COUNTER CULTURE | Week 4 | Sermon

Choose grace over grumbling. Because if you grumble, you're just you're not gonna get anywhere.

And what do we mean by that? We're gonna we're gonna see that in this little parable that Jesus teaches in in Matthew 20. But to understand it, you gotta understand what happens in Matthew 19. You see, the Bible didn't originally have chapters and verses. We made that up so we can tell you go to Matthew 20.

And so and they usually break it up pretty good, but there's these moments where they don't. And this is one of them. The first 16 verses of Matthew 20 is Jesus giving his disciples a parable teaching to help them understand what just happened in Matthew 19.

Matthew 19, this rich young ruler guy comes up to me. He's a faithful Jew. And he goes up to Jesus and he asked him a question. And basically, he's trying to justify himself before God. He's like, what must I do to have eternal life, basically? And he goes, well, Jesus knows all men's hearts. He goes, well, you know, follow the law. Love God, love others. He goes, check. Done it.

And he goes, really? You've done it. He's probably done the rituals correctly, but Jesus knows that, no, you haven't done this. And the problem is if you don't see yourself as a sinner, if you see yourself as someone that can do this on your own, you're gonna miss God's grace, you're gonna miss the whole point. So he gives him a little stress test. He goes, alright.

Sell everything you have and give it to the poor. And the dude walks away. Jesus wasn't telling him that's how to get saved. He was trying to lead him to the fact that he knew he needed a savior. He had a God before him.

And his disciples freak out because in their culture, for a faithful Jew, apparently, culturally seeing as being faithful, who's also rich, that means God loves him and blessed him more, he's better and more loved by God than they are because they're not rich. See, they're they're first. They're the first in their society.

If you're poor, you're last. And so then Jesus says, they're freaking out. He's like, hey, it's really hard for a rich person to get to heaven because you get distracted by your wealth, which should scare us in our culture. Because guys, the poorest person in this room is one of the wealthiest people that's ever lived.

If you think about it, we are rich people. And and and he says that to them, and and then they freak out. They're like, oh, no. Well, if a rich person can't get it, what's in it for us? He goes, no. No. No. What you have to understand in my culture, the kingdom culture

is oftentimes that which is first in this world is gonna be last in my kingdom. And that which is last in my kingdom is gonna be first. It's countercultural. Some of the ways that you think in this world are just gonna be the opposite of how God sees things. So then Peter

takes that and freaks out the other way going, well, great. Because look, we gave up everything for you, so we are so gonna get rewarded. And he starts seeing as then Jesus does his face to face face plan. And what I love about disciples, it gives us all hope because he picked these guys.

And he and he realizes that's not what I meant either. It's not about what you get. It's about my grace. It's about you gotta understand that if if I love you and I've called you to something and don't look around, don't worry about what you get, it's it's you gotta trust me that my grace is sufficient and my grace is amazing.

And so then he teaches this parable to give them the idea. So I just wanna read the whole thing and then point out three things that can help us choose grace over grumbling.

So here we go. Chapter 20 verse one. For the kingdom of heaven is like the one landowner like the landowner who went out early one morning, about 6AM they would do this, and hire workers for his vineyard.

He agreed to pay the normal wage and sent them out to work. So these are the guys that started first thing in the morning. Says agreed. That tells you that those people negotiated.

He says the normal wage would have been about a denarius for a whole day. So he agreed. So that means they're like, okay. How much are gonna pay us? And he agreed to pay them the normal wage. So they had a contract negotiation and they went.

At 09:00 in the morning, so three hours later, he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. And so they're probably teenagers or something. No. I'm just kidding. So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. So they went. So the second group, he hours, he doesn't they don't negotiate. He says, don't trust me. I'll pay you fairly. We trust you. They go.

He then continued to do the same thing. He went did it again at noon, again at 03:00. And at 05:00 that afternoon, was in the town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked, why haven't you been working today? They replied because no one hired us. They couldn't find a job.

So he sends them out, does the same thing. And he says, I'll pay you fairly. Well, they're only out there for an hour because they quit about six. So he had one group been out there twelve hours, and then raising down this group been out there one hour. And so then it says,

where am I at? Verse 8. That evening, he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. So the guys that went out and only worked an hour, they go up first in front of everybody. He says, then when those who hired

at 05:00 were paid, each received a full day's wage. They all got a denarius. When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed, assumed. You know what that means. They assumed they would receive more, but they too were paid a day's wage. When they received their pay, they protested to the owner. They grumbled.

