Turn over to Matthew chapter 21, starting in verse 28.
Matthew chapter 21, we'll start in verse 28.
And today I would call this message Take the Field.
Now you know, you understand in a, in a baseball term, you know,
a lot of times they go now y'all need to go take the field.
And so that means the players come out of the dugout, they get
in the field, they're there to play ball, OK.
And you know, we are to be in the game, all right, for the
Kingdom of God. We need to take the field, all
right. And if we if there's ever been a
time to take the field, it's now as the day approaches the return
of Jesus. I like what one minister says
who ministers a lot on end times.
He said it is a it's not an escape theology.
It is a hustle theology. And he anytime he's talking
about all the world events, he says so much is going on.
He said there's so much happening right now.
He said every day is another thing closer to it's it seems
imminent that we could look up and and the trumpet could sound.
And I'm telling you, you really should live at a time in this
time that it could be that way. I mean, let's just I mean, I'll
give you my age. I have no problem.
Next, next Wednesday, I'll be 56.
So I'm 55 years old, OK. And in my 55 short years on the
planet, man, has things changed. I mean, things have like crazy
increased how fast things are and if this happens for another
55 years. If it did, I mean at the at the
rate now, I don't see how you couldn't be a believer saying
he's coming in my lifetime. Now, at the end of the day, I'm
not giving you a day or an hour. No one can do that.
Only the father knows that. But we can definitely know the
season and we should not live right now on planet Earth.
Like, you know, I'm probably going to go on and I'm talking
to everyone in the room, even the oldest ones in the room.
You shouldn't live like it'd go past you because Jesus could
come back. I said he could come back in the
next 10 years. Surely you could get another 10
years. I mean, think about that.
Wouldn't you want if you knew, if you knew that you knew that
he was coming in 10 years, wouldn't you rather change
instead of picking out a coffin? Nah, just change, right?
Just like watch this man and I I was praying in the in my or
preserve today and I'm like Lord, I believe God that I am
that generation. I can be wrong, but man, I will
not come to you and you won't be able to look at me and say yeah,
you, you really didn't think I was coming.
Here's no way. I am firmly persuaded that it
can be my generation. I want to live every day like it
is my generation that'd be changed in the moment, the
twinkling of an eye, which means there's a lot to do still on the
planet. And if he does come in my
lifetime, that gives me the privilege to be in the game and
to do some really miraculous stuff in a shorter amount of
time. And I'm going to show you that
tonight. Whoo, glory to God.
I'm so excited. I wanted to preach last night's
message that I preached to the Kingdom First Business Alliance
tonight so bad. Oh my gosh, it was so amazing.
Oh, there was such an anointing to minister in the realm of
finance last night. It was crazy.
The Lord is so good. You should come to king, the
first business alliance. It's amazing.
Anyway, Matthew chapter 21, verse 28, let me stay focused
for tonight. Take the field.
OK? What do you think a man had how
many sons? Two sons and he came to the 1st
and said, son, go work today in the vineyard.
And he answered, I will not. But afterward he what?
He regretted it and went, The man came to the second son.
Why? Because the first one said, I'm
not doing it. So he comes to the second son
and he said the same thing. And he answered, I will, Sir.
But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of
his father and they said the first Jesus said truly I say to
you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the
Kingdom of God before you. Wow.
Now he was speaking to a bunch of church folk when he was
making that statement. People who now when I say
church, it isn't the church he's building.
It was the the Jewish religious leaders that were a part of the
synagogue. And he was basically letting
them know that there's a group coming into the Kingdom before
you're coming because you're saying I'll do it, but you don't
do it. But there's a group that's like,
we don't want nothing to do with it.
And then realize, man, we need to do that.
And he says there are going to be these prostitutes and others,
tax collectors, these people that you have that you see as
loathsome and they are outside of God's Kingdom.
They are deserving, you know, of the Lake of Fire.
But they're going to come and do the will of the Father and
they're getting him first. So we see here, he says again at
the beginning of this passage, he's telling them, he says,
look, there's a vineyard, sons, that I need you to work.
OK, Now I want to say something here before I get to this other
passage here in a second. This does not mean harvest only
a vineyard has to be worked before harvest can come.
Everyone wants to see harvest without first working the field.
If all you're going to do is sit and say where's the harvest,
then no harvest is coming because you're not in the
vineyard working it. You have to work the vineyard,
you have to work the field. Now let's look at this First
Corinthians chapter 3 verses 6 to 9 says this.
