Here Is What You Need To Know About Grace

Matt 20:1-15 - "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard."When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.  "And he went out …about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, 'Why have you been standing here idle all day long?'  "They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too.'
 
"When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.'  "When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.  "When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius."When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us … "But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius?  'Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own?   NASU
 

• You Get What You Don't Deserve 

Please don't miss the most important lesson in this parable Jesus told. You and I tend to see ourselves as the first workers to enter the field and we work hard all day. The only problem with thinking that is nothing could be further from the truth.

 We are the eleventh-hour workers, not the first ones hired. When you see yourself as an eleventh-hour worker your perspective of this parable will change.
 
God wishes to GIVE us something.
 
Something we didn't earn it. He wants to give us Grace.
 
The first workers knew exactly how much they were going to receive. They hired on for one day for one denarius and at the end of the day that is exactly what they received.
 
That wasn't Grace that was earned wages.
 
On the other hand, the other workers the ones who went out at the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 11th hour didn't know what their pay was going to be. It was told them to go "And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.'
 
I am sure none of the workers from the 3rd hour to the 11th hour thought they were going to receive a denarius.
 
We would not expect to be paid for 8 hours if we worked 2, 4 or 6 hours. We would try and find out what the hourly wage was and then we would multiply it times the hours we worked and if we did that we would not be receiving GRACE we would be receiving our wages. 

• What Do You Want? 

Now you know the end of this parable so let me ask you a question "What do you want to receive your wages or GRACE?
 
Here is what the apostle Paul has to say about wages: Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is my desire this Pump Up does exactly what it is designed for and that is to give you a spiritual boost.
 
It is up to you. Do you want to be like the first workers hired and receive your wages? This would be a bad idea, a very bad idea.
 
Or perhaps now that you have had time to think these over you are a 3rd, 6th, 9th or 11th-hour worker and you are so thankful because you want to receive what God wants to give you, GRACE.
 
You and I don't deserve heaven not even for a split second, but God wants to GRACIOUSLY give us heaven or as Paul says, "Eternal Life."
 
Think About This:
 
What you are is God's gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.

Stay Pumped,
 
Gary A. Serago

Minister of God's Word
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