They grumbled loud. And in in our world, you think don't they have a fair thing? Like why did they get? They were one twelfth the amount of us and they got paid the same.

Those people worked only one hour. They said, those people. That tells you how they're viewing the people around them now. Those people worked only one only one hour and yet you paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.

He answered one of them, friend, I haven't been unfair. Didn't you agree to work all day for the usual wage? Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should I be should you be jealous because I'm kind to others?

That's kind kind there's a word for grace. He's he was that's unmerited favor. He was generous to them. He knows he paid them more than the typical pay pay. He blessed them. Verse 16. So those who are last now will be first then,

and those who were first will be last. He repeats exactly what he was saying in the previous chapter. So what is he trying to say here?

Because that's kind of a deep kind of a confused. Like, is who is God in this? What is this what's the vineyard they're working in? What does it mean? It means this. The vineyard owner is God. The people he hires to work are people who believe in Jesus. And the vineyard work is the mission he's actually called us to.

And he says, go out and do what I've asked you to do. Get in the vineyard. The harvest is plentiful. The worker is few. If we are called to Christ, you are called to the mission of the church.

That's what I keep saying over and over again because we have a problem in our society if too many people go to church, but they don't engage in the call. And that what he's saying is, but what happened here is some people that were there longer

got really mad that they all get paid the same. Why? He's not talking about individual awards. He's talking about blessing. He's talking about how he works in your life. He's talking about his particular plan, the different things he gives. He does give. He's generous here. He does stuff there, but he has a plan. He's talking about, do you trust me? Because the ultimate gift in this whole passage is that he called you to be in the vineyard.

His grace is the gift. The work is just the byproduct, and the blessing is what do you need to do this? So what's the point of him teaching this when he's saying the first will be last and last will be first?

He's trying to show how we can struggle with this because ultimately, what he's trying to say is do you trust God? Do you just trust his grace? Do you trust his plan? Because if you notice that group that grumbled was the ones that agreed they wanted a contract.

They said, how much you gonna pay me? So before they even went to work for the landowner, they wanted to work out a negotiation. Basically saying, I'm not sure I trust you. I wanna know what you're gonna pay me ahead of time.

Is that you in your walk with God right now? Do you negotiate? He's like, I don't know if I should trust God with this. I don't know if I can trust him in this way. I don't know. I wanna know upfront. I want certainty in my life before I trust God.

And God doesn't give you certainty. You know what? He will give you clarity. He's clear in where to go, but you can't be certain about how he's gonna work it out. And so they were aligning certainty. If you notice all the other groups that went, he just said, don't worry. I'll take care of you. Okay. And they went.

That's what he's trying to teach Peter and his disciples. Don't get excited about it. You're gonna get more if you get more. You need to get it's not about what you get. It's about what I've already given you and what I've allowed you to be called to.

So what can we learn from that right now? And how do we learn to choose grace over grumbling as followers of Christ? How do we do that? Well, we can reverse engineer some. There was three things that happened there. And I think the first thing we need to do is, I've already said it, engage with God's call.

Are you engaging with the call to follow Christ? What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be a part of a church? Have you engaged in what he's asked us to do with our lives? Are you in the vineyard working towards the gospel? Do you know what your gifts are? Are you using them?

Are you declaring the word? Are you are you telling people about Jesus? Are we doing that? And and if you're not, you're gonna hear me wrong here because God's call is a call of grace. See, if you don't embrace his grace, you will not engage in his call.

And if you truly embrace his grace and his love for you, it's almost impossible to not engage in his call. So if you're looking at your life right now and say, I go to church, but I refuse to be the church. You need to ask yourself why. Where's the disconnect?

And the disconnect probably comes back to what these first people hired. They've been there the longest. They've been in church. And sometimes the people that have been in a church the longest are the ones that won't engage. Why?

I don't think the answer is for me to yell at you and say, just do it. I'm gonna be shy about just do it.

There's a disconnect between your understanding of how much God loves you. There's some reason you're grumbling because you just feel like, I feel left out. Can't do this. Or you feel overwhelmed with shame or you just don't think you can. You're missing his grace is what you're missing.