He said I planted Paul talking Apollo's watered, but God caught
was causing the growth. So then neither the one who
plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the
growth. Now he who plants and he who
waters are one, but each one will receive his own reward
according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers.
You are God's field, God's building.
So what's Paul saying here? Paul's saying is that God said
to me, my father said, Son, get in the vineyard, go work it.
And one thing that I needed to do to work in order for us to
have the fruit of a vineyard is I needed to plant seeds.
But guess what? Seeds in a field without water
will not produce. So Apollos came in behind and he
watered. Now the power of the seed and
the power of the water over the seed only increase because of
the power of God. I don't give power to the seed,
nor does Apollos give power to the seed through water.
God's the one working the increase, but God's using US in
the field so that fruit can show up and a harvest can be there.
And guess what? As I'm planting and he's
watering, and I'm planting and he's watering, or he plants and
I water, whatever takes place, each of us are going to receive
our own reward according to our own labor.
Now this labor is not a labor of salvation.
This is not I'm working here, Lord, so you can recognize me.
Look, all the good things I do so I can be with you forever.
No, you're not even in. He's asking you to get into the
field because you are part of His house.
So this is not sonship issue. This is the Father's business.
It's His business. And His business is that His
disciples would go and bear fruit and that their fruit would
remain. And He wants His disciples in
the field, planting, watering, so God can cause the increase.
Guess what? Right here is no planting in
here, no watering. Now there's watering of the word
you're growing yourself, don't get me wrong.
But the field is outside the building.
In essence, really when you come here, it's me saying, hey, we
have a field available to plant water in this Saturday.
It's called Osceola. I have a field called Osceola on
March 7th and we need some people to go plant and water.
Pastor Angie, would you stand up?
She's going to she overseas US make a difference day.
So if you're interested, we have 13 people signed up.
But if you're interested, you can pop by, see her, let her
know you're coming. She can tell you how you can
register so we get people's name.
But listen, there's the field now.
Are you going to be the child that says, well, I come, OK,
maybe I'm just being too bold tonight, but maybe I'm just
going to keep being this bold because we cannot produce a
church that is lazy, lethargic, and not committed to the
community or to the work of the Father.
You want to retire, go to heaven.
Until then, it's time to be fruitful.
It's time to be fruitful. I said it's time to be fruitful.
And even if you just do with 30 minutes, I mean, or find
yourself out of all the things that we do in the community and
have fields out there, it you should be at you.
We should go through a year and you should say, man, I've been
in a couple of fields. This is not the only place you
should be. Now, that doesn't mean your own
sectors of society are not fields.
And I know they are. So don't get me wrong.
I'm not saying if you don't do something with Anchor Faith
Church, that you're not in the field.
If when you go to work tomorrow, guess what, welcome to the
field. I get that.
However, there is some things that we need to do as a body
within our community that begins to demonstrate that there are
people that are connected to the Kingdom of God that wants to see
our community change. So much so that those sectors of
society would call on us and say, can you help us?
And man, when the world starts to call on you, what do you do?
Do you answer or do you say, you know what?
I'm busy. I got something else to do.
I'm 'cause I'm telling you, if you want to harvest and when
harvest hits, you can't stay home.
When, when the when the fruit is ripe or it will die on the vine
and all of your labor to get fruit will have been wasted
'cause it can rot in a field. And we don't want that.
I do not want people to rot in our community because we were
unwilling to get up and go to a field.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? OK, so we're going to take the
field tonight. All right?
Now look at this over here in Matthew chapter 20.
We'll start in verse 1.
I feel like Apostle Marcy, I'm going to throw out a whole lot
of scripture tonight, OK. And and Pastor Mike, who's a
great teacher. Aren't you glad that we have
gifts in the body? And there's different
expressions how we how we minister the words.
So they're not everybody's cookie cutter doing the exact
same thing. Let me tell you something.
We, our staff are not echoes. They do not pair it.
They get the word, they hear the word and they deliver it in the
giftings that they are, they've been assigned.
I'm not a parrot. I'm not an echo.
I'm hearing the voice of God and sending it out in the gift that
God's called me to do. And all the gifts are necessary.
Look for the Kingdom of heaven is what for the Kingdom of
heaven is. For the Kingdom of heaven is for
the Kingdom of heaven is for the Kingdom of heaven is.
