From His Heart

Speaker 1

Maybe you're like so many who say, "I'm going to serve the Lord and I'm going to do what he says and I'm going to follow him." You are faithful, but you have physical problems and financial problems. You just seem to have trouble in spades.

Then you notice somebody at work or in the neighborhood. This guy or this lady doesn't follow God, and they don't seem to have the problems you have. Everything seems to come up roses for them. You start to wonder, is God fair? Could it be that God is not fair?

Speaker 2

Well, have you ever thought that maybe God is not fair? I mean, bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. We see some people serve him faithfully, but they struggle in life. But others just tip their hat to God on Christmas and Easter and seem to be abundantly blessed.

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. And in today's insightful message called "Is God Fair?" the last one of the month, Pastor Jeff shares why God may sometimes seem to be unfair. He's really just testing our service attitude to make sure that we don't fall into the "what's in it for me?" trap.

Today, a quick reminder that this is the last time we'll be telling you about our gift of thanks for your support. This month, the new nine-message series, "When the Son of Man Comes," a study of Matthew 24 and 25. It's about the words of Jesus concerning the end times. To get your copy, make your gift when you go to fromisheart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE.

Now open your Bible to Matthew, chapter 20, as Pastor Jeff Shreve concludes this month with a message that answers the questions generations have had: Is God fair?

Speaker 1

The Lord tells this parable. It's a warning parable. It's a parable about, hey, you, watch your heart, watch out that you don't get an attitude that says, hey, I've done all this. What are you going to do for me? Lord, watch out for that attitude and a bad motive that can easily get into your heart. Into my heart if we're not careful.

Three warnings in the parable that the Lord gave. Warning number one, beware of bargaining with the Lord. And here you have the landowner. He comes at 6 AM; it's harvest time, the end of September, and he's got this huge vineyard and he needs to harvest his grapes before the rainy season comes. Here are the guys he found, and then he says, "I need you to work in my vineyard." The 6 AM guys go into the vineyard after they had a deal with the landowner. Look at verse two; he says, "And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard." They didn't go into the vineyard until they had a contract. In your service for the Lord, beware of the whiffam—what's in it for me? I'm not going to go out and serve you, Lord, until I have all the particulars filled in. Beware of bargaining with the Lord.

Secondly, beware of comparing yourself to other people. That's a big one, isn't it? Now, the 6 AM guys, when they were standing around at 6 AM hoping, praying that someone would hire them, I mean, they're not standing there just because, "I don't know, I just stand here for a while." They're wanting to work; they're hoping that someone will hire them. When the landowner hired them and he was going to pay them a denarius, which is the wage of a Roman soldier, you're not going to get rich making a denarius, but you're not going to starve to death either. It's a decent wage; it's the wage of the day.

At 6 AM, they're all excited, going out to the vineyard. By 7 AM, they're working, and they're all, "Man, this is great. We got this job." At 8 AM, they're still happy, enjoying their work, until pay time comes. They knew that there was a new group of workers that came in at 5 PM and only worked an hour. When they saw those workers got a denarius, these guys got excited at first because they thought, "One hour, one denarius, man, could we get 12? You think we'll get 12 denarii for what we did? I mean, those guys got one, and they only worked one hour. We've worked 12 hours."

But when they got paid their contract that they agreed upon in verse two, when the Lord came through with what they had agreed upon, what they signed on the dotted line with their contract, they were upset. Now, they weren't upset when they inked the deal; they weren't upset when they were working. They got upset when they looked at what someone else got. When they compared what they got with what the 5 PM guys got, then they got angry. It's all about comparison.

Hey, beware of comparing yourself. And it's so easy to do. Are you comparing yourself? Let me tell you, if you compare yourself to other people, to other workers, and you look at the compensation one guy got versus what you got, this is what's going to happen: Number one, you will become ungrateful.

Speaker 2

Ungrateful.