And if we don't understand the grace or we misunderstand the grace, we won't listen. And God says not doing what he asked us to do is just as much of sin as doing the things he said not to. And Charles Stanley said it this, grace is not a license to sin, it's the power to be free from it.

See, God's grace is not the fact to say, I'm forgiven for my sins so I don't have to listen to God. It's the power to be able. It's not just forgiveness. God's grace brings the power to engage in his call. And and and so where is his grace in your life? Do you understand his love for you? Do you understand?

There's a study by the Barner Group that found seventy nine percent of practicing Christians believe they're saved by grace. Yet most of them still struggle with feelings of unworthiness. Is that you? Do you struggle with the feeling of unworthiness or I can't do it? Or is that you? Because you realize God died for you,

which is really unfair. If God was fair, we would be the ones dying. See, if it it that first group, they wanted God to be fair. And then they worried at the end when he gave the same amount of grace to everyone else that it was unfair. Guys, you don't want God to be fair. I don't want him to be fair

because fair means we all die in our sin. Unfair is what he did for us. We are worthy because he made us worthy. If you know Jesus, you know how God sees you now? He sees you with the impugned righteousness of Christ.

Impugned. It's a seminary word. They pick really dumb words. The meaning of it is awesome. It means he gave us his righteousness.

He took our sin and gave us his righteousness. So if you're sitting there thinking, well, whenever, you know, God just I have to do this type of business or he's gonna be angry with me, he's gonna be mad, and he's not gonna love me. No. That's not what it means. When he looks at you, if you know Christ, if you've really embraced his grace and you are a believer,

he doesn't see your sin. He sees you, the new life you are in his son. It's all he sees. Paul talked about that in Romans seven

seven eight. He started talking. He struggled himself. He was like, why do I keep doing the things I don't wanna do and won't do the things I'm supposed to do? He has the same struggle we do. He struggled. He's like there's two people in him. The one that just wants to sin and the one that wants to trust God all the way. And I bet you feel the same way. You hear a message, say, hey, we should do this. We should do that. You know, there's parties says, yes, I should, but I can't and I won't and I don't. And what you think I'm telling you to do is you think I'm yelling at the sinner, the part of you that doesn't wanna do it and say, you better force that person to do it. No. I'm telling you to ignore that person because that's not who you are. What Paul says in chapter eight is, but because of the love of Christ, I have the dunamis power of the Holy Spirit. The dunamis power is where we get dynamite from. It's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. And when we accept his love and grace, we get his power. And that's the person in you that wants to do what God says. And when Jesus returns or you return to him, guess which person is going? That person. You are not that person that wants to sin. That's not who you are.

That is a Frankenstein shadow of who you are. Quit trying to make a dead thing do something that's living and ignore the who you really are.

You're not the sinner and the dead person trying to force it to do the right thing. You gotta remember that's not even you. Quit think of yourself as that's you and you have to figure out this. You just need to let go of that and live in this. Doesn't that make sense? That's

who you are. I'm trying to help you just let it go. Quit listening to

because comes in and kills people and hurts people and we have to get fire to chase them out.

We don't raise the dead our old self. Jesus already raised our new self to life. Engage with this call by understanding his grace, and maybe you haven't embraced it. Let me just ask you two questions before we move on. How often do you find yourself striving for God's approval instead of resting in his grace?

Let me put it this way. How many times when I challenge us to actually engage in the call of the church? Do you get frustrated and feel like I'm yelling at you to get your act together, to shape up,

Or do you understand that I'm saying Jesus says this is where victory is. This is what he died to let us do. If you don't understand that working in the vineyard is the greatest thing we get to do, there is something you're stuck with that you are not choosing to be counter culture.

You're choosing to be like the rest of the world. You're listening to the old self, which isn't who you are anymore. Or all you have is the old self. You've never really embraced the love of Christ for you. So what is one area of your life? The second question where you struggle to accept God's grace.

I believe if there's something in your life and you know Jesus loves you and he died for you, but there is something in your life that you have struggled with, a sin, a problem, a struggle that you just cannot accept the grace of God. And when the grace is his love, it's also his power. It's also his redemption.