This is teaching us how the Kingdom functions and the
Kingdom of heaven is not stuck in heaven.
Heaven is a place, earth is a place, and the Kingdom can be in
both. And Jesus when he says the
Kingdom of heaven is like or the Kingdom of God is like, what
he's saying is here's a principle that you can function
in right now because Jesus said repent for the Kingdom of heaven
is at hand. It's within your midst.
So he's like, do you want the Kingdom of heaven to be within
your midst? Let me give you an example.
Here's a parable. It's like this, a landowner who
went out early in the morning to what?
Hire laborers for his, for his what?
And when I read that today because I had another scripture
I was going to start with, and but I'll end with it.
I was going to start with it. And I read it to myself.
And then I went over here and I said, oh, this is a problem.
I hadn't seen that all this time.
I'm assuming I'm thinking because harvest, harvest,
harvest, harvest is in our minds so much harvest, harvest,
harvest that the landowner is hiring these people to get a
harvest in. But it doesn't say that.
It just says to work the vineyard.
And vineyards are worked not only at harvest time.
You've got to trim vines. You've got to prune, fertilize,
water, pluck things out. In fact, vineyards, because
they're vines, you have to help, you know, bond some of their
vines up. So because they droop too long.
I mean, you know, I'm not a great guy and I do not study
wineries, OK? I've seen them.
I've been in their vineyards. I've even gone to some wineries
without ever tasting it. And that's true 'cause I don't
drink wine. But with that being said,
there's more of a process and he's just asking for laborers to
work his vineyard. This may not be Harvest, Tom.
So verse 2. And when they had agreed with a
laborer for a denarius, for a denarius for the day, he sent
them into the vineyard. And he went about the third hour
and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.
And to those he said, you also go to the vineyard, and whatever
is right, I'll give you. And so they went.
And again he went about the 6th hour and the 9th hour and did
the same thing. And about the 11th hour he went
out and found others standing around and he said to them, why
have you been standing here idle all day long?
Now look at their answer. He said, be he, They said to
him, because no one has hired us.
He said to them, go, you go into the vineyard too.
Now before I go on to this, other parts of Scripture, they
answer him about idleness, that we aren't idle, we just haven't
been hired. So these weren't people who were
lazy. These weren't people who showed
up after lunch because he said why you been hanging out idle
all day. Because when the landowner came,
he had in his mind how many laborers he thought he would
need for his vineyard. So he hires right out the
beginning of the day, which means there were more there than
just the ones he hired. And he took them and they
started to work. And he began to realize, huh, we
might need some more. So he goes back to the same
place, and there are still people there that maybe to his
surprise, well, not every landowner needed everybody
today. And there's still some good
news. Come work with me in the third
hour. Come work with me in the sixth
hour. Come work with me in the ninth
hour. And there's only one hour left.
And he's like, we could use some more.
Why is he going back into town for an hour?
I mean, seriously, why could this landowner say, I have been
to the marketplace at the beginning of the day, the third
hour, the 6th hour, the night there I have had four rounds of
hiring. I have one hour left.
Why would I waste my time to leave the field and go back to
the marketplace to see if anyone else is there?
But he does, I said, but he does and he sees some and he's like,
y'all been just hanging out all day.
What y'all idle for? And they go, no Sir, not us.
We've been here all day just looking for the opportunity.
And he says, go get my field. Now here's the thing that Bishop
Tony from India, when he came here and informed us because
again this is Eastern things, they had a Daenerys today.
But what he was saying to them was you go to my field, which
means what? Tomorrow you're in my field and
the next day you're in my field and you'll be in my field till
harvest comes. That's why they would wait all
day because if they were able to get in anyone's field, it was
work till the harvest came in. Now the Bible doesn't tell us
when harvest is coming. It's just go work the vineyard.
But now they have been hired and the only way they're not going
to stay in this field is if they fail to perform in the field
they've been assigned. Oh y'all should write that down.
The only reason why they are not going to be in this field is if
they fail to perform in the field they have been hired or
assigned to. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So it says when evening came, because obviously they did day
wage there. And it says this when evening
came, the owner of the vineyard said to the foreman, call the
laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last
group to the 1st. And when those hired about the
11th hour came, each one received what he paid them, not
for their idleness, but for their patient endurance.
Come on. Right, 'cause he asked them.