Speaker 1

I mean, that's what those guys, they weren't ungrateful to start off with the 6am guys, but they became big time ingrates. Why? Because they compared. You know, we sing that hymn sometimes. Count your blessings, Name them one by one. Count your many blessings. See what God has done. That's a good little hymn. It's good to count your blessings. But you know what we end up doing? We end up comparing our blessings. You ever done that? Compare your blessings. Compare your blessings one by one. I got this. You got that? I got this. You got that? Oh, she got this. Oh, he got that. We compare and like I said, it's kind of like the preacher deal. You either makes you proud or it makes you upset and you're like, ah, I don't have enough. You become ungrateful for what you do have. And God says, I don't want you to be like that. Don't compare. You become an ingrate.

Secondly, you become envious. I love verse 15 when he tells the guys, listen, I haven't done you any wrong. You're accusing me of being a cheat. That's what they basically said to the landowner. You cheat. What? You give us a denarius. What a cheater are you? He said, I didn't cheat. You look at the contract that you made me sign. You wouldn't go out into the vineyard until you and I signed on the dotted line. These other guys just trusted that I was good and I was generous to them. But not for you. That wasn't the case for you. And he says in verse 15, is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous? I love that. Is your eye envious because I'm generous? The word in Greek, envious is poneros, which means evil. Wicked. Are you evil? Are you wicked? Is your eye wicked and evil and bad? Because I'm generous, because I'm good.

Hey, God can do whatever he wants to do with what is his and everything belongs to Him. See, here's the thing. God doesn't owe us anything. We get the idea, especially in our world today, this entitlement world, that we're entitled to all these things. God is not a debtor to any man. God doesn't owe you jacks squat. God does because he's good and he's gracious and he's kind, but he doesn't owe you things.

I love the story. I heard this when I was in college. Bill Gothard shared this story about. He said, suppose you lived in a little village. And in this village you just had a very modest little home. And in this little village on the hillside, there was a man who was very, very wealthy and he lived in this just super palatial mansion. And suppose one day he walked down from his big man little hillside there, he walked to your street, he came to your house, he knocked on your door, you answer the door, and he hands you $100. Doesn't say a word, just gives you $100. And then he walks back down the street, back up to his house. The next day he does the same thing. Walks down, walks to your street, walks to your house, knocks on the door, hands you a hundred dollars, doesn't say a word, you don't know what to say, and he just gives you $100. And then he walks back and he does it. Day, he does it the fourth day, he does it the fifth day. He does it every day for 30 days.

And then on the 31st day, he comes from his house, he walks down the hillside, he walks to your street, he walks past your house to your neighbor's house, and he knocks on your neighbor's door. And your neighbor answers the door and he hands him $100. And then he begins to walk back to his house, and he passes your house and he passes your door and you're like, hey, hey. You open the door and he's walking past, you're like, hey. He doesn't say anything, you're like, hey, nothing. And finally he's walking past you, you know he's not going to stop. And you look at him, you say, hey, you dirty cheat, where's my hundred dollars? And then he stops and he says to you, pardon me, I didn't know I owed you $100.

How often do we do that to God? We call him a dirty cheat because he's not doing for us like he did for our neighbor. Is your eye envious? Evil, wicked, bad? Jesus said, are you coveting because I'm generous to someone else? Hey, think about this. How could it ever hurt you for God to be gracious and generous with someone else? I mean, can that ever hurt you? I heard just this morning read a story about Andrew Carnegie, the steel industrial Mogo. He had made so many millions and millions of dollars when he died, he gave a relative in his will a million dollars and that relative was so upset at how they had been cheated because Andrew Carnegie had given 365 million to various charities. I got cheated. Only got a lousy million. He had all that money. He could have given that all to me.

Hey. Is it not lawful for Andrew Carnegie to give his money to whomever he chooses? Should you not be grateful that you got a million dollars? See, that's the thing. When we start looking at what other people have or what we feel like we are entitled to, then we become ungrateful and we become envious of what somebody else has. When we understand God, you don't owe me anything. You've been knocking on my door, handing me a hundred bucks, and I haven't even said thank you. If you're the relative of Andrew Carnegie, wouldn't it be better to say, praise God, I have a million dollars. I didn't deserve a dollar? It was all his generosity. It was all his goodness. It was all his grace. That's the way we need to look at life.

