Not Too Late

THE PASSAGE
(Title Screen – Not Too Late)
Good afternoon / Good morning!
My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church
The first job I ever had was as a dishwasher at a local restaurant where I grew up in Cambridge, MN.
I was terrible at it.
I was too much of a perfectionist, the cooks often yelled at me to go faster; I was not great.
But if you work in food service, or you ever have, you know that one of the worst things ever is when you close at 10pm, and someone walks in at 9:59, to A SIT DOWN RESTAURANT!
And my boss would always serve them.
But by 9:59 I would have had every dish washed, the cooks would have every grill clean, and we’d be almost ready to head out the door at 10:01, but if someone came in at 9:59, you weren’t getting out until 11:00.
But I imagine that if I were the people coming in, and say I was hungry, or maybe they had a terrible day;
maybe they just found that they lost their job or their relative got cancer, and they just wanted to get away and go out to eat…
…they might sit down at 9:59, and go “Yes, they let me in! That’s the first thing went right all day!”
Perspective matters.
And we’re going to see that in the Bible today.
In fact, I want you to all to grab a Bible at your chair as we’re going to read a story from Jesus.
Matthew 20:1-16
Page 672
By the way, if you don’t have a Bible, we’d actually LOVE for you to take this one with you today.
That’s our gift to you.
I’d even recommend that you start reading it in this Book, the Book of Matthew.
Okay, in Matthew chapter 20, we’re going to see that Jesus tells a parable.
A Parable is an earthly story that teaches a heavenly lesson.
(Matthew 20:1-16) – NIV
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five 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?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked 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.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Okay, perspective matters.
So I want do something a little unique today, and I want us to look at this parable from two different perspectives.

PERSPECTIVE #1: THOSE WHO WERE HIRED FIRST
TWO PERSPECTIVES
#1: Those who were hired first
In those days, the typical workday was 6am-6pm for day laborers.
So imagine that you arrive early to the marketplace (before first light), and to your satisfaction, the landowner asks you first if you’d like to come work in his vineyard for the day.
He even offers to pay you the normal day’s wages…a denarius
You get to the vineyard…and the first few hours are pretty easy.
It’s still cool out…there aren’t a lot of people to bug you…and you’re starting the day off with a lot of energy.
About 9:00am…more workers start to show up.
That’s pretty normal…maybe they just couldn’t get out of bed as early as you.
Later, at noon, and even at 3:00…people are still showing up to work.
And now it’s really annoying.
Because you’re hot (and tired!), and these people are full of energy.
Then, to your amazement, a new crop of workers shows up at 5:00pm…with only an hour left in the workday.
Unreal.
Then at 6:00, it’s time to pay everyone.
For some reason, the foreman gives the group who only worked the last hour…a denarius. A full day’s wages.
Your heart skips a beat.
“This is incredible!” you think.
And you start doing math in your head…
If they paid…the guy who only worked an hour… a full day’s wages…you’re going to get 12 TIMES that amount!
Right?
I mean, after all, that’s the only FAIR way to do it!
Your mind is going crazy with all the ways you can spend the money!
I’m getting myself a tricked out donkey! Hee-haw, baby!
But then your face drops as the people who came at 3:00 also get a denarius.
Same with those who came at 12.
And finally, they get to you, and you too…even though you were there from 6:00am, get just a denarius.
You’re furious.
“This is not fair!!” you cry.
“I worked the heat of the day!
And the landowner says to you, “Back at 6:00am…you agreed to work for a denarius, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but this isn’t fair!”
Now, in the parable, the people who were hired first represent people who became followers of Jesus at an early age (they grew up in the church)
And what can happen sometimes is they can end up resenting others who become Christians later in life.
These folks who have been Christians for most of their life feel tempted to look to the Landowner (to God), and say, “But I’ve served you my WHOLE life, denied myself, and it’s hard!”
Like verse 12, you can say, “I’ve borne the burden of the work.”
“These other people have been out sinning, doing whatever they want to do, and they just come here now?!”
It’s not fair!
But the landowner, God, could say to us, “I am not being unfair to you, when you made a decision to follow Jesus, didn’t I tell you it would result in eternal life?
But we say, “Yes, but they, they were out in the world, and they have a testimony, and I’ve just been here…”
But the problem with this kind of thinking is that the Christian is taking their eyes off of God, and onto other people.
And they start thinking that the most important part of their testimony (their story) is the part before we started serving God…the part about us in the streets before the landowner called us to work.
But that’s not the most important part of your story.
The most incredible part of your testimony is the fact that Jesus Christ would be willing to die for someone like you and me, and He did!
And it’s not only that.
To the Christians in the room that were saved earlier in life…listen to God’s grace to you:
You got to be with our Good Father the whole time.
…living in the blessing that is “The Wisdom of His Ways…”
….living under His care.
You weren’t out wandering around like these others in the story, wondering:
Can I feed my family…
Or in even real life, endlessly trying to find out how to heal your pain, find meaning, and find life.
You got to find life from the beginning. What a testimony of God’s grace and generosity to your life!