Y'all idle all day. Someone just said, yeah.
I mean, I, I, I got up late. It was a long night.
I just thought I'd show up here. You know, it's kind of hoping
nobody was coming. I'm really surprised you're
here, you know, 'cause then I could go sneak back home to my
wife and say, you know, didn't get hired today, 'cause I've
been boozing it up in a bar or I was hanging out with some guys
and now I show up in the last hour to make it look like I'm
trying to get a job, right? You know, I'll get to service a
little bit later. I'll leave a little bit earlier.
OK. So when the first came, they
gave him a Daenerys. Now when they receipt it says
and when those first came they thought that they will receive
more. But each of them also received a
denarius. And when they received it they
grumbled at the landowner saying the last men have only worked
one hour and you have made them equal to us who have bore the
burden in the scorching heat of the day.
But he answered and said to them, Friend, I am doing you no
wrong. Did you not agree with me for
denarius? Take what is yours.
Go. But I wish to give to the last
man the same as you. Is it not lawful for me to do
what I wish with my own, with what is my own?
He said, Is your I envious because I am generous?
So the last shall be first and the first shall be last.
So here is a group of people that he is saying, listen, I
need you to get in the field. They're getting into the field
based upon the the very first one is the only ones that he
negotiated a clear expectation of what they will receive.
The rest he said I'll give what's right will give us right,
will give us right because it says and he did this the 6th and
the 9th. But the next group he said y'all
go in the field and they did. They didn't even ask.
They didn't say what are we going to give for an hour.
They were just thankful to be in the field.
They were just thankful that the owner was willing to call them
to call them out and move them into purpose.
Are you hearing me? Well, there's a few things we
can learn from this. The first thing is all hands
need to be on deck in the last of the last days.
It is not a time for us to idly let the world go by and just go
and let the fields go by without us saying, Lord, what field You
need me working today because every day is a day you can work
a field. The next thing we need to know
is this. If you are receiving what has
been spoken and agreed upon, then rejoice.
And here's the thing about when you when God asks you to do
something for him, come serve me, come follow me.
He will let you know what is available to you because he's a
good Father. Jesus will let you know what's
your covenant right? What you have access to, what He
wants to be at your disposal so that you can accomplish what
He's asking you to accomplish in the field He's assigned to you.
And when it comes in, you should rejoice.
Glory to God, not look at what someone else is doing in a field
and become envious, right? Rejoice.
Each receives their reward regardless the time, which just
tells me about God. God is God is not concerned
about unions. But God does want you faithful
once you put your hand to the plow.
See, when you put your hand to the plow, God wants you
faithful, and he doesn't want you looking back, taking breaks,
burying your talent so you can go do your own deal.
And then when he comes later, say I gave you back exactly what
you gave me, say Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Because again, Christ has paid too big of a price for us and
has given us His nature. And out of that nature it's easy
for us. Again, I am not working fields
because I have to. I work fields because I am
excited through my nature 'cause it's in the nature of my King.
And my King only had one awesome desire.
Didn't you know I'd be about my Father's business?
It is just natural for me to want to be about my father's
business because it was about my King's business.
And my King's nature is in me. And I'm not doing this to
impress Dad. I'm doing this because I love
Dad, because I want to be the son that and and as his son, I
have said to Dad, man, I don't want to do that.
Just like Jesus said to dad, I really don't want to do that,
but not my will, but your will be done.
So we'll do it anyway, right. There's been many a Sunday
mornings like you, I didn't want to come.
There's been many things that you know, somebody calls and
there's something you're like, I really don't want to go.
I really don't want to have this conversation.
I don't really want to deal with that conflict.
But not my will. His will be done and the great
shows up and He's pleased with me because my life's not my own.
And I want to get in the field and affect the field.
I want to plant water wherever I need to, to be effective for my
God, my King, my Lord, my Savior, and my Father who is in
heaven. That's good.
See, in the end, we need everyone in their gift doing
their part to bring in the harvest.
And harvest comes in only after you've taken time to actually
work the field and prepare it to be a harvest.
You understand, people who come into the Kingdom do not come
just because we say something once.
Many of you did not get born again the first time you heard
about Jesus. In fact, the first time you
heard about Jesus, like, whatever.
Shut up. You know, religious junk, right?
You drank a little bit more, slept a little bit more, do a
few more drugs, all kinds of stuff.
You're like, forget that. That's stupid, right?