Hey, don't compare yourself to other people. Beware of that. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Hebrews chapter 12 says, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Turn away from everything else and focus in on Jesus. See, that's what Peter forgot to do. And he began to look at John. And that's why Jesus said, what is that to you? You follow me. You keep your eyes on me. You know that I am good. I will do what is right. I'm never going to cheat you. I'm never going to shortchange you. The two things that keep me going in life. Second Chronicles 7, verse 3. Truly he is good. Truly his loving kindness is everlasting. You get those two things down in your heart, those two truths as the bedrock of your heart. You can handle anything in life because you know God is good. And you know God loves you and you trust him. Proverbs 3.

Speaker 2

5.

Speaker 1

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

So the warnings. First one, beware of bargaining with the Lord. The warnings. Second one, beware of comparing yourself to other people. And the third warning, beware of seeing your service as a burden. As a burden. When they began to grumble. And I love that word in verse 11. And when they received it, they grumbled. That's our word that I've taught you before. Gaguzmos. That's the Greek word. That is onomatopoeia. It sounds like its meaning; guguzmos sounds like grumbling, just like our word murmuring. You can just hear it murmur. They're grumbling because all they got was a denarius. And when they received it, they grumbled at the landowner. Verse 12 saying, these last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.

Oh, it was such a burden to work in your vineyard. It was such a burden to serve you and to work for you. A burden means, if you put it in the vernacular, it means it's a drag. It was a heavy load. It was so toilsome. It was so grievous to work for you. What a drag. That's what they said in the book of Malachi, talking about serving the Lord. God says, this is what you guys say. It's so toilsome. It's so burdensome to serve the Lord and to work for the Lord. I'm just so tired of serving him.

Hey, beware of that getting into your heart where you see your service as a burden. See, some people, they have to go to church, and other people say, well, I get to go to church. You know, you hear two people talking, it's like, well, what are you doing Sunday? I gotta go to church. Well, stay home. I mean, if that's your attitude, don't come. You think you're doing God some wild favor because you come to church and God's up in heaven saying, oh, so and so likes me. God's not Sally Field saying, oh, you like me? He's not doing that, right. God is God. I mean, what a privilege that we have to come and worship God. People in other countries do it with the risk of their lives. And we say, oh, well, it's a pretty day outside. I'd rather go to the lake, rather do this, rather do that. It's such a drag. It's such a burden to serve the Lord. Be careful that that doesn't get in your heart.

Notice this about God. It's interesting. In the vineyard parable, all the guys did the same thing. They worked in the vineyard. Now, some were picking fruit and some were probably hauling bushel baskets of fruit, and some were putting it all together. They might have had different jobs. Some of them might have been a gopher and somebody's doing this or. But they were all working in the vineyard, something having to do with the grape vineyard. So it wasn't so much what they did, it was the attitude in which they did it.

So you can have two people sing in the choir and one person can sing to the Lord in an attitude of gratitude and God is pleased, and the other can sing the same song and their heart is rotten and God gets no pleasure out of that. You think with the 6:00 am guys, was the Lord pleased? Was the landowner pleased with those guys? He told them, take what is yours and get out of here. I don't want to see you anymore. He didn't get any pleasure from those guys, although they worked for him all day long. They did it with a bad heart.

Now, you mark this down. God is more interested in why you do than what you do. He's interested in your motive. He wants to know why are you doing what you're doing. Not what are you doing what you're doing. That's why you can come to church. He'd say, well, I came to church, but why did you come? Did you come because you had to or did you come because you want to? Why do you do what you do? Motive is huge. And the scripture says, wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts. And then each man's praise will come to him from God. Motive is huge. God looks at motive. God looks at the heart.

How does God want you to be motivated? Not by have to. He wants you to be motivated by want to. He wants you to be motivated by love. That you love him. You're willing to do whatever he says. Why? Because you love him. That's the greatest commandment. If you miss that one, I don't care what else you do, you've missed it. Because the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind.

Hey, when you love God, you're willing to do things that you may not be all that jazzed about, but you're not doing those things per se. You're doing what the Father wants you to do. You're doing what God wants you to do. Now, anytime I think about that, I always think about the time in my life when God called me to preach. And it was so moving and so special and just such an awesome experience with the Lord. And then when I got ready to say, okay, Lord, we're gonna. I'm gonna leave my job and we're gonna move. And we moved. God called me to preach in July of 1995. We moved from Houston to North Carolina, a 1,200-mile trip in June of 1996. And it was a big step of faith.