And if there is something you wrestle with, I guarantee that is the source of why you can't move forward with what God's called you to do. I guarantee it. Unchain yourself from that through the power and the love of Christ so you can engage. Embrace the love and grace so you can engage in the call.

The second thing because if I don't do this, I'm it's usually because the next two things or the next two things are gonna cause you to not do this. The second thing I need to do is evade comparison.

Evade it. I didn't say get rid of it or avoid it because you can't. We live in a world that comparison is looking for you. I said evade because it's football season. I've been watching. I think, you know, if you're a wide receiver, it's kind of a tough job. You catch the pass. Great. Woo hoo. But the second you catch your pass, you gotta transition into a a running back. Because guess what? Everybody with the within distance of you that has a different uniform on is trying to tackle you. And that's what comparison is. You go to catch God's will, you gotta you start running with it. You know, you go you are gonna have comparison coming at you left and right to try to tackle you and knock you down. And you gotta like stiff arm it. You gotta juke it. You gotta move around. You gotta you gotta you gotta jump over, maybe even do those flips over somebody. I don't know. You have to learn how to evade it. It's like taking evasive maneuvers. You gotta know you're in a fight. You gotta know it's coming, and you gotta know it's always there and it'll always come after you. You gotta deal with that every single day. You have to evade the comparison

because we get caught in the comparison trap. That's what they did. That's what they did. The first thing they did, they had negotiated a fair day's wage, and they got paid fairly. And then when they saw the guys that worked an hour get generosity, the first thing they said, those people.

Do you do that? You know, we don't say those people. You know what you say? It must be nice. When you say it must be nice, you're comparing and you know it. What you're saying, it must be nice. You're saying, don't get that and I think I deserve that. And why do you get it, and instead of celebrating, you're frustrated?

They were mad. They weren't celebrating. This is us parable people coming into the vineyard late in the day. They come to know Christ. They get called in, and the people that are around are like, why are they here and why they get blessed more than me?

How about it? Where do you compare? Here's a good question. What areas of your life do you find yourself measuring against others? And how does that affect your joy? In the words of doctor Phil, how's that working out for you? Has comparing ever helped your life at all? Because here's the thing.

If I look around instead of looking up, I will always look down. You'll either look down in defeat or look down on people because you will look for people not doing as well as you to make yourself feel good. That's the problem with comparison. It prevents you from looking up to the Lord.

It prevents you from saying, I'm gonna go work in the vineyard. I'm gonna go I'm just gonna trust you because you died for me. Comparison stresses us out. Comparison will paralyze you. Comparison will make you not move forward because you'll either get grumpy or you'll get defeated or you'll get arrogant.

Comparison, if you're looking down on others, you'll be like, I don't need to go that direction. I don't need that. I'm doing fine where I'm at. Or comparison would be like, I can't trust God in that because look it. I didn't get this. I didn't get that. I don't have this. So over in England, was funny that pastor

Mike, when I was up I go and preach his church, good friend, he's awesome. And he gets up and he goes, hey, we got some Americans with us today. You'll find them. They're the ones with incredible teeth and giddy optimism.

And then I told him something, so he said, he goes, oh, and I said that to Bill, and he said, yeah, because we're called Americans, not a bear cants.

But the truth is, if you compare, you're not gonna be

a can do. You're gonna be I can't or I won't. You're gonna say, you got it figured out or there's no way I can ever do this because you're searching for the for your worth. Teddy Roosevelt said this, comparison is the thief of joy.

A Pew Research study found that sixty eight percent of adults report feeling stressed about their social media presence, which often leads to unhealthy comparisons. I think the stress comes from the unhealthy comparisons.

And then it says, a survey from psychology today found that over sixty percent of individuals feel their self worth affected by comparing themselves to others. A Bill Bush study found that the other forty percent are liars.

Comparison kills.

So what do you do about it? There's a good passage. Second Corinthians ten five, where Paul's talking to this church that struggled. They've been faithful, but they've got a bunch of new believers. They just struggle stuff. He's trying to assert his authority with them. He's trying to say, hey, here's what I my job has been. And it's really the same job we have in in in our lives and being the church. He says this, second Corinthians ten five. Boom. Second Corinthians ten five. Boom. Oh, there's up there.

Looking back there for it. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. Capture the rebellious thoughts. I love that NLT. You've probably heard it saying, take every thought captive.