PERSPECTIVE #2: THOSE WHO WERE HIRED LAST
But this parable of Jesus isn’t just a lesson for those who heard about God early in life, it’s also for those who hear about Him late.
TWO PERSPECTIVES
#1: Those who were hired first
#2: Those who were hired last
…at 5pm…with one hour to go.
We don’t know a ton about these folks.
It appears that at least some of them have been standing there all day.
Why didn’t they go out to the vineyard earlier?
I don’t know.
Maybe they were waiting for a better opportunity to come along.
Maybe they started the day working somewhere else
Maybe they never really heard about the kind landowner.
This parable is the story of people who’ve been going through life, and they haven’t yet truly found a relationship with God.
In fact, what I want to do at this point, is I want to invite my friend Holly Fritz up, and I want her to share her story with you regarding this topic.
(HOLLY FRITZ TESTIMONY)
In many ways, this was my story too.
I did not grow up a Christian, or a follower of Jesus.
But as a young adult, God started to knock a lot louder and louder in my life, and I started to notice him.
He started to move in my heart, I started to see him, like the landowner saying, “Come follow me”
But you know what? Truthfully, He had been there before. (9am, 12pm, even 3)
There were moments in my life, when I know God moved, and I saw Him…
Maybe you’ve had those moments too (like, God was the only reason that I survived that car accident or whatever it may be)
See, my guess is that most of the workers in the marketplace saw the landowner, but for whatever reason, they didn’t respond.
Just as I had those moments in my life where I saw God, and I even believed He was real…
…but then I just kept doing my own thing…thinking, I’ll find my own way, I’ll live my own path.
I think in part because I didn’t understand yet what He was really offering.
But there comes a point where for a lot of us, we say, “Going my own way isn’t working anymore.”
(Title Screen – Not Too Late)
And you know what I love about this parable?
It’s the landowner Himself who’s out under the heat of the sun looking time after time after time after time for workers
But okay listen, in those days, wealthy landowners didn’t do that …they hired people to go out in the hot sun in look for workers.
But see, Jesus is using this parable to show you that God Himself is out looking for you.
He’s been trying to get your attention all along.
And here the Bible tells you, no matter where you’ve been, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how long you refused his offer…it’s NOT TOO LATE
Verse 6 tells us that the last time the landowner went out was 5 in the afternoon.
In many of the English Bibles like this, they update the times, so you’ll understand the parable according to how we tell time, and so it says 5pm.
But what it actually says in the Greek, the original language, is that at the 11th hour of the day, the landowner went out…one last time.
In fact, that phrase, when people today say, “we were saved at the 11th hour (the last possible chance), that phrase comes from this very story in the Bible.
Even in the 11th hour, it’s not too late.
And you know what else I love about this parable?
I love that there are still people there, looking for the landowner at the 11th hour.
Because you could say, “Why aren’t they home? What are you doing there at 5pm? The 11th hour? There’s only an hour left, give up, and go home!”
But NO! They’re there! Still hoping.
And for some of you, that’s YOU Today!
Life has been hard, rough, confusing, and tossed you around, and yet…here you are…deep down, looking for hope
And I’m telling you…IT’S NOT TOO LATE.
Because God is a God of grace, and love, and forgiveness.
And often we mistakenly think it’s too late…because we misunderstand how God’s judgment and forgiveness work together.
Most Americans, when they think about God and the afterlife, think that God will look down on our lives, and as long as we were pretty decent people, and didn’t end up in jail, or anything like that, He’ll let us into heaven.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth of this Book.
And I even literally thought that same thing until I read it myself.
The real truth is that God is just and God is forgiving, but how those go together doesn’t look anything like the way I just described.
Because…if God were only fair (which is what a lot of us want…let the good people, keep the bad people out)…
But if God were only fair…none of us would go to heaven.
Romans 14 in the Bible says it this way.
(Romans 14:10b-12) – NIV
For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’” 12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
And let me ask you, when you stand before God, “Do you want God to only be fair, and only just?
I don’t.
If God is only fair…
…and I have to give an account of every sinful thought, action, deed I’ve ever committed…
…and tell them to a Holy and Perfect God……I am surely guilty
And what does a just God do with the guilty? They go to hell, not heaven.
(Romans 6:23) – NIV
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So what we deserve for our sin against a perfect God is death, it’s hell.
BUT…it says…BUT there is a gift, and it’s Jesus.
See, God, like the landowner in this parable is fair, AND He’s gracious.
The main story of the Bible is that we have sinned against God, and we do deserve His justice…
…BUT, God loves you so much that He sent His own Son Jesus down to die on the cross in your place.
And what He’s doing is taking the punishment that you deserve so that God’s justice can be satisfied!
And the Bible says this:
(John 3:16) – NIV
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
And so we can be forgiven and have eternal life in heaven, not because of what we do, but by faith that Jesus died in our place!
By receiving Him in as our Savior & our Leader.
And that forgiveness, that gift of eternal life in heaven…is available to anyone. ANYONE who would receive it.
But I think many people say:
“No, God wouldn’t forgive me.
“I’ve been ignoring him most of my life
We say, “I’ve been divorced, I’m an addict”
Everybody else says, “As long as you didn’t kill anyone or go to jail, but you say, well I did, or I’ve been to jail!”
And now do you see how this cultural idea that “God is fair and only lets in the good people,” isn’t actually good news at all?!
What if you’re not good?
(Title Slide –Not Too Late)
But the REAL teaching of Jesus…right from the very Bible…is that none of us are good.
But thankfully, we aren’t saved by our goodness, but by our faith.
And what that means is:
Even if you’re messy, it’s NOT TOO LATE.
Even if you’ve ignored Him, it’s NOT TOO LATE
Even if you think you’ve sinned more than anyone else in this room, it’s NOT TOO LATE.
He is here right now, the landowner is out looking for you, He’s calling YOU…. even if it’s your 11th hour….
…He’s saying, “Come, follow me! I love you. I sent my Son to die for your sins. Now come believe in me, and let me wash away your sins and give you the grace of Eternal life in heaven.”