When I left Houston, I had a company car. I had clout with the company, I had respect in the company. I was a deacon in my church. I taught a large Sunday school class at my church. And, you know, I had risen in some sense to an area of influence and things like that. Well, you move to North Carolina and they say you're Jeff who? We don't know you from anywhere. And so I go from being somebody that I thought, well, I'd kind of climbed the ladder, so to speak, and it just wasn't a nobody. And I go here to North Carolina, I'm a total nobody. And I'm excited because God's called me to preach. And I'm thinking, what's the biggest church in North Carolina? Maybe they're going to call me to be their pastor. They didn't call.

Well, that's a middle-sized, medium-sized church in North Carolina. Maybe they'll call me. No, what's the smallest church we got here in North Carolina? They're not interested either. Nobody was wanting me to come do anything. So we joined a small church. I thought maybe I could teach a Sunday school class. No, couldn't even do that. First week we joined, they said, Debbie, can you sing next Sunday? I was like, come on, God, what's the deal? We didn't come here so she could sing. I didn't understand and nothing was happening. And I was getting kind of frustrated. And so I was like, Lord, why'd you bring me here? I could have had a bigger ministry, a better ministry, a lot more fun staying in Houston. God, I think we missed the boat here, bringing me to North Carolina. So I'd sit here and do a bunch of nothing. The only verse that came to my mind was Job, chapter 2, verse 9. Curse God and die. And that's what I was thinking, you know, I was like, why am I doing that?

And in that time, God taught me a lesson that I've had to revisit time and time again. The Lord said to me sternly but sweetly, Jeff, who's God here? You are. Who's calling the shots here? You are. Whose will are we doing here, yours or mine?

Speaker 2

Yours.

Speaker 1

Lord, he said, then if I lead you to North Carolina and I don't open any doors for you, and all I want you to do is sit in class and learn, is that okay with you? I said, yes, Lord, it's okay. I had lost it. I'd lost focus. I was focusing on all that, well, this guy's getting to do this and that. Guy's getting to do that. Debbie gets to sing. And I got my focus off the Lord. It's all about Him. He is the landowner. He tells me where to work. And if what I was doing was bringing pleasure to him, then that's what I needed to be doing, and doing it with a good heart. And it changed everything.

And I said, God, I'm just grateful to be here, and I want to be in the middle of your will. And when I learned that lesson, doors began to open and opportunities to preach began to open. And in seven or eight months, I was back in Houston at my old church, preaching on Wednesday night to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. God was wanting to teach me that lesson.

What is the lesson? Listen, in life, your job is to please God. Nothing else matters. It's just to please God, to serve him with all your heart wherever he has you. Listen, the greatest privilege in life is to serve the Lord, to be in his vineyard, serving him not for pay, but for his pleasure. And you know that when you please God, is he going to reward you? He's going to reward you in spades. The Bible says in First Corinthians 15:58, finally, brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Speaker 2

And may we all labor so that our toil is not in vain. Are you working for the Lord, for the pleasure of his glory? That's why we were created. That's why Jesus suffered and died for you and me. And that's why he rose from the dead to give us the promise of eternity with God made pure by his blood. That's how much he loves us, even though we didn't deserve it. That is a fair God.

For more information about what can happen when you come to Christ and ask him to come into your heart, we hope you'll visit our website at fromisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" link. You'll find some wonderful resources there to help you discover God's great love.

Now, if you're one of those who listens each and every day and are blessed by this outreach, we want to say thank you. Because we couldn't be on the air without your faithful financial support. We're heard around the world, and it's because of you. Pastor Jeff receives no income from this ministry. He's paid a salary as pastor of his church in Texarkana, Texas. Your support goes directly to produce and broadcast these messages on radio, TV, and on the Internet.

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Well, we're out of time for today. I'm Larry Nobles. Thank you for joining us, and we trust you'll be here next time when Pastor Jeff will again open up God's word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart. Here on From His Heart, a listener-supported broadcast ministry speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at fromisheart.org.