I mean, Evelyn, stand up. I mean her, her, her, her
coworker asked you how many, how many times?
Over 60 invitations. Come to church with me.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No.
But what was he doing? Planting, watering, planting,
watering, planting, watering. He kept going to work in that
field and she kept showing up because she loved the money.
The money that was helping her with her family and he was
saying there's something bigger than the money and and there's
someone who can help you with your problems and the stuff
you're going. Why don't you just come to
church with me? I'm thankful he worked the field
because this woman has been a blessing and and she's just one
of it. Many in this room that you could
say, I can look at all of you and say how much of A blessing
you've been to our lives because somebody was in your field
planting it, the word in your heart, watering that thing.
And God all the while was bringing the increase.
And when you were in your bed sleeping, God was talking to
you, reminding you there was something better.
And then on the 60th time and and it could be tell me if I'm
right. Yes.
So you'll quit talking to me? I found out last night that
Evelyn came to church on June the 7th, 2009.
Anchor Fete Church when we were over in Cobblestone and it was
her official last service. She came with her husband and
she all intentions. She told me this last time.
I'm like I didn't know this. She came to church on June the
7th, 2009. It was her fifth time she has
met the obligation that she put in her own mind.
So I said you can't experience us in one service.
You got to come back. At least she's like, oh, I'm
obligated now, fine, I'll come. So she's at her fifth time and
she's like, I'm when I leave today, I'm telling Ernie I'm
never coming back. We're done.
But guess what happened? On June 7th, 2009, we preached
the Kingdom of God for the very first time.
And Evelyn said it changed my life and I'm like, where else am
I going to go? And now it's 2026.
Evelyn's on the back row. Got a little Baptist roots in
her. But other than that, are you
hearing me? Aren't you glad somebody was
working your field? They didn't get tired, they
didn't give up. I shudder to think of the fields
that have been abandoned because the believer quit going about
the father's business because at 58 times decided I'm done with
her, she's never coming. And he was 2 asks away.
Hallelujah. Are you hearing me?
Oh, this is good stuff. So we all need to come in.
So do not. Now, you understand, there's a
type and shadow here that I need us to get.
And I have used this in our leadership teaching with the
church because we've been here 22 years come April since we
lost the church. And there are some people who've
been here the whole time and we've had tears of people that
have been here that different times.
And I have to let you know, if you've been here for a while,
you have labored, you have you have shared the burden and the
scorching heap of different trials.
But make no mistake, somebody can show up here and I've only
been here a year and they can get a word from God, get up on
this platform and be being used by the gifts of the Spirit.
So we don't want to be envious because it seems like, wow, this
person is functioning in a way that I've been here so long, how
come I don't do that? Because in the end, God needs
all of us on deck in the field. What you need to do is you need
to rejoice that they are being used and that God in this small
sliver of time wants to pour out on them the the measure that
you're receiving yourself. Because if we look at the
denarius as the reward of the Kingdom, wouldn't you want
anyone to get the reward, whether it was 20 years in the
faith or three months? And in these last days, we don't
have the time. If He's coming, we don't have
the time anymore to be able to raise them up through certain
trials and tribulations that took you.
We are going to have to. God's going to accelerate those
purposes. That way we all can be fit to
work the field and bring in that harvest before the trumpet
sounds, whatever that looks like.
Hallelujah. So you know, you should rejoice
when you see new people and they're like excited and they
want to get working. What you shouldn't do is say,
well, I've done Osceola the last five or six years, Let the young
people do it. That shouldn't be your thought.
Whether you go or not is not predicated on let the new
people. That's not why we do something.
It could be that, you know, you're doing something else with
the ministry. You're in another field, pretty
consistent, and now you can't do that.
I mean, I remember when I went to PCI, Putnam Correction
Institute, what time is it? Putnam Correction Institute.
And I was there every month and then we went to twice a month,
right, Ernie? And then we're there and I'm
like, I mean, I went every month pastoring the church.
I mean, I'm doing all kinds of stuff, but I'm going there and
I'm rocking. Well, then we're building teams
and other people are gone and now I'm not going as often.
And then I found out I didn't even go for three years once
because we have a member in our church that was there and then
got out, came here new people, but had never met me.
And I was shocked. I'm like, has it been three
years? Oh my gosh.
It's not because I was like, well, I'm done with that.
I'm retiring. I will never go to prison.