What he's saying is, you will do dumb things when you have dumb ideas. And those dumb ideas will create feelings that'll take you the wrong way. My wife used to say this with our kids. Feelings are real, but they're not always true.

I like to say it because I churched it up and made it rhyme, feelings are real, but they're not always right. And what that means is just because you feel it, you do have to deal with it. It's real. The feelings are real. They are. But what it makes you wanna do is not often right.

And we live in a culture that if it feels good, do it or go with you do you, man. You know what that means is do whatever you feel because feelings mean more. Follow your heart in our culture means do what you feel. Our hearts lie to us. Our hearts are twisted. Our hearts compare.

And what Paul is saying is you take the thought captive. You can't control feelings. That's like trying to herd cats. All you're gonna do is get scratched. And and so what you got can do is you can capture a thought.

You can say, okay. When I feel some way and I start going, why am I feeling this way? What is the thought, the belief, the the the truth or the whatever I say is truth that's making me feel this way? And go back to the source of that and say, capture it. Does this align with the real truth? Man, there's so much talk out there. The news, this, that, fake news, fake news, fake news. It always says fake news. In this culture,

everything's fake news. This is the only real news. Right here. This is the news because it is the good news. It is the right news. I don't care what's said out there. I don't care what anybody says in culture. If it doesn't jive with this, it is wrong. And that's how to live. That's where you get clarity. And

so what are you doing? Because then all we have is to compare, and we're comparing and comparing and comparing. Okay. I gotta sit for a sec. So here. I got sick while I was gone. So just think about this question so I catch my breath. What external pressures are causing you to compare yourself to others?

Because usually the comparison happens because there's something else stressing you.

You're stressed about money, you start comparing yourself to what other people have. Stressed about your marriage, you start comparing yourself to other people's marriages.

You're stressed about your biceps because you've compared them to mine.

Just kidding.

Sorry. It was a serious question too.

But the follow-up question to that is when you realize what the pressure is, ask yourself what needs to change to foster a healthier mindset. How do I get back to challenging feelings driven by false reality and get back to truth? Challenge the false narrative with truth. And eventually, your feelings will follow.

Feelings are supposed to be the caboose, not the engine of your life. And see what happens. Because comparison almost always leads to the third problem that we have to deal with, and that is we need to extinguish our entitlement attitudes.

Extinguish your entitlement attitude. You're like, I'm not entitled. When you're entitled then, you're like, oh, that's those lame young people. Isn't it funny? You can go back. You can find stuff all the back to the seventeen hundreds where the one generation is complaining about how lazy the next generation is.

It was it's always there. Entitlement is entitlement. We always think of entitlement as this really big issue. It's so subtle. It's like, you know you know the only people that ever say I'm not entitled is entitled people.

You know why? Because you don't know you you don't see it. Because entitlement is the subtle idea that you feel this is unfair. You feel it's wrong. You you feel it with all your mind. That's what these guys did. They felt and if you think about how our cultures some of us, when you first read, that does seem a little bit unfair, doesn't it? You know why? Because we live in an entitlement culture.

So we're like, that doesn't seem right. That doesn't no. He has every right. They agreed to get paid. But we live in a culture that if you have one good season in a sport and you signed your contract, I gotta renegotiate. I deserve more now. And we're like, yeah, they deserve more now. And so do you.

So we have that subtle entitlement and we don't even realize it. And the entitled person is the one that it actually makes sense to you. You really think it's unfair. Then you think God's being unfair, and from

the world's point of view, it might look that way. And God's like, you don't get how I work, and that's why you don't understand it. You know how easy and simple entitlement is? It it gets in so easy. Guys, I'm sorry. I'm gonna throw this under the bus. But, man, husbands, some of us that are dads,

you watch your kid for one day for eight hours, and you expect a parade.

And then if your wife gives you a hard time with something, but I I babysat the kids. Guys, you don't babysit your kids. It's called parenting.

I did the same thing. I make the bed two days in a row and I expect I should get to just be I should be in a hall of fame of some kind. And you know what? At the time, again, I get it. At the time when you feel like something unfair is happening,

it's it's it's it feels so right that I this isn't right. That's what entitlement is. You think something that's totally more than fair is unfair to you. And I know it and I'll do it with my wife all the time. And it's weird how it feels so right and makes so much sense in here. And then as the words fly out and you see them out here, you're like, that was really wrong.

