform Grace when showed to us in it many varied forms would have done such a transformation that we respond out of gratitude that our whole lives is expanded in dispens Bing that Grace forward and we'll end with the last picture in this chapter two Blind Men and they said Lord have mercy on us son of David the crowd rebuked them telling them Shut Up silent but they cried out even more they didn't care Lord have mercy on us son of David and Jesus in pity touched their
00:52:56 eyes immediately they received their s their sight and look at the last two words they followed him when God comes into your life and he touches your eyes he touches your heart he touches your life there's only one response we follow him we don't compare what other people see we are all transformed by the power of Grace let's have a word of prayer father Lord we right now we have to admit we don't even understand how Grace works why is it that some people have to go through a hard time like the 6 a. a workers and
00:53:43 some people come in at 5:00 and they shown grace and mercy While others are not but father Lord we thank you this morning that we can depend on you who are a wonderful God who sees our need not our worth and you seize our pain and you respond to us with Grace and we pray that we as a people will be transformed in gratitude and service that we too will dispense the grace that you have been given you have given to us we ask this for Jesus sake amen so let me there's still got some time and uh we're
00:54:20 going to end the sermon today by a testimony of someone to whom Grace has been shown can I invite our brother our precious brother Malcolm Anderson let's give him a warm welcome good morning this is it I'm the AV guy I shouldn't have had to use one of these um good morning everybody it's great to be up here um special good morning to my my nephew and my brother my brother in Australia who he he text me I knew this had happen he text me at quarter to 5 just before my alarm went off because we got to get
00:55:12 in a bit early and he said to me because I'm talking about oh I'm worried about getting up on stage he said t testimony is good for you too and then he said they overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony Revelation somewhere I think that's about the way I talk about the Bible too so I looked it up and it's under chapter 12 the woman and the dragon and it's describing the war in heaven they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and the bit that follows on is
00:55:52 a bit interesting too and they did not love their lives so much as to shy away from Death okay just bear with me for a while um I've been thinking about this a lot and I thought I'd try to do the standard thing which is three main points um and this is a hard actor follow so my main three main points were prostate amazing and connection um so just on the prostate I guess the main reason I'm up here is because I've just come through prostate surgery 6 weeks ago so tomorrow I'm officially healed we don't know about
00:56:35 cured yet because I haven't had the cancer check and and and over the last five or six weeks I've been to church every week since the surgery it's amazing number of people don't seem to know what the prostate is so a mental hands up you don't have to do this just hands up in your head how many people don't know what a prostate is okay I I always love Yan's sermons when he gives a little bit of a map and a bit of a lesson and stuff so I'm going to do about a one minute prostate thing and please correct me if I'm wrong prostate
00:57:23 is down below your bladder it's on the the bottom of your bladder and it's a bit above those bits that we don't normally talk about so because it's down there we don't normally talk about the prostate that much as well and and look I didn't really know I had a prostate till I was about 50 um and Dr Peter always has a GLE gleam in his eye when he says this anyway um prostate has got three maybe four main functions probably two more than Peter knows one of them is it's essential for reproduction and at my age that's not
00:58:05 such a problem anymore um the other one is it's important to control your bladder Le we and leaking incontinence uh the third characteristic is that it's a source of cancer and just like breast cancer in women prostate cancer in men is the most prevalent form of cancer um and because it's close to the rude bits people don't like to talk about it so they don't go to the doctor early enough uh and especially because it's a man only thing men don't like to talk about that stuff at all so fortunately
00:58:53 God's given us a PSA test guys if you're over 50 get a PSA test because that's what triggered my whole event a PSA test results too high tests tests test biopsy cancer and it was a cancer which is aggressive enough that it needed treatment um so couldn't couldn't put it off anymore um the the two main treatments are radiation and surgery and and I was keen on surgery because the indication was that the cancer was controlled it was localized in my prostate so look I'm an engineer just get it out take the take
00:59:45 the the the broken part out unfortunately we can't put a new one in and and and it's clear um but I got another problem these things these lungs of mine they got lots of fibrosis in them and they got some COPD and stuff and so the doctors were going what surgery no way because the the the the prostate surgery the ideal one is robotic surgery uh where the robot sort of takes control um it's this thing with five arms and one eye and they all stick inside your abdomen and but the the the problem is
01:00:30 you've got to be heads down very Steep and they inflate your abdomen so there's a lot of pressure on your lungs and so there was fear that I wouldn't be able to remain ventilated um so you might have noticed my name it ended up about middle of January on the prayer list and this had already been going on since July last year August last year I was confirmed with cancer um the reason for asking for prayer was that I really really wanted robot surgery but it was all looking like I couldn't have it but we
01:01:14 kept moving forward and I got clearance from the the respiratory doctor I got clearance from the heart but just in case we had a standard surgeon standing by so that if in the Steep position I couldn't be ventilated they just bring me back up the horizontal make a big cut there and and take it out um so it all came together and on my 67th birthday 6 weeks ago I went in and the last thing I remember is the funny smell of the gas and then this is where I get to the next bit this is where it's going to be more
01:02:01 difficult um next thing is for me amazing it's amazing that the the operation went so well um the entist was very concerned and um she was expecting 7 hours or something and and uh it it just went so smoothly uh 3 and 1/2 hours all finished all done not a single problem no problems ventilating me everything smooth um I was in ICU by about lunchtime so very quick very smooth um and she she's not a Christian but she said she mentioned the word miracle which I I'm an engineer Miracles don't happen she mentioned the word amazing
01:03:08 energy and pres presence I didn't know this was going on of course I was asleep um but that's what happened so that's really where my my prostate experience goes um I think what brings me to tears so much is um a few things have happened um in December uh King my wife her father died and at the funeral I'm worse than this I couldn't even talk I was in tears and look we'd been dealing with part has terminal illness for years but it was getting serious in the last months and it was my turn if any of you