No, it's a mandate from Scripture.
I was in prison and you visited me.
I still go. I still get opportunities to go.
And man, I want to go. I want to get up in there and
see them. Just like I want to go see a
widow. I want to go see orphans.
I want to go feed. I haven't been to Dynamo Dignity
in a while, but guess what, dining with dignity, you know,
we started that. I've been a few times, but man,
people were out there in that field working it.
I got this testimony for mom Don this week.
This is powerful. Let me read this to you because
this is what happened when when you're working the field and you
are a faithful laborer. I got to put on my bionic eyes
real quick says this. I might read the whole whole
thing, but we there were 59 people that were that they fed
on this past Monday. OK.
And so Joe Patron who overseas Dining with Dignity, that's not
Anchor Faith Church. It's a whole different
organization. We just do the first Monday of
the month. OK, So Joe Patron contacted Don
and asked if our Monday night Dining with dignity team could
train a new team. In essence, they shadow us.
OK. And so obviously he said sure,
no problem. And so there were there are 25
teams total. So this is a new church within
Saint Johns County and Anchor Faith Church.
Joe was said was chosen as the best dining with dignity model
in our community to train another team.
Now, when I say that that has nothing to do with me, that has
to do with us. I mean, what parent, what parent
would not when their child wins a game or spelling bee or
something like you're awesome. How awesome is that?
That doesn't mean the parents like, yeah, I'm the best parent
in the world. Look at my child, when I'm
talking about Don, I'm talking about the leadership, I'm
talking about those who are overseeing it.
I'm talking about the group that's running with that.
I'm not even there, but they are running this thing so awesome
that Joe's like, listen, they are really a great team to to
flow with and they shadowed us and they worked and then they
got to pray with them and all kinds of stuff.
They laid out the standard of how we did it and they, the
pastor said to Don and Michelle said Joe told us that Anchor
Faith Church runs like a well oiled machine.
Well, I'm rejoicing the Lord for that.
And as a church we should rejoice in the word Lord for
that. Because you want to run at such
a place in such a way that you can be bold enough like Paul and
say you want to imitate you imitate me as I imitate Christ.
We want to raise up teams that become such a standard that
other churches would say these people exhibit the Kingdom
culture and man, we want to go and learn from that, grow from
that, and then let's replicate it.
Because I would suspect that these guys could get so awesome
that Joe then says, man, I got a couple of groups you could
shadow. Because what anchor faith train
those people are reciprocating. And in that what God wants is
that he can train us by the Holy Ghost so that we reciprocate him
in the earth at such a level that it's like little Jesus is
all over the place, right? It's Christ in us.
The work that he did we get to do.
And this is wreaking havoc on the devil.
It's wreaking havoc havoc. We're not afraid of the field.
I said we're not afraid of the field.
And so I'm thankful for those who are going in the field.
Now with that being said, turn to Isaiah chapter 5.
Say Amen. In Isaiah chapter 5, we'll start
in verse one. God takes His field seriously.
OK, in Isaiah 5, one through 7, this is the Old Testament con
Old Testament passage, but it has New Testament impact.
Can you always interpret the Old Testament in light of the new?
We're in a new and better covenant, which really means
we're in a more responsible covenant with less excuses.
And I might have to teach on that a little bit later because
we say new and better people act like it's easier and do less,
and that's not the new covenant. The new covenant is I have less,
I have less excuse in this covenant than the old covenant
people did because I am born of God and the Holy Ghost does live
in me and God speaks to me himself and confirms the things
that are being. I'm being instructed my nature's
different. Unlike the old covenant people,
They're trying to earn identity. We function from identity,
totally different. Which means the Lord's like,
what's your excuse? You're one of my children.
You have my nature. I've given you my spirit.
It's not stuck up in a box or a temple.
He's in you. Oh, all right.
Let me sing now for my well beloved, a song of my beloved
concerning my his vineyard. My well beloved had a vineyard
on a fertile hill. Isaiah the prophet saying he dug
it all around, removed its stones and planted it with the
choicest bonds. What kind of bonds?
The best of the best of the best.
And he built a tower in the middle of it.
And he also hewed out a wine bat in it.
Then he expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced
only worthless ones, he says. And now all inhabitants of
Jerusalem, men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard, what
more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in
it? Why then I why, when I expected
it to produce good grapes, did I did it produce worthless ones?
Oh, yeah. Wow.