INVITATION
And for some of you in this room, I want to give you an opportunity to receive that gift of forgiveness and eternal life right now.
Because I know God is calling out to your very heart, right now!
In fact, let’s do this.
Let’s just have everyone, just for a minute, close your eyes and bow your head.
If you need to make this decision for the first time today…to tell Jesus that you need His forgiveness for your sins…to make Him the Leader of your life…to accept His gift of Eternal life…And to invite Him in to have a relationship with you
In just a minute, I’m going to ask you to stand up
No one’s going to be looking at you at all, that’s why we had everyone close their eyes.
But sometimes in life, we just need that moment…that line in the sand moment.
To say, “God I’m believing in you today.. I want to follow you TODAY”
And I encourage you to respond, because for all of us, someday, it will be too late…and life will be over.
Give your life to Jesus now.
If you need to tell God for the first time today that you do believe, and you want to follow Him and be forgiven.
Then I invite you to stand where you are right now (and keep standing).

The Bible tells us that in this moment we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths.
Repeat after me
Dear God
I confess to you, that I have sinned against you.
But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place
And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins.
And now I commit, to following you, with my life.

(NEXT STEPS)
As everyone still has their eyes closed, for those of you standing up, you just made the most important decision of your life, and I believe that requires some more information…
I want to give you some extremely important resources & next steps to get you started on the most important journey of your life
So what I’d like you to do now is to start walking over to my friend over there (point to Amplify OR Worship Center Doors), and then I’ll come personally meet you there in a second and get you some resources and you’ll be able to come back in the service after that.
All right, I’m going to pray, and I’ll meet you there in a sec.
Go ahead. Let’s pray
(RESET TO PAGE 1)
WORD COUNT GOAL: 3325

COME BACK UP LATER TO CLOSE THE SERVICE!!!

SERVICE TIMES (Sunday Service Times Slide)
Hey, I just want to say how happy I am that you were here today…
…and I can not encourage you enough to come back next week and keep growing in your faith.
Starting next Sunday, we’re going to begin teaching through a book of the Bible (the Book of Proverbs), and we’ll walk right through it.
This is such a great place to learn whether you’ve been a follower of Jesus for a long time, or you’re starting your journey.
Our regular service times are on Sunday mornings at 9:00, 10:15. and 11:30

FAMILY FUN DAYS INSTRUCTIONS (General FFD Promo Slide)
Okay, I do have a few details about Family Fun Days I want to pass on to you at this point.
When the service ends in a minute here, if you have children in Renovation Kids, they will receive a wristband to jump on the inflatables as they leave their classrooms.
And once you pick them up, you can actually exit the building through the exit at the end of the Kids hallway.
If you have children sitting in service with you that are 11 or under, they will get a wristband at the door as they leave this room.
In addition, every single person present for this service, child or adult, will receive a food ticket card that looks like this
(Menu/Info Card Slide)
As you can see, there are 3 tear-off tickets at the bottom
2 red for any food item at the field and 1 yellow for a beverage at the “Drink Stand”
If you use all of your tickets and want to additionally purchase any of the items listed on the card as well, you are certainly invited to do so!

(Put up Sunrise Direction Slide)
All of the fun will take place across 125th Ave at Sunrise Elementary.
Just a short 1-2 minute drive from here!
For safety and efficiency’s sake, we ask that you exit the parking lot using the exit lane indicated on the screen, based on where you are parked.
On your way out today, we will hand you a copy of this map with written directions to the event as well.
Have a great time out there and we’ll see you next week!