01:04:09 have read the the thing I I wrote in FPC together is that that the magazine um you don't need to listen to this but but uh what had happened was I confidently strowed up to the microphone because Karin wanted me to respond and I couldn't and I couldn't understand why I just broke down and I realized that it was the amazing and undeserved I believe support of the church because church members were coming along the worship team was there and they just made the whole thing so easy so breakdown number
01:05:01 one breakdown number two was when the anst came in to talk to me in the ICU and told me how well the operation went and I was trying to tell her how wonderful the church was and I couldn't cuz I was crying again I'm almost there now and and these are two things where I didn't didn't really think that I deserved all of you people praying for me but boy it really helped now I'm still a little bit like it's like what Peter mentioned you pray to God and he has to give you what you want I'm I'm still thinking that doesn't
01:05:50 happen but even just knowing that the church was praying thing was so so supporting and just I was thinking about this a lot yesterday and there was an incident from about seven years ago which suddenly fits into the pattern um in 2015 I was in Adelaide working I was renovating a property down there and uh basically trying to do it by myself and just up the road there's a church and I was going there occasionally the first time first time we walked in so oh Church a new church walked in there and it's all Malaysians
01:06:39 so it was just like being at home um but what happened was towards the end of this renovation I was struggling because I was trying to do it mostly myself and I was talking to the pastor there and suddenly a helper appeared he was an Iranian Refugee and I was able to employ him for about 3 or 4 weeks but even closer to the deadline of me having to go back to Malaysia the place was still a real mess and I had to get it tidied up and again I was just talking to the pastor about this and suddenly a cleanup crew
01:07:21 appeared now here am I not a church member dropping in every now and again leaving the country what's in it for them and if that's not undeserved Grace I don't know what is so these are the sort of big Grace things and I think so often you sort of notice these ones but all the little Grace things they seem to just get bypassed H what else have I got here yeah um and what Dr Peter said before is that Grace has to transform um for me uh I feel a deep transformation and it's not just because I've lost this
01:08:23 thing down here it's because uh I just feel different I mean um some people have commented already some people have been coming up to me and saying you're amazing and I I don't really know why but I think it's because I've been healing so well and it look it makes me feel good but it's not really me that's amazing other people have come up and said you're so different you know you talk to people now you're not scared you're more confident you got more energy um and it's true I'm not scared of you
01:09:07 [Music] anymore like you normally know me sermon finishes everybody goes out to fellowship and I scary away and hide in behind the AV desk or sit by myself somebody told me that the other day you actually come out talk to us now that's true the other thing that's happened to me is I've feel this sense of affection for everybody um I I tend to look at people in a negative fear way first used to but in these days now I tend to be sort of a lot more open and trusting uh and that's that's just wonderful um what
01:09:58 else yeah worry worry and burden and this has been going on for a while now um this testimony would have had me terrified and yet I was actually sitting there fairly peaceful um I've got a cancer result tomorrow and the previous me that would just be full of my mind it would just be filling my mind uh it's not anymore um and and I've noticed this probably since PA passing because I I can now feel the confidence that that I've got the ability to to handle these things and the peace the peace that that brings
01:10:49 is great it just clears your mind it just it makes you more active so um I guess that's a big transformation for me I'm still trying to work on my wife she's a bit of a worrior still and look I wanted to mention her especially because when I first got my TR cancer diagnosis her father was dying of kidney disease so she's already got the father and then what the husband got cancer um so she had to put up with all of that fortunately I could go onto a a hormone treatment that puts things on hold for me because we really had to
01:11:37 focus on P um once P passed away then it focuses on me um I don't think I can say much more yes I can the last one is connection uh and something that that's really struck me is so often it's a thing like a bement or a serious illness or something like that where the news gets out to the church that gives the church the opportunity to support now I know out there there are lots of people suffering but too scared to talk about it um and if if if you can't communicate it to the church the church can't lean in
01:12:35 and help you and I don't know how to break that down I mean I will offer personally come and talk to me and look I'm sure there's many Elders out there that will say Come and Talk to me just just come and talk to me don't be scared um because there's an amazing resource in this church of love and care and yet in the middle of it but you're not really in it because you're closing yourself off like I used to but um because of these events that have happened I've really just increase my love I don't see the red light on yet so
01:13:31 um just another thing I wanted to mention um I remember when we first came to this church almost it was 10 years ago almost exactly the first thing that happened was couldn't youan grabbed us and had us in Alpha within a week and following on from that I remember a beater I think it was called in those days and this was before I was a Christian uh and Dr Peter was doing Romans and the big thing I got out of Romans was becoming a Christian is not like turning on a switch um which I'd always thought it
01:14:08 was I mean once you're a Christian Oho Everything Changes magically you're a Christian and the message that came the message I took away from the Romans was that it's a transitive thing it's a transition and look I've been at it for n years now and I think God's given me the biggest move from head to heart in the last six months and I'm so grateful for that and I guess now it's my turn to pray and I don't have any prayer notes um the worship time can come up um so if you bear with me this is a personal prayer
01:14:59 but if any of it resonates please follow along father Lord um I'm so so grateful for all of your grace I'm So Graceful grateful that the grace continues despite my L of acknowledgement uh I'm grateful for the church I'm grateful for my wife um and i' I'd really like to uphold the people who are having trouble sharing their problems and who are isolated from the wonderful support that the church can give so my main prayer is please please support those that that need help and are a little bit too scared to ask
01:15:56 ask and I pray this in jesus' name amen