So now let me tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard.
I will remove its heads and it will be consumed.
I will break down its walls and it will become trampled ground.
I will lay it waste. It will not be pruned or hoed,
but briars and thorns will come up.
I will also charge the clouds to rain.
No rain on it. He's talking about his nation,
Israel, specifically Jerusalem and Judea.
Judah here. He had that.
He's given them everything to produce the culture of the
Kingdom and yet they only wanted to produce the cultures around
them. In essence, in my vineyard I
expect my culture. Cause Israel had the Creator as
their king. There was no excuse for them to
live like the rest of the nations.
In fact, if you read Deuteronomy 28, he tells us that you'll be
such an example that the nations will look to you.
So when he planted this vineyard and he put his people in it, His
covenant people, he expected it to produce.
It's the culture, so much so that the other nations would be
drawn to its light. So God is serious about what is
being produced within His vineyard.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Now look at this passage in
Matthew 2133 to 46. Here's the thing.
If we do not take the field for Him, He will take the field from
us. If we do not take the field for
him, he will take the field from us.
He said listen to another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a
wall around it and dug a wine press in it and build a tower.
Sounds a lot like Isaiah and rented it out to vine growers
and went on a journey. In essence, he said, I need you
to labor in my vineyard, it says, and when the harvest time
approached, which means they were in the vineyard before
harvest came, they were responsible to work it.
When the harvest time approached, he sent his slave to
the vine growers to receive its produce.
The vine growers looked to his slaves and beat 1 and killed
another and stoned the third. Oh, again, he sent another group
of slaves larger than the first, and they did the same thing to
him. But afterwards he sent his son
to them, saying, they will what? Respect my son?
And when the vine growers saw the son, they said among
themselves, this is the air. Come, let us kill him and seize
his inheritance. Oh my gosh, whose vineyard is
it? The landowner, the master?
Again, we just saw this with Isaiah.
And in essence, this parable, the Lord is basically saying,
the slaves I sent were my prophets.
I sent my prophets. They came to talk to you and you
just killed them. And now here's my son, which
Jesus is, that's me. And he's just telling his
disciples what's going to happen, right?
So Jesus is talking about himself and they took him, threw
him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Now verse 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes,
what will he do to those vine growers?
And they said to him, he will bring those wretched wretcheds
to a wretched end and will rent out the vineyard to A to other
vine growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper
season. When we're working the field,
it's not for us, it's for him. All fruit is his and if we don't
understand, we're having the responsibility to go in these
different sectors of society and fields to be a example, knowing
we're not representing us, we're representing the owner of the
field and how we work. This field represents him and we
want this field to look amazing. You want, we want Saint
Augustine to look so amazing that if we left, they would feel
we were gone. They would regret this church
wasn't here. They'd regret it because of how
we work those fields, our attitude, our actions, our
behavior, our attention to detail, all of this.
I mean, I was just recently at a particular restaurant.
There are quite a few waitresses and waiters that I have been
influencing with the Kingdom for quite some time.
Well, there's this one particular one that I went was
going to the restroom and stopped and was talking to him a
little bit and they were saying how they weren't feeling well.
And in my spirit the Lord said pray for him.
Now I have not prayed for him up to this point all this time.
I've demonstrated the Kingdom in multiple other ways, but the
Lord gave me an in route with his name, meaning for his name's
sake to invoke the name of Jesus.
So I looked down and said, hey, and they all know that I'm the
pastor here and they go online. I know.
And many of their lifestyles are not conducive to the culture of
the Kingdom, but they're drawn. I get it.
And I said, hey, can I pray for you?
And they said, yeah. And so I prayed with them right
there in the restaurant, right there in the restaurant.
Didn't belabor, didn't go long. Because I know our authority.
I know the authority of the name of Jesus said in the name of
Jesus, Amen. Now I've not honestly, I went
out of town after that, so I technically I haven't even seen
the individual after that. I can't wait to see him and say,
hey, remember the other day when I prayed with you?
How'd that go, 'cause I expect him to say, you know, that night
I was better 'cause I said, Lord, you let him know the name
of Jesus is the healer. I'm working that field.
Nice guy, but I know things are going on in his life.
Why 'cause it's amazing how people just talk to you.
I have many confessional times while ordering unsweet teeth and
I don't mind it. Look, I don't mind it.