But now it's too late because I already said it to Carrie and I can't take it back. And she'll look at me and basically say something my dad used to say, some version of it, but her version has more profanity in it. It's that's the job.

That's the job. That's what he's saying to these. That's the job I hired you for. That's the job. Where do you have an entitlement attitude, especially as it comes to being a Christian and a part of church? Do you feel entitled because you've been a Christian a long time that I have more rights here?

I don't need to serve. It's time for someone else to. I don't need to give. They just want more chairs because all they care about is other people. They don't care about me.

What about in your home?

What about serving others?

What opportunities for service can you take advantage of this week? Ironically, we have a volunteer fair going on outside. Go check it out. We're building this children's building. Every one of our ministries needs more help as we grow.

That's the job we're called to.

What entitlement attitude that you have makes you think I can go to this church and I don't have to be a part of it?

I'm just being honest.

You've got to extinguish those things. I said extinguish because when you start comparing and you start getting the entitlement attitude, it starts a little fire that burns. And then the problem is if you lean into the feelings instead of the truth,

you're gonna be one of those people that that throws gasoline on it. John Maxwell talks about how whenever we run into anything internally in our lives, a struggle, a little flame starts to burn, you gotta decide

is that a good flame or bad? If it's a good one, you can throw gasoline on it. You want it bigger. If it's a bad one, you need to throw water on it. And guess what? Some people, the way we live in our culture, you listen to your feelings all the time, you only have two buckets of gasoline.

All you know how to do is blow things up.

You need to extinguish those attitudes because they will eat you up and paralyze you and your faith doesn't grow. And when your faith doesn't grow, you don't get to see God work and you miss out on the power of his grace and the power of his love in your life.

There was a study from the Templeton Foundation that found that practicing generosity leads to higher levels of happiness and fulfillment with generous individuals reporting 25% increase in overall well-being. You guess who gives the least? The least generous people are entitled people. You know why? Because entitlement

is the antithesis of gratitude. You don't feel grateful and entitled at the same time.

In other words, do you feel grateful to be a follower of Christ? Do you feel grateful to be allowed to serve him?

For those of us that are parents, what can your children learn about grace through your actions this week? I think some of these attitudes come from this idea of we we we try to live for love, so we think we have to prove ourselves. That's where we do the comparisons. And then the entitlement comes because we wanna feel safe.

And we inadvertently teach our kids love equals performance. How can we unplug that from our parenting style? Because some of you, what I heard is like, oh, I don't care what you do. No. God says, I don't love you because you perform. I love you and I hope you'll live from that love and trust me.

Isn't that the same thing you want from your kids? How can you model that? Well, guess what? You can't just say it to them. You gotta show it to them. You want your kids to be kids that serve and give and care? Guess what they gotta see you be doing. How can we do that?

And what's one small act of grace that you can just offer someone this week? Someone that maybe God's blessed them in a way that you wanna be blessed and they're the Johnny come lately and you're like, oh my gosh, it must be nice.

What is a one must be nice moment for somebody you know that you can celebrate and go, that is nice and I'm happy for you. And ignore the feeling in your heart that's lying to you. It's not disingenuous to choose happiness for somebody that got something that makes you jealous.

It's okay. God wants you to fight that. In other words, embrace the grace. Stop stressing so you won't miss the blessing, if you wanna have it more pithy. And I think it goes back to that grace on why we can do it. That's why Jesus did this thing called the last supper, communion. Because what he does, what that represents,

what this communion represents is the ultimate act of unfairness.

You don't want a God that's fair.

You want a God that's grace. The word for grace in the Bible means this, unmerited favor. That means he gives us what we don't deserve.

That should be the heart of why you should trust him with everything else. He's more than fair.

He's the God who loves us. And why he asked us to do this is because I think he knows that we wanna fall back to this. We disengage from his call in our lives because we're too busy comparing. And out of that comparison, we're developing an entitlement attitude that makes us angry people. It makes us angry people,

and it paralyzes us. And before we take this iron, let's have a little moment with Bill here.

