Sermon Tone Analysis

*GREAT EXPECTATIONS*

*MATTHEW 20:1-16*

 

*How much of life do we spend thinking about what we deserve?*

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*We tend to build an expectation for parts of our life.*

*- Because we did well on an exam you expect an A.*

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*- Because you were able to save the company $10,000 because of an error you found you might expect a bonus.*

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*- Because of your amazing talent and doing your job effectively you expect a promotion.*

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*- Because you said something nice to your spouse you expect to pick her up of the floor.*

*We do this in relationships as well.

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*- We expect because we are married and have pledged our love to each other that we would treat each other with respect and honor.*

*- We might expect consideration that if someone is running late they would call to let us know.*

*- You expect honesty and trust in your relationship.*

*There are lots of times when we have built up expectations for others performance, others actions, others words, or others feelings that there is no way for them to live up to those expectations.*

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*They might not even know the expectations exist.*

*The question then goes to our expectations of God.*

*How many expectations have we placed in our lives that are related to God?*

*Do we expect that because we have lived our life a certain way** that things are going to go better than they do for someone who has not lived their life very well?*

 

*Do we expect to be in a greater position of status** amongst His kingdom because of our abilities or talents?*

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*READ Matthew 20:1-16*

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*EXPECTING WHAT IS PROMISED*

*What is promised is much more than what is deserved.*

*A denarius for the day*, *the wage of a Roman soldier, *was good pay for such workers.

It is likely they were usually paid less, and they readily agreed to this man’s equitable offer.

*Colossians 3:24-25 -* /“////From the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance.

It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.////”/

*OUR EXPECTATIONS VS.

OTHERS DECISIONS*

The account does not mention the fact, but it is obvious from *the eleventh-hour workers’ wages that the men hired at the third, sixth, and ninth hours were also paid a denarius.

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It is therefore understandable that *when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more*.

*At this point they had no problem with what the owner had done** but, in fact, were ecstatic.

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Because he had paid the other men a full day’s wage for a partial day’s work,* they assumed that they would receive more than a day’s wage.

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*At the rate the eleventh-hour group was paid, they would have received 12 day’s pay for one day’s work!

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*They were more than willing to be paid last if that meant being paid so handsomely.*

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*But their hopes were soon dashed when they also received each one a denarius*, and they reacted exactly as we would expect.

*Their normal, very human reaction was,* *“****That’s not fair!

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Those men only worked an hour at the end of the day.

We worked hard all day long, including during *scorching heat*.

Why should they get paid as much as we did?”

In any case, they were *determined not to leave until they had satisfaction from the landowner,* who was standing near his foreman when the wages were handed out.

*We all have a way of completing this sentence: *

*“If God is God, then....” *

*There will be no financial collapse in my family.

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*My children will never be buried before me.

People will treat me fairly.

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*This church will never divide.

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*My prayers will be answered.

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*(Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm) *

*And when these expectations go unmet doubt sets in.

We tell God show me and I’ll believe, He says believe and I’ll show you.*

*When Jesus does not meet our expectations we end up going back to what is most important to us.

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*- For some it is sex.

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*We stop being moral people or we leave our marriages to get as many sexual encounters as we can.

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*- Others it is money.

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*God has failed so I will get as much money as I can.

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*- For some it is drinking or drugs, or some other addictive behavior.*

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*Then we still go to church and still look the part but when Jesus does not do what we want Him to do we revert to our own personal agenda.*

*MATCHING EXPECTATIONS TO REALITY*

*When men doubt the justice and fairness of God, it is always because of their own twisted views of justice and of Him.

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*God Himself is the standard for righteousness*, *and it is as impossible for Him to be unjust as to lie.*

 

*In no area is God’s impartiality more significant and wonderful than in regard to salvation.

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*Romans 2:9-11 – Paul declares -*  /“////There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For there is no partiality with God//.//”/

*No matter what men’s circumstances might be when they come to Christ, and no matter how well or poorly they may serve Him after coming, they receive the same glorious salvation.*

*It reminds me of a time that I went fishing with a guy I’ll call Jimmy.

Now Jimmy is a straight out pre-Christian.

(That is the new way of saying non-believer) He smokes, he drinks, he sleeps around, he cusses, and he even does drugs.

His wife warned him that he was to do NONE of those things around me when we went fishing out of respect for me.

Now, I was not expecting any certain type of behavior, I had no expectations on him at all.

I just wanted to make a friendship, looking to win the right to share about Christ.

The whole time we were fishing, he was miserable!

I finally asked him what was wrong, and he explained the rules his wife had put on him for the fishing trip.

I released him from that law- I explained to him that he was free to do what he wants, but there was consequences- not the least of which was the tongue lashing from his wife.

But it also gave me the opportunity to share a small part of the Gospel message.

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*I went fishing with Jimmy, not to change his behavior, but to be his friend.

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*There were no conditions on my friendship, nothing he had to be or do.

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*All I wanted to do was to be his friend.

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*When Jesus came into this world, he came to seek and save that which was lost by offering us the free gift of his grace- with no conditions attached.

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*Boy did Jimmy light up with that first cigarette-he was enjoying freedom.

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*The conversation opened up to, not leading to his salvation on that Saturday, but leading at least to an open dialogue.*

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*Dietrich Bonheoffer once asked this question of us, "Do we understand that instead we get a messiah who gives us power all right, but it’s a whole new kind of power, it’s THE POWER OF SUFFERING LOVE.

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*It’s a power that looks me in the eye, forgives my sin, my fear, my anger, my resentment, my prejudice.*

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*It’s a power that didn’t assert itself over and against me, but died for me.*

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*It’s a power that sets me free from all of that which is within me that dehumanizes me and others.

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*It’s a power that loosens my grip on all of my expectations and even allows me to see Christ’s face in the least and most lowly on this planet.

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*It’s a power that relates in grace, and invites me to join with him in being one of his special grace givers.

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*It’s a power that assures me I don’t need to be afraid of suffering, self-giving love, because it’s the only way I will ever fulfill my humanity, and find my purpose, and experience true joy and peace."*

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| *Equality in the Kingdom*(19:30—20:16) | *20* |

*But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.

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*For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

And when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard.

And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; and to those he said, “You too go into the vineyard, and whatever is fight I will give you.”

And so they went.

Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.

And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing; 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 too go into the vineyard.”

And when evening had come, 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.”

And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius.

And when those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; and they also received each one a denarius.