Why 'cause I'm in the field, 'cause when I'm here, I'm not in
the field. When I'm here, I'm empowering
you to be in the field. We're hearing from heaven so
that we can go out into the field.
So these are the few places that I get to go because most of the
time I'm training and equipping Saints more so than I'm out and
about. OK, But he goes on and says this
Jesus says, did you ever read the Scripture?
The stone which the builders rejected, they became the chief
cornerstone, and this came from the Lord.
And it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say to you that the
Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a
people producing the fruit of it now.
And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but
whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.
Let's keep reading then the chief that's the religious, the
chief priests and the Pharisees heard this parable.
They what what they do. They understood that he was
speaking about them. So you know what somebody come
to me and say, well, I think you're preaching about me.
Maybe I am. Maybe the Lord wants it that
pointed without us actually calling your name out.
And if you understand it is what should you do?
Repent 'cause if you don't, then you'll be like the Pharisees.
And what's the next thing when they then when they thought he's
speaking, when they knew he's speaking about him, when they
sought to seize him, they feared the people because they
considered him. So they were like, let's kill
this guy now. And I'm sure people have walked
out of here not wanting me to continue to live.
That's not I'm serious. Because the Word is going to do
something in your life. Because a life outside of the
Kingdom of God is not conducive to the Kingdom of God.
If it was, then really there'd be really no reason for God to
have to have anyone saved. Just come like you are.
Salvation is irrelevant, but it's a change of being.
What do we learn from this passage?
We cannot become a church that is in a community that is doing
everything to get guests to show up, but really have no heart for
our community. If this is the only place people
are being saved, we are failing. And I would even say this, if
this is the only place that people are making a confession,
they may just be being converted.
They could be saying something with their mouth and their
hearts. Far from it.
God never designed us just to win loss.
God designed us to change, transform, and then go into our
world and be the light that shines on a consistent basis.
Honestly, people, you should be bringing people to church that
when the altar call comes, you're say, I know you're
already saved, but let's let everybody know this happened
today, this week at work and you just come down with them that we
can testify. So and so got born again this
week at work. So and so got born again and
then our water baptism should be overflowing with people.
Last scripture is this, which I thought I was going to start
with, but we'll end Matthew 9. Hallelujah.
My watch just said it looks like you fell.
Is there an emergency? I'm OK, I did not fall.
Hallelujah. Probably shouldn't wear the
Apple Watch anymore. I wish it would make this a
workout. You know, I tried that one time.
I'm like, I move so much. I should get a workout out of
this. So I hit it as a workout, you
know, but then I would slow enough this like, do you want to
pause your workout? I'm like, so I quit doing that.
Hallelujah. Matthew 9 here we go.
We're closing Matthew 93738. And he said to him.
Then he said to his disciples, are you his disciple?
Are you? Then you better listen to this.
Then, he said to his disciples. The harvest is plentiful, but
the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of
the harvest to send out workers into his field.
Coach Hurley, Coach Taylor with SJA or in the field of
cultivating young men in athletics, and our youth pastor.
Pastor Chase wanted to be a part of the planting and watering and
gained permission to put a box in the dugout and he put a
sticker, the current put a sticker anchor Faith Church, a
little lock on it with a code and filled it with sour gummies,
seeds, you know, things that baseball people.
And he said, the coach told me today, he said the all the sour
candy's gone. He said it made it to the third
inning, he said, But we scored more runs that game.
I said we'll make sure we get a lot of gummies up in there.
Don't think something that simple, though, demonstrates the
Kingdom. We care about you.
We'll bring provision to you. We notice you, but you have to
be thinking about the field. And Pastor Chase first started
over there by just taking photos and then posting them.
And they would see themselves and like it and open the door
that they would start coming to service.
But what's he doing? He's taking the field as they
take the field champion their lives because at the end of the
day, they may go through multiple seasons, graduate and
go on, and we don't see that they came to the Lord.
But one day, one day that person to come by as a laborer for
Jesus and they'll come into the Kingdom.
When they come into the Kingdom, God will remind them of every
one of those opportunities and they'll say I'll remember When
work in the field, every day is monotonous, it can be tiring, it
can be full of trouble, it's sweat.
But the day's coming that there's harvest.
And I do not want Anchor Faith Church to miss out on a harvest
because we were sitting here waiting for a harvest and not in
a field working for a harvest. When I say working, we were Co
laboring with Christ to touch people's lives.