I had a lot of time to think about this while I was gone in The UK. And the reason I know so much about this topic is because I struggle with it too. Pastors are some of the worst at struggling with comparison. And I realized that after being in England, I did. I mean, gotta be honest. One of the things I struggle with

is in my call where I feel like, God, I don't know. I I gotta trust God, but I do not feel worthy or good, and I'm not good at it. I don't feel gifted at it, but whatever reason God called me in a position that this is the job.

And as a pastor at a church and what we do in the world and what he keeps opening doors that calls me to walk into means I have to be chief fundraising officer. The job I have is I need to challenge people to give to what God is doing. I don't like it, and I've never felt good at it. I just do it because that's the job.

And I guarantee there's times that you might react to me, not to God, when I say it. Because sometimes I can say it a little bit more angry than I mean to. And it's usually because I just wanna get it out of the way. And I struggle with comparison. There's a guy I've been coaching for years.

His church was struggling on COVID. It almost killed it. But I hung in there with him and he figured it out and God was faithful and he squeaks through there.

And then he wanted to get this building that he could lease, not even buy land, just lease a building. And he figured out a way to get it, but he needed money to renovate it. He needed a lot of money to renovate it for a building that they don't even keep. And I talked to him about doing that and and and how it works.

And the first week that he did his campaign, a guy in his church of a 130 handed him a million dollar check. And you know what I thought? Well, that's just nice.

That's what I thought. I had to evade the comparison because it it did. It hurt me. Instead of celebrating that that God allowed me to be a part of this, that helped him make it, that finally I was able to coach and come alongside him and he got a million dollars. He's in his building now and their church is over 500 now.

Instead of thinking that, my first thought was, oh, wow. Must be nice. And the lesson of the story is one of y'all in here can write a million dollar check and need to hurry up and do it. No. That's not the lesson. That would just be nice.

The lesson is I realized I I I compare and then I went over to know, I was over there and and I started to get frustrated because I we've met with so many pastors and and over there, you know, 1% of the population, 2% in the area is at in Essex. They go to church anymore. It's it's it's dying. And that's the area where Christianity came to America from. Puritism,

the pilgrims, the Mayflower came from there. Matter of fact, I went into the town where the trees were chopped down that built the Mayflower.

Now And we get to go back and I'm trying to work with this. And the problem is they have this attitude. It's really hard to get in with pastors. That's why this guy, Simon, is amazing. He'll be here in a few months. He thinks different. He challenged me. The way he lives challenged me because I looked at what he's doing and their budget is a tenth of ours.

And he just trusts God.

And I realized I'm doing over here sometimes what I'm afraid of them over there. I try to coach some of them. They invite me in and I go, know, it's simple. Here's where you're stuck. And they're like, oh, we can't do that. Why? And they go, because church is easier in America. And go, have you been to America?

And they're paralyzed from that. So from me to you, I wrestle with this every single day.

And the only way I know how to get past it is I look up to God and his grace. And I say, I don't know why you've called me to do the very thing I do not know how to do. And I'm rough in it. But the reason I challenge us is because I want every one of us to be the last that ends up first. That's all. That's what I want for me

and for you.

What are you gonna do? So I'm taking this with you right now, not leading us,

because that convicted my heart.

And I know if I keep comparing, it's gonna wear me out, make me angry,

and too many pastors go down that road.

I refuse to do that, and I'm inviting you to join me at the cross and refuse it in your life as well. Because really, that's one of the main reasons why Jesus took that bread and broke it He said, this is my body broken for you. Take and eat.

And then he took the cup. And he said, this is my blood spilled for you.

An unfair grace. Take and drink. Father God, I thank you. I thank you that you are so incredibly unfair

because you are a God of grace and mercy and love. And I pray that every single one of us at this church called Rock Point would embrace that. And then engage in your call from love, from grace,

that we would evade the comparison trap in our life and extinguish any areas of our heart and lives that we've allowed an entitlement attitude to take root.

And I thank you. I can honestly thank you, Lord, that even in these times where I gotta do stuff I don't like to do, where I feel so insecure, that even that is an act of your grace, Lord. Because that's when I truly experience when I am weak, you are strong. And that's when I experience that you can do, I can do all things

because they're the things you've asked me to do through you. So thank you, Lord. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. I

love you guys. I hope you know that. Hey, thanks for joining us for service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the Rock Point Church app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.